Wellness Wisdom- Flo's Alopecia Journey

Tune in for an empowering conversation with Flo as we delve into the journey of navigating alopecia and overcoming its challenges. In this candid discussion, Flo shares her personal experiences with alopecia, including the emotional toll it can have on people's self-esteem.

Flo opens up about her journey towards reversing the effects of alopecia using, food herbs and supplements, shedding light on the importance of holistic approaches to hair loss management. We explore the correlation between diet, nutrition, and overall well-being, emphasizing the role of a healthy lifestyle in promoting hair growth and confidence.

Whether you're personally affected by alopecia or seeking insights into natural approaches to hair loss, this episode offers valuable wisdom and inspiration. Subscribe now to join us on this transformative journey of self-discovery and empowerment. 🌟🎙️ #NavigatingAlopecia #HairLossJourney #HolisticWellness 🌈

You can find Flo's book -Eat to health and wellness on an African diet on amazon.

https://amzn.to/3PFmUwi

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:01

So, Hello and welcome to Navigating the Chapters of Challenge with Telly. Today I've got Flo in the house. I'm going to ask Flo to introduce herself and tell us a little bit about herself and then we'll get straight into the topic for today. So Flo, introduce yourself and tell us a little bit about yourself. Okay, a little bit about myself. Of course, Flo Falano. I'm in my 50s. Do you want my real age? We don't want to know your real age, do we? Okay, okay. But if you want to tell us, feel free. No, that's okay. I'm in my mid-50s. I studied clinical psychology and philosophy and then I had health challenges along the way and dived into natural healing and published a book. It's on Amazon, Eat Your Way to Health and Wellness on an African Diet. I particularly did the African diet because out there you hear about Ayurvedic medicine, you hear about Chinese medicine, you hear about Western medicine, but no mention of African medicine. Yet we have a lot of potent herbs and we have nutrient-dense foods. We have a lot of lost crops. In my research, yeah, we have so many, we have so many things that you know are being overlooked so I just say we've been marginalized so I'm like let me put myself out there as like an African nutritionist so that's where we are okay so you're an African nutritionist now yes i like to call myself an african nutritionist okay yes and um so what we're going to be talking about today is um alopecia is it alopecia or alopecia i'm not sure the correct pronunciation alopecia okay alopecia so alopecia a lot of people didn't know about alopecia until will smith made it popular my slapping chris rock and alopecia became very popular at least people who didn't know about it began to here about alopecia but I want to talk to you about alopecia today and then ask you exactly let's start from here what exactly is alopecia alopecia I think that alopecia has different types of alopecia there's alopecia areata alopecia totalis but the bottom line is that you have hair you lose hair in patches so you picture like Swiss cheese okay Yeah, you have holes all over your... Yeah, you have patches of baldness without hair all over the head. And for those who have alopecia totalis, they lose all hair on their body. Their eyebrows, their beard, their bald, their armpits. I don't know about public hair, but when I say they lose all hair. Wow. So that's alopecia totalis. But yeah, I don't think it became popular after... be awareness. Awareness, yes. Yeah, because a lot of people have alopecia, but so many people wear wigs. Yes. But you notice these days that a lot of women are going bald, you know, like shave bald. Yes. Yeah, so I think it became... Yeah, and actually I have a friend, she's in Nigeria. She actually did her hair, she went bald after the slap. Okay. Because she used to wear wigs too, but then after the slap, she's like... screw that. Yeah. I'm just going to shave my head. Just going to let it all out. I appreciate it. I embrace it. Let me own it. Let me own it. Let's own it, you know. Yeah, I do that too. So I'm like, well, I've been always like that. I've been shaving it. I've been shaving my head on and off since I was in secondary school. So it's not a big deal to me. I'm not, I'm not, you know, fancy, fancy wigs, makeup, all of that. So I just like to keep it simple. Yeah. So you said there's alopecia totalis and then there's the other one. Ariata. Ariata. So which category of alopecia did you have? Ariata. I still have it. I still have it because I recently, I tried, the journey started with me, you know, visiting the doctor when I lost, you know, the hair and patches because I used to have very thick, very thick hair. So I noticed it was thinning in the crown and then I started having all these patches and then I'll shave it hoping that, you know, maybe just shaving it will allow, you know, that when it grows back, everything will just grow in one would grow totally, would cover up. But then I did that excuse me, on and off for a few months and then going on years. And it was the same. And it was actually getting worse. I had one patch