BIRD WILLIAMS: You're listening to Bird Means Business Episode 82. 

Hey, party people! Thank you for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast. I am your host, Bird Williams. And today we're going to talk about my holistic health journey and how investing in holistic care back in 2018 literally changed my life in such a powerful way. 

Y'all, I'm so pumped to get into it. But first, if you're new to the show, look, I realized that I rarely ever give my background or really reintroduce myself from podcast episode to podcast episode. So let me tell you a little bit about me. I've been in the entrepreneurship game since 2013 when I launched my very first business, The League, which is a warehouse gym here in Houston, Texas. And look, back then, as a first-time business owner, I didn't know what I didn't know. And y'all I made so many costly and time-consuming mistakes. So I launched Bird Means Business podcast to be the resource that I wish I had back when I had my first business when I first got started. Because look, I would have saved so much time and money had I known the tips and strategies that I share here on this very podcast. So my goal with the show is to break down complex or confusing aspects of business into practical strategies and actionable steps because you can do this. And you don't have to do it alone. 

So if you're looking for ways to work with me as you're planning to launch a new business or if you're needing to grow an existing business, you can go to birdwilliams.com/workwithme. Or if you want to start off by learning from me first you can check out my free masterclass. It's called "The 4 Make or Break Keys to Business Building Success". Because look, if you're looking to grow or launch any type of brand, there are four crucial pillars of business that you must get a handle on, and I share all about them in this free masterclass. So you can go to birdwilliams.com/masterclass to watch and just get ready because you're gonna have tons of notes and you're going to gain so much momentum that you need to make all of the things happen for your business. I'll link the free masterclass in the show notes for this episode.

Alright, let's jump right on into my "Holistic Health Journey". Okay, so if you're a regular to Bird Means Business podcast, or if you've worked with me in any of my programs, you know, I love to start with "why". I love to start with asking the question, "Why are we doing this?" 

So why do an episode on a business podcast about holistic health? First, your personal health will weigh a lot on the health of your business. You've heard me say it before. The better you are, the better you're going to show up. The better you'll show up to your clients, to your team, to your vendors, your audience, your community, the list goes on. So this notion of, "I'll sleep when I die"? Yeah, that's not what it is. We need you to be healthy so that you can bring your special gifts and talents to the world. Business owners really need to prioritize themselves like they prioritize their revenue, or meeting their launch metrics, and on and on. 

So another reason why I'm doing this episode is because I mentioned this topic of my holistic health journey on a past podcast episode. And so many of you wanted to hear more. I actually took a poll on Instagram. And 100% of you said, yes, tell your story about your holistic health, which I love because that means that you're interested in investing in yourself too. 

So, side note, if you're not hanging out with me on Instagram, I'm @heybirdwilliams. Make sure you follow me there. I'd love to connect with you. But that was one of the reasons I was like, Okay, I'm going to definitely make this happen. 

And then lastly, I have just really loved sharing about this holistic health journey with family members and friends because y'all, it's literally changed my life and the lives of people I love, as you'll hear more about in just a second. So my hope with this episode is that you learn more about an option available to you. Which leads me right into a disclaimer that I want to make. It should go without saying. But just in case, I'll be crystal clear that this is not any kind of medical advice. This is just my story, you know? And you'll want to do your own research to find what works best for you. Now, I'm not here to make recommendations for your health journey, but I am just telling the true lived experience that I've had. And that is my health journey. 

All right. So let's start from the very beginning when I first really became aware of all of this that was going on in my body. So I found out in 2009, as I was preparing to go to Ghana and West Africa, to do a social development project. I had to get my medical clearance. And I found out that I had super low platelet counts. And they eventually said, I had something called ITP. Had no idea that this was an issue. My platelet count was super low, like 50. And the typical platelet range is 150 to 450. And your girl had like 50, platelets, and they were like, um, what's going on? The doctors were super shocked, they were like, you should have bruises all over your body. And you should be passing out left and right. But that wasn't the case for me. And I ultimately had to go to a specialist. And the specialist had to give me clearance for the trip because they were really concerned about this whole platelet count. And what that specialist said was, this isn't normal, but it's kind of normal for you. Like you're functioning okay with a lower platelet count. So I was able to go on the trip. Great! 

