June 19, 2025 • 38 mins
Join us as we reveal the shocking truth about the lubricants you're using and how they may be secretly harming your vajayjay. When it comes to intimate wellness, we often overlook the importance of using safe and healthy products. But the reality is that many lubricants on the market contain harmful chemicals that can disrupt our reproductive health. In this video, Heather shares her expertise on what to look out for when choosing a lubricant and how to make informed decisions about your feminine health. You'll be empowered to take control of your intimate wellness and make positive changes that will benefit your overall health. Tune in to learn more about safe lubes and how to prioritize your reproductive health.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
And then just to preface, don't ever use avaginal lubricant inside your There are a
variety of different types of lube out there.
The most common are gonna be your your waterbased, your petroleum based, and then your your
silicone based.
And the problem with what we have out on themarket is is that most of it shouldn't go into
(00:25):
the vaginal biome.
Most women don't know that we should be lookingat osmolality and this is how the fluid flows
in and out of your vaginal wall, yourepithelial cell layer of your vagina.
This is your protective barrier to STIs,bacteria, fungus.
And if you start introducing ingredients thatare not iso osmolar, they're either hypo or
(00:49):
hyper osmolar, then what happens is slowly overtime, your epithelial cell layer, your vaginal
wall begins to dry out and it literally fallsout.
So you've just lost your barrier of protection.
Don't, don't, don't ever.
Your your biome does not need that.
It is self cleaning.
The other case in which you can affect it,obviously, is our is one of the biggest
(01:13):
problems.
Coconut oil.
This is a big one.
Everybody's like, oh, I'm using natural.
It's great.
It's wonderful.
And, yes, again, very much like silicone isgonna be androgynous.
The coconut, lube that that people are using,this coconut oil, they're seeing, one, it's
messy and nasty.
And then two, we're seeing that over time, itbegins to breed back bad bacteria.
(01:36):
There's only two I know of that are trulyisolosmolar in the entire world.
Hey, everybody.
Quick break in our episode to talk to you aboutour sponsor, My Libido Doc.
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(01:58):
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(02:21):
So if you just go to mysexdoc.com, you willfind that ebook there for download.
Now back to our show.
Hi, Libido Lounge listeners.
Welcome back to another episode.
I'm Doctor.
Diane, your board certified sexologist andsexpert, and I have a juicy show in store for
(02:42):
you today.
So one of the things that I often find that isso critical to health and when we're talking
about sexual health on the show, is what louveswe're using and what types of products we're
actually putting on all of our beautiful bits,our genitals.
Right?
And so in order to talk about this, I ambringing on a expert today in this.
(03:06):
We're gonna talk about lubes, condomcompatibility, toxins, things you can be using
to support your microbiome of your genitals,because we know that the microbiome of the
genitals has a huge impact on health of thisregion, on preventing things like vaginal
dryness, on preventing things like infection.
And so many people are doing things likeputting products on them that are petroleum
(03:29):
based, for example, and we know that some ofthese other products can lead to problems such
as infection.
Studies have shown, for example, that we seethat some of these toxins we are using can lead
to things like bacteria vaginosis, right,destroying that microbiome and so much more.
So I really wanted to bring Heather on today,who is the founder of Desert Harvest, one of my
(03:54):
favorite lube companies in the entire world.
And I also wanna remind you as we're gettingstarted, remember everybody that for exclusive
content, we can always join me at the LibidoClub.
You're gonna find information in the show notestoday on that, as well as discounts of how to
get Desert Harvest products and more.
And remember, in the Libido Club, you get theexclusive content.
(04:15):
This month, we're really focusing on the topicof toxins because it's so, so, so important.
So, thank you so much for being here today withme, Heather, and I can't wait to get our
conversation started.
Thank you for having me.
I'm looking forward to it.
So, let's just open this conversation aroundlube in general, and where is can we kinda
(04:40):
start with, like, different types of you lube,and why somebody might think about one type of
lube versus another type of lube?
There are a variety of different types of lubeout there.
The most common are gonna be your your waterbased, your petroleum based, and then your your
silicone based.
And and and then you've got kind of a a mixtureof natural options as well.
(05:05):
And the problem with what we have out on themarket is that most of it shouldn't go into the
vaginal biome.
The minute we start introducing particulartypes of chemical ingredients, we are not only
throwing off our pH, but we're throwing off ourosmolality.
And this is something that is very much, underrecognized.
(05:28):
There's only been one study done that was doneby the World Health Organization in 2015, And
this was for country sex workers to figure outhow to reduce the incidence of STIs.
It wasn't just in general for women in generalhere.
And so as a result, most women don't know thatwe should be looking at osmolality.
(05:50):
And this is how the fluid flows in and out ofyour vaginal wall, your epithelial cell layer
of your vagina.
This is your protective barrier to STIs,bacteria, fungus.
And if you start introducing ingredients thatare not iso osmolar, they're either hypo or
hyper osmolar, then what happens is slowly overtime, your epithelial cell layer, your vaginal
(06:16):
wall begins to dry out and it literally fallsout.
So you've just lost your barrier of protection.
And so it's very important that as we'relooking out within lubricants, this separate of
pH, which you want your pH to be acidic, youwant your biome to be acidic.
And if your biome is not acidic and yourtissues are unhealthy, it doesn't matter what
(06:39):
you put in there at that point, it's going toprobably burn and be uncomfortable from micro
tears and unhealthy tissues.
And again, having that barrier kind of missing.
So as a result, it is very, very important thatwe not only choose an acidic right around 4.5,
for pH, but we also choose an lubricant that isalso iso osmolar.
(07:04):
Again, the World Health Organization is theonly one that's kind of set this directive in
which ideal vaginal osmolality is two ninety,and you only wanna be plus and minus 80 points
on that scale.
And as you can imagine, most of the lubricantswhen you walk inside a store, there's only two
I know of that are truly iso osmolar in theentire world.
(07:27):
And then otherwise you're looking at what youfind in the health food stores, in the grocery
stores, you're gonna find 10,000, 9,000, 8,000osmolality where your biome is two ninety.
Remember, plus or minus 80 points.
You're destroying your biome with these.
But unfortunately, this is something that isnot regulated within our society of these
(07:50):
products.
They're required to do testing.
Now, one of the the big things that you canfind out with lubricants is they if they are an
FDA controlled cleared medical device, which iswhat lubricants are required to be, They will
have that osmolality number because it'srequired as part of the testing to get the
(08:13):
government medical device certification.
You will however find a lot of lubricants outthere kind of promoting themselves kind of
under the radar.
So you'll see things like, where you need alittle extra slipperiness or or gut, but you
won't talk about them inserting it into thevagina.
You'll just hear them talking about intimacyand and having fun and play, and and you can
(08:37):
utilize this.
But that means that they are not an FDA clearedmedical device, and they are not regulated to
go inside your vagina.
And even then, it doesn't necessarily mean thatthey're iso osmolar because that is not a
requirement.
You're required to have the osmolality testing.
You are not required to be iso osmolar.
This is such good information.
(08:58):
So so from a standpoint of consumer, indifferentiating between products, Is a company
that is kind of like not with the regulation,but still promoting their products kind of in
the intimate space, are they allowed to usewords like lubricants?
They are not.
Okay.
You might see this.
(09:18):
Unfortunately, one, we've completely gutted theFDA.
So, we're in worse shape than we were even lastyear.
And last year, even then, they couldn't theythey they were trying to give so just to
understand, they didn't regulate medical,lubricants as medical devices until around
2015.
(09:39):
So as a result, you've got all of thesecompanies needing to play catch up, and they
kinda gave a five year window in which theywere gonna give people time to catch up, get
the certifications that were necessary to keeptheir product on the market.
