In this eye-opening episode of Vital Signs, host Jen Gaudet sits down with Dr. Michael Schwartz, a naturopathic physician known for helping patients decode root causes instead of masking symptoms. Together, they tackle one of the most dismissed — yet most important — health alarms in modern life: fatigue.

If you’re waking up tired after a full night’s sleep, relying on caffeine to function, and still crashing by night, this conversation reframes exhaustion as a systems issue, not a willpower problem. Dr. Schwartz explains how chronic stress can tax the adrenal system and disrupt the body’s energy regulation, creating cycles of cravings, snacking, and blood-sugar crashes that leave people depleted.

In this insightful episode of Vital Signs, Jen Gaudet sits down with performance and resilience expert Rachel Vickery to explore what really determines how we perform under pressure. From CEOs and parents to elite military units and professional athletes, high-stakes decisions happen every day and without a trained nervous system, performance can quickly break down.

Rachel explains why pressure is not a mental weakness but a physiological response that can be trained, understood, and regulated.

In the December 18, 2025 episode of Vital Signs, host Jen Godde welcomes healthcare strategist and pharmacy benefit expert Rachel Strauss for a powerful conversation on one of the most confusing and expensive issues in American healthcare: prescription drug pricing and patient advocacy.

With more than two decades of experience inside national PBMs, Rachel explains why medication costs feel impossible to understand and what patients can do today to reduce out-of-pocket expenses. The discussion covers practical tools such as GoodRx, cash-pay strategies, and alternative pharmacy models like Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company.

This episode also tackles common myths that prevent people from saving money, including fears around cash-pay options and insurance rules. A major focus is placed on women’s midlife health, perimenopause, hormone therapy, and why these concerns are often dismissed as “just aging.”