I had to vow to take the anti-malaria medication right on time, every single time. And if I did, I was fine to go. I went on the trip and everything was fine. So I kind of just forgot about that. It was like, okay, I don't know what's up with that. But it's fine. It wasn't fine. 

Fast forward to October of 2014 when I am on a trip to New York. So I'll never forget it. I had woken up one of the mornings that we had just gotten there. And my face was really swollen, oddly. And I was like, okay, that's weird. But I kind of was just pushing through. I was helping with a conference there in New York. And we went to dinner that night with friends. And I remember sitting there and I began to sweat profusely. Like, so much sweat. You know, it wasn't hot. It was just, I was sweating. And I was swelling up. My face was swelling up. My lips were swelling up. And the friends were like, uh, what's going on? It was a whole mess. I kind of pushed through the trip. And then when I got back home to Houston, I just began to go from doctor to doctor. By this point, it had gotten worse. My joints were in so much pain. Every joint. My wrists, my knuckles, my elbows, my knees. Like every joint you can think of. My ankles. All of them were inflamed and hurting and swelling up. I couldn't wear my rings, it was a whole thing. 

And I was going from doctor to doctor but none of them were able to really give me a concrete answer. And what I learned was that I had an autoimmune issue. And what was happening was my body was sort of attacking itself. And it was attacking my lungs. And so what they were finding was that there were lymph nodes around my lungs that were swollen. That was what was causing me to have difficulty breathing. Every time I would take a deep breath or any kind of breath, it was so painful. Y'all, I like didn't want to breathe. I was like trying to take little bitty breaths to avoid the pain. And it was because these swollen lymph nodes were around my lungs. They tested for cancer. It was a kind of a scary time. But really, I just remembered the pain, right? And not really getting an answer. And I learned of autoimmune issues that they kind of hop around. 

So they'd pull my blood panel and it would say maybe you have Sjogren’s. Or maybe you have sarcoidosis. Or maybe you have this. You know, they were kind of going back and forth. And there was never a real answer. But I was in so much pain that I was really just desperate for relief, right? And so it was Christmas of 2014. I'll never forgive. That's when I was put on prednisone. And it is a steroid. And I chuckle and say I won't forget because I remember eating all the food. They told me prednisone is going to make you hungry because people tend to gain weight on it apparently because you're eating all the food. So I'm not a foodie, which is a whole other conversation for another podcast. And I know it's really weird to say that. I'm like the opposite of a foodie. But your girl was here for all of the Christmas food and snacks. I was like yes. And that wasn't like me, you know. 

But while I was having those side effects of the prednisone, of the steroid, it was also causing the pain to go away. Which was really, really great because I had been in so much pain. But on the flip side of it, the steroid, which is why I didn't want to get them in the first place. There was a big side effect of birth defects. So my doctor was very aggressive and reminding me that I could not get pregnant while on this drug. He was like your baby could have birth defects. So that alone was like a big red flag and really scary for me. I was like, look, this is a short-term solution. I don't want to be on this for a long time. What are my other options? 

So I ended up only being on prednisone for one month. In January of 2015 is when I got off of it. And I got onto Plaquenil, which was a drug that helped basically keep the joint pain under control. There weren't as many severe side effects like me wanting to eat all the time and gaining weight. But there were others. They told me straight up this could lead to liver damage and even blindness. Like you could go blind. So I'm just like, okay, we're going to wean off of this over time. And I had been talking to my rheumatologist about that. The whole plan is that we're going to wean off of this. But that process was taking much slower than I thought. Every time I would go to the rheumatologist I asked like, Okay, can I go down now? And he'd say, "No, no, you have to stay on. Maybe we can go down a little bit. You can take half a pill." Whatever it was, it was just like, not as fast as I wanted. 

