Raeann Wilson & Dr. Kris Shewmake
Zen Infusion Therapy
Kris Shewmake, M.D., FACS was born in Pine Bluff, AR. He earned his bachelor’s degree in biology from Hendrix College in Conway and a master’s degree in natural science from the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville. He received his medical degree from UAMS, where he also completed a residency in general surgery. He was president of his class and elected into the Alpha Omega Alpha Medical Honor Society (top 10% of the class). His eight years of surgical training after medical school included a General Surgery residency at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) Medical Center and a Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery residency in Dallas at the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center. Dr. Shewmake entered private practice in 1996 and was named Best Plastic Surgeon in Arkansas by his colleagues in 1999 and 2009.
Raeann Wilson was born in Cabot, AR. As a breast cancer survivor, IV therapy was an integral part of Raeann’s recovery, and she became passionate about giving the same level of care to other post-operation patients. As the surgical coordinator at Shewmake Plastic Surgery, Raeann has extensive knowledge in surgical processes and patient care. This all gave her the skill and inspiration to create Zen Infusion, offering mobile, on-demand IV infusion therapy that serves a number of needs for the people of Central Arkansas.
Listen to Kerry's first interview with Dr. Shewmake at https://www.flagandbanner.com/radio-show/dr-kris-shewmake-136.asp
Listen to Learn:
- How Zen Infusion came to be
- What can be fixed with IV infusion therapy
- About concierge medicine, and more...
Podcast Links
TRANSCRIPT
EPISODE 399
[INTRODUCTION]
[00:00:08] GM: Welcome to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. Through storytelling, conversational interviews, and Kerry's natural curiosity, this weekly radio show and podcast offers listeners an insider's view into the commonalities of entrepreneurs, athletes, medical professionals, politicians, and other successful people all sharing their stories of success and the and downs of risk-taking. Connect with Kerry through her candid, funny, informative, and always encouraging weekly blog. And now it's time for Kerry McCoy to get all up in your business.
[00:00:40] KM: Thank you, son, Gray. My reoccurring guest today is the surgeon, Dr. Kris Shewmake. And this time, he's brought along his surgical coordinator and co-founder of Zen Infusion, Miss Raeann Wilson. Did I get that right?
[00:00:56] RW: I'm the owner of Zen Infusion and Zen Recovery Care. And he's my medical director.
[00:01:02] KM: All right. Dr. Shewmake is a renowned plastic and reconstructive surgeon in Little Rock, Arkansas. Miss Wilson, along with being Shewmake's surgical coordinator, is a breast cancer survivor. Together they have researched and experienced first-hand the healing powers of intravenous high doses of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients for postsurgery healing, cancer therapy, autoimmune disease, as well as a wellness protocol for health, beauty, and mental clarity.
On their Zen Infusion website, they say "reverse the signs of aging from within". And list over 14, almost 20 maybe, IV therapy packages to choose from. Today we will learn about the different custom-made vitamin and mineral saline packs, like the Cinderella Rapid Drip, or the Superman, or the Einstein, Energizer Bunny, Skinny Dipper, Sleeping Beauty, and more.
It is with great pleasure we welcome back to the table the talented surgeon, Dr. Shewmake, and his caring coworker, Miss Raeann Wilson of Zen Infusion Therapy.
Tell us how this all came about and how y'all ended up deciding to go into this Zen Infusion Therapy.
[00:02:13] RW: Well, it came about because I had undergone some health issues my entire life. I've struggled with autoimmune diseases. I was looking for a clean way to take vitamins, minerals, amino acids just for health and healing. We're in the beauty business. But we want to focus a lot more on health and wellness.
Also, for our pre-op patients and our post-op patients, I noticed just with patients that had autoimmune diseases how much it helped to heal. They were using vitamin infusion for oncology. They were using it in the burn unit. I thought that could be something that I could bring to Dr. Shewmake's practice that would really elevate his patient experience. They get the best surgery possible. But we want to also provide them with the best pre-op and post-op recovery. That's how it integrated into that. We're actually the only company that has five specific drips designed for plastics, derms, cosmetics, and med spas as well.
Dermatologists can use them in their clinics. Cosmetic surgeons can use them in their clinics as well. Any medical office can use the pre-op immunity booster drip. We have a post-op rapid recovery drip. We have an anti-aging drip. And then we have a laser booster and a toxin booster.
[00:03:41] KM: Everybody knows that I had Shewmake do my facelift. Because I blogged about it. I've talked about it. And people are shocked when I tell them that when I came out of surgery, your company, Zen Infusion, came over and gave me a – I don't know what was in the concoction. But the very first morning when I woke up, I got an IV of vitamin C.
[00:04:06] RW: Right. Our rapid recovery post-op drip is designed to be given somewhere pretty much immediately after the post-op period. The reason behind that drip is because it's been a long day for the surgery patient. They've had nothing to eat or drink since midnight the night before. They get there 2 hours early. They can have 1 to 6-hour surgery. Then they're in recovery for an hour.
When we send a nurse to do a post-op visit, one of the first things she's going to do is hook the patient up to a liter bag of fluids. That's going to help flush the toxins from the anesthesia out of their system. Get rid of that brain fog. But it's also going to give them vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and antinausea to really jump start that recovery process.
And if you think about it, even if you don't feel good and you go to the emergency room, the first thing they're going to do is just hook you up to a litter bag of fluid and you start feeling so much better. The health and healing benefits of this post-op rapid recovery drip have been game-changing for our surgical patients I feel. Wouldn't you agree, Dr. Shewmake?
[00:05:19] KS: Totally. Yeah. First of all, let me just say this is her brainchild. I'm just a surgeon. But I have seen firsthand – and she's had great ideas the whole time she's worked with me. And, I mean, everything from A to Z for my practice. And mainly for taking care of our patients. And so, this just falls in line with all the other things she's done with regard to caring for our patients and making their experience better. She came to me with this idea and had done all the research on it.
