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Empower Your Heart Health Series: How Nutrition Can Save Your Heart
Episode 7429th October 2024 • Open Heart Surgery with Boots • Boots Knighton
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Hello Heart Buddies! This is our 5th and final installment of the Empower Your Heart Health Series! Cardiac dietitian, Michelle Routhenstein, comes back for one more powerful episode of how to take control of your heart health through science-based nutrition. She shares inspiring success stories, including a client who dramatically improved her heart function and another who avoided surgery by reducing artery inflammation. TRUE STORY! Michelle emphasizes that dietary choices significantly impact overall heart health, urging listeners to be proactive and empowered in their care.

Next up on the podcast...the next series starts next week! "Hope for the Holidays" revisits a few past guests' stories. I check in with them and hear the latest on how they are THRIVING post heart event.

How to find Michelle

Michelle Routhenstein, MS, RD, CDCES, CDN

Cardiology Dietitian and Preventive Cardiology Nutritionist

Owner of Entirely Nourished, LLC

Sign up for her next Optimize Group at here. This is an affiliate link and by signing up, you support this podcast. Thank you!

About the program: Optimize is a six-week virtual heart optimization group program designed to teach you how to protect your heart through science-based nutrition. In this live program, Michelle Routhenstein, a cardiovascular dietitian, leads Zoom lectures that delve into arterial health and how to enhance your cardiovascular risk profile. She addresses underlying issues like inflammation, oxidative stress, and insulin resistance using evidence-based nutritional strategies. Throughout the six weeks, you'll also have access to a private community for questions, support, and the implementation of science-based heart-healthy changes to safeguard your heart for the long term.

Get in touch...P: (646) 979-0328 E: Michelle@EntirelyNourished.com

http://www.entirelynourished.com 

Join the Patreon Community! The Joyful Beat zoom group starts in November 2024.

**I am not a doctor and this is not medical advice. Be sure to check in with your care team about all the next right steps for you and your heart.**

How to connect with Boots

Email: Boots@theheartchamberpodcast.com

Instagram: @openheartsurgerywithboots or @boots.knighton

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/boots-knighton

Boots Knighton

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Open Heart Surgery with Boots

Transcripts

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If there's something in the arteries, if there's inflammation, if there's stress in

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the arteries and there's chaos, your heart's going to overwork. It's going to

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accelerate any condition, whether it's genetic

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cardiomyopathy or whether it's coronary artery disease

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or, you know, whether it's any gamut of the heart health

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picture. And I think that's a really important thing to recognize that

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what we eat has so much impact,

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whether it's a negative impact or a positive impact.

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Thank you so much for coming back for another episode of open heart

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surgery with Boots. If you've been with me this month, you know

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that Michelle and I have been doing this incredible almost

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deep dive really into a lot of really important topics of

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eating for heart health. And I've

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shared little antidotes each week of how Michelle has

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directly impacted my life and my husband's life. But I

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wanted you, Michelle, to have this last installment

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of our five part series. And I said to you, what is

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one thing you want to shout from the

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mountaintops, from the chair that you sit

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in? And I am just going to give you free reign now to

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like shout from the mountaintop. What do you need us to

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know? I want you to take your health in your own

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hands. I want you to be a active

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participant in your care and know you have more control

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than you think or that you're told you have.

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I want to share with you a couple stories because I think it

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would empower you to realize that you have

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a lot of control in your power if you really start

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implementing science based nutrition and taking it

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seriously and making it a part of your lifestyle and

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embracing it. Why do I say that? So I had a client who came to

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see me. She had cardiomyopathy and all of a

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sudden her ejection fraction went down to 20%.

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And the doctor said, I want to add on two more

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medications and I want you to consider a pacemaker.

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And she's young, she was in, she's 45

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and she decided to join my one on one

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program together. And she said to me, Michelle, my

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body doesn't do good with medications. I'm scared to go on to

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two medications and I really don't want to do a surgery

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that's really scary to me. I'm really young. Why is that what he's telling

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me to do? So she talked with me in a discovery call, which I do

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for all my one on one clients to make sure that I can help them.

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And she went back to the doctor. And she's like, listen, I want to try

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this with a dietitian. Can I retest it in, you

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know, a month and a half? And I said to her, you know, in a

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month and a half is your. I don't know if your ejection fraction is going

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to go above 20%. It may come up a little bit, but we can try

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and do our best. She's like, well, the doctor said that nutrition is not going

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to help that. He's like, you know what? I'm going to. I'm going to put

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in the script for you. You can do whatever you want. When you're ready,

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you go pick up the script, and then when you're ready, we can come do

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the pacemaker. But if you want a month and a half, okay, fine. Do what

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you want to do. This woman was so motivated

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to help increase her ejection fraction, which is the pumping ability of

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the heart. We worked together very closely. She went back to get

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a cardiac MRI, and her ejection fraction went up

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to 48%. In one and a half months,

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it went from 20 to 48%. I'm like, I did not

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expect that to happen. Like, I'm impressed always by my clients. I'm like, how

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did that happen? The doctor says, we don't need to change your medication. He's like,

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I don't know how this happened, but whatever you're doing, keep doing it. And

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then I will repeat another cardiac MRI in

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maybe two years. She's like, two years? That's too

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long. She's like, she was advocating. She's like, I wanted in.

