The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Recent Episodes
Kyrin Dunston MD
How are women over 40 like us actually keeping weight off, energy up, our minds and moods clear and our health in amazing shape? How do we balance our hormones so that we can feel great in our own skin, be who we really want to be and fulfill all of our dreams in this life? The truth is...most of us aren’t. I spent years frustrated with the failure of my OBGYN training to actually provide successful solutions to the health challenges most women face after 40. After discovering the truth about women’s health and learning the language of hormones, something not taught in medical school, I finally lost 100 pounds and healed myself from chronic fatigue and a host of other health problems. But how do other women learn the language of hormones to experience the same success? This podcast is here to give you the answer. Join me as I help you understand why hormone imbalance is at the root of your overweight, fatigue, irritability, brain fog and really all of your health concerns. Learn h...
Are you waking up exhausted, no matter how many hours you’ve slept? Do you find yourself wondering why your once-sharp brain feels foggy and why simple tasks take so much energy? You’re not alone. This week on The Hormone Prosperity Podcast, Dr. Kyrin dives into the real reasons behind extreme exhaustion during menopause and after hysterectomies—and what you can do to reclaim your vitality.
Episode Highlights* Why Menopause Fatigue Is More Than Just Aging
Dr. Kyrin explains why hormonal poverty is not "just a part of getting older" and explores the critical differences between gradual hormonal decline and the sudden hormonal drop caused by hysterectomies. Discover why your exhaustion might be a direct signal from your body that hormonal imbalances need attention.
- Beyond Estrogen, Progesterone, and Testosterone
Think fatigue is only about sex hormones? Think again. Dr. Kyrin reveals how cortisol, thyroid, and insulin levels play a significant role in your energy levels, mood, and even sugar cravings.
- Surgery as a Hidden Trigger
The invisible trauma of surgeries like hysterectomies often goes unaddressed, but the effects linger. Learn how surgical stress, anesthesia, and antibiotics impact your body long after you’ve been discharged.
- Practical Solutions for Hormonal Poverty
Dr. Kyrin doesn’t just highlight the problem—she provides actionable steps. From identifying hidden hormonal imbalances to understanding what traditional doctors often miss, Dr. Kyrin guides you toward hormonal prosperity.
What You’ll Take Away An understanding of hormonal poverty and why it includes more than just menopause. * Insight into why your exhaustion, mood swings, and lack of restorative sleep might not just be “in your head.” * Practical, easy-to-follow steps to help you regain energy. * A supportive reminder that what you’re experiencing is not normal—and that you do* have the power to feel better.
Your Call to Action
Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
No one deserves to live in hormonal poverty. 🛑 Drop the disempowering question, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What would hormonal prosperity do?” (#WWPD)
Catch the full episode now and start crafting the vibrant, healthy life you deserve.
✨ Listen Now ✨
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
Are you feeling extremely exhausted in menopause? Maybe after a hysterectomy or without one? Here I lay out what's going on. Why are you fatigued with hormonal poverty and mostly what to do about it. Greetings friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To ask empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag wwhpd, join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life, because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:09):
Jump into the maze. Question. Hi there. I'm new here, but I had a hysterectomy last December, so I was thrown into menopause pretty quickly. I'm 53 by the way. The hot flashes, I worried about the constantly cold feet I wasn't prepared for, but the thing that's killing me is I get spells of extreme exhaustion all in caps, like, I'm too tired to talk kindly. Who else can relate? One minute I'm fine. And then the next, I feel like I haven't slept in a week. It's causing me to make mistakes at work and become irritable with my hubby. Sometimes I go to bed and sleep for hours and still feel tired when I get up. Other times I'm dying to sleep and I just can't. I have an appointment with the doctor to discuss HRT next week, but I haven't really found anyone who is suffering from the same thing.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:50):
This is driving me crazy and I have so much I want to do and no energy to do it. The other night I was all caps too tired to order takeout. That's tired, may, and then last night I ate all of the large bounty batter, extreme blizzard. I don't normally do that. So I love this question. May you point out a bunch of different things. So many of you probably have had hysterectomies where they took your ovaries out, threw you into menopause immediately, sometimes at a young age, in your thirties, forties. And it can be extremely disturbing. You know, there's the old adage, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time. And unfortunately, because most women go through perimenopause in a very piecemeal state, right? Little by little by little, our hormones are declining, declining, declining, declining into hormonal poverty.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:42):
We're descending. We don't really notice what's happening until it's too late. And then we don't have that extreme comparison to I was normal. One day I went to the hospital, I had a hysterectomy, and then a few weeks later I was down here. So when it happens, very gradually we come to believe the insanity that this is normal for our age. So may you really highlight this discrepancy, and I wanna point it out for anybody watching, because whether you're in the extreme discrepancy category where you had your ovary surgically removed and you get it, something's wrong. And this is related to my hormones. That's actually what I love about this question. There's no question in your mind, this is related to my female hormones, I had my hysterectomy but I'm gonna shed some more light on that 'cause it might be other hormones too. Whereas the women who go gradually into hormonal poverty don't have that quick discrepancy.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:39):
And so they're scratching their head thinking, my extreme exhaustion, most women who didn't have surgical ovary removal don't get it, that it's related to hormonal poverty and menopause. And so they're all over the internet searching for why, why am I so extremely fatigued? But you get it. So I wanna cue the women in who are searching for that to know that this is related to the hysterectomy. So that's the first thing. The other thing is that yes, this can be related to your sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. But when I hear someone with extreme exhaustion, excuse me, more, what I think about is insulin, cortisol, and thyroid, the other hormones, and why do I think about them? So surgery is a huge stress on your body. It your body cans consider surgery life-threatening. You know, on some level you are anesthetized, but your subconscious mind is still picking up information during surgery.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:48):
And they've even done studies where they've given messages to people through their ears during surgery. And some of the information has been retained consciously after the surgery. So even though you are in a subconscious anesthetized state, your body still registers that someone came at you with a knife and cut you open that you were traumatized. So that in itself is traumatic. Plus the antibiotics that they give you before and after the anesthetic compounds are fat soluble, highly volatile, highly toxic, and have to be processed by your liver and kidneys and excreted. And that can take a long time. So that's traumatic. Being out of your own environment in the hospital environment is very traumatic. So it is a trauma to your body. You might not register it that consciously, but your body registers it subconsciously as a trauma, meaning your cortisol is triggered and activated in huge extreme ways, nevermind the blood flow changes.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:56):
There's so many changes that your body undergoes when you are having an organ removed. We've come to normalize it in mainstream western society. Oh, I just had surgery. I just had a hysterectomy. Right? In fact, it's the most common surgery, probably second only to cesarean section is hysterectomy in the United States anyway, and in most westernized countries. So we've normalized it that this traumatic experience, it's just a normal everyday thing, and it is not to your body. So you need to be looking may at your cortisol. Cortisol probably has taken a hit when your cortisol takes a hit, your insulin takes a hit and insulin regulates your blood sugar. Hence the I ate the whole large brownie batter, extreme blizzard that's gonna make you crave sugar. And both of cortisol and insulin being out of balance are going to pull on your thyroid and pull your thyroid off too.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:58):
Even if you don't have a thyroid problem, it can pull it off just enough so that you become extremely exhausted. You mentioned irritability, making mistakes at work. You still feel tired after sleep. Sleep is not restorative. So you've got to look at all the seven main metabolic hormones is what it's to say, right? Hormone poverty is not just about your sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and this is for all of you with fatigue. If you're over 40, even those of you younger than 40, you need to discover are you in hormonal poverty? And if so, which hormones are involved and address all of the problems. So I'm glad you have an appointment with your doctor to talk about HRT, that's one component. But most likely, if your doctor is traditionally trained in mainstream corporate medicine, they're not going to look at your cortisol and they're not gonna look at your insulin or your thyroid.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:53):
So you're, there are myriad aspects that go into informing your body if you're in hormonal poverty or not, and programming you for energy and vitality or exhaustion and fatigue. Thank you so much for the question. Mei. I think you're on the right track. You can take the quiz. This will give you an idea if it's about more than just your sex hormones. You can click the link in the show notes. It takes less than 60 seconds. And I'll also send you information on the path that I've taken thousands of women through the step, exact steps to take to get out of hormonal poverty, into hormonal prosperity, because that's where everything that you want happens. Vitality, energy, good mood,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:13):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Is sagging labia holding you back? You’re not alone—and there’s hope.
Aging brings unexpected changes, including to our pelvic floor health. But here’s the good news—today’s episode of The Hormone Prosperity Podcast dives into accessible ways to reclaim your confidence, energy, and vitality.
Dr. Kyrin breaks down the surprising reasons why pelvic floor muscles weaken as we age, how it impacts your labia, energy, intimacy, and yes—even urinary incontinence. She also sheds light on how addressing these issues can elevate your sense of power and well-being.
Discover the magical potential of the jade egg practice (spoiler alert: it’s more than just a gemstone!) and other simple exercises that can help restore muscle strength, energy flow, and that sense of you that may have felt lost.
💡 What you’ll learn in this episode:
- Why 3 in 4 midlife women experience pelvic health and energy issues—and what to do about it.
- How pelvic floor exercises can address sagging labia, improve arousal, and even reduce pelvic pain.
- How sexual energy is your body's most powerful resource for total vitality.
- What the jade egg practice is and why it could be a game changer for your health.
- The importance of asking empowering questions like, What would hormonal prosperity do?
✨ Don’t miss this empowering discussion where science meets self-discovery.
Your Call to Action
Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
No one deserves to live in hormonal poverty. 🛑 Drop the disempowering question, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What would hormonal prosperity do?” (#WWPD)
Catch the full episode now and start crafting the vibrant, healthy life you deserve.
✨ Listen Now ✨
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
Erin says, what about her sagging labia as she's aging, what is going on? Find out how this little device might help with that, and also with your energy too. Greetings friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag wwhpd, join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:07):
So Jean asks, says, good grief. What has my life come to that? I'm typing this on the internet. Anyone else finding their outer labia sagging? I'm on estrogen, prometrium, alpha femme, loving it, but just the last month or so, it's like my outer labia are just drooping to the point. If I sit down, suddenly there's a vague sound of clapping flesh. If I walk around the house without undies, I can literally feel them. She says, with five E's. And not in a good way anyone. I'm not general generally concerned about the appearance, but rather the unexpected feeling and change. So Erin, I love this question because you're not alone and it speaks to the pelvic floor sagging, which can actually happen in women as we age if we don't do something to strengthen it. And this actually helps to boost your energy because your main power source is your dantian down here in your belly and your lower belly, which includes your pelvic area.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:15):
And if you're not doing something to work those muscles in that area, guess what happens? Droop, sagging, drooping, labia, the sound of flesh, the uncomfortable feeling. And then also when it comes to sexual intimacy, a lot of women will complain about they feel inhibited sexually because they feel self-conscious about how their labia are appearing. Maybe that's you. So it's a common thing. I'm going to be teaching soon about how you use this magical device gem to work the muscles in the pelvic floor to help bring muscular integrity back to those tissues so that you can resolve that sagging labia. And maybe you've got urinary incontinence, which is contributed to by the same problem. Maybe you have difficulties with pelvic pain. Maybe you have difficulties with becoming aroused, achieving orgasm. Maybe you're having difficulties just with your energy. Really, three out of four women as they age, have that, well, yes, it's about your mitochondria and it's about your hormones, but it's also about your energy source that you're given.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:30):
When you're born, you're given a certain amount of energy. And when all that energy is gone, that's your end of game time up. And so you can actually work to replenish that energy, particularly by using the sexual energy, which is the most powerful form of human energy that we've got. We can tap into that and we can use it to replenish our physical energy that we have for everything that we wanna do in life, right? We wanna go travel, we want to learn how to salsa dance. We want to learn how to knit. We wanna go be with our families and friends. We wanna do all the things on our bucket list. So I'm gonna be teaching you in the coming weeks and months how to harness that energy using various practices, one of which is with this beautiful egg, it's called the jade egg practice.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:25):
But this one's not jade. It's actually a different gemstone. You can use different gemstones that have certain powers that will imbue to you. And I can help you how to know how to pick the right gemstone to use for you, the right size egg, how to use it. That's a big question. I know a lot of people aren't using it correctly. I wasn't initially told how to use it correctly. And maybe you have never heard of it and you're like, what ki I don't know what you're talking about. So I'll teach you for all different levels how to use this effectively to work on your energy in your dentin, support the muscles help your labia stop from drooping. Thanks so much for the question, Erin. It's a fabulous, fabulous question. Look forward to hearing more from you and submitting your questions. I love answering them. Thanks so much for joining me. It's Dr. Kieran.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:30):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
This week on The Hormone Prosperity Podcast, Dr. Kyrin welcomes renowned researcher and nutrition expert Dr. John E. Lewis for a riveting, science-backed (but totally relatable) conversation about how polysaccharides—complex plant sugars—could be the key to reducing inflammation, boosting brain health, and reclaiming your vitality in midlife.
💡What You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why “all sugar is bad” is a myth—and a harmful one * How plant-based polysaccharides from aloe vera and rice bran act as supercharged cell communicators * The shocking lack of nutrition research (and why Big Pharma wants to keep it that way) * What “food as medicine” really means in a toxic, overly processed food system * The difference between eating for taste vs eating for health (and how most of us are doing it wrong) * How Daily Brain Care*, Dr. Lewis’s polysaccharide-powered supplement, has helped improve sleep, energy, immune balance, and mental clarity—even in Alzheimer’s patients
👩⚕️Why This Matters for Midlife Women:If you’re experiencing:
- Mysterious weight gain (hello, “menopot”)
- Brain fog and fatigue that just won’t lift
- Reliance on caffeine to get going and wine to wind down...
You’re not alone, and you’re not broken. Dr. John and Dr. Kyrin break down how fueling your body with the right sugars—the kind that communicate with your cells, not sabotage them—can help you ditch hormonal poverty for good.
🍽️Big Takeaway:“You are what you eat, and if you eat garbage, your cells become garbage—and garbage cells can’t heal anything.”
—Dr. John E. Lewis
Whether you lean toward a carnivore, vegan, or somewhere-in-between diet, Dr. John’s message is clear: the key is quality, not dogma. And yes—your health can dramatically improve when you start eating what your genes, cells, and immune system actually recognize as real food.
🔬About Our Guest:Dr. John E. Lewis, PhD, is the founder of Dr. Lewis Nutrition and an internationally recognized clinical researcher with decades of experience in physiology and plant-based nutrition. His breakthrough studies on polysaccharides have shown powerful results in chronic diseases like Alzheimer’s, MS, HIV, and more.
Tune in Now and Take the First Step Your health deserves clarity, truth, and transformation. Don’t miss this empowering episode of the Hormone Prosperity Podcast! Click play to listen, learn, and discover how this unconventional approach may be the missing key to your midlife health.
👉 Subscribe and listen on your favorite podcast platform now!
► Daily Brain Care supplement by Dr. Lewis Nutrition → www.drlewisnutrition.com
👉 Subscribe to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast and the Hormone Prosperity Coach YouTube channel for more inspiring content and actionable advice.
Hormone Prosperity Coach
https://www.youtube.com/c/KyrinDunstonMD
Hormone Prosperity Podcast
https://bit.ly/thehormoneprescriptionpodcast
Together, we’ll empower each other to ask the right questions and find answers that lead to lasting health and happiness. Let's stop the madness and start a movement towards hormonal prosperity! 🌟
❓HAVE A QUESTION and want my advice? You're invited to write to me at hello@kyrindunstonmd.com.
I select e-mails with a clear question around hormone poverty (such as symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, diseases caused or exacerbated by hormonal poverty, accelerated aging, early death, etc.) and achieving hormone prosperity using the two hormone prescriptions needed (one written and the other not) that are of reasonable length and detail and of interest to significant numbers of the audience. I regret I'm not able to answer all messages sent. I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the community.
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
What does it really mean to let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food? How do you navigate that in this day and age with all the complex dietary information? My guest today is gonna help shed some light on your dietary quandaries. Are all Sugars bad? GRE greetings, friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me, to asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag ww HPD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life, because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:05):
Welcome. Let's get started. Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prosperity Coach. Thank you so much for joining me today. As we dive into another episode, talking about your nutritional inputs. There is so much nutritional information out there in this day and age, many of it conflicting, and you are probably confused about which path to go on for your nutritional needs. And I know you're probably not getting supported by your HMO providers because that's not a part of our education. Nutrition really isn't. We're basically taught in, I was as a board certified, O-B-G-Y-N, you get enough calories and you don't want, it's all about calories. And you just want a variety of foods in the sad diet, standard American diet. So that's what I taught for many decades, and that ended me up with midlife metabolic many, he 243 pounds, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, hair falling out, no sex drive, brain foggy, you know, all the symptoms because many of you have them too.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:18):
And so I've been on a journey for over a decade to heal myself, which has happened and I have lost a hundred pounds and kept it off for over a decade. So I like to bring you guests who can help inform your journey. I don't really believe there's one diet that's right for everyone. We're gonna talk about that during this episode. We're gonna talk about why all sugars are not bad, why you actually need sugar, and what to do about it. We're gonna even touch on the carnivore diet some more, and something called polysaccharides, which you may or may not be familiar with. So we're gonna talk about this in detail to give you some more inputs into your hormone prosperity journey so you can get to the hormone prosperity that you deserve. I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. John Lewis and then we'll get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:08):
So, John E. Lewis PhD is the founder and president of Dr. Lewis Nutrition. He has a long track record as a scientist, author, speaker at events all over the world. He has a passion for educating others about the value of nutrition, exercise, and health through his own experiences and knowledge of eating a whole food plant-based diet for over 27 years, taking certain key dietary supplements and a rigorous daily exercise training program. He's done lots of research in the area of nutrition, which is kind of rare these days. We're gonna talk about why that is. You need to understand that. And please help me welcome Dr. John E. Lewis to the
Dr. John Lewis (03:49):
Show. Thank you for having me. It's my pleasure to be here.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:52):
So I'd love to talk about nutrition for women over 40. We do, women over 40 are very interested in that because we know that it contributes to our hormonal poverty and our symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. So always interested in learning about new perspectives, helping everybody understand the different options available for diet. I am of the belief that there might not be one diet that's right for everyone. We have very unique biochemical individuality, so I like to give people more information to help them put it in their bodies and decide what resonates as being right for them. And you come Dr. John from a physiology background, and now you're very passionate about teaching others about nutrition and kind of a whole foods plant-based diet. How did you become so interested in nutrition as a physiologist?
Dr. John Lewis (04:51):
That would go all the way back to my bodybuilding days. I got into drug-free competitive bodybuilding as a college student. I was looking for something else to do after high school to do something competitive and bodybuilding. I mean, some people refer to it as a sport. I don't, to me it's more of a physical activity that has sort of an artistic component to it. But to me it's not a sport. It doesn't matter how strong you are or how fast you run or how high you can jump, it's about what you look like on a stage if you take it to that level. But I didn't really appreciate nutrition up to that point in my life, quite frankly. I ate for, for taste lit, which I think most Americans, if not most, every person on the whole planet does. Most people don't eat for health.
Dr. John Lewis (05:35):
And I came from a family that, again, I, I had no health role models at all. We just all ate for, you know, taste. But when I got into bodybuilding, it, regardless of whether you take drugs or not, which I didn't, you still have to be very systematic and really take it as, as like a professional approach, if you will, even if you don't make any money on it, which
Dr. John Lewis (06:31):
And I still, my exercise training is still like a bodybuilder. I, that's the type of exercise training I prefer. I I've always loved strength training, but the, the, you know, the number of people that have, I would say the perspective on nutrition for a, for a physical performance purpose is what I mean. It's, it's not even 1% of the population, right? It's a very, very small number of people that have genetic blessings to play sports, to make a living. So that was also part of the reason that I shifted my focus was I felt like working with athletes or people in, in that world was not really my interest. But everyone else, you know, should, even athletes, you should still prioritize your health, which as you know as well as I do, that's what people are not doing today. That's why we're overrun and overridden with chronic disease.
Dr. John Lewis (07:22):
But I, I really started in my training in physiology and looking at how the cells respond to any, any type of, let's call it input, whether it's from exercise or physical activity or nutrition or whatever the case may be, was just very fascinating to me. And so kind of my personal and professional interest melded together, and I had no clue at that point as a student, as a grad student, whether I would do research as a living. I, I was still kind of forming myself in terms of what I wanted to do. And I just sort of stumbled into research. I, at that point in my life, I enjoyed the academic environment. It was laid back in the sense of not being so rigid, like going, you know, like the complete opposite of, say working for a bank where you have to be there at eight 30 in the morning, and then that's all you do till five o'clock and then you go home.
Dr. John Lewis (08:14):
Academics, obviously, you're very flexible. You come and go as you please, as long as you're doing your work and bringing in money to the university, you really can just set your own schedule, which is always what I preferred. So I was also able, even though the University of Miami does and still today does not have any kind of department or center or school of nutrition or dietetics, I was able, because of my personal interests and through just making connections with people and, and just sort, sort of building my own little niche within the university, I was able to carve out this niche for myself. Where at that time, at my peak of my academic career, I was literally one of you could not count all of us on more than two hands, the number of people doing nutrition research at the University of Miami. It was a very, very small number of people. But where it really took,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:06):
I would imagine that the, it's not a, a very prolific field because humans in the west generally aren't interested in nutrition. And even all the nutrition information we have is mostly ignored by the lay public, and that's right. The FDA and big food. And so nobody's doing it. And I, I wanna highlight this because everybody listening needs to be made aware that we are not researching nutrition in a very meaningful, impactful way because there's no funding for it. And you could maybe could speak to this, this no funding for it. So that's right. This is why you're gonna get kind of antiquated, outdated nutritional information. I also wanna highlight what you said about people eating for taste. You know, it's, I guess it goes without saying that we don't want to eat things that don't taste good. But it's funny, I grew up my mom's name is Jerry.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:07):
We call her granola Jerry, because she was always all about the taste and the nutrition. So I, I was raised and kind of nurtured in an environment that taught me that nutrition was important as a foundational function of the food, not just taste. And I didn't realize that until you just said that people eat for taste. And I thought, well, of course they do, but don't they eat for nutrition too,
Dr. John Lewis (10:48):
Well, it's huge. And to your point of having so little money devoted or directed toward nutrition research compared to pharmacology and genetics, that was ultimately the reason why I left academics. I had the opportunity with our polysaccharide research only because of the generosity of a family member who had heard my colleague, Dr. Reg McDaniel, give a lecture about his work with polysaccharides. And then we ended up running the Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis studies with, with this family's generosity, with their gift. And then on the other side, on the Rice brand side, it was with a company in Japan that has put their money where their mouth is. They're a small dietary supplement company who funds research on their flagship material. But when we made some really profound discoveries from our Alzheimer's study, including improved cognitive function in people with moderate to severe Alzheimer's, I tried twice with NIH and TR twice with the Alzheimer's Association to get these so-called experts in health or whatever they call themselves to recognize the value of what we had on our hands.
Dr. John Lewis (11:55):
And I got zero crickets, not a zilch, nothing in return. And so for me, that was like the beginning of the end of my academic career. I didn't realize it at that time, but it really was an eye-opener for me. So nobody can tell me otherwise. I mean, you only have to look at the budget of NIH. It's the largest, as, you know, the largest science budget on the planet of any organization. And almost the vast majority of it is going to pharmacology. And I guess, you know, some percentage to genetics research. So very little to your point, is going to nutrition and, and essentially drove me out of academics. I refused to spin another 2030, how many more every years of life I have left, banging my head against the wall, making it bleed, trying to get people to recognize the value of nutrition.
Dr. John Lewis (12:39):
And they're, you know, they may talk publicly all they want, but it's a, it's a, it's has been a farce maybe with assuming RFK gets appointed as the director of DHHS, maybe things will change. And I'm optimistic they will. But I mean, my, my time has, unfortunately, if that does align, my time has essentially come and gone in terms of academics. I mean, I'm, I'm still affiliated with the university on a part-time. I still have a part-time faculty position. I do some little bit of teaching, a little bit of work with some students, but I don't have any interest in being in the trenches anymore, running clinical trials. Man, that is a really brutal way to make a living, dealing with human beings and expecting them to participate in your study and, you know, be compliant with the protocol and all these other things that you have to do that is just not, at the end of the day, not a fun way to make a living unless you have a mm-hmm
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:44):
Think it's, it's super important. Thank you for highlighting that. Just for, I want everyone listening to, to understand, you're probably listening thinking, well, I don't wanna know about the politics, about nutrition and medicine, but you need to understand it because it is directly impacting what you have access to and what you don't have access to. That's right. And this is why most of the nutritional supplementation that you're going to encounter is gonna be from smaller private label companies. And you're gonna complain. Sometimes I hear people, I've been doing this, you know, in this sector for over a decade now, oh, but they're so expensive, my nutritional supplements, and I, and why do I have to take this and I shouldn't need it? And your regular doctors are gonna tell you, you can get everything you need from food. I know, because I told my patients that for decades because that's what I was taught.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:33):
But then when you know better, you do better says Oprah. And it's true that you're, it's just gonna impact what you have access to. So due to certain cons, constraints, Dr. Lewis and many others have to go their own route. And you've actually done a lot of research and provide a lot of supplementation that can be very beneficial for patients. You mentioned polysaccharides, so why don't we start there because I think some people know what they are, but some people don't. And so can you talk a little bit about what they are, why they're important for health?
Dr. John Lewis (15:08):
Absolutely. Well, up until meeting Dr. Reg McDaniel, who shared with me his story, and this is almost 20 years ago, about allo the polysaccharides from aloe vera, I was like, most people that had no clue really what they would do other than be a source of fuel for the cells. That was really, you know, my whole appreciation of saccharides. And of course, as you know, saccharide, carbohydrate, sugar, those are all synonyms. And so we, as Americans, especially what we've been so conditioned for at least the last half century to think, oh, sugar is bad. Oh, no, you can't eat sugar. But Ed, I, to me, that that just, that statement drives me up a wall. I cannot stand anytime somebody makes that statement, number one, is ignorant. And number two, it's factually incorrect because there are lots of different sugars that Mother Nature provides for us, and they have lots of different biochemical structures.
Dr. John Lewis (16:00):
So a monosaccharide, a one molecule sugar, like high fructose corn syrup, if you're eating that stuff every day, it's probably not your best strategy. You're probably gonna end up suffering some effects from that, that won't be positive. But these polysaccharides from aloe vera and Rice brand that my colleagues and I have studied, I would put these up against anything that Mother Nature provides for us for a healing effect or a healing benefit. They are so complex in design, they cannot even be drawn on a piece of paper. They are literally hundreds of glucose units attached together by these very sophisticated structural bonds. And so the, i, the amount of information that is coded within all of that structure that our genes interpret and then instruct our cells in how to function, that is where the magic happens, because you get more information from these polysaccharides than you do from amino acids, fatty acids, certainly vitamins and minerals, very simple structures.
Dr. John Lewis (16:54):
And so these things are just something, you know, it's no wonder humans have been using aloe vera for thousands of years. It's no wonder most of the world eats rice as a staple, although unfortunately they're eating usually white rice. They've had the rice brand stripped off of it, which is the most beneficial part of that plant. But again, these two, these two materials are just incredible. I mean, that they do so many amazing things for us. And this is not talking about treating disease, right? This is not the pharmacological model. This is the nutritional natural model, talking about providing the raw materials that mother nature provides to us, that then again, allows ourselves to function properly as guided by the genes. And then whether that's some sort of process of restoring homeostasis, repair, healing, correction, whatever you wanna call it, that's the nutritional model. And that's why these things are so powerful.
Dr. John Lewis (17:42):
And we've published so many papers from all of our studies, whether it's from Alzheimer's, Ms HIV, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, healthy people. I mean, we've got a massive amount of information that we've published of this work that I'm just so proud of and all of my colleagues who I'm so grateful for and being part of my life and, and this message that I can share with people about how these polysaccharides can really be so beneficial and so helpful. But you really do have to get them from a dietary supplement. I don't know about you. We have here in Miami, we have aloe vera growing in our backyard, but I'm not snipping off the leaves every day sucking that gel down, it tastes nasty. It's 99% water, so you couldn't possibly get enough polysaccharide content from it anyway. But we've done all the hard work for the average person. We've taken the polysaccharides from the aloe vera and the rice brand concentrated into a powder. And that's what we, you know, I'm going out around the world kind of as the, the sugar man, you might, you might say the complex sugar man helping people understand, well, this,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:43):
Here comes the sugar man,
Dr. John Lewis (18:44):
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:49):
Okay? So I'm one of those sugar is bad. I'm just gonna be honest with you. I'm one of those sugar, right.
Dr. John Lewis (18:55):
Okay. Well,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:56):
And
Dr. John Lewis (18:56):
In fact, it's like everything else. It has to be taken into context things,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:59):
Right? And we cannot live without it, right? So sugar is essential, but too much is the problem and the glycosylation of all of our cells that causes the inflammation. So, and I think that most people listening also are in that camp because just like, you know, a couple few decades ago in the eighties, it was drilled into us. Fat is bad, fat is bad. Well, then they come say, oh, our bad, no fat is good. You need it. All your cells are made in of fat, coated in fat, your brain is fat. And now it's, oh, sugar is bad. So that is the bandwagon that most people are on. So can you help educate our listeners as to, okay, you mentioned rice and you mentioned aloe vera as naturally occurring sources of polysaccharides. Where else might they be getting these? And can you help them understand why these aren't turned into simple sugars in their body readily and then glycosylated their cells and causing inflammation and damage? Can you help everybody understand that?
Dr. John Lewis (20:01):
Well, there are polysaccharides in lots of different plants in the plant kingdom, and, and I don't, one thing about me is I don't profess to be an expert in everything related to nutrition. I, I, anybody who comes off as that way to me is a bit of a charlatan or a show person. I just don't think you're, even if you're the smartest person on the planet, you don't have enough hours in the day to study everything about nutrition. So when it comes to things like all the different mushrooms, seaweed, all the different tubers, I mean, there are grains, there are just so many plants that have these polysaccharides in them. But one of the arguments that my colleagues and I have been making for years is that because of the way the food has food production process has changed. Now, if you're a, if you're your own farmer, you're a different category, which those are very few people today, but you, you have all of this genetic modification of our plants, of our crops.
Dr. John Lewis (20:51):
You have the inputs of all these chemicals into the soil. You have polluted air, polluted water. So all of these things have degraded. Ultimately, the end of the day, all of these changes over the last a hundred years have degraded the quality of our food. So people are not getting even in, you know, just pick anything A tomato from a hundred years ago is a very different plant than it is today. And so you're not getting enough nutrition content. I, again, I can't compare the polysaccharides and aloe vera and rice brand to some of these others. I have a little bit of knowledge about some of the, the different mushrooms, like lion's mane. But what I can say is, based on my review of the literature, just looking at some of these other different types of plants, our research, and not just from the University of Miami, I, I, you could look at some of the research that's been con conducted from other labs and other universities around the world.
Dr. John Lewis (21:40):
Collectively, when you put all this information together, when you talk about inflammation, well, that's exactly where these polysaccharides make as big of an impact as anything. I mean, we've showed time and time again that these, these polysaccharides help to regulate the immune system. So what does that mean? Well, as you know, the immune system has lots of different components to it. So you can look at different things, whether it's, you know, your CD fours, your CD eights, your B cells, your natural killer cells, your dendritic cells. I mean, there's just a whole, you know, it's like a panoply of different subsets within the immune system that helps to regulate not just keeping us protected against infection, but regulating and helping to keep and balance all of our other major organ systems. So classically, what we have determined over this, you know, just for me personally, over this almost 20 year period now, is these polysaccharides essentially function as signaling mechanisms to the immune system.
Dr. John Lewis (22:35):
Again, whether it's, you know, your CD fours or your CD eights or your natural killer cells, we've published a lot of that information, and I'm happy to share those articles with you. And so they just have such a different dynamic effect. And again, we contributed back to the fact that they have this very complex nature that for whatever reason, our inherent intelligence, and I don't know what that means, really, it's the spark of life, if you will, but something within ourselves have this ability to say, okay, this is information that I need, or this is material that I need to function. And again, guided by our genes, everything that we, you know, do is in terms of what we put into our system is guided by our genetic structure. So that's what we've showed time and time again. I mean, when you talk about, you know, high fructose corn syrup, this modified corn saccharide compared to the, the polysaccharide, the complex polysaccharide complex sugar from the aloe vera or the rice brand, they're just completely, entirely different materials.
Dr. John Lewis (23:34):
There's no amount of the polysaccharide that we're aware of that will cause you to have insulin resistance or any of these other things. In fact, even for people who have had like life, you know, altering end stage cancers, very serious forms of neurodegeneration. I have a friend here in town who had very serious cardiomyopathy from taking messenger RNA injections and got him back on his feet. I mean, there are all sorts of different things that, that we have showed beyond just our clinical trials. But anecdotally, in terms of how these polysaccharides, number one, lower inflammation, number two, modulate immune function, number three increase adult stem cell production. Number four, enhance your natural killer cell cytotoxicity number five, balance th one, th two components of the immune system. I mean, it just goes on and on and on. And this is, again, not just one article or, you know, one study from, from our lab.
Dr. John Lewis (24:31):
This is around the world. This is an entirely complex amount of information that's been published over the last, well, several decades anyway. So I don't, I mean, it's, you know, it's, it's difficult to put all this down into very simple terms. You can only dumb scientific language down, you know, to such a degree where it doesn't even make sense. But it's, it's basically just that these materials, I, the best way I can put it for a lay person is that these materials are recognized by our immune system, and they either, you know, they're almost like adaptogenic, if you wanna look at it from that perspective. Like they have this capacity to either turn things on that should be on to a higher level, or they turn things off that have been dysregulated and are chronically out of control to tamper those things down too. And again, regulating and balancing and cr returning things to homeostasis.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (25:27):
You know, it, it's interesting, I recently interviewed a doctor who is a proponent of the carnivore diet and teaches about that. And so it's interesting that that interview, and this one came kind of back to back because, you know, he really opened my eyes. He was talking about our belief system and how that really is a huge part of what informs our so-called quote unquote nutritional science in the West. They're really about beliefs, but none of the information that was put into the sad diet, standard American diet, actually a lot of that information was never properly researched, but it just became common beliefs among nutritionists. And so they put forth this dogma about what a quote unquote healthy diet was without it being properly researched. And now when people are coming along with these various diets, you know, vegan, vegetarian, ovo, pesco, lacto, vegetarian, carnivorous, paleo, keto, all of these things, now people are starting to really do the research and going back and looking at the original sad diet and saying, yeah, this stuff wasn't researched.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (26:46):
So all that to say, he really helped me confront my own belief system because this idea of I'm going to eat three and a half pounds of meat all day, and that that's a balanced diet, I have a visceral or negative reaction to that when he told me how much steak he eats in a day. But then he was just sharing with me a lot of the data about beef has 70,000 phytochemicals in it. Everybody says animal protein doesn't have phytochemicals. It does. So we have these, these very strong beliefs. So he really opened my eyes and then all the research. But then also what's interesting is I think that
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:47):
So, and my question to the doctor who was talking about the carnivorous diet was isn't it really that if we put people to a diet that they're eating just naturally occurring substances,
Dr. John Lewis (28:44):
I, you know, I look at these carnivore movement, to me, this is kind of just another iteration of what Atkins started with his first book back in, what was it, 72? I mean, it's a, it's hard to believe that started that long ago. And then ironically enough, that guy died of some version of cardiovascular disease. But I don't really, I mean to, to me, I just don't, I don't align it all. I mean, of course, I've been eating a plant-based diet for 27 years, so I wouldn't align with the carnivore diet. It makes no sense to me. I can't wrap my mind around the idea that the core of humanity needed to be a carnivore at any point in our existence, in our evolution. It doesn't make any sense to me. I, I mean, if you just look at our teeth, if you look at our gut, we look much more like herbivores than we do a true carnivore in the animal kingdom. So to me, I don't, it just doesn't, I don't understand this movement. I mean, to your point, yeah, if somebody's, if somebody's just seeing
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (29:39):
Data is amazing, the data on disease is just absolutely, it, it, it was jaw dropping to hear about all the research that's being done and really the outcomes they're getting. But I'm with you. You, there's nothing in our body that says we sure we've got the canine. So we are somewhat carnivorous, but certainly not only that. So I'm with you on that, but I'm starting to question after hearing all that research question, my belief system. And so I'm sorry to interrupt.
Dr. John Lewis (30:09):
Oh, no, that's okay. I mean, I grew, look, I'm, I'm, again, I grew up eating for taste. So my dad thought a meal was not a meal if it didn't have three things, a glass of milk, a piece of bread, and some kind of meat. It could have any other vegetables, grains, fruit along with it. And we ate a lot of fruits and vegetables. So I don't want to dismiss that. My parents were just completely negligent of eating, you know, good nutritious food. It was just that, again, if it didn't taste good, it didn't matter. If it was the healthiest thing on the planet, they weren't gonna eat it. But, so I grew up eating beef pretty much every day up until I was 20 something. And then in my early twenties, I cut down to maybe two times per year eating beef. And this was way before I decided to go plant-based.
Dr. John Lewis (30:52):
I just, I don't know, I was eating beef so much that it didn't, it, it didn't resonate. It didn't seem to continue resonating with my system. And I ate a lot of dairy growing up, and I was, I don't know, you know, just constantly constipated. I mean, I didn't know what a bowel movement was without being constipated. And as soon as I gave up dairy, literally within a few days, I was pooping like a champ. I mean, it completely changed my gut. So I knew for a fact from just that own, just that one little personal anecdote, eliminating dairy food outta my life made a huge difference in the way I felt. And, you know, who wants to sit on the toilet for 45 minutes doing his or her business? I don't think anybody does. But that
Dr. John Lewis (31:39):
And so that for me was a very profound moment in my own little journey of life. But I just, for me, this carnivore stuff just doesn't make any sense. I mean, I, you know, to each his own, I mean, if you feel like that's what you should do and you think your body resonates with it, go for it. I just, to me, it, it's a very difficult bridge. I mean, it's one thing to be, you know, paleo or keto and say, well, I'm still gonna eat some vegetables and maybe some, you know, brown rice or something, and maybe a little bit of berries here and there, but just to say, oh, no, there's no plant that should be part of the human diet. That just doesn't make any sense to me. I, I mean, where does all of the, where do the, the other animals that are being eaten, where do they get their energy and their nutrition from? They get them from plants. No animal makes plants.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (32:30):
We're all parasitic on plants.
Dr. John Lewis (32:32):
That's right. I mean, animal,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (32:33):
We all paraic on plants. Every, every living thing.
Dr. John Lewis (32:35):
There's, there's not one animal on the planet that makes Omega-3 fatty acid. Every Omega-3 fatty acid comes from plants. So, you know, it's like, what are you talking about? I mean, it just doesn't, that whole notion of carnivore just makes zero sense.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (32:49):
I know I'm with you. But then the research is fascinating. But, you know, again, they don't have long-term data. And so I, I think that at some point, you know, I I I, I saw a friend a couple years ago, and I hadn't seen him for a while, and he looked emaciated. He had lost so much weight. He, he looked like he had no body fat. And he said he was doing this fruitarian diet that somebody was a proponent of to decrease his inflammation and reboot his immune system and all of this. And I mean, he looked like he was towards death to me,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (33:27):
But it, it's to my point that, you know, he said, well, his doctor's checking all his numbers and everything looks better than it has in decades, right. His cholesterol, his inflammatory parameters, everything. So he reassured me, but I think it's to the point that most people are eating a very unhealthy diet. So if you make any type of radical change to naturally occurring foods, you're going to get improvement. I think that's that's right. And so he said he was only gonna do it for six months, but then what next? And I also don't have this belief that the right, the diet is correct for each one of us. I mean, we come from very diverse areas all over the globe with na, natural habitats in our DNA kind of involved human DNA evolved in many places in concert with the plants that were locally available and the animals that were locally available. So I think there's something to be said for nature's magnificence and brilliance and understanding and orchestrating and engineering, oh, I'm gonna put these people here with these plants and animals because this is what they need and this type of environment.
Dr. John Lewis (34:35):
That's right. So
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (34:36):
Are you a proponent that people talk about what kind of diet in the work you're doing, you've found to be most healthy and beneficial for women, particularly women over 40 with midlife metabolic may mayhem, because that's what we're here talking about mostly. Well,
Dr. John Lewis (34:53):
I, I, again, I, this is my, somewhere between 27 and 28th year of eating a plant-based diet. So that's, I mean, I don't typically, I, I, I don't consider myself much of a preacher
Dr. John Lewis (35:41):
So you could argue that using a smoothie, using a blender is processing, right? I mean, it, I'm putting all these different ingredients into my Vitamix, and then I'm blending it up and that's my meal. Well, that's processed, you know, so like, that's another word that drives me crazy. I think people tend to get too outta control with the word processing, because how do you, there's, you know, it's like, it's, it's a continuum. It's not, there's no dichotomy there. So it's, and most of life is a continuum to some degree, but I just think that if you're mm-hmm
Dr. John Lewis (36:34):
Make sure that you understand what those words are, and if you're confused or some of those words are just so chemical sounding that you don't even know what the heck they are, I would, my recommendation is put that thing back on the shelf. Like I wouldn't even buy it. Just stick to the, that, you know, as a lot of people advocate for, stick to the, the outer REM of the grocery store. And anytime you continue going deeper and deeper into the store, you're typically in the aisles where it's a lot of stuff that has had so much added to it that it's no longer food. It's more like food like substance.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (37:06):
Yes. I like the use the word refined. I agree with you. Processed can be, it's a spectrum. And putting something in your blender doesn't necessarily mean it's processed in the way we talk about when we talk about processed foods, but maybe refined foods is a better statement to use or, or right. Term to use. And when you look at the extracts, how people have taken food, real whole food, and then they break it down into component parts and put that in food, and then call it food. But it really is a food like product. It's not, it's like particle board in your right house.
Dr. John Lewis (37:45):
And it's the, it's the same with animal food too. I mean, you know, you look at a, you look at a chicken breast and you think, oh, that's real food. But wait a minute, that chicken was given drugs. It was given genetically modified corn and feed and everything else. It was treated in a way that, you know, completely disrespected that poor creature's life. Then once it was killed and, and processed, it was treated with all kinds of chemicals to keep it fresh. I mean, what's clean about that? Please tell me what is clean about all those chemicals that go into, to raising that bird and then turning it into something that's sitting at your grocery store that you then take home and cook. What is clean about that?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:27):
Yeah, it's, it's really an engineered chicken. And so it looks like a chicken. It might, that's right. Quack like a chicken. It walks like a chicken. It tastes like a chicken, but it's really not a chicken. And, and I think that really gets to something else I love to talk about. I'll just go on a little mini tangent, which is our compulsive avoidance of the things that we can't see with our five senses we don't think are real, when really the things that we can't see here, taste, touch, feel, smell, all the things that we can't detect with our five senses are really what's essential for our health and our wellbeing, and also make our lives meaningful. I mean, love is the thing, the example that I use, you can't put it in a box, you can't take a picture of it, but everybody knows it's one of the most powerful, if not the most powerful forces on the face of this earth.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (39:17):
You can't see it. You can't experience it with your five senses, but you know it, and it has the power to give life, take life away. And so it's the same with our nutrition. People need to really get out of this fat, well, it looks okay and it tastes okay, right? Right. So it must be healthy. Really, we've gone beyond that. You need to get really granular on the microscopic and even sub subatomic, like, what's happening with this food. So you mentioned earlier you can't, you're going to need to take a, a supplement that you, you can't take enough aloe vera or rice pan. Can you talk a little bit about that? Just because you would have to consume so many calories of these foods that contain polysaccharides, that you can't consume enough to get these health benefits. So where does that statement come from? And so how can people know what they need to do to start incorporating the benefits of polysaccharides into their life?
Dr. John Lewis (40:14):
Well, that's a great question. So again, I mean, if you have, you know, stage four cancer or advanced neurodegeneration, or some very serious cardiomyopathy or something like that, you might need a couple of grams per day. So we're talking what, eight calories. I mean, we're
Dr. John Lewis (41:05):
So let's not, I don't want anybody to leave this conversation confused that they've gotta, you know, consume just, you know, bucket loads of these polysaccharides every day to, to have any kind of a benefit. We're talking, again, a very, very small amount compared to your food intake. And again, I would just say that, you know, we've done the hard work for you. I mean, we've conducted all these clinical trials, we've validated this stuff. I mean, this is, this is my life's work. I put my name on the label. I mean, I'm not, there's no deception here. This is, this is my life's work, and I'm very proud of this work. You know, Dr. Lewis Nutrition, the brand Daily Brain Care, the flagship product that we created out of out of these clinical trials in Alzheimer's and multiple sclerosis. But again, I, you know, anybody can benefit from this.
Dr. John Lewis (41:48):
It doesn't have to be somebody with neurodegeneration. I've been on my own formula for 10 years. My mother, who's elderly, she's been on it a little over that. My wife started taking it over five years ago when she was pregnant with our first child. When our first child turned six months of age, when we started introducing solid food to her, I started giving her the polysaccharides. We'll do the same thing with my son when he turns six months old. So these are literally, you know, oxygen obviously is our first nutrient. And then after that we need vitamins and minerals and other essential things. But again, I would put these polysaccharides up against anything else that I'm aware of that Mother Nature provides for us for health and healing benefits. And, and, you know, we don't, we just talk so little about prevention. It's always about, oh gosh, I have this issue.
Dr. John Lewis (42:32):
What do I do about it? Well, how about we prevent things in the first place? Like, let's try to prevent things from happening to us
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (43:00):
So I'm to say I am a, a 52-year-old woman, and I'm having the symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. Number one, weight gain, right? 50 half of us, 50% of us overweight are obese by the time we're 53 quarters of us overweight or obese by the time we're 60. So I've got a weight problem. I am tired, I am caffeine dependent, and I'm having to drink coffee to wind up in the morning. And then I'm so irritable,
Dr. John Lewis (43:48):
Well, so that is, that's a great question. So, number one, one of the things that people always report better about is sleep. And as you well know, we have millions of people, they don't even necessarily have to have insomnia, but they have, let's call it disrupted or just not refreshing sleep. So sleep is a big thing that re that people report to us. So sleeping obviously cures a lot of ills, and so that'll be one thing that will happen. Number two, you mentioned energy or feeling fatigued. I've got a lot of people that swear by it in terms of their energy levels. I've, I even have some people that say they cannot take it too late in the day because they get such a boost that it will actually keep them awake. Now, daily brain care has no caffeine in it. It has literally zero caffeine in it.
Dr. John Lewis (44:31):
So this is not working as a stimulant like coffee is it's a completely different mechanism, if you will. This is, again, enabling the cells to function properly guided by this material that the genes recognize. So favorably weight, I mean, obviously that's a huge issue. I would not say that daily brain care is like some fat burner that people like to throw around that term. It's not, it's not necessarily that. But in conjunction with, you know, starting to get back to a more regular diet or a not regular a whole food diet and exercise, of course there is an, there is part of the equation that we have to address with exercise and physical activity. Unfortunately, most people are never gonna exercise their weight to weight loss. It's just not gonna happen. So it really has to come down to nutrition. But I would say that the way the daily brain care works in terms of helping to tamper down chronic inflammation, boost your adult stem cell production and regulate some of these different components of your immune system, all of that is gonna help you to get less inflamed over time, which is obviously huge.
Dr. John Lewis (45:39):
And then when you combine that with the adult stem cell production increase, now you're sending out these amazing stem cells that your own body creates to address areas of, let's call them again, trauma damage, you know, whatever term you'd like to prefer. This could be something like, you know, a joint issue or, you know, something that just continues to nag at you that you can't really figure out. But that would be so important too, to help that person with, you know, the fatigue. And again, I, I don't wanna go too far down the road of, of helping to manage weight, but it's certainly there is a role for all that. I mean, obviously we can't talk about overweight or obesity without addressing the inflammatory component to that. So the way the, the, that this, this formula will help with addressing some of these different issues, I think for the, the woman out there who's in her early fifties and really struggling, it's gonna help her with, with getting to a better you know, better state of health.
Dr. John Lewis (46:38):
I mean, and some people, it actually happens like very quickly. I, there is a group of people I refer to as super responders. It's probably about 20 or 30% of the people who take this formula. They will literally start noticing the, these effects within just a couple of days. That's, again, a smaller number of people. The majority of people will take usually 30 to 60 days, but it's, it's really incredible what these polysaccharides will do. I I just, I don't know of anything else like them in terms of how these effects work and, and just how amazing I, I've just, it is been an incredible ride for me over this nearly last 20 years. And I, I have so much more work to do and mm-hmm
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (47:37):
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (48:23):
Your cells are gonna be made of garbage. And that's right. Cells that are made of garbage can't run a proper properly functioning immune system. That's right. Cells that are garbage just can't heal your eyes, can't heal everything that needs to be healed and fixed in your body. And I think it was Hippocrates originally who said, let food be thy medicine and medicine. Yes. Be th food. It really is next to oxygen. Thank you for pointing that out, Dr. John, our number one nutrient. Right? That's right. You're deprived of oxygen for a few minutes, you don't have a life anymore. So it is our number one nutrient and food would be, and water our number two and three nutrients. That's right. So make it the best. Optimize that input for yourself. Dr. John, thank you so much. Do you wanna share with everyone where they can reach out to you, find you online and find out more about you and connect with you and maybe even try your products if they're interested?
Dr. John Lewis (49:19):
Sure. Dr. Thank you so much for having me. I've really enjoyed our conversation. I'd be happy to come back anytime. If if anyone would like to learn more, please go to Dr. Lewis nutrition.com. DR lewis, L-E-W-I-S nutrition.com. That's our primary website where we have just tons of really good information. I think people will feel inspired by reading a lot of the information, watching a lot of the videos there. And we're under Dr. Lewis Nutrition on, on all the typical social media channels as well. Although those are mostly just short videos, but you can reach us by email, phone any way you'd like. Daily Brain Care is our flagship product from all of this research from my academic career at the University of Miami. And I'm just, again, I'm grateful for the opportunity to talk to you and your listeners today, and if anyone has any issues they think that they might wanna reach out to me about, I'd be more than happy to help. So thank you again for this time. I really am grateful.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (50:15):
Awesome. Thank you. We're so grateful to have you on as well. Good luck with your seven week old. Hopefully the sleep schedule and the witching hour gets a little bit better. I know how challenging, remember how challenging that can be. So thank you so much for taking time out of your schedule to speak with us. Thank you. Thank you. And thank you all for joining us for another episode of the Hormone Prosperity Podcast, where we teach you how to get out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity so that you can get off the couch into your genes and back into life. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about this episode, especially since we've been talking about the carnivore diet. And now we're talking about this. What are your thoughts on the proper diet and nutrition? So reach out to me on social media and let me know and we'll have a conversation about it. I'll see you again next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (51:14):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty with without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Have you been told to eat more plants to be healthy, only to feel worse, not better? What if the advice you’ve been following isn’t serving you at all—in fact, what if it’s actually harming your health? It’s a bold idea, but one that today’s guest, Dr. Shawn Baker, breaks down with science, expertise, and real-life transformations.
Dr. Shawn Baker isn’t just anyone. He’s the Co-Founder of Revero, an orthopedic surgeon, a world-renowned expert in treating chronic disease through medical nutritional therapy, an Amazon best-selling author, world champion athlete, international speaker, podcast host, and a trusted consultant. Oh, and did we mention? He’s one of the world’s leading advocates for the carnivore diet—a way of eating that’s helping reset health for so many, particularly midlife women like you.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:* Are plants what they seem? Dr. Baker dives into the surprising ways plant-based diets can trigger inflammation and other health challenges—especially in midlife women. * The carnivore diet explained—what it is, how it works, and the science behind why it’s reversing chronic disease and reigniting the health of so many. * Real stories, real results—hear inspiring stories of women who’ve transformed their health by adopting a carnivore lifestyle. * Hormones, weight, and energy—discover how this diet can support hormonal balance, sustainable weight management, and vitality in your middle years. * Practical advice just for you—Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Baker offer actionable tips to help you start implementing the carnivore diet today with confidence.
Why This Episode is a Game-Changer for Midlife WomenStruggling with chronic inflammation, weight changes, or hormonal imbalance? Feel like nothing works, no matter how “healthy” you eat? This episode might just be the light at the end of the tunnel. Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Baker explore how the carnivore diet restores health through simplicity and science, challenging conventional “healthy eating” norms. Wondering if cutting plants from your diet could actually be the answer? You’re not alone, and you’re about to find out why this approach is turning heads—and changing lives.
Tune in Now and Take the First Step Your health deserves clarity, truth, and transformation. Don’t miss this empowering episode of the Hormone Prosperity Podcast! Click play to listen, learn, and discover how this unconventional approach may be the missing key to your midlife health.
👉 Subscribe and listen on your favorite podcast platform now!
► Revero & Carnivore Diet by Dr. Shawn Baker
👉 Subscribe to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast and the Hormone Prosperity Coach YouTube channel for more inspiring content and actionable advice.
Hormone Prosperity Coach
https://www.youtube.com/c/KyrinDunstonMD
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https://bit.ly/thehormoneprescriptionpodcast
Together, we’ll empower each other to ask the right questions and find answers that lead to lasting health and happiness. Let's stop the madness and start a movement towards hormonal prosperity! 🌟
❓HAVE A QUESTION and want my advice? You're invited to write to me at hello@kyrindunstonmd.com.
I select e-mails with a clear question around hormone poverty (such as symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, diseases caused or exacerbated by hormonal poverty, accelerated aging, early death, etc.) and achieving hormone prosperity using the two hormone prescriptions needed (one written and the other not) that are of reasonable length and detail and of interest to significant numbers of the audience. I regret I'm not able to answer all messages sent. I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the community.
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
Would you follow the advice of a doctor who said you should only eat meat in order to be healthier? Here's one who's got the data indicating that you should consider doing just that.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:12):
Greetings friend, welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To ask empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag WW HPD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:01):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prosperity Podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today as we talk to Dr. Shawn Baker about a very interesting and controversial topic. I'd love to hear your thoughts on this about the carnivore diet. Dr. Baker is an orthopedic surgeon. He is a champion athlete, international speaker, author, podcast host consultant. He's got a huge social media following where he primarily teaches and is a proponent of the carnivore diet. He has an upcoming company getting ready to launch that will assist people in reversing chronic disease and inflammation, partly using the carnivore diet and other tools. And he'll tell you a little bit about that. And on the show he's joining me today because I had heard about the carnivore diet, but I really hadn't had anyone on the show to talk about it. Some of you have asked me about it and I've just said I'm not an expert in it.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:08):
I can't, I can't comment. But it did kind of go against my sense of being correct and it just sounded not correct. But we talk about in the episode how your belief system is really something pretty solid. It can prevent you from being open to new, particularly around your health, but new information that might benefit you. So I'm a big proponent of having an open mind in every area. I wanted to have Dr. Shawn on to open my eyes and my ears to the truth and he cites on a really powerful studies that have been done, including at Harvard, that have documented the wow extreme strength of the carnivore diet in reversing chronic disease and inflammation in very impactful ways. Individual and collective societal level. I think you're gonna wanna hear about this because he is probably speaking to you too. We all in the list have some degree of chronic inflammation and disease or we're working on it whether we know it or not.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:19):
Hopefully you are taking steps to get yourself tested and not guessing and just thinking because your mainstream doctor pokes you and listens to your lungs every year and does some blood week work and says you're fine, that you're actually means you're optimally healthy. 'cause It doesn't mean that. And if you have been listening to me long enough, you know that's a fact. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Baker and then we will jump in with him. He's a medical doctor and like I said, orthopedic surgeon, world-leading authority on treating disease with medical nutritional therapy. Amazon bestselling author, world champion athlete, international speaker podcast host consultant and his company is Rivero. He'll tell you a little bit more about that. He's a proponent of the carnivore diet and educates people on social media about this powerful tool to reverse and heal chronic inflammation and disease. Welcome Dr. Shawn to the show.
Dr. Shawn Baker (04:11):
Thank you for letting you have the opportunity to speak to your audience. Appreciate it.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:14):
You have so much experience in so many areas that you could speak to. But what really intrigued me about having you on the show was to talk about a topic that I heard you talking on J'S podcast about, which is the carnivore diet. I have a lot of women who ask me about the carnivore diet and I'm not an expert in why people are proponents of, well I know they say decrease inflammation is one of the biggest things. And I actually know a woman who killed herself. She has a very famous TED talk that they didn't publish
Dr. Shawn Baker (05:31):
Yeah, first I think the person referring to is named Mikala Fields. She had ju juvenile, rheumatoid arthritis, ended up with a hip replacement of knee report or an ankle replacement like as a teenager. She clearly had issues and, and she was having some depression and anxiety and used the diet to put that into remission. Basically, she saw me on Joe Rogan's podcast way back about seven, eight years ago and then I inspired her and so on and so forth. But my own personal experience was, I'm almost 60 now and when I was in my forties, my health was not quite where I wanted it to be. Sorry, I was an athlete. I've been a world champion athlete, I've been a world champion in three different sports now. So I've been athletic my whole life and pet competed, trained. Even while I was practicing as a surgeon, I still made the time to to train, but my health was not where I wanted it to be.
Dr. Shawn Baker (06:16):
And so I said, lemme just play more with nutrition. And I went on this low fat calorie restricted diet, lean protein, lots of vegetables thing that you might normally hear people say. And I was able to get leaner. I was at that time I was the world champion in Highland games and you have to big guy. I'm, I'm six foot five, about 2 85 at that time. And I dropped down about 2 35, got really lean, this really lean, I was hungry.
Dr. Shawn Baker (07:02):
I noted for my own personal self that I did really well on a low, low carb hydro diet. My appetite was much better regulated, wasn't hungry. And then the interesting thing was we were challenged with as an orthopedic surgeon was replacing a lot of people's knees and one of the populations we were replaced were a lot of O obese patients. And so the obese patients had higher risks for blood clots, infections or healing, slow healing and on. We were trying to see if we could get these patients to lose weight before going to the operating room. And there was no real guidance. It was like, hey, do your patients are in your BM 35 20
Dr. Shawn Baker (07:49):
And not everybody would do it. Maybe 20, 25% of people would actually try it. But the interesting thing for me was that people would come back a couple weeks later because I would, you know, have come back in a couple weeks, see how, how things were going with weight loss. And very commonly they would report that the knee that I was gonna operate on because of severe pain didn't hurt anymore. Which was really just mind blowing to me. I was like, wait a minute, you've got an x-ray that literally looks like it took your knee and fed it to a dog and let chew on it for a couple days and stick it back in there. It was a horrible x-ray, but they said the knee doesn't hurt. I'm like, well you know what, if your knee doesn't hurt and you don't mind staying on the diet, then there's no reason to to do the surgery right now.
Dr. Shawn Baker (08:22):
So I end up canceling a lot of surgeries. Believe it or not, the hospital was not thrilled about that
Dr. Shawn Baker (09:06):
A little car, no big deal. And I did it. This is back in 2016, so I do it and 30 days. And I was like, this is the best I've felt since maybe my thirties. And I was 50 at the top and I was like, this is pretty darn impressive how, how little inflammation I have. The chronic knee pain that I had had gone away. My gut was so like there was no issue with my digestion. You know, I, I had come to accept normal, a little bit of bloating, a little bit of discomfort was normal digestion. Most people accept it and it just went away. It's like nothing. If you have, God forbid you have heart pain and then there's something wrong or if you have back pain, there's something wrong. But if you have gut pain,
Dr. Shawn Baker (09:42):
That's how it's supposed to be. I would argue that's not how it's supposed to be. You shouldn't have bloating, discomfort, pain with digestion. If you do one or two things is going gut is broken or you're eating wrong food. So I think most of the people is just eating wrong food. So I did this and I was a little bit on social media and I had a Twitter account at the time, a few thousand followers. And I convinced a hundred people to try it. Let's do it for 90 days, see what happens. And we recorded all their data and we found that the average person within 90 days, a hundred people, the average person lost about 30 pounds. The resting heart rate went down by about 10 beats, eight centimeters off of the waist. We had them track their heart rate. We had them subjectively rate, how's your sleep?
Dr. Shawn Baker (10:20):
How's your cognition? How's your mood? How's your libido? How's your digestion? All of it got better. And I was like, this is neat, this is cool. So I was putting this out there and, and then I got picked up on the Joe Rogan podcast, go do this. Back in 2017 that led to a lot of eyes on what I was doing. I was asked to write, write a book by the publisher and it was called a zero carb Diet at the time. To me that wasn't a very good name. It's called the carnivore 'cause you're basically a bunch of meat like a carnivore. And that's what stuck. And then it became very popular. And so now I've been advocating for this really as a therapeutic tool. I don't necessarily say you need to eat three for the rest of your life. Humans are carnivore. I think that's a little bit over the top when it comes to disease mitigation. It has been incredibly powerful. And we're talking like things from diabetes to obesity to all kinds of autoimmune disease, to mental health disorders, to all kinds of inflammatory issues. Just really tremendously effective at that stuff. And that's where I'm at today.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:15):
Okay, great. And what would be the big difference between a paleo diet, which has a lot of meat and a carnivore diet?
Dr. Shawn Baker (11:24):
If you eat some eggs, there's a little bit of carbohydrate and an ago egg and it's half a gram of carbohydrates. Do you have any dairy products which variably some people can tolerate? Some can't. That can be a little bit of carbohydrate there, but it's very low carbohydrate. But I think the biggest differentiator is really the lack of vegetables and fruits and things like that. There's no fruits and vegetables. So people are horrified when they hear that, oh my God, how do you live without phytonutrients? And all the fiber is so important, believe it or not, you don't need fiber to be healthy. You don't, I think fiber is conditionally beneficial. I think when we look at all the, the mountains of epidemiologic data that shows that higher fiber diets are associated with less heart disease and less cancer and all. I think it's all basically compared to what it's like, what is the fiber replacing?
Dr. Shawn Baker (12:03):
Often it's replacing refining processed foods and therefore you have an overall better diet quality score. But it's not essential. You don't need it to survive. Clearly if you did, I'd long be dead because I don't consume any. It's, it's like we have so much, I don't know, just this preconceived bias on what we think is healthy. And then when you step far outside of that paradigm, it's very upsetting to people. It 'em off. They believe in what we've been taught and and they believe the science and it's, there's some holes from the science. We haven't really asked the questions that would really be germane to what we're talking about here. This upsets a lot of people. There's no doubt about it. We hear red meat is bad for us. The average American eats around, and this is not an exaggeration. The average American eats around one ounce of unprocessed red meat today, one ounce.
Dr. Shawn Baker (12:49):
I consume anywhere between two and a half to four pounds of it a day. I'm a big guy, 250 pounds. I'm a big man, but wow, I eat literally a hundred times more than the average person. And if red meat were killing us, then I should be a beast. I should be diabetic, I should cardiovascular disease, I'm almost 60 years of age and instead I'm breaking world records. I'm pretty darn fit. This doesn't, and it's not just me, it's I'm some genetic outlier. There are now thousands and thousands of these testimonials over and over again. We've published a number of studies now. We've had Harvard University published a study in 2021 looking at 2000 people in their diet. Universally, everyone got better. We had diabetics, we had two, oh I think it was 226 or 229 diabetics in that cohort. A hundred percent of 'em came off all injectable medications excluding insulin.
Dr. Shawn Baker (13:33):
92% came off all their insulin. 84% came off all their oral medications. This is like a a, a big lever. It's not common to just see that they're coming off the GLP ones and the SGLT two inhibitors and
Dr. Shawn Baker (14:16):
Most people get better. It helps with food addiction because we have a lot of people who are food addicts. I think if you're treating a chronic medical disease, probably in some form or fashion have you need to be treating the nutrition. And a lot of times there's this psychological addictive stuff, sub behavior. And our food system is such a horrible situation that we have food companies that have intentionally made food addictive. And I've talked to the two chemists that have done this. They've literally told me that my job is really to make people addicted to these products. Yeah. And they know how to tickle our neurons to, we can't get enough of them. It's really challenging for somebody to moderate. So Shawn Yeah, go ahead. You brought up so many great
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:50):
Points. I wanna just ask you to go a little deeper on this. You cited many studies that have pretty profound outcomes of improvement, but you said you think it's best used as a therapeutic intervention for three to six months. Where, so that people should use it for therapy for three to six months and then go to what and what informs that opinion?
Dr. Shawn Baker (15:12):
Certainly, like I'll mention our company Rivera. So we do this, we bring people, we bring them to the level of elimination. Not everybody goes carver, some people do. And then we, because we've got data on thousands and thousands of patients with disease x, disease Y and we know that these patients tend to do better with these types of food. This is stuff that nobody really has studied until now. We've been looking at this stuff pretty intensely. No one's gonna go back to eating a pure junk food diet. That's just not even human food. That that's literally human pet chow. It's recreational drugs is really what these foods are. I mean, so we just, you don't do that. But you can go back to some form of whole food diet. So it might be that you include some fruits and vegetables and things like that back into your diet.
Dr. Shawn Baker (15:47):
Typically the, it's reintroduction phase where you, let's say, you know, I like strawberries, I don't see how strawberries do. And you just reintroduce 'em. You do a couple trials to see how you do. And if you consistently get no negative response, then that's pretty safe to say that you can probably tolerate that food. You just build your diet back. Some people, a lot of people honestly like myself and hey, I like the simplicity. I just like eating steak and I don't really care. I don't miss that stuff very much. It's, it's a real concept to have because we have grown up in a, in in such a environment of sobriety and surplus that that never really existed. Mm-Hmm
Dr. Shawn Baker (16:28):
But today we've got all this stuff in not that long ago mean it would be like what grows locally? What can I kill? And that was the food supply. Right? Going back to something along that is probably the most effective for many people. I've seen people, like I said, even with Crohn's disease where they, they come off their meds, they come off their biologics, they, they completely go asymptomatic. All their markers are normalized. They do it for maybe six months a year and then they start adding a few things back in there. And this is how most people say they're still eating a lot of meat. They don't go to a vegetarian diet after they typically are, you would call it an animal base or a meat based diet. But majority of the nutritionists come from meat. And if you think about we, what is a physiological necessity for us to eat, we need essential amino acids, we need essential fats, we need a source of energy, vitamins and minerals.
Dr. Shawn Baker (17:10):
And you get that in very good efficiency with me. I know it's what about phytonutrients? Most people don't realize that beef has phytonutrients and beef has something like 70,000 nutrients. And there was a nice study that the Stefan Van Lee at a Duke University did back in 2021 where they compared the phytonutrient content of beef. And they said basically, certainly depending on how the animal is, is finished the phytonutrient content of beef rivals that of plant foods and it's more bio available. So it's not like you're missing out on polyphenols and all these things that you think I gotta eat my blueberries and cranberries, whatever the antioxidant foods. It's just not something that you miss. And I guess the proof is in the pudding. But we've got people that have been doing this diet for as long as 65 years when there was an 82-year-old woman, this rancher up in Canada, she's been doing this for 82 years.
Dr. Shawn Baker (17:54):
She's 82 years old. She looks like she's in her fifties. She's jacked, you know,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:34):
Yeah. And I all the time talk to women I work with about their belief system and what they believe, how health is created and what a healthy diet is. Some of my beliefs. And when you're saying that beef contains all these phytochemicals phytonutrients, 70,000 of them and inside I'm my, my brain is going, no, that can't be true. So we all have these ingrained biases and I think you're right. Nutritional science with the sad standard American diet really has been a proponent of, oh, what a healthy quote unquote diet is. And we know where that's gotten us. But I almost wonder if maybe part of the problem is that the majority of Americans, the majority of westerners really are eating a lot of junk in general. So it almost doesn't matter if you made them eat all fruit. 'cause I've heard of people who are fruitarians and they get healthier and if you made them eat only vegetables, vegetarian, they get healthier. If you eat anything that's a real food as opposed to the crap that is put forth as food in our Western society, aren't you gonna get better
Dr. Shawn Baker (19:47):
Yeah. We do have, if you look at the so-called standard American Western diet, it's 60, 70% ultra process food. We have a lot of people that are suffering with obesity. They're actually malnourished. They got plenty of calories, but they don't have any nutrients in bodies. They have this un insatiable hunger. If you eliminate these ultra processed junk foods, which they're ubiquitous, then you're gonna improve your health. There's no doubt about it. Now the question becomes like, for instance, if you go to a plant-based diet and a lot of people are advocates of a, you know, wholely, plant-based diet and you do see people that lose weight. And the reason for that really is that yes, you've eliminated all this junk, which is clearly a good step. I think everybody should do that re regardless of what diet you end up on, then you're on this plant-based diet and you have a harder time absorbing nutrition.
Dr. Shawn Baker (20:28):
Fiber binds up certain nutrients that you end. It just ends up in the toilet. You have bigger bowel movements, more frequent bowel movements, you lose a lot of nutrition in the toilet. Things like phytic acid phytates and things like that you find in grains and legroom and so on. And so again, binds up all these nutrients. There was a study out back in, I don't know when it was seventies, eighties, but they were looking at stool composition and looking at macronutrients in the stool, they found that people on a high fiber diet double the amount of fat, carbohydrates and protein that they excrete, which means they didn't absorb it. So again, it goes back to why, why do I eat in the first place, which presumably to get nutrition into my body 'cause my cells need them. If I'm on a plant-based diet, that process is hindered significantly.
Dr. Shawn Baker (21:06):
So I I maybe I can eat more, I can just shove more roughage into my gut. For instance, a gorilla who is about the same size as me eating some gorilla anyway, but that gorilla is going to eat something like 40 or 50 pounds of roughage a day, all these plants and leaves. Whereas I'm eating three or four pounds for the same amount. And so it's much more efficient way to be nourished. A lot of people that go on these plant-based diet talk about the fact that they are eating all the time and they're often hungry. 'cause They're constantly trying, trying to just eat to get nutrition. I eat once or twice a day and I'm good. I don't, I'm not eat, I'm not hungry at all. It's, it's a very different experience in many ways. I think in my view, as someone who's approaching his sixties, it's important to have a decent of muscle mass.
Dr. Shawn Baker (21:46):
I think it's incredibly important for men, women, doesn't matter. Functional. You wanna be able to run, jump, sprint, pick up heavy things, high, higher quality protein certainly lends itself to that. It's not that you can't get protein on a plant-based diet, but I use the analogy of let's say you wanted to build a brick house. You had over here you got a big pile of bricks and over here you got a bunch of straw and mud. You'd rather have bricks make it life a lot easier. And that's, that's really the difference. You can still do it outta straw and mud, but it's gonna take more work, more effort. Of all the animals that have ever been on planet earth, about 80% of them have been carnivorous just because it's more efficient, so much more efficient to assimilate. Like you said, if every one of my cells is an animal cell, what do animal cells need to grow and, and, and, and maintain themselves from animal cell products?
Dr. Shawn Baker (22:28):
We, we get 'em from an analyst, not a coincidence that every essential amino acid that we need is found in the exact ratios. We need them in meat. It's not coincidental. It's I think by design by the way. And so it's just more efficient. Like I said, you can do it, but it takes supplementation and eating a lot and a lot of people develop digestive issues. You see a lot, particularly women, they're shoving all these salads down there and then they got IBS or they're starving all the time and then they're binging at night on ice cream because they're starving all day. It's just not, it's not a pleasant experience.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (22:57):
So I there are about three things that come to mind, but I know our time is limited. The first, I don't know if this is something you've considered or thought about or talked about, is the, the chi or life force in food. So I'm here in Thailand studying at the Dallas retreat about life force energy, which is the energy that innervates us. We're given a certain amount when we're born and then when it's depleted, we're gone. There are things that we can do to improve it and that can increase it or decrease it. Dead animal protein really doesn't have a lot of life force energy where live plants do. Part of the argument I've heard for consuming more vegetables and fruits and live foods is this life force that you get from them, is that something that you've thought about or talked about?
Dr. Shawn Baker (23:46):
I've certainly heard that argument before and I'm just wondering how you quantify that. I wouldn't be a accept socially accepted thing. I mean, but again, to me, I hear people have vibration levels and energy and things like that. And I have not seen where that has panned out in, in way that I, I I can verify it might be there are some people will feel better. A lot of times it becomes a, I think in many ways some of that is I just feel better ethically. I I have a moral belief system and when I feel better what I'm doing, I might get a positive effect. 'cause It's a mental state thing. But then you ignore the fact that if I eat a bunch of tomatoes, there were probably thousands of small critters that were killed for this. And what happens to their life force. Is that somehow transferred into the plan or is it just somehow immune from that? I don't know. So I can't say that I've seen anything in my view that is mm-hmm. Shown a significant impact one way or the other with that stuff. But it might be maybe mm-hmm. It'll be something that comes out with this, but I don't know how to say that everything I eat has recently died. That's just the way it is. Or relatively recent Right. Food. So it's hard to, hard to get on now. Yeah. To eat live stuff.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (24:53):
And the, the other thought, two other things come to mind. One is about the environmental impact. There's a lot of discussion about trying to reduce the amount of animal protein consumed because it has a huge carbon footprint. I think it's that there is no right diet for all of us. It's very individual. If you do almost any intervention better than what most people are eating, they're gonna get better in three, six months, 12 months. But that long term sustainably, it's most probable that the majority of humans need something different. And that it's not that we all will do well with a carnivore diet or a paleo diet or a vegetarian, probably there's a lot more biochemical individuality than we would like to admit. Certainly
Dr. Shawn Baker (25:41):
It's fortunately we live, most of us live in free societies where have our choose, you know, forced to give a meal Korean or something like that and forced to eat whatever gonna give you, but, or in a prison or something like that. So we have, we certainly have choice. I know there are other people that, that are proponents that will make the argument that we think humans are carnivorous and that's a preferred diet. I'm not here to make that argument. I'm here to say this is a therapeutic invention. I've seen some very good results with this that, that probably exceed any other medical invention that I've seen as a, as a surgeon, as a physician over the, over these last several decades. And so the environmental argument is certainly one that I'm very familiar with. I'm certainly very familiar with the counter arguments to that because we, a lot of the arguments have come from animal activists that feel that we should not be eating animals.
Dr. Shawn Baker (26:24):
They think that's horrible and they're, it's an, it's an equivalent to a animal slavery or a holocaust or something along those lines. We use that language quite a bit. And then what I see is that when we look at how most of our food is produced throughout the world, whether it's the United States or Europe or probably even Asia, a lot of of it has to do with massive industrial chemical inputs which are causing complete ecosystem destruction. When you grow a field of strawberries, you've literally killed every animal that could possibly live there. Any animal that could live in that area is dead. Any animal that gets in there is gonna be killed. So we have tremendous animal death, death and suffering from an ethical standpoint, not from the sort of the greenhouse gas emissions. We're seeing a lot of people now understanding that a lot of these arguments have been made, like, let's say, how many calories can I get for, for each greenhouse gas output?
Dr. Shawn Baker (27:14):
How much car carbon equivalent or carbon dioxide equivalent. Right? And part of that argument falls apart when you say, when we talk about calories, one of the most environmentally friendly things to grow is gonna be sugar. Sugar provides tremendous amount of calories for very little input. So we said we should all be much of sugar when we start looking at nutrition. What about qual? What about indispensable amino acids and proteins and things like that? What about things like zinc and lysing, things that we can't live without? Then we start to see that beef becomes much more efficient. And then we start talking about, we often hear about water. It takes a swim swimming pool of water to, to get a pound of beef. You always hear that when you look at the reality, is it like 95% of that which falls regardless if the cows there.
Dr. Shawn Baker (27:54):
Most of the cows water comes from the grass it eats and then it urinates it all out. And so it's not like it's disappearing. It goes back into the water table. They fail to make those calculations. We're also seeing particularly multi-species grazing and and regenerative style ranching. That's, that's growing in popularity that not only is not producing excess CO2, it's actually sequestering quite a bit. And so you can actually, there's a guy named Alan Williams who is at out of a university. He's in Alabama at Joyce Farms. He's done calculations saying if we can convert around 40% of the US grazing area into more of a regenerative south, you can offset all the carbon, not just the carbon from the agricultural sector, but the transportation sector. The energy sector can all be offset just by cows on the ground. It can be the solution.
Dr. Shawn Baker (28:39):
Now if we continue with high intensity industrial agriculture irrespective animal or plant, then that's the real problem here. So we have to come to this realization that no, we can't have strawberries in January Chicago because it's gonna require intensive gr growth in South America, wherever it's grown or Africa, wherever it ist reported. We've gotta get away from that. And the, and the other factors is we waste, 40% of the food we produce gets wasted. Most of it's fruit and vegetables and, and baked goods, typically that's what happens. It ends up in a landfill. It doesn't survive the transportation process. How many times are you taking these organic fruits and vegetables do you buy at the store and then they get mold on 'em? So the solution really is not everybody goes vegan or goes plant based. The solution really is let's stop wasting so much food, let's stop trying to have everything everywhere because that is just not practical.
Dr. Shawn Baker (29:27):
It may be that you just eat seasonally, I gotta eat that you're in Thailand where it's tropical. There's a lot of tropical fruits and stuff there, but most of us aren't there. I'm in Washington, there's some berries in the fall, a lot of animals running around. I get deer and stuff like that. But as far as what is locally grown and available, it's not mangoes and grapes and things like that, which are, are very seasonal. So I think that's really the discussion that needs to be had. And there's a lot more people having it. I know that Elon Musk recently came out and said, the cows are not the problem. He's got a big platform, obviously richest guy in the world, control of a lot of social media. So, so more and more people are realizing that this sort of vegan argument, which was really, by the way, it was propped up a lot by Silicon Valley.
Dr. Shawn Baker (30:05):
It was 20, 30, 40, $50 billion that were poured into fake meats and so on and forth. And what's happening is it all went belly up. Most of these companies have failed. They went under most all these venture capitalists lost a bunch of money on it, so there's less appetite to push that narrative. And that narrative was really, it wasn't so much a grassroots movement, it was more of an, we call an astro turf movement. So it's corporations that were driving this, we're gonna be altruistic and save the planet by having you eat ground up soybeans and dependence beef. That narrative has fallen apart. People are really picking on apart and looking into that. And a lot of studies have come out that showing that if we want to consider the environmental input pack of our food, then it's more not animals versus plants. It's just how we raise that stuff. Mm-Hmm
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (30:44):
Dr. Shawn Baker (30:49):
Yeah. So like I mentioned, if you're interested in physicians that will not just giving other pill or pills, potions and procedures and, and treat root cause and provide daily support rivera.com, we're open it all. We'll be soon, be open all, we're in about 40 states right now. We'll be in the last 10 shortly. So we're R-E-V-E-R-O rivera.com. I'm on social media, I'm at on YouTube, I'm on Shawn Baker, md. So S-H-A-W-N. Same thing on TikTok, same thing on Facebook on my Instagram. I'm Shawn Baker, 1967 for the year I was born. And then on Twitter, it's s Baker md. So that, that's where you'll find me. And I talk about this every day.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (31:27):
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (32:16):
And hormones, y'all, thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about. Love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Hey there, fabulous midlife women! Have you been feeling like your health questions are met with band-aid solutions that just don’t cut it? You’re not alone. High blood pressure and its “quick fixes” are just one of the many symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem that are holding back so many women like you from living a vibrant life filled with joy.
On this episode of the Hormone Prosperity Podcast, Dr. Kyrin tackles a relatable question from Madison—one that could be your very own. Madison’s high blood pressure is “sort of managed” by medication, but poor sleep, anxiety, weight gain (oh, the weight gain!), and other pesky perimenopause symptoms just won’t back down. Sound familiar?
Dr. Kyrin takes you on a deep and empowering dive into exactly what’s behind high blood pressure—not just what mainstream medicine says, but what functional, energetic, and hormonal perspectives reveal. She covers everything from how stress and your sympathetic nervous system wreak havoc to how unresolved emotions like frustration and resentment could be physically impacting your heart health.
Spoiler alert? It’s not just about salt or genetics. And no, more meds aren’t the only answer. Let's rewrite your health story from the root cause upward, together.
If you’re tired of temporary fixes and ready to understand how to unlock real hormonal prosperity, this episode is for you.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode Why mainstream medicine focuses on genetics and sodium for hypertension but misses the bigger picture. * How your sympathetic nervous system amplifies high blood pressure—and how to calm it down. * The connection between high blood pressure, hormonal imbalance, and symptoms like poor sleep, anxiety, and weight gain. * The energetic perspective behind heart health—hint, it’s not just* about the numbers on the BP monitor.
Key Takeaways High blood pressure is often driven by stress and an overactive sympathetic nervous system—aka, your fight-or-flight response—not just your salt intake. * Functional medicine focuses on why your body is sounding the alarm, not just masking symptoms with medications. * Emotional imbalances like frustration and resentment could be straining your heart—literally. Addressing unresolved emotions may be just as important as addressing physical symptoms. * Hormonal imbalances during perimenopause can create a vicious cycle of symptoms that make high blood pressure worse, but you can* break the loop!
Your Call to Action
Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
No one deserves to live in hormonal poverty. 🛑 Drop the disempowering question, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What would hormonal prosperity do?” (#WWPD)
Catch the full episode now and start crafting the vibrant, healthy life you deserve.
✨ Listen Now ✨
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
Coming up, what is high blood pressure really, and should it be treated with a medication? Or what would it look like if we treated the underlying cause of it and didn't take the medication as a part of treating our hormonal poverty? Stay tuned next as we unpack this important topic.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:20):
Greetings friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin . Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag ww HPD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:12):
Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prosperity Couch. Thank you so much for joining me. As we dive into talking about Madison's question about high blood pressure and perimenopause and hormone therapy, she says, Hey folks, is there anybody here who had high blood pressure and went on HRT? My blood pressure is sort of, sort of managed by meds, but not super great. So she has uncontrolled hypertension, but my peri symptoms like poor sleeping and anxiety, can't be making it any better. Oh, and weight gain. The weight gain. And now I know a lot of you can relate. Weight gain is the symptom that makes women crazy more than anything else. It was true for me when I was in the perimenopause, and I know it's true for about 60% of you. By the time we're 50, 60% of us are overweight or obese by the time we're 60, it's three out of four of us.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:05):
Maybe you can relate. And other symptoms she mentioned, a midlife metabolic mayhem, peri symptoms, poor sleeping and anxiety, very common. Definitely in the top five, the poor sleeping, the lack of energy, the anxiety sometimes depression also. So this is a great question, Madison. So let's dive into this. So number one, let's talk about high blood pressure from a mainstream perspective and from a functional, energetic perspective. So blood pressure is determined by the force with which your heart pumps blood out of it to make it all circulate through your circulatory system, all the way around your body, to your toes, to your brain cells, to your eyeballs, to your stomach, everywhere, right? That's what determines your blood pressure, the pumping force of your heart. If your heart stops pumping, you stop living, you un alive, right? So it's crucial. Now, what causes high blood pressure in a perfectly healthy human being, we need to go back to the beginning because mainstream medicine would have you believe pretty much that it's genetic or it's, it's the amount of salt that you're consuming.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:21):
Those are the two reasons that mainstream medicine says for most cases of high blood pressure or hypertension. And they're gonna counsel you to avoid salt in your diet. Now, mind you, they're talking about NACL sodium chloride, which is table salt. They are not talking about sea salt, which is potassium has potassium, not sodium. So it's sodium. That's the culprit, not potassium. You need potassium and you need chloride. Also. You need sodium too, just not too much of it. And the way we eat these days, a lot of processed foods have so much of the sodium in them that that's what makes us sick with high blood pressure. So they're gonna counsel you to change your diet, cut the salt, but if that doesn't work, they're going to put you on a medication, a first line anti-hypertensive medication to drop your blood pressure, which has variable success.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:19):
Usually people have progressively worse hypertension and they have to go on stronger and stronger medications, multiple medications, and they get monitored for the consequences of high blood pressure, which can include damage to your eyes, to your brain, to your heart, to all the organs in your body because every organ is supplied by blood vessels. So if they're getting too much blood pressure coming in, it's damaging them. Think of like you use your water, pick in your mouth to clean your teeth. It's very gentle sprout. If you took a fire hose and trying to clean your teeth, well, you would blow your head off with a fire hose, right? So you understand what I'm talking about. Now you say so from a mainstream perspective, that's what's going on. But from a functional perspective, we actually know and, and from an energetic, I'll get to that in a second.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:12):
We know that what makes your blood pressure go up naturally in your body, the sig signal to your heart to increase the pressure is your sympathetic nervous system. So your sympathetic nervous system is part of your autonomic nervous system. Think automatic that has your sympathetic nervous system. Parasympathetic two branches, your sympathetic, think of, I call it the halt, big, strong, run, fast, lift, hard, do hard things, fights, right? So all the blood goes to your arms and legs, your periphery, you're not thinking you're in survival mode. Fight, flight, freeze spa is another one of those four Fs. That's the whole that's sympathetic nervous system raises blood pressure raises, respiratory rate raises, all these things. Parasympathetic nervous system is the opposite. Think of the Buddha. Mm, parasympathetic is lower blood pressure, lower respiratory rate, blood to the center, to your heart and lungs, abdomen and organs to nourish, digest your food, nourish your organs, heal you healing open only happens in a parasympathetic dominant state.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:26):
So in order to have hypertension, you have a supertone hyper tone sympathetic nervous system that's on alert. This means stress. Sympathetic nervous system triggers when your cortisol stress hormone triggers. So it means you have a lot of unresolved stress in your body that is causing the tone of your heart and your blood vessels to be hypertonic, pump fat, blood fast, hard, and damage all the other arteries in your body. So the really, the correct way from a functional perspective to fix your blood pressure is not to give you a drug that stops your blood vessels from clamping down and make forces them to relax. But it's to find the reason why your sympathetic nervous system is so hypertonic and calm it down. Doesn't that make sense?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:05):
So if you have a problem with the outflow of your heart organ not working well, it means that there's an imbalance in the emotions in the organs. And we'll be talking more about this. Each of the major organs in the abdominal cavity and chest cavity has emotions associated with it, some positive, some negative, and they need to be imbalance when they get out of balance. And the negative emotion outstrips the positive that organ will start to first have energetic problems and then to have functional problems and then to have anatomic problems. This is where all disease comes from. And Einstein proved this when he proved e equals mc squared. They took the atom, which was a physical object, and they split it. And what did it turn into? Energy? And Einstein proved that energy is matter and matter is energy. So even though you look solid, right, you are nothing but energy.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:09):
And if you have a high enough powered microscope to look that closely, you actually would see yourself as all the stars in the sky. You are mostly space and very little solid matter. You're just energy at your core. So are all your organs and so is your health. And so is everything you do and everything in your life, your car, your home, everything. And I know that's a hard concept for some people to get, but science has now really come to the conclusion starting with Einstein, with quantum physics and some other research that's been done on all of these, but it hasn't made it into mainstream medicine. But I'm teaching you now, you don't have to wait for it to make it there. So if you are in hatred, frustration in these negative emotions that is conditioning your heart to function suboptimally and to make your blood pressure not function optimally, optimally, maybe predisposing you to heart disease, heart attacks.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:13):
And so from an energetic perspective, we've got to address the emotion in the organ, do things to detoxify and tonify it. I'm gonna be working on some programs to be teaching you these things. So I say you treat on all levels, right? Is there something anatomic, biochemical you've got to address with mainstream medicine? By all means, do it. Is there something functional you've got to address physiological? Definitely do it. And looking at are you in hormonal poverty as part of that? And is there something energetic? Look at that and address it. So gotta look on all three levels. If you're not sure if you're in hormonal poverty, I invite you to take the hormonal poverty quiz. It takes less than 60 seconds to give you a good idea. I will give you free my guide, my blueprint to get out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:02):
When you take that quiz, and I hope you'll consider joining me. If you are having questions like Madison had about high blood pressure and perimenopause and hormone therapy to join me for the hormone bliss challenge, which will be starting up right around Valentine's Day to get your questions answered live and really get, I'm gonna go deep with you on what you need to do to get to hormonal prosperity. Let me see if there's anything else. So you did have, as part of your question that you went on HRT and your yes and your I agree. Madison, your poor sleeping and anxiety are not making your blood pressure any better, right? Because it's a feedback loop and they start disrupting and causing worse hormonal poverty. When you don't sleep well, when you're having anxiety, it means your neurotransmitters are out of balance and that feeds back more symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem, more causes of hormonal poverty, more symptoms, and it just becomes this positive feedback loop, although you feel it is negative symptoms.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (12:01):
It what I mean by positive is the symptoms cause more derangement in the causes, cause more derangement in the symptoms cause more derangement and the pauses. So if that is the positive feedback loop so you definitely wanna find out oh, and weight gain and that's all a part of it and we'll be talking about that in another video. So thank you so much for the question. Madison, thank you all for joining me. Hopefully you learn something here that can serve you on your journey, getting out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity so that you can get off the couch into your genes and back into life. I'll talk to you next time. Until then, peace, love, and hormones. Y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (12:52):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Are you finding yourself avoiding kisses, hugs, or even the thought of intimacy with your partner? Do you feel like your personality has shifted since menopause, making you more independent but less connected?
You’re not alone, and you’re not imagining things. But here’s the truth—it doesn’t have to be this way.
Welcome back to The Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, Dr. Kyrin, your trusted hormone prosperity coach. In this empowering episode, we’re answering a candid and relatable question from Tiffany about losing that spark of intimacy and connection in midlife. Together, we’ll unpack myths, reveal truths, and equip you with the guidance you need to not just survive this stage of life—but thrive.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode: Why libido is essential, not optional: Discover why your sex drive is one of the most powerful indicators of your overall health and vitality. * The myths we’ve been sold: Find out why the belief that losing your sex drive is “normal” after 40 is a damaging lie—and how societal norms perpetuate this misconception. * The secrets of cultivating vitality: Learn about Master Mantak Chia’s* teachings on preserving and transforming sexual energy (Jing) into Qi—a powerful force to rejuvenate your body, mind, and spirit. * Unpacking "common vs. normal": Just because many women experience midlife symptoms like low libido, hair loss, weight gain, and exhaustion doesn’t mean it’s something you have to accept. * Empowering questions, powerful results: Shift from asking “What’s wrong with me?” to “What would hormonal prosperity do?” (#WWHPD). * Practical steps to finding your spark: Identify what’s holding you back, learn how to address unresolved health issues, and explore the energetic and functional practices to reclaim your vitality. * The ripple effect of intimacy: How rediscovering passion with your partner can increase love and positive energy in your family, community, and even the world.
Episode Highlights:This episode is packed with game-changing insights and practical solutions tailored to empower midlife women. You'll feel understood, inspired, and equipped with supportive tools to reclaim the passion and intimacy that’s your birthright.
From Master Mantak Chia’s wisdom on multiple orgasms (yes, really!) to understanding how healing your Jing benefits your entire life, you’ll leave this episode ready to take action.
Your Call to Action
Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
No one deserves to live in hormonal poverty. 🛑 Drop the disempowering question, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What would hormonal prosperity do?” (#WWPD)
Catch the full episode now and start crafting the vibrant, healthy life you deserve.
✨ Listen Now ✨
Words to Keep Close to Heart:“Just because something is common, doesn’t mean it’s normal. You don’t have to settle. Bliss, vitality, and intimacy are your birthright—go reclaim them!”
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
Are you hating, kissing and other sexual things with your partner right about now? If so, this is definitely part of hormonal poverty and we need to have a serious talk. The health consequences are devastating of having no libido and what this means for your health and your vitality and your life. Up next,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:24):
Greetings friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me, to asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag ww HPD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your gene and back into life, because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:16):
Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prosperity Coach. We're gonna answer Tiffany's question today about, she says, fully in menopause now, hate kissing. Anyone else moods. Just curious. Have heard others complain about zero interest in sex? Definitely have that issue. Poor husband kissing now just completely grosses me out and hubby kisses a lot. His dental health is excellent, takes great care of his teeth slash gums. It's just gross. It's so surprising how much my personality has changed since menopause arrived. I'm not snugly where I used to hold hands. Sit next to hug, touch all the time now. No thanks. Please give me space. I've talked to hubby about how I've changed since and he understands, but I do miss how I was in that way. I do like now how I feel way more independent and give less about what others think.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:10):
I was a people pleaser for sure before. Anyway, just wondering if anyone else is grossed out by certain things. Now, I love this question, Tiffany
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:58):
And maybe you're there. So let's talk about this. I love this question. So why is this so vital in the West? We very much take it for granted as a fact of life that we are going to lose our sex drive as we age. Whether you believe it or not, there is a part of you, whether you admit it or not, that probably believes this. And we foster this belief among each other as women by believing that there are no answers. There was menopause the musical a a few years ago where they had musical numbers. It did traveled all around the world, I think musical numbers about menopause. And I didn't see it, but a friend of mine who's a colleague also went and saw it and she said, Kyrin, all these women were in this theater with their friends. They give you a fan when you walk in the door before you go to your seat.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:54):
And they're fanning themselves and they have songs about how we're just fat and sexless and we wind up with coffee and wind down with wine. And we, we just, that's all we have to look forward to in life. And we just make the best of it. And chocolate makes us happy. And we fan ourselves. And she said, they're all laughing. And I, I'm crying tears. Were rolling down my face. And I would've been crying too if I had been there because it's insanity. What we women have been told to accept as the truth about our health that is nothing but pure lies. We can and should have an excellent, healthy sex drive and sex life throughout our lifespan. In fact, our sex drive is in my opinion, one of the best, if not the best barometers of our overall health. Don't tell me your temperature, your blood pressure, your weight to your pulses, your respiratory rate, all these things.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:52):
That's nice. Tell me what your sex drive is doing and I'll tell you how healthy you are. And it really should be va vavo at every age. And in fact, so I'm here at Dow Garden at a DAOs retreat learning from Master Montauk Chia, and I've now become a certified associate instructor to start teaching the practices. Why is this important? He is one of the teachers of these philosophies and practices that help women to preserve and cultivate their life force energy that heals their body, their chi, but their jing also, which is their sexual force energy. And how to turn that into q that helps and nourishes your body. You have a fountain ever giving fountain of this coming to you. So if you're not experiencing it as a drive to sexuality, something is wrong. And it means that you're losing Qi life force.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:54):
And when all your qi life force is gone, guess what time's up. And that is the ending date on your tombstone. The day that you die when you have no more chi life force. So this is crucial. It is vital. And and master chia says menopausal women, super woman super superwoman. We shouldn't only be having one orgasm, we should be having multiple orgasm. That's one of the things that he teaches, is the techniques for how do women do that with or without a partner. So within the next year, I'll be rolling out programs to teach you how to do these things. Yay. along with other energy practices we should be having multiple orgasms and how these orgasms take this jing sexual energy and you can create she vital life force energy to heal your brain and your body and your organs and store it to use for energy.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:50):
How does that sound to go do all the things you wanna do. Like go to musicals and go to plays and hang out with your friends and travel. So menopausal woman superwoman and you should be hot superwoman, really, Tiffany. So this is something that we women in the west really take for granted that we're going to lose our sex drive and then we think it's no big deal 'cause all our friends are experiencing that. So we think it's quote unquote normal. So what I want to key you in, in this video too, there's always the answer to the question and then there's some adjunct that is important for you to understand about why that question is important and how you are understanding and going about answering that question that will help inform you to make, ask better questions about your health so you can get better results.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:44):
And here it, it has to do with what we come to believe is normal. We believe that the 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem are quote unquote normal because we look around and all our friends are having the same things. We go to book club, we go to church, we go to luncheons, we go to family reunions. Every woman over 40 is talking about the 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic. Ma'am, oh, my hair's falling out. Oh, I have no sex drop. Oh, I can't lose this weight. Oh, I I have this rash that won't go away. Oh, my eyelashes won't grow. Oh, my gut is crazy. I don't know what's happening. You name the symptoms. Oh, I got this autoimmune condition. My doctor doesn't know what it is. It's some non-specific autoimmune marker. They're gonna recheck it in six months, right? It's all these health things that we don't have answers to that make our life difficult to live.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:38):
We think it's normal. It is not normal. It is not normal to have any of this. It's common, but it is not normal. Common does not equal normal. Stop believing that they are different. Just because something's common doesn't mean that it's normal and you shouldn't have to, to put up with it. There is always a reason I say there is always, always, always a reason. If you have symptoms that with your health that remain unresolved, there is always a reason. And if the healthcare providers that you're going to don't have explanations for you and can't help you reverse it, you're going to the raw, you're going to the hardware store for milk. So stop going to the hardware store for milk. They don't sell milk, they never will. And drive your car on over to your computer like where I do my work right online or find another provider who can help you with these energetic practices and the functional practices.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:37):
It is absolutely vital. So Tiffany, you and your husband deserve, and this is for Tiffany and everybody else with this question and this difficulty. Some of you are living as a roommate with your spouse of decades whom you have shared a home with, built a life with foster, had children, with birth children, with raised them. You have all these rich, beautiful life experiences together. Did you really go through all of that to get to this stage of life where you don't even wanna kiss your partner and hold hands with them and cuddle with them and make sweet, passionate, hot stank, sexy love with them and enjoy their company and have that close physical emotional intimacy that can occur for you? Did you really go through all of that to just be like me? Meh, it's normal. I don't want it. No, you didn't. You're just giving up because you don't think you can have anything different.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:39):
And that's a whole other meta called lured helplessness, which is very common among women in Western countries. We are taught at a very young age that we have to accept what is given to us and only ask the questions and get the answer, receive the answers to the questions that we're told we can ask. And what I'm telling you is it's time to break out of that crap and start asking the empowering questions that are gonna get you what you really want, not what you think you can have to settle for. When you start demanding what is yours for your health, you start saying, I will not put up with a sexless marriage.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:22):
You'll start, they say when the student is ready, the teacher appears. So when you are really ready to receive that, the teacher will appear me or someone like me who can help you with the energetic pieces, the g the jing, all of it, and the functional pieces. And then you'll watch the miracles that happen and what is restored for you, for your body, your hormonal prosperity, your life, your marriage, your family. This doesn't only affect you by the way, that's another thing I wanna point out. You think that it's just you and your husband, it affects him. I find the men more than they say they don't like to say. But it also affects your whole family and your friends and your community because love is probably the most powerful force there is. Sexual love being one of those forms. And the sexual love fosters the love between a couple and that ripples out into everybody else in your environment.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (12:29):
And energetically it ripples out actually to the whole world. So being in love with your husband and wanting to be close and physically close and sexual with him actually is your duty not only to yourself, but to the globe to increase the level of love. The the energy will go out as free radicals to the environment to counteract all of the negative hateful energy that we're encountering in our globe right now. Do your part, Tiffany
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:22):
You can find the link in the show notes. It takes less than 60 seconds. I'll give you free my blueprint from hormonal poverty to hormonal prosperity. And consider joining me for the Hormonal BLIS challenge where I really dive in with you one-on-one face-to-face. We do it as a group all your questions and really help you understand what are all the pieces, what are the anatomic, biochemical, physiological, functional, energetic pieces that I need to address to get the hormone prosperity that I want. So I look forward to seeing you there. Thanks so much for joining me. Welcome your questions. I really love answering them. Until next time, peace, love, and hormones. Y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:14):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Ever find yourself lying awake at night, heart racing for no reason? Or maybe you’ve noticed your heart skipping beats out of the blue? If you’re in midlife or menopause, this episode is for you. 💗
Join Dr. Kyrin as she tackles Trina’s important question about irregular heartbeats during menopause. Could these unsettling symptoms be connected to low hormone levels? And more importantly, are they warning signs of something bigger?
Here’s What You’ll Learn in Today’s Episode:1. Why irregular heartbeats during menopause deserve your full attention—not just your worry. 2. The role estrogen and other key hormones play in protecting your heart (and how hormonal imbalances could be contributing to your symptoms). 3. Why mainstream medicine might dismiss your symptoms and how to advocate for yourself. 4. The “hidden” dangers of hormonal poverty and the steps you can take to shift into hormonal prosperity.
Dr. Kyrin shares her own story of struggling with irregular heartbeats, how mainstream medicine failed to provide answers, and the holistic steps she took to restore her vibrant health. Spoiler alert—it’s not about masking symptoms; it’s about addressing the root cause. 💡
Key Takeaways:* Hormones matter: Did you know low estrogen during menopause can alter how your heart functions? * Mainstream medicine isn’t enough: Traditional tests may miss functional issues that could jeopardize your heart health. * Empower your health: Make proactive choices to move out of hormonal poverty and unlock hormonal prosperity.
This episode is packed with actionable advice to help you tune into your body, identify red flags, and take the steps you need to thrive.
Your Call to Action
Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
No one deserves to live in hormonal poverty. 🛑 Drop the disempowering question, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What would hormonal prosperity do?” (#WWPD)
Catch the full episode now and start crafting the vibrant, healthy life you deserve.
✨ Listen Now ✨
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Coming up next. Irregular heartbeat in menopause. Are they related? And could this be signs of bigger trouble to come find out Next.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Greetings friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag ww PD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life, because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Hey everybody, it's Dr. Kyrin. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prosperity Coach. So glad that you're joining me today as we dive into a question from Trina who says another symptom post menopause. Anyone else experience irregular heartbeat with menopause? It scares me. It should scare you, Trina. This is big, huge problem. It's not uncommon though, one of those 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem that we women might have to contend with. So with estrogen dropping progesterone, dropping testosterone, dropping oftentimes cortisol dysfunction, insulin dysfunction, thyroid, DHEA, right? These are the seven main metabolic hormones we've got to contend with that inform hormonal poverty or hormonal prosperity and inform all our cells and all our systems to be healthy and thriving and growing and healing or deteriorating and cause getting ready to cause us problems that we may not know about it yet. So estrogen in particular, but all of these hormones have a role in every cell, in every system in your body, including your arteries that carry the blood throughout your body, from your heart to every cell in your brain, to every cell in your feet, to every cell in your precious abdominal cavity, chest cavity, everywhere, very intimately involved with artery function.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
This is why menopause is associated. So lack of estrogen is associated with increased risk of the number one cause of death of women over 50, which is heart disease and heart attack. We're all worrying about breast cancer over here. Meanwhile, our body is like, Hey, pay attention to your heart and you're having an irregular heartbeat. So this could be a sign, Trina, that your arteries around your heart are being affected and it could be affecting the conduction system in your heart. Your heart is an electrical apparatus. Yep, it's electrical and that's why it has this internal electrical system that causes it to pump, pump, pump every day of your life. It pumps from about five weeks of birth. We can see it on an ultrasound all the way till you take your last breath, and then usually even a little bit farther if you haven't died from a heart attack, it still will pump depending on the cause of death.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
It does its job. Sun, moon, shine. It doesn't care rainy, sunny deadlines. It doesn't. It just pumps. It does its job well, it needs to be nourished properly. And one of the things it needs is estrogen, but it also needs all the other hormones probably that your doctor isn't talking to you about that I wanna make sure you know about your insulin, thyroid, cortisol, DHEA, progesterone, testosterone. Your heart depends on all of these. So you need to go to your doctor. You need to start at least probably with an EKG. Now, I'm not your doctor. And this is just for educational purposes. So anything that you have a health concern about, please go see your doctor. What we do here is not, does not replace medical advice. So you need to talk with your doctor about what you're having. They probably will start with your evaluation with an EKG electrocardiogram to see if there are any abnormalities.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
But if not, they'll probably put you on a Holter monitor to track your heartbeats over a 24 hour period and then have a reading to see if maybe there's something they missed on the EKG. 'cause The EKG is only for a few seconds in time. The Holter monitor is about 24 hour period, or they might do a echocardiogram to look at how your heart is functioning, how the ventricles are emptying, are they emptying properly? Is the blood flowing through your heart properly? Or they might do other imaging tests depending on what they find might send you to a cardiologist. But this is something that should scare you, Trina. Thank you for sharing it. So if you haven't already, you need to talk to your doctor about this as quickly as possible and get it evaluated. Now, let's say they evaluate you and they don't find anything and they say, we're going to check you again in six months, Trina, you're good and you're still feeling this
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
I have to say that I had that too
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
So now you're having a car anatomic cardiac problem, or maybe it's disrupted the electrical conduction system in your heart. So they're looking for anatomic problems or they're looking for, do you have a partial occlusion of one of the arteries feeding blood to your heart, another anatomic problem? And pretty much if it's not an anatomic problem or a conduction problem in that electrical system, which is usually due to an anatomic problem, then they're gonna say, we don't know. We don't know why you have it. And that was the case for me. And when I fixed my hormonal poverty, I stopped having that. Now, I'm not gonna say that that's gonna happen for you. I'm not your doctor. You need to go to your doctor and talk about that. But yes, Trina, thanks for the question. Anybody else? Irregular heartbeat, talk to your doctor about it, get it checked out.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
But if they tell you it's nothing what they're really saying, you need to understand what mainstream doctors are saying to you. It's nothing that we can find with the tests that we have to look for anatomic problems. We don't look for a lot of the functional problems that could be contributing to this bi hormonal poverty. So you might have a problem there. Go find a doctor who can help you with that, like me and my colleagues who have done training in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine and energy medicine also. So start to listen, really listen to what your $30 H-M-O-P-P-O copay doctors are telling you, because if you take what they're telling you as the gospel and meaning that we don't find anything wrong, and you take that to mean that I'm in perfect health, you are going to be very misguided and confused when the boulder drops into your life.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
The big fat boulder health problem drops into your life and you're gonna go. But my doctor said I was fine, but my doctor did blood work. But my doctor listened to my heart, but my doctor did an EKG, but my doctor said I was fine. So I like to say that health problems don't come out of the blue. She didn't get ca breast cancer out of the blue. She didn't get a heart attack and die out of the blue. She didn't get a stroke out of the blue. She didn't get multiple sclerosis. You think of the disease, she didn't get it out of the blue. She got it out of the oblivious. That is where disease or dis disease comes from in the body out of the oblivious. We are not getting all the information that we need to inform us from mainstream medicine. We never will.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
That's not what it's designed for. It is about disease management. It's going to wait till you get sick, and then they're gonna manage that disease for you. That is mainstream medicine. If you, on a higher level of healthcare, it requires you, yes, requires you to go to different type of practitioner who has functional and energetic health training, and look for the things that mainstream medicine isn't looking for, the functional problems, the energetic problems, and address those so that you are no longer oblivious. That means you've gotta get out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity. Mainstream medicine will never get you completely out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity. So you've been warned,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Thank you so much, Trina for the question. I hope you'll take this seriously and get some answers that can really take your health to the next level and get you to the hormonal prosperity that you deserve. If you're not sure if you're in hormonal poverty, look at the show notes and look for the quiz link. You can take the quiz in less than 60 seconds. It'll give you a good idea. I'll give you a free program that I have outlining the blueprint steps that I've taken thousands of women through to help them on the path, the journey from hormonal poverty to hormonal prosperity for free, and consider joining my Hormone Bliss challenge, which will be starting up right before Valentine's Day. Thanks so much for joining me. I look forward to answering more of your questions. Until next time, peace, love, and hormones. Y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about. Love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering women to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Welcome to another energizing and empowering episode of The Hormone Prosperity Podcast with Dr. Kyrin! This week, we’re tackling a pressing question from our listener, Mavic, who’s confused about the various ways to dose Hormone Replacement Therapy (HRT).
Are you wondering if that HRT pill, patch, or cream is the best choice for your body? Curious about the hidden risks of oral estradiol or why your patch might be causing skin irritation? Dr. Kyrin breaks it all down with heartfelt clarity and solid science, as she explains why the method you use to dose hormones can spell the difference between prosperity or problems for your body.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode: The First Pass Effect: Find out why oral estradiol and testosterone are problematic—hint, it’s harming more than helping by overloading your liver. * Better Dosing Methods: Discover why transdermal creams are the healthier alternative to patches, and how compounded bioidentical hormones can open up new possibilities for vitality. * Progesterone Done Right: Why oral progesterone is Dr. Kyrin’s go-to method for stress relief and sleep enhancement—but only when it’s crafted properly! * Myth-Busting Mainstream HRT: Are you still trusting the advice of a general physician or weekend-trained bioidentical hormone practitioner? Learn what to look for in a credentialed HRT expert. * The all-important balance of estradiol and estriol to protect your health and happiness*.
Why This Episode MattersHormones hold the key to midlife joy, vitality, and a stronger, healthier you—yet too many women are left confused by mainstream advice or trapped in hormonal poverty. Dr. Kyrin’s insights will help you leave behind one-size-fits-all solutions and make confident, informed decisions about your HRT treatment.
Empower Your JourneyDr. Kyrin invites every intelligent woman to stop settling for "good enough." This episode gives you the knowledge to question your current treatments, explore more effective options, and step into the hormonal prosperity you deserve!
Your Call to Action
Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
Coming up next, could your hormone dosing route be putting you at risk for greater problems? Find out next.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:11):
Greetings friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag WW HPD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:01):
Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prosperity Coach. As we dive into talking about a question from Mavic, who wants to know about different dosing routes for HRT, which is a question that I see often, a lot of you are confused about. Should using a patch, should I be using a cream, a pill, a shot? Oh, like a pellet? What should I be doing? So let's dive into this question that Mavic proposed. She says, what's the latest on oral versus patches versus gels? For HRTI was initially prescribed patches, but that horribly irritated my skin. The adhesive question mark. So I'm on oral estradiol and progesterone, but are these oral pills less effective? I'm wondering about trying gels or spray that I've read a bit about in case the oral isn't as helpful pro slash protective. So thank you for this question, Mavic, I love it.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:55):
There is so much to dive into here for all of you, hormone seekers, hormone finders, hormone users because oh, so much to dive into. So the first thing I'm gonna like circle with my red pen, the things that really catch my attention that are crucial alerts that need to be addressed. So number one is you say, I'm on oral estradiol and progesterone, oral progesterone, no problem. Cool. That's my favorite way, way to dose it for women, because it help can help with anxiety. When it goes through the gastrointestinal tract, it stimulates the nerves and neurotransmitters that go directly to your brain. Your gut is your second brain and it helps your GABA nerve neurotransmitter, which is your calm anti-anxiety, and it helps with sleep, love, progesterone, orally. Now estradiol or any estrogen orally or testosterone, no step away from the oral estradiol, the oral testosterone.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:02):
Why? Because when you take estradiol or testosterone orally and it goes into your gastrointestinal tract, there's something that happens called the first pass effect. First pass effect, where these hormones go into the bloodstream that go right to your liver through the portal vein. They go from the gastrointestinal tract, collects the blood in the veins, and then it goes right up to your liver, the portal vein into your liver. Now your liver is the main sanitation department or detox central for almost everything in your body, most things, and especially your sex hormones. So you have a flood of sex hormones, estradiol and testosterone coming to the liver. And what that does is it overloads your detox profile and it causes biochemical changes that can actually increase your risk for well heart disease for one, but other health problems as well. And we call that the first pass effect you do.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:10):
It doesn't happen with progesterone. So you do not want to take estrogen or testosterone in an oral capsule. Why? It's still on the market. I don't know. Now I say I don't know, but why? If you wanna ask anything about the pharmaceutical industry and why it's allowed, it's always a for-profit motive
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:09):
Most of the medical industry's products, even the medications that we take are made and synthesized from petrochemical byproducts. You probably didn't know that. And that actually was part of the inception of the big pharma industry many decades ago was Rockefeller and a bunch of these other wealthy magnets had all this petroleum leftover byproducts and they were wondering what to do with it. And some genius scientists came up with, oh, we can use it to manufacture pharmaceuticals,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:14):
So that probably is to minimize the chemical sensitivity reaction of your skin. A healthy normal reaction to a toxic substance, albeit a mildly toxic substance for most people, most people will react to some type of bandage that has a petrochemical byproduct in it. It's not a naturally occurring substance. So I'm not surprised that you had that. I've had that with a lot of patients too. I love the transdermal creams. That's my first choice for estradiol for women. Because usually there is no sensitivity. They put it in an organic hypoallergenic base without perfumes, dyes, or petrochemical additives. So I, it's a rare, rare patient whoever has a reaction to the transdermal cream. Now it sounds like you're working with a mainstream doctor because they've put you on an estradiol pill and a progesterone pill that you're taking two of in the morning, that's for sure a mainstream medical prescription because that's what I used to prescribe when I didn't know what I know now.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:28):
So they're probably not comfortable or versed in prescribing transdermal cream. So you'll need to find a doctor who knows and is trained in prescribing dosing transdermal creams and the management and proper testing of it. You cannot follow cream dosing with blood tests. You can't follow any of these sex hormones dosing with blood tests. Let's just put it there. And the only way that mainstream doctors know to test anything if they know to test sex hormones is in blood tests and they will be incorrect. So you're going to need find someone who is trained, and I don't mean someone who went and took a weekend course. You need to actually check, did they do a fellowship in functional medicine, anti-aging medicine? Did they do on a naturopathic medicine? What is their training? You really gone are the days when you can just go to someone who says, oh, I do bioidenticals.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:24):
And you're, you're knowing that you're getting the highest level of care because there are so many of these little mom and pop courses that pop up just for a weekend. And doctors and nurse practitioners and physicians' assistants can go and take these and then they can hang out a shingle and say, I do bioidentical hormones. But you as the consumer don't know what you're getting. And you need to question, what is your training and how long have you been doing this? Make sure they've been doing it like I've been doing this 30 years working with women and their, their hormones as a board certified ob, GYN. They really should have that type of experience. And then they probably should have done an entire fellowship in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine like I have. So they don't only know this little sliver about hormones. They know about how the hormones interact with every cell and every system in your body.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:15):
Alright, so back I'm off on a tangent. So the reason why I'm pretty sure you're working with a mainstream doctor is 'cause you're on estradiol, orally nono, you are on two progesterone a day. So pretty much that's the commercially available a hundred milligram ones that are mixed in peanut oil. Note a lot of peanut oil is high, highly inflammatory. And there's a high allergen rate with that allergic reaction rate with people. So it can increase the inflammation in your body. So while you think you're doing something good for your hormones, you are actually causing inflammation in other areas that are hurting you in other areas. So I do not like that commercially available progesterone, but mainstream doctors prescribe it because it's inexpensive, it's covered by insurance and they don't really understand the bigger picture of hormonal poverty and getting to a hormonal prosperity. So, you know, and some is probably better than none, right?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:11):
An oral progesterone, oral estradiol, and oral progesterone. Two of the over the counter is probably better than nothing. I'll say that. Yes, that's for sure. But it's kind of like there's bad and that's nothing. Doing nothing about your hormonal poverty. That's way bad. Don't do that. Big, big problem. You are looking for trouble. Then, you know, better is or good is use these mainstream pharma preparations better is go to a doctor who has training in bioidenticals and maybe they don't do the proper tests, but they're gonna do some type of treatment that's above that, like a transdermal cream and maybe an oral organic progesterone. But the best is do the proper tests, do the right test, breathe in the right way, and then give your body exactly what it needs. So not only estradiol, that's one of the types of estrogen, but there are three, there's estro, estradiol, and s trial.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:16):
We do not replace estro. It more often promotes breast cancer. So we replace estradiol and estriol. And estriol helps to prevent breast cancer. And most women feel their best when they have a certain amount of estriol. There is no estriol available in a commercially available big pharma preparation, whether oral or any other. It's just not available. But if you get a compounded prescription, you can get the estradiol along with the estriol compounded. It's called bi est by estrogen, bi for two estrogen, two types of estrogen, estriol and estradiol. So that's really the best gold standard of what you want, if you can. So we've talked about the estradiol, we've talked about the progesterone. So you would rather have one that's not big pharma company with peanut oil. It's also an immediate release progesterone, the big pharma one. And I find that women do much better myself and the women I work with, with a slow release preparation, which they can create in a compounded formulation at a compounding pharmacy for you so that it's not like you take consume it and then your level goes way up and peaks and then drops within a few hours.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (12:36):
I think the half-life of the commercially available progesterone is six hours. So it's pretty quickly out of your system. So the slow release, it builds up less rapidly and then it dissipates less rapidly. So it stays in your system longer. And if you're dosing once a day, six hours isn't enough. If that were an antibiotic, they would have you dosing four times a day for a six hour half-life. So you really want the slow release, which more likely has a about a 12 or more hour half-life. So that's the only other thing I would say. But again, you'll need to get that compounded and the prescription will need to be written by someone who has the expertise to know how to dose that. And is it appropriate for you and the drawbacks. All right. What other things did you bring up here? I, I'm wondering about trying gels or spray that I've read a bit about in case the oral isn't as helpful, protective spray.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:34):
I don't believe that there is a pharmacologic spray or gel for progesterone or estrogen or testosterone for women that is commercially readily available unless it's an over the counter preparation. That means it hasn't met FDA regulatory standards for potency and purity and all the regulations that companies have to meet to prove that their drug has in it, what they say it has in it, that it's pure and that it's effective because to my knowledge, there is no commercially available or even compounding farm formulary gel or spray. You will find it compounding pharmacies trophies, which look like little, remember the gum chiclets and it's a little wax chit and you stick it inside between your gum and the side of your mouth and it, it melts and dissolves. So that's one way you can dose them. And there are sublingual drops that you can put under your tongue.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:40):
And there are injectables. I don't ever recommend those. They used to be extremely popular back when I was a resident and came out of my residency and some of the older docs used to give their women this. But so these sex hormones, just briefly on this tangent, 'cause some of you might find this interesting, they are steroid hormones and they do stimulate the endogenous opiate system in your body. The opiates are like opium, right? We have natural receptors for that, and it makes us feel good. It makes us feel euphoric and it can make us addicted to something. So because testosterone and estrogen can stimulate these endogenous opiates, opiates you have in your own body, you can become addicted to them. And because the intramuscular injections are so direct and the peak, the levels go up so quickly, they stimulate your endogenous opiates so quickly that people typically get addicted and they need more and more of the hormone more frequently.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (15:44):
And they're coming in, they're supposed to get a shot every month and then they're coming in every two weeks and then every two weeks. And I want more. And can you raise my dose? And I once saw a woman early in my career who came in and she had this really low voice because she was on this huge dose of testosterone. Her estrogen was also way high because she had become addicted to them. So I don't like the injections and I forgot to mention the pellets. Those are also very valid ways of dosing these hormones. However, I am not a fan of, there's a certain branded type of pellets that the doctors are trained to follow blood levels and not do the proper urinary metabolite testing like the Dutch test that I recommend. And most all the colleagues that I respect use that test test too.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (16:29):
And they use blood tests and it's very inaccurate. And they also don't give progesterone because they'll tell women, oh, you don't have a uterus. You've had a hysterectomy. You don't need progesterone. No, yeah, you do. For instance, your breasts, they need not only estrogen, but your progesterone to balance it out. And when you don't have that balance and you only have the estrogen that's causing unbridled growth, which is going to increase your risk for breast cancer. All right. Great question. Maik, thank you so much for this. It's giving us a chance to dive in a little more deeply to these different dosing alternatives. We've talked about methods of testing, we've talked about a whole bunch. So thank you for this very fruitful question. Hopefully you all learn something that can help you on your journey from hormonal poverty to hormonal prosperity. Thanks so much for joining me. I welcome your questions. Until next time, peace, love, and hormones. Y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (17:40):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Is your favorite glass of wine doing more to your body than you think? It’s time to find out.
This week on the Hormone Prosperity Podcast, Dr. Kyrin dives into an often-overlooked yet essential topic for midlife women — the connection between wine consumption and hormonal health. Sparked by a brilliant question from Alicia, a 51-year-old listener navigating hormone replacement therapy (HRT), this episode unpacks the complex relationship between alcohol, gastrointestinal health, and hormonal balance.
Grab your favorite cup of tea (or rethink that Chardonnay 🤔) and join us as we explore how that glass of wine might be silently impacting your hormones.
Here’s what’s brewing in this episode:* Alicia’s Story
What caused post-wine symptoms like diarrhea? Is it the wine, hormones, or something more? Dr. Kyrin uses Alicia's experience to address a question many of us have wondered about but were too unsure to ask.
- Hormonal Poverty and Prosperity
Why just focusing on estrogen and progesterone isn’t enough. Dr. Kyrin explains how hormonal balance is influenced by insulin, thyroid, cortisol, and even your digestive health.
- The Hidden Power of Your Gut
Did you know that your gastrointestinal health is the foundation of your hormone health? Learn how functional stool testing differs from the traditional approaches and why it’s key to unlocking hormonal prosperity.
- The Wine Dilemma
Does wine disrupt hormonal harmony? Discover how alcohol impacts your body’s ability to properly detoxify and balance your sex hormones.
- Practical Next Steps
Dr. Kyrin shares actionable advice on proper hormone testing, the importance of addressing your gut health, and how hormonal prosperity can help you regain control over your midlife well-being.
This episode is for YOU if… You’re over 40 and navigating hormone imbalances. * You enjoy a glass (or two) of wine but wonder if it’s doing more harm than good. * You’re tired of “cookie-cutter” approaches to menopause and want a comprehensive plan tailored to your body. * You’re ready to move from hormonal poverty to hormonal prosperity*.
🎧 Tune in now to discover how your gut, your hormones, and that beloved glass of wine are interconnected. Don’t miss this eye-opening and empowering conversation with Dr. Kyrin, designed to help you take charge of your health!
Your Call to Action
- Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
- Join the Hormone Bliss Challenge
Want step-by-step guidance from Dr. Kyrin? The Hormone Bliss Challenge will walk you through actionable steps to rebalance your body, reclaim your sleep, and say hello to vitality.
👉 CLICK HERE to join today.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
It's Dr. Kyrin. And in this episode we're going to answer a question by Alicia who is wondering if wine is messing with her hormones. And I love this question because it can apply if you're not doing anything to try to address your hormonal poverty. Wine can mess with your hormones. We're gonna talk about why, and it can apply if you are doing something to manage your hormonal poverty and get to hormonal prosperity. So we're gonna talk about both of these and it definitely applies to you because a large majority of people in western nations actually consume alcohol. So it's an important question for us women over 40 to ask, is wine messing with our hormones?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:03):
She takes magnesium malate at night and she takes two progesterone at night. Last night she had two glasses of wine this morning she had diarrhea. Could this be caused by the wine? Is it common? Please help. I love this question. So let's talk first about somebody who's already addressing some of their hormonal poverty, poverty issues. So Alessia, if you're watching, you are addressing some, I heard you me mention estradiol and I heard you mention progesterone. So yay you. And there are other issues that go into creating hormonal poverty that you might not know about that could predispose you to having diarrhea when you consume wine and be contributing to your hormonal poverty. Because if you're only looking at two hormones, estrogen and progesterone, you're missing the point of hormonal poverty, which is not only about estrogen and progesterone. Mainstream medicine would have you believe that it's pretty much only about estrogen.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:58):
And a few select doctors who are in the know will know that progesterone is a part of that too. But the large majority of them won't know that insulin, thyroid, cortisol, DHEA, are involved with creating hormonal poverty and that these hormones like cortisol, are directly informed by other parts of your health, namely your gastrointestinal health. Yep, I said it. Most of you don't think that your GI tract has anything to do with your hormones. And what I wanna tell you is that your GI tract is the center of your body, literally and figuratively is the center of your hormonal health. It is the main pillar of health for women's hormones. So when you're talking about diarrhea, that's a gastrointestinal problem. What does it have to do with hormones? Well, part of what you need to have done as a proper evaluation for hormonal poverty is a functional gastrointestinal evaluation. That's not a regular
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:59):
Stool test that looks for specific parasites and bacteria and viruses that can infect humans that mainstream medicine would recognize and treat with antibiotic or an antiviral or an anti parasitic medication. But this includes a functional evaluation of your gastrointestinal tract. How much inflammation do you have going on in there? Or is your body overgrown with abnormal bacteria and undergrown with healthy bacteria? You might know as probiotics. Do you have enough prebiotics? How are your digestive enzymes doing? How are your bile acids doing? How is your body digesting food processing it? Is it not processing fats properly? Proteins, carbohydrates? It's really a functional evaluation. Mainstream medicine is very focused on anatomic problems in the gastrointestinal system. So if you have a functional problem like irritable bowel syndrome or IBS is the most common one I used to have that, then they're just gonna go based on symptoms.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:09):
They're not really going to do any other diagnostic tests 'cause they don't know about functional stool testing or food sensitivity testing. They're gonna skip over it. Then they're gonna go looking for an anatomic problem by doing a endoscopy or imaging study of the upper or lower gastrointestinal tract. Maybe you've had that. I had that and they put a scope down when I weighed 243 pounds and looked at my stomach and, oh, you have gastritis. Well, that's all they found. And they put me on high powered proton pump inhibitors. Maybe you're there too. Well that stops you from digesting your food. So it actually causes more problems downstream. But that's a whole other topic. So back to the functional stool testing. They might in mainstream medicine, scope you from the bottom. They did that to me looking for Crohn's, ulcerative colitis. They might do a biopsy and they might look for celiac disease a genetic sensitivity to gluten.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:07):
But if you don't have any of these anatomic problems, they might look for gallstones, right? Or fatty liver. They're pretty much gonna say, Hmm, well you have irritable bowel and they're gonna give you a medication that calms down the muscle of gastrointestinal tract. And when your bowel is less spastic, they're gonna claim victory. But what you need to know is that there are problems happening at a sub anatomic level, at a functional level that can predispose you to hormonal poverty, to immune system dysfunction, and to getting diarrhea whether or not you are taking hormones. So Alicia, I like this question because it's interesting that you, it sounds like you believe that you, your progesterone and estrogen have something to do with the diarrhea.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:57):
And what I'm here to tell you is it doesn't, okay? You have a gastrointestinal problem that is functional, right? That's pretty much most often what causes diarrhea less often. It's an anatomic problem like Crohn's or ulcerative colitis or diverticulitis. And the wine is a toxicant. It is a solvent that is a poison. If you drink enough, it will kill you and it doesn't actually take that much to kill a human being. So it's a poison. We just don't drink enough of it usually to kill us. We just drink little bits and then we wonder why we have a problem, which is kind of a conundrum, but it kills cells in the gastrointestinal lining. It clogs up your liver from processing these hormones. So here's where there can be an interaction between alcohol and estrogen, progesterone and other sex hormones is that your liver is the main processing plant or sanitation department for these sex hormones.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:02):
Meaning it has the job of packaging them up and getting rid of them through the stool. So alcohol actually is also metabolized by some of the same enzymes in the liver. So if your liver is busy detoxifying alcohol that you've drunk, and that's from wine, beer, hard alcohol, vodka, tequila, it doesn't matter what type of alcohol, it's all processed through the same system in the liver. If your liver is busy processing it, and you better believe that it prioritizes that because it recognizes it as a toxicant and says, oh my gosh, we've gotta get this out of here. It is not going to properly detoxify your sex hormones. So you drink a glass of wine at night and you think, oh, I'm good. Some people take it 'cause it helps them sleep, it's gonna help me sleep. And that's not usually the case. It actually disrupts your healthy restorative sleep.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:58):
But nonetheless, most people who do that think that they're sleeping well. So they're good. Then you wake up and you have diarrhea. And so yes, here is where the alcohol can be interfering with your estrogen and progesterone. So your body has been busy detoxifying the alcohol all night, not worrying about your hormones. So your hormonal prosperity and balance that you might have achieved before starts dropping and you go into a temporary state of hormonal poverty. So yes, it could be the alcohol, but most people don't get diarrhea when they drink alcohol, which tells me that you probably have a functional stool problem contributing to your hormonal poverty that's informing other hormones that you probably haven't looked at, like your cortisol, which needs a salivary test, checking it four times in a day, your insulin,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:55):
Your thyroid, most likely you'll have a cortisol problem. And that directly relates to your gastrointestinal problem. And that's a whole other video and a whole other topic. If you wanna hear about that, please let me know 'cause I'm happy to do a video about it. But your cortisol stress hormone and your gastrointestinal system hormone intimately involved with your sex hormones. So if you're not using any sex hormone replacement therapy, what are you waiting for is my question. Get your hormones properly checked, and if you are deficient and you're not able to make enough of your sex hormones, replace them after a certain age. Once we go through menopause, we lose the ability to make the majority of our estrogen, progesterone and testosterone. We lose the ability to make enough to keep us in hormonal prosperity, to keep us out of heart disease, heart attacks, osteoporosis, bone fractures, dementia, immune system dysfunction, autoimmune disease cancers.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:55):
We lose all of that. So
if you're not taking care of that, go do that. But do not neglect all the other things, factors in your body that go into either keeping you in hormonal prosperity or putting you in hormonal PO poverty like your gastrointestinal health. Because this is where I see a lot of women and I say, yay you if you're dealing with your estrogen, your progesterone, and or your testosterone, yay. And there's more work to do. I see women like this all the time complaining that something about their health isn't right. Usually it's more than one thing. Those 60 plus symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem, and they keep scratching their head, I'm I on the right dosing route? Should I be using a pill or a shot or a transdermal cream or a patch, or sh should I go to trophies or should I use pellets?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:49):
And they're thinking that the dosing is wrong or that the way they're dosing is wrong. And what I'm saying is you're look un looking under the wrong street light. You need to move into the dark corners where there's no street light shining where people aren't telling you to look that I'm telling you to look because I know to tell you to look professionally, personally is you need to look at these other factors that go into informing your health. And key for what you described, Alicia, is your gastrointestinal health. There's something going on there. Your regular doctor isn't gonna know how to evaluate this. They're just gonna do tests looking for anatomic problems, or take your symptoms and give you a drug. That's all they're gonna do. And I know I've been treated that way. It didn't fix my problem. You need functional testing and food sensitivity testing, and I teach you more about this in my hormone blist challenge. If you're not sure if you're in hormonal poverty or I could be talking about you and you're wondering, how would I know, go ahead and take my quiz. We'll have the link
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:53):
In the show notes and you can take, the quiz takes less than two minutes and that will give you a good idea. But ultimately there are specific tests and if you want to have dialogue with me about this personally, come join my challenge that will be launching in February for the Hormone Bliss Challenge to help you learn the exact steps that I've taken and that I have helped thousands of women take to get out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity so that you can get off the couch into your genes and back into life. Thanks so much for joining me. I so welcome and enjoy answering your questions. Thank you for them. And until next time, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Have you been told your depression is random? That it just came out of nowhere?
Maybe your doctor prescribed synthetic hormones to manage your heavy periods or irregular cycles, and now… things just feel off. You're questioning, “What’s wrong with me?” even though your life looks great on paper.
This week on the Hormone Prosperity Podcast, Dr. Kyrin dives into why depression, anxiety, weight gain, and other midlife struggles often aren’t the isolated issues they seem to be—and why a simplistic approach to “hormone problems” might be actually making things worse.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:* It’s Not Just About Sex Hormones
While estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone are critical to your physical and emotional wellbeing, they’re just one piece of a much bigger hormonal puzzle. Insulin, thyroid, cortisol, DHEA, and even oxytocin all play a role in your mood, energy, and vitality.
- Why Synthetic Hormones Fall Short
Mainstream solutions like progestin IUDs and birth control pills don’t address the root causes of hormonal poverty—in fact, they can suppress your body’s natural systems and create more problems like depression, low libido, or fatigue.
- Symptoms Are Signposts, Not Problems
Just like water on your bathroom floor isn’t the problem—it’s a sign of a leak—heavy periods or mood swings are symptoms, not root issues. Treating symptoms alone won’t bring you the health and joy you deserve.
- The Path to Hormonal Prosperity
With proper testing, a holistic approach, and the right guidance, you can uncover the deeper issues behind hormonal imbalances and take action to reclaim the vibrant, joy-filled life you’re meant to have.
Your Call to Action
- Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
- Join the Hormone Bliss Challenge
Want step-by-step guidance from Dr. Kyrin? The Hormone Bliss Challenge will walk you through actionable steps to rebalance your body, reclaim your sleep, and say hello to vitality.
👉 CLICK HERE to join today.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
It's a sex hormone problem, but it is not just a sex hormone problem. And that's what I wanna educate you about so that you're not looking in the wrong place for the answers that you're never gonna find. Greetings friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag wwp d, join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:07):
Great question from Christine about use of the progestin IUD to control menstrual symptoms and it causing depression. Maybe you've had that problem. Maybe you can relate. When I practiced mainstream gynecology, progestin containing IUDs like the marina, were standard of care to use to help control women's abnormal bleeding with their menses, particularly in the perimenopausal period. So right before you go through menopause, one of the main symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem caused by hormonal poverty is irregular, prolonged pain, painful bleeding. And standard of care for that in mainstream medicine is some type of hormonal suppression using synthetic artificial hormones like the birth control pill or the maneuvering or implants or progestin containing IUD. So I used to use those as part of my mainstream practice routinely, but depression was often the side effect. And maybe you are on some type of hormonal suppression in the perimenopausal period, not realizing you are in hormonal poverty and you are experiencing depression too.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:26):
So I wanna talk to you about what exactly is happening that's causing the depression. No, you didn't all of a sudden get a mood disorder out of nowhere. Most of these women will tell me, I don't have any reason to be depressed. My life is actually pretty good. I have everything that I want and need. I have great relationships, I love my job, but I just feel depressed for no reason. I can't tell you how many times I have heard that complaint when I practice mainstream medicine. And so what is happening here is that these artificial synthetic hormones, whatever form they come in, are used to shut down the brain's signaling to the ovaries to make their naturally occurring hormones, right? Estrogen, progesterone, testosterone that keep you healthy, your neurotransmitters balanced, keep you happy, no anxiety, no depression, and feeling good and joyful in your life.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:27):
So if this is shut down, sure it stops your uterus, ovaries from functioning and your uterus. So the outward sign of that function, the bleeding goes away. And most women will become what we call amenorrheic, meaning no periods when they are suppressed with these medications that are given in a certain way, like continuous birth control pills or the implants or the ring or the progestin containing IUD. So your doctor suppresses your uterus from bleeding and then claims victory. Oh, you're not bleeding, symptom is gone and you actually claim victory too. You think it's great, but then, oh, what's wrong with me? I'm depressed. Well, I actually, when I practice, mainstream medicine would draw women's hormone levels just to see where they were. And a lot of these women that were experiencing depression using these hormonal methods were in the menopausal level. So I would sometimes have 20 and 30-year-old women with menopausal women's hormone levels and that what was causing was what was causing their depression.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:38):
So in perimenopause, if that's you that can be contributing to your depression and way better with a functional energetic approach, is to do the proper testing and look at what are your specific levels of your three types of estrogen, estro, estradiol, estriol, your naturally occurring progesterone, which is not in those medications and your testosterone because that's equally important for women, especially for their neurotransmitter function, for their dopamine, the get up and go drive initiative in life. Neurotransmitter is often primarily regulated by your testosterone levels. So super important for women too. Well, these synthetic hormones are suppressing all of that. You're going to get depressed. I'd say it's the rule rather than the exception. So if you do the proper test and you look at your specific levels of those sex hormones, that's one piece of the puzzle. But like I teach women in my hormone bliss challenge, it's not just about sex hormones.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:46):
We doctors teach women to hyperfocus on, oh, it's sex sex hormones. It's a sex hormone problem. But it is not just a sex hormone problem. And that's what I wanna educate you about so that you're not looking in the wrong place for the answers that you're never gonna find your whole life. Because that's actually what I see is most women never truly find the answers, never experience the health and life joy and vitality that's possible for them because they don't have the proper information. And it is my mission in life to make sure that you have the proper information. There are so many other hormones in your body. So namely, you probably have heard of insulin, thyroid, cortisol, DHEA, there's oxytocin, there are growth hormone. There's so many other hormones that go into making you hormonally prosperous or hormonally impoverished and causing depression, anxiety, or not causing joy and vitality.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:53):
So you need way more tests than just your sex hormones tested. And if you don't wanna have the side effects, like depression would just be one of them. Other side effects women will get when they have their menses suppressed with these synthetic hormones is no libido, difficulty to orgasm. These are some very common ones. Anxiety is another one. People will gain weight. That's huge. Brain fog fatigue. So 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem caused by hormonal poverty might not be your naturally occurring hormonal poverty. It might be due to the treatment that you're getting from your mainstream doctor. So I love this question because it really highlights that if you go after symptom management for your symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem using mainstream medicine and synthetic hormones, you actually might be causing more problems for yourself. Sure, your periods have stopped, but if you're experiencing depression, anxiety, weight gain, fatigue, then that's a problem for you living your life.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:07):
And also it's increasing your risk for other diseases. Seven out of 10 of the main causes of death are increased by being in hormonal poverty. So don't fall for the mainstream lie that just because you got rid of the symptom, you've created health, you have not created health or vitality, all you've done is gotten rid of the symptom. So I want you to stop looking at symptoms as if they are the problem themselves and start looking at symptoms as if they are the signpost pointing to the problem. You know, if you're a tourist and you go to a city, a lot of the cities, they'll have these signposts with all these different arrows attached to them saying how far you know catman do how far Kenya, how far? You know Lucerne is from there, right? This many kilometers. So is that sign pointing to that place actually that place?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:11):
No. It's a signifier pointing to the place and telling you how to get there. It's the same with the symptoms in your body. The symptoms are not the problem themselves. So you need to stop claiming victory when the symptom goes away because you took a drug or did a surgery. And you need to start looking at the symptoms as the signifiers pointing to the problem and learn how to read the symptoms by doing the right tests so you can address the underlying root cause that is the problem. Thank you so much for this question, Christine. I'm gonna give you another example of that because it really highlights this. So if you come home from work one day and there's water on the bathroom floor, what do you do? You clean it up, right? Okay, well you come home the next day, there's water on the bathroom floor.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:01):
What do you do? You clean it up after how many days coming home and there's water on the bathroom floor, do you do something different? Usually after 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 days, somebody's gonna say, what are you gonna do? You're gonna look for the cause of the water on the bathroom floor. You're gonna see did the toilet get clogged up and overflow? Did someone run a bath and didn't pay attention and it overflowed? Is the sink leaking? Did someone leave the window open? It rained and it came in. Did the dog come in and pee? Is the roof leaking? You're going to look for the cause of the leak water on the bathroom floor because is the water on the bathroom floor the problem? No, it's a symptom of the problem. Correct? Correct. So it's the same with your crazy crime scene periods that are irregular, prolonged heavy clotty, you know that you can get at any age, but especially after 40, when we start, most women start to go to into hormonal poverty. That is not the problem. It is a symptom of the problem. So stop treating symptoms. Your mainstream doctor's only gonna treat the symptoms. Start reading them like the tea leaves that they are pointing to the problem and start addressing the underlying root cause. I teach you all about how to do this in my Hormone Blist challenge, and if that can be a benefit to you, please, please join me. I welcome having you. Thanks so much for the question. I'll see you in the next video. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:59):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Have you noticed your hair thinning, becoming brittle, or seemingly refusing to grow? You're not alone, and it's not just about your hair. This week on The Hormone Prosperity Podcast, Dr. Kyrin shatters the myth that hair issues are purely cosmetic and dives deep into the systemic imbalances that could be wreaking havoc on midlife women’s health.
Abby shared her story this week—her hair has become so thin that even her hairdresser hesitates to cut it. Despite trying hair vitamins, special shampoos, and unique pillowcases, she’s still frustrated and seeking answers. Sound familiar? If so, this episode is for you.
Beyond the HairbrushDr. Kyrin reveals a profound truth many doctors overlook—struggles with hair are often the symptom of something much bigger. It's not just your hair. Every cell and every system in your body could be waving a red flag that points to "hormonal poverty," a condition that affects your vitality, confidence, and long-term health.
Hair is the canary in the coal mine, signaling global systemic dysfunction. While mainstream doctors might treat hair loss as a minor inconvenience, Dr. Kyrin shows why it's crucial to dig deeper and uncover the root cause—what she calls the "root and soil" problem.
Signs You’re Experiencing More Than Just a ‘Hair Problem’Dr. Kyrin explains that hair loss often goes hand-in-hand with other seemingly unrelated issues, which she terms "midlife metabolic mayhem," including:
- Poor sleep quality
- Fatigue, even after rest
- Brain fog or difficulty concentrating
- Weight gain
- Gastrointestinal discomfort
She encourages listeners to assess the entire picture of their health instead of hyper-focusing on individual symptoms.
What Your Doctor Might Be MissingTraditional medicine tends to treat symptoms rather than searching for underlying causes. Many doctors aren't trained to connect issues like hair loss with deeper hormonal imbalances. But Dr. Kyrin flips the script, guiding you on how to look beyond the surface for answers.
She uses the analogy of a tree—your hair might be the wilting leaves, but the problem lies in the roots and the soil. By tackling the foundational health issues, you don’t just fix your hair; you heal from the inside out.
Your Call to Action
- Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
- Join the Hormone Bliss Challenge
Want step-by-step guidance from Dr. Kyrin? The Hormone Bliss Challenge will walk you through actionable steps to rebalance your body, reclaim your sleep, and say hello to vitality.
👉 CLICK HERE to join today.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
When you have a skin hair nail problem, it is indicative of global systemic dysfunction coming from serious root and soil problems that need to be identified. 'cause It's not only your hair that's being affected, I promise you it's every cell in every system in your body. Greetings friend, welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag ww HPD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your gene and back into life, because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:12):
In this video, we're gonna answer Abby's question, which is a wonderful question that I get. So often. She's saying that her hair stopped growing when she went into menopause and she's really struggling. So much so that her hairdresser, the last time she went for her hair, told her she was uncomfortable cutting Abby's hair because it had become so thin and sparse and wasn't growing that she wasn't willing to do it. And she's extremely frustrated. She says she takes hair vitamins, she sleeps on a special pillow case. She uses very special shampoo and conditioner, and she takes extra special care of her curly hair. Where are my curly hair girls? Because curly hair is a little bit more fragile, it becomes knotted and tangled. But even if you have straight hair, if you have fine hair, even if you have traditionally thick hair, it can get thinner and sparser and stop growing as you go into perimenopause and menopause.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:16):
So I love this question. Thank you Abby. We're gonna tackle this. So lack of hair growth, hair loss, sparse hair, this is a huge problem. That is one of the symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem that you might have experienced or maybe someone you know and love is experiencing. And as Abby pointed out, she talked to her doctor about this, maybe you have too. And her doctor basically just scratches their head and doesn't have any answers for her. That used to be me when I practiced mainstream medicine as well, because we are not really taught about hair and, and as a gynecologist or a GP or internal medicine practitioner, that's not really our main concerns. It's considered more cosmetic. And so it's not something that's focused on. But as a woman myself, I know how important your hair is to your sense of wellbeing and how good you feel in your skin, your quality of life, how you present yourself and your confidence, right?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:21):
We all know that for women and men and, and also that it is very important. So let's dive into this. What is your doctor missing? So what your doctor is missing. So first I would say to you, Abby, that probably hair loss or hair sparsity, lack of hair growth is not your only problem. So I like to say when I help women identify what's causing their hormonal poverty at any age is you've got to get honest with yourself. And this is actually the first chapter in my book. You gotta get honest because it's never one health problem. And the reason why it's important to identify all the symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem that you're having is because if you don't identify all the symptoms, you won't come to the right conclusion about the cause of those symptoms. We talked in another video about how the symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem are actually the signposts pointing to the problem.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:27):
They are not the problem themselves. So you've got one symptom signpost pointing hair loss to certain types of hormonal poverty. But what are your other signposts telling you? Probably, I would bet, you know, I say that symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem like ants at a picnic, there's never one, right? You're at a picnic. There's never just one ant at the picnic. You see one, you know, there are hundreds more somewhere, right? That's just how ants at a picnic are, and that's how symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem are. But I find that most women get so hyper-focused on the one problem that's causing them the most distressed at the moment, and they become myopic and don't see or talk to their doctor about the others. Now, there may not be any point in talking to your mainstream doctor about the other symptoms because they don't have the lens that, that I've been taught to look at these problems and to look down into the soil for the root cause that's causing all the leaves and branches of the tree or different ones, right?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:36):
So one of your leaf and branch problems is you have a hair problem. What are on your other leaf and branch problems, right? Do you have difficulty sleeping? Are you sleeping all night but you're waking up and you're not rested or you want a nap in the afternoon or you're needing coffee, caffeine in the morning, you've become caffeine dependent. Or maybe on another branch you've got gastrointestinal problems that you don't even think are related to your hormones, but they are secret, they are. So maybe you're going to the gastroenterologist because you have irritable bowel and you don't know if you're gonna poop seven times in one day or not for seven days, right? So these are all your leaf and branch problems, but what I help you do is go down the chunk of the tree into the roots and the soil. These are all the causes of all your leaf and branch problems, right?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:27):
Because if a tree has a problem, the symptoms are gonna be in the leaves and branches, but the cause is going to be in the roots and the soil. So you, your mainstream doctor probably isn't gonna see it that way because that's not how they're taught. They're taught what is the symptom? What's the diagnosis? What drug do I need to give? What surgery do I need to do? It's kind of like a reflex. Like when the doctor hits your knee with the reflex hammer, your foot kicks out. So you tell your doctor the symptoms and then they treat the symptoms, but they don't have a drug for your hair symptom, right? So that's why they kind of scratch their head and go, maybe your doctor has kind of looked that way at you. But what I wanna tell you is if you have symptoms, there is always a reason why.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:14):
Do not take no for an answer and just keep digging until you find the doctor who can help you, who knows how to go down into the soil and the roots and fix it. So you've got to Abby, identify and everybody else. What are all the other symptoms you have? Maybe you've got a fatigue problem, a sleep problem, a weight problem. These are some of the most common a brain fog problem, which we talked about in another video. Gastrointestinal problem, which we'll be talking about in another video. Maybe you've got a neurologic problem. Maybe you have an arthritis problem, joint problem, musculoskeletal problem. Every system, every cell in your body contributes to the whole, and I like to say skin, hair and nails are like the canary in the coal mine. So what do I mean by that? When you have a skin hair nail problem, it is indicative of global systemic dysfunction coming from serious root and soil problems that need to be identified.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:19):
'Cause It's not only your hair that's being affected, I promise you it's every cell in every system in your body is affected by hormonal poverty, which increases your risk for seven out of the top 10 causes of death, right? And you don't know this and your mainstream doctor isn't possibly aware of this or telling you this. So you, you know, gone are the days when you can just abdicate control of your health to your doctor and say, oh, they poked and prodded me, drew some blood, and they told me I'm fine. Right? If that's all you're getting, what you're missing is huge, right? You're only looking at the top of the iceberg that's sticking out of the water and saying, you're fine. But what sunk the Titanic was what was underneath the massive iceberg, right? And it's the same with your health. It's all the things you are not looking at, you are not aware of.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:13):
So it's, that's why I'm doing this, is to teach you and educate you about all the things you are not aware of. So Abby and everyone else with these hair problems, look at all the symptoms, get honest, and I help you with an inventory and my hormone list challenge to really start reading the tea leaves and understanding what are all my hormone poverty symptoms. You can start with the hormone poverty quiz. That will give you a good idea because even everyone you tick on there says, Hmm, she could be in hormonal poverty, which is very serious. And I don't, I want you to stop, I gotta shake you awake to stop thinking, oh, it's just my hormones. It's not a big deal. Stop as a woman, your hormones form the foundation of your health and vitality. If your hormones aren't right, nothing else will be right.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:10):
And I know doctors have not taught you this. They act like hormones are some little accessory pack that just gives you the capacity to reproduce children. And what I want you to know is that that is a lie. Your hormones as a woman form the very foundation of your entire health system, how it communicates and how it functions. So if your hormones aren't right, your health will never be right. So it's imperative upon you to identify why you're in hormonal poverty and get to hormonal prosperity because everything that you want happens inside hormonal prosperity, right? And so, hashtag ww PD, what would hormonal prosperity do? So you can start thinking about Abby and everybody else with these health problems. When you get your hair straight, when you get your sleep weight, all these symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem straight, how are you gonna spend all the energy and vitality that you have with hormonal from the hormonal prosperity that you create?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:16):
Thank you so much for this question, Abby. Hopefully this has helped, gave you some insight into what goes into making healthy hair that there is always a cause. If you're not getting the answers that you want from your mainstream doctor, you're not alone. It is not your fault. You just need to stop going to the hardware store for milk. They don't have milk at the hardware store. They mainstream doctor doesn't have answers to these symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. And I hope you'll consider taking the quiz if that would be of service for you. Or join me for the Hormone Bliss Challenge so you can learn more about how to identify why you're in hormonal poverty and get out of it and get into hormonal pupi. Thanks so much for the question, Abby and I will see you in the next video. Until then, peace, love, and hormones. Y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (12:20):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Welcome to The Hormone Prosperity Podcast with Dr. Kyrin Dunston, your guide to moving from hormonal poverty to hormonal prosperity. This episode dives into the often-overlooked struggles of midlife women navigating the turbulent waters of hormonal imbalances and metabolic mayhem—and the surprising connection between sarcasm and hopelessness.
Dr. Kyrin starts by unpacking sarcasm’s deeper meaning (did you know the word literally means “to tear the flesh”?). Sarcasm can be a subtle weapon women use against themselves when they feel powerless or unheard, especially when dealing with frustrating symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, weight gain, and mood swings. Using this as a lens, Dr. Kyrin addresses a real question from a listener, Jenny, who sarcastically lists her midlife symptoms and wonders whether estrogen cream will fix them. Dr. Kyrin’s answer? No—and here’s why.
This episode challenges the reductionist “symptom-fixed-by-one-thing” approach to health. Dr. Kyrin explains why a holistic, multifactorial approach to hormonal health is the ultimate key to achieving vitality, balance, and freedom. She also shares her personal transformation from morbid obesity and chronic fatigue to thriving hormonal prosperity, offering so much hope for women who feel stuck, broken, or frustrated with conventional medicine.
If you’ve been accepting hormonal poverty as your fate, this episode will inspire you to reclaim your birthright to hormonal prosperity. Stop asking, “What’s wrong with me?” and start asking, “What would hormonal prosperity do?” (WWHPD). Tune in now for actionable tips, candid insights, and an invitation to design the thriving health story you deserve.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- How sarcasm can reveal deeper feelings of hopelessness about your health—and why it’s time to shift to self-compassion.
- The all-too-common symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem, from fatigue and brain fog to weight issues.
- Why estrogen cream (or any single-solution approach) won’t fix your health woes—and what you really need to do instead.
- The truth about hormonal poverty versus hormonal prosperity—and why mainstream medicine is failing midlife women.
- How to recondition your perspective and uncover the roots of your symptoms for sustainable healing.
- Why you deserve so much more than symptom management—and how to start your transformation today by understanding your holistic health.
Join the Conversation
Have sarcasm and self-deprecation crept into your health story? Were you surprised to learn how they might signal hopelessness? Share your reflections and stories with Dr. Kyrin and the Hormone Prosperity community. Your voice matters, and we’d love to hear your thoughts!
Your Call to Action
- Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds!
👉 CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
- Join the Hormone Bliss Challenge
Want step-by-step guidance from Dr. Kyrin? The Hormone Bliss Challenge will walk you through actionable steps to rebalance your body, reclaim your sleep, and say hello to vitality.
👉 CLICK HERE to join today.
Help Other Women Get Their Bliss Back
Enjoyed this episode? Please share it with a friend who’s also struggling with hormonal imbalance or midlife metabolic mayhem. Together, we can help more women reclaim their vitality and health. Don’t forget to leave us a review or rating—your support helps build this empowering community!
Quotes to Inspire You
- “Sarcasm is one of the most hostile forms of violence—it’s using words to cut someone. And when you turn it on yourself, it’s a sign that you’ve lost hope.”
- “Mainstream medicine thrives on the reductionist model—but your body doesn’t work like that. It’s time to reject quick fixes and focus on multifactorial solutions for true healing.”
- “You have a birthright. Hormonal prosperity is waiting for you. It's time to reclaim it.”
Tune into this empowering episode and begin the new chapter in your midlife health story today!
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
Also sarcasm means to tear the flesh. And it's actually one of the most hostile forms of violence that can be rendered without a physical weapon on someone. It's using words to cut someone.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:15):
Greetings, friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag wwhp d, join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life, because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:06):
We're going to talk about many of the myriad symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem that a viewer named Jenny wrote in about and in a somewhat sarcastic tone. So I wanna talk about that too. If you started to be sarcastic and make fun about your symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem caused by hormonal poverty because you feel so helpless that you don't have any other ability to cope with it, rather than make fun of yourself, that's one thing I wanna address because you're not alone. And the other is she's in perimenopause and she's asking if an estrogen cream will help with her symptoms, her urinary symptoms of incontinence, her mood symptoms. She has symptoms in so many different areas, weight gain, low energy, forgetting words and actual people frequent ut eyes hemorrhoids. And after, in her question she actually said hemorrhoids, like LOL and the fun things like forgetting words and actual people.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:18):
So I can tell from your question, Jenny, and maybe this is you watching that this has been going on for a while and you're not getting the answers from your medical providers that are supporting and nurturing you and creating the health and vitality that you're seeking and you're feeling pretty hopeless. How do I know this? And this is for all of you watching because you're, you're venting sarcasm at your self. So, so sarcasm means to tear the flesh and it's actually one of the most hostile forms of violence that can be rendered without a physical weapon on someone. It's using words to cut someone. And when you turn it on yourself and you're saying you have these symptoms, not I have these symptoms, I need help, please, but you're actually saying these symptoms with LOL, the fun using it sarcastically of these symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem, then I know when you start venting that sarcasm at yourself, that you're in a pretty hopeless place.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:32):
And maybe that's you watching, you have plenty of other things that you could be doing with your free time rather than searching on YouTube or on podcasts for videos to help you answer your health questions as a woman at midlife then to be doing this right? That means you're in a pretty hopeless, desperate, confused position that you really shouldn't have to be in. And we women have come to accept that we are not going to get the answers to our biggest health concerns from our doctors. So much so that we've stopped advocating for ourselves and stopped demanding our birthright to get appropriate medical care that helps us identify hormonal poverty and get out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity. So I wanted to highlight this person's question because I know she's not alone. And I know just by the fact that you're here watching this video, that you are included in this too.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:44):
You're feeling pretty helpless. And so I wanna say, I'm glad you're here because this is where help lives. This is where hope lives. I am you
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:51):
Why? Because you're looking at your health from a symptom management perspective. It's not your fault. We doctors have taught you this. We have taught you these lies. We have taught to you to treat your health in a very reductionist fashion that is symptom drug. And then when the symptom goes away, victory symptom, drug, victory, symptom surgery, victory, we have taught you to have this mentality. And it is wrong. It's downright wrong. The truth about how your health works, you have such a beautiful complex system of health, particularly your hormones, which are the communicators in your body, which tell all your cells and systems how to function is that there is no one input for one problem and one solution. It does not work that way in nature. It doesn't work that way in your body, which is a part of nature. It does not work that way with your health.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:56):
Now, mainstream medicine has you believe that it works that way because that is the belief system and the foundation of mainstream medicine. It was made to prove that symptom drug or surgery reduction or removal of symptom victory. So we've taught you that it's not your fault, but I wanna shake you awake and say, if that's how you're treating your health, you will never experience the health and vitality and hormonal prosperity that is available to you. And I want you to experience the highest. That's why I went into OB GYN. And so when I saw that mainstream medicine wasn't serving my needs or my health or my patients, I sought other answers and found them to fix my health and get out of being morbidly obese, chronic fatigue, hair loss, no sex drive, depression, anxiety, irritable bowel gastritis, all the things I was suffering with and have helped other women to get out of that as well.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:00):
So your question really highlights your whole perspective about how you're looking at your health and you're not alone. This used to be me is perverted yes, perverted. I said it. I had a perverted view as a mainstream ob, GYN, your doctor has a perverted view. It's not their fault. We're taught this and most women have a perverted view. So in order for you to experience the hormonal prosperity that's available to you, you have to recondition your perspective and you have to have an expansion and awakening of how you understand your health that is beyond your basic functioning. That's condition that you've been taught. And that's what I do in the hormonal challenge. You have to really understand how your health works from a high level perspective. So many inputs to many outputs. And you gotta learn how to start reading the symptoms that you have.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:02):
So you listed many different symptoms from weight problems, fatigue and weight is huge, right? 50% of us by the age of 50 or overweight or obese, by the time we're 60, it's three out of four of us. Chronic fatigue. So weight and fatigue problems are number one in two symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem that women experience. And brain fog would be number three in forgetfulness. So not remembering words or people's names who, you know, we did another video about this you'll wanna check out 'cause we talk a little bit more about that. And all these symptoms are pointing to hormonal poverty. So then you've gotta go from the leaves and branches of the symptoms down the trunk of the tree into the roots in the soil, and then find out what is causing these symptoms. And it's never one thing they're anset up like anset a picnic, never one, always a hundred.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:59):
And then so your question about will an estrogen cream help this, your perspective is, your belief is, there's one thing I need to do. There's one. Cause you believe that because you're in perimenopause, that it's an estrogen deficiency because mainstream has taught you, medicine has taught you this and therefore there's one answer. It's only an estrogen problem. Perimenopause, menopause only about estrogen. That's a lie, but you believe it. And estrogen cream, that could be the one solution I use that, that could fix all these things. All that's a lie. And you'll never find the answers that you're seeking if you don't change your reductionist perspective about how your health works and get some real understanding and solutions that are multifactorial. And those of you who are ready to understand this will understand what I'm saying. Those of you who aren't will go, nevermind Dr. Kyrin.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:56):
I'm gonna go find the health coach nutritionist or other person who's gonna tell me the one thing, what's the one diet I need to follow? What's the one supplement I need to take? What's the one drug I need to use? Right? You're gonna not be ready to hear this and you're gonna go and that's fine. That's your path. Those of you who are ready to experience what's possible for you, ready to have an expansion, and most of you listening, that's probably you. 'cause You wouldn't have been come to this channel. Join me for the hormone boost challenge because I'm gonna teach you exactly how to dig down in the soil and fix the roots so all your leaves and branches get better. So I love this question and the answer is no. Estrogen is not gonna fix your weight, your fatigue, your memory problems, your frequent UTIs, your hemorrhoids, it's not right.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:56):
And even though it might give you some improvement in some aspects of that, you'll never experience the true vitality that's available to you when you experience hormonal prosperity. Just saying you deserve hormonal prosperity. So I hope you can join me for the hormonal challenge because I'll teach you all about how to get out of hormonal poverty, how to identify if you're in it, how to get out of it, and what are the things that you need to do to fix all those symptoms. And it's not a reductionist approach. So great question. Thank you so much for the question. Great topics covered. One, if you're in that hopeless, hopeless place and you're being sarcastic against yourself, it's time for drastic measures. And two, that you've gotta change your perspective, your reductionist thinking to get out of that, to understand the holistic multifactorial view of your health. And if you're struggling with that, I just don't get, what are all the inputs Dr. Kyrin, that I need to be looking at to identify my hormonal poverty and get out of it to hormonal prosperity. I'd love to teach you about how to expand your consciousness around that and your perspective. So consider joining me for the Hormone Bliss Challenge. Thanks so much for the question and for joining me for this video. I'll see you in the next video. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:33):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Have you been tossing and turning at night, watching the clock tick forward, and dreading another day of fatigue? If you’re a woman over 40, you’re not alone. Sleep disturbances are one of the 60+ symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem caused by what Dr. Kyrin calls “hormonal poverty.” But here’s the tricky part—you may not even realize you’re in it.
On this episode of the Hormone Prosperity Podcdast, your hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin, dives deep into the hidden dangers of hormonal poverty and why addressing only your sex hormones might not be enough to fix that elusive good night’s sleep.
Episode Highlights1. Beyond Sex Hormones
Did you know hormonal poverty isn’t just about estrogen and progesterone? Dr. Kyrin explains how neglected hormones like insulin, cortisol, thyroid, and even oxytocin play a vital role in achieving restorative sleep. Spoiler alert—it’s all connected!
- Sleep & Hormonal Poverty
Hear Claudia’s story—a listener who takes an estrogen patch, progesterone, and magnesium, yet still only manages five hours of sleep each night. Frustrated, she sent in a question that many of us can relate to, and Dr. Kyrin uncovers why more holistic hormonal support is often the missing piece.
- The Importance of Multifactorial Solutions
Hormonal poverty often stems from multiple systems in your body being out of sync—digestive health, toxicity levels, and even mitochondrial function can all impact your sleep. Dr. Kyrin offers practical advice to balance these areas and foster what she calls hormonal prosperity.
- Mindset Shift
Say goodbye to disempowering questions like, “What’s wrong with me?” Instead, start asking empowering ones like, “What would hormonal prosperity do?” (#WWHPD) Dr. Kyrin inspires listeners to reframe their approach to midlife health and take control.
How to Take Action Today!If this episode strikes a chord, it’s time to deepen your journey from hormonal poverty to prosperity. Here’s how to start right now:
- Take the Free Hormonal Poverty Quiz
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Find out in just 90 seconds! CLICK HERE to take the quiz and assess where you stand.
- Join the Hormone Bliss Challenge
Want step-by-step guidance from Dr. Kyrin? The Hormone Bliss Challenge will walk you through actionable steps to rebalance your body, reclaim your sleep, and say hello to vitality. CLICK HERE.
- Engage with the Podcast Community
Share your sleep struggles or success stories in the comments section—we’re all in this together.
Share the LoveLoved the episode? Help spread the message by sharing it with a friend, writing a review, or posting your thoughts on social media. There are over 100 million women suffering in silence—your review may help others discover solutions they’ve been searching for.
Final ThoughtsThis isn’t just about better sleep—it’s about reclaiming your health, vitality, and joy. Your bliss is your birthright, and a healthy body charged with hormonal prosperity is your way there. Until next time, peace, love, and hormones, y’all.
Podcast Episode Transcript
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
This is the danger zone when you don't know that you're in hormonal poverty because you are going to suffer the consequences of being in hormonal poverty even though you don't know it. Greetings friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag ww HPD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life, because bliss is your birthright and a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:04):
Great question about sleep, Claudia. How many of you are having problems sleeping over 40? Or maybe you're younger than 40? It's one of the most common problems or symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem, the 60 plus symptoms caused by hormonal poverty, and you are already on hormone, so you're addressing one part of your hormonal poverty problem. But what I would say to you, so Claudia wrote in saying that she was on a, an estrogen patch and taking high doses of progesterone orally and magnesium glycinate, but she still could only sleep for five hours. She said her hot flashes were better and other symptoms of menopause perimenopause, but that she could only get five hours of sleep. And it was driving her insane. She said, this is BS and maybe this is you too. And what I want to alert you to, if this is you, if you're having sleep problems that remain untreated because you're in hormonal poverty or you're on hormonal placement therapy, maybe taking magnesium or other sleep aids, and you're still not sleeping well, what you need to understand is that hormonal poverty is not only about sex hormones, that's number one.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:24):
So if you're on an estrogen patch, you're on an estrogen pill, you're addressing your progesterone because that's neglected by most mainstream doctors. They say you don't need it, but that's not true. It's a whole other topic. She's actually on progesterone and probably some of you can relate to that. You're using estrogen and progesterone and maybe other sleep age, and you still can't get good solid, deep restorative sleep. So hormonal poverty is not only about sex hormones and if you only address your sex hormones and not women reach out to me all the time who are getting their sex hormones addressed and still are in hormonal poverty and they don't know it, this is the danger zone when you don't know that you're in hormonal poverty because you are going to suffer the consequences of being in hormonal poverty even though you don't know it. So there are other hormones, right?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:22):
Insulin, thyroid, cortisol, DAGA, oxytocin, so many other hormones, growth hormone. There are actually hundreds of hormones, and most women at midlife and beyond are in hormonal poverty with all of their hormones. So this is why you're not experiencing deep, prolonged restorative, continuous sleep that nourishes your health, your body, your mind, your soul, your spirit. So number one, it's not only about sex hormones and what happens is like the woman who reached out you know, it sounds like she's been working with her doctor and she's just not getting the results. So you need to get out of her hormonal poverty and you need to understand all the hormones that go into that, all the factors. There could be a toxicity problem, a gastrointestinal problem contributing to that, a mitochondrial problem. So all the systems in your body fund this hormonal prosperity that allows you to sleep.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:34):
Sleep is one of the multifactorial activities of your body. It takes lots of healthy inputs into your body to give you healthy sleep, but many of them are hormonal. And so when your sleep is disrupted, that is a sign you're in hormonal poverty. Even if you're addressing the sex hormones, you've gotta address the other hormones. So if you think this could be you, I invite you to take my quiz on. Could it be hormonal poverty? It's free. You can follow the instructions below, just type quiz if it's, if there's a comment section or DM me quiz, and we'll send you a link to take the quiz. It takes probably 60, 120 seconds, and that'll give you a good idea. And if you wanna go deeper, join me for my Hormone Bliss challenge because I will take you through the exact steps that I use to get out of hormonal poverty and that I've helped thousands of other women use to also identify and get out of hormonal poverty. Hopefully this helps answer your question. It was a great question. Sleep is a huge problem for women over 40, so if this is you, invite you to join me. Thanks so much for joining me. I'll see you next time. Until then, peace, love, and hormones. Y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:04):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Have you found yourself forgetting a close friend’s name, or even fumbling to recall your own address? That unsettling brain fog isn’t just "getting older"—it could be a sign of something deeper. Welcome to this episode of The Hormone Prosperity Podcast, where I, Dr. Kyrin, your trusted Hormone Prosperity Coach, uncover the hidden culprit behind these frustrating moments of forgetfulness—hormonal poverty.
Key Highlights You Won’t Want to Miss💡 What Brain Fog REALLY Means: Forgetting words, losing focus, or constantly feeling mentally “off” aren’t just random occurrences. They’re signs of a larger issue—midlife metabolic mayhem caused by hormonal imbalance. Discover how this phenomenon plays out in perimenopause and menopause and why so many women over 40 experience it.
🌿 Hormonal Poverty Explained: What is hormonal poverty, and how does it affect not only your cognition but your overall health? I coined this term to shine a light on the under-discussed yet vital role of sex hormones, insulin, cortisol, and thyroid hormones in maintaining your mental clarity, energy, weight, and vitality.
🚨 The Untold Risk: Did you know hormonal poverty can increase the chances of developing Alzheimer's and other life-altering diseases? I even share the heart-wrenching story of my own mother, whose battle with severe Alzheimer’s was painfully linked to decades spent in hormonal poverty without treatment.
🩺 The Medical Blind Spot: Why do mainstream medical practices fail to diagnose or treat hormonal poverty? Learn the difference between “normal” lab results and optimal function—and why settling for “normal” leaves you far from thriving.
✨ Empowerment Through Action: I’ll equip you with steps to assess your hormonal health and introduce tools to actively reclaim your wellness. Take the quiz to uncover if you’re in hormonal poverty and join my 7-day Hormone Bliss Challenge to start your path to vibrant health today.
👩🔬 Your Roadmap to Hormonal Prosperity: It only takes small but specific changes to go from “barely surviving” to fully thriving. No more blaming it on age—get ready to take control of your health!
Why You’ll Love This EpisodeMidlife doesn’t need to be a period of decline—it can be a time of vitality, clarity, and joy if you give your body the hormonal support it needs. With 60+ symptoms of hormonal imbalance negatively impacting millions of women, this is a conversation that mainstream medicine just isn’t having… but YOU deserve to have.
This episode is about more than just identifying a problem—it’s about empowering you to take action, feel supported, and understand you’re not alone.
Take Control of Your Health Today✅ Step 1: Take my 2-minute quiz to determine if you could be in hormonal poverty.
✅ Step 2: Join the 7-day Hormone Bliss Challenge where I guide you through actionable steps to reclaim your energy, focus, and vitality.
👉 Take the Quiz and Start the Challenge Here
Share the Love! Know someone who could benefit from this episode? Send it their way! Together, we can help over 100 million women move from hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity.
💖 Loved this episode? Leave a review and help more midlife women discover this life-changing information.
Here’s to a life full of peace, love, and hormones—because bliss is your birthright.
Podcast Episode Transcript:
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
And maybe this has happened to you. You see a friend in the street, you've known them for years, you know, you know their name, but all of a sudden you can't think of what is her name. And you get all tense and feel embarrassed, right? If that's you, you're not alone. That is one of the 60 plus symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem and hormonal poverty. Greetings, friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag ww PD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life, because bliss is your birthright. And a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:14):
So brain fog is a great question in menopause and perimenopause, a woman wrote in saying that she was trying to pick up her prescription at the pharmacy, and the woman at the counter asked her for her address, and she was fumbling and bumbling because she couldn't even remember her own address. And maybe this has happened to you. You see a friend in the street, you've known them for years, you know, you know their name, but all of a sudden you can't think of what is her name. And you get all tense and feel embarrassed, right? If that's you, you're not alone. That is one of the 60 plus symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem and hormonal poverty that can occur after the age of 40 or even before the age of 40. And it can make your life extremely difficult to live and just complete activities of daily living, things that you do every single day.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:12):
And so what's going on here? You go to your doctor and you say, oh, I'm forgetting things, right? Maybe they run some tests to see if you have mild cognitive impairment, early cognitive impairment, and they say that, oh, you're fine. 'cause You're worried about Alzheimer's, and nobody ever says to you, oh, well maybe you have hormonal poverty because they probably don't know that term. It's actually a term that I coined to help women understand what's happening to them as they age with their health. With the 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem that can lead to disease, seven of out of 10 of the top 10 causes of death are increased by being in hormonal poverty. And this is something your doctor's not talking to you about. That's why I'm talking to you about it. And if you wanna know if this is you, you can take my quiz that I developed to help you understand.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:06):
Could you be in hormonal poverty? Your brain actually depends on not only your sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, but all of your hormones to be optimized to function normally. Some of you know that my mom has severe Alzheimer's disease and that she was the healthiest person I knew and that the only risk factor she had for getting Alzheimer's disease was that she was in hormonal poverty for three decades without treatment because her doctor didn't believe in hormone therapy. Not only that so estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, but she probably had undiagnosed insulin, cortisol, thyroid issues because her doctor didn't go by the standards that I use to diagnose disease where there's hypofunction. You might not have an actual disease that your mainstream doctor identifies, but you can have suboptimal function. And if you are not functioning optimally, this is what you need to understand.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:15):
This is going to cause you to have hormonal poverty and brain fog, forgetfulness, lack of clarity, right? So you're the one at the pharmacy, can't remember your own address, you can't remember your lifetime friend's name. And so I want to, I really see my mission in life as awakening women to this truth, because what you're getting at your mainstream doctor's office is not the truth, right? They're gonna listen to your heart, listen to your lungs, they're gonna do blood work, most of which you don't know what it is. You're just gonna say, oh, my doctor said my blood work was fine. And what you don't realize is that they're telling you you don't have a disease or disease from a mainstream medical perspective, but they are not looking for optimal function. And the difference between having a disease and having suboptimal function is night and day.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:14):
It's the difference between you living your life optimally right brain on all cylinders. Click, click, click. You can remember things, you are focused and you take action in your life and you get the outcomes that you want. Your weight is where you want your energy is where you want your sex drive, your hair, your digestion. You don't have arthritis or myalgias pain in your muscles. You don't have the 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem, right? That's optimization. But how most people, most women over 40 in the western world are living is with chronic conditions that are medicated. Now, some women will tell me, well, I don't have high blood pressure. And I'll say, well, what medications are you on? And then they'll list their medications, one of which is an anti-hypertensive medication. And I say, but I thought you said you don't have high blood pressure or hypertension.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:07):
And they'll say, oh, I don't. My medication controls it, so I don't have that problem. And what you don't understand is no, you still have hypertension and you're still subject to the consequences of hypertension just over a slower and longer period of time, right? Medications that control symptoms do not fix the symptoms and don't obviate you from having or opt you out from having the consequences of that, like increased risk of heart disease, increased risk of stroke, and all the other consequences of high blood pressure. So don't fall for mainstream medical practices of only diagnosing disease, only giving medications or doing surgery to control disease. This will never get you health optimization. It will never reduce your risk of seven out of the top 10 causes of death. It won't get you health optimization. I will leave you in midlife metabolic mayhem with the symptoms like brain frog, like the person who asks this question and not living life optimally.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:15):
So if you look at, do you have hormonal poverty, which I teach you about in my hormone bliss challenge, then you can understand what you actually need to be doing to identify, am I in hormonal poverty? You can start by taking the quiz. But then in the seven day challenge, I actually take you through the exact steps that I use to get out of hormonal poverty and that I've helped thousands of women use to get out of hormonal poverty so that you can have a higher standard of health for yourself and avoid disease in the future. Optimize how you're living now. Get rid of the 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. So thank you so much for the question. It's a great question that so many women have, and I'm so grateful that you asked it today. I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones. Y'all,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:20):
Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating, and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.
Are you thriving, or just surviving in your midlife health? If you’ve been struggling with low energy, unexplained weight gain, mood swings, or "midlife metabolic mayhem," you’re not alone—but you deserve better.
In this episode, Dr. Kyrin introduces the empowering concept of Hormonal Prosperity, a state of thriving health where your hormones supply everything your body needs for optimal function. Much like financial prosperity, hormonal prosperity provides you with "hormonal savings" to fund not just survival, but vitality, strength, and joy in your daily life.
Dr. Kyrin shares profound insights, personal stories, and holistic strategies to help women transform their health journeys and reclaim their vitality.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode:* The difference between hormonal poverty and hormonal prosperity and why it matters. * How to start asking "why" questions to uncover the root cause of your symptoms. * The crucial connection between hormones, metabolism, and weight normalization. * Why common medical approaches often fall short and how to take charge of your health. * Explore the concept of the hormonal spectrum and why it’s more helpful than traditional diagnoses. * Dr. Kyrin’s personal breakthrough and how it inspired her to transform women’s health care. * Simple steps to identify hormonal imbalance and reclaim your midlife vitality.
Hormonal prosperity is not just about fixing symptoms—it's about empowering your body to thrive. If you’re ready to leave the prescription tango behind and step into a life of energy, balance, and joy, this episode is for you.
🔗 Tune in now to discover how to move from hormonal poverty to hormonal prosperity. Remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
👉 Subscribe to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast and the Hormone Prosperity Coach YouTube channel for more inspiring content and actionable advice.
Hormone Prosperity Coach
https://www.youtube.com/c/KyrinDunstonMD
Hormone Prosperity Podcast
https://bit.ly/thehormoneprescriptionpodcast
Together, we’ll empower each other to ask the right questions and find answers that lead to lasting health and happiness. Let's stop the madness and start a movement towards hormonal prosperity! 🌟
❓HAVE A QUESTION and want my advice? You're invited to write to me at hello@kyrindunstonmd.com.
I select e-mails with a clear question around hormone poverty (such as symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, diseases caused or exacerbated by hormonal poverty, accelerated aging, early death, etc.) and achieving hormone prosperity using the two hormone prescriptions needed (one written and the other not) that are of reasonable length and detail and of interest to significant numbers of the audience. I regret I'm not able to answer all messages sent. I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the community.
What if your hormones were quietly cutting your lifespan short? Hormonal poverty impacts more than just your mood or energy levels—it's deeply linked to your overall health, longevity, and quality of life.
Join Dr. Kyrin as she takes you on an eye-opening exploration of the third consequence of hormonal poverty—a shortened lifespan. Did you know that women in hormonal poverty live 1-2 years less on average? If you’ve been trying to "balance" your hormones without looking at the full picture, this episode is a wake-up call you can't afford to miss.
Dr. Kyrin unpacks:
- Why hormonal poverty involves a domino effect across multiple hormones, not just one.
- The vital role hormones play in cellular communication, metabolism, and repair.
- How actuarial studies highlight the link between hormonal poverty and a shorter lifespan.
- The disconnect between available research and practical healthcare—you aren’t hearing this at your doctor’s office.
- Why correcting hormonal poverty can extend your life and boost your health.
✨ Empower yourself with today’s science and start asking the right questions about your health and longevity. Listen now to the full episode.
👉 Subscribe to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast and the Hormone Prosperity Coach YouTube channel for more inspiring content and actionable advice.
Hormone Prosperity Coach
https://www.youtube.com/c/KyrinDunstonMD
Hormone Prosperity Podcast
https://bit.ly/thehormoneprescriptionpodcast
Together, we’ll empower each other to ask the right questions and find answers that lead to lasting health and happiness. Let's stop the madness and start a movement towards hormonal prosperity! 🌟
❓HAVE A QUESTION and want my advice? You're invited to write to me at hello@kyrindunstonmd.com.
I select e-mails with a clear question around hormone poverty (such as symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, diseases caused or exacerbated by hormonal poverty, accelerated aging, early death, etc.) and achieving hormone prosperity using the two hormone prescriptions needed (one written and the other not) that are of reasonable length and detail and of interest to significant numbers of the audience. I regret I'm not able to answer all messages sent. I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the community.
On this eye-opening episode of The Hormone Prosperity Podcast, Dr. Kyrin dives into the second consequence of hormonal poverty: disease. If you think symptoms like irregular periods, fatigue, or mood swings are just inconvenient hassles, think again. Those “pesky” symptoms? They’re actually gifts—your body’s way of signaling that something deeper needs attention.
🎙️ Episode Highlights:
- Ever heard of “midlife metabolic mayhem”? Dr. Kyrin breaks down how those 60+ symptoms of hormonal imbalance aren’t just annoying—they’re the prelude to more serious health challenges.
- Learn why suppressing symptoms with medication won’t address the root cause. Spoiler alert—it’s like putting duct tape on a leaky pipe.
- Discover how unbalanced hormones are connected to Alzheimer’s, heart disease, breast cancer, and even macular degeneration—and how proactive care can reduce your risks.
- Dr. Kyrin introduces “flex hormones” and explains their holistic (and life-saving!) impact throughout your body, from brain health to bones.
- A touching story about a colleague highlights why ignoring symptoms is a gamble you shouldn’t take.
💡 The key takeaway? Your symptoms are not the problem—they’re the clues. Addressing hormonal poverty now means reaping the benefits of hormonal prosperity later. It’s about thriving, not just surviving.
🎧 Hit play and empower yourself with the knowledge to take action today.
👉 Subscribe to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast and the Hormone Prosperity Coach YouTube channel for more inspiring content and actionable advice.
Hormone Prosperity Coach
https://www.youtube.com/c/KyrinDunstonMD
Hormone Prosperity Podcast
https://bit.ly/thehormoneprescriptionpodcast
Together, we’ll empower each other to ask the right questions and find answers that lead to lasting health and happiness. Let's stop the madness and start a movement towards hormonal prosperity! 🌟
❓HAVE A QUESTION and want my advice? You're invited to write to me at hello@kyrindunstonmd.com.
I select e-mails with a clear question around hormone poverty (such as symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, diseases caused or exacerbated by hormonal poverty, accelerated aging, early death, etc.) and achieving hormone prosperity using the two hormone prescriptions needed (one written and the other not) that are of reasonable length and detail and of interest to significant numbers of the audience. I regret I'm not able to answer all messages sent. I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the community.
Are you feeling stuck with symptoms like fatigue, weight gain, or mood swings? You’re not alone—and it’s not your fault.
This week on The Hormone Prosperity Podcast with Dr. Kyrin, we’re unraveling the mystery of midlife metabolic mayhem, a key consequence of hormonal poverty that affects far more women than you might think. Whether you’re in your twenties, forties, or beyond, this episode will explain why your metabolism feels “broken” and how hormones play a pivotal role in extracting the energy your body desperately needs.
Dr. Kyrin dives into the science of metabolism—breaking down how it works, why extreme weight-loss methods fail, and how hormonal imbalance could be sabotaging your health. From weight struggles to insomnia, hair loss, mood issues, and beyond, Dr. Kyrin explains the root causes of your symptoms and why they’re actually gifts pointing you towards what needs attention.
Key takeaways from this episode:
- What hormonal poverty is and how it disrupts your metabolism.
- Why traditional solutions like starvation diets and gastric bypass often fail.
- The signs of midlife metabolic mayhem (and yes, they’re more common than you think).
- Why understanding and addressing hormonal poverty can help you achieve manageable weight loss, better sleep, renewed energy, and vibrant health.
- What it really takes to achieve hormonal prosperity—and why that’s the key to thriving in midlife and beyond.
If you’re tired of the frustration, the self-blame, and feeling like you’re fighting against your body, this episode will empower you with the knowledge you need to reclaim your health and vitality.
👉 Subscribe to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast and the Hormone Prosperity Coach YouTube channel for more inspiring content and actionable advice.
Hormone Prosperity Coach
https://www.youtube.com/c/KyrinDunstonMD
Hormone Prosperity Podcast
https://bit.ly/thehormoneprescriptionpodcast
Together, we’ll empower each other to ask the right questions and find answers that lead to lasting health and happiness. Let's stop the madness and start a movement towards hormonal prosperity! 🌟
❓HAVE A QUESTION and want my advice? You're invited to write to me at hello@kyrindunstonmd.com.
I select e-mails with a clear question around hormone poverty (such as symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, diseases caused or exacerbated by hormonal poverty, accelerated aging, early death, etc.) and achieving hormone prosperity using the two hormone prescriptions needed (one written and the other not) that are of reasonable length and detail and of interest to significant numbers of the audience. I regret I'm not able to answer all messages sent. I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the community.
Join Dr. Kyrin as she uncovers the little-known but widespread issue of hormonal poverty. This episode takes a deep dive into why midlife women often feel dismissed in the healthcare system and what that means for their overall well-being.
Picture this: you're visiting your doctor, listing a stream of troubling symptoms—fatigue, low libido, mood swings, and more. Your doctor, barely glancing up, diagnoses you with menopause and hands you a prescription as a solution. Sound familiar? Dr. Kyrin challenges this narrative, urging women to reclaim control over their health by asking the 'why' behind their symptoms rather than just accepting a prescription.
What You Will Learn:* Understanding Hormonal Poverty: Discover how this hidden epidemic affects countless women and why it's often overlooked. * Questioning the Medical Model: Learn why the current healthcare approach might be more focused on business than holistic healing. * The Importance of 'Why': Empower yourself by shifting from what’s wrong to why it’s happening. * Identifying Symptoms: See your symptoms as signposts to the underlying issues rather than problems to suppress. * Lifestyle Application: Connect various facets of your life to better understand your health and well-being.
Reflect on how hormonal poverty resonates with your personal health narrative and share your story with our community. Start asking yourself "why," and take proactive measures toward better health.
Want to explore more? Tune into upcoming episodes as we unravel the complexities of midlife metabolic mayhem!
👉 Subscribe to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast and the Hormone Prosperity Coach YouTube channel for more inspiring content and actionable advice.
Hormone Prosperity Coach
https://www.youtube.com/c/KyrinDunstonMD
Hormone Prosperity Podcast
https://bit.ly/thehormoneprescriptionpodcast
Together, we’ll empower each other to ask the right questions and find answers that lead to lasting health and happiness. Let's stop the madness and start a movement towards hormonal prosperity! 🌟
❓HAVE A QUESTION and want my advice? You're invited to write to me at hello@kyrindunstonmd.com.
I select e-mails with a clear question around hormone poverty (such as symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, diseases caused or exacerbated by hormonal poverty, accelerated aging, early death, etc.) and achieving hormone prosperity using the two hormone prescriptions needed (one written and the other not) that are of reasonable length and detail and of interest to significant numbers of the audience. I regret I'm not able to answer all messages sent. I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the community.
In this transformational episode of The Hormone Prosperity Podcast, Dr. Kyrin opens up about her personal "rebirth" and shares her compelling story of overcoming hormonal poverty—a struggle that resonates with countless midlife women.
From battling severe health challenges to finding rejuvenation through functional medicine, Dr. Kyrin's narrative is both a testament to resilience and an invitation for you to explore what's possible for your own health and well-being.
What You'll Learn:* Identify Hormonal Poverty: Understand what hormonal poverty is and how it impacts your health. * Empowering Questions: Discover the right questions to ask to lift yourself from hormonal poverty. * Root Cause Resolution: Learn about functional medicine approaches that target the root causes of your symptoms. * From Crisis to Clarity: Hear Dr. Kyrin's inspiring TEDx talk insights on transitioning from hormonal poverty to prosperity. * Practical Solutions: Gain actionable tools and knowledge to reclaim your energy and vitality.
Episode Highlights:
- Dr. Kyrin's eye-opening TEDx talk experience
- The realization of hormonal poverty in modern women's health
- How asking the right questions leads to empowering answers
- The vision for hormonal prosperity and its impact on life fulfillment
Are you ready to transform your health? Discover the tools and insights to break free from hormonal poverty and step into a life of well-being.
👉 Subscribe to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast and the Hormone Prosperity Coach YouTube channel for more inspiring content and actionable advice.
Hormone Prosperity Coach
https://www.youtube.com/c/KyrinDunstonMD
Hormone Prosperity Podcast
https://bit.ly/thehormoneprescriptionpodcast
Together, we’ll empower each other to ask the right questions and find answers that lead to lasting health and happiness. Let's stop the madness and start a movement towards hormonal prosperity! 🌟
❓HAVE A QUESTION and want my advice? You're invited to write to me at hello@kyrindunstonmd.com.
I select e-mails with a clear question around hormone poverty (such as symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, diseases caused or exacerbated by hormonal poverty, accelerated aging, early death, etc.) and achieving hormone prosperity using the two hormone prescriptions needed (one written and the other not) that are of reasonable length and detail and of interest to significant numbers of the audience. I regret I'm not able to answer all messages sent. I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the community.
Welcome back to another empowering episode of The Hormone Prosperity Podcast, hosted Dr. Kyrin Dunston! In this special episode, we are thrilled to have Bliss Magdalena, a dynamic priestess who lives in fully activated divine presence. Bliss brings over two decades of experience as a holistic practitioner, doula, and educator. She shares her profound wisdom on womb healing, divine feminine energy, and holistic therapies.
Episode Highlights* Understanding the Womb as a Sacred Space:
Bliss dives into the concept of the womb as not just a physical organ but a sacred and powerful portal for healing and creation. Learn how to reconnect with this vital part of yourself.
- Lunar Womb Priestessing:
Discover the ancient practice of Lunar Womb Priestessing and how it helps women reclaim their divine feminine energy and power. Bliss explains the rituals and practices that can help you align with the lunar cycles.
- Holistic Therapies for Womb Health:
Tune in as Bliss shares her insights on various holistic therapies and rituals that promote womb health and overall well-being. From forest bathing to sound healing, she outlines practical steps you can take today.
- Navigating Midlife Transitions:
Bliss offers invaluable advice on navigating the complex transitions of midlife with grace and empowerment. Her stories and insights from two decades of practice provide a roadmap for finding balance and inner wisdom during this pivotal time.
- Practical Wisdom for Midlife Women:
Get actionable tips on how midlife women can tap into their inner wisdom and leverage the power of their wombs for emotional and physical healing.
Guest BioBliss Magdalena is a deeply devoted, learned, and dynamic priestess who embodies fully activated divine presence. With over 20 years of experience, Bliss is a holistic practitioner, doula, and educator for birth-workers. She is also a death companion and supporter, teaching Lunar Womb Priestessing and Temple Arts Training courses that focus on holistic therapies for womb health and overall well-being. Passionate about connecting individuals with their inner wisdom and divine feminine energy, Bliss leads forest bathing, sacred site tours, and retreats, alongside sound healing concerts. Her students and clients describe her as fully authentic and fully alive.
Loved this episode? Make sure to subscribe, rate, and review The Hormone Prosperity Podcast to help other remarkable women find us. Your feedback fuels our mission to empower women through every stage of life.
Thank you for tuning in to this enlightening conversation with Bliss Magdalena. Remember, your womb is a portal to healing and creation. Let's honor it and ourselves every day. Until next time, stay empowered and connected.
Stay connected with us for more incredible episodes that celebrate and support your health and well-being.
Dr.Kyrin (00:00):
Did you know the yoni and womb are portals to infinite wisdom and healing? Stay tuned as Bliss Magdalena helps you understand this and why your body is sacred and the key to self-empowerment.
Dr. Kyrin (00:16):
So the big question is how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr.Kyrin (01:10):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we talk with bliss, Magdalena womb priestess about so many things that you don't know about your womb as apor, powerful portal of healing for your health and your spirit, your mind, and your body. This was something I wasn't aware of as a gynecologist. It was the hugest missing link in my education and training and working as 30 years as a board certified gynecologist. So you are sure gonna wanna know about this information. And Bliss is an absolutely beautiful soul who was I was connected with through another womb shaman. We're gonna talk a little bit about that and her path to being a womb priestess, what that means, how you can become one too. We talk about the womb being a portal to other dimensions and the power that it holds.
Dr.Kyrin (02:12):
And our body's sacredness. We talk about sacred sexuality, tantra, all kinds of things. Temple arts, she is a wealth of information. She's actually working on her PhD, which we didn't have a chance to talk about, but we had talked about that at during another private conversation that we had. She has a beautiful training coming up that I'm going to be TA participating in and you're welcome to join me. We give that information as well. I'll tell you a little bit more about her and then we'll get started. Liz is a deeply devoted, learned and dynamic priestess who is living in fully activated divine presence. She has over two decades in practice as a holistic practitioner. She's a doula, an educator for birth workers death, companion and supporter. She teaches lunar womb priestessing and temple arch training courses and holistic therapies. She enjoys leading forest bathing, sacred site tours and retreats and some healing concerts.
Dr.Kyrin (03:11):
And her students and clients describe her as fully authentic and fully alive. I would say amen to that sister. She is a beautiful soul. Please help me welcome Bliss Magdalena to the show. Thank you. I'm so excited to broach this topic on the podcast. It's not something we've talked about ever and it wasn't something that I was aware of even being in women's health for over 30 years as a gynecologist until I went to Dubai this past year. And so I kind of wanna say this for everybody listening before you dismiss it, before you say, oh, I don't wanna hear about this, you need to hear about this. You know, as a board certified gynecologist for over 30 years, I promise you you need to know about this. And this is one of the most vital and important missing pieces in your health program in what you're doing to create brilliant health in your life that you don't know about and you are not going to hear about in a lot of places, particularly in the us.
Dr.Kyrin (04:17):
So I promise you, you need to hear this. So I want you to listen. I, I literally had that thought when I started learning about this. How have I been in women's health my whole life and didn't know about this? So my experience in the US when it comes to womb health or womb steaming was there's this place in Atlanta that's a Korean bathhouse and they have all these different saunas and steam rooms and they have awo steam room there. And it's basically this little room in the corner where they have a TV and they watch Korean soap operas all day long and it's not a spiritual space in any way, shape or form or a nurturing space. And they line all the women up against the wall and put the herbs in and you're watching Korean soap operas the whole time. And I did it once 'cause I wanted to know what it was and I said, this is a waste of time.
Dr.Kyrin (05:12):
I had zero experience improvement or experience with it. And it's funny 'cause I was actually interviewed by a magazine, I forget which one about my opinion of womb steaming. And so it's in print that Karen Dunton said that it, it's not, has no medical benefit. I said that because I didn't know then what I know now. So in Dubai I said, well this is a different community. There are a lot of healers here. Let me go to a womb steaming. And it absolutely changed my life, right? It was 30 women in a, an oval in a room with a beautiful altar with a very spiritual guide. And we did the real deal and portals opened up for me and healing and visions and knowings and my wombs started clearing. And I've since been on a further journey with that and worked with a couple womb shamans and read books on the subject and realized that this really is the path that I have on as a gynecologist only I didn't know it.
Dr.Kyrin (06:17):
And the universe is like, surprise, here's your next phase of development. So I look to learn to people like you. So I'm so blessed to have you on the show today. And I just wanted to share that because I know if there's anyone listening who's even heard of wound steaming or yoni steaming or anything about wo healing and you've experienced what I had experienced before, you're probably gonna poo P it. And I want to tell you that that's not the real thing.
Bliss Magdalena (07:07):
I was lucky enough to be raised in an all female household. My mom is a priestess of Ishtar. So when we were together, this, I've always been initiated in these concepts of body positivity, in feminine power, in sexual power and sexual magic. And really in us holding this portal place as conscious creators in our lives, which our power and our ability to generate and magnetize and connect is actually coming from our physical health as well as our emotional and psychological health. So those things have never been outside of the sphere of my experience. So I've, I've always been meditating, I've always been connecting with the divine. I've always been working particularly with touch and the body and with natural herbs and natural oils. So for me, those are my gifts. And initially I went into practice as a holistic practitioner. So I've been all around the world.
Bliss Magdalena (08:16):
I've trained in all these different places with different teachers in traditional healing modalities from around the world. And also in naturopathy. In my twenties I was managing health food shops and I was practicing as a nutritionist and a naturopathic therapist in addition to the touch therapies that I was doing. And throughout my life, my spiritual practice has been tantra and sacred sexuality. So it would've been nine years ago now that I found my true teacher. You know, I'd done a lot of trainings in Sacred Union and sacred sexuality and tantra, but I went on a pilgrimage to creep with my teacher, Katinka Suan of the Path of Love Mystery School. And really keker is everything embodied in one package as a sacred sexual priestess. So she was practicing tantra, but she had also worked as a doula and she was integrating the traditional lineage of the lon goddess mysteries.
Bliss Magdalena (09:27):
She had combined that with her tantra practice and her healing work. And so as soon as we met, it was immediately like, oh, well there's someone else who's doing what I'm doing, you know, which was really great because for so long I'd been keeping that under the radar. So I'd been a priestess, but I was calling myself a holistic practitioner, if that makes sense. And I had all of these credentials where I was working with people in medical settings in hospices. So I was doing clinical therapy work, but I was really finding my heart and finding that space where I felt like it was truly my vocation in the sphere of sexuality, relationships, and reproductive health. So I was working with people before, during, and after pregnancy as a fertility therapist and a doula and a postpartum supporter. And so that was where I first came across yoni steaming was in the postpartum phase.
Bliss Magdalena (10:26):
And actually the research that's been done there has been one scientific study which has been published about the only steaming, which is about women in the postpartum period. So it's something that is deeply regenerative to the tissues around the vagina. And if you have torn during your labor, it's something that will stimulate that granulation and that healing process. But the thing that's most important about it is that it's non-invasive. So no one is touching you, no one is looking at you. It's something that you can do therapeutically to support your body's natural healing process without any invasive procedure is something that you can do for yourself. And I think that is the thing that's most empowering about this, you know? So yes, I mean you only steaming as a postpartum healing modality is something that it facilitates the release of here, this, you know, this kind of post birth material from inside the uterus, it boosts the circulation, which increases the healing response to the area.
Bliss Magdalena (11:34):
But because it's deeply relaxing to the connective tissue, it actually helps your uterus to reposition itself. So this is amazing, you know, particularly if you've had a traumatic birth. But the thing that's amazing about yoni steaming is it's not just a postpartum modality. And so during my priestess training, ka tinker introduced this to us as a temple art. So this was something that we were doing in a circle of women as part of a red tent where you are actually activating a portal for yourself in sacred space. And so you can yoni steam at any age, you can yoni steam, whether you have had a womb removed. So one of my friends, when I was teaching yoni steaming, we did a, a really big yoni steam online, and one of my friends had was recovering from having a hysterectomy. And so she was steaming with me.
Bliss Magdalena (12:32):
And you know, her recovery was so miraculous. It really, it makes such a difference because it's relaxing this connective tissue. So this is having a somatic restoration and rebalancing of your nervous system that's coming from this feeling of warmth and safety and not having any kind of invasion. Like no one is, no one is touching you, no one's coming inside you, no one's opening you up with a speculum. But you are naturally opening because of the warmth of these vapors and kind of settling down into a conscious loving awareness of your womb and your yoni. So yeah, I mean, I'm a huge advocate of this work. So I think it's really great that you've raised this as a topic at the beginning because I think everyone should know about it. And I feel that it's had a really bad press because people have a misunderstanding about the context of yoni steaming.
Bliss Magdalena (13:33):
So for me, I see this as a personal healing process. It is a modality that is particularly helpful if you've had past invasive medical procedures or if you've had sexual trauma because it's something where you don't actually have to undress apart from taking your knickers off, you can just wear a long dress or a long skirt, and then you're actually wrapping yourself in more blankets. You know, it's something that it can be done alone. I believe that it's safer if you have a practitioner there with you, because we can help you to hold the space. We can make sure that you're not accidentally dipping your skirt or your blankets into the bowl of water. And we can also help to regulate the temperature. So if you're using an electric heater, or traditionally, you know, women would sit over a smoke box. So I don't advocate that, like I don't think it's healthy to expose your mucus membranes to smoke.
Bliss Magdalena (14:32):
But the most ancient forms of yoni steaming were done over a small cauldron with a fire. And so women in South America, in Africa, in Indonesia, they would actually be burning and steaming herbs sitting over these quadrants, you know? And then more recently, so the modern version of this is that you have a, a bowl of what I would describe as like a loving herbal tea. And so you can use different types of herbs depending on your medical needs. So for example, if you want something which is mucus forming, you know, and it's gonna generate a lot of lubrication and a lot of softness for you, then you might go for something like calendula or rose petals, for example. If you want something that's more astringent, you know, because for example, you are recovering from an infection or you want something which is antiseptic and healing because you've had a cut or a tear, you could go for something, which is more, I would say the thing about this is that it's not actually like receiving a herbal medicine, it's more that you are inhaling almost like a homeopathic dose of these volatile organic compounds from different types of herbs.
Bliss Magdalena (15:46):
So you have a medicinal benefit that's coming from your awareness of the herbs rather than, for example, taking a dose of herbal medicine. So it's, it's working in a much more subtle way. So if you are recovering and you want to have something which is more as stringent, you could go for something like peppermint, you could go from mug warts, some people put ginger in their yoni steaming. So the best way to do this work is to work with someone who is knowledgeable as a herbalist in addition to having an awareness and an understanding of reproductive health. So this is why I think like anyone can steam with just a bowl of water, and you can literally make it as simple as just putting a bowl in your toilet system. If you wanna make it really easy on yourself, you can just get a big bowl, pop it in the loo, make sure that you are sitting high enough over it so that you are not going to come into direct contact with the hot water and you know, just pop a towel over your lap.
Bliss Magdalena (16:45):
Like it can really be as simple as that. You don't have to complicate it. And I think this is the thing with some of the more commercialized places. So if you go to like a Malaysian or a sort of Korean salon, then they'll often have like a plastic gown that you wear and sometimes you can actually be sitting over something that's like a crockpot, you know? And so that water can be very, very hot, you know, and I think this is where the media has really focused on these kind of dangerous aspects, that if you sit over a pot of boiling water, then yes, I mean that that is going to cause a health risk because you could potentially sc yourself on the steam. So I don't tend to work in that way, like with my students and with my clients I tend to use a ceramic or a bamboo bowl.
Bliss Magdalena (17:38):
We just position them in a way so that they can easily elevate. And I tend to use water that's just come off the boil and then wait for five minutes before they actually actually come to steam on it. So there's ways that you can do it safely and you know, you can actually buy these like bespoke steaming boxes now that you can sit over and they have a sort of whole, so that you can sit in a really safe way and they tend to be about 12 to 18 inches above the water. So yeah, if you prefer to do it that way, you can, but I think this is the thing about having a practitioner. So if you're working with someone that is knowledgeable about yoni steaming, then we can keep you safe, we can keep you comfortable and we can ensure that you're really having the best experience while you are undertaking what can be a very personal ceremony, you know? Yeah. We're just, we're just there with you.
Dr.Kyrin (18:31):
Yes. And it was so beautiful. So I had several experiences, one of which we had about a hundred women with a womb priestess, and we did the steaming together and it was so powerful. And what amazed me is that it's not only, okay, yes, you've got the heat, it brings blood flow. Yes, you have the physiologic response to the herbs, you are also inhaling them. But the energetic activation and what you said earlier, opening a portal for yourself, that was the most surprising thing about it, is that the spiritual aspect of in another realm. And it started bringing me these memories and visions and connections and emotions that was so powerful. And then, right. You know, I just wanna share this. Aha. So I, I read a book after, after I had this, the first experience. I said, oh my gosh, what is happening? So I had to re-read the book, womb Awakening.
Dr.Kyrin (19:32):
And you know, even though I've delivered thousands of babies and I've worked with thousands of women in my career, and I know that giving birth is bringing a new life, it never occurred to me. And I remember in womb awakening they talked about this, that the womb is actually a portal to another dimension, the dimension where souls live before they incarnate in this earth. And I never thought about it like that, and that women have this capacity to bring forth and materialize energies from another realm that men don't have. It just, it really hit me like a ton of bricks in the face while duh, and how powerful that is. And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about that and, and what it means for our own healing and how we work with this and this understanding and foster this.
Bliss Magdalena (20:28):
Yeah, of course. I mean, when you're steaming, you are activating a very powerful acupressure point. So it's the conception vessel. So it's, it is actually literally opening a channel in your central nervous system to enable energy to move more strongly through your field. But what this means on a kind of cosmic level is that we're opening ourselves to this infinite potentiality that lives within the portal space of the womb. So I mean within the context of steaming, but this can apply with any kind of breath work practice. You can also do this work using wand or a yoni egg. And you can also do this work when you are having yoni massage or if you are in sacred union. And you know, I often do this work when I'm in the bath, you know, because it's what I'm really open. So when you are allowing these tissues to completely relax and your awareness is coming into the consciousness of your energy flow within your yoni, your actual vaginal walls, they will begin to open and expand.
Bliss Magdalena (21:43):
And you come into this state of heightened arousal, which is called ballooning and tempting, right? I love this. So it's creating space inside of you for your breath, for your spirit, and for your energy to move. And then your cervix will actually relax and open. And so the thing that's amazing about the cervix is it's actually like a living representation of this Sri Yantra portal. So it's the gateway between what is in the outer realms of our lived sensory experience and what is within us, what is the cosmic potential for what we can birth into being from within the void, from within the darkness. And so, you know, inside the womb we have this radiant darkness. You know, this is how I describe it as if you are within a space where there's no light pollution. So when you look up and you see the night sky and you see that total darkness, but you can see that you're surrounded by an infinite number of shining stars.
Bliss Magdalena (22:48):
So this is what it's like when you meditate within the womb space. So it is devoid of light, but there is something that is existing beyond the emptiness. And I think there's something about recognizing in the conception points within that space just where you've, you've gone beyond the womb and, and slightly up into the fallopian tubes. So this is really where we are calling through our dreaming. And so you have to imagine that your ovaries are like these shining star portals that are existing within you. So there's these different gateways of awakening and perception within the different points of the yoni and moving up into the womb space and then moving to that conception point. So we journey these in my training course and there there's other amazing teachers who there's many of us kind of popping up. I think it's a resurgence of this womb awareness around the planet now where we are calling in this power and we are recognizing that we've always had this.
Bliss Magdalena (23:57):
So we've never been separate from our ability to generate fantastic healing capacity from being able to directly manifest circumstances and meetings, encounters in the physical world, and also dreaming a new world into being. So your womb is much more powerful than simply bringing forth another human life. Although of course that is magical, it is transformative. But I think there's something about stepping into the space of keeping your wise blood. So that's what I would describe the menopause and the post menopause. When you are holding onto your wise blood, you actually have a greater capacity for dreaming, for manifestation, and for calling down the wisdom codes for teaching others. So this is why really like the power of the crone is so immense. And within our culture we have been kind of brainwashed to believe that you somehow lose your power when you become an older, more mature womb carrier.
Bliss Magdalena (25:03):
But actually I think people who are in their forties and their fifties and their sixties, they're actually in the prime of matriarchy. And what I mean by that is holding the center, being at the center of your family, being at the center of your community. And this is where we really see change. This is where we see women stepping into positions of leadership, where we see women building communities. I mean, for example, myself in the last two years since I've turned 40, we've opened a goddess temple in my town, you know, and I was part of that founding, initiating, and birthing of this community project, which it's taken us six years, but it was only when I hit my forties that it was like bang, bang, bang. All of these things began to fall into place and happen because the force of my will was so focused through my womb and I knew what to do with that power.
Bliss Magdalena (26:00):
I knew how to use this magic and to create a hub for other people to come connect with this learning, you know? And it's so exciting. There's nothing makes me happier than teaching my temple arts course. And actually my students are coming this weekend and we're gonna be doing sacred bathing rituals. We're gonna be doing conscious touch bodily deaming, and we're gonna be doing yoni gazing as well. So you know, this is where you are like face to face with the portal. And so many people see these visions of the goddess, you know, that appears when you are in that space of reverence. There's something about coming into sacred prostration before the yoni where you are gazing upon something and you are recognizing its power, you are recognizing its potential. I mean, this is the source of all life. And once you start seeing yonis, you start seeing them everywhere in all kinds of sacred geometry in trees, in architecture, there's so many sacred sites around the world that are based upon the shape of this portal, you know?
Bliss Magdalena (27:12):
And so if we look at the construction of these like the new Grange burial mound in Ireland, for example, that's a really good example. So this passage tomb is the shape of a vagina with labia of the standing stones on the outside. And if you travel along that passageway, which is where the sunrises on the winter solstice, that light is going into the center of the womb chamber, which is deep under the earth, you know? So there's something about this knowledge which ancient civilizations have had, and we are beginning to reclaim it. So we are beginning to recognize it within ourselves. I can't think of anything more wonderful than people in the medical profession beginning to recognize the power of the wound portal. You know, this is so profound and it's so comforting to recognize that we've got this inside of us, we've always had it, and that we can listen to the guidance of this part of ourselves.
Bliss Magdalena (28:16):
And so a lot of what I teach is about how to listen to the voice of your womb and to be able to actually put that guidance into practice in your daily life. And so I would recommend for listeners, if you can take the time, just put your hands over your womb space, listen to your womb, and then if you keep a journal, write down the messages that you get, write down the feelings that you get. Sometimes you'll be given a piece of artwork, sometimes you'll be given a poem or a song, and all of these things are, I believe they are the codes of initiation for the womb priestess. So all of us have the capacity to do this work. Sometimes it's helpful to do it in circle with other sisters, with other priestesses, but you actually hold the keys for womb awakening within yourself. It's all there, all the codes are within you. Wow.
Dr.Kyrin (29:10):
It's just so tremendous. And you know, thinking about the sacredness of the shape of the yoni and what you're talking about doing at your center, the yoni gazing and really sexuality in the US is perverted, you know, in the media and porn addiction is so high. And I think that we all thirst for a healthy sexuality and really re as women reclaiming the power of our womb. And men, it's what they crave is that authentic connection, but nobody really knows how to do it. And so it comes out sideways. So I love that you are doing this work. I'm excited to dive into your trainings and really help to share with my audience and the people whom I know this power. I love this quote you shared with me before we started recording. The yoni and womb are portals to infinite wisdom and healing, which is kind of what you're talking about. And then this other one, remembering our body's sacredness is key to self empowerment. Can you talk a little bit about what that means? Because I don't think that most people see their body as sacred. They see it kind of like their car
Bliss Magdalena (30:41):
There's this thing about this really, I blame Renee Descartes for this. This idea of this separation between our ourselves and our physical bodies and the idea of the body being almost like a machine which is kind of functioning for us. So I would never see my conscious awareness, my mind and my emotions as being separate from my physical body. So we have these incredible sensory interfaces and the body is a way for us to explore the experience of being alive, you know, and nothing is more sacred than that. It's something that is connecting us with everything else that's around us in our existence. And I think the experience of living in a body and being in a reciprocal relationship with your environment, the thing that's important about this, the idea of the body as sacred is recognizing ourselves as part of a wider network. So we are always connected to everything around us.
Bliss Magdalena (31:53):
We, we live in a dynamic ecosystem where we're in a constant process of exchange with not only the atmosphere, the air that we are breathing, the plant and animal life that's surrounding us, the microbes that are actually living on our skin. You know, we are this, we are this conglomerate of individual life forms that are making up a single living body is the most incredible thing. And you think about all these microorganisms that are living in colonies, you know, within us, inside of us, you know, in the gut biome or the skin biome. And we are also in this dynamic exchange with the cosmic bodies. So I was talking about chronobiology, you know, this idea of the ebb and flow of the tides, which is happening all the time with all the water on the planet. It's not just the ocean. This changes at different times of the month, depending on the phases of the moon.
Bliss Magdalena (32:52):
And the other thing that affects us is the tilt of the earth is affecting the amount of solar radiation that we are working with at different times of the year. So we've just come through this equinox phase. So for the next six months of the year, you know, in the northern hemisphere, this is when we're experiencing this opening, this flowering and abundance of the season of summer. And then at the autumn equinox, we are gonna go into this resting phase. So like I see summer as the time of the sympathetic nervous system, you know, you're doing a lot, you are creating a lot, you are experiencing, you're connecting. And then in the winter, you're coming into this phase of resting and nourishing yourself and really looking within and reflecting and maybe dreaming about the seeds that you want to plant for the coming year. So we are never separate from these cosmic planetary cycles.
Bliss Magdalena (33:49):
We are never separate from the reciprocal exchange that's happening with nature. And we are also connected to our ancestors. You know, it's so incredible the things that are being discovered of epigenetics and ancestral, intergenerational memories. You know, a lot of people talk about intergenerational trauma, but I really wanna talk also about intergenerational resilience, intergenerational strength, you know, and these great lessons, these great learnings and teachings and rememberings that are in all of ourselves, these things are encoded in our DNA. We are just the most miraculous beings. And you know, how can you say that that's separate from the divine? At no point would I ever feel that I was not a part of this living goddess, you know? And so I see the goddess as existing within everything. So the whole of the cosmas, all of the living things on the planet and all of these beautiful things that we would describe as being inert.
Bliss Magdalena (34:55):
But I believe those things are also imbued with a consciousness, with an essence that we are in reciprocity with. So this idea of recognizing your body as sacred is so empowering. When you recognize that you have the capacity to connect with and to transform, you are never in a space where there's not an opportunity to learn from what you are experiencing and what you're feeling. Obviously I've worked with people who are dying and I think that time when your bodily systems are beginning to shut down, the thing that's most amazing about this, they've discovered now that the consciousness of the body can live on for up to three days. I think it is after the bodily systems have shut down. So we've got this conscious awareness that is prolonged, it's beyond our understanding. There's something that is not a machine. There's something which is more than that.
Bliss Magdalena (35:59):
We have the opportunity to inhabit these physical bodies. But you know, the soul is infinite. And I really believe that we are part of this wider cosmic, I would describe it like a mycelium network of souls and consciousness. And we've got the opportunity to light up the other nodes along these strands of the mycelium. You know, we're all just like little fruiting mushrooms on this much bigger
Dr.Kyrin (37:18):
Yes. How we're all connected and consciousness and science, to my observation, has really proven all of this, but it hasn't made its way to mainstream medical care. So I think, I love that everybody listening is hearing this now and can start to use these different tools and techniques that you're sharing to help themselves. And I love, you mentioned the chrono biology and how we're a part of this. Can you talk about the, the lunar cycle and how that works with our feminine energy, whether we're menstruating or menopausal? Oh, and I did wanna just add, and I think you mentioned earlier that even if you've had a hysterectomy, you still have these energy centers, so don't exclude yourself from this, but yes, can we talk a little bit about that? The chronobiology of the lunar cycle?
Bliss Magdalena (38:10):
For sure. And I just want to say the originator of that term was a scientist called Gunter Klein. So you can find his work online. He wrote a book about this. So every cell is influenced by our receptivity to different types of, of lights. We have this capacity to regulate our bio rhythm based on the amount of natural lights and natural darkness that we take in on a day-to-day basis. So the pineal gland is helping to register this light, this rhythm of light and dark. The different endocrine functions which help to regulate other bodily systems are impacted by this ebb and flow of light. And so one of the best ways that you can reregulate your system is to go camping. So if you don't have any artificial light and you are actually getting up when the sun comes up and then you're going to bed when the sun goes down, or even if you're spending time up at night, but you are under starlight, your system is reregulating itself to the natural cycle.
Bliss Magdalena (39:29):
So if you do this for a full lunar cycle, if you go camping for 29 days, then you are gonna find that your system has reset itself. So I really recommend that if you've got the opportunity to do it, go camping somewhere that's got no light pollution. Because the thing that is really disrupting our natural cycles and our ability to tune in with our innate feminine power particularly is the advent of artificial light. So electric light at night in your house, I mean, I've got a light on and it's starting to get dark outside here in England,
Bliss Magdalena (40:27):
So every night go out for, even if it's only 15 or 20 minutes, go and spend some time under the night sky because the different light which is being emitted at the different phases of the mood cycle is gonna impact on your energy levels, your mood, your capacity to work. So all of this stuff is influencing you on a subtle level all the time, even if you don't go outside, but you're gonna be more receptive to it if you actually spend time under the moonlight. So we've just had a a full moon. And so everyone will notice it's really common to know that you have difficulty sleeping and that you sometimes feel anxiety. You can sometimes feel jittery. A lot of women give birth at the time of the full moon because of the fact that you have so much fluid in your body. So this is the time when you'll really have the capacity for moving the most energy.
Bliss Magdalena (41:21):
This is the time when you should be celebrating. You should be coming together with your friends and your loved ones. You know, you're probably gonna be more generous in this period of time in the runup to the full moon than you are in the time when the moon is waning. So when the moon is coming to a dark moon. So for people that are menstruating, this is when you're in your loo to your phase most frequently. The thing is, all of this has been disrupted by artificial light. So nowadays people went straight at all different faces of the lunar cycle, but there it's about 50% of the population there in their lute to your face. So when the moon is waning, your energy level is often more depleted. You have to afford yourself more time for resting. And I think it's really important if the moon is coming towards its darker phase to put more time into planning and pausing and reflecting, rather than necessarily reacting straight away.
Bliss Magdalena (42:26):
Because you're gonna be less tolerant of others
Bliss Magdalena (43:26):
This is the perfect time to plan meetings, this is the perfect time to go shopping. This is the perfect time to get things done. Yeah, so you're gonna be more productive then, and you're probably going to want to be more engaged and more friendly. So you're gonna want to come outta your cave. And you know, I like to imagine it like a womb cave. So at the time of the dark moon, you go into your womb cave and you use that time for dreaming, for reflecting and for making changes. So if there's things that you wanna cut out, if you wanna go on a fast, you know, the dark moon is the best time to do that. And if you want to introduce a new food into your diet, or if you want to start taking a new supplement, a new herbal remedy, maybe you want to start a new yoga practice, the best time to start that if you are actually gonna stick to that habit, is in the time of the waxing moon. So when it's in the first quarter really, and moving from the first quarter into the full moon, you're much more likely to achieve things. You're much more likely to get things done with flow and ease in the first half of the lunar cycle than you are in the later half of the lunar cycle. So does that make sense?
Dr.Kyrin (44:40):
Yeah, that's my observation too. By the time it's almost full, I can't get things straight, honestly. It's the energy is usually so intense and yes, I, I agree. When it's new, it's quiet and you can think and be present and centered. And this, I love that you share that this is true for even if you're menopausal, even if you've had a hysterectomy, you still have this cycle with the moon. Some people haven't realized that, but starting to pay attention to it, you've mentioned so many things that I know everybody listening is, well, what does that mean and what does that mean? So I'm wondering if you can talk about, well, what is womb priest to sing? You mentioned tantra, you mentioned sacred sexuality. I know we probably don't have enough time to go through everything. I'll definitely have you share all the places people can connect with you online towards the end.
Dr.Kyrin (45:31):
But can you talk about, say a woman is listening and she's kind of intrigued and she's thinking, wow, just like I did, Ida wasn't aware that my womb was a portal of creation. And you know, I know in all the, the womb steaming events I went to, usually we did a lot of talking and meditation at the beginning and there was this drumming and it would be about, the womb is not a place to store pain and fear. It is a place to create and to give life, give new birth to life, something like that. And really this idea of cleansing the womb and releasing all the pain and fear that's in there. And so if you can talk about some of these different topics and what is the path for someone who wants to start awakening this power in herself and reconnecting with it, what, what would that look like?
Bliss Magdalena (46:20):
My training is called the lunar womb temple. I initiate lunar womb priestesses who have a role within their community as educators and healers and supporters. And so in the work that I do, I'm empowering people with the knowledge of the anatomy, physiology, the natural cycles and the way that these things connect with ritual, with mythology, and with ancient history. So this really at its core, mens duration and tracking of the lunar cycle. So the cycles of reproductive seasons, these are the things that are the source of human culture. And so the most ancient lunar trackers that have been found are actually 86,000 years old. So you know, there's something about connecting with this red thread of womb wisdom that has moved through so many generations of human culture. So as a lunar womb priestess, you are holding space for the sacred. You are recognizing the power which is not only within yourself, but also helping others to awaken to that power within themselves.
Bliss Magdalena (47:46):
So it's about tracking your own lunar cycles. It's about educating and empowering other people to perform these self-care and spiritual practices, which are connecting you with the sacred feminine archetypes, the lunar goddesses, as well as these things that we can do in our community, such as red tent circles, women's sharing circles, also an awareness of what is kind of lying underneath the oppression and the tyranny of patriarchal. This idea that we are not holding our own power any idea within our culture, that somehow you have to get permission from a source outside of yourself in order to be powerful or in order to heal. So we're trying to dismantle that. Mm, so I'm really about reclaiming this idea of ma focal culture. And what I mean by that is focusing on the culture of our sacred, empowered feminine ancestors and the idea of the lineage of the goddess.
Bliss Magdalena (49:02):
So that's what I teach in my course. The reason why sexuality is so important and why the techniques of tantra are tied into this is that it's a tradition where the body is a vehicle for awakening. It's a remembering of our innate life force. So the power of our sexuality is the thing that is awakening the goddess within us. So your shakti, kundalini, or your, your serpent power, this is really the key to working with these energies. And so the snake, again, is an ancient symbol of these lunar cycles, the cycles of nature, and also the sacred life force energy that's moving through us all the time. So they're never separate. And I think in the traditions of tantra, that is the closest link that we have to these really free matrilineal like empowered cultures where people with wombs were really at the center and they were revered and honored for this life-giving power and this knowledge of the ebbs and flows.
Bliss Magdalena (50:12):
Because our bodies, you know, they act as a lunar tracker. That's the thing that's so amazing about it. So we are never set, you know, I believe that her magic is always within us. So as a lunar priestess, it's something that I have always been aware of. I've always been dedicated to this and I'm just so excited to share all of this stuff. And this is why I call my work a revelatory school rather than a mystery school because I want to reveal it. I want everyone to know, and I want everyone who's learned with me to be able to share this information so that we can actually shift the paradigm and get ourselves free gynecology and obstetrics, all of this science, you know, was founded on these horrendous colonial slavery kind of breeding and ownership of women. And I think we all need to liberate one another and we all need to really work to heal the memory of the suffering of these women who were, you know, some of them gave their lives so that these men of science could, you know, dictate to us what we to do with our bodies. But we've always known these things like the yoni steaming, the womb wrapping, you know, and these tantric touch healing modalities. They've been with us for so many millennia. It's like we're connecting with an ancient thread of something that we've always known. So, so yeah, that's my, that's my, that's my talk
Dr.Kyrin (51:43):
You know, it's so inspiring. I wanna go yes, BLI, yes. Bli, gosh, so much that you've said. And yes, the modern practice of gynecology, oh gosh, don't get me started. I'll just say briefly. It's not nurturing at all. And you know, a lot of women are on these synthetic hormones that shut down our own natural hormones and cut us off from our cycles. And I don't know that it's certainly not holistic in any way, shape or form. And although helpful, maybe in some ways I think it's possibly harmful and that's probably a whole other discussion. But what you said about revelatory instead of mystery school, I know a lot of people call their their esoteric or teaching energetic type teachings, mystery schools, but I love that you call it revelatory. And you know, when I set out on this journey of being a nomad for a year and a half and I went to so many different countries, I kind of didn't know what, why I was going.
Dr.Kyrin (52:42):
And then I got to Africa and the ancestors started speaking to me. I had never really had meaningful dialogue with them before. And they said, what do you mean we called you here on this journey? And then also when I was in South Africa, they started speaking to me and I realized that the journey was about finding home, finding my home. You know, I am multi-ethnic background and never really felt like I had a set identity that, oh, I'm this nationality or ethnicity. And it, it just was kind of nebulous. And so I had this sense that it was about finding home and really when I found this womb work, I realized that I had found home. Yeah, you know, that that the home I had been searching for was always within me. And it hearkens back to Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz that she was always home.
Dr.Kyrin (53:34):
And I kind of got that metaphor in that movie and many other movies. But what I realized is that what that I was missing was my own connection to my own sacred power of my womb. And I so thank you for being so open to talking with me about this, the coming on the podcast and sharing your wisdom with everyone, because I think that this is vital for all women to know, and this is the time that we all need to know this because our societies, our world needs us to have loving solutions that benefit everybody to the problems that we're facing. And I think that there are lots of answers to be found here. So I can't thank you enough for coming and sharing this.
Bliss Magdalena (54:26):
Yeah, it's my
Dr.Kyrin (55:00):
Yes. And please share with everyone where they can find you and connect with you online. We're gonna have all the links in the show notes, but please share that.
Bliss Magdalena (55:08):
Yeah, of course. I'm sharing, there's a video link to a practice, which is for this season of OS Tara. So it's called the Red Eggs Practice, and there's a link to my mailing list. So if you sign up for my mailing list, then I'll send you a link to this video so you can do these somatic practices where you are actually lighting the fire, the flame of spring, the flame of Tara within your womb, and really generating the space to sow the seeds for what you want to harvest this year. So it's a really lovely offering that's a free gift for you. And you can also find out information about the Lunar Womb Temple online training. So that's a nine month training. It starts on the 14th of May of this year. So anyone is welcome on that course and you can email me for more information.
Dr.Kyrin (56:02):
Thank you so much, bliss. Bless you. Thank you. I am so looking forward to this training and if you wanna join me, I'll go to the link in the site. We'll have it lunar wo temple dot get response site, I think it is. Dot
Bliss Magdalena (56:17):
Com. Yeah, that's the one. And my main website is bliss magdalena.com, so you can
Dr.Kyrin (56:22):
Find information on there as well. Right. I will see you there. Thank you so much, bliss. Thank you. Bye. And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I know you have loved this episode with Bliss Magdalena. I could talk to her for hours. I have so many questions for her. Hopefully some of them will be answered in our upcoming training. This is really a new field of exploration for me, but I realize that I've been on the womb healing path and helping others with this all my life, but I didn't know it, and now I know the real reason why I became a gynecologist. So stay tuned for more. I look forward to hearing your reflections and feedback on Instagram, Facebook, please meet me there at Kyrin Dunston md. Thank you so much for joining me. I look forward to seeing you next week for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Until then, peace, love, and
Dr. Kyrin (57:17):
Hormones,
Dr.Kyrin (57:17):
Y'all.
Dr. Kyrin (57:19):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome back, fabulous listeners! In this enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we are thrilled to have the brilliant Dr. Tom O’Bryan join us. Dr. O’Bryan is a globally recognized speaker who has dedicated his career to unraveling the mysteries of chronic disease, food sensitivities, and environmental toxins. Often referred to as the "Sherlock Holmes" of chronic disease, Dr. O’Bryan brings a wealth of knowledge and passion for helping people overcome health challenges, particularly during midlife.
What You’ll Learn:* The Inflammation Equation – How inflammation impacts your hormones and overall wellbeing, especially during midlife. * Invisible Triggers – Discover the hidden food sensitivities and environmental toxins that could be sabotaging your health. * Autoimmune Awareness – Understand the connection between chronic inflammation and autoimmune diseases, and how you can take proactive steps to protect yourself. * Practical Insights from Dr. O’Bryan – Gain actionable advice and strategies to reduce inflammation, balance your hormones, and reclaim your vitality.
Conversation Highlights:Dr. O’Bryan takes us on a captivating journey, starting with his personal story of discovering the power of functional medicine. He shares eye-opening anecdotes and real-life detective stories of patients who transformed their health by addressing hidden inflammation. With his signature blend of expertise and compassion, Dr. O’Bryan provides a roadmap for recognizing and mitigating the factors that may be wreaking havoc on your hormones.
If you found this episode as enlightening and empowering as we did, we’d love to hear from you! Please subscribe, rate, and review The Hormone Prescription Podcast on your favorite platform. Your feedback helps us bring more valuable content to midlife women everywhere.
About Our Guest:Dr. Tom O’Bryan, DC, CCN, DACBN is an internationally recognized speaker and educator specializing in food sensitivities, environmental toxins, and the development of autoimmune diseases. He holds teaching faculty positions with the Institute for Functional Medicine and the National University of Health Sciences. Dr. O’Bryan is the celebrated author of You Can Fix Your Brain and The Autoimmune Fix.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
The real epidemic isn't a virus, it's inflammation. It's claiming way more lives for many more years than any virus ever has. Stay tuned as we dive into the inflammation equation with Dr. Tom O'Brian.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:17):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:11):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. This is Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into the inflammation equation with one of my longtime friends, Dr. Tom o O'Brien, who has produced many famous docuseries that have helped millions of people globally improved their health, reverse disease, prevent disease, and create vitality and longevity that really is their birthright that they haven't been able to find. So I'm super excited to dive into his latest project with you, the Inflammation Equation. We're really gonna focus on how inflammation affects women, and particularly women over 40. What you need to know today, things you can start doing today to reverse inflammation in your body, which contributes is the leading contributor to the top 15 or so causes of death. He talks about that. Dr. Tom is a veritable walking encyclopedia of the latest studies on functional health, and he's gonna share some recent studies with you that are really gonna blow your mind when it comes to inflammation.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:24):
So you're going to want to listen up. We are gonna talk really about how do you know if you have inflammation? Are we talking about you? He has an incredible way to know in one sentence that you will never forget that you're gonna wanna love. He's gonna talk with you about the Toxic Substance Control Act and why they quote unquote, they are not protecting you, even though it seems like they are. The Toxic Substance Control Act is really something you need to understand why you are not protected and why you need to take action on your own health. He's gonna give you some actionable information, a way that you can reduce dementia risk by 54% just by doing something simple daily. So Dr. Tom's a veritable walking encyclopedia and very, gives you very action oriented information, and he's gonna share with you what you're gonna find in the upcoming event, the Inflammation Equation. I'll tell you a little bit about him and then we will get started. So Dr. Tom O'Brien has many initials after his name. He's an internationally recognized speaker focused on food sensitivities, environmental toxins, and the development of autoimmune diseases. He's considered a Sherlock Holmes for chronic disease and holds teaching faculty positions with the Institute for Functional Medicine and the National University of Health Sciences. He is the author of You Can Fix Your Brain and The Autoimmune Fix. Please help me welcome Dr. Tom O'Brien to the show.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (04:02):
Thank you so much. Pleasure to be with you.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:04):
I'm really excited to have you back on talking about two of my favorite topics, inflammation and hormones,
Dr. Tom O'Brian (04:32):
You bet. Primarily for me, I think the hook is the quality of your senior years. And the World Health Organization tells us that the healthy lifespan for the average woman in America is somewhere around 68 to 69 years. The lifespan of women in America is somewhere around 81 years. Well, wait a minute, what's the difference? Well, the healthy lifespan means that you're able to do what you want to do, that your body's functioning and you're not with a diagnosed disease that's limiting your lifestyle. And so what that's telling us is that the last 11 to 12 years of life for the average person in America is disabled. It's not healthy. Those are the numbers. And what are you doing that's going to help ensure you are not one of the average in a wheelchair or with such severe arthritis, you can't walk up a hill or whatever it should be.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (05:35):
What are you gonna do that's different than that? And there's a key, the key that unlocks the door to all of that, the Center for Disease Control tells us that 14 of the 15 top causes of death in the US today are chronic inflammatory diseases. It's always inflammation except for unintentional injuries, accidents, everything else is the cumulative damage of chronic inflammation under the surface that's been there for years. That is a realization. It's whoa. Well that doesn't relate to me Every cause of death, the top 15 causes of death, 14 of 15 are chronic inflammatory diseases without exception. So what that, okay, so what, what do I do about that? You learn how you're creating inflammation under the surface right now that may not be immobilizing you. So you feel fine. You're really not, you can't do the things you did 10 years ago. You're limited, but might feel fine.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (06:43):
No, you're not. But this level of inflammation is allowing you to walk around to do some basic things. So you think, well I'm, I'm doing okay. I'm doing pretty good. But the inflammation is under the surface killing off tissue every single day. And when you don't know this, you don't put any time into figuring out how do I reduce the inflammation? When you know this, then you ask the question, is this inflammatory or anti-inflammatory? And it comes down to should I have the apple or the potato chips? But you now have a paradigm to hold it in so that you can make choices that are more aligned with your desire to have quality of life.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:28):
Yeah. Sobering statistics that you offer. But I think it's so important that we women get a kind of a cold glass of water in our face because the level of denial about our health at midlife and beyond as we age, I think is, is enormous. And what that statistic you gave, and really it's our vitality span and our lifespan. A lot of us are living in this chronic disease state for so many years lying to ourselves that we really don't have a problem. But I'm wondering if you can speak to the fact that a lot of women do go to their doctors and they say, Hey doc, I'm not sleeping like I used to. I can't lose this weight. Signs of inflammation, right? Can't sleep weight gain. I have brain fog. My mood is a little off. I'm irritable. I don't wanna be sexual. All of these things. I'm having little aches and pains and they're really not getting the memo or information that it's because of inflammation. And so can you help them understand why getting a clean bill of health from your regular $30 HMO copay doctor really is not the stamp of approval and that they need to invest time and money into educating themselves about what's really going on that's harming them?
Dr. Tom O'Brian (08:45):
Yeah, really good question. You don't go to a podiatrist if you have migraines. Who are you going to in asking the questions of? You have to go to healthcare practitioners that are trained in functional medicine, integrative medicine, holistic medicine who are working to live the life that you wanna live. You, you don't go to a podiatrist with migraines. So going to your average HMO $30 copay doctor that gives you four minutes of time is not going to be the, that may be a good doctor for some things, but not for this. You wanna go to doctors who are spending the extra time and dollars to study and learn what they never learned in medical school. That's not part of the education in medical school. And when you go in for an exam, a physical and a blood test, they don't do blood tests to see if you're healthy.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (09:47):
They do blood tests to identify do you have any diseases? And there's a big world of difference between the two, right? So you want to get information that is designed around achieving the goals of extending your healthy lifespan. For example, the general of the American Medical Association came out and said the magic number is 9,846. You walk 9,846 steps a day, you reduce your risk of dementia by 54%. Doesn't matter if you have the gene for Alzheimer's. It doesn't matter that they followed 75,000 people for over 25 years. And those that were walking at least 9,846 steps per day reduced their risk of dementia by 54%. So that's really useful information. And so you learned, okay, well, you, like your iPhone can tell you how many steps you take a day or you can wear a wearable device on your wrist and you start seeing, oh, I'm walking 400 steps a day.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (10:55):
Well, that's not gonna cut it. That creates disease by itself. That creates inflammation when you sit all day, that by itself will fuel your disease. And the way to think of this is that if I pull it a chain, the chain always breaks at the weakest link. It's at one end, the middle, the other end. It's your heart, your brain, your liver, your joints, doesn't matter. It's the pull on the chain that determines where the symptom, when the symptoms are going to happen. And it's your genetics that determine which links are the weak links. The pull on the chain is inflammation.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:34):
Yeah, I love that. A chain always breaks its weakest link. So we're not getting this information in our doctor's offices. So we need to invest time and money and energy in getting that information for ourselves. And you've really dedicated your life to that, which I love. And I have to share this quote with everyone that you shared with me before we started. 'cause I love it. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community. And as long as I live, it's my privilege to do for it what I can. You really are a living example of that. We'll offer and share information on Dr. Tom's latest project will give you many resources to identify and remove the inflammation in your life and in your body. Let's talk a little bit about hormones and inflammation. So when we talk about inflammation, how does someone know if they have inflammation, if their doctor's not telling them? I guess that's the first question. And then we can dive into where is it coming from and how is it affecting my hormones as a woman at woman at midlife and beyond? But how would I know
Dr. Tom O'Brian (12:42):
If your body's not working the way you want it to? You're inflamed. Every disease is a disease of inflammation. And if you're not consciously, there's no way that a person is not carrying this low grade chronic inflammation if they're not actively learning how to reduce the triggers of that. For example, every time you put nail polish on the phalates, the chemicals used to mold plastic that make nail polish hard. The phthalates are in your bloodstream in four to five minutes every time you put nail polish on. And this stuff is, they're called endocrine disruptors. They disrupt how your hormones work. And the average woman, I don't know that you, you may know the exact number, I don't remember. It's somewhere around 120 to 140 chemicals. The average woman is putting on her body every morning before she leaves the house, as if those are safe.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (13:37):
They're not. And the way they, the, the industry gets away with this, oh, the government wouldn't allow anything like this. Oh, the government was paid off. The senators were paid off to pass this legislation called the Toxic Substance Control Act. And the TSCA says, you have to prove that the chemicals you're concerned about damage humans in the amounts that they're exposed to within 24 hours. They don't, most of them don't. There's no evidence of damage from the phthalates in your nail polish or from the phthalates that leach into the food. When you put leftover food in plastic containers. There's no evidence that the amount of phalates that are in the chicken the next day when you eat the chicken because it came out of the plastic into the food, there's no evidence that amount of phthalates is toxic to humans. There is no evidence. And that's how the industry got away with that.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (14:35):
But this stuff is cumulative in your body. It builds up over time. So give me a five-year-old girl painting her 10 little fingers and 10 little toes once a week with nail polish. Now she's 25 to 30 years old and she gets pregnant, wants to start a family, hopefully has a healthy pregnancy and a healthy delivery. Chicago not 2016, 346 pregnant women in the eighth month of pregnancy. And they did urine analysis looking for five different types of phthalates, these chemicals, these endocrine disrupting chemicals. And they put the results into fourths, the women with the lowest amount the next, the third and the highest. They followed the offspring of those pregnancies for seven years. And when the children turned seven years old, the researchers reached back out and said, hi, it's time to do that test for your child now and hope all is really great for you.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (15:36):
And they did the Wexler IQ test, the official IQ test. There's not much in medicine. That's all or every, but this was every child whose mother was in the highest category of phalates in urine and pregnancy compared to the children whose mothers were in the lowest quartile of phalates in urine and pregnancy. Every child in the highest category, their IQ was seven points lower. Six points seven to 7.4 points lower every single one of them. Now, that doesn't mean anything to anyone until you understand a one point difference in IQ is noticeable. A seven point difference is a difference between a child working really hard, getting straight A's in school and a child working really hard, getting straight C's in school, really working, but that child doesn't have a chance in hell of ever excelling. Now you just go to Google and you type in phthalates and neurogenesis brain cell growth.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (16:34):
Here come the studies. The higher the phthalates, the more you inhibit brain cell growth. So these women that have been painting their nails for 20 years, drinking out of plastic water bottles, wearing contact lenses, and the contact lens is full of phthalates and the solution is full of phthalates, they put in their eyes every day. This stuff accumulates in your body over time. Their babies are born with lower IQs, excuse me. Their babies are born with poorly developed brains and they develop poorer IQs by the age of seven. Wake up people. You can't put these poisons on your body or in your body and expect that you're going to be healthy and vibrant. It's not gonna happen. So you have to find, or organic cosmetics, you have to find glass storage containers. Give the Tupperware to your husband to store nails in the garage. That's what they're good for, right? It's, I mean, it's changing the way people think. And that's what our event is all about.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (17:39):
It was very sobering. And I know everybody listening is, oh my gosh, this is horrible. And I said, don't freak out. Just take action and start replacing the co toxic cosmetics that you have one by one when you run out with something new. That's a simple action you can take as a woman. Because yes, we put on myriad products on our skin, on our hair or nails or lips, but there's this so-called kind of greenwashing of cosmetics where they wanna say it's phthalate free. But then if you really read the ingredients, there's equally toxic, toxic ingredients. But the industry has kind of gotten savvy to say that the products are free of certain toxic chemicals that consumers are becoming aware of. So you wanna check out something like environmental working group. But there's so many things that you can do to protect yourself and to, you wanna stop getting these things in your body and you wanna start getting them out. So there are things you can do to usher them out. How are women at midlife 40 and above, particularly affected by inflammation? I love your simple explanation that if something's not working properly in your body, you have inflammation. I love that. That makes it super simple. So how are women in the perimenopause and menopause particularly affected?
Dr. Tom O'Brian (18:59):
Many women who are taking hormones did not have their hormone levels tested before they started taking hormones. They're shot shotgunning and when, and they feel better. So they think everything's fine. Mm-Hmm,
Dr. Tom O'Brian (20:01):
Look, if you have a deficiency, you take the hormones of course, but at the same time, you are rebuilding your system. And every cell, your body regenerates. You have an entirely new immune system every two months. So why are you continuing to have an autoimmune disease for those that have Hashimoto's or whatever as a thyroid autoimmune disease or celiac or whatever they've got. Why are you still regenerating cells that are, 'cause your immune system is just the armed forces there to protect you. There's an army and Navy and Air Force and Marines, we call 'em IGA, IgG, I-G-E-I-G-M cytokines. They're just branches of the armed forces. So when they're elevated, the question is not, how do I shut down the immune system? How do I calm it down? No, the question is, what is my immune system trying to protect me from? And so you begin to explore what foods are you eating, what environmental toxins are you being exposed to?
Dr. Tom O'Brian (21:05):
How much crud has accumulated in your body? You just start the journey. When I interviewed Fran Drescher for this event, the nanny, she was wonderful, just wonderful. She's a 24 year survivor of uterine cancer. And she looks lovely. She truly does. And she said, when I was diagnosed, my oncologist saved my life. She's a really good friend now. And I asked her, why did I get cancer? And the oncologist said, we don't know. It just happens. And Fran didn't believe that. And so she said, I decided to focus my fame not on raising money for cancer research, but rather raising money to educate. Where does cancer come from? And it's, and she founded Cancer Schmance. And cancer comes from all of the environmental triggers that you're exposed to, whether it's in your food or in your cosmetics or in your home. Harvard did a study and they looked at, I got, I think it was, I'm sorry, I don't remember the exact number.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (22:14):
I think it was 15,000. It may have been a little bit more. 15,000 people with cancer, different types of cancers. Every single one of them had elevated markers of the immune system fighting mold, every single one of them. And it's like, what? What? So you have to check your house. Is there mold in this? My house is fine. No, you don't smell it. You don't see it. If you can smell it, it's bad. It's really bad. And so you just start learning and you just, and as Fran said, she said, Dr. O'brien, how did you get to my guest bathroom? 'cause I had just gone to the bathroom before we started filming. And I said, well, it's right over there. She said, yes, but how did you get there? And then I saw the sparkle in her eye and I knew what she was doing. I said, one step at a time. And she started that laugh of hers at Nanny. That was her message. You take one step at a time. You just, for example, you change out your toothpaste, you take a look at the toothpaste in your medicine cabinet and it says, warning, do not swallow. If swallowed, call National Poison Control Center,
Dr. Tom O'Brian (23:23):
That's what it says on the box. Because they have to, but nobody reads this stuff. And we think, oh, we, they'd never give me anything that would harm me. Wake up.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (23:36):
My kids used to say that all the time when I would try to explain to them why eating such and such wasn't a good idea. And they would say they wouldn't allow it if it weren't healthy
Dr. Tom O'Brian (24:15):
Oh, it's just magical. It's really magical. There it is. One hour a day for nine days. It's all free. And I traveled the world for a year, seven countries, 84 interviews the world leaders in environmental exposures, in brain function, in reversing Alzheimer's, the real leaders. And when you hear them speak, and when they say, so I say, excuse me professor. And I stop them in the middle of, did you just say, well, yes. Well that's a geeky word. People won't understand that. Does that mean well, yes. So then that means this. And they say, well, yes, exactly. Oh, thank you. Please continue. So you hear what these world scientists, world class scientists are saying about where disease comes from. And it's always without exception. It's always excessive inflammation. It's basic 1 0 1. Every doctor should have been taught this their first week in their education so that everything they learned would be under the umbrella of when inflammation gets really bad. This happens to your kidneys when inflammation's going on for years. This happens to your eyes when inflammation's go. That's how they should be taught because it's our lifestyle, the environment that we live in, the foods we decide to eat that activate your immune system for the inflammation that you get. And then wherever the weak link is in your chain, that's where you're gonna get a problem. Yeah.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (25:52):
So we will have the information in the show notes where you can go to sign up and get this free Inflammation Equation event with all these top experts. I just wanna ask you a tough question because without getting too political, there is a lot of narrative around having people will not believe or understand that inflammation contributes to some of the top causes of death. Just like there's a narrative around what I call hormonal poverty doesn't contribute to this even though it's associated with seven of the top 10 causes of death. And so really you, you talked about going to a functional medicine provider, they can attend their your event. Where can people get credible information? How do they vet the information they're getting? Because there are a lot of health coaches out there. There are a lot of credentialed people who are on YouTube and various social media and giving a lot of information. But how does somebody really know what's credible and who to believe? I think consumers are really struggling with that right now.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (27:03):
You bet. And that's gonna get worse because so many people who have no education, no formal education are getting trained in marketing. And so they know how to carry a message out. Yeah. And that's a big problem. I've been impressed with what some of those programs say. 'cause They're right. Some of them are right on the money. It doesn't matter that they don't have a degree. They've really done their homework and they've learned a lot. For example, Fran Drescher, she doesn't have any formal education, but Cancer Schmance helps tens of thousands of people every few months who come and look at her programs and understand how do you detox your house? She talks about these chemicals. How do you know whether you're getting accurate information? That's a very valid question. I think events like this podcast where you bring on people that you screened so you know that they're credible is a, a good place to go for information.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (28:07):
Going to cancer Schmance is a great place to go. Reading my books, there's over 300 studies in each of my books, and I just talk pure science. I'm going to give you a study here, and it has an aspect to it that's not pure science. I always say, if there's something I say that's not just not pure science, and this is one of those times I think the most sensitive tissue in the human body is the fertilized egg. That it has no protection of its own. It's completely descent, dependent on mom and mom's environment for its survival, for its nutrition, and for its growth. This may not be to your audience, but I'm sure everyone can relate to it. And certainly for your children who may be of childbearing age. So Harvard published a study in the Journal of the American Medical Association three years ago, and the editors of the journal said, this is an elegant study using sophisticated biomarkers to prove their point.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (29:13):
Now, as Dr. Karen, the editors of the Journal of the American Medical Association don't say that very often. They don't give a stamp of approval to an article like that, right? But they did for this one. And they looked at women going to assisted fertility centers and they ruled out in an elegant way the contributing factors that they know of that determine success or failure. Are they smoking? Do they drink alcohol? Are they exercising socioeconomic class race? They ruled all of that out. And they went for one topic only. How many servings of fruits and vegetables is the woman eating a day while she's going through these injections? And then the implantation process and the results were shocking. They put those women into quartiles, the lowest number of servings of fruits and vegetables per day, the next, the third and the highest number of servings of fruits and vegetables a day.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (30:17):
And those women in the highest category of consumption of fruits and vegetables per day had an 18% less likelihood of successful implantation compared to the women eating the lowest amount of fruits and vegetables a day. Wait a minute, did you say the more fruits and vegetables you eat, the worse the outcome? Yes. And if they did get pregnant, they had a 26% less likelihood of alive birth. They lost the babies to still births and miscarriages. The more fruits and vegetables you eat, fruits and vegetables, the more fruits and vegetables you eat, the worse the outcome. This is published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, and it came from Harvard. And this is what Yeah, completely paradigm shifting. And the editors have said, this is an elegant study using sophisticated biomarker. You can't argue with the science, but there was a subgroup of women that were eating organic.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (31:17):
And in that category, the results were the exact opposite. The more fruits and vegetables you eat, the better and the more success. And here's the good news. Women were put in the category of organic consumption. If they ate three servings per week, not 21 servings a week, three, that's all it took to completely reverse and get successful results. Now, the edit, the authors didn't address that topic of only three a week to be in the category. If they did two a week, they didn't see the benefit. But at three a week, they saw the same benefit as people eating 15, 18, 20 servings a week. So it just took three. Why? I think, and I don't have any signs for this, but I think it's because if you're eating organic whenever you can, you've got organic shampoo in your shower and you've got organic soap at the kitchen sink and you're trying, you're doing the best that you can, you're learning more.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (32:17):
And in that case, it made the complete difference, success or failure for these couples spending tens of thousands of dollars in all the emotional stress that women go through because it's the insecticides and pesticides and fungicides, rodenticides, glyphosate and antibiotics on the fruits and vegetables that are triggering the inflammation that we get. So you think you're doing something good for yourself eating fruits and vegetables and you are, but your carrots and your cucumbers and your tomatoes and your apples are loaded with pesticides. So if you can't get organic, and this is what we teach, and you learn about all this in the inflammation equation. If you can't get organic, you get the veggie spray wash and you grab the broccoli. When you bring it home from the store and you spray it with the wash, you dip it in the, the bowl of water, swish it around like that, and you lift it, wow, it's so much greener.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (33:15):
That's because you just took the wax and the pesticides off of it and you re, you reduce 94% of the toxic chemicals on the fruit or vegetables that quickly. But if you don't know this, you don't do it. And you get the pesticides. And because I think the most sensitive tissue is that fertilized egg, it doesn't have a chance if mom has been accumulating like the nail polish, the phthalate study, if mom's been accumulating over a lifetime, not knowing that she was accumulating all these toxins, but she was. And if you don't know this, you don't do anything about it. And so you've have this low grade inflammation all the time. So you just start learning. Yeah, you get glass storage containers, you get phthalate free nail polish, you get organic whenever you can. You get the spray for your vegetables that are not organic and you just learn these things and all of a sudden your body starts functioning better. 'cause You reduce the inflammation.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (34:09):
Yeah. And you stop using the plugins and the air fresheners. That's my big pet peeve. And the perfumes
Dr. Tom O'Brian (34:15):
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (34:16):
That are full toxins. Oh my gosh.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (34:19):
Blue Cross Blue Shield published this paper in February of 2020 and said, we got a problem. And nobody read it because that's when the virus came out. And so nobody, it should have been on the front page of every paper in the country. They said in the previous four year period, there was a 407% increase in the diagnosis of early Alzheimer's in 30 to 44 year olds. Wow. In four years, 407% increase. This is the pandemic, is the accumulation of all the chemicals that are causing so much inflammation, killing off brain cells, killing off brain cells, killing off brain cells or kidney cells or vision cells. It doesn't matter the tissue, wherever the weak link is, that's where you're going to develop the problem.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (35:10):
This is the epidemic. It really is. It's way worse than any virus that we've had around, and it's probably claiming the lives and wellbeing and vitality of many more people. I don't know the exact numbers, but every single day and it's ongoing and getting worse. So let's talk a little bit about what people will find there. You've got several different episodes that people get access to. Nine different ones. You are gonna help them navigate what to put on their plate, what's healthy. Some of the information like you just shared, you don't have to do it perfectly, but what are the places you can make the biggest impact with your food? You're gonna talk about the environment, reducing environmental toxins with the products you use. You have something also on the biomes in your body. Do you wanna talk a little bit about that?
Dr. Tom O'Brian (36:04):
One of the episode four is all about the biomes, the microbiome in your gut and the oral microbiome you swallow. This is kind of a gross visual, but you swallow over a liter a day of saliva and the saliva, the bacteria in your mouth are inoculating your gut. And so you're gonna learn how to have a really fresh mouth and how to build a healthy microbiome. The importance of that. We are taking the major topics, hormones, we're taking the major topics and just gently introducing what the world experts say and then how do you start moving in another direction from that. So it's a big educational experience. People will wanna listen to it again and again. And the thanks and the kudos that we're getting emails are just hundreds and hundreds of emails just thanking us for this. That it, this really makes sense. Boy, I finally understand how to lead my family and their health for the rest of our lives. I've got a great picture of this. Now our job is really to change the paradigm, to change the way that people think about their health and to be more selective of what you put on your body and in your body. Yeah.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (37:25):
Well, I encourage everyone to attend. It is free. We will have the link in the show notes, but I'll spell it out for you. It's www.theinflammationequation.com/kirin, K-Y-R-I-N, and we'll have the link. So if you're driving, don't try to write that down. But Dr. Tom, thank you so much for joining us today. I love that you, your life really does belong to the community and that you are a man of service and truth and research. A man after my own heart. It's been an honor and a privilege to have you here today.
Dr. Tom O'Brian (38:02):
Thank you, Karen. A real pleasure for me also,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:05):
And thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about today's episode and what you've learned, especially at the inflammation equation. You can reach out to me on social media and share the insights that you've gained and how you are putting the information you've learned into effect in your life for positive change so that you can have a longer vitality span as well as a longer lifespan. Thanks so much for joining me. I'll see you next week.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:35):
Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► The Inflammation Equation: Decoding The Steps For Optimal Wellbeing Video by Dr. Tom O'Bryan -Award Winning Dr. Tom O’Bryan Reveals Exactly How To Reverse The Root Cause Of Cancer, Diabetes, and Heart Disease… Without Meds Or Needles: CLICK HERE to watch for FREE.
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Are you feeling more burnt out than blissful as you hit midlife? If so, this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is your new best friend. Join us as we chat with the incredible Dr. Tanya Beaubrun who reveals how to turn life’s toughest lessons into "blessons" (blessings + lessons), helping you transform burnout into a powerful breakthrough.
Meet Our GuestDr. Tanya BeaubrunDr. Tanya Beaubrun is not just any doctor; she’s a beacon of hope and a source of profound wisdom for women navigating the tumultuous midlife years. With a medical career that spans decades and a personal history of overcoming adversity, Dr. Tanya knows firsthand what it means to rise from the ashes. Her compassionate approach combines conventional medicine with holistic practices, making her an invaluable guide for anyone looking to heal from the inside out.
Key Takeaways1. Understanding "Blessons":
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Discover how Dr. Tanya coined the term "blessons" and why it’s crucial for your mental and emotional well-being.
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Recognizing Burnout:
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Learn the subtle and not-so-subtle signs of burnout that many midlife women experience but often overlook.
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Pathway to Breakthrough:
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Dr. Tanya lays out a roadmap for turning the low points in your life into stepping stones for success and happiness.
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Holistic Healing:
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Explore the power of combining conventional medicine with holistic healing practices to achieve balanced health.
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Practical Tips:
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Get actionable advice on how to implement these insights into your daily life, ensuring long-term wellness.
Why You Should ListenThis episode is not just an interview; it’s a heartfelt conversation that promises to leave you feeling inspired, empowered, and ready to tackle midlife with renewed vigor. Whether you're struggling with hormonal changes, emotional fatigue, or just need a motivational boost, Dr. Tanya’s wisdom will resonate deeply with you.
Feeling inspired? Don’t keep this newfound wisdom to yourself. Share this episode with your friends and join our community of empowered women on this beautiful midlife journey! And if you’re ready to take the next step towards holistic health, book a consultation with Dr. Tanya Beaubrun.
We’d love to hear your thoughts, questions, and stories of how you’ve transformed your own "blessons" into breakthroughs. Follow us on our social media accounts and use the hashtag #TheHormonePrescriptionPodcast to join the discussion.
Midlife doesn’t have to be a crisis; it can be a time of tremendous growth and transformation. With experts like Dr. Tanya Beaubrun guiding the way, you can turn your life's trials into triumphs. Tune in, transform, and thrive!
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Dr. Kyrin (00:00):
There are two important days in your life, the day you were born, and the day you find out why. Mark Twain, stay tuned as Dr. Tanya helps you understand how to use your life. Bless to go from burnout to breakthrough at midlife.
Dr. Kyrin (00:17):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYNI had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin (01:10):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we speak with Dr. Tanya Beaubrun. She's gonna talk to you about what that means and we had a beautiful, beautiful conversation that I know you're gonna find inspirational and it's really gonna help you understand if you're experiencing burnout and you're feeling hopeless, what the path forward is. And this is from two doctors who have been there and gotten through it and now we help others. So you're gonna get a lot of inspiration as well as information and tools. We talk about so many things. The tool she shares, a tool to uncover what your dreams actually are, helps you understand that second most important day in your life. And if you're feeling like you're not where you're supposed to be in life, she helps you understand where, how to know where you're supposed to be and really helps you to start dreaming of life and color again if life has become black and white for you.
Dr. Kyrin (02:19):
I know that was true for me back when I weighed 243 pounds and my health was really tanked. Life had become black and white and now it's in color again, full color. So she's gonna really help you get unstuck 'cause she got herself unstuck. And we're gonna share that with you today. I'll tell you a little bit more about her and then we'll get started. She specializes in functional and integrative medicine. She's way more than a physician. She's a certified wellness and lifestyle empowerment coach, a motivational speaker and author. And she has a passion for nurturing wellbeing. She helps individuals rediscover their mojo for a happier, healthier life. She is a graduate of the University of the West Indies. She advocates a holistic approach to wellness, blending mind, body and spirit practices. And her credentials include an honors degree in alternative medicine and certifications in functional anti-aging and regenerative medicine. She is the CEO of Rodney Bay Medical and Diagnostic Center and Spearheads, Satya Integrative Medical Services, which is the Caribbean's first functional and integrative medical clinic. And she shares more about that during our discussion about really how revolutionary what she's offering in the Caribbean is. Please help me welcome Dr. Tanya Braven to the show.
Dr. Tanya (03:36):
Thank you for having me.
Dr. Kyrin (03:38):
I'm really excited to have you on the show. After reading your book Bubbles, Buddha and Butterflies, it was so touching and really spoke to me of the inner journey that we're on when we're seeking health as women at midlife. So I'm wondering if you can just start by sharing a little bit of your journey, how you went from burnout. You were there and I was there
Dr. Tanya (04:56):
It's a very interesting story now that I can look back from a space. You know, hindsight is always 2020. And I went into medicine. I've always known I was going to be a doctor. There was, you know, from the age of six or seven, I knew that was what I was going to do. I would take care of my dogs, I took care of my family, my cousins, you know, I I was just the nurturer. And we figured that's the only way to do it. So I went into medicine, conventionally trained, loved it, still do. But then I realized somewhere along the line that something was missing. And I thought that I was treating the bodies of my patient. We were well equipped in medical school to treat the minds of our patients as well as I would've liked. So I decided to become, to do a course in health coaching.
Dr. Tanya (05:46):
So I would blend health coaching with my medical practice to better treat the minds of my patient. Well, the first patient who, whose life was transformed by health coaching was my being exposed to a holistic approach with IIN bioidentical and genetics and all of that. And I thought, wow, there's so much more to medicine than I realized. And the shortly after that, I burnt out. Wasn't too long after that the first time, I didn't know what it was. I just thought that I had, I wasn't strong enough. There was a deficiency within myself that would not allow me to do what I, what I felt I needed to do as a physician, a wife, a mother of three. The second time I had then come through the IN course. I knew more about the adrenal fatigue. And by some stroke of luck, I happen to have a five point cortisol test kit.
Dr. Tanya (06:44):
I practice in the Caribbean. So you have to understand that we don't do many of the tests that you have available in the us We don't have right at our fingertips, especially the newer tests. And in functional and integrative medicine, we, we are a sort of, we are behind in certain ways. Somehow I found this test and I had to FedEx it out and lo and behold I had flatlined. Well, for me that was like the biggest aha and the biggest blessing because I realized that it wasn't in my head. You know, you go to doctors and your labs are normal and they tell you, oh, it's, it's just hormones, or you're just tired or you're just stressed and, you know, just sleep or rest more. So I had to find a way to heal myself because I realized that conventional western medicine was not going to heal me.
Dr. Tanya (07:28):
And I went on this path, found, somehow found functional medicine, founded con functional medicine, female doctor who looked at me with such compassion and understanding, like I truly felt seen and heard. I burst into tears and she held me and she told me that it's gonna take me at least two years to get back. Well, I'm the perfectionist, you know, and I'm a doctor, so it's not gonna take me two, it's impossible. It's maybe three months
Dr. Tanya (08:23):
And then slowly but surely things started to crumble again. Of course. 'cause I didn't allow myself to heal properly. And there was one incident with a patient where I realized that it was a long time patient of ours and, and also a family friend. And he called me because he was dying. He knew he was going. When I got to his bedside, I knew that I was not gonna save his life. And it was the hardest thing for me because I'm like, okay, you've called the doctor, the doctor's supposed to save your life. And there I'm looking at him and he knows very well he's dying and I can't, and I know that I'm not going to be able to save him. Not at all. So I stayed with him and the family prayed and then I started to rub his feet. 'cause His feet were going cool.
Dr. Tanya (09:03):
And I said, oh, it must be so uncomfortable for him. So I just rub his feet. And as I looked up, he was looking down at me and I thought, he knows he's love. He knows how much I've, I have cared for him. And at the end of his life, he will know how much he is loved. And I realized then that sometimes the best prescription that we can give is a prescription for love. That totally changed everything for me. And he died later that day. And I went back and, but it just, everything changed. My whole foundation shifted because I was trained to be a doctor and I was trained to save lives. But then I realized I won't save every life, but that doesn't mean that I can't help them. Doesn't mean that I can't be the one to help them transition in a loving and compassionate way.
Dr. Tanya (09:48):
And I started to look at every single person who came and sat across my desk in a different light. How can I change their lives? How can I truly make them better? How can I heal them in whatever way, whether it's physical, emotional, or spiritual? I realized then that sometimes that's what we have to look at. It's not just the physical aspects of the patient. There's an emotional aspect, a mental aspect and a spiritual aspect. It took me on a journey where I started to look at my mental health, my physical health, my emotional health in a totally different way. I got deeper into my spirituality, worked with Gabby Stein and her spirit junkie masterclass. And it was as if I was going through these shifts and every time I went through another shift, something else would fall on my lap. And I'm like, oh wow, okay, let me do this.
Dr. Tanya (10:38):
And then a few years later I decided I'm going to study functional medicine because I do not want any patient to fall into this burnout path that I did and not be able to have someone who will be there for them and have them feel seen and heard and held in a safe space. Because that's what I realized I had needed and was not able, I, there was nobody to give it to me at the time. Found functional medicine, another layer of my world opened up and then I found integrative medicine, another layer. Chinese medicine, Ayurvedic medicine. Naturopathy. Homeopathy. And I'm like, these predated western medicine by thousands and thousands of years. But we were never taught that in medical school. And I started to look at things in a different light and, and everything just shifted. And it was at that point that I realized I had to practice medicine my way in a more heart-based way, in a compassionate way.
Dr. Tanya (11:38):
And still prescribe love whilst writing a prescription for medication. I'm prescribing love, whether they leave without a medicine, but it's a hug. Patient today told me that I set him on a path. All I did was tell him, he said he didn't know what job to choose. He was between two jobs. And I said, well, you know, I have these stones on my desk with inspirational sayings. Choose a stone, maybe it'll help you. And he chose joy. And he says, you know, that's what I told my wife, I need more joy in my life. I said, well, clearly you want the right path 'cause you chose, you chose it. I didn't choose it for you. You chose it. Then he decided he wanted to flip a coin and asked me to flip it for him. So I said, you know, I didn't know my job in entailed flipping coins, but there I was flipping coins for him,
Dr. Tanya (12:19):
And every time he flipped it, he says, one more time. And I flipped it again. I'm like, I'm really not good at flipping coins. He says, but you're getting the same thing. I said, I'm not getting it. The coin's getting it. So he was able to get his answers and I, I looked at him today and I said, well sometimes my job involves rolling stones on flipping coins
Dr. Kyrin (12:48):
It's such a beautiful story and I love in your book how you relate that part where you said, I realized I had been doing what I thought I should be doing to be I'll fill in the blank, happy, successful, a good person, a good doctor, whatever. 'cause I have that realized that same thing that the early part of my life and career was really centered around. And I think this speaks to all women we're really told that essentially we all function the same and we should want marriage kids career. You know, nevermind that it's kind of a lie that
Dr. Kyrin (13:45):
And so everybody listening, if you're feeling like you are really a footnote in your own life and you've created, I created a life that wasn't sustainable for me because it wasn't a authentic and it's ad the health concerns are not separate from that. That was the big realization for me as I also discovered functional medicine and started healing myself, is not just the physical, it's about so much more. It's who you're being in your life, how you're living your life. Are you in alignment with your soul's purpose or not? Are you on the speaking the truth of who you came to be in this lifetime? And you described it so beautifully. Your book is just, it's beautifully written. And so for everyone listening, it's not a medical text. You're not gonna get a bunch of a medical ease jargon. It's really soul, soul, heart to heart, one woman to another at midlife. I lost my way. I know you might have too. And I wanna share my story. And so I I think you did that
Dr. Tanya (14:50):
Beautifully. Thank you. I have a little story about that book. So while I was on this journey, I started writing because I had left everything. I left my practice, I left my husband back home. So I went to Florida to study and I was with my daughter and my two boys were in university there as well. So I was what I call a single mom in a new country driving on the different, a different side of the road, learning everything new. I had never lived in the US before and I started writing as a form of release or just these things would come up and I would just settle write. And they were just there. One, one was taken up by Huffington Post, another one by another blog, you know, but they were just there. And while I was doing that, I decided, I, I figured I had to write a book because that's what everybody else was doing.
Dr. Tanya (15:41):
You know where you're on these, you know, you in my, even his coaching groups and everybody's write books I forgot to write. So I started, I started writing a book and it was what you'd think is a medical text, you know, medical, not a text, but a medical book to help people. And so, so I wrote it was, I had the cover, I had everything. About two weeks before I was finishing up my program and was leaving the us I started to get the jitters. I started to question myself, did you do the right thing? Are you going back home? Will they accept you? You know, you're in a small island. Will they even know what functional medicine is? You've given up so much of your time and your life here and, and you're going back and they may not even want you back. And it was a real dark night of the soul.
Dr. Tanya (16:23):
And I remember very vividly, I packed up the apartment and I was, we had one bed and I couldn't sleep. So I left my husband and my daughter and I went to sleep on the floor in the living room. 'cause I was just so tormented, so just anxious. And all of a sudden, the day before I was flying out, I'm like, you have a book. You need to put all these things you've been writing into a book and share it with the world because it's going to help somebody else in your, in a position similar to yours. I sat on that flight and I channeled that book. I never looked up so I wasn't, 'cause I was very scared to go back home. It sounds strange, but I was scared of what I would face. You know, you all, you leave and you, you, you figure you brave and you suffer.
Dr. Tanya (17:09):
But when the time comes to get back, that's when you're like, oh, the reality is gonna hit. And how hard will that reality be? So I'm on that flight, it's a three and a half hour flight, and I don't look up or down. I have headphones on and I put up my laptop. I very rarely use my laptop on a flight, but I never stop. By the time I landed, three and a half hours later, 90% of that book was completed. I had gone through all the essays, chosen the once rewritten, all the essays, decided how I was going to do it. The book just came through me. And I know that the universe sent this to me at that time to give me the time and space to process what I had gone through and to share it with somebody out there who needed to hear that it's okay to go after your dreams.
Dr. Tanya (17:55):
It's okay to be authentic. It's okay to speak your truth even though sometimes it's hard. Even though sometimes you're scared. Do it scared. Just live your life and do it the best way that you can because the only person that's going to be with you through the dark nights of the soul is you and your mind. And the name of the book, my son once, that was years ago, way before the book, I always said if I'd write a book that would be the name. He looked at me in the middle of Vegas about places, and I was walking through the mall and there was this beautiful Buddha and I like, oh my God, I have to stop and go in. He just looked at me, he says, oh, you, you're all about Buddha and butterflies. Every time there's a Buddha, we have to stop every time there are butterflies, we have to stop. And I'm like, you know what? I'm gonna write a book and I'm gonna call it a Bubbles Buddha and butterflies. And he just looked at me, he says, whatever, you just have to stop all these butterflies and all these, put it just so I wrote, that was the name of the book. So the name of the book was way before the idea for the book came in. Yeah. So everything just fell into place for this book.
Dr. Kyrin (18:56):
Yeah, it's so, it's so beautifully written. I I can't recommend it highly enough for any woman at midlife period. If you have burnout, if you don't know what your dreams are, it's just beautifully written, very inspiring. I think you really hit on key factors that keep us as women stuck. A lot of us think it's our health and that is a part of it. But there's something before the health where it is this honoring of ourselves and our permission to go against what society says we should be. And you know, I I hope everyone listening really gets how brave it is for doctors like Dr. Tanya and me to go outside the mainstream medicine is really a religion
Dr. Tanya (19:42):
It's
Dr. Kyrin (19:42):
Not so much science as it is a religion. Because what mainstream medicine, no matter what continent you live on, or country you live in, is is a certain belief system in how you treat the body and how health is created or destroyed. And it's limited to giving a pill for every ill a surgery for every symptom. And it's not really targeted at healing the underlying cause. And so as doctors, we are trained into this belief system, this religion of mainstream medicine. And then we're told we know more about this type of health than anybody else. So forget everything else. And what the science says that we clearly are ignoring a large majority of what it takes to create health for men and women. We're ignoring our spirituality. We're ignoring the causative aspects. We're ignoring our lifestyle aspects. All the inputs that we go to learn in functional medicine school that the naturopaths got the first time we have to go to another school to take another medical education.
Dr. Kyrin (20:52):
And then we might take herbology, right, or acupuncture or energy medicine, which is something I've studied. And we have to start learning how to incorporate the spirituality. So for, for you to go outside your country and learn all these newfangled things, right, which aren't new at all. Like you pointed out, they're thousands of years old and have been validated by modern science. But mainstream medicine just conveniently wants to keep that out of everyone's awareness is extremely brave. I loved how you described that. You didn't have the awareness of your bravery and then all of a sudden it came into focus for you. Wow. Like I've been brave my every step of the way in following my inner guidance and now I'm going back. And then I could see where the transformation happened for you that shift to owning yourself and owning Yourself's, calling and having a mission to bring this to people who otherwise, you know, if they don't hear it from you, there's some people who will never hear it.
Dr. Kyrin (21:57):
And so I loved that and I want every woman listening to really pay attention because I have yet to talk to a woman who doesn't have this inside her too. And she's covered it up and buried it and forgotten it and denied it and just settled for what she thinks she should have, but she thinks she can have instead of what her soul has always known it wanted, that maybe she hasn't thought about in decades. So can you talk about the importance of like really you saw yourself true for who you were and what you were here to do? And how do women get to that place? Because there are women listening right now who are laying across the bed in despair because they're like, I've tried everything. There is no answer to my fill in the blank with the 60 plus symptoms of what I call midlife metabolic mayhem. You know, overweight, tired, no sex, hair falling out, skin issues, liver issues, digestive issues, mental health issues, you name the list. So there's a woman right now laying across the bed thinking her life is over because she can't find the answers. So how can you help her move into an awareness that you have?
Dr. Tanya (23:09):
First of all, her first instinct is usually right. Reach out for help and the awareness that something is not quite right. I think it took me a long time to acknowledge that something wasn't right. You know, you, you get up at two and three in the morning and you, you, you don't know why you're not sleeping and you as you call, you have me metabolic mayhem. But you keep thinking that it was going to go away. And that if, if you work harder, if you work out longer, if you eat less, if you just commit to doing more, it'll go away. Where really we should be committing to being more of ourselves. But sometimes we've forgotten, we don't even know who we are anymore. And post covid, I think it's even worse because I think the physical isolation and we became disconnected from ourselves in ways that are unprecedented.
Dr. Tanya (24:04):
And we are reaching a stage, I think this year where we're only now processing the effects of the pandemic on top of everything else that's going on with us physically and emotionally and spiritually. I had hoped that in many ways that the pandemic would be an awakening for the healthcare community because I realized that functional medicine was made for times like these. This is where functional medicine showed the diamond for what it really is during covid and now beyond. And not enough people are aware that one, there is this thing called functional medicine that actually looks at the patient and not the disease process alone. And that is individualized. And that we look at everything, the entire history of the patient, a comprehensive physical exam, the labs are looked at in a different way. There's so much and there's not one better than the other.
Dr. Tanya (25:01):
And I keep telling people, I will not say that conventional medicine is better or worse than functional medicine. I think there's a need for every single part, including the alternative, what we call, they call alternative. And I call complimentary because they compliment what we do. And we need to start integrating everything that we've learned into a unique recipe that is designed for each patient. So for this woman lying across the bed, I wanted to know that I see you, I hear you, I feel you, I have been exactly where you are. And you will get out of this and you will get out stronger, smarter, fitter, wiser, and even more beauty. Your soul will be even more beautiful for what you've been through. I always tell people the dark night of the soul that many people go through, it's just polishing us for something to shine our light brighter. We've just been polished. But when you're going through that, you're like, gosh, can, can you just polish me? It's not as hard. Can, can I get a light polish?
Dr. Tanya (26:08):
Must you polish? Must you, you know, I don't need to be scrubbed that hard. You know, I just want to gentle polish. You're going too deep. And it hurts as it really hurts. It really does. But then when you come out and you look at it, I look at so much that I burned out, including after Covid. And I look at those moments and I think they were lessons, lessons and they were blessings. And I call them the blessings. Blessings. I love that. Blessings and blessings. The blessings that that came out of these. I can now say beautiful things. And I, I have a lot of patients going through that now. And sometimes I think I'm so grateful that I went through it so I can truly empathize with the patient and say, okay, I understand. I truly get what you're going through. I get getting upon a morning and saying, there must be mortalized than this.
Dr. Tanya (27:02):
I get going on the scale and said, where did those five pounds come from? You know, put it on your rings, trying to put on your, my, my wedding ring one day wouldn't go on. I'm like, what happened to my fingers? And I'm looking at those fingers, I'm like, when did my fingers get fat?
Dr. Tanya (27:54):
I promise you, you will see that light again. But in order to see the light, we have to go through this tunnel. And if you have a partner holding your hand through the tunnel, it's a lot easier. And that partner is a sympathetic, well-trained healthcare professional. Somebody who will see you, who will hear you, who will truly sit back and see you for what you're going through and will not tell you it's in your head or you just need to rest. Or God forbid some, one of my patients, and I swear that was true, was told to just have another baby, just go have another baby. It was sort out your hormones. And I'm like, you are kidding me. They did not tell you that. She came to me. She says, he told me to just have another baby. I said, your doctor told you that?
Dr. Tanya (28:39):
He said yes. I said, I promise you do not need to have another baby. You know, and these are the stories that you hear all the time. And you think, where were we trained? Where is the deficiency in our training that we can look at the woman who hasn't slept for weeks, who is tired, who has gained weight? And it's not that it's in her mind. 'cause If you've been tracking her weight, you will see she's gained weight. She will tell you that her clothes are no longer fitting her. She's, she hasn't made it up. She's not gonna go and buy clothes because she just feels like it. And tell her that the answer to her, her, her problem is to have to get pregnant and have another baby. More lack of sleep, more weight gain, more hormonal issues. So we have to find partners, health partners, who will walk this tunnel with us and beyond because, not because you've gone through the tunnel and you've reached the end and you, you're seeing the light.
Dr. Tanya (29:29):
You can drop, I can drop your hand or you can drop my hand. I need to walk you through, get your, be on that and say, listen, I'll always be here for you if you need me. And that is what I think a lot of us have lacked in the past where we know there's a trusted healthcare partner that we can always go to and say, today I'm not feeling it. Or something is not quite right because the patient lives in their bodies and they know when something is not right. Even if the labs are normal, even if all the tests are normal and we can roll our eyes and bounce our head against the wall and say, what else is there? The patient knows. And if we allow them to tap into their inner wisdom and tune into their innate ability to heal themselves, we will have the answers. And that's our job. Not to just write prescriptions and tell them what to do. It's a partnership.
Dr. Kyrin (30:22):
Yes, it is so beautifully described. You know, I had to laugh when you said that about the doctor told her to have another baby. 'cause I, it brought up a memory for me from medical school 'cause I had crazy periods. That's one of the things that drawn me to going into ob. GYN is trying to figure myself out. And they told me that the doctor at the clinic at my med school told me, have a baby, this will get better. And that's insane
Dr. Kyrin (31:13):
Whether it's a relationship crisis or a health crisis or a financial career crisis, something has to get our attention. And for some of us it is our health. So also I like to encourage women to stop thinking about your health problems as an obstacle and start looking at them as the pathway to the evolution of your soul. Like you talk about the butterflies that you love, I love them too. It really is the pathway. And I love this quote you shared from Mark Twain. There are two important days in your life, the day you were born and the day you find out why. And I think for a lot of the women I work with their health challenges and passing through them and learning how to navigate them becomes the vehicle through which they find out why they are here on this earth. And if you're listening and you're thinking, Karen, I can't even think about how I'm gonna get dinner and you're talking about why I'm here on this earth, I really don't care.
Dr. Kyrin (32:17):
I just wanna feel better. I hear you. I've been there like Dr. Tanya and I have both been flatlined, cortisols, that's the worst you can get. It means you're surviving and that's it. You're just surviving. And so I understand we've been there. How can you help women really get on that path and that understanding? And she's wondering, what am I here for? I really loved how you leaned into the question. And this has been true on my journey too. I recently am back from two years traveling in Africa and Middle East and Great Britain and just really kind of on this soul searching journey. And it's been monumental and I hope to share some of it in writing soon while I'm still unpacking it. But I always say I couldn't have done that without what I call hormonal prosperity. You gotta have hormonal prosperity to do all the things. But it also is the pathway towards me now truly, truly knowing and accepting who I am in this world. I love that workbook you made. Yeah. Can you talk dream catcher? Yeah, talk a little bit. So
Dr. Tanya (33:23):
This, this dream catcher was, was channeled while I was, was away studying. And I had been doing some coaching with some patients or, or clients. And I realized that a lot of people don't out of touch with their dreams. So you are born with whisper with a purpose. Everybody has a unique soul's purpose, but for some reason, either a teacher or a parent or somebody tells it tells you you can't do this or you can't be this and you forget. We forget who we were called to be. And it takes us sometimes to sit down and targeted questions. So I would work with myself and ask myself the questions and realize that let me use it with some of my patients. And that's how the Dream Catcher workbook was born. Where I, I wanted people to really get deep and spend time with themselves and get this done.
Dr. Tanya (34:13):
And many people didn't want to do it. People wouldn't, because when you start to get deep, it brings up some fears. It brings up some guilt and resentment. And I'm not living the life I wanted to, to, you know, to live. It's too hard, you know, to change now would be too hard. And I would stick with it and say, listen, I just need you to, to complete this. You don't have to share it with me, but keep it and, and just work on it. And that's how the dream catcher work came through, through work that I was doing. These are questions that I have sat and asked myself on many occasions. I still use it for myself at times where I'll sit and ask myself, okay, so there you are, and this year I'm gonna be 56. And if, you know, in Chinese medicine, this is a pivotal year for women.
Dr. Tanya (34:58):
'Cause Every woman is every seven years. But the funny thing is that 56 is where it ends. So I've been on a mission to find out from traditional Chinese medicine practitioners what happens from 56 onwards. I don't just dry up, but there's absolutely nothing in the textbooks that tell you what's happened after age 56. But I'm completing another seven year cycle. And it's something that, having looked back, I realized that it is true that over after seven years, you, you sort of go through a rebirthing, right? Last year I went through a significant rebirthing, but I think because I was aware that I was going to be 56 this year, I kind of like, okay, well I know I'm going to go through this rebirthing process. I have no choice because it's not so bring it on. You must never ask the universe to bring things on.
Dr. Tanya (35:50):
Never, never, never. Because it brought it on. And it was like I was telling telling somebody that for this year, 2024, I felt for the first half of the year that I was placed in a washing machine and somebody had forgotten to turn off the re cycle. And I would go and as fast as I thought I would come to the end of a cycle, I'm like, okay, you're gonna stop now and wash me off and spit me out. It would just start over again. I'd be tumbled over and over again. And I'm like, okay, this rebirthing process now I've been washed so many times that now I think I really need to find a recycle myself because if I don't, I'm going to keep getting tumbled over. And, you know, and it's been quite a, a series of aha moments for me realizing that I am exactly where I am meant to be at any given time.
Dr. Tanya (36:39):
That everything I have learned over the past 55 plus years, whether it's in medicine, in marketing, in branding, in anything business, has brought me to this point. And I'm now making decisions that are from a place of owning my purpose, my power, and my passion. I've reached a stage where I've owned that. I'm, I now have silver strands of wisdom
Dr. Tanya (37:26):
You know, how can the doctor allow ourself to burn out? Not once, twice, three times, even four times. You know, you'd think that by the second time one learns. But in sharing that and sharing my truth as authentically as I could, I cha I have changed. I know I have changed so many lives because the people who were suffering in silence, who didn't know what burnout felt or looked like, there are people who did not want to come out, who didn't know where to turn. And having me speak about it and say, listen, there is more to life than just hormone replacement or vitamins or supplements or having your face done. It's all everything together. And we need to look at what is right for you at any given point in time because it'll change as you change your needs and desires change. And I use myself as a Guinea pig so many times, okay, there's this new product on, let me try it.
Dr. Tanya (38:22):
My sister is one of the, I would say one of the top aesthetic medicine practitioners out there. I'm usually the Guinea pig. So yes, I would put my hand up for Botox and yes I will, I, you know, I've had thread lifts and I've done, you know, 'cause normally it's this, I need to try it Tony. And I'm like, okay, there's certain things I'll try. There's certain things I, you know, I won't. But I think that each person needs to know what's right for them and tune in. So I always ask the patient, do you feel that you, you wanna start this? Do you think it's time to start hormone replacement, bioidentical hormone replacement? Do you think tune into your body and see how it feels? Because not because there is, it's been prescribed in 90% of the patients at this time with this level needed, means that this patient needs it.
Dr. Tanya (39:06):
I may need to give them another few months. It, for me, looking at the practice of where medicine and, and getting people well has been the biggest shift for me. I will not necessarily cure certain people of certain diseases, but I will heal them even if it means coming to a point of acceptance of what is going on. And more importantly, understanding what is going on with their bodies. Because I believe that once a patient is educated well enough to understand what is going on with their bodies and empowered to remain in tune with their bodies and listen to their bodies, I think half our problems are solved. Once I get the patient to do that. And you know, many patients come to the doctor and say, the doctor knows all. So just, you know, just write me a prescription and, and take it all.
Dr. Tanya (39:52):
I need to lose these, this weight. Now just give me the, the ozempic. And I'm like, well, before I go to that point, let's see what's going on. Could it be a thyroid, could it be something else? And people don't quite get that. Their bodies
Dr. Tanya (40:39):
So somebody said, oh, all your patients are coming back and all I see is that they're glowing. I say, yeah, they have the module glue, right? Yeah, I want the glue. I said, well, you know, they've, they, it doesn't just come and I don't just write a prescription for the glue
Dr. Tanya (41:23):
Yeah. She became so connected that if she comes tell me anything, I'm like, okay, I'm gonna check it. She knows exactly what's going on. But not many healthcare practitioners are listening enough to their patient. We need to allow them the time and the space to unpack what's been happening to them sometimes for 30, 40, 50 years. It's so true. And it's time and space and a safe, nurturing environment where they don't feel rushed. They feel like they're heard, they feel like they're in, in a cocoon. I said, listen, I'm going to envelop you in this safe, you know, cocoon, at which point your transformation can begin. And that's really what, that's my goal now that I create soft nurturing spaces for each patient who comes through to me.
Dr. Kyrin (42:09):
I love that. It's beautiful. Beautifully said, described. And it's exactly what we need to heal as women, to be put in that loving cocoon and given the time and space to feel into what's right for us to discover what's right for us to rediscover ourselves, to transform into that butterfly. Because like this quote you shared from Hippocrates, which I love, natural forces within us are the true healers of disease. And then I've heard it said that we just need to remove everything that's an obstacle to the body healing itself. And sometimes that negative mind space, negative emotion, emotional space, those are the blocks. And so if we can get out of the way, and I just wanna reiterate what you said about having a guide, every successful person, you know, I heard the saying behind every successful man, there's a woman, right? But more than that, it's not that it's behind every successful person.
Dr. Kyrin (43:07):
There is another person or way more people. It doesn't have to be male or female, but everyone who's, you know, and just think of Luke Skywalker, right? He had a teacher, you think of Ralph Macchio and the Karate Kid. He had a teacher. Everybody has a teacher. Everyone who's successful can see us as we truly are and help guide us. I love what you've shared about having a lot of shame around your burnout. I had a lot of shame when I practiced regular ob GYN and I weighed 243 pounds and I looked and felt 20 years older than I was. And I felt so ashamed. I thought everyone can look at me and see I'm not healthy, but I'm supposed to know more about women's health than anyone else. But I think a true teacher has walked the path that they're helping you to walk.
Dr. Kyrin (43:55):
And if they haven't, do they really know is my question. I question anyone who hasn't experienced
Dr. Tanya (45:04):
So you can find me online@tanyabore.com. B-E-A-U-B-R-U-N as in nancy.com. On my website, you also have access to my Destin for Joy ebook. Going to have a link sent to you for my Dream Catcher workbook. 'cause I think it's something that you, you have reminded me to reactivate this dream catcher. So I will send you the link for them to download. I'm on Instagram as Dr. Tanya Bran. I'm on Facebook as Tanya Ang Boran. I also work out of sat a Center for Functional and Integrative Medicine, which is my baby. It's the first functional and integrative medicine clinic in the, in my country, St. Lucia. But I think it's the first in the Caribbean, the first of its type in the Caribbean. So I'm very proud of it. I don't think there's any other, a Caribbean physician who has the training that I, I've had as western medicine with functional as well as integrative medicine.
Dr. Tanya (46:04):
And my goal is really to reach as many people, but particularly women who are feeling that they've lost themselves. That they, they, they just don't know who they are anymore. And they're just going through the motions. You living life in black and white, there's no joy. You're surviving and not thriving. I want people to thrive and feel vibrant and energized and filled with joy because what is the purpose of life? If you can't see things in color, if you get up every morning and look at yourself in the mirror and you're like, Ugh, you know, who's this person? I, I don't even know this person. And then when you look into their eyes, it's dead. I want the light back. I want the life back into their eyes. I want the life back into their souls because there's so many soulless women, and I shouldn't say soulless, the soul is there, but it's dull and it's dimmed the light and the, the, the light from the soul is so dim that we can't even see.
Dr. Tanya (47:06):
They can't even see their own light. They can't even share their beautiful light that the world needs. This is my book of bubbles, bud and butterflies, or is available on Amazon. You've just inspired me af after remembering how the book came, that I still have a book that's on my laptop that needs to be resurrected, revamped, and come out every so often. You know, it calls to me and I'm like, yeah, but as I was talking to you, so I am going to start looking at that and, and with no pressure and doing it out of a place of ease and joy. And that's where I'm at now, where everything in life has to be easy and simple and joyful. Anything starts to create too much angst and anxiety and stuff. I'm like, this is clearly not for me.