Well, then the pandemic hit.
And and FDA didn't really have a lot of time toregulate that.
(10:02):
And then now we've got a gutted FDA.
So they're not regulating the way that theyneed to be right now with lubricants.
I expect that to come in the future, and andthat will be a thing.
But right now, you're gonna find a lot of stuffon the market that could say lubricant, could
say other thing.
It just may not say, hey, put this in yourvagina.
But yeah.
(10:24):
Yeah.
And it's always important to remind everybody,like, what we put on our vagina, what we put on
our skin in any sort of way, like, our skin'sso porous.
And so, if it's one of these things where it'slike, Wow, this is like not safe to be in the
body, we don't want it anywhere near us.
We don't want it in our vagina, we don't wantit our penis, we don't want it in, you know, on
our skin, any of these areas.
(10:45):
So, okay, so then, in a consumer standpoint, sonow we know the FDA component.
Now, what about, can you can you redefineexactly the osmolarity?
Because you said that it is required then fromthe FDA to put the specific number, correct, on
the product.
So It is not required to put the number on theproduct.
(11:07):
It is required for them to do the testing.
So all of them have their number.
So if they're not advertising their number,there's also a good point to question.
And there's nothing wrong with reaching out tothe company and being like, hey, what's your
osmolality number?
Because if they are FDA compliant, they hadthey know that number.
(11:28):
Okay.
And then ideally, for the support of the pH ofthe vagina, can you say that number again, what
we're looking for?
So 4.5 for pH, two ninety for osmolality, onlyplus or minus 80 points, and you'll only wanna
be plus or minus a couple of points on the pHscale for an, a lubricant as well.
(11:50):
And then just to preface, don't ever use avaginal lubricant inside your anus.
Because the anus is gonna be completelydifferent.
That is a alkaline biome, and it is sensitiveto osmolality, but it is more sensitive to pH
in the anal biome.
So if you used an acidic lubricant in your analbiome, it instantaneously falls out your
(12:15):
epithelial cell layer.
So it's even more sensitive in the anal biometo the pH than it is even to the osmolality.
Okay.
That's really helpful.
So then, so I understand this too.
So are you saying that the osmolality can theninfluence the pH?
No, these are two completely separatemechanisms.
So with the pH, this is all about acidity,maintaining the acidity of the biome.
(12:41):
The osmolality is about fluid and fluidity.
Letting the fluid be able now what blocks thatis the chemicals.
So the chemicals block the fluidity of fluidbecause essentially you talk about it being
porous.
Imagine it like a sponge.
It's it's soaking up.
It's pushing moisture up to the top when you'regetting wet.
(13:03):
It's it's it's creating that moisture, but it'salso moisturizing those tissues all the way
down, all the way down through the layers ofthe tissue.
So as a result, if you can't make that fluidflow back and what happens?
It dries out, and then it falls out.
So in many ways, we're saying with theosmolality that there is a that's helping with
(13:25):
the fluid and kind of, in many ways, like thenatural lubrication, encouraging the natural
lubrication of the vaginal tract.
And then the pH is really helping themicrobiome and all the benefits from the
microbiome.
Correct?
Correct.
Correct.
If your pH is off, that microbiome becomesunhealthy.
Instead of breeding healthy bacterias, youstart to breed unhealthy bacterias.
(13:48):
Now are there any other things that you knowabout?
So that kind of helps us with lube.
Are there any other things just kind of likehealth and lifestyle that you've come across in
your research that really can influence the pHor the osmolality?
Yeah.
So definitely many, many things, affect ourvaginal biome, whether it's how we're utilizing
soaps when we're washing down there.
(14:08):
Obviously, nothing needs to go inside yourvagina to wash your vagina.
When we're talking about vaginal steaming, youknow, douching, things like that, don't, don't,
don't ever your your biome does not need that.
It is self cleaning, but we have beenprogrammed as a society to feel that need to
feel clean and fresh.
And if you're utilizing an, most soaps on themarket that you're gonna buy in the store are
(14:32):
going to be alkaline.
And so if you're washing your vulva, you canact, you can actually influence your vaginal
biome as well.
And, you know, show it alkaline soaps that caninfluence the behavior of your vaginal biome.
Same thing with sperm.
If you're having sex with a partner, you're notutilizing a condom.
(14:55):
You know, you're you're influencing yourvaginal biome because sperm is alkaline.
So again, thinking about how do you reset thatacidity when afterwards?
How do you reset that acidity after you'rehaving sex with your partner, especially if
you're looking to conceive, other things likethat.
You know, there are there are different typesof spermicides.
(15:18):
You know, one of the ones I recommend is abrand called Good Clean Love because it doesn't
damage the biome.
And then if you're not looking to conceive theAloe Glide, this is where you can insert that
just to keep tissues healthy.
It's actually our Desert Harvest Aloe Glide isan FDA cleared medical device as both a sexual
lubricant and a vaginal moisturizer.
(15:41):
So you can just insert something like that justto keep the tissues healthy, help to reset that
pH if you're exposing yourself to alkaline,substances.
The other case in which you can affect it,obviously, is our underwear, as well as during
during menstruation because we're we're we'recreating a more alkaline environment during
(16:03):
menstruation as well.
And so how do we influence those behaviors?
And that, again, can go into the type ofunderwear you're using.
We've seen all over the news, everything elselike that, where we're talking about, you know,
PFAS chemicals in our in our our pads, in ourour tampons, and other things like that.
Desert harvest is actually getting ready torelease.
(16:26):
We actually released next week, live.
We had a little bit of a delay.
Lunation.
And this is we created a new fabric made out ofaloe.
Aloe is naturally antifungal, antimicrobial,antibacterial.
And then we created a layer of ginger todeodorize.
And then we created a layer of bamboo, which isgonna wick moisture.
(16:48):
And we have a waterproof organic cotton thatwill be kind of like a fail safe layer as a as
a protective barrier.
So those but then again, we also made themsexy.
We created natural, like, lace so that they'reyou know, we don't we don't have to wear granny
panties when we're when we're menstruating orurinary leakage or anything else like that.
(17:10):
So that's kind of why we created these.
And and it will show that no chemical has evertouched an inch of fabric in every single batch
of that that fabric that we make.
And so that gives you an idea of, like, youknow, what we need to be looking for.
If we're just looking for regular underwear,organic cotton is always a good go to.
(17:33):
And and looking at how we're influencing ourbiome from just what we're wearing.
Just a quick break to let you know that eightypercent of women do not have orgasms from
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(17:57):
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(18:19):
So if you're interested in that and I can helpyou, please go to modernmonogamyclub.com.
Now back to our show.
Amazing.
And just so everybody knows, the PFAS chemicalthat Heather has mentioned here, it is getting
more notoriety these days.
It's really a class of chemicals that are alsoknown as the forever chemicals.
And it's because, they're called the foreverchemicals, because these are things that we are
(18:41):
creating in society that don't break down innature.
And so, other types of chemicals sometimes stayin our environment for many type, you know,
many, years, but eventually can get brokendown.
And one of the biggest problems we're findingwith the PFAS is that these chemicals don't
break down.
So, they get in our body, they get in ourenvironment, and they don't naturally break
(19:03):
down.
And they are, they're being linked to more andmore and more diseases as we learn more about
them.
So, the, you know, doing something like amenstruation underwear with the, you know, the
types of technology that Heather's talkingabout is a really important thing, because a
lot of people are putting these chemicals intheir body, the vagina's porous, They're
getting into their bloodstream.
(19:23):
They can cause all sorts of problems, includingdisruption of our hormonal system, and keeping
them out is so important out of our vagina, outof our skincare products, out of our food, all
of the things.
