Ep 50: Hormonal Harmony: Amanda Ortiz on Kratom and Women's Wellness

0:00 As you can tell, I'm really passionate about like trying to put information out there even if it's like super tiny and it's just my little tiny page of not tied into kratom only, but just in general for women to learn more about them, their bodies. Why we are very hormonal. It's not like, oh, you're such a woman, you're so hormonal. There's a reason behind it. There's science behind it. I don't know all of it. I'm learning it and learning it as I go. But that's the reason why I'm very, very excited to talk about this, because I know that kratom helps with some of that. Welcome to kratom Stories, a weekly podcast where we share stories of how this amazing plant has changed our lives.

0:42 I'm your host, Madeleine Sklar. Each week I'll bring you a new episode featuring interviews with experts, advocates, and everyday people who've experienced the benefits of kratom first hand. Join me as we dive deeper into the world of the this botanical wonder and discover the amazing stories behind this incredible plant. The Kratom Stories Podcast is presented solely for educational purposes. Neither the podcast nor its host promote or endorse the use of kratom, a substance not yet regulated or approved by the FDA. The views and opinions expressed by guests are theirs alone and do not necessarily reflect those of the host or the podcast. The content is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

1:24 Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified health care provider with any questions regarding the use of kratom. All right, I'm here today with Amanda Ortiz. I brought her back from Etha Botanicals. We had such an amazing conversation. Amanda, I just feel like there's just so much more to talk about with you, even though that was the longest episode I I've ever done for this podcast.

2:13 When I had you on recently, it was definitely a record, but I felt like we still had so much more to talk about. So I'm really excited today because we're going to talk about kratom and Women's Health, and I think this is such an important topic today. Yes. Honestly I feel like in the last episode we just touched the tip of the iceberg. There's so much to unravel. Honestly, not until I talked to you really, I didn't realize how much knowledge I really have. Like I've been well trained over the years, constantly talking about kratom, so it comes to me naturally. I talk about it in the store all the time. But I guess I never really realized how much knowledge we do have until we're like, oh, we want to talk about this. Oh, and this. And then we kept trying to get off last time.

2:54 And then we kept going and going and going. Probably would have gone longer, but you had to leave. Yeah, because there's just so much. You have so much knowledge being that you've been in the kratom industry for a long time. I have a lot of knowledge just from being a daily consumer, from my chronic pain for 5 1/2 years. And I talked to a lot of people. You talk to a lot of people. So it's really cool to talk to someone who is so incredibly knowledgeable and we can just have these discussions that just go forever because there's just so much to talk about it. This plant is not a little simple plant. There's so much to it. There's so much more, and like I mentioned in the last podcast, the creative community has evolved so much more than just pain management or like opioid replacement or anything like that. That's how I learned about it over the years. I've just seen it evolved the industry, the consumer. The consumer is way different than what it was many, many, many years ago.

3:49 It's just a lot, a lot of information. But I'm excited for today's episode because I'm really, really, really passionate about Women's Health. As I'm getting older, I'm in like my mid 30s. My birthday will be at the end of the month, so it'll be over the mid 30s. And as I've gotten older, I've kind of doubled or dived in a little bit more into like hormones health because I'm around the guys. We talk about it constantly. I'm really big on mental health because you know, everybody has a past and their parents were a certain way. Not that my parents were horrible or anything. They did the best they could with what they knew. So it helped me kind of look into like why are my parents this way? Why am I this way? Why is my brother this way? And in that curiosity, it's kind of like snowballed into all of this. And then I'm just in this world also and working in Escondido. I don't know what the difference between our Vista store and Escondido store.

4:38 For some reason we get way more moms in Escondido, so have a lot of customers come in and ask about like create them during pregnancy, create them for menstrual cycles, menopause. A lot of parents want to ask like, oh, my kids going to College in his finals and I don't want them to take Adderall. What can I take instead? Again, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a professional, so I can't really say this will help with this or this will help with that. However, having that conversation with the customer, getting their experience on how they utilize it with their family or themselves helps me help others. Clearly, I like to talk to people. I like to hear about their stories. I love to hear, go back and forth, share and having that connection that just comes naturally, but that's also helpful because I'm able to hear from the person, Hey, this helped my wife with this or this helped my kid with finals or something.

5:29 Because I, I'm not a wife, I don't have kids. I can't really like relate from there. I can only give you the experience that I have, but most of the time customers don't really like come to us more for mental health, which what I utilize Kratom for the most. And they don't really realize until they start, we start talking and having that conversation, getting that background from them. Then they're like, oh, you can use it for that. And it's like, yeah, you can use it for much a bunch of things. And that's why I mean, and, and also just to be clear and transparent, I'm going to be referencing a lot of ether stuff because that's the only Kratom I've ever taken. We've tried other Kratom, but I mean, why would I want to have ether, you know? So I just don't want it to come across like I'm just promoting ether. It's just.

6:09 That's all I know. Understandable, because I you know, this podcast is all about sharing your own personal experience. So totally good with that. OK, so yeah, and and that having Escondido now just celebrated a year of being open and I've had a lot of moms, new moms come ask me about predominant pregnancy. They've gone on Reddit like I mentioned the last podcast and they were really mean to her. I was like, this is so weird, like Kratom does so much more, but there's no place for people to learn about more the more other than what it's usually like seeked for as I I wish I could do like a Reddit, but what first of all, I don't really understand that. I don't really understand Twitter. I'm in that weird in between phase where like I just know Facebook and Instagram and usually for me, Facebook is more like a family oriented and Instagram is more like promotional, personal intimate, but then also I know the advertising side because of the business. It's like, I wish there was a place for these women to have this communication because they never cross paths. And Escondido, it's very rare that I'll get like 2 customers, 3 customers at a time.