Dr. Tanya (47:58):
But for me, I think that by now my life needs to be simpler and somebody says, I'm now living my legacy is, and I, I've, I've really taken that on and said, these are my legacy years and how am I going to make the most out of that by having as much joy in my life. But yet being able to share this, this joy with people and inspire others to share their joy. And just imagine if all of us would just the, just imagine the joy coming out of our, our hearts and our souls and each person just sharing that, how different our world would be if we just freely gave, just give, just give. Yeah. Without over giving, of course, because you know, our tendencies to give and to give and eventually our everything gets sucked out and we just left it fleet. And I'm like, oh, okay. Maybe I should have given so much. So yes, I am available on my website, on Instagram, on Facebook. I don't do LinkedIn as as much as I should. So, but I am on LinkedIn. Should
Dr. Kyrin (48:57):
No, should
Dr. Tanya (48:58):
Dr. Kyrin (49:22):
It does, it gets
Dr. Tanya (49:24):
Better.
Dr. Kyrin (49:24):
And I thank you so much for sharing your beauty, your brilliance, your journey, your bubbles, butterflies, buddhas, everything that you've shared. We'll have all the links in the show notes, so if you're driving, don't worry about writing it down. We'll get all the links and put them in the show notes. Thank you so much Dr. Tanya for sharing your journey and just everything you shared, I can't thank you enough for joining us today.
Dr. Tanya (49:50):
Thank you for having me. It's been a pleasure.
Dr. Kyrin (49:52):
And thank you for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. I know you are inspired. I know you're gonna go download the Dream Patcher workbook. 'cause I'm telling you, these are some great thought provoking questions and the quality of your life is really governed by the questions that you ask. So make them great questions. Thanks so much for joining me today. I look forward to seeing you next week for another episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Dr. Kyrin (50:22):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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► Take the Body Story Quiz from Dr. Tanya Beaubrun: Understand the balance between your body, mind, and soul. And how to nurture yourself to vibrant health and more joy. CLICK HERE.
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Welcome to another enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we empower midlife women to achieve optimal health and wellness. This week, we have a truly inspiring guest, May Britt Searty, who takes us on a profound journey into the world of Family Constellations Therapy and its remarkable impact on our ancestry and health.
Episode HighlightsIn this episode, May Britt Searty shares her incredible story of personal transformation and professional dedication. From battling a severe skin disease in her youth to discovering holistic healing practices, May's path has been anything but ordinary. Join us as we explore:
- May’s Early Journey:
- How a severe skin disease led her to a life-changing visit to a macrobiotic specialist.
- Becoming a vegetarian and its role in her 5-year healing process.
- Backpacking adventures and studying various holistic therapies, including Anatomy, Physiology, Cranio Sacral Therapy, and The Rosen Method.
- A Bold Move to Bahrain:
- Trading a high-paying marketing job for a position managing a women’s health section in a key hotel.
- The cultural immersion and deepening of her life’s purpose.
- Meeting her husband and gaining new perspectives that opened the world to her.
- Holistic Health and Spiritual Development:
- Extensive studies and certifications in Physio Massage, Cranio Sacral Therapy, Reiki, Reflexology, Naturopathy, and more.
- The significant role of Family Constellation and Holistic Coaching in her current practice.
- Living and working across the globe, including the UK, Bahrain, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, Germany, Qatar, and Dubai.
- Personal Insights and Inspirations:
- May’s experiences as a mother and how it has shaped her understanding of life.
- Her view on work as a passion rather than a job.
- Hopes and excitement for the emerging future.
Key Takeaways1. Understanding Family Constellations Therapy: * Learn how your family's past can influence your present and future health. * Discover the therapeutic process of Family Constellations and its benefits. 2. Holistic Healing and Personal Growth: * Insights into integrating various holistic practices for overall well-being. * The importance of celebrating femininity and personal development. 3. Empowerment Through Change: * Find inspiration in May Britt’s willingness to take risks for her passion. * The value of diverse cultural experiences in enriching personal and professional life.
Are you ready to explore the depths of your ancestry and how it impacts your health? Tune in to this powerful episode with May Britt Searty and discover the transformative potential of Family Constellations Therapy.
Thank you for joining us on this incredible episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. We hope May Britt Searty’s story has inspired you to explore new avenues of healing and personal growth. Stay tuned for more episodes that bring you closer to achieving your health and wellness goals.
Remember, your health is your greatest wealth. Until next time, take care and stay empowered!
► Family Constellation & Holistic Coaching by May Britt Searty: CLICK HERE
► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.
With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.
Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.
Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!
CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!
Welcome back, ladies! The latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is here, and it's one you won't want to miss. This time, we're joined by the inspirational Verónica Moreno, an expert in Mindset Coaching and Deep Healing. If you're a midlife woman feeling trapped by past conditioning or weighed down by self-doubt, this episode offers a lifeline.
Meet Verónica Moreno:
Verónica isn't your average mindset coach. With a rich background that spans powerful Energy Healing techniques—including Emotional Freedom Technique & Matrix Reimprinting, Theta Healing, Pranic Healing, and Shamanic Energy Medicine—she brings a unique, multifaceted approach to personal development and healing. Combining these methods with the results-oriented world of Coaching and the therapeutic insights of Humanistic Integrative Counseling, Verónica has empowered women from nearly 20 countries to reclaim their power and live authentically.
Key Takeaways from the Episode:
- Verónica’s Journey:
- Discover how Verónica's own path to becoming an expert in Mindset Coaching and Deep Healing has shaped her innovative approach.
- Understanding Common Challenges:
- Learn about the common challenges that midlife women face, like past conditioning, self-doubt, and people-pleasing, and how to break free from these patterns.
- Powerful Energy Healing Techniques:
- Get introduced to various Energy Healing techniques such as Emotional Freedom Technique & Matrix Reimprinting, Theta Healing, Pranic Healing, and Shamanic Energy Medicine. Understand how these techniques can be applied to reclaim your power and create a fulfilling life.
- Inspiring Success Stories:
- Hear real-life success stories of women who have transformed their lives through Verónica's methods, illustrating the universal nature and effectiveness of her approach.
- Actionable Steps to Reclaim Your Power:
- Walk away with actionable steps and guidance on starting your own journey of reclaiming power. Verónica emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, self-love, and living an authentic life.
In today's fast-paced world, midlife women often find themselves juggling multiple roles and responsibilities, sometimes losing sight of their own needs and desires. This episode is a gentle yet powerful reminder that it's never too late to reclaim your power and start living the life you truly want. Verónica's expert advice and inspiring stories will leave you feeling motivated and equipped to make meaningful changes in your life.
Ready to transform your life? Tune into this episode and take the first step toward breaking free from your past and stepping into your power. Don't forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review—we love hearing from you!
Thank you for being a part of our community. Together, we can support each other to live our best lives. Tune in, take notes, and start your transformation today!
- Tune In Now to listen to this empowering episode.
- Subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast for more insightful episodes.
- Leave a Review to share your thoughts and help more women discover our show.
► 7 day course Step Into Your Power with Confidence and Joy from Verónica Moreno. A step by step process to break free from the past, reclaim your power and create the life you truly want to live. CLICK HERE.
► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.
With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.
Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.
Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!
CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!
Welcome back to another empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! Today, we have a special guest whose story will inspire and enlighten you—Ashok Gupta. Ashok is an internationally renowned speaker, filmmaker, and health practitioner. He has dedicated his life to helping people overcome chronic illnesses and reach their full potential.
In this episode, Ashok shares his personal journey of battling ME, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, during his time at Cambridge University. Through his own neurological research, he not only managed to get himself fully recovered but also developed a groundbreaking recovery program called the Gupta Program. This neuroplasticity-based "limbic retraining" program has been helping countless individuals around the world since 2007.
Key Highlights* Ashok Gupta's Personal Journey:
Discover how Ashok went from a chronic illness sufferer to a globally acclaimed health practitioner, filmmaker, and speaker.
- Understanding Limbic Retraining:
Learn about the concept of "limbic retraining" and how it can effectively improve conditions like ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and Long Covid.
- Hormonal Imbalances & Limbic Retraining:
Insightful commentary on the challenges faced by midlife women with hormonal imbalances and how limbic retraining can be a game-changer in addressing "hormonal poverty."
- The Gupta Program:
Explore the neuroplasticity approach of the Gupta Program and practical tips on implementing limbic retraining in your daily life.
- Latest Research & Success Stories:
Highlights of the latest medical research and real-life success stories related to limbic retraining, offering hope and empowerment to those struggling.
This episode is a treasure trove of valuable insights and practical advice for midlife women who are navigating the complexities of hormonal imbalances. Ashok Gupta's expertise and personal experience make this a must-listen episode for anyone seeking to improve their health and well-being through innovative approaches like limbic retraining.
Tune in now to hear Ashok Gupta's incredible story and gain actionable insights into improving your hormonal health. Don't forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review to help us reach more listeners like you!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Are you prepared to lose everything you've got in life? Well, Neil Donald Walsh is quoted as saying, you'll have everything you want in life when you're prepared to lose it. All confused by that and how it relates to your hormones and your health. You'll definitely wanna stay tuned to hear Ashok Gupta, tell you why.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunton. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we talk with Ashok Gupta about limbic retraining, how it can improve the hormonal poverty that you're experiencing as a woman over 40 or maybe even sooner than that. Most women don't realize the interconnection between their nervous system and their hormonal system and also their immune system and so many other connections, which we're gonna talk about in this episode. But they are intricately connected and it's affecting you. Whether you're aware of this or not. Ashuk is, gosh, he's a lifelong learner who likes to go in depth and his pain has become his purpose. And he's been on a journey for many years since university to help himself and help others to heal the underlying root causes of many chronic diseases that come in the NICS category, which we'll talk about that you probably have heard of, but you may not be familiar with.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
And they're actually related to hormonal poverty and hor imbalance, perimenopause, menopause, PCOS, all the things that plague women or can plague women throughout the life cycle. We're gonna dive into that as well. So needless to say, if you have a female body
Speaker 1 (03:23):
He set up a clinic to treat others and he's published a well-known neuroplasticity limbic retraining recovery program and known as the Gupta program in 2007. He has published several medical papers. He is undergone several randomized controlled trials around this program that he's created and published them. He's published trials on lung covid, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, showing that the treatment is effective. He'll give us the details on that in the interview. And he's continually researching these conditions in a way that allows him to provide workable, daily use accessible solutions to so many of us who suffer with these problems. Please help me welcome us Gupta to the show.
Speaker 3 (04:14):
A delight to be here. Thank you for inviting me.
Speaker 1 (04:16):
Yes, lovely to have you. I actually have heard about your program from some colleagues who use it with their clients, so I'm super excited to have you on. I don't think a lot of people are familiar with the topic that we're gonna talk about and how really it applies to everyone. We're gonna talk about specific uses and how it might apply and really, I think in the times that we're living in with so much stress, everybody talks about, oh, you need to manage your stress, but what does that really look like on a daily basis? And also I don't think how people get that the nervous system is really triggered or programmed to have adverse responses to stress and what do you do about it? So we're gonna dive into neuroplasticity, limbic training recovery, which is as shooks program that he's developed and even an app I believe, which will get him to talk about, so what, what does that even mean? Limbic retraining? Why should we care about this? Why do we need this?
Speaker 3 (05:19):
Yeah,
Speaker 3 (06:13):
And so in a similar way, when we're talking about limbic retraining or brain retraining, what we're saying is that traditional ill illnesses have been more reductionist in the way that we treat them. There's something wrong over here, there's something wrong over here, there's something wrong with the leg, let's fix that. But modern diseases are the interconnectedness that require a more holistic response. And that comes down to the software systems, not the hardware systems. So the nervous system is like the software that's running the computer of your body, the physical hardware of your body. And that's where we often get bugs. Just like in modern computers, we get bugs. And so brain retraining is saying, well, let's retrain those bugs and get our system back to balance. And a lot of those bugs we believe are in the unconscious brain, in the limbic system, part of the brain and the limbic system.
Speaker 3 (06:57):
Part of our brain is the more emotional part of the brain. And once again, we go back to old medicine as I call it, that would perceive the limbic system as purely responsible for our emotional responses, our fight or flight response, et cetera. But now we're discovering that the brain doesn't differentiate between an emotional response, a biological response. What these responses are are survival responses. The brain enacts survival responses. And so while we're retraining the brain, we're not only impacting on emotional responses but also physiological responses. And our immune response is a defensive survival response. And we've now discovered ways that we can influence that immune response and then enable the body to come back to balance. So that's a long way of kind of describing what we mean by brain retraining and limbic retraining. Right.
Speaker 1 (07:44):
Thank you for explaining that. And if anyone's listening now and you're thinking, oh, I don't need to listen to this, it doesn't apply to me. Yes, it applies to you
Speaker 1 (08:46):
So if you're a woman in perimenopause, pre menopause, menopause, post menopause and you're struggling, part of the problem that you're struggling with with is not only a hormone problem but a nervous system problem. And that's exactly what we're talking about today. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (09:31):
Yeah. So that's a label that we've given to a whole range of different diseases that we call those modern diseases. So there's neuro immune diseases. So that means are the neuro, the nervous system affected and the immune system affected. So that's conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, long covid, and then also sensitivity reactions. So mold illness and also related to that Lyme because Lyme and mold often, you know, occur and then a whole bunch of pain syndromes, right? So all of these come under the banner of neuro immune condition syndromes where they've got commonalities between the symptomatology that is presenting itself. And if I can give a analogy of how I believe these nicks start, because I think if we go through that, that theory, I think that would be really useful to, to frame our discussion. So these neuro immune condition syndrome we see, you know, I mean we all know somebody's got long covid, right?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Who's got lingering effects of covid so common in the population, why is this happening? Well, I like to go back to first principles of us as human beings. What is the biggest question of all? Why are we here
Speaker 3 (11:11):
So for instance, we're more exposed to pollution if the brain sees as a threat, we're more exposed to toxins in our food, we're more exposed to daily stresses and strains of life. And now social media means that unconsciously we compare ourselves to all the best, most amazing people in the world and and compare ourselves to that top 0.1% of people out there, right? So we setting ourselves unrealistic expectations of life. So all of these things impact on our system. So our system feels more under threat, physically, emotionally, biologically. Which then means that when an illness comes along, normally our bodies just fight it off and go back to standby mode. So let's say for instance, mold, we have a mold exposure. Normally our brain perceives that this is dangerous, is able to create a response to deal with that mold exposure. And normally our systems will go back to balance.
Speaker 3 (12:00):
But I believe in a whole range of these different exposures, whether it's viruses, bacteria, mold, lying, the system errs on the side of caution because survival is the number one priority. So when we have exposure to that threat, the brain fights off that condition, but goes into over defense mode that even once it's fought off the threat, it errs on the side of caution and keeps stimulating the immune system and the nervous system unnecessarily. And what that then does is completely disrupt our hormonal balance, completely disrupt our autonomic nervous system, our gut, and all of these different processes in the name of survival. And for me this has to make sense because there's millions of people who are suffering from these conditions. Why is it so many people are have a system which is malfunctioning? It is because we now live in a more threat induced environment, which means our system is overstimulating these defensive responses. And that's why we're seeing, if you talk about emotional defensive responses, we're seeing anxiety and depression skyrocket at the moment in the population, especially since Covid. And we are seeing the number of neuro immune conditions also skyrocketing because of this threat system which is over responding. And if I can give an analogy, which I think many of my patients find really useful. So Kiran, are you a fan of, I don't know, game of Thrones or maybe a fairytales?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
I love fairytales. A good fairytales.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
Fairytales. There we go. So imagine that you are queen of your kingdom. So you are Queen Kiran. That's a nice, that's a nice ring to it. Queen Kiran, you are queen kirin, queen of your kingdom and your castle. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (14:08):
Now your army and navy have to fight much harder to fight off this incoming threat because they're weaker. So it takes 'em a lot longer. The battle lasts a lot longer. And even once the army and navy feel they've defeated the incoming invader, they aren't sure because they think what happens if the invader is hiding in the forest or is somewhere peripherally in the body. So they come to the weekly meeting with Queen Kirin and they say, queen Kirin, we're not sure if we fully fought off the invader and the kingdom could fall. So we need all the resources now. We need all the food, the water, the wheats, the iron, everything needs to be channeled to us. And of course queen Kirin, you think that's a logical thing to do. We need to ensure survival of the kingdom. So now the army and navy are on a hair trigger.
Speaker 3 (14:52):
They keep firing off their weapons of war, which causes excessive inflammation in the body because some of those arrows start falling back into the kingdom causing internal inflammation and challenges and hormonal imbalances as well. 'cause Our system isn't designed to be in this overactive defensive state. Then what happens is opportunistic infections. So the spies in the kingdom start flourishing 'cause they're not the anti spy. The the secret service is not getting funded well. So now we get opportunistic infections or opportunistic viral infections, bacteria, pathogens, mycotoxins, all these types of things starts flourishing in the system because the army and navy is taking up all the bandwidth of the body and is fighting its non-existent threat. As this system continues, the weaker and weaker the kingdom gets from all of this over defensiveness, the more and more the army and navy believe we're still in danger.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
So they keep firing off more and more weapons of war, which gets the kingdom even weaker and so on and so on. And that's why often we then stay in this non homeostasis. We stay in this state of overstimulation, lack of homeostasis, autonomic dysfunction, gut dysfunction, hormonal dysfunction, all of these things are interconnected. And I believe they're all triggered by underlying reason, which is a system which is an imbalance because it's doing the thing that it thinks is best. Survival. Survival is number one priority. And what brain retraining is, is realizing that a lot of these symptoms that we're experiencing hormonal imbalance, guts, mycotoxins, these are downstream effects of an over defensive system. So brainery training is the next time the army or navy have their meeting with you, you say to them, my dear generals, the war is over. You can stand down, get back to balance, get back to standby mode.
Speaker 3 (16:39):
And what that does is it then means that the autonomic nervous system and the immune system start coming back to a level of homeostasis. And what we find with our patients, and we've done lots of studies which we'll talk about, then all of the downstream effects start also resolving themselves and therefore the gut challenges the fatigue, the health compromising effects all start coming back to balance and people start getting better and they start recovering. So you start, you, we came to this flow of thinking from the question, what is a neuro immune condition syndrome? So I believe neuro immune condition syndromes covers a whole variety of these modern diseases that we haven't found a magic pill for that doctors really don't have much that they're able to support. And yes, there's lots of great work that people like yourselves are doing in terms of supplements and medications that can support healing. But we often find that as soon as one has a stress, guess what all of the symptoms come back again or many of the symptoms come back and we have to find another route towards healing. And what we're saying to a lot of practitioners is the brain retraining piece. If you use that in compliments with traditional avenues, it magnifies the power of healing because you are, you are targeting from not only downstream but also the upstream causes as well.
Speaker 1 (17:52):
Yeah, thank you for that analogy that that really helps. And I guess one other I'll offer that's coming to my mind is a friend of mine called it, it's, you know, the limbic system is your smoke alarm. And it's like all of our smoke alarms are going off even though there's no fire, there might have been a fire at one time, whether that fire was a mold exposure or lime or foods you're sensitive to or maybe some type of childhood be big T trauma or little T trauma or something. And that the smoke alarm just gets stuck in this on state that keeps our entire system in a state of hyper arousal, kind of sympathetic outflow with, with parasympathetic deprivation. And then that causes a whole host of other problems. I love it when people like you come with great analogies that really help people understand what's going on for their body, why this applies to them. We really are, we're on assault just listening to the, the radio or looking at the TV with everything that's going on in our modern lives. And so this applies to all of us. And I love this quote you shared with me, I had to think twice about it. I think it's brilliant. Your brain can heal your body when you get your mind out of the way.
Speaker 3 (19:18):
There's a lot to a lot to unpack in that. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah. So talk a little bit about that and then maybe we can start talking about the program that you've developed, but yeah, that, that's a mind bending quote
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Speaker 3 (20:22):
Now they, they are not separate and therefore often we may not realize it, but our mind and the way that we think and the way that we interact with our condition impacts on the condition itself and also impacts on how the brain can get back to homeostasis. So our program is not a psychological program, it is not CBT, but what it is is it's saying let's look at these three components and look at the interactions and look at how we can create the best environment for the brain to feel that we are safe and that it can switch off these overactive arousal systems so we can get our health back. And a key piece of jigsaw that relates to that quote is our past traumas. So we know that women are more likely to develop these conditions compared to men. And also that if someone has a background of let's say little T trauma or big T trauma, they also are three to four times more likely to get one of these types of chronic illnesses.
Speaker 3 (21:20):
And that's because we believe that whether it's your experience in the womb, how stressed your mother was, how stressful the birthing experience was, and then the first five years of life are hugely formative in terms of your sense of safety, your relational context with your mother and father. All of those impacts on your nervous system and how trigger happy it is to threats around you based on its sense of safety. And so in a similar way, our mind impacts our physical body because if we have never felt safe emotion in our past, why would our body believe that we're safe physiologically? Because once again, the brain does not differentiate between the different types of threats. They're just threats that need to be mitigated. And that's our clue as to why people with trauma are more likely to have these types of conditions. And it may not even be trauma, it can just be a, a sense of a lack of nurture from our past. And that's where these pieces come together. So that's why I kind of created that quote to make sure that we're aware of these different components and how they interact.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
I love that. That's so beautifully said and explained. I don't know that I've ever heard it more beautifully explained. If we've never felt safe emotionally, why would our body believe we are safe physiologically now? Right. The fire alarm is on. And so the program that you developed, and maybe this is a good time to ask you to share with everyone your background and how you came to develop this program because it, it really helped to, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, but transform and save your life in a lot of ways. Correct? Absolutely. So how did that happen?
Speaker 3 (22:49):
So it was the mid nineties and I was studying as an undergrad at Cambridge and I had a virus, didn't think much of it and the virus kind of went away, but I started feeling physiologically really bad. So extreme fatigue, extreme exhaustion. I'd look at a textbook and couldn't even read it. I had to crawl to the bathroom sometimes 'cause my energy was so low and I thought what on earth is going on here? And in my worst moments I was, you know, almost suicidal because it's a horrible condition, you know, you just don't feel like you can do anything. And I go from doctor to doctor and they'd say, we dunno what you have. We have no explanation for it. We have no treatment for it. We don't even know, really know what to call it. And you might have it for the rest of your life.
Speaker 3 (23:29):
And you can imagine for a young man that was a almost a death sentence that's like a brick wall in front of you saying you have this disease and we don't, we can't help you. And I met hundreds of others who were also suffering from similar conditions. And that started my lifelong quest to try and understand these conditions. And I made a contract with the universe and I said, if I can just get myself, well even if it's not fully, if I can just get myself well, I will dedicate the rest of my life to helping others with this condition because there's so much untold suffering that's going on that we don't see because these conditions aren't really taken so seriously because they don't, they're not seen as increasing mortality necessarily. And that started my lifelong quest. And so I then researched brain neurology physiology and I came up with a hypothesis as to what causes these conditions, which I published online in 1999 and then in Medical Hypothesis Journal in 2002 and then set up a clinic to treat others. And since then we've become a online program with an app and we've published several medical studies and randomized controlled trials on our treatments as well. So that's been my journey and like all of us in, or many of us in these professions, we've gone through our own challenges, our own suffering and are looking to improve the lives of others because we've found something that's helped.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, we are both here fulfilling our contracts with the universe.
Speaker 3 (25:33):
Speaker 3 (26:21):
And that doesn't happen the first time, the second time, the third time you have to repeat this. And that's where neuroplasticity comes in. The idea that our brain is malleable, changeable, we can rewire it towards health and that's what we do in the Gupta program. So we are now an app which makes it super easy to use. And the way it works is people can come to our website or download the free app and then, and obviously that'll be in the show links and they can take our free trial 28 day free trial where they can go through the videos and audios and learn a lot more about their condition and should they then decide to take on the full program. Then that involves watching videos, weekly webinars with myself. And something that has been an absolute game changer in terms of brain retraining and nervous system regulation is something called daily Gupta size.
Speaker 3 (27:13):
Lay on words there, daily Gupta size, we recognize that patients are often isolated. They lack motivation to put these practices in to daily routines. So we have daily Zoom calls with our trained coaches where we take people through the exercises that they need. So if you're not somebody who can follow a program and integrate it, just come online every day or whatever, whatever days you can, and we take you through everything that you need each day so it becomes a regular part of your daily practice. And that has been a game changer for our patients. And we have like two to 300 people a day who come on to these Zoom calls and it's a real sense of community and support as well. And so there's a whole package of techniques, events that people can then come to and we hold people's hand. We would take them through the brain retraining.
Speaker 3 (27:58):
Yeah. So that's how it essentially works. And until we have independent phase three trials, so currently we're doing phase one and phase two trials. We've shown great data and I'll share some of that with you. But until we have the large scale phase three trials, we offer a one year money back guarantee on the subscription so people can use it and after six months if they, if it's not for them or they think it's working for them, they can return it no questions asked and get their money back and use that money for something else. So we think people have got nothing to lose by giving this this way of doing things a go. Right.
Speaker 1 (28:27):
I love that you, you have a name for a Gupta size that's awesome. And that it's done in community because one of the biggest stressors we have right now in modern society is that we're so disconnected from our families, friends, loved ones living a lot of us in, in isolation and loneliness is at epidemic levels worse on your health than smoking. And so I know with me, I do my programs with women only in groups because the connection is part of what, when we have that co-regulation with other people, we need that as humans, as homo sapiens and it really helps. So I love that you have that and yeah, do you wanna talk a little bit about the research that you've done? I'm really interested to hear more about that.
Speaker 3 (29:15):
Yeah, definitely. Look, there can be so many things on the internet right now on Instagram, Facebook, you're scrolling through. Everyone's got some kind of healing methodology for all these different diseases, but for us, the science matters. Yeah. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (30:07):
So that was one study which published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, which is one of the top journals. And recently we just did a study on long covid and we found that, well we were comparing our program to a wellness program. So it was a real proper control that wellness program had sleep and diet and supplements and all the good things that we are told to do to keep our health at a good level. So compared our program to that equivalent structural program and after three months our program was four times more effective at reducing fatigue and twice as effective at increasing levels of energy. And so it's quite rare in a medical study you get a 400% response compared to the the control group that's once to get a published randomized control trial that people can see on our website. And then another study we just published, which wasn't an RCT but was a clinical audit of our patients, we found that across 14 different conditions. So this includes Lyme disease and POTS and chronic fatigue and long covid across 14 different diseases. After just three months on our program, people had anywhere between a 60 to 120% improvement in their symptoms. And what this showed is that this idea that one program can impact on lots of different diseases because they may have the same underlying pathology, if we target that underlying pathology, we can heal a whole host of different conditions. And that's once again a published study that people can, can take a look at on our website.
Speaker 1 (31:31):
Yeah, I'd love that. Thank you for sharing that. It sounds like a lot of work but also a very worth it to validate this modality that has applications across disease spectrum. So for every aspect of that car that you talked about in the beginning, the the how the body is very mechanistically viewed in mainstream medicine and it's really not. We are living beings that every part affects every other part. I'm wondering before we close, if you can talk about this Neil Donald Walsh quote that you shared with me that I love and I'd love it if you could ex help everyone understand you could talk about a little bit who Neil Donald Walsh is. He's he, well he's the writer of conversations with God and other books and the quote is, you'll have everything you want in life when you are prepared to lose it all. What does that mean and how does that apply to what we're talking about today?
Speaker 3 (32:26):
It's an ancient Eastern philosophy. It comes from the ancient Vedic tradition, which is this idea that when we have an attachment to a specific result, we cause ourselves stress, right? So if we really want that job and we go to the interview, if we are really, really desperate to get that job, how are we gonna come across in the interview? We're gonna come across stressed, less self-assured, less confident in our ability to get that job because we are coming from a place of desperation. So it's that place of where desire turns into desperation or an intention turns into desperation. And so when we're so attached to result fist clenched, we actually push those things, those very things that we want. We push them away from ourselves. Now how is this relevant to healing? Sometimes when we put so much emphasis on our physical bodies and our physical conditions and we are desperate to get better and we have a hypervigilance of these disease states within us, although it can feel like that means we're monitoring it and trying to find solutions, actually we may push healing away from ourselves because we are in a state of desperation.
Speaker 3 (33:35):
And in that desperation to heal from it, we actually tense up our nervous system and push away the very thing that could heal it, which is a more relaxed nervous system. Therefore, acceptance of our current state is the first step to healing. And that's a core part of what we do in our program as well.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
I love that. Therefore, acceptance is, is the first step. You know, this applies very much to women who are wanting to, to achieve pregnancy and having difficulty. And they don't realize that in ruminating on getting pregnant and they're not getting pregnant and I've gotta get pregnant. And the stress levels are going up, that they're actually negatively impacting their hormones and their nervous system, their limbic system, and they're causing it to be in a survival state that says, I'm not safe. And then you can't get pregnant in that state. So gosh, I never heard Neil Donald Wash apply to our health. That's brilliant
Speaker 1 (34:52):
I do this detox for myself and I want my body to give me X result. And it's no wonder that we go about healing that way sometimes because that's the kind of society that we live in. It's very much a transactional society. Relationships are transactional. I give you this money, you give me this, but our bodies are living systems that do respond to the intention with which we try to heal our bodies. So I think coming from a place of understanding that and loving ourselves, so to me self-love is not a transactional activity. It needs to be a, a very holistic, nurturing, ground up activity where our intention is to give our body everything that it needs, everything that she needs, I like to say to heal. So I love that you put that intentionality into your Gupta size,
Speaker 3 (35:49):
Yeah, absolutely. The idea of we are where we are, it's already happened. If I don't accept what has already happened within my body right now, all I'm doing is resisting and I'm in a resistant state. And what we resist persists that famous quote. So to get outta that resistance state and calm our nervous system, the first state is accepting whatever is so right now. And from that place of acceptance, we can then say, I now save my energy instead of worrying about this, I save my energy to be able to look at solution orientated processes and set that intention for health. And that's really how that quote comes in.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Yes, I love that our nervous system is activated when we're in that resistance state. So it starts with acceptance. I love that you're gonna share a free trial with everyone. Thank you so much for that. I myself would love to try it and, and even would invite you to come back after I've tried it and we can talk about my experience. I don't know if that would be beneficial. I'd love to, yeah,
Speaker 3 (36:49):
Give you complimentary access and then we can see how you respond to it, what you think of it, and have another chat. That would be lovely.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yeah, that would be lovely. And so tell everyone where they can connect with you online and around learning more about the program that you're offering. We will have the link in the show notes, but tell everyone how to connect with you.
Speaker 3 (37:11):
Yeah, so it's simple. They can come to our website, which will be in the show notes@guptaprogram.com or they indeed can go to app store or play store and just download the, the free app and straight away start retraining your brain. You can look at videos, audios, and even some of the daily Gupta size. The first part of it, the nervous system regulation is free. It's free to anybody on the planet. It's our kind of gift back to the planet. So you can join that for free and kind of experience those first, you know, ways of looking at your nervous system and yeah, that's how they can find out more.
Speaker 1 (37:41):
Awesome. Thank you so much shook for your journey, turning your pain into your purpose and for sharing your mission and your contract with the universe, with us and with the world. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (37:54):
Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (37:55):
And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I know that you're inspired will by what you've heard today. I think the more tools that you can have in your tool bag for your personal healing, health and wellness to reverse hormonal poverty and get to hormonal prosperity, the better off you'll be. This is a great tool that I'm excited to share with you. So I hope that you'll click the link in the show notes and download and do the free trial. And I'd love to hear about your results. Reach out to me on social media at Kirin Dunston, MD Thanks so much for joining me. Until next week, I'll see you for another episode. Peace, love and Hormones, y'all.
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Welcome back to another enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! This week, we dive deep into a topic that resonates with so many of us: bone health. We often think we’re doing enough by following generic health programs, but what if those programs fall short when it comes to bone health? What if there’s a better way to ensure stronger, healthier bones?
🎙️ Episode Highlights:In this episode, we are thrilled to welcome Kevin Ellis, famously known as Bone Coach™, into our midst. Kevin is not just any health coach; he's a Forbes-featured certified integrative nutrition health coach, podcaster, YouTuber, bone health advocate, and the founder of BoneCoach.com. With his unique 3-step process and world-class coaching program, the Stronger Bones Solution™, Kevin has transformed the lives of thousands across the globe.
Key Points Discussed:* The Reality of Osteoporosis and Osteopenia: Understanding why traditional programs might not be enough. * Kevin's Unique 3-Step Process: Learn about the innovative Stronger Bones Solution™ that has helped individuals in over 1500+ cities worldwide. * Personal Stories and Success: Hear inspiring stories from people who have regained confidence in their bone health journey. * A Vision for the Future: Kevin's mission isn't just about the present. Discover how he plans to help future generations prevent osteoporosis and lead long, active lives.
Kevin's approach is both inspiring and informative, providing actionable insights and practical steps that you can start implementing today. His dedication goes beyond just addressing current issues; it's about paving the way for a healthier future for our children and grandchildren.
🦴 Who Should Listen?This episode is a must-listen for midlife women who are looking to take control of their bone health. Whether you’ve been diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis or simply want to ensure your bones stay strong and healthy, this episode offers invaluable advice and guidance.
Bone health is more than just a medical concern; it's a critical component of living an active and fulfilling life. Kevin Ellis’s expertise and passion shine through in this episode, offering you not just hope but a practical roadmap to stronger, healthier bones. Let’s embark on this journey together and make bone health a priority!
Don’t forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review. We love hearing your thoughts and experiences. Until next time, stay healthy and stay strong!
By engaging with this episode, you’re not just taking steps toward better bone health; you’re joining a global movement dedicated to a healthier, more active future. Listen now and be inspired!
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
You don't have to know where each step is placed day one. You just have to know where you want your path to lead. Kevin Ellis, stay tuned for the Bone Coach who will share his groundbreaking program with you to make sure that your bones stay strong and vital as you age.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:19):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYNI had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:13):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. As we talk with Kevin Ellis, also known as The Bone Coach, Kevin has a unique three step process and coaching program called Stronger Bone Solution. He's gonna share with you, he's gonna share so much. He really has a great way of articulating the importance of bone health. We're gonna talk about diagnostics. How do you know if you have an issue with this? What are the correct diagnostic tools you should be undergoing? You're probably not getting this information in your regular doctor's office. I even share a story about one of my clients who had a kind of interesting experience with her primary care doctor around that. So we're gonna dive into that. And you know, bone health is super important. It's kind of one of the most silent diseases because most of us start losing bone mass around the age of 30 unless we're doing something to prevent bone loss.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:16):
And most of us are not. And it accelerates more in women than men, which is super unfair. But it's just a reality for various reasons that we're gonna touch upon. Also related to your hormones as we go through midlife. So if you're not doing diagnostics around this and you're not paying attention and being proactive, I promise you this is happening to you. As you're sitting there listening to my voice, whether you're driving your car or gardening or doing the dishes, you are losing bone mass if you're not doing something to prevent bone mass loss if you're over 30. It's just a fact. And so the only way that you really will know this is a problem if you don't do anything about it, is you might fall when you're older and have a fracture, which can be devastating because a third of women who fall and have a hip fracture because they have osteoporosis, will die from it.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:20):
Yes, die. It's one of the leasing causes of death in older women, a third of us who that happens to will become incapacitated, where we can no longer live independently. That means you have to move out of where you've lived your whole life maybe, and into a facility where you have assisted care all the time and you lose your freedom
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:09):
But we're gonna talk about how you can know this is an issue for you earlier. And then most importantly, what do you do about it? Kevin has some great resources for you. He explains things in plain English in a down to earth way just like I do. So I think you're really gonna love our discussion. I'll tell you a little bit more about him and then we'll get started. Kevin Ellis is better known as the Bone Coach. He is a Forbes featured integrative health coach podcaster and is the founder of Bone coach.com. Through a unique three-step process and the world class coaching program called Stronger Bone Solution, he and this team have helped thousands of people with osteopenia and osteoporosis in over 1500 cities around the world get confident in their stronger bones plan. His mission is to help millions of people with osteoporosis build stronger bones and to help our children and grandchildren create a strong and healthy foundation so they can lead long active lives. Please help me welcome Kevin to the show.
Kevin Ellis (05:11):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to this. It's gonna be a great conversation.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:15):
It is. I have been waiting to have you on the show for a couple years. You are super busy because you have a su super successful program in helping people reverse their bone density and improve it whether they have osteoporosis, osteopenia. And so I'm really glad to have you on the show and share you with my audience. Some of my listeners may know, 'cause I talk about
Kevin Ellis (06:10):
Yeah. 'cause usually when you're thinking about bone health or you're thinking about osteopenia or osteoporosis or stronger bones, you're not typically thinking about the younger male, right? You're, you're typically thinking about somebody later in life. Maybe it's maybe just like you said a mother or a grandmother or an aunt or a friend or someone like that who's experienced the effects of maybe fractures or osteoporosis and how you saw that, how that impacted their quality of life in their later years. So it's usually not the younger male that's passionate about this or talking about this, but for me, my journey really started a long time ago. And like a lot of us in the health space, my journey started through my own health issues and challenges. So when I came outta the Marine Corps, I had a lot of different health issues, high stress, poor sleep, chronic digestive distress, couldn't figure out what was going on.
Kevin Ellis (06:54):
My energy was almost non-existent. Some days I could barely even get out of bed. And then I was diagnosed with celiac disease. And for those who are not familiar, celiac disease is an autoimmune condition where when you ingest gluten, the tiny little nutrient absorption centers inside your small intestine, they're called vii. And I, I like to call 'em roots in your soil. And my roots were becoming damaged and they were becoming blunted and they couldn't do their job. And my body still needed these important nutrients to execute its daily functions, specifically calcium, because calcium is the primary mineral constituent of your bones. But you also need it for muscle contractions, for nerve impulses, for a, a variety of other things. So I wasn't absorbing these important nutrients and my body was going to the largest reserve of minerals I had, which were my bones and pulling from there.
Kevin Ellis (07:40):
So celiac disease led to bone loss and a subsequent diagnosis of osteoporosis. And this was right around 30 years old. And for anyone to get that diagnosis at any point, it can be scary. And you know, for me at a young age, I still was trying to make sense of it all. And there was fear was a very strong impetus and driver for me and also wanting to be there for my kids in the future because I lost my father when I was two months old. And all I ever wanted was to have that person in my life. And I didn't wanna leave my kids in a position where, you know, they didn't have me there too. So I had a pretty strong reason to make improvements and I put this plan together, I did the research, consulted with people, and I ended up turning this, this health journey into a passion. And I became a coach and I built out a program and grew that community to a couple hundred thousand people. And we've got over 10,000 people that have come through these stronger bones programs now. So it's, it's just really a passion of mine through personal experience, but also just seeing the lives of people we've changed and transformed and how they get to live their most best lives that you know in the future. So
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:43):
Yeah, I love hear hearing how people came to do what they do, that they love, that they're passionate about those. So thank you for sharing that. And I think that a lot of women listening right now don't think that we're talking to them because osteopenia, osteoporosis, bone loss really has no symptoms until you are at the point where you start getting fractures, right? It might be spinal compression fractures or you could fall when you're older and and break something. But I find that this is so
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:50):
I don't know if you've come across situations like that, but increasingly I'm having patients come to me where their doctors are getting angry at them for getting screening tests that they really needed, that their doctor didn't recommend bone density being one of them because, you know, his whole attitude was, well now you have osteoporosis, what are I gonna do about that? Because he didn't know what to do. So this is why I love what you do because doctors really don't have an answer. And the fact I was so angry after she told me that, that her doctor got mad at her. So can we talk a little bit about what is appropriate screening? Who should be getting screening? What screening should they be getting? Because I think a lot of the women listening have never had the proper screening and don't even know that they need it and they don't know that we're talking to them.
Kevin Ellis (10:36):
Yeah, this is, this is so important. I'm glad we're talking about this because number one, you as the patient have the right to be the educated and empowered advocate for you. You have the right to ask for tests. You have the right to get those tests done and to see where you're at and get some objective baseline markers and monitor those changes. You as the patient you should be asking for that. That's how you take care of yourself long term. Because a lot of times what happens when I see people, a lot of people, they want to prevent future fractures. They may not already be at that point, but some people I've seen, they've already fractured a lot of times, 5, 10, 15 times, even some. So we want to prevent that from happening. So how do you do that? Well, first let's understand that every single person has bones in their body.
Kevin Ellis (11:18):
Your bone health is important and you're putting on 90% of your bone mass by the time you turn age 18. And by the time you turn 30, the remaining 10% approximately is gonna fill in. And that's what we call peak bone mass or what I call a full bucket, right? So if when you were younger, you had poor diet nutrition, you drank a bunch of sugary soft drinks, you ate a bunch of candy, you weren't getting enough calcium, vitamin D, magnesium K two, you weren't getting enough protein in your diet. Or if you're listening to this and you've got kids or grandkids, think through that lens too. Not just what you went through, but what maybe your kids are going through right now. If we led a sedentary lifestyle, if we weren't out playing sports or being active or moving our bodies and our bones in these short, sharp, dynamic movements to help stimulate good healthy bone growth from a young age or doing gymnastics, right?
Kevin Ellis (12:10):
Get those kids in gymnastics if, if possible because gymnasts have some of the best bone density out there. And then if we had an eating disorder when we were younger, if we took certain medications like glucocorticoids or if we smoked or drank excessively, all of those things could have prevented you from reaching peak bone masses starting with that full bucket. So it's good to understand how, how your bones are being built over time. And it's good to also know, hey there, there are probably some contributors I had in my youth. What are the things I can do now to understand where I'm at and what I need to do to move forward? So I like to see people getting these objective markers and baselines early in your thirties to forties, right? If you get a baseline right around the time you, you achieve peak bone mass, 30 years old, then you can monitor those changes over time.
Kevin Ellis (12:57):
And that's a great place to start. If you're already past 30 and you haven't had a bone density scan yet, you can get one. If you can't go to your doctor and get one, go to an external radiology group and get one. If you have any chronic digestive issues, especially if you have celiac disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, any, any of those absorption conditions, you have a reason to go to your doctor and say, Hey, I believe this is contributing to bone loss and I'd like to dig a little bit further. Can we get this test? And that's how you go about having those conversations. Or you can even just say, Hey look, I, I'm not saying no to your recommendations, I'm just saying can you help me get a little bit more data to make the best decision to move forward? Right? So if you just have that kind of dialogue instead of shutting your physicians down, that may lead to MM-hmm
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:42):
And then what kind of bone density should they be asking for? Because they're not all bone density testing is created equal
Kevin Ellis (13:50):
That's right. Yeah. So we would look for a DEXA scan, dual energy x-ray absor geometry, it's painless test, kind of like an X-ray, but very low levels of radiation. You lay down on the machine, it does a scan and it tells you your bone mineral density and then it generates a score. And that score is, if it's plus one or minus one, you're gonna be told that's normal and healthy. If it's minus one to minus 2.5, you're gonna be told that's osteopenia. We would call that low bone mass. And that's like a precursor to osteoporosis and minus 2.5 or lower. So minus 2.6, minus 2.7, so on and so forth. That's considered osteoporosis. And the greater the negative number becomes the more severe the osteoporosis. Now important note, bone density is only part of the picture. It's an important part, but it's only part of the picture.
Kevin Ellis (14:37):
So if we wanna really understand stronger bones, you have to know that bone density is the actual mineral content of the bone. Bone quality is the structural integrity of the bone, the micro architecture, how the bone is organized. Those two things combine to create bone strength. So a lot of times you only have part of the picture if you're just getting a bone density scan. So how do I get the bone quality part? Well, there's an add-on software to the DEXA scan that you can get. It's called TBS trabecular bone score. You can call a facility ahead of time, ask 'em if they have the capability and then just confirm with the technician before you start your scan, just say, Hey, do you have the TBS? 'cause It's, it's, you're gonna be able to get all that data just in that one scan, which can be great.
Kevin Ellis (15:20):
So you have bone density, bone quality, there's another technology out there that is, it's more prevalent in Europe, it's making its way more into the US now it's called rems, radiofrequency echo graphic multis spectometry technology. And it's found in a device called echo light. And this looks at the, it's an ultrasound technology that looks at your bone density, your bone quality and gives you a five-year fragility score, like a predictor of fracture basically. And that can also be another tool that you use. And the the last set of tools that I would encourage people to look at are when you get these tests, these, these markers of bone density and bone quality, you have to understand that if you only have one, you don't know if you're actively losing bone right now, present day as we speak. So what are the things that we can look at to understand what's going on right now in our bones?
Kevin Ellis (16:12):
Well, we'll look at bone turnover markers and bone turnover markers. Look at the activity level of cells that are building up and breaking down your bone and let's if the, the bone turnover markers, we're gonna talk about bone resorption. The most sensitive marker for bone resorption is serum CTX. And that is a CT low peptide test. And that looks at the activity level of cells that are breaking down bone. So if that activity level is elevated or even really high, that can be an indicator of active bone loss and a root cause issue that needs to be explored and addressed. And if we have, if we're looking at bone resorption, we also wanna look at bone formation. So the most sensitive marker for bone formation is called P one and P, that's pro collagen type one and terminal propeptide. And this looks at the activity level cells that are building up that bone. So you wanna look at, you wanna look at those two things at the same time. So those are some markers. I love that. And where you're at.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (17:08):
Comprehensive answer. Thank you so much. So everybody listening, we're gonna give some, Kevin has some great resources for you to get further information. So don't freak out about what are all the, this lingo you're hearing about. He's got more resources to really support you in your bone journey, whether you've got great bone mass or you're already losing bone mass because bone mass is something you have to promote. Just like you don't clean your house one time and it stays clean, you have to clean it periodically. So it's something you need to work on. So let's dive into talking about the connection between bone health and hormones because I don't think a lot of women get that there's a connection and particularly women at midlife don't realize that they're being robbed in the middle of the night while they're sleeping a bone mass and it has something to do with their hormones. Can we talk a little bit about that?
Kevin Ellis (18:05):
We most certainly can. So there are different types. There's absolutely a hormone connection, there's a major hormone connection to osteoporosis and bone loss and stronger bones. So let's start with, there are different types of osteoporosis. There is primary osteoporosis that is typically related to a decrease in estrogen. In post-menopausal women. Estrogen has a protective effect on bone as estrogen levels decrease as they do during menopause or even before menopause. That can cause an increase in the activity level of cells that break down bone. And when that activity level elevated and really high, that's gonna cause more bone loss, right? And over time, even in the five years right around that transition, some women can lose up to 20% of their bone mass in that, in that period of time. And that's pretty significant, right? So we have to be aware of that, that major hormonal change that's happening and even take some proactive steps to, to do that.
Kevin Ellis (18:59):
And I know Dr. Karen, you, you talk about this all the time, but in terms of other causes of osteoporosis, there's secondary osteoporosis and that is where it occurs as a result of behaviors, disorders, diseases, conditions, and medications. So there can be different reasons for that bone loss that's taking place. Hormones can absolutely play a role, especially estrogen. And then if we're talking about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, if that is part of your plan, you know, and it's different for every single person, and I know you talk about this quite a bit, but estrogen can help with the prevention of bone loss, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA can help with supporting the bone building side of things too. So there, there are things that you can do from a hormonal perspective and that again, it varies for every single person. You gotta work with a practitioner to help you figure out what's right for you. But just know those can be some tools to help support you as you start moving in the right direction or even preventing some of that loss from happening.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (19:52):
I just wanna make the point for everybody listening that there really is no current recommendation on use of sex hormones or what I like to call flex hormones because they have flexible functions. It's not just about sex. For the prevention of bone loss, really there isn't. So when you're talking to your doctor about hormones, you're probably not gonna get some of the information that we're sharing with you today about the fact that it does help prevent bone loss. So it's something that you're going to have to bring up. And the fact that flex hormone therapy or getting to a state of what I call hormonal prosperity actually helps you to build bone. There is a recommendation using estrogen in particular to reverse or treat osteoporosis. It's not considered a first line therapy though, which we might get into talking about medications and they don't talk about the use of other bone building agents like testosterone is super important for women too. So I, I'd love to just give that caveat because a lot of times people will hear something on the show and then they go running to their doctor and say, well I heard Kevin talking about this, Karen talking about that, and, and they just get poo-pooed and then they get really confused because they're kind of being gaslit but don't realize it
Kevin Ellis (21:24):
And, and you have to realize too, and it's just, you kind of just touched on medication. But you have to realize too that when you go into the conventional medical model and you're having these conversations, just know that the standard recommendation that will be provided for you is take some calcium, take some vitamin D, go for a walk, don't lift anything heavy over, you know, very small amounts of weight and here's this medication, take it. And we'll see you in two years for your next bone density scan. I would bet if anyone has already had this conversation with their doctor, 95% of you're like nodding your head. Yeah, that's exactly what I heard. Right? There is so much more to bone health than that. There are so many other pieces and let's even, I'd love to just touch on the medication because that that conversation is gonna come up.
Kevin Ellis (22:13):
So if you're okay with that. Sure. Briefly, I, I would, I'm not anti-medication. I have seen a lot of situations where it's necessary in lifesaving for some people, but I am pro do everything you possibly can naturally first before considering that as an option. Because when it comes to these bone medications, they have a dramatic effect on bone physiology. It's not like taking an aspirin. And there are different categories of these drugs. There are anti-resorptive medications and there are anabolic medications. Anti-Resorptive medications are designed to slow down the activity level of cells that are breaking down bone. Can they do that? Of course they can, but there are risks and side effects that come with their use. So for antiresorptives, this would be broken down into bisphosphonates and rank lain inhibitors. Bisphosphonates, you've probably heard of some of these before would be your Fosamax, your bon niva, your reclass, those kind of drugs, those are bisphosphonates and your rank lain inhibitors are like Prolia.
Kevin Ellis (23:11):
Okay? So bisphosphonates, the safety and efficacy of these drugs, not really well known beyond five years. And as you and I are going about our daily lives, doing our daily activities, exercising, doing chores around the house, we're starting to get these tiny little micro cracks, micro fractures in our bones. That's normal, right? For every single person. That's normal. And then what happens is you have cells within the bone called osteocytes, they're like orchestrators of this bone remodeling process. They sense that damage and they send out a signal and say, Hey, we need to become stronger. And that signal is picked up by other cells and these cells called osteoclast, they come in and they, they scoop out that damaged bone and right behind it, it's a coupled process. You have these other cells called osteoblasts that come in and build stronger, healthier new bone. That is a normal remodeling process that happens throughout our lives.
Kevin Ellis (24:03):
When you're taking some of these medications, especially longer term, multiple years, you can actually slow down that activity level too much to where you start to accumulate that old worn damage weakened bone over time. So even if you're taking one of these longer term and you're seeing improvements or you're seeing stability in your bone density scan, that quality, that structural integrity, it may not be there, right? So you may not actually have stronger bones, your bones may end up being weaker, just, it just depends. So you have to be aware of these things before you jump into them. And then other certain medications like Prolia, you can't just take that medication and then stop taking it because you'll have what's called a rebound effect. And that can increase the risk of ver vertebral fractures. So again, most people don't get that education in a 15 minute conversation before they just jump into taking a medication.
Kevin Ellis (24:54):
And then the other category of drugs are called anabolics. And those drugs are designed to build bone, build better quality bone and build it faster. Can they do that? Yes. Are there risks and side effects and implications of use? Of course. So you can only take 'em for a certain period of time and once you take them you have to follow it with another medication just to not lose the bone you gained. So the reason I tell people this is ask questions. It's okay to pause, to take a deep breath to make those decisions and to, to just make the most educated, empowered decision you can.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (25:26):
Yeah, super important to know about the medications, be an informed consumer, know what your options are because a lot of times you're not gonna get all the information when you're talking to your doctor. You're just gonna get a prescription here, take this. But what I love about what you do and the resource that you have for everybody is that you really help them to understand, like I I always say I'm not the type of physician who's just gonna tell you do what I say because I'm the expert. I'm gonna educate you about how your body works and help you make the best choice for yourself and you do the same. And that's what I love about the work you do. I think gone are the days when we can just abdicate control of our health to our healthcare provider and assume they have our best interests at heart.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (26:09):
We really have to become the CEOs of our own health and have a working knowledge of how our body works. Otherwise, we're gonna kind of get to the later in the finish line and be upset like a woman I talked to recently who's in her eighties and having all these consequences of hormonal poverty and she's really angry and saying, why didn't anyone tell me? Why Didn't anyone tell me what I was signing up for
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:14):
This woman was actually kind of interesting won't give details on her name or anything, so it's confidential, but the situation I think is very common. I hear this a lot. She didn't wanna lift weights 'cause she didn't wanna bulk up like a man. Also, she was noticing when she was doing certain exercises like squats or arm ex upper arm exercises that she was having discomfort so she stopped doing them. So I know that's a lot of information in there, but basically let's talk about what kind of exercise do you do need to do for your bones?
Kevin Ellis (27:47):
Yeah, exercise is so important. You can be eating all the right foods, which most of the time people think they're eating. I hear this all the time. People are, I feel like I'm eating healthy, I feel like I'm exercising and I still have this condition. Why is this? Well, you have to provide the proper stimulus that your bones need to become stronger and your bones need a couple different types of stimuli. You need impact and you need muscle pulling on bone. So when the muscle pulls on bone, there's this mechanical signal that sends a chemical signal to tell the bones to become stronger. Most people, like I said, when they get diagnosed, they're told, Hey, do some walking. Don't lift anything heavy and just kind of avoid anything that could potentially cause a fall or fracture. Do.Dot that could actually be some of the worst advice that people get is to not put any stimulus on those bones.
Kevin Ellis (28:33):
And the reason I say that is you have to have weight-bearing exercise and you have to have resistance training and muscle strengthening. So what is weight-bearing exercise weight-bearing exercise is anything where your body and your bones are working against gravity to keep you upright. There are things you're doing on your feet and they're placing a good healthy stress on those bones. So that would be, you're walking, you're jogging, you're hiking, you're gardening, you're playing pickleball, you're running around with the kids and the grandkids out in the yard. All those things are considered weight-bearing exercise. It also would be yoga, Pilates, tai chi, qigong, dancing, even All those things are weight-bearing exercise. If you are doing those things, keep doing 'em and you can incorporate this into your plan. Okay? You have to also be aware of non-weightbearing exercise. And this is where your body and your bones are not working against gravity to keep you upright and they are not placing good healthy stress on your bones.
Kevin Ellis (29:27):
And if one of these activities is your primary form of exercise and the only thing you incorporate, you need to do more, right? So if you're doing swimming or cycling, especially swimming, you need to be aware of this. And swimming specifically, it's not that if you do it and it makes you happy and it brings you joy and you're, you just love getting in the pool and swimming around, that's great. You can keep doing this, but don't get in the pool five days a week, swim a couple laps, get out and say, I did my exercise. 'cause You didn't, you have to provide the stimulus that your bones need. And that would be this next form of exercise, which is muscle strengthening and resistance training exercise. And this is where you're bringing in, maybe it's the barbells, the dumbbells, the the resistance bands, the machines at the gym, if that's where your comfort level is at and you're starting to incorporate some, some really good movements that can be helpful.
Kevin Ellis (30:23):
Now, if you are new to weightlifting or resistance training or muscle strengthening exercise, don't be intimidated by some of the things I'm gonna share because you don't have to start at the highest, most intense level. That's not where we recommend people start. We want you to start at a weight that you're comfortable with, that we can look at your body mechanics that we can get you doing things with good form and slowly build up that intensity from there to where you just know how to do it and you're comfortable, right? So that's where we're doing things like squats or this is, it sounds scary, but it's actually not that scary. Dead lifts, right? Overhead presses. And there are other exercises that we can incorporate there too, but those are some great foundational movements that we can incorporate and we want to build up that intensity. Five to 10 repetition range can be a great, a great range to be in, but you gotta have good form, right? So again, you don't have to start at the most intense place day one. You just gotta slowly build up from there.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (31:18):
Yeah, I, I'm so glad that we're talking about this because I do think that just a lot of women miss it. We really do need the weights, the weightbearing activities and working with weights and it's something that a lot of women aren't familiar with, so they shy away from it. And I just thought it was interesting. The woman earlier said that she started having discomfort and so she just stopped doing it and she just wrote that off, I don't need to do that. It hurts
Kevin Ellis (31:57):
Exactly. And, and just to give you an example, every single person is different. They're at different fitness and activity levels. They have different conditions, they have different pain in their body. So we actually teach people how to modify things to address this. I know we're gonna share this resource here in a little bit, but we'll teach people how to, you know, if they've got pain in any area, any area of their body, their neck, their shoulders, their back, their hips, their knees, their feet, and they're worried about their bones. We teach modifications, adjustments and tweaks to where you can actually provide the stimulus that you need. Or if people have specific conditions that they're trying to navigate, stenosis, scoliosis, spondylothesis, osteoarthritis, degenerative disc, or you've already had a fracture, we will teach modifications, adjustments, and tweaks to make sure you know how to, how to do those things safely and still provide stimulus that you need. So yeah, a lot of times pain, it can either prevent people from taking action altogether or it can compromise their body mechanics and put them at greater risk of injury. So we just wanna make sure they're doing the right things and they've got the right form as they get into these movements.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (33:00):
Two questions I definitely wanna ask you before we wrap up. And number one is, I know some women are probably thinking, so I'm getting thin bones, it's not that big a deal. But what they don't understand are the consequences they're signing up for or the potential consequences of having thin bones. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I I, more than anything from this episode, I want everyone to really get the message. You need a, you need to check your bone density now it's vital and you need to do something about it if it's not optimal. So what kind of consequences are we talking about?
Kevin Ellis (33:38):
Yeah, I'm, well, a lot of times the biggest concern is, is fracture, right? So if you have seen anybody later in life, whether it's a mother or grandmother or something like that, I used to work at a retirement home when I was, when I was a lot younger and that was one of the first jobs I had. And I always talk about how that had a dramatic impact on my life because I saw people in their final years and what they looked like and what their quality of life was like, and whether they were hunched over kind of making their way to the dining hall or they, they were just upright chatting, having fun with their friends. And that had a really big impact on me. And the biggest concern that I see people when they come to us is they're concerned about fracture. Because when we have fractures that that's gonna dramatically impact your life, they can be life changing, they can be debilitating six months after a hip fracture, you've only got about 15% of patients can walk across a room unaided every year.
Kevin Ellis (34:26):
We've got about 300,000 hip fracture patients. A quarter of people end up in nursing homes, half of them never regain their previous function. So it's, it's not to, not to scare people because just because you have low bone density doesn't mean you're gonna fracture, right? There are preventative things you can do to build stronger bone to prevent that from even being your fate. A fracture is a possibility and it does happen. So we need to do everything we possibly can to preserve and strengthen this structure that's gonna carry you to an active future. And that's a big part of what we focus on.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (34:55):
Right. And then the other thing I wanted to talk about, we talked about the sex or flex hormones when it comes to bone density, but we didn't touch on cortisol, the stress hormone, which also gets to gut health and bone. And I don't think that a lot of people are a aware of the connection between other hormones like cortisol, which relates to gut health and bone health. Can you talk a little bit about that briefly?
Kevin Ellis (35:21):
Yeah, I certainly can. So there's a major connection, let's even start with the gut health piece too. 'cause Yes, of course stress hormone cortisol that can impact your gut health can increase the, can increase intestinal permeability, leaky gut. But with gut health, there are a couple ways that this can affect your bones. So the first way is kind of what I talked about with celiac disease, the absorption of nutrients and having challenges with, with that, that can cause your body to pull minerals in from the bones and that can, that can lead to bone loss if you have issues with absorption. The other issue when it comes to gut health and bone health is that your bones are living tissue. They're not just these static structures that hold you up right and carry you through life. They do that and they do a really good job of it.
Kevin Ellis (36:04):
But inside your bones you have something called bone marrow. And bone marrow is a soft spongy material. It produces 95% of the blood cells in your body. So if you need help with preventing bleeding and clotting, that's where platelets are gonna come in. If you need help with carrying oxygen to the body's tissues, carrying carbon dioxide away from the tissues back to the lungs, red blood cells are gonna help with that. But if you need help with fighting infections, healing wounds, anything related to the immune system, that's where white blood cells come in. Well, the cells that break down bone are a form of white blood cell. So anything that is stimulating the immune system is speaking in the same language as the cells that break down bone. Where does 70% of your immune system reside in your gut? So if you have digestive issues, especially chronic and long term, it's not just a matter of am I absorbing my nutrients, it's am I stimulating that immune system speaking in the same language as the cells that break down bone and leading to more bone loss.
Kevin Ellis (37:01):
So resolution of those digestive issues is incredibly important. And then if we shift to, if we're talking about the impact of chronic stress and high cortisol on our bones specifically, there are a couple, a couple ways that this can affect our bones. Number one, it can reduce progesterone production and we need progesterone to support healthy bones. The other way is that it actually reduces the ability of the os osteoblasts, the cells that build bone, it reduces their ability to build that bone. And the other thing that we need to be concerned about is high glucocorticoids, these natural steroid hormones, they kill osteocytes, osteocytes are these orchestrators of the bone remodeling process. So we need all of these things to function in a, in a good way. And when we have high stress, elevated cortisol levels or we have cortisol dysregulation, even that can be an issue that comes up.
Kevin Ellis (37:55):
So just be aware that if you have stress in your life, and it may not be, I know we always, we talk about the lion always, but you know, the lion is, is probably not gonna be the, the main stressor in your life. The, it's probably gonna be the, the financial conflict, the family challenges, the keeping up with the perfect lives of the Jones is on social media. Those kinds of things can contribute to and drive that stress response. And you just have to be aware of that and you just need to cultivate a healthy practice around dealing with that stress. And I think if you do that, you you'll be in a really good place at least to start. Yeah,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:31):
For sure. And I love this quote you shared with me before we, we started recording, I have to share with everyone, you don't have to know where each step is placed day one, you just have to know where you want your path to lead. You have certainly given everyone a step for day one when it comes to their bone health journey and let's tell them where it leads. We'll
Kevin Ellis (39:07):
Absolutely. So you can always find me@bonecoach.com. We got a lot of free resources, stronger bones programs, all that stuff there. And you can always find me on all the social channels too. At Bone Coach or at Bone Coach Kevin, go to Instagram, go to the podcast. Go go. Any of those places you'll find us there. But the best resource I would suggest your audience starts with is if we could leave this in the show notes we kind of talked about, this is my free Stronger Bones Masterclass, comes with a free bone healthy recipes guide. But this masterclass is gonna take anybody who wants to improve their bones, is concerned about their bone health or just wants to have an active future and you want to take care of that structure that's gonna get you there, sign up for this masterclass. It's gonna walk you through step by step. Everything you need to do, it's gonna just gonna walk you through the process we take. We take our clients through step by step by step. It's gonna help you uncover missing pieces in your plan. It's gonna help you get on the right path for stronger bones. And that's the Stronger Bones Masterclass. We'll leave that in the show notes. So check that out, sign up for that. And that's the best resource to get started. Awesome.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (40:07):
Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing this really very important information, Kevin. I really appreciate it. Thanks
Kevin Ellis (40:14):
So much Dr. Ki,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (40:15):
And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I know you are inspired to lift up the hood of your bone car and take a look at your bones and see what's going in there. If you haven't had proper testing, please, please, please go and get it and then take action. This is vital. So I look forward to hearing about your bone health journey on social media. You can reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook and share your stories and your progress and what you're learning and we'll have another wonderful
Speaker 2 (40:48):
Episode for you
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (40:49):
Next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Get access to Kevin Ellis's Stronger Bones Masterclass: Discover The 3-Step Blueprint Osteoporosis "Thrivers" Use To Help Build Strong Bones So They Can Stop Fearing Fracture & Lead Active Lives plus Get a Free Recipe Guide! - CLICK HERE.
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Welcome to another inspiring episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! This week, we dive into the captivating journey of Christine, a remarkable woman who transformed her life from the depths of hormonal poverty and metabolic chaos to a thriving midlife success story.
Episode Highlights* Christine's Personal Journey: Listen as Christine candidly shares her struggles with hormonal imbalance and metabolic mayhem, painting a vivid picture of her life before finding hope and healing. * Turning Points: Discover the pivotal moments that changed the trajectory of Christine’s health journey, leading her from hopelessness to empowerment. * Overcoming Obstacles: Gain insight into the strategies Christine employed to combat metabolic mayhem and rise above her challenges. * Benefits of Working with The Host: Hear firsthand about the transformative benefits Christine experienced through her work with our host, including practical advice and tailored strategies that made all the difference. * Inspiration for Midlife Women: Learn how Christine’s story can inspire you to take control of your hormonal health and find success in midlife.
Christine’s Story: From Hopelessness to TriumphIn this episode, we delve into Christine’s personal account of facing seemingly insurmountable hormonal struggles. Like many women at midlife, she found herself navigating the confusing and often discouraging world of metabolic issues and hormonal imbalances. But Christine's story doesn't end there. Through perseverance and expert guidance, she discovered a path to reclaim her health and vitality.
Christine shared invaluable practical advice and strategies for women dealing with similar challenges. Whether it's dietary adjustments, lifestyle changes, or understanding the nuances of hormonal balance, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you on your journey.
Christine provides an insider's view of what it's like to work with our podcast host. She breaks down the process at a granular level, explaining the philosophy behind the approach and why it works when other methods might fail. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the information overload on Dr. Google, Christine's story will resonate deeply. She highlights how the expert knowledge and personalized care she received made all the difference.
Christine's journey is a testament to the power of resilience and expert guidance. Her transformation from hopelessness to success is not just a story—it's a beacon of hope for every woman at midlife feeling demoralized by hormonal and metabolic struggles.
Don't miss out on this inspiring episode! Tune in now to hear Christine's incredible journey and join our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge today. Together, let's embark on a path to reclaiming our health and vitality.
Stay tuned and stay inspired, and remember: you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. With the right support and knowledge, you too can achieve hormonal balance and midlife success.
Happy listening!
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
Thank you so much, Dr. Karen. I truly, I cannot thank you enough. You have not only transformed my life, but you have saved my life in so many different ways and given me a life that I want to have.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
That's what Christine a had to say about working with me. Stay tuned for more details about her experience.
Speaker 3 (00:23):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results, and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kieran Dunton. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 2 (01:16):
Hi everybody. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. I'm so glad that you're here because you're gonna get to hear a client, Christine, share her experience of working with me. We've got the Hormone Bliss Challenge launching this week on May 23rd. I only do it live a couple times a year. So you definitely don't wanna miss this, especially if you've thought about working with me and you've been wondering what's it like, what am I gonna get out of it? And really wanna understand my philosophy and how I've gone about helping thousands of women's women get out of midlife metabolic mayhem and hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity. Because if you're a woman over 40, most likely, you are experiencing many of these 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem to varying degrees. And it's interfering with you living your life the way that you want to, frankly, the way that you deserve to.
Speaker 2 (02:19):
You deserve to be healthy, vital, alive at every single age. There's no reason really, that you shouldn't feel as good as at 80 as you did at 20. And if you think that's laughable, then you don't know what I know, and you need to definitely come because I'm gonna teach you how to do that and this program. So Christine is a client who has worked with me, and she can give you the insider's view of what that's like, what benefits she's gotten from it, and help you understand a little bit more about the nuts and boats at a granular level that are involved with the philosophy that I share and why it gets results when other things don't. I know you might be feeling a little demoralized because if you're like most women at midlife, you've been going down the Dr. Google route and trying to figure it out by yourself, which I don't doubt that you could given enough time and energy to try to figure it out, but it might take you the 30 years that I've spent as a board certified OB GYN, completing my fellowship in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine, treating thousands of patients to have the knowledge and expertise.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
So, hit the easy button button and listen to the episode and you'll find out how you can get on the fast train to where you wanna go with your health and your life. Please help and help me welcome Christine to the show. So how are you doing?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:48):
I am feeling so much better. My mood is stabilized. I am like, I am not girl. All the time. I am. I have enough energy that I'm actually starting to, I'm working out now in the mornings when I get up, I'm sleeping better at night. It is, yeah, it is
Speaker 2 (04:14):
Oh, my pleasure.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:16):
It's great.
Speaker 2 (04:16):
What kinds of problems were you dealing with that made you seek out help outside of mainstream medicine? What kind of health problems?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:25):
I was experiencing a lot of feeling very tired, feeling beyond tired, lethargic, low energy, not feeling like myself, feeling very angry and on edge all the time. My hair was thinning. I was putting on weight, excessive body hair, facial hair, and feeling very frustrated, quite honestly, through mainstream medicine. I went to a, I had listened to one of your podcasts and I thought I had all this great information, and I went to my gynecologist who came recommended that dealt with women in menopause, was her specialty. And I shared all of this information with her, and she sat there and looked at me and she said, well, you're in your fifties and you have a 6-year-old child. You're you, it's not, you're depressed. You need an antidepressant, and I could, I can run your hormones and I can tell you you're low on estrogen and that doesn't mean anything. You need an antidepressant. And I walked out of there, literally sat in my car and cried, and I listened to another one of your podcasts and had this wonderful opportunity to begin working with you. And everything literally started changing my life around for me working with you.
Speaker 2 (05:35):
Awesome. Oh, thank you. So what have been the most surprising things that you've learned? I'm sorry that you dealt with that at your doctors. Unfortunately, your experience of basically what I call gaslighting is not uncommon, and some women listening probably have experienced that. What has been the most eyeopening to you in the things that you've learned since you've been working in the program?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:01):
I think so much everything, honestly, that I have been learning and continue to learn from you. It is, you are this fellowship trained gynecologist who has this wealth of medical knowledge behind you, and you also embrace different medicines from around the world and those philosophies, and you bring them all together and you put the science behind them for what used to be for areas that used to be considered, oh, this is different. Or it's not real because it's, it hasn't been vetted by us medical standards and we can't con you confirm it. And now so much of that we're seeing is being confirmed of, of different types of medicines and, and different approaches that have been for so long. And being able to combine those and really looking at your whole self, not just a piece of you. And you look at the whole woman and every aspect from the medical to the mental to the spiritual, and how do we bring that together and use that to be able to build what it is that women need, quite frankly. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (07:25):
Yeah. Thank you. And I remember meeting you the first time and you've come a long way. And can you share about what's changed for you?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:34):
Oh my gosh, everything. I am hitting 55 this summer, and I have a 6-year-old by choice. He was a little medical miracle, and I had always been in really good shape and in really active. And after his birth, like I just started noticing like my energy levels going down. My weight was heavier after birth than be when I was pregnant with my son. And just noticing going, wow, what's going on with me? And like, okay, it's menopause and how do I do and what do I do with this? And just feeling myself, just continuing to go down, becoming more lethargic, becoming more on edge with everything. And after having had the opportunity to work with you and learning from you and following, I have energy again. I'm to the point now where I'm up in the mornings and I'm working out and I'm giving myself that time and that space to be able to not feel guilty about carving out time and making myself a priority, which I think a lot of us forget or feel guilty about if we try to make ourselves a priority because we have to be mom.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:36):
We have to be the best at our, our work, and we have to be there for everyone else. And if we take time for ourselves, we feel guilty about it, or that's too selfish. And having learned that, no, it's not selfish, it's a necessity. We have to take care of ourselves and grant ourselves that time. And, and that has truly brought such incredible balance back. My, my children have commented
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. It's lovely to hear you talk about that because one of the biggest areas that suffers for us when our health suffers is our relationships. And I think that as women, we can really almost be in denial about that truth because people, to be honest, they don't wanna be honest with us and they don't wanna hurt our feelings and say, you know what? You're not showing up as the woman I married or
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:46):
A hundred percent agreed. And, and what's really bad is my husband did call me out on it a few times and I lashed out at him. I'm like, what are you talking about? Just, I have all this work and the long hours at work and I, we have two children and we're doing all these things and I had every excuse under the sun as to why it wasn't me per se, because I couldn't, or I wasn't willing at that point to really just stop and take a breath and say, Hey, what's going on with you? Because that meant that if I had to deal with me and take time for myself, then I, in my mind at that point, then I couldn't be there and do what I needed to do for everyone else. And that was being selfish until I met you.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Changed.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Yeah. And you mentioned earlier about taking time for yourself. So doing this type of work, it is a time commitment. It's a financial commitment. And I find that's a, a lot of, there are a few reasons why women don't do this, because clearly we're not getting the answers we need at our mainstream doctor's offices. I don't think anyone would argue about that. But then the next is, oh, it's gonna gonna take too much time. Oh, it's gonna take too much money. And then there's the, I don't trust myself to do it. Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (12:45):
Honestly, when I left the gynecologist's office and I saw it in my car and I felt so deflated because I had listened to a series of your podcasts and I went in armed with all this information, I went, this is it. I've got it. And this is this gynecologist who she specializes with women in menopause or perimenopause. I'm like, yes, this is awesome. And being told I was depressing, made an antidepressant, and here's a script
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:32):
And in terms of investing in myself, I didn't at first see it as investing in myself. I saw it a need to fix myself, for myself to be there for others. And that's where I was when I started with you, Dr. Karen. And you know, in terms of the investment and the money, when you look at the numbers and you crunch it and you crunch the numbers, what you are investing in yourself over the course of a year is less than what we do so much with so many other things going out for dinner. And I'm not saying we shouldn't do those things. We absolutely should. But when you look at what we spend on going out for dinner, going to get a massage, going to the gym, whatever other things we do, when we, you break that cost down, it is a minimal investment.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:18):
And honestly, for what you, what the services that you offer for being able to make it affordable, if you break it out over what it costs over the cost of a year, mm-Hmm.
Speaker 2 (15:23):
Yeah. And I'm so excited. So you talk about, to take you where you wanna go, so what do you envision for your future? You've got the 6-year-old, the 14-year-old. What do you envision?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (15:36):
Honestly, I am, that is where I'm working through right now. Right? I had a whole vision for myself back in my forties. I made a deal with myself that I was gonna go back and, and work on my doctorate. And I was like, oh, I'm never getting pregnant. It's not help happening. Working with modern medicine. I was like, it's just not happening. So I went back and I was like, okay. I got accepted into a doctoral program and then I found out I was pregnant and I was like, oh, did it all, did both. And started a new job. And in the process of that and said, okay, my goal was I was going to retire at 56 and be able just to enjoy. And now I have a 6-year-old and a 14-year-old. So it's a little different. So for me right now, it's really figuring out I want to do next how I want to evolve everything I've done and worked for and, and what is that next piece?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (16:22):
Not sure yet. And I'm exploring a lot of different avenues and just doing a lot of learning in some different ways and areas to see what it is that I want to continue to do because I'm not ready anymore. Two years ago or a year ago, I was like, oh my gosh, how am I gonna do this? I just wanna be able to retire and just sleep in the mornings and not do anything. And now I have this energy and I'm going, yes. Like what was I thinking?
Speaker 2 (16:55):
Yeah. And I love to hear you say this because I remember where you were and if I had said that to you a while ago, you would've just probably gotten very upset. What do you mean
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:01):
Thank you for that. And it's honestly, I would not be here right now if it weren't for you. Oh,
Speaker 2 (18:06):
That is so sweet.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:08):
It's the truth. It's the truth. There are so many in all fields that don't truly hear what is being said, let alone listen, but truly hear and have the know and the level of expertise that you do in so many different areas. And the fact that you're also willing to continue on a growth journey professionally, that you're, that you continue to learn and you want to grow. That is incredible. And not many people, quite frankly, in the medical field at this point in their careers, are willing to do that. And that is a huge testament to you.
Speaker 2 (18:47):
Oh, thank you. Yeah. That I do have this lifelong learner in me that's always evolving. And I started my woman shaman training. I'd love to tell you about that. I'm wondering what you would share with a woman who's listening who maybe she's thought about working with me. Believe it or not, there are women, they see me and they hear and they're like, oh my gosh, I need what you have. But there are all these buts that get in the way. Yeah. One woman is coming to my mind who I've actually known personally for, gosh, probably 10 years. And she struggled with her weight and her energy and her health and all these things. And it's like she comes around and she's like, okay, I can't take it anymore. This is the last straw of my health. I'm gonna do the thing. And then she always, her butt gets so big, she doesn't do anything.
Speaker 2 (19:35):
And I'm not talking about her BUT, but her butt, her excuses. And I think the last time I talked with her, she now has fatty liver and pre-diabetes and all kinds of things. And so my job is to help people to reverse these things. And I know what path she's headed down because there is this point of no return. You get down with chronic disease where once you start having anatomic problems, then it becomes very hard to reverse. So anyway, all that to say, what do you say to that woman whose health is really not serving her in being able to live as who she authentically is in this life and express herself? Who's toying with, oh, I know Dr. Kirin can help me, but
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (20:24):
I would say there are always a million reasons why not to do something. And you only need the one reason, and that is yourself. And to give yourself the space and grace to take that risk. Because it is very scary to embark on a journey that can change you and help transform you and to help you become the person you want to be. And it's very easy to stay in a path or on a path that is very comfortable because you know where that's headed and you don't wanna head there, but you think that this is it. And I would just say to take that risk on yourself and and to take that chance and just to engage once with you and not look at a whole program or what the work is that I have to do or should do, just walk in and work with you and then go from there for the next part piece and one step at a time and not look at the overwhelming, this is where I wanna be and how am I gonna do that? That's so much work and it's so difficult. And it all these reasons and all those buts, why not? The one reason why is for you yourself
Speaker 2 (21:30):
Because you deserve it. We all do. Really, as you're talking, I'm thinking it's like if you go into first grade and you start obsessing about, oh my gosh, I've gotta make it through eighth grade, then, then I've gotta go through nine through 12 in high school and then I gotta go to college. And you just go, forget it. It's too long. It's too hard. I can't do, right. It's, we wouldn't do that. So you just look at the next step. And we've got the Hormone bliss challenge launching I think this week. And that gives people a real taste of seven days of working with me live one-on-one to see what it's like, and mostly have the ahas that a lot of people don't get. Because I think that, and I'm just wondering for you, is this true A lot of women, although you get that your mainstream HMO $30 copay doctor isn't giving you the whole truth and they're just giving you pill for every ill or a surgery for every symptom.
Speaker 2 (22:21):
Okay, we get it. We're not served there. But then there's so much online and social media, blogs, podcasts, and we're inundated with information. Mm-Hmm,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (23:14):
Think the aha. There were so many along the there are, and I can't say there were, there are so many along this journey for me, the first, excuse me, the first aha was, again, as I said before, it is you have these expertises in so many different, and I'm saying four or five, and I know it's way more than that. And I'm, I apologize for underestimating that when you are out there and you are listening to different podcasts and you are researching and you are trying to bring all these pieces together, it was from the first podcast
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (24:09):
That immediately caught me. And I was like, okay, here is a doctor who is willing to put herself out there. Let me see what is the next piece. And then listening to the next part of your podcast and, and you talk about everything. And I'm going, okay, we've heard so many and we've learned, and I grew up with parents who immigrated to this country. So different alternative medicines were this thing for us growing up. And it was like, oh, there were those freaky kids. You know, using these herbal type things, what's up with you? You know, so you hide all those things and you kind of push them to the side. And here you are talking about all these different approaches in, in different combinations. And that was like, that was my first aha. Like, oh my goodness, I can unpack some of this.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (24:54):
And here is someone who is an expert in all these different areas. And then it just continued to grow from there. You treat the whole woman. It is not, piece of it is the whole woman. And again, and with our medicine that is such a compartmentalized, we have specialists, everything or people who generalize, but no one who's an expert in. So all the different parts, to be able to look at us as a whole woman and knowing how everything is connected. And again, for me that aha, oh yeah, remember this. And wow, here is someone who can only is not only speaking to that, but is teaching me and helping me understand how all these different parts are connected and how that will help me become the person I want to evolve into in a healthy manner without taking shortcuts, without looking for a fast fix, without, why isn't this working? And being able to do it in a positive manner that will help me continue to build and grow a healthy version of myself that I want to become
Speaker 2 (26:03):
So beautifully said. I guess I was blessed to be in a female body. So I have walked the walk of all of my clients. 'cause I've been in this body for many years, and then really blessed to have had the health challenges that I've had because they've exemplified that midlife metabolic mayhem that I help women with. So I uniquely, I'm intimate with the pain of it and also the pathway out because as a board certified ob, GYN, it wasn't, those tools weren't that, wasn't it?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:17):
You so much, Dr. Kieran. I truly, I cannot thank you enough. You have not only transformed my life, but you have saved my life in so many different ways and given me a life that I want to have. Thank you. Thank you. Oh,
Speaker 2 (27:34):
So grateful to have been a part of your life and your journey. Christine. Thank you. You're
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:38):
Stuck with me. I'm not going anywhere.
Speaker 2 (27:40):
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:50):
All right. My pleasure. Okay, have a great night. Thanks,
Speaker 2 (27:52):
You too. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me and Christine today and for listening to her experience, and hopefully you've gotten insight into what's possible for your health and your life going forward when you decide to say yes to yourself. We'll have the link in the show notes to the Hormone List Challenge if you would like to join us starting May 23rd to find out how we can help you transform your health and your life to where you want it to be, how you can get out of midlife metabolic mayhem caused by hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity. Look forward to seeing you live in the challenge starting on Thursday, if that can serve you well. And until next week, we'll be back with another episode. Peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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🌟 Lori's Leap from Hormonal Poverty to Prosperity 🌟Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we illuminate the path from struggle to vitality for women at midlife and beyond. Today, we bring you the truly inspirational story of Lori, a midlife warrior who turned her years of metabolic mayhem and hormonal havoc into a narrative of hope, health, and hormone harmony.
The Struggle Is RealLori’s saga began like that of many women stepping into midlife. Struggling with symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, her days were colored with exhaustion, imbalance, and a silent cry for relief. Despite Lori’s dogged determination to find a solution—traversing through the maze of advice, medications, and regimens—the elusive answer to her woes seemed just out of reach.
The Turning of the TideThe game-changer for Lori was her serendipitous encounter with the Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge. Like many, she approached it with a mix of skepticism and desperation. Yet, what unfolded over the course of the challenge was nothing short of miraculous.
Bloom into BalanceNot only did Lori achieve that long-sought hormonal equilibrium, but her entire well-being blossomed. Energy returned, clarity replaced confusion, and a renewed zest for life emerged. It’s not just a story of hormonal balance; it’s about rediscovering the fullness of life at midlife.
Key Takeaways and Inspirational Nuggets* Persistence Pays Off: Lori’s testament to never giving up, even when the night seems darkest, speaks volumes. Your answer might just be around the corner. * The Power of Personalized Solutions: Lori’s experience underscores the value of tailored approaches in navigating midlife transitions. * Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge: This beacon of hope stands as a testament to the power of targeted, supportive strategies in reclaiming one’s health.
An Invitation to Share and SupportInspired by Lori’s story? You’re not alone. We invite you to share your stories, struggles, and successes. Because when one woman blooms, she lights a path for all. Whether you’re deep in the throes of your own hormonal poverty or have found your version of prosperity, your story holds power.
Embark on Your JourneyMidlife mayhem doesn’t define you. If Lori’s story has ignited a spark within you, perhaps it’s time to explore what the Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge can do for you.
Remember, it’s not just about surviving; it’s about thriving. And you don’t have to do it alone. Visit us for more information on how you can start your personalized path towards hormone prosperity.
Thank you for tuning in to The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Until next time, may you find your balance, your bliss, and your unique prescription to hormone prosperity.
To connect, learn, or find support, reach out. Your story is just beginning.
Dr. Kyrin (00:00):
Lori says about the hormone bliss challenge. I'm just so thankful it has changed my life. Stay tuned to hear a little bit about her story and her journey with the Hormone Bliss Challenge, which is coming up starting May 23rd.
Dr. Kyrin (00:15):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin (01:09):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we talk with one of my clients, Lori, who is a woman at Midlife who was really struggling with her health. Maybe you can relate those 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. She had been just so many different providers. I tried so many different programs and treatments and therapies. She says shares in the episode about the symptoms that were just accumulating, kind of like ants and really had gotten to a very hopeless and helpless place trying to search for answers online 'cause her doctors weren't helping her and trying these different. So-Called one-Shot Wonders She'll Share. You'll get to hear all the details of her journey and how she finally found success when she joined our Hormone Bliss challenge, which is launching again on May 23rd.
Dr. Kyrin (02:06):
I only do it live a couple times a year, so you're definitely gonna wanna join us if Lori's experience speaks to you. If you're a woman at midlife who really feels lost and hopeless to correct your weight, your energy
Dr. Kyrin (03:28):
So without further ado, let's welcome Lori to the show. And Lori, start by telling us a little bit about what you were struggling with that brought you to the challenge.
Lori (03:41):
I have always, it feels like always had symptoms from fatigue. I didn't have the weight gain until recently, late fifties before I started the weight gain. But I've had the insomnia at times. I've had the fatigue during the day. Lots of times I would drive an hour and I'd have to pull over and take a nap, just fatigue. But thinking a lot of times that it was being a mom working full time, just being busy all the time. And then you get to the stage where, okay, now I'm retired, now my kids are gone and I'm still having those symptoms. And then you blame it on allergies. But I had some issues that I had to go to my gynecologist and have checkups every sometimes six months. And I love her. She's fantastic. But she even admits I don't know anything about hormones. And I knew that was part of the key.
Lori (04:45):
I thought it was the whole key because it seems like friends of mine who have, once you have one symptom, like you don't just have one, you have them all
Lori (05:40):
Mm-Hmm
Lori (06:41):
I think a lot of it felt like, well that stress that's external, there's nothing I can do about it, but I can. And you've given me so many ways to change and deal with it and to feel empowered that I can, it's not about taking a pill. It is about lifestyle changes and how impactful those are, as well as maybe supplements and hormones and things that will help along the way. But deep breathing, some of the evening relaxation audios, those have helped so much. And I've, I'm still a list person and I'm probably always gonna be a list person, but I don't let the list drive me like it used to. I used to almost be in a panic until I could start working on my to-do list. And I'm really trying to enjoy life more and I know that it's helping my health as well. So I am. That's awesome. I am so thankful that I started this journey with you and I'm trying to, I think I had done a summit years ago with you, and so I just really connected with you and your way of teaching and sharing and empowering. And so I've always followed you and all of a sudden one day I saw the Hormone Bliss Challenge and I said, I have got to do that. So I'm just so thankful that I have, it's changed my life.
Dr. Kyrin (08:12):
Yeah. I'm so thankful that you have two because I think a lot of women you mentioned earlier, it's not just one symptom, it's many. And I always say they're like ants. If you see one an at a picnic, there's never just one
Dr. Kyrin (09:28):
And it's not really about healing the cause of these problems. That's what most of us are getting at our doctor's offices, including me when I went through my forties. And that means there are a lot of people online teaching about women's hormones. Unfortunately, a lot of these people actually don't have the depth and breadth of experience to give a comprehensive solution. So there are a lot of people who say, oh, essential oils, that's the solution for your midlife hormone problems. There are a lot of people who say, oh, you just need this one supplement and this is gonna fix it for you. Oh, you just need to follow this one diet. And are those tools useful? Yes. However, I think that when women don't know even what they don't know and they don't know what they're looking for and they see someone says, I have the answer, they oftentimes fall in the trap that a lot of us fall into is trying that solution and then it, it doesn't work.
Dr. Kyrin (10:29):
And they conclude there is no answer. Right. And that's why I've done the summits that I've done and I think the last one we did, we had a hundred experts on the Stop the Menopause Men Summit, most of whom are board certified medical doctors or other credentialed healthcare practitioners who have the comprehensive information and solution. And that's really what I offer. I've been accused of, Karen, you, you tell people they have to do all the things. And I say, yes, if you wanna feel great in your fifties, sixties, eighties and be as healthy as you can, increase your vitality span, your longevity, your libido, your weight, all those things you really do need to do all the things. If you leave any one thing out, you're never gonna achieve what's possible for you. And I know this is a long commentary on what you said, but you really inspired me. So I'm so grateful to you to come and talk about your experience because I think that women can, sometimes they're inundated with information in their social media and email about balance your hormones this way. And they don't recognize an authentic solution that works when it comes across their path. And so I appreciate you coming and sharing your experience. 'cause You had tried a lot of different things, hadn't you? Over many years. Yes,
Lori (11:48):
A lot. And I think that was specifically one thing I remember you saying is that it rarely is this comprehensive. I still get probably five emails a day on this solution, that solution, and they sound good. And you try and then like you said, it doesn't work or maybe it doesn't work right away. And so then I stop because I don't have that follow through with somebody that can help me say, Nope, you just need a little more time. Or this is another thing, this is another piece to the puzzle. I think I thought too that it was a couple of puzzle pieces and really it's a multitude of puzzle pieces and that's the good thing. And the bad thing,
Lori (12:43):
Especially like you said, things that have built up for 30 years. Like it's not just gonna course correct immediately that it takes a while to turn the ship around. And I just so appreciate that expertise that you have in so many areas across the whole body, the whole mind, the whole spiritual aspect because it is all of that. And I have never found any wedding over the past 30, 40 years that can be that conduit together, that knows that can share all of it and guide me in all of the pieces instead of like this piecemeal stuff. Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Kyrin (13:24):
Yeah, we learned through our pain, right? And so it's my weight struggles, my health struggles, my spiritual struggles, all the things that I've had to learn in my path, most of which I learned was not in medical school or even in my residency. Sure, that was the nuts and bolts of it. But working with thousands of women over the past 30 years and my own health, I always say that people shouldn't listen to me because I'm a board certified MD or in fellowship trained in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine. But why you really shouldn't listen to me is because I've been where you have been. And I reversed all those problems and navigate, continue to navigate my health journey in positive ways. What are some of the most surprising things that you learned in the challenge that you just would've never not even known, that you didn't know or never guessed would be a part of reversing midlife, metabolic mayhem, preventing disease, increasing longevity? What are the surprising things?
Lori (14:24):
I think one of the biggest things, one I've already mentioned that it is way more than a few pieces. Like it's so complex, it's more complex than I ever imagined, and yet I knew it wasn't easy. So that's been a big piece. The other piece, I always knew eating was important. I thought I was a good eater. I don't snack, I don't eat like candy and a lot of junk food. But really the difference that being careful with foods particularly that cause inflammation. And I didn't understand the inflammation part and how that damages cells, which just sets off this chain reaction of pieces. And it was, even as I got into it was a little harder for me to accept, again, thinking that I ate pretty healthy. But that has really made such a huge difference in how I feel mental health as well as health.
Lori (15:24):
And that's probably one of the biggest pieces. And then I think just how I get in my own way of, even though I have wanted to be healthy for a very long time, like where have I put the roadblocks in? Where have I refused to make changes? And just having that support. It's great for somebody to tell you, oh, this is bad for you, don't eat this. But I think having that support along the way is what's really sort of proven to myself, how valuable that piece is. And we don't get that with mainstream medicine. You go to appointment and then like, do we need a follow up? And even if you have a follow up, they're not talking about these important pieces, it's just what's the next test? What's, how's the pill affecting you and how important those other pieces are. The pills aren't even going to work very well if you still, if it's just covering up the surface and you don't get covering up the symptom and not really getting down at the root cause of what is causing this. Yes.
Dr. Kyrin (16:25):
But something you said made me think this idea that there's one right diet for everyone, it just popped in my head. It's like saying that there's one right kind of music that we should all listen to. We should all listen to acid rock music. That's the right kind of, well, anyone would say that's insane. People have different preferences. Well, just like you emotionally and mentally have different preferences. Your body has different preferences and needs and so diet needs to be very customized. And I think that a lot of people are surprised to find out that it's not only about calories when it comes to diet. We talk about that in the challenge. There are other issues related to the foods you eat that most people are not aware of. And how was it doing the challenge with seven days on Zoom with other women, A lot of women are very hesitant to talk about their health in a public format like that.
Dr. Kyrin (17:20):
And it's funny, when I first started doing group programs in my office, gosh, over 10 years ago, what I realized is in doing this work, women need support, but not just support from me. They need support from each other. And so that's why I started doing groups in my office and then I said, well, I'm not gonna be able to reach all the women who need this help in my office. So I started offering online programs in groups and invariably women are very hesitant to do something online, to do something in a group. Now with the pandemic, I think that's changed. But how was that for you? Were you hesitant to do that? And what was your experience like?
Lori (17:54):
I'm pretty open and I'm pretty open about my symptoms and sharing with people. And because I, I'm amazed at how people can, I had that I feel that way or I tried this and I've always known how helpful that is to share your story with people because I learned so much. So I wasn't quite, I do a lot of work on Zoom for work too, so I wasn't initially worried about that. But then when you do start talking about some of these things, you're, hmm, I do. I really wanna share that to a group. But the group was, so everybody's going through the same thing and it was beautiful to hear some, someone would share something and I would be like, I didn't even know I had that symptom, or I had never thought of that being connected to all of this. Because that's another thing that I learned.
Lori (18:46):
It's like you can have the most remote little symptom and be like, yep, that is because da da da. And it's all connected in like those ants. It's not just a thousand ants around. They're all from the same colony and they all feed off of each other. So I learned so much from other people and you do get to the point where you're just like, if I wanna be better, I just need to be open and I need to be able to share. So when you think about all the programs that really help people, like whether it's Alcoholics Anonymous or whatever, you need that follow up. You need that support. You need to be with other people that are going through the same things. So I just found that I was able to make better connections because I was working with other people.
Dr. Kyrin (19:30):
Yeah, I find that the power of the group, and it's been documented in many white papers and studies over the past decade. I even had a gentleman on my podcast who really does a lot of work with this around the power of the group in increasing healthcare outcomes. And so a lot of programs are using group models now for improvement for diabetes outcomes and all kinds of chronic health problems. So it's not just with me, but I find a lot of people haven't been exposed to it yet. So it can seem a little daunting. And it's funny though, in the courses we've created over the past few years, we, I find that's one of people's favorite aspects of the program is the group. And people have literally found their BFF in my programs, which is really nice and special. So the challenge, I think it sounds like it was pretty eye-opening for you about a lot of things and then you chose to go on and start working with me in my other programs. What really tipped your mind and to making the decision to commit to yourself in that way?
Lori (20:38):
A couple of things. One was the challenge. After the seven days, I was like, oh my gosh, I can't do anything for seven days and make this huge commitment for seven days. And, and then what I did, I found that was the thing I was looking most forward to every day. And I learned so much in seven days that I was like, I can't stop for one thing. I, there's so much more I need to learn. It's that whole, are you consciously incompetent? And I really felt like I was at the point that I needed some guidance specific to me because where I live in rural Iowa, there, there aren't not people like you that I can like just go pick up with. There's just no support like that. And so I felt that, that I needed, that. I had just been recently diagnosed with testing positive for autoimmune disease.
Lori (21:32):
Didn't know what that really meant. Didn't really want to go to the medical field on that 'cause they'll just give you a pill. And I knew that wasn't the answer. I didn't realize it was all related to the hormones and the gut. And that was a surprise for me. And when I found that out, I was like, I have to do this. I am going down the fork in the road is to the left. That's not a good place and I need to go to the right and I don't have that kind of expertise here. And I knew you did. And so you've gotta go with the sure thing. I've spent 30 years trying this and trying that and going here and one thing here. And I just needed to do that. And another thing that you've shared is that we wanna just go to the doctor, get surgery, get a pill, go home.
Lori (22:19):
And I realized that I really had bought into that too. And that not only do I not have, even if it was true, I don't have that option around here, but we do deserve to be healthy. And I have a new grand baby, my first, and I wanna be healthy. I wanna get on the ground and play with her for years. I don't wanna be where I can't take care of her or play with her. And that really was the tipping point for me is I have done for a lot of people, done a lot of work over the years and now it's, I really need to take care of myself and so that I can be there for my family and not just even physically be there, but to be my full self there to be a happy self and not just a person that's in pain and suffering. Yeah. And that it is gonna take time. It is going to take time out of our day. It's gonna take some money, but why have those things if it's not in a healthy, happy way?
Dr. Kyrin (23:24):
Yes. And I'm just thinking as you're talking, remember you sharing and the program and the challenge, and I remember all the women's shares and we have the, the daily worksheets that people submit, which I love reading because I really get to see what people women are struggling with. And it breaks my heart because when I read it, it I see, I know how unnecessary the health suffering is and I know the severity of suffering that it causes. And then something that I ask women to reflect on is if your health challenges continue, all those little ants that are creeping up every day, where are you? What's your life gonna look like in another year, five years, 10 years? What dreams are you going to have to give up on? And so I'm just wondering, if you were still out there looking for answers and trying one-shot solutions that don't work, what would you be afraid are the dreams you would basically have to give up on?
Lori (24:23):
I think for me, I have a lot of like aches and pains, muscle. And so just being is sometimes difficult and painful and you just, all you can do is focus on the pain and I don't wanna be that way. A, you don't wanna be in pain and B, it just ruins everything. And so even, you know, the times I'm with my granddaughter and the times I'm with my family, that is everything to me is just like, it's never completely happy because you're just in all this pain. That was the biggest thing that I wanted to get past is I wanted to just really enjoy my retirement. I've worked hard to get here. Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Kyrin (25:06):
Right. And yeah, you have the grand baby and your husband. I, I, he is, I love working with women because you teach a woman about her health and then she teaches everyone she loves and that's in her circle. And everybody's health improves. Thank you so much, Laurie, for coming and just sharing your experience. I think it's really valuable for other women to hear women like you who have gone through this experience, sharing your experience so that they can judge, is this something that could help me? And they can see, wow, is she suffering, like I'm suffering? And what benefit has she gotten? And help them make a decision about if the hormone was challenge could be something that could be helpful for them. Any last words you'd like to share with any woman who's considering going to the challenge? Not quite sure, and that's on the fence. What would you tell her?
Lori (26:05):
Well, I think the main thing for me is I've spent a lot of time researching, a lot of time going to doctors, a lot of money on a variety of, whether it's supplements or appointments or tests, and then it always goes away. And you, I never really saw huge benefits and I already see huge benefits in this short amount of time and it will stay with me forever because you teach us how to take care of ourselves. It's not, it's something that I will take with me forever, even though I still have a lot to learn and I am just so thankful. And for someone who has tried and tried to find answers, this finally is an answer and I just can't thank you enough. And I would tell anyone, please do it. If you have any of these symptoms and you want to get better, it is the answer that I've been looking for. And also, I had a doctor appointment this morning and I've lost seven pounds, so, woo. Yes. And I only wanted to lose about 10 or 12, so I'm pretty close to being there, so I'm super excited about that too.
Dr. Kyrin (27:20):
That's amazing. I am so grateful to have the opportunity to work with you and I so appreciate you sharing your experience on the show. I know there are women out there you're helping right now who are feeling hopeless and lost and don't know where to turn, and they've made so many bad mistakes and wasted so much time and so much money that they're afraid of making another one. And they're just paralyzed with fear, honestly. And so I know you've helped some women today get unstuck and take action on their own behalf. Thank you so much, Lori.
Lori (27:56):
Thank you. Thank you so much. Take care. Bye-Bye.
Dr. Kyrin (28:00):
And thanks for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you've gotten some hope here today. Hopefully you've gotten some answers and your understanding that you really need to address all the things. And then I'm gonna teach you about all the things you need to do during the Hormone Blist challenge that starts live on May 23rd. Seven simple days where we go live on Zoom. You'll have one-on-one interaction with me and other women struggling with the same things. And you'll learn the exact steps that I took to get out of midlife metabolic mayhem and to stay out of it for over a decade now and the exact steps that I've taken thousands of other women through. So if that could be of service to you, please use the link in the show notes to find out more and to join us. I look forward to seeing you there. Until next week, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Dr. Kyrin (28:56):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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In this enlightening and empowering episode, we're joined by the inspirational Michelle Saudan, a beacon of light in the world of healing arts and the founder of Amanzi Wellbeing. Michelle’s dedication to transforming lives through trauma-informed approaches, coupled with her mastery in sound healing, breathwork, movement, bodywork, and meditation, brings us a conversation that's both healing and revolutionary.
Episode Highlights:
- Michelle opens her heart about her personal and professional voyage into the realms of healing arts. With her story, she illuminates the path for those of us seeking a deeper understanding of our holistic health.
- The spotlight of our discussion shines brightly on the topic of stored trauma—how it's often the unseen force disrupting women's health, especially during the pivotal stage of midlife. From hormonal imbalances to a spectrum of other health concerns, Michelle sheds light on the shadows cast by unaddressed trauma.
- Have you heard of trauma-informed approaches but find yourself mystified by what they entail? Michelle demystifies this term, explaining how such strategies foster a safe environment for healing and liberation from the chains of past hurts.
- Seeking practical wisdom? This episode is laden with tangible tips and strategies. Discover how integrating sound healing, purposeful breathwork, mindful movement, and meditation into your daily life can act as pillars supporting your health and healing voyage.
- We wrap up our conversation with a surge of hope and a call to empowerment. Michelle reminds us that it's within our power to nurture our health, rewrite our stories, and step into a life marked by balance and vitality.
About Michelle Saudan:
Michelle Saudan embodies the essence of holistic healing. Through her groundbreaking work with Amanzi Wellbeing, she has dedicated over a decade to enriching the lives of individuals, especially women navigating the complexities of midlife. Her approach is one that intertwines the physical, mental, and spiritual dimensions, offering a roadmap to those eager to heal from trauma and lead a life filled with joy and well-being. Michelle's commitment goes beyond individual healing—she is passionate about fostering community healing, notably through her trauma-informed wellness retreats that spotlight Africa's unique wellness treasures.
In Conclusion:
Dive deep with us into this life-affirming episode as Michelle Saudan helps us uncover the profound impact of stored trauma on our health and guides us through the pathways of healing. Remember, the power to transform our health narratives is within our grasp, and with the right tools and wisdom, we can emerge stronger, healthier, and more vibrant.
Ready to start your healing journey? Join us on The Hormone Prescription Podcast and take the first step towards not just surviving, but thriving. Because your health isn't just about hormones—it's about heart, healing, and harnessing your power.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
G Mate is quoted as saying trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you. Trauma affects all of us, and it affects our health. If it stays untended, we'll never achieve the brilliant health that's possible for us at midlife and beyond. Stay tuned as Michelle Sudan shares with you, how to use Compassionate Inquiry and other modalities to help ease the trauma that's hurting your health.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:27):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunton. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:20):
Hi everybody, and welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thanks so much for joining me today as we talk with Michelle Sudan, a beautiful woman I met in Dubai who's going to talk to us about healing the trauma that binds you, that's hurting your health. Whether you know it or not, the majority of us pro, probably pretty much all of us have little T traumas throughout our life. I know we've talked on the podcast and during the Stop the Menopause Madness summits some about this, but we haven't really tackled it in a big way. How do you start to address this in a tolerable way that's compassionate and really helps you to understand how these little overwhelming situations in your childhood and life have affected your health and are affecting your health to this day. So we're gonna talk with Michelle about that.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:18):
I met her when I was in Dubai. She's from Zimbabwe. She talks a little bit about her story, which is beautiful, as with many of the healers I met in Dubai. She has a multifaceted skill set and is just a gifted human being. And really I think it's her presence that's more healing than anything. You'll see what I mean when you hear her talk. I think she has a healing frequency that just heals people who are in conversation with her or listening to her. That's been my experience with her and I just had to have her on the show. I had some beautiful experiences with her when I was in Dubai. Looking forward to having more. I think you will love this conversation as we really talk about healing the trauma that's binding you that you might not even be aware of, maybe you are, and how to go about doing that. So I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. Michelle Sudan is the founder of AM Manzi Wellbeing and a practitioner of healing arts. She's deeply committed to the transformative powers of trauma-informed approaches, found healing, breath movement, body work, and meditation. She's devoted to supporting and holding space for the healing and wellbeing of our global community via trauma-informed wellness retreats with a focus on expanding awareness of Africa's unique wellness assets. Please help me welcome Michelle Sudan to the show.
Michelle Saudan (03:45):
Thank you, Karen. I'm so happy to be here. It's an honor. Love you energy, and just happy to share.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:52):
Mutual. I'm so glad that our past crossed when I was in Dubai and really your energy just spoke to me. You have such a calming presence. There's so much talk about trauma and trauma informed therapy. I think the world is really waking up to how we've collectively been traumatized and how it's affecting our health. I know that's been a part of my journey these past 10 years, and you just had a presence and a way of speaking about these issues that was extremely non-threatening and inclusive and compassionate. And I saw people opening up in response to what you shared in a way I hadn't seen before, and I very much appreciated that. I know I participated in inner child healing meditation that you offered at Eva experience in Dubai that was just beautiful and so many other interactions. I so enjoyed hearing you talk about your grandmother and how she would speak to you and speak to just the culture that you come from, the continent that you come from.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:15):
It's steeped in you
Michelle Saudan (07:10):
It's a lovely question. Thank you. Well, Kirin, I started my career as a bodyworker 14, now 14 years ago. And it came up to a point where a lot of my repeat clients would book sessions just to talk. I remember the first client, like it was yesterday, who booked a 90 minutes deep tissue massage. And he sat down and I said, well, you know, it is not first time he knows the protocol, you know, put the bath lay down. But he just sat and he said, no, Michelle, from today onwards, we'll do 15 minutes massage. 75 minutes we are going to talk. It started, and I was so confused because at that time, you know, 22 years old, I, I didn't know that there were such modalities like coaching and counseling and therapy. It doesn't exist in my part of the world in Zimbabwe where I came from.
Michelle Saudan (08:09):
So I started researching and, you know, came upon all these beautiful modalities and discovered that this was something I could, you know, serve my clients with. And then, then it was the topics that they brought as well, you know, topics such as suicide or harmful habits or, you know, depression, anxiety, which I did not know of, but they just opened up. And so I took it as my responsibility and also curiosity to find out more about these deeply rooted concerns that they were speaking to, and so that I could meet them at least halfway. And then that's how it started and it's been a roll on effect. And I remember watching a documentary called The Wisdom of Trauma by who is now one of my teachers, Dr. Gbo Mate, and his approached Compassionate Inquiry. And when I watched that, I just resonated with his teachings and everything that he spoke to in the world of trauma. And I decided to dive deep into somatic somatic healing when it comes to trauma informed practices and just an overall overarching theme when it comes to looking at trauma. And that's, yeah, that, that's the way it's taken me today. The nutshell.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:31):
I love that because for so many reasons, the first, well one relates to this quote that you shared with me before we started recording, that I love by a h Almaas, only when compassion is present will people allow themselves to see the truth. I think that's something that I feel from you is from truth, but also peace, truth, inside peace. But the truth to me is peace. And that this man, bless him,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:34):
And so it, it's so beautiful. I do believe that we each have a unique purpose on this planet and a reason for being here. And that part of our health problems are the fact that we haven't recognized or allowed ourselves to know that truth. And particularly in America, we've tried to decide with our minds, oh, what's a good career? How can I make a good living and, and have quote unquote security with a good pension plan and 401k and a home and a car, and all this with our minds. And we haven't listened to our souls to allow us to be called forth from us what our true purpose and calling is. And so I love that story because it says to me, you were attuned and you were listening to what is the universe telling me that I'm here for what I'm good at? And he called that out in you. I just think it's so beautiful. Does that make sense?
Michelle Saudan (11:40):
It does. It's, it's similar to, you know, when you, when you reflect on the quote, what's so beautiful about it, Karen, is that if, if I came to you and I was pouring my soul and bearing everything that I needed help with, I'm gonna seize to see everything and see things as they are and be willing to accept them and see the truth. And not just the story, but the underlying truth of what's really happening to me. For me, if there is judgment, if I'm being seen to be that which is not right in my life, if I'm being seen through a lens of compassion, then I'm gonna be willing to see all the parts of me, the good and the bad. You know, the comfortable and the uncomfortable. So that truth, seeing the truth of what really is present, seeing the truth of the pain that's underneath, you know, whatever addiction, you know, if there's, because underneath the anger that I hold within my body, within my soma, I'm gonna be willing to see it all and listen to it being mirrored back to me when there's compassion present and I'm willing and I'm ready to open that Pandora's box.
Michelle Saudan (12:53):
'Cause when we open that box of healing, so much comes out that sometimes even shocks us. But if there's a compassionate witness or there's that sense of compassion within, then I'm, I'm not gonna be afraid. I'm just gonna be willing to open up that box load, I know what's inside, but I'm gonna be okay with it. 'cause The person in front of me is just mirroring that it's okay. And I think that really embodies what that quote stands for. And thank you for, for reflecting it back. I think it's so important.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:27):
Yes. And something that has been really a part of my journey was initially I said, well, I want to work with women and help them with their health. So what's the biggest toolbox, most powerful toolbox I can get to access to help women? And so I said, oh, I'll get my medical doctorate. So I went to medical school and then I practiced that for many years. And then I saw that so many women, despite all the prescriptions I gave them and surgeries, I did hysterectomies, things like that, people were still suffering, particularly at midlife, including myself. And I said, well, we're missing something. Something's not right here. And then I discovered something called functional medicine. So that looked at the physiologic, biochemical causes of disease. So I studied that and that helped me transform my health and the women I was working with. But then after a while I started saying, wait a minute, yes, this works but not for everybody and why is that we're missing something.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:31):
And then kind of went on my own healing journey and realized that the things that you help people with is what I was missing. And now I've realized, well this affects all of us, but very much in the US we have this mindset of, if I'm able to have a family and work at my job and be a productive member of society, this doesn't apply to me. Like there's very much this culture of don't talk, don't trust, don't feel like feelings are the enemy
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (15:39):
Put some lipstick on, do your hair, you know, what's that song? I got my hair done, dah, dah, everything's fine. Like that to me says American culture. And so a lot of what I spend time with women doing is trying to help them see that no, everything's not fine 'cause you got your hair done and your nails done. And that really avoids talking about the things that are underneath what's causing you to not follow the diet. You know, you should follow, you know, eating things that I say are not in your best interest.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (16:36):
I'm talking about it. And I was amazed to arrive there and find this huge conversation going on in the kind of public that isn't going on in the US particularly. Also, I saw that in South Africa about apartheid and it's very public. And people say to you right away, oh yeah, we talk about this. We have to heal from this as a country. So can you talk a little bit about how people come to realize that this is them? And I'll say one more thing. I know I've said a lot at the retreat that you gave her a treat and you had kind of a conversation with everyone that to my mind was about codependency. But you never said that word
Michelle Saudan (17:46):
A great question. It's like when you talk to a child, we have to realize that when people go through trauma, you know, like we all have gone through our own stuff, is that it causes us to put walls up and to protect and defend. That's a normal primal state of being when we're, you know, subjected to external forces that are, are not right, that are not safe for our being. So that when people are trying to heal, the last thing you want to do is, like you said, come from the mind because that's not gonna help anyone. It's what got them there. That's not what's gonna take them out. We need to come from the bottom, you know, and but come right from the heart center, that's what's gonna take them out. So in order to work with, with the trauma or to work with any of these circumstances that got people into the limiting states that they're in, then we can't be pointing fingers, for lack of a better word, it's gotta be different.
Michelle Saudan (18:51):
So that defenses are lowered and then we can work, then we have an open field. We don't have, we are not dealing with an army. You know, we are dealing with a peacemaking operation here that's ready to, to make amends and to see how we can fix things. And with regard to people talking about things you had said, you know, in South Africa, you know, people speak South Africa a little bit differently. That, and I love the movement and the energy, you know, that's building up. I can't say the same thing for other parts of Africa. I'm from Zimbabwe and Zimbabweans and South Africans, even though we share the same border is very different. Zimbabweans are still very much, we are very held back. I think we are 10 steps behind, for so many reasons. There's that fear, you know, that we can't speak, you know, after having, without bringing politics into this conversation.
Michelle Saudan (19:51):
But, you know, that has largely played a role, you know, lack of freedom of speech. It was never, never present from the time we won independence. But the South Africans had amazing leadership. Look at Nelson Mandela. Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (20:36):
Yes. And so is your approach something that you came by more innately from your origins and your ancestors? Or is it something that you learned?
Michelle Saudan (20:49):
It is something I would say I learned largely because I grew up in a community where we did not speak and you just had to go and do your job. Just if you had a roof and you had something to eat, whether it was once a day, you, you, you were better off. You just go and you continue because things could be worse. That was the mantra in our homestead. So, but then something happened and I have to thank them. I, I got a youth exchange scholarship at 16 and I went for the first time to the USA and it was such a huge culture shock because we were taught to be quiet, respect the teachers
Michelle Saudan (21:48):
Children spoke their minds. And so it, it really awoke something in me. I said, wow, you know, I mean, if we had a bit more respect, yes we can do it with some respect, but I loved how the children were just open, you know, they spoke the family. I stayed with them. The girls spoke about, you know, their emotions, how they were feeling openly with the parents. And that wasn't something I grew up with. So when I went back to Africa, it ignited something in me and I said, well, you know, I'd like that to be different, you know, 'cause it was nice, you know, we learned, we spoke our truth. Nothing was held and they were still together even though they spoke opinions. So it was a reflection. And then it was also something I learned because I traveled to so many countries in my time and then said, no, well, I've been extracted from what I've known for so long. I think this is where we are missing. We are missing something here as a people, as a culture. And this is hindering us in so many ways, economically, mentally, physically, socially, emotionally. And this is one of the major missing links, at least from the country I know of. I can't speak to others in the world, but from what I know from experience. So to a long-winded answer to your question, yes, it was learned.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (23:19):
And so what was the evolution? Because yes, there are, people do speak their minds and opinions in the US and there's this whole reservoir of pain that isn't discussed, the feelings underneath. I'm wondering, coming from what you described in your cultural background and then the kind of eye-opening experience in the US, what was the evolution that allowed you to really have this deep presence and ability to sit with people in their pain and feelings? How did that evolve and how did you learn that? Hmm.
Michelle Saudan (23:58):
Yeah. Sitting with the deep pain comes from having gone through a lot of deep pain and adversity yourself. So I've gone through my own deep adversities, not just as an individual, but with my family is a lot of pain we've gone through as a collective. And I think watching when that's being mirrored to you as a child growing up. And you can see maybe we were not able to speak about the emotions, but the physical presence of holding space for people was always there is always part of the culture. You sit, there's no words being said, but we sit with the person and we know what's going on, but we sit and we grieve, we hold that space. So seeing that, but also having felt my family hold me and very much the same way and do the same for them is something you could sit with anything.
Michelle Saudan (25:00):
You know, people came with so many things and my grandmother was a, a nurse by night, but she did traditional African healing in the community, you know, and people were always coming to the home with different things and just sitting, you know, we could, they could be laughing and talking, but you see there was some pain and there'd just be silence, you know, or the body posture, you know, with the rounded shoulders and the heads down and the hands together under the chin as though you really, you know, I I I hear you, I resonate with you. So seeing that it's just been able to, to help me as well, to be able to sit with other people. It's like, no pain is, it is too big for me to be with you. I might not have all the answers to, or, you know, support to help you unpack it, but sitting with you that I can do no matter what. It's,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (25:58):
That's so beautiful. Just being present with it. And, you know, my experience in the US is that we can't sit with, with uncomfortability. We gotta turn the TV on, eat that, you know, sweet compulsive avoidance of being present to discomfort, hence all the compulsive ways that we medicate our pain that then affect our health. You know, rates of diabetes,
Michelle Saudan (27:31):
Yeah. The first one, and I always use this word, is first compassion for yourself where there's no judgment. 'cause What leads us into the, the habits is then now the, you know, finding ways to cope with how bad we feel about ourselves, right? Mm-Hmm,
Michelle Saudan (28:31):
You know? And this creates space, you know, it gives you really a lot of space between the stimulus and you know, your reaction or your response. So get curious, okay, well what's happening? You know, what's triggered that? What's brought this on? And then the last part is to nurture yourself. So by the time you get curious and you say, oh, okay, well it was something someone said, okay, that triggered this belief. You know, there's this, there's something, 'cause this is, this is a pattern. Now there's space. You're becoming more conscious. And as Carl Young says, it's, it's until we make the unconscious conscious, it'll drive our lives and we'll call it fate. So here you are being conscious now, you know, by just doing this, you know, recognizing can you allow it to be with no judgment? Can the grief be there without me saying, oh, enough now, or have grieved for too long, I've been too sad, I've been crying for too long, or I haven't cried enough.
Michelle Saudan (29:34):
You know, can there be no evaluation on, on, you know, what's present for us? And then we get curious. And then the last part is nurture. Okay, what do you really need besides the cookie, you know, or the ice cream tub, is it a hug? Do I need to talk to someone? What's underlying? Because if it's, if it's a habit that doesn't serve you, it's okay, but let's look at what it's giving you. So when we look at a cookie, what are we getting? You know, we get dopamine, right? We circuits are wiring and firing. So from that, eating that satisfaction from the sugar. So what is that equivalent to? It's equivalent to a hug, quality touch. Yeah. So can I try that instead? And then it doesn't hurt me internally. So that's how the framework I use, it seems like a long little, long checklist. But when it's more conscious, it's just the way of being as opposed to, to doing. I
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (30:32):
Love that. So rain, recognize our recognize a allow, I was
Michelle Saudan (30:39):
In choir, so this was curiosity. And then n was is nurture,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (30:46):
Right? And that quote from Carl Young, until we make the unconscious conscious, it will drive our lives and we will call it fate. And so many of the women I work with really have the mindset and attitude that my life is the way it is. I only have this health problem, this hormonal problem. Most of the women who come to me. And I just want you to tell me what supplements I need to take, diet to eat, exercise to do, to get rid of these symptoms. And not really seeing how unconscious patterns are playing a role in their health problems. And for so many of us, it is, I know for me, you know, unconscious patterns of this belief of I wouldn't be doing a good job as a doctor if I wasn't bleeding myself in my giving, right? I had to suffer in my giving.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (31:41):
And then that caused me to overwork and overdue, which then affected my wellbeing and health. But it was such a compulsive, unconscious belief. And now I've kind of transformed that. 'cause I recognized it and it wasn't serving me. So I guess I kind of did this
Michelle Saudan (32:32):
My grandmother always used to refer to this. I don't remember the passage, but it was from the Bible and it was about my cup runneth over. And she always used to say, you know, I'm, I'm a nurse, but at the end of the day, you know, my cup has to be four and the extra is what I give you children's, what I give my patients. And that was always something she spoke. And we didn't understand what it meant as an adult, I do now, but when we are giving so much and get into something where we spoke lightly saying compassion fatigue, you know, is giving so much that there is an underlying belief. And that's something that is very old. So it's something we have to look at, you know, within ourselves. It's like, okay, where, where is this coming from?
Michelle Saudan (33:27):
Because it's okay to give, you know, we're all in this line of service. But when it's, there's an, an agenda because it's a, it's attached to something that, that doesn't serve us where we de be depleting ourselves. So there's some work for us to do. 'cause It shouldn't be that way where when it's, when it comes out that way, there's, there's something where it started is so, so my question would be, where did you learn that you had to give so much of yourself that, or you depended or you placed your value on how much you know you gave. So something you learned. So it's, where did you learn that? And can we look at it from a nonjudgmental lens and see what's happening?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (34:15):
So yes, the compassionate inquiry, and I know that you work with Gabor mate and I wanna share a couple quotes that you also shared with me. One from Gabor, which is, trauma is not what happens to you, but what happens inside you and the other from Tara Brock, whom I love the deepest transformations in our lives come down to something very simple. We learn to respond, not react to what is going on inside us. And very much what I hear you talking about is first becoming aware that something's happening. I think this used to be me and, and so many women I work with, we're not, we don't even, we're not, we don't even recognize these internal thought and feeling processes that are happening. And then we try to shut them down because we don't wanna go there. So we don't allow it. And then we're certainly not inquiring
Michelle Saudan (35:47):
It's, I think cultivating or having a practice of your own, you know, a mindfulness practice. And what I mean by that, Karen is not, not everyone needs to light a candle and burn incense and have a meditation cushion. You know, it, it, it can sound like making your own pot shrimp soup on a Sunday. And, and that's your moment and taking all the time. If whatever takes you out from the busyness, you know, of your external and really brings you in, then find that and use it as an anchor. If you love trimming your roses, let that be that moment where you say, okay, I'm gonna try and be as present as I can consciously and use this moment to, to really, I'm trimming the roses, but there's also, it gives me space and time just to be with myself, to slow down, you know, walking your dog, brushing your dog or your horses, just whatever it is, just find something that really anchors you.
Michelle Saudan (36:51):
We all have it, but maybe we just haven't consciously realized that, hey, that is my thing, you know, but you just unconsciously drawn to it, but you just didn't know that that is your, you know, your, your silver, your golden key to presence. So finding any practices that really bring you into the present moment to really slow down and anchor you can really make a difference. Because it's in those spare moments where you actually think, you know, well no, that didn't go well. What, what's wrong? You start questioning and give you space to contemplate if you are also ready to go there. Sometimes we can have all the space, but if we are not ready to go there, then all we'll have is just space. But, you know, so I hope that that helps. But just finding one's own way of taking that moment. But like you said, self-awareness is just do I realize that something's wrong and or something needs to be changed? Not wrong, I'll, I'll take back that word, but just something that needs to be changed. And if you just have that realization that no, something needs to change, then you have presence, voila, the rest will unfold.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:10):
Yes, presence and awareness. And it leads me to a question that really has been reframed for me recently, and that is, what is self-love to you? How would you describe that to someone? Because we hear so much, oh, love yourself, love yourself. But really what does that mean on an everyday basis? What does it look like? What does it feel like? What, how do you do that?
Michelle Saudan (38:35):
Yeah. self-love. I, I think for me when I have a balance between authenticity and attachment, it means that I'm not stretching myself too thin to save the relationships around me. I'm not, I'm not putting myself on a spit as a sacrifice for the relationships I have. There is an element of me nourishing those relationships, but there's also a balance of me nourishing myself in equilibrium that for me, daily, because I'm in a relationship daily as all of us are, it's a very big thing because your relationships really test you. You know,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (39:30):
You
Michelle Saudan (39:32):
So it's so self-love is, in what ways are you choosing you even in the daily mundane things? I think it goes beyond, you know, spoiling yourself with a beautiful breakfast and a spa day or meditation treat at a center. But it's just how are you choosing you every day and how are you holding yourself accountable? 'cause It's also gotta be self-Love is also that element of allowing yourself to see your own growing edge, because then there's evolution, you know, that is also self-love. Not just in the ways we give space for, for ourselves, but it's also in recognizing, no, you know, this is where I contributed to this conflict or, you know, I, I wasn't my best here. You know, I could have done better, I could have responded better. That I feel, oh, I believe is also self-love because you are so self-aware and you are growing. So where are you catching yourself to be accountable and responsible for actions that may not have served or hurt somebody else's? Also, self-love, if it makes sense.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (40:44):
Yes. I love that. Balancing authenticity and attachment and how you are choosing you every day and holding and holding yourself accountable. So it's kind of like a responsibility to yourself and to others. And how do you hold both of these gently in both hands together?
Michelle Saudan (41:50):
Mm-Hmm,
Michelle Saudan (42:51):
For example, one of the tribes we will visit is a Himba tribe. And the woman does not put the child on the ground unless he wants to, to walk and run. But she, he, this baby is latched with the mom 24 hours, you know? And eye contact and holding is something that we've lost in modern society. So this was just for us to come back. We are teaching this, we are learning this now by reeducating with modern studies and trauma, somatic healing. But when we look at it is something we already did in all our tribes, wherever we come from. So this is just to reconnect us, what has always been, but we've just forgotten. And this is what this retreat will embody. And I have one for local women. 'cause One thing I realized was that some of the retreats I was doing, which I canceled most of, was I didn't see my grandmother in who I was trying to represent.
Michelle Saudan (43:56):
I didn't see my mom or my great-grandmother, and they would have never afforded some of the retreats. And I said, well, I think I need to, to change this. And it gives me so much passion to now do some really low income retreats for just most women. So I'd like most women to be able to come and connect, like what we did at her retreat. I'd like everyone to be able to come because trauma and mental health is how it's seen right now in, in, in Africa is if you've, you know, in a mental health hospital, then that's when you need it. But if you don't do it again, put on the lipstick like you said and carry on. So I'd like to open that up. 'cause Our ancient elders, they did all of this, so they just didn't call it a retreat, but there was that support. So I'd like to bring that back in a way that suits us in the day and age we are living right now. So that's what I have upcoming and I'm really excited to share it and hopefully maybe I will come closer to you in the states and we can do some for, you know, for everyone's. I believe everyone should be able to have this at their fingertips.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (45:13):
Oh, that sounds beautiful and I love your consideration for, for inclusivity at all economic levels. It's something that I struggle with in what I offer because to provide the type of services is rather expensive, and that means that some women are left out. And one of the ways that I can be more inclusive is by providing this podcast free. So I love having guests who come on and really I offer as you have this depth and perspective that they're not encountering every day and, and information and inspiration that they can use for healing. I mean, you sharing the rain technique, I invite everyone who's listening to start using that and just maybe keep it in your mind and the next time something happens that is disturbing or troubling or keeps coming to your mind, maybe just spend some time using that rain process of cognize, recognizing, allowing, inquiring and nurturing. That's a place to start. And I invite everyone listening also to look at, at Michelle's website and the offerings that she has, we'll have the link in the show notes that you can click. I thank you so much for just being who you are and for sharing yourself with us and the world. I think you've been a healing presence for me, and I know everyone listening to this show feels that as well.
Michelle Saudan (46:50):
Oh, thank you, Karen. It's been a joy. Thank you so much. Love to everyone listening and if anything, just remember it didn't start with you. I think we can love ourselves to healing by remembering just that. And yeah, I look forward to seeing you, Karen. If not at the retreat, I see you in Dubai or somewhere where God aligns us. But thank you too for the work you're doing.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (47:15):
Thank you. And you know that what you just said, it didn't start with you. That's a whole other conversation,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (47:54):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Know more about Michelle Saudan's offerings in the transformative powers of sound, breath, movement, bodywork and meditation. CLICK HERE.
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Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where empowerment at midlife isn't just a dream—it's your reality! In this enriching episode, we're thrilled to bring you insights from the esteemed Dr. William Li.
Dr. Li isn't just any guest; he's a life-changing force in the world of medicine. From the prestigious stages of TED Talks to the informative panels of top news programs, Dr. Li has become the voice that's reshaping our understanding of health. His revolutionary insights have contributed to more than 40 medical treatments for diseases making waves in the waters of wellness.
But that's just the tip of the iceberg...
In today's discussion titled Eat to Beat Disease: The New Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself, Dr. Li picks apart the essence of his New York Times bestseller which dives deep into the healing powers of food. This isn't a conversation about fad diets; it's a masterclass in how everyday nutrition can be your most powerful medication.
Imagine navigating midlife with a treasure map that leads to vitality and longevity. Thanks to Dr. Li, you won't have to imagine much longer as he reveals the inner workings of how the food you eat can help you combat illness, not just survive, but thrive.
For all you seekers of wellness and warriors of well-being, this episode is a beacon of hope, guiding you towards a life where diet isn't just about your waistline, but about staying one step ahead of disease.
It's time to get inspired and learn how to:
- Burn fat without starving yourself
- Heal your metabolism for good
- Use food scientifically proven to fuel longevity
Dr. Li's message is tailored not just for the health-conscious but for anyone who's yearning for control over their body's destiny. And for midlife women, this might just be the Hormone Prescription you've been waiting for.
Prepare yourself for a conversation that's loaded with practical advice, backed by rigorous science, and imbued with a dash of culinary magic. Are you ready to transform your midlife experience? Then grab a comfy spot, tune in, and get ready to Eat to Beat Disease!
Featured in This Episode:
- Why your kitchen holds the key to disease prevention
- Dr. Li's groundbreaking research that's revolutionizing the medical community
- Strategies to nourish your body at the cellular level for lasting health
- A peek into Dr. Li’s latest literary masterpiece
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
Natural forces within us are the true healers of disease. Hippocrates, stay tuned and find out your most powerful tool when it comes to mastering your metabolism at midlife with Dr. William Li.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:15):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:08):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me as we dive in with Dr. William Li to talk about eating to Beat disease. Eat to Beat Disease is the name of his New York Times bestselling book on the new Science of How Your Body Can Heal Itself. He also has another book, Eat to Beat Your Diet, burn fat, heal your Metabolism, and live longer. Needless to say, he is an expert when it comes to what to eat, how to eat when it comes to improving your health, and he is super passionate about food. He loves to cook like I do. So we had a really great conversation I think you're going to enjoy. He is gonna talk a little bit about the quote from Hippocrates that I shared with you in the teaser, and also another one from Bruce Li and another one about what discovery actually consists of and how it can help you when it comes to creating great health.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:14):
I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Li and then we'll get started. Dr. William Li is a medical doctor and internationally renowned physician scientists and author of the New York Times bestseller Eat to Beat Disease. His groundbreaking research has led to the development of more than 40 new medical treatments that impact care for more than 70 diseases, including diabetes, blindness, heart disease, and obesity. His TED Talk, can we eat to starve? Cancer has garnered more than 11 million views. Dr. Li has appeared on Good Morning America, C-N-N-C-N-B-C, Rachel Ray, and live with Kelly and Ryan. He's been featured in USA Today Time Magazine, the Atlantic O Magazine and more. He is president and medical director of the Angiogenesis Foundation and he's leading global initiatives on food as medicine. And he has a new book, New York Times bestseller, Eat to Beat Your Diet about burning fat, healing your Metabolism of living longer. And it was released in March of 2023. This is a super fan girl moment for me because Dr. William Li is amazing, personable, and passionate. I think you're gonna love him as much as I do. Please help me welcome Dr. William Li to the show.
Dr. William Li (03:29):
Well, thank you very much Dr. Dun, it's a real pleasure. Yes, it's
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:32):
A pleasure to have you here. I heard you speak at a conference a few years ago and I thought to myself, oh, I wanna have him on the podcast. That would be amazing. And you're very in demand. So I think it took me this long to
Dr. William Li (04:21):
Well, you know, those of us who trained in traditional medicine know how little nutrition actually is taught in medical school or during training, and that's certainly true in my own education. I had some secret sauce that I brought into the equation before I went to med school. I studied biochemistry in college and afterwards I took a gap year. And during my gap year before going to medical school, I traveled to the Mediterranean. I lived in Italy and I lived in Greece. And my interest all the way back then was in studying the interconnections between diet, culture and health. And what really interested me, and this is again, long before I went to med school, I was curious about how these cultures in Italy and Greece developed their food traditions and the seasonal eating that they did using whole plant-based foods, primarily long before these terms became popular and how much it meant to them culturally.
Dr. William Li (05:26):
In other words, people are eating, the children are eating what the parents are eating, who cooked what the Nonas or the grandmas are eating. And they passed these traditions and recipes down and it's been going on for hundreds of years. And, and that was really interesting to me because of my own background being Asian American. I grew up with cultural legacies that came from my own family and we saw lots of things mixing together, but I was always very curious about that link. And of course, being in the Mediterranean, I got to see people viewing food not outta fear, which is what we so often encounter. Oh, I don't know what I should eat. Should I be afraid of saturated fat? Should I be fearing dairy? Should I be fearing soy? I saw something completely different. And what I saw was people approaching food with joy.
Dr. William Li (06:16):
When people in the Mediterranean sat down for a meal, they usually sat down with company. And when they were, and the conversation they had inevitably when they were eating together was about the food that was placed in front of them and its tastes and the seasonality and how their mothers prepared or how their spouses would prepare the foods at home. And it made me realize as I then, you know, later went to medical school by contrast, how absent the idea of food and health in our culture and American culture was, and so I could never forget that. And as I memorized bugs and drugs, as you know, from medical training, my, you know, my, and as I observed all the terrible, crappy food and lifestyle, the diet, lifestyle of the medical student and the resident was just so terrible. I started to realize that there clearly was a missing piece of what modern doctors are trained on.
Dr. William Li (07:17):
And I think that the tide is changing a little bit, but here, hear me out for a second. What was missing was really the toolbox of the medical community. Before 1930, we had no antibiotics, we had no fancy drugs. You know, doctors going back in the beginning of the 19 hundreds and going back thousands of years really only had what was in the natural world and food and lifestyle as our only tools. And somehow in those last, you know, let's say 90 years, a hundred years or so, we lost sight of the fact that food is a tool in our toolbox. And so we have, we're training doctors to practice with inventions, medications surgery and radiation and all this other kind of stuff. And we've forgotten our roots and the roots of the food being a tool in the toolbox is so important because we now have the science.
Dr. William Li (08:13):
And I'm a scientist, I'm an internal medicine doctor trained for, for, you know, young and old men and women, healthy and sick. And I realized the huge wonderful opportunity was for people who had the scientific knowledge like me to dive, to do the deep dive, kind of like the, I could dive into the mosh pit of food using the same scientific rigor that we use for drug development to try to understand why foods are good for us, we know they taste good, now we have a better understanding of why they're actually beneficial as well. So I'm all about what foods to add and the new knowledge coming out of that rather than what foods to avoid. Although obviously there are some foods that one should avoid as well. Yes,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:55):
Thank you so much for sharing that. You know, as you were speaking, a couple things came to mind. I recently watched a British series that I think took place in the 1800s. And whenever somebody felt ill, they gave them bone broth. They didn't call it bone broth, but they called it broth. Yeah. And so exactly what you're saying is something that I've observed and, you know, chicken soup, where does that come from? It's broth. Well, it's bone broth and then what you shared about traveling to Italy. And I have the pleasure of traveling to France with Walter Willette from Harvard. I think he's the author of, is it The French
Dr. William Li (09:34):
Paradigm? Yeah, I know Walter. Yes. Very good.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:36):
Yeah. And to study why they don't have the, the cardiac and other diseases that we have based on their diet. And so that was really fascinating. So you just said that picking your food from a joyful place versus a fearful place, which I love. And really focusing on what foods to add. So what has been most surprising to you in the research that you've done in terms of what foods to add?
Dr. William Li (10:05):
Okay, so the wonderful thing about being a scientist is that we're always surprised because we're at, you know, as a scientist, most people think that researchers, scientists spend all their time getting together and dishing brainiac rocket science on each other. But in fact, that's not what real scientists do. When we get together with other scientists, we spend all of our time talking about questions that we don't know the answers to. And so we don't actually talk about what we know. We talk about what we don't know. And so for me, the opportunity to do research on food as medicine is a wonderful opportunity to continuously being surprised by what we're actually discovering. Give you some examples. All right. We know that berries are healthy, right? I mean, colorful berries eat the rainbow. I love strawberries, I love blueberries, I love blackberries. They're, they're good for us.
Dr. William Li (10:58):
They're anti-inflammatory. I think most people would actually know that. Okay, well, when I first dove into this food as medicine world, one of the things that I did with colleagues at the National US National Cancer Institute, this, my colleagues were actually doing drug discovery, trying to find new cancer drugs. And so in that process you have, as a researcher, you're not aware of what you're testing. So they call it blinded or masked. So you have no idea what you're testing to be objective. And you would throw these chemical powders or liquids into a test system to see if they would starve cancer by cutting off the blood supply. All right? That's what this project was all about. And what I did in a, what was considered daring back then, I decided to sneak about 20 different food extracts into the system. So maybe there were 50 drugs to test, and I snuck 20 extras.
Dr. William Li (11:51):
So there were 70 site things to test, and literally we were testing food versus drugs head to head in the same system for cancer discovery and drug development. Okay? Cancer drug treatment. I was so surprised to discover that strawberry extracts contain something called ACH acid. So you don't have to be a chemist, a chemist, but just know that people that are doing the research, we're beginning to figure out what these substances are. Allergic acid is a powerful anti-cancer substance because it cuts off the blood supply that's actually growing that could feed a cancer cell. And we validated and tested this head-to-head with cancer drugs. Okay? Now that was a big surprise. Fast forward to just a couple of weeks ago, I was surprised yet again that other researchers have been studying strawberries looking at the same types of substances, the IC acid. And now we know there's another group of compounds called pro anthocyanins.
Dr. William Li (12:49):
And guess what they've been shown to do in clinical studies. This is a study from the University of Cincinnati where they looked at about 30 men and 30 people with mild cognitive deficits. So not full on dementia, but heading in that direction. And they found that one cup worth of strawberries per day over the course of six weeks could improve memory and cognitive performance. Amazing. Now, and that's the same substance. So here it is, you know, strawberries have activity in the Cancer Drug Act along the lines of a cancer drug. Strawberries have activities and a clinical study along the lines of helping people who are having cognitive difficulties. If that's not foodist medicine, if that's not real research being conducted, I don't know what is. And these are the kinds of surprises that I literally get out of bed, right? Roll out of bed, and I've got like one foot in the past, you know, the same stuff that you and I trained on Dr.
Dr. William Li (13:49):
Dunson, you know, the bugs and drugs as I call them. Okay? Right. And, and, and the other foot in the future, because this is what we're discovering how the mother nature's pharmacy, pharmacy with the f not a pH, the mother's nature's pharmacy, is more incredible than we ever imagined. And so this is why I think I'm surprised by tea. Green tea is good for you, but so is a super fermented tea called P or tea. Guess what? P or tea is even a probiotic tea that improves metabolism studied in human trials. Amazing. And so every day I am surprised by something and it makes me smile. And it makes me happy to realize that we are able to lean into the foods that we should be adding to our system and learning more about that and not just vilifying foods, which has been really kind of like the cave we've crawled outta.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:44):
Yes. You know, you mentioned poo or tea and I call it dirt tea
Dr. William Li (15:55):
Sure. Okay. So I wrote two books that became New York Times Best Sellers. Yeah. Eat to Beat Disease and Eat to Beat Your Diet. And one of the things that I did as I wrote each book is I created tables and charts of foods that have been scientifically and clinically shown to be beneficial to help boost your body's health defenses. These foods make you healthier, okay? And the evidence and the science proves it. Okay? So, but I took all the, I did all the heavy lifting for my readers. And so the tables and charts are there. What I tell people to do is if you take, if you crap go of my books and you just take a photograph, screenshot of the tables and charts, and please take a sharpie or pencil or, or whatever you're writing with highlighter and circle the foods among those 300 that you already like, you know, maybe some people don't like green beans or Brussels sprouts, but maybe they like peaches or maybe like berries.
Dr. William Li (16:51):
You know, if you start circling these things, I always say I have not found anybody over the last four years. I've been challenged that couldn't find something, some foods, in some cases, many foods, but they're circling like crazy. And I said, guess what? You have just won the lottery, the food and health lottery because you've circled the foods that are already good for you and you like them. You've said that you like them. So if you start eating healthy foods that you already like, you are way ahead of the game. 'cause You're, you already like the foods that are good for you, start with that. Go to the grocery store. And, and so that's one way of actually addressing the like versus dislike. I'm starting with you and I'm trying to find out in a very personal way, what are your taste preferences? Everyone's different. Everyone's got their comfort foods.
Dr. William Li (17:35):
Everyone, you know, everyone can remember something that mom cooked when we were kids that we actually really resonate with. That's cool because you're almost certainly going to find something good, and you're gonna find something that's healthy. Now, that's one thing. What about the cost? Look, there was once this idea that you have to eat organic and you have to eat local and you have to eat fancy stuff. Turns out that the research is showing that the dirt cheap stuff, not just dirt tea, but dirt cheap foods is actually good for you. Yeah. Nuts and seeds, you know, walnuts, pecans, almonds, all those kinds of things you can buy in bulk. You know, go to one of those big discount stores and buy them in bulk. Great for our gut health, which then improves our metabolism, helps our fat hormones, helps all kinds of other aspects in our lives. Lowers cholesterol. It doesn't have to be expensive.
Dr. William Li (18:26):
One of the least expensive things I can think of that I actually like and I, and I put into my own shopping cart is not fancy pants at all. I love navy beans. All right, Navy beans. You go to the middle aisle and you just get a can of this stuff. They're pretty inexpensive. Navy beans have lignins, they've got great soluble fiber. They eat super fast, super cheap, crack a pan, the crack thing over there, rinse 'em out. Okay? I rinse all that cloudy stuff away from it. All right? Stick 'em in a pot. Heat 'em up, throw some inexpensive herbs that you can get outta your pantry to light it up a little bit. And you got yourself a gut healthy meal that's good for your gut microbiome, shown by evidence that it's not only inexpensive, it actually works to improve your metabolic health.
Dr. William Li (19:16):
So I think that, you know, if you take a look at healthy food, it's not only for the 1%. I think in fact the elemental foods, the things that used to be widely available to everyone are, can actually be really, really healthy, including dried foods, which tend to be healthy. You can store them longer, you can buy them in bulk. And that's totally fun. Here's something a lot of people don't realize. I know that it's true that eating mostly vegetarian, all vegetarian, you don't have to be vegan, but a mostly vegetarian diet is gonna be healthier for you. But if you eat seafood, okay, you don't have to go to the fancy fish market to buy expensive line cuts, whatever. Okay? If you go to the middle of the grocery store and you just carefully look for little tins of fish, I'm not talking about cat food.
Dr. William Li (20:06):
Don't go, don't go to the pet food section
Dr. William Li (20:53):
And you know, wherever the girls, the girls dinner or the girls meal, like they talk about something like that, can be inexpensive and incredibly tasty and healthy for you as well. So I always tell people, don't let price be the obstacle. There's lots of things that are inexpensive that anyone can actually afford. Okay? And then the other issue about convenience, all right? I think that if you look on the internet today, you pick an ingredient, beans, kale, tomatoes, what have you, nuts, tree nuts. And if you want to actually find something, a simple way to do it, you don't need to bust open that old yellowed thick book that your mom used to keep around as a cookbook, right?
Dr. William Li (21:48):
20 minutes and hit search and type, click on the video and watch somebody show you how to do it. All right? It's easy to do. And so I think that we should, and by the way, there, I, I have to tell you, as somebody who enjoys cooking, I'm not only a scientist and a doctor, I actually love cooking. But to me it's joyful. It's relaxing. I get some time by myself, I'm creating something. Listen, if that actually fits your personality as well, there's nothing better than knowing that you're eating and feeding your loved ones, then your friends and family as something that you put together. And you know everything that you put into it, and you can make those decisions for other people and it tastes great. So again, I hear you point out the exact same things that lots of people talk about as obstacles to healthy eating. And from my perspective, they're not really obstacles at all. You just have to look at them in a different way.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (22:41):
I love that answer and I wholeheartedly agree. I was blessed to be raised by a mother who actually was a trained chef. She trained with Anne-Marie Colman at the Natural Gourmet Cookery School in New York. And Anne-Marie was one of the pioneers in teaching people how to cook mostly. I don't think she dealt with meat at all, actually. It was vegetarian, healthy, tasty meals. So I learned at a young age how to cook healthy food. Of course, I went off to medical school and I came back and told my mother, ' we heal with steel mother
Dr. William Li (23:42):
Absolutely. And you know, listen, if you know how to change a tire in your car or put in or change your oil in your engine, if you know how to fix the gutter or the, or, or the, the drain sink, if you know how to plunge a toilet, you can actually, you're, you're smart enough to know how to actually cook something tasty. And I like them. I I love the idea. I don't know, I, I don't know if you're saying healing with steel, it refers to cookware, but like, you know, but oh,
Dr. William Li (24:26):
There are medical issues that you must go to your doctor for and communicate with your doctor for, and that only your doctor can really solve for you because it's not something you can really tackle at home. But on the other hand, healthcare, and I think you'll agree with me as well, it doesn't happen in the doctor's office or the hospital. Healthcare is what we, what people deliver for themselves between visits to the doctor's office, between visits to the ER, to the hospital or the infusion clinic or wherever you're going. You care for yourself. We do medical interventions, you know, in a doctor's office, we can do assessments, but the care for your health is what we do for, to all of ourselves at home. And, and food is just, you know, one of the several important things, because obviously we can't just think about this over simply.
Dr. William Li (25:14):
I mean, you've got exercise, you've got stress management, you've got sLip socialization, all things that are part of self-care. And, and look, everybody out there is in the world now, you know, in this new era of self-care, right? Where we know not to overwork ourselves, we know not to overload ourselves at work. Self-Care is really sort of a new era where we are taking responsibility for the amount of stress that that either we put in ourselves or other people, people put in ourselves. I think nutrition and eating well, and importantly, eating the things that you like that are healthy, all right? It's gotta taste good. That's how our, and it's just another thing to really think about and cultivate for yourself.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (25:59):
Yes, I am saying that 2024 is the new self-love and self-care. It's like the next level. It's time to bump it up a notch and really make self-love an action word. It's a verb. And really meeting your needs and your wants and your desires to a high level, including your diet. I do know that a lot of women listening are dealing with what I call midlife metabolic mayhem. The 60 plus symptoms that women start experiencing over 40, the top two being fatigue and weight gain. So they're gonna wanna hear something from you about your second book, eat to beat your diet, how you heal your metabolism, burn fat, and live longer. So can you talk a little bit about the challenges for all of us, but maybe particularly for women over 40 with their metabolism and what's happening there and how they can work with their diet to assist them?
Dr. William Li (26:58):
Yeah, well listen you know, if you're a woman in your, in a, in the middle of your life and you're struggling with the actual issues or the questions about weight gain, weight management, fatigue, you know, all the things that, well, I think most people recognize, dread and maybe even accept that they're gonna have to contend with as they get into their forties and fifties and, and later in their lives. I have some good news. First of all, my book, Eat to Beat Your Diet, is not a diet book. That's a trick title. It's an anti-D diet book. I wrote a book about how you don't need to go on these intense, crazy diets that might actually help you lose a few pounds or maybe even more than a few pounds, but you can't stick to them. But how you can instead use the latest thinking about human metabolism, about body fat and the connections to our hormones or to our energy levels, to our ability to live rich, fulfilling lives in a way that we didn't recognize before.
Dr. William Li (28:01):
And let me explain this in a way that I think people can understand. All of us probably do something pretty similar, right? You get up in the morning, roll out of bed, take a shower, come out of the shower, and you're drying off and you probably got a mirror in the bathroom and out of the corner of your eye, you probably see on your naked body a lump or a bump that you are not happy with. It doesn't matter if you're a big person or a small body person. We all see this stuff, right? And then what's the thing you do? You go cur you curse. Like, ugh, I don't wanna see that. Then the next thing you do is what? Step on the bathroom scale. And that number that comes up isn't the one that you are hoping for you to curse again, all right?
Dr. William Li (28:38):
First thing in the morning, you've cursed yourself twice, right? And if this sounds like a familiar story, and I'm exaggerating a little bit, but I think most people resonate with it. 'cause I do the same thing. I used to do the same thing. We kind of associate our weight with our health. We associate body fat with something very negative. And we always talk about negativity and body fat. Look, we're, so, it's maybe part of our human nature. I don't care if you're a vegan or not, but if you actually go to a grocery store and you're wheeling, you're pushing your cart around and you're gonna be pushing it by the meat section, a butcher section, and you see that gigantic t-bone steak that's got like a thick rind of white fat around it. I don't care if you're like a, if you're, if you're like the, the biggest meat eater in town, everyone goes, Ugh, I hope nobody eats that.
Dr. William Li (29:25):
Right? So we're conditioned to think about body fat and the word fat in very negative ways. But what I wanna tell people in their middle age is that we don't always think about it, we don't always think about fat negatively. There's one situation I can tell you, everyone sees fat and smiles and you know what that circumstance is? That's when we see a baby or we see a pudgy baby. Mm-Hmm, you know, newborn, 1-year-old, big fat cheeks, double chin, rollie, polly tummy,
Dr. William Li (30:22):
You'd be freaked out, right? You go, you would, you would, you would run the other way. You would say, there is something seriously wrong with that baby, and you'd be completely right. Okay? So to understand body fat and metabolism and hormones in middle age, it's really helpful to do, to go, go way back and realize what body fat does for us when we're younger. Now, a lot of people don't know this, but our body fat and our hormones are really tightly interconnected. And our body fat and our health meaning good health, beneficial health, are tight, tightly, tightly tied together. All right? Now I gotta explain this. Most people don't know this, but if you go back, Dr. Duston back to med school, you remember we were sitting in embryology class and they were teaching us about how humans from dad sperm meets, meets mom egg, mom's egg and AEB of cells.
Dr. William Li (31:13):
And we had to memorize all the things that actually happened. Well, when the organs form, all right, one of the first organs that form are blood vessels. And that makes sense because every organ's gonna need blood flow to remain alive. The next tissue that really forms are nerves. 'cause That's the electrical system of the house of your body. And we all need electrical wires to power up our organs. All right? A third tissue organ that forms is body fat. Body fat is one of the early first organs that form. And by the way, at this point in our lives, we don't have waste lines. We don't actually have chins yet. We're still kind of forming our overall shape as humans. And you know where the body fat forms is as a ring around blood vessels. So when body fat starts forming, it forms as a cushion around our blood vessels.
Dr. William Li (32:07):
And you go, why would that be? Why is body fat forming on blood vessels? Well, it turns out, and we now know this, that our body fat, which is sometimes called adipocytes, adipocytes, adipose tissue, so we know, call fat tissue, these adipocytes the cells of fat around are living around blood vessels because each of these fat cells, adipocytes, are actually fuel tanks for the energy that we need to run our body. And where does the fuel get loaded? Into the fuel tank from our blood vessels? Because the food that we eat goes into the fuel, goes into the blood vessel, and the blood vessel loads them into the storage tank, which is our fat cells. And that's why fat starts forming around the blood vessel. So all around our blood vessels, all throughout our body, there's fat that actually starts forming. Now obviously the fat forms elsewhere as well, but it shows you just how important body fat is.
Dr. William Li (32:58):
Now, later in life, as we develop as teenagers, I mean, look, little boys and girls, five year olds, seven year olds, pretty much they look all the same, right? They're, they, they have the same body type, but later during adolescence, puberty, hips form, breast form, chests form, you know, facial features start reforming as well. That's where the future adult us begins. We start to look like the future adult who we're gonna be. And our body composition changes and fat starts moving in different places to where it needs to go. And we've got three kinds of fat that form, all right? And I'm telling you this because people who are middle age need to understand fat didn't form because you had too much to eat over Thanksgiving dinner, okay? Or that you went to that restaurant and you had, you know, you had too much on your plate.
Dr. William Li (33:43):
This is actually fat that is healthy fat. I'm talking about three types of fat that form, even when we're young teenagers and into young adults, you know, kind of the best shape of our lives. We've got subcutaneous fat that's under the skin sub under cutaneous skin fat. That's kinda like a wetsuit that protects us, that's healthy, helps to shape us. Then you've got visceral fat, which is gut fat, visceral meaning gut packed inside the tube of our body. So if you think about it, you could have a thin tube or you could have a big tube. People with large bodies have big tubes, but even people who are thin, who are thin, have thin tubes. And when, and the visceral fat can, it grows inside the middle of the tube of the body, you can't see in the mirror. All right?
Dr. William Li (34:28):
It's not the muffin top, it's not the double chin. It doesn't wobble under your arm. It's deep inside your gut. All right? And you need some of that. And then there's brown fat. And this is something that I think is really interesting is that brown fat, which we used to only think was in animals and babies, is a thin layer of fat. We're not talking about wiggly jiggly wobbly fat. That's not under your arms. Brown fat is quite different. It's paper thin, wafer thin, and it's pressed not close to the skin, but close to the bone deep in our tissues. We got some of it behind our breast bone. We got some of it around our neck. We got some of it a little bit in our belly, some of it behind between our shoulder blades. Brown fat is like an engine, like the stove top in your kitchen that uses gas.
Dr. William Li (35:16):
You want to blow some water. What do you do? You turn the crank, it goes click, click, click, click whoosh, you get the flame going on. That's what brown fat does. Brown fat metabolically whooshes fires up to create heat, right? For our body, and it draws that energy from our white fat, starting with a visceral fat, which so that you, so we, our fat controls fat. Now what happens? And there's all kinds of hormones that a fat is normally producing. This fat, healthy fat produces at least 15 different kinds of hormones. Adiponectin is one, is one that even helps our body absorb insulin and, and helps us release insulin and draw in our glucose so we have energy. So I'm bringing this up because people complain about not having enough energy. All adiponectin gives us our energy because it takes the food that we're eating and stores that energy into our fat cells.
Dr. William Li (36:09):
All right? And then we burn off that fat cell when we move around, and that's what gives us energy in our brain, in our muscles, everything. Okay? Now what happens is that if you actually overload the body's fat stores, if you overeat, you put too much fuel in your body, your body, like unlike a car where if you put too much fuel and it just splashes right out of the fuel tank, what does it do? Run down the side of your car, around the tires, and pool around your shoes. Now you're standing in a dangerous, toxic, flammable mess, right? In a gas station in your body, if we actually overload fuel, okay? By overeating, we just make more fuel tanks, those fuel tanks being fat cells. And so we, the more we eat, the more fuel we store, the more fuel we store, the more fuel tanks we need, the more body fat we need to make.
Dr. William Li (36:54):
And that's really why over consumption of food, good or bad actually will lead to more body fat being created. And the body fat that gets created, you can see it in the mirror, okay? Those are the lumpy, bumpy things, or they can actually grow in the center of your body around visceral fat. This is the fat that wraps around all your organs, because when you overeat and you have too much fuel and you've got too much fat wrapped on your organs, that fat becomes starved of oxygen. It becomes inflamed. It's like a forest fire that gets ignited inside your belly, you can't even see it. It's steep inside. And that inflammation rushes out throughout your body. And what it, one thing it does is it inflames fat upsets the, it derails the hormones like the fat hormones, like adipokines adiponectin. When that hormone gets derailed, you can't use it, you can't absorb your fuel.
Dr. William Li (37:48):
Well, and guess what? Now even though you have, you're loaded with a lot of fuel, you're not using a lot of fuel, you are tired, you're fatigued. So gaining too much weight leads to fatigue, inflammation accompanies it. All right? So overeating is one of these things that we need to really be careful about. Now, the other thing that happens in middle age, people go, oh, my metabolism's gonna slow down. There's something I can do about it. It's my fate, right? And indeed, people's bodies change. Women and men, but especially women, I think they notice it a lot more when your body shape changes, when you hit your mid forties and into your fifties you know, I don't know what I can do and I'm looking just like my mom did. All right? So the fact of the matter, it used to say, I've gained too much weight because my metabolism has slowed down.
Dr. William Li (38:31):
Nothing I can do about it. Right? Wrong. We used to think slow metabolism causes excess body fat, but in fact, it's the other way around. Too much body fat slows down your metabolism. And we know this from a seminal research study that was conducted just in 2021, published in the Journal of Science, one of the most credible journals in the world, where they found that all humans only undergo four phases of metabolism in their life and in the middle phase of metabolism. All right? So when you're born, everyone's born with the same metabolism. One year old, it shoots straight up from one 8-year-old to 20 years old. Your metabolism comes down to adult level. And then from 20 to 60, this is exactly where middle age occurs. 40, 45, 50, 55. Human metabolism is designed to be rock stable. It is not hardwired to go down. We are not programmed from birth to have a slow metabolism.
Dr. William Li (39:28):
We hit our middle age. And so anybody listening to this, you gotta realize everything that we thought has just been the story has been changed because we now realize that we are, our bodies are hardwired. It's our birthright to have a normal stable metabolism in middle age only at age 60, 60 to 90 slows down a little bit, okay? But not huge. It slows down a little bit. Now, what happens is that if you gain extra body fat, if you have extra fuel consumed, all right, and you're not moving, and that extra fat causes the inflammation disrupts the hormones, the fat hormones we're talking about here, you know, dip, pectin, ghrelin, I mean, these are all kinds of lectin. These are all hormones that are affected by, that are needed and healthy for us when we have the right amount of body fat and energy.
Dr. William Li (40:14):
But when we have too much of it, not only does that slow down our metabolism, but the excess inflammatory fat derails our hormones. When you derail these hormones, it's literally taking a train, okay? And just chucking it off the rails. Now it all, all heck breaks loose. And now you don't know if you're hungry or not hungry. Well, maybe I'll just eat some more. No, you know, you're eating more food now, you're eating more fuel. It's making everything worse. And then it, and the excess body fat slows down your metabolism. So the explanation for people who are middle reaching, middle age to say, I'm fatigued. I'm gaining weight. I don't know what to do, I don't think I have a choice. One of the things that modern research is showing us is that number one, you can actually try to restore your body's metabolic setpoint.
Dr. William Li (41:01):
It might take time to do it, but one thing to do is actually to burn down excess body fat. And to do that, you want to eat less e even intermittently fast and be a good way of doing it. Second, you wanna eat good quality food. 'cause You don't wanna be eating food that's just gonna blow up that inflammatory fat. You wanna eat good quality food, less of it, stay away from the ultra processed stuff, the added sugars, the added, you know, carbs. Then what you wanna do is exercise. You wanna stay physically active. You know, a body in motion stays in motion as the old law of thermodynamics or physics. And so you wanna actually stay in motion walking exercising. You don't need a trainer. You just need to stay active. You're gonna be burning down some of that extra fuel. You need good quality sLip because our metabolism burns down extra fuel when we're in REM sLip. Good quality sLip. All right? Now, why, by the way, why is all this not happening to us? Why is it so difficult to do this when we are in our mid forties, for women watching this? Think about it, how complicated our lives are at middle age when you are 20. You know, you might be struggling with various things, ideas, but you might have seen something like a mountain, but really a mold hill compared to what you're dealing with in your 40 bucks, all right? Yes.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (42:15):
Right?
Dr. William Li (42:16):
Okay. So back then you were working out, you were looking good, you were fitting into whatever clothes you wanted, and you had plenty of energy and you know, you could do whatever you wanted and you didn't seem to gain weight, but you're active, all right? Now, fast forward the decades, and now you're in your mid forties. We got so much going on, all right? And I'm just trying to talk to people like, you know, who are listening, like, like real people, right? I mean, look, you got your spouse to worry about. You got stressors with your family life. You got your kids to worry about, you got your mortgage, you got your job to worry about, your boss worried. You get your car payments. And then, oh, by the way, if you follow anything in the news, we're worried about the election, worried about the war, worried about, you know, what kind of sickness is going on.
Dr. William Li (42:58):
Look, there's a lot of stressors going on, okay? And those stressors make it really hard for us to focus on making good decisions about the food. We choose quality food. Those distractions make it very difficult to eat smaller quantities, smaller portions. In fact, they're so distressed, so stressed out, we eat a lot. Those distractions make it hard to exercise and stay active. Those stresses prevent us from getting good quality sLip, which interferes with metabolism. So it's not that our fate is hardwired in our body, and when you hit 45, that's it, baby, you're screwed. No, the reality is that we got a lot going on. So we have to sort of tease apart some of the things that are gone and start to just calm down a little bit and make the, some of the good decisions, starting one by one that can help our body reset to the metabolism, to the fat, to the hormonal interactions that our body needs to give us energy, to give us the shape that we want to have, and to be able to allow us to live and thrive as we get older.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (44:01):
Yes, thank you for that very comprehensive, detailed explanation. I think everybody probably got a lot out of that. And really the way you're describing it is that the communication has completely gone offline because of your current metabolic condition. And there are things that you can do to restore proper communication, right? I always say hormones are the communicators and you can get them reestablished. I loved inter, I love intermittent fasting and exercise and many of the other things that you've shared. Thank you so much for sharing this wisdom with everyone. You make it sound very approachable and doable by almost anyone, which it is. And so I love that. We'll definitely have links to your books in the show notes. You have a wonderful Dr. Li's Friday five handout, which we'll have a link to in the show notes. You wanna tell them a little bit about that and where else they can find you online?
Dr. William Li (44:59):
Yeah. Well, listen, my mission is to get good information about people's bodies and how food interacts with them in a joyful way. That's my mission, is to really impact as many lives as possible. So I have a website, Dr DR William Li l i.com. Please come to visit my website, take a look at the information that's on it. My books Eat to Beat Disease. You can buy them anywhere books are sold. You can order them online very, very easily. I do courses, I have online courses you can find on my website. I run them every month. And this is a deep dive into your body and the foods that can activate your body in ways that are delicious and effective so that you don't have to fear your food. You can love your food and love your health at the same time. And I'm, and I put out newsletters.
Dr. William Li (45:44):
These are free newsletters that you, or just contain facts and information. And you know, I'm inundated with information all the time. I just wanna get, I wanna do the heavy lifting for the public. For you guys who are listening, I'll, I'll try to, you know, bury the stuff that's BS and I'll try to surface the stuff that's really useful that you should know. The difference between medical research involving drug development and biotech and pharmaceuticals is that, you know, even if you hear about that stuff, you can't do anything about it. Most of the people in the public, but if you, for food is medicine research, when there's something important there is immediacy. I told you that eating, you might be surprised. Soy foods, like at a Mame or tofu can lower the risk of breast cancer, or tomatoes can lower the risk of prostate cancer if you're a man. Hey, guess what? That is something that after you hear that you can make a decision right away lickety split to add something good to your health. And so please know, I welcome people to my community. I've been teaching these online courses. We've got thousands of people from more than 80 countries that have taken my course. And so I, I just love the idea of trying to create as much impact as possible. And thank you for having me on. Well, thank
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (46:58):
Thank you for being here, and thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I know you have loved today's episode. I know you're gonna add strawberries to your diet. I know you're gonna add tomatoes. I know you're gonna look at Dr. Li's books and read them and get some powerful information. Maybe join one of his courses. And really, your most powerful tool when it comes to your health and your hormones is the food that you put in your mouth. I cannot say that you literally are what you eat. Your hormones are what you eat, you are what you eat. So this is the most powerful tool that you have at your disposal to make powerful changes in your health for this year. Like I said, 2024 is the year of self-love. So do it right, make it an action. It is a verb. Take the actions that will get you where you want to be. Thanks so much for joining us, and until next week, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (48:00):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to another empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we explore the intricate dance of hormones and health, specifically crafted for the vibrant midlife woman.
Today, we're honored to have the remarkable Dr. Akil Palanisamy, join us to unravel the mysteries of autoimmunity and health dysfunction through the lens of integrative and Ayurvedic medicine. Get cozy and ready to be inspired by a Harvard-educated expert who takes a deeply compassionate and holistic approach to healing.
Episode Highlights:
- Introduction to Dr. Akil Palanisamy: Discover the fascinating path that led Dr. Aki, a Harvard grad and a mind-body medicine-certified physician, to the forefront of integrative health.
- The TIGER Protocol Explained: Learn about the groundbreaking TIGER Protocol that Dr. Aki has pioneered, offering hope and healing to those suffering from autoimmune disorders.
- Integrative Medicine and Ayurveda: Delve into a unique conversation on blending modern medical practices with ancient Ayurvedic wisdom.
- Real-life Success Stories: Hear uplifting stories of resilience and recovery, showcasing the transformational impact of Dr. Aki's approach.
- Practical Tips for Midlife Wellness: Arm yourself with actionable advice and wellness strategies tailored for the midlife transition, ensuring you live your healthiest, most hormonal-balanced life.
Inspirational Takeaway:
Dr. Akil's expertise isn't just in his impressive credentials; it lies in his ability to see the patient as a whole. His methods are a testament to the power of integrative medicine - providing a beacon of light for anyone navigating the murky waters of hormonal health and autoimmunity.
Tune in now to begin your own healing odyssey with the wisdom and warmth of Dr. Akil guiding the way. This episode is not just about listening; it's about awakening to the possibilities of true health renewal.
Listen, Learn, and Thrive:
Your body's plea for harmony between your hormones and health has been heard. Dr. Akil's knowledge and the TIGER Protocol could be the key to unlocking your body's fullest potential.
Don't miss this life-altering conversation. Tune in, tap into your innate healing power, and take charge of your well-being. Your miraculous body awaits.
Subscribe and Listen Now!
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
There is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passions in a way that serves the world. And you, Dr. Akil , stay tuned to find out how to reverse the root causes of your autoimmunity and health concerns so that you too can follow your passion.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:20):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYNI had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results, and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dundton. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:14):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into the topic of autoimmunity with Dr. Akil, who is a very accomplished physician who had his own healing journey during medical school that led him to a root cause resolution approach. He focuses on autoimmunity and helping people reverse it naturally. You're gonna hear some of his case studies of how he helped someone reverse Hashimoto thyroiditis, probably the most common autoimmune disease that disproportionately affects women as opposed to men and causes a lot of suffering, and how he helped her transform to not having Hashimoto's. Yes, it's possible despite what you might have heard, and you're going to hear just lots about what are the steps you need to take from his tiger protocol that he's developed. It applies to everyone, not just those of you with autoimmunity.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:14):
So I hope you will give a listen and take notes and check out his book. We've got a link to get a per an excerpt from it in the show notes and talk a little bit about this quote that I shared with you at the beginning about living your passion. He shares what that means to him and how that informs his daily life and activities that I think you'll really love. So I'll tell you a little bit about him and then we'll get started. After working with patients in his two decades of practice, Harvard trained Dr. Aki Palani me was inspired to develop the tiger T-I-G-E-R protocol, an integrative treatment approach. Combining his work as a functional medicine practitioner with his training in Ayurvedic medicine, he has since used his simple protocol to successfully treat thousands of patients with autoimmune diseases. The protocol works to address the root cause of your autoimmunity instead of just treating the symptoms by suppressing your immune system. And that's what mainstream medicine does. It's a revolutionary transformative approach that can help you transform your health and your life as well. Please help me welcome Dr. Akil to the show.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (03:26):
Thank you so much Dr. Dunston, for having me on.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:29):
So excited to talk with you about the tiger protocol. I always like to start because people love to hear how traditionally trained doctors like you and me. Yes. Arrived, became enlightened and
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (04:03):
Yeah. It actually began in medical school for me when I developed a mystery illness during my second year of medical school. You know, I was actually very conventionally thinking, very conventionally trained, didn't have a real awareness of integrative medicine, but I had kind of this mystery illness with chronic pain and fatigue, and it, it was so bad that I couldn't sit up in a chair and I had to actually take a year off for medical school to try to recover. And it was that time that I started exploring integrative medicine and complementary therapies, and that was the first thing that really helped me after a few years of conventional medicine. So that helped me during my year off to return to really optimal health. And I realized that I needed to learn this stuff so I could help my future patients with it.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:52):
And so could you share a little bit about what you went through with that mystery illness and what you discovered Yes. That it was causing it?
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (05:02):
Yeah. So the symptoms were, you know, started with fatigue and then I developed a lot of musculoskeletal issues like neck pain, back pain. You know, I couldn't sit up in a chair, and so I couldn't attend class, and I was doing all the conventional treatment, you know, physical therapy, anti-inflammatories and so forth. But it was only when I saw an Ayurvedic doctor, which is Ayurveda as a traditional medicine from India, that she told me I have a specific imbalance of a dosha, which is one of the Ayurvedic principles. And that actually tied together all my symptoms that I was having. Whereas in Western medicine, there was no diagnosis and never was, because there's no clear diagnosis that ties together all those symptoms. But when she started treating me with an auric diet and, you know, lifestyle and spices and herbs and a whole program, you know, lifestyle program as well, then that was the beginning of recovering my health.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:02):
Wow. I mean, I'm sorry that you went through that and it, you know, I I always say pain becomes your purpose, and it's only through pain, unfortunately, sometimes that we learn the truth if we're willing to lean into it and not just snuff it out. I always say that Mm-Hmm,
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (07:29):
No, fortunately but you know, over the years, in the past 25 years I've been practicing, I've just started seeing more and more autoimmune patients and wondering, you know, why there is such an increase in autoimmune disease. So it's really just organically through my own practice, I started seeing more and more autoimmune patients.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:51):
So is the tiger protocol developed with, from you working with them and really seeing what was specific to their needs and situations that needed to be addressed in order for healing to occur?
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (08:03):
Yes, exactly. And, you know, with these same five root causes, the more I researched, the more I found that it, they're actually driving most of our modern chronic diseases, you know, diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, which is still the biggest killer of, of most men and women, obesity and also disrupting hormones. Because I, in my practice, I do work a lot with female hormones in, in women. And so I found that, you know, these five root causes not only affect autoimmunity, but all these other chronic conditions and hormones especially.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:36):
Right. And I would love it if you could comment on the fact that women suffer with autoimmune immune disease way more than men. We are disproportionately represented with autoimmune disease. And why do you think that is?
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (08:50):
Yeah, I think it's probably several reasons. So, you know, as we're going to go through the tiger protocol, we can see that toxins affect women more than men because of, for example, xenoestrogens, which we can get into. Same thing with the, with the gut. You know, a lot of the gut bacteria have a big effect on estrogen, which we can discuss. And that, you know, the key role there. And then with stress the, the R part, you know, rest and managing stress, I think that is also very fundamental in terms of its effect on multiple hormones. And I think, you know, we need more research to confirm this, but I think that because women are more complex in terms of their hormone chemistry, that more of these factors in our modern life are attacking and disrupting more and more of their hormones than in men. And I think that's one of the reasons autoimmunity is more common in women.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:48):
Yeah, I would agree. I really think it boils down to, down to hormones,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:46):
Whatever your diagnosis, whatever your symptoms. So if you think about your health like a tree, the symptoms and diagnoses you may have are up in the leaves and branches, and that's where mainstream medicine works. You go to the gastroenterologist for a gut problem, and you might get a drug or surgery for that problem. You go to the gynecologist for a female period problem, and you might get a drug or surgery for that problem. But where we're dealing with is we're going down the trunk of the tree into the roots of the tree in the dirt, and dealing with the root causes of all your leaf and branch problems. So everything we're gonna talk about applies to everyone. So I just wanna give that caveat. So without further ado, let's dive into the tea in tiger.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (11:32):
Yes, sounds good. Yeah. So the tea stands for toxins, which are environmental toxins that are present in our food, water, air, you know, that all of us are exposed to. And when I was researching toxins, I found a class of toxins called obesogens, which are known to promote obesity. So these are things that disrupt our metabolic signaling, you know, the intricate hormones like leptin and ghrelin that regulate appetite and satiety. So many of these toxins the broader category is called EDCs or endocrine disrupting compounds. So they disrupt our endocrine system, which is the hormone system that we've been, we've been talking about. So for my women who are really struggling to lose weight I feel like that's one of the missing pieces of the puzzle is addressing these obesogens, you know, helping clear out those toxins that are promoting obesity.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (12:26):
So that's, I think, a really key factor. Also, in toxins, there are ens. So these are toxins that promote insulin resistance and raise your blood sugar, again, a key cause of our diabetes epidemic. It's not just obesity. There's also a key factor of toxins that are disrupting your insulin and disrupting your blood sugar regulation. And we have to really address those as well. And then specifically for women, I talked about xenoestrogens. So these are compounds in our, you know, fragrances, pesticides, other chemicals. We put our body widely present in plastics, for example. And these are artificially created compounds that mimic estrogen. And so they're absorbed by the body. They disrupt the estrogen signaling and lead to, you know, a host of issues. So I, and of course, autoimmunity, which is the fastest growing category of disease, is included as well. That's what I focus on. But in my research, I found these toxins affect so many other key conditions like obesity, diabetes, heart disease, as well as just general inflammation in the body. So that's why I believe that's why I put the T first. 'cause I think toxins are really fundamental and maybe the first thing to be addressed.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:47):
Yeah, I totally agree. And, you know, I just wanna tell a little personal anecdote. So I really, uhhuh, the biggest thing I think people can do in this area to start reducing their toxic load is to stop using artificial petrochemical fragrances all over your body and in your house. Just stop
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:40):
I say that I'm a human chemical detector because of various circumstances I've encountered throughout my life where I was actually made sick by a building. Now I'm a human chemical detector. So I walk in and before I even smell it, my body tells me that it's there. Mm. And so I've had the opportunity to talk with people about, and try to educate them about the dangers of these, they're carcinogenic as well as contributing to health problems. And it's interesting how many people are very resistant to this information, not knowledgeable. And I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts on that, or, and I know you've got way more details in the book, but what would you say is the number one thing that people can do to start reducing their toxic load?
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (15:24):
Yes, I think that it, you know, it always starts with diet because I believe food is really fundamental. So I think, you know, trying to choose organic, so you're limiting the pesticide exposure. And then you don't have to have everything organic. You know, you can go with the environmental working group, which publishes a list called the Dirty Dozen, which is the 12 fruits and vegetables that are highest in pesticide, where you should try to get organic. And then they also publish the clean 15, which is the 15 that are pretty low and can be non-organic if possible. So I think that's a great way to start. And then to boost the detox pathways, I really like the cruciferous vegetables, all the, you know, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, those are, are very powerful. And then I think sweating like a sauna or steam room is really underutilized because there is very good research on sweating and how it excretes toxins through the skin, which is a really great way to, to help detox and keep the toxic level low.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (16:26):
Yes. Those are great suggestions. And how does this relate to hormones? 'cause We always try to tie everything to hormones.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (16:34):
Yes. So mainly in that, you know, all of these things that we've been talking about as toxins, like the endocrine disrupting compounds, the obesogens, the ens Z estrogens, all of them are disrupting this delicate balance that in women is critical, you know, because I always tell women it's like a symphony, you know, with all the female hormones that every piece is critical. And there's many different components that have to be in sync to, to make the perfect music, you know, the optimal health. And all of these toxins are disrupting that symphony. So that's why it's so important to address, you know, reducing the exposure and also boosting things to detoxify so you can have a, you know, better symphony and better music in the end.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (17:18):
Right? Yeah. A lot of these toxins actually stimulate those hormone receptors in negative ways. They sit right on the receptor and really confuse your body. Yes. So super important. So that's the T in tiger. And then what is the, I,
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (17:33):
So I refer to infections, and this is a broad category. There's many different types like a bacterial, viral, fungal and, and so forth. And there's many ways that infections disrupt hormones. One of the ways is by causing elevated cortisol, which is one of the stress hormones because of infection. I'm not talking about acute infection things like, you know, flu or you're down with a cold and you, you're really sick. I'm talking more about low grade chronic infections, which can be detected by an integrative medicine doctor. And those can slowly cause stress on the body. And any stress on the body raises cortisol. And that has a variety of negative effects, which we can talk about when we talk about stress, which also raises cortisol. But I think that, yeah, infections can really disrupt the hormones by raising cortisol. And then, for example, another example would be candida, the yeast overgrowth. So candida often is an issue that is, you know, overgrown and surprisingly has really negative effects on hormone balance. When you have the overgrowth of candida, it actually breaks down progesterone and contributes to estrogen dominance. This is, you know, air emerging research. But a lot of these infections are starting to be studied for their negative effect on hormones.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (19:03):
Yeah. So these chronic infections like candida, Epstein Barr virus Yes. Just dysbiosis in the gut where you don't have enough healthy bacteria and it's kind of skewed towards some of these less healthy ones. I, I think it's important 'cause some people listening are gonna say, great, I get it, Dr. Akil , I need to address toxins, infections, and all the other things we're gonna talk about. And they're gonna run to their $30 HMO copay doctor. And they're gonna say, right, well, I've heard Dr. Akil on Dr. Kieran's podcast, and I want you to check me for these infections that are contributing to my autoimmune disease and MIT toxins, and I want you to help me with that. And what's gonna happen,
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (19:45):
Yes. Yeah, no, exactly. I think it's you know, it's variable in terms of how much a typical conventional doctor will do or, or test. But I think that the good thing is what I focus on is really teaching people tools they can use at home on their own with, you know, diet and, and lifestyle. And, and with the topic of infections, my focus in the book is teaching people how to make your body inhospitable to infections, because then you can actually let your immune system work better to take care of whatever's there. So you don't have to do, you know, all of these tests. So there are ways to focus more on the terrain, the inner environment of the body to make it less hospitable to infections. And I think that's more of a root cause approach.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (20:32):
Yeah, I agree. But I just don't want anyone listening to think that the average doctor with the education that we initially had is gonna be able to help them. So this is where your book comes into play. So yes, in, you know, I know this might be really inappropriate, but I met a woman when I was traveling and her name was Candida, and it just stuck in my head. 'cause When I met her, I thought, I wonder if she's had problems with having that name. Because I think of one thing when I hear candida and it's chronic infection,
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (21:42):
Yeah, the gut is really critical. And the microbiome refers to all of the 40 trillion bacteria in the gut that have a really big effect on every organ system in the body. Pretty much if you name a, a part of the body, it's affected by the gut and the hormones are, are no exceptions. So I'll just pick three to focus on in terms of hormones and good gut. So first is the thyroid. So the very important gland that regulates your metabolism energy and so forth. And one of the key ways that the thyroid hormone in the body works is there's a conversion that needs to occur from what's called T four to T three, basically some of the, the active hormones. And about a quarter of that conversion happens in the gut microbiome. So if you're not having a good balance of bacteria, then your production of the active thyroid hormone is really gonna be limited.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (22:35):
And that's a, that's gonna affect energy and weight and all of these things. So that is number one, the thyroid. Number two is melatonin. So we know this is important for sleep. And melatonin is produced from one of the precursors called serotonin, which is a neurotransmitter or a signaling compound. And actually about 80% of the body's serotonin is made in the gut, which then gets processed, you know, into melatonin and so forth. So all of these neurotransmitters which affect the brain, a lot of them are made in the gut. And that's what we call the gut brain axis. And then finally, I'll mention estrogen because there's a huge role of the gut bacteria, what's called the estrobolome, which are the bacteria that process and metabolize estrogens. And one of the key things, it's a little bit technical, but just bear with me here. It's called beta glucuronidase.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (23:30):
So this is an enzyme that your gut bacteria have. And with, you know, with estrogen, it has to be just the optimal level, not too much or not too little. And the body has a system called estrogen recycling to kind of regulate that, which goes through the gut. And the beta glucuronidase, which is in certain bacteria, actually disrupts that. So the beta glucuronidase is an enzyme that de conjugates estrogen that is in the gut that's marked for excretion, you know, supposed to be flushed out of the body through the, the poop, and it allows it to be reabsorbed into the circulation. And then you can get, you know, estrogen dominance or too much estrogen. And that balance of recycling estrogen is disrupted by the gut bacteria. So again, if you have the, you know, imbalance of gut bacteria, it's going to be affecting not just estrogen balance, but your thyroid, your, you know, melatonin, you so many, so many things. So I think the gut is really foundational.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (24:30):
Yes. So what do you say to someone listening who says, I don't have a gut problem, and they immediately shut down? Yes. And don't, I'm not gonna listen to this. My gut is like, works like magic. I poop every day. It's quiet. I don't have any symptoms. I don't have a gut problem. So then you say, improve your gut health. And what do you say to that woman who tells you, no, I, I don't need to look at that. I don't have a gut problem.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (24:56):
Yes. And a lot of women I see in my practice are in that category. You know, fortunately they don't have GI symptoms, generally have good gut health and don't really expect to have any GI imbalances. But I always test their microbiome. You know, I always look in there and pretty much most of the time we find imbalances. And, and often, you know, the body is very resilient, so it's able to adapt and overcome a lot of imbalances and, you know, prevent you from feeling bad. But it doesn't mean those imbalances aren't there. And so what I found in my experience, when we start looking, there are imbalances, for example, in the, you know, the bacteria or the beta glucuronidase or some of those things. So that's why it's key, even if you are healthy without GI symptoms, to really focus on trying to boost your gut bacteria and really make sure they're optimal.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (25:48):
So I love how you said that you test everyone, right? And I do too. I say, even if you don't think you have a gut problem, you need a functional stool test, food sensitivity, testing, et cetera. Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (26:10):
There is a way, like for my patients who cannot afford functional medicine stool testing, there is a way through a regular lab to get an indirect measurement of the microbiome. So I do order this a lot. It's called a stool pH test. And it can be done through any traditional lab, you know, LabCorp quest, any lab in the us. And what a stool pH tells you is that it's an indirect marker of your gut microbiome, because the main determinant of that is your gut bacteria and specifically certain metabolites they produce called the short chain fatty acids. So if they're producing the right compounds, your pH will be really good. And that is a great way to gauge, you know, indirectly how the microbiome is doing. And then all of the things that I talk about in the book, like the prebiotic foods, fermented foods, certain specific types of fiber, all of those things can improve the stool pH.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (27:07):
And then also the stool pH is a key factor for your immune health for reducing infections. You know, for example, candida can only overgrow if your pH is out of balance in the stool, in the gut. Mm-Hmm,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:38):
Okay. Awesome. Love that. And let's go through E and R and then as we do, I would love it if you could just incorporate any examples of patients that you have worked with who maybe were suffering with the E or the R in particular. Yeah. And kind of what their journey was like to healing, but yeah, please proceed.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (27:59):
So of course it is a big topic in terms of eating right and, you know, the diet. And so in general, yeah, I'm recommending a plant forward diet with plenty of, you know, whole foods. And so let me discuss three things which I think are negative in terms of their effect on hormones. Number one being sugar. So, so, you know, we all know that processed white sugar is inflammatory and has a really negative effect on the immune system as well as some of the metabolic hormones. And, you know, yes, occasionally like dark, dark chocolate, an occasional treat I think is fine. But in the long run, trying to cut back on sugar, I think, is really beneficial. So mainly because inflammation is at the root of all of our modern diseases and sugar has been linked to increasing inflammation in the body.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (28:49):
And then second, I think they are processed foods. So a lot of the heavily processed and ultra processed foods that are present in our food supply right now, I think they, a lot of them have ingredients that are known to be disruptive, like preservatives, emulsifiers, artificial flavors or sweeteners. And so I think that's a category as well to, to really be mindful about. And then third, I wanted to mention dairy products because not everyone is sensitive to dairy. I think that it's important to test it out, maybe eliminate it for some time and then reintroduce, see if you notice a change. And so for women who do not have a sensitivity or allergy to dairy, this might be surprising, but from the hormone perspective, it's actually better to have full fat dairy rather than low fat. Because there was actually a study from Harvard where they looked at 18,000 women and their dairy intake pertaining to fertility.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (29:48):
And they found that those women who had more low fat dairy products actually had worsened fertility and were more at risk for infertility. And in that case, also having full fat dairy, like normal un unprocessed dairy was associated with better fertility. And so in that study, they recommended women trying to conceive, you know, not have low fat dairy because it's actually potentially negative. And that goes back to processed foods because, you know, dairy as a whole, food does have that fat and has to go through a lot of processing to make it low fat and, you know, skim milk and all that. So if a woman tolerates dairy, I do recommend going with the whole fat and just in moderation, but avoid the low fat dairy. So yeah, those are just some, some examples. But, you know, there's so much we could talk about in terms of yes, p food, of course. Yeah.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (30:39):
I love that study. I wasn't aware of that. And I would just encourage everyone, fat is your friend, right? All your cells are coated in fat. Your brain is fat. You need fat. And, and a lot of us in the eighties were really trained that fat was our enemy. And fat is not. It's your friend. Sugar is your enemy, but fat is
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (30:57):
Your friend.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (31:00):
And then how about the R in tiger?
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (31:02):
Yes. So the R refers to rest, which encompasses sleep, and also managing stress. And stress has so many effects on hormones. So one, one of the main ways is through cortisol, which is one of the stress hormones and chronic stress, like many of us deal with that, you know, very full busy lives. But if it's out of control it causes high levels of cortisol chronically, and that disrupts a number of the other hormones. So that will cause, for example, testosterone to drop. And even women need some testosterone, you know, for normal function also, then it disrupts the thyroid. So then you start seeing thyroid hormone dysregulated, and then chronic stress can also lower estrogen and progesterone levels. So it just is something that affects almost every hormone. And you know, of course stress disrupts blood sugar regulation as well. So insulin is another hormone.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (32:00):
So I think it's very important. Sometimes, you know, my patients, their eyes glaze over when I talk about stress. 'cause We've all heard so much about it. But I, I tell people to think, focus on something you enjoy, whether it be going out in nature or doing some yoga or Pilates or prayer or, you know, it doesn't have to be meditating for an hour every day, but finding something that you enjoy, that you're willing to do regularly is, is the key thing. And there's a lot of different ways to accomplish that. So. Great.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (32:29):
So there we are at the Tiger Protocol, and I would love it if you could share some stories of people you've worked with, maybe the autoimmune diseases, Hashimoto's Lupus Yes. Multiple sclerosis and what their journey has been like through this protocol.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (32:45):
Oh, sure. Yeah. So a case comes to mind of a nurse at our local hospital. She was in her forties and dealing with Hashimoto's and thyroid condition. And a lot of the common symptoms of Hashimoto's are fatigue, weight gain, and hair loss. And then, you know, with autoimmune diseases in general, they do develop slowly. So there's a key window where integrative or preventative strategies can really help. And she was in that case where her thyroid hormone levels like TSH were just going slightly high, but not at a level like greater than 10, where her doctor was gonna put her on medication, but it was abnormal. And so her doctor told her her thyroid levels don't qualify for a medication, so there was nothing he could do. And then he said, you know, your immune system is going to destroy your thyroid, and then at that point, come back and I'll prescribe you the medication.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (33:42):
And, you know, that didn't really sit well with my
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (34:35):
So commonly, like in thyroid conditions, the adrenal hormones are affected because there's a close link between the thyroid and the adrenal. And so I used certain herbs like ashwagandha, which is a, ashwagandha is a common urban Ayurveda, and used a lot to support the thyroid and adrenal. And then she started noticing some of her symptoms improving, like her fatigue, the hair loss, the IBS, you know, those, it took about, you know, three or four months because integrated medicine worked slowly, but some of those symptoms that were really bothering her had been resolved. And then after working together for about more, you know, six to seven months, we retested those Hashimoto's antibodies, the thyroid antibodies, and found they had come down into normal. So she no longer had Hashimoto's, you know, autoimmune disease. Yeah. So that was one example where, you know, just taking steps to address the root causes can, in some cases reverse the autoimmune disease and at least improve the symptoms. You know, even if it's not possible to cure the condition, people can feel normal and, you know, have a good quality of life.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (35:48):
I, I think it's so important to highlight what you just said and the example you just gave, because people are really given this kind of death sentence by a lot of doctors because, and, and they're just telling their experience and what they've been taught that Hashimoto's, once you have it, you're always gonna have it. It's gonna destroy the thyroid. There's nothing we can do. And it's not, it's just because they don't know what's possible. But every day I see people go from very high Hashimoto's antibodies to no antibodies, right? Every day I see people go from having diabetes type two and go to not having diabetes and having optimal insulin and glucose control. And probably you do too. So I want everyone to hear that diseases can be reversed. And you didn't hear him mention any drugs in there, right.
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (36:45):
Right. So
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (36:46):
Just naturally it can happen. So thank you for that. I, I want to highlight this quote you shared with me that I love, because I think you really exemplify it. And to me, I love helping women get healthy because I want them to feel better. Yes. And function better, but I always say I'm kind of sneaky because I really want them to live their passion in life, whatever that is. Yes. And you really can't live your passion if you don't feel good. So the quote is, there is no greater thing you can do with your life and your work than follow your passions in a way that serves the world. And you, and I'm just wondering, is that a quote from you or somebody who you admire?
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (37:29):
No, I had, you know, written it down during my medical school years, you know, when I was dealing with that illness, and I was going through a lot of depression and really despair. So because I was, you know, it was my dream to become a doctor, and here I was to stop my training. And so I really had to seek out inspiration. And I don't remember where I found that quote, but that is in my journal that I've kept for many years. And yeah, that was a key part of how I think now.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (37:56):
I love that. And how does that, what does that look like in your daily life? How does that change what you do? Or how you do what you do? What does that look like?
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (38:06):
Yeah, I think for me, you know, really like teaching is my passion. And I think a lot of medicine, as you know, is really teaching and, you know, sharing with our patients. But I really wanted to do more teaching. So you know, this with my second book, the Tiger Protocol, you know, getting out there, being on podcasts such as this one and, and talking to patients. I also have started doing these group visits, shared medical appointments where I also do a lot of teaching. So that for me is really something I get excited about.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:35):
Yes. And I can't remember if it's the word physician or doctor. One of those words means teacher, and it really is
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (38:44):
Yes, exactly. Doctor, I think. Yeah, yeah,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:46):
Yeah. What we, what we are. And so I love that you are living your passion of teaching and helping others. It's my passion too. So from one person who's passionate about helping people see the truth about their health and learn the truth, and find the path towards health and wholeness and a passionate life to another, I thank you so much for joining me on the show today. I think you've offered such valuable information, and I know inspiration as well to a lot of women who are feeling hopeless, and I know they've learned something that they can implement today. I'm gonna encourage them to check out your book. I know you have a free excerpt, what we're gonna have a link in the show notes to, but tell them all the places they can connect with you online, where can they find you, and what resources you have available
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (39:37):
Through my website, dr Akil .com. And then I am pretty active on some social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok, as at Dr. Akil on all three of those. So,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (39:50):
Great. Thank you so much for joining me today, Dr. Akil .
Dr. Akil Palanisamy (39:54):
Thank you so much, Dr. Dunston. I enjoyed our conversation today,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (39:57):
And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. I know that you have learned something that you can put into effect in your life today. Don't wait to start moving towards greater health and wholeness for yourself. I look forward to hearing about it on social media so that you can start feeling better and then move towards living what you're passionate about in your life. Thanks so much for joining me, and I'll see you next week. Until then, peace, love, and
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (40:29):
Hormones, y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast, the heart-to-heart space where we unravel the tapestry of women's health! 💜 In our latest enlightening episode titled "Why Minerals are Vital to Hormonal Prosperity," we are joined by the incredibly knowledgeable Kaely McDevitt, a Registered Dietitian dedicating her life to the well-being of women.
Key Points Discussed:
- The Mineral-Hormone Connection: Discover how minerals are the unsung heroes in the choir of hormones. 🎼 They conduct the symphony that determines your energy, fertility, and overall hormonal balance.
- Reclaiming Your Energy: Learn about the specific minerals that can turn the tides on fatigue and give you back your zest for life. ✨
- Optimizing Fertility: Kaely shares her expertise on how strategic nutrition can support reproductive health and make the dream of parenthood achievable for many. 👶
- Conquering Hormone Symptoms: Find out which key players in your diet can help you take control of hormone-related symptoms from PMS to menopause. 🛑
- Personalized Nutrition Strategies: Take a deep dove into the world of tailored nutrition and how personalization leads to health transformation.
- Building Health with Connection: Kaely emphasizes the importance of connecting with self, nature, and community on the road to hormonal health. 🌿
About Kaely McDevitt:
Kaely McDevitt is not just any dietitian; she's a trailblazer in the realm of women's health, armed with a passion for natural wellness and a deep understanding that there's no one-size-fits-all when it comes to health. 🌱 Through her virtual practice, she and her team have cultivated an oasis where women can find answers, hope, and a path to reclaim their energy and vitality.
Why You Shouldn't Miss This Episode:
Take command of your hormonal health by tuning into this episode. Whether you're someone battling with hormonal imbalances, searching for fertility support, or simply thirsty for knowledge on women's health nutrition, this conversation with Kaely will be a beacon of insight and inspiration. 🌟
Step into a world where minerals and hormones dance in harmony, where personalized nutrition is the key to unlocking the mysteries of your body, and where healing comes with an empowering sense of community. This isn't just about health; it's about thriving in every sense of the word!
Listen Now!
Find your sweet spot in the world of health and hormones by listening to this must-hear conversation with Kaely McDevitt. Tap into the wisdom, comfort, and practical guidance that will propel you towards hormonal prosperity.
Pour a cup of tea, find a cozy corner, and hit play! 🎧 Listen now and infuse your life with the balance and vitality it deserves.
Sharing is caring! If this episode sparked a light in you, spread the love by sharing it with your friends, family, and community — because every woman deserves to sing a hormonal harmony. 🗣️💕
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
You have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings. Elizabeth Gilbert, stay tuned as Kaely McDevitt tells you why minerals are vital to hormonal prosperity and the manifestation of your own blessing.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:18):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:11):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with Kaely McDevitt, who's a registered dietician into minerals. And I know there's the alphabet soup nutrients and it can be hard to keep track of them. And you're like ki Now you're gonna get into the real nitty gritty. Yep. We're gonna get into the nitty gritty, but she's gonna make it super simple because is hormonal balance and hormonal prosperity necessary? Absolutely. But if you don't have the right co-factors for those hormones to be able to get into the cell first, to get to the cell, then to get into the cell, then to be used by the cell, then it's kind of pointless to try to get to hormonal prosperity. So you've got to address your mineral repletion. There are some essential ones that you need to really pay attention to and why.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:14):
We're gonna talk about why it's best to get from your food and supplements, which ones are most important, first, second, and next. Where are the pitfalls when it comes to balancing and repleting your minerals? And we're gonna talk about this amazing quote from one of my favorite authors, Elizabeth Gilbert and one from Fitch, not Han, that will help you in your life. Kaely's gonna share part of her journey from poor health to vitality and really serving and her purpose in this lifetime because isn't that what we all want after all? Yeah, I know you want that. You sure do and you deserve it. So I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. So Kaely is a registered dietician, as I said, specializing in nutrition for women's health. And she owns a virtual private practice where she and her team help their clients reclaim their energy, optimize fertility and overcome hormone symptoms through personalize nutrition. Having experienced the pitfalls of a conventional approach to women's health firsthand. I know a lot of you can relate, I can relate. Can relate. Kaely is passionate about empowering women to build health from a place of connection to self, to nature and to community. Please help me welcome Kaely to the show.
Kaely McDevitt (03:30):
Thank you so much for having me.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:31):
I love talking about nutrition because as a traditionally trained mainstream doctor, originally I got no education in nutrition. And even though I'm now fellowship trained in anti-aging, metabolic functional medicine, I find that nothing replaces the depth with which a nutritionist or dietician can go into each specific nutrient, can go into the foods and where you find that and really has a depth and breadth of knowledge that I probably will never have in my lifetime. So thank you for being here and sharing that with our audience.
Kaely McDevitt (04:09):
Yeah, my pleasure.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:11):
So when it comes to a woman's health, right, so from Menarchy when she first gets her period to motherhood when she's pregnant to perimenopause, usually by 35 40, the menopause average age of 51, there are a lot of hormonal transitions that women go through. We talk a lot on the podcast about that. So I think women are pretty familiar with what's happening at these different stages as they go into hormonal poverty, as I call it. Hmm. But we don't talk a lot about how minerals are changing and how they might be the key to any transition. So I'm wondering if you can start just by sharing with everyone from your perspective, 'cause you have a unique RD perspective. Is that something that you were taught in your training about these changes through the transitions for women's health or is that something you came to a realization about on your own in practice? How did this arise for you?
Kaely McDevitt (05:14):
Yeah, it came about on my own kind of out of personal necessity. And I think, you know, your personal story to the work you do now is, is pretty similar to mine in that I finished about seven years of higher education in the health space and didn't feel like I really learned anything about women's health in in particular and how hormones work, how they operate, how they impact things like metabolism and nutrient utilization. And you know, I initially went into this field thinking I would work in sports nutrition and as luck would have it, I was dealing with a whole bunch of hormone health symptoms while I was in school getting my credentials. And so I was spending all my free time trying to learn this women's health stuff that really wasn't part of our curriculum. So you know, at the end of all the schooling, I had an RD behind my name but really felt horrible health-wise.
Kaely McDevitt (06:01):
And I was like avidly applying
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:42):
Yes, personal necessity is really I think the driver of everything important that we accomplished in life, right? Pain becomes our purpose. So I love that you're really focusing on nutrition around hormones and helping women with it. 'cause What you put, you are really what you put in your mouth. And I know we say that all the time, you are what you eat, but I think we don't really get it. And I, I've seen this meme on the internet where it's a person that's literally made out of food
Kaely McDevitt (07:56):
Yeah, so I think minerals don't get the airtime that they deserve. I feel like we talk about vitamins a lot more and that was definitely the avenue of investigation I was interested in. First minerals kind of came around after the fact when we were trying to figure out why the heck certain clients weren't getting better as fast as others. And so minerals like kind of in as simplistic of a term as possible, they're really just enzyme co-factors in the body, meaning that they kick off reactions. And so these reactions can be things like producing energy or a TP in the cells. So our metabolism and energy production, it could be part of making healthy red blood cells so we can carry oxygen around. They are how we get nutrients and hormones into the cell. So actually the way your hormones interact with their target tissue is dependent on enough minerals being there at the cellular level, they're necessary for digestion and absorption.
Kaely McDevitt (08:46):
And so really the point that I'm making is minerals impact everything and if we are deficient or imbalanced in minerals, some of the classic symptoms would be fatigue, brain fog, kinda your list of hypothyroid, constellation symptoms that might be cold, hands and feet, brittle hair and nails or maybe some hair fall slow wound healing, a lot of digestive complaints secondary to not making enough digestive juices. So things like bloating, food, kind of sitting on comfortably constipation or just sluggish transit. And we typically see women peeing all the time when they're minerally deficient because we don't have the minerals to actually hold hydration in the cells. So you might feel like you're drinking water constantly and just peeing constantly or maybe waking in the night to pee. So those would be a couple of the first clues that we'd be looking at. Right.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:32):
So many of the symptoms that we experienced, but I love how you explain that really minerals are the co-factors that make everything else work. So we might be looking at your hormones, looking at your vitamins, looking at your fats, looking at your macronutrients, but we might not be looking at your minerals. I know this was really brought to my attention by an acupuncturist I worked with years ago and she had me take some liquid mins, trace minerals and all kinds of other minerals and really we started looking at it and I saw how much better everything else worked. That was my real life experience. Let's kind of talk about what are the biggest nutrients that women are deficient in that they might want to look at?
Kaely McDevitt (10:15):
Yeah, so we do a lot of mineral testing on our clients. It's actually the only test we automatically do for everybody because for all the reasons we've discussed, minerals impact everything. It's kind of like our grassroots approach for getting things to work really well. And a common pattern that we see, especially women in their forties, maybe getting into that perimenopause territory, is depletion in our foundational minerals. And so foundational minerals would be calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium depending on who you're learning to interpret mineral testing from. Those can be considered foundational or kind of tier one minerals because they dictate really what happens with the rest of our trace minerals. So they influence the state of the nervous system and our buffering capacity with stress, they influence thyroid uptake at the cellular level. They influence digestion in our adrenal health too. And so if we think about what is happening in life in our forties and fifties and we've had decades probably of a lot of stress, we've had decades probably of some pretty poor nutrition advice.
Kaely McDevitt (11:18):
I think most of us grew up with a lot of like be skinny at all costs, 1200 calorie diets on all the tabloids at the grocery store, checkouts maybe we've been through a couple of pregnancies, maybe we've breastfed babies and there's just so much mineral loss that happens from all of those different types of stressors that if we haven't been intentional about it, we're gonna hit that point of those things being really depleted. And that's the most common pattern we see in that season of life is just very low minerals versus them being really imbalanced, which is a different flavor of of mineral issue.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:51):
Okay. And I know people are gonna, I in and ask us what tests
Kaely McDevitt (12:01):
Yeah, so we run an HTMA, which stands for hair tissue mineral analysis. So it's actually a hair sample that's looking at mineral status because hair is telling us what's happening in the tissue level and it's giving us about a three month picture of mineral status. Whereas blood work to look at things like sodium, potassium is telling us what's in transit and it is going to be transiently impacted by things like hydration food or supplement intake. So we just get a longer term picture from a hair sample and there are many different labs in the US that run HTMA tests. We use trace elements specifically, but there are several that do it.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (12:39):
So my question would be, for instance, when we look at heavy metal levels in people, there are many different tests. You can get a blood test, you can get a urine test, you can get a stool test. So urine and stool to look at how much is is excreted blood, how much is in the blood. And you can get a hair test, which some professionals like because they say it's a three month excretion average. But the problem is that heavy metals are not floating around in your circulation. So a blood test is pretty inaccurate and because they're not floating around in your circulation, they're not being excreted through your stool or your urine readily nor are they being secreted in your hair. And so really you have to do these provocation tests where you give them medicine to bring them out. So how accurate is hair analysis when it comes to looking at kind of the steady state mineral levels that are in your systems and in your cells on a day-to-day basis?
Kaely McDevitt (13:36):
Yeah, I think it's a really great tool for assessing mineral status, but the testing procedures of the lab really matter. So this was one of the more recent tests that we decided to bring on the practice a couple of years ago because I kind of had a bad taste in my mouth about HTMA testing, validity and accuracy. I think I read some studies back when I was in school that kept this perception there. And so what was important to me is that we found a lab that used mass spectroscopy, which is the gold standard for assessing mineral analysis. It's also what the EPA uses to look at like heavy metal toxicity from a chemical spill in an area. So it's their gold standard test method for it. And then I also wanted to find a lab that did not wash the hair sample before they process it because that could influence and skew the results.
Kaely McDevitt (14:21):
So we found that in trace elements, they do a ton of, I forget the term of this for like their quality assurance, but they'll take, oh, a split sample report to make sure that their test is accurate and we're getting the same result for the same person run at the same time. And they do a lot of kinda independent measures for quality assurance, but all tests have their limits. No test is gospel is what we talk about with our clients. It's a tool, it's a guide, it's a way to learn more about you and your physiology. But with things like minerals and with metals, we often find that when we do a retest four to months later, things have shifted quite a bit because minerals are defense against heavy metal accumulation. So as we start to restore mineral status, we start to shift, we almost provoke metal movement. So we'll often see more heavy metals in the hair on a retest because we started to move their foundational mineral status. So I think it's been an extremely reliable and valuable tool in practice. But it's always important with lab testing to keep in mind that this isn't the only story. We have to use this in context with you, your symptoms, your life past data that we have. And we typically can't just run something once and call it a day.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (15:29):
Yeah, I think helping people to understand the limits, the value and the limits of lab testing and each lab test has its own value and limits. And because we are living systems in a living in environment that's constantly changing, we are constantly changing internally. Our external environment is constantly changing. It's not like setting the thermostat in your house, heat at this temperature, cool at this temperature and set it and forget it. And that's why I always say repeat testing is necessary. Looking at your story as you said, your symptomatology, what's going on, where have you been, where have you been traveling? Yeah, what's your diet been like? What's your stress level like? Just all of the different inputs. So you start at, start with testing. So calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium, foundational or tier one minerals you might look at first and then mm-Hmm
Kaely McDevitt (16:36):
Sure, yeah I think, I think magnesium gets good attention now, which is awesome because it does so much for us. I'm very rarely recommending something to like the general population at large, but magnesium is one of the few things I would feel really comfortable doing. So because most of us are deficient, whether it's from the stressors and life seasons that we discussed or the fact that it's really hard to get enough minerals from food today thanks to the fact that the soil mineral content is so depleted versus even 50 or a hundred years ago. So sodium and potassium are really good starting points, especially if you resonated with that kind of low energy, almost hypothyroid picture of symptoms because sodium and potassium are our more energizing foundational minerals. These keep things in solution. These help get hormones and other nutrients into the cell. They help us make digestive juices.
Kaely McDevitt (17:27):
So when we think about sodium, which I think if I had told my like young dietician student self that one day I'd be recommending more salt to my clients, I would've never believed it. But I, we really, really need a good quality nutrient rich salt in our diet to function optimally. And I know we're coming off of a couple decades of being really salt fearing, but there's a big difference between very refined processed table salt and unrefined mineral rich. And the difference is that it hasn't been stripped of additional trace minerals and I think it's probably not new to your audience that things exist in nature typically in the form that they belong in the body. Meaning we don't just find an isolated sodium molecule somewhere. We find sodium with the abundant trace minerals in actual salt. So actually just adding like a pinch of a good mineral rich salt to water first thing in the morning or making sure we salt our meals can make a big difference with digestion and energy levels.
Kaely McDevitt (18:25):
I know for me that was a pretty quick win that I felt personally and we see that play out with our clients. Potassium is another one again that's commonly very low and especially if you resonate with the hypothyroid stuff, potassium is actually how we get that active T three into the cells. And if we came from the low carb kind of fruit and potato fearing diet dogma, then we probably haven't been getting a lot of potassium because fruits root vegetables, those would be our biggest potassium powerhouses in our diet. So we'd be looking for ways to bring those in with each meal. You can of course use mineral and electrolyte powders to accomplish this too. But again, those like whole food forms are gonna come with a bunch of things that science hasn't even yet. Understood. Calcium is very good. Yeah. Oh go ahead. Well
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (19:10):
I wanna, before you go on to calcium, I just wanna mention with the the sodium and potassium. You know, it was interesting, I just am back from traveling kind of to 13 different or 14 different countries in the past year and a half and it's, it's amazing in some of the countries I was in in Africa, middle East, they in commercially prepared foods, they don't put any salt because they really have taken the salt as the villain dogma to the N degree. So they're like, it's a public health problem. We're not putting salt in restaurant food. A lot of places limit the amount of salt that's put in the food. And it's so interesting because yeah we need, we so need the salt. And so I had a lot of conversations with people about yes, maybe stricted salts, sodium chloride is not great but that sea salt, that pink chimay and sea salt with all the rich nutrients, right? It's got color in it which tells you and usually the colors very vary. So right there that tells you different colors, different minerals is so vital for your health and at any functional medicine conference you'll see all the doctors like fighting over the salt shake
Kaely McDevitt (20:24):
Yeah, it's true. So they bring those tiny ones in their purses sometimes
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (20:29):
Yes. Right, because we know, you know, you got to have the peak salt and lots of it. So anyway, I just wanted to to add that that's it for everyone but go ahead with calcium.
Kaely McDevitt (20:39):
Yeah, I'm glad you added that. The salt, the salt thing just needs to get out for sure. But the cool thing about minerals in particular is that you can do a lot of experimentation with this easily with things that are in your house and feel the difference in your body in a pretty short period of time. Which is why it became so fun to focus on minerals because in the world of hormone health, as you know, things typically don't resolve overnight. We usually need like 90 days of an intervention before we have huge shifts in in cycle related symptoms. But minerals you can feel that change pretty quickly. So if you're listening and you're curious, I would just dabble a little bit in what we're talking about and note how that feels. So we hit sodium and potassium calcium. Mm-Hmm
Kaely McDevitt (21:27):
But it does a couple other cool things for us too. So it is very calming to the nervous system. So when we lack calcium we tend to hang out in that sympathetic fight or flight state more often and struggle to get out of it. So that might feel like poor sleep racing thoughts or minds just feeling really amped up and kind of anxious and that state further depletes minerals. So calcium is one of the ways we break that cycle and actually create some flexibility in the nervous system to go back to that parasympathetic or rest and digest state. So much like sodium, I love calcium from food forms the best more than a calcium supplement. 'cause Again we've got co-factors that we don't even yet fully understand and probably never will in science that really help with the way that we move and use calcium in the body.
Kaely McDevitt (22:13):
That it goes where it belongs in the bones and teeth and stays out of things like circulation and soft tissue. And then magnesium is the other piece of that kind of soothing mineral puzzle. So we've got sodium and potassium being more energizing calcium and magnesium being more soothing and calming to the nervous system like you already mentioned. I mean magnesium's involved in literally hundreds of reactions in the body. We actually can't even recognize an A TP molecule without magnesium attached to it. So the energy conundrum is a big magnesium situation. Most cycle related symptoms improve with some supportive magnesium. So I'd be thinking about potentially a magnesium supplement because as much as I love food as our first line of defense, it's really difficult to get a therapeutic dose of magnesium through the diet. We could do Epsom salt baths if you don't have time for a full bath, you can do an Epsom salt foot soak, which is like a nice hack I like to do in a busy workday and still absorb that transdermally. There are a lot of topical magnesium sprays and lotions that you can leverage too. I think this is the mineral that when we're on vacation, especially if you're in the ocean and you just like feel so good and you sleep like a baby, it's probably 'cause of that
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (23:21):
Kaely McDevitt (24:40):
Here? I know, I really empathize with this. There's just, there are too many options for things
Kaely McDevitt (25:47):
It tends to be a little bit more gentle than a supplemental form. And I would also say too that everything works best in tandem. So I wouldn't get hyper-focused on just magnesium. I would also be bringing in, you know, a little good pinch of salt in your day and your water on your food. And then just keeping in mind those potassium rich foods. And this is the main reason why we like to start with those foundational minerals, those first four before we get any further on in somebody's report because it does get so overwhelming so quickly. And if we can hone in on those first four, everything else tends to fall into place. It becomes much easier to address some of those secondary and tertiary minerals. But we always start with those first four for about a month first get some, you know, good momentum going, some quick wins in terms of symptom changes and then we can get more complex from there.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (26:35):
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. And as you were speaking when I was traveling one store I went to for Epsom salts also had pink Himalayan salt in a big bag for a bath soak and they had did sea salt and so I got one bag of each including the Epsom salts and I really tried to notice what was the difference I felt after taking a bath with each of these and by far I felt the best with the pink Himalayan salt and I think it's because of all these, the panel of contents of minerals, the panel of of minerals that were in there. Totally. And then where would you go next from the foundational minerals?
Kaely McDevitt (27:14):
Yeah, so I would spend about a month kind of playing around with that, bringing some of those foods into your diet, noticing how you feel. And then when we look at HTMA testing some of the next kind of orders of operation I guess if we're using a math term for what we would address next. We love to look at what's happening with copper and its relationship with iron and zinc, particularly for women. So copper is a really big deal for the way that we handle and move iron around the body. That's a goldilock situation as most things are. We want enough but not too much. We want enough so we can make really healthy red blood cells that carry oxygen well. And copper's also big for our connective tissue so our collagen cross linking and so healthy skin, hair and nails And then if you've been pregnant or had babies, we pass a lot of copper on to babies during the third trimester.
Kaely McDevitt (28:04):
It's big for developing new vasculature and healthy connective tissue for baby as well. So we do see abnormalities in copper quite a bit in women to add a layer of complication to that. Things like birth control, particularly copper IUDs can start to skew that copper balance with zinc and iron. So we would look at that next mm-Hmm
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (28:59):
Right. And I do just wanna reiterate the copper and iron are both kind of these Goldilocks minerals. You do not want too much. So if you're kind of, oh, if it's good for me more is better. Do not do that with your iron and your copper
Kaely McDevitt (29:35):
Amen. Yeah, especially with those. Yeah. Which is why I don't like to give out any recommendations related to copper and iron for someone to try. 'cause I just don't know enough about you or what your testing results look like or history to make a safe recommendation there. But that would be the next area of investigation for sure.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (29:50):
Right. And what you will see is that a lot of the over counter, you can buy copper and iron separately, but a lot of the multi women's vitamins that are over the counter will not include iron and copper specifically because of the potential to over overlap load for nutritional supplements tend to be a very litigious area so they just steer clear of it. But this is where some of the higher level prescriber prescribed are available nutraceuticals that you can only get through a healthcare practitioner have versions. Usually for women they'll have a multivitamin mineral with copper and without copper with iron, without iron because they're assuming that you're getting tested in, you're being appropriately followed and counseled. That's how delicate it is with these. And what are your thoughts about, you mentioned earlier you prefer people to get these minerals from their diet, from food dietary sources rather than supplements. Can you explain why that is and how successful people should expect to be with manipulation of their diet? To increase their mineral status? Yeah. Versus taking supplements. Mm-Hmm.
Kaely McDevitt (31:03):
Kaely McDevitt (31:56):
A lot of our antioxidants and polyphenols and things that are not nutritive but do influence the health of the of the host. So I think looking at, again, bringing in some good fresh fruits and vegetables as mineral rich powerhouses, good broths, whether it's a bone broth or a vegetable broth is a great mineral rich food to bring in those good quality unrefined salts are great to bring in quality dairy if you to tolerate that for some of the calcium, those things would be great foundational elements to build that diet. And then we can supplement beyond there if there are gaps to fill based on your testing, your stressors, your story. But I think we're remiss if we wanna take, you know, three handfuls of capsules every morning and then not have to care about the food that we eat. It just doesn't play out the same
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (32:44):
Yeah. And you know there's something that food has that by the time they crunch down these nutrients into a vitamin capsule for you that's the prana or the chi, the life force in the plant. And like you mentioned earlier, everything exists in nature in a form with a life force that's meant to nourish us. So what are we doing if we're only taking supplements and we're only, we're not eating food. So just to learn story. So someone who I respect very much in the business world who I was working with and he had a bit of a weight problem and I hadn't seen him for a while and then all of a sudden I saw him and he's telling me that he's gone to this diet that he, and he's looking great, right? Really tram lowered his body fat, muscular. So I asked him, what are you doing? He said, oh I changed my diet. So he's using making protein powder pancakes in the morning and having like, you know, artificial sweetener syrup for breakfast and he's basically not eating real food all day long but he's cutting his calories and he's like, I feel great. And inside I'm like, that's not gonna last for an hour.
Kaely McDevitt (34:02):
Yeah, I think there's so much more to nourishment than just like the actual food and the composition of it. Like carbs, proteins and fats. We get real focused on the composition of food in the weight loss space and miss the nourishment that comes from eating something that you enjoy that you took time to prepare, that you put love and intention into as you prepared it. Or maybe put love and intention or gratitude into it right before you consumed it. Maybe this is a family recipe, this is something that's culturally relevant to you. There's so much more nourishment we get from that than something that's been packaged, processed, manipulated, and is so far removed from that initial version of the food. A good example of that would be like a whole apple being as close to it as it exists in nature as possible versus apple sauce, apple flavored candy, you know, at the far end where we've gotten really far removed.
Kaely McDevitt (34:55):
So we just get more nutrition on the closer to the natural form as possible. And when we contrast that with really processed foods, which they normally have to go back in and add some nutrients to make it comparable, the form is different. So we have synthetic lab produced vitamins and minerals in fortified foods and a lot of supplements. There are some great supplements out there that are not synthetic forms, which would be a helpful thing to look at. But what exists in nature is the form that your body is most easily recognizing, most easily absorbing and using. So there's a big difference between like the vitamin C that you get from eating a whole orange or grapefruit than the like refined ascorbic acid you might get in a vitamin C drop very different functions and they come with, you know, that full spectrum of polyphenols and antioxidants in the food form versus that kind of refined extracted supplement.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (35:45):
Right. Thank you so much for, for sharing that. So copper, iron, zinc, co-factors, vitamin C, vitamin A, what would we work on next?
Kaely McDevitt (35:56):
Yeah, so there's a mineral that's kind of further down our chart called boron that does not ever really get talked about. It's not like this fun sexy nutrient that you're gonna see a lot of posts about, but boron
Kaely McDevitt (36:56):
And so the goal is not this stress-free life where we have just a whole day of meditation and yoga unless of course that's an option for you, which is amazing. But our goal is to build that resilience and retaining our potassium and magnesium is a big part of that and boron is a piece of that puzzle. It does have some function with the iron copper balance too and even the way that we make sure that calcium stays in the bones and teeth. So it is a kinda an unsung hero in the mineral world that we definitely look at with our clients on testing and can provide support if needed. A couple easy ways to provide some boron support if you wanna go food, we're actually looking at prunes and prune juice being a good boron source. Yay. Which is funny.
Kaely McDevitt (37:42):
It's usually just like a plain boron supplement or like you mentioned a trace minerals dropper. A lot of the trace mineral formulations that are out there have boron in the mix because it is the full constellation of macro minerals and trace minerals. So there's easy ways to do that. Then a lot of the like mineral baths, so we talked about Epsom salts, we talked about Himalayan pink salt being in the bath. You can even put like food grade borax that we would use as like a cleaning aid into a bath and actually get boron from that absorbed through the skin. So there's a couple of different options for some boron support
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:17):
Now I have never heard that. What food grade Bax. MM-Hmm
Kaely McDevitt (38:25):
On Amazon? So it's usually a cleaning supply, right? It's what people add to their laundry to
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (39:03):
I'm gonna have to try that and I will get back to you on what
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (39:47):
I don't feel good, I don't have good energy. You shared this quote with me before we started recording from some bylaw of Elizabeth Gilbert that is you have to participate relentlessly in the manifestation of your own blessings. Which that's, I I love so many quotes of her. She just has a beautiful facility with crafting
Kaely McDevitt (41:07):
I'm glad you brought this up because I think this is like, this is the root I think of most hormone health issues is this like chronic state of stress and then on the other end of that being burnout. And it's tough because we're living in a time where we have access to limitless information and exposure to everything that's happening around the world. And we also have like pretty extreme pressures on our personal and professional lives and maybe there's families in the mix with that too. There's just a lot on the plate and I think we also tend to get almost addicted to the way stress hormones feel in the system. It starts to become a bit of our personality and I'm like fully calling myself out a few years ago with this, but we love the feeling of being that like yes person, we just say yes, we take it all on.
Kaely McDevitt (41:53):
We are the one that shows up for everybody we do the most and our own cup is left on the back burner and it's very, very empty. So a way that we like to talk about this with our clients and I think what ties us back to that quote is you have to decide for yourself what that vision of your life looks like. And in order to let go of the stress and burnout picture, there's often a like renewing your identity or letting go of things that don't fit anymore. So what I mean by that is if we want to not live in this burnout state, we have to figure out who we are. If we're not the person that says yes to everybody and no to ourselves, who are we in that room? If we're not the people pleaser that derives our worth from what we do for others only And that's a pretty uncomfortable piece of work.
Kaely McDevitt (42:37):
But I think it's the only way out of this because like she said in that quote, you know you have to relentlessly participate in creating that vision for your manifestation. So what do you want life to look like? How do you wanna feel in your body? How do you wanna show up in the room? And I don't think we have enough examples of women that are really grounded in who they are that aren't burning the candles at both ends that know their worth comes from who they are, not just what they do. And I think if more of us awake to that vision and really resonate with that being the image, we can start to rearrange our life and our priorities and even our personality to support it so that we don't burn through our minerals like a mad woman every single day and have to play catch up so that our sex hormones can actually thrive because we're not in an environment of stress hormones all the time. And so that when we do go through perimenopause and into menopause, it's not such a rocky road because our adrenals aren't just burnt out and in the gutter already. So I think I maybe created more questions than answering any, but I think it's just this big conversation of who am I if I'm not burnt out? Who like who is that person? But
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (43:39):
It's such an important conversation to have because so many women are suffering with hormone problems, they're also suffering with micronutrient deficiencies, whether it's mineral, vitamin, other nutrients and they're running around looking for answers. I just need my estrogen fixed, I just need my magnesium fixed. But like you said at the beginning, this gets to the root. The root is that we're running around trying to live and create our worth by everyone else's expectations being the best. And you know the epidemic of
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (44:43):
Oh my gosh, in every country I've been to that's considered a progressive country. Nobody's looking at each other, nobody's talking. Everyone's got their face in their phone and they're doing, doing, doing. And so I think having these larger questions, which we're gonna be having more of on the podcast this year, I would love to have you on 'cause it sounds like you've grappled with some of this really talking about like this quote you shared from Fitch, not Han, which I love The miracle is to walk on the green earth telling deeply in the present moment, right? Are we doing that
Kaely McDevitt (45:33):
Sure. And I wanna be clear that this is an ongoing and ever evolving practice.
Kaely McDevitt (46:27):
So having a morning where I don't check my emails or social media for like the first hour of the day. Totally life changing for me because I get to pour into myself before I let my energy go out into the world getting outside. We have chickens, which was a really fun thing for me 'cause I have to go out there in the morning and do stuff with them. So get to be out there. Mm-Hmm
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (47:33):
Yeah, I think it is a work in progress for everyone, but I find that as women share more about this and talk about strategies they find things they've done, how they do it and make it work for them, it gives permission for others to do, do things that are off the beaten path and and create their own map to their own sanity. The manifestation of their own blessings, their own ideal health. And so thank you much so much for sharing the path that you're forging and how you're helping other women. I think it's been a great value. And please share with everyone where they can connect with you online.
Kaely McDevitt (48:12):
Sure, yeah, you can find me mostly on Instagram. I don't have the bandwidth for multiple social media platforms, so I'm on social media and it's just at Kaely Rd on Instagram. My website is the same. So you'll find more education like the stuff we discussed and then ways that we can help if, if you need help on that
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (48:30):
Journey. Thank you so much Kaely. Thanks for being here. Thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I hope you are inspired to work on manifesting your own blessing, starting with your minerals 'cause that will help your hormones. Reach out to me on social media and let me know what you're doing and how it's working out. I'm gonna try that thing we talked about
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (49:00):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
►Get Kaely McDevitt's free masterclass recording on "Busting Burnout" - helping women leverage nutrition & lifestyle to bounce back from burnout. CLICK HERE.
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Welcome to another empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, designed specifically with you, the midlife woman, in mind. 🎙️
This week, we're tackling a topic that resonates deeply with so many of us – "Hormone Poverty And Your Brain, Vagina, Libido - How To Fix It Now". And we couldn't ask for a better guide on this journey than our esteemed guest, Dr. Cathleen Brown. 👩⚕️
Meet Our Guest
Dr. Cathleen Brown is not only a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist with an exemplary background rooted in the Philadelphia suburbs, but she's also a decorated former Army physician with a heart for mentorship and a passion for holistic women’s health. 🏥🇺🇸
Her career, spanning over two decades, paints a picture of dedication - from guiding future medical practitioners to addressing the intimate concerns of women transitioning through menopause. ✨
In This Episode
- Discover: What "Hormone Poverty" means for your brain health, vaginal vitality, and libido. 🧠💕
- Learn: The profound impact hormones have on our bodies and the nuanced interplay between them and our well-being.
- Explore: Dr. Brown's insightful advice on hormone replacement therapy and how it can revitalise your life during and after the menopausal transition.
- Hear: Candid, real-life stories from Dr. Brown's extensive experience that illuminate the path to a healthier, more vibrant you.
- Get Inspired: To take control of your health and explore the options available to combat the symptoms of hormone imbalance. 💪
Dr. Brown also shares her personal interests in traveling, gardening, and the joys of motherhood, connecting with us on more than just a professional level. 🌿✈️
Actionable Takeaways
- Empower yourself with knowledge about your body's hormonal dynamics.
- Don't hesitate to seek help; quality hormone replacement therapy might just be the key you need.
- Remember that your concerns are valid, and your health matters - always.
Keep shining, lifelong learners, and remember - your body's changes are not just a medical matter; they're a pivotal part of your story. Join us as we learn from Dr. Brown how to rewrite the narrative on hormone health and reclaim our vibrancy.
Until next time, keep nurturing your body, cultivating your mind, and inspiring your spirit! 🌟
If you found value in today's conversation, please consider leaving us a review or rating on your preferred podcast platform. Every bit of support helps us reach and empower more women just like you.
Stay connected with us on social media and join the movement of women who choose to live their best lives – hormonally balanced and brimming with energy. 🌷
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):
The founder of my alma mater, Thomas Jefferson Medical College, said that knowledge is power. We're gonna empower you with some foundational knowledge about bioidentical hormone therapy and why it's absolutely necessary and how to do it right in this episode with two board certified OBGYNs. Stay tuned.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:23):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kieran Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:17):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into one of my favorite topics, natural hormone therapy, hormonal poverty, hormonal prosperity, midlife, metabolic mayhem. You know, all the things I love talking about. The things that I presented in my TED Talk. If you haven't checked that out, it's on my YouTube channel. You'll wanna see that. Super important because hormonal poverty that's programmed for us women as we go to 35 and 40 and beyond, can cause myriad symptoms. I like to call midlife metabolic mayhem contributes to disease, including dementia and heart disease, the number one killer of women over 50 and others, and it shortens your lifespan. So you might wanna listen up today. My guest is also a board certified O-B-G-Y-N. Who gets it when it comes to natural hormone therapy and the necessity for it.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:14):
Now, if you know me well enough, you know, I'm fellowship trained in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine as well. I had my own healing journey that included the two prescriptions you need for hormonal prosperity. One written for maybe sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and the other is not a written prescription, but a lifestyle prescription. So I've really gone into even additional training further than Dr. Ka, but she gets it when it comes to bioidenticals. We do differ when it comes to what you should do for an evaluation before they're prescribed, what should be prescribed, et cetera, et cetera. So I think you'll find this interesting because she and I are on different pages when it comes to certain aspects of bioidentical hormones. But as you know, I'm not the kind of doctor who says, do this because I say it's right. I like you to educate yourself.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:09):
We present the education and then you make your own decision. So is testing necessary? Hmm. You'll have to listen. Is testosterone necessary? Hmm. You'll have to listen and so much more. So I think you'll enjoy it. And I'll tell you a little about Dr. Kat. She lived near where I went to college. I went to Bryn Mawr College. She lives in the Philly suburbs where Bryn MA is. And I went to Jefferson in Philly. She went to one of the other medical schools in Philly. I think there are five or six. It might be the highest concentration of medical schools, actually, in any city in the country. So it's a very medical education focused in Philadelphia. Anyway, Dr. Kathleen Brown, she's board certified. I'm gonna try and make this a little shorter 'cause it's really long. But she's Philadelphia trained at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. She was in the military, actually, where my cousin was in, in medical administration at Tripler in Hawaii, which is a very beautiful place. She's worked in North Carolina doing general OB GYN and she is an OB hospitalist now also in Philadelphia. And she works with a company called One Nona prescribing Bioidentical Hormones virtually. So you'll get to hear about that as well. So please help me welcome Dr. Kat Brown to the show.
Dr. Cat Brown (04:40):
Well, thank you so much Dr. Kyrin Dunston. It's very nice to be here. Thanks for having me.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:44):
Yeah, I'm always excited to talk to another ob, GYN who gets it when it comes to what I call hormonal poverty of menopause, but also perimenopause that women are programmed to go into. And you totally get it. So you guys are gonna get a treat today 'cause you're gonna get two ob gyn board certified OBGYNs who get it and really understand and speak hormone, who are just kind of talking about what's important that you need to know now. So this is really a privy conversation I think you're gonna enjoy. So I always think it's fascinating for everyone to share with my guest to share, you know, you were trained like I was a traditional straight shooter, O-B-G-Y-N, pharmaceutical prescriptions and surgeries to quote unquote fix everything. And here we are in our careers later down the line, and we both realized that maybe we didn't get the whole truth in what we were thinking. So what was that path like for you?
Dr. Cat Brown (05:48):
Isn't that the truth? I mean, it's, I remember in residency being told like, oh, just memorize these hormones and just, you know, give everyone Premarin if they need to. And you're probably not gonna need this because you're not gonna prescribe hormones. I, I remember attending telling me that, you know, because of the WHI study that, you know, this was something we learned for the test, but you were never actually gonna use in real, real time practice. And for me, that changed when patients started coming to me with issues. But also when I started going through my own journey into this part of midlife too, and realizing that really the things that we were taught and the things that we were doing in practice were just not good enough. You know, it just seemed like not enough emphasis and time was put into women's health and midlife.
Dr. Cat Brown (06:36):
And then I felt, of course, you know, like many people do, like you feel gypped, right? You feel like the information is inadequate. And I also felt like, just like the same as, you know, our nutrition information and, and education that we got as physicians. And I think maybe I got an hour in medical school talking about nutrition and I, thinking back, you know, to medical school and residency, how much time was actually spent on perimenopause and menopause. It was grossly inadequate, you know? So I feel like at this point in my career, I've had to do a lot of introspection, but also a lot of research on my own and a lot of education on my own in order to help myself as well as help my patients.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:15):
It's so true. I mean, you know, I have that same cut and dry education training and, and I practiced that for many years because I hadn't experienced those changes yet, which is wholly inadequate to really address the symptomatology that women have as they go into hormonal poverty. And then when I started going through it, I was like, holy, what is happening?
Dr. Cat Brown (07:39):
Yes.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:40):
And then realized that the solutions that we had as sports certified OB GYNs didn't really work. And so here I was at 243 pounds where I had no energy and slept all the time, and my hair was falling out. I had no sex drive. My gut was a wreck. I, you know, my digestion, I mean, I was, I was just a mess. I had chronic pain, fibromyalgia, and then I kind of saw the light and
Dr. Cat Brown (08:45):
Isn't that the truth? Seen the light, for sure.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:49):
What do you think is super important? I'm a huge proponent. One of my complaints about traditional OB GYN is that their standard of care for testing everything in mainstream medicine. Test your blood pressure test, your weight test, potassium test, your total cholesterol test, you know, your rectal blood for, you know, for blood. All these things we test. And then when it comes to women's hormones, we go board certified OBGYNs, throw their hands up and go, there's no standard of care for testing. We don't test. They're all over the place. We don't know. I mean, just anyone listening to that can go, that's kind of insane. What do you make of all that? You know,
Dr. Cat Brown (09:29):
It's one of those things that I feel like not enough attention has been placed on it, but I think just even, even talking to a patient, just even simply getting a good quality interview of a patient and talking about their symptom profile, like, we can tell right away when someone tells me that, you know, they're not getting as lubricated as they used to, or their joints are hurting, or, you know, they're experiencing vaginal dryness, their skin is different. Like, in my mind right away, I can start to think about, okay, what's happening in their hormonal environment, in their body? You know? And I think that frankly, like a lot of the time you go to a traditional OB, GYN, you go to those visits, there's just not enough time for them to even have the conversation. Half the time you don't even really get to, to talk to your doc.
Dr. Cat Brown (10:11):
You might give your history and your symptoms to their ma or to their nurse, but they come in and it's like they focus on the exam and that quick in it, that quick interaction and then you're done. So I think that it's just a matter of time and having a real quality conversation. You know, I don't think that, you know, right now, like we, I can't rely on a lot of the lab tests that patients bring to me because I have no idea what the lab's doing and, and when they're drawing the labs and that kind of thing. And so there's just so much variability. There's not enough consistency for me to really look at the lab values and really value them. So for me, in my practice, I end up using the patient's history and their symptom profile and their symptom log gives me so much more information than I could, could otherwise.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:55):
Yeah, I mean, certainly I hope you would agree blood work is not accurate for steroid hormones that are not water soluble. So I typically rely on the Dutch test, the dried urine hormone, which is really accurate. I know there's some others that have used it, but I just think it's kind of crazy. I would never have a patient come in and, you know, talk to them and get their symptoms and then go, you know what? It sounds like your low potassium, I'm gonna give you some potassium because you have symptoms of low potassium without checking their potassium. So I just, when I learned about accurate sex hormone testing for estradiol s trial, estro progesterone testosterone, and learned how to read it on myself, because of course I had done blood tests that all came back, quote unquote normal 'cause the range is ginormous on blood. And then I did it, and it actually gave me in four colors where I was and Oh, this is why you have the symptoms.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (11:54):
And then over the years, as I've seen thousands of these tests, really seeing how each woman has a unique picture, right? It's not one size fits all. People have their unique flavor of what they're high on and how high, what they're low on, and how low what their estrogen phase one and two detox looks like. So I just find testing invaluable for women instead of just, like I say in medicine, there's, there's nothing that we don't test. That was a big wake up call for me. And now I see the real injustice. I don't know if you've looked into the history of gynecology, the profession of gynecology, like under the American Board of Specialties, how it started? Yeah. And kind of how it's evolved. I mean, what were your thoughts on that? I was pretty horrified when I learned some of the details about how that specialty evolved.
Dr. Cat Brown (12:46):
It was just the sense of embarrassment and like the feeling of just feeling appalled as how especially gynecologic surgery evolved and learning how so much of our field has so many roots in systemic racism is just crazy, you know? And some of the information about Marian Sims and coming out about some of the things that he did and how he experimented on his slaves to, in order to get the information, you know, for surgical advancement especially, you know, that's something that came to light, I think more in the last few years, especially since Black Lives Matter, you know, and ACOG has done some memorial lectures in in response to that. But that was probably one of the biggest things that I was just thrown back by because I don't remember hearing anything about that at all throughout my training, you know? And so to learn that, and, you know, even to move forward and, and, and hear about, you know, the Henrietta Lacks situation too, and how, how she was experimented on, but not really fully treated. And, and we still use ourselves to this day, you know, to study chemotherapies for ovarian cancer. It's insane. That was one of the biggest eye-opening moments for me as a gynecologist. I, I would say.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:02):
Yeah, I agree. So, you know, for everyone listening, if you haven't heard about this, basically the profession has been developed with a kind of unethical medical and surgical use of people of color and women without consent to do research on. And some of it is very unethical, not the way we do research now, which, you know, people could argue maybe there's some problems with the ethical nature now, but it's way better than it used to be. And it really was started as a surgical specialty more than anything. And so then you have people who are surgeons who they weren't really ever intending to address women's hormones that that wasn't the intention. So you have to look at the lens at which people are viewing a problem that they're dealing with. So here you have men, you have white men who are looking at women's health through a surgical lens and really what their intention is and how they view women in general.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (15:09):
And so it's just really clouded. And, you know, maybe I'll have to have someone come on the podcast who's a historian, sociologist, who can really break it down for everyone. But I too was embarrassed when I learned all the details. I really got a good understanding of why we're stuck with our present mainstream gynecology system of care that we have and why we know everybody's so myopic and won't move out of it and won't really see the problem because they can't. So make that discussion a larger discussion to have another time. But thank you for sharing your thoughts on that. In terms of the importance of natural hormone therapy and, and the difference between what you would get at your doctor's office, traditional mainstream doctor's office, or what you might get from a physician like us who is trained in bioidenticals, what would you say is the importance? 'cause I get a lot of questions from women. What are bioidentical hormones? Can my regular doctor prescribe that? Why not? What's the difference? So what would you explain to them?
Dr. Cat Brown (16:13):
Yeah, I mean, I think that my biggest, easiest way to discuss this, with regard to this, is really to talk about Premarin, right? Which is probably the most common hormone replacement that can be prescribed by most physicians, whether it be the topical vaginal Premarin, or whether it be the oral pills. I like to tell patients the story of Premarin, and I like to tell them what the origin of the name of it is, you know? 'cause When you break it down, I mean, Premarin really means pregnant mare's urine. And so, you know, fundamentally just the main difference from the traditional pharmaceuticals, especially given for hormone therapy compared to bioidentical, is that most traditional pharmaceuticals are not hormones that exist naturally in our bodies. Especially when you think about Premarin being the pregnant mare's urine. It's coming from the urine of pregnant horses.
Dr. Cat Brown (17:04):
And, and these have, you know, when you look at the label, I remember as a medical student even looking at it saying conjugated equine estrogens, why equine? You know? And when you finally learn like this is the, a jumbling of horse hormones that's put together, and it's almost like we're collecting as many estrogens, estrogens as we can, putting them into a pill and throwing them at a patient hoping that one will take, you know, but there's so many other compounds in those medications that aren't even biologically active and human beings that, you know, just really can't. So it can't be optimal for a patient, right? Because we're giving them horse hormones when really they need human hormones that are similar to what their body is making. And so that difference, you know, when we talk about bioidentical, it's, it's really hormones that are the same as what your body would normally make on its own, but it's incapable of continuing to create on its own and the levels that we need it, you know? And so patients are always shocked and they say, well, how could they do that? How could they be giving me horse estrogen? But we've been doing it for years, you know?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:06):
Right. But the body thing that a lot of people are amazed to learn is that why, why is the next question? Oh. Because they can't get a patent on a naturally occurring substance. Yeah. So they could have created exactly what you had in your body, which would've been best for you. Right. So if you're low on potassium, what do we do? We create potassium. Exactly. It's what you have. And then give that to you. So it would be best for you. Anyone can understand that. But no, we can't get a patent on it, meaning we can't make money on it even though it's best for women. Right. So that's why we're gonna go get it from horses. So it's a whole capitalist capitalistic view. Yeah. Capitalism drives so much of our health problems and we don't even realize it
Dr. Cat Brown (18:53):
And that's such a bigger conversation. I mean, we could get into that whole conversation about how, you know, so much of wellness and health is driven by big pharma and because they can't make money on naturally occurring things or even supplements, you know, that there's just no money or research put into that. And so they create these synthetic compounds to make new medications. And it's, it's all this big money making scheme. And pharma just keeps getting richer and richer. Whereas, you know, the medications aren't as readily available to patients. It's sad, but true
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (19:57):
So Yes, it is. And so you talked a little bit about Premarin. So yes, mainstream pharmaceuticals, Premarin Provera, which wasn't progesterone, it was hydroxyprogesterone acetate. So how are these hormones, why are they important for our brain health? I think that's something that not many people don't hear enough about. Yeah.
Dr. Cat Brown (20:17):
I think the best way to describe it to patients is that estrogen has such a beneficial effect on every tissue of our body. You know, as, as female human beings, estrogen is pervasive in every tissue and even at the cellular level. And so with, without it, the junctions, especially in our brain, like our, our neurons, our neurotransmitters, things just can't function as well as they can unless there's estrogen in that environment to help those tissues act their best and, and help those connections. So I think, you know, the same is, goes through, you know, joint discomfort. And, you know, even with the cardioprotective aspect of estrogen, there's so many good things that it does through every tissue in our body that when you start removing estrogen, those areas just can't function as well as they want to. That's how I kind of describe it to patients to kind of get it to a simpler level.
Dr. Cat Brown (21:11):
But, you know, we, we see the research coming out that, you know, for patients that don't use hormone therapy, their cognitive decline is so much more rapid. Those changes are so much more noticeable in patients that aren't on hormone replacement. You know? And I think it's something that we're gonna see more and more of, especially as we in general, as patients and as consumers, are more demanding of treatment. I think we're gonna start to see a change in that, in, in that climate, you know, as far as watching patients, you know, combat that cognitive decline. And, and you know, especially when it comes to dementia, the onset of that, I think that that's important.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (21:48):
The other thing that I found crazy, did you find this crazy too? When I learned about proper bioidentical hormone treatment used to be, and I think it's still this way, that mainstream doctors are taught that women who don't have a uterus don't need progesterone. Because the only reason you need progesterone is to prevent the uterus from creating cancer in response to estrogen. When I discovered, when I did my fellowship in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine, you know, I learned, well, oh, you know what, what about the breast counteracting the effects of estrogen in the breast? And then also the neuroprotective effects of progesterone where it's actually used in traumatic brain injury patients and stroke patients to help preserve brain tissue. And all the tissues, all the cells have response to progesterone. So can you talk a little bit about that? 'cause I know there are women listening who are saying, well, I'm only on estrogen, I don't have progesterone, and they're not really aware that they need that to balance it out. Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cat Brown (22:48):
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (23:46):
Yeah. I mean, I guess that's different when you're just treating based on symptoms. Like, oh, you have this symptom, I think you need that, and you have this symptom, I think, versus a test, you know, I guess it's a different viewpoint where you see the hormones as these are necessary components for optimal functioning. 'cause You have progesterone receptors in all your cells and tissues, including your brain. So I guess it's a different way of looking at it. How about the importance of testosterone? Yeah. I
Dr. Cat Brown (24:14):
Mean
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (24:14):
About that.
Dr. Cat Brown (24:15):
Sure. I don't think a lot of women realize that we also have testosterone in our system. You know, a lot of women just focus on their female hormones, but they don't realize that, you know, testosterone really drives our metabolism. It sometimes drives our energy level, helps to combat fatigue, but it really is one of the biggest drivers of our libido and sex drive too. And for us, especially trying to combat osteopenia, osteoporosis, as we age and trying to maintain our bone health and our, our strength and our muscle health, we don't, we don't realize how much testosterone is integral for that as well. And really muscle maintenance, maintaining our strength, I think it's important. And so that's something that, I think is, is something really important for patients to take into account too. And, you know, testosterone, it's, it's one of those things that we have some limitations because testosterone in, in the medical community, and especially in the bodybuilding community, especially for men, it's been so abused and misused.
Dr. Cat Brown (25:15):
And I come from a military background, you know, I was an army doctor for much of my career for 12 years. And we had a huge issue with male soldiers coming in because their wives couldn't get pregnant. And they had been taking so much high dose testosterone just for performance enhancing to make them faster, to make them better soldiers, make them run better, and be able to lift more. But then as a pro, as a result, their body wasn't creating its own endogenous testosterone. And so, you know, now as a result of all those abuses, testosterone is considered a controlled substance because with high doses, it can cause more harm than good. So for women, you know, we have to be cognizant of that. But I think that we don't realize that, you know, many pro providers out there don't realize, physicians don't realize that you can safely replenish a woman's testosterone.
Dr. Cat Brown (26:05):
You have to be very careful because our therapeutic range for testosterone is a little bit more narrow than it is for a man. We don't wanna, you know, it's, it's like walking a fine line. We wanna replace testosterone, but we don't want to masculinize our female patients either. We don't wanna cause those masculinizing side effects that women can get if they get too much of it. You know, like the male pattern baldness or facial hair growth. You know, most often I see patients come, you know, with changes in their skin and, and more acne develop, you know, as a result of testosterone. So we have to be astute to really fine tuning, like what we're giving patients when it comes to testosterone supplementation,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (26:43):
Our narrower range for women. And that's why I think testing is so vital. And again, you know, here it's where politics and money, politics and money really rule women's health when it comes to our healthcare. We saw that in terms of Premarin, but also with testosterone, where it's considered a controlled substance because of the abuse by male bodybuilders. To my knowledge. I don't know that female bodybuilders have abused it, but that's possible. But testosterone is just as essential for women as men, right? For our muscle mass, our bone density, osteoporosis, and fractures due to osteoporosis, one of the biggest causes of death and disability of women over 50. It's important for our neurochemistry, our dopamine, our get up and go drive neurotransmitter for our mental clarity, functioning feelings of wellbeing. A lot of people think, assume it's only about libido, doctors and patients alike. And it's about so much more than that. So much
Dr. Cat Brown (27:45):
More.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:45):
Yeah. So I think it's essential. And then, you know, it's also not only a controlled substance, but because of a 17-year-old boy, Ryan Haight, who was able to obtain a controlled substance from another state through telemedicine, it's also very difficult to obtain it through telemedicine. So because of teenage boys and bodybuilders, women's access to this important hormone is limited, and most doctors won't even prescribe it for women. They, I've found a lot of patients come to me and they say that, oh, my doctor told me that I don't need it, and they won't prescribe it. And let's talk a little bit about libido before we wrap up, because that's something, you know, I'm recently back from traveling the globe where one of the things I was really looking at is what is women's healthcare like in other countries and other continents, particularly around menopause.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (28:43):
And everywhere I went, women over 40 were grabbing me when they heard what I did and sidelining me to tell me they had the same problems as women in the us. And I was really startled to learn that it's global, but I guess I shouldn't be, because as America goes, so goes everywhere else. But women really, this lack of sex drive is a problem globally. Women don't have one. I mean, it's a problem for men too, but a lot of women don't have a libido. They think that that's normal for their age, that they shouldn't have a libido. They don't talk to their doctors about it because they're ashamed and stigmatized. So can you talk a little bit about that?
Dr. Cat Brown (29:27):
I think that not enough emphasis has been placed on it, but I also think like, it's so much a, it's a bigger, like, more deeply rooted issue, I think in our, our culture as a society, not just in, in healthcare. But I feel like, you know, there's this double standard, right? You know, that I think it kind of stems back to like that purity culture too. Like, like, you know, women aren't supposed to be sexual beings. Like we're, you know, there's this kind of underlying theme that like everyone wants us to be good and to be well behaved. And so, you know, there's not enough emphasis placed on it. And then meanwhile, you see so much in the media and on the news about women or men's health, you know, and, and we've spent so much time and energy researching erectile dysfunction,
Dr. Cat Brown (30:12):
But then we're not helping their partners, especially if they're in a heterosexual relationship. You know, we're, we're helping men get a hard on, but we're not helping their wives be able to be receptive or even interested in having sex at all. It really is back to like women just being treated kind of like second class citizens and not enough emphasis placed on us. I think it's that very misogynistic view of the world, and it kind of is pervasive in healthcare too. I think that not enough importance has been placed on women's health and, and that this is so, so evident when it comes to libido and, and women's sexual health. And I don't even think I knew until getting into taking care of women and perimenopause, menopause and menopause, that there even was like a society for sexual wellness. Like, I just, I just found out about ishish, you know, probably in the last five years, you know, which does extra training for physicians and providers. And as far as their sexual wellness, you know, that wasn't even something that was even discussed when I was being trained to become an ob GYN. And what a shame, because, you know, we're supposed to be the experts when it comes to female genitalia, female organs, reproductive health. But then that part of reproductive health, which is, which is so important and it's such a important part of life and a part of our health, it's not even really discussed, you know, you know, it's
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (31:37):
So true. And as, as you're talking, I'm thinking if I had to do it over, I literally would specialize in female sexuality because I think it is the most underserved area of obstetrics and gynecology. And so I was thinking, why don't we have fellowships in female sexuality that would be something, you know, just for women to understand. And I think it does come from the religious perspective that most people have of puritanical views, but I think we're growing out of it. You know, I've been watching this show on Netflix called Dating on the Spectrum, which I love. It's so heartwarming,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (32:17):
So beautiful. Yeah. And what I love especially is seeing how the younger generation, most of these people are in their twenties, a few are in their thirties, they're open about sexuality and talking about sexuality. And I think that along with that open discussion comes an understanding, hopefully it does for them. I mean, they don't talk about it in this show about the importance of healthy sex for your overall health, vitality, wellbeing, and longevity. Yes, yes. And I think it's really time, you know, it's not too late for women over 40. It's not too late for women over 50, 60, 70. I don't care if you're in age. I think
Dr. Cat Brown (32:57):
It's never, it's never too late
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (33:00):
Dr. Cat Brown (33:16):
Well, I think that overall, I mean, what I see is like, you know, a woman's immune system is much stronger when she has regular sex that it's pleasureful. I mean, not only that, but just opening up those pleasure centers in the brain as well. You know, it's fundamental, and when a woman allows themself to really enjoy sex and really puts importance on, on physical pleasure in that way, it gives them so many health benefits and just invigorates their life and invigorates their health too. I mean, women that tend to do that more, are more in touch with their bodies and tend to take better care of themselves than women who don't just, you know, comparing apples to oranges. But I think that not only that, but you know, the old, old saying that like, if you don't use it, you'll lose it,
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (34:29):
Right. And then it improves your cortisol stress hormone profile. Yes. You know, I call queen cortisol and your overall health is really governed by cortisol. Yes. You know, it was interesting. A, a woman I did a consultation with last week, she had had the BRCA gene, and this is anonymous that I'm talking about this, I won't mention her name. She had had double mastectomy, bilateral ovary removal with a hysterectomy, all kinds of consequences from that. And her main concern was, I have no sex drive. Can you give me a magic pill to fix that? What would you say to a woman who's kind of in that predicament? 'cause I know she's not alone.
Dr. Cat Brown (35:10):
Yeah. I think that one of the biggest things is setting expectations. Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cat Brown (36:18):
I think that sometimes having those surgeries, you know, having, going through hysterectomy, going through a mastectomy, dealing with either cancer risk or cancer surgery, then puts a woman in a completely different mindset. And they have a hard time thinking about themselves as sexual beings anymore. You know, and a lot of women, there's a, you know, the self-stigma that they place on themselves that, you know, having certain female organs removed changes who they are as women. Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (37:04):
Yes. So true. And, you know, you had given me some great quotes to share before we started. I wanna wrap up and add this one. 'cause It's, I think it's attributed to several PE people, but one of them happens to be Thomas Jefferson, where I went to school at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia. Knowledge is power. So hopefully you've learned something today, listening that you can use to empower yourself when it comes to hormonal poverty, getting out of it and getting to hormonal prosperity, to experience the vitality that you deserve. Dr. Kat, thank you so much for joining me. Where can people connect with you online and find out more about what you do?
Dr. Cat Brown (37:46):
Sure. I have an Instagram account at Dr. Cat obgyn and I do hormonal therapy for patients through Wyn oda, which is by wino.com. I'm also on LinkedIn, although I haven't done much with that profile lately, but
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:03):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining me today and for your path in women's health that hopefully is empowering lots of women. Thank you so much.
Dr. Cat Brown (38:14):
Well, thank you so much for having me. It was a great conversation.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:16):
And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Hopefully you've gotten some different perspectives when it comes to natural or biologically identical hormones. Today. We've talked about testing. There are different opinions as you can see between me and Dr. Kat on whether testing is necessary and accessibility to testosterone and how important that is, and more so. I really think it's important that you take this as a note to educate yourself and make informed decisions that are right for your health. Like the founding father of my alma mater, Thomas Jefferson says, knowledge is power. Hopefully you've gotten some knowledge today that can empower you to make the right choices for yourself so you can move out of midlife metabolic mayhem, prevent disease, increase your lifespan, and get to hormonal prosperity and live the vitality that you deserve. I look forward to hearing about the changes you're making. Reach out to me on social media, so on social media. On social media, and let me know until next week, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Dr. Kyrin Dunston (39:25):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to another empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, the go-to audio haven for midlife women seeking wellness and balance in a demanding world. Today's episode is a deep-dive into an often-overlooked culprit behind disease and chronic pain - our complex brains under the burden of deep stress.
In This Episode: Join us as we explore with Dr. David Clarke, the profound ways in which deep-seated psychological stress can manifest as physical symptoms. Dr. Clarke, an accomplished physician certified in Internal Medicine and Gastroenterology, shines a light on the intricate link between deep stress, our brain's response, and how this connection may be keeping you from enjoying a life free of pain.
For years, Dr. Clarke has dedicated his expertise to advancing awareness, diagnosis, and treatment of stress-related and brain-generated medical conditions, striving to quell the chronic pain epidemic. As President of the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association (PPDA), he is at the forefront of transforming lives through education and support.
Key Takeaways:
- Uncover why your unexplained aches might be rooted in emotional trauma or long-buried stress.
- Learn about the crucial role of psychophysiologic disorders in chronic pain syndromes.
- Discover practical tips on identifying stress-induced pain and how to address it effectively.
- Gain insights into Dr. Clarke's holistic approach that goes beyond medications to heal the mind-body connection.
Professional Insight:
Armed with an MD from the University of Connecticut School of Medicine and a wealth of clinical experience, Dr. Clarke's professional insights are a beacon of hope for those battling unseen stress-induced health struggles.
A Message to Our Listeners:
Dear listener, if you've been searching for answers to the mystery of your unresolved pain, this episode could be the key. Dr. Clarke's expertise offers not just knowledge, but also the compassion and understanding so vital during the healing process.
Join the Conversation:
We welcome you to share your thoughts and breakthrough moments from this episode on our social media channels. Use the hashtag #HormonePrescriptionPodcast to join the growing community of women empowering themselves through knowledge and shared experiences.
Remember, wellness is not just about hormones. It's also about the mind and its powerful impact on our bodies. Tune in, tap into newfound wisdom, and transform your life one episode at a time.
Until next time, stay inspired, say goodbye to chronic pain, and hello to a vibrant you!
Dr. Kyrin (00:00):
All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. Arthur Schopenhauer, stay tuned to find out about something that is self-evident to some of us practitioners, but your doctor might not be aware that could be hurting your health and your hormones.
Dr. Kyrin (00:24):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Dr. Kyrin (01:17):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with Dr. David Clark into a discussion about deep stress and your brain causing chronic disease, chronic pain, hurting your hormones and lots more. This really is self-evident to a lot of physicians like me and Dr. Clark, but most physicians haven't gotten the memo when they went through med school and training. They didn't get the memo on this. They weren't trained in this. So they're probably not aware if you're going to a typical managed care physician. They also don't necessarily have the time to spend with you to discern if these issues could be contributing to your health problem. So I think this is a super important topic. I'm glad you're here to hear it. Dr. Clark has deep knowledge and experience in treating patients, in research, in teaching medical students and residents about these issues, and it really can benefit your health and your hormones.
Dr. Kyrin (02:29):
So I'll tell you a little bit about him and then we'll get started. So he's a board certified internal medicine specialist and gastroenterologist, and he is the founder of the Psychophysiologic Disorders Association, PPDA. He's got some resources to share with you. His website is end chronic pain org. And he's very modest because in his bio that he shared with me before we started, and then I did my research online, I found all the books that he has authored and co-authored and all the resources that he has for you. So he's the author or co-author of Psychophysiologic Disorders. He is an author of a diagnostic guide for Psychophysiologic disorders, that's for practitioners. He is the author of, they Can't Find Anything Wrong, Seven Keys to Understanding Treating and Healing Stress Illness. But none of this was in his bio
Dr. David (04:15):
Great to be with you. Thank you.
Dr. Kyrin (04:16):
Yes. I know we're talking about your favorite topic today and hopefully we'll tie it into my favorite topic, which is hormones. And hormones and pain, chronic pain are interrelated. If you're listening and you're not sure why you're scratching your head saying, Dr. Karen, I don't understand that. Hopefully it'll make more sense for you at the end of the episode. But first I wanna dive in . You are certified in internal medicine and gastroenterology, but you have this passion for psychophysiologic disorders. If you're not sure what that is and you're listening, just stay tuned. We'll, we'll, we'll define that for you. And most doctors certified in internal medicine, practicing everyday internal medicine and gastroenterology really don't have an interest in this, they may not have knowledge or awareness of what you specialize in. I know that you do educate practitioners, which is wonderful because we need to have more awareness. How did you become aware that this was a huge blind spot for US physicians when it comes to treating patients and become so passionate about it?
Dr. David (05:28):
Well, like you, I was very traditionally trained. I mean, I went through four years of medical school and three years of internal medicine residency entirely. Traditionally, things were going well for me in terms of my training, but all of a sudden I encountered a patient. I didn't know the first thing about how to diagnose or treat this was in the eighth year, you know, when I was a first year as a gastroenterology fellow. And this patient had been ill for two years, with very severe physical symptoms, actually referred to UCLA where I was in training from another university because they couldn't figure out what was wrong with her. We did a very specialized test on the electromechanical properties of the intestine to try to figure out what her problem was. And we were my department chair and I, we were convinced that that test was gonna be abnormal because no other explanation was possible as far as we were concerned.
Dr. David (06:21):
And so when that test was normal, two we're just at a loss and we had to essentially tell the patient there was nothing more we could do for her. But in her exit interview, I asked her about stress a few more times, and she began telling me she'd been sexually abused as a girl and not just once or twice, but hundreds of times. And this obviously was a huge piece of history from her background that I didn't think could possibly be connected to why she was physically ill 25 years later. But it definitely stood out and I was aware that there was a psychiatrist in our institution who had an interest in these mind to body connections. And I thought, well, maybe we can help this patient live with her condition a little more successfully if she talks to this psychiatrist. So I arranged an appointment, forgot all about her, and then I ran into the psychiatrist in an elevator a few months later and said, you know, whatever happened to that patient that I referred to you?
Dr. David (07:19):
And she said, oh, I haven't seen her in a few weeks now, Dave she's fine. She's, you know, no longer needs any medical care. All of her symptoms have completely resolved. And this happened just with a few months of counseling. And at that point, that just blew my mind that you could alleviate a serious physical condition just by talking to somebody. So I thought, okay, you know, if I'm gonna be a complete doctor, I should learn a little bit about how to do this. It might come in handy for a few patients every year when I get into practice. So I prevailed on Dr. Kaplan to give me a framework for how she thought about these things. And then when I did get into practice, I started using this framework whenever I couldn't find a disease or an injury that would explain the patient's symptoms and patient after patient had these deep psychosocial stresses that were going on that were connected to their illness, if you could identify them, if you could treat them, the patient's physical symptoms would improve. And unfortunately, in Portland, Oregon where I was in practice, there were no other Dr. Kaplan's there. So I ended up doing a lot of this work myself, and today we're 7,000 plus patients later than I've been doing this with. And I've been teaching other doctors how to do this because you can, it's readily possible to learn how to do this, and it just transforms your practice. This was one third of my patients for decades.
Dr. Kyrin (08:47):
Right. Well, thank you for sharing that. I, I think it's always fascinating how, why people do what they do, why they're so passionate about it, particularly when it comes to physicians who have gone off the beaten path, the mainstream of medicine where most gastro neurologists are just typically prescribing drugs and surgery, and nobody's asking about people's adverse childhood experiences, deep stress, et cetera. So hopefully that gives everybody an idea of the question of why this is important. Maybe there's somebody listening who's been struggling with undiagnosed medical illness. What are some of the statistics on undiagnosed medical illness and why is this such a huge problem?
Dr. David (09:31):
Yeah, we're talking here about people who go to the doctor for their pain or illness and no disease or injury is found to explain it. Or if the doctor thinks, well, maybe this issue could be explaining your illness, but you're not improving in the way the doctor expects, and that's the time we want to bring in a look at psychosocial stresses, either from the past or the present or both that could be contributing. And it turns out that when you look at the research, it's about 40% of people that go to a primary care physician or about 20% of the adult population in general. So this is 80% larger than the diabetic population, for example. And yet, unfortunately, it's not been part of traditional training. It's kind of like the medical clinicians are saying, well, this is a a psychological problem. This is really not in our ballpark. And the mental health professionals are saying, well, these patients have physical symptoms, they've got real pain, they've got irritable bowel or fibromyalgia or migraines or pelvic pain or genital pain or joint or back pain. And that's not really a mental health problem. So we don't deal with this either. And these patients fall into a giant blind spot in this system. It's 50 million people in the United States alone.
Dr. Kyrin (10:50):
So how would somebody who's listening know if they have a chronic illness that remains undiagnosed or chronic pain? You talk about stress related brain generated symptoms versus traditional pain and disease. How does someone even begin to sort out, is this me? Could this be affecting me?
Dr. David (11:10):
Yeah, it certainly starts with having a medical evaluation to make sure there's no organ disease or injury that's responsible. And then after that, we're looking into whether there could be a psychosocial stress behind this. And there are three main categories for that. There could be stress in your life at the moment, especially if it's chronologically linked to when and where your symptoms began or when and where your symptoms flare up. The second major issue is to make sure you don't have a mental health condition that hasn't been diagnosed. A lot of people with depression, anxiety, or post-trauma stress don't fully recognize that their symptoms are linked to that depression. Those mental health conditions can be subtle in many people and not so obvious as to have you running straight to a mental health professional. And then finally, the biggest shock of my medical education was finding out that stress when you were a child, could make you ill as an adult.
Dr. David (12:09):
The question that I like to ask my patients here is, imagine you were a butterfly on the wall of your childhood home and you were observing a child you care about growing up in the same home that you grew up in and you can't do anything. You're just watching that kid try to cope. Would it make you sad or angry to watch that child either your own or another one you have a connection to make you sad or angry to watch that kid trying to cope in that environment. And if it would, then there's a probability that there's a level of stress that went on back then it can still be impacting you today, including in the form of physical symptoms.
Dr. Kyrin (12:47):
So I wanna ask you a couple of questions about what you just shared. So you said they need to make sure they don't have any type of organ disease or a mental health diagnosis, but in reality you can have organ disease functional like a Crohn's or ulcerative colitis with an actual organ problem, and you still could be related to stress and brain issues. Correct?
Dr. David (13:12):
Well, you can have a combination of impact on your body from stress, from brain generated symptoms and a biomedical condition like Crohn's disease at the same time. And that's, that can be a really confusing situation for a physician. If you've got a flare up of symptoms, you need to then sort out, is it the inflammatory bowel disease is flaring up or is it the irritable bowel syndrome that's more directly connected to stress that's flaring up. And sometimes you have to do more diagnostic tests to see if the inflammation is more active, or you can evaluate the patient and see if there's a stress that has come up in their life that has triggered the flare up in the symptoms. So yeah, there can be people who have both of these conditions at the same time. Right.
Dr. Kyrin (14:01):
And same, I guess with the mental health diagnosis. And you talk about adverse childhood experiences, which we've talked a bit about on the podcast, but I think it bears repeating. And you mentioned a term though I had not heard called deep stress. So can you talk about what is deep stress and maybe talk to everyone about how they would know if they qualified to have adverse childhood experiences or not? I know you gave a great example there. If you look back at your childhood, would you think, wow, that was really a lot to handle, but what is deep stress?
Dr. David (14:36):
I use the term deep stress to mean stresses that people don't fully recognize they have. So they're kind of deeply buried stresses that may be affecting a person today, but they're not fully recognizing the magnitude of that stress. One of my patients, for example, was put into my hospital because of an attack of severe vomiting and extreme dizziness. And when I went to see her for consultation, she said something to me, I've never heard from any other patient, which was, thank you for coming, doctor, but don't waste your time with me. You'd be better off seeing your other patients. And when I asked her why it turned out she had good reason to say that she had been hospitalized at a major university in her hometown 60 times over the previous 15 years with no diagnosis. She had seen a dozen different specialists, she had seen a psychiatrist and none of them could find anything wrong with her.
Dr. David (15:31):
But it turned out that she had a major stress in her life, which turned out to be that her mother had verbally and emotionally abused her, starting when she was three or four years old and continuing on to the present day. She was 50 years old at the time, her mother was in her seventies and was still doing this to her. So it also turned out that, and this was the, the real key to her diagnosis. But although most of her attacks of illness, which she had between six and 10 times a year, took place in and around her home community, she would always get an attack whenever she passed through a little town, about 45 minutes from where she lived. But it turned out the only time she ever went through that little town was when she was on her way to visit her mother, who lived several hours further down the road.
Dr. David (16:21):
So she's driving to visit her mom, the emotional tension in that relationship is building and building and building. And by the time she gets to this little town, her husband's gotta pull a car over and she's throwing up all over the guardrail. So I pointed out to her that the only time she got sick was when she was on her way to visit her mother. She could drive 45 minutes in any other direction and she'd be fine. She could drive an hour and 45 minutes in any other direction and she wouldn't have any problem. So that finally made clear to her what this deep stress was that she hadn't previously recognized. And as soon in her case, just bringing that into conscious awareness was enough to alleviate her illness. She went home from the hospital the next day and she called me a year later, say, she'd gone through the entire year with no episodes. Now I wish I could cure everybody that quickly, but it's a really good example of deep stress and the impact it can have when you finally see what's going on.
Dr. Kyrin (17:22):
Right. And so what you're describing though, in terms of the physician interaction really requires a level of attention and curiosity and a level of time commitment to really sort through these issues with people that most physicians are not allotted by the current managed care system that we have. And we're not trained in that. So I know that you have so many resources, books you've authored and training programs for practitioners. I don't know that the medical curriculum has changed since I went through medical school. Are you, or residency, but how do you suspect that we're going to actually get physicians, the education and training and give them the time to be able to sort through these issues with patients?
Dr. David (18:13):
Yeah, once you see these issues, you sort of can't unsee them. And it's true that the, you know, medical office visits these days are very short. But as I tell my audiences of physicians when I'm teaching, you don't have to gather all this information in one visit. You can get the information you need about stresses passed and present a little at a time, because these are patients that tend to keep coming back to your office because they don't get better with the traditional approaches. So you gather this information over time, and the physicians I've taught to do this they absolutely love it. It transforms their practice. So one of them mm-hmm,
Dr. David (19:04):
That used to be a headbanging frustrating because you didn't know what to do for them. Now all of a sudden you have a positive approach that you can take that actually makes people better. Not necessarily in one hour conversation like with the last patient, but definitely over time people can see they're on a pathway toward improving their use of healthcare resources goes way down. You know, you asked about, you know, what patients can do to assess themselves. I should have mentioned we've got a self-assessment quiz on my nonprofits website. It's at end chronic pain.org. There's a 12 item self-assessment quiz. And it's set up so that the more questions to which you answer yes, the more likely it is that you have one of these psychophysiologic disorders. A combination of psychology and physiology. And that's a way that your listeners can find out or at least get more information about whether this might apply to them.
Dr. Kyrin (20:01):
Yes. Something else you said though, that this woman had been emotionally abused by her mother in my experience. So this applies to a great quote that you shared with me from Schauer before we started that I wanna share with everyone. All truth passes through three stages. First it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident. And I love that because I, I don't know which stage we're in with the topics that you're talking about where deep stress, adverse childhood experience, and we're probably in the, maybe it's a little ridiculed by a lot of people. That's not an issue. And in my experience, and in a lot of the women that I work with, thousands of women, if you say, were you emotionally abused? Were you sexually abused? Did you have abuse? Did you have neglect as a child?
Dr. Kyrin (20:51):
I find that a majority of people who grew up in fairly cohesive, what I would call seemingly functional families, have no awareness actually, that they were emotionally abused, but they were, and maybe they have no memory of sexual abuse, but they were. And so I do find when I encounter patients, 'cause this is something I'm attuned to, and there are certain issues going on that have no medical explanation, and I approached these subjects, their answer is, oh no, I, my family was fine. I didn't have any problems. But if you ask more pointed questions to get to specific statements that people may have made or how people were available to them or not emotionally really in the terms of the emotional arena, people have a huge amount of denial is what I'm gonna say.
Dr. David (21:42):
You're right.
Dr. Kyrin (21:44):
So how do you, we've been socialized in America and most developed countries to believe that our body is a machine and it's a mechanical machine. When there's a problem, well, we go to the doctor to get a diagnosis, just like we take our car to the mechanic and then they figure out what's wrong and they give us a pill or they do a surgery and they fix us. And nowhere in my training or any, I just did my board recertification this year, we have to do it every year. And none of the articles on women's health had anything to do with what you and I are talking about when you and I both know that the issues we're talking about have deep consequences in terms of health for women in terms of their fertility and their menstrual regularity, their menopause, et cetera. So how do you get people out of denial and to really realize that this is a part of the problem and realize that what they did experience, although it might not have been horrific, like you see in some TV shows and movies, actually was neglectful and was an adverse childhood experience. And was Dr. Deep stress
Dr. David (22:49):
Wow, a lot to unpack there. Yes, with the Schopenhauer quote, I mean, it depends on, you know, who you talk to. But the acceptance now is really coming on. I mean, there, I'm teaching in my medical school, I'm teaching in graduate schools, and there are medical schools in Europe that are teaching this now. One of two of them are actually using my first book called They can't find anything wrong as a teaching tool, especially for their family doctors. So the acceptance is really growing. It, it's, we need more for acceptance than just me telling stories about my patients. And we have that. Now in 2024, there are half a dozen randomized controlled trials that show the value of what I call pain relief psychology or what another researcher is called, pain recovery psychology, that have compared it with a variety of placebo control groups and the, the power of the outcomes, the effect size, which is the, the statistical term is enormous for when you compare it in terms of the outcomes.
Dr. David (23:55):
One of the studies called the Boulder Back Pain Study, for example, they had people with 10 years of back pain. Their average pain scores were four out of 10. And with just one month of pain relief psychology, their average pain scores dropped from four to one. And this is after a decade, these people had been suffering. And, one month it just plummets. It's extraordinary to see the graph. It was published in the JAMA Psychiatry Journal of the American Medical Association. And the benefits were enormous. And we got similar results at Harvard, at the West Los Angeles VA Hospital where they worked with a very tough group of older male veterans, 5% of whom got better with cognitive behavioral therapy, which is the usual kind of psychotherapy that you get in the us. But with the new pain relief psychology, 42% achieved their pain goal.
Dr. David (24:51):
I mean, it was eight times as much. It's just extraordinary to see that kind of impact just from talking to people in a different way. So coming onto your question about how do we make people aware that their childhood experience was maybe not quite so good as they thought, because you know, after all, none of us has a parallel life we can compare ourselves with. If you grow up in a difficult environment, you may not necessarily appreciate how difficult it was. So this brings me back to that same idea of, you know, imagine a child that you care about growing up in the same household you did, dealing with everything you had to deal with, and you are just watching it as a passive observer. How are you feeling when you're watching that kid you care about try to cope? One of my patients was a, you know, person known to the public whom I was talking about this with.
Dr. David (25:47):
And she said, no, my childhood was really not that bad. Other people have been through much worse than I have. It turned out her parents fought with each other almost every day. Not physically, but verbally and emotionally, and she was an only child. So she took on the role of peacemaker and then her parents got divorced when she was age eight, which you would think would, you know, be a partial solution to her problem. But unfortunately, they kept living in the same house. They slept in several bedrooms, but you know, they still were fighting with each other. So from her perspective, it didn't do her any good at all. And she's telling me, no, this really wasn't so bad. So I said, okay, you have this beloved niece, a four or five, 6-year-old girl. You love this girl. You take her on with you on weekends and do fun things with her.
Dr. David (26:32):
You're just devoted to this little girl. Imagine her, your niece in that household, and you can only watch, you're watching your niece try to cope with your parents. What is that gonna be like for you? And she just stared at me. She was, you know, somebody who was very verbal, could carry on her end of a conversation all day long that just brought her to a halt. And she went on for a couple of minutes just pondering that idea. And then at the end she said, you know, after a week of watching that I would shoot myself. And that was the first time she had truly recognized just how difficult it really was. And that was the start of her treatment, which was successful. She had half a dozen different symptoms in her body for the last 20 years, and within a matter of months they were gone.
Dr. Kyrin (27:21):
I love that question. I think it's beautiful. I actually went through and took your quiz before we did the interview because I wanted to see what the questions were. And that question is on there. And I think that helps someone step out, I think people are very worried about blaming their parents and they don't wanna do that. And so that hence the denial. Most of us really appreciate all that our parents have done for us. And you know, even if there were difficulties, but when you step out as an observer and say, well, yeah, if there were a child like you, your patient said, I, I would shoot myself then, you know, and there really is no one to blame because they're only doing what they were taught by their parents and their parents and their parents and their parents.
Dr. David (28:03):
So they do the best they can.
Dr. Kyrin (28:05):
They do the best they can. So thank you for explaining that. And so people can also identify what are some of the most common symptoms that we're talking about?
Dr. David (28:16):
Yeah, I'm glad you asked 'cause we hadn't mentioned that it's literally head to toe. You can have pain symptoms and non-pain symptoms. So migraines ring in the ears, difficulty swallowing, visual disturbances, pseudo seizures, pain in the temporomandibular joint of the jaw. Neck pain, low back pain is a big one. Approximately 88% of low back pain is psychophysiologic in nature according to a recent study. Chest pain, abdominal pain, pelvic genital joint, difficulty breathing, unexplained cough, irritable bowel syndrome, fibromyalgia, irritable bowel can cause diarrhea, constipation, nausea, vomiting, bloating, indigestion, numbness and tingling in the extremities. The, the only common denominator is that people tend to have more than one symptom at a time. The more symptoms you have, the more likely it is a psychophysiologic cause is what's going on. And there's lots more that I haven't even thought to mention. Functional neurological disorder is another one. A lot of people with hypermobility disorder like Aler Danlos get all kinds of symptoms attributed to Aler Danlos that probably are not from the Aler Danlos. They're actually from psychophysiologic disorder.
Dr. Kyrin (29:37):
And so how are these symptoms triggered and why is understanding this so important to treatment?
Dr. David (29:44):
Well, the symptoms can be triggered by a particular stress that this happens most often in my patients with post-trauma, that they've been through some kind of terrifying or horrifying event. And then, the symptoms begin soon thereafter, or it could be the trauma was quite a number of years in the past, but some triggering event has happened that leads to the development of the symptoms. But sometimes the symptoms can just appear for seemingly no reason as part of the recovery process from adverse childhood experiences. For example, my very first patient, she was averaging one bowel movement per month despite taking four different laxatives at double the usual doses. And it just started when she was 35. She was the one who had been sexually abused hundreds of times. Nobody had touched her against her will for close to 25 years. But the illness just began in midlife.
Dr. David (30:40):
And why is that? Well, it turns out that there's a recovery process from childhood adversity, and at some point people reached a level where a lot of the buried emotions begin to come knocking on the door. She had a tremendous amount of outrage about how she'd been treated as a girl, but it had been repressed. In order to survive her childhood, she had to repress it. But in the middle of her thirties, it was finally time for her to confront this and deal with it. But the anger couldn't find a way into her conscious awareness. So instead it manifested in her body. And the psychiatrist, Dr. Kaplan helped her to recognize how much anger she had begun to talk about, putting it into words. And the more you can put repressed emotions into words, the less they have to express themselves via the body. And these can be not just anger, but I've had patients with fear, shame, guilt, grief, that we're responsible instead of anger.
Dr. Kyrin (31:39):
Yeah, I love that. I really think that the body is our subconscious mind and it will out picture anything that we don't acknowledge or feel, feel, feel consciously. Absolutely. And so, right, if we deny it, then our body has to express it. And that's probably an illness or pain. But when we acknowledge it and feel it and process it, then the body says, oh, thank you for doing your job so that I don't have to bring it to your attention. And I really see all dis-ease in the body as a signal. Yes, there could be some biochemical or anatomic problem if it's progressed, but it's really stemming from a lot of these emotional and psychological issues. And you talk about the effectiveness of what you call pain relief psychology for alleviating deep stress. And it consists of personality traits, triggers, and unrecognized emotions from ACEs. Can you talk a little bit more about what pain relief psychology is?
Dr. David (32:40):
Yeah, you bet. What it's all about is uncovering the stresses that a person has in their life, whether they are in the present day. I mean, a very simple example was a patient of mine who only got his pain when he was driving to work. When he was driving home from work, he was fine on the weekends when he was not at work, he was fine too
Dr. David (33:30):
Kids trying to cope with adversity oftentimes become very detail oriented, perfectionists. They tend not to be very assertive. They tend to focus on the needs of other people to the exclusion of putting themselves on the list of people. They take care of a whole long list of these personality traits that can be very stressful. But when you find out how you develop those personality traits, where they came from, who taught you these things about yourself that are not true, like, you know, you're a second rate or unworthy human being, and how did they teach those things to you? And we can understand that better. And that facilitates making changes in those personality traits, which then leads to a reduction in stress level. And then finally, I like to pay attention to triggers in someone's life. These are people, situations or events that are in some way linked to the past and are therefore very emotionally triggering.
Dr. David (34:26):
And the, the most common of those by far is that there's an ace perpetrator, you know, one of your parents usually that's still in your life today and is still mistreating you in some way. And that can lead to reactions in the body. One of my more dramatic examples of that is a patient who was hospitalized for a total of 51 days for her symptoms over a nine month period of time. And none of the many people who evaluated her asked her if anything stressful had happened right before she became ill. And it turned out that yes, something stressful had happened, which was that her father had a stroke and he was calling upon her for support. 3, 4, 5 days a week she'd be in his house helping him out. And this was a huge problem for her because she'd been avoiding her father for most of her adult life.
Dr. David (35:18):
And when I asked her why, she told me this story that nobody else had heard up to that point, which was that when she was six years old and her little brother was four, mom and dad had gone off to Las Vegas for a long weekend and she was staying with aunt and uncle on the Sunday that mom and dad were due to come back. They called up the aunt and uncle and they said, we're getting a divorce and we're not coming back. And that was the last she saw of her parents for the next 20 years. So there was, you know, enormous emotional tension in that relationship. Vinny has a stroke and she feels obligated as the daughter to go and help him out. But when she does that, and only is it difficult to be in his presence, as you might imagine, he's critical. If she doesn't do things exactly the way he wants her to, you know, you'd think he'd be grateful, but instead he doesn't hesitate to criticize her, which just twists the knife a little more. And not too surprising that she became physically ill in this situation, but nobody else had thought to delve into the possibility that her brain might be causing these symptoms, which are, if I haven't pointed it out yet, they're absolutely as real as symptoms from any other cause.
Dr. Kyrin (36:30):
You know, I love the examples you're giving. I think everyone's getting a really good idea. Wow, this could be me. My parents were divorced. I had just situations that are very adversarial and negative in our lives, but I think there's not a lot, a lot of acknowledgement about the emotional impact and now everybody's learning the physical impact. It was so interesting. I was recently traveling and I was in Dubai and I was having a problem with my right shoulder and arm, and I went to a physiotherapist and he did a bunch of manipulations, which really helped. And I started talking to him about emotions related to the different muscles and right arm, and it relates to the father's representation and all these things that I've studied over the years. And he said, what are you talking about
Dr. Kyrin (37:21):
And I said, well, you know, emotions can be stored in the body in different parts of the body or associated with different emotions. And he didn't, wasn't aware of this. But like you say, once you see it, you can't unsee it. So if you're listening to this, you're now having information that maybe your practitioners aren't aware of that you are going to be aware of, and you can start looking at your life. Wow, when do I get those migraines? Oh, let me see. It's about a couple days before this, such and such family members come to visit every time. And do I get stomach aches on the way to work? And there's some periodicity or relatedness to how you're living your life and the symptoms you're having. And when you start to sort that out, you can't unsee it. So how would someone get started? They can take your quiz. It might be possible that their practitioner is not versed in this. So how do you suggest that people get started having a proper assessment of pain relief psychology or I would say disease relief psychology? How do they go about doing this?
Dr. David (38:29):
Great place to start is with your physician to make sure that there's not a biomedical cause that you don't have an organ disease or an injury that could, the doctor thinks maybe there's a connection there, but you're not improving in the way that they expect. That would be another time to look and see if this psychophysiologic process could be contributing to your condition. And that 12 item quiz is a great place to start because it's got a lot of educational elements in it that can show you how some of these ideas might apply to you. And if they do, then we've got a lot of resources on the website that people can, it's end chronic pain.org that can help people delve into this more. There's a course on, there's several courses on there. Some of them are video, some of them are primarily text that can give you more information because information is the treatment here.
Dr. David (39:23):
The more you understand how this works, the more you understand how it applies to you, the more that you can do things to lead to improvement. This one of the techniques might be if you had an ace perpetrator in your life as a kid, writing a letter to that person. It's very challenging, as you pointed out earlier, to recognize that you might have some negative emotions towards someone that you also care about. And sorting that out, writing a letter to put those thoughts and feelings in there, both good and bad, not not to mail the letter just as an exercise, to write it as a way to take emotions and thoughts and feelings and put them into words that are written down that can pull ideas out of your head that you didn't necessarily know were there. And the more that you're able to do that, the less those things need to express themselves via the body.
Dr. David (40:16):
That's one of the techniques. There are apps for this that are very evidence-based, that one of them is called curable, that I recommend to patients. There are self-help books about this. We've got textbooks for healthcare professionals, but even the textbooks are written without jargon because we wanted the medical clinicians to be able to read the psychological material and vice versa. And one of the benefits of that is that if you're a science oriented reader, you can read one of these textbooks and get a lot out of it. I, I know psychophysiologic relief therapists who are prescribing even textbooks to their patients.
Dr. Kyrin (40:56):
Oh, I love that. Yeah. So definitely go to the website, we'll have the link in the show notes and take the quiz and start to investigate this. I mean, honestly, I think if you have any chronic condition, you could benefit from this. Definitely get a proper evaluation from your regular doctor. You might wanna also consider a functional approach, which I am particularly passionate about, and we often are able to fix and find root causes that mainstream medicine isn't able to address. But this even in a, from a functional perspective, is something that I think everybody should look into. I would be remiss if I didn't mention how this ties into hormones. And so briefly, because we're running out of time, I'm just gonna say that it ties in most likely to your cortisol stress hormone. 'cause We're talking about deep stress, we're talking about adverse childhood experiences, and this is going to deal with your HPA axis, hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, which relates to your cortisol. So if you were wondering, Hey, Dr. Karen, are you gonna tie this into hormones? There we did it. Bam,
Dr. David (42:04):
Yeah, it's an additional source of stress on top of everything else. Yeah.
Dr. Kyrin (42:08):
Yeah. So Dr. Clark, any parting words before we wrap up?
Dr. David (42:13):
You know, I'll just say the bottom line here is that the brain can generate symptoms in the body, and these symptoms are every bit as real and can be every bit as severe as symptoms from any other cause. So if you're looking for the body's defects as an explanation for the symptoms and you're not finding it, then think about whether the brain could be generating these symptoms. You know, a a classic example is phantom limb pain where somebody's had an amputation and yet they feel pain at the site where the limb is, you know, no longer exists. That pain is being generated in the brain and it is very powerful. I mean, it has put some of my patients in the hospital, one of my patients was a 17-year-old who I was asked to see on their 70th day in the hospital.
Dr. David (43:02):
They were getting 10 milligrams of morphine an hour. You know, for a kid this size, five or 10 milligrams would be enough to treat the pain of a fractured leg for your patient's. Not familiar with morphine doses. This patient was getting 10 milligrams every hour. That was when we found the stress, we treated it successfully, and the patient was off of the hospital in a week and off of all opioids in 30 days. So just being aware that the brain can do this and the brain does this because of stress, which may be deep stress, it may be stress you don't fully recognize, it may be stress from far in the past. So start looking for those things. Use the quiz to help you find what those things might be. And then finally, effective treatment is available. We've got half a dozen randomized controlled trials now published in very rigorous journals that show dramatic benefits when these underlying issues are brought into the open and dealt with successfully. Yes.
Dr. Kyrin (44:00):
And when you go take the quiz, when you get your results in your email, there's a resource page that Dr. Clark has with all kinds of books and just a plethora of resources. So you'll have lots there to help you on your way. Thank you so much, Dr. Clark, for joining me today.
Dr. David (44:19):
Thank you for having me. It was a pleasure speaking with you.
Dr. Kyrin (44:22):
And I'll just wrap up by sharing another quote that you shared with me before we started recording. I'll leave everyone with this because I think it really gets to the heart of what we're talking about. And it is from Rita Cheren, who's also a doctor, and it is the work of medicine. Inconsiderable part rests on the doctor's ability to listen to the stories that patients tell, to make sense of those often chaotic narratives of illness, to inspect and evaluate the listener's response to the story told to understand what these narratives mean and to be moved by them. I hope that you are inspired to look at your own possible deep stress and adverse childhood experiences and how it might be impacting your health to take the quiz, to educate yourself. I really think that this is the next frontier that in the future at some date will be self-evident.
Dr. Kyrin (45:19):
That of course, doctors need to be addressing this with their patients. But as long as you are here and you know about it, you can use this information to take action on your own behalf. You don't have to wait for your doctors to catch up. You can get the help that's available to you now. So something to think about. Look forward to hearing your thoughts. Reach out to me on social media and let me know what your thoughts are about this and how it's helped you. I'll see you again next week. Thanks so much for joining me. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Dr. Kyrin (45:54):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► 12 item Self Assessment Questionnaire for brain-generated pain or illness by Dr. David Clarke.
This 12-item questionnaire is designed to improve understanding of your pain or illness. The more questions to which you answer ‘Yes’, the more likely it is that a brain-to-body disorder (a Psychophysiologic Disorder or PPD) is contributing significantly to your condition. For any concerns raised by these questions, we recommend discussion with a medical or mental health professional.
CLICK HERE to access the questionnaire.
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In this pivotal episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, your host unlocks the secret link between spinal health and hormonal balance with none other than the spine whisperer himself, Dr. Ryan Wohlfert.
Dr. Wohlfert isn't just any expert; he's a titan in the realm of spinal wellness—a Certified Mindset Specialist, Certified Chiropractic Sports Physician, and a master in the esteemed art of Chiropractic BioPhysics®. With over 23 years of transforming lives through education and renowned clinical practice, he returns to the podcast with an invigorating discussion on Essential Spinal Hygiene for Your Hormonal Function & Vitality.
Key Insights From This Episode:
- The Spine-Hormone Connection: Dr. Ryan unravels how the spine directly influences our hormonal symphony and why maintaining spinal integrity can sing health into our lives.
- A Lifetime of Vitality: Discover Dr. Ryan's spinal correction protocol, a groundbreaking approach that has helped alleviate chronic pain and fend off dysfunction and disease for thousands.
- Beyond Manipulation: Learn how specific spinal care goes a step further than traditional chiropractic work, empowering not just relief, but a total revival of energy and endurance.
- The Pillars of Pain-Free Living: Dr. Ryan shares his wisdom on how simple, daily spinal hygiene practices can liberate you from the grips of medication and pave the way for a lifetime of vibrant, pain-free living.