I also wanna circle back to something you saidwhen you're talking about the health and the
the pH, and you're saying, okay, don't douche,don't steam.
(19:43):
I wanna clarify that because Yoni steaming, Iknow, has gotten so It's really been talked a
lot about in the female vagina self love, selfcare, you know, movement, where you sit on
this, oftentimes this device that kinda lookslike a toilet seat, with something below you
that is typically hot water, warm water, thatoftentimes has a bunch of herbs in them.
(20:09):
And the concept of Yoni steaming is usingdifferent herbs, and with the, almost like
making a tea decoction, the herbs infuse intothe water, and that steam then goes into the
vagina.
And so, it is promoted so much.
I know actually quite a few people who do Yonisteams regularly.
So, are you saying that that can even bedangerous to the microbiome?
(20:30):
Yes, it can.
So, you know, in a lot of peep a lot ofsituations, women are going because they think
it's just killing the bad bacteria, but it'salso killing the bad the good bacteria that
your your vet vagina needs to continue to beself cleaning and self functioning and maintain
your your natural healthy biome.
(20:52):
And so by utilizing vaginal steaming, yonisteaming, this this can destroy all of that
good bacteria.
And so we highly do not recommend that.
And most of the clinicians we work with don'trecommend that just because of the damage that
(21:12):
it does to the vaginal microbiome.
And none of the evidence suggests that there isenough benefit, to make it worth it.
It may might feel good afterwards.
Like, this, you might feel wonderful, but it'sdefinitely something that, at least in the
medical community, is is is something that'stalked about is not being recommended.
(21:33):
Okay.
I think that's really important for people tohear.
What about, I want to circle back around tokind of the toxin standpoint.
So,
we know, as, you know, as I mentioned at thebeginning, as you mentioned in your intro,
petroleum's such a common thing in a lot ofthese different lubricants.
What is that doing?
Is that, is the problem that you see also in asimilar construct around impacting the pH and
(21:58):
osmolality?
Are there other things you've seen with thatare problematic with it?
Yeah.
So definitely, with the petrol especially withthe petroleum based, those that are introducing
other types of of of preservatives, exohefroglycerin, other types of glycerin, things
like that, that are acting as glycerin, thingslike that, that are acting as chemical
(22:20):
preservatives.
What those are doing is one, glycerines aregonna create and breed bacteria, you know,
their sugars.
So they're gonna create bacteria.
They're gonna create they're gonna help growyeast.
And and this is of course, something we don'twant in our biome.
And then with regards to the petroleum, one,we're again creating a barrier between the
(22:43):
fluidity.
But you think of petroleum, think about whenyou put Vaseline on something like that.
It's acting as a barrier.
It's not letting your fluid flow within yourvaginal wall.
And so this is this is one of the biggestproblems.
Now interestingly enough, silicone is isactually has no osmolality.
(23:06):
And so because it does not have, so likesilicone base, but then we go into the question
of we're dealing with a chemical again.
So we're still introducing a chemical to ourbiome.
It doesn't affect the osmolality, but, and itdoesn't affect necessarily the pH.
It's kind of just very, you know, amphorous.
(23:27):
It's not gonna have that kind of effect withthe silicone.
And so it comes, kinda becomes a multi use tooland that it can go back and But we don't know
the ultimate effects of the chemical nature ofsilicone, and how that and similarly, if we
wanna skip over to let's say, coconut oil.
This is a big one.
Everybody's like, oh, I'm using natural.
(23:49):
It's great.
It's wonderful.
And yes, again, very much like silicone isgonna be androgynous.
It's not gonna have that it's not gonna havethat osmolality factor.
But unfortunately, what we have seen in inclinical research is is that the coconut lube
that that people are using, this coconut oil,they're seeing one, it's messy and nasty.
(24:13):
And then two, we're seeing that over time, itbegins to breed back bad bacteria.
And so even though we think that this is, youknow, gonna be completely androgynous, it is
not like silicone in this in this sense becausethe pH will ultimately in long term effect when
it comes to coconut oil, whereas we see withsilicone that doesn't happen.
(24:37):
Yeah.
And I've researched and reached out to quite afew people about not using coconut oil.
Also, from a standpoint of we do see evidencethat it is antimicrobial.
Right?
So, what you're seeing in studies aroundbreeding bad bacteria, in my mind, is probably
coming from the utility of using it.
And since it's antibacterial, we can be killingoff our good microbiome, which then naturally
(25:01):
sets up a, a environment where these patho, youknow, pathogenic bacteria can make their home
there because our microbiome is part of what isprotecting against that.
So, I think that's some of the mechanism that'shappening there.
Yeah.
I wanna talk about the use of aloe inparticular because it is something that I think
is particularly important with your product.
(25:23):
And there's research that, that I'll ask youabout here.
I know it's, it's helpful for things likeinterstitial cystitis.
And for our listeners, interstitial cystitis, Ifeel, at least in my medical practice, is, I
think, a very underdiagnosed condition.
I look at what this is as kind of like a leakygut of the bladder.
(25:43):
So, it's really where people are having thesignal that they, this kind of the signal of
urgency that can almost feel like a bladderinfection, except it typically is not gonna
like burn when you pee, And it's more thisurgency because what's supposed to happen in
the bladder is when the bladder, when we getthat signal to our brain to urinate, that's
(26:04):
coming from the bladder expanding far enough.
And when the bladder expands, it says, ittriggers our nervous system to say, oh, the the
the bladder's expanded.
It's full.
The nerve sends a signal to the brain to say,hey, your bladder's full.
You got to pee.
And with interstitial cystitis, one of thethings that will happen is that signal gets
(26:24):
disrupted due to bladder irritation.
And so, this signal when the bladder has maybeonly expanded a tiny little bit, you're getting
that that signal, that urgency, I gotta go,maybe you go.
And was like, wow, there's not much there.
And this, this intense feeling, which sometimescan be interpreted even as pain, can radiate.
(26:45):
And it can actually radiate to the genitals, tothe vulva, to the vagina, and lead to people
seeking out medical attention, not evenrealizing that it's ultimately coming from
their bladder, but it's, it's being interpretedas pelvic or vaginal pain.
I think it's oftentimes misdiagnosed becausepeople don't know how to describe this, so they
(27:05):
get tested for a UTI, which is negative.
And then they're just like, okay, well, it'sjust in your head.
You're fine.
Go out into the world.
So, if you're having any sort of symptoms likethat or pelvic pain, this can be a helpful, you
know, tool.
So, tell us a little bit about that around,like, the choice of aloe, around some of the
research there with cystitis, pelvic pain, andthose kind of things.
(27:29):
Yeah.
So, that is actually how Desert Harvest startedin 1993.
My aunt had the bladder disorder, interstitialcystitis, and we were looking for something
that might be able to help her.
And we stumbled across aloe vera.
She took a random bottle, she slept through theentire night.
And then we wanted to figure out how we couldconcentrate it, how we could make it safe for
(27:51):
long term use and in high doses.
Aloe vera naturally has what's calledanthraquinones in them.
They're latex chemicals that long term, can becarcinogenic to the colon, cause liver damage,
kidney damage.
So what Desert Harvest makes is not what youfind in the health food stores.
This isn't your juices.
This isn't one, juices will actually irritatethe bladder because there's only two ways to
(28:14):
preserve aloe vera juice, and that is throughbladder irritating preservatives like citric
acid, lemon, and other things like that.
And then two, pasteurization, and which isreally just expensive water at that point
because you've just killed all of the nutrientsand aloe vera is 98%, 98.9% water.
(28:36):
And so literally, you are drinking expensivewater.