7:12 Vista will do that and Escondido's like one and then another one. So I have that time, that one-on-one time to spend with them, which is great, but they never cross paths. So I was like, how can I solve that? And then that's how I created the Instagram, Her Plant Wellness. Again, it's very, very, very new and I'm trying to put more effort into it, but I've had some customers start following that page. They've seen my page. And actually fun little story. Last week we were in Vista and we had this lady come in and she's kind of nervous and Sasha and I were there. Marble was out, so I was covering the front and she's like, hey, I had a friend that came basically bought your crate or whatever. I'm a daycare provider. I have a daycare, but today's my day off and I decided to come because when I was with her the other day, I took some, I think it was our main DA.

8:01 Her friend had history with substance abuse kind of stuff and she utilized Kratom to overcome that. And somehow she found this. I'm not sure how. And she just hasn't stopped taking ether since she found this because she's just a local tourist area. So then there's, you know, two friends hanging out. She's like, Hey, I'm really tired. I'm I just need to, I'm tired of drinking coffee and all these things. And her friends are here's here's a mango, gave her some mango and she's like, what the heck is this? This is really great. And knowing her friend's past, she was kind of hesitant at first, but then once her, you know, we as we are educating others, they're able to educate their friends and their family. So she gave her the spiel too, like a little brief spiel and she's like, OK. And then I think her friend went on vacation or something and she said, where is this place at to go get more creative because I really want to try it and like, I give it a chance. And she's like, well, I'm out of town so you're going to have to wait till I come back.

8:55 And this is how kratom in general, not just Ethan, kratom in general is like so good is that she didn't want to wait for her friend to come back from vacation. She started deep diving into Google, started searching like kratom tablets, all these things. One thing led to another. She found us. She went to a store. She gave us her background history and how we know her friend. And she's like, I'm a daycare provider. I have coffee every day. There's a coffee shop by our area that's called a 911 Coffee because it has like how many? I don't even know how many shots of coffee in it. That's about $8. And then there she takes another coffee somewhere else. I think better buzz. But it's something crazy, like a crazy name like that, like a 911 coffee. She's like, I'm tired of taking the coffee. I'm tired of taking the sugar.

9:40 But with the daycare I have kids from, I think she said two or three all the way to 13 and it's a lot. She's like, it's very rare for me to have a day off like today. And I wanted to make it in here somewhere, another to get more information because my friend gave me the information, but she said go in there. She pretty sickly hyped up Maribel because Maribel's the one that helped her. And like, they're very knowledgeable, they can help you, blah, blah. And usually an interaction with the customer takes about maybe 1520 minutes, especially for a new one. That's that's good enough. It's enough for them to like have enough information but not hold them hostage unless they want to keep talking, but not holding hostages like, you know, you just want to keep giving more information, but then you know, they have, they go and they come in their lunch, they come in their break or whatever.

10:20 But she stayed there for almost an hour. We were talking and we were just exchanging stories. And she said that what pulled her into was she found her podcast and she found the episode with Sasha and myself talking about how we utilize creative for our menstrual cycles, cramps, emotions that come with having a menstrual cycle. And that's what brought her in. And now she's an affiliate of ours. So she's like, oh, I'm actually like, I'm barely taking this cradle, but this is an amazing thing. Like I'm going to start telling all my friends about it. And that's the perfect person to share this information because they believe that it really does work. And they're the kind of person where it's like, they're not going to push it down your throat.

11:00 And they're like, hey, this really works. Try it out. And that's kind of how things happen. And this condito too is like, I just have a lot of moms that don't have the support. And then looking into some research and stuff, I realized there's not a lot of, there are some resources for women to seek when they're going through things, but there's not a lot of like acceptance in a sense. And this, this is my opinion. A lot of times you're like your mom, you wanted these kids, you got to deal with it. Who cares if they're bugging you or whatever. You brought them into this world, so you got to deal with it now. And it's not as easy as that. A lot of people aren't really, at least as myself. I mean, I'm not a mom, but talking to my friends and who are moms, there's not a lot of education out there for like postpartum.

11:41 I think out of all my friends who have had kids, maybe to have admitted to having some kind of postpartum depression, but they keep it to themselves. And that's fine keeping it to yourself, but sometimes people are uncomfortable. A lot of people don't talk about all the real insurance and outs about pregnancy, like how your body really does change because nobody ever just talks about it. I don't know why. Marriage troubles too, a lot of sometimes like women are like, why don't the guys understand why I'm feeling this way? It's because even ourselves, we don't even know why we're feeling this way. So that's why I delve deep into how can I learn about Women's Health in general. Just the tip of the iceberg. More about my menstrual cycles. I don't even know that there was different phases, Ludio.

12:23 I don't even know all the names. I'm still learning myself. But there's different phases of your period and that's why it deals with a lot with your hormones where like some weeks you're really bloated, sometimes you're very sensitive, sometimes you're just crying over, I don't know, killing an Ant or something. And you feel like you're crazy in your head. At least that's how I felt. It's like, why am I feeling like this? And that's another reason why I started the my plant Wellness to kind of to my research and what I learned and stuff, kind of share it with the world because I feel like we don't really talk about it often. And the first time this is not like overnight passion project. This has been actually kind of sparked when I used to coach field hockey in high school.

13:04 After I graduated, I became a field hockey coach here locally in a Mesa and I was AJV coach never coached before. I had to coach the girls I used to play with kind of and it was very interesting as well as kind of like a very a really good learning experience. But having that role, I was kind of like a big sister. And that was my first time really realizing that girls, as women, we don't have enough education and why we are the way we are. But it starts with the younger generation, you know, when you're starting your period and stuff. Sex education in high school was very, very, very bare minimum. And they don't really dive into what a period is, how it happens. They should teach you how not to get pregnant. They teach you how to have birth control and that stuff. But it's very, very basic.

