95- Injection Therapies to Improve Sexual Function With Dr. Summer Beattie

Bryan:00:15I alluded to this at the end of last episode, but if you listen to this show with little kids, this episode might not be one you want them listening in on it is because we will be talking about different ways to improve sexual function using regenerative injection therapies. Mild and moderate erectile dysfunction increases about 10% each decade of life in men. So for instance, 40% of men, 40 years old have ed and 50% of men age 50 have ed, but on the other side of the coin, 75% of women don't reach an orgasm by intercourse alone and 10 to 15% never reach orgasm no matter what they do. Which is why it is so fascinating that doctors are testing out different types of therapies like PRP to increase sensation in sexual organs. What's up everyone? I'm Bryan Carroll and I'm here to help people who have an injury or illness that holds them back from enjoying the outdoors.

Bryan:01:13Summer Beattie will be joining me to talk about why PRP or injection therapy can be a great way to improve your sexual health. And before we dive into this episode, I will be drawing names for the a hundred dollars gift cards very soon for those who have filled out our podcast survey. So if you go to summitforwellness.com/survey you will be entered to win a gift card automatically for filling out that survey and it should take less than two minutes tops to fill it out. So make sure to do it. A S a P. Now let's start the conversation with summer BT. Dr summer BD is a naturopathic physician who has a passion for regenerative medicine. She practices regenerative injection therapies for sexual and orthopedic health. And as excited about the nonsurgical techniques, I can have such profound healing inpatients. Thank you for coming onto the show, dr. Summer.

Summer Beattie:02:07Hi. Thanks for having me.

Bryan:02:09Of course. And I'm super excited to talk more about a regenerative injection therapies because I think that whole realm of medicine is super fascinating and there's a lot of progress that's going forward with that. But before we dive into all of that information, let's learn a little bit about you and what your background is.

Summer Beattie:02:29Yeah, sure. So I'm a nature pathic physician living and practicing here in Washington. I live in Bellingham, Washington and predominantly practice in the Seattle area. And I have been in nature pathic position since 2004. Spent the first half of my career as a family practice a doctor, and then spent several years working in a varicose vein surgery center and helping out in a interferential pain management clinic, which sort of brought to regenerative medicine Mmm. For both personal and professional reasons, which we can maybe talk about a little bit later. And now I limit my practice exclusively to regenerative medicine, predominantly injections and some hormone care. And what else? I'm married two children, two dogs. Mmm. And I run a physician training program as well, teaching physicians to do some of these regenerative injections.

Bryan:03:33That is awesome. And since you are so focused on regenerative injection therapies, can you talk about the different types of injection therapies that are currently available?

Summer Beattie:03:44Yeah. So regenerative injection therapies is sort of a umbrella term for a lot of different types of injections. I specialize predominantly in orthopedic, which would be for skeletal muscular pain management type injections. And then I do also aesthetics and sexual health. So starting at the very like basic injections, we have what's called neural therapy and it's an old German technique of injecting procaine in blebs over the skin following what's called Hilton's law in that when you affect the surface of the skin, you except you affect deeper structures and even structures that are far away and organs as well. And so neuro therapy would be kind of your [inaudible] you're beginning injection therapies for regenerative injection therapies with just the 1% procaine and then we move into Prilosec or pit or noise. Mmm.

Summer Beattie:04:47Injecting usually a 5% dextrose more superficially into the skin to affect nerves and decreased pain signaling from those nerves. And then from pit you would move into prolotherapy dextrose, prolotherapy which is injecting typically a 12 and a half percent solution of dextrose at what's called the thesis point where ligaments and tendons attached to bone. You can also go into articular and then from prolotherapy dexterous prolotherapy you would move into PRP, the platelet rich plasma, and then you could keep moving up that therapeutic line with more advanced injections using peptides and exosomes and other biological allographs and then even STEM cells [inaudible]. So really the technique is based in prolotherapy predominantly. And then what's in your syringe changes based on the patient that's presenting in front of you and the therapeutic effect you're trying to achieve.

Bryan:05:55What is the difference between prolotherapy and PRP?

Summer Beattie:05:59So if you're using it for orthopedics, there really should be no difference because again, the needling technique and the place that you're putting the solution should be exactly the same. What's changing is the solution in the syringe. So with prolotherapy you're going to have a dextrose solution and with PRP you're going to have the platelet rich plasma in your syringe. But the injection site in the injection technique should be the same.

