How That Sugar Rush Is Crashing Your Libido

Beverly Yates, ND

Hey, Dr. Greenleaf, how are you doing? I appreciate so much the invitation, you’re very welcome. Looking forward to talking to you about this topic because, you know, as we will have this discussion, there isn’t a lot of discussion about this topic. It’s kind of amazing. It’s like this big gaping hole that people just don’t talk about sexuality, sexual pleasure, fulfillment, satisfaction, and blood sugar issues. And so many people have blood sugar issues and so many people have pelvic floor issues. You just like, it just makes sense, right? So let’s do this.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

I love that. And so, and that’s something that, you know, whether someone already knows that they have diabetes or maybe they don’t. Like sometimes these things can start creeping into the bedroom or pelvic health and all of a sudden it’s like, wait a minute. And a lot of people think it’s not connected. But, yeah, how, you know, how are these things connected?

Beverly Yates, ND

Yeah, I’m glad you’re asking this question. So, you know, let’s talk about it. A lot of times, depending on where you live in the world, you might see a lot of ads that say for things like Viagra and Cialis and other drugs that are for performance-enhancing and supporting erectile dysfunction. Right? But we don’t talk about clitoral dysfunction or a lack of satisfaction for women with sexual pleasure or men or for whomever. And so I would really like to have that discussion around. We talk about blood flow and the vasculature and why it is literally that the vascular system gets so gummed up, so to speak. So difficult for blood flow that it means then that achieving orgasm, sexual satisfaction, sexual pleasure in general can really be challenging, especially if you’ve got an illness like diabetes which is famous for compromising blood flow including to the genitalia. You know, it’s absolutely a central topic and it doesn’t get talked about, you know. So we’re here to do that.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Yeah, I think, unfortunately, so many people, at least from what I’ve seen, just go, oh, it’s just I’m getting older and, you know, this is kind of just part of the course, but it’s not. So we can do something about it. So how does the sugar levels really affect sexual function?

Beverly Yates, ND

Absolutely. So our blood sugar levels, our glucose levels make a big difference. Right? So let’s talk about the normal healthy situation. So for somebody who doesn’t have diabetes or pre-diabetes, what’ll happen is their blood flow to all the parts of the body equally. Right? There’s nothing that’s going to be impeding it. In the case of rising blood sugar, so let’s say prediabetes. The flow of the blood freely to the organs, to the muscles, to the brain all over the body starts to get gradually compromised. By the time the person becomes type two diabetic, it’s even more compromised. Right? So let’s back this up just a little bit, talk about the numbers that matter for blood sugar. We talk about fasting blood sugar, which is what you get in the morning when you wake up, you haven’t been eating, that’s why it’s called fasting, blood sugar. And the other number is A1C. So hemoglobin A1C shortened to A1C measures the stickiness, if you will, of the amount of blood sugar that’s in your blood, your glucose in your blood compared to the normal proteins. And the protein in particular they measure is called hemoglobin. Hemoglobin sits in all of the red blood cells and it’s what allows the exchange of oxygen for carbon dioxide. You might remember that. Friends, anyone listening to the summit from maybe middle school or high school, right? 

That’s a key thing. You want to release carbon dioxide and grab off oxygen, and hemoglobin is your friend. So blood sugar can attach to that same protein. If too much blood sugar attaches to that same protein called hemoglobin, you’re going to feel fatigued and tired because it’s displacing the function of the exchange of carbon dioxide and oxygen and it also is making everything more inflamed or sticky. This is what sets up the situation where somebody becomes at much higher risk of things like a stroke or heart attack, etc. This also means that compromised blood flow because things are literally more sticky, can lead to blindness or loss of vision. It can lead to the loss of kidney function and need for dialysis. It can lead to issues with the nervous system and neuropathy. Typically people first have odd shooting pains or stabbing pain, things like that, and then eventually they go numb, which is dangerous because they can’t feel anything, including when they’re injured. The immune system gets all gummed up too. And because of the it’s almost like a distracting kind of inflammation, there’s just too much of it. And so the immune system is not able to function like it should. 