And so with with, we're actually studying rightnow for FDA drug trials at Wake Forest
University, our super strength, our SSAV.
And what we're studying is how it interactswith the urothelial cell of the bladder.
So, you know, you talk about high rate ofmisdiagnosis.
(28:58):
And and it is misdiagnosed within the field,and then it's misdiagnosed in a lot of cases in
which women are seeking mostly women.
There are also men.
There's about twenty five percent men, seventyfive percent women on average.
And it feels like a constant UTI that is notgoing away.
(29:20):
And as you mentioned, most people end up with,negative UTI results when they when they go in
for a test in their doctor's office.
And so as a result, what is happening is it'saffecting the urothelial cell lining of the
bladder.
In most cases, most actual true interstitialcystitis patients have true bladder wall
(29:43):
impact.
So they either have lesions or they have a verylarge inflamed bladder that urothelial cell
layer is damaged and or completely missing.
And then as a result, imagine you eat somethingthat's acidic or something like that and it
passes through that bladder.
It's it's like, you know, battery acid on awound.
So that's where you get the pain.
(30:03):
That's where you get the burning sensation whenyou start to urinate.
And and you you start to deal with capacityissues where you feel that urgency feeling.
And in some cases, over time, as a result ofthe lack of health of the bladder, the bladder
can shrink to a very, very, very small size.
And that's why in clinic, a lot of the timesdoctors will stretch your bladder.
(30:27):
Not the most comfortable procedure in theworld, but this is what will happen is called
hydrodistension, to try to get your bladderback to capacity.
But at the same time, there is no knownetiology what causes interstitial cystitis.
We have no idea for treatments exactly rightnow, that's why Desert Harvest, we have an
(30:51):
eighty seven point five percent response ratewith actual interstitial cystitis patients.
But what has caused the problem is is thewaters have been kind of muddied by the fact
that we started in the early two thousandsmaking it a diagnosis of exclusion.
In the rest of the world, you have to have acystoscopy, again, highly uncomfortable, and
(31:15):
usually leaves you with some radiating pain fora few days.
And as a result, doctors didn't wanna continueto subject patients to continual pain.
So as a result, we started making it adiagnosis of exclusion.
You don't have this, you don't have that, youmust have this.
And so as a result, it's kind of muddied thewaters for interstitial cystitis and muddied
(31:37):
the waters for research.
The great news is is, just a couple of yearsago, doctor Lenora Ackerman at UCLA, she
actually did a study on utilizing AI andmachine learning.
And it was the time that we had ever been ableto truly there'd always been theories of what
(31:59):
phenotyping out, subtyping out interstitialcystitis into different conditions.
So that then we could get to the root cause ofinterstitial cystitis.
But unfortunately, clinical research has neverbeen able to do that.
So she did a study where she actually put in600 or so respondents into filling out these
(32:20):
questionnaires, And they were, through machinelearning, were actually able to find three
distinct categories, and that was bladdercentric.
All their pain was coming directly from theirbladder.
And then you had kind of a myofascial pain,eighty eight percent resolved with felt pelvic
floor physical therapy in that group.
And then the group was like a neuralgianonspecific type of pain.
(32:43):
You were radiating pain from somewhere else inyour body, another condition, another injury,
things like that.
And it wasn't truly the impact of your bladder,but it was causing that feeling of pressure and
urgency through the neuralgia.
So this is going to change things forinterstitial cystitis hopefully, and get us to
(33:03):
the root cause, and so that we don't have sucha high rate of misdiagnosis.
And we can truly determine because most womenwho have pelvic conditions need pelvic floor
physical therapy.
When you think of a condition where you're inpain, think of when you get into a car
accident, everything tenses up and you need togo get massage or chiropractor or whatever.
(33:25):
Think of that as the same thing with yourpelvic floor.
When you're experiencing a chronic paincondition, you're not feeling well.
Your pelvic floor is your hammock to everythingin your body.
It's root.
And as a result, takes on the impact of whatyou're feeling and almost becomes like a dish
rag that's super super tight.
(33:47):
And and you need to be able to release thatpelvic floor.
And many people go to to Kegels and they'relike, let me do my Kegels and and stuff.
And and that's the worst thing you could do.
You've got to be able to re release your pelvicfloor and that's seeing a great pelvic floor
physical therapist before you strengthen itback up and learn the exercises to strengthen
(34:12):
up and figure out which part of your pelvicfloor is in a weakened state.
Beautiful.
And I wanna add to that.
In my clinical experience, while the it is aconfusing thing, right, and the ideology of
this is not fully clear, and diagnostics arenot even fully clear, as you mentioned, because
of diagnosis of exclusion, I have seen manycases in my clinical career of, like, what
(34:38):
seems like interstitial cystitis, or somebodyhas been diagnosed by a previous doctor with
that, where getting toxins out and getting foodallergies out actually make it go away.
So, one of the things that I think is greatabout holistic medicine, and what I've seen
clinically with this is, so many times, whenwe're actually cleaning up the diet, we're
(34:58):
getting out the toxins, we're getting out anychronic hidden infections, which is crazy
common, not just pelvic chronic hiddeninfections, but systemic.
And these things that actually create that,that stress, that inflammatory response on
bladder and the nervous system, things juststart going away.
So, that's another thing I want to add to herefrom an etiology standpoint.
(35:20):
Not saying that there's, you know, there's tonsof research behind it, but clinical evidence in
some of these scenarios is a huge component ofwhat we have to go on.
So, I just wanna add that for
our listeners here as well.
And this has been awesome.
As I have, I love everything that we havecovered today.
I think this, this conversation on osmolalityis really help, you know, important and
(35:41):
helpful, this conversation on pH, Helpingpeople understand that not all lube is the
same, and that using an aloe based type ofproduct can not only provide support with this,
but also can help with healing, and that notall aloe based products are the same either.
So, I think being responsible consumers is justsuch an incredibly important thing.
(36:03):
So, is there anything else in our timetogether?
And again, everybody, I'm gonna have links forDesert Harvest and some discounts for you guys
in the show notes on this.
You know, definitely look at joining my libidoclub where we will go more into toxins,
hormones, techniques, root causes, on and onand on and on to support you, your libido, your
(36:26):
love life, your desire, your passion, and more.
And all that being said, Heather, is there arethere any, like, final points?
Is there any final points that you wanna makesure we say today?
Yeah.
Pretty much.
I'd say just claim your pleasure, and realizethat even if you have a chronic pain condition,
(36:46):
there are ways in which you can claim yourpleasure, and mediate that with the health of
your body.
At the same time, you you talk aboutinterstitial cystitis and the overall health of
your body.
When we say mind gut health approach, it's onehundred percent.
(37:07):
In a lot of cases with interstitial cystitis,there there is a mast cell activation
component.
They call it the allergic bladder.
And a lot of the times taking antihistamines,and or over the counters like quercetin, things
like that can make a massive difference forjust the health of the bladder outside of
interstitial cystitis.
And so definitely following your path and yourjourney towards, recovering your health and
(37:34):
your pleasure is is part of the reason whyDesert Harvest is here, the part of the reason
why doctor Mueller's here.
And and we would love to be a part of yourjourney, in any way possible.
So
Amazing.
Well, thank you again for being here.
Thank you all for listening, and we will seeyou very soon on another episode of the Libido
(37:55):
Lounge.
Take care.
Bye.
Awesome.
Thank
you for listening to the Libido Lounge.
Please don't keep me a secret.
Please share this with your friends.
You can find me on YouTube, on Instagram, aswell as how to work with me at mylibidodoc.com.
And then just to preface, don't ever use avaginal lubricant inside your There are a
variety of different types of lube out there.
