171- Nutritional Products Designed Specifically For Women with Donna Burke

[00:00:15] Bryan Carroll: as a heads up, and this episode is mainly tailored towards women, especially if you're using any sort of nutritional product that is designed to help you with your exercise routines for sports recovery.

[00:00:27] All that type of stuff, performance, et cetera. What's up everyone. I'm Bryan Carroll and I'm here to help people move more, eat well and be adventurous. And today I have Donna Burke on the show to talk all about different formulations for these products specifically for. No. What's really interesting about this is right now on the market.

[00:00:46] There's a lot of different products that are marketed towards women, but the formulations aren't changed for women. And a lot of this type of research is done on men because it's much easier to do research and studies on men because they don't have. Cyclical changes every single month compared to women.

[00:01:05] But since we know that we should also recognize that because women's cycles do change every single day of the month, that the types of nutrients that they are receiving, it should also be changing based off of where they are within their cycles. And. As of right now, there's only a couple products out there that are specifically formulated for those types of changes, which Don Burke is on the show to talk to us about.

[00:01:31] Now, Don Burke is the managing director at particle products. The only collection of sports, nutrition products that are formulated for a women's. And after researching the industry, Donna found that while there were products on the market for women, none of them have actively researched and change the formulations to create a product line that gave women the benefits of the products without the side effects and her background's in fitness and nutrition.

[00:01:55] And so she combined all that with her BS in biology. And now she has particle products, which we will be talking about later on in the. But it is very fascinating because like I said, most of this type of research is done on males and the male body is not the same as the female body. So there definitely needs to be a lot more research on Female side on the women's side.

[00:02:20] And I know that costs more and it's more complicated to do, but I'm glad some people are stepping up and finally starting to do that research because that's going to help out a lot of the women out there that are trying to take these products and not seeing the best results with them. So let's dive into my conversation with Donna.

[00:02:39] Thank you, Donna, for coming onto this. 

[00:02:43] Donna Burke: Hey, Bryan, thanks so much for having me, of course. 

[00:02:45] Bryan Carroll: And I'm really excited to chat with you because you're bringing a really unique approach to supplementation for women especially in the sports, nutrition, wellness realm. But before we dive into that, let's learn a little bit more about your background and who you are.

[00:03:00] Donna Burke: Yeah, absolutely. So I am Donna Burke. I am born and raised in Atlanta, Georgia, which is where a particle our company is located. But I have been in the fitness and wellness world for the last 12 years. I studied biology in college where the concentration in exercise science and chemistry, and originally thought that I wanted to go to med.

[00:03:24] I did some athletic training in college wanting to be an orthopedic surgeon and then realized that med school wasn't really the path that I wanted it to be. So I kind of abandoned that and move forward with opening my own gym, getting into fitness and focusing on overall wellness and overall health, because I think for women it's so preached on.

[00:03:47] It's not always the healthiest. So I wanted to focus on really bringing the right focus to health, not just. We read in magazines. So combined with my background we got started and I opened a studio, unfortunately, due to COVID that closed, but with every door that closes another one opens and I had the phenomenal opportunity to create a new brand of sports, nutrition, supplements.

[00:04:14] And that's what we did. So we created particle products in 2020. And we launched in March of 2021, and it is the only collection of sports, nutrition supplements. That's actually formulated for women. And we want to be the disruptors in the sports nutrition market. 

[00:04:32] Bryan Carroll: Awesome. Yeah, it's very interesting because most of the sports nutrition stuff is definitely marketed towards men, but I never really thought about the formulations and needing to be adjusted between men and women.

[00:04:46] So what made you realize that women might need some more of some nutrients and some less of other nutrients compared to. 

[00:04:55] Donna Burke: Right. I mean, I think we all are very aware that men's and women's bodies physiologically are just different. Something as simple as women get periods and men, don't sorry to the listeners.

[00:05:06] I know we don't want to talk about that like openly, but we have to, because it makes us very, very, very different. So just something as simple as that makes you realize that men and women are different. So why is there only one. Product really one formulation on the market. And this goes across a lot of different industries as well.

[00:05:27] But I always knew that when I took sports nutrition products, I felt terrible. And when I talked to my friends about it, they also felt terrible and we just didn't know why. And we stopped taking them, even though they were helping our performance. I mean, when I took a pre-workout I felt like a psychopath and my body was on fire and I was like this, doesn't see.