Therefore, when people have wounds they don’t heal. You know, there’s a  whole cascade of things that going. I think most people know that with diabetes, if blood sugar isn’t well-controlled people get to lose body parts too. Especially things at the very end of the circulatory system, like toes, ankles, you know, legs, etc. Right? So not to be too grizzly, I just want people to be clear what a risk this is if we don’t take it seriously. There’s also the threat to the brain. And what precedes mild cognitive impairment, dementia, and alzheimer’s. Right. It’s also considered type three diabetes. So then when you look at sexual pleasure, sexual function, and just joy, I think we come to think we ought to settle when we get older for less. And it doesn’t have to be that way. And there are parts of the world where people and they age, they just get older. They aren’t necessarily falling apart. They don’t necessarily have these, you know, long term chronic diseases, whether it’s heart disease or diabetes, etc., at anywhere near the rate we see in the western modern world. And so that tells me that it is possible to live long and live well. But if we’re going to do that we’re going to have to be on top of our game and pay attention to what’s going to work for us.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

You know what? I love how you explain that because even myself as a doctor, I’m like, you know, I really never thought about blood sugar. And I like that how it’s like getting sticky and gummed up. And I’m like, wow, that’s a great visual. And I’m like, actually, help me understand it more too. So, you know, I want to ask you too why do we need to eat like nutrient-dense, like healthier foods and why is that important especially when it comes to sexual satisfaction?

Beverly Yates, ND

Well, it’s an interesting correlation. It’s only been recently in my own life as I’ve gotten older that I realized, wait we’re talking about the same thing. So we talk about nutrient-dense food, right? We’re comparing those to foods that aren’t rich in nutrients, that would be highly processed, ultra-processed, highly refined, fast foods, junk foods, foods that don’t give us a lot of nutritional value. One of the reasons people overeat is because they’re still looking for nutrients. And because the nutrient density isn’t there they’re trying to fill that hole and their body just keeps wanting it. Now that’s in addition to all the crazy crap they add to make it taste more appealing and trick the brain. Right? That’s a different conversation. Betsy, that’s going for a different summit. But for this one, we’re talking about nutrient density and satisfaction. And when people eat healthy, wholesome foods that are rich and reasonably intact with their nutrient base, usually people feel full or satisfied. Right. That satiation, satiety is reached. Well, you know, if you think about it in terms of sexual activity, sexual pleasure, fulfillment, wherever people may be on that spectrum, not everything has to be all about the orgasm. Orgasms are awesome, but there’s other things to consider too. And you think about it for a lot of us, the way our sexual lives are led, they might not be fulfilling either. So if our nutrient base is depleted and our sexual fulfillment is depleted we’re really at risk for not having as much joy and fun as we could in our lives. And I think in today’s busy, stressed-out world that people really have to prioritize this because it doesn’t seem like it’s going to happen necessarily as easily as it otherwise might.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Oh, my God, I love that too. I’m like, take it out,  I’m taking notes here. You got some great ones. You know, when it comes to, it’s not just the diabetic patient that needs to be concerned about this. I mean, this is just we should be thinking about our blood sugar in general and then also specifically people with diabetes. And then like when, what would you encourage people to do to kind of help maintain healthy blood sugar?

Beverly Yates, ND

What I would encourage them to do is this, keep it simple. Don’t overcomplicate it. Right? Because we both know as doctors that if we make it complicated it doesn’t get done. And people get stressed out and they feel bad about themselves and, you know, the same blame cycle gets going. It’s like none of that,  nobody needs that drama. Instead, think about these, two ways I want people to think about it. One, add leafy greens to all your meals. Yes, folks, including breakfast, make that easy. You know, if you’re ordering an omelet and other things make sure there’s veggies in it, maybe have a side of spinach with it, you know, or a side salad. The easy things you can do. Number two is when you travel. Because honestly, the thing I’ve observed, Dr. Greenleaf is the wheels tend to come off the car when we travel. So consider if there’s a store nearby, you know, or if you can have it delivered but there might be a store within walking distance that would perhaps it’s safe to go to, to go and get a box of already washed freshly prepared salad greens. It could not be easier these days and a lot of times those boxes they even have little mini ones. They’re like $2, $3, big boxes like five or $6, they’re ready to go. It’s I mean, that to me has been a real game changer. And I know when I travel I take advantage of that as much as I can. It just makes it easier to make sure I have some control of what I’m eating. Because otherwise, you know, if you’re eating out from a restaurant, often there’s a lot of more added sugar, a lot more added salt, and this, that, and the other thing, all of which is conspiring to mess up your blood sugar.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

And it’s so much cheaper. I’ve been doing the same thing with like, Instacart has become my friend. Like, I travel now and like when I get to the hotel I just order stuff so I have it there. So I’m not tempted to go eat the bad stuff and also spend tons of money in restaurants. You know, sometimes people think erroneously like with diabetes and blood sugar issues that it only happens because they go, oh, I’m not eating cookies, I’m not eating candy, I’m not eating ice cream, so I’m fine. So what do you have to say to those people?