And so it was a year later, in January of 2016, that I found out I was pregnant with my first baby, Terry. And I was, at that point, really afraid to get off of the drug because I didn't want my body to attack the baby. Again, going back to what I was learning of having an autoimmune issue. It's like my immune system's out of whack. It's supposed to attack bad foreign things and get rid of it. But sometimes it can attack you, your actual organs. And that's what was happening. And it was explained to me that my body could view my baby as a problem and attack it. So I wanted to stay on the Plaquenil to make sure that there was no shake-up with my pregnancy, right? So I was on it through my pregnancy. And it was after having Terry, I'll never forget asking the rheumatologist straight up. I was like, okay, I'm ready to wean off again. And he was kind of like dancing around the issue. And I said, okay, so when will I be off of this? Like, what is the game plan? When am I going to no longer be taking this plaquenil? And I'll never forget him telling me, "Never. Never, you're always going to be on it." And I was like, that can't be true. Like I was, I believe 29 at the time, and I have so much life to live. So you're telling me for like 60, 70 years, I'm going to be on this drug? There's no way. That can't be your real answer. But it was. That was his answer. 

And so I began to think, okay, what are my options, because I was always into more natural options. You know, low-key, kind of like a hippie. I didn't take medicine for a headache. If I got a headache, I'm not gonna take Advil or whatever you take. I'm gonna just kind of like fight through it. And that said, I never had migraines or anything crazy. But I just never wanted to take a whole lot of medication. Even when it came to delivering babies. All of my three babies, I've delivered them naturally. I don't want an epidural. I don't want any drugs. That's always just kind of my leaning. So it was already hard for me to be on this medication, let alone accept that I'm going to have to be on it for the rest of my life. No, sir. 

So I learned of a friend of mine who'd started going to a holistic doctor, Dr. Mark. You're going to hear me say Dr. Mark a lot. He's my guy. He's my holistic doctor. And I'll never forget that friend had a birthday party for his daughter. And he introduced me to the friend that had introduced him to Dr. Mark. And me and this young lady had the longest conversation at this kid's birthday party as she began to tell me about all the ways in which going to this holistic doctor had changed her life and made her feel so much better, and healed her. She had really severe menstrual cramps and all these different issues. And Dr. Mark had helped her work through all of that and she felt better than she ever had. So I was like, okay, I'm sold. I'm excited about this process. 

I'll never forget, my first visit was on January 23 of 2018. And the reason I'll never forget is because that morning, on the way to the appointment, I thought let me just make sure I'm not pregnant. I had been kind of feeling weird. And I was like, let me go take a pregnancy test just so that I don't get with this like fru fru doctor. Because honestly, I didn't know what to expect. And you know, I don't want them to put me on some like potion. And like it affects the baby if I'm pregnant. Y'all I was pregnant. was totally pregnant. So the day I found out that I was pregnant, it was the first appointment I ever had with him. He was like the first person after Terry to know that I was even pregnant. 

So I go, and I want to kind of tell you what the process looked like. So what he had me do, and I'm sure different holistic doctors work differently. But you go onto the website, and there's a form you fill out. And it's not a simple form. And it's a very in-depth form. Because he wants to know all of your history, all of your issues, any surgeries. He's asking all these questions about how you feel and where you are and what your pain points are and all these things. So you fill that out. It's like the intake process. And you submit it online, and then they will call you to make your first appointment. I believe my first appointment was around $150. I can't remember. But that was the first appointment, the initial consult. 