Bryan:06:25And so we're, we're going to be talking about sexual health and using some of these injections for that. What, what would be the most ideal injection for sexual health?

Summer Beattie:06:37So for women, we're injecting predominantly around either side of the urethral meatus. The urethral meatus is the tube that empties the bladder. And this helps support collagen and tissue production around the urethra Romita to lift and support the urethral in the ADA. And that helps with urinary incontinence. And then the Bartholin glands, which are predominantly responsible for lubrication of the vagina with intercourse are also located in that area. So the PRP stimulates that as well. And then we also typically are injecting the quota to help enable the clitoral function so that women can more easily orgasm with clitoral stimulation. So for women, it's predominantly those three areas that we're injecting. So sometimes I'm also injecting scar tissue that I can see from any kind of vaginal trauma or typically related to a vaginal delivery of babies or sometimes I'm into the surrounding tissues of the vagina or Lavia because of just atrophy with aging.

Summer Beattie:07:46A drops in hormones can cause that. And then with men, we're predominantly injecting into the penis, both on the shelf and at the tip of the penis, which is called the Corpus callosum. And for men that predominantly helps with erectile dysfunction. And again, bringing sensation back to the tip of the penis, very much like the clearest. So that orgasm is more easily achieved with stimulation of the glands, penis. And then we also use it for medical conditions such as Peyronie's disease, which is a scarring and plaquing that happens on the penis that can cause the penis to be curved with erection and can make intercourse painful and difficult.

Bryan:08:28Okay. I have so many questions in there. Let's start

Summer Beattie:08:33Just like, I'm trying to break it down to be just like, this is the simple thing we do because it can be very like it sounds super simple. Like three injections in the vagina, five injections and the penis and you're good to go. But there's a whole lot of [inaudible] just clinical decision making that goes into like, who's a good candidate? When do you do it? How often do do it, what results can you expect? You know, it's not as simple as, I mean, I'm trying to make it sound simple for the audience so that they can kind of grasp the idea of it. That there is of course a lot to kind of unpack there.

Bryan:09:09Yeah. And let's start unpacking it. Let's start with females. So one of the verses you said is it can help with incontinence. Do you also combine the PRP alongside with like pelvic floor muscle re stimulation as well and retraining the pelvic floor muscles along with using the PRP? Or do you just focus on one or the other?

Summer Beattie:09:32Yeah, so the answer to that is yes, all of the above that maybe we should back up and kind of define platelet rich plasma first and how it kind of works because then maybe the audience will sort of understand better how it works no matter where you put it.

Bryan:09:50Okay.

Summer Beattie:09:50Is that okay?

Bryan:09:51Yup.

Summer Beattie:09:52Yeah, so PRP stands for platelet rich plasma and basically what happens is you take your patient's blood, you spin it down, you separate out the red blood cells because we don't need that for this procedure. So then you have the plasma leftover. Typically there's different ways to do this, but typically you're going to then take that plasma, spin it down again and concentrate the platelets again at the bottom into what is called a Buffy coat. Then depending on how you're processing the plasma, most people are going to pull off some of the top layer of that plasma, which we call the platelet pure plasma, or some people will call it platelet pour. Just meaning that there's not very many, if any platelets left in that top part because you've concentrated them all in that second spin down at the bottom in that Buffy coat. So then once you've extracted the platelet pure plasma that you're not intending to use for this procedure, you reconstitute the platelet, a bossy coat back into what little plasma you've left.

Summer Beattie:10:53And the reason you have to do that is that the Buffy coat is very, very, yeah. And so there would be no easy way to load that into a syringe to use without retaining some of the platelet pure plasma to reconstitute it in. So depending on, I mean, think about when you're cooking in the kitchen, right? You're mixing sugar and water and you let the sugar all settle to the bottom. If you pull off part of the water on the top of that glass, you're going to have a really sweet concentration at the bottom. When you reconstitute that sugar that's settled there, right? If you leave all of the water in the tall glass and reconstitute it, it's not quite as sweet because there's more fluid for that sugar to have been dissolved in, right? It's the same thing with the platelet pure or with platelet rich plasma.