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s a great point that you make. You know, and sometimes health and medical professionals make that assumption, too. They’ll do a cursory diet review and say, Oh, you’re okay, you don’t need to be checked. Silly. Everyone should be checked every year. And I would say really more like six months for your fasting morning blood sugar number, absolutely, and you’re A1C. Because there’s so many people it’s been estimated that as many as 70% of the people who have prediabetes right now probably don’t know it and about 50% of people have type two diabetes, probably don’t know it. Some of those numbers vary. You can look at the CDC websites, some other websites, National Institutes of Health, etc. You can look around the world and see how underdiagnosed the issue is and how unaware people are. And sometimes health professionals, medical professionals will make a judgment that is wrong.

I always say test, don’t guess, this is serious. Because you’re weighing the risk of the damage that this thing does and it’s silent, sneaky damage. What precedes the changes in the vision and changes in a person’s kidneys, their heart, what precedes to stroke, things like that. It’s just they lose ground if you will a little bit a day. They don’t lose 20 miles a day, they lose inches a day. But it’s relentless and they compound over time. So it means that instead of it being a small change, it’s actually a big change. And then once it’s apparent there’s so much damage that was done and along the way people really haven’t been served properly. And these lab tests are cheap. We’re talking about $4, $8 for cheap, for a lab test, not one of these $5,000 things, you know.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Oh, wow. I didn’t realize that you could get them that inexpensive. I guess I’ve never actually looked at my bills.

Beverly Yates, ND

Yeah. Now there are a lot of direct-to-consumer lab tests as well. So if someone is uninsured or their provider won’t cooperate, you can take power in your own hand, get your own blood check, and have a look to see what those numbers are, whether or not they’re in a healthy range for you.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Know, if someone’s about, you know, wants to look into their blood sugar and they’re like, okay, I’m going to get this test. Is there a certain time of day that they should be getting those tests in, or are there certain things they should avoid eating or doing before or even after a test?

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s a great question. So the answer is for each of the two markers that I just mentioned it’s a different answer. For the first one, the fasting morning blood sugar number, FBS fasting blood sugar. Yes, you should be fasting. You need to have not eaten any food or food-like substances or beverages, they could be considered foods for 12 hours or more. So practically speaking, if you have your dinner, if you finish your dinner by 7 p.m. and you go to the lab to get your blood drawn, let’s say at 7 a.m., that would be a 12 hour fast. Are we really clear of what’s a fast.You are not going to have coffee. You’re not gonna have a coffee with a little bit of creamer. You’re not going to have a latte. You’re not going to have chai. Nope, nope, nope. You’re gonna have water the next morning when you get up and then go on to go to the lab station. Don’t even have flavored water. Because it’s interesting, the brain, once it gets flavor, often, it typically is a sweet flavor. Like maybe it’s a water with a squeeze or a slice of lime in there or a slice of orange.

If the brain is expecting calories with that flavor, it’s going to start to raise your insulin and raise your blood sugar in anticipation of the delivery of said calories. But when it’s just a flavored water, it’s not. That’s not what’s happening. Right. So if you’re going to get fasting, blood sugar checked, then let’s do fasting. So you get up the next morning, have your water, have a glass or two because then it’ll help your veins perhaps perk up a little bit more, it makes it easier to draw that blood. Okay. It would be great if the night before, the day before, maybe the week before, you’re not drinking alcohol because that’s going to make a difference with all of the other blood tests that are probably being done at the same time your metabolic panel.

But I say live your life because your doctor needs to have an accurate snapshot of who you are. So if you have a glass of wine every day then perhaps you shouldn’t change that. So I’m just putting that out there. On the other side of this, if we’re looking at the A1C, your hemoglobin A1C number changes every 3 to 4 months because the turnover of your red blood cells. Remember we talk about red blood cells and that beautiful job they do with hemoglobin, that protein, right? Grabs that oxygen out of the atmosphere and poof, sends off that carbon dioxide for you. Well, one of the things to know about this is that your, those red blood cells, a fresh new that comes out every day from your bone marrow. And so it takes time for you to get a whole new set. It’s pretty much 90 days. So we’ll say three months. So every 3 to 4 months to have the A1C checked is reasonable, especially if your lifestyle is changing. Other parameters to know or if you are severely stressed your A1C will probably go up because your body’s releasing more stress hormones, cortisol, and adrenaline. 