[00:05:51] Right. So when I brought, was brought on to create this new company, I just simply asked the question, why do I have so many side effects? And that was the catalyst when the formulators and a lot of the people involved in the process were like, what do you mean? And I was like, I, myself and my friends, all of the women at my gym that I used to own, like we stopped taking these products.

[00:06:19] We got so many side effects. Like our bodies felt like they were on fire protein powders make us sick and bloated. And they just said, Hmm, it must be something to do with the formulations. And at that point I was like, wait a minute. You mean you've never formulated a product for women before. And that was kind of the catalyst for how this all start.

[00:06:44] Bryan Carroll: Interesting. And I know a lot of research studies are done on men compared to women. And the theory is it's a lot easier to study men because they don't have a cycle. So it's easier to follow them because they're not really changing as much as women's hormones do. Is this what you've also seen in a lot of the research you've done around the different studies and how formulations are made for sports nutrition and up to this.

[00:07:11] Donna Burke: Right. Absolutely. I combed through all of the medical journals, all of the exercise science studies to find information and studies solely done on female athletes. And to be completely honest with you, there aren't a lot, which is one of my big goals for this company is to be able to sponsor research specifically done on female athletes.

[00:07:30] And there were a lot of conversations with the, within the industry and within exercise science talking about it's just difficult to do. Studies on women because no one wants to deal with the hormone. Fluctuations that you get for three weeks of the month with a menstrual cycle. Because as we all like to think, it might just be a couple of days, but the weeks before you're having symptoms and your body is changing the week of your cycle, you are having more changes.

[00:08:03] And the week after you're ovulating. So it's all of the time that this is changing, but we still need to study that because. It's half the population is going through this. And even if they are say on an IUD or birth control that is stopping their period, they're still having these same cycles go through.

[00:08:23] We're just not seeing the some of the physical effects of it. 

[00:08:30] Bryan Carroll: It makes me wonder too, when you are trying to formulate these sports nutrition products, or if you're just trying to support a woman, do you have to change the regimen weekly? Or how does that work? Cause I'm assuming that each different phase of a woman's menstrual cycle they're needing different things.

[00:08:50] So how, how exactly does that. 

[00:08:54] Donna Burke: Right. So you can definitely add and subtract some things from your nutrition in order to help you during different phases of your menstrual cycle. But my biggest suggestion and this kind of goes for everyone everywhere is to constantly have these vitamins and minerals in your system.

[00:09:12] So your body always has them available for use. That's going to be your greatest gain. So. Something as simple as the luteal phase of a menstrual cycle, it's when women get a lot of those cravings that we all joke about. We need chocolate, things like that, but you can actually offset that by increasing your protein intake, which is something really simple.

[00:09:38] Again, the follicular phase pre-op adulatory, it's your longest phase. That's when you want to start taking your iron, your vitamin C your vitamin B to help you promote blood cell production, but also make sure that you're not going anemic during that time. So there are definitely things that you can do.

[00:09:56] It takes a little bit of research. There are lots of Nutritionists now getting into specifically nutrition about menstrual cycles and your fertility and helping you build that via nutrition instead of having to go through IVF and all of these things. But absolutely you can change your diet in order to affect your menstrual cycle.

[00:10:17] Bryan Carroll: Fascinating. It also makes it kind of complicated too. I, I definitely I'm glad I'm on this side of the line and not your side because it's a lot easier for us. Oh, yeah, 

[00:10:29] Donna Burke: absolutely. I mean, I, funny enough, I was watching a Ted talk the other day, and this guy was talking about, he asked a girl that he was dating about her period and he was like, you know, it's just a couple of days.

[00:10:40] And she was like, no, it's like three weeks. Like there's like bloating before. And he was like, wait, what? The whole month, when do you ever feel normal? We were like, Ooh. Yeah, for like a day,

[00:10:54] Bryan Carroll: one day, that's what you get. And then the rest of your trying to balance it. 

[00:10:59] Donna Burke: Well, you know, that's what happens when you have to procreate and fill the world back up with 

[00:11:03] Bryan Carroll: people. We have a big responsibility. So you, you mentioned a couple of the different nutrients. So iron definitely makes sense with formulating more red blood cells, et cetera.