I'm inherently skeptical of new things. It wasn't really until my patients started coming back to me and I'd see them for suture removal or I check on them post-op and they'd say say, "Oh, my gosh. I had this done 10, 15 years ago." And they would come and say, "This time, it has been so much better than it was the last time. Or whatever you're doing this time that you didn't do 10, 15 years ago." It's amazing. And it was all about the – not only the post-op Zen recovery that you do. But, also, all the IV therapy. Both.
They get an IV three weeks before. Sort of an immune booster IV. They get an IV that night. Sometimes even the next day. And they get post-op shots. It's unusual when I have a clinic where two or three of my post-op patients don't say something about the IVs. Where can I get another one of those? How soon can I get another one? And then she has all these continuing sort of programs that patients can still utilize the benefits or enjoy the benefits of these IVs. While I would love to take credit for all this, I can't. I can take – I'm just the surgeon who has benefited from this.
[00:07:01] KM: You can take credit for being open-minded.
[00:07:03] KS: That's true. I'll do that. Not many people would agree with you. But that's probably good.
[00:07:08] KM: I want to say that I did not have one bruise. I had a face lift without one bruise, which I've seen all my girlfriends the next day or two afterwards and they're bruised. And they don't leave the house for two weeks. I could have walked out of the house 3 days after. Really, the next day even if I'd have felt like it and no one would have known. It convinced me.
[00:07:33] KS: Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. And they convinced me. It's my patients that convinced me. And it's not seeing all the bruising and the swelling. And seeing the energy levels back. It usually takes a month to get your energy levels back after a long anesthetic like that.
[00:07:47] KM: Let's talk about vitamin C in an IV. You can't absorb enough vitamin C.
[00:07:53] RW: Right. And, also, if you're taking anything orally, you're getting like 15% to 35% of the benefits from it. And there's negative side effects from that, like heartburn and upset stomach.
At Zen Infusion, we didn't invent vitamins. We're just doing them differently. By taking an IV, you're getting 90% to 100% directly into the bloodstream. And something I didn't realize when I started the company and began the research was all the medical journal reports that have been done on IV vitamins, and especially high-dose IV vitamin C, the health benefits are really remarkable.
Just the fact that they use them in burn units, in oncology, for rheumatology, every category of patient, whether you're a healthy patient undergoing a surgery or you're struggling with health problems, there are amazing benefits to high-dose IV vitamin C.
One of the journal studies showed, while a vitamin can't cure a disease, high-dose vitamins C they found in oncology patients, it was putting a protective coating around the cells that are mutating and dividing. And so, by taking high-dose IV vitamin C, it decreases inflammation in your body, which is the root cause of so many disease processes.
In the study, it showed that oncology patients were living longer in less pain and having a higher quality of life when they took high-dose IV vitamin C. And the oral takers, they notice no benefits of such.
[00:09:33] KM: You're saying that inflammation is what causes a lot of diseases?
[00:09:39] KS: It certainly contributes to a lot of diseases. Yeah. Heart disease in particular.
[00:09:43] KM: Everybody's got inflammation.
[00:09:44] KS: Yeah.
[00:09:45] KM: You live long enough, you've got inflammation.
[00:09:46] KS: You do.
[00:09:47] RW: That's why everybody can benefit from IV vitamin infusion. That's why so many people are taking anti-inflammatories orally all the time, which can have negative side effects.
[00:09:58] KM: And so, if you take a lot of vitamin C, you can have a kidney stone.
[00:10:03] RW: Right.
[00:10:04] KM: Does that happen with an IV?
[00:10:07] RW: That's a great question. It depends on the makeup of the kidney stone. And, of course, we do a complete health history on all of our patients. If a patient has a history of kidney stones and they don't know the makeup of it. For instance, the one that we would want to not give high-dose vitamin C would be if it's a calcium oxalate stone.
If a patient comes in and says, "I have a history of them. I don't know the component. I've never had them analyze the stones their selves." Then we would just give them a vitamin cocktail with either low-dose vitamin C. Or we would keep the vitamin C out of it. But that's where the health history comes into play. And having such a smart medical director is – he can look over all of the information. And we truly customize these for the specific patient.
If patients have a history of heart disease, we want to give them taurine. They're great for nursing mothers. But we would want to leave out B2 for them or B6. Because it can suppress lactation. That's where all of the research has come into play. And a specific patient's health history is very important.
[00:11:22] KM: What's your history in – your medical history?
[00:11:25] RW: Actually, I have a bachelor's degree in speech language pathology. A minor in elementary education. I've worked with Shewmake, Dr. Shewmake, for close to a decade now. And before that, I worked for a cosmetic surgeon. I'm just fascinated by it all.
[00:11:43] KM: Yeah. You've done a lot of research. And for our listeners, you can go to these fast IV shops and you can get an IV if you' got a hangover, which I have done. You can be out of town, put in their IV infusion. Get you a quick fix and go to that shop and they will make you feel better. A lot of people do it like if they're in town for weddings and stuff like that and they've partied the night before and they just want to get their electrolytes back up. Talk about the difference between what you do and those quickie in and outs.
[00:12:21] RW: Right. I love to use the analogy of car shopping. You can go car shopping and you can buy a Malibu or Lexus. And they're both cars. But it's completely different what you're getting. We're kind of the Lexus of vitamin infusion. Just like Dr. Shewmake is the Lexus of plastic surgery. It is the –
[00:12:43] GM: The roll on his eyes.
[00:12:47] KM: It's true.
[00:12:47] RW: It is very true.
[00:12:48] KS: Porsche.
[00:12:49] KM: Always a Porsche.
[00:12:51] RW: Okay. Well, the best of the best. How about that?
[00:12:53] KS: It's okay.
[00:12:55] RW: We are doing full-dosing medical grade vitamins. And I can't speak on what everybody else puts in theirs. But I can just say you can get vials of vitamins for $5 or $100. Some of ours are over $100 for a vial of vitamins. And while some clinics will put 1, 3, 5 cc's of a vitamin, we'll put 5, 10, 15, 20, sometimes 30 cc's. It's a complete different thing that you're getting. And so, that's why the research and development was so important.