and then I said I had two patches. Then I had a lot of patches that I can't count. So, yeah, so I just had patches all over. So that's when I decided to change. When the doctor said, we can't help you. But then they put me on cholesterol medication, said I had high cholesterol. Of course, I threw that in the bin. And then high blood pressure medication and that's all they were able to offer me but that's not what I went in for I went in for my hair but after doing running you know blood tested your cholesterol is high your blood pressure is high so I've got medication for that and then I was told your body is attacking you we can't help you so that's how my journey began again so yeah so what I still have it you still have it okay so what about my hair is growing slowly okay it's growing slowly okay So what are the causes of alopecia, if I may ask? Apart from your body attacking itself, because I don't... well exactly the yeah the the part of the body attacking yourself it's it's it's it sounds stupid to me i'm just going to put it like that yeah because i've been in this body for you know the alopecia the alopecia started when i was like 45 but you know it just i think smart people just like this a lot of stupid people like to sound smart i'm not putting people down but that's just what i believe that's my opinion i'm i'm really opinionated you know Yeah. So you say my body is attacking me. It wasn't attacking me yesterday. It didn't attack me the day before yesterday. It didn't attack me when I was 5, 10, 15, 20, 40, 45. So it doesn't make sense. So what I believe is the cause of alopecia is maybe a toxic overload. Now, when I had very thick hair, because I had this sponge-like coarse hair, I used to relax my hair every four weeks. Okay. With strong chemicals. Chemicals. every four weeks and i did that for years okay and then i i of course i i had a bad diet i had you know the regular just eat whatever yeah i wasn't intentional about what i put in my body um at some point i was sedentary You know, that's when I was diagnosed with high blood pressure and the cholesterol. I was really sedentary. I gained weight. So I think it's a combination. I think it could be due to toxic overload and nutritional deficiencies. Let me just put it like that. Toxic overload. So basically the chemicals, you feel like the chemicals you were putting in your body were basically... whatever you put on your skin goes into your bloodstream. Yes. That's it. Yeah. So whatever you put on your skin goes into your bloodstream. So putting that over years, you know, in the body, exactly. So can you imagine? We have our immune system, macrophages. I think they eat up dead cells. Okay. So who knows what was eating at the chemicals on my scalp? And it could be, and some people would say it's... Too much testosterone, androgen, hormonal imbalance between my estrogen and progesterone. You know, a lot of theories out there. But I just, in a nutshell, even hormonal imbalances can be caused by nutritional deficiencies and toxic overload. So I just wrapped it up into nutritional deficiencies. and or toxic overload. So when you first realized that you had this alopecia problem, did it affect your self-esteem in any way? I know that you're naturally a very... What word am I going to use now? Cool person. You don't really give a damn sometimes. I don't. Most times. Most times. But did it niggle at your self-esteem in any way? Yeah, yeah, it did. Can you talk us through that a bit? Yeah, I'm trying to think that we did because I felt embarrassed at first. So now I had to wear wigs. I don't like wigs. And at some point I'd like to weave my hair in the traditional way, you know, where you just weave it up into a bunch or you just do cornrows all the way to the back. So I used to wear my hair like that a lot. Then it got to a stage where it was really thin and it didn't look nice. So then I started on braids. So I use braids to cover up the huge patches. So, of course, not being able to wear your hair the way you like and not being able to wear my hair natural, you know, just like in an afro. And, of course, the patches, they still are embarrassing, to be honest. The patches are so I cover it up or I just shave it or I just shave it off. So somehow, yeah, I would say it did affect my hair. um self-esteem a little bit but then i then i owned it so once i owned it i just go bald but i'm still working on growing it so now i you know i use i take i noticed that On the diet, it wasn't really growing as fast as I wanted it to. And then I'm a bit lazy applying hair stuff. I just wash and go. So it needs constant massaging. It needs to be touched, to be massaged, to apply stuff, coupled with the diet. I don't think diet alone works for alopecia. I don't think so. So yeah, somehow, yeah, it did. But I got over it. You got over it. Okay, so you understand. why Will Smith must have been upset about people kind of poking fun at his wife's head? No, I think he married a witch. Another opinion. Oh dear. Oh dear. Okay. I don't think, because Will Smith laughed at the joke. Yeah. And then when Jada gave him, you know, like brow beat him, then he switched. Yeah. So, And then he reacted wrongly. And then he reacted after she, you