[00:11:14] And you mentioned what was that vitamin B and vitamin C as well for blood production. Is that correct? 

[00:11:21] Donna Burke: Right. Yes. Even something as simple as magnesium, it helps with painful cramps. And makes, I mean, magnesium is so important for everything within your body. So that's one of the biggest supplements I ever suggest for people is to get magnesium.

[00:11:34] Bryan Carroll: Yeah. And the majority of the population is very low on magnesium, just in general. It's pretty much cooked out of our food at this point. So is there a certain levels of vitamin B and vitamin C that are. And how do you know if you're getting enough or not enough? 

[00:11:50] Donna Burke: Right. So one of the biggest things I always suggest when you're kind of starting on your wellness journey, is to go see your general practitioner and ask them to do a blood draw and have them run tests on all of your vitamin and mineral levels so that you know where you are.

[00:12:08] A few years ago I was running my own business and. Working crazy hours and had my fitness studio at the time. So I never saw the light of day. I was there from 5:00 AM until almost 10:00 PM every night. And I was really tired all the time. So I went to the doctor, they drew blood, they did all these tests.

[00:12:27] So my vitamin and mineral levels and they actually called me the next day and said, you need to come back and get a vitamin D shot because you're so low. And I have no idea. So they put me on prescription strength, vitamin D for a month in order to get myself back where I needed to be. But otherwise I just thought I was tired because I was working.

[00:12:46] But if you can get those baselines and everyone is different the, there are obviously guidelines of what your daily intake of every vitamin and mineral should be. If you're taking a multivitamin, you should be okay, but definitely discuss it with your doctor because being. Low in something like vitamin C may mean that you're not absorbing the magnesium that you need to, or the calcium that you need to, and one effects the other.

[00:13:10] So it's all personal and you've got to start from where you are and then build it up to where you need to be. As far as specific numbers off the top of my head. I do not know them to be honest. 

[00:13:22] Bryan Carroll: So here's a good question. Would it be the most beneficial to get that blood draw and the lab work done? In each of the phases of your menstrual cycle.

[00:13:32] So you can see, okay, in this phase, this is low. This is high. This phase, this low, this is high. 

[00:13:40] Donna Burke: As a normal person that might be a little bit overkill, but honestly, as an athlete or during research, it would be really interesting to see where you are because you're absolutely running through more vitamins and minerals during those processes, then the normal.

[00:13:56] So I would, I would actually love to see research on that and see how. Performance and just general fatigue and all of those things, but even as an athlete, to be able to tune your diet. Based on the time of the month and have that, I know the us women's soccer team did that for the last world cup. They brought in a nutritionist and had all of the girls all the women eating a diet based on their phases of their menstrual cycle in order for them to perform at their absolute.

[00:14:26] Bryan Carroll: That's amazing actually. And in those settings, so I've always heard about women kind of sinking up with each other or they usually sing or add that level. Are they kind of all over the place and everyone's on their own different diets at different times? 

[00:14:41] Donna Burke: Typically when you're. With people, as much as those women would be together training probably 10 to 12 hours a day watching video or hanging out all those things.

[00:14:52] Typically they would be saying I know that if I start hanging out with my friends regularly. All of a sudden, we're all saying it's, it's kind of crazy, but but yeah, typically they would be saying obviously there are going to be women who are on birth control, women who are not, that's going to affect things.

[00:15:07] But like I said, we're all dealing with this basically three, three and a half weeks a month. So being able to just support their bodies in that way and having more vitamins and minerals is never a bad thing. 

[00:15:20] Bryan Carroll: So another thing with a lot of high-level athletes or just people that are super athletic and they're getting really lean is they tend to lose their menstrual cycle.

[00:15:30] So does that impact the nutritional needs that they need as well? 

[00:15:34] Donna Burke: So that actually means that they are not healthy. So when you see an athlete start to lose their menstrual cycle, it means that they're not actually fueling their body. So their body is starting to shut down. Which means that they need to eat more.

[00:15:47] So you see this a lot. We saw this a lot in college athletics where the girls were dieting down in order to one fit, kind of a societal, a sled aesthetic, but two, they heard that say cross country, this is one of the major sports that this happens in cross country. They. We're always told that their hip efficiency would be better if they were thinner.