And in response, here comes your blood sugar. Here comes your glucose because your body perceives a threat it’s turned you into superhero mode but you haven’t had the opportunity to work that off, right? So your A1C may go up in response to a stress. It can also go up in response to surgery and in response to an infection. Anything like that can be perceived as stress and can make a difference with your A1C and most definitely your fasting morning blood sugar numbers. So if you see a sudden spike but you know you just had surgery, you had a traumatic event, you were severely stressed, you know, something like that. And maybe you otherwise exercise regularly, eat healthily, have great sleep, then you can attribute it to that. And to just repeat the test later. There’s no reason to freak out.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

And I’m going to go back and talk about the blood flow again. So just to kind of reiterate why is blood flow really important for sexual function for both men and women?

Beverly Yates, ND

Yeah, my understanding is that the tissue for our genitalia is particularly able to become engorged. It can become a lot bigger with sexual stimulation. Whether it’s direct sexual stimulation or it’s from our minds, maybe something we’re reading, we’re seeing, we’re thinking about, we’re dreaming, we’re fantasizing, whatever. And when that blood flow shifts because of the engorgement of those tissues they can become more filled with blood and engorged. 

And in case of a male penis, it can become erect. A female’s clitoris can also become engorged and erect. And the sensitivity of the nerves are heightened as well. It’s like everything’s getting primed to expect a joyful moment. And with that in mind, if your blood sugar is really high, the stickiness is impeding the flow of the blood to these body parts. And as a result, the highs, if you will the joy is likely to not be there and so it’s much harder to really feel fulfilled and satisfied. That’s why I was talking about nutrient density as a way to feel satisfied and to think of pleasure and sexual activity as a way also to feel satisfied. And so if you’ve got problems with your blood sugar, this is directly interfering with that kind of satisfaction.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Now, if you’re diabetic and you’re listening to this and you’re like, oh, my goodness, that’s what’s been going on. Like, this is why things aren’t working down there anymore. Is there hope? Can that be changed?

Beverly Yates, ND

Yeah, there’s definitely hope. And it just means you’re going to need to work on your blood sugar directly. You know do the things that make sense. Right? Like there’s these five steps that are key, you know, bundle them up in the Yates protocol. Nutrition, obviously, is the bull’s eye of the target. Everyone with diabetes and blood sugar issues knows you can’t outeat a bad or out exercise a bad diet. You have to pay attention to what you’re eating. We have bile individual responses. What’s healthy for one person might not be healthy nutrition for another. We really can’t honestly say there’s a one-size-fits-all all nutrition. Too much variety. We can just look at all the people we know around the world. We see so many variety of people like who eat different things. Some of whom are healthy, some who aren’t. There are so many clues if we don’t make that hard. The second thing is stress. Stress is underappreciated as a bully when it comes to health, they can ruin the best of intentions. I always say it grabs you by your genetic collar and slams you right up against the wall of your epigenetic environmental expression. Whatever is lurking in your genes is likely to show up if you’re stressed.

Okay, that’s number two. Our third step is going to be sleep. Sleep makes a real difference. That’s when your blood sugar should reset. So from the time you eat dinner, hopefully, you’re not snacking your way to bedtime. So time you eat dinner all the way to when you get up the next day should be your fasting window. And during that time your blood sugar should reset and go to a healthy range. A healthy range generally is going to be about 75 or 80 on the low end to 90, 95 on the higher end. You don’t want it to go too low overnight. That’s not good. And you don’t want to wake up with it at like 200 to 300 because then, you know, you’ve got a problem. You know, this is absolutely clinically going to be diagnosed as type two diabetes. So I always say test, don’t guess. If you are a type one diabetic your ranges are going to be a little different. You’re, I’m sure more than well aware of what they are and tuned to you. Now we’ve got all these devices, you know, we’ve got insulin pumps and continuous glucose monitors, CGM, things like that, along with glucometer and test strips.

So people who have Type one diabetes can have much better feedback and regulation, which I think is just awesome and lifesaving. And I’m so happy for that kind of appropriate use of technology. It’s just, it’s an interesting time right now as we as practitioners hopefully become more savvy about integrating the use of these biosensors and health data so we can really give people actionable, specific insights, you know. So more than just tests don’t guests, it’s like, now what do we do with it, right? So when it comes to pelvic floor and pelvic health and making sure that we’re enjoying ourselves and have the full spectrum of possibilities of the joy of adult life including sexual function, can handle blood sugar is a key thing. It’s important.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

You know, it’s funny, I think about my medical training and I don’t have any, maybe you have an explanation why this is. I remember memorizing that 125 anything like above 125 was the problem. And then they came along and they like changed it. And over the years they keep lowering what’s like that normal blood sugar. And I’m like, I can’t keep track, I don’t even know what it is anymore. I’m glad you mentioned them before. But why have they lowered that number over time?