And I came in, and we kind of talked through why I was there. He looked at all the information I had sent in from the intake form. And he tells me, okay, I want you to get a full blood panel. And he's going to give you the blood panel based on what you need, what you discussed in that conversation. So he gets a blood panel. And that is about and y'all know, I keep it all the way real. So I'm going to tell you the cost of everything, I'm going to tell you as much as I can to help you understand what this might look like. He does not accept insurance. And there are reasons for that. So everything is out of pocket. But the blood panel was about $230, something around there. And I still get this blood work every quarter. So every few months, I'll get the blood work.

So he has me get this blood panel. And it's a much more full panel than what a regular doctor or a PCP would give you, right? And so in our next appointment, which is about a month later, we go through and we read this blood work off. So he prints out the blood work for me. And he's looking at his copy. And he's gone through it and he's marked any of the markers that are kind of not so great, he'll put in yellow. Anything that's like a really big problem, he'll put in red. He'll highlight with red. And we'll go through. And he also has green for things that are great. 

Well, there was a lot of yellow and there was a lot of red on my form. A lot of markers just looked really bad. My vitamin D was crazy low. I can't remember all the rest, but it was not such a great picture. And so then he's going to prescribe supplements. And these are natural food supplements, you know from the earth to help give my body what it's lacking, to help fix this bloodwork. That's the whole goal. 

So I'll pause here and kind of just explain the difference between working with a holistic doctor and a PCP. When I go to my primary care physician, PCP, I would be given a standard blood panel. They'd say, okay, you're a woman, you're this age, whatever, whatever. This is the blood panel, this is a blood work I want to see back from you. And it's standard, and it's much more limited. With a holistic doctor, they're getting a much broader picture. They're getting a bigger perspective of what's going on in your body. They're pulling a lot more than what a PCP would pull, typically, to see what's going on in the bigger scheme of things. And he's going to prescribe the supplements accordingly. Okay, you're low on vitamin D. I'm going to give you this, this, and that. Like I'll just give an example. When it comes to a prenatal vitamin, you know, there's all these prenatal vitamins that you can get at the store. Well, Dr. Mark, he's giving me, my supplements are basically what I need. It's like my own prenatal vitamin. He's giving me what I always take in terms of my supplements, and adding in folic acid, and adding in whatever I need for the baby. So it's much more exactly what Ashley needs and not just what everyone in the population is going to get when they have a baby. That's just an example. 

So he pulls my blood work. And we're able to review that. He gives me the supplements that I need to help my body fix itself. And he also changes what I put in my body. So one of the biggest things was dairy. So when he gets the bloodwork, he's able to see your blood type. And my blood type is O-positive. And you may have heard people talk about eating for your blood type. Well, the way he describes it, and I don't want to butcher it, but he puts us in like, like tribes. We're in these different tribes based on our blood type. I'm in the O-positive tribe. And there are certain things that my blood won't process well, and one of those things is dairy. So we're talking cow's milk. 

Y'all, so you have to understand I'm coming into this appointment, having experienced severe, like crippling joint pain. I'm talking, I'm in the shower crying. Like my only relief is kind of like the hot water. You know, I go from that to the steroids, which could cause my children to have birth defects. To this Plaquenil, which I'm supposed to be on for the rest of my life. And I could potentially be blind by the end of it. To this holistic doctor who's like, yeah, your body doesn't process dairy well, because you're O-positive. And so you should stop having dairy and it'll clear up the joint pain. And I'll never forget it because he kind of just like brushed it off. He was like, yeah, that'll clear up the joint pain. And then he kind of like goes back to his little pads and starts writing. And I'm like, there is no way that means not having dairy is going to just solve that problem, right? It's too great of a problem to be solved by dairy. 

But let me tell you. Your girl stopped having dairy. And not only did the joint pain go away, y'all. It was like acne. I started to have terrible acne when I started having my kids. That went away when I stopped having dairy. Acid reflux. I, for years, I can't tell y'all how many doctor's visits I had because of acid reflux, how many different types of medicines I would try to solve the acid reflux. That went away just from not having dairy. Bloating, and gassiness, and just being tired. So many things were connected to me having dairy. It still blows my mind. So again, on one hand, it was you're going to take this pill for the rest of your life because that's the only way you're not going to have this joint pain. And then, on the other hand, it was, oh, just watch what you're putting in your body. Your body doesn't like dairy. Don't have any of it. And that was the answer. 