13:47 It's not really educational in my opinion. And then when I started coaching, a lot of girls would be like, hey, I can't, I can't practice because of my period. Like, OK, I understand. And as a coach, I never wanted to be that coach where it's like, well, tough luck. You're going to have to do your thing because you're in your period. I understood that it was OK, you get one or two days because I know some of them, some girls would get really, really bad cramps and others won't. And I know the emotions. But in that time, I realized that you know myself, I myself have always been like, OK, let me find out. So I learned about Planned Parenthood, birth control, contraceptives and odd stuff when I was younger, 'cause even back then, like, what is it?

14:28 I graduated 2006. I was confident enough in myself to like do a Google search and figure it out on my own. But some kids don't have that. So that was really my first time of like realizing, hey, a lot of people don't know about all these things cause the girls didn't know about birth control, how I was available to them through pen, pant, hood. A lot of girls were not responsible and taking plan B's and plan B's are not a bad option. But I don't know if you ever knew this one fact. This is this kind of during to another way, but like a birth control. Sorry, a Plan B pill for me and for my size doesn't work because it's not made for me. A lot of people don't know that. They don't know that you should only be taking I think one or two a year.

15:09 I think recently I heard some girls talking at the store. They've taken like 5-6 and they don't realize that that's really bad for them because their knowledge is oh, I'm just take a Plan B problem solved. I'm not going to risk it, but really they're risking other stuff. So as you could tell, I'm really passionate about like trying to put information out there, even if it's like super tiny and it's just my little tiny page of not tied into kratom only, but just in general for women to learn more about them, their bodies. Why we are very hormonal. It's not like, oh, you're such a woman. You're so hormonal. There's a reason behind it. There's science behind it. I don't know all of it. I'm learning it and learning it as I go. But that's the reason why I'm very, very excited to talk about this because I know that creative helps with some of that, Hava can help with some of that. Tomcat Elite can help with some of that. And that's what has what I have relatively available to me. But there are other stuff you can do. Like for instance, I found out might be too my, but one period was really, really heavy to the point where like I couldn't really move comfortably.

16:13 So I went into Google searched and found out that blended beets with molasses helps kind of regulate your period a little bit so it's not so heavy in the natural way. So that way you don't have to take like an I don't even know what you would take actually. Actually they said I went to Sprouts and they told me iodine will help. I took the iodine drops didn't help me for nothing. So during my period, that heavy flow period, I took the beets with the molasses that help with the flow. Iron gummies has helped me. My roots gummies have that's I'm really big on my roots stuff because I know it's good. I use the Mary Ruth's multivitamin for my hair growth because I had I'm very stressful and when I'm really stressed, my hair falls out. You know, you could tell when I'm really stressed because when I brush my hair, a lot of hair is in the brush. So I've been taking the multivitamin hair growth Mary Ruth.

16:59 That really helps. Also too, I've been taking CMOS. CMOS has a lot of minerals and vitamins and also like a natural energies very similar like to Kratom. Cranum obviously helps me significantly with my hormones. Right before my my menstrual cycle where like I feel like I'm crying 'cause I accidentally stepped on an Ant or something. I don't know why that would upset me, but that helps with the hormones. I'm more of the hormone person. I'm more emotional right before my period. My cramps can be pretty. It can be there, but it's not nothing crazy. Sasha has really bad cramps to the point that it affects her legs. She has like leg cramps. She takes sunrise for that. I usually stick to sunrise at midday. Those are my two favorite ones. If I am having a really bad crap time, which is very rare, I'll take Ming Don maybe.

17:44 But yeah, I don't know that answer your question. I just kind of went on the route. It really shows how passionate you are about Women's Health and Wellness, which I think is amazing. And when it comes to kratom, we don't hear a lot of information about all of that together. So for example, on my private online community Kratom Real Talk, which by the way, if our listeners have not joined it yet, it is free Kratom realtalk.com. We've had some Women's Health issues come up from time to time. We've had on occasion people women coming on asking about hair loss with kratom and then also asking about with menstrual cycle. So what's interesting, earlier this year we had a lady in the chat, she was brand new to kratom. She had just started.

18:29 She was young, just started, a young mother just starting her journey. And she had posted and said this is my first cycle while using kratom since I'm an endo adeno warrior. I think endometriosis is what she means a warrior. The majority of my pain is on my cycle. I'm happy to report that kratom significantly helped my pain this time around, but I'm needing to take more and dose more often, which she said was quite interesting. And I've heard some people say that too, that like they notice when they have their period that the normal amount of kratom they consume doesn't work the same way and they have to adjust their dose.

19:13 Have you heard people talk about that? Well, I just realized I agreed with you for first for answer, I realized I agree with you that kratom does cause hair loss. And my experience myself, maybe it has because I mean, I can't really tell because I'm, I have hair loss in general. So I can't say yes or no, but maybe I don't know. I've never had a customer tell me that they had hair loss because they're taking kratom. It could be something more internal with their hormones and all these things. So I just didn't want people to associate hair loss with kratom because personally I haven't experienced it. I read least directly, I've taken kratom the last eight years and I've battled with my hair loss. And I know a lot of the times the hair loss is linked to my gut health, which is a big factor to hair loss and my hormones and my anxiety and all that stuff.

20:00 So I just want to clear that up. And then two, as far as why they need to take more when they're in their cycle, think of this once a month your body goes through the stress, right? To me a period I look at it as a cleansing system or like a self cleaning oven thing. Where you have to have your period in order for your body to function. That's how our bodies were built. That's why myself, when I looked into birth control or anything like that, I geared more towards like a pill or something like a traditional pill because to have a shot stop my period. It didn't make sense to me because I said I need my body to self cleanse itself. But I've never had severe periods where I don't want to have it because it's a horrible experience each time. So for me not having a period, is that the way that I wanted to go versus just having the traditional pill so that my body can clean itself up?