And for me, being a breast cancer survivor, the premise of the company is to find a way to get completely clean vitamins and to focus more on health and healing. It's very important to me that we have the best quality vitamins. And I've even had nurses work at other clinics and say, "I wanted to go – don't get it here. Go to Zen Infusion. Because you're just getting a bag of normal saline."
[00:13:57] KM: Yeah. But if you can't afford it, go get a bag of saline. Any fluid is good fluid.
[00:14:02] RW: Kerry, we have a 199 drip, too. It just doesn't have the high-dose vitamin C in it. But we do have that as well.
[00:14:09] KM: Well, we're going to come back and talk about all the different kinds of drips you have. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Kris Shew, and Miss Raeann Wilson, surgical coordinator for Shewmake and founder of Zen Infusion in Little Rock, Arkansas.
Still to come, who should get an IV? Sounds like everybody. And we're going to go over all the different kinds of options you have and how to get your own cocktail made just for you. We'll be right back.
[BREAK]
[00:14:36] GM: You're listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy, a production of flagandbanner.com. In 1975, with only $400, Kerry founded Arkansas Flag & Banner. Since then, the business has grown and changed along with Kerry's experience and leadership knowledge.
In 1995, she embraced the internet and rebranded her company as simply flagandbanner.com. In 2004, she became an early blogger. Since then, she has founded the nonprofit Friends of Dreamland Ballroom. Began publishing her magazine, Brave. And in 2016, branched out into this very radio show, YouTube channel, and podcast.
in 2020, Kerry McCoy Enterprises acquired ourcornermarket.com, an online company specializing in American-made plaques, signage, and memorials. In 2021, Flag & Banner expanded to a satellite office in Miami, Florida where first-generation immigrants keep the art of sewing alive and flags made in America.
Telling American-made stories, selling American-made flags, the flagandbanner.com. Back to you, Kerry.
[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[00:15:41] KM: Thanks. We're speaking today with Dr. Kris Shewmake of Shewmake Plastic Surgery and Skin Retreat, and Miss Raeann Wilson of Zen Infusion Therapy in Little Rock, Arkansas. How did you come up with these concoctions? You said you did a lot of research? How long of research? And where did you get your research from?
[00:16:00] RW: Yeah. It was a year of research to get it right. And just worked with chemist and pharmacists to come up with – there are certain things you can't mix with other things. And I just really wanted to take my time to get the best ingredients the highest dosing I could.
[00:16:17] KM: Did something in your life happened and you were like, "This worked for me so good. I've got to share it?"
[00:16:23] RW: Well, yes. I went through treatment for breast cancer. I had been on immunosuppressives and biologics for 20-plus years. Over two decades. And they have side effects of cancer. And so, I truly wanted to look for something that was great for health and healing after I went through all those health struggles. And I just found that big pharma, these pharmaceutical companies, spend millions and billions of dollars to create all these medications to treat symptoms. But they're not healing your body.
Vitamins have been around a long time. When I went through that, I started seeing other companies around the country, not in Little Rock, Arkansas, but around the country that were starting to do vitamin infusions. Just looking at some of the medical journal studies done on it, I was like, "Why is no one doing this here? I don't get it. We need to focus on health and healing getting off of these medications and decreasing inflammation in our body."
[00:17:28] KM: The types of infusion, you have a $199 package. You have a $350.
[00:17:35] RW: Sure. When I started the company, it was four years old in January. Again, a year of that was research and development. But I came up with 10 different ones. Now we have 25 different drips. We even have the five specifics that I mentioned earlier for surgical practices, or doctor's offices, or health, healing, and wellness. But then we've also got some designed for patients that have medical issues. Five for that. For instance, migraine. A certain category of migraine sufferers is deficient in certain vitamins like magnesium and B vitamins. We've got one for rheumatology to help with all the inflammation. We've got one for GI patients. You should never get a colonoscopy without doing a vitamin drip the day of your prep. Because they're going to overdose you on laxatives. This is game-changing. We'll give you vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and antinausea. It'll be the best –
[00:18:31] KM: The day before or the day after?
[00:18:32] RW: The day you do your prep. When they give you – they overdose you on laxative to prep you for the procedure.
[00:18:39] KM: Yes. You have to drink all the laxative and then you get dehydrated. You're saying you should do an IV?
[00:18:43] RW: Right. If you start your prep at noon, you can do your vitamin drip at 10. If you start your prep at two or four, do your vitamin drip the same day prior to. It is life-changing for the better.
[00:18:57] KS: I can testify.
[00:18:59] RW: Yes.
[00:18:59] KM: That is a good tip.
[00:19:01] RW: Yeah, it is.
[00:19:03] KM: Everybody has to do a colonoscopy.
[00:19:05] RW: At some point.
[00:19:06] KM: Thank you, Katie Couric.
[00:19:07] RW: Yeah. Really. Yeah. Those are just some of our medical drips. And, again, we're not pushing medications. They're mostly vitamins. We do have some antinausea that we do. But they're designed to help patients in that medical category.
[00:19:24] KM: I like this one, the Cinderella.
[00:19:26] RW: Yes. Anti-aging. We came up with some fun names.
[00:19:31] KM: The names are so cute. Let's just talk about the Big Dam Rapid Drip.
[00:19:36] RW: Right. Yeah.
[00:19:38] KM: What is that one for? I mean, I can guess Cinderella. That's for being young. Einstein, that's for being smart. Energizer Bunny, energy. Mommy Drip, that's if you're nursing. Party Like a Rock Star, that's for hangovers?
[00:19:50] RW: That's for a hangover. That's right.
[00:19:54] KM: I need that one. Remedy, that's the one I do. I like Remedy because it's high doses of vitamin C. And I have melanoma cancer.