Summer Beattie:11:40Depending on how you reconstitute, it will tell you whether or not you have a really robust concentration or a Mmm. A less robust, constant concentration. So with a true platelet rich plasma concentration, and I say true based on what most published scientific literature would consider PRP, you need to have what's called five to seven times baseline. Meaning that in whatever solution you're using to inject whether it's five ML or 10 ML in the syringe, right, that you have that five times to seven times baseline of platelets, platelet count, and that that means that you've drawn enough blood to then have enough volume of platelets. She has that number reconstituted, right? The other measurement of true PRP is that when someone has to take, take a sample of what's in the syringe that you're calling a PRP, you should be able to measure out 1 million platelets per milliliter.

Summer Beattie:12:48So the only way to get that high of a concentration is to do typically a pretty significant blood draw which is somewhere between a 30 ML to 60 ML depending on how much, how many MLS you want less to use in the syringe. So it's kind of, again, back to kind of like baking with a recipe. Mmm. And trying to do the math to figure out how robust or how sweet that concentration is going to be. So in the past, Mmm. I used to be really subsidy as about only ever using true PRP that was five times, seven times baseline to get therapeutic effect because that's what's published in the literature. But a lot of the kits on the market and a lot of what people were getting was typically anywhere from one and a half times baseline to three times baseline, which is a significant difference when you're looking at therapeutic benefit.

Summer Beattie:13:45And so what I used to tell my patients was if you're getting what's called PRP, cause there's no standardization, like legally as to what a practice can call PRP or not call PRP. So you could walk into one clinic and they say, Oh yeah, we do PRP, but it's a one and a half times baseline. Whereas the clinic next door might say, Oh yeah, we do PRP too, but there's a three and a half. And then I say, well, I do PRP too, but mine is five to seven times baseline. Right? So unless you ask, you don't know what you're actually getting in the syringe typically because it's not regulated as far as what it's allowed to be called in the marketplace. So that's one thing to clear up. Yeah. So what I used to tell people was if it was anything below five to seven times baseline, it's a nice growth factor, treatment, but not true PRP.

Summer Beattie:14:35So not that it wasn't a value, it's just a different therapeutic effect. And so I used to just never ever use it. But what I'm doing now is I'm layering in a lot of other supportive treatments. And one of the things that is like a principle in nature pathic medicine is that there is synergy in the treatments that we choose for a patient. So while the PRP might work well alone, it works the better when we layer in some of the things you talked about like pelvic floor therapy or a vacuum erection device for the penis or the pelvic floor stimulator for women. And so what I'm finding is that because I do layer in so many things, I often can get just as good as if not better results with my patients and maybe not always have to have the true PRP. Right.

Bryan:15:34Got it.

Summer Beattie:15:34So a lot of that comes down to what the patients capable and willing to do because some of these other therapies require ongoing Mmm. Home maintenance, right? Like if you're using a pelvic floor stimulator, that's something you're going to go home and use on a regular basis. So if my patient says to me, I'm really busy, I travel all the time, I'm never going to do that, then I'm going to always choose the higher force or the more robust PRP for them because I know they're not going to do the home care. Right. But if I have someone who says they're going to be super consistent about it, that they're committed to doing the home care and then I can save them a little bit of money by using the less expensive kit because it's, the kit is kits that you draw up in there are approved by the FDA for this, this type of procedure. They vary greatly in price based on that's concentration that you're trying to achieve.

Bryan:16:35Got it. Well, it, it sounds like it's pretty flexible, which is really neat. And you were talking about in order to get more concentration then you have to do a bigger blood draw. Are you able to save plasma from like one draw to the next end, use it? Or do you have to get it all out of the one draw?

Summer Beattie:16:57So we do the 30 ML to 60 ML draw at the same time. We process the blood all at the same time to get the right platelet concentration. Right. And so then the PRP that you use if I do is 60. If I do a 60 ML blood draw for a five to seven times baseline injection, I'm only going to have anywhere between seven to 10 CCS. Sometimes they'll make five depending because the other thing you have to remember is that everybody's blood volume breakdown varies. So you may be well more well-hydrated than I am or you may have more of a higher red blood cell count than I do at any given time that we draw your blood. So every time I draw somebody's blood, it spins out just a little bit different based on that person. Blood values. And so, Mmm. Typically I'm going to have five to 10 CCS to work with that PRP needs to be used within about six hours. I'm not going to say that for use on another day. Was that your question?

Bryan:18:03Correct. Yup.