The most common are gonna be your your waterbased, your petroleum based, and then your your
silicone based.
And the problem with what we have out on themarket is is that most of it shouldn't go into
(00:25):
the vaginal biome.
Most women don't know that we should be lookingat osmolality and this is how the fluid flows
in and out of your vaginal wall, yourepithelial cell layer of your vagina.
This is your protective barrier to STIs,bacteria, fungus.
And if you start introducing ingredients thatare not iso osmolar, they're either hypo or
(00:49):
hyper osmolar, then what happens is slowly overtime, your epithelial cell layer, your vaginal
wall begins to dry out and it literally fallsout.
So you've just lost your barrier of protection.
Don't, don't, don't ever.
Your your biome does not need that.
It is self cleaning.
The other case in which you can affect it,obviously, is our is one of the biggest
(01:13):
problems.
Coconut oil.
This is a big one.
Everybody's like, oh, I'm using natural.
It's great.
It's wonderful.
And, yes, again, very much like silicone isgonna be androgynous.
The coconut, lube that that people are using,this coconut oil, they're seeing, one, it's
messy and nasty.
And then two, we're seeing that over time, itbegins to breed back bad bacteria.
(01:36):
There's only two I know of that are trulyisolosmolar in the entire world.
Hey, everybody.
Quick break in our episode to talk to you aboutour sponsor, My Libido Doc.
One of the things that we truly believe is thatgreat sex is available to everyone, but we just
(01:58):
have to learn how.
So head over to our site to get your free copyof our ebook, Five Steps to Mind Blowing
Orgasms and Romance.
Get the quick and easy tips to turn your sexlife around, rev up your engines, and fall in
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(02:21):
So if you just go to mysexdoc.com, you willfind that ebook there for download.
Now back to our show.
Hi, Libido Lounge listeners.
Welcome back to another episode.
I'm Doctor.
Diane, your board certified sexologist andsexpert, and I have a juicy show in store for
(02:42):
you today.
So one of the things that I often find that isso critical to health and when we're talking
about sexual health on the show, is what louveswe're using and what types of products we're
actually putting on all of our beautiful bits,our genitals.
Right?
And so in order to talk about this, I ambringing on a expert today in this.
(03:06):
We're gonna talk about lubes, condomcompatibility, toxins, things you can be using
to support your microbiome of your genitals,because we know that the microbiome of the
genitals has a huge impact on health of thisregion, on preventing things like vaginal
dryness, on preventing things like infection.
And so many people are doing things likeputting products on them that are petroleum
(03:29):
based, for example, and we know that some ofthese other products can lead to problems such
as infection.
Studies have shown, for example, that we seethat some of these toxins we are using can lead
to things like bacteria vaginosis, right,destroying that microbiome and so much more.
So I really wanted to bring Heather on today,who is the founder of Desert Harvest, one of my
(03:54):
favorite lube companies in the entire world.
And I also wanna remind you as we're gettingstarted, remember everybody that for exclusive
content, we can always join me at the LibidoClub.
You're gonna find information in the show notestoday on that, as well as discounts of how to
get Desert Harvest products and more.
And remember, in the Libido Club, you get theexclusive content.
(04:15):
This month, we're really focusing on the topicof toxins because it's so, so, so important.
So, thank you so much for being here today withme, Heather, and I can't wait to get our
conversation started.
Thank you for having me.
I'm looking forward to it.
So, let's just open this conversation aroundlube in general, and where is can we kinda
(04:40):
start with, like, different types of you lube,and why somebody might think about one type of
lube versus another type of lube?
There are a variety of different types of lubeout there.
The most common are gonna be your your waterbased, your petroleum based, and then your your
silicone based.
And and and then you've got kind of a a mixtureof natural options as well.
(05:05):
And the problem with what we have out on themarket is that most of it shouldn't go into the
vaginal biome.
The minute we start introducing particulartypes of chemical ingredients, we are not only
throwing off our pH, but we're throwing off ourosmolality.
And this is something that is very much, underrecognized.
(05:28):
There's only been one study done that was doneby the World Health Organization in 2015, And
this was for country sex workers to figure outhow to reduce the incidence of STIs.
It wasn't just in general for women in generalhere.
And so as a result, most women don't know thatwe should be looking at osmolality.
(05:50):
And this is how the fluid flows in and out ofyour vaginal wall, your epithelial cell layer
of your vagina.
This is your protective barrier to STIs,bacteria, fungus.
And if you start introducing ingredients thatare not iso osmolar, they're either hypo or
hyper osmolar, then what happens is slowly overtime, your epithelial cell layer, your vaginal
(06:16):
wall begins to dry out and it literally fallsout.
So you've just lost your barrier of protection.
And so it's very important that as we'relooking out within lubricants, this separate of
pH, which you want your pH to be acidic, youwant your biome to be acidic.
And if your biome is not acidic and yourtissues are unhealthy, it doesn't matter what
(06:39):
you put in there at that point, it's going toprobably burn and be uncomfortable from micro
tears and unhealthy tissues.
And again, having that barrier kind of missing.
So as a result, it is very, very important thatwe not only choose an acidic right around 4.5,
for pH, but we also choose an lubricant that isalso iso osmolar.
(07:04):
Again, the World Health Organization is theonly one that's kind of set this directive in
which ideal vaginal osmolality is two ninety,and you only wanna be plus and minus 80 points
on that scale.
And as you can imagine, most of the lubricantswhen you walk inside a store, there's only two
I know of that are truly iso osmolar in theentire world.
(07:27):
And then otherwise you're looking at what youfind in the health food stores, in the grocery
stores, you're gonna find 10,000, 9,000, 8,000osmolality where your biome is two ninety.
Remember, plus or minus 80 points.
You're destroying your biome with these.
But unfortunately, this is something that isnot regulated within our society of these
(07:50):
products.
They're required to do testing.
Now, one of the the big things that you canfind out with lubricants is they if they are an
FDA controlled cleared medical device, which iswhat lubricants are required to be, They will
have that osmolality number because it'srequired as part of the testing to get the
(08:13):
government medical device certification.
You will however find a lot of lubricants outthere kind of promoting themselves kind of
under the radar.
So you'll see things like, where you need alittle extra slipperiness or or gut, but you
won't talk about them inserting it into thevagina.
You'll just hear them talking about intimacyand and having fun and play, and and you can
(08:37):
utilize this.
But that means that they are not an FDA clearedmedical device, and they are not regulated to
go inside your vagina.
And even then, it doesn't necessarily mean thatthey're iso osmolar because that is not a
requirement.
You're required to have the osmolality testing.
You are not required to be iso osmolar.
This is such good information.
(08:58):
So so from a standpoint of consumer, indifferentiating between products, Is a company
that is kind of like not with the regulation,but still promoting their products kind of in
the intimate space, are they allowed to usewords like lubricants?
They are not.
Okay.
You might see this.
(09:18):
Unfortunately, one, we've completely gutted theFDA.
So, we're in worse shape than we were even lastyear.
And last year, even then, they couldn't theythey they were trying to give so just to
understand, they didn't regulate medical,lubricants as medical devices until around
2015.
(09:39):
So as a result, you've got all of thesecompanies needing to play catch up, and they
kinda gave a five year window in which theywere gonna give people time to catch up, get
the certifications that were necessary to keeptheir product on the market.
Well, then the pandemic hit.
And and FDA didn't really have a lot of time toregulate that.
(10:02):
And then now we've got a gutted FDA.
So they're not regulating the way that theyneed to be right now with lubricants.
I expect that to come in the future, and andthat will be a thing.
But right now, you're gonna find a lot of stuffon the market that could say lubricant, could
say other thing.