- Mindset Matters: Embark on a mindset makeover that aligns your spinal health goals with success, as Dr. Wohlfert elaborates on how mental fortitude underpins physical wellbeing.
Dr. Ryan's Mantra for Listeners: "Your spine is the conduit of life energy. Nourish it, and it will nourish every cell in your body. Neglect it, and wellness will elude you. It's that simple, and it's that miraculous."
Stay tuned as Dr. Ryan leads us through the intricacies of spinal hygiene and its paramount role in nurturing our hormonal health—not just for today, but for a future brimming with vitality.
And remember, your pathway to hormone harmony might just begin with a healthy spine.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
You don't have to do anything except deal with the consequences of your choices. Dr. Ryan Wohlfert, stay tuned to find out what you're not doing for your spine that could be affecting your hormones and your health.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with Dr. Ryan Wohlfert to talk about the spine and spinal hygiene. I know you're thinking my spine takes care of itself. I don't need to do anything for it. You need to think again,
Speaker 1 (02:03):
It's pretty obvious, but you're probably not gonna have the obvious signs from your spine until a problem is down the line and has become more severe. And there's some simple things you can do for your spine, just like brushing your teeth and flossing that you can do for your spine and why that's super important. So, Dr. Ryan's gonna dive in with us on that topic. He has some great quotes,
Speaker 3 (03:21):
show. Thanks for having me, doc. I appreciate you, you reaching out and us getting able to talk.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Yeah, I think that this is such an important topic because it's very neglected, I'll say in the functional medicine space, even though we cover a lot of things, we don't cover the bioenergetics of the body, which I think is super important. And we really don't cover the structural aspects which are super important. And part of your metabolic homeostasis, right, from a, from your bones and your muscles, they're very highly metabolically active tissues. And this all ties into the bones and the musculoskeletal system into the spine, which is kind of ground zero, I'll call it, for your overall musculoskeletal balance. So I think it's super important, and that's why everybody listening needs to listen up and pay attention to this. Don't just say, oh, I don't have any spine problems,
Speaker 3 (04:56):
I love that. And I love what you said right at the beginning too, how, you know, especially in functional medicine, the mechanical aspects of things and structural aspects do get pushed to the background because we're, nutrition is important obviously, but the mechanics of how your body uses that nutrition is also important. And with the spine, my whole journey with the spine started when I was a kid, when I was 13 years old and I had my first migraine headache, and I'm already jumping the gun there. But again, I had these episodes and I would have headaches and I would have colds, and I would have infections and I would've bronchitis and all these things, but I was still an active kid, you know, playing all these sports with my brothers in the backyard and, and eating homemade food that my mom would make.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
But one time, or I shouldn't say one time, the first time I remember was sitting in class and all of a sudden I couldn't see outta my right eye. The right side of my body went numb like this, I shouldn't say numb, but a tingly feeling in my hand and down my leg. And just seeing spots, you know how you look at the sun and you get that sun spot or a light? Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 3 (06:43):
I didn't, like I said, like I said, I thought it was just a headache, just a really bad one. So I went home, slept, and probably took some Tylenol and some ibuprofen that my mom gave me. I don't know, I can't remember. So it went away after a day or two, and then I was again sitting in class and it happened again the next week. So a week later it happened again. I knew what was gonna happen or after, like those first symptoms, the tingling, the sun, like the spots that I couldn't see went down to the school office and asked the secretary, I asked her, you know, I, I'm gonna have a bad headache. Do you have any Tylenol that I can take? And so what she said actually changed the course of my life. She said, I can't give you that, but what it sounds like, it sounds like you got a pinched nerve and you need to go see my chiropractor
Speaker 3 (07:35):
So again, I was 10 years old, in the eighth grade. I was like, whatever. It's not like I could take myself, but she called my mom to come pick me up. And she told my mom when she came to pick me up, the same thing she told me. So then we went to the chiropractic office of her chiropractor. He took x-rays, showed me my spine was crooked, which was, I still remember that, again, I'm just giving you a summary version of it. But it was all very thorough. And I remember us sitting in the room, he showed my mom and myself the x-rays and said, look right there, it's on crooked. So then I got my first adjustment, and it was like fireworks went up. It was just, wow. Just, he said, feel your face. And all the circulation I could feel, my face was like beet red and was warm because the circulation was coming back.
Speaker 3 (08:23):
And so that was my first experience and it, it, it wasn't right then that I said, oh man, I'm gonna be a chiropractor. But it gave me the taste of it. And ever since then I've been, I've been going, but along the way, it wasn't until probably my, my junior, up until my junior year of high school, I was gonna be an engineer, a mechanical engineer. That's what my focus was. But then going into my senior year, somebody told me about kinesiology. Like, whoa, that sound, what's that? The study of human movement, the study of movement, musculoskeletal system, how the body works with that. So I I went into that major and while I was there, that's kinda like a stepping stone to either pre-med, athletic training, physical therapy, occupational therapy. But while I was at University of Michigan my freshman year, I was like, you know what I, I know the power of chiropractic and how the spine works.
Speaker 3 (09:16):
So that's where my focus led and it's been great along the way. Obviously I've learned a lot. You probably know as well as anybody the, your education and ex it starts after you get outta school. That's basically because after the last, you know, I've been a chiropractor for over 23 years, and the last 15 of it has been in this corrective form, which we'll talk a lot about today and the research behind that and how this actual structure, 'cause you know, there's chiropractic that, again, the adjustments are great, but if you're trying to fix the structure and posture and the, the normal curves of the spine and the positioning of the spine because of how the ligaments and muscles and nerves all intertwine, the adjustment is great for a jumpstart. But if you want to correct the actual positioning and structure and alignment of it, then you have to create a sustained load onto it.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Similar to how braces correct the structure of teeth. Just like we can't push on our teeth one time a week or one time even a day, and it will correct the structure of them. There needs to be a sustained load to do that. And that's again, what we focus on. And by correcting those curves and the structure and the normal positioning of the spine, that takes the stress off of the nerves, off of the musculoskeletal system. So like how you mentioned ground zero is the spine. I, you know, I like to say it's the foundation of our strength and our function, because if that's off, then it puts excess wear and tear on the rest of the system.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Right. So you said so much in there that's so rich, thank you for that. Before we dive into ground zero, I, I just have to point out a few things that you mentioned. So you said you were gonna go into mechanical engineering, which is interesting because you kind of are a mechanical engineer just of humans, not machines. And it gets to something else that you mentioned. It's interesting how many of us, I want everyone listening to think back, how many times did you go to the school nurse in your educational career with an ache, a bump, a pain for us ladies, a lot of times it's menstrual problems. And did they just give you a Tylenol or a Motrin, right, for your cramps, for your headache? They just gave you the pill. But it's fascinating to me that you are now in the pro profession and path that you're on and that this woman said something completely different.
Speaker 1 (11:49):
And out of the blue from 99.9% of the school nurses globally, that actually planted seeds that impacted the course of your life. Or rather, maybe she was one of your guides along that path, kind of planted by the divine, the universe, whatever you like to call it, to guide you on your path. And, and why I think this is so important. So why I'm so passionate about what I do is yes, do I want people, women, particularly women over 40, but all women to be as healthy as possible, vital and alive and feel great in their bodies? Yes. But it's so that you can live your purpose, live your passion. And a lot of women, they're so stuck in their health problems that they've even stopped dreaming about that passion. They've stopped listening to that internal voice that's guiding them. They're like, I just, Karen, I get it, but I just wanna feel better.
Speaker 1 (12:47):
But what I find is when I work with you to get you feeling better, then you're like, okay, now I wanna get back on my path and my purpose, what I think Dr. Ryan shared there was so key because all along your life you've been getting these seeds planted, these walk in angels who say things to you that are so out of the blue, like instead of here's the Tylenol, you've got a pinched nerve and you need to go to the chiropractor. And a lot of times we discount those and we think, oh, this is happening to everyone. I know I've done that. Oh, this happens to everyone. But now looking back, you know, I was in the nurse's office with period problems
Speaker 3 (13:55):
I love that you brought that piece into it because I got the chills. You just say that, you know, the divine and God just leading me in that direction and you're not really, you don't know it, you know, until, until you know it, until again, I was going through my journey and you mentioned the mechanical engineering part of it. You're right, essentially that's what we're re-engineering, we're restructuring the body. It's interesting because this technique that we use, it's called CBP chiropractic biophysics, which you mentioned in the intro. It's it, the, the person who developed it, he you know, is a doctor of chiropractic, but he's also, he had a, a master's in engineering and a master's in in math. So he understood the relationship between that of the body and the mechanics and how that affects the overall health of the, because he has such a deep understanding of it.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
I have not heard of the term chiropractic biophysics. I'm gonna have to look it up. But is this related to, so I went to a chiropractor several years ago who was unlike any chiropractor I had been to before, and I've been to many of them. And he was the one who really introduced me to this whole concept that if there's a torque in your structural mechanics, meaning your spine, and it's kind of twisted and off kilter and things aren't aligned properly, that it alters the way blood flows through all of your blood vessels. It alters the ability of cells to take up nutrients and distribute nutrients that everything is affected. And he's like, think of, if you kind of take a city and you twist it a little, like take Manhattan, which kind of looks like a person and you twist it a little, well then Broadway isn't gonna, the traffic's not gonna flow smoothly along Broadway like it's supposed to. And then, you know, the UPS guy isn't gonna be able to deliver the packages properly 'cause there's gonna be traffic jams at certain places. So think of your blood vessels getting torqued and then calcium can't be delivered and then potassium and blood glucose can't be distributed properly. Is that what you're talking about? Or is it, am I totally off base?
Speaker 3 (16:12):
No, that's a great analogy. The flow of information, the flow of communication gets interrupted because, and that's a big reason why the spine is ground zero, why it's the foundation. And I think it's one of, I think it's the main reason why it's so important is because it houses the nervous system, the spinal cord and the nerve roots. So if you torque that as well as, again, it, it will alter the circulation like you had mentioned. And that's actually been shown through at least one study in, called in brain circulation journal, showing how the curve of the neck, which we haven't even gotten in the structure yet and what the normal structure is. But you should have this normal side curve of the neck and when you lose that, it alters the vertebral artery chemodynamics of that. So it's not delivering the oxygen, not delivering the blood to the brain, and then you can't get rid of the waste either.
Speaker 3 (17:04):
But no, that's very similar and like that torque that you mentioned, if there's some sort of mm-hmm,
Speaker 3 (17:55):
And here is, I call it a perfect design, but somebody might call it a cruel joke.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Right? And yes, so hopefully everybody listening, you're getting the picture right? And so this chiropractor was explaining to me like you're explaining like if you can do all the functional type of treatments you want, take all the supplements, change your diet, but if your skeletal system is wonky, which you proceeded to show me how mine looked wonky, you're not getting the proper delivery of nutrients, balance of hormones, excretion of waste. And isn't this happening to all of us just from gravity and living? We're all losing our C curve with us sitting and crouching over computers all day long. And kinda what are the situations that we're dealing with in everyday life that are causing us to have difficulties, whether we know it or not. Like you said, we might not have symptoms and we might think we're fine
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Us. I got you led right into it. Beautiful. Because yeah, with the world that we're living in today, just going at a global level, you know, six in 10 US adults have at least one chronic condition. What does it have to do with the spine? Well, if you look at our world, almost 70% of us are in the distorted spinal posture that go forward hunched over prolonged flexed posture that leads to chronic issues and including chronic pain and disability fatigue, accelerated aging and arthritis, anxiety and mood problems, and increased medication use, which is a big you know, that's one of the things that I never wanna be on any medications, and this is, and I never will because I already put that in my mindset. And yes, it even impacts our hormones and our metabolic system. So what's even more, which I think is the most interesting part of what people don't know about the spine, is that multiple studies show that this spinal posture, you know, losing the C curve, as you mentioned, that hyper kyphosis of the mid back, that slump hunchback posture Mm-hmm
Speaker 3 (20:56):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (22:03):
And I'm saying a lot here, but I like to put images in, in people's heads and give analogies. If, if you are a, a, a parent or a grandparent and you, there's a, you know, when you had your babies and they were 10 pounds, 15 pounds as there were, you know, hopefully not 15 pounds when they were born, that'd be a, a pretty big baby. But if you took that 15 pound weight or 20 pound person, or even if you don't have a baby around or can't think back to that, just get a dumbbell or aa weight plate or something, 15 pounds and hold it at arms length away from your body. So that's like having this hunched posture where your head's forward and collapsing down is if you have a weight that's 15 to 20 pounds out away from you, do you see how your muscles, your spine, your joints are gonna be on overload, trying just to hold you up against gravity. And now we add things onto it to make it even tougher. So if we retrain our posture and spine using specific techniques to take that stress off of it, bring that weight closer to the body, now we're decreasing the stress, yes, on the spine, but also the spinal cord we're decreasing. And by that we're also decreasing stress on your organs, on your metabolism, on your entire cell tissue system, anywhere that these nerves go. Right? So that's how that works.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Yeah, I love how you detailed that. It's, it's funny, I became a nomad about a year and a half ago. I've traveled all over the world and I don't know, somehow I thought in America, maybe we were in a bubble that we're all on our phones all day long. Everywhere. But no, everywhere I go,
Speaker 1 (24:19):
And you're really highlighting that for us. You're waking us up to, oh, this is something I need to pay attention to. Whether or not I'm having a spine problem or a pain problem. It's something I need to pay attention to. And I know you've got solutions,
Speaker 3 (25:07):
An acute problem would be like any types of acute injuries, especially if you had like sciatica, shooting pain, debilitating pain, like with me when I was, when I had my migraines, that was a sign to me and that was well sign to our school secretary to tell us that, to, to tell me that any type of intense pain would be a, alright, you need to get this checked out. Which again, pain is a great motivator. So that's kind of a simple way to know if you have more on that lower spectrum, but still low energy and fatigue is another big one because your body's wasting so many resources. If your body is in this, your spine is in this distorted, abnormal, weakened position. So those are the two big main ones. Chronic pain in different areas of your body, especially spine and the nerves, disc problems arm, if we're talking may with a neck stiffness, achiness, where again you see a progression of not able to turn your head side to side, tilt it pain, shooting down the arm, numbness, tingling in your hands.
Speaker 3 (26:17):
Those are all signs of, okay, acute, get these checked out. Now if and hopefully that answered the question with that. If you are, and I'm glad you asked this, because if you don't have these acute symptoms, how can you test yourself to see what your spinal posture is like? And I love that. 'cause That's the, basically that's the first step is how do you assess to make sure that my ears over my shoulders, over my hip is over my ankle? 'cause That's the normal posture. We're looking at you straight ahead. We wanna make sure that if we have a, a straight line or a plumb line dropped down from the ceiling, we want your pelvis under the middle of your chest, under your, you know, middle of your head, like right between your, your eyes. Any deviation from those, again, you can, we call it, you do a selfie test where you take a, you got your phone, right?
Speaker 3 (27:08):
And you can try to take a selfie, you set it up somewhere and take a picture of yourself. Just get in a comfortable standing position looking straight at it, take a picture. And then also you could from the side especially, and you wanna make sure that you're going from the ground up, that your ankle is right on top of your, the outside of your hip, and then your shoulder and ear are all lined up. So that's one easy way. You can also look in the mirror for the front one. It's a little bit harder to do with the, the side, you know, a side picture of your body. Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Your feet are about two to four inches away from the wall. The back of your, your heels, your hips, your mid back. Your head should touch the wall. If you can't get your head to touch the wall comfortably, again, more than likely you're, there's arthritis. That's the hunchback, it's the degeneration of the disc. It's the common problem with osteoporosis because if they get weak spinal bones and fracture, not, they don't even need acute fractures, but these chronic fractures on the front, it, makes it hard for you to get in that aligned position. So that's another wall test. You can also do it lying down. Now if you, if you're lying down on your back and your head, it's uncomfortable to have your head on the floor or it can't even get in that position. I would call that more of an acute case where you need to get that checked out because you're stuck there. The restrictions that ligaments have gotten so fibrotic and so worn out and they're tight, that it can't do it. Like the muscles by themselves are not gonna allow you to do that. So just postural exercises and exercise by itself won't allow you to get back in the healthy position. Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 1 (29:11):
Speaker 3 (29:56):
It's just like, you're just like, you're trained in what you do that I wouldn't be able to see, just like the, the listener, they're, they're trained in what they do. Like that whole purpose thing that you mentioned at the beginning, that purpose is what your skill is in, in developing that skill. Because I know I'll be adjusting to somebody in my brick and mortar clinic and I will like to start working on them. And they're like, I, how did you know that was there? It's just, you know, after 20 some years of doing it, you get a feel for it based on the symptoms they're telling me or their posture or what it is. Same thing again, in your profession. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Yeah. You just know. And everybody listening, I love this other quote you shared Dr. Ryan, don't complain about the results you didn't get from the work. You didn't do
Speaker 3 (31:49):
Beautiful. I love that because that exercise is part of it. I've said the words a little bit at the be, you know, as we've gone through this, but as a simple little acronym, think of eat EAT, that is the protocol of chiropractic biophysics. So EAT stands for exercise adjustment and traction. And I'll go quickly through each of those because when you hear, like, I'll just touch on for a second, adjust you think, okay. Adjustment of the spine. But I'll, I'll show you how adjusting your lifestyle also is under that adjusted part of it. But let's start with exercise. You mentioned great ones, general exercise that you just mentioned. Beautiful. Not even gonna talk about that. But now there's general spinal exercises that you can do. And I know they'll have access to the spinal hygiene mini class. And this is part of that, but I'll go over it here. It's just like we take care of our teeth and brush our teeth every day, or at least what we're supposed to.
Speaker 3 (32:48):
We wanna take care of our spine every day. And it doesn't have to take long. Very simply taking your spine through all of its ranges of motion at least once a day, maybe even twice a day. So what are the ranges of motion? So side to side, bending side to side. I know people can't see me, but as I'm doing it,
Speaker 3 (33:38):
So we have the side to side, we have the rotation. Now we want to flex. Although we are in this prolonged flexed posture for a lot of, you know, most of our day, we still wanna be able to do that motion. We just don't wanna be in that chronically flexed position. So flexing down, like either doing like a, and then also extending back. So the cat cow, a lot of people are familiar with that exercise or on your hands and knees where you're rounding your back, taking your chin towards your chest and then arching it up, squeezing the shoulder blades, dropping the pelvis down, but you're flexing the spine and extending rounding and then flattening going towards their, I don't like to say extreme, but their, their final range of motion under control gently and pain free. So that's called spinal hygiene. And just like I said, taking two minutes outta your day to do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (34:32):
I love that. And you could even do it while you're brushing your teeth. You know that great book Tiny Habits where one of his main tips was to link a new habit to something else that you already do. So if you're already religious about your teeth, brushing, flossing, all the things and the evening, then you could just tack on spinal hygiene to your dental hygiene right after. So it makes it super easy. Sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt.
Speaker 3 (34:57):
That's okay. And there are more sp if, if you find during the assessment or if you ever get your spine checked from a doctor that specializes in, especially this corrective technique and like you said, Dr. Karen, we're good at seeing things that other people can't either through x-rays or through this postural analysis. But if you find during your assessment, your self-assessment, that your posture stinks, for lack of a better word, that it's, it's not aligned, your head's in front of your shoulders, your kyphotic or your, you know, your body side to side, one shoulder lower than the other, your head's tipped. There are specific postural exercises, spinal exercises that we would recommend based on your specific needs in the opposite direction to counteract that postural distortion. So unlike exercise, generally, you know, general exercise, we wanna do it bilaterally or if we go in one direction, we wanna do it on the other side of the body.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
Specific. Postural and spinal exercises are different because you have to counteract the position it's already in. So if I'm hunched over, heads forward, we don't wanna do a prolonged exercise where we're doing that, but we're doing an exercise where we're bringing the shoulder blades back, taking the head back, called the full spine exercise breathing. And it's not just a stretch, but it's retraining. Holding that position for five to 10 seconds, starting off at three sets of 10 reps and working your way up to even like 5, 6, 7 sets of 10 reps every day because we have to retrain it. Now you could do that type of exercise if you are at a computer, if you're hunched over, if you're on the couch for 20 to 30 minutes. And it's always good to have a timer on. So, mm-hmm,
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Yeah. Well I wanna add in there. Yeah, I just wanna put a plug for yoga. 'cause I always say that the triad is aerobic weight bearing and stretching because the constriction of your joints where the connective tissue starts hardening and getting tighter happens very gradually that you don't even notice it. And then before long, you know, you're having trouble reaching over your head or you can't touch your toes or whatever. And so yoga takes you generally through a lot of these stretches. So I wanna put a plugin for that, but please proceed.
Speaker 3 (37:32):
No, those are exactly the three cardio weight bearing resistance type training and flexibility ability. Absolutely. And it's funny because we'll get into the, with the traction part, eat, we'll talk about that. You said it perfectly. The connective tissues get tense, they get tight and you don't even know what's happening. And, and how do you correct that? So it is an adjustment. So adjusting the spine, which chiropractors are known for, but like I said in the beginning, it's not gonna correct the structure long term. It's gonna give you a jumpstart to a dead battery like I did with my daughter's car this morning. It's going to again give you, get the nerves working again and functioning, but also adjust talks about lifestyle, how you sit, how you stand, how you bend, lift, sleep, how you carry things. Think about your day and the postures that you're in and how you can improve on the postures that you're using.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
The biggest one, which we've mentioned multiple times, is on your phone, on your smartphone. I'm not sure how your phone being down in your lap or your tablet or your, well it's called a laptop. So I guess that's why, how that became the normal positioning to look at your phone. But it's very simple how to correct that, how to adjust the positioning of that. If you're sitting down, make sure your butt is up against the back of the chair of the couch, whatever it is, prop pillows behind you to keep you more upright. And then you can also put pillows or blankets or something on your lap. Rest your elbows on those blankets or pillows on your lap. Bend your elbows in arms to about 90 degrees or more and bring your phone towards, you know, more in front of your face. Definitely in front of, more like the chest area.
Speaker 3 (39:20):
Chest level, not down in your lap. And, have that be the normal position. Have, you know, let's make it so when we see somebody in the flex position looking down at their phone, you know, walking around or standing there waiting for something or at the airport waiting, that, that becomes like the abnormal where it's like, man, that doesn't look very good. Let's, let's lift it up so you can do this. Not just when you're sitting, but when you're standing too. Check your posture with that. So that's the, I will say another lifestyle adjustment. How you bend. It's not all about squatting, but it's more of a, in weightlifting terms, like a deadlift or a hip hint, you want to hinge at the hips when you're, you're bending because we're not always gonna be in a, I wanna say position to squat, but we're not always gonna be squatting. So we need to learn how to use our hips to bend. And I'll give a plug to a great technique called foundation training. It teaches you how to use your hips using this hip pinch. And I explained it in one of my, one of my handouts. But yes, how you hold your phone and how you bend are two huge things that you can adjust in your lifestyle.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
Awesome. Those are super important. We are running out of time, but before we wrap up, and I know you've got some great resources for everyone we wanna share, you mentioned osteoporosis or osteo products, spinal fractures, which are horrific. We don't want anyone here to have those. They're very silent, but they're also very painful and they're devastating because they do decrease your lung capacity. So your ability to breathe and, and oxygenate your tissues and have so many consequences. Can you just talk a little bit about osteoporosis? I can't tell you how many women I come across who have not had osteoporosis screening and they are well beyond the age at which they qualify for that or the medical risk factors that should qualify them and their doctors aren't talking to them about it. So I'm wondering if you could just put a plug in for women to get osteoporosis screening, what that should consist of, who should be getting it and how important it's, well,
Speaker 3 (41:30):
I don't know, like, you know, that's not in my area. I just see a lot of it because of the spine that I, you know, the, the 'cause I've been on the spinal health and because we have to make sure with that, I mean obviously Kevin Ellis is really good at explaining that Margie Bissinger because they deal more with osteoporosis. So look them up obviously. And you are even very well versed in what, when people should be getting checked because as they go through life changes and hormonal changes that affects the bones, that affects the, the, the strength and the density and the mineralization of the bones. But also what I, I like to point out too is I'm gonna take it back to the spine. Osteoporosis will affect the spine, it will affect your posture and that hyper kyphosis, especially if it's weak. So if we're weakening the bones, if we're weakening the bones of the spine, it's gonna cause these micro fractures, it's gonna cause degenerated disc because now there's increased stress on that, it's gonna cause that hunchback.
Speaker 3 (42:30):
So if you're, you know, per menopausal postmenopausal, they need to get that checked. But even more I think it is important to learn these things that you're teaching through nutrition, through detox, through posture, through sleep, all these healthy living practices to help prevent it. Yes, I know it's, it's a big, big story right now. And I think another big reason why osteoporosis is so profound and rampant now is the medications that people are taking. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (43:31):
Make sure you get your bones checked because of the side effects caused not just the bones but your gut health, which affects how your body can absorb these nutrients. That's for osteoporosis. And I just wanna plug one time here, not a, not a plug, but because the most unique part of this whole eat protocol is the T part is the traction. We have to make sure we are addressing that and possibly using some form of traction similar to how braces are put on teeth to correct the structure. We have to put the spine in a position for a certain period of time, hold it there so the ligaments can reform. Alright? And we can use different towels, different techniques of the guy explain it in the spinal hygiene mini class that they'll have access to. Yes,
Speaker 1 (44:16):
There's so much to talk about it. I know we can't get it all in one show, but we will give them a link which will be in the show notes to share with everyone. And, and I do wanna reiterate, yes, Margie is great about osteoporosis. She's been on the show. So if you miss that episode, go back and listen. If you are a woman over 50, you absolutely should have a dual femur, dual hip DEXA scan to check for osteoporosis. And if you're at increased risk, 'cause you've been on medications like chronic prednisone, there's a whole list of medications that will increase your risk, family history, et cetera, then you wanna get a bone density. So thank you Dr. Ryan for joining us for this essential information to highlight things that we need to be aware of so that we can have great vitality and have an increase in our vitality span, not just our longevity, but how vital and alive we are in those extra years that we're gonna live. Because we do all the things and tell everyone about the spinal hygiene mini class that you have for them. We'll have the link in the show notes and where they can connect with you online.
Speaker 3 (45:20):
Yeah, I mean the spinal hygiene mini class, it's a simple one pager that shows you like what are the like four simple steps you can do to hydrate your body and spine to exercise at which we, we went over here how to, I went into more like how to adjust your lifestyle and went into examples of how to do that and then also the traction part of it, how to use towels, how to use household house, things they have around the house to use your advantage to help correct and support your spine. And then you can always go to dr wolfer.com, D-R-W-O-H-L-F as in Frank, ER t.com and that's where you can find me.
Speaker 1 (46:05):
Awesome. Well, I hope everyone will check Dr. Ryan in those places. Download the guide, add spinal hygiene to some other habit that you're already doing. It just takes a few minutes and enjoys the benefits of improved spinal function, which means improved hormonal balance, improved overall health. Thank you so much for joining me today, Dr. Ryan.
Speaker 3 (46:28):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (46:29):
And thank you for joining us for another episode of the Hormone Prescription. This really is essential information that I don't know, honestly. Is your doctor telling you to take care of your spinal hygiene? I don't think so. So
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Get Dr. Ryan Wohlfert's 1-Page Spinal Hygiene MiniClass: Learn Simple Solutions to Hydrate, Move & Support Your Spine, Maintain Healthy Postures, and Live a Pain-Free, Active Life:
CLICK HERE https://drwohlfert.com/spinalhygiene/
► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.
With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.
Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.
Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!
CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!
► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.
In this enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Kyrin Dunston opens a heartfelt discussion about understanding and embodying self-love in the year 2024.
If you're a midlife woman navigating the often tumultuous waves of hormonal change, sit back and tune in to a conversation that dives into the essence of caring deeply for oneself. It's more than skin-deep - it's a five-sensory journey towards being symptom free and realizing your full potential.
Main Topics Discussed:
- Vision of Being Symptom Free: Dr. Kyrin encourages us to craft a vivid, multi-sensory vision of wellness. Imagine a life where every day sings with vitality.
- Finding Your 'Why': It isn't just about wanting to improve certain aspects of our health; it's about digging deep and finding the real reasons driving our pursuit of well-being.
- Navigating Relationships: Learn how intimate connections factor into self-love, and why nourishing these relationships - especially with ourselves - is crucial.
- Harnessing Universal Forces: This episode reveals how to tap into the universal force for miraculous results, guiding listeners from hormonal poverty to prosperity.
- Decision as the First Step: Drawing inspiration from JP Morgan's wise words, Dr. Kyrin explores the power of decision-making in initiating transformation.
In an extraordinary moment, a listener shares her personal story in a mini coaching session with Dr. Kyrin - a testament to the power of vulnerability and clarity in the journey towards true self-love and hormonal balance.
Remember, the choice to improve your life is in your hands, and as JP Morgan stated, "The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are." Make that bold decision today!
🎧 Listen to the full episode for a deeper dive into self-love and what it truly means to live a fulfilled life in the heart of midlife. Discover how to chart your course out of midlife metabolic mayhem and step into a world where hormone prosperity is your new normal.
"Don't linger in the shadows of hormonal confusion. Let's illuminate the path to a vibrant, symptom-free life together. Your journey to hormone bliss awaits!"
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a force in the universe, which if we permit it will flow through us and produce miraculous results. Mahatma Gandhi, find out how to produce miraculous results with your hormones and your health in your life. Now stay tuned.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we talk about how to produce miraculous results in your life with your hormones and your health so that you can get on with the business of living and live joyfully and produce miraculous results in your life. In the last episode, I started with the teaser with a quote from JP Morgan about the first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are. And then I totally forgot that that's what I started with and never came back to that we started about talking about shrinking the size of your butt if you wanna reach your goals. So I'm gonna revisit this quote from JP Morgan because if you take no action and you don't change anything, guess what? Nothing changes. And in this solo series I've been talking about how do you change and go from hormonal poverty and the symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem to hormonal prosperity, getting into your genes off the couch and back into life?
Speaker 1 (02:14):
Because if you're, listen, listening to my show on a regular basis, I'm guessing that you're struggling with some aspect of your health and that you think or know it's related to your hormones, your midlife metabolism, and that you're tired of being sick and tired of that. You want something different and better for your life. I don't know, just, just an inkling that that's why you're here and you're hoping you're gonna learn something that you can use. Maybe you're searching Dr. Google, you're listening to my pod podcast, lots of other podcasts, reading blogs, and you're trying to find answers. You know, I was talking with the women in my Hormone bliss challenge last night during our live class on Zoom about where did we women get this idea that we have to fix our health problems ourself, because it's kind of insane. I mean, I know we're in this age of information, right?
Speaker 1 (03:06):
That's the age we're in. We can have a million Google hits on our question. Like when I got back from my 18 months of travel, I went to pick my car up from storage and it was filled with water. And what was the first thing I did was I googled my make and model. Why is my car filled with water
Speaker 1 (03:58):
And then I immediately found it on YouTube telling me why my make and model of car might have water in it. And I also immediately knew I cannot do this myself. I need an expert. And so I found an expert local mechanic and took it to him and he looked at it and fixed it and addressed it. But why, when it comes to our our health, do we women have this idea that we need to fix it ourselves? And so the women in the challenge, what started me on this, on their homework, I was reviewing and they were detailing all the hours, time, money, energy, the, and attention they had spent on trying to fix their health problems themselves. And so we had got into this really rich discussion about why do we think that? And it was really around because there's so much information out there because a lot of health coaches put them cells out as hormone experts.
Speaker 1 (04:49):
So the, the number, sheer number of experts sharing information on the quote unquote experts sharing information on the internet is huge. And there's so much information and a lot of people make it sound like, oh yeah, you can do this yourself and or I can help you. And you don't need someone with those credentials that might be more expensive, more time consuming, more costly. And the consequence is that these women, after years and years of trying feel frustrated, disillusioned, hopeless, maybe you can identify because they haven't gotten the results 'cause they've been trying to fix it themselves or with the help of people who really weren't qualified. So yes, this quote, the first step of get to getting somewhere is to decide you're not gonna stay where you are. I decided I wasn't gonna stay with a car filled with water. I knew I wasn't the one to fix it.
Speaker 1 (05:38):
So I took it to a mechanic and they fixed it. You've got to decide you were sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired of being sick and tired. And that you're going to take the steps. And if you want the results that you are seeking, you need to find a qualified expert who can help you, who has a proven track record of being able to fix the problem that you have and not discount yourself and your value and your worth, and go to people who really can't help you. And then you get to this quote that I shared with you at the beginning of this episode. There is a force in the universe which if we permit it will flow through us and produce miraculous results. That is from the Hot Ma Gandhi. And there really is. So in in the hormonal challenge that we're going through now with some beautiful women experiencing some beautiful results and insights, I talk about the fact that everything is created twice.
Speaker 1 (06:32):
And maybe you've never thought about that. Have you ever thought about the fact that everything is created twice? When I say that to people initially, they usually say, what do you mean? So let's see, my cell phone is sitting in front of me, I'm picking it up on the counter. Somebody had to come up with a concept of a cell phone right Back when we only had rotary phones. You remember those rotary phones? Remember
Speaker 1 (07:14):
I certainly couldn't answer my email. There was no email at that time from the park, right? Somebody had to come up with this concept and believe that it was possible to make it and then design it and get all the people in line to create it. And now look, our whole world is transformed because we basically have a personal computer in our pocket that has the processing capacity. I remember when I was in high school, I went to a specialized science high school. I was selected to do a computer programming course at NYU. And so I actually got to take a computer, computer programming course when I was in high school, the computers that we worked with were as big as an entire room, probably 40 by 60 feet, y'all. It was huge. And we had to to program on these punch cards that we would punch these little divots and cards kind of like some voter cards are.
Speaker 1 (08:08):
And then we would have to stack them all up and put them in a processor in the computer that would select these cards sequentially and integrate them into the system. I mean, it was insane what we had to go through. And now the phone that I carry around in my pocket has processing capacity that far exceeds that. That huge ginormous computer. Somebody had to come up with this. And think of it, everything is created twice your health. Likewise, everything in nature is created twice. So first, all the plants and animals that you see were created in the mind of whatever your belief system is, God, nature, the universe, some power greater than me is all I know thought this up and created it. Your health is created the same way. So you have to have a vision for what your health is going to look like.
Speaker 1 (08:58):
And that's something I have everyone do in all my programs. A vision of being symptom free. What does it look like? What do you experience every day? What do you hear people saying to you about you? What do you smell? What do you hear? What do you see? What do you feel? So it has to be five sensory, and that's what informs that force in the universe that if we permit it will flow through us to produce miraculous results. But more than anything, we've gotta have a why. And so that's another thing I was really going into detail about yesterday. It's not necessarily knowing what you want for your health, because if you stop any woman in the street and you ask her, what do you want to change for your health? She can tell you, I wanna lose 30 pounds. I'd like my vision to be better so I don't have to use reading glasses.
Speaker 1 (09:47):
I'd like a better sex drive because I'd like to be more intimate and connected to my partner. I'd like my hair to start growing thicker because I'm losing hair and it's thinning. She can run that down. Is she gonna accomplish that goal? No. Why? Because what really matters is why she wants the things she wants. That's what determines what we will succeed with in our lives of any goals that we have. Because you asked that woman that she just told you and she walks, continues walking down the street going about her day. Is she gonna accomplish those goals? No, because they have no meaning. And we haven't gotten to the why she wants it. Now, if you tell her why, which is what I find with a lot of women, if you ask them, why do you want that? And they just tell you, oh, 'cause I'd like to fit in my jeans.
Speaker 1 (10:35):
Oh, because I just, you know, felt better when I had better sex and energy. That's not really getting to the why. So that's what we were talking about last night. And one woman volunteered to kind of do a little mini coaching on the spot with me. She was agreed to be very vulnerable, which I appreciate. And we really dug deep into why is it important for her to have a better sex drive? And when she knew she got to the why is when we got to the tiers, that's when you know you've gotten to your why, because she and her partner are kind of living as roommates, disconnected, not being seen, not being heard, not being connected, not having that connection, that healthy sexual intimacy affords you in a relationship that they used to have. And she got into an intimate relationship because she wanted that high level of being seen, being truly seen, being truly known, being truly connected and witnessed in this lifetime.
Speaker 1 (11:33):
And she said, he'll never leave me. I know that, but I don't wanna live an unfulfilled relationship in my life and not experience what's truly possible for me. And I know that healthy sexual intimacy is part of that. And she started crying because she got in touch with the fact that if she doesn't do something, she might never experience what's possible for her and her relationship that's getting to your why. So in order to harness the force in the universe that will flow through you and produce miraculous results, get you from hormonal poverty and out of midlife metabolic mayhem into hormonal prosperity, you've gotta get really honest with yourself. Not only about the what you want, but why you want it without it. Like I shared with you that Dr. Carrie Jones said, if you wanna reach your goals, you must shrink the size of your butt.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Your butt will be so big and you'll have so many reasons why you can't. I don't know the time, I don't know the money, I don't know the bandwidth, it doesn't matter. I'll deal with it later. My partner really doesn't care 'cause they're not talking about it. All the things. And I'm talking about all the symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem, 60 plus symptoms. You know what I'm talking about? Overweight, tired, hair loss, digestive issues, mood problems, memory problems, skin problems, headaches, migraines. You know the list. You're not going to get out of it. Don't be like the doctor friend of mine who was a general surgeon at the hospital when I practiced regular OB, GYN, who I used to see all the time. And then when I stopped going to the hospital, 'cause I started really helping women get healthy and stay away from the hospital.
Speaker 1 (13:12):
I didn't see her for years. And then the health food store would I regularly frequented to get supplements and healthy food and interact with people. I one day saw her in there after years and I said, what are you doing here? I've never seen you in here. She said, oh, I was diagnosed with colon cancer and I had a colectomy and I'm undergoing, I can't remember if it was chemo, radiation or both. And now I'm here looking for supplements that can help me. Don't be like her. I thought it was so sad. I, I of course you know, said, I'm so sorry that you're having to deal with that and I'm glad that you're here. But my thought after leaving and seeing her was, what if she had been in this health food store 20 years ago, 10 years ago, five years ago, looking for things about how she could balance her hormones and lead to optimal health and wellbeing and hormone balance and hormone prosperity so that she could prevent things like cancers that one and two of us will get in our lifetime.
Speaker 1 (14:06):
But the data's clear that we have a reduced risk risk if we're in hormonal prosperity of getting cancer. What if she had taken the time, money, energy to take care of this and been proactive earlier because I know she was having symptoms 'cause she used to share with me that she was tired and not feeling like herself and I could see that she was overweight. What if she had taken care of it? Then maybe she wouldn't have had to have colon cancer. I don't know. I don't want that to be you. I don't want that to be you. So I really would love you to take the hormone poverty quiz. If you haven't already done that, join me for the Hormone Bliss Challenge so you can learn the steps that you need to take to get from hormonal poverty to hormone prosperity so that you can reverse the symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem and enjoy your life and feel great and produce miraculous results.
Speaker 1 (14:59):
The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are. JP Morgan said it, and it's the truth. No decision, no results. Decision comes from the root de sre, which is Latin to cut away from. To make a decision means you take a stand for your life and you cut away from all other possibilities and you say, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to get out of hormonal poverty and get to hormonal prosperity. You make a decision de re and you cut away from all other possibilities and then you go in the direction of your dreams. And there's another quote about when you take steps in the direction of your dreams that the universe conspires to make them happen. So I hope you will harness the power of that. You can do that in many ways. I will help you.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
I'm here for you. You can join our Hormone Bliss challenge the next time it launches. Go to Hormone Bliss Challenge and get on the waiting list so you'll be the first to be notified when it opens again in this month of self-love, we have a 20% joiners fee going on, 20% off the joiners fee going on for her hormone club. You'll hear the coupon code in one of the ads running during the podcast. Go to her hormone club.com and use that coping coupon code, coupon code to join as a member and get a prescription for bioidentical hormones throughout the US from the comfort of your own home and have hormones mailed to you. Our board certified doctors who are specialists in bioidentical hormones will consult with you, do the testing and get you the prescription that you need to get out out of hormonal poverty.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
So the question to you is, are you gonna make 2024 the year that you take a stand for yourself and you take action? Or are you gonna make this another year that you don't pay attention to yourself? The choice is up to you. I can offer the tools, but it's up to you if you wanna pick them up and use them to transform your life. I'd be happy to. I hope you will join me and hope you've enjoyed this episode and you've been inspired to take action. 'cause That's what it was all about. Until next week and next episode, peace, love, and Hormones,
Speaker 2 (17:14):
Y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.
With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.
Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.
Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!
CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!
► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.
Welcome to "The Hormone Prescription Podcast," where we navigate the tumultuous waves of midlife with grace, humor, and a lot of knowledge. In this episode, "How To Get To Hormonal Prosperity And Bliss," our host, Dr. Kyrin Dunston, takes us on an insightful journey out of hormonal poverty and into a realm of wellbeing and joy.
🌟 Key Takeaways:* 2 million women a year in the United States enter menopause, joining the 50 million already experiencing it. This isn't a niche; it's a significant portion of our population that's often overlooked by mainstream medicine. * Personal Journey of Transformation: Dr. Kyrin shares her compelling transformation from weighing 243 pounds and battling numerous health issues, to discovering a new path of health and vitality. This personal revolution fuels her dedication to helping women navigate menopause with more support and less suffering. * Listen to the Whispers: Through touching stories and eye-opening insights, Dr. Kyrin emphasizes the importance of paying attention to our bodies' subtle signals before they turn into insurmountable health problems. * Hormone Bliss Challenge: Dr. Kyrin discusses the ongoing Hormone Bliss challenge, a space where women share their vulnerabilities and learn to transition from enduring to thriving. Their stories resonate with a powerful message: You're not alone.
📚 Episode Highlights:* The Underserved Majority: Dr. Dunston sheds light on the vast number of women in menopause who are navigating this stage with insufficient guidance from the healthcare system they trust. * A Turning Point: Reflecting on her health crisis, Dr. Kyrin underlines the moment of realization that led her to seek and advocate for better solutions, embodying Maya Angelou's philosophy, "When you know better, you do better." * The Power of Vulnerability: By sharing honest stories from participants in the Hormone Bliss challenge, Dr. Kyrin reveals the hidden struggles many women face, masked by a smile and a "put-together" appearance.
💡 Inspirational Insights:* Don't Wait for the Boulder: Dr. Kyrin wisely notes that waiting for a severe diagnosis to take action is like waiting for a boulder to hit you. Heeding the "whispers" early on can prevent much suffering and lead to a more fulfilling life. * Mistakes as Lessons: Highlighting the importance of learning from past attempts at healing, Dr. Kyrin encourages listeners to view mistakes as stepping stones rather than stumbling blocks.
🌺 Join the Journey:Are you ready to step into hormonal prosperity and bliss? Whether you're tiptoeing in hesitancy or ready to leap into action, this episode serves as a lighthouse, guiding you to safer shores where your well-being is the priority.
Don't continue to silently suffer or navigate this alone. Dr. Kyrin Dunston's expertise and compassionate approach offer a beacon of hope and practical steps forward.
Dive into this episode filled with not just expert advice but heartwarming empathy and actionable strategies that could change the trajectory of your health journey. Say yes to the vibrant life awaiting you beyond hormonal poverty.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are. JP Morgan, find out how to get out of hormonal poverty and midlife metabolic mayhem by getting to hormone bliss in this episode. Up next.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me as we dive more into healing, hormonal poverty, healing, midlife metabolic mayhem, and getting to hormonal prosperity so that you can get back into your genes off the couch and back into life. Do you wanna do that? Yeah, sounds good. I know you do. So that's why I am recording this second episode in this series of three solo episodes for you. I know I usually have a guess, but I thought we would switch it up a little. 'cause I know many of you have reached out. You're looking for help and guidance. So I wanted to kind of give you the concrete, concrete steps you need to take to get out of hormonal poverty. Not sure if that's you. Definitely take my hor poverty quiz. We'll have a link in the show notes so you can kind of get an idea.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
Hmm, am I in a, could I be in hormonal poverty? Could that be the cause of my symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem? For those of you who aren't familiar with that, that's the 60 or plus symptoms that you can have from hormonal poverty. And hormonal poverty doesn't just mean menopause, it can start in perimenopause. It can be in your twenties and your thirties. You can have it at any age, but just like financial poverty is when you don't have the financial resources to meet your living needs. Hormonal poverty is when you don't have the hormonal resources to meet your body's needs because every cell, every system in the body depends on your hormones, your seven main metabolic hormones to function properly. So yes, it's your female hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, but also your other metabolic drivers, insulin, thyroid, cortisol, and DHEA. Those are the seven hormones we're talking about.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
So last time I talked to you about really what is the problem, so I just wanna rephrase that. We talked about the planned obsolescence of your ovaries starting at age 35 where you're only born with so many eggs and it's your eggs that mainly make your main female hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and half of your testosterone. And you start getting a lower number of eggs. And these eggs in your ovaries are not very high functioning by the time you reach 35. Yep, 35. And it's kind of downhill from there until most women, average age of 51, have no more eggs. And that's called menopause. So that means hormonal production of estrogen, progesterone, and half of your testosterone ceases at that age. So most women in menopause are definitely in hormonal poverty, but it usually starts around the age of 35 if not sooner. So this affects most of us and if we live long enough, it will affect all of us.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
2 million women a year in the United States go into menopause and we have 50 million women in menopause currently in the United States. So we're not talking about a small number of people and we're really underserved by the mainstream medical establishment because of the training and the way it's developed that I participated in for several decades until I knew better. And like Maya Angelou says, when you know better, you do better. So now I know better, so I do better, but I know you're not getting the answers that you want and need in your regular doctor's office. It's not their fault. They're good people and they care. They're just doing what they were trained to do. Like I used to do that. I was trained, but then when my own health suffered and I weighed 243 pounds and had myriad health problems like chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and hair loss, no sex drive, gastritis, depression, anxiety, then I found a new path.
Speaker 1 (04:55):
And that's what I work with women on because I pledge to spend the rest of my life teaching other women about this and guiding them towards health and wholeness if it worked. And I used it and it worked for sure. And that was almost 15 years ago. Now we talked, we had some quotes from some of my podcasts, former podcast guests. I love this one from Jen Simmons. There is no greater perspective than when you lose your health, right? But should we really need to have a bolder drop into our lives and get a cancer diagnosis or an autoimmune diagnosis in order to stop and pay attention and take care of our health? I really hope not. Why? If we listen to the whispers, we don't have to get boulders. 'cause I find that the universe will, when you don't listen to the whispers, will just up its ante and start throwing pebbles, then rocks and then you'll get a bolt dropped into your life.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
And that's the cancer diagnosis or the autoimmune diagnosis or the dementia diagnosis that you really never wanted. So better to pay attention now and do something about it. So what are the steps you need to take to get to hormonal prosperity and bliss? Well, I invited some of you, well all of you actually who are on my email list to join me for the Hormone Bliss challenge that is currently ongoing. We've got a bunch of women in there who are really suffering. I was reading through their worksheet ex homework exercises last night and it really touched my heart to see when people get a private audience with me, how honest and open and vulnerable they are about what they're really dealing with. I know you put lipstick on and you comb your hair and you put a smile on your face and you go out every day and you put your bests face forward and you're trying to show and look like you're really doing okay.
Speaker 1 (06:43):
But I also know that you're suffering inside. Maybe some of you don't even realize how much you're suffering because it happens so slowly over such a long period of time that you don't even realize the things that are wrong that you're not paying attention to anymore. Or the degree to which they're wrong. So you know, how do you boil a frog in hot water? You just turn the heat up slowly and that it doesn't even realize that it's getting boiled and it doesn't have time to jump out because it happened so slowly where if you tried to drop it into boiling water, it would jump out. So if, if I took you from when you were optimally healthy to where you are now and dropped you in there, you'd probably start screaming and go, I can't live this. Alright. But because it's happened so slowly over so many years or maybe even decades, you don't even really realize it.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
So reading the homework assignments, I really saw that the pain that people are in, the things that they've tried that haven't worked, how many doctors they've been to, how many programs they've tried, how all the programs you've tried, all the providers you've been to, all the supplements you've tried, testing you've done, it's exhausting, right? So much time and energy and money wasted and not really a lot of results. And some, a lot of them said in their homework that they wish they had gone to someone who actually had the credentials and experience to help 'em. They were just trying to save money by going to people who are less costly. And the results they got actually showed that these people didn't have the expertise to help them. And it really, it hurts my heart because it's just amazing sometimes that we don't value our health as our number one value and we don't spend our time, money, and attention there and then we suffer.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And then usually when it's too late, then we are willing to stop and spend the time, attention, money, and invest in our health. So I really saw that in the homework and it wore my heart. So we got a lot of people in the hormone list challenge and a lot of them are gonna go on to our midlife metabolism rescue program and get that hands-on help. So that's what I wanted to talk to you about. What are those steps? I take you through those steps in the Hormone Bliss Challenge. This is the first one we've run in over a year and I'm not sure when the next one will be, but I certainly hope you will get on the waiting list. So you can be one of the first to know when we run it. Again, you can go to hormone bliss challenge.com and sign up for the waiting list.
Speaker 1 (09:14):
So you'll be the first to be notified because we do limit membership in that program when we do launch it. So I will teach you the actual steps that you need to go through in that program. A lot of people have significant change just in seven days with the transformative steps that I offer. And I love, I wanna share some quotes from some of my former podcast members. And this one is from Deb Matthew. Eventually people will learn that mistakes are meant for learning, not repeating from Dr. Deb Matthew in North Carolina. One of my good friends who does work similar to what I do. You can see her episode in the podcast, archives, mistakes Over Learning, not repeating. If you've tried something over and over again, you've tried changing your diet, you've tried eliminating gluten and that didn't help. You've tried an X supplement and that didn't help.
Speaker 1 (10:09):
And you've tried one-shot Wonders and you've tried working with So-called health coaches who didn't have the credentials or experience to help you. Don't repeat it. If it doesn't work, just stop. Right? Mistakes are meant for learning, not repeating. And she has this other quote that's a corollary to that you can't make the same mistake twice the second time. It's not a mistake, it's a choice. So, you know, one thing that's helped me in my life is asking myself, if I have repeated a so-called mistake, why did I make that choice to repeat that mistake? And I'm not perfect y'all. I make mistakes all the time, right? None of us is perfect, we're human. So we're living this human journey. And I do believe that it's all about learning how to be a better human, how to be a better us. I do believe we're each unique in the gifts and struggles that we are faced with in this lifetime.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
And I believe that our goal is to work through our struggles so that we can turn them into gifts so that we can show others the way. So I went to medical school to get the biggest toolbox so that I could help women with their health. And then when I got there, did I help a lot of women? Yes, I delivered a lot of babies. I did a lot of pap smears and helped a lot of women. But when my own health suffered and I saw that my patient's health was suffering at midlife and I saw, hmm, this isn't working right. Did I make a mistake going to medical school? No. Did I keep doing what I had been doing that wasn't helping me and helping my patients? No. I stopped and made another choice. And that choice was to find the answers and keep digging.
Speaker 1 (11:47):
And I found the answers of root cause resolution medicine. So I went and got trained and it transformed my health and then helped other women to transform their health. And so this is really the journey I've been on and I want to give a call to you to stop making choices, to make the same mistakes and make different choices for yourself so that you can get different outcomes. And it might start with doing the hormone boost challenge. It might start with reaching out 'cause you wanna consult with me, we're now doing that. Or maybe you, you're like, I know that I have sex hormone poverty or flex hormone poverty as I call it, and coined the phrase in my TEDx talk a couple years ago. And I wanna get out of hormonal poverty and I want a prescription for natural bioidentical medicines from the comfort of my own home via Zoom consulting with a physician and the hormones mailed to my inbox.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
So we're offering a sale that we've never offered before and won't offer again on her hormone club membership. 20% off, we've never done that. Won't do it again, but it's for this month of self-love. So if you know that's you and you're ready to get started, you can go to listen to the ads on this commercial that are running while the sale's running this month and go to her hormone club.com and use that coupon code to enter and join us and start working at least on your sex hormones in the Hormone Bliss Challenge. We help you not only with your sex hormones, but your other main metabolic drivers that I mentioned. So my other podcast guest, Dr. Carrie Jones, said, if you want to reach your goals, you must shrink the size of your butt. And that's not your BUTT in your jeans, that's your BUT.
Speaker 1 (13:34):
That means your excuses. And I know you've got every excuse why your health is not your, not your number one priority. I don't have the time. I don't know the money, I don't have the bandwidth. It's not that important. I'll take care of it when X happens, when I retire, when the kids leave and go to college, right? It's not that big an issue. My partner really doesn't care if we have sexual intimacy. They don't ever mention it anymore. If you're saying that to yourself, you're lying to yourself. So we've all got our butts. Some of our butts are bigger than others, pun intended. But you gotta shrink the size of your butt if you wanna reach your goals. So in order to get from hormonal prosperity and out of midlife metabolic mayhem and get to hormonal prosperity, get your genes off the couch and back into life, shrink the size of your butt.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Join us for the challenge. Join us at our hormone club. Join us for one of my other many programs that are designed to transform your health, transform your life so that you can finally find the answers that you've been seeking. I look for you there and really enjoy working with you personally and helping you to transform your health in your life. Thank you so much for joining me in this show. I will see you next week for another one or maybe in a couple days 'cause I think I gotta be a week or two behind there with the podcast. So we're catching up and please reach out and join me 'cause you need help now, not later. And till next week, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
Speaker 2 (15:11):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.
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► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
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Remember, "The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are." Your journey to hormonal prosperity and bliss begins with this empowering episode.
Is your relationship navigating the choppy waters of midlife? Then you are not alone. In this week's deep dive on "The Hormone Prescription Podcast," we unpack the conversations you need to have but might be dreading. This episode, we tackle erectile dysfunction (ED) head-on with the formidable Dr. Elliot Justin. Let's not skirt around the issue—the man in your life's ED affects both of you deeply. It's essential to address it not just for his well-being, but for yours and your relationship's health.
Dr. Justin strides into the studio with an awe-inspiring list of credentials: urologist, innovative thinker, and couples' counselor extraordinaire, renowned for bringing new perspectives to midlife challenges. Today, he shares the collective wisdom garnered from years at the forefront of men's health and intimate relationships.
Midlife can feel like a carnival of changes and curveballs. But when the elephant in the room is ED, that jovial atmosphere quickly transforms into a solo tightrope walk. Dr. Justin encourages us to transform this walk into a joint tightrope act, one that strengthens your bond and navigates the complexities of progesterone to performance.
About Dr. Elliot Justin:
ELLIOT JUSTIN, MD, FACEP, is the CEO and Founder of FirmTech, the first sex tech company dedicated to improving men’s erectile fitness. He has a background in Emergency Medicine and healthcare technology consulting. Dr. Justin is also a serial healthcare entrepreneur, having founded and sold Pegasus Emergency Group and Swift MD. He has provided guidance to various services, telemedicine, and tech startups. Dr. Justin pursued Slavic Studies at Harvard University and studied medicine at Boston University. Happily married for 35 years, and father of three children, Elliot and Ann live in Montana with three energetic mares and a flock of chickens
So, what can you expect to uncover in this eye-opening chat?
- Insights You Can’t Afford to Ignore: Understand just how much ED can influence your daily life, and how to navigate these changes with grace.
- The Expert’s Plan for Partnership: Dr. Justin’s wealth of knowledge and experience is distilled into practical strategies to face the ED challenge as a team.
- Innovative Approaches to Speak Up and Heal: Discover modern ways to approach ED—no more outdated stigmas, only up-to-date solutions.
- Communication is Key to Connection: Learn the importance of open and honest conversation, and some powerful dialogue strategies for building bridges.
- Success Stories that Give Hope: Real-life experiences and victories will inspire you on your own journey through midlife.
This episode bears all, from tender anecdotes to strategic wisdom, and catapults us into a space where ED isn't just a problem to overcome, but a journey to undertake together.
So gather your wits and your earbuds—this one’s going to shake up the midlife conversation in all the best ways. Tune into "The Hormone Prescription Podcast" now. And remember, don't just listen—subscribe, review, and transform the narrative of midlife with us.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
“What goes up does not have to come down until you're ready.” Dr. Elliot. Justin, stay tuned to find out why your partner's ED is essential to address and how.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into the topic of erectile dysfunction for men. You know, it's kind of interesting that, you know, we women actually get erections of our clitoris. It's really a mini penis and most women aren't aware of that. And if you are not getting erections, that's something that needs to be addressed. I think we dive into this in this episode. In the interview we talk a little bit about this. He calls it something else for women, but for men and women, it really can be a sign of larger health issues, particularly related to your cardiac function, to your heart that can be lethal. So it's something you need to pay attention to. A lot of guys don't talk to their doctors about this issue because they're embarrassed and really, yeah, those days are over.
Speaker 1 (02:02):
You need to start talking to your doctors about your sex. You just do. It's imperative. Your sex is not separate from
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Dr. Justin is not only a physician who's treated many, many patients, but he's a researcher, he's a developer, and he, like me, is always thinking about how we can serve people better? How can we help them live healthier, happier, longer lives? So I think you're gonna love Dr. Justin as much as I love talking to him. Just note, this is an explicit interview. So we do say some words that you might not want your kiddos to hear. So if you don't want them to hear it, you might wanna switch to a different episode and listen to this when you are in privacy. Just a note and I'll tell you a little about Dr. Justin. Then we'll get started. So, Dr. Elliot, Justin is a medical doctor fellow and CEO of the founder of Firm Tech. It's the first sex tech company dedicated to improving men's erectile fist fitness. Most sex companies are just sex toy companies, but this is a tech company to improve erectile fitness. He has a background in emergency med and healthcare technology consulting, and he is a serial healthcare entrepreneur, like I said, always developing things to help people live better lives. And he founded and sold multiple companies and provided guidance to various services. And he's just an all around badass who loves helping people. So I think you're gonna enjoy this episode. Without further ado, please help me welcome Dr. Elliot Justin to the show.
Speaker 3 (04:31):
Thanks. I welcome the opportunity to speak.
Speaker 1 (04:32):
Yeah. I'm really excited to have you on because you and I both know that men are not talking to their doctors about their erectile difficulties, their sexual difficulties, or low libido, all the problems they're having in the bedroom. We know that they, there are women, female partners are aware, and therefore we're really the ones that need the information. So if you're a woman listening, listen up, because really, I always say that erectile dysfunction could save a man's life, and we're gonna talk about that and you're probably scratching your head going, how could that save a man's life? But I wanna start by, I could explain that, know you have a background. Yeah, we'll get to that. You have a background in emergency medicine and healthcare technology. So what got you interested in diving deeper into the subject of men's sexuality and erectile dysfunction and men's sexual health?
Speaker 3 (05:34):
Well, my background, I'm an emergency medicine physician, and since 2015, my, I've been doing medical technology. That's how I got to this as an emergency medicine doctor, I can assure you that's short of a heart attack or a stroke. There are a few emergencies I could concern a man as much as a lip dick. So this is something that's of, of, you know, of vital importance to men, both their self-esteem and their health. I got involved in this. I was actually working on a very complicated catheter to regulate blood pressure after a stroke. A urologist heard what I was doing and said, I see you've done some research with neuromodulation of erectile function, which I had a neuromodulation for. We mean placing electrodes by a nerve and nerves. The paradigm for that is cardiac pacemaker that controls your heart, your heart, even have to even after you're dead.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
My thought was if we can control sexuality, the impact on, on, on an aging population would be enormous. I will say that project failed. I tried to neuromodulation the cous nerve, which everyone's favorite nerve no has heard about. Suppose the nerve that's responsible produce orgasms in men or women. We try it out on, on some, on some sheep. And actually, and on myself. We, we to no effect. I actually don't think that we know how orgasms are produced. It's very complicated. Well, oddly, even more complicated than, than the heart. So this urologist came to me about in 2015 and said, I wanna count the number nocturnal erection, not two, excuse me, came me three years ago, 2020, and said, I wanna count the number of nocturnal erections that are leading indicator of mass cardiovascular health. And I said, really? I know, I know anything about it.
Speaker 3 (07:03):
I, you know, I mean, everyone knows about morning wood. We poke up partners where it, we made, we laugh about it. But a healthy man has three to five nocturnal erections per night. And if that number goes down, it's a sign of an impending heart attack or stroke. So it's not just an association. Blood take, taking a blood high blood pressure is associated with stroke and heart attack. Declined number of nocturnal reactions is actually a leading indicator. It's predictive. So that I thought, gee, that could be enormous as an emergency medicine doctor. But a, that's another vital sign and a vital sign that would be much more compelling to men probably than any other than the other, other vital signs. And we live in this age of healthcare wearables for pretty much everything except for sex. And what do men, frankly, women care more about?
Speaker 3 (07:43):
How many steps they took yesterday or their calorie count or this or this or, or their sexual health. And that's, you know, that's a, that's a rhetoric, rhetoric question for most people. So the numbers are enormous, as you indicated earlier. I mean, 50% of men by age 50 have erectile dysfunction. It's even higher for women. And why is it higher for women? Because postmenopausal women lose their hormonal protection against heart disease. So postmenopausal women have all the same problems that men deal with. Diabetes, high blood pressure, atherosclerosis, auto attacks, et cetera. But premenopausal women take SSR antidepressants and they take hormones all which have, both of which have a significant impact upon their sexual performance as a health. So with d with data, we give people data. We can now transform the quality of, of, of, of health, of healthcare. We can transform how things are managed.
Speaker 3 (08:35):
'Cause There's a cliche, if you can track it, you can hack it. So right now, when it comes to sexual health, doctors just really just have opinions. If I go, I'm 70 years old. If I went to a urologist or a sexologist right now and said, I like where my, where my sexual health is right now. I can perform every day. My wife and I are happy, but I wanna keep it there. What can ha what can you tell me? Or I told him, you know, I'm having, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm struggling getting erections. They can wave an ultrasound over my, over my penis in the office, but I'm not getting aroused. I'm not finding out what I really wanna know, which is what's happening when I'm trying to, trying to perform. So if we can give people data, they can then measure the impact of diseases, medications, diet, self effects, all these claims that are made and see what works for them.
Speaker 1 (09:18):
Yeah. You know, you, you've made so many great points in that. I just wanna go back and highlight a couple of them. Sure. So number one is that most women don't realize that erectile dysfunction is a problem for women. Women, yes. We get erections, ladies, right? 'cause Our clitoris is a small penis and they do get erect with sexual arousal. And that we women just write off that we're not getting aroused. We don't have orgasms as, oh, it's only a pleasure problem. But it's not just like for men, like you said, it's a leading indicator for cardiac disease. It is a leading indicator for cardiac disease and hormonal poverty for you ladies. So I just wanna highlight that because I think that's essential. But now I wanna go back. So this is great. Okay. That you, you really saw that there was a need for this. And you probably recognize men aren't gonna go to the doctor for this. They're not gonna talk about it. And so you started looking at ways that they could actually measure this themselves, right?
Speaker 3 (10:22):
Correct. Well, the doctors are really ignorant about this. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (11:27):
Have you used a coching? Is that the question?
Speaker 3 (11:30):
The question you got. How have you used a coching? You got, and the answer is, and, and a straight doctor's like nine is like never. 'cause They just, whether it's male pride or I don't, you know, straight doctors treat rings like a Suman kryptonite. I don't need that. Gay doctors will be like, yeah, like last night you got a better one. So gay straight doctors aren't open to the really, what should be the, the first line of therapy for man who has dysfunction? Then you have, there's no, there's no sense from these doctors about what is, what is normal sexual behavior. The scoring systems that are used by urologists, by sexologists to evaluate men or women for that matter, are focused on penetrative sex. There's the shim score, the atom, the eye, you're probably familiar with these. They don't reflect what people are actually doing.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Mo most se most, most sex between, between partners over the age of 40. Penetration is just a part of it. It's not the focus, it's not the endpoint. And these studies, like something out of the 1950s or 60, are focused on that as an endpoint. Then urologists think, okay, the first line of therapy is to give a PD five medication with Viagra, Ali, p and d, you know, the, the top ones. But those medications put more blood into the penis, but they don't keep it there. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (12:57):
Urologists are sure are surgery oriented. The pill doesn't work. They wanna put an implants into a penis or, or do some sort of surgical procedure. So venous leak syndrome is something that we can be born with. Very, very few men have it where you get blood, the penis, but it leaks out because the muscles that control the veins to hold the blood of the penis aren't, aren't very strong. Venous leak syndrome is something we all experience as we get older. I don't know how old you are. I'm 70. If I sit on a plane for five or six hours, my socks will start to pinch. My wedding band will, my finger will be hard, hard to take off my finger because I have venous link. 'cause As I get older, the, the muscles and my small veins don't pump blood back to my heart as effectively.
Speaker 3 (13:32):
It's the same thing for the penis. As we get older, our, our our, the smooth muscles weaken in our penis. We get an erection and we lose it. Now, that loss could be accelerated by anxiety or it can be the very cause of anxiety or, or caused by medications. Our research shows the big cocktails are SR antidepressants and anti antihypertensive and or in combination. But the solution is a plumbing solution. The P five medications put more blood in the penis. A properly used Cochran holds the blood in the penis, allowing a man to sustain erection for more, for a more satisfactory time period. Coing should be mainstreamed. I look at vibrators in my lifetime. My mother's vibrator was in a bottom dress drawer of a supply closet. Just thought we'd never find it.
Speaker 3 (14:15):
We found it. You know, I don't, my wife probably owns seven or eight. My daughter takes 'em on dates. They've been mainstreamed. It's no longer considered to be shameful for women to use a vibrator. Most women, I think in the latest report there were 60 women, 60 million women in the United States own more than one. What do men have? Well, they have these monstrous things called strokers. Like somebody could beat something to death with, they don't have anything, but, but they do have rings. But cochlea have been made the wrong way for many years. Can I, may I explain? Yeah. So I want to come up with a ring that could be worn overnight. Well, this cause I want to count data. I want to count these nocturnal erections. I also want to come up with a ring that could be worn comfortably during sex with sensors inside of it in order to record the duration of the firmness.
Speaker 3 (14:56):
Every erection. So we get baseline data on man's sexual health. But ings have been made for 150 years out of tight silicone rings. You have to have an erection before you put them on. 'cause They choke off the blood supply. It's like a NOIs on of penis. I mean, it's like some design by a hangman. I mean, so I thought, let's make coch rings out of a soft elastomer. So these are, I dunno if on camera right now, but these, these, our rings are unique. They're, they're made out of a, out of a soft elastomer. So they're comfortable with us. Silicone makes us adapt to them. I also wanted the ring to be safe, easy on, easy off. Many men are overweight. They, they, they can't, they can't even see their penis. Men who they're, they're anxious. These things need to be made very, very easy for them.
Speaker 3 (15:35):
I would suspect that about half the se heterosexual sex in the world starts when a man is scratching his wife's back. When she takes a bra off at night. Women don't like bras in their back because they're silicone in the back. It's itchy to the skin. I was looking at my wife's bra on the ground and I thought, oh, a hook. Women don't put on bras over their heads. A bras is a ring that opens and closes with a hook. Let's make an erection ring with a hook. So it's easy on, easy off. And then let's also design a ring. But that man can put on when he is flacid. So we can put on discreetly, put on hours before second. It could be worn for hours. So it doesn't block the arterial flow. It only constrains the return. And then let's also try to design a ring that will make a man's pleasure more intense.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
It's not a vibrator. The way we do that with a man is we draw out the. So we tested a ring on a group of men between the ages of 27 and 70. The goal is that if we put the right, we want to increase the ejaculatory phase by 50%. So with this ring, my ejaculatory phase goes from four seconds to seven seconds. That's a significantly more powerful orgasm. I think it's good as a vibrator, but it's, if it's for an instantly more powerful orgasm. But more importantly now, by putting sensors into it, we, we have a ring that's comfortably worn overnight to count nocturnal erections, which are leading the indicator mass. Cardiovascular health and wandering sex. The ring can measure the duration of firmness of erections. So now men can measure the impact of everything from medications, diseases, supplements, diets, relationships. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
So I wanna ask you, because you mentioned this before we started recording, and then we touched a little bit on it just then that vibrators are mainstream for women. I mean, there are all kinds you can get like, what did I see online? It was like a superhero shaped vibrator. And I mean, they got everything. So sex toys for women are really mainstream, but not for men unless they're gay men. Why do you think that is?
Speaker 3 (17:34):
Well, I think there's several reasons. I think women, one, represent a much larger market. Women do women make what? Like 80% of the purchases overall in the United States or, I, I I think that might, I think it might be worldwide women purchase. If you exclude condoms, women purchase the majority of the sex toys. So when people look at numbers in, in the sex toy area, they say, oh, well men buy more. Well, not, that's not that. Once you exclude condoms, then it's, you know, then it's women. I think women are more open-minded rep represent a larger market. I also think the vibrators have been so enormously successful. No one else has figured out something equivalent for, you know, for men. I think for gay men, it's different. They're really, really focused on, on sexual pleasure and much less inhibited. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (18:28):
Okay. You, you made a comment though before we were recording. There's something about you, the way you said it was pretty comical because you said if a woman brings sex toys into the bedroom, so can you share that, that no problem. Yeah, sure. But if a man, then what happens? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:44):
When managers introduce sex toys, the industry surveys say they get used one or two times and then they get thrown out. If a woman introduces a sex toy, it, it gets used for as long and as often as she wants, wants it to be used. But, that also inhibits men from buying sex toys as well too, because they're not gonna get used. I also, I don't think any effort has really been made by the industry to make sex, make conquering sexy. But, but I, but the data shows this, this is a really important 'cause and there's, we, we've had an internal study to this effect. And there's gonna be big paper, two pi papers, spout rings at the American Neurology Association and Congress coming up, coming up in in May one is going, is going to show that if a man wants to have a longer lasting erection, a ring is more, more effective than a PD five medication.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
Well, big pharma's not gonna like that. And the heterosexual doctors have frankly been, they should have caught on this a long time ago. And if we're using rings, they would realize it. But a ring to dil in our internal data will keep, we were looking at D 2 cent data. So no one has studied D two ence. D two s is the time it takes for an erection to go down. We didn't measure time to go up because there's so many variables involved in that. Are you with a partner? Are you masturbating just by watching porn? You're drinking? We are just interested in the time it takes for erection to go down. 'cause That would be a measure of how much blood is held in the penis. So the ring alone, dala fill alone sustains an erection on the average of two, two to three minutes afterwards. The ring is about four and a half minutes long. And a ring plus the film is about five and a half minutes. So that those are men without Ed. So the takeaway message really is for all men would be, if you want to have a longer lasting, harder erection, put a ring on it and take a pill. Also, if you're a man who suffers prematurely and you want to keep thrusting afterwards comfortably, not uncomfortably, put a ring on it, take a pill. Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 1 (20:30):
Speaker 3 (21:41):
I have so angry about this issue because we physicians are doing our patients a horrific disservice. I'm seven years old, I'm a doctor. Doctor should feel comfortable talking to me. I've never had a doctor warn me about the sexual side effects of medication. I've never had a doctor ask me about my marriage. Did not ask those questions. Is stupid. It's insensitive. Now. One reason is there are no boxes to check for those things. There's no way of making money addressing those things that they should. And, and, and it actually applies to urologists as well too. They often don't take complete sex stories with people, but just, Hey, here's a PD five medication. We'll do an ultrasound. You're not working. You need an implant. You're not helping a person that way. I completely agree with you. Studies show that if someone has sex every day, their cortisol levels significantly improve.
Speaker 3 (22:27):
If men were in control study, big study was done. Whales, I think of Scotland. If men have men with equivalent cardiovascular disease at age 70 start having sex twice a week, their risk of cardiac arrest goes down 50% over the next five years. The benefits are enormous. And we should be recommending to people to have more sex. We doctors make recommendations about diet, about exercise, about sleep, and we don't speak about sex. And if we do speak about it, we are embarrassed. We have, believe me, people wanna talk about it. My, my last year of emergency medicine clinical practice, I said, you know what, I'm just going to do what I was trained to do in medical school. I'm gonna add a sexual history to pretty much all my exams. Well, it turned out even people came in with an ankle sprain. Wanna talk about both? A lot of 'em just wanna talk about their sex lives and they don't wanna talk about this spouse who wants to tell you all about it.
Speaker 3 (23:15):
So people, men and women are hungry for this information. And they're, to your point, and I would like to bring it up, Dr. Dustin, we doctors are doing them a tremendous disservice. But I don't know if doctors, mostly doctors are even capable of discussing it because they're kind of, they're relative as, as, as a group. They're relatively pr and conservative in conservative sort. An old, an old fashioned kind of, you know, you know, meaning about sex. Before I got involved in this field, I never, I never went to sexual congresses of urology or society of sexual methodology, which is no one's talk. There's very little talk about pleasure. All the focus is on surgery and pills. And it's not focused on what most con what concerns most people, which is how do I maintain my sexual health if I, if I'm poor sexual health, how, what can I do to reverse it? It's, you know, the, the focus of the doctors is, is on things, I'll be blunt things that make them money. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (24:06):
That's unfortunate. And really sex has been relegated to the closet for everyone. And it's such a vital part of health prevention, of promotion, of vitality, prevention of disease. I would be remiss if I didn't ask about, you mentioned some causes and contributors to erectile dysfunction, sexual dysfunction in men. If we didn't talk about porn, because that's epidemic among men in the United States all over the world, globally, how does that affect, and I know there's some women listening who are like, my husband watches porn. Is that part of the problem? Well,
Speaker 3 (24:42):
I'm, I'm, I'm ambivalent about porn because for a lot of men it is an escape to a world where they, where they, where in fantasy they, they get what they want and the things that they're not getting from their partners, male or female partners. For some people porn is beneficial. And so are we gonna ban porn because it's also harmful to some people. I wish that people could discuss porn with their partners. That's really where the where it comes in porn becomes. It can become a window into finding out what someone else's fantasies are. And most people, too many people don't have sex regularly. They, so before I talk about, talk about porn, because I'm, I I'm gonna get, I'll get you the mail, the major male complaint about porn in a moment. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
I mean, I, it it, I bring this up with guys at the gym or women, women too, which is like, Hey, you these, because they know what, they know what I'm doing. You, you let me know your love life is not satisfactory. How many hours do you spend working out a week? It'd be like, oh, 10, 14 hours. And I'll say, if you could just take two hours of that away and put that into your relationship, and they look at me like, men and women look at me like I'm nuts. Well, it's that, that that can't be done. I said, yeah, it can be done and should be done with planning. You know, a good love making is no more spontaneous than a good exercise session or, or a great meal meal. I don't just up a great meal
Speaker 1 (25:57):
Meal or a great vacation. I
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Don't, I don't go there, I don't, I don't know the refrigerator and say, Hey, what, what are the leftovers? Let's have leftovers again,
Speaker 1 (26:15):
That analogy. But I love it. It's great. It's so true. You know, and, and I recently, I've really been diving the past six or so months into sacred sexuality and womb wisdom and the whole, you know, three types of orgasms or more, actually five, that women can have. And in diving into this, I've read a lot where the biggest problem for most women regarding sex and why they don't wanna have it, is because their men don't know how to properly work the machinery, how to please them, the different types of orgasms, what's required to get their motors going. And for them to become satisfied and actually to make love. They know how to wham bam, thank you man, kind of ma'am have sex, but they don't know how to make love. And so I'm wondering, where do guys supposed to learn this? Where
Speaker 3 (27:06):
Are women supposed to learn? I mean, you, you, because men have all the same complaints about women, men my age and men younger. It's like, oh, she's all, you know, she's, she, she thinks she tugs on my, my penis. Like, like, like, like an arm a machine or, you know, so people, this, this issue cuts both ways. Okay? And this is where people, people need to, people need to, my opinion, they, they need to, to communicate better about what they want. I mean, I, I'll get back to, I'll get back to, to my food analogy. Mm-Hmm. My wife is in the room right now. I don't know what she wants for dinner. And I could eat, you know, I, you know, so I, if, if I want, if I want to, if I wanna really make her happy with, for dinner tonight, I should explore what her, her ideas are.
Speaker 3 (27:45):
I think when it comes to sex, people kind of settle into both parties. I go down on her, she comes and then I penetrate her. That's kind of pretty, pretty standard and pretty boring sex that goes, that goes on for most people. This, they would, they would communicate. And that's what, that's, that's where I think porn can be valuable. People watch, if people explore porn together, they will expl expand their vocabulary for love, you know, for, you know, for love making. Also, there are a lot of guys for porn, porn is an outlet for them. The way shopping is for women and people like to say that, that porn built the web, but porn might have built the web originally. But shopping sustains the web, women do 85 to 90% of shopping online. Women have done studies showing that women get the same dopamine hits in their brain that men do from shopping, that men do from Washington porn. So gone to the point of Congress as people like to blame the other sex, but they need to, you know, examine what they're doing. And then they, then they need, they, they need to communicate better about what, about what their mutual needs are and be more. Right. Not saying nothing.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
That's fascinating information about shopping. I didn't know that's the case. So you're kind of equating the two.
Speaker 3 (28:51):
If women think it's ridiculous that a man wants to look at eight, eight bodies online, a guy might also think it's ridiculous that the woman needs to look at 25 shoes online. It's, it's, it's
Speaker 3 (29:37):
So with data, about how long they last, how firm they can get, we have, we're starting to get some data about women with the, the, the trial protocol. We can, they, people can then say, you know what? My doctor prescribed 300 milligrams of whatever antidepressant, but I noticed that around 150 milligrams my erection starts to soften or I can't. So people, I mean of course we, we, we recommend to everyone if they don't make changes, but with their medications before, let's discuss it with healthcare providers. But I know people are doing it because the healthcare providers don't know about them, don't know about these issues and don't prioritize. You know, they, as you said, you said earlier, the least priority for most doctors is someone's sexual performance. But if someone's taking Sri SRI antidepressant and lisinopril for their blood pressure and they can't get it up, but they can't, you're not making, you're not helping, you're not helping the depressions very much and you're not helping their their partner either.
Speaker 1 (30:29):
Right? Sex is a natural antidepressant. So
Speaker 3 (31:30):
That's a great question. Hopefully you have some background information on the guy, because someone, it depends upon the person's age, but if, if it's, if it's a man over 45 or 50 it's the, the likelihood of that person having a physiological problem increases. So you really need to know what someone's blood pressure is, what their blood sugar, hemoglobin A1C is and the blood sugar, what their testosterone level is. There are, there are tests and then there are medications. I, you know, with, I've been impressed with the work that I've done over the last year, speaking to our patients, how many men could be helped just by, just in their medications and 'cause they're often taking multiple medications that that, that often a combination with alcohol are, are affecting their sexual performance. So you need to find out about the base, these, these baseline health factors.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Another issue is these are all hard, such such just discussed, which is if a man can get it up with pornography and if a man is having erections at night when he's sleeping, he should be able to get up with his partner. And if he's not getting up with, with his partner, there's some issue in the relationship more, far more likely not some anxiety producing issue that's built up over the over built up over the years that need that, that needs to be addressed. Addressed. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (33:05):
Is the way for her to approach it with him to maybe say, honey, I have some concerns I'd like to talk to you about. Can we set aside some time this weekend and then secure a time and then just couch it as a health concern and say, you know, I've noticed a, B, C when we are making love and I'm concerned because I heard Dr. Justin talking on
Speaker 3 (33:52):
Yeah, definitely.
Speaker 1 (33:53):
It's non-threatening. Uhhuh
Speaker 3 (33:55):
Absolutely. And it does have to be approached as a partner issue. I mean, men often need the support of their partners just to comply with their medicines. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (34:36):
The issue is probably is partnership related at the other extreme, the other extreme, and this happens, we, we, if a man has two or less nocturnal erections or those not, and those erections are, are either weak or not, they just don't occur that partner is getting risk fatigue or jaw fatigue for nothing. 'cause It ain't gonna happen. That man has a significant erectile problem that man needs to, to your point, that man needs to see a urologist and a cardiologist because he has a cardiovascular, cardio urological problem of, of profound significance and he needs help. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (35:30):
Issue. Right. And so the device that you developed actually they can wear overnight and it gives data in the privacy of their own home. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (35:39):
That's correct. It can be one during sex as well too.
Speaker 1 (35:41):
Okay. And so how often do they have to use it to get enough data for how long a week takes a month? It
Speaker 3 (35:48):
Takes about up to about four uses for the sensors to calibrate the, to the individual's body. 'cause People's, you know, penises vary and, and how firm they get, they vary and, and you know, just variability. Variability in how long, how, how long people last. So I use it the way I use blood pressure. I take my blood pressure once a week. I take my, I measure my sexual health once a week. Oh,
Speaker 1 (36:10):
Okay. And then you kind of can follow it over time.
Speaker 3 (36:13):
Yeah, we have, we have men who use it every day and we have men who use it frequently. I mean it's been really valuable. There's a whole other issue here too, which can discuss prostate disease, which is, is another issue that prostate disease can, erectile dysfunction can mean a warning sign of prostate disease. So if a man Oh mm-Hmm
Speaker 1 (36:27):
Speaker 3 (36:28):
Talk that, I'm sorry, sorry I It's okay. So Right, if a man develops is starting to develop erectile dysfunction that man does need, you know, especially an older man, not, you know, old man over the age of 45, 50, that man needs, needs a a ur urology exam as well too.
Speaker 1 (36:42):
And men should be getting a rectal prostate exam annually. Correct.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
Annually. At least every two, every every two or three years. And if there's a family history, it should, it might need to be done more frequently. Right. I mean the PSA test remains controversial. I think it's a good idea. There might be some false positives, but, you know, why take a chance?
Speaker 1 (37:00):
Well what's the current age at which they should be getting that and is it annual?
Speaker 3 (37:03):
It's annual, I think it's 55. I I have to look. The indications change so frequently I have to look it up.
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Same for women
Speaker 3 (37:41):
Talk about that. 'cause We've had two men who had significantly declining nocturnal erections who went to their doctors and, and, and went to cardiology, actually got a cardiology workup and they, and they got catheterized and they got treated. They would've, they could've gone to have a heart, have a heart attack or something more, more disastrous. So the data, the data's fun, but the data's also really, really valuable. Yes.
Speaker 1 (38:01):
Very valuable when it comes to health. So ladies, don't ignore it. If your partner is suffering with any of these conditions, take steps to assess what's going on and get it addressed. Because it could be a sign of deeper health issues that could be life threatening, number one. But number two, a great sex life is really an important part of your, not only your physical vitality, but your emotional wellness and your connection to your partner and to the world at large. So thank you so much Dr. Justin for coming on and sharing this wonderful information. You've got some information to share with everyone about where they can find out more about you. We'll have the links in the show notes, they can find out more about your device and about how you are helping men.
Speaker 3 (38:54):
Yeah. If I could just add just one other thing, Dr. Dunston, which is that Sure. We're working, we're working on similar technology for women. So we've retested on, on, on, on 38 women and it's, it's our goal by early 25 2025 to deliver data for women that will also allow them to hack their sex, their sexual health in order to have a long, a longer lifetime of, of love making.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Okay. You gotta give us a sneak peek in like one to two minutes
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Uhhuh we are measuring, it's all about blood flow in men and women. So just as, as the male device firmness is a marker of blood flow in a female device. I don't call it so much erection, but I call it arousal. We are measuring blood flow in the CLS overnight. Women have nocturnal chlor arousal and we are measuring that as a leading indicator of their cardiovascular and cardiometabolic health. And in one during sex, we are measuring their chlor arousal as well. So women can then measure the impact of diseases, diets, supplements, creams, all the, all, all things that that which claims are made for, for their sexual health and see what works best for them.
Speaker 1 (39:54):
That's amazing. Thank you for that. Do keep me updated on that
Speaker 3 (40:01):
Sure. You can find us at my firm tech M-Y-F-I-R-M-T-E-C h.com and you can find me directly at elliot E-L-L-I-O t@myfirmtech.com. And thank you much so much, doc Dustin, for this opportunity.
Speaker 1 (40:15):
Yeah, thank you so much for coming on. I think this has been such valuable information. We will have that link in the show notes and you can go there to click and find out more and stay updated. I'm gonna stay updated on what's coming down the line for women and I'll certainly let you know. So thank you again for joining us for another episode of the Hormone Prescription. I know you are inspired to create a better sex life for yourself and your partner for all its wellness and vitality benefits. I look forward to hearing from you on social media more about this. Have a great week and until next week, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
Speaker 2 (40:55):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Learn more about Dr. Justin's works on erectile fitness - CLICK HERE.
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Welcome back to another exciting episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Today, your favorite host, Dr. Kyrin Dunston, delves into a topic that's a game-changer - "Healing Hormonal Poverty - Finding Your Way Out of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem."
Ever heard of 'Hormonal Poverty'? You might be wondering, what on earth is that? Well, let's draw a parallel here. You know financial poverty, right? It's when you lack the resources to meet your daily needs. Similarly, when your body lacks the hormonal resources to meet its needs, you're in a state of Hormonal Poverty.
Every cell, every system in your body relies on these hormonal messengers for information on how to function. And when these hormones are out of sync, you're not just battling sluggishness or weight gain, you're at risk of serious health issues like dementia, Alzheimer's, breast cancer, osteoporosis, and heart disease. Scary, isn't it? But hey, don't panic! Dr. Dunston is here to guide us through this hormonal maze.
What's the opposite of Hormonal Poverty? It's Hormonal Prosperity! It's that blissful state where your hormones are in harmony, leading to an energetic, vibrant, and healthy you. Imagine feeling sexy, confident, and revitalized again... That's the power of Hormonal Prosperity!
In this episode, Dr. Dunston shares her personal journey from hormonal poverty to prosperity. She lost 100 lbs by mastering her hormones and she's on a mission to empower you with the knowledge and tools to do the same.
Dr. Dunston sheds light on the seven main metabolic hormones that are crucial for our survival and vitality. Understanding these hormones is your first step towards healing hormonal poverty.
This episode isn't just informative, it's transformative! It's time to take control of your health, ladies. Let's bid adieu to midlife metabolic mayhem and embrace hormonal prosperity!
Ready for this journey of healing and transformation? Tune in now to this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Let's heal hormonal poverty together and step into a life of vibrant health and hormonal prosperity!
Remember, you're not alone in this journey. We're all in this together, learning, growing, and supporting each other. So, let's dive in and start healing!
Dr. Kyrin (00:08):
This is the episode for January 25th, healing Hormonal Poverty, finding Your Way Out of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem. Here we go. Oh, let's see a teaser. Here we go. “There is no greater perspective than when you lose your health.” Dr. Jen Simmons. Stay tuned to find Your Way out of Hormonal Poverty and Midlife Metabolic Mayhem. And this is the intro and episode. Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with me. Dr. Kyrin, thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into talking about healing hormonal poverty and finding your way out of midlife metabolic mayhem. Hopefully no need for an introduction, but if this is your first time listening to me, I'll, I'll give a little intro on myself if you're not familiar. I'm Dr. Kyrin Dunston, the 30 years veteran board certified OB GYN Fellowship, trained in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine.
Dr. Kyrin (01:18):
I'm also shamanically trained in the UTI Mesa tradition from Peru. I'm also a life certified life coach and a bunch of other things because I've spent my life helping women heal. And I learned by doing, I've learned by healing my own body, mind, spirit, soul, so that I can show the way to women like you. Maybe you're over 40 at this point, maybe you're not. Wherever you are on the life age spectrum, there's something here that can help you. And what we're gonna talk about today is healing. Hormonal poverty. Hormonal poverty. You say, what's that? Good question. Well, you're familiar with financial poverty. When you don't have enough money to meet your living expenses, you're considered to be in financial poverty. Well, when you don't have enough hormonal prosperity to meet your body's needs, you're living in hormonal poverty. All cells, all systems in your body depend on hormones which are chemical messengers in your body for information. They need these hormones for information on how to function. Your nervous system gives a lot of information on how to function, but not when it comes to your metabolism. That's the purvey of your hormones. They're what regulate your metabolism. And every woman knows what your metabolism is. It's how your body takes calories or energy in and converts it into,
Dr. Kyrin (02:58):
Into energy. And you know, when you don't turn calories from food or fat into energy, you are tired and you gain weight. So those are the two hallmark symptoms of a low metabolism and they might be your two biggest symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. What's midlife metabolic mayhem? You say? Great question. It's the 60 or so plus symptoms that women experience sometimes earlier than 40, but definitely over 40. By the time we are 50, about 60 to 70% of us are overweight or obese and we're tired. But we also have myriad other symptoms. We can have brain fog, memory lapses, depression, or dysthymia not feeling like ourselves, lack of lust and joy for life. We can have somatic symptoms in our gastrointestinal tract, right? Our digestion can go wonky. We don't poop properly When we eat something, it might upset your stomach and we have no idea why.
Dr. Kyrin (04:07):
Maybe we're having migraine headaches or muscular tension headaches and we don't know why. Maybe we've developed arthritis aches and pains, myalgias. Every system in the body is affected and there are over 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. And this is due to our programmed obsolescence of our hormones. Yep. We ladies are programmed for our ovaries to go offline. Starting about the age of 35. They start declining and then by the time we're 51, the majority of us will go into what's called menopause. So you could be in the perimenopause, pre menopause, whatever you call it. What really matters is how much hormone do you have? We're talking estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Those are the three main sex hormones for women. Yep. We women have testosterone too. And it's super important, just like men have all those three hormones too. They just have more testosterone and we have more estrogen, but they're essential for us to function properly.
Dr. Kyrin (05:13):
And when we don't have them, we're living in a state of hormonal poverty. And midlife metabolic mayhem can ensue, but not only that disease can ensue. So rates of dementia and Alzheimer's are increased in women in hormonal poverty, breast cancer, osteoporosis, cardiac heart disease, and heart attack. The number one killer of women over 50. So it's essential to identify if you're in hormonal poverty with testing, we test don't guess. And to get out of hormonal poverty, you might not need a prescription. Right? That's why I do what I do because you need education to figure out, well, what do I need to look for? Because unfortunately, I was just a regular board certified OB GYN for many years, and hormonal testing is not standard of care and it's considered not a viable option in mainstream medicine. Don't believe me. Go ask your doctor to test your hormones.
Dr. Kyrin (06:18):
Now, if they do, they're probably gonna do a blood test, which is not the right way to test hormones. And I'm gonna tell you why in my upcoming course, the Hormone Bliss Challenge. I'm gonna tell you that and a lot of other things that you need to know about the steps to get out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity because it's more than I can tell you in one short podcast. So it'll be a quick 70 day challenge. We'll meet for 30, 30 minutes each day. We'll be live on Zoom. You can meet with me, ask me questions directly and interact with the other participants. People love this course. And you will then have the ABC's one, two threes of, yeah, Dr. Karen, you can identify yeah, I'm in mid midlife metabolic mayhem. Yeah. I'm having these pre diseases or diseases are on my way to having them.
Dr. Kyrin (07:14):
Yeah. I don't wanna have my longevity cut short because of hormonal poverty. Show me the way and I'm gonna show you the way and the exact steps that I took and the exact steps that thousands of women I've worked with have taken to get out of hormonal poverty in the Hormone Blis challenge. And it starts on February 8th, right before Valentine's. So Valentine's February is the month of self-love. I say 2024 is the year of self-love. I've got another episode in the podcast coming up for you in a couple weeks about what self-love means and looks like in 2024. 'cause It's not your self-love of 2020 to 2023. It's a whole different ballpark of lava. Don't know what lava is. Come join me for that episode and I will tell you it's a different way of living in the world. So for this month of love, you're gonna love yourself.
Dr. Kyrin (08:13):
Taking action and joining me for the challenge will be the first step. So we're gonna help you identify if you're in midlife metabolic mayhem and the exact steps to get out, why the blood testing your Dr. May offer you is not correct and what is the right testing to get. And because you wanna test, don't guess. And if you do need treatment, there are two things you need. So why do I call this podcast The hormone prescription? I call it that because there are two prescriptions you need for hormonal prosperity. One might be a written prescription for estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. Don't forget that one. It's essential.
Dr. Kyrin (08:55):
That's one prescription. The other prescription is the life prescription. And we talk a lot about that on the podcast here. It's your diet, it's your exercise, it's your mental diet, emotional diet, what you're taking in externally. Supplements you might be taking or not taking, activities you might participate in or not participating in, sex you might be participating with or not participating with. It's everything else in your life besides the first prescription. So the podcast is the hormone prescription and it's about all of that. So I'm gonna be teaching you about the exact steps you need to get a prescription if you need one, and the exact steps you need to get the life prescription that you need to get out of hormonal poverty and get into hormonal prosperity. So one of my former guests, Dr. Jen Simmons on the podcast, talked about women's health and breast health and hormones, and she had some great quotes.
Dr. Kyrin (09:54):
I shared one in the teaser. There is no greater perspective than when you lose your health. If you think, oh, I'm gonna deal with this next year. Oh, when I retire, I'm gonna deal with this. Oh, it's not that bad. Oh, I'm just gonna go to my HMO doctor to deal with this. You're sorely mistaken. There really is no greater perspective than when you lose your health. I recently came back from a year and a half trip traveling across the globe to Africa, the Middle East, Europe, and everywhere I went, people asked me what I did. And I talked to them about, I help women get out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity. And of course,
Dr. Kyrin (10:48):
She immediately said, oh my gosh, my periods have been crazy. They're super painful. They're very irregular. I have no sex drive. She whispers to me, which is very common because most women don't talk to their doctors about that. But she felt comfortable. I get these headaches, my hair is falling out, I can't remember anything. And my doctor told me, you must be depressed. And he gave me an antidepressant. Can you relate to that? She said, I'm not depressed. Why did he gimme an antidepressant? This is happening globally, y'all. It's not just in America. We're being gaslit and told that we don't have the hormonal poverty that we have. And that's just 'cause mainstream medicine doesn't recognize it. That's a whole other topic we'll get into in the Hormone bliss challenge. And so she needs help. So she's like, can I, can you help me?
Dr. Kyrin (11:39):
And yes, I help women globally. You can be anywhere in the world and participate in this seven day challenge. And in my coaching programs, we help you get the testing you need, the prescriptions that you need if you need them and the life prescriptions that you need so you're not alone. All right, I got to jump off. So yes, there's no greater perspective than when you lose your health. She's losing her health. Sometimes people wait when it's just symptomatic until they get a breast cancer diagnosis or they get an Alzheimer's diagnosis and then it's kind of too late. So you need to do something sooner rather than later. Dr. Jen also shared this quote, the only person who can heal you is you, your doctor, is don't wait for your doctor to go get fellowship training and do all the training that I've done to get this information until wake up to the truth.
Dr. Kyrin (12:32):
You'll be well gone from this planet if you wait that long. 'cause It takes sometimes 30 years for cutting edge science to find its way into mainstream medicine. And you don't have that kind of time. So you can learn from
Dr. Kyrin (13:35):
A friend of mine said this to me yesterday and I just loved it. She said she saw a meme online that said, most people are waiting and looking for the light at the end of the tunnel end. But in the meantime, I'm gonna light this up,
► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.
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Ready to learn the secret to staying out of the nursing home and living your best life at midlife? It's easier than you think, and our guest expert on today's episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is here to tell you how!
We were thrilled to have Amy Wilson, a Board Certified Geriatric Pharmacist, certified fitness professional, and certified nutrition coach on the show to share her wisdom, insights, and real-life tips for conquering midlife challenges. She is dedicated to helping people optimize their health and wellness in midlife, which can be the key to staying active and independent as we age.
In this episode, we dive deep into navigating individual barriers while navigating through the journey of midlife health and wellness. Amy shares her proven techniques for finding the balance we all crave in midlife.
Amy passionately reveals her top strategies for successful weight loss, regaining good health, and keeping yourself out of the nursing home, emphasizing that it all starts with one important factor: "Optimizing your starting line at midlife."
Here are some of the powerful takeaways from today's episode:
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Importance of Individualized Approach: Amy stresses the importance of understanding that every person is unique and requires a tailored approach to their fitness, nutrition, and self-care journey.
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Nutrition & Fitness Balance: Exploiting simple everyday dietary changes and incorporating regular exercise routines can make a massive impact on the quality of life.
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Mindfulness & Emotional Well-being: In addition to maintaining physical health, Amy emphasizes the importance of nurturing mental and emotional wellbeing. This includes staying connected with friends, family, and hobbies that bring joy to our lives.
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Learning from Real-Life Stories & Scenarios: Amy shares inspiring stories of her clients who have successfully overcome midlife challenges, regained their health, and lived a happier, more fulfilling life. These tales will not only resonate with you but also motivate you to take the first step towards a vibrant life.
Grab a cup of tea or your favorite beverage, find a comfortable spot, and soak up everything Amy has to offer in this episode. You'll come away feeling inspired and ready to embrace a healthy, balanced, and fabulous midlife!
Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review The Hormone Prescription Podcast, and as always, we're grateful for your support. See you on the next episode!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today I do what others won't. So tomorrow I can do what others can't. Amy Wilson, what do you need to do today so that you can do the things that you wanna do tomorrow? Stay tuned and find out.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into talking about staying out of the nursing home. I know that's not a topic that you might pick to listen to or talk about, but you know what? If you don't pay attention to the things that are gonna keep you out of the nursing home now, then 5, 10, 20, 30 years down the line, you might end up there. And it's really a place of last resort that you don't want to end up in because people don't go there to get better and go home. They go there when the end of the line is in view and there's nothing else that can be done from them. And these days you're gonna hear from Amy. She's gonna talk to you about how 40 and 50 and younger year olds are ending up in nursing homes for things that are fully preventable and treatable if they had done the things that we're gonna talk about today.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
Do I have your attention now? Yes, I think so. So she's gonna talk to you about doing the things that others won't do. For whatever reason, they don't want to, they don't think it's necessary. They don't think they have a problem. They think it's not gonna happen to me for whatever reason. They're not doing the things. What are the things you need to do so that tomorrow you can do what others can't? Meaning you won't end up in a nursing home, you'll be able to travel the world, go dancing, do all the things that you love to do that I love to do, right? You wanna stay healthy, vital, alive, having fun and enjoying your life. And there's some things that you need to pay attention to that you might not be paying attention to. So we're gonna dive into that. We're gonna talk about your purpose.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
We're gonna talk about why you need to eat more
Speaker 3 (03:46):
Thank you for having me. I'm I've, this is my favorite kind of a conversation to have.
Speaker 1 (03:50):
Yes, mine too. Anything that helps women, particularly women over 40, get the health that they're wanting and improve their lives is right up my alley. And I love the conversation we started having just before we hit record. When I said kind of what is your main differential that you offer women and share what you said. 'cause I think it's really powerful
Speaker 3 (04:15):
Main difference is that I am not skinny. I think chasing skinny is something that we need to stop. And I know that may sound crazy because we live in a society where we think that being skinny means happiness. Being skinny means being successful, but that's not the case. What I am hoping to help people, especially women over 40, is to realize that skinny is not the end all be all. What we need to be chasing is health. What we need to be chasing is strength and balance. I'm a board certified geriatric pharmacist. I work in nursing homes. That is my, I would say my main goal is to make sure that you don't end up in one of those. Where are you gonna be in 20, 30, 40 years if you're chasing skinny? More than likely, it's very possible you may end up in one of those because of a bone fracture, because of osteoporosis. But if you start looking at health and healing from the inside out and start looking at strength and balance, then the sky's the limit. And hopefully your future self is saying, thank you very much for putting me in this amazing position where I can still live my life independently.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
Amen to that. Yeah, I loved you, keeping you out of my nursing home. That's it. And really, you know, we don't spend our lives thinking about that. We're very mortality-phobic in the Western culture where we don't talk about death. We actually act like it's something that's not gonna happen to us. And we don't like to have end of life discussions and we don't like to have nursing home discussions. But a large majority of us are gonna end up there. And a lot of us are gonna end up there for exactly the reasons that you've said because we've lost bone mass, which means that we've most likely lost muscle mass. And if we're chasing skinny our whole lives, we're probably not helping our bones. We're probably not helping our muscle mass. It's notorious that we don't get adequate protein intake. And so we're actually buying a ticket to the nursing home and I don't wanna be there. I know most of you don't wanna be there. So I think it's time we have a real discussion and get honest and have a mortality discussion and really start talking about what we're talking about when we talk about health for women over 40. It's not only our longevity, but it's our vitality span. So how did you, as a geriatric pharmacist, Amy, become interested in this? What makes you so passionate about it?
Speaker 3 (06:46):
Well, it's kind of like my story starts when I was 16 years old and started yo-yo dieting and then went to pharmacy school and became a fitness instructor while I was going through pharmacy school. So I've been in the fitness and nutrition realm as well as the pharmacy realm for quite a while. But there was a huge disconnect because of wanting to be skinny, wanting to help clients lose X amount of weight, and then seeing them turn around and put it back on again. Or seeing them just feeling frustrated that their bodies weren't doing what they wanted to do. Or especially when you get 40, 45, 50, everything that you used to do stopped working. Well guess what? Same here. That happened to me. And you know, with hormones, things change. And what happened was, honestly, all the yo-yo dieting I did for years decreased in muscle mass, affected my metabolism, affected my hormones, and I had to do something that was different. And while I was starting researching and looking at different programs for me to try, I was also seeing this increase in younger patients coming into my nursing homes. And by younger I mean forties and fifties,
Speaker 1 (08:02):
Really
Speaker 3 (08:03):
That shouldn't be happening. It shouldn't be. And 10 years ago it was all eighties, nineties and one hundred. It's, it's, you know, the end of life. It's no longer live by yourself. Well now we're no longer can live by yourself In forties and fifties. We are getting lifestyle diseases of diabetes, hypertension, strokes, certain cancers that are caused by lifestyle. And that is scary and it's also preventable. And so I saw this as, you know, not only can I help perimenopause and menopausal women, but I have to also educate on what we're doing and what we're not doing when we eat ultra processed foods, what we're causing disease states. And then also having women understand that we have to stop chasing skinny and we need to start focusing on the health aspect. We need to start focusing on the strength aspect because that is gonna decrease our chronic inflammation that is gonna help our hormones, that is going to help us be independent for years down the line.
Speaker 3 (09:13):
And that's, I think that's what everybody wants. Nobody thinks about, oh, I'm gonna end up in a nursing home. Nobody thinks that I'm gonna be in assisted living. We all see ourselves going until our last breath. But we don't realize that a lot of things that we do, we set ourselves up for. You don't go to the doctor's office and it's like, oh by the way, you just got diabetes or you just got blood pressure, high blood pressure that has been coming for years. Your body's been telling you and sending you signs. We just choose to ignore it because we think we're busy or it has to do with stress or it's, you know, I have this going on so that's why I'm not sleeping. When we start listening to those signals that our body is sending us, we can start kind of dialing back what we need to do. And when I saw this big disconnect and when I saw the increase in my nursing homes, then putting two and two together with what was going on with me, it was kind of like this trifecta. I'm a fitness instructor, I'm a nutrition coach, I'm a pharmacist. Okay, let's put all these things together and help people move forward, help people learn how to balance, help people learn to get strength and to eat and quit starving so that their future self can thank them.
Speaker 1 (10:23):
Yes. And I'm just wondering, as you're working in these facilities and you're seeing younger women come in, what kind of the patterns that you were noticing that were different in their lifestyle, in their genetic background, in their history? Were you noticing particular patterns that you found that you could work with them on? Or was it kind of too late for them? Or what was the situation there?
Speaker 3 (10:53):
Fortunately, once you're in the nursing home, it is too late. It is just the way our healthcare system is. We are not a preventative healthcare system. But I'll look at their history and physical and I'll look at their discharge summary and I will look at what's been going on in their lives. And a lot of it is uncontrolled type two diabetes started as pre-diabetes to type two diabetes. A lot of it's being sedentary, not moving and doing, you know, they don't say in the history and physical what they've been eating, but you can kind of summarize by what's going on. It's been ultra processed food, it's been fast food, it's, they haven't been walking or working out. They've lived a sedentary lifestyle causing chronic inflammation. And then something happens where they can no longer take care of themselves. And now they're in a facility that is pretty much just taking care of you. It's not there to help you get better, get stronger to go back out in the community. Rehab will do that, but they can only do so much with the time that they're allowed. And a lot of it's not changing the behavior, it's not changing the food that they're eating or putting them on a certain exercise program. It's just to get them good enough so that they can go home.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Right. And you know, isn't it interesting? Well, it's sad actually that in 2024 we don't have dietary history as part of the intake, even though we know the extreme impact that diet has on life. But like you say, people are going there to be taken care of, they're not going there to get better. So I love it you took that and you said, oh no, this can't be, we need to keep people out of the nursing home. What do we need to do? So, and I'm just curious, as a certified nutrition coach, what was your evolution? Did, were you a pharmacist first and then became a nutrition coach and then fitness trainer? What was the evolution for you of your path?
Speaker 3 (12:59):
So I started teaching when I was 17, teaching fitness classes. So back in the days of leg warmers, big hair, all that kind of high, low and high, low gene Fonda days. And I am a diagnosed exercise addict. I used to try to out-train a bad diet, but in the eighties we didn't know it was a bad diet. In the eighties everything was low fat, it was all replaced with sugar, which we didn't realize at that time was gonna set us up for our diabetes journey. And I didn't even think about it. I would just feel guilty for eating something. I would go work out and then I would also personal train and I would personal train and work out with my clients. I blew my back out and it wasn't a good thing. I blew it out. I had to have surgery.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
You think that would've taught my lesson, but it didn't. And I was right back after surgery doing everything I was doing before, because we really have come a long way in nutrition in the last five to 10 years. Back then it was still how much you work out, how little you eat. And that was the key to keeping your weight off. We now know that doesn't work. We now know there's, there's reasons why it doesn't work. So in my thirties, I was looking for different nutrition programs. 'cause As a pharmacist, as a fitness coach, people come up to you and ask all the time about diet, about nutrition, about supplements. So I have several certifications under my belt, but they were still calories and calories out. What you and how much you work out coming into my forties perimenopause hits and the inches are crazy.
Speaker 3 (14:36):
And I'm like, wait a minute, wait a minute. I'm teaching all the time. I'm working out. I'm not eating. I tried keto, I tried the latest and greatest because I am just like everybody who's listening to this podcast, I want a fix. I want it quick and I want it now. And I will try anything that looks like it might work. We're, none of us are immune to that. We all see it, we all see the shiny object. We're like, oh, maybe this will help me. And after trying all those and it would work for a hot minute and then not, it was watching a couple other friends who were instructors do a program that was called The Fast Weight of Fat Loss. And I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna try it. I threw a Hail Mary pass, tried it, didn't think it would work, it did.
Speaker 3 (15:18):
It was taking science, it was eating for what my body needed and which was a lot more than I thought. And was also really focusing on bloating that muscle. And then once I did that, it was amazing at what, how my body responded. I was pre-diabetic because thanks dad, that came through my genetics. But it was also pre-diabetes coming with the decrease in estrogen. My cholesterol was higher, my thyroid wasn't doing well. And then when I started eating and I started working out less lifting, all of those things started just to fall in place. A1C went down, my thyroid went back to normal, cholesterol was back. So it was kind of crazy. And I knew for me that if I was this way, there were a lot of other women that needed help, who were throwing their hands up in the air and saying, this is not fair.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
Why is this happening to me? And trying everything out there only to get frustrated. And when I switched in my head with health and strength and stopped chasing skinny, it was the light bulb. It was, okay, this is what we are meant to be. This is how we're supposed to be treating our bodies. Our bodies are one big chemical reaction and we need to be giving it the right fuel, the right chemicals in order for it to do its thing. Instead of relying on the latest, greatest shake or packets of food, we need to understand that it's science. There are reasons why we need to eat certain foods. There are reasons why ultra processed foods do not help us. And I think honestly, when I started putting two to two together and getting rid of that disconnect of what food does to your body and understanding what food can do, that was the aha moment. And I get that with all my clients now too. It's like when they get that aha moment and realize that, oh wait, there really is a correlation to what I put in my body and how I feel and how I'm sleeping and how much energy I have and losing inflammation. And when you get that, you don't wanna let go of it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
And you know, I think it's so important to talk about what food is. I think most people are trained to think about food in terms of calories. It's just caloric energy when it's so much more. It's information. There's the energy information that comes with food, there's the nutritional information that comes with food. And then when there is non-food stuff in food, there's the chemical information. And so there's so many aspects to food. There's the allergic component that maybe an IgE allergy or there may be a sensitivity and there is intolerance, particularly when it comes to dairy. So there's so many considerations for the food that you put into your body. I think most people really need to expand their understanding of what food is. It's just like education. When your kids go to school, they don't just learn one subject. It's not just one subject that they learn.
Speaker 1 (18:30):
There's so many. And so food is equally as complex. I think that this would be a great time, since you are mentioning weight loss, it is the beginning of a new year. A lot of people didn't meet their weight or health goals last year and now they're on the resolution and they're like, I know I hear you Amy, but I'm just gonna go get that medication that my friend took where she lost a ton of weight and then I'll deal with doing it. Right. Do you wanna talk a little bit about some of these medications like ozempic that are available that some people are getting amazing weight loss results with?
Speaker 3 (19:05):
If you haven't heard of these medications, they're called GLP one glucagon. Like Peptide one, Ozempic, wegovy, Monro. And there's several others that are gonna be coming out pretty soon. And first of all, if you're on them, and this is not to beat you up and say, oh my gosh, I can't believe you're doing this, this, I'm gonna give you the pros and cons and then if you're on them, what you need to also be doing in conjunction with those medications. The problem with those medications are some of the how it works or the side effects and how it works is that it slows down your GI tract. So it will slow down gastric emptying, which causes you to feel full. And I know every female is going, oh my god, it's about time. I want something that's gonna help me feel full. I want something that does that.
Speaker 3 (19:49):
Yes and no. If you feel like you're a bottomless pet, if you feel like all you do is crave sugar, I'm going to challenge you with the fact that you're probably not eating enough and you're probably not eating enough protein either. We can actually work with our own hormone, the GLP one by what we intake and food-wise. But what the medication does will slow down gastric emptying. It will also help with insulin and insulin sensitivity and insulin resistance. Those are great. But the side effects are that it can cause something called gastroparesis, which is a total shutdown of your GI tract. Unfortunately, it's not reversible. It's something that you'll have to live with for the rest of your life. And if you know anybody with gastroparesis, it is not a pretty disease state at all. And the other thing that it does, because you're not hungry, you are not eating, your body, like I said, is a chemical reaction.
Speaker 3 (20:45):
It needs fuel. If you are not giving your body fuel, your body's pretty smart number one goal is survival. And it's gonna take amino acids from your muscles. It's gonna take minerals from your bones. So what we're gonna be seeing probably in about, I wanna say three to five years of something I call old lady syndrome, we're gonna see those people who should not have it yet in a disease state of osteopenia, osteoporosis, sarcopenia, which is muscle wasting. We're gonna see all these later on age-related diseases because of not intaking the proper fuel. And that's scary. And it's all because of chasing skinny. So if you are looking at taking something, maybe you have a high A1C, which is diabetes, pre-diabetes, maybe your doctor says this is what we need to put you on. If that's the case, then please, please, please work with somebody to make sure that you're getting adequate protein to make sure that you are building muscle and that you are getting your vibes and minerals.
Speaker 3 (21:46):
Because the last thing we want is for your body to take away from your muscles and your bones. And that's what we really need to focus on with these medications. If we can do it without the medication, perfect. If you're gonna go on the medication, please be aware of the side effects because a lot of people go in and say, oh you know what, it won't happen to me. I'm not gonna be that person. You have to be prepared to be that person that it happens to. And then also understand that, you know what, maybe I can try one more thing before I go on this medication. One more thing, I never tried really eating. I've always starved. I never really tried weightlifting to get some muscle mass. Maybe if I just try this one more thing, that would be my ticket to where I wanna go health-wise and not have an injection that pretty much I will have to be on for the rest of my life.
Speaker 1 (22:37):
Yeah, I think those are all super important points. And I've honestly never seen a person who said they had tried, quote unquote tried everything to lose weight and said they couldn't lose weight. I've even had people say, I haven't been able to lose a pound in 20 years when they address the underlying causes, the hormone imbalance, the gut dysfunction, the toxicity, all the things that weren't able to lose the weight. And so I've, I, that's why I don't know much about these medications is because I don't use them. 'cause They're really, I don't find that they're necessary. And like you say, they have potentially short and long, long-term negative consequences and you really do have to be prepared to be that person who got that side effect from that drug. So I know that you take a much more holistic approach to, it sounds like that's not your first line either.
Speaker 3 (23:30):
To me it's almost, I would say the last line and you know, I had, I was talking to someone yesterday. Well what about people with diabetes? Absolutely there are purposes for medication. I would say I'm a pharmacist who prefers that you try something else before medication or that we try to get you off of medication. All medications have side effects. I don't care what medication, all supplements will have side effects too. So I'll get somebody I like, but it's natural. Yeah. So is Deion that is used for your heart. That's all natural too. It's a flower, it's a plant. And there's still side effects with that. And to understand that the one thing that doesn't really have side effects for most people, unless you have an allergic reaction, is nutrition and weightlifting. The side effects are positive, they're not negative. And so if we can kind of get back to realizing that Mother Earth has pretty much provided us everything that we need that we don't need pharmaceuticals, they're there.
Speaker 3 (24:26):
Pharmaceuticals are great for treatments but not necessarily cures most of the time. And you know, who wants to be someone in my nursing home who's taking 30 medications? Because when you start with one medication, you're gonna take another medication and then there's a side effect. So there's another medication. Nobody starts out wanting to take a pill for this. It just happens. And then there's another pill. So if we can stop that whole cascade in the first place and yeah. Does it take a little bit more work? Absolutely. I'm not telling everybody this is, this is rainbows and unicorns. It takes behavioral change. It takes work to learn how to eat for what your body needs. It takes work to learn how to prepare food again instead of going through a drive-through. But is it possible and is it the best and possibly the right thing to do? Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (25:16):
You know, I had this visual come to mind when you were talking about going on medications, but really the, the first medicine for the body is food and movement are the first two medicines. And it's kind of like, you know, we say, oh but there it's natural, but cyanides are natural and can kill you. Right. It's just natural. Doesn't mean it's good for you. I don't know why, but transportation popped into my mind. Airplanes. So taking a drug for everything is kind of like taking an airplane everywhere. You still need to know how to walk
Speaker 3 (26:36):
Or I would say used to be the biggest reason that somebody would go into a nursing home was a fall or a break. And that is directly correlated with muscle mass. It's directly correlated with bones. And we don't think about those kinds of things. And we think that sometimes when, oh, I'm in my fifties, I'm in my sixties, I'm in retirement and all I wanna do is just sit around, I'm going to challenge you. It's like, I don't think that's what we want. I think we wanna live, I think we wanna be active and to be active, we need our bones healthy, we need them strong. And to be active, we need muscle. We need muscle to be able to get out of a chair every day. We need muscles to pick up our dogs and our grandkids. We need muscle to be able to take the groceries inside.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
And hey, if we're gonna get on that plane, I want to be able to go over that overhead bin and put my luggage there. Everything that we do, everything that we do on a daily basis requires us to have a strong skeletal system and a strong muscular system. And if we let that go, everything else goes downhill. Everything does. We no longer can lift, we no longer can get out of a chair. We no longer can maybe lift our head up because we have osteoporosis and we have all these bone fractures in our cervical area. I don't think anybody wants that. That's not living. And if we can do the best by fueling our body, by strengthening our bones and strengthening our muscles, honestly that's the fountain of youth. Keeping your muscle mass. Keeping your bone mass is the fountain of youth. And I think that is, at least for me, that's the ticket that is not a pill, not the fountain of youth per se. Going and drinking the water, that's something that I can do on a daily basis is to help my bone strength and my muscle mass so that in the future I'm able to thrive. And I think most people want that. They just don't realize it unfortunately until it's too late. When we're in our forties, in our fifties, in our sixties, whatever age you are right now, it's not too late. And now is the time to start training for your future self.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Yeah. And I think it's super important to realize that these changes and the downgrade of our musculoskeletal system happens so slowly and gradually over time that it's almost imperceptible. And you can write off these changes as being normal and think that you are not on that downward slope again, you're not the one who's gonna get the side effects from the medication. You are not the one that Amy and I are talking about. But this was a real reality check for me,
Speaker 3 (30:11):
Energy levels. How are you sleeping if you're not sleeping well, if your energies are constantly crashing and you need coffee to get you through the day. If you're constantly grabbing for the sugar because you're hungry or you just want to have that sugar craving. And what does that do? That shows that you're not fueling your body enough. That shows that you might have some hormonal imbalances that you need to get checked out. And the other thing is, you know, do you feel weak? Is it hard for you to park way out of the grocery store and walk in? Do you find the closest parking space? Or are you someone who just can't carry anything and you're like, oh, you know, it's just 'cause I'm tired and looking for those little things that are adding up now or that are kind of giving you a wake up call that, hey, I need to really listen to my body and start taking care of it and start training to get better. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Those are super important things to look at. And I know we're busy, we lead busy lives, we're doing a million things and we're like, oh, I just feel a little tired. And it happens so gradually that we don't even realize it. And so I say pay attention sooner rather than later. And do you wanna talk a little bit about protein intake and weight lifting and maintenance of muscle mass?
Speaker 3 (31:35):
Yeah, so the one thing that we are great at is not getting enough protein. We really, especially females, we are, we do not get enough protein. And as we age, we actually need more protein. And sometimes that's difficult. There are easier ways to find protein. You can go to the grocery store and there's, there can be like a chicken breast or get some Turkey bone broth. It's a great way to get protein. You don't have to rely on the shakes. And sometimes those bars are just like a candy bar. They're not, they're not good for you. You need protein and you need protein in order to keep your muscle and in order to build your muscle. And I think a lot of times I will get, especially some older women will be like, Ugh, but I don't wanna bulk up. I don't wanna look big.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
And I'm going to tell you you're not gonna happen. It's not gonna happen unless you have some pharmaceutical, pharmaceutical help that then, then possibly you might get bulky. But for most of us, that is not possible with lifting three days a week with increasing how much weight. And I'm not talking about your three to five pounds. That might be somewhere that you start out with three to five pound dumbbells. But if you start lifting 15, 20, 25 pound dumbbells, you will not get bulky. What will happen, especially if you're fueling your body, is that you will actually change your body shape to the way that you want it to be. It will be shapely, it will be, I hate saying thinner, but it's going to be more compact. So you're gonna lose inches because we are going to increase your muscle. And then if you're fueling yourself properly, you'll start burning fat. And that's, I think what most women want is that they have this idea of what they wanna look like and they think they have to do it by starving when it actually is the exact opposite. That if you start fueling your body with carbohydrates, with fat, with protein, and you do a simple workout routine for 30 minutes, not hours, that is gonna get you well on the path that you wanna go. Yes.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
So important. Eat more, exercise more, way less, feel better, be healthier. Do you wanna give any guidelines? What guidelines do you like to offer for people for their protein intake in terms of numbers or you know, palm of the hand size, how many times a day? What do you usually recommend? So
Speaker 3 (34:09):
Usually, you know, palm size is usually a serving size, so anywhere between 20 to 30 grams of protein per meal. So right around anywhere between 80 to 100 grams per day. And it just depends on who I'm coaching. And some of my clients, some of my clients take way more than that. But it also depends on their activity level. But that's just a good starting point. You'll see people that say, oh, you only need 30, 40 grams per day. Honestly 80 80 to 100 is where we need to be A midlife.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Yes. I second that. Amen.
Speaker 3 (35:18):
The gym scene isn't for you, so let's invest in some bands. Let's invest in some dumbbells. You can do a program at home. I work out for the most part at home. My program has daily workouts that we use. I do it at home. I go to the gym once a week when I teach and I'm in and I'm out because I don't like the gym atmosphere anymore. It's changed since covid. And if you're like, okay, I just, I can't get the energy just to go to the gym, I don't wanna deal with traffic, I don't wanna deal with people, but can you get the energy to go stand up and go to maybe a different room and 30 minutes is all you have to do? And I, and someone says, but I haven't worked out, just try five minutes tomorrow, do six minutes the next day, seven minutes.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
You will be surprised how quickly you will get in shape. And what I always get is like, but I'm not in shape enough to work out. You gotta start somewhere. You have to start somewhere and be okay. Being a beginner, we are so worried about being perfectionists all the time. We gotta do this perfectly. We gotta do this perfectly. How about progress? How about a little bit better every single day? And I know it's the new year, I know when someone starts a program, it's like, I'm going to clean out my closet, I'm gonna clean out my pantries, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna get up at 4:30 AM. Do what you know you can do and then build upon that. Don't think you have to go all in 120%. Do what you can do today and build upon it tomorrow. And that will set you up for success.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
I noticed something in the materials you submitted before we did the interview. I'm wondering if you can explain what this means. I like what it says, but I'm not sure entirely what it means. Optimize the starting line instead of worrying about the finish line. What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (37:13):
That is one of my favorite books, James. Clear Atomic Habits. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
I like that. Focus on what you can do now instead of, oh, I gotta get to this, this point. Because sometimes it can feel like climbing Mount Everest and, but I can go get some dumbbells. I can pull my sneakers out of the back of the closet. I can put out my workout clothes before I go to bed and set my alarm, you know, 10 minutes earlier so I can go in the living room and I don't know, I like sweating to the oldies, something like that. Yeah, yeah. Great. I love that. And you also have this other information that I like and I'm wondering if you can explain. So I was put here on this earth on purpose for a purpose. I love that. What does that mean to
Speaker 3 (38:53):
You? Yeah, we struggle sometimes. I think all of us struggle. We struggle. What's our calling? What do we need to do? Whether it's our job, whether it's our family, whether it's our career and we question everything. And that grounds me. I was put here on purpose for a purpose. And when sometimes I feel like maybe I'm not doing what I should be doing, maybe I'm not helping enough people. And I, one of my clients who's lost 130 pounds posted something yesterday and I was almost in tears. And those things ground me. It's like, you know what? That's my purpose. That's my calling. So I was put here on purpose for a purpose. And I think we all know our calling, we all know our purpose. Sometimes we don't think it's big enough or it's, we think it's just too small. But realize every single thing that you do that is your calling, that is your purpose, is huge and makes an impact.
Speaker 1 (39:43):
It's so true, Amy, and I think that sometimes our purpose is so integral to who we are, that we almost do it effortlessly and then we think it, our purpose has to be hard. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 1 (40:47):
And I recently had an experience, you know, anyone who knows me knows I've been through many transformations in my life professionally and personally. And every time I'm kind of like, okay, what's happening now with this transition? I thought I was on purpose. And I had an experience just last week where I woke up to this even larger purpose
Speaker 3 (41:56):
So true. Oh yeah. Abs, I, I may have to use that. I love that. That is so true. So true.
Speaker 1 (42:02):
Yeah. And I love this other thing you said today I do what others won't. So tomorrow I can do what others can't. Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (42:12):
Well, I mean, let's look at my nursing homes. Yeah. We don't think about what can happen to us in the future, we don't think about what we should be doing now. We think when we get that diagnosis or something happens is I wish I could have, although I would've should've. Things come to mind. I'm choosing not to have those. So today I do what others won't. So tomorrow I will do what others can't. I suck it up. I sometimes say embrace the suck, suck it up, and I do my lifting workout on a day. I don't feel like it. I get my nutrition on a day where it's rough. I'm busy and there's meetings after meetings or a podcast or client calls. I make sure that I take care of myself first because I can't give to others if I am not taking care of myself.
Speaker 3 (43:04):
And I think as women, we tend to do the opposite. We give, give, give, give. And we think that's what we should be doing and not taking care of ourselves. I take care of myself first so that I can take care of everybody else so that I'm able to coach, be able to be a great, a pharmacist, a fitness instructor, and then in 20, 30 years when there's others my age who maybe can't stand, maybe are in a nursing home, planning on being in Costa Rica on a beach somewhere. So
Speaker 1 (43:50):
Yeah. So I think that's a great call to everybody to pay attention. I think it's a great place to end. You have an amazing five day blueprint, five day fat loss blueprint. We're gonna have a link in the show notes. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about what they're gonna find there and also all the places they can then connect with you online? Sure.
Speaker 3 (44:09):
The best places I'll give you two. One is my website, amy k wilson.com. And then I'm known as the nutrition coach pharmacist on Instagram. So on my website, amy k wilson.com or Instagram, the nutrition coach pharmacist. So what I am giving you is a five day blueprint that has lots of recipes and also has two more recipes on there. One is my favorite chili recipe. So if you like chili and if you like Wendy's chili, the rumor is that this recipe was taken by Dave Thomas who made it the Wendy's chili recipe. However, this one is easy, this one is healthy and it can be made in the crockpot, Instapot, or stove. And I love things that are easy and nutritious at the same time. I will say on the five day blueprint, just look at it. Just think about maybe taking one day and multiplying those meals by two. So that way you have two days and then there's like 15 different recipes, I think. So that makes it how many days we multiply that too. That's a whole month worth of stuff. So I hope that helps people, maybe get you on the road, get you started. Because sometimes when you listen to these things you're like, well, how do I start? What are you talking about? How do I, what do I do? This will give you some ideas on how to get started.
Speaker 1 (45:26):
Yeah, I love that. And thank you for that. And I would just add, I love making multiple servings of one recipe and then freezing in single serve containers. So when you are busy, you can just grab it and defrost it and you've got a healthy meal and you don't have to go without. So amazing. And I wanna thank you so much for coming on the show, Amy. I have to say, you know, of all my colleagues in medicine, some of the most beleaguered colleagues are the ones who do work in nursing homes because it's kind of a rock and a hard place position there. It's too late for them to really transform anyone and bring them back to the health that they could have had. And so they kind of become despondent and hopeless, those colleagues. Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 3 (46:25):
This was awesome. Thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (46:27):
And thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I know you're inspired, I know you're gonna go download that blueprint. I know you're gonna make that chili and I wanna know how good it is. I love a good bowl of chili, so tell me about it on social media. Look forward to hearing about your results and look forward to hearing about all the insights that you had and how inspired you are for an amazing 2024 and beyond. Until next week when we'll have another episode, I'll see you then. Peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (47:04):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we explore the world of hormonal health and natural healing for midlife women. Today's guest is the incredibly knowledgeable Dr. Bradley Nelson, creator of The Emotion Code and The Body Code. He's here to teach us how to use these powerful healing systems to clear energy blocks affecting our hormones and embrace the healing process.
Dr. Nelson is an expert in identifying and releasing energy blockages that can lead to hormonal imbalances and various chronic conditions. Throughout our conversation, he explains how our bodies are intricately connected to our emotions and how we can unlock our body's ability to heal by addressing these energy disturbances.
In this enlightening episode, you can expect to hear:
- The foundational principles behind The Emotion Code and The Body Code
- The link between emotions and hormones in your body
- How energy blockages affect your hormonal health
- Real-life stories of women who experienced transformative healing through Dr. Nelson's techniques
- Practical tools and advice for clearing and rebalancing your energy at home
If you're a midlife woman dealing with hormonal imbalances or seeking to explore natural methods of healing, this episode is a must-listen. Dr. Nelson's expertise and personal insights will inspire you to take charge of your healing journey and tap into your body's innate wisdom.
Thank you for joining us today at The Hormone Prescription Podcast, and we'll see you in the next episode!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Albert Einstein said, everything is energy and that is all there is to it. Match the frequency of the reality you want, and you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy. This is physics. Stay tuned to find out how energy applies to your health and is an essential part of healing your emotions and your physical health and your hormones.
Speaker 2 (00:27):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I'm Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in to talking with Dr. Bradley Nelson about the emotion code. I am so very honored to have Dr. Nelson on this show. I have been a fan of his for years. Read his book several years ago and know his work is profound and deep and really helps people achieve not only the emotional balance, but the hormonal balance and the physical vitality that they're seeking. It really is the missing link when it comes to health. And we're gonna talk about why in this episode, how these structures that monitor and maintain your hormones, your nervous system, your emotions, why they're so intertwined. And you may have noticed this in ways that might not be obvious to you, but we're gonna talk about some of them and we're gonna talk about why they're so intertwined.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So if you're trying to aim for vitality, physical vitality and longevity, you're trying to aim for hormonal prosperity and longevity, and you want emotional balance, then this is the episode for you. 'cause Dr. Bradley Nelson has a very unique approach that was ahead of its time when it was introduced. We're gonna talk about this quote from Albert Einstein about why everything is energy. What does that mean for your health? Because I know you're not hearing that at your HMO doctor's office. You don't go for your checkup and they say, did you know that you are energy? But you need to know this. 'cause If you're not addressing it, you're not gonna be able to experience the health that's possible for you. We're gonna talk about why energy medicine is the last great frontier in medicine. And another quote from Nicola Tesla. That's amazing. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Dr. Bradley and then we will get started.
Speaker 1 (03:17):
He has a very extensive biography, but every bit is worth reading and talking about. So I'm gonna get into it then we'll have him on the show. So he is a veteran holistic physician, Dr. Chiropractic, Dr. Bradley Nelson. He's one of the world's foremost experts on natural methods of achieving wellness. An international trainer and speaker and author of the bestselling book, the Emotion Code. He has a new book, the Body Code, unlocking the Body's Ability to Heal Itself. You definitely wanna check that up. He was raised in Montana and grew up on the back of a horse. And as a child, he suffered two life-threatening illnesses, both of which were healed, not by traditional western medicine, no surprise there, but by separate alternative methods that tap the power of energy. And these experiences were to shape his life going forward In college, he studied computer programming and decided to pursue business as a career.
Speaker 1 (04:11):
But after entering the MBA program at Brigham Young, he had an epiphany. He had asked God for guidance about his future, and one night he woke up and his mind was overflowing with thoughts of service to mankind and to humanity. Maybe you have that too, and if you do, you need to pay attention to it. And the feelings were absolutely overwhelming. His head was filled with thoughts of healing and helping the world. A voice that was crystal clear spoke to him saying, this is a sacred calling. So he entered, dropped outta MBA, entered life Chiropractic College West in California, and graduated with honors. He began practicing as a holistic chiropractic physician and saw a wide variety of patients, many of whom had seemingly incurable conditions that he remembered learning about the computer that is the brain, the supercomputer, and how amazing it would be to access the data that's stored there, to unlock keys to help these people who had seemingly incurable conditions to heal.
Speaker 1 (05:10):
And he started doing extensive study and disciplines such as ancient medical practices, psychology and quantum physics, as well as the guidance of his own spiritual practice. And he discovered that packets of unprocessed emotion were the basis of most conditions. Have you ever felt like, well, that feeling is in me and I always feel that same feeling and it never seems to change or go away regardless of circumstances. If you haven't realized that most people do feel that they regurgitate the same feelings over and over, they don't realize it. So look back and think the body is essentially energy and emotion is energy as well. When the energy of a negative emotion is trapped in the body in a packet, it impacts the body's self-healing system. And these trapped emotions are almost like tumors and can obstruct healing at their worst. They actually create disease and physical problems.
Speaker 1 (06:02):
So he designed a process using this knowledge and has helped thousands of people, he is trained thousands in how to do these processes as well, to release their trapped emotions, to harness the intrinsic genius of his patient's subconscious minds, to identify the trapped emotion in the subconscious and use the laws of energy and electromagnetic fields and employ the governing meridian to release them. If you're not sure what that is, don't worry. Stay tuned. We're gonna talk about it. And it's pretty sophisticated and subtle knowledge, but he's made it so simple that even a child can do it. And the process is called the emotion code. You remove emotional energies that have clustered in the body around the heart, interfering with one's ability to find love, vitality, and healing success. And we're gonna dive into what the heart wall is, where these packets are, how do you know if you have them, what do you do about it? And we're just gonna go all over the place with Dr. Brad because he is a wealth of knowledge. He's also gonna touch on his new book, the Body Code, and all the training that he has. He has a free gift for you that's gonna help elucidate some of this. So without further ado, please help me welcome Dr. Bradley Nelson to the show.
Speaker 3 (07:18):
Thank you for having me on Kier, and I really appreciate it. It's great to be here.
Speaker 1 (07:22):
I came across your work a few years ago and the book The Emotion Code, and it really has transformed my way of thinking about health and emotions and so many things. I think it's revolutionary and really can help so many women of every age, but particularly at midlife and beyond. That's really my focus. And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about, 'cause this concept of emotions being trapped, emotions are kind of a mystery to a lot of women.
Speaker 3 (08:22):
Okay, absolutely. Well, I practiced as a holistic physician for about 18 years, and I was really obsessed with getting to the underlying causes of my patient's problems. And I was seeing all kinds of patients of all ages and with all kinds of physical and mental and emotional issues. And I was studying things, ancient methods of healing and modern methods. And I was doing everything I could to learn everything I could about how to fix my patients. And, I was also prayerful. Before I'd work on a patient, I would, I would actually pray silently. You know, it was just a momentary pause. Really. Nobody ever knew that I was asking for help from up above for people. That's, but that was really interesting because over those 18 years, there were a number of occasions where information would suddenly just flood into me about what to do and how to help someone.
Speaker 3 (09:14):
And what I learned was that all of my patients, no matter how young or old they were, no matter what they were suffering from, no matter what their symptoms were, they all had one thing in common. And that was, they were all suffering from the effects of their emotional baggage. And let me explain how that works. 'cause It, it's, it's kind of a strange thing. We're not used to thinking about emotional baggage. I mean, we use that phrase, right, Kieran, we, we might say, well, you know, a gal, she's got a lot of emotional baggage and that guy's got a lot of emotional baggage. Well, we all have emotional baggage. But what we're now finally beginning to understand in the 21st century is what our emotional baggage is, number one. And number two, what that emotional baggage is actually doing to us. So let me explain.
Speaker 3 (10:03):
First of all, you have to understand that these bodies of ours, even though they seem solid and three dimensional, the reality of it is if you talk to a physicist, especially someone who is working with quantum physics, they will tell you, well, the body really is an energy field. I mean, if you, if you zoom in, for example, on your hand and you zoom in, magnify your hand with a big microscope, and you go past the level of the cells and pass the organelles and pass the molecules until you're eventually looking at a single individual atom, the molecules are made of atoms. We're made of atoms, right? But if you were to look at that atom and look inside that atom, you'd see there's really nothing there. It's just empty space. It's just energy. And you'd see that the next atom is a long distance away.
Speaker 3 (10:49):
And so really, these bodies of ours are made of atoms which are made really of nothing but pure energy. It's hard for us to wrap our minds around that, but that is the truth of our existence. And in fact, as strange as it is, it gets even stranger, some quantum physicists recently, I think, to make a point, to try to help the rest of us understand the true nature of our reality. They said that if you could remove all the empty space from everyone's body on earth, you could fit all 7.8 billion people in the world into a box the size of a sugar cube. Right? It's kind of mind blowing. But that's really the reality of who we are. And so, even though our bodies seem solid, they really are energy fields. Our body, you know, your body is, is a very complex energy field.
Speaker 3 (11:33):
But when you're feeling an emotion, what's going on is that every emotion has its own specific frequency and it's own vibration. And so if you're feeling an emotion of anger, that's a different frequency than sadness and so on. And if you're feeling that emotion and that emotion is very powerful, that energy, that vibration may become trapped in the body. There are two situations where this typically occurs. If the emotion's very powerful or if we make it very powerful, we choose to become really upset, which of course we've all done. Or if an emotion coming up for you and you decide you're gonna not allow that, and you just stuff that emotion and you bury it so that you can move on with your life, then that's unexpressed. And so we end up with these emotional energies trapped in our bodies. The first time that I saw this actually was a woman that thought she was having a heart attack, and she I'd seen her before, but it had been a few months.
Speaker 3 (12:27):
And one day she comes in, she's got numbness on the left side of her face, her left arm's totally numb. She's got crushing chest pain, difficulty breathing. I told my staff, look, we might need an ambulance. We were right next to a medical center, so I knew we could get one really quickly. So I brought her into a room and I started doing some testing. Now with the emotion code, what we do is we ask questions and we get answers from the body by using muscle testing. And so, so if you can imagine, I have her holding her arm out parallel to the floor, and I'm asking questions. And her subconscious mind is responding with strength for yes. Or weak for No, that makes sense.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Yes. Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 3 (13:10):
Yeah, yeah. Kinesthetic, yeah. Whatever you wanna call it. Anyway, so I'm asking questions, well, do you have a trapped emotion that's contributing to your symptoms? And the answer was yes. And then we have a chart of emotions in the emotion code that looks like this. And there are, that's legible or visible. There's 60 emotions on here. Yes. And,
Speaker 1 (13:28):
And actually Dr. Brad has a link we'll give you at the end of the show where you can go and view this and actually download it. So go ahead,
Speaker 3 (13:36):
Yeah. So anyway, so I asked, do you have a trapped emotion that's contributing to these symptoms? And the answer was, yes, very strong. And so I found very quickly the answer was the emotion was grief, and then we needed to know a little more. And so I tested a little more and found out that this had actually occurred. This emotional energy became trapped in her body three years before. And all of a sudden she breaks down crying. And she said, I can't believe that's affecting me. She said, I thought I dealt with all that. And I said, well, what happened to you? She said that three years before her husband had an affair and or was having an affair. And she found out about it and then confronted him with the evidence and the marriage blew up. And she was so betrayed. She was really in love with him, thought she was gonna be with him forever, right?
Speaker 3 (14:22):
And that was the end of that. And so they ended up getting a divorce, and then she spent a year in therapy dealing with it, and had even recently gotten remarried. So as far as she was concerned, that was just her ex and he betrayed her. And that was, she was trying to put it behind her. But as far as her body was concerned, that betrayal, that grief that was so powerful three years before was still there, still right there. And in fact, when I released that energy, and it just takes a few seconds, we just swipe down the middle of the back with a magnet or your hand, the feeling came back into her face and into her arm within about three seconds. And all of a sudden, the crushing chest pain, difficulty breathing, it was all just gone. And she left the office about 10 minutes later after joking with me and my staff.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
And then I remember sitting at my desk after she left, thinking, what in the world? What did I just witness? How is that possible? Now you think about your own life, right? You think about the things that you have been through, because we have all been through things. We've all been through things we'd rather not have gone through. You know, we've been through deaths in the family, we've been through breakups. A lot of us have been through divorces. We've had problems with our kids and injuries and accidents and all kinds of things. And so the emotions that we experience, sometimes those can stay with us. And what I found in practice that's just so unbelievable is that our emotional baggage is 90% of the time the reason for physical pain. It's the reason why people gain weight and can't lose it. It's one of the reasons, it's a reason behind every disease process that we've seen now in 35 years.
Speaker 3 (16:04):
Think about that. So if you've been diagnosed with a disease, I can guarantee you there is an emotional component to that disease process, and you can do everything else, right? But if you miss that component, then you might not get over the disease, because that's a piece of that puzzle. And of course, western medicine is still a number of years away from recognizing this. But, this is the reality. And so getting rid of that emotional baggage is one of the most amazing, one of the best things you can actually do for yourself, for your physical health, for your mental health and your emotional health.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
Yes. It's astounding to me. And so when you say the energy, the emotional baggage, it's almost like the emotions are energy in motion, and these, if these emotions aren't allowed to go through the cycle, that they go through and dissipate and be metabolized, that they stay there, almost like I envision these little packets, kind of quantum packets of energy that are sealed off from the rest of the system. Is that how you would explain it?
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Yeah, that's actually a really great way to explain it. I mean, there's an emotional process. I call it the emotional loop that we go through. When an emotion starts to be felt, if you think about what happens, first of all, some kind of stimulus occurs. Someone says something to you, or you see something, or you think something or hear something, an emotion starts to automatically come up for you. And most of the time we allow that emotion to come up and we, you know, maybe think the thoughts that go along with that emotion or feel the physical sensations with that. And then most of the time we allow that energy to kind of dissipate and go away. And so that emotional loop opens and we feel the emotion and we allow it to dissipate. And the loop closes on that experience, and that experience is over and ready for the next one.
Speaker 3 (17:58):
And we do this all the time, every day, right? But again, if that emotion is coming up and we decide, no, I'm not gonna go there, that's a bad emotion. I don't have time, whatever. And we stuff that emotion, then that energy that's been trying to express is suspended in the body in some way. And we don't really understand how this works. But the other, the other circumstances, if an emotion comes up and it's just so intense or so overpowering, you know, your parents die unexpectedly or suddenly, your husband asks you for a divorce or a child is hurt in a terrible accident or, you know, whatever. Sometimes the emotion is just so powerful, we can't really deal with it. And that energy becomes trapped in the body in that way too. Or sometimes an emotion comes up and we decide that we're going to empower that emotion and really go over the top by getting really upset.
Speaker 3 (18:49):
We've all done that too. And that can also amplify that energy. So that normal process, almost like breathing in the emotional feeling and then breathing it out, that gets stuck. And so the loop then stays open. And so we have an open loop for that emotional experience. And so the emotion code is just a way to find these open loops and close them. And, but it's, it's unbelievable. It's really unbelievable how powerful this is. And that's what's driving the success of this all over the world. You know, for example they just sent me this book in Vietnamese. I just got nice, this is, you know, this is Mandarin. I've got on the wall behind me. I've got all kinds of books from all over the world. We were just in Japan. This is a book in Japanese, you know, but it's going all over the world. And the reason why is because it's a very, very simple, easy method that anyone can use. So we certify people in this method. We've got people all over the world. We've certified over 12,000 people in the emotion code in 80 countries or so. But you can actually do this yourself as well. And so you can begin to heal your own emotional baggage. And, you know, if you think that you don't have emotional baggage, then I regret to inform you
Speaker 1 (20:02):
Right? That would be a question I would ask you, because some people listening are gonna think, I don't have that. And you know, in my experience,
Speaker 3 (20:45):
Well, you know, I have met people in my life that have had a lot less trapped emotions. And those are the kind of people that are really unflappable, that are able to kind of maintain an even keel no matter what's going on in their lives. Even those people, and they're kind of rare, really especially in this culture in the US I think they're, they're prone to, to develop less trapped emotions. But, you know, even those people have emotional baggage. The average adult in our experience has probably around 300 separate emotional energies that have become trapped in their bodies. And so it's a process of learning how to release these. And then you can have someone help you to get rid of your emotional baggage, or you can do it yourself. It's easy enough that kids are doing it. In fact, let me share a story with you.
Speaker 3 (21:37):
Sure. We were, we were at an event sometime back and a woman told us this story. She said that she started reading the emotion code book, and she had the book on audio and started listening to it and reading it. And her son started reading it and listening to it. And he started practicing with his friends, and she thought she thought it was cute. And a couple days go by, or sorry, a couple weeks go by, and one day the phone rings, she answers the phone, and it's a woman calling her who identifies herself as the mother of one of her son's friends. And she said, listen, my son has had a severe phobia of water all of his life, and you know, you can have a phobia to anything. And she said, she said, it's really been very disruptive to our life and to his life, and we've tried everything.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
We've taken him to everybody we could think of for years, and nothing's ever touched this. She said, right now I'm at the community pool. And she said, my son is out playing in the water, the other boys, for the first time in his life, she said, your son did this. How is this even possible? What in the world is he doing? Well, those two boys are only 11 years old. That's how easy this can be. And yet how incredibly life-changing it can be because you see, our behaviors are largely governed by the emotional baggage that we've picked up during our life. Who knows what happened to him. Maybe he was stuck in the womb a little too long, you know, or maybe he had an experience where he thought he was gonna drown when he was a baby. And so I don't know what the emotion was, but you can develop trapped emotions in the womb as a baby.
Speaker 3 (23:04):
It's even possible. In fact, this is something that's not unusual at all. It's even possible for us to inherit emotional energy at conception from mom or dad that they might have gotten a conception from their mom or dad. And these can go back for many generations. And so it's so interesting because, you know, the reason right now that you might be having trouble finding love or maybe the reason why you're having a hard time making money, it might be because, you know, maybe your great-great-great grandfather was thrown into a poor house. Or maybe, maybe your ninth grade grandmother was jilted at the altar, and that energy's been passing down your line and it's in you now. It's really wild, but it's easy to find even these kinds of things and release them. So yeah, this work is so fun, and it's changing lives all over the world.
Speaker 1 (23:51):
It is. It's fascinating. And you know, as you're talking, and I'm realizing some people are thinking, well, this is a little woo woo for me, Kieran, and I'm, what I'm gonna say is, woo woo is the new must do. Science is validating and has validated all of these things that Dr. Bradley's talking about. So if you're not, if you didn't get the memo, you need to get on board the train because this is what's keeping you from the physical health that you want, the life that you want. It's what's keeping you from everything that you want. I'm wondering if you can talk maybe a little bit about the scientific research that has confirmed many of the connections between emotions and health, if you wanna touch on that. Sure.
Speaker 3 (24:35):
Well, let's first of all talk about inherited trapped emotions. Since we were just talking about that. One of the very first studies that started to shed some light on this, and that blew a lot of people's minds, was a study that was done, I think it was about 15 years ago, where they were studying mice. And what they would do is they would, they would subject mice to an electrical shock. And at the, and which sounds terrible, but it, I don't think it was too bad. But at the same time that they were giving them this electrical shock, they would blow the smell, the scent of cherry blossom into their cages. And so after doing that, a few times, the mice became conditioned to the smell of cherry blossom. And so then all they had to do, of course, was just blow that smell into their cage, and they'd have a fear reaction, right?
Speaker 3 (25:22):
Well, they found that the offspring of these mice had that same kind of fear reaction. So even though mice, several generations down the line, had never smelled cherry blossoms in their entire lives, when they would give them that scent to smell, they'd have a fear reaction. And they were trying to figure out, well, how in the world is this happening? How are these mice teaching their offspring to be aware and to be scared of cherry blossom scent? So what they did is they took sperm from these mice that had been sensitized. They took that sperm across the campus, an impregnated female mice that had never been shocked, and that had never smelled cherry blossom. And they found that the offspring of those female mice were also sensitized. And so scientists are trying to figure this out still to this day. I mean, they're looking at the DNA into the microscope and trying to figure out how in the world this is happening?
Speaker 3 (26:18):
But we know how it's happening. It's because of these energies. It's a quantum phenomenon. You see, it's trapped emotional energy. And so there have been books written about, for example, the offspring of the, the grandchildren, for example, of Holocaust survivors. And they find that their DNA is a little different and that they're more susceptible to disease and so on. They're very different from the normal population. And the only possible explanation is what the grandparents went through in the Holocaust and how they survived that. So anyway, there are lots of studies that have been done, an amazing study that was done on childhood trauma that found that if you experienced trauma as a child, if you were bullied or abused in some way, then the odds of you suffering from some major disease years down the road is greatly enhanced. And so there's lots and lots of studies that have been done.
Speaker 3 (27:10):
We did our own study actually with post-traumatic stress and depression, and found that within about three weeks using the emotion code, the people that were in our study reported improvement in their symptoms of about 36 to 37% within about three weeks. So if you're dealing with depression or PTSD, what we're finding is that emotional baggage is the underlying cause of these things. Depression, anxiety, phobias, panic attacks, PTSD, eating disorders, self-sabotage of all kinds. And of course, if we bring that back around to hormones, you might think that, well, hormones are a completely separate thing. But lemme tell you, emotional baggage is massively important in the regulation of your hormones and the production of your hormones. When you have emotional baggage, what it can do is it can really dramatically interfere with the production and the normal flow of a whole hormonal system.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
One of the things that I used to do when I was in practice, and since then too, although I don't practice anymore, because we, we mainly just teach people around the world, but I've worked a lot with women who could not conceive. And of course, you think about how important hormones are to conception and carrying a child. Well, the last, the last three women that I worked with over the last few years all ended up having triplets
Speaker 3 (29:04):
It's just chugging its way, you know, along the female reproductive system on the other hand is like a Formula One race car, and it's got all these different moving parts and components. And if everything is working well, then it can go 200 miles an hour and you can conceive and you can have a child and so on. But, but if there's anything that's not quite right, then things aren't gonna work. And so I've seen cases where I'm convinced one single trapped emotion was enough to stop the whole process. In fact, it's so interesting. We had a young woman who came to us a number of years ago who was suffering from Vaginismus. She'd been married about six months, and she told us that she'd been sexually abused as a child, but she was suffering from Vaginismus. So she and her husband had not been able to consummate their marriage. They had not been able to have sex, because of course, vaginismus is where the, the vaginal opening just tightens down, nothing's getting in there. And so we worked on her, released some trapped emotions, and her mother called us a couple of days later. She said, listen, she said, I just want you to know whatever you did worked, because she said everything's working, said her husband's coming home from, you know, he's coming home and spending lunch at, at home. Now they're trying to catch up.
Speaker 1 (30:17):
Oh, that's great. Yes, most women probably aren't aware. And I do just wanna tie that in a little more to what Dr. Bradley's saying is that your emotions are regulated primarily in your midbrain and the amygdala and your nervous system and your hormones are also regulated from the same area. So these brain structures that regulate emotions, your nervous system and your hormones are very interrelated and tightly controlled in that area. And imbalance in one is going to affect the other, particularly when it comes to negative emotions. It will affect your cortisol primarily. And then, you know, I call cortisol queen cortisol, she will be served
Speaker 1 (31:27):
And, and again, to anyone who's saying, oh, this is woo woo, I love this quote you shared from Albert Einstein that I wanna share with everyone. Everything is energy, and that is all there is to it match the frequency of the reality you want. And you cannot help but get that reality. It can be no other way. This is not philosophy, this is physics. Albert Einstein said it a long time ago,
Speaker 3 (32:10):
Yes. In fact, Einstein himself said, the medicine of the future will be the medicine of frequencies because he understood what our bodies really are. And it's so fascinating. In fact, Nicola Tesla, again, you know, one of the most brilliant people that ever lived said, if you wanna understand the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration. And so it's such an exciting time, really, Kieran, because we're really just now beginning to understand and put into practical use these ideas. And it's what I've been spending my whole career on, trying to understand this and trying to figure out how our bodies actually work. And so that's that's why I wrote the emotion code book, was because I saw what was happening with my own patients and what a, what a dramatic difference this was making for people in terms of their ability to get over disease processes and to be able to feel more love and to be able to have a happier life and get rid of all of these mental and emotional, physical issues. It's really unbelievable. I mean, 80% of the physical and, and mental emotional issues that we have are really because of our emotional baggage, the things we've gone through, or mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
How would somebody go about starting to address this? They hear what you're saying, they get it, they probably even know they have some emotional baggage. They've got some health issues, they're convinced. And how do they go about starting to work with this?
Speaker 3 (33:59):
We have a free gift for Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 1 (34:54):
So I'm curious if you've looked at any plant medicine psychedelics. I think they just submitted approval to the FDA for MDMA, for the indication, PTSD assisted psychotherapy, and there's a lot of research on psilocybin, and there's a big upswing in the use of plant medicines to help people heal emotionally. And one thing that I've always thought since reading your book was, but what about that you actually need to, emotions are a certain type of intelligence, and they have messages that need to be felt and honored. They, they're kind of gifts that give us information. And if you're using other techniques to change the energy of them, have they served their purpose? And are you doing some type of bypass, is my question. So I guess it's a two part question. One, if you're using energy techniques to clear these, are you bypassing their original intent? And is that wholly sufficient to heal them? And then my other question would be around kind of comparing and contrasting the use of these technologies that you've developed with psychedelics. Two part question.
Speaker 3 (36:07):
Okay. Well, first of all, first of all, yeah, you're absolutely right. When we experience an emotion, that emotion is coming up as a response to some kind of stimuli. And the emotion that we're feeling is the result of not only what's going on in that moment, but what's gone on in the past. And also the energy whatever emotional energy is trapped in the body, because remember, every emotion has its own particular frequency and its own particular vibration. And so if you're feeling an emotion of anger, that's a specific frequency different from grief and so on. So when that emotion is coming up for you, that is partly because of other energies that are trapped in the body. And one of the things that we find is that when you remove these trapped emotions, what happens is you're not as likely to experience that emotion anymore, or that feeling.
Speaker 3 (36:56):
To give you an example, I remember I had a patient that came in one day, we were working with her and found that she had a trapped emotion of resentment, and we traced it back to when she was 18 years old. And she said, oh, yeah, I know exactly what that's about. And she said, when I was in high school, I always resented this cheerleader. And she said, it's been 20 years now or so since I got outta high school. But she said, I don't, and she said, I don't even remember why I resented her, but she said, even now if I think about that girl, I can feel the resentment kind of swell up inside of me. And she said, I've always resented her, and I, I I still do. And so we released the trapped emotion of resentment from her, and a couple days later she came back in and she said, you know, last night I was with a friend and that girl's name came up.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
And for the first time, I didn't feel anything. I didn't feel that resentment. So if you think about it, what we're doing with the emotion code is we are, we're removing the emotional energies. And it's all really, in my opinion, it's really all about our learning. Because you see, most of us, most people believe that they're at the mercy of their emotions. That's, that there's really not anything they can do. The emotions that they experience are carrying them from one place to another. And, and they're, they're kind of a victim of that. But I think that what we are, what we're part of what we're here to learn is that we have control and we can choose our emotions for the most part, most of the time we can choose higher emotions. We can choose curiosity instead of anger. We can choose, you know, like for example, my wife and I have raised seven kids, and we would, that's one thing we would do when a child would do some stupid thing.
Speaker 3 (38:40):
We would look at each other and say, well, okay, I'm curious, how long do you think this child is gonna keep doing this kind of thing? Well, I don't know, honey, I'm curious too. What do you think? So we can choose higher emotions, and I think that that's a big reason why we're here, is to, to learn ultimately, really to choose unconditional love and total acceptance for people instead of these lower energies, these lower vibrations. So that's part of it. I think that as far as, so in other words, it's all for our learning. I think when we find emotional energy that's become trapped in the body, that's essentially like an open loop from abuse or divorce or whatever it might be. Ultimately, what does it do? Well, it's a burden that we have that we're carrying that's interfering with the pure expression, that is that energy field. That is what we are. So as we release those, that pure essence of who we are becomes more able to express. And we haven't actually even talked about the heart wall, but that's a whole nother thing.
Speaker 1 (39:45):
Let's talk about that
Speaker 3 (39:46):
Speaker 1 (39:47):
Do we have, can we talk about it in like eight minutes?
Speaker 3 (39:51):
I think we can, yeah. So yeah,
Speaker 1 (39:53):
That would be great.
Speaker 3 (39:53):
Okay. So when doctors first started doing heart transplants, it didn't take long before they noticed. People would come back in and they would report strange things like their taste in music or food or sports had totally changed, or they would've memories of being in places that they never in their life had ever visited. And there are books written about this. And in every case where these families were connected with the donor, or sorry, with the when these transplant recipients were connected with the, the families or the relatives of the heart donor, they would find out that, well, yes, our son's a baseball player, and now you'll love baseball. Maybe that's why, or, yeah, our daughter visited Rome every year. It was her favorite city in the world. Now you have memories of being in Rome, but you say you've never ever visited Rome.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
So the heart has something called cellular memory. The heart is the second brain we believe now of the ancients . The heart was the seed of the soul and the source of love and creativity and romance. And we've always kind of just thought that those ideas were just poetic license. But now we're beginning to realize that there's actually truth there. And in fact, they now know that there is something called the little brain in the heart that's, there's gray matter and white matter there. And the messages that are going between the brain and the heart are predominantly from the heart to the brain. And so we think now that the brain in your head is obeying the messages that are being sent by the brain in your heart, well, here's what happens when you feel like your heart is going to break. We've all felt that at one point or another, when that's going on and you're feeling that pressure on your chest, you're really deeply suffering.
Speaker 3 (41:18):
Someone's really hurting you, you're deep in grief or whatever it is, your heart's under assault at that point. And so the subconscious mind will gather emotional energies around the heart to protect the heart and those energies form into something that we call a heart wall. And a heart wall is an energy field that is surrounding the heart. And I never in my wildest dreams would've ever imagined this, but this is a real thing. And 93% of people have put up this wall. Now, when you have a heart wall, what happens is it makes it much more difficult for you to truly connect on a heart to heart level with other people. It makes it more difficult for you to find love, to stay in love. It makes it more difficult for you to manifest that perfect blueprint for your life that I believe lies within that heart of yours.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
'Cause I think the heart is really the seed of the subconscious. And what we find is that when that wall is taken down, people fall in love who never thought they would, people have creative ideas that start to flow spontaneously to them. All kinds of amazing things happen. And that's, that really truly is one of the big driving forces behind the success of this book all over the world, is that when people get those emotional energies removed from around their heart, all of a sudden they may feel peace for the first time in their life. They may be able to feel, I mean, these are things from people, from people who have told us these things that mm-hmm,
Speaker 1 (43:13):
So how might someone suspect that they have a heart wall?
Speaker 3 (43:17):
Well, if you can think back to a time in your life when you felt like your heart was going to break, if you bend through some heartbreaking things, like I said, 93% of people in our experience have put up a wall like this. Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Yeah, I remember reading about it in the book and it makes sense to me. I do feel I've been having experiences lately. I share very openly about my experiences on the show. And I, but I haven't shared this, I haven't talked about it, but I've been having this kundalini experience, and that really starts at the base of the spine and then starts reaching up and going through the heart. And the rush of opening that I've experienced during some of these in the heart area is a different experience of the heart energy that I've ever had. And I imagine what you're talking about is kind of like that. It's this opening and freeing of, I see the heart kind of as a rose, and that the energy can flow more freely. And like you're saying, that there's gray matter and white matter in there, and it really is the brain. I know. We think this lob of fat that we carry around on our
Speaker 3 (44:56):
Yeah. I believe that we really are designed to be heart-based beings. We're designed, I think, to live from our hearts. But somewhere along the line that we've gotten to this point where most people are living from their brain. They're trying to create their perfect life by using this analog computer. But the software for us, really, our pure essence lies within our hearts. And it's so fascinating because when that wall is taken down, the things that we see happening, there's lots of, I mean, we've got 10,000 plus maybe 20,000 testimonials now from people around the world about this kind of thing. And you can see some of those on our website@discoverhealing.com. But it's the most amazing thing. And by the way, I didn't mention this, but one of the most beautiful things about the emotion code is that if you learn how to use it for people, you automatically know how to use it for animals as well. And it's phenomenally powerful for animals. You've got an animal that's got a physical or a behavioral issue, you can probably fix that in short order with the emotion code. I mean, it's, there's a whole chapter in both the emotion code book and the body code book about animals. And it's a great proof of this work because there's no placebo effect with animals. They're just animals. And yet we see that they have emotional baggage. And getting rid of that baggage can make an enormous difference for them too, if
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Have pets. Yes, there are so many applications, pets, you can treat your family. And I love that in the book. You really, you really can do this yourself. It's very easy to do and applicable. So we will have the link for the free gift in the show notes. But if you'd like to give that again, give all the places, share all the places that people could find out more and find you online, find the book. I so appreciate you coming on the show and sharing this brilliant technology that you have discovered, developed, I'm not sure which, but it's, it's very beautiful and very valuable. So thank you so much for sharing it.
Speaker 3 (46:54):
Well, thank you. And people can, can find us@discoverhealing.com. That's our main website, discover healing.com. You can go to emotion code gift.com and get the first couple chapters of the book for free. My personal blog is Dr. Bradley nelson.com. It's D-R-B-R-E-D-L-E-Y-N-E-L-S-O n.com. And of course, we're all over the, you know, social media too. You can find us on Facebook and Twitter and so on.
Speaker 1 (47:18):
Great. Perfect. So I highly recommend that you go and look at the free gift, read the first couple chapters of the book. Like I said, the chart that Dr Bradley showed earlier is there, you can read that chart and you can get started working on your heart, well, your emotional baggage, which will help you with your hormones. Thank you again so much for joining me today for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I look forward to seeing you on social media and hearing how you are applying the things that you've learned today and the results that you're experiencing. I'll see you next week for another episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (48:02):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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On this empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we are thrilled to introduce our special guest, Dr. Traci Potterf – a compassionate and relatable Functional Medicine Anxiety Detective, who has dedicated her life to helping others understand and overcome their anxiety through holistic approaches.
Dr. Potterf's own personal journey with anxiety led her to discover the world of functional medicine, and she is now on a mission to share her story and expertise in order to help others struggling with the same issues. With a unique focus on "befriending your body and your life", Dr. Potterf delves into the topic of anxiety from a fresh, empathetic and inspiring perspective.
In this captivating episode, we explore:
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Identifying hidden causes of anxiety: Learn how Dr. Traci Potterf's own experience battling anxiety inspired her to specialize in functional medicine and searching for the root causes of this all-too-common condition.
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Natural solutions for addressing anxiety: Dr. Traci Potterf shares her expertise on various holistic and natural approaches to overcoming anxiety, from nutrition and supplements to mindfulness practices, prioritizing self-care, and more.
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Befriending your body and your life: Harness your inner self and learn to befriend your body and your life in order to take control of your anxiety and live a life full of happiness, balance, and health.
Don't miss out on the opportunity to learn invaluable insights from an inspiring and approachable authority in the field of functional medicine. Dr. Traci Potterf’s quote from the episode could not be more poignant: "It's time to reclaim our power and take control of our anxiety."
Take a step towards taking control of your anxiety – tune into this enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast and find your path to a healthier, more balanced life. Connect with Dr. Traci Potterf and embrace her unique perspective on overcoming anxiety today!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I said to my body softly, I want to be your friend. It took a long breath and replied, I have been waiting my whole life for this Naira Wahid. Stay tuned to discover a unique holistic approach to befriending your anxiety and healing it.
Speaker 2 (00:20):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into a holistic and global approach to addressing anxiety by befriending your body and your life. Sounds intriguing, doesn't it? If you're suffering with anxiety, I know it can be debilitating. I used to suffer with anxiety as well and found my way out. And my guest today, Dr. Tracy Potterf, really has a unique perspective on healing anxiety. We talked about it. Sure, it's all the things I like to talk about and we do cover those, but it's so much more and she really has a unique perspective based on her background, which I'll tell you a little bit about and we'll really dive into it. And this concept, like I shared in the teaser of befriending your body who has been waiting her whole life for you to turn her attention to her and to talk to her and to listen to her might be new to you, but it's really revolutionary and foundational when it comes to not only healing anxiety, but anything and everything that's plaguing you physically, mentally, and emotionally. So stay tuned to find out more. I will tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. Dr. Tracy Potter is a functional medicine anxiety detective who helps growth-minded people find and fix the hidden causes with natural solutions so they can live a limitless life at peace in their own skin. As a psychiatrist daughter, former medical anthropologist and recovered debilitating anxiety sufferer, she shares a unique way out of the mental health epidemic with the world. Please help me welcome Dr. Tracy Potterf to the show.
Speaker 3 (03:13):
Hey there. Thank you for letting me be a guest on your show.
Speaker 1 (03:16):
So excited to dive into this topic with you because you are the functional medicine anxiety detective and you have a really unique way of understanding and explaining what anxiety is, why we have it from an anthropological perspective that I think a lot of people miss. I think a lot of times we traditional mainstream doctors like I used to be, we're all about what's the diagnosis, what drug do I need to give? But even from a functional medicine perspective, we might look at some of the systems, but I think there are other issues at play that we might miss. You come from a family with a father, is it who was a psychiatrist, correct. So I'm sure you got a front row seat to a lot of dysfunction.
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Thank you. So yeah, I learned this the hard way. I've had lots of anxiety back in the day and what I realized, and I can share more about the process, but what I realized is that anxiety is not just some genetic chemical imbalance or like some individual defect. It is a symptom. It's not a disorder and it's a natural response to an unnatural environment. And the problem is that we've normalized a culture that tries to override nature instead of working with the genius or intelligence of nature. And that's why branded is inner genius health because your inner genius is you are nature. We are nature. It's not somewhere outside of us, it's what we are and our cells, our human cells, our micro cells, our DNA, and when we work with and not against that internal intelligence, then it's amazing what we can heal. And when we live in ways that for our inner genius and make it really hard on our inner genius, then we end up with what we have, which is an epidemic of mental health issues and chronic illness issues. And then we think that's normal aging. We think it's normal. And I've heard you say this and I say it all the time, say the same thing. Just because it's common does not mean it's normal. Nature's not that cool.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
It's so true. I love that I had to write that down. Anxiety is a natural response to an unnatural environment. We think what's wrong with us that we're anxious, right? But the truth is it's what's wrong with society,
Speaker 3 (06:04):
Yeah, yeah. It's true that if you have anxiety, something's wrong, but it doesn't mean you're inherently defective as a human being. And so it, I think of anxiety, I use and abuse this metaphor. I think of anxiety as a smoke alarm. Just like all symptoms, it's a smoke alarm. And if your, let's say your house is on fire, wish someone, let's say something's on fire and the smoke alarm goes off and you just take the battery out of the smoke alarm and that's analogous to just numbing the symptoms or trying to make the symptoms go away. But if you don't put out the fire, then your house is still gonna burn down. So anxiety is like a smoke alarm. It's your body telling you something's wrong and often your brain on fire. You have neuroinflammation, you have issues in your gut, your brain, hormonal issues often like infections, toxic exposures.
Speaker 3 (06:49):
And this, a lot of this goes back to, so you were asking specifically, what are we doing now? What do we normalize? That's unnatural. I think a lot of people have an intuitive sense of this, but let's get specific. So we're eating crap
Speaker 3 (07:37):
But like in our daily lives we've become so germophobic, but we don't realize we're poisoning ourselves with all these weird chemicals, toxins. And we're not too phobic, we're just like, ew germs. But then some of us are concerned about toxic chemicals, but a lot of people are oblivious to these like perfumes and creams and cleaning products. I've taken an informal toll, like I've talked to a lot of people who've been cleaning houses for decades and almost all of them have had cancer and cleaning products. Also, I think we know just sitting on our butts a lot and not moving, not squatting, not being able to squat and get up and down off the floor. That's a big deal. Mouth breathing. We're not breathing through our noses, we're breathing through our mouth for a whole lot of reasons, having our heads forwarded so that we screw up our posture and then we have trouble breathing and it causes cardiovascular disease, like not moving in joyful, playful ways, not playing, becoming alienated and not getting enough physical healthy physical touch and being held where like lack of tribe or community.
Speaker 3 (08:34):
It just goes on and on. Our sleep is messed up, our sleep is whacked. And then our circadian rhythms, this is a big one. Like people are starting to be like, okay, diet and exercise, which I don't even like those words anymore 'cause diet sounds like die, but like how we're eating. And then movement, I like it more than exercise, I'll use exercise, but I really like movement. 'cause It sounds more like play and exploration. But we're messing up our circadian rhythms. We're staying up late at night on these electronic devices. We're eating late at night, we're doing all these things that confuse our bodies and a lot of weight loss resistance and leptin resistance is tied to both how we're eating not and our sleep weight cycles and a relationship to light and the kinds of light we're exposed to at different times of day in the time of day we're eating.
Speaker 3 (09:19):
So it just goes on and on. But the thing is, all the solutions to all this are actually fun things that feel good. So I came up with this concept I call healthy hedonism, which is, so hedonism is like the pursuit of pleasure, but often people, we have a culture that's normalized toxic, addictive pleasures, things that destroy us. They feel good for a few minutes and then they destroy us and are often depressants, which are often neurotoxins. They are things that cause inflammation of the brain and nervous system, which causes anxiety, depression, brain fog, fatigue, trouble sleeping, just goes on and on. It is also because our nervous systems get dysregulated, then it messes up our immune system. A lot of people don't realize our nervous system and our immune system share biological structures and are in lockstep with each other. So then you have, you get sick more often or you have an overactive immune system and you end up without immunity and it just goes on and on and on.
Speaker 3 (10:09):
But what I want people to understand is the solutions. You can eat delicious food, you can have really wonderful self-care rituals that make you feel even euphoric. There are ways to move your body that feel like clay and you can still be really fit. We don't understand. It's not either or. It's that you don't give up pleasure to be healthy. You use pleasure and things that align with your evolutionary biology as a doorway to healing your body, healing your mind. So to heal your mind and your body, you have to heal your life.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
I love that he called it? Healthy hedonism. Healthy
Speaker 3 (10:42):
Hedonism. So pursuit of pleasure but healthy pleasures. So we need to broaden our pleasure palette. Like we need to be, like if you were painting a rainbow with just black and white, you'd be pretty limited. If you have the whole rainbow of human experience, then that's when you're really lit up and that's when you really come back home to yourself.
Speaker 1 (11:00):
So you described a lot of the lifestyle situations and conditions we're living under that are contributing to our anxiety. I'm wondering what your thoughts are, what you'd like to share about just the way that our brains function and are structured compared to other animals. One of the things I've loved about traveling is I get to encounter unique healers all over the world. And there's a guy who comes to Dubai called Ner Levy, and he does this very unique healing modality called the Ner Levy method. And he did a beautiful introductory talk one night and with the audience participation where to his work where he talked about the way in which we're living and what the difference is. And he brought in a lot of the things that you're mentioning. We used to live more rurally and communities and just the contact that we had, physical and emotional, spiritual connection with others. But this whole concept of what do we have? Why don't zebras have anxiety?
Speaker 3 (12:04):
Yeah, that's that why, yeah, that book is genius,
Speaker 1 (12:07):
Uniquely human because we have something they don't have, which is imagination. And that a lot of the things that we are anxious about as we we're, we have anxiety over is because of our imagination.
Speaker 3 (12:21):
That's a really good point. Yeah, it's true. We make a lot of stuff up. Like a lot of the demons are the, a lot of the, the predators are in our head most of the time. And it's interesting because we sit around, we can so easily all of us sit around imagining all kinds of scenarios and making ourselves nervous or whatever. And then we're sitting there overlooking the fact that we are actively, most people,
Speaker 3 (13:11):
Or if you have anxiety, as I went through, I had Lyme, I've been through Lyme disease, I've been through toxic mold, I've been through lead poisoning, all of those things cause severe anxiety and anxiety was the first symptom of what was, what something was off. So that's why I, I teach people if you wanna really resolve your anxiety, and a lot of people are like, I've tried everything that didn't work and they're not very open. And the thing is there, you have to address like three areas because if you just do one outta three or two out of three, you're not gonna get better. You're not gonna get rid of anxiety. And, and I'm sure you work with people in these same areas, which is of course there's a lifestyle I just talked about. And lifestyle is your daily thoughts and actions and your environment, your physical environment, your social environment.
Speaker 3 (13:52):
So that's big. It's not just diet and exercise. Then there's finding hidden health causes, hormonal issues, infections, environmental toxins, all kinds of things like that. Like just hidden help causes. And then the third pillar is your nervous system, like how your nervous system is wired and programmed. You can rewire things to neuroplasticity, you can rewire your nervous system to go from being over overwhelmed to a state of calm. And you can actually change the neurological structure of your brain through practices that actually feel good and don't take that much time. Yeah. But back to your point about our imagination, our neocortex or executive function that we have as humans, it's a blessing and a curse. It's a double-edged sword because we can create so much
Speaker 1 (14:49):
Yes, we're learning how to wield the sword of, of who we are, how do we work with it? So it helps us. Something you touched on a few things just sparked something in me. You were running down kind of the list of all the things you need to look at. If you have anxiety, and you have this in the notes, I have this in my notes from you for the show, why no one has ever tried anything. So I actually just got off a consultation with a woman who, and if you're listening and you listen regularly to the podcast, I'm talking to you
Speaker 1 (15:39):
Right. And anxiety really highlights this, but so does every other symptom in this order because there's absolutely, there's always a reason why. And I, we've done, I've done it issues, I've done shows
Speaker 3 (16:24):
Oh, no, no. Oh no. I was just gonna say, if you think about it, we live in an infinite universe. There is no such thing as everything having been tried because there's no end in sight. You just think of it logically. That's the reality. And what you were saying that there's, it's your body's asking for something and that's something exists. Like you may not. So when people say, I've tried everything and it didn't work, what they mean is I've tried everything that the experts have told me or that I've read about or that I've thought of or which doesn't mean everything, it just means what you're familiar with. Or it means I've tried everything that I felt ready and willing to try
Speaker 1 (17:06):
Skipped over it or everything I was willing to spend the time and money on because that's what I find, right? A lot of people are like, yeah, no, I, I'd rather get, so yeah, she was telling me about some cosmetic procedure that she was having done, but she doesn't, didn't wanna invest in this thing anyway. Yeah. Back to anxiety. How do people need to expand their awareness and really tap into what you call their inner genius? What is their inner genius and why is it crucial to heal just about anything?
Speaker 3 (17:36):
Yeah. So your inner genius is the genius or intelligent in nature that runs all of existence. It makes the planet spin in their orbit that makes the flowers win and the bees buzz and makes every chemical process, it's the magic of nature. And nature has this tendency to strive toward balance or homeostasis where it's trying to correct itself. And symptoms or sensations, emotions are nature's way of talking to us and communicating and guiding us. It's your inner guide, your inner wisdom. And when we don't listen to that or we don't know how to listen, 'cause we haven't been taught to listen, we don't speak the language, then we feel maybe like our bodies have betrayed us or like we're defective or we feel angry. But here's the thing, like if you put your hand on a hot stove and your body didn't say, ouch, get that off, would that be a loyal body?
Speaker 3 (18:28):
If your brain's inflamed and you're damaging your gut and your intestines with the food you're eating and your body didn't make your tummy hurt or make you have brain fog or headaches or anxiety, then you wouldn't be being notified. That would be betrayal. If our bodies didn't tell us something's off, that would be betrayal. And so your inner genius is your best friend. It is infinitely intelligent and it's something you can tap into. And one of my favorite ways to tap into this is a meditation practice. And for those of you who are thinking, I'm so tired of hearing about meditation, I suck at meditation. That is a story. And you're, that's your imagination. That's imagination. That's not an objective reality because there are ways, maybe you've tried things that didn't work for you, but there are ways, like I teach people really concrete ways to meditate that gives your mind a job.
Speaker 3 (19:19):
And believe me, every one of us when we start meditating or if we skip meditation and then go back after a while, you're gonna have what they call the east monkey mind. You're gonna be like, your mind's gonna be all over the place. It's gonna be like
Speaker 3 (20:07):
There's something you can do with your attention and with your breath at the same time. That's so easy. Anyone can do it. And in 15 minutes you're a totally different person. So if you have physical pain, emotional pain, anxiety, and also I accidentally discovered through my clients who are doing this at bedtime, it helps people who are having trouble sleeping and people, you can memorize it, it's a technique you memorize pretty quickly. So then you just have it the rest of your life. You don't need the recording anymore. And my clients just spontaneously started, they would wake up in the middle of the night, couldn't go back to sleep, they would do this process and then they would con out, they couldn't even get through the whole thing and they'd be back asleep again. So it's actually, I like this, I like to say it's better than melatonin for sleep or any other sleep aid.
Speaker 3 (20:47):
So like, just what we're able to do with our consciousness, with our breath is amazing. And that puts you in a possibility that then allows you to tap into your inner genius to stop sabotaging yourself and to get out of your own way and open up to the infinite possibility of your life. And then when you learn to do that, then that helps you have more of the wherewithal for the, the self-care, the wherewithal for the the functional medicine part and that kind of part, that kind of like all the, so it gives, it opens up the doorway to help you be more open to all the pillars, like all the steps you need to do to fix the problem. And I really fully believe that when you go through a mental health crisis, physical health crisis, even if it's been going on your whole life, I've had clients who've had anxiety since they, they remember being babies or toddlers having anxiety. They never remember not having anxiety. So they think, oh, I must be inherently defective and it's not true. So I have people who, who've been anxious their whole lives and within just a few weeks or really weeks to maybe a few months, three months, something like that, their anxiety has gone from like an eight to 10 daily, two to four. And that's, that's your ingen.
Speaker 1 (22:00):
Yeah. That's amazing. So I'd love that you bring that up because it's really like the prep work you need to get in the right space where you are open to receive the help that you're needing and you can tap into that eness. I think that we all have an innate intuition about what speaks to us and what we should go towards and what we should go away from. But we've learned to dampen it down so much that we're always looking to quote unquote experts to tell us what should I do? Right? And we really lose that internal guidance. That was true for me too. It's funny because when I learned about functional medicine after I transformed my health and then started working with people and some, a lot of people got it and some people just couldn't pick up the tools. What I realized is that there was a step before that happened for me that is exactly what you're talking about, Tracy, where I was able to tap into that inner heterogeneous and tap into being open.
Speaker 1 (22:59):
Because the truth was that these tools had come across my path years before and I had dismissed them and discounted them because I wasn't tapped into that frequency. So I love that you've created this pre-step for people to start tapping into that inner genius. So I definitely wanna say to everyone listening, that would be step one and then the person who is really anxious and I can identify with that because as everybody knows, I shared this before, I was so anxious at one point in my life before I found a, a root cause approach where I was on five psychoactive medications for anxiety and depression. And it ended up being all the things I like to say, right? It was my hormones. Yeah, it was my toxicity, it was my gut health. It was, you name it, right? Nervous system. And so now I've untangled all that and I really don't have anxiety or depression and I'm not on any medications and haven't been for years.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
But for the person listening, they're like, okay, Dr. Tracy, I get it. Okay. I need to calm my mind. Oh, I really wanna say one other thing about what you say about people who say, I can't meditate. I'm so tired of hearing about meditation, right? Do we ever say that about sleep? I'm so tired of hearing about sleep, right?
Speaker 3 (24:29):
Speaker 3 (25:13):
There's magic that happens there. There's it, it's amazing. It takes some time but not that long. It just takes consistency. Just like moving your body, just eating, just like sleep habits. Like it's just a habit. And it is, I really feel like if you go through a human life without ever developing meditation practice, you are missing out on a huge part of human possibility because there's like an inner world inside of us that makes us feel complete, that makes us feel whole. That makes us feel like you hear people mocking one with the universe, but feeling at one with the universe is really awesome. It feels amazing. So I just don't miss out on that. Don't like to do homework like you've gotta go meditate or else you're a bad girl or a bad boy. Most women here on this podcast, right?
Speaker 3 (26:00):
No, don't miss out on this inner party. Like it's like there's this amazing party and you're missing out on it inside of you. And your inner genius, yes. Is that consciousness and that consciousness drives your thoughts, your emotions, your awareness. But that consciousness drives all chemical processes. Your inner genius is also the chemical processes in your body. The inner geniusness is how microbes talk to each other and share genetic information. The inner genius is happening in the soil, it's happening in the plants, it's happening in the stars, it's happening in the sun, it's happening like that. The inner genius is happening. There's, for the inner genius, there's no differentiation between physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual. 'cause It's all the same consciousness.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
Yes. And be patient with yourself. You didn't learn how to tie your shoes in one day, so it takes half.
Speaker 3 (26:46):
You did not.
Speaker 1 (26:47):
But yeah. So I have to, you gave me some beautiful quotes that I just have to pull all of them in before we end. So I've gotta start doing it now. You have this one from, do you say it, naira Wahe. And I said to my body, softly, I want to be your friend. I took a long breath and replied, I have been waiting my whole life for this. Oh my gosh, that gives me chill bumps. I've never heard that quote before. Tell me a little bit about this quote and what this means.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
At the end of the day, that's what our bodies want. That's what the pain is telling you. That's what the suffering is telling you. That's what belly fat is telling you. That's what the headaches, that's what everything is telling you. I wanna be your friend. I wanna take care of you. I want you to pay attention to me. I want you to love me. I want us to be on the same team. And we don't have a culture that teaches us to do that. And we have such a cliche culture. We usually look at TV shows and movies and advertisements. It's, I had a bad day, I need a drink. Let's like wine and chocolate is the only way to feel good. I'm not saying you can't ever enjoy wine and chocolate. I'm just saying that's so narrow compared to the vast. And so I just, yeah, we have to make friends with our, with our bodies, with our inner genius.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
I think for a lot of people, that's a really novel and radical concept because like you said, our culture is all about, oh, you're stressed, drink or do XY shop or whatever. But so for those people who are intrigued, how do they start to befriend their body?
Speaker 3 (28:19):
Well, one of the things I say, I think it's still on my website where you can get the brain to take meditation. I think it says unlock yourself healing superpowers. I don't know if I still have that on there, but it's, I feel like when you first start to have experiences where you have the ability to change, disrupt and change and transform a pattern in your body and you realize you have more control over your body than you realize, or you first start making changes to the quality of the food you're eating. Like here's the deal. You can still eat things you love whether it's hamburgers or pizza or curries or whatever, you just eat healthy versions of them and you balance your meals better. That's a whole other conversation. But if you're using quality ingredients and you balance the nutrients, there's kind of nothing within reason.
Speaker 3 (29:03):
There's very little you can't eat and still feel good afterwards. And like having, I think a lot of people don't have, we talk about boundaries these days, which I think is an important conversation. But what about boundaries around how you treat yourself? We talk, we have junk food, we have junk thoughts, junk beliefs, junk habits. And one thing I like to say about food is like when I give talks, sometimes I'll say, what is the most intimate thing we do with something outside of ourselves? And most people are thinking sex, right? Sex is incredibly intimate, but eating is more intimate because the molecules of the food become new. They become your body and become your thoughts, your feelings, your emotions, the perceptual lenses in which reality, right? And why wouldn't we have standards around that? And one of the things I just wanna gripe about is all the people saying restrictive diets.
Speaker 3 (29:54):
When people decide, Hey, I'm gonna take care of myself. I'm gonna stop poisoning myself and start nurturing myself and only eat like really yummy things that serve me. And other people are like, oh, you are on a restrictive diet. I'm like, no, I'm being liberated by my choices. This is freedom. There are so many hundreds of thousands of species of healthy edible things on this planet. And we are fixated on all this processed crap that's made from the same few in ingredients of natural ingredients and then thousands of chemicals. And we think we're being restricted when we decide to stop hurting ourselves. Like I got, if someone got out of an abusive relationship and said, I'm not gonna be in this abusive relationship anymore, will we tell that person, oh, you're really restricting your life by not letting this person abuse you. That doesn't make sense.
Speaker 1 (30:38):
And I think it goes right into this other quote you offered from Maya Angelou that I love. If you're always trying to be normal, you will never know how amazing you can be because I think that we try to fit in quote unquote normal. We wanna eat like everyone else and live like everyone else and have the same cars in the same fashion and all these things. And we spend so much time trying to be normal. But talking about how that affects your health is an example you just gave. Like the diet that's right for someone else might not be the right diet for you, but how you look at it, if you call it restrictive, it's different than this is the right diet prescription for me. So talk a little bit about that and how you can let go of being normal so you can know how amazing you're
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah. Yeah. I love, yeah, I love that. I love
Speaker 3 (32:23):
Yeah. And so here's the deal. The way we make culture is by you and you and me and Dr. Kieran, like Dr. Dunston, like all of us are voting on culture. We all create it with our lifetime. We create it with how we spend money, we create it, it with what we consume. We create it with what we share. I don't mean getting on a soapbox and preaching at people and being righteous. That's obnoxious and that's not gonna create a connection. But when we all start as individuals and just lovingly making different choices, we model something different to other people and then those other people who are right on the edge of being like, I've been wanting to do that too. Suddenly it starts a domino effect. Like when I started changing my lifestyle, I tried preaching, didn't work, blow up in my face. That's why I say, don't do that.
Speaker 3 (33:06):
That was in my twenties. Didn't know better
Speaker 3 (33:46):
And then other people want that. And people who criticize it or don't get it, they're just not your people. They're not your tribe. They're a different tribe. And that's okay. There's nothing wrong with that. And I just want people to understand. And here's another reframe for you guys. I think just on a primal level, we all have that little kid who doesn't wanna be left out at the birthday party or whatever, at school or dinner. And here's the deal, if you do what everyone else is doing in the main, in the mainstream, if you follow the mainstream, you're pretty much guaranteed to have chronic illness, to have mental health issues, to have cognitive decline, to become disabled, to be in diapers in your elder years, not be able have a walker be in a wheelchair, to be in lots of pain, to get autoimmunity, to get cancer, heart disease, to have your organs fail on you, to have like really invasive surgeries to like, you know this like that. If you wanna be included, that's what you're opting into. But what if being left out wasn't the worst thing in the world? What if you're being, instead of being left out, you're opting out of all these horrible things I just mentioned that we think are normal aging. What if you're opting out and by doing so you are setting an example that can help other people in your tribe do the same thing so that we can co-create a culture of nurture instead of a culture of torture. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (35:04):
I think that's something definitely important to ponder. And I think it's really the era that we're going into with this age of Aquarius coming, this myth of normal HaBO mates. And really our individuality and our uniqueness. And instead of top down, we're more communal and sharing and finding what's right for each one of us, which is going to vary greatly. But it can't happen if you don't have a relationship with your body and you're, you haven't befriended your body. One of the things that I love to teach women to do is to talk to their bodies. Talk to different folks. Yes,
Speaker 3 (35:45):
Me too. Oh my God, I love that.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Yeah. Talk to their symptoms and ask what is the message that you have for me? Right? I always say that symptoms are the messengers, they're not the problem themselves. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
But I think that what Dr. Tracy offers is, yes, gut health. Yes. Liver detox. Yes. Heavy metals. Yes. Mold, yes. Line, yes. All the things you've gotta do, the hormones, all the things and check all the things. But she really offers, you really offer a unique perspective that I don't think all root cause practitioners offer. And that's what I want everyone to hear and get is this connection to yourself, to your soul, this connection to other people, your connection to nature and universe and expressing that is a part of healing all physical health problems, including anxiety. So talk a little bit about that if you would. Yeah,
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Like our consciousness changes our biology. I think there are a lot of people out there that are talking about scientists, doctors. It's come out of the realm of just flu, which is where it was relegated for so long. Yeah. Because if you look deeper than, say you look at gut health and Lyme disease and all that stuff, if you look levels deeper, what caused that? Right? And why can some people have certain kinds of worms and what we call parasites and viruses. And there are people who have Borrelia or tick-borne illnesses or people who have HIV. There are people who have all kinds of different pathogens in their bodies. So there've been studies where they'll test thousands of people who are so-called healthy. I don't know where they're getting these people seriously, because I don't think there are that many Americans who are healthy.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
But I guess people who don't have diagnosed conditions and think they're healthy, there's, I remember this study, I wish I could, I need to find it again. But they did this elaborate testing on thousands of people who weren't considered sick and found that these people tested positive for a lot of these different conditions, a lot of these different pathogens, these critters inside of them that we consider pathogens and they weren't sick. Because it's not just the presence of the pathogen that makes the disease, it's how your immune system dances with it, which is directly tied to how your nervous system dances with it. So if your nervous system is dysregulated, your immune system becomes hypervigilant, just like your nervous system. So I think of a lot of these mold sensitivity and just stuck in chronic Lyme and chronic gut issues and just goes on and on. Even hormone stuff. Yeah. Mass cell activation, all these things is, and oh, and autoimmunity, I think of them as immunological PTSD. So your nervous system has PTSD and your immune system has PTSD and they're stuck in a rutt together. And I don't know if I'm going off down a little bit of another angle, but
Speaker 1 (39:18):
No, I love it. I just think that's amazing. Immunological. P ts d Go on
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Speaker 3 (40:06):
'Cause It can be overwhelming. I'm really, I'm supposed to do all this stuff, like I have a life, I'm busy. And so getting help because we are tribal creatures, right? And so it's just really important to really work with our nervous systems and our connection to something deeper as to circle back to what you were saying, like when we are connected to something beyond ourselves, we open up realms of possibility that we couldn't have even imagined possible before. And when you open up to that possibility, then suddenly all these other parts of the puzzle start filling in as well. And that's why having a guide that can help you through a process, because a lot of people just wanna go to someone and give an, get an appointment and have them tell me what supplements to take. And maybe I'll cut out a few foods, which are all fine things.
Speaker 3 (40:50):
There's nothing wrong with that. But if you don't do the deeper work mentally, physically, emotionally, in terms of your self-care, your daily habits, your thoughts, actions, beliefs, if you don't go through, go on a journey. If you don't go on this inner pilgrimage, like your body's gonna still keep telling you something's wrong and then you're gonna think something's wrong with you or you're gonna be mad at your body or feel betrayed. But that's not what's really happening. What's really happening is that you need to go on this inner pilgrimage to move through the different layers to come into the version of yourself that is sitting inside of you. You're not, the idea of this isn't to become a better person, it's to polish your, you're a gem and to polish, get the mud off and polish the beauty of what is inside of you already that is not getting fully expressed.
Speaker 1 (41:33):
Yeah. I love it so beautifully said Tracy. And I think that the gift of chronic symptoms and chronic illness is that eventually it will force you into this inner path and this inner journey if you keep at it, unless you give up. And that inner path and inner journey really is what not only brings you to physical healing, but greater expression of yourself in this lifetime. So I know we are running short on time, but I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the demonization of estrogen. One of my favorite topics. Yes.
Speaker 3 (42:14):
A
Speaker 1 (42:16):
Speaker 3 (42:46):
Oh, I love to. Let's get into it. So one of the first things I wanna say. My dad was a doctor. I grew up helping out in his office. I grew up in psychiatry and I can tell you doctors don't have time to delve into the research 'because they are so stinking busy. And there are certain people, practitioners who really stay abreast of research. I know Dr. Dunson does too, right? Do you like to be called Kieran? Dr. Kieran? Dr. Dunston.
Speaker 1 (43:13):
Speaker 3 (43:16):
Speaker 3 (44:07):
That was like, if you go dig into it, like instead of spending a lot of time, I'm sure you have lots of other episodes where you talk about it. And I'm sure like you can go read, there's this great book called Estrogen Matters that goes through step by step dismantling the whole thing. It doesn't take that long to read. You can also get it on audible. Estrogen matters. So one of the problems culturally is that we have a history of demonizing estrogen. And from a medical anthropology perspective, one of the things I've really looked at is history. Even if you look at the word hysterical comes from the Latin root for the word uterus. And like femininity in so many ways, like female hormones, female body parts have been pathologized like going back centuries. And we don't do that. Men are low on testosterone.
Speaker 3 (44:53):
We're not like, you're not allowed to have any, if people are low on thyroid, then we're not told you can't have any, if people are low on D three and that's a hormone, not a vitamin, we don't tell people you can't have any and it's gonna cause cancer and kill you. This whole idea that estrogen causes cancer, like estrogen cause cancer, then the people getting the most cancer would be really young women with high levels of estrogen, not older, middle aged women. It just makes no sense. If you look at the evidence there that that has never been shown and researched to, to exist. It doesn't exist. It's a, it's like literally one of the most damaging rumors that has ever made its way through medicine. So if you need estrogen, there are ways to get support. Now you I, in my, you can see what you say, what you think, but I don't think people, I think it's important not to take, if you can make your own hormone, then you don't wanna take so much that you impede your body's ability to make it own, make its own. But if you are really low on estrogen or progesterone and you're suffering, you need to take it. And I personally really am an advocate of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy as opposed to synthetic, especially progesterone progestin. It's not even the same molecule as progesterone. So I think it's really important for people to use really natural progesterone like the actual progesterone molecule and not progestin. I dunno, what do you think about that?
Speaker 1 (46:14):
Oh yes. Natural, absolutely. Bioidentical biologically identical. I mean, everybody listening knows we've got her hormone club if they need access to physicians who are experts in that board certified and licensed if they need access. But biologically identical if you need it, it's not appropriate for everyone, but Right. For the right. Yes.
Speaker 3 (46:36):
Yeah. And also, I do wanna say I am a huge supporter of bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. And it's important to know, if you look at the domino effect of like the cascade of hormones in the human body, so much of hormone production starts in parts of the brain that also create chemicals that make stress hormones. So when we are stressed out, and then of course, I know you guys know from following Dr. Kieran, that all these toxic chemicals in our environment, our liver, you know all this, like this is all causing hormonal havoc. So when our brains are dysregulated, hormones are happening in our brains, they're happening in our liver, they're happening in our microbiome, our microbiomes are managing hormones. A lot of people don't realize that. And so when we do all the parts to really take care of our nervous system to nur nurture and nourish ourselves to sleep and to rest, and to have a meditation practice that, that you can fit in your schedule in life and that works for you when you do all those things, a lot of your hormones will self-Correct. When you get the nasty chemicals out of your body, a lot of it will self-Correct. But whatever does not self-correct, through self-care and all these measures, then it's okay to take hormones. Please do. It's not worth being miserable just to say, I'm not taking this.
Speaker 1 (47:53):
Yeah, it's a whole other conversation because that's what my TEDx talk was about, the consequences of hormonal poverty. So even for people who don't have symptoms, they, you do need to educate yourself on the consequences of not having these hormones because it's more than just symptomatology, but it's more than we have
Speaker 3 (48:13):
To go into. Yeah. Yeah. It does increase all risk mortality. It does increase your risk of outcomes of diseases. Like basically, it's dangerous not to have your hormones balanced.
Speaker 1 (48:23):
And gosh, Tracy, we could talk about for so long, we could talk forever.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
Absolutely. You're welcome to join my email list and get content there. You can follow me on Instagram, YouTube, or I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn. So just the usual social media channels. I'm really easy to stalk
Speaker 1 (49:10):
Awesome. Thank you Dr. Tracy Potter for coming on the show,
Speaker 3 (49:18):
Yeah, thank you. I've loved connecting with you. Thank
Speaker 1 (49:20):
You. And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. I hope you found today's episode inspiring, insightful, and you've probably heard some things that you've not heard before about your health. So I look forward to learning how you're gonna start befriending your body and going deeper and really start having a conversation with her because she's talking to you and she's waiting for you to talk to her. So start listening, reach out to me on social media and tell me all about it. Until next week, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (50:02):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! In today's episode, our host [host name] is joined by the distinguished Dr. Jeffrey Gross, a board-certified neurological surgeon who specializes in anti-aging and regenerative medicine. Together, they explore the groundbreaking developments in stem cell technology and its role in improving health and combating disease.
Dr. Gross starts by offering insights into how he discovered the immense potential of stem cells in the field of regenerative medicine. This led him to establish ReCELLebrate, a cutting-edge initiative focused on providing modern biochemical treatments and, where possible, avoiding surgical intervention. Dr. Gross takes us on a deep dive into the longevity and biohacking consultations he conducts at his ReCELLebrate clinics in California and Nevada.
In addition to his work with stem cells, Dr. Gross also shares how his expertise extends to treating athletic injuries and performing spine procedures. Throughout the conversation, he delves into the nuances of these treatments and provides invaluable information on how stem cells can be an effective solution to many health problems.
Reflecting on his background, Dr. Gross walks us through his fascinating journey in the field of medicine and how he became a leading expert in stem cells and regenerative medicine.
Show Highlights:
- How Dr. Jeffrey Gross discovered the impressive capabilities of stem cells in regenerative medicine.
- The founding and goals of ReCELLebrate, Dr. Gross's innovative approach to employing biochemical treatments.
- An inside look at Dr. Gross's ReCELLebrate clinics and the longevity and biohacking consultations offered.
- Dr. Gross's expertise in addressing athletic injuries and spine procedures, and how it ties in with his work in regenerative medicine.
- A glimpse into the captivating background and journey of Dr. Jeffrey Gross in the medical field.
Join us in this enlightening conversation with Dr. Jeffrey Gross, and learn about the incredible possibilities that stem cells and regenerative medicine have to offer. Don't miss out on the wealth of knowledge this episode has to share, and be sure to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast for more enlightening discussions!
[00:00:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Cade Hildreth, the founder of Bioinformant, a stem cell industry research firm, is quoted as saying, the regenerative medicine revolution is upon us. Like iron and steel to the industrial revolution, like the microchip to the tech revolution, stem cells will be the driving force of this next revolution.
[00:00:20] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Stay tuned to find out how you can start using stem cells to transform your health, your life, and your longevity. So the big question is how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you're not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again.
[00:00:45] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: As an OBGYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss and supercharged energy after 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is [00:01:00] designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results.
[00:01:04] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you're facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kieran Dunstan. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast. Hi everybody.
[00:01:22] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into the use of stem cells for regenerative and longevity medicine with Dr. Jeffrey Gross. This is really one of the most powerful and emerging aspects of health that is available to you now To create the health that you're wanting the healing that you're wanting that you might not be aware of Because it's not offered everywhere and usually not covered by insurance And your regular doctor's probably not going to talk to you about it But as I shared in the beginning the quote it [00:02:00] really is One of the most powerful tools that's going to transform medicine, just like our tech field has been transformed.
[00:02:08] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And there's another quote that I love that I'll share. The next age of medicine will revolve around stem cells, just like there was. the pre intranet age, there will soon be the pre stem cell age, and it will confuse the next generation to talk about it. So although now it seems a little way out and off the beaten path, it will probably become the standard of care at some point in the future.
[00:02:32] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So I know that if you're listening, you want to know everything that's available that could possibly help you create better health, live a longer and healthier life and increase your vitality span. So I know you're going to want to hear about extending your health and longevity using stem cells and regenerative medicine.
[00:02:53] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So I'll tell you a little bit. about Dr Jeffrey Gross and then we'll get started. Dr Gross is a board certified [00:03:00] neurological surgeon who identified the unique and powerful capacity of stem cells to help not only neurological problems but to regenerate many aspects of health affected by disease. He focuses on anti aging and regenerative medicine at his resellably Great clinics in California and Nevada.
[00:03:17] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So we're going to dive into this episode in not only neurologic applications, but arthritic joint applications, musculoskeletal and more. And we're going to talk about beauty applications too, which I know you're going to want to hear about. So please help me welcome Dr. Jeffrey Gross to the
[00:03:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: show. Thank you so much.
[00:03:36] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I'm Pleased to be here. It's an honor to join you today. Yes, I'm
[00:03:39] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: super excited to have you on fellow physician who now has gone astray just like me and really found some things that can help people, which my audience really loves hearing about because they've done the HMO copay dr tango and [00:04:00] they know it doesn't work for them.
[00:04:01] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: The number one question I get from people is why doesn't my doctor know what you know? Why doesn't my doctor offer me what you offer me? And they love to hear stories of doctors like you and me who were in the dark and found the light and what we know that can actually help them. So why don't we start there Dr.
[00:04:22] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Jeff with your story from conventional medicine into what
[00:04:27] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: you're doing now. Great. Thank you for the opportunity. Probably a bit like yours, I was trained to be a physician, many years of training, just like you, and came from professors who trained similarly 20 years earlier, who were trained by professors similarly 20 years earlier, and there's a, there's this sort of preservation of these traditional in the box thinking of medicine, and I haven't abandoned that, what I have done is expand on it, because probably like you as well, we're [00:05:00] scientists, And we explore and we ask questions and we want to know what's really happening and what we have to do our own homework on that sometimes.
[00:05:08] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So, I was practicing traditional spine neurosurgery. I was taking care of patients mostly with neck and back problems, injuries, disc issues, pinched nerves. A very, very busy practice and I noticed that patients were telling me something they were coming in and saying, Hey, doc, I've tried all the things you've recommended.
[00:05:29] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I've tried therapy. I've tried time. I've tried prayer. I've tried supplements. I've tried anti inflammatories. I've even tried injections, but I'm still having problems. And we would talk, let's go over the surgical options. And they'd say, yeah, I'm just not quite ready. And I'd look at them and say, yeah, I think you're right.
[00:05:46] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: You're not quite ready. You're not bad enough. And you're in that gap, that no man's land. And then they would say, Doc, what about lasers? And what about this? And what about stem cells? And you get hit enough time on the head with a rubber [00:06:00] mallet and that stem cell's stuck. And I finally said, you know what?
[00:06:04] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Instead of going to the same old spine conferences every year And seeing, hearing the same old things reported, I'm going to go a different direction and I started going to different meetings and different educational conferences and got interested and retrained and now I've incorporated regenerative medicine and anti aging medicine and all these things into my practice to expand my tool base.
[00:06:27] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Great, so You could learn from a pleasure perspective. I love that. So what happened when you went to your first stem cell conference? Take everyone through that. What really piqued your interest that you said, Wow, this is valid. And I need to know more about this because this could benefit my
[00:06:45] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: patients. I was, I'm embarrassed to say that 32 years had passed since I had my undergraduate degree in biochemistry and I went to the meeting and it just reopened a lot that had happened in 32 years [00:07:00] that built on this really neat background in molecular biology and what we knew about cells and how they function together.
[00:07:07] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And I was so busy going down this path of clinical medicine that I had missed. I never got a newsletter on all the updates in this and what we've learned. And so I was a little embarrassed and, but it was wonderful because it reopened that curiosity and that reason why I, I chose that as my undergraduate degree in the first place and all that had happened in stem cells and in exosomes and other regenerative biologics.
[00:07:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And that had been applied clinically, meaning for patients. So it wasn't just on a lab bench. Yeah. So
[00:07:41] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: let's get into stem cells. I think they're a mystery for a lot of people. And they're confused about what are the different types of stem cells, what can they be used for, what's FDA approved, what's not, what might they get in another country they won't get in [00:08:00] the U.
[00:08:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: S., and also the benefits for longevity. And there are methods for stimulating your own stem cells. I recently learned about stem cells from endometrium and menstrual blood, which is really fascinating to me. But do you want to start there? Just kind of talking about what are stem cells?
[00:08:19] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Sure. This is, we'll do a little stem cell one on one here.
[00:08:22] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And this is, let's take it back. When we were embryos inside of our mothers, We are made up of a ball of cells, and those are all stem cells, and those stem cells are incredibly powerful. They start out omnipotent, meaning they can become anything, and they become further differentiated, and that's a biological word, meaning the cells start to work towards what they're going to end up being, and it's like a job assignment.
[00:08:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: You go to the vocational office, you say, assign me a job and okay, you're going to be a liver cell and you over there, you're going to be part of the elbow. You get a job assignment. [00:09:00] As the fetus develops, these omnipotent cells become pluripotent. They have less opportunities, but they're still broad opportunities.
[00:09:09] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And then they become a multipotent and they get all the way down to where they can only differentiate into certain types of tissues. And those are the vast majority of what's available clinically because they're safer. They can't go backwards in the lineage and create a whole new human or even something weird.
[00:09:27] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We don't want that. And you're coming from the OBGYN field, you've heard of teratomas, these very, very, very Germ cell based tumors and things that can, so we don't want to use those dangerous cells. We don't know how to control them yet. So when we use the word stem cells, we're talking about these, they just haven't made that final job assignment.
[00:09:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Right. And these are typically from the mesenchymal or the mesoderm layer of the embryo. And meaning they form most of the connective tissues, most of the organs. And when you tap into [00:10:00] these stem cells, they can be very powerful. Now, as humans, we have stem cells in us. They are a bank of cells, a storehouse, if you will, of cells that our body is constantly tapping into.
[00:10:11] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We renew our skin constantly. We're making new skin cells. We renew our liver cells. And if we are injured or hurt somehow, those cells can be recruited to help repair us. Think about Doc, a three year old scrapes his knee on the sidewalk. And you bandage, you clean it up, put some Bactine on it, put a bandage on it, give them a kiss and send them on their way, right?
[00:10:34] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Three days later, that bandaid comes off, but that scab is almost completely healed. But then you take, in comparison, a 70 year old who bangs her elbow, and there's a bruise for two and a half weeks. So why does the same person who healed so quickly at age three not heal the same at age 70? Why? Same genes.
[00:10:55] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Same bank of stem cells. Of course, our stem cells lose steam with [00:11:00] age. They get exposed to what we learned in medical school is called vaguely inflammation, right? And inflammation is the accumulation of all this environmental damage, exposure to toxins, exposure to electromagnetic fields, what's in our diet, what's in our water, how we treated ourselves with stress or avoidance of stress.
[00:11:22] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And I'm sure you've talked about this with others as it applies to hormonal function, right? We want to try to tend towards an anti inflammatory lifestyle. So in any way, our stem cells don't work as well to repair and regenerate us. And that can happen at different rates. So the whole basis of the stem cell biology as a treatment is to tap back into our own youthful ability to heal.
[00:11:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Our cells have the blueprint and the molecules and the genes to do that. That's kind of the underlying basis.
[00:11:53] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Okay. And regenerative treatment is defined as what, because that's [00:12:00] really what you specialize. In is regenerative treatment versus conventional medical approaches,
[00:12:06] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: right? I suppose I still do a bit of both but Regenerative medicine is the new tool that i've had for about five years Which has really blossomed into many aspects of it And maybe this is a good part to answer your question about the fda So as you know, and many people don't fully understand the fda Is sort of the doctor's first amendment police and they decide based on their criteria what we can make claims about.
[00:12:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And those claims usually deal with curing or treating a disease or condition. So for example, if a new medicine is being developed. They decide when we can say this medicine has been shown to, to help deal with diabetes or something like that. So, there has yet to be any real regenerative stem cell treatment that has been approved for claims.[00:13:00]
[00:13:00] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: That doesn't mean it can't be done. The doctor and patient have a relationship and that's between them with proper informed consent. There are a couple things that are approved, but I don't know that I Consider them regenerative and that would be a bone marrow replacement for let's say, uh, leukemia. And this is why mothers might bank umbilical cord cells when they deliver a child.
[00:13:24] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: That's traditionally been an approved treatment. Okay,
[00:13:29] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: so you're saying no FDA approved claims made indications for the use of stem
[00:13:36] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: cells? But let's be truly objective, since we're scientists. There have been no approvals or denials. So they have not said, we have approved, but we also have an unapproved.
[00:13:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It hasn't yet been decided. So the lack of approval does not mean that something is unapproved. And people don't fully, they tend to go only and hear the unapproved. That [00:14:00] doesn't mean, that just means they haven't been fully vetted these claims. You know, the proper full studies have not yet been okayed by the FDA.
[00:14:09] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Okay, so can you talk about though what indications are generally agreed upon by experts in the regenerative medicine area as to what are appropriate uses that may not be FDA approved?
[00:14:26] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: You should be a politician that was fantastically worded. For the purposes of doing this correctly, anything I give an opinion on today is not a treatment for an individual, and is not necessarily approved by the FDA, and is just worthy of discussion.
[00:14:42] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And every individual is addressed. individually. So yes, there is wonderful scientific reporting, mostly from not in the United States. We have literature out of Europe. We have literature from Asia where they are ahead of us. And you think about this doc, [00:15:00] 15 to 20 years ago, professional athletes were leaving this country to get these treatments.
[00:15:04] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And other people, but of notoriety, it would be the athletes. Now those athletes are staying in the country because it is available here in the U. S. The source of the biologics, the stem cells or the related biologic components are here produced by, ironically, FDA compliant labs. So, and these are typically from donors of C section births.
[00:15:29] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Where the placenta, the amniotic fluid, the umbilical cord are preserved instead of thrown away and sent to labs where they're under clean and sterile conditions, tested and treated. The main uses start with musculoskeletal issues like joint problems. In fact, some of the best research comes out of France and these are protocols I follow for knee pain.
[00:15:54] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And if I may just keep rambling on the, the, a study in France [00:16:00] just reported two years ago on the 15 year follow up. So that means they've been doing this for at least 17 years as a study and probably longer. And what they did is they took patients with end stage knee problems. Ready and recommended for knee replacement.
[00:16:16] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So these are conditions like bone on bone patients may have heard or arthritis is terms doctors use painful knee problems that need a knee replacement. Not everybody wants an open knee replacement. It has a role, but they took these patients said, wait, instead of having your recommended knee replacement, join our study.
[00:16:36] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And in that study, they injected bone marrow derived stem cells from those patients. And we might circle back to that in a moment, but they took them from these patients, processed them, concentrated them, and injected them into two different areas in the knee. And over 15 years, one of the groups was significantly superior to the other group.
[00:16:58] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And the group that [00:17:00] did well was in bone injected, so they injected the bone of the knee just above and below the cartilage. The cartilage injected group did okay initially. But then declined at each five year mark and it was over 80 percent of the bone injected group did not need that knee replacement.
[00:17:17] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: They had been recommended 15 years earlier. In other words, those knees were saved. That's amazing. We follow that protocol and we do the bone work and you think about it. Your cartilage in your joints and in your discs of your spine is probably one of the least biologically active tissues. There are not a lot of cells.
[00:17:37] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It's sort of a collection of squishy proteins and collagen and we call this sort of the biological rubber of the body. The real activity, the part of your body that made that cartilage in the first place when you were a fetus was the growth plate bone marrow where you're most of your stem cells reside, your storehouse of stem cells.
[00:17:58] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So we follow that [00:18:00] protocol. So
[00:18:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: with data like that, 80 percent did not need any replacement and they were bone on bone, which really that's the only standard of care treatment that we have to my knowledge. Why has the FDA not? Given an approval any
[00:18:16] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: insight into that I'm going to go out on a limb here and say i'm sure there are political and economic pressures from Companies that make metallic knee implants.
[00:18:26] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I am sure that the fda panels Uh that look at this. I have a very high threshold of studies in terms of number of participants And they love blinded and controlled studies, meaning blinded means the doctor doesn't know and the patient doesn't know if they're getting a placebo or not. And a controlled study means there's a placebo arm, but who would want to be that in that study that might get a placebo?
[00:18:54] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So it's going to be very hard to do a large population study with [00:19:00] placebo. So we are sort of at this. You know, difficult crossroads.
[00:19:04] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Yeah, sometimes you have to follow your common sense. Anyone can tell you that the success rate of any cartilage naturally regrowing when you're bone on bone is probably zero.
[00:19:19] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So do we really need that control group? That's where I sometimes wonder when did we leave common sense by the wayside or the body of scientific Tiff acknowledge and experience that we have from decades of doing medicine the way we've been doing it. And so this is the place you can be very frank and honest.
[00:19:39] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So I throw Mainstream medicine under the bus on the regular because people just don't get it. They're scratching their heads Why don't I get these options at my hmo doctor's office? And so I really help them to understand that medicine is a business and that it has It's [00:20:00] its own motivations and doing lots of surgeries and procedures and prescribing lots of drugs is part of it.
[00:20:07] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And so if you want something different, then you've got to make different choices and look elsewhere, which I think is a great, I was going to ask you in a little bit, but I'm going to ask you now. The second question people ask me after why doesn't my doctor offer this is, Will my insurance pay for this?
[00:20:24] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So I think this is a good place to ask that.
[00:20:27] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: You're absolutely right. There's a little bit of a conundrum. Because the FDA has not approved this for claims, your insurance has their hat to hang on that they, they will not approve this. However, there's something called PRP platelet rich plasma, which many people can get in their doctor's office, which is a taking your own blood and.
[00:20:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: spinning it down in a centrifuge and pulling out the growth factors and the platelets and concentrating them and delivering them back to an area where there might be a strain or pain like a tennis elbow or a knee [00:21:00] ligament or something like that. And it is, it's rather simple. It is, it's sort of the lowest.
[00:21:06] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Entry level regenerative medicine item and it is not approved for claims by the FDA But insurances are starting to pay for it because they're starting to see that it's less expensive than a surgical pathway So it might cost 500 to 1, 000 per session, typically people have two to three sessions. So, I think that's probably some good news in the long run towards insurance companies waking up and looking at the bigger picture and avoiding bigger open surgeries if possible.
[00:21:40] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: There's always a role for the surgeries, I don't mean to say don't do surgery, I mean to say look at every option first, why not try a regenerative procedure because I can tell you. When I'm addressing a knee problem, it's usually two doses of biologics in the bone above and below the knee. [00:22:00] And we do that at a little injection facility with some sedation so no one has to feel the bone injection.
[00:22:06] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It doesn't take very long. Most of the work is done ahead of time. The targeting, the MRI, the testing. And We've got that down to where it's just under 10, 000 and I think that's a good price when you look at the lost work time, the downtime, the complications, the co pays you'd have just to have a knee replacement.
[00:22:28] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Sure, the knee replacement might be less than 10, 000 out of pocket, but there's a cost of the pain and the recovery and the physical therapy and that kind of thing. So it's not cost prohibitive. For everyone. For some, I understand, but not for everyone.
[00:22:43] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Yes, my mother had both knees replaced, and the pain she went through and just never had the same gait and walking ease, and if she could have avoided it at that time, I'm sure she would have in hindsight.[00:23:00]
[00:23:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So, let's get more specific, because I know people are wanting to know. So we've talked about knees. What other joint or musculoskeletal problems have stem cells been shown to help with? And then also maybe tie into there, you mentioned bone marrow as a source. What are the sources? Cause some people are saying, Oh my gosh, am I going to have to have my bone marrow removed to get stem cell treatment?
[00:23:25] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So where are these? Stem cells coming from? Are they autologous from the person? Are they from somebody else?
[00:23:32] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So let me work backwards. I'll start with that question and then work back to and expand on, on the types of things we can do beyond knees. Okay. So you can have bone marrow, harvested stem cells harvested from your own bone marrow, and even other sources like fat.
[00:23:48] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I don't like the fat source. Because those cells are typically in an inflamed environment. And the whole theme here is to work against inflammation, which works to help our [00:24:00] body tissues function better and slow the aging process. I don't like to harvest, autologous is the word you used, and that means from yourself.
[00:24:09] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I prefer the perinatal sources. These are again the donated, ethical, and FDA compliant labs that prepare these biologics. The biologics would be either stem cells or stem cell messengers, stem cell derived messengers. And these are the small particles that one cell uses to communicate with other cells in our body, wake up our own stem cells, activate them.
[00:24:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And I have been able to keep the cost of procedures down with, I believe, at least as good efficacy, if not better in some areas. With the stem cell messengers and we call those exosomes or nanoparticles and they are basically a stem cell giving a message to other cells to behave in an anti [00:25:00] inflammatory, youthful, regenerative, restorative way and that's what we're, that's what we seek.
[00:25:05] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Those come from basically what used to be medical trash. It's now medical treasure, and these are donated and screened individuals. Unless you're in a culture that preserves the placenta for the delicacy that it may be in some areas, this is You've probably delivered thousands of babies and thrown away the, all this great stuff.
[00:25:30] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Am I
[00:25:30] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: right? Yes. Who knew? You know, that HGTV show, isn't it called Trash to Treasure? But also I recently learned that in a lot of cultures, they actually bury the placenta to ground the energy body of the child into Mother Earth, which is a whole other conversation. So it's ethical to use it for medical procedures in the West, but in a lot of indigenous cultures, it probably wouldn't be so you [00:26:00] prefer the perinatal.
[00:26:01] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And it's not just for joint stem cells, not just for joints anymore. What are the other applications
[00:26:09] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: that we get great results with joints? I would say joints. Joints are a wonderful and relatively successful application in our hands. And by joints, I'm including spine. We don't have the long term data on spine yet, like we do for knees.
[00:26:26] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Knees were sort of an easy first study because there's so many people with knees and they're easy to inject in the knee area, right? It's down there. It's just asking for an injection. The spine is a little bit more interesting. You have to be cautious around nerves. And that's where I come in as a neurosurgeon, so I'm, I've been inside the spine thousands of times doing surgeries.
[00:26:47] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I love doing fewer surgeries and more of these procedures. So we'll call that the musculoskeletal group. There are other things a little bit within the musculoskeletal group. One is there, there have been studies [00:27:00] showing improvement in bone density, which is very important in someone with declining hormone levels.
[00:27:07] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Um, as, as you and your. Listeners must know the bone density is associated with longevity. The better your bone density, the better your longevity. And hormones are a big part of that. Weight bearing exercise is a big part of that. And other factors like certain supplements, vitamin D3, for example, and others.
[00:27:25] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So regenerative medicine can help support bone density. There are studies on that. The other longevity or I'm sorry
[00:27:33] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: to interrupt you, but where What types of stem cells are used
[00:27:37] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: and how are they administered? I have to look at the individual study, but you are correct. Most of the studies are either autologous harvested stem cells from that person, their donated stem cells from a perinatal source, or their donated stem cell messengers or exosomes from a perinatal source.
[00:27:54] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Those are the three main applications that we call regenerative medicine. [00:28:00]
[00:28:00] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: For bone density, how are those
[00:28:01] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: administered? Oh, sorry. IV.
[00:28:04] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Intravenously. Is anyone doing that in the United States? There
[00:28:08] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: are a lot of us doing that. Okay.
[00:28:10] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And so. Because I think there are women listening who are going to want to know what would your criteria be for what degree of osteopenia or osteoporosis.
[00:28:20] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I would say if there's any evidence for osteopenia and you want to get ahead of this and prevent this from going to full blown osteoporosis and you're already doing the traditional elements, weight bearing exercise, hormone optimization, things like this, the right supplements, it's something to look at.
[00:28:38] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Osteoporosis. is associated with shortened longevity. So we want to get ahead of this. And the criteria would be making sure they've tried everything else first. Now if someone has a very focal area of osteopenia, maybe a hip issue, but the rest of their testing, because when they test for bone density, they test the hip, the spine, maybe the wrist, other areas.
[00:28:59] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: [00:29:00] If we can focally treat by injection a spot area if needed. Yeah, but
[00:29:06] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: I've seen thousands of bone densities on thousands of women and it's a rare person who has a spot problem. It's usually pretty global. And so how many treatments would they have of intravenous stem cells? Because I know there's some women listening who are thinking, Oh, I'm going to look into that.
[00:29:22] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So they probably want to know. We
[00:29:24] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: probably do one treatment. And then monitor the bone density every six to 12 months and see what kind of length of benefit they got and what kind of benefit they got from it and use that as a guide. There's no signing up for, Oh, you'll need this every six or 12 months.
[00:29:42] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: This is a individualized person and we guide it for that individual. So hopefully one treatment could give you. Months or years depending on how bad things are to start with how good your own status is your overall Inflammatory burden [00:30:00] and we can do blood tests to look at that in detail Because ultimately aging is an accumulation of this chronic inflammation and we need to not just give IV Regenerative biologics.
[00:30:12] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We need to look at every aspect of of what's causing root cause, right? What's causing inflammatory Yeah, let's
[00:30:19] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: detour and talk about that because I talk about it a lot, but you can never talk about it enough. This is the rust. The inflammation is the rust that corrodes all your cells and degrades them.
[00:30:32] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And this is what causes premature aging, disease, death, everything. It is the enemy. So, it's vital. Every doc I know who works with stem cells, Requires that people reduce their inflammation if they're in a highly inflamed state But I think it would be important to hear your perspective on that
[00:30:52] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I could not agree more and i've converged with you using the the word rust As you have so i'm [00:31:00] glad we've come together because you're right rust is oxidation And we are oxidizing and that's why antioxidants are good for us.
[00:31:08] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So We all are in a state of inflammation. That's during the day, during the light hours, we have neuro stress, we have physical stress, we have all these things and we have things in our food source and they cause our cells to react in a defensive manner and that defense is chronic inflammation. At night, we repair.
[00:31:29] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: If we're sleeping and we're getting good sleep, restorative sleep, our bodies and our cells undergo a repair process. It's a DNA repair, all kinds of things. And we need to balance that by really understanding those and focusing on them. I think reducing exposure to inflammatory items is probably the easiest thing we can do.
[00:31:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Eating a cleaner diet, for example, avoiding toxins in our environment to the extent we know they're there and we can, limiting electromagnetic [00:32:00] waves. Turning off the screens at night and the other things we can do to reduce inflammation are lifestyle changes, like making sure we exercise, eating in the light window and not eating in the dark window, intermittent eating, intermittent fasting.
[00:32:14] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We can even supercharge the reduced inflammation. By what's called hormesis. Hormesis as, as you may have, you and your audience may know, is a slight stress upon our cells to build resilience and to clear out the senescent zombie cells that are taking up space and resources. And that might come through exercise.
[00:32:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It might come through calorie restriction, maybe a fast for anywhere from 24 to 72 hours. It might come from hot sauna use or cold plunges. And these stimulate the body to release survival proteins, which help reduce inflammation. These are the kind of proteins we find in stem cells and stem cell messengers.
[00:32:54] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So ultimately, the regenerative medicine is sort of a hack or a biohack to slow [00:33:00] inflammation. And as it slows and reduces and reverses inflammation at the cellular level, it's reducing aging at the cellular level. And you see many ads on social media. That our product reduces inflammation at the cellular level.
[00:33:14] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: That's how we're going to reduce our, slow our aging. We have to do it at the cellular level. And everybody
[00:33:19] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: stay tuned because Dr. Jeff does have a gift for you at the end of the show that's gonna, uh, help some things that you can do to help reduce your inflammation so you don't want to miss that.
[00:33:31] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Alright, let's jump back. We were going through the indications and treatments. We talked about knees, spine. We talked about osteoporosis, osteopenia, bone thinning. What other indications
[00:33:44] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: are there? We've treated with IV many things. So we have patients who have come to us with declining kidney function and whether that's related to too much sugar in the life over your life and diabetic changes acquired type two [00:34:00] diabetes, whether it's related to high blood pressure that hasn't been adequately controlled or even other items.
[00:34:06] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: What happens is the blood test called creatinine starts to go up because your kidneys can't remove that amount of protein from the body. And yeah, We have seen declining, improving creatinine levels in patients who showed progressive problems with the kidney function, who wanted to avoid dialysis. So we've had a couple patients specifically, and we've only had to do one IV on each of those.
[00:34:31] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: patients where their creatinine is improved and we're just watching their blood test with the creatinine. And people come in and say, I've had so much other benefits from that. I think better, more clearly. I have more energy. I sleep more soundly. We get all these beneficial side effects from the IV.
[00:34:49] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Just, I wanted to add something there.
[00:34:50] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Just as you're talking, it makes perfect sense that I'm sitting here thinking, why don't we give them to everyone intravenously because just the three year old boy [00:35:00] who falls and scrapes his knee. All you have to do is protect it from infection and getting scraped again. And then the stem cells, the messages throughout the body say, send stem cells to this cut and fix it.
[00:35:12] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: It tells what to do. And so that example you gave is beautiful about the kidneys and declining kidney function. You give the stem cells intravenously, they know where to go. And they know what to do and they know to fix the problem. So why aren't we giving it? Do some people just say, I want general longevity.
[00:35:33] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: And I know you're going to talk a little bit about that. And I want to heal whatever's broken that I don't know about. And you just. Give them intravenous stem cells.
[00:35:43] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I don't want to give the idea that stem cells fix everything, right? I think they try it. This is not a cure all, but we love to add it when we can as an alternative or an additional item to help repair or recover in medicine.
[00:35:59] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We call it [00:36:00] an adjunct therapy, right? So this is an add on treatment. For example, we see patients who are recovering from heart attack and we show improved cardiac. function from I. V. Regenerative biologics. We see patients recovering from stroke or have suffered what's called traumatic brain injury used to be called chronic concussive syndrome.
[00:36:21] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And these people have lingering effects of brain injury, maybe from an accident or something. And we have shown some benefits there. And there are some studies published on this. Now it should be known that the stem cells do not readily cross the blood brain barrier when they're delivered IV. So the benefits we're actually seeing are more with the stem cell messengers, the stem cell derived exosomes I mentioned to you earlier because they are so small.
[00:36:49] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Remember they're called nanoparticles for a reason. They're very small. They cross the blood brain barrier and stimulate the glial cells and that support our brain cells. [00:37:00] And you spoke earlier about other types of stem cells like endometrial base and things like this. There is wonderful work in more specialized types of stem cells.
[00:37:08] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Right now, we do not use anything that's manipulated. So these are off the shelf, straight from the womb, tested, screened, and filtered. biologics, because the FDA is pretty clear that they don't want us using anything manipulated. Cells that have been conjured or cajoled into doing something very specific.
[00:37:28] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: That is the next quantum leap in regenerative medicine, very specifically targeting stem cells and their messengers, engineered for a specific thing like helping to repair the islet cells in the pancreas in the case of type 2. It's for example, and again, most of these diseases of aging are diseases of inflammation and vice versa.
[00:37:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Coronary artery clogging, atherosclerosis has an inflammatory component. Alzheimer's disease has an inflammatory component. If you look at [00:38:00] the tissue under a microscope, even type 2 diabetes, you look at the pancreas, it has an inflammatory component. We're really simply just reducing inflammatory exposure and effect.
[00:38:12] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And that leads me to mention autoimmune, because this is where a lot of hormones get affected. And as your audience knows, autoimmune means the body is having a revved up attack on it, part of itself, for reasons unclear, but it's a hyper inflammation state. Let's list a few of those. Rheumatoid arthritis, Hashimoto's thyroiditis.
[00:38:35] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: There are other autoimmune diseases and if you do inflammatory blood tests, you'll see the inflammation system is in high gear. We're not sure always why that is, but it is. Some infections are known for their hyper inflammation. Lyme's disease is one I know you've had guests on before about Lyme's disease.
[00:38:55] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And another well known one that is known for inflammation is, [00:39:00] COVID 19. It's a very inflammatory virus, and a lot of these long COVID syndromes do have significant continued hyper inflammatory states involved. So we are seeing that these types of problems respond well to suppressing and controlling, we use the word immunomodulating, the inflammation system, where the regenerative biologics do work.
[00:39:27] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: towards declining those problems and those symptoms.
[00:39:31] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Okay, wow, such great information. I would be remiss if I didn't ask because I know people are wanting to know about vampire facelift and beauty applications. Would you like to talk about that?
[00:39:45] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I would. This is probably a little bit on the more fun end of things we do.
[00:39:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And most of the people we see have a problem and we want to help them with a problem. But we also have enjoyed helping people want to not only feel [00:40:00] better and be healthier, but feel better about looking better. So there are currently two cosmetic procedures that we have. One is, and as your audience knows, a vampire facial is PRP.
[00:40:13] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And we talked about PRP earlier for joints, where you can draw your, uh, have your blood drawn from your own veins, spun in a centrifuge, and pull out the growth factors and the platelets, and inject them into the face. So it gives more growth factors to the face to help tighten the collagen. I like to skip over that and go to the high octane stuff and that's to use the wide draw of the blood.
[00:40:37] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: When you change the oil in your car, you don't put the old oil back in it. So we use the stem cell biologics and micro inject the face. to stimulate the epidermal cells in dermal cells rather to stimulate, make more collagen, more elastin, get some tightening and youthful radiant glow because of the [00:41:00] improvement in the cells.
[00:41:02] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I think you might notice this as an OB GYN in your pregnant patients. They, don't they often say, Oh, my skin is so good while they're pregnant because they're getting all these youthful growth factors from the womb circulating in the maternal bloodstream. They're getting a Yeah, they're getting a dose.
[00:41:18] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Radiance is real. You can look at a pregnant woman and see that their hormones are really on point and their stem cells and how about hair
[00:41:30] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: regrowth? You're also using it for that? That was the other one. And I am, I'm also a recipient of that. So we do the same thing. I've had, I had a bald spot and I've had three scalp injections and it's because of the lighting and things, you probably can't see it, but I'll do some social media posts with some befores and afters.
[00:41:50] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And it's, I've been able to help people with thinning, thinning hair. You have to have follicles. You have to have some hair. I can't take a bald person and with the current. state of [00:42:00] things. Now, when we talk about the future of the going backwards in the lineage of stem cells, there are some things coming down the pike and I have some colleagues and friends working on that.
[00:42:09] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: But right now this is for people who do have some follicles and I'm sure your audience knows when your hormones start to decline, that's And you have a longstanding inflammation, you, the follicles are sensitive, they, that's like when someone is stressed and they lose hair, it's because the inflammation in their body from the nerve is seen in the areas of symptom, where they become symptomatic, that might be psoriasis.
[00:42:33] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It's where they have dry skin, it might be in the scalp with the follicles, it might be in other areas. We have patients with dry eye syndrome who maybe have had LASIK procedures and we've injected, we talk about glands, we inject the meibomian glands in the eyelids. to help improve the glandular function and I've had some limited benefit there and we're still figuring out how to do that best.
[00:42:57] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Okay.
[00:42:58] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Before we wrap up, [00:43:00] we must talk about longevity and then I know you've got that gift for them that's going to help them to know some things that they can start doing now to help with anti aging. But what does the data look like and treatments to increase longevity with stem cells?
[00:43:17] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: We don't have enough.
[00:43:18] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: Long term data to answer that scientifically, but we do have something called biological age tests, and I think it'd be mentioned this, there are a few different kinds on the market, but basically it's a test that looks at either the markers in the bloodstream and or markers inside the cell bloodstream, of course, is outside the cell, and these markers are associated with certain age groups.
[00:43:42] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: So we can do a blood test and estimate The biological age of someone as opposed to your calendar age, because I know at my last birthday, I turned 58, but I can do a biological age test and it has a different number and you can make lifestyle changes or do things in that [00:44:00] number adjust. You can affect your own rate of aging by taking your own anti aging journey and doing things about it.
[00:44:07] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: And we have some studies that show improvement in the, in these biological age tests. With the use of IV regenerative biologics, so at least at the cellular level, which is where aging really does happen, there is scientific evidence to show reduced inflammatory markers and age related markers. And
[00:44:28] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: I know people are wondering, what's that test and where can I get it?
[00:44:32] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: It has to be ordered by a doctor like me, and I do a lot of Zoom consultations, so if anyone in your audience is listening, this is an additional holiday gift, is if they call and mention your name, I'll do an introductory Zoom or phone. I prefer zoom, but phone consultation and we can go over their aging status and see where they are and see if we can make some tweaks in many [00:45:00] different areas and talk about the biological age tests.
[00:45:03] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: I'm happy to do that. But you have to mention your name and they heard us here.
[00:45:08] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Okay. So Merry Christmas to you, listener, you can call Dr. Jeff's office mentioned you heard him on Dr. Kieran's podcast and you can get some one on one time with Dr. Jeff and find out more about your health. I think that's a great place to end.
[00:45:30] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: It sounds this is such a wonderful topic. It's a Such I guess it's kind of the wild west of medicine, but I think it is the future of medicine in many ways. So I think it's very valuable information. Thank you so much for sharing it. You have this wonderful gift that you're giving everyone to help them understand some things that they can start doing now for their health.
[00:45:56] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: We'll have the link in the show notes. Do you want to tell them about [00:46:00] what that is? And then also all the places they can
[00:46:02] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: find you online. Thank you so much. Yes, if you go to the and I forget the word the young again method. com slash longevity There's a a free guide on some of the anti aging supplements You should start or if you're not already on and if you do schedule Some time to meet with me we can expand on that for you as well as customize it for the individual Please follow us at we celebrate is the name of the business.
[00:46:28] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: R e c e f l e b r a t e That's our website. That's our Instagram. That's our TikTok. That's our YouTube. We have lots of fun stuff. Follow us and send me a comment on Instagram. If you're on Facebook, also send me a comment and say hi and introduce yourself. We like to meet new people all the time. Awesome.
[00:46:48] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Thank you so much, Dr. Jeff, for your brave journey. It is always a brave journey for any physician to go off the beaten path [00:47:00] of What we're taught and to do something innovative and new and courageous. So thank you for saying yes to that because you're going to help a lot of people. I know you already are.
[00:47:11] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: I really appreciate it. And I appreciate you sharing your journey and
[00:47:14] Dr. Jeffrey Gross: expertise with us today. Thank you so much for having me. It was my pleasure and honor. And thank you for
[00:47:20] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: joining me for another episode of the hormone prescription. Stem cells are super exciting and the indications are growing. Access is growing and availability.
[00:47:35] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: So. I know you learned something that's going to inspire you today. I look forward to knowing what that is. Reach out to me on social media and let me know. And if you want to take Dr. Jeff up on his very generous holiday offer, please do so. We will have all the links in the show notes to his free gift and to how you can reach out to him and contact him.
[00:47:58] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Until [00:48:00] next week, peace, love, and hormones, y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe.
[00:48:22] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription. com where we have some free gifts for you. And you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you.
[00:48:44] Dr. Kyrin Dunston: Talk to you soon.
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In our latest episode, "Simple Detox and Steps to Become Energetically Efficient," we are excited to have special guest Kristin Rowell, founder and CEO of Energetically Efficient, a wellness and nutrition company that helps high achieving individuals regain their energy and transform their lives.
Kristin, a former business litigator, shares her journey of becoming a Functional Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and how she guides her clients to become positive, energetic, motivated, fit, and high-vibrational humans.
During the episode, Kristin dives deep into the importance of detoxification and the significance of focusing on toxins in our food, water, air, and everyday products. As an expert in wellness and nutrition, she explains how clients can optimize their energy levels by understanding their unique physiology and biochemistry. This includes a detailed discussion on hormones, adrenals, and digestive health.
Key takeaways from this episode include:
- The significance of detoxification in our lives
- How to identify and eliminate toxins around us
- The essential role of hormones, adrenals, and digestive health in optimizing energy levels
- Understanding our unique physiology and biochemistry for better overall health
Get ready to learn some transformative simple detox tips and strategies for becoming energetically efficient with Kristin Rowell on The Hormone Prescription Podcast hosted by Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast for more insightful episodes and expert guests.
Happy listening!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
“If you don't sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice.” Jay Shetty, stay tuned. As a former business litigator turned functional, nutritional therapy practitioner, badass, Kristin Raul shares with you why you need to detox, how to do it, what human design can do for you, and how to get on your right path in life.
Speaker 2 (00:26):
So the big question is how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunton. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:19):
Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today. You are gonna love my guest today. She really is a powerhouse. Kristin Rowell, she's a former business litigator who followed her inner intuition. You're gonna hear how that unfolded into a new path in life where she actually helps women to create the health that they love. And she's very inspirational in terms of finding your authentic voice and getting on your right path in life. You're gonna hear her story, but let's start with detoxing and making it super simple. Sometimes we clinicians can make it super complicated and sometimes it takes someone who comes from a non-medical background who just wants to know, okay, that's great complicated information, but how do I do this practically for myself in everyday life to show us the way? And she really has created a really easy framework.
Speaker 1 (02:24):
You're gonna love what she has to say. It's super simple and super doable, and we're just gonna talk about why you need to do it, how to do it super simply, and you're gonna wanna do it. And then she's also very inspirational in terms of getting on your right path in life. Many women go into one path early on in their lives, whether it's motherhood or career, whatever it may look like. And then at midlife and beyond, we start feeling like there's something more that we wanna explore in terms of the gifts we have to offer in terms of what we wanna contribute to life in terms of what we wanna experience in life. And so it really is the time when we get to unpack those dreams, unpack our authentic selves, and figure out what is next for us. So I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Kristen Raul is a former business litigator, turned functional nutritional therapy practitioner, badass. She helps high achieving, stressed out professionals transform by losing weight, increasing their energy, and becoming more efficient as the founder and CEO of energetically efficient. The clients who hire Kristin are ready for transformational change and she works closely with them to guide them on their journey to becoming positive, energetic, motivated, fit, highly vibrational humans. She has served on boards, she's spoken all over the country. She has a long list of certifications and accomplishments. We talk about this in the episode and please help me welcome Kristin to the show.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 4 (04:07):
So you are a powerhouse, physically, mentally, emotionally. You're a former business litigator. Now you're a functional nutritional therapy practitioner. You have awards and competitions. There's so many topics that you could talk about to bless our women with today. And everybody should know that. Kristin and I were talking before the show
Speaker 3 (05:09):
Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited. And I absolutely love not only human design, but also the topic of nutritional detoxification. And so I have been detoxifying my body nutritionally through just real food on and off, whether quarterly, twice a year or annually for over 20 years. So I have a tremendous amount of experience in it. And when I did my first detox, I was in my twenties. Here I am now at 47, and I really didn't know what I was doing. I didn't understand the importance of it other than this sounds like something that's an interesting challenge. And so I've iterated what I've done for detoxification over the years. And now I take myself quarterly, just once a quarter, I take myself through a two week cleanse. Okay? So it's not a bunch of supplements, it's not a juice fast, it's not cleansing in that way.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
It's really how do we eat the right foods? How do we consume the foods that contain the nutrients to support our body's phase one and phase two detoxification pathways? So that's really what it's all about. So for example, and I'm sure you know this, the sulfation pathway is part of your detox to phase two pathways. So in order to make sure you're supporting that particular pathway, we would need to eat foods that contain sulfur. So those would be our eggs, onion, garlic, our daikon radish, and those will enhance the sulfation pathway. So really when I go through this, and I'm happy to go down any avenue that we want to here, but when I take myself through this two week cleanse, and I do this of course with clients as well, it's about how do we get out all the things that detract our body from detox?
Speaker 3 (06:47):
How do we take those foods out of our system so that our body can do its natural detoxification, but it's always trying to do? And then how do we add in the foods that will support those pathways so that detoxification can be maximized? Mm-Hmm
Speaker 4 (07:28):
This is great Kristen. So let's back up one step. And I know some people are saying, do I need to do a detox? Of course, if they're listening to me long enough, they know the answer to that
Speaker 3 (08:12):
Fantastic question? Because you're right, many at any level of education, for most people, this isn't something that you're taught would might be a good idea for you. So the kinds of signs and symptoms that I tell people to look for in terms of whether they need detoxification are many, but I'll just list a few of them. It would be if you're getting skin issues like acne or rashes on your body, it's if you have a hard time losing weight, if you notice that you have, let's say, and this is in more severe cases, swollen lymph nodes around your body where you actually can feel your lymph, that would be another thing. If you are someone who doesn't sweat that often, so you're not getting mm-hmm,
Speaker 3 (09:05):
If you are someone also who doesn't ever engage in or doesn't know anything about breath work, because breath is of course one of our other detoxification pathways. So if you're not sweating and you're not doing breath work, those things alone may make you a candidate for detoxification. If you also notice just other symptoms I say in the body and they can range from, I feel tired all the time and I don't have a lot of energy and I don't know why I am reaching for caffeine every day and I need caffeine all of the time just to function, that's a bad sign. If you're someone who is easily intoxicated from drinking wine or other alcohol, that's a sign that your liver is pretty stagnant. And that might mean you need to detox. So those are just some Dr. Kean and I'm guessing that there's others that you can just as well.
Speaker 4 (09:48):
All right. I'm thinking dark circles under your eyes, puffiness in your face, hands or feet. Yes. And, and basically if, if you're a human on the planet in 2023, you need to be detoxing. Everybody needs to be detoxing
Speaker 3 (10:03):
Speaker 4 (11:12):
No
Speaker 3 (11:13):
All of these plastic offenders. But that doesn't count the stuff we're breathing in. That doesn't count so many other toxins. All of this crappy lotion that I see people putting on their body, these offending soaps, other fragrances, every perfume you use, ladies, the makeup that we wear, all of these things put toxins into our body. And so all of those toxins have to be filtered through our liver. But so is all of the fat that we consume. So when I take clients through nutritional detoxification or when I do it for myself, I'm actually not recommending during that two week period that they're consuming something that's keto or that they're eating generally low carb. I want them to eat a lot of fiber. We add beans, we're doing cruciferous vegetables, which are supportive of detoxification. We're doing the dark leafy greens, which are supportive of detoxification. We're including a bunch of liver healing foods.
Speaker 3 (12:05):
And that might be artichokes, asparagus, celery, dandelion root tea, nutritional yeast, beets. All of these things are fantastic for your liver. So you're really saying to yourself each day, how can I get a bunch of these high quality detoxification supporting nutrient foods in my body each day? And how can I get out the noise, the processed sugar, the processed carbohydrates? Actually, I take out a diary for most people for a little bit of time. 'cause Dairy can be really offensive and obviously very inflammatory, even though I do love it. But I take that out for a period of time. And then we really just work to balance the body. And one of the best things I, and I know you know about nutritional detoxification, is it really helps to balance your hormones. It's fantastic for clearing excess estrogen in the body, which so many people are walking around with men and women. By the way, estrogen is not supplied to women, which I'm sure your listeners well know. So those, all of those reasons are why I think anyone who's living in a, as a human in 2023 could benefit from it.
Speaker 4 (13:06):
Thank you for bringing that up. If you are having estrogen dominance problems, and this is pretty much every perimenopausal woman, many women, so that's, if you're over 40, but many women over 20, I think that we should just say we're an estrogen nation. We're just swimming in estrogen. Most people, if you have period problems, fibroids, endometriosis if you're overweight, you have estrogen dominance. So you, one of the number one things you can do, Kristin, is exactly right, is do a detox and get your liver cleaned out because these estrogens are cleaned out through your liver, they're dumped into your gastrointestinal tract and they go out in your poop. So if you're not pooping, you need to be getting 20, 30, 40 grams of fiber a day at least to bind that estrogen and get it out. So thank you for bringing that up.
Speaker 3 (13:56):
Well, and thank you for bringing up the bowel movement piece of things, because I think so few people realize it's not just because you eat food, it's not a guarantee that it just seamlessly in the next day or two comes out the other end. A lot of the fecal matter and the toxicity in our body, you guys, if we're not having the really good healthy fats, if we're not hydrated, if we don't consume enough fiber, if we are super stressed out and we are always in a sympathetic state so that we can't have a bowel movement, and I have lots of clients like this, I'm sure you do as well. Yeah. In those circumstances now, these toxins that are trying to make their way through our intestinal tract can get stuck on the inside walls of our colon. And what happens over time, if they don't make their way out, is your colon, the large intestine will reabsorb that toxic material. So now there, it goes back into your bloodstream. And that may happen in more severe cases, but it really is a consequence of not consuming the fiber, having the healthy fats and hydrating enough to actually allow those toxins to make it all their way through the digestive system.
Speaker 4 (14:59):
I've been having this visual as we're having this conversation. I grew up in New York City and there was a time when the sanitation workers went on strike, right? So the trash, they put out the trash every day on the curb in New York, and then these big trash trucks come and they pick it up and they ship it off the island. But then they went on strike and the trash was piling up and oh my gosh, it was like this summer and it stunk. And I'm thinking, if you're not supporting your liver, then that's basically what's happening is the pi, the trash is piling up and it's stinking like Manhattan did when I was a kid. And the trash department, sanitation department went on strike. So we've talked about some. That's a good analogy.
Speaker 3 (15:43):
That's a great
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Analogy. And if you're not pooping, that's what's happening. Yes. Or it's, a lot of people would say, oh, I don't wanna drink water. We gotta talk about water, Kristen, they say, I don't like the taste of water. I don't drink water. And I'd say, well, not drinking enough water. 'cause You are 60 to 70% water and it helps to flush you out. It's like going to the bathroom all day in your toilet and never flushing
Speaker 3 (16:13):
I love that. That's, I might steal that from you. It's so true. It's so true. And the other thing is with the hydration piece, and I know we can get to this, but ladies, if you want glowing, gorgeous, young looking skin, drink your water, it's so valuable in terms of hydrating your cells because it really provides the hydration that allows our skin to say, stay supple. So that's just one more reason that we wanna make sure we hydrate. Yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:37):
And just for everybody listening, if you didn't see Dana Cohen, we have a great two great interviews on the podcast about hydration and the specifics of it and types of water. And so you definitely wanna check that out, but you're absolutely right, Kristen. Alright, so what does your two week food detox regimen look like? I know everybody's gonna wanna low. No. 'cause You look amazing. You tell everyone all about all the IS fitness, bodybuilding competitions, you've won. So you're doing something right. So yeah, they're gonna wanna know about it, yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:11):
I'm a professional bodybuilder and I'm a natural figure competitor. And I was Miss Natural Minnesota in 2018, which sounds so silly to even say, but it's in this fitness competition area. And I've also run 25 marathons. So I've, over the course of many years, really worked on dialing in my nutrition to optimally support, not just athletic performance, but because of what we do for a living in terms of it being very busy. And we work with busy professionals who work with women who are busy. It's also about cognitive function and having lasting energy throughout the day. So you're not having these blood sugar dips, you're actually able to sleep well and you're high functioning. So what my detoxification protocol looks like, just if people are like, oh my God, this is so overwhelming, where do I start? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
So I'd say the hardest part for most people, and I'm just gonna get this out there, is I, when I detox and I tell everyone this, I really recommend that you take out the caffeine, the coffee, because caffeine really does interfere with your phase one detox pathways. And if you're gonna go on this venture to really detoxify, we gotta get the caffeine out. So I went through my detoxification just a couple weeks ago, and I had a bad headache for a couple days because I had been on coffee after being off of it for a year. I had been doing some traveling, and I was in a country where they had really good coffee. So anyways, I started drinking again. So for me, the crash was pretty hard, but once I got through those first two, three days, I was fine. It literally only takes a couple of days to break up with it.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
So no coffee, no sugar of any kind. I recommend that people don't do any packaged, even protein bars, even if it seems like the cleanest, healthiest protein bar. Let's just get all of that out. I'm just asking you to do it for two weeks. So also no dairy for certainly for a period of time. And then no refined grains of any kind. It's really a lot of vegetables, a few fruits and lean animal proteins, and then a lot of different supportive vegetables. So those are the nos. Those are like no caffeine, no sugar, no refined foods, no mold on your fruit is another one I forgot about. No protein bars, those kinds of things. And by the way, also no excess fat. So no bacon, no ribeyes, even those things, I'm not saying you're bad for you, but just not when you're cleansing. Mm-Hmm,
Speaker 3 (19:23):
So then, okay, what do we eat? If we're taking all that off the table, what actually do we consume? So I recommend that people do something in the cruciferous category every day. So that means broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, or Brussels sprouts. So anything in that category. 'cause Cruciferous is great to support detox. Also, something in the citrus category, orange, lemon, lime, dark leafy greens. So this could be everything from the new band dangled micro greens that I'm just loving, that I keep finding at Whole foods. I love microgreens, arugula, water crests, Swiss shard, mustard greens, parsley, all of those things that you don't normally incorporate every day. Those are another awesome category to add. And then the sulfur rich foods that I mentioned before, so this would be your eggs, onion, garlic, or even dican radish are rich in sulfur. Those are the top four that I think of.
Speaker 3 (20:12):
And then there's just a few more categories. It's the liver healing foods, colon cleansing foods, and then our lean proteins. And then we just go pretty light on the healthy fat. So in the liver healing category, it's some of those foods I mentioned before, which are artichoke, asparagus, beets, celery, nutritional yeast, dandelion root tea, even whey protein or other high quality proteins, pea proteins, powders that literally have very minimal ingredients like just the protein isolate and maybe some stevia or monk fruit. And then in the colon cleansing category. And this category really helps add to the fiber and get the stool out of your body. These are things like apples, carrots, hairs, organic ground, flaxseed, cilium husk, organic chia seeds. Those are excellent sources of fiber. And also beans. I forgot about the beans. I absolutely love using a half of cup of organic beans every day during the detox because it's the highest quality source of soluble fiber and soluble fiber when it emulsifies with that bile that's being produced by our liver, and it mixes with that soluble fiber, it can really help to pull toxins through our digestive tract and get it out of the body.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
And then last, but certainly not least, is the lean proteins and just a couple servings of healthy fat. I tell people to back off on the fat a fair amount just because we wanna give our liver a break. But the lean proteins, of course, can include the wild caught shrimp, the chicken breasts, the grass-fed ground beef. And if you're not doing animal protein, which I recommend that people do, if they can tolerate it, if they aren't doing that, then a high quality Tempe source or spirulina or something else to get amino acids in, or even do an amino acid supplement because amino acids are so great for detoxification and amino acids are so great for hormone health in general. Right. And I'm sure you and I could talk for hours about that topic, but I just, I love helping people understand. It's one of the reasons that for some people, if they practice a vegetarian or vegan diet for long enough and they don't supplement with enough amino acids, they will find that their serotonin levels dip very low and they feel depressive symptoms. It's just this isn't like an opinion. These are just facts of how the body works. And I'm sure you answer to that as well. Yeah,
Speaker 4 (22:23):
I mean, I think they've got, you really laid out the foods, eat these foods in various varieties for two weeks, and you've really done a great detox. If you're pooping and you're drinking and you're peeing and you're sleeping and getting sunshine and going outdoors and all the things, so maybe dive into the amino acids. So many of us women over 40, even under 40, we are amino acid deficient. We don't eat enough protein. We don't digest the protein that we're eating because we eat on the go. We eat standing up or we don't eat enough. So our digestive enzymes are down
Speaker 3 (23:21):
So for the amino acids that I recommend for supplementation, I mean, I take different amino acids for supplements that are particular brands. I take body health or key on aminos when I need them. But in terms of the overall amino acid profile, just for context, we of course have 20 amino amino acids, and nine of those are essential. So the others are non-essential. But of the nine essential amino acids, and I, I care about this topic a lot simply because I'm a professional bodybuilder. So I really care about what's the amino acid profile for helping me to build muscle, right? Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (24:06):
And we wanna have those inadequate amounts. We wanna specifically make sure that leucine is 2.5 grams or more combined with the other eight essential amino acids to stimulate muscle protein synthesis. So those would be in addition to the iso, leucine, leucine and veiling. Those are things like methionine. You'll find in a lot of these animal products that we eat cystine in the non-essential category, what you'll find more in collagen are amino acids like glycine. And that's great for hair, skin, and nails. But my primary recommendation when it comes to the amino acid profile of foods is you really can be brainless about it if you stick to animal proteins because animal proteins really contain that high quality benefit. And the other thing I tell people about amino acids is to think of it this way, let's put ourselves a hundred, 200, 300 years ago, and you've probably heard this term, most humans when they ate, they would eat something called a nose to tail way of eating.
Speaker 3 (25:02):
They would eat the entire animal. I'm sure everyone remembers, perhaps they had parents or grandparents or great-grandparents that ate things like liver and onions. We ate more organ meats back then. And now what we're so consumed with all the time is eating just muscle meat. We only eat the chicken breast. We don't eat chicken liver, we only eat lean steak like filet mignon. We don't eat beef, heart, or kidney. And so what that means is we're getting sort of an imbalanced amino acid profile in our bodies that's inconsistent with what nature intended. So the way to think about this in terms of supplementation is if you are someone who just eats the chicken breast and not the chicken liver or the filet mignon and not the beef, heart or kidney, then I really recommend that you do consume a high quality collagen supplement because collagen is a kin to those organ meats that we just aren't eating anymore.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
So I always say, if you're going to eat muscle meat, think of the muscle meat, like a whey protein shake. Muscle meat is very analogous to whey when it comes to the powders. And then the organ meats are very analogous to collagen when it comes to the powders. So oftentimes for my clients, if I'm running a meal plan for them and they wanna have a protein shake, I may ask them to combine whey or let's say it's pea if they can't consume whey protein with collagen so that they get that full comprehensive amino acid profile. Does that make sense?
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Yes. And that's great advice because you're so right. Most people don't eat organ meats. Of course. I love chicken liver.
Speaker 3 (26:33):
I do Joel
Speaker 4 (26:34):
Most. Yeah, most people don't. And so that's very sage advice. Thank you for offering that. I know that your time is limited, and I think that your path has been unique in that you were a litigator and now you help people transform their health. Yes. And you've done so many, I mean, marathons and competitions. So you obviously have a drive and you have a gift for transformation. I love this quote you shared with me before we started from Jay Shetty. If you don't sacrifice for what you want, what you want becomes the sacrifice. Yes. And I talked to so many women at midlife who really have put their lives on hold. They're not in jobs that they love anymore. Maybe their kids have grown up and left, but they don't know what's next for them. And you really have exemplified jumping from one lane, not only to another lane, but to a completely different highway. So can you talk a little bit about how that transformation took place that might inform somebody listening if you wanna weave human design in there? I won't be mad at you. 'cause I love human design,
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yes. No, I love it. I will. I can do that for
Speaker 4 (27:53):
Sure. Yeah. And maybe that played a part in it. 'cause I know that was huge for me, a real inflection point. So yeah, I would, we would love to hear about that because I know you have to go in a few minutes.
Speaker 3 (28:03):
Oh sure. No problem. Thank you so much. So really as I think about my transition, I was someone who believed I was going to be a lawyer until I retired. I loved it. I thought try a lawyering was the best, most fun thing you could do. And there was nothing about it that I was not one of these female lawyers who got super burnt out, who wanted to leave, who was eye-rolling every day at her job. Now I certainly look forward to my work much more than I did then. So maybe I was doing a little, running a little bit of a program at the time. The very short version on why I left is that in the fall of 2017, after I got out of what I consider to be a fairly toxic relationship, I finally discovered and started practicing meditation. And meditation was really my answer to everything.
Speaker 3 (28:46):
And I know for many people when they hear that, they're like, oh, don't tell me I have to meditate. I can't meditate. It's so hard. My brain is going all the time and I'm thinking of the dishes and the laundry and my to-do list and everything. And I always say, that's because you're not good at it yet. You just need to practice. And like everything. I wasn't amazing at my job on the first day. I certainly wasn't an amazing lawyer on the first day, but I got really good at it because I was practicing. And that's really what's required for meditation. So when I tell you that I started meditating in 2017 and throughout the course of 2018 and into early 2019, it became these very obvious nudges from the universe about the fact that this was going to be my new path. I was like, wait a second, what?
Speaker 3 (29:28):
I'm gonna leave the practice of law? But it became very clear, there were little signs and synchronicities. Kieran, I was in a meeting with clients who were my clients as a lawyer. I was lawyering for them. And we'd get done talking about the case and details. And then one would say to me, say, Kristen, I know you're really fit and you do these comp. I really would love some help with losing weight. Do you think you could help me? So I was starting to notice, well, this is weird here. I've been practicing for 15, 16 years and that kind of thing had not happened before. But it's almost as though clients in this new practice, this new business, were starting to present themselves to me, which was really exciting. So every time I would be in meditation, I would get these little nudges or I would feel this pull.
Speaker 3 (30:11):
In fact, my business name, which is called energetically efficient, came to me during a meditation in 2018. And I thought, well, that's a cool name. I wonder what that's for.
Speaker 3 (30:52):
And building this business ever since has been so fun. And so to go to your human design point, this was something I'd probably heard about sometime several years ago, but you know how you don't ever absorb the information until you're ready, right? Yep. There'll be a lot of people listening to this that'll hear detox 10 times and they'll be like, yeah, maybe someday. And all of a sudden, they might listen to the episode again and be like, wow, I need to do that. So that was how human design was for me. And when I first looked at my human design chart, I went, wait, what? I'm a projector. 'cause That was surprising to me. And here, what projectors are here for is to make the world more efficient. I mean, my business is energetically efficient. How do you efficiently use your energy? I like all these light bulbs.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
And fireworks started going off in my brain because I couldn't believe how much I was already living my design. So now the big transition that I'm in with human design, and I'd be so curious for you as well, because I'm a six two splenic projector, is I've learned and I've finally accepted about myself that I am not someone who can go with meetings all day long, which is what I did for so much of my life. And I didn't realize I was working against my design. You know, I did it as a lawyer. Then I started this business and it had clients all day long from morning to night. And many times I'd feel exhausted at the end of the night. And so I'm really trying to lean into my design and create more space on my calendar for creativity and just having my programs and offerings be where people come to me instead of me being pushy and salesy. It works much better as a projector if you go with the strategy of being invited. So now I'm curious what you are. Yeah,
Speaker 4 (32:29):
And just I'll tell you, but for everyone listening, if you haven't heard me talking about human design, we've done, we've talked about it in a few podcast episodes now, and we're incorporating it to all, into all my programs. It's a a system of how your energy body works, right? No more are we seven centered chakra beings. We have nine energy centers. And you have a unique design that pretty much only you have based on the high degree of specificity and detail that's available. But in general, you have a type and an authority and a strategy for how you're supposed to be making decisions and living your life. And if you're living out of alignment with that, that can affect your hormones, it can affect every organ in your body, it can affect your health. Health. And I too was living as a generator go do.
Speaker 4 (33:20):
And I naturally, and meditation was a part of my story too. It's so funny when you were talking about
Speaker 4 (34:05):
Never did until years later. And then found out I'm a five one projector, emotional projector. And it really was such validation and gave me permission to really lean into what I'm here for, which yes, to make the world more efficient and guide others. And so that's why we're doing what we're doing. And I want everyone to hear this because I know that some of you are struggling with the path that you're on in life and you're looking for answers and you're trying to figure it out with your mind. You can't figure out your soul's purpose with your mind. That's not what it's for. Correct. You need to follow your intuition. If human design sounds like it might resonate with you, do it. If you have tried meditating and you haven't gotten anywhere, try again. Try a different type of meditation. Follow your intuition. One of the women in my programs the other day during our group coaching call said, you know, I really couldn't do the meditation even focusing on a mantra.
Speaker 4 (35:03):
So I started singing the mantra out loud, and I can meditate when I do that. See? I said, brilliant. You're listening to yourself. You're listening to your soul. Yes. And so that's what this is all about. Like we're all on an energetic frequency. What's gonna work for you is gonna resonate with you. You hear Kristen talking about detox, you hear us talking about the sanitation department not flushing your toilet and something's, if it's called to you, you're gonna be going get your cruciferous vegetables and your amino acids and you're gonna do the deal. And if it's not resonating with you, then it's not for you. So I'm all about restoring that innate wisdom that we have in our bodies and our souls and our spirits. And so what's like, now that you're on this new path?
Speaker 3 (35:49):
It's been so fun.
Speaker 4 (36:40):
Yes. So I know you have to go. Let's leave everyone with a Zig Ziglar quote. You shared with me before we started, which I love. You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. So call to action everybody. What are you gonna start with? What are you feeling inspired to do after listening to us? There's something that's calling to you. Listen to that nudge and go do the thing. Kristen, please tell everyone where they can find out more about you online and interact with you.
Speaker 3 (37:13):
Thank you so much. So my website is energetically efficient, and then I'm most active on Instagram, and my Instagram handle is MN for Minnesota, MN Golden Girl. And I have three golden retrievers, which is where that comes from. I just love them so much. I'm also on LinkedIn under my name Kristen Raul. I have a cookbook that recently came out so they can find out information about that through my Instagram or my website.
Speaker 4 (37:36):
Awesome. Thank you so much for joining me, Kristen. It was an absolute pleasure to have you here today.
Speaker 3 (37:41):
I just loved it so much. Thanks for having me. And
Speaker 4 (37:43):
Thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription. I know you're inspired after this conversation. I wanna know what you were inspired to do. Reach out to me on social media and let me know, and have a great week. I'll see you next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones
Speaker 2 (38:00):
Y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast featuring our brilliant guest, Dr. Michelle Veneziano. Dr. Veneziano is an esteemed expert in the field of osteopathic self care and has a deep understanding of the benefits of fascial flow for midlife women. Her unique approach to Cranial Osteopathy not only empowers women with self-healing techniques but also emphasizes the body's innate ability to restore itself.
In this episode, we delve into the fascinating world of fascial flow and connection as medicine to heal. Dr. Veneziano shares her wealth of knowledge on the importance of maintaining natural balance and vitality by aligning ourselves with the world around us. Don't miss out on this engaging conversation as we uncover key takeaways for midlife women who can greatly benefit from this holistic approach to health and wellness.
You'll learn about:
- Dr. Veneziano's specialized approach to Cranial Osteopathy and the healing benefits of fascial flow.
- The role of fascial flow and connection in maintaining a balanced, healthy life for midlife women.
- Practical advice on incorporating osteopathic self-care techniques into your daily routine.
- Personal stories and real-life examples of how fascial flow and connection can improve overall health and well-being.
To continue your journey towards optimal health, make sure to hit that subscribe button for The Hormone Prescription Podcast. We have many more insightful episodes coming your way, featuring the latest topics in women's health, wellness, and self-care. Don't miss out on the knowledge, wisdom, and empowerment you deserve!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Feel your body every cell in every moment, and relate to the earth as if she is your dance partner. Dr. Michelle Veneziano. Stay tuned to find out why your fascia may be the key to your healing and your superpower, and why you're not walking correctly.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we talk to Dr. Michelle Veneziano, who's an osteopathic physician and very brilliant and progressive in the approaches that she's helping people work on and master when it comes to health and healing. She is trained and helps people with cranial osteopathy, working with their fascia, changing their body movement and posture and nervous system so that they can ignite their body's innate ability to heal. Yes, your body has an innate ability to heal. Just like if you get cut, all you have to do is cover it so it doesn't get wounded again, and then nature takes care of the rest. Well, your whole body actually functions that way, but most of us aren't aware of the bandaid that we need to be placing on the rest of our body, particularly our fascia, our nervous system, to allow healing to occur.
Speaker 1 (02:17):
And sure, you've gotta work on your hormones, you've gotta work on your gut health and your detox and all the things like I like to say. But a big missing piece that even a functional medicine perspective misses, is looking at your fascia. We're gonna talk about why that's super important and how you're walking, how you're connecting above and below how you're connecting to Mother Earth and so many other things that Dr. Michelle really is brilliant when it comes to helping people understand and implement in their lives. So I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we will get started. Dr. Michelle Veneziano is an osteopathic physician and clinical professor who has pioneered osteopathic self-care rooted in cranial osteopathy, a hands-on evidence-based therapeutic practice. That's one of the things I love about her, is she can explain the science behind all of these things that sources both western and eastern philosophies to support the body's ability to heal itself. She has a unique approach and you're gonna love her as much as I love speaking with her. We probably need to do more episodes. She has a lot of resources for you, which we're gonna share at the end of our discussion. And we're gonna talk about walking and relating on the earth as if she's your dance partner. Welcome, Dr. Michelle Veneziano to the show. Thank
Speaker 3 (03:44):
You for having me. I'm glad to be
Speaker 4 (03:45):
Here. I'm so excited to talk about craniosacral therapy and osteopathic medicine and fascia and un fascial unwinding. This is my new obsession, like I was just telling you. And so I know a lot of people are going, what we're talking about craniosacral what and fascial what
Speaker 3 (04:30):
Osteopath that trained in the US are medical doctors. It's very confusing for patients. I totally sympathize with that. And most of the osteopaths dos people with a DO degree are pretty indistinguishable from MDs. And there's this tiny sliver of our profession that has really devoted, we've devoted ourselves to maintaining the traditional osteopathic principles and practice, which go back to the 18 hundreds actually. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 4 (06:04):
Let's talk about what you do. So you pioneer a type of self-care that's rooted in cranial osteopathy. Can you talk a little bit about that? You say that it's evidence-based therapeutic practice that sources both western and eastern philosophies to support the body's ability to heal itself. So in plain English, if you were talking to, if I introduced you to my friend Sarah, what would, how would you explain what that means?
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Most of what people see osteopathic doctors for is to have our hands on them and solve all of the structural issues and the way that electricity flows through the body. And basically, ultimately it's a reboot, blending all of those things. So they actually arrive in time and space and their subtle body and their physical body come back together when a person is offline or not themselves, not present, not actually in their body. It's like watching a three D movie and having one image. The images aren't together. And so each of us solves that in unique ways. What I'm doing now with the revelation that I had through my own personal experience was that until I figured out what it felt like to almost like a setting on a dial to be in that integrated space, I would get healed. And then I go back out. So I thought, what's wrong with this picture? So many patients are coming, I integrate them and then they gradually dissociate and then at one point they'll come back to be rebooted again. And I, I'm really passionate now about teaching people how to stay in
Speaker 4 (08:04):
So a few things you said in there that I think some people aren't gonna understand. One, you mentioned subtle body. I know some people are scratching their heads going, what is Dr. Michelle talking about? You talked about disassociate. I think some people aren't gonna understand that. Can you, you explain what you meaning?
Speaker 3 (08:23):
Yeah. It's time everyone out there in the world to understand what the energy body is. Yes, everything's energy. If you don't get this, you're really gonna be struggling and not having as much fun. So I'm just gonna say it's time to understand energy. There are universities in this country that study what the biofield is, the OR field, the meridians and the chakras. There are maps of these things there, gazillions of studies explaining that we're actually electrical beings. We're electrical first and physical second. And the brilliance of osteopathy is that the brilliance of nature is that form follows function. So if you have a way to work with your own energy body and keep all of those circuits going, that feeds the physical and is, that's how the body heals. So energy comes first, the structure comes second. So when we have this, osteopaths have this, how do they do it?
Speaker 3 (09:22):
Something magical happened, I don't get it. And it's so efficient and it goes so deep really quickly because we access that principle. We'll go in and it took me years and years to feel anything. I didn't feel anything. I was that person listening who was like, biofield, what is that
Speaker 4 (10:49):
Yeah, because we think we are flesh and bones and so we don't realize who we really are. And so once you get that, you have this subtle electrical body and that really our physicality follows this subtle body. Everybody needs to be addressing it. People are still going to their HMO doctors and they're not getting that information there. So I think that's why they're not aware. But then you talked about with feeling that they have, they have to dis they dissociate and that you need to bring them back. But helping them to learn how to do this themselves. And so how is this self-care, cranial osteopathy, something that can help people to manage their own subtle body?
Speaker 3 (11:32):
I'm gonna really simplify this because I'm an osteopath, okay? But I could be an Ayurvedic doctor, I could be a Chinese medicine doctor. We have different languages for describing the same thing. Okay? How do we connect with the energetic layer of existence? And if we don't do that, the organism of our bodies is going to be in fight or flight on some to some degree. So that's a tie-in to the hormone piece that I, I wanna speak to. And we're also going to feel spiritually, emotionally disconnected. What is this life experience happening? What being in a body is so strange if we don't connect to that deeper. It's almost like when we begin to have an experience as an electrical being and more identifying with that larger aspect of ourselves, we feel things start to make sense and we start to feel like connected to meaning and purpose and that bigger picture that, and most people, they don't have that. And the list of problems that will arise because of that dissociation, that disconnection from our deeper selves is limitless. So people say, how do you solve this? How do you solve that? Get in your body. Feel who you are. So I'm an embodiment teacher. Now I was not in my body, right? I had a whole host of, I could tell you my story for, I've had everything in the book. Please just tell us. I think it would be very instructive. Okay.
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Some of us are born maybe more aware and more sensitive as our base nature. And that was me. I arrived in Brooklyn, New York in the sixties and it was very weird. I remember feeling like I lived in an energetic world. I actually remember as a toddler walking down the street and seeing in colors and sort of feelings thing, feeling I got a lot of information that was bigger and different than what people were saying and doing. So it looked like I was in a movie. And then slowly I forgot all that. 'cause I grew up and I remember, and this is what happens to us, children are very spiritually connected typically, unless there's some horrific birth trauma experience. And then we slowly, so gradually acculturate to this different energetic collective kind of uncon, I'm gonna call it the collective unconscious
Speaker 3 (14:04):
And it's heartbreaking and it's so gradual and unconscious. People don't really get that it even happened. They just wake up one day often as adolescents. And life is just not right. So many people are on antidepressants. The suicide rates are so high and there's this sort of vague, what is it? And then the surge goes on and on and then the list of physical things goes on and on. And I loved the episode with that. You did with Dr. Amit Agarwal. I was listening earlier and I just loved how he went into all these layers and speaking to how we have to begin to or get to, you said we have to. This is a beautiful invitation to come back to ease and grace and it's so much life. Makes sense. And it's so much simpler when we drop into that deeper layer of wisdom and connection to the planet.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
It's a literal electrical connection to the earth. It's a polarity. We actually become connected to the positive iion forces of the ionosphere and then the grounding. It's the yin pole of the earth. And so we begin to connect heaven and earth through our bodies and log on this infinite well of power and wisdom and intelligence in the universe. I just described what a spiritual experience typically is for most people. They somehow connect. It could be psychedelics, it could be a revelation that comes or a healing that comes or, and but, and what is that thing? And how do we actually live there? And somehow we're gonna connect this to fascia because you're really interested in fascia. And fascia is relevant to what I'm saying. So back to my story, I was not in my body at all. And then I arrived in, I think I was 15 years old and I had this accidental intellectual exposure to psychedelic medicine.
Speaker 3 (16:10):
It was a peyote medicine. And I've never said this in public before, but I think it's really relevant now that I saw it all. It's like, am I observer, self stepped back and looked at the whole movie and I was remember feeling, don't, how did I end up here? This is the wrong place. It's, it was very dark because the world's very dark. It's very, it's impossible to understand or feel resolution toward without this bigger site being in the body gives you bigger sight, simplifies things and resources. The physical self with the energy needed and the intelligence needed to heal. So I think that's where my journey began in the sense of, oh, I'm actually going to move toward understand I'm gonna solve this. And the same, it was the same year I got the download. I remember walking across the courtyard of my high school and it was almost like a boy said, you're going to medical school.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
And at the time I didn't even, I didn't know what that meant. I just thought books are easier than people. Let's do it.
Speaker 3 (18:10):
I'm just gonna study a lot and run like 10 miles a day to just move all the energy of that terror. I would say that most of us carry somewhere in ourselves, whether or not we're connected to it moment to moment. And I had physical issues, big time, adrenal stuff. I had blown a disc in my low back 'cause I was so not present with my structure. I just was running all those endorphins. And then I got to fix it all. And it took many years. And I realized at one point, wow, I'm getting all these amazing treatments. But until I got in my body and was driving that blend of the physical and electrical, it didn't stick. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (19:06):
So I actually wanna talk about really specific things today. Two epic super simple things that people can begin to do right now, like in this moment is connect your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Because the pituitary, which guides all the entire endocrine system hormones, cortisol that topic is so deep and I really love how Dr. Agarwal addressed it. So I'm not gonna talk about it. I'll invite everyone to go listen to that podcast. Is that when our tongue is dissociated from the roof of our mouth, it's actually pretty difficult to blend the three D movie into one physical and subtle body. It's almost like a set point for the main river of life force through the center of the body, which is called the central channel in Chinese medicine. And sh shara in sh sh. Thank you. Thank you.
Speaker 3 (20:06):
And in osteopathy we call it the midline. Everything. Everything relates to the midline. So the physical and the subtle, we've got to, we get to begin to tune into what that channel is that connects us to the earth. And the ionosphere. It's a literal electrical circuit. I have papers in physics that describe how we participate in this circulation. It's not a vague, esoteric or really hypothetical. This is all mapped out in physics and mathematics. I have to close my window here just a second. So the tongue on the roof of the mouth, I say having a well-functioning tongue is like having an osteopath living in your head. And in Ayurvedic teachings, in the Vedic teachings, they describe a chakra in the roof of the mouth called the Soma chakra. That when the tongue is trained to land on the roof of my of your mouth and I speak all about how you get this to happen on my website in a blog called Your Swallows Mile and sleep are more related than you think.
Speaker 3 (21:17):
And so I have people start to really experience how wonderful it feels to have this connection come back in. And I can see you're doing it right now,
Speaker 3 (22:18):
At the end of the day, you could call this podcast, get your energy moving and also get it in focus. Not all, most people are walking around, they're like a symphony of musical instruments that are all doing different things. It's crazy. And then we wanna get the symphony in tune. So tongue on the palette. And I wanted to say something. Oh, it's such a deep topic. I really encourage people to go read that blog. It's, I have a whole free self-study library. And then specifically, I'm 59 years old. I look like maybe I'm 45. I never have pain, I don't get sick ever. And I believe it's because of this constant flushing that I've, ult that I've gradually cultivated. My base setting is that I live in this place where there's powerful energy radiating out from my midline at all times. But this is very much like what martial artists do.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
This is what yogis do. This is the actual purpose of those practices. And then the toning and correction of things like joint pain and fill in the blank, everything extend from those things. Yoga, qigong, tai chi, frankly just being in a body is all those things all the time. They're not practices for me that I set aside time to do. I'm doing them in every moment. And I don't even know it because that's just who we're born being. So my entire teaching is about let's just reboot and restore to all the things we did naturally when we were born. Everything that works, everything that's good, you are already an expert in, it's just dormant intelligence. So tongue on the palate is where we're gonna start. And that's one connection, one gate, every joint in the body, the palate has multiple joints. Actually our gates in Chinese medicine that they talk about in Qigong, they talk about how every joint in the body is a gate through which this electric electricity must flow.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
So cranial, we started out, what does cranial mean? The entire skull behaves in a certain way when there's a lot of vital energy flowing through it. It actually pulses. We call this a rhythm cranial rhythm that is, do you have one or don't you? If you don't, things aren't gonna go well. And so someone might walk in and say, oh I have adrenal fatigue, I have migraines. Okay, cranial rhythm or not cranial rhythm. It doesn't really matter what the symptom is. It matters if you're breathing the entire body, including the fascia, bones and muscle must be integrated and pulsing in this beautiful fluid way that renders our system like an engine in tune. It becomes very fluid and efficient. That's a physical description of flow. State flow state's actually physical and it's also subtle electrical. So the second thing, that was my major revelation that made me so happy and is the reason I don't have pain.
Speaker 3 (25:34):
And it's the reason I'm super fit. Despite really not doing anything but using every cell in my body when I walk. And every moment when I sit the whole time I'm talking to you, I'm feeling not consciously, there's no work to this. Once you land in it again, this is you. I'm feeling and connected to every cell in my body. Every cell in my body is participating in everything I'm doing. Breathing, walking, moving, feeling. So it's like a constant state of refreshing, clearing, rejuvenating every cell in the body in every moment. So I hope that wasn't too complex. I do wanna talk about the specifics of how we walk to start to activate that power. Do you wanna say anything? Please,
Speaker 4 (26:25):
Please do. So let's see. I definitely wanna talk about fascia. So
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Great. It's beautiful that you have this idea to talk about fascia because when the skull is doing this pulsing, the pelvis is also doing the pulsing. The entire body is a spring. Every joint is expanding contracting in relation to the earth. When that's happening, the fascia does not have to protect us. There's a quality when someone walks in and I'm like, do you have a cranial rhythm or don't you? Well if you don't, you're probably also gonna be physically shrink wrapped in fascia that's trying to protect you and isn't really hydrated or awake or supple and adaptable. So the tongue practice that I just described will actually begin to allow your fascia to back off the need to protect the body. Because once that electrical midline comes in, it's like the trunk of a tree and the entire, all the limbs can relax because they're connected to this power powerful central river. This is a key point. If you don't have a midline, your fascia is going to be doing all kinds of things. And how do you know? Because you'll stretch and then the next day you have to stretch again. You didn't actually, it doesn't stay supple in awake. Does that
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Make sense? I wanna, yes it does. Michelle, but I wanna just back up one second because I think most people have the idea of what fascia is the same as what I was basically taught in medical school and residency, which it's this kind of canvas like coating that encases all your bones, nerves, organs and keeps them from moving and holds them in place. But I have gotten such a deeper understanding and respect actually for what fascia is. It not only encases everything, but it attaches to every single cell in your body, every single cell. And it attaches to the structure or kind of the cytoskeleton of each cell. So this is the superhighway by which every cell in your body is connected. And please correct me if I'm wrong and elaborate, but it's faster than the nervous system. And it's why a flock of birds can move seamlessly all in one direction without communicating.
Speaker 4 (28:53):
And it's actually what causes the fastest coordination of movement in our body. And it has awareness and consciousness and stores memories and thoughts and all this. And so this is my new fascination with fascia. So I'd love it if you can elaborate on that so that everyone has a a context for what you're saying. I don't want them to discount it and say, oh that's just that white canvassy stuff. Like when we used to do surgery, it was the tissue we had to get through to get to the uterus, but we really didn't pay it much attention. But it's so much more than that.
Speaker 3 (29:24):
Oh, I'm so excited that you're so excited to talk about fascia. 'cause It is misunderstood.
Speaker 4 (29:30):
It's,
Speaker 3 (29:31):
And it does connect to every cell. And in terms of this reason that a flock of birds, you're, that's one beautiful analogy I use to mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (30:26):
We literally feel connected to everything and everyone, we are tribal beings. This is a foundational principle related to our ability to really exist in prosperity, expansion, abundance, all of that. So the fascia reflects when the body is in integration. It all comes back to integration. The fascia begins to be this sort of fluid supportive, super efficient conductor of information between every single cell in the body. And this electrical activation of the midline is how the charge comes in. The literal energy of our spirit comes through this channel, through the crown of the head when we're born. And that's not when we're born but in development. And the fascia is like where that electricity is actually stored. It's like a battery. It's like a many layers of the body store charge. But, and the fascia is I'm almost seeing like a science fiction movie where the people are in like a, I'm curious about why this image came in.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
It's like an electrical matrix that just holds it all together and holds potency and intelligence coming through these channels of connection through the sky and the ground. You know how they're doing solar collection of energy through painting like a roof. The fascia is like this absorber of even energy from the sunlight. It's actually like a huge aspect of how the body functions as a bio battery. So there's the subtle body, the electrical that comes in, but the physical actually has to be able to participate in that. And it's an exchange we have to be able to store that power and then allow it to manifest as regrowing a bone. If you break a bone. I think I'm, I might be getting a little bit abstract with this description maybe a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 3 (32:39):
And it's very supple. It's high. The fascia holds a lot of the water in our body, right? It actually is a, is a very powerful place where mo molecules and electricity join to create this really intense expression of power. Like you said, it's not just the neural pathways, it's not just the meridians. The fascia is probably the most powerful physical aspect of electricity expressing in the body or being held in the body. So let's bring it down to something really basic. How is it that I don't really care ever if I get a massage or not? I don't have tension. I'm not shrink wrapped. And one of the ways that I have solved this is that I walk in a way that native people walk tango dancing is a really great way to begin to learn how to activate the back body, which we, we don't do.
Speaker 3 (33:40):
Where fight or flight is an activation of the front body. People have these short hip flexors. So as muscles, all the anterior muscles, all the flexors, they directly tighten the diaphragm and shrink wrap the kidneys and activate the adrenal system. Kidney, renal, adrenal, adrenaline activation of fight, fight or flight. And this returning to native walking just makes the entire conversation so simple. I can't express enough how simply the way you walk, which is how you originally did walk before you unlearned the rigidity of modern ways, right? It's not very American to move in this organic fluid primal way. You will see it more in South America, sometimes in Europe. But, and the stiffness, that is something we learn from simply unconsciously mirroring what we do in our culture shuts down the whole darn thing. Including the ability of the fascia to receive and store and express electricity and power and do its job of hydrating and supporting all the structures of the body.
Speaker 3 (35:00):
So natural walking, what do we do? It's opposite. It's
Speaker 4 (36:15):
That's fascinating. And when I was in Argentina recently, I worked with a, a rolfing therapist there who was reteaching me how to walk in the way a manner in which you are stating. And it felt a little bit foreign. But I wanna explain to everyone why I'm so fascinated, fascinated with fascia. Lately I had some experiences with different plant medicines where all I could describe what was happening is this unwinding where my body would make these spontaneous, internally driven movements. They weren't conscious, they were unconscious and was talking with different people about this. What is happening? What's the action? And then I started having them spontaneously because I'm always looking for what are the ways that are stopping us from healing the women I work with myself, the people I know what else is available to us. And so I started experiencing that spontaneously. And then I was at a retreat last weekend here in Dubai and they had something called inner dance. Are you familiar with that?
Speaker 3 (37:20):
I've not heard that term, but I imagine it's related to some of the similar things that there are practices.
Speaker 4 (37:26):
So it's, they use different music tracks to induce brainwave states and then you lay on a mat blindfolded and basically you allow your body to unwind the way it wants to unwind. And that was fascinating 'cause that's fa, excuse me, unwinding. And then I came across this, I think his name's Thomas Atley, he's head of an osteopathic school in England and he had this wonderful lecture on YouTube about the founder of osteopathy and really the significance of fascia. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to watch. So I really become aware of it as like you're talking about we're so adrenalized. We had a wonderful doctor on a few weeks ago on the podcast who wrote a book I think called Adrenalize. And we are in fight and flight and how the whole front body is contracted as if, what do you do when you are afraid is you contract into fetal position. So all those muscles are pulled down. And so part of healing for everyone I think is freeing this fascia from its chronically tense state. And like you said, you never care if you get a massage. And I'm thinking, oh, I would love to say that one day
Speaker 3 (38:58):
Have something great for you. I have something great for you. Yeah. There's a concept in us in mechanics when musculoskeletal medicine of any kind where there's a principle called reflexive inhibition. So this is so great. If you make a bicep, they tighten your bicep, the tricep will automatically release. So people say, I wanna release my bicep, I'm gonna do cupping and I'm gonna do guhan. And I love those things, don't get me wrong. And I use them but not really that much 'cause I don't really need them. And I say this to people about, I have to quiet my mind. No, you don't just feel you can't do both at the same time. Feeling is like activating your bicep, the mind quiets, you don't need to release your front body, simply activate your back body. And the reciprocal inhibition will release the front body. So it's great you can do fascial treatments, but, and like I said before, if you don't get this deeper relationship that will continually release and blend everything, you're just gonna have to keep doing treatments.
Speaker 3 (40:00):
It's not the root of what would actually bring flow state into all your body systems and then allow the fascia to be this like in martial arts, this very supportive and intensely strong and powerful sleeve of support that's also supple and can melt and allow you to move gracefully and efficiently in the ways that we see are possible. Mm-Hmm. In those practices, Qigong, any of the martial arts are seemingly magical because what they're doing is accessing the so much power and so much precision. And we think, wow, that's amazing. Is that really possible? They do seemingly humanly impossible things and we can do. And
Speaker 4 (40:43):
So when you say activate the back body, are you saying that changing the way we walk is all we need to do? Yes. To activate the back body
Speaker 3 (40:50):
And the way you sit there isn't if, if I get up I will shortly and I will walk to my bathroom and I will, I brush my teeth. I am feeling this kind of grudge, this whole conversation that's happening. Oh, I've been sitting for a while, I don't can't, I don't really feel my glutes activating. When you are walking, you wanna feel those back body muscles working and if you've been sitting for a while and you get up, you probably will notice, oh, I don't really feel them. And so I tell people, crouch like an animal on the ground. Exaggerate the recruiting of all these muscles too. You can feel those back body muscles activate and then gradually and then notice them. You won't have to notice them forever once they're on Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (41:54):
And this is actually a way to heal your spine. I used to have all kinds of back issues and I remember one time when I built my school, I was sitting at the computer so many hours and getting away with it because of a lot of these things I'm talking about. But one day I noticed I was getting one of those muscle spasms where you can just tell if it goes, my whole spine's just gonna be contracted and it's gonna be weeks and weeks of pain. Has anyone gotten into one of those neck spasms? And then it's just really stuck for a while and really painful. I haven't had that happen in a long time, but I woke up a couple years ago and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm just about to be in big trouble. And I connected to my breath, got up, connected to the floor and walked down to make my tea very deliberately with this kind of like you were saying, you were going into the spontaneous fluid thing on the floor with that practice that you, this is it.
Speaker 3 (42:55):
This is what animals and primitive man did to wake it all up and blend it together. And I walked for a few minutes down to make my tea and this attunement to this micro movement and recruiting and what, what's going on in there? Really allowing my awareness to connect to every cell and in particular my back body. And it, it's like flipping a switch. Boom, we're on, we're good. Done. No neck thing happened. I basically could have been weeks of needing treatment, expensive and time consuming, looking for help outside of myself. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 4 (44:13):
It has something called tensity, right? It's a liquid and solid. And so it's, isn't it really what keeps, when you're walking and your hand goes forward, it's what keeps your hand from flying off of your shoulder, isn't it? It keeps everything. Yeah. Because otherwise you'd be like a bag of jelly,
Speaker 3 (44:31):
Biotin, seg is exactly what I'm describing. It's another way of saying integration and the cooperation or integration's really the word, the flock of birds being all the parts of the body dropping into synchrony. And so the tensile aspects and then the structural aspects work together. It's this means we're a spring, that means we're everything's contained and this, this, the stability elements are bones are, are what allows support the fluid aspects to be free and melted. It's another way of saying integration. And it only comes through this splinting of the physical body and the subtle body. We can achieve this and not realize what we've done because, so oh, it's another brilliant thing I noticed that when we're in this three D glasses, the subtle body and the physical body blend again, the symphony is in tune. This is our fleck of birds state. The nervous system comes into balance. They mirror one another. Exactly. So if you can't yet feel your energy body, and believe me, I can relate, you will feel your nervous system responding to this blending of the physical and electrical aspects.