[00:16:12] So they started to lose weight, which meant that they lost their period. But then you're looking at the athlete as a whole saying, well, you're not in an optimal nutrition state, so how can your body be optimal at running? So something as simple as that. So any, any woman who has lost her cycle. More than likely they are nutrient deficient and they're not eating enough.

[00:16:35] And that needs to be 

[00:16:36] Bryan Carroll: solved. Yeah. There's some like fitness competitions and stuff where you have to be at a certain body fat percentage. And that's, that's a tough one. Cause once you get into those ranges and things start happening in your body, but other than that you can be all sorts of shapes, sizes, et cetera.

[00:16:55] And yeah, you don't have to fit into those societal norms like you were talking about. 

[00:17:01] Donna Burke: Right. Absolutely. And I read a statistic that said there were basically no female athletes performing at 100% capacity because the majority of female athletes are dieting for their ad campaigns, things like that.

[00:17:15] So when you think about that and maybe. Maybe Serena Williams might be the only one who is actually, but at the same time, I believe she's vegan. So it's possible that she may not even be optimal. But when you think about that and just in the realm of sports, that there's probably not a single female athlete performing at her 100% top level, like where would that leave us?

[00:17:38] If we actually decided to start really fueling our bodies to exactly where we need to be, because. If you have a six pack, typically you're undernourished. So we need to realize that we have to fuel ourselves and everything starts with food and where you're finding your. Areas where you're lacking, that's where you supplement.

[00:18:00] And I think the supplement industry has also gotten a little outside of its realm, where at the name is supplements for a reason they're supposed to supplement your diet where, when we talk to women about supplements, typically when you talk about a protein powder, they're a meal replacement, but that's outrageous.

[00:18:18] Bryan Carroll: Yeah. Simple mention, never be your main. And I think a lot of people are just running off of that ladder 

[00:18:25] Donna Burke: for the people in that. 

[00:18:28] Bryan Carroll: Yeah. Yeah. You can't skip five meals and then just take a multivitamin and call it. Good. Exactly. Yeah. It's going back to the societal views of how, especially women, it seems like women are the ones that are picked on the most.

[00:18:44] I believe it was either the last Olympics or a couple of Olympics ago. A couple of the volleyball players. We're really picked apart because I'm in their pair. One of them is like the taller leaner kind of what you would think about if you're thinking about volleyball players and other one was a little shorter and stockier, and she was kind of made fun of because of her size.

[00:19:05] And it's like, these two are at the top of their level that should tell you right there, that size doesn't matter. Like what their bodies look like. Doesn't matter. They're still at the top of their game. And I think the one that just had a baby recently, like a couple months before or something, which is like also not fair, trying to compare.

[00:19:24] Donna Burke: Right. And yet she's still competing in the Olympics at top level after having a child. And that's the thing. Why are, why are we even talking about their bodies? Why aren't we just talking about their performance? Like never once has someone said that LeBron James like needs to have a better six pack in order to play better?

[00:19:42] Nope. That's not talked about, but then all of a sudden you put women on the screen and someone's talking about how her belly is rolling over her shorts. Well, you know what that's where our ovaries are. That's where we produce children. We're supposed to have that. So it's, it's definitely difficult, especially when you see athletes at such a high level.

[00:20:02] Kind of torn apart for those things. I mean, when Serena Williams was the first tennis player to really lift weights and VNS, and for basically all of the nineties, they were. Jokingly the men of the women's tennis league and it was, it's not. 

[00:20:18] Bryan Carroll: Yeah. And it's tough for younger people, dude, having these people as role models and then seeing them get picked apart like that, then all of a sudden their mindset changes to this is what I need to look like, or this is what I need to do in order to be accepted by society.

[00:20:34] And that's not good. 

[00:20:36] Donna Burke: Absolutely. And I think it's so great that the narrative is changing, especially for this next generation. You could see it already that young girls don't take. The criticism quite as harshly as our generation or even our parents' generation did. Obviously social media still makes it worse at some point, but now you can see so many different body types and you can hear so many different opinions that you are able to find people who are more similar to you versus in the nineties, we really just had magazines that we had to look at and everyone kind of looked the same and that was the body type we were.