So, I try to not feel some kind of way about it. But I get really passionate because it's like, man, I was about to have to struggle through a life of all the potential side effects of this drug that I was going to be on for decades. When all I had to do was not have dairy. So this, again, is why I tell my story. Now, let me tell you getting off a dairy was not easy. I thought it would be easy when he told me. I was like, no big deal. I won't have ice cream. I won't have like queso. That really hurt my heart. But no, dairy is in everything. In sauces. In like everything. So I have to check the back of the labels on the back of foods to make sure it says does not contain milk. And that was hard. And sometimes it even still is hard. But overall, it's tons easier. Because guess what, I started feeling better. And that made all the difference. I'm like here for not having joint pain and not having acne and not having acid reflux and all these things. Just avoid having dairy. So that was what that looked like. 

And I will say there are a few other things in terms of like what you put in your body. So another thing was pink Himalayan salt. He talks a lot about, Dr. Mark, like, you know, we want to drink water to hydrate our bodies. And that is so important. And we should drink a lot of water. But, and I'm gonna butcher this. So again, do your research. But if your body isn't absorbing that water, then it is just kind of like running through you. What we need to have is the right kind of salt. And that's the pink Himalayan salt. And again, not all pink Himalayan salts are created equal. So make sure you're getting one that doesn't have a lot of extra stuff in it. That's like a good brand, basically. But what I do every morning, the first thing before I have anything else. Before I eat or drink anything else is a glass of water with five shakes of pink Himalayan salt. And it's not five shakes for everyone. I forget exactly how it goes. But it's like you start with maybe two shakes. And you add a shake every morning until the saltiness tastes too much. And then you back off one shake. That's like his process to find how many shakes of pink Himalayan salt you need in your water every morning. But you start off with that.

And then throughout the day, he wants you to put pink Himalayan salt on your foods. Now y'all I'll be honest, I'm really bad at remembering to do this. You're not supposed to cook with it. You're supposed to just put it on top of any of the food you eat. And this too will help your body absorb the water that you're having throughout the day. Also at night. And I don't think he initially recommended me doing it at night. But now at night, he wants me to. I think it's because I'm breastfeeding, to have the five shakes in the water at night right before I go to bed. And this again is going to help my body absorb the water so that I actually really stay hydrated and the water doesn't just go through me. So that's one example. 

Another one is like things like the toothpaste I use, the deodorant I use right? You don't think about it. But for years and years and years, whatever chemicals are in the Caress or the Dove or whatever. I don't want to throw shade on any brands. But to be honest, like look at the back of the label and all the stuff that's in it that you can't even pronounce. Like that's going into your body for so long. He wants you to use natural products. So we switched up all of that. 

Corn was another thing for me that we actually found out later that I had an allergy to corn, which is really sad. Because again, corn is in so many of the things that I love, but I try to stay away from it. And also just natural remedies for my kids. Things like eye drops and throat sprays and gels that are much more natural and less harmful than what you're going to get off the counter. So those are just some examples of other things that we think about in terms of what we put into our body that I've changed in my lifestyle since seeing Dr. Mark. 

So you may be wondering what happened to the Plaquenil. I, if you remember, had just found out I was pregnant. And I did not feel comfortable just like you know, cold turkey getting off of the Plaquenil because again, I was afraid that my body would freak out and begin to attack the baby inside of me. So I remember asking Dr. Mark, should I get off of it should I went off of it. And he said it's totally up to you. And if I remember correctly, I stayed on the dosage that I was on throughout my whole pregnancy because I didn't want to mess anything up. I was a little nervous about that. But then after having Trenton, I began to wean off of it. And I've been off of it for years and haven't had any issues with joint pain. Unless I have too much dairy. If I have too much dairy, the joint pain will start to come back. Not at all as severe as it was back in 2014. But again, it goes to show that it's just not something that my body processes well. 