Speaker 4 (45:53):
Yes. There's so much to talk about with this. I'm creating a whole new program inside my other programs to start integrating, talking about fascia. I would love to have you come talk. Please tell me you have a blog or video somewhere on your website or YouTube about teaching people how to walk correctly.
Speaker 3 (46:11):
I have, do you I have gazillions of things. If you go to my website, flow is medicine.com. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 4 (47:23):
Yes, Dr. Michelle, it's, it's so great to have you on. I'm definitely gonna check out the resources. I hope some of you listening will join me in her online class 'cause it sounds super fun, educational and worthwhile for your health. Thank you so much for joining us. Any other information that you wanna share with everyone? Flow is medicine.com is where they can find you. Any other places online where you'd like them to know about connecting
Speaker 3 (47:50):
With you? I would love everyone to go to my courses page and sign up for even the free preview of what I'm doing because it's like a drip. I'm talking about some really powerful confronting things that will destroy your ego. Do not
Speaker 4 (48:42):
And with the flow.
Speaker 3 (48:43):
I love it. Thank you
Speaker 4 (48:45):
So much for joining me today, Dr. Michelle. This has been an absolute pleasure and a gem. Thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (48:52):
Thank you for having me. Delighted
Speaker 4 (48:54):
And thank you all for joining me for another episode of the Hormone Prescription. This has been an amazing conversation. I know for some of you, a lot of this probably went over your head. Don't worry. Keep coming back. Keep listening. Check out Dr. Michelle's resources. It will make sense to you eventually and for some of you, this was right on point and you're gonna wanna know more. So you're going to want to check out her resources as well. Hopefully you are loving this new content that we are expanding and bringing to you 'cause it's really gonna help you with your hormones. We tied this a little bit into hormones today, but stay tuned for future episodes 'cause we'll be tying fascia more into hormones into your overall health and wellbeing. So
Speaker 2 (49:42):
I look forward to seeing you again next week. Until
Speaker 4 (49:44):
Then,
Speaker 3 (49:45):
Peace,
Speaker 2 (49:46):
Love, and hormones y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Are you a midlife woman struggling with chronic symptoms, but just can't seem to find the root cause? Could Lyme disease be the culprit behind the mystery? In today's riveting episode, we sit down with Heather Gray, an expert Functional Diagnostic Nutritionist and Bioenergetic Practitioner who specializes in helping clients with chronic and complex illnesses such as Lyme disease and Autoimmune diseases. With overn27 yearsnof personal experience, Heather is passionate about helping others find relief and regain their health 💪.
The main topic for today's discussion is Lyme disease, and Heather will share her expertise on the following key takeaways:
- Identifying Lyme disease ⚠️
- Healing this mystery illness 🌱
- Empowering clients to take control of their health journey 🧘♀️
We dive into the nitty-gritty of Lyme disease – from its symptoms and the difficulties in identifying it, to Heather's personalized approach that helps clients reduce inflammation, improve gut health, and achieve optimal wellness 🔍🩺. Heather's dedication and experience have helped countless clients overcome their chronic health issues to achieve the health and vitality they deserve 😊.
So, dear midlife women, don't let chronic illness hold you back any longer! Tune in to this thought-provoking episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast and learn from Heather Gray the steps to identify and conquer Lyme disease, or any other stubborn mystery illness, once and for all 🦸♀️.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy the conversation ♨️. Don't forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast for more informative and inspiring episodes on all things hormonal and health-related! 🎧 🌟
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There's a reason you became a good host for Lyme in the first place. And if nothing changes, nothing changes, Heather Gray.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O-B-G-Y-N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into a topic we haven't dived into in five years in the podcast, which I don't know how that happened because it's super important and it could be affecting you and you might not even know it because it's a diagnosis that's often missed. It's hard to diagnose, and clinicians have to have a high index of suspicion, know the right tests to give, know the right treatments, and the right order to get rid of this bugger, I'm gonna call it Lyme disease. So it's a little bit of a complicated process, and not a lot of clinicians are experts in this. And so sometimes it's left to our health coaches and our other ancillary providers to really do the grunt work of being the experts in this. And today's guest is the line boss.
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Her name's Heather Gray. I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we will get started. So Heather is a functional diagnostic nutritionist and bioenergetic practitioner specializing in supporting clients with chronic and complex illnesses like Lyme disease, autoimmune diseases and more. She has 27 years of personal experience. A lot of us come to this work through our pain that becomes our purpose. Heather is no exception, so she deeply understands the struggles of living with these conditions. She really is dedicated to helping others find relief. You'll hear that in her enthusiasm, in her frequency, in the depth of knowledge that she has about this topic. She has a personalized approach as a practitioner. She's also a podcast host and author, and she's helped countless clients reduce inflammation in their body and brain, improve their gut health and achieve optimal wellness. She helps clients get to the root cause of their symptoms and helps them take control of their health journey. Her approach is not only effective, but also empowering. And one of the things I really love about her is that she incorporates the bioenergetics, the spirituality, which is essential for your healing. If you are neglecting that and you don't do it, it's not a moral or ethical choice. It's a health choice because you're missing one of the most important components of your healing protocol. And we dive into that in this episode as well. So please help me welcome the line boss, Heather Gray, to the show.
Speaker 3 (03:32):
Hey, thanks for having me. So excited. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (03:35):
I'm super excited to talk about Lyme because we haven't talked about it before and we're going into our fifth season of the show. And when I realized we hadn't talked about it, I said, how have we not talked about Lyme? Because although it may not affect as many people as have hormonal poverty at midlife for women, it really can be so debilitating and so hard to diagnose and people wait so long for a diagnosis. So I think it's super important to talk about this topic to really get people thinking about could this be a cause of some of the symptoms that I'm having? So why don't we dive in right there, Heather, starting with the symptoms, acute Lyme, chronic Lyme, what does it look like? How might someone suspect that this could be them?
Speaker 3 (04:28):
Well, first off, I'm just so honored to be the first and only person to talk about lime
Speaker 3 (05:07):
There is a right way and a wrong way to take out the tick. She took a flame, a lighter to it, which actually makes it regurgitate what's in its system. So your chances of getting, yeah, if it's got Lyme and it passes it along to you, your chances are higher getting it that way. So she took it out the wrong way. And you know, I didn't develop symptoms until about two years later when it really started attacking my joints. And especially juvenile. Lyme is really heavy in the brain. And so a lot of cognitive issues, a lot of depression, a lot of anxiety, a lot of suicidal ideation. My first real experience with it was my first psych ward when I was 15 years old for my first suicide attempt. Wow. You know, it was sad because at the time nobody was trying to figure out why this 15 year old was trying to off herself.
Speaker 3 (05:53):
Nobody was digging deeper into why does this kid. Instead, they put me on antipsychotics, they told me I was attention seeking, pat me on the head, and sent me out the door. And I had spent two other times in the psych ward over over my life for suicide attempts. And what's crazy and not talked about a lot is that Lyme disease, most people die from suicide than the actual disease itself. Disease suicide in Lyme disease client patients are, is really high. The brain inflammation that it causes, the havoc that it causes with your hormones, the migrating pain, there's only six diseases out there that cause migrating pain. So that should be red flag number one. So if you ever have somebody coming to present to you and they're like, I've got a pain in my right shoulder, and then now it's in my left elbow, and then now it's in my right, right knee, right, they're not a hypochondriac.
Speaker 3 (06:47):
That's actually a very telltale sign of Lyme disease. So we've got migrating pain, we've got massive joint pain because Lyme likes to eat collagen. And so that's why we get so much joint inflammation and so much joint pain with that. It also likes to go to the areas that's weak, right? So it's gonna attack your weak areas. So if you have an injury somewhere, or if you have a genetic predisposition with something, it's gonna wreak havoc in that area. It causes a lot of brain inflammation, anxiety, depression, spinning, a obsessive thoughts suicidal ideations. There were days, I'm not even kidding, 20 to 30 times a day I would think about ways of taking myself out of this world. And, and it wasn't like a, there was nothing going on situationally for me to warrant those kind of thoughts. There was just a lot of hopelessness because I was being gaslighted by the medical community.
Speaker 3 (07:41):
I was not finding answers. You, it's very isolating when you have a chronic illness and you look normal, right? You don't look sick. So the invisible disease part of it comes with a huge thing. And then as I was then going into puberty, my hormones were a wreck. My periods were a total mess. It wreak havoc my whole life to the point where then once I did get pregnant, I miscarried. And so I've been battling hormonal stuff. So that's why I love any chance to tie this stuff in because I know for me, when you have those kind of stressors on the body we're, it's gonna steal from your, you know, sexual hormones and it's gonna cause cortisol levels to go up. And I've been fighting with my weight on and off my whole life. And so it's all very much tied together, all kinds of toxins and, you know, viruses, bacteria, other pathogens, any kind of stressor on the body is a stressor on the body and it's gonna mess with your hormones.
Speaker 1 (08:36):
Yeah. And I'm so sorry that you went through that as a teen at any age, that sounds horrifying. I'm glad that you've found the way and you're now helping other people because I know right now even people, there's somebody or some people listening who are gonna identify with those symptoms and they're gonna say, wait a minute, I have migratory pain. Wait a minute. I have had feelings of hopelessness and suicidal thoughts and obsessive thoughts. Wait a minute, I've had some of these symptoms. And wait a minute, my doctors never mentioned Lyme. I know I've been bitten by many ticks. I grew up in New York City. I went to camp in Connecticut, upstate New York. I've been to Maine, I've been bitten by so many ticks in my life. And if you live in a tick endemic area, it certainly has to be a possibility that you consider.
Speaker 1 (09:26):
And if you have even just hormonal problems that seem out of the norm, and like you said, it likes to eat collagen. So think about the strength of joints if you have early onset. I recently knew somebody who had bilateral hip replacement in her fifties, which is very young. So these are some of the symptoms you might think of and you definitely wanna be checked. Now, getting checked is another situation when it comes to Lyme. So we have to talk about testing and what are the different options for testing because there's a very high false negative rate, meaning you have Lyme, but the test comes back and says you don't. There's a wide array of testing that is more specific, meaning also more specialized and often more costly, but worth it if you can get a diagnosis. Talk a little bit about that.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
What an awesome topic. I have so much respect for this little bacteria. So going back to a little bit, what is Lyme? It's a spiral shaped bacteria, it's in the same family as syphilis. And so because of its spiral shaped, cork shaped nature, it can invade any tissue, any system, any organ in the body and start to wreak havoc. That's why they call it the great imitator because it can, cause there's, the numbers have been changing so much in the past 10 years, but the last time I heard it was like 65 or 70% of MS is actually undiagnosed Lyme disease, Alzheimer's, undiagnosed Lyme disease, fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, undiagnosed Lyme disease. So all of these kinds of catch all types, we don't really know what it is. So we're just gonna call it that type of stuff. I'd be looking into Lyme. And so, and the reason that I have respect for it is, first off, it's been around for thousands of years.
Speaker 3 (11:08):
So we actually found it in, it was a mummy in the Italian Alps, I think who we, thousands of years old, found it in its system. So our immune system in this bacteria has been together for thousands of years. I think the reason we're seeing it pop its ugly head up so much these days is just like with anything else, we've gotten so far off track as humans on how to live. We've supercharged these bugs with EMFs. We've lowered our immune systems with toxins in the air, toxins in the water, toxins in our food, high stress, all this stuff that kind of leads us to be a better host. So like you said, you've been bit hundreds of times by ticks, you probably, you don't, you're not showing symptoms of Lyme disease where someone like myself, I, I had a lot of childhood trauma.
Speaker 3 (11:55):
I had an uncle who killed himself when I was four. I had a lot of heavy metal toxicities. I was celiac and I was eating the standard American diet, didn't know any better. So there were a lot of things that set me up to be a good host. And so that's one thing I really wanna emphasize in this episode is like, why do some people get it? And some people don't. There's also a genetic component to it. There's environment epigenetics, there's a lot of that stuff, but testing. So it's brilliant in the fact that it's got three different phases that it can live in. It can be in a cyst form, it can be in a persister cell form, it can be in its active form. And a lot of times when you start to go after it, it will wrap. Its up in your immune system in biofilm and hides from your immune system.
Speaker 3 (12:35):
And so that's why a lot of this testing you get so many negatives is because our immune system isn't picking it up or it's actually, we've had it for so long and it's depleted our immune system. And so now a lot of these tests that are looking for that immune response aren't getting it because our immune system's been shut down. So it's fascinating how stealthy it can be. I like testing through Vibrant Labs, DNA connections is a really good one. And Hygienics. So those are the three top tests that I would recommend. If you're getting testing done, testing done, a lot of times I use a free intake form. So I use two of them, one of them from cell core and one of 'em from Dr. Horowitz. And that one you can get online for free. But I have found so much clinical correlation with just a person's medical background, medical history, symptoms, and then these intake forms that I don't do a whole lot of actual Lyme testing anymore unless somebody absolutely is, I have $1,500 in my pocket and it's burning and I have to see black and white results.
Speaker 3 (13:34):
Okay, cool. If that's the case, then absolutely. Sometimes it does help to know what we're dealing with. But for the most part, I've, like I said, I've seen so much clinical correlation with those intake forms and then with a really great medical history and then going over symptoms that, and most people don't care to have that. If people are coming to me, it's usually because they've been sick for a really long time, they've already seen a lot of practitioners, they haven't gotten the answers they need, so their finances are a little bit more constricted. So if you've only got so much money to work with, I'd rather not waste it on a lab that could be a false negative. Instead, I'd rather use it towards whatever protocol treatment that you might need. Because it's not cheap
Speaker 1 (14:32):
And But these tests that you're mentioning are not necessarily the tests that you're mainstream corporate doctor will do,
Speaker 3 (14:40):
Correct. Yeah. Eliza Western Blot, those are the ones that they're typically, your typical doctor will do. And sadly, let's see if I can explain this properly. Back when they tried to come out with a Lyme vaccine like 20 years ago, in order for it not to pop a certain band on the Western blot, they actually took that, they took that band off and now they're not using that vaccine anymore. But the results of that lab are still coinciding with the vaccine stuff. So we're getting a lot of false negatives because they're missing bands. There's missing parts of this lab for a vaccine that we're not even using anymore. So it makes total no sense. And the fact that, like I said, a lot of times if your immune system is shut down, it's not gonna show up properly. So there's a lot of reasons why I'm not a fan of the Western blot or the Eliza test really, as far as Lyme testing goes.
Speaker 1 (15:32):
And I would agree with that. So I would encourage anybody who suspects that they could have chronic Lyme to not waste their time with those tests. And to, like Heather says, say that money for getting into the treatment because it's gonna improve everything about your health and your hormones or
Speaker 3 (15:50):
Is how crazy this disease is. You just said the word chronic Lyme. Do you realize the CDC just recently, like within the past couple weeks, are omitting that chronic Lyme disease is actually a thing? So a disease that I've had since I was 13 years old, I'm now 45, is just now getting recognized by the CDC.
Speaker 1 (16:08):
Yeah, I saw, I can't remember the name of it, but there's a documentary about chronic Lyme. Do you know the one I'm talking about?
Speaker 3 (16:16):
There's three of them that came out last year. The monster inside me, the Quiet Epidemic. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (16:21):
Speaker 3 (16:22):
And Not Crazy. I'm sick. And so those three, I'll touch on chronic Lyme and all different types of stories, but they're all three of 'em are really great. The monster inside me is probably my favorite one.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Okay, great. Thanks for those recommendations. And it really is one of the most severe illnesses that hasn't been recognized that people have really suffered with. And so tell us a little bit more about your story. How did you get on the path to healing?
Speaker 3 (16:50):
Oh man. So I'm typical. I must have seen 20, 30, 40 different practitioners and none of them were helping. And it was, my kid was a nine at the time, eight or nine. And I was going through another really bad spell. And my friend who's a psychologist was like, I want you to go see this pa up in Denver. And her name was Rosemary. I can't remember where she was from. She had the coolest accent. But I'm literally sitting with this woman for five minutes and she gets a twinkle in her eye and she goes, I know exactly what's wrong with you. And I'm thinking. Like, I've been here, done this for so long, there's no way I've been in your office for five minutes. And she goes, no, I, I think, have you ever been bitten by a tick? And I was like, yeah. Back when I was 13.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
And she goes, I think you have Lyme disease. And so on the way home, I'm tearing down the highway 75 miles an hour on i I 25 and tears streaming down my face and I'm, I screamed, I told you I'm not crazy. And when I finally write my book, that's gonna be the title of it, I told you I'm not crazy. The realities of Lyme disease, right? And then there's gonna be a subtitle, how I made Lyme My. So I need to get this book out. But so here I thought, and so many people with Lyme were like, I got a golden ticket, right? I got a golden ticket, I got a name for the monster that is just like, it doesn't even begin to touch them. What comes next? Right? Right. The story, because again, it just got recognized by the CDC.
Speaker 3 (18:16):
So finding a doctor that's literate that knows what they're doing can be really tough. Although there's a lot more, it's easier these days. There's a lot more Lyme literate doctors out there. But as a functional practitioner coach, like the one thing that I scream at the top of my lungs, and that was how I got better, was that you can't focus on treatment. Right? There's a reason I became a good host to begin with, and it's all that lifestyle stuff that I brought up earlier, right? So when I was seeing doctors, nobody would, when I went and saw that doctor in Denver who was treating me, and it's funny 'cause I ran into him recently and I didn't know if I wanted to like beat the crap out of him or give him a hug because the way they were treating me with just antibiotics and antimalarials, I thought I was gonna die.
Speaker 3 (18:59):
But it was because of that interaction that I went back to school and became a functional practitioner. So it was like a bittersweet. So like I said, but so yeah. So here I am on antibiotics, antimalarials herbals, like this really hardcore protocol in a body that's not pooping on a regular basis. I'm not sweating, right? My ba my hormones aren't balanced. My gut's a mess, my stress levels through the roof. I'm not sleeping well and he's going to war with my body, right? With these drugs. Wow. I thought I was gonna die. And that's when I learned the hard way that no, I really didn't wanna die. I just didn't wanna live like that anymore. And so then I started to fight and then I fought back and that's when I, I became a functional practitioner. I actually saw the, the founder Reed Davis on a podcast, right?
Speaker 3 (19:46):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (20:40):
Hear you sister. I'm the same
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Speaker 3 (21:34):
And that was the piece that really helped me stay better because the good little functional practitioner that I am, I'm great at taking my supplements and going to bed on time and do, you know, doing the things, but I wasn't dealing with the emotional part. So I will get better. And then six months later I would relapse and then I'd get better and a year later I'd relapse and I kept relapsing. I was like, what the heck is going on? And that's when I learned about the nervous system resetting stuff. And I haven't had a relapse in three years, you know? So now when I get covid, I just got covid. When I get the flu, I just get the flu. I don't have a re flare up of Lyme or a reactivation of anything because I have the tools and I know what I need to do to keep every my nervous system calm daily meditation and now is a huge part of my journey that I actually look forward to because it just helps to reset everything instead of being holding on for dear life for everything all the time. That's been my journey in a nutshell.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
Yes. Thank you so much for sharing that. I think it's important for everyone listening to highlight some things I wanna highlight that Heather is sharing with you is like she said, she became a good host. So not everyone who has a tick that infects them with Lyme is going to get Lyme disease. Those hosts who are inhospitable to that spiral bacteria are not going to get an infection and pretty much not a chronic infection. So there probably was something decompensated about your system to begin with that you became susceptible to Lyme. And like she's saying, you have to fix, everybody wants to go in with guns blaring and kill the stuff like she described. She was being treated. Go to war with these bacteria in your body, but your body has to be prepared to handle that. War is very destructive.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
And so you've got to handle the basics first. You've got to get the hormones bounced, you've got to get the gut and the detox and the mitochondria and you've gotta get everything all tuned up, the nutrition, the nervous system functioning properly before you really come in with the big guns. And I even found, and this is true, we had a great conversation during my healing hormonal poverty coaching last week about a woman had wanted to have, or she just had her mercury amalgams. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (25:02):
Yeah, absolutely. I'm an open book because that's how people get better, period, end of story. If one person gets one little nugget from my story, then it's been all worthwhile. And that's why I do what I do and that's why I get down here and talk the way that I do. Yeah. Yes.
Speaker 3 (25:44):
That is one of the gifts of Lyme disease. And there's not a lot of people talking about the gifts, but one of the gifts is it's teaching you that you can't continue living this toxic environment, this toxic lifestyle, and continue to function properly. Your body's tapping out and saying, overloaded, I'm done. And so there is no going back. And I, I'm grateful because I was a bit of a party girl back then. High stress, high achiever, burning the candle. A lot of type A personality. People I'm finding right, are a little bit more susceptible to these critters than anything else. Yeah. I was one of those
Speaker 3 (26:30):
So I have supplements that I take every day. I'm still on a paleo type diet. I keep my inflammation down. I make sure to meditate daily, at least get 20 minutes of exercise in daily drinking clean water. And something as simple as putting $45 shower head filters from Amazon onto your, as you take a drink of clean water, I imagine, right? So many of us were like doing the thing and we're like, oh, I'm drinking this awesome filtered water. And then I ask them, are you bathing in filtered water? And they're like, no. And if you think about it, your skin is the largest organ. So if you're doing all these things to get rid of toxins and then you get into a five to 10 minute shower full of chlorine and fluoride and everything else, like, so a lot of times it's small little tweaks.
Speaker 3 (27:12):
I tell people, especially when it comes to getting toxins out of their lifestyle and out of their environment, right? When you run out of your aluminum deodorant, throw it away and get something that's, you know, cleaner, healthier, and doesn't have aluminum in it. Same thing with your self-care products. Same thing with getting this kind of a filter. It took me over a year to get my environment cleaned up and get filters and things in place, but it didn't happen overnight. And so that's one thing I tell people, go slow. Take it one bite at a time, right? Try not to look at the whole thing at once. 'cause Then you will get overwhelmed and you won't do anything. And really all those small steps really add up to big wins. But, these days I have a sauna blanket and I'm hoping to get one. I like Farage, they've got just a single pop-up like cord sauna, but my sauna blanket has a higher dose.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
And so it's an infrared sauna blanket and it looks like a sleeping bag that I get in. And I do that three times a week. I do skin brushing with it and take binders. So I really supercharge it. I use my castor oil pack overnight three times a week. I still do a coffee enema still once a week. And then, like I said, daily, making sure that I'm daily getting exercise and then taking care of my spiritual health because that's the other part of these pieces of healing that not a lot of people are talking about. We keep thinking yes, and separate the physical from the spiritual, from the emotional. And we can't, that is not how we're made up. And so really meditation is in, in prayer are absolute foundational for me now. Like I, you can really tell how easily I go off the rails when I haven't, haven't done those two things for myself every day.
Speaker 1 (28:50):
Thank you for sharing that. And I think you're so right. Mainstream medicine has the drugs and surgery and I'm glad we have it if we need it. Functional medicine has the physiological approach with supplements and nutrition and detox and healing the gut and bouncing hormones. I appreciate that. But I think what everybody, most, everyone misses. And then there's some people who only deal with the spiritual, energetic and they ignore others. They say, oh, this is all you need. And maybe down the line, when we get that perfected that technology for spiritual energetic healing, we won't need the other because everything is frequency at its core. Everything is light and sound and frequency. So maybe we'll get there like Dr. Spock where he would just take that Star Trek little and you'd be healed because he'd just be blasting your body with the right frequencies. You talked about prayer and meditation and you mentioned some things earlier. I think that a lot of people don't know what they're supposed to do when it comes to healing their energy body, what that really looks like, what that means. So just from your experience in yourself and working with people, what does that encompass? What does it look like?
Speaker 3 (30:10):
Mm-Hmm. Phenomenal question. There's a lot of cool tools out there these days. I've tried a lot of them. Some of them can be really stupid expensive
Speaker 3 (30:55):
So right now I'm actually running Lyme and mold. And so I do that every day just to help balance my system out. Because especially after having Lyme for 27 years, it's not ever gonna leave me. It's a part of me and it's how well I keep my immune system up and working properly is how well it keeps it at bay. And so there are some cool texts out there, red light, there's different things that can, meditation I talked about in prayer help get you in that energetic space of working with frequency and vibration and helps get you more balanced. What else? Oh, emotion code and body code work. So a lot of times you don't actually have to go in and figure out what emotions are clogging up the system. You do muscle testing and these other energetic type practices to help clear that stuff out.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
There's breath work, all of the breath of fire to help move energy around and and balance the body. There's guided meditations, like I just did one yesterday with this woman. And I, I knew all about chakras for a long time and I actually wasn't gonna watch it. And I was like, I know about chakras. She actually taught me a few cool new things about chakras that I, I never heard before. And when she does, we hear sometimes that a person can have deficiency in a certain chakra, but I never thought in a way that some chakras can be overly enlarged, especially if people who are control freaks. She says when they come to see her that they're solar plexus, which is where our power center is actually overly sized compared to the rest of the chakras. And so when you're balancing your chakras, you really want them all to be very uniform, right?
Speaker 3 (32:31):
And working properly to keep the energy flowing. And so she took us on a guided meditation, starting from the root chakra and seeing the color red and then going up to the next one, up to the next one, up to the next one. Just like powering up a power center. Like it was just so incredibly mm-hmm,
Speaker 1 (33:07):
Sunlight.
Speaker 3 (33:08):
That's what I was gonna say. Or getting the first morning sunlight on your eyes. Like it's crazy how simple, easy some of these tools can be, but they are so impactful,
Speaker 1 (33:18):
Yes, so impactful. And the list is long. So I'm just wondering what you say to the person because we are so socialized and conditioned to believe that quote unquote, healing is something the doctor does to you with a drug or a surgery and it's a one shot. You take the drug or course of antibiotics and then you're better, or you have the surgery and then you're better. So when people hear, oh, you want me to deal with this bioenergetics, this spiritual part of me, I get two objections. Number one, it's all this very non-specific stuff that I don't see results out of right away. So I don't see the benefit, so I don't do it. And two, you're stepping on my religion and wondering how you handle those two objections.
Speaker 3 (34:02):
I don't really handle them. I'm
Speaker 3 (34:42):
So whatever religion that you have, tuning into your higher power and having faith, not fear what whatever that is, they all, I shouldn't say operate similarly, but the higher power is the higher power. And really having a higher power, a faith in, in something outside of yourself really helps to get you over these illnesses. And it really is, I think, crucial. And if you don't believe in God believing in your higher self or, or mother nature or something outside of yourself, that can help give you strength and faith when things are dark, when things look scary. So one, there's really no stepping on the faith. I see that sometimes when you bring up chakras, a lot of times people are like, oh, that's against my religion. It's not actually tied to any religion. Yes, almost all old religions talk about it in a different way. It's just the energy,
Speaker 1 (35:29):
Energy centers.
Speaker 3 (35:31):
It's just energy centers. But yeah, I, and so I tell people quite often like, I can't guarantee my work because I don't know what you're gonna follow through with. But I do tell people, if you do what I tell you to do in the order and the way that I tell you to do it, if you don't get better, then I'll continue to work with you and dig deeper. Because sometimes it is, so one thing I wanted to talk about earlier is you were talking, there are always barriers to health. And there's three big ones that I have to rule out before I even start working with people on their Lyme. And one of them is mold. And you had brought up dentistry, right? So I had mercury in my mouth and I also had cavitations. So cavitations happen when they take out wisdom teeth or do root canals and they cause an infection to be locked in your job basically.
Speaker 3 (36:16):
And when
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Yes. Thank you for, for sharing that. And I was getting ready to wrap up and then I realized we would be remiss if we didn't talk about Lyme specific treatments. So you do all the basics, you get your body prime, detox, working hormones, balance, and then how do you go to war with the little buggers?
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Well, that's an even more controversial conversation than anything else that we've talked about. Because there are some camps, like I love Dr. Raws, huge fan of Dr. Raws. He's my hero, does all the herbals. I love that approach and that's what I work with because I'm not a licensed practitioner. So I use a lot of nutri medics or a lot of cell cores. Cell core is beautiful in the way that the protocol handles things in the right order, right? It opens up drainage pathways first, and then it's dealing with heavy metals and then parasites. And then you go into dealing with the ly. So you don't start with the Lyme. You, you've got to, you've got to clear out the way of this other crap before you start going after the ly. So I love pho. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (38:18):
Like it's supposed to be the best new thing that's out right now, a methylene blue so your people can't see. But my tongue looks like I've been sucking on a blue lollipop and it's a food grade medical die that they're finding all kinds of ridiculous antiviral, antibacterial antioxidants. It's supposed to help with reversing dementia and Alzheimer's and depression and because it can actually cross the blood-brain barrier. And so they're using it a lot for Bartonella when co-infection with Lyme disease. And I'm absolutely loving this stuff. Like I can't get over how clearheaded and the energy that I've been having since I've been taking it. What else? Oh, and then antibiotics, antimalarial. So there's a lot of different ways that you can go at it. And there's no right or wrong way. There is a pretty strong camp that if you've got chronic Lyme, that long-term use of antibiotics is not, is not the way because it has a tendency to do a hell of a lot more collateral damage than what it's worth. And personally, like I said, that's why I like cleaning people's other stuff up because a lot of times once we get all that other stuff cleared up, I don't have to bring in the heavy guns now your immune system and your body's going, oh, I know what to do now. And it just might need a little bit of help putting this booger back in its place, but I don't typically have to use the big guns.
Speaker 1 (39:39):
Yeah. Great. Thank you so much for covering that. Thank you for sharing your journey. Heather, thank you for the work that you're doing to help others with this super challenging problem and to get their health back and their lives back. I know you have a wonderful free gift for everyone. We'll have the link in the show notes. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about what they'll find there and then also share all the places they can find you and interact with you online?
Speaker 3 (40:06):
Absolutely. So yeah, go to the lion boss.com, that's where you'll get your free gift. It's a popup and it's a video series. So most cooking series, right? It's called Real Cooking for Real Life. 'cause I found Diet Nutrition, right? That's the foundation of health. You can't pass go, you can't collect $200, you can't be on this beautiful protocol and then go out and eat McDonald's and inflame your brain and inflame your gut and expect the protocol that you're taking to work properly. And one of the biggest barriers that I got, people were like, I don't know how to cook. I don't know what the, I don't know what's going on in the kitchen. I don't know what I'm doing. And so I made this cooking series to show you how easy it can be in 20 minutes or less. I'm making these delicious, healthy, yummy meals right to, and when I tell people I'm Paleo, so it's no dairy, no grains, no corn. And people are like, what do you eat? And, and, and then so I'm like, okay, I just need to put this on video. Like, oh my gosh, we eat so well. So yeah, the cooking series and then I'm on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, not Twitter's the only place. I'm not that, just that place just got too crazy for me.
Speaker 1 (41:19):
And are you at the Line Boss or are you at Heather Gray or what? What's your handle?
Speaker 3 (41:25):
The line boss all the way through. Okay,
Speaker 1 (41:27):
Great. We will find you there. Thank you so much for joining me today, Heather. It's been a pleasure. Pleasure. Thank you so much. And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Hopefully you have found some fascinating and useful and helpful information today. I look forward to hearing how you're going to implement at least one of these things that we've talked about into your life and the impact that you're finding and the health that you're achieving on social media. So please do reach out and thanks so much for joining us. I'll see you again next week for another episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
Speaker 2 (42:05):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we explore the complex world of hormones and aging. In this episode, our host and hormone expert [Name] chats with bestselling author and renowned chiropractor, Dr. Ellen Cutler, about the power of enzyme therapy for healing, detoxification, and longevity.
About Dr. Ellen Cutler
Dr. Cutler is an internationally recognized teacher, public speaker, and media spokesperson. She specializes in the use of desensitization, gentle detoxification, and enzyme and nutritional therapies for chronic conditions. Her revolutionary healing technique, the Ellen Cutler Method (ECM), has helped countless people find relief when conventional medical methods have failed.
Episode Highlights:
- Desensitization to Food Sensitivities: Dr. Cutler discusses the role of enzyme therapy in addressing food sensitivities, improving gut health, and reducing overall inflammation.
- Myths Debunked: Dr. Cutler clears up some misconceptions about enzyme therapy.
- Enzyme Therapy for Women in Midlife and Beyond: Our guest shares stories of how women experienced significant improvements in their health, energy levels, and overall well-being by incorporating enzyme therapy into their daily routines.
- Practical Advice on Incorporating Enzyme Therapy: Dr. Cutler offers suggestions on how to incorporate enzyme therapy into your daily routine, including the best types of enzymes to take and when to take them.
Don't miss this eye-opening discussion with Dr. Ellen Cutler on the potential benefits of enzyme therapy for women in midlife and beyond. Tune in to The Hormone Prescription Podcast to learn more about this fascinating approach to healing, detoxification, and longevity.
Speaker 1 (00:00:00):
Be patient with yourself. Nothing in Nature Blooms all year. Stay tuned as I talk with two of my health coaches, coach Vic and Coach Katrina, about achieving hormone bliss through midlife and metabolism, rescue and mastery.
Speaker 2 (00:00:17):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:01:10):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with two of my health coaches, coach Katrina and Coach Victoria, and talk about achieving hormone bliss through midlife metabolism, rescue and mastery. These are the names of some of our programs that we've developed over the past three years that many women have gone through and gotten out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity. So it really is the pathway that will lead you to where you wanna be after 40. As a woman with your health. If you're experiencing hormonal poverty, the symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem, those are the 60 plus symptoms that can start affecting women as young as in their thirties, sometimes even in their twenties. Then this is the show for you. Those symptoms can include not only weight gain, but also fatigue, hair loss, lack of libido, depression, anxiety, poor cognitive functioning, digestive issues, immune system issues, getting sick more often, autoimmune disease.
Speaker 1 (00:02:18):
The list goes on and on and on. You might not be aware that the health problems that you're having all have a hormonal component to them, and this is why women's health can start to falter and fail. Starting at 40 and beyond. There's always a hormonal component to every diagnosis you have to every disorder you have to every disease you have, no matter what system it's in, dermatological, gynecological, gastrointestinal, psychological, it go, the list goes on. There's always a hormonal component. And so getting out of hormonal poverty and getting to hormonal prosperity really is essential to reversing any symptom you have to heal any disease you have and also to prolonging your life. Because unfortunately studies show that when we're in hormonal poverty, our lifespan is shortened, and that when we get out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity, our lifespan is actually longer. We have less disease, fewer medications, lower weight, better energy, all the things that you want for your life.
Speaker 1 (00:03:25):
So is that something you want? Hormonal prosperity? Yes, we want hormonal prosperity Now. So we're gonna dive into this episode with my two coaches. They're both women over 40. They've had their own health journeys that they're gonna share with you, and they really are experts. I love working with women who are passionate about helping other women to achieve what's possible for them with their health and their lives. And these women definitely exemplify that. So I think you're really gonna like this episode. We're gonna dive into that quote that I shared with you at the beginning about being patient with yourself. Nothing in nature Blooms all year. That's from Coach Vic. She is an avid gardener. You gotta see pictures of her garden. She makes the most beautiful vegetables I have ever seen. I don't have a green thumb. I say I have a paw for a thumb 'cause I really resonate with animals and I do really well with them, but plants not so much.
Speaker 1 (00:04:21):
But Coach Vick has that covered. So we're gonna talk about how to be patient with yourself and then we're gonna talk with Coach Katrina. She has this wonderful quote that we're gonna talk about. Stop wasting time, like someone is making more of it if you put everything off as if you have forever to do it. I've been guilty of that too. We all have. But you know, time is our most valuable resource 'because it's the only thing that gives us time on this planet is time. And what gives us that time is our health. When our health runs out, our time runs out. So don't waste your time, make the most of it, and that means make your health the most. So we're gonna dive into it. I'll tell you a little bit about Vic and Katrina and then we'll get started. So Katrina Gallagher is a group fitness instructor instructor in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Speaker 1 (00:05:13):
She has health coaching certification through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and she's finishing up her health coaching certification through functional diagnostic nutrition. She is a true lover of all things health and wellness. She will go down the rabbit hole on any given topic and then can tell you all about it. And she has an emphasis on biohacking and anti-aging. And Victoria Gale, coach Vic is a classical naturopathic physician with additional certification as a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, holistic cancer coach, certified bioenergetics practitioner, and soon to be national board certified reflexology reflexologist. She loves natural health and appreciates learning how to live in balance with the cycles of nature and the world around us. And we didn't get into this episode about bioenergetics, but that is a topic that's essential to your hormones that we'll probably cover in future episodes. So stay tuned for that. But please help me welcome Coach Vic and Coach Katrina to the show. Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:06:16):
Hi. Thanks so much for having us.
Speaker 1 (00:06:18):
I'm so excited to have you guys on. We've all known each other now for a few years. Gosh, I think back from the first stop, the Menopause Men's Summit probably, and we've worked with so many women and developed so many programs, Katrina's been through them and now is one of our coaches and more that we're working on to help women. And I think it's great for everyone to hear your stories because we're all over 40. We're all passionate about health. We're all women. We know firsthand what it's to deal with the midlife metabolic mayhem that occurs over 40 and to work through it and master it. And I think women need hope right now. A, I hear a lot of women are really suffering. They're really lost. They don't know which way to turn, and they don't even think it's possible. And they see me and they think, oh yeah, Karen, she's a doctor. Of course she can get that straight, but that's not true. It's possible for really every woman. So I wanted to start, I've already talked about your expertise in bios, but maybe if you could just start with your story of how you came to do the work that you do with women over 40 and why you're so passionate about it. Do you wanna start, Vic?
Speaker 3 (00:07:41):
Sure. So I got into natural health after a health episode. In my twenties. I developed asthma and I had it so bad that I was using inhalers and breathing machines and all kinds of stuff, hours and hours a day and nothing was working. And at the time I just thought, oh my God, this can't be my life. And my first profession is in performing arts. And so I was getting ready to do a performance and my name was called. And right before, right after my name was called, I started having an asthma attack
Speaker 3 (00:08:39):
And so after that happened, I was like, okay, I can't live like this, not knowing what's gonna happen. And so a chance read in a health food store that someone had cured their asthma by juicing, just let me think. Well, I can't, it's not gonna hurt. So I went and bought a juicer and fruit and vegetables and all that and I started juicing. And after about two weeks of doing it with no plan, no nothing, I was just doing it. I noticed that my breathing started to get better and I was like, whoa, there's something to this. And so I juiced for the next year and a half or so, but I also started unpacking some emotions that I had been hanging onto some grief, that kind of stuff. And after about a year and a half, I got up one day and I just knew it was over.
Speaker 3 (00:09:22):
And I can't explain how I knew that, but I knew it was. And I packed up all my inhalers, breathing machines and threw them all in the garbage and never had another asthma attack. And that was 25 years ago now. And so after that happened, I was like, I need to really unpack what happened, what, what happened here. And at the time I had to kind of put it on the shelf because family, whatever. But then once the kids are out of the house and you kind of have some time on your own, I decided I need to look into a natural health kinda school. And so I looked for what's in our areas or whatnot. At the time we had two brick and mortar naturopathic schools here in the state. I'm in Michigan. And so I went to one of those schools and then unpacked and started to learn why that worked for me and what happened.
Speaker 3 (00:10:12):
And then I decided, well, if I can't help myself, I need to be able to help other people do what I did. And from that point, I started my brand and started working with folks. And the bulk of my practice is women. I do see both men and women. But I have to say after I've met you, Karen, and working with the institute, it's just women in midlife, I've kind of discovered that's my favorite group of people to work with. Not just because it's me, but
Speaker 1 (00:11:26):
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. I love working with women. People say, well, don't you miss delivering babies? And I say, well, it was great at the time. But working with women, we give life, but we also are the sustainers of life on this planet. And if you help a woman, you help the whole, everyone on the planet, you help her family, you help her friends, she's gonna teach everyone else. And so I love doing what I do now because it's, I, I, I'll say it, and I know some people think it is complicated to deliver a baby, but it's not that complicated. And there are many wonderful midwives and doctors who do it wonderfully and brilliantly. But not everyone can help a woman come back to herself and come back to her vitality at midlife. There really aren't that many of us. And that's why I think it's so vital, the work that we do.
Speaker 1 (00:12:19):
And Katrina, what got you into this type of work? Well, I just kind of believe that you should just go where the world takes you,
Speaker 1 (00:13:07):
But I remember being like young, I don't remember how old I was, maybe eight or nine. And I remember thinking, I, I remember hearing the doctor tell my mom, there is a hereditary aspect to heart disease and chances are really good that one of your four children is gonna have problems. And I remember thinking, it's not gonna be me. It is not gonna be me. And I didn't know at the time what that meant, what I needed to do to keep it from being me. But I knew it wasn't gonna be me
Speaker 1 (00:13:51):
But I kind of kept up with it. And then I went to college, went to law school, just sort of dabbled it, dabbled in it really. And then when my kids were older and I had more time to kind of really explore, I really dove in and started just reading everything I could read about health and wellness and about heart health and doing the right things to make sure I wasn't the one of the four of us that ended up with heart problems. And then I guess when I decided to get my health coaching certification, I was approaching that premenopausal phase of my life. And so my own interest went there because that's where I was. And I think because I am, I am 54 now, I've been doing this now for several years. I think that midlife woman, I think they're just attracted to me.
Speaker 1 (00:14:43):
I think it's because I'm a group fitness instructor. And so I have, I work with a population of people who are already interested in fitness. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:15:31):
And the journey has been relatively easy for me,
Speaker 1 (00:16:18):
And fitness and going to the gym, joining fitness programs is something that people do. But I do find that eventually most people look around and say, well, this isn't all because I just don't feel like myself anymore. And you have this unique perspective where you actually went through the programs that Victoria and I had created. So what were some of the most surprising things to you that you learned? Like going through the midlife metabolism, rescue and mastery programs, what are some things that stick out as these big light bulbs? Wow, I had no idea that this was so important or that this worked like this or other things. Well, I was already, my fitness was fine. And really my food was already pretty on key. Like I was already doing most of that stuff. So most of that was not new to me and was not surprising to me.
Speaker 1 (00:17:11):
But we started off with the HRV, the HRV lesson, which I had no, no idea about
Speaker 1 (00:18:08):
And I, at the time, had no idea how much damage that was probably doing to me and how much it was holding me back from feeling my best. So those things I would say. And then I knew the importance of gut health and I knew the basics, but that was just, I was just in heaven through all of that, learning all of the stuff about the gut stuff, the GI map was fascinating to me. And learning about how all of that works and how, and so that was a whole new world to me as well. So there was a lot, I mean, I went into it feeling like, okay, I know some things and that's good. And I was glad I knew the things I did, but there was a lot that I didn't know. And so there were several things during the course that I was just like, oh, what? I had no idea
Speaker 3 (00:18:51):
Speaker 3 (00:19:37):
And so they loved that. And I would second that. That's one. And the other aspect, I know that many of them had undervalued as far as being related to their health is their emotional state and traumas and things that they were hanging onto. And they really had no idea how it was slowly gnawing away at their health, but was this sort of stealth killer of their health. And they really undervalued it. 'cause I think so often we just kind of say, oh yeah, I had this happen in my past. It's no big deal. It can't still be affecting me now. And that's actually the entire opposite, wrong way to think of it. Because those traumas and things that we've held onto and have in us are little time bombs waiting to explode. And boy, when they do in midlife, when everything else is going on in our lives, it becomes a disaster for us as midlife women. And so I would say I, one thing I really appreciate, especially about this program and Kieran especially, you're one of the few FMDs that I've really run across who will delve into that aspect of health, the emotional, spiritual, psychological aspect of our health.
Speaker 1 (00:20:47):
'Cause It's huge. It is. And I just wanna mention for anyone listening, HRV is heart rate variability. In case you didn't know. Yes. Thank you for saying that. It really is the missing piece. I mean, mainstream medicine for sure misses that piece, but most functional medicine misses it too. Nobody wants to go into the emotional stuff,
Speaker 1 (00:21:40):
'Cause They're all related. And it's actually a field in medicine, psychoneuroendocrinology and also your energetic blueprint. We're gonna be going into that 'cause your energetic design goes into that too. But all of these are less than nurturing or overwhelming small T or big T traumas that we have as children where it can be traumatic to a child, whatever their needs or wants are not met, that can be trauma that has to go somewhere. It has, that's energy. Emotions are energy in motion. And so if that energy is not discharged by a nurturing parent who can help you process it and feel it and understand it, which is most of the people who raised us, they don't because they don't know how to do it. It wasn't a common skill for people. 'cause They were worried about survival then these emotions and this energy has to go somewhere.
Speaker 1 (00:22:37):
So it goes into our fascia, into our nervous system. And it takes a lot of energy for the body to hold down those encapsulated packets of traumatic energy. And so this is one of the reasons why some women actually have a worst time at perimenopause, menopause at midlife is because they haven't unpacked all of these bigger little T traumas. And their cortisol has been struggling since they were five years old to keep a lid on this
Speaker 1 (00:24:08):
In doing those things because it becomes obvious if you do this very much at all, how much those issues hold people back from reaching their full potential.
Speaker 3 (00:24:18):
Absolutely. I 100%, I 100% agree with that. And that's always an aspect of everything that I have when I'm working with my people. I mean, we certainly go through the testing and we explain, we come up with lifestyle recommendations, whatever. But there's always a point where the rubber has to meet the road where I'm talking to the clients and I'm like, okay, there's more here you're gonna need to unpack and here's some resources. I have a somatic therapist on staff here. And so she's been very helpful to direct people to. But there's always a point in time where the rubber meets the road and that intersection of mind, body, spirit becomes front and center. And it's something that has to be addressed. And emotions are powerful. They're the energetics that keep us moving day to day. And so they have to be sort of channeled and funneled in a way that makes life sustainable and healthy for us.
Speaker 3 (00:25:14):
And otherwise they become little time bombs. And I appreciate so much some of the specifics of the changes with what happens with women in midlife. And so some of the importance of needing to exercise and the changes with estrogen and all these things that when there's an emotional aspect attached to those things, it can really throw you way off. And so I've appreciated the program really digging down into some of those specifics. Because I know from my training and some of the other sorts of stuff I've learned over the years, a lot of the data, the research is on men or a healthy person in their twenties. There's never anything specifically tailored for midlife women. And I so appreciated some of the experts and things that you brought whose sole focus is women in midlife. Because you suddenly discover, oh wait a minute, there's a little bit of calibration that has to be different for the midlife women. There has to be some different thoughts. There has to be a little bit of a different approach. And I think that's been really, that's been game changing for me just to really Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:26:24):
I always say, when I went through my mainstream education and med school and OB GYN residency, we were basically taught that women are just littler men with an accessory pack that allows special organs and hormones that allows us to really reduce life. And then when I got further along and had my own health crisis and had to sort that out and discovered what the work I do now, I discovered that nothing could be further from the truth. We are foundationally different. Our brains are structured differently. Our psyches, our nervous systems, like we just don't, we are not little men in any way, shape or form. But I love what you mentioned. One of the things that I love about the way we set up the programs is doing it in a group format. And I know that some people are a little hesitant at first 'cause they're used to that one-on-one, even though it's a five or seven minute, just write a prescription or you need a surgery visit.
Speaker 1 (00:27:20):
But that's what we've been socialized to believe is healthcare. And so they go in groups, I'm gonna be talking about my personal stuff in a group. And then what do you guys find as people's opinion at the end about that? They love it, right? Yeah. Oh, I was speaking for myself and for the ladies Oh yeah. That I went through it with and have seen go through it since the group was key. I think we got a lot of value from listening to each other, learning from each other's questions, the support that comes with knowing that there are other women out there that are going through what you're going through and that are, that you're kind of learning to fix it together. Yeah. I love the group setting. I don't, I, I have never heard anybody ever say a negative thing about, there's some apprehension in the beginning sometimes with people like, oh, but then once the comfort level increases a little bit, everybody's thrilled that there's that. It's in a group setting.
Speaker 3 (00:28:15):
Absolutely. And definitely in private consults, one-on-one, when we would meet with the folks outside of the group setting, they would definitely say, oh, I didn't really wanna share that. I haven't been sleeping. Or My HRV numbers were so terrible. But they suddenly discovered that there's comfort in being vulnerable and having another group of women do having the same kind of things happen, if not worse. There's a comfortability in sharing that. And I'm a firm believer that, I mean, we all need community, but I believe women especially need women only sort of supportive groups in life as well as in any kind of a healing situation. I believe we're just, I believe we're wired that way truthfully. And I've told friends many mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:29:19):
And I think if we're, if we see how good it is, when we feel great, especially when we're not feeling so great, it doubles the need to have that group of other supportive communities, especially women around us. And mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:30:04):
We do. And we have an epidemic of loneliness, and I'm trying to remember the exact numbers, but I think people over 50, it's like people say that they have some less than one close friend and they spend large swaths of time alone and they don't have the support systems. Because we used to live in communities where we were very connected to nature and very connected to each other. But now we live in cities and apartments with TVs and electronic devices. And people are on that thinking they're connected, but they're not. Right. So I think it is vital connection that is vital to health. And the statistics on loneliness are that it's worse than smoking for your health. So you may think, oh, I'm doing great 'cause I don't smoke. But if you're experiencing loneliness and you're not having human connection, 'cause there's certain kind of energetic benefits that we get from being, having eye contact and being in close proximity and having physical touch and sexual touch and all these things.
Speaker 1 (00:31:04):
If you're not having that, it could be like you're smoking two packs a day of cigarettes. So that's one thing I love about the groups. I think people got that oxytocin hit from having that connection and that support and being seen and being heard and being understood. They're going to their doctor's office being told There's nothing wrong with you. It's normal not to wanna have sex and have poor sex and poor sleep at your age. Now it's not right. And so they can come here and get affirmed for all the midlife, metabolic, mayhem, craziness that we're all experiencing. I wanted to ask you guys, how important do you think the testing is? Because I know some programs are like, oh, we just created this program to address your hormones and your gut and you're all gonna take these supplements and you're all gonna eat like this and you're all gonna do these things.
Speaker 1 (00:31:55):
And we don't do any tests. So how important are the tests? I wildly important
Speaker 1 (00:32:44):
But if I don't do a Dutch test and know exactly if my estrogen is high or low or my progesterone is high or low, what my testosterone is doing, how do I know what to take? How do I know what to supplement with? How do I know how much? If you don't have the GI map and you don't know that you've got a parasite or you don't know that you're, that you've got whatever is high or low, then you don't know if you, should I be taking probiotics? Should I be taking digestive enzymes? Should I be doing a protocol to get rid of candida? Do I have high chance? Do like, so know how exactly to attack. To me, I'm a huge, powerful person. I want to know everything. I wanna know all the things. The more information I have, the more I can, the better decisions I can make about how to go about improving a situation.
Speaker 1 (00:33:30):
So the tests for me personally, or that's knowledge, give me input. All the information I want. But I've seen it too with our clients and they love those tests. They feel like finally there's something that validates the way they've been feeling. Yeah. There's clinical correlation to, oh my gosh, this no wonder I felt this way. And all of a sudden they don't feel crazy anymore. And Right. It just gives them a, a, a resource to say, okay, here it is in black and white
Speaker 1 (00:34:16):
Yes. The validation is huge. Yeah. But it's funny, I just was recently interviewed by a woman, a journalist. And so, after the interview, she wanted to talk about her functional issues. Her 'cause she's at midlife. So everyone hears you deal with midlife metabolic mayhem. Lemme tell you my issues, let's talk about it. So I did. And she said that she had been trying the throw against the wall and seeing what sticks method
Speaker 1 (00:35:13):
I mean, it's chaos, right? To, to go through your education and get your training and get your certifications and maintain your certifications and get your jobs and maintain your jobs. And nobody complains about how much work it is, right? 'cause You get the payoff. But then when it comes to our health, we've been socialized to believe that all we're supposed to do is shovel some calories in our mouth every day, lay horizontal for a few hours and it should be plug and play. We go to the doctor if we have a problem, they write us a script or do a surgery. And that's all we should have to input into our most valuable asset, our bodies, which is what the only thing that gives us time on this planet. And then we complain that it's too much work. So I know some people hear, oh, I gotta do a course and I gotta do testing. And oh, this is so much work. And I just like to have that reality check. But it was funny because after I talked to her, the journalist, she was like, I never thought about it. Like
Speaker 3 (00:36:18):
One of the things I remember early on when the first ladies would start the program and you would have the classes and you would talk about, we would come up with structured lifestyle recommendations to do. And so one of them was initially on 30 minutes every day of walking or taking a look at your H RV or whatever. And ever, and I remember clearly, and I won't mention any names, but there was a mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:37:11):
And now it's become, if I don't have that's, you know, the end of the world, I have to have that self investment time. I mean, if there's anything you're going to put time or investment into, it should be yourself and as many hours and as much money, whatever it takes, we have to put that time into ourselves. But I find that commonly with a lot of my midlife women, they tell me, oh, I don't have 30 minutes to walk. I don't have 15, 20 minutes. And it's really something because there's something to that that you'll put time into everything else but not yourself. And getting people to care and love about themselves, that's a piece of this. And that's what I, I do especially like about this program. And what I have to find with my client base as well, is we almost have to teach women to love ourselves again. And to really put ourselves first. I mean, who else should we put first? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:38:21):
What is up with that? Because, and we'd say, I don't have the time or I don't have the money that what we're, that's code for. I don't see the value in that thing or in myself.
Speaker 3 (00:38:31):
Right?
Speaker 1 (00:38:32):
So what is up with that? With us? Us? What are your thoughts, guys? I don't know. I think that we're just, I think that we're wired to be caretakers and I think that we put other people first. I mean, I think if you're a mother then you're just wired that your children are gonna come first. But I also think that we have, I think a lot of us waste a lot more time than we realize we waste. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:38:57):
Speaker 1 (00:38:58):
I think we have become a pretty inefficient society. And I don't say that judgmentally because I'm guilty of it. So I mean, I'm right there with you. I do. But you know, and I realized that, I realized that for myself recently when I did do 75 hard, I don't know if you all are familiar with 75 hard, but there are requirements. And one of the requirements is that you have to work out twice a day. And everybody going into the program is, I don't have, I can't work out twice a day for 40 for at least 45 minutes each workout. So it's, and it's like, how am I gonna make time for this? And you do it, you do the program for 75 and there are other things you have to do as well. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:39:46):
I think we've kind of,
Speaker 1 (00:39:47):
I think we've kind of forgotten how to prioritize our time as well. I think if women take a really good hard look at what their day is filled with, there are things that maybe in their minds feel necessary that aren't really necessary. So Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:40:38):
And that's part of the piece I think of having a loss of community. Because many things that we would get done in a day would be done by other community members. And so I think women, we've kind of, mm-hmm,
Speaker 1 (00:41:36):
Yeah. Well and you address that in the programs we talk about breaking your day down into however many minute increments and Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (00:41:56):
Food preparation, the idea that we can't find time to prepare food has become something we've kind of fallen into as well. And I mean the meal services are great and yes, there's timeframes for things, but I mean to really take the time to prepare quality homemade food, which is a keystone for us being healthy, we have the time to do it. I mean, we aren't going out and catching animals. We aren't going out and picking stuff from the garden. We aren't doing, all we have to do is go to the grocery, you know, batch cook one day a week and put it in a freezer. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:43:05):
Absolutely. A pro tip from the episode is batch meal prep that is hands down the biggest time saver and gives you so much control over your health because what you are, what you eat. And so we go into the program, into the programs what to eat. But I started, when I first got on this journey over 10 years ago, I just sat down and started planning meals, which we never did before and planning recipes. And Sunday was shopping and cooking day and we would make mass amounts and freezer it. We got this big freezer and we always had food and then, and then it was just like a family affair 'cause we all did it together. So I think this issue of the time values, which I also do in the hormone bliss challenge, which we're gonna be running again in November, looking at where you spend your time, looking at where you spend your money, looking at your values, and are you spending your time and money in alignment with your values? And most women find that they are not. So I think I needed that reality check also. And so no shame here because we're all guilty of these. Oh for sure. Things as well.
Speaker 3 (00:44:15):
Speaker 1 (00:44:15):
Yeah. I'm just wondering, I wanna talk a little bit about human design because it's something that I've become interested in. In the past year we talked in the programs about your energetic blueprint where you talked about chakras. I think Vic, you even did a whole class on that, which was amazing. And people love learning about how their energetics and their body works. And then I got introduced into human design, which is a more specific science of differentiation. How each individual has a unique energetic blueprint that has to do with certain characteristics of when they were born, where they were born. It integrates many ancient teachings. And so I've had my chart done and been living in what we call my experiment for the past a year. And you guys have done your chart and I think Katrina's had her initial reading. So she isn't starting her experiment.
Speaker 1 (00:45:14):
You've done your chart, Vic. One thing that I learned from human design, I'll just give an example, is that my design is an emotional projector. So there are five different main types and then you have an authority by which you're supposed to make decisions. And then there are many more specifics about each person's unique blueprint that give them certain characteristics and qualities. I found that when I had my reading, it explained a lot of my personality characteristics that have always been perplexing to me and other people. Why am I always this way? Like I have this ability to kind of cut to the heart of a matter and see the truth behind things. And people have always been like, why can you see this behind the curtain? And I always wondered why can I? And it's part of my design and then also my fighting for the underdog.
Speaker 1 (00:46:08):
I always don't like injustice when I see it. And I'm always willing to fight for injustice, like for women at midlife. And that's part of my design. So there are a lot of insights, but the big thing was learning that I'm not a generator, which 65% of people are. So generators are the builders and the doers. And I am not, and I'm made to be a guide and lead people not to be out there digging the ditches and planting the trees, but helping people do dig ditches and plant trees better. And so that's kind of why I do what I do. So those were all very insightful and have allowed me to live more in alignment with my true nature, which actually helps balance your hormones. So if you're not living in alignment with your true nature, this is kind of where it relates to hormones.
Speaker 1 (00:46:56):
There are specific gates and channels that relate to specific hormones. So you can get that deep. But in general, if you're not living in alignment with your design, you are hurting your cortisol stress hormone because that's stress, it's friction if you're not operating in alignment with how you're supposed to operate. So those are the insights I got that I found hugely valuable. And we're actually adding right now a live human design class we're gonna do next week with an analyst, a whole section on human design and helping people get their charts and integrate it into balancing their hormones and healing hormonal poverty. So I'm just wondering if either of you would like to share any insights that you've had from your human design and mostly how it has helped you to live more in alignment with your true self. Well, I was absolutely fascinated and I did have a reading and the I, yeah, validating is the first word that came to mind because I am an emotional manifester.
Speaker 1 (00:47:57):
It just explained so much
Speaker 1 (00:48:41):
And so I asked some other people, is that true? Do people find me intimidating? And I got that. I got yes, I got the answer yes a lot. And I was like, what? And literally I never really quite understood it. I never, but then when I met with Nancy and we talked about what exactly it means to be a manifester and how I have sort of an off-putting aura and that's just who I am. Like I just have a, I'm like, oh. So that's why people feel like I'm intimidating, but I never really saw myself that way. So it answered a lot of questions and it does kind of just sort of re-evaluate how you're moving through life and kind of what you're, how it helps you understand why people react to you the way that they do. And the fact that I am emotional, I've always been a follow your gut kind of person. And now I'm like, that's that, that is really super true for me. I really do need to follow my gut. If I feel a certain way, I need to, like Nancy said, even down to if you cook a meal and all of a sudden you don't feel like eating it like right
Speaker 3 (00:49:59):
I'm fascinated as well. I haven't had any readings done yet. I did run my chart and I only got a chance to read through one little aspect of it, but I'm a generator with emotional authority and it really just encapsulated everything I've ever done in my life. 'cause If I'm gonna start a business, I'm gonna dig in there and I'm gonna go through all the aspects of things. And it just really made sense for me. And the one thing that really stood out for me when I was kind of reading through one of the write-ups, they talked about when you have emotional authority, you kind of have to wait for a full wave
Speaker 1 (00:51:13):
Really
Speaker 3 (00:51:13):
Interesting. I can't wait to have a reading on it.
Speaker 1 (00:51:15):
Yeah. And I will say, yeah, Uhhuh, go ahead. I have at times felt, since I've gotten this information, there have been times where I have felt myself more at peace with what's happening in my life because now I understand it better. So the way that it affects cortisol and the hormones makes perfect sense. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:52:09):
Right. If we don't accept and love ourselves exactly as we are and who we are and what we're designed to do on this planet and our personality characteristics, life is just friction. And that means cortisol problems and that means hormone problems and hormonal poverty, poor gut health and lack of health. And so to me, the more we can know ourselves, the more we can know our lab test results and what exactly is going on physiologically, biochemically inside. And the more we can know our energetics and our personality and our design, human design has a lot of information about what we're here to do. So if you're confused about your purpose and how we're here to operate and if we can surrender to the truth of all of that and be true to ourselves, life can be a much easier ride for sure. Which sounds really good to me.
Speaker 1 (00:53:10):
And I think at midlife is when the friction of how, because we're all really trained to live as generators and function as generators, make decisions with our brain and be the go doers. Well that's great for, I think they call 'em self projected generators. So the ones that are supposed to think, no, actually I don't think there's anyone, we'll have to defer to the experts on this 'cause I'm not a human design expert. That's why we have experts coming in to teach about it. But we are not designed to make decisions with our brains. And not all of us are designed to be out there digging ditches and planting trees. So I think it's a wonderful addition to the program and I'm super excited about it. Super excited about this next Hormone Bliss challenge. Coming up in November, we're gonna have the link in the show notes so that you can sign up and join us for a five day course that actually you'll get a lot of benefit.
Speaker 1 (00:54:04):
'Cause I'm gonna teach you about all the steps that you need to take to heal hormonal poverty. But you're gonna start taking action on day one. And a lot of people get incredible results even in five days, which is amazing. But you can read more if you follow the link. So what last words You guys shared before we wrap up, you shared some amazing quotes with me before we started recording. So I wanna ask if you could talk about one of the, each of your quotes a little bit. I love a good quote. So Katrina, you shared this quote, stop wasting time, like someone is making more of it, which I absolutely love. Is that something that you say or is that, did someone else say it? It's actually a line from a song. I can't even remember the song, but the first time I heard it I was like, it just hit me.
Speaker 1 (00:54:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:55:45):
I love it when women in their twenties want to come talk to me about how to take care of themselves. I'm like, you're so far ahead of the game. I so wish I had the information that I have now when I was younger so that I could have not wasted all that time.
Speaker 1 (00:56:26):
Like someone's making more of it and nobody is and nobody's coming to save you
Speaker 3 (00:57:45):
Well,
Speaker 3 (00:57:46):
As everyone kind of gets started on their journey, we've kind of been, we we're in this immediate society. I'm gonna just take this handful of pills and everything will be fine. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1 (00:59:02):
Yeah. I recently heard this term that I love called transactional healing, where we want it on demand. Like a pharmaceutical, I take the aspirin, my headache goes away. But when it comes to really helping the body heal and come into alignment and fix the root causes, you need to be patient. You can take the actions, but it's up to your body in what way it unfolds that healing. And so you don't wanna be transactional about it. And that's a factor in self-love. It's not self-loving to be transactional about your healing. So be patient with yourself, put in the work, it will happen. Last question. I know Katrina has to go
Speaker 3 (00:59:42):
Speaker 1 (00:59:43):
Fast, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. As you guys know, my TEDx talk was about hormonal poverty and the consequences of it. Midlife metabolic mayhem, disease, disease, premature death, and all the plethora of data on these topics and how they can be prevented or reversed using natural hormone therapy. And I'm wondering if you can share in your personal journeys or women you've worked with, how important has that been? I will say for me it was, it has been a game changer. I'm super into fitness. Just the ability that it's given me to do what I want to do every day in the gym, the ability it's given me to build and maintain muscle mass. The ability it's given me to sleep well,
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
I won't say that I still have an occasional hot flash. Things aren't, it's not made everything perfect. I'm still not completely sure that I'm, that levels are optimized. 'cause As we kind of titrate up gradually mm-hmm
Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
Vic? Yeah. Yeah. I can definitely say hormone therapy. The bioidenticals have been a game changer for every person, every lady who's gone through this program and through my own client base. To the extent that we do it here and are able to, I have to say, I personally think that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is just about as close to a magic wand for women as you can find of anything. It's just about that close and just what, especially the testosterone especially, there's just something there that, like Katrina said, with the muscle mash and just, it just clears the webs, it just clears the brain. It just clears things. And I think it's wonderful because having that little extra boost, when you suddenly feel better, then you feel more inspired to, oh well let me focus on my meal planning. Oh let me go and do this exercise. You just feel a little bit better. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Yeah. We'll put the link to her hormone club in the show notes too, in case anyone is not able to access bioidentical hormones. We have a telemedicine company throughout the US that can provide board certified doctors specializing and that bioidentical hormone therapy, we can treat you from the comfort of your own dining room table via zoom and test you and send you hormones. So if you're interested in that, we'll have the link in the show notes. We could do a whole episode about hormones. Testosterone, especially more than half of women over 40 are testosterone deficient. And if you think that's not important, think again. It is so important for our muscle mass, that if you don't have adequate muscle mass, you gain weight, meaning fat, right? And 75% of us are overweight or obese by the time we're 60. It has to do with our dopamine and our drive in life, our initiative.
Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
It has to do with our sex drive. It has to do with so many things. So it's vital along with the estrogen and progesterone. I know Katrina had to jump off. Thank you so much Katrina for joining me. And Vic, thank you so much for joining me. I think this has been an amazing discussion. I think people are gonna really enjoy it and get something from it. So hearing three women over 40 who have dealt with these issues and work with women with these issues, and hopefully you've gotten a lot of hope today. Hopefully you've gotten some insight into the steps that you might need to take. If you think that we might be able to help you, you're more than welcome to join us in the Hormel Bliss Challenge. We'll have the link in the show notes that'll be happening in November. Any last words, Vic, before we sign off?
Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
I just wanna tell all the ladies out. There's hope and there's a community waiting to take care of you. And learning to love yourself takes time. It takes patience, but you know when you do it, what comes out on the other side is a renewal of your life and you get to be the full, vibrant self you're supposed to be. And bra to you kirin for setting up this program and really digging in and getting all the nooks and crannies of pieces of things to really help support women in midlife bra outta you.
Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Oh, well, thank you so much and thank you for helping me with it. You're as much a part of it as I am. It is our passion and our purpose and our pleasure to serve you. Hopefully you've gotten something out of today's episode, so until next week, if you did get something out of it, please reach out to us on social media. We love to hear about it. If you have questions you'd like us to answer and future episodes, if you love this episode, we can have Katrina and Vic back. We can answer your questions. We are here to serve you, so let us know how we can do that and we'll see you again next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Get ready, ladies, because the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is now available! Our host and expert functional medicine doctor, Kyrin Dunston MD, delves into a topic that every midlife woman absolutely needs to know about: "Hormone Bliss Through Midlife Metabolism Rescue & Mastery."
In this must-listen episode, Dr. Kyrin Dunston is joined by two phenomenal guests: Coach Katrina Gallagher and Coach Victoria Gale.
Meet the Guests:
-
Katrina Gallagher is a group fitness instructor at Warrior Body in Morgantown, WV. She holds certification as a health coach from the Institute for Integrative Nutrition and is close to completing her health coaching certification through Functional Diagnostic Nutrition.
-
Victoria Gale is a Classical Naturopath with a wealth of knowledge under her belt. In addition to her expertise in naturopathy, Victoria is also a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner, Holistic Cancer Coach, Certified BioEnergetics Practitioner, and a soon-to-be National Board Certified Reflexologist.
Together, these fantastic experts address crucial topics such as biohacking, anti-aging, and how women can achieve optimal health and wellbeing during midlife. Don't miss this informative and empowering discussion on The Hormone Prescription Podcast!
In This Episode, You'll Learn:
- The importance of understanding and managing your hormones during midlife
- How to boost your metabolism through simple and effective strategies
- The role of biohacking in achieving optimal hormonal balance and anti-aging
- How to gain mastery over your overall health and wellness during midlife
So, fellow midlife warriors, grab a cup of tea, sit back, and learn all about how to achieve Hormone Bliss Through Midlife Metabolism Rescue & Mastery. Tune into this fantastic episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Kyrin Dunston and her incredible guests, Coach Katrina Gallagher and Coach Victoria Gale! 🎧💜
Speaker 1 (00:00:00):
Be patient with yourself. Nothing in Nature Blooms all year. Stay tuned as I talk with two of my health coaches, coach Vic and Coach Katrina, about achieving hormone bliss through midlife and metabolism, rescue and mastery.
Speaker 2 (00:00:17):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB GYN I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (00:01:10):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with two of my health coaches, coach Katrina and Coach Victoria, and talk about achieving hormone bliss through midlife metabolism, rescue and mastery. These are the names of some of our programs that we've developed over the past three years that many women have gone through and gotten out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity. So it really is the pathway that will lead you to where you wanna be after 40. As a woman with your health. If you're experiencing hormonal poverty, the symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem, those are the 60 plus symptoms that can start affecting women as young as in their thirties, sometimes even in their twenties. Then this is the show for you. Those symptoms can include not only weight gain, but also fatigue, hair loss, lack of libido, depression, anxiety, poor cognitive functioning, digestive issues, immune system issues, getting sick more often, autoimmune disease.
Speaker 1 (00:02:18):
The list goes on and on and on. You might not be aware that the health problems that you're having all have a hormonal component to them, and this is why women's health can start to falter and fail. Starting at 40 and beyond. There's always a hormonal component to every diagnosis you have to every disorder you have to every disease you have, no matter what system it's in, dermatological, gynecological, gastrointestinal, psychological, it go, the list goes on. There's always a hormonal component. And so getting out of hormonal poverty and getting to hormonal prosperity really is essential to reversing any symptom you have to heal any disease you have and also to prolonging your life. Because unfortunately studies show that when we're in hormonal poverty, our lifespan is shortened, and that when we get out of hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity, our lifespan is actually longer. We have less disease, fewer medications, lower weight, better energy, all the things that you want for your life.
Speaker 1 (00:03:25):
So is that something you want? Hormonal prosperity? Yes, we want hormonal prosperity Now. So we're gonna dive into this episode with my two coaches. They're both women over 40. They've had their own health journeys that they're gonna share with you, and they really are experts. I love working with women who are passionate about helping other women to achieve what's possible for them with their health and their lives. And these women definitely exemplify that. So I think you're really gonna like this episode. We're gonna dive into that quote that I shared with you at the beginning about being patient with yourself. Nothing in nature Blooms all year. That's from Coach Vic. She is an avid gardener. You gotta see pictures of her garden. She makes the most beautiful vegetables I have ever seen. I don't have a green thumb. I say I have a paw for a thumb 'cause I really resonate with animals and I do really well with them, but plants not so much.
Speaker 1 (00:04:21):
But Coach Vick has that covered. So we're gonna talk about how to be patient with yourself and then we're gonna talk with Coach Katrina. She has this wonderful quote that we're gonna talk about. Stop wasting time, like someone is making more of it if you put everything off as if you have forever to do it. I've been guilty of that too. We all have. But you know, time is our most valuable resource 'because it's the only thing that gives us time on this planet is time. And what gives us that time is our health. When our health runs out, our time runs out. So don't waste your time, make the most of it, and that means make your health the most. So we're gonna dive into it. I'll tell you a little bit about Vic and Katrina and then we'll get started. So Katrina Gallagher is a group fitness instructor instructor in Morgantown, West Virginia.
Speaker 1 (00:05:13):
She has health coaching certification through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, and she's finishing up her health coaching certification through functional diagnostic nutrition. She is a true lover of all things health and wellness. She will go down the rabbit hole on any given topic and then can tell you all about it. And she has an emphasis on biohacking and anti-aging. And Victoria Gale, coach Vic is a classical naturopathic physician with additional certification as a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner, holistic cancer coach, certified bioenergetics practitioner, and soon to be national board certified reflexology reflexologist. She loves natural health and appreciates learning how to live in balance with the cycles of nature and the world around us. And we didn't get into this episode about bioenergetics, but that is a topic that's essential to your hormones that we'll probably cover in future episodes. So stay tuned for that. But please help me welcome Coach Vic and Coach Katrina to the show. Hello.
Speaker 3 (00:06:16):
Hi. Thanks so much for having us.
Speaker 1 (00:06:18):
I'm so excited to have you guys on. We've all known each other now for a few years. Gosh, I think back from the first stop, the Menopause Men's Summit probably, and we've worked with so many women and developed so many programs, Katrina's been through them and now is one of our coaches and more that we're working on to help women. And I think it's great for everyone to hear your stories because we're all over 40. We're all passionate about health. We're all women. We know firsthand what it's to deal with the midlife metabolic mayhem that occurs over 40 and to work through it and master it. And I think women need hope right now. A, I hear a lot of women are really suffering. They're really lost. They don't know which way to turn, and they don't even think it's possible. And they see me and they think, oh yeah, Karen, she's a doctor. Of course she can get that straight, but that's not true. It's possible for really every woman. So I wanted to start, I've already talked about your expertise in bios, but maybe if you could just start with your story of how you came to do the work that you do with women over 40 and why you're so passionate about it. Do you wanna start, Vic?
Speaker 3 (00:07:41):
Sure. So I got into natural health after a health episode. In my twenties. I developed asthma and I had it so bad that I was using inhalers and breathing machines and all kinds of stuff, hours and hours a day and nothing was working. And at the time I just thought, oh my God, this can't be my life. And my first profession is in performing arts. And so I was getting ready to do a performance and my name was called. And right before, right after my name was called, I started having an asthma attack
Speaker 3 (00:08:39):
And so after that happened, I was like, okay, I can't live like this, not knowing what's gonna happen. And so a chance read in a health food store that someone had cured their asthma by juicing, just let me think. Well, I can't, it's not gonna hurt. So I went and bought a juicer and fruit and vegetables and all that and I started juicing. And after about two weeks of doing it with no plan, no nothing, I was just doing it. I noticed that my breathing started to get better and I was like, whoa, there's something to this. And so I juiced for the next year and a half or so, but I also started unpacking some emotions that I had been hanging onto some grief, that kind of stuff. And after about a year and a half, I got up one day and I just knew it was over.
Speaker 3 (00:09:22):
And I can't explain how I knew that, but I knew it was. And I packed up all my inhalers, breathing machines and threw them all in the garbage and never had another asthma attack. And that was 25 years ago now. And so after that happened, I was like, I need to really unpack what happened, what, what happened here. And at the time I had to kind of put it on the shelf because family, whatever. But then once the kids are out of the house and you kind of have some time on your own, I decided I need to look into a natural health kinda school. And so I looked for what's in our areas or whatnot. At the time we had two brick and mortar naturopathic schools here in the state. I'm in Michigan. And so I went to one of those schools and then unpacked and started to learn why that worked for me and what happened.
Speaker 3 (00:10:12):
And then I decided, well, if I can't help myself, I need to be able to help other people do what I did. And from that point, I started my brand and started working with folks. And the bulk of my practice is women. I do see both men and women. But I have to say after I've met you, Karen, and working with the institute, it's just women in midlife, I've kind of discovered that's my favorite group of people to work with. Not just because it's me, but
Speaker 1 (00:11:26):
Yeah, thank you for sharing that. I love working with women. People say, well, don't you miss delivering babies? And I say, well, it was great at the time. But working with women, we give life, but we also are the sustainers of life on this planet. And if you help a woman, you help the whole, everyone on the planet, you help her family, you help her friends, she's gonna teach everyone else. And so I love doing what I do now because it's, I, I, I'll say it, and I know some people think it is complicated to deliver a baby, but it's not that complicated. And there are many wonderful midwives and doctors who do it wonderfully and brilliantly. But not everyone can help a woman come back to herself and come back to her vitality at midlife. There really aren't that many of us. And that's why I think it's so vital, the work that we do.
Speaker 1 (00:12:19):
And Katrina, what got you into this type of work? Well, I just kind of believe that you should just go where the world takes you,
Speaker 1 (00:13:07):
But I remember being like young, I don't remember how old I was, maybe eight or nine. And I remember thinking, I, I remember hearing the doctor tell my mom, there is a hereditary aspect to heart disease and chances are really good that one of your four children is gonna have problems. And I remember thinking, it's not gonna be me. It is not gonna be me. And I didn't know at the time what that meant, what I needed to do to keep it from being me. But I knew it wasn't gonna be me
Speaker 1 (00:13:51):
But I kind of kept up with it. And then I went to college, went to law school, just sort of dabbled it, dabbled in it really. And then when my kids were older and I had more time to kind of really explore, I really dove in and started just reading everything I could read about health and wellness and about heart health and doing the right things to make sure I wasn't the one of the four of us that ended up with heart problems. And then I guess when I decided to get my health coaching certification, I was approaching that premenopausal phase of my life. And so my own interest went there because that's where I was. And I think because I am, I am 54 now, I've been doing this now for several years. I think that midlife woman, I think they're just attracted to me.
Speaker 1 (00:14:43):
I think it's because I'm a group fitness instructor. And so I have, I work with a population of people who are already interested in fitness. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:15:31):
And the journey has been relatively easy for me,
Speaker 1 (00:16:18):
And fitness and going to the gym, joining fitness programs is something that people do. But I do find that eventually most people look around and say, well, this isn't all because I just don't feel like myself anymore. And you have this unique perspective where you actually went through the programs that Victoria and I had created. So what were some of the most surprising things to you that you learned? Like going through the midlife metabolism, rescue and mastery programs, what are some things that stick out as these big light bulbs? Wow, I had no idea that this was so important or that this worked like this or other things. Well, I was already, my fitness was fine. And really my food was already pretty on key. Like I was already doing most of that stuff. So most of that was not new to me and was not surprising to me.
Speaker 1 (00:17:11):
But we started off with the HRV, the HRV lesson, which I had no, no idea about
Speaker 1 (00:18:08):
And I, at the time, had no idea how much damage that was probably doing to me and how much it was holding me back from feeling my best. So those things I would say. And then I knew the importance of gut health and I knew the basics, but that was just, I was just in heaven through all of that, learning all of the stuff about the gut stuff, the GI map was fascinating to me. And learning about how all of that works and how, and so that was a whole new world to me as well. So there was a lot, I mean, I went into it feeling like, okay, I know some things and that's good. And I was glad I knew the things I did, but there was a lot that I didn't know. And so there were several things during the course that I was just like, oh, what? I had no idea
Speaker 3 (00:18:51):
Speaker 3 (00:19:37):
And so they loved that. And I would second that. That's one. And the other aspect, I know that many of them had undervalued as far as being related to their health is their emotional state and traumas and things that they were hanging onto. And they really had no idea how it was slowly gnawing away at their health, but was this sort of stealth killer of their health. And they really undervalued it. 'cause I think so often we just kind of say, oh yeah, I had this happen in my past. It's no big deal. It can't still be affecting me now. And that's actually the entire opposite, wrong way to think of it. Because those traumas and things that we've held onto and have in us are little time bombs waiting to explode. And boy, when they do in midlife, when everything else is going on in our lives, it becomes a disaster for us as midlife women. And so I would say I, one thing I really appreciate, especially about this program and Kieran especially, you're one of the few FMDs that I've really run across who will delve into that aspect of health, the emotional, spiritual, psychological aspect of our health.
Speaker 1 (00:20:47):
'Cause It's huge. It is. And I just wanna mention for anyone listening, HRV is heart rate variability. In case you didn't know. Yes. Thank you for saying that. It really is the missing piece. I mean, mainstream medicine for sure misses that piece, but most functional medicine misses it too. Nobody wants to go into the emotional stuff,
Speaker 1 (00:21:40):
'Cause They're all related. And it's actually a field in medicine, psychoneuroendocrinology and also your energetic blueprint. We're gonna be going into that 'cause your energetic design goes into that too. But all of these are less than nurturing or overwhelming small T or big T traumas that we have as children where it can be traumatic to a child, whatever their needs or wants are not met, that can be trauma that has to go somewhere. It has, that's energy. Emotions are energy in motion. And so if that energy is not discharged by a nurturing parent who can help you process it and feel it and understand it, which is most of the people who raised us, they don't because they don't know how to do it. It wasn't a common skill for people. 'cause They were worried about survival then these emotions and this energy has to go somewhere.
Speaker 1 (00:22:37):
So it goes into our fascia, into our nervous system. And it takes a lot of energy for the body to hold down those encapsulated packets of traumatic energy. And so this is one of the reasons why some women actually have a worst time at perimenopause, menopause at midlife is because they haven't unpacked all of these bigger little T traumas. And their cortisol has been struggling since they were five years old to keep a lid on this
Speaker 1 (00:24:08):
In doing those things because it becomes obvious if you do this very much at all, how much those issues hold people back from reaching their full potential.
Speaker 3 (00:24:18):
Absolutely. I 100%, I 100% agree with that. And that's always an aspect of everything that I have when I'm working with my people. I mean, we certainly go through the testing and we explain, we come up with lifestyle recommendations, whatever. But there's always a point where the rubber has to meet the road where I'm talking to the clients and I'm like, okay, there's more here you're gonna need to unpack and here's some resources. I have a somatic therapist on staff here. And so she's been very helpful to direct people to. But there's always a point in time where the rubber meets the road and that intersection of mind, body, spirit becomes front and center. And it's something that has to be addressed. And emotions are powerful. They're the energetics that keep us moving day to day. And so they have to be sort of channeled and funneled in a way that makes life sustainable and healthy for us.
Speaker 3 (00:25:14):
And otherwise they become little time bombs. And I appreciate so much some of the specifics of the changes with what happens with women in midlife. And so some of the importance of needing to exercise and the changes with estrogen and all these things that when there's an emotional aspect attached to those things, it can really throw you way off. And so I've appreciated the program really digging down into some of those specifics. Because I know from my training and some of the other sorts of stuff I've learned over the years, a lot of the data, the research is on men or a healthy person in their twenties. There's never anything specifically tailored for midlife women. And I so appreciated some of the experts and things that you brought whose sole focus is women in midlife. Because you suddenly discover, oh wait a minute, there's a little bit of calibration that has to be different for the midlife women. There has to be some different thoughts. There has to be a little bit of a different approach. And I think that's been really, that's been game changing for me just to really Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:26:24):
I always say, when I went through my mainstream education and med school and OB GYN residency, we were basically taught that women are just littler men with an accessory pack that allows special organs and hormones that allows us to really reduce life. And then when I got further along and had my own health crisis and had to sort that out and discovered what the work I do now, I discovered that nothing could be further from the truth. We are foundationally different. Our brains are structured differently. Our psyches, our nervous systems, like we just don't, we are not little men in any way, shape or form. But I love what you mentioned. One of the things that I love about the way we set up the programs is doing it in a group format. And I know that some people are a little hesitant at first 'cause they're used to that one-on-one, even though it's a five or seven minute, just write a prescription or you need a surgery visit.
Speaker 1 (00:27:20):
But that's what we've been socialized to believe is healthcare. And so they go in groups, I'm gonna be talking about my personal stuff in a group. And then what do you guys find as people's opinion at the end about that? They love it, right? Yeah. Oh, I was speaking for myself and for the ladies Oh yeah. That I went through it with and have seen go through it since the group was key. I think we got a lot of value from listening to each other, learning from each other's questions, the support that comes with knowing that there are other women out there that are going through what you're going through and that are, that you're kind of learning to fix it together. Yeah. I love the group setting. I don't, I, I have never heard anybody ever say a negative thing about, there's some apprehension in the beginning sometimes with people like, oh, but then once the comfort level increases a little bit, everybody's thrilled that there's that. It's in a group setting.
Speaker 3 (00:28:15):
Absolutely. And definitely in private consults, one-on-one, when we would meet with the folks outside of the group setting, they would definitely say, oh, I didn't really wanna share that. I haven't been sleeping. Or My HRV numbers were so terrible. But they suddenly discovered that there's comfort in being vulnerable and having another group of women do having the same kind of things happen, if not worse. There's a comfortability in sharing that. And I'm a firm believer that, I mean, we all need community, but I believe women especially need women only sort of supportive groups in life as well as in any kind of a healing situation. I believe we're just, I believe we're wired that way truthfully. And I've told friends many mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:29:19):
And I think if we're, if we see how good it is, when we feel great, especially when we're not feeling so great, it doubles the need to have that group of other supportive communities, especially women around us. And mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:30:04):
We do. And we have an epidemic of loneliness, and I'm trying to remember the exact numbers, but I think people over 50, it's like people say that they have some less than one close friend and they spend large swaths of time alone and they don't have the support systems. Because we used to live in communities where we were very connected to nature and very connected to each other. But now we live in cities and apartments with TVs and electronic devices. And people are on that thinking they're connected, but they're not. Right. So I think it is vital connection that is vital to health. And the statistics on loneliness are that it's worse than smoking for your health. So you may think, oh, I'm doing great 'cause I don't smoke. But if you're experiencing loneliness and you're not having human connection, 'cause there's certain kind of energetic benefits that we get from being, having eye contact and being in close proximity and having physical touch and sexual touch and all these things.
Speaker 1 (00:31:04):
If you're not having that, it could be like you're smoking two packs a day of cigarettes. So that's one thing I love about the groups. I think people got that oxytocin hit from having that connection and that support and being seen and being heard and being understood. They're going to their doctor's office being told There's nothing wrong with you. It's normal not to wanna have sex and have poor sex and poor sleep at your age. Now it's not right. And so they can come here and get affirmed for all the midlife, metabolic, mayhem, craziness that we're all experiencing. I wanted to ask you guys, how important do you think the testing is? Because I know some programs are like, oh, we just created this program to address your hormones and your gut and you're all gonna take these supplements and you're all gonna eat like this and you're all gonna do these things.
Speaker 1 (00:31:55):
And we don't do any tests. So how important are the tests? I wildly important
Speaker 1 (00:32:44):
But if I don't do a Dutch test and know exactly if my estrogen is high or low or my progesterone is high or low, what my testosterone is doing, how do I know what to take? How do I know what to supplement with? How do I know how much? If you don't have the GI map and you don't know that you've got a parasite or you don't know that you're, that you've got whatever is high or low, then you don't know if you, should I be taking probiotics? Should I be taking digestive enzymes? Should I be doing a protocol to get rid of candida? Do I have high chance? Do like, so know how exactly to attack. To me, I'm a huge, powerful person. I want to know everything. I wanna know all the things. The more information I have, the more I can, the better decisions I can make about how to go about improving a situation.
Speaker 1 (00:33:30):
So the tests for me personally, or that's knowledge, give me input. All the information I want. But I've seen it too with our clients and they love those tests. They feel like finally there's something that validates the way they've been feeling. Yeah. There's clinical correlation to, oh my gosh, this no wonder I felt this way. And all of a sudden they don't feel crazy anymore. And Right. It just gives them a, a, a resource to say, okay, here it is in black and white
Speaker 1 (00:34:16):
Yes. The validation is huge. Yeah. But it's funny, I just was recently interviewed by a woman, a journalist. And so, after the interview, she wanted to talk about her functional issues. Her 'cause she's at midlife. So everyone hears you deal with midlife metabolic mayhem. Lemme tell you my issues, let's talk about it. So I did. And she said that she had been trying the throw against the wall and seeing what sticks method
Speaker 1 (00:35:13):
I mean, it's chaos, right? To, to go through your education and get your training and get your certifications and maintain your certifications and get your jobs and maintain your jobs. And nobody complains about how much work it is, right? 'cause You get the payoff. But then when it comes to our health, we've been socialized to believe that all we're supposed to do is shovel some calories in our mouth every day, lay horizontal for a few hours and it should be plug and play. We go to the doctor if we have a problem, they write us a script or do a surgery. And that's all we should have to input into our most valuable asset, our bodies, which is what the only thing that gives us time on this planet. And then we complain that it's too much work. So I know some people hear, oh, I gotta do a course and I gotta do testing. And oh, this is so much work. And I just like to have that reality check. But it was funny because after I talked to her, the journalist, she was like, I never thought about it. Like
Speaker 3 (00:36:18):
One of the things I remember early on when the first ladies would start the program and you would have the classes and you would talk about, we would come up with structured lifestyle recommendations to do. And so one of them was initially on 30 minutes every day of walking or taking a look at your H RV or whatever. And ever, and I remember clearly, and I won't mention any names, but there was a mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:37:11):
And now it's become, if I don't have that's, you know, the end of the world, I have to have that self investment time. I mean, if there's anything you're going to put time or investment into, it should be yourself and as many hours and as much money, whatever it takes, we have to put that time into ourselves. But I find that commonly with a lot of my midlife women, they tell me, oh, I don't have 30 minutes to walk. I don't have 15, 20 minutes. And it's really something because there's something to that that you'll put time into everything else but not yourself. And getting people to care and love about themselves, that's a piece of this. And that's what I, I do especially like about this program. And what I have to find with my client base as well, is we almost have to teach women to love ourselves again. And to really put ourselves first. I mean, who else should we put first? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:38:21):
What is up with that? Because, and we'd say, I don't have the time or I don't have the money that what we're, that's code for. I don't see the value in that thing or in myself.
Speaker 3 (00:38:31):
Right?
Speaker 1 (00:38:32):
So what is up with that? With us? Us? What are your thoughts, guys? I don't know. I think that we're just, I think that we're wired to be caretakers and I think that we put other people first. I mean, I think if you're a mother then you're just wired that your children are gonna come first. But I also think that we have, I think a lot of us waste a lot more time than we realize we waste. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:38:57):
Speaker 1 (00:38:58):
I think we have become a pretty inefficient society. And I don't say that judgmentally because I'm guilty of it. So I mean, I'm right there with you. I do. But you know, and I realized that, I realized that for myself recently when I did do 75 hard, I don't know if you all are familiar with 75 hard, but there are requirements. And one of the requirements is that you have to work out twice a day. And everybody going into the program is, I don't have, I can't work out twice a day for 40 for at least 45 minutes each workout. So it's, and it's like, how am I gonna make time for this? And you do it, you do the program for 75 and there are other things you have to do as well. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:39:46):
I think we've kind of,
Speaker 1 (00:39:47):
I think we've kind of forgotten how to prioritize our time as well. I think if women take a really good hard look at what their day is filled with, there are things that maybe in their minds feel necessary that aren't really necessary. So Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (00:40:38):
And that's part of the piece I think of having a loss of community. Because many things that we would get done in a day would be done by other community members. And so I think women, we've kind of, mm-hmm,
Speaker 1 (00:41:36):
Yeah. Well and you address that in the programs we talk about breaking your day down into however many minute increments and Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (00:41:56):
Food preparation, the idea that we can't find time to prepare food has become something we've kind of fallen into as well. And I mean the meal services are great and yes, there's timeframes for things, but I mean to really take the time to prepare quality homemade food, which is a keystone for us being healthy, we have the time to do it. I mean, we aren't going out and catching animals. We aren't going out and picking stuff from the garden. We aren't doing, all we have to do is go to the grocery, you know, batch cook one day a week and put it in a freezer. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:43:05):
Absolutely. A pro tip from the episode is batch meal prep that is hands down the biggest time saver and gives you so much control over your health because what you are, what you eat. And so we go into the program, into the programs what to eat. But I started, when I first got on this journey over 10 years ago, I just sat down and started planning meals, which we never did before and planning recipes. And Sunday was shopping and cooking day and we would make mass amounts and freezer it. We got this big freezer and we always had food and then, and then it was just like a family affair 'cause we all did it together. So I think this issue of the time values, which I also do in the hormone bliss challenge, which we're gonna be running again in November, looking at where you spend your time, looking at where you spend your money, looking at your values, and are you spending your time and money in alignment with your values? And most women find that they are not. So I think I needed that reality check also. And so no shame here because we're all guilty of these. Oh for sure. Things as well.
Speaker 3 (00:44:15):
Speaker 1 (00:44:15):
Yeah. I'm just wondering, I wanna talk a little bit about human design because it's something that I've become interested in. In the past year we talked in the programs about your energetic blueprint where you talked about chakras. I think Vic, you even did a whole class on that, which was amazing. And people love learning about how their energetics and their body works. And then I got introduced into human design, which is a more specific science of differentiation. How each individual has a unique energetic blueprint that has to do with certain characteristics of when they were born, where they were born. It integrates many ancient teachings. And so I've had my chart done and been living in what we call my experiment for the past a year. And you guys have done your chart and I think Katrina's had her initial reading. So she isn't starting her experiment.
Speaker 1 (00:45:14):
You've done your chart, Vic. One thing that I learned from human design, I'll just give an example, is that my design is an emotional projector. So there are five different main types and then you have an authority by which you're supposed to make decisions. And then there are many more specifics about each person's unique blueprint that give them certain characteristics and qualities. I found that when I had my reading, it explained a lot of my personality characteristics that have always been perplexing to me and other people. Why am I always this way? Like I have this ability to kind of cut to the heart of a matter and see the truth behind things. And people have always been like, why can you see this behind the curtain? And I always wondered why can I? And it's part of my design and then also my fighting for the underdog.
Speaker 1 (00:46:08):
I always don't like injustice when I see it. And I'm always willing to fight for injustice, like for women at midlife. And that's part of my design. So there are a lot of insights, but the big thing was learning that I'm not a generator, which 65% of people are. So generators are the builders and the doers. And I am not, and I'm made to be a guide and lead people not to be out there digging the ditches and planting the trees, but helping people do dig ditches and plant trees better. And so that's kind of why I do what I do. So those were all very insightful and have allowed me to live more in alignment with my true nature, which actually helps balance your hormones. So if you're not living in alignment with your true nature, this is kind of where it relates to hormones.
Speaker 1 (00:46:56):
There are specific gates and channels that relate to specific hormones. So you can get that deep. But in general, if you're not living in alignment with your design, you are hurting your cortisol stress hormone because that's stress, it's friction if you're not operating in alignment with how you're supposed to operate. So those are the insights I got that I found hugely valuable. And we're actually adding right now a live human design class we're gonna do next week with an analyst, a whole section on human design and helping people get their charts and integrate it into balancing their hormones and healing hormonal poverty. So I'm just wondering if either of you would like to share any insights that you've had from your human design and mostly how it has helped you to live more in alignment with your true self. Well, I was absolutely fascinated and I did have a reading and the I, yeah, validating is the first word that came to mind because I am an emotional manifester.
Speaker 1 (00:47:57):
It just explained so much
Speaker 1 (00:48:41):
And so I asked some other people, is that true? Do people find me intimidating? And I got that. I got yes, I got the answer yes a lot. And I was like, what? And literally I never really quite understood it. I never, but then when I met with Nancy and we talked about what exactly it means to be a manifester and how I have sort of an off-putting aura and that's just who I am. Like I just have a, I'm like, oh. So that's why people feel like I'm intimidating, but I never really saw myself that way. So it answered a lot of questions and it does kind of just sort of re-evaluate how you're moving through life and kind of what you're, how it helps you understand why people react to you the way that they do. And the fact that I am emotional, I've always been a follow your gut kind of person. And now I'm like, that's that, that is really super true for me. I really do need to follow my gut. If I feel a certain way, I need to, like Nancy said, even down to if you cook a meal and all of a sudden you don't feel like eating it like right
Speaker 3 (00:49:59):
I'm fascinated as well. I haven't had any readings done yet. I did run my chart and I only got a chance to read through one little aspect of it, but I'm a generator with emotional authority and it really just encapsulated everything I've ever done in my life. 'cause If I'm gonna start a business, I'm gonna dig in there and I'm gonna go through all the aspects of things. And it just really made sense for me. And the one thing that really stood out for me when I was kind of reading through one of the write-ups, they talked about when you have emotional authority, you kind of have to wait for a full wave
Speaker 1 (00:51:13):
Really
Speaker 3 (00:51:13):
Interesting. I can't wait to have a reading on it.
Speaker 1 (00:51:15):
Yeah. And I will say, yeah, Uhhuh, go ahead. I have at times felt, since I've gotten this information, there have been times where I have felt myself more at peace with what's happening in my life because now I understand it better. So the way that it affects cortisol and the hormones makes perfect sense. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (00:52:09):
Right. If we don't accept and love ourselves exactly as we are and who we are and what we're designed to do on this planet and our personality characteristics, life is just friction. And that means cortisol problems and that means hormone problems and hormonal poverty, poor gut health and lack of health. And so to me, the more we can know ourselves, the more we can know our lab test results and what exactly is going on physiologically, biochemically inside. And the more we can know our energetics and our personality and our design, human design has a lot of information about what we're here to do. So if you're confused about your purpose and how we're here to operate and if we can surrender to the truth of all of that and be true to ourselves, life can be a much easier ride for sure. Which sounds really good to me.
Speaker 1 (00:53:10):
And I think at midlife is when the friction of how, because we're all really trained to live as generators and function as generators, make decisions with our brain and be the go doers. Well that's great for, I think they call 'em self projected generators. So the ones that are supposed to think, no, actually I don't think there's anyone, we'll have to defer to the experts on this 'cause I'm not a human design expert. That's why we have experts coming in to teach about it. But we are not designed to make decisions with our brains. And not all of us are designed to be out there digging ditches and planting trees. So I think it's a wonderful addition to the program and I'm super excited about it. Super excited about this next Hormone Bliss challenge. Coming up in November, we're gonna have the link in the show notes so that you can sign up and join us for a five day course that actually you'll get a lot of benefit.
Speaker 1 (00:54:04):
'Cause I'm gonna teach you about all the steps that you need to take to heal hormonal poverty. But you're gonna start taking action on day one. And a lot of people get incredible results even in five days, which is amazing. But you can read more if you follow the link. So what last words You guys shared before we wrap up, you shared some amazing quotes with me before we started recording. So I wanna ask if you could talk about one of the, each of your quotes a little bit. I love a good quote. So Katrina, you shared this quote, stop wasting time, like someone is making more of it, which I absolutely love. Is that something that you say or is that, did someone else say it? It's actually a line from a song. I can't even remember the song, but the first time I heard it I was like, it just hit me.
Speaker 1 (00:54:54):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (00:55:45):
I love it when women in their twenties want to come talk to me about how to take care of themselves. I'm like, you're so far ahead of the game. I so wish I had the information that I have now when I was younger so that I could have not wasted all that time.
Speaker 1 (00:56:26):
Like someone's making more of it and nobody is and nobody's coming to save you
Speaker 3 (00:57:45):
Well,
Speaker 3 (00:57:46):
As everyone kind of gets started on their journey, we've kind of been, we we're in this immediate society. I'm gonna just take this handful of pills and everything will be fine. I'm just gonna
Speaker 1 (00:59:02):
Yeah. I recently heard this term that I love called transactional healing, where we want it on demand. Like a pharmaceutical, I take the aspirin, my headache goes away. But when it comes to really helping the body heal and come into alignment and fix the root causes, you need to be patient. You can take the actions, but it's up to your body in what way it unfolds that healing. And so you don't wanna be transactional about it. And that's a factor in self-love. It's not self-loving to be transactional about your healing. So be patient with yourself, put in the work, it will happen. Last question. I know Katrina has to go
Speaker 3 (00:59:42):
Speaker 1 (00:59:43):
Fast, I would be remiss if I didn't talk about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. As you guys know, my TEDx talk was about hormonal poverty and the consequences of it. Midlife metabolic mayhem, disease, disease, premature death, and all the plethora of data on these topics and how they can be prevented or reversed using natural hormone therapy. And I'm wondering if you can share in your personal journeys or women you've worked with, how important has that been? I will say for me it was, it has been a game changer. I'm super into fitness. Just the ability that it's given me to do what I want to do every day in the gym, the ability it's given me to build and maintain muscle mass. The ability it's given me to sleep well,
Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
I won't say that I still have an occasional hot flash. Things aren't, it's not made everything perfect. I'm still not completely sure that I'm, that levels are optimized. 'cause As we kind of titrate up gradually mm-hmm
Speaker 3 (01:01:43):
Vic? Yeah. Yeah. I can definitely say hormone therapy. The bioidenticals have been a game changer for every person, every lady who's gone through this program and through my own client base. To the extent that we do it here and are able to, I have to say, I personally think that bioidentical hormone replacement therapy is just about as close to a magic wand for women as you can find of anything. It's just about that close and just what, especially the testosterone especially, there's just something there that, like Katrina said, with the muscle mash and just, it just clears the webs, it just clears the brain. It just clears things. And I think it's wonderful because having that little extra boost, when you suddenly feel better, then you feel more inspired to, oh well let me focus on my meal planning. Oh let me go and do this exercise. You just feel a little bit better. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 1 (01:03:00):
Yeah. We'll put the link to her hormone club in the show notes too, in case anyone is not able to access bioidentical hormones. We have a telemedicine company throughout the US that can provide board certified doctors specializing and that bioidentical hormone therapy, we can treat you from the comfort of your own dining room table via zoom and test you and send you hormones. So if you're interested in that, we'll have the link in the show notes. We could do a whole episode about hormones. Testosterone, especially more than half of women over 40 are testosterone deficient. And if you think that's not important, think again. It is so important for our muscle mass, that if you don't have adequate muscle mass, you gain weight, meaning fat, right? And 75% of us are overweight or obese by the time we're 60. It has to do with our dopamine and our drive in life, our initiative.
Speaker 1 (01:03:51):
It has to do with our sex drive. It has to do with so many things. So it's vital along with the estrogen and progesterone. I know Katrina had to jump off. Thank you so much Katrina for joining me. And Vic, thank you so much for joining me. I think this has been an amazing discussion. I think people are gonna really enjoy it and get something from it. So hearing three women over 40 who have dealt with these issues and work with women with these issues, and hopefully you've gotten a lot of hope today. Hopefully you've gotten some insight into the steps that you might need to take. If you think that we might be able to help you, you're more than welcome to join us in the Hormel Bliss Challenge. We'll have the link in the show notes that'll be happening in November. Any last words, Vic, before we sign off?
Speaker 3 (01:04:37):
I just wanna tell all the ladies out. There's hope and there's a community waiting to take care of you. And learning to love yourself takes time. It takes patience, but you know when you do it, what comes out on the other side is a renewal of your life and you get to be the full, vibrant self you're supposed to be. And bra to you kirin for setting up this program and really digging in and getting all the nooks and crannies of pieces of things to really help support women in midlife bra outta you.
Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Oh, well, thank you so much and thank you for helping me with it. You're as much a part of it as I am. It is our passion and our purpose and our pleasure to serve you. Hopefully you've gotten something out of today's episode, so until next week, if you did get something out of it, please reach out to us on social media. We love to hear about it. If you have questions you'd like us to answer and future episodes, if you love this episode, we can have Katrina and Vic back. We can answer your questions. We are here to serve you, so let us know how we can do that and we'll see you again next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome back to The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we discuss all things related to hormonal health for midlife women. In this episode, we are honored to have Dr. Michael Platt as our special guest.
Dr. Platt is a pioneer in the field of bio-identical hormones and adrenaline dominance, and has dedicated his career to research and advancements in managing hormonal imbalances. Through his work, he has become a leading expert in observational, functional, alternative, and allopathic medicine.
His three books - "The Miracle of Bioidentical Hormones", "Adrenaline Dominance", and "Platt Protocol" have received a total of 11 literary awards, showcasing the impact and importance of his work.
In this episode, we dive into the topic of adrenaline dominance and how it can affect our hormonal health. Dr. Platt shares his insights on the use of progesterone cream as a therapeutic solution for managing adrenaline overload.
We also discuss the benefits of using bio-identical hormones and how they can help rebalance our hormones, leading to improved overall health and well-being.
Dr. Platt's wealth of knowledge and experience in this field is truly inspiring, and we hope you will join us for this insightful and informative episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Michael Platt. So tune in, take notes, and get ready to learn more about the miracle of bioidentical hormones and how they can help you achieve hormonal balance. Let's get started!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Doctors give drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less, or diseases of which they know nothing at all. Voltaire, stay tuned to find out the missing hormone in your midlife program. Adrenaline.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into adrenaline dominance. Some of you know about adrenaline, we know about adrenaline junkies who like doing things like jumping out of airplanes, Bundy jumping, really exciting things that get their adrenaline pumping. But you might not be aware that adrenaline actually is a hormone and that it could be the missing link in your midlife hormone program if you're not getting the results that you want. In fact, most of us have adrenaline problems because of stress. So it's not only about cortisol, it's also about adrenaline. There are some genetic predispositions to adrenaline dysfunction that we talk about in this episode that you're gonna wanna hear about. And there are many methods that you can use to address this. So this is a little bit of a controversial episode.
Speaker 1 (02:07):
I'm not usually this contentious with guess, but when they make some very outwardly bold claims about health that are questionably founded in science, then you know, I have to challenge that. So we did that, but I think that our guest today really is an expert in this field and really has a lot to offer on this topic. So I'll tell you a little bit about him and then we'll get started. Dr. Michael Platt has been a pioneer in the research and advancement of the therapeutic use of progesterone cream for use in managing adrenaline and hormone imbalance. He's considered an important pioneer and observational functional alternative and allopathic medicine focused on bioidentical hormones and adrenaline overload. He has three books, the Miracle of Bioidentical Hormones, adrenaline Dominance, and the Plat Protocol, and has received 11 literary awards. Please help me welcome Dr. Michael Platt to the show.
Speaker 3 (03:01):
Thank you. Glad to be here.
Speaker 1 (03:03):
So we're gonna talk about adrenaline dominance. We're gonna talk about bioidentical hormones. We're gonna talk about all things women over 40 and their hormonal poverty that they have to deal with and and how to go about fixing it. You have a book on adrenaline dominance, so why don't we start there. It's funny, I was doing an interview earlier today with a health coach and she had gone through one of my programs and so I had asked her in the interview what were the most surprising things that she learned during the program. And she said the importance of cortisol. She herself had been a fitness coach and a health coach and she had no idea about issues related to cortisol adrenaline also, and she was very surprised by that. So can you talk a little bit about how you came to realize that adrenaline and then cortisol is related to that also really is a key problem for women at midlife and beyond, and how you came to focus on that
Speaker 3 (04:11):
Adrenaline interfere with the quality of life any age, beginning with the baby, you've heard of babies that have colic, colic, colic is excess adrenaline and you can actually get rid of it in about five minutes. Treating the baby women that are pregnant with a fetus does a lot of kicking. That's adrenaline. That baby will probably have colic when the baby is born. Nobody ever talks about this. And then bedwetting in children is all about adrenaline and then a D H D and it just goes on and out. We'll talk about this, but what happened was I started getting involved with hormones because my, actually because of my mother, my mother died of breast cancer at the age of 61. And right after she died, I realized I had inherited her hormones. Men, people don't realize that men and women had the identical hormones, different levels, but the same hormones.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
And so I knew she was low in progesterone because she had breast cancer, she had a belly on her, so I knew she had a lot of insulin. So when I first got involved with hormones at that time, I used to have to slap my face when I was driving, trying to keep my eyes open. And then right after I started using progesterone, 'cause that I, I thought I was low in it because of my mother. I never got sleep in a car yet. And that, that's been a long time now. So when I saw what progesterone could do with, with regards to my, my sleepiness, I got involved with hormones and I opened up a clinic doing hormone therapy back in 1995. And what was advantageous to me is that I was able to sit down and talk to my patients for about two hours.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
And let me tell you something. When you sit down and talk to to some, that's how you learn about what's going on with them and what works and what doesn't work. And I realized that a lot of these people had the same issues, trouble sleeping, some anger issues, anxiety. And I figured that the only hormones that could cause all these different things is adrenaline. And so I started treating people with more excess adrenaline and I got some remarkable results. You can actually get rid of A D H D in 24 hours. You get rid of fibro fibromyalgia, which is considered incurable by lowering adrenaline. So it goes on and on and it opened up a whole new world of medicine to me.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I know you're a md, but what w what is your specialty?
Speaker 3 (06:30):
I was board certified in internal medicine. I actually went to medical school watching to be a surgeon, but I did wanna do the 10 at that time they had what, what we called a 10 minute scrub and I didn't understand why you had to wash your hands for 10 minutes and then put on a pair of gloves. So anyway, I, I switched over to medicine and yeah, so my specialty was internal medicine.
Speaker 1 (06:51):
Okay. So how do you, I apologize, I haven't had the opportunity to read your books yet. So in someone who might suspect that they're hyper adrenalized, do you wanna talk a little bit about exactly what that is? I don't know that everybody can thinks about adrenaline as a hormone. They might think about it more as a neurotransmitter. But if you wanna talk a little bit about what it is, how it works in the body, how they might know that they are hyper adrenalized and what tests, if any, might be available. What would that process look like?
Speaker 3 (07:28):
Okay. People that have access adrenaline, first of all it's the, the number one reason why people are trouble sleeping, either falling asleep or staying asleep. Some people grind their teeth at night. Some people toss and turn. That's all adrenaline. The other thing, people with excess adrenaline will be quick to anger 'cause it's an anger hormone and they'll carry a lot of tension in the back of their neck. And this tension can actually cause tinnitus and it can cause headaches that are always mistaken for migraines. But it's really some, a headache called occipital neuritis, which is very easy to fix as opposed to migraines. But what's interesting is that this migraine or this headache is always mistaken for a migraine even though it's not a migraine headache. And very often this headache shoots right into the back of the eye and it comes from the occipital nerve sheath at the ba at the base of the skull.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
So just putting some congestion cream on the back of the neck eliminates its headache. But in, in any event, people with a lot of adrenaline anxiety is only caused by excess adrenaline. And adrenaline by the way, it's, it's both a hormone as well as a neurotransmitter. And the, so when people have a lot of adrenaline, they, it affects the quality of their life. People can sometimes complain about cold hands and cold feet. They always blame the thyroid for that, but it's actually adrenaline. And why adrenaline does this, it constricts blood vessels and so it can cut off blood supply to the intestines because they're not needed for survival. And adrenaline is a survival hormone.
Speaker 3 (09:01):
So by cutting off blood supply to the intestines, the cause of constipation, which is also known as I b s irritable bowel syndrome, is excess adrenaline. It cuts off blood supply not only to the hands and feet, but it also cuts off blood supply to the salivary glands because they're not needed for survival. And that's why when it comes to doing hormone test testing, I never recommend saliva test because the hormones don't get into the saliva, then they get low levels. And that's, so when they get a low cortisol in the saliva, they call that adrenal fatigue. But adrenal fatigue is a condition that doesn't exist be if they did a blood test.
Speaker 1 (09:40):
What do you mean by that? Adrenal fatigue is a condition that doesn't exist
Speaker 3 (09:44):
Because it, it's all based on a false reading of a saliva test. Adrenal fatigue is mostly a naturopath diagnosis and naturopath to sliva test. For the most part,
Speaker 1 (09:55):
We'll have to a degree to disagree on that salivary
Speaker 3 (09:58):
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Testing is actually validated to be highly accurate in their me many medical doctors that use it. So if someone suspects that they have hyperrealism, are there a test that you recommend that they can get any confirmation of that? Or is it just a symptomatic diagnosis?
Speaker 3 (10:18):
Actually the best test is a cortisol test done on blood, not on saliva. And you cannot go by, by what they call a normal level in order to establish normal levels. They actually use medical students because they, they're available in hospitals and they can do studies on them. And all doctors have increased adrenaline. Adrenaline is actually the neurotransmitter. They give people intelligence. So most doctors, if not all, have a lot of adrenaline. So when they did the studies on them, they said that a normal cortisol level blood we're talk about blood now is 19.4. But to me anything above 13 is a high cortisol level.
Speaker 1 (10:56):
And so you're saying they should have a blood test and if they're above 13, that because their cortisol is high, that by definition they have hyperrealism. Is that correct?
Speaker 3 (11:06):
Yeah, I actually very rarely detesting because when somebody has a lot of adrenaline, you don't need to do a test. You know it, they have all sorts of symptoms too. So they have conditions like P M D D, premenstrual dysphoric disorder, which is caused by excess adrenaline. You don't need to do a test for that. But they don't have one except cor
Speaker 1 (11:36):
I find it interesting, you're very emphatic and reductive about P M D D is because of hyperrealism and this and fibro mount is because of it. And in my research and my fellowship training, et cetera, that usually it's multifactorial. Is hyperrealism a component of most of these? Yes. So what makes you so emphatic and Sure. What data do you have that says specifically that it is only hyperrealism that causes fibromyalgia? Period? End of sentence. I'm curious.
Speaker 3 (12:08):
Remember, I've had a lot of experience dealing with patients specifically for problems related to excess adrenaline. And the book that I wrote called Adrenaline dominance, right,
Speaker 3 (12:19):
Is the only book that I know of that talks about adrenaline. They have a a, a book out now about stress and they talk about cortisol where they don't talk about adrenaline. But the only thing that causes stress is excess adrenaline and body releases cortisol in response to stress. Now what's interesting is that people, most people don't realize it, the brain uses up a lot of sugar, probably more sugar than any other tissue in the body. And the, the reason why people have access adrenaline is not because they're in danger. It's because for, for the most part is because the body uses adrenaline to raise sugar levels for the brain. You a process called gluconeogenesis where the body converts protein into sugar and an adrenaline peaks at two 30 in the morning. A lot of people get up at that time to urinate because adrenaline actually gives people that urge to urinate on television.
Speaker 3 (13:13):
They call it an overactive bladder, but that's adrenaline and just like a condition called chronic interstitial cystitis, which is also considered incurable, which is also caused by adrenaline. And, but in any event, the body uses adrenaline to raise sugar levels and it peaks at two 30 in the morning when people are lying in bed. And when the body releases adrenaline, because it's a very, it's a powerful hormone, it creates stress to the body. And the body responds to stress by putting out cortisol. And cortisol also raises sugar levels. So while people are sleeping or trying to sleep, they're putting out two hormones that raise sugar levels and they're not burning it up. And the whole thing about sugar, it doesn't matter if you're eating sugar or if the body's making sugar, if you don't burn it up, the body stores it, it's fat and fat cells. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (14:07):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (14:08):
I think it's, at least it's an important issue when it comes to weight. So
Speaker 1 (14:12):
Yeah, I, I agree. It's an important issue when it comes to every health problem. The majority of us, especially in western cultures, are hyper adrenalized and it really isn't addressed. So I'm glad you have a book about it and you really are raising awareness about it. And I think that we do need to have a balanced view that it's, these disorders like P M D M D are probably not uni factorial disorders at least in my experience and training. So someone suspects and, and I think pretty much everyone has an adrenalin problem in this day and age. 'cause We all have so much stress. How do you recommend that they go about addressing it?
Speaker 3 (14:55):
I'd have to tell you that doctors don't get a whole lot of training with regards to the cause of illness. They train both
Speaker 1 (15:02):
Yeah, pretty much none.
Speaker 3 (15:03):
Okay. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:04):
So when it comes to adrenaline, it's the same thing. If, if you want to manage adrenaline, you have to treat the reason why the body's releasing it. And everybody knows about the fight or flight situation when it comes to adrenaline that when people are in danger, the body pours out adrenaline. But that's a rare reason why the body puts out adrenaline. The primary reason why the body puts out adrenaline is to raise sugar levels for the brain. So what this means is that if you provide the fuel to the brain, the body doesn't need to use adrenaline to do it. So the brain use the two different fuels. One is glucose that the type of sugar and the best source glucose for the brain comes for vegetables. And the reason for that, they don't stimulate a lot of insulin. Candy and soda are great sources of glucose, but they produce a lot of insulin, which lower sugar defeats the purpose.
Speaker 3 (15:54):
Now the other fuel, which is even more important that the brain uses are ketones. And you talk about a ketogenic diet, I don't recommend that because it's a difficult diet to accomplish, but you can get ketone directly from coconut oil or M C T oil, which comes from coconut oil. So basically adding coconut oil, m c t oil and vegetables into your meal plan, you can get a dramatic lowering of adrenaline. Now the only other thing you need to add is a 5% progesterone cream. Now 5% means that each pump is 50 milligrams and this is the exact strength you need to block adrenaline. They have different strength, but 5% is the exact strength. And what's good about this, you don't need a prescription for, you get it over the counter and you don't need a prescription for coconut oil or M c t oil or, or vegetables. So people can actually treat themselves if they care to. And people that have a lot of adrenaline, as soon as they put progestin cream on within minutes, they'll feel more, more relaxed and they'll be able to focus better if they have a lot of adrenaline.
Speaker 1 (17:00):
And I know that women listening now are going, how is progesterone gonna help my adrenaline? So what would you explain to them?
Speaker 3 (17:06):
The progesterone will help the adrenaline because it blocks adrenaline. It's mostly known for blocking estrogen, but it also blocks insulin and it blocks adrenaline. This is not known. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (17:18):
You think that they should have a progesterone test to see where their levels are before they use progesterone because
Speaker 3 (17:27):
No, I don't. First of all, you cannot overdose on progesterone.
Speaker 1 (17:30):
I've seen it
Speaker 3 (17:32):
Speaker 1 (17:32):
I've seen it, it happens.
Speaker 3 (17:34):
There's a condition. Are you're familiar with type three diabetes?
Speaker 1 (17:38):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
Did you know they don't have a test for it?
Speaker 1 (17:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (17:40):
And it's a precursor to Alzheimer's. Okay. But the thing is, is that if somebody does have type three diabetes and they use progesterone, they get an immediate outpouring of adrenaline and immediate. And so these people will not tolerate progesterone. But it's important for them to know that they have type three diabetes because can be prevent, they can prevent Alzheimer's just by adding M C T oil into their meal plan.
Speaker 1 (18:06):
Yes. And I'm back. So you recommend that for men or women regardless of age, that they use progesterone cream?
Speaker 3 (18:14):
I do. Men stop making progesterone around the age of 50, and it's after the age of 50 that men start getting prostate cancer because now they, they don't have a hormone to block estrogen anymore, which causes prostate cancer and they start putting on weight around the middle because they can't block insulin and insulin puts on fat around the middle. So it's an important hormone for men also, even though most people think it's a woman's hormone.
Speaker 1 (18:37):
But what about treating the reason why someone has high adrenaline and calming their nervous system and regulating the nervous system and calming the sympathetic nervous system, increasing the parasympathetic, but with all the myriad of tools that we have to do that? What about doing that?
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Okay. The problem is, is that when it comes to the reason or the cause that people have access to adrenaline, it's genetic always. It's always genetic. In other words, if somebody has a lot of adrenaline, that means one or both parents had it. If a child has a D H D, then one or both parents have A D h D. They may not be recognized, but I can recognize it. But
Speaker 1 (19:19):
What gene is this, because I'm not familiar with this. I didn't, I've I've never heard of that. So can you enlighten me please?
Speaker 3 (19:27):
There's a lot of things in my book that you've never heard of.
Speaker 1 (19:30):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
I think you'll find it very interesting.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
That's why I have you here so you can enlighten me. But so I'm wanting to know, because I know everybody listening is thinking the same thing. Same thing. I've never heard that.
Speaker 3 (19:41):
If you go to Amazon, you could read the reviews on my book. They're almost all five star. And people talk about their own experiences.
Speaker 1 (19:49):
Right. But I'm trying to get to the science 'cause I am not familiar. Yes. There are certain genetic snits that might predispose you where you don't detoxify your adrenaline the same as others. I happen to have that. So for instance, if I get upset, it tends to last longer than the average person because I don't metabolize my adrenaline as quickly. And methylation defects can predispose you to that. So is that what you're referring to? You're not referring to a direct gene that causes hyper production of adrenaline. Are you talking about all these SNPs of detox that you might have pathways that are decreased, so you might not metabolize it like I have. Is that what you're talking about? I
Speaker 3 (20:33):
Have to, I have to tell you, I'm not a scientist. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (20:36):
Speaker 3 (20:37):
I'm an obser. I observe. And so what I have observed is that when people have a lot of adrenaline, creative type people, by the way have the most adrenaline. And the reason for that is that the creative brain is more active and there's a lot of drugs and alcohol in the music industry. And I attribute that because these are people that are just trying to relax from all the adrenaline that they have. But when people are creative, these are the people that are very intuitive about other people. They can pick up good energy and bad energy from people. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (21:24):
Or the animals can pick up on their energy. And so can creative children pick up e energy that this adrenaline energy from other people? And now you have to remember, I've been dealing a long time with people with excess adrenaline. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:16):
Hear what you're saying. So you're saying the genetic, the inputs. Right? So I, if you have detox pathway disruptions from SNPs, like I have, there are things you can do to improve, decrease sympathetic nervous system tone. I usually recommend that people quantify their sympathetic tone and their parasympathetic tone using something called heart rate variability. And they can actually get pretty reliable numbers that talk about and give information on your levels of these different neurotransmitters in the sympathetic nervous system and parasympathetic, including adrenaline. So you can get actual numbers to measure it and you can use interventions to calm it down, like using breathing practices, which is really the way that you get at the autonomic nervous system. So I'm just wondering if, if you do talk about that in your book, meditation, breathing practices, things like that.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
Remember I I mentioned the good, the bad and the ugly.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (23:22):
Okay. You're, I'm sure you're very familiar with a condition called hyperemesis grab Arum.
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
What do you think causes that? You're
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Gonna say adrenaline, hyper adrenaline. I
Speaker 3 (23:32):
Am gonna say adrenaline
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
They have another condition called cyclical vomiting syndrome. They had children that have to be hospitalized to, to stop the vomiting. Again. There are some people who wake up nauseated and that's always adrenaline. Adrenaline is a, is a, is a hormone that causes nausea and vomiting. I had a, a gentleman that came in to see me and I think it was about 47 at the time. The reason he came to see me is because every morning he would wake up in a vomit every morning. And, and to my way of thinking, the only thing that can cause that was excess adrenaline. And this man had severe fibromyalgia, severe. Anyway, the upshot of the whole thing, I put some progestin cream on his arm and he rubbed his arms together and, and we started talking again. And about five minutes after putting on the cream, he looked at me, he, he sat back in his chair and he looked at me and said, doc, in my entire life I have never felt this good my entire life anyway, since he left my office, he's never had another episode of vomiting. So yeah, there are other things that can cause problems related to the neurotra, but is adrenaline, whatever. But progestin cream is so easy.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah. Don't get me wrong. I love progesterone. You know, the weight loss diuretic, sleep well feel good, anti-anxiety, anti-depression, happy hormone. It's wonderful. And I just, I'm all for fixing the reason why somebody has a problem before giving a medication. And so to me, I think that sometimes we can use a so-called functional or even a root cause approach in the same way as mainstream medicine. I have a headache, I take a medication to get rid of it. Oh, I'm hyper adrenalized. I'm gonna use progesterone to get rid of it. But you're not addressing the reason why you're hyper adrenalized, which to my knowledge we'll just have to agree that there's no gene for that, that gives you that. But there are conditions from genes with your detoxification where you may not get rid of it properly. So you might have higher levels, but the majority of people, like you said, everybody's stressed probably need to do something to calm that down.
Speaker 1 (25:46):
So I'm more of the approach to address those root causes. And also I'm gonna a proponent of tests, don't guess, test progesterone levels, test estradiol levels, test estriol levels, test testosterone levels, test D A G A, test all of these things, cortisol, insulin. And then use interventions in targeted in a targeted manner to fix and address these problems. And I find that when I work with people in this way, everything comes into balance. But I do love your contribution of really highlighting the hyperrealism. But I sometimes think that if you have a big hammer, everything can look like a nail. So I just am wary of that approach.
Speaker 3 (26:35):
Speaker 1 (26:40):
Speaker 3 (26:40):
And I don't have to tell you, getting a patient well is very rewarding.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (26:45):
The, I've seen the benefits of what happens when you lower adrenaline
Speaker 1 (26:49):
Speaker 3 (27:06):
You can, even though if a woman is in the menopause, which means she's not bleeding anymore, I pretty much know what her hormones are gonna be. I, and I'll be honest with you, I've always preferred treating people rather than lab tests. And the reason for that is that to my way of thinking, you can never go wrong treating a person, but you can go wrong treating a lab test. 'cause They, they can be off 'cause hor hormones are whatever. But in any event, the, I'm very much in favor of replacing hormones in women and men hormones
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Control everything.
Speaker 3 (27:41):
But yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:41):
So in the miracle bioidentical hormones, again, I apologize, I haven't been able to had time to read them yet, your books, do you recommend that women be tested for their levels or that they just use over the counter products? No,
Speaker 3 (27:55):
I, a big fan of compounding pharmacies.
Speaker 1 (27:58):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (28:00):
And they will need prescriptions for the right hormones. I testosterone, I, I know it's a controlled drug and it, to me it's an extremely important hormone for women.
Speaker 1 (28:10):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (28:10):
The number one cause of death in women is, is heart attacks. And, and I think that's related to a low testosterone because their heart muscles have more testosterone receptor cytes than any other tissue in the body. And men still make some testosterone, but women stop. So I think it's an important hormone to replace in women when they're in the menopause.
Speaker 1 (28:28):
Why else do you think testosterone is important for women? 'cause That's something that I'm very passionate about too, because many doctors are reluctant to test and or prescribe testosterone for women. So what other reasons do you think it's vital for women?
Speaker 3 (28:43):
There's something you probably read about in my book that you won't hear anywhere else. Women that have what's called stress incontinence, if they cough or sneeze Yeah. Urine. And what I have found is that you can recommend Kegels and but without testosterone, they can't build muscle and they lose that muscle control around the urethra. So if you have a woman use intravaginal testosterone and have them do the Kegel exercise in three to six days, it'll be gone. And that's almost a hundred percent effective.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
That is, I've never thought of that. That is brilliant. We talk about losing muscle mass with lack of testosterone, but I never thought about that for stress incontinence. That's brilliant.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
Yeah. You actually, when the medical board found out I was using testosterone for women 'cause I didn't do pelvic exams, they wanted to take away my license 'cause I was not doing pelvic exam even though they had their own gynecologist Anyway, medical boy has never liked me. So
Speaker 1 (29:46):
And I think, I don't think it was you, they don't like testosterone and they don't like testosterone in women. We'll have a little tangent here. So in her, I have a, a telemedicine company and we prescribe testosterone for women. But they have all these laws because called the hate act, it's not hate h a t, it's h A I G H T because of a teenage boy, Ryan Ha who obtained testosterone to build muscle. And he ended up dying because of cardiac problems. And so that's part of the reason that it's controlled substance. It's part of the reason it can't be prescribed by telemedicine. There are just so many regulations around testosterone and women don't abuse testosterone. Right. It was a teenage boy and it was male bodybuilders who were abusing it. And now women who, like you said, men continue to produce some testosterone. The majority, I'd say 80% of the women I see over 40 have dismal, if any testosterone. And it's vital for us, and it's a logistical nightmare to get a woman a testosterone prescription. And most doctors believe as if it's a religion, not science, that it's not necessary or it's harmful. And so I say amen to what you're saying about testosterone in women. It's vital. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (31:13):
It's a lot of things about hormones that have issues and shouldn't have
Speaker 1 (31:18):
Legal issues.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Yeah. Legal issues.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
Yeah. So do tell about that. 'cause People wanna know, they wanna know,
Speaker 3 (31:25):
Like you, I I believe in treating the cause of illness. Right.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
And
Speaker 3 (31:28):
When you treat the cause, you can actually cure somebody. And as a result, I was able to get a lot of people off their medications. 'cause, But this irritates lot of doctors because it's a slap in the face for another doctor to have another doctor to take their patient off drug. And with the upshot of the whole thing, I had a run in with a medical board who, and I'm sure that's funded by drug companies. So they had complaints from doctors about me because I've taken their patients off drugs. I don't like drugs. It's like when people, thyroid, a lot of people have thyroid issues. And when I did my training, we were taught that cholesterol is a poor man's thyroid test. And the reason for that, the thyroid controls cholesterol metabolism. So a lot of people that are being treated for an an elevated cholesterol could actually just take thyroid. And also women with the highest cholesterols are the greatest longevity anyway. But, but that's even
Speaker 1 (32:24):
In there. Yeah. And I, before when you said, I, I don't like drugs and I tried to take people off 'em, I love this quote from Voltaire that you shared that I wanna share with everyone. Doctors give drugs of which they know little into bodies of which they know less for diseases of which they know nothing at all. Nothing at all. And I forget what century Voltaire was in, but I don't know that much has changed
Speaker 3 (32:48):
It hasn't, unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (32:50):
I don't know why there's so many legalities around hormonal medications and anything else. The minute that comes out of my mouth, I say, I do know why. Because they're naturally occurring substances and therefore they're hard to, you can't patent them. And so that's why they're so highly political. And there are a lot of legalities, but from thyroid to estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. And I think in the balance, women suffer the most because we're programmed to have hormonal poverty at midlife. And we have so much stress. So yes. We talked a little bit about testosterone. How about estrogen? What, what would you like to offer everybody to understand about the role of estrogen?
Speaker 3 (33:35):
I'm not a big fan of estrogen. My mother was on Premarin before she died.
Speaker 1 (33:39):
But that's not estrogen
Speaker 3 (33:44):
It's horse estrogen.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
So you're, you're really not a fan of horse estrogen for human women. I am not either.
Speaker 3 (33:51):
Okay. A lot of these women that do use Premarin, they don't realize that they, they kill the colts after, after when they're born. 'cause These are pregnant mares urine that they use. I think if they knew that they wouldn't use Premarin, I would think that, I would hope that they wouldn't use it. But in any event, the, I like Estriol. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (34:10):
Speaker 3 (34:11):
It, it's the weakest estrogen, but it's the only one that is not associated with cancer.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Right.
Speaker 3 (34:16):
And it's the only one, the only estrogen effective for vaginal dryness. I don't have a problem with estriol. It's probably the estradiol a little bit leery.
Speaker 1 (34:26):
But that show that there's increased longevity when you use estradiol to get someone out of hormonal poverty into what I call hormonal prosperity to optimum levels that decreased risk of dementia and Alzheimer's, decreased risk of cardiac disease, decreased risk of osteoporosis, decreased risk, the list goes on and on. And also not an increased risk of breast cancer. Now this is talking about biologically identical estradiol, not horse estrogen. So what are your reservations about it?
Speaker 3 (35:07):
When you talk about conditions that women get, like fibroids and endometriosis and polycystic ov and cancer, the ovaries, they're all related to estrogen,
Speaker 1 (35:16):
But aren't they really all related to the fact that the estrogen isn't balanced by progesterone because they, all these conditions increase in the 40 year old age range. That's when progesterone starts going down. And
Speaker 3 (35:27):
You're absolutely right.
Speaker 1 (35:47):
Well, I do use oral progesterone, particularly for people who have high anxiety and sleep difficulties. I find that the delivery is better, the transdermal, we use all kinds, but that's why I like testing
Speaker 3 (36:02):
Speaker 1 (36:14):
You know? Yeah. I usually do custom dose preparations. But go ahead.
Speaker 3 (36:17):
You talk about hormones and doctors never think about using hormones in children.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
No.
Speaker 3 (36:23):
And but, and here I'm, I'm saying if you have a baby with colic, you should put some progestin cream in the very belly in five minutes it's gone. You don't have to stay up all night with a crying baby. But I think a lot of people would look as SC at that. But when women, when the fetus is in the womb as it gets exposed to incredibly high levels of progesterone, right. So you figure if a fetus can tolerate those kind of levels, why can't a baby tolerate a little bit of progesterone cream?
Speaker 1 (36:50):
They're also exposed to testosterone and estrogen and utero. And I think any pediatrician would severely object to putting testosterone or estradiol on a child.
Speaker 3 (37:04):
I'm not talk, I'm, I understand that. I'm not, I'm not recommending that. But I would recommend progesterone.
Speaker 1 (37:10):
You would, but I don't think majority of doctors really understand. Agree. They agree. They don't speak hormone.
Speaker 3 (37:30):
No, the baby will like it. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:33):
Right. But I do, like I said, I worry that, oh, Tylenol for a knee egg, Tylenol for a headache, progesterone for this. Progesterone for that. Why is that baby hyper adrenalized. What? Is there mold in the house that's causing the smoke alarm No. In its body to go off and and adrenaline to go off? Is it not getting nurturing parenting what's happening?
Speaker 3 (37:56):
I'm telling you that even though you disagree with this, which is okay, the baby has a lot of adrenaline he inherited from the mother or possibly the father. I'm just saying.
Speaker 1 (38:05):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (38:06):
One of the parents had a lot of adrenaline. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (38:09):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (39:18):
It's just that women have to learn how to become proactive when it comes to their health. They can't rely on a medical system that has no concern about their health except for you.
Speaker 1 (39:29):
There's some of us. But say more about that. What's your experience? Because you don't hear a lot of doctors talk about that. I'm one who does. I talk about the, there's no worse medical gaslighting going on than against women, particularly women over 40. And we're told we don't have a problem. We don't need hormones. Estrogen is bad. We don't need testosterone. It's insane. To me,
Speaker 3 (39:53):
The book I wrote, the first one was The Miracle of Bio Hormones. And it literally brought thousands of patients to my office from all over the country and all over the world came in because of that book. And this was the same time that Suzanne Summers mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (40:07):
Speaker 3 (40:07):
Came out with her book. Right. Sexy Ways or, and now keep in mind that Suzanne Summers had breast cancer and she was seeing doctor up in San Santa Barbara who had her on eight milligrams a day of estradiol at a time that she still had her, she was still having periods. She put her on estrogen, estradiol, and as she came down with breast cancer and she went to Germany, got some injections of
Speaker 1 (41:01):
I think that she didn't blame the, she was on egregiously high levels of estrogen. And maybe that's why she, because I know in her later books, she didn't recommend those protocols that she had been on before that were these egregiously high levels of estrogen. So I think she recognized the benefits and the need for estrogen and she more blamed the protocol she had been on. And like Maya Angelou says, when you know better, you do better. She just didn't know. And she was trusting the so-called expert she went to, and then she had those problems. But that was my understanding of it. Anyway.
Speaker 3 (41:40):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (41:41):
Alright. It has been a pleasure to have you, Dr. Platt. And where can people tell them about all your books and where they can find you online and
Speaker 3 (41:51):
Yeah, they can give a lot of information. The website codes, platt wellness.com, P L A t, platt wellness.com. They can read reviews on the books on Amazon. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (42:06):
Okay.
Speaker 3 (42:07):
And they'll know on the website that there are ways of getting in touch with me if they have question.
Speaker 1 (42:12):
Great. Awesome. Thank you so much for joining us today, and thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. I know you have learned something today that you can put into use to help yourself move, move towards the brilliant health that you deserve. Tell me what you thought, because I'm not usually this controversial when I do an interview
Speaker 2 (42:55):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, hosted by Dr. Kyrin Dunston! In this informative and engaging episode, Dr. Kyrin Dunston talks to renowned guest Faraz Khan about reversing hair loss and regaining hair vitality at midlife. Faraz is an expert in the field of hair loss in women, founder of FullyVital, and host of the Anti-Aging Hacks Podcast.
Faraz's innovative thinking and empathetic approach towards hair health have made him a highly sought-after voice in the field. In this conversation, he delves into the molecular level of how testosterone and DHT, specifically around menopause, can affect hair follicle health, ultimately contributing to a broader understanding of hair loss patterns in women.
Some highlights of the episode include:
- Understanding the role of testosterone and DHT in hair health
- Strategies to reverse hair loss during midlife
- The complex interplay of hormones, diet, and lifestyle that impact hair health
- Faraz's unique perspective and empathetic approach to hair health
It's an episode that you won't want to miss if you want to understand the root cause of hair loss and learn how to regain your hair's vitality at midlife. So, don't miss out on the valuable insights Faraz shares and the helpful knowledge he imparts.
Make sure to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast to stay updated on all the latest episodes and be a part of our community of listeners working towards better hormonal health.
If you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving us a review!** Your positive feedback helps others discover our podcast and benefit from the insightful conversations we have with experts like Faraz Khan. Together, we can help more people gain control of their hormonal health and enjoy fuller, more vital lives.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Our bodies are magical and they know exactly how to heal. We just have to give them time so they can kickstart the process. Stay tuned to learn how to heal your hair and reverse hair loss at midlife.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into reversing hair loss at midlife. How to make it fully vital with my guest today, Faraz Khan. Hair loss is a huge problem for women at midlife and beyond, and it's not only a cosmetic issue. Sure, our identity is very tied up in our hair and we want our hair to look its best 'cause it is tied to our identity, and we feel our best when our hair looks good, but it's about so much more. Your hair is part of the trilogy of what I call the canary in the coal mine, and that's hair, skin, and nails. These three aspects of your body will out picture what's going on inside. So if your health is not optimized inside, if you're in hormonal poverty, for instance, which occurs for most women after 40, then your hair is not going to be as thick as it should, as long as it should, as vital as it should, as healthy as it should, and your identity is gonna suffer as a result.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
So just like erectile dysfunction in men is very often a harbinger of cardiac issues, right? It's not just about erectile dysfunction in women. Hair problems are not just about the hair, it's about your metabolism, your physiology, your biochemistry, what's happening inside the body. And so the hair is one of the places that will out picture this. So I really want you to pay attention. If you've got hair problems, it could be a sign of something deeper. And we're gonna dive in today into what are the deeper causes of hair loss. Yes, it's about hormones, but it's not only about hormones. So there are other dysfunctions and disruptions that can be going on that you need to pay attention to. And we're gonna dive into that and we're gonna talk about the quote that Farad shared that I shared with you and the teaser. And we're gonna give you some solutions.
Speaker 1 (03:13):
Best of all, what do you do about it? There's testing that can be done, there are treatments that are available to you. There's further diagnosis, more than your doctors and dermatologist's office. There are specialists in this. So we're gonna dive into all of this and really give you a good understanding. First, I'll tell you a little bit about for us Khan, and then we'll get started. He's the founder of Fully Vital and the host of the Anti-Aging Hacks podcast. He's a leading expert in the field of hair loss in women and has dedicated his career to understanding the complex interplay of hormones, diet, and lifestyle on hair health. His work focuses on the molecular level of how testosterone and D H T affect hair follicles, as well as the other factors that go into hair loss. He has innovative thinking and an empathetic approach. This has made him a sought after voice in the field. He's helped countless individuals regain confidence and control over their hair health. His insights into hormonal imbalances, particularly around menopause, perimenopause, hormonal poverty, have contributed to a broader understanding of hair loss patterns in women. So please help me welcome Rascon to the show. Thank
Speaker 3 (04:23):
You so much, Dr. Kyron. I'm a big fan and I'm glad to be here. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (04:26):
I'm super excited to talk about hair loss. Back over a decade ago when I weighed 243 pounds and had fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue and all the health problems that I had, and I looked and felt 20 years older than I was, hair loss was a huge component of my dysfunction. I would wash my hair and it would look like there was a small dog in the drain. It would just come out. It was diffuse hair loss. I didn't have any bald patches, and it wasn't growing like it should. It was dry and brittle, it was falling out. And of course, all that reversed when I did all the things that we're gonna talk about. But it's near and dear to my heart. I, I don't think that a lot of women understand something that you said to me before we started recording, that really, hair loss is not just a cosmetic issue.
Speaker 1 (05:21):
It's about so much more. And it, it really is an indicator that your longevity is being affected and your overall health is being affected. So if you're listening, I really want you to pay attention if you're having hair loss because it's a sign that something bigger is going on. I used to call it, I still call it the canary in the coal mine, hair, skin and nails. If you're having a problem with your hair, skin and nails, these are the canary in the coal mine. You just chalk it up as a cosmetic issue. You might not even address it, but I say it's kind of like erectile dysfunction in men could be an indicator of cardiac disease that if you've got this as a woman, you really need to pay attention. Right?
Speaker 3 (06:05):
Yeah, totally. It's very important. Thank you for bringing that up. And I'm a big fan of your message as well. What happens is that as women, especially after the age of 35, hormones start changing. And Dr. Karen, you talk about, you know, the other things that come with that. Hormonal changes, especially as women get closer to menopause and all of those factors can play a part in hair thinning and hair loss. And it's very, very tied to the health of your overall system, the stress levels. Because when you're, when you're losing hair, your stress levels go up, and when your stress levels go up, you lose more hair. So that's also challenging. You've gotta take that into consideration. In addition, women tell us that they stop going out, they start, they stop communicating as much. And so this leads to self isolating, which again, is very bad for longevity and very bad for a long life and a healthy life.
Speaker 1 (06:53):
Yeah, it's so true. So let's dive into what causes it. And I know there are a lot of women out there with hair loss. They're looking for the one quick fix. What's the one thing that I have to do? You know, it's really how we're trained to look at our health problems. I have a symptom. How do I fix that symptom when I fix that symptom? We claim victory, we think we're done. But what I wanna encourage everybody listening to understand is that symptoms are not the problem. They are the sign post, post pointing to the problem, and it's incumbent upon us to investigate, to figure out the cause. And usually there isn't one cause of a symptom. It's usually multifactorial. And I think this is no better illustrated than with hair loss. So let's dive into the factors that go into contributing to hair loss. Totally.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
And if I may, let me explain the hair cycle really, really quickly. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:49):
So
Speaker 3 (07:49):
There's context behind everything we're talking about in this interview. The hair cycle has three different distinct phases. The first one is the growth phase or the antigen phase that it's called. About 85 to 90% of your hair is in the growth phase at a particular time, which is why there's so much hair in your head. And then there's the second phase, which is very, very short. It's about 10 days, it's called kagen. That's just a transition phase from the growth phase to the third phase, which is called telogen, which is where your hair follicle is just resting for two to three months. And in those two to three months, it'll fall out at some point. And so at this, in this stage, it's not growing at all. And sometimes the hair may not grow back out of the stage back into the growth phase. So I'll come back to that in a second.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
So what can we do in terms of goals? The, there's three goals that we have for hair follicles, especially as we get after, get over the age of 35 or 40. Number one, you want to keep the hair follicle in the hair growth phase as much as possible. And there's ways to do that because the longer it's in the hair growth phase, the longer it's gonna grow and the thicker your hair is gonna gonna look. Number two, we wanna make sure your hair is healthy, it's thick, the scalp is healthy so that there's a very good environment for this to keep growing. And then thirdly, what we wanna do is if your hair follicle does go into the shedding or the transition phase, which normally they will do after three to seven years of growing, then we wanna make sure all of those hair follicles are able to grow back and a bunch of them don't decide not to come back, which will lead to a much thinner looking scalp, which is very bad.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
So those are the three phases that we talk about. Now when it comes back to the question that you asked me is what are the reasons for hair thinning? The number one reason is something that you talk about Dr. Kyron all the time is due to hormones. So again, after the age of 35, and especially after the age of 40, estrogen and progesterone in women start to fall. And this causes a relative imbalance with testosterone. And this testosterone converts to dihydrotestosterone or D H t and d h t goes to your hair follicles and it starts to shrink them, makes them smaller and smaller and starve them. So your hair goes from nice thick hair to a wisser and wisser and wisser hair until it can't even grow anymore. So that's what it does. The other thing, d h t does that, it keeps your hair in the resting phase for a much longer period.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
So it appears that you have less hair on your scalp. So both of those are bad, but D H T can also prevent your hair from growing back out after the hair cycle is done. So we wanna be very careful with, especially this one, because it's a progressive condition and if you don't address it, it will keep going. Just like you see with men. The same thing happens to men, but happens to younger men 'cause they have high testosterone levels in their late teens, early twenties. And so testosterone is converting to D H T, which is causing progressive thinning of the hair follicle. And eventually for men there's baldness. But luckily for women it's more diffused. It's not completely gone from every single area. But of course this causes a lot of anxiety and shame in women. So that's the number one reason.
Speaker 1 (10:54):
Yeah. And do you wanna talk a little bit about the different patterns of hair loss that women can experience and what that might tell you, whether it's diffuse or you could have male pattern or female pat pattern. Talk a little bit about that. Totally
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Love that. So the number one reason, like I said, is due to hormones or D H D. And that directly corresponds or correlates to what is known as female pattern hair loss or androgenetic alopecia. It's the same as male, male pattern hair loss. 'cause The hormone behind it is the same. And so what happens is women will experience hair loss right in their crowns. Their Christmas or their tree, or their part, I should say, is gonna get wider and wider and wider. And they'll notice it first over there, but they can also see loss on the temples or in the front as well. And for men, again, same thing happens because it starts in the crown or in the front or the temples. And for men it completely meets in the middle and it's all of it's gone. But for women, thankfully, they don't lose all their hair, but they will notice it first in the part area.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
So that is the female pattern. Hair loss. The other way to tell is I had a client call me or a customer call me and say, Hey, I don't know what type of hair loss I have. And I asked her to just do a simple exercise in the shower. So next time you're washing your hair to take a few hair strands that you have in your hand, because of course we all lose hair in the shower, especially when we're washing it. And then stick 'em on the TILs. And when you see a difference, when you see some hairs that are thicker and some hairs that are thinner, this is a telltale sign that this is hormonal or female pattern hair loss. And that D h C is causing your hair to thin progressively. So that's number one. This is the most common hair loss pattern in women.
Speaker 3 (12:31):
The next is called diffuse hair loss. And this happens all over the scalp, even in the back areas, which are pretty much immune to the hormonal aspects. So hair above the ears and hair on the back of your scalp is pretty immune to hormonal imbalances, which is why men, you see them, they lose the top of their scalp, but not the sides in the back, similar for women. But in the diffuse hair loss, what happens is that you lose hair everywhere, all over your scalp. And this is typically the causes are multifold for this, but it could be because of a nutritional deficiency. This could be because of chronic ongoing stress. This could be due to a big stressor that has happened in your life, like the virus or giving birth or you know, even moving to a different city or a breakup, divorce, for example, psychological or physical stressor, a big one.
Speaker 3 (13:23):
Then there's a medications that you might be taking that can cause hair thinning. Also, there's thyroid, especially low thyroid conditions, they seem to be becoming a little bit more common in the women as opposed to men. And so a lot of these factors can cause diffuse hair thinning. And then lastly, there's the, this type of hair thinning or hair loss, which is very rare, but it's autoimmune related, where you will see, you know, complete loss of hair, you'll see shiny bald patches in your scalp, that's an autoimmune condition. Anywhere from two to 5% of women will get that. So will experience that at some point in their life. And typically that's managed by going to a dermatologist and getting either steroid shots or something else to kind of calm down the immune system.
Speaker 1 (14:09):
Yes, thank you for going through that. You know, I remembered a patient as you were talking who actually had different bald spots on her head and ends up she had a rain worm infection,
Speaker 3 (14:45):
Totally. What a great question. So I, this, this is going back to me in college. I was a soccer athlete. I thought I was, you know, I was the man and I was pretty confident at that time. But one day in the shower I was washing my hair and I looked down on my hands and they're full of my beautiful hair. And my stress levels went from a four to an 11 in that moment. I'll never forget that moment. And so I started seeking help, but I also started asking the right questions of where is this coming from and how do I fight this? And so I looked through my dad's, you know, the, my dad's side of the family, and I said, all of them have gorgeous hair. My grandfather had more hair than me at the age of 90. So I go, that's not the problem.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
What about my mom's side? And all three uncles, my mom's brothers, all of them were balding or bald. And I go, oh my God, this is coming from my mother's side of the family. I'm screwed. And so that's what started off as a, what I thought was a genetic condition that was coming from my parents. And it turns out that that's a big reason for Hairing as well. And it come, it can come from both sides. So my mother also, over the years, while I was doing nothing about it, trying to solve my own hair loss, kept complaining that her part was getting wider. She was seeing more and more hair loss. And interestingly, right now she's visiting me, my parents are. And so every three or four days were microneedling her scalp and we're putting all the serums and we're trying to help her grow back her hair as well. So it, the reason I went down this path is not only to solve this for myself, but also help my mother and see what I can do for her
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Yeah. And you know, she's lucky to have your help, but it brings me to a larger philosophical question about why are we so attached emotionally to our hair?
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah. This goes back thousands of years, Dr. Karin. It's like, at least for women, it is their identity. And it is so I guess the media kind of celebrates big hair. If you see Marilyn Monroe back in the sixties or whatever, it was like big hair, right? Barbie dolls, big hair. It's just all over the media for generations and for thousands and thousands of years across cultures, Cleopatra beautiful, gorgeous hair. And so it's just ingrained in her culture that that is a woman's power. It's her identity. And for men, it's not the case because men, unfortunately, most of us experience hair thinning starting in our twenties and beyond. And so we just kind of lose that, lose the crown. And so it's not so, so much a part of our identity as much as it's for women. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
Yeah, I, I think I've read that for women it's actually a sign of fertility. So the sexual kind of appeal of women often historically, has come from signs of good fertility, like wide hips, long thick hair. And it, these are really signs of vitality. And so I think it gets back to what we were talking about earlier, that hair loss is, it should be like a level three alarm in your mind when you have it. Because it's not just, oh, I'm afraid that I'm not going to look the way that I want to look. It's, oh my God, what is happening inside my body that's so off that my hair is falling off? Because that's affecting your heart and contributing to heart disease. It's affecting your brain and contributing to potential future dementia, affecting your bones, and contributing to future osteoporosis. It's affecting every cell and every system in your body, not just your hair. Mm-Hmm. So see this as a red alarm. So we talked a little bit about hormones. Yes. We talked about the sex hormones and you mentioned stress. What about cortisol?
Speaker 3 (18:29):
Yeah, huge, huge part. Cortisol has been known to shorten the hair cycles. We talked about trying to keep your hair in the growth phase for as long as possible. So hair typically grows anywhere from two to seven years. And we want it to be on the side of the seven years as much as possible. 'cause A lot of women actually call in and they say, I can't grow any hair, I can't or I can't grow longer hair. And so this is a common complaint that we get, especially from women over 40 years. How do I grow my hair longer? Well, hair's the thing, your hair doesn't stop growing every day. Your body's growing 0.3 millimeters off your hair, every single hair. So it's, your body's doing its job, it's just that the hair is falling out, which is why you can't grow past a certain stage.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
And so the, the best thing we can do is to keep the hair in the hair growth phase as long as possible. Now, stress unfortunately shortens the hair growth phase from seven years to five, to even three, which means you're not gonna be able to grow long tresses like you want to. And so there's two types of stresses here. And I kind of briefly alluded to this, but I wanna come back to this. Number one is the big, big stressor, which could be, you know, a lot of my friends have gotten the virus and they experienced a huge shedding and we're talking 30 to 40 to 50% of their hair coming out. And they thought that they were gonna have to shave their head off. They were looking at wigs and luckily they were able to save their hair, all of them. So that's one.
Speaker 3 (20:00):
But it can also happen from, as a result of surgery, as a result of a breakup, as a result of a divorce or anything that's physical or you know, psychological. So those are big stressors. We wanna be very careful. And typically the big shed comes after the big stressor about two to three months after. So it's very hard for you to kind of correlate to what's causing this. But just know that if you're losing handfuls of hair every single day, it's because something happened two or three months back and there are strategies for you to make sure all of that hair comes back. Which goes back to my earlier point. If you are transitioning, you wanna make sure every single hair comes back. The other reason that stress kind of plays a part in this is if you have chronic ongoing stress. So my friend Ashley called me from LA and she goes, I'm losing a bunch of hair.
Speaker 3 (20:44):
And I said, so what's going on? She goes, well, my coworker left a few months ago and I'm having to cover for her. I'm having to do two jobs. So she's stressed out for the past four or five months and as a result, her hair cycle is shortening and she's losing a lot of hair. And so what we wanna do is balance the cortisol levels, balance the stress levels to ensure that we have the best possible hair growth. But also what cortisol will do is it will pull all of your resources towards your vital organs. 'cause Your body says, okay, what is expendable? Hair, nails? I can expend all those and still live. I have to protect the organism. And we are under big dur, we're under big stress. So let's bring all the blood flow, all the nutrients, let's repu redistribute them to the vital organs as opposed to the hair follicles, which happen to be furthest from your heart, vertically speaking. So your heart has to work even harder to pump that blood up. And the other thing that cortisol will do is it will shrink your blood vessels so your blood can't go as fast or as far and considering that has to go all the way to the top of your scalp. It's very important to have healthy levels of cortisol or balance them and to make sure your circulation is good as well.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
And so many women these days are under chronic stress constantly. They've got aging parents they have to care for, they have children, they have partners, they have jobs. And it's this constant, constant stress. So if you're listening and you haven't done your salivary cortisol test, you need to do it and then you need to address it. And you may need to change some things in your life, but stress can be not only coming from lifestyle and psychosocial interactions and situations, it can be coming from inside the body like toxicity and inflammation. And that can affect care growth as well. Right?
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Yeah, totally. So I'm glad you brought that up. The other things that we learn about as we talk to women is that the average woman, Dr. Kyron, you know this very well, is putting on 10 to 12 different chemicals on her face, on her body, on her scalp before she leaves the home in the morning. And this is a lot to do with the modern beauty products that we have that that include parabens, that include phalates, that include benzoates, formaldehyde, fragrances. We don't actually know what's in these beauty products. And so the best thing, especially if you're experiencing hair thinning, is to use as natural of products as possible. You can pick any brand but make sure that it's very, very natural. It doesn't have all of these chemicals be listed because they are adding oxidative stress to your hair follicles. And as your hair follicle is fighting to survive and grow during times of hair thinning, we don't wanna add any extra stress to it.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
The other thing you mentioned is inflammation. Inflammation has been directly linked to hair loss. It's been measured in the hair follicles from scientists that are studying hair loss. And so we also know that as we get older, inflammation is, is known as inflammaging. It's one of the reasons why we age faster. If there's more inflammation in your body, you're likely gonna age faster than others that are have less inflammation. So we wanna get that back under control. Some ways to do that is having very good sleep, having low oxidative stress, having low cortisol levels as Dr. Karin mentioned. But also you can take some natural supplements that can help balance stress inflammation levels in your body to normal range. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (24:03):
I always think about inflammation like fire in the body. Yeah. And you can think of a, like a lot of little fires or one big fire, but how do you stop a fire? Well, you stop feeding it. So get the firewood out. So stop putting, using the chemicals changed to natural products. Stop eating things with pesticides and artificial flavorings and colorings processed foods and get them out of your environment. So stop feeding the fire. But then also you can quench it with antioxidant types of supplementation, which can be helpful. But it's so funny 'cause some people will say, oh great, I'll, I'll take this, this anti-inflammation supplement. I'm good. No, you still need to, to detox your life and stop using all the toxic things and stop eating gluten and all those
Speaker 3 (24:59):
Yeah, totally. There are thyroid conditions. Mm-Hmm. Having too low thyroid and having too high thyroid can both lead to hair thinning. And, and I'm sure you talk to people all the time about having low thyroid, but the symptoms include, you could even be losing hair on the eyebrows, you could be gaining weight, you know, e or when you sit down you get pretty lethargic. You have cold hands and feet and of course hair thinning. So that's the low thyroid. When you have high thyroid then you're just, your engine's running very, very fast and very hot and you'll be jittery and you'll lose hair as well as a result. And so there's only two tests that we, for the most part, when we recommend, because we wanna make sure we're not asking women to spend too much money. One of them is the full thyroid panel with antibodies.
Speaker 3 (25:45):
And this gives us a very good indication that you have either low thyroidism or you have Hashimoto's, which is something that we have to deal with outside of our products to make sure that that is normal. And sometimes when the thyroid gland is being attacked by the immune system in the body, you wanna make sure to stop that progression as quickly as possible. Otherwise you will lose the thyroid gland and you'll have to take medications for the rest of your life. And so that is the one thing that we, if you do notice that you have low thyroid, we recommend getting, or if you feel like you have low thyroid, we recommend getting the full thyroid panel with antibodies. So that's one. And then the other thing I, I guess I didn't mention is that nutritional, there's some nutrition aspects which can cause hair thinning.
Speaker 3 (26:25):
There's the big five, as we like to call it, in the hair loss world. These are vitamins and minerals. So what are these? Iron is very important for hair. We've got zinc, that's very important. Vitamin D is very important. Folate and B 12, you've gotta have enough of these in your body to support hair health and to make sure that it's not falling out because you're, you're deficient in these, interestingly enough, vegans these days, veganism is, is getting more and more popular. And I have friends in Los Angeles and New York that, that have gone vegan and you know, if that's what you wanna do, that's totally fine. But vegans are at risk of being deficient in three of these five nutrients, which is iron B 12, and folate. So make sure that you're either getting enough from your foods and or taking a supplement that has these ingredients so that you can fulfill those needs and you're not, you're not losing your hair and then wondering what's going on. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (27:19):
I would just caution people that I, I remember a while back, years ago, I don't know if someone was on Oprah talking about biotin, I think
Speaker 3 (28:27):
Yeah. It's keratin. I, I do want to come back to the nutrition aspect that you mentioned. I love what you're saying in that there are certain nutrition or nutritional aspects meaning vitamins and minerals. If you take too many of them or too much of them, then you'll cause her, you'll cause hair loss as well. So it's very interesting that vitamin A iron, both of these selenium, all three of these taken too low or being deficient in can cause hair thinning. But if you have too many of these, it can also cause hair thinning. So you've gotta be very careful, like Dr. Kyron mentioned, don't take these for months and years on end if you're taking target supplements, but do get measured to make sure you're not going over the limit for any of these. And then of course, hair fo hair, the hair strands are actually dead proteins. They're made up of keratin. And there's also melanin in them, which is the color, which creates the color in the hair follicle. And, and so that's what it is. You've gotta make sure you've got enough protein in your diet too, so it can have the amino acids to create the actual strand for the hairs. And so lots of things that go into her follicle health and I'm glad we're discussing these.
Speaker 1 (29:34):
Yes. And most women are not getting enough protein. So that's why, to make sure to mention that, that it's super important to make sure you are getting enough protein. And you also mentioned something before we started recording, I think everyone would find fascinating is that the density of hairs on a woman's head varies by hair color. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 3 (30:00):
Yeah, this was shocking to me when I learned this as well. So blondes seem to have more fun because they have the most hair on their head. It's about 150,000 hair follicles that blondes have and brunettes like myself and yourself, Dr. Kan if that's your natural color, we have about a hundred to 120,000 hair follicles on our scalp. And then redheads have to have seem to have the, the worst luck when it comes to hair follicles to have about 80 to 90,000 hair follicles. But still, I just wanna mention that, that that's plenty of hair follicles that's gonna cover your scalp very, very effectively. But coming back to the point that you made, blondes do have to do, seem to have the most hair and it's the thickest for them, especially early on.
Speaker 1 (30:45):
Yeah. And I, after you told me that, I started thinking, I wonder why that is and because I love to think about questions like that.
Speaker 3 (31:30):
I'd love to hear the answer as well,
Speaker 1 (31:33):
So what else is important for a woman to know or investigate if she's noticing hair loss?
Speaker 3 (31:42):
Yeah, the number one reason that I believe that women are not successful with fixing their hair loss problems is because they're not sure of the reason. As we mentioned, there can be multiple reasons for hair thinning and the number one reason, of course is hormonal. But sometimes there can be an additional reason like stress is adding to the hormones or you're taking a certain medication, or you have, you're low nutritional deficiencies in certain aspects or certain vitamins and minerals. And so understanding where the hair loss is coming from and and addressing it in multiple ways that seems to get the best results. What I've seen in practice and what I've learned from all the interviews and all the discussions I've had with hair experts over the years and hair researchers over the years, is that to get the best results, to stop hair thinning and to regrow your hair regrow, thicker, fuller hair, you've got to stimulate hair follicles in multiple ways.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
And that multiple stimulation seems to have the best combined effect. It's all synergistic inside and outside. You know, either taking something nutritionally and or applying pressure or massage to your scalp, all of that and also derma rolling, all of that seems to have very good benefit synergistically. But by itself, I'm sure you've talked to dozens if not hundreds of women that have tried a hair pill or that, that have tried a hair serum and had little to no results to show for it. For some it can work because that is the cause of their hair thinning. But if you take a holistic approach and say, okay, what's going on in your life? And if I had to just, if I had to get products, how could I make sure that these products address 80 or 90% of the reasons of my hair thinning without me having to get a PhD in hair science? That is the best way to move forward.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
You know, as you're talking, I I'm thinking we should talk about, well, how do most doctors address this, right? So if you're having hair loss, having practiced regular corporate mainstream medicine for many years, we really weren't given the tools to be able to properly assess why hair loss, even dermatologists. And so if you're listening, and this is you, you've probably already talked to your doctor and you probably haven't gotten satisfying answers, so I'm glad you're here. But let's talk about some of the different treatments. I mean, Rogan is something that you can purchase over the, the counter minoxidil. You talk mentioned dermal rolling. I've heard of stem cell injections, their transplants. So can you talk a little bit about what the different treatments are? I mean, I would say you gotta first look at it as a warning sign from your body that there are hormonal imbalances, there are toxicities, there are nutritional deficiencies. You've got to examine and address those. And then once you address them though there may be other things available to you. What are some of those things?
Speaker 3 (34:35):
Totally. And so what I'd love to do is to walk this down through simple ways to stop hair thinning and to regrow your hair to more complicated and or expensive ways. And there's a whole ladder you can walk up or walk down depending on how you're coming at this. So the simplest things which you could do is make sure that if you were just looking for solutions, then maybe like a supplement or something that helps balance counterbalance some of the hormones inside of your body, gives you the nutritional supplements, reduces in inflammation, reduce oxidative stress with antioxidants that can be multifactorial and go after a lot of things could be beneficial to you. But like I said, you wanna combine these with multiple things. So a supplement may be good, but you want to combine it with the serum that you apply topically to your scalp that's acting on the area that you need it to work.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
And then the third thing that has scientific evidence behind it is the derma roller, just by itself, a derma roller has proven to grow 15% more hair with nothing else, no other interventions. So that's a good one as well. To add to your protocol, women already are familiar with derma roller of their face and it's easy to do it on the scalp. So that's the third. And the fourth one that we kind of recommend quite a bit is brushing your hair a hundred to 200 times a day. Because what happens the first thing that happens when you're losing your hair, you don't wanna touch it, you don't wanna wash it, you don't wanna heal it, right? That happened to me for many, many years. In fact, I was putting these hair fibers in my scalp because I was so afraid of my scalp showing through when I was going out in Los Angeles where you get judged for how you look.
Speaker 3 (36:08):
And so if you're gonna do that, then those are the, the base layers. You want to do multiple of those at the same time. And they're pretty cheap, right? They're pretty economical for most people. Then if you say, well, I wanna go to a doctor or a dermatologist and I wanna get professional advice one, I would say that yes, absolutely you can do that. I would say that dermatologists aren't spending a lot of their time focusing on hair science. And you can also, I'm sure validate this Dr. Kyron because you're just too busy. There's too many patients to see, there's too much to do, there's too many conditions to treat. So dermatologists in their offices, they're getting a lot of Botox, a lot of fillers, a lot of all kinds of aesthetic things where they don't have a lot of time to figure this out.
Speaker 3 (36:47):
So what they'll typically recommend at a dermatologist or even doctor's office is they'll recommend P R P or platelet rich plasma, which are basically, they draw blood outta your body and they centrif use a centrifuge to spin it and then they, they inject it back into your scalp. The idea being that there are some growth factors that are available in this hair that can help rejuvenate and thicken your hair follicles. And if you look at the studies, there's meta-analyses that have been done on P R P. It's very individual to the type of machine, used to the process of the centrifugation. Many dermatologists that are not aware of the different types of machines will go to Amazon and buy one or they'll buy one from a pushy sales rep from many, many companies that are selling these centrifuges. And so it's really a crapshoot on when it comes to results.
Speaker 3 (37:33):
So if you're going to go down that route, make sure to ask for before and afters, make sure to validate that this doctor has results. Because what they're gonna do is they're gonna ask you to sign up for three or four of these injections over three to four months and they're gonna be a thousand dollars each. So you're gonna be $4,000 in and you're not gonna know if it's gonna work or not. And they won't even guarantee it and there is no money back. So you're gonna be out a few thousand dollars. So again, just know that the other aspect with regenerative medicine, it appears that stem cells unfortunately don't have as much good data. Even though there's anecdotal evidence of some, some individuals getting results, but on the whole stem cells have do not have good data on hair growth. In fact, exosomes, which are basically made from stem cells or extract from stem cells, seem to have better data on the, the hair as opposed to both P R P and stem cell.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
So if you're gonna choose a therapy, I would recommend you at least ask your doctor or dermatologist about exosomes. Again, note that it's not, not gonna be cheap. This is in the thousands of dollars with exosomes, you're probably just gonna do one treatment and there, you know, you'll have to see how that turns out for you. For some it works good for others, it may not work at all. Then we get to the hair transplants. This is the easiest solution for at least some men that have lost a lot of hair. The way this works is that if you have lost a bunch of hair in a particular area, this is can be very effective because they can pull the hair from the back of your scalp, which is immune to the dihydrate testosterone or D H T and you, they can implant it in the front so this hair won't fall out again.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
But you've gotta be very careful to address the underlying causes of hair thinning, because even if you do transplant hairs in the front or the top, the other hair will continue. This is a progressive condition, they'll continue to thin and they'll continue to fall out. So I've heard of instances where some men at least have used the hair transplants to get a bunch of hairs in the front, and then they got a second transplant and a third transplant, and then they just ran out of donor hair in the back. And so now they have a bunch of hair in the front and nothing behind it. So they had to laser off $40,000 of hair transplants that they had done. So you wanna be careful. And in addition, women are typically not the best candidates for hair transplants because when you're injecting or when you're implanting new hair or transplanting new hair, that causes a shock loss around.
Speaker 3 (39:59):
So the existing hair that may be around that newly transplanted hair, when you transplant it, it gets a shock because there's a damage to the skin. And so that hair might go, that hair might be lost because of this transplant. So again, speak with a very, somebody that's got a lot of ears on in in their practice for a hair transplant surgeon. I guess the final thing I would say is that some women, when they experience hair thinning in the front of their scalp, they can get scalp reduction surgery as well. So they will just cut out maybe a centimeter or half an inch of your scalp in the front and then staple it back down, which then brings your hairline lower. And so it makes you look more youthful. It makes you look like you have more hair. And women seem to do this more compared to men that will do the hair crime, spine surgery.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Interesting. I didn't, I wasn't aware of that surgery. Another thing to do to ourselves,
Speaker 3 (40:52):
Totally, but never stops.
Speaker 1 (40:54):
Our hair is such a part of our identity that only you as the person dealing with this problem can say what it's worth to you and what, what you would like to have done. So I say follow your heart when it comes to that. I do wanna mention there is a type of specialist called a ologist, which most people have never heard of who is a hair specialist. They're not doctors, but they have specialized training in the evaluation and management of the hair follicles, particularly on the head. And they have very specialized equipment where they can evaluate hair follicles and see what state they're in, the size of them, their health, whether they're able to grow hair or not. And so if you're really struggling with this and a lot, it's funny 'cause I've even met a lot of dermatologists who don't even know that trick exists.
Speaker 1 (41:53):
Yeah. So you can, oftentimes there aren't that many of them, but you can look on Google to find a trick and go to them for a full evaluation. And they're often very good guides. I won't say that they're necessarily good at helping you evaluate the systemic conditions that we've been discussing that can contribute not only to hair loss, but also to decreasing your longevity and vitality. They, I haven't found that they universally are aware of that or know how to do it, but when it comes to targeted treatment, they're, they're the experts. So I did wanna mention that. Yeah,
Speaker 3 (42:32):
Totally. I've been to, I have many psychologist friends of my own. I've been to them. They have looked at my hair and scalp and microscopes. Yeah, they have 50 x magnification so they can look at what's going on. They can give you advice about, so yeah, totally agree. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:46):
But this is great information and I'm glad to have you here. I know you've given hope to some women today who are really struggling. You now know the steps you need to take, evaluate your hormones, so your sex hormones, your cortisol, your thyroid, I'd say your insulin too. Look at your inflammation levels, your toxicity or to decrease that toxin fire. And then look at your nutrient inputs, where are you deficient and work to sup supplement those. And then there are local things that you can do that we've discussed for us. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing all this wonderful information. Tell everyone how we can find out more about you. Tell 'em about your Anti-Aging Hacks podcast. Where are you online?
Speaker 3 (43:32):
Totally. Thank you Dr. Karin. So a couple of places. Number one, I'm the host of the Anti-Aging Hacks podcast, where we talk about wge and anti-aging and how to bring typical or simple resources to help you slow down your aging now and then in time, also reverse it because that revolution is coming very soon. So that's what I talk about on the Anti-Aging Hacks Podcast. The other is, I'm the founder of a hair wellness and hair growth company called Fully Vital, where we combine different products to give you maximum coverage for the reasons for hair thinning. So we've got a, a supplement that we talked about. We've got a, a serum for the hair, we've got a derma roller they will sell and also a hairbrush. So we sell a bundle that you can get, which covers, in my opinion, 80% of more of all the hair thinning reasons that will give you the best results.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
And if you do go with us, then we recommend that you use the get the three month bundle because hair growth takes a little bit of time. So you've gotta be patient with it. Get the three month bundle. And the best part about us is that we have a four month money back guarantee, full money back guarantee. So try us out for three months. We're covering the most spaces out of anybody out there, and for some reason, if you don't get results, email us and we'll refund all of your money. So there's, there's no risk attached to that. And you can find that@fullyvital.com. And Dr. Kyron, if you would allow me, I'd love to offer your listeners a coupon code as well for this.
Speaker 1 (44:59):
Sure. We can put it in the show notes.
Speaker 3 (45:02):
Okay, perfect. Awesome.
Speaker 1 (45:04):
Thank you so much for Oz before coming and sharing your wisdom about hair. Thank
Speaker 3 (45:09):
You Dr. Karin, honored to be on your show.
Speaker 1 (45:11):
And thank you for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription for Dr. Kieran. I hope that you have learned something today that you can put into practice to change your hair, but maybe even to change your hormones and your life. I look forward to hearing about it on social media, so please reach out and let me know, and I hope you have a great week Until next week, peace, love, and
Speaker 2 (45:34):
Hormones,
Speaker 1 (45:34):
Y'all.
Speaker 2 (45:36):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold
Speaker 1 (46:15):
For you.
Speaker 2 (46:16):
Talk to you soon.
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► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.
► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?
It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.
We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!
CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.
In today's eye-opening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, our guest Dr. Izabella Wentz shares her invaluable insight and extensive knowledge on Hashimoto's Thyroiditis and the Adrenal Transformation Protocol. As a well-respected integrative pharmacist, Dr. Wentz has dedicated her career to helping midlife women find the root cause of their chronic health conditions. Through her protocol-based programs, she has empowered over 3,500 individuals to reclaim their health and wellbeing.
Key Takeaways:
- Learn about the causes and symptoms of Hashimoto's Thyroiditis, a common yet often overlooked autoimmune condition
- Discover how the Adrenal Transformation Protocol can reset your body's stress response through targeted safety signals
- Find out how this four-week program has already helped thousands of individuals by improving their brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, irritability, sleep issues, and libido
- Understand the importance of focusing on the root cause of chronic health issues, and why conventional treatments may fall short
Dr. Wentz also talks about her latest book, "Adrenal Transformation Protocol", which delves deeper into the protocol she has developed to address the root causes of various health problems. With an impressive success rate of over 80%, the four-week program incorporates targeted safety signals to reset the body's stress response, bringing about significant improvements in symptoms such as brain fog, fatigue, anxiety, irritability, sleep issues, and libido.
Dr. Wentz infuses this episode with her personal experiences and relatable stories, providing an engaging, informative, and inspiring listening experience. So tune in for a healthier, happier you!
Don't miss out on the opportunity to learn from this leading expert. Listen to the full episode now! And if you enjoyed this episode, be sure to subscribe and leave a review to help support the podcast.
► Get your FREE Thyroid Gifts from Dr. Izabella Wentz. Sign Up and Receive a Free Book Chapter, Thyroid Diet Quick Start Guide and Ten Nutrient Dense Thyroid-friendly Recipes! - CLICK HERE.
► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.
► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?
It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.
We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!
CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.
Welcome to another episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast, hosted by Dr. Kyrin Dunston, and joined by our special guest, Dr. Jessica Hehmeyer. Dr. Hehmeyer is a Functional Medicine Practitioner and Women's Health Expert who is here to provide us with her valuable insights and expertise on debunking weight loss myths and creating a healthier relationship with our bodies.
Key Takeaways:
- Debunking weight loss myths
- The importance of creating Your Middle Ground
- The "gap of disappointment" and how to overcome it
- Strategies for decluttering negative thoughts and keeping your goals in focus
Episode Highlights:
- The Pitfalls of an "All or Nothing" Approach
Dr. Hehmeyer dives into the issues surrounding the "all or nothing" mindset that many women adopt during their weight loss journey. She emphasizes that true success lies in finding Your Middle Ground, a more sustainable and balanced approach to weight loss.
- Empowering Women to Take Control of Their Weight Loss
Dr. Hehmeyer shares her experience and knowledge in empowering women to create a personalized weight loss plan that suits their unique needs and goals, leading to long-lasting results and a healthier lifestyle.
- Overcoming the "Gap of Disappointment"
Dr. Hehmeyer reveals her insights into the "gap of disappointment" that many women experience when they aren't seeing immediate weight loss results. She provides strategies and advice on how to stay motivated, keep moving forward, and remain consistent in reaching your goals.
- Decluttering Negative Thoughts and Staying Focused on Your Goals
Dr. Hehmeyer highlights the importance of decluttering negative thoughts and understanding the impact they can have on your weight loss journey. She shares tips on how to keep your goals in focus and maintain a positive mindset throughout your journey.
Join us on this episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast, as we explore the world of weight loss mastery with Dr. Jessica Hehmeyer, and learn how to ditch the "all or nothing" mindset in favor of a more sustainable, balanced, and intuitive approach to achieving your health goals. Tune in now and be prepared to be inspired and empowered on your journey to better health!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The first step to getting somewhere is to decide you're not going to stay where you are. JP Morgan. And there is a force in the universe, which if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results. Mahatma Gandhi.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:08):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive into the deeper meaning of weight loss and creating health for women at midlife with Dr. Jessie Hehmeyer. The two quotes that I shared initially with you are two quotes she shared with me before we started the interview that I absolutely love that we're gonna dive into in the interview from JP Morgan and Mahatma Gandhi. Two very different people, but with somewhat similar philosophies on life. If you are going to lose weight or heal from a disease or get rid of the symptom first you have to decide that you're not gonna stay where you are. And that might mean that you're going to decide, decide comes from the Latin de cre to cut away from, which means to make a decision to cut away from all other possibilities.
Speaker 1 (02:05):
So you're going to decide that, that you're not gonna stay where you are. And there is this force in the universe that if you allow it will flow through you and produce miraculous results. So I'm so glad you're here because both she and I have experienced this and work with these concepts with our clients. Whether it's losing weight or healing from chronic fatigue of fibromyalgia or the myriad problems that women at midlife can face with their health, with hormonal poverty. We both embody and embrace these philosophies. She has another beautiful quote from Martha Graham that I can't wait to share with you. We talk about it in depth here and we talk about some physiological changes that you're gonna need to make if you're gonna lose weight and get optimally healthy at midlife as midlife as well. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr.
Speaker 1 (02:55):
Jessie and then we'll get started. She has a very varied background. She has a master of science in human nutrition and functional medicine. She's a doctor of chiropractic medicine. She's an I F M Certified Practitioner Alliance, a licensed dietician, a certified nutrition specialist. So she has all kinds of experience and basically she has a great foundation and so depth and breadth of knowledge in how to help women lose weight and create optimal health, particularly at midwife. She shares her story with us in the interview and she's a true doctor, which comes from the Latin or dore meaning to teach, show, or point out, and understands that healing occurs when individuals understand the what, why, and how behind their health and treatment. Please help me welcome Dr. Jessie Hehmeyer to the show. Thank
Speaker 3 (03:53):
You so much, Kyrin. It is a pleasure to be here with you and your audience.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
So much to talk about. So let's dive right into it. And I always like to start to give everyone a frame of reference to help them understand why they are so passionate about helping people with weight, about helping people become empowered when it comes to their health and their lives. And how did your path lead from, 'cause you've got chiropractic and fitness and nutrition and all kinds of stops on your journey of expertise. So how did it lead you to what you do now? Well,
Speaker 3 (04:30):
It led me there very personally as, as I'm sure it does for most people. And what I mean by that, Kyrin is for me, I really struggled with my weight for over a decade and not my weight in a sense that it was a health concern, right? I wavered, I was probably 15, 20 pounds that I would gain and lose over the course of over and over again over the course of multiple years. And for me, over that time period, I really got what a cost the struggle was for me, right? I got that it was interfering with me being fully present in life. It was interfering with me, fully contributing to life. And that just wasn't okay with me. So when I got clear that I was done struggling in this area of my life, it became about something else. It became not about the scale triumphing in this area of my life, it became around about being present and fully contributing.
Speaker 3 (05:30):
And so with that as my north star and really getting, just having this area of my life handled, I began to approach it from a place of questions rather than drill sergeant discipline, which never seemed to turn out well, right? And never seemed to turn out well when I took out the, the stick and started beating myself up and, and telling myself I I had to give up X, Y, Z and did so for a period of time and then in, in, in invariably at a certain point just broke my resolution broke and would end up right back where I was. And so I really saw that approach wasn't broke, was broken. And so I got curious about what a new approach might approach might look like that would lead me to a future where simply put this area of my life was handled right. It just wasn't a struggle. I felt great in my body. I felt good about how I looked and really fundamentally all those things about being a, an access to being fully present and contributing.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
Yeah, I love that. It's, boy did I beat myself up also about the wave. So when that internal inner critic would be like, you're bad if you eat this and you're bad if you don't, I'd say, oh, I'm not going to eat X, Y, or Z and then by four o'clock I'm eating it. And then, oh, you're bad. And all this shame. And it wasn't until I said, okay, I'm just gonna try and get healthy. Forget losing weight and then use the the same functional principles that you use as well as really the a spiritual approach. What is the weight about that I finally lost it to? And so here you are and you are helping people become empowered with their health and empowered in their life. And you shared some amazing quotes that I absolutely love before we started the episode that I think really get to the, a concept that I think everybody must embrace if they're going to experience the healing, health and vitality that is available to them, that is their birthright, that is possible so that they can live fully and give their gifts. And so I'm wondering if you can share that quote from Martha Graham and then we can talk about what that means.
Speaker 3 (07:50):
Absolutely. It would be my pleasure. So the quote by Martha Graham, there is a vitality, a life force, a quickening that is translated through you into action. And there is only one of you in all time. This expression is unique and if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and be lost. The world would not have it. It is not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. It is your business to keep it yours clearly and directly to keep the channel open. You do not even have to believe in yourself or your work. You have to keep open and aware directly to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open. No artist is pleased. There is no satisfaction whatever at any time. There is only a divine dissatisfaction, a blessed unrest that keeps us marching and makes us more alive than the others.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
I had Joe bumps the whole time you were reading that. So can you talk a little bit about what this means when it comes to weight loss, when it comes to health, when it comes to living your life?
Speaker 3 (09:12):
To me it really, that quote really captures what a precious gift this life is. This life, our bodies, this opportunity to be here. It, it's nothing short of magic. And when we're really present to the gift that it is to be alive, we start to be in a different relationship. What it means to do our best to preserve that gift, right? When we're present to the wonder, the awe and the magic of this life, we're more likely to operate in our actions in a way that honors this life. And that's a journey. It's not an overnight A to Z event. It is a looking at, okay, how might I honor this gift called life based on where I am right now? And and I'm sure you'd say the same thing, ki right, the actions that I took when I started my own personal journey, born of self-love, are different than the actions that I take now simply born out of evolution. Right? That's totally natural. That's totally okay. And and I really see moving forward is the encouraged next step rather than approaching this as if it's either perfection or bus.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
Yeah, I, I think it's such a beautiful statement about who we are and what we are on this planet to do. I do believe we each have a unique calling and soul blueprint and gifts that we're meant to deliver. And if we don't deliver them, they'll never be delivered by someone else because only we can deliver them. And I, I tell the women who I work with in my programs that I'm sneaky. I, I wanna get you healthy 'cause I know you're suffering and I wanna stop, help you to stop suffering. And I know that you're sitting on gifts. You're sitting on assets, right? You're sitting on your at assets that the world needs. And I think it's the Dalai Lama who's quoted as saying the Western woman will save the world. And I believe it's the western middle aged and menopausal woman because we've got experience and we have a balanced viewpoint and we have fairness and justice and equanimity and we have experience in our chosen professions that we've been working in for decades. And then we have solutions to a lot of the problems that we're struggling with right now that come from a divine feminine perspective, not a pick tree iCal perspective that probably could help us. And I really enjoy helping women, I only work with women, I know you work with men too, really see that you getting yourself healthy is about more than just for you for your selfish needs. It's about you getting yourself healthy for humanity. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (12:11):
Yeah. This is, yeah. So well said. Right? This is the opportunity right now. This is the opportunity to deliver your gifts. And
Speaker 1 (12:21):
I love the part where she talks about it's not your business to determine how good it is, not how it compares with other expression. Because so many women, when they do get healthy, then they're looking around, oh, what do I wanna do as my creative project? What do I want my legacy to be? And then they look, well, that's been done. That book's been written, that business has been made that no, it hasn't been done by you. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (12:47):
There is only one unique you and there's, the way you do it is going to be different the way than the way anyone else does it. Absolutely. And there's an abundance of people hungry for contribution.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
It's true. And the people who are gonna resonate with your frequency, 'cause you have a unique energetic frequency, are going to be drawn to you and they're only gonna hear certain things from you. They're not gonna hear it from Sally or Tom or Peter. Right. They're only gonna hear it from you. So I'm wondering if you can talk about this in the context of finding what you call your middle ground and ditching the all or nothing approach when it comes to health and healing and weight loss. What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (13:33):
Yeah. So the broken all or nothing approach, this is the inherited approach around our health and food in our bodies that's most prevalent when it comes to weight. And you know how this is lived is whole 30 followed by deep dish pizza and a bottle of wine on day 31, right? Like that would be a, a pretty clear example of the all or nothing approach in really, if we think about those two extreme actions, we're looking at deprivation or overindulgence. And for most people, those are the two options they're familiar with in this area of life. It's all in or all out. And a few problems with that is fundamentally speaking, they don't work. And by work I mean they don't allow people the opportunity to produce and sustain the health outcomes that matter most to 'em. So if you can't sustain the outcomes, to me, it's not a solution.
Speaker 3 (14:32):
Right? Secondly, they're born of self aggression, right? And self aggression really is not a solution for just about anything as far as I've ever found out for myself. So the broke and all or nothing approach is born of self aggression. And when I work with people, it's really stepping into a journey, a guided journey of authoring your middle ground. And your middle ground is finding that way of caring for your body and your life that allows you to integrate all of who you are and fully experience the joy of life, experience, the joy of being with others and celebrating with others while also moving towards the future you intend for your health and your life. And that journey is born of self-love. So it's just a real different way of operating. And it's not one that comes naturally for most people, right? Especially the people who I work with who've struggled in this area of their life for years or decades. It really takes some work not just to understand, okay, these are the actions, right? But stepping into a no way new way of relating with oneself and the actions that are working and the actions that aren't working from a place of kindness.
Speaker 1 (15:49):
So what does that look like? Can you give an example maybe from a client you've worked with or clients, because I think we talk about this concept of self love and stop beating yourself up and you're so hard on yourself. I'm a former hard on yourself member, right? And I didn't really understand what people were saying. You're so hard on yourself. What do you, what does that mean? Oh, you just have to love yourself. Well what does that look like? How do you do that
Speaker 3 (16:22):
Yeah, no, that's funny that you were a member of the so hard on yourself plan, because I think I saw you at one of the so hard on yourself meetings,
Speaker 1 (16:28):
Speaker 3 (16:31):
But yeah. Yeah. So to me, where it all, where the journey, the new journey begins is getting very clear on your intention for your health and your life. And in a practical experiential sense, when I work with people and I invite your listeners to engage in this exercise, maybe write it down and, and do it later. But the first step is doing a little time traveling to a five-year future and actually writing the story of your health, your life, you as you intend and desire it occur, right? So telling the story in first person present tense, right? So I'm 46, I'd say I'm 51. And whatever's there for me about this five year future, I intend my body's healthy, strong, resilient in also tapping into what it is to live in your body at that moment, right? I walk across a, I walk through life confident and connected to others and the divine, however, you as an individual would say your experience would be in this five year future.
Speaker 3 (17:45):
So really painting this picture of your intended five-year future. So that's the first step is getting clear on your intended future. Now, there is another side of this coin and that's getting clear on what the likely, or perhaps we might say possible downward spiral five-year future would look like with no action, no change. What does it look like to be you in five years and how your body is, some people might have an idea about their health risks, like actually numbers around diabetes or heart disease or whatever the case might be, as well as your experience, right? The experience of defeat or betrayal or shame or whatever's there for people. And it's useful because they're both possible futures, right? And, and for most of us, we make change out of the carrot dangling as well as the stick on the back and not the stick on the back. Like we wanna beat ourselves up or, or scare ourselves. But it's really useful to look at what could the five-year future be like if I don't do anything and Yeah. Right.
Speaker 1 (18:56):
And then sobering, very sobering.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Yes. Yes. And for some people
Speaker 1 (20:31):
And then when you have that vision and that intention of who you're becoming on that heroine's journey, then every choice that you make in the present day is informed by that. And then you say, the woman who I'm becoming, she doesn't freak out 'cause it's four o'clock and she's hungry and she's not planning to eat dinner till seven. She drinks a glass of water or a glass of tea and keeps Yes. Keeps moving. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Absolutely. No, that's a great example, Karen. Absolutely. Yeah. Or the woman I'm becoming, if she suddenly in a moment of not being present comes to it and has, oh my gosh, I've just had two or three pieces of two or three cookies, she doesn't finish off the row. Right? Right.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
Speaker 3 (21:20):
Puts it away and then grabs a, a glass of water and has a conversation with herself. Whatever's the useful conversation of that moment, both acknowledging, okay, maybe what led to that, oh, I, I didn't eat lunch, I was starving, right? And, or I was go at work, whatever it was, so that she can self-correct in the future, right? She can set herself up to live more aligned in the future. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (21:47):
So I want everybody listening to notice that we've been talking for about 20 minutes, we haven't talked about what diet you need to follow to lose weight. We haven't talked about what tests you need to get out of hormonal poverty. We haven't talked about anything other than the philosophy, the spirituality, the emotionality, the thought patterns, the belief patterns, the intentions, the energy around creating health. And so I hope that you've noticed that now some of you're Jones and for the diet tip of the day. 'cause You're like, I'm gonna go on, I'm gonna hear what's the one thing, what's the one thing everybody's looking on, Dr. Google, what's the one pill I need to take? The one supplement, the one diet? It doesn't exist, it just doesn't exist. Health is a state of wholeness. It's mental wholeness, emotional wholeness, spiritual wholeness, physical wholeness. So the only way to create that is by unpacking each of these areas and examining everything under the hood and then rearranging it and supplementing it and repacking it so that it can get you to that vision and intention. So I just wanted to point that out.
Speaker 3 (23:02):
Well said. Very well said. Yes. And, and the thing is, is for the people jonesing for the quick fix diet, right? Just notice what the diet industry is. I mean it's nothing if it's not quick fix, do this solutions. And yet it's, it's a multi-billion dollar industry that doesn't seem to be able to produce the outcomes and promises,
Speaker 1 (23:27):
Right? I think most diet programs have a 6% success rate at two years. And so this multi-billion dollar diet industry just works on profit off of churn. You lose the weight, you gain the weight, you lose the weight, you gain the weight, and you never truly become healthy and have vitality. And so the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting different results. That didn't stop me when I weighed 243 pounds. I tried all the programs
Speaker 1 (24:24):
And you can really start to look at, well what has the weight meant in my life? Like I know for me that was a huge thing and it was protection. And I find that's true for a lot of women. I know in the ACE study that they did a Kaiser Permanente, I think there was an offshoot of it, another doctor looked at all the data and found that like 80% of the women who had overweight or obesity had been sexually abused as children. And that ended up was a part of my story, but I didn't know that. So then I could start loving myself and saying, oh, well if the, my need for protection is getting served by this layer of fat that I have around me, how can I serve that need for protection in another way so I can thank the fat doing its job and then let it go. So I love how you talk about journaling and writing your future at its best, your future at its worst. And I love to have people journal and dialogue with their fat or their body part. Like I, I've worked with a lot of women that have frozen shoulder and I like to have them dialogue with the frozen shoulder. What's going on? What did you come here to tell me? Said,
Speaker 3 (25:31):
And one of the things I love about what you just shared, Karen, is that you really got that, the holding on of the weight, it really came from such a good place, right? Yeah. It really came from such a good place and you were able to self dialogue and see that good place, acknowledge that good place it was coming from, and also get that there was a way to fulfill that very natural human need to feel safe and one that was born quite young, right? And do it in a way that still allows you physically, emotionally to thrive.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Yeah. So I think I, I love that we're having this conversation because I love that everybody listening is hearing that health is about so much more than what supplements to take, what tests to do, what diet to follow. It is about you and who you are and your story and where it's been and where you're going and how you feel or how you don't feel. So I love that. And I love this other quote that you shared. I'm wondering if we could talk about that. I love a good quote, but from Mahatma Gandhi, there is a force in the universe which if we permit it, will flow through us and produce miraculous results. Talk a little bit about that
Speaker 3 (26:53):
For me, Kieran, when I, at about 26 years old or so throughout my hands and surrender and really devoted myself to figuring out this area of my life, I did so inside of a request. I asked what I would call the divine to collaborate to help me. And I made a promise that if the divine would help me, I would use my learnings to, to guide and help others. So to me, that lived experience is beautifully expressed in Gandhi's quote. And I, I'm sure, I'm sure you've had similar experiences that's throwing up your hands and surrender the surrendering to the divine doesn't mean you don't do anything. It actually opens up the energy for the right people to come into your life to teach you something, the right book to come into your life to teach you something, the right overheard conversation walking down the street to just all the things that you could never plan no matter how hard you try to show up inside of your commitment. Yes.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
Yeah. I had that moment after I, it was actually one of my patients who I had done the prescription, what I call the prescription tango with her, gave her sleeping pill, antidepressant, birth control pill, all the things,
Speaker 1 (28:40):
Anyway, she had brought me one of Suzanne Summer's books and I wasn't gonna read it. I took it home and I was like, I'm not gonna read this book by Chrissy on three's company. But it sat there in my nightstand for a long time. And then one Saturday my kids were, came in and said, we're going to the movies. Like they didn't even bother asking me if I wanted to go anymore because they knew mom when she wasn't working, she was gonna be parked in her pajamas in bed 'cause she was sleeping and tired all the time. 'cause I had chronic fatigue and, and I read that book at first I was very reticent and prejudiced and then I started reading it like it was the Da Vinci Code, like the best mystery novel I ever read. And I finished it that day. I think the sun had just gone down.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
And I had one of those moments, I said, God, whatever you believe in the divine God, Buddha, Jesus, whatever. And I said, I'm going to use this and if it works, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life teaching other women about this. And then that prayer, that's a simple prayer, right? It calls in resources and possibilities that were previously closed to you now start opening up chance meetings, coincidences, so-called coincidences. And sometimes you have to come to that point of surrender and that force in the universe if you allow it and you don't keep going back to do the same you've been doing.
Speaker 3 (30:06):
Right. And it takes courage and it does. It takes a li it takes courage. It takes, sometimes it takes just getting sick of ourselves and even getting sick of ourselves. It still takes courage to, to surrender.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
It does. And I love it fits great with this other quote you have from
Speaker 3 (30:49):
It's true. It's things we cannot explain. It's very true.
Speaker 1 (30:53):
So let's give, I think we've talked a lot about the kind of nebulous, esoteric stuff that everyone avoids and doesn't want to talk about with health. So I think we need to be talking about it. But is there anything you'd like to share just from a root cause resolution, science-based approach that people might consider when it comes to losing weight, creating health?
Speaker 3 (31:16):
Yeah, absolutely. On the physiological front, I, I'm sure everything I'm about to say, Kieran, you are gonna completely nod your head with, right? But when I think about three recurring physiological barriers to weight loss, when, well, I should preface this by saying, sorry ladies, it's probably not your thyroid and
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Not just your thyroid. In
Speaker 3 (31:55):
Other words, absolutely true. If your thyroid, if your your thyroid's underactive, if you need thyroid support, you should definitely get thyroid support. Absolutely. Absolutely. But it's probably not the keys to the kingdom you think and hope it will be. And so with that as the preface, the the three things, assuming your thyroid is well supported, well-functioning that I see with some recurring frequency is the first one is compromised insulin sensitivity, which is very different than lab normal, right? Lab normal's usually up around 19 for fasting insulin, I like to see fasting insulin seven or less. And so if that insulin is high single digits or in the double digits, we know we have an opportunity on the table to help your body be better at burning fuel rather than storing fuel. That's one of the foundational things I look at. Another thing that I see with some frequency is elevated inflammation, right?
Speaker 3 (32:56):
Sometimes people will come in and say, oh, I'm so inflamed. And I'll ask them about how it feels and maybe they'll say, my joints hurt or I'm bloated or my skin's red. They'll say something, we'll still go test the numbers also. But really the point is that mostly people don't experience any real symptoms when they're inflamed. The only way we know is by doing their labs and H S C R P is the number one go-to I look at with regards to inflammation, but also homocysteine. And when those elevate, when the H SS C R P that that inflammatory markers elevate in particular, it will absolutely slow down the metabolism. When I see this in time and again with women who, they come in and we like to see H S C R P 1.5 or less ideally under one, but that's the sweet spot range we're looking for.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
And I, I'm starting to work with someone who's H S C R P, we learn after her labs or seven or eight. I let them know, listen, it might be a few mo months before you start to see the scale move because the first order of business is breaking this vicious cycle of inflammation and then your body's just gonna take care of itself. But that's what we have to go get after first. And we do that in a lot of different ways. But fundamentally speaking, when that inflammation is elevated, first of all, people often, more often than not, don't have any symptoms and it's gotta be addressed in order to have the scale move. And then the number three is, I like to call it detoxification pathways gunked up, right? And that just, that shows up in a lot of different ways, right? That can show up as hormonal irregularities that can show up as just playing into that inflammatory process where there are more toxins in the body than ideal, which are driving inflammation.
Speaker 3 (34:48):
And that's never just like, there's not just one test I look at for to assess detox pathways, but a lot of different things. I look at what does your, detoxification is such a chic word, but we know that detoxification though, there are multiple physiological processes that allow this to happen in the body. And so I wanna understand, does the body have the essential nutrients to run the engine of detoxification, whether that's amino acids or B 12 or all the different things we need to in order to, to run the, run those gears nice and smoothly. And then also are those toxins getting out of the body. Another simple check for that is with someone having daily bowel movements, right? We know that our bowel movements are one of the primary ways we get out of, get toxins out of the body and in by toxins. It's not just pollutants and things we encounter in our environment, our hormones that we produce ourselves, or if people are taking some kind of using some kind of H R T or oral contraceptive, those, all those hormones go through our detox pathways also. So to have those running nice and smoothly is really foundational to supporting weight loss and also what comes after weight loss.
Speaker 1 (36:06):
Yes. When you said that about thyroid, I was envisioning people throwing tomatoes at this stage going boo, yes. I did this podcast episode, I guess it was about a year ago, called Why You Will Never Fix Your Thyroid By Trying to fix Your Thyroid
Speaker 3 (36:24):
Oh, I love that. That is great.
Speaker 1 (36:28):
And it's the thyroid is just the innocent bystander, so I love that. But so there you have it, right? You just laid out the nutshell of all the things I like to say that you've got to do physiologically. But what I find is that people can rarely do the things that they need to do physi for their physiology and biology when they don't have the energy, right? Because everything at its essence is energy. And so that energy is your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs, your history of your story that you're carrying around in your body and energetic packets. 'cause You've never unpacked it, most of us. And so you really need to address that. And then when you address that, the physiology you can very easily take care of. It's becomes simple.
Speaker 3 (37:15):
Absolutely. Yes. Well said.
Speaker 1 (37:18):
So tell everyone all the places they can find you online and interact with you.
Speaker 3 (37:22):
Yes. You can find me@wellempowered.com and you'll find a place where you can request a complimentary consultation. Please be sure you tell us where you heard about us because you will be entitled to 10% off if you do decide to engage beyond that, that complimentary consultation is 30 minutes. Virtual will give you a chance to ask me more questions. Consider working together, whether it's one-on-one or in group work, and then also Instagram at at well Empowered is where you'll find me.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Awesome. Thank you so much, Dr. Jesse, for your path, your purpose, your passion, all the things that have led you to be here with us today. And thank you for the brilliance and insight and depth that you have shared. I really appreciate it. Thank
Speaker 3 (38:11):
You so much, ki it's been such a pleasure to be with you and to share our love of people empowered by their health and vitality.
Speaker 1 (38:21):
Yes. And thank you for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Hopefully you feel empowered by our conversation, by knowing that you really are here for a specific purpose that only you can fulfill and that you can take steps today to start moving towards that. I look forward to hearing about the steps you're taking on social media. So reach out and let me know. And until next week, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
Speaker 2 (38:49):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome back to The Hormone Prescription Podcast - the go-to show for midlife women looking for expert insights on health. In this episode, we have the pleasure of welcoming Dr. Jennifer Simmons, a prominent board-certified breast surgeon with over fifteen years of experience in the field of breast disease.
Dr. Simmons has an impressive list of awards and achievements, including receiving the prestigious 2016 Founders Award from the Living Beyond Breast Cancer organization, and being named TOP DOC for six consecutive years by Philadelphia Magazine, Main Line Today 2018, and Suburban Life. With her expertise, she has been a frequent on-camera guest, sharing breaking medical breast cancer news on popular platforms such as 6ABC, CBS Philly, Fox 29 Good Day, and KYW News Radio.
In this insightful conversation, Dr. Jennifer Simmons shares her professional knowledge and invaluable advice on understanding and dealing with breast cancer.
Key discussion points in this episode:
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Understanding breast cancer: Dr. Simmons helps us grasp the basics of breast cancer, its types, and its stages.
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Risk factors: The different factors that could contribute to an increased risk of developing breast cancer, and what we can do to mitigate these risks.
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Early detection strategies: The significance of self-examinations, mammograms, and regular check-ups with healthcare professionals, as well as new technologies that can potentially help in early detection.
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Treatment options: An overview of different treatment pathways available depending on the type and stage of breast cancer, including surgery, radiation therapy, chemotherapy, and targeted therapy.
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Support systems: The importance of nurturing a strong support system during the cancer journey, including support from friends, family, and healthcare professionals. Dr. Simmons also highlights invaluable resources like the Living Beyond Breast Cancer organization.
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Practical advice: Dr. Simmons shares her top tips for women going through a breast cancer diagnosis, treatment, and recovery.
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Advancements in the field: A peek into current research and advancements that could potentially change the face of breast cancer treatment and prevention in the near future.
Get ready for an eye-opening and informative conversation with Dr. Jennifer Simmons, and don't forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast for more expert insights on health for midlife women.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
There is no greater perspective than when you lose your health. The only person who can heal you is you, Dr. Jen Simmons.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kieran Dunton. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today, Dr. Jennifer Simmons, is an amazing woman and physician who has accomplished much and really is leading the way to show women how to prevent breast cancer and how to heal their bodies overall. But most of us really don't pay attention. There is no greater perspective than when you lose your health. She says during our interview, and you'll see what else she says about that, but it really does put things in perspective because our health is the only reason that we get time on this earth. Time to enjoy our relationships, time to accomplish things, time to enjoy sunsets and the ocean and the mountains. And so if we're not paying attention to our health and doing everything that we can to make it the best, we're really in a state of dying.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
If you think about it, and I know that's pretty sobering and most of us don't like to think about it, but I actually like to keep my eye on the fact that I am going to die because it helps me to live each day to the fullest. And how could changing your perspective before you get an illness lead you to more health and wholeness is something I'd like you to start thinking about. The other quote she offered, the only person who can heal you is you, is so profound because a lot of us are always looking to someone else to heal us or fix us, but really the healing comes from within. So we have a very deep personal discussion about that as well. I'll tell you a little bit more about Dr. Jen Simmons and then we'll get started. She had an amazing career.
Speaker 1 (02:52):
So she's a prominent board certified breast surgeon in Philadelphia. She was the chief of breast surgery and director of the breast program at Einstein Medical Center, Montgomery, and she has had 15 years of experience in the field of breast disease. She received the 2016 top Honors Founders Award from the Living Beyond Breast Cancer Organization for improving the lives of women with breast cancer. She's always on the forefront of medical advances in breast surgery. She's been named Top Doc six years in a row by Philadelphia Magazine and also in mainline today, 2018 and Suburban Life. She's been on many news shows, many podcasts, many summits, and share her brilliance everywhere. And after her very personal and touching story that she shares in the interview view that you don't wanna hear, excuse me, you don't wanna miss hearing. She shares how she transitioned from being the top breast surgeon and taking care of women with breast cancer after they were diagnosed to taking care of women in a way that helps them prevent breast cancer and also heal holistically from breast cancer.
Speaker 1 (04:10):
She has some views that are very radical that you might be shocked by that I love and embrace because she is a truth seeker and a truth teller. And when it comes to healing yourself, not only from breast cancer, but all the melodies that we suffer from at midlife, midlife, metabolic mayhem, other diseases, and premature death when we're in hormonal poverty, you gotta get to the truth. And sometimes truth is painful, but if you don't tell the truth, you can't know the truth and you can't know what you need to do to heal. And then healing becomes impossible. And that's where so many women are right now. They're blind to the truth. So I'm a true seeker truth teller. Dr. Jen is a true seeker truth teller. And if you really want to know what's possible for you in this lifetime and achieve it, you've got to become a truth seeker and a truth knower.
Speaker 1 (05:06):
So now she has a practice Real Health md. She is the doctor with the answer to breast cancer. We give all the places you can find her online on social media and talk about her book as well. So without further ado, please help me welcome Dr. Jen Simmons to the show. Thanks. I'm so glad to be here. So breast cancer is a hot topic with women. I deal with women in their hormones, and the number one objection that people have about the hormones that they need a prescription for is, oh, but my doctor told me estrogen causes cancer. And so this is really in your ballpark. So I think we should start with the hard questions first,
Speaker 3 (05:57):
I mean, it's such a ridiculous notion that it, I mean, just thinking about it from the logical standpoints, right? So first of all, why would God give us a hormone that is so vital to life that causes breast cancer? I mean, it's absurd. And then when we look at who gets breast cancer, the vast majority of breast cancers are in the postmenopausal population. And when you measure hormone levels in that population, they are completely deplete, right? They have no virtually no circulating estrogen. And so to say that estrogen causes breast cancer is absurd. It's ridiculous. And they're all evidence to the contrary. In fact, it's when estrogen is going away, that is the issue. When your body can't access its own estrogen because your ovaries are shutting down, that's when breast cancer becomes an issue. Now, when I say estrogen does not cause breast cancer, I am talking about the estrogen that is produced by your ovaries, produced by your adrenal glands.
Speaker 3 (07:05):
That is not the issue. However, there are environmental estrogens things in our environment that act like estrogen that are very toxic, that without question cause cellular damage, d n a damage and lead to breast cancers. So I'm talking about things like plastics, like antibiotics, like fragrance, like cleaning solutions, like phthalates, all these synthetic things that are in our environment on the estrogen receptor, but don't act like estrogen. They act in a far more stimulatory, irreversible way. And then they also have to be broken down by our hormone detoxification ways. And when that happens, they go preferentially down a toxic pathway because they're toxins. So I am very comfortable saying estrogen does not cause breast cancer. Do estrogen-like substances contribute to breast cancer? Absolutely. Without question. Yes.
Speaker 1 (08:13):
And I say I, I'm always a kind of common sense doctor, and I say reality check. 'cause That makes sense to you. Every man, woman, and child on the face of this planet has estrogen,
Speaker 3 (08:29):
That's exactly right. That's exactly right. It's an absurd notion. Now, I can tell you that the reason that we talk about estrogen and breast cancer and a causative relationship is because we have synthetic medicines. We have pharmaceuticals that block the synthe, the synthetic pathway, like they block the synthesis, the the creation of estrogen. And we have pharmaceuticals that act on the estrogen receptor. So the reason that we use that explanation estrogen causes breast cancer is for the purposes of utilizing these drugs, but not because estrogen causes breast cancer. Again, it doesn't, it's absurd. But they have pharmaceuticals that can intervene in this pathway. And so they use that explanation in order to use the drugs.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Oh, well that, I hadn't heard that concept. That's interesting. Yeah. So
Speaker 3 (09:27):
The estrogen
Speaker 1 (09:28):
Blockers,
Speaker 3 (09:29):
You'll, you'll notice, you'll notice like the vast majority of breast cancers have both estrogen and progesterone receptors on them. But we never talk about the progesterone part, right? You never hear progesterone causes breast cancer and you don't hear about drugs because we don't have them. So now we just focus on the estrogen because we have estrogen blocking drugs that are a nightmare. And so that's the story that people are told over and over and over again. And when you are told the same story over and over and over again, despite whether or not it's true, it becomes believable because it's repeatable. And that's exactly what happened in this case. And you know, we've seen that evidenced time and time again, especially over the last three years.
Speaker 1 (10:15):
It's fascinating. I mean, the more you know about big pharma and medicine, the deeper the do-do gets. That's really fascinating. And so I know they really revised the, the Women's Health Initiative study results, and they've come back and said, no, estrogen is protective against breast cancer. But nobody's listening. No, doctors are listening. They're not telling their patients this. So you're right. Once you repeat a lie so many times it does become the gospel. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:42):
And so doctors unfortunately, are hard to convince. They, you have to remember that the Women's Health Initiative, those results, those preliminary results, which should have never been released, you don't release the sto the results of a study in a newspaper article. But those results should have never, ever, ever been released. But they were, and it was 20 years ago. So for 20 years we've heard this false narrative. So it's really, really hard for people to unring that bell. And there are pieces of that puzzle that fit and make sense to people. So for instance, you know, you're only given estrogen blockade if you have a hormone positive tumor. And so people associate the fact that there, there are breast cancers with estrogen receptors on them, so therefore estrogen must be causative. And what people don't realize is that normal breast cells have estrogen receptors on them. They're supposed to have estrogen receptors on them. That's how the breast does what it's supposed to do, do, because it responds to normal stimulation by estrogen, normal signaling by estrogen. And in fact, it's the breast cancers that don't have estrogen receptors on them that are far more aggressive and far more difficult to treat and reverse because they are a further departure from normal. So a hormone positive tumor resembles the normal tissue and the further the cancer gets away from resembling the normal tissue, the more aggressive a process it is.
Speaker 1 (12:28):
Yeah, I think that there's so much misinformation, and I think that even regular gynecologists and general practitioners aren't aware of this. So they're counseling people incorrectly. You know, I know you, you gave me some great questions, but I had to go for the hardest one first because I really wanted to make sure we cover that. And I know that a lot of women coming to listening listen to you. That's what they wanna hear. But the basics, let's start with, what is breast cancer?
Speaker 3 (12:55):
Yeah, so that's a great question which so many people don't understand. So I, I wanna start off by saying that breast cancer is a normal response to an abnormal environment. So many people think that breast cancer is separate, right? It's a non-self, it's not a part of you. It is a foreign body, a foreign invader, a foreign thing. But the truth is that your breast cancer is a part of you, and it's the part of you that feels threatened by its environment. People with breast cancer don't have a bad breast. Breast cancer is a systemic disease. It means that there has been some systemic shift. The chemistry in the breast, the environment in the body has shifted away from homeostasis. And when that happens, the breast cells feel threatened. And so what does anything do when it feels threatened? It goes into survival mode, right?
Speaker 3 (13:54):
Think about an animal that's cornered. How is that animal gonna behave? It's gonna be extremely aggressive, it's gonna be ferocious, right? It's just trying to survive. That same process is happening in any organ that undergoes a cancerous transformation. It is responding to a hostile environment, and it is transforming into survival mode. So the key to breast cancer, the key to any cancer is to restoring the health of the environment, both the microenvironment and the environment in the breast or whatever organ you're talking about. But the microenvironment of the breast is influenced by the macro, the overall environment of the body. And so healing from breast cancer is about transforming that environment, getting back into homeostasis, getting rid of the threat so that those cells feel safe again, and no longer have to be in survival mode. So again, breast cancer is just a normal response to an abnormal environment. And the only approach is to restore health.
Speaker 1 (15:00):
And in mainstream medicine, is that addressed at all, or it's still surgery, chemotherapy, radiation level.
Speaker 3 (15:10):
Yeah, so it's conventional medicine. All the focus is on disease, right? Because that's what conventional medical doctors are taught. Nowhere in any part of my training, and I went to medical school for four years, I did residency for five years. I did fellowship for a year. And nowhere anywhere in my training was I taught how to make people, how to help people get healthy. We are trained to recognize a constellation of symptoms, give it a title, right? Diagnose and then prescribe, prescribe a pill, prescribe a procedure. That is what we are trained to do. And nowhere along those lines are we asking the important question. The important question for everyone has to be, where is the disease coming from? What is driving this disease? And the key to reversing it is about learning that understanding that eliminating whatever is driving disease and at the same time doing the things that drive health.
Speaker 3 (16:13):
And when all you focus on is disease, right? Like think about the mainstream response to breast cancer, like you're in for a fight. Get ready for a fight, be a fighter, keep fighting. That whole mentality is wrong. And what I advocate for, because you don't wanna fight, you don't want a war, you don't want the chemistry of stress. Think about what wars are filled with, they're filled with, with violence and fear. That's the last thing that you want in your body. You want to prepare for peace. That is what you're seeking. That is what you're looking to create. And with that comes homeostasis and health. And so it's about shifting the focus from illness, from disease, from the tumor, shifting the focus to health and to building health. Because if all you focus on is the tumor, you're focusing in the wrong area. Because first of all, what we focus on grows. And that's the last thing we want to grow. The tumor is not the problem. The tumor is the symptom of the problem. And until we realize that, until we recognize that we will never solve it.
Speaker 1 (17:29):
Yeah. I say exactly the same thing about weight. The excess fat is not the problem, it's the symptom of the problem. That's
Speaker 3 (17:37):
Exactly right. And
Speaker 1 (17:38):
And what you mentioned about peace and healing, I, I so agree with you. And I don't know if, if we can get into kind of the energetics of it, but the, the breasts relate to the heart chakra and love.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
Of course. Of course. And this is why we so often see a breast cancer diagnosis following heartache. So if you talk to someone who was diagnosed with breast cancer, you are almost certainly going to learn that they've had a death in the family, or they're caring for a sick patient or a sick parent or child, god forbid, or they've been through a divorce or had a move or lost their job. But there is going to be, or they've, you know, undergone trauma abuse. There is going to be heartache and heartbreak in the preceding years to the diagnosis. It happens nearly 100% of the time. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
And so we need to be, I mean, medicine should be tending to our hearts and our energy, but I guess those doctors like us who went through the mainstream training and learned that method and then were enlightened to realize that it's way bigger than that can help people with that. So that's why I'm so glad to have you on the show and offer and share what, you know, it's so important for women about breast cancer. Now, we just got done talking about that estrogen doesn't cause breast cancer. But do we need to talk about why younger women are more and more getting breast cancer diagnosis and its relation to estrogen dominance?
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Yeah. So let's talk about what that is and what that means. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (20:15):
Absolutely.
Speaker 3 (20:16):
And so for so many women, we're having that progesterone drop off earlier and earlier and earlier. And so that is one problem, right? And that is because of the way we live our lives, the stressful environments, the lack of self-care, the lack of prioritization of sleep, the lack of a nourishing diet. And I'm not just talking about food because there are, you know, secondary foods, the things that you put in your, in your mouth. More important, there are primary foods, the things that nourish you, like sunshine and relaxation and connection, and all of these things that are so essential to life that we are skipping over. We are skipping over for busyness, for blue light, for over consumption. We're just skipping over the things that nourish us. And as a result, we lower our progesterone levels, raise our cortisol levels, and then we're in this estrogen dominant can position.
Speaker 3 (21:21):
In addition to that, we talked a little bit before about xenoestrogens. These are environmental estrogens. These are things that we are literally swimming in. We are swimming in a soup of environmental estrogens. Not what is made by our ovaries, not what is made by our adrenal glands, but what is what we are coming into contact with day in and day out that acts like this toxic estrogen in our body. And it's only compounding the problem on top of, you know, our relative progesterone paucity. And so this becomes a big issue. And these xenoestrogens directly damage D n A, they can directly cause answers to form. Everyone makes cancer cells young, old, and everyone in between. And the key to not getting cancer in that, the key to not having it reach mass size is to have an intact immune system. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
But unfortunately, so many of us are walking around relatively immunocompromised because the things that distract your immune system, the things that weaken your immune system are so prevalent and no one's talking about them, right? So Right. Just one night of poor sleep will weaken your immunity just one night. So if you making cancer cells every day and you are having prolonged lack of sleep, that's a recipe for breast cancer. And we know that. We know that people who are poor sleepers, chronic short sleepers, they are at increased risk for a variety of chronic diseases, including cancer. And so it's the environmental influence and the reason that, which is the reason why we are seeing cancer younger and younger and younger, because we're getting further and further away from our evolutionary selves. We are modern beings living on a very old gene code. We only know safety or fight and flight.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
And we are not meant to be in fight or flight for more than a few seconds. Right? We are built for coming out of the cave in the morning, encountering the Saber two tiger, and either being able to escape within seconds and being restored to normal physiology or dying. But we are not built to run away from a saber two tiger for three hours, three days, three white weeks, three months, three years. We're not built for it. And yet our world is filled with saber-tooth tigers filled with things that compromise our immunity. Because when you're running away from a saber tooth tiger, you don't need to fight off a cold. So your immune system gets shut off. But if you are constantly running away from saber two tigers, there's no opportunity for your immune system to come back online. And that is a really, really important part of disease reversal, is getting the immune system to come back online.
Speaker 3 (24:33):
And the way that you do that is you build all these foundations of health, you prioritize sleep, you cut out processed foods, you make sure that you have joyful movement, you live a connected life and you eliminate toxins. And you manage the stressors of life as best you can. You're never gonna be able to get rid of all the stress, but it's not the stress that matters, it's how you internalize the stress that matters. And so having healthy ways to manage the stressors of life only way, the only way to reverse disease and to be healthy, to get your immune system to come back online and so that you can function the way that you are supposed to function the way that you wanna
Speaker 1 (25:19):
Function. Yes, absolutely. And I just wanna comment on something you shared about the estrogen progesterone balance. Right before, when I was preparing for our interview on my phone, I get these news alerts and popped up an article that said, younger women are getting exorbitant amounts of breast cancer or something like that. And doctors don't know why. And you know, I remember a few weeks ago there was one about the side effects from taking statin drugs and low energy. And doctors are confused as to why. And I'm thinking, well, mainstream doctors are confused about these things. These, but who have, you know, a functional metabolic perspective or not confused, this is science, this is how the body works.
Speaker 3 (26:04):
So yeah. See the problem is there are tons of prescribers that are prescribing that have no idea what they're prescribing, what what it does, right? Like anyone who prescribes a statin should know that if you're gonna take away cholesterol, which is the base molecule of life, it is the molecule from which we build all our hormones, we build all our neurotransmitters. So if you're gonna take that away and take away your hormones and your neurotransmitters, what do you expect to happen? Nothing good, right? Right. And yet statins are so readily prescribed, they don't lower anyone's risk of getting heart disease. They don't lower the risk of a heart attack, increase the risk of diabetes by 63%. So what are we doing? Right?
Speaker 1 (27:05):
Yeah. And, but it's interesting because some patients, I, a woman comes to mind I met with a few weeks ago, and her doctor wanted to check her cholesterol of course, and put her on a statin. And it's really not even high. And I explained all this to her and the kind of what she was looking forward to in terms of her decreased at t p production and hormones. And she said, well, that's okay. I'm still gonna take it
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah. So the one like thing that the cardiologists hang onto is that statins do have a short-term anti-inflammatory effect. But I mean, you can do so much better, right? Like you can use turmeric, ginger, there are so many other ways to get those anti-inflammatory effects than a statin, which is going to deplete your coenzyme q deplete your hormones, deplete your neurotransmitters, and make you even more susceptible to diabetes while not, while not impacting your coronary disease risk. So I think when people it, it is going to take a lot of reeducation, right? Because again, this statin story is another one that's been around for a long time. And when people hear the same thing enough times, they believe it to be true. I think we would be remiss if we didn't talk about the fact that, you know, we are going to see younger and younger breast cancers, just like we're going to see infertility because we bury widely used a, let's call it a drug that seriously affected people's immune system. And Oh yeah. And we're, we're gonna see the ramifications of that over the next, at least 10 years. It could be two generations, but we're gonna see it at least over one generation. We're gonna see infertility, we're gonna see cancers. Because you can't hijack the immune system without having repercussions. You can't, you can't.
Speaker 1 (29:13):
Yeah. It's, it's unfortunate and mm-hmm
Speaker 3 (29:24):
I'm seeing the, you know, six months later breast cancer diagnoses. So, and what's happening there, because you know, breast cancer's a long road, breast cancers don't develop in six months. But what happens is that because we're all making cancer cells all day, every day, an immune, an intact immune system will keep that at bay. But when you take the immune system out of it, a process which was maybe just like slowly chugging along and wasn't going to really do anything now is existing unchecked. And it's when we pull the immune system out of the picture, when we take away its ability to do its job that we see all of these disease states propping up. And breast cancer is a big one. It
Speaker 1 (30:10):
Is. And I know some women listening are thinking, oh, you know, have the recommendations for screening changed? So I'm wondering if we can talk about that. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (30:32):
Yeah, absolutely. So first let's talk about the mammographic screening program because what we have today was never trialed, was never tested. It was grandfathered in. It was grandfathered in based on the studies that were done in the 1970s, the safety studies in the 1970s when we were using two D mammograms. And you know, at that time the thought was that breast cancer started small, grew to some critical mass, at which time it would become more likely to metastasize. And so if we could screen and find these cancers before they reached a critical mass, we could save lives. And it is a lovely theory, lovely, just doesn't happen to be true because breast cancer growth is neither predictable nor linear. So a breast cancer is what it is from the very start. And if it's going to be aggressive, it's going to be aggressive from the very start.
Speaker 3 (31:36):
And if it's not going to be aggressive, it's not going to be aggressive. So no matter how big those non-aggressive tumors get, those people are going to do fine almost no matter what you do. And the people with aggressive cancers, no matter how small you find them, those people are not going to be fine almost no matter what you do. And then there's everyone in between. And the mammographic screening programs around the world, many of them have been abandoned. And what we see in this country is a huge push for mammography does not save lives. It earns a lot of money. It earns an an enormous amount of money for the system, but it does not save lives. In fact, when we look at a woman over her lifetime, for every 10,000 women that you screen, you will maybe save one woman's life and you will cause breast cancers in seven of them.
Speaker 3 (32:32):
So we're gonna cause seven times more breast cancers than lives we save. And no matter how many women we screen every year, no matter how many women, the exact same number of women die of breast cancer, 43,000 women will die of breast cancer every single year, no matter how many women we screen. So we are not doing better. Screening does not save lives. That is a bell. That's a 50 year long bell. And people are convinced that mammogram is saving their life. So I want to be clear, mammogram is not saving your life. It is ionizing radiation. It is traumatic, it is definitely causing damage. The more mammograms you get, the more damage there's going to be. So there is no benefit from my perspective in using mammogram to screen. If you wanna use it to, for diagnostic purposes, if you feel something you need an an evaluation, fine.
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Take 100 milligrams of melatonin and 2000 to 4,000 milligrams of vitamin C, liposomal vitamin C one hour before your study. And that goes for any radiographic study, an X-ray, a mammogram, a CAT scan, a PET scan, a bone scan, a DEXA scan, any radiation, ionizing radiation study, CAT scan. Did I say that? I hope so. Greening with mammogram is not gonna save anyone's life. And what it is going to do is identify a bunch of cancers that may never have become meaningful, clinically relevant. So a lot of women are going to get treated for breast cancer that don't need to get treated for breast cancer. And what's gonna happen to them, the vast majority of them are going to be hormone positive. They're gonna be put on hormone blockade. And we know that radiation, chemotherapy, hormone blockade, they all accelerate heart disease, which is by far the number one threat to a woman's life.
Speaker 3 (34:28):
In fact, every decade of a woman's life, after she's 30, she will die exponentially more of heart disease than breast cancer. We should be doing every single thing we can to protect the heart. And coincidentally, if you're doing that, those same things also prevent breast cancer. So I'm all about prevention. I don't think mammogram has any role. I do use thermography and I use thermography as an indicator. So if you have a thermogram that shows increased heat, then you know this is your kind of opportunity. This is your opportunity to make sure that your health is optimized. And I believe in self-exam, but all of this is going to be a moot point in the next year or two because there is an F D A approved screening modality called QT imaging. And this is novel. This is a novel imaging technique. It is not like anything else that's out there. There is no radiation. It is painless, it is fast, it is inexpensive and it has 40 times the resolution of M R I. And it is poised to not only replace M R I, but to replace mammogram for screening. It is already F D A approved to screen dense breasts and within a year it will be F D A approved to screen everyone. So it is really the solution that has been needed for so many years in terms of screening. Great.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
Thank you so much for talking about that. 'cause We get a lot of questions on that and I think it really helps to hear it from somebody with your credentials and experience. And you've got a great new thing coming, the QT screening, so we'll wanna know more about that when it's available. Yeah. But like you said, it's all about prevention and you talked a little bit about that with stress and sleep and proper diet and the nourishment that you get from connection and living a healthy life that isn't filled with stress. And you've got a wonderful freebie for everyone, a weekly checklist. Is there anything else you'd like to say about preventing breast cancer?
Speaker 3 (36:56):
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you know, at the end of the day, breast health is health and the things that you do to drive your overall health are the same things that are going to create healthy breast, create a healthy heart, create a healthy brain, create healthy bones, create healthy muscles, create a healthy gut. Like we are all one system working in concert. And if you, unless you pay attention to everything that makes up the symphony, you're not going to have the result that you want to have. And so it's all about the everything. And actually my book called A Smart Person's Guide to Breast Cancer was just released yesterday. And this is the place to go for the answers that you're looking for. Because I talk about prevention, I talk about what to do if you get a breast cancer diagnosis. I give you all the tools you need to understand not only the conventional modalities but also all the things that you can do for yourself. Again, the only person that can heal you is you. And health is not something that you can buy, you can't get it anywhere. You have to achieve it, you have to work for it. But in the end it's so worth it because when you have your health, that means that you are living a life worth living with. You are richly, richly rewarded for that.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
It's so true. And I always ask people, what's your most valuable asset? And people say, oh my house, usually my partner and I say, well you know, what about your health? And without your health, you don't have, you don't have a life. It's the only thing that gives you that dash on your tombstone is the time that you're here on this earth. And you, your health is of vital importance. So if you're not treating it like your most valued asset and something to invest time, energy, money in, then you're kind of missing the point.
Speaker 3 (39:06):
That. I know you probably have your own pain to purpose story. I feel like most of us who have come to exist in this space have our own pain to purpose story. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 1 (40:21):
Speaker 3 (40:55):
Yeah. I've seen the abyss
Speaker 3 (41:47):
Only Linda would never know because she died of metastatic breast cancer. Just one month after Whitney released the song. And I was 16 years old and my hero died. And so that no other woman, no other family, no other community had to grieve and feel this pain. And the way that my family felt this pain, I let her life and ultimately her death, give birth to my life's purpose. And I did the only thing I knew how to do. I became a doctor, I became a surgeon. I became the first fellowship trained breast surgeon in Philadelphia. And I did that really well. And for a really long time. And you know, during my tenure, my aunt was diagnosed, my mom was diagnosed, and all the while I just continued to live in that world and thought that I was truly making a contribution. And I'm running my practice and running the cancer program for my hospital, a wife and a mother and a stepmother and an athlete and a philanthropist.
Speaker 3 (42:53):
And I have all these balls in the air and I think I'm invincible until I'm not. And I go from probably being one of the most high functioning people that you ever knew to, I can't walk across the room, I just don't have the breath in my lungs to walk across the room. And I think I'm having a heart attack. And I go to the emergency room and I have an exhaustive three day workup. And at the end of that three days, I'm sitting in the office of my friend and colleague and physician and he tells me that I need to have surgery and chemoradiation and be on lifelong medication. And despite the fact that these are things that I say all day every day to people, when the words are coming at me, it's like I'm having an out-of-body experience. And I still to this day don't know why I walked away.
Speaker 3 (43:44):
You can call it God, you can call it universe. I just couldn't reconcile it when it was about me and my doctor told me I was gonna die. And it's not that I didn't believe him. I mean the I, I told thousands of women through my career that if they didn't get treatment for their cancer, they were gonna die. So it's not that I didn't believe him, but that something said to me that there was something else. And so I went on a journey to heal myself. And it was a selfish journey. Like this was never about solving the breast cancer problem. This was about solving my problem. And I was listening to a lecture, a man named Mark Hyman walked on the stage. This was 2017. I had never heard of him. His name meant nothing to me. And he came on stage and he introduced himself as a functional medicine physician.
Speaker 3 (44:38):
And at this point I had been a doctor for like 20 years. And I was super duper cynical despite the fact that I was going against medical advice, despite the fact that I was not accepting the standard of care. But I was still super cynical. And I thought like, what is this quack talking about? There's no such thing as functional medicine. And then I remembered that I was sick. And so I checked my ego at the door tuned in and thank God I did. Because within five minutes of him speaking my entire world makes sense. And I know exactly why I got sick. I got sick so that I could be in that room on that day in that chair listening to him speak. Because not only was I not on the right path for my health, but I wasn't on the right path for my patient's health.
Speaker 3 (45:25):
And if I really wanted to leave a legacy, if I really wanted to make the impact that I wanted to make, then I needed to reframe. Because like we talked about before, all of conventional medicine is focused on the tumor. And if you focus on the tumor, that's all that's growing. So my part in the breast cancer scenario was just perpetuating the same thing. I wasn't ever interfering with why people got cancer. All I was doing was cutting out tumors, leaving them to only go on to manifest the next disease. Because unless you intervene, unless you change why someone got cancer, they're only going to manifest the next disease or have a recurrence. And so it really took my own illness and you know, three years of my life to learn functional medicine and heal and, and prove it in myself so that I could go on to prove it in my patience.
Speaker 3 (46:25):
You know, that was my opportunity and I'm not gonna pretend that my healing was easy or linear is not. And there were plenty of days where I was like, you know what? I'm just gonna die 'cause this is too hard. And then I have an amazing husband and four beautiful children and a lot to live for. And so I pushed on and in the end I'm left with something a million times more rewarding. And I am on a mission to impact the lives of millions of women who would not have otherwise had this opportunity, the opportunity to be healthy. And if I can walk with them at any part on their journey and make a difference, that's what I wanna do. That's the legacy that I wanna leave. And I could have never, ever, ever had the opportunity as a surgeon and I would've never left surgery had it not been for my own health journey. Gosh.
Speaker 1 (47:24):
So such a, a beautiful and painful story. And you know, unfortunately it was pain that had to get me back on my path too. And like you said, so much better what you've gained, thank you so much for sharing that. I know that what you've shared has really spoken to women listening and I hope that they hear from what you're saying. I used to prescribe all the drugs and the chemotherapies and the radiation and do the surgery and when it came to me, I said no and found another way. And that was what, seven years ago, right?
Speaker 3 (48:00):
Wow. Right
Speaker 1 (48:01):
For you Jen. Seven years. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (48:03):
I actually didn't leave surgery. Right. Right away. So this journey, yes. Started seven years ago for me, but it took me some time to be able to leave. I'll tell you that of all of the things that I've done in my life and I've done a lot, I've had tremendous privilege. I mean, I really, you know, there is nothing like the privilege of being a surgeon in that God gave me this incredible ability to do what I did. And there is no greater trust than when someone goes to sleep and leaves you solely responsible for their life. Yeah. Their life. And it was amazing. And I really truly would have ever walked away from that had I not had this experience and this epiphany. But I was deeply entrenched in traditional medicine. So you know, it's not like one day the light switch flipped and I was all in.
Speaker 3 (49:05):
I did have to go back and train in functional medicine. It took three years. And you know, along the way it's belief and doubt, belief and doubt, belief and doubt. But at the end of that three years, I walked away from a position where I was highly paid, highly respected, and I was walking into the unknown working for myself for the first time in my life, I had spent my entire career as an employed surgeon walking away from very large income, of which, at least part of which was going toward supporting my family and putting my children through school. And it was a huge, huge sacrifice for me and my family at the age of 50 to start over. Huge. So that really truly was one of the most courageous things that I've ever done, is walk away from something that I was the master of to something that, you know, was completely new to me.
Speaker 3 (50:07):
And you know, thank God I did. And I'm sure you feel that same way, that thank God you did and I'm so, so, so grateful for the opportunity. I don't want to say that I am blessed by the fact that I had a near death experience because mm-hmm
Speaker 3 (51:04):
And I didn't get there the first day either. I didn't even get there the first year. Like it took me a while to see my illness as opportunity. But that should be the goal. Yeah. It may not be the goal the day that you're diagnosed, but it needs to be the goal at some point. If you're going to truly overcome, if you're going to truly get healthy, it needs to be the goal at some point. And there's a large focus on that in my book. And in fact that's how my book ends, by reminding people that when they're ready, look to your why. What is the message? What is your dysfunction trying to tell you? Because we are created by God. We are perfect in machines and in a very imperfect world. And what is it that is interfering with the function of your machine? Because our bodies know how to heal, we just need to give it what it needs and take away what it doesn't. And that's where the work is. The work is in knowing what's working for you and what's not. So
Speaker 1 (52:06):
Much wisdom and brilliance and courage. And thank you for the path you've taken. I know it, it's has not been easy. And I'm so grateful to have the honor of having you on the show to tell your story and talk about such important information that women need to hear. So many women are quite afraid of breast cancer and they don't really know who to turn to. And now my followers know who to turn to, Dr. Jennifer Simmons. And I know you have a wonderful download for everyone about some things that they can start doing today to prevent themselves from not only getting breast cancer, but a lot of other diseases. Do you wanna tell 'em about it? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (52:52):
Absolutely. I mean, you know, ultimately you have so much more control than you think. And none of us need to be victims. We don't. And we can take that control now and have the health that we want, that we deserve, that we need. And so I put together a list of all of the things that you should be thinking about over the course of the week. I mean, you're not gonna be able to do everything every day, but as long as you get to it over the course of the week, that is what really is meaningful. You're not gonna be perfect. Don't strive for perfection. If you strive for perfection, all you're gonna be met with is failure. And just remember, it's what you do most that matters. So make it mostly great.
Speaker 1 (53:33):
Awesome. We'll have the link in the show notes, it's for Dr. Jen's weekly checklist and tell everyone where they can find out more about you online.
Speaker 3 (53:42):
Absolutely. So there's lots of places. My website is real health md.com and I have my own podcast called Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jen. And you can get that anywhere that you get your podcasts. I have a Facebook group if you want to follow along, ask questions. That's called Keeping Abreast with Dr. Jen. And my book is out and available. It's called The Smart Person's Guide to Breast Cancer. And if you are affected by breast cancer, if you know someone affected by breast cancer or if you are worried about breast cancer, this is the place to start. Awesome.
Speaker 1 (54:18):
Definitely go check Dr. Jen out, download her guide and just take it. Simple steps, what could you do today? And like she said, don't aim for perfection. 'cause Then when you don't reach it, then most of us, if you're like me, you say, I forget it. Just do what you can. Thank you so much, Dr. Jen. Oh,
Speaker 3 (54:39):
My pleasure. My pleasure. And don't forget to follow me on social at Dr. Jen Simmons. And my Jen has two nss.
Speaker 1 (54:46):
Yes, two Ns. She's at D RJ E n n, SS I M M O N. Ss. Thank you so much for joining us on
Speaker 3 (54:55):
The show. My pleasure. Thanks for having me. And
Speaker 1 (54:57):
Thank you for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. I know you are inspired by Dr. Jen to make changes in your life. If she can do it, you can do it, and I'll look forward to hearing about the changes that you're making. Maybe you're just going to bed a little bit earlier, maybe you're just changing your diet. Whatever it is, tell us about it on social media. We look forward to hearing about it. I'll see you on next week's show. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (55:30):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Subscribe to Dr. Jenn's FREE Weekly Health Checklist - CLICK HERE.
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Welcome to the latest episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we have the pleasure of hosting Dr. Ameet Aggarwal, a renowned naturopathic doctor and a global authority in holistic medicine. As one of the top 43 naturopathic doctors worldwide, Dr. Ameet has transformed the lives of thousands of people by helping them find relief from trauma, anxiety, depression, and chronic disease.
In this insightful conversation, Dr. Ameet reveals his secrets to healing both the mind and body for faster, long-lasting relief from burnout, anxiety, depression, chronic disease, and trauma - truly enlightening for any midlife woman seeking to improve her mental and physical health.
Episode Highlights:
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Holistic Medicine: Dr. Ameet shares his experience in combining holistic medicine, psychotherapy, homeopathy, and emotional healing for optimal overall health.
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Healing from Burnout: Discover practical tips and insights on how to recognize and address burnout in your daily life, and find the balance necessary for improved mental and physical wellbeing.
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Resources: Learn about Dr. Ameet's free holistic medicine online course and his highly informative books, all available on his website (www.drameet.com) for those wanting to dive deeper into the world of holistic healing.
This episode is an absolute must-listen for midlife women eager to dive deeper into the world of holistic healing and take actionable steps to improve their mental and physical health. Dr. Ameet's approach to wellbeing is a powerful force for healing and empowerment – don't miss out!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Healing has an aspect of letting go of the perceived self so that the true self can emerge. Dr. Ameet Aggarwal. Stay tuned and find out how to heal and access your true self so you can live your best life.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB G Y N I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kieran Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I hope you're having a great day. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with Dr. Ameet Aggarwal on how to heal 360 degrees. Not only your physical health, but your mental and emotional health, your nervous system. You're gonna love this doctor as much as I do because he really takes a holistic view of healing. A lot of doctors say that they do, but when you get down to it, they don't. And he really does. He gets it. He shares his journey from growing up, basically being beaten by adults as a child, and how that was really normalized in his culture. So he didn't think that that was a part of his health and healing journey. But after becoming a naturopath, his journey unfolded to show him that there's so much more to healing than just the physical aspects like hormones and gut health and all the things that we talk about mitochondrial health.
Speaker 1 (02:14):
And that's been part of my journey too, which I share a little bit of in this episode as well. So if you're missing these components, and if you're thinking, oh, that's not me. I didn't have trauma, I wasn't beaten. Really about 90% of us are affected by trauma in forms of relational trauma where our needs aren't met for nurturing care and support as children. And that affects our health and it directly impacts our hormones, particularly our cortisol, which, you know, I call her queen cortisol. So when the queen's not happy, she takes everything down right off with their heads. That's a mean queen. And you want a happy queen cortisol so that she supports you in feeling great, being physically healthy and living your best life so that you can have hormonal prosperity and do all the things that that allows you to access, like traveling the world or having a new career or hobby or improving your relationships.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
And that's what makes life fulfilling and worth living. He also talks about this quote I shared in the teaser. What is this idea of letting go of your perceived self so that your true self can emerge? If that's quizzical to you, you're gonna wanna stay tuned and so much more. So I'll tell you a little bit about him and then we'll get started. He's voted one of the top 43 naturopathic doctors worldwide and he's helped thousands of people around the world heal from trauma, anxiety, depression, and chronic disease by combining holistic medicine, psychotherapy, homeopathy, and emotional healing. So if you want faster relief from burnout, anxiety, depression, chronic disease and trauma, by healing your mind and body together and listening to his journey and his teachings, I think you're going to find it very valuable. Please help me welcome Dr. Ameet to the show.
Speaker 3 (04:07):
Thank you, Kyrin. Really excited to dive into looking at how liver trauma, gut health, homeopathy, family constellations, and all these energetic therapies can balance our hormones and improve overall mental and physical wellbeing.
Speaker 1 (04:22):
Yes, so important. And as a physician coming from a traditional medical background, I came at these topics kind of in a different way than some other people maybe, where it was all about the physical and it was all biomechanics and physiology and it was a very newtonian view of the body, right? Medications and surgery. And you know, it's funny, I, I grew up with this very holistic mother in New York City and she used to give my sister and me golden seal and echinacea when we were sick and make us sweat out fevers. And none of our friends did that. So we thought she was weird and crazy. And then I went off to medical school 'cause I knew I wanted to work with women, helping them to heal. And I looked around and I said, well, what's the biggest toolbox I can get to help women?
Speaker 1 (05:13):
And I said, well, I'll get my medical doctorate. That's the biggest toolbox. But it wasn't only until my health faltered in the forties and that solution provided no answers, that I really started becoming disillusioned and saying, wow, do I, we really know anything about healing women or people in medicine because all the women at midlife were having the same problems and just circling the drain. Like I was at 243 pounds with myriad health problems. And then I found functional medicine, which really did help me heal a lot of my physical fatality, lose the weight, get off the prescription medications, and addressed a lot of that. And I thought I had found all the answers, but oh no, wait, there's more
Speaker 3 (06:34):
Well, the thing is, a lot of women make a mistake of only taking hormonal remedies for their hormones. Or even if they're taking natural remedies, they take natural remedies to control symptoms, right? Whether they can kamyl to relax or only GABA for anxiety or agne castus or some D I m or I three C to balance hormones and they're missing the root cause. So in my journey for health suffering from anxiety, depression, skin issues, gut health issues, the whole thing, as well as a lot of childhood trauma, and I'll talk about how to heal childhood trauma with family constellations, E M D R and homeopathy. But through my journey, I realized there's, we have five pillars of health, right? And most women need to know this because when we heal, the five pillars of health, anxiety, depression, hormones, weight, skin issues, arthritis, all these start getting better.
Speaker 3 (07:26):
These five pillars are gut health, which many people are familiar with, right? And then there's liver health, liver detox. Most people ignore the liver and the liver's, the master control of hormones, not the ovaries or not the testes, right? The liver is the major metabolizer of hormones and also affects your gut health. And I'm gonna show how everything is interconnected. So when you start healing your liver in using some of the best remedies I wanna mention today, then everything will come more into balance and you'll need less supplements over time. Then the other pillar is your adrenal system, right? Adrenal glands make adrenaline, cortisol, they balance your hormones, they help with hormone conversions, and they also manage your fight, flight or freeze response in response to trauma. Okay? And help you survive trauma. And they also respond to chronic inflammation. So they burn out very fast if somebody is excessively traumatized, overly stressed or overly inflamed.
Speaker 3 (08:21):
And I'm gonna teach you how to basically heal inflammation, heal your gut, detoxify your liver release trauma as well, so your adrenal glands are stronger and therefore you have more hormonal balance. Then another pillar is healing emotional trauma and lifestyle issues. These are the simple traumas from childhood, whether it's physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse or abandonment or small traumas. You know, mom disappearing for a while or mom and dad arguing or just being left alone too long at boarding school or a normal school. There's multiple little teas that go out. Go on out there, right? Our nervous system is affected by the nervous system of our caregivers, right? Energetically, we don't realize that it's not only the traumas that happen to us, but the nervous system of our caregivers modulates or regulates our own nervous system. And that's very important to look at. Then the fifth pillar I love talking about in healing with clients and also the retreats we do here in Africa and in Europe is healing ancestral trauma using family constellations therapy, right?
Speaker 3 (09:18):
So looking at has there been miscarriages and abortions in the family, secret lovers, murders, abandonments traumas to your grandparents, great-grandparents. 'cause We basically inherit these traumas from our ancestors and from our parents. And if we don't include miscarriages and abortions, then these basically missing children get manifested or represented by us, the siblings, the surviving siblings and children in symptoms such as O C D, anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms as well. Okay. So let's start with the basics. Let's talk about how to heal all these pillars and how everything is interconnected with hormones, mental health, physical health, and chronic disease. Right?
Speaker 1 (09:59):
Well, before we do that, I do wanna do that, but how did you get, personally, I wanna know personally, how did you get all this understanding? I just, it's rare that I find somebody who has this breadth and depth of understanding. So in your journey, can you just share with everyone what the unfolding was? I think it helps them Okay. To really understand. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:25):
Okay. So I grew up in boarding school and felt quite abandoned. And then I grew up in local schools as well where we were beaten normal. That beating was normal. So to be hit by a cane for, I don't know, being late for school or getting your thumbs wrong or just 'cause the teacher was not in a good mood. And so I got picked on a lot by teachers. So I grew up with a lot of insecurity and then boarding school didn't help feeling really let down by my parents. So not trusting anymore in my, in a consistent caregiver caregiving presence. Like I love my parents to bits of course, but something altered in my nervous system based on the abandonment. And people have to recognize that there's a subtle alteration that goes on when you're a child and something happens. Okay? It doesn't have to be a major trauma.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
And of course you grew up eating junk food, right? Coca-Cola burgers, whatever it may be. So, you know, I typically had the gut issues, a bit of gas, bloating, diarrhea, inconsistent stool, acne, fatigue, anxiety, depression, you name it. And during university I did a lot of drugs. You know, every single drug you can think about under the sun,
Speaker 3 (12:08):
And then through my journey, I also started studying gestalt psychotherapy and trauma therapies. So I went through a lot of healing for childhood traumas, right? And low self-esteem issues, mental issues that were affecting my mood and my personality. I thought it was just my personality to be fearful or anxious and uncertain about myself. And then it came up that these were caused by the way I was brought up, the things that happened to me, the way I adjusted myself based on the threat during childhood. And when I healed these wounds and felt contact and love and communication from a therapist, from the group therapies that I went to, my confidence grew, my emotional resilience grew. I burnt out less. I was much more powerful in my school environment. So in naturopathic college, I burnt out less. I was a higher performer because I had released entanglements and wounds that were using up my energy and exhausted my adrenal system, right?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
So I found the importance, I saw the importance of healing emotional wounds using therapy. And I also started healing emotional wounds using homeopathy. And we'll talk about ho homeopathy and energetic medicine can release childhood trauma and also heal your mood much faster than using psychotherapy alone. All right? See what happens when you're traumatized as a child, these traumas stay in your nervous system and your nervous system is stuck in a fight, flight or freeze response based on these experiences. And then as an adult, when you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed, your adrenal glands and your nervous system again going to fight, flight or freeze. Additionally though, these old wounds from childhood are also triggered, right? So you go into more fight, flight or freeze, these get re-triggered. So your nervous system is in, is basically is exhausted and overwhelmed from a combination of childhood stress and adult stress.
Speaker 3 (13:59):
And most people walk around, you know, thinking they're over a childhood trauma, but their body keeps the score, which is the title of a famous book out there. The body stays with this trauma and then everyday stress retriggers that trauma and that exhausts your adrenal glands. And when your adrenal glands are exhausted, you're going into cortisol imbalance, right? 'cause Your adrenal glands produce cortisol in a nice rhythm. When you have a cortisol imbalance that throws off your conversion of your conversion of basically basic hormone molecules into estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. So right away you go into hormonal imbalances. When you have hormonal imbalances and, and also cortisol imbalances. So your feel good neurotransmitters, your brain chemicals start dropping that serotonin, dopamine, gaba, melatonin, all these start going down. And then you have more anxiety, depression, insomnia, O C D symptoms as well. And chronic fatigue and burnout and a sense of overwhelm from any new things that you need to do in life.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
So you get stuck in routines and you're afraid of trying new things because your body's looking for safety and consistency. It's not necessarily your personality. It's literally burnout and cortisol excess and the inability to make new brain connections, nerve connections in your brain. So that ability is known as neuroplasticity. And basically the ability for to have neuroplasticity diminishes as we become more inflamed from leaky gut and more cortisol imbalanced from a combination of leaky gut inflammation as well as chronic stress throwing o off our cortisol levels. And so combining psychotherapy and naturopathic medicine showed me the importance of healing the body and the mind. And then healing the liver is something I just came across, or I don't know, it downloaded into my conscience the importance of liver health. Not many people were talking about healing the liver. And I discovered, I mean it's, it's already there in traditional Chinese medicine that livers the master organ controls hormones, produces beautiful bile.
Speaker 3 (15:59):
Yeah, bile juice for digestion and also helps move your bowels. So people who are constipated often have a bile, lack of bile flow. And they're taking laxatives, they're taking magnesium, taking stool softeners, but they're not healing their liver. That's a big mistake. But when you heal your liver, then more bile flows and bile is a lubricant for your stool. And bile improves peristalsis, the motility of our intestines, which also helps with bowel movements. And also bile is, it helps with digestion. So if you have low bile flow, you'll get more gas, bloating, constipation, heartburn as well because bile affects the way your stomach produces acid or your liver affects the way your stomach produces acid. Then the other thing is when your liver is stagnant, because your liver controls hormones when your liver is stagnant, right? Right. With too many toxins, too much alcohol. Too much pesticides.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
Too much inflammation as well from leaky gut or even the birth control pill, too much coffee, sugar, et cetera. And then we go into hormonal imbalance. So you'll get breast tenderness. Yeah. maybe some fibrocystic breasts or nodules, ovarian cysts, endometriosis. Right. Clotting and cramping during menses. All these P M s symptoms, you can see yeah. Are due to usually low progesterone levels and high estrogen levels, which comes from liver stagnation. And then the gas and the loading are also because of poor flow. So you can see, and the mood swings are, because usually a low progesterone means that gaba the anti-anxiety neurotransmitter doesn't work so well in the brain. Okay. this is a mouthful, but there's free videos on my website that'll walk you through healing the gut liver adrenals and emotional healing. And you can watch those at your own time. So basically when the, you can see how your p m S symptoms come with basically female issues like cramping, clotting, breast tenderness, as well as digestive issues like the gas floating constipation or diarrhea, as well as mood issues, anxiety, insomnia, and depression, maybe irritability. Right. And in Chinese medicine, irritability is connected to stagnant liver as well. Right. So if your liver is very stagnant, you're gonna get angry, easily aggressive. And that's the excessive
Speaker 1 (18:09):
It's so true. And that's actually a part of my story. So I did all that functional medicine work, but I would, I was so angry for no reason, like over out of proportion to the situation. And I didn't realize one, it had to do with liver, but my acupuncturist taught me about that. And then also that the power of, now, I can't think of his name right now. Ecker
Speaker 3 (18:32):
Toll.
Speaker 1 (18:32):
Ecker Tolle, he says, you know, the anger is in you and it, and it's that stored emotion from childhood trauma. And so, and I, I wanna talk about liver and all these other things, the physical things. But I, like I said, what's so unique that you offer is talking about all these other things. And so I find that the women I work with, they don't think they're traumatized. And that was me. Right. I knew my family was, we used to say, let's put the fun back in dysfunctional. You know, we had a dysfunctional family and we would laugh about it, but I didn't know until I knew when I got older. And I actually saw this post by Patrick Han, who's a wonderful therapist who helps people with childhood trauma online. And he had this post actually today, how bad it was won't hit home until you hear a safe person's reaction to your story.
Speaker 1 (19:27):
And it was only through the work working with a compassionate therapist who heard the things that I told her. And she was appalled. And until I understood really what healthy relating should have looked like from a parent to a child and then really started unpacking this anger. So what do you say to people who think, well I had the typical upbringing for my community and Sure. You know, I didn't get em emotional nourishment and spiritual nourishment and all these things, but it was just normal to really get, no, this is you, this is pretty much, I think it's estimated 97% of us have this. How do you help people to really get that and not dismiss it and say, I don't need that.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
Good question. So at the retreats we run, I encourage people to actually express anger and get in touch with that rage and anger that's inside of them. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
And that's what we encourage people to do, is really feel the whole spectrum in a safe environment with positive feedback around it. I'm not asking you to beat people up and become a violent person. That's very different. Violence. Yeah. Is not necessarily anger or equates to anger or healthy aggression. Okay. That's out of control. But in a way to create limits for yourself and communicate with people in a non apologetic way. Right. And I think you can feel the energy coming from me. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (21:53):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
I'm sorry to interrupt, but, so basically you're saying you give them an experiential, an experience of getting in touch with that anger for them to know that it's
Speaker 3 (22:39):
There's there Yes, exactly. Okay. Yes. Yeah. But we don't force it or put ideas into people's head that they should be angry or there's anger where there's none. Right. It's really about creating safety and acknowledgement and you know, getting them to feel somatically, what really exists. 'cause When you feel it in your body, you know it's true. That's the important thing. 'cause When you start expressing from your body, then a lot of deeper healing takes place. Which is very different from just expressing from your mind. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (23:39):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (23:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (23:43):
Yeah. Okay. So now I interrupted you back talking about liver and the vial and all the things. So pick up where you'd like to take that.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
So the liver's, the mastro organ, right? Let's look at your intestines. First of all, your intestines are like a tube. A nice lining. Kept healthy by good bacteria and good food over time with antibiotic use of poor diet. Inflammatory foods like gluten, dairy, et cetera. The lining gets damaged, the good bacteria get killed off and the lining gets damaged. Then toxins leak into the bloodstream. Cause inflammation everywhere, leading cause for asthma, eczema, arthritis, a lot of chronic health issues as well as hormonal imbalance. The good bacteria in your gut are responsible for producing neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine and gaba. And so when these good bacteria get killed off, then your neurotransmitter production goes down and therefore then you get more mental health symptoms, more anxiety and depression. Now all this inflammation goes to the liver and inflammation also creates toxins. And the toxins have to be processed by your liver.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Your liver's also inundated with pesticides on a daily basis. You know, environmental toxins, maybe alcohol to my sugar. And also it provi, it basically does over 500 functions from cholesterol metabolism, hormone balancing, blood sugar storage, iron storage, B vitamin storage. All these things are happening. Your liver. So your liver gets slammed with toxins, slammed with inflammation. And also stress goes and contracts your liver through the vagus nerve. I don't talk about that. So all these things lead to liver stagnation or liver cheese stagnation as we call in Chinese medicine. The liver stops working so well produces less bile, which cause the gas, bloating, constipation, et cetera we talked about. And also, when you produce less bile, your microbiome, your gut health becomes unhealthy again because bile is important to kill off the bad bacteria. And it also breaks down fatty acids, which are important to basically feed the good bacteria.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
So your bile is not digesting fats too well either. And you're not absorbing nutrients either. So you're going to nutrient depletion on healthy microbiome, which is leading to more leaky gut, more chronic inflammation. It's a vicious cycle. Hormonal imbalance as well. And a whole myriad of like blood sugar storage issues, fatty liver disease, cholesterol metabolism issues, progesterone deficiencies. And also propensity towards certain types of cancer. Because remember the hormones are not being metabolized properly now. And so of course we need to heal the liver. And so how do we do that? First is remove inflammatory foods, whether it's gluten or dairy, right? Do the gut healing protocols in my course or with another naturopathic doctor. Okay. Whether it's probiotics, vitamin D or other amino acids. Remove it and like I said, remove the inflammatory foods and then heal the liver with, I use bitter foods.
Speaker 3 (26:23):
It could be, you know, rocket or aula. It could be bitter Gord, it could be dandelion root. You know, I love using herbs such as milk thistle, dandelion, other herbs that are in the course as well. Cruciferous vegetables are excellent. So that's your cabbage. Brussels sprouts, broccoli, those are great in phase two detoxification. And antioxidants are super important 'cause your liver's detoxifying on a regular basis. So it's inundated with oxidative damage. So you need the antioxidants could be glutathione, it could be vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E. All these things will help optimize liver function. Yeah. Organic berries are high in antioxidants. They will help with liver function. And so when you heal your liver, bile starts flowing properly, your gut starts healing. So inflammation reduces hormones come more into balance, your skin clears, weight reduces significantly. Weight gain is often due to of course water retention cholesterol metabolism, sugar metabolism. And very connected to liver metabolism. A lot of people struggling to lose weight have a liver stagnation issue,
Speaker 1 (27:29):
Right? I know a lot of people right now are listening and they're getting overwhelmed 'cause they're like, oh my gosh, all this. And you want me to look at my anger and my trauma
Speaker 3 (28:10):
So it's about healing the gut and the liver and the emotions. Those are the top three. Literally removing the time.
Speaker 1 (28:18):
Sims said, you say it so easy. It's probably, those are the hardest things I find just even in my health journey. I always say health is a journey, not a destination. Navigating that gut liver journey, navigating that emotional healing journey, navigating all these things there, it's a continual unpacking and kind of course correcting process. So what things could they start implementing maybe today that they could do?
Speaker 3 (28:46):
Like I said, removing the inflammatory foods is a great start. You know, look at what foods you're sensitive to. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (29:52):
I don't need to understand everything right away once in a while. So you're really given permission for your body to relax in your mind, to open up. It's safe for me to reconnect with myself once in a while, or let go of pressure from other people from time to time. Yeah. You can notice how at the end of the sentence, of using the words once in a while and from time to time, that's those endings are very important because it gives your nervous system the permission really to let go of the pressure and also to feel the emotions it doesn't wanna feel or you think you shouldn't feel. Yeah. And then you become more and more comfortable with your nervous system because emotions are natural responses to, to your stimuli, right? Whether you're feeling anxious, angry, disappointed, incapable, these are valuable senses that you're getting that tell you something about what you're facing right now.
Speaker 3 (30:54):
So it's safe to feel though once in a while, that starts the journey of self-love. Or you're not fighting yourself in your emotions and stigmatizing yourself anymore. And from that point, I find that when people continue to do the other exercises in the course, they get much better results because they've made peace with their own internal spectrum of emotions. So healing the gut, avoiding inflammatory foods, you know, more bitter foods, more drinking water of course, and becoming comfortable with your own emotions, I would say. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (31:43):
Very important movement is very important for detoxification. When you deep breathe as well, what happens is you reset your vagus nerve, this big beautiful nerve, a parasympathetic nerve that controls your breathing, your digestion, your liver, your heart rate, right? Even produces chemicals that affect your gut microbiome. And so when you do deep breathing, you regulate your vagus nerve and you calm down, you'll reset your parasympathetic state basically. And when you do that, then your liver functions better, your digestion, your motility improves. Okay? And your mind calms down. You come out of fight, flight, or freeze response. So it's a very positive feedback cycle when you do these active breathing exercises and active care for yourself. So when you practice self-care, yes, even in small amounts, your body gets used to it and it becomes less difficult because it becomes more familiar territory. Our difficulty with making changes is because of the lack of familiarity.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
Remember I said in the beginning, when we're burnt out and stressed out, we need familiar things, comfort zones, whether even if it's harmful to our health. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
Yeah, I'll go mu Yeah, I'll always munch on stuff. And what I've discovered beautifully is i'll, when I'm feeling that P of hunger, I'll quickly go and do some sit-ups. But like I say this with caution. 'cause If your blood sugar's low and you need to eat something, of course check with your doctor and make sure you're getting your blood sugar regulated. Me personally though, right? What I found some of my hunger cravings are not from low blood sugar, but from anxiety or boredom. So I'll throw in a bit of exercise there maybe for five, 10 minutes. That's it. Some movement, go for a walk, hunger reduces immediately. I feel better about myself and I'm getting stronger every day.
Speaker 1 (33:55):
Yes. These are so many powerful tools that you're sharing. And we're definitely gonna have Dr. Amit's information and links in the show notes for you so you can find out more. But before we wrap up, I have to ask you about this quote that you've shared. Healing has an aspect of letting go of perceived self so that true self can emerge. Can you talk about that a little bit,
Speaker 3 (34:18):
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Yeah. I love this quote because it's so true that, you know, I, when I work with women, I tell them, the person you are now can't have the health and vitality and joy and life that you want. You have to become somebody that can have those things. And so you know how Joseph Campbell talks about the hero's journey that every journey is, that starts with some crisis, right? For a lot of women at midlife, it's a health crisis. How am I gonna overcome this? I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go. And you go on this journey and you pick up resources and you have challenges and you have setbacks and you find more resources. And at the end, you know, like in Star Wars or in the Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz, you get the thing that you set out to get.
Speaker 1 (36:40):
But really what you get is you become someone different and you become that true self, like you described, who is the person who can have those things. And so I find that a lot of women, they don't want anything to change about their lives, but they wanna lose weight or they wanna have energy, they wanna have hair growth or sex drive or no depression, or you name fill in the blank symptoms, what I call midlife metabolic mayhem. They want those symptoms to go away, but they don't want anything to change
Speaker 3 (37:43):
So first is education. When people realize the connection between the gut, the liver, the adrenal system, hormones, and the mood. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (38:35):
It might bring about isolation, it might bring about detachment or separation, a sense of aloneness. And those need to be acknowledged, right? When did you last feel alone? Why was it so difficult? What does it mean by, you know, having a conversation with your partner? Does it mean conflict? Does it mean violence? Does it mean looking bad? Where, what are those wounds? Is that from your mom or from your dad? So I'll do a lot of family consolation therapy as well, where I find clients are loyal to their parents' misery. What does that mean? So if mom was with an addicted or alcoholic or abusive partner, I will be protective of mom. I will rescue mom. And I'll also feel guilty about being happier than mom. I don't deserve to be happier than mom was. And you'll see this very often. We'll have patterns of generations having similar kinds of relationships as their parents did with abusive partners, dissatisfying partners.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
This comes out of a blind loyalty. We have an unconscious loyalty to the system, to the system that we're born into. And using family constellations therapy at the retreats and of course online. Then what happens is we help disentangle these loyalties. We help disentangle these loyalties. So you can say, dear mom, I really respect you and I love you so much. You know, please forgive me if I look at dad with equal love as I look at you, not many people can say that if one of one of the parents is abusive, and because dad is important energy for us as well, right? It's half our life force. And please forgive me if I leave this pain with you and I have a better, like I find happiness where you couldn't, you know, please bless me or look at me with love and a smile.
Speaker 3 (40:13):
Please smile upon me if I find happiness where you couldn't or where you suffered. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (41:00):
But when we support the adrenal system with adaptogens and maybe phosphatidyl seine or some other positive mood nutrients, they have more confidence. They have the ability to basically try new things rather than rely on all patterns. They feel good automatically inside. So they wanna do more good things. Then you start creating small positive habits and that creates a reward. Like you feel satisfied. So when you feel satisfied action, you get a reward result. Like it's a reward symptom, a dopamine rush. And so your body starts becoming addicted or wanting yeah, the positive effects of the positive steps you're taking. So there's more motivation really to eat healthier and to avoid the alcohol, to avoid the excessive coffee and to go for that walk or that ride,
Speaker 1 (41:48):
Right? Yeah. Sometimes just calming some of the things down, especially cortisol can really help. And I've been amazed being here in Dubai at the level of energy work and healing, nurturing modalities are available. Family constellation therapy. There's so many therapists here. When I was in South Florida doing my shaman training, there's like one lady
Speaker 3 (43:19):
So my website is dr amate.com, that's D R A M E E t.com. There's a free ebook and video course as well on healing the five pillars of health. That's your gut, liver, adrenals, emotions, and some talks about family constellations. And there's a full course there as well, which goes into all my protocols for with homeopathy, herbs, et cetera, for healing the gut, liver adrenals, emotional healing exercise, so trauma healing exercise as well. And then I do retreats around the world as well as I teach a course, an in-person course to help you really become better at helping others with anxiety and depression and helping yourself. It's an experiential course. And if you don't find those links in the website because they're kind of reserved for people in the online course, send me an email, right? And if you have a group of people or you wanna join me in Europe or Africa or anywhere else in the world, send me an email and we'll organize a retreat or an in-person training for you and your group. It'll be a pleasure for me.
Speaker 1 (44:11):
Wonderful. And we'll put that email in the show notes, we'll get all that information for you. Thank you so much for your journey and for your own healing, because now you can share it with the world. And I very much appreciate you joining us today.
Speaker 3 (44:27):
I thank you and I thank the universe actually yeah, for this healing journey that healing, like you say, helped me share and give more back to the world. So thank you everyone for listening.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I know for sure you learned something today that you can take action on. Maybe it's that you even start thinking about, Hmm, am I really feeling my emotions? Am I processing them? What component could this be of my healing? Maybe this is what's holding me back, or family constellation therapy or whatever it is. Reach out to me on social media, tell me about it. 'cause You know, I love hearing about it. And we'll have another wonderful episode for you again next week. I will see you then. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (45:14):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Free Course & eBook on Healing Your Gut, Liver, Adrenal Fatigue, Emotional Trauma, Anxiety, Depression and Weight gain with holistic medicine, homeopathy, family constellations therapy & psychotherapy by Dr. Ameet Aggarwal - CLICK HERE.
► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
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Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! Today, we have a truly special guest, Dr. Philip Ovadia, a renowned cardiac surgeon, author, and expert on metabolic health. Grab a cup of tea, settle down, and prepare to be inspired by Dr. Ovadia's transformational journey and expert advice on overcoming obesity and maintaining a healthy heart. 🚀
In this episode: * Discover Dr. Ovadia's fascinating journey from being an obese heart surgeon to becoming a passionate advocate for metabolic health. * Uncover the essential principles of optimizing your metabolic health for preventing heart disease and other chronic illnesses. * Learn how a low-carb, nutrient-dense diet can invigorate your body, mind, and hormone balance in midlife. * Gain practical tips on how to address your own metabolic health challenges and make lasting lifestyle changes. * Get a peek into Dr. Ovadia's latest book, Stay Off My Operating Table, and his telehealth practice, Ovadia Heart Health.
Episode Highlights 🔥 Dr. Ovadia shares how his personal struggles with obesity and metabolic health led him to revolutionize his own life and the lives of countless others: * His inspiring weight loss journey - shedding almost 100 pounds through a low-carb focused way of eating and adopting a primarily carnivorous diet since 2019. * The secrets of his extensive research on the health benefits of low-carb diets with a focus on heart health, including personal discussions with leading physicians and experts in the field. * A fascinating look at how Dr. Ovadia's hands-on clinical experience with heart disease and personal insights have informed his telehealth practice, Ovadia Heart Health, and his approach to preventing and treating metabolic and heart diseases through lifestyle and dietary modifications.
Don't Miss This Life-Changing Conversation! 🎧
Midlife women, this episode is tailor-made for you! Join us as we explore the journey of an incredible physician and author who's paving the way for a healthier future, one person at a time. Listen, learn, and be inspired to take charge of your own well-being today! 💪🏼
Subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and never miss any of our life-changing conversations!
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Use the Physician Vetting Guide to find out if your doctor understands the importance of metabolic health. CLICK HERE.
► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.
In this enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're joined by Dr. Tricia Pingel, a naturopathic physician and expert on adrenal fatigue. Dr. Pingel shares her invaluable insights on stress and its impact on midlife women, particularly relating to the symptoms that many assume to be perimenopause.
Throughout the episode, Dr. Pingel demonstrates her vast expertise and experience as a source of hope, knowledge, and motivation for people who are looking for ways to address the root cause of their symptoms. From identifying the underlying causes of stress to correcting nutrition depleted by stressful conditions, Dr. Pingel's practical and multidimensional approach shows listeners how to repel incoming stressors and return to their happy, vibrant, and energetic selves.
In addition to discussing her experience and approach to helping patients restore their health, Dr. Pingel shares her personal journey of overcoming health struggles and personal loss. Through creating a community of positivity and gratitude, Dr. Pingel inspires her listeners to live every day to the fullest, embracing a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
In this empowering episode, you'll learn about:
- The importance of addressing stress as the root cause of symptoms
- The challenges with temporary 'quick fixes,' and why they often don't provide long-term solutions
- How to recognize and address the underlying causes of stress in your life
- The crucial role nutrition plays in restoring health and well-being
- Dr. Pingel's personal journey of overcoming obstacles and creating a community of positivity
Don't miss this inspiring and informative episode that sheds light on the impact of stress on midlife women and offers practical guidance for a healthier, more balanced life. Tune in to The Hormone Prescription Podcast to take the first step toward transformation and healing.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music? Michael Jackson, join me as Dr. Tricia Pingel. The hip hop energy doc shares with you her secrets to creating vitality at midlife and beyond.
Speaker 2 (00:17):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB G Y N I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today is super high energy and super positive, and you are gonna be inspired to do something audacious with your health and your life after. After listening to her. I make a promise to do something towards the end of the show that you'll wanna hear about and that you're gonna see on Instagram in the near future. So that should be super exciting and she has a great story like most of the docs who do the kind of work that I do, because most of us come to this work from Pain Paying Pitch pushes us to our purpose. So we're here for a reason to share with you so that you, you can get out of pain. I'll tell you a little bit about Dr.
Speaker 1 (01:58):
Tricia and then we'll get started. She is a naturopathic physician and yes, that's a real medical doctor. I like to say that instead of going to regular MD or do school naturopathic doctors smart enough to get it right the first time and go the natural route. So they have lots of wonderful wisdom and training and she's an expert on adrenal fatigue and the physical impact of stress on the body. She's super passionate about it. She's impacted many family members in her life and you're gonna wanna hear about that too. She's the founder of Pingle Progressive Medicine where her team takes a multidimensional and integrative approach to healthcare and treats a wide range of medical conditions. She's a source of hope, knowledge, and motivation for others who are, have experienced temporary quick fixes for their symptoms, but seek to find the root cause and heal their bodies.
Speaker 1 (02:53):
She has helped thousands of people restore their health by showing them how to identify the stress, causing their symptoms, restoring their nutrition depleted by stress and assisting in changing their mindset to repel incoming stressors so that they can return to their happy, vibrant and energetic selves. She's appeared on many, many podcasts, shows, summits, and she is known as the hip hop energy doc. She's found dancing all over her social media media, cheering on her two boys at football and creating healthy vegan recipes in her kitchen, snuggling her three dogs and cat at home where she lives in Arizona. She did have her own health struggles, as did her family members and personal loss. She strives in creating a community of positivity, gratitude, and living every day to its fullest potential. Please help me welcome Dr. Tricia Pingle to the show.
Speaker 3 (03:47):
Thank you. It is so nice to be here. Thank you for having me. I can't wait to dive in and have an amazing chat today.
Speaker 1 (03:53):
I know, me too. And let, we gotta start by talking about your hip hop dancing that you do. I too love to dance. I don't dance hip hop, but you've got the energy for it. And I know a lot of women listening, that's what they're here seeking is like, why don't I have the energy to do the things I wanna do? So maybe share a little bit about how you came to have this great energy at the stage of life that you're in.
Speaker 3 (04:20):
Yeah, I think, you know, dance is one of the things I say that saved me. 'cause When I was younger I used to dance and it was how I found joy. And my dad was a musician, grew up listening to music. Music was part of what brought me joy and happiness. And as I got older and I went through, you know, stressors, losing my dad at 24 years old, you know, going through medical school, getting married, having children, having symptoms throughout my life that were always dismissed. You know, the things like acne and heavy menstrual periods and bloating and all of that brings into a stress and kind of took me away from myself. And I talk to a lot of women in their forties particularly where they say, gosh, Dr. Pingle, I really feel like I've lost who I am. I feel like I've lost my joy.
Speaker 3 (05:04):
I feel like I'm not the same person I used to be. And I'm mean, and I'm irritable and I'm snappy and I don't sleep well. And I was going through a lot of that in my thirties and when I finally recognized it, I thought, this is it. I need to go back to what I wanna do for my soul. And I put myself into a hip hop class. I hadn't done hip hop in maybe 20 years. And I put myself in a class with a bunch of teenagers, 14, 15, 16 years old and in an advanced class. And I said, I'm just gonna do this. I'm gonna commit this to myself. And I can say without of doubt, out of all the things that I did to be well out of the diet, the stress reduction, the supplements, the best thing I ever did was put myself back in that hip hop class.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Because as soon as I started moving and I started reconnecting my head and my body, there was a massive change that happened. I found more energy, I found more joy. I found the ability to just let loose. And so I've just been carrying that thread. I've been so, I've been dancing, gosh now regularly with these teenagers for maybe seven to eight years now. And I love it. I just absolutely love it. I couldn't be any happier than when that music is on and my body is new
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I totally identify with with that as well. Dance was a, I call it dance therapy and it's a real part of my wellbeing as well. When I got healthy and lost a hundred pounds, I started salsa dancing. Well, I used to ballroom dance first, but then it was so rigid and they always, they wanted me to compete and I'm like, I just wanna have fun. So I quit that and I started salsa dancing and now I've done zoo and Zumba and all of this. It's very social, it's athletic, it's expressive, artistic. So you really do get in your body and it's part of what brings me joy as well. And I think that's part of what keeps me healthy. I love that you do the hip hop online. I'm sure everybody really enjoys seeing that and they're like, I wonder how I can get that energy.
Speaker 1 (07:19):
But for somebody who's listening who's kind of at that midlife stage and they're thinking, oh yeah, that's a a pipe train, Dr. Tricia, I am too tired. Like I don't even have the energy. I know that you talk about stress a lot and how it affects our health, the difference between internal and external stress. You talk about people who don't even realize that stress is a factor because we women are our houses and we just power through everything. Right? Raise your hand if that's you multitask, take care of ev anything and everything all at once. So I don't know if that's a part of your story that you wanna share. How did you come to realize that stress was such a big factor? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (08:03):
It's crazy. And first of all, I love do it all women. I love that we just strive for all of this, but unfortunately our bodies are not built for that on the go lifestyle. And I think with the technology that we've brought in the iPhones, the, you know, the constant stimulation, the social media, we're actually setting ourselves and our children up for a lot of serious health issues. And we're seeing that in our society. We're seeing more sensitive diabetes, we're seeing more sensitive cancer, cardiovascular disease, higher inflammatory responses, immune problems. And I think a lot of this is coming from this everyday stuff that we try to do and all these goals that we set for ourselves. But we don't give our bodies much grace to go with the rhythm. One of my favorite quotes is from Michael Jackson and it kind of ties into the dancing.
Speaker 3 (08:47):
And this is that everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music? And I think we spend so much time just running past it and just running and pushing through and pushing through and pushing through that we don't stop to actually feel our own rhythm and feel our own music. And that's actually to our decline. When you ask about internal and external stressors, I think most of us know what external stressors are and we all deal with it every single day. Spouses, children, money, jobs, whatever comes at us, you know, the pool pump breaks, you know, things like that that happened at the last minute. But when we have that stress response in our body to those external factors, even scrolling through Instagram, we actually create an internal stress on our body. Whether that be a nutrient deficiency, it could simply be an imbalance of dopamine to serotonin.
Speaker 3 (09:36):
We have changes in our menstrual cycles in women that that give internal stresses at certain times. Menopause is quite a big stressor. And then if you have other things that are going on, let's say problems with blood sugar or you know, underlying genetic conditions, those also cause stresses on the body. So I think a lot of us spend so much time when I ask saying, are you under stress? And they're like, oh, you know, I have a great life. I have all this stuff. I have a great business, I do all these things and I get through it all. I think I'm fine. I don't think we realize how much that's actually impacting our internal environment. And in order to have energy, we have to give our body time to rest. We have to actually pull away from that instinct to do everything and allow our bodies to heal and repair.
Speaker 3 (10:18):
And by doing that, our body has the energy and the resources to create more energy, which ironically then allows us to do more. So in my own personal story, everything that I do now, I couldn't do 10 years ago, I was just exhausted and fatigued and just like these women that you're talking about, just unable to even handle anything. Just snapping at everything, feeling lost, feeling sad, not having the energy to do what I want to do. And it wasn't until I backed away and realized how much stress I was really putting on myself internally in nutritional deficiencies, in imbalances, in my hormones that were really, really causing the problem. So I think it's important for us to recognize how much our bodies actually know what to do and how much we're our minds maybe are pushing us beyond that. And we need to back off a little bit and have a little bit more grace. But
Speaker 1 (11:09):
You know, as I'm hearing you makes perfect sense. You're preaching to the choir 'cause that was me. And there's so much out there about you're doing too much, you're too much dish, you're drinking the coffee in the morning to wind up, you're drinking the wine to wind down. So you know, at some point you have to say like either you've got your head in the ground and you don't wanna hear the truth that you need to stop doing so much. Or
Speaker 1 (12:02):
And when you talk to her, she seems so poised and so full of energy. And then you look at her salivary cortisol and you're like, how is she even standing up? And to get her to even realize that something wrong, she had to get a breast cancer diagnosis, right? Because stress then affects your cortisol and then that increases your risk of cancer. And then when people get cancer, then they pay attention and they go, oh, what am I doing wrong? But to really get her to understand that she's doing too much, this external stress you're talking about is like a herculean task. So what does it take for a woman to really change what she's doing and change her life? I think
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Having a physician working with you that shows you what it's doing. You know, I think so often you go to the doctor for it and just say, gosh doc, I'm really not sleeping that well. And they're like, oh, here's a medication, or Hi, I'm just not, I don't have the energy I need. Well here's an antidepressant. And nobody's saying, Hey, let's sit down and see could there be something going on? Is there an imbalance? And when you do a full lab workup and you look at it from a functional perspective and you look at it, what's going on and what's happening, there's so many times where I'm going through a lab review and the woman looks at me and says, oh my God, I had no idea, right? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And I think there's so much health consciousness going on in our generation right now and in my age group in particular that we're looking at, our parents go and we're like, how can we change that? We don't wanna be that. We don't, we don't wanna leave our kids at 59 years old like my dad did. Or you know, and I think, so a lot of women are seeking answers and they're going to the physician asking for these types of tests and they're not getting clear and can answers 'em what they need to do. There's no doubt stress in the, you know, the, if you go to the doctor and they have to put in your diagnosis code, it's not like they say stress, they'll say fatigue, you know, insomnia, headaches, bloating, constipation, hair loss, perimenopause, these are all in there, but they're all the exact same symptoms of stress.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
And I think a lot of people, my mission is to get people to recognize that when you have the symptoms of all these other conditions, they are exactly the same symptoms of what you have when your body is under stress. And it takes you working with a physician and seeking a physician that can help you find these imbalances. And then once you do, it's amazing. It could be as simple as a vitamin C deficiency and you throw some vitamin C in there and you're back to yourself. You know, it could be as simple as changing your workout just slightly to do some toning exercises that benefit the calming nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system. Such small little tweaks and getting women to recognize that is just us getting out there, you and me and talking about it and talking about our experiences and talking about how we've gone through it and how we've gained energy back by doing this exact thing. All of us want the same thing. We wanna be happy, we wanna have energy, we wanna be able to do everything we wanna do. We wanna be connected with others. You know, this is kind of an innate, the innate wants of women and we can actually do it if we pay attention to how much we're beating ourselves up in the meantime.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yes,
Speaker 3 (16:11):
Absolutely. And I think women are seeking it. They know, like they know something's not right, it's just they're showing up and being told everything's fine. And then being given a therapy that we haven't even looked at those levels. I mean, you know, as much as I do that cortisol and progesterone have very much of a relationship. So a lot of doctors are just out there pumping a bunch of progesterone without even considering the cortisol impact of it. And it, it takes, our body is an amazing machine and it has the ability to adapt. We adapt to our environment. If you're in the woods and you see a bear, your entire biochemistry and physiology changes in order to save your life and that doesn't include producing testosterone to have sex, your body's not interested in that moment, in that, right? We change everything to, to running, right.
Speaker 3 (16:57):
And then we wonder why is our libido so low? You know, where we work 12 hours a day, we take care of the kids, we clean the house, we do all this stuff, and we have no interest in sex. Gee,
Speaker 1 (18:09):
Right. And then what does that do to your nutrient status? Because you're eating food? You know, it's funny, when I weighed 243 pounds, I used to think I had the best nutrition 'cause I was weighed so much more and I had eaten so much more food, which now I look back and I think that's insane. But I don't think that most people are aware of the effects of stress on their nutrient status.
Speaker 3 (18:36):
Yeah, I mean you could be doing everything right. You could be eating this amazing diet and still being impacted by the stress and you're not getting utilization. So let me talk about how stress impacts that and it does that in a couple different ways. So number one, just us running from that bear and adapting to that stressor depletes our B vitamins, particularly B five, B six, B 12, which are highly involved in the way that we break down our food, you know, to create energy. I mean they're essential for the creation of a T p. It also impacts our mineral status. So we'll start to deplete things like magnesium, potassium, we start to get imbalances in our electrolytes, which have impacts on our thyroid, has impacts on muscle contraction, cramps, sleep, those types of things. We also have a pretty big depletion in antioxidants, particularly vitamin C.
Speaker 3 (19:26):
So when you start to have that direct impact in the nutrients, it impacts everything else in the body. It impacts our production of serotonin. It impacts the way that we manufacture and utilize hormones like estrogen, testosterone, progesterone. It changes the way that we utilize thyroid that we create. It changes the way that we absorb the nutrients from our food. And this is where stress impacts us. The second thing is when you're running from a bear, you're not gonna digest your food. We were kind of set up with these two different nervous systems and many people have heard them as fight or flight or rest and digest. And when you're in a fight or flight, you're not resting and digesting. So when you're running from something and keeping up with that schedule and going and going and going, your body down regulates its digestion, which means you could be eating the most amazing diet and not get a lick of that nutrition because your body has slowed the digestion changed the absorbability due to it dealing with the threat.
Speaker 3 (20:22):
So it actually comes at you at a double whammy. And then the third whammy is once those are imbalanced, that's another internal stress, which then has more impact on cortisol, which causes more nutritional deficiencies, more downregulation, more symptoms. So by just simply saying, okay, I'm a busy woman and I'm out there running all day long, what's my B vitamin status? What's my vitamin C status? What's my mineral status? Do I have trouble digesting things? Do I, am I noticing bloating? Do I get heartburn? You know, just being aware of some of the things that are being impacted really can make a huge difference in preventing future problems. So I always recommend in general that these are the supplements that most busy women need to take. They need to be on a B vitamin, they need to be on vitamin C and antioxidants. They need to be on a mineral and they need to be on a probiotic. Because all of those are definitely being impacted simply by the lifestyle alone.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Yes, absolutely. Amen to that. And then what's the consequence if you have these nutrient depletions and you don't know about it?
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Yeah, the consequences
Speaker 1 (21:26):
Happen.
Speaker 3 (21:27):
Yeah. Lots of symptoms. So commonly I see impacts in sleep almost immediately. Not sleeping soundly, trouble falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, lots of changes in mood because serotonin is highly regulated in the gut. It's also made with B vitamins and vitamin C and magnesium and all these things that that I've just mentioned. So I see a lot of anxiety and underlying just baseline irritability, very commonly as it progresses, I start to see more of thyroid issue, primarily in the conversion of thyroid. And I don't wanna get too technical, but you know, you could have an outright low thyroid function or you could have a subclinical state where you're making the thyroid but you're not utilizing it well. So the body starts to store, it starts to store thyroid, it starts to store estrogen. And that's when you start to see these symptoms that look like perimenopause, heavy periods, irregular cycles, headaches, hair loss, wrinkles, you know, poor muscle tone, all these things that we attribute to hot flashes, all these things that we attribute to menopause or perimenopause.
Speaker 3 (22:30):
But what they really are is a reaction of your body because it can't make what it needs to make. If you were manufacturing, you know, a water bottle on a conveyor belt, there's all these pieces that go into making this water bottle. And when a piece is missing, you have to figure out another way to compensate. And that's what our body does all day. When it's under stress, Hey, I need to make serotonin, I don't have vitamin C. Where can I pull that from? Where can I get that right? So it pulls from other pathways in order to prioritize different ones. And that's where we start to see symptoms. And instead of treating the symptom and suppressing the symptom, we need to ask the question, why am I having anxiety? Am I having anxiety because I have an imbalance? Because I have a nutrient deficiency because I'm pushing myself too far? And when you answer that question, the solution is actually ridiculously simple. You just replete what you're missing. You fill that gap on that conveyor belt. And that's where a lot of the nutritional therapy comes in. In my world of dealing with stress is how can I help the body, you know, get more parts for that conveyor belt while we work on mind body aspect to try to calm the body. We also need to support it. So we support it with a lot of nutrition. A ton of nutrition.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
Yes, it's super important. I think that everyone really needs micronutrient testing to see where their levels are. I'm sure you're a proponent of tests, don't guess as well.
Speaker 3 (23:57):
Yeah, abs. Absolutely. I love micronutrient testing. And that, back to one of your earlier questions, that's one of those aha moments where, you know, my client looks at me and says, oh my God, I had no idea. And once you know you can do something about it, I mean, we're all pretty hard people if they're hardworking people, if there's a problem and we can figure out how to fix it, we will fix it. So we've gotta identify where the weak links are so that we can fix it. And then it's not so complicated. Then you're not spending hours at the doctor's office just saying, doc, I'm not getting better. I'm not getting better. It's like, hey, we tested this, we saw we were low in iron, we repleted that. Now the iron's back to normal. How are your symptoms? And then how is that impacting other areas when we bring up iron, what does that do to other nutrients at that point? We're always adapting and that's what's so, mm-hmm
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Yeah, it's so true. And you know, but what do you say to people who are like, I just wanna do the testing once, I wanna know what I need, supplements I need to take, and then I wanna go on my merry way and I don't ever wanna look at that again. Yeah,
Speaker 3 (25:12):
It's a shame. I have had people like that. They usually come back about five years later and say, okay, I was wrong. Can we look at this again?
Speaker 3 (25:51):
I think it was like upwards of 80 times a day for adults and like double that for children. And it's not even buzzing, right? It's just, we're just innately always stimulating ourselves. We live in this stimulated society and unless society's gonna change, which it's not, we're just gonna keep developing and growing technology and we need to actually address that because otherwise we're just gonna keep changing. So health is a spectrum and I really prefer to work with my clients for a very long period of time. Most of my clients have been me with, been with me for a very long period of time. And every year we're looking at, okay, what were our wins and what do we still need to grow on? What do we still need to learn? How are we gonna get into that mindset of true wellness and health? And that takes time. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (26:54):
Yeah, it's so true. And as you're talking, I'm thinking, it's not like we think, oh, I'm gonna brush my teeth really good right now and then I won't ever have to do it again. Or I'm gonna clean my house so well I'm never gonna have to clean it again. No. But somehow, I don't know, when it comes to natural healing or nutritional changes or the things we're talking about, I don't know where we get this mentality from that I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna get healthy and then I'm not gonna have to do it anymore. And I always say, health is a journey, not a destination.
Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yeah. You know, and I get, I get that all the time, you know, oh well how long do I have to do this nutrition plan for? How long do I have to abstain from alcohol for before I can put it back in? You know, it's like, well I don't know if you can put it back in. We're just gonna have to take this journey, you know, as it goes. And listen to what the body's trying to tell us and adapt to that as we go. One of the biggest obstacles that I get, or objections I guess, is they say, gosh, Dr. Penal, am I gonna have to eat plants like that for the rest of my life?