[00:21:13] Shown and forced to be if we wanted to be seen as attractive. But now you look at, I mean, Lizzo and bossy body positivity, you look at all of the female athletes on the us women's national team, bringing awareness to the fact that they are not only athletes, they're moms, they are all of these different things.

[00:21:37] No, their bodies aren't perfect. But, and yet they are world cup champions and Olympic champions and they're amazing athletes. 

[00:21:46] Bryan Carroll: Yep. Yeah. We got to change our views on what an athlete should look like. 

[00:21:52] Donna Burke: Exactly. Yeah, 

[00:21:53] Bryan Carroll: exactly. Are there any nutrients that are pretty similar across the board for men and women, or do all the nutrients need to get changed over for one.

[00:22:03] Donna Burke: I mean, they're all, they're pretty similar. It's really kind of the recommended dosage for men and women is obviously different. So that is where the biggest keys come in. So. We all need vitamin C, we all need calcium. We all need vitamin D. All of those things are important in order for all of our systems to run and generically, they all run pretty, pretty similar.

[00:22:25] Our livers all do the same thing. Our stomachs I'll do the same thing. But when we are talking about the differences between male and female, men are typically bigger. You might need more of some, we have some different processes going on within our body based on fertility and pregnancy and oblation and all of those things.

[00:22:43] So like we were talking about earlier different times of the month, different times of life, whatever you're trying to do for your body, women are going to need more of other things, like say folic acid or full late where men probably wouldn't need quite as much. 

[00:22:58] Bryan Carroll: Perfect. So let's talk a little bit about some of the supplements that you have.

[00:23:03] How many supplements do you actually have? I haven't looked at your website to see, and then what are some of the main products that women should be looking into to help with their sports performance? 

[00:23:14] Donna Burke: Great. Absolutely. And not even sports performance, just general life performance. I mean, once we can all start.

[00:23:20] Feeding ourselves to optimum capacities. We'll be able to see a huge difference in just being able to keep up with kids, being able to keep up with work, generally having energy to do more things that we want to do, like travel, not being as jet lagged, all of those things. So it's really just about life first and then your athletic.

[00:23:39] Next. I'd love to say that I'm still an athlete, but it's down to walking in yoga for me, but I still need to get by myself home medicine to make sure that I can get through those. But as far as our collection, right now, we launched last March, March of 2021. And we launched with kind of the basics of your sports nutrition so that everybody.

[00:24:01] Recognize kind of your base formulas. So we've got our weight, protein powder, our pre-workout that's our energy and focus. Our post-workout all essential branch chain, amino acids. And then we also added an immunity and hydration powder that you can use kind of like a, like a multivitamin or an Ivy and a powder would be similar.

[00:24:23] So. Like I said earlier, we kind of wanted to change the narrative of how supplements are talked about and how they're used by women. So right now, if you look at a lot of advertising, supplements are shown to women as fat burners instead of pre-workouts meal replacements, instead of protein powders. And then recovery is just so that you can get back and get in the gym to lose weight.

[00:24:48] But. That's not what they should be used for. So whey protein powder. When we looked at the formulations, we realized that one of the biggest things that was making women not feel well with the protein powder was that most whey protein powders are strictly isolate protein, which is a very concentrated, very high high concentrate of protein.

[00:25:12] Well, typically though, it's also mixed with carbs, which is how men process processed protein. But when you look at the studies actually done on only female athletes, they're starting to find that women are processing protein with fats and not carbs. So that's a huge difference. So, what we did was we blended our protein to be an isolate and concentrate blend because concentrate protein has a little bit more dairy content in there, which means it has an N an innate FA LA I can't say those words and innate fat content built in.

[00:25:43] So we didn't need to add anything, but it softer on a woman's stomach. It's already got the fat content in there. We need to process it. And then we fortified it with vitamin D magnesium and iron, which are the three vitamins and minerals that women are typically deficient. I believe it's over 80% of women are deficient in those vitamins and minerals.

[00:26:03] So that's just kind of one of the things where we changed that formulation, but it made a huge difference. Now we get. Talking to everyone who's taking the products. They're like, I have never felt better taking a protein powder. And not only that women were using them differently, men typically take their protein, put it in water, put it in a shaker bottle, shake it up.