20:51 All right. I don't know how. I think the last year I think I've had two periods that were really bad. You have to think of your cycle is making your body under a lot of distress. You get a lot of hormonal changes, body changes, you get back aches. I've never given birth, but to me those are really the cramps are pretty strong, but it comes with like headache. Sometimes I'm very sensitive to light when I'm on my period. Your body just goes through this like weird thing to extract the cycle. All that right. So I believe, I mean, in my opinion that this is I don't think it's weird to take more or odd because one depends on where you're getting your kratom if you're getting like a concentrator.

21:34 So I can't speak for any other brands, but for us, if we take, if I take like my midday, for example, whole leaf Kratom, whole leaf kratom is always going to be more than, at least in my experience, 8:00 to 11:50, 14-16 tablets. Why? Because it's a whole leaf kratom. It's not a concentrate. There's no additives, there's no binders or anything. We as a society, and I think we talked about this in a podcast with Alex, we're so used to the Tylenol method in a sense where we take one tablet or one capsule, usually tablet and that will solve hair quotes, solve our headache, our back ache, our knee pain, our shoulder pain, Black, right? But The thing is, you take that one tablet, but then in a couple hours it comes back and then you have to take more and then more and more. And unfortunately with those kinds of ibuprofen tunnel, those like over the counter stuff, a lot of it, I can't remember if it's attacks your liver or kidney or something, but it can affect your body in different ways. So you're solving one problem, but now you're creating another one with whole leaf kratum, at least for us who eat them is when I do tell you, consumers, I started with like 6 to 8 tablets, they're like, whoa, that's a lot. But you have to think about it.

22:44 It's just a leaf. It's something else. So anything natural, whether it's a tea supplement or anything, you are gonna have to take more because it's not enhanced or altered to give you the fact that you want to, right? So when your body is in a strain, when it's doing the cramps, when it's muscling, it's going to be not not your everyday feeling. So yes, of course you're going to have to take more. It's like, for instance, sunscreen, you put on your regular sunscreen day-to-day. But if I'm going to the beach, am I going to use the same amount of sunscreen? No, Why? Because I'm going to be in the direction all day. So think of it that way. I think that's normal. I think that if you had to take like half a kilo in a day to deal with your period, OK, then there's something else wrong. The kratom's not going to solve it. I always have to remind everybody that kratom is not your one sub shop is not going to solve your issues. You also have to implement good food. You have to implement moving your body to me, when I move my body when I'm on my period, the cramps are way better and I I don't feel as tight and then also finding food that helps your period.

23:53 So like for instance, like I said, the beats in the molasses Hulk. Also the iron. Try to find iron through food while you're on your period so that you're not just supporting your menstrual cycle year period with just a kratom. Or just tease. You're actually working from the inside out, not just the surface, if that makes any sense. That makes perfect sense. I mean, it's your overall health, you know, not just relying on one. I'm a bit older. When I was younger, it was all about my doll. You take your my doll. Oh yeah, my when? You have your periods. That was that was a huge deal back in the day. What worked right for me was a leave. A leave always helped me tremendously back in those days. You know, I had another interesting post that was on my Kratom Real Talk forum earlier this year as well.

24:37 And it was from one of our members who's a big kratom advocate. And she said that her and a doctor did a survey on kratom and its effectiveness during the menstrual cycle of women. She said 98% of women experience a decrease in the effectiveness of kratom either the week of their cycle or a couple days prior, including the week of. And she said said it was a survey of over 300 women, but nothing was ever written up. They never, it was never published. It was. And the survey really wasn't very complete. But interesting to have her say that it was that many people they surveyed. And 98% said yeah you know it is less effective, meaning they probably would need to take more like you were saying or take it more often would make perfect sense. Yeah, like I said, thankfully I don't have a really bad period. I would think that I don't think it's, I wouldn't see it as an odd thing that right before, because I believe right before your period is when your body's preparing to pretty much release the egg, right.

25:42 So that's when I feel, I hate to say crazy, but that's at what time I feel the craziest where like I have all these cravings. Sometimes I hop between spicy food, sweet and salty. I'll crave random stuff that I don't normally eat in a day-to-day. Also my emotions are more sensitive and then a body body wise too like your body is just more sensitive to certain things, smells too. So like I mean I think even if it wasn't published I would understand it and agree with it because me as a woman I go through those things. So of course I'm going to use a little bit more. Maybe I'll do like midday and sunrise more often. But I mean, I wouldn't disagree with it. Yeah.

26:24 It makes sense to me. I think what would be really smart for any woman that they're noticing a difference in their kratom routine when they they're having a period, whether it's the week before, the during or the after, is to keep a journal and keep track every time you have your cycle. And if you're noticing you're taking more, write that down. If you notice you're taking more often, like right all, then start over months of this, you could really go in and pinpoint and probably figure out, OK, the week before I'm noticing I got to take a little a few more grams and I need to take it one extra time more than I like. Instead of maybe two doses a day a person takes, they need to do 3.

27:04 Like that's the best way to figure it out is keep a journal. So if, if, let's say hypothetically, I had a really bad cycle before or the bad week before my cycle, what I would do is take my regular midday because midday is my perfect one where I don't have pain. So I don't need really much support in that, at least right before my period. I'll need more like the mental mental support, like the focus, the anxiety relief. And then I would probably take sunrise with it because it's, it's more like a pain reliever, but it also gives me the energy. I don't know about you, but when I have my period of my other really bad fatigue, I'm really tired. I come home, I kind of like literally fall asleep on my bed before I even do my nighttime routine or anything. I'm just more exhausted.