Beverly Yates, ND

That’s a great question. You know, one of the things that I did during my internship in residency time, was I spend time consciously with the older doctors. Some of whom told me, watch out, in your career you’re going to see the ranges change. And sometimes you’ll see them change for science reasons and sometimes you’ll see them change because they’ll fit a better guideline for the available set of pharmaceutical options. And I have to say those doctors who told me that they weren’t wrong, they were right, they were. I forgot that I realized earlier and I talked about the five steps I left out two. The fourth one is exercise and resistance training, and the fifth one is meal timing. The time of day you eat your food matters. Okay, because I know somebody said they’re taking notes going, wait, you didn’t do that part?

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Well, yeah.

Beverly Yates, ND

The ranges, you’re absolutely right. Those ranges, you know, it’s not your imagination. They’ve changed.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Well, then I was going to ask you, why does it matter what time of day we eat our meals? How does that affect things?

Beverly Yates, ND

Well. Yeah, that affects things by a lot, right? Like if you eat your dinner, let’s say it’s a big heavy dinner late at night, that is a recipe for having high fasting morning blood sugar numbers. Because your body didn’t have long enough to reset. The gut does expect to have some time to rest and repair, as does your heart. That doesn’t have that big load to move stuff around because your digestive tract has to digest, assimilate, and then eliminate all of the stuff that you eat. Takes time and energy, right? And once a period of time where it doesn’t have any new input so it can handle what it’s already got. That’s one reason. Another is that I’ve noticed people with diabetes often are amazing. They like the rocks of their community. They’re such, they’re often key in whatever role they have. Whether it’s at home or at work, in their community. And as such, their own self care is often not their number one priority. They’re often not on their own to-do list. Right. And so this means them that they often will skip lunch by accident. So have breakfast, no lunch. By the time they eat dinner. Oh, my God, Betsy, they’re so hungry. This means then most of us if we’re super hungry, we may not make the best food choices. It’s too hard. It’s too hard.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

And yeah, I was going to ask you in general, like, it seems like the rate of diabetes has been going up, you know, worldwide. What would you attribute that to?

Beverly Yates, ND

I think there’s a several factors at play. One is I think people are just too busy right now. We’re really stressed, there’s a lot of demands on people’s time without necessarily the same amount of resource or opportunity to get help. A lot of us maybe live further away from family and friends we can count on and we may be more under the mode of I need to do everything myself, or realistically I’m the only one I can count on. If you are in a household, if you are raising a family, I think that is particularly acute particularly here in the U.S. Other parts of the world, things are often more humane. The pace at which we run and what we’re supposed to all do by ourselves is just not sustainable. Right. That’s one reason. And the other is I think a lot of us aren’t sleeping enough. We’re under-slept, I’d say on average people about an hour and a half or 2 hours per night lacking in sleep. That’s a big deal. That’s a big deal for your blood sugar, for your moods and mental health, certainly for your metabolism, for your waistline, for any issues with insulin resistance and or sneaky relentless kinds of weight gain, etc.. I was just looking at a study yesterday. There’s so many of them on PubMed that show the relationship between say shift work or swing shifts and blood sugar issues becoming diabetic issues, with heart disease, strokes, metabolic risks, the increase of body fat specifically around the belly, around the abdomen, around the visceral organs and all. And you just look at the clear effects that can be measured in your eyes. The way we live our lives right now is completely destructive to quality of life at that moment and then going forward.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Yeah. And then I think, you know, we’re talking about like all these other effects of diabetes and this is a sexual summit, but you can’t separate this because diabetes affects so many aspects of our lives. And that, you know, the second, and then sexual aspect we don’t often talk about but like I said, it could be sometimes the first sign that something’s going on.

Beverly Yates, ND

Yeah, just the pleasure of touch, you know, because of the impacts on the nervous system that this tactile, even that is compromised, like across the board, it’s all gummed up.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Oh, my goodness. You know, and the other thing that comes up, I hear sometimes from patients, especially from diabetics, they think they’re doing the right thing by eating artificial sweeteners. And, yeah, what is the effect of artificial sweeteners? And I remember like for years growing up there was always that diabetic section in the supermarkets that had all of the foods. There are also cookies and cakes and things like that, but they all had the artificial sweeteners. A lot of people think, well, those are fine, those are healthier.