Speaker 3 (28:10):
Well, in fact, my body wants to eat well, it, it craves eating well. If I wanted to eat poorly, I couldn't. I physically couldn't because my body will be like, no, you are not eating that. And it's just a, I want to feel well, I have more energy and can do more than I've ever done in my entire life at 47, way more than I ever did when I was 22. It's an amazing thing. And when I see my clients transform and hit that point where I'm at, where they're like they want to be well, they want to continue to eat well because they feel so good, nothing's a better feeling and I know that I set them up. Nothing. You know, nothing is a better feeling. It's the most inspiring thing. It's why you and I show up every single day. It's to help people make that realization that they don't have to abuse their bodies to feel well.
Speaker 3 (28:54):
And I think we do that. You know, we drink alcohol, we deprioritize exercise or self-care for other people to help other people. And we think we're doing good when in reality we're focusing on everybody else and not ourselves and we're actually putting ourselves at detriment. But when you flip that, you can do so much more. You can give back to society. You can help so many more people. You have the energy to do what you want. You enjoy exercise, you enjoy food, you start dancing again. You know, you do things that truly allow you to appreciate every single moment, which unfortunately not everyone recognizes until something drastic happens. I've lost my entire family above me. So my parents, my grandparents, and I lost them all at a fair, fairly long young age. And to me that's changed my perspective on how I spend time with my kids, how I spend time with my friends and my family and the gratitude that I give forth every single day.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Because this is a gift. I'm on lease, right? My life is on lease. It could go at any time. And I just want to be the best that I can be. And I wanna be able to give the knowledge that I've learned through this process to as many people as possible so that they can give it to other people so we can all reconnect and be healthy and well and live this life to the fullest. I, I can't think of anything more. And I think we spend so much time worrying about all those nitpicky things, right? Did we do this on time? Did so-and-so like it when we did that? Did that person ignore my text? You know, what is so-and-so doing on their vacation? You know, we worry about everybody else and we don't spend enough time really worrying about ourselves because we think it's selfish and it's not.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
It's not, is it
Speaker 3 (30:26):
Speaker 1 (30:44):
Speaker 3 (30:46):
With a diet Coke in hand, right?
Speaker 1 (30:49):
I'm wondering if, you know, it's so funny, I'm, I'm in Dubai right now and they have McDonald's here and they have McDonald's ads and I was noticing, so they have it with Arabic letters, which I think are very artistic and beautiful, the Arabic writing and, and I had this thought, is McDonald's healthier? Because the writing about it is pretty
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I do. And you know, it's all marketing and marketing images in our heads of what's been told to us to be healthy or not healthy, right? So if it looks different, we're like, oh, that's healthy. I mean they do the same thing. Supplements. I've seen some supplements out there that are so beautiful. Their label is so beautiful and they're absolute junk. And I'm like, but they're selling like hotcakes 'cause their label is so beautiful. You know? So yeah. You know, and, and I think all of our habits are ingrained in exactly the same way. At some point we had an image in our brain that made it say, oh, we should eat that. Or This makes me feel good when I eat. What are they called? The little egg sausage McMuffins or whatever. I feel good when I eat that. So then whenever I feel depressed, I'm going to eat a sausage McMuffin.
Speaker 3 (32:16):
Right? I don't even know if that's the name. I haven't been to a McDonald's in years, but those are the things we have to use our mind to override. You know, I feel good when I eat quinoa and avocado, right? But it took me a while to overcome that, right, right. To overcome that pre I guess notion in my head. And I think that's one of the biggest challenges we have right now in our country. Particularly because we're just so inundated with information everywhere and it's so overwhelming and you don't know what to believe and you don't know what to look at and you don't know it's healthy. And I think that causes a lot of people just to be overwhelmed by the whole process and say whatever, I'll just eat whatever because this is too much work. It's not as much work as you think. You just need to have a trusted guide to help you, help you get through it and evaluate what you're doing.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Yes. A trusted guide is essential and you are one. Dr. Tricia, thank you so much for coming and sharing your exuberance, your joy, your wisdom, your inspiration. I know people listening feel very inspired and hopeful from hearing you. I do, for sure. But you've got a wonderful total health cookbook that everybody can access for free. We will have the link in the show notes and tell everybody where else they can connect with you online.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
Absolutely. Dr pingle.com is my website and that has links to everything and you know, will always be updated with different things. But if you enjoy dancing and having fun and learning, you definitely should follow me over on Instagram at Dr. Pingel or Facebook at Dr. Tricia Pingel. I'm also on all the other social media channels. Pinterest has a lot of my recipes. Just, you know, search me up and definitely say hello. I'm here to connect with people. That's what I want. I wanna connect and inspire and grow and get us all, you know, working together so we can do everything we wanna do. So if you do follow me, pop a little note in one of my feeds and say, Hey, you know, saw you here. Nice to meet you. I would love to meet all of you. So thanks. Awesome.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
And we will have all those links in the show notes, so don't worry about writing them down. We've got 'em for you so you can just click them. Thank you so much Dr. Tricia for joining us today. It's been wonderful. You've inspired me. I realized since I got to to by two weeks ago, I haven't been dancing, so I am gonna go dancing sometime this week and have, have some joy. 'cause It's just, it's one of the most, if, if anyone listening, if you haven't danced in a while, I challenge you to go turn some music on and just dance around your living room. It, it's the most joy inspiring activity I can think of. So and involve. Thank you so much. Yeah,
Speaker 3 (34:50):
The kids are, the kids enjoy it too, and it prompts a lot of laughs and it's a connecting experience. And by the way, when you do start dancing, I want you to record it and post it so I can dance next to you on a duet or something. So pull, pull that up, do that.
Speaker 1 (35:02):
Let's do it. Okay. We'll do it. Promise. So thank you so much Dr. Trisha and thank, thank you so much for the work you do, and thanks for being here.
Speaker 3 (35:10):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
And thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you've learned something that you will put into action today to move your health towards the brilliant health that you deserve. I look forward to hearing what changes you're making. You can reach out to me on social media, on Facebook and Kiran Instagram at Kyrin Dunston MD Ann, until next week, peace, love, and hormones
Speaker 2 (35:37):
Y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► The Total Health Cookbook by Dr. Tricia Pingel. Filled with nutrient dense, easy to make and impressive recipes to support adrenal health. Sign up and files will be emailed to you! CLICK HERE.
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Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, the go-to resource for midlife women seeking to better understand their hormones and how to navigate this often-challenging stage of life. Today, we are honored to have the brilliant Dr. Eric Balcavage as our guest.
Dr. Balcavage is the proud owner and founder of Rejuvagen and has made exceptional strides in the world of functional medicine, earning him a reputable position as a licensed Chiropractor in Pennsylvania. Drawing upon his wealth of knowledge and years of experience in the field, Dr. Balcavage will be diving deep into the truths behind thyroid physiology and the shortcomings of the current medical model.
In this eye-opening episode, get ready to learn about:
- The crucial role that thyroid physiology plays in our everyday lives, particularly for midlife women
- The complexity of bile physiology, and what it has to do with hormonal balance
- The decisive factors that influence detoxification, oxidative stress, methylation, and chronic illness
Here's a taste of Dr. Balcavage's wisdom from the episode:
"Understanding thyroid physiology is paramount for midlife women, as changes in hormonal balance can directly affect our overall well-being."
Dr. Balcavage's journey into understanding thyroid physiology began when he encountered a staggering number of patients who were continually misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed due to the restrictive parameters of the current medical model. Inspired by the undeniable need for a more comprehensive approach, he set out on a quest to dig deeper into human physiology and develop a more refined understanding of hormonal challenges that midlife women face, specifically thyroid disorders.
Throughout this episode, Dr. Balcavage shares personal anecdotes, professional insights, and invaluable advice on how to take control of your hormonal health. Armed with these enlightening perspectives, you will be better equipped to advocate for yourself in navigating the current medical model—which, as Dr. Balcavage bluntly puts it:
"The traditional medical model's approach to thyroid health is flawed. It's far too narrowly focused, ineffectual, and doesn't paint the full picture."
So, join us on The Hormone Prescription Podcast as we pull back the curtain on the state of thyroid healthcare, empowering you, our midlife women listeners, to push past the constraints of the current medical model and embark on a journey toward better health and vitality. Don't miss this transformative episode with Dr. Eric Balcavage!
Remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a review for future episodes, and always consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your health regimen. Until next time, stay tuned for more empowering conversations on The Hormone Prescription Podcast!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The thyroid debacle. Why the current medical model is keeping you sick and unwell. Stay tuned to hear Dr. Eric Balcavage with his unique perspective.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:04):
Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. As we are going to talk about the thyroid debacle. Dr. Eric is a chiropractor who's functional medicine trained who really has a unique way of articulating the difficulties with thyroid management, not only in traditional corporate allopathic medic medicine or medical model, but in a functional medicine model model. This is where a lot of us actually get it wrong too, because we just change trying to chase T four. We're trying to chase T three. And a lot of practitioners don't look to identify and address the underlying root cause of thyroid disorders, which you must do if you're going to fix thyroid disorders once and for all. So Dr. Eric has written a book, the Thyroid Debacle, and he has a very unique perspective about a cell danger response that you're going to want to hear about.
Speaker 1 (02:08):
There's a lot of information here. It's very dense. He talks very quickly. So if you don't catch it all, you might wanna play it a little more slowly than usual so you can hear everything. But there's lots of good information in here, and we're gonna tell you the top three steps to start taking to address your thyroid problems. And he talks a lot about testing and so much else in this episode. So I'll tell you a little bit about him and then we'll get started. So Dr. Eric Balcavage is an actually recognized speaker and educator on various health related topics including thyroid physiology, biophysiology detoxification, oxidative stress, methylation, and chronic illness. He's a functional medicine practitioner and a licensed chiropractor in Pennsylvania and is the owner and founder of rejuven, a functional medicine clinic in Chads Ford, pa. Welcome Dr. Eric to the show. Well, thanks
Speaker 3 (03:04):
For having me. How you doing?
Speaker 1 (03:05):
I'm doing great. How are you doing today?
Speaker 3 (03:08):
I'm doing fantastic. So
Speaker 1 (03:09):
We are gonna talk about one of my favorite topics, thyroid, because that's one of the things that kept me stuck for years. 243 pounds with all my chronic health problems. And I kept thinking, I know I've got to have a thyroid problem. I have the top five symptoms, right? I'm overweight, I'm tired. I had hair loss, constipation, anxiety, and a host of other things. But every time I would do the standard thyroid profile as a board certified ob, G Y N, it would come back, quote unquote normal. And I started thinking I was crazy. And I even remember the last time Dr. Eric that I went to my internal medicine doctor and I said to her, I have to have a thyroid problem. Look at me. And she yelled at me and she said, fine, we're gonna check it one last time. But if it's normal, then it's just because you eat too much and you don't exercise enough that you're having all these problems.
Speaker 1 (04:09):
And she made me come to her office to get the lab results 'cause she was so fed up with me. And many people listening can probably relate to that because so many patients really do have low thyroid, but the tests come back normal. And I remember when I went to her office and drove across town that Tuesday, it was just starting to rain, and I was so afraid she was gonna tell me it was normal again. And that's exactly what she told me. And she yelled at me and said, you just eat too much and don't exercise enough. And I went in my car and closed the door and the rain was coming down and I started crying because I thought, I'm just crazy. There's really nothing wrong with me. And I know there's somebody listening right now who thinks that, so let's get into thyroid, the thyroid debacle, and how my story was not at all unique. It's actually very common. Do you wanna talk about that?
Speaker 3 (05:01):
Yeah, I, I think a huge problem for a lot of people is that we assume that two tests and ma many times, one test assess the state of thyroid physiology in the whole body. So most people, if they have, they're tired, they're fatigued, they're gaining weight, they're constipated, they have depression, anxiety, irritability, they have all these symptoms and they Google them, they go, sounds like a thyroid condition since your thyroid hormone drives the metabolism of the body. And so if you have the signs and symptoms and you get tested in a traditional allopathic model, what allopathic physicians have been trained to do much like yourself is to assess to run one test. And many times it's called A T S H, but many physicians will run a T S H with a reflex to free T four. And so what they're looking at is this marker, T S H.
Speaker 3 (05:55):
If that's out of the normal lab reference range, then there's a possibility based on the model that somebody might have either hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism. If the T s H is elevated, they might have hypothyroidism where their thyroid gland can't make enough thyroid hormone. And if it's below the lab reference range, then they might have hypothyroidism. And if it's, if the value's outta the reference range, then the lab automatically runs what they call a free T four test. And T four is the primary hormone that's made by the thyroid gland. So what they wanna see is if the T s H is high, is it because there's the thyroid glands not making enough T four, or if the T s H is lab low, is it because there's too much thyroid hormone being made? But if you have tired fatigue, all the symptoms of hypothyroidism, they're looking to see is that T S H high and the free T four low.
Speaker 3 (06:46):
And they're assuming that as long as the values are with TSH is within that reference range, that there isn't a thyroid problem that they can address. And their primary reason for that is in allopathic world, they're typically not re recommended all the guidelines, you've read them all, I'm sure the guidelines don't recommend intervention with thyroid hormone replacement until the gland is damaged or destroyed to a point that it can't make sufficient thyroid hormone anymore. Until that happens, until there's overt glandular dysfunction, the general recommendations aren't to provide thyroid hormone. And so they'll say, Hey, they're your thyroid's fine. The thyroid gland could be fine. But what causes hypothyroid signs and symptoms is less about the gland and more about what's happening inside your individual cells and tissues, which isn't fully represented by A T S H in a free T four. And that's where most people struggle and have problems.
Speaker 3 (07:51):
So to back it up for your listeners, you have trillions of cells in your body. They're like people. They need to bring nutrition into the cell and then turn that food energy into cellular energy so they can make proteins and peptides and hormones and all kinds of good stuff, hair and skin and all this stuff that makes us feel and function well. And T three is a, is the active thyroid hormone that really drives that process. So we have this gland that's right underneath our chin in the middle of our neck and it's, it's called our thyroid gland. And when it gets stimulated, when the body senses that there's more thyroid hormone is needed, the pituitary gland generates a hormone called T ss h thyroid stimulating hormone, it signal it goes to the thyroid gland, and that triggers more hormone production. The thyroid gland primarily makes T four, that's the primary circulating hormone.
Speaker 3 (08:50):
It's in a, it's a less active hormone. It still has activity, but it's less active what the cells do with that T four. Once that T four enters the bloodstream and a little bit of the active form, T three enters the bloodstream, but it's really at a ratio of about 10 to one, eight to one maybe. But that thyroid hormone enters into the bloodstream then like almost all hormones in the body, it gets docked onto a, like an like a taxi cab. We call 'em binding globulins. And they get escorted through the bloodstream to the cells and tissues that need hormone. Once they get to a cell or tissue that needs hormone, the hormones become free of that binding globulin or get outta the taxi cab. And now they can get it, get to the cell. Once those hormones are at the cell, then there's another step the cells have to determine do they want more hormone or not want more hormone.
Speaker 3 (09:43):
If it's a cell that's in low stress manufacturing mode, it's gonna bring T four in maybe a little bit of T three in, and it's going to convert the T four into T three. That T three goes to the receptors inside the nucleus, inside the mitochondria, and turns on the manufacturing process so that the cell can generate the energy, can bring glucose in other nutrients in, and make the stuff that makes us feel good. That requires a lot of energy. So we burn glucose, we burn fats, we feel and function good, we're able to maintain our weight. And then when we have enough metabolism, those cells say, okay, I'm gonna slow this process down. It can kind of bring less thyroid hormone in or deactivate the thyroid hormone to slow the metabolism back down. That's how it should work. And that's what we call homeostasis.
Speaker 3 (10:34):
But for a lot of people, they've got some type of dangerous physiology going on. There's stress, there's inflammation, there's infections, there's toxins, there's organisms that are impacting a cell. And if the cell is starting to perceive danger, because if there's a bacteria or a virus or some toxicity, that cell innately says, whoa, we need to shift from manufacturing and shift our attention to cell defense. We need to make more inflammatory chemicals. We need to ramp up the immune system to find the threat and kill it. And the dimmer switch to determines whether we're in manufacturing mode, high metabolism, making hair and skin and hormones, or whether we're in cell defense mechanism is the amount of thyroid hormone in the cell. The amount of T three in the cell can turn on the manufacturing, but higher levels of T three in the cell can also turn off the immune inflammatory process.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
But if I have, if I have a cell stress or cell danger response going on, I don't wanna increase the manufacturing. I don't wanna make more sex hormones. I don't wanna make more proteins and peptides that could support the threat. I don't wanna bring more glucose into the cell that could support the threat. I wanna slow the metabolism down, I wanna ramp up the defense mechanisms. And to do that, the cell reduces the amount of T three in the cell, slows down the mitochondria, reduces glucose coming into the cell, ramps up inflammation so it can fine and just dam and destroy mm-hmm. The threat. Mm-Hmm. And that okay, unfortunately causes hypothyroid symptoms even if you have a perfectly functioning thyroid gland and plenty of thyroid hormone in the bloodstream. So
Speaker 1 (12:12):
Are you talking about subclinical hypothyroidism where T S H is in the quote unquote normal range? And so is T three and T four? Is that what you're talking about?
Speaker 3 (12:22):
So you could have hypothyroid signs and symptoms and have a perfectly normal T S H. It could be a low T ss H and still have hypothyroid signs and symptoms. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (13:00):
Okay. Let's back up a minute. 'cause I know we got very granular, very fast and we probably lost some people. So I wanna back up a little bit and take a little bit wider view. Your book is called The Thyroid Debacle, why the Current Medical Model is Keeping You Sick and Unwell. And before we started recording, you were talking about how your approach to thyroid disorders is different. And so you were talking about what allopathic medicine does, what a root cause functional approach is, and then going beyond. So I think that would be great for everyone to hear. Do you wanna talk a little bit about what the thyroid debacle is?
Speaker 3 (13:38):
Yeah, I think it's the fact, I think it goes to the fact that we treaties every person that has hypothyroid signs and symptoms or actually has hypothyroidism as if they're in that state, we call homeostasis that if we're just gonna give them thyroid hormone, it's gonna do what we wanted to do. Whether it's T four or T three, we assume it's gonna work inside the cells and it doesn't work the same if we're in homeostasis versus allostasis. So we have to change our thinking as clinicians and, and stop thinking that the immune system's outta control and destroying the gland for no apparent reason, or that this body forgot how to convert T four to T three. And if I just flood the system with T four and T three, it's gonna work the way I should. We have to, as clinicians start to understand and explain to our patients that they're not broken, their bodies are adapting to some type of excessive cell stress response.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
And if we address the things that are causing the excessive cell stress, that's how you get their body to convert T four to T three efficiently. That's how they get their immune system to stop damaging and destroying their thyroid gland. I think we make the mistake in, especially in functional and integrative medicine, that it's the reason that people don't feel well is, is because they can't convert T four to T three versus they're adaptively doing that and giving them T three can provide a just another drug providing a temporary fix, but it doesn't address the root issues.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Yeah. So you talk about hypothyroidism as a spectrum disorder. What do you mean by that?
Speaker 3 (15:15):
In allopathic medicine, and even to some degree in functional medicine, we consider that hypothyroidism starts when the gland can't make thyroid hormone anymore. T S h's lab high T four, free T four is lab low. That's when hypothyroidism starts. We might ev, and that's not when hypothyroid starts, in my opinion, that's the end stage of hypothyroidism. What the literature shows is that by the time you're diagnosed with primary hypothyroidism, you've lost 90% of the function of your thyroid gland. So that's not the beginning. That's like saying cardiovascular disease starts when you have your first heart attack or diabe blood sugar dysregulation starts when you get diagnosis di di with diabetes. Everything's a process in the body. So my thought process and my hypothesis is that hypothyroidism typically starts at the individual cell and tissue level, not at the thyroid gland level. So that's why somebody like you says, Hey, I'm tired, fatigued, I don't feel well, I have hypothyroid signs and symptoms, but my T S H is still normal.
Speaker 3 (16:18):
My free T four is still normal. And it's because we're checking what the gland output is potentially and not considering that what is ultimately causing hypothyroid signs and symptoms isn't about the gland, it's not about what's in the bloodstream, it's about how much T three is hitting the receptors inside the cell, and that's under the control of the individual cells and tissues to a large degree. So I think most hypothyroidism starts at the cell and tissue level. And if it's short-term, you get short-term si hypothyroid signs and symptoms, you get an upregulation of the immune inflammatory system. We address the cold, the virus, the bacteria and it, and those signs and symptoms go away. But if the stress becomes chronic and persistent, then not only do we have cellular tissue, hypothyroidism start to occur, but now we get glandular thyroiditis that starts to occur and eventually we lose gland function. And that's why if you're then just giving T four or maybe just T three, the symptoms, the improvement's only temporary and partial. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
And so you talk about the cell gave your response, you've talked a little bit about that, what's going on in the cell as a big determinant. And then you talk about the fitness factors that help you determine each patient's stress load. So how can everybody listening know, how do they know, are my cells in a cell danger response? How would somebody know before we get to the fitness factors, how would somebody know?
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Well, if you feel awesome, you have plenty of energy, no real signs or symptoms, you sleep eight hours, you feel well rested, you've got good muscle mass, limited extra body fat tissue on you, you've got tons of energy, great libido, probably not in the cell danger response, but if you have chronic health issues gaining weight, I mean gaining weight and seeing blood sugar dysregulation would be two of the easy things to say that there's something wrong with your cellular physiology. But beyond that, look at, if you have lots of signs and symptoms, there's some type of abnormal physiology going on. And that's when you start needing to say, maybe I'm in this allostatic state or cell danger response and not in homeostasis. 'cause Homeostasis means that I make enough energy to do everything I need to do at a cellular level efficiently. So the caloric intake is appropriate. I can make sex hormones, I can do everything I wanna do. That's homeostasis. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Well you just described like 60 to 80% of women over 40 have some list of signs and symptoms going wrong with their health. So we're pretty much all, that's
Speaker 3 (18:58):
Because probably 60 80% of the people have a cell danger response. And if you look at the population of the US, six 50 to 60% of the US population is overweight or obese, 50 to 60% of the population is on a statin. 50 to 60% of the population is diabetic. So yeah, I think that's easy to say that. Yeah, 40 to, I mean, a large percentage of people are grossly unhealthy to Yes.
Speaker 1 (19:21):
Yes we are. And so the average person listening that they're like, check that's me. Particularly if they're suspecting that they have a thyroid problem, how do they get at the root of, well, why are my cells having a cell danger response? And what are the specific issues that I personally need to address to help improve my thyroid so that I don't go through this? The chacha, the T four chacha with the allopathic practitioner, the T three chacha with the functional practitioner, and they wanna get out of that dance. How do they figure out what is causing the cell danger response for their cells in particular?
Speaker 3 (20:00):
Well, I mean, it's easy to do a self-assessment. And it's one of the things that Dr. Kelly and I, who was my co-author in the book, we talk about the fitness factors and we talk about the difference kind of aspects of your physiology that are probably contributing to the excessive stress load. And so when we talk about stress, most the time everybody thinks about emotional stress is the problem, right? This external thing that then causes us to have this angst. But stress comes in lots of different forms. You're never gonna be stress free. That's never the goal of what you're trying to accomplish. What you need to be able to do is stress the physiology and allow for recovery. So when we think about what creates excessive cell stress, it could be a number of factors. One of the things in my situation in my forties, I was still tr, you know, doing a lot of sports and training.
Speaker 3 (20:49):
I was doing triathlons at that point in time and training hard. And you know, few hours of physical training per day run into businesses, coaching, being a dad, sleeping four hours a day. And I had a great, I mean, my diet was good. I was physically active, mindset was good. But the big thing that drove me to have chronic inflammatory immune and thyroiditis issues was I was over training and limited recovery on top of poor breathing habits due to multiple broken noses. So I wasn't breathing well, I was over training, I wasn't allowing for recovery. So one day is not that big of a deal, my body's able to adapt. But do that over and over again and you start to create an excessive stress response on the tissues and your cells and tissues say like, enough already, let's try and shut this thing down.
Speaker 3 (21:38):
But as many athletes are, they go, I, pain is weakness leaving the body or discomfort is weakness leaving the body. And we try and just keep pushing forward. And then if you have that type of stress on your system, plus respiratory stress plus work stress plus emotional stress plus relationship stress, at some point the stress becomes excessive. And then I need to shift how my cellular physiology works. And I'll give you an example of how I typically express the cell danger physiology to my clients. And that is, do you have kids yourself? Yep. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
Are you gonna continue to cook? Nope. Are you gonna take time to turn the burners off? Put everything in nice glass Tupperware? Nope. Okay. Are you gonna try and slide one more Load of wash in? Nope. Finish vacuuming. No. Are you gonna try and take a nap? Nope. Sex? Nope. Okay. So if I walked into your house and I saw the foods burning on the stove, the house is a disaster, a mess. Vacuum cleaners running down, running in the middle of the floor, clothes are all over the place. I can make a couple decisions, right? I can make some thoughts. I could just say, well, you're a terrible cook and terrible housekeeper, so I'm gonna fix this and I'm gonna hire you a chef and I'm gonna hire you a housekeeper and I'll fix the problem. And it look, they come in, they clean, clean it up, everything looks awesome.
Speaker 3 (23:27):
Or I can ask a better question, which is, why is this happening? Is there an explanation for why you would leave the food burning on the stove, leave the vacuum cleaner, running, leave the house a disaster? And maybe I start to investigate that so we can make one of two choices that you're terrible cook chef, just like we could say the thyroid physiology's broken and the cell physiology is, is outta control. Or we could say, is this an appropriate adaptive response? So when somebody has, is feeling tired and fatigued and has signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism, or actually is diagnosed with hypothyroidism but still doesn't feel well on the medication, is their immune system outta control? Are they unable to convert T four to T three or is what we're seeing? Not broken physiology, but adaptive physiology. It's the appropriate response given the stressors that are put on the system.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Mm-Hmm. And my argument is whether it's an allopathic approach or a functional medicine approach, we shouldn't be getting in the way and trying to fix an imbalance if it's an adaptation. And we shouldn't be assuming that everything's broken physiology, but start to look at the wisdom of the body and start to say, maybe this is adaptive. And what I need to identify is what's creating that excessive stress response. And if I address that, if I find out that you're in your basement fighting off an attacker and I take down the attacker and we get that attacker, you know, off of you and in custody and get rid of them, that's the solution. You weren't being a terrible housekeeper and cook. You were doing exactly the right thing you should have been doing. And the signs and symptoms, the burning food and the stuff all over the place was what we should be seeing. The signs and symptoms that you have, my hormones don't regulate. I'm gaining weight even though I'm eating and exercising appropriately. We need to look at those signs and symptoms and stop trying to like play, you know, whack-a-mole with those results and or those lab values and start to say, okay, what's create, why is the body adaptively doing that? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Okay. And so what is the strategic thyroid solution is to identify and fix these root causes. Do you wanna talk about maybe the top three most important ones You list dietary, fitness, sleep, fitness, respiratory, fitness, emotional, physical, habitual, environmental, fitness, metabolic and genetic. What would be the top three in your opinion?
Speaker 3 (26:01):
Well, I think the top three would probably be, and we think about the things that we have the greatest control over and cost us next to nothing. Okay. And they're all important for the listener. She kinda ran through those, but they're all important. But definitely respiratory fitnesses would be right at the top of my list if you breathe inappropriately, and I would say the vast majority of us breathe inappropriately. We over breathe, we mouth breathe, especially at night when nobody's really paying attention. If you over breathe or excessively mouth breathe, you wind up reducing carbon dioxide levels. You wind up creating what we call hypoxia at the tissue level. And as soon as you induce hypoxia at the tissue level, low oxygen, you can't burn fat as a fuel efficiently. You downregulate your thyroid physiology and that's gonna set the stage for chronic immune inflammatory processes.
Speaker 3 (26:58):
So it doesn't cost anything to improve your breathing, it just takes time and activity or time and training. And first thing you gotta do is be aware. So how do you be become aware that you might have a respiratory, for my clients, I, I give them a respiratory fitness questionnaire, have 'em go through those things. But key things to keep an eye on are, you know, do you snore? And you may say, well I never snore. Well, how do you know
Speaker 3 (27:45):
And so assess it, address it, retrain your body's ability to breathe appropriately. If you, the other thing you could do is you could check your respiratory rate. I think you and I went to school, they, we, the average respiratory rate somewhere between 15, maybe 18 breaths per minute was considered normal. But really optimal is somewhere between six and 10 breaths per minute for optimal health. And most people aren't even close to it. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (28:37):
And it doesn't cost you anything to check it and it doesn't cost you anything to retrain your breathing. And there's plenty of things out there that if you need guided care yoga, there's lots of yoga type breathing things. There's Wim Hof and all these things that can teach you and train you how to rebreed. And you don't have to, but you really don't have to pay for anything. You just gotta work on it. I would say number two would be good nutrition. And despite the craziness in the functional medicine space today where we've circled the diet religions in and we're shooting in at each other, the focus of somebody's dietary strategy you know, it should be a whole food based diet, 80% of the time is a great place to start. If you're eating a lot of processed foods, start there, stop doing it.
Speaker 3 (29:27):
Right? That's an easy thing to do. And you can say, well, do I need to be carnivore? Do I need to be keto? Do I need to be vegetarian, vegan, paleo, medi? What do I need to be? Get rid of all those fancy names and religions and just start shifting your diet to being 80% of the time whole food based. That's a great place to start. What we've done in functional medicine and this in the, in our industry is somebody's found that they did something. It helped them, helped the patient. So therefore everybody should be doing it. And what we have to consider that a carnivore diet could be really beneficial to somebody for a short period of time. Paleo diet could be very beneficial for somebody for a short period of time. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Gonna say just before you go to that, we just need to stop eating the crap and just
Speaker 3 (30:40):
We've lost touch with what we think healthy food is because we have stickers and labels that we stick on things and say, oh, this is, this is organic, this is whatever, and we think, oh, then it must be good. Well not, so it's all marketing.
Speaker 1 (30:58):
Right. Okay. Sorry to interrupt. And so the third thing would be,
Speaker 3 (31:03):
I think it's one of those things you, that everybody can work on that's really important for health and wellbeing is quality sleep. Too many of us, and I was one of those, I was like, you can sleep when you're dead. So, you know, I could stay up late studying, doing research, get up early so I could start training four hours of sleep. I was, I thought that was like a badge of like honor. I wore that proudly for probably 20 years, but I didn't realize the negative consequences it really had on my physiology. You can't heal and recover. Your brain does not process things appropriately if you don't sleep appropriately. Yeah. You don't, you can't clear out the toxins in the brain if you don't get good quality restorative sleep. And the vast majority of us are not getting it. We're on TVs or cell phones or whatever.
Speaker 3 (31:48):
We're taking stimulants too late in the day. We're sleeping with somebody who snores and keeps us from waking up or sleeping with our kids or our dog that keeps us awake. We're doing so many things to disrupt our sleep patterns and we don't realize how impactful that can be on our physiology. But those are three things that don't cost you anything to do tomorrow that you easily, you can easily assess just by googling healthy whole food diet. How do I check my respiratory rate? How do I improve my sleep? And you do those foundational things. You, your sleep may still not get, may not be as good as you want it to be, but you still have to start with good sleep habits and behaviors to be even have a chance of getting a better night's sleep.
Speaker 1 (32:34):
Right. And you can read about the other fitness factors in the book book. So I definitely recommend that. But I gotta ask you, where's spiritual fitness on that list?
Speaker 3 (32:44):
Well, I think that fit for me that fits into that psychological or emotional fitness category, like what goes on between the six inches of your ears has a huge impact on your physiology. So we talk about things in there, like, I think one of the things that's really important for people who are really anxious or depressed or sad or unhappy with their life is I think to have, whether, I don't care what religion somebody is, but I think having some spiritual beliefs is really important. And the other thing is the principles that we learn in whatever church you go to or whatever, you know, whatever spiritual philosophy you grew up in, those found, many of those foundational principles are just good things to, you know, good principles to live by. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (33:34):
A lot of times people think that their life is terrible. My life is awful. I'm in such bad shape. Everything is terrible for me. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Those are the people I usually say, you need to volunteer, you need to go volunteer, you need to go help somebody mm-hmm. Who's in worse shape than you. And start to start to realize, you know, even though things may not all be going right, that there is some blessings in your life and some benefits in your life, but sometimes we're so stuck in our stuff and we're so focused on how terrible things are and what's wrong, that we can't actually see how good what's around us is. And so yeah, I think you have to have some, that, that spiritual piece is part of the emotional psychological fitness.
Speaker 1 (34:15):
Yeah. I mean, what you're saying is so true. I, the other day I was all in my head about my problems and I'm in Dubai and I met a guy on the waterfront who moved here with his family from Syria at 19 to study computer science. And he lost his two sisters a few months ago in the war in Syria. And here I am thinking that I have issues and he told me it's okay. And I said, really
Speaker 3 (35:09):
I'm not as in tune maybe from a, from a chakra perspective as you are, and there may be something to that, I don't know necessarily. But I do think what goes on, whether consciously or or subconsciously between the six inches of your ears has a drastic influence of your overall health and wellbeing. I mean, if you have a lot of trauma, a lot of emotional burden that's gonna create a windup of the limbic system, a windup of the sympathetic nervous system, a downregulation of the, a parasympathetic, and for the listener, you know, the sympathetic nervous system is that flight or flight response. And the parasympathetic is kind of the rest and recovery response. And so if in my mind I'm stressed, I'm worried I've got negative thoughts going on in that space and I can't manage and control it, that is going to drive a state of danger.
Speaker 3 (36:01):
It's a state of fear, a state of, of fight or flight response. And that will totally shift your physiology. I mean, if I was being chased by the tiger and I'm running for my life, I'm probably not gonna make digestive hormones 'cause I don't need the hormones. Right. I'm probably not gonna make appropriate levels of sex hormones because I don't need those. I'm not stopping to have sex. Right. I am running right. And so my physiology adapts to what's going on in my environment, whether it's the physical environment or the spiritual or emotional environment, my body's going to adapt to that environment.
Speaker 1 (36:37):
Right. Dr. Eric, thank you so much for raising the conversation level around thyroid disorder diagnosis and treatment. The book is the Thyroid Debacle. Why the current medical model is keeping you sick and unwell. Where can people connect with you online and found that, find out more about the work that you're doing?
Speaker 3 (36:57):
Sure. My website is rejuven center.com. So if somebody wants to learn more about me, they can go there. If they wanna have a, what we call a discovery consultation, just kind of chat about what's going on and what maybe the right strategies are or if I'm a, if they wanna potentially work with me, what that looks like. I do have a podcast that calls it, it's called the Thyroid Dancers Podcast, where we talk about not just thyroid physiology, but I talk about everything through the lens of the cell danger response. So I don't care what condition you have, we're talking about those foundational principles, physical fitness, emotional fitness, all those things that we kind of hinted to in the discussion. I've got a YouTube where all my podcasts are listed on there, as well as wherever you get your podcast, you can get 'em, you can download those. The podcast I do Thursdays, I do thyroid Thursday videos, they're on YouTube and I, my team puts them on Instagram. That's probably where I'm not really spend too much time on social media, but that's where we post, like on Instagram. And then anybody who's I, we do regular posts on there. And then any commentary that's, that comes in, those are a lot of times what becomes the content for a podcast, A Thyroid Thursday or an Instagram post. So those are the best places to reach out and hear more about what I'm doing.
Speaker 1 (38:12):
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Well,
Speaker 3 (38:15):
Thanks for the invitation. It was great.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
And thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Ki. Hopefully you learned something today that you will put into action, maybe start figuring out what's triggering your cell danger response, because pretty much most all of us went in over 40, have it and start doing something about it. Like Dr. Eric, Eric was talking about, looking at your food, looking at your sleep, looking at your breathing. The this is a place to start. Reach out and tell me about it on social media at Kyrin Dunston MD on Facebook and Instagram. I look forward to having and continuing the conversation with you there. And until next week when I'll see you for another episode, peace, love, and Hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (38:58):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, titled "See Ya Later, Ovulator: Mastering Menopause With Nutrition, Lifestyle, And Hormones"! In this enthralling episode, we sit down with the amazing Esther Blum, an all-around authority on conquering menopause with an integrative approach from a dietitian's perspective.
Esther Blum is an Integrative Dietitian who has made it her mission to help women navigate the whirlwind of menopause. With Esther's extensive experience and undeniable expertise, she has guided countless women through the challenging waters of hormonal changes in this significant life stage. Her presence isn't just felt with her clients—she's made appearances on the Today Show, ABC-TV, and has even taken on the role of menopause mentor for none other than Gwyneth Paltrow!
Throughout the episode, we dive into the depths of menopause, discussing Esther's background and her journey in becoming such a sought-after expert.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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Esther's wealth of knowledge, shedding light on how vital lifestyle, nutrition, and hormonal therapy can play a role in achieving optimal hormonal balance for women going through this phase.
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Esther's groundbreaking approach ensures that women can master menopause without the extreme stress and confusion it often brings.
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The essentials of a hormone-balancing diet, how to promote self-advocacy, and the role of therapy in this crucial phase of women's lives.
You'll be left with not only a better understanding of menopause but also equipped with tools to manage and thrive during this time.
Don't miss this enlightening and engaging episode filled with life-changing insights and actionable solutions for mastering menopause. Tune in to The Hormone Precription Podcast with our special guest, the esteemed Integrative Dietitian and Menopause Expert, Esther Blum, and embrace the journey through menopause with newfound confidence and understanding.
Speaker 1 (00:00): See you later, emulator and other Esther Blum is about menopause, nutrition, lifestyle and how to transform your life.
Speaker 2 (00:11): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:07): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today is passionate about menopause. She's passionate about nutrition, she's passionate about living a full life and she's got lots of wisdom to share. She's an integrated dietician by training for over three decades, but of necessity became a menopause expert and she's helped lots of women, thousands of women, in fact, through nutrition, hormones and self-advocacy. She's the author of several books. She's just really an advocate for women's health and to stop the gaslighting that's going on when it comes to women's hormones in healthcare. And she's wise beyond her years. I'll tell you a little bit about her and we'll get started. So, Esther Blum is an integrative dietician and menopause expert. In the last 27 years, she's helped thousands of women master menopause through nutrition, hormones and advocacy. She's the bestselling author of, see You Later, ovulators Need Women, don't Get Fat, eat, drink, and Be Gorgeous. Secrets of Gorgeous And The Eat, drink and Be Gorgeous. Project known as Gwyneth Paltrow's Menopause Mentor and by course for helping women thrive through menopause. Esther was also voted best nutritionist by Manhattan Magazine. She has appeared on the Today Show, a b C TV and Good Day New York, and is frequently quoted in Goop well and good Forbes and Time Magazine. Please help me welcome Esther Blum to the show. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:47):
So excited to talk about menopause always and nutrition and lifestyle and what I call all the things. I love the title of your book. So I'm wondering if we can start there. See you later. Ovulators
Speaker 3 (03:08):
Whatever. Yeah. You know what? It's funny. I literally saw online a woman who had had like a menopause or, or a hysterectomy party and she had these cookies with See You Later, ovulators on them. So I had used it as a subtitle for section or a chapter of the book and my publicist was like, no way man. That's gotta be the cover. Like, it's just so catchy and it was available. So I went with it. Okay. Yeah, it's really my homage to like get out like uterus and ovaries. You, you served me well. Thank you so much. Can we just wrap this party up now and can we be free of the monthly cycles and the cramps and the irritability and the bloating and the breast tenderness and the moodiness and the insomnia,
Speaker 1 (04:07): So you have been a dietician for a while, is that correct? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (04:12):
Almost three, almost three decades. I'm like a hundred now
Speaker 1 (04:16): You're a hundred. And so what changed your focus to menopause? Hmm.
Speaker 3 (04:22): It started because I worked in hospitals the first five years of my career. I actually started out working with wic, the WIC program at Boston City Hospital and then went to graduate school and got my master's in clinical nutrition and went back to hospital work, worked in cardiology units and, but started opening a private practice on the side and after about five years, I got certified in functional medicine. 'cause I was like, I'm really not making a difference, giving someone 10 minutes of diet instruction or working in the WIC office. Like, I was like, here's the benefits of high fiber beans and get your calcium from cheese. That there really, I wasn't making a difference. And so with functional mess and I wanted to get in at a more preventive level. And when I opened that, immediately menopausal women came into my practice and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm in my twenties.
Speaker 3 (05:15): I don't even know how to treat. So I certainly didn't know much about hormone replacement at the time, but I did know about whole food diets and intermittent fasting and really optimizing insulin sensitivity and weight loss, like stubborn midsection, weight loss and the cortisol belly. So I got to work with diet therapy then. And over the years, really there's been such an evolution in the research. I mean, since I've started practicing, you know, the North American Menopause Society has had two different position papers that Women's Health Initiative study was out there in the early days of my practice. And then since then it's been, you know, the guidelines have been updated. So it, I've seen a lot of changes in my trajectory through menopause.
Speaker 1 (06:05): Yes. Lots of changes. And so what are the biggest challenges? I mean, everybody listening, we talk about menopause a lot that you, you see with women and, and how has it evolved over time? So you, you went from nutrition, then you became functional medicine certified, and I know that you talked with women about hormones as well. And so how did that come into the picture? Yeah,
Speaker 3 (06:31): Well, because I really wasn't doing, you know enough, like when I'm not solving, I, I don't think about the people who I'm helping as much as the people who I'm not helping. And there comes a point for some women, diet and lifestyle makes a huge difference, right? You ditch alcohol, you cut back on caffeine, you clean out sugar, you're gonna help a woman resolve her hot flashes and improve her sleep and her blood sugar and weight loss and cortisol management. But will it help a woman with brain fog? Will it help a woman with severe insomnia? Will it help a woman maintain her bones? Not necessarily. There comes a point when it's really time to bring in hormones for that last piece of the pie. And I always say it's not the whole pie. Don't think hormones are, you can't out hormone your, your lifestyle. You can't out supplement your lifestyle. It's got to be a multifaceted approach. It has to be stress management is number one in menopause. It's really critical. Sleep, digestion, optimizing protein, getting your strength training in, getting your, your steps in every day, your supplements if needed. Then the hormones, it's multifactorial.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah, I love that You can't out hormone your lifestyle, but you also can't out lifestyle your hormones.
Speaker 3 (08:49):
Well that was another reason why I wrote see a later ovulators because I have 20 pages of studies in the back of the book that support the use and the importance of hormone replenishment or now it's called M R t, right? Menopause replenishment therapy. But I, well, no matter what you call it, you know, it's very intimidating to confront a white coat. I even gave my book to my doctor and of course she did not read it. But you know, my advice
Speaker 3 (09:42): And they said, well, you can either go on the pill or go on the I U D or have a hysterectomy. And I said, Nope, what else you got? And they said, take lots of ibuprofen. And I was like, wow, I'm kind of screwed here. So I'm right in the trenches with you ladies. This is why I wrote the book was to like tell all of our stories and understand that medical gaslighting is really not, it's not okay. And if a dietician is researching and accessing all these studies and your doctor is not, and your doctor's A G Y N, then that's lazy medicine. If your doctor isn't updating the standards of warnings on hormones, that's lazy medicine. So what you can say is this is, you know, hey, I know you're not very into hormones, but just let me try it for three months.
Speaker 3 (10:36):
Speaker 1 (11:48): Yeah. You know, I, I was laughing when you said your Dr. May say, yeah, I'm not that into hormones, which is kind of insane when you think about it. But literally that's what doctors are saying a lot of times to their patients without saying it. If you read between the lines, I'm not that into hormones. So yeah, that's actually why I created her hormone club. I don't even know, I don't think I mentioned to you, we created an all-in-one telemedicine solution for women to get bioidentical hormone testing and treatment with bioidentical estradiol EST trial, progesterone and testosterone. Nationwide in the United States we have board certified doctors in every state. So because people were not able to access this after I did the stop the Menopause Madness summit, we've now done three of them. Women said, we get it. We, we need hormones, where do we go?
Speaker 1 (12:41):
And we didn't have anywhere to send them. So one day I said, oh yeah, we need a telemedicine solution. And so I created it. So everybody listening there is access to this in your neighborhood. It may not look like what you're used to where you drive and find parking and sit with your butt hanging out in a little paper gown for an hour waiting to the doctor
Speaker 3 (13:14):
Could tell me more about this
Speaker 1 (13:20): Yeah. So we'll cover that. But in nutrition, what do you think is the most, what are the biggest issues you see for women in perimenopause and menopause with their nutrition and where do they have the biggest impact in those symptoms? If they're really gonna master their lifestyle to help master their hormones, where do they start?
Speaker 3 (13:44): So I have three menno laws for fat loss and they're very simple and very straightforward and completely doable for everybody. So number one is to optimize your protein intake. And most people think they're eating and enough protein without understanding the research. And this always upsets the vegetarians and vegans. But I'm telling you what worked for you in your twenties and thirties does not work in your forties, fifties and beyond. So, and it's challenging for women because a lot of times during perimenopause and menopause, the gut changes, right? The digestive fire really decreases our, we don't produce as much stomach acid. The lining of the small intestine changes as progesterone and estrogen declines. So what happens is we feel like a lot of people say, I can't eat so much meat. It feels so heavy and they really struggle. It's another layer to struggle to optimize protein.
Speaker 3 (14:42): But the research points that points to getting at least four ounces of protein at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or if you're intermittent fasting, it's more challenging. You know, I say get at least seven to eight ounces of protein if you can at a meal and then have a little snack in between. But basically you need a minimum of a hundred grams of protein per day to not only maintain muscle mass, but really to build it. And a lot of people will have, you know, an egg for breakfast and maybe like a couple shrimp on a salad for lunch crumb or crumbled up chicken or an an egg. And then dinner is like the big meal, the steak, chicken, fish. So we really need to distribute evenly. Your body needs a minimum threshold of four ounces of protein at breakfast, lunch, dinner in order for you to optimize your anabolic capabilities or your ability to build muscle and plain in English.
Speaker 3 (15:41): So that's something, just optimizing protein at breakfast is huge. So that can be done with a cup of cottage cheese, two eggs and two whites or two eggs plus some Turkey or ham or smoked salmon. A protein shake with two scoops of protein power. So if you're vegetarian you could do pea protein or you can do whey protein as well. So those are just some really simple easy strategies. Like just saying to someone, just add one more scoop of protein powder. They're like, oh, I can do that, no problem. Or just add a little more protein. What it does is protein raises serotonin and dopamine in the brain. So you're gonna offset your sugar cravings, you're gonna triple your energy and your mental focus and you're not gonna get the 4:00 PM crashes. So you will sleep better at night, again, crave less, better energy.
Speaker 3 (16:33): And building muscle won't be as hard as it is already in menopause. It can be harder. So that's mental law number one, mental law number two is to make sure that you flip your ratios. And what do I mean by this? Make sure that if you're getting a hundred grams of carbs a hundred grams of protein a day or 120, then your carbs fall 70 to a hundred grams. You, most of us, most of the women I see have much greater carb to protein ratios and we need to flip those and have protein outweigh carbs. Now the carbs I'm talking about are the starchy carbs, unlimited, ve you know, vegetables don't, I don't count those towards your carbs. They have fiber and water. They're not gonna, nobody's getting fat on spinach and artichokes here, right? Watch your portions of rice or potatoes or sweet potatoes or, but they're still very beneficial, which is my mental law number three, which is to eat carbs at night.
Speaker 3 (17:35): You know, protein by day, carbs at night. Why would I have you eat carbs at dinner? People think, oh my god, I'm gonna get so fat. That's ridiculous. You're far more insulin sensitive later on in the day than you are earlier in the day. And carbs again, you're gonna get a slight insulin bump even if you pair your carbs with a protein. And with vegetables, if you have, you know, a cup of sweet potatoes or quinoa or rice or lentils, yes your blood sugar will go up some and that tamps down your cortisol. So it really helps you sleep at night. And most people are like, wait, you're telling me to eat carbs? I get to eat more protein and feel less hungry. Like it's an abundance of riches at that point. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (18:20):
I was so surprised when you said that. Eat carbs at dinner. I know everyone's going Yes,
Speaker 3 (19:03): Yes. So the next level, okay, so those are like kind of the foundations for fat loss. But let's say you're like Esther, I'm not, I'm not hungry in the morning. Like a lot of my menopausal mamas just aren't even hungry in the morning. And so for those women, I really love intermittent fasting and there's three ways you can do intermittent fasting and why intermittent fasting just means really simply shortening your eating window. And it's really beneficial in resetting those insulin receptors because your body has to dig deep into your fat stores and it really resets your insulin receptors beautifully. So number one is you can start with a 12 hour fast. You finish your dinner by 7:00 PM you do not eat breakfast until 7:00 AM or later. That's like a really gentle fast. See how you do with that? Just cutting out nighttime eating can be very beneficial.
Speaker 3 (19:55): Then number two is you can really shorten your window to, you know, between 10 and six or 12 and six, getting, you know, a good six to eight hour eating window that also shreds body fat and can really offset. And you know, if you want like black coffee or tea in the morning, that's fine, just dough, add anything to it or so you don't break your fast. And then option three, which I love is the five two method. And that's where you eat normally five days outta the week and then two days out of the week, ideally not next to each other. You have 500 calorie days and a 500 calorie day is usually not eating during the day. And then you have a supper meal where you have like a chicken breast, a half cup of starch and two cups of steamed vegetables. And that also that really restricted eating just not only burns body fat but really helps reset insulin sensitivity.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah. The, the 500 calorie diet, if you can do it, I can't, I'd almost, I do better not eating at all
Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yes. Yes. And some women feel that way too and just wanna drink some bone broth or water. That's what, that's the thing, right? Is bioindividuality, like other women in my practice, cannot fast at all. It either triggers, you know, overeating later in the day, binge eating or disordered eating. So we don't wanna do that. Or if you're feeling just so shaky and irritable and you cannot even concentrate, it's probably not for you. Now if you fall in that camp, you're gonna need to eat more and move more. So most women I see have very stalled fat loss and kind of a sluggish thyroid. 'cause They've been chronically dieting like to the tune of nine to 1200 calories a day for years and years and years and they, the weight just isn't coming off. So mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (22:26): And you may say, well what's a heavy weight? Heavy weight is when it brings you to failure. After, you know, by the third set you can only do six to eight where you really just, your muscles just will not lift. And most of us are lifting far lighter than we need to be. We're a lot stronger than we think we are. So there's many ways to skin a cat. Some of my ladies, again, we diet them up, then we cut calories for a couple weeks, then we diet them up where we, we get them eating 15 to 1800 calories a day and they're losing weight. Other women do well with the fasting protocol. Other women do well just by bumping up their movement every day. So it's really, and and, and allowing yourself to be hungry, not snacking, you know, allowing four to five hours between meals and if you're hungry between meals, gotta bump up your protein. That's how you know you're not eating enough protein if you can't make it five hours between the meal.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yes. And the weights, talk a little bit about that. It's super important and most of us aren't doing any weights. Like we think it's all about the aerobics or we're not looking heavy enough. Weights,
Speaker 3 (23:54): Yes. Muscle is,
Speaker 1 (23:55): It's all about muscle mass. Yeah. Talk
Speaker 3 (23:57): About that. Muscle is the organ of longevity and ladies, you do not have the testosterone to bulk up. Okay? You're not Michael Phelps eating 5,000 calories a day and has the testosterone of a younger man. Even if you're using bioidentical testosterone, you're still getting a micro dose. You're not, you're not gonna look like a dude and what's gonna happen. And women will say, well I tend to bulk up. No, you're not cutting calories enough. If you're bulking up, you're probably eating too much. Even Arnold Schwartzenegger, at the height of his bodybuilding when he wanted to get lean, he cut down to 1500 calories a day. So you really have to think about your caloric intake and log your food if you think you're bulking up. So back to, so diet is 80% the weights yes, heavy weights. Some women will say four pounds is a lot.
Speaker 3 (24:55): And, and listen, you can do Pilates. I've done Pilates classes with four pound weights where my arms just instantly burned because the muscles are really isolated. But it will work the muscle. But if you really truly wanna build the muscle, then yes, you do need to build up to 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20 pounds, 30 pounds, you know it, you don't have to injure yourself or your joints. And you do it very slowly. Maybe you start off a month using, you know, five to eight pound weights and by the end of four weeks you're ramping up to eight to 12 pound weights. You're adding in one set worth of 10 pound weights, the first two sets where at eight pounds. So you can incrementally increase your weight or do one set as a warmup, a lighter weight, and get heavier weights with each progressive set.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yeah. I love lifting weights,
Speaker 3 (26:08): Yes it is. And believe me, if it's any consolation, like I don't enjoy lifting weights. I enjoy how I feel after, and I enjoy having my booty look good in a pair of jeans or my arms look good in a tank top. It's all, it's vanity. Whatever works for you, do it. Or just knowing like, hey, I wanna get up off the floor, you know, in my 60 seventies and eighties the way I did in my twenties and thirties. Or hey, I don't wanna break a bone. I've got family history of, you know, osteoporosis and I, I don't wanna go down that road. I wanna offset my hospital bills and you know, my sick time because falls and fractures are the leading cause of death in people over the age of 65.
Speaker 1 (26:50): Amen. And there's so much you can do to prevent that and we just think it's not gonna happen to us. Right, right. And the truth is it does happen to us. Yes. I'm wondering if you could talk about some of the most inspiring stories of women who are in perimenopause or menopause women you've worked with, you know, over the years who really stick in your mind. Because right now there are women listening to us talk who are sitting there going, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard all this diet, nutrition, weights. I feel like crap. My doctor can't help me. There's no hope for me. I am the exception. There's no answer and there's no
Speaker 3 (27:29): Hope. Oh yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:31): And what I want them to know is yes, there is, because I was that woman 20 years ago. Right now we are the light for those women. So can you talk about some of those most inspiring stories?
Speaker 3 (27:46): Yes. Okay. And you can see her testimonials. She gives a video on my website, esther blum.com. You can see both recorded and written. So first I'm gonna speak about my client, Julie, who when she came to me, had so much pain, so much inflammation, everything from reflux to horrible back pain. She was very overweight. She couldn't do any physical exercise or so she thought, and she drank like a sailor, I mean really heavily relied on alcohol to take care of her stress and depression, which please, it's not an antidepressant, that's for sure. It worsens the situation. So I was like, Julie, get in your pool. Get in your pool. Just start moving. Just start moving your body. Thank God she had a pool. Then we got her to add in protein, we got her to cut back on booze. We got her, you know, we added in some supplements.
Speaker 3 (28:45): We were very slowly and incrementally. She lost 40 pounds in a month just doing the most simple foundational. Now most people don't lose 40 pounds in a month. That's extreme. That's a lot, right? But so much of what she had was fluid retention and inflammation. So for her, it worked really well. She got her energy back, she decreased her back pain tremendously to the point where she converted her daughter's bedroom into a home gym and was able to lift and her husband came and lifted with her. So that was like a ginormous success story. Then I think of my client, Laura, who came to me, totally different, right? Laura didn't have a lot of weight to lose. She had about five pounds of vanity. She called 'em vanity pounds. She wanted to lose. And she had, she was a single mom and her son would always tell her she had halat ptosis.
Speaker 3 (29:40): And she was like, oh my god, I can't possibly date this way. And she was drinking wine and she was also not sleeping. And she, although she was a candidate, you know, we did her tests. And although she was a candidate for hormones, she really did not wanna use biodentical hormones. She wanted to conquer this through lifestyle. So I said, okay. So again, we ran her labs, I did some stool testing. She had a significant amount of h pylori, which is a bacteria that loves to shut off hydrochloric acid production in the gut. So it survives in a very alkaline environment. So she was having all this reflux because she didn't have the hydrochloric acid, she needed to kind of keep her pyloric sphincter shut. So we killed off the h pylori repopulated, her gut with stomach acid. Her bad breath went away. She, we also cleaned up her diet.
Speaker 3 (30:32): She, you know, again, we did have to clean out alcohol ladies, I'm not gonna lie, there's really no way around it. Alcohol doesn't do your body any favors. Even one drink a week is really disruptive to fat loss, blood sugar, and can keep you in an estrogen dominant state while your liver is trying to detox alcohol. It will detox alcohol long before estrogen. It's just the way it is. So anyway, we cleaned up Laura's diet. We gave her a lot of magnesium at bedtime and other calming nutrients. And her sleep greatly improved. She is in a long-term relationship and actually got engaged. She got rid of her halat ptosis and she, she lost five pounds. She got really lean and started lifting weights and really got very sinan and lean. So those are just two of my women. Again, their testimonials are on my website. So it is possible, it really, whether you wanna lose five pounds, whether you need to lose 75 pounds, pounds, it is possible. The greatest limiter is not your hormones. It's not your diet as much as your limiting beliefs around what you deserve to have and your commitment to yourself. That's really the rate limiting factor. It really is. Like talk,
Speaker 1 (31:51): Just talk a little bit more about that and how it's, how would someone know that you're talking to her that she has limiting beliefs?
Speaker 3 (31:58): Because we all have limiting beliefs. We've internalized messages that we heard when we were younger that made us feel not enough in one way or another. And so we have to really think about why we want something. Right? When someone wants to lose weight, I say, well, why do you wanna lose weight vanity? It really, I mean, vanity always comes up first, right? I wanna good my clothes, I wanna feel sexy and bad. I wanna feel confident. But then the why's go deeper. Like, I wanna be able to keep up with my grandchildren one day. I want a better quality of life. I watch my mother get sick and die from diabetes and have horrible neuropathy and not have a, not be able to travel and have fun in her life. It's really getting in touch with your why. Getting in touch with your beliefs about why you can't have those things.
Speaker 3 (32:48): 'Cause We can all, like the universe, pores a vacuum. The universe wants us to be abundant, understanding that we're not supposed to be fat, sick and broke. We're supposed to be rich in love and relationships and financially abundant, but also abundant in how we love on ourselves. And asking ourselves really like, yeah, I want a bar of chocolate. I want a bottle of wine, but is that gonna love me back? We know it's not right. So maybe I cut down to one square of chocolate a couple times a week. Maybe I put myself on a 90 day alcohol free challenge and maybe I experiment and see what's the harm in trying this? What will happen? Let me just observe objectively what's gonna happen to my body, my state of mind, and let me try taking, you know, two or three classes on an app or on YouTube or hiring a trainer and you know, just figuring out instead of saying like, I can't have this, flipping that on its head and saying, how can I make this happen?
Speaker 1 (33:56):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (33:57): How can I make this happen?
Speaker 1 (34:00): Right? I think it's so true and, and more it has to do with what we believe we can have and can we do it. And I think so many of us just cut off. We don't believe that it's possible for us. We believe we're, we're terminally unique and that we we'll never be successful. And that's why I wanted you to share those stories. Thank you for sharing them. Yeah. there so that people can hear what's possible for women who think that there's no hope. 'cause There is so much to be hopeful for, right?
Speaker 3 (34:30): Yes. And the other piece is really being so careful, and this is the greatest gift of midlife I have found, is being so careful who you surround yourself with. Because when you start to take on healthy diet changes and when you start to cut out alcohol, some people around you are probably not gonna like that. And the ones who don't like that are probably not gonna be your biggest supporters. They're like the bucket of crabs, right? You know the story about the bucket of crabs where, right. There's always a couple crabs at the top of the pile trying to crawl out of the bucket. They're like, I see it, I'm going for it. And then crabs at the bomb keep trying to pull those crabs right back down. So like, think about who you're surrounding yourself with. If you say to someone, oh yeah, I'm, I'm not drinking right now, not, I can't drink, I'm not drinking right now.
Speaker 3 (35:21): And somebody's like, come on, just one, it's not gonna hurt. That's not someone you wanna socialize with, right? You wanna socialize with the people who say, good for you. Great. I'll join you. Let's get a mocktail, let's get some club soda, whatever. Because it's, you have to one of my greatest tenets of success is surrounding myself with people who are far wealthier and successful and have a growth mindset, a way bigger growth mindset than me. That dream bigger than I ever even knew was possible. I'm like, oh, I never thought about that. Those are the people you're gonna need to clean house with these changes. And that's why I think also people are deeply terrified to change because they don't
Speaker 1 (36:01): Wanna, 'cause they're gonna let go.
Speaker 3 (36:03): They wanna let go of what feels very unsafe and very uncomfortable for them. Change is uncom,
Speaker 1 (36:09): Right? And these are, it is, but it is the only sure thing in life is change. And why not make it positive change if you have a choice. Esther, I thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom and experience with mastering menopause, with nutrition, lifestyle, and hormones. Your book, SIA Ovulate and all the other resources you've created for everyone.
Speaker 3 (36:34): I have a special offer for everyone here listening today, and that is to download my Happy Hormone cocktail. And you're gonna go to esther blum.com/cocktail and receive incredible ways to improve your sleep, fix your gut, and eliminate hot flashes during perimenopause and menopause.
Speaker 1 (36:56): Awesome. Thank you so much for that. We will have the link in the show notes, so don't worry about trying to write it down. If you're driving, we'll have it there for you. Where can people find out more about you and connect with you online?
Speaker 3 (37:07): Yes. So come hang with me on Instagram at Gorgeous Esther and get on my list. You will get Premier offers from me before the general public does, but also you're gonna get weekly cutting edge education on hormones, lifestyle, all the things we talked about today. So just join me@estherblum.com.
Speaker 1 (37:29): Awesome. We will look for you there. And thanks so much for the work you're doing and for the wisdom that you've shared.
Speaker 3 (37:35): Thank you so much,
Speaker 1 (37:37): And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Hopefully you've learned something today that you can put into effect to start making changes towards the brilliant health that you deserve. It is your birthright. I look forward to hearing about those on Instagram and Facebook, and I'll see you next week for another episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (38:01): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to another exciting and informative episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, specifically designed for midlife women! In today's episode, we are joined by the insightful and experienced Dr. Anoop Kumar. Dr. Kumar will discuss why we don't know what true health is, and most importantly, how we can create it for ourselves.
With a background in clinical medicine and mind-body integration, Dr. Kumar is a leading voice in the field of health and healthcare transformation. His unique perspective on health invites us to explore and redefine our understanding of wellbeing in a holistic manner.
During the podcast, Dr. Kumar explores:
- The concept of health as a holistic experience, encompassing physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing
- How the healthcare industry often focuses on the physical body, neglecting other crucial aspects of health
- The importance of integrating mind-body perspectives for a comprehensive understanding of human nature and unlocking true healing potential
Listeners will leave this episode feeling inspired and armed with practical tips for incorporating mind-body integrative approaches into their own health journeys.
Don't forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast for more valuable insights on health and wellbeing!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
“Health is the expression of human potential.” - Dr. Anoop Kumar. Find out in this episode why we don't know what health truly is and how to create it.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob-gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates our rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results, and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:06):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today, Dr. Anoop Kumar, is going to share some really progressive perspectives on health that really are essential to creating health. I mean, first off, most of us don't really know what true health is. We know what treating disease is, and we know what controlling disease is, but do you really know what true health is or how to create it? Well, Dr. Kumar does, and he's gonna share that with you today. He's gonna help you understand what's missing from your approach, what you're not considering, what you might not have thought of. And he has a very unique perspective and some very inspirational stories. And he's going to talk about how health is the expression of human potential without addressing that question directly.
Speaker 1 (02:00):
That's actually a quote I got from him. But I do agree that health is the expression of human potential. So see if you can read between the lines and give your own explanation of how health is the expression of human potential. After you give a listen and share your thoughts with us on social media, you can find me at Kyrin Dunston MD on Instagram and Facebook. I look forward to communicating with you. So I'll let you know a little bit about Dr. Kumar and then we'll get started. He is a leading voice for health and healthcare transformation, bringing clarity to the full spectrum of clinical medicine, MINDBODY integration and human potential. He is co-founder of Health Revolution, a company building a complete ecosystem for healing, beginning with the Health Jumpstart course and the Healing Is Possible podcast. He offers regular webinars featuring healing meditations and conversations on Big Picture Health. Dr. Kumar grew up experimenting with the philosophy of non-duality, eventually finding ways to integrate its comprehensive perspective of human nature with biomedical science. He is board certified in emergency medicine and holds a master's degree in management with a focus in health leadership. He is the author of Michelangelo's Medicine, and is this a dream? As well as of numerous articles, integrating mind body perspectives. Please help me welcome Dr. Anup Kumar to the show.
Speaker 3 (03:25):
Thank you. It's great to be here with you, Kyrin.
Speaker 1 (03:28):
So I think this will be an interesting conversation starting with, and maybe you can just start talking about this. Here's why we don't know what health truly is. I mean, I guess I'll first say that I think I know what health is, but I thought that, you know, I was learning how to help people create actual health when I went to medical school. Yeah. I wanted to help women to the best of my ability. So I looked around at all the options for the toolboxes that I could learn about and become educated in. And I said, oh, getting my MD medical doctorate will give me the biggest toolbox. Yes. So that's why I got my MD only to discover after over a decade of practicing that I probably didn't really know what health was when my own health failed. Yeah. So what's going on here?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well, so I would agree with you. When I went to medical school, I also saw that the way we're looking at human being is incomplete. I had a lot of background in philosophy and spirituality growing up. My parents were really heavily into that. So that was, in a way, my first education. My primary education was in those philosophical perspectives that I had been experimenting with in my life. And so, by the time I got to medical school and you know, we learned our anatomy and physiology and biochemistry and so on, I saw that we were learning a lot about a little, you know what I mean? So it's like we're basically taking the human being and looking at the human being through a relatively narrow lens and then studying that lens intensely. So there's a whole lot of knowledge, but it's about a narrow spectrum of being human.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
And I'll give you an example of let's say four or five things that I think limit our understanding of what health is. Let me first say that you mentioned that, you know, you feel like you know what health is. I think all of us know to some extent, so I'm not saying we have no idea. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
And at some point we turn to pathology, pathophysiology. And it's like after that there's no turning back. Most of what you learn, even through continuing medical education, is about pathophysiology, diagnostic frameworks, and then treatments for those diagnostics for those diagnoses. So I think the bend, the tendency of health, healthcare, and research in general kind of assumes that we know, yes, this is the human being anatomy and physiology, but now what's going wrong is where the research is. So I think that that general direction needs to be broadened so that we ask broader questions about health and human potential. And lemme just give you a few examples of that. Number one, what we consider as, let's say, the bedrock of clinical medicine is human anatomy, right? We define the human being in a particular way, and it's based on that map of the human being that we decide what's going well, what's not going well, and we make our diagnosing treatments.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
But in fact, a human body is not the same thing as a human being. And we know that because you can look at a living human being and you can look at a body that that is dead. And we know the two are different. There's something fundamentally different about them. And yet, when we try to model a human being, what we do is strictly talk about the body. So at some point centuries ago, we made the decision that when we modeled the human being, human anatomy, we're not gonna look at mind. We're not gonna look at subtler processes of the human being that have been documented in other cultures, such as in Ayurveda or in traditional Chinese medicine or in yoga. We don't look at chakras, we don't look at meridians. None of that stuff has a place in our model of anatomy. We simply look at physical structures, right?
Speaker 3 (07:13):
And to me, like this should be on the front page of the New York Times, that in different cultures, they literally have different models of anatomy for the same species. We're all the same species, as far as I know. And yet, despite that fact, different cultures have different models of anatomy, and we don't know what to do about it, and we ignore it. We don't even talk about it. We just say, well, that stuff doesn't make sense, or we don't get it. Or it's not important, despite the fact that based on your model, your diagnosis is made and your treatment is made. So if our models are incomplete, then naturally it follows that our diagnoses and our treatments are incomplete. Right? So I think there's a huge lack of curiosity in medicine as to, Hey, why don't we understand that? Rather than just brushing it off saying, why don't we understand it?
Speaker 3 (07:56):
How can we understand it? Well, how, what do we have to augment in our knowledge not to throw away what we know, but to augment what we know and include this other perspective? Right? So that's point number one is if you don't know the human being completely, if you don't model the human being completely, then we are not going to know what health is. We can only gonna know partial approaches, which is why we have a disease-based care, disease-based approach to health in mm-hmm
Speaker 3 (08:44):
You put a bunch of this together and, and that's how you get Karen, and that's how you get a new, and that's how you get everybody, right? And what's crazy is that after fourth grade or so, which is some fourth or fifth grade, whenever we did that first, or heard about that first, our understanding of what we're made of never advanced. So you can go to high school, you can go to graduate school, you can go to medical school, you can do fellowship, you can do C M E, and what we are made of that understanding never advances. It's still, yeah, a bunch of little balls and sticks, right? Which is mind boggling.
Speaker 3 (09:25):
So we learn more about molecular models and how they interface and intracellular communication, but when you go down to the bottom, it still balls and sticks. It never went beyond fourth grade or fifth grade, right? Right. And the thing is, if you ask somebody, if you ask a doctor, ask a scientist what a human body is made of, we'll say, well, it's made of organs. What's that made of? It's made of tissues. What's that made of? It's made of cells. Then you get down to macromolecules and then molecules, then you get to atoms, subatomic particles, and finally you get to the smallest bits of matter that we know, which are called elementary particles. And you know what's crazy, Karen? After that, everybody stops asking questions. It's like, until then we always act, what's that made of? But what's that made of? But what's that made of?
Speaker 3 (10:08):
But once you get to elementary particles, it's like the room goes dark, right? Right. And that's because then you get into quantum physics and you get into a different kind of topic. And in medical school, you know, we don't touch that stuff. So it's, the answers get too difficult for us to understand. I mean, even, even among physicists, there's so much interpretation as to what quantum physics is actually telling us. That's still up in the air as to what it's actually suggesting about life and about being alive and about human beings. So nevermind in medicine, we don't even go near that stuff. So we just say, you know what? Balls and sticks good enough for me, we're done. Right? But in fact, we know that when we get into that, that these tiny particles that the body is constituted from are actually local vibrations in non-local fields of energy.
Speaker 3 (10:54):
And to that, we say, what I don't know what to do about that. That's not in my framework. That's not in the philosophy. I was taught by the way, we were all taught philosophy. We just, we weren't taught, we weren't told we were taught philosophy, right? And so we don't ask that question, but that's the truth. At a fundamental level, we do not know what the human body is made of. And that should be shocking to most people because the idea is that in medicine we know so much. But even such a fundamental question, we don't know. And for the most part, we don't think it's important because we believe all the stuff is subatomic, atomic, and on beyond that. But I think there's a clear link, a very distinct link between the fact that we don't know the fundamental nature of the body. And we also see ourselves completely, the two are very linked.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Let me keep moving here. Point number three as to why, you know, we don't know what health is, is we don't know what the mind is. So neither do we know what the body is fundamentally made of, but the mind itself is not an object of inquiry in medicine, right? You and I know that biomedical science is based on the idea that subatomic particles and elementary particles are primary. They're fundamental. And that's what we need to know about and their interactions. And we can derive all understanding of health disease treatment from that. That's the idea. Nowhere in that picture is mine. And if you ask somebody, well, where does it go? Where does this idea of mind go? How can we fit that into your model of anatomy? What we say is, well, it's this little poofy cloud that comes out of the brain, right?
Speaker 3 (12:20):
We all learn that when we're watching cartoons, right? When it's like loony tunes or the somebody's chasing somebody else and they hit 'em in the head and see the circles and the stars, where you see the puff of clouds, that's like a thought it, we're basically teaching philosophy. We're basically saying that it is the brain that creates thoughts or creates this little cloud that we call the mind. But of course, that's a philosophical opinion. It's not a scientific fact. And there are ways to look into that that can actually suggest even other ideas. Like for example, the brain itself could be a representation, a mental representation. That's just another philosophical perspective that is still entirely consistent with science. What gets me Kiran is that despite the fact that mind is not really the domain of biomedical science, despite the fact that we don't know what the mind is, and there's nothing like the encyclopedias on mine that exist in other cultures in biomedical science, despite that we have the audacity to diagnose mental illness and talk about mental health at length.
Speaker 3 (13:21):
And I think we really go wrong here. We tend to conflate suffering and confusion and difficulty with something like a disease. And then what we try to do is map that to neurotransmitters. And then we have this whole, you know, serotonin, serotonin hypothesis, dopamine hypothesis, and so on. I'm not denying that there are correlations between serotonin and dopamine and mental states, but to say that those are primary or going via the brain and via neurotransmitters is the way to address mind and the health of the mind is again, I think a mistake and a limitation. And I'll just touch on one more point. So we've touched on some critical things. Number one is that we don't really study health, we more study disease. Number two, we don't understand what the body's fundamentally made of Number three, we don't know what the mind is. Number four is that there are people healing from all kinds of diseases all around us, and we don't talk about it, or we don't print it in journals, right?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
We don't write these up. And yeah, I think you and I both know that cuz we're both kind of operate in that field. I've interviewed so many people for my healing as possible podcast who have healed from everything that you're not supposed to heal from, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, advanced cancer, severe heart disease that was supposed to get bypass surgery and on and on and on. Severe diabetes type two diabetes, but severe type two diabetes. And so if that's the case, if people are healing from all of these conditions, then why is it that a lot of us don't know about it? Why is it that we doctors don't really know about it? Well that's, that's because number one, people don't like to talk about it because there's so much stigma around saying, well, that's unscientific, or there's no real evidence for that. But what happens is this is the self-fulfilling prophecy because we don't write up the case studies, we don't publish them nearly to the extent that they're happening.
Speaker 3 (15:08):
And then we turn around and call them anecdotal and we say, oh, it's a, it's a unique or it's a miracle, or it's by chance. But we're kind of making that happen because we're not talking about it and we're not writing it up. And what I realized that really blew my mind is that because we are not talking about these, what's happening is that our prognosis are really inaccurate, right? The denominator of all the cases we're looking at is insufficient, because included in that denominator is not all the cases of healing that are happening by means that are outside of medicine. So that's another reason we don't know what health is. And finally, I would say the biggest one is that we have confused complimentary medicine and conventional medicine, right? This is the biggest one. And I would ask everybody to really focus on this cuz this is the most powerful one.
Speaker 3 (15:56):
I think we tend to believe that everything other than what we call modern medicine is complimentary medicine, right? So traditional Chinese medicine, ida, yoga, meditation, lifestyle changes, all of this is complimentary medicine. And we believe that modern medicine is, is conventional medicine. And by that we mean generally in terms of treatment, it's pills and procedures, it's pills and surgeries are the predominant or IV medications are the predominant medicine in conventional medicine, or rather in modern medicine. And I think we have entirely inverted that we've gotten it completely backwards, right? And, and here's why. The real complimentary medicine is modern medicine, because it's supposed to be used as and when the person is getting sick or they need some intervention. Whereas all of these other systems are designed to sustain and enhance life, right? Complimentary medicine is by definition that which is complimentary. If you take away pills and surgeries, for most people, they're gonna be okay.
Speaker 3 (16:55):
They're at least going to live. And many will do quite fine without that. But if you take away what is primary nutrition, movement, connection rest from people, a human being can't live. That's the fundamental sustenance that human beings have lived on for millennia since we've been here. Right? So that is the true conventional medicine by convention, nutrition, movement, connection, and rest. What I call the four engines. Activating these four engines is what facilitates health and healing period for millennia. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (17:47):
Whereas to use it appropriately is to use it as needed when things come up as a compliment to the four engines of nutrition, movement, connection, arrest. So I say, you know, I'm emergency medicine, I work as an ER doc, I was working on the front lines during the pandemic. Emergency medicine is like bread and butter, allopathy and nothing else, right? It's, it's hardcore allopathy, hardcore biomedical science. And I say, right by virtue of that, I'm a complimentary medicine doctor, okay? Because if you use me as primary medicine, that's a problem. And the difference between me and primary care, of course there is a difference. But it's the same ideology, it's the same biomedical science, it's the same philosophy. And it's not a philosophy and a science that is suited for everyday care and sustenance. It's suited as a compliment to nutrition, movement, connection, and rest. So these are, okay, I've talked a lot. I've given you a few big points here as to why we don't know what health is.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
All right? So I know everybody listening is a little overwhelmed right now because a lot of these concepts are really new to them, and you had a lot of new ones. So everybody listening, just breathe. Take a big breath in, let's all do it together, end through your nose and let it out through your mouth.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
And now we're telling people you're in water. Like it's telling a fish. You live in water and the fish would go, what? Water? What are you talking about? Right? And so it's kind of this waking up process that has to happen that everybody's on a different journey with on a different timeline. Yes. And I wanna help them to understand. So I agree with you, this issue of quantum physics, right? We stop asking, but I do think the science has bridged this next level, but medicine just, it's kind of here. No evil, see, no evil speak no evil. They're like, no, no, no, no, I don't wanna hear it. I don't wanna hear it. I don't wanna, I don't wanna think about the things that I don't know. Yes. So can you ta talk a little bit about maybe some information that would, you know, you stated very matter of factly that Ayurveda traditional Chinese medicine, right? All of these ancient belief systems are valid, but to most people they've been told that's not true.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (20:42):
Okay, good question. What can you say to people that bridges that gap between we're just sticks and balls connected. Yeah. And we are quantum physics that says that these ancient healing tools are valid, and we're more than Newtonian anatomy help them understand, right?
Speaker 3 (21:02):
Sure. Great question. So what everybody in the audience I invite you to understand and take a deep breath and consider, is that all the experts that are talking about how we're primarily this, or primarily atoms, if there are I, I think many experts say otherwise, but the belief that we are these primary primarily atoms that we're made up of this physical matter, et cetera. This comes from unexamined philosophy. And this is really important to understand. So we as physicians, we don't take in-depth philosophy classes. And all of you in the audience, I'm guessing the vast majority of you have not taken in-depth philosophy classes. And yet, despite that, both you and I were indoctrinated, as Kiran says a perfect word in a way of thinking. That said, physical stuff is the main stuff that matters. Nobody told you that, you know, Mrs. Jones didn't sit you down in first grade and say that, but everything we do is based on that, right?
Speaker 3 (22:00):
It's like, look at how things are made of, let's dissect the frog, let's dissect the leaf. What are we looking at? The physical stuff. Think about when you were a baby, right? When did your parents applaud you? When did they praise you? It's when they said, this is your nose, this is your shoulder, this is your stomach. And you were able to pair at that and they said, yay, congratulations. Yay. Look at Jamie. Or look at Jamie, look at Jose. Right? So all the, the adoration that we get, the kudos that we get, the awards that we get, everything is based on attending to physicality. Now, contrast that with your experience. I would bet that most people in the audience right now are not primarily aware of your body right now. You're not aware of your fourth toe right now, you're likely not aware of your heart, you're not aware of your liver, you're not aware of your neck unless you have some pain there.
Speaker 3 (22:50):
Or you had some recent issue. For the mass majority of vast majority of people, the majority of our attention is not on the physical body. It's in our minds. So for example, you may be experiencing, you may be thinking, Hmm, that's interesting. You may be experiencing curiosity, you may be experiencing doubt. Oh, I don't know, that doesn't quite make sense to me. Or you might say, huh, that's something to think about. Or you may be kind of buzzing, like, oh, this is really inspirational. All of these are happening in the mind. And by default, the vast majority of people are experiencing the mind the vast majority of the time. And yet in medicine, there is no model for mind. There's no mental anatomy, there's no mental physiology, there's no clear explication of how the mind relates to the body and why there's no exploration of other cultures and other philosophies that discuss this in detail.
Speaker 3 (23:36):
So right there, you can see this is like two ships passing at night, right? One is a body centric physical perspective, and another one is how we live our lives, which is mostly through our experiences. In fact, you can say that the two most significant experiences in anybody's life are love and pain or love and fear, or love and suffering. And they're both mental experiences, right? And yet there's no model for that in medicine. So what I wanna first do is draw your attention to this huge body mind chasm that exists in medicine. And secondly, I'd like to tell you that doctors, scientists, et cetera, are trained for the vast majority of their, at least for the first, let's say 18 to 30 years of their life, the same way you were in terms of philosophy. We've learned the exact same philosophy, which is that the body is what matters.
Speaker 3 (24:27):
You get kudos when you talk about the body. You get medals and awards for talking about the body. And if you talk about the mind too much, you're kind of strange, right? And, and that's alternative
Speaker 3 (25:24):
It's something like if you had a, an infinite bedsheet, suppose you had a bedsheet that was so big, you could stretch across the whole earth, right? Actually stretch beyond the whole universe. But let's just say the earth for now. And this vast bedsheet, you could kind of push, you could poke on one side of the bed sheet and you could see it sticking out on the other side, right? You can kind of see this, this dent in the bed sheet. That dent is like a particle. Now that is no different than the entire bed sheet. It's the sheet itself locally behaving as a vibration or a dent or a wrinkle that we say, Hey, look, there's a wrinkle and we ignore the entire bed sheet. That's what's happening today in medicine. We're looking at the particles and ignoring the fact that what a particle is is nothing but a local vibration in a vast field of energy, right?
Speaker 3 (26:08):
And we totally leave that out because we don't know what to do do with that. And I say that the reason we don't know what to do with that is because we are locked in this philosophy that says body and particulate stuff is what is most important. Can I go one step further here, Karen? Sure. Go ahead. This, just bear with me here. This may be, we're just gonna go off the deep end just for fun. Okay? All right. Okay. I want to explain to you one hypothesis, one way of trying to understand why that is, how all of this makes sense. How can a small particle be actually this infinite field of energy? How does that make sense? How does that reconcile with what we know now? And here's what I would suggest to you. Okay? Imagine that you are with a friend going for a Sunday drive.
Speaker 3 (26:51):
Okay? You're in, you're in the car, you're going for a drive, and your friend is talking to you and, and imagine this is a dream. So you're sleeping at night, you're having this dream where you and your friend are going for a drive, and your friend is saying, man, I heard this podcast today. And there was some crazy stuff that we were talking about, right? Somebody was saying that these little bits that were made of, you know, like cells and particles. Yeah, yeah, I know that. Okay. Somebody was saying that those little bits are actually just vibrations in a huge field of energy. Can you imagine that? So in the dream, this person's saying, so like this little thumbnail, if I take a little bit of it and I could somehow hold up a little particle of that, they're saying that that's actually this whole thing, everything that's happening around us, the car, the Sunday drive, the sun, even the other planets, isn't that wild?
Speaker 3 (27:34):
How can that be? Doesn't make any sense. Now, within that dream, it doesn't make sense, right? But let's say we step outside that dream, as you and I are now, we're now outside the dream and we're looking in on that dream that they're having. And what we see is that the little particle that that person in the dream was talking about when they tried to look into what it is, what they found is that it was made of that entire field that the entire dream was made of. Well, what was the dream made of? It was naturally, it was mind, right? A dream is literally made of the mind. That is what a dream is. The mind represents itself as characters, as space, as time, and as little bits of matter. And so it only makes sense that if in that dream people try to look into the smallest thing and really find out with the most rigor, the most determination, the most scientific accuracy.
Speaker 3 (28:23):
And if they really do that and try to find out what that particle is, they're going to find out that there's no such thing as a particle. Because the entire thing is mined. There are no definite boundaries in that dream other than the boundaries superimposed by the mind. So every little thing in a dream, whether it's a rock or a hammer, or whether it's a thought in the dream, or whether it's water or something soft, when you look into it deeply enough from a scientific perspective, if we're good with our science, it will have to show us that that tiny thing is not actually something tiny, but something vast that is representing itself as something tiny. And I think that is what quantum physics is telling us. And that's why we cannot accept that in medicine. We're so wedded to the idea that the physical stuff creates the mental stuff, that the brain creates the mind. We cannot consider the inverse opinion, which is that mind or consciousness is fundamental, and it represents itself as these physical particles and on up as they build up into atom's, molecules and the body,
Speaker 1 (29:25):
Right? Yeah. But it is kind of insane when you think about it. Consciousness. How can you assess health or talk about health without addressing consciousness? But that is the very earth on which health doesn't want to tread. And I don't know if that goes back to when there was separation of church and state made. At some point that decision was made. And so we are living the results of the decision to kind of excise spirituality, excise consciousness from health. So I think it's important that we're having the conversations that you are discussing. And you mentioned earlier when you were talking about the four aspects, that there are no writeups on people healing. Yes. People heal in, in what we call miraculous ways every single day. Yes. But it's, yes, it's considered anecdotal. And so the very yardstick by which we measure scientific validity, the doubleblind placebo controlled trial, yes, you can't have, but science does just discount these anecdotes and say, oh, that's anecdotal and that's spurious. And it's not consistent. So, but we never question and say, wow, that we created that yardstick by which we're measuring everything and we just discard everything. That's not doubleblind placebo control trial proven, right?
Speaker 3 (30:51):
Yes, 100%. And, and the thing is, as long as we can say it's miraculous or unusual, we don't have to really pay attention to it. That's the catch 22 is like, on one hand it sounds amazing, it's like, wow, what a miracle it happened. But what we don't say is, well, that happened to a hundred other people too, but we just don't talk about it, or we don't know about it. And we don't create an environment where people want to talk about it. If we were really scientists, if we were really interested in helping people heal, we would create a database. That'd be the first thing that NIH would do, right? Here's a database, super easy to use, what was the diagnosis? How did it heal? And then an investigator would call you, how did you do it? Research it. And we would have hundreds of thousands of cases of these around the world, and we would very quickly get to what is it that helps? And I can guarantee you it's gonna be nutrition movement, connection, arrest, it's gonna be factors along those lines. Because no matter who is healed, it's always some combination of these. But we don't do that. So as long as we don't do that, we can keep saying it's anecdotal or it's miraculous. And I think that's where we do a disservice to the public.
Speaker 1 (31:51):
Yeah, I agree. And I, I really like how you talked about that we confuse complimentary and conventional medicine, but the real complimentary is modern mess medicine. Yes. The pills and procedures, but that the conventional medicine really is food connection cetera. Yes. And that's really what doctors should be focusing on. Yes. So how can, can you tell people maybe how they would get started? Because I love that concept with their own practice of conventional medicine, but things would they start paying attention to. Yes.
Speaker 3 (32:26):
So we actually have a chorus called the Health Jumpstart Chorus on our website. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (33:14):
But every expert will say less processed food is another way of saying food. That's not really food, right? So eat real food, cut out processed food. And then the other thing is a plant predominant diet. So plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Now, beyond that, there's all kinds of customization that a person can do. But I will tell you, Kiran, I think you'd probably agree that if we just did that, the number of diseases that would go away by simply cutting out processed foods and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables is monumental. So that's monumental. That's beginning of nutrition. Another huge part of nutrition is what you and I are doing now, Kira. And that is telling a better story, nutrition for the mind, right? To Uhhuh, to really give people the story. What is true, what is to be looked at? What do we need to assess more closely?
Speaker 3 (34:00):
And what is the big picture here that ties all of this together, right? This time that we're in, what's happening in health and healthcare? What's happening in the world? What's happening to our power? How we can get our power and our independence back? What is that big story? And that's what we really like to tell at Health Revolution is a big story of what's going on and how we need to take our power back by activating these four engines of nutrition, movement, connection, arrest. Because that's really how you start to it. It's almost like living your life in advocacy for yourself, right? Because it's when the health starts to suffer, it's when we become dependent on other systems that are incomplete and that that take disease based approaches to care. That's when things start to get difficult. So number one is taking that power back, which every person can do, no matter what their situation is by activating these engines.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
So nutrition for the body, nutrition for the mind movement is manyfold movement. Of course, exercise is there, but I don't wanna limit to exercise, right? Because not everybody has to exercise in the same way. I say range of motion itself is powerful. If you have a joint, use it. You know, when you get up in the morning, every single joint, take it through its full range of motion. I do it even my, like, let's say my index finger, my d i p, my distal joint of my index finger, which we generally might not use. I'll flex it and extend it. Why? Because I have it. It's there, it's moment matters. So, you know, move your eyes all up and down, rotate them around, rotate them side to side, you know, move your neck, basically use that full range of motion. It gets the blood circulating, it gets your energy flowing and you just feel more vital when you do that.
Speaker 3 (35:41):
That's one aspect of moving the body. The other huge one is moving the breath, right? Rather than the shallow breathing that comes from the neck up, the full breath using the diaphragm, right? That that expands the trunk fully and kind of, and livens the whole body. The breath is so vital by the way, because it is probably the single biggest thing that connects what we call the mind and what we call the body in the er. You can, you can be, you can bet that if somebody's breathing fast and shallow that they're anxious, right? Even before you see them. If you look at the respiratory rate, you can tell fast and shallow equals anxious, slow and deep equals restful, right? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (36:45):
To interrupt you, but you just reminded me of a story. When I was a resident ob gyn one day there was a patient
Speaker 3 (37:21):
Speaker 1 (37:27):
Stop doing it. Yeah. And the problem went away. And it was very interesting. I really think that she was anxious. Yeah. So to your point, I think she was anxious and so she was shallow, rapid breathing. Yeah. Yeah. And when I just brought her mind to it, she stopped. Yeah. And problem solved. But how many of those problems could be solved if we paid better attention? But I agree with you about the breath.
Speaker 3 (37:51):
I agree. And, and we see that in the ER too. You know, and sometimes, sometimes I have the time to sit there with a person and they might be coming in with tachypnea or they feel short of breath or they feel chest discomfort. And sometimes you can talk to them and if you have enough time, you kind of hear what's going on in their life, what's stressing them out. And sure enough, mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (38:36):
But you know, knowing that and considering that is critical. So that's movement of the breath. The other two kinds of movement kirin are moving our emotions. I, you know, I cannot tell you how many people I've heard have healed from conditions by moving their emotions. And again, this goes back to if you think that the brain creates the mind and emotions and therefore there's some strange link somewhere, it's not so clear. But if you subscribe to another philosophy that is still entirely scientifically consistent, which is that consciousness is fundamental and matter or body is its representation, then mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (39:49):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
Yeah. Well you know, I can tell you my story. There's definitely a point in my life where I had to, on my own journey, I had to feel emotions that I had held in for so long. And that really changed, you know, everything about my life in a way. One story that comes to mind is when I was in medical school, the backstory is that I was born in, in DC in the United States and we moved back to India for a few years. So I lived there when I was a small kid for a few years and stayed with my grandmother for a little while, was very close to her in Guerra, in South India. Living in the village, you know, running around barefoot and just having, having a ball all the time. And then we moved back to the United States and have lived here since then.
Speaker 3 (41:23):
But I was very close to her. And at some point when I was in, I think, I think it was about ninth grade or so, my grandmother passed away in India. And I never really had that chance to mourn cuz it had been so long since I'd seen her intermittently, but never spent that much time with her again. And, you know, it was kind of just felt kind of disconnected. And I was also very much in my head thinking about so many things, ninth grade. And then med school came around later. And by that time in medical school around that time, I was going through a lot of changes. Just in my own experience. I was getting into meditation, a lot of changes were happening within myself. And I remember one night I heard the song, and it's a, the language that we speak is, is called Maam, it's A Language in South India.
Speaker 3 (42:04):
And it was a mala song. And the meaning of the song says it is goes like this, it says, you know, without saying anything, you went away. Do you still remember me? And so I heard that and it just like, it hit me like in my core, like in the depths of my heart. And I felt like my grandmother was saying that to me, you know, like, you know, like, you were here, you were living with me and then you just up and went to the US and you know, do you still remember me? Not in an accusatory way, but like, just in a loving way. Oh, do you remember me? You know, I'm your grandma. And of course I did remember her, I still felt very close to her. I still feel close to her now. But I had kind of, you know, intellectually built a wall so that I wasn't experiencing that.
Speaker 3 (42:49):
But when I heard this song, it all came flooding back. And I think I spent, I don't know, two or three, four hours keeping that song on a repeat and bawling my heart out for hours that night. I was literally, I've never cried like that in my life. I was literally on the floor in the fetal position with these deep earthen sobs coming out. And it was intentionally on repeat that I was doing that. And I can tell you that after that, that released so much in me that allowed me to continue on my journey. You know? And I know that if I had not done that, that that certain hardness or that tension that I kind of knew was there, but I also was kind of ignoring that could never have been released. And I know that down the line leads to that dise, that dis hyphen ease leads to disease in so many ways.
Speaker 3 (43:41):
And so, you know, one story I can tell you was the story of Crohn's disease. Somebody, I talked to somebody who, who we interviewed, she, she's on the Healing is Possible podcast, you can check out the full story. But the story was that when she was a kid, she felt like the only time she could get attention from her parents is when she was sick. They worked, I think she lived on a farm and she was always working, her parents were always working and she always had to do things. I never felt like she could just rest, you know, take time and just rest and be a kid. And when she did this hypnosis session, this all came back to her. Right? And so what came to her is like, that's the only time I could rest. And it's almost like her body was in a sense making her sick so that she could rest or get that rest.
Speaker 3 (44:23):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (45:10):
I don't need that anymore. And literally after that session, she stopped having any symptoms. And it's been five years or so now. So a classic example of how the body presents something that's in the mind. I'll give you one more example, which is with ulcerative colitis, another inflammatory bowel disease. This was a guy who's a psychotherapist in New York City. He's also on the Healing As Possible Podcast. This story, he was actually helping people get off of medicine and get better without being as dependent on medicine when he could do it safely. But he was super stressed out. He was always thinking about them even on vacation. He was thinking about them because obviously that's a, it's a critical function and you have to get that right, otherwise people can really suffer. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (46:00):
And at some point when he was on vacation super and then he, some point he started having chronic diarrhea and fevers and infections and doctors put him on all kinds of medicine. You know, first it was prednisone, then other steroids, then immunosuppressants. But he was still having diarrhea and it was getting worse and worse and worse, abdominal pain. And finally they said, you know, we have to look at resection again. We have to look at cutting out part of your bowel. And he's like, this is insane. I'm young, I'm healthy, I'm an athlete. Like I don't understand how this is happening. I need to, I just gotta do something about this. So while on vacation stressed out, he said, I think I know what this is. I just don't feel good about what I'm doing. I'm too stressed out all the time. I wanna do what I wanna do.
Speaker 3 (46:40):
And he said he'd made the hardest decision of his life, which is to quit that job. And he wasn't sure about financial security and to get on a plane to, I think it was Europe that he went to. And he said it wasn't just the money, he was worried about being incontinent on the flight cuz he was going 15 times a day or more. And he said that happened. He had to suffer that on the plane. It happened over and over and over. But then he said, A new a funny thing happened once I made that decision, my diarrhea went down from 15 times a day to eight times a day. And then another month hap went by and it was four times a day and another month went by and it totally stopped. And today he has zero symptoms on no medication. This is a guy who was told he was going to have bowel resection within the next few months.
Speaker 3 (47:22):
And the only thing he's changed was stopping that job. Now was it easy? Of course it's not easy. There're not a lot of people who would make that decision. Where's the money gonna come from and, you know, how are you gonna suffer that plane trip? But you know, I think it's a, it's a commentary on our society that we put people in such difficult situations about their health that we don't say, you know what, you need six months, here you go. But these are ways, clear examples of how the body, I'm sorry, how the mind and the hormones and neurotransmitters associated with certain activities can stimulate inflammation in the body by creating a chronic state of inflammation through increasing the circulating cytokines in the blood. And that chronic inflammation then leads to conditions including heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and many other things.
Speaker 1 (48:08):
Right. Wow. Those are great examples. I think everybody should check out your podcast for sure. We'll have a link to it in the show notes and then we'll also have a link to the course that you have for everyone. The Three Minds Course. Yes. And so tell everyone about the Three Minds Course and where they can find you online.
Speaker 3 (48:28):
Okay. So the Three Minds Course is actually the free course. And that is, if you really want to dive into this possibility of consciousness being fundamental and matter of being its representation, this is the course. It's an entirely new way of seeing yourself and seeing the world that again, is entirely consistent with science. So it takes you through, you know, what is the first mind, what is the second mind and what is the third mind? That's the first part of the course. And then really gets into the analysis. You know, how does that make sense? What does it mean? What are some examples of that? And then it goes through some of the science that, that supports this, how we can use the current science and say, okay, I can see how this actually supports this model of the world. So you can find that at, if you go to health revolution.org/courses, you can go and click on the Three Minds Course and the other course that's there, of course the Health Jump Start course that teaches a person to activate their four engines.
Speaker 1 (49:24):
Awesome. Thank you for those resources. Thank you for this very important discussion that people need to hear about really why we don't know what true health is or how to achieve it. And giving them insight into the true conventional medicine. The, the four aspects of it. Yes. How they can get started with that. And really the importance of starting to understand the mind, what it is and how to work with it to help your health so that you can heal because healing is possible. What are some of the, of the other great stories they're going to hear on your podcast?
Speaker 3 (50:02):
There is a story of Liz, who is an I C U nurse who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Even initially was not so sure. And then she had the classic features on M R I that was found to be multiple sclerosis and was going down the usual treatment route was getting worse and worse and worse. And then she did a combination of things, different aspects of nutrition, movement, connection, and rest. And by changing that, by meditation, by changing what she ate, she found, I forgot the exact words. Words that she used. I think she said she could push the disease right. In the sense that she could feel it coming on. And then when she played with certain levers in her life, she could kind of push it away and stay symptom free. So that's a great story. Another's a story of Emily.
Speaker 3 (50:51):
Emily was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, I think, I believe she was in her thirties maybe, if I'm not mistaken, and got to a point where it was so severe that she couldn't hug her kids. And you know, she just heartbreaking, heartbreaking to, to, to tell her to hear her story. When she tried to hug them, she would feel so much pain in her body. And she's like, I can't do this. And she was on immunosuppressants and so many meds. And then she started to read and open her mind. And again, nutrition for the mind, hear that healing is possible, consider other perspectives, try some new things. And she told her doctor, she's like, I don't wanna be on this medicines. I have to, I need to try to heal this. And her doctor, her doctor said, Emily, you're gonna be in a wheelchair by the time you're 40, which I frankly think is cruel.
Speaker 3 (51:36):
You know, I wasn't there. I don't know the context, but I just think that's not the right thing to say to somebody. You know, you, we can have our opinions, but I think we support our patients in what they want and we tell them what we know. But to, I, I think that's a criticism that, that we need to stay away from regardless. Emily went on this journey and now is nearly symptom free, but she's way past, well, I wanna say way past where I take that back. She's definitely past 40 and she's not on any medication and she feels great most of the time. So that's another story. I'll give you one more powerful one. This is a story of Dr. Jimmy Conway, who's an orthopedic surgeon in, I wanna say Louisiana. No, not Louisiana, in Oklahoma City, I believe. He said, you know, he grew up, you know bacon, eggs, sausage, you know, every meal, something like that, heavy meats.
Speaker 3 (52:27):
And he said, he actually said that I knew I was gonna die, is what he said at some point. Or I knew something was gonna happen to me. But, you know, he was just on this lifestyle and then doing surgeries and just going at it full speed. And one day he had some left arm pain went in sure enough, had the angiogram and he's got multi-vessel disease. And he sees the cardiac surgeon standing over him, who was actually somebody he knew from medical school who said, Jimmy, you need to have bypass surgery in the next couple days, otherwise you're not gonna make it. And you know, his, basically his life is staring him in the face. So he goes home and he's getting ready for it. And obviously, you know, no exercise, nothing to, to stress your heart out in the meantime. And he comes across his book, how to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr.
Speaker 3 (53:18):
Caldwell Esselstyn. And he starts reading it, and then he gets inspired and he calls a surgeon and says, Hey, I'm canceling the surgery. The guy says, are you crazy? You're not gonna make it. He says, I can't do it. I need to try this. And he switches to a plant-based diet. And I can tell you that that's what, over 10 years ago, I think. And he is totally symptom free right now. And for people think that heart disease, I want, it's important for people to understand that heart disease is reversible. Not every single case, but in many cases, and Jimmy was one of the most severe cases, your heart disease happens because of atherosclerotic buildup on the vessels, on the lining of the vessels. And a plant-based diet has been shown to reverse, not just stop, but reverse the buildup that's in those vessels. And he's just one of many stories of people who avoided heart surgery and avoided stents by switching to a plant-based diet. So there's so many stories like that that I, I could keep going, but please do listen to podcast.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Yeah, that's a great just sampling of what's available. And so I wanted everyone to hear the inspiration that's there. Healing is possible. I hope you will check out that episode. We will have links to all of the things that Dr. Kumar has mentioned in the show notes. So if you're driving, don't try and write them down. We'll have the links in the show notes wherever you get, whenever you get where you're going, you can click them. Thank you so much, Anup, for the work that you're doing. It's so important. Thank you for this wonderful conversation. It's very much appreciated.
Speaker 3 (54:52):
Thank you, Karen. It's a pleasure to be here and, and thank you for the work you do.
Speaker 1 (54:55):
And thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. Thanks so much for joining us today. I hope you've learned something that inspires you to take action on your health, to know that healing is possible, brilliant health is possible, it's your birthright. And if you're not experiencing that well, then you need to get moving so that you can just take one step today. What's something that you could do different to move into the right direction? And I'll see you next week when we'll have another great guest on the podcast. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (55:31):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Get access to Dr. Anoop Kumar's FREE course - CLICK HERE.
This course invites you to reconsider fundamental assumptions about who you are and what the nature of this world is. It asserts that consciousness is fundamental and that matter is its pattern, in a manner consistent with science. It asserts that the body is the representation of the mind, rather than the body being the source of the mind. Seeing yourself and the world in this way brings openness, clarity, and infinite possibilities.
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Welcome back, Hormone Prescription Podcast listeners! We're so glad you've joined us for an exciting and eye-opening interview with a world-expert on Hashimoto's disease - Dr. Anshul Gupta.
Dr. Gupta is a best-selling author, speaker, researcher, and Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician with advanced certifications in Functional and Integrative Medicine. With his passion for helping his patients and people all over the world, he has been awarded Reader's Choice, Best Doctor in Northern Neck Area.
Having worked at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine alongside Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Gupta has an extensive background in helping people find the root cause of their health issues and reversing these conditions.
In this episode, we dive deep into understanding Hashimoto's disease and the incredible journey Dr. Gupta has taken to provide relief and hope to those affected. We explore his unique protocol for success and how he has helped thousands of patients reverse their health issues by using the concepts of functional medicine.
Some highlights from our conversation with Dr. Gupta include:
- Understanding Hashimoto's disease
- Dr. Gupta's proven protocols
- The role of functional medicine in reversing health issues
- The impact of peptide and integrative therapies
Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to learn more about reversing Hashimoto's thyroiditis from the expert himself, Dr. Anshul Gupta.
Be sure to share this episode with friends, family, and anyone in need of inspiration and hope to reverse Hashimoto's disease. Thank you for listening to The Hormone Prescription Podcast, and stay tuned for more insightful and life-changing episodes!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
“Health is like money. We never have a true idea of its value until we lose it.” - Josh Billings, stay tuned. In this episode, Dr. Anshul Gupta is going to tell you how to reverse Hashimoto's.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today has his own story of healing from thyroid problems at midlife. And although he's a guy, thyroid problems are more prevalent in women, particularly Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is epidemic proportions globally and it is curable. Y'all is the case. No one sent you the memo and you have Hashimoto's and you have antibodies. You can get rid of the antibodies and reverse Hashimoto's. So I want you to listen to this episode even if you don't have a thyroid problem and you don't have Hashimoto's. This episode is chock full of information from a board certified family practice doctor, and yours truly about how to find the underlying root causes of whatever problems you're having, even if it's not a thyroid problem. So take it from the two of us, both board certified medical doctors who had our own health crises and had to find answers.
Speaker 1 (02:11):
That's where you'll find the answers from a root cause resolution approach that will help you today. In particular, we're talking about Hashimoto's thyroiditis. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Gupta and then we'll get started. Dr. Anshul Gupta is a best-selling author, speaker, researcher, and the world expert in Hashimoto's Disease. He educates people worldwide on reversing Hashimoto's disease. He's board certified in family medicine and he has advanced certification in functional medicine peptide therapy. And he's also fellowship trained in integrative medicine. He's worked at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine alongside Dr. Mark Hyman and has helped thousands of patients to reverse their health issues by using the concepts of functional medicine. His dedication towards his patients was recognized when he was awarded Reader's Choice Be Best Doctor in Northern Neck Area, and he's now on a mission to help 1 million people reverse their health conditions To achieve this mission. He has written a bestselling book called Reversing Hashimoto's, and he's also started a virtual functional medicine practice, a blog and a YouTube channel so he can reach people from all over the world. His blog and YouTube videos have already reached more than 2 million people worldwide. Please welcome Dr. Anshul Gupta to the show. Thank you
Speaker 3 (03:32):
So much for having me over here. It's a pleasure.
Speaker 1 (03:34):
So Hashimoto's thyroiditis is at epidemic proportions among women globally and you really have narrowed in on this disease and how people can reverse it naturally. What got you so interested in Hashimoto's thyroiditis?
Speaker 3 (03:52):
So actually like started with my own health journey. So by training I'm a family physician, so just after finishing my family medicine residency, I was in a private clinic doing family medicine work. But just couple of years into my practice I started getting a lot of symptoms. You know, I was getting a lot of tiredness by afternoon. I had to take a nap during my lunch hour just to kind of function. I was gaining a lot of weight even though I did not change my diet or exercise, I was having a lot of gut issues, terrible stomach pain, and the pain will just hit me randomly any point in the day and could not figure out what was causing it. And afterwards I would, after I finished my clinic, I was just brain foggy. I was not able to concentrate on things, not remember things properly, but the main issue was the stomach pain.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I could not figure it out. So I started taking acid reflux medication to see if it would help. That did not do anything. Then I saw a GI specialist who did endoscopies, colonoscopies, blood works, ultrasounds, everything was normal. They added even more medications and it was working. I was having horrible stomach pain and everything was getting worse. That's where I found functional medicine. I got trained into functional medicine and made a protocol for myself, implemented a stepwise process of changing my lifestyle, ch changing supplements, everything. Within one month, my stomach pain was gone. Within six months I lost 40 pounds. You know, my energy levels were so up that even participated in a five K rugged maniac. And for me, actually, I've never an athletic person, so for me to do that was a big thing. My brain fog went away, you know, like my stomach was so good.
Speaker 3 (05:35):
So that was a life-changing experience for me that my health completely transformed within a few months of implementing the protocol. Then actually I got this opportunity to work at the Cleveland Clinic Functional Medicine Center with Dr. Mark Hyman. He wanted to do research in functional medicine. I was absolutely interested into that. When I started working over there, I noticed that I was attracting these middle-aged females and they all had very similar issues as mine. They were all tired, they were all having weight issues, they had gut problems, they were all brain foggy and the common denominator was that they all had Hashimoto disease and they were all falling off what the doctor wanted them to do of taking this medicine, but still not getting better. So that prompted me to research into Hashimoto's Disease, what is causing these females not to get better and what can be done?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
So through my research, you know, I kind of found out there were like several reasons for that and I developed this three step process, which implemented in several females while working over there. And we saw phenomenal results. Not only their quality of life improved, we were able to improve their thyroid numbers, their antibodies went away, their thyroid medicines were reduced. So we saw those great results. So that actually prompted me to share this with even wider audience and I wrote this book called Reversing Hashimoto's so that people kind of understand what is wrong with them and how they can get better.
Speaker 1 (07:02):
Yes. So physician healed thyself, you healed yourself and then you're proceeding to help other people. And so what really, what do you wanna talk a little bit about your three step process for Hashimoto's?
Speaker 3 (07:16):
Absolutely. so in Hashimoto's disease, a lot of people actually don't know is that it is very different from hypothyroidism. Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune condition where your body is actually producing antibodies to destroy your own thyroid gland. And when people are going to the regular doctors and getting levothyroxine medicine that is supporting the thyroid gland, but not doing anything to address the underlying problem of autoimmunity or inflammation. So that's the very first step. We need to know why our body is producing these antibodies. So that's the first step that, you know, we have identified root causes that play a role. So in very first step, we actually want people to identify their root causes because everybody has different root causes that are playing a role. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (08:15):
So all of these combined together actually lead to Hashimotos disease. Now, most of the people are looking for just one root cause and once they find one root cause they stop then and there. They do not do a complete evaluation. It's very important to understand that most people will have at least two plus root causes, which are playing a role together to cause Hashimoto. So that's the very first step, people to understand what is root causes and what are their root causes that are playing a role. And then in the second step we start actually fixing, you know, like this thyroid which has been destroyed because of inflammation and autoimmunity. So in that aspect, you know, we have created this mito thyroid diet where we are focusing on actually two aspects of things. First of all, removing foods which are destroying the thyroid gland and then actually including foods which are healing for the thyroid gland and reduces inflammation in the body.
Speaker 3 (09:09):
So that's aspect of this like diet that we do get people started on. And plus the supplements. Supplements which are again supporting the thyroid gland, which are, have shown that they can help Hashimoto's patients reduce their antibodies and get better. So that's the second step. Start healing the process. And the last step or the third step is removing the toxicities. So in that aspect we work on removing the stress component by kind of help them incorporating stress reduction techniques and removing toxins by living in a toxin free environment. And the third thing is removing infections. The chronic infections, which can be parasites or Lyme disease or barella, bia, any of those chronic infections are playing a role. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (10:00):
I I thought it was interesting that you said most people only look for one root cause and then they stop. But the really, in traditional medicine, they don't look for any root causes. You'll find millions of women being treated, treated, I say in quotation marks for Hashimoto's thyroiditis because are they really being treated if the underlying cause is not being treated? I'd argue no, they're just being placed on Synthroid and left and meanwhile their immune system is destroying the thyroid gland further and further and further year after year after year. And so no real healing occurs. So I love your approach and that you've got this three step process to find the underlying cause. Z plural, it's usually never one. I say that these causes and functional medicine are kind of like ants at a picnic. There's never just one
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Absolutely. So let's first start with the food which are hurting the thyroid. So again, we have good amount of research that suggests that diet can play a good important role. So in that aspect, you know, like certain foods, you know, causes something called food sensitivities. So that food sensitivity ultimately leads to leaky gut issues. And the leaky gut ultimately, you know, is an important role in Hashimoto seas. So a lot of people don't know the difference between food sensitivities and food allergies. They think that both of them are same. So kind of a little bit plugin over here that, you know, they're totally different things. Food allergy is a condition, let's say like if you have a peanut allergy, you eat peanuts, suddenly you are like blow up like a balloon or like, you know, you have highs all over your body, you have difficulty breathing, you land up in the emergency room, that's food allergy, food ity is that, let's say you eat gluten and your body says, Hey gluten, I don't like you, but it's okay.
Speaker 3 (11:59):
So they start producing very small amount of antibody against gluten and then slowly and slowly these antibodies actually start attacking your thyroid gland and that's what food sensory is all about. So we have seen several food which actually can lead to Hashimoto's by this food sensory method. One of them is gluten, the second one is dairy, the third one is soy, then comes corn. Then sugar is another thing which actually works in the different method, Northern food ities. But sugar hijacks the immune system and can again kind of play an important role in Hashimoto's. And then comes the processed food and the processed meats. We have to stay away from those also. So I think these are all the food aspects that, you know, we have kind of decent amount of research that suggests that that is a first step of removing these foods. Now in certain situations when their Hashimoto's antibodies are really very high or they're really having worse symptoms, sometimes we might have to also remove lectin containing foods, which can be the nightshades sometimes, which can be in like nuts and seeds and things.
Speaker 3 (13:03):
But I think for a normal person with Hashimoto's and other things, starting with removing the first five categories is great. And then if they're not getting the results, then moving and removing the other categories are important. So these are the foods to remove mm-hmm
Speaker 3 (13:57):
Every kind of fat is really bad, but what we know is that there are good fats and there are bad fats. So it's very important to educate people about good fats because each and every cell of our body is lined with good fat. Our brain, 60% of them are made with fat. So our body needs good fat. So in that aspect, again, fatty fishes are great, have avocado, avocados are good. If we can tolerate nuts and seeds like chia seeds, flax seeds, you know, like those are again, good options. Olive oils, coconut oils, those are good fats that are definitely thyroid, supporting foods. Then comes the good quality protein. You know, whether it's coming from fish chicken or if you are a vegan or a vegetarian, again coming from nuts and seeds or your lentils and legumes, again, very important to have good quality protein because all those amino acids are again, needed for your thyroid gland and in body in general to kind of keep the immune system in Good check. Then you know, like again another things are certain spices like turmeric and ginger again are great to include because again, they have like, you know, great anti-inflammatory properties which supports your thyroid gland and again, healthy detoxification and your body to function better. So these are all thyroid healing foods that should be included. Then obviously if you want to include certain grains or gluten-free grains like keno and brown rice can also be an option just to kinda support your complex carbohydrates and your body needs.
Speaker 1 (15:24):
Yes, I'm this quote you shared with me before we started from Josh Billings health is like money. We never have a true idea of its value until we lose it. I know when a lot of people hear the foods that you just mentioned to add, they think that it's going to be expensive to eat that way to eat to support their thyroid. And I find that a lot of people, when you tell them the foods that you want them to eat, which is a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and high quality proteins and fats say, oh that's gonna be expensive. I can't afford that. What, what do you say to that? How do you help them work through that?
Speaker 3 (15:57):
So again, you know, it's, as you all you suggested that it's kind of a misconception for a lot of people that you know, everything is so expensive, it's all about planning. We say that, okay, well you just have to plan your meals around it and you have to look for like local grocery stores. You don't have to like shop at the expensive grocery stores or going to Whole Foods or anything, right? Go to your local stores, which you know, can have easily these produce which are at a very cheaper price. And again, you know, the quantity of these things when you eat them, you don't have to eat a huge quantity because you get full very easily by eating all those veggies and things. So then you're not consume them so much and again, if you're meal planning and cooking at home, then again you're saving all that money that you'll be ex, you know, like spending when you're going to outside in restaurants.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
So in actually long run, people actually save money by eating this kind of diet and cooking food at home. And by cooking again, a lot of people say, well, I'm in a very busy job, you know, I have so many different responsibilities, I don't have the time because that's again, a very important thing for a lot of people, that limitation of the time. But again, I tell people it doesn't take too much time. You know, you, we have ways for people to kind of, you know work around with the limitation of the time they have. Do batch cooking, do cookings on the weekends, you know, then you can save that food for later on. Also, again, like easy recipes, you don't have to go for complicated recipes, which require an hour or so easy recipes with certain ingredients, again, make it so much easier for people to cook and also like, you know sustain their jobs and also their like responsibilities. So I think this is easily done within the budget as well as within the time constraint that a lot of people have. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (17:36):
I agree. And when I started on my functional medicine journey, I probably like, oh, what, 15 years ago I had to learn how to cook some new things and I went and got these kind of used cookbooks. I think I got eight of them and that had a lot eliminated a lot of the foods that you mentioned for thyroid. I don't have Hashimoto's, but I did have hypothyroidism and I just learned several of the recipes from there that I could cook that eliminated gluten, dairy, corn, all the things dairy that you mentioned. And at first it was like learning any new skill and it was challenging and then after a while it became second nature. So I just wanna encourage anybody listening that if I can do it, you can do it for sure. I promise you, you didn't mention cruciferous vegetables like broccoli. I know I've seen on social media sometimes you'll see a lot of these little memes saying, oh, you shouldn't eat broccoli if you have Hashimoto's. And I'm just wondering if you can kind of settle that for people if that's an issue or not.
Speaker 3 (18:38):
Absolutely. Again, yes, I totally like, you know forgot to mention that point. So crucifers vegetables is a complete myth. This actually started like, you know, around 20 years ago we had this very small research study on rabbits where they were fed a lot of cruciferous vegetables, like excessive amount for their like weight. And they saw that, you know, like the absorption, you know, like of tired medicine from their gut was a little bit on the lower side. So that prompted a discussion. All these are TROs and you know, they should be completely avoided. Now, 20 years ago, the main reason of hypothyroidism was not Hashimoto's, it was actually low iodine. So that was a legitimate concern at that point of time. But now coming forward in 20th century, we rarely see i o D in deficiency as the number one reason. The number one reason currently through research is Hashimoto's disease, more than 70% of people who are having hypothyroidism.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
The main reason is Hashimoto's. And we have a couple of research studies which clearly suggest that cruciferous vegetables are really good for Hashimotos because first of all, cruciferous vegetables are high in different vitamins and minerals like iron content, vitamin K, you know, like and other minerals mm-hmm
Speaker 1 (20:14):
Will second that. I say amen each or crucifers your cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, they're so good for you and, and and it's really been a myth on social media and there are so many foods you do need to cut out. Don't cut out the ones you don't need to cut out like broccoli, so eat your broccoli. You mentioned iodine and there's a lot of controversy about iodine use in people with Hashimoto's. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Actually, again, that very important point because again, the traditional way, even with a lot of naturopaths or like a a p like you know, natural medicine people, they are putting people on a very high doses of iodine if they have a di, if a thyroid problem. But what they're not understanding is that the research is very clear in Hashimoto's disease specific people too little of iodine can cause Hashimoto's disease, but too much of iodine can also cause hashimo disease. So we have to be right in the middle of that. Now the problem is this, we do not have a perfect test to check for iodine in a person's body. We do have this blood test, we have this urine test, you know, which can be done. But again, those are not a perfect measure of things. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (21:26):
So I don't recommend people going on very high doses of iodine. I think if you can replenish iodine through food, that is definitely the first good source. So all that seafood, if you are eating like sea vegetables like seaweeds, those are great resources for that. If you are not able to do that or you don't like them, that's where, you know, like little bit of I o D into your supplements, like up to 200 micrograms. I think that's a decent amount to do it. But some people are doing like thousand micrograms or 2000 micrograms a day and clearly that might be actually harming their thyroid by harming their Hashimoto's rather than actually helping them.
Speaker 1 (22:02):
You mentioned sea vegetables and I find that that's foreign to a lot of particularly western diets. And so that's something that you can get recipes from cookbooks and I say if you don't like 'em or you think you don't like them, try them again. Get some new recipes and try them in different ways. I found this great recipe for a hijiki shrimp salad with some wasabi. That's amazing. And I don't think most people aren't familiar with hijiki, so just try some different ones and expand your food vocabulary. I think that'll serve you. You talked about some of the root causes that people have to identify. You mentioned toxins, stress and infections. How does somebody go about addressing these? Because there's some people listening who they have a traditional doctor. Do you think that the average person can educate their traditional doctor to be able to do the proper investigation to under identify the underlying root causes? Or is this something that will require specialist evaluation?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, most of the regular doctors do not understand the concept of root causes, that it's completely foreign to them because again, you know, like being a conventionally trained family physician, I was seeing tons of Hashimoto's patients before also, and whenever somebody says What should I be eating? I would say, just go and home and eat whatever you like.
Speaker 1 (23:24):
Right? Whatever you like.
Speaker 3 (23:25):
Yeah. So I've done that myself. So I know that the convention doctors would not be able to understand it's nothing wrong that they have a bad reason for it. It's basically they're not trained into that. So that's the reason they do not know the concept of, you know, root causes. So that's where coming to a specialist, like a functional medicine or integrative medicine specialist who understands the concept of root cause approach will be the best bet for doing it. And the other problem is that a lot of conventional labs actually are not equipped to test for all of these things. So that's where, you know, these advanced functional medicine labs are the way to go for it if you want to know what kind of toxins are there, how much is there and do we have any kind of, you know, infections going on in the gut, all of those things, you know, or other infection like Lyme disease and things, regular doctors do not have access to it. So then working with a specialist would be useful in that aspect. Yeah,
Speaker 1 (24:18):
I think it's so true in my OB G Y N training, never once did I hear or say the word root, the words root cause. It's just not a concept in mainstream medicine. It's you treat the symptom when the symp with a drug or surgery and when the symptom is gone you claim victory, but meanwhile other problems are accruing. And I'm wondering if you could talk about, we don't have time to go through all of the different root causes. You've got that in your book. We're definitely gonna have links to all of your resources in the show notes. But what are some of the most surprising common underlying root causes you think are often missed that people should be looking for?
Speaker 3 (24:59):
I think the number one root cause that a lot of people are not aware of or get missed is the toxins. I think 90% of my clients, you know, like whoever Hashimoto's Disease are dealing with some or the other kinds of toxins. And the problem is this, most of these toxins, a lot of people are not even aware that their environment has these toxins. So first of all, you know, we have these heavy metals like lead and mercury and arsenic and aluminum. They're hidden into a lot of different things that we are using on the regular basis. Now again, our food might actually be contaminated with them also, like, you know, fishes lot of times can have high mercury unless, you know, we are making a choice of, you know, getting fish from a good source lead is actually frequently contaminated in the water. So again, like if you don't have a proper filtration system, we might be getting exposed to it.
Speaker 3 (25:49):
Certain kind of spices actually we talked about like, you know, turmeric and ginger and other things. If they're coming from Asian countries, then again they can be actually contaminate with lead rice can have arsenic. So you see like, you know, I'm not saying to eat, not eat all of these things. What I'm saying is that unless we have a high index of suspicion, these toxins might be hidden there. So this is just the heavy metals then comes the mold toxins, you know, like you know, in our environment we are seeing more and more people being affected with mold toxins. Whether that is in their houses, whether it is the workplaces, whether it is a Airbnbs or hotels they might be spending time into all of these spaces might have more toxins that they are totally unaware of. Then comes the environmental toxins. Each and every day we are producing more and more chemicals, right?
Speaker 3 (26:35):
And these chemicals definitely are affecting our body in a very negative fashion. So whether that was like pesticides or glycosides, you know, like which are coming through our food or whether those are like other environmental toxins, like several cleaning products we are using in our house. And the last amount of toxins are, especially for females, all that skincare products they're using, starting from the soaps and cosmetics, they are laden with toxins. Most females, oh this just on my skin, but you and me know that the skin is the biggest organ of our body. Anything we put on the skin can get absorbed into our bloodstream and can reach thyroid. And over the course of days to weeks to years that toxin load keeps on increasing and again, kind of hijacks an immune system and starts attacking our own thyroid gland. So I think the very first thing people should large looking is their environment and start looking to reduce the amount of toxin exposure that they're having by buying cleaner products, by kind of buying cleaner cost medics, you know, kind of trying to eat organic if possible. You know, all those things. And that actually there's a great resource, you know, which your users might already know is like E W G, which is an environmental working group, great website has a great app, lot of good resources. You can actually check your cosmetic products over there and you can actually find cleaner products over there that you can buy. So that's a great resource for a lot of people to use.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yes, I love the environmental working group. That's a wonderful resource. You said early on talking about the different underlying root causes that you have to have a high index of suspicion. And as you were saying that, I was thinking in 2023, the fact that you're a human on the planet at this time with all the toxins that we have and all the molds that we have and all of these micro infections. Really most everyone who has Hashimoto's should be checked for all of these heavy metals, molds, et cetera, don't you think?
Speaker 3 (28:36):
Absolutely, yes. You know, I totally agree with that. As I said, almost every client that I see, if we are doing a toxin test on them, they do have some or the other hidden toxins in their system. So it is like given that they will be having, you know, like toxins in the system and everybody should be checking for them. So now they know which toxins they're dealing with because not all toxins are the same and the protocols can be different for different toxins. So you have to do that specific protocol to remove that particular, but definitely toxins are playing a major role in almost every client of mine. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
It's so true. And another quote you shared from Kevin Trudeau, most people have no idea how good their body is designed to feel. I think is AP applicable here? I do talk to women who have Hashimoto's and they've had part of an evaluation they've had looking for maybe one root cause or two root causes, but they never get to the place where they say, oh my gosh, I didn't know I could feel this good. Can you talk a little bit about how persistent does a woman need to be? How diligent does she need to be? But also how does a woman know when she's gotten to that place where she's addressed all the underlying causes and she feels as good as she can feel? How does she know when she's gotten there and how does she get there? So
Speaker 3 (29:56):
Again, you know, like unless you do the protocol, unless you change things, you do not know how good you can feel. Because it's been years people that come to see us have been suffering, have not been in good shape in their health for years. And sometimes like after some time, that becomes your second nature. Oh well yes, I'm tired. So what's the big thing? Oh, well you know, I'm not able to exercise, so what's the big deal? Well, my mood changes very frequently. I don't feel the joy in my life anymore. So what, you know, that's kind of middle age that happens with everybody, right? Oh, I'm brain foggy because I'm getting old, right? So these are the excuses, right? Lot of women, you know, have been told they're not kind of, you know, thinking about these things, but people around them, or when they go to the doctors or any of the providers, they tell them, oh, that's normal to feel this way, but let me tell you, that is not normal.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
You should not be feeling this way. If you have feeling that your quality of life is not the same as before, then certainly you are missing out on things. And if you feed your body with the right things, if you kind of, you know, remove all the TOXs from your system, then your body gets better. So most of our females, like within a few months, they kind of not cannot imagine how good they can feel like going from like having a couple of naps in a day to actually going out to the gym and stocking a workout or doing a marathon. A lot of clients are doing it, not able to lose weight from losing like, you know, 15, 20 pounds is very normal in within four to five months for a lot of females. And actually not knowing what is clarity of mind because they have been so confused or overwhelmed all the time with all the responsibilities.
Speaker 3 (31:34):
And suddenly now they become so organized because they have that mental clarity to kind of do things and perceive what needs to be done. So these are bigger changes like, you know, like, you know, impacts the quality of life and now they actually see like the world and I say kind of HD space because first they were looking at world in an SD or like just a normal way. And now suddenly that the whole world becomes hd, they want to feel alive again. They say, I want to do things and I can do things. That's the biggest like, you know thing that almost each and every of our client when they work with us, they said, you know, I just feel that I got my life back again.
Speaker 1 (32:11):
Yeah. And that really is what it should feel like. I mean, I'm in my fifties and I've never felt better. Most of the time I should say of course I have my days. But if you're getting the answer from your providers that, oh, it's normal to wanna nap at midlife and you shouldn't have a great sex drive and you, it's okay to have lost your joy and medicate yourself with wine and chocolate, run
Speaker 3 (33:06):
Yeah, I think, you know, like we have forgotten what it feels like to be healthy. First of all, a lot of people are just kind of relying on medications to do their job and just kind of take their health to the next level. And that's not a reality. I'm not against medications. Absolutely. If you need the medications, you need it, but medications are just one tool in your toolbox that can make you feel better. There are several other tools. So your physical health definitely is one tool that you need to improve, but your mental and spiritual health is another tools that we need to focus on. And a lot of times, you know, I think we have this disconnect, you know, like in our modern world, we are living where we just feel the physical health takes the priority and that's the only thing we need to focus on.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
And less and less people are focusing on the mental aspect of things and the spiritual aspects of things. So I think those are the things that we definitely need to kind of build that purpose, you know, of our life where we need to get better, we need to get the quality of life not only for ourselves, but also for our family, for our friends, for our kids, for everybody around us. Because what I've seen is that females are the center place in a family and if one female gets healthy, everybody around them actually suddenly becomes healthy. A lot of times, you know, like females come to see me, well you started me on this protocol and things, you know, I, I'm, I'm mainly cooking in the house, so my husband has already lost like 35 pounds and I'm already lost only to 15 pounds. And I'll say, well that's good. At least you lost 15. But we see these very often, their husband's health are getting better. Suddenly their mom's health are getting better, the kids are doing good in the school, much better than before, right? So you're not just doing it for yourself, we are doing it for your family and everybody else. And it's very important to focus on the mental and the spiritual aspect of health. That is definitely one of the missing pieces a lot of people do not pay attention to.
Speaker 1 (35:01):
I wholeheartedly agree. I think that that mental aspect, the emotional aspect, the spiritual aspect, and how do you tell people to start addressing that in their lives? I find that sometimes people who have a particular religion, they don't want to talk about that in terms or spirituality in terms of their physical health. And so I'm just wondering how you approach that.
Speaker 3 (35:24):
I think the way I approach is that, you know, like we have clearly have research studies that says that if you are stressed out, that is definitely a very big cause of Hashimoto disease. And again, stress can be physical, mental, and spiritual. So I tell them that, you know, that is happening just contributed, you know, in your disease process and unfortunately your disease process is making you feel not so good. And that is again, leading to more stress in all of these aspects of your life, whether it's physical, mental, or spiritual. So I tell them, you know, like whatever activity you like to participate, you like to do, start doing those things. That reduces the stress. Whether that is meditation, whether that is prayer, you know, whether that is kind of being a part of a community or a group or breathing exercises, anything that resonates with you is very important to incorporate just for a few minutes, 10, 15 minutes in your day mm-hmm is going to change your life yet going to kind of break that stress cycle and going to start making you feel better.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
So that's where, you know, and again, internet is good in that aspect. You have all these different kinds of meditations depending on what religion or belief system that people have. You know, it is available. So I try to kind of encourage people to look inside of themselves and kind of find that happy place, you know, that kind of brings joy to them and they want to go to that place again and a again every day basis because if they're finding joy, that kind of motivates them to go to that place every day. So I try to help them to find that happy place of them. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (36:56):
Yes, you have to deal with the stress and find your joy and I think it really is worth it. I think that so many women with Hashimoto's believe that it's a life sentence and that they're never going to regain their physical capacity in terms of energy, sex drive, mindfulness or mental capacity or memory, whatever it is. And on a daily basis, I see women go from having very high th antithyroid antibodies to none whatsoever undetectable. And I'm wondering if you could share your experience with that and give people the hope that they really deserve to have that. This is pretty reversible
Speaker 3 (37:36):
Absolutely. So we have obviously several stories about it, but you know, I'm just kind of currently working with this client, you know, had amazing story. A young female 34 years of age came to see us six months ago, was given a diagnosis of Hashimoto's four years ago, but she had symptoms even before that. She was again like a mom of two kids. So after the second pregnancies is where her symptoms started, she was tired all the time. She started gaining weight and was not able to lose that weight. She was having horrible stomach bloating and like constipation issues. Doesn't matter what she eats, she will just feel like she was bloated all the time. Because of that, she was having a lot of mood changes. Sometimes she'll feel low mood, sometimes stressed out or anxious. So she kept on going to doctors, something is wrong with me.
Speaker 3 (38:19):
They kept on doing only one blood test, which was the tsh, which was initially normal. She was told, well maybe you're just stressed out. Maybe you need to see a psychiatrist or a counselor. So she obviously saw a psychiatrist, even tried medications but actually backfired. She failed worse. So she stopped the medicines after three or four years, you know, after going through all this audio, finally her TA such did show that she has hypothyroidism. So she was happy. Oh well finally I found it and I'm going to get this medicine. Everything will be okay. She was start on the medicine, no changes. She was still feeling the same way as you. She was feeling again. Couple of years into that she started researching on internet what was going on. Then somebody suggested maybe you have Hashimoto's, a seizure. She went to a doctor and asked them to check the antibody levels and bingo, obviously she had Hashimoto's, a disease, but a regular doctor says, well what if you have Hashimotos diseases?
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Your protocol or your program is going to be the same. Your thyroid numbers are within normal limits at T S H, so I'm going to put you on the same medicine. So that's where she was completely disheartened and lost hope that she could actually get better. So that's where she started looking into functional medicine. She found me and then started working with us. Her antibody levels were like, you know, 1200 or so, very, very high mm-hmm
Speaker 3 (39:52):
And plus, you know, she had gut issues, you know, like we found that she had candida infection in her gut. So we made a stepwise plan, you know, like focused on the lifestyle changes, put her on some supplements, kinda addressing all of these and underlying root causes. And slowly and slowly couple of months into our protocol, again, amazing things happen. Her energy came back. She was a busy professional, actually she was running her own private like business, but she was not able to pay attention because she was so tired. But now actually she doubled her business, you know, like she was going on vacations with her kids, kids all the time. She was able to participate in kids' activities, you know, she already lost 11 pounds, you know, like working with us. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (40:37):
Yes. So doctor completely flipped out. She said, I've never seen that happening. I think this is a lab error. I think we need to repeat it. She said, no, I'm working on it. So I believe that. She said, no, I don't believe it. I would like to repeat it. She said, I am not paying for it. She said, I don't. She said, I will. Doctor said I will pay for it, don't worry. Like I'll make sure you do not get charged. She repeated the blood test and again, the antibodies levels were undetectable. Doctor said, I don't know what you're doing, but something you're doing is working. Keep doing that. So she was so happy that finally, you know, like not only my numbers are better, my life is back. She said, you know, this is a complete win-win situation for her now.
Speaker 1 (41:14):
Absolutely. So if you're listening and you're suffering with Hashimoto's or if you've got health concerns, you're tired, overweight, un any unresolved health concerns or symptoms definitely get checked. If you have some of the most common symptoms of thyroid disorders, like being tired or keeping weight on being constipated, losing your hair, having dry skin, brittle nails, anxiety, depression, mood disorders, memory disorders, I mean the list is extremely long. So really for a woman, if you're having any health symptoms, you need to get your thyroid properly checked. And that doesn't mean a standard of care, thyroid profile. It means seven or eight parameters that are done by a doctor who understands root cause identification, who understands root cause resolution like Dr. Gupta. Dr. Gupta has some amazing resources for you. We're gonna put links in the show notes to his book, to his YouTube channel, to his website, and also to his thyroid quiz. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about the thyroid quiz?
Speaker 3 (42:21):
Yeah. So again, you know, like a lot of people are having this question, how do I know what rules root causes I have? So obviously like, you know, we do not have a perfect way, but you know, like based on my kind of research and working with a lot of people, I kind of put together this quiz where people can answer kind of a couple of, or a bunch of questions and that can actually tell them that whether that particular root clause, you know, they should be looking into that or not. So after taking this quiz, they actually, you know, like order those five categories of root causes. They get a score in each category and that can tell them like what multiple categories they need to focus on to actually improve their thyroid and that those are the categories that they might be the major root causes for those people. So very easy quiz, you know, like people can maybe finish off in like five or 10 minutes, but then they get a g great kind of score that way in each category to know if they'd have no idea what root cause might be playing a role.
Speaker 1 (43:14):
Great. Thank you so much for that resource. If you are having any of the symptoms we've been talking about, I encourage you to go to the link that will be in the show notes and take the quiz. Read Dr. Gupta's book. If you've got Hashimoto's, you suspect you've got it. He really knows what he's talking about in terms of identifying and fixing the root causes. Reversing Hashimoto's is possible and it's probable if you take the right steps. So I encourage you to do that. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing, Dr. Gupta, and thank you so much for joining us today.
Speaker 3 (43:48):
Oh, it's a pleasure being over here. I totally like admire the work that you are doing, especially in women health, health space, helping so many people and sharing so much knowledge. You know, like, so I think you're giving hope to millions and millions of women out there that you know they can get their life back. So thank you so much for having me on the show.
Speaker 1 (44:07):
Thank you and thank you listener for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. I hope that you've learned something today that you can put into action to take steps to move your help to the brilliant help that you deserve. It's available to you at any and every age. I look forward to hearing what steps you take and what outcomes you have on social media. So find me at Karen Dunston on Instagram or Facebook, and I will see you next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
Speaker 2 (44:39):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► To know the root cause of your thyroid disease, take Dr. Anshul Gupta's Free thyroid quiz - CLICK HERE
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Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we dive deep into the world of hormones and empower you with the knowledge you need to take control of your hormonal health. In today's episode, "Why Fixing Your Insulin Makes Menopause (And Other Things) Magic", we are joined by the amazing Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo. With over 30 years of clinical experience and a wealth of expertise under her belt, Dr. Ritamarie is a true authority on functional health and holistic healing.
About Our Guest: Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo
Dr. Ritamarie, the founder of the Institute of Nutritional Endocrinology, is passionately committed to transforming our current broken disease-focused system into a true health care system. She believes in finding the root cause of health challenges and using the wisdom of nature combined with modern scientific research to restore balance. A licensed Doctor of Chiropractic with certifications in Acupuncture, Nutrition, Herbal Medicine, and HeartMath®, Dr. Ritamarie specializes in insulin, thyroid, adrenal, and digestive imbalances. She is also a master at using palate-pleasing, whole fresh food as medicine.
As a best-selling author, speaker, and internationally recognized nutrition and functional health authority, Dr. Ritamarie shares her wealth of knowledge through her podcast, Reinvent Healthcare, promoting a global movement for root-cause care.
Key Takeaways: Insulin's Role in Menopause
In this episode, we delve into the critical role insulin plays in menopause and how fixing your insulin can lead to a "magical" menopause journey. Dr. Ritamarie shares her expertise on how balancing insulin levels supports hormone regulation, weight management, and overall well-being during this significant life transition.
Some highlights from our conversation include:
- The connection between insulin resistance and menopausal symptoms
- How diet and lifestyle changes can dramatically improve your insulin sensitivity
- The importance of regular exercise and stress management in balancing blood sugar levels
- How hormone balancing can lead to better sleep, increased energy, and improved quality of life
Dr. Ritamarie's insights will have you feeling inspired, motivated, and more informed about the significant role insulin plays in your hormonal health during menopause and beyond.
Tune In and Transform Your Menopause Journey!
Ready to discover the magic of fixing your insulin during menopause?Join us for this illuminating conversation with Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo in the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Don't miss out on these valuable insights and practical advice to help you take control of your hormonal health and make your menopause journey a truly magical experience!
If you found this episode helpful, be sure to share it with your friends and leave us a review to help other midlife women find the podcast. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode!
Until next time, here's to your hormonal health!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
“Don't exchange what you want most or what you want at the moment.” Dr. Rita Marie Loscalzo.
Speaker 2 (00:07):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:01):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today, Dr. Rita Mari Loscalzo. It was one of your favorites in the Stop The Menopause Madness Summit, the Summit 2.0 and the Summit 100 because she's amazing and I love her. She's just a force. She is a force of nature. She has so much passion. She's on purpose. She helps so many people. She's a brilliant wealth of knowledge, a font of knowledge, and she walks the walk and talks the talk. So you're gonna love hearing her talk about a super important topic, insulin resistance and menopause and perimenopause. She talks about why insulin resistance is really an issue for both men and women, males and females at every age. So why should everyone be concerned? She's gonna make sure that you're aware of the tests that you need and how to read them properly.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
Because what your lab says is normal doesn't mean that's what's optimal and you should be shooting for. So she's gonna clarify that. She's gonna help you understand how I know if Dr. Rita Maria is talking to me. She's gonna cover the top strategies you can use if you are having insulin resistance that you can start using today. She gives you some real practical knowledge and you're just gonna love our conversation cuz she's amazing. I will remind you a little bit about Dr. Rina Marie Loscalzo and then we'll get started. She is the founder of the Institute of Nutritional Endocrinology. She's passionately committed to transforming our current broken disease focus system into a true healthcare system where every practitioner is skilled at finding the root cause of health challenges and uses the wisdom of nature combined with modern scientific research to restore balance. Dr. Rita Maria, licensed doctor of chiropractic with certifications in acupuncture, nutrition, herbal medicine and heart math specializes in insulin, thyroid and adrenal and digestive imbalances. She's also a master at using palate pleasing whole fresh food as medicine and is a bestselling author, speaker and internationally recognized nutrition and functional health authority with over 30 years of clinical experience. Her podcast Reinvent Healthcare provides health and wellness practitioners around the globe to be part of the movement to provide root cause care to people in need. Please help me welcome Dr. Rita Mari Scalzo to the show. I'm super
Speaker 3 (03:42):
Excited to be here. I love having our conversations and just really sharing valuable information that helps people get their health back, get their lives back. So thank you for inviting. I
Speaker 1 (03:52):
Know, right, right. Oh I'm so, it's always a great conversation with you and I don't even know where to start cuz there's so many things that I would love to talk to you about. But I know we're gonna dive into insulin and menopause. I guess I would start with when did you first realize that this was a colossal problem for women as they age, that insulin resistance was an issue?
Speaker 3 (04:16):
Well, what I first realized is that it's an, it's a problem at any age and that it's mostly ignored for so long that it becomes serious as we get to menopause. Do you know what I mean? It's like it's a problem in young people, it's a problem in children, right? But nobody's measuring it properly until it gets like it could be 30 years in the making and then all of a sudden somebody hits menopause and boom, right? They're like suddenly off the charts with their fasting blood sugars and they're having all the highs and lows and we suddenly say, oh, this person has insulin resistance or even diabetes and it gets worse at menopause. So part of why it gets worse is menopause is the cumulative effect, right? Part of it is that throughout time people are eating a bunch of garbage, being exposed to a lot of chemicals, not being able to detoxify their environment, having a lot of stress.
Speaker 3 (05:08):
Their cortisol levels are through the roof which raises blood sugar, which then affects insulin and insulin resistance. And it's suddenly like, like everything else, it hits the fan at menopause. Cuz now there's this serious change in hormones. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 1 (05:58):
Imbalance. So yeah, you've known it for a long time. I came in through the traditional route where in mainstream medicine, you know, insulin isn't a thing. We don't check it unless you're diabetic and you know, the parameters that we use are just, are wholly and adequate. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about that? Cuz people still get confused with my recommendations for monitoring your insulin. And I always say insulin is that loose thread on the knotted ball of yarn. I used to knit when I was in college and my, I had this cat and the cat used to bat my yarn all over the place and then I would've to untangle it after my knitting session. And you know, how do you untangle a knotted bowl of yarn? Cuz that's what your hormones are doing by the time you get to menopause is you find the loose thread. And I always say that the loose thread is insulin. So when you mention that it's not being tested properly and really it affects everyone all ages, which is so true, diabetes is increasing in grade school children to epidemic proportion. So what should people be getting tested for?
Speaker 3 (07:05):
Well, first of all, I think everybody needs to have a baseline insulin tested. Of course we, we do fasting glucose, that's you learned in medical school, do fasting glucose and as long as it's below one 20, they're fine. Don't worry about it. But we should be testing fasting insulin. We absolutely should be. Because you know, kids who, like some kids can go hours and hours playing and then they, you know, they don't have to eat and other kids are like, they're, you know, crazy because they haven't eaten in a while. High levels of insulin show themselves first as that I can't make it more than a couple of hours between meals, right? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (07:45):
But here's the thing, the good and not good, you might have learned in medical school that anything up to 19 was good. If you look at the labs, it says up to 19 for fasting, insulin is fine. That's a serious, serious problem. And when we look at more of the functional ranges, two to five, and ideally two to three, like if somebody's really in good control, their fasting insulin should be between two and three. And I can tell you how many people I have worked with that they come in with fasting insulins in the twenties, some people even in the thirties, and they've been told, oh you're fine. It's not a problem. You're not diabetic but you're heading to be become diabetic. So it's really important. A lot of people say test a1c, there's a lot of, I like a1c, hemoglobin A1C to test like your averages of your glucose over time.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
But there's so many variations in that, like in athletes and if you're anemic and all this, where it could be a false reading, insulin is not gonna be a false reading. If you have a good fasting glucose and your fasting insulin is high, you are heading for a disaster. And it may take 10, 20, even 30 years before disaster hits. But meanwhile all the metabolic changes that are caused by high levels of insulin, which is stiffening of the arteries, which is blood pressure changes, changes in thyroid reception, you know, the receptors for thyroid, all that stuff is happening over time. And then suddenly the person gets DIA diagnosis as diabetic and then suddenly they have all these problems. And for some people they have all the diabetic challenges before they even become diabetic. I had one guy had the retinopathies and they say, oh what, what's going on? His, his A1C was 10. Nobody ever caught that cuz his fasting glucose was 95. Right? Yeah. So these people are being missed.
Speaker 1 (09:32):
Yeah. You know, it's so true. When I did my fellowship training in the anti-aging metabolic and functional medicine, we had this one professor, can't think of his name right this second, but I, I'll never forget sitting there watching him and him kind of going through all the things you we are talking about and kind of saying how mainstream medicine manages it. You know, they check a fasting blood glucose, it's 95, they don't get excited. Of course we functional people get very excited and they just watch it kind of go up and up and up and they never check anything else. And then all of a sudden people have complications of diabetes even though they don't have a diagnosis of diabetes. And then they look and oh, we did a hemoglobin a1c, you have diabetes, you get to wear the team jersey, you get to stick your finger for the rest of your life and take these medications. And it's like you get to join the team. But why was nobody looking to see that you were being recruited for 5, 10, 20 years?
Speaker 3 (10:28):
So, because it's not the medical model, right? The medical model is based on treating disease and there's some great tools for, you know, broken bones and surgery. I mean there's some good tools for massive infections, but we're not looking for helping people prevent disease, not looking to help people be healthy. It's looking for disease and then we can treat it. I watch things, you know, when I do blood chemistries, you probably do the same. You map 'em out. And so when you're looking at somebody's, let's say their liver enzymes, right? And you're going, oh, your liver enzymes are fine, but they're five points higher than they were last year. They're still in ideal range, but they were, oh, and the year before they were five points lower than that and you, what's going on? What kind of toxicity are you dealing with? Do you have mold in your house? Do you mm-hmm
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Okay. So let's give us quick synopsis so everyone can write this down. Not if you're driving
Speaker 3 (11:36):
I think fasting glucose, fasting insulin? You mean in terms of metabolic health or overall
Speaker 1 (11:42):
Overall? Well when we're talking about for insulin management and then also if you can give the optimal values what they should be looking for. Sure. Yeah. Fast fasting and yeah,
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Glucose should be in, you know, low eighties, you know, up to 85. Could be in the seventies, right? If it's below that, then you wanna make sure, oh, if you're on a keto diet, it's probably gonna be in the sixties or seventies, no big deal. Somebody's eating a ton of carbohydrates and they're fasting glucose is in the sixties, then they probably have some kind of craziness like this going on and that's why it's so low. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (12:42):
Mm-Hmm
Speaker 1 (14:06):
No, I think that we humans like to think that we're not affecting our bodies with our habits and things that we do like drinking. So it is kind of like you've got this crystal ball when you do do the GT and you see it's elevated and you say, were you drinking at a party? And they're like, were you spying on me? Yes. Your body does notice alcohol. Like talk like let's just have a little diversion. Talk about alcohol for a minute. Oh what
Speaker 3 (14:51):
So I'm not popular with my alcohol opinions.
Speaker 3 (15:36):
Like, I gotta go get my coffee. If you gotta go get your coffee, there's something metabolically out of balance that you need to correct. If you have a cup of coffee every now and then, cuz you go out with a friend and you just want the taste of it. That's very different. Same thing with alcohol. Every now and then you grab a glass of wine. But there were some studies that showed that even two glasses of wine a day a week, not a day, a week increase the risk of breast cancer by 14%. That's huge. I always say to people wish you like better your breasts or your coffee, your breasts or your, or your your alcohol. You know, I kind of like my breasts and I wanna keep them where they're, I don't, yeah. I don't wanna them for the, the 30 seconds on my tongue of pleasure with alcohol or, or caffeine.
Speaker 3 (16:20):
So I'm against it. It affects the lining of your gut. It affects the absorption, it affects the, certainly the microbiome because it's like sugar. It affects the liver and it gets absorbed like sugar. So it's like right. Sugar right into the bloodstream. So it, it can of course lead to fatty liver. That's what we see. And we're seeing a lot of people who are not alcoholics these days that have fatty liver. Like I, I saw a statistic like 49 or 50% of the population has fatty liver. Wow. I mean it's truly preventable. Right? So I don't like alcohol and it affects brains, it kills brain cells and it affects your, of course it affects your cognition and your ability to drive or you know, to think clearly. And we use it to lose inhibition. And I'm like, why don't we just lose inhibition
Speaker 1 (17:24):
Right. That's right. I'm curious what you think about this cuz you know, I have similar unpopular views about alcohol and health and I, you know, I just don't drink. But I have some patients who they really like it because they have a certain degree of social anxiety. And so I've started recommending that they use some form of T H C B gummies or droplets or something like that. And I'm wondering if you have any opinion on that because I say it won't affect your health as negatively.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Yeah. I don't really, oh, so you said T hc not C, B D or did you say
Speaker 1 (18:00):
Right T HC tc so that you,
Speaker 3 (18:03):
Because it's outta my jurisdiction to even prescribe something like that. Mine you
Speaker 3 (18:07):
Speaker 1 (19:16):
It'll come to you. Yeah. It'll
Speaker 3 (19:17):
Come to me. But it's basically a byproduct of hemoglobin production and the body in certain people can't get rid of it and it builds up and that creates a lot of the social, an anxiety and V6 and zinc help to eliminate that. And you can do a urine test to see if there's a problem there and you can address that. Right. Some of the other things with social anxiety might be, you know, old traumas and emotional things and working with it on that end. But as a temporary kind of bandaid solution, I think they're probably better off if they can get that non illegally and not and safely, let's just say safely. Right?
Speaker 1 (19:56):
I meant legally I wasn't saying illegal. So yeah. It's just something I've been playing around with because the alcohol is a toxicant and most people don't realize that. And you know, you can, if you drink too much, you will die. It's, it's a toxicant. So if you're trying to get your health straightened out best not to do that. But let's jump back to insulin. All right. So we've talked about the test, we've talked about what they should be looking for, but what are the symptoms that a woman might notice? Say she's been going to the doctor, she really doesn't have health problems, but then she's noticing she's gaining weight around her middle and then of course the cycles are getting less and less and then eventually stop and you know, the top symptoms of perimenopause and menopause where you're losing your sex drive and maybe getting some hair loss and some memory and and cognitive functioning are going down. What would key her in that? Dr. Rita? Marie's talking to me. I need to look at this. I know you think everyone should I do too. Yeah, I think everybody
Speaker 3 (21:00):
Should, but what would, yeah,
Speaker 1 (21:01):
It's not convinced. So
Speaker 3 (21:03):
Everybody's not convinced and by the way it's pylori.
Speaker 1 (21:06):
Well that would be a zebra, but Yeah, you should, you can.
Speaker 3 (21:09):
It would be, but it's not as, and not as much of a zebra as you think. Right. It's actually more common than we think. And I've done the, the blood test, not the blood. It's a urine test.
Speaker 1 (21:18):
Right. So looking for other causes of social anxiety. Totally agree with you.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
You wanna look at that, right? We always wanna have, here's the thing, we wanna get to the cause. We wanna correct the imbalances that's causing things. And then we want to, in the interim or while we're working on the cause, we wanna look at the the least invasive symptom management that we can come up with. Absolutely. The least invasive. So going back to that, how would they know? Well they're craving sugar after they eat a big meal, they're still hungry and they want more, usually something sweet. They can't go for more than a few hours without eating or after eating. They feel, you know, when they do, they feel kind of, you know, spacey and crazy. They're under a lot of stress and that cortisol, you know, causes it and they're gaining that weight around the middle is a real clear sign. If you're gaining weight around the middle, it's very often a sign of insulin resistance. Right. So all of those things, what else? You know that fatigue, you know, you, me, you mentioned that, right? All of those things add up, right? I'm tired all the time. I never used to be, I'm craving sugar. I can't get full after a meal. I can't make it long spaces between meals. All those things are indications that, that you need to check this out as well. Yeah. But it's not just garden variety menopause.
Speaker 1 (22:32):
Right. I agree. But, and I do think all women should have this
Speaker 3 (22:39):
Every year it's part of their $35 test. Come on. If the doctor won't do it, you get it on your own $35. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
Right. Okay. So now, and the truth is, in my experience, more women than not have some degree of insulin resistance as they approach 50 and past 50. Yeah. So once you know you have a problem, how do they go about addressing it?
Speaker 3 (23:04):
Well, it's all the things we teach in general, right. It's addressing the, the diet. It's addressing the lifestyle. It's addressing the stress, addressing the sleep spacing of the meals movement. And with the food, I love getting people to either get a C G M. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (23:46):
But once you know how long your peak takes to get mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Right. And then change the diet and get rid of the refined stuff. Get rid of the sugars. Even a lot of people, I'm one of them, don't do well with grains of any kind. Yeah. I don't do well with grains of any kind. It could just causes my, I mean checked every single one wild rice is O okay. It doesn't go up as high. Very sweet fruit. I figured out that if I eat very sweet fruit, I have to eat it with a lot of greens to slow down the absorption and then I can have my mango. So then I can have, or I've have a mango with an avocado that will dissipate that high peak. But learning how to eat the foods, the good healthy foods that raise glucose, find out what your trigger foods are and then you eliminate them. And for everybody it's gonna be sugar.
Speaker 3 (25:20):
Example, my husband and I go out for our anniversary uhhuh. We go to a restaurant that used to have this amazing menu and they've changed it a lot. So we're picking and choosing and I go, oh the Brussels sprouts with sriracha should be fine. We taste it, it's a little sweet. I'm like, there's probably maple syrup or you know, balsamic glaze or something in this. Right. I ate it anyway just to see. And my blood sugars went up to like 1 35. He decides to get the crab cakes with breaded crab cakes. And I'm like, that's crazy. His went up to 1 72.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
Oh my goodness.
Speaker 3 (25:56):
Okay. So it's just, we learn and he's going, oops, I guess I'm not gonna do that again. I thought I could get away with it after all the good food I've been eating. Like we all have a different genetic tendency and some people can get away with it for longer and other people can't. So I
Speaker 1 (26:10):
Love that you mentioned your husband cuz I don't believe I've met him, but I don't think so. But he eats healthy kind of like you do and low glycemic. And
Speaker 3 (26:20):
He does. He does. And he makes most of our food. So he, you know, and he'll, he'll do something he'll like when we're out. He'll have, he will have gluten when we go out. He'll have a little dairy when we go out. I don't wanna eat any of those things. Right. And he is not as strict as I am. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Yeah. My my family, me and my family either. I'm just wondering because a lot of the women I work with, cuz they only work with women, once they get the C G M and they really start learning about their blood sugar and they change how they eat, then they complain, my husband won't eat this way. Or that's sometimes an objection to why they don't even wanna do it in the first place. I can't cook two meals. My family will never accept no grains, no gluten, no sugar, no this, that and the other. I'm wondering how you coach people through that.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Absolutely. So it's not a matter of cooking two meals. It's a matter of making side dishes for the people who will eat it. So if we're making like a big stir fry, right. I don't eat the rice. If he makes rice, I don't eat the rice. If he makes a big, you know, a big kind of vegetable casserole or roasted vegetables or whatever else, and he'll eat, he'll eat fish with that or he'll eat potatoes with that. I won't eat that. And that's not his most common thing. He does that periodically more for holidays. But we just get along that way. We, we do eat differently. He'll put balsamic vinegar on his salad. I won't, he likes canned arti cho cards. I don't like them. I I just don't like them that way. I want a fresh artichoke if I'm going to eat artichoke. So there's things we don't do, but you make a core meal that is healthy for everyone.
Speaker 3 (28:24):
Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (28:55):
Yeah. Yeah. It is possible and it can be easy, but I think it does require a little thought and it's thought it's thoughts that people haven't thunk before. So yes,
Speaker 3 (29:20):
Absolutely. So yeah, trained muscles are much more insulin sensitive than untrained muscles. Right. So we just wanna, we wanna work out, you wanna work out within your capacity, right? So somebody who's been a marathon runner and is running five miles a day, that's no big deal. Somebody who's been a couch potato all their life, you don't tell 'em to go out running all day. But you, you also have to look at their state of their adrenals. And most people, by the time they hit me menopause and perimenopause, their adrenals are shot because of all the stressors that they've been under for so long. So we wanna take that into account. So I say the amount of exercise that when you do it, you feel good and you wanna go do it again the next day versus I can't exercise again for three days. That's right.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Burst exercise is awesome. I have this little thing that I have keep in my office behind me and it's a little stair stepper and you go up and down, up and down, up and down as fast as you can for 30 seconds. And if you do that multiple times throughout the day, the burst training has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity so much better than aerobics. Or the same, right. If you do, 30 seconds is like 30 minutes of aerobics in terms of the effect on insulin sensitivity, of course you don't get the same cardiovascular effects. So doing both. So exercise is super critical. And supplementation, there's certain supplements we know help with insulin sensitivity and they tend to be things that get worn out over time. Right. And or depleted in the soils where people don't generally eat a lot of. So magnesium, magnesium super important for improving insulin sensitivity.
Speaker 3 (30:55):
And we know it's important for hormonal balance. I always put people on magnesium in the second half of their menstrual cycles because it helps with mobilizing and eliminating the extra hormones. And that's what happens in perimenopause. Like it's not that the hormones just suddenly drop, it's a blink and the the levels are so inconsistent. So if we improve the elimination of those, we're gonna do better. Right. Yeah. The, the conjugated, you know, the things that are already metabolized. So what else is good? Chromium is really important. It's really good for that. And we're depleted in our soils. So people benefit from the addition of chromium fatty acids like e b A and d H a, especially D H A has been shown to be insulin sensitizing. And then there's other little foods that I like to throw in at Berberine is an herb. It's a, it's an extract from an herb of like Oregon grape root and golden seal, golden rod.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
There's a bunch of different things. But berberine has been shown to be very helpful for reversing the effects of insulin resistance much safer than metformin. It's been studied alongside mess metformin. And then some foods, like my talking mushrooms traditionally used to help stabilize blood sugar. So much so that some people who have been on it, that have been doing my programs with me, they get to a point where they have to stop taking it at bedtime because their sugars go way down overnight and it wakes 'em up. Wow. That much. That's amazing. Yep. Yeah. I have a handout that you know, you could, you might, I might wanna give you to share with your listeners and it's basically, it's like a six page chart which has pictures of the, of the different foods and herbs and their mechanism and how it affects the insulin. And I can certainly get that to you and you can share that that with your people cuz it's just a really
Speaker 1 (32:40):
Nice I sure would love that.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
And chocolate. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (32:43):
I wasn't aware of the maitake mushrooms. That's fascinating. I'll have to look into that. Yeah. So yes, there are lots of foods, supplements you can add exercise for sure. Changing the way you eat that I, I'd say that's the three pronged stool. But what about the fourth prong in terms of, you know, I've had some women get the cgm, the continuous glucose monitor and then they freak out because they say, Kiran, I didn't even eat anything and my blood sugar went up. And I say, well what were you thinking about? Oh well I was upset at my husband because X, Y, and Z happened. Right? And I go, oh, so we have to have the conversation about how emotions affect your blood sugar. Yes, yes. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Speaker 3 (33:28):
Yeah, that's the stress response. I call it the candy bar eating effect of stress. It's like your sugar goes up as if you ate a candy bar and you didn't have the fun of eating the candy bar. You just got to yell at somebody or get all upset. So yeah. So when the body produces cortisol in response to stress stressful emotions or a stressful situation with someone else, the cortisol is meant to help us run away from tigers. Right. Get safe. So it mobilizes stored sugar. So it'll go to the glycogen stores which are in the liver and the muscles and it'll release those stored sugars so that you can run away. But if there's nothing to run away from, then they just raise your blood sugar and it doesn't go down. So I always tell people if you do have a stressful situation and it raises your blood sugar, go for a little walk, do some, you know, squats at your desk or do some kind of exercise to burn the calories to burn those extra sugars that just got released into your bloodstream. So it's a big thing. I always have people do either meditation or heart math or both or you know, other kinds of things to breathing, breathe techniques,
Speaker 1 (34:34):
Just breathe. And I love these quotes that you shared with me before we started that I wanna share. So I wanna talk about them. I'll kind of lay 'em out. You have every choice Matters, which I love. Don't exchange what you want most for what you want in the moment. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (35:00):
Yeah. So we get to make choices all day long. Way more choices than we even are consciously aware that we're making. We just make them right. Are you gonna get up in the morning and meditate? Are you gonna go back to sleep? Are you gonna get up and have a donut and a coffee? Are you gonna go for a run? Like all these choices and every minute throughout the day we have a choice to make and every choice matters and how our bodies biochemically react and how we look and how we feel and how we show up in the world. So every choice matters. The other one don't exchange what you want most for what you want in the moment. One of the things we do with people right at the start of working with them is get them in touch with what their big why.
Speaker 3 (35:39):
What do you, why do you wanna get your help back? What matters most to you? Right? Does it matter that your hands are all crumpled up and you wanna play the piano again and you know, or does it, you wanna be able to play around with your grandchildren? Do you wanna go have a nice, a nice vacation with your partner and hike and not be restricted? And if that's your what you want most and you're sitting there and you have a choice to have some chocolate chip cookies and some cake and some ice cream, you have to think in terms of what do I want most? Is this gonna lead me to the health and the energy that I need for all those things I want most? And you have to say, well nope, I guess not. I'm gonna choose something different. So that's where it means you're exchanging it cuz you're actually saying, oh well I'll just have this. Well you're exchanging what you want most is energy and freedom in your body for 30 seconds on your tongue of chocolate chip cookies or whatever. So that's the other one. And then the third one is, nothing tastes as good as healthy fields cuz you're like, oh, it just tastes so good. But if you've ever felt like truly healthy and unstoppable and like you have energy and stamina and you can do what you want whenever you want, that there's nothing that tastes better to me that I would exchange that for.
Speaker 1 (36:48):
You know, you are the vision of unstoppable, the title of your book, and you're just like a powerhouse of passion and purpose and performance and just what you do for people. You're a force. And can you talk a little bit about, I think this quote, speak to it and everything you've shared today really speaks to it. But talk a little bit about your philosophy on life.
Speaker 3 (37:16):
Wow. My philosophy on life.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (37:19):
Fun is super important. Pleasure is super important. Enjoyment. I wanna be able to enjoy every moment. I wanna be able to have the freedom to say, oh yeah, let's go on that hike and not say, oh, I'm too tired, my knees hurt, whatever. So my philosophy is being aligned with purpose, being aligned with nature. I mean, I'd much rather be outside than in here, you know, in in air conditioned room with lights on versus out there. But you know, bringing the computer out and recording a podcast outdoors gets a little tricky. So I don't, I come inside, but I'd much rather be outside. I'd much rather be out there convening with nature and growing vegetables and you know, there's just things that, that's my philosophy on life. I, I wanna be, I wanna be outside more than inside. I wanna be active more than inactive. And I wanna, I wanna have joy and facilitate others to experience the joy that they deserve and they can have.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Yes. And it's a sad truth though, that a lot of joy requires good health
Speaker 3 (39:16):
Yeah. So the elixir, you know, I, I love herbs and I love drinks and I love creating these things. And I realized, I don't know when, this was like 10 years ago and I started to think, well then, you know, the magical drinks of the you know the ages, right? So what can we put together? So I put together some hormone balancing elixirs. So they're, they've got herbs and mushroom powders. If you're not allergic, you'll leave them out. I always tell people they say, I can't make your thing cuz I'm allergic to that ingredient. Eat it out.
Speaker 1 (40:01):
Yeah. Thank
Speaker 3 (40:02):
You for that. And then the other one, the breakfast. Oh, you're welcome. It's, it's, you know what I've seen with that when people do this, I had one of them in there, it's, I think it's called the energy elixir. Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 1 (40:45):
Mason jar.
Speaker 3 (40:46):
Yeah. With a lid. And then at the top of the lid I have the name of what's in there. So I have my EPS and ashwagandha and, and my taki and my, all these different herbs and they're in my kitchen and I have the pot that I can make hot water in and I can just like pour it in and press the button and make hot water. And then I put it all together and the elixir recipes show you how to flavor them and how to spice them. And they're really good. The other one is the breakfast. Most people screw it up when it comes to breakfast. Right.
Speaker 1 (41:22):
Right, right, right.
Speaker 3 (41:24):
So I put together menus like, here's the five components that you need to have in your meal to start the day. And whether you eat breakfast in the morning or you fast until noon or two, like I sometimes I haven't eaten anything yet today I'll have my breakfast at two. I will include all of those components in my meal to keep my blood sugar steady throughout the day to keep my hormone steady throughout the day. And so I have that and then there's a bunch of recipes in there. So it's really fun.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Nice. Thank you so much for those. Yes. Breakfast, we really do, we screw up Breakfast in America
Speaker 3 (42:15):
Absolutely. So dr rita marie.com is my main website if you're a health practitioner, I have one called I n E Method, but it's linked from the main site. And then I'm on Instagram, Facebook, where else am I on regularly? Linkedin. And you just look up Dr. Rita Marie there. And then I have a YouTube channel. It's Dr. Rita Marie's Functional Health channel. And I post there, I usually do a live there once a week and I have probably seven, 800 out there. And I have a podcast called Reinvent Healthcare, mainly geared towards health practitioners, functional medicine doctors, nurses, health coaches, et cetera. But a lot of non, a lot of lay people listen in because it's just full of deep media information. And you were on there. Yes,
Speaker 1 (43:00):
We talked. Yes, I was. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (43:01):
Yeah, we did adrenal sex what are we talking about? Menopause Adrenal connection. So yes, it's den healthcare.com.
Speaker 1 (43:09):
Yes. Well check out Dr. Rina Marie and all those places. Definitely go to the show notes, click the link and download those valuable resources. We really can't get enough information about how to eat properly for perimenopause, menopause, how to balance our hormones. It really is, if you've heard me talk, hormones are the foundation of a woman's health. So if you don't get that right, you won't get anything else. Right. So get that right. For sure. Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Rita Marie,
Speaker 3 (43:40):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (43:41):
And thank you for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Hopefully you've learned something today that you will put into action to start moving your hormones into a balanced direction. I look forward to hearing from you on social media about exactly what you've done and the results that you've gotten. I hope you have a wonderful week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (44:08):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Join us for this empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we dive deep into the power of transforming anxiety into a powerful ally in our lives with clinical professional counselor, Lynn Dutrow. Discover how Lynn's unique perspective and practical strategies can help midlife women turn their inner struggles into incredible strengths.
Guest Details
Name: Lynn Dutrow
Credentials: Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), Author, and Compassionate AssKicker
Background: Psychology, Education, Coaching, and Motorcycle Sales (a story for another day)
Lynn specializes in supporting Responsible Rebels (aka Brave Small Business Owners, Empathic Entrepreneurs, and Purpose-Fueled Professionals) in enjoying their success with less stress. She's also the author of the highly sought-after book, ALIGNED as Fck: Transforming Your Inner Assholes (like Anxiety) into Allies.*
In this heart-to-heart conversation, we explore Lynn's personal journey dealing with anxiety, her unique approach to overcoming mental barriers, and how she now helps others find peace and purpose in their lives.
Key Takeaways and Lessons
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The importance of acknowledging and confronting our anxieties and inner struggles
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Practical tips and strategies for transforming anxiety into a powerful ally
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How women in midlife can harness their anxiety for personal and professional growth
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The role hormones may play in our anxiety levels and response
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Techniques that promote self-awareness, acceptance, and healing
If you're a midlife woman who's ready to turn anxiety into a source of empowerment and growth, this episode is not to be missed! Tune in to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and get inspired by Lynn's relatable stories, powerful insights, and practical tools to embrace your anxiety and unleash your potential.
Remember, when you're ALIGNED as F*ck, you are unstoppable!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude.” Oprah Winfrey, stay tuned. Cause Lynn Dutrow is gonna teach you how to get aligned as f you and how to transform your inner anxiety into allies.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob-gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:17):
Hi everybody. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Today we're gonna dive into anxiety again because it is such an important topic for women over 40. There are physical problems including hormonal imbalances, like hormonal poverty that can contribute to anxiety, but there are also mental thought processes that we can have habitually that can cause us to spiral into anxiety. And it makes it very difficult for us to actually achieve what we want to in life, like getting our health straight or doing the things we want with our career or relationships when we're stuck in anxiety. Cuz it's really a colossal waste of energy. As someone who suffered with anxiety in the past myself and sometimes also in the present, it's something that I think can't be talked about enough. More women than not suffer with this.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
Also men. So maybe you'll learn something in the episode today that will really help shed some light. My guest today is a licensed clinical professional counselor and she has a lot of experience in that area. She switched over to coaching. She's gonna tell you why and what the benefits of having a coach are over having a traditional therapist, particularly when it comes to anxiety. She's really action-oriented and we're gonna talk about that quote from Oprah. She's got a couple other great ones from Socrates and Heric Colitis that really get to the crux of what anxiety is all about it. You really have some unique and powerful tools that you can start using today to transform that ruminative thought process that's going on in your brain that really keeps you from living life fully and achieving what's possible for you. So I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
Lynn Dutrow is a licensed clinical professional counselor. She's an author and compassionate ask kicker with a background in psychology, education, coaching and motorcycle sales, and that's a story for another day. She specializes in supporting the responsible rebels in enjoying their success with less stress. The responsible rebels are brave, smart business owners, empathic entrepreneurs and purpose fueled professionals, people just like you. She is the author of Aligned as. And I will say this is an explicit episode because Lynn speaks, frankly, she curses. So we've marked the episode as such, so if cursing bothers you, we don't have too much, but if it bothers you, have this episode or not play it when there are. She's the author of Aligned As, transforming Your Inner, like Anxiety Into Allies. Please help me welcome Lynn Dutrow to the show.
Speaker 3 (04:05):
Thank you. I'm honored to be here. I'm looking forward to our conversation. So
Speaker 1 (04:08):
One of the first questions I have for you is you're a licensed clinical professional counselor, but now you predominantly do coaching and help people get aligned as we're gonna talk about that. But how did you make the transformation? What made you decide to make the transformation from clinical counseling to coaching?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
So there's, there's a few things that factored into that. One of them simply being, I like to tell people what to do more than, than just the whole tradition, like how does that make you feel? And the also the ability to go beyond what felt like constraints of a typical or traditional counseling. So I do combine, I I really combine both of them. I tell people that I kind of came out of the womb being a good listener and so it's just a natural progression to work in the helping field, but it just has felt more and more like the coaching aspect of it, being able to be a partner with people and not just say, okay, like going back into the healing part, I'm more action oriented. So it's like, okay, this is going on now how do we get you to where things can be easier in how you're doing things?
Speaker 3 (05:30):
So rather than spending all the time in going back and, and looking at like, where did all of this come from? It's okay, what's going on now and how can we take action steps to get you to be living the life that you really wanna be living? So that's the shortest version that I have.
Speaker 1 (06:30):
I think it's an important topic for people like you to discuss because I think the average person is pretty confused right about now because there's so many different degrees that people can have. They can have a social work degree, they can have a marital and family counseling degree, they can have a be a clinical psychologist, they can have a PhD, they can have a master's, PhD, master's, all the different credentials. And there are so many different types of coaches out there and it's not regulated. So there's no standardization and I think people are confused. But one thing I think women are not confused about is that anxiety is a problem for the majority of us.
Speaker 3 (07:13):
Absolutely. We all have it in one form, form
Speaker 1 (07:16):
Another. Why, why do we, why do we all have anxiety? Lynn, please tell us why.
Speaker 3 (07:23):
Because anxiety's actually part of our survival system. It's there for a reason. It has just been given way too much power and we don't live in the same world where we have to be concerned about the Sabre twos tiger creeping up on us and having our survival system keep us alive. But that same survival system still there. And so the more comfortable we make our lives, the more that survival system and anxiety in particular over does its job. It's making things that aren't actually a threat to our survival, into things to react to. And there's so many things now that I was just talking to someone this morning about how we've made being a woman, being a mother, being a wife, all of those things into like an Olympic sport. And then so then you get all of the, your, your perfectionist gets involved in all of that and you know, we just keep trying to achieve and strive and do all of these things. And so anxiety's there all along the way going, oh, you're not doing it right, you're not doing it right. And ooh, let's panic about this even though there's nothing to panic about. So it's there. And the way that I work with clients is to have to acknowledge and accept it first, and then we're gonna work on changing your relationship to it so that, as I say, you teach it better social skills, get it to actually be working for you instead of against you.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
Well that sounds great and hopefully we can do that today. Give some people an idea of how they can do that. But I just, before we move on to that topic, why have we made our lives into Olympic sport? Why are we such perfectionist? Why do we have to be the best mom, the best wife, the best worker, the best business, the best everything? Where in the world did this come from that now all of a sudden we have to be the best? I don't think that it used to be that way. So what happened? I
Speaker 3 (09:25):
Don't think it used to be that way either. I think that there are a few things that have contributed. Technology is one of them because we can now see what people are doing all over the world for 24, you know, 24 hours a day, seven, seven days a week. And we didn't used to be able to do that. I mean, you know, just as far back as, you know, my parents' generation, they didn't have a television. They could tell what people were doing, you know, from radio or reading, you know, or those sorts of things, but they just got about their day. They went and did whatever they needed to do. And I don't think people were comparing themselves in the way they are now. And so that's, I think a big contributing factor is that, you know, any moment of the day you can pick up your little rectangle that we, you carry around with you and you can jump on social media or anything else and suddenly there's somebody to compare.
Speaker 3 (10:16):
I think we also have made the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of success in however that has gotten defined, which is to be the best at rather than, and and there's also this avoidance of failure, you know, so if you're walking around avoiding failure, then you've got, the only other option is success because we are very wired to this all or nothing, especially if we have a tendency towards, so this all or nothing, it's like, well, you know, we can't fail so we must succeed. And then there's really nothing in the middle and we're just all over focused on it.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah. I call it paranoia,
Speaker 3 (12:02):
I think so. I love them. You're on the present. That's hilarious. Yeah. So the, so, so my take on this is, yes, mindfulness can be helpful, but, but more from the perspective of learning how to think about what you wanna think about when you want to think about it, and to what you said, I think how anxiety is future oriented, how it impacts the present is that you are feeling like in this moment, I have to make a decision that feels like it's going to impact, you know, the next minute, the next hour, the next day, the next week. And so it feels like all this pressure in the moment. And what you can do with that is say, I can make this decision right now, and if in a minute or an hour or a day or a week from now I realize that the decision I made right here isn't working for me, then I can make another decision. And that's the part that gets us worked up is the, that I'm gonna make a decision now that's gonna dis like completely that I can't change it, you know, this is it, I'm signing up for whatever, and it's staying in the moment to, to trust that I'm gonna make the best decision I can right now. And then if in the future that's not working out in that moment in the future, I can make a different decision.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Okay. That makes sense. So that's, yes, that's more staying in the present. So what do you think are the most important besides that? Which sounds pretty important. What else is very important for every woman listening to understand about the anxiety that she's got? She's got anxiety about the work she's doing in the world. Maybe she's a business owner, maybe she worked for somebody else, she's anxious. Am I doing enough? Am I good enough? She's worrying about her kids. Is she present enough? Or maybe other family members, spouses, partners, she's afraid she's gonna lose things. You know, there's a a lot big fear we've had in the past couple years. People afraid of losing their health or losing family members or friends to health problems, concerns about money problems. So what is important for all women to, to understand about anxiety?
Speaker 3 (14:19):
Well, I think one of the biggest things is to understand anxiety's role. And so anxiety is meant to do basically two things. It can be a force of good, which is when it's giving you a signal. And I would say in a lot of the cases that you just mentioned, anxiety is attempting to give a signal that you're doing too much, you're expecting too much of yourself. Well, that's probably the biggest one. They, they're expecting too much because too often I think women in particular, especially mothers or well, or, or people at work, so a woman who has a high pressure career, they're taking on too much responsibility. It's like we get a dopamine hit for being competent. We get a dopamine hit, you know, for for being the, the competent, the successful one in the room. So what happens is we feel like we have to do everything, but to be a really good leader, whether that's at work or you have to figure out how to, to delegate, how to let other people, you know, my daughter goes to a Montessori school and one of my favorite Maria Montessori quotes is, you know, basic is something along the lines of don't do for others what they can do for themselves.
Speaker 3 (15:31):
And that's been challenging. But when I tell people that my daughter has been doing her own laundry since she was five, you know, the, the jaws drop that, wait a minute, you know, I, I don't have to do everything for my children or my spouse or I don't have to do everything. I mean, I've worked with, you know, folks VP and higher level in companies and when we really break it down, we realize they're doing too much of what their employees, their subordinates are supposed to be doing because there's such a fear that it's not gonna be done right. Right. So it's teasing through a lot of these thoughts that we have of things having to be done a certain way or done Right. And again, that compare paranoia or compare para paranoia. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (16:21):
Is it, is it telling me something that's actually important and actionable that I can do something different? Or on the other hand, because because anxiety is not always showing up the same way, sometimes anxiety is showing up as noise, right? So that's when it's waking you up at 3:00 AM you know, worrying about something that you have no control over what to do about it in that moment. So the first thing is to distinguish, is my anxiety behaving today and actually giving me a signal about something that would be important for me to take action on, look at differently change? Or is it just being an and giving me noise to, to wind me up? You know, I tell, I tell clients that anxiety's kind of like that, like the neighbor or your cousin or somebody that you had to hang out with. Like you, you weren't, you didn't have a choice.
Speaker 3 (17:13):
Like you had to hang out with them at least some of the time, and you got along okay when it was just the two of you. But if you bring anybody else in, they started acting up and trying to keep your attention. Anxiety's kind of like that. It's like, Hey, wait a minute, I want your attention. So if you start focusing on something else, like I'm gonna draw you back and say, Hey, the only place I can keep you safe is right here. So I'm gonna keep you frozen. I'm gonna keep you stuck. I'm gonna keep you worrying, I'm gonna keep you on the, the hamster wheel, whatever it is. And so learning how anxiety works and how it plays, you know, the what if game and all of those things, that's a, a really great start to changing your relationship with all of those thoughts and feelings that overwhelm you. And
Speaker 1 (17:57):
So I try to tie everything into hormones, which includes the, the nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, sympathetic, parasympathetic. Why do we even have the ability to be anxious? What biologic capability or survival advantage does it confer on us
Speaker 3 (18:14):
To survive, to be alert, to notice, you know, my clients very often, they're the ones that pick up on the subtle things in their environment. They're the ones that, you know, you get something written by them, the the grammar is correct and all of that stuff. They're the ones who are constantly looking for things out of the ordinary because that's how we survived. And I, the a psychiatrist friend of mine, and I, I don't think she probably just repeated it, but it was, you know, basically we all evolved from the anxious people, from the people who were on alert because the people who relaxed dancing around the fire got eaten. Right. So I got it.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (18:56):
Right. So we are predisposed to survive, which means we are always on the lookout for things that might be a threat. And that's what I was talking about though, our lives on some level have gotten so comfortable that our survival system isn't quite sure what to do. It still wants to do its job. So it tends then to pick things that if we really stand back and look at them, they're not, nobody's gonna die. Right. But our body is overreacting as if that could be a possibility. So that's where, you know, becoming aware of what is going on and, and why your sympathetic nervous system gets so easily triggered. And I do agree that this can, and I often get people who say, well, I never thought of myself as anxious before. And then I, I look at their age and they're over 40, especially women, and it's like, okay, now what role is either the, maybe you weren't aware before because this is just how you functioned, but it all has to be related and I'm not the medical person, but you know, it all has to be related.
Speaker 3 (20:08):
Because if you are wearing out, you know, if your sympathetic nervous systems on all the time, then you're wearing out your adrenals or you know, the cortisol, all of those things that are then gonna just make all of this worse. So when I have clients, that's what I work on, like a multi-level, is we begin the process of what I call, like the education, just understanding how all of this works. And I think one of my gifts is I take what I call psychobabble and I break it down into real language that people can understand. So like that's with my, with the book that I wrote, you know, that's the comment I get. Wow. It's like, I like it sounds like I'm having a conversation with you and this makes sense to me. And then as we're doing that, then we start digging into some of the other things like what might be going on with clients' hormones, what might be going on with their health, what are they eating, what are their sleep habits look like? And oftentimes I think, I know for myself, when I looked at my hormones, that made a large difference in how my anxiety showed up, the intensity of it. So it definitely got better when as I began to look at my diet and, and how to change, you know, my hormones, my metabolism, all of that. So that is something that mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (21:33):
Yeah, absolutely. And that's a part of my story that I've shared on the podcast many times. Extreme anxiety on many medications for it. And then when I got my hormones straight and got my gut straight, I didn't need any medications. Right? So if that's you and you're suffering with anxiety, that is the number one thing you want to do. But then beyond that, I do find that I have some thought patterns that tend to lead to anxiety like a lot of people. And I think a lot of the anxiety centers around this quote that you shared with me from otitis, there is nothing permanent except change. We don't like change, Lynn.
Speaker 3 (22:14):
No, we don't. We don't. But the one thing that's inevitable is change.
Speaker 1 (22:21):
Life is just a series of changes.
Speaker 3 (22:24):
Yes. That is something that I work with clients is like to increase their tolerance for discomfort. And I think that's another, you know, as I'm thinking about it, that's another thing that plays into why things are worse now. Because every marketer out there, every company that has hired someone to do their marketing has hired someone who knows that the best way to get us to buy someone buy something is to appeal to our fear and anxiety. Our fear and anxiety. That we're not good enough, that we're not living up to something that, and, and that we don't have to tolerate discomfort at all. You know, there's a pill, there's a blanket, there's a something, there's food, there's something that you can use to change how you feel. What I find is when my clients begin this process of not, their goal isn't to be comfortable and to be certain all the time, because that's what anxiety tells you.
Speaker 3 (23:24):
You have to be comfortable, you have to be certain, well those are illusions. We love them. We love the idea of being able to be certain, to make sure, like if you could sit in my shoes
Speaker 3 (24:13):
We learn a lot about ourselves, about what we're here to do. I think it was Glenn and Doyle talks about if you're looking to figure out what your purpose is, figure out what makes you cry. You know? And I love that allowing ourselves to get past what we think society is telling us we should be doing our obligations mm-hmm.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Yeah. You know, I love that you're going down this, this line of discussion about this topic. You know, what you're saying speaks to me of, we, we try to make decisions with our heads, right? What's the logical choice? What would a smart person do? And I've recently been learning more and more about something called human design, which I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. See you shaking your head Yes. And it's basically told me that in your brain is not designed to make decisions and nobody's brain is, and I actually am, have an emotional authority. So my emotions are, and other people have a splenic authority or they might have a sacral authority or something like this. No, no. Humans are supposed to be making decisions with our brain and yet that's where we make most decisions. And I love what you shared about Glennon Doyle.
Speaker 1 (25:55):
I love her writing and what you shared about what makes you cry. I talked to so many women midlife who are really confused about their purpose and their path and what would bring them joy and they don't even know what they want. So can you talk maybe about how you help people get in touch with that heart-centered, maybe emotional or splenic or whatever the, your authority is that can help guide you to what would be most meaningful. So you can take those calculated risks, but I think that, you know, if you don't go out on the branch on the limb, you can't get the fruit. So you kind of gotta go out there. So how do you help people navigate that?
Speaker 3 (26:37):
Well, it starts with just that education of how these inner parts of you work and then getting in touch with, well, what, you know, think, you know, it, it's different for different people. Sometimes people are able to get in touch with it when they think back to what they love to do as a child back before all of the expectations were piled on them. What do they find? Like, you know, if you have even five minutes to yourself, what, what do you gravitate to? What do you, what do you like to do? And, and also help them to, because again, I work with so many clients that have the all or nothing thinking they get, somebody gave me feedback in the book where it was like, I, you know, I don't, I don't wanna do any more of this work because it's gonna mean that I'm gonna have to divorce my husband
Speaker 3 (27:24):
It's right. It's the all or nothing. And so I, I help guide them all on the path that it's, it's not that you have to take one huge step, let's just talk about 1% incremental change. Like looking at what's one little thing that you can do here? And also maybe you won't end up doing the thing that you're passionate about for a career. Like you don't have to give up your job today and go do something that, that you feel passionate about, but maybe you could start volunteering with something that you feel passionate about something. So just walking them through the, getting past their inner to even have a conversation about that things could be different than the way that they are right now. And to just look at little things, tweak a little bit here, tweak a little bit there. I think one of the big conversations that I have with clients is not to set goals.
Speaker 3 (28:17):
You can set intentions, you can have an idea of where you wanna go, but we get too caught up in the failure that happens between, you know, so think, think like with weight loss, it's like, okay, well I wanna lose, I think you said you lost over a hundred pounds. I mean that's big. But you had to, instead of focusing on the losing the a hundred pounds, my guess is you focus on the the things that you could be successful at every day until you got there. And that's what people miss. It's, it's the, oh, I'm gonna set this goal and I don't map out how I'm gonna get there. And so every day I wake up and I feel like I'm a failure cuz I'm not at my goal yet. So how do we break it down into having those successes every day? And so with finding your purpose, it's, let's just break this down and start looking at, you know, what makes, what makes you cry, what ma what gives you makes your heart, you know, feel full, you know, those sorts of things. And then what, how can you incorporate a little bit more of that each day? What are you doing that you can take off your plate? You know, the little thing. So that's how we get started with that. Yes.
Speaker 1 (29:27):
And it reminds me of this other quote you shared from Socrates. The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. So when I lost all that weight, I focused on, I'm building health. Yeah. I wasn't even focused on the weight loss, I just was doing the things I needed to do to address the underlying causes, the hormonal imbalances, the toxicities, the gut dysfunction. And then the weight just started coming off. So I wasn't even focused.
Speaker 3 (29:59):
Right, exactly. That's exactly it is the changing the way that we focus it isn't, it wasn't ever about the weight loss. It was about making the healthy choices to have a better life. And then you get the, the secondary gain if you will. Oh well look when I did that, when that's what I focused on. So yeah, helping to, to people to see that if you focus too much on a goal that without those steps and without knowing what the deeper meaning behind it is. So that's what you did. And there's where your success,
Speaker 1 (30:34):
Right. And I'm wondering what you think stops most of us for going for what we actually want. So I think there are different categories of women at midlife. Some of us really don't know what we want. We haven't been asked, I've talked to some women and I say, well what is it you really want for your life? And they say, I don't even know anymore. So some of us don't know we have to go through a rediscovery process, but there's some of us who know, but we don't wanna say the thing, we're up free to say the thing cause we're afraid that someone will shame us for it. Or who do you think you are? And you talked about imposter syndrome and then our attitude oftentimes whatever situation we're in at midlife regarding what we truly want in life. And maybe it's great help that we want, maybe we wanna lose a hundred pounds, but we won't even admit it cuz we don't think we can have. It has to do with our attitude. And like you said, Oprah Winfrey shared the greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude. And so many of us have this attitude of silence. We don't, it doesn't even mean that anyone else has silenced us. We've silenced ourselves. We don't say the thing that we need to say or want to say. We don't do the thing, we won't admit the thing. So help us here, Lynn. Yeah,
Speaker 3 (31:58):
Well it's, it goes back to the same thing. It's not safe to do those things. We, I think especially, you know, our generation, I am really curious whether these younger generations, I guess you would call it like the millennials and the Gen Zs, are they gonna have the same trouble when they get to be our age? Because they seem to be able to identify what they want a little bit more, or at least verbalize it. Now whether their experiences will show them, you know, this idea that they can't have it or not, I don't know. But I know like, you know, I'm a child of the eighties and nobody ever asked us what we wanted. So we, we don't know how to even answer that question. And I think though it's tied to safety, what feels safe. And so if you've ever had, and all it takes is one, all it takes is one situation where you spoke up, you said what you wanted and somebody either said, no, you can't have it, circumstances don't allow it.
Speaker 3 (32:59):
Or someone judged you like you did get it and you're feeling really good about it. And someone says, this happened to me like I got a pretty good job, a pretty high paying job out of graduate school. And I found out through the grapevine that somebody that I knew basically said I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve to at my age to have gotten that job. Now that critical voice is in my head. And so I'm a little more cautious because if you think back to, and this wasn't really in the, in the big picture of things, this wasn't really that long ago. You know, there was a time when if you didn't stay in the favor of the tribe, you couldn't survive because that point in time to try to be a loner didn't really work. And so I think we've carried that forward.
Speaker 3 (33:49):
And so if we don't feel safe to ask for what we want or even get what we, what we think that we want because other members of the tribe are gonna be jealous and judge us, or we're not even just jealous that they have concerns about what's going on in your life and they're gonna say, Ooh, you know, don't take that risk. It doesn't take much for us to say, okay, well then, then I don't feel safe taking this risk or ta or asking for what I want. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 1 (34:23):
Okay. And then I do wanna ask you before I wanna give Emry on some practical tips, they can start using poor anxiety that they're having. So we'll get to that. But the name of your book is Aligned as, transforming Your Inner, like Anxiety Into Allies. And I'm wondering if you can talk about that title, what does that mean, aligned as, what are your inner? So can you talk a little bit about that and then we'll also talk about some things people can do to get started with their anxiety.
Speaker 3 (34:55):
Sure. So my inner didn't want me to write that book. And so they were coming up with all kinds of obstacles for me. And so aligned was a word that really resonated with me that by getting, you know, getting them in alignment with what I wanted to do was important. So I used the letters of aligned to come up with the concept for each chapter. So there's a chapter A, a chapter L, you know, so on and under each one I talk about different concepts related to that letter. So that's how the whole thing started and it just kind of took off. So the book is really helping you to step by step look at, okay, what are, what's important to understand about how these, what I call inner, the ones who you know, your anxiety, your doubt, the inner critic, the perfectionist, all of that, how they have gotten in charge and how to demote them and teach 'em better social skills.
Speaker 3 (35:53):
So the first chapter talks about just acknowledging that they're there, accepting that they're there. And then the big one, the big step at that point is to anthropomorphize them. And I had to practice saying that word a lot. It does not really, you know, trip off your tongue, but it's giving human characteristics to a non-human form. And so I have found that clients have been very, once they get what they get how to do it, they've been very successful. And because it allows you to basically have a conversation with yourself and those parts of yourself that you're not, that you're scared of, that you're not getting along with that trip you up that sabotage you and to then recognize how to work with them differently. That's where I start people and then I have them look at their language and how to lean into discomfort, how to take a leap and be a leader, find their inner c e o and get these inner lined up and working for you rather than against you.
Speaker 3 (36:53):
And the book has been so well received that I actually am working on a companion workbook. So in the book I give an action step per chapter. So there's like seven, there might be some bonuses in there, but the workbook is actually a action step for every single concept. So there's like 23 or 24 concepts that I cover in the book that the workbook's gonna actually give you more examples as well as an action step for each one. So I'm doing my best to break it down as much as I can for people to really take the time to figure out how they can do this differently and have a, have a better result for themself.
Speaker 1 (37:32):
Okay. So your inner are all the things that stop you from being who you wanna be, doing what you wanna do in life, like anxiety, your inner critic, things like that. Mm-Hmm
Speaker 3 (37:55):
That is correct.
Speaker 1 (37:56):
Okay. I like it
Speaker 3 (38:14):
I, I think those would be the thing is just accept that yeah, this does happen. There's nothing, there's really nothing wrong with you. This is your body giving you a signal that it's time to listen to these voices, but listen to them with a discerning ear to see whether some of what they're trying to say to you are things that are important to address. Because again, it can lead you to saying, okay, like all the things that I've been trying to do for my health, which you know, all of the outdated stuff of eat less, you know, exercise more, all of that, that it's time to find a better path. You know, have your hormones tested, work with somebody who can help you get some relief there so that you can put the rest of the work into action and actually be getting closer to the life that you would like to have without all of your inner trying to say no, you can't have it.
Speaker 1 (39:07):
Okay. So get your hormones tested for sure.
Speaker 3 (39:11):
Absolutely.
Speaker 1 (39:13):
Speaker 3 (39:17):
Practicing self-compassion. We didn't really talk about that before, but I think, yeah, in this age of all this paranoia and comparisonitis is learning to have self-compassion. I, you know, I talk about language and too often my clients are talking to themselves in a way they would never talk to, you know, a child or their best friend or, or anybody for that matter. And so really starting to know, you know, how you're talking to yourself and how we can be compassionate to others, but we have to learn how to be compassionate to ourselves as well. And then that goes in line, if you're being self-compassionate, then you are finding others because that's one thing too, especially for women. You don't have to do this alone. There are people out there and, and to go back to do you need a therapist? Do you need a coach?
Speaker 3 (40:09):
You know where to start. It's about the relationship. So start noticing who you resonate with and not just who you feel like is gonna tell you what to do, but who feels like somebody that you could work with that would be a partner to you. And not just somebody who seems more powerful or knowledgeable. Just because you know people have a lot of letters after their name doesn't mean that they would be a good fit for you. So that's part of, I think the process as well is finding mm-hmm
Speaker 1 (40:40):
You do not. There is lots of support and I'm so glad that you've written the book that you've written, that you're working on the workbook that you transitioned to coaching. I think that therapy is wonderful. It's helped me tremendously. And I also think that coaching can be extremely powerful. I've had coach coaching as well, and it can be very action oriented and help you to take actions contrary to what you've been getting because if you keep taking the same actions, you're gonna get the same outcome. Absolutely. So trying something different is key. Yeah. So thank you so much for coming on the show, Lynne, and sharing your insights about anxiety and the inner
Speaker 3 (41:33):
No. Just yeah, keep your eye out if you're, if this interests you at all, like I said, there's the book, there's a workbook you can get on my website and get a taste of the book. I think it's chapter three is available for my website. And I just really appreciate this conversation. It's been great. I hope it was helpful.
Speaker 1 (41:52):
Yes, thank you so much. And thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Hopefully you've learned something today that will inspire you to take action and do something different and really figure out what it is you want for your life and go for it. Don't just dream about it. I always say that the dream chooses the dreamer. You didn't choose the dream, it chose you. And that your dreams as humanity calling forth from you, those gifts that only you have, that only you can deliver. So what are those gifts and what are you gonna do to move towards delivering them today? Thanks so much for joining me. I'll see you next week. Until then, peace,
Speaker 2 (42:34):
Love, and hormones, y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we bring you inspiring stories and expert insights to help you elevate your health and wellness. Today, we're excited to have the energetic and passionate Emmy-winning TV host, Samantha Harris, join us to talk about her incredible journey to health and wellness.
Her story begins with a shocking breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 40, which led her to rise above the challenge and become a breast cancer "thriver." Samantha channeled her energy into becoming a Certified Health Coach, trainer, and author of the bestselling book "YOUR HEALTHIEST HEALTHY: 8 Easy Ways to Take Control, Help Prevent and Fight Cancer, and Live a Longer, Cleaner, Happier Life."
In this episode, you'll discover:
- How Samantha's life took an unexpected turn with her breast cancer diagnosis
- The ways in which she fought and thrived despite the challenge presented by this life-changing event
- The inspiration behind her bestselling book, "YOUR HEALTHIEST HEALTHY: 8 Easy Ways to Take Control"
- Samantha's perspective on health and wellness as a Certified Health Coach and trainer
- The importance of taking control of your health and living your healthiest, happiest life
If you're inspired by Samantha's story and want to learn more, subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast for more uplifting stories and informative interviews.
Remember to stay healthy, stay inspired, and keep on listening!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Keep doing what you're doing and you will keep getting what you're getting. Samantha Harris, stay tuned for amazing story of healing from breast cancer and beyond to your healthiest healthy.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. You're gonna love my guest today. She has an amazing story of healing from breast cancer and beyond, to becoming her healthiest healthy, and now that's what she's gonna help you do is become your healthiest healthy. In this episode, she is passionate about health and healing, but more than that, vitality and living a full and meaningful life. So she's gonna teach you all about that. She's very inspiring and she has some amazing wisdom to share about detecting breast cancer, trusting yourself and so many other things. It's just too much for me to tell you. You're gonna love this episode and we're gonna dive into the teaser that I shared with you. Keep doing what you're doing and you'll keep getting what you're getting, which is kind of a motto that she lives by.
Speaker 1 (02:04):
And she's gonna talk about how being kind to herself and really slowing down has been vital to becoming her healthiest, healthy, and might be a key to yours and so much more. So let me tell you a little bit about Samantha and then we'll get started. She's an Emmy winning TV host and she may be best known for her eight seasons as the host of Dancing With the Stars and Years as host of host, such as Entertainment Tonight and Extra from hosting every major Hollywood award show red carpet to starring on Broadway in the musical Chicago. She has been a fixture in the entertainment world. She's currently the host of the World play Game show, tug of Words on Game Show Network. Please help me welcome Samantha Harris to the show. Dr. Kier, I love what you do and how you really help. You know, as a, as a breast cancer survivor who's had to deal with a lot of hormonal issues because I had a hormone positive breast cancer, I am grateful for all the information that you put out there for anyone, whether they've had a deal with a diagnosis or not.
Speaker 1 (03:08):
So thank you for that. Oh, it's my pleasure. It's my passion. It's what I love doing. You know, when I discovered a root cause resolution way to heal my body and lose a hundred pounds and get off all the medications, I said that I would commit my life to teaching other women about this. And so that's why we're here. And I know that you have an amazing story about having estrogen. Was it estrogen receptor positive breast cancer? Oh yeah, pro progesterone, both. And, and so breast cancer is the thing that scares women more than anything. We're all petrified about getting breast cancer, I guess, because so many of us will get it in our lifetimes. It's not common to have your life shortened by it anymore because we have such advances in treatment. But it is possible. My maternal grandmother actually passed away at a very young age due to breast cancer.
Speaker 1 (04:02):
So I'm wondering if you could share your journey with everyone. Absolutely. And I think that it is so important to be able to let women know that we have so much more power and control than we may think. So as I've been a national ambassador for Susan g Koman, probably because of all my time hosting, dancing with the Stars in Entertainment Tonight and all of those and having a, a great national platform for that, but since my breast cancer diagnosis. And so I learned that one in eight women will receive a breast cancer diagnosis over the course of her lifetime, which a alone was shocking, but to me the most shocking part of it was that only five to 10% of those breast cancers are actually hereditary. And when I found out, because I had a, a grandmother who had breast cancer and now she was postmenopausal, so they don't connect premenopausal like mine to hers.
Speaker 1 (04:52):
She lived to 95, thank goodness my dad had colon cancer died at age 50, but he also had Crohn's disease before that. And there are, there is a breast colon hereditary connection. We looked at that, no connection there. So I had no, and I've done 180 genetic tests that are currently available for breast cancer. None of them detected it. So I'm in that 80 or 95, you know, to to 90, 95% of people who don't have a genetic predisposition. Right. And I'm sure there's probably, sure you could throw up a random number like 5% that are just, gosh, who knows what the heck it is. It's some sort of fluke. But, so let's say now that we're at like a good 85 to 90% of breast cancers being not genetic, not being able to be chalked up to some crazy other thing happening in their body.
Speaker 1 (05:44):
And we know the power of epigenetics, right? How our habits and lifestyle choices and our environment that we are living in impact our risk of disease in this case. Mm-Hmm. breast cancer, that was one of the most empowering things that I learned in my early cancer. Versity when I was learning as much as I possibly could. And so as a journalist, I started a research journey to seek out answers. Why are so many women getting it? Why when the hereditary links are so few? And I found it really is what we are putting in and around our bodies that leads not just to breast cancer but other cancers, type two diabetes, heart disease, neurodegenerative disorders and decline. And when I learned that, it made me realize, wow, there's so much more for my health and my outcome of my future that I have con potential control of.
Speaker 1 (06:36):
And I kept, took my power back, I was back in the saddle, I took the reins and I started to make slow but systematic changes in my life. Yeah, I love what you said and how you outline that 90 to 95% of what goes into causing breast cancer is under your control. And, but we're really taught that we're powerless, that we're at the whim or victimization of some nebulous kind of cancer causing God. But the truth is, it's what how we're living your lives, right? Which is what you teach people about in your programs. It's what we're putting in our mouths, what we're putting in our bodies, what we're putting on our hair, what we're not getting rid of, right? What we're not pooping out, what we're not peeing out. Yes. All of these disruptors. So yeah, share a little bit about your journey. I did see, you know, on your website you have some very personal pictures of you going through some very specific cancer treatments.
Speaker 1 (07:33):
If you would love to talk about that. I'm sure women would love to hear about how you survived that very difficult time, what it was like for you. And then coming out of that, what was it like the, the ultimate healing that you did after they got rid of the cancer? Well, I think sharing my journey is really important to me. And, and this is why we have to be our own best health advocates. We need to know our bodies better than anyone else, including the person in the lab coat with all respect to those of you who are in the profession of medicine. And then goodness you are. But we need to know our bodies better than the doctor we're walking into the room with. And that means noticing small changes and not bearing your head in the sand when you find them. So I had a clear M mammogram.
Speaker 1 (08:17):
I was about to turn 40, this is in 2014 actually, 2013. And the results came back clear. It's exactly what I had anticipated because I was the healthy one among my friends and family. I worked out every day I ate my cheese list pizzas and my snack well cookies that were low fat cuz god forbid we eat any fat , you know, I had a meal of red vines because they were fat free. Oh my God. They were the, I had literally, I would go and buy like from smart and final or Costco, like the tub of red vines cuz they would advertise fra fat free food. So I thought free fine to have, forget the fact that I now have learned it's high fructose corn syrup and red dye 40 and all these very harmful and cancerous things. But I didn't know that at the time.
Speaker 1 (09:00):
Right? And so here I am, I'm thinking I'm so healthy and I'm eating copious amounts of animal protein. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, whether it was yogurt or eggs for breakfast and Turkey or chicken or fish or something for lunch and dinner every single day of the week. And I grew up in Minnesota eating every part of the cow. There was so a lot of, a lot of animal in my life. And then here I was, you know, blindsided by this breast cancer diagnosis, which I didn't know because I had a clear mammogram. 11 days later I found a lump changing after a workout, again, knowing your body. And you know, you know, you take off that really tight constricting sports bra and you circle 'em to the left, you circle 'em to the right, you know, you gotta get them moving again. And there I was circling and I went, oh well that's weird.
Speaker 1 (09:44):
What is, what's that lump? I, that's definitely not been there before. But I just had a clear mammogram 11 days before that still didn't stick my head in the sand, didn't realize I needed to be my best health advocate. But I still called the ob. G Y n had me come in the next day, felt around, said it's nothing you, you're returning 40, it's probably glandular. This is what 40 year old breast looked like. Sent me on my way. Said it was nothing a month later, still there, but of course not breast cancer. So went to see my internist, same thing, quick clinical exam, it's nothing sent me on my way. And then it was the holidays and by the time I came up for air, it was about four months after I found that lump and it was still there. And I finally listened to my, now my inner voice screaming at me saying go to someone who looks at breasts every day and that only that the only expert who does is a breast oncologist.
Speaker 1 (10:36):
So I found myself at a cancer center thinking this is ridiculous. I don't have cancer, why am I here? And she did two ne two ultrasounds, a needle biopsy, a subsequent M r i, after those appointments, not one test detected the cancer. And yet she said, you're not crazy though. There's something there. So I'm going to advise. We do a lumpectomy. And we took it out, woke up from that surgery still saying no cancer. Went back a week later, told my husband, you don't need to come with me. It's not cancer. Go literally. I told him, go golf, it's a gorgeous day. Don't waste it in a dark, you know, office in the bottom of basement of a hospital with me. And then I was alone as the words you have ductal carcinoma and site do. And I'm trying to unravel what the heck that means.
Speaker 1 (11:16):
But I just heard the word carcinoma and I knew that meant cancer and lots of diagrams and dots and things she was drawing. And I, all of a sudden the adrenaline and the anxiety and the overwhelm and the scared feelings and every emotion you can imagine hearing you have cancer. My daughters were, our daughters were three and six at the time. I lost my dad when he was 50 and here I was at 40 and I thought like hell, I'm not gonna be there for my kids. And that's when my cancer journey began. And that was, that was 40. Wow. Turning 40 is an event for all of us, but certainly sounds like it was an extreme sport almost for you or an extreme life event. And so then what type of treatment did you undergo for that? So the, this is when you know a lot of personal choice comes into effect as well as many opinions.
Speaker 1 (12:03):
So again, taking your health into your hands and be your own best healthcare advocate. Don't take doctor number one's information as the only, you know the word of God. So literally within the span of a week I saw two more surgical oncologists. So three opinions. I took the lab results to a separate pathologist at a different university hospital just to make sure because we were all basing, you know, it on one lab reading. So we made sure that they agreed that it was actually this particular cancer. Mm-Hmm . It turned out that not only was it ductal carcinoma in situ, which is contained within the duct and really the kind of breast cancer you want because they take it out, it's gone. You're all good. Mm-Hmm . But finding great experts is really important because she listened, the surgeon listened to her gut and in the surgery she said, you know, there was an area on the border, it looked like healthy tissue.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
But for some reason my, my inner voice was saying I needed to take a sample that turned out to be invasive breast cancer. Oh my gosh. So in that moment, my breast cancer journey went from breast cancer light to breast cancer. Serious. And now it was not, you're done now cuz you had the lumpectomy, but it's okay, what's next? So my options were another lumpectomy to make sure we had clear margins and then six weeks of radiation every day or mm-hmm. A single or double mastectomy with or without reconstruction. I opted for the double with reconstruction. I saw multiple, I saw two different radiation oncologists to get their opinions. I saw, I have a second medical oncologist. So I had two opinions about chemo and treatment going forward in the end. And you guys, anyone who is out there listening and maybe newly diagnosed or one what to do, please feel free to always DM me and ask me questions.
Speaker 1 (13:44):
I respond to every single woman who is worried about a cancer diagnosis or is diagnosed and it is Samantha Harris tv, like television on Instagram and, and Facebook, Samantha Harris tv. But then I can explain why I chose not to do the chemo and not to do the radiation. Mm-Hmm . And it's a very personal decision of it on the chemo. Cause a lot of people will probably wanna know is I had a very low Oncotype score, which really show, and I had a very small tumor. So it, to me that was the decision. And now, now, you know, 2014 to now all these years later, I am very grateful that I didn't undergo chemo because of everything else I now know. However, had it been in a much more aggressive tumor, I don't think I would've made that choice. Right. And that's a very personal decision, like you said.
Speaker 1 (14:29):
So if there is anybody listening and you've got every sin cancer diagnosis, I love what you said about getting second opinions, even third opinions, really you do have to be the ceo, get all the information and then make a wise choice for yourself. So I do wanna have that disclaimer that what you necessarily did might not be right for someone listening. So get your healthcare providers and consult and yes, definitely reach out on social media if you do have questions, because I think the more people you can talk to about what's going on with you personally, the better you are. But no one person is the guru for you. You are the expert on your body and your health. I love how you really demonstrated that Samantha, by, even though you had a negative mammogram, 11 days later you felt a lump and you didn't just discount what you felt about your body.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
And I want every woman listening to really hear that because part of what I want you to learn is that you really are the expert. Nobody else can tell you when your body is working on all cylinders at a hundred percent you'll know that inside yourself, in your skin when you feel at home and you have great energy and your weight is where you want it to be and your sleep and your hair and your libido and yes, all the things. So after you got out of the acute phase, your oncologist doctors, they're like, okay Samantha, you're good. We're gonna follow you pretty closely I would imagine. But yes. What did you then do for yourself that you now teach other women? Well, this was the biggest thing, again, the eyeopening that we can be in better control of our health and our health future than we realized.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
So I put that journalist hat on tightly and I dug into research and I spoke to every expert I could and I sought out opinions and answers and asked some really deep questions. And here I was, you know, living my life thinking I was healthy, living my career in a makeup chair every single day. Being as any, whether you're working on TV like very few of us, or doing the nine to five or the mom 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM we all put on makeup or potions and lotions and hair stuff and whatever the shellacking that was done of chemical bombs of potential harmful carcinogens and endocrine disruptors with mess, mess with our hormones, allergens, neurotoxins that are in our products that our own f d A here in the US approves no big deal. No oversight from these companies. No responsibility from these big brands. They just market to us.
Speaker 1 (17:13):
It's October Pink ribbons, slap it on, but hey, we're also giving you breast cancer at the same time. So yes, it sounds very cynical, but I've learned so much and yeah, I'm saying overnight you need to throw out everything in your house and start over. But making small methodical changes that end up changing how you are living your day-to-day life is, is really important. And so I realized the makeup and the haircare I was using the personal care products at home, the cleaning supplies all were filled with toxic junk. The foods I was eating and how I was eating and when I was eating all were really not coming into play to make me live my healthiest healthy life. See, I thought I was healthy and I realized I needed to be my healthiest healthy. And that's, that's why, you know, my whole thing has now the your healthiest healthy from the your healthiest healthy book that really launched a whole program, a membership community with my life coaching and workouts and experts to my live, my courses that are offered and my retreats and really just answering anyone I possibly can through social media and putting as much information out there so that we have the, the tools at our disposal.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
So what were some of the most, you mentioned general categories, makeup, cleaning products, the things you were eating, what were some of the, the specific things that really shocked you when you're like, oh, and I mean maybe you don't wanna mention name brand names of products. I just realized that honestly any major big brand is pretty much like anything. You go to the department store pretty much you can is has a lot of toxic chemicals in it anytime you go down to the drugstore aisle, most of it also pretty toxic, thank goodness. And I will tell you the difference between now and back in 2014, thankfully we have so many the demand as consumers, right? They're finally hearing us, right? Even the big, big brands are starting to have little offshoot brands or an offshoot line of, I mean whether it's, you know, big brand x deodorant that is filled with aluminum and other toxic stuff.
Speaker 1 (19:16):
Now they have their aluminum free version because they realize they were losing some of the market share. And more and more, more kind of mom and pop shopper boutique like makeup brands and skincare brands are now becoming more str mainstream. You go into a place like a Sephora, they finally, and even Target, they finally have their clean brands. I have to look into what their requirements are. I don't know if they're like Samantha's level of clean, but you know what, it's a much baby steps. Might as well start there and you can always level up from there after that. Yes. And I'd say for anyone curious, if you want to look@ewg.org environmental working group.org, they list a lot of the mainstream brands and they, they give the products ratings. They tell you the ingredients that are toxic. But, and yes, a lot of these big brands are offering so-called quote unquote non-toxic products.
Speaker 1 (20:10):
I say that with little quotes, my fingers in the air because they're aware that consumers know certain ingredients are toxic, but they're also aware that consumers are not so educated that they will miss certain other names. So they will actually create different ingredients that have different names that you won't recognize that are probably toxic too. So I find, and what I've done and what I teach my people to do is find the small brands that really are 100% non-toxic and all natural and they just don't have any chemicals. And you're not not gonna find 'em in a big box store. You might find a lot of them online and ask for referrals from friends. There are a lot of blog posts now where you can kind of Google top 15 all natural makeup brands and then research it yourself. Don't take their word for it and discover what's best for you.
Speaker 1 (21:05):
What guidelines do you offer for that? Well, first of all, I you, you already brought up the Environmental Working Group, which is a fantastic resource. They're a nonprofit. I love their one through 10 ratings. One being the cleanest for an overall product or one also being ingredient to ingredient, how toxic that ingredient is. 10 being like runaway fragrance. By the way, red alert is a nine and that's because fragrance is proprietary. So if you have fragrance as an ingredient and that company isn't being transparent and this clo what that fragrance is made of within the product, stay away from it. Because it oftentimes has a lot of one four dioxane, which is a, an endocrine disruptor. It has phthalates, which are endocrine disruptors. And another great point Dr. Karen that you made, which is that a brand might say here's our clean version, but, and it doesn't have to be quote unquote all natural because that also there are synthetic chemicals that are not harmful that the, the good brands will make sure that they are transparent and disclose that are in the ingredients labels.
Speaker 1 (22:07):
So, cause I think people get scared away with all, all natural, that's not gonna work for me. It's not gonna have the staying power if you guys want. So I just finished shooting 65 episodes of a TV show and I had my hair makeup team who I've worked with for many years who are more than happy, they jumped at this and I was so happy we became teammates in this. I said, look, I'm going back on tv, I don't want toxic stuff in the dressing room every day on my face and our hair, us breathing it in. So before we shot, I tasked them with a challenge which was only bring in clean. And if you have a question about it, send the brand my way. I will vet it and let you know if I, if I'm like, it's approved or it's not. And Uhhuh tried a lot of different brands because there are a lot of clean brands.
Speaker 1 (22:51):
But then do they work? Is they, are they effective? Do they give you the appearance that you want on your face or with your hair? Do they have the lasting power? And I was shooting 12 hours a day, six episodes a day. So it was a very intense schedule. So if you want my list as you're listening of Clean Beauty that's been vetted, skincare, makeup, haircare, send me a DM on, mostly on Instagram, but you can try me on Facebook, Samantha Harris tv, like television, I will send you my list. I don't have skin in the game with most of the brands or anything like that. There are one or two that I've partnered with, but you don't have to use them. I'm gonna give you all the info and be straight up with you. Awesome. That's so generous. I hope you will take her up on that offer.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
And I know that in your healthiest healthy eight easy ways to take control is one of those switching out your your beauty products. It is, it is. It's a huge step. And again, it doesn't have to be overnight baby steps. So let's say you're like, okay, I'm ready to switch out my makeup. I know how much money we spend on makeup and all of these things. Mm-Hmm. , right? So I'm not saying go dump out your drawer tomorrow, but maybe start with, in terms of skincare and makeup, start with your lotion, right? Your face cream. Cuz you're covering the biggest amount of skin and surface area, which of course is our biggest organ. It's absorbing all of it into our bloodstream and then your foundation and then level up from there. Maybe it's lipstick because you're eating a lot of it, you know, then maybe move to blush and eyeshadows and so on and just start to level up.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
And the other thing for feminine care, and I know, you know, some of you may already be menopausal and you're not having to deal with menstrual cycles, but for those of you who are still, or you're at that later stage and you're having urine leakage and you have to have those types of pads, make sure that they're 100% organic cotton. Because if I show you what is in, we're talking about the bleach, the cotton that's been grown and and sprayed with Monsanto, glyphosate, and all these other horrible toxic chemicals, and you're putting it next to your most thin permeable skin. No, no, no. Or inside. No, no, no, no, no. , you do not wanna do this. So that's, that's my other little public service announcement. Preach Samantha, preach please. I love it. Right. So, you know, they, people hear people like me out here saying this stuff all the time, but it's about time.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
I love that you come from kind of a more traditional journalist background and that you discovered all this for yourself. I hate how you had to discover it. And I love that you're sharing this information and you're empowering women with this vital information, right? When people see you on TV and they think, oh, she's the pinnacle of beauty. And then you hear what she's sharing y'all about her hair and makeup and she told her people, I'm not sitting in this toxic soup for 12 hours a day every day for how many days. So what other kinds of ways to take control do you think are important for women to know about, to take control of their health? Well, a huge one. And I think possibly one of the biggest things people say, well, you know, I, especially I I even have my my 15 year old who wants, you know, it's all about how do I look, how do I look compared to everybody else?
Speaker 1 (26:03):
I think most of your listeners like, I, I mean we all wanna look good, but I'm kind of past that. I wanna just feel great. I wanna live a long, healthy life in this one vessel that I have. So what can I do? How can I treat my body so that it doesn't just look good, but that it feels amazing and gives me the ability to do the things I need to accomplish. Not just the day to day, but the big picture of things that I yearn to do. Right? I wanna go hike mountains in Italy and I have like all, you know, I wanna get down to the ground with my eventual grandchildren and play and be able to get back up. So you, first of all, you can't out exercise a bad diet. However, right? Daily movement is essential, very, very essential. But food is possibly one of the biggest changes you can make.
Speaker 1 (26:49):
I'm not telling you you have to give up your favorite corner bakery or you have to not have that steak when you go to the restaurant that you just love at that steakhouse. But when we're looking at food in general, we really wanna focus on a plant forward or plant-based diet. So the biggest thing is that women only get about 12 grams of fiber per day on average. And what we need to thrive and live optimally is closer to 30 to 35 grams of fiber per day. And even our own U S D A only says 25 grams, which actually you can talk to any expert worth their salt, they will tell you it's over 30 grams a day we need. And so the way to get that is increase your vegetable intake, you know, really non-starchy veggies. So if you're having a bunch of baked potatoes every day, that's not really qualifying non-starchy.
Speaker 1 (27:37):
We're talking about your cruciferous veggies, which are great cancer fighters. That's gonna be your Brussels sprouts and your broccoli and your cauliflower broccoli sprouts are amazing. You know, all of those cr kale and then leafy greens are at the top of that nutrient density pyramid. If you could only have one thing and you gotta choose what's the best nutrient density for my caloric buck, it would be leafy green, dark leafy greens, but adding in berries, great cancer fighters, tons of fiber getting in those, the chia seeds, the flax seeded flax seeds, also a great cancer fighter, matcha green tea powder changing up kind and the color of veggies that you're having and really making sure that your microbiome right, that's the, the diversity within your gut is as diverse as possible. So you wanna aim for about 30 different plant-based foods per week. And that means not just fruits and veggies, but also nuts and seeds and legumes whole grains.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
So quinoa, taf, amaranth Pharaoh, things like that. All count, which is great. And actually spices and herbs also count, and if you don't, doesn't even take a lot of those to count of as one of those 30. So that was the biggest food change I did was I flipped my plate as the meat eating Minnesotan with a slab front and center. I flip my plate to fill at least half my plate full of veggies at every meal. So my day starts with a smoothie and that's, I began to intermittent fast during covid. So now that's part of my life that's really can be very beneficial as well. And you guys can reach out to me on, on more about intermittent fasting, but so whenever I'm breaking my fast, it's with some cashews or cashews and almonds and then my smoothie because you can pack so many of the nutrients that are great for you and beneficial.
Speaker 1 (29:22):
I think I have something like 18 of my 30, all of fruit and vegetables all in my smoothie in one, one fell swoop. So it's, it's great, you know, you can throw all the goodness in there and then really just getting that variety in. Yes. So what you're eating super important. You've gotta work on that plant forward, plant-based plant predominant for sure. Intermittent fasting is a great tool. We've had a lot of the experts on that on the show. Talking about intermittent fasting, it's a tool that I use as well, but I love to say it's a tool, not necessarily a religion. Yeah. So treat it like, like a tool. All right. So we've talked about getting rid of the toxins. We've talked about your diet. What are some of the other easy ways to take control? And I know you have a lot more in your book, you have a lot more in your programs to go in depth, but I want people to kind of get a, an idea.
Speaker 1 (30:11):
Well, you know, the other thing is that leads to disease is stress. And we all live in such a stressful world because our phones are always dinging us. We're trying to fit 28 hours into 24 or maybe 30. In my mind, in my mind, I feel like I'm always trying to fit too much in and in this go, go, go world, we forget, we, we are praised for lack of sleep and overwork and grinding it out. When really that's to our detriment. First of all, it's not good for our hormones, it's not good, right? Our levels of cortisol, the stress hormone goes through the roof mm-hmm. . And when we live in a state of chronic stress that leads to chronic inflammation, which is the underlying cause of many diseases. So really taking that time every day for self-care and working in, whether it's breath work, meditation, a yoga, a hike, or walk in nature, time with friends, socializing, laughing, these are all stress relievers that are really important to add into your every day life to help beat depression, beat obesity, and beat inflammation.
Speaker 1 (31:16):
Yeah, you're super busy , you're a wife, you're a mom, you're a TV personality, you've got your own programs, your own platform. You're, you're DMing people on Instagram. You know, we tell women this all the time and do we do it a lot of times? No , we don't know how to say no, we don't know how to slow down. We don't know how to sit and just be. How have you reduced the stress in your life to help your co cortisol? I'm, I'm sure everybody would love to know. Breathwork I think has been one of the most powerful tools. I thought for the longest time only meditation and getting to sit for 30 minutes without moving was going to be what I needed to do. I'm still struggling to try to get in a, you know, a 15 or 20 minute meditation on a daily basis.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
But what I did realize that I could do was breathe and breathe, whether it's for 30 seconds or for five minutes or for 15, if I can, where I'm taking good deep belly breaths. There's a whole variety. You guys can google it, you can reach out to Dr. Kirin or to me. There's so many different ways to integrate breath work into your life. But even taking that, you know, two seconds of deep and exhales before you go into a meeting, when you park the car and turn off the ignition before you get out, finding those little cracks in the day where you can add in a couple of deep breaths, it immediately ignites your parasympathetic your rest and digest nervous system. And that can't be active if your sympathetic is in fight or flight. So it automatically deactivates the fight or flight and activates this resting, calming wonderful part of your nervous system.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
And that makes a big difference as well, I find. Mm-Hmm. . The other part is mindfulness. So if you're out maybe walking the dogs or you know, walking from the parking lot to the in, you know, the entrance to a building. If you can do it in a way that's mindful instead of the 4,000 thoughts that are in your head, take a moment while you're to breathe and focus on do you hear the birds chirping? You feel the warmth of the sun on your face, the breeze in your hair. If you're washing the dishes, maybe turn out off the noise around you. Do you feel the warmth of the water and the feel of the suds? Just things like that that are little actually add up to make big impact. Yes. Little things, mindfulness, breathing. Not everybody can meditate and sit still and empty their mind.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
And what about the role of self love? We hear a lot about that. I don't, to me that's not a mani-pedi you share this quote with me before we started that I love be kind, especially to yourself. So can you talk about that and, and how self-love has played a role? I'm sure it has in you healing and doing all of the things that you do and supporting all the people that you support. How does that show up? How are you kind to yourself? Well, in two different ways with self-care, for sure. And my mornings when I'm not traveling or shooting my mornings have become self-care mornings, and sometimes I get guilty about it because I realize all the other things on my to-do list are not getting done like I want them to get done, but I'm giving myself time for that workout to make the smoothie.
Speaker 1 (34:35):
And I have an infrared sauna that I sit at in. And I will say I started out meditating in there and now I, I will say I, I, I'll be honest, I do answer a lot of my dms while I'm in there, but no infrared sweat. I try to put it down for at least 10 minutes and put on a, a guided meditation. So I do breathe and I, I lay down, I put my legs up the wall in the sauna and it's a little portable popup. You guys can reach out to me. I love it because it's much more affordable than those big, you know, structured ones that you see at like infrared Sauna place or in like, some big Hollywood celebrities house that nobody can afford. I'm all about affordable ways to have healthcare hacks. But the other thing is how we talk to ourself in terms of being kind to ourself.
Speaker 1 (35:16):
We oftentimes are worse to ourselves and talk to ourselves whether we're in thought or out loud, worse than we would ever speak to somebody else. So when you pass that mirror next time, and the first thought is, oh gosh, I'm so wrinkled, gosh, I look so fat, whatever it is, first just acknowledge, just acknowledge that you had that thought as your first thought. It's a process. Then the next challenge is flip the script on yourself and find something positive that you like. I love the twinkle in my eye. I love how strong my arms are because I can carry my kids or I can hug my family or whatever that is. So that eventually the more positive self-talk we have and the more we push out the negative self-talk, it's something that our brain, even if we're not saying it out loud, if we're thinking it, our whole body hears it.
Speaker 1 (36:03):
And so it affects our wellbeing and our sense of satisfaction for life and happiness with ourselves. So being kind to yourself and then also it's, you know, the saying of it's a lot easier what to treat someone with syrup than with salt or I with vinegar. I don't know. There's some sort of saying like, but it it, the, the gentle smile to a stranger, someone who's off because you, you know, you cut in front of them and you didn't mean to a warm wave and smile of apology. It will actually go a long way versus giving them the finger back . Yes, so true. And I do think it's so important that we be kind to ourselves and just noticing my own self-talk and hearing other women how they talk about themselves and just this lack of self-love. I was doing an interview earlier and she was the, she was saying that I literally realized that I hated myself and I treated myself that way.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
And then now she's really cultivating this self-love. I totally wish we had time to go through all eight aspects of what you teach women, but we don't have enough time. So I'm gonna direct everyone before we sign off, we'll have you share your program. We'll have the links in the show notes, we'll have you share again, all the places they can find you. But I wanna ask you a question. I don't know if anyone's ever asked you this and you share this quote with me before we started that I love keep doing what you're doing and you will keep getting what you're getting. Where do you think you would be and what do you think would have happened if after your cancer diagnosis and your immediate treatment, you hadn't done the research, you didn't look into this, you just accepted what most women accept.
Speaker 1 (37:49):
Oh, cancer just happens out of the blue. I always say, not out of the blue, but out of the oblivious, where do you think you would be now? Which is what, 10 years later? I first of all would fear the recurrence, but a hundred percent because my chance of recurrence would've been a a lot greater if I hadn't started to make the changes that I am making or the, or the diagnosis, maybe not at this point, but maybe in another 10 or 20 years of another chronic disease that, you know, again, we can't take, I wish we could take 100% control by making these changes. We can't. And if you're stressing too much that, oh gosh, I'm supposed to be intermittent fasting and I broke it at 8:00 AM or I shouldn't be drinking too much wine because it could increase breast cancer risk and I had two glasses last night with friends, that stress is actually going to be more harmful.
Speaker 1 (38:36):
So we have to take everything in stride and find that, that the, the 90 10 rule or even the 80 20 rule, where the majority of the time you're making these helpful decisions. If I hadn't made these choices, first of all, I wouldn't have connected with the incredible women who I have been able to connect with and help and support and guide. And to me that has been the biggest gift of cancer and helping others live their healthiest healthy lives. That's amazing. Yes. Connection. And then with your voice and your platform, what you're able to offer every one in terms of information, I always say knowledge, tools, and support. That's what every woman needs. And so you're able to offer that. Thank you so much for coming on the hormone prescription and sharing your journey and your wisdom and your knowledge, tools and support.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
We'll have all the links in the show notes, but please do talk a little bit about your healthiest healthy community that you've created and the other places that people can find you online. Well, I love that. You know, first of all, I love live television. So the fact that I do live coaching, live workouts and bring in a live guest expert interview every week is just very much in line with what I love to do because I love to talk, but sharing and giving good takeaway. So the, your Healthiest healthy community is a membership based subscription platform, and you get access to me and immediate, you know, or pretty immediate responses in helping you live your healthiest healthy life for those who aren't interested in being part of a, a full group like that. Then I just recently launched Your Healthiest Healthy Courses, and these are basically both coaching sessions and expert guests who are giving topic-based information through the courses.
Speaker 1 (40:14):
So I have a two-part thriving after breast cancer course, a course on intermittent fasting, on gut health, on weight loss. We have them coming up on sleep and hormone balance and so many other topics. So that way you can go, okay, I'm just really right now focused on this. So that's what I want from Samantha. And then the other big thing that I just love and I live for every year are my, your healthiest healthy retreats. I have one in Santa Monica, California Beachside every year does a two day workshop. And then in Utah usually in October or November this year, it's October of 2023, but your Healthiest Healthy retreat. So four days and three nights hiking for all levels, by the way, and meditation and workshops with me and a lot of one-on-one coaching and advice and so much more. And I just, I, I, I just, it's my favorite thing in the whole year.
Speaker 1 (41:03):
I love that. Thank you so much for those amazing resources, Anne, for sharing your brilliance and wisdom with us today on the show. Thank you. Thank you. And again, you guys reach out to me, DM me and I will get back to you. Awesome. Thank you for watch for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I know that you learned something inspiring, uplifting, informative today, and I'm gonna challenge you to take action, take one step. What's one thing you could do differently today? Maybe take a couple deep breaths as we're closing out this episode. Thanks so much for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you again next week for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Karen Martel, a Certified Hormone Specialist & Transformational Nutrition Coach, joins us to provide insights on how to unlock the mysteries of female fat loss. In a candid conversation, Karen shares her journey of struggling with health issues and how she overcame these challenges to become a leading expert in women's hormone health and weight management.
Throughout the episode, Karen provides invaluable information on methods to balance and optimize hormones in peri and post menopause, and breakthrough weight loss resistance. Her practical tips and advice make a considerable impact on women's lives struggling with similar issues.
Karen's passion for helping women improve their hormone health stems from her own experiences, and her approach to women's health is bold and practical. She is the host of the top 100 rated women's health podcast, "The Other Side of Weight Loss", where she shares her deep knowledge and expertise on female fat loss and hormone imbalance.
Episode Highlights: - Unlocking female fat loss secrets - Understanding hormonal challenges in peri and post menopause - Overcoming weight loss resistance - Karen's personal journey and experiences - Bold and practical approaches to women's hormonal health
Don't forget to subscribe to our podcast for more expert insights and breakthrough approaches in women's hormonal health!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What if you could break through weight loss resistance with a novel bioidentical hormone, would you try it? Stay tuned to find out if I would.
Speaker 2 (00:10):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:03):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we're going to dive into a novel tool that's a bioidentical hormone that could help you lose up to 5% of your body weight in fat. Wanna know about it? Sure you do. Right? We always wanna look for all the natural options that could help us safely and effectively be more healthy. Right? If that includes losing weight, lose weight, regain energy, right? All the things you still gotta do all the things, but maybe this is something that can give you a little boost. We're gonna dive into that in this episode. And our guest today, Karen Martel, is gonna tell us about it and you're gonna see if I'm gonna try it or not and would you try it or not. So we're gonna have some information on that.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
But we're also gonna take a little tour off the main road that we usually talk about when we talk about breaking through weight loss resistance. And that has to do with the intangibles related to losing weight. The intangibles related to going from perimenopause to menopause, all the intangibles related to every symptom or disease that you might have. What are those? Well, the thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that are driving or supporting that energetic disruption. That is the symptom that you have, whether it's excess weight or you've got diabetes and your pancreas isn't functioning well, or you name the disease or symptom. There's some underlying spiritual, if you will, or energetic, cause we're gonna dive into that too. As my GE guest today, who is a weight loss resistance specialist has a lot of experience with that, as do I on my journey. It really is something that you will come to face yourself when you're healing from disease, if you're doing it right, and if you want the optimum outcomes, it really is key.
Speaker 1 (03:01):
So I'll tell you a little bit about Karen, then we'll get started. She's a certified hormone specialist and transformational nutrition coach and women's weight loss expert. She's got a top 100 rated women's health podcast. It's called The Other Side of Weight Loss, where she helps women to unlock the mysteries of female fat loss and hormone imbalance. She struggled with her own health issues, but she was determined to bring her knowledge to others with a bold new approach to women's hormone health and weight management. Her passion lies in helping women balance and optimize their hormones in per and post-menopause and breakthrough weight loss resistance. Yes. Please help me welcome Karen Martel to the hormone prescription.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Thank you very much for having me, Dr. Kyrin. I'm very excited to be here.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yes, we talk about weight loss resistance. It's such a problem for women once we hit 40 and midlife and we age, and you really have some unique perspectives on some tools that are novel that can assist us with this weight loss resistance, and also how to address something that most people aren't aware of as an issue for them around weight loss at midlife. So maybe actually you can start by sharing a little bit about your journey and how you zeroed in on hormones and weight loss resistance and all things that we, women over 40 are concerned with .
Speaker 3 (04:26):
Yes, . Well, mine actually started, of course, had to start early for me in my thirties after the birth of my first child. I, you know, lost the pregnancy weight, but about a year and a half into it, I just, very suddenly, within a few months time, I rapidly started to put on weight and I had not changed anything. And I was experiencing not only weight gain, but I was having severe insomnia, really bad PMs, anxiety, depression, gut problems. And I did what every woman is told to do. I started to exercise like a mad woman . I started pretty much starving myself, trying every diet under the sun, calorie counting. I had always been a really healthy eater. So it wasn't like, it wasn't because I had changed my diet or was eating McDonald's every day and I was working out probably harder than I'd ever worked out in my life.
Speaker 3 (05:25):
And I only continued to gain weight. And I went to the doctor, I was put on an antidepressant, I was given a sleeping pill and kind of told to, you know, go on my way. And nobody at that time would've told me I was 33. Nobody would've said, Hey, maybe this is your hormones. And after a lot of struggling and a lot of different diets and exercise programs, I decided that I had to take matters into my own hands. And I started digging into research and decided, I think this has something to do with my hormones. And so I ended up going to a naturopath and having my hormones tested through saliva testing at the time. And it came out that I was, you know, super low on progesterone, high estrogen, and I had very low cortisol and D A T A, which I'm sure your listeners are familiar with, those two hormones and those are your stress hormones.
Speaker 3 (06:24):
And there I was just doing everything wrong. According to that hormonal profile, I was doing high amounts of cardio. I'm starving myself. I later found out that I also was hypothyroid and had no idea, which also those two things would've perpetuated that. So I had to go, okay, I have to make a serious shift because I didn't even think I was a stressed out person. So I started, I quit the, the hardcore CrossFitting and starving myself. And I actually started doing yoga all the time. I started asking for help. And the biggest piece of that puzzle was I started to really look at the spiritual side of what was happening. And I realized that there was a lot of things that I had not dealt with from my past. I had always had really bad self body image. I had an eating disorder as a teenager, I had sexual abuse.
Speaker 3 (07:24):
There was a lot of things that Karen had not dealt with. And so I went on a bit of a journey and I will tell you, it was not quick. There was no quick fixing this. And it took probably a good year of like really working on these things, slowing down, like looking at the spiritual aspect of things, dealing with some of the past stuff that the weight finally started to slowly come off. Mm-Hmm. . And I came out of that experience just going, there's gotta be more women like me. There's gotta be more women that are doing everything right that are not, you know, closet eating or eating McDonald's mm-hmm. and all of these things that, that they are eating, right. That they're exercising and they're not able to lose the weight. And so it kind of, it threw me into this world of nutrition.
Speaker 3 (08:13):
And then at the age of 42, I started to go into menopause and overnight Wow. Yeah. Overnight I had my thyroid crash on me and I started missing my periods. I started having hot flashes. I was, I gained two months and was like, what the heck? Because I really didn't think, I said at that point in time, I had been, you know, 10 years nutritionist, weight loss coach, like doing everything right. I don't drink, I don't, you know, dealing with the, the mental stuff, sleeping well. Like I, I really had all the boxes checked and then behold it happens again. And so that sent me on a mission to find out, okay, what's happening with my, my hormones? Why am I going into menopause so early? I was able to reverse it and I, at 47 today, I still have my period and I'm doing well. But it was a big eye-opener. Both times that when that happened to me, and I just, I know now work with so many women that very similar things have happened to them too, where they're, they are really healthy and they're trying to do things right, but they can't get that weight off. So
Speaker 1 (09:22):
Yeah, that period is that fifth vital sign. And when it starts going wonka donk, that is your sign emergency. Something is wrong. Just like if your pulse is sky high or your respiratory rate or you have a really high fever when your period, it really should be like clockwork. Your body has a timing mechanism where your period should come every, you know, 28 days or whatever is normal for you. And when it doesn't and it stops or it's late or it's irregular, that really should be your sign to look for the cause, not to get on a synthetic hormone. Just shut up your female system. Right? Everybody's heard me say that don't get on the birth control pill
Speaker 3 (10:08):
Or
Speaker 1 (10:09):
You know, the vaginal ring or devil shots like was done to me for decades. That's not the answer ladies. It's really not the answer. You gotta find the cause. So yeah, you hit that wall wow. At 42 and that, you know, bring drive home. Another very important point I wanna point out is that a lot of times if you go to a corporate or mainstream doctor with that scenario, they're just gonna say, oh yep, you're going into menopause. Oh well it's just biology. There's nothing we can do. And they're not going to investigate it. But you know, what you just heard Karen say was that she found the underlying cause she remediated it and then she had got her periods back and it wasn't menopause. So you don't wanna go into hormonal poverty any sooner than you have to, cuz then you have to face the consequences of them.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
So let's dive into, you mentioned some of the spiritual things. Let's dive into that cuz that's something we haven't talked about on the podcast that I think is super important. And then after that we'll dive into this novel tool that really is very hot and late breaking tool that you can use to help your weight loss resistance and lots of other problems in health that a lot of people don't know about. So we'll dive into that next, but what were some of your understandings that you learned through that period that you just described about the spiritual nature of this change you were going through?
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Yeah, I mean for my, myself personally, and I think for so many women that body self-image was a huge piece that I had to really look at. And I had self-abuse myself for a very long time. I was an alcoholic, I was a drug addict. Like I said, I had been raped, I had very bad eating disorder. I was bulimic for many years and I hadn't looked at any of that. I just literally had numbed myself and just pushed it away and thought, well I know that that's not good and that I probably am a little bit messed up from it, but I recognize that that wasn't a good thing. So I must be fine , I don't need to go back and really pick it apart. But I did and I had to. And it took a long time. I mean, like I said, it wasn't easy.
Speaker 3 (12:24):
I had to, I was in therapy for seven years and it was, it wasn't traditional therapy. I did a lot of what connected with me. I had started with traditional therapy and then I moved into spiritual therapy and I started seeing an energy worker. That was life-changing for me. And that's what really connected with me. And I really highly recommend that women find somebody that's gonna connect with them. Because I think a lot of the time women don't look at these problems because they don't, they immediately think if, if I'm going to go down that road, I gotta go see a therapist and I don't wanna do that. I'm not gonna go talk to somebody about my problems doesn't work, what are like, they have some issues around that. And it doesn't have to be that. It could be something completely different. E every single one of us is different.
Speaker 3 (13:12):
I've had, I've seen people that have gotten so much help just from body work, like going or doing yoga. Like there's so many things that you can do to connect with self. Mm-Hmm. , it doesn't have to look like that. And for some people that does work. So I think it's important to look at all of these things in, if you are continually running into the same problems over and over again, that's your sign. That's your sign that you are not looking at something that you need to look at. So if you are continually looking to the next best diet, constantly failing at that diet, constantly gaining the weight back, or maybe it's something completely different where it's just like you have this repetitive pattern of somebody wronging you constantly or getting yourself into the wrong relationships with the wrong partner. These are your big warning signs that hey, you're not listening. There's something here that you're not learning from, that you're not looking at that you have to deal with. And then, and if you don't, it's gonna keep happening over and over again and likely worse.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Yes. And you know, I identify with a lot of the things that you shared. I'm wondering for everyone if you could talk about what you mean by spiritual. Because some people hear that and they're like, oh, that's not religion. I'm religious, I'm ex religion, I'm not gonna hear this, I can't hear this because spirituality is anti-religion. So maybe you could address that. So what do you mean by spiritual aspects? What does that mean?
Speaker 3 (14:50):
It can mean religion. I think that spirituality, I think religion is under that umbrella. So what it's whatever feeds your spirit. So if that is religion, no matter what religion it is mm-hmm. , that could be maybe what you need to connect more with. If that's what connects with you. If that's God, if it's Buddha, whatever it is, then maybe that's the road that you need to go down. Maybe you have to go talk to your priest or go talk to go get into a Bible study group wherever it might be. But if that's what is your thing, then that's great. Spirituality for me is personally my soul. What purpose am I here on earth for? I think we're all here to love and to learn. And I think that if we don't learn these things, that we're gonna have to come back in our next life and learn them again or try to learn them again. And that's my belief. I believe that there is a God, I think there was a Jesus, I think there was a Buddha. So I have this kind of like mix of all the religions put into one. But spirituality is more than what what you see here. It's that intuitiveness, it's what's going on inside. It's your heart, it's love, it's, and it can be your religion as well. So that's personally the way I see it. I don't know about you Karen, when, how do you see spirit ?
Speaker 1 (16:06):
Oh yeah. I mean to me it's the part of us that enlivens the human form that we're in, that we get to use while we're in this, on this earth plane. And it represents all of who we've ever been and ever will be and what we're meant to express in this lifetime. What we're meant to experience, the people we're meant to come in contact with. And to me, when I talk about the spirituality of perimenopause or menopause or the spirituality of any disease, I think there is a spiritual lesson in, in every symptom and disorder that we can experience. I'm talking about looking for the deeper meaning that isn't obvious, right? If you, when I weighed 243 pounds and I looked in the mirror, well you could, I could see I was morbidly obese. Right? But what's the meaning? What's the meaning behind that? More than, oh, I had hormonal imbalances is I had toxicities, I had gut dysfunction, I had all these physical causes contributing to it.
Speaker 1 (17:08):
I had energetic causes, right? Thoughts, feelings, beliefs, all garnered from past experiences that I had had that led me to certain belief systems. So it's interesting with obesity, they found in some of the studies, I think his name is Filetti, who did some of the research on this. And he just happened to notice that 80% of the women in, in the study he was doing on obesity had been sexually abused. And that's ultimately what I think led to the ACE trials, the adverse childhood experienced trials. Cuz they were starting to see this link between adverse childhood experiences, emotional psychosocial experiences, and physical health problems. And then when he, he noticed this 80% incidence of childhood sexual abuse among these women in this study that were obese. So to me it's really looking at the deeper meaning. And so how did that show up for you? Mm-Hmm. in terms of what you were going through right Here are your 42 mm-hmm. , your body's getting ready to go into menopause, which is on average nine years early, your thyroid shut down. And so what did that look like for you? Mm-Hmm.
Speaker 3 (18:19):
The thyroids energetically signifies your voice chakra. So we have these energy centers in our body, and this isn't woowoo, this is science. We have energy centers throughout our body. And the voice chakra sits right where your thyroid is. And I think that this is, I personally think this is why so many more women have it than men have thyroid problems, is because we don't tend to speak our mind as much as men do. We tend to stuff things down. We're not, we're taught that, you know, maybe not to voice our emotions so much. And I, looking back at my history and all the times I didn't say anything when I wanted to say something, when I wanted to stop that person from abusing me, when I had so much self-hatred for myself, I did not think that I was capable of being loved even. And that I think was really tied up in my thyroid.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
And I don't think it was something that I dealt with over those first few years of therapy. I don't think I, cause the thyroid thing didn't come in until later. And then I was like, oh, I'm not surprised that I have a thyroid problem. And I didn't address it. And so I really think it was my body going, n you have to pay attention to this now. This is, you have to start speaking your mind and you have to start loving yourself. And it sounds really like, oh, so cliche, oh, love yourself. But looking back at my history, I never did. I never loved myself. I had always hated my body. I always critiqued it. I didn't trust myself. I didn't, there was so many things that needed to be unpacked. And coming into my forties, going into menopause and gaining that much weight, especially as a weight loss coach, that was super hard on my ego.
Speaker 3 (20:09):
And I knew that no matter what I did, this was interesting. No matter what I did, I would not have lost the weight then I knew it. So every time I would like go, oh, you know, the, the old patterns would start to come up and I'd say, oh, I, I better start, you know, cutting down on the calories and we better start working out harder. And then I'd be like, Nope, stop. Don't do that. Because then that's like going back into that old pattern of dieting and thinking that that was the answer. Cause for me it's, it wasn't, and I knew that, I knew that there was something emotional, like you said, like there's always something emotional to every medical problem, every chronic ailment that you've got. I really truly believe that there is going to be an emotional component to it. Whether it's the full root cause, whether it's just a third of it, who knows. But there's always something emotional or something that, that your body is trying to get you to look at in your life.
Speaker 1 (21:07):
I totally agree with that 100%. And some of the things that you said, I wanna, let's go back and talk about this. So, you know, you very are very open and very freely shared some of your struggles earlier. And then you said, I hated myself. And the average per woman, if you ask her, do you hate yourself? She's gonna say no. And if you ask her, do you love yourself? She's gonna say yes. So I'm thinking we probably, because that probably would've been me at one point also. And then there was a point where I realized, no, I actually treat myself as if I hate myself, . And so what does that mean? What does, how would a woman identify, oh my gosh, I behave as if I hate myself. And the whole cliche, like you said, of self-love, we tell, we hear that so much, but really what does that mean on a day-to-day, day basis? Maybe you even take some instances, well, oh, here's something that I dealt with and here's how I treated myself with hatred around that, and here's how I now treat myself with love. So maybe we could have a little richer, more in depth discussion on that.
Speaker 3 (22:11):
Mm-Hmm. , I think people, women can recognize it because you have to tune into how are you speaking to yourself all day long. Right? Pay attention, like most of it is subconscious, but pay attention to, and I, and we're gonna get into this, is, I just recently lost a bunch of weight and it's so interesting to me to, to realize that I still have these like nagly little self-talk bull crap inside of me. . It's like, you know, I just go lose a bunch of weight, even though I was, you know, I, I was looking good and, but I lost weight. And then I caught myself looking in the mirror, not even realizing going, I wish I, I could lose a little bit more weight right here on my, the back of my arm. And I was like, oh, Karen, how dare you say that you just lost 10 pounds off your body and you, how dare I?
Speaker 3 (23:06):
And I was so ashamed and I felt so guilt. I was like, what, what? How can I even think that? And so I had to look at it and be like, where's that coming from? And I'm like, it's coming from the fact that I've done this for the last 30 years of my life. I've looked in the mirror and I have cut myself down. I, it's al it's never like, Hey, I'm looking good. Look at how great my stomach looks. I'm looking so hot. Like, it's usually like, we don't do that. We right. We pick up the one or like many things, whatever it is. But you'll, you'll nitpick. You'll be like, what's this freckle doing here on my face? , you're just, you'll find anything. And sometimes women, it's a lot, it's not one thing. It's their whole body that they look at and they hate.
Speaker 3 (23:54):
They're going, what? Look at my stomach, look at my legs, look at my cellulite, look at my hair, look at my wrinkles, look at my chest, look at my breasts. Like it's never ending. And so ask yourself like, how, how is your day spent talking to yourself? Are you constantly worried about your weight? Are you constantly worried about the food that's going into your mouth? Are you constantly going, Ooh, I'm gonna start this tomorrow. Ooh, I'm gonna eat better today. I'm gonna eat better tomorrow. I'm gonna start the diet next week. Because I think majority of women do this, wouldn't you say?
Speaker 1 (24:28):
Yes. And you know, I love the litmus test for that because it's such a habitual way that most of us think when we look in the mirror, we're not looking for what we love. We're looking for the things we don't like that we need to fix so we can be perfect. Would you say that to a friend? Would you say your friend says, oh Karen, I lost 10 pounds. Look I lost 10 pounds. And they proudly come before you and you go, you know what? Yeah. But you've got fat on the back of that arm and you need to lose that. What would your friend say to you? She would not be your friend anymore. Right. That's how you know you're hating on yourself.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah, exactly. And, and hate's a strong word, but yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:10):
,
Speaker 3 (25:10):
You know, like how much are you loving on yourself? Maybe ask that. How much are you actually just going like, you are rocking it. You look so fantastic. I had a friend last year who was desperately trying to lose weight. She was eating, trying to eat right. She was exercising. And then I didn't talk to her for like a month or two. And when I saw her, she had lost weight. And so I'm thinking like, oh, all my tips are working for her. Right? And she said, you know what Karen? I wasn't losing weight no matter what I was doing. And she said, so I, I stopped thinking about it. Instead I would get myself naked and I would stand in front of my mirror and I would tell myself how great I looked. And she said, I did that consistently . And she said, and the weight started coming off. And I was like, wow, .
Speaker 1 (25:58):
It's so true. One other thing I noticed, I just wanna share cuz I know some people listening are gonna be like, oh my gosh, I do that too is so I had been traveling and not been able to keep to my eating and exercise schedule and I gained a few pounds and then I came to a city here in Argentina where I could kind of get settled and get to a good gym and eat like I like to eat. And so I just started doing, doing the things that I do for my health. And then I started seeing that weight come off, come off. And I was very pleased. But instead of just continuing to love myself and give my body what it needed, I turned it into a project and I'm like, oh my gosh, I lost five pounds. I bet I could lose another eight pounds this month if I up my gym.
Speaker 1 (26:44):
And I cut my intermittent fasting to only eating four hours a day. And before I knew it, I had made myself in my progress into nothing. And I had made myself into a project and objectified myself instead of just loving myself and giving my body what it needs. Because I know she'll go to what the weight she likes. And I know there's some people listening going like, oh my gosh, I do that too. So you're not alone. But then what is the loving thing to let go of that I don't stop, I'm not, I don't usually weigh myself. Why did I even get on this scale? Right? It's not loving. So now I don't, not
Speaker 3 (27:21):
Not on
Speaker 1 (27:21):
The scale, right? I'm still in in Buenos Aries and I just go do the exercise and give my body the food it needs. That's loving. So how does a yeah. Self love look. How would you explain that? What kind of actions would it be?
Speaker 3 (27:37):
I think both with my, both times there when I was in my thirties and when I was in my forties, when I remember getting to a point even in my late thirties where I realized that I was still trying to lose weight even though I was at 128 pounds, that was my weight set point. It would never move from that. It would be like I would try something extreme, I'd lose some weight and it would just go right back to 1 28. And I just kept doing this for years. And I was constantly like, I wanna get down, I wanna get down. I shouldn't be this weight. I should be 1 25, I should be one 20, whatever it might be. And then I remember this one day, it just dawned on me, I'm like, this is where my body wants to be . It's not a super skinny little person.
Speaker 3 (28:20):
And I never will be. I never have been, I never will be. So quit trying to get down to this unrealistic weight. And I'm like, what, Karen, are you really willing to do what it would take to be 120 pounds? Like I would have to starve myself. I would have to, I I, even if I did, I still don't think I would've gotten down to that. And I let it go cuz I was like, I can sit here and spend the rest of my life trying to get down to this fricking number on the scale because I feel like that's how I should look. Or I can accept where I'm at right now and work on just accepting that. And so I did and I did great. And for many years I was, I was very pleased with where I was at till I hit my forties and I, and I gained the 15 pounds and then I immediately started to hate on myself.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
But I did the same thing where I, I knew if no matter what I was gonna do at that time, I wouldn't have been able to lose the weight. And so I worked on loving myself and I worked on sharing that message. And I think that that really helped because menopausal women, perimenopausal women and menopausal women, I really believe that it's very normal for us to soften a little bit. It just is men do. So why can't women? And it's not realistic to think we're gonna look like we did when we were 20, when we're 50. It's just not, and it's okay to soften a little bit and we need to start accepting that and having that be the normal where we can look at women that are in this midlife go and go, they look beautiful because I do, I look at women my age and I think they're beautiful when they're healthy.
Speaker 3 (30:10):
And so I just kept telling myself that is, I'm gonna be healthy. I'm gonna still eat right, I'm gonna still exercise, I'm gonna still do yoga and I'm gonna be healthy. And I had super clear skin and I, and I looked good. And yes, I was more overweight than I wanted to be. And I knew that that would come off eventually. And it did take a couple of years and it was slowly started to come off. And I still was though accepting. Cause I still wasn't down to 1 28. I still accepted that I needed to, that it was okay for me to soften a little bit mm-hmm. because I was getting older and that's okay. I wasn't overweight. Mm-Hmm. . I, but I had softened.
Speaker 1 (30:52):
I mean, I think if you do want to be the same as at 60 as you were at 20, you can do it. It's just, do you want to do it? I will say, I wanna ask you this cuz I, I don't know how old you are now. I'm in my fifties 47.
Speaker 1 (31:07):
Okay. So my generation, I guess that's your generation. I don't know if we're, I'm a baby boomer. I think we had some pretty unrealistic expectations of what weight we were supposed to be at any age. Yeah. Literally we had, you know, those little Barbie dolls where you could wrap your little pinky finger around their waist. And for my whole life, I thought because my thighs touched and I didn't have a gap thigh gap, there was something wrong with me. But now the, there were earlier, more recent generations, they really accept themselves. And I love some of these kind of TV and internet stars where they're big and beautiful and bold and they love themselves and nobody judges them and they're just accepted for who they are and their beauty. And I, you know, I don't know how you overcome the conditioning we went through, but any thoughts on that you'd like to share?
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Yeah, you could look like you did when you were 20, but what is it gonna take to get there? Like, how much suffering are you going to to have to go through and, and, and it's just not realistic. And I always tell women like whatever their numbers that they're trying to get down to, I asked them, when was the last time you were at that number and how long were you there for? Because usually it's like, oh, well I did this really extreme diet when I was 25 and I got down to 115 pounds, so I think that's what I'd like to be at because I love the way I looked. I'm like, yeah, I bet you did. But is that realistic? No, that's not your set point. So I just think be realistic about it. Be okay with softening a little bit. I'm not saying you have to accept being, you know, 300 pounds or two.
Speaker 3 (32:40):
Like I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that there is a place where you have to begin to accept where you're at because it likely will not change. Like you can only get down to that set point. Maybe that a healthy set point that is still maybe in your eyes overweight, even though it's only like five to 10 pounds or 15 pounds overweight maybe for you. But could you just work on accepting that and loving yourself for that? And just focusing on being healthy and feeling really good. And that's, I think, a really hard thing to ask women really, really hard.
Speaker 1 (33:18):
And what about the cultural norms that we grew up with, with very skinny barbies and a very skinny twiggy kinda expectation of what the definition of beauty was and what we should look like? Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:30):
Well I, I ask you then, all of you, how many women do you know that look like that? Especially in their forties, even in their thirties, how many women did you know that were stick thin and had a perfect model figure? I can count like two friends out of all my friends that looked like that. Most didn't. So it's more normal to have curves than not to have curves. And we just see it in the magazines as these, this 1% of society of women that ha that were literally born genetically superior and that have those shredded bo like, they just come out looking fantastic and never have to worry about their weight. So it's more normal to be curvaceous and we have to tell ourselves this, that, that, that is what's normal. It's not normal. And, and look at men, geez, the discre, like between men and women.
Speaker 3 (34:24):
I just, it drives me nuts that men, all of my guy friends right now, they're in their forties and fifties. They've got the bellies. They're not getting Botox, they're not doing plastic surgery, they're not concerned . Like, they're just riding along, you know, and we look at them and oh, they're handsome with their gray hair. But yeah, women, we start to age and we're looked at like, Ooh, no, no, you better get your Botox. You better. Not that I'm saying anything wrong with Botox, I do get myself, but you know, like the pressure on us is far more right. And you have to remind yourself, like, I remind myself all the time, like, my husband's not doing all of these things. So take it easy on yourself. Don't feel like you have to too. Mm-Hmm. , this is the time in our life, like talking about spirituality.
Speaker 3 (35:11):
This is a time in our life where we, it's all about us finally. You know, like we in our twenties and thirties, it's all about our career, having children, getting married, and a lot of the time, right? We, we've, at this point, we've figured out if we're keeping the man or we're getting rid of 'em or, or, or your wife, whatever it is. And as we go into these years, our hormones start to shift. And I really think that this is is a calling to start paying attention to yourself, to start paying attention to your health mm-hmm. and let it be about you. You know, your kids are growing up, they're getting older. If you have children, you know, your ki your ki you figured out your job at this point. So let these years be about you because these can be the best years of your life. You know, we talk a lot about the bad, about the weight gain, about the hot flashes, the, the low sex drop, all the things that come with losing our hormones. But there's so much good that can come out of these years. These can be the best years of your life if you can start to take care of yourself and treat yourself with love. Like, it, it is, it's the time to do this and to work on these things. I really, really believe that.
Speaker 1 (36:21):
So one of the things that you shared with me before we started, I said, oh, we have to talk about that, that you can do to love yourself and really help yourself be your best as you age is peptide therapy, particularly if you're experiencing weight loss resistance. And I thought that is something that we should cover and talk about in this episode. So tell me how you became introduced with peptide therapy to help weight loss resistance. Yes.
Speaker 3 (36:49):
So we have actually a, a peptide weight loss program now because it started last year when I had a client who had Hashimotos. She was one of those women that was doing everything right, eating right, exercising, could not lose the weight no matter what she did. She had optimized her hormone, she optimized the thyroid, could not get the weight off. And we have, we, I hadn't seen her for a couple months, we have this session together and she just lost 17 pounds, . I said, how the heck did you do that? She said, Ozempic. And I'm like, what's Ozempic ? I hadn't even heard of it. So she tells me what it is and it's a weight loss peptide. And so then I went on the search of what the heck is this? And I started googling it and finding out for myself and thought, wow, this is amazing.
Speaker 3 (37:38):
I'm gonna give this a go. So I try it for myself and it was a complete disaster, to be honest, . I actually ended up getting severe migraines from it. I felt super sick, didn't lose any weight the first couple weeks. So I was like, well of course this isn't gonna work for Karen. Lo lo and behold, like, not shocking at all. Right? So I then started to recommend it to other client, other perimenopausal, menopausal women that I knew that had tried everything. You know, like they had done all the work and every single one of them were got results. And it was, it's, it was like, wow, this is amazing. So then fast forward to now, we've created our own, we like weight loss peptide program because it, I, it really truly just blows my mind how well these peptides work. So I have now gone to the other one, which is known as Manjaro.
Speaker 3 (38:34):
So I do it just the the peptide. I don't do the name brand Manjaro. So that's called Tze Peptide. So there's Semaglutide and there's Tpat. Tpat is the newest Semaglutide, which is also known as ozempic has been around for 10 years. So we've got a lot of research now on that originally developed for type two diabetics and they realized that, oh my goodness, people are losing a ton of weight, but they're on average in a year's time, or 72 weeks I think it was, they were losing 15 to 20% of their weight. Which just so everybody knows bef prior to this drug, if a drug could help a person lose 5% of their weight, that was considered amazing. Cuz that's all we had seen. That was how good it got. Mm-Hmm. , these were 15 to 20%. And it wasn't just that people were reversing all of these metabolic diseases.
Speaker 3 (39:29):
You know, cholesterol was getting better, their fatty liver was disappearing. It was helping there, there's research now showing that it helps to prevent Alzheimer's disease, plaque formation on the brain. All of these little metabolic markers were getting substantially better. People were getting off blood pressure mega medications and so many things were getting better mm-hmm. and plus they were effortlessly losing weight. These, these medications not only help to suppress appetite, but they work on your brain and they help it so that you don't crave sugary foods anymore. You just kind of just disappears . So you don't care to you, you're not struggling that whole time. Right? The whole, any other diet, you're struggling. We all know that. You're, you're like, I can't, I shouldn't eat that, but I really want to, you know, that's like why most diets fail is because our willpower runs out and we end up eating the highly palatable foods that are all around us.
Speaker 3 (40:31):
Well, this drug eliminates that need. So weight loss becomes easier than it's ever been before in your entire life. It's nuts how it works. So I went on Tze peptide, I was at 138 pounds and no side effects. In six weeks I lost 10 pounds and it was mm-hmm. . And it's been easy, fantastic. Like, I have no problem with it. This is though something that you have to typically stay on. So that's the downfall is you come off of it and a some people will, will keep the weight off, but because most people will blow past their set point, then you will likely, if you come off of it, you may go back to that normal set point, right? So for a menopausal woman, if you've gained, let's say you were always 130 pounds, but in menopause you've gained 15 pounds and you cannot get it off.
Speaker 3 (41:30):
Well, you could go on this drug and it's gonna gonna get you down to that 130 pounds. But if you wish that you could go actually down even farther. So if you came off of it, you would likely, as long as you were eating right and still exercising, you could go back. You may gain back, let's say right back up to maybe the hundred and 30, because that's your normal set point when most women I find have to stay on a maintenance dose. So they have to have seen everything from once every couple weeks to every six weeks. They have to do an injection, their once a week injection. So they, you start to spread them apart and then you can maintain that weight loss as long as you continue doing a shot every four to six weeks. Sometimes did everybody's individual. Mm-Hmm. . Yeah.
Speaker 1 (42:17):
So can you talk a little bit about how semaglutide works? So everybody knows like, is this an appetite suppressant? Is this uppers? What is it?
Speaker 3 (42:27):
No, definitely not. Uppers. So both semaglutide and tze peptide are hormones actually. And they're gut hormones. We produce them in our gut and then they tell your brain when you're full. So when you're eating these, because we're increasing, so they're 90, you can think of them as, I think of 'em as like a bioidentical hormone. They're 94% bioidentical to something you already make in your body. So it's gonna create more of this hormone that's gonna be telling you that you're full a heck of a lot faster. So there's no stimulation to it. It slows gastric emptying as well. It does affect the dopamine centers of the brain and the pleasure centers. So you don't get the same payoff from food, drugs, alcohol. Mm-Hmm. . So anything that is addictive to you that you are getting a dopamine hit from, it will bring that down. So there were mm-hmm.
Speaker 3 (43:29):
, there's actually some PubMed research showing like how it helps with co for cocaine addicts. So, interesting enough, I was just looking at that last night. So it works on different, a couple different mechanisms. There's two different, so Semaglutide is a glucagon-like peptide is what it's called. And then the tze peptide is a dual agonist, not that anybody needs to know this, it's a G I P. So glucose dependent, insulinotropic probably not saying that, right? Polypeptide. So these are peptides that we've already got in our body that are mimicking these peptides when we're taking them. So mm-hmm. , it's the best way to explain it. .
Speaker 1 (44:11):
And then everybody's gonna wanna know, oh my gosh, I want this, what does it cost? ? Yeah, that's the next question.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
Unfortunately, if you're not diabetic, you cannot get it covered through, if you've got insurance, you will not get it covered if you're not diabetic. Ozempic has now been approved for weight loss for obesity, but you have to be, I think it is over 30% or 35% bmi. So if you were to just go and get yourself a prescription, manjaro is gonna cost you about $1,500 a month. Semaglutide is about 1200 a month, but there's now compounding pharmacies that are making it. So compounding pharmacies can make semaglutide. And you're looking at about 200, 2 50 a month for that through a compounding pharmacy. Mm-Hmm. . And then with Tpat, it's a little bit of more gray area that they're not allowing compounding pharmacies to do it. There's still some that are, and I think eventually we'll start to see it more mm-hmm. . But right now, the company that made it is coming down on compounding pharmacies if they're trying to compound it.
Speaker 3 (45:23):
So then you can get it through peptide sites. So I, I don't know how much you've talked about peptides on here, but you know, there's growth hormone peptides, b BPC 1 57, all of these very familiar peptides that people are using now, and they're ordering them online from reputable peptide sites. Mm-Hmm. . And there you can get, we've got Tze peptide that starts at 170 a month, and the semaglutide is like 75 a month to start mm-hmm. . And then you increase your dose as you go along. So then it starts to, then the price goes up the farther along you go. So that's not too bad considering what, what us women will do to lose weight in the money that we spend on it. ,
Speaker 1 (46:05):
I mean, I'm still a proponent of addressing the underlying root cause, but if something is natural and can be an aid to assist you, hey, why not? In fact, as you're talking about it, I've never, I always have to try everything first. You know, that's how I developed same everything that I I do with women is what I learned from losing a hundred pounds and getting off all prescription medications and healing from all the chronic medical conditions I had. I said I was gonna see if it worked, and then if it worked, I was gonna spend the rest of my life teaching other women about it. So that's what I do. And when I hear about something that could help us, that isn't gonna harm us, and you know, with it being a peptide, that's just a protein and it is fairly bioidentical. I'll tell everyone right now, I'm gonna get it. I'm gonna try it and I'll give you my feedback. But it sounds like you've had a, some good results with this. Do you wanna share any patient stories that come to mind? Oh,
Speaker 3 (47:01):
I've got so many patient stories. It's, it's so gratifying. It's just, we've been, we've been brain, we've been, not brain, we've been, it has been very, very hard. Our whole lives to lose weight. Like weight loss is really hard. And we all know this. And I have spent my life helping women to lose weight. Like, it's something I'm very passionate about. And I feel the same way as you do Dr. Kiran, that you have to look at all of these other factors. You know, it's, you gotta look at your hormones for all of you perimenopausal, menopausal women. You've gotta address the hormone loss, right? Well, you're gonna be, if you go take these peptides, you have to building, you're building a house on sand. That's what I'm saying. It's like you're building a house on sand, you gotta have a foundation. And so this is why we've created a program to go with it, because you could go out, buy these peptides on your own, go for it.
Speaker 3 (47:52):
But you know, if you're not, if you're still not eating right and you're not exercising, you're not replacing those hormones and working on your spiritual self like we've talked about here today. Then I just feel like, why, why? Like, why don't do that to your health? Don't use it as a, well, I'm gonna go eat my donut and I'm not gonna lose any weight. That's not good for your health then. Mm-Hmm. . So I really think you need to prioritize and you have to have those foundational pieces be part of it and take the time because this, this drug works so well take the time to change your eating habits, then if it's always been a struggle for you to eat, well then use this as a tool to work while to take, while you work on your eating habits, because it does make it so much easier.
Speaker 3 (48:41):
So work on the eating habits, work on the time that you eat, work on how much you eat because it's very hard to overeat on this drug. Use this as a positive thing. And it is very exciting because you just, the weight just falls off and it's like, oh my gosh. Like I felt, I, I've gone through this like battle within myself of guilt and shame and like, oh, it's been nuts. I've just been like, oh my. And like, and I've had to turn and look at like, some of these things that have arisen because I feel like if it's not hard, then I have no right to be thin.
Speaker 1 (49:16):
Wow. That's a belief system. Do you like believing that
Speaker 3 (49:21):
? No. So I've been like, really try, I've been speaking about it on my own podcast and sharing my journey because these are things that may come up for other people where you do start to feel guilty or when people ask you like, oh, you've lost a lot, a lot of weight very quickly they think there's something wrong with you. Or they're like, oh, what she's doing a peptide or, you know, and I've just been like, no, let me educate you on this. Like this is actually the most astounding weight loss show we've ever seen to date. And if it can be easy, why not? I say, let's, let's embrace it. .
Speaker 1 (49:59):
Yes. Anne, I just wanna reiterate, you gotta address the underlying causes. Otherwise you are building a house on sand. If you don't fix your hormones and detoxify and get rid of the inflammation and fix your gut and do all the things, you still gotta do that. Well feel
Speaker 3 (50:14):
Good. You may be thin, but you're gonna feel like garbage.
Speaker 1 (50:17):
Right? And I, I will reiterate, I know we have a difference of opinion. It was pretty effortless for me to lose the hundred pounds when I address the underlying causes. And that's my experience with the women I work with. So I just wanna incorporate both of our experiences for everyone listening. It can be effortless, sometimes it's harder, sometimes it's easier. But why not take advantage of a tool that could help you? So I'm for sure gonna try it. I'll share my experience. If anybody listening decides to try it, maybe you'll decide to do Karen's program. She's got amazing programs, which she's gonna share some in, in information on right now. But you share these amazing quotes with me, Karen, before we start started, and we haven't offered any. So I will, before we wrap up, I just wanna offer two of my favorites that you shared. So one is one of the most courageous things you can do is identify yourself. Know who you are, what you believe in, and where you want to go. Sheila Marie Bethel, I don't know who she is. Can you talk a little bit about this quote and what it means to you?
Speaker 3 (51:20):
What it means to me is, is that's been my life mission as really being who I truly am. And that's all the work that I've done has led me to that. And it's, I I, I want that for everybody. I do.
Speaker 1 (51:34):
Amen. Yes. It be courageous. Identify yourself, know who you are, what you believe in and where you wanna go. And then Tony Robbins quote, the path to success is to take massive determined action. Action. You know, sometimes we women, we can just get stuck in our heads believing not true things. And you really deserve to have amazing health. You deserve to have a great sex life and great sexuality. You deserve to have great hair. Yes, you deserve to feel amazing in your skin. Look amazing in your skin if that matters to you. And do all the things that you want in life, right? Those dreams that you have we're given to you to fulfill. They're not some pipe dreams. So any last words you wanna share with everybody?
Speaker 3 (52:22):
Yeah, just off of, right off of what you just said there, like, don't settle for subpar. This is, like I said, this is the time in your life that could be the best time of your life. So go after it. Be courageous. Take massive action, but do what you, whatever it is that you have to do to be where you wanna be and look how you wanna look and that's fantastic. And embrace it and just, just don't be afraid and don't think that you have to suffer. I think poor, perimenopausal, menopausal when we have it in our head that there's gonna be some suffering or a lot of suffering. And we take this on like a badge of honor and it's like, no, we don't have to suffer and we can look fantastic and we can be fantastic and we can thrive. We don't have to suffer.
Speaker 1 (53:11):
Yes. So get about that business and you know, I think that's really part of loving yourself and maybe this is where we'll end. Mm-Hmm. self-love is honoring your dreams. That your dreams are meant to be fulfilled and taking massive action to make them come true. So where can everybody find you online? You have a free gift, a hormone quiz you can tell everyone about. We'll have all her links in the show notes. So if you're driving, please don't try to write these down, but share with everyone about the hormone quiz and all the places to find you.
Speaker 3 (53:44):
So karen martel.com. You can take my hormone quiz to find out, you know, which hormones could be stopping you from losing weight. It's just a quiz. So, but it's a great place to start and you'll get a little free meal plan from it. And besides that, you can find me on my podcast, the other side of weight loss, or we talk a ton about hormones and weight loss for women. We just hit 1 million downloads, so that's very exciting. So we've got 260 episodes on there. And then on social media, you can find me at Karen Martel hormones,
Speaker 1 (54:14):
Karen Martel hormones, and, and your podcast. Absolutely, definitely check it out. We'll have links to all of that in the show notes. Thank you so much for your journey, your wisdom and your passion for helping women. Thank you for being here, Karen.
Speaker 3 (54:29):
Thanks for having me.
Speaker 1 (54:31):
And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. So glad that you joined us today for this insightful discussion with maybe some things you hadn't thought about when it comes to your health, whether you have a weight problem or not. Looking at the deeper message of the malady or illness that you're experiencing can really help give you some insights that you can work towards healing and may just be the root cause that's keeping you stuck and you learned about a novel tool that you might want to consider using to help you. If you are struggling with weight loss, I'm gonna try it too and we'll share notes and see how it works, and I look forward to seeing you next week on another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Until then, peace, love, and Hormones. Y'all talk to you soon.
Speaker 2 (55:20):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Take Karen Martel's Hormone Quiz and find out which hormones could be stopping you from losing weight - CLICK HERE.
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Don't miss out on the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we delve into the importance of lifting weights for boosting your midlife metabolism. Our featured guest, Ashley Fillmore, is a leading expert in sustainable weight-loss who helps women balance their hormones, heal their metabolism, and achieve body composition changes that last a lifetime.
Ashley Fillmore is the Founder and President of Metabolic Fix™, a premium online coaching company that has helped thousands of women unlock the secret to better health and wellness. She is driven by her passion for helping women discover the life of health, happiness, and self-love they deserve.
In this episode you will learn:
- the importance of incorporating heavy lifting into your fitness routine for a robust midlife metabolism
- the science behind the benefits of weightlifting
- the transformative power of lifting heavy things and how you can effectively shape and transform your body, especially during the midlife stage.
Join us on The Hormone Prescription Podcast today and learn how to unlock the secret to a boosted midlife metabolism with Ashley Fillmore!
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Everything you've ever wanted is sitting on the other side of beer. Ashley Fillmore. Stay tuned and I'll tell you how to do this thing that you haven't wanted to do for your health that you must do to make midlife marvelous.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an OB G Y N I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we're going to talk about facing a fear that many women have that really is essential for them to do this thing, to make midlife marvelous, to make their metabolism marvelous, to get the health, the brilliant health that you desire and deserve. Yeah, I gotta do this thing. And so many of you are afraid of it or you're avoiding it and not doing it, and you don't know that there's some fear under there, but a lot of times there is. So we're gonna talk about it today. My guest today is really a ninja at this. I mean, she's had her own health challenges that she's gonna share with you and she's found some really cool paths over the mountain that she's gonna guide you through and help you understand.
Speaker 1 (02:09):
So I'm excited to dive into it with Ashley and to get you some information. She's gonna talk about your bravery. How do you get to the other side of fear and why your dreams might not be working? And that might be helpful to know because you have your dreams for a reason. They're meant to guide you to where you're supposed to be. So if you're not doing all the things like I like to say, we're gonna talk about all the things, but mostly this one thing that you're not doing, that you keep saying you're gonna do that's stopping you from experiencing the brilliant health that you deserve. So I'll tell you a little bit about Ashley and then we'll get started. She is a leading expert in sustainable weight loss and she helps women heal their metabolism, balance their hormones, and achieve body composition changes that lasts a lifetime.
Speaker 1 (02:58):
Woohoo. She is the founder and president of Metabolic Fix, a premium online coaching company that has helped thousands of women finally break free from chronic dieting for good and achieve long-term sustainable results using the metabolic fix method. She has a deep commitment to helping women better their lives and she strives to inspire others to embrace a life of health, happiness, and self-love. You deserve that self-love that we all deserve. She's a renowned keynote speaker, she's been on many podcasts. She has her own podcast, cheers to your success, and she has a Bachelor of Science and Exercise and nutrition and is a certified PT professional nutrition coach and health educator. Welcome Ashley to the Hormone Prescription. Hi.
Speaker 3 (03:44):
Thank you so much for having me. I am so excited to talk with you today.
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Yes. I think this is such an important topic. Why lifting everything is essential to your midlife metabolism. We women just don't get the weight lifting aspect and requirements of our health, especially as we age. And I find so many women don't lift enough weight, not heavy enough, or they don't do it at all. They're very focused on aerobics. So what helped you zero in on the fact that this is essential for us as we age?
Speaker 3 (04:19):
Yeah, so I think it started back when I started my career and when I was going through school and studying hormones, metabolism and sustainable weight loss. One thing that popped up all the time throughout my research and my certifications was the importance of weight training and its impact on your metabolism as you age. So most of the women that I've helped from day one in my career, I would say, are in their forties, fifties, sixties. And a lot of the women wanna lose weight. They've done a lot of crash dieting, they've done a lot of cardio based exercises cuz that was really popular in the eighties, nineties, even seventies when they were growing up. And you know, they need different because what they're currently doing isn't working and not serving them well anymore. And so when I was studying the impact that weight training has on your metabolism, the research is really shocking.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
And honestly for me it was just a no-brainer to say, okay, as women we need to become more comfortable in the gym. We have a space here. Your gym could be in a physical gym or even at home, but we need to become more comfortable with weight training. It's not just for men and it's not gonna make us bulky because that's the number one thing I hear from women is I don't wanna look like a man. We don't have the hormonal profile as you know, to look like a man. Even if we wanted to look like a man, we couldn't do it unless we were taking some extra hormones to help us look that way. And so really it started there in just recognizing the importance of building muscle mass and then backing it up from there and saying, okay, what do you have to do to build muscle mass? Does cardio help you build muscle mass? Does that 90 minute aerobics class build muscle mass? What's really gonna add more muscle mass on your frame? And what can you do to maintain the muscle mass that you have? When I started researching that, it connected all the dots. Weight training was the answer.
Speaker 1 (06:21):
Yeah, it's so key. And I mean we, we start as women losing muscle mass at the age of 30 if we don't lose any, do anything to prevent it, like weight training, hormone balancing, all the things. But weights are really essential. And you know, a lot of women I think don't realize that they're resting metabolic rate, meaning the rate at which they burn calories when they're just sit sitting there looking beautiful and doing nothing else really goes down when they, you start losing muscle mass and, and this is that 3% weight gain that we start with at age 30 if we don't do anything to counteract it. So this is really essential. So if you're listening and you're not using resistance or weight training as a part of your program, you want to listen up and, and you're right, absolutely right Ashley, about we don't have the testosterone to sustain the amount of muscle mass that males have. We just don't have it. So unless you're taking high doses or doping with testosterone, you're not going to bulk up. So you're not gonna look like some of these women who are professional weight trainers and have these huge muscles. You're just gonna get definition. So where is important for someone? Where do they start? Say they're, they've never worked with weights, they've never listed lifted weights. Yeah. How do they even get started with that?
Speaker 3 (07:40):
Yeah, and I think that it can be really overwhelming and it can be really intimidating. I've had so many women come to me and say, I'm, I'm terrified to go into the gym. I am so terrified. There's, you know, college kids, boys, you know, men, everyone's, you know, grunting and groaning and sweating on everything . I don't feel like I have a place here, but I'm like, no, you have a place here. And sometimes when we look back, at least I'm thinking back to when I was in college doing my internship, a part of my internship was working at a local health training studio. And when I even went to the gyms, there was a women's only section, which meant as a woman you could go to this designated area in the gym and use your machines and they had five pound dumbbells and eight pound dumbbells.
Speaker 3 (08:28):
It may be 10 pounds, but it stopped there and it kind of made you feel like as a woman that's where you belonged. You weren't really welcomed or supposed to be out in the big gym with the guys and it can be intimidating as a beginner. And so I think that's simple as best. And honestly I would say number one is getting some professional help. Truly it is really worth the investment because you can go on Instagram or even Google it these days and sure, are you gonna be able to find a workout? Definitely we can find a workout within a couple of seconds. Doesn't mean that this workout's effective or where you should be starting. Absolutely not. And so I think it's important to, if you can have someone assist you and guide you if you're a beginner, the basics work. Well, compound movements, you don't need to do workout for hours a day, even 20 or 30 minutes.
Speaker 3 (09:23):
There's research that shows the benefits in doing that. And then the secret is consistency. You have to consistently put in the work and be willing to progressively over time increase your weight in the gym, which is what we refer to as progressive overload. So not necessarily every week or every day go up on the weights you're lifting, but progressively over the course of several weeks and months, you should be able to say, okay, as I reflect back on my program, maybe you start off with five or 10 pounds, but over the course of maybe three, six weeks, 12 weeks, you go up to 10, 15, maybe even 20 pounds or more. I think that, you know, being, getting comfortable with lifting heavy weight and realizing heavy is relative to the individual. But keeping in mind as a beginner, you don't have to use fancy equipment, you don't need fancy machines, you actually don't even need a gym membership. You can simply buy some weights at home and follow a great program in the comfort of your home or going to a gym. But having a professional guide you, unless you are a certified personal trainer and know how to program effectively, can really be a game changer for that beginner getting started.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Yeah, I think that's such important information. I will say I have trained with weights in a variety of scenarios throughout my life and the best results I ever got one of was actually when I worked with the best personal trainer I've ever worked with. And she knew exactly what you needed for optimum weight and different muscle groups and for functional capacity, right? So I was trying to increase certain muscle groups in my body cuz I was having back problems when I was so obese and she was just amazing. And I've done it myself too, where I've had weights at home and even I still was left with those questions. Am I doing the right exercises? Am I using the right weights? So where would someone start, say they want to buy some weights and do it at home, and maybe this is something you go through in your programs and help guide people on, but if you could just give them a ballpark idea so they can see it in their minds of how easy this could be, where would they even start if they were gonna do this at home?
Speaker 3 (11:43):
Yeah, no, that's a great question and, and you're right. One of the things I'll offer at the end of our show is even a trial to my rise workout program, which really does lay this out nicely for someone getting home or getting started and maybe wanting to work out at home or wanting to work out even in the gym. But if you're listening in and you're thinking, okay, I really want to get started, what do I need to buy today and what should I be doing? I would say if you're gonna work out at home and not join a gym membership, a bench, preferably an adjustable bench. So you can do incline dumbbell presses or flats, step ups, there's a lot of different things we can utilize that bench for, depending on your mobility and your flexibility. Certain movements like squats could be difficult to do free standing, so squatting to a bench can be very helpful to ensure that you're getting the proper range of motion so you can, that adjustable bench is perfect.
Speaker 3 (12:39):
I would say depending on your strength level. One of the things I mentioned earlier on was that strength is very much so relative to the individual. So for example, you may feel like 15 or 20 pounds is heavy or, and I may think it's super light, but it just depends on our strength levels, how long we've been lifting weights, how much muscle mass we have. And so for you getting started, I would say get a range of weights, you don't need a ton. I would say get some light dumbbells for higher repetitions and working more isolated muscle groups. So maybe five pounds, maybe two and a half pounds, eight pounds, 10 pounds. But then I would also suggest investing in some heavier dumbbells. So you can do lower reps at a heavier weight, meaning maybe you're only gonna do five to eight reps, so that five or 10 pound set of dumbbells isn't gonna work anymore.
Speaker 3 (13:33):
You're gonna need maybe 15, 20 plus pounds. So I think just having a variety of weights, maybe two lighter sets, two heavier sets, or one of each light and heavy. And I'm a big fan of bands as well. I do a lot of mini bands. We utilize them a lot for glute activation, which is something women struggle with, especially if you have a very sedentary job and you're not activating your glutes a lot, which you're not activating them when you're like in a, in a chair all day long. So we do a lot of band work as well. So you can typically google like mini band glute bands and there will be a variety of options that pop up. Those are very handy. You can add a lot of tension on your glutes and even for your lower back strength. And then if you can also maybe think about a stability ball.
Speaker 3 (14:23):
So you could do some core exercises as well as some leg exercises when you're like lying on laying on a floor, there's certain exercises you could do with that stability ball. So that would be the equipment a bench adjustable dump bes heavy and light mini bands for the glutes. And if you can't afford it, a stability ball, that would be enough to get started. Sure, you can go on and invest in more advanced equipment for your home gym, but I think build start there, show yourself that you can do it consistently and then think about making a larger investment down the road if you wanna get a squat rack, barbells and things like that. And then for your workouts, I think starting off really basic, generally speaking, you wanna focus primarily on compound movements. And so compound movements would be your squats, lunges, pullups, pushups, bent over rows. And some of these terms may not even, you know, just if you haven't lifted weights, it may be hard to even know what I'm talking about. Bench pressing, those are compound movements. You're activating multiple muscle groups and you're gonna burn more calories by doing that and help rev up your metabolism. And so focusing the bulk of your training plan on that, and even a basic template of three by 10 to just get started with anywhere between, I would say six to 10 exercises is very effective for a beginner.
Speaker 1 (15:57):
Awesome. Well that's like a comprehensive how to get started guy. Thank you Ashley, that was amazing. And I'm wondering if you can, because I know a lot of women are still are so hesitant to get started with this, can you share some stories of some women who have you've worked with in your program who maybe they were hesitant to and what their journey was like through starting with resistance training?
Speaker 3 (16:25):
Yeah, I would love to, and if you're okay with it, I would love to share a little bit of my story and then I'll go into sharing. I have a couple of clients in mind that I would love to just briefly touch on. But I will say that I used to be very afraid. Interestingly, although my education and background is in personal training, nutrition coaching, specializing in sustainable weight loss. When I was, started my career literally right out of college, I was very young and didn't have a lot of experience at that time. You know, I was afraid to be honest. So truly lifting weights, I leaned more into cardio and I thought that that was the secret and I thought more was better. And so I would, I signed up for a gym membership, not at for personal training, but for myself. And I started taking, I'm not sure if you're familiar with the less mills classes, but I took body pump step aerobics, spin class, and I would spend three to four hours a day in the gym burning calories because I thought that was the secret to building the body that I wanted what ended up happening.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
And combine that with crash dieting and eating about 1200 calories a day as a 20 year old, let's just say that's a perfect formula for disaster . So I thought that was all I needed to do to lose body fat. I was putting in a ton of effort in the gym doing exclusively cardio based workouts to burn calories. I was eating in a big caloric deficit, but I realized instead of gaining muscle mass and looking strong and healthy, I ended up honestly looking the opposite of that in my opinion. I had friends and family members and even clients say, wow, you know, are you okay ? You know, no, like you're no nothing personal, but you just, you look like you're getting a little too, just frail to me was the term that they lose not so much strong or healthy. And so I hit a dead end road.
Speaker 3 (18:26):
My hormones were in a really bad place. I lost my cycle. I felt really bad. I didn't feel good, I had horrible energy and I was spending so much of my day in the gym. I started to question, can I sustain this? I'm gonna be working full-time, I wanna have a family, I'm gonna have a household to maintain. There's no way. And so when I hit my dead end road, I had to stop doing everything that I was doing, including the cardio for hours, the undereating. And that's when I said, okay, I need to lean into what I know and what I'm literally, you know, learning through my own training and education. And that's when I started to walk at a steady low st, no, no steady state cardio, just at a leisure pace is what I would call it. Mm-Hmm. several days a week.
Speaker 3 (19:16):
And I started weight training three times per week and I took away all of the hit all of the extras and I went to basic functional strength training. And that's what I leaned into three times per week. I periodized my strength training programs to ensure that my body was going to change and I was gonna work my muscles in all of the necessary ways. So endurance training, hypertrophy training, which is muscle building and strength training. And I really leaned into progressive overload. My body started to transform and slowly but surely my hormones started to rebalance, my cycles returned, my energy came back. And instead of looking like the skinny slash, as my clients would even say at times frail version of myself mm-hmm. , I started to have more muscle mass on my frame. I started to physically be able to see my strength correlate over into other things.