know, after she brought, beat him. So that's why I said, yeah, that looks like witchcraft. But hey, that's them, you know, they're a couple. That's nothing to do with us. And they love themselves. Exactly. That's nothing to do with us. That's their dynamic. That is. As long as they love themselves, no problem. It could be a wizard too, you know. So Will Smith is a wizard and Jada is a witch, so... Two divided by four. Anyway, let's move on. So I wanted, you said something about diet. So I want us, I know this is your area. This is what you really love to talk about. And I wanted us to go into that. Talk about how diet affects, how diet could help, rather, this kind of situation, alopecia. You know, diet, the problem now is that a lot of people overlook diet. We overlook nutrients. yeah and your hair loss can be caused by stress yeah and that stress could be caused by a nutritional deficiency okay so so you need you need um they say you need keratin you need protein to grow your hair because hair is actually like dead cells so if you don't have enough protein which I don't eat enough protein because I do a minimal animal protein I do. And then I don't get a lot of calories. I did, I practiced, I tested one diet for, I bought a book, End of Diabetes. So I tested the diet. I tested the meal plan. So I had basically plant-based. And my hair didn't grow at all. And I lost so much weight. And then I later found out that I wasn't eating enough calories. It was nutrient dense, but I needed more calories. So because I wasn't getting enough calories, I was losing weight. And your hair, your body would take protein from wherever it needs it to. Protein is for growth and repair. So our cells break down on a daily basis, and then the body repairs it on a daily basis. It needs protein to do that. So if I'm not getting enough protein in my diet, I don't have excess to grow my hair. You understand? I still need a lot of protein. Could be plant source, could be animal source, but I need the protein to do the break to act as like an antioxidant. I just use that word because it's a word that's been bandied around these days. But it's used to repair my cells. So if I don't get enough Or if I have just an adequate level that would repair my cells and not enough to grow my hair, my hair is not going to grow. So, yeah, nutrition is very important when it comes to hair growth. Nutrition like the B vitamins, like vitamin C because of the collagen. You know, you need vitamin D as well. Sunlight. We need water. We're 70%. You need water. Water is a nutrient. So you need water. You need sunshine. You need oxygen because oxygen, you know, blood flow. If I don't have enough blood flow to my scalp, my hair's not going to grow. So all these are nutrients. Nutrients is key. So it's not just about what I'm rubbing in there. I can actually rub stuff in there that would stimulate blood flow, but I still need to put the nutrients in there to help with the blood flow. Okay. So what kind of nutrients would you say people should put in their hair to help the hair to grow? For instance, we shouldn't neglect the B vitamins. For instance, like pantothenic B5, vitamin B5. Pantothenic acid, it's called pantothenic acid. It's found in almost all foods. So pantothenic acid is very important. for hair growth. And even, let's say your hair is graying. Your hair is graying, you can also use panthenic acid and then you could get some color back. If you're graying prematurely. And then biotin as well. So that's B vitamins. I've said B5, B7, important. Then you need vitamin C. Vitamin C, You need vitamin C because the collagen, so a lot of that's fruits, is a food source for vitamin C. Fruits, leafy greens. You need vitamin D, which is basically sunlight, but sometimes we're in a climate where we don't get enough sunlight, sunshine. So you could do mushrooms. You could put your mushrooms in the sun, like I did today. We had maybe 10, 15 minutes of sunshine, so I put my mushrooms in the sun. And then, yeah, it absorbs. Once it absorbs the sunlight, you know, it gets you. Once you ingest it, then you have vitamin D. Oh, that's a nice one to know. I didn't know that. So I get my mushrooms and put them in the sun and I get more vitamin D from that. Yes. Wow. Do I have to have that in addition to vitamin D that I will buy from the store or just that is enough? It depends on how many IU you're taking for your vitamin D supplements. Some people take vitamin D2, but I've heard time and again that vitamin D3 is the most active form of vitamin D. It has to be D3. So what I'm testing now is I've stopped supplementing. I ran out of my vitamin D supplements. So I haven't been taking my vitamin D supplements, but I've been doing a lot of mushrooms because I like mushrooms a lot. So I've been doing a lot of mushrooms. And once you your mushrooms absorb the sunlight, you could get way more, um, international units than you would from your supplements. Okay. So international units. Sorry. Yeah. I don't think, yeah, I don't think you can OD before anyone can OD on vitamin D. They have to be taken like a ridiculous amount, like 1 million IU or because people take as much as 10,000 IU for like, you know, prescription that's prescription strength.