Summer Beattie:18:04Yeah. Because what will happen is that platelets back to what PRP is, platelets house growth factors and cell signaling molecules. And those are only viable for so long and typically we're not going to store them even in the refrigerator for that first six hours. It doesn't preserve them. Some people are doing what's called a platelet license, which is an int kind of an entirely different conversation about trying to chill the platelets, but it's not for preserving them longterm to use later. The platelet poor plasma or the platelet pure plasma that we draw off and I was saying could typically be discarded is still a value. It does seem to still have some regenerative benefit. And so when it used to always be discarded, but now most practitioners are retaining that and using it to inject in other areas. So like if we were doing a knee joint, we might put the platelet rich plasma all into the intraarticular space and then use the platelet pure plasma to hit those in thesis points that I talked about in prolotherapy to help strengthen and tighten and stimulate regeneration of the ligaments and tendons. So you can still use both parts of the blood, but it does need to be used that same day.

Bryan:19:33Got it. Another question I have about this whole process and it's always a question that pops up in my head because I just think that's so fascinating is so you are relying on the body to know what to do with all the plasma that you're injecting in there or the STEM cells or anything that you're using in the injections.

Summer Beattie:19:58Yes.

Bryan:20:00W S like sometimes a body, if you have a weird tissues rubbing on certain areas of the body can generate bone spurs. So your body's always trying to find a way to build structured to protect itself. How do you know that it's going to use the PRP in the correct way to get the adequate results that you're looking for?

Summer Beattie:20:23Yeah. Right. So studies have been done to see if PRP would stimulate like cancer growth for example. Right. And to date there are no studies showing that that's any kind of risks. So to kind of put it simply is that the body is very intelligent [inaudible] it will utilize these growth factors and cell signaling molecules to regenerate healthy so and healthy tissue. It seems to self select for that because we see that it doesn't, Mmm. Enhanced tumor growth. Right. And so I haven't seen any kind of increase in bone spurs or things like that from using the PRP. But what you will want to do is you want to make sure that your patient is working with a skilled, a physical therapist or exercise specialist who understands posting post regenerative injection protocols. Because most of the time when your body's trying to lay down these things like bone spurs or whatnot, even calluses to protect the body, it's because there's a misalignment.

Summer Beattie:21:36Yeah. How the body is, is resting in structure and moving and action. And so those things have to be corrected to have longterm good, good longterm results. If you only inject, you might get some temporary pain relief, but it's not going to be, Mmm. A good longterm solution. So that kind of comes back to what you were talking about earlier and asking about the, the synergy of layering in different treatments. And those, in my opinion, not only to save the patient, maybe money, but to really get good longterm results are critical to whatever Mmm protocol you're doing. And so that's why I am really not a fan of some of these like pop up clinics where they just point and shoot, right? Like stick the needle in, load up the PRP and then there is no other conversation about what predisposed to the patient to that condition or aggravated that condition to begin with. And there was no followup treatment plan for how you're going to correct all of those underlying things that brought the patient to even seeking care. Right. So physical therapy or some sort of exercise program to help correct that for both the orthopedics and like we were talking about with sexual health and wellness too. It's really important.

Bryan:22:57Got it. That makes, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah. so you can use PRP to help with erectile dysfunction. Also a lot of men have low testosterone levels or inadequate testosterone levels. Are you layering it with that as well or are you, again looking at how the person is going to handle the treatment process and what the best options would be for them?

Summer Beattie:23:23Yeah, so for my patients, we always do is, Oh, I guess we, you'd call it a screening intake, right? Where I'm looking at, because I am a physician and I, my background is family medicine. So I'm always looking at all of the things that contribute to their health and that helps me decide if they're a good candidate even, right. So you're, because you're relying on your blood the quality of your blood and you're also relying on the vitality and quality of your body to actually be able to Mount a regenerative response to the injections. You have to sort of have a pretty healthy person in order to get a good response. And so that means that I'm looking at diet, I'm looking at sleep and I'm looking at, Mmm. Their hormones like you mentioned. And so people who have either low or chronically low hormones are not going to regenerate.

Summer Beattie:24:13Well. And when we're talking about orthopedics in particular, testosterone is one of the ones that specifically comes up. We think of testosterone as a sex hormone for men and libido associated with libido, which it is, but it's also really strongly linked to musculoskeletal health as well. In fact, one of my friends, dr Brendan Woody, who's a hormone specialist here in Bellingham, he often says testosterone is a misnomer that it really probably should have been called like repair and maintenance hormone because it's one of the first hormones that can decline sharply. Mmm. Even in younger men and women as well. And then you just don't see the ability to heal and repair musculoskeletal injury when testosterone is low. Okay. So yes, we're looking at testosterone for both, both regenerative potential in men and women with the orthopedic stuff and also with sexual health and wellness.