[00:26:24] And then they Chuck it. Honestly, I always thought that was gross, but, but when we talked to women before we launched the product, women were like, no, I'm not, I'm not really like drinking it with water. I would rather like cook with it or bake with it or put it into a smoothie. But the flavor. They just are so overpowering that when I put it into a smoothie, then my smoothie tastes like candy and I'm like, okay, well, let's figure this out.

[00:26:48] So we actually reformulated it as well, so you can cook with it. So I add it to soup during the winter. So I can get my protein in instead of like having to cook a meat or a plant-based protein. Bake with it, put it in my smoothies and just those simple, small reformulations allowed us to be able to use it a lot more often and supplement our diet to where we get our protein levels, where they need to 

[00:27:13] Bryan Carroll: be.

[00:27:14] Yeah, I'm going back to the fat-burners are the same as pre-workout. I never knew that. 

[00:27:21] Donna Burke: They're very similar typically there's they might add one ingredient. There's a lot of actually most of the science disproves that that burners even worse. But in any product, any pre-workout that's marketed towards women, they add a quote 

[00:27:33] Bryan Carroll: unquote fat burner.

[00:27:35] Interesting. Yeah. I always knew that fat burners were definitely a marketing gimmick, but I didn't realize the other components to it. 

[00:27:45] Donna Burke: Right. But you know, when you go to the gym, you aren't burning fat. So I guess maybe it's 

[00:27:48] Bryan Carroll: right. Totally. Yeah. Fascinating. Yeah. Marketing definitely. Like can really get you sometimes.

[00:27:57] Oh yeah, 

[00:27:57] Donna Burke: absolutely. That's a lot of the originally when I started telling people, oh, we're particle where the only collection formulated for women, the first thing I hear is you mean marketed towards women and I say, no, Formulated for women. And that's when we start getting into the conversation of, wait, how is it different?

[00:28:16] And then when we start talking about the marketing, people are like, oh, this is way more relatable. I totally understand it. I see myself in this versus what I've been told or offered by other supplement companies. 

[00:28:28] Bryan Carroll: So if people are going to your website, what would it be? One of the, you talked about the protein.

[00:28:33] Is there any other specific supplements that you think they should take on? 

[00:28:38] Donna Burke: So I love our, my, my personal favorite product is our stamina at our energy and focus. But most people would see it as a pre-workout. When I typically took pre-workouts before the amount of beta alanine in the pre-workouts would, it would literally feel like my body was on fire mixed with the 300 to 400 milligrams of caffeine in a typical workout, which by the way, is the daily recommended.

[00:29:04] Of caffeine and yet you're taking it for a one hour workout. So all of these things combined. We reformulated those and brought the doses down to work for a woman's body and then added in BCAs that not only help with your performance in the gym, but also helps sustain the caffeine over a longer period of time.

[00:29:25] So you don't get that huge spike and that huge drop after your workout. And then women wanted more natural sources of energy as well. So we put a B complex in there to make sure that we were getting natural energy sources that also lasted all day. 

[00:29:40] Bryan Carroll: I have to say, when I worked at, at a gym years and years ago we would have like, pre-made pre-workouts that people could purchase and on the bottles, I would recommend you drank half.

[00:29:51] And that was like that three to 400 milligrams of caffeine. And I saw so many guys come in and buy two and drink them both before workouts. And I'm like, we're going to have a heart attack at some point. 

[00:30:04] Donna Burke: Absolutely. It's so that's so bad for you. And it's just crazy. So, and we've had a lot of men even start taking our products because they don't want those levels of caffeine or beta alanine either.

[00:30:17] So it's interesting to see that while the industry is making those products like that, when you get to that everyday athlete or weekend warrior or someone who works full time, but it's still doing triathlons or marathons and wants these products, they also know that there are side effects. Like concerns that you should be thinking about if you are drinking three to 400 milligrams of caffeine before a workout or, 

[00:30:42] Bryan Carroll: or more yeah.

[00:30:43] Yeah. It's crazy. Yeah. Cause that'd be like 1600, 1800 milligrams of caffeine. Yeah. I was just waiting for someone. 

[00:30:55] Donna Burke: Ballpark. We have a heart attack, generally, an anxiety or panic attack. Like I can't, 

[00:31:01] Bryan Carroll: oh my God. I don't even know how they fall asleep at night. To be honest, they wouldn't, 

[00:31:05] Donna Burke: they must not. That's obviously why they need so much caffeine because they're exhausted from 

[00:31:10] Bryan Carroll: not sleeping.