UNKNOWN: 17:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 17:18

Yeah, so people take 50,000 depending on the level of vitamin D in their body. But if you're doing your food, you're doing your mushrooms and you're doing like your 2,000 to 4,000 IU of vitamin D supplements, I don't think you can overdo it. But well, talk to your potentate health practitioner. Okay. And what exactly does that mean, potentate health practitioner? For lay people like myself, I have no idea what that big grandma said. Because people regard, I use patented because people regard doctors as mini gods. Okay. That's what I said. They see them as mini gods. Okay. So talk to your patented. Okay. Talk to your doctor about it. Yeah, talk to your health practitioner. You said earlier on that the doctors didn't know what to diagnose. They were saying you had high blood pressure, you had high cholesterol. At what point did they actually accept that it was alopecia or did they never come to that conclusion? Oh, no, they did. I heard it from them. They said, it's alopecia, we can't help you, but you have high blood pressure and you have high cholesterol, so let's deal with it. They actually said they couldn't help you. Yes, yes, yes. And that's why, yeah. So I figured, okay, I thought you were like my mini G, but since you've told me that you can't help me, okay, then that means I have to go look for help. elsewhere, so look within. So that's how my nutrition journey started. Even with the blood pressure, I was given the medication, and I didn't want to take it, because I'm like, what costs the high blood pressure? And the doctor said, we don't know. It's essential, hypertension. I'm like, what? When did hypertension become essential? But apparently, when they say essential, it means they don't know what costs the high blood pressure. So yeah, I was given the medication, but When I was on medication, I used to have shortness of breath and headaches. And I don't get headaches. So I started having headaches and shortness of breath. I went back to the doctor and said, I should continue to use it. I'll get used to it. I'm like that now. Pull the brakes on that. That don't make sense. That doesn't make sense to me. I'm trying to get well. I'm not trying to get ill. So I won't be using it. So I bought a book on Amazon. It was an ebook. Probably cost me 99p. How to lower your blood pressure naturally. So I read the book. I applied the principles in there. And then I got on there and then Then I used to have waking blood pressure of like 149 over maybe 99 or something. Waking without even getting out of bed. I put the blood pressure machine next to me in the bed. So before I roll out of bed at all, I'll check my blood pressure. It'll be 149 over 99 or yeah, 149 over 99. Consistently. So when I started incorporating these foods that I learned in the book, within 10 days, my systolic, that's the one, the number on top, my systolic went down to 115 from 149. And medication couldn't do that. So that's how I was convinced that nutrition is key. Nutrition is key. So what was it that you ate? What were the things that you ate that brought the readings down? That brought the blood pressure down. Because I'm sure lots of people want to know. Yeah, I did sardines. Okay. I did sardines. I did a lot of leafy greens. Yeah. I did magnesium supplements. Okay. Because magnesium dilates blood vessels. And then I sat in the sun a lot. I did a lot of sunlight, sunshine, sunshine, sunlight. And then I noticed that when I sit in the sun, I take my blood pressure before I sit in the sun. It's high. Once I... get enough sunlight and i come back in and take my blood pressure it's gone down but then it later goes back up until until it regulated so then i did um raw cacao i did pomegranate juice okay so let's say raw cacao pomegranate juice magnesium supplements leafy greens and sardines that those five okay but you know magnesium supplements there are different types of magnesium supplements so which one did you use or did you just use i just learned about i just use a generic one i just learned more about um the magnesium so there's threonate there's orotate there's glycinate yeah because they're all good for different things yeah yeah but i just did the what i just did over the counter holland and barrett um magnesium supplements and then after that but i guess you know when you do leafy greens as well leafy greens yeah leafy greens is very good uh it's a very good source of magnesium okay so which of the leafy greens any leafy greens or any specific ones i did spinach i like i did spinach i did a lot of spinach okay what about kale with each meal I don't really like kale. I like the dark one, the Cavolo, the very dark, the very dark. Yeah, Cavolo Nero. I like that one, but I don't like the regular curly kale because it's too sweet. It has this sweet taste that I don't really like. Sweet? It's sweet. It's never tasted sweet to me. So I did spinach, a lot of onions, onions, garlic, a lot of onions, garlic, spinach.