Beverly Yates, ND

Yeah, this is a great question. I’m so glad you’re asking. So here’s the deal. And again, research has shown it’s this practical lived experience in life and then certainly clinically, right? 30 plus years of experience with the clinic. What I’ve seen and what the research shows, complete agreement on this. If you eat, drink, however, use artificial sweeteners, fake sugars. There’s two things that are going on. One, you’ve actively chosen to trick your tongue and your brain. Now your tongue’s taste buds turnover every 10 to 14 days, you get a whole new set. As the good news because it means you can start to retrain your tongue to enjoy a wider variety of flavors including bitter and sour, which will be a real help especially if you’ve got a sweet tooth. The other thing these artificial sweeteners is that it also messes up your gut microbiome. So the organisms that live in your gut, the healthy ones now are being deprived of what they need and instead the unhealthy ones, the ones that like to spike your blood sugar, that put you on that blood sugar rollercoaster, you know, you go swinging up and crashing down, right?

They start to proliferate. And so what happens is you start to lose blood sugar control. So you’re getting this feedback from two places. One, your tongue and your brain are saying, hey, some sweet came in. And then the brain lets time goes by and after about an hour to 90 minutes it goes, I didn’t get any calories. What happened? Where’s my calories? Next thing you know, that person now wants bag of chips, they want a bag of cookies. And you know, when we were kids that bag had like 8 to 10 chips in it. Three or four cookies. That bag now is enormous. And people are told, oh, it’s more economical, get the big bag, but they don’t stop eating because they’ve added all these food additives, these crazy chemicals that trick you into wanting to keep eating. The feedback loop, the science that they put behind this in terms of how it hits our dopamine and our pleasure receptors and our sense of wanting something and reward and seeking, it’s just not, it’s not fair. It’s not fair. Food has become like almost a bomb, that way. So when you eat the highly refined ultra processed foods this is what you get. That’s another reason to as much as your time and budget can support it, please eat the nutrient-dense foods. You know, you want to have your healthy proteins, healthy fats, nuts, and seeds.

Have your leafy green vegetables, your starchy vegetables. Have the slow burning-resistant starch. Complex carbohydrates, those are known as, you know, your beans and peas, and legumes, lentils, chickpeas, black beans, red beans, kidney beans, pinto beans. So many kinds of beans, right? They’re all good for you because they burn much more slowly and it just gives you a fighting chance in today’s really, really unhealthy world. We have so much more in the way of obstacles to fight. I mean, think about this, Betsy. When you were a little girl you had time with your grandparents, great grandparents. Would you ever said, hey, I want to go to the store and get some grass-fed beef? But who would have said that? It just sounds stupid. You know, your grandparents, great-grandparents looked at you like, what is wrong with you did you fall with your head? Are you okay?

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

I love that. I like that. You’re right. Oh, my goodness.

Beverly Yates, ND

We’re making this hard, you know?

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Yeah. And just wrapping up, is there anything that I didn’t ask you that you would like to, you know, connect when it comes to blood sugar or diabetes, sexual health?

Beverly Yates, ND

Yeah, I think just the take-home message of prioritizing your self-care. And just understanding that you like everyone else, you know, you enjoy pleasure in your life and this includes sexual pleasure fulfillment. And if the path of that joy is blocked by the very real consequences of diabetes, I invite you to take care of yourself. Make yourself a number one on that self care list and get a hold of your blood sugar and get it back to the healthy range and keep it there as much as you possibly can. Because all of your health frankly depends on that. That includes having pelvic health.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

I love that. Where can people find out more information about you?

Beverly Yates, ND

Sure. I have two websites. One is natural healthcare spelled naturalhealthcare.com. The other one is DR, like the abbreviation for doctor So drbeverlyyates.com. And then the usual social media places.

Betsy Greenleaf, DO, FACOOG (Distinguished)

Yeah. Thank you so much for taking the time to be with us. I’m so grateful that you were able to do this. And so people make sure you go find Dr. Beverly Yates, she is awesome. And, you know, even if you’re not diabetic get those sugars checked. It’s a simple thing that you can make big changes right away. So, and follow Dr. Beverly for more information. And stick around because we got some more great sessions coming up. Thank you. Dr. Beverly.

Beverly Yates, ND

You’re very welcome. Delighted to be here. Take care, Dr. Greenleaf. Thank you for the work you’re doing the world.