Question of The Week

Ask me a question that you’d like me to answer on the podcast. I will choose a question or two each week and you could be one of them.

Previous Questions I Have Answered on Episodes

Mammogram Screening

I was asked a question about Mammogram Screening

So this week, the question that I was asked was, what are my thoughts on mammogram screening? And, personally, I’ve never gotten one. I am 38 years old, so I’m approaching that 40 mark where they’re gonna start pushing that. If I actually went to a gynecologist, you know, OB GYN annually, but that’s a story of another time.

I don’t do that, anymore. But what I will say is that anything that is promoted to do annually and is pushed heavily is always a major red flag for me. I’m looking at you flu shot.

Not only that, but there was a major Canadian study of 90,000 women that showed that mammograms for women under the age of 40, and, yes, even over the age of 50, do not save lives.

So how do you think that affected the radiology industry and the American Cancer Society? Like, do you think they were pleased or pissed? Of course, there were accusations that there were screw ups in this study, and it was just to save their own tails.

Because, meanwhile, even after a forensic audit was done on the study’s results, the results still prove to be accurate. It did not save lives. Mammograms are also known for their false positives.

They are extremely difficult to read due to the shape and the form of the breast tissues. It is not the same as a traditional x-ray of, say, your femur, which is pretty black and white. You know? Largest bone in your body. It’s either broke or it’s not.

The mammograms and what they’re testing for, right, those tissues of the breast, the it’s much more intricate.

The impact of over-diagnoses on mental health and healthcare

Plus, there are several instances of over-diagnoses. And you’re probably not gonna wanna hear this, but we’re all walking around with something wrong with us. Like, we have different diseases, including cancer, in our genetic code. Right?

And things will will trigger those genes to kick on, whether it’s lifestyle choices, exposure to things in the environment. And, you know, this includes cancer.

We we have these cancer genes in us. It’s just a matter of whether or when they get turned on. And these screenings sometimes can make something worse than it actually is.

And people will end up with too much treatment. And not to mention, now they’re carrying this weight of cancer, cancer, cancer. So they have this negative thought and mindset, which creates a domino effect for other things in their health.

And now they’re getting a double mastectomy, like, all of these things. And so sometimes I will say it is better to be ignorant on certain things, and I know that’s a very unpopular opinion, but it’s true.

Radiology industry and associated stakeholders

Also, knowing what I know about the medical system, which is a lot, it is predominantly driven by money. And mammogram fee is about around $8,000,000,000. It’s a $8,000,000,000 industry annually.

That money is spent annually in the United States. That’s a double red flag for me. Back in the 1970s, there was a massive campaign pioneered by president Nixon and the American Cancer Society. Money. Money. Money. To prevent cancer. And there was a group of 250, 000 women who received mammogram screening.

And then the momentum just built from there. Like, if you get enough people involved, you’re gonna convince others to join too. Boom. There’s your industry from the ground up. Radiologists, the people who make the machines, cancer charities, a lot of people have a stake in this.

And just like vaccines, many doctors get incentives for women’s compliance to get a screening. I’m just saying.

So all in all, it’s definitely a topic I think more women need to do more research on and definitely have informed consent with before subjecting themselves to a mammogram.

Wearable device - the WHOOP

I was chatting with my friend about my wearable device, the WHOOP, and how helpful, honestly, it has been to me, especially during pregnancy, to track my recovery.

I’ve been wearing the WHOOP now for 3 years, so through both pregnancies.

And as I’m entering my final weeks of pregnancy, I’ve been pen been paying extra attention to the 2 data points regarding sleep, REM, and then the deep sleep. So that way, I can be fully rested whenever this baby decides to make its earth side appearance.

But I was asked about the EMF frequencies on the Whoop versus the Apple Watch. And I laugh when my friend asked me this because I said, do you even know me? And, of course, she replied with a yes. I know you wouldn’t wear something if it was majorly adding to your current toxic load.

So, first, let’s talk about what EMFs are.

Understanding Electromagnetic Fields (EMFs) and Their Spectrum

EMFs are electromagnetic fields that are produced by charged particles, such as atoms, with a surplus or deficit of electrons. This can run the spectrum from things that are considered low, air quotes.

Like power lines and your computer. So those frequencies fall between 0 and 10 to the 3rd power, all the way up to the highest of high, like tanning beds, which doesn’t bode well for me and my college years.

X rays and gamma rays. So that spectrum that I just gave you is 10 to 16th power, 10 to 18th, and 10 to 19th power, respectively. To also put in perspective, because the sun itself does emit its own EMS, that would be fall like, I’ll fall on the scale of 10 to the 14 and a half power.

