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Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn

Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn

By: Dr. Jenn Simmons
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Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn is a podcast dedicated to empowering women and promoting breast health through a functional medicine lens. Dr. Jenn is a leading functional medicine practitioner specializing in restoring health to the breast cancer population. She explores a range of topics related to breast health, including prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and holistic approaches to support overall well-being.

Whether you're a breast cancer survivor, a woman seeking to improve your breast health, a caregiver supporting a loved one, or you are just looking to thrive in this complicated world, this podcast is designed to meet your needs. Discover how functional medicine approaches can complement conventional treatments, support hormone balance, enhance nutrition, manage stress, optimize lifestyle choices, and promote overall well-being. Tune into Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn to gain the knowledge, tools, and resources to take control of your breast health journey. Remember, at the end of the day, breast health is health!


Note: The Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always consult with your healthcare provider for personalized guidance and treatment recommendations.

© 2026 Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jenn Alternative & Complementary Medicine Hygiene & Healthy Living Physical Illness & Disease
Episodes
  • 150: The Trauma You Carried for Decades Could Be the Root of Your Disease with Dr. Aimie Apigian

    150: The Trauma You Carried for Decades Could Be the Root of Your Disease with Dr. Aimie Apigian
    Jun 27 2026

    In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with Dr. Aimie Apigian, a physician with a master's in biochemistry who left surgical training to study the biology of trauma after her own health collapsed. Together they make the case that unresolved trauma, including the kind you'd never check a box for, is not a side note to breast cancer but part of the terrain it grows in. This is the conversation conventional oncology skips entirely.

    Dr. Aimie didn't recognize her own trauma until it nearly destroyed her health. Raised to be her adopted father's emotional stability, she carried a burden she never named as trauma, until a failed adoption after six years left her with chronic fatigue she couldn't get out of bed from one month later. She knew the research linking adversity to disease. She still didn't see it in herself. If you've ever told yourself your childhood "wasn't that bad," this episode will give language to what your body already knows.

    What You'll Learn

    • Why the women most likely to carry hidden trauma are the ones who'd swear they had a happy childhood
    • What the famous ACE study found when it looked at wealthy women, and why it shocked the medical world
    • Why trauma isn't a feeling you can think your way out of, but a physical loop your body keeps running
    • What a review revealed about childhood adversity and breast cancer risk
    • Why the state you were in before your diagnosis matters more than the diagnosis itself
    • How to tell if your body is still holding trauma, without digging into your past
    • Why feeling safe feels terrifying to a nervous system that survived on control
    • How healing can start with just two seconds at a time
    • Why no retreat or single psychedelic trip will do what small daily habits can
    • Why most people start their trauma work in the wrong place, and pay for it


    Guest Dr. Aimie Apigian
    Where to find her: biologyoftrauma.com
    Instagram: www.instagram.com/draimie/

    To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working privately with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

    To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

    To purchase the auria breast cancer screening test go here https://auria.care/ and use the code DRJENN20 for 20% Off.

    Connect with Dr. Jenn:
    Website: https://www.jennsimmonsmd.com/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons
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    59 mins
  • 149: Peter Attia Got Breast Cancer Screening Wrong, and Here's the Evidence

