Ep. 86: Battling Disparities in Society and Medicine with Dr. Tracy Freeman- Chief Medical Officer of BB&R Wellness

Dr. Tracy Freeman is an integrative medical physician who focuses on achieving wellness through a combination of holistic and conventional medicine mythologies. Tracy has progressively reoriented her practice to include natural treatments and a search for the root cause of disease. She also happens to be BB&R’s Chief Medical Officer and has appeared on the podcast before. Listen as Dr. Freeman discusses a variety of issues, including how to manage the stress of COVID-19 and different ways to protect yourself from the virus. Dr. Freeman also takes on the issues of racial disparities in medicine and in our society at large, and we are so happy to have her on to help educate and enlighten everyone about the challenges people of color are facing today.

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Show Notes

[2:46] But I would say if you protect your eyes, you wash your hands and you wear a mask, that's pretty amazing. And then if you avoid crowds indoors, that pretty much ices the cake in terms of protection. Then I feel like you've done as much as you can do on your part.
[3:39] The biggest hub of your immune system is your gut.
[4:04] I think that if your immune system is on point, you honestly don't have to do much else. The problem is that life happens and so stress will lower your immune system. We know that for sure. A bad diet will lower your immune system. And then inadvertently, by the way, it doesn't first of all give you new nutrition to support yourself, but also impacts your gut negatively.
[7:59] If a Caucasian spends 10 minutes in the sun, it is thought that if they spend 10 minutes with their face and arms exposed, they get a nice daily dose of vitamin D. And that's at a decent high, you know, high noon or something like that sun. An African-American would have to spend 30 minutes for the equivalent.
[9:28] And perhaps in the end we may find that we don't have the tests we thought we had as the numbers pour in.
[9:57] I think COVID has been an extrovert's nightmare.
[10:36] I think the body on the whole takes change as stress, good change, bad change. I think that sometimes it doesn't like you to make broad strokes of change. It needs a moment to catch on.
[11:01] All the sleep in the world you can have through COVID, and some people are unable to get any because, you know, your money's not where it was, your job is and secure, life as we know it is likely to change from here out. Whether it's because COVID is here, or because we have a post-traumatic stress behind it. You know, are we going to wear a mask even when there's no signs of COVID And we might because we're just so freaked out by what's happened.
[11:28] You have to kind of give yourself a pass and say, "OK, this is normal to feel uncertain and unsteady in a time that is unprecedented.”
[12:04] That allows you to be together and apart. This is what we're here for, to some degree is, to learn and live cohesively.
[12:58] It looks like we're gonna all have to create our own little pods, right? So you find people that, you know, have been kind of quarantined too, and don't have any symptoms and say, okay, we're going to make exceptions for each other and kind of be in each other's space. And that allows you to kind of live to be the way you're used to.
[15:23] And when I got to high school, we had a class of 100 girls and there were twelve of us in our class. And everyone who saw us was like, you guys are the most black people I've ever seen.
[16:45] So having boys, right? That throws another monkey wrench into the race journey because you do end up having to say... I haven't gotten to the age where my youngest who is not on the spectrum is driving, but yet we still talk about. What do you do when you get pulled over? When he loves hoodies and it's just like you can not wear that hoodie up. I'm sorry. You just, I cannot have someone mistake you for or judge you for having just wearing that hood up at all.
[17:25] Black males are dealing with a stereotype that they're dangerous, right? That they're inherently something to be afraid of. And you have to combat that. You know, it'd be nice if you can have a conversation, but really, it's life or death. There's no time for that. You just have to be prepared and prepare them.
[19:59] There's something that you have to experience and feel that white people don't feel.
[20:05] This truly is based on like long term stereotypes. And that's hard to combat.
[21:18] So I think before now, it was everyone proclaiming they're not racist, but now they're kind of like, show me that you're not racist.
[21:53] I think it is this generation that has kind of made a call to action.
[22:33] What I think is going on is like a great time of, like, light coming to the darkness, right? So this is clearly like the end of an era, I think. And they're ushering in through just a movement of this can no longer stand.
[23:27] The fact that where it counts, the money, right? So corporations are standing up or being pinpointed for not standing up. That is definitely a line in the sand. It's letting the world know you cannot cross it, we do not accept this nor tolerate this in our corporate culture.
[24:29] To me, the police that have continued to do police brutality, knowing that you are on film and the world is watching, suggests that they don't care.
[25:38] I'm impressed with this generation. I think that they are doing an amazing job. And just the way they persist and the way they go, they keep moving forward. And you see, you know, doing it peacefully, really.
[26:10] Now it's like get out and protest.
[26:34] That's how peace is made. It kind of is these concessions to say, OK, you had the racist flag forever, which I didn't notice before, but I assume it's true. And now you don't. And I honor that change.
[27:00] This generation, I would say when we were growing up, it was considered our job to kind of educate whites on blacks. And now they're saying, OK, whites need to kind of go within themselves and figure out for themselves, have those conversations amongst themselves and work on it. How do we as a group, in our conversations, not allow someone to say something that's inappropriate or how do I work on my not having the stereotypes?
[28:50] The hard part is to stay stable, right? To keep your head in the game without allowing your emotions to take over.
[29:53] That here we are, the unemployment rate is high, which means we can all go out and protest if we want to. So even if you're telecommuting, you can go protest if you want to or teleworking, I should say. It couldn't be any more divine. I don't know that if any other president, we would have this kind of pushback.
[30:11] And maybe if we don't get the leadership from the top, that's propelled the younger people to do it themselves.
[30:36] But when you didn't hear anything, you realized the fight has to come from you.
[31:20] It feels like it has to be kind of the beginning of something new.
Thank you for joining us on Health Gig. We loved having you with us. We hope you'll tune in again next week. In the meantime, be sure to like and subscribe to this podcast, and follow us on healthgigpod.com.

“You have to kind of give yourself a pass and say, "OK, this is normal to feel uncertain and unsteady in a time that is unprecedented.” - Dr. Tracy Freeman
“ I think before now, it was everyone proclaiming they're not racist, but now they're kind of like, show me that you're not racist.” - Dr. Tracy Freeman
“Here we are, the unemployment rate is high, which means we can all go out and protest if we want to. So even if you're telecommuting, you can go protest if you want to or teleworking, I should say. It couldn't be any more divine.” - Dr. Tracy Freeman

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