UNKNOWN: 22:58

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 22:59

and then the cavolo and when you talk about onions was it the red onions or the white onions because people say the red one is better but i don't know i prefer the white one but they say the red one is better red ones i like the red ones because they're sweet but i think the the the white onions as well that are really sweet so what i usually would do i buy Huge bulbs of onions. I'll chop up the red. I can eat, I'll chop up a whole red, a whole white or yellow bulb of it. And then I'll just, I just mix everything together. So I'm not particular. Okay. As long as I have onions. Okay. So you were saying earlier that your hair is now beginning to grow back. So what, what would you say is the magic formula that has helped the hair to start growing back? I use castor oil. And I bought this essential oil. Lang Lang. Y-L-A-N-G. Lang Lang. I think that's the pronunciation. Lang Lang. I've never known the pronunciation, so I'm not going to try. Exactly. And I'm trying. I'm about to lose a couple of teeth. Can you imagine? I'm not going to even try. lag lag lag lag whatever y-l-a-n-g or something like that yeah yeah yeah y-l-a-n-g yeah so essential but recently i started with um rosemary rosemary oil and coconut rosemary fresh rosemary infused in olive oil or coconut oil okay and then i use um a ruler a derma roller has spikes i roll it on my scalp a derma roller so i try to massage my scalps more so i'm beginning to see some growth some growth okay yeah i still have a few bald spots but before when i had the alopecia big time when i touch my scalp it feels cold okay when i put my palm on it you know it feels very cold because then that means i'm touching a lot of skin but now it i feel it feels warm because i have you know like a I have like a bed of hair all over that patch. So it feels warmer now. So I'm going to continue doing that. Continue doing that. And hopefully it will all grow back. Grow back, yeah. I have a small portion of my head. I just wonder if that could be alopecia or whatever. I don't know. But I've never had hair in that small, just a very tiny portion of my head. I've never had hair there. And that portion always hurts each time I... touch it would that be some form of alopecia or is that probably something else hmm i know maybe are you sure it's not an old injury that you're probably not aware of sometimes if you could if you knocked your head if so you know if you had like an old injury yeah it could be i'm not sure but so um i think alopecia starts with itching so not like so much pain it starts with itching itching okay your scalp just feels very itchy okay It starts with itching. So apart from the itching, what else would one see or notice that would make them think, could this be alopecia? Then you notice the coldness. When you touch your scalp, you should feel some warmth and then feel the hair follicles. So when it starts to feel cold and sparse and itchy, then you know, it's time to it's time to you know pull back on over processed foods and quickly check your diets and put the rosemary and massage it do a lot of leafy greens you know magnesium folate anyway magnesium and folate you can get in one plant yeah you could get but one is a mineral one's a b vitamin you could get both in like spinach okay Okay. And recently, I recently just discovered rosemary infused in olive oil. And I have been using that on my legs, rubbing it on my legs, mainly for varicose veins. Okay. Has it worked? Well, I don't know. I only recently started, so hopefully it might. But it's just good to know that it's also good for hair. Yeah. Just putting it on the hair and massaging the head with it and all of that. Okay. So generally speaking, how can we use our food to improve our health? Because I know this is something that you love to talk about. So since you're here, you might as well tell us. Yeah. Using food to improve our health. Yes. It's a subject I'm so passionate about. I'm very passionate about it. As long as... we're eating a lot of fruits and vegetables with the fruits you get your vitamin c but then you don't just get vitamin c you get other minerals as well yeah then you your b vitamins you could get that from your beans you could get that from plants um some from some times from meat yeah from turkey from chicken but i'm not a heavy meat eater i'm more of a plant kind of person okay so as long as you're doing well on your b vitamins If you're not doing so well on your B vitamin, you could take a B complex. A lot of people, I don't like supplements. I really don't like supplements. I do supplements once in the blue moon, but I really prefer the food. So you do, I read this book, Fast Food Genocide. So the man, the doctor said, he has this acronym, G-BOMBS. That's green beans, onions, mushrooms berries seeds nuts and seeds okay so with that acronym as long as you're able to incorporate all of that into your diet even if you are going to do animal protein once you incorporate all these the green the beans the onions the mushrooms the seeds the nuts it will crowd out the junk and from from that because on a daily we need like 40 essential nutrients amino acids, minerals, vitamins. We need about 40 to maintain optimal health. So the best source for all of these nutrients is from your food. Now, let's say you're low. Let's say you're deficient in some areas. You do the food and then you supplement. Supplement just to bring you back, bring your levels up. So a point where you're no longer deficient. But then that's how functional medical doctors work. So bring the levels back up with supplements, with pharmaceutical grade supplements and food. And that way you can reverse anything. I believe you can reverse any disease with food. That's what I believe. That's a bit controversial. Some people don't agree with that. But I mean, like you said, that's what you... They don't have to agree with me. The facts speak for itself. They don't have to agree with me because there's so many people on social media these days. For instance, there's this woman. She's called Goodbye Lupus. She had lupus for... 12 or 18 years. She was sick for 18 years. She did chemo. She did all of this. They told her she can't have children. Then by default, she wanted to fit into a bathing suit. So her husband is a trainer, is a bodybuilder. But he does his bodybuilding, he's plant-based. He doesn't, he's vegetarian. No, even that one is confusing. Vegetarian, veganing, all of this, you know, all of these diets. Well, this man fed his wife raw foods And she reversed lupus, lupus that. And the medical community says you just have to live with it. You're not going to be able to have children. She reversed it. And today she helps people. She has a coaching program that she helps people reverse diseases.