[00:31:11] They're up all night thinking about their next. 

[00:31:15] Donna Burke: Oh, God, they also need a therapist.

[00:31:21] Bryan Carroll: Do you have one more product that you would like to recommend? 

[00:31:25] Donna Burke: I mean in the times that we're living in right now with COVID and just general health that we all are thinking about. Our support product really is phenomenal. We did it as an unflavored powder in order for us to be able to use it in any liquid that we have.

[00:31:40] So I put it in my ice coffee in the morning. You can add it to water. It doesn't really taste like anything. Put it in your green juice, all those things to just boost your immune system. Again, like I said, most of us are deficient in some kind of vitamin or mineral. So being able to take a multivitamin, this one also has zinc and elderberry in it that are shown to have so many health benefits, but just boosting that immune system to make sure that we are healthy and that as we're doing things, our system is able to fight whatever.

[00:32:09] Bryan Carroll: Perfect. So all of those can be [email protected], which is P R T C L products.com. You're also on Facebook and Instagram, and you're really active on Instagram. Can you tell us a little bit about what you're doing over there? 

[00:32:23] Donna Burke: Yeah, absolutely. So we are trying to get as much educational content out about these products, so that.

[00:32:30] When women look at it, they're not confused. They're not intimidated by it. You can look at it and figure out exactly what's in there. There's no proprietary ingredients, so you can see exactly what's in every product. And then we explain the ingredients to know how they help you, how they're beneficial and on our website, there's even a quiz that you can take that will formulate the exact collection that will work best for your lifestyle and where you are.

[00:32:51] So. Per usual, you can always send a DM through Instagram as well. If you have any questions, it's typically me who answers. So I can answer any questions that you've got to. It's kind of like a little concierge service. So Instagram is definitely a great place to go. If you just want to learn about the products and learn how to use them and how there are different recipes, different things like that.

[00:33:12] And then you'll see me on stories, talking about a lot of different 

[00:33:15] Bryan Carroll: things. Perfect. Well, my final question for you, Donna, is what is your vision of what healthy looks like and what are three things you do daily to reach that vision? 

[00:33:25] Donna Burke: So healthy for me is. You know, I don't think there's one way that it looks per se, but I think happiness is healthiness.

[00:33:34] Anyone who can truly say that 90% of the time that they're happy is a healthy person. Cause I think mental health plays a lot into our physical health as well. So when we can say. We all know life isn't perfect. So there's always going to be times where we're not happy or not feeling a hundred percent, but I think happiness is really the key to all, all health.

[00:33:57] As far as three things that I do daily to reach that vision I try to go on a walk every day whether it's 10 minutes or an hour throw on a podcast, try and learn something new on that walk. Sleep is a big one. I struggled with sleep, but I know that when I have a routine at night and can get into bed at the same time and my body knows that it's time to wind down that sleep is just absolutely crucial to our health and the last one to either to exercise or read I've been super into yoga and reading lately, and it just helps me kind of wind down from the stress.

[00:34:32] Of the day and get my mind out of the kind of overdrive that it's consistently in. 

[00:34:39] Bryan Carroll: Perfect. Well, thank you, Donna, for coming onto the show and teaching us about the differences between men and women. It's amazing that we have to even get to that point at, at now that people don't understand that there are differences.

[00:34:52] But it's, I'm really glad to see that. You and companies that are looking into this and starting to actually do research on women and what women need, because there is a big difference. And a lot of that has to do with menstrual cycles. And we don't take that into account when we're making all these recommendations and protocols and et cetera.

[00:35:10] So the more information we know about this, the better we can support women with their own health. So 

[00:35:17] Donna Burke: thank you. Thank you so much for having me. It's been so fun to talk about. 

[00:35:22] Bryan Carroll: I hope that episode was helpful with Donna and I hope you learned some different things about women's cycles and some of the nutrients that they need depending on the time of the month that they are in.

[00:35:32] Now, if you want to see more about her products and head on over to P R T C L products.com and all of these links will be in the show [email protected] slash one seven. Now it will be interesting to see more and more of the research that's coming out for this type of stuff. I know there's been some other people that have researched the exercise of the equation and what type of exercises women should do depending on what part of the cycle they're in.