[00:20:00] RW: Right. Absolutely. That's a great one. It also has zinc in it to help fight off cold, flu, and COVID. And it has some B vitamins in there for energy as well.
[00:20:10] KM: And then you have the Superman. Is that for virility? Are you taking that one, Shewmake?
[00:20:16] KS: Every day.
[00:20:17] RW: Helps with stamina.
[00:20:19] KS: Right before every operation, I do.
[00:20:21] RW: Stamina, energy, endurance. All designed for that. That's right.
[00:20:26] KM: Yeah. If I go to your website, which I actually am on right now, and I click on Einstein, you can read what's in it. Einstein, vitamin B5, magnesium sulfate, zinc, vitamin B12, methylcobalamin.
[00:20:48] RW: Methylcobalamin.
[00:20:50] KM: I could never be a doctor.
[00:20:52] KS: That's B12.
[00:20:53] KM: Oh, is that what that is? And then you go over here to – let's say yes to the drip. I think that's –
[00:21:02] RW: That's for our bridal packages. Instead of say yes to the drip. Say yes to the drip. Yeah.
[00:21:08] KM: This is just a lot of vitamin B complex.
[00:21:13] RW: It is. B complex. Seven of the eight B vitamins in there. And that's a rapid drip that you're looking at. These can be done in no time. I mean, they can be done under 30 minutes, for sure. But sometimes 15 minutes. The $350 drips usually are a longer drip. But, again, around 30, 45 minutes average.
[00:21:37] KM: Are the rapid ones the $199 ones?
[00:21:39] RW: Yes, they are.
[00:21:40] KM: And so, the $350 packages are the hour-long ones.
[00:21:45] RW: They're actually under an hour. They're usually under an hour. An hour or under. But, again –
[00:21:51] KM: Yeah. They're only 30 minutes. But by the time you get in the chair and you get –
[00:21:55] RW: That's right.
[00:21:56] KM: You need to allocate an hour. You're actually on drip maybe for 20 or 30 minutes.
[00:22:00] RW: Yes. And we do have an IV VIP membership that I absolutely love. It's an auto subscription. Instead of the 350-price point, you're only paying 320 a month. And then you get to get your vitamin drip each month specific to how you're feeling at that time. If you're feeling rundown, we're going to give you a drip for that. If you're feeling low energy, we're going to give you a drip for that. If you're feeling stressed, we're going to give you something with magnesium and selenium to help with that stress level.
You don't have to pre-pick your drip. But at the end of 12 of them, you're saving so much money that you're getting one free $350 drip with a nurse that will come to you, which is huge.
[00:22:44] KM: Your nurses will come to your house.
[00:22:47] RW: Absolutely. Will come to your business. Will come to your home. I really wanted to help Dr. Shewmake – when I started working for him, I just thought he was so underrated for his quality of surgery. I just saw excellence in him. And I just wanted to really promote him in his practice. It was a goal that I had to really elevate him and bring attention to the quality of surgery that he was giving to his patients.
And so, I went to him and said I want to start a post-op recovery program. Because we don't have that. And he's kind of like, "Yeah. And Little Rock Arkansas don't know about that." And I'm like, "Well, I've watched Botched. And they have it in California and Florida. Let us try it."
And so, we did try offering those services to our patients and they loved it so much so that other doctors now use it as well. And that's kind of the same thing with the vitamin infusion, I think. It's just to be excellent in what we're providing. And it started with surgery patients and health issues.
[00:23:54] KM: You don't have to be like me. I started doing this with you before I knew I had cancer. Shewmake found out had cancer when he was doing some cosmetic surgery on me. He was, "Hmm. That doesn't look good, Kerry."
And so, now – but I started doing it anyway for a wellness package. Everybody should do it every month. Everybody should – if they can afford it, everybody should sign up and do it as a wellness protocol. It doesn't have to be I've got an autoimmune problem, or I'm getting married, or I got cancer, or whatever.
[00:24:32] RW: That's correct.
[00:24:33] KS: I think, Kerry, the thing that needs to go along with that is that, with so many people now trying to lose weight, taking medications now to lose significant amounts of weight, they're just not eating very well. They're not eating much. The volume of food, the quality of food that they eat is usually not very good, which is why they lose the weight. The medicines just make them not hungry. Right?
[00:24:54] KM: Right.
[00:24:55] KS: But they don't really eat healthy when they do eat. Or they wouldn't lose weight, right? Secondly, food these days, the nutritional value of a head of lettuce now compared to 20 years ago is probably 10% of what it was because we are just pushing out food in our farms so quickly. They don't rotate crops as much anymore and let the soil build all of its nutrients back.
If you look at the studies – and I did this back when I did research on burn patients, if you look at the studies of nutritional value of the average and you pick a chicken, or a radish, or whatever the food is, it's significantly less than it was 10 years ago and way less than it was 20 years ago. Because we have different farming habits now.
Even though you're eating what we would otherwise consider to be a normal, a healthy meal, the nutritional value of that meal other than the bulk of it is just not there. And so, that's why everybody is on taking oral vitamins. Well, then you go to the oral vitamins, all oral vitamins aren't the same. You can go to – I'm not going to pick on any stores. But you can go to one store that's a discount chain. And if it says 1,000 milligrams of Vitamin C, that's what's in the capsule. But by the time it gets absorbed by your body, it may be 20% of that.
Whereas you can go to a really nice company that cares about how much you actually absorb and it could be 900 milligram or 950 milligrams of that. With these, with the IV vitamins, you know exactly what you're getting. Because we know exactly how many milligrams of vitamin C or how many milligrams of Vitamin B that's going in there. And it's all absorbed because it's in your bloodstream already.
When you take it orally, it has to go through your stomach. Get broken down into your small intestine, large intestine. Some, depends on what vitamin it is, gets absorbed in different places. Depends on if you take fat, anything fatty with it. Some vitamins require you to have fat in your diet.
[00:26:55] KM: Really?