UNKNOWN: 31:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_00: 31:12

So people don't have to agree with me. It's clear. There's a book. I follow this guy on YouTube. So he discusses nutritional deficiencies caused by medication. There's actually a book. I checked the book on Amazon thinking I could buy it. It costs almost 700 pounds. Wow. For one book? Yes. Drug-induced diseases. And even in the medical profession, there is something called iatrogenic diseases. Those are diseases caused by medication. So medication is not there to cure you. Medication is there to help you with your symptoms. And then as it's helping you with those symptoms, it'll push out other symptoms. And then you use more. I know people who are on five different blood pressure medication, yet you can lower your blood pressure naturally with food. So each to their own, whichever one you decide. But facts have it. The facts and figures are out there. It's clear that nutrition is key. Yeah. The nutrition will reverse it, not medication. Well, you know, sometimes with a little bit of help from medication, let me come into the middle because I tend to go far left or far right. So this time I'm going to stand in the middle and advocate somewhat for medication. For instance, I have a friend who has stage four stomach cancer as we speak. So she used to throw up a lot. Now throwing up, we couldn't get any nutrition in there. There was no way we could get any nutrition into her for her to heal. But they put her on proton pump inhibitors. I think something to stop the vomiting. even though it might cause a nutritional deficiency, yes, but it will allow us to put nutrition into her body, which will then reverse or stop, be a stop gap to the nutritional deficiency that the medication will cause. So you see, so there's some medications, yes, that are useful and you couple it with nutrition and then you can get off the medication and then continue with your nutrition. I'm glad you've balanced it there because There is good in both sides, the nutrition and the medication. There will be good and bad on both sides. But I think sometimes... No, there's no bad in medication. You want me to go back to my parents, right? There is no bad in the medication. There's no bad in medication or there's no bad in the nutrition. No, no, no, sorry. There's no bad in nutrition. There's no bad in nutrition because that's what we are built for. Nobody created another human being. You might think, some people believe in the Big Bang. I'm not an animal. I'm created in God's image. I did not just explode. Just like a dictionary will not explode in a printing press. I did not explode. That's a good analogy. Yeah, and I did not evolve from a monkey. A monkey is a monkey. It is what it is. And I am made in God's image. Oh my God. Yes, we are made in God's image, yes. Yeah, so I believe that whatever we need to thrive, it comes from the earth. The earth that we were molded from, that is where it comes from. And even as a Christian, it's in Psalm, I think it's Psalm 104 and 14, or I don't know if I'm getting it right, but it says herbs, it's for the healing of the nation. It didn't say medications for the healing of the nation. But some of those medications are made from herbs, aren't they? Not anymore. Not anymore. Really? A lot of them are synthetic. A lot of them are synthetic. If it's made from herbs, yeah. You get minimal to no side effects. For instance, pregnant women. When pregnant women have high blood pressure, they treat them with magnesium, which is a mineral to bring the blood pressure down. Down, yeah. Yeah. So, yeah. You could get that from a herb any day. That's why I prefer my... I use my herbs as my supplement. I use my herbal teas as my supplement because you get nutrition from your herbal teas as well. Some of them are toxic. Some of them are toxic, but then you still get nutrition. Which ones are toxic? Oh, a lot. For instance, some people say neem. Neem is very bitter. They say neem can be toxic. Neem. Okay. They say neem can be toxic for the liver if you overdo it, but then... it's a it's good for parasites so okay everything everything as you know balance balance balance but not everything sometimes you have to go to the right or you go to the left and then sometimes balance so it's all it's all you know yeah i think find what the the happy your happy medium really what works for you and you're helping me do at every point in time every at every point in time something different it's going to be something different that's working yes time yes so not one size fits all