27:49 So the day's more draining, the day feels longer. So sunrise is where that will give me that little pick me up during the day. And then nighttime I don't have problems sleeping because I'm tired. So yeah. Can you, you know, I know some of our listeners don't even know what sunrise and may I those, these are two products you're talking about that you have an ether sunrise at midday and these are blends. Can you explain the difference because a few people have asked me about it and they weren't sure like what exactly is what. So tell us like sunrise and the difference between that and midday. So sunrise is a mixture. So just to give a little bit of context to where blends and stuff is, our blends are basically pure veins mixed together based on the acolyte profile when they come in, like we take lab tests. So everything that comes in gets in quarantine, then they get samples out so they can go send it to testing and none of that stuff is touched until testing comes back once it's cleared from some now like all that regular stuff, heavy metals, the guys, Alex really, he looks at the acolyte profile for each batch.

28:52 And then based on that profile, he basically makes like a blend, a recipe for this batch. This is going to be sunrise, a mixture of our mainly white and green with a little bit of red. But based on that profile, it determines how much red and how much green and white. So that's why we can always guarantee that gauge never the exact same thing because as a natural thing, it shouldn't be the exact same thing every time. It should vary. It should vary between 1:00 and 2:00, you know, and that's what our blends are very basic description. And then our sunrise, very popular online is primarily a white and green with a dash of red. So it's going to give you that or it should give you that pain relief, the energy with a little bit of the relaxation. Because I don't know if a lot of people know our Reds are true Reds in our definition.

29:41 When they do describe what our our veins are to new consumers is an acronym that kind of helps them visualize. I'm a visual learner. I'm an audio learner. So if I read something, I don't get it right away, but if I hear it, I understand it. So for me, I tell them red is bad, Yellow's mellow white and green is go basic, right? And then they're like, OK, I kind of get it now. So as I'm explaining, when I mean true Reds is our Reds are going to consist of very low mitrajnine, higher special gene and pen Anthony, which do help with muscle relaxation, tension release primarily. But I believe in a couple episodes ago, I can't remember which one that it can or May 1. I can't remember which alkaloid may help with like mood boosting too. I just can't remember the name of it. So I have to look it up and ask Alex because he's he's like, there's not a lot of research on it yet, but there has been mentions of it.

30:33 I think McCurdy probably started it. I don't know, but yeah. So that's what our true Reds are. So when we want you, when we think of Reds as red bed relaxing, we don't want you to be energized. Like if you were to take mangdar or white or green that is high in Metrogenite. We want your body to relax. So sunrise is really good for just overall, like if you like to have the pain relief protocol or feel like you have the pain relief but then not be too relaxed, sunrise is perfect. Like for me or for like Alex, he's a perfect example. Sunset is the opposite of sunrise, right? So sunset is primarily red with a little bit of white and green. The complete opposite is kind of like a yin and Yang. And for him, the sunset works great because his muscles are tightened.

31:14 His his hips and his back muscles are tightened during the day. So the sunset when he takes it, it relaxes those muscles so that he's able to be loose enough to work during the day. But his body agrees with it because he still can function. He still could do what he's doing and all these things. And then also too, we mentioned in another episode and another podcast was he was hammering actually the episode we just launched this last week. I just remembered he has these projects he has in Big Bear and he had sunset in his system, right? So he was doing carpentry work and he accidentally hammered his hand. And because he had sunset in his system, obviously hammering your hand is going to hurt a lot, but it wasn't as bad as if he wasn't taking creative. So that's kind of another visual for you guys to understand.

31:55 And it didn't swell up either. I mean, he did, but not as much as it would have if he would have not had creative in his system. So that's what true Reds are for us. White and green to us is more like higher MIT, so if you're looking for something that's going to be more energizing pain relief, then you would hit lean towards more sunrise. If you don't want anything of red, then you do Ming Dao, which is just white or green for me and Victor were very similar. We're like sunset. We can't take sunset during the day because we're so sensitive to the red that we'll be too relaxed and we don't like the feeling. So that's why we gravitate towards sunrise if we are struggling with like energy or we're having some kind of headache or something, because sunrise gives us that relief, a little bit of relaxation so that our body can relax, but not enough that we can't really like enjoy the day. I don't know if that answers your question for Sunrise. Well, it's interesting because y'all have a lot, while y'all have the green vein, the white vein, the red vein that you can get individually.

32:52 You also have a lot of different blends. But I do want to let the listeners know the plant still effects everybody differently. So for example, one of my friends, the white, will put her to sleep. You rarely hear that. But a few people, not just her, but a few people have told me they're the opposite, that red gives them energy and wipers them to sleep. I'm like, well, that's interesting it. Could just be the way your body's built, honestly. So like everything that we say has to be with the grain of salt because you can't really base your decision off of your experience, like my experience compared to yours, so that the friend of yours, because everybody's body's built different. OK, So that's why we're really big on giving samples. I know online it's more like centers and sunset because that's kind of like your first like experience. That's summers and sunset are good starters. And then once you figure out which one you like more than you can base your decision on other ones in the store. We encourage, like I, I mentioned in the last episode, I don't push people to buy.

33:50 I give them the education so that they can have enough information to make an informed decision. I go through each blend and see what piques their interest, like what made their ear pop like, oh, this might help me. And then we give samples and I say, take these home, take them on a day that you're not doing anything because you don't know how your body's going to react on the weekend, see how it goes. Take, take however you feel comfortable with, wait 10-15 minutes, see how you feel, evaluate your body, but don't sit there and wait for it to work because a lot of it is you just have to go about your day and you won't even notice. Like, you know, when you take coffee, as soon as you take like a, a quad shot at Starbucks, which is four shots of espresso, boom, you feel like, Oh my God, I can do anything that I'm cleaning, I'm deep cleaning up, I'm doing yard work.