[00:26:55] KS: Yeah. Vitamin A, D, E and K are all the fat-soluble vitamins. If you don't take them with fat, then they don't absorb. So they come out the other side.
[00:27:06] GM: Yeah. If you're not eating already and then you're taking oral vitamins, yeah, your uptake is already down. Yeah.
[00:27:12] KS: You're right. And so, not only is it – the good news is it's weight loss. But it's very unhealthy weight loss.
[00:27:20] KM: Which is why you rebound.
[00:27:21] KS: Yeah. And so, while they're losing weight, they're not really healthy. When I have patients that come in for surgery after they've lost 40 lbs., we look at their total protein levels, their nutritional parameters in their bloodstream, and they're all down. When your protein is down, you don't heal well. When your vitamins are down, you certainly don't heal well.
All of our laser patients now, I'm doing a lot of laser resurfacing of the face, we start giving them the laser drips and we give them chromium, magnesium, zinc, all the trace metals that are really required for healing well. And it's been amazing to see – I haven't always done vitamin infusions with my lasers. We just recently started that. They heal so much better.
[00:28:04] KM: Really?
[00:28:05] KS: They do.
[00:28:06] KM: I'd have to tell you, the first time I took one, I think it was a year and a half ago, I felt like I was on speed or something. I had so much energy. I had no idea I was so dehydrated.
[00:28:19] KS: We were all pinching the skin on the top of her arm, like, "Wow. Look at that."
[00:28:25] KM: Oh, so good. I was like, "I am in." I signed up for the everyday package, every month, you know? But I have to tell you, I must be hydrated pretty good now. Because I don't ever get those big rushes like that ever again. Now I'm just kind of normal all the time.
[00:28:39] RW: Right. Well, I mean, it kind of depends on where you are. What you've had to eat before. How hydrated you are. Honestly, alcohol intake –
[00:28:45] KM: I must have been low.
[00:28:46] RW: So many things. Yeah. That's what's really good is you are on a protocol. It's keeping your vitamin levels high. That's a good problem.
[00:28:54] KM: I have not been sick with any flu, or COVID, or cold since I started.
[00:29:01] RW: Yeah. They're kind of amazing. And we also have a sublingual drop too as well, Kerry. I don't know if we've talked about that.
[00:29:07] KM: Is that the one that goes under your tongue?
[00:29:09] RW: Yeah. It goes under your tongue. It's not as good as an IV vitamin. Because that's going right into your bloodstream. That's the best of the best. Our weekly vitamin booster shots I would say are second best. Because they're into the muscle. Into the bloodstream. We do have four of those we recommend weekly.
But the sublingual drops go under your tongue. They're better than an oral pill. Because do bypass first round of metabolism through the liver. And they're called toxin booster. Because there was a study done on patients who do like neuromodulators, neurotoxins, Botox, Dysport. 92% of patients that supplemented with zinc and phytase, the enzyme to break zinc down in your body, their neurotoxin duration was 30% longer. That's just kind of a win-win.
[00:29:57] KM: What does that mean? What is she saying? She's speaking gibberish.
[00:29:59] KS: She's saying that your Botox will last longer if you do zinc and phytase. Instead of three months, it might last four months.
[00:30:07] RW: Right. And they did a study on it. They did a study that proved that.
[00:30:10] KS: That's just published in our journal. Yeah.
[00:30:11] RW: Right. And we also put methylcobalamin in there, the highest quality, strongest, longest lasting. B12 vitamin as well for an energy boost.
[00:30:19] KS: Kerry, I can translate for you if you need me to translate.
[00:30:21] KM: Okay. Thank you. That's why you're here. All right. This is a great place to take a break. When we come back, we'll continue our conversation with plastic and reconstructive surgeon, Dr. Kris Shewmake, and Miss Raeann Wilson, surgical coordinator for Shewmake and founder of Zen Infusion in Little Rock, Arkansas.
[BREAK]
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[INTERVIEW CONTINUED]
[00:31:44] KM: We're speaking today with Dr. Kris Shewmake of Shewmake Plastic Surgery and Skin Retreat. And with him is Miss Raeann Wilson from Zen Infusion Therapy in Little Rock, Arkansas. To be your best patient, I would every month come and get my IV infusion. And I would pick from your list on your website. I like the Remedy because it's got a really high dose of vitamin C. I think the first time I started coming to you, I did Einstein. Because I felt like I was in brain fog all the time. And it worked.
My husband has rosacea. I got him to come with me. And he picked one for skin. I think it's called something about –
[00:32:26] RW: Fountain of Youth?
[00:32:26] KM: Maybe the Fountain of Youth. He takes the Fountain of Youth.
[00:32:28] KS: I was going to say, I don't remember. But he looks really good.
[00:32:31] KM: He was back to taking – his rosacea had gotten so bad he was at stage maybe three. He was starting to take antibiotics every day. Put cream on his face. He was still breaking out all the time with acne. One IV infusion and it's gone. He now has doing it every month. And when he skips a month, it starts to come back.
[00:32:53] RW: Right. You can really tell a difference. If you skip a month, I can tell a difference physically in how I feel. But we do recommend daily drops, weekly shots, and monthly drips. It's super easy to remember that way.
[00:33:06] KM: Daily drops, weekly shots, and monthly drips.
[00:33:11] RW: That's right.
[00:33:12] KS: Kerry, you could see that Einstein worked. It's good.
[00:33:16] KM: I do them all. I love all of that. And I am surprised that dermatologists are not recommending this IV drip for all kinds of skin problems. My 90-year-old father-in-law has had an itchy skin rash on his skin for 2 years. He puts topical creams on it. Can never get it to go away. He comes to IV infusion, he gets an infusion –
[00:33:42] GM: And it's some kind of neurological disease. It's not just a rash. It's not a histamine response, right? It's something neurological. That's why it can't go away?