yes yeah so per time you know it could be let's balance this thing out let's if we're trying to get well let's balance it out with medication and nutrition some doctors do that and some doctors will say okay no let's balance it out just with um let's check your nutritional deficiency status let's see what you're deficient in and then let's balance you out with that so some people treat with nutrition but they're like pharmaceutical grade nutrition so they treat it with food and then with supplements okay so yeah not all the time is it medication medication yeah and i mean i i believe that if we can take something that doesn't leave any side effects that's for me that's the better option yeah yeah i'd rather go that way i mean i have somebody was telling me yesterday that she's been put on antidepressants because she's not sleeping and she's feeling sad and i was thinking what i was thinking to her saying to her rather what supplements could we use for that maybe she You could use vitamin D. Have they checked her vitamin D status? I don't know. So she should check her vitamin D. Because sometimes when people are low on vitamin D, they tend to get depressed. Okay. Yeah, so she can check her vitamin D. Do a nutritional status test. Sometimes they do hair mineral tests. Do that to see what you're deficient in. And then raise the bar. with the nutrition, putting that person on antidepressants. It's a stopgap, but... So how does one do a nutritional... I think some people, some do, some organizations do the tests. I think you can check online, or if you have a functional medical doctor, You can, you know, a functional medical doctor. I think that's the first thing they do. Okay. Okay, so they'll be able to do that nutritional deficiency test or whatever. Just to find out what you're deficient in. Exactly. That's fine. So we're fast coming to the end of today's episode. Very lively one with Flo. When you meet Flo, you know why this was full of laughter. But you wrote a book not long ago. Do you want to tell us about your book before we finish? Yeah, it's your way to health and wellness and an African diet. I kept it as a small book because it's like 12 grade level reading, so even someone in secondary school can understand. And I put mostly African foods in there because we have some crops that we've overlooked. Let me give you a very good example now. For instance, people would say don't eat a goosey. A goosey is like melon seeds. Yeah, melon seeds. People say don't eat a goosey because your cholesterol will go high if you eat a goosey. Now, there's this gas in our body. Our body produces it. It's called nitric oxide. Nitric oxide does help blood vessels dilate. So Egussi, and then what you need for your body to produce nitric oxide is one of the amino acids, arginine. There's arginine in Egussi. So let's say you make soup Egussi with bitter leaf. And when you take in bitter principles as well, that helps your body produce nitric oxide. There are several ways that you can do it. So a good dish with minimal, you could make it with mushrooms, like a nice stew with a little bit of palm oil. You know, don't overdo it. Your egousi and your bitter leaf soup. It's very good soup for blood pressure. Oh. Yeah, because it will help you produce nitric oxide. Okay. So I put in the African foods, foods that we've been lied to. Oh, don't eat palm oil. It's high in cholesterol. Palm oil is polyunsaturated. It's not just saturated. In the Western world, it looks like it's saturated. Come to Africa, you will see that palm oil is not saturated. Saturated, it's not just thick. In Africa, where there's a lot of heat, it's you know it's lightly so it's it's across it's not fully saturated it's poorly unsaturated and it's highest the most potent form of vitamin e is in palm oil okay yeah so this i put these things that's why i wrote the book so people would understand and see that our we have our foods are actually healing foods yeah so it's still it's still on amazon okay what's the book called again i wrote it's It's your way to health and wellness on an African diet. On an African diet. I will put a link to read in the show notes for this podcast. So if anybody wants to get a copy of it, at least they can find it. on Amazon and through the link. Yeah, yeah. And yeah, I put in there, I have a couple of herbs like turmeric and cloves and things we've overlooked and how they have actually worked. I've tested them, tested them on my family, on my children, on my granddaughter. And, you know, these things actually, they are medicinal. Our food is medicinal.