34:30 I have the kids and then I don't know where you just crash, right? With kratom, you don't feel that like rocket energy. You feel it subtly, or at least for me. No, it is. It's with me and so many people I've talked to. I think that's one of the best things about kratom because you're right. You take like a big shot of caffeine. You're jolted back when I was in pain management for nine years. You take those, those opioids, it hits you like it can take a while, but then it hit, you know when it hits. And with kratom, with Kratom for me, since day one, it's like it's subtle. I'll be like 1520 minutes later doing something, I'm like, oh wow, my back pain just went away. Like it went away, but not with me even noticing.

35:13 Like it, you know, it's, it's so subtle and I love that. And that's the feedback I get a lot with people who are trying to use kratom instead of the opioids is that they don't like the opioids because one, the way they feel the side effects and all adverse events, all these side effects, side effects, all these things. But the biggest thing is like even I think it also has to do as you age as well, because I bake on the side like like my hobby thing. And when I do my best baking at night time and when everybody's asleep, it's just like in my zone, my music and I usually have an energy drink because I want to take kratom. I want a short bolt of energy. I don't want to have to take kratom and then be up a 10 hours and if I'm only going to bake for a couple hours, right. So I used to take I used to drink Aulani energy drinks. Those are my favorite take sugar free, blah, blah. And they're the flavors are unique. And then it was just like a nice little drink, you know, while I bake the other day I took 1 and I felt so sensitive to it. I felt like I was taking 4-4 or eight quad shots or two quad shots, making eight shots of espresso. I said I cannot drink this anymore. I don't know what happened in my biology. The zycon, I don't remember the last time I took it. But you also have to be aware of that. Listen to your body.

36:24 Listen to what your body's telling you. Your body does such a good job of telling you how it feels, whether it's feeling nauseous, sensitivity to light, your body aches, anything like that. That's the one thing you have to learn before you take anything, not just kratom, anything new even like for example, skin care. You could be taking you who can have the same skin care routine for 10 years and one day you decide to add an extra cream and then out of nowhere your face starts breaking out. You just have to be able to understand how your body works and how it how it expresses to you that it's not feeling comfortable. And as far as my experience, I've never had that that like, oh, this is not working for me. Aside from any kratom that has really high mint versus like Magda Daybreak for me is the no but slim fit.

37:10 Yes, slim fit works really well for my coffee replacement, which is Magna that has our widened grain with matcha green tea. I mentioned in the last podcast, I'm not about concentrate. Concentrates are way too strong for me. I'm very sensitive. But the one that I can do and it's comfortable is the the creative mint, the regular creative mint. Creative mint is actually, I'm going to go to Disneyland today. And so I'm going to take one of those before I get on the road so I don't fall asleep. But the Creative Mint is good for me for days like that where I'm going to Disneyland or I'm taking my nephew out or whatever, anything that it's out of the everyday day-to-day routine. I forgot your question. Oh no, this is just, no, I just love, this is just so awesome, Amanda. And it always goes back to, I feel like we can talk about these things all day.

37:53 There's just so many. But as we start wrapping up, are there any other questions that people come into the store and ask you about when it comes to Women's Health? Women so speaking more like the menstrual cycle Alex has mentioned that are sentiments, which is the concentrative kratom, which is a hymant primarily and then the Kava helps with Mesa cramps for me. I tried it, but honestly I don't have really bad cramps for it to feel in effect. I believe Sasha did feel because she has the leg cramps that helps her. I haven't really had any feedback on that as far as other women I know they tried it, but I mean I don't talk to everybody and then the one that I've been actually trying to do is Tonkat Ali. So Tonkat Ali is not kratom. It's a another botanical that it's tongue cattle leaves a name or I can't even do.

38:39 This is that the name of the plant? Because it's a plant, right? It's a root. It's the root of the plant. It's not the actual plant. So it's known as tongue cat, but Ruby suroshi or something like that is the sensitivity name, but it's basically the root of the plant. What we do is the same thing. We compress it into a tablet and usually it's known for like for men to help with their testosterone levels go up. But fun fact is when we're going through our cycle, our menstrual cycle, our testosterone levels are really high. So we don't need that, right? Any and the rest of the month is where our testosterone levels, even as women, we do need some like well, at least what I've been told in a might have been read is we do need some kind of testosterone ourselves, but it could be very low compared to other stuff.

39:23 Right. I was telling Alex that I've only it takes a while. First of all, for tomcat, or we call it revitalize online. I revitalize to really take into effect. It's not as fast as kratom. So one be patient with it because it's not like an instant reaction. It has to be in your system for a while to use to feel effect. So I can restore your energy too. It can be used as a pre workout kind of thing. A lot of butt muscle bodybuilder guys use it to help with their hormone levels as well. Women have used it for their pre and menopausal issues that they have. That's a conversation for another day. What? About if you're in menopause does Tom Catali is yeah, because helpful with that. I'm not really I wouldn't say an expert, but haven't really delved into menopause really.

40:11 OK, I'm still trying to understand the cycle 1st and then gravitate toward graduate to the metro. However, I do have experience with my mom and let me tell you, kratom has been a lifesaver because just as as our bodies go through all these things during our cycle, once you go in through menopause, it goes so kind of similar. Being on the receiving end of that is very interesting. So my mom really, really likes sunrise to deal with her menopausal stuff and midday sunrise and midday at top tier in my household. And I'm trying to get her to TikTok out of leave, but you know, she's a kid. I have to like keep reminding her she's not really good at taking a but she will take her cradle without having to be told. So that says a lot in itself.

40:51 So, and maybe that's a conversation we have another day because I'm not that informed on it or that well educated on it. It would be interesting to learn more about kratom with with the pre menopause was that perimenopause and then in menopause it would be interesting to learn more about that. But the Tomcat Alley y'all did a podcast episode where y'all talked about it and I found it so interesting and it made me want to try it. I haven't yet but I probably will. But I'll link to that in the show notes because that you'll have an episode on that and an episode on Women's Health. Y'all did last year. That was really good. I'm going to definitely link up to that because, you know, if people listening to this have not listened to your podcast live fully with kratom, they really should because y'all, y'all do an amazing weekly podcast.