[00:33:52] KM: I don't know. I think it's because he just doesn't have enough fluids in his body. He's 90 something years old. You can't drink enough water at 90 years old to put the the water in your skin that you need. And I'm surprised that his dermatologist, who he finally just said, "Well, you're 90. Just learn to live with it." He cannot sleep at night. He scratches himself so much. He's learning to live with it. But he comes to you and it's almost gone.
[00:34:22] KS: A lot of people, if they have not witnessed that, especially physicians, would say, "I don't know about that. There's probably a lot of other factors at play." There may not be. But I think these dermatologists may just be unaware.
[00:34:37] KM: Yeah. Don't say ignorant. But just unaware.
[00:34:38] KS: No. No. I'm not saying ignorant all.
[00:34:39] KM: Yeah. Just unaware.
[00:34:41] KS: Totally unaware of some of the things that we've seen.
[00:34:44] KM: Which is why we wanted to have the show. Because you guys are caregivers. And you really do care. And you want to spread the good news about this.
[00:34:52] RW: Right.
[00:34:53] KS: I would love to do a study or have a dermatologist who sees these skin conditions all the time do a study. Put half his patients on vitamin C or whatever the IV drip for that treatment would be and just see if they could see a difference. Because sometimes you just can't quantify these things. But I can't quantify – I couldn't quantify how it would benefit my surgical patients before I actually saw it. And then it was them convincing me. It wasn't anything that I saw. It was, "Oh, my gosh. This is the second one of these I've had by you. And it's just been a whole different operation. A whole different experience. Better." Every week, I hear it multiple times.
[00:35:36] RW: And I do think we're going to see more doctors coming around and start integrating this into practice. And that's kind of why the reason that we've got this new consulting program through Zen Infusion. I want to help other doctors focus more on health and healing. And they don't have to reinvent the wheel. Because I've already done all the research and know how to do it. I think we're going to see it a lot more as just part of a care regimen for whatever it might be.
[00:36:07] KM: This is my second time to interview Shewmake, Dr. Shewmake. You spent 10 minutes passionate, Shewmaker, talking about how much you love surgery, and how you were mentored, and how your father died when you were young, and you had these mentors that were secondary fathers to you. And it made such a difference. And that that's why you think that you are such a teacher at heart. Because you these great mentors in your life.
[00:36:32] KS: The most important men in my life were teachers and who taught me. And so, of course, that's something I want to pass along.
[00:36:41] KM: Teaching. You do have a teaching arm to this Zen Infusion. Talk about that.
[00:36:48] KS: Well, mainly, the people that I teach about Zen Infusion are my patients. Because patients were inherently skeptical too. And they're like, "Why would I need to do all this stuff?" I say, "Well, I think it's important because –" and I give them all the reasons why. And most of them will listen to me.
And then I teach other doctors. I get doctors that call me and say, "Hey, I saw this website. I saw your name on it. Tell me how this works." And so, she actually gets invited to go and set up other offices, certain plastic surgery offices with this same sort of thing. Not only the IV infusion stuff. But the Zen Recovery, which she hadn't really even talked about. It's been a huge thing for my practice and for my patients. And I share that with a lot of my friends who are plastic surgeons around the country.
[00:37:37] KM: You're teaching your competition.
[00:37:39] KS: No. Well, these are guys in other cities. We're not teaching anybody in Little Rock. It's all top secret.
[00:37:45] RW: Right. Just because, again, I think it's so important for doctors who are open to focusing more on health and healing. We're in the beauty industry. But health and healing is super important.
[00:37:57] KM: What did you say we haven't talked about Zen Recovery?
[00:38:00] RW: Right.
[00:38:01] KM: I thought we did it at the beginning. What is –
[00:38:02] KS: Well, a little bit.
[00:38:04] RW: Zen Recovery is just post-op nursing. It can be for any surgical patient. They can have total hip, total knee, heart cath, whatever, and we will provide one-on-one nursing care. If you've had a surgical procedure in general anesthesia, one of the requirements is that you have someone with you, an adult with you for the first 24 hours. We're able to provide that for patients who might not otherwise have that. And it's called Zen Recovery Care.
It's a whole package that we give them flowers, and Sprite, and water, and crackers, and soup, and MiraLax, all the things, throat lozenges that you would need after surgery. As well as one-on-one nursing care.
[00:38:49] KM: I'm about to go – I'm not using Shewmake. I'm about to go in and have a surgery from another doctor in another place. And I've listened to this radio show and I think, "I'm going to call Raeann at Zen infusion and I'm going to talk to her about recovery and what I could get." And so, I call you up and I say, "I'm going to have –"
[00:39:06] GM: I'm going to get my hip replaced.
[00:39:08] KM: I'm going to get my hip replaced. And what's the first thing you ask them?
[00:39:11] RW: Well, we will have to get the post-op instructions. In Zen Infusion, there's a part on our website, zeninfusionivtherapy.com, that you can go to Zen Recovery. There's different packages. But we have to get health history, date, time of surgery, and post-op instructions. Once I set the patient and the nurse up, the nurse will actually follow up with that clinic to get specific post-op instructions.
[00:39:40] KM: And that's your nurse?
[00:39:41] RW: Zen Recovery nurse. That's correct.
[00:39:44] KM: The customer patient needs to go to your website and pick the package they want. And you will help guide them to the package.
[00:39:50] RW: That's correct. And we set it all up for them. Basically, all they have to do a show up to surgery with nothing to eat or drink after midnight. And we take care of the rest.
[00:40:01] KM: Because you have set it up with their surgeon and with their nurse, your nurse does everything with their nurse. Well, when I had my facelift with Shewmake, you're right, we had to stay in a hotel the first night. My sister had to stay with me. And a nurse came in and gave me the IV. And it was – suddenly, I'm awake. I'm ready to go home. No bruising. Everything was great. If anybody's planning any kind of surgery, I highly recommend this recovery. Right?
[00:40:29] KS: Well, it's interesting. And I've learned this about husbands, which I never knew. But husbands are not always good caregivers.
[00:40:35] KM: Really?