[00:36:00] And there's also like business people that have studied. What roles women should take within a business depending on the time of their cycle as well. Like, depending on what part of your cycle you're in what days are ideal for having meetings, what days are ideal for having those tough conversations in business, et cetera.

[00:36:20] So it's, it's pretty interesting to see all this different research come out and the. As a woman. Definitely. It's good to know this information about your own self, but I think for males too, to recognize that, you know, were, were definitely on the lucky side where we don't have all these hormonal changes that we had to deal with and to recognize that the women that are in our lives, they have to experience their bodies changing every single day, which is not something that we're used to.

[00:36:50] So this would definitely be a good episode to share. Those males in your life just to show them too, that yes, there are changes that we go through and they should recognize it as well. Okay. Next week, in our episode, we will have Dr. William Pollack on the show. Let's go learn who he is and what we'll be talking about.

[00:37:11] I am here with Dr. Paula. Hey, Dr. Pollock, what is one unique thing about you that most people don't know? 

[00:37:17] Dr. William Pawluk: I suppose one of the things people don't know too much is I I'm pretty serious. You could hear from the district. I know the topic very well have been doing it for 30 years. My sense of humor

[00:37:30] Bryan Carroll: and what will we be learning about in our interview together? 

[00:37:36] Dr. William Pawluk: You'll be learning about a technology that's basically hidden. This technology has actually been around in Eastern Europe for 50, 50 to 70 years or. And they, they, they weren't, they don't have the same problems with control over information technology.

[00:37:54] And so on that we do in the U S and so as a result, they experiment a lot more. And I, one of the jokes I have is that it started in Eastern Europe because they didn't have, they didn't have drugs, they couldn't afford the drugs, but he had a lot of engineers. So engineers design systems, and they understand some understood some of the laws of physics that relate to the human health.

[00:38:18] And so as a result, they, they initiated magnetic field. 50 or 70 years ago 

[00:38:25] Bryan Carroll: in what are your favorite foods or nutrients that you think everyone should get more of in their diet? 

[00:38:32] Dr. William Pawluk: It's hard. It's hard to say what my favorite foods are. Again, a balance balance is important, so it doesn't matter if your favorite food is carrots.

[00:38:40] You can have too many carrots. If your favorite food is lettuce, it's tea, you can have too much lettuce. So it really needed. And, you know, we talk about fruits and vegetables and so on. So you need those, you need the carbs, you need, you need protein. However, you get your protein and you have to have balanced.

[00:38:55] So I don't, I can't really say I have a favorite food, cause it depends on the day also we should change and adjust our diet based on circumstances. So if I'm going to be walking in the Arizona desert, I better have a lot more water than I might need walking the three miles I walk every morning in my neighborhood in Maryland.

[00:39:17] So again, that's going to vary. I it's hard to, it's hard to say favorite PBS with the same thing. I'm eclectic. I can tell you there's a couple types of music. I don't like martial music and for the most part and, and heavy metal. I don't like those, the rest of the music. I mean, I, my I'm very eclectic.

[00:39:39] Bryan Carroll: And what are your top three health tips for anyone who wants to improve their overall wellness?

[00:39:46] Dr. William Pawluk: W, well, obviously, number one, I'm going to say, get a magnetic system, get the right magnetic system for yourself. But yes, rest is important. People probably don't sleep enough. Don't write. Have a balanced diet and do take an appropriate amount of supplements or number supplements for yourself.

[00:40:04] One of the, one of the most important, newest supplements that I think is making a big difference for people, especially in this culture is CBD. So I recommend CBD for a lot of people, and it's really extraordinary, helpful for pain for anxiety. And for sleep now, it's also, also has an anti-cancer benefit, mostly from a preventative perspective, but it can be used along with cancer.

[00:40:31] So people with brain injuries get a lot of better from CBD. So CBD has become one of my pillars in terms of the supplements. D three is clearly important. Vitamin C or ascorbic acid is clearly important and a boatload of antioxidant. So those are, those are like the key in terms of supplements. 

[00:40:51] Bryan Carroll: That was a fun episode with Dr.

[00:40:52] William Pollack. I didn't know a whole lot about PEMF going into it. So I learned quite a bit. So until then, keep climbing to the peak of your health.