41:36 You'll share so much information. I love it. Yeah, I'm actually surprised that the lady last week came in because of this podcast session I did about Women's Health. And then actually based on numbers on the views and listens, clicks and all that, the Tom Cataly one whenever we talk about Tom revitalize is what we call it Aditha. It does really good because again, there's not a lot of education and our hormones and our bodies and stuff like that. We've kind of been like, do this, this and this to prevent a pregnancy or to not get a girl pregnant or use a pattern temp on because you have to do with your period. Take the my dollar Tylenol, but nothing more than that. So people are curious, very curious feature. So when we find something new and TikTok is a great way to learn as well as you know, you've shared a lot of information, but there's a lot of information that we just don't know about yet.

42:21 So that's why another reason I'm passionate about it. But going back to Tomcat, though, the way that I'm going to be utilizing it or have been the last month or so, but I haven't been consistent. That's my own fault is kind of treating it like a birth control pill where during my period I'm not going to take it because something about you have to like three weeks on, one week off for some reason, I'm assuming because of hormone balance. And I was like, oh, OK, well I'm just going to use it like a birth control. The week that I'm on my period, I'm not taking it because I don't need testosterone support because my levels are really high in that time. And then the other three weeks of the month I'll take it. So that's how I'm going to be taking it. I always thought it was about two tablets was what I had to take, but Alex said no, you could take like four. And then I am a little bit bigger, so I might take 4/6 so that I can feel the difference.

43:06 I don't think we have it in powder form anymore. Definitely in tablets, but don't take it in powder. One time the guys called my blood. I mean, the Alex, I was like, why don't you just take the powder? Because we were out of tablets for a little bit. We just didn't have room in production to make more. So all they had was powder and that and the the guys use it. Alex is the victories that the production guys use it. Actually one of the production guys, Kevin, we did a podcast with him too and he talked about how he uses it and he's like a big, big guy, big Muslim guy. So he does a lot of weight lifting and he called my bluff. He's like, oh, you want to try the powder? I'm going to make you tea. Oh my goodness, that was the nastiest tea ever. So thank goodness we have tablets. I mean, but I'm very spoiled too. I've never had kratom powder or I have, but like I don't have to utilize kratom powder.

43:50 I can use use the tablets but. Y'all's tablets are amazing. I'm telling you for anybody new to create like if I had known y'all about your company and tablets when I started my journey in 2016, I would have just done tablets because that first time I drink that kratom tea, I was like, whoa, this tastes bad. It takes a while to get used to that taste and you have to like put other things in in it to mask the the taste of it. But tablets are just but you know what somebody said to me recently, probably a tick tock comment. They said it still tastes like I did that it still tastes bad. Well, I'm not telling anybody to just leave it on your tongue like it's a tablet. Take it like you take a pill. And when I use use them and, and for my usual powder dough's, I do 12 of the ether tablets and you know, I do like 3 or 4 at a time and I don't taste it because I'm popping them in drinking water, washing it down.

44:41 And I mean, I don't want to just sit in my mouth because then it would taste gross. Honestly, I have AI have a couple customers that they like to chew on the tablets for some reason. Really interesting. I was like, well, why don't you just take powder? And they said because it's it's like the chewing of the like destructing the tablet in their mouth is what they like and the powder, you can't really chew it because it's so fine. We call it like nano powder. Who knows what we call it now, but but it the powder that we have, at least from what I've seen others, we we triple quote whatever, filter it through these machines and the powder is kind of like almost like baby powder consistency, or should it be at least? But the reason we filter it or sift it so much is because when you make your tea, there's things like plant fibers in there, right? So I mean, you don't want like chunky plant fibers in there. So we try to sift it enough so that when you do do your tea in the powder form, at least it's a little bit smoother and it's not as chunky as it would if we did it. I think it's called nano grind.

45:36 It called nano grind. I've heard that. Nano. Powder I've heard that term in the industry nano so it's like a ground more like baby powder yeah, I know y'all's kratom. I really love it. I use y'all's grain and it's just, it is very, very fine, like baby powder and I love and then tablet. And then for those that don't know y'all's tablets, they have no fillers. You could take one of your ether tablets, crush it in your hand or chop it up in your kitchen. It is the powder. It's the powder you can also buy through your company is like, it's just no fillers. And yeah, so which I think is super. No fillers, no binders, no additives. It's literally I think 5 to 10 tons of pressure.

46:17 Could be wrong. I don't do the tablets myself but. I remember I asked when I had, you know, I had episode with, with Victor, I had one with Alex and Victor went into great detail here on Kramer Stories podcast about how Alex created the tablets and, and yeah, the pressure and stuff to to with the mold. And so it's fascinating. I'll definitely link to that in the show notes too, because if anybody has not heard that episode, it's fascinating. It's fascinating to listen to Alex because he talks about so much with the science. Oh my God, he's amazing with that. He's actually, we were just told, I don't know, this is like a pre thing, but he's going to be entered in the Hall of Fame for the AKA, so that's kind of cool. That I saw that and I am too. Me and my kratom gals we. Are nice. One of our kratom gals, Misty Brown, already got induction first round.

47:02 Thank you. But this new second round, yeah, I saw Alex's name and then me and the other two kratom gals. It's like, whoa, that's really cool. And it's really nice having our consumer lobbying group that really appreciates those of us that advocate and businesses like like yours, you know, that that works so hard in the community to help educate people and advocate for the plant. It's amazing. That's honestly like what we want to do is just like, there's so much misinformation. I'm so glad that people are so much open to it. And now that like, OK, creative is good, at least general public feels like it now. It's not as scary as before when we first started. Now other doors are opening like the Women's Health. And I mean, I don't have a lot of experience obviously in men's health because I'm not a guy.