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Like, at least do an echo in, like, six months. She knew what

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to ask for, and she wanted to listen to her gut

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instinct. And I think that that's really important and

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empowering because we tend to go into this medical model of

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fear. You got to heart fill your diagnosis. That's

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scary. You look online, it tells you, you know, you

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have a low life expectancy. That's scary. You have a life

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you want to live. And I really want to stress the importance

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that you have more control than you think. Your body's

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resilient. Your body can recover. Your

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body, when we intervene as early as possible, yes, your chances are

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much higher. I can never guarantee that your ejection fraction is going to go

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up so quickly, and I never do. But what we can do

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is nourish our body to allow our vascular system,

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our arteries, to not be so stiff, to reduce the burden on the

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heart so that it can do its job. More effectively. And I

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see so many beautiful stories with the power of science based nutrition

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that I really want to give you hope. I want to give you hope that

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just because you have a diagnosis does not mean that you have to have health

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anxiety for the rest of your life. You need to understand your

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condition, what you can do about it, continue to monitor

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it, see that it's effective, and then you know, you have the

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actual plan for a long and healthy life. And that is

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the key. I want you to take an empowered approach. I'm going to give you

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one more story. Just because these stories shock me. I literally

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do a dance in my like, literally. They're telling me, I'm like, like. One of

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my clients was like, are you ready? Sit down. And I'm like, they know me.

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But now they're like, sit down. Are you ready? One of my

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clients, he came to me after his third heart

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attack. He's like 46. He's like, Michelle, I don't know

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what I'm doing wrong. The doctor told me to lose weight. I went on the

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paleo diet, I lost the weight, I got a heart attack. Like he told me

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then to, you know, lose 10 more pounds, they'll be

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fine. So I tried it a car, like, I tried all keto

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diet, I tried the vegan diet, I've tried every diet, nothing's working. And so he

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had his third heart attack and when the doctor was inside him and said, I

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can't put a stent in, there's too much inflammation. He's like, come back in

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three months and I will put a stent in in three months because I just

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can't. There's not enough like I unable to do it right now. We worked

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together for those three months. He goes back to the doctor,

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they go inside and the doctor's like, I don't need to stent you anymore. Like,

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that stuff is not seen in the research. And I'm like, wait, what? He was

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like, yeah. The client goes to me, why didn't you just stent me? I'm

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like, do you realize what just happened? You allowed for

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your arteries and that plaque to shrink and open

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up. Like that is science based nutrition at its finest. And I

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don't think people are sharing these stories enough because you're

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not going to get a randomized control trial where people are having personalized science

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based nutrition, optimizing all these values and then someone going

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inside of them and looking at their arterial health. It's just not what

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research looks like these days. It's just undoable but

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when you hear these impactful stories, it makes me want to continue showing

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up in my work because I love what I do because it's

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really impacting people's lives. And doctors

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literally call me and they're like, how did you do that? And I'm like, I

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didn't do anything. I guided my clients to optimal health

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and the body's resilient. And this goes in from aortic

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root dilation. There was a guy who had a huge aortic root

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aneurysm that they wanted to do surgery on. It shrunk. Nowhere in

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the research shows that you can shrink it, not even with medication. I'm like, wow,

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I didn't think that was possible. Right. But you just think

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about it. If there's something in the arteries, if there's inflammation, if

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there's stress in the arteries and there's chaos, your heart's going to overwork.

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It's going to accelerate any condition, whether it's genetic

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cardiomyopathy or whether it's coronary artery disease

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or, you know, whether it's any gamut of the heart health picture.

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And I think that's a really important thing to recognize that what we eat

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has so much impact, whether it's a negative

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impact or a positive impact. And so

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I don't want people to be eating only to protect

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their heart. I want it to nourish their entire body. But when you

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understand why certain things do certain things, and

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you know how to make it delicious and palatable and

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enjoyable, it makes your life so

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much better in terms of reduction in health,

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anxiety, increasing confidence. And also, you're

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like, man, I kicked this in the butt. Like, I did

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that. And you should pat yourself on your. On the back for doing

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that. Like, it is a big feat. And I think a lot of times we

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hear. And I hear clients say, my doctor told me that this is what it

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is, or this is, I have to take these medications for life. And I ha.

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I'm going to have another surgery soon, or I'm going to have this, I'm going

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to have that. And you kind of just say, okay, well, that's what the doctor

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said. So you almost become complacent in your. In your

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plan of care. I want you. And I'm going to screen this to take an

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empowered approach. You got this. You have more control than you

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think. You just have to be proactive and really take

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charge in your health. Love it. Nothing else to be said.

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That's. That's the. The best truth bomb we can end on. So

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thank you Michelle for your time. Thank you for

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being with us this month. I will play us out

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with you explaining your course that

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folks can sign up for. It starts in

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November. I cannot recommend it enough. I have

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directly benefited from one on one with her. I didn't take the course

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because I knew I needed like a lot of help and I needed a lot

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of focused help and so I elected to do one on one.

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But do do consider working with Michelle.

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And I want to know, I want to hear from you listeners if you have

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found this series helpful. If you would like more of this in the new

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year. Yes, this podcast is about open heart

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surgery, but part of that is how to thrive after open

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heart surgery, maybe even how to avoid it. Michelle has given

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us so much to think about on how to even avoid open heart

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surgery and so you will find find her in all the

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show notes through all of October. Thank you so much.

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And up next on Open Heart Surgery with Boots, I will be

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highlighting past heart patients that I've interviewed

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here. We'll be going into a new series called Hope for the

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Holidays, so be sure you tune in for that. Thank

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you so much. This podcast is not able

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to be what it is without you listeners and so remember, I

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love you. Remember that you are worthy of

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thriving even with your heart journey and

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I am here to be your heart buddy. So

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please come back for November, December for our next series

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of Hope for the Holidays. Thank you.

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