It just may not say, hey, put this in yourvagina.
But yeah.
(10:24):
Yeah.
And it's always important to remind everybody,like, what we put on our vagina, what we put on
our skin in any sort of way, like, our skin'sso porous.
And so, if it's one of these things where it'slike, Wow, this is like not safe to be in the
body, we don't want it anywhere near us.
We don't want it in our vagina, we don't wantit our penis, we don't want it in, you know, on
our skin, any of these areas.
(10:45):
So, okay, so then, in a consumer standpoint, sonow we know the FDA component.
Now, what about, can you can you redefineexactly the osmolarity?
Because you said that it is required then fromthe FDA to put the specific number, correct, on
the product.
So It is not required to put the number on theproduct.
(11:07):
It is required for them to do the testing.
So all of them have their number.
So if they're not advertising their number,there's also a good point to question.
And there's nothing wrong with reaching out tothe company and being like, hey, what's your
osmolality number?
Because if they are FDA compliant, they hadthey know that number.
(11:28):
Okay.
And then ideally, for the support of the pH ofthe vagina, can you say that number again, what
we're looking for?
So 4.5 for pH, two ninety for osmolality, onlyplus or minus 80 points, and you'll only wanna
be plus or minus a couple of points on the pHscale for an, a lubricant as well.
(11:50):
And then just to preface, don't ever use avaginal lubricant inside your anus.
Because the anus is gonna be completelydifferent.
That is a alkaline biome, and it is sensitiveto osmolality, but it is more sensitive to pH
in the anal biome.
So if you used an acidic lubricant in your analbiome, it instantaneously falls out your
(12:15):
epithelial cell layer.
So it's even more sensitive in the anal biometo the pH than it is even to the osmolality.
Okay.
That's really helpful.
So then, so I understand this too.
So are you saying that the osmolality can theninfluence the pH?
No, these are two completely separatemechanisms.
So with the pH, this is all about acidity,maintaining the acidity of the biome.
(12:41):
The osmolality is about fluid and fluidity.
Letting the fluid be able now what blocks thatis the chemicals.
So the chemicals block the fluidity of fluidbecause essentially you talk about it being
porous.
Imagine it like a sponge.
It's it's soaking up.
It's pushing moisture up to the top when you'regetting wet.
(13:03):
It's it's it's creating that moisture, but it'salso moisturizing those tissues all the way
down, all the way down through the layers ofthe tissue.
So as a result, if you can't make that fluidflow back and what happens?
It dries out, and then it falls out.
So in many ways, we're saying with theosmolality that there is a that's helping with
(13:25):
the fluid and kind of, in many ways, like thenatural lubrication, encouraging the natural
lubrication of the vaginal tract.
And then the pH is really helping themicrobiome and all the benefits from the
microbiome.
Correct?
Correct.
Correct.
If your pH is off, that microbiome becomesunhealthy.
Instead of breeding healthy bacterias, youstart to breed unhealthy bacterias.
(13:48):
Now are there any other things that you knowabout?
So that kind of helps us with lube.
Are there any other things just kind of likehealth and lifestyle that you've come across in
your research that really can influence the pHor the osmolality?
Yeah.
So definitely many, many things, affect ourvaginal biome, whether it's how we're utilizing
soaps when we're washing down there.
(14:08):
Obviously, nothing needs to go inside yourvagina to wash your vagina.
When we're talking about vaginal steaming, youknow, douching, things like that, don't, don't,
don't ever your your biome does not need that.
It is self cleaning, but we have beenprogrammed as a society to feel that need to
feel clean and fresh.
And if you're utilizing an, most soaps on themarket that you're gonna buy in the store are
(14:32):
going to be alkaline.
And so if you're washing your vulva, you canact, you can actually influence your vaginal
biome as well.
And, you know, show it alkaline soaps that caninfluence the behavior of your vaginal biome.
Same thing with sperm.
If you're having sex with a partner, you're notutilizing a condom.
(14:55):
You know, you're you're influencing yourvaginal biome because sperm is alkaline.
So again, thinking about how do you reset thatacidity when afterwards?
How do you reset that acidity after you'rehaving sex with your partner, especially if
you're looking to conceive, other things likethat.
You know, there are there are different typesof spermicides.
(15:18):
You know, one of the ones I recommend is abrand called Good Clean Love because it doesn't
damage the biome.
And then if you're not looking to conceive theAloe Glide, this is where you can insert that
just to keep tissues healthy.
It's actually our Desert Harvest Aloe Glide isan FDA cleared medical device as both a sexual
lubricant and a vaginal moisturizer.
(15:41):
So you can just insert something like that justto keep the tissues healthy, help to reset that
pH if you're exposing yourself to alkaline,substances.
The other case in which you can affect it,obviously, is our underwear, as well as during
during menstruation because we're we're we'recreating a more alkaline environment during
(16:03):
menstruation as well.
And so how do we influence those behaviors?
And that, again, can go into the type ofunderwear you're using.
We've seen all over the news, everything elselike that, where we're talking about, you know,
PFAS chemicals in our in our our pads, in ourour tampons, and other things like that.
Desert harvest is actually getting ready torelease.
(16:26):
We actually released next week, live.
We had a little bit of a delay.
Lunation.
And this is we created a new fabric made out ofaloe.
Aloe is naturally antifungal, antimicrobial,antibacterial.
And then we created a layer of ginger todeodorize.
And then we created a layer of bamboo, which isgonna wick moisture.
(16:48):
And we have a waterproof organic cotton thatwill be kind of like a fail safe layer as a as
a protective barrier.
So those but then again, we also made themsexy.
We created natural, like, lace so that they'reyou know, we don't we don't have to wear granny
panties when we're when we're menstruating orurinary leakage or anything else like that.
(17:10):
So that's kind of why we created these.
And and it will show that no chemical has evertouched an inch of fabric in every single batch
of that that fabric that we make.
And so that gives you an idea of, like, youknow, what we need to be looking for.
If we're just looking for regular underwear,organic cotton is always a good go to.
(17:33):
And and looking at how we're influencing ourbiome from just what we're wearing.
Just a quick break to let you know that eightypercent of women do not have orgasms from
vaginal intercourse alone.
So many people are not having the type of sexthat is healing that brings them closer, that
brings them more connected, that is full of somuch pleasure and passion, that it can build
(17:57):
bones, reduce stress, help serotonin, bringhappiness, lower anxiety, improve sleep, and
build a better connection with your partner.
That is what hot and modern monogamy is, ismodern monogamy that brings in all of that
passion, that desire, that closeness, and thathealing.
And that's what you can get at the hot andmodern monogamy club.
(18:19):
So if you're interested in that and I can helpyou, please go to modernmonogamyclub.com.
Now back to our show.
Amazing.
And just so everybody knows, the PFAS chemicalthat Heather has mentioned here, it is getting
more notoriety these days.
It's really a class of chemicals that are alsoknown as the forever chemicals.
And it's because, they're called the foreverchemicals, because these are things that we are
(18:41):
creating in society that don't break down innature.
And so, other types of chemicals sometimes stayin our environment for many type, you know,
many, years, but eventually can get brokendown.
And one of the biggest problems we're findingwith the PFAS is that these chemicals don't
break down.
So, they get in our body, they get in ourenvironment, and they don't naturally break
(19:03):
down.
And they are, they're being linked to more andmore and more diseases as we learn more about
them.
So, the, you know, doing something like amenstruation underwear with the, you know, the
types of technology that Heather's talkingabout is a really important thing, because a
lot of people are putting these chemicals intheir body, the vagina's porous, They're
getting into their bloodstream.