Speaker 3 (20:17):
Like, wow, well now I can lift more weights here, I could pick up seven grocery bags or 10 at one time even. And it was a really amazing experience. And so I really leaned into that and since then I've been now lifting weights for over a decade. And it's been amazing. I mean, it's helped me stay strong through my pregnancies, it's helped me stay, stay strong postpartum. And it's just for me now, it's the number one thing I lean into weight training and walking. Those two things are the, in my opinion, you can do the ex, you can do cardio once you have that foundation built. And similar stories from my clients, I will say a lot of women come to me with more of the cardio mindset where they need to do cardio to burn body fat. And again, I personally have nothing against cardio.
Speaker 3 (21:07):
When you are utilizing it correctly and you have a strong foundation built for strength training, if you are a woman perimenopause or menopause, in my opinion, weight training needs to be a part of your program. You cannot only be doing cardio and expect to sustain your muscle tissue. And as you even mentioned, when your muscle tissue decreases, your metabolic rate also decreases. So you start to see why it becomes so easy to gain weight. And so my client's very similar. Cardio was all that they did. Dieting, excessive, you know, just chronically dieting all the time. And for them, I will say the biggest thing that they realized is that, wow, this is a lot easier than I realized. I'm actually falling in love with weight training and the feeling that I get from doing it. I'm strong, I'm capable. I also have a place here and wow, I wanted to lose inches off my waist.
Speaker 3 (22:10):
Here's how I do it. I wanted my glutes to look rounder and nicer. This is the secret to doing that. And so you start to see that as well. And so I would say for them, their competence, their body composition transforms. I'll see clients lose anywhere from 10 to 20 inches within a course of even three to 12 months depending on that client and the health of their metabolism when we got started. But could you imagine 20, and it sounds like you've had an amazing transformation yourself, but 20 inches off of your frame, that is significant fat loss.
Speaker 1 (22:48):
It is. I've even noticed in times where maybe I don't have access and I don't take the time to do weights for a while, and then I enter them back into my program, all of a sudden within a couple weeks, my clothes are all too big. And it really does get your musculature up and running where it just starts contracting around your frame and giving you more shape even for the same weight. Maybe you don't lose weight. So I just wanna say amen to everything you just said. You've got to have the resistance training. It's so key and really it's, it's what gives you that shape that you are looking for for your clothes. It's not always that you need to lose fat, you need to shape what you've already got,
Speaker 3 (23:34):
Right? That's right. You can and you can. And that's where you can focus on body recomposition. Not so much losing scale weight, it's more about maybe maintaining your current weight and just working on your muscle to body fat ratio. So bumping up that muscle mass, decreasing that body fat slowly. Mm-Hmm. , you can do that only by consistently strength training and eating enough for your body. But just like with weight training, it should be customized to some level to fit your goals and where you are and your nutrition should do the same. And when you put those two together, even if you're in your forties and fifties, actually I have a client that's gonna be 77 in December, she's been with me my whole career almost. And I will say she's still getting stronger. Still getting stronger. She's doing 17 body weight pull-ups. It's
Speaker 1 (24:29):
Amazing. Wow. That is amazing. At that age 17 body weight pull-ups. Whoa, shout out. That's amazing. .
Speaker 3 (24:37):
Yes.
Speaker 1 (24:38):
Can we, that's amazing. Can we also talk about body fat percentage? Because body composition is something that I love to use with people. I love the scales that give that information. And actually a little story about that. So after I lost the hundred pounds and had this transformation, I got, so I was so zealous about working out and weights and exercise and I said, oh, I wanna lower my body fat to 10%. So I was working with this trainer at the time and he looked at me like I was crazy and he said, I might have to kill you to get your body fat to 10%. And I didn't really understand, even though I had had, I had two sisters who did bikini competitions and they would go through their whole eating program and weight program before their competitions. And I watched them and it looked a little extreme, but I thought, oh, I can do that.
Speaker 1 (25:32):
And so I said that to him, he's like, that might just, I might have to kill you to do that. And then he explained to me what I was gonna have to do and I promptly decided, no, I don't want 10% body fat . Yeah. I don't wanna do. And I was sharing this in my hormone bliss challenge last week with the women in it as an example of your why has to be strong enough to get the outcome and to do the things that you're gonna need to do to get the outcome that you want. And, and I'm gonna use this to segue into talking about something else that I know we both are passionate about, which is dreams. But can you talk about what is an appropriate body fat percentage for a woman at 40 and above? And what should be we be aiming for? You know, we talk about weight loss, but really it's not weight loss because we could be losing muscle mass, it's fat loss that we want. So what should we be shooting for?
Speaker 3 (26:27):
Yeah. So you're right, 10% body fat. I'm happy you had a great trainer because that was really great advice. It would be, it's not impossible. A lot of times when you see maybe like your sisters when they were doing the bikini competitions or the body builders as women, a lot of them will even be under 10% body fat. But as you know with hormones, it is very, very difficult even eating in a deficit and working out six, seven days a week to get your body fat that low. And for us, it has a lot to do with our sex hormones, your estrogen levels. And generally when we start to lose body fat to that level, which is something I did, which was also why I lost my cycle. Mm-Hmm. is it's really hard for your body to, if you don't have enough fat storage to produce those sex hormones that we need your estrogen, your progesterone.
Speaker 3 (27:17):
And so for me, when my fat storage went down, it's really interesting. On my hormonal testing, it very much so showed my estrogen levels were way below normal ranges. Mm-Hmm. and other hormones were also very depleted. So for women it's difficult for us to get our body fat that low. There's a lot of, I would say almost like with the B M I charts, I would say that body fat sets differently on everyone's frame. So for exa, for example, you know, if you're five eight and you have 25% body fat and let's say you're within a healthy range, it may look a lot different than someone that's five four and you know, with a SMUD smaller frame. So I think the thing that I like to say when it comes to body fat percentages is there's always gonna be some wiggle room. I would say as a female, even in the teens is pretty difficult to get, especially if you're perimenopausal or menopausal.
Speaker 3 (28:12):
If you're thinking about, Hey, I just wanna get down to 15% body fat or 18% body fat, that's very much so in the athletic range, right? I would say a lot of my clients in their forties and fifties, and I've worked with hundreds of women over the last 17 plus years I've been doing this, most of them are at their healthiest when their body fat is within the 20% range, varying from mid to low twenties, which again, more people probably vary more to mid twenties, a little, you know, 24, 20 5%, that's where they're seeing their bodies start to change. When they get to the lower twenties, that's when they're seeing a lot of definition sculpted shoulders, AB muscles start to come out. I would say teens, you're getting into more, you know, athletic performance based body composition. And then as you probably know below that, you're getting into competition, stage it or you know, stage ready as they like to call it.
Speaker 3 (29:11):
And I don't think it's necessary for women to be that low in body fat percentage. I honestly think having some body fat's healthy, your hormones need it. I think that as a woman, you look nice with personally. Now everybody's opinion's different, but there's nothing wrong with a healthy amount of body fat. I know I worked really hard to get my body fat back up because I didn't like the way that I felt when it was that low. Mm-Hmm. . So for me, I would say, you know, when I'm coaching my clients, that's something that I look at and we pay attention to. They also, some of them will utilize scales. I wanna share something with you though, and this goes back to something you mentioned right before. Mm-Hmm. . So before I moved my company online, I worked as an in-person nutritionist and personal trainer at a health studio.
Speaker 3 (29:56):
So we only worked one-on-one with clients. We weren't like a big commercial gym where you could come and go as you please. There were group fitness classes. This was only appointment based. It was myself and the owner of the gym. And then he even built out a team a little bit larger as his business grew. And so we would do body fat analysis with caliper's on our clients. So as you know, there's room for error with all of these mm-hmm. forms to measure your body F. But if you have one person measuring you consistently utilizing the same CalPERS under the same circumstances and they've been measuring you for a while, you can really count that as accurate data to truly gauge a range. Now always keep in mind there's room for error with even the scales. You have to just keep that in mind, depending on your hydration and the time of day and all of that.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
I would have clients that I've been working with for let's say five or six years, measuring them every week or every other week at times, they would go through phases where they would miss a lot of workouts, they wouldn't eat correctly and they would come in, their scale weight would be up or the same and their body fat percentage would not be any lower. And then when we looked at their muscle ratio, muscle mass ratio, it wasn't any lower. And so, you know, sometimes when people would lean into the measurements, we would see different all kinds of data. At times we would see people's weight lower, but their body fat percentage higher. So that would really get the client, they would say, oh, well why is my weight lower? But my body fat percentage in muscle math, my body fat percentage is not lower and my muscle ratio is still not in a great place. And a lot of that turns to the type of training you're doing and the way that you're eating. And the point that I wanna make is that a low number on the scale doesn't always mean that you're losing body fat and building muscle mass,
Speaker 1 (31:52):
Right?
Speaker 3 (31:53):
Weighing the same or even gaining a little bit of weight when you're lifting weights consistently and dialing in your nutrition doesn't always mean that you're gaining body fat. And a lot of women think that it's like, oh, the scale's up a pound or two mm, I've gained a bunch of weight. And I'm like, no, no, no, hold on. Let's really assess the data. Doesn't mean that you've gained body fat just because the weight is up a pound or two.
Speaker 1 (32:18):
Yes. Wow. This is all such important information and I'm so happy to really have you on the show and dive into this topic because it's super important. And I will say it hands down, is one of the top five things that women miss over 40 in balancing their hormones, boosting their metabolism is a weight training y'all. So do it. Just do it right. Like Nike says, just do it. Just get started. Do it and perfectly do it today, do it and get started. As always, I love, I love a good quote. And Ashley, you shared some great ones. So I wanna dive into something else that's super important, which is talking about how do you achieve anything in your life a dream. So, well, why might you wanna have resistance training or weights in your program, in your health program? Because you want brilliant health, right?
Speaker 1 (33:15):
Because you wanna feel amazing at 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 beyond. You wanna live a long life, you wanna feel great, you wanna have great sex, you wanna look great, you wanna function great, you wanna be healthy, you don't wanna be bogged down by disease. So those are dreams because the only reason we have time on this planet is because we have a body. And when this body expires, which I, I consider your first home, your time is done and then you get that date on the second side, half other half of your tombstone, right? You get a beginning date, a dash and an end date. So it's all about dreams. What is the dream for your life? And that's why I was talking to my women in my challenge about their why. It's not what you want, it's why you want it, that will help you get there. And so you share this, dreams don't work unless you do. And I absolutely love that. Is that something that you say regularly and what does it mean to you?
Speaker 3 (34:10):
Yes, I say that all the time because it's a reminder. It also is a great reminder to help you take radical responsibility. And it gives you the power to know that you are in control of your life and the choices you make today can make a positive impact on your life or a negative impact on your life. And I noticed some that can make you feel scared or afraid to even go there. But truly for me it was very empowering to say, wow, if I want this, I have to do the work. There's no one else in my life, not my husband, not my children, not my friends that can do this for me, but I have to be the one to want it. And if I want it, I can make this happen. And truly believing that is a part of this. And I think this goes back to the confidence you have within yourself and being able to do hard things and walk into the gym or invest in help or start a new program or literally break down every thought that you had about how you should reach your goals, how you should heal your hormones and go into something new to say, you know what?
Speaker 3 (35:26):
Those things aren't working. I'm going to do what I need to do so I can reach my goal. Because dreams don't work unless you do. And it comes down to you being the one to take the action. And I learned that very early in my life. And it serves me not only in my professional career but personally just as a woman. Because like you said, even being an expert in leading programs and helping women, we have to also feel great to be able to show up like this and tell other women what to do and how to do it. And so I always remind myself, hey, you need to make sure that you're taking care of yourself. So whatever dreams and goals you have, identifying them, that's just the start. The next part is mapping out a plan. You don't have to have it all figured out, but you just need to know the next thing, the next step. That's it. What's the next thing you're gonna do today after listening to this podcast? What's one thing you can do after this show ends to help get you one step closer to your dream and goal?
Speaker 1 (36:31):
One thing, right? Every journey of a thousand miles starts with the first step. But what's stopping most of us gets to this other quote, you shared fear, right?
Speaker 3 (36:42):
Yeah. Everything you've ever wanted is setting on the other side of fear. What if it doesn't work? What if? What if I fail myself again? What if right? There's with fear, there's always that. What if big bolded letters that's stopping us in our tracks, but like you said, we get one opportunity, one life, one chance, one body. Sometimes you have to go before you're ready cuz if you're waiting for the fear to go away, it may never go away.
Speaker 1 (37:13):
Yeah. So how do you, so we're afraid we're gonna lose time, money, it's not gonna work. We're gonna gonna be able to do it. What if I do it wrong? Like we have a million fears and so we sit there and we do nothing and we have this dream and the years go on and our health deteriorates. I call it circling the drain. That's how I felt, right? Every day I would get up, it would be something different. And I'm like, oh my gosh, if I'm this bad now in my forties, where am I gonna be in another 10 years, another 20 years? How have you navigated fear in your life and with your clients? How do you suggest that people start to navigate around fear or work with it so that they can work on their dreams and actually achieve what they want in their life?
Speaker 3 (37:56):
Yes, I do. I talk about this a lot with my clients. I talk about this a lot on my podcast. And the biggest thing I would say is that there's also nothing wrong with doing a little bit of homework. I'm never telling clients or people to just literally jump blindfolded and not have any idea. I think we all should do a little bit of homework. You know, being in this space, I will say that not every coach is the same. Not every profe per you know, professional, you think, oh well, you know, a nutrition coach, coach, a nutritionist, a personal trainer, no, not everyone is the same. I think it's worth your time listening in. One of the number one fears is what if this doesn't work? What if the person doesn't know what they're doing? Do your homework. I'm always a big fan of, go to my website, check out testimonials, ask me questions, let's hop on a call.
Speaker 3 (38:46):
Let's talk if we need to, let me help you work through some of your concerns. And then that gives you more information, which can also help you overcome fear information and real facts. Not just stewing on the fears and you don't really know, is that a fact or is that an emotion? And so for me, one of the things I tell ladies is, please do your homework before you maybe make that big investment or do that scary coaching program. Make sure that you feel comfortable with the person you're investing with. But even taking it back a step, you know, fear is good. It's not a bad thing, it's our mm-hmm , our bo our minds wanting to protect us, right? And we all have our own reasons for being fearful or scared of things. But I will say that it doesn't serve us though. We have to learn.
Speaker 3 (39:39):
It serves us in a sense of, hey, be aware of the fear. Do your homework. You know, maybe don't, don't be afraid to ask questions, but don't let it stall you out. Especially when it comes to reaching your goals and your dreams. And I'll say, you know, when I was 15 years old, my mom suddenly passed away and I was on my own. I didn't have a dad, I didn't have a family. So for me, facing fear was something I had to face head on. I had no other opportunity or choice. It was either you go ahead, you take responsibility, you know the next step and that's it. And then you'll figure the rest out as you go. Or you could stay here and do nothing. But when you are going through your life, so if you're listening in, weighing those options out, what if you stay here?
Speaker 3 (40:27):
What does that mean for you? That means your health isn't gonna get any better. That means your quality of life isn't gonna get better. Like you said, if you're already in your forties and you're feeling that type of way, what does that mean for your fifties and your sixties or even six months from now? What does that impact have on your, your professional life, your intimacy with your partner, your, your relationship with your children? What's the cost of all of that? So literally when fear hits you think about those things. And then on the other side of fear, what if you take action? What's gonna happen then? So weigh out the pros and the cons. Every time in my life, the pros have always outweighed the if I stay here scenarios. And so for me and my clients, that's one of the things I've always leaned into is that's how you get over those fears is you lay it out and you work through that. And I would say most people listening in would say that taking that chance is worth it compared to staying where they are. When they truly walk through that, well what if I stay here? What does this mean for my health? What does this mean for my intimacy? What does this mean with my co for my professional life? What's gonna happen? It's not just gonna magically get better on its own, I'm gonna have to do things differently.
Speaker 1 (41:48):
So true, your health does not magically get better on its own. It doesn't magically get better cuz you take a medication to suppress a symptom, it gets better when you look at the underlying causes and address them, which is what we're talking about. I love this other quote that you shared. You're braver than you believe and stronger than you seem and smarter than you think. And if you're hearing those words, that's you were talking about. And we'll close out with that if you wanna talk a little bit about that, Ashley, and then I'm gonna have you share all the wonderful places that everyone can find you and interact with you. But yeah, I love that you're braver than you believe and stronger than you seem and smarter than you
Speaker 3 (42:29):
Think. Yeah, and that's something that I as just kind of leading into what I finished talking about, that's something that I had to remind myself at a very young age. And I allowed that to stick with me through all of the phases of life that I went through, through, you know, starting my own company, healing my own body and metabolism, starting a family, moving to a new state. All of the adventures in life that we go through. And I think that's really true. And when you're listening into this, even if things didn't work for you before, it doesn't mean that you're broken. It doesn't mean that things can't work for you. Now think about my client that's 77 years old almost, and in the gym and working out lifting weights four days a week and doing 17 pull-ups and you know, lifting heavy dumbbells for herself and barbell dead lifts and all of the things.
Speaker 3 (43:19):
You have to believe in yourself and you have to know that you can do this, you can do this. And I think your story is also a great testimony to say, Hey, in my forties, this is when I literally transformed my life and my health. And so just don't give up that hope. It's never too late to start. You can start now. I don't care if you're 50, 60 or whatever age you may be, you can get started now and you know, just, you've gotta believe that you can do this. And that's what I love about the that quote.
Speaker 1 (43:51):
Yes, believe, go lift heavy things, make your dreams happen and believe. Thank you so much, Ashley, for joining us today and sharing your very, actually, very powerful story, your journey, what you offer for women, your dedication to women's health. Ashley has some an e cookbook she's going to offer to you for free and a meal plan and a free trial of her program. So tell everyone about all the freebies you have for them. We'll have all the links in the show notes and then where they can connect with you online and find all your things.
Speaker 3 (44:24):
Yeah. So one of the things I would love to gift your audience with is I have a great e cookbook and meal plan. It's not customized to the individual because I do believe we all need some level of customization when it comes to amounts of food we consume and what we consume on a daily basis. But if you're looking for a great template of what does it look like to eat for strength training, metabolic health, and just really wanting and even weight loss, what is, what is a sample week or meal plan look like and what types of foods can you eat and lose weight? This is a really great resource for you. It's an e cookbook. You'll download it immediately, you'll get access to it immediately and you can have it forever. It's a free gift, tons of recipes, all gluten-free recipes, all healthy protein-based, lots of different options.
Speaker 3 (45:14):
I'm a mom, so they are also kid-friendly and easy to make because I don't have a lot of time to be in the kitchen right now. And then the Trial to the Rise program. So RI the Rise program is my workout membership, and with this program, you get access to my workout app within my workout app. Every four weeks you get a brand new program. All of the things I highlighted throughout our podcast, periodized strength training, progressive overload that's taking place within this program. Also, exercise demos are right there, so you don't have to, as I was listing out all of the names, I was getting a little worried about that person that maybe is thinking, I have no idea what she's talking about. A squat, a deadlift, a bench press. Well, my app will give you real-time demos, 10 seconds or less. You look at everything on your phone, there's no confusion. The workouts are compatible for at home or the gym. It's something that I love. I actually created this really affordable program for women that wanted to get in the gym or work out at home, have a plan that was affordable and not have to think about or worry about their workouts, but know that a professional with real experience is taken care of so your audience can have a free trial to that as well.
Speaker 1 (46:31):
Nice. Thank you so much for all those valuable resources. I hope if you're listening, you will take advantage of what Ashley is offering and get started. Go lift heavy things, make midlife marvelous, boost your metabolism and get your first house, your body in order so that it can serve you with the brilliant health that you deserve. Thank you so much for being here today and sharing all this valuable information. Ashley,
Speaker 3 (47:00):
Thank you so much for having me on your show,
Speaker 1 (47:03):
And thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kien. Hopefully you've learned something today that you can take action on and put in place in your life to start moving towards the brilliant health that you deserve. I thank you for joining us, and I will see you again for another episode next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible
Speaker 2 (47:28):
Vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Get Ashley Fillmore's freebies:
FREE E-Cookbook & Meal Plan - click here
FREE 30-Day Trial to her workout program RISE - click here
► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review The Hormone Prescription Podcast on your preferred podcast platform. Your support helps us reach even more listeners, allowing them to benefit from our expert advice and knowledge. ✨
Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast where we explore the amazing world of Human Design, and how it can help you achieve hormonal balance and cultivate self-love! Our special guest today is Nanxi Chen, a Human Design expert who shares her insights on this holistic approach to well-being, and her own journey towards self-awareness and wellness.
Human Design is a unique system that combines elements of astrology, the I Ching, the Kabbalah, and the Chakra system to give you an intricate roadmap into your true self. By understanding your individual Human Design, you'll be able to unlock the key to living in harmony with your body and mind, thereby achieving hormone balance and increased self-love.
In this insightful episode, Nanxi shares her personal experience with using Human Design to improve her hormone health and overall wellness. She explains how her journey of self-discovery began with exploring her own Human Design chart, which led her to create a more holistic and self-aware approach to managing her hormones.
As we dive deeper into the conversation, Nanxi shares some remarkable insights, such as the importance of self-awareness in self-healing. Understanding the intricacies of your Human Design can bring forth a newfound awareness and appreciation of your body's needs and signals, empowering you to make more informed decisions for your well-being.
Along the way, we also get to hear some fascinating anecdotes from Nanxi, including how the knowledge of her specific Human Design played a crucial role in her everyday life – from managing stress to creating harmonious relationships and prioritizing self-care.
Are you ready to explore Human Design and start your own journey to better health and self-love? Don't miss out on this life-changing episode!
► Get Nanxi Chen's video/audio resources - CLICK HERE.
► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.
If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review The Hormone Prescription Podcast on your preferred podcast platform. Your support helps us reach even more listeners, allowing them to benefit from our expert advice and knowledge. ✨
Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! Today, we're diving into the world of human design, hormones, and how these two intertwine to impact your overall well-being.
We're delighted to have the brilliant Kate Vazquez on our show today! Kate is a Physician Assistant, Functional Medicine Practitioner, Mindset Coach, and the founder of Radiant by Design. She's also the author of the empowering book, Estrogen Is A B*tch, and the creator of the transformative program, Already Enough.
In this episode, Kate shares her unique approach to hormone balancing that combines functional medicine, human design, and nervous system regulation. She discusses her experiences with estrogen management and enlightens us on the connections between human design and our hormones.
Main Themes Covered:
- Understanding human design and its role in individual health
- The role of estrogen management in hormonal balance
- How Kate's unique approach helps women overcome anxiety, stress, and imbalances
- Learning to embrace our radiant selves by tapping into the power of human design
Episode Highlights:
- Introducing Kate Vazquez, our inspiring guest for today's episode
The story behind Kate's journey into the world of functional medicine and human design - An overview of human design and how it can transform our understanding of ourselves and our health
- The crucial role of estrogen management in hormonal balance and overall well-being
- Kate's unique approach to healing, blending functional medicine, human design, and nervous system regulation
- Real-life stories of how Kate's method has empowered women to overcome anxiety, stress, and hormonal imbalances
- Embracing our radiant selves and the power of Already Enough
- Call to action and where to find more from Kate Vazquez
Speaker 1 (00:00):
As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others - Maryanne Williamson, In this episode hears from Kate Vasquez, how discovering human design helped her health and helped her liberate herself from her own fear.
Speaker 2 (00:19):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
Speaker 1 (01:12):
Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. Really excited to share my guest with you today, Kate Vazquez. I'll tell you a little bit about her. I met Kate at a mastermind Halloween party with JJ Virgin a year or two ago, and I was really drawn to her and this is the first time I've really had a chance to talk, speak at depth with her. And we discovered that we have so much in common about how we view women's health and energetics and nervous system function and all the things as I like to say. So we really are kindred souls and super excited to have you here to hear this discussion because it contains some vital information for your health that you're not going to hear everywhere else. Starting with, we're gonna talk about something called human design, which isn't something I've talked about on the podcast, but really has been pivotal in me creating the health that I'm enjoying and really could help you as well.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
So I'm introducing it today and then actually next week my human design analyst is gonna come on the podcast and really talk nuts and bolts about what human design is and why and how it impacts your health and how you can use it to help improve your health too. But today we are talking with Kate and we're gonna give you actually a really close, upfront look at how human design has helped both of us transform our health. She has some beautiful quotes to share with you. This one from Maryanne Williamson that I stated in the teaser is beautiful. We talked about that. We talk about Shakespeare and his view on what makes things good or bad. We have a great quote from Peter that people in circumstances are revealing where you're not free. And so I'm gonna invite you to listen to this episode and really take it in and bathe in the energy of it and start to notice where you are not free.
Speaker 1 (03:27):
Where are you not allowing yourself to create the health that you deserve that's possible for you? What could be some of the blocks in your way? Maybe listening to some of Kate's story will help you to start to identify that and listening to the information. So I'll tell you a little bit about Kate and then we'll get started. Kate is a physician, assistant functional medicine practitioner and mindset coach. She's the founder of Radiant By Design. She is the author of Estrogen, is a and Creator of Enough, already Enough. She blends functional medicine, human design, and nervous system regulation for a unique approach that cultivates a deeper healing of the mind, body, and spirit. She helps women overcome anxiety, stress, and imbalances in their body to embrace the radiance of who they truly are. So we are gonna dive into it with Kate now. Welcome Kate to the Hormone Prescription.
Speaker 1 (04:26):
Hi Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much. I'm just so honored and blessed to be here and I'm just really excited for our conversation today. I am too, because you love the same things. I love you, love hormones, you love working with women, you love nervous system regulation and you love human design. These are all things I'm passionate about too and I'm wondering if you can share with everyone your journey towards discovering all these very unique tools, right? Functional medicine, root cause resolution is not the standard and it's not common. How did you discover that? How did you discover that nervous system regulation was important? How did you discover human design and really how it's impacted your health personally and the women that you work with? So if you could share that, that would be awesome. Absolutely. My story really began back in, in 2016.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
I was working as a physician assistant at the time in an, in an urgent care and just newly, newly married with my husband. And at the time I, I looked like I was happy on the outside, but deep down inside I was really struggling. I was just stressed out, anxious. I had about six to eight migraines a month, a lot of digestive issues, constipation, blo, I was even taking birth control just to keep my skin clear. And as a newly married couple, it was very challenging that first year cause we were still learning a lot about each other's. Like you go from like thinking about yourself to now you have to think about the other person. Plus I realized I was, I was just stuffing all my emotions down. Like I was stressed out at work and I'd come home and then I would sometimes vent it to my husband, but then we'd end up in, in arguments and get triggered and yeah, it was, it was a lot that was happening at that time and it just got to a point where things were really escalating to the point where I remember the stay very clearly in 2016 where I was sitting, my husband and I were sitting on his old ugly leather bran couch, which is all we had at the time.
Speaker 1 (06:22):
And I remember him looking at me and just with so much pain and just sadness in his eyes and saying, I don't know how much longer I keep doing this. And when he said that, it just tore me apart. Like I was so heartbroken to hear him say that. Cause I'm like, no, this can't be happening. This is my soulmate and , you know, what did I do wrong? What's, what's going on? What, why can't I make him happy? Why am I not good enough? You know, all these thoughts were flooding in my head, but deep down inside I knew like divorce was not an option and I was willing to do whatever it took. And I knew that something needed to change, something needed to change with my health, something needed to change with my mental and emotional state and something needed to change to, so that way we could, we could save our marriage, you know, and looking back, I I realized like at that time I needed to take responsibility and that what needed to change was myself.
Speaker 1 (07:16):
And so my husband at the time, he sent me off to, to Tony Robbins, at least the power within. And that's when I really learned a lot about mindset and personal development and learned about the limiting belief that I had, which was, I'm not enough. That was basically like running my life and was creating a lot of stress and anxiety at the time. And within a couple years I discovered functional medicine. So I dove into that. And at the same time I was starting my certification at, with the I Institute for Functional Medicine. I also started my own business, my own practice, radiant Health at the time. Because I realized there was definitely a better way, a different way to not only heal myself, but to help other people. I set out to heal my own issues improved, you know, my gut issues healed.
Speaker 1 (08:05):
My, my gut, I balance out my hormones coming off birth control or cortisol. But at the time I still, even though I physically started to feel better, I still mentally, emotionally wasn't feeling my best. I still was experiencing anxiety and also having migraines at the time. And so, you know, as a entrepreneur and business owner, I had jumped into a couple masterminds over the last couple years and, you know, being in a part of those groups, you get a lot of like strategies thrown at you and it's like you're, you're told to just like, go, go, go and do, do, do. And so I was doing a lot of these things to like really build and grow the business so I can impact more people and serve more people. But at the time I just, I was so burnt out, I was exhausted and I wasn't even enjoying what I was doing anymore.
Speaker 1 (08:52):
I felt like I was back at the urgent care where I'm like, I became a PA and now I'm like not happy. And now I'm like, I started my own business and now I'm not having, like, what is going on? You know? So I started learning about nervous system regulation and just diving into the subconscious mind. And I was doing yoga and meditation at the time and doing all the right things, you know, eating healthy exercise, taking supplements, but it just, it wasn't enough. And so diving into nervous system regulation into the subconscious mind to really uncover like my fears and beliefs and conditioning really helped me to do that. But I think the most pivotal change, the shift that I had was learning about human design. And I don't remember how I came across it. I think it was like something on Instagram that was like talking about human design.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And I took the little, the quiz or filled out my information and I discovered I was a projector. And when I discovered I was a projector, I was like, oh, what does this, what does this mean? And I realized like as a projector, they're like, I'm here to guide. I'm not here to be constantly doing, to, to be generating or to be initiating things. And that really explained a lot for me, explained a lot as I looked back over my life. Like I had been conditioned to be a certain way and that way just didn't feel genuine, didn't feel authentic to who I was. So it's like when I discovered human design discovered I was projecting this is how I was supposed to live my life, it finally gave me permission to be who I am. To be me. Yeah. so liberating to be you.
Speaker 1 (10:24):
And if you're listening and you've never heard of human design, you're probably going, what, what is this? What do you mean permission to be me? So can you talk a little bit about what human design is and why someone might want to know their design and how it might help them? What, what is it basically like your energetic blueprint, like how you're designed to, to show up in this world and certain types are able to generate their own energy. We ha there's like generators and manifestors generating, manifesting generators, but then there's the non-energy types which are reflectors and projectors. And we're basically here to just guide and, and reflectors reflect back, you know, how others are. We're just here to be more of like the support system. Whereas the manifestors and generators are the ones taking action and and and generating things. And so, you know, for me, understanding my human design just help me understand how to support my health better because you know, for a projector we need a lot of rest.
Speaker 1 (11:28):
And so I started changing, changing how I saw clients. Like instead of working from nine to five, now I work from 10 to four. And in between my clients I make sure I schedule time in to take, to take breaks to rest, especially when I start to feel my energy dip. Because if my energy dips then I can't show up as my best self and help guide my clients. So I've been more in tune with that. But also just winding down before bedtime has been a big, big game changer for me because I used to wake up and just go, go go from the time I woke up to the time I went to bed and I realized that was impacting my sleep. And when my sleeps impacted, that impacts my energy and that impacts my health. So, so really understanding your design can help you understand, okay, how do I show up?
Speaker 1 (12:15):
But also it can improve your relationship with others. Cuz understanding my design and my husband's design, he's a manifestor. He's go, go, go, I'm not . So I realize too, like I want to guide him but I can't guide him unless he asks me for my advice. And that's also been another game changer. Cause you know, as projectors, like we're very knowledgeable, we want to help so many people and I used to give advice and I was met with resistance and it wasn't well received. And in human design when that happens, you ex as a projector experience a lot of bitterness. And I was definitely a lot of bitterness because I didn't know, I didn't have boundaries around like, okay, no, I have to wait for someone to ask for my advice cuz when I received the invitation it's well received, you know, and people are more likely to be open.
Speaker 1 (13:04):
And so it's really changed a lot for me as my like who living life as who I am, but also how to better serve my clients and hold that capacity, you know? But also improving my relationship with my husband as well and, and my health. So right. And so, and and in human design there there are only four energy centers. And so something that I want everyone listening to just think about and I am doing an interview later today with my human design analyst, Nancy. So we're gonna really get into the nuts and bolts of what is human design and how it impacts your health and how you might wanna know your design. And it that might help inform you about choices you might want to make that are different from the ones you're making regarding your health. So if, if you're a non-energy type or even if you are an energy type, right?
Speaker 1 (13:58):
Generators aren't either, they're also not meant to go out and make stuff happen. They're meant to respond to what comes to them. And if you don't realize that you could expend a lot of energy trying to make things happen. And so if you're operating in a manner that's contrary to your design, basically you're going to have issues. And a lot of times those issues will show up as health problems. So how do you integrate, well first I'm just curious, so what type of projector are you ? Because I'm a projector too and discovering that I'm a five one projector emotional projector emotionally defined really helped me understand a lot of things that I've known about myself my whole life. But I really couldn't grasp or know how to incorporate, like I'm extremely emotional. Emotional. Yep. All right. And so I didn't understand that and everybody would look at me and go, gosh, you're so emotional.
Speaker 1 (14:54):
Yeah, it's my design so now I understand it, I can accept it and I can just go, yeah, it's just who I am. So ta talk a little bit about your design. Yeah, absolutely. So I'm five one projector as well, but my authority is splenic, so I'm very, very intuitive and , I used to not listen to my intuition, but when I didn't listen to it I would always say I should have listened to my intuition . So I've definitely been more in tune in in listening to that. And yeah, that's what I love about human design. There's something called the authority. So once you understand what your energy type is, whether you're a projector, manifestor, manifesting generator, reflector, you know, et cetera, there's the authority and the authority is just like this, this feeling, this sensation. Or like in your case you have this emotional wave, so you don't want to make a decision when, like for you, when you're in an emotional wave.
Speaker 1 (15:47):
And yeah, growing up, yeah, the emotional types were told or yeah, a lot of people are just wondering like, why are these people so emotional? Like there's something wrong with them when in fact there's nothing wrong with you at all. That's just, that's normal. It's normal. And I think it's beautiful to be able to experience the, the variety of emotions. And that's another thing like I learned like we, we look at emotions as certain things are, emotions are are bad, but it's like no emotions are just, you know, our body processing information and a lot of times we don't allow those emotions to pass. And if we stuff them down, they get suppressed, repressed, that's when they start to effects the body and put us into yes sympathetic state. So for you recognizing your emotional wave and knowing like, okay, I'm experiencing this wave right now not to make a decision because if I make a decision, it's probably not gonna be the best decision for me.
Speaker 1 (16:40):
So once you come out of that wave, now you have more clarity as what is best for you, what person's best for you, what is your next step, what is your next move? What is the best, you know, decision? For me, it's just really tuning in cuz my, my intuition comes very quick. It's a very quick sp spontaneous, like inner knowing and it can be easily missed if I'm not in tune with that. Which looking back yeah, I wasn't always in tune with it. Didn't always listen to it and then the like wishing I had. And so it's just this, this inner knowing, yeah, it's really hard to describe but it's just this, this sensation that I feel when I know something's right and when I know when something's not right. So having that level of intuition can really affect like your, your health but also as, as projectors, what I find fascinating is that because oh, as since I have this splenic authority, I'm very, very in tune with a lot of different smells, .
Speaker 1 (17:39):
So I'm very, very sensitive to smells. And like the other day my husband went and got his hair cut and he told the guy don't spray his hair and the guy forgotten he sprayed these toxic chemicals all over his hair. And then I hop into the car cuz we were gonna go off and run errands together and I couldn't, I couldn't handle the smell . And that's very, very typical of of, of someone with a splenic authority. They're just very sensitive to smells in their environment. And I call it like my toxic, my toxin radar , yes. Because yeah, I'm just like, anything that's, yeah, just like cigarette smoke and yeah, just synthetic fragrances, anything that's not natural, I'm very, very sensitive to, in fact, it's given me migraines too in the past. So, so for me, like really like when I smell something, it's like my instinct is to run away because my body's protecting me, you know?
Speaker 1 (18:29):
So I think it's, it's a beautiful thing to have and understand like what your authority is cuz it's, it's, it's meant to, to protect you, you know, and help you when it comes to making the best decision for you, like in, in every area of your life. Yes. You know, and as you mentioned it, I have splenic definition also and I have that, that toxin radar smell also. So I have the spleen, but I am emotionally emotional authority. And so how do you incorporate that into the work you do with people? How does it help inform how you advise people knowing their human design type? Yeah, that is such a great question. I, I love learning about each person because when someone's coming to me and they're experiencing a lot of stress, just helping them to see like, are they living in alignment with who they are?
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Because if they're not, that's gonna generate a lot of stress. That's gonna be the reason why they're experiencing a lot of anxiety or depression. Why they have a lot of imbalances in their, with their hormones, with their adrenals, with their gut, with their thyroid. And so having that understanding, you know, we can start pulling, pulling apart like who's their not self. Cuz in human design there's that not self theme, right? And that's the theme that's been, or the self that's been conditioned from society. So really pulling out these pieces and that's where this nervous system regulation and subconscious work comes into play too, is just understanding like what are the thoughts they have and what are their beliefs and what are the patterns and conditioning that's not who they are. So now when they build that level awareness, now we can move them into embodying who they really are.
Speaker 1 (20:09):
But also, yeah, taking the concepts the core concepts and like understanding their strategy and understanding their authority and how they're gonna show up in their life. Because that's what made the biggest difference for me is like, yeah, other people can make decisions on the go. Like I believe it's manifested or manifesting generators can decide very, very quickly. But sometimes, yeah, for me I just, I have to tune into my intuition if my intuition doesn't feel right, you know, even though it may feel right for someone else, I have to listen to that cuz it's, it's always guiding me. Mm-Hmm. . But but yeah, using that has been a game changer cuz it's like I get to see my client for who they are . Yes. And help them to, to recognize like this is who they are and it's okay to be who they are.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Yeah, I think that's key. And I, I'm just wondering cuz people probably come to you because you know, I know in functional medicine probably 80% of our clients are women over 40 because we suffer more than anyone with our health cuz we've got those, you know, wireless moving hormones that are changing and we've just got so many obstacles to navigate as we age. And one thing that I try to help all my clients understand is that it's not just about your physical health. You know, some people say, just tell me the supplements I need to take. Tell me the diet I need to eat, tell me the exercises I need to do. I don't wanna change anything in my life. Kirin, I just want you to tell me those things so I can plug them in and be fine. And I really step back and say, yeah, it's more than that.
Speaker 1 (21:45):
It's how you're living your life, how you're showing up, how you're making decisions, how you're setting boundaries are not. So do you find that most people are open and receptive to hearing this information? Or what, what is their reaction and how do you navigate it if people say, yeah, I don't wanna know any thing about that Kate . Well, the good thing is, you know, I'm very upfront with, with someone before they, they work with me and if, if someone's not open, you know, I let 'em want let them know like this is a part of the work that I do. And so not everyone is open to that. And, and that's okay. You know, I know everybody's on their own journey and so I work with my clients as as, as best as I can, meet them where they're at. And sometimes I'm like, okay, if we need to work on the physical things first, we can do that.
Speaker 1 (22:34):
But for the most part, everyone that has worked with me, you know, is really open into diving more cuz they understand that yeah, it's not necessarily just the physical healing that ne needs to happen. It it, there's a, there's a deeper healing that needs to happen as well. The mental, the emotional piece. And so the clients that work with me, they, they really want to get to the bottom and are open and and willing to do whatever it takes, even if it means diving into what's happening with the subconscious mind and helping them to regulate their nervous system and doing things a little bit differently than they've done before. Because obviously, you know, what they've done before wasn't working. And so yeah, they're coming to me to, to get that guidance and see things. And that's another thing as a productor, we see things from a different perspective, these little tweaks, these little changes, little things that they can do that they can add that's going to Yeah, give them profound effects in their life.
Speaker 1 (23:30):
Right? Yes. I mean that's something I bet that you've been doing this your whole life and you didn't realize that this was a special gift that you've been given , it's like your superpower then you can, people can come to you and you can really, you just see it and people are like, oh my gosh, you're brilliant. But it's just how you're designed. You're designed to truly see people at depth. And one of the things, I know you just mentioned nervous system regulation. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I don't know that that's something that most people are aware of also. So how, is that something that you use to help educate clients and guide them and help them to heal? Yeah, so the first thing I ask is what emotion are you experiencing consistent daily basis? Because emotions are basically, the language of the body is what Dr.
Speaker 1 (24:20):
Joe Dispenza likes to say . So I'm a huge, huge fan of his work. But yeah, emotions will, will give us a clue as to the state that our bodies are in. And the state I'm talking about is, are we in a sympathetic state or are we in a parasympathetic state? Cuz I believe like most of us are operating in that sympathetic state, which is that that fight or flight response. And when we're in that state, you know, most of us are in that state chronically, which is not good. It does affect our health long term because I really truly believe like our nervous system is what's influencing the health, you know, affecting our gut. It's, you know, slowing down the signals affecting our digestion and how we break down and absorb our food. And elimination, it's also increasing the signals to, you know, our adrenal glands ramping up cortisol levels, which can also affect our glucose.
Speaker 1 (25:08):
And then it's also slowing down the signals to our reproductive organs. So there goes the hormonal issues, , you know, and women especially, they're going through menopause, you know, their hormones already are imbalanced and so the cortisol is spiked, you know, that's adding even more to the hot flashes and, and then yeah, and then there's the immune system. It's also impacting our immune system. So that's where a lot of autoimmune disorders pop up. And when it comes to autoimmune, you know, and actually any issue really any imbalances we have and chronic issues, it's, I was thinking about this the other day. I'm like, every like chronic disease, you know, lists all the risk factors and every single one of these diseases and disorders have stress as a risk factor. But we're not really taught how to adapt to stress. We're not taught how to like master our emotions and how to, you know, respond calmly in stressful situations.
Speaker 1 (26:01):
Instead, we just immediately react because of the conditioning. You know, growing up my, I love my mom, but she was all, she was just stressed out, anxious all the time, constantly reacting . And that's how I learned like, oh, like when this happens, freak out, you know, . Yeah. But that's not a healthy stress response. And so when it comes to nervous system regulation, it just started observing like, when I'm under stress, what is happening? How, how do I feel? You know, mentally, emotionally, how does my body feel physically? So it's, it's building that awareness and recognizing, wow, I've, I'm like, I'm just constantly in this, this state of fight or flight. And I remember as I was starting to work on this regulation piece, I remember sitting here at my desk as, as we are now, and just like tuning in. I'm like, I'm not even stressed out thinking about anything, but my abdominal muscles were really tight, my neck muscles were really tight, my jaw was really tight.
Speaker 1 (26:56):
I'm like, what is going on ? And I, I realized, I'm like, wow, my, you know, I'm, I'm in that sympathetic state. I'm in that fight or flight state. And so, so it was just starting to build that awareness and, and tuning in and basically reconditioning my mind and, you know, changing the thoughts that I was having. So I recognized a lot of those thoughts were, were causing my body to go into that state, but also recognizing patterns and, and how I was reacting and starting to train myself to actually respond calmly instead of immediately reacting and going into that, that fight response. Cause you know, with the stress response, I, I realized like we all, we all respond in different ways. There's, despite where we automatically go into defensiveness, we wanna prove we're right, you know, and, and that's where the perfectionism comes in.
Speaker 1 (27:46):
And that's definitely the where I used to live, you know, and, and that needing to be perfect and everything that I did. But there's also the flight where when people are stressed out, they will distract themselves from feeling a certain way. And so they'll use like food or alcohol or even scrolling on social media, different things like that just to distract them from feeling a certain way. And then there's that freeze response where they just want to completely, like, they're, they're paralyzed, they're frozen, they completely avoid conflict, you know, when they're under stress. And then there's that font type where they go into people pleasing and people that you know, excessively apologize. And there's a statement I I once read as like, you know, over apologizing is basically saying, sorry for just like existing. And I'm like, whoa, . Yeah. Why are we apologizing for just being human and for existing?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
You know? But we tend to over apologize, you know, for so many things, you know, for whatever reason, you know, because we, we feel like we're being a burden. We're we're being too much, you know? But at the end of the day it's like, no, that's that fond stress response. So starting to recognize the patterns can help us start to, to regulate our nervous system and recognize like when I respond to stress, is this a healthy response or is it an unhealthy response? And, and how it's affecting our body. But you know, going back to the emotions, you know, I recognize like when we are experiencing, you know, anxiety and depression and or feeling so in, in human design, I find it fascinating cuz when we're in our not self being, so for example, generators will experience a lot of frustration. Manifestors will experience anger, projectors will experience a lot of bitterness, resentment, reflectors, disappointment.
Speaker 1 (29:25):
And that's because we're in that sympathetic state. Because we're not operating in alignment with our design. We're not operating as who we are. And so we're gonna experience these what I call low vibrating emotions, which is our sympathetic state. But if we can switch out of that, you know, into a parasympathetic state, now we're gonna experience more love, more happiness, more joy, more peace, more fulfillment. And so the key is to like, okay, how can we get back to that state and experience more of those emotions? Cuz we're, and we are experiencing more of those emotions. We know that we're in that parasympathetic state which then supports our health long term. That's is the state that's gonna support healing. Cause we can't really support our healing if we're still stuck in that sympathetic state. Yes. So getting that switched back from paras, from sympathetic to parasympathetic is key.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
I'm wondering if you might share just one strategy that people might try to help regulate. Like say they're listening and they're noticing like you did. Oh yeah. My abdominal muscles will try, oh, I'm shallow breathing and woo. Yeah, I'm probably in sympathetic state. So one thing that they might try to just dial that down and step into that parasympathetic state. Yeah. More fully. Mm-Hmm. . That's a great question. Well the simplest thing and the most easiest and cheapest is, is tuning into our breath. Going back to breath work, you know. And just when I was in that recognizing like everything was tight, I just started focusing on breathing and I was telling my body at the same time, like, relax, it's okay, we're safe . Because the reason why we're tight intense is cuz like the body thinks we're not safe. And you know, all these perceived threats and demands, you know, and needing to do everything on our to-do list can be a perceived threat.
Speaker 1 (31:21):
You know things that are happening with people around us. And so I remember just closing my eyes and taking deep breaths and just telling my body, relax, release. And that's another word, release release. Cause sometimes we're holding onto things and so just saying that and saying, it's okay, I'm safe, I'm okay. You know, can really bring that body back into that, that parasympathetic state. Mm-Hmm. the breath. So key. And you know, when I pay attention to my breath, I find how many times a day I actually stop breathing. Yeah. I love dancing. And so I, I do dance lessons or like zu and Zama and my dance instructor's constantly telling me, breathe, , breathe. You're not breathing. And it's like, oh, I'm focusing on learning the new steps. And to me that's like a very anxiety producing cuz I wanna do it right.
Speaker 1 (32:16):
Right. I wanna do it perfect Lee. And, and then I hold my breath. Mm-Hmm and I make myself in this sympathetic nervous is the state, which is not conducive for learning. So I'm really shooting myself on the foot. So yeah, I wanna encourage everyone to breathe, take some deep breaths. Breathe. I, I love this. Yeah. This quote you shared with me from Peter Cro Life will present you with people and circumstances to reveal where you are not free. And it just stuck out to me right there because everybody listening, maybe these are some places and things that you needed to hear where you could re it could reveal where you're not free. So can you talk a little bit about what this means and actually who Peter Cro is? I don't even know, but I love that quote. I love Peter Cro. He's known as the mind architect if that doesn't say anything.
Speaker 1 (33:09):
. Yeah. But he's so good about just like pulling out the constructs of our subconscious mind and helping people to see like the way they've been and how they can live their life. And I love this quote cuz on my journey, this quote, life will present you with people and circumstances to reveal where you're not free was eye-opening quote to help me recognize my triggers every time I'm triggered. Instead of blaming someone that you feel a certain way, it's like, wait, no. Like why do I feel triggered right now? Because I recognize my triggers was not because of something someone said or something did, but because of the limiting belief I had in that moment, I felt like I wasn't good enough or I felt like I wasn't worthy or I felt like I was doing something wrong and then I could go back to something that happened in my childhood, you know, where there was something that happened then that, you know, cuz it's like these triggers are linked to our past experiences and the more experiences we have, the more they get linked together that just validate these beliefs .
Speaker 1 (34:17):
So yeah, I love that quote. And it's, it's a quote I use with my clients often to help them recognize, like, especially when they get triggered and something's bothering them or if you're feeling resistance, it's like, okay, where are you not free right now? Like it has nothing to do with the other person because yeah, the other person may be reacting because they have stuff that you know is going on inside of them. It's just been a really, really powerful quote for me. It is super powerful. I'm gonna have to look into Peter Krone and it reminds me of this podcast I just came across yesterday called It's not You, it's your trauma .
Speaker 1 (34:55):
Which I love that because you know, I think part of getting your physical health straight is you've got to disassemble this stress response and yourself. And part of it is that you're getting triggered, we're getting triggered all over the place and trying to fight with the external world to be different so we can feel okay inside when the truth is that's not possible. The only person you can change is yourself and to disassemble the triggers, the trigger buttons that you have where you're not free and change yourself so that the external environment isn't stressful. That's really something I think sooner or later that we each have to, to do if we are to get our cortisol under control. So here's where the hormone prescription comes in, y'all, you know, I tie everything to hormones, it's all about clean cortisol and if we don't serve her and we don't give her what she needs, which is a safe, comfortable life where we're not reacting to everything and everyone, then we're just never gonna achieve what's possible for us.
Speaker 1 (36:01):
Right? Yeah, absolutely. I completely agree. Personal experience right here, , right? Same for me. It's like I'm in the process of really disassembling these triggers and it's, yeah, the lessons are never ending. But I do love this quote you have from Shakespeare too that follows exactly to this. Nothing is ever good or bad, but thinking makes it so. Yeah. So do you wanna talk a little bit about that? Yes. Another really powerful quote that that's helped me on my journey, because I realize at the end of the day, everything is a perception. You know, everything that a thought we have is, is really based on our, our perceptions. Whether we think something's good or we think something's bad because what we think is good, what we think is bad, another person may think the opposite. And you know, and that's okay. We all have our own thoughts and our beliefs and our perceptions and we also have, you know, based on our perceptions create these stories.
Speaker 1 (36:57):
And if we can recognize like these stories is what, you know, puts us, sends us down this, this path of like, yeah, going down in, into a sympathetic state or being in a parasympathetic state. Like it really all starts with our thoughts. And that's something that I, I talk a lot about my clients and actually first thing I have them do is like start tuning into their thoughts. What are their thoughts? What are they thinking about themselves? What are they thinking about their health? Because say I have someone who wants to lose weight, and I'm like, okay, well how much weight do you wanna lose? And they're like, well I wanna lose this much weight. Well, why do you wanna lose that much weight? Well, because blah, blah blah, blah blah. And I'm like, well, have you ever been at that weight? And they're like, yeah.
Speaker 1 (37:37):
And so I got curious. I'm like, well, when you were at that weight, how did you feel? And they're like, well I was stressed out . And I'm like, well, how do you feel now? Well, I'm stressed out trying to lose weight. I'm like, okay. So I'm like, obviously when, when we're thinking about, you know, something like losing weight like that. Yeah, that feels very stressful. And so instead of focusing on losing weight, what's a different thought? How about like, I want to just feel healthy, I want to feel vibrant, I wanna feel energized, like I wanna feel strong. So what are the action steps you're gonna take to do that? Versus like, oh, I wanna lose weight, so now I gotta eat a salad and now I gotta exercise. Like it's, it's a completely different energy. So for me it's like, yeah, let's tune into our thoughts because yeah, whatever's happening in our life, it's not good or bad.
Speaker 1 (38:25):
So can we like start to neutralize the things because you know, when we are triggered it's because yeah, we're, we're perceiving it as as bad . So can we take a step back and, and yeah, going back to the the other quotes like recognizing, okay, where am I not free in this moment and, and what are my thoughts around that? And can I start to shift? And, and my favorite tool when it comes to perception is, is doing a, a reframe, you know, seeing things from a different perspective because there's so many different lenses of perspective that we can look through. We're only looking through one, but if we can start to shift and see things from a different perspective, it really starts to shift how we feel energetically and physically as well. So well said. It's beautiful and you know, I could talk to you probably for hours, but we'll keep it short.
Speaker 1 (39:12):
Maybe we'll have you back, we'll talk more human design. But this other quote from Maryanne Williamson that you shared, I love Maryanne Williamson. If you are listening, you don't know Maryanne. I definitely recommend looking into her because she has so much to teach about living in love versus fear. You know, her book Re Return to Love is one of my favorites. And so the quote is, as we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. And I I wanna say that, you know, the first time I met you at JJ Virgins, her mind share conference, so everybody listening, it's a conference that a lot of health printers go to and she has her mind share collaborative where we support each other. I remember meeting you at the Halloween party and you and your husband had the most amazing costumes, but I felt so drawn to you and you know, this idea of our presence automatically liberates others.
Speaker 1 (40:09):
I felt that from you. So can you talk a little bit about how this shows up in your life, what this quote means to you, and really your journey from liberating yourself from fear because it's fear that keeps us in that flight fight, freeze font response. So I'd love if you could share that before we wrap up. Yeah, absolutely. Now this, this quote is just a piece, I think it's the last piece of a bigger quote. So I highly encourage, if you're listening, go read the entire quote cuz it's just so powerful. And I love this quote so much and my husband does too, that we, we, I like, I bought a picture frame so we have it in our home, in the middle of our home so we can see it every single day. But this quote is so, is so powerful because it's true.
Speaker 1 (40:55):
I realize at the end of the day, the reason yeah, why we are in a sympathetic state is because we're focused on fear. And that's really been just like the found foundation, like all there is is is love or fear. And if we can recognize like every, every thought we have, every, you know, action we take, you know, every decision we make, every everything that we do, is it around fear or is it around love? Because if it's around fear, it's obviously yeah, going to put us in that sympathetic state, it's going to make us feel certain emotions and then if we're in that state long enough, it's going to impact our health. So for me, yeah, recognizing like I was, yeah, definitely operating from that place of fear and shifting back into love has been so powerful for me and that's why, yeah, I love Maryanne Lewis and that's one of my favorite books as well.
Speaker 1 (41:45):
Return to Love, Dr. Joe Dispenses, another incredible humane being who is on a mission in, in helping people just reconnect back to love. So if you guys haven't checked out his work, I highly recommend he's got three incredible books. But yeah, this quote has been powerful for me because I realized like I needed to go through everything that I went through, you know, experiencing the anxiety, experiencing the migraines, experiencing almost losing my, my soulmate because of everything I needed to experience the pain mentally, physically, emotionally, so I could learn the lessons that I needed to learn and be here to share, share everything I've learned on my journey, you know, the, the insights, the tools to help people step out of the conditioning, step out of the fear, step out of the limitations and step into who they really are. Because when you're living in embodiment of who you are, you are in your best health, you're, you're, you feel incredibly, you know, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally, spiritually.
Speaker 1 (42:51):
And when we're in that place, like it just makes life worth living. We have so much peace, so much freedom, fulfillment, you know, and, and that's my mission, that's my goal. I want women to have access to this. Like we all have the tools, the power within us, you know, to heal, to, to live our best life. We just, we haven't tapped into that yet. And that's my goal is to help women to tap into that. So that's why this, this quote has been really, really powerful for me. And I, I appreciate your, your statement cuz that's my goal. I'm like, I want women to see me like being liberated. And so that allows them, gives them the permission to, to liberate themselves, which in fact is what my next book is going to be called is Liberated . Yes, I love it. Yes. So as you shine your light, you allow you give others the permission to do it.
Speaker 1 (43:47):
I'm so glad that you have done this work and had your, the journey that you've had. I know it wasn't easy , you know, having followed somewhat of a similar path, it's really arduous, but I think that as projectors, it, it's what allows us to have the grit and the insight to actually help to guide others on their journeys successfully. So thank you for that and thank you for all the wonderful resources that you have to share with everyone. If you wanna tell them about your stress response quiz, we're gonna have a link to that in the show notes. We're also going to have a link to your already enough course. Do you wanna tell everybody what the we'll find with these resources? Yeah, absolutely. So you can find a lot of these resources on my website. It is currently your radiant health.com. But because of this journey, , I'm transitioning from Radiant Health to Radiant by Design because yeah, it's not just just functional medicine anymore, it's it's nervous system regulation.
Speaker 1 (44:50):
I'm adding in the human design piece, like we're healing different parts of ourselves, we're diving deep into the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual elements. And so, so yeah, it's radiant by design right now. Or excuse me, you're radiant health.com, but eventually we'll be radiant by design.com. But yeah, you can access those resources there. You also, I have my, my quiz and already enough is a podcast course which I created because I recognize a lot of women are busy on the go. And so I just recorded all the insights, the tools, five to 10, 15 minute episodes to dive into a subconscious mind, the nervous system regulation, emotional regulation piece, and also the tools to help them move out, that stress response into that sympathetic or flow state is what I call it. So they can start embodying, you know, being, being already enough. And you can also find me on Instagram at the Kate Vasquez and that's Vasquez with Double Z's, V A Z Q U E z.
Speaker 1 (45:52):
And I post a lot of content there. And also if you have any questions or just, you know, have anything to share, just, just send me a dm. I am and I'm always on Instagram. I love chatting with, with my followers, so yeah, please, please reach out to me if you have any questions or, or curious about anything. You know, I'm, I'm always there and always available. Awesome. Thank you so much Kate Vasquez for joining us today on the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for everything that you've shared. It's been a beautiful episode. Thank you. Absolutely. Thank you so much. It's been awesome. And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. I know for sure you heard some things today that are going to inspire you to take the next step, do something differently, and move towards the brilliant health that you deserve. I'll see you next week for another episode.
Speaker 2 (46:45):
Until then,
Speaker 1 (46:46):
Peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
Ready to delve deeper into the connections between human design and hormone balance, and uncover the radiant version of yourself? Don't hesitate—tune in to this episode now! 🎧
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Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we empower midlife women to live their best lives through balancing their hormones, understanding their bodies, and unlocking the potential for optimal health!
In today's episode, we're thrilled to have Dr. Richard Johnson as our special guest. Dr. Johnson is a practicing physician and a Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado. With over 25 years of research experience, he is an international expert on sugar as well as uric acid and its role in obesity and diabetes. Dr. Johnson has recently authored the book "Nature Wants Us to be Fat", which dives into the intriguing story of why we are becoming obese and what we can do about it.
Episode Highlights:
- Introducing Dr. Richard Johnson: Discover the extensive background and expertise of today's guest, Dr. Richard Johnson.
- The Role of Sugar and Uric Acid: Learn how these two factors play a significant role in obesity, and how modern diets have contributed to the current obesity epidemic.
- How Hormones Affect Weight Gain: Understand the connection between hormonal imbalances and weight gain, and what midlife women can do to regain control.
- Impact of Stress on Weight: Dr. Johnson explains how stress impacts our bodies and can lead to weight struggles.
- Preventing & Reversing Weight Gain: Learn simple yet powerful dietary and lifestyle changes that can help prevent and even reverse obesity and diabetes.
- A Brief Look at Dr. Johnson's Book: Dr. Johnson shares some insights from his latest book "Nature Wants Us to be Fat" and discusses how it can help midlife women in their journey to better health.
We hope you enjoy this insightful conversation with Dr. Richard Johnson, which provides not only a deeper understanding of the surprising science behind weight gain but also practical advice on how to prevent and reverse it.
Don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review our podcast on your preferred platform to stay updated with new episodes.
(00:00): The only good thing about a donut is the whole Jack Le Lane. Today we're gonna talk about the science behind how sugar is not food, but poison. Thank you, Robert Lustig.
(00:14): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:08): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin.. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today is Dr. Richard Johnson, and he loves fat. I know you don't, but he does, and it's a good thing because he is been studying it for years and he's got some epic information to share with you about why nature wants us to be fat, the surprising science behind why we gain weight and how to prevent and reverse it. And he's done the research. He loves research. He went into medicine because he wanted to figure out what was causing diseases and treat the reason why we had diseases, not just medicate them with drugs and surgery. So he's a doctor after my own heart. He is an internal medicine doctor. He is also trained in nephrology and infectious disease, and he's an avid researcher.
(02:02): So he has a book. Nature Wants Us to Be Fat. We're gonna talk about it today. We're gonna dive into some of the details about sugar and really how bad it is, and you can't hear about this enough. And the ways in which, which types of sugar contribute to overweight and obesity, how you can mitigate these types of sugar in your diet, how your water and hydration status, your salt status, your uric acid status, all affect these, how menopause is associated with insulin resistance. And these link into these other factors. So before I get too technical, I'm gonna bring in Dr. Richard Johnson, who is the researcher. And he, I love the way he describes these things. He tells it almost like a story with a plot and a murder mystery. And I love a good murder mystery. So you're gonna love hearing him talk because he really has a passion for the science behind what makes us overweight and why nature is conspiring to make us overweight.
(03:02): And he's really going to spell it out for you and give you some practical, actionable tips. I know you want those. He's got 'em. And I've already told you a little bit about him. Let me just check out his bio and see if there's anything else important that you need to know. He is a professor of medicine at University of Colorado. He does practice medicine, but he really loves research and he is done it for more than 25 years. He is an international expert on sugar and uric acid and its role in obesity, their role in obesity and diabetes. He is book is Nature, wants us to Be Fat. It tells the story of why we are becoming obese and what to do about it becoming, I mean, we're kind of in the the era of epidemic obesity. So we're in it, folks, and if you wanna get out, then you wanna listen to Doctor Rick as he likes to be called.
(03:55): Thank you Kyrin. It's wonderful. We'll be on your show.
(03:58): I'm so excited to have you here talking about one of my favorite topics, fat, right? What woman doesn't love talking about fat and how to get rid of it. And we're gonna dive into why nature is conspiring against us to make us fat. And the surprising science, why we gain weight and how to prevent and reverse it. But first, I always like to get some type of background for everybody listening. Why are you so passionate about this? How did that happen? You come from an internal medicine background, also nephrology, infectious disease. So how did you become fascinated with that?
(04:34): Well, it began when I was becoming a doctor, I just really have been interested in the causes of disease even more so than the treatment of disease. And my, I come from a family where there've been a lot of scientists. And so I, you know, from the very beginning, I always was wondering, why do they have diabetes? Why do they have this condition or that, as opposed to just giving them insulin and having them come back to see you in clinic, you know? And so very early on I started my research career and I was very, I initially, I studied high blood pressure and high blood pressure, as you know, is linked with obesity. And it's linked with insulin resistance. And one thing led to another. And over the last 20 some years, over 30 years, actually, I've been doing research and probably about half of my time is doing research from the basic laboratory to animals in the wild to studies of people. And I've been a very active researcher, but I also have a clinical practice. I see people treat people. And so I have kind of a, I try to do both, both ends of the spectrum. Yeah.
(05:44): You know, it reminds me of that Hippocrates quote. Oh gosh. Somebody shared it in one of the podcast episodes recently about the goal of good medicine is to make you not need it. And so you came into this field thinking that you were more interested in why people got disease. Wh if we can figure out why they get it and fix the why, then they won't get it Right
(06:09): Ex. Exactly. It's much more effective, it's a much more effective way of helping people. And you know absolutely. That's been the main driver I've been studying, particularly got interested in this thing called the metabolic syndrome, where people develop obesity and pre-diabetes and high blood pressure. And it seems to be the precursor for just about, you know, many of the diseases that are affecting us today. So, you know, when I would go on, when I go on the ward, you know, the residents would come up to me and say, you know, well we have a patient with diabetes and hypertension and heart disease and gout and fatty liver. And, and it's just kind of like a litany of these common diseases. And I believe they're all linked. And so my research took me into diet and into nutrition and into what was it in the diet that triggers these changes that we're seeing?
(07:08): And I was particularly puzzled by the fact that in 1900, only one in 30 people were obese. Only one in 50,000 had diabetes. It was like diabetes was almost unheard of. High blood pressure was seen in less than 5% of the population. Heart disease really hadn't even been described. The coronary artery disease wasn't described till 1910. And so, you know, there were only 500 cardiologists in the entire United States in 1940. I mean, it was just not a very common problem. But today, you know, it's just gone crazy. So the question is, you know, why, why did this increase? And obviously the biggest thought has been its relates to diet. And, and then that, that led me to, to my research.
(07:59): Right? And those are some very sobering statistics. Nowadays, hypertension, diabetes, coronary artery disease are so commonplace that we consider it normal. It's part of our normal vocabulary. But you're right, what a hundred, just over a hundred years ago, these were kind of anomalies, but now we consider them common. And I'll go ahead and plug in my hormones because it's the same when it comes to menopause. You know, over a hundred years ago, women didn't live any significant amount of time in menopause. So it really wasn't an issue. Now that our lifespan has increased due to medical advances and improved healthcare, we will live some, sometimes a third to a half of our life in menopause in a state of what I call hormonal poverty. And it seems like all the symptoms of what I call midlife metabolic mayhem and disease and premature death from menopause are quote unquote normal.
(08:58): And because most women suffer from them. But I think that we have to kind of take a page out of the book of these other metabolic diseases that you described, where they're now commonplace. And so we have physicians that are dedicated to treating these disorders and medications and whole fields of study. And really it should be the same with menopause. But if you compare , the amount of funding and doctors who do research on menopause and treatment, it's really not equivalent to that of diabetes, hypertension, and coronary artery disease. So I just wanted to get that in. Cause I think it's,
(09:36): You're right, absolutely right after menopause happens, there's such a dramatic increase in the risk of high blood pressure and obesity and diabetes and all of these metabolic complications go way up in women after menopause. And it is related for sure to these hormonal changes. And actually it's very much linked to our research. And I agree with you. I like that phrase, hormonal poverty. That really does describe the situation. Well. Yes.
(10:09): So let's dive into your research on sugar, uric acid, all kinds of wonderful things. Where would you like to start?
(10:19): Well, I can begin by kind of how we approached this problem. So the question we, we were asking ourselves is, I'm not afraid to ask big questions, . Yeah. So the, the question that we asked ourselves is, you know, what's driving obesity? And so many people study it and usually they study it from this standpoint of obesity is a disease, it's associated with metabolic syndrome and diabetes. And they kind of come at it like it's a, you know, it is a very bad thing to have. But we decided to kind of take a twist on it and kind of look at it from the standpoint of nature. And in nature, obesity can be lifesaving. And you probably know this well, you know, if you're a big brown bear yeah, and you wanna make it through the winter, you better have enough fat. And so what happens is they, in the spring, they're, they're kind of lean and during the summer they, they actually stay lean and mean as they say.
(11:22): But then about eight weeks before they hibernate, they purposefully get fat. And so I realized that it was kind of like a switch. They're eating normally every day and if they eat too much one day, they eat less the other. And actually there's data in animals that regulate their weight. Normally if you fast it an animal for a month and make it lose 20% of its weight, which is sort of mean, but if you do that and you stop that, they'll go right back to the weight they're supposed to be at. If you feed an animal force, feed it so that it has to gain weight and then you stop that, they'll go back to their normal weight. So normally animals regulate their weight, but, you know, all I had to do is look acro, you know, walk to the supermarket and you would recognize that people are not regulating their weight today.
(12:13): But interestingly, if you look at a bear, it regulates its weight perfectly. And then eight weeks before it hibernates, it suddenly starts eating voraciously. It looks for food, it starts foraging dramatically, it increases its weight, eight to 10 pounds a day. It becomes insulin resistant. It gets fat in its blood, it gets fat in its silver, it develops the metabolic syndrome. But it is purposeful because it wants to get that fat so that when it goes into its den and it sleeps through the winter, it lives off the fat and the guts not from just the energy from the fat, you know, it breaks down the fat to produce energy. So you don't have to eat when you ha fat enough. You don't have to eat when you're breaking down the fat cuz you can get your energy from the fat, but they even get their water from the fat.
(13:09): So when a bear hibernates it doesn't drink water for four months, doesn't eat food for four months and it lives off its fat. Mm-Hmm. . So when we think about animals like this or animals that do long distance migration or nesting, we see that nature wants them to be fat, at least for that period of time. And the question is what triggers them to go from kind of a normal weight to one where they're really gaining weight fast. And then we thought to ourselves, if we can figure this out, then maybe if we can see if people have accidentally turned on this switch all the time. That was sort of the question. And I had also, I have to admit, I'd been studying this for quite a while. At the time we started studying, we did study hibernating bears and we studied hibernating squirrels. And so we did do studies, but I already had an idea, I have to admit.
(14:07): And the idea I had related to sugar and particularly to fructose, and I was thinking about, I don't know if you know it, but the little hummingbird Yeah. Has a metta metabolic rate. That's unbelievable. I mean they, they're bidding their wings so fast and their heartbeat so high. I mean, it's like they are metabolically fantastic. They can do anything. They can actually, they can fly long distances even. I mean they, they are just an amazing species. They are. Yeah. And beautiful. But, but they, and beautiful and they eat sugar, they're eating sugar and they, they nectar, you know, with, they put their little bills and those flowers and they pull out, they suck out the the nectar. Nectar is like sugar water. And you know what happens during the day, that's all they eat and they become internally fat like you can't believe it.
(15:03): Their liver turns white. Mm-Hmm. , it becomes white with fat. They call it the pearly white liver of the hummingbird. It's supposed to be like the fattest of all livers of birds. And their glucose levels go up to like 700 in their blood. So they actually become diabetic. They're diabetic fat, visceral fat, liver fat all in one day. And then at the end of the day they quit eating, they actually will start resting and when they rest they burn. They continue with that high metabolic rate and they burn off the fat and they drop their blood glucose levels by hundreds of, you know, milligrams mm-hmm. . And basically they go back to normal by the morning and then they start over. And so I was well aware that fructose can really make an animal fat one day if you eat enough, you know, if you're a hummingbird, even with your metabolic rate, it can overcome you and mm-hmm.
(16:06): , it just told me that there's something about sugar that's particularly strong. And, actually that's one of my quotes, sugar turns to fat because when you feed animals sugar, they increase their fat content and they decrease their muscle mass actually a little bit. And so it's really powerful, it's a powerful food for increase in fat. And when we started looking at this, we realized it was the fructose that was really the key, you know, sugar or table sugar is sucrose, but it's actually two sugars. It's fructose and glucose bound together and high fructose corn syrups, another added sugar that's in foods and by the name you can tell it's got fructose in it. It's got fructose, high amounts
(16:55): .
(16:56): Yeah. High amounts, high fructose corn syrup. But let's remember that it's high and it is higher than fat sugar. So yeah, bear
(17:05): A fruit hummingbird. It started there with sugar. Sugar turns to fat. A lot of people still think that it's fat that makes you fat. It's not, it's sugar. Right. And can you talk a little bit about high fructose corn syrup because it used to hear a lot more about it and then I don't think it's so much in the media, but it's still being served daily
(17:26): . It's unbelievable. So, here was the problem, I don't know, you know, I'm old enough that I remember when ice cream was made with regular sugar and if the ice cream got in the freezer a long time, it would form crystals and it wasn't as good. And so then they found that they could make a syrup of sugar. High fructose corn syrup is basically a syrup and you know, it has a little bit more fructose cuz fructose is the sweeter of the two sugars. So there's fructose and glucose and it has a little more of the fructose, which is sweeter and people like that. And because it's liquid, they can mix it into food really well, it doesn't crystallize. It's got a good shelf life. And so when it was introduced, they found that they could put it in all kinds of food. And when they put it in the food, they can blend it. They, so they can make it strong. So it's really sweet or they can make it just subtle. And actually if it's just subtle, it just makes, makes it taste better. You know, like crackers, if you add just a tiny bit of sugar, you know, I don't know if when you eat a wheat then it, it's got a little sweetness that's so subtle that you can't tell
(18:40): It hits that, that bliss point, you know, that everybody has biologic. Right.
(18:46): And we did it
(18:46): For the fat, salt and sugar. So Yes, go ahead. I'm sorry to interrupt.
(18:50): Yeah, no, no, no. I'm sorry to my enthusiasm getting ahead of me here. So sorry. But, but anyway, so it turns out that, you know, when they added the high fructose corn syrup, they found that they could just really, that people would buy the food more. And so a lot of processed foods where you, where, you know, they add things into it, they'll add this high fructose corn syrup or sugar and salts, another one. And so these processed foods have about 70, 70%, 75% of them contain either sugar or high fructose corn syrup and a lot of salt too. And so this, this turns out to be a great way to trigger this switch because, in animals in the wild, a lot of them will eat fructose as their means to trigger the switch. And bears is they eat fruit. And although I like fruit and you like fruit and normally small amounts of fruit, like what humans eat is healthy cuz it contains so many good things.
(19:49): A bear won't eat, you know, two apples or one apple at a time. It'll eat as many as it can stuff in its mouth. And so they can get a hundred fruits and then when you eat that much, the sugar adds up. So that's how they do it. They eat a lot of fructose and they can trigger this, this thing. And we did studies in animals then, and we could show that fructose triggers this switch. And when you feed an animal fructose, not only do they get hungry, they get hungry, they get thirsty, they want to eat more food, and they do, they don't control their appetite anymore. So they eat more than they should. They drop their energy metabolism when they're resting, they start becoming insulin resistant and they raise their blood pressure and they put Liv fat in their liver. Anyway, they do all these things, they even get behavioral changes where they start foraging.
(20:56): It's an incredible program. So it's like a whole orchestra is initiated, it isn't just about eating more. And this is all triggered by fructose and it turns out to be unique. It's unique to fructose. And we actually figured out how it worked. And it's really cool because when you eat food, you're getting energy, right? We get our energy from the food we eat. And so when we eat food, we make energy in our bodies that we use to do what we do. That's why we eat. But there's two types of energy, there's really two major types of energy. There's the act of energy that we use everyday and we call that a t p, that's the energy we make. We make it in our mitochondria and other places in our body. And then the other energy is the stored energy and the stored energy is fat because it can be turned into energy when you break it down.
(21:58): That's how the bear gets through the winter. So, so it turns out that when you eat, most people were thinking that when you eat, you get this energy and if we fill up our atp and once the gas tank is full, then the extra goes into fat. And it turns out that's not the way it works. Once the ATTP is full, you count your weight is regulated, you, you're not going to eat anymore. It's like a system that controls your weight. Mm-Hmm. . But what fructose does is it, it lowers the a t p, it's the only nutrient that lowers the a t P in the cell. And when that happens, it makes you hungry because you wanna have a full, you wanna have a full tank. And so what you do is you eat more, but be the way fructose works is it doesn't allow you to really build up that attp. It makes the energy that comes in go over to the fat. So energy the same. You're you're eating energy and you're, you're storing energy. But instead of, or using it, but instead of using it for, at tp, it's going preferentially to the fat mm-hmm. . And, and because the a t P levels are low, you keep eating. And so it's a fantastic system for making an animal want to gain weight. You
(23:18): Know, as you're saying that I've experienced this, maybe people listening have, so I don't consume a lot of fruit because the more fruit I eat, the more fruit I want, the more food I want. I've always noticed that. And you know, all these diet wars going on and people say, well why do you hate fruit? And Dr. Kiran, I say, I don't hate fruit. It just is not necessarily the best option when there are other options. So you're saying that the switch that triggers it for the hummingbird and for the hibernating bears is sugar and that's what's switching us Yes. The survival switch that's causing us to gain weight as well.
(24:00): Yes. So originally, okay, originally our work said it was from, just from the sugars that we were eating. And you know, like a hummingbird gets it from nectar, the bear gets it by eating a lot of fruit. To address your question, you know, we've done a fair number of studies and if, and for most people, if they eat a few fruits, it's actually good because you got fiber and potassium and all this. But if you eat a lot of fruit or if you eat certain fruits that are sweeter than others, you can activate the switch from fruit. I have had people who couldn't lose weight and they were eating, drinking smoothies of fruits and I had them stop that and they were able to lose weight very quickly. So it is true, but in general, fruits in our work, we actually did a clinical trial where we gave people on a low fructose diet with or without some fruit supplements.
(24:56): And for most people, natural fruit supplements are good. Now, if you're eating bananas, if you're eating, you know, apples, bananas, plums, pears, those in particular can either raise your glucose a lot or or raise, provide a big fructose load mm-hmm. . So anyway, so I I I think we're in agreement actually. Totally. But anyway, so then how about we did have, we had a big bad discovery though. It's really important for me to bring this up for your Okay. People listened and that was that, you know, so in the beginning I said, that's all high fructose corn syrup, it's all added sugars. It's these, these are the foods that have the fructose, this is the food that activates the switch. It's gotta be that. And so I was targeting them and, and high fr you know, and then I found out too that you're like, if you knocked out the taste of an animal so that it can't taste sweet, it's still like sugar.
(25:51): And so I realized that even when people were putting sugar in the foods, even if you can't taste it, it's like a mechanism to make you like it because the animals that can't taste sweet still seek sweet foods. So I thought it was all that. And then of course I started thinking and I realized that not all animals that hibernate are eating fruit. And also, you know, the penguin can really get fat very easily and there's not much fruit done in Antarctica. So, you know, I realized that there had to be other foods that could trigger the switch. And the big discovery was when we figured out that the body can make fructose from carbs. You know, so french fries for example, probably not our favorite food, right? , right. But yeah. But anyway, french fries do not contain fructose. They contain starch, they don't contain sugar, really, they contain starch.
(26:48): Now when the starch is broken down, it makes glucose and glucose, I is a sugar, but it's not fructose. Right. So, but when the glucose goes up in the blood, it stimulates insulin, which helps drive fat of course. But it also is producing fructose. And so glucose can be converted to fructose. And especially when you eat a high glycemic carbs like rice, potatoes, all those foods that we love, bread, hot bread, you know, there's very few people who, you know, didn't, don't enjoy, you know, hot bread or you know, french fries or things like that. But we know that they're not good for us. And, and what we, why we know that it's not good for us is because when you give animals a lot of carbs, they also can gain weight. And we did studies where we gave glucose and the animals actually became fat just like giving fructose did. But when we studied and we figured out that what was happening was they were converting the glucose to fructose in their body mm-hmm. . And then we went and proved it, you know, by using, you know, special animals that can only metabolize fructose and stuff like that, or can't. And so what we did, so basically it turns out that we realized that it wasn't just sugar and high fructose corn syrup. They are the, they're definitely bad guys. Right. They're bad guys.
(28:21): , I love how you're telling this like, it's like a murder mystery. I can't wait to hear. Okay, so go ahead.
(28:26): Yeah, they, they're so then what they, they're definitely villains at the scene, right? But there are other villains too. And those villains include bread, rice, potatoes, and all these foods that I love. So it's really disappointing. But I do wanna say that it isn't that you should never eat sugar or cake or ice cream. And I think probably many of the people listening to me, maybe you're having some ice cream in front of you right now. But, the truth is, I'm telling you that it is not that you can eat this stuff or shouldn't, but that it's clearly that we're eating too much of it. Yeah. And there's something, and I, and I would say like, don't ever drink a soft drink. I mean that it's just pure sugar. It's gonna activate this switch, you know, so try really to, if you wanna get healthy, try to cut back on these things,
(29:20): Right? I would say I'm in Argentina right now and there's lots of bread and there's lots of potatoes and there's really no obesity here. You rarely see an obese person on the street or even overweight. And so I've been kind of looking around and figuring out why that is. And I guess it's cuz they don't eat it all day every day with every meal. And they're also extremely active so they burn it off. And, and the same was true when I was in . You know, rice is a staple in many countries. Bread is a staple in many countries, but they don't consume the sheer volume of these sp fructose containing items that we do. Right. So go off and, and, and
(30:06): There is a, there is a secret there, there's a secret weapon too for you to consider when you're wandering around there. And I, there's two secret weapons. So let me tell you, and you probably already know about the one, but the one is salt. You know, for years people were saying, ah, you know, salt's, you know, have been linked with hypertension, but if anything, a lot of us should eat a lot of salt. But it turns out that when you eat a lot of salt, salt can be really good for sure. But if you eat a lot of salt so that the salt concentration goes up into your blood, goes up in your blood and the way you'll know that is you'll feel thirsty if you start feeling thirsty from eating salt, it turns out that your salt concentration in the blood is high. And when that happens, it is like it stimulates the chemical reaction that converts glucose to fructose. So glucose, you have to have glucose around to make fructose, but if you have the chemical reaction turned on, you can make a lot more. And so it turns out that if I eat a baked potato that has no salt on it and it's just a, you know, plain potato, I'm not gonna make as much fructose as if I salt it. So salted french fries are much worse than regular potatoes just because of that. But
(31:37): Now Rick, are we talking about sodium chloride or potassium chloride? Cause
(31:44): Sodium chloride,
(31:46): You're talking about sodium. So that's, we're not talking about sea salt. Because sea salt should not, not have that. Okay. Just wanna make sea salt clarify for everyone.
(31:54): Right. Sea salt does not do it. Potassium chloride does not do it. Mm-Hmm. , it's specifically sodium chloride. And actually animals love salt licks and they do it, they actually want the sodium chloride if they've been studied where they take deer and they make these licks with different kinds of salts. Mm-Hmm. , it's only the sodium, sodium chloride that they'll like.
(32:17): Okay.
(32:18): And it's because we think that that raises the serum sodium, which is a trigger to make fructose. So if you're eating a lot of salt, you can make more fructose. Now there's another twist, and this twist is sort of interesting because it's a little, it will sound challenging initially, but it turns out that fats and seed oils and fats can play a role in obesity as well. And you know, there are the, the, the low carb people will say, well, I'm on a low carb diet and I'm on a, which is a high fat diet and I'm losing weight on it. And I'll explain how that works because the reason that is, is because you need the carbs to trigger the switch. So if you trigger the switch and lower the a t p, then you're going to eat more. Okay. So the carbs, the fructose is really there to make you hungry and to disrupt your ability to control your weight.
(33:22): So if you don't have a lot of fructose in your system, the fructose makes you hungry and can't control your appetite. But to actually gain weight, it is calories at that point. And the thing about fat is it's like nine calories per gram. So if you go to countries where there's not a lot of fat, a lot of fat in the diet, they'll, people will, can trigger the switch. They can become diabetic, they can become hypertensive, all those things of the switch. But to get really massively overweight, it's a little bit harder to do if there's not a lot of fat around because the fat just has so many calories per gram. So the, in our country where we have all this processed food and fried this and fried that, the, it's not that the fried food will make you fat by itself, but if you have that fructose, that sugar that or, or you're making fructose that triggers you to the switch, then the high fat food will, will, will be like putting wood on the fire.
(34:28): So think of fructose as the actual fire and food is the firewood, but of the firewood, the one that burns the biggest and the strongest are the ones that have a lot of fat in it. So seed oils have become really popular and fat has in general, but we're, because we're eating so much fat in our processed food as well, you know, it's the triple whammy because you've got sugar and you and i or high fructose corn syrup, you've got salt and you got fat. So the, the, the sugar tri triggers the switch, the salt helps really convert things into fructose. And then you got the fat that that really is giving you the calories to gain weight. So this is why on a low carb diet, you can eat all the, a very high fat diet and you're not gonna gain fat gain weight because you're regulating your weight. So well, you, fill up people in a low carb diet don't have to actually go on a diet re caloric restriction cuz they naturally won't eat as much because they fill up or easier mm-hmm. . And that's because they're, they haven't activated the switch. They're, so they, you know, they can eat that high fat food, but they're not going to mm-hmm. to really gain a lot of weight from.
(35:47):So there's so many things I wanna ask you. And we're, we are getting some time, so I'm gonna kind of try and let's see if we can get really targeted here. So you just mentioned something that made me think of intermittent fasting, which is all the rage right now with the research on how it helps diseases like certain autoimmune diseases, weight loss, the list is long cognitive decline, et cetera, et cetera. Can you comment on the utility of intermittent fasting from the research that you've done and your perspective?
(36:20): I love intermittent fasting. I think it's a fantastic way to lose weight. Mm-Hmm. , it's easy. I think it's a fantastic system. I also think low carb diets in general are very good. And if you do intermittent fasting, so long as you're not getting hypoglycemic from it, I would try to cut back as well on those bad foods that we talked about. And I would focus on drinking, staying really well hydrated. And actually that's one of my, my second quote for you is, is, you know, keep hydrated or stay hydrated because it turns out it really makes a difference. And if you keep your serum electrolytes or sodium normal, it helps keep the fructose from being produced and it's really good. And we actually did studies where we gave animals water and we could slow the development of obesity even with sugar. So I try to stay hydrated.
(37:17): What I recommend is drinking a glass of water before each meal. It's so easy. Mm-Hmm. , just make it, make it a requirement and, you know, drink a glass of water as soon as you wake up in the morning. And if you're gonna have a snack, drink a glass of water before the snack, you know mm-hmm. , it will make a huge difference. I have people emailing me saying, this is unbelievable how powerful this is. You know, I've lost that weight that I couldn't lose. And so when you see it's so true. Yeah. So when you see somebody running around, you know, these young athletic types that are lean and mean and you know, they have their huge water bottle next to them. That is an association that is real and they need the water to stay hydrated, but the water is keeping them healthy. So That's right. It's just really important.
(38:11): I gotta ask you Dr. Rick, about uric acid. Is there anything you wanna add about that when it comes to gaining weight?
(38:18): Yes. Especially related to you, your point about hormones and postmenopausal effects. So estrogen has many, many beneficial effects, and we've studied estrogen in our research and, you know, it keeps blood vessels healthy in many respects. But one of the most powerful benefits of estrogens is that they lower uric acid. So young women have uric acid levels that tend to be lower than men. And uric acid turns out to be important in how fructose works. And so when, when you make or eat fructose it, it's broken down. Remember I talked about how it lowers the energy in the cell, it uses uric acid to lower the energy in the cell. And when it does that, that's how it triggers the switch. So uric acid is considered biologically active. It isn't just a waste product that we get rid of and we get uric acid.
(39:23): When we eat fructose, we make uric acid when we drink alcohol, especially beer. And so uric acid is a bad guy. So it's another villain at the dinner table when you look around at what you want to eat, what you don't want to eat. You know, sugar can make uric acid alcohol canned. You don't want to drink a lot of alcohol, especially beer and certain shellfish in which we love like shrimp, they can make uric acid, but the uric acid can play a role in driving these diseases. And people with high uric acid are at risk for diabetes and obesity. And when you are postmenopausal and you lose your estrogen uric acid levels go up and it's associated with women getting increased risk for obesity and diabetes and all this. And, and it's even worse for women because at the same level of uric acid, women seem to be more sensitive to it. So when the uric acid goes up postmenopausally, it becomes the same levels as it does for men, but it's worse because it's doing more for, for at the same level in women than it does in men. So a very strong argument for hormones for hormones and hormonal therapy, and I believe it's a major player in why following menopause people are at risk for, you know, everything going to hell, going to, you know, into pieces. Right.
(40:55): And so just as a fellow physician, is that at all controversial anymore? Because, you know, even acog, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, the only indications they have for estrogen therapy are vasomotor symptoms like hot flashes, urogenital atrophy, osteoporosis, that's it. But all these diseases are increased in women who are hormonally deficient or in the hormonal poverty of menopause. And yet just what you said, how estrogen improves blood vessels and it affects weight and 75% of us at 60 are overweight or obese. Yeah. So I'm just wondering from your perspective, is that all a controversial statement?
(41:37): Well, it is. It is. But you know, no one has really like the Women's health Initiative in some of these trials. What they really need to do is they need to consider uric acid as a potential mechanism to explain the effects post-menopause. Mm-Hmm. and to, when they do these studies, like with estrogens, they should include, you know, measuring what happens to the uric acid to see if this really re can predict the better a, you know, can predict the results. So in other words, if the uric acid levels don't go down, it suggests to me it would suggest that that person is less likely to show a benefit. I've been studying uric acid for 30 years, and I can tell you that biologically it's really powerful. And, we even did some studies in humans that we published in the JAMA showing that uric acid can raise blood pressure in people especially in younger people, there's links with insulin resistance and a variety of things.
(42:37): It is controversial, we need to do more clinical studies, but experimentally and in the animal and in the cell culture, it is very clear that uric acid is biologically active and is doing things that we tend not to want to have done to us. So right. I would say yes, we need to do more studies, but like I've published studies showing that lowering uric acid improves insulin resistance. I've shown it improves blood pressure. There's studies showing that it improves vascular function. There's hundreds of studies that show that if you have a high uric acid associated with poorer outcomes, including cancers and all these things. So I believe that there's enough evidence there that everyone should measure their uric acid and know what it is. Now whether or not you should go on a medication to lower the uric acid, I think that, you know, that may be a little more controversial because medications can carry side effects.
(43:38): But there are some things you can do to lower the uric acid. We just talked about 'em, you know, reduce your sugar and drink more water. Another one is vitamin C. Vitamin C is a vitamin. It's healthy. And if you take 500 milligrams twice a day, it's been shown in placebo controlled trials to lower uric acid. So it's a good move. It helps the energy factories. You certainly, there's enough evidence that high uric acid levels are associated with bad outcomes and there's good evidence that low uric acids are associated with good outcomes. And there's pilot studies that show that lowering uric acid improves things. So in my mind, estrogen's, lower uric acid, vitamin C lowers uric acid hydration, lowers uric acid, exercising daily can lower uric acid, reducing sugar. These are all good things. They're all associated with good outcomes. We should use diet, exercise vitamins, maybe hormones as you recommend. And I think that a lot can be gained and you don't necessarily have to go on Allopurinol or a drug like that, but if your uric acid is really high and you have gout, I would recommend it.
(44:54): Well, you are a font of information about fat and sugar and uric acid and all these things. That is for sure. I'm gonna direct everyone to your book and we're gonna have Dr. Richard share all his links and we'll have 'em in the show notes too. But he has chapters on the optimal diet for blocking the fat switch. In his book. He has one for restoring your original weight and improving your health span. So he's got all the how-tos in his book. But Dr. Richard, please tell everyone where they can find your book and where they can connect with you online and find out more about the work that you're doing.
(45:33): Thank you, Kyrin. So my book called Nature Wants us to be Fat . Mm-Hmm. , and you know exactly right, there's a section on, you know, the science and why and, but there's also, at least half of the book is devoted to how to block the switch and how to turn it off. And there's food that turns it off. And so I do think that you'll find it useful and how to restore your energy. So that book can be, you can get it through almost all sites. Amazon Books A million Barnes and Noble. You can find it. And my, I have a nice website. Well at least I think it's nice . Anyway, I didn't make it so it's great.
(46:16): It's
(46:16): Really good. Yeah. But it's called Dr. Richard johnson.com and that's a really good place to find me. I have a thing called Link Bio, which you can use Dr. Richard Johnson and it connects to all kinds of podcasts as well. But my website's the, my main site mm-hmm. and I'm findable on Instagram and Twitter. And so I think you should be able to find me.
(46:41): Okay. I love this quote you have on your website from Robert Lusting, the Science Behind How Sugar is Not Food but Poison. And it reminds me of, there's a TED Talk that is entitled I believe It's Sugar is Not a Treat. And I really think this, this gets to the truth that we really need to stop idolizing Sugar .
(47:07): Yes, absolutely. Yeah. Rob Lustig's, one of my heroes. And anyway, thank you so much for having me on your show, and thank you for those who've been listening. Yes.
(47:17): Thank you for joining us, Dr. Johnson. Super happy to have you here. Important topic, great research you're doing, direct everybody to the book. You can find it wherever books are sold. Nature wants us to be fat, definitely check out Dr. Johnson's website. It is Dr. Richard johnson.com. He has lots of wonderful resources on there and you can find out about all the wonderful research he is participating with. So thank you for the work that you are doing. Dr. Johnson, thank you for really being a true healer and being more interested in why people get disease than just treating it with drugs and surgery. Thank you so much for that. Thank you. And thank you all for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you've learned something that you can put into effect in your life to impact your health and move it in the right direction. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step. So what's one thing you could do today? Just drink water when you wake up. Right? That's so super simple. If you take simple actions, put them in effect in your life, before you know it, you will have improved health.
(48:34): So thanks so much
(48:35): For joining me. I look forward to seeing you again next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
(48:41): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Learn more about Dr. Richard Johnson's works, research and books - CLICK HERE.
► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.
In this week's episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, host Dr. Kyrin Dunston sits down with Dr. Margaret Mill to discuss a topic that affects countless individuals - getting rid of headaches once and for all.
Dr. Mill shares her knowledge of Functional Medicine and her proven E.A.T. Method to help listeners understand how to identify and address the root cause of their headaches, boost energy levels, and restore mental clarity without resorting to drugs or overwhelming protocols.
Key Topics Discussed:
- Ending headaches & migraines
- Increasing energy
- Restoring mental clarity
- The E.A.T. Method
Key Takeaways & Learnings:
- Discovering root causes
- Personalized support
- Embracing a healthier lifestyle without drugs or overwhelming protocols
- Simple daily additions for better living
Dr. Mill's passion for empowering individuals to take control of their health is evident in her informative and engaging approach, making this episode a must-listen for those looking to live a healthier life.
Dr. Meg Mill is a Functional Medicine Practitioner, bestselling author, podcast host and speaker. In her virtual Functional Medicine practice, she works with patients worldwide to heal the root cause of their health struggles through advanced diagnostic testing and personalized support.
She has been seen on Fox News Channel, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, Reader's Digest, Health Magazine, and on many podcasts. In her podcast A Little Bit Healthier she discusses simple things you can add to your life every day to live a healthier, more fulfilled life.
Meg is particularly passionate about helping people end headaches and migraines, increase energy and restore mental clarity without drugs or overwhelming protocols with her proven E.A.T. Method.
Don't miss out on this insightful discussion and find out how to stop band-aiding your headaches by tuning in to this episode now.
► Watch the webinar Headache Freedom by Dr. Margaret Mill - click here.
► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before. CLICK HERE.
Is your mood being impacted by the food you eat? Are you struggling to find answers to why your mood swings so drastically?
In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Uma Naidoo joins us to unravel the mystery behind how our gut health affects our emotions and mental well-being. With her expertise in nutrition psychiatry and functional medicine, she dives deep into how food can be a powerful tool for healing or destruction when it comes to balancing hormones and emotional regulation.
Dr. Uma Naidoo is a Harvard-trained nutritional psychiatrist, professional chef, and nutritional biologist & author of the national & international bestseller: “This is Your Brain on Food.”
Michelin-starred chef David Bouley described Dr. Uma Naidoo as the world’s first “triple threat” in the food and medicine space as the nexus of her interests have found their niche in Nutritional Psychiatry.
Dr. Naidoo founded and directs the first and only hospital-based Nutritional Psychiatry Service in the USA. She is the Director of Nutritional and Metabolic Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital & Director of Nutritional Psychiatry at the MGH Academy while serving on the faculty at Harvard Medical School.
She serves as a regular media contributor at CNBC and is on the Harvard Health Publishing Editorial Advisory Board. She has been invited by the World Economic Forum to consult on their New Frontiers of Nutrition initiative. After being one of only four US physicians to be invited to meet personally with HRH The Prince of Wales, she was asked to collaborate with HRH and the UK College of Medicine on a public health Brain Food project.
She is currently developing the first and only CME-based educational program at Massachusetts General Hospital/Harvard to educate other clinicians globally about nutrition for brain health.
Dr. Uma has appeared as a Nutritional Psychiatry expert on Live with Kelly & Ryan, Today Show, 700 Club, ABC, and been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Fast The company, Thrive Global, Harpers, Shape, Parade, Boston Globe, AARP, and more.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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How our gut health can affect our moods and emotions
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What foods to eat and avoid to support balanced hormones and emotional regulation
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Nutritional tools for improving your mental well-being
Tune in now as Dr. Uma Naidoo helps us unlock the power of food on our brain, hormones, and emotional stability. Join us as we dig into how eating healthier can lead to a happier you!
Happy listening! :)
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Is joy the missing piece of the puzzle in your life? Do you want to feel more energized and connected to yourself? In this special episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, our guest, Dr. Tanmeet Sethi, will help midlife women to reclaim their joy and use it as a powerful weapon to improve their health. Tune in to learn more about the importance of joy in your life, why you need to embrace it now, and how you can start reclaiming yours now!
Tanmeet Sethi, MD, is a board-certified Integrative Family Medicine physician who has spent the last 25 years on the frontlines locally and globally practicing primary care and trauma work with the most marginalized communities. As a mother, she has received the impossible news that her youngest son has a fatal degenerative disease. She weaves together the expertise of both acquired knowledge with lived experience and translates them accessibly through the blend of ancient spiritual traditions and modern neuroscience. She is trained in Psychedelic Medicine, Integrative and Functional Medicine, and is a clinical researcher of psilocybin at the University of Washington. TEDx talk on gratitude.
You will learn:
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Why joy is essential to your physical, mental, and emotional well-being.
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How to recognize when you are missing out on joy in your life.
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What tools and techniques you can use to rediscover and reclaim your lost joy.
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Strategies for incorporating more joy into your daily routine for improved health.
Don't miss this inspiring episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Tanmeet Sethi! Join us as we discuss why joy is your justice - why it's so important to reclaim it now and how doing so can improve your health. You will leave feeling inspired, energized, and motivated to create the life of joy that you deserve! Tune in today!
(00:00): What your mind can't resolve, your body will hold onto Dr. Cei. Find out how to let go and reclaim your health now with joy.
(00:18): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:12): Hi everyone. Welcome back and thank you so much for joining me today for the podcast. So glad that you're here, my guest, you are gonna love and be inspired by her. She has a powerful story and you know it's a shame that sometimes our purpose comes from our pain and sometimes that's where the greatest gifts come from. If we say yes to the call, to the invitation of the pain, to lean into it and find the answers, when we get those answers, we can then bring them back to our tribe, all of you and me, to help them overcome similar struggles and improve our health. I think that almost every doctor and healer that I've had on the podcast has a journey of pain that led to some breakthrough that caused them to seek new answers. And then that's what they're doing here is bringing them back to the tribe, which is kind of brave and revolutionary.
(02:11): So I think you're gonna really love my guest today. I know I did after meeting her and speaking with her. So I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. But first, the title of the episode is Joy is Your Justice. And I know some of you are like, do I wanna listen to this? What am I gonna get out of this? What does this have to do with my health and my hormones? Well, she's gonna tell you because she too brings the science and that's why I love the incredible guests that I have on the podcast. Cause they bring the science that brings the truth and then you can just cut through the nonsense and know what's true about your health that you're not hearing elsewhere. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Tanmeet Sethi. She's a medical doctor and board certified in integrated family medicine.
(02:59): And she spent the last 25 years on the front lines locally at globally practicing primary care and trauma work with the most marginalized communities as a mother. She's received the impossible news that her youngest son named Zin, has a fatal degenerative disease. She weaves together the expertise of both acquired knowledge with lived experience and translates them accessible through the blend of ancient spiritual traditions and modern neuroscience. She's also trained in psychedelic medicine. We're gonna have her back another time to talk about that cuz that's a whole episode in itself. Also, she's trained in integrative and functional medicine, and she's a clinical researcher of psilocybin at the University of Washington. And she has a wonderful TEDx talk on gratitude. So please help me welcome Dr. Tanmeet Sethi to tell you why joy is your justice and why you need to reclaim yours now to improve your health and many other things. Welcome Dr. Tanmeet.
(04:07): Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.
(04:09): I'm really excited to have you. We had Dr. Ellen Vora on and she was amazing and lovely, and she recommended having you on and told me all about you, and I said, yes, absolutely, please. And I know you have a book that you're getting ready to publish, and so it was kind of challenging to get it set up, but I'm so glad that you're here. Thank you for joining us.
(04:37): Oh, thanks. I'm so excited to really spend some time with you and your listeners.
(04:42):
And the first question I have to ask you is, as a physician, how did Joy become the topic for your book?
(04:53): Yeah, well, there are a couple of different reasons. One is that as a primary care physician for the last 25 years, I've really found that a lot of what I do is really managing spiritual needs in the exam room. People really feeling lost and disconnected and feeling like they've lost meaning in their life, and also managing all the physical symptoms related to stress and really trying to help them navigate how they refined meaning and joy in their lives so that they can actually have a better quality of life. And so that was an ongoing theme in my visits as an integrative physician, I do a lot more counseling around lifestyle and spirituality than most docs do. And so I was really doing a lot of that. And then on top of that, you know, something happened in my own life that was really tragic, which is that my second child was diagnosed with a fatal disease.
(05:50): So he has Duchenne muscular dystrophy, which is for your community, is like an a l s for children. So it's degenerative and fatal. And he was diagnosed when he was three and while I was pregnant with my third child. And so I really had a really big milestone in my life where I realized that as doc who had been practicing and advocating for patients and doing a lot of social justice activism in the community, that this was finally something I couldn't really fight against. There was no cure, there was no hope. It felt like, and I really had a point where I realized how am I going to truly have joy in this life? You know, sure, I can fake it or I could function, or I could, as people were saying, think positive, which really drives me crazy, which you'll read about in my book. But I finally had to figure out how do you hold joy when you have something that is completely unchangeable? And that really was an ongoing theme for a lot of my patients who are managing trauma, oppression and suffering. And so it really culminated in my personal and professional lives.
(07:02): Yes, I'm sorry to hear about your child having that. And I can imagine that reaching for joy and figuring out a way to do that is al almost, it's a spiritual practice. And that I know having worked with patients clinically for many years, that it's not so much the physical ailments, but I actually was hearing Dr. Gabo matte, I love him, talk about instinct, the myth, myth of normal the other day, and the statistics on really that all physical illness is emotional, spiritual, mental, it, all of it, almost a hundred percent right? Except for the, the less than 5% of genetic disorders. And the fact that mainstream medicine completely, almost completely, let's say, ignores this fact in this day and age is, is really a travesty and does a disservice. So I want everyone listening to know that all of you should be treated not just your physical body. And there are clinicians out there who can work with you on that life, Dr. Tanmeet. So you had a tragedy and were trying to figure out how to find joy. And so what were the steps that you took to figure that out?
(08:25): Yeah, . Well, I feel like that's the whole book, right? Is all the tools I used. But what I would say is that what I really, just to give everyone a sense of how it all started is that I think it really started with one really big milestone question, which was right after Zin was diagnosed, and I talk about this in the book, is that my husband and I were sitting there kind of going through the expected and normal, why me, why us? Why him? Why, why, why? Feeling unfair, feeling like we didn't deserve it, feeling like there was no way out, which is what we all say, why me to everything, right? Whether it's traffic in the morning or it's a devastating diagnosis, right? And it's natural. It feels like how could this happen? But there was a pivotal moment there where we looked at each other, and we still can't remember who said it first, but we said, why not us?
(09:22): Why, why not him? Why not us to lead this life and still find joy and meaning. And also you can see how, why me is a very victim, powerless role. Mm-Hmm. , you can feel your body even contract and hunch when I even remember saying that. And when I say, why not me? My body opens up, I feel expansive, I feel powerful. And it defeats all those really kind of ridiculous, if you think about it, ideas of why me? Because it kind of insinuates that tragedy comes to those who deserve it. You know that why me as I deserve this, when you realize that bad things just happen, bad, bad, bad things happen. And it's not because we deserved it. It's not cuz we did wrong or did bad, it's because we're human and we're leading this human life. And why not me opens us up to also the humanity of all of us who are suffering and managing that which we cannot understand.
(10:25): And so that was really the beginning of this journey, I was really saying, why not us? Why not us to teach all of our children that life does not need to be dictated by the length of our lives or the dreams that were now shattered that we had conceived of, that he would play sports or go to college, or, you know, have a family, kind of the general things we think of and why not open ourselves up to the dreams that can be created once we let that go. And once we did that, it's not that it was easy, let me tell you, it wasn't an easy journey. Joy isn't an easy practice, but it is actually quite simple. And every day, if you commit to it as a healing practice, it becomes a way of life instead of a destination to get to. I
(11:13): Love that you, you turned it around to why not us. And I've heard people say that, and it's by no means on the same level, but even just this morning, the airline ripped apart my luggage and I just, I went to pick it up, the carousel and the whole handle that, that you're supposed to drag it with on wheels just came flying out and it was a big gaping hole. And I was like, oh, that's interesting. And I've seen people spin out about a wheel getting broken on their luggage, and I just, it's not worth it. It's just luggage. It's different when you're talking about human life. And so I think it's, it's such a testament to you and your husband's fortitude, insight, openness to be able to make that pivot with such rapid pace. And I know that you talk about the crucial distinction between joy and happiness, and yes, people sometimes will say, well, I just wanna be happy. I just wanna be happy. What is the difference?
(12:12): Oh, it's so big. It's really so big. And I'll tell you, I was much happier before my son Zubin was diagnosed. But I am way, way more joyful now. So I'll tell you the difference is that happiness is a cognitive evaluation. It's a sense of how things are going, and it's attached to outcome. I will tell you, there's nothing, let me preface this by, there's nothing wrong with happiness. The more the better, right? It's a pleasurable feeling. Mm-Hmm. . So I'm not discounting that happiness is wrong or bad, but there is a difference because happiness being attached to an outcome and how things are going, keeps it in the brain. Also, it's a very mind, head, heady kind of feel, experience. I shouldn't say feeling. And joy on the other hand, is a deep embodied feeling. My, one of my favorite quote quotes is actually from Rumi, who says, when you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in.
(13:07): You are a joy. Because joy is that deep, deep primal experience that no one can take care of us, take away from us. Happiness is, you can think of it as being given to you because it's attached to those things and that outcome. And they're all good like jobs or families or whatever. But joy is something no one can take away if you really dig deep down into the core of your body. And that's what a lot of the practices in the book explain that if you can lightly step into your body exactly where the pain lives, you can access joy. Because joy actually draws on the same deep well as your pain and as meaning in your life. So if you can really meet your pain with love and acceptance, you can actually feel a joy like you've never felt before. And so really, I also wanna just tell people, I feel this very strongly.
(14:07): I'm someone who's worked with marginalized communities for my whole life. I myself experienced racism throughout my childhood, death, threats for my family, all kinds of things. I'm also still a brown woman who looks like a terrorist family to everyone in this country. You know, that kind of thing lives on. And at the same time, I have the right, not just to suffer as a human, but to live with joy. And so joy is my act of resistance. It lives in my body, and every time I access it, I'm actually boldly saying to things that have taken my power away, that you may have done that. But I still stand here and I still rise despite that.
(14:47): It is so powerful when you, you, some of the things you just said, I get got chills all the way through my legs, that joy draws from the same deep well as your pain. And that's so powerful. And joy is something no one can take away. And happiness Yeah. Is given to you by things. I'm happy because things are working out the way I want. But are you joyful? You know, even if you have a cancer diagnosis on your way to the doctor, are you enjoying the people that you meet and the sunrise and the trees? And I watched the movie Soul from Disney recently. I don't know how I missed that one. I
(15:22): Haven't seen that.
(15:23): And oh, it was amazing. A friend recommended it this weekend. And it basically is about exactly what we're talking about, finding the joy in a leaf, falling off a tree onto the ground, finding the joy in the simplest of things. And you're right, no one can take away your right, your ability, your desire to, I see it as a gratitude practice, really. Yeah. Because you're appreciating these small parts of your day in the now, and that can tap into the joy of just being alive.
(16:02): Right. And there's another big difference, and you can feel, it seems so simple, but it's hard to see it until I could see it, right? Is that happiness feels very binary. So people think, if I'm sad, I can't be happy, and if I'm happy, then I don't, you know, I'm not sad. So it's very binary. And so it is a way because of the confusion between happiness and joy. People feel joy is binary, but it's not because the thing is, joy actually acknowledges all the pain, the sadness, the grief, the, the hard and all joy is not a solution. It's not a binary, I am joyful or I'm not. It's a way to hold everything. So I can be deeply sad in one moment about, I'll take, give for example, my son. You know, things aren't so, it's not like it's easy. He's actually declining steadily.
(16:53): It's getting harder and harder. And I have grief every day, things that we lose every day. And I can be deeply sad about that. And in the same moment, I can feel joyful that I'm alive and can feel that sadness and that I'm so, my humanity has not been stripped away from me. Because one thing that trauma, oppression and suffering do is strip our humanity away and make us numb to life in general. And if I can feel the joy of that leaf falling, the walk, the fresh air in the same moment that I'm crying about my son, then I have won. You
(17:31): Sure have you really have. And I think we can get so tied into the, the purpose of our existence is this materialistic. I've got more stuff, I've accomplished more things. I win, I'm happy as, and anyone who's done the things and earned the money knows that doesn't bring joy. Usually . It's not what happens. And so I've heard people say we all have, well, you should look on the bright side. Yeah. Find the silver lining to the cloud. And you say that that's not going to bring joy. Can you talk a little bit about that?
(18:08): Yeah. And it's actually one of the big reasons, you know, I mean, my book is really about joy in this whitewashed wellness world of these contrived positivities, this toxic speak of look on the bright side. I mean, you can't think yourself on the bright side of oppression and poverty. Come on, give me a break. Right? You can't think yourself on the bright side, out of deep hate and racism. I mean, this just doesn't work. It doesn't work. So, you know, people get your mind on straight, you know, that's easy for someone with a lot of privilege, but not for someone who's either in a marginalized community in poverty or, I mean, I could name all the things, right? What I really talk about is how that kind of toxic positivity actually is so harmful. I think it's dangerous because what it does is it doesn't let you be seen, right?
(18:59): So anytime that I'm really sad, of which there are many, many, many moments, , and someone says to me, at least you have, oh, I mean, the amount of time at least you blah, blah, blah. Oh, I can't imagine. You know, they go on and on about they're trying to be good. Really they are. I have empathy for them, they just don't know what to say. But every time they do that, no one's acknowledging that I'm angry or sad or frustrated, and that's all I need to feel in that moment. And actually, a true joy practice is feeling what you feel and then allowing that to move through you. There's good science I talk about in the book that shows that if you suppress those feelings, you actually activate your threat centers more. And so we think, look on the bright side, just push that away.
(19:50): But actually we're stimulating all those threat centers in our amygdala, in our limbic system, which then stresses our sympathetic nervous system out, which causes more cortisol release, which reeks havoc with our whole body. Right? Our hormones, as you talk about a lot, right? I mean, so brightness, looking on the bright side, toxic positivity, I feel is actually quite dangerous. I honestly will tell you, I never ever tried to cheer someone up. What I do is try to sit with them in their pain and hold them so they know that they're not alone. Because actually the isolation of sadness and grief is damaging. Right? And so when someone says, look on the positive side and you can't do it, what do you feel more excluded, more stressed out, more unseen
(20:39): And ashamed.
(20:40): Exactly. Exactly
(20:42): Right. And we really do have this almost toxic avoidance of negative emotion, sadness, particularly for women. Anger, grief. We don't know how to grieve. We don't know how to be sad. And so I think that's what, when people wanna placate and say, oh, well look on the bright side is they're uncomfortable with their own grief and pain and sadness. So they can't sit with you in their, and I love what you're saying about how it affects your limbic system. And you know, everybody listening, I talk about hormones all the time, but one thing I can't talk about enough is that it's not a mind body connection, it's a body mind. You have a body mind, right? . Right. And it's psycho neuro endocrine immunology. Right? It's all one system. So you are affecting your hormones when you don't allow free flow of emotion.
(21:37): Yes, exactly. Exactly. You're actually, you know you're actually getting more stuck in physically, energetically, and biochemically, and most of your listeners probably know this, but the more cortisol we make, the less we're able to make our reproductive hormones and manage our testosterone, estrogen, progesterone. I mean, all of those come from the same precursor as cortisol. So the more we're stressed out, right? And people will say, well, I can't change the stress. No, we can't change what's in our lives, but we can change how our nervous system receives it, and we can change how our body feels it. Right? And so it's why I'm sure you've experienced this many times clinically, but people will often tell, you know, I I manage a lot of symptoms that frankly don't get a diagnosis, right? Mm-Hmm. , I mean, there frankly not an answer. And so people will say you know, I just don't understand, I don't understand.
(22:34): And I always say, what your mind and heart cannot resolve, your body will hold onto. And that's something to understand that it's not making it up. Your body is actually holding onto what you have been unable to navigate. And that doesn't mean that you were wrong or bad, it means you just needed more time. You, your, your nervous system does what it needs to do to protect you. It's a beautiful intricate system, but sometimes it serves us for too long, you know? And then we need to help our nerve, our nervous system, come to a different place. So it's really about joy as an ongoing practice. It's really, if you ask me, been underestimated and under really realized in this wellness world of that you just find joy. Have you found joy? Right? I found joy. It's,
(23:29): I found it at the Walmart . Yeah. It's
(23:32): Seeking joy every day, every time you can, because the more you swim in joy, the easier it is to hold the hard. And the more you swim and remember the joy and hold onto that, it reminds you that there are ways that you can come back to it. It's like a soothing mantra, right? It's not meant to be, I realize a destination, a place you get to like some nirvana land. So that's why I can say I cry a lot. I scream, I'm angry. I'm angry a lot. Let me tell you, this world is not easy. This world me off every day. The amount of violence in inequality, oppression, ongoing hate and division, it's really quite frustrating and stressful. Right? And at this, no matter what side, quote unquote, you're on, this is not about who's right and wrong, right? It's just, it, it is easy to suffer in this world.
(24:31): That's what I would say. But my anger, or my stress, or my frustration around that is actually held by my joy. Because my joy allows me to feel all that and know that I'm also flowing in between that and gratitude, love, self-compassion, and my breath, you know, all and on and on. Mm-Hmm. . And so I just think that people need to understand that joy is really a revolution. It's not a place to get to. It's an ongoing act of resistance. And it's your way of actually boldly calling out to this world that you are actually good and you deserve to be here,
(25:10): And you deserve to have grace and flow, and I'm gonna say happiness, but in the moment, the joy. Yes. Yes. Right? So what does that look like for you on a, on a day-to-day basis? I have a friend, and she shared with me something that she and her husband do every night at the end of the day before they go to bed with their pillow talk, is they ask each other, what was your favorite part of the day? What part of the day or what happening or thing in your day brought you the most joy? And they share that with each other. I
(25:47): Love that.
(25:48): So yeah, they don't do the gripe session, they ask mm-hmm. , you know, what brought you the most joy today? And I love that. How, what does it look like for you?
(25:56): I'll tell you what it typically looks like, and I'm also gonna tell you, some days it doesn't look like this at all. I'm gonna be real with you. And then some days I forget to do things. Or some days right? It's just too hard. And those heart. And so I'll, I'll tell you what I do is that in the morning, I really try to commit, and it, it happens most mornings to sometime alone in the darkness of the morning. And in that time, I use breath and some movement to really help me come to my center. It's a time for me to check in with myself actually. And I tell people this, it's my form of resilience. I really don't like the way resilience is handed to us. And my form of resilience is to check in with myself and say, what do I need today to be who I need to be, be today?
(26:43): And maybe that's more breath, maybe that's more exercise, and maybe that's none. Right? Maybe it's such a busy day that I just need to remind myself to breathe a little. I really check in with myself every day. I also do a gratitude practice at dinner with my family. So we do an up and a down and a grateful is what we call it. So what was our up of the day? What was our down? And that's the best way for me to find out what's really happening with my kids . And I think it also just models that sadness is there, things let us down, you know? It's okay. We don't need to brush them away. But I'll have some nights where, you know, one of my kids, mostly my son actually will say, I don't have a down. And I'll say, okay, you're, you don't have to have a down, but you have to have a grateful mm-hmm.
(27:29): . There's just no way. You cannot leave this table without a grateful mm-hmm. . And, you know, and they never do. But those are the ways that we institute it in our family day-to-day. But it is much more insidious than that. So it's, you know, when I take a walk, I try to take at least a short walk every day outside so I can re sort of convene with some greenery and the fresh air. I live in Seattle, so that's challenging. But I try my best. And it is often just a simple feeling my feet on the earth and reminding myself how grateful I am that I got. One more day, I got a day where I got to walk outside my house. If it's been a very hard day, and I've done no gratitude practice, no breath, no movement. That's a rare day. But it happens where I've done none of that.
(28:17): I go to bed at night, I close my eyes, I take a few breaths, and I do a little, I guess you could call it a prayer, but I do a little meditation to the river gods, I call them mm-hmm. . And I say, you know, I did not flow down this river the way I wanted to today. May I flow tomorrow in a different way? And I really just give myself that grace and that self-compassion. And so it really comes in just at all points of the day, something bad will happen, my luggage or you know, whatever, something bad will happen. I'll get upset, I'll get annoyed, I'll get stressed, and then I will come back to my breath or a walk or my gratitude practice pretty quickly, you know, and just use those as ways to hold them. It doesn't mean the sadness passes or the anger passes right away. It just reminds me that it's all okay. Mm-Hmm. , whatever I'm feeling. Does that make sense?
(29:16): Absolutely. Absolutely. And I, I love those times of intentional practice at different times of the day that you're mentioning. For me, nature, it's all about nature. , the way the sun filters through the blinds or drapes, the way the trees sway in the wind. I mean, it's just the simple, oh, and birds. Birds so much
(29:39): Fun. Oh, yes, yes, yes. So, I mean, there's so many ways, right? And I mean, you know, some days I could almost cry that hot water comes outta my faucet when I want . You know? And you know, you can really have awe at so many things in this world. And at the same time, you know, we can get swamped in our suffering, right? Because suffering, what it does is create such a narrow sliver we can't see past it, right? And it's all about these practices that I talk about are really about expanding ever so slowly, gently, that sliver so that you can see more. And really, joy practice is all about that. It's about seeing more. So yes, I'm angry, yes, I'm grieving, but can I just see a little more, can I see a little more today? And really, you'd be amazed at how that can change your life.
(30:34): Yeah. I find that the more, more I appreciate, the more I get to appreciate more things come into my awareness. And you shared this quote from Alice Walker that I, I would love for you to talk about the grace with which we embrace life in spite of the pain. The sorrow is always a measure of what has gone before. Can you talk a little bit about what that means?
(30:57): Yeah. I mean, the reason that quote means so much to me is that for me, it really embodies a very deep reverence I have for ancestral lineages. Hmm. So you know, I actually really feel strongly, there's actually studies to show and, and epigenetics and studies to show that trauma lives in our bodies, right? Mm-Hmm. the trauma that our ancestors have experienced lives in our bodies as well, and we can do things to change that. But just, I also think their re their persistence, their resilience lives in me. I also think that everything that my ancestors have gone through has helped shape who I am and has given me the privilege to be here on this earth. And I actually not only mean my blood lineage, which I, I have deep reverence for, but I mean my global ancestry. And so I think of everyone who has ever fought for justice and what they have taught me, that that is the reason I have the privilege to stand on this earth and fight for justice myself.
(31:58): I think of everyone, all the mothers. Sometimes I just sit and do a meditation when I'm feeling very hopeless or sad, I do a meditation to all the mothers who have suffered before me and yet moved forward day in and day out. And I gain strength and love from them. And I say, I too have the privilege to stand here and do that. You know? So for me, the grace of, I mean, the ancestry of the land I live on was not my, is not mine, right? It, it was taken from people who toiled and tended, in my case, as the Duwamish people where I live, have still toil and tend to this land and yet get no equity. Right? And so everything I have the land I live on, the soul I inhabit, the ability and capacity I have to fight for myself and others is all a measure of the grace of those who have walked before me. Always. And if you think about it, that's a gratitude practice, right, too.
(32:58): It is. And I, I think it's something that we don't think about that often most of us or talk about, but the, the idea that everything that we've received in this lifetime is standing on the shoulders of everyone who came before, I think. And, and I think having to be intentional about gratitude is necessary. I don't know that it's the default in, at least the way I was raised, it, it wasn't the default. And as I've gotten older, it's something that becomes more and more the default . It's like, oh my gosh, you know how much I have been given in this life, this human body, this ancestors who did all this hard work, and yes. Did they pass the trauma down? Yes. But they also passed a lot of other things down.
(33:51): Right? And I will just give the caveat, because I think gratitude, you know, really becomes a contrived platitude. And, and actually people really get turned off whenever you say gratitude sometimes. Mm-Hmm. , because they say, well, I, I don't wanna be thankful right now. Like, that's contrived positivity, right? So I get a lot of questions around, how is it that you want me to be grateful right now? How can that be possible? And I, and I always say a couple of things. One is it's just an invitation. So really no one should feel forced to feel grateful again, that's not okay. Two, I actually, I did a whole TEDx talk on this. So it, you know, I feel very strongly about it, but I was taught by a mentor to thank my son for his disease and for this pain in my life. Now, I'll tell you, when she told me to go say thank you, Tim, every night after he went to sleep, I said, there's no freaking way I'm doing that. You know, like, how could a mother be thankful that her son is suffering and will not be here? That felt like blasphemy to
(34:54): Me, right? Yes, I get that. And
(34:56): At the same time, , you know, I was like, well, what the hell I got nothing else. And also, you know, this sucks. So I'm gonna try it. And I tried it. And that's what the Ted talk is about, is it opened me, I had never once in my life thanked any pain in my life, ever. And what happened for me after that was monumental, because thank gratitude is not about contrived positivity. It's about saying, here is what is, and here I am with it. It allows you to say thank you, means you actually face what's happening. You don't resist it. You don't say, I wish, wish it weren't happening. You say It is happening. It's horrible, it's tragic. It's actually the most devastating thing for me. And yet it's happening. I cannot change that. Now, when you look and face that you can have more clarity, you actually, there's neuroscience around this that you actually feel less threat. You dampen that threat center, you get more clarity in the parts of your brain that need that, and then you get compassion for yourself. It's, it's actually quite a intricate beautiful process. And then after that, you really understand that it's not the pain that I'm, I'm not thankful my son's suffering. That was contrite, that I thought that was trite, that I thought that was what she was saying.
(36:23): Right?
(36:23): It's that I'm thankful for the gifts that I now see despite the suffering, right? And so it's not that I don't believe in this. Everything happens for a reason. I actually don't believe that. I don't believe it's all good. You can find a silver lining. I don't believe that. What I believe is we have suffering and then we make meaning out of it. And that's what leads us to joy. And so my meaning is big, you know, my son. It is a constant grieving process for us. And at the same time, I mean, I would not be who I am today. I would not be the teacher that I am. I would not be the physician I am, I would not be the mother that I am. I would not, my children have a deep sense of compassion and understanding in this world. I am not saying it's great, it happened, but it did happen. And now what can I make out of that? Mm-Hmm. . Because none of us deserve pain or suffering, but we all deserve the right to make meaning and joy out of it.
(37:27): And I guess that is the ultimate justice, right? Yes. What, yes, exactly. What could destroy you, you're going to turn and churn and use to support your joy in this life. I think that is the ultimate justice. And I know that you talk about how the vagus nerve creates a literal link between joy and justice. How does that work? Well,
(37:52): The vagus nerve, as many people might know, is the main nerve of our parasympathetic nervous system. And a vagus comes from the Latin for wandering. So it wanders from the base of our brainstem all the way through our chest to the deepest organs of our gut. And there's more traffic from the vagus nerve to the brain than the reverse. And what that really means is that our nervous system is giving us information constantly. Our body is giving us information. And so it's not about changing your thoughts or making life, right, because you think it's right. It's about noticing that if you can settle more comfortably in your body, more peacefully in your body by activating your vagus nerve. And there's a vast amount of ways that I describe that, and I'm sure people have heard about meditation doing that and so forth. The more you can calm your body through your vagus nerve, the more information you can send to your brain about how to interpret and translate this life as one of justice. The more you can stand boldly in this world and say, I am peaceful and calm in my skin and I'm here to stand up and be here in this world other, rather than contract it powerless, oppressed all the time, right? The bo the world will continually oppress us, will continually try to strip our power away. And the way to take our power back is in our body, period. I just really believe that.
(39:22): Yes, I agree. And the parasympathetic nervous system and hormones are intricately linked together, like you mentioned cortisols. Do you wanna tie that in for everyone so they get a really clear picture of what, when they're not in joy and they're not in gratitude and appreciation and they're in that victim mentality, how that affects the nervous system and the hormones?
(39:46): Yeah. So there's different hormones. There's the neurological hormones of serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin and so forth. And then there's the reproductive hormones, right? A progesterone, estrogen. And there's different ways that it does that. One is, as we described, that the stress hormones go down. And so then we can put more energy into making our reproductive hormones. It's why people, you know, people will say like, oh, you don't have a libido cuz you're stressed out and people will think that's all in your head. It's actually not. You cannot, you know, I had a patient once where, you know, we looked and I showed her, you know, with testing to show her her hormones, what we were saying, I said, look like there's no juice here. Like there's just no juice, right? Like, how would, it's not your fault that you don't wanna have sex. It's your body saying, we don't have time for sex.
(40:35): We're trying to take care of danger. Right? And so there's this intricate relationship between our nervous system and our hormones. There's also an intricate relationship between our serotonin and dopamine and oxytocin. The more you practice these tools that calm your vagus nerve, the more you stimulate dopamine, which brings reward into the brain and asks us, it puts us, you actually said this in the beginning, I thought about it when you said this, that the joy builds on itself. The neuroscientists actually called a spiral of joy. The more you notice, acknowledge and swim in the joy, the more dopamine is secreted to remind you to want it again, to look for it again. The more you do these practices of gratitude, self-compassion, et cetera, the more you produce oxytocin that makes you want to connect and tend to not only others but yourself, right? Mm-Hmm. . And so there are ways that our vagus nerve and our nervous system are the main regulators of every way that actually leads us to wellbeing. All the things people talk about, all the medications, all the practices, they start right there. I would imagine many of your listeners are very much wanting to feel more energy, feel more alive.
(41:57): Yes.
(41:59): , right?
(41:59): Yes. I mean people, women, there's such an epidemic of, I hear this so many times, I've lost my joy and I don't know how to get it back. I don't have the joy. I mean, sure, there're what I call midlife mayhem. The 60 or so symptoms that women start experiencing once they hit 40 and above, sometimes in the thirties. And they're those physical complaints. But the result, and I guess it's compounded because the hormonal poverty is what I call it that they go into and that includes neurotransmitter poverty. Cuz neurotransmitters are, were intimately, they're brothers and sisters to hormones. Yes. Is that there's no joy.
(42:40): Yes. Yes. I love that description. Hormonal poverty. I'm gonna remember that one. I love that. And I also love it because what we don't realize is that it's such a form of justice when we can replenish those hormones as well. Now we don't, I'm not saying everyone can solve all their problems with tools, mind, body medicine tools, but you sure as hell can help them and sometimes solve them. So you really just reminding people when they say, I can't find the joy. I would say, you know, it's time to step into your body. It's time to get back into your body out of your head and into your body so your body can mind your mind. Right. I mean, , I think it's more like you said, body mind than mind body. It's just, you know, Bessel VanDerKolk has well established this concept that trauma lives in our body. Mm-Hmm. and I actually, you know, I explain to people all the time, patients and people I work with in trauma groups, that trauma lives in the body. But that's also where it can heal. Understand that, that you actually need to get into your body to heal it. And so we need to do certain practices to step back into our body. It's not just thinking ourselves out of everything. In fact, only that will not do it.
(44:01): Right. I love this conversation and I'm gonna encourage everyone to get the book. We'll put all of your links in the show notes and I'm gonna have you share with everyone, and I agree with you. I just wanna be clear that neither one of us is saying that if you do a joy practice, you're gonna solve all your hormonal, neuroendocrine, immunologic health problems. But I say you have to do all the things. They're so tired of me saying that all the things , it's like a puzzle. And if you're missing any one piece, it won't work. So a joy practice, I would say is necessary but not sufficient. Without it, you'll never achieve what's possible.
(44:40): Yes. Yeah. And I think that's the main thing to, you know, Brian Stevenson is one of my justice mentors. I don't know him, but he's my mentor from afar. He says hope is about seeing the unseen. And I really believe that he's really helped me feel that, you know, because he fights for against the prison slave system. Really? And I mean, what more, what could be more hopeless at times, right? Mm-Hmm. . And what he says is, the reason I can do this work is because I commit to seeing what cannot be seen.
(45:13): Yeah. Isn't he the one who did the a Ted talk with something more views than he's like in the top 10 of all TED Talks?
(45:20): I'm sure he is. His TED Talk's amazing .
(45:22): Yeah. Right. Yes. So I think it's super powerful. I think your story is super powerful. Hopefully you're hearing what Dr. Theit is saying and if she can do it, we can do it.
(45:38): Yes. Right. I'm not, I'm not special. Yeah, for
(45:41): Sure. Yes. And how is your son Zubin doing?
(45:44): You know, his spirit seems to get stronger the more his body breaks down is what I would say. But he is declining. Yeah. So we're in a hard place,
(45:54): But I'm sorry to hear that. And, and in the same breath, it sounds like you have a powerful, grounded spiritual practice that will hopefully help.
(46:05): Yeah, and I appreciate that and I would encourage everyone to really understand that. I get a lot of people who say, I can't imagine, you know, what you're doing or how you do this. And in on the days where I have the energy to not just say, okay, I'm walk away. I tell people, you know, I would urge you to imagine, I would say imagination is the bridge that you need to imagine my pain will allow you to become closer to yours. So saying I can't imagine is also not seeing what's possible. If I can do it, I'm only human, then you can do it too with whatever your pain is. So build bridges of imagination every chance you get.
(46:44): That's so powerful. And as you were saying it, I'm thinking that's what the capacity of empathy is that you can imagine. Yes. And then you can be with someone in their pain and in their devastation. That's so powerful. Thank you so much for sharing that. Yes. And please tell everyone where they can get the book and where they can find out more about you and connect with you.
(47:08): So the book is Joy is My Justice, and it's on every book Online seller or in your bookstores. Or you can go to my website, which is www.ceimd.com. I'll give you that link. Yeah. Okay.
(47:23): Either we'll have it either show notes. All right. And on social media.
(47:26): Yeah, I'm mostly on Instagram, so I, I love to connect with people there. So my handle's md, so yeah, that confined, please. I would love for people to tell me what their biggest takeaway is, and maybe let us both know and feel free to tag us, because I love hearing from people who are moved. And I mean, you know, I'm sure you felt this in your career, Karen, but story is medicine, right? And that's how we really connect to each other and how we also heal. So when I hear people how story moves them, it's really a healing practice for me too. And so I really would love for anyone to connect.
(48:06): Yes, please do. And as we were talking, it was reminding me of, is it Rachel Naomi Reman at my grandmother's table? Who, yes. Is that the book? Yes. So if anyone's listening, also another second book to get is her book. It's Beautiful Stories. Yes. That will really warm your heart. And not in a cliche way, but in a soulful way. So definitely look, get joy as my justice and read it, but I'm excited for its release. And thank you so much for joining us today.
(48:41): Oh, it was really an honor to be with you. Thank you so much.
(48:44): And thank you for listening today and joining us. We're so grateful that you chose to spend your time with us today, and hopefully you heard something that you can use to positively impact your life, and by doing that, you'll impact your hormones positively. And you know I'm all about the hormones. Thanks so much for joining us. I'll see you again next week for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
(49:15): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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What do you get when you combine cutting-edge science and ancient holistic health wisdom? You get a truly enlightening conversation with Dr. Kyrin Dunston and Dr. Catherine Clinton on the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast: "The Mystery Of Your Quantum Biology Explained And Why It’s Vital For Your Health."
In this fascinating discussion, listeners will learn how incorporating quantum biology into their wellness practices can help them reach their full healing potential. Using her background in both conventional medicine and energy work, Dr. Clinton shares unique insights from her years of experience helping people recover from chronic illnesses like Lyme disease and autoimmune disorders. Tune in for a thought-provoking exploration of the powerful connection between quantum biology and our overall well-being!
In this episode, you'll learn:
• What quantum biology is and how it can impact your health
• The key principles of energy medicine and how they can help you heal
• How to use quantum biology to create balance in the body and restore harmony in the mind
• Proven tips for boosting your energy levels naturally
• How to tap into the power of your subconscious mind for healing.
Explore with us how unlocking the power of our quantum biology can lead us to a new level of physical, mental, and spiritual health - tune in now! Don't miss out on this transformative conversation. Be sure to subscribe today so you never miss an episode.
(00:00:00): Life is water dancing with the rhythm of the sun. Dr. Catherine Clinton confused about what that means for your health and your hormones. Stay tuned. You're gonna find out some of the most revolutionary information for your health that you haven't heard before.
(00:00:18): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(00:01:12): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. Om g I'm so glad you are here for this. This is revolutionary information that you are going to hear explained by a master who is brilliant and has synthesized complex research into common sense knowledge that you can use to implement to help transform your health today. And that is not an overstatement of the promise of this show. I am going to shoot shout from the rooftops about Dr. Catherine Clinton and she has a book coming out. It's revolutionary information that you are not hearing anywhere even from me. So you're definitely gonna wanna hear this and I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we're going to get started. Let me tell you, she makes the woo-hoo real cuz she comes with science and she avoids all the esoteric talk that sometimes we use, including myself, to talk about these topics about why sound and sunlight are vital and water certain types of water to our health and vitality and mitochondrial function.
(00:02:26): So Dr. Catherine Clinton is a licensed naturopathic doctor. She spent over 15 years helping people overcome their health issues. She was diagnosed herself with two autoimmune conditions and Lyme disease. While in medical school, she began the long and difficult journey of a healing path that led to the commitment to help others to not only heal physically but to return to the relationships that we've evolved over millennia for a deeper sense of health and belonging because it's science by healing herself in patients like her, she discovered that true health comes from our relationships. Dr. Catherine has learned how our quantum biological system is intimately and inseparably connected to the world around us. Our relationship with the dirt beneath our feet, the sun, the wind, the water, the plants, the seasons, each other, that is the real medicine. Her mission is to empower as many people as she can with this knowledge to encourage the paradigm shift we so desperately need. And that is ongoing. It is a revolution in health and healing and medicine. Please help me welcome Dr. Catherine Clinton to the show.
(00:03:34): Thank you so much for having me. It is an honor to be here talking about some of my favorite topics with you.
(00:03:41): I am so excited to have you on the show and talk about your favorite topics because women aren't hearing about this, almost nowhere are they hearing about this. And it actually is information that is so vital to creating the optimal health that women over 40 deserve. That if you miss this piece people, you're not gonna get to the level of health that's possible for you. So I wanna just start out by asking you so we can give people a framework to where they're going, what is quantum biology ? Can you just explain what it is and why it should matter to
(00:04:25): Them? Absolutely, absolutely. So when I was in school and actually this model is still being taught in school, we were taught that biology ran on chemical processes. So we learned that it was all key and receptor locks. So you have these receptors and you have the keys floating around in the cell, outside the cell and they're bumping around into everything and eventually they find they're perfect receptor in that key in the lock model and then biological action can happen. Now that's true, but now we have much more sophisticated imaging and technology that we can tell that there's actually a whole nother layer to our biology and it's quantum in nature. We're actually now able to measure things on a nanoscale, which really talks about the interactions in a quantum physical way. And so it's a really exciting time because what we grew up with learning in school, it's practiced in medical school, is really this Newtonian biology, this Newtonian physics that boils everything down to chemicals.
(00:05:44): And what we're seeing now with the research is there's another level of interaction that's happening in our biology on a quantum level, on a nano scale. And what's really exciting about this is that it interconnects so many different pieces of the puzzle that have been missing for so long because we know that every cell in our body and we have trillions and trillions of cells e each and every one of those cells is completing over a hundred thousand tasks each second. It's completely impossible using that Newtonian model. So what quantum biology offers us is a new understanding. It doesn't negate that these lock keys fit into the locks and adjusts the shapes of the protein and then chemical reactions occur. It doesn't negate that it adds a deeper explanation of what's happening on a quantum biological level. And this is exciting for a deeper understanding, a deeper depth of knowledge. But it's also really exciting because it interconnects so many different pieces that stood isolated in the other model. And in quantum biology it's so interconnected.
(00:07:01): Yes, so important. You know, and I just wanna kind of summarize for everyone you've been taught, we were all taught that our bodies are basically machines, biochemical and physical machines that act like a train or act like making aspirin in a laboratory. And that it's as simple as simple as chemical reactions and mechanical reactions. And that's just not true. We are very complex human beings to a smaller particulate level like Katherine saying. And so it's this nano or quantum level that is the missing key in your healing. And this is why it's vital that you listen and pay attention and start learning about it. I know some people when they hear quantum physics, their eyes glaze over and they go, oh, it's complicated. I can't understand this. Yes, you can understand this and Dr. Catherine is going to help you understand what it is, what it means, how you understand it, how you work with it, with your health, and give you some specific instances like with the water that you're drinking so that you can start using this in your life today to start improving your quantum biology.
(00:08:19): And she's got some great programs we'll tell you about later and some great free offers that will start you on this path. But it's super important. So how did you become interested in this, Catherine? Because you're a naturopathic doctor and I know a lot of wonderful naturopathic doctors, I always say I had to be an MD first to get enlightened to go and be, get the training that naturopaths get by doing the functional metabolic anti-aging medicine. And I guess I consider all naturopaths smarter than MDs cuz you knew about it before we did and you went that way. But how did you become interested in this? Because it's not something that most naturopaths even are aware of or teach
(00:09:04): About. That's so true. It's really, really cutting edge and anybody over 40, I'm 47 should know this information to help with their hormonal health. It's really absolutely foundational and quantum physics does immediately sound complicated and hard to understand. But it's really, really simple steps we take. And there I was in naturopathic medical school and I was diagnosed, it was my second year, it was sort of that initiation year, long hours, long clinic hours. And it was this proverbial straw that broke the camel's back. I was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis was, which is an autoimmune condition that affects the colon. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto thyroiditis was is an autoimmune condition that affects the thyroid gland. I had multiple GI infections, and I was diagnosed with Lyme disease. It was really a healing crisis. So I was able to take time off school and heal. I was in the perfect place, right?
(00:10:11): I was going to naturopathic medical school. I was right down the hill from a very open-minded, alternative minded allopathic school for MDs across the river from an acupuncture school. So I had so many modalities at my fingertips and I was able to put the physical pieces back together so that I could go to school again, finish my clinic hours, start my practice. But as anyone is listening who has suffered from chronic disease, they know that getting back to that picture you were before you were diagnosed might mean that you are again productive member of society. But it's not the picture of vital health. And so that's where I was sort of existing and I started researching psycho neuroimmunology and mitochondrial function and it was really at the crossroads of those two subjects. And psycho neuroimmunology is just a big fancy word for how our thoughts and our emotions impact our immune system, our inflammatory state, our hormonal state, our neurological state and wiring.
(00:11:21): And so from there I started looking at mitochondrial function and it was like the doors to quantum biology just flew right open and I haven't left because it's such an amazing piece of medicine. You know, we've really, our western society has really kind of extracted us as humans out of the ecosystem. You know, we are the explorers, the investigators, we extract things from the world around us. And what this whole journey has really taught me and learning about quantum biology has taught me how interconnected the world is and how, you know, for years and years I would go out to nature to get my vitamin D, to get my vitamin N right and ground with my feet on the earth to get those electrons. All these different quantum biological actions. But I wasn't in relationship with the world around me. And that was really the piece that started to piece the whole puzzle together.
(00:12:28): You know, I often talk about it as like, you know, we've all put together puzzles and you've put in a piece that's in the right spot, it's in the right spot in the puzzle, but there's one little piece, one little edge that's kind of flipped up and not down in the puzzle. And that's kind of how life was before I started really adopting these quantum biological practices. It was, I was in the right spot, I was doing okay, but there was this constant irritation from not belonging to the world around me. And quantum biology really helped open up that window. It helped me see that I don't end at the barriers of my skin, my hormonal makeup, my physiological state is based on the information that my body receives from the world around me. From the temperature, from the sun, from the weather, from the ground. I mean it's absolutely amazing once you start putting the pieces back together. And that's where I am and I love to talk about this.
(00:13:34): Awesome. So as you're speaking, psycho neuroimmunology is something that I think is super important, how your thoughts affect your body processes. And I think that people almost use that as a platitude and then they dismiss it. They're like, oh, thoughts become things. Oh, think positivity. And I actually interviewed this wonderful doctor, Dr. Theit Sethi, and she has a book coming out about joy and kind of the biochemistry, the effects of joy on the body and how it affects the body in terms of your nervous system. And she touches on immunology as well. So this is a great conversation to have shortly after her podcast comes out and I work in my programs a lot with heart rate variability and blood sugar and insulin. And people start freaking out about why is my heart rate variability not better? Usually most of us women, ours is tanked by the time we're over 40 and has very low variability.
(00:14:40): And with our, their insulin, it's so labile. And they'll say, well I didn't eat anything with sugar, I didn't eat any high sugar items. What's wrong? And I go, go, well what was your emotional state this morning? What were you thinking about? What are the thoughts, conversations you're having in your head? I think it's estimated we think 70,000 thoughts a day or something like that. Most of them are the same all the time. So if we kind of grow up having a fearful stance to life, fearful thoughts, if we have a angry stance, they're angry thoughts and that we circle these, these thoughts continually, we recycle these emotions and we have kind of, I think it's said three to five emotional states that are our go-tos. And what people don't realize is that's affecting your health through quantum biology that affects your blood sugar and your insulin that affects your heart rate variability, that affects everything. And you're saying mitochondria, which I didn't even know. So how do you help people understand that the thoughts they're thinking, the emotions they're feeling, how connected or not they feel to the external world and other people in nature, how safe they feel? How do you help them to make that shift from understanding that this is real and measurable and it's something they need to pay attention to?
(00:16:02): Yes, absolutely. I usually, in my patient visits, the first one I start with education. You know, as a society where really right-brained, we like to analyze, we like to have the facts in front of us and myself too. And so that's usually where I start with patience. I let them know the facts about it. I mean, Martin Picard has done amazing research showing that our emotional states impact the amount of a t p, the energy currency of the body that the mitochondria make. It's absolutely fascinating. So what I do is I walk patients through some of the science around that. I talk about how our emotions have predictable effects and you know, so many of my patients, myself included, either are dealing with some level of anxiety or depression and when they hear that our thoughts impact our health on such a fundamental level, there's a resistance or a fear about that, right?
(00:17:11): I recognize that because as someone who has dealt with anxiety in the past, and I'm sure I will in the future again, is that, you know, there's this idea that negative emotions, we need to get rid of them. But I think what heart rate variability and what heart Math Institute has done such a wonderful job with research is that it's not so much that we're not meant to feel these emotions of anger or fear or frustration. We are, we're humans, right? With this full spectrum of emotion. But it's when we get stuck in one of those emotions that we have this one way drive in our biology. So if we're always anxious, if we're always angry, if we're always fearful, then we will always be propagating that biochemical response in the body. And it's not just biochemical, right? There is a predictable heart rate variability to it.
(00:18:14): There is a predictable mapping of emotions that people have done just with electrical conduction and infrared heat showing that, you know, some of the more depleting emotions actually map cooler on the body so that there isn't this conduction electrical conduction throughout the body. It's absolutely amazing. So Karen, what I do is I really look at the science behind it and I try to pull in their brain first, right? A lot of people that come to see me are usually on their last doctor, they've seen specialists, nothing has worked out. They're coming with a lot of resentment and frustration on, on how to get better. But at the same time, they've been doing the work, they've been researching, they've been looking for answers. And that's where I start, here are some answers. Here's what your body does when it's angry, here's what it does when it's calm in a state of gratitude.
(00:19:17): And from there I can pull them into a situation where I, maybe they came in for autoimmunity, maybe they're dealing with hormones. And what I'm doing is I'm laying down some science for them to get that mind on board. And then what I'll do is I offer them a challenge. And we haven't quite gotten there yet, but the most common challenge I do with my patients is getting up and seeing the sun for 10 minutes before 10:00 AM and lowering the lights at night and I'll see them in a week or two. And honestly, I've never ever had anyone come back saying, okay, I did that circadian alignment and nothing happened and what now, you know, everybody comes back and reports a difference because what we know are these quantum steps like aligning with the sun and having circadian alignment with the sun allows for such ease in our body.
(00:20:26): It actually initiates and stimulates a whole cascade of biological action, including our hormones, right? Our hormones are sinking with the sun. And when we're out of alignment, that quantum biological action that happens from one photon hitting our retina, being propagated to all of the circadian clocks throughout the body, just that one action can sink those hormones in a way that other therapies can't. And so that's what I do is I lay the science out for them so they know that when I'm saying quantum, I'm not talking about crystals and sound healing, although those aren't bad. I'm talking about what's happening on their body on a nano scale and that it's real and that the science is finally catching up to what we've al always felt right. We've always intuitively felt a difference in our body depending on our motion. But now we have the science to show it.
(00:21:32): We always knew that we felt better waking up in the morning and going to bed when the sun went down. But now we have really robust research showing how that affects our home loan health, how that affects our biological cascades throughout the body. So I usually start with sciencey stuff to get their mind on board cuz I know that they've been researching and looking for the answers. And then I give them a practical, easy, free, accessible step like aligning with the sun so that they can see that quantum biology in action so they, they can feel it and experience it and then they're on board,
(00:22:12): Right. Appealing to people's logic and minds. And I'm just wondering though, I mean you haven't stepped on anyone's toes in terms of religion or anything like that. I find that sometimes when I bring up these more esoteric concepts, and maybe I need to do what you do is just bring the science, , bring the science. But I find somewhat sometimes people say, well that sounds woowoo in new age and you know, I'm a Christian so I don't wanna hear about that. But you've expressed it in a way that doesn't step on that because as I view the literature and the science, quantum physics has bridged the gap between spirituality and I'm not talking about religion with that and science and it is this level of our health that kind of explains these forces that go between human beings among are a universe in a very tangible way. Have you ever gotten any pushback from that arena, from people?
(00:23:18): Honestly, I have not. And I think the reason is quantum physics and quantum biology opens up, like you said, that meeting place of science and spirituality and then wherever the person in front of me is at Christian, Buddhist, atheist, all of it, they find meaning in that and they can place their religion and their beliefs in that that because it's not coming with any, the only thing it's coming with is this deeper understanding that there's much more at play in the world, in the universe, in our bodies than we're giving credit. And people are happy to plug that into their worldviews and say where that's coming from. We still don't know as a science and I'm not sure we ever will, right? There's this gap that we have as humans where we always think that we're onto the final truth and it's always just the to the next thing, right?
(00:24:23): So I think it's a beautiful, quantum biology is beautiful in that if I always spoke about it in a woo way, but I try to really stick to what the research is saying and how that impacts our biology and that leaves the door wide open for people to plug in their own belief system. And boy do they ever, if you look at my social media, we've got people from all different religions and backgrounds that find a place for quantum biology in their belief system. So I think that's the beautiful thing about it is it really doesn't come with one, but it comes ready to plug into anybody's
(00:25:05): Life. Okay. Oh, I love that. So I'm gonna do, I'm gonna shift and go more to just presenting the science and then allow people to let that go where it will. Kind of like when you pour water into an ice cube tray, it fits the mold of the ice cube tray. And then people can have whatever shaped ice cube they want to assimilate the information. And maybe I've presented it in a way that has immediately butted, which is my nature as a New Yorker, I come head on you. Some people don't like that. And so I will more stick with the science. I'm wondering if you could say more about quantum biology in relation to mitochondrial function. I think that mitochondrial function is something that's often overlooked by a lot of people even who do a root cause resolution approach. They don't, they talk about hormones a lot, they talk about detox, they talk about gut health, but they don't talk about mitochondria. And that's one reason why I created a program that includes that. How does quantum biology, you talked a little bit about how it works with mitochondria and the thoughts that you think. Can you say more about that?
(00:26:13): Yes. You know, I would love to talk about mitochondria and it will be much better if I can talk just a little bit about structured water before.
(00:26:23): Oh please. Let's talk about, well first tell everyone what structured water is and please talk
(00:26:29): . Okay. So thank you. I, we just need to get a little bit of meat under our belt before we go onto the mitochondria. So structured water, the idea that there's a different phase of water beyond the solid ice, the liquid water we drink or the gaseous steam we see on our teapots, there is a fourth phase of water. It's gel-like, it's more viscous and people, researchers have been talking about this for a very long time. But it wasn't until 2003 that Gerald and his team out of the University of Washington identified this fourth phase of water and he termed it easy water, which means exclusion zone water. And he did that because as this gel-like viscous water starts to form on ourselves, it excludes things, it pushes them out. And what he found was that the water we're used to drinking H two oh turns into H 3 0 2 against our hydrophilic surfaces.
(00:27:36): So hydrophilic water loving that would be our cell membranes are vessels, our fascia. All of those things are covered with this fourth phase of water. And what Paula and his team from the University of Washington found was that as this structured water forms against our cell membranes, it forms one sheet. And the hydrogens in this structured water are more tightly bound. They create this lattice sheet, it's hexagonal almost like a honeycomb. So as one sheet of this gel-like water forms on our cell membrane or our vessel or our fascia or d n a or our mitochondria, it acts as a template for more layers of structured water to build. And what researchers have found is that, you know, if you're very math minded, you would've noticed that H 3 0 2, it's missing the hydrogen. And as the structured water forms on our cell membranes, it kicks out a proton, a positive hydrogen and creates what researchers are calling a proton rich zone or a proton wire.
(00:28:56): And what researchers have done, they put electrode in the structured water that's forming on the cell membrane and one in this proton rich zone. And what they found is the separation of charge, just like the separation of charge in a nine volt battery, the separation of charge between the structured water and this proton rich zone is enough to light a battery. That's what they found in the research lab. And it's enough to create biological action. And so this has been validated and reconfirmed by scientists across the globe that we have this fourth phase of water that is the structured water that is lining our cell membranes, our vessels, our fascia, and our mitochondria. And our mitochondria are very interesting. They're a wonderful study in quantum biology because they have the structured water that forms on the outside of them and the inside of them. And if we can remember back to our middle school biology class, our mitochondria, those little bean shaped organelles that are inside of our cells now a heart cell might have thousands of mitochondria keeping our heart working.
(00:30:15): It's high energy. Same with the brain, right? So it's not just one mitochondria perce, we have lots and lots of mitochondria in our cells and these are what are creating our A T p, our energy source. And Dr. Wallace Douglas Wallace has done amazing work with mitochondrial function and demonstrating that any dip in mitochondrial voltage or a T P production presents as chronic disease cancer, autoimmune conditions. I mean he's really looked at almost every disease we know of and it has this mitochondrial component. So when we're talking about health mitochondrial are foundational to our health and coming from that Newtonian bio biological perspective, you've got mitochondria that take energy from food and create a t p. This is true, but looking at them from a quantum biological perspective, we see that these organelles, these mitochondria are covered in structured water on the outside of them and on the inside of them.
(00:31:30): Now the inside of our mitochondria has the inner mitochondrial membrane and that membrane holds the proteins of the electron transport chain. And that E T C, that electron transport chain is where that A T P is created. So if we look at what's happening in the mitochondria from a quantum biological perspective, what we see is that these electrons from our food are not just bouncing down the chain like we learned in middle school biology or in medical school, right? What's happening is there's fundamentally a quantum biological action happening. These electrons in the E T C of the mitochondria are quantum tunneling, meaning that they are using quantum phenomenon to move. They are not being kicked over an energetic hill like a soccer ball because of their quantum nature. They're able to travel in multiple different paths. Now this is what we saw with some of the quantum biological research that came out of Berkeley and M I t with Seth Lloyd.
(00:32:47): They were looking at photosynthetic bacteria and that's exactly what they saw. These electrons were able to take multiple paths to the photosynthetic center to create energy for the plant. They were able to take multiple paths because of their quantum nature. And that's why photosynthesis, that's why mitochondrial production of a T p is nearly a hundred percent efficient because it utilizes these quantum phenomenon. So what we see is that our mitochondria and those proteins in the E tc, they are actually utilizing quantum tunneling. They also, when we talk about mitochondria, you've got the flow of electrons, but there's no a T TP unless protons are going through those proteins as well. And what we see clearly is those protons are being shuffled down that structured water zone that's lining those pro proteins in the E T C. So in the mitochondria you've got quantum tunneling of these electrons, you've got protons jump conducting on the structured water that's lining the proton proteins in the E T C and you have the ability of these proteins and the structured water that's covering them to capture photons of light and utilize that to make more a T p.
(00:34:25): So what we're seeing now is a completely expanded vision of our mitochondria where it matters about that structured water zone where it matters about the ability of our proteins in the E T C to come together so those electrons can quantum tunnel. We see that those structured water covering these proteins plays a fundamental role in our A T P production via that proton jumping. I mean it's absolutely phenomenal and it shows us that there's an interconnection on a much deeper level. You know, when we talk about mitochondria ATTP is what we think of, but our mitochondria are actually also creating deterioration depleted water and infrared energy with the spinning of that a t P Synthes. And what those two things do, they structure the water inside the mitochondria and outside the mitochondria so that we can create more energy. We're starting to see the picture expands so that it's not just food that's driving atp, we could have told you that, right?
(00:35:47): Looking at what happens with too much food, there is another way to create energy in the body and it has to do with this nanoscale movement of electrons, of protons, of photons of light or phonons of sound. There's amazing research out there showing how sound impacts our A T P production in the mitochondria and how would that work? Because that structured water, that fourth phase of water covering the proteins in the e tc, in the inner mitochondrial membrane, as well as the structured water covering the mitochondria, have the ability to pick up on this frequency information and use it for biological action. It's really, really amazing.
(00:36:41): Absolutely fascinating. So we make our own structured water that facilitates our mitochondria, but photons can stimulate it and sound. How does that work that, how do photons get to our mitochondria? How does sound impact it? Just through the, can you talk about that?
(00:37:00): Absolutely. So when we are talking about mitochondria and when we're talking about quantum biology, a lot of interchanges happening on the electromagnetic frequency that's given out, right? So that's where phonons of sound come from. They actually can change the shape of a protein and we know that that's where biological action starts, right? Is with the changing of those proteins. Let's see, John Stewart Reed and professor son G of Korea have done amazing research with sound and its effect on our body. They've shown quite clearly that sound creates that infrared energy. And what are all these researchers using to build that structured water zone? They're using infrared energy. So when I talk about Gerald and his research looking at the structured water and he sees it building, he's looking at something inside of water and he's shining an infrared light on that. And our biggest source of infrared energy on this world is the sun.
(00:38:17): And so our mitochondria, like some other things in our body, our fascia, our D n a, have this unique liquid crystal ability and here we go with another woo sounding terminology. But liquid crystal is what we use in our technology. It's a term that describes something between a liquid and a solid that acts as a collective, right? So these computer screens, TV screens are smartphone screens. The reason we can watch these beautiful pictures on them is because the liquid crystalline structure of the screen is hit by polarized light and collectively changes to create these beautiful pictures. The same thing is happening in our body. Our mitochondria are able to pick up electromagnetic frequency and change biological action depending on what that frequency is saying to the mitochondria. Again, back to Martin Bacard and his work with mitochondria and emotional states and how that impacts health and mitochondrial function.
(00:39:34): He also did research on music and different hurts of music and how that impacts our mitochondria. And it does, it does dramatically impact the production of a t P and energy. And it's all because of the ability of the mitochondria to pick up on this subtle frequency information. Whether it's a phonon of sound, whether it's an E M F, electromagnetic frequency of thought, photons. We actually get through our skin and the options in our skin as well as the option in our retina. So what's beautiful about our bodies is that in our hypothalamus we have the su cosmic nucleus, which is sort of our, our timekeeper of the body. So when light hits our retinas, it goes right back into the S C N and the hypothalamus are master clock and then that vibration, that photonic frequency of light depending on what kind of light it is, that frequency travels throughout our nervous system via the vagus nerve and hits all of the other circadian clocks that are throughout our body.
(00:40:59): And this is all a frequency exchange of inter information. And it's really, really exciting once you start teasing it apart and getting it down because it completely opens up a new view of the body. Not only do we have that central timekeeper in our hypothalamus, every single one of our cells has a circadian clock. It has its own relationship with the sun and the rhythm of the sun. And what we see in modern day life is that so much of our living and lighting is working against that natural attunement. But these mitochondria, same with our fashion, our D n A, they're liquid crystalline in nature compounded by the structured water that is also liquid crystalline in nature. Simply meaning that it responds as a collective to frequency information in the environment. Whether it's a phonon of sound, a photon of light, an E m F of a thought. It's really, really exciting that science is starting to validate some of the things that we've always intuitively talked about, right? Oh that person's vibe makes me feel this way or ooh, that music just completely soothes me or, or has me on edge, right? These experiences that we've had as humans now the science is finally catching up and it is an exciting time to be alive.
(00:42:39): Wow, this is so fascinating and so wonderful and I'm gonna tell everyone about the courses that you have. If you wanna learn more, I'm for sure gonna take 'em cuz you explain it in a way that is so make sense that I've never heard someone explain it with clarity and in plain English that's beautiful and it's science backed. I do wanna ask you a couple more things and I know that you offer way more in your courses in terms of how can someone start attuning to these different sound and light frequencies. You mentioned visualizing the sun and being out in the sun. Are there other methods that you'd like to
(00:43:22): Share? Absolutely. I'll give you my top three.
(00:43:25): Okay, great.
(00:43:26): . So, and they are all free. There's so many wonderful supplements and devices out there, but I rarely talk about them because I really want people to experience this information in a way that's most accessible and that's free. So my first foremost is aligning with that sun. So what I tell people to do is seeing the sunrise is optimal if that's not going to fit into your daily life. Getting outside for five, 10 minutes before 10:00 AM sets us up with so many different things. The frequency of light when the sun is rising or setting is full spectrum and it's heavy on the redder tones and the redder frequencies. And what these frequencies do is they initially some of that hormone health and those hormone cascades, we see that that light in the sun in the AM before 10:00 AM sets us up with a big surge of serotonin.
(00:44:42): And that is hitting us on many different levels. We think of our mood right and our productivity and our creativity, but serotonin is also working with our hormone health, with our immune status, our inflammatory status. We see that this early am sunshine is also setting us up with our dopamine release and that ability to stay focused and stay happy. Now when the lights lower as the sun goes down, if we can lower our lights inside as well. This sets up the flip side of that, that serotonin that was dumped in the morning and hasn't been used gets turned into melatonin. And this is our ability to sleep well as well as you know, those are really melatonin kind of serves as these sentinels. So with proper melatonin, our mitochondria can get rid of the cells that are tired, broken down, cancerous that shouldn't be in us.
(00:45:50): So it's really important to be getting both sides of that yin young rhythm of the sun. Now I live in the Pacific Northwest in Oregon. It is gray. A lot of our, a lot of the year we don't see the gorgeous sun, we just see the gray. And that is medicine too. It's the natural full spectrum light. It does not have to be cozy, tropical, wonderful sun. It just has to be the sun where you are at, there is medicine in those gray skies as well. And just to add to that, being in Oregon in the winters, it gets dark around five o'clock. So do we go to bed at five o'clock? No we don't. What we do is we transition to more of those lower frequency lights. So I use salt lamps. My kids have these little red light readers so they can be in charge of their own light.
(00:46:52): We have incandescent bulbs in the kitchen in case that needs to go on. But the shift from lowering those lights and getting that am sun is dramatic. So that's my first and foremost is aligning with the sun in that way. Getting out in the sun as many times as you can throughout the day. Taking your 10 minute break outside, this is going to have effect on your biology that you can feel. And so that's where I start most people with because I love the ones that you can feel immediately cuz then I can add more stuff on there, right? So yes, that's my first one is aligning with the sun. And it has that bright and dark phase. So we wanna get that am sun and we wanna lower it in the pm. Now if we could stack another habit onto that exposure of the sun, it would be some grounding.
(00:47:53): So getting bare feet in on the ground touching a tree. What we see is that our earth is lined with an infinite sea of free electrons. And when we come in contact with it, our body can actually collect these electrons and use them in the electron transport chain for more energy in that mitochondria for more structured water in the mitochondria and outside. So that is one that is really, really small but profound. And again, it doesn't have to be ghost down barefoot in the snow because you live somewhere that's snowy for months out of the year. That can look like touching a tree, sitting on a tree, a rock, the beach, the sand. Anywhere where you can come in contact with that infinite sea of electrons that's covering our earth. Another way to do that, if all of those options are not an option is coming in contact with negative ions.
(00:49:02): So let's say we're somewhere very cold and we have to stay bundled up and all we can do is walk around in the snow and in the snowfall, that snowfall has negative ions that impact our biology in a positive way, help structure that water as well. So those two, getting outside, being aligned with the sun, tending to that relationship with that circadian rhythm as well as grounding. And then the third one is probably my favorite and easiest one to do is using something gratitude practice, a mindfulness practice. My favorite is the heart math institute's heart coherence exercises. And they are walking you through exercises where you create, create this coherence in the body. Quantum coherence refers to two or more objects vibrating and resonating and working at the same frequency. And so when we're talking about heart coherence, we're talking about our actual human heart working in coherence, working in the same frequency as our mind.
(00:50:28): So when we are in a state of heart coherence, we see that we are innovating our frontal low, making calm, rational decisions. And we're not innovating that amygdala that's in charge of fear and rash decisions. Our blood pressure changes, the whole state of the body changes in response to this state of coherence, of quantum coherence. It's absolutely amazing. So if anyone out there is listening and wants to expand on their gratitude practice or their mindfulness practice, I love heart mouths, heart coherence exercises. Youtube has tons of 'em. And simply when I can't get the time to do that, I will take 15 seconds to take stock of what I am grateful for. And that energy of gratitude actually initiates that state of coherence and that coherence can be measured with heart rate variability and we can talk very sciencey about it. But on a very basic level, an emotion like love or gratitude when we embody it with breath, can actually change the state of frequency and coherence in our body and heart Breath Institute has done a great job researching that out and giving us lots of science behind it.
(00:51:52): But the basic idea is that taking a second to tune into those emotions and feel them completely rewires our physiology in a state of coherence so that we're able to have that quantum biological flow of information. And so those are my three favorites. Having some kind of practice to bring coherence in, whether that's mindfulness, meditation, gratitude, heart coherence exercises, having some relationship with the world around you where you're grounding and coming in contact with the earth, with nature, with the plants. And then aligning with our biggest source of energy, our sun, and aligning with that in the morning throughout the day and then following its lead and lowering the lights at night. This is something that I wish every single ob GYN would be talking about with their patients, not only for fertility, but what this is what has a massive impact on the state of our hormones as we enter into that perimenopause menopausal stage in our life. And so I'm really excited that you are talking about it. That we are talking about it. I love to get this information out there.
(00:53:18): Yes. And what makes you say that it's particularly important for perimenopausal menopausal women? Is there a special reason just cause we're so struggling with our hormones or
(00:53:29): Struggling with our hormones? Yep. That circadian alignment with the sun sets up that cascade of hormones from so many different levels. Our cortisol, our leptin, our serotonin and melatonin, our dopamine and our mitochondrial function, right? Our mitochondria are making that pregnenolone that turns into our sex hormones and our testosterone and our estrogen and and all of those things that we start to really examine once we're past 40. They have a foundational root in our relationship with the son. And I would even go so far as to say that a lot of the struggle that we're seeing hormonally in women and men has a layer in that disconnection of circadian rhythm, krono disruption they call it in the research. It has such a fundamental role in the proper release stimulation and propagation of these hormones. It's, it's really phenomenal.
(00:54:48): Absolutely fascinating. I could talk to you for hours, but I know people will probably say, Karen, you're talking way too long. I do. We're gonna share about all your things with everyone, but I have to ask you about this wonderful quote that you shared with me before we started. If you can talk about what it means. Life is water dancing with the rhythm of the sun.
(00:55:10): Yes, absolutely. And so that is talking about how, whether it's our biology, our cells, and our mitochondria like we are talking about, or whether it's a giant sequoia tree pulling water up to the very tip top branches that's being powered by this beautiful interchange that we see with structured water and its ability to pull energy from the sun and use it for biological action. It's not just us, it's the plants, it's the animals, it's our own bodies. Utilizing this dance where that structured water can pull in a photon of light and create biological action, create biological movement because of the two interacting together. And it's something that I, that's the riff on a quote from Albert St. Georgie and he was a Nobel Prize winner that went on to research exactly what I'm talking about, this so-called water battery in our, our body and how it is what's powering life here on this planet. It's absolutely fascinating. And each day, each week that rolls on, there's more and more validating research about this beautiful dance between water and light and how it powers life.
(00:56:44): I love that. I love you and I'm so grateful that you are on the podcast talking about this. Everybody listening, you just got a gift. You are getting a gift right now. And Dr. Katherine has more gifts for you. She has a Rewilding, our Terrain guide and then also our structured water guide. We'll have the links in the show notes. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about those?
(00:57:09): Sure. Yeah. Those are a couple free guides that walk you through how to kind of facilitate this relationship with the world around us and some of the obstacles that might be getting in your way to having that relationship. So Rewilding is just about how to do that, simple steps to create that relationship. And the structured water guide is just as it sounds, it talks about what I'm talking about when I talk about structured water. There's lots of like devices out there talking about structured water, lots of marketing. And what I'm talking about is different as it always is the case with marketing and marketing budgets, right? , right? The biggest gets the most attention. But this structured water guide is talking about what I'm talking about, this biological water that's inside of our body, inside of ourselves, and really empowering this biological action. So both are just ways to facilitate this change in looking at the world around us as part of us and utilizing it for better health.
(00:58:28): Thank you so much for those. I invite everyone to please, but if you're not driving, click the link. Go download these guys and get guides and get started. And Dr. Katherine, tell everyone where they can find out more and interact with you. Tell 'em about the courses that you have. Tell 'em all the things.
(00:58:48): Absolutely. Well, my name is Dr. Katherine Clinton and that's where you can find me on Facebook, on Instagram, on YouTube. And my website is Dr. Katherine Clinton dot com. Same name everywhere. Keeping it easy. And I offer classes, I'm constantly sharing information on social media because my goal is to get so many of us acquainted with this information and stronger and more resilient so we can sort of demand the changes that we need to see in the in medicine and healthcare in general. So both of those social media tags, all Dr. Ka Clinton, my website, and I've got a book coming out at the end of September. Well,
(00:59:38): I was say, please tell me you have a book coming out . So wonderful. Does it have a title yet?
(00:59:46): It does. It's called Interconnected.
(00:59:49): Beautiful. And I want everyone to know it's Catherine with a C, not a K. So make sure you spell it right. And what is your favorite social media hangout? I
(00:59:59): Think I'm most active on Instagram.
(01:00:02): Awesome. Thank you so much for the journey that brought you to this place, that you have this wisdom and brilliance to share with other people, especially other women, and make it accessible to them so that they understand it and they can start using it and really achieve what's possible for their brilliant health and especially in the latter part of life and for sharing it on the Hormone Prescription Podcast. Thank you so much. Thank
(01:00:35): You so much. It was an honor to join you here. I love your work. I love what you're doing. So thank you so much for having me today,
(01:00:43): , and thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. Thank you so much for choosing to spend your time today with us and learning empowering information that you can start using today to improve your hormones and your health. I look forward to talking with you again next week. Until then, peace, love,
(01:01:04): And hormones. Yo, thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Living long and living well are two essential elements for a happy, fulfilled life. But, how can midlife women achieve this? On this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Suzanne Turner reveals the secrets to boosting longevity and how it’s more than you think.
Dr. Turner is the founder of Vine Medical Associates and the VMA Residency. Double Board Certified, her thriving practice treats executives and athletes from around the world. Practicing Cellular, Longevity, and Performance Medicine, Dr. Turner has special interests and experience in bioidentical hormone therapy, metabolic medicine, neurodegenerative disease, and human performance optimization. She also has earned Advanced Certification in Endocrinology and Peptide Therapy. Dr. Turner is the leading expert in peptide therapy in the Southeast. She is an award-winning teacher of medical students, residents, and physicians while on the Faculty of Emory University. She has also served on the faculty of A4M, IPS, BioTe, SSRP, and ACAM. She has been featured on several podcasts including Super Human Radio Network, TRT Revolution, Relentless Vitality, Younique Medical, and Health Matters. Dr. Turner spends her free time with her husband and family, studying cellular medicine and Christianity, managing her urban farm, and powerlifting.
In this episode, you'll learn:
• How to understand the different approaches to longevity and health
• Why bioidentical hormone therapy is important for midlife women
• What are the implications of metabolic medicine, neurodegenerative disease, and human performance optimization
• Dr Turner's top tips for leading a long and healthy life
Don't miss this enlightening episode with Dr. Suzanne Turner as she reveals the secrets to boosting longevity – it’s more than you think! Tune in now and start living your best life today!
Don’t forget to subscribe, rate, and review The Hormone Prescription Podcast! We appreciate your support!
(00:00): Muscle is the currency of aging. Carl Lenore, what can you do now to boost the life in your years? Find out next.
(00:11): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:04): Everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. Thank you so much for joining me today. You are gonna love, love, love my guest today because I love her after just talking to her for a few minutes and you're gonna hear our conversation. She, like me as a medical doctor who went from the corporate sector into enlightened medicine, is what I call a functional approach, root cause resolution approach. Her story's a little different about how she got into this, so you're gonna wanna hear that you've heard a lot of my other guests share their stories. I'm always fascinated by how people evolve their viewpoints in the world. And so you'll wanna hear hers. She has a wonderful practice in Atlanta and helps people heal and she loves to focus on longevity and she has a ginormous toolbox of modalities to help you maybe increase the years in your life, but definitely increase the life in your years.
(02:10): She's gonna talk to you about the difference between health span and lifespan and most importantly, how do you test to know what your aging status is? Are you older physiologically than you are chronologically? She's gonna tell you how to know and she's gonna share with you some of the best tools and strategies in her toolbox that you can start using today to put more life into your years. I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. Dr. Turner is the founder of Vine Medical Associates and the VMA Residency Double Board certified. Her thriving practice treats executives and athletes from around the world practicing cellular longevity and performance medicine. Dr. Turner has special interests and experience in bioidentical hormone therapy, metabolic medicine, neurodegenerative disease, and human performance optimization. She also has earned expert in peptide therapy in the southeast and is an award-winning teacher of medical students, residents, and physicians. While the faculty of Emory University, she's also served on the faculty of a four m i p s, Biot, S S R P and Aamp. She's been featured on several podcasts including Superhuman Radio Network, T R T Revolution, relentless Vitality, unique Medical and Health Matters. Dr. Turner spends her free time with her husband and family studying cellular medicine and Christianity managing her urban farm and power lifting. Please help me welcome Dr. Suzanne Turner.
(03:42): Hi Kyrin. Thank you so much for having me on today. I'm really excited to get to talk with you.
(03:46): Yes, I'm very excited to talk with you. We both were in Atlanta probably at the same time, but I never had the pleasure of meeting you. We have colleagues and friends in common and I love what you're doing and what you offer women. So let's dive into talking about longevity for women and what's involved with that. But first I wanna start because you are also traditionally trained physician, right? Yes. If you could share with everyone kind of your journey from what I call corporate medicine Yes. To enlightened Medicine. What happened there?
(04:24): Well, actually I think it was mostly patient driven. So the practice that I started, I had probably half and half men and women and several of the women came to me and said, Hey, will you write these bio identical hormones? And I said, I don't know what that is, but okay. So I wrote for their hormone therapy and the the compounding pharmacist called me up and said, Hey, we love that you're writing for these but you clearly don't know what you're doing.
(04:52): . And they said, well, can we send you to a class? So they sent me to this little quick weekend course on biodentical hormones and it was really just a very skim introductory course called get Out of Line. It was about how do you stop following the person in front of you and really be the leader in what you're doing? So I just got all of a sudden this hunger for learning about hormones and learning other ways. I've heard you talk about your toolbox got bigger or you added things to your toolbox and that really is how I feel about it. I'd gotten a bunch of people better, but there were several that were just hanging on and not quite continuing to do well. And so having this whole new thing where I could help patients with both, with adding in hormones and then as I went on, adding more things, the whole perspective of this not being disease centered, but being cellular or organ centered and how do we manipulate the way that the body responds to its environment?
(05:54): It was a completely different way of thinking about medicine. I think I just continued. So then I found the American Academy of the anti-Aging and regenerative medicine like you and spent many years learning layer after layer after layer of complexity, adding things to my toolbox learning from other people. I think we spend a lot of time learning now, speaking with people like you, with other friends that really help us to learn other ways. We've just added ozone therapy and neurotherapy to our practice, which have been huge benefits. So there's so many things we can do for that patient that's just not getting better and oh, okay, well then maybe this is a matter of looking at how your cells process energy, how your cells speak to one another or communicate how your nervous system controls the way that your organs work. So it's been a fun journey.
(06:47): Yes, it is. And I love that you learned out from a wanting more place. So many of us learned from disasters and then when we couldn't find answers we had to seek elsewhere. So it's very inspiring to hear your story and I want to talk a little bit about longevity. There have been some experts in the more mainstream medical field who have said, no, you can't really impact longevity except don't smoke, don't drink too much, and kind of the usual party line that everyone hears. You know, eat the sad diet, exercise more, right? All the things we hear, but there really is so much more that you can do to impact longevity. So how did you become interested in
(07:38): That? I think it's because the patients, again, it's the patients who came to me and said, how do we make sure it really, the specific patients are the ones who are the entrepreneurs or the head of household or the family member who says, I want to, I've seen my mother much like you. I've seen my mother or my father go through this horrible end of their life that they, I didn't want them to go through. How do I keep myself from getting there And I have, they have a passion about something they're doing. Like maybe they own a coffee company or maybe they own a skincare line and they love what they're doing and they're passionate about helping people in that way and they wanna be able to continue to do that. So when my patients come to me and tell me those stories, it really inspires me to provide them that opportunity to continue to be so, I see myself as one of their team members in helping them to be able to continue to pursue their passion as long as possible.
(08:34): I'm not necessarily talking about increasing their number of days or years, although that is something that everyone's rushing to, to, to find the research for and maybe probably has been doing for, has been for years. I'm really talking about changing the shape of your health span from a long oval type shape into a square so that you increase your health, you stay at that lovely, improved health all the way until you're ready to pass and then you go so that there isn't this sort of long drawn out disease state at the end of life that we continue to see. I would hope that you would be able to continue to do things that you're passionate about, speaking in front of audiences and teaching about hormones until right up until the day before you pass and that that you would not have that long drawn out, prolonged ending. So when I'm talking about longevity, I'm really talking about longevity of health span. Although the research is out there and currently being done on improving the length of life, I feel like if my length of life is, if my life is not full of health then I don't really want the extra length of life.
(09:46): I totally agree , we don't wanna live in a disease state and currently so many of us once we pass 50 are in a disease state. I think it's over 50% of us are on five or more medications after the age of 50, which represents chronic disease management and all the risks that chronic disease carries. So increasing our health span, and I know some of you listening are thinking, you know, Dr. Kyrin, my health is a mess right now and I'm in midlife metabolic mayhem. Or I, you know, I can't lose the weight and I can't sleep. I'm not worrying about increasing my health span. But actually the same tools that Dr. Suzanne and I are gonna talk about are will also help you get out of midlife metabolic mayhem and correct and reverse disease and improve your overall quality of health. So you definitely wanna listen cuz she's gonna share some tools with you that we haven't talked about on the podcast before and I think you're gonna wanna hear this, I have to ask you first, you have this wonderful quote on your Instagram and I love your Instagram cuz it really shows who you are and your life.
(10:58): So everybody, you definitely wanna check it out. We'll give the link at the end that muscle is the currency of aging. Muscle is the currency of aging. Can you talk about what that means?
(11:11): I have to confess, I stole that from a friend Carl Leor who's a wonderful podcaster as well. This is about, we have to realize that the exercising muscle, it's not just that your doctor's telling you to exercise. Wow. Wow. That's true. Okay, I know about that. This is actually, we know that the exercising or the contracting muscle secretes signals that tell the rest of your body, this is a young person begin to unfold the D N A unfold, the protein processing that in a way that is much more youthful. So an exercising muscle will communicate to the rest of the body that this is a young person and that youthful things need to be happening. So even if you are unable to exercise, there are other things that we can do to help with that. There's a relatively new device called M sculpt that works on helping people who are unable to exercise.
(12:06): Now it's marketed for weight loss, but what's exciting about this device is it's able to help with people who are unable to exercise or have injuries to actually as behave as though they were exercising. So it gives that same release of youthful signals that you get. I think most people are able to do some form of activity and even if you are, you know, walking to your mailbox standing up or sitting down at your desk, I tell my 96 year old patients that one of the things they can do is just standing up and sitting down from their dining room chair. Just getting that kind of activity is going to be beneficial for your overall health because your muscles as they move and contract are sending signals to the rest of your body to be more youthful and to produce proteins in a more youthful manner.
(12:54): So then all the things that happen with age where we collect more junk in our more trash in our cells where we damage the cells to the point where they become like zombie cells, all of those things are less likely to happen because of the signals that our cells are getting from the exercising muscle. So there's a reason to exercise this, not just my doctor says I need to exercise or I'm trying to lose weight. Although both of those usually are present. The biggest reason is because of this youthful communication that an exercising muscle will give you.
(13:28):Where are women getting it wrong over 40 with maintaining or building muscle mass? How are we getting it wrong with our hormones with the exercises we're doing or not doing? Why do we struggle with losing muscle mass? Cuz that's a huge problem for women. So where do, yeah,
(13:47): I love the new, it's one of the hashtags I love. It's it's strong, not skinny. I love that because it's, it moves the focus away from being very, very thin to being very, very healthy. And the idea that one of the things I hear my patients say a lot is, I don't want to do any weight training because I'm afraid I'm going to be too bulky. And that makes me a little bit sad because I think it's one of the easiest, fastest way for women over 40 to lose weight. And so patients that I can finally convince, okay, you don't need to be in the gym, do on the treadmill for 45 minutes every single day. You can do a hit exercise program that's just 15 really probably we can get away with four to five minutes of high intensity interval cardio and the rest of the time you can do some weight training because that's where we get our fat burning.
(14:39): Again, that's where we tell ourselves to choose to burn fat as an energy source. If is in that 70% maximum heart rate range, it's not in killing yourself on the treadmill, it's in that lovely 70% max heart rate range, which we usually will get with a good weight training program. Now I definitely recommend people use a trainer, especially if you've just started doing weight training. I have been doing this for several years and I still use a trainer because I wanna make sure I don't injure myself. So injury is a little bit worse of course. So I would rather not have that. I want longevity of my ability to exercise as well. So I have someone who guides me through the things that I do in the gym, the way women are because we don't have a lot of testosterone and particularly as we approach menopause or in that midlife mayhem, we will deplete ourselves of testosterone.
(15:33): And so it's actually testosterone and the way you train that will build a bulk of your muscle. It's pretty difficult for women to build bulk. They really have to eat a lot and they have to do exercises in a particular way in order to bulk even at that. Most of the women who you see that are that bulky kind of bodybuilder look, those women usually have, they have given themselves some sort of hormonal treatment, not, not like menopausal hormones but additional hormones that will allow them to be that size. Otherwise women are less likely to grow what we should see to hypertrophy or thicken the muscles. Like you talk about bulky, what we instead will see is more definition of the muscle because you're burning the fat around the muscle, so you're maintaining your muscle mass, you're burning the fat around the muscle to be used for that muscle to contract. So typically I recommend that women over 40 really put the majority of their energy in exercise toward muscle, toward lifting weight, some sort of resistance exercise.
(16:39): Okay. Yes. And I find that maybe it's post Jane Fonda aerobic exercise era when people say exercise, like we have in our minds says women over 40, oh Jane Fonda, right? But I think it's time that we changed that visual and I don't have a visual representation of who represents probably Deborah Atkinson , you know, flipping 50. She talks about that all the time. And you don't need more aerobics, you need more resistance training. You mentioned testosterone and that's something that I'm very passionate about because you know, the official corporate medical statement summary on testosterone use in women is basically no. And it's so vital for our brain function neurotransmitters, our bone mass, our muscle. Can you talk about the importance of getting your testosterone tested and treated?
(17:37): Yes, over our lifetime, even including in our twenties, testosterone is one of the greatest hormones that's produced and I mean greatest in volume of hormones that's produced by women's bodies, which doesn't seem to be, that doesn't make a lot of sense in our minds, but this is the reason why it's so frustrating. So I just competed in a power lifting competition and I was required to come off of my testosterone in order to com do that competition. I think this is a travesty because this, I'm gonna spend the next several months dealing with my midlife mayhem again as I cover the loss of testosterone and coming back, getting back on it again. And I don't take a huge dose of testosterone. I'm, I'm really just at a moderate appropriate dose because without it, my testosterone, of course I'm 50, my testosterone is very low with testosterone, I sleep better, I'm more calm. Things around me don't bother me. And that's the case with most of my patients. Much like you I'm sure is that they're able to sleep better at night. I tell women things like socks on the floor don't bother you .
(18:46): And it's because if you think about it, your husband doesn't, it doesn't bother him. When he sees socks on the floor, he walks right past it. It's because our minds are so diffusely aware. If you're familiar with the work of Allison Armstrong, we have such diffuse awareness when we're in that estrogen cycle and if we are on testosterone, it really helps with bringing some focus to our activities in our day. So I'm a big fan of testosterone and again, not in a, an overdose or super physiologic dosing, but in a necessary for functioning to day-to-day. The dose I take is about one 10th or one 15th. The dose of that I give my husband, it's a way smaller dose, but it's perfect in just what I need in order to function properly in on day-to-day.
(19:31): Right. And I love that you brought up Alison Armstrong. I'll just say a little bit about her for everybody listening. She's basically, I guess a woman's dating coach, but she really is very clear about the different psychological profiles that is related to hormones for men and women and how we function differently because of the our hormonal milieu. And so I love that you shared that about our brain because testosterone is super important for that dopamine and the focus and the drive and not only our muscles and our bones, but it's very important. All right, so what else is important when we're looking at increasing our health span?
(20:15): I think several things are important. One of the ways that muscle also works. And so this is, it's, I'm gonna tie this into what we just talked about is by increasing the ability of your cells to produce protein and increasing the ability of the cells to produce energy. So I hear a lot of women that are in that midlife mayhem talk about being fatigued. So one of the things that we can use, there's a old drug that was found on Easter Island that is sort of like an old antibiotic, although it functions differently than that. It's F D A approved for use for kidney transplant patients and that's in a fairly high dose. When we use this in a much lower dose, we can find that that we are able to turn off the go, go, go, go, go mi mindset of ourselves and turn on the rest and repair mindset of ourselves.
(21:10): Those two aspects of how we see and use energy in ourselves need to be in a really good balance, the calm down, rest and relax as well as the go-go, let's build, let's grow, let's develop. We want that, but we also want the rest and relax. It needs to be in this good balance. Much like we've probably talked about with the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Those all exist, those dichotomies exist at the cellular level. So one of the things that it's drug is called rapamycin. It's used in much, much smaller doses and there are some really interesting studies about it improving the longevity and the number of years of mice and sea elegance, which is a worm that has very similar D n A to ours as opposed to dogs that don't have similar the for using animals for research rats or mice.
(22:03): And the sea elegance has a very similar d n A to us so we can use those to study and rapamycin, because it's been around for a long time, it's been used for many, many years treating kidney transplant patients. We're using this in really, really tiny infrequent doses for every once in a while to give your cells a rep and a chance to recover from all the things we do in a day. So that also sort of, so rapamycin is one option, but we also use that rolls over into the idea of how important sleep is. So one of the things that's the tenant of health for me is going to bed at eight 30. And the reason this is important is because during sleep, this is when your brain opens up what we call the glymphatic drainage system. This is sort of the trash or the sewer system of the brain.
(22:52): It's closed during the day and at night while you're sleeping. It opens up as long as the body's not doing anything like digesting food. So this is one of the reasons why your Dr. May say for you to wait at least two hours from eating to going to bed because that gives your body time to handle the food and then it can focus on that recovery and repair. During sleep is when that glymphatic drainage system opens up, all the trash can be cleared away. The immune cells can take the trash, bundle it up, put it out into the glymphatic to be moved away. The systems can be all things can be filed away like where they're supposed to be in the brain and the next morning you can wake up refreshed because all of that was able to happen. So in our patients who aren't sleeping, we need to be really focused and helping them to make that a priority, not only as far as setting aside the amount of time that's necessary, but also in providing them ways to help them with sleep.
(23:52): That list is very, very long, but getting adequate number of hours of sleep and the research is around seven to nine hours per night and then also getting enough of the kinds of sleep we need. So the same thing happens during sleep on a nightly basis in the brain. That can happen during the day with using something like rapamycin. The other interesting thing is doing a 12 hour fast overnight. And that's probably the only thing that's been proven in humans to promote longevity is calorie restriction. This is really hard to do long-term, so it's not something that we, that we definitely recommend for everyone, but one of the things I do recommend for everyone is a 12 hour overnight fast. This is, it seems like 12 hours overnight. That seems like it would be easy. Well if you eat dinner at six o'clock at night and don't eat anything again until six o'clock in the morning, that sounds pretty easy.
(24:46): But most of my patients have a hard time getting that 12 hours in. What's interesting is if you fast for that 12 hours, we know that the brain will begin to produce a protein or a fat rather called butyrate and butyrate is used by the cells as an alternate fuel source and it triggers that same response as the rapamycin does to help the body with that process of autophagy or rest and relaxation. So an overnight fast of 12 hours is cheaper than getting rapamycin of course, and is a really simple way that everyone at home can be involved in their own longevity is by setting aside that time not only for adequate rest but also for fasting overnight
(25:30): Regarding fasting because it's very popular right now all kinds of fast dry, fast wet, fast water, fast juice fast. But intermittent fasting is a huge topic and there's several best selling books on it. What about longer intervals of fasting? What is the research saying about that?
(25:50): It's, I think the research is still up in the air and what really works in the research is fasting in the morning and is early, I'm sorry, is is evening fasting, which is much more difficult for most people to do. Most people don't mind fasting in the morning, but they have a really hard time fasting in the evening and as we just talked about, it runs right into your ability of your body to rest and and recuperate and especially the brain to repair the things it needs to overnight if you're bumping that up too close to your sleep time. So I really encourage people if they can, to push that fasting window up against their dinnertime and make that dinnertime be earlier in the evening. Then you get that full 12 hours of overnight sleep, I mean of overnight fasting for the brain to be able to begin producing butyrate so that it can cause all the healing that the cells need through that time when it's produced.
(26:46): Okay, alright. I want us continue on tools to improve longevity, but I wanted to ask you about how do people know how old their body thinks they are? I mean sure we have a chronological age, but for some of us, and I've seen some inventories where people can do answer questions about their health and then it spits out kind of what their, and I forget what Eric Braverman calls it, their true age and your, you can find out does your, is your body functioning at an older age or a younger age or your age appropriate? Where are you? But there's some clinical tests that can be used, correct?
(27:27): Yes. So I think the simplest way for us to look at that is there's a couple of simple markers that are probably on everyone's last lab test. They're not going to give you a specific age, but it is something for you to monitor over time and it's again, something probably everyone's had done on their most recent lab tests. If you look on your complete metabolic panel, one of the tests that's on there is called an albumin. The goal for albumin is for the level to be four and a half or greater. If you're four and a half or if you're less than four and a half, your risk of aging and your risk of mortality from all causes goes up. So I just encourage people to watch their albumin level. We wanna see that it's either staying the same or improving and that's a general good marker of how well your health overall is.
(28:20): The second easy simple marker is in your complete blood cell count and that is a lymphocyte count. We want that lymphocyte count to be greater than 35. When you, as we age, one of the things that causes us aging is that your immune system declines in its ability to function optimally. We know that this has happened with our most recent virus that's gone through and most of the people who were unable to tolerate that were people who were elderly or over 75 80. And part of that is because their immune system is also aging. One of the ways we can look at that is looking at the lymphocyte count, which is look is one of your immune cells and we want that level to be greater than 35. A less than 35 is concerning that you will not be able to fight off viruses or cancer should the two of them come your way.
(29:12): And so those are two things you can monitor generally in every lab test. Now a little bit more specific are two different tests and one is called a beta-glucan assay. This can let us know whether or not you also gives you an approximation of what your age is because we accumulate this as we age. There are specific labs that do this. The second one is called true age and it is an epigenetic test, which means you know, you have, you know about people who have genetic variations in their D N A from birth and they have changes that make them more susceptible to things like down syndrome for example. Well those various genes and all of our genes will change the way they are expressed based on what's happening in your environment. So a more appropriate environmentally induced aging marker is this epigenetic test. They're looking for specific changes on specific pieces of D N A that are more common with aging and they can give you both a rate of aging as well as an proposed current age based on all the patients they've had do the test.
(30:25): And so there are several companies that do a test like this. I use one called True Age, there are lots of others. And they look at your epigenetics to see whether you are how quickly you are approaching aging. I really am concerned about the rate of aging. So for every one year of age, how many years older are you? And I'd like to see that number be one or less so that you are not continuing aging. And again, one of the ways we can fix that is what we've already talked about with contracting muscle and adequate sleep and overnight fasting.
(31:00): All right. Where are we with telomere length at this point clinically? What are your thoughts on that?
(31:06): So what's interesting is telomere length, it tends to be associated with aging. We know that again with the most recent virus that people lost a good bit of telomere length. The jury is still out whether extending telomeres will affect your longevity in the long run. So we are still looking at that research to see whether or not there is a benefit. We know that a shorter telomere length is associated with a shorter lifespan, but it's not necessarily correlated with a lengthening of that. Telomere is not necessarily corded with a lengthening of lifespan. So again, the jury is still out. There are several companies that have products that are beneficial in lengthening T telomeres and I am not convinced of the information yet. It's the jury is still out about whether that telomere lengthening will extend lifespan.
(32:00): Right. And just for anyone who doesn't know whatt mirrors are, they're kind of like the binding on your end of your shoelaces that you have on all strands of D N A that kind of holds it together and they shorten over your lifespan and like Dr. Suzanne was saying, you're at increased risk for certain diseases when they're shorter. So that's what telomeres are. Alright, so we're working out at the gym doing, getting our muscle mass, we're doing resistance training, we're sleeping, we're doing a 12 hour fast. What other things have been shown or clinically
(32:38): Proven to help us improve our health spans? There was a big study that was done called the trim study that's probably the most significant one that's out there. And it was done with growth hormone, growth hormone and the, the study was intended to see whether or not growth hormone would improve lifespan and giving people growth hormone would improve their lifespan. Well one of the side effects of growth hormone is increase in blood sugar. So they also gave those patients metformin to cut counteract the increase in blood sugar from the growth hormone. The other thing that growth hormone is known to do is increase cortisol or stress hormone. Who needs that? So they gave those people D H E A to help counteract this, the ef, the growth hormone side effect of raising cortisol. So the study was done with growth hormone, D H E A and D and metformin.
(33:31): So this is one of the places where the hype around metformin began. Metformin has some benefits in, this is what I was getting to. Metformin has some benefits in improving lifespan in animal studies. The concern I have with metformin is its mechanism of action. Number one, its mechanism of action is at the mitochondria or the energy generating level. This interferes with the ability of cytochrome one, which is one of the little things that helps your mitochondria to make energy. It interferes with that function. So I don't want any of my mitochondria to be fun to be messed with. I get concerned when I see that when I hear about mitochondria because mitochondrial dysfunction is one of the causes of aging. So it just doesn't jive in my mind to use metformin, although there's a lot of research out there that's very interesting and ongoing about using metformin for longevity.
(34:26): It just makes me nervous because of its mechanism of action. The second thing that metformin does, mechanism of action-wise is affects your microbiome. Which if you have a terrible microbiome might be a good idea if you have a great microbiome. I don't wanna mess with my microbiome. I think our intestines speak volumes to our entire bodies. I think the food that we put in tells the microbiome to be what it is and it will send signals back to our body to be more youthful, to be more energetic, to be more calm. All the things. I listened to your last podcast about anxiety and she was right on about the microbiome really affecting our anxiety. So I get concerned about, about messing with the microbiome if we don't have to. So metformin is a little concerning to me. The study was done with growth hormone and last I understood they were actually looking at using an a peptide called liraglutide, which does not have the glucose raising or the cortisol raising effects of me of growth hormone. So I'm interested to see the research on that. That's still pending lilu most people are probably familiar with it as as Victoza or Saxenda, which are, which is used for weight loss.
(35:37): Okay, awesome. All right, so what other tools are available? You mentioned peptides, you are an expert in peptides, you have all book coming out on this topic. What we've covered a little bit of that on the podcast, but can you speak to peptides that might specifically improve health span?
(35:57): It's one of the things I think is really interesting and helpful because of how they work. I think there's two in particular that would be beneficial and there's several of them probably that would be helpful. But let's just talk about two, I think thymus and alpha one, which is comes from your thymus thymus gland and can help to rebalance the way your immune system functions. When we get a vaccine, when we have an autoimmune disease, our immune system is really shifted over to one side where it's primarily focused on making antibodies. We don't want our immune system to be focused in that direction because then it's unable to fight things like viruses and cancer. And this is an oversimplification of the way our immune system works. But there, if we're talking about in binary language, that's really what we're looking at. So if it's busy making antibodies, it's not gonna be busy making things, what we call natural killer cells that can fight off bacteria, I'm sorry, viruses and cancer.
(36:53): Oh, I'd love for it to be more balanced. And one of the ways we can do that is using this peptide that's naturally occurring in the thymus gland. It's depleted in patients we know that have things like rheumatoid arthritis, MS for example. And so we love having that extra ability to give ourselves depleted thymus and alpha one if we are able to find it. That's a little bit of trouble right now. I like it because it works on that immunosenescence or the aging of the immune system that occurs as we age. The thymus gland, which is where your T-cells come from. Everybody's familiar with this conver you, I couldn't have had this conversation several years ago cuz no one would know what we were talking about, but right. The recent virus we have all this, people are familiar with these terms. You are a thymus gland where your T-cells come from gets replaced with fat as we age.
(37:42): And so that's part of the problem with aging is your immune system's unable to fight off things that used to be able to. So if we can give you something like thymus and alpha, we stimulate your baby T-cells to become cells that can fight things off, then we have this better balance. So I think thymus and alpha would definitely fall in my toolbox of anti-aging. The second thing would be to use a growth hormone secretagogue. The reason why I like the instead of growth hormone itself is because they're increasing the ability of your body to produce its own growth hormone. Again, as we age, we know we hit that midlife mayhem and we deplete our bodies not only of testosterone melatonin, estrogen, progesterone, but also growth hormone. And so if we can allow our bodies just to make the amount of growth hormone that it would've made in our twenties and thirties, that it would na you won't overdose on the growth hormone because you're not giving yourself actual growth hormone.
(38:40): You're giving yourself an it's, they're usually analogs of growth hormone releasing hormone, which is also naturally produced by the brain. We know that these are associated with improvement in longevity, especially in animal studies. And so this is one of my favorites to help to put people on for improving their longevity. And we can follow that again with a true h test and see how they're chronologically versus biologically improving in their age. So those would probably be my number one. And number two, anti-aging. If we're talking about appearance as aging, one of my favorites is using the copper peptides. And so growth GH HK is the amino acid sequence that it's called. Most of the peptides have a letter and number name on them because they're, they're still in research use. And so G H K has a copper p attached to it, so it's blue when you see it.
(39:31): You may see several skincare lines that have a G H K that have a blue coloration to them and these can really help to restore the skin. They have been compared against re A and vitamin C with better than re A and vitamin C outcomes in the research. So very interesting anti-aging for the skin. What's very interesting recently is I've been recommending these topically for people to use for hair loss and we've had several patients lose their hair in this most recent pandemic. And if they use this on their scalp with a derma roller, we do it a couple times a week. Many of these patients will, we're seeing some really amazing results with restoration of hair. And this is not even using p R P, it's just using the, the DRO and the the medical grade J H K C U serum.
(40:25): Awesome. Yeah, this is so much good information and I know you could go on probably listing things. I'm thinking, oh, we didn't even talk about oxygen therapies, but I'm gonna tell everyone they just need to read your book , where you're gonna talk about a lot of this. And I thank you so much for joining us. I want everybody listening to really hear that you can improve the quality of your health throughout your life. Juries is not in yet on whether we can actually increase our years, but we can certainly increase the life and the years that we do have. So where can everybody find out more about you?
(41:08): My website is Vine as in grapevine medical.com on Instagram at Dr. S Turner, d r s Turner. I'm on Facebook, vine Medical on Facebook. That's the best places.
(41:21): And talk a little bit about your book. What are they gonna find there?
(41:24): So it's pretty exciting. I'm about halfway through. We're expecting it to be published in November. It is about how to restore your youthful self, recognizing yourself in the mirror again, there I am. And particularly with use the use of peptides.
(41:42): Awesome. Well we look forward to that. And thank you for the wisdom and information that you've shared. Thank you for your passion and for your willingness to get out of line. I too started with Dr. Taylor and for everyone listening, Dr. Taylor Eldridge Taylor used to run a program called Get Out of Line for physicians who really recogniz that particularly as women in medical weren't being served properly. And he started by teaching other doctors about natural hormone therapy and then expanded. And then both Dr. Suzanne and I went onto the A four M residency, as she said, or fellowship. So thank you so much for your bravery. A lot of people lay, people don't realize how brave it is for doctors like you to get out of line and say no to the drug and surgery paradigm and walk this path. It's very courageous and I thank you for doing it. I'm so grateful that you just said yes and that you continue on this path. Thank you.
(42:46): Thank you Dr. Ki. I appreciate you so much
(42:48): And thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. I know that you loved the information that Dr. Suzanne shared and that you two appreciate her path and are looking forward to her book. So definitely check out her website, check her out on social media, subscribe to her channels so that you can be one of the first to know when her book is available. And I hope that you learn something today that you can implement in your life to change your health and transform your life to what you deserve it to be. I will see you again on next week's episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones
(43:27): Y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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It's horrifying!
But when life throws a curveball as it did for Dr. Achina Stein, she faces that challenge head-on and learns to understand, accept, and even embrace the unexpected.
Join us as we explore how to recognize if you're experiencing something other than depression and how to transform your experiences into feelings of empowerment. Dr. Achina will inspire you with her own journey of transformation and self-love so that you can walk away feeling grounded, inspired, and encouraged in your own life no matter what challenges come your way! Don’t miss out on this inspiring conversation—tune in today!
Dr. Achina Stein is a DO physician, Board Certified psychiatrist and has been in practice since 1994. She is a certified practitioner of the Institute for Functional Medicine, a Distinguished Fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, and an Azarias Energy Healer. She was awarded the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award by NAMI-RI in 2008. Located in Rhode Island, she is the co-owner of private practice, Functional Mind LLC.
In this episode you'll learn:
• How to recognize if you're experiencing something other than depression
• What steps can be taken to transform experiences into feelings of empowerment
• Dr. Achina's inspiring journey of transformation and self-love
• Tips for maintaining resilience despite life's challenges
• And much more!
Don’t miss this empowering conversation with Dr. Achina Stein—tune in today! You will be inspired, encouraged, and motivated on your own journey of understanding and acceptance. Join us as we explore how to turn crisis into opportunity and find the strength within ourselves - no matter what comes our way. Together, let's start creating a new normal!
(00:00): Every crisis is an opportunity. Dr. Achina Stein, what would you do if your 14 year old stood on the balcony of a five-story building, getting ready to jump off and kill himself? Find out what this doctor did next.
(00:15): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:09): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so glad you chose to join me today. You are gonna love this delightful conversation with my friend and colleague, Dr. Achina Stein. She has an incredible story of healing and transformation. She talks about how she turns crisis into opportunity, how she maintains resilience despite many challenges in her life. And you're really gonna learn from this cuz midlife can be a challenging time and our resilience can be tested. Am I speaking the truth or am I speaking the truth? Yes, it's true. So you've gotta have some skills. Dr A has got skills, and a lot of this was honed through her childhood. She's gonna talk a little bit about that. But she came to this real turning point where one day her 14 year old had a fight with his brother, walked into the other room and got on the, the ledge at a five-story building with the intention of jumping off to commit suicide.
(02:10): How would you handle that? Well, as a board certified psychiatrist, it completely became an inflection point for a unique direction that you're gonna benefit from today as to how she views mental health. And if you're suffering with depression, anxiety, or just even a little dysthymia, you don't feel like yourself. These are very common symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. You wanna stay tuned and you wanna listen to what Dr. Aina learned, how she turned that crisis into an opportunity and all the resources that she has available for you. Because I'm telling you, you, you wanna listen, you just wanna listen. , she's really a light of hope and a beacon for what's possible at midlife and beyond when you do the work. So I'll tell you a little about, bit about her and then we'll get started. So, Dr. Aina Stein is a physician who's a board certified psychiatrist.
(03:06): She's been in practice since 1994. She's also a certified practitioner of the Institute for Functional Medicine, a distinguished fellow of the American Psychiatric Association, A and Energy Healer. She was awarded the Exemplary Psychiatrist Award by NAMI Rhode Island in 2008, and she's located in Rhode Island where her practice functional mind L L C is located. She is the number one Amazon International bestselling author of What If It's Not Depression, your Guide To Finding Answers and Solutions. She has a YouTube channel and podcast by the same name and has been a keynote speaker and interviewed about her pioneering work as a functional medicine psychiatrist on many podcasts and summits. As a companion to her book, she offers programs to find and reverse all the root causes of your depression like symptoms. It's a perfect alternative to medication for people with chronic mild to moderate depression like symptoms that do not spread respond to antidepressant medications. And she also offers a course on how to manage antidepressant withdrawal symptoms and how to taper off SSRIs Footnote, please do not get off any medications after listening to this podcast. You must always consult with your physician before doing so. Welcome Dr. Aena Stein. Oh,
(04:24): Thank you for having me. It's always exciting to be here.
(04:27): I'm really happy to have you on this show today. I remember when I first met you and I learned that you were a psychiatrist who was also functionally trained like I am. And you told me the story of how you got into becoming functionally trained. I think that it will really speak to a lot of people. As everybody heard in the intro, you're an expert in psychiatry, you're an expert in functional medicine, and you really take a very unique view about what if it's not depression. You know, and maybe we should actually start there before we get into your story. Depression is really at, would you say epidemic levels? Talk about why do we have such a problem and what is the scope and degree of the problem?
(05:17): The amount of people that are suffering from depression is always skyrocketing. It seems like it's never ending because even, you know, 20 years ago or 25 years ago, depression rates are increasing, depression rates are increasing, and it seems to be a problem every year that does not get addressed. A lot of it has to do with access, some of it has to do with stigma. Some of it has to do with the fact that the only solution provided is medications and psychotherapy. Mm-Hmm. , you know, which is where, you know, I come in. It's, we're not looking at the root cause of why people are having depression and anxiety. We're just going through a decision tree through a book called the D S m diagnostic Statistical Manual for Psychiatric Illnesses. And it's going down this decision tree to arrive at a diagnosis and then just basically matching a pill to an ill.
(06:13): And you know, there's a place for that. There's a place for prescribing medications because there are situations where you need to shut down certain symptoms acutely because it can lead to serious things like psychotic symptoms or suicidal ideation or an attempt. So you really, there, there is a seriousness to it where it can, it can be lethal with some of these mental health issues, but there is a limitation as to what these medications can do. And we we're finding that on a long-term basis they start failing or they are not taking care of all of the symptoms or, and or there's a whole slew of side effects that people suffer from when they take these medications. And so it's, it is finding arriving at that diagnosis is important, but then also understanding why is this happening? What's going on in the body, mind and spirit that came together and manifested as the these symptoms and that it's not all in the head .
(07:20): For years we've, you know, assumed or made this, this decision that everything is in the head when no, there's lots of things that are happening in the body that affect the brain, which is your hardware, which then can affect your mind, which is your software, right. If you wanted to use, you know, computer analogies and so they're connected, you're not walking around, there's not this head bouncing around without a body. It's all connected and there are lots of things that can happen in the body that can affect the brain and the mind. So we've, as psychiatrists, as traditional psychiatrists and as well as other mental health professionals have been trained to just look at the biology of the brain, the psychology and the social aspect of how we are interacting with the world and how this, how the world you know, affects us. And just those things. And so psychotherapy does help to work on the psychology and the social aspects and the medications are meant to work on the biology, but that's just not enough. It's not enough. And there's so many tools, so many tools out there that we can use to bring the body back into balance, body, mind and spirit back into balance.
(08:42): Right. And so you were trained traditionally in a traditional medical model, what I call a corporate medical model like I was . And it basically is following protocols, follow the recipe to make the diagnosis and then give the drug or do the surgery. Very reductionist viewpoint. And a lot of diagnoses are actually symptoms. Like depression is a symptom. It's not telling you what is causing the problem. Irritable bowel syndromes another one of my favorite categories cuz it's a symptom. It doesn't say what's wrong or what's causing it. Mm-Hmm. . So I had my journey of really questioning are we really helping anyone because nobody seemed to get better despite what medications we gave them or what surgeries we did. They just had this ever, ever spiral downwards down the drain of more and more symptoms as they aged. And this really half lived life as a result. And I, I started questioning and then my own health was failing, which everybody listening probably has heard me talk about that, so I won't go into it again. But what drove you to say, okay, it's more than just depression is a diagnosis and we give you a pill to control the symptoms. What made you start digging deeper?
(10:04): Well, you know, I was one of those psychiatrists that I think spent more time with patients than the 15 minute se sessions. I never took a job that required me to see patients for 15 minutes. So I would really dig deep in terms of getting the history and trying to connect the dots. But again, it was still a biopsychosocial model and it came to a head for me when my son at the age of 14 overnight, literally overnight had a tiff with his brother and was suddenly out on out the, had gone out the window of this flat that we were staying in. We were in France actually when my husband had sabbatical that time we were staying in this flat and he had suddenly disappeared from the room or the, the stu you know, it was like a two bedroom small area. And I was looking for him, I'm gonna look out the window and it's like, oh my gosh, he's on a ledge standing on the ledge ready to jump.
(11:01): He had a sudden urge of suicidal ideations and wanting to jump off this ledge. That was five stories up. And that came out of the blue. He had a little tiff with his brother and what typical teenagers have , you know normal stuff with your siblings. And then suddenly this was his reaction and it all came suddenly. And here I am a psychiatrist. There was no no way for me to know that that was gonna mm-hmm , there's no signs of this other than typical adolescent boy stuff, you know? So there was just a absolutely no signs of this. And so when we returned home, obviously I was flabbergasted and my wheels were starting to turn and trying to figure out what went wrong, what would I do, what did I miss, why didn't I see this? Got him to see a psychiatrist and ultimately he ended up being on four medications.
(11:53): He was given a diagnosis of major depression, generalized anxiety disorder, a d d, and had sleep problems. And some of this was due to medication side effects and Okay. Yeah. His mood was better. And he was seeing a therapist as well, but he was a zombie. I mean, he was no longer suicidal, but he was a zombie, this guy. Mm-Hmm. , this kid could not function. And there was this symptom though, that he had. And, and I always wonder, would I've done what I did to find more, more solutions if, if this symptom dis didn't exist was a neurological symptom because I was still, you know, in deep in the whole, you know, traditional model. It was a neurological symptom that he had that was double vision. He no longer could read books. Mm. And this was a kid who had never had a d d, he had a photographic memory.
(12:46): He, you know, he could read something and no knew it. He wouldn't have to ever read it again. And he couldn't even read anymore. And here like, oh, what's going on here? There's something going on here. And I would ask about this, well what about this? Why can't he read? Why can't he read? Oh, you know, he has a d d like, wait, no, you don't understand , he was reading fine and this is now different. Like just trying to even explain what happened was like brushed aside and I'm sure a lot of your patients and my patients have felt brushed aside or symptoms minimized. And it's like, you're not listening , you don't understand this was a kid that was perfectly normal, you know, and here he is like a blob. Anyway, it was really eye-opening experience. So I started hitting the books and trying to figure it out.
(13:35): And serendipitously came upon functional medicine. I had no idea what functional medicine was. and found a functional medicine doctor, had him, had my son see him and you know, did the whole functional medicine approach starting with diet. And we started with him on a gluten-free and dairy-free diet and it within, and we did all this testing. But in the, in the time before we even got the testing back, my son felt considerably better considerably. In fact, you know, when I say he was normal, I thought he was normal. But he had years and years and years of constipation y severe constipation to the point where he sat like a bird on the toilet seat so that he could have a bowel movement. And constantly being told to give him laxative, he had severe eczema to the point that his knuckles bled and he looked, his hands were so raw that we basically, cuz he was so into dinosaurs and we told him he, that he was part dinosaur at the age of four, you know, because like, oh, you're just like a dinosaur . That's why your hands look that way. And it's like, so I mean it was, this is how long he'd suffer from that and that just became his normal. So, but that's not normal. It's not normal to have knuckles bleeding. It's not normal to sit like a bird on the toilet. That's not normal , but
(14:55): Right. But in our American culture that is tolerated as normal, it's very common for kids to have that, for adults to have that where they don't poop every time they eat, which is the way nature made us where they have chronic constipation and they think their doctors aren't concerned. So I shouldn't be concerned if you're listening, that is not okay y'all. Yeah. And it's not okay to have eczema. Right. You just shouldn't have it. And you know, what you're saying is what you said about him having difficulty with the reading because of his vision. We as doctors lead people to believe that symptoms are not related to each other. . Right, right. And they just come out of the blue. And I always like to say they don't come out of the blue, they come out of the oblivious. Cuz we are clueless. And unfortunately as doctors, we mostly are.
(15:44): So I just wanna highlight that for everyone because women at midlife, she's using the example of her teenage son. But if you're listening, this is you. Right? Right. You think your hot flashes are not related to your hair loss. And that's not related to the fact that you only poop every other day, or you drink coffee every morning to poop, or that you need coffee in the morning to wind up and wind to wind down, or that you just don't feel like yourself. Or you're carrying their 30 extra pounds or you have irritable bowel or you get migraines or you have anxiety. You think they're all not related. So you're running around going to this doctor and that doc, you go to the psychiatrist, you're going to the neurologist, you're going into the gastroenterologist, you're going into the gynecologist. And what you need to do is realize everything is connected
(16:27): . It is, it's all connected. And you know, and it's good that they're going to these specialists just to rule out the biggies, the big bad things and say there's nothing wrong with you. That's good news as far as I'm concerned. But, you know, getting back to my son, you know, we put him on a gluten dairy free diet and literally within a month or two, his eczema and constipation cleared up. Okay. And at this point, my son was on board like, wow, this was a huge change. And he was completely on board to do the whole nine yards. And so we found with the testing that he was also soy in soy sensitive. So once we pulled the soy out, that's when things really started changing. And of course, with, and he had celiac disease, I forgot to mention that. Oh yeah. So we, we learned that he had celiac disease and because of that, for years he was malnourished and not eating, not getting the nutrition due to the celiac's disease, but also he only ate white food .
(17:21): So when you're not eating all the, the good healthy foods that in order to get your nutrition, you're gonna be nu nutrient deficient. For sure. And of course he had a gut dysbiosis and you know, all of the other things that we find when we, when we dig deeper and deeper. But ultimately he was able to come off all of the psychiatric medications completely. And by two years, at the end of two years, his diplopia, which is, you know, the double vision cleared up as well. So, and that the reason they're all connected is because his whole body was inflamed. And the reason this all happened at the age of 14 and not at 2, 3, 4 and earlier when he had these other issues, was because he hit puberty. This, this hormone surge occurred. Right. So, you know, hormones really tipped is what the, what tipped the him over in terms of having this explosion of these symptoms that were really brewing under the surface the whole time and not knowing it.
(18:19): So of course, you know, once you see this happen, you just can't unlearn that . And and so I did a deep dive and functional medicine and became certified. And that's all I do. It's all I do is functional medicine. I have a handful of psychotherapy patients, but it's really, that is what I do day in and day out. And I can't see it doing it any other way. Yes, there's patients that I give medications to, but, but it's because, you know, they can't function. It's because they're suicidal. It's because they're psychotic. It's, it's gone, gone. You know, they have serious, serious issues mm-hmm. . And so for me, medications is the last resort, or if it's in an emergency as opposed to, I think functional medicine should be the primary start of everything that is mental health. Absolutely everything.
(19:10): I totally agree with you. It would've saved me a lot of time in agony and, you know, really what you describe, you know, it was, it's it's a huge crisis in your life. You, your 14 year old son is going on the balcony to jump off. That's a huge crisis. And it, how you describe your path through that really resonates with me. The quote that you shared before we started about every crisis is an opportunity. And you, you recently you were sharing with me before we started recording some other crises that you've had recently and how you really take a different attitude from a lot of people about the crises in your life. And I, I think that how you live your life is very instructive for other people. You're a role model. So can you talk a little bit about that?
(19:58): Yeah. So Yeah. Recently, I've actually had a lot going on last year. Besides my website being hacked, I didn't even mention that my website was hacked. My active campaign was hacked where, you know, bills were run up from someplace in the Philippines. And I had literally $58,000 on my credit card because it was hacked. It was so many one thing after another. And then going to France and traveling there and changing my schedule and coming back from this trip where my husband was on sabbatical and I was seeing patients from there. Just a lot of change. A lot of change. A lot of change. And then coming back to find that my office was flooded. So I had to, the only thing I could recoup was a few pieces of furniture that I put in storage. So, you know, when things happen, I always believe that things happen for some reason.
(20:52): You know, I, I may not know what the reason is, but I, I look at it as an opportunity to sort of reassess, okay, what's going on? And, and how can I pivot from this? So how can I pivot? How can I make this, how can I use the situation to make my life better? And I tend not to react or overreact to a situation. Sure. Change is hard, but, you know, it doesn't have to be a crisis. It can be an opportunity for reassessment breathing into what's going on right now. Maybe this happened for a good reason and how can I use it to open, open another door as opposed to feeling trapped. You know, a lot of times people feel trapped or they feel stepped on or they feel like this is the end, you know? Right. Life is over, you know, and it, it doesn't have to be that way.
(21:42): It's all a, it's really about a mindset change. And I've always lived in this mindset always, even as, as young as the age of 16, always had this. And I had a pretty tough ti a childhood. I, a very, very tough upbringing. Whether my mother was very ill, I was the oldest of four. I had to raise my brothers and sisters . I had a very volatile father, you know, so it wasn't, you know, I was not born with a silver spoon, but sometimes people have accused me of that, of a silver spoon in my mouth because, because I'm so optimistic and, and mm-hmm. how I approach the world. So they think, oh, I must have, I must have been born with a silver spoon in my mouth. . So, but that's not the case. No. I've been around the block a few times. Mm-Hmm. . So. Right.
(22:26): So we were talking about this concept of resilience and how you seem to have an abundance of resilience. How do you think that other people can cultivate that? Because I think at midlife in particular, which you're, I think that you're at midlife also. Yes. That it can just seem overwhelming. The myriad health problems, maybe for some people career and or relationship problems, maybe not, but the myriad health problems, which I call midlife metabolic mayhem mm-hmm. that start accumulating as we pass 35, 40, definitely 50 and beyond. And I see so many women, particularly in my hormone bliss challenge, who just, they feel so overwhelmed, they don't even know where to start. They've lost that sense of resilience that you're talking about. So how can women at midlife cultivate resilience?
(23:20): There is a long answer to that, that question. And people are interested in knowing my whole approach. They're welcome to download the five Rs of emo of emotional restoration. I, we have the five Rs of gut restoration. I created the five Rs of emotional restoration. And it really starts with breathing, you know, that's it. You know, you want to breathe and notice what's happening around you without any judgment and to sort of observe, observe what what's happening around you. Maybe journal, somehow write it down, put it down on paper so that you can look at it later. But just sort of almost like emotionally have it fall out of you onto paper as best as you can without any judgment, without any analyzing. And to, you know, come up with one thing that's a low hanging fruit that you can start with. If you have a lot of stimulation, things coming at you, one after the other, and you're overwhelmed, I mean, it's usually overwhelm occurs that you're not able to process what's being thrown at you, so to speak. Right. So you wanna just start with one thing, and breathe through it. So use your breath to notice all of the things that are coming at you. Write it all down, write it all down, and then start with one thing and put one foot in front of the other. You wanna act. Once you know what that one thing is, then you want to act because it's actually more overwhelming to be in limbo, you know? Mm-Hmm. ,
(24:50): I act. That's so true.
(24:51): Right. It's horrible being in limbo, and I actually use that word with my patients a lot. You're in limbo, , and then, then, you know what I mean? Because, you know, they have all this stuff in front of them and they can't choose. Or if they choose, they don't act. It's like, just put one thing in front of the other, one thing in front of the other, one foot in front of the other, and then you, you'll actually accomplish those things. You'll accomplish it. Yeah. Mm-hmm.
(25:15): . Okay. Yeah. And I think it's, it's also this concept of learned helplessness and, and there are some women I'll talk to and they're like, oh, I wanna, you know, work with you to get this my hormone straight. And they're like, but I'm gonna wait until I retire in three years , or I'm gonna be on night shift for the next six months. And so now's not a good time. You know? And so I just find that it's not often our health problems that are keeping us, holding us hostage. It's our beliefs about our health problems. How do you help people to unpack their beliefs and really open 'em like a suitcase full of clothes and look at them and see which beliefs serve them and which don't and help them get rid of or transform the ones that are keeping them from moving forward in life.
(26:03): I love this quote that you wanna live as if your life depends on it. People, when they learn that they have cancer or they learn that they Right. So many things go out the window , right. And you know, when you have something come up like that, your whole life priorities change. And that's how I think if you can start looking at it like, you know, that woman that you mentioned, oh, I'm gonna wait till I retire. You could be dead by then, . You
(26:32): Know? Right. Exactly. That's
(26:33): What I, that's the first thought that came into my mind. Like, why are you waiting? You know, you could be dead. My mother was very, very ill and she died at the age of 63. And you know, I don't know about you, but I think a lot of people when they think about aging, that they think about when their parents, you know, passed away if they, if they have passed or how long they're living and how well they're living because you're, you know, genetically, you're kind of can fall the same pathway, follow the same pathway, but you have a lot of control over making those changes. You actually have a lot of things that you can do to improve your path. I turned 60 this year and so I'm thinking, oh my gosh, in my, the first thing that pops in my mind is like, I got three years left .
(27:19): So I am literally doing a whole life review now. I know that most likely, cuz I am pretty healthy, I'm very healthy, I play ultimate Frisbee. I work out, I have a very busy practice. I'm very active and I know that I'm gonna live beyond that. But it makes me think like, wow, that's like, wow, I'm, I'm gonna be 60 this year and I'm gonna really change everything that I can to make, to live the life just the way I want it now. , right? And so if that, and health is so important in terms of your quality of life, you know, so very important. And so it's looking at those things and if you look at life that way, your priorities will change so quickly. Yeah.
(28:07): It's so true. When you speak of cancer, that's what everybody's afraid of and that, you know, one in two of us will get it in our lifetime. So you've got a 50% chance. I remember this story about a woman who was a general surgeon in the town where I practiced gynecology for many years and she, one day I saw her at the health food store in our town and I had never seen her there before and I was in there all the time. So I said, well, what are you doing here? And she said, oh, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. Hmm. And I'm looking for supplements that can help me. She literally said that and I felt so sad because maybe if she had been at the health food store looking at supplements and really improving her health 5, 10, 20 years before, who knows, then she wouldn't be there after the fact.
(29:00): And it's true that when you get a cancer diagnosis, people are willing to change everything. So like when I do the salivary cortisol test and someone comes back like I was when I first did it what, 15, 14 years ago, and I was a flatline, cortisol stage three of genome fatigue. I'm like, you need to act like you have cancer. That's how serious this is. Right? And the people who get it, they get better and they go all about their lives. And the ones who don't, they just keep dragging, dragging, dragging and living half of a life usually emotionally and mentally as well.
(29:36): Yeah. Cause there, and usually the thing that that, that it's those beliefs that I'm not good enough, I don't deserve it. I'm not important, I'm not lovable. There's all of these reasons that people have in that's operating in the background that they don't even have a conscious connection to. But you have to sort of look for that. And a lot of it is rooted in trauma, whether it's a big tea or a little tea, you know. So if you don't have your needs met at certain critical points in your life that can feel like you, you know, aren't lovable or not deserving or if they're, if you had a hypercritical parent or a judgmental parent or a micromanaging parent, you know, which translates sometimes as I don't believe that you can do it, so I have to do it for you, kind of kind of thing.
(30:25): So then you have a loss of confidence in yourself or doubts about yourself. There's all of these experiences that people have in their earlier childhood or even teens and young adulthood that can impact you. And so it's looking for those threads as how that's connected to now. And so when you're finding that you're not moving forward, let's say you are working with someone, a health coach or a doctor, and you find that you're not moving forward in your plan to think about what's going on with me and, you know, that is getting in the way and sometimes it's a part of you, I don't know if you were familiar with internal family systems, which is mm-hmm. part, some people call it parts therapy. Yes. It is tuning into tuning into what is that part of me that's getting in the way? And a lot of times these parts are there to protect you because they protected you at a, at a younger age.
(31:20): And so avoiding something or not doing something is generally a, a pro going into protection mode. And what you need to do is tune into that part of you and recognize, okay, you protected me then, but I, you're not really protecting me now. You're just getting in the way of me accomplishing my goals. And so it's trying to figure out how that part is protecting you and asking to step aside and almost give it another job, so to speak. So in the same way that if you had a 20 year old company or a 30 year old company and you know, the environment changes, the culture changes, and you have to sort of, you know, maybe move staff around. So you might have an employee that has had a job for 20 years and that's going to be phased out because of technology, let's say.
(32:10): And you have, you don't wanna fire them and you by the way, you cannot fire a part. It's very hard to do that. It's better to give them another job, . And so you want to put them in a different department and give them another job and thank them for all their years of service. , you know, you kind of even wanna talk to that part of you because what happens is that people get angry at their, at their parts, they get angry and they at themselves and it's like, I can't believe I said that. What's wrong with me? You know, as opposed to, oh no, the reason I said that was because I defended myself. Because when I was younger, you know, my father yelled at me and, you know, I needed to defend myself in order to protect my little br like there's all these stories mm-hmm.
(32:54): , right, that are connected to the past about why you had a certain behavior. And so because you're older now and have more control, more independent, you can make decisions that you couldn't do when you were a child. You have to sort of give that part of you that protected you during that situation and sort of glean into that part and let him or her or it know that things have changed. I'm older now and I need you to change with me. And here I'm giving you another job to support me in my endeavors so that you can flow, you know, and not have these barriers. Mm-Hmm. constantly being hit by these barriers. So everybody has a whole host of parts that interfere in their ability to reach their goals. Whole host.
(33:44): Yeah. Thank you for going through that. And for anybody who wants to look more into that, I believe it's Richard Schwartz who developed Internal Family Systems and ultimately that was a part of my recovery too. But first I had to get my body not inflamed to get, cuz I always tell my story, but I won't go into it again. Yes. About, I was on five psychoactive medications, so cleaning up my body, fixed that and I got off the medications, but then had to do a lot of internal family systems work and things like that. But for everybody, we, Dr. Aina has some wonderful freebies. Before we wrap up, we're gonna tell you about those, but can you talk about the absolute necessity of hormone balance and gut health? The two are intimately related for helping depression, anxiety, all mental health problems.
(34:31): Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, you mentioned cortisol. Cortisol is a major piece and that's unfortunately not even looked at in the conventional world in the way that we look at it. They only look at it as, as an extreme, as Addison's disease or Cushing's disease, and they just do one morning test. And if it's not high, then they, or too low, then it's like off the table completely, unfortunately. But, you know, adrenaline surges can cause all sorts of problems due to stress, which then releases cortisol chronically. And if you're a child that's been traumatized at a young age, or have lived through very difficult situations, those cortisol levels start at a very young age being chronically elevated at a very young age. And that can affect your development as emotionally as well. So there's higher rates of depression and anxiety as a result of chronic cortisol production from stress alone.
(35:32): So when you're tapped out, then it does cause you to have, you know, absolutely no cortisol and sometimes people need to be put on medications to raise their cortisol levels. So that in itself causes a change in sex hormones. So in order to, in order to, and your, I'm sure your audience already knows that, that when cortisol's high, then there's a drop in the sex hormones, progesterone and testosterone and, and estrogen. And so what we don't realize or don't really connect with when it comes to mental health issues is that there are certain periods in our life when those, there are changes in hormones that that can lead to depression and or anxiety and even psychosis. And what we should be doing is even in an acute situation, is looking at the hormones and, and providing hormones right there on the spot. I had a patient who had two miscarriages because she did not make the progesterone that was necessary to pro, you know, the, the baby, right? You need proje, progesterone is pro gestation, right? Right. So you need high levels of progesterone and she would lose the baby because the progesterone levels dropped. So they put her on progesterone, high levels, high doses of progesterone through pregnancy, and it was a viable pregnancy, delivered it. And then once she delivered it, they stopped the progesterone and she became a acutely psychotic and depressed. It's like, and then what did they do? She was admitted to a psychiatric hospital multiple times and all they used was antipsychotic medics, like just put her back on the progesterone.
(37:14): Oh. I mean, like, how does nobody
(37:17): See that? Like, how does nobody see that? And so I put her back on the progesterone when she came into my door, like, oh my God, you need progesterone . And I put her on h you know, like 200 milligrams of progesterone. She felt significantly better and obviously we had to adjust it, but like right from the get-go, I put her on progesterone . So
(37:37): I know, I I I just wonder if people listening get how once you're trained in the functional root cause model, like Dr. Aina and I are, we look at the way we were trained for mainstream medicine and it's absolutely insane. It's like nobody's thinking , nobody's paying attention. What are you doing? So anyway, proje, I love progesterone. I
(38:02): Call it the I do too. If
(38:04): You feel good sleep well, anti-anxiety, anti-depressant, lose weight, diuretic happy hormone.
(38:09): Yeah. I tend to use progesterone from the get-go for c certain women, especially if they're a perimenopausal or menopausal, if they're having anxiety and sleep and mood changes, especially if those symptoms occur, you know, soon after having the hormonal changes that are part of life, you know, part of a woman's life. And so to make them comfortable, but ultimately, I don't want necessarily to just leave it at that. I, I do the, the whole gut restoration. There's a reason why you're even going through that. You right. There's the hormones were already off even before those changes. So you wanna find out, well why, why are they off? So, so much so that you even need these hormones. So there's hormones for the person who's inflamed. Right? Right. And then there's hormones for the person who wants longevity. And those are two different kinds of people I think, you know, that doesn't necessarily mean that person who's inflamed isn't gonna stay on hormones. They might, but they might not need as many hormones or as much Right. As, as you're taking care of the root causes of inflammation. So you would probably know that better than me because you do that. Oh, day, day, day to day. But
(39:22): Yes, I mean, as you clean, get what I call clean quote unquote, and uninflamed your hormone needs can change. Absolutely. Yeah. But talk a little bit about gut health, because that's was a big issue for your son. And I think we can never emphasize enough for everybody listening because people really don't get this anywhere else. That your gut health is directly related to your hormones. They are besties, they walk down the street holding hands and kissing all the time every day. They are intimate partners. If you'll never get your hormones balanced, if you don't fix your gut. So can you talk a a little bit about that as we wrap up and then we'll definitely tell everyone the resources that you have for them, but can you talk about
(40:10): That? Sure, sure. I mean, the gut is where 80% of your immune system is, and it's also 80% of where your serotonin and dopamine and you know, the neurotransmitters are made. And so if your gut is inflamed and there's lots of reasons why it can get inflamed, it can get inflamed from foods chronic infections, toxins, stress, all of these things can disrupt your gut lining, causing increased gut permeability, resulting in a whole host of problems. So when you have increased gut permeability, that's when foods can cross over into the gut lining causing your immune system to be activated. And that can result in food sensitivities. It opens, it can cause certain pathogens, bact, whether it's bacteria or viruses or candida, parasites, they can all get into that gut lining and again, activate that your immune system. So there's, you have your immune system that's very vigilant and when there is a breach in that lining, different things can surpass that.
(41:21): And the toxins are the last thing, you know, that can surpass that lining and basically get your active, your immune system activated and causing inflammation. So what we do is initially remove, do what we can to remove those foods. And the top two are dairy and gluten, but there's many others that I won't get into. And we wanna remove those infections, we wanna remove whatever toxins that might be in your environment or what you're putting into your body that could be causing inflammation. And the last thing is stress. So, you know, I've talked about the shift, what you wanna shift your body. It's looking at stress hormones, , infections, foods and toxins. Not necessarily in that order, but looking in those five categories about what could be impacting your immune system. Mm-Hmm. . But the gut is where we want to start and we, you know, removing those things, replacing what's been missing.
(42:20): Cuz many times when there's inflammation in the gut, you're not able to absorb the vitamins and minerals and phytonutrients that your body needs. We wanna reinoculate the gut because that's where your second brain is. It's your gut microbiome. is, that's your second brain. And I always wonder if that's really the first brain sometimes. Yeah. So we wanna make sure that your microbiome is healthy. So reinoculating it with probiotics and eating fermented foods, sometimes prebiotics, feedback, gut lining, and on the repair of the gut lining, close off that leaky gut or, you know, decrease that permeability. So, and then it's really looking at what were the factors that caused all of this to happen in the first place. So in order to rebalance it and know where your points of vulnerability are, everybody is vulnerable in different places and everybody has different strengths. So it's knowing where you are vulnerable and kind of padding those areas.
(43:17): And so if you are an anxious person and, and you get stomach aches anytime you're anxious, you see that gut ring connection, it's usually the gut. A lot of times people think it's the brain or the anxiety causing the, the gut symptoms. It's really actually more often the other way around. It's your gut that's causing the anxiety. So, so making that connection and you can definitely do things to improve that connection. We call them vagal nerve stimulation exercises. But even taking cold showers, singing, humming, there's all sorts of things that you can do to strengthen that connection. So that's a lot
(44:01): Yeah. Say,
(44:02): Yeah, that's a lot. So I don't know if I fully answered your question, but that's I think that's it in a nutshell,
(44:10): In a nutshell. And, you know, I just wanna add for everyone, your enteric nervous system, the nervous system around your gut, that Ives your gut has as many nerves in it as your brain in your cranium, right? So it really is a fully functioning brain and it directly is communicating with your hormones and your immune system. And so you've got to get your gut straight to get your hormones straight. But yes, no, thank you for going through all of that.
(44:41): Yeah. It's, it's all connected, like you said.
(44:43): Right. And so Dr. Aina has her book, she's got the first three chapters of her book for you. What if it's not depression or bestselling book? And we'll have the links for all of these in the show notes. So please don't try to write them down if you're driving or doing something or you're operating heavy machinery. And then she's got a couple other resources for you, another freebie called Food for Your Mood and the five R's of Emotional Restoration Workbook. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about what they'll find there?
(45:13): Sure, yeah. I mean, the food for your mood is something that, and anyone can just start, I, everyone should start with a change in their diet. That's the first thing that I have people do. And so that's a great place to start if they want to know what foods to eat that will help improve your mood. And the five Rs of , I'm trying to remember name of my, my own thing, , the five
(45:38): R, I do it all the time.
(45:42): Is basically a workbook that you can do download and do, it's ba the five Rs for the are reflect where you improve your awareness and be conscious of what's happening around you. We talked a little bit about that reframing what's happening by removing and replacing negative thoughts and emotions. Resetting. So reset. And that's where the balancing the microbiome and the gut brain access comes in and resisting, resisting. And it's finding the internal and external roadblocks and rather than acting past them and often making not the best decisions to notice and take in what's happening for me that we're, you know, it's, it's noticing an emotional resistance and also looking at your external roadblocks as well. That's getting in the way of you meeting your goals and then repi. So it's breathing and meditating and connecting with your spirits. And so all of these things are really important to strengthen that physical health, mental health connection.
(46:46): Awesome. Thank you so much for these wonderful resources. Again, everybody listening, we'll have the links in the show notes. Go start with your food. Always. I always start with food too, and five hours of emotional restoration workbook. It sounds very valuable to me. I'm thinking I'm gonna go download it. And I know your book is absolutely wonderful and I, I would be remiss if I didn't ask you, how's your son doing now?
(47:12): Oh, he's doing great. He actually did really well two years, like I said, two years after. And he was off of medications. And then, you know, this is something important for your audience to know is that, you know, he kind of fell off the track a little bit because he became a college student and what happens in college, right? Yeah. You, you drink, you stay up late at night. So his sleep was off and you know, he's putting toxins in his body. , pizza, pizza eating pizza. Exactly. He was no longer gluten or dairy free. And, and then the stress of being in school, pulling all those all-nighters, just trying to ac you know, finish your task. By the time college was over, he was a wreck. . I mean, he was a wreck. But the thing is, he knew exactly what he needed to do to get back on track and within six months he was back feeling well again.
(48:01): So, you know, that's the beauty of functional medicine that you, you know, when you learn these things and you have these habits in place that you know that are working for you and you, it's really, really, really important to journal about this because you are not gonna remember really important to journal about what it is that, that were your big things that made a shift in your health. Because there's going to be a point in your life where things, you're gonna get off track, things happen, right? But if you know what the top three things are to get back on track, it's like you go right to them and that's really, really important. And so he knew exactly what he needed to do, , and he did them. And it didn't take that long, you know, instead of two years, which was an a culmination of 14 years, it was six months.
(48:53): Right. Oh, that's awesome. I'm glad to hear it. And thank you Drena so much for coming and sharing your light and your brilliance and your journey with us today. A lot of people listening who on listen, regular listeners of the podcast, you kind of get about a root cause resolution approach. But one thing you probably don't know is how brave and courageous it is for physicians like Dr. Aina to step out of the line and say, I don't agree with what's being done, and to actually create their own path to do something right that helps people. It's extremely brave, extremely courageous, extremely hard. So thank you for doing what you do and being here.
(49:36): Oh, thank you. Thank you. That really touches my heart. When you said that , it really is like, like yeah, you know, that was hard, .
(49:44): It's very hard.
(49:47): Was hard. Yeah. Yeah. That was, thank you so much for having me.
(49:51): So thank you so much and thank you all for listening and joining us today for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. Hopefully you learned something that you can use in your life to start to transform your health and your life to the high level, the brilliant health that you deserve. I look forward to seeing you next on the show. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
(50:18): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Download Dr. Achina Stein's first 3 chapters of her book - CLICK HERE.
Food For Your Mood - CLICK HERE
5Rs of Emotional Restoration Workbook - CLICK HERE
► Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge by Dr. Kyrin Dunston
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Wondering why your hormones are all out of whack? Ever feel like you’re maintaining a delicate balancing act, but the scales just can’t stay in place? Well, if that sounds like you, then it’s time to join us as we dive into Dr. Norm Robillard’s fascinating insights—on how an unhealthy gut might be disrupting your hormones. With decades of experience under his belt and countless research studies to back him up, this is one episode on midlife hormone balance that no woman should miss!
Norm Robillard, Ph.D., is the founder of Digestive Health Institute and creator of the Fast Tract Diet. He is a strong advocate of natural and integrative solutions for functional gastrointestinal disorders, various forms of gut dysbiosis and related health issues, helping people globally through his consultation practice. The Fast Tract Diet was presented at Digestive Disease Week to give gastroenterologists a science-based treatment option for functional GI disorders and dybioses based on Dr. Norms 3 pillar approach. His award-winning Fast Tract Diet mobile app and Fast Tract Digestion book series make it easy to implement the Fast Tract Diet.
In this episode, you'll learn:
• How an unhealthy gut may affect your hormones.
• What Dr. Norm’s 3-pillar approach is and how it could help rebalance hormones.
• The importance of probiotics in maintaining healthy gut flora.
• Why food sensitivities can play a role in hormone health.
• Plus, Dr. Norm shares his top tips for keeping your digestive system functioning optimally!
So don’t miss out – join us as we explore why your dysfunctional gut might be wrecking your hormones and what to do about it with our incredible guest, Dr. Norm Robillard! Tune in now—you won’t regret it!
Midlife women - let's take back our health and nurture our bodies, together! Join us for this eye-opening episode on why your dysfunctional gut is wrecking your hormones and what you can do about it with Dr. Norm Robillard! Tune in now to learn the secrets of a healthy digestive system and balanced hormones. It's time to start feeling like yourself again!
(00:00): “The best doctor gives the least amount of medicine.” - Benjamin Franklin. If your gut is dysfunctional and running you crazy and you think you've got hormone problems, this episode is for you.
(00:13): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob-gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:06): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today for this discussion on dysfunctional gut issues. What's a dysfunctional gut? Well, think about your dysfunctional family. You know what I'm talking about, right? Holidays where people get drunk and fight start, or people are disconnected, all the dysfunctions that plague modern families. Well, your gut can be dysfunctional too, and maybe it's not something that you're aware of. What does that mean? How you evaluate it? My guest today is an expert in this and he is going to help you understand clearly how do I know if this is me, how do I get tested, what do I do about it? And really get the big picture and detailed picture on what's important. And we're gonna talk about Benjamin Franklin's quote, the best doctor gives the least medicines, not the most.
(01:57): I know some people who go to the doctor and actually get angry when they don't leave with a prescription. Is that you? I really hope not, but it's very true. A lot of people get angry when they don't get medicines, but you'll be healthier overall when you take fewer or no medicines. They don't really fix the problem, they just mask them. Your gut health and microbiome are essential for your hormonal health. I will tell you why in this episode. So you wanna stay tuned for that. We talk about assessing low stomach acid at the Heidelberg Test. If you're not aware of that, we dive into that and much more. So I'll tell you a little bit about Norm and then we'll get started. Norm Robard is a PhD. He is the founder of Digestive Health Institute and creator of the Fast Track Diet is a strong advocate of natural and integrative solutions for functional gastrointestinal disorders, various forms of gut dysbiosis and related health issues, helping people globally through his consultation practice. The fast track diet was presented at Digestive Disease Week to give gastroenterologists a science-based treatment option for functional GI disorders and dysbiosis based on Dr. Norm's three pillar approach, his award-winning fast track diet, mobile app, and fast track digestion book series make it easy to implement the fast track diet. Welcome Norm Robillard to the
(03:24): Show. Thank you Kyrin. Nice to be here.
(03:26): All the way from Boston, Massachusetts with a distinctive accent. I did live there one summer when I worked at the Harvard School of Pub Public Health doing research and it's such a unique accent that I would pick out anywhere I went in the world. So thank you for representing the Northeast
(03:45): , right? In fact, I've lived in California for 10 years and I came back and I still have the accent ,
(03:52): Right? So let's dive into this very important topic. We can't talk about digestive health enough when it comes to hormonal health. And if you're listening and you're still scratching your head going, Kyrin, I don't know why you talk about poop all the time. This is supposed to be about hormones, . You gotta get the memo that your poop is all about your hormones and your hormones are all about your poop. So there's this interconnection. So what really was your path to becoming so passionate about functional gut disorders? Well, let me back up. Let's start with what are functional gut disorders? I don't even think people are familiar with that term.
(04:32): Yeah, well they should get rid of that term as quickly as possible. It's been around a long time and it doesn't have much meaning now because when that term came up, it was, they couldn't find anything organically wrong with you. But yet you had these i b s type symptoms, bloating, altered bowel habits, gas belching, and so they would think, okay, well everything's working, but you have these symptoms. So it's a functional disorder. But we now know that in many of these cases, really the planes hit the mountain. It's not functional and we know a lot more about what's going on. You know, with the more common use of breath testing. We know that there's often an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestine and there should be very few microbes in the small intestine. That's where our own critical digestion takes place. So we now know there's overgrowths and there there's been some studies on which exactly which types of bacteria those are.
(05:34): And basically it's our own microbes overgrowing in the small intestine. And newest studies are starting to focus on some of these what they call proteobacteria like e coli and Klebsiella species. But others have been identified as well, also with various functional, what they used to call functional GI issues. They now know that there's alterations in or intestinal bacteria as a whole. So we have these FILA of bacteria and other organisms such as BDIs firm, acutes, actinobacteria and so on. And we know that there's some significant imbalances there in in people that have these conditions. So in other words, we're find as we find out more about them, they're not functional, they're dysfunctional gut health issues. So it, you know, takes 10 years for things to catch up with what's actually happening in terms of nomenclature and the dogma and the literature. Right.
(06:33): I agree. We should call it dysfunctional gut disorders, just like we have. Some of us have dysfunctional families, dysfunctional gut disorders. Exactly. So you mentioned symptoms of ibs. So how would someone self-identify? I could have a dis or now I'm saying I could have a dysfunctional gut disorder or I could have a functional gut disorder. How would they consider that that might be them?
(06:56): Yeah, well I think that the symptoms of the, kind of the first sign, right? I mean we talked about gas and bloating. You might have a lot of belching or even flatulence, kind of some lower GI gas you might have cramping, reflux is one of those. In fact, acid reflux and I B s are very closely linked. Half the people with IBS have reflux symptoms and half the people with reflux have IBS symptoms. So there's a similar etiology there, but there's other ones, nausea, dehydration, fatigue. Some people don't gain weight or they lose weight. So there's a nutritional component there, which makes sense, right? If you have all of these microbes in your small intestine where, where your vili and the micro viop kind of the, the fibers on top of fiber fibers in all of the surface area in the small intestine, these vili are pretty kind of delicate.
(07:51): And if you have a lot of bacteria in that area and bacteria produce toxins and protease enzymes that can damage the vili and the little enzymes, the brush border enzymes that that radiate out from these microvilli. And so if you don't have those, you won't break down disaccharides, you won't complete the final breakdown of starches. You may not digest and absorb fats well. So the SIBO can cause this mal-absorption that ends up overfeeding these microbes. And when you overfeed these microbes, many of them produce significant amounts of gases. Hydrogen methane, hydrogen sulfide. In fact there was one microbiology study done on these gut bacteria. And if they feed these bacteria essentially one ounce of carbohydrates, right? So some, many of the carbohydrates we absorb into our bloodstream, but many we don't. We take just 30 grams of unabsorbed carbohydrates feed them to, to microbes these gut bacteria.
(08:56): They can produce 10 liters of hydrogen gas. So imagine, whoa, 10 liters of gas in your intestines from one ounce of of unabsorbed carbs. And of course there's a molecular food chain. Some microbes take the hydrogen that one type of bacteria produces and they turn it into methane. In the case of these akea organisms or sulfate reducing bacteria can take the hydrogen and turn it into hydrogen sulfide. So the bottom line is when you're not digesting and absorbing your food efficiently, you're overfeeding these microbes. They produce a lot of these gases and you can end up with a lot of these symptoms. So I think the symptoms to answer your question is the first sign that something's going on. And then you have to really begin to look deeper into what's happening.
(09:43): Right? So just to recap, cuz that was very rich, what you just shared is if you're wondering could I have a functional gut disorder? Basically if you have any of the symptoms that Dr. Norm is talking about, right? The excess belching, indigestion, heartburn, reflux, gassy if you poop less than every time you eat, right? So if you have any degree of constipation, if you have loose stool, hard rabbit pellet stool, you know any symptoms associated with a gastrointestinal tract that wouldn't be diagnosed typically by your regular H M O doctor cuz they're looking for a structural problem or maybe they would diagnose you with reflux, but they're basically gonna give you a drug for it. Can you talk about the pitfalls? Because some people listening are gonna think, oh yeah, I've got reflux, it's no problem. My doctor gave me this proton pump inhibitor and so I'm fine now. I don't have a problem anymore. Dr. Norm. Yeah, what what do you say
(10:45): To that? Yeah, my 18 years of consulting in this field as a consulting microbiologist, I really focus on holistic and dietary and behavioral solutions and perhaps some dietary supplements mostly aimed at improving digestion. Because I recognize that these proton pump inhibitors, for instance, and to a lesser extent H two antagonists, these types of medicines, they basically knock out the ability of your stomach to produce acid. And so when you do reflux and material comes from your stomach and gets up into your esophagus, it might not burn as much. And about half of the people with reflux get symptomatic relief from those types of medicines. Half don't. But the real issue is why are you refluxing? That's what you need to address. Because it's not just acid, it's stomach enzymes, pepin, it can be pancreatic enzymes when they look they find bile, right? Bile is something, it's a caustic molecule.
(11:50): Your liver produces these bile acids stored in your gallbladder, released into your small intestine to help digest fats. And all of these other functions are antimicrobial. But when they reflux back into your stomach and then into your esophagus, they're caustic as well. And the proton pump inhibitors won't do anything about those. And then on top of it, this long-term health consequences of removing your stomach acid. Mm-Hmm. , you may very well have not absorb vitamins like vitamin D, certain B vitamins, B12 because your stomach makes intrinsic factor that that is needed for B12 absorption. You might not absorb iron as well. Magnesium in particular, in fact on proton pump inhibitors, there have been cases with this hypomagnesemia low blood mag magnesium, which is a dangerous condition, cardiovascular metabolic health and even supplementing with magnesium doesn't always correct the issue. So there are long-term consequences of these drugs. And when I work with people, there may be a reason they need to be on a PPI to begin with. Say they have gastritis or an ulcer. Well that is one instance where those can be helpful, but the goal should be really healing that and then giving reflux under control and then getting off of these acid reducing medicines. I've worked with people that have been on them for 20 years. It's a problem at that point.
(13:19): Yeah, it's, I think they're really only approved for short-term use, but doctors put people sometimes on these who are taking them for years and it just decimate the rest of your digestive tract, which affects your hormones. Ladies
(13:35): . Yeah. And your microbiome. There's a number of studies saying that, that reducing the stomach acid on these drugs drives changes in your microbiome. So natural is always the best whenever possible. , that's my motto.
(13:50): So we can't talk about the microbiome enough. We've talked about, you know, how would I know if I had a functional gut disorder? Well actually let's go into this next. What type of evaluation should people be expecting to have if someone really is doing a root cause resolution approach and looking at why they have a dysfunctional gut issue, what kind of testing is available and should they look for an ask for?
(14:13): What I routinely use in, in my consultation practice is comprehensive stool analyses. Now those results won't necessarily tell you whether you have sibo. All right. Small, an overgrowth of bacteria in your small intestine. It's really looking at the composition of your stool. However, first of all, there are many types of dysbiosis. SIBO is one of them. There's also cifo, small intestinal fungal overgrowth. There's libo, what I loosely call libo for an overgrowth in urological biological intestinal overgrowth. And it's based on a couple of studies that are very convincing that you can't have an overgrowth in the early part of your secum and large bowel as well. Mm-Hmm , you can have these methanogens overgrowing that's called imo, forint intestinal methane overgrowth, people that are making too much methane. But you can also have significant imbalances in the composition of the gut microbes in your lo intestine.
(15:11): Right. And when you have that, what are the ramifications of that? So in these stool tests, first of all, you're going to look at a lot of other digestive markers. You're going to look at elastase, which is an enzyme produced from the pancreas. That is an important test. A lot of doctors use just that test itself to determine whether the pancreas is functioning and release, releasing other important digestive enzymes like amylase, lipase and protease. Elastase is just the test they use to assess the pancreas. You're looking at S I G A, secreted immunoglobulin A. In other words, how's your gut immune system doing? I G A is important for gut barrier integrity, for balancing the good and bad microbes. You're going to look at a whole variety of pathogens that may be your problem, right? You can roll in certain other testing, helico, pyuria, bacteria, infect stomach, clostridia, difficile, especially if somebody has chronic diarrhea.
(16:14): But then you also look at all of your, what I call commensal populations, right? The bacti, the firm acutes the proteobacteria on and on, right? A number actinobacteria bifidobacteria. And then you wanna know what do your populations look like in each of those high level and detailed species level breakdown compared to kind of the healthy consensus population. And so it takes a trained eye to really go through these tests, but there's a lot of actionable information in there when you do that. So for instance, what I like to see right off the top, I like to look at the firmicutes and the bact ADIs because those two Fila rep like and Utes are like bacillus and strap. And some of those species, lactobacillus, those are all Utes, bact, ADIs, that's bact, fragiles, bact theta, ITO micron and so forth. They're highly diverse, these two Fila.
(17:16):And they represent 90% of the microbes in your gut, just these two Fila. And so the ratio of those is really important. If you have a lot of these firmicutes over the BDIs that's commonly seen in I B s, it's commonly seen in epilepsy, it's commonly seen in obesity. And it's also common on a plant-based diet. If you eat a lot of plants and your digestion is working well, you may have too many of these firmicutes on an animal-based diet. There's more of the BDIs. And also that's more indicative when somebody is addresses i b s or addresses obesity or addresses the epilepsy. You see that shift. So there's just so much to look at in these comprehensive stool analyses, but there's some of the highlights. Yeah, it's very false.
(18:06): Yes. And I'm wondering if you can speak to the utility of, I'm not sure if you look at this cuz you come from it, gut health from a microbiology standpoint, but food sensitivity testing. And then if you could comment on, are these types of tests that your regular H M O doctors going to order and know how to read?
(18:26): Mm-Hmm. Yeah, that's a good question. Not all of them. Although if you go to certain websites of some of the companies that do this test, like Genova, they have a GI FX test, very good test. I use it often. If you drill into their website, they will point you in the direction in your state to doctors that routinely have accounts with them. You know, for instance, our Digestive health Institute has an account with direct labs, so we can get the test that way, but they'll point you in the direction of doctors that can order these tests. And you brought up an important point. You mentioned food sensitivities and while we're at it how about just kind of inflammatory conditions? Mm-Hmm. . And there are markers in this same test that look at that. For instance, calprotectin. Calprotectin is a protein released from activated white blood cells at the site of inflammation.
(19:17): And so if you have high levels of calprotectin, you're in an inflammatory state. Now it might be just a couple of hundred and okay, that's still high and you need to address it. But somebody with inflammatory bowel disease for instance, they might, might have levels. And I think the units are micrograms per gram of 2000. So it can tell you a lot. Now in terms of food sensitivity, there's EO eosinophil, protein X mm-hmm . And that's considered a marker of kind of food sensitivity. So that's another one you can look at. You can look at lactoferrin, you can look at if there's microscopic signs of blood in your stool because that's another sign potentially of inflammatory bowel disease or even colorectal cancer. So there's a lot in these tests and it's a really good thing to do if you have a lot of gut issues and, and you need to try to understand why and what to do about
(20:14): It. Yes. So I love these tests. I usually use the GI map, that's my favorite. It gives a lot of those markers that's, and you know, I was thinking earlier when you were running through the different species, the bacteria, some people will get tripped up thinking they have to know all these different names. I mean it's helpful if you do, but it's kind of like your friends at church that maybe you know their face but and you wave high, but you might not remember all of their first and last names. You don't need to. So don't feel like it's something that you have to memorize if that trips you up. But you can just learn the ones that are most important. Just like in your communities where you have friends who you know their first and last name, you know where they live, you know their phone numbers.
(20:56): So it's a similar type of community. So consider if you are a candidate for functional gut testing, having some of these tests, food sensitivity is something that I, I really recommend. I don't think there's a perfect food sensitivity test, but I think they all have their pros and cons. So you kind of have to, whoever you decide to work with, I do think having a guide with these types of things is very helpful. Pick which one could work. So tests, don't guess get an evaluation. What are some of the common things that we can do though maybe we can't afford testing. This testing is not inexpensive. I know. Mm-Hmm. , you know, the GI effects with Genova and the GI map or $500 or more. So not everyone can afford that. So what are some steps that people who are having functional issues with their gut might mm-hmm. just start to take from a general basis that could impact how their gut is functioning.
(21:57): Yes. In fact, you can do a lot. In fact, I'll usually start, if there is some testing, especially GI testing or say a SIBO breath test, I will like people to get those samples done before they start kind of some interventions. But oftentimes we'll just work by just taking a complete history of somebody, you know, how long has this been going on? Exactly what are your symptoms, what is your diet like? Is really an area that I dig deep into because I work with people that have very varied dietary preferences. I work with vegetarians, pescatarians, mostly omnivores, but a good number of vegetarians and pescatarians and once in a great while of vegan as well. But it matters because we had talked about this molecular food chain, right? When you consume food, right, it consists of proteins, fats, and carbohydrates, right? Those are the three food groups.
(22:54): And while the microbes in our gut can utilize some of the amino acids from proteins for energy, there are some bacteria, these sulfate reducing bacteria for instance, that no tricks how to get energy from fats. It's not a high energy deal, but they can do it. But the microbes in our gut get most of their energy from carbohydrates. So if you're on a plant-based diet, you are consuming a lot more carbohydrates. And the five that I really focus on, and I look for when I, when people tell me what they're eating is fructose and lactose. Two sugars that tend to be difficult to digest, to absorb. And in the case of lactose digest with lactose intolerant people, but also resistant starch fibers and there's a huge variety of fibers and sugar alcohols. There's many sugar alcohols difficult to digest, but yet all of these are fermentable by microbes.
(23:51): And by the way, there is one kind of gut-friendly sugar alcohol called erythritol that won't drive these overgrowths and all this gas that we've talked about, but the other species can, if you're not digesting and absorbing these foods, well in fact we don't digest fiber by definition that you can overfeed these microbes. And there's a common belief these days that we're actually starving our microbes, that we need to eat more fiber and more fermentable material. More of these five types that I mentioned. I reject that if somebody's perfectly healthy and they're not having any of these GI issues, okay, I won't, I won't chime in, but for people that are having a lot of gas, altered bowel habits, bloating, all of these symptoms, I will really look closely at their diet and then focus in on their digestion and say, what, what's wrong here? Why are these microbes being essentially overfed in your case?
(24:47): And so it gets to kind of the mechanistic part of it. And so if you had to break down the fast track diet, that's a diet I created. I've written a couple books on it or my consulting practice, I always focus on these three important areas, diet and digestion, right? What are you eating and is that diet matched with your ability to digest and absorb those nutrients efficiently or is there a, a mismatch? So diet and digestion is big. And then the next part is root cause analysis, right? What are these potential underlying or contributing causes? As many of these, you know, probably a hundred if you consider the rare ones, but 25 or 30 or 35 are relatively common and they won't be common to everybody. So we have to, in most cases rule most of them out to really focus in on what is the most likely underlying cause or causes in that particular case.
(25:45): Cuz it's somebody that has hypochlorhydria, low stomach acid and there's all these risk factors and reasons for that. Is it somebody that has pancreatic insufficiency, right? We talked about the elastase test to measure that. But even if you don't it say you can't afford the stool test, you can just try a digestive enzyme that contains pancreatic enzymes. And the same goes with these brush border enzymes, these disaccharides, lactase, sucres, maltase, iso, maltase tris, it's many of them. They can be damaged on the brush border. It's not easy to get that test done. They usually use that test for kids with genetic deficiencies in these enzymes because it's a very dangerous condition. But we now know in adults with these functional GI issues, I, I'm using the term too dysfunctional GI conditions, right? , they, it's very common for them to have these brush border deficiencies. We now know very recent work up to 70% or more have these deficiencies.
(26:44): Testing requires endoscopy, taking biopsies, send it to highly specialized labs, probably expensive. But instead there are also digestive enzymes you can get that have brush border enzymes. So these are kind of workarounds. You can say, well this testing is too much, it's too involved. Instead I want you to try this particular dietary supplement that has either the pancreatic or the brush border enzymes and let and of course modulate your diet. I almost always recommend people to significantly reduce their overall levels of carbohydrates. Any more proteins and fats for the reasons I stated that those are less invasive or less li likely to drive overgrowths and dysbiosis. So reduce the carbs and then reduce in particular these five types of carbs I mentioned. And if you have a brush border deficiency, even the easier to digest starches may be a problem. In the fast track digestion books, I I break down starches into two groups, resistant starch starches that have more of a starch called amlo.
(27:53): It's harder to digest or le or less resistant star, which has more amylopectin, an easy to digest species of scotch. So jasmine rice and sushi rice, it's an easier to digest scotch, uncle Bens and wild rice and bosma rice, more of the resistant scotch. So I'll say, well if you're going to have starches stick with jasmine or sushi rice, I'll, I'll add some particular name brands that I like and cook it properly in a rice cooker if possible with plenty of moisture. And then limit your serving size, right? When you cut your serving size from a cup down to a half a cup, you cut these fp points that it's a calculation I created in the book to measure how much of these fermentable carbs you're consuming on whole. When you cut your portions in half, you cut these points in half and you cut your symptom potential in half. So I'll say eat less, follow these particular behaviors and practices or just avoid starches for the next month until we really get to the bottom of this.
(28:55): Yeah, I, you know, and when from a hormonal perspective, when you're saying sushi rice or jasmine rice, those are white rices, I'm thinking immediately, oh that's gonna mess up your insulin. Don't do that. Just don't eat it . No, but I hear very good point. I hear what you're saying looking at, yeah, right. So we've always gotta consider, you know, gut health with hormones and then hormones, he hormone health with gut health. And I think when we neglect one, we neglect to think about the other when we're, we're addressing one part that we can cause more problems. But yeah, so diet is super important. Sometimes you just can do empiric treatment if you can't afford testing, you can try a brush border enzyme or try adding retain and Pepsis. And I remember when I worked at the, the clinic in Atlanta, you know, getting at what is your stomach acid level? Do you have hypochlorhydria is really hard. Although most people over 30, and especially with each advancing decade, we increasingly have it till when we're in our seventh decade almost all of us have hypochlorhydria, meaning not enough stomach acid. So we actually had a Heidelberg machine
(30:05): , huh, wow, good for you to
(30:08): Test, right? Like who has
(30:10): That's
(30:10): Impressive Heidelberg machine.
(30:11): Yeah.
(30:12): Right. So some people are listening, you're going, what is a Heidelberg machine? So like I said, getting at a measurement of your exact stomach acid level is very difficult. But with the Heidelberg machine, you swallow a capsule and then it radio transmits the pH level to a de sensor outside and you get a computer readout of how your stomach acid changes over time in response to certain things. And it's this beautiful test. But like I said, you don't really need that test. If you're over 30, you probably have some degree of hypochlorhydria. You have gerd, you definitely do. If you've been on a P P I, you definitely do. So sometimes you can just treat empirically as that kind of, what is your approach to stomach acid disorders? Mm-Hmm. .
(30:56): Yeah, no, that's very good. And I, I wanna get into that, the Heidelberg and also risk factors for low stomach, but just wanted to comment on something you said earlier. Yeah, you bring up a very good point about, okay, the, the rices I mentioned that are less problematic for your digestion also going to raise your blood sugar more, right? They're higher glycemic index, right Rices, right. The bosma and Uncle Bens is a lower gi, lower glycemic index and higher FP and the jasmine rice and sushi rice, a higher glycemic index, higher gi, but lower fp. So they're easier on your digestive tract. If you have, you do need the brush border enzymes though, which complete the breakdown of starches. Amylase doesn't do all of it. You need the brush border enzymes as well. But let's assume they're working. And so Jasmine rice is a good fit for you in terms of your digestive wellbeing, but it, it is going to raise your blood sugar.
(31:47): And that's a point I do bring that up in my book. And that's one of the reasons we also recommend smaller servings of high GI, low FP foods because they will raise your blood sugar and the last thing you want to do is get into a situation with metabolic disorders or pre-diabetes or even diabetes, you know, insulin related illnesses. So we're very cognizant of that. So we know there is that trade off and so I'm glad you brought that up. Regarding stomach acid, this is really fascinating and I, I agree with you. Some people will just kind of say, well you're on a P P I when you get off the P P I, we're gonna make a lot of changes in dietary and behavioral changes get you off the PPIs and hopefully your stomach acid will pump back. Might be that simple. But for a lot of people they could have significant issues.
(32:33): They may have pernicious anemia. It's an autoimmune condition where your own antibodies are attacking these parietal cells that produce the stomach acid, right? And you wanna know about that if you have it. And of course you may also have low B12 levels because intrinsic factor is needed for absorption of b12, a Heidelberg test. And it's just fantastic that you once had one. I too bad. You can still have it. You can. I just received one of those test results this morning from one of my clients and was going through it. It's an amazing test. But before I recommend that to somebody, I really do look at the risk factors for hypochlorhydria and there and there's some risk risk factors for hyperchlorhydria too. Too much stomach acid. Mm-Hmm . But I look at whether they have had an endoscopy before. If they have gastritis, that's a big risk factor.
(33:22): And often gastritis is caused from a chronic infection with this bacteri helico back to Pylori. And so I wanna make sure they've been tested for helico back to Pylori. You can get it in a stool test, there's a breath test for it and so forth. I wouldn't recommend the blood test because that will just tell you whether you've ever had it. You wanna know whether you have it. So gastritis, whether you're h pylori positive or negative. If you abuse NSAIDs, non-steroid anti-inflammatories like aspirin and ibuprofen, that's very irritating on the stomach. Can lead, can lead to gastritis if you had Hashimotos, right? Hypothyroidism, autoimmune hypothyroidism, you're at greater risk for pernicious anemia. And so there's more of these. So working through these risk factors, I can usually reach a point where I can say, you know what, you're at very low risk for hypochlorhydria, let's move on.
(34:11): But if the answer comes back and says you're at a moderate to high risk for it, we might either take some action steps or let's look for a place near you, a practice near you that has the Heidelberg. So it's just, it's great you brought that up. And when you go to the Heidelberg website, I forget what the name of the website is, but if you just google Heidelberg acid test, you'll see the website. They do have by state places that still do the tests so you can find them. I'm really frustrated that every teaching hospital in every state doesn't have the ability to do this because for people that that aren't familiar with the test, you are not just measuring whether somebody has acid or not in their stomach, as you mentioned. You take this capsule, you swallow it, but it dangles on a string and they, and by the pH right, it radios up to a laptop and by the pH being really low you can see, okay, you're in the stomach and that's, they might put a piece of tape there and you know it's sting in the stomach.
(35:08): But the secret to that test is you can now tell what your stomach acid is and that capsule isn't going anywhere and they give you these drinks of sodium bicarbonate. Mm-Hmm That will raise the stomach acid back closer to neutrality six or six and a half, seven. And then they see how long it takes for your parietal cells to produce enough stomach acid to lower the acid back down to between pH one and two very acidic. And if it takes a real long time, then you may be diagnosed with hypochlorhydria. Now if it does it in 10 or 15 minutes, okay that's okay. But then they'll give you another drink and then once the stomach acid regains itself, they'll give you another drink, three or four of these. And so you can see if your stomach can reas acidify each of these times. If you end up with a space of about 40 or 50 minutes or an hour, then that might indicate that you have hypochlorhydria, your stomach just isn't able to keep up Reac acidifying itself.
(36:06): Yeah. And you know, after I was so excited to get to work with this machine, but I have to say after, you know, hundreds reading hundreds of these tests, I've never seen one in a human over 40 who wasn't having health problem, who was having health problems that wasn't abnormal. So I do think it's
(36:25): A great test. Well I seen, I've seen both and I've, I had one client that we suspect that he had low stomach acid. He was actually a hypers secret
(36:32): Secret, very interesting.
(36:33): Five minutes every time just making right stomach acid. So, and that can happen if you have dysregulation of gastro producing cells in the lower part of the stomach, which when those are expressed to stimulate stomach acid, they stimulate histamine release and that binds to the bridal cells and drive stomach acid. So there are a lot of possibilities that you pyloric sphincter in how healthy that's working can allow reflux from the small intestine back into the stomach that can throw off stomach acid results. So there's a lot of things to consider. It can be a little bit complicated, but I still think it's a great test right to look at in some cases.
(37:14): I do too. I wanna tie everything we're kind of talking about together with hormones for everyone because I know some people are still wondering K Kiran, why are you always talking about poop , we're supposed to talk about hormones so I just wanna tie it in as succinctly as I can. But your gastrointestinal tract is actually your biggest interface with the external environment. I know it's on the inside of your body, but you're taking the external environment and you are putting it inside of you. The surface area of your gut is as big as two doubles tennis courts, which is way bigger than the surface area of your skin. So everything you take into your mouth is contacting you. So it being the biggest contact with your external environment, it is the highest concentration of your immune system designed to protect you. It's your body's military all along your gastrointestinal tract.
(38:09): And that is directly related to your cortisol. Stress hormone is directly related to your immune system function is directly related to your gut function. So if your gut isn't right, your immune system's not gonna be right and your cortisol's not gonna be right. And your cortisol, I call her queen cortisol, is going to wreck havoc with your sex hormones. So you might have PMs heavy painful periods and you think all you've got is a period problem. No, you could have a gut problem or it's gonna wreck havoc with your thyroid hormone and you think you've got a thyroid problem cuz then you're overweight and tired and you don't have a primary thyroid problem, you actually have a gut problem. So if you listen to me long enough, you know what I'm talking about. If you're still scratching your head going, what in the world is she talking about?
(38:55): Keep listening, come meet me on social media, join one of my challenges, we will get you up to speed on why your PU poop is good. Poop is essential to hormone health. Thank you Norm for furthering the understanding for everyone today in a very deep and meaningful way about functional or dysfunctional gut disorders. Before we wrap up, I wanna just ask you a couple things. The first is you shared a couple quotes with me before we started that I absolutely love and you said from Benjamin Franklin, whom I love the best doctor gives the least medicines. Mm-Hmm , can you talk a little bit about that and then we'll go ahead and wrap up?
(39:38): Yeah, well in my fast track digestion books, I use a different quote at the beginning of every chapter. So I kind of like you, I love those. And the back one is your health depends on the bacteria in your gut. So I think that sums up a lot of what we were talking about. But in terms of the best doctor gives the least medicine, I mean I've really come to believe that and I've, I've been on both sides of the fence. I spent the first 20 years of my career after graduating from school in the Fama biotech industry developing new drugs. And I like the idea of working on these difficult diseases with unmet medical needs and coming up with, with a drug or a solution that that works for these serious conditions. You know, for, and I spent 10 years just on antibiotics and they're lifesaving medicines.
(40:27): I worked on the development and approval of ciprofloxin. They're lifesavers but they're also really rough on the gut. And so when I see more and more of these kind of strong medicines being used for people with these digestive health issues that I think could better be addressed by holistic means, especially antibiotics, because those are, those really disrupt the, the microbiome. It drives me crazy, but I think it's both the manufacturers that make money on the drugs, on the doctors, it's easy to prescribe something, but also patience. Well, I can just take this pill and keep eating what I want to eat. That sounds like a
(41:07): Good deal . But
(41:09): So when I work with people, it does take, you have to be willing to make some changes and to really look at things in a way that, you know, you may have to change your diet and change your behaviors and try some more holistic supplements. We talked about digestive en enzymes as many, many others and get away from these harsher drugs. So that's what that means. So first chapter of that fast track digestion, i b s book is all about the drugs for i b s and the conclusion at the end of it is it's a big fail. They, they're terrible and so we need to find a different way.
(41:42): Right. Awesome. Well everybody, norm is giving you a free copy of his hashtag Diet 1 0 1 ebook. We will have the link in the show notes, so definitely encourage you if you have dysfunctional gut issues to download that and read that. Tell everybody where else they can find out more about you and the work that, that you do.
(42:02): Sure. Every aspect of our work and also our consultation services, blogs, information about the fast track digestion books is one on i b s and Hot Burn. The Fast Track Diet mobile app I haven't really talked about. But this mobile app is, is just the greatest way to implement the diet. It uses this FP calculation and so there's, it's got a database of over 1200 foods and their FP values and a calculator to calculate this fp value for foods that might not be on the list. So those resources can also be found in the same place. Everything can be found@digestivehealthinstitute.org.
(42:40): Awesome. Well, I invite everybody who is interested to go and check that out and get that valuable resource. Thank you so much, norm for this deep conversation, deep dive into functional gut issues and what to do about them.
(42:54): Well, thank you Karen. Good questions,
(42:56): And thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you've heard something here today that will be impactful for your health and your life so that you can make changes to move you towards the brilliant health that you deserve to be experiencing if you are not there yet. Stay tuned. Next week I will have another wonderful guest and episode helping you better understand your health and your body from a functional approach and how to improve it. And I'll see you again next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
(43:30): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Free Fast Track Diet 101 ebook from Dr. Norm Robillard - CLICK HERE
► Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge by Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Are you struggling to find the right solution to get your hormones and metabolism back in balance?
If you're feeling like nothing is working, it's time to try something else! Our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge was designed specifically for those who are looking for a long-term way out of their hormone and energy struggles. We’ll help you understand what doctors aren’t telling about how hormones affect weight gain, energy levels, and overall wellbeing.
With our easy-to-follow 7 day plan, no more will you feel confused by your condition or overwhelmed about how to fight against it - we'll give you all the tools needed so that within just 7 days from now YOU can start experiencing true health bliss again!
Join us today on this journey into hormone balance bliss - CLICK HERE to sign up now and get started on reclaiming your mojo!
Have you been feeling stuck and unable to move forward in your health journey? You are not alone! Midlife can be a tricky time, and it’s natural to feel overwhelmed. In this solo episode of Dr. Kyrin Dunston in The Hormone Prescription Podcast, she shares the third essential step for healing your hormones: recognizing the gap between where you are now and where you want to be.
You'll learn about:
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How to identify and unlock the limits you’ve internalized;
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How to recognize the gap between where you are now and where you want to be;
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What hero's journey are you on, and what hero's journey do you need to take?
Dr. Dunston provides insights into how midlife women can take their power back by reclaiming their unique identity and taking ownership of their health. It’s time for us all to break out of our comfort zones and transform into our true selves. So tune in now for an inspiring episode that will empower you toward your health goals!
It’s never too late to make a change for the better – so join Dr. Dunston to unlock the hero inside you, and take a stand for your brilliant health.
You can find this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast on iTunes, Spotify, and other podcasting platforms. Follow along with Dr. Dunston's journey as she guides midlife women through hormone balancing to reclaim their vibrant health!
Listen now, and start transforming into the best version of yourself today!
You’ve got this – it’s time to become your own health hero.
(00:00): What hero's journey are you on? And what hero's journey do you need to take to balance your hormones and create the brilliant health that you deserve? Find out next.
(00:13): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:06): Hey, it's Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me again for this part three of three series on the essential foundational steps that you must take in order to balance your hormones and create the brilliant health that you deserve. Hopefully you watched or listened to video one or podcast one and two, cuz they set the foundation for this third one. So if you didn't check 'em out, go listen to those first before you listen to this one. So today we're gonna talk about the third essential step. I'm here in Tulum, Mexico, you might have been here, maybe you've been to Cancun. I've been to Cancun, very commercial and built up beautiful, right? Love the culture, love the people, and I decided to come here for some r and r and it's way less developed and natural here. So that's more my speed. I'm more of a nature girl than a big city girl, even though I grew up in New York City.
(02:07): So anyway, they have something very unique here that I kind of love and I bet you would love it too because it's a little bit of serendipity. So what is it that they have? The first day I was here, the internet was down in my condo and I had to do a live class online. So I found a workspace around the corner, which I walked to, and I saw this street sign that said, you are your own limit. It was a legit street sign, just like a speed sign or a stop sign or a sign saying, you know, exit 2 49 for this city. It was on the road and it said, you are your own limit. I had never seen a street sign like that, right? I've only seen traffic instructional signs or street name signs. I had never seen an inspirational street sign. And I saw it and I laughed because it was such serendipity.
(03:10): You know how something you don't expect to see, right? I thought it was gonna be a speed limit or instruction and it's like you are your own limit. So I laughed, I chuckled because I loved it because it's so true that we really are unlimited beings, our capacity, right? I think studies say that we only use about 10% of our brain power, and we have so much more. And I think we're kind of going into an age now where we're starting to learn about our gifts as a collective, as and as individuals and how unique we each are and celebrating the unique gifts that we have, right? One person might be in Einstein with a very high IQ and they solve complex math problems that may not be someone else's unique genius, but we're starting to honor the unique genius in each of us. But if we all think we're supposed to be like Einstein intellectuals with high IQ who can solve math problems, which kind of has been the paradigm for a long time in society, and we've all measured ourselves against that yardstick, how smart are we?
(04:20): How well are, do we do it math, right? Or can we write? Then we miss the uniqueness of ourselves. And so I, this sign spoke to me of you are your own limit that we're, we have these internal limits that we internalize the expectations that society places on us and then we stop ourselves from expressing who we uniquely are. Can you relate to that? I know I can relate to that and I know some of you I've talked to have done that too. So I'm not alone in this, but we're starting to express our own uniqueness. So what does this have to do with the third essential step to hormone balance and healing? Well, the third essential step is that you've got to recognize the gap from where you are that you looked at in step one, where you got brutally honest with yourself about what are all the health symptoms I'm having and what are the false beliefs I'm having about my health situation, right?
(05:30): So you got a really painful look up close, look in-depth, look at how bad it is and the pain that you're experiencing. You might also wanna write about how it's affecting your life, right? And the cost of being in that place. What does it cost you financially? What does it cost you in terms of time? What does it cost you in terms of unlived relationships and careers, right? So there are monetary costs, there are time costs, and there are intangible costs to all of the problems that we outline in step one. So you got really clear on that. And then in step two, I told you, get in touch with the vision for your life because those are your imaginable cell blueprint from your soul to where you are meant to go. And I invited you to write about it and do a vision board and get really clear on where you're going.
(06:25): So you have the pain and then you've got the pleasure. But next, you've got to look at the gap between these two extremes. Now, for some of you, it's not that big a gap, right? Maybe you've just got a few problems, you haven't been dealing with them for that long, hasn't affected your life and your relationships and your money and your time that much. And maybe your vision isn't that grand, right? We all have different size, different types of visions, so maybe it doesn't feel so uncomfortable. Although if you're lost and you don't know how to get there and you've tried a lot of different things, that gap can be very painful even though it's small cuz you have no idea how to get there. And for some of you that gap is huge. You're like, like I was when I was in my forties, a hundred pounds overweight, depression and anxiety so bad that it makes it hard for you to function on a daily basis.
(07:24): Your relationships are being affected by it, your work is being affected by it. You're on several psychoactive medications, you have irritable bowel, you don't know if you're gonna poop or not for days or weeks or poop 10 times in one day. You don't know what's going on with your stomach. You have no sex drive. Your relationship's failing because of it or whatever problems you have. That's what I had. My health was terrible. And as a board certified ob, g n, who was supposed to know more about women's health than anyone else, I was clueless how to get out of this. So my pain was severe and I even thought about suicide at times. It was that bad. I was that hopeless and desperate. And where I wanted to go was this beautiful dream that I had since I was a young person of helping women with their health.
(08:20): And I clearly was not in a position to do that. So my gap seemed as big as the Grand Canyon, and maybe yours does too. I couldn't see how I was possibly gonna get from that to where I am now, but I'm living proof that it can happen, right? And I'm also living proof that it starts with getting honest, honoring your dream. I knew that's this is what I was meant to be doing. I just didn't know how to get there. So getting honest about the gap, really going back to that step one and being honest and writing out like Scrooge in the movie, he looks at the ghosts of Christmas pass, come visit him, ghosts of Christmas present and the ghost of Christmas future. And he gets a real good look at where he was, where he is now, and how dismal his life is gonna be if he continues on this trajectory.
(09:18): I invite you to do that for yourself because otherwise I've seen women delude themselves for decades until it's too late. And I don't want that to be you. So until you get a clear picture of the trajectory that you've been on and where your health is headed and where you are gonna end up in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years, if you continue on the same trajectory, you really can't get honest with yourself. And until you get really honest with yourself about the dreams that you have. Now, some people, I do an exercise where I have you close your eyes and I'll give you a mini version of it. And then I have you pretend there's a book in your lap and you open the book to the current day and all the pages on the left of the book have been written on because you've lived all the days of your life up until today.
(10:16): And then in the page that's open is today, and you get to decide what happens that you write today. And then all the pages and the rest of the book to the right are blank. And you get to decide what's written on those pages. And we're always creating every single day. We're creating our health, we're creating our life. Most of us create by default. We just live the same thing that we've been living because we have habits and we just do the same thing. We don't know what else to do or we feel hopeless or we're otherwise stuck. So we're creating by default, but what if we could create on purpose? And it's that vision in step two, that's the imaginable cells of your soul calling you to the butterfly that you are. That is what you need to honor in writing those pages on the right, you get to decide.
(11:10): So you get in touch with the pain, in touch with what you want, and then you're faced with the chasm. And a lot of you, that's where you're gonna falter and stumble and not get up. And you're gonna go, oh, it's too much. I can't do it. I can't get from there to here. And if you've taken steps one and you've taken steps two, you absolutely can get from there to where you wanna be. What does it require? If you've really done a thorough job with steps one and two, it requires getting someone who knows the path who can help you bridge the chasm, right? In every movie you've ever seen Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz, one of my favorites, hopefully you like it too. Does she get the golden slippers and go home by herself? She's in a strange land drop with munchkins , right?
(12:08): On a house, right? And she falls from the sky and she's in munchkin land. She's in a very strange land with talking tin men and lions and straw men that sing and dance. And all she wants to do is go home, right? So what's her pain? She's not home. She's not with her family. She wants to get home. That's her vision. Does she get there by herself? No. She has guides. She has the Tin Man, the lion and the scarecrow, and she has the good witch and they help and guide her on her way. She also has her dog toto and they help her on the path. Star Wars, another wonderful movie. Does Luke Skywalker know how to defeat Darth Vader by himself? Only he can do it. He has to do it. That's the pain he is experiencing. He can't do it by himself.
(13:12): He has to train and then he can accomplish the task. The Karate Kids has a big dilemma. His pain is he can't do karate well, and he needs to be able to do that so he can win. So what does he get? A guide wax on, wax off, who teaches him how to paint and do karate? So this brings me to the Hero's Journey. Maybe you've heard of that, maybe you haven't. So it's something that Joseph Campbell outlined many years ago about the mythic archetypes that we all play and take turns playing in life for women. A lot of us at some point play the Maiden. We play Theron. A lot of people, not just women, may not literally play the prostitute, but some of us in life will pay the play the prostitute in other ways. Meaning that we do something for somebody else that we don't really wanna do in order to get money.
(14:15): So if you're in a job that you hate, it's somewhat of a prostitute archetype. He also outlined the Hero's Journey. It's a journey that we all take usually multiple times in our lives in different areas. And it has 12 classic parts. You're welcome to look it up on the internet. I'm not gonna go through all of them, but all movies, all great movies follow this storyline where there's a protagonist who encounters a seemingly insurmountable problem early on, right? And the Wizard of Oz, she's in a strange land, wants to get home. Luke Skywalker and Star Wars has to defeat Darth Vader. Ralph Machio played the karate kid. He needed to defeat others in karate and didn't know how to do karate, right? So they're faced with this huge dilemma and they can't figure out, it's usually a matter of life or death or some, they're big stakes and they have to figure out how to accomplish the goal.
(15:23): And there's always a guide that's involved in helping them achieve the goal. So you are on your own hero's journey with your health problems. I know you don't wanna be , right? We're all the reluctant heroes usually on our journey, but you are. And the sooner you recognize it, the better off you'll be. And when you've seen clearly where you are and gotten honest, and you've seen clearly what your soul is calling you to do, which starts with healing, and you see the gap of where you are and where you must be, you are on the hero's journey whether you want to be or not. So accepting it allows you to lean into it and get better results because you know you need a guide and you can't figure this out yourself, right? So Dorothy didn't go online and Google, I'm in az. How the heck do I get the go the Ruby slippers and get home, right?
(16:18): Even if they had the internet nowadays, she wouldn't have been able to get the answer. Luke Skywalker didn't and couldn't, wouldn't Google. How do I defeat Darth Vader and Ralph Machi as a karate kid? Wouldn't Google be able to learn how to perform award-winning karate where he could actually defeat someone? Why? Because these are skills that need to be taught by other humans who know the path to through the difficulty. It requires coaches who have been there and done that and have the expertise to coach you real time into doing the thing. So you can't learn it from a blog article, how to Get Out Of Oz and Go home. You can't learn how to defeat Darth Vader from a podcast, right? It's just not gonna happen. It requires guides to surround you and love you, and nurture you and boost you and tell you the steps you need to do so that you can do the thing we talked about in the first lesson, how you've gotta be discerning about who you get to help you, who actually can help you.
(17:30): And then the biggest thing about the Her hero's journey that you'll learn is that they're actually two hero's journey to every hero's journey. And you'll see that if you look it up. So what do I mean by that? There's the journey that you obviously go on, right? So Dorothy wanted to get home from Oz, that was her goal, but there's a second journey that she went on that if we're paying attention usually gives the most meaning to these great films and stories. And that is who she became in the process of going on this journey. And if you watch the movie again, , I know a bunch, you gonna go watch it, you will see that she's a different person when she goes back home to Kansas than when she left. And Luke Skywalker has a new confidence and sense of self after he defeats Darth Vader.
(18:29): And Ralph Macio is a different person also. So yes, the goal of the journey is to bridge the gap and get where you wanna be. But it's also to become that person who could, who can and did do the thing. So my hero's journey was I was ob gyn in my forties with horrible health and I wanted to get here where I am now and helping other women. But more than that was I wanted to become the doctor who had all the tools who could help the women bridge their own gap. And so that's who I've become. And only you know who it is that your soul is calling you to become. And that first step looks like the health gap, bridging the health gap, but it's who you're gonna become because when you become competent in that, you get a certain self-assurance and confidence in doing so many other things in your life that your soul is calling you to do.
(19:35): So another set of street signs that I've seen here while I've been in Tulum, there's another one that's kind of iconic. You may have seen me or will see me on my Instagram channel by this sign that says Follow your dreams. Another just benign street sign that says Follow your dreams. And people say You haven't been to Lo to Tulum if you haven't gotten your picture in front of that sign. So I had to go get a picture so you can see it on Instagram. And then I saw another one that just delighted me to know. And so I use a bike here as my transportation traffic's terrible. So they tell you, get a bike. So I got a bike and I ride it everywhere to the supermarket to eat to the beach. And so I'm riding my bike down to the beach and I see these three triangular signs all in a row.
(20:24): 1, 2, 3, right? They're yellow with the black kind of outline. So they look like maybe they should be speed signs. But the first one says, if not, and I'm writing, writing, writing, the next one says, now writing, writing, writing. When question mark, I thought it was so cute, I had to circle back and take pictures of them. And maybe I'll post those on social media too, cuz they're super cute. If not now when? And if you're coming the other direction, it says it in Spanish so you can see it in Spanish coming one way and English and going the other. If not now when I don't know who pays for these street signs here in Tulum, I don't know if it's an interested, inspirational private party that just likes inspiring people. I don't know if the government actually funds these cuz they're actually, I can't see how an independent citizen could put a sign on the side of the road like that.
(21:27): So I don't know. I'm gonna have to research it. But in any case, I love it, I love it. I love little inspiration. I love inspirational bumper stickers or signs. And so that one spoke to me too, and I started thinking, what am I procrastinating on that I need to get moving on? If not now, when? Right? We have a begin date to our life and an end date, right? Everybody's tombstone has a begin date, a dash and an end date, and we're living the dash and it's our health that gives us that dash. When we run outta health, our dash ends and we get an end date, an expiration date, right? Whether we like it or not, it's a sad truth that most of us try to ignore, but it's a fact and it's honestly what keeps me honest. It keeps me moving forward.