Bryan:25:13Awesome. And I love that you're looking at everything with a person too, and you're looking at what they're eating lifestyle. So what you're saying is it's probably not a good idea to go and have a long night of drinking right before you get one of these therapies done?

Summer Beattie:25:27No, we have a pre and post handout for patients and sometimes it's a little bit of a ignorance is bliss moment that I have to sort of destroy for them. When I say, you know, first of all, I, I don't think it's a good idea to be injecting anyone who would maybe fall into that category of being an alcoholic. Alcohol is just extremely toxic to the body, makes it very difficult for the body to heal and repair. But we say no even recreational alcohol for two weeks pre and post treatment to get the best results. Now obviously people do what they want to do. I'm not at their home policing them, but I just let them know that they're investing a significant amount of money in this treatment and this care is not covered by insurance. And so if you want to get the best results, then I suggest you follow some of these lifestyle recommendations that I'm putting out.

Summer Beattie:26:19I will say I've always been pretty strict about if I know someone is a smoker I will just not even consider treating them before these elective procedures cause you have to remember these are all elective procedures. These aren't procedures that are like if you don't get it you will die. Right. Or your health will be so severely impacted that you're going to have some sort of morbid outcome. So because these are elective procedures, I can be a little bit more choosy. And the reason I am is that one, I don't want to take people's money and have them get up poor results. I also don't want them to then go back out into the community and say well PRP doesn't work. It didn't work for me when I know it was never going to work for them because of these lifestyle or health factors. Right. Yeah. Patient selection and following some of the pre and post treatment procedures, it's really critical to good outcomes.

Bryan:27:16Got it. And that's really good to know too for people that are looking into getting this type of stuff is the insurance is not covering it. It is coming out of pocket. But since you are deep into this, have you heard if insurance is gonna start providing this as an option cause it seems like a much better and cheaper option than surgery?

Summer Beattie:27:37Yeah. So I mean, I don't know, it's always speculative when you talk about what insurance may or may not choose to cover in the future. Right. I mean it's been a, it's been a topic that's been kicked around for quite a few years now. And, and I even do see sometimes clinics or physicians that will stay. Oh yeah. You know, it's covered by insurance. And what I would say to that is I've seen enough of these clinics get in trouble for that. I would even go so far as to say it's somewhat fraudulent billing. Or what can happen as a portion of it is covered by insurance, like for the initial visit and exam because it is a medical condition. Sometimes you can bill insurance for that initial consult. Right. especially if you're seeing someone like me who's at a clinic where we do really comprehensive care because you may come in and we're going to say, Oh, well your testosterone and your estrogen are really low and you have this other like sleep apnea issue going on and this hypertensive issue and this blah blah blah. Right. All the standard medical stuff, we're going to work on that first. When you're ready, we'll revisit doing PRP. So those initial types of visits can sometimes be covered by clinics who do work with insurance because they're doing good general medical care in those first initial visits. But the injections and selves are typically considered non-covered. Does that make sense? Yep,

Bryan:29:10That makes sense.

Summer Beattie:29:11Yeah.

Bryan:29:12And so right now there's actually a lot of studies coming about coming out about microplastics and endocrine disruptors. And the studies are showing that women who are pregnant tend to have a, these microplastics somewhere in their system, which can then stunt the development of the penis of the young boy that is growing inside of them. So does PRP help with what's the word I'm looking for? Helping with micro penis or yeah, or development of a penis that isn't fully developed the way that it should be.

Summer Beattie:29:53Yeah, so definitely if you do a pub med research or pub med search, you're going to see some articles come up that had been published in the scientific literature linking like prenatal exposure to stay late or other toxins as being associated with a decreased penile size in male newborns. Right? So to back up and like really [inaudible] get good care done. My recommendation is always women who are planning to conceive and I of course understand some pregnancies are planned, but if you're planning to conceive, then a woman should plan at least a year ahead to be doing some sort of environmental detox to clear all of these toxins or as much as possible out of her system prior to becoming pregnant. Right? That's the first thing. But saying you can't do that or you don't know that you had environmental toxins that might be a problem once, once the baby is born, your physician will be able to determine if they do in fact have micro penis and typically what's going to be considered micro penis is anything that's like two and a half standard deviations shorter than average.