(19:23):
They can cause all sorts of problems, includingdisruption of our hormonal system, and keeping
them out is so important out of our vagina, outof our skincare products, out of our food, all
of the things.
I also wanna circle back to something you saidwhen you're talking about the health and the
the pH, and you're saying, okay, don't douche,don't steam.
(19:43):
I wanna clarify that because Yoni steaming, Iknow, has gotten so It's really been talked a
lot about in the female vagina self love, selfcare, you know, movement, where you sit on
this, oftentimes this device that kinda lookslike a toilet seat, with something below you
that is typically hot water, warm water, thatoftentimes has a bunch of herbs in them.
(20:09):
And the concept of Yoni steaming is usingdifferent herbs, and with the, almost like
making a tea decoction, the herbs infuse intothe water, and that steam then goes into the
vagina.
And so, it is promoted so much.
I know actually quite a few people who do Yonisteams regularly.
So, are you saying that that can even bedangerous to the microbiome?
(20:30):
Yes, it can.
So, you know, in a lot of peep a lot ofsituations, women are going because they think
it's just killing the bad bacteria, but it'salso killing the bad the good bacteria that
your your vet vagina needs to continue to beself cleaning and self functioning and maintain
your your natural healthy biome.
(20:52):
And so by utilizing vaginal steaming, yonisteaming, this this can destroy all of that
good bacteria.
And so we highly do not recommend that.
And most of the clinicians we work with don'trecommend that just because of the damage that
(21:12):
it does to the vaginal microbiome.
And none of the evidence suggests that there isenough benefit, to make it worth it.
It may might feel good afterwards.
Like, this, you might feel wonderful, but it'sdefinitely something that, at least in the
medical community, is is is something that'stalked about is not being recommended.
(21:33):
Okay.
I think that's really important for people tohear.
What about, I want to circle back around tokind of the toxin standpoint.
So,
we know, as, you know, as I mentioned at thebeginning, as you mentioned in your intro,
petroleum's such a common thing in a lot ofthese different lubricants.
What is that doing?
Is that, is the problem that you see also in asimilar construct around impacting the pH and
(21:58):
osmolality?
Are there other things you've seen with thatare problematic with it?
Yeah.
So definitely, with the petrol especially withthe petroleum based, those that are introducing
other types of of of preservatives, exohefroglycerin, other types of glycerin, things
like that, that are acting as glycerin, thingslike that, that are acting as chemical
(22:20):
preservatives.
What those are doing is one, glycerines aregonna create and breed bacteria, you know,
their sugars.
So they're gonna create bacteria.
They're gonna create they're gonna help growyeast.
And and this is of course, something we don'twant in our biome.
And then with regards to the petroleum, one,we're again creating a barrier between the
(22:43):
fluidity.
But you think of petroleum, think about whenyou put Vaseline on something like that.
It's acting as a barrier.
It's not letting your fluid flow within yourvaginal wall.
And so this is this is one of the biggestproblems.
Now interestingly enough, silicone is isactually has no osmolality.
(23:06):
And so because it does not have, so likesilicone base, but then we go into the question
of we're dealing with a chemical again.
So we're still introducing a chemical to ourbiome.
It doesn't affect the osmolality, but, and itdoesn't affect necessarily the pH.
It's kind of just very, you know, amphorous.
(23:27):
It's not gonna have that kind of effect withthe silicone.
And so it comes, kinda becomes a multi use tooland that it can go back and But we don't know
the ultimate effects of the chemical nature ofsilicone, and how that and similarly, if we
wanna skip over to let's say, coconut oil.
This is a big one.
Everybody's like, oh, I'm using natural.
(23:49):
It's great.
It's wonderful.
And yes, again, very much like silicone isgonna be androgynous.
It's not gonna have that it's not gonna havethat osmolality factor.
But unfortunately, what we have seen in inclinical research is is that the coconut lube
that that people are using, this coconut oil,they're seeing one, it's messy and nasty.
(24:13):
And then two, we're seeing that over time, itbegins to breed back bad bacteria.
And so even though we think that this is, youknow, gonna be completely androgynous, it is
not like silicone in this in this sense becausethe pH will ultimately in long term effect when
it comes to coconut oil, whereas we see withsilicone that doesn't happen.
(24:37):
Yeah.
And I've researched and reached out to quite afew people about not using coconut oil.
Also, from a standpoint of we do see evidencethat it is antimicrobial.
Right?
So, what you're seeing in studies aroundbreeding bad bacteria, in my mind, is probably
coming from the utility of using it.
And since it's antibacterial, we can be killingoff our good microbiome, which then naturally
(25:01):
sets up a, a environment where these patho, youknow, pathogenic bacteria can make their home
there because our microbiome is part of what isprotecting against that.
So, I think that's some of the mechanism that'shappening there.
Yeah.
I wanna talk about the use of aloe inparticular because it is something that I think
is particularly important with your product.
(25:23):
And there's research that, that I'll ask youabout here.
I know it's, it's helpful for things likeinterstitial cystitis.
And for our listeners, interstitial cystitis, Ifeel, at least in my medical practice, is, I
think, a very underdiagnosed condition.
I look at what this is as kind of like a leakygut of the bladder.
(25:43):
So, it's really where people are having thesignal that they, this kind of the signal of
urgency that can almost feel like a bladderinfection, except it typically is not gonna
like burn when you pee, And it's more thisurgency because what's supposed to happen in
the bladder is when the bladder, when we getthat signal to our brain to urinate, that's
(26:04):
coming from the bladder expanding far enough.
And when the bladder expands, it says, ittriggers our nervous system to say, oh, the the
the bladder's expanded.
It's full.
The nerve sends a signal to the brain to say,hey, your bladder's full.
You got to pee.
And with interstitial cystitis, one of thethings that will happen is that signal gets
(26:24):
disrupted due to bladder irritation.
And so, this signal when the bladder has maybeonly expanded a tiny little bit, you're getting
that that signal, that urgency, I gotta go,maybe you go.
And was like, wow, there's not much there.
And this, this intense feeling, which sometimescan be interpreted even as pain, can radiate.
(26:45):
And it can actually radiate to the genitals, tothe vulva, to the vagina, and lead to people
seeking out medical attention, not evenrealizing that it's ultimately coming from
their bladder, but it's, it's being interpretedas pelvic or vaginal pain.
I think it's oftentimes misdiagnosed becausepeople don't know how to describe this, so they
(27:05):
get tested for a UTI, which is negative.
And then they're just like, okay, well, it'sjust in your head.
You're fine.
Go out into the world.
So, if you're having any sort of symptoms likethat or pelvic pain, this can be a helpful, you
know, tool.
So, tell us a little bit about that around,like, the choice of aloe, around some of the
research there with cystitis, pelvic pain, andthose kind of things.
(27:29):
Yeah.
So, that is actually how Desert Harvest startedin 1993.
My aunt had the bladder disorder, interstitialcystitis, and we were looking for something
that might be able to help her.
And we stumbled across aloe vera.
She took a random bottle, she slept through theentire night.
And then we wanted to figure out how we couldconcentrate it, how we could make it safe for
(27:51):
long term use and in high doses.
Aloe vera naturally has what's calledanthraquinones in them.
They're latex chemicals that long term, can becarcinogenic to the colon, cause liver damage,
kidney damage.
So what Desert Harvest makes is not what youfind in the health food stores.
This isn't your juices.
This isn't one, juices will actually irritatethe bladder because there's only two ways to
(28:14):
preserve aloe vera juice, and that is throughbladder irritating preservatives like citric
acid, lemon, and other things like that.
And then two, pasteurization, and which isreally just expensive water at that point
because you've just killed all of the nutrientsand aloe vera is 98%, 98.9% water.