[00:40:35] KS: Yeah. Surprise. Surprise. But a lot of times, these patients don't want to – they either don't trust their husbands to do it. Or they don't want to put the stress on their – it's very stressful for – it's stressful for me to go in a grocery store and buy groceries. Much less take care of a post-op patient, right? Their wife. And they don't want to bother their friends. And they don't want to get their kids involved. Sometimes worry more about who's going to take care of them that night than the surgery. And she recognized that very early. Because she's the one that talks to all my patients after we decide to do surgery. And so, she's like, "I really think that there's a need for having someone arranged that can just stay with them." And there's overnight packages. There's three-day. We have patients from out of state that come in, they'll stay five or seven days.
[00:41:22] KM: You mean your nurse will stay with them for three or five days?
[00:41:25] RW: Well, she spends the first 24 hours with them. Actually, the way we have it set up is, the first 28 hours, she can even give them transportation from surgery. The 4-day package, she's not with them one-on-one all day every day, all night every night for four days unless they specifically want that. And some of them do. But after 28 hours, she comes twice a day to do drain care, medication schedule, bandage check, all the personal care needs.
She'll come AM and PM visits until the final day. And with Dr. Shewmake's patients that do facelifts, which kind of he specializes in that, he's kind of known as the face guy in Arkansas, they have a head wrap on until the fourth day after. That's why I created that package. She'll unwrap them. Help them get in the shower. Dress, packed up, and ready to go home. So they look more like their themselves when they leave instead of like they've just had brain surgery.
[00:42:24] KM: Well, that is good.
[00:42:27] KS: Yeah. t's interesting. At first, we tell them that this is what – I mean, I want everybody to stay in the hotel that night. Because patients get home. They take their medicine, their happy medicine, and their pain medicine. They're like invincible then. And so, they're like, "Well, the pantry was dirty."
[00:42:43] KM: Oh, that's me. Oh, yeah.
[00:42:45] KS: Yeah. And so, there's nothing you can do in the hotel room except just lay there or sit on the couch. And both those are okay with me. But I can tell you, over – how long have we've been doing that? Seven or eight years?
[00:42:54] RW: Yes.
[00:42:54] KS: Yeah. I have way fewer wound healing problems or blood collections around the face when they just don't get up and do anything. Patients would say, "Look, I just live 5 minutes from the hotel. Why can't I just go home?" And then, of course – and they did it kicking and screaming, most of them. And then they'd come back a week later and go, "Oh, my God. I am so glad I did that. Wow. I am so glad I did that." And now we have patients that come in and say, "Now, will I get to stay in the hotel that night and kind of get those IVs?" And, yeah, you can.
[00:43:26] KM: And room service?
[00:43:27] KS: Yeah. Yeah. We even have a patient the other day that said, "You know, I think I want to do that three-day package. I don't even want to have surgery. I just want to go to the hotel and have this three-day package."
[00:43:36] RW: Right. Right. They get waited on hand in foot.
[00:43:40] KM: Let's talk about the shots.
[00:43:40] RW: Okay.
[00:43:42] KM: I come in – I know, I keep talking about myself. But I'm the only one I know about. I come in, I get the IV. And then you give me all the shots.
[00:43:49] RW: Right. Right now, we have four vitamin booster shots that we give. We have one that is an energy booster. That's B12. Highest quality, strongest of the B12 vitamins. Methylcobalamin. We've got MIC, which is our fat burner. We talked about that earlier. We've got glutathione. That is the mother of all antioxidants. It's an antioxidant, anti-inflammatory. Helps with hyperpigmentation, inflammation, swelling, acne. And then the final one we have is biotin. And a lot of us take biotin orally. This is just a supercharged biotin. And it helps to strengthen the keratin infrastructure of hair, skin, nails. It's kind of our beauty shot.
[00:44:36] KM: What's it mean when it says on your website push? When it's talking about the shots, it says something about push.
[00:44:41] RW: Right. Sometimes if you're already getting an IV, we don't have to stick you and do an IM injection. We can just add it to the IV that we've already started.
[00:44:53] KS: Yes. IV push.
[00:44:54] RW: Yeah. And so, I do want to also talk a little bit about that. People who are needle phobic. This is just like one little stick. And we don't leave a needle in your arm for an IV. It's a little plastic catheter. Anybody can have just a little stick to get their vitamins in a healthier way.
[00:45:11] KS: It's concierge level stuff. And it's like people get in – people say, "Gosh, I thought I'd have to go to Beverly Hills or Miami to get this." And, in fact, we have patients who say, "You know, I had plan to go to Miami to get this operation done. But I heard you were doing this." I think it elevates I think my patient experience and patient outcomes. And I think it's just one more thing that helps you sort of separate yourself from everybody else who's doing it.
[00:45:38] KM: Are y'all offering Ozempic?
[00:45:40] RW: We do have Zen Weight Loss Boot Camp that we are going to start doing. That is not vitamins. It's not all natural. This is a whole different category. A lot more health history. Only short-time youth. Because there is a need for that in patients who just have this stubborn weight that they can't get rid of.
[00:46:05] KM: Absolutely.
[00:46:06] RW: But the way Dr. Shewmake does everything is kind of the best of the best. And these clinics that pop up everywhere that you just send them home and do these things, that's not something. That's such a low-touch model. And we would do it as a more hight-touch model where we brought them in every week and we actually consult with them. We weigh them in. We talk to them emotionally. Make sure that they're having vitamin supplements, and physically, and emotionally are doing great.
And a super short-time use thing for us. Because we want to also educate them that if they're not eating correctly and exercising more and they take this short-term and come off of it, the weight is going to come right back. We're much bigger believers in a healthier lifestyle and just changing the way you eat, and exercise, and much bigger proponents of vitamins.