Summer Beattie:31:15And the reality is, is that while that might the aesthetically Mmm aesthetically disturbing to the person growing up with that condition study so far or as far as like mostly poles, right. Done have shown that most men with micro penis don't actually have any difficulty with like urination or with a being able to obtain and maintain an erection that most women who are sexual partners of these men don't have any specific complaints with sexual performance or being able to obtain an orgasm. Right? So I want to just take off the table that, Mmm. That this is truly a severely detrimental medical condition. Right? It's definitely something that is genetically challenging, perhaps, but typically doesn't result in a lot of dysfunction. That being said, there's no reason not to treat it if that person wanted to. So you want to treat as early as possible.

Summer Beattie:32:21And so the, the physician doing pediatric care would be able to measure and determine if in fact the newborn does have micro penis and there's a whole chart of medical standardized chart that lets them know if they fall into that category. And typically what they're going to do is actually testosterone therapy to help increased the development of that penis and it needs to be done ideally before puberty. So that being said, if none of that happened, right, and now here you are an adult, you still have micro penis. This is something that you want to treat. PRP can be helpful. I think it's most helpful in combination with things like a vacuum erection device pump, but knowing that you're kind of fighting against your original genetic development, I say genetic kind of loosely because it was hormone driven and and what you're talking about is that the environmental toxins are endocrine disruptors and disrupted that hormone pathway for that child. Mmm. Is that you may get some increased growth with PRP in the vacuum erection device. It's not going to be longterm without ongoing treatment. So what most men will have to do to correct micro penis with PRP is given that they've corrected any kind of underlying testosterone issues, of course, is they're going to have probably have to do a series of PRP treatments, be pretty religious about using the vacuum erection device at home and then do maybe maintenance sessions every year to keep to keep that growth.

Bryan:34:05Got it. So you say every year to keep that growth, should people with PRP in general just be getting it like yearly, six months? Is there a certain timeframe?

Summer Beattie:34:15Yeah, so people always ask, well how long does it last? Right. So you have to remember that PRP is one your own cells and too, it's stimulating your own cells to grow. So it's not a synthetically manufactured injectable that's designed to necessarily last in the body. Right. It is a self signaling treatment and so your body will build and repair. Mmm. And how much it does from one person to the other. Again is very individual, but the body continues to age and breakdown, right? So I liken it to you don't just go to the gym once a year to maintain your muscle mass. And so it's the same with any type of regenerative therapy where the body is healing and repairing and building tissue that at some point that tissue is going to start to break down again and then you need to kind of build it back up.

Summer Beattie:35:11So for the average person who gets decent results with PRP, they're probably going to want to do one treatment a year to kind of help maintain those results. When it comes to like a static, I will often say to people, once you start to notice some of these aging changes that bother you, do just one treatment a year, kind of slow down the aging process and sort of maintain where you're at. You're not really trying to correct anything, you're just kind of trying to slow down the aging process. So everybody ages are there different, different intensity, I guess for lack of a better word because all of us are exposed to different toxins. We get different amount of sleep, we have different types of either supported or unsupported relationships. We eat different food, you know, like, Mmm. So for one person might be able to do one once a year and another person might find that they need to do it twice a year to kind of maintain.

Bryan:36:05Got it. Okay. So earlier you had mentioned that you can use PRP to increase sensitivity and the genitalia. Do men have issues with sensitivity or is it typically women that have issues with sensitivity?

Summer Beattie:36:21It can be both. So traditionally in the United States, male are circumcised and the force skin that covers the tip of the penis when it's left intact actually helps protect the sensitivity of the penis to things like abrasion or insult from Mmm. Other types of injuries. Right. And so I think what we see is that in men who have been circumcised, we're going to see as they age, more of a lack of sensitivity to the glands, penis. And so PRP can definitely help with that. So I do see it in both people. And you know, it varies too, like athletes or like people, people who have a lot of like say bike riders or people who ride horses or where there's some sort of like constant friction assault to that area are typically going to be more likely to complain about sort of decreased sensitivity, especially as testosterone drops, then somebody who who doesn't. So it's kind of, it's kind of variable.

Bryan:37:33And for women, a lot of times there can be a, an emotional component as well that can prevent them from reaching full orgasm. Do you also recommend them working through the mental side of things as well to increase our sense of activity?