(22:18): What do I need to be doing for women and for their health? How can I do it better? How can I do it more? What do I need to be saying? Where do I need to be showing up, right? So you call this fourth from me, that's why I'm here. And I want you to know, get honest. Step one about all the pain points you're dealing with. Get honest that the channels you're looking for answers in aren't gonna work. Get honest that it's not one thing. Get honest about all the time, money, and effort and tears that you have wasted in the wrong answers. Step two, I want you to honor your dreams. It is your soul calling forth what you came here to express. And that starts with great health. I want you to write it out what it's gonna be like when you accomplish the health you want and all the things you want in your life.
(23:11): And then three, I want you to honor that gap. And I want you to get clear on how you're gonna follow your dreams. How you're gonna not be your own limit. Like that sign said, you are your own limit. Most of us, before we even can get the help outside, we've stopped ourself. I can't afford it, it's gonna be too expensive, it's gonna be too hard. I won't be able to follow it, right? It's not gonna work. I don't trust myself, I don't trust them, right? We have all these stuck thoughts in our head. It's not possible for me. I don't deserve it. You identify all the stuck thoughts that you have that are keeping you stuck in that gap, right? And then you get eye to eye with yourself in the mirror and you examine, do I really want to believe this? And is it true?
(24:05): And would I say this to my friend? What do you say to your friend? It's not possible for you. You can't have that. You can't do it. You're not trustworthy, you're not worthy of the time, you're not worthy of the money, right? We say things to ourselves internally that we would never say to someone we love. So self-love is about speaking to yourself internally. Like you speak to your loved ones externally with the same encouragement, tenderness, understanding, and nurturing. So get honest with yourself about that and then honor the Tulum signed. If not now, when there's so many people who, I'll say some people who say, oh yeah, I know I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna take care of that when I retire in three years. I'm gonna take care of that when I get off. Nice shift. I'm gonna take care of that when, when, when, when.
(25:09): Right? So meanwhile, health problems are accruing all the ones that you know about are getting worse. And the problem is that there are a lot of them that you don't know about that your hormone imbalances are affecting. So I hope you've enjoyed this series. I thought it was super important cuz I see people all over the internet talking about, here's the one thing you need to do. Take this one supplement for your hormone problems. Here's the one diet you need to follow. And I'm a much deeper person who takes a deeper approach and who recognizes that my journey to health and healing actually started years before I discovered a root cause approach. And when I saw that, yes, some people picked up the tools, I taught them and their health and life were forever changed. But some people did the tools for a while and did get results, but then they stopped and some people could never pick up the tools.
(26:05): I went back scratching my head and going, what am I missing? I realized that my journey didn't start when I thought it started with the learning the tools of a root cause resolution approach. It actually started several years before when I got thrown off a horse and broke my foot. And that's a story for another time. So you'll have to come back so you can hear that story. But this is your story and that's what this is about. Your story, your unique, beautiful personal soul's story of your journey in this life. So I wanna make sure that you get the foundation of your house that's gonna stand for you valid for the rest of your life through storms and hurricanes and wind and earthquakes. We gotta go down in the ground and dig the foundation. And these three steps that I've taught you about are gonna give you a solid foundation that's gonna last you the rest of your life. So I hope you enjoyed this. If you have any comments, please jump on Instagram or Facebook at kyrindunston MD and tell me about it. Tell me your thoughts. Tell me what you're thinking. Tell me about your dreams. Tell me about your pain. Tell me about the gap and how you're gonna navigate it. I really want to hear about it. Thank you so much for joining me. I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, peace, love,
(27:36): And hormones y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge by Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Are you struggling to find the right solution to get your hormones and metabolism back in balance?
If you're feeling like nothing is working, it's time to try something else! Our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge was designed specifically for those who are looking for a long-term way out of their hormone and energy struggles. We’ll help you understand what doctors aren’t telling about how hormones affect weight gain, energy levels, and overall wellbeing.
With our easy-to-follow 7 day plan, no more will you feel confused by your condition or overwhelmed about how to fight against it - we'll give you all the tools needed so that within just 7 days from now YOU can start experiencing true health bliss again!
Join us today on this journey into hormone balance bliss - CLICK HERE to sign up now and get started on reclaiming your mojo!
Have you been telling yourself lies about why your hormones can’t be balanced? Or do you think that balancing hormones is impossible?
Dr. Kyrin Dunston wants to prove to you that it's possible! In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, she will explain the three essential steps needed for successful hormone balance, and why those steps must be taken for you to experience hormonal prosperity.
This episode will tell you about:
- How dishonesty is sabotaging your hormonal health
- The first essential step to achieving successful hormone balance
- Why it's important to take these steps to experience hormonal prosperity
- How to find the root cause of your hormonal imbalance
And much more!
Don't miss out on this powerful episode as Dr. Kyrin Dunston reveals the key to unlocking hormone balance and prosperity today! Tune in now and take your first step toward restoring your hormonal health. Join Dr. Kyrin Dunston for this inspiring episode of Essential Step 1 of 3 To Healing Your Hormones: Stop Your Dishonesty!
(00:00): How are you being dishonest with yourself and how is that preventing you from having balanced hormones? Stay tuned to find out.
(00:08): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:01): Hey, it's Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today for another episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast and my YouTube channel. Today I wanna talk to you about the first of three steps that you need to take in order to balance your hormones. And it's not what you think. So you wanna stay tuned, so you wanna listen up. Most people think that the first step in balancing their hormones is what diet do I need to follow? What supplement do I need to take? What exercise do I need to do? What tests do I need? But they've got it all wrong. They're actually three essential steps that everybody must take in order to successfully, and the keyword is successfully balancing their hormones. Without these steps, you don't have a solid foundation on your hormone balance and your hormonal prosperity. So even if you have some initial success, you're eventually bound to fail.
(02:04): Just like building a house on no foundation will never build a stable house, right? If you don't dig into the ground and put some type of cement and rebar and pilings or something deep into the ground to be a solid foundation for that house, you won't have a safe structure above ground. You've gotta dig into the ground first. The same is true when you're trying to repair your health and your hormones. So that house, if you think the first thing you need to do to build a house is go buy some lumber, and then you just start cutting lumber and nailing it together above ground, what's gonna happen when the first wind comes, that house is gonna fly away or fall down, right? So it's the same with your hormones. You need to dig down into the ground and put a solid foundation for your health and your hormones so that you do it the right way and you go about it the right way in a methodical way, just like in following a recipe, right?
(03:12): You don't look at the ingredient list and then read the instructions and then just decide, oh, I'm just gonna put these ingredients together cause I want to, right? Pick, pick two out of 'em, right? And say, oh, I'm gonna mix those together and not follow the directions, right? Everything has a sequence, particularly for things like baking or dishes that require several steps, right? If you're going to make a great taco, you don't just take raw chicken and raw corn and raw onions and raw avocado and throw 'em all together, right? There's a sequence of steps. You gotta season the chicken, you gotta cook the chicken, you've gotta crush, crush the corn, you've gotta make the taco, right? That has its own process. You've gotta slice the onion, you have to prepare the avocado. And then when you put them all together, yummy, yummy, yummy. I think you get the point, , there's an order to these steps and you need to follow the process.
(04:18): And a lot of people would have you believe that, oh, you need this test first. Oh, or you need this supplement, right? That's gonna fix it. Or you just need a prescription for hormones, right? And what I wanna tell you is that's all wrong. There is preparatory work that you need to do first. So I'm gonna talk to you about that in these next three episodes. So number one of three is you need to get a reality check and get honest about what's really going on for you. You may not realize it, but if you think about the biggest problem that's bothering you that you think is related to your hormones, let's say that you're in your forties and you are getting terrible migraine headaches before your period, and that is driving you crazy. Your doctor has you on some medications for that that you're having to take every month and all you wanna do is just solve your migraine problem cuz you think that's the only hormonal problem you have.
(05:26): And so you want the supplement, the diet, the food, you know, exercise, whatever it is. But I want you to back up and you've gotta get honest in this step because our dishonesty is what is keeping us from finding the answers that will actually get us where we want to be. So what do I mean by that? If you're honest with yourself, your migraines are not the only problem that you're having with your health, right? Let's be real. Most women over 40 suffer with several health related symptoms. So what am I talking about? Most of us over 40 have weight issues. In fact, 60% of us have weight issues where we're overweight or obese or morbidly obese. Majority of us suffer with energy issues and fatigue. We may not notice it cuz we're medicating it with caffeine in the morning. And then we're using downers like alcohol to wind down in the evening.
(06:29): So right there, majority of us are overweight and tired. So you're lying to yourself if you say that my only hormonal problem is that I have migraines, you might write off your weight problem and energy problems that you don't eat a perfect diet or you're just getting older. And what I wanna tell you is that all of the symptoms that you have in your body related to your health have some connection to hormonal balance. I wanna repeat that. So you hear me clearly cuz you're not gonna hear this at your regular doctor's office. Every single midlife, metabolic mayhem symptom that you have, the 60 or so symptoms that women over 40 and sometimes in their thirties can start experiencing somehow is related to hormones. Also, when you get a disease diagnosis, whether it's hypertension, diabetes, autoimmune disease, you name it, there is some connection to your hormone balance.
(07:32): Hormones form the foundation of a woman's health. So you've got to get out of your dishonesty. And for a lot of you, it's your naive K because nobody told you this, it's not your fault, right? We weren't educated on this. I wish we would have this in our grade school and high school education at age appropriate levels, but we don't. So you're left to your own devices cuz you're not gonna learn this in the doctor's office. Well that's what I'm here for, to help you understand everything that's plaguing you with your health has some toe in the hormone imbalance syndrome, right? So if you're having migraines and you've gotta a weight problem and you're tired, let's list some others. Your skin is having a problem. You get this crazy rash, you only get it at certain times of the year in certain areas on your body, but you've been to the dermatologist and it plagues you and you can't figure out what's wrong.
(08:31): Probably nobody looked at your hormones or talked to you about that. That could be hormonally related. Oh, and by the way, there's certain things that when I eat them, I don't know what happens, but I get this kind of indigestion and I might belch a lot, right? And I'm pretty regular maybe with my bowel habits, but every now and then something will throw me off and I don't know what it is and I, I get bloated and gassy, right? And you've been to the gastroenterologist, you've been to your interns or family practitioner or gynecologist and they've run tests or maybe they haven't and they told you, oh you just have a little irritable bowel or you just have a little reflux, right? And what do they do? Give you some medicine. So here you are in your forties and only thing you're online looking for answers to is your migraines.
(09:19): You'll never find the answer that will fix the root cause of those migraine headaches. If you don't get honest about all the symptoms that are plaguing you with your health, what I call midlife metabolic mayhem, the 60 or so symptoms that many women over 40 and some even over 30 start experiencing as they go into hormonal poverty. That's where they don't have the hormones to support the high level of health that they may have been enjoying. And I have other videos and podcasts about that. So you have to get honest, honest with yourself and get out of your delusion and your dishonesty that this is the only problem and looking for answers to that. You gotta take an inventory of your health and write down all the things that are plaguing you. Everything even if you don't think it's significant, brings to mind a woman who recently went through one of my programs who actually happens to be a physician as well.
(10:22): We'll call her Sally, that's not her real name. And she got honest at the beginning of the program cuz that's where I start everyone. We have inventories, we're checklists where you go through symptoms related to all the hormones. And she did it as honestly as she could at the time. Fast forward a year later, she did all the work with me and she came on the zoom one day and she said, Karen, I'm growing eyelashes again. What she said, I didn't even mention it when we started the program because I didn't think I'd ever have eyelashes again. I had been to the dermatologist and basically they didn't have any answers for me and they had tried me on some of the medications for eyelash growth and it didn't really help. So I thought that that was an unanswerable, unsolvable problems. So I didn't even mention it, right?
(11:21): So she was in the delusion of corporate medicine that this problem can't be solved. And then she came on the zoom and said, I'm growing eyelashes. And she was like beside herself with joy about this because she had frankly given up. And you know that you've given up on some of your symptoms too. I know you have cuz I talk to you every day. Women just like you, you think doctors have dismissed you so many times and ignored you so often that you have come to believe that you are defective when the truth is that the solutions that most doctors are offering are defective and incomplete. And there is nothing wrong with you. And I always say if there is a health problem or symptom or disease and it hasn't been solved, it's because you haven't uncovered the right stone. You haven't asked the right question or done these foundational steps.
(12:23): One of which is getting honest. The truth is, when you go down to the roots of a tree and you fix the roots, all the leaves and branches improve. And with mainstream medicine right now, you go to the dermatologist for your hair, skin, and nails. You go to the gynecologist for your female in fertility and reproductive issues, you go to the gastroenterologist for your GI problems, et cetera, you know the drill, right? So you're all on different branches of the treat, but with a root cause approach, we go down the trunk into the roots and solve it. And when you fix the roots, ev all the leaves and branches get better. So this is why it affects your neurological problems, right? Your migraine headaches, your gynecological problems, maybe you're in your forties as described and you're also having crazy heavy crime scene periods. It will affect your dermatological problems, right?
(13:14): That rash that you keep getting, it will also help you with weight and energy, which really doesn't have a place in mainstream medicine. It's not something that's dealt with. So hopefully you're getting the picture that the first is you need to get honest with yourself, get out of delusion, get out of dishonesty, recognize that all these symptoms are related and make an inventory. If you come to my hormone bliss challenge, I give you a symptom chest checklist for each hormone so that you can see what symptoms are related to what hormone we launch these periodically. And the link will be near my bio. If you're listening to the podcast, it'll be in the show notes. And if you're watching this on YouTube, it will be below the video in the show notes as well. So come join me, get out of delusion and dishonesty. You're not going to get where you want to be without it.
(14:10): If you keep believing and saying the mantra of, oh, I just need to fix this one thing, you might fix that one thing probably with a medication to suppress the symptom, right? That's currently how migraines are treated, but you'll never fix the other hormone related problems that you have, right? So your weight, energy, rashes, irritable bowel, gastritis, all the things, right? All the things like I like to say. So first step of three for that foundation in the ground when it comes to healing your health, and that starts with hormones for women, is to get honest with yourself. Another place where we sometimes lie to ourselves, I know cuz I did it too when I was a mainstream OB, G Y N, is that there's one shot wonder answers, and I think we've covered this a little bit already, but we might get that our $30 H m o copay doctor doesn't have the answers.
(15:13): But then we're on the internet looking for alternatives and we wanna know the one supplement that we need or the one diet that we need that's gonna solve the problem. You know, you've done it. I did it too, right? There's no shame in it. It reminds me of a colleague of mine, a general surgeon who I used to actually do surgery with a lot. She was an excellent surgeon and I used to go to the health food store after I got healthy and got on my journey all the time, never saw her in there. And then one day years later, all of a sudden I saw her in there and we'll call her Katie. I said, Katie, what are you doing here? And she said, oh, I was diagnosed with colon cancer. This is a while after I had stopped going to the hospital cuz I was doing all my work with women on healing so they didn't have to go to the hospital.
(16:01): And she said, I was diagnosed with colon cancer, I had surgery, I had some chemo, and I'm here looking for supplement that will help. Don't be Katie, right? Maybe if she had addressed her health issues and known about them years before, I don't know, maybe she wouldn't have gotten colon cancer. I have no idea. But there are no one shot wonders, there is no one supplement, there is no one diet, there is no one thing you are going to do that you're gonna go like bingo. That's it. All my health problems are solved. So you've gotta get honest about yourself and you've also got gotta get honest about who can actually help you. Who's the expert? So you're online, you're looking for the one shot wonder, and you see this person who calls himself a health coach and they do have some type of certification and they're selling some supplements and they tell you, you take this one supplement, I'm gonna sell you six months at a discount and everything will change for you, right?
(16:59): Maybe they tell you a diet to follow too or some other things to do. Maybe you even pay them a lot of money to go into their one-on-one program, but you don't actually get the results that you think you should or that you were promised. Now, why do I know this is a thing? Cause I have a lot of colleagues in this field, many of whom are health coaches, nurse practitioners, et cetera. Some of them are the real deal and some of them aren't. It is very hard as a consumer from the outside for you to be able to discern who really knows what they're talking about and who doesn't and who can take me all the way and who can't. So that's one of the reasons why I'm so passionate about being out here, educating and teaching you, because I have not only the MD credentials, but I essentially have the ND naturopathic doctor credentials because I completed a fellowship from the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine in metabolic functional and anti-aging medicine.
(18:03): So I have a ginormous toolbox. There are some things that I don't do or can't do and I send people to those experts, but I understand what it takes from a root cause to fix all the roots so all the leaves and branches get correct. And unfortunately, there are a lot of health coaches out there who will say things, for instance, like, oh, when you're in hormonal poverty, you don't need a prescription for hormones. And that's just patently not true. And maybe they haven't had the education or training to understand the absolute necessity for all the cells in your body, inclu, including the cells in your brain, the cells in your eyes, the cells in your heart, the cells in your immune system to have adequate estrogen, progesterone, testosterone. This is the biggest place I see that people miss. So you don't wanna miss that.
(18:59): So you've gotta get honest about all of these things, right? Honest about your symptoms, all of them that are related to your health and hormones, honest about who are the experts who can take you all the way and help you honest about not going to the hardware store for milk, right? Your regular doctor isn't trained in this. It's not their fault. and honest about being discerning about the credentials of who is out there saying that they can help you honest about it's not one thing. It'll never be one thing. I know we all want the one thing. Maybe you can find the one true partner for life, but when it comes to your health, there's just no one thing. So getting honest is the first step, getting out of dishonesty and delusion. Thanks you so much for joining me. I will have step two in the next podcast and video, and I look forward to seeing you there. Until then, peace Loving hormones, y'all.
(19:55): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you know what is holding you back from feeling like your best self? Many women reach midlife and realize that their dreams have been put on the back burner. You can regain control over your health by learning to honor the desires that come from deep within.
It starts with understanding that honoring your dreams is a key factor in balancing hormones, as it helps connect you to the energy blueprint of your physical body. This connection allows you to gain clarity and focus on healing your health.
It's time to begin listening more closely to yourself, believing in yourself and taking action toward making positive changes in life. Allow yourself to move forward with confidence, following your intuition with trust. Take one step at a time! With each step, you will feel empowered to live a life that is truly in alignment with who you are.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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Why honoring your dreams is an essential step in balancing hormones
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How to identify the desires that come from within
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How to trust and take action on your desires
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Tips on how to move forward with confidence, following your intuition
Tune in for more inspiring insights and steps towards healing your hormones! Join Dr. Kyrin Dunston as she guides you through the journey of honoring your dreams. Ready to reclaim control over your health? Let's get started!
Listen to this episode and start living the life you were meant to live. Honor your dreams today!
(00:00): Do you honor your dreams or do you suppress them? Why is honoring your dreams an important step in balancing your hormones? Find out next.
(00:11): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:04): Hey, it's Dr. Kyrin. Welcome back to another episode where I'm gonna give you the second essential step out of three to balancing your hormones and creating the brilliant health that you deserve. So in the first step, we talked about how you've got to stop lying to yourself. You just gotta stop, right? You've gotta get honest, get out of delusion and denial and get honest. If you didn't listen to that one, go back and listen to that episode today. I'm gonna talk about the second essential step, and it's gonna surprise you cuz I know you're waiting for me to say, get tested, take a supplement, do this right? And we're still building the foundation under the house that's gonna hold that house for years. So the second step you need to take is you need to honor the value of your dreams for your life. That's right.
(02:02): Honor the value of your dreams for your life. So I know you're scratching your head and going, what are you talking about? What does that have to do with my health? So I wanna start by telling you about butterflies. , right? Butterflies. Everybody's fascinated with them. They're beautiful. They're just like little tissue toilet paper that fly around in the air, and they're absolutely beautiful. I'm fascinated with their lifecycle. I remember going to the Calloway Gardens outside Atlanta in Georgia a few years back, and they had the blue morph butterflies, and you could see them in all different stages of their growth and development going from basically a worm or caterpillar into their chrysalis and being birthed as a butterfly, and then they had a whole atrium full of butterflies flying around. It was wonderful. Well, butterflies have something called imaginal cells. So what are imaginable cells when that caterpillar is crawling around and then it wants to transform into a butterfly, or it gets the internal evolutionary signal that it's time for it to become a butterfly is more correctly stated.
(03:16): It starts attaching to a leaf and then it starts spinning this chrysalis around it like a little cocoon, right? There is something inside the caterpillar and the cocoon called imaginable cell that actually hold the blueprint for the caterpillar to become a blood butterfly. And in some respects, it is these imaginable cells that set the evolutionary signal for the caterpillar. It's time to go make your chrysalis and get still because transformation is coming, and then it sets the blueprint for all the other cells to organize in the structure of a butterfly in the beautiful colors of a butterfly with the gracefulness of a butterfly, the agility of a butterfly and all the butterfly attributes that we love. It's the imaginable cells that set this. So what does this have to do with you? You have imaginal cells too. Yours are energetic, but when you want to heal your health, maybe there are other things that you want to heal in your life.
(04:37): Maybe your health is stopping you from having the career that you want, the finances that you want, the relationships that you want, the fun, free time and adventure that you want, right? Because health is the prerequisite for all of these things and you get that call. It's coming from inside you, right? The symptoms that you have with your health are actually not a call that you need a drug or surgery to stop the symptom, even though that's what we're taught from corporate medicine, right? We've been taught that, oh, when we have a pain or an illness, it's a sign we need to go to the doctor to get a drug or a surgery to fix the symptom, and when the symptom's gone, we claim victory. It's actually not what symptoms means. Symptoms in your body is your body trying to talk to you about what it needs and wants in order to come into balance because your body naturally wants to heal and it will heal when everything that's preventing it from healing and everything that will support it in healing is present, right?
(05:42): The preventing things are gone and the supportive things are present. So if you cut your hand and it bleeds, if there's no dirt and debris that could prevent it from healing, your body will send healing nutrients and cells to the area to create a scab which protects it and allows it to heal. But if there's a heap of dust and dust and dirt and debris in it, that will prevent it from healing. Or if your body doesn't have the fibrin and white blood cells descend to the area, it won't heal. So your body has that system for everything, right? If you're getting migraine headaches, if you have a weight problem, if you're tired, if you have GERD or reflux or you have irritable bowel, your body wants to heal. So when you have chronic symptoms, what it means is you have issues present that are preventing your body from healing, and you don't have the supportive forces there to nurture your body to healing.
(06:43): So your body wants to heal, it wants to come back and balance. So when you get that call, I wanna heal this problem. These problems, like in video one I talked about for the woman over 40 who's focused on our migraines, but she also has a weight and fatigue problem, rash and also reflux and irritable bowel. You gotta get honest first, but that desire to heal your health actually comes from inside and it's the first step. It's the first evolutionary step in you living the life that you are meant to live on this planet. We each have a unique thumbprint fingerprint, right? We each have a unique iris. We don't have an iris like any of the, any of the seven or 8 billion people on this planet. We are each precious and unique in our own right, and we each have our own song to sing, our own story, to write our own, whatever it is we came here to create.
(07:52): Our energy signature will never be recreated in all of the millennia of this galaxy. So you have an evolutionary drive that comes inside from your soul to fulfill your potential in this lifetime. And your soul knows that without physical health in this human body, you won't fulfill your potential in this lifetime, whatever that looks like for you. So your soul provides this energy blueprint that is the framework of your physical body, and it calls you to health and healing and wholeness and expression. Those are your imaginal cells. So you've got to honor the dream that you have. It's been said that if you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. If you don't bring forth what is within you, it will kill you. And I do believe this to be true. If you live with unfulfilled dreams, it causes an erosion of your morality and your dignity and your soul.
(09:07): I believe we all have a moral obligation to bring forth what is within us because I also believe that our souls don't evolve alone. They involve with concert, with all the other souls on the planet, and that our desire to give something to others means that they are actually calling for that thing from me. They are calling for it from you because some people are only going to hear the song that you're gonna sing from you. They're only gonna read the book that you would write from you. They're only gonna hear it from your voice, from your perspective. So these are our imaginable cells, right? I know that most of us think that our dreams come from us, that we make them up in our minds because that's what we've been taught. But something that I believe, and I'll be talking about this in more podcasts and videos, because it's based on my experience and also my research on the nature of science and spirituality, where they really have bridged is that your dreams were implanted in you and came with you from the soul that inhabits your body and that you have this constant evolutionary drive to bring those dreams to fruition because humanity is calling forth from you.
(10:35): Those are your imaginable cells. So in order to heal your hormones, you not only have to step one, get honest and get outta dishonesty and delusion, but you gotta step two, honor your dreams. Because if you don't honor the evolutionary impulse of your soul to heal your body and bring forth what is within you in this lifetime and fulfill your potential, you actually will never do it If you just say, oh, those are just dreams and fantasies. I don't deserve it. I can't have it. You start shutting down the life force that your soul is trying to bring forth, and part of your hormonal balance comes from that life force. So you've got to write your dreams down in a vision, and I teach you how to do that when I work with you. And you could start today just by writing it or doing a vision board, and you've got to honor it that this is my potential in this lifetime.
(11:43): This is what I'm called to do with my unique BRI blueprint and getting my health straight is the first step on that journey. It is the vision that will pull you through doing all the things like I like to say that are necessary to get your hormones and your health in order because it's not one thing y'all, hopefully I dispelled that myth in in the first lesson. It is not one supplement, it is not one diet, it is not one thing. It's all the things, and it is the vision of what you know you are becoming and creating in your life that will sustain you through the steps that you need to take that come after the first foundational death. Michael Beckwith is quoted as saying, pain will push you until your vision pulls you. And I remember the first time I heard that, I didn't really understand what he was saying, but then one day I did, I kept hearing him say it.
(12:44): What is he talking about? What is he talking about? All that pain that I was in when I weighed 243 pounds and I had chronic fatigue and depression anxiety, and my hair was falling out and I had no sex drive, and you guys have heard this story, right? No answers. Board certified ob gyn couldn't fix it, and I was a hot mess. Pain was pushing me, pain was pushing me to despair and hopelessness. Pain was pushing me to go to many doctors and keep testing myself and say, something's gotta be wrong. But I didn't know how to get honest at that time. So I kept going to myself $30 h m o copay doctor at the time, and my doctor at $30 h m o copay doctor and doing the things only in my small myopic sphere of knowledge and vision. And it wasn't until a patient actually taught me about a root cause resolution approach and that I started getting trained in it that I could actually get the big toolbox that I have now.
(13:44): Then when I started doing the foundation like I'm teaching you about and working with my hormones, which is the foundation of a woman's health, then I started feeling better. I started losing weight, I started having a little more energy. Then my vision started pulling me. I was like, if I can achieve this just with these few steps, I want the whole thing. And so my vision started pulling me. And the same is true for you. Some of you right now I know are sitting there going, oh my gosh, it's another doctor. What is she pedaling some drug that I'm supposed to take or something like that, right? And I get it. You're disillusioned and disgusted with the gaslighting that you've gotten from mainstream medicine. I was there with you, so I totally get it, and you feel hopeless and you feel helpless and you've tried some different things and they haven't worked, or you got a little success and then you backslid and you're like, who can get me where I need to be?
(14:41): And you don't trust anyone to help you, and you don't even trust yourself anymore. You think, I can't even do this. I know because I've been there, so, so what I want you to know is honor your dreams is the second step. Number one, get honest. If you didn't watch that video or listen to that podcast, go back and watch it and get honest. Get out of deceit with yourself. And then number two is honor your dreams. They are the breadcrumb trail leading you to the end of the rainbow where the pot of gold is your personal pot of gold, which is fulfilling your purpose in this life, and that requires that you have the excellent health that you need in order to do the thing. Whatever the thing is, whatever it looks like. You wanna go back to school, you wanna a relationship, you wanna have kids, you wanna be with your kids, you know, be around and healthy and participate in their lives.
(15:42): You wanna be present for your grandkids, whatever it is, right? You wanna travel, you wanna write a novel, you wanna sing whatever it is, right? We have an evolutionary impulse, just like the imaginable cells in the butterflies. So will you honor? Yours is my question. That is the second step that you need to take. So I want you to go and write your vision down for your life in all areas for your health, what it looks like when you've achieved the health that you want, how you feel, what it sounds like, what it looks like, what it smells like, what people are saying, what you're hearing. I want you to write it down for all areas, your relationships, how they improve, because I know your relationships are suffering, your health is suffering. What your finances look like, your career, your creativity, your creative expression, your fun, your free time.
(16:32): Write it all down. Do a vision board and honor it and know that this is not some pie in the sky dream. This is your soul telling you what you came here to do and then get about the business of doing it. I'm gonna tell you in podcast and video three, the third of the three essential foundational steps to getting your hormones balanced and getting your health in order at midlife. So I hope you'll join me for that. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones
(17:13): Y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you ever feel like fear is controlling your life? We've all been there. But in this episode, Dr. Ellen Vora gives us insight into how to regain control with her expertise on the body's natural fear response and the tools we need to manage it effectively. Join us to learn more about understanding and overcoming anxiety so you can live a life that feels right for you!
Ellen Vora, MD is a board-certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist, and yoga teacher, and she is the author of the bestselling book The Anatomy of Anxiety: Understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health, considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root.
In this episode, you'll learn:
• What the body's fear response is and how to recognize it
• The importance of addressing anxiety holistically
• Tools for managing anxiety in the long-term
• Dr. Vora's personal story and journey with healing from anxiety
Tune in to gain greater insight into your own fear response and learn practical tips for regaining control. This episode will help you reclaim your power over fear and live a life full of joy, peace, and resilience. Let's jump right in!
Don't forget to share, subscribe and leave a review if you like what you heard! We look forward to hearing from you! Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you next time!
(00:00): Problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way. Alan Watts. In this episode we talk about if you're suffering from anxiety and or on medications for anxiety, what you might be doing wrong in your approach, and how to recognize and solve the underlying problem. Stay tuned.
(00:29): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:22): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyirin. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today we are talking all about the anatomy of anxiety with a true expert who's written an amazing book and has incredible insight. She has a similar journey to mine in that she was trained as a medical doctor. She went into psychiatry and really realized that we weren't helping people with giving drugs and doing surgery, and she found a better way. And now she has dedicated her life to educating others about the anatomy of anxiety and what's really going on behind the scenes. She is an incredible person. She offered this quote to me that I love from Alan Watts, who's an amazing philosopher. And this is what it says, problems that remain persistently insoluble should always be suspected as questions asked in the wrong way.
(02:20): So what does this mean? It means if you have a problem that hasn't been solved, you're asking the wrong question. And I once was in a coaching program with Mary Morrisey, who's amazing coach and spiritual leader, and she was talking about the importance of the right question and that if given an hour to formulate the answer to a problem, you should spend 55 minutes on formulating the right question that will give you the answer. And I have found that so much to be true. I always tell people with your health that if you, you have persistent health symptoms, diagnoses, medications, problems, whatever you wanna call it, something's not right with your health, then you haven't asked the right question. It's asking the right questions that is invaluable to fixing your health. And unfortunately, as a mainstream doctor, I didn't know the right questions to ask.
(03:20): Now I know the questions to ask, so I'm gonna help you ask the right question. And if you're dealing with anxiety, which millions of us do at some point in our life, many of us chronically, or we've got a loved one who's dealing with it, and it can be debilitating, prevent you from having relationships or working and all kinds of things. And if that's you or someone you know, you wanna listen up because you need to know about the anatomy of anxiety. And Dr. Vora is an expert at this. She's really taken a deep dive in her book. She's a beautiful way of looking at it. I'll tell you a little bit more about her and then we'll get started. So Ellen Vora is a medical doctor. She's a board certified psychiatrist, acupuncturist and yoga teacher, and she's the author of the bestselling book, the Anatomy of Anxiety, understanding and Overcoming the Body's Fear Response. She takes a functional medicine approach to mental health, considering the whole person and addressing imbalance at the root. Welcome, Dr. Ellen Vora to the show.
(04:18): Thank you so much for having me.
(04:20): I am so excited to dive into this topic with you. A lot of my listeners know that anxiety was a huge part of my story. I didn't really suffer from anxiety at a young age. It wasn't a problem and it really started in my forties and it got so severe that everybody knows this for that and depression. I was on five psychoactive medications at one point and the doctor told me, you will never get off of these. I couldn't even hardly function even with those five medications, I was so anxious my body would tremble, but I had nothing to be anxious about. And I know that you talk about this , so I kind of wanna dive in there. And this is for the people who have maybe been dealing with their anxiety their whole lives. Maybe they just deal with anxiety most recently. Maybe they have a loved one who has anxiety. It's so problematic and it's so debilitating. So I don't even know where to start. So I'm gonna just say, Ellen, start . Start where you think, why is this such a problem that affects so many people?
(05:30): Yeah. So the way you and I were both taught to think about anxiety, you know, we were taught in medical school to evaluate it according to the D S M, our Bible of mental health, a diagnostic statistical manual. And we're really most of all indoctrinated with the idea that our mental health issues are the results of a genetic chemical imbalance. This is our monoamine theory of depression, where we say it's your serotonin. You were born with jeans that meant that you had low serotonin, but that's okay cuz you're alive in 2023 and we have a pill that can fix that. So here, take this pill and it will fill up your empty serotonin tank and everything will be honky dory. Again. It's a nice story. I think it came primarily from well-meaning scientists using deductive reasoning when they saw that certain tuberculosis medications that manipulated serotonin seem to raise some people's moods.
(06:23): But it turns out it's not a true story. And it, you know, that the idea there, the implication is if you take these pills, it's gonna fix your depression. I think many people listening who have had an one or another experience with psychiatric medications, even if they're net on the whole helpful, this story's not quite so clean and simple. And so I also think what's important is that when we focus on the genetic chemical imbalance, that is our least hopeful narrative when it comes to mental health. It tells us it's a fixed trait, it's our destiny. We're broken, we're stuck. And I have observed through 10 years of practice that this is patently false. This is not true of mental health. And while genes do play a role, it is only ever a predisposition in functional medicine. As you know, we say genes loads the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger.
(07:18): So when we only focus on genes, that keeps us feeling like this is our destiny. I will always be depressed, I will always be anxious when we shift our focus to the environmental influences that also have an enormous impact on our mental health. Well, there's something we can do about that. Sleep and nutrition, inflammation, hormones, gut health, and then more psycho-spiritual aspects of mental health, community nature, feeling of a sense of meaning and purpose in our lives being of service. All of this also impacts our mental health, and there's a lot more we can do about that. So I prefer to shift our focus to what we can control. And I want people to know they're not stuck even if they've felt depressed or anxious. You asked, why are so many people anxious right now? I think that there's two big reasons. When I think about anxiety, I, I divide it into two categories.
(08:09): False anxiety and true anxiety. Where false anxiety is physical anxiety, it's based in the physical body and it's avoidable, it's related to inflammation or sleep deprivation or a blood sugar crash or a hangover. And we are these days swimming through a cesspool of causes of false anxiety. We are all inundated with environmental influences that are making us more anxious than people were even 30 years ago. But then the other piece of this is our true anxiety, which is purposeful anxiety. It's not something to pathologize, it's not something to suppress. And we don't get to fix it by simply going gluten free or switching to decaf coffee. This is our inner compass. It's nudging us, asking us to slow down and pay attention to what's not not right in the world. And these days we are also inundated with quite a lot that's not right around us.
(09:01): So we come by our true anxiety, honestly. And the good news is, whether it's our false anxiety or our true anxiety, there's a lot that we can do to support ourselves. And so I think that we are all so anxious these days, but we've been trained to think about mental health incorrectly, letting us feel stuck and thinking that the menu of possibilities to support our mental health is just medication and therapy. And I want people to know, first of all, there's always reason for hope, never a reason to despair. And that there's so many other strategies we can take to support our mental health.
(09:36): I think that is so important. And I love this, the concept you have of false anxiety and true anxiety. Is that what you called it? Yeah.
(09:45): Yeah. I think that's brilliant. Because , the body can cause anxiety and most people think, oh, it's a mental process, it's a mental problem. And like I said, I didn't have any reason to be anxious. There was no mental issue. Well, I was kind of on off my path and I think that , that was the problem. , I was so off my path, but also I had so much inflammation and hormone imbalance and toxicity and my body was, I didn't realize that that vibrating tremoring shaking was my body screaming that it needed help. You know, because we were both trained the same traditional medical doctor program and what would we do? Pill for every ill surgery for every symptom. So that's what I went to a doctor like that, a psychiatrist, and he just kept prescribing and kept adding. And you know, thank God, fast forward, I am off all psychoactive medications. I don't need any, once I fixed all the underlying problems and got on my path, ,
(10:52): That's exactly it. The false and s true dichotomy. And I think, you know, not to project, but I was in the same situation where to be a medical resident, I was in so many false moods because I was inflamed, chronically sleep deprived, absolutely malnourished, you know, overfed, but undernourished and my hormones were all whack, which is a consequence of everything else. Yeah. Out of balance. And so I had a lot of false moods. But there's also that true mood that is if you went into medicine because you actually wanted to make a difference and support people, for many of us, we wake up to the the deep crisis and disenchantment of what is the system I'm a part of? I'm not convinced that I'm helping people. I'm not convinced that I'm not harming people. And so that's true Anxiety right there for you, a textbook example, and it's beautiful that you were aware of both of these things.
(11:44): It's unfortunate that our system these days is such that if you go in and you say, I'm really not feeling okay, all we know to offer people is medication. And there's a path there that is concerning to me. And it's, it's difficult to convey this without, I don't mean this as an non-pharmacologic path. I'm a psychiatrist, I prescribe medication. I've seen them benefit people. Absolutely. But what I see so often is someone says to their primary care doctor or their psychiatrist, I'm not feeling great. And they say, you know, in the 15 minutes they have with you, well, okay, like take Lexapro. And then you start Lexapro, and then you get sexual side effects, then you add Wellbutrin, and then maybe you're not really sleeping and you add Ambien and then you can't really focus during the day. You add Adderall and then you're anxious and then they add Xanax.
(12:30): And before you know it, you have a cocktail of medication. And the piece of this that's most damning is that it's delicate to talk about this without, I recognize some people really need their medication. Sometimes we need more informed consent. But I think what also happens is that the medications themselves can make us more fragile. The medications beget the need for themselves. Take Xanax for example. It's very effective in the short term, in the medium and long term. It exacerbates the very problem it's set out to treat in the first place. It makes us more anxious. And we can talk about the biochemistry of that. So once somebody's on a cocktail of medication, not only are they deeply plugged into the system, but they're very neurochemically fragile at that point. And it's hard to be well on your own. And you start to think of yourself as very sick and needing a lot of medication, needing a lot of support, you're spending a lot of time standing online at the Walgreens. And it just, it leads people down a path that I, it makes me from some days sad and other days outraged to think about how many people we've plugged into this life without first asking, how are you sleeping? Do you have community in your life? What's your diet look like? Are you pooping every day? Simple diet and lifestyle strategies that we can do to address mental health At the
(13:47): Root, I think, oh gosh, everything you're saying is just giving me chills because ev people need to hear this. So if you're listening , maybe if you need this information, yayu, please share it. It is so vital because we have a mental health crisis and it needs to be addressed and people aren't going to get this information in their doctor's office. So please share this with all the women in your life. So I wanna dive in because you said ha, if you, that we don't ask about how are you sleeping? We don't ask, do you have community? We don't ask, are you pooping every day? And there's some people listening who are going, if I have anxiety, why would someone care if I'm pooping every day? If I'm anxious? Why do people care? Why should the doctor care if I have community? So can you start to help people understand what, what's going on? Why, why is this important? Right? We've established that the gene hypothesis is not a thing, but help them understand why, how this is, what's the manifestation of how does anxiety come about through the body?
(14:49): Yes. Great question. And so fundamentally, first we just have to acknowledge that we are taught to think of mental health from the neck up to say, here's where mental health happens and only here. And that's of course a very modern and very western view of the body as discrete organ systems that aren't talking to each other. There's a line in my book, which is, your brain and your gut are talking to each other, even if you're a psychiatrist or your gastroenterologist are not. And eastern modalities have always appreciated this, right? Ayurveda, Chinese medicine, they know about the richly interconnected web of communication and interrelationships between all of our organs and our organ systems. And so it's crazy to the way, I mean, at some point we're all gonna see it. We're gonna be like, wait, that is bananas. That we think that mental health is just the brain.
(15:35): The brain is a piece of flesh. It is impacted by everything else going on in the body. If you are inflamed, if you are micronutrient deficient, if your blood sugar is crashing, you better believe that impacts your brain health. And good mental health is in many ways a reflection of two main things. It's good physical health, it's a reflection of good, healthy brain health. And it's a reflection of us getting our fundamental human psychospiritual needs met. And so when those two things are in place, we tend to feel pretty good. Trauma is its own consideration, which we can go a bit more into. So if you take the gut, for example, when someone's thinking, well, I'm anxious, why are they asking me about my pooping? That seems crazy. , that's, that's my, that's my digestive tract. Well, three main pathways for how our gut is impacting our brain health.
(16:20): I'll first just open with the fact that we are now at a point where publicly we have a conversation about the fact that our brain impacts our gut. We know now that if we're anxious, if we're chronically stressed, this will impact our digestion. Someone with IBS or irritable bowel syndrome might say, I know that stress is impacting my ibs. So we appreciate top-down communication, but where we're headed is that we also have to appreciate it is a two-way street. It is a bidirectional relationship between the gut and the brain. So just as there's top down communication, there is also bottom up communication. The health of the gut is impacting the state of our brain. And it's happening along a number of different pathways. One very simple one is that there are bacteria in our gut that are involved in the synthesis of certain neurotransmitters. We talk a lot about serotonin, but my pet favorite neurotransmitter is gaba.
(17:15): We don't talk enough about gaba. It's critical to anxiety and it's manufactured by certain B species that we're supposed to have in our gut. But if we're taking multiple courses of antibiotics and we're not consuming fermented foods and we're not around soil or animal feces, which sounds gross, but this is part of how we maintain a diverse ecosystem of beneficial bacteria in our digestive tract. If we're missing critical microbes, we might be missing critical neurotransmitters like gaba. And then there's the fact that our gut is involved with inflammation, which itself directly, directly impacts brain health and anxiety levels. But the one that I find most interesting is the communication along the vagus nerve that's basically reporting on the state of affairs of our gut up to our brain all the time. And if it's saying everything is copacetic down here, go have a great day.
(18:05): Well that's great, but if your gut is in rough shape, if you've taken antibiotics, if you've consumed pro processed foods, if you're inflamed, then it's sending a memo constantly up to the brain saying things are rough down here, feel uneasy. It's designed to motivate us to rest, to make different choices so that we can heal. But instead, I think a lot of us go through our lives in a state of chronic low-grade anxiety just because we're in a state of chronic poor health of our digestive tract, which we come by honestly, because modern life makes a broad assault against the health of our guts, from our chlorinated tap water, antibiotics, processed food, alcohol, NSAIDs, lack of exposure to fermented foods and and microbes. And so here we are, all of us with really unhealthy guts and it's directly impacting our mental health.
(18:55): So important, the information that you just shared. And I was listening to, I'm listening to Peter Levine's new book about trauma and memory, and he was talking about the ratio of the ENT nerves. So the nerves in the VA that bring information from the gut, the ratio of those to the efferent that innovate the motor is five to one. Yeah,
(19:15):
(19:16): , and I had forgotten that from med school, but wow. So your body really prioritizes what is going on in the gut, which I believe in Chinese medicine they call the second brain. And so I think most people just don't get it. And you know, we're downing, and I can be guilty of this too, sometimes eating proc over highly processed foods. Oh you know, those chips are so good and , things like that. And then, and then I might wonder the next day why, and I'm not feeling great. I mean, at this point I kind of know, so I'm not willing to pay the price. But every now and then I do. But your gut is so key. So everybody listening, this is why what your poop habits matter and pooping once a week is not okay. If you're listening, I, so many people come to me and they say, well, I only poop once a week. I've been that way my whole life. That's my normal. And I'm like, yeah, but that's not okay. All right. So this false anxiety that's coming from the gut, everybody, if you're having, so some people are listening and they're thinking, oh, okay, I identify with some of these things, Dr. Ellen I'm gonna go to my doctor and ask to be referred to a gastroenterologist. So what's gonna happen is that idea,
(20:27): This is a big problem. Broadly, this happens with mental health too. We think like we just need better access. We need better access to mental health care. Like, oh, now you just gave me a light bulb aha moment that my gut is impacting my mental health. So let me go see a gastroenterologist. We know how this story ends. If you see that psychiatrist, if you had better access to mental health, you walk out with a prescription and it leads to more prescriptions if you go to see a gastroenterologist. All due respect, I, some of my family friends, I, I love my gastroenterologist buddies and colleagues. I think they're brilliant and wonderful healers. But the training in medicine, we always have this saying garbage in, garbage out. They are not trained to do any kind of root cause resolution or to approach the chronic degenerative, chronic low-grade inflammation issues in a supportive way.
(21:14): We are taught to react in, in a quite a heroic way to problems. So we have lots of great suppressive medications that can squash your immune system, that can basically say, well you're inflamed in your gut, let's just shut down the immune system. And then inflammation is gone and you feel better symptomatically temporarily. But we've done nothing to address it at the root actually we've done something, we've exacerbated the original problem. So I think that the problem is our training and if you are having an aha moment, which is that you have unhealthy gut health and then that's impacting your mental health, you're probably better served going to see a naturopath or a functional medicine doc. I think that they actually are virtuosic at understanding how the gut gets out of balance and how to support that. That will make an enormous difference in your mental health but also in your physical health more broadly. And even just improving your gut health is a direct impact on our quality of life. Going from pooping once a week to pooping every day is, it changes everything. And how we feel. I've got, I've gone on that journey myself
(22:15): And . Yeah.
(22:17): To actually have that working every day is victorious. I never, I still don't take it for granted at this point, probably like 20 years into that. So I think that you'd wanna get your care in a more holistic setting so that you're not just suppressing functions in the body. Symptoms suppressing it turns out is it's a beautiful thing that western medicine can do when the problem is really big. If you have already had a car accident or a heart attack or you already have cancer, I think our ability to do heroics and suppress symptoms and really fundamentally change the body is a beautiful thing about Western medicine. But so much of what ails us are these subtler, chronic degenerative diseases, chronic inflammatory conditions that are as resulting from modern life. And when we go in with heroics, we actually make the original problem worse. So you wanna go into a holistic treatment where they're thinking, oh, here are the inputs that are irritating the system. Here are the inputs that you're missing. Let's give the body what it needs and then trust that the body knows what to do with that. And it can heal itself.
(23:17): Does body super intelligent like , we couldn't create a human body and it knows what to do. So sometimes you just get out of the way, get the things out of the way, blocking it, give it the things it needs and then watch it heal. And you know, I had this vision when you were talking about the pooping, cuz I went through that phase two now it's like when you make a beautiful poop in the toilet every time you eat, cuz that's how nature created you. You literally should jump up. Like you gotta field goal and be like, yay , yay me. Right? Not just for little kids anymore that yay you pooped in the potty, but yay pooped in the pot.
(23:58): A hundred percent .
(24:00): I do wanna talk about trauma. You mentioned it earlier. It ended up being a huge part of my story, which I actually didn't know. I didn't, I knew I had a crappy childhood. My mom used to have this tote bag that was of this, this cartoon woman and and it said let's put the fun back in dysfunctional. We had dysfunction in my family for sure, but I didn't know that I had trauma. And then that was part of this, the latter part of my journey. After I healed my gut and got off all the medications, well then my body was like, well now we gotta deal with this residual trauma. And so that was another part of my journey. So I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about that and how it relates to anxiety and what do you do about that?
(24:45): Yeah, I mean trauma is such a big and heavy topic and I think that the tricky thing about it is that the brain learns that's what brains do. And when you are in an unsafe environment, a chaotic environment, a dysfunctional environment, when there is a real risk to your bodily safety or to somebody near to you, very understandably, the brain adapts and it learns to be hyper-vigilant, to be on high alert. And that's an adaptation in an unsafe setting. If you're living in a war zone, if you're in a traumatic childhood, you want to be hypervigilant in a state of hyper arousal. This keeps you safe, it helps your survival. So I think it's really important to first just give grace and compassion to the fact that this was how your brain and your body responded. The tricky thing is that if you're lucky enough to then no longer be in as unsafe of an environment, this adaptation becomes a mal adaptation because now you are stuck with the foot almost stuck on the accelerator pedal, your limbic system, your amygdala, your brain is stuck and locked into a position of hyper arousal and hypervigilance.
(25:50): And not only is that a really unpleasant and anxiety provoking state to go through life and it, you're basically perceiving threat even when there is none. It distorts your view of reality. But then also it's very hard to heal or be well in other ways because a lot of our healing hinges on a particular fulcrum in the nervous system. Whether our nervous system is in a tone of sympathetic or parasympathetic. And now with polyvagal theory it's more complex. But I think that, you know, the most simple understanding is are you in a state of stress or are you in a state of relaxation? And when you're in a state of relaxation, your gut can heal, you can sleep deeply and well and then everything else can heal while you're asleep. You can feel a sense of calm and awe and gratitude. And when you're in a state of stress, everything is, there's a triage mechanism that happens in the body.
(26:38): The body basically says, this is not the time for housekeeping, this is not the time for healing or repair work. This is the time for dealing with the threat. And so we can go our entire lives triaging out of housekeeping, triaging out of repair work in our bodies because our body is still stuck in that state of we have something to be stressed about. And so the trouble with trauma is when we get stuck. And that's where I think trauma focused therapies that work at the level of the limbic system, whether that's E M D R or somatic experiencing therapy or something like DN r s or primal trust, something that's going in and with precision really reprogramming the limbic system and where it hangs out so that it can start to understand that was then this is now. And we don't, we no longer need that now maladaptive state of hyper arousal. And I think that that can help people who have a history of trauma move forward from a place of a calmer limbic system, the ability to be in a state of relaxation.
(27:37): So some people listening, because this was me before I realized I had trauma, are thinking, oh, I don't have any, I didn't have any trauma . I'm just wondering how would somebody know that you might be talking to them that they might be a candidate for having trauma. So if you could talk a little bit about what trauma is. I mean I used to think, you know, nobody beat me when I was a kid. I didn't have trauma, right? I didn't have this extreme thing so I didn't have trauma. And then come to find out I had a lot of things I didn't remember that happened and that I did qualify. So I just want to wondering what you might say to those people who are wondering, could this apply to me? I
(28:24): Think it's a really good question and I'm not sure I have a great answer. I think that one thing I'm always on the lookout for is like a heightened startled response. Like , you know, somebody closes a door behind you and you jump at a proportion to what it is like, is your body basically perceiving threat disproportionate to, to what's happening around you? Any state of hyper arousal. But I think that I'd be so curious. I think in a way I am, I have a handicap, which is that people come to me already saying I need help. And so I think I'm less good at the phase that happens in the lead up, which is going from, I'm not sure I have a problem to realizing that we do. So I'd be so curious to hear what shifted for you and how did you start to pick up on the fact that you were holding trauma?
(29:09): Oh, , that's a long story. Let me see what the short version is. But basically, you know, there's this compulsion when you've had traumatic interpersonal relationships, particularly with your primary caregivers when you're young to have that repetition compulsion. And so it was a repetition compulsion relationship issue that sent me into having acute P T S D symptoms. And then it was, oh my gosh, what is happening then? Then that's when I discovered, oh yeah, I was traumatized. And through some of the modalities you mentioned then uncovered memories ca you did go through an alphabet soup there, kind of, which I know some people Yes. Are going what, so for those people who, you know, even have an inkling that it might, this might be who you do want and I would love it if you could talk about what is a trauma informed therapist, what credentials they might have, but also some of the modalities you mentioned.
(30:09): Yeah, so let's see if I can define those. The alphabet soup, I think the first one I said was E M D R, which I believe stands for I movement desensitization and reprocessing. Reprogramming, I mean one of those. And so this is a wonderful non-invasive modality. That's it really. It's, it uses a smart way of kind of distracting the mind as it helps you work through trauma. I think that's a big part of all of the trauma focused therapies is that in a way we need to access the amygdala, the limbic system where the brain is holding onto these memories and work through them without tripping a wire that sets off an all out stress response because then we're just a, an animal against a wall in a very defensive stress response and not a lot of fruitful work can happen in that state.
(30:55): So a lot of these therapies really figure out a way of, of kind of working around and not tripping that wire in the first place. I mentioned Somatic Experiencing Therapy, a very body-based therapy. I also mentioned D N R S, which stands for Dynamic Neural Retraining System. Hmm. And that, you know, people do rounds and there's a lot of difference in terms of how you talk to yourself and how much you focus on symptoms. And so all different ways for reprogramming. And then Primal Trust is kind of this newer version of of DN r s that I actually really like the evolution there, which is recognizing that there is a body, there's a, this is just like the true anxiety, false anxiety dichotomy that some things are related to our trauma and some things are related to inflammation and caffeine and gluten. And sometimes we need to discern which one to, where do we need to make changes and where do we need to accept and recognize that it's our nervous system creating our symptoms.
(31:52): Okay, thank you for explaining that. And if, if someone also suspects that this, they might be a candidate, how do they find someone who's actually skilled at working with trauma?
(32:04): Yeah, so if you're wanting to do therapy around trauma, it's really important to make sure that someone has, I think, self-described as a trauma-focused therapy. Because any kind of therapist, whether it's a psychiatrist, a psychologist, a licensed mental health counselor, family mari, marital therapist, basically if we're not trained and I'm not right, if you're not trained in, in trauma focused therapy, then what you do is you do talk therapy. And talk therapy is not only often ineffective for trauma but can be actively unhelpful, can be retraumatizing. And so I think it's critical to work with one of these less verbal, more limbic based modalities. And so look for those words on someone's website. And if you wanna start by doing something on your own, if you kind of have the safety and the leeway to do that, something like Primal Trust is a good place to start. This is something you can do for yourself and there are support groups you can join, there are coaches you can work with and that's a really nice system. And if you're not finding the perfect word of mouth trauma-focused therapist in your area that's affordable and taking new patients and working with your insurance, starting with something like Primal Trust is a great, is a great place to start.
(33:13): Awesome. Thank you so much for sharing those resources. We have to talk about this topic before we wrap up, so hopefully everybody listening will give us a little few more minute leeway. This idea of being off your path and what is your path and how does that create anxiety? That was a huge part of my story and exactly what you described, Ellen, where I had gone into medicine because I knew I wanted to work with women and help them with their health. And I said, well how, what will gimme the biggest toolbox in order to do that? So of course I went and got my medical doctorate and then was disillusioned when I was in practice that exactly what you said, I started saying, are we really helping anyone? We're harming people. And that was off my path, but I didn't know what to do about it and of course had my own health challenges so that discordance created this anxiety. So I'm wondering if you can talking, talk about that a little bit.
(34:09): Yeah, I mean and it's, it's interesting I think even how both of us, I've never thought about it this way before but in a meta way getting off our path was a very critical part of our path . And so go figure, you know, it's just giving people permission to slow down, get still and just tune in like how are we doing? Like not like are your parents approving of what you're doing? Do your friends, are they impressed by it? How's your bank account? But like how are you really doing? What are your values? What kind of life do you wanna live? What makes you feel fulfilled? And is that happening or are you on track towards building a life where that is happening? And if you feel like you might be way off course, we have a world that gives us a lot of junky values where it tells us like here's what you should be striving for, have this kind of skin and this kind of car and this kind of money and this kind of impressive job and this kind of attractive partner and have these perfect kids.
(35:05): And you know, it tells us, here's what Instagram is telling you what we like, you know, literally what we like, what get gathers likes and who is to say any of that is what fulfills you or what feels right or familiar for you. And so I think it's just so important to step out of the framework and the conditioning that we've all inherited and just know for yourself what is right for you. And then make sure that you're actually on the path towards building toward that if you don't already have it. And it's certainly not moving actively in the wrong, wrong direction. And so this sometimes has a lot of inconvenient truths, it can blow up our lives, right? You can feel like, you can feel like you just gave 10 years a lot of student debt, blood, sweat and tears to medical trading and you're like, holy, I'm harming people.
(35:52): What the hell did I just do . And so I think that I love my friend Brit Frank, brilliant therapist and she says, choose your hard. And there are these moments when you realize you're off your path and you're like, it would be really hard to get back on a path and it would be so much harder to live the rest of your life this far off your path. And so sometimes we really do have to choose that short-term, really hard blow up our life change to get on our path. And I will be the first to admit it is scary and difficult to do this. But it has to be a, a dance where you're constantly checking in with yourself and from a place of radical self-love and self-worth and also self-love and self-worth that helps guide us back. But also, and this one's big and sometimes harder for us to realize this is my worldview.
(36:38): It doesn't have to be everyone's but a recognition that we have a unique set of gifts and perspectives and insights and talents that we have to offer this world. It's a contribution that we only us can uniquely make. And I think I have a lot of friends right now, they're coming to me and being like, how do I change my career and do something more meaningful? And they feel like, how would I have the audacity to think I could be an artist or I could be a healer or I could be a writer, whatever it is. And I think the question is really like how could you have the audacity to think that you should suppress these gifts? Like this world assigns you a mission, we desperately need you doing that work. Who are you to block that from being manifest in this world?
(37:22): Oh my God so beautifully said. It reminds me of Maryanne Williamson's. I think it's in Return to Love where she says like, you know, it's not our darkness that scares us, it's our light. And who are we not to express our light? And that's really one of the reasons that I do what I do is because I think some people are only gonna hear it from me. Some people are only gonna hear it from you Ellen, right? So if your unique voice is missing from the choir that's singing the song of true health and healing, then there are women and men who aren't gonna hear it and they're not gonna get the memo. But you listening, you're so lucky cuz you are here and you heard it from Dr. Ellen yourself. So for me, a key part was being off the path and I didn't know, I knew I was on the wrong path, but I didn't know what the right path was.
(38:15): And through a series of synchronous events, the universe conspiring to get me on the right path, you know, I got there. Unfortunately, I did have to blow up a lot of things in my life and I'm all the better for it. So yeah, choose your heart. I love that This has been so rich and so wonderful. I am so happy to have you here. I'm so, if you're listening, you just got a huge big gift to hear this woman share her brilliance and her journey and I so encourage you to get her book. She has a free gift free, we're gonna tell you about that. The link will be in the show notes. So tell them about your free gift, your book, where to find you online.
(38:56): Sure, yeah. At one point you were asking like, you know, if you go in, if your doctor's asking you like, well, you know, you're feeling like what does white gut have to do with my mental health? I was just thinking like , the only way I can summarize that is the two 50 pages of my book that are like, here's what your gut has to do with your mental health and here's what your thyroid and your nutrition and your hormones and your caffeine consumption and alcohol and so on and so forth that a lot of that's not fun. Like the chapters on alcohol and caffeine, everybody's least favorite chapters but impactful, right? Nonetheless. So my book is called The Anatomy of Anxiety and it really details this concept of true anxiety and false anxiety and, and how we can work with both and experience less anxiety, but also to fuel, let that purposeful anxiety, fuel purposeful action. My free gift is, I think it's called Dr. Vos Four Keys to Health. And it's like, it's the one page version of my book . I said my best to make it concise if people wanna interact. I'm pretty active on Instagram. I'm at Ellen Vora, md.
(39:55): Awesome, thank you so much Ellen. Any last words you want to offer? Everybody listening before we go?
(40:04): I think in addition to everything else we've covered, if there's two things that Trump all like everything, how we support our mental health, I think on a physical level at sleep, if you could focus on only one thing, it's prioritizing better sleep, which in the postmenopausal or perimenopausal body is always its own special tricky journey. But there are things we can do That's chapter five of my book. Even though perimenopausal sleep is is tough, there's still things we can do to support it. And then I think community on the psychospiritual end of things, if you could choose only one thing that trumps everything else, it's just prioritizing, making sure we're actually connecting with the people that fill us up. And it's hard in modern life, but it's really worth fighting for.
(40:47): So important I call sleep the nectar of life. , I preach it all the time, but now I realize I forgot to ask you such an important question. So if you'll allow me one more. You know, this time of life, midlife and beyond, I think, you know, I think it's so the Dai Lamas quoted as saying that the western woman will save the world and I think it's the western menopausal woman. Mm. And I'm wondering apropo, our que our conversation about life path and blowing up your life and switching your path , and I see so many women who are stuck in these lives that they've realized they're not really in alignment with, whether it's a marriage or a job or a career and they wanna make changes. I'm just wondering if you have any insight or or words of wisdom for them about, you know, I can't remember and maybe it's in the book of Thomas, in the Bible it says, if you bring forth what is within you, it will save you. If you don't bring forth what is within you, it will kill you basically. That's my paraphrasing. Yeah. Can you speak to that?
(41:50): Oh, I love this question. I mean, I think about menopause. Let me see if I can do this in like less than an hour. . So I think about, I don't know if you were taught this, I think I was actually taught this undergraduate and not medical school, which is that menopause is this oddity evolutionarily because it's by definition post reproductive. So it's very hard for us to select four genes that make for a better menopause. It doesn't work for survival of the fittest because even if somebody did have a mutation that gave them a better menopause, then you know, it dies with them and there's no way for them to have had a more successful reproductive life for having that gene. So in a way the body reacts in a way that would be adaptive to something that happens in the reproductive life. And so in many ways that crash in hormones, if it resembles any crash in hormones in our reproductive years, it's actually the postpartum period.
(42:39): So in some sense, the way our body reacts in the menopausal years is what would be adaptive in the postpartum period. You should mobilize calcium from your bones to make breast milk. You should radiate heat to keep the baby warm. You should have very superficial sleep so that you'll wake up if you hear the baby cry. And it's like, well that's all well and good if you have a newborn. And man, is it a bummer if you're in your forties and fifties and you're just trying to live. But I think that it comes with it, this concept of it's a bit of a rebirth, but there isn't a baby. This is a rebirth of a a different and in certain ways truer version of ourselves. And I think that estrogen is the hormone that helps us keep the peace. Because in primate populations, the more interpersonally effective you are, the more reproductive successful you are.
(43:25): Estrogen makes us say yes and nod and smile and suppress our own needs in favor of other people's. And that's fun, but it's not necessarily our deeper truth. And so we have a cultural attitude, which is that menopause is unfortunate because we don't value wisdom and age and we only value youth. And this is a whole other problem. But can we reframe the whole dang thing to realize this is a rebirth when we have waning levels of estrogen and we no longer are hormonally programmed to keep the peace and suppress our own needs in favor of other people's needs. This is a rebirth where we are the baby, where we get to say, it's my turn and here's my truth and here's what I know I want and it's gonna ruffle some feathers and not everyone is gonna like this. And that no longer really matters to me.
(44:16): , I love that. Oh my gosh, that is spam. Okay, it's gonna take me like a week to unpack what you just said. That was amazing. I hope you all heard that. If you need to listen to that again, because that's just so insightful and revolutionary and I love it. Thank you again so much for being here. Thank you for sharing just your brilliance and beauty with everyone. I hope you will take action listeners from what you have heard today. You know, always I, I know I beat the drum of the sleeping, the nectar of light, but it really is. So go do that and get yourself pooping every day and give yourself a high five when you make a nice Nike Swoosh in the toilet . So this and more information on how to get your hormone today. We'll have another great rest for you next week. Thanks so much for joining me and until next week, peace,
(45:15): Love, and the
(45:16): Hormones y'all.
(45:17): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you feel like you’ve tried every diet and detox under the sun without much success? You may need a new approach to health and wellness.
Join Dr. Laura Belus, a licensed naturopathic doctor from the Greater Toronto area, on this special episode as she shares her insight into how to get your body back on track with powerful lifestyle changes that can make a world of difference!
Find out more about her journey to natural medicine for relief from migraines & acne and learn essential tips for weight loss, stress management, greater energy & better digestion through proper detoxification and hormone balance.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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The importance of detoxing for better health and vitality
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Keys to successful detoxification
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How to balance hormones for optimal health
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Tips for a healthy diet & lifestyle habits that promote wellness
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And more!
Don’t miss out on this life-changing information and tune in to this inspiring episode to get the essentials on detoxing and health!
(00:00): Forward in life is forward in life leap and the net will appear. Dr. Laura Bela, find out how you are doing detox wrong and most importantly, how to do it right.
(00:15): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:08): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today we are talking about doing detox. At this time of year, so many people are trying to do a detox and there's a lot of confusion about what really is a detox, what's a detox versus a cleanse? How do I properly do a detox? Do I need a detox or do I need a cleanse? , what am I missing? And I find that so many people get this wrong and it's not disastrous to get it wrong, it's just that you're not gonna get the benefits that you should get from a cleanser detox if you do it incorrectly. So you wanna make sure you're getting the most bang for your time and your money and effort invested. So you wanna listen up today to Dr.
(01:57): Laura Belus cuz she specializes in this. I'll tell you a little bit about her. Well let me tell you a little story first. So I used to work with this massage therapist and we would talk about all kinds of health things. She knew what I did, she loved what I did cuz she was all about treating things at the root cause and not just medicating symptoms. You guys know, you know, cuz you're about it too. She said to me, I got this detox supplement at the health food store and I took it for a month and I feel so much better. And like I always tell you guys, I don't preach to people who don't ask for the information. So I just said, oh great. But I knew all the health problems she was dealing with and I knew that wasn't the only thing she needed.
(02:41): And I was glad that she said she felt better, but I knew how good she really could feel. So, you know, she wasn't interested in learning more. Not everybody is. We help the ones who are swimming towards us who wanna be helped and who wanna be taught. So don't let that be you. Don't let that be be you at the supplement store asking the clerk at the health food store who has a high school degree who doesn't really know about this. Come and let's talk about it with Dr. Laura Bela. She's an expert and you'll get the information you need. So at this time of year you can do your detox, right? I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we can get started. Dr. Laura Beis is a licensed naturopathic doctor practicing in the greater Toronto area. In her early adult years, her recurrent migraines and acne led her to natural medicine for relief. She now focuses her clinical practice on detoxification and hormone balances for weight loss, stress management, greater energy and better digestion. She believes in making simple yet powerful changes to diet and lifestyle habits that create lasting results. Welcome Dr. Laura Belus to the podcast. Happy
(03:50): To be here.
(03:51): Super excited to talk about detoxing and why everybody's doing it wrong and what they don't know that they should know because this is the time of year when people are doing detoxes and like we were talking before we got started, about the difference between a detox and a cleanse. Ladies listening, do you know the difference? So we're gonna dive into that, but why is detox so important? Why do we even need to do one? Let's start there.
(04:18): That's a great starting point and I think an important piece to, you know, really highlight. So detoxification is already a natural part in the body. Our body is always detoxifying and that's an important piece to know. It's a natural part of the body. It's not something we have to start doing. However, detoxification is literally like a waste removal plant in our body. Our body clears things it doesn't need, it packages them numb, it packages them up and then it sends them out of the body in various ways. But sometimes in our modern lives we are inundated with so many things, whether that's the food we're eating might not be free of pesticides, it might be the air we breathe, it might be a lot of the chemicals in our body and personal care products. The reality is our body and our liver specifically is working over time to detoxify these things from our systems. And let's be honest, there's a lot going on and sometimes the body needs a little bit of a help and that's why doing a focused detoxification plan or supporting your body's liver detoxification naturally is so vital now more than ever.
(05:33): Yes, it's super important. I always say our body is a city and every city has a sanitation department , so we've got one but it gets, it's so sluggish. And what is the difference between a cleanse and a detox?
(05:48): Yeah, so a cleanse really it gets a lot of publicity. You know, it's definitely a more of a buzzword. A cleanse traditionally is a liquid or almost liquid based diet for one three even seven days. And it's intended really to focus on resetting the digestive system. Our gut from people that have a lot of digestive issues, bloating, maybe they've been quite sick digestively and they're slowly trying to get back into things or more famously a lot of people are familiar with perhaps green juice cleanses where they're drinking a lot of fresh juices all day. It's limited, it's a low calorie, liquid-based diet. So it does give the gut a bit of a break. It doesn't make your digestive system work really hard to break down solid foods because solid foods need to be digested and it takes a lot of effort to do that. But a cleanse is really focused on gut restoration. It's almost like hitting the reset button. It doesn't do very much for liver health. It is a quick reset for some people, but I normally don't recommend cleanses for most of us. And if I do recommend a cleanse it might be a one day reset. Just to reset the, the digestive system, it doesn't really focus on liver detoxification.
(07:05): Okay, so liver, I call that the sanitation department and you gotta love your liver. So can you talk a little bit about why the liver should be the focus of your detox? What's going on in the liver that's so important when it comes to detoxification?
(07:23): Yeah, so the liver is really, I love that analogy, the sanitation department because it is, it is, it's filtering so much blood through our circulatory system from our digestive system running through and it is cleaning out and picking out all of the not so nice things that are in our circulation are in our bloodstream and it's packaging those up that takes effort. It's sort of a two-step process for those that that are interested more in the science side of it, it's a two-phase process where your liver packages up these toxins or these chemicals or these pesticides, whatever you wanna call them, and it packages them up into two phases and after the second phase it dumps it into the digestive system or back into the bloodstream where you can sweat it out, you can pee it out or you can poop it out. And that's a very important part of getting these toxins or or these chemicals out of the body. The liver is responsible for that packaging process.
(08:18): And so what kinds of things are happening to us on a daily basis? Things that we're coming in contact with maybe eating, drinking are impacting our liver. Why isn't our, so when I was in medical school , I was taught that you don't need nutritional supplements, vitamins, minerals, et cetera because you get it from the food you eat, which is totally wrong, right? And then I was also taught that you don't need to do any detox or cleanse cuz your body takes care of it itself. So I think more and more people in this day and age are aware that that's a fallacy. Why is that a fallacy? Why can't our liver just take care of what it needs to take care of in this day and age?
(09:00): And that's a key point what you just said there in this day and age, that is the key point that that I think the listeners hopefully are are tuning into because this day and age we are number one living very stressful lies when you add stress to the mix, people say, so what stress or the main stress hormone that we produce cortisol, many people have heard of that word before. That has to be broken down and processed by the liver as well. Well now if I add a huge bucket of cortisol for my body to produce or to clear out day in and day out, that's c clogging up the sanitation plant that's clogging up the pipelines. I add in maybe a few extra coffees or a couple extra glasses of wine during the week sugar. Right? A lot of us are grabbing sugar or sugary sweets for that pick-me-up in the afternoon. These are hard to process items for the liver. Yes the liver can do it, but once we start to get stacked items that are not working in the liver's favor, there is an overburden we need to, to interject, we need to add in some supports to get that assembly line cleared and that bucket empty once again.
(10:07): Yes. So clear talk. You mentioned alcohol. Can you talk a little bit about alcohol in the liver? Because I remember back when the French paradox came out by Walter Willette and everybody's, you know, they had a justification for drinking their two glasses of wine every day, but nobody talked about what it does to your liver. Can you talk a little bit about what alcohol does to your liver?
(10:30): Yeah, so the liver does, and again let me first start by saying that genetics play a role here. Some of us are faster metabolizers or we can break down alcohol more efficiently than others and there's different ethnicities that have a better time or an easier time breaking that down and and others not so much. And that's based on an enzyme that pretty much degrades or breaks down alcohol. So it can be flushed out of the system. But there again, there are two phases to this and if we start to break down alcohol and there's too much already in the system in phase one or part one of this detoxification, the body becomes quite toxic. That phase one, that first step of the liver detoxification process, that's often what leads to a hangover when we've consumed too much alcohol and many of us know what that feels like.
(11:15): But even if we add alcohol to an already overburdened liver, it might not be the amount of alcohol per se that might be an extra glass of wine or even just a single glass more regularly. It might push the body or the liver over the edge and it cannot clear things fast enough, quickly enough and on a regular enough basis so we can feel toxic, sluggish head, ay hives, you name it. A lot of odd, sometimes symptoms can come through and that can be because of this burden of alcohol not being fully broken down and metabolized.
(11:49): Yeah, I think it's something that people need to be aware of and people, people say, oh Dr. Kyrin, you're such a kill joy, you're saying none of us can drink. That's not what I said. , you have to look at your individual biochemistry and where you are and maybe there might be evidence that you need a break for a while, but doesn't mean forever. All right, so let's dive a little bit more into it. You mentioned phase one and phase two detox. I don't think in the liver most people are aware of that. So how exactly does your body use the liver to get rid of things? What is it doing to them?
(12:27): Yeah, so the two phases of lead liver detoxification are essentially there is a biochemical process going on. So we we're removing and adding various molecules. If we go back to high school chemistry class, whether it's an oxygen or a hydrogen, we're taking off and putting on different molecules to these starting items. So whether it's a, a pesticide for example, or alcohol, we'll use alcohol as an example. And phase one is making it, it's basically starting the process. Phase two, a second phase, a second process. A bunch of different enzymes have to go in and make that item more water soluble. And that requires different items, different antioxidants or different components to help phase two. And then once that, that item is now or that alcohol is now water soluble, it's more, more or less inert. So it doesn't really can, can't really create problems in the body.
(13:18): It can now be safely expelled, whether that's through the kidneys and in the urine or in the gut through the stool or sweat out or breathed out by the the lungs. I forgot to mention that earlier. So there are various processes, both of them are distinct. Phase one is in many ways making this item potentially more disruptive for a short period of time. And then phase two jumps in and adds a a molecule or adds a component to that phase one portion and says, okay, we've packaged you up, you're now safe, you're not gonna cause any more problems and now it can leave the body. We have to highlight phase two is arguably much more important than phase one when you wanna feel your best and detox effectively.
(14:03): And isn't this where a lot of people get into trouble because they're only stimulating phase one and they're pushing all these substances to become water soluble, meaning they can go more places and do more damage And they're not addressing phase two properly
(14:17): A hundred percent. I think that's really when we think about oh let's give our body all the B vitamins or all the antioxidants, those are heavy hitters for phase one. Those even some herbal ingredients milk thistle, a lot of people are familiar with that herbal ingredient. Yes, to an extent they can touch on phase two, but phase two again has a very unique component. It's not about breaking things down, it's actually about safely packaging them back up so that they can leave the body. And phase two requires a different set of nutrients and components that I don't think a lot of people, I know a lot of my patients sometimes neglect that and that needs to be looked
(14:56): At. Mm-Hmm what kinds of foods and nutrients are needed in phase two? So
(15:00): Phase two detoxification, this is where our amino acids come into play. And when I say amino acids, I mean the components of proteins. So definitely I'm thinking of glycine, I'm thinking of my sulforaphanes in terms of my broccoli family of vegetables, n acetyl cystine or N A C for short, the cystine component. These are all components that support phase two. And I wanna highlight that there are many micro processes always happening in the liver. It's not just what do I take for phase one and what do I take for phase two. There are a lot of these nutrients that play a role in both phases. But when I think about phase two, I'm really thinking about my amino acids and my sulfur or my broccoli and brassica family of vegetables. Those really have some additional support on that phase.
(15:52): Right. And I'll just add the methyl groups cuz I happen to be a poor phase two detox. Yes. Cause I have the SNPs with the methyl groups. My body has a problem with that. So that's caused me huge problems. And I find with a lot of my patients that's true too. So I think getting the genetics done. Yeah. What role does a genetic profile play in assisting you in doing a proper detox?
(16:16): And that is something I think, I think that's where medicine and health is going in the next, you know, five to 10 years. I'm starting to see a lot of, a lot more of my patients interested in genetic testing. Maybe have had a few SNPs looked at, you know, and they are interested in figuring out how their body processes and breaks various things down the liver. The, the SNPs or the genetic components really play a role in how effectively your body can break down certain chemicals or certain items. And again, this is an ever-growing field in the liver. So caffeine is a big one. Methylation, which is an important portion of phase two detox, detoxification, alcohol, certain medications, right? How well does your body break down or detoxify These components can really tell you, hey, do you have to be really strict on avoiding caffeine during your detox? Or hey, do you need a little bit more methyl support during your detox? Especially when we're focusing on phase two. So this is a, a very emerging and still very new area, but it's rapidly growing and absolutely it can customize how you take your detox to the next level.
(17:26): Hmm. Yeah, I think that's key. And what about phase three detox? Do you wanna talk a little about that? Well,
(17:32): Phase three detox is really important because I think, you know, especially when I was studying as well, I found when I, when I was talking about liver detox in the beginning of my practice and my career, it was sort of assumed that there was this elimination process. But phase two really is that final step in the body getting rid of waste and those toxins out of the body. Specifically, I, I wanna touch on estrogen for a moment. So estrogen a very vital hormone for, for us women and our body detoxifies it along with many other hormones. But once it leaves the liver, now it's, it's in circulation and, and on its way in digestion to leave the digestive tract. Your body, believe it or not, does have different enzymes in the gut to help your body either flush estrogen out and keep it moving or unpackage that estrogen that was ready to leave and recycle estrogen back into circulation, which many of us don't want. We're trying to get rid of excess estrogen. So I wanna highlight that phase three is in short, how effectively you poop out your, your toxins. But remember that's just one component. It could be kidney function with your urinary tract, it could be sweating, are we sweating during a detox? Are we eliminating things through the skin? It's that final stage of getting everything that we don't want outta the body.
(18:54): So key. Let's talk a little bit more about estrogen detox, cuz I think that is a concern particularly for women at midlife before they go through menopause. Most women are hypo hyper estrogen, so they need to be getting rid of estrogen. So do you wanna talk a little bit about the path that estrogen takes? Because we talked earlier about how all the chemicals that come in your body, your body has to detoxify. But what most people don't realize is that everything your body makes it has to get rid of somehow. Right? just like right when you do crafts inside your house, you've gotta do something with those crafts and all the scraps that you made or trash that you made when you make it. So can you talk about how the body, the full pathway gets rid of estrogen and where are some of the stumbling blocks?
(19:43): This is, you know, this is a whole can of worms in so many ways because like you just said, it is so vital that women understand what estrogen is doing in their body. There are various times in our lives where estrogen sometimes does do a bit of a rollercoaster. And I find in my practice, perimenopause is a very turbulent time for a lot of women. And if we are pre perimenopause, well then, you know, let's say in our early forties we've still got regular cycles, but we might still be dealing with heavy flow, lots of clots, long periods, painful periods. And I always encourage my patients to get an idea of what estrogen is, is going, what, what's going on with their estrogen in short. And the, one of the best ways to do that is to see what we call your estrogen metabolites, your breakdown products of that estrogen hormone as it makes its way out of your system.
(20:36): And that's often why I I personally use the Dutch urinary metabolites test, which is a hormone urinary hormone test. We can see how your body, what your, your body does with estrogen in theory. And what we see is, is it effectively leaving the body And that unfortunately can't be measured as accurately in the blood. And this is where women can really see is my body recycling estrogen, which we often refer to as making 16 oh estrogen or the 16 pathway. Is my body making inflammatory estrogen or the four oh pathway when we measure that breakdown product? Or is my body really good at getting rid of estrogen safely without causing too many symptoms? And that is the main and the protective pathway, which is the two oh pathway. And these are just sort of sciencey names for those specific breakdown products of estrogen. Mm-Hmm , there's three pathways and we all should know what our body's doing and which pathway is perhaps taking the reins in our bodies.
(21:37): Yeah, I think that's super important. And I, you know, as you're speaking, I was just wondering, do you ever recommend that women who are have reached menopause go on hormone replacement without having a urinary metabolite test for their estrogen? I mean, it's something I require, so I'm wondering what your thoughts are.
(21:55): Absolutely. It is really in a serious conversation. We have, you know, g starting hormone replacement therapy in any way, shape or form supports. We need to see what's going on. We assume, assume that estrogen is lower, we're not getting our psycho, we might have some symptoms, but that assumption really doesn't hold up for many women in terms of is their body safely and effectively clearing that estrogen out, especially if there's a family history of any estrogen sensitive cancers. We're really looking to get the full picture before we start any hormone supports. And that just gives women the power to understand and to, and to really, you know, use that information to their advantage to feel their best during hormone the supports or
(22:39): Not. Right. And I'm just wondering, is it the same in Canada as it is in here in the US because the mainstream treatment for women with menopause, well first they say hormone replacement for the least amount of time and the lowest dose possible for symptom management only. There's no testing. They just give you a standard one size fits all dose, no testing of metabolites, how you're breaking it down and there's no follow up testing to see if you're on the right dose. And I'm just wondering, is it the same in Canada?
(23:07): Well, yeah, you know, in, in many ways it is, you know, as a practicing naturopathic doctor, I focus on bioidentical hormones in my practice. But the conventional primary care practice here in in Canada is very much that way. We're giving oral hormone doses. We are not doing pre or post or during testing. We are not determining what that woman specifically needs. And there's a lot of gray area in terms of, you know, is this the most effective treatment for that woman? And just because a woman's not feeling great going up on a dose of estrogen, for example, or both hormones might actually make a woman feel worse because they can't metabolize estrogen effectively. There could be genetic reasons for that. So we wanna make sure their body is functioning well before we start adding hormones to the mix. Because if we're gonna give you hormones, we wanna make sure you can use them and actually feel better.
(23:57): Absolutely. Okay. So that's interesting. It's pretty much the same, it sounds like . So phase three detox. Yes. Pooping. We have an epidemic of people not pooping Absolut. Absolutely. And can you talk about what should be optimal in terms of pooping? Like how are we biologically programmed to poop? Cause the mainstream definition, they don't consider it constipation until certain things happen. So can you talk a little bit about that so people listening can really get a good idea? Am I coping the right amount or not?
(24:28): Yes. And and on my intake forms, you know, I'm always talking about with my patients, okay, like how often are you going to the bathroom? And I will comment on frequency first and then I'll talk a little bit of bo about other areas that we wanna consider. But frequency, the, the normal optimal, let me not say normal, optimal bowel movement frequency is one to three times a day. And generally that coincides with the number of times we eat main meals. And if we go back and think about any babies or young ones in our lives that we can recall, we probably thought, yeah, every time they ate, they pooped. And somehow when we started right, adding solids to the mix, things do slow down. Granted they slow down, but for many of us, when I tell patients one to three times a day is normal, they're shocked.
(25:13): They don't think, they've never been told that. And it might not be your normal to be three times a day, but one or two times a day is really, really optimal for majority of us. And if we're doing any kind of detoxification, if you're not going once a day and you don't feel it's a complete bowel movement, meaning you don't feel you're empty. A lot of women intuitively, we, we feel the difference of yeah, doesn't feel like I'm, I'm emptied out or, or that felt good. I'm like, reset. If you don't feel empty, that's the first place we start. We don't even think about a detoxification program until you are going every day minimum once and feeling empty, no point clearing things out and having it and have nowhere to go. We've gotta make sure that that bowel movement frequency is there right from the beginning.
(26:00): Right. It's kind of like when your toilet stopped up, you don't put more material in water in the toilet, it's coming overflow. It's the same, like you gotta have the outlet working. So that phase three has to be cleared out. What do you think most people get wrong about doing a detox?
(26:18): Ooh, hell, you know that, that's a great question because you know, we, we've touched on a few points. Not supporting phase two is perhaps new to a lot of people, but focusing on those phase two nutrients is key. Especially if you're feeling really overburdened. So people say, I don't feel well, I know I should do a detox. I, you know, I I've been on several medications, maybe I've, you know, been overindulging, caffeine, alcohol, sugar, I wanna reset the body body Well, and you've gotta focus on that phase two because it is that critical component so that you continue to feel okay during a detox mm-hmm. , if you're full of a headache, you're lethargic for seven or or 10 days during a detox, that's not normal. That means that there's either too much happening too soon or we're not focusing on phase two. So those, those nutrients, those amino acids, the methylation products and the sulfur components are so, so key.
(27:09): The second component I will say is people don't ease into a detox. So that kind of relates to the first point. They just go cold Turkey. I, when I first did my detox, oh, going back here probably 15 years, I had migraines, I had adult acne and my naturopathic doctor at the time said, Hey, you're gonna have to come off coffee, don't think about coming off your three cups a day tomorrow. And I'm still glad that she told me that because we still gotta function. Many of us are still going through stressful lives and busy to-do lists. We do not wanna go cold Turkey on a lot of these things In our daily routine, I recommend easing into a detox, reducing caffeine and alcohol over a week slowly and supporting your lifestyle. Don't give yourself a thousand things to do during a detox that hurt, that hurts the detox. Give yourself the opportunity to detox. When you've got a little bit of breathing room less to-do list, you can sleep a little bit better and you don't, you don't feel like your stress is at its highest during that time.
(28:13): Yeah. I, I'll echo what you just said is, you know, it's not just detoxing your body. I, I ha have this friend and many years ago she said to me, oh, Kirin, I got this detox supplement at the health food store and I took it for a month and now I'm detoxed and you know, I don't give my friends an unsolicited medical advice. So I said, oh, that's great. But what I was thinking to myself is she didn't do a lot of other things like change her diet and change her cough, caffeine intake and she didn't slow down her life because like you talked about at the beginning, that stress leads to cortisol and your liver has a part in clearing that. So making a detox, not only a time to clear your body biochemically, but also clear your life, I think is something that's key. So what role might other detox modalities play in doing a quote unquote official detox, what I call a 360 degree detox, so things like sauna, lymph, drain edge, anything else that people should consider adding? Oh,
(29:22): I love that. Yes. And, and as a naturopathic doctor, like we, our philosophy is like whole person, you know, like all aspects you know, of, of the body need to be looked at. I'm big on a couple of things. So full body detoxification, any physical modality, infrared, sauna even steam saunas are great, dry saunas are great. Infrared are, is my preference during a detoxification, dry skin brushing, which can, you know, small circular motions from your extremities, from your hands and feet up towards your heart before showering is a wonderful way to stimulate your lymph. Any slow movement. So Pilates, yoga, gentle walking in nature, natural ways to, to boost your circulation and improve clearance of all those toxins gently. Mm-Hmm. is, is great. I'm also big on the tech detox side of things. So detoxing the mind is really, really wonderful, but really challenging in our mo in our modern days.
(30:16): So during a detoxification supporting some tech free time, maybe giving yourself that one or two hours before bed. I mean, ideally we should be doing that most nights, but let's be honest, many of us aren't during a detox. Just take a step back from tech a little bit. It gives your body a little bit of a chance to, you know, reduce that screen time, sleep a little bit more deeply. And you know, our dopamine in our, our other neurotransmitters, our reward centers of the brain can kind of get a bit of a reset. So we're not always looking for that high from the tech side and, and social media and all of that. So it's a wonderful way to do kind of body spirit, mind physical and non-physical.
(30:51): Okay, we're gonna wrap up shortly, but what does sauna do for people? Can you help them understand? Cuz I think people think, oh, I heard I should do sauna, but they don't really understand what it's necessarily doing for them. And why is same thing for limp drainage, why is that important?
(31:10): Yeah, so sauna again, various types of sauna. They've been studied for different types of detoxification, but essentially what we're doing is we're heating up the tissue. Infrared saunas not a hot sauna if you've ever been in one, it's, it's for people listening, it's a, it's a warm room and it's relatively dry. But as the 20 minute session kind of wraps up, you can you start to feel a little bit sweaty. But what we're doing here is stimulating basically clearance of toxins within the cell. So that heat, depending on, again, the type of heat, is it a moist heat, is it a dry sauna, is it a steam shower? That will elicit different types of sweating and different types of elimination through the skin. So we're looking at skin elimination. In short, you're sweating, you are bringing toxins that are water soluble. So some metals some contaminants in our supply, in our water, in our personal care products are excreted in the sweat. So those would come out in the sweat. And that's a wonderful way to amplify a detox and I really encourage people to do it. Of course, if you have any medical conditions, you always wanna talk with your medical provider beforehand. Mm-Hmm. some people overdo the sauna if they're not drinking enough water or don't have enough minerals, they can feel lightheaded. We never want that to, we never want you to get to that point. It doesn't have the effectiveness if you're feeling drained after a sauna experience.
(32:25): Awesome. Did you have anything to add otherwise on limp?
(32:29): Oh, the lymph piece. Yes. Thank you. I wanted to say limp is an important PE for people to understand. It's not the bloodstream, it's a small highway of vessels that clear out a lot of our immune cells. A lot of our waste products go through the lymph related a lot to immunity. And gentle motion actually is what stimulates the lymph node. So the lymph supply. So if we're clearing gunk and junk and trying to amplify our immune system, gentle motions, dry brushing, gentle lymph massage, as you mentioned, these are wonderful ways to, again, clear, stagnant, stuck things that might be in our body that need a chance to eliminate during a detox. So gentle therapies work wonderful for lymph and that can be done at home.
(33:11): Yeah. This has been such a great conversation. I know people listening have gotten so much out of this and they really are starting to have a deep understanding of what a detox needs to include, what needs to be addressed. I love this quote you shared with me before we got started. Aim to be just a bit better than you were yesterday and also forward is forward and another one le and then the net will appear. They actually all go together. I think so beautifully. If you're listening and you've been inspired by what Dr. Lar has been talking about and you wanna know more, she has actually a free gift for you on her website. We'll have the link in the show notes. Do you want to tell them a little bit about what they'll find there? Yeah,
(33:58): So you know, it's my three day mini detox and it's a wonderful gentle kickstart to full detox. Three days for many of us is doable. It's not very restrictive, but it keeps out the key liver burdened items and it really inspires you to kind of kickstart your health with a three day reset. And I encourage people to try it and see how they feel even after a short three day period.
(34:24): Okay. Awesome. Thank you so much for that. Where else can they find out more about you, Dr. Laura? So
(34:29): You can go onto my website, dr laura bellis.com or find me on Instagram. That's normally where I hang out at Dr. Laura Bellis. I'm always posting tips and items, whether it's about hormones or health or nutrition, all on Instagram or again on my website and blog.
(34:44): Awesome. Thank you so much for your passion for helping people become as healthy as possible and for the path that led you there and for sharing your expertise with us today.
(34:56): Thank you so much for having me.
(34:57): And thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Stay tuned. Next week we'll have more impactful information. I wanna challenge you to take action and do just one thing in terms of your detox today that will move you forward because forward is forward. Thanks so much for joining me and I'll see you next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
(35:21): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Have you ever felt like you're always tired and have no energy?
Midlife women are more prone to feeling exhausted and fatigued, but the new episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is here with all the answers. Tune in to hear our special guest, Dr. Evan Hirsch, discuss the one thing that could revolutionize your life and get you back on track when it comes to energy levels!
Evan H. Hirsch, MD, is a world-renowned fatigue & Long Haulers expert and is the Founder & CEO of the International Center for Fatigue. Through his best-selling book, podcast, and international online programs (that can be accessed from everywhere), he has helped thousands of people around the world resolve their chronic fatigue & Long Haulers symptoms naturally, and is on a mission to help 1 million more. He has been featured on television, podcasts, and summits, and when he's not at the office, you can find him singing musicals, dancing hip-hop, and playing basketball with his family.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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What is the “one thing” that can help you finally get back on track with your energy levels
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How to recognize fatigue and be proactive in addressing it
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Tips for managing stress, getting adequate rest, and leading a balanced lifestyle
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And more!
Don't miss out on this exclusive episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Evan Hirsch, and finally get the answers you've been looking for to resolve your fatigue once and for all! Tune in today and take back control of your energy levels.
(00:00): If you wanna learn how to play the piano, you hire a piano coach. If you wanna learn how to increase your energy, you hire an energy coach. Whatever you want to do in life, hire a coach to guide you there faster and safer. Dr. Evan Hirsch this and more in this episode. How to Get rid of Your Fatigue.
(00:22): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:15): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. I'm so glad that you decided to join me. Today we're talking about fatigue and some of you still haven't solved your fatigue problems from last year that you had because you don't know what to do. I get it. So this is why I wanted to have my gift on today because fatigue is universal. The majority of people actually will go through periods of time in their lives where they are more tired than they think they should be and they don't have their energy restored from rest. It's very common. It's actually more common among women over 40. So that's why we're gonna talk about it. It's usually an often associated with weight problems, weight and fatigue. Problems go hand in hand because of the way the body functions. And if you stick with me long enough, I will teach you about that interaction.
(02:08): And my guest today really has drilled down on fatigue and has helped so many people to fix their fatigue. You know, fatigue was such a big part of my life before I got on my healing journey over a decade ago, that there were times where all I had the energy to do was work and sleep. So even though I was a, a mom and a wife and had, you know, so many other roles in my world, I really only had energy for two things. And I was sleeping and working. So all my relationships suffered and my self-esteem suffered. My relationship with myself suffered. It was really a hard time. And maybe you can relate, maybe it's not that severe for you, maybe it's more subtle. But if you take a look at your energy level compared to when you were 20, I think that's a great gauge.
(03:00): You really should be able to have the same level of energy at 60, 70, 80 that you did at 20. There's no reason that you can't have that. But you gotta know what to do to avoid the deterioration that the majority of people succumb to cuz they don't know and they think it's quote unquote normal for them to get tired as they age. So they just accept it. They don't know what to do about it. Unfortunately, mainstream doctors aren't taught this either. So Dr. Evan and I are gonna dive into it nitty gritty, what do you need to look at? What do you need to start working on with your fatigue? I will say it's simple and straightforward, the steps you need to take. And most people do best with a guide, a learned guide to do this process because there are some intricacies. So I'll say it's simple, not necessarily easy.
(03:53): But for those of you who are like, I'm sick and tired of feeling this way, we've got the steps. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Evan and then we'll get started. Evan Hirsch is an md, he's world renowned fatigue and long hauler's expert. He's the founder and c e o of the International Center for Fatigue. Through his bestselling book podcast and international online programs that can be accessed from everywhere, he has helped thousands of people around the world resolve their chronic fatigue and long hauler symptoms. Naturally she is on a mission to help 1 million more. He's been featured on television podcast summits and when he is not at the office you could find him singing musicals cause he has the energy to do that, dancing, hip pop, and playing basketball with his family. Welcome Dr. Evan Hirsch to the podcast. Thanks
(04:38): So much for having me on. Dr. Kyrin,
(04:40): Really happy to talk about fatigue again because this is something that people are really struggling with now more than ever. I think we've come out of lockdown. People might have been a little hesitant at first, but now it seems like everyone's on full tilt trying to make up for lost time. And a lot of people are hitting a wall, especially if they got covid, they're really hitting a wall. I have some colleagues and friends who are in that situation. So I think it's very timely. Why is this such a big issue for us in this new year? More than it has been before?
(05:16): Yeah, so my perspective as a functional medicine and environmental medicine physician is really one about the total body burden. And as we go through life, we accumulate things. Sometimes it's physical things like heavy metals or chemicals or molds or infections. Sometimes it's mental. Maybe we get, you know, a lot of news, a lot of negative things coming into our minds. Maybe we've had trauma. So that kind of bleeds over into the emotional, maybe it's spiritual, like we're not living our path. And when you get all of those things together, like the the instability that we've seen over the last few years, whether it's financial, whether it's physical or health wise, it all accumulates and then it makes it harder for people to manage their daily lives. And all of this going on with the difference between what happened when we were growing up where you could have a one income household now where you need two income households, right? So then there's more stress at home and there's more challenges raise raising children. And people are wondering why is it harder now? And it's just this accumulation of things over time. And so that's why it's so important to have practices and to take time for making sure that you're being as intentional as possible with your life.
(06:33): It is so important to make sure you're being intentional and taking time. Everybody knows you probably need to change your diet, you might need to take some supplements, you probably need to change what you're eating. But I would just wanna highlight what you're saying because I think that that's the piece that everybody misses. Like nobody's willing to slow down and sit their butt down and actually meditate, right? Nobody's willing to, you know, start saying, no, I can't host that pta, you know, committee no to this start saying no and really change the way they live their lives. So maybe we even start with that because I think it's the simplest thing that you listening you could start doing making changes to that today and it would start to impact your energy level. So can we talk a little bit more about that? What are some key factors in that lifestyle component?
(07:32): Absolutely. And you know, I just got so excited what I heard you say no because this is one of the really big things that I love to chat about. You know, Warren Buffet said that people who say no a lot are really successful and people who say no all the time are the most successful. And the reason why this is, is because when you're saying no to something, you're saying yes to something else, right? And so if you're saying no to that p t a meeting, you're saying yes to spending more time with your family potentially, right? And so that's one thing that we have to balance. And I was actually talking with a couple of colleagues this morning about values and figuring out what your values are. And for me, a major value that I have is fun. But guess what happens when I chart out what I'm doing during my day, I'm working from this time to this time I am doing helping out at home with this and this whatever. It's like where is the fun If, if one of my top priorities is fun and I don't have fun for like a half an hour every single day, guess what? I'm not gonna be fulfilled. Right? So it's just really important to take a look at that and say and realize that, okay, what do you wanna say yes to? And if you're saying yes to that thing, what do you have to say no to in order to make sure that you're saying yes to that thing?
(08:50): I think that's so important. Everybody listening knows that I went on this four month trip to Africa and I have to tell you it was one of the most beautiful things ever because number one, people knew I was outta the country. So they didn't ask me to do stuff . And especially at the holidays when it can be so time consuming. It was so refreshing to not have a Christmas tree, not have to do all the things around the holidays that you do in the US And I just had the most relaxing time. And I think that I've brought that back with me so that next year I have a like neurologic memory of what it feels like to do the holidays calmly and insanely and mindfully. And I'm gonna do it the same. So yes, saying no is huge. I think it's one of the hardest things for women to do.
(09:39): I know it has been hard for me, but it's hard one over the years that now. And I love, oh gosh, who was it I heard say, was it Marie Forlio who says, she says, my automatic response now is no. And then she says, but I always reserve the right to come back later and change it after I think about it. But it's so much harder to think in the moment, do I wanna do that? Do I not wanna do that? And so if you just say, no, I'm sorry I can't, if that changes, I'll get back to you. Bingo. You, you've given yourself time to think about it, right? Yeah.
(10:11): I had Cassie Bjork on my podcast a couple months ago and she used a similar phrase. It was, I'm unavailable for that right now.
(10:20): Yes, right. Which
(10:22): Is so good. It's just like I'm unavailable for that right now.
(10:26): Yes. And I'm available for my epso salt bath and you know, cuddling with my kitty cat. So I challenge everyone listening to just say no to a few things today. Just try it out and see what happens. And let's dive a little bit deeper though, cause Covid has come and I had it. I don't Did you have it? I haven't had it, yeah. Lucky you. I got it. I did think I was gonna die and then I did recover, but for a few weeks I was extremely tired. I have a very good friend who has had chronic fatigue for over a year now. Ever since she had it, her hair has fallen out and she's really struggling. So let's maybe talk to the people who have legitimate medical things. Not that the things we were talking about aren't legitimate medical cause they do affect your hormones, everybody listening, your cortisol, your progesterone, everything, thyroid, insulin. But let's get into a little bit talking about covid.
(11:26): Absolutely. So unfortunately what we're seeing right now is very high percentage of people who get covid and get five or so symptoms when they have covid, even if they're very mild, about a third of those people can potentially move on to having persistent symptoms or long covid or long haulers, whatever you want to call it. And so that's a tremendous amount. You know, if you're looking at a a billion people, which is about the number of people, people who've had covid, you know, it's, if you're looking at 10% of that, that's a hundred million. It's just, and so we're talking about like the size of the United States. 300 million is really what's projected once everybody has covid. So I don't think a billion people have had it, but that's like the projection of where it's going. So that's like the size of United States of people who would have persistent symptoms.
(12:14): Now there's over 200 different symptoms that people can end up having that will persist. So pretty much any new symptom that you have after a cold could potentially be long covid. And we actually have a long covid quiz on our website for those who are interested. But it's a big problem. And some of the reasons why people are, are not getting the help that they need is because you go to your local covid clinic and you've got a GI doctor to help you with your diarrhea and you've got a pulmonologist there to help you out with your shortness of breath and you've got a cardiac doctor there, cardiologist to help you out with your heart palpitations. But the reality is, is that it's all from a persistent infection. So the virus gets inside your body and coupled with a number of these other causes that we're gonna talk about ends up causing problems, bypassing the immune system and ends up causing inflammation. Depending on where it is in the body, it'll cause different symptoms. And so if you're looking at getting at the root cause, you have to make sure that you're actually addressing the virus that is persisting in the body.
(13:19): So for everybody listening, we talk about, oh I'm so tired, I'm so tired. But when is just fatigue? When does it become a medical issue? And same thing for covid, what are the symptoms that someone would know they're in that long covid category and what are the symptoms of someone who has a high enough level of fatigue? Is there a certain amount of time it has to persist? Is there a certain degree? Can you talk a little bit about how they can identify if they're in a category that needs to be evaluated or not?
(13:52): Yeah, so it's generally symptoms that are lasting longer than 30 days. And for some people it's loss of taste or smell. For some people they're spontaneously sweating, sweating. For some people they have awful sleep. But it's new symptoms since 2019, November, 2019 that resulted. I mean some people don't even realize that they had it right and then they, but then they get these weird symptoms. If they're lasting for longer than 30 days and it's negatively affecting your life, it's something that should be evaluated. Now, whether or not somebody is fatigued is very interesting because there is an actual criteria for chronic fatigue syndrome, but fatigue, there isn't. And so this really has to do with what you're able to tolerate. And as humans, you know, we're incredibly adaptable. We just think, you know, quote unquote, we're getting older, but in reality there's something wrong that if we don't pay attention to it, it's gonna cause problems later.
(14:45): So if your energy is not where you wanna be and you're surviving on caffeine, energy, drinks, whatever it is, some sort of stimulant that's going to give you the energy that you need, and then maybe you need something to help you fall asleep at night, it's a problem, right? And so you can keep trying to adapt and trying to take things to fix it as a bandaid. But the reality is is that there's 39 different causes that we're actually looking at of fatigue. And everybody that we see who has fatigue has a combination of 20 or more of these causes. Now with long covid, that's just another one of those causes that's into the mix that we see. But everybody has a combination. So it's not like you have one problem and that if you fix that one problem that everything gets better.
(15:31): Right. And I think that's super important to highlight because we're really taught in the medical model that both you and I were trained in to look for the one thing, one problem, and the one medication to give and the one surgery to do. And now because we've had a advanced training, we know that that's a bunch of baloney. But I think the average person doesn't get it and they just wanna go to the doctor and get a diagnosis. But this will be a little bit of a fun walk down memory lane. How did you used to evaluate people who came in who said they were too tired for too long, like they had chronic fatigue? What we're gonna talk about, what's a mainstream medical model that both Dr. Evan and I used to practice?
(16:15): Yeah, no, there is a caveat here because I became board certified in holistic medicine when I was in residency.
(16:22): Oh you did? Okay.
(16:23): . So I didn't have a ton of time like that, but still, you know, it was thyroid, it was thyroid, it was anemia, you know, whether it was iron deficiency or something. That was another thing that I learned. I mean B12 and folate and you know, all these other things we really didn't talk about because of the levels that we were looking at, you know, the quote unquote normal range. But there's, how many times did we, you know, say, Hey, you know, your thyroid's fine, you're you, you're not anemic. Doesn't look like you've got hepatitis or any sort of severe cardiac or lung issue. I don't know how to help you.
(16:58): Exactly. I did know that that's what we're taught as doctors. And can you talk a little bit about that? You, you held up your hands in quotes, but they can't see you the normal range because a lot of people will come to me and they'll say, oh no, it's not my thyroid. My doctor checked my thyroid and my labs are normal and I ha have to explain. Yeah, well 80% of the time when they say it's normal it there's a problem. So can you talk a little bit about that?
(17:28): Absolutely. So the normal range that you'll see on a laboratory test, what that lab company does is they take, it's a population based range. So they take everybody who's done the test and they create a bell curve and they chop off the top and the bottom fifth percentiles and they call that normal. Now if all the, and I did the quotes again now, all those, all those, so you're taking a population of sick people, 70% of everybody in the United States is obese, right? So taking all those people and you're trying to, and you're calling that normal, what we're looking for in functional medicine is optimal. And so your ranges are always going to be generally a lot tighter and usually higher. Especially when you're looking at something like thyroid or, or whatever. You're gonna wanna make sure you're looking at an optimal range,
(18:16): Right? So that's key everybody. So just cuz they say your labs are normal doesn't mean they're optimal. There's a difference. All right, so you got persistent symptoms, you can definitely take the quiz on Dr. Evan's website. If you have had covid and you're, you think that you might have long covid or long haulers and I, I say for chronic fatigue is if you're not, if you feel tired on a regular basis, you wanna nap, you wake up unrefreshed, you're not able to keep your joy in life and keep up with your usual activities, that's a problem. And if it persists for more than a month, but definitely three to six months, you wanna get that evaluated. And the key thing that I wanna highlight that you said is, you know, some people push through and they're like, oh, I'm fine, I just have some coffee and I keep it moving. But the problem is that the reasons why you're having that chronic fatigue problem are going to be causing other problems for you in the future that you're not aware of. And that's just not something that mainstream doctors are taught and they don't know how to evaluate it. So you need a specialized evaluation to get at, how many factors did you say that you look at
(19:29): Now looking at 39 different causes? And don't be overwhelmed by that. You know, as you're listening to this, just realize that, you know, you invest the time, you know in a year from now you've moved through a process and you're gonna be a very different person for the rest of your life as opposed to going to doctors time and time again with band-aids that don't work for the next 20, 30 years.
(19:52): Right. You wanna get to the root cause so you can fix it for the long term. Right. And can you talk a little bit about what kind of things should people have done in an evaluation for fatigue?
(20:07): Absolutely. So when we look at these 39 different causes, and if you've heard me speak before, it keeps increasing as I learn more. And so you may have heard me say what wasn't it 33 before? Yes. Well now it's 39. But we look at we break up these causes into deficiencies and toxicity. So deficiencies are things that are not in the body that are supposed to be in the body. These are deficiencies in hormones and nutrients and mitochondria and lifestyle habits, neurotransmitters. And then there's toxicities. These are things that are in the body that aren't supposed to be in the body. So these are things like heavy metals and chemicals and molds and infections, whether it's parasites or viruses or bacteria or yeast or dental infections or sinus infections, allergies, negative emotional patterns or trauma electromagnetic fields, structural issues where you've, let's say you've gotten into a car accident or something like that or had some sort of injury.
(21:05): So all of those need to be looked at. And you know, one of the thing that we learned in medical school that is actually true is if you don't think about it, you're not gonna diagnose it. Right? Right. And so it's really important to make sure that you have a really broad differential, that you're looking at a lot of different causes to make sure that you leave no stone unturned. Because if, let's say you've got, you know, 20 out of 39 different causes and let's call those each a nail in the bottom of your foot, you pull out one nail and you still have 19 nails in the bottom of your foot, you know? Mm-Hmm. . So you pull out the gluten nail but you still don't feel any better. But let's say you pull out the mercury nail and the Bai nail and the parasite now and whatever, you get a mass effect where all of a sudden you get a big shift and you start to feel better. So you have to make sure that you're addressing all these things. Otherwise there's one nail that's left in the foot that really hurts. And if you haven't addressed that, then you're not gonna get all the way to the finish line.
(22:01): Yeah, it's so true. I see it even in women who go through my hormone program because a key part of having hormonal balances, you gotta fix the gut, you gotta address the mitochondrial function, you gotta, and then they say, no, I don't need any of that other stuff. And they never experience what's truly possible for them. But you know, you can lead a horse to water, you can't make or drink. And so really educating, I want everybody here listening to get that you have to take a Wyatt Castle wide net and have a comprehensive evaluation. So what kinds of things would go into treating, I mean you talked about all the items that go into that, into the evaluation and just how numerous they are, the problems that you can have, toxicities and deficiencies. Do you wanna pick some of the most common ones that you see and talk a little bit more in detail about what, like Canada, that's something that's hu rampant , right.
(23:02): Particularly in women, you know, Canada, which is yeast, is promoted by a lot of the hormonal contraceptives that we use. So a lot of women will have problems. It's promoted by our high glycemic index diet and lifestyle. And so it's opportunistic, it's waiting there. And when it's, you know, dark, warm and has sugar, it just proliferates. So can you talk a little bit about what you might see if someone had candid, how they might know they have it, what testing might be done, and then how do you start approaching and helping that person to rehab their body so that they can get rid of the fatigue?
(23:40): Yeah, so specifically with Canada, we're looking at a stool test that would potentially be positive. And you want to use a functional medicine laboratory. Your regular stool test with your doctor is not gonna do the trick, whether it's Canada or whether it's some other yeast. And then your symptoms, you know, do you have itching? That's really the biggest one. Is it itchy ears? Itchy anus, itchy skin? Do your symptoms get worse? Do you get brain fog potentially when you eat sugar? You know, are your symptoms worse when you sugar, when you go off of sugar, do you feel worse? You know, because essentially you're, you're killing off the Canada and it's it's dying in the body because you're starving it. And then in order to, and so for example, you know, what we do is we want to push it out, we want to starve it.
(24:24): So we started it with an antifungal diet, which is gonna be low sugars, you know, meat and vegetables, maybe a little bit of fruit, but maybe not depending on the person. Ideally no fruit, no additional sugars. And then we want to push it out with a probiotic. We want to kill it with an antifungal. And we're using all natural antifungal in our practice. And then you wanna, you wanna heal the gut and you wanna bind up the infections with some sort of binder. We're using some immunoglobulin in order to be able to do this. So that's just kind of an example.
(24:58): I know some people are like, oh my gosh, we, I have to do all that. That sounds like so much. But I love this quote that you shared with me before we started recording. The body loves small changes and also slow and steady wins the race. So you don't have people do all of that at one time, right? No. Okay.
(25:18): Yeah. Thank you for clarifying that. Yeah, and it's, you know, as humans we overestimate the amount that we can get done in a day and we underestimate the amount that we can achieve in a year. And it's just really important that every single day, and this is a mindset component that we talk about in our program every single day, you just need to take a step forward, do the next thing, right? Baby steps end up leading to success.
(25:41): It's so true. You know, when I was in Africa, my workout program was totally derailed cuz I didn't have my usual gym. And, you know, mere survival on a daily basis was sometimes challenging. And so now I'm back in the states and I went back to, I got back last week and I went to go work out this morning and of course my fitness level has dropped over four months. And I just kept telling myself, you showed up, you did your best. That's what counts. Mm-Hmm , you know, just make the investment and don't look for the outcome. The outcome will come. So you just slow and steady wins The race body loves small changes. And so everybody listening, you know, it's, it's New Year's just passed, you probably made some resolutions. And if you're listening to the podcast, you're doing something good for yourself, you're investing in your health. So Rome wasn't built in today, right? It takes time. So you need to do these things over time. And particularly if you're dealing with chronic fatigue, you do need a stepwise comprehensive approach if you want the best outcome. So what else is important to know about, you wrote the book Fixture Fatigue and what else might be involved in the evaluation or treatment that people might wanna know about?
(26:57): So I take people through a four step process where the first step is to determine the causes that they have. Now, fortunately, of those 39 different causes, 75% of those can be determined by symptoms alone. So people join our program, they go through the questionnaire and I'm gonna know 75% of their causes right out of the gate without even any having any labs. And so then we fig then the rest of the program is just applying the, the treatment for the particular cause that somebody has. And so we start off by replacing the deficiencies first. Now big picture, this process is all about removing the toxins in step four, the heavy metals, the chemicals, the molds and the infections, et cetera. Cuz those are actually causing the deficiencies but we need to replace them. So the big three is called is the adrenals, the mitochondria and the thyroid. And so opting, optimizing those first is kind of what you were talking about where it makes people feel better and then they don't want to go into step four
(27:57): , I'm good, I don't need any more help. You're like, no, you don't see the, the pothole you're getting ready to fall into. But
(28:05): Exactly. And so, and sometimes you can, you can optimize those until the cows come home and you're still gonna feel badly because your system is overwhelmed by one of these other toxins. So we replace things in step two in order to make you more resilient and deal with the stress of of step four and removing those things out of the body cuz it is gonna be stressful physically, not just psychologically. And then in step three we open up the drainage pathways. So the liver, the kidney, the lymph, the intestines. We wanna make sure that we're able to get the toxins out of the body. So I envision this kind of like a funnel where we're gonna be dumping things into this funnel. We have to make sure that those pathways are open. Otherwise as we start to dump heavy metals, chemicals, molds, infections, people start to feel worse. So we open those things up in step three and then in step four we're removing all of these toxins and they're very much interlaced where the heavy metals, chemicals, molds and infections are all kind of feeding off each other. They're bound to each other. So when you start to remove them, you wanna make sure that you've got something that's going to address these things as they start to be released and dealt with.
(29:13): Yeah, I know some people right now are like, what did he say? I don't know how to do this. It sounds so complicated. It's like the car mechanic when I go and I'm like, when I push the start button in my car, it won't start. And he goes, oh well the catalytic converter such and such and so, and I'm just like, glaze over. So folks, this is, it's very complicated. Just like cars are complicated, your body's even more complicated. So it does really require professional involvement to do it right? I'm all for diy, I love to DIY things myself, but at some point, you know, I want the tile in my bathroom to look good when I'm done , I'm gonna hire a professional. So you know, you can read Dr. Evans book at the end of the podcast, he's actually gonna give you a free copy. So you wanna stay tuned for that. And you'll see that he really is an expert about fixing fatigue. He knows all the ins and outs so you don't have to just like when you take your car, you don't have to know. But what are some things, maybe there's some people listening, they're not overly tired but they're listening cuz they're thinking maybe Dr. Evan can tell me a few things that I could tweak in my diet, exercise, lifestyle supplement regimen that might help me feel better. What would you say to them about that?
(30:36): Yep. So that, and that's really the first place to start. You know, most of the time when I see people, they've already done that and they've, they're eating a perfect diet. You know, they're meditating, they're working on their sleep, you know, they're doing all these things. So the goal that I have found is that, is that you want to be eating as close to a paleo diet as possible. So meat and veggies, you want low on sugars, low on carbs, you wanna make sure you know, protein fat and local glycemic carbs is kind of where it's at. You know, half of your plate should be vegetables, eat dinner for breakfast, you know, so you know, have a salad, have you know, roast some veggies, that sort of thing and make sure you're, you're having meat if you don't consume meat it's a little bit more challenging but you wanna make sure that protein fat and low carbs is what you're looking for.
(31:23): And then in terms of your sleep, the, the closer you get to sleep closer you get to nine o'clock the better. So I used to say 10 o'clock and then myself and a bunch of people in my community got oral rings and we and it said well and then actually it should be earlier than that. And I started testing it and seeing with other people and sure enough their scores went up and they felt better. And so we really want people to be going to sleep closer to nine o'clock and sleeping for at least seven hours, seven to nine hours generally. The other interesting thing too is that the later that you eat food, the more it can have effect on your heartbeat and co your heart rate and consequently the worse your sleep can be. So really trying not to eat after 6:00 PM is ideal or six 30, something like that.
(32:13): But the earlier that you can stop eating then and having a period of fasting before you go to bed, that can just be incredibly helpful because it takes a lot of work to digest food and so your heart rate will stay up and your body doesn't realize it's time to sleep. And so that can negatively affect your sleep. I mean going to bed and waking up at the same time every day is always a good idea. And then of course we've got all of our screens, we wanna make sure no horror films in the evening, no fights in the evening. We want to get into the parasympathetic as much as possible. Wearing blue light blockers, putting blue light blockers on your phone, putting it in night mode, that's oftentimes a way to do that. But that's sleep, that's food. You wanna make sure you're drinking two to three liters of water a day when you're going through a detox and you're removing some of the, the crap in the body that's there.
(33:01): We recommend people consuming, regardless of your weight to be closer to about three liters unless you're a child or a teenager. But then the last thing is movement. You know, where ideally you'd have what I call the Goldilocks dose of movement where if you move too much, it makes you feel worse. If you move too little, it makes you feel worse. So you wanna find that ideal dose, but you have to pay attention to how it feels in your body. And if you're fatigued then you may be able, you may be saying, you know, I can't move at all and that's okay. Just when you can, you know, do five jumping jacks or do some burpees, if you can do those or do walk around the block, you know, whatever you can do that's not gonna make you feel worse, go ahead and do that cuz that'll stimulate a number of things.
(33:44): You know, exercise and movement. I call it movement more than exercise cuz sometimes people have a hesitancy to, they don't like that word exercise. Sometimes it's dancing, that's really great. One or playing basketball or whatever's gonna be fun. But you know, if you look at the research movement is like a panacea, it's like a cure for everything. Yeah. It helps with detoxification and mood and, and it's so interesting to see it in my 14 year old too. It's like she's pretty sedentary and then she goes to karate and she moves around and she gets all sweaty and her mood is so much better. And so it's just really an important reminder for all of
(34:21): Us. So true. I think those are just great baseline lifestyle habits to aim for for everybody. Especially if you're feeling fatigued. I have to ask you because it's all a rage right now. Do you think if people are having chronic fatigue, that they should intermittent fast? We're not.
(34:40): I think intermittent fasting is excellent. However, it can also be stressful on the body. And so if your adrenals are compromised, which is a gland that manages stress in the body, then potentially you can't, you don't want to do anything that's gonna kind of put you over the edge. And so I tell people to test it if they want to try it, if they feel worse then it's too much and they shouldn't do it. But if they can tolerate it, then eating two meals, eating all your meals or two meals within a six hour period from like 12:00 PM to 6:00 PM can really do wonders for the body.
(35:12): Yeah, okay. I wanted to make sure to bring that up. And the other thing is, whenever people hear about a functional approach, a root cause resolution approach, and we start talking about labs, what's the first thing they say? Oh is my, can my regular doctor do it? Does my insurance cover it? So can you talk a little bit about that? I think it's super important because I think, you know, when I weighed 243 pounds and I finally found someone who looked like they knew what they were talking about, like same stuff we're talking about who might be able to help me, I was so desperate to get better because I was chronically fatigued, my hair was falling out, I had anxiety, depression, all kinds of maladies. And they said, well you need these two tests, each one costs $500. I was willing to pay it. But I sometimes see people and they say, oh I'm not gonna pay that if my insurance doesn't cover it. So can you talk a little bit about the, the cost of tests?
(36:12): Absolutely. So, you know, we're looking at 39 different causes and like I said, 75% can be determined by symptoms alone. But there are 25% that really need lab tests and those generally run around $1,500. And what I tell people in our programs, you know, aren't cheap, you know, and so it's an investment. No, you know when you go this route and you're actually looking at the root causes because you wanna get rid of 'em, cuz guess what? These root causes of fatigue and other issues are also the same root causes of heart attack, heart disease, strokes, Alzheimer's, and cancer. So you deal with it now or you deal with it later. And so the way you have to think about it is as if you're getting a master's because it's gonna take that long, it's gonna take a year or two, you're going to get all this knowledge that you're going to be able to use further and you're basically fixing your problems so that the rest of your life is amazing.
(37:05): You know, like I was hesitant about or going into residency cuz I already knew that I wanted to practice in this way and I didn't wanna do a conventional residency, but I also knew that if I did a residency, it would give me lots more options and I would learn a ton more information. And I'm so glad that I did, you know, it was really hard on me, but I learned so much that enables me to help people today. Mm-Hmm . And so you're making an investment of time, money, and energy so that you can get something at the end of it. You know, like you went to college, like you got a master's degree. This is just another way that you're making that investment in yourself so that the rest of your life can be amazing.
(37:45): I, I say amen to that. And I know there's some people listening who think, oh, Dr. Evan, this is just a factor of me getting older. Everybody gets older, gets tired as they get older and they think that they can't be helped, they think, oh, my fatigue's not that bad. I don't have any of these underlying toxicities or deficiencies he's talking about. And so is getting tired, quote unquote normal as you age.
(38:12): I have a, a client who's 68 who says he feels better now than he did when he was 30. Right? So generally it's really a mass effect. It's a total body burden. The longer , the longer you're in port, the more barnacles you get. So the longer you're on this longer you're on this earth, the more toxins you get. You know, my story was, you know, I came out of my mom's womb and she dumped all her good stuff and all her not so good stuff into me. And then I ate gluten and dairy growing up and I was constipated for the first 25 years of my life until I realized that it wasn't normal to poop once a week. And so I couldn't get rid of any toxins that I was accumulating. I ate a lot of tuna fish, which has mercury in it, and I had mercury fillings and so that was accumulating in my body. Didn't eat organic food, had pesticides, got formal, the high poisoning from gross anatomy class, lived in moldy buildings, kissed people who had Epstein bar virus in lime, grew up in New Jersey, right? And so went through residency and then boom, you know, like, so that was the story that I had where I thought that it was all of a sudden it was residency, but the reality was is that it was this accumulation. And so you're, you're just unwinding, you're peeling this onion, getting at all of these different causes along the way.
(39:31): Yeah. I thank you for sharing that because I think people can get the idea that you don't have to be doing anything wrong to have a significant toxic and deficiency load. We all have it, it's just a matter of degree. And what you see with aging is not quote unquote normal aging. What you're seeing is the accumulated effects of toxicity deficiency stress on the body. And that's why you see some 90 year olds who are, you know, running marathons and you see some people who don't even make it to 90 is because of this variation. And we blame it mostly on, you know, genetics. But that's a fallacy. Great. So thank you so much for highlighting that and we're gonna wrap it up. This has been great. I think everyone's gotten a lot of value. Dr. Evan has given you some tips of things that you can do, start doing this week, right?
(40:30): Start making some changes. You can tweak your diet, tweak your sleep schedule, tweak your movement. Some things to think about in terms of you can go take the quiz on his website to see if you've had covid, do you have long covid? And maybe it is time for an evaluation, maybe you wanna get to the root cause of it now so that the rest of your life can be amazing. Like his 68 year old patient who shared that he feels better than he had. I mean, I, I feel better now than I did when I was in my twenties for sure. And I attribute that to every, everything that we do, all the work that we do with ourselves and that we now teach others. So maybe it is time for that. Dr. Evan is giving you a free copy of his book Picture Fatigue. We will have the link in the show notes, so if you're driving, don't try to write that down when you get home. You can just click the link. Evan, you wanna tell them a little bit about the book?
(41:26): So the book was written in 2017, so it's been, it's been about five years right now, but it gives you a nice outline of the four step process. And if you do like what you're hearing and reading and you're interested in getting on a free call for your 20 minute call to see if we're a good fit to work together, those are available. You can also text us from our website, energy md method.com in the lower right hand corner, it goes directly to me so we can text back and forth, which is kind of fun. So we can see, you know, if, if we're a good fit. And I can answer any questions that you have. But the goal really is to, you know, so much of this is, is mindset, and yes, we wanna work on the physical, but you know, like we talked about initially, anything that you're saying no to, you're saying yes to something else. Anything that you say you should do, you have to be careful. Otherwise you're shooting all over yourself, right?
(42:19): . Yeah,
(42:20): , you wanna make sure that you're being intentional with your choices.
(42:24): Yes. Well, thank you so much Dr. Evan Hirsch for joining us on the Hormone Prescription Podcast today. Thank you for your path, your expertise, your wisdom, your caring, your passion for helping people fix their fatigue.
(42:40): Thanks so much for having me
(42:41): On. And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. I hope that you've learned something today that is going to positively impact your health. I challenge you to implement just one thing, post about it on social media, media and share it with me and look forward to hearing about your successes, and I look forward to seeing you again next week on another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Until then, peace, love,
(43:10): And hormones y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Get Dr. Evan's FREE PDF copy of his book, "Fix Your Fatigue: The 4 Step Process to Resolving Fatigue and Achieving Amazing Energy." - CLICK HERE
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Have you been wondering how to manage anxiety, especially in midlife? Dr. Loretta Breuning is here to provide us with the answers! Join us on the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast and learn how the lessons from the mammalian kingdom can help us all have a happy brain. Not only will you learn about how hormones work within our bodies, but also gain insight into how simple changes in our environment can drastically change the way we feel.
Dr. Loretta Breuning, PhD, is the Founder of the Inner Mammal Institute and Professor Emerita of Management at California State University, East Bay. She is the author of many personal development books, including Habits of a Happy Brain: Retrain Your Brain to Boost Your Serotonin, Dopamine, Oxytocin, and Endorphin Levels and Tame your anxiety-rewire your brain for happiness and others.
As a teacher and a parent, she was not convinced by prevailing theories of human motivation. Then she learned about the brain chemistry we share with earlier mammals and everything made sense. She began creating resources that have helped thousands of people make peace with their inner mammal. Dr. Breuning's work has been translated into twelve languages and is cited in major media. Before teaching, she worked for the United Nations in Africa. Loretta gives zoo tours on animal behavior, after serving as a Docent at the Oakland Zoo.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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How the mammalian brain works
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The hormones that can affect your emotional state
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Simple strategies to rewire your brain for happiness and reduce anxiety
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How our environment plays a role in affecting our moods
Listen now to this powerful episode with Dr. Loretta Breuning and learn how you can have a happy brain!
(00:00): Nature is designed to habituate to the emotions that we already have. Stay tuned to find out why our happy chemicals are not designed to be on all the time.
(00:13): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:07): Hi everybody, and welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today we're gonna be talking about stress. Again, I know it's such an important topic, but we're gonna be relating it to your happy neurochemicals. We're going to be talking about dopamine and serotonin and oxytocin and endorphins and how you can optimize these neurochemicals for your hormonal and overall health and wellbeing, how you can get out of anxiety and many other things. She has a unique perspective that's comes from the animal kingdom, which we're a part of, but we're a little bit different and we're gonna talk about how we're different and how that affects our health and ways that you can manage your neurochemicals that other animals don't need to worry about. I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started.
(02:05): Dr. Loretta Bruning is a PhD and she's founder of the Inter Mammal Institute and Professor Erta of Management at California State University East Bay. She's the author of many personal development books, including Habits of a Happy Brain, retrain Your Brain to Boost your Serotonin, dopamine, oxytocin, and Endorphin levels. And the author of Tame Your Anxiety, rewire Your Brain for Happiness and other books. As a teacher and a parent, she was not convinced by prevailing theories of human motivation. Then she learned about the brain chemistry we share with earlier mammals and everything made sense. She began creating resources that have helped thousands of people make peace with their inner mammal. Dr. Bruni's work has been translated into 12 languages and is cited in major media before teaching. She worked for the United Nations in Africa and Loretta gives zoo tours on animals' behavior after serving as a docent at the Oakland Zoo. Welcome Dr. Loretta Bruning to the podcast.
(03:05): Hi. So nice to be here.
(03:07): I'm really glad to have you here. I think people are dealing with so much stress right now. Stress levels are at an all-time high and we can't talk about it enough. How can people get regulated out of the stress site, be happy in their lives, experience joy? I mean, after all, I think that's what we're here to do ultimately, but there are a lot of things that get in the way and I'm curious if you can share with everyone how did you get interested in brain neurochemical chemicals and how to have a happy brain? What was your path?
(03:42): Like many people, I grew up around a lot of unhappiness and I didn't have a good explanation for it. So I think I was always curious like, what is everybody so upset about? So I was always looking for that and nothing ever seemed like a good enough explanation. I studied academic psychology my whole life, so I knew all the theories, but they still didn't really explain it to me and especially becoming a parent and you think, okay, now gonna start over and we're gonna do everything right according to the book, you know? And I was like, no, that doesn't work. Kids are unhappy. My students were unhappy. So then I had to rethink what I had learned and I stumbled on a lot of animal studies monkey studies, and that triggered, you know, cuz when I was like 18 years old and started studying psychology, there were a lot of monkey studies and that's what got me into seeing that the chemicals that make us feel good are the exact same chemicals in animals and they're controlled by brain structures that animals have too. And to me, that explained everything first because a monkey is constantly making decisions. What's gonna make me happy? Oh, if I get that banana, how can I get it? And that's the job our happy chemicals do is reward us for those actions. And then that this whole animal brain is not capable of using language. So it's totally separate track from the stuff we're telling ourselves in words.
(05:20): Yes. You know, I think that we forget that we are animals and that we have the same brain structures as other animals and that our brain is really designed to keep us alive, but some of those systems can act negatively in humans and actually make us sick when we don't understand them and use them properly. And I think this is super important for women at midlife because we've kind of, most of us been using our brains and our systems unconsciously, and we don't really start paying attention to how they function until we hit midlife. And the cumulative negative effects start encroaching on our good health. And then we wanna know, oh my gosh, I don't feel well. And we discover that our brain neurochemistry is part of the reason why we don't do well. How can we work with it differently? So can you talk a little bit about the different brain structures and kind of how our neurochemistry works and then we can kind of dive into what people might be encountering in terms of maladaptations of these systems that causing them problems? Sure.
(06:36): So you've raised so many good issues and I'm gonna try to simplify. Sure. Get to the point as much as possible, but there's so much. So I always like to focus on the positive, you know, what can we do instead of just focusing on the problem? So the reality is that our happy brain chemicals are not designed to be on all the time. You hear about dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and endorphin and you think, oh, other people must be just getting this all the time and what's wrong with me? And yet, when you know the job these chemicals do, you know that their job is only to be on for that moment to spark you into action when that action is appropriate. So for example, like a lion is looking around for something it can eat and if it runs after everything, it's not gonna get anything and it's gonna die of starvation.
(07:30): So dopamine turns on when it sees something it can get, and that's what our good feelings are like for that appropriate moment. So when we're not having that spark of joy, it's like no big deal. That's to the self-acceptance of my brain is designed to go up and down to navigate where should I use my energy? What's a good opportunity? And the other part of that is, well, how do I know what's a good opportunity and where should I use my energy? Well the amazing thing is my dopamine pathways are built from my own dopamine experience in my past. And your dopamine pathways are built from your past. So every little toddler is like trying to get that ball and get that cookie. And yet we're all building our pathways from our unique individual experience. And when I know my own pathways, that liberates me from being limited by them because you may think, oh, the only way to feel good is by repeating this behavior that triggered my good feelings in the past. But when you know that it's just a pathway, then you say, oh, there are thousands of other ways to be happy. I'm just doing this one because that's just the accident of my past experience.
(08:50): Yeah, we really are very programmed throughout our lives as to what's gonna make our dopamine reward pathway go up, what's gonna make our serotonin go up. It's gonna differ for every person. But I totally identify, and maybe you listening identify with this too, that I do wanna be happy all the time. Loretta . What's wrong with that? And you know, I think we see other people maybe on social media or friends that we have who really do seem like they're happy all the time. Why can't we be happy all the time?
(09:25): Okay, that's a great question. So first let's distinguish happy chemicals from unhappy chemicals. Okay, so I don't want to feel like I'm gonna die in every minute. So that's, yeah, like in in the animal brain, you are trying to escape from predators and starvation and the human brain is capable of imagining predators that are not actually there. That's how we stress ourselves. So we feel like we gotta run from this predator all the time, and that's horrible feelings. So absolutely, we should definitely wanna get away from that because that's the job our brain is designed to do is escape that threat. But if I want to feel joy every minute of every day, that's not realistic and I'm gonna end up disappointing. And if I tell myself that everybody else is feeling joy every minute of every day, then I'm gonna end up, you know, feeling left out. So, you know, there's this current movement of trying to feel the pleasure of small things. I think that's great, but the way the brain works is it habituates to what you already have. So if I think, let's say if I only get a date with this one person, I'll be happy forever. But then once you get the date with that person, you're not happy forever. Right,
(10:53): . So
(10:54): If you think, oh, if I only get this promotion, I'll be happy forever. But you get the promotion and you're not happy forever. So the reason is that our brain is designed to habituate to rewards we already have. So it's like saying that when my ancestors were hungry and they thought, oh, if I only found a tree full of riped fruit, I'd be so happy I'd, you know, I'd never be unhappy again. And they'd find the tree and they'd stuff their face with riped fruit. But if that made them happy forever, then they would not get any protein. They would not search for water and firewood. So our brain is designed to focus on the unmet need and to take for granted what you already have and say, okay, been there, done that. Now what else can I get? So that's the norm , which
(11:48): Yeah, I think everyone can relate to that. And I remember when I was younger, I would always think, I will be happy when, fill in the blank, you know, when I graduate high school, when I graduate college, when I graduate med school, you know, when I get married, when I have a baby. And like you would get to that and you do get that initial boost of, oh my gosh, this is so great, I'm so happy. And then it just becomes a factor of your life and it doesn't give you that dopamine kind of hit or serotonin boost. So I know everybody listening can really relate to that. And I love that you explained it, the nature's design to habituate to the emotions that we already have. And it is does confer survivability not only on the animal kingdom, but humans, which we're a part of the animal kingdom, but I think that sometimes we think we're superior because we have these huge four brains and that we should be able to surpass that. So how does someone who's maybe feeling dysthymic or even depressed really start to work in their lives to change their neurochemistry to a more positive state where they can get those boosts?
(13:03): Sure. So first is to understand that whatever triggers the happy chemical is based on not what you're telling yourself in words and philosophical abstractions, but it's a real physical pathway built from past experience. So a simple example would be, you know, if you give a child a cookie when they do a certain behavior, they're gonna repeat that behavior. So even if you're sad on some level, you got rewarded for being sad in your past. Mm-Hmm. because you felt like, well now I'm doing my share in carrying the load by being sad or something like that. So once you say, my sadness is a real physical pathway in my brain, my feelings about what it takes to turn on a reward chemical, those are real physical pathways in my brain. And I can build new pathways to have new expectations about how to turn on my happy chemicals. But it's hard to build new pathways in adulthood. It's exactly like learning language. When you're a child, you learn language easy. But if you try to study a foreign language in adulthood, it takes a lot of repetition and it feels like real work. And that's what it takes to build a new path to happy chemicals when you're older. Okay. One example.
(14:30): Sure. Yeah, that would be great.
(14:32): So, so the typical example would be negative expectations. Like if you think people don't like me, nothing I do works. Everything I, everything goes wrong in my life, you know, every, everyone can look for that o, that whatever is their own loop. And then look for, well, how did that pathway get built in my past? And then every time I feel it to say, oh, it's a real physical pathway, what other pathway could I have that would feel better? So my personal example was I always felt like people were criticizing me. Like I would jump to that conclusion all the time on no evidence at all. And then I would feel basically the terror of my childhood of being attacked and criticized. So what other pathway would I like to have will to just say other people are fine with me and I can feel good whether or not I have their approval. So I tell myself that, and the first time I do it, it sounds wrong and stupid and unbelievable, but I know that I, if I repeat it over and over and practice it, that I will build a real physical pathway in my brain and then it will just feel like my new normal.
(15:51): Okay, yeah, I love that. So we can change our neurochemistry studies have clearly documented that I know that some people listening deal with a lot of anxiety. You know, as our hormones change at midlife, when our estrogen starts going up and our progesterone starts going down, which can happen as early as 35, but definitely starts happening from 40 to 50. And by the time you hit menopause, you're really solidly in that category. You lose that ameliorative effect of the progesterone, which is the anti-anxiety hormone. So a lot of women at this stage of life deal with a lot of anxiety. What are some tools that we could start to use to help mitigate that?
(16:38): Sure. So to boil it down to one word that I use is called legacy. So legacy means my sense of what I can create that will live on after I'm gone. And the reason for this is if you think that we have this big human brain attached to this animal brain, so the animal brain is programmed to just search for survival and to fear survival threats. But my big human cortex can abstract and think about the future and it knows that I'm not gonna survive and there will be a future that will go on without me. And that is terrifying. And we can terrify ourselves all the time. Now, in the world of our past people died young, but they had children young. So if you had children like at 16, then you'd be a grandma at 32 if you lived that long. And so when you saw your grandchildren, you had a sense of legacy because you taught them how to chop vegetables and you saw them do it, and you had a sense of yourself living on after you're gone.
(17:46): So that was your legacy. And there was no, no birth control. So people were so busy taking care of children that they didn't have time to worry about dying as much, and they, they couldn't call 9 1 1, they couldn't get lab tests. So they just focused on like the next emergency of, you know, a kid's crying, how can I get food? And now like we don't really get to watch our grandchildren grow up for so many reasons. So we don't have that automatic sense of legacy. So we have to constant, consciously create a sense of legacy in one way or another.
(18:23): Yeah, that's, that's an interesting concept I hadn't thought about, but creating something for the future. And you're reminded me about the short lifespan that just a few hundred years ago we have, and I, I think it would be so interesting to see a study about people's ability to be in the present a few hundred years ago when they knew they were only gonna live, you know, 30 or 40 years. I bet that really focused them on, I gotta make the most of this time Yes. That I have. Whereas now we've got, you know, on average, I think 82 years in the US as the American lifespan for females. And I don't know about everybody else, but I feel like I waste a lot of time because it's like, oh, I won't do that thing now because I've got another, you know, few decades where I could do it. Whereas if I only had 32 years, well my life would've been over a while ago, but it really would've focused me. How do you think that has changed over time?
(19:25): Well that's, you know, to focus on the positive again. Yeah. Pause is a time when you say, geez, if I wait to be happy, I may wait too long. , you know, and so is it worth wasting another minute of my life worrying about X, Y, and Z? And you could make good arguments with your conscious verbal brain, oh, I should worry about X, Y, and Z. But then you could say, you know what? I could let it go because I'm not gonna get back the time that I waste on that. And also there's a lot of fearful images about the future, like even though I may live till X number of years that I'm gonna have a decline. And if you focus on that, then you're gonna be feeling the decline now. Mm-Hmm. . So it takes a real conscious effort to redirect yourself, you know? And like every time you see a wrinkle, for example, to instead of seeing that wrinkle as evidence of decline to say, this wrinkle gives me permission to stop worrying about X and to just start being happy. Now,
(20:34): I'm glad you brought this up. I recently came across an article in my newsfeed about the high demand for older aged female models. Recently there's been a boom and even 70 and 80 year old female models, right? Everybody is really starting to honor older women, their wisdom, which is what I think we really is the gift of menopause, is that the wisdom that we carry. We have lived long lives, we've seen a lot. I remember an attorney telling me once that when he went to jury trials and they did the voir deer where they select the jury, his favorite jurors were older women. And I asked him why. And he said, because they have been there, done that, seen everything. But they also have a lower ego and the maturity to understand the nuances of guilty, not guilty issues, which some younger people don't have. So all this to say also, I see in your bio, you've done a lot of interesting things. It says that you used to work for the United Nations in Africa, so you've lived a lot of life, you're at a certain stage outside of the work that you do with helping people to boost their neurochemistry. Just from a personal perspective, what would you share with the audience that would say, what are your biggest lessons learned at this stage of life, looking at life that that might be meaningful to them?
(22:08): Sure. So first we say, I have power over my own brain. I'm not gonna be happy from something outside myself. So if I wait for the world to make me happy, I'm gonna wait too long. . So what can I do to make myself happy? But of course we all know that that doesn't mean short-term happiness. Like you sit around and eat a pint of ice cream. So how do you balance this long-term versus short-term? So I talk about having a long-term goal, a short-term goal, and a middle-term goal. And in order to reach your goals, a lot of times, well, so a short-term goal is like I can reach it today, so I'm gonna get some hit of dopamine every day. That nice sense of accomplishment by setting a realistic goal, by breaking down what I want into small steps that I could actually do.
(23:00): And then the other part is like to achieve long run goals, I might have to do some things that are uncomfortable. So what can I do about that uncover? Well, instead of getting into like a cortisol spiral where you know I do something that feels bad and then that triggers another bad feeling and another, and another, I say to myself, okay, I'm gonna do this thing that makes me uncomfortable. I'm only gonna do it for five minutes. Or what, whatever's that reasonable chunk to tackle that obs obstacle. And then, you know, if I were gonna have a cup of coffee and a cookie anyway, I need to save it until after I've done that difficult thing. So that whenever I have it down, that I have an up that I can look forward to. And I have plenty of ups that have no calories, which in my life is comedy. But people can find their own.
(23:52): I love comedy cause laughing is so good for your neurochemistry . Yeah. Talk a little bit about laughing and what are some of your favorite things, ways to engage with comedy? Do you like standup movies? Like how do you get laughter in your life and what does it do for your neurochemistry?
(24:10): Sure. So laughter triggers endorphin, which is the body's natural opioid. And this is a widely misunderstood chemical. So an opioid is there to relieve pain and in the state of nature it's triggered by real physical pain. But because we have deep belly muscles that we don't use much, when you have a belly laugh, you get a little bit by giving those muscles a workout and you only get a little bit, but then you can laugh more and get a little bit more and it's the only healthy way to get them really, or the main healthy. And I explained this all in my books, so the way I get it. So I don't like bitter angry comedy and it's hard for me to find like truly uplifting comedy. And I know that if I look for comedy when I'm in a bad mood and like nine outta 10 of them are gonna be bitter, then I'm gonna just end up feeling worse, right? So I keep what I, I call, like when you're on a diet and you fill your pantry with healthy snacks mm-hmm. . So I fill my pantry with healthy comedy and I have a list of things that are ready for a bad day. So I know that when I'm in a bad mood, I have something uplifting that I could go to and I, I make that list on some other day rather than waiting until I'm in a bad mood.
(25:32): Yeah, I love that. And I love to laugh too. So one of my favorite go-tos I'm gonna share with everyone cuz you can use this, is I found this TV channel I, I'm sorry I don't re exactly know what it's called, but it's all videos of animals unscripted, they call it. Oh,
(25:49): I didn't write that down. .
(25:51): It's animals just doing what animals do mostly pets, right? Pet cats and dogs. They are hilarious. So it's just one video after another with no narration, no introduction of pets and Anna, there are some birds and different lizards and things doing the crazy things that animals do. So I'm gonna put a plug for that. And I'm also gonna put a plug for a re a movie I saw recently, I think it's from New Zealand that I think is hilarious. It's called The Breaker, uppers and . I literally laughed out loud so many times in that movie. So I gotta put a plug in for that. But I agree with you, laughing is huge. Another thing I wanted to touch on is that, you know, a lot of the people, women I work with, this might be you if you're listening, they're not so much concerned with their own worries, but worrying about others in their lives and what other people should be doing and trying to control them. And this one has to do this and what if they, what if my kid, you know, moves across the country to another state with my grandkids and then I won't be around them and they want to control what everyone else is doing. They're worrying about what everyone else is doing. You shared this quote with me before we started about it says, it's hard enough to manage your own brain, so stop trying to manage other people's brains. So I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about that.
(27:18): Sure. So the feeling that I can only be happy if other people do X, Y, and Z, that my happiness depends on them. If you think that you'll never be happy . So it's just, you just gotta make a deal with yourself. I'm gonna be happy no matter what anyone does. And the simple way to do that, if I give you a visual image, if this other person does something and I think, oh no, I can't be happy because they're doing that, is I'm imagining that there's only one path to happiness and that person is blocking the path. But instead I'm gonna think there are thousands of paths to happiness and if this person blocks that path, I'll just find another P.
(28:04): Yeah. So stop focusing on everybody else . And you know, and it goes along with that same desire I used to have, well I'll be happy when this happens For me, that happens for me. And a corollary is I'll be happy when X person stops doing Y or X person starts doing why. And really I have decided at this point in my life that happiness only happens in the now when I'm happy with myself. And it really doesn't have anything to do with anything to do with what anyone else does. And I can choose that. Yes,
(28:41): I I a way of saying that. I always say my husband gets on my nerves, but it's my nerves . So, but it's fine. I, it's my job to adjust my own nerves to love him for what he is. And I don't even have to love him in any specific way. That's my job to just decide,
(29:01): Yes, to decide it's a decision. I know the name of your company's inner Mammal Institute and you take people on zoo tours to see animals behavior and I'm wondering if you can share with everyone, what does that do for the people who participate? How does it enrich their understanding? Sure.
(29:21): So I learned so much by watching nature documentaries and the simple fact of life in the interest of time, I'm just gonna say it straight, like animals are quite nasty to each other. And I learned that from watching nature videos. And yet what I learned from academic social science is that the state of nature is all peace and love and something has gone wrong with our world, but that's just not true. So we have this animal nature which is very motivated by self-interest and we really struggle to manage and navigate and control this inner mammal that is just wanting to grab the next banana. So how can I manage my inner mammal? And like I always feel like other people wanna grab my banana. That's easy to see. But what about my own impulse to get another banana and my feeling of like they took that banana at my expense.
(30:20): That's how the mammal brain works. So nobody likes to see this in themselves, everybody wants to see it in other people. So that's why we really need to be exposed to the reality of animals. Now to tell you the truth, you don't visually see that in the zoo because the pet world is not the same as the state of nature where animals are not fed. They have to get their food, they have to hide from predators. So the zoo tour is really a fun way to talk about this. But if you watch the nature videos of David Attenborough, especially his early series, then you really get get the facts. And I got them then from that like evolutionary biology books is how, and I have a reading list on my website and it's all in, in all of my books. I put this in a simplified form of why animals are nasty to each other and how we can feel it and manage it and relax with
(31:21): It. Yeah, you know, it's interesting, I just came back from four months in Africa and went on safari a few times. So I got to see those wild animals in their natural habitat habitat. And it was very instructive to see how they work both communally but also very selfishly in some ways. And I saw what good boundaries the animals had because at certain points in their existence, well for instance the wiles at one point we were driving up to, so in this Serengeti, or no, we were in the in goro goro crater in Tanzania. And most of it was extremely dry so there wasn't a lot of vegetation for a lot of the animals to eat. And then we came upon this place where there was a river and it was very green and lush and there were almost no animals there. And I said to myself and to the guide, why don't they just come over here and eat and drink water?
(32:22): And he said, because the lions know that that's where the animals are gonna go to eat and drink water. So they're afraid. And then I saw this group of will to be standing right outside this lush area and they were all huddled together facing the same direction. And one was out in front and he said, you see those will to bees, they are discerning. Is it safer, is it not? Where is the sun in the sky? What is the wind doing? What time of year is it? Is the lion gonna attack us now is it safe to go drink the water and eat or no? And so they were working communally, but then other times you would see them when there actually would be food and one would be pushing the other to try to get more of the food or more of the water. And so it was very interesting to me to observe that. Well
(33:14): I love those guides because they tell you the truth. Yes, don't get from academic psychology because academic psychology constructs this unrealistic, idealized world of peace and love, which is not what nature is about. And you get it from those tour guides and and you can get it without if you can't go there. You know, nat, a lot of some nature videos, you know, some of them are still hooked on the, the other unrealistic belief. But another simple example about the wildes that I learned from a nature video. So in order for them to get from, you know, they follow the grass year round, you probably saw how they migrate to wherever the grass is, but they have to cross a river and while they're crossing the river, they could die from a crocodile, they could die on the other side, you know, from a predator and then they could die when they jump in because another will toes could jump on top of them.
(34:15): So it's very difficult to make that decision. When am I gonna jump? They'd really rather not jump cuz the crocodile might get them, but if they don't jump, the rest of the herd piles up behind them and pulls them in and then they don't even get to jump, they just get shoved in with without balance. So they're constantly making this very difficult decision and you could see your own terror of like when you're a kid, like, do I jump or not? And so even what looks like herd behavior is a constant calculation of how much do I follow, how much do I, you know, take a step in a different direction. And our brain is making that decision every minute of every day. Am I gonna just follow the guy in front of me or am I gonna take a different step in a different direction? And you're calculating that with your best guess, which can never be perfect.
(35:09): Yeah. And I love what you said earlier about the fact that other mammals don't have the ability to imagine danger and humans do. There's a great book I wanna share with everyone called Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers that clearly explains why zebras don't get ulcers, they don't have the imagination faculty and they really go through a process after they are stressed. So for instance, we, we saw this crazy wild chase of a leopard going into a herd of various types of gazelle like creatures and how they responded and, and I really got to see what's outlined in that book firsthand where these animals, when they go through a stress like being chased by a predator, they have a discharge process that they go through afterwards where they shake, and maybe you can talk a little bit about this and how it might apply to us. They go through a process to discharge that stress and reregulate their cortisol stress hormone, which I talk about all the time. This is really what's killing us. So how can we take that instructive information from a zebra's behavior and use it for our superior mammalian brains?
(36:23): Sure. You're also referring to, and and it's slipping my mind, there's a a book by another guy Levine about this shaking that goes on. So the idea is they discharge the stress and then they go back to what, what do they go back to? And this is what I talk about in my anxiety books. They go back to meeting their survival needs because if they just worry about predators all the time, they're gonna starve to death. So if they say, I'm not going out into that world unless it's a hundred percent safe, then they would to death. So hunger motivates them to deal with risk, to deal with potential danger to go out and meet their needs and only worry about danger when it's really there. Now the big human cortex says, oh no, that's stupid, I'm going to anticipate threats and avoid them. But if you spend your whole life anticipating threats and avoiding them, you're gonna just worry constantly.
(37:26): That's because our basic needs are met, that our lives are so comfortable that we could just stay home and do nothing unless we think it's a hundred percent safe. And one thing I blame this on, that's funny, I'm a bit older than you, I think I remember the years when, so cars broke down all the time and people said, oh, American cars are so bad, we should do what the Japanese did. And this is what I taught in the early years of my academic career. So the Japanese had this way of anticipating things that will go wrong in the production of a car and solving it at the source, fixing it at the source. And they said, that's what we have to do. We have to anticipate defects and fix 'em at the source. And so the whole education went on this bandwagon of anticipating threats and figuring things and preventing them so that quality would be a hundred percent and that had value, but it really made people nuts because now people think nothing can ever go wrong. We anticipate every possible threat and they literally, it's called the Toyota method that every tiny defect is a crisis because if you don't fix it now you're gonna produce a thousand more cars with the same defect. So you have to treat it as a crisis. So we were all indoctrinated to treat every tiny little problem as a crisis.
(38:51): Yeah, I think that's a great example. And you know it's done well for the car industry, but as a human species we really can't live that way. And thank you for saying that about the the worrying. Cuz there was something I was worrying about this morning and as we're talking, I'm thinking, why am I worrying about that? If it becomes a problem, I'll deal with it. I'm not gonna worry about it now
(39:16): . Yeah,
(39:17): Yeah. So can
(39:19):I give you another example of this that I think is very common? So let's say you get an email that asks you to go to some website and do this or that, and let's say it's something that you wanna do. So okay, I'm gonna do it. So you go to that website and you think, oh, this'll take five minutes and then a half hour has gone by and you still haven't done it. And like somehow I get really upset when I can't get something technical to work. It's really the problem is that I'm connecting it to every failure in my past is a real pathway in my brain. So one little failure today activates that old pathway like it's my failure pathway. You have your failure pathway. And what triggered it was really the expectation that I could do it in five minutes. So all I could do is just tell myself this is something hard, it's gonna take a while, and then all of the problem goes
(40:15): Away. Right. No, I love that. It really is how we frame the problems that we have. It's not the problems themselves that are the problem. What you think is the problem is not the problem, it's how you're thinking about the problem. So our thinking is always the problem. I know you have some great resources for everyone, but before we wrap up, I'm wondering if you could talk a little bit about the importance of oxytocin. That's another hormone. I don't think we talk merely enough about its importance and how to nurture our oxytocin.
(40:47): Sure. So in the animal world, animals seek groups for protection from predators. And in the oxytocin is the chemical that rewards you when you feel protected by a group. But this has been idealized in an unrealistic way in the current human dialogue. So we think that we should be protected all the time. And in fact, that's true for babies and that's why, as you know in the medical profession that oxytocin is central to maternal birth and lactation. But in the adult world, you're not meant to get this protection that you got as a child. So oxytocin moments are difficult and rare. Now how do I get my oxytocin moments? Well, whatever triggered my oxytocin when I was young built real physical pathways that tell me how to get it today. But that's also quite limiting. So the famous example is if you smell the cooking that reminds you of trust and bonding moment of your youth, then you seek that you want that, you think that will make you happy.
(41:57): But what we really want is protection. And in the adult world, we're never gonna get the protection of a child. And even when you were a child that protection was not perfect. So we have to accept that I have this natural logging for protection and I'm only gonna get moments of it rather than to have this perfect protection. So a simple example of a moment of it is people go to a concert and they're in this building with like thousands and thousands of people, whether it's music or a speech or an athletic event that you feel like you're sharing something that's important to you, but they're not really protecting you. Another example is if I tell my life story to a train a stranger on a plane, they're not gonna be there for me in the future. So it's like you look for these trust moments because letting down your guard is what is the oxytocin feeling? And what was so impactful to me, I learned that reptiles only have oxytocin when they're mating, which lasts for 10 seconds and the rest of the time no oxytocin because they don't trust their fellow reptile. So oxytocin is that feeling that I can barely tolerate your presence just enough to reproduce .
(43:24): . That's hilarious. , yes, oxytocin. I mean, people may know it as being the hormone that go is what causes labor in women, but it's also involved with milk production and bonding and connection and it interacts with your other hormones as well. So I'm gonna leave you all with a mandate to do something with your oxytocin today. What could you do to get some oxytocin just on a daily basis? You know, I think the past few years where a lot of us have been so isolated, we were legally bound in some instances, to not leave our home for much really has put a toll on our oxytocin, which unbalances our entire hormonal neuroendocrine cascade. So getting back to normalcy where we have in-person human interaction is key. So I want to challenge everybody listening to do something about your oxytocin to boost it going forward. And Loretta has a lovely gift for you and we'll have a link in the show notes to it. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about your download anxiety? What turns it on, what turns it off?
(44:41): Sure. It's a free book, P d F. It's the shortened form of my larger book, which is called Tame Your Anxiety, rewiring Your Brain for Happiness and Explains something. We haven't talked much about cortisol, the chemical that gives us the survival threat feeling and to sort of accept our own cortisol. It has a natural job and then to get real about the ability to manage it rather than to just let it take over and spiral.
(45:12): Awesome. Well thank you so much for that free gift, Loretta. If you are dealing with anxiety, I invite you to click the link in the show notes and learn what you can do to start taming your anxiety. Thank you so much, Loretta, for joining us for an episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(45:33): Sure. Thanks for the great
(45:34): Questions and thank you for joining us today. Hopefully you will implement some of the things that we've discussed so that you can move towards greater hormone balance and brilliant health. Thanks again and I'll see you next week for another episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Kiran. Until then, peace, love, and hormones
(45:54): Y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Get a FREE copy of Dr. Loretta Breuning's Anxiety: What turns it on, What turns it off. CLICK HERE to sign up.
Do you feel like you have lost your balance in life? Is your hormone fluctuation disrupting your overall health and well-being?
This week on The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we are delighted to have Dr. Jay T. Wiles, an international speaker, scientist, clinician, and influencer on the subject of heart rate variability (HRV) biofeedback and how it can help restore balance in your life.
Dr. Wiles will discuss why HRV is so important for midlife women and how it can be used as a powerful tool to create hormonal balance through breath-work exercises and other techniques. He'll also explain the effects of stress hormones on health performance and optimization, providing practical tips on how to manage stress naturally through diet, exercise, lifestyle changes, and more.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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What is heart rate variability and why it is important for midlife women
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How to measure your HRV and optimize its impact on health performance
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Practical tips to manage stress naturally through lifestyle changes, such as diet and exercise
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The connection between the human stress response and health performance/optimization
Don't miss this opportunity to join Dr. Jay T. Wiles in unlocking the essential hormone-balancing tool that almost everybody's missing! Tune in now for an insightful conversation about HRV biofeedback on The Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(00:00): "We suffer more often in imagination than in reality." - Epitectus And this affects your health and your hormones. Stay tuned to find out how.
(00:11): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:05): Hi everybody. Thanks so much for joining me for another episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Kyrin. Today my guest is gonna help you get a concrete idea about what stress is doing to your body and how to know exactly what it's doing in an objective and quantified manner. He uses one of my favorite tools. Maybe you've heard me talk about H R V heart rate variability in a very unique way. So you're gonna wanna stay tuned and listen up. He really is a proponent of health and helping people optimize their health and has created some great tools that you can use. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Jay Wiles and then we'll get started. He's an international speaker scientist, clinician, influencers, subject matter expert and authority on the interconnection between the human stress response and health performance optimization. Dr. Wiles is a clinical health and performance psychologist with board certification and heart rate variability biofeedback and peripheral biofeedback, and works as a leading consultant in psychophysiology to health influencers, professional athletes and teams, executives and high performers.
(02:20): He is the co-founder and chief scientific officer of Hanu Health and stay tuned to find out what HANU means. He has pioneered new and innovative means of using heart rate variability, H R V and respiratory training as both diagnostic indicators of the dynamic nature of the human stress response alongside therapeutic tools for regulating and conditioning this response for PCU performance. Dr. Wiles has an extensive history of working with top performing athletes in the PGA L P G A M mls, MLB, A T P and W T A. That's a lot. His consulting firm, thrive Wellness and Performance, has held contracts with leading biotechnology and health technology organizations where he has engaged in research development of therapeutics and development of behavioral retention programs. Dr. Wiles has operated as the co-host of the Ben Greenfield podcast since 2019 and host the Hanu Health Podcast. Welcome, Dr. Jay Wiles.
(03:22): Hey, thanks for having me. Glad to be here.
(03:24): So I'm really excited to talk about this topic in the unique way that really you pose it because I think heart rate variability is very complex and people's eyes glaze over the minute you start trying to explain it, but really you come up from it from the perspective of stress resiliency, which everybody's interested in. So let's start out by talking about stress and you know, what it is in a, from a more scientific biologic perspective and why people should be important about its effects on their body. And then we can get into this unique way that you have for people to really monitor their stress so they can manage it better.
(04:11): Yeah I think first and foremost, I always like to dispel the myth that stress is the bad guy. I think so often we, you know, read in the tabloids or we hear on the news or we listen to podcasts that stress is bad. Like it, it's just inherently this bad thing. And I would actually argue the exact opposite. I would argue that stress is inherently good. Now it's the compounding nature of stress that can be problematic to people's overall health and their wellbeing. But stress in and of itself is simply a warning sign. What stress is is a mechanism of taxation. It is just saying that your resources are being taxed. That can be physiological resources, that can be psychological resources. It's re experiencing some level of taxation and there are warning signs that we receive from that taxation that hopefully should signify and kind of ho help us to hone in that we need to either do something effectively to help ourselves out of this situation or maybe just acknowledge that what's going on isn't going to inherently harm us and therefore be okay with it.
(05:17): So more of like a mindful approach to stress, but kind of from the get-go. Stress in and of itself is not bad. It is inherently good. So we should always come in with the mindset that it is not this kind of, you know, nefarious thing around the corner. So when we think about how stress affects us from different perspectives, it affects us physiologically, it affects us psychologically. If it ever affects us psychologically, it always affects us physiologically. And then vice versa as well. It's a bidirectional two-way street. They're very much interconnected. And again, what I always come down to is that it is not just the singular experience of stress, but it's the compounding of stress experience that is the thing that can be problematic for people. Has it stacks up without dealing with it or acknowledging it or learning how to regulate it. That's where we find more problems.
(06:08): Yeah, we need stress to live actually , right? Yep. We need the stress of gravity on our bodies to make our bones strong. We need a certain degree of stress. They call it eres, right? You have a very unique perspective. I think a lot of people think about stress and they don't. It's just this nebulous concept, oh, stress, I'm stressed, I have too much stress, I need to de-stress. And you know, people tell them to meditate and there's really not a lot of objective data on am I meditating properly? So then people don't do it because they don't get immediate feedback. And you really kind of took a tool that is near and dear to my heart and positioned it in a way and educate people in a way that helps them monitor their stress. So talk about the technology that you use and how it can help people quantify and monitor and manage their stress better.
(07:06): So you're right in the fact that a lot of people are able to tap in to understanding their stress subjectively if they actually take the time to check in subjectively. But unfortunately, not a lot of people do that. And so what we see in the psychological literature is that a lot of people just simply kind of move along throughout their day, kind of compressing and compartmentalizing stress until finally they either do one of two things, they explode or externalize or they implode and internalize. And this happens to just about everybody. So one of the things that we are trying to do that has been kind of in the works for many, many decades now, is how can we help people to increase their awareness to the effects of stress and also those things that are triggering stress objectively? Well, there are are invasive ways of doing it, right?
(07:55): We can look at cortisol, we can look at neurotransmitter production, we can do those things, but it's debatable on number one, like can we give an accurate interpretation of that data for stress in terms of psychological stress? We can in some sense, but in other sense it's a little bit difficult to determine what came first, the chicken or the egg. But also too there are non-invasive ways of doing it. And the single greatest way of doing that, single greatest non-invasive way of tracking changes that are occurring in the human stress response or changes in the nervous system would be looking at something called heart rate variability. So heart rate variability isn't a new biometric, it's one that's been around for quite some time. But what we're learning is more and more how to not just use it as a mechanism for measurement, but also how do we use it to improve outcomes both acutely and then in the long run.
(08:47): So heart rate variability kind of at its most simple form is looking at what are the dynamic changes that are occurring in the nervous system at any given moment. In other words, it is a metric that we can use to determine changes in people's stress response as people experience stress, we see changes in in heart rate variability as people experience relaxation. We see people's changes in heart rate variability. When I explain heart rate variability, it's kind of like you mentioned earlier, it is something that sometimes people, it will just kind of, people will gloss over, like it kind of goes over their head. Like it's, it's a very in-depth type of metric, right? So I like to break it down in its most simple kind of form. A lot of people intuitively understand heart rate, right? So if you, like almost every watch now where people are just used to heart rate monitoring, if you see that my heart rate was beating at a rate of 60 beats per minute, well that means that in a span of 67 seconds, on average, it was beating every single second.
(09:47): So there was one min, one second in between every successive heartbeat. Well, for heart rate, that would be true. That would be an average of one second in between heartbeats, which would make 60 beats per minute. Now is that what's actually occurring? And the answer is no. That would not be what is actually occurring. The heart is pacing itself every single one Second, if it were, then if we go back to this metric that is heart rate variability, that person would have zero variants. So zero variability between the difference in time between successive heartbeats. That means that the heart is pacing itself like a metronome, which is not a good thing. It's actually what we see happen actually prior and during when people are having heart attacks is their heart rate variability reduces to basically zero because the heart is pacing itself. That's a sign of a lack of adaptability.
(10:38): The nervous system is, is unable to adapt. But what heart rate variability is, is it's looking at the changes in time that are occurring between your heartbeats, between the space of tumble. We call time in between heartbeats. One of the best ways to explain this is that a healthy nervous system, one that is able to adapt to stress is one that is going to be highly variable. And that may sound weird because a lot of people may think, shouldn't my heart be stable? Well, heart rate stability is very different than heart rate variability stability, which is a bit of a mouthful, but let me explain. When a natural healthy individual who is, who is, let's say more or less free of stress or quite relaxed, we see this natural event occurring in their breathing patterns and how it relates to heart rate. So we know that there's a natural phenomenon, a, an arrhythmia that occurs when people are breathing as they inhale, heart rate speeds up and as they exhale heart rate significantly slows down.
(11:38): We call that respiratory sinus arrhythmia or rsa. And what we know is that when someone has a huge increase in heart rate when they inhale and a huge decrease in heart rate as they exhale, that increases heart rate variability and creates more of what we call a resonance within the cardiovascular system. A process of what we call increasing the sensitivity of something called the barrow reflex mechanism, which is our body's maintenance of a blood pressure. It's a system when those two are acting in resonance with one another or in accordance with one another, the person that's going to feel that sense of relief, that sense of relaxation. But as someone experiences more stress, we see those two things go out of phase with one another. The blood pressure regulating mechanism in somebody's breathing rate and the way that they're breathing as well, which can cause heart rate to go up and heart cause heart rate variability to go down.
(12:32): So heart rate variability again is something that we can look at as a number and help us to determine like what is going on within the state of that person's nervous system. Because as that number goes up, we know that their parasympathetic or relaxation break is engaging. And as that number goes down, we know that something is causing a withdrawal within the nervous system and there's natural occurrences, the up and down that happen throughout the day. And then there are things that can trigger it and can cause more of a significant result in our decrease in heart rate variability indicating that someone is experiencing stress. So that's a long-winded way of kind of explaining what heart rate variability is, but that's the primary metric we're using in the technology that my company hanu, H A N U, what we created, which is a way to measure that at all times, which is very different than what most wearables are doing now, which are really just kind of looking at it either overnight or it's a spot check like let's say in the morning or some other time during the day. We're looking at what are those subtle changes in heart rate variability throughout the day that would indicate that person may be experiencing something that is triggering a stress response and their nervous system is having to kick in the high gear to respond. And the whole goal is to be able to catch it early so that we can intervene with different types of therapeutics to teach people how to better self-regulate that response.
(13:49): Yeah, I think H R V is such tremendous technology. I know that they've done some studies on covid infection looking at the H R V or heart rate variability profiles of those people who have a higher fatality rate, more severe disease compared to those who don't. And it's, it's really striking. So I love H R V not only for looking at stress resiliency, but looking at overall state of health. I used to have this rather expensive machine in when I had a brick and mortar office where we would get H R V profile every which way but loose That would really give us data on the overall health of a human. So I, I think it's valuable. So if, if people listening, you're concerned about covid or getting any type of illness and you really wanna know how fit is my system to handle it, H R V is is also useful for that. And the better your H R V V, the better you're fair if you do get a viral infection or any other illness. So I think it's super important. How do you counsel people that they can use H R V for more than just checking their stress resiliency
(15:03): Mm-Hmm. ? Yeah, so the one big one would be with athletes who are looking to increase performance in recovery. So what we know, again, if we're looking at heart rate variability, it's a proxy for changes that are occurring in the nervous system. And so one thing that we know is that if someone is either overreaching or over-training as an athlete or if someone within the performance space we know that we can actually use it as a mechanism to determine how well are they recovering? Is their nervous system adapting to their training or are they overdoing it? There's too much taxation on the nervous system and therefore that's represented in a decrease in heart rate variability. And when we see that, especially when we see a trend of a downward or of downward heart rate variability, we can then intervene and say, okay, we need to either kind of pump the brakes here.
(15:48): We need to pull back maybe today's a little bit of a lighter day or maybe we should kind of recenter or refocus your training because you're overtaxing the nervous system. And for an athlete that can obviously lead to things like injury, it's gonna decrease overall performance because these individuals are gonna be kind of operating on a kind of a lower playing field if you will, because their nervous system isn't able to handle the amount of load. And so that's one way that we use it a fair amount is kind of looking at recovery for athletes. The other thing is just really kind of understanding what are those internal or external things that are causing changes in the nervous system overall. These can be things like looking at like what are the effects of eating and nutrition and what you're putting in your body and how does that impact the nervous system?
(16:35): We've seen really interesting manifestations within the context of those we worked with at Hanu when people were eating highly o like overly processed highly sugar-laden foods or they're eating highly inflammatory oils, fried foods and the effects of that has on the nervous system. So we can see kind of after they eat these foods, how long do we see a suppression and heart rate variability that is indicative of somebody who has basically inflamed themselves with the type of food that they're eating. So we've actually worked in conjunction with many functional medicine practitioners who are kind of utilizing more or less like a elimination diet and reintegration mm-hmm diet and kind of determining kind of the effects of certain foods even on these individuals nervous systems. So it can be a really great proxy. And then we also use it too to determine the effects of other things that people may be integrating into their health and wellness routine.
(17:26): So one big one right now is sauna use and there are some individuals who will respond really well from a nervous system recovery perspective to sauna. And there are some people who quite frankly are just overdoing it. And we'll see a kind of just this really tax nervous system that is elongated because they're either spending way too much time in the sauna, they're doing it too frequently. And the same thing with like cold plunging. So you can really use it to kind of test the efficacy of different things, but also look to see how much of an impact is that having on your nervous system. We've done it with supplementation, we've done it with a lot of other things and especially in conjunction with other biometrics, other blood work biometrics. This is one that's readily available to a lot of people and is non-invasive, especially when we think about not having to do blood work.
(18:13): And just kind of looking at kind of these things in conjunction. One more that we we've done, which is really interesting and we're looking at publishing studies in this domain is looking at the fluctuation of blood glucose and how that affects heart rate variability and nervous system taxation. And as you might expect though, there's not a lot of published literature. There is some but not a lot. As people have more glycemic variability, they have more suppression of autonomic nervous system functioning or a heightened stress response. So the glycemic rollercoaster leads to suppressed H R V and increases someone's stress, experience and stress in and of itself can cause the glycemic variability rollercoaster. And then in is manifested in a reduction in heart rate variability,
(18:54): Right? So translation, everybody glycemic just means your blood sugar. So he's just talking about the blood sugar rollercoaster that I always talk about that you're on when you're eating the SAD diet, the standard American diet with you know, bread, pasta, rice, potatoes, soda, all those things, your blood sugar's going up and down. And I'd love to tell people, everybody thinks when you first tell 'em about heart rate variability, that it's a measure of your heart function. And what I tell them is no, it's measuring your nervous system function. Mm-Hmm . So that's how you have to think about it. So what does stress effect your nervous system? It's me. H R V measures your nervous system function. And so it's really, I love it cuz it's a way to get at the really core part of what determines your overall health, your sympathetic nervous system, parasympathetic.
(19:46): I think it's so important. I wanna just offer this quote that you shared with me before we started because I think it really gets to something that we're talking about related to stress. We suffer more in imagination than in reality. It's so true. Right? Right. Now how many people, you know, everybody listening, what are you worrying about right now? What's preoccupying your mind that you're obsessing about rolling over in your head 10 different ways, 10 different times? And how many of the things you've ever worried about like that have ever happened, right? Most of them don't ever happen. But what you don't realize is that what you're worrying about and suffering about in your imagination is affecting your health. So Dr. Jay, can you talk a little bit about that? Cuz I know there's somebody listening right now who's worrying and imagining negative outcomes. What is she doing to her heart rate variability and her overall health? That
(20:44): Quote is a great quote that comes from one of the stoic philosophers, Epictetus. And it's resonated because it's actually kind of one of the core foundational statements of C B T or cognitive behavioral therapy, which is a predominant therapy or psychotherapy modality. And one that I was heavily trained in kind of back in my my student days and and utilized quite frequently. And we build a lot, we're building a lot of the things into the application or platform that I teach or or am making. One of the things that I always come back to here is that we are really good about not being present. We're really good about focusing on those things that occurred to us in the past or trying to predict or forecast the things that are going to occur in the future. And what we know from hardcore research is that our predictive ability of what's gonna happen in the future is very, very poor.
(21:39): We're not very good at it. Well why is that? Well, we catastrophize, we concoct worse case scenarios. We generalize, we see things in black and white. A lot of those are the cognitive distortions that we can have in our head that cause us to have this narrative, this high level storytelling of what we believe what could happen. But it never comes to fruition or barely does. Or if the thing that we are predicting happens does happen, it's almost never as severe as what we anticipated. So in other words, we elongated our suffering. So even if we do suffer, we elongated it by worrying and causing all this immense amount of stress to build up. What does that do to the mind and body? Well it has extremely negative effects. First and foremost, we see that it causes significant disruption in hormonal functioning. I know that's a huge component obviously of this podcast, but we see huge dysregulation of what's called the H P A axis, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis.
(22:41): So huge dysregulation in our secretion of cortisol, huge secretion of adrenaline and neuro adrenaline or epinephrine and nor epinephrine. And when these things happen acutely or kind of just in real time, short term, they can be quite effective. They will save your life. But when they happen over and over and over again, or it's this constant kind of low state of stress or medium state of stress, not like the real height one that can be, or I should say is worse than kind of these just kind of acute stresses where we dump cortisol, we dump adrenaline, and then all of a sudden we clear it. The problem here is that more and more this happens, the more and more we see increased heart rate in which we know is really bad for our overall cardiovascular health. The high resting heart rate due to stress and the secretion of these hormones and neurotransmitters is not great on the body.
(23:30): Our heart only has a finite amount of times that it's gonna tick and we don't know how long that's gonna be. So any way that we can preserve those ticks of the heart the better. The other thing too is kind of the immense amount of dysregulation that can happen with things like blood pressure. We do know in fact that these things can significantly impact people who have hypertension or lead to hypertension certainly will exacerbate people who have, again, high blood pressure or hypertension. And we see this also too in just dysregulation of the autonomic nervous system. And this will manifest by dysregulation and heart rate variability. So low heart rate variability because someone is stuck in their head and level of thinking. And what I always say is this is outside of anything that you're putting into your body. So outside of, you know, any caloric intake or exercise or these other things that we know are going to influence the autonomic nervous system, this is simply just the brain just being stuck in our own thoughts and catastrophizing and concocting worst case scenarios.
(24:31): So we know that our imagination can be quite helpful, but it also can be to our detriment and can lead us down a very destructive path. Which is why I say like there's so many tools and techniques and great therapies that I recommend that kind of utilize this objective data and really is more about kind of turning in and changing your physiology. But another way of changing our physiology is changing our pattern of thinking. It's identifying what are kind of those distorted ways of thinking that really lead us down and spiral down into a really bad path. And how do we kind of modify those and work through those because we know that those can spiral down into anxiety, depression, other mental health related concerns, but can actually be caught early through things like monitoring, self-monitoring. So kind of monitoring thoughts and being aware of them, but also objective monitoring and looking at kind of the impact on the nervous system by looking at data. That was probably more of a long-winded way of answering that question, but, but thoughts matter. Inherently they matter.
(25:36): They do, they're so important. You know, what you think is affecting your health. I talk about that a lot. I know some people are probably wondering right now. Okay, we know Dr. Jay, you've got a company, we're certainly gonna talk about that. But what are all the different ways, we touched on it earlier of measuring H R V cuz some people listening probably are thinking, oh, I wanna do that. I hear how valuable it is. What are the different methods that we can use and how might somebody start to integrate this into their life?
(26:08): It's a a great question. You know what I, the wearable space or wearables have become ubiquitous. So I mean you can look on me right now. I have a Garmin, I have an Aura, I have a whoop and then my hanu is is on right now . So I have so many like different types of wearables and you know, one of it is because I'm just very interested in data and I don't expect people to be nearly as interested in data as I am. But I also use them and monitor them for, for different reasons depending on kind of like my goals and what I want to get out of them. The great thing about wearables being ubiquitous is that also heart rate variability being a metric that they collect that is also readily available in a lot of these different wearables. So, so all of these Garmin, you know, got or I got whoop and then obviously hannu, they all track heart rate variability.
(26:52): They do it very differently both in how they're measuring but also when they're measuring, which is really important And there's plenty of really amazing apps out there, you know, even outside of Annu as a platform, like we're a mental health platform. But you can also look at, you know, companies like Elite HR V and H R V for training which do H R V monitoring a little bit differently, but again, readily available and accessible to a bulk majority of people. So I always tell people know kind of why you're measuring and know what you're measuring. So the why can be a, a wider array of things that we just mentioned. Nervous system recovery for athletics and and performance. It can be for stress monitoring. So just kind of know your why and there's different platforms for kind of different reasons. And then also know kind of how it's measuring and what it's measuring.
(27:37): So for instance, at Hanu we use a continuous wearable E C G that's gonna give us high quality, accurate data under just about every single condition. And that is actually looking at the electrical output of the heart. So it's looking at the direct signal of the heart as opposed to some of the other wearables are using light sensing based technology, which is an indirect way of looking at the heart. So it's not picking up the electrical pulse, it's looking at a waveform that is basically a light that's shining through the skin, picking up, kind of changes in in blood flow kind of with within the capillaries. And then it's saying that must be a pulse so therefore there's a heartbeat. What makes that really great is that it's non-invasive and it's kind of just readily like you're able to put it on and go.
(28:22): Ours you're able to put it on and go as well, but you know, it's around kind of the, the, the chest or the sternum. So therefore it's a little bit more invasive than, you know, getting it on the wrist or the finger. The reason though that the wrist and the finger can be problematic is that when you're moving that provides a lot of what we call artifacts. So a lot of noise and it's hard sometimes to pull the signal. We can approximate heart rate pretty well, but heart rate variability can be very difficult. That's why most of these devices require you to be a very still when you're taking heart rate variability or it takes your heart rate variability when you are asleep, which is something like Aura does or a whoop does. They're looking at HR V when you're asleep, not when you're awake because when you're moving it's very hard to get that signal.
(29:02): Whereas with an EC G you can get that all the time. So these platforms are great because you know, you can look at recovery of the nervous system. You can look at kind of you know, is there kind of a downward trend of heart rate variability and that's kinda the information that you're gonna get. But if you're looking at kind of a mental health perspective throughout the day, then it might be great for you to have something that is continuously looking at changes in heart rate variability so that it can tell you kind of in the moment to provide that kind of trigger to you and say I see something kind of going on right now. It might be time for you to either take a break and we can either do some meditation, some biofeedback, some breath work, you know, whatever it may be. Like that's kind of more the intention of wearing something that is continuously monitoring those metrics. So it really just kind of depends on, you know, your goal. Like are you looking more just to kind of spot check for recovery, kind of check in with the nervous system or do you want to have something that's monitoring continuously so that you can adapt and make changes throughout the day or kinda learn to become more self-aware and learn how to better self-regulate.
(30:07): So as you're talking, I'm kind of getting that because I'm familiar with all these other devices. I haven't been thrilled with the utility, clinical utility for people of certain wearables. Like the Ring, I basically have people use something that they do an intensive evaluation, you know, periodically throughout the day in the morning and evening. But you know, as you're talking it's, it's sounding kind of like continuous glucose monitoring, which when I first heard about it I said, well that's great for diabetics. But then some of my colleagues started using it for their coaching clients who are more in the wellness space. And I thought wow that's, and this is kind of my reaction to a lot of the things that I've learned over my past 12 years into becoming fellowship trained in functional medicine. At first, like when I heard about IV therapy I s VI micronutrient therapy, I said, that's so extreme and so unnecessary.
(31:00): And then when I learned about it I was like, that is so necessary and so valuable. And I find that this is the journey that a lot of lay people have to go through as well. When they first hear about these things, they first hear about all the types of testing and evaluation and treatment that I use, their first thought is, that's so radical. I don't need that. You know, it's not offered at my H M O doctor's office. I don't need to pay for that. And then when they learn more, they listen to the podcast, they learn more, they say, oh my gosh, I have to have that. So as you're talking, cuz I know when I first heard about what your company offered, I thought I don't need to know that much about my H R V, but as you're talking I'm thinking it's just like continuous glucose monitoring.
(31:45): Yeah, it's continuous H R V monitoring and how valuable that could be. Like if I'm sitting here doing work like I've been doing for a few hours, I might not cognitively or consciously realize that my body might be going distress mode. It might take me much longer and it usually does cuz I'll work like crazy and then hours later I'll go like, oh my gosh, I'm so exhausted. Mm-Hmm . So anyway, I know I'm kind of on a monologue, but I love for my audience to really be taken through my thought process journey cuz I think it helps them become more educated about how to think about their own health. Right. So what are your thoughts?
(32:24): We make the comparison to continuous glucose monitoring all the time. What we know is that the rollercoaster that people can experience in terms of blood sugar fluctuation can cause a lot of deleterious effects. So the idea would be is to instill as much stability as possible without, you know, with the knowledge that like when you eat certain foods, like you're gonna have an increase in blood glucose, but it's the ups and downs and ups and downs and ups and downs and ups and downs all day long that happen. You know, the first thing you wake up and you eat that sugary pastry or donut that kind of kicks start the day that can cause those problems. Heart rate variability is very similar. So like within our application what we do is that when you first put it on, we're monitoring to figure out what is this person's baseline range, which in Layman's peak is kind of like what's their high average, what's their low average and then what's kind of right in the middle?
(33:17): Like where do they normally hang out in terms of their heart rate variability? And over time we're able to kind of refine that window, you know, based on context, situation, a lot of other things. And what we're really looking to do is say, okay, how often is their heart rate variability significantly changing and one way or another how much are were they dropping outside of their baseline range? Which is significant, which means that their nervous system is experiencing enough taxation for us to be alerted to it. Okay, interesting. What's going on here? And then also in the other direction, when are things kind of going up above their baseline, which may mean that they're really primed, they're in a very relaxed state, maybe they're meditating, maybe they're doing biofeedback. So we're able to kind of look at that throughout the day. So for our goal, just like what you mentioned earlier, is to be able to provide a signal, a level of awareness to people when it makes sense for us to provide that and say we see something going on right now and maybe you're writing those emails or whatever it may be.
(34:16): This is a huge one for me. I always like to tell this story. And a lot of people don't realize they're doing this until they realize they're, they're doing this mm-hmm. , which is something called email apnea. It's the holding of your breath when you're typing in email. And a lot of people do it and especially if you're writing a lot of emails, like you'll see your nervous system like it really taxed like your hurry very belly will drop because I mean, it's a stress response. You're holding your breath without being consciously aware of what's going on. And so a lot of people are like, oh my goodness, I didn't realize I was doing that until I started seeing, yeah, my heart rate variability was dropping. And then now that I'm kind of pacing my breathing and getting back into more of this relaxed parasympathetic state, like now I'm regulating myself better and I'm not seeing kind of these huge drops that we know that more and more that we have of them and the more and more severe they become, the worse it is for our overall psychological and physiological health.
(35:10): So our intention is to work very similar to a blood glucose monitor continuously saying I am monitoring kind of with my, you know, microscope what's going on within your nervous system. And when we see a significant event in your nervous system occur that we feel like, yep, that's enough to alert them, the user will get an alert and they will and will say, okay, it's time to check in. Number one, we want you to say what's going on here and is it affecting you subjectively mm-hmm . Because when you look back in retrospect, we want to be able to say, oh yeah, over the last week or last month, you know, the thing that was really getting me was my commute. Like I was out riding, you know, in the middle of New York City. I have to commute in the middle of that for an hour and my nervous system was wrecked for that entire hour every single day.
(35:54): Now there's the opportunity to do something about it, you're aware of it. Now let's learn how to self-regulate within that in that moment. Identifying the triggers is always important because it leads to us becoming more self-aware. But the kicker is learning how to regulate yourself in that moment and in time because we can have all this great data and information and, and it's most basic form. It's just data, it's just information. It's what about the step that comes after it? How are we gonna condition a new behavior that's different than what you might normally do because maybe your normal commute behavior is, you know, spurting out curse words, shooting the bird, like, you know, being aggressive. Don't do that. Yeah, don't do that. Maybe the new behavior is learning how to self-regulate in the moment so that you aren't feeling all that tension, all that emotional dysregulation that may manifest itself in you yelling at your family when you get home after your commute. Or you know, writing a nasty email when you get home because you're already pint up and frustrated and you're like, now time to release the anger. All of these things are connected to one another. And while we talk a lot about the data and the science, it all comes down to learning how to better regulate yourself. Learning how to better emotionally regulate yourself mm-hmm. so that it doesn't negatively impact all of these areas of life that maybe it is impacting now.
(37:06): Right. That's a great thing. Topic to touch on before we wrap up is what are some things that people can start to do just even today if they notice that they're in the stress state, where they certainly, if you're listening, you need to start checking your H R V for sure. But what are some things that people can do?
(37:26): Yeah, the great thing about this is that the most, the most efficacious or effective tools that we have that we've seen in the literature and the research literature are ones that are readily available and easily accessible to everybody at any given time. Regardless of whether or not you have a monitor or any ti or you're, you're looking at any different biometrics, which is a phenomenal thing that we have been built and designed to be able to regulate utilizing what's readily available. So I know that sounds cryptic, so let me just explain what I mean. , what I mean is, is in
(38:01): English, in
(38:02): English, right, in English breathing, breathing is the single greatest way to send a different signal to the nervous system. If you want to relax in the moment and train your nervous system to relax in the moment, learning how to change the mechanics of your breathing change and then changing the cadence or the speed of breathing are the two greatest things that you can do. A lot of times when people are stressed, we breathe what's called thoracically or in other words from the chest. It's a shallow, inefficient way of breathing, but we do so. And if we do it fast enough, we call that hyperventilation, which happens if somebody's having a panic attack. And what we see is people who have a panic attack, heart rate flies up the roof, the heart rate variability sinks like a rock. So what we can do in the moment though, is just simply change two things.
(38:52): One is the mechanics, moving it from the chest down to the belly, engaging what's called your diaphragm, which means pushing the diaphragm towards the pelvic floor, allowing the stomach almost to balloon of the lungs to expand breathing what we call low, slow and deep, not taking in as much air as you can that can be problematic, but breathing low, slow and then deep into the lungs. That can excite our vagus nerve increase what I'd mentioned earlier, what was called respiratory sinus arrhythmia, which is the speeding and the slowing of the heart and then work on exhaling slowly and then also doing it nasally from the nose. A lot of people when they get stressed, they breathe from their mouth. So breathing from the nose and changing the mechanics. And then the second component, what I mentioned was cadence. The simple way to do this is just inhale to account of four and exhale to count of six.
(39:43): If you do that, that will put you at a pace of six breaths per minute, which we know is a pretty good sweet spot for a lot of people. And you can make it also too, just an even breath, five seconds in, five seconds out. But breathing is single-handedly the best way of doing this. And again, readily available to you at any given moment in time. No one has to know you're doing it, which is the beauty of it. , you know, we just add the data component in terms of are are my company hanu? Because it helps to condition the behavior. When you can see your nervous system making significant change, you want to come back to it cuz you're like, oh, it's not just subjectively I feel better, which is good. That's the key. We want you to feel better like that is number one.
(40:21): But if you want to condition a behavior, seeing those data change, well that just reinforces that this right here is working. Like I see change in my nervous system, it's responding, it's adapting as we think it should. So breathing as key point number one. Number two thing that I, that I recommend, which is also readily available to us, would be kind of the mental battle aspect. And the biggest tool that I use is a tool in C B T called cognitive distancing. A lot of times when we're in the moment and we're feeling stressed, it is very easy to get wrapped up into the mind. I think that the first thing you should do is try to send a different signal physiologically. But the next thing is also to take a different approach psychologically or what we call cognitively. The one thing that we can so easily do is get wrapped up in that cognitive spiral that we were talking about earlier.
(41:13): However, a great tool that a lot of people have been have found to be effective is to remove yourself from your cognition with something called cognitive distancing. And what this strategy looks like is basically taking like an outsider view of what is going on that is purely objective, viewing things as neither good nor bad, almost just like you're a scientist and analyzing things just as what they are. So it's taking yourself away from kind of all of the impact and emotional thinking that happens and saying, I'm just gonna take an outside's view at what I'm thinking and just kind of look at it, be mindful of it. What that distancing does is it beautifully allows us to not be so wrapped up in all of the emotional characteristics that are involved and simply just see it for what it is. And so many people say that when they impact their physiology and when when they engage in this cognitive distancing strategy, people just feel more relaxed because they feel more in control.
(42:14): The thing that can so dysregulate people is when they feel like they are out of control or they have no impact on their emotional regulation or experience and when that occurs then we see the emotions start to ramp up and they lead to more negative behaviors. But if we can change the physiology with the body, so change the body with the body and then move to cha helping to rework our thinking, those two combinations of therapeutics have just been identified to be extremely effective in helping people to just calm down in the moment which is needed for everybody. Yes.
(42:50): Okay, great. Those are some great tips. I love breath work, talk about it all the time. And also changing your thoughts cuz that really does program your body's health. And if you haven't heard me talk about that, you need to listen to more of my podcasts cuz I talk about it all the time. Dr. Jay, this has been some great information. I love the conversation about one of my favorite tools, heart rate variability, where can people find out more about you? And I know that you have a special offer if they do wanna check out Hanu for them. So tell them about that and we'll have the information in the show note.
(43:26): Yeah, thanks for allowing me to do that. So if you just go head on over to hanu Health, h A N U and Hawaiian Hanu is Hawaiian for breath, which is our main strategy that we use for self-regulation. So hanu health.com if you use the code hbh 20, that's Hbh 20, that'll get you 20% off the platform. You know, feel free to kind of look at over, we have a lot of education and articles and videos and our own podcasts, the H new Health podcast. So we try to provide as much information out there as we can. Like, you know, the one thing that we realize is that it's dense, like heart rate variability, you know, psychophysiology, it's dense and people already probably listen to this podcast and they're like, yeah, that, that sounds like it's a in-depth thing. The great thing though is that it's utility. Once you kind of understand just the basic platform, it's utility is just so incredibly vast and wide and something that again, I mean I might sound like the fox guarding the hidden house, but something that everybody should be checking. And they will find such improvements in overall health outcomes if they understand what they're looking at and then understand kind of how to utilize that metric in these, in these training therapeutics.
(44:33): Mm-Hmm. . Yeah, and I just want everyone to know, I always try and tie things back to hormones cuz it is the Hormone Prescription podcast that improving your H R V will improve your hormone profile. Mm-Hmm. . So they are intimately an intricately related and you improve one, you improve the other vice versa. So I wanna leave you guys with another quote that Dr. Jay shared with me before we started because I think it's really sobering and hopefully will help you focus your mind for the rest of the day and get out away from all that extraneous stuff, the things you're imagining in the future that could be negative, that could impact you negatively and the things you're ruminating on from the past that you have no power over. And here's his quote, you could leave life right now. Let that determine what you do, what you say, and what you think. Dr. Jay, anything you'd like to share about that?
(45:31): Yeah, if anybody has heard the, the two quotes that I mentioned there, they'll know that these are both stoic quotes. Epictetus first and that was Marcus Aurelius. And I love that one because it hones in on the shortness of life. Not something that we should fear death, but something that we should use as a motivator is that the time here is very short. And so if we are going to spend so much of that time allowing anxiety to rule us, allowing it to kind of dictate the things that we do in life, how we act, who we associate with, then we're gonna leave life unfortunately with some regrets and nobody wants that. And so knowing that life is short, we should actually use that as a motivation to go out there and just live life and enjoy it and be happy and be healthy and just follow that path. And I think it's really great wisdom.
(46:20): Yes, go live your life, be happy, joyous free. Thanks so much for joining me for another episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast. Thank you Dr. Jay for joining us. Hopefully you've learned something today that you can put into practice. Don't just be entertained and educated, but take action. Maybe just do some deep different breathing like Dr. Jay talked about. That's something simple that you can do right now. Thanks so much for joining me and I'll see you next week on another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
(46:57): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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How is aging affecting your metabolism? Are you looking for a way to turn back the clock and make it work like it did when you were younger? This week's episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is all about how to stop blaming aging for a slow metabolism, featuring special guest Kate Deering.
Kate has been helping women achieve optimal health and wellness for 25 years with her holistic approach that includes diet, stress management, exercise, posture, sleep, digestion, hormones, mindset, and lifestyle. And she knows what she speaks - she holds certifications as a CHEK Exercise & Holistic Lifestyle Coach, Olympic Lifting Coach, and a Certified Nutritional Consultant. Not only that but she also has a degree in psychology and exercise physiology!
In this episode, you'll learn:
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How to recognize aging's impact on your metabolism
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Tips on how to keep your metabolism running efficiently as you age
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What dietary changes can help boost a slow metabolism
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The link between hormones and weight management
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Ways to develop an exercise plan that’s appropriate for your age and goals
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Plus, much more!
Join us this week for an informative discussion about how to stop blaming aging for your slow metabolism with special guest Kate Deering. You don't want to miss this one! Tune in now.
(00:00): You have to get healthy to lose weight, not lose weight to get healthy. Dr. Schwartz fame, stop blaming aging for your slow metabolism. In this episode, I'm gonna tell you why.
(00:14): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:07): Hi everybody and welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I hope you're having a wonderful holiday season. Thanks so much for joining me today. My guest today has lots of certifications. She's been dedicated to helping women improve their metabolism, their health and fitness for over 25 years. She's really smart and goes really deep into the science. So I think you're gonna like her. She's gonna help you understand a lot of things. When people hear that I lost over a hundred pounds, they assume that I did it by cutting calories and exercising. And of course I didn't do that at all. I did what we're gonna talk about today to improve my metabolism. I could have just sat there and blamed it on my age, but I didn't. I found out the truth about what truly drove my metabolism and my weight gain, including hormone balance, which a lot of you have heard me talk about.
(02:03): So we're gonna dive deep into that topic today and really help you get some answers on why you need to stop blaming your age for your slow metabolism and what you need to do to get your metabolism boosted. And why eating more and not less is key and why eating more carbs is part of the answer. I know you're surprised to hear that we're gonna get into it. So Kate Deering is my guest today. She holds certifications as a check exercise and holistic lifestyle coach, Olympic lifting coach Z health practitioner and certified nutritional consultant. She's worked for 25 years helping women achieve optimal health and wellness, using an holistic approach, incorporating diet, stress management, exercise, posture, sleep, digestion, hormones, mindset and lifestyle. She also has a degree in psychology and exercise physiology. So she's very well-rounded and has a a lot of breadth as well as depth that she's gonna deliver to you today. And I hope you'll help me welcome Kate to the podcast.
(03:07): I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me. So
(03:09): I always like to start with people talking about why they do what they do and you have some unique certifications and experience. You've been in the health and fitness industry for over 25 years and I'm wondering what drew you to get the certifications and trainings that you've acquired and what makes you so passionate about helping women at midlife boost their metabolism.
(03:35): ? Well, it's a great question and I, I think the driver for most of us is always, we have our own experience that leads us down a path that we try to look at all the, the, the information that is readily available to us. Maybe it's through the medical space or maybe it's just what nutrition is offered in the, the standard American diet. And you find that that isn't working for you. And so you start going down different paths. And so for me, yes, I've been in this space for 25 years. I've always had an interest in people. I actually have degrees in psychology and exercise physiology and how to improve either performance and your experience here on life and so forth. And I've certainly had plenty of experiences in my life where I thought I was doing the healthiest things for myself because it's kind of what I was taught, especially in down the path of, you know, let's get fit and healthy.
(04:28): So maybe go down the eat less, work out more. And did that kind of approach a good bit to my twenties and thirties and then all of a sudden that when I was about to hit 40, it's didn't seem to be working. And the the tighter and more stricter I became, the more walls I seemed to be hitting. And you know, I kind of was thinking, well that must be just what happens in your forties. That's what everyone keeps saying. You hit this wall. And then I started to learn about metabolic health on a a different spectrum and looking through health with a different lens. And until we kind of change the lens of how we're seeing things, we're gonna keep going down the path I believe. So we have to kind of take a different perspective. And the perspective I learned was based on the work of Dr.
(05:11): Broda Barnes and Dr. Ray Pete. And it's essentially you're defining health as how well your metabolic rate is working. And if we understand that metabolism is basically the sum of all chemical process in your body or, and or how well your body is taking food and producing energy. And so how can we measure that is the question. And the way I would measure it is your heat production because heat would be a product of how well your body's producing energy, your temperature. So temperature and pulse would be ways to monitor how well your metabolism is working. And then if we think about it as it's the sum of every metabolic process, well then that would be how well you are digesting. How's your cycle? Do you have PMs or do you have a lot of menopausal issues? If you're at that stage in your life, how are you sleeping?
(05:58): How's your skin and hair? We know that when you are producing energy at a good rate and you're able to use food and then make energy for yourself, you'll have plenty to run your body optimally. If something starts to interfere with that, then you're gonna start to become compromised. And then what you tend to see is the opposite. Bad digestion, a lot of PMs issues, you're cold all the time. You might have a really low pulse, you have a lot of sleep issues, brain fog, all of those things start to occur. I stop looking at each symptom independently and because again, when we, when we look at how metabolism works, it kind of is the sum of all those products. So from my perspective, if we, if I could find a way to increase the body's ability to turn fuel food into fuel and produce better energy or more energy for your system, then ultimately what happens is your body just starts to function better without addressing each symptom independently. Mm-Hmm . And so if you can basically like say what, what does that all look like? And so there are certainly a series of things that you can do to help that happen. And it's not just kind of do this or that. It's always finding where the invi the individual at is at the process and working with them within that space and then slowly trying things to again help their body produce energy better or there's more accessible for them in their body and their metabolic health so that things just start working better for themselves.
(07:24): Okay. So let's start a l with a little basic, cuz I know some people are pretty advanced to listen to the podcast. They're, they, they're all about knowing about their metabolism. But what is your metabolism and why is this an issue as people age? I love how you say stop blaming aging for your slow metabolism, but let's break it down. What is your metabolism to begin with and why is it a problem for women as they age?
(07:49): Yeah, that's a great question and you can kind of define it a few different ways. One would be, like I said, it's the sum of every metabolic process in your body. So everything your body is doing takes energy. And so metabolism is essentially how your body turns food into fuel. And it essentially goes through a process. So we can look at it down at the cell level cuz all your cells are basically producing energy in their mitochondria primarily so that, that you have energy to do what you need to do, but you also need energy to run everything in your body. In fact, most of the energy that your body produces is used to run your body. We refer that as the basal metabolic rate. So 60 to 70% of the energy you produce is just utilized to do your systems, meaning digest food to keep your muscle and your, your your, your bones and have your nervous system working and all these things require fuel.
(08:43): And if at some point you start to run at a deficit, then your body always goes through this adaptation and will actually slow down metabolic function. And we see this when people diet and if they, they diet long enough, what normally happens, well you don't sleep as well, you're not digesting as well. You might start to feel tired or fatigued or you might start to feel wired because now your body's trying to produce energy via the stress response. And then you start to get a little bit jittery or it might even feel good initially because the stress hormones can feel good initially. So we start to see these responses your body's giving you. But if you're all of a sudden like going into your forties and fifties and saying, I still wanna lose weight, but yet you have a series of symptoms occurring, right? Let's just say you have horrible periods or you have all these sleep issues and you're unable to lose weight or you can't hold muscle tissue or you're getting all these brain fog or other issues, then we've gotta work on those symptoms first.
(09:44): Because what I know is that your body isn't providing you enough energy to run your basic functions because either you're too stressed out, you're, you're using it too other ways or it's gone through too many adaptations to slow it down. Cause we always have to remember the number one thing our body is trying to do is keep us alive. It isn't trying to procreate, it isn't trying to really digest your food, it's not trying to do any of those things. It's trying to keep you alive. So it's always in this energy preservation space where if you don't give it enough, it's going to adapt to that. And if you do it long enough, you'll have symptoms and then it'll look like illness and disease and so forth and so on. And so when I look at it say look, we can say well that just happens with age.
(10:26): And I say, well usually what I see is it just happens more time on this planet to stress your system out . And so, and that will come with age, but if we actually treat our body differently and actually provide it with enough fuel, minerals, nutrients, space and time to heal, then we can actually reverse that process and allow the system to do what it needs to do. And so we don't have to use the age factor to say, well this and, and there's just succumb to this is gonna happen cuz I'm getting older. We should know that there are things you can do to kind of fix that or reverse that so that you don't have to say that, that it is a product age. It's just a product of how you're treating your body.
(11:04): Right. I love that. It's so true. It's not age and and you know, it's just coincidental that as we get older, but we're also spending more time on the planet getting our body stressed out and yeah really that is the key factor. It doesn't have anything to do with our age. And you know, if you look around, there are plenty of women who are older who don't have metabolism problems, don't have weight problems, don't have health problems. And so what's the difference is that they're probably managing the various stressors that are insulting their body as they age. You know, another, could you share this quote with me before we started from Dr. Schwartz being about you have to get healthy to lose weight, not lose weight to get healthy. And really that's how I lost over a hundred pounds. People ask me all the time, well how did you do that?
(11:51): Did you starve yourself? Did you, you exercise like crazy? No, I figured out the secrets to hormonal balance, detoxification, mitochondrial function, all the things that you and I both teach about. And then when I fixed that, the weight just came off. So how do you get people to shift their mindset? Women over 40, 50, 60 who are really, I mean we've had drilled into us from the time I was a little kid, I remember having drilled into me, it's less calories and more calories out, right? Cut your calories in, expend your calories. That's how you lose weight. And how do you help people to understand that that's, it's not a numbers game, it's not a math problem.
(12:34): That is a good question and it is a complete mind shift. And even for me it took a lot of unlearning cuz I was brought up in that space and that's, it was dug into me and I and it works until it doesn't work,
(12:46): Right
(12:47): . And that's the problem and that's, and when it does work, you know you can have it work pretty quickly, right? It's also a space, if you just grind it out and you, you know, you're like balls of the walls, you can have it happen but it's not sustainable over the long haul and then, then it's just, and so you're gonna get into trouble eventually and it doesn't work because you're, like I said, your body will go through adaptations and we now know that like exercise is actually not a great, certainly cardiovascular exercise is a great long-term approach for long-term weight loss. Because when you start putting, cuz exercise is a stress on your system, right? You're stressing your system to use fuel faster and if the fuel isn't available, then yes, it'll try to use what's on you, which is body fat. But it also will use a percentage of muscle tissue, connective tissue because those are also regulators.
(13:38): You need to regulate your blood sugar. And so when all those things happen, anytime we put a stress on our system, our body says, hey, at this point in time she has more demands than we have coming in. So okay, we're gonna use some of our other resources, however we're going to slow other things down to adapt to this stressor because again, number one thing your body wants to do is keep you alive and it doesn't want you to burn off all your muscle tissue to try to regulate blood sugar so that you can keep going. So it's always adapting to this response. And in your twenties it kind of, you do it and it can fix itself. It kind of goes okay, you know, she's lost some weight and we, we will kind of try to autoregulate a little bit, maybe a downregulated metabolic rate just a little bit.
(14:22): But then you do it again and again and again and by the time you're in your thirties and forties and you've hit that system, you know, 30 or 40 times it is now downregulated 20 30%. And now it's just so much harder for your system to push through that cycle. And usually at the same time now you have a bunch of symptoms, right? You have, you've had bad periods for 10 or 20 years or now you're having menopausal symptoms or perimenopausal symptoms and they are horrible and that's not normal, I guess it is, is normal cause a lot of people have it, but it doesn't have to be normal. You don't have to go through those if the body is in a better space. And for me I try to address it and get 'em to shift because I want 'em to look at the definition of health differently.
(15:05): Look, health is not just how thin you are and how good you look in, you know, your swimsuit health is a product of, again, it what is your temperature and pulse. If you're 96 degrees and a lot of women are, then that's a problem. You're not producing a lot of heat and that's a factor of metabolic health. So I look at, are you running around 97.8 to 98.6 degrees through the day? You know, is your pulse 40 or is it between 75 and 90 beats? And you know, believe it or not, it's better to have a pulse a little bit higher even though your doctor, you know that when you're running your marathons it's, it's down at 50. But that is an adaptation that occurs to kind of keep up with that activity. And then we wanna look at your digestion again, how your menstrual cycle, how's your libido, what are all these factors doing and what do they need to function?
(15:54): And they need energy, right? You cannot run on thin air. And so, and you also need a lot of nutrition and if you're eating crappy foods and we're not enough, we are going to see dysfunction at some point in time. It's just, it's going to happen. And if you just keep thinking, well I still need to work out more and exercise, it's just a matter of willpower, you are gonna make yourself absolutely crazy and, and then you feel horrible and then your whole life kind of starts to crumble down because you don't have the fuel to keep up with it. And so you know, the next thing you know you're going to your doctor and he is putting you on antidepressants and anxieties, sleep medications, everything. And you know, to kind of alleviate some of these symptoms when in fact look we have to address the underlying problem, which from my perspective is you have core cellular function, you're noting energy. Well wherever that is, align the system and that's what we need to improve.
(16:46): Yeah, and food plays a huge role in this. What you are feeding yourself and this whole concept of calorie restriction and a lot of diets are poor quality calories. I know you have a free guide that you're gonna offer everyone, we're gonna have the link in the show notes, but you also cover your top 13 metabolic foods in there. Could you just mention maybe three of your favorites that people might consider adding to their diet? That would be something to help with their me metabolic rate.
(17:15): Yes. And again, we, from my perspective, I come from the context of always improving cellular function. Now I always, I do have foods I suggest, but all those foods might not work for everybody depending on where they are in their healing cycle. And so, mm-hmm , I am a huge proponent of carbohydrates but the right carbohydrates because carbohydrates are your best source of energy to, for yourself, your cells prefer carbohydrates to run. Now a lot of people, especially women in their forties and fifties say, I eat carbs and I just blow up and then I don't do well with 'em so forth and so on. But if that's the case, then we have to find out, well what is going on in your system, right? Why are you not using those properly and can that be addressed and can that be fixed? Because if your body's utilizing other resources, fats or proteins as fuel, which it can, your body's awesome and it can use other resources, in my opinion, it's not the ideal source of fuel.
(18:12): Your body's actually function best utilizing carbohydrates. And so we wanna get the body to use those primarily. And the ones I like are more like fruits and roots, high nutrient rich carbohydrates that your body can help assimilate and there's tons of minerals and nutrition from 'em. And so I like actually a lot of simple carbohydrates cuz it's easier for your body to break these down. I definitely come from a space where we wanna give your body foods that are not super challenging to break down because what I see when someone's in dysfunction, 95% of those people have poor GI function. If you have poor GI function, again, it's another system of your body that requires energy to function. If that's not working and we give it really, really hard to digest foods, you're going to have problems. They're not gonna break 'em down properly, they're not gonna get what they need. Maybe they're filled with nutrition, but if your body doesn't have the fuel to break that system down or that food down, then you're just gonna poop it out. So I love fruits and roots, you know, like potatoes. Those are great sources of energy in my opinion. Just on the caveat. Okay. I never, okay,
(19:17): , hold on, I'm gonna, you're slaying a few sacred cows here so let's, I wanna dig into this a little deeper cuz some people are like, what? Eat carbs and lose weight. Wait, I, I like what she's saying but, so you're saying eat fruits and roots and fruits and roots have been fairly vilified Yep. By most people. And then you're talking about things that are easy to digest versus hard to digest. So can you break be more specific? What are you saying is hard to digest that people can't get nutrients out of? And what are you saying is easy and then also break down, why are you a proponent of fruits and roots for helping metabolic rate?
(19:55): Yeah. Oh that's a good question. Again, if we come from a place of h how, when you look at optimal metabolism, the fuel source that we are using is carbohydrates. Carbohydrates will run through the system much quicker than fats and to be utilized as energy. Yes, fats will contain more energy, but when carbs are being used, they actually go through the system in a quicker space. And so we want energy that's being used quickly. And so carbs are gonna be your most, primarily the best source of fuel. Now as you age, the body can have issues digesting carbohydrates and it's normally because that system is in a chronic stress state and they're starting to run other systems that are kind of regulating them at that time. But if we can get 'em out of the stress state and get them to utilizing carbohydrates better, then we'll bring those stress hormones down and their body will start to auto-regulate.
(20:45): I like fruits and roots because they're, they're high nutrient rich and if they're prepared properly, they don't tax your GI system as much as other foods like breads or grains or pastas or even legumes. Nuts and seeds of course. And even a lot of raw green vegetables, which I know is gonna be very controversial. But again, if you eat a raw salad which doesn't have a lot of fuel in it, it might have a lot of nutrition, but our body's gonna have a challenging time breaking that food down. And because I'm trying to give it fuel to run and I know when your body is under a lot of chronic stress, the GI system is the one of the systems that gets really affected. In fact, the GI system works best in that parasympathetic state. And if somebody's in a stressed sympathetic state all the time, the GI system just doesn't work properly.
(21:37): And so if I give it a ton of food and, and I try to push it through the GI and it's hard to digest, guess what? You're gonna see that food in your stool the next day. We're not gonna be able to break it down . And so, so true really irritating to the GI system and we need to give it foods that are not gonna be irritating. So again, I'm certainly not suggesting to everybody go out and they eat a huge bowl of potatoes or fruit by itself. Those foods are not, they shouldn't be consumed. I always balance all my, my carbohydrates with protein and some fat so that it does help go into the system a little bit slower and it can help regulate your blood sugar a little bit better. But we still don't want a tax, right? Because your GI system is the entry way for all your nutrition and energy.
(22:26): And if it's in dysfunction, if you're having bloating and, and SIBO and leaky gut and all of these things that are maybe not allowing your body to digest food properly, then even if you're eating the best of diets and the most nutritious of diets, if you can't break that food down, who cares? Doesn't matter. It's just gonna be pooped out, it's gonna irritate your gi, it's gonna make you constipated, whatever, doesn't matter. And so, but if we actually give it some stuff that's easier, then all of a sudden your body's okay, we don't have to work so hard so we can kind of operate, you know, 70% cuz you're not really taxing us so much and we'll actually give you the fuel that you need so that your body can have fuel to run. It is a mind shift, right? Because you have to know, you have to increase your body's ability to utilize energy and that means you've gotta teach it to utilize more calories.
(23:18): You've gotta teach it to actually know that calories are available to coming in. Cuz if not, it always is going to adapt to, to it. Your body does not care if you have an extra a hundred pounds on you and it's like, oh look I got a ton of extra weight on me. We'll just use that. It doesn't work that way. Your body will still adapt to a slow metabolism with extra weight on you. And so you have to increase overall basal metabolic rate so it, it starts utilizing that energy better. If not, you're gonna be eating less and less and less and feeling crappier and crappier and crappier and, and, and you can't live that that, right? As soon as something comes or happens, you just binge and eat everything so your body doesn't go into, you know, complete craziness, right? And then you go, you yo-yo yourself all the way, you know, into gaining another 20, 30 pound you're miserable.
(24:06): I remember seeing the study on the biggest loser contestants Yep. Right? Showing that how their metabolic rate slowed when they lost the weight on the show, but then it went even lower after and invariably they all gained the weight back within a couple of years. And I don't know what it's gonna take for us women to really get that out of, out of our heads about the, the calories and minus calories out myth. But I, I think you, you are really making some great points. I do wanna jump to another topic cuz you have such varied experience and certification and just the way you envision a person's health. You talk about posture in addition to wellbeing being about diet, stress, exercise, sleep, digestion, hormones, mindset, lifestyle. You also mentioned posture. Can you talk a little bit about that? Cuz that's not something that most people I think are aware affects their metabolism?
(25:03): Well I think we can just go into essential structure and again, if you're somebody that is hunched over and you can just see this from kind of today's society and everybody's looking at their phone or they're on their computer, right? So they're all just kind of hunched over and kind of in this kind of kyphotic state all day long. Well again, how does our GI system work and how does all of our systems work when we're kind of just compressing it all day long? So, you know, I always, I I get people in front of me and they, they're coming in and they're hunched over head forward. They got kind of forward head posture, shoulders are rolled, hips are starting to get tucked and I show them this posture a little bit exaggerated. I'm like, well this is your future. This is how you're going to function.
(25:46): And again, when our body starts to kind of maintain these structures and aren't ideal for it, the brain gets quite used to that and then it starts to go, well we don't actually need to stand up. So it starts to lose function and it starts to just stay. And, and I don't know if you've ever seen like people that aren't extreme, right? They're like completely leaned over and they can't like even stand up any longer and you're like, how does that even happen? Well it doesn't happen in a month or a year, it happens over decades in time without correction. But what I can say to you is if you were in the compromised position all day and you're leaned over and you're leaned over, that is absolutely gonna affect how well your GI system is functioning. And again, if we know that, that the GI is the entryway from everything from an outside world into your body and that's being compressed and compromised, then we can suspect that somewhere along the lines your body's gonna have some issues with digestion somewhere. Because in that compromise and compressed position. So obviously it's one of, I think many pieces of the puzzle to try to get somebody healthier. Certainly the food and everything else is a, a big part, but working on your backside and maintaining and learning how to sit upright and stand upright and look forward and you know, not looking to your phone all the time is certainly yeah. A big part of trying to improve your
(27:05): Health. Yeah, you know, this first came to my attention really, there was this brilliant chiropractor in Atlanta when I was working there and you know, he was talking about the structural integrity and how it puts when you don't have it, lack of structural integrity puts torque on the nerves, particularly like you say the digestive system, the autonomic nerve parasympathetic nervous system and then they stop functioning optimally and it affects digestion and hormone balance and everything else. But I just wanted to highlight that for everyone because you know, I think everything relates to hormones cause it does and posture relates to hormones, relates to metabolism along with what you're eating and your exercise. I think we're really trained to believe that it's, again, only about diet and exercise. I think most people are getting the stress piece. What are some of your top tips for women over 40 to really get a reign on how stress is affecting their health or mitigate the effects?
(28:03): Well I think a good thing to monitor is certainly your sleep. If you're finding that you are not sleeping well, then that's a sign that your system is under fueled to me. I mean, sleep is a, a high metabolic function. Like, you know, young children think about what young children know, they can sleep 10 to 12, 12 hours, they can sleep anywhere and they just fall asleep in our deep sleep . And so it's a high metabolic function and as we age, obviously sleeps becomes more challenging and we don't sleep as deep and we don't sleep as long when you wake up and so forth. So how well your sleeping is certainly a sign that if you're sleeping poorly, that things aren't going in the right direction. Some easy tips are like go out and get morning sun. Your body likes the sun, your circadian rhythm likes the sun.
(28:46): So getting sun into your eyes in the morning or at least getting out through the day and getting sun on you is a, a good way for your body to sleep better. Certainly making sure you're eating enough through the day and making sure you're eating balanced meals through the day. One of the things I like to address with people is regulating their blood sugar. If your blood sugar is all over the place, it's going to elicit stress responses all through the day because your blood sugar is what basically keeps you alive. If, if you, there's not enough fuel in there and all of a sudden there isn't any, you die. So there's a, you know, a regulatory system if you're starting, if your blood sugar gets too low, if you start to go hypoglycemic, your body's gonna send out a stress response. Your stress hormones, adrenaline, cortisol, glucagon are all gonna elevate to try and either break down tissue or release storaged sugar to regulate you.
(29:34): And if that's happening all day long because you're not eating or you are eating the wrong foods, then you're keeping yourself in the stress response all day. And so we have to get yourself and that's not gonna make you feel relaxed and it's certainly not gonna make you sleep. Well, making sure, and a great way to do that is, you know, having balanced meals throughout the day. So whether you're eating three meals a day or six meals a day, find a frequency of meals, it feels good to you. If you're eating a meal and you're like, I'm gonna eat three, but you're hungry after two or three hours and you probably need a snack in between your meals, we want you to feel satiated during the day. We, I don't want you to feel hungry, especially if you're trying to fix things. And what we have to understand is your body actually needs to heal and it needs to fix metabolic functions then that's a different space than you trying to lose weight in my opinion.
(30:27): Sometimes you have to kind of fix the foundation first to get the body like so, so the body can lose weight a little bit healthily versus just trying to stress the weight off of you, which most of us have been doing most of our lives. So it's kind of, you know, people refer to it as reverse dieting where you start to slowly eat more food so your body get used to having more fu fuel available to you. I just say it's improving metabolic function cuz we monitor your metabolic processes to see how well you're improving. There's a lot of different things. So again, I would say getting light, eating balanced meals throughout the day is important. And then of course, adding some of the foods, the, I would suggest, and again, those could be fruits and roots and maybe avoiding some of these hard to digest foods like nuts scenes, legumes and raw feed greens, , which I knew will be controversial. And again, I'm not saying these are bad foods, I'm just saying if you have some GI dysfunction and you need improve metabolic function, they might be better to limit them or even avoid them for a while while you improve those things and then you can slowly add them back in mm-hmm. into something you wanna do.
(31:32): Okay. Those are great tips. You mentioned something in there, reverse dieting, but I'm not entirely sure what you mean by that. Could you clarify?
(31:39): Reverse dieting is a term that's being kind of utilized. It seems right now where it's dieting as we think of it's eating less and, you know, and slowly eating less to lose body fat. Reverse dieting is actually teaching your body to eat more and so that your body adapts to a space where now it's getting more comfortable eating, you know, 2000 calories versus the 1200 calories. And so it's a process that you would take someone through, whereas, you know, maybe if you're, if someone's coming to me and they're eating 12 to 1400 calories and they have a bunch of symptoms, I'm like, well, we're not gonna heal on that. It's not enough fuel. I actually, my clients eating anywhere from 1900 to 2,400 calories before we would actually start to initiate some sort of deficit to try to initiate weight loss or add some activity or something in.
(32:27): So I want their bodies to be primed. I want them to have tons. I I really wanna teach people to eat as much food as they possibly can to, to maintain good metabolic function. And yes, with some people initially that might result in some actual weight gain and either a, they might need it or their body just has to go through a a time where it's saying, Hey, you know, you've been starving me for the last three decades, , it's gonna take a little time for me to adapt to this new energy increase and it couldn't come with a little bit of weight gain, but we try to minimize that. But what I look for versus just what's on the scale, I'm gonna look for well how your, well your clothes fit. Because certainly if I can get you enough fuel, you're gonna have better anabolic function, so you'll be able to maintain muscle, you'll be able to increase muscle faster.
(33:15): And again, it's something that happens in women in their forties and fifties, sixties is they have a harder time maintaining muscle mass and muscle is incredibly important as we age, we know that women who have the most muscle mass will be most healthiest or have the least amount of bone breakdowns and so forth. So we wanna create an environment, their body that is able to produce and maintain muscle. If the body's constantly stressed because you're going down these stress pathways, it is gonna have an incredibly hard time doing that. You'll end up just losing more muscle mass. And that is not something do as you age.
(33:49): Right. Thank you for explaining that. I love that term and it, it really reminds me of Dean Ornish with his eat more, way less, you know, most of us are eating poor quality, wrong macronutrient and micronutrient not dense foods. And so really this concept that you do need to eat more, but also a better macronutrient and micronutrient profile, I think is really huge for women. And, and if you're listening, I hope you really hear what Kate is saying because it's key to boosting your metabolism. Your metabolism is not decreased direct because of your age. So just stop blaming it on your age. You've got to really take a hard close look at the stressors that are impacting your health that we've mentioned throughout this episode. Hormones being one of them. I loved how you tied in the whole cortisol stress cycle to digestion and what that's gonna do overall. So I think this has been really valuable for everyone. Thank you so much for joining us, Kate. You have this free guide, understanding Metabolism and your Top 13 me Metabolic Foods for everyone to download. We're gonna have a link in the show notes. They can also check out your book, how to Heal Your Metabolism, stop Blaming Aging For Your Slowing Metabolism. If you wanna, what would you like to tell them about these resources and where else people can find you and get more information?
(35:17): Yeah. Well, I have an Instagram account, it's Kate during fitness. I also am on Facebook at Kate during fitness. My website is kate deering.com. I'm actually working on a second book right now, which is gonna be heavy on one thing I've been asked since I've wrote the first one is a lot more recipe type things and, and kind of a more directional way that people can utilize this information to help themselves. I, you know, I I definitely come from a, a place of specificity, a spec being specific, meaning everyone is a little bit different. You kind of have to find your own path. It's what I provide is a lot of information to help people try to understand their body better so they can learn what to measure and how to keep up with things. And so they can see kind of direct their own path. And I, I think the more you learn about yourself and how well your body functions, the better off you're going to be in life. We don't teach, we don't really teach that anymore and I think it's just a, a really good way for you to kind of improve your health without lots of drugs or supplements or so forth and so on. Awesome.
(36:18): Well, thank you for those great resources. Thanks for the wonderful information and inspiration and I hope everybody listening, you'll check out Kate's website and download her free guide, check out her book and all of the offerings that she has. Thanks so much for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription and how will you take this information and implement it in your life to make positive changes? Let me know about it on social media. I look forward to hearing about it, and I look forward to seeing you next week on another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
(36:55): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you want to know the secret to reducing inflammation and boosting your immunity while healing your gut?
Listen up!
Donna Mazzola, a Pharmacist with an obsession with natural healing, will be joining us on this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast - Immunity Food Fix. Donna obtained her Doctorate in Pharmacy and then was diagnosed with Hashimotos in 2015. Through her journey, she has learned the importance of the balance between nutrition and medicine that impacts disease.
Donna will be sharing with us tips on how to reduce inflammation, boost immunity, heal the gut and more.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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How to make lifestyle and dietary changes to reduce inflammation
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How to construct a diet plan that works for you
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Which foods increase immunity, heal the gut and prevent disease
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How to incorporate nutrition into your health care routine
Don't miss out on this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast - Immunity Food Fix. Tune in for the tools, tips, and tricks of how Donna has been able to keep her immune system balanced and healthy.
(00:00): Do you know how the food you eat impacts your immune system function? Stay tuned and find out what foods you should be eating and not eating to impact your immune system positively.
(00:14): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:07): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kiran. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest is Donna Mazzola and she is Dr. Autoimmune Girl and she is super passionate about how what you eat impacts your immune system. Did you know that what you put in your mouth impacts whether you get sick or not? Or do you know whether you get the flu or not, how severe covid infection is and all these other things? Probably not. Most people aren't aware that maybe that sticky bun could be the reason why you got the flu this year and nobody else did. Not saying it's the only cause, but it's a big contributor because the food you eat really programs. What is your body? Your body is your food body. Literally you are what you eat and that means your immune system too.
(02:03): So we're gonna get into that today. And your immune system and food also interact with your hormones. So you always hear me bring everything back to your hormones and how it relates to your hormones cuz this is the foundation of how you function as a, as a female, as a woman. And we're gonna get into that in detail. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Donna and then we're gonna get into it. So Donna is a pharmacist. She's fascinated with natural healing and preventative care. She has a doctorate in pharmacy, but she realizes that although medicine has a place in healing, it's really the balance between nutrition and medicine that impacts disease. And this fascination became an in obsession for her after a personal diagnosis of Hashimotos in 2015. And her disease pushed her to embark on a journey to seek answers and identify the root cause related to the rise in autoimmune and other inflammatory related chronic conditions.
(03:07): So on her journey, she obtained a master's degree in functional medicine and human nutrition and she birthed Dr. Autoimmune Girl. And that really is her vehicle to share her passion with people, to empower them with the knowledge, to take control of their health. Her mission is to educate the world on the healing powers of food. Yes, the food you eat several times a day has the power to heal you and give meaning to the concept of food as medicine. Her blog is dr autoimmune girl.com. She shares reputable scientific information related nutrition and health there and she's the author of Immunity Food Fix Guide to a hundred Superfoods and Nutrition Hacks to Reverse Inflammation, prevent Illness, and Boost your Immunity. Welcome Donna to the podcast.
(03:59): Thank you. I'm excited to be here.
(04:00): Yeah, I'm super excited to talk with you about immunity and fixing it with what you eat because I think for a lot of people they're just not aware that what they eat has anything to do with their immune system. So can you start by maybe helping everybody understand the
(04:18): Relationship? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I think my, one of my favorite things to say is, you know what you eat matters because it does and it, it matters on so many levels. And I think over the past couple years people have learned, you know, whether it was the correct information or misinformation more about their immune system than they ever have before. And so I think this book that I wrote with the Immunity Food Fix came out at the right time really with the idea to educate people and number one, what the immune system is and how it functions. And it's extremely complex, but at the root of so much of it, what I really want people to really understand is inflammation at the root of your immune system and reducing inflammation through food in order to boost your immune system and boost your health. You know, it's complicated but I feel like if we can center around inflammation as kind of that central point, there's a, people can gain a deeper understanding on what we mean to boost our immunity through, through what we eat.
(05:29): Yeah. So let's start there with inflammation, how I think people hear about that term and they kind of have a nebulous idea of what it is. So maybe if you could start by helping everybody understand what is inflammation, why is it problematic and how it relates to the immune system, that would be
(05:47): Great. Yeah. So inflammation, when we hear it, we automatically think negative. But inflammation, when you truly think about it, is a positive response that our body is, is having. So if our body is within complete homeostasis, imbalanced, there is an event that occurs, let's say you cut your finger or you catch a cold, you have a virus, your immune system upregulates at that point and says, ah, there's something going on, we need to fix it. So it ink, it boosts, it like sends out the soldiers right to fight, to fix what's going on. And those soldiers fighting are all these inflammatory cytokines that are released. Right. To that point, once that problem is fixed, those soldiers should go back to their base and mm-hmm , the inflammatory response should be decreased. Unfortunately, we don't live in this homeostasis and especially from the start of, I really feel like the industrial revolution, right?
(06:46): Where we've started to process our foods, we have convenient foods, we live in extremely stressful lifestyle, we never turn off that inflammatory response. Mm-hmm . And so we are living in what we call this chronic inflammation in that your immune system is always on, which it's not supposed to be. It's always fighting something because there's something foreign going out in our body. And whether that's, you know, linking our gut health, you know, we hear the term leaky gut where we have, you know, an inflammatory response that occurs within the bloodstream. You know these, the stress response as I talked about, you have an inflammatory response going on, lack of sleep, you know, where we don't give our body the ability to kind of regenerate itself. You have an inflammatory response. And of course, you know, linking all of this together, it goes back to a lot of it is the food and nutrition.
(07:41): Food and nutrition is at the center of all that. And it's not just about the fact that we are consuming inflammatory foods, like I mentioned, like the processed foods, processed sugars, high sugar intake, saturated fats that are causing this inflammatory response. We're also not consuming the anti-inflammatory foods that come from whole foods, anything from the earth, right? Plant-based food mm-hmm . And not to say anything wrong with, you know, animal protein or things like that, but really just thinking about the benefits and the an anti-inflammatory benefits of plant-based foods. It's like we have such a mismatch with the food, you know, and the dietary lifestyle by which we live today.
(08:27): Right. So I know some people are listening and they're thinking, well Dr. Donna's a pharmacist, why is she talking about diet? My pharmacist never talks to me about diet when I go to the pharmacy. And I think that's a a valid question. So maybe we even back up and can you tell everyone how you got involved with looking at immune system function and diet? Cuz I know you have a very personal story around that.
(08:56): Yeah, so I mean, when I was started in clinical practice probably about 20 years ago, I was doing a lot with patients with chronic illnesses like diabetes, heart failure, C O P D, and really trying to help them manage their medication as a pharmacist. But what I found in many of my consultations was that I was focusing on nutrition. I was focusing on what they could do to potentially reduce their medication, you know, and feel better. And so I realized at that time that that was my true passion. There's a time in place for medicine, but it's the balance between nutrition and medicine that's critical. That's really how I practiced. And I didn't have any formal training in nutrition, but you know, you learn a little bit about it through conventional mm-hmm. , you know, schooling. But it wasn't until my personal diagnosis with Hashimotos, which is an autoimmune thyroid disorder, that I took that leap to say, you know what, I have been helping many with chronic illness, but I've never connected the dots between an autoimmune disorder or the immune system and nutrition. And so I didn't know how to help myself mm-hmm. . And that's when I went back to school to obtain a master's in functional medicine and human nutrition. And the primary reason I did it was to help myself. I had no idea where it was gonna take me. And I didn't care because all I wanted to do was try to figure out why this happened to me and what I was doing wrong, because I thought that I lived a healthy life.
(10:34): So can you say more about that, Donna? Because I think there are a lot of people listening who also think that they lead a healthy life and they're really shocked to find when they find someone who can give them a root cause resolution approach or a functional approach that they're really not. So can you talk a little in a little more detail about what you considered was the healthy lifestyle you were living and what you
(10:57): Discovered? Yeah. So I would say I was probably over exercising, following all kinds of fad diets that really were chemically based, right? Like sugar alcohols, the fat free movement, you know, all of that. I fell into all those traps, um, and tried all kinds of things. I wasn't sleeping right. Meditation and mindfulness was not even something I considered or understood, you know, working long hours. I was young, so, you know, partying, drinking, all that stuff, you know, everything. When I look back I'm like, my gosh, I thought I was so healthy and yet everything I was doing was so inflammatory on the body and no wonder I developed this. But on top of that, like I think about the types of foods that I was eating and the type of life that I lived and what it did to my gut. And I know now looking back based on like symptoms that I've had that I ignored and things like that, that you know, the gut was central to what led to this development and autoimmune disease.
(12:06): Mm-hmm. . And so it was kind of like, I go back and I can connect the dots now, but at that time I had no idea and I was thinking I'm super healthy and nothing, you know, bulletproof, nothing can happen to me. And then it's kind of like an awakening. Gosh, there's so much we don't know. And in conventional medicine there's so much we are not taught about how to get this. So I actually am proud of the fact that I have both sides because I, like I said there, I do believe there's a place for western medicine. You know, many times it, it can save lives, but it's not for everything. And I think there are opportunities where prevention is key and for probably majority of chronic illness, it's in our hands, right? We can prevent it, we can reverse it, and we just have to understand the why behind it, the how and implement it.
(12:59): Yeah. I think you're so right. We, you know, let's not throw out mainstream medicine. We need it, we need our drugs, we need our surgery. But there's so much more that we can do. And I love that in your book you really focus on the things that need to be done, where you need to reduce your inflammation, you cover that, boost your immunity, heal your gut, and prevent disease. So when you discovered this and you got your master's, you were able to reverse your hashimo Hashimotos,
(13:26): It's been what now? Probably seven years on this journey. Mm-hmm. and I haven't completely been able to reduce my antibodies, um, my Hashimotos to zero , but I've been able to bring them down from what it was, 2,500 antibodies, which is a measure of inflammation, truly, if that's probably the simplest way of putting it down to 200. And it's a constant learning that I continue to implement. And everybody's different. You know, there's, I have some people who have implemented and yeah, within a couple years they've been able to completely reverse. And I think we all start at a different place, which is important to understand. And everybody's baseline is different. And so not everybody's story is gonna be the same and not everyone's gonna, you know, kind of reach that finish line at the same time. And sometimes it may be a much longer marathon than someone else, but it's just kind of understanding that it's progress, it's not perfection.
(14:26): Yeah. And you know, for everybody listening, you might not be aware of what the numbers mean with Hashimoto's antibodies, but that's a tremendous amazing difference. from 2,500 down to 200 is incredible and it's really unheard of in mainstream medicine. So everyone should take that very seriously as a pretty dramatic improvement. Um, that is not medication related. You know, it's lifestyle related and everybody listening, they hear me drive home that autoimmune disease when it comes to hormones has to do with a, it's a cortisol problem and it's a gut problem, right? A foot on the accelerator of gut inflammation and then cortisol is not breaking that inflammation. And so that's really at the basis of it. Why is this such an important topic for women over 40, do
(15:16): You think? Oh my gosh, I could talk about this for the next five hours. . So Hashimotos is in my mind an epidemic problem right now. And for women especially over 40. Well, so there's two main times in a woman's life that we're seeing a rise in Hashimoto's diagnoses, and that's postpartum. So after they have a child and mm-hmm post-menopause or in through the menopause phase, and when you think about hormones and you know, they're all connected and your thyroid hormone works with your sex hormones, right? And so when there's an imbalance in your hormones, there's opportunity for Hashimotos to develop. And so that imbalance between estrogen and progesterone kind of can impact the development of thyroid disorder. And so that we do see that a lot postpartum and probably the majority happened. That's what happened to me, um, after I had kids. Um, that's when I, um, developed Hashimotos.
(16:25): But then I also think that women need to be aware, especially if they're trying to conceive that your thyroid hormone is ex incredibly important in the conception as well as during pregnancy for the health of the fetus. And I think that this is not talked about enough. And I've had women who finally have their provider check A T S H and their thyroid hormone and identify that that's the reason why they're not able to conceive. And once they, you know, sometimes need treatment and they're able to conceive, it's recognizing the importance of especially someone who has Hashimotos once you're pregnant, the importance of ensuring that you are getting enough thyroid hormone for yourself and for your fetus, for that fetal development, especially early on in the pregnancy. So I think for women across the stage, right? So like if you're older, you know, you're listening to this and maybe you have a daughter or a cousin or somebody and like you can share this information with, or you know, maybe you're going through menopause and you can start recognizing there's differences in shifts. Like being in tune with our body to identify what's going on can be life changing because carrying those symptoms, it should not be our baseline. It should not be the norm. And we should be able to reverse that so that we feel our best self, especially as we age and we as we're getting older.
(17:51): I think it's so true what you're saying. I love these quotes that you shared with me. All you have is your health. Uh, when I talk to women and they are concerned about their health, I have them do this exercise. Maybe you've worked with women to do this too, where I have them kind of itemize where they spend their time, where they spend their money in their lives. And everybody will say that their health is their number one priority, but when they look at the actual numbers of where they're spending their time and their money, they spend the least money and the least time on their health. Mm-hmm. . So I always try to help them see that their health is their greatest asset. It's not an expense to be mitigated. And what does that really mean to you? All you have is your health.
(18:34): I mean, think about it, at the end of the day, you could think you're living your best life. And then I say that because of how I felt and I was, you know, seven years ago, a lot younger when I was diagnosed. And as soon as I received that diagnosis, while it wasn't something terminal, I still felt like, oh my gosh, I am losing my health. And like you take a step back and reflect and put things into perspective on what's important. And ultimately it's keeping myself healthy so I can enjoy the things in life, my family, the memories, all of it. And I think even through the pandemic, people realize that, right? It's like getting sick. You know, whe whether it be acute or chronic makes you take a step back and reflect that that's all you really have. Because once you lose your health, you, you lose it all. Really.
(19:28): I know it's so true. And , you know, when women tell me, I ask them, well, what's your, your most valuable asset? And they're like, my house, my job, my car. And I go, well, when you lose your help, that's when you're, your the dash on your tombstone ends and then you lose all that. You lose your house, you lose your car, you lose everything. So do you really think that's your priority? So I think it's important to get focused on this. There's so many women I come across and they say, oh, I'll sleep when I'm dead. Oh, I'll worry about what I'm eating later. And you know, sometimes it's too late is really too late. So I love that you've created this resource for women that they can start and men they can start working on this. Now, what would be some of your favorite, I know that your book has lots of like 150 citations, a hundred and you cover a hundred superfoods and nutrition hacks. What are some of your favorite ones?
(20:23): Honestly, my favorite foods, I think I'll start with one that's super personal to me. Cause when I talked about earlier, reducing my antibodies, reducing inflammation in the body, I really attribute that to the daily intake of turmeric. And that is really the king of anti-inflammatory foods. You know, it blocks a particular pathway that works similar to the pathway that we use Motrin or ibuprofen, you know, in order to reduce inflammation. And so the intake of that daily has really changed my life. So I think that's a top favorite for me. Another one, I mean I love the root vegetables and obviously turmeric is a ru vegetable of itself, but carrots are another big one. And as we consider hormone health, carrots have a special ability to help detox estrogen from the body. And so obviously, you know, keeping that balance within our hormones is critical.
(21:25): And you know, when there's an excess amount, you feel it, that's when those symptoms arise. And so I found that, you know, consuming raw carrots, especially kind of like a week before my cycle helps to reduce all symptoms and kind of detox that estrogen out. So I love carrots. Once I learned that and try to, I was like, ah, this really works. Uh, food is magical. So those are big. And then, you know, really thinking about seeds as well, just because there's such, there's just such a super food when you think about a seed of a plant grows the entire plant. So it's like this powerhouse. So when you think about when you consume the seeds, all the HealthPRO promoting benefits that you get from it. So you just think about it that way. You know, anything from chia seeds, flax seeds, sunflower, hemp, pumpkin, all of it.
(22:20): And we talk about all of it in the book. They all have different benefits, but you know, it's that balance of the, the good fats that reduce inflammation that kind of help rebalance that inflammatory fats that's in our body. Mm-hmm. kind of balancing out the omega three and six considering seeds, there's also benefits for seeds on your hormones as well. And so I think if I were, I would pick that entire chapter and you know, turmeric and carrots have been super important, but it's so hard to pick just any, and as you go through the book, it's all put together by color. And so you can, what I will take give you is like kind of how we categorize 'em by color in that your red foods are your anti-inflammatory, your orange are more hormone regulating. Yellow foods focus on digestion. The green are for detox, and purple foods are more that antioxidant benefit. So based on that you can probably plug in your favorite foods and identify if you're kind of hitting all five of those pillars.
(23:23): So I love that, that you divided it up by color. That makes such sense. And it sounds like it hits all of the categories. And we're gonna have a link to your website. People can purchase your book there and then they can get some bonuses too. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about that?
(23:42): Yeah, absolutely. So you could, could purchase the book and then there's directions on how to obtain a micronutrient guide and its impact on the immune system. So the micronutrients are like your vitamins and minerals that are found in foods and how those impact your immune system. So we didn't get into all the details, but you know, the macronutrients in whole based foods, which are carbs, fats, and proteins have an impact on your immune system. And then that balance of the various micronutrients, whether it be vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, selenium, the composition of all of those, you know, and how you're consuming them through Whole Foods helps support your immune system. And so there is a guide on the various micronutrients that help support your immune system.
(24:29): Okay, awesome. And the instructions on how to get those bonuses is on the website and we will have the link in the show notes, so you can go there and look at it. What would you say would be a take action plan for anyone listening who's like, okay, I get it, Dr. Donna, I need to work on my immune system. I need to work on reducing inflammation, healing my gut. Where should they start?
(24:53): I mean, I think you kind of have to go with the la the low hanging fruit, and to expect anybody to kind of reverse their entire lifestyle and shift over anight is unrealistic. I think what's important is to remember that, you know, living your best health as a marathon and not a sprint. You know, I talked about my own personal journey, it's been seven years and I'm not perfect either. Like it, you know, it takes one day, one month, one year at a time to live your best life. So for some food is the place to start. You know, as I mentioned, the various kind of points of focus. Maybe it's sleep, maybe it's making sure you get eight to nine hours of sleep every night. You know, turning off that Netflix and getting to bed earlier. Maybe it's identifying how to mitigate stress, recognizing when it's happening, incorporating meditation before bed just for 10 minutes while you sleep.
(25:47): Seeing what that does to your sleep. You know, going, going through a meditation for 10 minutes and seeing how deep you fall into a sleep that night and wake up restored. Maybe that's life changing for you. If it's removing some inflammatory foods, maybe you can't tackle and hit every single anti-inflammatory food that we talk about, but maybe you're gonna remove some inflammatory foods like processed sugar, removing saturated fats, not eating, carry out, you know, reducing that to maybe one day a week. But if you do wanna go after it and go beg, you know, and really change your lifestyle and your diet, not only focus on removing those inflammatory foods, but the goal to consume nine to 12 servings of whole plant-based foods a day. And that's kinda what we talk about in the book. And that's not just fruits and vegetables, you know, plant-based foods include, as we talked about, the seeds, the oils, the nuts, the herbs that you cook with. All of that is plant-based food. So really tracking that and ensuring you're consuming that much in order to support that anti-inflammatory response in the body. So I gave a lot there. Mm-hmm. , but I think everybody's different. And that's okay. But you have to start somewhere. And so, you know, whatever works. But I always say if you start somewhere, you recognize how you feel and once you start to feel better, you don't wanna go back to where you were.
(27:10): Yeah. You know, I hear you so loud and clear and I, a woman is coming to mind who I've been working with, and she says, well, I guess I'm not feeling bad enough to do all the things that I need to do. So I think there's some people listening who are thinking, that sounds like a whole lot, Donna, you want me to sleep? You want me to eat seeds? You want me to change my diet? You want me to restrict the sugar? Like, that's so much. And they, they'll say to themselves, well, I don't have a Hashimoto's autoimmune diagnosis, I don't have this, I don't have that. And so it seems like a lot. So what do you say to someone who's this, these thoughts are running through her mind.
(27:51): I say just start with one, start with one and grow from there. Right? Like, that's what we mean by it's a marathon. If it were a sprint, you would implement all those things that I just said at one time, but it's not a sprint. Mm-hmm. , you know, and it's a marathon. And so start with one, you know, maybe for the next 30 days you're gonna prioritize your sleep and you're gonna see how that changes your energy and changes how you feel. Then the next 30 days after that, you are gonna incorporate daily movement and it's just gonna be something you like. And you're gonna see how that, right. So now you're building on it. Maybe it's another three, four months before you start to really wanting to prioritize your diet and looking at what you're doing. You know, maybe you wanna master sleeping, right? And you know, maybe having, even if it's 15 minutes of movement in the mornings, fine, right?
(28:37): And so everyone's different. As I said, some people maybe they just focus on sleep for a whole year before they take it to the next step. That's fine. But recognizing that you're making progress in the right direction and kind of making those changes as you see fit and as you will be consistent with them. Because I tell you what you have to do, it's doesn't work. It's has to come from the person from within and recognizing what they can handle. Because consistency is key. And if you can't handle it, then that's where inconsistency comes up.
(29:11): I think that is so important, what you just said, , you've gotta make it work for you. If it doesn't work for you, you're not gonna do it. And that equals failure. So you've gotta make it work for you and start with one thing. And if you just pick one thing, like Dr. Donna is saying, the the sleep, get that straight and then notice the benefits that you experience. I find that sometimes we become accustomed to a new norm and we don't even realize how bad it is until we get rid of that symptom, right? And then we go, wow, I didn't even realize how the lack of sleep was affecting me. Mm-hmm. . So I'm gonna encourage everybody listening to just pick one thing you can start working on. Definitely go to Dr. Donna's website, download her, get her book, get the bonuses, start working with the a hundred Super foods.
(30:02): Maybe that'll be your one thing. Or maybe you're gonna start working with sleep. You could even pick, make it fun and pick the color that you wanna start with, with the foods like she described. What resonates most with you. I really think we all have an innate knowledge of, of what's best. So maybe you need to work on your detox or maybe you need to work on your antioxidation. So pick that. We'll have the link in the show notes. And thank you so much Dr. Donna for joining us today and for this wonderful resource that you've created. Thank you. It's been my pleasure. And thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone and Prescription with Dr. Kiran. Hopefully you have learned something today that will help you change your health and change your life for the better. I look forward to hearing about it on social media. Join me on Facebook or Instagram at kirin dunston md and tell me all about it. Wanna hear about your wins and your discoveries. Thanks for joining me, and I'll see you next week for another episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
(30:58): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Get Donna Mazzola's book, supplements & more! CLICK HERE.
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► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
It might be time to check your hormones.
Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.
We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.
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Are you struggling with self-care, feeling blocked from progress, and in need of a powerful reset?
Midlife is often when we tend to take our own needs for granted. But there's no better time than now to invest in yourself - and Deanna Hansen can help you do just that!
In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Deanna reveals her secrets on how to unlock your body's full potential through Fluid Isometrics and Block Therapy - a revolutionary practice that combines therapy, exercise, and meditation into one. Hear Deanna explain the importance of the fascia system, and learn how to melt away adhesions, scar tissue, and more so you can get back on track to unlocking your fullest potential!
In this episode, you'll learn:
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How Fluid Isometrics and Block Therapy works
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The importance of the fascia system
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How to melt away adhesions and scar tissue
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Ways to awaken cells blocked from blood and oxygen
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Tips on how to reset your body for maximum success
Don't miss out on this opportunity – tune in now as Deanna Hansen shows you the missing link in your self-care journey. Let's get you feeling your best, and take back control of your health!
(00:00): Ralph Waldo Emerson said, don't be pushed by your problems. Be led by your dreams. In this episode, we're gonna cover a topic that relates exactly to this. If you are being pushed by your problems, listen up. But also, if you're being led by your dreams for health, that allows you to go there and do that. Stay tuned.
(00:23): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:16): Hi everybody and welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. I think you're really gonna love my guest today. I know I say that, but I just do have the best guess on my podcast. I have to say they're super passionate, articulate, and they care so much about people and they've just leaned into the problems of women's health over 40 and found some extraordinary answers. And my guest today is no different. So I hope that you will help me welcome, Deanna. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we will get started. I first wanna start by saying, you know, I try to tie everything into hormones and this episode's no different. We're gonna tie what we're gonna talk about, which is fascia into hormones. And I know some of you're scratching your heads and going, how is that possible?
(02:11): And this isn't something I learned in my fellowship training even. It's something that I've learned by working with various practitioners over the years. But if your musculoskeletal system is wonky and almost all of us have wonky musculoskeletal systems, which includes fracture because of something, we deal with 24 7, 365, which is, I know you're thinking stress. It's not gravity, y'all, it's gravity. So gravity is constantly pulling on our tissues. And if we have maladaptive of moving and posturing in the world, which a lot of us do that are habitual, it can cause problems with your hormones and everything else. So we're going to jump into that. She also has a very spiritual Ben, which I love and that's important for hormones too. So we're gonna talk about this quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson and just all things fascia and healing. So I'll tell you a little bit about Deanna, then we'll get started.
(03:09): So Deanna Hansen is the founder of Fluid Isometrics and Block Therapy, which is a body work practice that is therapy, exercise, and meditation all in one. She is the author of two books. One is Fascia Decompression, the Missing Link in Self Care. And this totally is the missing link in almost everyone's self care cuz no one's addressing it. And another book called Unblock Your Body, how Fascia Decompression is the Missing Link in Healing. So she's a retired athletic therapist after 25 years. It's kind of like a physiotherapist or physical therapist in the state. She's from Canada and she worked with the general population and just started seeing the same problems, right? Chronic pain, acute injuries, back pain, migraines, all the things when you think of when you think of physical therapy or physiotherapist. And she really leaned into the questions and it comes down to fascia, which a lot of people aren't talking about.
(04:12): So fascia is not just kind of something that hangs your muscles on your bones, it really surrounds every cell. We're gonna talk about that. But what you don't know about fascia could really cause misery for you. And we don't want that. We want you to have hormonal prosperity, physical prosperity, life prosperity. So that is everything about Deanna and welcome Deanna to the podcast. Thank you so much. I am so excited to be here sharing with your, with your people. So I'm excited to talk about this topic. I first learned about the issue of the musculoskeletal system being involved with metabolic functional disturbances, actually from a chiropractor in Atlanta who was pretty astute. This was not covered in my fellowship training in antiaging, metabolic, and functional medicine. And really he said, well, you know, if there's skeletal misalignment, muscular fascial, it can distort the blood vessels, the nerves, everything.
(05:16): And then nothing functions well including your hormones. So this is a part of having great hormone function and great everything function in the body. So I'm excited to talk to you because I don't think that the majority of people are aware of this and they pretty much totally neglect it. So how did you come to be an expert in this field? I know you had 25 years as an athletic trainer and healer, so can you talk about your journey to developing the programs and tools that you've developed for people to address these fascial musculoskeletal issues? Absolutely.
(05:56): So I'm 53 years old now and when I was 30 years old, I had already been five years into my athletic therapy practice and I always focused on deep tissue work. So using my hands, diving into people's bodies. And by now I've spent well over 60,000 hours working on other people's fascia or my own to really understand this incredible unique system. And what it really comes down to is the understanding of how to put the space back into the body through fascia decompression. So this started for me at the age of 30 when I had made some pretty significant changes in my life and started having severe anxiety attacks around this. At the time I was 50 pounds overweight, I was struggling with anxiety, depression, chronic pain. And even though I had a successful practice, my own personal life was in absolute chaos. So it made some big changes.
(06:50): And as a result of those changes, I started having really severe anxiety attacks. And this one anxiety attack in particular was the seat of everything to come because in that moment I thought I was gonna die. I was literally frozen in fear and I couldn't find my breath. I intuitively dove my hand into my abdomen, let out a gasp, which connected me to the moment. But I also connected to pain, which I didn't even recognize I had deep within because I hated this part of my body. I had a lot of shame there. That was where I carried the majority of my weight. So as I'm intuitively moving my hand around that tissue, I also recognized it was full of scar tissue even though I didn't have any injury or surgery in that space. So this gave me a number of aha understandings as to why when I'm coming home from a five mile run dripping wet with sweat, my belly would still feel cold.
(07:41): So after that first night of about 30, 45 minutes of of working on myself, I felt really calm. Woke up the next day, still felt really calm, which was very unusual for me that night, after working on patients all day, I came back, I did a similar thing to see what was happening. And after another session of me doing that, when I stood up, I felt taller and I went and I looked at myself in the mirror and I literally began to cry. My belly was flatter than it had looked in years. And I did the work I was doing at times 400 sit ups a day, aerobics, tibo, dieting. All of the things that I was trained as an athletic therapist to do to get a fit looking body actually took me in the opposite direction. So to have within two days of just doing this literally at my fingertips, it became what I started to do every day when I came home from work.
(08:28): So after two weeks, my chronic low back pain was going away and I started having all of these other changes happening to me. So I started working on my patients in a similar way and I was having incredible results with them. Shortly after that I started attracting therapists to learn my technique, which I actually call fluid isometrics. The technique I teach therapists to do on patients. But it was my real passion, sorry. Yeah, it was my real passion to teach people self care. So I did try initially teaching people how to use their hands on their own body, but there's a lot of limiting factors to that. So about 12 years ago, that was when block therapy came to be.
(09:05): Okay, great. So what kinds of things were you seeing people for? What kinds of maladies were they having that you were gathering this information about the procedures that you've now created, the processes, what kinds of problems were they having? And if you wanna share some stories about patients, that would be.
(09:27): Great. Initially it was the typical things that people would be seeing me for, like chronic low back pain, neck pain, migraines, those kinds of things, athletic injuries as well. And because I switched how I started approaching things with people, they were sharing with me these additional benefits they were receiving. So for example, if I was working for somebody with, with back pain and I was working in their abdomen, then they were sharing with me that they were having digestive issue improvements or absolutely anything there, their blood pressure was going down. It became this holistic approach and understanding as a result of the work that I was doing. In fact, there was a gentleman that shared that he had erectile dysfunction and as a result of working in that space, his sexual function was improving. So it, it started out as me basically treating for the typical things that I was treating and then patient sharing along the way.
(10:21): All of these other things that were happening as a result of that. And it's grown from there over the last 22 years. For me personally, I've completely changed my entire cellular structure. All the issues that I've ever had are are what? What's actually interesting is all the issues that I used to have are so far in the past that now I'm starting to experience 22 years later continuing positive changes that I continue to share with my community. So we have a gentleman in our community that has Parkinson's and he shared that this is the most impactful thing that he's ever done to help manage his neurological symptoms. We have people with fibromyalgia, with MS. People are here to control their size and shape. Right now I'm currently going through a 90 day trauma program. I had a two day trauma summit where I had 12 speakers and I've now put this into a process to teach people how to pull trauma up and out of the body. And we're having absolutely phenomenal results with this. So it's really anything and everything from anti-aging to chronic pain control, acute injury management disease, it cleans and heal and feeds, feeds the cells in the body.
(11:30): Okay, so let's back up a little bit because I think most people know what fascia is, but I know there's some people who don't and I always like to include everybody. So can you talk about what is fascia? What are the components of the musculoskeletal system? What does it do and why, what you experience might work? How does it function?
(11:52): I think I have a bit of a unique understanding of the fascia system. I did go to the world's first fascia conference that was held in har at Harvard in 2007. And I recognized at the time I was coming at the body from a different perspective. So the way that I see the fascia, it's the cell membrane of each and every cell interconnected through this fascist system. So I, I've heard anywhere from, we have 30 to a hundred trillion cells in the body. So each cell is literally connected through this system and the fascia is here to create stability but also mobility in the body. And it's the communication system between every single cell. So whether we're talking about bone nerves, blood vessels, muscles, fascia, IVAs, every single cell in the body and it's totally interconnected and really I see the issue is fascia decompression.
(12:40): So over our lifetime, under the force of gravity, it's constantly compressing us, pulling us down and we're dominant on one side. So we don't just compress linearly, we wind down over time and as the fascia is here to protect us and keep us upright, as we start tipping off balance, the fascia will grip and adhere to surrounding tissues and then all the way to the bone with a force up to 2000 pounds per square inch to create this stability within the body. However, that stability is also what creates the adhesions that block blood and oxygen flow to and from cells and create the aging process that we today experience as as normal. Even though in my view it isn't something that has to happen, it really is all about keeping the cells in their correct position and cells will migrate away from proper alignment under those negative forces over time. And again, that's what creates pain, aging and disease. And it really comes down to one of our foundational pieces which is proper diaphragmatic breathing. Do you want me to dive into this a little bit? Cuz this is a pretty fascinating part.
(13:45): Well hold on, we'll get to that cuz that is fascinating. But you know, as you're talking about the fascia, you know, connecting all the cells. So I remember back to medical school when we did anatomy lab and we had to dissect a cadaver. And I do think that most people have this concept of fascia, if they have any concept of at all, is that the musculoskeletal system is bones and then muscles that hang on these bones. And if we have any concept of fascia, it's like a canvas bag that envelopes each organ and maybe each muscle and attaches. But really what I learned when we did the anatomy cadaver dissection, you can really see this fine tissue that surrounds, like you said, every single cell in the body and maybe at the cellular level it's much more fine. But then as those cells group together in organs it becomes thicker.
(14:43): But it really is this kind of network that connects everything. So I love how you described that gravity is happening and that's what this chiropractor said. He's like we're all twisted , we're all twisted in some way if we lived any number of years on this planet, but then factor in their repetitive trauma like sitting at a keyboard and typing all day or what are more rep, you know, if you're a baseball player and you're constantly hitting on that one side or lifting heavy things repetitively or like I had to do surgery so I'm bending over constantly, you add all those insult and injury to the fascist story and then you really have a problem. But one thing I wanna dive into before the diaphragmatic breathing, which will be fascinating is you mentioned trauma and that's something I'm very interested in and you know, Bessel VanDerKolk and a lot of the Steven Levine and they all talk about trauma is stored in the tissues and the tissues they say is the fascia. And you talked about how this can help to release it. Can you talk a little bit more about this trauma connection?
(15:51): And, and that ties directly in with the breath. So pain, fear and stress cause us to reactively hold the breath. I just wanna bring my computer screen down here for a moment. So the diaphragm existing hair is a plate of muscle that moves up and down. When we inhale, it moves down. When we exhale it moves up. And if this, if we're properly aligned and this muscle is working as it should be, essentially we are feeding all cells in the body and we're able to remove the toxins away. However, that's not the reality for most people. The majority of people have fallen in, they've collapsed because they aren't diaphragmatic breathers. So this plate of muscle here to support the ribcage and everything above becomes weak, especially for me, like when I was young I was, I was trained to hold in your belly. So if we're not breathing from this space, we end up breathing through here and then this muscle becomes weak and it actually creates this collapse in through here.
(16:44): So now this plate of muscle that is designed to move up and down ends up becoming twisted and locked away. So it's like we have a frozen shoulder, so the body of course is designed to survive. So we're gonna be breathing, but breathing through the muscles of the upper chest is extremely different than breathing through the diaphragm. So pain, fear, and stress cause us to reactively hold the breath. If you look at an animal who survives an attack, they shake because they're getting rid of that energy. Where we as humans, we tend to go into freeze mode. So if 30 years ago I witnessed something awful or something happened to me and I go into that freeze mode and then I lock away, now the body is only feeding the amount of oxygen to the number of cells that the diaphragm is capable of feeding.
(17:31): And I, I read in Steven Cope and yoga and the quest for the true self that we see the body six times the oxygen when breathing die dramatically. And if you think about if we're deprived of oxygen for five minutes, we die. And all of our cells are like little mini versions of us in the big picture. So if, if we're breathing through this space, what are we only feeding maybe 10 to 20% of the cells in our body. So we're literally surviving as opposed to thriving. And then each cell, when it's fully inflated is like a balloon blown up. It almost def divides gravity, it's round, it glows take half of the arrow to balloon, it becomes wrinkled, it becomes dense and heavy. So that's what's happening to our cells over time when we're not consciously and fully breathing with this correct muscle, we're becoming depleted in this light oxygen and we become heavy and we start falling into that internal space. So we literally are losing space within our body as we twist and wind away from proper alignment. So to get back to that correct diaphragmatic breath is one of the pillars that we teach and it's in my view the most important thing that we should really be focusing on for health.
(18:40): It's so true and you know, I love Stephen Cope. I've actually met him, he's like one of my heroes. For anybody who doesn't know Stephen Cope, he's from Kapalo Yoga Center in Massachusetts. He's written many wonderful books that are about physical, emotional, mental, spiritual healing. And I think he's brilliant. So I highly recommend, I did wanna add just something to what you said. I loved everything you said, you know, for the longest time I had heard this theory about, you know, the issues are in the tissues, the trauma is stored in the fascia, but to my brain I I would say like how is that? I don't understand that, but I heard this great explanation and I can't think right in this moment who gave it, I'll have to look it up and get back to everyone. But you know, emotions are waves, they are chemical, biochemical waves.
19:29): And so like you said, we go into a freeze when we don't know how to handle overwhelming emotions and the waves aren't completed and that stored energy, energy is neither created nor destroyed, gets stored in the tissues because the emotional wave didn't get completed. Cuz we go into freeze and because we don't know how to process 'em like the animals do after the, you know, the gazelle is chased by the lion, it shakes and it discharges all that emotion. And so it is stuck there and I love how you tied that into the diaphragm and the breathing. So you said that's something that we address. What kinds of things can people do to improve their breathing? Cuz I know some people are thinking, yeah, if you, they pay attention, they're only breathing in their chest, you know, they're not breathing in their belly.
(20:18): So when we begin our, our block therapy journey, and we're gonna be sharing something at the end that people can use to start this process right away to give fascia decompression a try. So this is the tool first of all, this is, this is the block buddy and the reason it looks like this and is made of this material, this is made of bamboo. And we also use wood because this material and bone are similar in density. And because the root of the fascia is on the bone, it's a magnetic seal on the bone holding, holding us out of alignment with that, that 2000 pound per square inch force, which is just phenomenal to consider, there's that much internal pressure existing in the body. So again, when we are compressed, when we've fallen into this space, even the ribcage is literally holding with that magnetic seal.
(21:03): So we always start our block therapy process working in the ribcage. We start in the belly position to teach people where the breath should come from because if people have been breathing through the muscles of the upper chest for years, decades, which the majority have to even understand where this belly breath should come from, can really seem quite foreign. So when we lie on the block, we're teaching people, we're giving you that prop and then the instruction of inhaling into the blocks so you can really start to understand where to breathe from as well as pressure over time creates a heating of the tissue. So it's really all about melting the adhesions that develop between the layers of fascia that occur when we start tipping off balance. And, and that's the fascia's way of protecting us to keep us upright. So it's these adhesions that we're going after and through the process of melting, that's how we do this.
(21:59): So when we start breathing diaphragmatically, it's like we're turning on the body's internal furnace compared to using a space heater, which would be like breathing through the muscles of the upper chest. When we're breathing this way, we're really not keeping the body heated and the systems flowing optimally to all cells. So the combination of the pressure over time with the diaphragmatic breath heats from the internal and external perspective. And then we very effectively can release those adhesions. So we always start working core and ribcage because we wanna turn you the person into an efficient healer within yourself. And then from there we work through the entire body. So this is a full body practice. And what's really important to understand is there's cause sites to the pain. If you have frozen shoulder working on the shoulder is not gonna get rid of the frozen shoulder because first of all, the rib cage is the foundation for the shoulder joint.
(22:49): So as we fall out of alignment, that alignment is gonna pull the shoulder out of alignment and create issues. Here we need to address the foundations and what is the most important foundation are the calves in the feet. They're the furthest from the heat source, the engine. So the way the fascia rolls around the shins and manipulates the alignment of the ankles and the feet is really in my view, what is most important to look at when looking at the entire body. Because you can focus up through here for years, you start walking, you're gonna get pulled right back into the fascia pattern that is at the base of your body. So block therapy is a holistic approach where we create space through the process of lying on the tool for a minimum of three minutes. We inflate that space through teaching proper diaphragmatic breathing, and then we maintain that space through teaching proper postural foundations.
(23:41): And even the tongue is something we spend a lot of time teaching because it's here to help support the weight of the head, but people don't recognize it for that purpose. And most people's tongue is out of alignment, which creates asymmetry in the jaw, a forward head pull blocks, float of the brain to everything up the chain as well as blocking your major lymphatic drainage site. So it's really looking at the entire system, seeing what's pulling things out of alignment, what is causing those cells to migrate away, releasing that grip and shifting the body so the cells can migrate back. And then the goal is that every cell has optimal space and when it does absorbing the proper nutrients and releasing the toxins in this way is a system that works fluidly and with ease as opposed to struggling to try to feed the cells and to keep the tissue clean when we have these adhesions that are actually blocking the flow.
(24:34): Okay, wow, that's a great explanation. Yes. This concept of our jaw and our tongue. Oh my gosh. You know, if you really start looking at people and you start wa looking at their posture and how they walk and their mannerisms and how they talk, what shapes their mouth takes a lot of us are really crooked. You'll start to notice. And then the next question for me always is why I love to observe human nature, human health, human psychology. And just even when I started doing videos to post online, I would be horrified when I would watch them because my face, I was seeing opposite to what I see when I look in the mirror. So I didn't look like myself, but I really saw my own face for the first time and I saw how crooked I was. My jaw was, my mouth was crooked, and how I speak one side is very much higher than the other, the tongue positioning like you're saying. And so that's what really keyed me into this. And and there's a woman named Jana Danielson who's a, she's one of my instructors.
(25:44): She's one a, my stuff.
(25:46): Yeah. And she's brilliant. And you know, she was talking about how the jaw is your second pelvis, you know, it's your second cauldron. And at first I was like, what are you talking about? And then I thought about it and I thought, oh my gosh, she's so right. It they really are these two cauldrons in your body, one on the bottom, one on the top that frame these bookends to your most precious diaphragm. Like you're talking about your chest cavity and your abdominal cavity with your precious cargo of your, your organs in there. So all this to say, I just wanna highlight for everyone the extreme importance about what Deanna's talking about. I know you're not hearing this in a lot of places at all. In fact, you're not hearing it at your $30 HMO copay doctor, I know you're not. And this is why gone are the days when you can depend on them for everything.
(26:41): Because if you really wanna be optimally healthy, you've got to go outside and you've got to listen to podcasts like this and hear people like Diana talk who have really, she's put her life's work and brilliance into leaning into the problems that people have. The chronic pain, chronic back pain, which is the majority of us. In fact, I think it's estimated that 80% of us at some point in our lifetime will have back pain for a significant period of time. So chronic back pain or migraines or other musculoskeletal pain or even acute injuries, I've had my share of those. And if they're not rehabilitated properly, then it can cause long-term consequences. So this is really the missing piece to your self care plan. Yeah, you've gotta address your hormones. And I would say this is a foundational issue for the hormones. I always like to tie everything into hormones and I'd say none of your hormones are gonna work properly if your fascia isn't working properly because your cells can't communicate and hormones are the communicators in your body, so it's going to cause problems. Talk to them a little bit about you have this great gift for them that they can get started working on this. Now we're gonna have the link in the show notes, but you wanna tell them a little bit about it.
(27:58): So it's our block therapy sound clerk program. So there's nine videos through this program and the very first class, and we teach you using a rolled up towel so you can access it immediately. The rolled up towel is actually quite fabulous for fascia decompression because it's dense as well. And it really is all about that density. The very first class we work on the belly as well as the lower ribs, right where the diaphragm gets locked and held away. So in that very first class, you're going to experience the release of the fasc, the lift and the power of proper diaphragmatic breathing and how that changes how you feel inside your body. Then there's eight other classes where we teach you how to use the towel throughout your whole body as well as provide also instruction on that alignment piece so that you can really get a, a deep sense of what this work is all about.
(28:49): And then from there, if you choose to go to the next step, then that's our starter program where you actually get the tools, the block, and then we just take you and we, we dive in on a whole different level within the body, but it's all about fascia decompression. It's about taking those adhesions out of the body and undoing the seams of time which were created from gravity and from our unconscious postures and habits. So it really is about teaching you how to use your body the way that it was designed to be driven. And when I look at bodies when I'm assessing people and I'm looking at the foundation, I always see one, one side is like a flat tire. So if that right foot is pronounced more, oftentimes there's a bigger bunion on the one side, it's pulled further away from midline, it draws everything in the body into that system.
(29:35): And then what the body naturally does as a response to that is the opposite side goes into anchor mode. So we end up with this immense internal tension. So if you think about chronic back pain, as you were mentioning in the low back, whether it's a herniated disc or or whatever is going on when the entire structure is being pulled away, this is what's happening to the vertebrae as well. So we get the compression in through the front of the body, the disc shoots out the back, puts pressure on the nerves, and if we go and we just simply work that area, we're not addressing what's causing it in the first place. So that's the key with really understanding the cause sites and the pain sites in the body as well.
(30:12): Okay. Now I know there's some people listening who are like, yeah, yeah, yeah, Deanna, I'm just gonna go to the chiropractor, they'll fix it. , what do you say to...
(30:20): That? I'm a huge advocate of chiropractics. I I love doing it as well. However, if, if we're not going to be addressing what is pulling the spine out of alignment, in my view, those adjustments aren't going to help deal a ton with people with scoliosis. And I've really learned that scoliosis is a function of what the limbs are doing. The spine is simply the response to those external forces of your limbs pulling your spine basically in four different directions. So again, chiropractics are amazing, but without addressing the fascist system with that, then it's, it's not gonna hold in the same way because those forces, again, those 2000 pound per square inch forces, that's what we're, that's what we're dealing with. And I think it's different today than say 50 years ago. I was on a podcast where it was mentioned that 144,000 toxins are in the world today compared to in the fifties.
(31:10): So we're dirtier or like our whole fish net, we're so dirty, we, we are so dirty, so we're stickier. The fascia, like if you had a fish net in fast flowing clean water for a month and you pull it out, you might have a few leaves, a little gunk stuck on it, but you put it in a bog for a month and you pull it out, it's covered in yuck, it's sticky, it's gluey. And that's how I feel our fascist system is today. So we need something a little more, I don't ever like to use the word forceful because I'm not about forcing the body, but persuasive in order to free up what's happening in the body so that energy can flow through properly. So in past I think things like acupuncture, reflexology would've been far more effective than they are today because of the dirty, sticky nature of our, of our
(31:53): Systems. Mm-Hmm. , you know, the other having been, I've gone to plenty of chiropractors in my life and, and I think it's so true that the bones become aligned. The, the root cause is not the bones being misaligned, right? The root cause of misaligned bones is not misaligned bones, it's misaligned fascia and misaligned muscle muscles that are pulling the bones out of alignment. So if you don't address the root cause, just like if you don't address the root cause of your hormone problems, you're probably not gonna get the results that you could get. I mean, you can go to the chiropractor and they can adjust your spine and your legs and every joint and bone in your body, but it's probably just gonna get pulled back out because those muscles and fascia are pulling them in habitual misaligned waves. So I think it's really key to get at the root.
(32:43): Yes. And we did a discussion with Gil Headley, an anatomist. I first watched his fuzz speech back, I think it was probably around 2007, where through cadavers he really learned about the adhesions that develop between the layers of fascia. And then it was about eight months ago that we did a discussion with him. So he of course along his journey has dove much deeper into the fascia system and he started talking about the par fascia, which is what we actually address in block therapy. And he really did see it as being the connection between each and every cell within the entire body. So it was just fascinating to be able to put an actual term to what we address in fashion because a lot of people do think it's the casing and it's, it's so much like it, it innovates absolutely everything.
(33:29): You know, I, it's kind of like to me, if you've ever eaten the pomegranate Yes. Right. And you know how the seeds each have their own little compartment and the structure of the pomegranate wraps around the whole thing. It's kind of like that. And I had to real quick pull up Gill Headley buzz speech. I'm gonna have to watch this on YouTube, but that's a great descriptor for this tissue. I mean, if you really pay attention, if you, if you're cooking animal protein and you really dissect it, you can see the fuzz. So it's there for sure. So you had shared a few quotes with me before we started that I absolutely love that. I wanna talk about, because I think that there are a lot of people listening who are feeling pretty hopeless about their health right now. And I really want to give them hope because like you described where you were in your thirties with your health and your life, it was kind of a mess, right? .
(34:25): And I was there in my forties, a big old disaster show. And now look at you now you guys can't see her, but she's absolutely vibrant and glowing and I'm certainly not the same person I was back in my forties. So this quote from Ralph Waldo Amerson, don't be pushed by your problems, be led by your dreams, I think really speaks to that. I know I was pushed by my problems, I'm sure you were too, but at some point when I heard some truth, I could be led by my dreams. Did that happen for you?
(34:59): Absolutely. This, this whole journey began as something that happened to me. It wasn't something I thought up. So along the way, as I was really recognizing how profound this was in helping people heal themselves, I had a lot of my own personal, like, why, why am I supposed to figure this out? And how am I supposed to get this out into the world and, and develop a business around this? And I always trusted the fact that I had been given something beyond Deanna and I had absolute faith in my dreams that I would get this out and I would find the path as I just kept moving forward with that. And that's what's happened. And it is 22 years in. So it certainly was not an overnight success by any stretch. But I never lost faith because I always trusted what I was given to share with people. And I always knew that as long as I stay true to my intention of helping people, then I'll find that path and the right people will come into my life when those moments are necessary. And now I have a team of 17 people helping to bring this out into the world and 240 teachers globally. So we're, we're still, I feel very much at the starting point of things, but it really was through the dream of this book becoming a reality that has led me to that reality. Mm-Hmm
(36:19): . Yeah. And the other quote from what William Shakespeare, the meaning of life is to find your gift. The purpose of life is to give it away. And I really believe that we each have a gift that only we can bring to the world. And that if we don't feel our best, we're just sitting on our. We can't make it into an asset that we can bring to the world. So hopefully you've heard something here today that you will put into action. You know, I love trying to be educational and, and, and a little bit entertaining, but truly if you don't put these tools into action, they can't do anything for you. So I'm gonna challenge everyone to click the link in the show note and get Deanna's free gift. I'm for sure gonna get it. Cause I haven't done work quite like this. And so I'm gonna do it. And let's see where we can get, how we can improve our fascia and our fuzz and thereby improve the oxygenation and blood flow to our tissues, alignment of our musculoskeletal system, which is gonna improve our hormone balance. And that's what this podcast is all about. So thank you Deanna, so much for sharing your brilliance and your passion with us. Anything else you'd like to share with everyone before we wrap up?
(37:41): I just wanna say thank you so much again for this opportunity to share. And if there's one thing that I love to say to people, especially us women, first and foremost, be kind to yourselves and be kind to yourself because we beat ourselves up to help everybody else, family, workers, whatever that is. And I truly believe if we can give ourselves a little bit of time and attention and love, then it's exponential in how we can actually impact the world and share our creative gifts.
(38:10): So true. And thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. Take action. Tell me about it on social media. I can't wait to hear the changes that you noticed just from the simple tweaks that you learned today. Thanks so much and I'll see you next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
(38:30): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Have you ever been struggling to fall asleep at night and just can't seem to shut your mind off?
For midlife women, a good night's sleep is paramount for health and wellbeing. In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we have Devin Burke joining us to talk about techniques to Fall Asleep Fast, Stay Asleep, and Wake Up Refreshed!
Devin Burke is an international and TEDx speaker, the bestselling author of The Sleep Advantage, the founder of Sleep Science Academy, and one of the top health and sleep coaches in the world. His books, keynotes, programs and videos have inspired thousands of people to improve their sleep, energy, and life.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How to Get the Most Out of Your Sleep Environment
- Simple Techniques for Relaxation and Better Sleep
- How to Wake Up Feeling Refreshed and Rejuvenated
- And More!
Don't miss out on this episode, as it's sure to give you the tools and tips needed to get a good night sleep, every single time. Thanks for listening and sweet dreams. :)
(00:00): You can't master what you don't measure. Devin Burke, we're talking all about sleep. Are you measuring it? Stay tuned.
(00:09): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:02): Hi everybody. Welcome back to the Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today, we are talking about one of my favorite topics, what I call the nectar of life sleep. Are you getting enough? Everybody's worrying about do they have enough money? Do they have enough time? All you really need to worry about is, are you getting enough sleep? And then everything else will fall into place because it really is something you, you can't eat your way into good health without good sleep. You can't take a supplement exercise won't replace it. There's nothing that replaces sleep, but so many of us aren't getting enough. We have an epidemic of insomnia, particularly among women over 40. Why? Because of hormone imbalances. So my guest today, Devin Burke, is gonna come and shed some light on this topic. He's kind of a sleep maro, if you will, and he talks about you can't master what you don't measure.
(02:02): So we're gonna talk about how that applies to sleep. He's gonna teach you about what a bed buffer is and the 3 21 sleep protocol and a whole bunch of other things. You're really gonna enjoy this. He is lovely to speak with and listen to. And really I want you to start with thinking about this thought that he offered. How well you sleep dictates your entire next day. How will you sleep is dictated by how you start your day. So it's how you start anything. It's how you finish and sleep is at the beginning and end of every day. It's the bookend and it will make your life wonderful and your health prosperous and nourishing, or it will make you miserable as some of you can attest to. I know I personally went through all kinds of sleep phases during my unwellness phase. I went through the insomnia phase.
(03:01): Some nights I couldn't sleep at all, and then I went through the sleep 16 hours a day phase. So whatever phase you're in, we've got some answers for you. So I'll tell you a little bit about Devon and then we will get started. So, Devon is an international and TEDx speaker. He's the best selling author of the Sleep Advantage, the founder of Sleep Science Academy, and one of the top health and sleep coaches in the world. His book's, keynotes, programs and videos have inspired thousands of people to improve their sleep, energy and life. Welcome Devon. Thanks.
(03:35): For having me. So,
(03:36): So I am super excited to talk about one of my favorite topics sleep because I call it the nectar of life. And if you don't have good sleep, you're just not gonna be healthy or happy and you're not , you're not gonna really live your life to the fullest. So I think it's super important. I think we underestimate it. I think that most women over 40 are not getting enough sleep. I know some women tell me, I'll sleep when I die. I don't need to sleep now. And so it's this whole process of re-education. So let's start, you're, you're a sleep expert and let's start with the most important thing. Why is sleep so important?
(04:15): Well, you started to really nail it. It affects every aspect of our life. There's not an aspect of our life that doesn't get negatively or positively affected from sleep. And so we could talk about your physical health, we could talk about your mental health, we could talk about your, you know, emotional health. Every single aspect of your life is affected by sleep. And so when people really get connected to that and they start to prioritize and protect it and, and start to optimize it, it becomes your experience. But it's, it's foundational for health. It's literally the foundation that extraordinary health is built on. And so we could go down any, any rabbit hole on any one of those things, but it's, yeah, it's, there's not an area that's not affected by sleep. Well,
(05:01): Let's talk about those areas and let's, let's dive into why it's so foundational. I have found in 30 years of working with women that if they don't understand, if people don't understand the importance of what you're asking them to do, and if you're asking someone to take seven to nine hours of their day every day of their life to spend sleeping, which is in America, is considered nonproductive, they've gotta have a really good reason to do that. And if you don't give people a good reason, they're just not gonna do it. So I think it's important to, let's dive into what are all the systems that are affected? What's happening when you sleep? Why is this crucial?
(05:41): Yeah, so first and foremost, when we don't sleep, you know, it's, it affects our, our longevity. So we get, we, let's start there. You know, there's so many studies now that show that sleep and longevity are connected. Meaning when we don't get enough sleep, we don't get in those deeper stages of sleep, the lymphatic system isn't activated. That's the lymph system in the brain and that's what clears out the beta amyloid, the, the towel, the plaque that builds up that creates Alzheimer's and dementia. So, you know, it's linked to when we're not getting the right amount of sleep. Heart disease, it's linked to diabetes, it's linked to obesity, it's linked literally to all of the big killers. Sleep is linked to. So when we're talking about if you wanna live a long, vibrant, healthy life, you need to sleep. Cuz it's literally, it is the, the very thing that when people sacrifice, that's when their health starts to fall apart. That's when you know, you start to go for the, the food that's full of sugar, the full, the food that's full of fat. People don't really understand how important sleep is until they're not getting enough of it.
(06:49): Right. And that's true. And I know some people are gonna hear this, okay Devin, it's not clearing the beta amyloid or plaque in my brain. I could get dementia and they, they're thinking, I don't have dementia. My doctor says I'm fine. It could lead to heart disease. I don't have heart disease. My doctor says I'm fine, it could lead to diabetes. They're thinking, I don't have obesity, my doctor says I'm fine, could lead to diabetes. Right. So I, you know, I know women, we, I've worked with them for years and we really discount because we're thinking I got 24 hours in a day, seven days in a week, 365 days in a year and I've got to be a wife and a mom and a daughter and a sister and all the things at work at my job or profession. And so I do find even smokers, the data says that they discount the consequences cuz they think, I don't have emphysema, I don't have lung cancer. So I like that you hit on increased cravings of fat and sugar. I think you mentioned that will speak to some of you. So some of you having cravings for fatty comfort foods, sugar, latent carbohydrates, lack of sleep could be part of the problem, right, Devin?
(07:58): A hundred percent. Yeah, a hundred percent. Girl in and leptin that, you know, those, the two, those two hormones that signal, you know, when we're hungry and when we're full they get totally outta whack. Insulin gets outta whack and you know, we get into the hormones there that kind of affect those cravings and the storage of fat around the midsection where most people don't want that fat and have, you know, I've seen people work out like crazy. I've seen them eat all of the, the, the right things and they still can't lose weight. And because, and then you ask them about their sleep and they're like, actually you know, I sleep 5, 4, 5 hours a night. And then when you kind of focus on optimizing that sleep, okay, let's see if we get you a little bit more deep rem sleep, let's see if we get you a little more delta to sleep, let's, let's get more hours in. And they start prioritizing and protecting sleep, all of a sudden the weight can start to come off because those hormones start to balance out. Cortisol goes, goes down, right? So for people that are looking to lose weight or to step, step into their best body, that sleep, sleep can help you do that. Yeah.
(08:58): So now you've got some people's attention,
(09:01): ,
(09:02): They're listening because these things, often the distance they're just discounting. But right now a lot of people listening are having exactly what you're talking about. They can't lose weight. Right? That's the plague of midlife and beyond for women. Women over 40 in particular. But all women struggle with this. So talking about growlin and leptin, we recently had a doctor on talking about those specifically as it relates to weight loss. So we won't go more into detail with that, but I hope you hear that Devin is saying that slave is related to you Growlin and if you didn't hear that episode, go back and listen to it. So I know one question that some people are probably having is, I think that I'm getting enough sleep, but how can I be sure? You mentioned getting enough REM sleep, there are different cycles of sleep. How can people know if they're getting enough, total enough of the different brainwave states, all the things about sleep, how can they know
(09:58): You can't master what you don't measure. And so we do have now awesome devices that help us get an idea of how much sleep we're getting, what stages of sleep we're in. Devices like the Aura ring or even the Apple Watch or a whoop strap. And none of these devices are a hundred percent accurate, but they're getting more accurate as the tech and the algorithms and the data. They get more data from their users. But it's so important I think for people to, if you're looking to improve something, you gotta measure it. You know, you can't just guess keeping a sleep journal or sleep diary, that's not accurate. I mean it's, it also can create anxiety around sleep. But measuring it, if you wanna improve your something, you need to measure it, you need to track it. And we use, at Sleep Science Academy, we use the Aura ring just we found that it's, it's the most accurate sleep tracking device that's out right now. And that can show you, hey you, you decided not to have that extra glass of wine. And you notice that okay, I was able to get away with one glass of wine but when I go to two or three it really affects my sleep quality or eating too late at night. You could kind of start to draw these conclusions of these behavioral changes that you're making during the day and how that affects your sleep at night. So measuring it is, is definitely a key if you wanna improve it. Yeah,
(11:14): I love that. I think it's called the Peterson principle where anything that's measured, even if you don't make any changes to it, will improve over time just by the fact of measuring it at periodic intervals. And that's even true for sleep. So just the act of measuring and tracking your sleep will help to improve it. So you like the aura ring, are there other devices, cuz I know the Aura ring is sometimes pricey for people, so are there other more economical options that you like?
(11:49): Yeah, I mean the Apple watch surprisingly, you know, know a lot of people have the Apple watch, it's gotten a lot better. The tech and also their sleep algorithm has gotten a lot better. So, you know, but honestly to be honest, you could have any type of tracker and it's over time, you're never looking at one night or one week of sleep. You're looking at your sleep over several weeks or several months or even several years. So even if you just got one of these cheap track trackers online, no it's not gonna be as accurate as an aura ring or going to a sleep study or a sleep lab. Mm-Hmm . But just tracking it over time will help you draw some of those conclusions as far as, hey, what affects my sleep? How am I doing in this specific area? And so there's a ton of 'em out there. There's things that you can put on your bed where on your head there's mattresses that now track your sleep. So it's really depending on your, your, you know, how much you care and, and also how much you're looking to invest. There's, there's like so many devices out there now and there's more and more every month that come out because people are realizing how important sleep is and they're looking to, you know, really understand it and, and prove it.
(12:57): Yes, I, I think it's super important to track things, but I like to caution people that the tracking in and of itself isn't the end goal. The end goal is to educate yourself about how your body responds to its relationship with its environment. Like you mentioned about the wine, the goal is to learn, oh I can have great sleep cycles with one glass of wine, but when I go to two I kind of wreck my REM or whatever happens and then take that information and implement it in your life. It's not to use the tracking device forever. I know some people get really wedded to, for instance, I like using continuous glucose monitors and people then end up want to use it forever. And I say no, it's just a tool to reeducate yourself because I think that we are innately born with an understanding of how much sleep we need when we're tired, when to go to bed, when to wake up. We naturally have these bio rhythms and understanding, but I think that it's very much socialized out of us also what to eat. We take on society's views of what to eat instead of listening from to that internal voice. So what are your thoughts on that? Do you find sleep tracking should be something that people should use forever and ever? Or is it just a tool for a period of time?
(14:26): A hundred percent. It's a tool for a period of time. I love that you're talking about the bodies innate wisdom and you know, we're so disconnected from that because of technology, because we live, you know, 90% of our lives indoors because the artificial light, because of the stress. Technology's the big, is a huge stressor for so many people in this way. You know, using technology temporarily, like you said, to make better decisions. That's how it's supposed to be used. Getting obsessed with it or you know, thinking that you need to track it forever. That's just adding complexity to your life and that's not what we're talking about. It's really about getting that positive feedback or negative feedback based off of the decisions, the behavioral changes that you're making so that you can either stay motivated or just know like, hey, this is how this affects my sleep.
(15:17): And, you know, make the decision on whether or not you wanna take part in that, whatever that is. So I'm a big believer in, you know, how do, how do we get reconnected to nature? How do we simplify our lives? How do we simplify our routines, use technology to improve our health and not detract from it. And that it's, it's challenge. I mean, because we live in a world that's moving super fast and you know, it's really, really hard for people to, to draw ba you know, boundaries and find balance within their life to really prioritize and protect their self care and their health. And there's so much to it. I mean it's, it's, there's a lot there. But I think keeping it simple and, and really staying connected to nature allows our bodies to do what they know how to do and our bodies know how to sleep. There's nothing you need to do in order to sleep. Really, really.
(16:08): Yeah. If you're not a over 40 woman, and some women are listening now going, what is he talking about? I, I would give anything to get a good night's sleep. I know cuz I went through that. But I'll tell you how important sleep has gotten for me. So I'm, my tribe kind of knows that I'm over in Africa and Tanzania right now. They say Tanzania and I literally changed my whole schedule so that I did not have to be up at two in the morning. It's seven hour time difference to eastern standard time so that I can shut it down at 9:00 PM my local time and get, I allow myself nine hours to sleep and then my body wakes up when it wants to. So that's why I want everyone listening to hear because there are a lot of, I think teachers out there who don't necessarily set a good example and they're gonna tell you, I sleep five hours a night. Don't listen to those people. Listen to the people who are walking the walk and doing the thing. What would you say about that, Devin?