(28:36):
And so literally, you are drinking expensivewater.
And so with with, we're actually studying rightnow for FDA drug trials at Wake Forest
University, our super strength, our SSAV.
And what we're studying is how it interactswith the urothelial cell of the bladder.
So, you know, you talk about high rate ofmisdiagnosis.
(28:58):
And and it is misdiagnosed within the field,and then it's misdiagnosed in a lot of cases in
which women are seeking mostly women.
There are also men.
There's about twenty five percent men, seventyfive percent women on average.
And it feels like a constant UTI that is notgoing away.
(29:20):
And as you mentioned, most people end up with,negative UTI results when they when they go in
for a test in their doctor's office.
And so as a result, what is happening is it'saffecting the urothelial cell lining of the
bladder.
In most cases, most actual true interstitialcystitis patients have true bladder wall
(29:43):
impact.
So they either have lesions or they have a verylarge inflamed bladder that urothelial cell
layer is damaged and or completely missing.
And then as a result, imagine you eat somethingthat's acidic or something like that and it
passes through that bladder.
It's it's like, you know, battery acid on awound.
So that's where you get the pain.
(30:03):
That's where you get the burning sensation whenyou start to urinate.
And and you you start to deal with capacityissues where you feel that urgency feeling.
And in some cases, over time, as a result ofthe lack of health of the bladder, the bladder
can shrink to a very, very, very small size.
And that's why in clinic, a lot of the timesdoctors will stretch your bladder.
(30:27):
Not the most comfortable procedure in theworld, but this is what will happen is called
hydrodistension, to try to get your bladderback to capacity.
But at the same time, there is no knownetiology what causes interstitial cystitis.
We have no idea for treatments exactly rightnow, that's why Desert Harvest, we have an
(30:51):
eighty seven point five percent response ratewith actual interstitial cystitis patients.
But what has caused the problem is is thewaters have been kind of muddied by the fact
that we started in the early two thousandsmaking it a diagnosis of exclusion.
In the rest of the world, you have to have acystoscopy, again, highly uncomfortable, and
(31:15):
usually leaves you with some radiating pain fora few days.
And as a result, doctors didn't wanna continueto subject patients to continual pain.
So as a result, we started making it adiagnosis of exclusion.
You don't have this, you don't have that, youmust have this.
And so as a result, it's kind of muddied thewaters for interstitial cystitis and muddied
(31:37):
the waters for research.
The great news is is, just a couple of yearsago, doctor Lenora Ackerman at UCLA, she
actually did a study on utilizing AI andmachine learning.
And it was the time that we had ever been ableto truly there'd always been theories of what
(31:59):
phenotyping out, subtyping out interstitialcystitis into different conditions.
So that then we could get to the root cause ofinterstitial cystitis.
But unfortunately, clinical research has neverbeen able to do that.
So she did a study where she actually put in600 or so respondents into filling out these
(32:20):
questionnaires, And they were, through machinelearning, were actually able to find three
distinct categories, and that was bladdercentric.
All their pain was coming directly from theirbladder.
And then you had kind of a myofascial pain,eighty eight percent resolved with felt pelvic
floor physical therapy in that group.
And then the group was like a neuralgianonspecific type of pain.
(32:43):
You were radiating pain from somewhere else inyour body, another condition, another injury,
things like that.
And it wasn't truly the impact of your bladder,but it was causing that feeling of pressure and
urgency through the neuralgia.
So this is going to change things forinterstitial cystitis hopefully, and get us to
(33:03):
the root cause, and so that we don't have sucha high rate of misdiagnosis.
And we can truly determine because most womenwho have pelvic conditions need pelvic floor
physical therapy.
When you think of a condition where you're inpain, think of when you get into a car
accident, everything tenses up and you need togo get massage or chiropractor or whatever.
(33:25):
Think of that as the same thing with yourpelvic floor.
When you're experiencing a chronic paincondition, you're not feeling well.
Your pelvic floor is your hammock to everythingin your body.
It's root.
And as a result, takes on the impact of whatyou're feeling and almost becomes like a dish
rag that's super super tight.
(33:47):
And and you need to be able to release thatpelvic floor.
And many people go to to Kegels and they'relike, let me do my Kegels and and stuff.
And and that's the worst thing you could do.
You've got to be able to re release your pelvicfloor and that's seeing a great pelvic floor
physical therapist before you strengthen itback up and learn the exercises to strengthen
(34:12):
up and figure out which part of your pelvicfloor is in a weakened state.
Beautiful.
And I wanna add to that.
In my clinical experience, while the it is aconfusing thing, right, and the ideology of
this is not fully clear, and diagnostics arenot even fully clear, as you mentioned, because
of diagnosis of exclusion, I have seen manycases in my clinical career of, like, what
(34:38):
seems like interstitial cystitis, or somebodyhas been diagnosed by a previous doctor with
that, where getting toxins out and getting foodallergies out actually make it go away.
So, one of the things that I think is greatabout holistic medicine, and what I've seen
clinically with this is, so many times, whenwe're actually cleaning up the diet, we're
(34:58):
getting out the toxins, we're getting out anychronic hidden infections, which is crazy
common, not just pelvic chronic hiddeninfections, but systemic.
And these things that actually create that,that stress, that inflammatory response on
bladder and the nervous system, things juststart going away.
So, that's another thing I want to add to herefrom an etiology standpoint.
(35:20):
Not saying that there's, you know, there's tonsof research behind it, but clinical evidence in
some of these scenarios is a huge component ofwhat we have to go on.
So, I just wanna add that for
our listeners here as well.
And this has been awesome.
As I have, I love everything that we havecovered today.
I think this, this conversation on osmolalityis really help, you know, important and
(35:41):
helpful, this conversation on pH, Helpingpeople understand that not all lube is the
same, and that using an aloe based type ofproduct can not only provide support with this,
but also can help with healing, and that notall aloe based products are the same either.
So, I think being responsible consumers is justsuch an incredibly important thing.
(36:03):
So, is there anything else in our timetogether?
And again, everybody, I'm gonna have links forDesert Harvest and some discounts for you guys
in the show notes on this.
You know, definitely look at joining my libidoclub where we will go more into toxins,
hormones, techniques, root causes, on and onand on and on to support you, your libido, your
(36:26):
love life, your desire, your passion, and more.
And all that being said, Heather, is there arethere any, like, final points?
Is there any final points that you wanna makesure we say today?
Yeah.
Pretty much.
I'd say just claim your pleasure, and realizethat even if you have a chronic pain condition,
(36:46):
there are ways in which you can claim yourpleasure, and mediate that with the health of
your body.
At the same time, you you talk aboutinterstitial cystitis and the overall health of
your body.
When we say mind gut health approach, it's onehundred percent.
(37:07):
In a lot of cases with interstitial cystitis,there there is a mast cell activation
component.
They call it the allergic bladder.
And a lot of the times taking antihistamines,and or over the counters like quercetin, things
like that can make a massive difference forjust the health of the bladder outside of
interstitial cystitis.
And so definitely following your path and yourjourney towards, recovering your health and
(37:34):
your pleasure is is part of the reason whyDesert Harvest is here, the part of the reason
why doctor Mueller's here.
And and we would love to be a part of yourjourney, in any way possible.
So
Amazing.
Well, thank you again for being here.
Thank you all for listening, and we will seeyou very soon on another episode of the Libido
(37:55):
Lounge.
Take care.
Bye.
Awesome.
Thank
you for listening to the Libido Lounge.
Please don't keep me a secret.
Please share this with your friends.
You can find me on YouTube, on Instagram, aswell as how to work with me at mylibidodoc.com.
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