Summer Beattie:37:52Yeah, so I actually find that with both men and women, unfortunately, we live in a culture where trauma is pretty

Bryan:38:02Ramp it up,

Summer Beattie:38:03Goodness between the two sexes actually. I mean, I know we think of like sexual assault or other types of trauma being predominantly towards women and statistically it is, but it happens a lot in the male population as well. And so anytime there's any sort of sexual dysfunction associated with pain or fear I'm definitely referring out to someone who can help deal with that.

Bryan:38:30Perfect. Is there any other aspects of PRP with function that you want to make sure that we touch on?

Summer Beattie:38:39Yeah, so we could kind of circle back to what you asked me about in the beginning with helping with urinary incontinence in women. And you know, I think that one of the things women have kind of grown up with this idea that once you have babies that urinary incontinence is just a given and it's just something you have to live with. And I even still hear that from my patients who've been in to see their gynecologist where gynecologist will say, well that's just part of aging. That's part of having babies. And that does not have to be true for, for women. There are a lot of treatments out there that are available and PRP is one of the least invasive and we're probably one of the best and I say least invasive because it's a nonsurgical solution. There's nothing we're implanting in the body, you know, in the past, you know, people have used even things like mesh, which is proven to be really problematic and trying to do bladder support.

Summer Beattie:39:32Mmm. But I just think that it's, it's definitely this misnomer that every time you sneeze you're going to pee your pants or if you want to run, you're going to pee your pants or if you want to play on the trampoline or chase your kids, you're going to pee your pants. And so I just want women to know that, especially for stress incontinence and we do still sometimes see benefit with urinary incontinence, that that does not have to be a part of your normal life, right. That the PRP is really effective. For a lot of women, especially when coupled with like you had mentioned a pelvic floor therapy, getting women's testosterone levels up testosterone is really important for maintaining muscle integrity and strength at the pelvic floor that helps lift and maintain bladder water function. And and then maybe using some of the intra-vaginal devices at home too if needed.

Bryan:40:28Well, it sounds like PRP can be used in a lot of different ways for sexual function, which is awesome cause I know there's a lot of people out there that are trying to look for answers and trying to look forward to different ways to improve function down in those regions. So thank you so much for coming on and talking about that. My final question for you is do you have a morning routine and if so, what is it?

Summer Beattie:40:51So this is actually something I've really been struggling with the last couple of years and maybe your audience can relate, but having small children at home, my youngest is five and my oldest is 10. My morning routine is very dependent on when they wake and what they're doing when they do. Right. And so when they stay in bed, if my, my typical morning routine is to first connect with my husband, if he's still here, sometimes teams rest earlier than than I have. And then we tend to get up together and kind of start getting ready for the day. And then thing I've been consciously, I'm trying not to do is reach for my phone in the morning. So I know you asked what I do. I do do, but the one thing I don't do is reach for my phone. So we try to keep the lights low, have our first cup of coffee together, maybe do some. My husband really likes yoga and morning stretches and he's much better about making sure that we get that done. So when he's here I'll definitely go through that with him. And then usually the kids are up and it kind of starts into this getting ready to get everybody out the door thing.

Bryan:42:02Got it. Yep. That sounds like a normal, a normal scenario for most people with young kids.

Summer Beattie:42:08Definitely room to improve on it, but sometimes they feel like phases of life, you know, you just do the best you can.

Bryan:42:16Well, people can find [email protected]. You're also on Instagram and Facebook and we'll have all the links to that at summit for [inaudible] dot com slash 95. Is there any other places that you want people to find you at or reach out to you?

Summer Beattie:42:32Yeah, you know, I work at Sophia health Institute in Woodenville, Washington and then I'm also one day a week at Bella Fiore clinic in Seattle. So for most patient care, that's where I can be found. And then the only other thing I was going to add in, I know we're trying to get keep this short is that, you know, we just sort of scratched the surface on what PRP is and how it works. And so, you know, I would encourage your listeners that if they have questions to write into you and just maybe we can revisit some of those that another date. Because yeah, it's [inaudible] ever evolving field regenerative injection therapies constantly changing and there's always new information and ways of doing it that are coming out.

Bryan:43:17And I'm sure the more that you work with people too, the more different scenarios you discover that it can be helpful with as well.