47:48 But hopefully one day I'll be able to delve into that and then help men too. Because unfortunately, a lot of the times men are forgotten and people don't realize that men do struggle themselves as like a provider, as a husband, as a partner at work, All the stress that they're under too. And even with myself, I'm still learning also. But as my dad has gotten older, he's more of a traditional guy and he's gone through a bunch of stuff and we always put guys and he's like even my brother too. Like we put these guys on the pedestal to be the strong people, providers, all these things. And we forget that they have feelings too. They have struggles. They have struggles within themselves, like I'm not doing enough for my family. I'm not providing enough, all these things. And sometimes we forget.

48:33 Like I saw a quote the other day where it said men don't get their first bouquet of flowers until they're not no longer with us anymore. And that hit me hard. I was like, wow, I never realized that. Like, I don't think I've ever gotten my dad's flowers. And that makes sense because I always make sure my mom has some, but I never thought, oh, my dad might want some, you know? So even now, like my friend, my best friend's birthday was a couple weeks ago and she shares her birthday with her son. So I usually give her a bouquet of flowers and I made sure you Trader Joe's gives you like a little kid 1. So I made sure to buy him a little bouquet of flowers so that he would feel special too. And then that goes into cycle breaking. And also that's another conversation. I'm really big on that too. But it's totally one day I can get delve into the guy, the guy side of things, but I don't know it enough to understand like what they really go through.

49:17 And it's going to be hard because a lot of guys aren't really that open to admit that they are going through stuff. And just gotta remind if you have a partner or a husband and a boyfriend or whatever, it just, you know, OK, yeah, we're going through our hormonal issues as women, but imagine being on the receiving end of that, right? And what we're putting in them there, you know, OK, have our time and and be our little crazy cells. But then after the the storm's over, you know, appreciate your person, your partner in life, your husband, whoever, your brother, even your cousin, whoever's there to support you during those times. Just remember about them because just as much as you're going through something, they're on the receiving end. And sometimes it's not the best on that side. So that's that's the goal eventually, but we'll see how how so we'll get there.

50:00 Well, as always, I mean, this is such a great conversation. I feel like we're just scratching the surface yet again. But I think Women's Health such an important topic and we'll definitely have you come back on with some other topics. You talk to so many people with the stores with through the customer service work you do and the long number of years you've been in the industry. You know so much. And for our listeners, if they have any topics they want Amanda to come on and talk about, you know, reach outlet me know if you have a specific question for Amanda, you know, we'll definitely have our back on again and to closeout. Let's be sure to have people go check out your Instagram that you were talking about earlier. Your her plant Wellness is that can they like?

50:41 Is that a good place for them to actually connect with you? Like to DM you there? They can connect with me there. Just like I mentioned the last podcast too is I don't have the e-mail linked to the page. So one day maybe I might have to make a new one. But I am gonna make an e-mail just in case If you guys want to e-mail like a Google e-mail or something just to get information really for you guys, because I think this is a good outlet for me to get to your guy, to you guys. If you can't make it into a store, if you don't get us online and e-mail, I mean, of course, you could always e-mail support our Ether naturals and we're more than happy to give you a call or whatever. But if you want to meet specifically, which you all want because you're listening to me now, I'll come up with an e-mail and then I'll give it to Madeline to put in the description. And then we can do that and maybe use those questions in future episodes.

51:26 And then you can help you guys out. And I mean, they can reach out to you and get those questions to you too. For me. That's OK. Yeah, they they can definitely message on that page. That would be great. I have access to it. I'll let you guys know when I don't. But yeah, they can reach out there. And then before we close, I did look up like these hotlines for women. So if you are struggling with stuff, this is some common information that I found. This is substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. So it's short term is Sam Hassa. They have a hotline for that where you do one, 806, six, two help, which is translates to 4357. They're available 24/7. Their website, I'll give you the information to link the website and their Instagram so you can reach out to them.

52:08 And then another one that was really popular that I found when I did a little research is the Postpartum Support International, which is, I guess is an organization that helps women with postpartum stuff. I again, I feel like that conversation needs to be had. I think we've gone long enough not having those uncomfortable conversations that it's time for us to have them because a lot of women struggle with it and sometimes it doesn't end up good for them or their families or their children. So I think that that's really important for us to talk about. And then their number is 1-800-944-4773. They have an English and Spanish one. I'll give it to you to, to link if you'd like. They have tech support, text support as well, which is interesting.

52:50 I never heard of that. But some people are more comfortable texting than calling people. So that's great. And then I'll give you the website and the Instagram too. But I just wanted to put out there in case you are struggling with something. I know a lot of like, like one of somebody that I know that just had a baby suit recently. I always make sure to ask about her postpartum. How are you feeling? Kind of. Breastfeeding is a crazy thing in itself, and it's very mentally draining. It's a good job. It's just like, yeah, I'm striking a little bit. So I just make sure that, like, OK, give me your baby story, your birth, blah, blah. But then how are you doing? Because sometimes once the baby's here, we forget about the mom, too. It's all about the mom while she's pregnant because, you know, you want to have the beautiful baby. You have the baby. And it's almost kind of like the mom is the afterthought. So I want to break that kind of narrative as well. So, and then yesterday actually was National Mental Health Awareness Day or something like that. So we did a little post for that as well. So it's kind of cool, good timing that we're having this conversation today.

53:42 Yes, definitely, definitely. I'm so glad we had this conversation. This is this is great. So thank you so much for spending time. I'll put links to all of this in the show notes so people can get access to it, and we will definitely come back and chat more soon. Yes, can't wait. Thank you. Thank you for listening. You can get more information at kratomstoriespodcast.com, including show notes from this episode.