Now, we know that there are some natural EMS, like I just mentioned, the sun. In fact, our body is constantly creating low frequency electromagnetic fields as part of the inner workings of cells, which is what makes practicing things like grounding or exposing yourself to the ocean.

Those are very powerful ways to get those low frequency fields pumping in your body. But, obviously, there are dangers too, specifically with man made EMFs.

It can damage cells. It can break up the actual DNA itself, as well as messing with the DNA’s ability to repair itself. So we know we’re exposed to these EMFs all day. I mean, if you’re listening to this, you have a cell phone.

Chances are you are using your Bluetooth to plug it into your car or you’re listening it straight up on your phone. Many people, most, I would say, do have a microwave. I do know some people that don’t. You have Wi Fi in your home.

EMF Exposure and the need for wearable device features

I mean, think about I know this is wild, but, like, if you have a baby monitor, you know, that is connected as well. So you’re exposed to these things all day every day. If you’re not outside of the home, you are when you go into your workplace.

They have Wi Fi everywhere. You have computers everywhere. Everyone’s got a cell phone. People are charging their computers and their cell phones. So, yes, you do have exposure.

Now I will be the first to say, I do wish that the WHOOP had the feature of airplane mode. So you could turn that on at night. There are other wearable devices that do have that, but I’m pretty confident that it is something that they will come out with soon.

They are on their 3rd version of this, and and the WHOOP just keeps getting better. And, obviously, its competitors, like the Apple Watch, are nipping at their heels. So they have to do something to remain ahead of the crowd, if you will.

But, to me, despite the fact that that’s not a current feature of the WHOOP, the juice is worth the squeeze for me when it comes to choosing the WHOOP as a wearable device. It’s helped my family detect illnesses before they’ve become full blown, including COVID.

And that way, we can treat them at home holistically before it gets out of hand. And when I wore the Apple Watch, because I that’s the thing. Like, I’m I’m not someone who’s gonna preach you 1 thing without ever being on the other side of the coin.

I did wear an Apple Watch for a long time, and I actually had to stop wearing it because it was giving me migraines. It actually led to these weird red bird marks on my wrist when I would take it off.

Like, I could feel the Apple Watch just overheating, and I would take it off at the end of the night to charge it, and my whole wrist would be red.

And overall, to be real, the the mental side of it, it just left me drained and distracted because I had mine set up to be a wearable device with the phone.

So I was constantly getting notifications whether it was social media, my phone ringing, text messages, etcetera.

Issues I experienced while wearing the Apple Watch

Like, I could feel the Apple Watch just overheating, and I would take it off at the end of the night to charge it, and my whole wrist would be red. And overall, to be real, the mental side of it, it just left me drained and distracted because I had mine set up to be a wearable device with the phone.

So I was constantly getting notifications whether it was social media, my phone ringing, text messages, etcetera.

And in the 3 years I’ve been wearing the WHOOP, I’ve never had these issues. And I do believe a lot of it has to do with the fact that the WHOOP is not receiving that line of communication. It doesn’t act as a cell phone.

It’s strictly a wearable device that you’re doing to track your metrics for your health. I also wanna add that the WHOOP uses red and green LEDs and sensors to determine how saturated your blood is with oxygen and the movement of your blood.

Hence, the reason it’s able to check HRV, which is your heart rate variability, so well and can tell you if it’s very low.

For example, you are most likely dehydrated or you have slow moving blood, which could have been due to whatever your nutrition choices were the night before. And this part of the tracking does not use radiation at all.

But, as with anything, I believe in informed consent, so I encourage you to do your own research. A

And if you wanna try it out, like, risk free, you have the ability to use my link and you can try it out for a month for free, and you get a free band with it before you make any kind of sign up that you wanna do it monthly or 6 months or an annual membership.

So that’s a risk free trial right there.

Scaring and Stretch Marks During Pregnancy

I had a friend reach out to me regarding one of the products that I am actually an affiliate for, which is herbal face food.

And this was specifically for a friend of hers who is suffering through awful scarring from stretch marks in pregnancy.

Look, stretch marks happen when your skin expands faster than the collagen and the elastin, which those are the fibers in your skin, then they can accommodate for.

Thankfully, I’ve been pretty successful at keeping those at bay through both of my pregnancies, but I can’t say the same for my thighs during my mid twenties when I gained a ton of weight by lack of exercise and I don’t even wanna say poor nutrition. I mean, there was like no nutrition. Okay.

And I shared with her both mine and my girlfriend’s results from this one particular product from herbal face food called the cure, and she was mind blown.