Summer Beattie:43:25Yeah. So a good example is, you know, you and I connected because dr John funk is a good friend of mine. She helps me teach the orthopedic part of our physician training for regenerative injection therapies. And like me, she had all these said, if you're a smoker, not going to touch you. You know, and then she recently had a patient who fit that, that demographic but had been to [inaudible] so many other providers and nobody was willing to offer him any kind of relief. And so she just said, you know, I can't promise you're going to get good results, but I'll do the best I can and we'll just, we can add it. And he actually got really good results and she was surprised. Right. And so I think, you know, it just stretches our, as clinicians and physicians, it stretches our paradigms to be a little more willing to work outside the box as long as we're giving patients full disclosure that we cannot make any promises. Right. But you're always going to have those patients that surprise you and help you learn and stretch you. And I mean honestly, some of my have been my, my best teachers.

Bryan:44:34Right? Yep. It's, it's the people that are actually out there doing this type of stuff that are the best people to learn from cause they're actually seeing the different changes and testing different things like working with a smoker and discovering that it worked for that person. So it's, it's super cool.

Summer Beattie:44:51Yeah. Yeah. Well thank you so much for having me on. I'm a super excited to talk with you and share what I [inaudible] what I can and my hope is that as this becomes more and more mainstream that like you said, whether it's covered by insurance or not, it will become more and more affordable for just the general population. Because I think it's a really fantastic therapy with a lot of, a lot of ways to apply it.

Bryan:45:19I agree. And thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule to come on and talk all about it.

Summer Beattie:45:25Absolutely.

Bryan:45:26If you are interested to learn more about injection therapies, then make sure to check out one living clinic.com and I'm super excited to see what Ellis injection therapies will be able to help with. It's one of those topics that I'm absolutely fascinated with because it truly is the next advancement in medicine. And as always, if you enjoyed this episode, then if you can leave a quick rating and review on Apple podcasts, that would be much appreciated. Just go over to summit for wellness.com/apple to submit your review. And next week we are talking all about environmental toxins such as microplastics in our water supply, pesticides that are showing positive and all processed foods, air pollution and more. So let's go learn a little bit about Tom mal tear. I am here with Tom Altair. Hey Tom. What is one unique thing about you that most people don't know?

Tom:46:21Well, Bryan, gosh, you, you're the tough questions guy. I would say that I am a closet a herbalist. I really wish that I would have studied a little bit more about plants throughout my career. I mean, I did start urbalism before I got into nutritional biochemistry, but my gosh, I think that plants like amaze me every time I learned about little chemicals about them or smells or tastes or how they interact with the environment around them, I'm fascinated. So I would say a wish I was an herbalist.

Bryan:46:56You live in a great place with a lot of fantastic herbal plants to work with, so you're in the right spot for that. Absolutely. So what will we be learning about in our interview together?

Tom:47:09Basically life itself. We're learning about how life is finite, right? And there's a lot of different things that we're currently doing and our, our, our, our modern lifestyles and living and our economy as a, as, as a whole that might be harming us and we're not conscious of it. So I'm just going to bring some awareness to that and give some tips as to what we can do about it.

Bryan:47:29And what are your

Tom:47:30Favorite foods or nutrients that you think everyone should get more of in their diet? Oh, well I did a Ted talk on this broccoli, the DNA whisper, the cruciferous vegetables, you know, if we got more Christopher's vegetables, I think that'd be a great idea. I think that's probably the one thing that if we could eat more vegetables in general, we'd probably bring us a lot more health. And if you could go outside and do that in nature, Wildcraft, then ah, you get, you get so many doses of goodness, you get to connect with the, the planet, the air, the water, the soil, and the plant itself. And you'll feel fabulous in no time.

Bryan:48:03Any issues with cruciferous vegetables and thyroid conditions?

Tom:48:08No, no. How's that for an answer? So I asked that same question to two world renown cruciferous vegetable researchers and they laughed at me and they basically said, no, that's kind of a misnomer. Unless you're eating 2.2 plus pounds of raw Christopher specials for multiple months at a time, please don't even consider that.

Bryan:48:28And then what are your top three health tips for anyone who wants to improve their overall wellness?

Tom:48:34Yeah. probably just relax love more, laugh more and commune with nature. So if we could do all those things, I know they bring me so much peace and I know they do that for my kids and my friends and my family. So I think that's the key to everything. If we're just conscious of, of who we are, what we're doing and how much coolness is around us I think we'll be a lot happier.

Bryan:49:02Tom is super passionate about these environmental toxins and how it is disrupting our health. So until next week, keep climbing to the peak of your health.