And I want to point out something I just said, which is that Dr. Mark, like, let me choose. He empowered me to choose. He's not going to be over your head, this is what you got to do this, what you got to do this, what you got to do. He's going to say this is what I see is best for you based on your blood work and your specific story. But he's not going to pressure you to do anything. He's going to, you know, suggest that you actually pray about it, if anything. So I love feeling empowered and supported in that way as well. I also want to point out that my holistic doctor isn't against conventional medicine or medication. He's not going to say, don't ever take medication. He just doesn't think that it should be the go-to answer all the time for everyone. 

Now, I want you to know that it's not just me. Like he hasn't just helped me. Because that would be one thing. But I've actually seen the effect of holistic health and holistic care in two very important people to me, my mom and my dad. So I'm going to share their stories really quick. 

My dad is one of the healthiest people I know. At the time that this happened, he was 68, on no medications, still working full time, even though we don't want him to, and doing all the things. And he was super healthy. And all of a sudden he starts to lose a bunch of weight and has all of these weird symptoms that look like diabetes. So my mom didn't know that at the time. She just saw he was losing weight. Was super fatigued. All this and she took them to the emergency room. This was back I believe, in 2018. I believe this was 2018. And she takes him to the emergency room. And of course, they run all the tests, and they realize he's diabetic. This is diabetes. And so they want him to get on insulin. Well, in the moment, you know, I'm there at the hospital with my dad. And I think okay, let's just talk to Dr. Mark about it. He'd known a little bit about my holistic health journey. I think he probably thought it was a little fru fru. But I was like, let's just try and see. And so we literally call Dr. Mark's office in the moment right there at the hospital. We fill out the paperwork and get it in. And we get his appointment on the books. And he becomes a patient of Dr. Mark's. And guess what happens? Dr. Mark, it's similar to my story. He says, "Well, I'm looking at your blood work. And I see yes, your A1C is high. And your blood sugar is high and such and such. But what have you been eating?" And he'd been having way too much fruit. Fruit is great for you. It's a great type of sugar. But it's still way too much. My dad would go ham with fruit. And so also milk, cow's milk. So I remember even growing up, we'd have gallons and gallons of cow's milk in our fridge. And it's because we would go through it so fast and they'd get gallons and gallons whenever they went to the grocery store. My dad was still drinking so much milk, again thinking, because this is what we're told that this is what we're supposed to do. And while it's okay for some people, because some people's blood can process it well. His can't. And so Dr. Mark said, get off of all that. Don't have that much fruit. Don't drink cow's milk. And take the supplements to help fix some of this stuff that's going on in your body. And my dad never ever had to take insulin. He's able to manage his diabetes through what he eats. 

I find it super interesting that every single time I go to a pediatrician appointment for my kids, I'm asked by the pediatrician does your child drink a certain amount of dairy, cow's milk? And they're asking that specifically. Cow's milk. And it's so interesting to me, because again, and it's no shade to doctors. I'm so grateful for pediatricians. But they're taught to ask X, Y, and Z questions. To take all the people and say these are the questions that were asked, and this is what they're supposed to do. But that's not true. We're all very different. So they should be asking different questions. For example, African Americans I've learned in general don't process dairy well. So maybe for your African American clients, you wouldn't be asking, does your kid have dairy because that could actually be harmful to them, right? So that's just another example of the difference between the standard care you get with a PCP and then the holistic or individual care you get with a holistic doctor. 