    149: Peter Attia Got Breast Cancer Screening Wrong, and Here's the Evidence
    Jun 19 2026
    In this episode of Keeping Abreast, Dr. Jenn Simmons responds to Peter Attia's breast cancer screening episode (#396). Attia asks the right question: why are 42,000 women still dying of breast cancer every year? But his answer, more mammograms and MRI on top, is exactly wrong. Dr. Jenn breaks down, study by study, why that 40-year approach has never moved the death toll.Forty-two thousand women a year. That number has not moved since mammography went mainstream in the 1980s. Detection rates are up, diagnoses are up, and the death toll has not changed. We have been finding more cancer, calling more women patients, and watching the same number of them die. If you have ever scheduled your annual mammogram believing it was the most protective thing you could do, this episode will reframe everything you thought you knew.What You'll LearnWhy the breast cancer death toll has not moved in 40 years, and why more screening is the reasonWhy DCIS is not cancer, why mammography invented it, and what happens to a woman the moment it gets labeled "stage zero"Why an aggressive tumor is aggressive from the day it forms, and why finding it earlier on a mammogram does not change what it does nextWhy mammography catches the cancers least likely to kill you, and routinely misses the ones that willWhat happened when researchers followed 89,835 women for 25 years and compared annual mammography to doing nothing, and why you have never heard about itWhat the Cochrane review found after analyzing every randomized mammography trial ever run, and why Peter Attia addressed it in one sentenceWhy the WISDOM trial, the most significant recent evidence in this space and the one study Attia never mentions, is an indictment of everything he arguedWhy there is no standard radiation dose for a mammogram, and why the woman next to you in the waiting room may have received ten times less than you didWhat the FDA has formally documented about gadolinium staying in the brain and bones for years, and why the women being told to get it every six months are the last women who shouldWhy insulin resistance, chronic inflammation, and toxic burden are among the most powerful drivers of breast cancer risk, and why Attia's episode contained zero mention of any of themResources MentionedPeter Attia, Episode 396 on breast cancer screening: peterattiamd.com/breastcancerscreeningDr. Robin Berzin, founder of Parsley HealthMiller AB, et al. Twenty five year follow-up of the Canadian National Breast Screening Study. BMJ. 2014;348:g366.Gøtzsche PC, Jørgensen KJ. Screening for breast cancer with mammography. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2013;(6):CD001877.Zahl PH, et al. Results of the Two-County trial are not compatible with official Swedish breast cancer statistics. Danish Medical Bulletin. 2006;53(4):438–440.Nyström L, et al. Long-term effects of mammography screening: updated overview of the Swedish randomised trials. Lancet. 2002;359:909–19.Esserman LJ, et al. Risk-Based vs Annual Breast Cancer Screening: The WISDOM Randomized Clinical Trial. JAMA. 2026;335(9):763–774.FDA gadolinium-based contrast agent safety communications (2015, 2017, 2018), summarized in Fotenos A, FDA Pediatric Advisory Committee, Sept 2018.Kanda T, et al. High signal intensity in the dentate nucleus and globus pallidus and cumulative gadolinium dose. Radiology. 2014;270(3):834–841.Veenhuizen SGA, et al. Supplemental breast MRI for women with extremely dense breasts: DENSE trial. Radiology. 2021;299(2):278–286.Tabar L, et al. Reduction in mortality from breast cancer after mass screening with mammography. Lancet. 1985;325:829–32.To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working privately with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-callTo get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuideTo purchase the auria breast cancer screening test go here https://auria.care/ and use the code DRJENN20 for 20% Off.Connect with Dr. Jenn:Website: https://www.jennsimmonsmd.com/Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmonsInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons
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    43 mins
  • 148: Overcoming Fear and Reclaiming the Life You Keep Putting Off with Erika Rothenberger

    148: Overcoming Fear and Reclaiming the Life You Keep Putting Off with Erika Rothenberger
    Jun 13 2026

    In this episode of Keeping Abreast Dr. Jenn Simmons sits down with keynote speaker, author, and 2025 Dynamic Woman of the Year Erika Rothenberger for a conversation about what happens when life forces you to stop playing small. Erika had a day in 2022 that changed everything. What she did on the other side of it is what this conversation is about. Dr. Jenn and Erika get into the trauma we avoid, the life we keep deferring, and why the hardest moments tend to be the most clarifying ones.

    If you have ever survived something hard and wondered what you are supposed to do with it, this episode will give you your answer.

    In this episode, you'll learn:

    • What Erika survived in 2022 and why she considers it the greatest turning point of her life
    • Why playing it safe is the most dangerous thing a woman can do
    • Why Dr. Jenn believes a breast cancer diagnosis can be an opportunity and what that actually looks like in practice
    • The real reason most women never go after the life they want and why it has nothing to do with time, money, or circumstances
    • Why the trauma you have been avoiding is not behind you. It is driving you.
    • A simple daily method that takes 36 minutes and rebuilds your entire mindset from the ground up
    • The science behind why the people you surround yourself with are either quietly lifting you or quietly costing you
    • The gap in Pennsylvania law that leaves women unprotected and the legislation Erika is fighting to change
    • Why the most powerful thing a woman can do for her health right now has nothing to do with her body

    Episode Timeline
    01:07 Introducing Erika Rothenberger
    03:09 Energy, seasons, and the permission to give 60%
    06:56 Erika's story and the morning that changed everything
    12:41 Playing small vs. playing large
    16:36 Fear, inertia, and the life you keep putting off
    19:45 Writing the book and going public with her story
    27:32 Why healing is a choice you make every day
    32:27 How to protect your time and fuel yourself first
    35:35 Why no is a complete sentence
    38:01 Finding the good in every setback
    40:02 Why a breast cancer diagnosis can be its own kind of punch
    43:00 Why your circle determines your ceiling
    45:22 What Erika took away from watching Mel Robbins
    50:57 The Audacious Summit, October 2025
    52:45 Money, legacy, and what you are building
    59:22 Finding your thing and going after it
    1:05:44 Where to find Erika and closing thoughts

    Where to Find Find Erika Rothenberger:
    Website: erikarothenberger.com
    Instagram: @erikalearothenberger
    Book: Audacious Expansion

    To talk to a member of Dr. Jenn's team and learn more about working privately with Dr. Jenn visit: https://calendly.com/stephanie-1031/clarity-call

    To get your copy of Dr. Jenn's book, The Smart Woman's Guide to Breast Cancer, visit: https://tinyurl.com/SmartWomansBreastCancerGuide

    To purchase the auria breast cancer screening test go here https://auria.care/ and use the code DRJENN20 for 20% Off.

    Connect with Dr. Jenn:
    Website: https://www.jennsimmonsmd.com/
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DrJennSimmons
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drjennsimmons/
    YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@dr.jennsimmons
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    1 hr and 9 mins
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