[00:47:00] KM: Like Shewmake was saying though, you can't get your vitamins and nutrients and eat well today. Even if you go into the fresh produce section, that come from the other side of the world on a truck, it was picked. It's not healthy. I am a huge proponent of canned vegetables. They're just salt and water. And if you don't get the ones with sodium chloride, they're just regular salt, and regular water, and green beans, and they seem to be locked in freshness because they're picked at their ripest stage. Is part of what you would be doing is talking about how to eat foods and how to – you can eat – people say eating healthy is expensive. Eating food is not expensive.
[00:47:46] RW: Right. Well, I think they mean more like eating organic. So without chemicals, and pesticides, and hormones in your meat and in your fruit and vegetables. Yes, a big part of it is education, food diary, teaching them more about health and wellness. And that's why we believe in supplementing with vitamin infusions and booster shots. Because the soil does not have time to replenish to make our foods what they need to be.
[00:48:14] KS: I've been reluctant to jump on this bandwagon. I think we don't know the downsides yet of Ozempic-type medication-related weight loss. What I've seen and what I think in our plastic surgery world we've seen is patients who just can't stop. And I've got patients right now who I've done stuff on who've lost 60 pounds down. It looks like they've never had anything done. It's called Ozempic face. It's where everything just melts.
[00:48:39] KM: You mean they lose so much weight that their skin sags?
[00:48:41] KS: Yes. That's one of the things that really accelerates that looking older is is massive weight loss. The good news about losing 100 pounds is you're healthier. Your joints don't have to bear that weight. Your blood pressure gets better. Your blood glucose gets better. But you just deflate your body and it just hangs. I mean, it happens everywhere. Breast, face, tummies, thighs, everywhere. And just like anything, if you can stop when you get to an ideal body weight, but a lot of these patients can't. They just keep going and they lose –
[00:49:14] KM: Keep losing too much weight.
[00:49:15] KS: And they look sick. And they're not healthy. And they – that's an extreme. But the pendulum – I'm kind of waiting for the pendulum to sort of settle as to who's a good candidate for it. Who's not a good candidate for it? And it's all about education. And having somebody that – I've seen patients who've lost 60 pounds there. They'll come in for surgery and I'll say, "Well, now, where are you – from your weight standpoint, are you kind of happy where you are?" "Oh, no. I'm going to lose 40 more pounds."
[00:49:43] KM: Weight for surgery.
[00:49:44] KS: Absolutely. Absolutely. The worst thing for an operation that I do is for somebody to lose significant weight afterwards. Because it just doesn't hold up. We don't know the downsides of all this yet. I'm just reluctant to be – I don't ever want to be the first one to jump on the bandwagon for these things. I think it's – I've done that before in the last 32 years and hadn't always turned out great. I think you just have to be – you just have to always take the high road on things and not be the first one.
[00:50:11] KM: Well, you're not the first one on Zen Infusion. They've been doing it all over the country. You are the first to really bring it here and do it in a really high-quality way. You've got a doctor's physician with you who's one of the best in Arkansas. And maybe farther than that, he's practiced every year.
One of the things I love about Shewmake and why he's so good is because of all the work you've done as a missionary to go over into these underdeveloped communities and work on harelips and birth defects. And I love it when you talk about how you'll be operating over there and a dog will walk through the operating room.
[00:50:42] KS: Yeah. That was interesting. Yeah.
[00:50:46] KM: You had a lot of practice with that, which I mean that's how you grow. You hear these doctors talk about the best training there is on the front lines in a war. You just see everything, you know? Is there anything we have haven't talked about before we wind this show up? We know how to contact you.
[00:51:04] RW: Right. Zeninfusionivtherapy.com.
[00:51:08] KM: Go look around in there.
[00:51:10] RW: That's right.
[00:51:11] KM: Go look at Raeann. She's pretty.
[00:51:13] RW: Thank you.
[00:51:13] KM: And then – thank you, Dr. Shewmake. No. I'm just kidding.
[00:51:16] KS: No. She was pretty before.
[00:51:17] GM: That's your excuse, mom.
[00:51:19] KS: She was.
[00:51:21] KM: And then go look at all the different options. And you can drill down in there and see what's in them. You can Google those biotins and all the ingredients and see what they do for you. And pick out one that you really like. And I promise you, if you got the money and you can do it, it's life-changing. It really is.
[00:51:39] RW: Well, thank you so much for having us.
[00:51:41] KS: Yeah. Thanks for inviting me. You didn't need me. But thanks.
[00:51:44] KM: [inaudible 00:51:44]. She felt like you needed to be.
[00:51:45] KS: She's got it.
[00:51:46] KM: She's got it. She's passionate about it. You can really, really tell.
[00:51:50] GM: You can tell that you're a good support too because you've got the medical experience to come in and say like this is – yeah, you're the physician that holds it all together, I feel like.
[00:52:01] KS: Yeah. That's it.
[00:52:02] GM: You all are a good team.
[00:52:03] RW: I do. I acknowledge that every day.
[00:52:06] KM: Yes, she does.
[00:52:06] KS: I know. I'm kidding.
[00:52:08] KM: This show was recorded in the historical Taborian Hall in downtown Little Rock, Arkansas and made possible by the good works of flagandbanner.com, Mr. Tom Wood, our audio engineer, Mr. Jonathan Hankins, our videographer. Daughter, Miss Meghan Pittman, production manager. And my co-host, Mr. Grady McCoy IV. A.K.A Son Gray.
To our listeners, we would like to thank you for spending time with us. We hope you've heard or learned something that's been inspiring or enlightening. And that it, whatever it is, will help you up your business, your independence, or your life. I'm Kerry McCoy. And I'll see you next time on Up in Your Business. Until then, be brave and keep it up.
[OUTRO]
[00:52:47] GM: You've been listening to Up in Your Business with Kerry McCoy. If you'd like to sponsor this show or any show, contact me, Gray. That's gray@flagandbanner.com. All interviews are recorded and posted the following week. Stay informed of exciting upcoming guests by subscribing to our YouTube channel or podcast wherever you like to listen. Kerry's goal is simple, to help you live the American dream.
[END]