So my dad, again, would have been on insulin for the rest of his life had he just done what he was told to do at the hospital. Versus being able to just manage his diabetes by eating better by monitoring what he puts in his body. So there's a lot of power there, right? And it should also be said that, can you imagine what the side effects of our insulin would be, you know, for a man his age, having to deal with that, in his body when we weren't really ever designed to have these things in our bodies when we don't need them? Are there times where people need to potentially be on insulin? Sure, but not everybody all the time. Because going back to the point that I made earlier. 

It was the same situation with my mom's story. So a few years ago, she started having these seizures out of the blue one day. And they rushed her to the hospital to the emergency room. And they began to just, you know, check her out. And they basically gave her like, I think it was three different types of medications that she needed to be on. Now, she was already a client of Dr. Mark's at this point. And so she got the medication. But she was like, I'm gonna check with Dr. Mark first. And so when she goes to Dr. Mark, he begins to ask her, well, what are you eating? And basically, she wasn't following the rules the way she was supposed to be. And I laugh because if she ever listened to this podcast, she would laugh. Am I going to tell all her business? But she was eating like oatmeal for every single breakfast and like her little, you know, muffin and her tea. And it was like her whole little ritual, which was cute. But it wasn't what was best for her body. And so she wasn't supposed to be eating that. And it caused, he believes her blood sugar kind of got out of whack and caused her to have these seizures. And as far as I know, she is on one of the medications. He did suggest that she stay on one of the medications, but not the other two. One of the medications that he did not suggest she stay on was for high blood pressure, like managing your blood pressure. When she came in her blood pressure was higher, probably because she was nervous and scared about what was going on with the seizures. But she doesn't need to be on medication for high blood pressure. She doesn't really struggle with that. Again, it's kind of just checking the box. Oh, this person had high blood pressure. They need to be on blood pressure medication, but not actually thinking about what she really needs. She's never struggled with blood pressure before, high blood pressure. 

So anyway, there were some medications that he said, you don't need to be on those. Most of them, I think was all but one that he was like, let's keep you on this for now. And we'll wean you off over time. And he's monitoring it. So again, going back to not being completely against conventional medicine. But just really thinking about what's best for the individual. 

So I say all this to say that it just makes me sad that people go to the doctor, to the hospital, or to the emergency room in a very vulnerable position, you know, and they are tested. And then they're told that the only option is medication when that's in fact not true. Again, there is definitely a place for medication. It's important. But not all the time and not for everyone. So I share all of this just because it has made a profound impact on my life. And I hope that it's helped you learn about an option that's available to you. 

And I want to just also say that I understand that not everyone can go to a holistic doctor and pay out of pocket because they don't accept insurance. And it's unfortunate that it has to be that way. But I do want to acknowledge that that's just not everyone's reality. And if I could, your girl would pay for everybody to go have holistic care, or at least just try it for six months to see what changes it might make in your body because I really do believe it would be a game-changer. So if it's something you can do, I would strongly encourage it. 

I will share Dr. Mark's information in the show notes. Cause I know many of you will ask. So many have already asked. I can't tell you how many times I've shared his contact information. I actually went to see him today. And he was like almost every other patient we have is from you lately. Like so many of my friends and family and people on social media because I've been sharing it a lot as I've navigated my pregnancy and postpartum journey. So many people have said hey, I want to go see Dr. Mark. So anyway, he is here in the Houston area but he does do tele-visits. So I'll put his information in the show notes. But again, I want you to do your own research and find a doctor that works best for you. Okay?

Now, I'd love to know if this episode helped you in any way. Or if you have any questions feel free to shoot me a direct message on Instagram. Again I am @heybirdwilliams and I would love to connect with you there. 

Thank you so much for tuning into Bird Means Business podcast. It is such a joy for me to be able to share this space with you. It means a lot to me. And I don't take it lightly that you carve out time in your day to tune in. So make sure you subscribe on Apple Podcasts and follow Bird Means Business podcast on Spotify so that you don't miss any other episodes. And make sure that you tell your friends about this episode so that they can learn more about this holistic health option too. 

Alrighty, talk to you all next week.