UNKNOWN: 41:45

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00: 41:45

So yeah, remember me as an African nutritionist. African nutritionist. Yes. Okay, thank you so, so much, Flo. Any last word you'd like to... We always like to end this show on a note of hope. So if somebody's going through alopecia or any health issue at the moment, anything you can say to encourage them? Yeah, you can reverse anything with nutrition. Yeah. That's it. You can. So you just have to believe first. Okay. But yes, but you can. So I tell you from experience, I don't just test these things. I don't just use them myself. I test them on my family members. And yes, you can reverse almost any disease with nutrition. With nutrition. Okay. Yeah. There is hope. So don't give up. Don't give up. Don't give up. Well, thank you so, so much for your time. We've really appreciated, I mean, really appreciate your time and we've really enjoyed the session with you and hope to have you back again sometime soon to tell us some more about food, nutrition and how it helps you. The journey continues. I'm a student, as I say. So every day I learn new things. Every day I learn about nutrition. Every day I learn about food. So I'm going to be doing some testing of foods and, you know, foods, African foods, our fruits, our vegetables, our herbs. So as we go along, you know, I'll let you know. Our herbal teas and all of that. We'll have you back again. I'll be glad to come back again. Thank you so, so much. My pleasure. Thank you. God bless. Thank you so much. Amen. Thank you. Have a nice evening. You too. Take care. Thank you. All right. Yeah. Bye-bye. Thank you so much to Flo. We've had a very interesting conversation with Flo about nutrition and about alopecia in the first instance. So if you're having issues with alopecia, try out some of the things that she's mentioned and hopefully it might help you. Thank you so much to everyone who's listening today and hopefully we'll have you back with us again sometime soon. Take care and God bless. Bye-bye.