The Cure — Save 30% with code MAREN

And I gotta tell you, the results truly are mind blowing. It’s like magic. Now what I will say about stretch marks, 1st and foremost, before we dive into, like, what makes the cure so potent is you have to view your pregnancy and those stretch marks that may or may not come with it as a badge of honor.

Personally, I’d rather say that mine are due to giving birth and carrying a human for 9 months rather than the fact that, like me, like, I had no self control or discipline in my post college years, but it is what it is. Right? Like, we live and we learn.

Your stretch marks as a mother are a visible marker that you performed God’s greatest gift to us women. Right? You gave birth. You carried a human for 9 months.

Recommendations for Stretch Mark Treatment

As a heads up, there are a few things that do make you more susceptible, though, to stretch marks.

First, they seem to be very much so hereditary. So if your mom had them in pregnancy, chances are you will too.

Secondly, the younger you are, this is the irony, right? Like we always say things like, her body bounced back because she’s so much younger.

Well, here to all my fellow geriatric moms, this is a blessing, right?

Because the younger you are, the more likely you are going to have stretch marks. Young skin is like a brand new rubber band. It’s tight. Whereas women, when they age or, you know, people, when people age, their skin begins to stretch out.

Therefore, it doesn’t have to expand as much with the growing body. And there was a study in 2010 that found that 70% of pregnant women under 25 developed pregnancy stretch marks, while 29% of those over 25 did.

So right there, like, if you’re over that threshold of 25, I like your chances of not getting them, right, versus these young young moms.

And in 2015, a study found similar results so that the results were 84% of women under 20 developed pregnancy stretch marks versus 24% of those over 20 did. So if you’re in that, you know, early 20, mid 20 period versus, like I said, me, my first child was at 35, the likelihood of you getting those stretch marks is significantly higher.

You know, it makes sense. Right? I got those stretch marks when I was in my mid twenties. Like, it wasn’t from having a kid.

It was from eating double stuffed Oreos and indulging in red wine more often than not. That’s where mine came from versus I don’t have any from having a kid. Another factor is how fast you gain weight in pregnancy.

So I want you to think about those young kids that you see this happen a lot in boys where they leap in height and and just growth in general very fast when they’re going from, like, preteen to teen, and they they have stretch marks.

It’s the same concept. Right? Personally, I do not gain a ton of weight in pregnancy, and I don’t really gain it fast. I do a credit that, you know, maybe some of that genetics. I don’t know.

But I really believe most of it has to do with my fitness and nutrition regime. To be real, when I’m teaching golf lessons, I mean, people didn’t even start to think I was pregnant till I was already 6 months pregnant, which is why it’s been very easy for me to, quote, unquote, hide my pregnancy literally for the 1st 20 weeks.

Sometimes I could probably even go longer, but I choose to wait around that time before I tell everyone. Both pregnancies, my weight gain has been under 40 lbs each time.

And listen, I understand that everyone’s body composition is different. Okay? So this isn’t like a I’m better than you situation. Not at all. But please, for the love of all things holy, do not follow the concept of you need to eat for 2.

That is a complete and utter myth. Like, that is that is a boomer, a boomer phrase. And I still to this day think that women, they might not necessarily eat for 2, but they are eating a lot more than they should.

And they’re also indulging in things because they are pregnant thinking, I’m pregnant. What’s the big deal? Or they if they don’t have that idea and maybe they just don’t realize because they’re pregnant. Right? And they are growing a human.

They’re also gaining unnecessary an unnecessary weight that, like, if they weren’t growing a human, they would definitely notice, if that makes sense.

So when you’re pregnant and you’re eating the extra ice cream or the extra this or extra that, you don’t notice it as much versus if you weren’t pregnant.

Okay? And while you may not get gestational diabetes in your pregnancy, I promise you if you follow this method of overeating, overindulging, eating for 2, whatever you wanna call it, you will make feeling, quote, unquote, normal or like your old self in postpartum very difficult. It will be a longer journey to get back to where you were, and that is a total mental mind f.

From Gender Secrets to Stretch Mark Solutions

The Future of network Marketing

So this past week, another network marketing company, Rodan and Fields made a bombshell announcement regarding their direct sales model. They made the decision that they will no longer give the distributors the ability to build a team, which as I’ve mentioned ad nauseam, that is the way you truly make substantial income within network marketing.

So going forward, they are strictly doing an affiliate model just as we had discussed with other companies like Sane. Now just as a heads up, this is now the 3rd, maybe even 4th direct sales company that I’ve talked about in just the last quarter that has made this major, major change.

But I digress. I’ve told you this is coming. And I’ve had multiple people because I’ve been talking about it and it’s been filtering around Instagram in people’s algorithms. People have been in my DMs asking me my thoughts on it.

You know, and they’ll even ask me, hey, are you still with your network marketing company, Bodi? They’re asking me what I think about the future of network marketing, what it looks like, etcetera. And a few months ago, I recorded a specific podcast on where I stand with Beachbody, aka, BODi.

And I definitely recommend you check it out. I’ll make sure that it is in the show notes for you so you can have easy access to it. But as far as the future of direct sales, network marketing, whatever the heck you wanna call it, It’s all tomato tomato.

I believe it is grim. Okay? And on Instagram this week, a Reels popped up that was shocking.

It was completely AI generated. And in this Reels, it was a bunch of celebrities dancing to the Sean Paul song, We Be Burnin’, if you don’t know it. It’s catchy little ditty from the early 2000. But these celebrities, they were all males. They had a coffee in their hand and, you know, they’re they look cool, they look very fit, handsome, and they’re dancing in the streets.

It was like Ben Affleck, George Clooney, the guy who plays Thor, I always forget his name, handsome guy, and Tom Hanks. Those are the ones I can think of off the top of my head that were in it. Now listen.

If they can make Tom Hanks look fit, young, and handsome, because I personally didn’t even think he looked like that, you know, 30 years ago, you know AI is a magical wizard.

But the thing was, it looked the way they moved their their features, it looked so dang real.

Impact of Social Media and AI on Creativity

And I immediately posted it onto Instagram with a warning to people. So my consumers, like, be aware, not all that you see on the Internet is real. There are apps. There’s technology to make people look different, sound different. You know, you you can easily be deceived.

And, also, a warning to all my people who are either interested in earning income online or they are currently, you know, they’re already doing it through social selling that you need to really double down and either get involved now if you’ve been thinking about it or make the most of what you have if you already have been involved.

Because social media the the entire landscape, I can guarantee you, is going to change within the next 5 years, if not sooner. And I’m not trying to be fear mongering because that’s never my vibe.

The potential dominance of AI in social media and its effect on online income opportunities.

But if you’re looking to make money online, you need to do it now. Like, you literally need to make hay right now. AI is inevitably going to take over, and you need to have your own brand, a product you created, a program that you run, either, you know, some kind of I wouldn’t even recommend an evergreen, which is like something that you can mass produce because that can be duplicated.

But like, you need to have some kind of mentorship, whatever it is, coaching that is specific to you.

AI is a dangerous tool, and I believe it will affect direct sales as well as affiliate marketing and paid sponsorships. AI, truth be told, cuts out the middleman, the need for the actual person to represent the brand because they can create the talent through a computer generated system and and program.

I’ve even seen videos out there of photographers who are coming out, and they’re saying it’s easier for them to create the model, so to speak, from scratch, like a Frankenstein, if you will, online digitally to be in their photos for fashion companies or whatever it is that they’re promoting.

And even in videos because they can make them move so easily. Because it’s less expensive for them. They don’t have to pay the talent XYZ. Like granted, it’s a little different, right? Because Gisele Bundchen is such a well known name, but, like, they don’t have to pay that money to that model.

They can create their own model and essentially make that quote unquote computer model famous to the level of the Gizelle Bundchen if they really want to.

It’s a little different, but at the end of the day, it’s a way for them to be cost effective. Not only that, but they don’t have to deal with the demands.

It’s a computer. Like, it’s not like they can talk back or be late to a photoshoot or anything like that or take it personally when you say you want to adjust, you know, something in their physique, their hair, their makeup, whatever.

And when you think about it, it kinda makes sense for the person who’s producing the content. It’s unfortunate for the talent, but that’s just the way it is with this AI.

So if you’re looking to earn income online, I really recommend you get started now because the window of opportunity to earn income, it’s getting smaller and smaller. It takes time to build a relationship with your audience so that they trust you to work with you and make purchases from you.

Like, not for anything, homie, you need the street cred. If you wait until, you know, the right moment or a year from now or whatever it is you’re telling yourself, you’re only hurting your future income.

And I’ll say these 2 mantras until I am blue in the face.

It takes money to make money and time is the only resource that you can’t get more of.

So you need to establish yourself as a brand that cannot be duplicated. This is also why I believe that 1 on 1 mentorship is so important versus a digital product because those digital products, people can duplicate it, maybe make a little change here and there, change the the brand kit colors, you know, so it looks different.

But, ultimately, they’re just gonna pretend it’s theirs. I mean, look at all those master resale rights people.