(17:10): Yeah, I would say that you can get away with it for a little bit. You can get away with sacrificing your sleep. You can get away with hustling and grinding and, and really, you know, not doing the things that are supportive to your health for a little bit. And then you're, and then you crash and then your body's gonna start talking to you. Something is gonna, you know, you're either gonna get sick or you're just gonna be miserable. And so you can get away with it for a little bit or you can just say, you know what, this is important. This is important enough to actually draw the boundaries that I need to draw to create the space that I need to create to allow my body to do what it knows how to do. And that's what I would say is the smart thing to do. And especially as you, as we get older in age, it becomes even more important. So because oftentimes as we go through life, life gets more complicated. There's more stressors and you know, you need sleep, you need sleep, there's, you need sweet, you know, be able to have the energy to live your life and make those
(18:11): Decisions. Yeah. And so women, ladies, you are gonna nod your head yes this number one, we gotta give you a good reason to do the thing. And you already heard him say, you're gonna die sooner if you don't sleep enough. Okay? So you get less time on this planet and you're gonna be craving foods that are not in your best interest. So women have to have a reason, but also number two, you have to show 'em how. So I have one client in my coaching program who we will call DaVita and she says, you know, I got team kids and they come home from practice and library and all this and I want to be, make sure that their needs are taken care of and they don't get to bed until 10 and 11 o'clock because of all their after school activities and their homework. And she says, tell me how I'm supposed to get in bed at nine o'clock. Cause I was explaining to her about how great the sleep is more restorative between 10 and 12. So we gotta show them how to make this work in their life. And so what strategies do you have to help people actually implement an earlier bedtime that's consistent in their life?
(19:23): Yeah. And so like this specific person that came with this challenge, like that there are times in your life where sleep is, is probably gonna be sacrificed. Maybe that's, this is just what, what, what's going on for this particular person? Another op another time is you have kids like babies, right? The babies are waking up, they're crying, you're not sleeping, you know, you're breastfeeding throughout the night so the body's resilient and it'll bounce back. But also it's, I think it's so important to draw strong boundaries. So many people at least literally worked with hundreds of people that have really bad chronic sleep issues. They just are not good at drawing boundaries with and communicating those boundaries to other people. So if something's important, you're gonna, you're gonna draw a boundary and if you draw that boundary and you, and you hold it, whether it's like, hey, I'm going to start my bedtime routine at X amount of time and it becomes a habit. And then you start to, you know, you communicate that to the people that you care about and you can get everyone on the same team. And that's where I feel like a lot of people, just from like a psychological behavioral standpoint, they, they're just not aware that that's going on for them. And so I would say, you know, there definitely needs to be a time between the, you know, your day and your night. There needs to be a transition. Most people take their days and they just bring 'em right into their nights.
(20:45): so true, right?
(20:48): So we call this a bed buffer. So this is, and we teach this thing called 3, 2, 1 sleep. So three hours before bed, ideally no food crosses your, your lips, you know, you don't wanna go to bed on a full stomach cuz that's the first stage of sleep is the deepest stage the first quarter of the night. When you get into the deepest stages of sleep, you don't wanna interrupt that process two hours before you want to be asleep. No work. Cuz our brains, you know, need time to sort of simmer down to cool off. And if you're working up right up until the time that you, you know, you're, you're going to sleep, you just, you don't have that time and your body might feel exhausted, but your mind is just continuing to race, trying to pro, you know, solve problems and troubleshoot things and think about how you did at work or you know, the, whatever the conversation was that triggered you at lunch, you know, all these things. There needs to be a space and then one hour before, but that's when you would start some type of ritual, like reading a book, having a nice cup of camomile tea, stretching, making love to your partner, which is a great way to you know, relax the body. So 3, 2, 1, sleep. That starts with having a clear boundary. And I think again, sometimes people just don't realize that they don't have boundaries with the people that they care about. And it's like, well that's where it starts.
(22:09): You know, you absolutely have hit the nail in the head universally. I find that the women that really struggle are the ones that don't have boundaries. So my question to this person was, are you doing, is this codependent behavior? And of, and she became a little defensive and she, no, no, my kids, I need to check on them. And I said, well, you're doing something for basically people who could take care of it themselves, right? Can they get themselves situated for bed and finish their homework and get themselves organized? Yes, yes, yes, yes. And you are taking on this attitude that you have to check on them. And so boundaries for women, oh my gosh, I can't say it enough. Women who have poor boundaries have the most health problems and it's really hard for them to take a look at that and to see where they're basically not loving themselves first and they're giving everything to everybody else and depleting the tank. And then they wanna know why is the tank not full And they want say, Kyrin, fill me up so I can continue giving to everyone else. And it's like, no honey, you have to stop what you're doing and love yourself and give to yourself. How do you help people through this boundary conundrum? Because it's, it's really a challenge for women.
(23:31): I love that you, that you support people in that way. Well it gets at first just, you gotta get clear that there's, there needs to be a boundary and get honest. And I think a lot of times people just are not honest with themselves and they, they can't see it. So having a coach, having somebody that can, you know, a psychologist or a counselor that can help you see those, those areas that you can't see is so, so, so important. Because a lot of times we, you know, you can't see the picture when you're in the frame, right? So it's, you need to, yeah, you need somebody to support you to see, you know, to help you see what you're not seeing because we all, you know, we all are subjective most all the time. It's very hard to be objective.
(24:13): It is. So I do think, yeah, you need support. You need, I always say knowledge, tools and support three prong. You need to understand what boundaries there are. There's a great book, call it Boundaries exactly that it has two authors, I can't think of them right this second. So getting the knowledge and getting support around it. And I think professional help is invaluable because if you've been living this way your whole life, it's, it can be challenging to change. But like that quote you shared with me before we started, Devin, every moment of the present contains the seeds of opportunity for change. Your life is an adventure. And so hearing this information, don't reject it, but reflect on it and take it in and, and start to think, Ooh, I wonder if there's any seed of truth in this for me. And in fact, if you're getting bristle, if you're bristling at what we're saying and thinking, well I have to check on my teenage kids before they go to bed at 10 o'clock at night, you might wanna look at it. Cause whatever really upsets you often has a grain of truth in it. So what else is important to know about falling asleep fast? Staying asleep and waking up refreshed
(25:25): What you do. Like I always tell people, your entire day dictates how well you're, well, you're gonna sleep, how well you sleep dictates, you know, your entire next day. So starting the day off in a place of calm versus most people get up and we lose a lit of water through sweat and respiration every single night. And what do most people do? They start their day with caffeine in the form of usually a coffee, which you know, does the opposite it's making, so it's increasing the cortisol, right? It's diuretic. So you're, so number one, when you wake up, drink a huge glass of water, I drink like a liter of water. As soon as I wake up to hydrate, wait a little bit like an hour or two, then have your coffee. That way your, your, you know, your cortisol can start to come down a little bit and you're hydrating your body.
(26:22): So literally like start your day like that will actually help you sleep, believe it or not, because now the whole rest of the day is gonna be a little bit less stressful because you're not dumping, you know, gasoline on that already lit fire where you're just running around frantic, dehydrated. So that's little easy thing that everybody could do starting literally today is wake up, drink water instead of coffee, wait to have the coffee and then if you have coffee, don't have it past 1:00 PM because it's in the halflife of caffeine. It, it's, you know, depending on how you metabolize caffeine is it's in your body for, you know, sometimes six to eight hours. So, or or even longer. That's a half life. So limit your caffeine would go, would make a huge difference. Alcohol is another, you know, most people are on their uppers and their downers, right? So alcohol too close to bedtime, destroy sleep. And most people use alcohol as, as you know, it's a relaxed to relax them. So something you could do, think of something that you'd be willing to try or something you'd be willing to do that would relax you, that wouldn't involve alcohol is caffeine and alcohol. Those are the, the sleep destroyers.
(27:36): They are, thank you for saying it. So I'm so glad we're having this conversation. I have a friend who used to Dan go to salsa conventions for the, the weekend together and she would end her day every night. I, I hate to say it and I won't her name, by taking a sleeping medication and drinking several glasses of wine. That's how she went to sleep. And I, I don't preach to my friends. If they ask my opinion, I may share it. She didn't. That was what she thought she had to do to get a good night's sleep. There are millions of women out there like this. I know some of you are listening to me right now. So what is the data on alcohol show about how it affects quality of sleep?
(28:20): It's disturbs the REM cycle. And so alcohol really is a poison. So it also creates, it heats up the body. So your body heats up in the middle of the night after having a couple glasses of wine. Your body's, you know, and the two things that control sleep are, you know, light and temperature. So you don't want your body heating up in the middle of the night. You know, that's not ideal for a high quality sleep. So you can get away with having high quality alcohol earlier on in the, in the night, as long as you're drinking enough water to kind of flush out the liver. But again, but it disrupts pre sleep. And that's when short term memories getting shut up to long term storage, that's when, you know, we're, we're dreaming, we're working out the emotional trauma, the end up emotional trauma that happened throughout the day.
(29:10): So that's a really important stage of sleep that's like brain recovery stage. And so, yeah, so I mean everyone's a little bit different. Some people metabolize alcohol faster, slower just like caffeine. So you have to, that's, that's where tracking comes in to kind of really say, Hey, well I love my wine. Okay cool, let's see what type of wine and how much wine you can drink to and, and really get away with it, right? Mm-Hmm . But it's all, at the end of the day, it's all about balance. It's all about balance. If you're doing it every night, then you probably have an issue. If you're doing it, you know, once or twice a week, you know, you can get away with it. But yeah, so that's, that's kind of, is that helpful?
(29:51): Yes, absolutely. I think knowledge is self knowledge, you know, to thone self be true. Well, you can only be true to yourself if you know and understand yourself better than you know and understand anybody. And so I always say I'm not the kind of coach or doctor who tells you do this cuz I, I say it's best. I'm the kind who's gonna say, oh okay, you use this continuous glucose monitor and see what it teaches you about how your body reacts to certain foods, how it reacts to stress and how your blood sugar and insulin are managed in your body. And learn how these different states feel. So equally, I'm not gonna say, oh don't drink alcohol cause I said, so I'm gonna say exactly what you said down. I'm gonna say use a sleep chapter, actually use a CGM also cuz that's gonna teach you a lot about how your body is, is handling its hormones in response to alcohol.
(30:45): Cuz alcohol doesn't only affect your sleep, it affects your hormone balance, it affects your gut health, it affects so many things, but you have to learn this for yourself or it's not valuable information. Once you know it and you see it for yourself, then it becomes unforgettable and you'll remember it for the rest of your life. And that's what I'm about is long lasting change. I do wanna touch on hormones cause the podcast is the hormone prescription and I've talked a little bit in different episodes about sleep and hormones, but some people probably haven't heard it. So can you help everyone understand what sleep has to do with hormones and what hormones have to do with sleep?
(31:33): Yeah, so essentially storing sleep that your body is releasing all of the important hormones, you know, the estrogen, the testosterone in different stages of sleep, different hormones get released. So if you're not getting those deep into those deeper stages of sleep, your body's not gonna be producing or releasing those hormones. And I, I'm sure, I mean, you're, you're the expert in hormones. I'm not, but you can tell if even after one night of poor sleep, if somebody, let's say somebody stayed up the entire night and we tested their hormones, it's gonna look different than the night before that they got seven to eight hours of sleep and even one night can throw off your entire hormonal system because it's during the night when those hormones, you know, your body is releasing those hormones. And it's really important that people understand that. They've done studies on insulin, they show that after one night of not sleeping the insulin level, it looks like you're pre-diabetic. Whereas, you know, the night before when somebody got the sleep that they needed, they weren't anywhere, anywhere near pre-diabetic. So it has that much of effect on our hormones. But you, I would say that you're more the expert on the hormones than I am . So was that helpful?
(32:48): Yes, absolutely true. And I, I think that's very impactful what you just said. Just one night of no sleep affects your insulin to the point where you may look insulin resistant, pre-diabetic, diabetic. It's that important ladies, and equally important is how, excuse me, it impacts your cortisol. But so what's so important for everyone to understand is that hormones dictate how well you sleep and how well you sleep dictate hormonal balance. So it's this bidirectional interface, this conversation that your body is having, just like your body's having a conversation between what you eat impacts your hormones, your hormones impact what you eat, how you sleep impacts your hormones and vice versa. The stress you have in your life impacts your hormones and your hormones impact the stress that you have in your life. So there's no secret conversations, ladies going on in your life. There's nothing hidden.
(33:47): You may think you're fooling your body, right? Oh, I'm just gonna drink some coffee and get it going in the morning. I'm gonna have some alcohol to wind it down at night. And you think that you're gaming the system, but the only thing you're doing is just really gonna run your hormones and your health into the ground. You're not gonna have great sleep, you're just sweeping it under the rug. So that's why I really thought it was super important to have Devin come on and talk to you about sleep. You've offered so much valuable information and I know you have an amazing gift for everybody. Now we're gonna have a link to in the show notes, it's the Guide to Falling Asleep Faster, staying Asleep, and Waking Up Refresh. It's 100% free. How many of you want that? Yes, me please. So I'll have a link in the show notes, anything else you'd like to say about it or any places that they can find and connect with you on the web?
(34:43): Yeah, sleep science academy.com in Devin Burke, wellness on the social channels. But yeah, so it's just you can find me there.
(34:51): Awesome. So find him on the social channels, download that guide if you're really struggling. And remember, every moment of the present contains the seeds of opportunity for change. Your life is the adventure. I love this other one you share with me. Live as if you were to die tomorrow, learn as if you were to live forever. What does that mean to you,
(35:15): ? Well, I mean it means a lot because we often think that we're gonna live a long life and we're not guaranteed. You know, we're not guaranteed that. And life is all about learning and every day is an opportunity to learn and you know, so when you have that lens, you're constantly learning. And when you're constantly learning, you're constantly growing and that makes you feel alive. At least that's how it makes me feel.
(35:38): Yeah. Well I think the listeners would agree that's why they tune in to learn as if they were gonna live forever because they plan on it and intend it. And so if you're here, I applaud you for showing up. Thank you so much for joining me today, Devin.
(35:54): Oh my pleasure. Thanks for having me on
(35:55): The show. And thanks to all the listeners. Hopefully you have learned something that you're gonna put into action today. Sure. We try to be a little bit entertaining, mostly educational and inspirational, giving you the tools that you can use to transform your hormones, your health and your life. But that means you've gotta take action. So maybe you're gonna download Devon's free guide. Maybe you're gonna check out that boundary book cuz you're like, oh, Kyrin, you saw me, I got a boundary problem. Or maybe you're gonna start tracking your sleep so you can learn what there is to learn about what your body wants to share with you that you haven't been hearing. Whatever it is, I welcome hearing about it on my social media, on Instagram, on Facebook at Kyrin Dunston md and until next week, peace, love, and
(36:47): Hormones y'all. Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you ever wonder why you can't seem to find the motivation or energy to do what it takes to stay fit and healthy? Do you ever feel like something is wrong with your genes and hormones?
Our guest Kashif Khan is an expert in functional genomics and has been helping midlife women understand the science behind their hormones and genes. He shares with us how understanding the function of your genes can help you engineer your hormonal system, leading to better health, more energy and improved fitness!
About Kashif Khan:
Kashif Khan is Chief Executive Officer and Founder of The DNA Company, where personalized medicine is being pioneered through unique insights into the human genome. He is also the host of the Unpilled podcast.
Growing up in Vancouver, Canada in an immigrant household, Kashif developed an industrious entrepreneurial spirit from a young age. Prior to his tenure at the DNA Company, Kashif advised a number of high-growth start-ups in a variety of industries.
As Kashif dove into the field of functional genomics as the CEO of The DNA Company, it was revealed that his neural wiring was actually genetically designed to be entrepreneurial. However, his genes also revealed a particular sensitivity to pollutants.
Now seeing his health from a new lens Kashif dove further and started to see the genetic pathways that led to his own families challenges, and the opportunities to reverse chronic disease. His measure of success is not in dollars earned, but in lives improved.
In this episode, you'll learn:
• How understanding your genes can help you engineer your hormones
• What functional genomics is and how it can benefit you
• How to use genetics to optimize health and fitness
• Ways to reverse chronic diseases through genetic insights
• Tips for finding the motivation and energy to stay fit and healthy.
Don't miss out on this powerful episode with our guest Kashif Khan, Chief Executive Officer of The DNA Company and host of the Unpilled podcast. Tune in to discover how understanding your genes can help you engineer your hormones and stay fit and healthy!
(00:00): Healthcare is studying the habits of those with the genes who didn't get the disease. And teaching that to the people who don't know.
(00:11): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:05): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today is gonna shed some light on why genetics are so important when it comes to women's health, particularly over 40. We haven't focused in this way on genetics and epigenetics in the podcast. So I thought it's super important to have KIF on the podcast to really shed some light. And I wanted to start with that quote because you know, we take for granted that what we have is healthcare in America and most developed countries, and we call it that healthcare, but really it's just disease management. It's actually not the creation of health. So I love when K, she K, she says this, healthcare is studying the habits of those with the genes who didn't get the disease. And teaching that to the people who don't know.
(02:01): We used to think that there was genetic determinism after DNA sequencing was discovered several decades ago, and the Nobel Prize was awarded to Watson and Crick. And then we had this genetic determinism where all diseases determined by genes, it's predestined. It's out of our control. We don't have to worry about it. And in fact, when I practiced regular ob gyn, I would've women all the time come to me and say, oh, my mother had a hysterectomy at 45. It's time for mine as if that were genetically predetermined. It's not. In fact, genes only dictate about 10, maybe at most 20% of your health. But it's what genes get turned on that matters and what genes get turned off. And this is something called epigenetics epi, meaning above your genes. It turns them on and turns them off. So what creates health is your life habits that either turn certain genes on that you want or turn genes on that you don't want or turn bad genes off or turn good genes off.
(03:08): So it's all about epigenetics. So we're gonna dive into that in great detail. He's gonna dive into the topic of breast cancer, how it's not estrogen that causes breast cancer. Hopefully you don't believe that because all men and all women on the face of the planet have estrogen. And so if estrogen caused breast cancer, 100% of all men and all women would have it. And we don't. So it's something else. And one of the things that it is, is what your body does with that estrogen. So we're gonna dive into that and that's genetically determined. And you do have the power, you have the control to turn those genes on or turn 'em off. So which will you choose? I will tell you a little bit about Kashif and then we will get started. So Kashif is the chief executive officer and founder of the DNA company.
(03:58): We're personalized Medicine is being pioneered through unique insights into the human genome. He is also the host of the Unfilled podcast. I love that name. He grew up in Vancouver, Canada in an immigrant household. And he has an industrious entrepreneurial spirit that he's had since he was a little kid before he started the DNA company. He advised a number of high growth startups in a variety of industries, but he's really, he dove into the field of functional genomics as the CEO of the DNA company. And I really love his unique perspective on this. Sometimes we insiders can't see things the way that outsiders do and he actually not only sees it, but can articulate their certain concepts importance in a way that I think is very impactful and unique. So please welcome Kashif to the podcast. Welcome Kashif to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(05:00): Pleasure, honor to be with you.
(05:02): So excited to have you. I love talking about DNA and epigenetics and what people can do to turn certain genes on or off. And I don't think this really is a part of mainstream medicine yet. So women wanna hear about this. They wanna know what's out there and available for me to really make my health the best it can be at midlife and beyond. But first I gotta ask, how did you become so passionate about working with human genetics?
(05:33): Well, we, we were a research company, but bringing it to the public, actually it was a female hormone issue that got me there and it was actually with my niece. So I've had my kids, three kids and my niece genetically tested who are all close to me to understand, you know, personalized diet, fitness, even academically, how is their brain wired hormonally, how is their body developing? What sports should they play? So I've learned a lot about how to personalize the parenting for them. And what happened is my niece actually had a anxiety crisis where she just collapsed and she actually hurt herself. I had to take her to the hospital. And I realized they're just like any concern parent uncle, like I was just reacting to the problem. Oh, she has anxiety. Oh, she has pain. And I was borderline almost about to accept that pill prescription.
(06:21): And then I realized, hold on, what am I doing? I have her dna, I have a deeper understanding of her biology. And so I realized that the three times that it happened was they were about a month apart. So I asked my sister or her mom, does this have anything? Like what's the timing of the menstrual cycle? And she said, you know what? You're right. It was right before it started. Every time, right before the menstrual cycle started, this is when she had these anxiety attack and crashes where she literally fell over, couldn't breathe. So I looked at her genetics and we've mapped out the hormone cascade to a T where we understand how you produce certain hormones. To what degree, how well do you clear them? How toxic, how they are clean, are they, she was void of estrogen. She was highly androgen dominant, didn't produce enough estrogen.
(07:05): And we know that at the beginning of that hormone cycle is when you have the least estrogens, right? Then you start to make them. And if you have less to begin with, then that delta value for is even lower. Like she has this very deep belly she goes into with no hormones, no hormones, right? And so that was one thing that, why did it happen then? Well, this was two years ago in the Toronto winter during covid lockdown. And she hadn't been outside in like four months, right? This was like 2020 winter. Pure lockdown never left. So she got zero vitamin D of the 30,000 genes that make up your body, 10% of them require vitamin D to function. It's actually another hormone if you really look at it correctly. Right? And so she already had this hormone issue, which we could look at genetically.
(07:56): She wasn't getting enough vitamin D, which triggered a 10% biochemistry, chaos. And then when you look at the genetics of her brain, she doesn't bind dopamine properly. So it's very easy for her to experience depression, anxiety, negative stimulus. Mm-hmm. and this cocktail of all these problems, plus not having gone outside for four months equaled anxiety crash. She would have been on an anxiety pill if I didn't know all this. But all we did was I gave her altheine to booster dopamine levels and I gave her 10,000 IU vitamin D in the very first week of her cycle, then 5,020 500. And we did that every month. It's been two years. She has not had this problem. Right. So when I went through that very long answer to your question mm-hmm. is that, that's the thing that made me go from, we are not a research company. Every woman needs this. Every woman, how many young women like her are struggling with anxiety issues? How many women are struggling, infertility issues, crazy menopause, all this stuff that's treated so gray, which is actually black and white if you understand it genetically.
(09:03): Yeah, I love that story. It's very illustrative of the power of knowing your genetics. But yes, she would've ended up in a mainstream doctor's office on an anti-anxiety medication and probably a birth control pill. Usually any symptoms that are cyclic, we gynecologists wanna put every woman on a birth control pill, which basically just shuts the whole female hormone system down. But what most women don't realize is the, the complications they're gonna have from the hormonal balances that it cause causes. So it's not the way I go now as a functional doc . All right. So that certainly got you passionate about it. I love that story. And then what has, I mean, you're obviously an entrepreneur at heart. You, you've worked with startups in variety of industries, but it sounds like you had a personal story that really grabbed you here. And what are some other stories that you might share of how you've seen this impact women's health?
(10:07): Well, so first of all, you're right on what they said is anxiety pill plus birth control.
(10:13): Yeah.
(10:13): That was the prescription, right? And I said, no way. We're not doing that. And that's what triggered me to dive into our genome. So I can't tell you how many women, so let's look at breast cancer for example. When you think about genetics, that's probably the biggest area where women think about the genes as you know, brca the BRCA gene. And that's scary. Four letter word. And if you ask a woman, do you want bracker? No, no, no. I don't. I don't want brca. If you ask a doctor, what do you think about? Oh, scary, scary, scary. But if you ask them what does it do? They don't know, right? , they don't even know what it means. You, you need brca. BRCA is a tumor suppressing gene. If you have, god forbid, cancer, it goes and fights it for you. That's what it does. The challenge is if you have the bad version of a variant end, it doesn't do a good job of repair.
(11:00): So either or, even if you have the worst version, it doesn't cause cancer. What it does is, does you lack the ability to fight. So we still need to ask the question, why did you get breast cancer in the first place, which is a female hormone issue that we don't understand or look at. Uh, in fact, you go to most cancer research websites and all these and they, they tell you, we actually don't know why. We're more more focused on how to treat it. So let's look at that example. Bad brer, why did you get it to begin with? This is one of many examples. So some women are, unlike my niece, the opposite. They're more estrogen dominant. So this is step one of three in that hormone cascade. You go from progesterone to testosterone to estrogen. That's what you do. There's some nuances in there.
(11:43): Other things you can do. But that's the general lame, right? Some women just convert into a heavy bucket of estrogen. That's what they do. Step two of three, you then need to create a metabolite, either two, four or 16. Hydroxy, estrogen. That's what you make it into. Two is great, nice clean stuff, four and 16, highly toxic, you don't want them, right? Then step three of three, now that you know you may be estrogen dominant and estrogen toxic, what are the detox systems that are supposed to kick in and clear that stuff and help me get rid of it, which is glutathione and ox antioxidation. Those are the two key areas. Step four, there's another step four we can look at, which is methylation, which is your antiinflammatory response. If you're not doing those things well. So if that's you estrogen dominant, estrogen toxic, I don't detoxify, you now get put in this bucket of high risk.
(12:35): But still not every woman gets sick. What happens? 85% of North American women, I can speak to North American data cuz that's where I am. Mm-hmm , 85% of North American women will be on a birth control pill for 10 years, right? For fielding that estrogen fire. Every woman as she reaches sort of midlife is told to get on hormone replacement therapy. Now without understanding which one and why, which is what you're so good at, right? And just, yeah, take it. Just go ahead. You're supposed to do it fueling that estrogen fire. Women have no clue for the most part, maybe not your audience, but for the most part the hormone des disruptors that they're dealing with every day, the cord and frying pan, the chemicals, the pesticides and the lawn. Everything that they're breathing and eating and coming through their skin that their body just treats as more hormones and fuels.
(13:24): That toxic fire. That's the woman for whom you have the genetic profile. And you've also made the wrong epigenetic choices unknowingly that now you feel that fire so much that it causes inflammation. So why then is menopause the time when this happens? Why is that where you find most breast cancer? Cause now all of a sudden you don't have a menstrual cycle to get rid of that monthly dose of estrogen toxicity. And your body wants to protect you. It doesn't want it free flowing in the blood, causing inflammation to your organs and your, your endothelium, your vasculature, your veins. So it goes and stores it in fat. And where do you have fat in your breasts and what's in your breasts that was never designed to deal with that level of toxic insult is all these glands to deliver milk that get inflamed, get damaged, become cancerous.
(14:13): And that's the point when BRCA is supposed to start working right now, all of a sudden the tumor supporting gene is supposed to come in and fix the damage you did. Mm-hmm. . But even then, why have cancer to begin with? If you understand this is what's happening with your hormones. If you understand these are the choices you need to make and you understand that there's a right and wrong way to do hormones for you as an individual, right? You shouldn't have ever had it in the first place. And this is all we're saying is that if you are ill, we can help or anybody can help by using functional genomics. Why? As opposed to what, then go ahead and treat, treat it. You need to do that. But let's find out also why if you're not yet Ill, let's make sure it never happens. Let's prevent all this nonsense from ever happening. Cuz you, you can be armed with the right choices.
(15:00): Boy, you brought up so many great points in there cuz sheep, let's just go back cuz that was so powerful. I hope everybody listening really heard what he's saying. So number one, you said they're only concerned with how to treat breast cancer, not why you get it. And I hope everyone heard that because it's true the pharmaceutical industry and most researchers are not overly concerned with why you got breast cancer cuz they're not interested in preventing it. They're interested in treating it because unfortunately in our capitalist society, that's where the profit is. And also you mentioned the detox pathways, the 2 4 16 hydroxy, um, estrogens. And what most women don't realize is that their regular doctor is not gonna ever check those on them. But if you heard, because she said he was saying that this is vital to know as part of why did you get breast cancer. Cuz if you're detoxifying your estrogen down negative pathways, you're more prone to making toxic metabolites that will go on to create cancer. And that includes the 24 16 issue. There are enzymes involved with that, but also the, the glutathione and the methylation. And there were so many other things important in there that you said how women are afraid of brca and I can't even remember, I took some notes on what you said to, to comment on it. Anything else you wanna add to that? Cause I think it's super important what you said.
(16:32): No, I think you're right on that the toolkit, right? When you go to the doctor, doctor doesn't have bad intentions, right? They're just limited by the tools provided to them and what they're trained on. And what they're trained on is how to treat. So even if you get into their, if you ask an oncologist or doctor that you don't tell me why, they'll say, yeah, we do. We look, is it her, her two positive? And like what kind of a But all of those things only ever lead to which treatment do you need,
(17:00): Right?
(17:01): Right. The the, the only why you'll get is what directs a drug or a treatment, not here's why you don't need to be in the hospital. That's really the answer you want. Right? Healthcare should be, how do I stay healthy , how do I get rid of this illness? I was born healthy. Yeah. I wasn't born with breast cancer. Why did it happen? Now why does most chronic disease happen to somebody? Well, the North American average, by the way this is the American dream, is by the time you're 55 you have a chronic disease. That's the average. By the time you're 65, you have two and you spend the last 15 years of your life in treatment. That's the expectation of things that you're not born with and you don't innately have. Right? And it's so much worse for women because of the cofactor of estrogen dominance and, sorry, I should say more precisely estrogen toxicity. 66% of women will die on their first cardiovascular event with zero symptoms, zero previous warning signs. They don't even know that their cardiovascularly ill, they'll have some kind of heart attack, blockage, whatever, and they will die because there's so much more inflamed than the men. The men. It's a tiny fraction. So women have to pay so much more attention, not only to the hormone issues themselves, but all the other chronic diseases for which you're fueling a much more aggressive version of it.
(18:27): Right? That is a, a powerful point. And you're so right. And we take for granted what healthcare is because we're socialized into it from the time we're born. But if doctors really were concerned with the prevention of disease, they would be talking to you about diet, lifestyle, sleep, all these things. And it's not what we do. We've got a prescription pad. We do drugs and surgery. Drugs and surgery. And that's what we do. So the average woman is not having a BRCA test. She's not having her phase one and phase two liver enzyme detox pathways. Yeah. Uh, genetics mod profile. Done. What do you think are the most important tests for women to have when it comes to functional genomics?
(19:14): So this is self-serving, but we've built it, right? And why? The reason why we built it is cuz just like when my niece went through it, genetic tests don't serve hormones properly because you can't look at, so first of all, what does genetics? This gene means this, this gene means this, this gene means this. That's genetics, right? You got a report that tells you what version of what gene you have. And now somebody that has some knowledge will go interpret that somehow. But that's not the way the body works, especially when it comes to hormones. There's a, there's a cascade. It's not this gene does this. One step won't direct you. You need to know the full system flow. I make progesterone converted into testosterone. How quickly, how much testosterone do I make? Do I then convert that into dht? Do I clear it? Do I convert it into estrogen?
(20:00): And then what version of estrogen do I then make? So if you haven't mapped all of that out, you can't really make a call. And this is why genetics 1 0 1, which is what most genetic researchers do, hasn't really addressed hormones. Functional genomics, just like medicine is, what disease do you have? Let me give you a pill. Mm-hmm. , that's what genetics is. Also functional medicine is let's figure out why you got sick to begin with and change your habits. Mm-hmm. , that's what functional genomics is. Let's map the pathway in the context of the body actually works. And then we know exactly where to intervene. We can predict, we can then predict how you do all of these jobs in your body. What is, what is dna? DNA is an instruction telling yourselves what to do. If you know what version of what gene you have, you know, one job. But if you don't understand the entire assembly line and what, what everybody else is doing, can you really make a call? Functional genomics is, let's look at the full system, the pathway in the context of human biology. Like here's what the body actually does. Now let's reverse engineer the genes that instruct each step, that baton pass along the way of that process, right? So now you can take this very gray area of female hormones, which you ask any woman what her experience is medically. And it sucks, right? , it's just like
(21:17): Universal.
(21:18): Yeah, universal. Like the answer is you're supposed to have problems. It's your hormones, right? Like it's a, you're a woman, you're supposed to have problems. That's the belief.
(21:29): That is the belief.
(21:30): And why? Because it has been mapped the way that I just described earlier. This gene means this, this, she means this, this hormone means this, this pathway means this. The entire cascade has been looked at openly as this map. Where would you then read then you can determine exactly what's going. And you make this, like I said earlier, this very gray thing, very black and white, very certain. It is that certain. And now you know exactly what risks, what problems, how to prevent and how to have a wonderful menopause, how to have wonderful fertility, how to have a great menstrual cycle, right? It can be that way. And it is now more challenging and more problematic than ever because the load of hormone disruptors and chemicals we're dealing with is more than ever before. And this is also partly why the sort of medical practice has in advance because grandma's generation didn't have the problems that this generation has because they weren't exposed to this level of chemicals and horrible food and lack of sleep and all the other things that are co-factor to these hormone problems. So it's even more important ever than than ever before today to look at it deeply.
(22:38): Yes. So I know a lot of people get very excited about tests like 23 and me, I had it done a while back when it first came out and really wasn't impressed with the action actionable information in there. I mean, I don't really need to know that I have the gene that I can smell the asparagus in my urine after I eat it. ,
(23:02): You probably know already.
(23:04): I knew that already. I don't find that very useful. And it seems like most of these tests that, that are available online, or let me just say a lot of 'em are not actionable information. How can the average woman discern among genetic tests? What's worth my time, energy, and money that's actually going to give me actionable information that's going to impact my health? How does she know that
(23:33): It has to be a functional genomics test, right? What does that mean? Genetics is what does this gene mean? And unless a gene has one singular purpose, you can't really say anything about it. Functional genomics is of the 30,000 genes in your body, there's only a hundred that matter for most chronic conditions, hormones, brain detox, diet, nutrition, and a few other things, right? So what we've done is we've created a hormone panel and in that all that, you know, so the genetics of this gene does this and your, your piece smells because of asparagus. Great. How do I make hormones? How do you map that? How do you make it actionable? The reason why we're able to do that is the research itself. So most genetic companies, there's a researcher, our lab who receives your sample in the mail who then puts it through an algorithm and you get a report.
(24:25): And that researcher is studying the DNA in a Petri dish somewhere, right? We said that's exactly the problem. They never met any of their patients and talked to them. They don't actually meet them and say, how do you feel? How did this supplement work? What happened you when you ate this food? So that's what we did. We spent three years, uh, studying 7,000 people in, the majority of them are women. So we actually partnered with a number of clinics that dealt with breast cancer and infertility and hormone issues and all these different things. And we said, we'll work on the testing in our research and we actually wanna meet these women. And we sat down with them for hours, sometimes months, depending what the problem to document what, how are they eating, how are they exercising, what were the, what was their chemical exposure? And now those things are in the report and actionable.
(25:11): So when you log in, it's called the DNA 360. So when you log into the DNA 360 portal, yes you're finding out about your dna, but you're also being told, here's for this problem, anxiety keto diet, separated by the problem for anxiety. Here's your rank and here's the supplements that you need to take. Not that everybody needs to take take, but that you need to take. Here's the food that you need to eat, here's the habits you need to adopt. We hired Dr. BJ Fog, he runs the Stanford University Behavior Change lab. So he's a guru when it comes to behavior change. He wrote the book Tiny Habits book, right? We hired him. Yeah, it's amazing. So it's like how do you actually change your identity? So we spent a year with him taking all of what I described and then he put the behavior change insights into it.
(25:58): So it's easy. So it's like here's how you actually, here's what's wrong, here's how you fix it and here's how you actually implement it. The easiest way to implement it. So all of a sudden that's what action is, right? Action is not tell me what's wrong and then say good luck . It's telling me what's wrong. Yeah. Like you got an 80% chance of Alzheimer's, see you later. Right? That's genetics, right? No, it's, you got an 80% chance of Alzheimer's. But by the way, the 20% that didn't get it with your genomic profile, here's what they did, right? Mm-hmm. , that's healthcare. Healthcare is studying the healthy and teaching those habits of the people that don't yet know, right? That's maintaining health, uh, masking illness. So that's what we did. We studied the healthy, we learned all those right things, things we can now teach them to the people that have the 80% risk of whatever and how do you implement it? Here's the behaviors you need to adopt to make it easy. So that's all built into the report. Cause if it isn't easy, it isn't actionable. Right? Part of it being actionable is it has to be easy to understand and use. You shouldn't need a PhD to decipher it for you who then may have an opinion on what they actually think it means. Right?
(27:07): Right. Yeah. That's super important. I love what you said. I wanna reiterate that you basically said healthcare is studying the habits of those with the genes who didn't get the disease and teaching that to the people who don't know. And I, I think for everyone listening, you need to realize that you're at risk for some diseases and you have no idea about what you're at risk for because you haven't done a genetic profile that's actionable that tells you what you're at risk for. So you're just blindly going down the road. And then one day you might get a diagnosis of Alzheimer's or dementia or cancer or something and then people say, oh, it came out of the blue. And what I say is, it didn't come out of the blue, it came out of the oblivious because you didn't know. Because it's not the standard of care for physicians to be checking their patients, most of them, their genetics.
(28:11): And just imagine the power that you can have that you can get if you take action now, get this information and see, oh, I'm at risk for A, B and C. Let me learn what the people who were also at risk for a, b and C did who didn't get that disease. And then you can start doing it 5, 10, 20, however many years prior and maybe avoid that problem. And I know there's some people who are gonna reach out to me and say, Dr. Kyrin, well why, why doesn't my doctor do this? Why doesn't my HMO pay for this? Why all these things? And but a lot of you have heard me talking about this for so long. You know the answer. Right? And that's, we've talked about it today. That's not what healthcare is about. It's not what medicine is about.
(29:02): Yeah. And that's, that's part of, I mean, trap is the best word to call it. Part of the trap is, oh, it's not covered by my insurance. I don't, you've been, you've been taught in that there's an entitlement around healthcare, right? That whatever's covered is good for me and what's covered is not acceptable. So that's the challenge. 60% of American personal bankruptcies are from healthcare costs. Literally. Can you imagine two thirds of per us personal bankruptcies are from people that's worked their entire lives to give it all up to st try and stay alive. And then even that doesn't work. They have to go bankrupt cuz of how expensive it is to treat illness. So isn't it a lot more effective to instead of saying, oh, this few hundred dollars is not covered by my insurance, instead to know exactly how to not have to spend half a million dollars on treating cancer when you're 60. Right? And, and the, and the challenge with health is because of the way we've been taught, it's our belief is I can do whatever I want and when I break something, it's a doctor's job to fix me. Right? That's the challenge. And we believe that.
(30:13): We believe that.
(30:15): Then guess what? Then you're on the path to breaking something and going to the doctor to fix you. You've already made that choice. Or health can be, I'm gonna learn everything I could possibly do to never get sick. Right? And when you look at the people that are, that are uber wealthy, that are selling you all this stuff, they're not in a hospital at the last 15 years of their life. The queen didn't die in a hospital bed a month ago. Right? She was walking and being the queen. Right. . Why? Because she had all the right people around her maintaining her health, not masking illness. That's the ultimate luxury. But you're, I mean that, but we're not sold that. So you have to take control and do it yourself.
(30:59): Yeah, it's so true. And it was when you were saying that statistic about cancer and the cost to treat it at this point, one in two of us will get cancer. And if you're in a partnered or married relationship, that means one of you is gonna get it and it's gonna be a bill of about a quarter of a million dollars. And the yes, the statistics on bankruptcy and healthcare costs is, it's staggering. So let's get onto too . I know, I think we made our point, but um, it can't be stated enough because despite, as much as I've talked about it for years, I still have people reaching out to me and complaining and saying, well my insurance should pay for this. And on and on and on. I think, you know, in a utopian society we would learn these things starting when we were growing up in grade school, we would learn how our body functions. We would learn how to eat, we would learn about the importance. But that's for another day. All right, so you've gotta have functional genomics in these last few minutes. I definitely wanna give people actionable information. We certainly will have links to the DNA company, which is your company in the show note. So people can go there and I think you've got a free download for them, right?
(32:16): Yeah. And I'll make sure to set up, uh, a promo code. I want to honor everybody for listening and you know, taking the time to learn how to be better. So we'll set up, I'll just keep it simple, you know, Kyrin Dunston, I'll make it like KD 50, you get $50 off the test. So I'll make sure that's set up. Awesome. And then that, yeah,
(32:34): And we'll put that in the show notes too. We'll have the link and the code. So don't, if you're driving, don't try to write it down
(32:40): . So you know, this field of new genomic testing companies is expanding very rapidly. So there are a lot of options out there. And I have to say that one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on the podcast is this differentiation of the actionable genomic information that people are gonna get. The functional information, just like you're describing, you really map out the, the whole hormonal cascade for women. And I will say that all genetic tests are not created equal there to the 23 of the knees that I think are pure novelty. And then there are some other companies that provide services, but I, I haven't found the information is so overwhelming cuz it's so much and it's like, oh, you know, do these 15 things because of these, these genetics. But what kind of actionable information can women expect to get from a report from the DNA company?
(33:42): We, when we studied those 7,000 people, we learned that there were six key areas. If, if we focus on those resolve most issues give you optimal performance and slow down aging. Right? So those are the six that we focus on. And if any anyone needs anything more beyond that, we recommend they speak to one of either their own clinician or one of our clinicians to dive deeper. If it actually is breast cancer or prostate health, we, a clinician should work on that. But the six areas are cardiovascular health. So everything around maintaining, cause that's, it's the number one killer and it's so easy to prevent. So diabetes, cholesterolemia, you know, hypertension, all that stuff. Then mood, behavior, everything about the brain. How do you think, how do you perceive, why do you not get along with that person? Why are you wired to be an accountant?
(34:31): You know everything about the way your brain works, truly personality mapping to a T so that you understand why you thrive in certain things and there's friction on certain things. Why do you have anxiety, depression, addiction, tendencies, which you don't need to have, right? The third one is hormones, which speaks to hormone dominance and toxicity, the thing we're talking about. But it also speaks to things like cell cellulite, hair, skin, uh, fat retention. Why do you hit plateaus of not being able to lose weight When for women, when do you work out, you know, what time of the month, when do you lift weights, when do you do yoga? Cause it, it makes a difference depending what's happening in your hormone cycle, right? To get the best result and not get injuries. Then we look at innate cellular health. So immunity and detox. What is your body doing to prevent inflammation, which is a root cause of disease in general.
(35:24): Mm-hmm , detox patient, you know, anti-inflammation, antioxidation, all that stuff. How healthy are the cells? We look at diet, nutrition. So at a macro level, should you be on avego vegan diet? Should you be keto? Should you be, you know, paleo? Like what is right for you based on how you metabolize starches and fats and your insulin responses. And then the micronutrients like vitamin D and C and zinc and all the other things that help you healthy. And the last one is sleep. So the genetics of, I can't fall asleep, I can't stay asleep, I sleep through the night, but I wake up feeling like I didn't get any rest. Those are three very different things. Genetic genetically, we understand why they happen and that's probably the fastest thing that gets fixed because it's almost instantaneously if you start doing the right thing, you start sleeping better right away and that supports everything else.
(36:13): So sleep is when you detox, it's when your brain and your glymphatic system detoxifies. It's when you make your hormone, it's when you make your mental hor uh, neurochemicals. Like, so if you're sleeping well, you're already solving a lot of problems, right? So, and then that's why we focus on that as an outlying thing. So those are the six areas we focus on. And if you do these six things right, you're superhuman. Yeah. You just, you just extended your life by 15 years just by doing these things because this is where disease comes from. And if you don't have chronic disease, then you should live healthy with energy and vitality.
(36:47): Yeah, and I love that you shared uh, mark Hyman, mark hs quote with me before we started. Your genes load, the gun, your environment, nutrition and lifestyle hold the trigger. It's so true. But I think that most people just aren't aware that what is the gun loaded with? That's what could I be facing? And I think it's so important to have information like a functional genomic profile that can help you make informed choices about nutrition and lifestyle. I know there are women all over looking for what, what diet should I eat? And we choose with our minds, but the truth is a lot of times our genetics have something to say about that, right?
(37:30): Yeah, for sure. You're first of all the way you're even perceiving and the choice that you just made mm-hmm , five different people make five different choices cuz they're seeing the situation differently. Your ability to deal with trauma and pain and either use it or a tool or ignore it, is determined by one or two genes really. Some people literally imprint and binding trauma and they hold onto the feeling. Some people can't, they ignore it. You know, your ability to see details and be be able to prioritize all the stimulus around you, whether it's sound or noise or information that's all linked in serotonin. And so you, you even step one even understanding how you see the world, you know? And when, when we're coaching people clinically we, we usually start there. It's let's understand your brain because once we do that, we know how to help you comply and actually do the things you're supposed to do.
(38:21): We know how to speak to you. Like if I come with all the bad news, are you never gonna talk to me again? Right? Are you or are you like myself who's highly reward seeking because I can't bind dopamine, so it's very hard for me to experience pleasure and reward. So I'm overly yeah, I'm I'm overly uh, I'll do it too much and I'll burn out. Right? So we start and then, and then if you also know that about yourself, you start to understand that's why in this scenario this doesn't work. That's why I behave like this. So anyways, just about getting into choices, it starts with even understanding how you perceive.
(38:57): Got it. Yes. You're so right. And our perception is partly determined by our genetics. I think the point is well taken and I'm wondering if you can, you shared with me a quote from Seth Godin, the cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing. So as it pertains to the topic, we're discussing women at midlife, hormonal health and balance what I call hormonal poverty. What, how does this apply?
(39:25): Very simple. Most of us don't do anything about prevention cuz we don't think we can. Now that you know you can and if you still don't, something is coming. We just don't know what yet. The reality is that when we think of our ancestors, we think of grandma and grandpa, your DNA is 200,000 years old. So we are like people of 200,000 years ago. What does that mean? That the reality that we now live in of a highly industrialized chemical society is what, 70, 80, maybe a hundred years old versus 200,000 years of what we are designed for. So the short answer is you're gonna be sick, we just don't know with what yet. So the risk of just doing nothing means you've consciously made a decision to accept that you're gonna be sick with something. The risk of doing something is that maybe you just did the wrong thing and you didn't need to trial an error and figure out what's right.
(40:27): So start, start today. The earlier you start, I believe the sort of trifecta, and you hinted to this earlier, is you start with your genetic code because now you know what you're wired for, what choices to make. Then you go into epigenetics, which is environment, nutrition, light. Let's start bringing in the right habits. Then you get into tracking, which is let's, let's do blood work and let's do Dutch testing and let's figure out where is it not working out. This choice that I thought was right for me isn't actually moving the needle. So I need to know how to change it. So that's what you should do for healthcare. Initial mapping, genetic testing, here's who I am and here's my risk. Start to implement habits, here's the right choices for me and now I'm making changes slowly. You don't have to do everything at once as you can handle it. Start to make changes and then measure things. Work with somebody like yourself and keep measuring, work with Dr. Dunston and say, I wanna do this test, I wanna do this test. And then you'll start to see, oh, I move the needle. See reactive protein, way better. My inflammation is gone. But guess what? Estrogen toxicity is still there. Let me work on that. That's healthcare. That's you taking charge and making that conscious choice. Conscious choice and preventing,
(41:42): Yes. So important. K Chief, thank you so much for sharing all this wonderful information. I love your passion for this topic. It, it really shows and I think that everybody listening really has a good idea for how impactful a functional genomic test can be. I hope you will all check it out. We'll have all the information in the show notes with all the links so you can go get a test. It's a place to start. Just start. Take action. , I would be remiss if I didn't ask you about the unfilled podcast. So tell everyone about your podcast and where they can connect with you on social media and on the internet.
(42:26): So unfilled was really built for our customers just to learn. So we got so many questions that we get regularly. We thought if we just give that answer to everybody as opposed to one individual. So the Unfill podcast, rev, you listen Apple, Spotify, just look up the Unfill podcast, you'll find us. And it's essentially us speaking to healthcare issues from the genetic perspective. That was season one, season two just launched, which is us interviewing a whole bunch of healthcare experts about various topics and they were awesome interviews. The the most recent one that just went live is with JJ Virgin about nutrition. And then we sprinkle our new uh, sort of genetic insights as she's talking and it's awesome. You'll also get a lot of information from Instagram. You know, me personally, I try and put stuff out there as I see problems. So cash con official, k a s h k h A n, official, find me Instagram and you'll learn as we go. Keep on going along. Every time you find something new, we talk about it until you'll keep learning.
(43:23): Awesome. Thank you so much for that and for this information, thank you for your passion about women's health and helping them to be healthier. Any last words of wisdom that you'd like to leave everyone with?
(43:36): Uh, well, you know, I did say earlier start, right? Mm-hmm . And if you do one thing well, two things. If you do two things today, just to make that commitment, to start and actually do it, sleep properly tonight, sleep on time, have proper sleep hygiene, which means no tv, no laptop, no phone, right temperature, no distractions, good uh, blockage of light. Do that and start making that because that's free and easy. You don't need a doctor's oversight, everything's in your control. Do that now. Start today. Second thing is think about your environmental health as women. Think about how important what you're breathing, what you're eating, and what's coming in through your skin. What chemicals are you using at home? What did you just clean your countertop with? What did you just spray in your lung? Start thinking about that today. If you don't do anything else, do those two things.
(44:30): Yes, I think that's wonderful advice and I look forward to hearing from you all listening, which ones or hopefully both that you've done and what changes you're starting to notice. Cuz sometimes it doesn't take much, just small changes. One little step can be so powerful Kashif Khan, thank you so much for joining us today. It was a pleasure. Thank you. And thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so glad that you chose to join us today, and I know that you've learned some new information that you can put into action in your life to start making changes. Like has she shared with us that Seth Godin said, the cost of being wrong is less than the cost of doing nothing. So do something and then reach out on social media and let me know what you chose to do. Thank you so much for joining me, and I will see you next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
(45:34): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you ever feel like your hormones are out of control? You're not alone. In fact, many women in their 40s and 50s struggle with hormonal imbalances. But what if I told you that there's a way to help balance your hormones naturally?
Spinal fitness has a lot to do with hormone balance. When your spine is out of alignment, it can put pressure on your nerves and cause hormonal imbalances. But when your spine is in alignment, it helps your nervous system function properly, which can help balance your hormones.
Joining us in this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is Eileen Durfee, an inventor, businesswoman, and practitioner of spinal fitness. She has developed a unique system of exercises that helps people achieve proper alignment and balance in their bodies.
Eileen is here to share with us how spinal fitness can help balance our hormones.
Her journey to overcome her health issues led her to become an inventor and businesswoman, with six (6) utility patents and three (3) design patents, and more in process. She founded her own health company, Creatrix Solutions LLC, to create and distribute natural healing products worldwide. She offers various health solutions through online web stores, including spinal fitness equipment, near-infrared saunas, air purifiers, ozone generators, and healing food salts.
In this episode, Eileen shares:
The connection between your spine and your hormones
How spinal fitness can help balance your hormones
What you can do to improve your spinal fitness
And much more!
If you're struggling with hormonal imbalances, this episode is for you. Tune in now to learn how spinal fitness can help you balance your hormones naturally.
(00:00): Joseph Murphy said, “Whatever you give attention to will grow, magnify and multiply in your experience.” And my guest today, Eileen Durfee, says that this was key in her recovery from her myriad health conditions. And I'm gonna tell you about that evolution and what's important for you to know regarding your hormones and spinal fitness. Stay tuned.
(00:23): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob-gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:17): Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription. Thank you so much for joining me today. I am really grateful to have my guest today and excited to just share her with you because this is very impactful information that you're not gonna hear about in a lot of places. But it's super important. And if you miss this step, you'll probably never get your hormones quite right, so you don't wanna miss it. But it's kind of one of these little known hormone facts that you need to know, like what does your spinal fitness have to do with your hormones? If you listened to me long enough, you know that I've talked about this before, but not all the time, and you almost never hear anyone else talk about spinal integrity and hormones. So we're going to get into that. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Eileen and then we'll get started.
(02:10): She has a very extensive resume, so I'm gonna give you the highlights. But she's basically an inventor and practitioner. She has a engineering background in her brain is built, really built differently from a lot of peoples in that she's always thinking mechanics, how things work and how to improve things. So when she had her married health problems, which she will share with you in the episode, this engineering background really served her in coming up with solutions and particularly solutions around what is called spinal fitness. Not sure what that is. Stay tuned cause we're gonna tell you. And she even has some tips on figuring out your spinal fitness and if it's not great ways to help you improve it. So without further ado, welcome. I lead to the podcast.
(03:03): Well, thank you for having me.
(03:05): I'm excited for you to talk about your journey. A lot of the women listening are really struggling with their health. They're struggling to find answers and that's a part of your story. And it was through your struggle with your health problems that you overcame them and you really have developed a lot of programs and products to help other people. So I think it's very instructive. If you could share a little bit about your story briefly so that people know everything you've had to overcome and kind of some of the things we're gonna talk about today.
(03:42): Oh, I, I've been in pain my whole life from the time I was born to growing nine inches in three months in height and being ran over by a car. Then after I got a silver filling, becoming allergic to everything, having problems with candida, my hormones, Hashimotos, just hair falling out, psoriasis not being able to sleep. Just a ton of issues. And I just had this underlying feeling that, you know, my body wasn't made to have just necessarily medications that I tried diets and detoxification protocols and all these things and I started putting the pieces to the puzzle together so that my body could, you know, function, you know, without having so much medications and to, you know, have a more energetic life. Cuz really everything is about energy. We wanna be able to sleep well, wake up, have energy to li you know, live our life.
(04:48): And before it's like I didn't have any of that. And so I've tried a lot of gizmos. I mean a lot of the listeners probably have a lot of stuff that they bought that's just on the shelf in the garage. They're not using, you know, cuz it's like you have to develop this lifestyle and have things that are easy to use that you can feel a difference cuz there's no silver bullet to health. So I really looked at environmental toxins. You know, what you're breathing, what you're drinking, what you're putting on your skin. And then even if we lived in a bubble so to speak, we'd still have toxins, especially with a lot of genetic mutations that we have that we're not able to eliminate these things. So I developed gizmos to like help us do that. But a overlooked aspect really is how much energy does your body waste in holding your body? Erecting gravity, how many people have back pain, how many people have tight muscles? If we can just kind of improve that and open up our nerves to all of our organs, everything's gonna work better. And so I look at a whole body approach.
(05:57): Okay, thank you for sharing that. And you know, you've been through so much with your health, you listed so many problems. I think there are a lot of women listening who can identify with that. And Eileen shared her age with me before we started. She doesn't look her age at all and you could see her on the video. So she's doing something right. You mentioned something. So the, the podcast is the hormone prescription and I try to try and tie everything into hormones. We are going to be focusing on a spinal fitness and structure, but we're gonna tie in a lot of other health concerns into this episode. So you definitely wanna stay tuned. But I wanna start off by sharing something that you're probably not gonna hear in a lot of places. And this was taught to me when I worked in Atlanta by a very astute, intelligent chiropractor.
(06:51): As functional doctors, we go the next step as a mainstream doctor, when I, I just had a small toolbox of pill for every ill surgery, for every symptom. But then when I became fellowship trained in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine, I got a bigger toolbox and I started looking at the physiologic, biochemical and hormonal function of the body. And we worked with the body systems, but I didn't realize there was something else missing. And that was structural integrity. So Eileen mentioned as she was sharing her story about this kind of alignment that needs to happen to open up your nerve plexes, it also helped your blood vessels to flow more freely the blood through your body. And that means you're hormones, which is part of your nervous system if you've been listening to the podcast long enough, you know, that's the fact. And so it was this concept of when you are not aligning your musculoskeletal system properly, it puts these very small kinks in your nerves, your blood vessels, your subtle energy bodies, and it stops everything from working properly, including your hormones.
(08:02): So I wanna start the whole discussion from that perspective. I want everyone to get that how important this is. It's not, oh I slept funny and my neck's outta balance and I just need to go to the chiropractor to get it popped back because I don't want my neck to hurt. It's the fact that your body, and most of us, he showed me my posture was he imitated me and I have this hilarious picture of him kind of twisting and he is like, so all your nerves and vessels are twisted that way. So it's about your hormones functioning that crick in your neck, the fact that your feet are half a centimeter off, right? You have hip misalignment, which most of us have. Your hormones aren't functioning properly because of that. So I know I've said a lot, but I really wanna draw everybody's attention to the importance of this. So how did you zero in on spinal fitness through this huge health journey that you had? Eileen, let's talk about how you zeroed in on that and really how did that become a big part of your
(09:05): Recovery? Well, after being ran over by a car, I mean I'd been to neurologist, everything else they said I'd never be able to lift my hands. My arms up, shoulders up. It was like daggers being, you know, stabbed into my chest every time I took a breath. And I went to a chiropractor who did a lot of adjustments. But he taught exercises and not just exercises to strengthen certain muscles, but exercises that would get you an S-shaped spine. Now that's what's not known is the benefits of an S-shaped spine and why you want it, how to get it. Mm-Hmm. . So with an S-shaped spine, you know your head is more balanced over your pelvis and the bones aren't so stacked on top of each other. Before you're 18, your body is busy increasing the size and developing the spinal disc tissue specifically. And then it'll stop increasing and growing those after you're 18.
(10:18): So you no longer have this pumping action to get nutrients in your disc or the waste products out. But if you do have that S shaped spine, it acts like a shock absorber where there's a pumping action where it pumps nutrients in, takes waste products out, keeps the spinal discs hydrated. So whenever you lose or don't have the S-shaped spine, then it's more compression and you go into disc degeneration and then you have tight muscles because people are really into stretching, which is great. Mm-Hmm. , however tight muscles exist because of gravity. You can't change the muscle attachments to bones. Okay. So when you have tight muscles, you really have to start thinking, do I have that S shape, spinal curvature, for instance, if all the listeners were to stand up and then fill their hamstrings, how many of them would have tight hamstrings? Almost every single person,
(11:21): I wanna just interrupt you for a second cause a lot of people know what you're talking about, S shape, other people don't. So can you explain to them what should they be looking for to to know if they have an S shaped spine? What is that curvature?
(11:35): Okay, the curvature, when we're born, we're a C shape. And when grandpa's old, he's like a C shape, you know, holding onto a cane, right? So in between, you know, we're born with that C shape and what our body does is it develops these lordotic curves where we get a low back curve and a neck curve. Okay. So our spine is in an S shape or should be. Okay. And so the benefits to that are is in gravity. Like your hamstrings for instance, are only designed for running, jumping or like if you're gonna launch an object, they're involved in the thrust. Mm-Hmm . But otherwise the hamstrings should have no effort on 'em, period. None. And the reason why they're tight is your short pastoral muscles, they're not very strong, they can't exert that tension that you need for very long. So the hamstrings begin to help those short postal muscles.
(12:38): So then like if you're gonna have a stride link, say you're a runner, if the hamstrings are tight because you don't have that a shape in your, you know, leaning forward. So you have all this extra pounds coming down as compression on your neck, you know, and all these things then that fast twitch muscle recruitment of the hamstrings are dedicated to keep you from falling flat, you know, because of gravity. And it will take it away. It won't let you have it for, you know, athletic performance. Mm-Hmm. or whatever. So you can tell right away if you have the s shape curve by, if you have high tight hamstrings, you don't have it. You know, how far can you bend over when you hinge at your hips? You know, if you can't put your palms flat on the floor, you don't have an S-shaped curve then mm-hmm.
(13:27): , if you jump up and you land forward or backward instead of in the same spot, when you try to jump as high as you can, that's indicative of poor posture. Mm-Hmm. , if you raise your hands straight up and they're not along your ears, most people they're pointing, you know, maybe even 15 degrees forward, 20, 30 degrees. That's indication of, you know, the neck not having the right curvature. So it's limiting, you know, your shoulders from moving your arms up rotating your head, looking with your eyes and turning a lot of people with really bad neck posture won't lead with the eyes, they'll lead with their chin. And then even sitting down, just taking a deep breath in and putting your, you know, hands claps behind your head, you know? Mm-Hmm. . So is your low back curve, does it have a low back curve in it or is it more flat?
(14:25): Those are, that's like the evaluation. And I have a free PDF guide that you can download on how to perform this evaluation and what it tells you about the posture. And that is okay, how Dr. Sugar helped the New England Patriots pick players for years, they didn't spend much money on players cuz they were using his techniques to evaluate, you know, athletic ability because it's like a car with a bent crank shaft, you know, your motor's gonna seize, it's gonna, you know, and your spine is a mechanical device like a, a crank shaft in a motor. And so if it's out of tolerance, you're gonna be grinding up bone edges, deteriorating discs and you're not gonna have athletic ability. And so it's really kind of easy to tell if you have enough shaped spine or not and you'll feel it with tight muscles and limited mobility or maybe even pain.
(15:21): But I mean, I've been traveling a lot and I will sit in an airport when I'm waiting watching how many s shaped spines can identify. I mean, I was there for hours and I saw two people with an S-shaped spine. It is epidemic, it's a hundred billion a year problem for low back pain alone in America. So just think of all the energy you're spending fighting gravity. And we have a system where you can get the S-shaped curve, you know, before now, I mean even physical therapists, they didn't know how to give it to people or to train for people to have it mm-hmm. , but they're, and so why are we losing our S shape? Most people never get it. And that's, especially with the electronic devices, cuz we're forward head posture a lot. We're, you know, we're looking down. So it's the repetitive motions that we're, you know, sustaining without, It's kind of like eating candy before bed and not flushing, flossing and brushing your teeth.
(16:25): You know, you, you've gotta do stuff to reverse the effects of gravity. Besides the fact that there are exercises that are being taught to increase muscle that actually reduce the curves. They're detrimental. We're teaching the children wrong, we're not helping them develop an S shaped spine. So all this like what exercises? Like a regular, a regular sit up, for instance, you know, you, you bend and so you're creating posterior shear because the, there's these bones upper and lower on each vertebrae that have facet bones mm-hmm. . And when those separate then you know, the, the vertebrae can twist or whatever. But it's not encouraging a low back curve when you're doing a regular sit up. So what we, what Dr. Sugar did is he created like a fulcrum. You think of a teeter-totter, if it's balanced with the fulcrum in the middle, it's really pretty easy.
(17:29): But like if you wanna move a boulder for instance, you have a long bar, but you put the fulcrum really close down there so you can use a hundred pounds to move 500. All right. So what we do with these exercises, we put the fulcrum underneath the body, so we eliminate posture, your shear, and then we put a load on the body. So it's like where the fulcrum is not in the center. So when you put the weight on top of the body, it's creating where you have to have 500 pounds to move 100. So you're putting absolute tension on these certain muscles that with that curve, that fcr underneath you, it induces the curvature. So there's a sit up exercise, there's a, that works external obliques and that because of the groove in the cushion helps to pick segmental posture. So if somebody has a slight scoliosis or vertebrae sublux out to the left or the right, it's like a train on a train track, it lets a spin float catches the transverse process and it'll actually adjust your back as you arch over it.
(18:39): And then again, because of that absolute tension and that, you know, kind of like a half of a ball that you're, you're laying over, it's going to induce the low back curvature. Then we do a pelvic tilt, which he initially started having us do a standing pelvic tilt. You know where that is really good for the hips. You talked about people having legs unequal cuz you know, they'll have, you know, half their trip hip rotated forward like you know, our gas pedals on the right and if we're right handed, most right-hand people, their hip is twisted forward. Yeah. And that, and then that shortens that leg. And so what we can do to strengthen the hips is doing a pelvic tilt. But he had it where you lay over this cushion where you can put your L five, L four, L three in this groove and then you get your upper body taught where your recs muscles tight, you're putting absolute tension on that recs.
(19:39): Then you put weight on top of the body on your iliac hips. And when you do that pelvic tilt because of the direction of muscle pull and the leverage you've created it actually shes the L five vertebrae back on the L four. So if you have like a, her created disc like Luke Rockhold UFC fighter that, that Joe Rugged wanted to have, have spinal surgery, I went over there, taught him this exercise on the power cushion and within two weeks he got rid of his herniated disc without surgery. And so it's just using leverage physics, you know, compression and sheer forces in a good way. The problem without having a neck shaped spine is, you know, we talked about the facet bones. If you have bone on bone, there's no muscle to have to weaken. It's so strong, it's like a vice. And when you have that S-shaped curve, the sheer forces push bone on bone.
(20:39): As soon as you don't have the S-shaped curve, gravity reverses. So then it puts the strain on your ligaments and your muscles and your inner spins muscles. And people sometimes don't think about it, but the disc in your spine is actually a ligament too. So they don't stretch like a rubber band. When you have enough, you know, you got all those tight muscles, you got that back pain, that means you're putting, you know, some undue stress and tearing on your spinal disc, which then can herniate and, and people are, you know, getting back surgeries, infusions all because they don't have the S-shaped curve because the doctors don't know how to give it to people. But this was proven Dr. Sugar did like a 15 year study with Jennifer Stone and Bob beaten from the US Olympic team and Ron O'Neill, who was the trainer at the New England Patriots for 26 years.
(21:37): And then Smitty from York Barbell who was the Olympic heavy weightlifting coach. They all did this study. And for the first time since Leon Neuro DaVinci and Belli in 1680, they only did partial spinal biomechanics. But they did every single vertebrae in the spine in position calculating the mechanical advantage of the S shaped spine versus, you know, forward head posture, loss of curb or the straight military spine and determined all the compression forces and sheer forces at every vertebrae. And it was proven that there's a 15 to one mechanical advantage to have an S-shaped spine. And it they every much Huh? For
(22:29): Everyone. For everyone. Not just athletes,
(22:31): Right? Yeah. Every, everyone. And then they found out that with these four exercises that you do and you start with only five 10 reps, it, it's nothing like a huge dedicated program. They found out there's lung as your spine wasn't naturally or surgically fused, you could get the S-shaped curve in 12 weeks doing these exercises three to five times a week. Awesome. And I just came back from Las Vegas at the physical therapy in orthopedic conference and I had the equipment there, and I asked people to do 10 reps of four exercises, but I would have them bend over first and turn their head, you know, do the evaluation. The worst improvement I got of everyone that was there was two inches of reach bending over and one inch turning their head either way. The best I got was nine inches. Bending over their hamstrings were so tight, but in 10 reps of four exercises they got nine inches of reach and three inches in turning their head.
(23:39): Either way I had one gal, cuz these are people that are inflection, they're bent over working on people that are injured doing physical therapy exercises using their arms. This one gal did all the exercises. Day one, she came back at the end of day two and said, I always have pain under my scapula. I always have pain when I'm lifting my arms and I always have low tight back muscles. She said, I wanna tell you, I sat in classes for two days, had no tight, low back, had no pain in my scapula and I could raise my arms without pain. And that was at the end of day two, these exercises. That's the thing is is I'm 60 years old and I know the women that are listening, life keeps life and we've got a lot of stuff and commitments that we have to do and it's hard for us to make a routine to change our life, you know, And it really helps when we can do something once and have such a significant improvement that it sells itself.
(24:44): It's like, man, I really feel a lot better when I do these things. You know? And that's what's fantastic about spinal fitness is, is that you can beat gravity, you can get rid of that pain, those tight muscles. But best of all is again, like you mentioned earlier, is like when your nerves are pinched, you know, from our brain, all of the signals to our organs go through that. And you know everyone when when you got tight muscles and pain, you've got pinched nerves. So it's not getting, its optimal communication to form its function. And so you really do have to think that the structure is one of the most important things because it's also very an anti-aging. See a lot of people will do all kinds of stuff for anti-aging and there's just a lot of technology out there and I use a lot about myself.
(25:47): It's fantastic. But if you don't get the S shaped spine, you know, and your muscles are fatigued and everything else, your body's so smart, it's gonna help you. It's gonna start adding calcification on the front of these vertebraes to help it stand you, you know, to help you with gravity. Mm-Hmm . Cause your muscles don't have to be tight. So then you're gonna get stiff and old and you're gonna start developing that C shape curve and you're gonna have permanent reduced nerve capacity, you know, to your organs and you're just gonna age, you are gonna premature the age unless you get that shaped spine.
(26:28): Wow. So I hope everybody is hearing this. So maybe you're someone who's the majority of women that 40 to 60 and older have had episodes of back pain, if not chronic back pain. And so maybe that's you or maybe you don't have back pain and you wanna make sure that you don't get it or have any disc problems in the future. So at the end Eileen does have a download, like she said, where you can kind of do these tests for your s curvature and also some exercises. But one of the things I really notice in reading your bio and talking to you just before the podcast and also during the podcast, you have been through so much and you have this incredible engineering technical mind that has helped you to think about these health challenges that you've encountered in a really unique and technical kind of solution focused strategy way.
(27:26): And you shared some quotes with me that you love, I I wanna share this one by Joseph Murphy. And then I want to ask if you could talk a little bit about how you've had the mental toughness to go through the things you've been through and not only survive through them, but thrive and become so passionate that you've created innovative tools for other people. And the quote from Joseph Murphy, Mur Murphy who I love, is whatever you give attention to will grow, magnify and multiply in your experience. So could you talk a little bit about what that means to you and how this has served you and what other mindset tools you use to thrive through everything you've been through?
(28:09): You know, I've naturally been one of those people that no matter what's wrong or what challenges that are before me is a glass that's always half full and, and that there's always a solution. I, I don't know, I think it's, you know, because of my family environment, maybe how my father was so into perfectionism and you know, I sought his approval where my sister went the opposite direction. But I've just always had this drive that, you know, the answers never know there's always a solution. And then over the years I've, you know, done a lot of reading because it's like I, every single day I, I don't know, I have this hunger to learn, you know, and nothing ever stays the same and you just can't keep on doing the same thing over and over. So I'm always reading, always learning. And when I came across Dr.
(29:08): Joseph Murphy, I realized that the reason why I was able to get out of that bad situation and then to create solutions is because of my focus and the hope that I had. You know, which naturally came to me. But now I utilize that, those tools even more. Mm-Hmm , there's a lot of, you know, things that, you know, thought life is huge. And for women, I didn't have any brothers so I was more of a tomboy with my dad. I mean, I ran machines, drove the backhoe. You don't know how to frame. And you know, just, I like all guy stuff, you know, I, I I'm real mechanical and you know, a lot of women, you know, they have these challenges and I just realized that what you think about in your thoughts, you know, a lot of women, it's like there was this funny movie with Mel Gibson in where he could hear the thoughts of women and they were just all racing, Did I leave the coffee pump?
(30:16): Did I do this? Did I do that? You know? And so it's like when you really realize it, like my own daughter, she has all the this thought life and you know, and I just realized that, that I didn't have a lot of that. My thought life is about visualizing mechanically maybe how to build something to solve a solution. And it's like I do a lot of work in my mind that way instead of thinking about the worst thing or the fear or this or that. But I know that women in general, I'm more left brained, you know, they're more right brained and so they might really think a lot about things. And so I've really tried to, you know, help people realize, you know, just observe your thoughts. I think a really good tip would be to just kind of like observe your thoughts for a while.
(31:08): What are you, what are you really thinking about? What are you spending your time thinking about? And then maybe take steps to change or replace some of those thoughts. I mean, you know, you can get audiobooks of Joseph Murphy that you know that he's really fantastic. There's a lot of other people out there too. But our thought life can really even impact our hormones, our mood and emotions. Cuz everything is energy. So if we can transform our thought life, we're gonna transform our body, we're gonna transform our hormones, we're gonna transform so many things. And I think that was my strong point kind of naturally being wired towards that way of thinking. Mm-Hmm . But then I just didn't want that to be accidental. I wanted to like improve. So, you know, I'm constantly learning. So I think that's a really good thing is to, you know, be curious and know that nothing here stays the same and that little tiny hinges move giant doors. So sometimes the simplest little tiny things that we change can like dramatically improve our life.
(32:23): I love that quote. Little tiny hinges move giant doors. That's so true. You know, sometimes it can be so simple and you've offered so much important information for everybody here today, Eileen. I really appreciate it. It, I really, this is a pet peeve of mine because I think even a lot of us functional docs don't stress the importance of structural integrity of the mu low skeletal system. And we really do a disservice to people when we don't. So I appreciate you coming and sharing light on this. You've got a great gift. We'll have the link in the show notes, so if you're driving, don't try to write it down. We'll have it in the show notes and tell everybody what they'll get there. There are a few different downloads for free that they're gonna get, right?
(33:11): Yes. There's I think five or six documents and these were rewritten based on Dr. Sugar's work and it goes into exercises to avoid that can actually put strain and stress on your back and reduce your curves. And then ones that we encourage or how to do a modified instead of a standing curl with weight, sit down and do a preacher's curl with weight. So you take the stress off the low back, just tips like that. So there's document just about the exercises that to avoid and what we recommend. Then there's one on just how to do the Netflix flexion cuz you know, we're forward head posture where we're sitting at our desks. So there's just a simple exercise that you can do even with your fingertips or with the neck shaper device to help bring your head back, reverse the gravitational effects. And so there's a collection document, then there's a sit up document.
(34:19): Even without a power cushion you can actually take a sleeping bag with duct tape and create yourself that fulcrum to exercise over. Mm-Hmm. . And it talks about the reasons why you don't wanna do a regular sit up and how to do the sit up correctly and what muscles it strengthens. Those kinds of things. The same way with a, a pelvic tilt, you know, it explains all of that. And then a really important thing, one of the first things Dr. Sugar had me do after I was ran over by the car was take ordinary bath towels and roll them a special way and then do a back twist. Cuz you know, I talked about your body's not giving the nourishment to the discs anymore cause you're supposed to have that shaped spine. So your, your discs are like a dried out kitchen sponge. So we can do this twist to cause 'em to go to a gel state.
(35:18): Then we can lay over these rolls. So we take gravity out of the picture cuz gravity is why you have tight muscles. So as your muscles loosen, it encourages increasing proper curvature. And we have special roll now that act like a brace where you're laying there, you actually hear your bone snap just laying the relaxing because when the muscles let go mm-hmm. , it's like a groove on it. And so that it teaches you how to do that. So all these free guides, you don't have to buy anything. You can, I show you how to makeshift what you got at home to do these things, to start getting back pain relief.
(35:57): Awesome. Thank you so much for those wonderful gifts, Eileen, Thank you for your journey and all that you've created to help people and for this incredible information. Thanks so much for joining us today.
(36:09): Well thank you for having me
(36:11): And thank you all for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. I hope that you'll put into action something that you've learned here today. Frankly, I think each and every one of you needs to download the guides and see if you have the s curvature in your spine. And if you don't, you need to get about the business of working to get the S curvature back if you had it before, or to get it for the first time. Because not only will that help to eliminate back pain potentially, but you're going to help your entire biochemistry and physiology to function better, including your hormones. So if nothing else, I hope that you take action. Thanks so much for joining me. I'll see you again next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
(37:02): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► FREE Exercise PDF guides by Eileen Durfee
Are You Ready to Improve, Restore, and Maintain an Ideal S-Shape Spinal Posture?
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Is chronic pain normal as we age? No way! It's time to take control and feel better with today's episode.
On today's episode, we'll be talking with Jane Hogan, a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, Certified Yoga Teacher, and wellness educator who specializes in helping people heal chronic pain with breathwork and mindfulness. She'll be sharing her story of overcoming chronic pain and giving us some tips on how we can do the same.
About Jane Hogan:
Jane Hogan, "The Wellness Engineer," blends science and spirituality to help people release chronic pain using the mind, body, and breath so they can become empowered creators of their health.
Her personal experience of reversing crippling rheumatoid arthritis using natural solutions inspired her to leave a 30-year engineering career and become a Functional Medicine Certified Health Coach, Certified Yoga Teacher, and wellness educator.
Combining ancient wisdom with leading-edge science, Janes Wellness by Design Blueprint has helped hundreds of people release chronic pain naturally. She is the host of the Wellness by Design podcast and her empowering message has been featured on numerous podcasts and summits.
In this episode, you'll learn:
-Mind-body techniques to release chronic pain
-How to use your breath to heal your body
-Lifestyle changes that can help alleviate chronic pain
-And more!
If you're ready to start feeling better and take control of your chronic pain, this episode is for you. Tune in now!
(00:00): "Every day is a mini version of our life. How you start your day is important." Jane Hogan.
(00:06): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an o B gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:00): Hi, and welcome back to the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. You're gonna enjoy the episode today because we're talking about two very important things, breath and brain and how you can harness the power of these two, heal yourself of chronic pain and many health conditions. The science is very clear that your breath and your brain function are super important foundational manifestors of the physical health that you're experiencing. So why not take advantage of every tool that you can use or, I'm gonna dive deep today with my guest Jane Hogan, and she's going to teach you all about that. She's very passionate about it. She's done a lot of work in education in this area. Jane is the wellness engineer. She blends science and spirituality to help people release chronic pain using the mind, body and breath, so they can become empowered creators of their own health.
(02:01): Her personal experience of reversing crippling rheumatoid arthritis using natural solutions inspired her to leave a 30-year engineering career and become a functional medicine certified health coach, certified yoga teacher and wellness educator. Combining ancient wisdom with leading edge science, Jane's Wellness by Design Blueprint, has helped hundreds of people release chronic pain naturally. She's the host of the Wellness by Design podcast and her empowering message has been featured on numerous podcasts and summits. Welcome Jane to the podcast. Thank you so much for having me here. I'm really thrilled to be on your podcast. Glad to have you. Anytime we get to talk about quantum physics, energy medicine and all the woo things that most people think aren't things and I know are really the missing key to their overall health regimen and what's stopping them from healing. A lot of times I am in, and I know that that's something you love talking about. You're very passionate about it. It, and I've helped a lot of people with it. So can you tell everyone how did you become so passionate about the power of the mind and how it can heal the body and impact pain?
(03:10): Mm, really through my own health journey, I was an engineer, civil engineer, structural design. My little joke is I was a structural design engineer until my own structure started to fail. I turned 50 and I was like, 50 is fabulous. But then within about three weeks after that I developed severe joint pain. I had just come through this really stressful year, emotionally stressful. My mother had died suddenly, and I had a lot to deal with. I had to deal with the home and their collections and siblings, and it had been very stressful. I hadn't been sleeping very well, and so I was sort of on the tail end of that getting the house ready for sale and I just, my joints just got really my shoulders first it started, but it was so bad, had to go in a sling and then the next day it was the other shoulder and it kind of went around.
(04:03): It was my knees, my feet, I got orthotics. I thought, okay, I'm just at that age and my jaw, my hands started to hurt. I thought, okay, I just need the house sold and then everything's gonna be fine. I'll take it a little vacation, I'll be fine. But I got worse to the point where I could hardly walk, I could hardly like turn door handles. I was getting stuck in rooms cuz I couldn't turn the door handle. I, I couldn't squeeze shampoo outta the bottle. I was like almost getting to the point where I couldn't look after myself and really didn't know what it was. Nothing was really showing up in my blood work. Luckily I had my family doctor was kind of unusual because she suggested that food might help and that there were some foods that caused inflammation. So she mentioned gluten, dairy and sugar were really common.
(04:52): So I just cut them out of cold Turkey and I had like a significant reduction pain in just five days, which you know, if you know anything and I know you do about the gut microbiome and how quickly it heals, then that makes total sense. And so I kind of went on this whole journey. I learned about functional medicine. Eventually I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, but I saw a rheumatologist and I said, I'm kind of trying these other things and so I don't really wanna take the meds right now. I was a little scared of the side effects. So I continued on and I started looking at lifestyle and I thought, okay, it's food and lifestyle, then I'm gonna be fine. And so I kept on trying all these things and graphing them and charting them and seeing how I was doing. And I would get a little bit better and then I would plateau and then I would try something else, get a little bit better and then plateau.
(05:40): And I was like at least a year into the journey when I started actually I, I trained, I decided I wanted to learn more about functional medicine. So I signed up to be a, a health coach training for, to become a health coach. Not that I knew if I was gonna be a health coach, but I just wanted to learn more about it, and I could do it online. And I learned so much in that about the power of the mind and every month we had a mind body medicine component and then I realized that's what I was missing. And then I dived in further into the mind and then also looking at childhood trauma. I had to treat trauma like most people do. And anyway, the mind in addressing the mind and really understanding all of that and how it affects us energetically really took my healing then to the next level so that, that's not a short story but there you go. .
(06:34): Yeah, thank you so much for sharing that. I know there are a lot of people listening who are are gonna identify because it seems like whether you're 40, 50, 60 for women, a lot of times it just happens pretty quickly, and we hit this wall. But I'm sad that this happened to you, but I love how you described how you couldn't even get out of a room cuz you couldn't turn the doorknob and there might be somebody listening who's dealing with that right now. And Jane shared a few quotes with me before we started recording that I love and I think that they really speak to this situation that you've just described Jane, and probably will speak to some of you out there. Everything is happening for you, not to you. And I love that because a lot of times when it comes to our health, when we get these negative symptoms, you know, we're midlife, we're gaining weight, our hairs falling out, we can't digest our food, we can't sleep, you name it, you guys know what I'm talking about and we think it's happening to us and it's something that's harming us. But really it's, I call the body her. She's trying to tell you what's wrong and she's, these are signposts to where the problems are so that you can fix them. And so you came in contact with this information that the mind has the power to heal the body. So what did that look like for you and your, your healing journey from rheumatoid arthritis? How did you utilize mine techniques to help you,
(08:00): First of all re that reframing that quote that you said there? Everything is happening for me, not to me. I think it's Byron Katie, I'm gonna give her credit for that anyway. Yeah, that it's just such a reframe that this was not, because in the beginning I felt like why is this happening to me? My life is outta control. This shouldn't be happening. I've been a good eater all my life. I've been athletic. Why is this happening? It's not fair. You know, all those kinds of thoughts and really afraid for my future. But to reframe it as this is happening for me, there's something for me to learn because what I kind of always knew and believe was that our bodies really are self-healing. They are, if we're having this breakdown or dis-ease or whatever's happening, these negative symptoms, then it's really our body calling for our help. And so it then, it really is happening for us because it's calling our attention to become a version of ourselves that's different than the version who created this illness or dis disease in the body. So it's waking us up, it's waking us up. So now, I mean I see this whole beautiful path that I've had to get me right here to be talking to you right now and I wouldn't have changed it. I know it was all happening for
(09:17): Me. To me, what you're saying makes perfect sense cuz I've been down the same path. But to a lot of people they're like, they have no idea what you're talking about Jane. So you say it's calling us to become a version of us that's greater, I'm paraphrasing than the woman who got rheumatoid arthritis or something like that. Some people are sitting there scratching their heads saying, I have no idea what she means. Mm. Can you explain that?
(09:43): Okay, so I'm gonna go down a little lesson in quantum science. I'll keep it really simple cuz I'm not an expert in quantum science. But I'll tell you a little bit about what I learned and then you'll understand why I said what I said. So quantum science tells us first of all that everything's energy including us, right? We are actually electromagnetic energy systems that are expressing through a physical human nervous system and a physical human body. So that might be like a lot for people to take in , just that statement. But that's what quantum science tells us. Quantum science also says that we are constantly creating the reality. So basically, and this epigenetics tells us this too, that the environment that we're creating is the environment that our cells are all reproducing in. So if we've got a, an environment of stress and stress can be thoughts, right?
(10:39): Stress is it it, I'm, I'm calling it negative energy. So it can be thoughts, it can be toxins, it can be foods that aren't healthy for us and so on. So we create this in, we are the ones creating that environment that's manifested in these cells reproducing this disease in the body. So going back to that, then if we've created it with the thoughts that we've had with the foods that we've been eating with the toxins we've been exposed to, then we can be the ones that can change that. So the version of ourselves that created the disease, I mean we didn't do it consciously. Obviously none of us have really been taught this, which is why I'm so passionate about speaking about it. So the version of us that it created, if we continue the same way, then we're gonna create more of that. So if we wanna change it, we gotta become a different person. You know, we've gotta create different energy so that we now create a a physical body that manifesting of the energy in a physical body that's going to be different. One that's gonna be creating health and wellness, not creating disease.
(11:50): Okay. So that's well said cuz I tell people that all the time, like the you that you are, you know, whatever it is that you're wanting to heal from, you know, irritable bowel depression, you know, hot flashes and can't sleep, perimenopausal sin, whatever they are, is not the same woman who can exist in this world and not have those symptoms. Like you have to be someone different.
(12:14): Yes.
(12:14): And when I say this to people, they look at me like I have three heads. They don't understand what I'm saying. And I didn't get it cuz people said this to me too back at the beginning of my journey and I didn't get it either. But now I get that the pain was calling me through the path to healing, to the purpose and to becoming who I needed to be so I could, you know, get off the five psychoactive medications and not need them, so I could regrow my hair and have a sex drive and do all the things. But I didn't understand that at the time. And, and in fact it scared me because I thought, well what are you saying? Like I can't be married. I was married at the time, married to the man I married to, I can't be a mom, I can't deliver babies, I can't do the things. So what do you say to those people who are thinking, what do you mean I have to change Jane,
(13:01): When we do get this disease in our body, and we're, you know, we're faced with this, it feels very powerless, right? You feel like a victim. And that's exactly how I felt. And we're also kind of taught in this culture that we aren't powerful. Like we have to go find, know the medications or whatever to take care of this. But really we are powerful when you think we're, we've like, the fact that we've created the pain or disease or whatever it is, shows us how powerful we are because we created it, right? So really I feel like this puts us in an empowered position and maybe that is a little scary for some people. In fact, there's a quote by Maryanne Williamson that I don't have totally, and it wasn't one of the quotes I mentioned to you earlier, but it's something like our biggest fear is not that we aren't powerful, it's that we're powerful beyond measure.
(13:51): And really that is where we are. But we, we also have to be careful with those thoughts too. Ki ki and that is that we can't sort of go into blame, say, wow, like why did I do this to myself? It's not that because those are negative thoughts that are creating negative energy, which are, you know, again, ourselves are gonna be bathed in it. So we wanna make sure that we're having the thoughts of empowerment that are so that we are going to manifest this, this healthier version of ourselves in this physical body. I hope that helps your audience understand that really it's coming from a position of power and it's putting you in a more powerful place.
(14:31): Yeah. So when, this was all a part of my journey too, and I didn't get it at first, but as I said, I, I leaned into the question and then that's when the answers and the understanding came and I realized that I couldn't be the person who said that I didn't, you know, have a sugar problem and continue to eat sugar, right? I couldn't be the person who just basically didn't love and nurture and care for myself the way that I deserved to and heal. And so those are a lot of things that I've changed. So let's talk about though, particularly when it comes to pain, do you think there's a special relationship between your mind, your thoughts that you think and pain in particular? Or is it any health problem?
(15:17): I probably say any health problem really. But sort of talking about pain in particular, I just hosted this some as I interviewed like 50 experts in who help people get outta pain naturally. And it was really co that there's kind of two broad categories of what causes pain and actually chronic conditions of any kind is what a lot of them said. And that is stress is one bucket and toxins are another bucket. And you could even kind of put them all in one bucket because toxins create stress in the body. But let's just talk about the stress for a moment. So the stress can come from our thoughts, can come from even thoughts that we're not aware of. In fact, a lot of it can come from thoughts that we're not aware of. I interviewed Dr. Bruce Lipton and he talked about subconscious thoughts and how that can lead to, you know, fit manifestation of physical problems in the body.
(16:12): And so many other experts too talking about like childhood trauma that we may not even have realized we were carrying these subconscious thoughts all the time. And how do you know that you're carrying you, it's kind of because we create these adaptive behaviors to make up for these things that hap may have happened to us or things that we interpreted as being fearful when we were little. I mean we don't even remember it, we don't have to remember it, but you'll see evidence because you'll have behaviors like perfectionism, people pleasing, always having to do, do, do go, go, go. So those kinds, feeling like the weight of the world is on your shoulders, being critical of other people are critical of yourself or not being able to take criticism, you know, being ultrasensitive. So these are all just really behavioral adaptations that we created to manage the fear situations we were in when we were really little.
(17:09): But the problem is that that creates, you know, like an environment of fear in our body. So our cells are kind of bathed in this, you know, underlying things aren't safe and when things aren't safe, when the body thinks that things aren't safe, as you know, we're not going to be in that rest digest, parasympathetic state. We're gonna be more in the sympathetic state, which is when things don't run really well. And it's kind of like a, if you think about like an automobile is not, if it's not getting proper maintenance and you know, you don't put the right kind of gas in it and all that kind of stuff, it's going to start to break down obviously. And it's kind of like our, our bodies are the same way. So we got, could have this underlying stress that's keeping our, our system in that state where we're not optimally functioning and then that has a downward cascade effect of coming out as physical things in the body, you know, so that's what we're seeing. It might come out of pain, it might come out as hair loss. You mentioned it could come out as eczema, it could be anxiety, you know, all these different things.
(18:16): Yeah, yeah, a lot of the things you mentioned increase inflammatory markers in the body, increase inflammation, which then is, you know, negative feedback with cortisol plus the unconscious thoughts spikes the sympathetic nervous system. Everybody listening will remember. Keesha, yours has been on the podcast as well as on the summit talking about little T trauma and I love Bruce Lipton. I'll put a plug in for his book, The Biology of Belief. Yeah,
(18:41): And
(18:41): This is, this is one of my favorite topics because it is the emerging science. You're not gonna hear this at all at a regular doctor's office and it absolutely will stop you from achieving the health that you deserve from achieving the Pain-FREE state that you deserve from achieving the peaceful mind that you deserve. What would you say to those people who say, cuz I know what we'll get into, let's start with this. What are some of the steps that people can take to really start working with, I know you talk about mind or brain, breath and body. So what are the components of starting to work with these, the, the mind to help to heal your pain? I'll come back to my question
(19:30): Later. I think one thing that really works in the beginning is maybe because people are listening to a podcast like this is having hope. So having hope and belief that things can change because you know, if I just searched rheumatoid arthritis basically on the, I'm just gonna find a lot of bad stuff and nasty little pictures of gnl hands and things like that, right? So it's finding these different stories, seeking out these other stories of people that have gotten lost. So having hope is really important because that's, you know, that's kind of starting with our beliefs. I also, well I love talking about breath work too, because we need to calm ourselves down. We're going, most of us are going around in a constant state of stress and you mentioned we're creating the hormones of stress in our body, which then every single cell Bruce Lipton talked about, you know, are the antenna basically on the surface of every cell that's picking up on that environment, sending the information to the DNA to, you know, how to replicate what's going on out here?
(20:31): Well, it's a little bit dangerous, so like, let's make sure we're, we're setting up and, and putting up defense physiology, not not health physiology. And so yeah, so doing everything you can to create calm. So I love breath work because it's free, it's totally portable and it's the fastest way to get the body and mind and body into that parasympathetic state, right? To just kind of calm that nervous system right away. As soon as we start talking about breath work, a lot of times I find people just automatically, you know, they'll breathe through their nose and slow it down and notice, and right in that moment you're not ruminating over the past or worrying about the future if you can just like listen to the sound of your breath or feel your belly moving in and out and hopefully it's the belly and not the chest because the chest, again, if we breathe into our chest, which a lot of people are doing, that's, that's activating the sympathetic state. Whereas when we breathe into the belly area, so the belly is kind of moving in and out because the diaphragm is coming up, up and down, then we're activating the vagus nerve, which is the parasympathetic branch of the nervous system. So breath is a great place to start.
(21:45): Yes, I love that. I have a friend who says, if your mind is in the future with anxiety or the past with regret, you are on the present. And I love that. Yeah,
(21:54): I look on their present. Like, why would
(21:56): We do that ? But so many of us are not in the present. And if you start to pay attention to that, you really start to notice that you're not, you know, you might be eating a piece of toast, but are you really tasting the toast? Are you really being present with the people that you're with? Or are you worrying about what's gonna happen to or rehashing something that happened last week? And the nervous system really can only heal in that parasympathetic state that is in the present. A lot of people say to me, Well how does breathing help your nervous system? Can you help them understand
(22:32): That there's so much science behind this? And so we know this to be true, that when we slow down the breath, especially the exhale on pain, for sure it helps lower it. So when we slow down the breath, and there's plenty of studies on like mindfulness and how it helps with, with stress, anxiety, with pain. So even people with like fibromyalgia, people with cancer, it helps create that com. So it, when we do that, the body can like start to heal. And so when we're healing then our immune system for example, is gonna come back online, our digestive system is going to come back online, our endocrine system, our musculoskeletal system, our circulatory system, everything's gonna start working more optimally. And of course in that environment we're going to start to feel better. But even in the moment, just in that moment, we can just very, very quickly get ourselves into that parasympathetic state.
(23:34): And the faster you do that, the better. Keesha, yours told me this actually, that when we create cortisol, it takes 12 hours to dissipate it out of the body. The longer we keep ourselves in a stress state, the longer that's going to take. So it's just so important to try to stop it as soon as you can. Breath is a great way to do it. There's other ways, but you've always got the breath with you when you do that, you can just kind of create that calm state. So that's, that's why I love the breath so much. But there's other things people can do, whatever, whatever makes you feel good and gets you at the moment. So it takes a little bit of awareness too. So we want to be able to catch ourselves when we are having negative thoughts. So we are so lucky as human beings that we have this ability to be aware that we are thinking we can be aware of our thoughts. Now, if you're not used to it, it does take a little bit of practice, but that is something you can practice and that can help. What am I thinking of right now? And if you notice that you're ruminating over the pa or you're on your, your present, then you can go reset, reset. Bring myself back to, okay, just focus on the breath in this, this one I love is in this moment, I'm safe in this moment. Everything's okay. And that can just calm you right down immediately.
(24:56): Yeah, we're the only species that has metacognition. We can think about what we're thinking about and how we think, but a lot of us don't. We think the same, you know, 70,000 thoughts a day today that we thought yesterday. And so a really empowered use of your mind is to think about what you're thinking about, think about the things that you think about repetitively, the patterns and habits. And I really think this whole childhood trauma really unpacking that because I think it's estimated gab or Monte estimates that 97% of us have had trauma in our lives and that just means overwhelming feelings that we couldn't handle that's programmed our nervous system and our cortisol hpa access to be on overdrive, right? So let's dive into a few solutions. I know you've got a podcast we're definitely gonna share with everyone. Wellness by design that has a lot of resources. But let's dive into so some simple deep belly breasts. It's all about increasing your vaal tone, calming your sympathetic, increasing your parasympathetic, which is that heel and repair part of your nervous system. What are some other things that people could do, activities they could start doing today to start calming their mind and healing their body?
(26:12): A lot of people think that right away, I, I've gotta change what I'm eating and not that food isn't important because obviously we gotta give our our body the building blocks, right? For good health and hopefully not be bombarding it with toxins which take a lot of energy to deal with and can build up in the tissues. But even starting with feeling calm while you're eating. So when you're preparing food, like feeling good about it, being grateful with the food that you have, the ability to do this, sitting down with people that you love, having good conversations or if you're by yourself, just even just loving on yourself and feeling good while you're eating. Taking the time to eat slowly. So I love to say start with how you eat rather than what you eat. It's a great starting point because then you'll even, you'll be able to digest your food better and when you digest your food better, well then it can help calm the nervous system or the immune system down.
(27:14): So then you stop having this inflammatory response. So it's kind of two things, right? It's the, it's the mind i digestion kind of begins in the mind. So starting with feeling calm while you're eating and appreciating and feeling gratitude, just feeling good about what you're eating. In fact, there's I've heard that, you know, the Mediterranean diet has always been touted as being such a healthy diet. The people there, you know, eat, they eat all this food and they have longevity. But one thing they do a lot over there is they really linger over their meals, their family times. People are talking and laughing. And so I think that plays a a big part in it as well. So that's a great place to start. Start with how you're eating .
(28:00): I love that. You know, just like sex doesn't begin in the bedroom, foreplay begins outside. I call that food foreplay. And like you said, digestion begins in the mind. So you've got to have food foreplay to get your digestion going. So start with how you eat, not what you eat. I love that, Jane, what else can we do?
(28:19): How you start your day is huge, right? Every day is like a little mini version of our life and we really don't know how many days we have. So how you start your day sets you up for the rest of the day. So I'm really big believer in starting the day, like even before getting outta bed, just tuning in with your body, noticing what you're feeling, if you feel anything that's kind of a little bit off and kind of sending it some love as if it's a small child. Imagine that you're breathing into it and like hugging it . And also like what are you excited about that's coming up during the day? Just what do you envision for the day? What do you envision for even, you know, beyond the day for three months, five years, 10 years ahead? Just really setting your mind up for the day and getting in a really good place.
(29:07): And so that's the mindset part. I love doing some of that. Having some movement in the morning is really good, especially if you can do it outside, cuz our eyes will get exposed to sunlight. So then it sets you up for sleeping better that night. And also just having that time where you're doing some mindfulness. So whether you are just sitting there doing some breathing or whether you do a guided meditation or a silent meditation, whatever it is, but you just take some time where you are getting your mind in that present moment and not thinking about other things. Now our thoughts will wander in of course, but you, you just kinda like, isn't that cute? Let them float away again like clouds and not judge yourself for it. So that probably leads to the next thing is just like being kind to yourself. We're, we're far too hard on ourselves.
(29:58): And so that's really important. So yeah, the morning I think is important. How you eat is important. Being aware of your thoughts, what are you thinking about all the time? Maybe you might wanna journal on that even like, you know, kind of sit down what's on your mind right now. Just write it all down just so that you're getting an idea of what you're thinking about all the time. And then is that kind like, are you speaking to you like yourself? Like you would speak to someone that you love, like a best friend? And chances are we may not be, so, might wanna turn that around a little bit. And Louise Hay was a real proponent of doing mirror work and that might seem a little weird to people to look in the mirror and say, you know, I really love you, however you are.
(30:41): I love you. There's a book by Mel Robbins called The High Five Habit, and she talks about the power of high-fiving yourself in the mirror in the morning because we have this association with a high five that's, it's always like, good. And it's like, who is celebrating And you know, you know you're doing awesome. So instead of looking in the mirror and feeling negative about yourself, you're high-fiving. It's kind of a pattern interrupt in the brain. She backs us up with a lot of science in the book as well. So even making that a little habit in the morning, like high-fiving yourself in the mirror instead of looking in the mirror and thinking the critical thoughts that so often we do, especially, you know, us women as we get older, we're probably looking in the mirror going, Who is that? And like, where do these wrinkles come from and all that. But instead, high five yourself, Look at me, I'm awesome . Or even if you don't feel like that, like you can tone it down a little and say, I'm, I'm doing so much better. I'm doing the best I can today. I'm the best version of myself today.
(31:43): Yes. You know, I love that. And I'm wondering if you can think of a client that maybe you've worked with who really didn't think that she had a problem with negative self-talk or self-love and maybe she worked with some of these tools and how that helped to transform her health and her life. If you could share that.
(32:04): Oh, you know, this is pretty much every client,
(32:07): . ,
(32:08): Yeah. Because most people, by the time they come to me, they're already in pain. And so I know that there's always this emotional component to pain, a lot of time connected with these emotions. Louise Hay wrote a great book called You Can Heal Your Life. Emotions Connected with the Pain, Different issues, I guess Dise in the Body, Plus I know I, I'm a yoga instructor now, know a lot about the chakras and the emotions and things and, and how it's connected to different endocrine systems in the body. So I know that there's this connection. So pretty much every client, you know, we work on this and, and I see them change, it's so beautiful that to see them realize that they've been so hard on themselves and they don't have to do that, really teaching themselves love. And then when you have that, you can make better decisions for yourself because you love yourself, right?
(33:01): You're going to make better decisions. You're going to not mind taking the time to cook a meal that's going to be nourishing. You're not going to mind taking the time to do this little morning routine that's going to help help you or going out for a walk or whatever it is. So it starts with, with that like really loving yourself, taking the time to do the breath work. As I said, even with breath work, there's a lot of science behind this and especially breath work that's creates heart resonance, that the cognitive brain we think better and when we think better, we make better decisions. So it all starts to kind of tumble along and feel good. So I mean, one, one story that I just love is this woman that came to me and a lot of self-esteem issues and pain overweight. And after working with me for a while, I remember she said, I can finally bend over and tie my own shoes. And that like, I didn't even realize that that was going to be a thing for her that meant so much and it just kind of kept on going from there. But that you can just imagine how the feeling that that when she could finally tie her own shoes and how how liberating that felt for her instead of having to get someone else to do it.
(34:18): Yes, that's true freedom and you don't even realize that you don't have or appreciate the fact that you can bend over and tie your shoes until it's gone.
(34:28): Yeah. Or turn the door handle
(34:30): or turn the door handle, right? These things we take for granted and then sometimes we literally wake up and our health is deteriorating. But there is a way out, you, you all listening know that hormones is key for me for sure. I think Jane would agree, right? Mm-Hmm
(34:46): .
(34:47): Yeah. And also you've got to tackle the toxicity. I loved how you shared Yeah. Its toxins in the body, which includes stress and includes the thoughts that you're thinking. And I think you've given a lot of people a place to start. Some simple things they can start doing to start turning the tide. You know, it's funny because back when I started on my healing journey, people would say things to me like, You're really hard on yourself, aren't you? And I would think, Are you crazy? No I'm not. And , they would say things like that. And now I look back and I think, wow, it was so true. And, and so many of us successful, intelligent type a women are so hard on ourselves. Like I would say, I don't have time to, you know, take care of myself basically. I don't have time, I don't have time for this, this I don't have time, I don't have time, I don't have time. But underneath that, basically what are you saying to your body? I don't care enough to make the time.
(35:45): Exactly.
(35:46): And that's, that's really being hard on yourself. So everybody listening, hold the mirror up to yourself, look in the mirror. And if you really have a hard time looking in your own eyes and saying You're awesome, I love you, and giving yourself a high five in the mirror, you might be being too hard on yourself too . So I definitely wanna share where everybody can find you, Jane, tell them about your Wellness By Design podcast and all the places they can find you online.
(36:15): Well, my Wellness By Design podcast is all about intentional living. And I created it because I wanted people to be who are finding themselves with disease or pain or inflammation in their body or lack of energy. I wanted them to understand that through intentional living, they can create health in their body again. So the guests that I have on talk about different ways of doing that, I talk about different ways of doing that. So that's what that podcast is about. I really love it. It's a little passion project for me and, and I'm really getting a lot of great feedback. I'm, I'm quite happy about that. And then my website is the wellness engineer.com and that's who I am. I was an engineer, now I'm the one, the wellness engineer and I've got a great little audio bundle if anyone wants to download it, it's, it's right on the main page or they can go to the wellness engineer.com/audio bundle.
(37:11): And I've got three file, three audios they can download. One is 108 affirmations for he health and Wellness because we can, we can reprogram our subconscious mind with affirmations if we repeat them over and over again. And especially if we feel them as well cuz how we feel is more important than just the words. I've also got a guided meditation for health and healing and then I've also got a heart resonance breath work that I guide people through. So it really creates that beautiful heart harmony and there's lots of science. A heart math institute has done plenty of science around how when we get ourselves in that state, how we think better, we feel better, we heal people get along better. There's so many great things with that. So that's three little gifts for them.
(37:59): Awesome. We will have that link in the show notes, so if you're driving, don't try to write it down. We will have it in the show notes when you get to your destination, you can click it and go there and sign up. And thank you so much for joining us today, Jane, and shedding some light on how we can help to heal our chronic pain and health problems by using our breath, our mind, and our body positively and really making that connection for everyone and giving them some tools to get started with. Thank you so much for joining us.
(38:34): Oh, Kyrin, thank you so much for having
(38:37): Me. And thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I hope that you've learned something today that you can put into practice to start changing the trajectory of your health and your life today. It really, a journey of a thousand steps begins with the first one. So you just gotta do one thing. So what's the one thing you're gonna do today? I wanna see you give a high five to yourself in the mirror. Say, I love you, you're awesome. I would love to see a picture of that and post it on social and tag us and we will look forward to seeing you. The next episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all,
(39:18): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Get Jane Hogan's Relief with Peace Audio Bundle for free. CLICK HERE to download.
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Are you feeling frustrated with your weight, metabolism, or energy levels? Do you feel like you've tried everything and nothing seems to work?
If so, you're not alone. Midlife can be a challenging time for many women. Our bodies change, our hormones fluctuate, and it can be difficult to stay on top of our game.
But there is hope! In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we speak with Dr. Ted Naiman about the P:E diet. This way of eating has helped countless women achieve their ideal body composition and metabolic fitness.
In this episode, you'll learn:
-What the PE diet is and how it can help you lose fat and improve your metabolic fitness
-The single most important factor for body composition and metabolic fitness
-How to create a personalized PE diet plan that works for you
-And more!
If you're ready to achieve your ideal body composition and metabolic fitness, this episode is for you! Tune in now and learn the secrets of the PE diet.
(00:00): Everything in life is on a U-shaped curve. Dr. Ted Naman.
(00:06): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:00): Hi, thank you so much for joining me for another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. My guest today is Dr. Ted Naiman and whatever diet you use, whatever is your diet religion, you definitely wanna listen to this episode because pretty much every diet gets this one thing wrong and it wrecks havoc with your body composition as you age. And your metabolic fitness bottom line is it's part of the reason that you don't feel 100% as you age. So you definitely wanna listen up. He's got some great science for you on macronutrients and what you need to be doing to maximize this informational input into your body because yes, the food you eat is actually information that informs your body. So it is calories, but it's also nutritional information in the form macronutrients, micronutrients. And then it also has this subtle energy tea or prana, whatever you choose to call it, flowing through it as well.
(02:03): So you want high quality food, but if you're not picking the right one, then you want to listen up to Dr. Ted Naiman on the PE diet. He's gonna tell you what PE means. He's also going to tell you why everything in life is on a U shape curve. And this is super important. So many of us are living at one point of the U or the other point of the U and he's gonna tell you why everything exists on a U-shape curve, how this affects your health, and mostly how to optimize your U-shaped curve. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Ted Naiman and then we'll get started. So Dr. Ted Naiman is a board certified family medicine physician in the department of Primary care at a leading major medical center in Seattle. His personal research and medical practice are focused on the practical implementation of diet and exercise for health optimization.
(02:55): And he's the author of the PE Diet. Basically when he got into practice and he saw the high rates of obesity, diabetes, hypertension, et cetera, he was extremely frustrated because in our medical training we don't get education on nutrition at all, just like we don't get education on hormone. And so he really started diving deep into the research to see what he could do to help his patients. And he came up with a PE diet and it's pretty revolutionary and brilliant. And like I said, whatever your diet religion, this will apply and it will help you. So please welcome Dr. Ted NaIman to the podcast.
(03:34): Oh wow. Thank you Dr. Dunston for having me. I appreciate it. So
(03:38): Let's start with how you became so enthralled or what helped you to understand, because you're traditionally trained, like I am in your medical schooling, and we didn't get training in nutrition. We didn't get information on what's important, how, why protein's important, macronutrients, micronutrients, really we didn't get that. So what led you to really dive more deeply into this topic and expand your knowledge about it?
(04:12): Oh yeah, I, well, thank you. And I've been interested in diet pretty much my whole life. I had kind of a unique background in that I was raised as a Seventh Day Adventist, which is this crazy religion where they are mostly vegetarian. And I ended up going to a Adventist medical school at Lo Linda in California, which is one of these famous plant-based meccas and everyone's vegetarian or vegan. And so I kind of grew up and was indoctrinated with all of this sort of like, you know, plant based is the best sort of thing. And so I was kind of interested in, in diet from the beginning, but I also realized that, you know, most of the people around me on a plant based but diet were not really healthier than anybody else. And I wasn't really healthier than anybody else. And then I went to my residency and I ended up meeting all these patients with like horrible diabetes and just horrible obesity and all these huge complications.
(05:09): I got introduced to a patient who went on a low-carb diet and had this massive weight loss and reversed diabetes through all his pills away. And, and he had done this with basically just eating a bunch of meat, and I'm like, Oh wow, this is, you know, maybe this pure plant based thing is not the entire story. Maybe there's more to it than that. So I've that was about 20 years ago and ever since I've just been researching the heck out of diet and exercise and health and body composition. And I've kind of come to the realization that there are all these levers that drive, you know, how much or how little people eat. And it's really transcends this plant versus animal thing, which is where I started out from. And it also kind of transcends low-carb versus low fat, which is something I was stuck in the middle of this eternal low-carb versus low fat war for a long time. Mm-Hmm. . So that's kind of how I got to where I am writing the book, the PE diet and just sort of rising above the plant versus animal and low-carb versus low fat debates.
(06:08): Well, you know, it's interesting you say plant versus animal because I think that a lot of people become very reductive and think that that's what determines whether you're eating a healthy diet or not. Are you vegan, vegetarian, lacto pescatarian, right? Do you eat animal animal protein or not? Do you eat animal protein or not? But the truth is, you can be a vegetarian or a vegan and have a very unhealthy diet. You can be a carnivore and eat plant-based and have a very unhealthy diet, and you can do both of those and have a healthy diet, wouldn't you say?
(06:45): Absolutely. So there's, there's just so many examples out there of really bad plant-based diets or really good ones. And the same thing for low carb fat and the same thing for carnivores and every single diet you can do it wrong, paleo and you name it. And there are plenty of examples of how that could be helpful in certain circumstances and unhelpful in others. And each of these diets has something that's kind of driving the success that a lot of people see with them, but then other ways that you could do it wrong, which basically makes that particular diet religion not the entire answer in and of itself. And you really have to kind of rise above all the diet tribes and religions and look at what's driving success in all of these. And then you've got some rules that you can go by and be successful on any diet pattern really.
(07:37): I love how you call it diet, religion, people. I've read data that says that people find it harder to change their diet than their religion .
(07:49): Yeah. I mean they're pretty much the same thing, honestly, why do
(07:51): You say
(07:52): That? Usually when we don't really understand how something works, we have to give it this sort of mystical religious flavor, right? And I think nutrition's been in the dark ages forever and nobody really quite has understood it in the past. And so we have to mystify it and we have to make it sort of magical and religious like, you know, paleo. All I know is that if you make sure it's paleo, you're going to lose weight to be healthy. It just has to follow these little rules. I don't really know why, but that's just how it works, you know? So we have these like almost religious level beliefs about diet when, when we don't really understand it. But much like religion, nobody really knows what religion is. So we have to make stuff up and be very mystical and mysterious about it. And so dye is the same way and it's really kind of out of ignorance cuz we don't actually know, you know, we're just guessing.
(08:42): I love that. I love that analogy. I've never heard that. That's great. All right, so let's back up. You mentioned the PE diet book that you wrote. So tell everybody what that is. What does it stand for? What does it mean? What led you to write this book?
(08:56): So the PE diet, this stands for protein versus non protein energy. And it's really just based on the work of professors Robin Heimer and Simpson, these two researchers in Australia who stumbled across the protein leverage phenomenon and published this about a decade ago. And protein leverage is this extremely powerful phenomenon where most animals on earth will eat until they get enough protein and only then will they stop eating and it supplies from like insects and fish and birds and mammals and all the way up to humans, definitely humans. So it turns out that humans have this super powerful protein leverage phenomenon and you basically eat until you get enough protein, and it's really unique among the macronutrients. So if you look it up the entire planet, there are people who eat tons of carbs and hardly any fat, and people eat tons of fat and hardly any carbs, but protein is just extremely conserved throughout all groups on the planet.
(09:54): Everyone's dialed in at, you know, like 15% protein and they're all eating very exact amounts of protein. And it turns out that if you give animals a protein dilute food, they basically have to over consume calories to get enough protein. Maybe if you give animals a higher protein concentration food, they just automatically eat less protein energy. So protein percentage is probably the single largest factor when it comes to how many calories you're eating on an adlib diet when you're just basically just eating mm-hmm. . And the reason that it's important is because over the past 60 years of the obesity epidemic, the protein percentage of the food supply has significantly gone down, which is protein dilution. So everyone basically just has to eat more calories to get enough protein to not be hungry. You know, it's like, let's say you need a hundred grams of protein a day to not be hungry, but you're eating, you know, french fries, which are, you know, potatoes and oil and 6% protein, and you have to eat an extra 800 calories to get enough protein to not be hungry later on. And that's just a huge driver of the obesity epidemic. And I think a lot of people are unaware that this is even happening.
(11:03): I think that they are, and I, I, I don't know, but you working with women over 40, I really think that most women believe they are getting enough protein. I think that they underestimate how much protein they actually need. And I know a lot of women who they, they'll eat one egg, you know, a hard bold egg for breakfast and they, they'll say that's enough. Or they'll have a few little pieces of chicken on their salad, and they think that's enough. So how come we're so confused about how much protein we need? But first off, would you agree? And it sounds like you do, but Yeah, Yeah,
(11:39): Well absolutely. And, and so everybody's eating enough protein to be alive by definition. Mm-Hmm. . And then the question is, you know, how many calories did you have to eat to get that protein? So the RDA for protein's pretty low. It's, you know, 60 grams, you know, most women in this country, average woman is eating 60, 70 grams of protein a day and they're definitely eating enough to be alive. But the problem is, you know, how many calories did you have to get that eat to get that protein? And if you had a higher protein percentage food and got those grams of protein faster, would you be able to eat less and have better body composition? And the answer is definitely yes. There's also a difference between protein adequacy and optimal protein. So if you're really, really interested in body composition, you want the highest lean mass you can get at the lowest fat mass, and that's where you look the best.
(12:33): And that's where you have the highest insulin sensitivity and the best metabolic health. So pretty much every woman who comes to see me has the same goal. They want more muscle and less fat. They might not realize this, but that's what they want, both for metabolic health and reversing diabetes and anything related to insulin resistance and also just to feel good and look good naked and all these things, right? It's all about body composition, more muscle as fat. And what happens when you look at the protein versus energy ratio of your diet? Protein is supporting your lean mass and carbs of fats are supporting your fat mass. And so when you eat a higher pro-protein percentage of your diet, you just automatically get more protein and less carve in fats and you're improving body composition automatically. And what's driving that is basically protein leverage.
(13:22): And that you can take any animal, any omnivore mammal and just increase the protein percentage of its diet, and it will automatically eat less calories. That's extremely powerful. It's almost linear from like 10% to 30% of calories from protein. You have this extremely linear reduction in how many calories people eat with a very powerful gear ratio. It's like 10 to one for every calorie of protein you eat. You eat 10 fewer calories of carbs and fats between this 10% to 30% protein range in human diet. And just extremely powerful mm-hmm. . And I think, like you said, when women actually like track how much protein they, they're eating sometimes it's quite abysmal. You know, like you're like, Oh, I ate an egg for breakfast. Yeah, that's six grams of protein, and you know, you might need 120 grams to not be hungry. So, you know, you're mm-hmm.
(14:15): got a long way to go. So I, I think there's this protein awareness that people don't have. They, they, they're like, Oh yeah, I eat protein, I eat egg every single morning. That's protein. Yeah, that's six grams of protein. So, you know, if you look at any of your bikini models or bodybuilders or aesthetic people, they're just, you know, eating five times that much or more, you know mm-hmm. . And I think a lot of people just aren't aware of how powerful that is and how important that is and, and what a really good lever that is for improving body composition.
(14:45): So let's talk about something that's very popular right now cuz it popped in my mind cuz it's all their age. Everyone's doing intermittent fasting and they're so people are very proud of how small their eating window is. And one of my biggest concerns is, well, one is the stress on the cortisol when you fast that long, but also protein, can you get enough protein when you're intermittent fasting? Can you speak to that, those
(15:12): Issues? So intermittent fasting is definitely, it's on a u-shaped curve where like a, I like a light amount of intermittent fasting. I pretty much never recommend over a 16 eight where you have an eight hour eating window and a 16 hour fast. And I think doing a little bit of that might help people get more in touch with hunger and fullness and at least feel slightly more comfortable operating in a lower glycogen state where they're, you know, living off a stored body fat. But you really don't wanna push that too far because a bunch of stuff happens. First of all, as you get hungrier and hungrier when you do go to refeed your food choices are not as good. It's, you're not necessarily reaching for the skinless chicken breast and the salad you're eating like a whole jar of peanut butter.
(15:58): If you, if you shove your eating window down into one hour, you get so hungry that your food choices are not quite as good. The other thing is, if you're trying to build muscle at the same time as losing fat, which is recomposition, which is what everybody should constantly be trying to do forever, it's really hard to have optimal muscle protein synthesis when you don't have amino acids available. So if you're eating really small windows and you're trying to work out and build muscle, you might not get as far as you could if you had a wider eating window and more amino acid availability. If you're eating more protein more often, you get more protein synthesis basically. There's also muscle protein breakdown where the longer you go without eating, the more muscle protein breakdown you get. Cuz your body needs amino acids from somewhere.
(16:45): And if you're not eating carbohydrate, you have to manufacture it out of amino acids, which means breaking down some muscle at some point. So anyone who's had any kind of starvation event, their, you know, half of their weight that they're losing is skeletal muscle and half is fat. So as you go longer and longer without eating, the more of the weight that you lose is lean mass that you don't want to lose. So extended fasting is not that great. You're gonna lose half of it as lean mass. You're gonna get super hungry and refe on basically peanut butter. You're going to have no muscle protein synthesis during that period of time. So you, you really wanna be careful with intermittent fasting and I like just a little bit of it, just enough to kind of know what it's like to be actually hungry, if you know what I'm saying. And but I'm not a big fan OFin fast. I don't recommend it. You're absolutely right. There are big problems with protein adequacy and what you're really trying to do is maximize muscle and minimize fat at the same time, which means you do need to eat and you do need to eat protein. You're just trying to improve the ratio of protein and non-protein energy.
(17:51): Yeah. Okay, great. Thanks for addressing that. And I'm wondering if we can jump back to, we talked about how people don't have protein awareness, they think that I ate an egg, I'm good, but it only has six grams of protein and if you need 120 grams in a day and you've really got a lot of eating to do, so everybody listening is probably wondering, well, how do I know if I'm getting enough protein? So what would you tell them, Ted? How to know how much protein they need? And then next would be how to know how much to eat. Because I think that a lot of people don't like using calculators or measuring things and they wanna be able to eyeball the toe. What are some rules of thumb to make sure they get enough, but starting with how do I know how much I need?
(18:38): Well, first of all, you know, the goal is eventually for everyone to just eat without having to track anything. Like, you know, you eventually don't wanna have to track, you just want to eat and not have to worry about macros or anything. But I think everybody should track their macros at least for a week or two. Just to re just have the awareness of, oh wow, I thought this was a high protein food. It's really just mostly fat, you know what I'm saying? You eat the hot dog and you're like, Oh, that's protein. Oh it's actually like, you know, 15 grams of fat and five grams of protein. And a lot of people, what they think is protein is really mostly fat or very little protein. So tracking, learning how to track for a week or two is, is critical and I recommend that to all of my patients.
(19:21): And you, you do that so that eventually you won't have to track basically. But when it comes to protein, if your goal is to really get the, if you're exercising, if you're doing resistance training, you know, let's say you're lifting weights twice a week and you're trying to add some muscle and lose fat at the same time and every single person on earth should be doing exactly that. You probably want, if you want optimal muscle building and you want optimal protein satiety for fat loss, you basically want to eat one gram per pound of protein one gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. Now that's not what you weigh now, that's not what you wanna weigh. That's, that's what you should weigh if you had perfect body composition at your height. So you go by your height, it's like, how much should I weigh if I was a model, if I was in perfect shape, You know what I mean? So like I'm five 10 and ideal body weight for a five 10 male is 160 pounds. And so I would aim for 160 grams protein day, one gram per pound of ideal body weight, not actual weight, but what you should weigh if you were flawless, basically,
(20:27): And I just wanna, I'm gonna intro interject in there for women, if you're a hundred pound, I'm sorry, if you're five feet, you should weigh average body, ideal body weight, it would be a hundred pounds. And for every inch you are over five feet, add five pounds. Now that's just an average, but I know some of you're wondering, well, how do I know what my ideal body weight is? So I wanted to give you a little quick measure that you can use. Go ahead.
(20:53): Absolutely. Yeah, that's perfect. Thank you very much. I have that in the book and that's a brilliant point. Women should weigh a hundred pounds of five feet and then five pounds for every inch. So if you're five five, you should weigh 125 pounds. That would be ideal. Perfect. weight. And that's a really good rule of thumb for how much, how many grams of protein. So five, five women would want 125 grams of protein for men, you get an extra 10 pounds. So men should weigh 110 at five feet and also the same as women, five pounds for every additional inch. Another, we care about men on this five in particular, but that yeah, that's just basically a really good rule of thumb is a hundred pounds, five feet and five pounds for every inch. And I think that not only is this amount of per protein gonna allow you to build the most muscle optimal muscle growth, but it's mostly gonna get you the highest satiety per calorie.
(21:44): So you're just automatically eating less. And our thin, And so a lot of people are like, Oh, I can't eat, you know, I'm eating 60 grams of protein now. I can't eat 120 grams of protein. And the secret is basically leaner proteins. If you eat most people, the proteins they're eating now have a, has a lot of fat in it. And so they're like, Oh, I could never eat twice that much. It could never eat twice as many eggs or twice as much red meat. Oh, well those foods have, you know, equal grams of protein in fat. If you get something that's higher in protein and lower in fat like a non-fat Greek yogurt or a skinless chicken breast or a piece of fish or some shrimp or something, that's a super lean protein egg whites, you know, way powder, it's a very easy to eat them much protein and you're just way less hungrier downstream of that.
(22:30): Okay, awesome. So now they know based on their ideal body weight, how much protein they should be getting. Let's talk about how they can, So I, I like what you say, everyone should check it for about two weeks. I think there's no better thing to study than yourself. What is it Shakespeare say to the unknown self to be true? Well, how can you be true to yourself if you don't even know yourself? And you've got to know what you're actually eating. And I think studies have shown that we are notoriously incorrect when it comes to estimating the number of calories that we eat, the different types of macronutrients, the distribution that we eat. We think we're doing so much better than we are . So a good reality check is to track it. But can you give people an idea? I've heard kind of the palm hypothesis that if you eat a piece of protein that's the size of your palm, that that should give you a certain number of grams of protein. How do you tell people to eyeball this and do it intuitive?
(23:30): Most of your meat is going to be 25 grams of protein for every a hundred grams of meat. You know what I mean? So if you ate a pound of average meat of any kind, you're gonna get 25 grams of, I'm sorry, a hundred grams of protein. So like a pound is 450 grams and about 25% of that would be protein. So like a pound of meat is a hundred grams of protein or, you know, four ounces of chicken or fish or something is gonna be, you can basically take 25% of the weight and that's your protein amount. So like four ounces is a hundred grams ish and that gives you 25 grams of protein. So like you said, like you're serving the size of your hand, it's gonna be, you know, 20, 25 grams of protein. That way you don't have to really weigh or measure anything.
(24:17): It's, I think it's fine when you're tracking to just kind of estimate because at least you're gonna get in the ballpark. None of this macro tracking is super, super accurate. So even if you're just kind of roughly estimating, you'll have a much better idea of which foods are getting you closer to your protein goal faster and which ones kind of aren't. You know what I'm saying? The, those are some good rules of thumb. Like just, you know, estimating, you know, four ounces is gonna be 20, 25 grams of most meat, but then any sort of packaged food, who knows, You have to look at the label. You people need to learn how to read labels because you, you're like, Okay, I'm gonna eat some yogurt yogurt's healthy. You just walk in the yogurt aisle, you grab your yo play and this crap has like six grams of protein and then 33 grams of carbs, 25 which are sugar, and then like 10 grams of fat.
(25:09): And it's like, what it really is is like more sugar and fat than a candy bar and the same amount of protein like Snickers bar versus yo play yogurt, very similar. Like it's just hideous. But next to it, you know one I, you know, there's a hundred yogurts and yogurt aisle, then you've got your like boy coast triple zero, which is, you know, 15 grams of protein for like no fat at all, and like six grams of carbs or something really, really good. Or there's your foer zero, which is just like pure protein. And so you really have to look at the labels and, and I talk about that in the book a lot. You're basically looking at the ratio of protein grams to carb in fat grams and you, you pretty much want, you know, the higher you can get on the protein and lower you can get on the carbon fat. And that was super important to start looking at labels, have label awareness, look at the grams of protein compared to the grams of carbs and fats. And you'll realize some of these foods are really just carbs and fats. There's almost no per in them. And I think this is a, another super important skill that everybody has to learn is just labeling Are
(26:14): There certain ratios that you like to see or certain kind of cutoff absolute numbers ratios that you tell people to look for?
(26:24): Absolutely. Right. So if you can, well, first, if you can get protein to 30% of your calories, you're pretty much gonna reverse every pre-diabetic or type two diabetic on the planet. You just basically can't overeat when your protein gets this high. If you can get your protein to 40% of your calories, you're basically guaranteed fat loss when you're eating this food. So the, this 40% protein is an amazing goal. And the way you can tell, you can just look at a label and tell if it's 40% protein or higher, you take the grams of protein, and you multiply it by 10, you just put a zero on the end and then you look at the calories and if 10 times the protein is equal to or greater than the calories in in the food, it's at least 40% protein or higher.
(27:10): So like you pick up your triple zero yogurt, right? And it's got 15 grams of protein and 150 calories and 15 times 10 is one 50. So now you've got a food that's exactly 40% protein, right? 50 grams of protein and 150 calories, that's a 40% protein food. You're, you can pretty much just eat that food and steadily lose weight all the way down to your ideal body weight. You are going, this is going to be a fat loss food for anyone. And that's a really good rule of thumb when you're looking at packaged foods and just, you want the, you know, ratio of protein to calories to be as high as possible. And when you start doing that with different packaged foods, you quickly realize that 99% of them are abject garbage and are mostly just non protein energy, just refine carbs, refined fats dumped in the food supply, creating protein and nutrition delusion. So it's just empty calorie, everybody's ever eating it and we got an obesity epidemic. So yeah, it's, it's but that's a really good rule of thumb that people should
(28:14): Check it out. I love that. Thank you so much for that. Everybody listening, we will put this in the show notes, so don't try to write it down while you're driving your car , but that's, this is super valuable information and I love some of these quotes you shared with us before we started Dr. Ted. Be 1% better every day and consistency is everything. You don't have to go home and take, throw out everything in your kitchen and start from scratch. Just start making little changes when you go to the grocery store, when you go out to eat, when you're deciding what to eat at home and try to be consistent with it. And did you personally have a health challenge or was it really all the patients that you were meeting in your practice and at the hospital who had these problems that incited you to, to dive deep into this?
(29:07): It was personal as well. I mean, like I was, I used to have just hor horrible body composition. If you look at my before and afters, you know, I've really come a long way. So it, it's , yeah, half of this research is research where I've definitely been trying to optimize my own body composition, so, which which you know, just gives me more reason to research and, and it's probably helped me get to where I'm at. But yeah, no, it definitely applies to me the same as it applies to anyone else for sure.
(29:36): Yeah, I love that. Me search and n of one is what starts mo a lot of us. And what I think is super valuable and super important to point out is that you are a physician. You had the same training I had, we didn't get this in our training, it's just not covered. And so everybody listening who's suffering with weight problems, energy problems, fatigue, moodiness, all the things you know, that women over 40 suffer with and you know, there's so much frustration because they're not getting answers at their doctors. But what Dr. Ted is talking about is super important. If you can fix your body composition, you actually help to balance your hormones, you help to balance your cortisol stress hormone, you actually help to balance your sex hormones, believe it or not, also, your insulin, which is one of the primary drivers of your hormone balance and you help your thyroid.
(30:28): So if you've been struggling with any of those hormonal imbalances or maybe the symptoms of them where you're waking up in the middle of the night or you're tired in the afternoon or your hair's falling out, or you have no sex drive, you, you guys know these symptoms cause we talk about them all the time. Body composition speaks directly to your hormone. So I wanna encourage all of you to start working with your protein and get your protein to adequate levels. Before we wrap up Dr. Ted, I'm wondering if you can explain what you meant by this quote that you shared with me before we started. That everything in life is on a u-shaped curve. What does that mean?
(31:08): I think the intermittent fasting I was talking about before is a really good example where if you, you know, intermittent fasting is, is for sure on a U-shaped curve where, you know, on one end of the U you've got like constant eating all day, you know, nonstop. And on the other end you've got eating, you know, one meal a week or something extreme, you know, and you're, you're, you're really gonna get, have problems on either side of that. And the sweet spot is somewhere in the middle where you're just optimizing the return on investment. It's like cardio, right? Like if you do no cardio ever, you're literally 12 times higher risk of Alzheimer's dementia and your all cause mortality goes through the roof and you're basically just gonna die, right? So that's one end of the U-shape group. But then if you're an ultra-marathon or, and you're doing Ironmans and you're doing, you know, more than several hours, more than two hours of high intensity cardio every day, your risk for cardiac arrhythmia goes way up.
(32:07): All cause mortality goes, you're literally gonna die a little bit younger and there's this sweet spot where you do like, you know, 15 to 45 minutes of cardio a day and you're just giving the maximum return on investment and it's right in the center. You know what I mean? It's like, it's like this curve where really bad stuff on either end and then somewhere in the middle is a really good sweet spot zone where you get the very best return on on your investment protein percents the same way. If you're way too low, you're just gonna massively over calories. But if you're too high, if you try to eat 50% protein, 60%, you're just starving out of your mind. You're constantly hungry. You can get so thin, you basically die of rabbit starvation they call it, which is what explorers got when they had nothing but like rabbits and deer and super lean, meaty you basically can't live on that.
(32:56): And so there's this, there's this really sweet spot, you know, maybe about 30% of calories from protein where your body competition's perfect and every, you feel good and everything's working great. And so all of these factors are on a u-shaped curve, like, like carbohydrate intake. If you eat absolutely no carbs ever, you have this kind of weird carbohydrate hunger where you end up overeating calories from fat. And so it's not optimal for body composition. You're also having to create all your glucose out of protein, which is not very protein sparing, and you might be not optimally building muscle because you don't have the same amount of protein. Then also if you're eating, you know, tons of carbs, you're basically not very fat adapted, so you're just having to eat a lot more often and your blood sugar is going up, down, up, down.
(33:43): But there's this kind of sweet spot, you know, where you're, you know, eating a hundred grams of carb a day, a hundred or maybe one gram per pound, and you're, you get enough carbohydrate to run all the processes in your body and spare protein for muscle building, but you're not like, so higher, so low that bad things happen. Same thing happens with fat. You know, if you, your fat's way too low, you basically, your hair falls out, you have no sex hormones and you're, you know, you feel horrible and you're basically gonna die if you don't have enough central fatty acids, but the fat percentage of your diet is too high. You just basically don't get enough satiety and you're always hungry for like a little bit of carbohydrate. So there's like, everything, all this stuff is, is on this curve and you're trying to find the middle part where you're optimal.
(34:29): And the answer is never like zero anything or a hundred percent anything. And that's why I don't like people to say, Oh, if low carb good, then zero carbs the best and super high fat is the best. And that's how we get to like these really fringy, you know, zero carb, keto carnivore, whatever things all, and we've all done it. Like, I was like, you know, I've tried, I've done all this stuff. I was zero carb, I was keto, I was carnivore, I was plant ba, I was vegan, I've done it all. And we, we tended drift to the extremes on the ends. And that's never really the answer. It's always somewhere in the middle. And you have to find that kind of sweet spot where you get the, the maximum benefit for the minimum effort and where you kind of all the dials line up. And I, I think you, I've heard you talk about like, you know, the 12 o'clock in the center, right? The range is where you wanna be and everything's like that. You don't want to be super high or super low.
(35:25): Yes. Okay. I think that is an excellent summary. You want moderation, and I think you can only achieve that for yourself if you study yourself and you know yourself. So I'm a big fan of using tools to understand what your personal body likes and what it doesn't like. Using a continuous glucose monitor, tracking your food for a while, trying different exercise activities, you know, maybe hit weight training, Pilates, yoga, whatever, swimming and seeing what works best for your body. But I love what you're saying. It's, it's in the middle. Don't be extreme and you're so right. I think whatever it is that we, whatever our exercise religion is, whatever our diet religion is, we do tend to be excessive and extreme about it. So let's all come back to the middle. Let's eat more protein and let's get more balance. Thank you so much Dr. Ted for coming on the show today and sharing this super important information with everyone. Tell everyone where they can find out more, where they can get your book and all, all the things
(36:32): Go. Thanks. Well, I'm my primary care doctor here in Seattle and my, my practice is full, my practice is closed. I don't really work with anyone directly, but I've written all this stuff down in a book called the PE Diet, and you can find that@thepediet.com or ted naman.com or just anywhere online where books are sold, like Amazon or what Kindle or any of those places. I'm also on the socials at Ted Naman on Twitter and Instagram and stuff like
(36:58): That. All right. We will have all these links also for you in the show notes, so you don't need to try to write them down. And we'll have a link to his website and to the book. Thank you so much for joining us today to thanks for having me, and thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. I want to ask you to take action on the information you've heard today. Just be 1% better and strive for consistency and that moderation Dr. Ted's talking about. Pick one of the things that we've mentioned and just start doing it. How could you get more protein in your diet? Start reading labels, start doing the calculation that Dr. Ted shared with you. It is super simple. It will literally take you seconds and the more protein you have, the fewer calories you're going to eat, the better body composition you're gonna have, the better hormone balance you're gonna have, and the better you're going to feel and function, jump on social media and tell me what you've decided to do and the results that you're getting. I can't wait to hear it. I will see you next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.
(38:07): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Have you ever wondered how to get your hormones in balance? If you're a woman in her midlife, you're probably already feeling the effects of hormone changes. But don't despair! Dr. Sonya Jensen is here to tell us all about how we can use self-love to achieve ultimate hormone balance.
In this episode, Dr. Jensen shares her insights on how the way we feel about ourselves affects our hormones. She also provides practical tips on how we can start loving ourselves more, in order to achieve better hormone balance. If you're struggling with hormonal issues, this is the episode for you!
About Dr. Sonya Jensen:
Dr. Sonya Jensen is a Naturopathic Physician with a mission to change the way women understand their bodies and themselves. She believes that women are the center of their families and communities, and by supporting them, we are creating a ripple effect that will support the whole.
Dr. Jensen is a mother of two boys, an author, yoga teacher, podcaster, workshop and retreat leader, as well as the co-founder of Divine Elements Health Center, The Longevity Lab, and The Health Ignited Academy, alongside with her husband, Dr. Nicholas Jensen. Her background in cell biology and lived experience with Ayurvedic Medicine in her home has given her insight into the human body that helps her serve the women and families she works with from multiple different lenses.
Dr. Jensen believe it is everyone’s birthright to live a happy, healthy, joyful, and abundant life, and she's honoured to help her community move from a state of simply surviving to genuinely thrive.
In this episode, you'll learn:
-How our feelings about ourselves affect our hormones
-Why self-love is essential for hormone balance
-Practical tips for how to start loving yourself more
-How hormones are related to the nervous system
So tune in, and learn how to get your hormones in balance with self-love!
If you liked this episode, please subscribe to the Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review! We appreciate your support!
(00:00): The relationship you have with yourself is the most important one in your life. Your hormones tell your story, the imprints, the traumas, and the victories.
(00:10): So the big question is how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones and our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an o g Yn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue, now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:04): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. Thank you so much for joining me today. You are gonna love my guest today. As much as I love her after you listen to our interview. She is a soulful physician who is passionate about helping women with their health and their hormones and to live more empowered and embodied lives. Sound familiar? I believe in all the same things. And we have a lot of similar interests in training. So I'll tell you a little bit about her, and then we'll get started, and we'll talk in the interview about the quotes that I shared with you at the beginning from her about your relationship with yourself being the most important one in your life and how your hormones tell your story. If you're not sure about what that means, stay tuned and we'll dive into it.
(01:53): So Dr. Sonia Jensen is a naturopathic position in Canada and she's on a mission to change the way women understand their bodies and themselves. She believes that women are the center of their families and communities, and by supporting them we're creating a ripple effect that will support the whole. She is the mom of two boys. She's an author, yoga teacher, podcaster workshop and retreat leader, and she's the co-founder of Divine Elements Health Center, the Longevity Lab, and the Health Ignited Academy with her husband, Dr. Nicholas Johnson. She has a background in cell biology and her lived experience with Irv medicine in her home has given her insight into the human body that helps her to serve the women and families she works with from multiple different lenses. She believes it's everyone's birthright to live a happy, healthy, joyful, and abundant life. I believe the same, and she's honored to help our community move from a state of simply surviving to genuinely thriving. Welcome Dr. Sonya Jensen.
(02:54): Thank you so much for having me. Such an honor and I'm very excited about our conversation.
(02:59): Me too. We have so many joys and loves in common and you really approach women's health from such a deep spiritual place, which I do too. I wanna dive into that, but I wanna start with how you came to have this perspective because not all physicians who work with women and work with women in their hormones work with women in their health. Really it's very, a very mechanical approach in the mainstream. And so how did you come to have this deeper appreciation for what's going on with women's health?
(03:38): Yeah, thank you. It's a great question and I think for me, just from the beginning, I've just had a very curious mind about humans in general and how we operate and why we make the choices we make. And just observing, you know, myself and my culture and understanding the stresses and traumas that I went through growing up and how that impacted my health really didn't become clear to me until I was actually in naturopathic school and in training. And the beauty of naturopathic school is they do really teach us to look at health from a different lens, like very holistic, but it still doesn't hit that spiritual, that emotional piece that's actually impacting our health and our everyday relationships to others, to ourselves and our hormones. So as I started working with women and started to see their stories unfold in front of me initially, you know, you have your training so you're doing all your differential in your mind and trying to figure out, okay, what's the best next step?
(04:37): I'm already like 10 steps ahead even as they're telling me their story. And it really wasn't until I feel like I became pregnant with my first son and I really paused and started to recognize changes in my body and started to be just so present in myself that that forced me to be present with the women that were in front of me. And what that did, it actually created a trajectory of healing for me. And I went down this healing path of becoming a yoga teacher, understanding how my trauma started impacting me and my hormones in my youth from having cervical dysplasia to P C O S, to all these things and thinking, oh, there were just physical manifestations. But realizing that physical manifestation came from something deeper. And as I started to pause and listen to women's stories and connecting the dots for them, I started to really understand like, this is such important work that we're not uncovering enough as physicians or even as women. We're not even aware that we can ask these questions and understand that how intimately connected all of this is. So really, I have to say it was, it's my patience that have given me this opportunity to learn more.
(05:48): Yes. I love, you know, how the journey becomes the teaching and the lesson, the patience teach us. And it's, that's part of my story too, but it took me a month a lot longer than it sounds like it took you, you know, I've heard it say that you can learn through pain or you can learn through pleasure and unfortunately in the past I've gone the pain route and after I as a mainstream physician, my health was tanked. Many people listening know that story so I won't repeat it. And then I really had a more mechanistic approach. Well I gotta do salivary cortisol and the Dutch test to look at my hormones and balance and do all the things. And then I achieved a great deal more health and vitality. But then came the next lesson, which really gets to the things you're talking about. And I love this quote that you shared with me before we started, the relationship you have with yourself is the most important one in your life. And I don't think I got that, that that was a real relationship and important to address in terms of my health. And I think that most of the women I work with, when I say that, they kind of look at me like I'm a little crazy. What are you talking about ? Can you explain what that means?
(07:05): Yeah, I think our relationship, or I feel that our relationship dictates everything cuz that self-talk that we women especially have, as soon as we wake up, we look at ourselves in the mirror, and instantly we have criticism instantly we have a to-do list instantly. We're already thinking about what others might think or what we need to do to meet others' expectations, whether it's our partner or our children and even ourselves from the conditioning that we've received through observing the women when we were growing up, or the conditioning that was just passed down from generation to generation. And so all of that sets us up to have these sets of beliefs about who we are and how we're supposed to present ourselves. And in that I think we lose this ability to understand who we actually are, who we were meant to be in this lifetime, in this body.
(07:57): And instead we're just playing these roles that we're given and wearing these masks that we have to put on in order to just navigate our days. And it really, I feel, isn't until we understand that we're doing that, that we have these roles that we're playing, these masks that we're wearing, that we can start unleashing some of those. And then through that we start to understand, okay, what's actually important to me? How do I define success? What does health actually look like? What do I want to dream into my life? What's my self worth? All of those things will dictate our actions and will dictate how we even are relating to our partners or to ourselves. And I think that in itself will then imprint itself into ourselves and our bodies. And then the body starts to speak, right? Like the more women deal with autoimmune disorders and cancers than men do. And so when you start to unravel some of those stories of like, why is our self fighting ourself? Why are these cancer cells producing themselves and creating these whole new communities? Like what about us is so disconnected that we've forgotten our true essence cuz we've learned to really shun that voice or not listen to it cuz there's so much noise in our environment. Mm-hmm
(09:10): . So I hear some people thinking right now that Sonya, what does, what I think and the roles I play and the mask I wear have to do with my physical health. Like what does it have to do with autoimmune disease and cancer? They don't get that connection. Can you help them understand that?
(09:30): Yeah. If we can just go to the simplicity of how our nervous system works, right? We have a sympathetic nervous system, the parasympathetic branch and the sympathetic is our fight or flight, it's our, you know, the one that we rely on for protection to run away from that dangerous situation that we might be in and in our perceived mind when we're triggered by something, this could be a smell, this could be a conversation, this could be a look that a partner gives us. And all of a sudden we're taken back to a moment when we're young and maybe we were scolded for doing something or maybe we had a big T trauma, these micro things that may have happened. Wake up your brain, this amygdala, your emotional center, and then tell the brain, Okay, I need, I need, I need to understand what's happening here.
(10:14): And then the hippocampus comes in, which is your memory center. They start talking to one another. They fuel your hypothalamus, which then tells your pituitary gland to give the reaction that your physiology needs in order for you to survive this moment. And when we're doing that on a repeated basis, again, this could be making lunches for our kids, taking, dropping them off to school and then to soccer and then to this. And we're in this race, but the body's like, wow, she's in danger all the time. So I have to give her this cortisol, I have to give her this adrenaline in order for her to make it through her day. And so we create this pattern in our physiology, which then tells our sex hormones like progesterone and estrogen and testosterone to take a backseat. Cuz it's not about creating life or healing or resting, it's about surviving right now.
(11:01): So well said. And I, I think that, I was talking with a group of women yesterday. I met at a yoga retreat and I met this group of women and of course the topic with women always comes back to hormones. Cuz if you, yes, you can't meet a woman who doesn't have a hormone problem, it, it just doesn't exist. And I was explaining to them, you know, that the hormones originate in your central nervous system, they're part of your nervous system and most people don't get that. And you also shared this quote with me that I love hormones tell a woman's story, the imprints, the traumas and the victories. So can you talk about how hormones are related to the nervous system, that whole system you just talked about? I think you touched on it, but I really wanna make sure everybody listening gets it. Mm-hmm a clear picture and how their biography has become their biology. Like Carolyn mes.
(11:55): Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. No that's beautiful. And you know, if we understand our hormones are responding to our environment. So that's our internal environment, that's our external environment, that's our emotional environment, chemical, physical, all of it. They're basically messengers that are communicating a message that they're receiving and then relaying it to another cell. So if we think about it in terms of stress, everybody understands stress. When we're under stress, immediately the brain's thinking, okay, what can I do to support her? And the thing that it can do to support us, the hypothesis will tell the pituitary gland to then talk to our adrenals to secrete cortisol. And cortisol, Again, it's a necessary component of our system, it's part of our circadian rhythm, it's necessary for energy, it's necessary as an anti-inflammatory at some points. But when we're overusing it, when we're overutilizing it, our progesterone, which is one of our sex hormones that actually regulates our cycle, it's anti-anxiety.
(12:52): It's, it's the one if you feel like you know you need a warm hug, progesterone gives you that warm hug , but pro turn, right? But progesterone turns into cortisol. So if we're continuously turning our progesterone into cortisol, so you know that's going to change the relationship between progesterone and one of our other main hormones called estrogen. And estrogen I feel like is kind of the, it's the warrior hormone. It's what gives us energy. It's, it's good for our skin, it's good for our mucus me, it's good for so many things. And it changes their relationship, which then creates, you know, this dominance that happens with this estrogen over progesterone. So now what does that look like for an everyday woman that might look like heavy periods that might look like PMs or mood changes the week before your period. That might look like hot flashes and night sweats during your transition to perimenopause and menopause. So these everyday things that we're feeling, even anxiety and depression can be a result of this action that stress has on our nervous system. So it's our job to define what is stress, what is causing these triggers. Emotional, mental, chemical and physical.
(14:05): Yes. So well said. And I know some women are thinking, well I hear about stress management is important for my hormone balance. I know I'm supposed to meditate, I can't shut my mind off. So they don't, I'm not really gonna do it. I hear people talk, they hear me talking about probably you talking about , you need to live your life differently. Take the mask off, really develop this internal relationship with yourself and they have no concept. Yeah. About how do I do this? They go to their regular doctor who basically doesn't speak that language. How do you help people bridge the chasm that is, that exists between mainstream medicine right now and people like you and me?
(14:50): Yeah, I think helping women bridge that gap in a sense that just what we're doing, just this conversation, right? Teaching, teaching women that this is science based, right? It's our nervous system, it's our physiology, it's all of that. But it's so impacted by our life and our choices and all the things that are going on in our every day. And so in my book I created a quiz and it speaks to the triangle of disconnect because I feel like every disease process, everything that we suffer from is because of disconnection. And so what it did is defined three archetypes. So once the diva, the other ones the duchess, and then the other one is the damsel. So when you do this test or quiz, you kind of understand, okay, how do I actually operate cuz we don't even know sometimes because it's so autopilot, we don't know which archetype we are operating in in that moment.
(15:45): So the Duchess, just to describe it a little bit, she's like the CEO of our family or even of our business. Like she's got her schedule, she's getting up at 5:00 AM am doing her workout, getting the kids ready, like she's super organized. She's really got everything covered on the outside because she's in that race all the time and not really able to sit in her feminine energy at all or have any softness towards herself. She's usually suffering with like insomnia or digestive issues or of course hormone issues which stem from that. And then you have the damsel, which is like the community builder. I mean she's the one that everybody goes to. She's the one that brings people together. She will put herself last and everybody else ahead of her and she's usually the one that's not using her voice to communicate what's going on.
(16:32): So now we see thyroid issues because she's not communicating and there's usually some sort of cyst growing within her. Or these women usually have some sort of cancer because they just haven't been able to express what they need. The diva is the tricky one cuz she's the one that's been playing the roles and wearing the mask even tighter than the others. Cuz she may look like everything is okay on the outside. But her inner world is very chaotic. She probably went through a trauma that didn't, that created this inability for her to feel safe in her body. So when we start to understand, but she has gifts too. I mean she's the life of the party, right? She's the one that glows and is radiant. And so I find when we can identify where we sit and we might be all of them in some moments, we can use the gifts of these roles in mass and we can then understand if I play into this cuz it's not my essence, I may create this cascade of hormone changes because my nervous system is going to be impact and my brain's going to think I'm in danger.
(17:37): I'm not relaxed in my body, so my hormones can't do their job well, therefore I have symptoms. So I think teaching women that it's not normal to have horrible PMs and migraines before your period. It's not normal to have really dry vaginal area and really bad hot flashes when you're transitioning. We've normalized all of this. And so I think when we understand that it's not, we can then reverse engineer like, okay, where did this stem from? And you know, the western medicine can't deny that because it's science based. It's, it's your physiology.
(18:15): Yes. I love that. The diva, the damsel and the duchess. So everybody think about what roles you are playing and which, which do you identify with. And I love that you highlighted the, things which aren't normal. I recently did a TED talk and I had this refrain, Could menopause be the cause? Because I see so many women, and maybe you do too. I'd love for you to share your experience. They, like I said, you get a group of women and they're all talking about, Oh I get migraine headaches. Oh I never had an orgasm. I don't care if I ever have sex again. Oh my hair is falling out. Oh I have dry eye. Oh I've got irritable belt. Like all these things. And sometimes they recognize that they, these problems are hormonally based, but more often they're running from doctor to doctor specialist to specialist neurologists for their migraines, gastroenterologists for their irritable bowel. Never realizing that hormones play a role. So I really want everybody listening to hear what we're saying. And I love that you highlighted like, PMs is not normal, disman or a pain on your period is not normal. But we have normalized it, it's common in our culture, but it's not normal. So how do you speak to women about ho the, the vast array of problems that hormones can cause.
(19:38): Yes. So before we even get into, there's something that you said there was really important just like a group of women together and what we're talking about, right? And this might be like a cultural thing. I think there's a like a bigger thing going on here where we, we tend to want to talk about our problems to connect and what can happen sometimes in a healing journey for a woman. She gets so identified with her symptoms because it gives her reason to take care of herself. It gives her reason to connect with her neighbor or her girlfriends that without it sometimes it's hard to move through life because now it's become part of our identity. So I think the first thing for us women to do is like, okay, what are the things that we're actually celebrating with each other? Or does misery like companies so much that we want to talk about our problems?
(20:26): And I think there should be a safe place for us to be able to communicate all that's going on. And I think we also have to question like how much of of that am I keeping in my life? Because that is what gets me connection or that is what gives me permission to tell my husband or my partner that hey, I need to go get a massage today. I need to go do this because I have this thing going on. So I think reframing what self-care and self-worth and all those things are. So a part of that, I just wanted to touch on that before stepping into the the hormone piece. Cause I think it's, it's just a reframe that I think all of us women kind of need for ourselves.
(21:01): Absolutely. Thank you for doing that.
(21:03): Yeah. And then when it comes to, so how do we like educate women that everything is connected to hormones? Well, when we think about, I'm just gonna bring up stress again cuz that's just so common. Like I'm under stress, I've got a deadline, I've got insomnia, I've got all these things going on. These hormones are the ones that are taking the message from your brain that your brain has received this message from the outside world and your internal world and now has to tell your organs to secrete these hormones. To bring that message to the next piece in order for the body to function the way it needs to go without hormones. So for example, when you're eating food hormones are at play, your glucose and your insulin. Insulin is a hormone. And we don't realize that, you know, as we're aging and stepping into menopause and all of a sudden we have some weight in around our belly, and we're eating the same that we did maybe 10 years ago and not being able to digest like we did before.
(21:56): Cuz insulin is shifting. If insulin is high, your testosterone is low. And for women we need testosterone. It's for our motivation, it's for libido, it's for lean muscle mass. So now the everyday things that we do all connect back to hormones, what we eat, the pesticides that are sprayed on our fruits and vegetables look like estrogen, which is a hormone. The products that we're using on our skins have hormone disruptors which change our hormones. Everything in our environment, in our thoughts and beliefs in our physiology is impacted by hormones or, or is impacting the hormones.
(22:36): It's so true. And I talk with women every day, they say, but kirin, I don't know how to do it differently. My life is my life. I've got two kids. Um, I've got a partner, I have certain responsibilities at home. I have a job, you know, I've got an an ill elderly parent, I have to care for, I have my commute. That's not gonna change. I have all these things in my life. My life is set up this way. How in the world do I even start to tease it all apart and do it differently? Yeah. So where do you start? Where do you tell them to start? Yeah.
(23:13): Yeah. One moment at a time. I mean the first thing is recognizing stress is always going to be there. Life is the, this is life. But how we respond to it can be a choice. So bringing in daily habits, habit stacking I find is helpful. So everyone's brushing their teeth in the morning. So while you're brushing your teeth, maybe you have a mantra written on your mirror that you're repeating in your mind when you're brushing your teeth. So there now you've just given yourself some me time to connect with something a little bit bigger than you. Maybe you have a non-negotiable every day. So I actually get women to make a joy list. So you have your joy list. What are the things that give me joy? And it can be something so simple for me it's a cup of tea. So then I make sure every day I'm having a little bit of time to myself with that cup of tea.
(24:00): So now that's bringing calm into your nervous system. So it's retraining that pattern that is go, go, go. But instead it's reteaching the mind that hey, no, she is pausing, she is stopping. So now maybe in between the trigger and the response, there'll be some space and time for her to not react with that anxiety and that rush that shows up in her world. So starting with these simple things, maybe it's not taking something away from your diet, maybe it's adding something good, maybe it's adding like a greens powder, maybe it's adding some more healthy fats. Maybe it's adding something so that you feel like you've done something that day for yourself and that in itself feels like a victory. So then you desire it more. So you start with one thing, then the next thing and the next thing. Even with detoxifying our environment that impacts our hormones, I always say start with one room.
(24:52): Maybe we start with the bathroom and we look at the products for using. But you do it in stages, so it doesn't feel overwhelming, and it feels like this lifestyle shift that you can do. I've got two boys, two businesses, you know there are so many things that we all do. And I think the moment we realize we are worth it because we have this one vehicle and this lifetime to have the experiences that we want to dream the life that we want. So our job, it is our duty to take care of this vehicle.
(25:21): Yeah. I love this other quote you shared with me. By creating a morning routine, you are not only priming your body and mind for the day, but giving your soul a gift of nourishment and love. Mm-hmm , I love that. And I find if I start my morning right with the right routine, the rest of the day becomes so much easier. But if you're some reason I get thrown off of that routine then the rest of the day can be quite challenging. Mm-hmm , you mentioned something else in there. You said that you could get some space between trigger and response and I know what you're talking about, but I don't know that everybody does. So can you explain that?
(26:06): Yes. So when we have a conversation with somebody, we're watching something and all of a sudden we start to feel this like inner emotion coming up. Maybe it's rage, maybe it's anxiety, maybe it's something else kind of fueling our brain to react. Maybe the reaction is sadness, maybe the reaction is irritation in that moment in between there, in between that input we have like a millisecond to decide are we going to react to this or are we going to observe our own reaction and then respond to it. So there's a famous quote by Dr. Victor Frankel. He um, wrote the book, Man Search for Meaning. And there's another book called The Choice by Dr. Edith Edgar. And they're both Holocaust survivors. So he speaks to freedom and how freedom actually lies in that space between a stimulus and our response to that. Cause we've all been through it, someone says something and we react and we realize after like, oh you know, that's not how I wanted to show up but because I felt the way I did, I showed up that way.
(27:13): Maybe we, you know, maybe it's with our kids, we get irritated because it's a week before our period or you know, the, we haven't slept well and we're reacting to life instead of actually responding. So I find when you give ourselves space in the morning or whenever it is for you, it practices that we get to practice that so that in our everyday moments when there's a trigger that shows up instead of reacting right away, we can take a breath and we can pause and then we can choose how we're going to react. Cuz I do feel like that's true freedom cuz we're not now, we're not reacting because something else is taking over. It's not controlling us, but instead we're in the driver's seat of our life when we do that.
(27:54): Right. Thank you for explaining that. And that was certainly something I had to learn on my healing journey cuz when you're triggered, that's your sympathetic nervous system. Mm-hmm going into overdrive. And so really learning how to put a pause in there and do it differently. And a lot of us who had big T traumas or little T traumas are nervous systems are primed to go into that sympathetic drive like very quickly. So learning to just get into that observer mind and not have that knee-jerk reaction I know has been key for me. Is it, is it something that you help women to develop a practice around and how, how do you help them do that?
(28:38): Mm-hmm . Yeah. And I think what you said something before that was really important. You know, women try to meditate and all of a sudden they're like, I can't meditate too many things on my mind. I think there's a myth that meditation, you're supposed to feel complete bliss, but really, as you probably know, meditation helps you unravel the story. So it's not always bliss. And I think that looks differently for everyone. So that joyless is the first thing that I get women to make. Cuz maybe your meditation is going for a walk in nature or maybe it's dancing or maybe it is putting on a good show on Netflix because it's bringing you laughter and joy just for that moment. Mm-hmm . So I think finding what brings you joy first helps to create just space for you to do something for yourself. And then me bring in this element of like, okay, I'm gonna give you a three minute, one to three minute breath that you can just practice.
(29:28): So you're just placing your hands on your body and you're just breathing and that's easy, we can all breathe. Right? So once we start that and then they kind of get to the next level like, oh yeah, that was easy. I could do them. Okay, now that you've done one to three minutes, why don't we try five minutes or 10 minutes or why don't we break it up, do it in the morning and do it in the evening. So we start creating these little habits and then educating the women on, you know, all the choices we're making throughout the day are going to fuel those hormones. So when you choose something, when you're about to choose a food or what you're going to watch or conversation that you're gonna have, ask yourself a question, Is this going to nourish me? And if the answer is no, maybe we make a different choice. If the answer is no and we still do it, then maybe no later without any shame or judgment we ask ourselves, Huh, I wonder what that was about. So I find the more we question, the easier it becomes to remove judgment, to remove shame, but to really just observe who we are. And I find that's key to falling in love with yourself again, cuz that morning is that time to fall in love with yourself, which is so important.
(30:34): So I love that you just said that because it's really tossed around love yourself. You have to love yourself first. All this, but talk about what does that mean, self love? I think that people could use more clarity on that.
(30:49): Yes. Yeah. It's triggering. It's like, well how do you do that? What does that even mean? And for me, and I'll speak to just from my experience and the women that I've worked with, it's when I'm making choices that fuel me instead of deplete me. So when I'm making a choice to eat food that I know are going to energize myself, I'm loving myself. If I choose to go somewhere out of obligation, I mean I come from a really big Indian family, we have weddings every week and there's all this stuff going on all the time. And if I'm going because I have to, I'm not loving myself At that moment, it's an obligation. But if I'm going out of joy and wanting to connect with my family, then I'm loving myself. So I think it's in our daily choices and that shows us that we are worthy, that it's our birthright to be in joy and we can fall in love with ourselves and love ourselves and it's through those choices.
(31:43): Yeah. I always say that self-love is a verb, it's not a feeling. Mm-hmm . And it's the act, it's the love that you give yourself when you set boundaries internally with yourself, when you set boundaries externally and when you take those actions, exactly like you said, that move you towards health. And that gets to another quote that you shared with me before we started. True health is the result of choosing habits that help you enhance your life rather than help you escape it. Yes. And so many of us, this was true of me too. My life was just crazy chaos. And so in order to escape it, I was basically medicating with food and wine and coffee and TV and all the things that we all use to escape it. I didn't realize that's what I was doing. And so how do you help women kind of wake up to really pay attention to what they're doing and make different choices?
(32:44): Yeah, so that, I actually observed when I was sitting in Spain one day. Yeah. And I was just watching people and I was watching these elders and they're like, you know, arm in arm dressed up on a Sunday afternoon making out on the bench, you know, just like in their like true bliss. And then you see them going and having their taps and their, and their wine and things. And I'm like, hey, this culture that eats at like 10:00 PM or midnight drinks all day, . And why are they living longer? What is the secret here? And again, it I, I went back to 'em like it's connection. We're all searching to go back home. We're all searching for that connection. So when we're escaping, like what, why don't we feel safe in the moment that we're in? So I will always seed these questions for women and then if we look at the habits that we have, okay, are we choosing coffee to wind up wind to wind down and feeling like we deserve that wine at the end of the day?
(33:39): Cuz we've made it through the day, right? And we all have our things questioning, Okay, what if I didn't have that wine? Would I still feel deserving of rest? Would I feel deserve of a walk around the block? What is that giving me? And often women by themselves, I don't even have to say anything they know, they already know, right? No, it's not serving me. It actually gives me insomnia. I can't sleep well then my digestion's off the next day and now I have no energy. And it's this vicious cycle. So once we start changing that relationship with that thing that we think is helping us, then all of a sudden we can shift that relationship. And then later on maybe we bring it in once in a while and it's more about a having it for joy rather than depending on it to escape.
(34:20): Yeah, I know that's true in my life. I used to have the wine to wind down and then when I got on this path, I said, Well that's not healthy. It's hurting my gut. It's unbalancing my blood sugar. It's causing all kinds of problems. So I started doing yin yoga in the evenings to wind down and I, I couldn't believe that, you know, an hour of yin yoga would restore me to feel better than a glass of wine. So that replaced. And then the coffee in the morning, I stopped that and I started going for real vigorous hit training in the morning. And that got me the energy that I needed and just replacing habits one by one and really making conscious choices. So instead of trying to escape my life, and I also wanna give a little hope to any woman out there who is, as I described earlier, but ki I've got, you know, all these responsibilities, this is my life, I can't do it any differently.
(35:16): I used to think the same thing and people would say to me, Well you should just stop delivering babies, right? Just do gynecology. No I can't. Women depend on me. You know? And I couldn't see how I could do it differently. And I worked with this one life coach back then, and she had me, she said, Just, I want you to write every day my life is and how it feels. Peaceful, joyful, free, all. And I thought she was crazy. But I just kept writing it. I kept writing it. And you know, fast forward a decade, my life looks completely different. And it is all those things that I wrote about. And so I think if you really focus on your intention and what is the feeling you want to cultivate in your life organically, these things start to change and you start making more empowered choices. Yeah. What do you think?
(36:07): Yeah, yeah. I mean it's like that example, all of a sudden you think about buying a red car and then you're seeing red cars everywhere. Whereas before you thought there's no red cars around, of course I'm gonna get a red car. And it's the same thing with this like self care and manifesting the kind of life that you want. And it's, as soon as you focus on it, it's like what Tony Robbins says, What you focus on grows. So as soon as you start focusing on all of a sudden these opportunities show up, conversations, podcasts that you're listening to, things start to come into your life that give you the signal or this like nudge towards that direction that you're trying to move towards. But are we listening to them is the other question. So we can we pause enough to kind of see what they're trying to speak to us and are we listening to that inner voice too that's trying to tell us the same thing?
(36:51): And I think when you do something repeatedly, I mean yoga get training, they teach this too. Like when you're doing a meditation for 40 days, 66 days, 90 days, like there's an actual change that's happening in the patterning of your nervous system. So we're changing that relationship you were speaking to, you know, doing that hit work out in the morning, that's giving you that real dopamine rise for a longer period. So you're feeling that joy in your brain instead of this like a quick dopamine that we get from, you know, put into cart and then go on on Amazon or somewhere else that we might be escaping life from. And so I think, yeah, what you said is key that we really, we are all busy, we have these full lives and that won't change, but how we respond to it, we can change.
(37:42): Yes. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom with us today, Dr. Soya. I'd love for you to tell everyone about your book, your podcast. We won't have a link in the show notes to Dr. Sonia's website. Dr You Jensen, j e n s e n.com. She has a free download there she's gonna tell you about. So tell everybody about all the places they can find you and all the wonderful things you've created for them.
(38:10): Thank you. So you can find me on Instagram as well, Dr. Sonya Jensen there and the website and my book, Woman Unleashed, it's Revive or Release Your Story, Revive Your Hormones, Reclaim Your Freedom. And it was, it's a lot of me that's in there, my story and also my patient stories and how we just linked everything in this conversation too. So it's, it's kind of a self-discovery book that you can utilize and every chapter has a pause moment that allows you moments to reflect or to understand yourself better. And if you go to the website, put your email in, you will get the first three chapters, which has the quiz in those first three chapters. So you can figure out if you're a diva, a duchess, or a dance. Yeah,
(38:53): . I am gonna go take that. I wanna know which one I am. I have suspicion, but . Awesome. Well, thank you so much for sharing this wonderful wisdom with everyone. I so appreciate it. And for everybody listening, thank you for tuning in and spending this time with us today. We're really grateful that you've taken time to nurture yourself by getting some information and inspiration. And I'd love for you to take action and share with us on social media what you did. Don't just let this be information and inspiration, but actually take action. That's how change happens, right, Sonya?
(39:32): Absolutely. Thank you so much and thank you for all the work that you're doing and for this platform too. You're changing so many lives and it's, I just love seeing women empowering other women. Thank you.
(39:43): Thank you. And thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. Look forward to seeing you next week. And until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
(39:56): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and some subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you find yourself struggling to lose weight, despite diet and exercise?
It might be time to look into leptin resistance.
On this episode of The Hormone Prescription, Dr. Bindiya Gandhi joins us to discuss this little-known hormone and how it could be the key to unlocking midlife weight loss. Dr. Gandhi shares her expert insights on leptin resistance, how it develops, and what you can do to overcome it. If you're looking for answers to your weight loss struggles, this is the episode for you!
Dr. Bindiya Gandhi is double board certified physician in Family Medicine and Integrative and Holistic Medicine. She is Atlanta’s Weight Loss doctor and by helping you uncover and tame leptin resistance can turn even the most unsuccessful dieter into a success. She is a media expert and has been featured in The Daily Mail, MindbodyGreen, PopSugar, Clean Plated, Well + Good and more.
She completed her family medicine training from Georgia Regents University/Medical College of Georgia June 2014. She completed her undergraduate training at the University of Georgia with Bachelors of Science in Biology and Psychology in 2004 and her Doctor of Medicine at American University of Antigua College of Medicine in 2010. She completed an Integrative medicine fellowship at the University of Arizona with Dr. Andrew Weil in 2016. She also completed Functional Medicine Training with the Institute of Functional Medicine in 2017.
Her interests include integrative, holistic and functional medicine, women's health, preventative medicine, international medicine and health care reform. Shes also a certified yoga instructor and reiki master. She used to practice emergency medicine as well. Dr. Bindiya is a media expert and contributor to numerous sites including The Daily Mail, MindbodyGreen, PopSugar, Clean Plated, Well + Good and more! When she's not working or writing you can find her in the kitchen cooking, doing yoga or enjoying time with her family & 3 girls
In this episode, you'll learn:
-What leptin resistance is and how it affects weight loss
-How to tell if you're leptin resistant
-Tips for overcoming leptin resistance
-And more!
So tune in and learn how you can finally start losing weight, even if you've been struggling for years.
(00:00): Dr. Bindiya says, If you never try, you will never know and don't underestimate your worth. What does this mean when it comes to your health at midlife? Stay tuned and find out.
(00:14):So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates our rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:07): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today, we're gonna have fun talking about an aspect of weight loss resistance that you might not have heard of and that has to do with leptin. Don't worry if you don't know what it is. We're gonna dive into it, me and Dr. Binda and let you know so you'll have a full understanding and you'll get some ideas and knowledge and support and inspiration. And after all, that's what we're here for. So she will give you a big dose of that. I'll tell you a little bit about her and we will get started. You're gonna love her because she's not only knowledgeable, she is board certified in family medicine as well as integrative and holistic medicine. She studied with Andrew while who is amazing if you know anything about him.
(02:01): And she completed functional medicine training with the Institute of Functional Medicine in 2017. She's also a media expert and she's been featured in the Daily Mail, Mind Body, green Pop, Sugar, Clean Plated, Well and good and many others. Mostly she's Atlanta's a weight loss doctor, but she works with people remotely all over the country and by she can help you uncover and team and resistance and she can turn even the most unsuccessful dietary into a successful one. And she's here to tell you how and how the missing ingredient is leptin. Welcome, Dr. Binda Gandhi, thank you so much for having me today. Super excited to talk to you about leptin resistance. It's something that we really haven't talked, I don't think at all about on the podcast, and it's super important for women at midlife who are trying to lose weight. So I'm excited to dive into this topic. You know, for me, everything's about hormones and this is one that I have neglected to discuss. So I know a lot of people who are regular listeners are like, Yay, Dr. Karen, finally time, you're talking about leptin resistance. So let's get into it. But I wanna start by having you share with everyone how you honed in on leptin as being the biggest block for women at midlife to lose weight.
(03:21): Oh, you know, such a great question. You know, first of all, leptin is a hormone that is fairly a newer hormone, right? Not many people talk about it. You know, you can go to your endocrinologist and they're not even gonna wanna test this hormone. So just a little background about leptin, you know, it's a hormone that is actually produced by your fat cells and it's important because it communicates with your brain. It's basically our satiety hormone. And this hormone basically tells us if we're full or not. And this hormone is actually impacted by so many other hormones that you probably talk about already, like your thyroid, your estrogen, your progesterone, your insulin. So it's very important to kind of understand what's going on with this homo hormone individually, but how it's also being impacted by the other hormones. So this is why I love talking about it, and I really got into this because when I first started helping patients, a lot of people would come to me because they were struggling to get pregnant and they were having fertility issues. And I started noticing a link between leptin and fertility and then started doing some research and realized, hold up. There's more to the leptin story than just how it impacts fertility. It's also impacting not just our weight, it's impacting so many different aspects of our bodies. And this is why I'm so glad we're talking about this today cuz it's such an important hormone and people need to know about it.
(04:46): It is, and thank you for backing up because some people are like, Le left, what? We've never heard of it. And so we really should start with what is leptin? So thank you for explaining that. It's your satiety hormone and how does it interact with other hormones. So I talk all the time, we talk on the podcast, the Hormone Prescription podcast about what I call the six main metabolic driving hormones, which include your three sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, your thyroid, your cortisol, your insulin, your D H E A. And then there's leftin. And we probably should touch on Grillin too. Yes. Because some people we do touch on melatonin sometimes, but not as being one of the key drivers. But lein is the satiety hormone. Thank you for explaining that. And where does it come from in the body where, how does your body make it? How is it used? How does it work?
(05:41): Mm-Hmm. . Great, great question. So it's produced by our fat cells, right? Essentially. And it communicates with our brain and it basically tells us if we're full or not, right after a meal, we should be getting a message from our brain saying, You've eaten enough, you're full, you don't need to eat anymore. That's essentially what's happening with leptin, right? So it tells us when we're full, where it's sister hormone, I'm gonna bring up grillin is the hunger hormone. This is what stimulates your appetite. And it kind of lets you know if you are hungry, right? So leptin on the other hand, tells you if you're full, grin tells you if you're hungry. Now they work in opposite directions and they work together, but also differently at the same time. Right? When we're hungry, grin is high and we're not satisfied. So lectin is low and the opposite happens when we're full and we're we're satisfied.
(06:35): Grin actually ends up being low and leptin is high. So they work, you know, kind of against each other. Not in a bad way, but like with each other, but like their opposites. So it's really important because Gorlin is actually produced by the stomach of the GI tract, and leptin is produced in the hypothalamus, which is part of the brain. So that's just kind of a little bit about the two hormones and how they work. But it's essential to kind of understand background of it because then you can understand how it works with the other hormones. Kind of like the ones you mentioned, thyroid stress hormones, your cortisol hormones, insulin. So it really does impact so many other things. Leptin is actually metabolized in the liver, right? That's, we know this is where our sex hormones are, are metabolized, right? This is where insulin is metabolized. So this is where our t3, three T3 is metabolized, right? So it's really kind of important how it works with the other hormones and where
(07:34): Great point. So let's dive into that. I know there's some people who are thinking, well, let me see. She said when you're full, your, your leptin goes up. So can I just take some leptin and feel like I'm full all the time? But I gotta ask you that first, cuz I know I'm calling it out. I know my people and I know some people are thinking that right now. So if you can address that, and then let's dive into after that, what are all the things that leap an impact?
(08:01): Yeah, so let's talk, I mean, there are some tips and tricks we can do to kind of keep your body feeling full, right? Like we can definitely talk about, which I'm sure people have mentioned before, have heard before, like for example, drinking water before you eat your dinner or your lunch kind of like starts keeping you full and feeling a little bit more satiated. Eating a lot more fiber, keeps you a lot more satiated, right? So your body feels full there. So there's things that will do that. There is no medication on the market that will keep you full. There are medications on the market that decrease your appetite and there are medications on the market that can improve your leptin and we can talk about that a little bit later. However, there is no prescription FDA anything approved on the market that will directly impact your leptin to make you full earlier, if that makes sense.
(08:50): ? Yeah. Okay. All right. So now that we've got that out of the way, you mentioned about leftin being metabolized in the liver and some of the other hormones that are handled by the liver, a lot of them mm-hmm. . So how does Leftin interact with these other hormones in your body in general?
(09:07): Yeah, so we'll start off with thyroid, cuz I feel like so many women at all ages of life have a thyroid issue, right? Whether it's Hashimotos, just hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, whether it's overactive, underactive, unfortunately it is, it is a common problem. So when I look at the thyroid and when I'm, what I'm specifically looking at is I'm actually looking at t3, reverse t3, free t3, total t3, because that gives me a different picture. All right? So I'm gonna get a little technical. So guys, bear with me. Okay? When we talk about our thyroid metabolism, and I'm talking about, I'm looking at your t3 s your T3 free T3 s are impacted by many things. One is stress, okay? Chronic stress, like the pandemic or whatever chronic life changes are happening, right? So chronic stress. And the other thing that is impacting your T3 metabolism is a lot of times if we've been on restrictive diets, okay?
(10:09): So the link between leptin and our T3 metabolism happens When we've been on these restrictive diets for long term, most people, Dr. Karen, have been dieting, especially females have been dieting since their teens, whether they realize it or not. And unfortunately, our culture is all about yo-yo dieting, right? Many of us have tried, including myself, we've all been guilty of different diets to see what works for us, right? So we've been, we've tried slim fast, we've tried the special K diet, and I'm speaking for myself. I've, I'm pretty sure we've tried everything in the book. Right now it's keto, paleo, this, that, like, I don't even know the names of what's been out there, Low fat phase, whatever, right? So because about yoyo dieting, that has messed up our thyroid metabolism. And that's also one of the reasons why we have become leptin resistant, okay?
(11:01): Because of the dysregulation in our metabolism and the dysregulation of our body. So when our body thinks we are starving, when our body thinks that when we have cut calories, essentially, you know, we're trying to do that because the old adage was you have to, you have to starve yourself and you have to over exercise, and that's the only way you're going to lose weight. Well, now we know that's inaccurate, right? Because when we were doing all of those diets and those things, what we were essentially doing is messing up our communication with our brain and our bodies and our, and our fat cells. And this is why we would lose weight initially in the first week. And then we would hit a weight loss stall because the leptin communication started getting dysregulated and disrupting. And that's why we, we couldn't lose weight anymore. That's why diets work short term and then we're like starving and we're like, Oh my God, I need to eat everything in the book. Right? That's a little bit of what's happening right now, The what's happening. Okay,
(12:00): Got
(12:00): It. Because of all the long term havoc on our metabolism, and because we've been kind of, and this diet craze for many, many years, our thyroid metabolism has also changed. And this is why thyroid impacts lectin.
(12:14): Okay? Yeah. Very close relationship there. And I'm wondering, you mentioned leptin resistance. Can you tell everybody what that is? And then the next question they're gonna wanna know is, how do I know if I have that? So let's talk about what is leptin resistance?
(12:28): Yeah, love, love, love this question. So leptin resistance is basically when there's that miscommunication happening between your fat cells and your brain, this is probably the reason why your body is not getting the memo or your brain is not getting the memo that you're full. So maybe you're overeating, right? Or maybe eating a larger portions, like you just can't control your appetite kind of thing, right? The other thing that's happening is when you're eating, you don't feel full and an hour later you're wanting to eat again. You're like, Oh, I'm hungry. I need to, I need something else to eat. Or you're constantly snacking. There's definitely some telltale signs, and this is why, guys, I have you take my free, you know, 11 question quiz. It's at dr binda md.com/quiz. You just answer these questions and it'll kind of, it'll kind of help you identify, are you potentially left in resistance?
(13:19): Are you left in sensitive or left and clear, right? Because it's kind of important to understand, do you have some of these symptoms? Majority of us probably have some of these symptoms. We're craving the sugars and the carbs all the time. We have high triglycerides, we have maybe elevated blood pressure or whatever it is. And some of that stuff is all correlated and connected to leptin resistance. So go ahead, take the quiz, let me know. But that's the first thing. The other thing I would say is working closely with ideally a functional medicine provider, like I mentioned, your primary care doctor unfortunately, is not going to know what to do with this information or even be able to help you with this. A functional medicine practitioner is probably able to kind of guide you and say, Yes, I'm happy to check this number and I'm, I know how I can help you with this.
(14:01): Even an endocrinologist, like I mentioned earlier, who manages hormones, they don't, number one, check this lectin level. And number two, if they check it, they're not gonna really help you or give you the right protocol either. And I, I wish they would, but again, this just, this is a newer hormone and, and not much known is known about it. So if like when I, with my patients, I automatically do a blood test and I'm testing their leptin number. If your leptin blood level is above 11, then I can definitively say, You know what? Your definitely in resistance. If it's below three, you're lept in, you're on the other end of the spectrum. So, and if you're between the perfect number is actually between seven and 10. That's ideally where we'd like every patient to be. Now not everybody's going to reach those perfect numbers, and that's okay. It's, it's everybody's fine. But what I like to do is track this number. So a lot of patients will come to me and they've got leptin numbers in their fifties. I've got patients that have leptin numbers in their hundreds. So our job is to kind of bring that number down to as close as possible to 11. And that's how we do things.
(15:09): Okay? So blood test for leptin, and thank you for giving some idea about ranges so people can know. And then definitely check out the quiz. We'll have the link in the show notes. So if you're driving, please don't try to write that down. Just wait till you get parked and you can click the link in the show notes. All right. So I do wanna touch back on other things that leptin interacts bit and interacts with. But while we're on the topic, say somebody does have a lectin of 50 and they come to you, what is your general approach to start improving their lectin sensitivity?
(15:47): As you know, as a functional medicine practitioner, my job is to kind of understand and to get to the root cause, right? So we can start identifying what is going on. I can, I can look at it and say, Yep, leftin is off, but the next question is, what else is off? You know, I'm also looking at all the other hormones and I'm trying to see how they're interacting with wettin. I'm also analyzing what their hemoglobin a1c, their fasting insulin is to kind of see do they have some insulin resistance as well? Do they have some inflammation? Because once I can identify some of these things, then I can hone in on a specific protocol to bring this number significantly down. So it is a very, it is a very holistic 360, you know, lifestyle, diet supplement approach. I mean, it's, it's, it's very comprehensive to, to what we're doing, right?
(16:35): Sometimes we're, I, I would definitely wanna bring this up and, and sorry if I'm going all over the place, but sometimes people think that, you know, they need to be intermittent fasting and they, they think they need to be starving themselves and that actually can make their left and number worse, right? I often, I often see this when people are like, Oh, I decided to intermittent fast and then I see their leftin number go from like 20 to 26. So there's different things that, that start happening, but we definitely want to pay attention to their other hormones and then putting them on a program and protocol that's specific to them. And so sometimes that means, I'm telling you, you're actually going to eat more food. And people are like, What? What will you have to do? What? And I'm like, Yeah, you know, all this time that you've been intermittent fasting, it's actually slowed down your metabolism and has been one of the reasons why there's a miscommunication with your body because your body thinks you're starving. So it's holding onto extra weight and calories that you give it, right? So we, we start kind of like refeeding a little bit.
(17:31): Yes, I love that we have to eat more, not less to lose weight and to boost our metabolism. And I love that you mentioned intermittent fasting and leptin, because intermittent fasting is all the rage right now. And I see so many women who are intermittent fasting and initially they, they do lose weight, but then they hit a plateau, like you described, like with most diet and , intermittent fasting is a great tool to use for specific purposes at specific times for specific people. It is a tool. Hammer is not always the right tool all the time for everyone. And I think that everyone thinks that intermittent fasting is the greatest activity for everyone. So I want everyone to hear what Dr. Bindi is saying, cuz you've heard me say this. It's not just me, but she's saying that it can affect lectin resistance. So what are some reasons why, and how does intermittent fasting impact lectin? And what are some other negative impacts that intermittent fasting can have?
(18:35): Oh yeah. Okay. I'm so glad you brought this out because it really is something that I, I think we need to again, educate a little bit more about. So again, like you said, there are some people that do really, really well with intermittent fasting, different phases of your life. You know, intermittent fasting unfortunately can impact your hormones. So in a good way, in a bad way, right? And yes, there's so many great benefits of it, but for example, if you're cycling, if you're a woman who's currently cycling and you are trying to have a baby or that kind of thing, intermittent fasting can actually be one of the reasons why you are having trouble getting pregnant, right? The reason is, when it comes to intermittent fasting, there's different, first of all, there's different types of intermittent fasting, right? There's the fasting mimicking diet and there's all these different protocols, right?
(19:21): 24 hour fast, 36 hour fast. Like, and these things can be very extreme for the body. When we're intermittent fasting. Short term, you'll definitely see results. But when it starts being long term and now you're doing 16, eight fast every single day and you are not taking breaks, you're, you don't have the metabolic flexibility that's going on, what ends up happening is your body thinks you're starving, right? When your body thinks you're starving is not sure when it's gonna get fed again, it's like, whoa, what's happening? When am I gonna get food again? Oh, not until tomorrow at 2:00 PM okay, I'm going to hold onto every single calorie. I'm gonna hold onto everything. So the thing that the tool that was working for you before, the hammer that was now helping you, you know, put that nail in place is not, what ends up happening is the body starts holding onto the fat and holding onto every calorie.
(20:11): So now you become even sensitive to every time you eat and you feel like, Oh, I feel like I'm gaining weight or I feel like I'm doing the same thing, but I I weigh the same, Like I should be lose continuing to lose weight. No, cuz you're, you're, you've essentially just changed your metabolism and I've actually slowed it down. And that's what that, that's essentially what's happening here. The other thing that that really helps with that's happening with intermittent fasting is you're causing yourself to have not only a slow down metabolism, you're causing yourself to have other hormonal imbalances and your body's just getting confused, right? Your T3 and your free T3 start getting affected and your thyroid starts kind of slowing down. So, so many different things are happening at the same time and not always a good thing.
(20:56): Yeah. And it affects your cortisol stress hormone. Most people don't realize that,
(21:00): Oh yeah, I forgot about that. Yes. Oh my goodness. Yeah. And this is why I always say, you know, it is a hormetic stressor, but more importantly to Dr. Karen is when you're in a stressful situation, like if you are taking care of elderly parents or you're taking care of young kids, or you just started a new business, or you just got fired from your job, whatever it is, whatever life stresses you're going through divorce, that's not the right time to start intermittent fasting because your body's already in a stressed state. Now, add on intermittent fasting, you're asking for cortisol and adrenal disruption.
(21:33): All right? So we had to get that out of the way. And what other interactions do you think it's important for people to know about when it comes to leptin in their body? What other organ systems, hormones does it interact with?
(21:49): So we kind of touched upon it already. Mm-Hmm. , thyroid for short adrenals are the other ones, right? So it impacts your adrenal hormones. And again when you're in a very stressed state, the body thinks that, you know, exercise, let's talk about exercise. Exercise can, can be considered or etic state, but it can also be a very stressful state if you're doing high intensity exercise all the time, right? So if you're doing some of those things all the time, this is gonna impact your adrenal hormones and then impacts, which then impacts your leptin levels, right? So that's, that's another hormone that it impacts. And the other thing is that we need to pay attention to is, is just making sure that we've got really good stress management skills under our belt. You know, I tell people all this all the time. We live in a very stressful state.
(22:36): You know, we can't live in a bubble. I wish we could all somehow be Buddhist monks and just be like zend out all the time. It just doesn't happen with our lifestyles, right? Especially as females, because we take care of so many people and often we forget to take care of ourselves, right? And all that stress really impacts all our, our hormones, our adrenals, our cortisols, everything. And so understanding some of these basic things and having the right tools in place can really start not only helping those numbers and those levels get better, but in comprehension it, it'll also start decreasing your leptin resistance as well.
(23:14): Yes. This is so important. You mentioned self care in there. So I have to say I'm at a yoga retreat in Massachusetts this month and working and attending the retreat and there's so much support for your self care here and just classes and education and experiential experiences and you know, I think that I know about self-care and then I come to a place like this and they take it to a whole other level. And it really is just highlighting for me, India, how much we lack self care, even in my daily life where I think I'm doing a good job and I come to a place like this. And I notice that in some of the yoga classes that are restorative or again, slower gentle yoga classes, I'm so impatient. My brain is constantly going, Oh my gosh, they're going so slow, I'm going to lose my mind. , . And it really is highlighting for me that even though I think I'm slowing down and taking time and doing the thing, really I'm just doing it at home. So I could check it off the list and I wanna share this. Yes. Because I know there are people listening who are doing this and they think they're doing self care and like me, they're probably not really doing self care. .
(24:39): No, you're absolutely right. And a lot of it is you nailed it is, you know, we have dual checklists and we're like, Oh, the doctor told me to do self-care, so I'm going to get a massage and oh, I check that off. That doesn't count guys. , it doesn't count. It doesn't count,
(24:58): Right? And so I think foundationally every episode of the podcast, I'm just gonna be harping on everyone or just giving an invitation to really explore what is self care? What is adequate self care for you? So I want to invite everybody listening to really start leaning into that question. And you will get answers when you lean into the questions. Dr. Binda shared a few quotes that she loved with me before we started the episode, and I wanna weave some of them through this episode because they're wonderful. The first is don't underestimate your worth, which you are worthy of having the best that love and life have to offer. And that starts with your self care. And another quote is, if you never try, you will never know. And so I wanna ask everybody to close your eyes if you're not driving or operating heavy machinery, and just take a few deep breaths in and out and ask yourself about something that you've considered or are considering embarking on and you're nervous about, Should I, shouldn't I?
(26:12): Or you hear me talking about leaning into this question about self care and you're thinking, Oh Karen, I don't have time for that, But you're worth it, number one. And if you tried to lean into this question, what benefits could you reap? I mean, I've really regained a connection with myself that I, I hadn't even realized I was missing by being at this retreat. So I don't wanna proselytize too much. I just wanna give an invitation. What if you, you tried and you found out that something could be the real needle mover. What if you hear Dr. Bindi talking about lectin resistance and you're like, Oh, I think I'll reach out and take her quiz and get tested and find out if that's my problem. And I'm wondering if you could share Bindi, because you just have a newborn who's 16 weeks old, you already have two other children, you have a full time medical practice. What are key components of your self care practices that really help you stay healthy?
(27:14): You know what, I started this routine actually when I was in medical school and I, you know, I tried to be as consistent as I can with it. Obviously sometimes having kids, you can't do all the things you used to be able to do. But every morning, Dr. Karen, I start off by meditating. And so at this point I've been doing it for almost, I don't know, 15, almost close to 20 years. And it is what gets me going in the morning. It's how I start my day and it is very, very important for me. So I started off doing five minutes a day and I started off like with not really knowing what I was doing. And I would listen to YouTube videos at the time. And now I, I've progressed, I personally like guided meditations cuz it helps me keep focused sometimes, kind of like you, I I have the monkey mind and so if I try to meditate by myself, my brain will kind of get into, Oh, these are the things you need to do today.
(28:09): You know what I mean? And if I have some sort of audio in the background, it helps me stay focused. So that is one thing that I think is, that's my thing. That's what I do. That's what that, when I do that in the morning, I am grounded and I feel like I can handle it. And especially since I have two toddlers, my mornings can quickly go in any, any direction. So I need to be able to keep my cool and stay grounded. And I will tell you the days I do not meditate, like because I wake up late or because because my baby, you know, I, I don't get enough sleep and I'm like rushing or whatever. My temper is definitely shortened the days I don't meditate.
(28:48): Yes, I notice when I don't meditate, my day is more challenging, I will say. Yeah. Yep. And I invite anybody who hasn't tried it, who's just been suspect. There's so much research backing how meditation improves your health. You're including your hormones starting with your yes. So I encourage it. And I'm wondering before we wrap up, if you could share a story of a patient who might come to mind. I know of all the thousands of patients I've treated over the years, there's some that really stand out as being the poster children for certain hormonal imbalances. And I'm wondering if you have someone who really had been struggling, maybe searching for answers and she came to you and wow, it all ended up being about lectin that you could share with everyone.
(29:36): I treat both males and females in our practice and one patient really sticks out to me. She actually was 64 female, 64 years old and was actually diabetic at the time. Came to see me, it was I think last November, October, November, and just struggling. She had been to the con through the conventional route, struggling with her weight, struggling with everything. She was kind of frustrated by the system, had tried diets on herself in the past, nothing worked. Or if it worked kind of like many, many people, they wouldn't stick. She'd lose 15 pounds, then only gained 20 pounds back, right? So it was that yoyo effect. So I started working with her about November of last year and I put her on a very extensive protocol, you know, adjusting her diet and things started moving in the right direction. We started decreasing inflammation. We started seeing, now she's no longer on, she was actually on Metformin and Genuvia at the time, which her diabetic medications now she's not even on any diabetic medications at all.
(30:39): So her A1C went from a 6.8 to now 5.7. So she's still kind of in that pre-diabetic phase, but she's not requiring medication, which is much like, that's an improvement. So, you know, we definitely adjusted a lot of things with her. Her biggest thing that I wanna kinda shed light upon that really made a big difference. Dr. Karen was actually helping her with stress management. So she was 64 years old and was having issues with about being about to retire, having a little stress without with that. And then her daughter ended up having a baby. So she was kind of like feeling a little overwhelmed because she was helping her daughter with the newborn. So there's all these different stressors in her life going on at the same time. But once we were able to hone in and kind of help her with her mindset and help her kind of find the right type of lifestyle modifications and diet that was perfect for her. The weight started coming off, inflammation started decreasing. Insulin resistance obviously has improved significantly and she's feeling much better. The other thing I will add that we did do for her, which I think really helps balance her a lot too, is we did start her on some hormone replacement therapy. And again, that was something that she was kind of afraid to do before and that also kind of helped stabilize her.
(31:59): Awesome. Well it sounds like she embraced this other quote that you shared with me today can always be the first step to something great by reaching out to you and doing something different and really digging deep to find the root causes. So I'm super glad she did because everybody listening may or may not know how severe a hemoglobin A1C of 6.8 is. I mean, that's pretty drastic. And getting it down to 5.7 doesn't happen in most diabetics. They just are put on medications and told, you're gonna be on this forever and you're gonna be at risk for kidney failure, liver failure, heart attack, dementia. Exactly. Amputation, all these things. And I had a professor when I went through my fellowship who used to say that, that that was basically the mainstream prescription. You know, congratulations, you have diabetes, you get a team jersey, you'll have it forever.
(32:52): You'll be on these medications and here's what you'll have to look forward to. And that's not the case. Mm-Hmm. . So whether you're diabetic or not, today can always be the first step to something. Great. And thank you Dr. Bindi, for sharing this wonderful information. Focusing on left in, we're gonna have the, the link to the quiz, which you've told everyone about in the show notes, while also have a link to your free download fives to improve your weight loss resistance. Yes. And any last word you wanna share with everybody about lectin and weight loss and metabolism.
(33:27): You know, one thing I will say is, guys, an anybody listening today, one thing that I really wanna encourage is many of you have probably listening and you're like, You know what, I'm gonna try doing this on my own. I think I have this, I'm gonna do this on my own. And I promise work closely with a good integrative and functional medicine provider, doctor, because I promise when you work with someone who is able to learn about you and can personalize it, you're gonna get the best result. And so stop trying to do things on your own. .
(33:57): I mean, you know, I love that you said that. It's so true cuz people will hear this and be like, searching on the internet, Where can I get a leptin blood test checked? And I mean, people, I see people do this all the time and then they get the information and then now what? Now what? I never get the results that they could have. Yeah. And you know, I, I have this one coach and he always tells me he's a business coach. He says, Kirin, do you know the difference between wealthy people and not wealthy people? And I say, No, what? And he says, Wealthy people understand that time is their most valuable asset, not money. And so they are willing to invest to gain more time and get the fast route. Yeah. And get the best help. And not wealthy people think they can do everything themselves, but yes, who has that time kind of time, right?
(34:45): Yeah. So important guys, if you're listening today and you're suspecting that you have a leptin issue, by all means reach out to me, you know, have a virtual practice. I'm happy to help out. But even if it's not me, you know, just work with someone because essentially you cannot do these things on your own. A lot of you guys have tried for so long and there's a reason why you've unfortunately failed. So just trust and find the right practitioner, and I promise you will get the best results of your life.
(35:12): Those are very wise words. Thank you so much for joining me today, Dr. Bindiya.
(35:18): Thank you so much, Dr. Karen. This was a pleasure and
(35:21): Thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you have learned something today that you can put into action to improve your health. I want this to be informative, hopefully a little bit entertaining. But if you don't take action, nothing changes. And today really can always be the first step to something great like Dr. Bindi said. So what steps will you take? Please reach out to me on social media, on Facebook and Instagram and let me know and let me know about the results that you are getting. Thanks so much for joining me. I will see you next week for our next episode of the Hormone Prescription. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
(36:05): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Are you a leptin-resistant? Find out in Dr. Bindiya's Quiz. CLICK HERE.
► 5 Ways To Improve Your Weight Loss Resistance Free Download - CLICK HERE.
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Have you been feeling run down, exhausted, and just plain sick and tired? If so, you're not alone. Millions of women struggle with autoimmune diseases, and the numbers are only rising. But there is hope!
In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcomes Margaret Floyd Barry to share her journey with autoimmune disease and how she was able to reverse it using the power of food and nutrition. She also provides listeners with practical tips and strategies that they can use to start feeling better right away.
Margaret Floyd Barry is a writer and real food advocate whos been in the pursuit of the most nutritious and delicious way of eating for the better part of her adult life.
Having seen family members suffer the devastating effects of chronic illness from a young age, Margaret has long had the desire to help others find a better way back to optimal health and well-being. Through years of experience working with the most complex client cases, including reversing her own autoimmune condition, Margaret has established a powerful system for restoring health by addressing the root cause of illness.
Today, Margaret teaches fellow practitioners the same proven system she uses to get her clients life-changing results through Restorative Wellness Solutions - a two-year comprehensive functional nutrition certification program for qualified health professionals. With hundreds of alumni around the world, Margaret and the Restorative Wellness Solutions team are actively working to change the way health is delivered. Margaret also runs Eat Naked Kitchen, a thriving private practice that supports clients throughout North America and Europe, and is the author of Eat Naked: Unprocessed, Unpolluted and Undressed Eating for a Healthier, Sexier You and The Naked Foods Cookbook.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- What autoimmune disease is and how it affects the body
- The role that food plays in reversing autoimmune disease
- Which foods to eat (and avoid) to heal your gut and reduce inflammation
- How to create a personalized healing plan that works for you
If you're ready to start feeling your best, tune in now!
(00:00): It was Maya Angelou who said, Do the best you can until you know better then when you know better, do better. And Oprah famously quoted her as saying, When you know better, do better. You're gonna know some things after this podcast and then you can do better. Stay tuned to learn more.
(00:19): So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself Again. As an ob gyn, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:12): Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. We have a lovely guest you're gonna love. I know I say that about all my guests because I love them all. Literally they're just amazing people who are passionate and brilliant, and Margaret is no exception and she does so much work to help women. She has a powerful story as to why she's so passionate about autoimmune disease and the nutritional component and reversing it. So you'll definitely wanna hear that she is going to give you a perspective that you probably haven't had yet and we, we really get into some detailed things. So I definitely encourage you to be in a place where you can take notes cuz you're gonna wanna do that. She we're, she's gonna share with you why we are essentially complicated donuts.
(02:11): I know right now you're going what? But she's gonna talk to you about that if you've been wondering, well, do I really have to be gluten free and do I need to do it 100%. She's gonna uncover that for you and unpack that. So she's gonna answer a lot of questions that you've got about your health. She's brilliant. She also trains practitioners. She's gonna talk to you about that. She's got some super fun gifts for you. So let me tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. Margaret Floyd Barry is a writer and real food advocate who's been on the pursuit of the most nutritious and delicious way of eating for the better part of her adult life. Having seen family members suffer the devastating effects of chronic illness from a young age, Margaret has long had the desire to help others find a better way back to optimal health and wellbeing.
(03:03): Through years of experience working with the most complex quiet cases, including reversing her own autoimmune condition, How would you like to do that? Margaret has established a powerful system for restoring health by addressing the root cause of illness. Today Margaret teaches fellow practitioners the same proven system she uses to get her clients life changing results through restorative wellness solutions. Two year comprehensive functional nutrition certification program for qualified health professionals with hundreds of alumni around the world. Margaret and the Restorative Wellness Solutions team are actively working to change the way health is delivered. Margaret also runs Eat Naked Kitchen, a thriving private practice that supports clients throughout North America and Europe. And she's the author of Eat Naked Unprocessed Ed, and Unjust Eating For a Healthier Sexier You and The Naked Foods Cookbook. Welcome Margaret to the show.
(04:02): Thank you so much. It's great to be here.
(04:05): I'm really excited to have you. For everybody listening, Margaret did an amazing masterclass for some of my women in my virtual program in our nutrition module because she's a nutritional genius and a, a genius in the kitchen. That was fabulous and I wanted to share her with all of you. So she agreed to come onto the podcast and talk about something that she's really passionate about and that is how nutrition and gut health intersect with autoimmune disease. So we're gonna dive into that. But first can you tell everyone, Margaret, as a functional nutritionist, why are you so passionate about autoimmune disease?
(04:52): I had a front row seat, unfortunately to what really doesn't work when it comes to supporting people with autoimmune disease. My mom had very severe both rheumatoid arthritis and lupus that she was diagnosed with when I was in my teens. And she went the full on Western medical model. And in some ways she was a medical miracle. You know, like she, you know, the things that they were able to do to manipulate her immune system were profound. And yet the quality of life that she lived was, it was brutal. I mean, it was one step forward, five steps back, two steps forward, three steps back. I mean, just this slow, excruciating process of degradation. And the side effects from the drugs that were keeping her immune system under control were devastating. I mean, I remember one time she got a hangout and that hangout turned into a a three month hospital stay because it turned into an infection that, you know, her immune system was so suppressed by these drugs.
(06:05): That infection went all the way up her arm and then they couldn't get it under control with antibiotics. And I mean, it was just this huge thing. And that's just one example, but I think a profound one that, you know, something as simple as a hangout was so devastating to her. So that was the, the way that she had to live where, you know, things that none of us even think twice about could be devastating and throw her into the hospital for months. And ultimately she ended up losing her life to side effects from the drugs that were at the same time trying to keep her alive. So it was, you know, at the time I wasn't, I started studying nutrition part way through her journey and very much inspired by her journey. And then I, I just knew there had to be a better way and was really determined that, you know, not on my watch.
(06:55): Like I I, I myself actually was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease when I was pregnant with my second daughter. I was, I was diagnosed with Hashimotos and there is no way that I'm gonna let my two girls watch me slowly degrade and slowly die, essentially the way I watch my mom. And so there's, it's a very personal mission for me, not only for my own health and my own family, but for my clients and equipping other health practitioners with the tools to reverse that autoimmune process. Because here's the thing, there is so much we can do to turn around the autoimmune process through fairly simple tools and you know, we're talking about diet and we're talking about digestion and this, that might not be the whole story, but it's a huge part of the story. So I have been very, very passionate about this and made this a personal mission for years.
(07:51): Wow. That's an incredible story. And I know some people listening can relate, maybe they've have an autoimmune disease or they've had family members and watch them go through it. The immune suppressant drugs that people are put on for autoimmune disease. Cause that's essentially what is done really can wreck havoc when you get something like a hang meal and get an infection. And I love that this became a passion for you to really help people understand. I mean, it's not common in mainstream medicine that you see people heal from or resolve autoimmune diseases or go into complete remission, but in my world, in your world, we see it every day.
(08:37): Exactly.
(08:38): And so I love that you're teaching about this. What made you hone in on diet and nutrition and gut health.
(08:47): If we think back, and I just, I wanna take a little step back to just, I know that you've talked at length about autoimmune process on your podcast before, but I just wanna make sure that we're all on the same page at just the fundamentals of what's happening. Yes. Cause it really sets the stage for why the diet and why digestion are so important. So if we think about our immune system, it is this incredibly powerful system that has basically two jobs. It's jobs are to protect us from foreign invaders like viruses and parasites and bacterial infections. And the other job is internal housekeeping. And as part of these two jobs, it has an incredibly important mechanism of differentiation. So it's able to differentiate between self and other. And then it's also able to differentiate between friend and foe. And in an autoimmune situation, what has happened is that mechanism of differentiation has gone awry.
(09:46): And there's a lot of different reasons why it does that. But the, but what's happened is now the immune system is confusing enemy other for friendly self that it should be protecting and it's attacking self. And as we know, the definition of the disease is based on either the system, the body system, or the tissue that the immune system is attacking. The question is, well let's say from a medical model, it's okay, the immune system is attacking self, Let's slow down the attack, let's shut down the immune system and let's reduce the inflammation. And these are things to help get the individual feeling better. And I'm not gonna say there's not a role for those things. There's, there's certainly a time and a place for both of those things, but that's not actually addressing the most important question, which is why is the immune system making such a bad judgment call basically?
(10:38): And at its core, and this isn't oversimplification, but I think it's a really helpful analogy. If you think about any of us, when we get overtired and we're just taxed all day long, not getting enough sleep, just not never getting an opportunity to rest and recover, we start to make bad decisions, right? , I don't know about you. I will say I make bad decisions and I see that around me. You know, and so the immune system is very similar in that if it's constantly being taxed, it's constantly being engaged, it starts to make bad decisions. And again, there's different mechanisms for this, but fundamentally this is what's going on. So the question is, what is taxing and engaging that immune system such that it is not allowed to rest and cover such making these poor decisions? And this the you know, there, there are lots of different answers to that question, but a huge piece of this puzzle is both the diet and the digestive process because the vast majority of our immune system lives in and around the gut, right?
(11:46): Let's say it's approximately 80% of the immune system meal who has, some people say, 75 I've heard has high 85, let's just agree on, you know, roughly 80%, the vast majority of the immune system lives in and around the gut. What that means is that if we are eating foods that are triggering inflammation, then that is impacting the immune system directly. If there is any dysfunction in the digestion that is impacting immune system directly. And here's what I will tell you is that even if you don't have overtly sort of expressive immune or digestive, excuse me, symptoms, so you're not symptomatic from a digestive perspective, that doesn't mean that your digestion is working properly. You know, I do a lot of testing with my clients and I've had clients with very severe forms of autoimmune where they're very symptomatic and lots of other things. But you know, I remember one client saying to me, Oh, I could, I could digest pebbles, like I could eat rocks. My digestion is so robust. And I thought, okay, well we'll see. And we did some testing and found some pretty significant imbalances that when we addressed those imbalances, they were silent from a symptom perspective, but it was addressing those imbalances that allowed her immune system to recover and the autoimmune to go into remission. So it's a huge and really, really critical piece of the
(13:14): Puzzle. Wow. So much good to what you said, you know, a tired immune system can't differentiate itself from other and makes bad decisions. , I think we can all relate to that, right? With, you know, just all the, we're inundated with information and tasks to do in our daily life and who among us doesn't have decision fatigue and who among us doesn't start becoming overreactive to their environment and not differentiating . Well, really what are the big problems in the small problem? So I, I think that what you're describing with autoimmunity and the gut and immune system, really everybody listening can relate to because it's what we're dealing with in everyday life. And I did wanna highlight what you said about the immune system, 80% around the gut. And I, I don't think most people get that. So I always like to say, right, most people think that their biggest interface with the external environment is their skin, but it's not, it's really your gut. And that's why you're, what I call military is centered around your gut because you're taking environment and putting it inside you
(14:26): . Yes. I mean, this is such a profound moment that we don't recognize as such and we just sort of eat mindlessly and don't think about the actual miracle that is happening. I mean, when we eat, what is happening is the outside world is literally becoming us. We are in essence walking food, right? And people don't realize that. And the interface, you know Yes, exactly. The gut is still the outside of the body. We think of it because it lives on the inside that that, but that, that's the external world. I mean, we we're basically a very complicated donut, right? And the donut hold being our digestive process, you know, and it's this big long tube things go in and then, you know, waste matter comes out. But, and in the process, of course there's all sorts of chemical processes to break down the food into its, you know, nutrient components essentially.
(15:18): And then, you know, in our small intestine we are harvesting those nutrients. They're, they're crossing that incredibly thin lining. I mean, the lining of the small intestine is one cell thick that is so tiny and it's, you know, it's got this, you know, we talk about them as the, the dis the tight junction. So these cells are lined up. I love your analogy of, of the, you know, the soldiers and the, and you know, I describe that as, as your gut soldiers and gut army all the time. You know, think about the lining of the gut made up of these cells that are standing together are sort of side by side really, really tightly and very selectively. These cells will sort of open up those tight junctions and allow nutrients to pass through directly into the bloodstream. That is the moment where the outside world is becoming us.
(16:03): And you know, along those tight junctions, there's all sorts of, let's describe them as soldiers, you know, regulating what goes into the body actually gets, goes directly into the blood and what gets pooped out essentially. So anything interrupting that process is gonna have really significant impact because if the, the lining of the, I mean the entire digestive tract, yes, but let's talk about that moment where the outside world becomes us, which largely happens in the small intestines. Then if there's anything compromising that, and we have irritation, a little bit of a tear, we have what's called leaky gut where those, those tight junctions open up or there's abrasion and inflammation that's getting, that's allowing all sorts of things to get directly into the bloodstream that shouldn't be there. It could be, you could have eaten like the most beautifully digested or grown, organically grown, locally grown , perfectly prepared piece of broccoli for lunch.
(17:00): If that piece of broccoli is not broken down properly and gets into the bloodstream and an improper phase of digestion, your bot your immune system, which is, which is basically patrolling the blood and and patrolling that lining of the intestine to see what's going in, what's coming out there. It doesn't recognize it as broccoli or as the key nutrients that you would get from broccoli. It recognizes it as as garbage or an invader that needs to be addressed mm-hmm. and needs to be gotten rid of. So you're increasing a burden on that housekeeping system and on the inflammatory process which, and it's also of course letting in toxins, letting in pathogens, letting in all sorts of things that were bound. I mean this, some of this stuff is destined for the toilet bowl and now it's getting directly into your bloodstream. That is a huge stress on the immune system.
(17:47): Right. All right, let's, I just wanna step back for a second and then we're gonna dive into more dietary culprits where you're talking about even that great organic, you know, locally farmed broccoli can be a problem. Well first off I wanna say I want a t-shirt that says I am a complicated donut . But then back to being serious, I'm at a yoga retreat and I've been here several times over the past 30 plus years, but I heard something differently this time I've been here. And that is that they actually call your physical body your food body. Oh wow. I've never heard
(18:31): That before. Your food body, body,
(18:33): Your food body. So they don't say physical body in and you know, there's so many ancient yoga, yoga traditions. I also took a course on history of yoga and it is super complicated. So it's no wonder your snippets from one, snippets from another and everybody's confused, but they call it your food body. So move your food body onto the mat .
(18:57): Wow, I've never heard that before. I love it.
(19:00): Right. And so I, that really highlighted for me, we always hear you are what you eat. Yeah, yeah, yeah. We've heard that since we were kids. But calling it your food body, I challenge everyone listening, start calling your body, your food body. You'll make different food choices because you, it literally is everything. When you look in the mirror, what you are seeing is broccoli, the gluten free mac and cheese I had for lunch. The basal tomato pizza not pizza soup that I had. Right? So that's what you're seeing. But let's dive into dietary culprits cuz that's really one of the first steps. People are like, should I eat gluten? Should I not eat gluten? Should I eat dairy? Should I eat? So what's up with the food we're eating and autoimmunity?
(19:46): I wanna start with gluten cuz you started it, you opened the door and that's,
(19:49): I started
(19:50): . That's an important one. And if you do nothing else, if you, if you're wanting to prevent autoimmune from developing, if you have already received an autoimmune diagnosis, if you have not made any dietary changes yet and you are willing to do only one thing, the one thing really needs to be to the removal of gluten from your diet. And here's why. I mean we could, we could spend hours just talking about gluten in all the different ways that it's triggering inflammation and causing digestive distress and you know, engaging that immune system. I'm gonna focus on one piece of the puzzle here, which is part of just the body's natural process that happens when you digest and break down the gluten protein, which is that it releases a compound in the gut called zen. And we talked about those tight junctions, that line that are part of the lining of the small intestine.
(20:43): Zonulin is one of the gatekeepers and zen, when you have elevated levels of lin, it opens up those tight junctions. Let's say you lived in a big old house on a super busy street in like downtown Manhattan somewhere. And normally you keep your doors and your windows closed and maybe you even have, you know, a bellman or somebody who is that gatekeeper at that front door just letting in only the people that you want into your house eating gluten. So that, that's the analogy of what it should be happening in your small intestines. These tight junctions are closed and only opening very selectively to let just what we want into our bloodstream. What happens when you eat gluten is that it releases the lin, which in basically acts like opening up all the doors in the windows of that house, right? And now anybody who's just walking down the street has easy access and so you might still have your bellman and for the front door trying madly running around and trying to only allow in the things that should be getting in.
(21:48): But that, that process gets overwhelmed pretty quickly. And so it's the same thing that happens in your gut. Basically those tight junctions just open up and now all manner of stuff can get in there. The undigested broccoli, the the toxins, the things that are destined for the, the toilet bowl, the pathogens, like all of this things that are, should not be getting into the bloodstream are getting into the bloodstream. And so gluten is in many ways the gateway food sensitivity. , you often, you know, one of the ways that food sensitivities are developed is that maldigested pieces of that food are getting into the bloodstream. The immune system recognizes it not as a nutrient but as the, an invader and tags it as such. That's one of the key mechanisms for developing food sensitivities. And so if you have a food like gluten that is just opening up all those tight junctions and letting all sorts of other foods get in at the same time, that is a recipe for really both overwhelming the immune system and priming it to attack these foods regularly down the road as the enemy. And when you do that, if you think about that, if you're eating foods that are engaging the immune system like this multiple times a day every day, well that's a pretty major stressor on the immune system and that is not letting that little immune system rest and recover. And that can be one of the biggest pieces in terms of leading to an autoimmune situation. So right gluten so
(23:26): Beautifully
(23:26): I just said, so gluten is gone.
(23:29): That is gone. Bye bye gluten. But what a beautiful analogy. So gluten is like your friend who runs up and like in college you had that friend on Friday night who went and opened everybody's door and is like, we're having a party in the hall now. Yes. Right. , that's gluten your gateway food, your gateway drug, your gateway party maker. All right, so gluten for sure. Bye bye. Let me ask you this question cuz I know people are thinking this because you and I work with people like this every day. They're like, okay, I get it and I'm 90% compliant Margaret and Kyrin. I don't eat gluten 90% of the time, but I have to have that thing, the toast, the this, the that, the other. And they always wanna ask me, so I'm gonna ask you, Yeah. Is that good enough?
(24:21): Nope. And I'm not hardlined about a lot of things, but I'm hardlined about this. You cannot be mostly gluten free. It just doesn't work that way. You really need to have it outta the system completely. Now gluten, it sticks around antibodies to gluten stick around for a long time. I did Dr. Tom O'Brien's gluten and practitioner training program years ago where we sat through hundreds and hundreds of papers learning all the different ways that gluten is challenging to the body. But one of the key pieces is how long it hangs out in the system so it can take up to six months to completely clear it from one ingestion. So you really, you, you can't be mostly gluten free and yeah, I mean there's gonna be times where you get exposed without your awareness. That's just, it's almost impossible to avoid that. And you know, you ask anyone who's celiac where there's an autoimmune response in response to the consumption of gluten and they will tell you how insanely hard it is to be a hundred percent.
(25:25): But you really need to strive for that. If you, if you do the, oh, I'm gonna have my co salt on Saturdays, but I'm not gonna do anything other than that. Or like, oh, once a year. It really, it's actually, here's the thing, it's easier to just say I don't eat that. As soon as you open the door to a little bit, that is a very, very slippery slope. And so it's actually not only better for your health, it is way easier to implement just a full on gluten free lifestyle than it is to make exceptions. Because once you have made an exception, it's like so much easier to make the next exception and the next exception and where's the line and you know, well you did it for this birthday party, so why not that birthday party? And it just, it's a slippery slope.
(26:14): I have not seen it work and I, I know that there's different personality types. I know some people can do moderation and other people can, you know, I, I get that and yet I have not seen it successfully work for somebody to be mostly gluten free. And if there is autoimmune it's just a hard no. Like you just have to be off, be off of. And and it might be, you know, I've also had clients, I'm sure you've had the same situation where someone goes off of gluten and they might feel a little bit better, but it's not like suddenly rainbows and unicorns are falling from the sky, right? It's like, but this didn't fix everything. You're right. It's not a magic pill, it's often much more involved than that but it is a necessary minimum.
(26:55): Yeah. You know, it's like I tell people, well how would it work for you in your marriage if you are mostly, mostly only slept with your partner and go,
(27:07): That is a great analogy. There are just certain things that are a hard line.
(27:11): Right? So I agree with you on the gluten, but I wanted everyone to hear it from someone else, another expert besides me. Cuz they're like, hearing you're such a killjoy. All right, so gluten's gotta go. What else though? Because people hear soy, Should I eat soy? Should I not? Cows milk, dairy? Should I have that? Should I not? Mm-Hmm. , what other foods are culprits and what might be some unique foods that people don't even know to eliminate
(27:36): If you're just doing this as a starting point and you're wanting to pull out the big sort of the quote unquote usual suspects, gluten, dairy, soy, sugar and industrial seed oils is a really, really good start. So if you're able to take those pieces out, and honestly, I mean each one of these wipes out categories of foods, right? Like if you take out industrially processed seed oils mm-hmm. , you're essentially taking out the vast majority of processed foods.
(28:12): Yeah.
(28:13): Same thing with sugar. You pull out sugar, it's, it's amazing when you start to read ingredients lists and ingredient labels, food labels, it's amazing where sugar hides, I do a program called the Real Food reboot and it's, we pull all forms of sugar out of the diet for 21 days. And people who go through that are constantly amazed at things like salad dressing, right at their, you know, at maybe like at hummus. Like there's these places where we don't think there's any reason for any kind of sweetener and yet, not in all, but in many of them they're gonna find added sweeteners. And you're also gonna find really poor quality oil. So when I say industrially processed seed oils, I'm talking about corn oil, soy oil, cotton seed oil, sunflower oil, sunflower oil. Those are the, the big heavy hitters. These are highly, highly processed rand and just devastating for your body.
(29:09): They're also very proinflammatory and inflammation is is one of the immune processes. Like I said, that's something that's mediated and and sort of managed by your immune system. So anything that is causing inflammation is something that's engaging in fatiguing the immune system. So those industrial seed oils, ugh, they are, they're just, and it makes me a little crazy because even a lot of quote unquote healthy food alternatives, maybe they're gluten free, maybe they're even grain free and you know, but then you, you read that ingredient list and it's like sunflower oil and you're like, ah, you're so close. So let's talk about two of those heavy hitters, which is dairy and soy, because in some cases they're really good to pull out at the beginning, but there are certain forms of them in small quantities that are tolerable for some people. Okay, so that sounds like I'm qualifying all over the place and I am.
(30:05): But let's talk about dairy first. And dairy is complicated because there are so many different ways for one to have a reaction to dairy. So some people have straight up food allergies to dairy. So it's a, an IgE that's a immunoglobulin e mediated response, It's a formal food allergy. Others will have food sensitivities. Some of these are mediated by antibodies, I G G I G M. Some of them just happen at a cellular level and they're, they're what we call a type four hypersensitivity, no antibody involvement at all. But they're still triggering an inflammation process. Then you can have people who react to, from a digestive perspective. So there's the lactose issues, that's the milk sugar, the lactose is the milk sugar. Maybe they don't make the lactase enzyme as adults. So they're not breaking this milk sugars down properly and they have severe digestive complaints as a result.
(31:02): And then you get into the issue of the fact that the sort of ultra processing of a lot of dairy, that becomes highly problematic. So what I would say is at the beginning, without formal testing and if you are experiencing an autoimmune flare, you wanna pull out just the whole category of dairy. It's just, that's the easiest thing to do. Once you are in remission, things are under control. If you have done testing, that's very helpful. So of course if there's a true food allergy, you wanna stay away from it. If you have a history of food sensitivities, in some cases you can bring that back in, in very, very minimal quantities depending on what kind of healing work that you've done. But you wanna go, you wanna tread easily there and it's a really good idea to retest, to make sure cuz food sensitivities will shift, they can be healed.
(31:52): So if you have retested and it does not appear that the sensitivity is active anymore, then you can reintroduce. But I would do, I would be very specific about multiple things. Number one, the most well tolerated forms of dairy will be the higher fat pieces. So, so butter from Pasteur raised, you know, exclusively Pasteur raised cows or ge, which is clarified butter. So that's just the butter oil, again, organic and from Pasteur raised cows that's well tolerated by most people. Next, if you know, another consideration is actually the cow . So one of the things that we do consume in our house is we get, I, you know, I have heavy cream in my coffee in the morning and, but I get, get the heavy cream from an A two cow. There's an A one, an A two cows and it's got to do with the, the breeds.
(32:47): And, and this is where I'm sort of pushing up against my, my knowledge of, you know, dairy cows. But I know that the A two one is more of a heritage breed and it has the actual milk that products that come from that animal are much better tolerated by humans than a one cows. A two cows are more prevalent in Europe, but you can find them in the states. But if it, if your dairy is not labeled a two from a two cows, then it's not. If it is, it's typically more expensive and the, you know, the company will, will brag about that on its label. So you can, you can know that by the labeling fermented dairy, you know, a whole milk organic yogurt for example, unflavored would be a much better choice than just like, you know, milk itself. So there's, there's different degrees of this.
(33:40): In fact in my first book Eat Naked, I did a whole chapter on dairy and kind of went through what's best, what's better, what's, and then what you absolutely want to avoid. So it gets a little bit complicated, but the key rules are that it, you really want to focus on what the cows ate. So pasture raised is really important. Ideally a two cows in terms of their breed and the fattier it is, the fewer, you know, if you don't have as much of the milk sugars and the milk proteins, so butter and ge, that's gonna be less problematic. And then fermentation also helps the digestibility. So something like a yogurt or a C. So that's kind of a deep dive into, into dairy. But if you haven't done testing and certainly if you're flaring, I would just pull it
(34:30): Out. Awesome. No, that was great. I, that was everything that people needed to hear. Can we talk a little bit about testing? Cuz you've mentioned it and I know I get a lot of questions about it. You probably do too. Should I get tested what test is best? People are all the time saying, I found this group on for this $79 mm-hmm hair food sensitivity test. Is that good? I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. I certainly have my own opinion and there are as many food sensitivity tests as there are types of yogurt in the grocery store,
(35:04): Right? ,
(35:05): Which is a lot, Every time I go in the grocery, I think the yogurt section takes up an additional two feet. And I'm like, wow, people really love their yogurt.
(35:14): I know. And most of it has more sugar than ice cream, but that's a whole aside, right?
(35:18): And they're like, oh it's healthy. And I'm like, No, just go get the ice cream y'all. You'll better with that. So can you, we talk about testing a little,
(35:29): You bet. I'm a big believer in testing because what testing allows us to do is really dial in the specifics for the individual. You know, there's, there's certain diets that are broadly removing whole categories of foods beyond, far beyond what we just talked about here. You know, like the autoimmune paleo or autoimmune protocol diet, that's a very extensive elimination diet and people have great success with it. So I'm not trying to dis this diet at all, but you know, they're pulling out all grains, all legumes, all seeds, all nuts, all nightshades, eggs. I mean really it's really hard. This particular diet, you know, you're eating vegetables, you're eating certain proteins, you're eating certain fats and even your spice drawer gets affected, right? There's a lot of things that you can't do. You're using more like herbs and like garlic and onions as opposed to paprika or you know, even something like mustard because it comes from a seed is it is excluded.
(36:29): So it gets very complicated and very, very challenging. And in those kinds of scenarios I find that what happens is often people are avoiding foods that are not harmful in their body and then at the same time they're still consuming other foods that are triggering an inflammatory process. And that's really what's one of the key things that this comes down to is what foods are either hard to digest. So they're creating extra pressure on the digestive system. And we now know that so much of the immune system lives in and around the digestive system. So we don't wanna add extra pressure to it. And the other way that a food can tax the immune system is by being inflammatory in the pro in the body. So it's triggering that inflammation process. So I'm a big believer in testing because that is going to allow us to really fine tune for the individual what their diet needs to be.
(37:22): Especially in the healing phase. It doesn't mean that you're doing this food sensitivity test and you never eat these foods ever again in your life. That is not, that's a common misconception. I know when I very first did food sensitivity testing long ago, long before I became a nutrition professional, the individual is working with, I don't know if she didn't tell me or I didn't hear it and it didn't register, but I did not understand that this wasn't a forever thing. And I will tell you, when I got those test results, I went home and I shed a lot of tears thinking this was the rest of my life. It's not the rest of your life. It's a temporary thing while you do the healing. So I am a big believer in food sensitivity tests. I do not like probably 99% of the tests that are on the market and I don't think that food sensitivity testing should ever be done in isolation.
(38:10): And here's what I mean by that. Let's start with that piece. If you do a food sensitivity test, no matter how brilliant the test, you could use a great test or you know, if you're not using a good test, then that's problematic in and of itself. But let's say you're using it a really good test that's very comprehensive and it's going to and very accurate and you remove the foods that it tells you are inflammatory in your body. Well here's what's gonna happen. You're gonna feel better for a a while for sure, cuz you've just significantly reduced your inflammatory burden. But over time you're gonna develop new food sensitivities because you're not addressing and healing the mechanism through which your body creates those food sensitivities to begin with. So what ends up happening is you have somebody who feels better, but then they start to slowly have symptoms recur and the sort of he, you know, this, the healing quote unquote, if it was actually healing or the improvement let's say doesn't last.
(39:06): And so then they do another food sensitivity test and they find out a whole new set of foods that they are now sensitive to and they pull those out. And what happens is they get this ever shrinking list of foods that they tolerate, but while their, their symptoms just start to progressively come back worse and worse. So I really believe in food sensitivity testing, but I only do it when it is done in conjunction with well informed gut healing. And what I mean by well informed gut healing is gut healing that is informed through its own testing. So I'm a big believer in stool testing to understand what's going on in that digestive tract so that we can get in there and heal that rebalance the microbiome if it needs to support digestive function, if it's not working optimally, get rid of any opportunist in, you know, organisms that are in there or pathogens, you know, sometimes we can have these low lying parasites for example, not enough to be identified on, you know, a parasite test that you get from your GI doctor, but present and chronic and contr, you know, tiring out is sort of that, it's kind of like Chinese water torture, right?
(40:22): It's a steady drip on the immune system. Those things that are just taxing it and engaging it just a little bit at a time every single day. That's the stuff that can be the biggest culprits when it comes to fatiguing the immune system and leading to on an autoimmune presentation. So addressing and healing the gut, but doing it in a way that is well informed because it is very, very difficult to properly heal the digestive tract based on symptoms alone. Because symptoms can be driven by any number of the things that I just mentioned in microbiome imbalance. It can be driven by food sensitivities, it can be driven by a leaky gut, it can be driven by digestive dysfunction, it can be driven by imbalance in the microbiome, it can be driven by pathogen presence. So, and it's normally some unique combination of a collection of those things. And so if you can understand what's happening in the gut, you can be healing the gut and we remove the foods that are triggering inflammation while we heal the gut. That is the magic combination right there. Yeah.
(41:28): Yeah. And that, so that was great. Thank you for going so in depth and detailed so people really hear it. Hear it. And what I love that you said is a well, so food sensitivity testing should be done in conjunction with a, well inform yes. Gut healing regimen that includes testing even if you have no symptoms. And I want everyone to hear that if you hear nothing else. Yes. Because there's nothing sadder than I meet someone who's been listening to my podcast for several years and they're like, Well Kyrin, I saw this hair food sensitivity on coupon and I did it and I remove all the foods, but I still have Hashimotos. And I'm like, oh my gosh. I'm thinking to myself, she's lost two years. And I know there's some of you listening who are thinking, how can I do this myself? And I'm offered DIY at when you can. But when it comes to healing your core, which is your gut mm-hmm. , you can't,
(42:26): No, you
(42:27): Can unfortunately
(42:28): No, you can start the process. Have
(42:31): You Yeah. Believe that you could just take some supplements off the internet and do a hair food sensitivity test and you're good to go, but you won't. It's not, it's just not the case. Is it Margaret?
(42:41): No, I wish it was . Yeah. I mean our lives would be a lot simpler, but it just does not work that way. It doesn't. I wish it did, but it doesn't. And and what I see, and I'm sure you see this all the time, as people who've just spent thousands of dollars on DIY tests and supplements off the internet. And here's the thing, both the labs that sell direct to consumer and supplement companies that sell direct to consumer have very sophisticated marketing. So it is really compelling. Even as a practitioner every once and I know better, like I know better and every once in a while I will see some ad I'm like, Ooh, I hadn't heard of that probiotic before. You know? And, and you start to think, well maybe this is the missing piece. Right? And it's just not that simple.
(43:28): Even the probiotics that I work in with in clinic that have fantastic success rates, even those, sometimes they work for an individual and sometimes they don't. Like it's so bio-individual. We have to remember that we are unique people. Every one of us comes with this very unique constellation of health history, physiological strengths, constitutional weaknesses, where we live, what we ate as a child, what kind of stresses are on us, what we eat now, what's our lifestyle? How much sleep do we get, What climate do we live in, what season is it? What grows locally to us? And all of these things come together to create this you sort of unique health blueprint that we have. And it is just not possible that there is like a couple of magic pills out there. It's compelling. We want it, we want it, It just doesn't exist.
(44:26): It doesn't exist. Okay. So we're gonna have to wrap up. But before we do, I know people are probably maybe feeling a little hopeless. Okay, I can't have gluten, I can't have dairy, can't have seed oils, I can't have this, da da, I gotta have a gut test and all this. Where am I gonna find the money for that? Okay, let's give a little hope here. Mm-Hmm. , what should I eat? I've just been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease and we are gonna offer, Margaret has generously giving you a copy of her first five steps to address autoimmune diseases. We're gonna put the link in the show notes so you can go download that. And so maybe this is you or a friend, you can download it and get started. So you, you'll have all five first step five steps cuz we don't have time to go over all of them, but let's leave everyone with, okay, so what should I eat? What would be a good breakfast, Margaret? What would be a good lunch? What would be a good dinner
(45:24): Focus First on actually really clean healthy proteins. Those are going to be part of, that's part of what builds your immune system. It's what supports repair in your body. It also is what keeps you full and satiated and can help blood sugar balance, et cetera. So I want you to think first about the protein. And I am a big believer in animal protein. A challenge with the plant-based proteins is that they're so hard on the digestion. So when we're talking about autoimmune and gut health, if you're leaning on soy and legumes, those can be quite devastating to the gut. So really good clean animal protein. So I'm talking about things like Pasteur raised beef eggs from Pasteur raised chicken pa, the chicken itself, wild fish and seafood, the lamb, bison wild bore, these kinds of things. They're actually pretty wildly available at this point.
(46:16): You know, even more conventional grocery stores are starting to catch wind of this trend. Let's call it, I don't know, this movement towards cleaner animal protein. So you can definitely find it and you wanna make you want, this is where you wanna invest your food dollars is in proteins and fats because that's actually where toxins accumulate and hormones and all this kind of stuff. So you really wanna invest your food dollars there. You wanna eat lots of veggies. We could get into the nuances based on what's going on with your digestion. Some people tolerate more, some people tolerate fewer. If you do find that veggies are challenging on your gut, make sure you're cooking them. You know, they, we have this sort of ideal that you should be eating tons of salad. Salad doesn't work for a lot of people. Raw vegetables can be very, very hard to digest.
(46:59): So just lightly cooking them, maybe you saute them, maybe you steam them and add some yummy sauces. But that would be, you know, so clean, clean proteins, good veggies, healthy fats that are used appropriately. And I know in that, in that handout, the first five we talk go the length, that's a whole topic in and of itself is how, what fats to use when. But you don't wanna be afraid of fats. They're vitally important; you just wanna make sure they're the right ones. And then healing foods, things like bone broths and fermented foods can be really, really healing to the gut. They probably won't take you the full distance, but it's a really good thing to incorporate into the diet on a regular basis because it's really helping to initiate that healing process. And then, you know, you know, if you're gonna do grains, make sure that they're gluten free grains trying to stay away from those processed foods that are gonna have the, you know, industrial seed oils that we talked about and whatnot.
(47:51): But let me tell you, I eat this way and, and we have this idea that eating healthfully means, you know, this sort of dry piece of chicken breast and steamed broccoli without any flavor on it. It does not have to be that way at all. And in fact it will give the links to my practice website, eat naked kitchen.com. But if you go in there, there's an opt-in at the bottom right hand corner and we give you our full kitchen stock. We call it kitchen essentials. It's basically what you should have in your pantry and your fridge. And then the next day we send you a a week long meal plan with recipes that we use in our household with both my husband and myself and the kids. This is all family-friendly stuff. This is stuff that we eat on a regular basis. Both my husband and myself are two young children.
(48:36): We have a a six year old and a 10 year old, both of whom are quite picky. You know, I think it's a great tool for you to get started in eating this way. And basically everything that I've just explained in terms of how you want to eat and foods to eliminate all of that's built in. So you don't even have to think about it. You can just use this meal plan as a starting point, use the grocery lists and these are meals that are on high rotation in our household and that the kids love and are delicious and nutritious, and it's not chicken breast and steamed broccoli. Yeah.
(49:08): You know it's funny when I have to go to a regular restaurant like just with an American sad diet. Mm-Hmm , everything tastes the same. Yeah, it's fat and it's sugar, but you don't realize that when you eat it because you're looking for the fat and sugar flavor and that's what tells you it's good also salt. But when you eat the whole foods way, like you're describing and I encourage everyone to go download what Margaret's offering. Cause your husband's an amazing chef. Mm-Hmm and I know he has his hands in all of that. But when you really start to eat from a, a whole Foods perspective and you really taste the flavors of the food, it is a reeducation of your palette. But I make things like, well I should share this recipe with everyone and I di I'm digressing, I know, but I make this cilantro and parsley and garlic sauce that you can put on chicken or fish anyway, it's amazing.
(50:04): So you can learn to cook this way. And Margaret is a great resource for that cuz she's an expert in it. And like I said, her husband is a fantastic chef. Thank you Margaret for sharing this wonderful information. You are a wealth of knowledge and inspiration. I know that everyone has gotten so much out of this. We will have the link to Margaret's first five download in the show notes. So definitely wanna go there. She's got naked in her book and the Naked Foods cookbook. You definitely wanna check those out. Where else can they find out more about you and interact with you Margaret?
(50:40): My main website is eat naked kitchen.com and there are just, there's tons of resources, like 450 different articles and recipes and just lots of stuff for you to dig into there. And then if, I don't know if there are any practitioners in your audience, but if you're somebody who is intrigued by this work and wants to learn how to support others on their journey to health through diet and these more advanced nutrition and testing strategies, I am also the executive director of a company called Restorative Wellness Solutions and we train health professionals in how to work very strategically with diet, supplements and lifestyle to do things like reverse autoimmune.
(51:25): Awesome. Yes. I encourage everybody to check that out. Your work with practitioners is great and yes, we have lots of practitioners in our audience. So if you are interested in thinking wow, I might like to work with people, helping them in this area of their life, definitely check out Margaret's offerings. There was so much great content. I didn't get to share some of these wonderful quotes that you shared with me before the episode, but I gotta get 'em in cuz this is one of my favorites from Maya Angelou. Do the best you can until you know better then when you know better, do better. And I know that everybody listening has heard something here today that was new, new to you, inspiring, maybe intriguing. And I wanna ask you to lean into that and ask yourself, what can I do better based on this information, inspiration that I've learned today? And go do that thing. Thank you Margaret for joining us today.
(52:31): Thank you so much for having me. It's been so much fun. And
(52:35): Thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. It's been my absolute pleasure to spend this time with you, and I look forward to seeing you again next week when we will dive into another topic related to your hormone balance. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.
(52:57): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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https://www.eatnakedkitchen.com/thefirstfive/
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Have you ever wondered about the toxins that have been building up in your body and the effects they have on your overall health?
In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we interview Diane Kazer, a certified detox specialist, toxins expert, courage coach, and holistic beauty expert. She shares with us why whole body cleansing is essential and provides tips on how to get started.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- The sobering statistics regarding toxicity in our environment and in our body
- The ABCs of detoxing: what, when, where, how, and why
- Simple tips to get started with whole body cleansing
- Boosting your mitochondria for better health
- And much more!
So tune in and learn how you can start feeling your best by detoxing your body!
(00:00): What kind of health are you woman affecting Diane Kazer?
(00:06): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones and our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(00:59): Hi, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast my guest today. She is so creative and so passionate and has created so many programs to help women with their health. She's gonna talk to you about the ABCs of detox. She's gonna talk to you about some sobering statistics regarding toxicity in our environment and in our body, and really highlight for you the things that are currently poisoning you in your environment, but mostly tell you what to do about it. She's got actionable tips. So you wanna make sure to listen up. I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. Diane Kazer is a pro soccer player turned functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner. She's a certified detox specialist, toxins expert, courage coach, and holistic beauty expert. Diane had many challenging health conditions and has built recovery protocols to successfully overcome them.
(01:58): With this experience. She's helped thousands of clients around the world as their last resort from failed attempts at everything she created, the cleanse heal like night holistic health Institute and warrior detox programs. She certifies coaches and teaching, teaches clients to activate their intuition, to self-heal, empowering them with lifelong tools to reverse autoimmune disease, breast implant illness, hormonal imbalances, chronic pain, gut infections, emotional trauma, and perfectionism through functional medicine labs, custom detox and mastering mindset. She's the author of killer breast, creator of the ex plant solution, producer of the nontoxic beauty summit and the Ionics 10 part dying to be beautiful. Docu-series her mission is to inspire you to embrace your natural beauty and God-given gifts. Shedding the S H I that releases you to live your best life with love, laughter and liberation. Diane will not let you fail. Welcome Diane to the podcast. Thank
(03:05): You so much for having me, Dr. Karen, great to be with you.
(03:08): Yes. Super excited to have you here and talk about all the things related to why a cleansing of your whole body is essential to vitality over 40. What made you become so passionate about this particular topic for women over 40?
(03:27): Yeah. Thanks for the question. I think one of the things that I hear so much and part of what I believed, because it's all that I knew or heard is that you aged, you get older, it's just nothing you can do about it. You're destined to the genetics that you were provided. There's nothing you can do other than take HRT or biodentical hormones. And what that looks like from there is all downhill. It's all downhill after 40, and that you need to take hormone replacement therapy. And that's all that there is. And that you're kind of destined to your sleeping nine hours at night and a little bit of weight gain that won't go away just because you're simply aging and what I've learned as a functional diagnostic nutrition practitioner and working with a lot of women of all ages, of course, a lot of them over 40 at this point, I'm 44 almost is that the toxins are such a big drain to aging.
(04:19): They are such a big drain to the beauty blocks and beauty builders that I call like parasites also robbing us of nutrients. And these are the things that are building blocks to provide beauty, energy and immunity that we're after. And so there's not just a silver bullet. And for me, it was a lot of different toxins like breast and plants, a lot of birth control over the years, not having my period for seven, eight years. And this is a lot of women too. Who've experienced the same thing and were told that these are the only answers for you to build your beauty or to feel younger or to, uh, maintain our youth. And so after doing, doing that Botox, that one almost destroyed me. A lot of the things that I was doing were very mainstream. And then I, I came to realize that there were several women that I worked with were doing the same thing. And we started removing those blocks to their beauty, their immunity, their vitality, and they started to look better, feel better, feel better. And it, it wasn't as
(05:14): Expensive. Yeah. And you know, you said that peop women are offered HRT, but that since the women's health initiative study in 2002 women aren't even getting that benefit. So they're in a worse position than they were. That's one of the reasons why I do what I do, but I agree with you. It's not just about getting a prescription for hormones. I always say, there's the prescription you need a written prescription for, but there's also the life prescription, the dietary prescription, the supplement prescription, the cleanse prescription, all the things that you need to clear out of your body. So what do you think is most important for a woman to know about cleansing her body? I think it's really clear that cleansing is important. I think most women know that it's in the general public. You hear about it on social media. You hear about it on TV. You hear it about on the radio, but when an woman goes to start doing it, I don't think she knows what to do. So where does she even begin?
(06:15): Yeah. When it comes to cleansing
(06:17): Yes. Cleansing. Right? She's like, I wanna cleanse, but then right. How do you do that? What's important. Yeah. Yeah. What does she have to know?
(06:26): It's a great question. And I can go so many different ways with this. And, and I want to kind of take myself even back to when I first started doing this about 12 years ago, is that it's such a big field and it could be intimidating. It could be daunting. So the first thing I want to share with everybody is that we're trained to think it needs to be perfect. We're trained to think it needs to be linear. We're trained that it needs to happen very quickly. And none of these are true when it comes to cleansing your body. Because when you go to start cleansing your body, it's kind of like, imagine a home that's, that's sat for a long time and it hasn't gotten any TLC and you go in there and you start remodeling a 1970s home and you go, you start with the, the bathroom.
(07:03): And then of course the next thing you know, you're, you've spent six figures under remodeling the entire house. And you start to see when you pull the walls back, oh, there's some mold there. You start to look underneath the, the floors and you see, you know, pieces of wood or fragments that you don't want there that might be hazardous to your health asbestos in the roof. So it's kind of similar to that. And it's not meant to scare you. It's meant to aware you that cleansing is a journey. It's, it's a lifelong journey. I always like to say my favorite thing to say to people is ABC always be cleansing because it's not a destiny. It's not like, okay. It's like, when you say in the psychology field, it's like, well, I'm, I'm healed. I'm awake. I'm finally done. I'm woke. And it's like, no, our whole life isn't awakening. Just like a tree. Our whole life is blossoming. And so the same thing can be true with cleansing. We are exposed to over 75,000 toxins on a regular basis. And the average person, according to the EPA has over 700 in their body. I can see a lot of head nods over there, giving yourself chiropractic, adjust, right? Doc
(08:05): oh my gosh. Like preach Diane preach. Yeah. There's
(08:10): So many. And this is also, you know, what's been hidden, hidden in plain sight. It, it, from so many of us are not made aware of these because there are a lot of MDs. Obviously not like you talking, they're not talking about this, that are saying that your liver talks, your liver cleanses toxins on their own. You don't need to do anything additional, but the average person has over 700 of these poisons inside of them at any given time. The average baby is born with over 275 of these poisons in their body before they have even taken their first breath. And this is where I obviously get really passionate because where are these coming from? They're obviously coming from mom and this is not meant to shame or blame anybody, but the onus is on, on us when it comes to these things. When I tell women, Hey, before you go spend 15,000, 20,000 on IVF therapy, because you can't get pregnant, sit with somebody who, you know, is an expert at cleansing and work with them for three, ideally six months to really clean out your beautiful nest, go to your room and clean your womb.
(09:18): it's like
(09:19): What I like. So
(09:20): Clean your womb before you start to create something new, because this could be a lifelong sentence to a child, a brand new baby that maybe perhaps you weren't aware of with these poisons. And it's not too late. If you have had a baby, that's not what I'm saying at all. It's just to give these babies a great chance of cleansing. And so I wanted to start with those statistics because it's that important to understand that this is not just somebody who has had silver fillings or somebody who's had breast implants or somebody who's had Botox or somebody who's been exposed to asbestos cold. You know, this is not just one in a hundred people. We are constantly surrounded with these things. So the first place I like to start is by saying, what are the things that are currently poisoning you now? Like, what are the things in your environment? And you can do that and ask that question concurrent to I'm also going to be cleansing my body. Now. Here's what I'll say. Did you wanna interject anything Dr. Kirin? Cuz I just kind of went off
(10:17): Pretty big camera. No, I'm like, I'm like, I'm right with you. Preach. Tell it like it is and go right where you're going. I love it.
(10:24): Okay, great. So, so it first starts with awareness that wow cleansing is really, truly in my perspective. And hopefully you're hearing some of this too. The number one thing that is contributing to our illness today, symptoms, sickness, suffering, stuckness. And so that aside now you're here and you're going okay, what do I do? Where do I start toxins in environment. Very key. Secondly, here's what I'd like to say. That is very unconventional and UN mainstream. That needs to be is that start with ensuring that you're ready for the toxin game. Yeah, the detox game. Right? So I played professional soccer and I can say this because I know for me, if I hadn't been practicing for the championship game for the state cup, whatever it was that I was competing in and you guys who were athletes can, can get this or also kind of maybe preparing for your first date, you get ready. You wanna feel your best. You wanna feel confident, whatever it is, you wanna feel ready, strong and confident going into something that can be a game changer, lifesaver for you. Right. So what does that look like inside of the body is some something we call mitochondria and maybe have you talked about this on your show at all before? Oh
(11:36): Yeah. We love mitochondria here, but you go right ahead and talk about whatever you want with mitochondria is super important.
(11:44): Yeah. And we can, you know, get, it can get really clinical and overwhelming and super scientific. And that's not how I like to talk. I like to talk like I'm talking to maybe an eight year old because it's, we have so much information to process these days. And the reason why so many have brain Fogg and neurological dysfunction and have a hard time conceptualizing or, or retaining information and turning it into wisdom and applying it is because we are so bogged down with toxicity, neurotoxins that end up in our brain and 65% or around there of your brain is fat. And the number one place that toxins go is into fat. Like they're in the brain.
(12:22): I know most people don't realize that toxins love your brain. And one of the things that people are most afraid of is getting dementia second only to cancer. And they don't realize that the toxins. And I think it's the fact that you can't see them. And these statistics, like you said, 700 traces of 700 toxic chemicals in most adult humans on this planet. But most people, you can't feel it. It's not like that mercury that's floating around. You're like, oh I have mercury. Right? You might know that you're more sluggish. You're more tired. You're waking up in the middle of the night. You can't lose the extra few pounds that you've gained. Right? So you see it as these symptoms, but it's not linked directly to because your doctor's not telling you. And so you don't have this cognitive awareness of what these toxins are doing to you.
(13:16): And so what Diane and I are saying is you got to pull back the veil, that's covering your eyes and know that just cuz your doctor's not talking about it. You're not hearing about on the six o'clock news. You know, red alert, toxins are killing humans, causing cancer, causing dementia, accumulating in your brain. I'm so glad you're hearing us talk about it so that you know about it so that you are aware so that you can do something about it. And you know, I'm, I'm gonna end the episode by challenging you to do something about it. So, but first let's give you some more information
(13:49): Yeah. I, and I love that. You just stated one of my favorite things to do is to, and I'm so happy that you're doing this as an MD. We need more of you. We need absolutely more of you Karen, to step up to this awareness and support patients with it. So it's more of a, a complete, comprehensive healing approach versus just here's a pill. And that's your only one thing. And that's what this six o'clock news will program, literally with the anchor anchoring into your mind, programming you with the program that talk to your doctor. Do you have this long list of symptoms, talk to your doctor, then you're gonna get diarrhea and death and dementia and disease weird. So it's the one thing, and this is singularity approach and it's not working. And it hasn't, unless there are people who are constantly watching and, and, and getting hypnotized by those.
(14:35): But I don't have eyes that are hypnotized. And I'm so glad that you don't and the people that you're influencing don't because you just said that very thing is getting into people's mind and going, you know what I'm thinking? You know what I fear now teach me how I can prevent this from manifesting, right? Because I say manifesting or a woman manifesting because we create a reality. We do create a disease. We are not victims of this. What we are victims of is this world that has so many chemicals and poisons that less than 2% of them have actually been tested and approved for safety. And every single year, there are several thousands more that are getting approved, that people are not aware of 2000 plus new chemicals are approved. And so this is why I say always be cleansing because it's not just about what's in your body. Now it's about what they're continuing, continuing to, to roll out and beauty products, personal care products, you know, there's a PTs and the pearls and all the things that people think are fine. And they're like, oh, dove, because it's on a beauty commercial, but yet dove is contains several toxic ingredients. However, they did a cue. He
(15:40): Looked so gentle on the commercial with the white dove and all the ladies look happy and you're being hypnotized. Y'all
(15:49): Brainwashed body washed beauty, washed all the washing, but it's really actually detoxifying. It's the opposite. It's upside down world. So whatever the TV says, do the opposite and it doesn't make your skin soft. The thing that I get frustrated by is that there is this thing called beauty wash. I called it, I call it beauty washing. I kind of coined these terms is I did not. My non-toxic beauty summit and wrote my book killer breast and my movie dying to be beautiful. And what I call it is, is beauty washing because these dove commercials, like you said, okay, skin, soft skin sat, you know, we're all smiling and happy and my teeth are super white. All of these are lies. They're all lies. And it's all, you know, they take average two hours to Photoshop. One picture in a magazine, just give us some, just thought two hours.
(16:35): We have all these filters on our phones. This is an unrealistic, we're going down a terrible path of what beauty isn't, it's, it's fake. It's a bunch of lies. And I don't know if you really wanna be a deceiver and a manipulator, but this is not how we, we can build beauty from the inside out of where I'm going with this. And then dove also did a study and found that 96% of women do not think they're beautiful and that yeah. And so we'll do all of these extreme things to buy our beauty. But what we're actually doing is we're cheating our temples and we're causing our body to be ugly on the inside. Bringing on a lot of these parasites that we'll get to today, detoxifying our temple. And then on the outside, our skin and hair only has toxins to build the fabric of our temple, right?
(17:26): So if a body cannot find a potassium, magnesium, calcium, all these minerals that comprise our beauty iron, it will use a heavy metal to build that. So then when you go on a detox, you start losing your hair and you're like, why am I losing my hair? The detox didn't work. No, it actually is. But if you're not draining well, which I'm gonna get to next. If you're not draining well, meaning you're not eliminating your toxins quickly enough, they will actually get forced through your skin and through your hair. And then you're gonna go, oh, my skin is terrible. My hair's falling out. I need to go buy some cream mm-hmm or lotions or pills. You you're gonna do extreme things like I did with like ACUTA, which is something they used and have been using for pancreatic chemo patients. How does that end up as a drug? And then it ends up as a skin, acne healer, but it's not a healer. It's a poisoner. So it's
(18:18): A poison. And, and I'm glad you brought that up because most people think, oh, I, I hear people say it all the time. I have acne. I have to go on the bird control pill and I might need Accutane. What am I, what most people don't realize is that your skin is an accessory detox organ. Like it didn't sign up for that. Your body didn't go. I'm gonna make skin so we can detox. No, you've got kidneys for that liver for that lungs, for that, it only kicks in with and starts trying to detox. They don't realize acne is your body trying to detox X eczema, psoriasis, all it's trying to push it out. Or like you said, losing your hair. So yes. Please talk about drainage.
(18:57): Yes, yes, yes, yes. Okay. So going back to my mitochondria, before you focus on drainage, we need to make sure that you're ready for this championship game known as detox. Detox is deeper than cleansing. So I can say you can always be cleansing, but you can do a bit more of a ritualistic routine detox and I'll get to that. Mm-hmm but mitochondria is the energy that your little cells make and you have trillions of them. They're all over your body. They're everywhere. And so a lot of people get into this reductionist at question of, well, how do I do this? And how do I do this? And they'll end up taking 20 plus pills a day, right? If you don't have mitochondrial health, you are not breaking down these high quality expensive, or maybe not expensive, but just any supplements. You're not breaking them down.
(19:42): And they end up just get getting backed up in your system. Especially if you don't have healthy drainage, which you won't, if you don't have healthy mitochondria production from your cells, that's what makes literally 90% of the energy that you get every day and that you need every day to do what your basic functions are. 90% comes from your mitochondria, which is ATP made in the cells. So your cells have to be healthy in order for you to be well and wealthy, cuz you can't be wealthy, whatever way you define it without being healthy. How do you have healthy cells? Well, I'll start by saying here's what not to do. Cuz I always talk about blockers and builders, blockers and builders. What are the things that are blocking sell health and what are the things that build sell health? Because everybody wants to ask a question, what do I do?
(20:32): What do I do? We have way too many of what do I do? We don't have enough of what do I undo? That's what detox truly is, is what do I undo? What do I stop doing in your life? That is depleting cells. And the one thing I will say about that and we can move on a drainage is that outside of your cell membrane is made of fat. The inside of your membrane is made of protein. So if you are not getting enough healthy fats and enough healthy proteins on a daily basis, you do not have healthy cells and fats, someone might say, oh, sunflower oil, SA flour oil. A lot of these things that you hear people read on a label that sound better than canola oil or better than vegetable oil or better than estrogen blocking soy oil, GMO, soy oil. These are all things that are very unhealthy oils.
(21:16): When people get smarter, they move onto the next green washing thing on the label. Now with sunflower oil. So you have this sunflowers yeah. Flowers and it's pretty and it's colorful. And that sounds healthy. I'm gonna tell you that that's not as healthy as things like omegas. The things that you can get from salmon and a healthy ratio of omega 360 9. That's probably beyond the show today of the topic, but just getting the idea that healthy oils, avocado oils, healthy, organic coconut oils. These are things that help build a healthy structure of the outside of the cell and then enough protein so that you can and, and ignite the inside of the cells. Why that's so important is healthy. Mitochondria. Not only give you energy, but here's how they do it. They push out the bad stuff from the cells, which a lot of them are trapped in when you don't have healthy cells.
(22:03): And then the good stuff can't get in. So all these healthy supplements, the vitamins, the hormones, the minerals, they can't get in the cells. So they end up just leaving the body. That's a very reductionist, simplistic state that is important to first, start with energy, make sure that you're ready for the championship game. Make sure that your mitochondria optimized, because those are the things that also communicate to your organs. Like your liver will take and filter the things that will be either fat soluble or water soluble. If they're fat soluble, they leave through the colon. If they're water soluble, they leave through your kidneys. So you poop them or pee them out, right? To speak to like an eight year old. And the thing that's important there is that your liver can only function as well. Is your mitochondria, AKA or cell energy. Powerhouses can communicate the liver to tell them, to let go of the toxins and to convert T4, to T3 for iodine molecules to three iodine molecules in the liver.
(22:58): 70% of that are so happens in the liver. So you, if you're not a liver, you're a dire. That's one of my favorite things to say to, I love that, right? And you've got to take care and love on your liver. So this, you can see here, why MI country is so important because it dictates the power and the consistency of drainage that starts in. Of course it goes through your toxins, go through your lymphatic system, go into the blood, go in the liver and then transport out through poop and pee or sweat or breath. Those are the four main elimination pathways. It could, if you're a woman, it will also come through your ovaries through your cycle. If you're still cycling, if you're over 40, you might not be. And then you also drain it through your hair too. So what I say is, if you really wanna maintain and build your beauty, also know that the better that you're taking care of your liver and your lymphatic system and your gallbladder and all of the elimination organs that are in, in this space between your thyroid down to your ovaries, the more that your body has building blocks to make healthy skin and healthy hair.
(24:10): So that's what drainage is. And I can talk a little bit more about how to do that if you'd like Dr. Karen, it's up to you. But I kind of just said a mouth wall on that too. So I'll let you interact.
(24:18): Yeah. We only have so much time and we've you've number one. I'm gonna just reiterate for everyone was stop poisoning yourself with whatever you're poisoning yourself with. Number two is get your mitochondria online. So they're working for you. They're helping jazz up your liver. What other steps? Why don't we go through all the steps? And then if you wanna come back and give more details about each cuz I know everybody's listening going, this is more than I've heard about cleansing in a long time. Cuz I literally, I can't stand it when I go to the health food store. And I see people asking the clerk who basically has no medical training and holding up a supplement and saying, is this a good detox supplement? And so first off the concept that I need a supplement, that's the first thing I should do wrong. The second concept that there's only one supplement that I need to take that's wrong. And so I'd love for them to get an overview of the steps and then we can come back and add details.
(25:17): Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Thanks. So that's why I say ABC always be cleansing cuz it is a lifestyle. It isn't just a thing that you do once in a while. It's not just colon session once and you're done. It's not that you just sit in a sauna or that you go to a seven day retreat and you cleanse your body and you do it once a year. And then what are you having a
(25:36): Retreat? You wouldn't take a shower once a year and go, oh I did. I took a shower in 20 brushing your
(25:46): Teeth. I'm like, please don't think that just what, what would it be like if you just brush your teeth bill once a year?
(25:51): I know. So point taken, okay, go ahead.
(25:55): And 75% of disease begins in the mouth and we swallow the equivalent of one liter of water every day. And so whatever's going on in your mouth. It becomes part of your gut and whatever's in your gut then becomes all over, you know, every cell of your body because we can poison ourself without realizing it because it we've also been lied to you about that. You know, mercury, silver fillings, you know, get those suckers out. Those are what I call the arsonists. They're constantly starting fires in your body and they live in the body. So that would be breast and implant, silver fillings. So things that are living inside of you that are constantly just, just dripping out toxins, get those suckers out, do it with a biological dentist, do it with a trained, uh, surgeon who knows how to do an N block, total capsule ectomy.
(26:38): I talk about all of that book in my book, killer breast. I'll have you put all the links below so that, um, find their way there and bonuses I have for the book, everything. So the first thing to do to feed your mitochondria, um, and ensure that you have enough energy being produced, the powerhouses of your cells, the power plants is to ensure that you're not eating crap. And here's what I say. Eat fast food, eat fast food all day long every day. And what I mean by that is it stands for something. I like to make words that, that, that sound fun for you guys to remember. Yeah. Fermented foods, antioxidants, super foods and tox and binders because a lot of people will go say, oh, activated charcoal. I did a cleanse because it does have a stronger bond. It does attach to, to toxins.
(27:24): But if you don't have strong mitochondria and you're not draining well, then all it's gonna do is hold into the toxins and not go anywhere. So toxin binders, the most effective ones are the ones that you take in supplement form that are carbon based. Those have a carbon strong bond on them and they're also leaving a healthy residue after they talk detox. What I mean by eating a diet with toxin binders, you wanna get things like spirolina cilantro, chlorella. You wanna get those in your diet in supplement form. They're not gonna be as strong as going after a lot of the toxins that we've been thrown in the last few years. Okay? So just keep that in mind, eat a fast food diet. That is the best way to boost your mitochondria. And of course you are not going to get by on five hours of sleep.
(28:09): You're just not, you need a good seven to nine hours. You need your beauty sleep. There's a reason you set sleep for a very long time. And a lot of your human growth hormone is made when you're sleeping to 95% plus a thought burning happens while you sleep because 98% of human growth hormone is being produced while you sleep. But if you don't get that sleep, then you have Houston a problem. And so the reason why a lot of people today are not able to get sleep. Restful sleep is one thing and they are suckers. They're energy suckers, they're nutrient suckers. They are vitality drainers, and they eat your iron. No wonder why your hair is falling out. It's not just from aging and those are called parasites. So I don't know if you wanna spend more time in the mitochondrial space, Dr. Kyrin, but have
(28:57): Let's we got a few more minutes. Let's jump into parasites real briefly. And then we're gonna have to wrap up, but go ahead.
(29:03): Yes, parasites. So I say first to detox, your start to detox your environment. And at the same time, you can start to detox your body and then you can also start to detox the bugs. And so the reason why you have so many talkin your body, what many people don't realize about parasites is that we all have them. It's said that we're 98% bug. So we have a symbiotic relationship with parasites and it's not all bad. I want everybody to know that parasites are not all bad parasites have. In fact, on the bad side, killed more humans than anything else in human history. The average person has at least one infection inside of them. That is not healthy for us. The, the ideal ratio of healthy microbes to unhealthy microbes would be somewhere along the lines of based on the microbe, the human microbe project we've had around for now eight years, a good ratio is 80% good bug and 20% bad, but the average person has the opposite.
(30:05): And now we have more 80% bad and 20% good. So why is it, how did all of a sudden these parasites get so obese in our body? And the reason for that is because their job is to be the bottom feeders in your body. That's their job. We don't just catch bugs. We create them. That is so, so critically important because a lot of people want to say, you got me sick, or you got me sick or that, that dog or that horse. Sure. We pass parasites between animals and each other all day long. But when you have a strong immune system, you can fight them off. When you have a strong immune system, you can call them to action. So imagine when you have a party, you need a housekeeper to come and clean up this mess, right? Whatever, you cannot excrete properly because your mitochondria is off or your drainage pathways are not optimized.
(30:52): The parasites need to come up, but clean 'em up. So they go eat them up. They're the bottom feeders of the fish tank. And when they gobble up, they could grow to be hundreds. If not thousands of times, their size of their original body. They're like chia, pets. They get bigger. And what they clean up is the heavy metals and the environmental toxins and the mold and the Canda and the bacteria and viruses. Anything. We cannot excrete becomes property of the parasites. And then, and also they end up eating your nutrients. They end up eating your B vitamins, your magnesium, your vitamin D all these supplements that you take, that you're thinking they're going, where they need to go. They can't get in the cells, which are your cells. If they're going into these parasitic cells. So they also eat, like I said, your iron.
(31:35): And that's one of the primary things that, that helps us to create new hair. Right? And like, I, like I was mentioning earlier women over the age of 40, 80% of us have stagnant bile. 25% of us have some type of diagnosed or undiagnosed thyroid disease. Thyroid disease means your metabolism is sluggish mitochondria as absolutely sluggish. 80% of us have stagnant bile flow. What does that mean? Bile carries out fat sayable toxins out of the, the bowels, whatever does not get excreted. 95% of that bowel gets recirculated back up to the gallbladder. If the gallbladder then becomes the housing unit for all of these toxins, no wonder why we so many gallbladders being removed, right? It's not the gallbladder's fault. It's because toxin so drew, they are there to clean up the mess that we cannot excrete. So what we need to, to do is go, okay, again, start with mitochondrial, open up the drainage pathways.
(32:27): Think up to the parasites. When you go up to the parasites, you gotta start with those first two steps. When you go to the parasites, also get that when you go to kill them, they're releasing all of that toxic waste, Canda mold bacteria. So we also want to have, like I said, the toxin binder, which is the tea and fast food it's toxin binder that is very strong carbon based that attaches to that waste. And that, because now your, your elimination pathways are open, can carry that waste out and let them go. And there's all kinds of parasites. So there's a lot of people who are taking the IR. And I'm not saying the full word just in case, but they're taking a lot of things, thinking, check, I'm done. I take the IR or I take, you know, wormwood or I take clove, which is great. It goes after some of the eggs, but the, the best parasite cleanse is one that has a multidisciplinary approach, many different types of herbs to go after all the different life cycles, the parasites, every single one of us needs to go after this because it truly is the root cause of so many issues that people don't even realize today.
(33:25): It is so true. And we could talk about parasites for hours, days, weeks, long time. And I know everybody wants to hear more, but we do have to wrap up. So let's do that. We've got links for Diane in the show notes. She has a great event coming up that you may wanna participate in because hopefully you've gotten what we're saying. If you've been paying attention, you can't help it. And you've heard that we're swimming in the sea of toxins. They're in you. You've got to get them out. If you want any hope of having balanced hormones. You know, I, I always say the harm. The name of the podcast is the hormone prescription. I tie everything to hormones. So some of you are sitting there thinking Hurin, didn't tie this into hormones. So let me do that for you real quick, before we go.
(34:12): So toxicity feeds directly into your cortisol stress hormone. These are stresses, right? When you think of stress, you think, oh, you know, I gotta pay my mortgage. Oh my kids' new shoes. You think of life, psychosocial stressors, your body doesn't see it that way. It, yes, adds that, but it also takes blood sugar stress, which you've heard me talk about. And it takes toxicity stress. So it, you have toxicity, you've got a cortisol problem and that's gonna unbalance your insulin, your thyroid, your sex hormones. All right. So we did it. All right. So let's wrap up. Diane has a great event coming up for you where I think she's gonna guide you through all this. I don't know you guys right now ready? Like, okay, we get it, but we need a guide. Diane's gonna guide you through this. So tell them all about it.
(35:04): Yeah, absolutely. And, and what I'll say is that the full moon is the absolute, best time to go after parasites and people might be thinking, what do you mean the full moon? That sounds scary. I'm like, well, yeah, parasites in the body not being eliminated are absolutely scary. What they do, your hormones is absolutely scary. So we actually have them coming up in September. And so what, what I'm gonna say is September 27th, and then we'll probably have another one after that, just in case if you're listening to this, and if you're hearing this any other time later, then you you're gonna find out how to get ahold of me and do this on your own. Perhaps the thing with parasites around the full moon is that on the full moon, they increase your serotonin and they decrease your melatonin. So you might think, oh, serotonin, that makes me happy.
(35:44): No, it actually makes the parasites happy. And so that's why we are whacked out and we're not ourselves. And the melatonin drops, no wonder why you can't sleep. So that's another way it affects your hormones. And that's your firefighter to, to put out inflammation when you sleep is the melatonin. So there's a reason why many of the people I work with in this cleanse sleep better. They have more energy. Their hair starts to come back and all the things we talked about get reversed today. So that's coming up September 27th. If you guys buy one of the kits and, and what's gonna happen is I, I've never done this before in terms of a webinar and just hosting it. Like this is a compliment for, for the people who get a parasite full moon kit. So step one, like I mentioned is mitochondrial support sub two drainage.
(36:21): But if you are just like, just tell me what to do, Diane, there's gonna be a couple links below. I put together one kit that is the drainage kit. And then also the step two would be the parasite cleanse kit. So that is a full kit. And you actually save money by bundling them where it's a few supplements. These are supplements that work, they won't get mucked up on your body. So I would actually do that. There is one, that's just a standalone parasite kit, and you could do that. And that has four different supplements in it. Uh, the binder I mentioned in three different types of parasite herbs, but I would start with liver and it goes liver lymph and gallbladder flow. So you're gonna experience major openings, major poops, major releases, probably a lot, some weight loss, hormone optimization, because we do have one supplement in there that will actually help to support better sleep before you go into the parasite cleanse kit.
(37:10): So if you guys get either one or both of those kits, like I said, the duo kit has a $25 off when you bundle it together. And then we also have a special for Dr. Kirin too. If you use a special supplement, uh, or a special link below, uh, that she'll put, and then if you use the coupon code full moon, 10, you'll get an additional 10% off. And what that's going to enroll you to get is an invite to special invite for only people who are serious about this, a two hour webinar with me telling you exactly what to eat, exactly what to do exactly what not to do. That's a long list, but I'll tell you the main ones not to do so that we can ensure the greatest success for this go round. And in the future, you're gonna want your whole family to consider this. And one of you can do it. And then you can also guide people to do it later on, because this is how you become your own best doctor. Especially also having doctors like Dr. Karenna follow as well. So it's, don't worry. This is for people to start asking questions. If, if, if I have this condition or if I have this symptom of this, we all need to get rid of parasite. You guys. So this is
(38:09): Everybody needs to detox. Y'all, there's no question, but I have this, but I'm on this medication, but I have this medical problem. Everybody needs to detox. If you are human and you are on the face of this planet, living and breathing, you've got toxicity. You need to detox. We do have to wrap it up. Thank you so much, Diane. We will have all the links in the show notes, full disclosure that we do receive affiliate commissions or may for anything that you purchase. But as you guys have been following me for a long time, no, I will never give you anything that I don't think is amazing. Right? So thanks. Appreciate. It's not about the money. It's about you getting what you need and if we happen to make a living, so we can continue to do what we do then that's awesome. So any last words, Diane,
(38:59): Uh, thank you for being a, a light in the dark as an MD. That's bringing this to fruition because we truly can be our own best doctor. And it takes somebody really getting out of their ego to say, I'm not the only solution you are the solution. So I just wanted to honor you for bringing this topic forth, because it really is in my perspective and my experience and my own empathy and my own healing journey, the greatest way that we can not only get rid of the parasites in our body, but also raise our vibe so that we reduce parasitic energies that suck the life out of us. And that we wonder how we can think smarter, think more positive, attract more things that are beautiful in our life. You can only raise your vibe to the extent that you're getting the things rid of it out of, in you, out of your body so that you can start to thrive again. And it's, uh, it's a beautiful life cycle as above so below. And, uh, it's an inside out journey
(39:57): As within, so without, as above so below, thank you so much, Diane, everybody click the links and check it out. And it's just like living in your house. If it was a disaster, you would know it. You would clean it up if it was dirty, but it's on the inside and you can't see it and you don't know, but now, you know, so what are you gonna do about it? I really appreciate you all for joining me for another episode of the hormone prescription. And once again, don't let this just be infotainment, just more information that you take, and then you do nothing about really your health can change tremendously just by taking one step at a time. All you need to do is take the one step that's in front of you. So what are you gonna do with this information? And I would encourage you to check Diane's information and products out and her program. And you will know if it's right for you and if it is by all means, do it. And if it's not keeping, keep looking for the answers that are out there for you, because you deserve brilliant health at every age. And I'll see you again next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all
(41:03): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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► Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?
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Do you have a case of the "caregiver syndrome?" You know, where you're so busy taking care of everyone else that you forget to take care of yourself?
If you answered yes, then you might be surprised to learn that this could be the root cause of your hormone woes.
That's right, according to world-renowned hormone expert, Dr. Venus Ramos, caregiver syndrome is one of the most common causes of hormone imbalances in women.
On this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Ramos shares her insights on how caregiver syndrome can lead to hormone imbalances and what you can do to fix it.
You'll also learn:
-The three most common symptoms of caregiver syndrome
-How caregiver syndrome can lead to hormone imbalances
-The top three hormones that are most affected by caregiver syndrome
-The steps you can take to be free of caregiver syndrome and restore balance to your hormones
-Exercise regimen, and other stress-relieving techniques that can help alleviate caregiver syndrome
-Weight loss tips
-And much more!
So if you think you might be struggling with your hormones and caregiver syndrome , then tune in to this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. You'll walk away with the knowledge and tools you need to start feeling like yourself again.
(00:00): Dr. Ramos says, stay fit, be happy and lead with love.
(00:06): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(00:59): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest, Dr. Venus, many of you saw on the Stop The Menopause Madness Summit, and you loved her. So I brought her on the podcast. She is an amazing woman who is a woman of many talents. Let me just say this she's very accomplished. You would never believe that she is the age that she is. She really looks like she's in her thirties and that's cuz she practices what she preaches. She has been a victim, if you will, or subject to caregiver syndrome all while being an elite fitness athlete. And she has thrived through that. Not only survived but thrived. And she's gonna talk to you about how you can start doing that yourself. Maybe you're in that sandwich generation, you've got older parents with health problems.
(01:55): You've got kids also, and that really can take a toll on your hormones and your health. If you're living it, you know what I'm talking about, or maybe you have family members who have lived it, it is a real thing. So I'll tell you about a Dr. Venus and then we'll get started. She's got some solutions for you. Dr. Venus is the biohacking and she's a board-certified physician of physical medicine and rehab. She has a thriving medical practice in California, and she's competed for 20 years as a national level fitness athlete. She's also a fitness trainer, and she's had clients ranging from single moms to professional athletes and an action film star. How exciting she's been a repeat guest on the TV series, the doctors, you might have seen her there , and she's been featured on several other shows, including NBC's today and American gladiators. And she contributes frequently to multiple health outlets, including I, her.com and oxygen magazine. She has a firsthand story of living through and thriving through caregiver syndrome. And we're gonna dive into it now. Welcome Dr. Venus, Hey,
(03:05): How are you doing?
(03:06): I'm doing great. I'm really excited to have you on today. You have such vast experience in so many areas. We had to talk about what to talk about, and I know that you'll weave all of your experience, knowledge and brilliance into the conversation, but I thought it's super important to focus on caregiver syndrome because this isn't something that I haven't ever covered in the podcast. It's part of your personal experience, and you have some great tips to help people. And so I thought we would dive into that first. And I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about what caregiver syndrome is and a bit about your story.
(03:51): Caregiver syndrome in general is just all of the symptoms that you experience when you have a physical, emotional and mental exhaustion from caring for somebody. Now of course, this can be caring for a loved one, or it can be caring for someone on the job for people who actually act as caregivers. A lot of times people think about caregiver syndrome being a lot of the fatigue and the overall fatigue and lethargy that you feel when you are caring for an elder. But certainly caregiver syndrome could be for new mothers who are caring for their children. So caregiver syndrome can affect pretty much anyone when they are directly involved in caring for someone else.
(04:38): Okay. And so who's mostly affected by caregiver syndrome. What happens? Why does it occur and how might someone know that they're having this?
(04:48): Well, oftentimes, especially when you're talking about caregiving for a loved one, this is something that happens because you are so intent. You are oftentimes so emotionally
involved in making sure that your loved one is being taken good care of. Oftentimes you start to neglect those very important things that you must do in order to care for yourself, you will perhaps not eat as well. You don't dedicate enough time to relaxing and getting enough sleep on your own. These are things that often may happen because you're very concerned, which it's important to do so about making sure that your loved one gets the care that you want them to have. You may be feeling very exhausted. You may be feeling very frustrated. You may start feeling that you're noticing that your clothes are fitting more tightly because you simply are putting on more weight. These are all the things that can happen. You may be more irritable. You might notice that you are starting to become more irritable with taking care of your loved one. And that's actually something that I started noticing in my own life when I started taking care of my father. And that's when I knew immediately at that particular moment in time that I needed to make a change.
(06:09): Yeah, I remember a client. I had, we were working on her health. She had all kinds of cortisol problems. Her weight was going up. She was really struggling with that. Her doctor was treating her for anxiety and depression and then she was having trouble sleeping and with her sex drive and it was just all these things. And she really was the only one taking care of her mom, even though she had siblings. And when we talked about it, she was getting so much resentment that her siblings weren't helping her at all. She was just saying that she felt so put upon and she almost had become like a martyr and used it kind of that anger and resentment. And then her mom wasn't nice to her too. So put that on top. So there was a lot of conflict there. She was struggling sticking to the things that she knew she should eat to benefit her that were nurturing versus junk food.
(07:05): And so that was one thing that we talked about and she hadn't really seen this as a syndrome of any type, but she was the only one. So when we had the conversation about, wow, this is really common. It affects a lot of women in the 40 to 60 year old range. And it affects on men as well. And one of the ways that it often shows up is that people start having health problems themselves. And they don't realize how much of a stress, particularly on their cortisol, the actual physical caregiving, the emotional caregiving, the mental, the spiritual what a toll it's taking on them until they really talk about it and unpack it. And I find that it's not necessarily a common topic of conversation. Did you feel like that when you were going through it and as if you weren't supported by the public in general, it's not a topic of conversation. People didn't know what you were going through.
(08:07): Well, I thought for myself, I felt myself slipping into this hole or falling into it and staying there of apathy where I really didn't care about myself or my help. And I just kind of stayed in this pit. And for me it was almost like there was an element of shame to it as well, because this happened to me and my family because my father had a stroke as a rehab physician. This happens to be one of my specialties caring for, for stroke patients and making sure that their families are educated in what's involved in caring for a loved one who has stroke. So this is something that I specialize in and when it happens in my own family and I find myself very protective of my father, knowing that I know how things are supposed to go. So this is how it's going to go.
(09:03): And I need to watch to make sure that everything is going the right way. I became very involved in making sure he had the best perfect caregiving after his stroke. And of course, I'm the only one who can give that, right? Because I'm the doctor , I should be able to do this and no one else can do this. Only you Venus only you only me and being a fitness competitor as well. I had done this actually almost 20 years. I knew about nutrition. I knew about training. I knew how to stick to any nutrition and exercise program, despite whatever kind of crazy schedule I had, cuz I'd been doing this for 20 years. So me thinking I was the authority in taking care of a stroke patient and the authority in staying fit and healthy, I should be able to handle this no problem, but very quickly I began to just forget about myself because the work of maintaining my medical practice and making sure that my father was getting the perfect care from me was just too much for me to also squeeze in all of that nutrition and exercise stuff that I knew about as well.
(10:15): So that's where it started to become the caregiver syndrome, where I started neglecting some of my nutrition. I started neglecting the exercise that had become such a habit in my life. It was no longer a habit because my whole life kind of got flipped upside down into adding this whole other person that I was taking care of as perfectly as possible because I'm supposed to be the expert. So there was a, a bit of shame on my part in accepting the fact that this is where I had slipped to and fall into because I had held myself to a, a certain standard. So for me there was shame involved. But the thing that turned it around was that I was so tired. I was so exhausted. I had started gaining weight. I was sitting on the couch for just a little bit of a breather.
(11:07): When I heard my father ring the bell that calls for help whenever he needed something. And that bell triggered such a feeling of anger and frustration in me. And as I walked up towards his door, his bedroom door to take care of whatever he might need. I realized that there was this tension in my face that there was anger in my heart. And I realized I did not wanna enter that room, looking that way, feeling that way. Cuz I knew that was something he would certainly be able to sense and I never wanted him to feel like he was a burden to me. And that's when I realized I needed to do something to take better care of myself. So I didn't have those feelings. I didn't wanna feel frustrated, irritated, angry, or looked that way either.
(11:56): You know, I love that. And I think that sometimes what might be part of the difficulty with caregiver syndrome is that children and their parents can be, haven't worked through any conflict that they've had throughout their lives, that this situation could escalate it. And so I always encourage people in that situation to unpack any unresolved issues to iron them out so that they can be there for their loved one from a place of love and from a place of being grateful to have the opportunity to provide care in that way. This was part of my client's story. When we talked about it, she had a whole lot of unresolved resentment towards her mom. And so that was getting heaped on top of the fact that she really did come from a good place. She wanted to be there for her mom and she had all these unresolved issues. So when you take that and then the burden of having to spend so much time and energy every day, it really did get to a place where she was resentful of her mom every day. So was that the breaking point for you where you decided I have to do something different?
(13:09): It absolutely was. I knew that I did not what my father himself to fall into any kind of a depression again, I was kind of, for me, the motivating factor was love for my father. I did not. I wanted him to get the very best care and I felt like by ignoring my own care, I was not able to do that for him. That was really what I felt as my motivation, but it absolutely made me want to do something to get back on track for me. I had to start with just the simplest of things and all I did the very next morning was just get on my recumbent bike and I started just pedaling away for 10 minutes in the morning. The first thing I did, that's basically all I could
(13:54): Do. Okay. And so you had had a pretty rigorous health routine prior to all this and you had gone away from it. So you said, okay, what's one thing I can do today. You got on your RECU bike and how did that start changing things and what did you do next?
(14:12): Well, I really felt like it was important for me to do something, something that was more mobile than what I had been doing. And really that was how I started. I started with just 10 minutes a day. I slowly started to increase it by five minutes, 15 minutes. And then I went to 20 minutes. I just started becoming a little bit more mobile as I became more mobile and started increasing some physical activity. I felt myself feeling better and I felt myself even more motivated to do even more, which is of course the natural thing that happens in a human body when it becomes more physically active. So that's when I decided, okay, I've got this, I'm doing full half hour in the morning. Oh my goodness. I'm starting to get back there now. So let me start focusing on nutrition. So I decided I was just gonna start with, let me just focus on having the best breakfast that I can every morning and just make a healthier choice in the morning, rather than just stopping by to grab a coffee and donut on the way into the office. So that was my next step to just make a healthier choice for my first meal of the day.
(15:27): Okay. So little steps. And then what started to happen? What changed first?
(15:33): Again, more and more. I started feeling better. I felt like I was starting my morning off better. I had more physical activity now I was adding another element of eating healthier and that just again, one step at a time I started changing what I was doing. Then I started making better changes, healthier choices at lunchtime. And again, it was very, very simple to do. And then I was able to add some of the strength training that I was used to doing. Again, I was squeezing this in, but I was making a conscious effort to start adding strength training by doing just simple body weight exercises. And this was as simple as going to the kitchen and adding squat routine in right before I decided to do the dishes cuz I was squatting to load the dishwasher anyway. So again, there was just basic things that I was doing, but it would stimulate my brain to remember, okay, this is what I'm going to do now.
(16:35): Cause the other thing that's important to remember is I couldn't just jump into the gym and well I could have, but I couldn't just jump into the gym and return to that really rigorous and vigorous exercise routine that I had been used to when I was competing for fitness competitions, that type of routine likely would've led me to be extremely sore immediately after. And when that happens, it's super easy just to say, oh, forget this. I'm not going to exercise anymore. And that could delay you for another couple of weeks and it's easy to, to fall back off the wagon when you overdo it in the beginning.
(17:12): Mm-Hmm right. That's a great point. I'm just wondering on average, how many hours a day were you spending, helping your parents? I think that the amount of time that you spend really can put a crunch on your free time. So how much time were you personally spending and then how can someone proactively navigate this journey? If they know, oh, I'm gonna have to spend two hours with my parent every day and a half hour getting there and a half hour back. So that's three hours as it's gonna cut into their time. What information can you give people to help them consciously navigate this? So they don't end up having caregiver syndrome, but maybe they could avoid it.
(17:52): Absolutely. I think that it's really important to calculate how much care is really involved. If I had to add it all up, I would say at least six hours in the day I actually moved in with my parents. I had a home for both my mom and dad when they moved out to join me here in California and I moved into that home so that I could help my mom take better care of my father. I did have a caregiver to assist my father at something of course that we recommend for patients once they leave the rehab hospital after a stroke. So I did have a caregiver, but again, me being very overprotective, I felt like I wanted to oversee so much of it when the caregiver first came over. So there was an element of trusting the caregiver that was involved. And again, this was a lot to do with me, just recognizing that I didn't have to be the only caregiver who was there physically to make sure things were run perfectly. And again, this is all about having the right team around you, involving my mother, involving the caregiver, making sure that I'm comfortable with their knowledge, by giving them the appropriate training on how to provide that care. So understand how much time you do have in the day, how much time you can allocate and then work with a team of some sort, whether it's a hired caregiver, whether it's your family and work together so that you really trust each other to take care of the person that you want to make sure gets that care.
(19:41): Yeah, because if you don't take care of it, then it can end up in burnout. I guess it goes past just caregiver syndrome to caregiver burnout. And nobody wants that. My client was really on the verge of that. So now along with your career, as a physician and helping with your father and helping families who have, because you're in the rehabs medicine sector, you help families to rehabilitate and help their loved ones to recover. You're a fitness model for many years and you help people with weight loss and you have a lot of tips. And I think that people would love to hear, how did you maintain your weight and your health? I mean, we heard about you had slacked off a little and you started back on the bike and doing squats with the dishwasher. I could visualize that , I'm thinking, could I squat and load the dishwasher? I don't know. I'm gonna have to try it. and so what are some other things that people can do? Maybe they don't have a loved one that they're caring for, but they want to lose weight. And I know that's something you help people with, or maybe they have a lot of pressures. Maybe it's not a loved one. Maybe they just have a very demanding job or a lot of social activities or obligations. What are some of the main tenants that you give people to follow to help them maintain or lose weight?
(21:08): Well, I think that especially coming outta the whole caregiver syndrome life that I had and trying to resume some semblance of self care, I realized how important it was to have a lot of that knowledge that I had prior to that in really optimizing my fitness level for competition and being able to squeeze that into a busy work schedule. So being able to have that knowledge was certainly really important for me in resuming any kind of training of any kind. And I think that it's important to really understand how to negotiate, that, how to fit a fit lifestyle into a busy schedule. And that's what I like to do for all of my clients and even my patients when I'm trying to encourage them to incorporate exercise and nutrition into their life, because of course doing that can help my rehab patients and my pain management patients that I see in the office as it decreases inflammation in the body.
(22:16): So probably the number one tip I start off with for everyone. And we've touched on this a little bit already, is to make sure that you are managing your cortisol levels, that you are managing the stress in your life because it's so very important because cortisol and all of its pathways that it acts on in your body can do so much to basically counteract anything that you're trying to do in terms of staying fit and being healthy and losing weight. If that is your goal. So start off with a very specific plan on being able to manage that. And a lot of that, I tell people as they're about approaching any kind of a health and fitness plan, they get concerned about, oh, I need to do an hour of cardio a day. I need to be prepping all my meals. I need to know exactly how many calories of this I'm doing.
(23:15): I need to make sure I'm, there's so much that they get worried about that. They become overwhelmed with their diet and their nutrition and you get these spikes of cortisol and then your cortisol levels remain high and there's no balance there. And then they're struggling trying to figure out why is this not working? Well, you're all stressed out. it's not gonna work out if you're not, if you're all stressed out. So definitely having a, a plan to manage that is gonna be very important right off the bat. Even if you're starting with a very simple, deep breathing exercises sometime during the day on a daily basis, that at least is a starting point. The other thing I like to talk a lot about is making exercise manageable, cuz I think these are the things that are often hard for people to do because they say, I need to spend that hour on the treadmill, but it's not necessary to do that.
(24:12): You can start with just breaking it up into 10 minute chunks in a day, cuz you can get health benefits from that that's been shown. But what I like to do when you're really ready to take on more and get a little bit more intense with your exercise regimen, I like to tell people about doing high intensity interval training. This is something that people have heard a lot about. They've heard about interval training hit is often what it goes by high intensity interval training. But what I do notice is a lot of people don't really know what that is or they're doing it because they heard that it's what they're supposed to be doing. And then when I see what they think is a hit routine, it's not . So I think that education about that is, is really important. And the reason why hit has become so popular is because it can be done in shorter amounts of time. You can achieve really good benefit towards weight loss by doing a hit routine. But if you're not doing it correctly, then you're not getting the benefits that you think you're getting really intense exercise in short periods of time. And that short period of time is often the appeal that you're able to get. Mm-Hmm a good workout in such a short period of time. And
(25:30): So when you say they're not doing it right, can you tell people, cause some people are listening and going, am I doing it right? Tell, so tell us Dr. , how do they know?
(25:39): Well, high intensity interval training when you're speaking of any kind of interval training you're you're talking about exercising at a very high intensity and then breaking it up, alternating it with exercising at a lower intensity so that you're exercising a lot of people. If you're talking about even doing sprints, running on a treadmill, basically running at a high level on a treadmill and then slowing it down and going to more of a moderate level on that treadmill, just breaking that up and going back and forth. That's interval training. Now, if you are doing high intensity interval training correctly, that means that you are performing as high and as maximum of your performance level as possible. When you hit that high interval and then going to your low interval, you have to do that low interval for a long enough period of time that your body is able to recover, recover enough that you can truly reach that maximum potential.
(26:42): Again, when you are exercising, I often see people doing intervals with a ratio of maybe let's say 30 seconds, that you're exercising at a high intensity for 30 seconds. And then you're going back down to a lower intensity for another 30 seconds. Then you go up to a higher intensity again for another 30 seconds and you're alternating back and forth. Now in general, most people are not gonna be able to get full recovery, to be able to achieve that high intensity, that maximum intensity in just 30 seconds. That's just a one-to-one ratio in order to do high intensity interval training that you would generally need to spend more on the line of a one to two or as even as long as a one to six ratio. So if you're going to be doing a high intensity for 30 seconds, most people are gonna need a full 60 seconds of a lower intensity to get enough recovery time to hit that maximum potential again on their next high intensity interval. So it's the ratio. That's gonna be very important.
(27:48): So if people are going to some type of gym where it's a workout, that's being given to them, how can they know if it's true hit or not just by the length of the intervals and the capacity that you're using?
(28:03): Exactly. It's for the most part, you're going to really, it's really a sense of feeling for themselves if you're going to a class and they're basically telling you what your inner world should be. This is often what most people find themselves in will go to a class. Perhaps it's even a cycling class and they wanna do some high intensity interval training. It's harder to do that in the class setting because everyone's recovery time is gonna be a little bit different. So what you are actually doing, if you're not getting full recovery, if you're not feeling that you're recovered enough and we can talk a little bit about this more, but that's gonna actually have to do with what your heart rate is at that time. And starting to know what those heart rate ranges are for you. Mm-Hmm , if you aren't fully recovered during that lower intensity interval, then if your group instructor takes you to a higher intensity again, right away, what you are actually doing is more of an aerobic workout.
(29:02): There's nothing wrong with doing an aerobic workout. Just know that the benefits that you're gonna get are gonna be different than a high intensity interval training. Most people wanna do that high intensity interval training because it's going to kind of keep their metabolism burning more fat for a longer period of time throughout the day when they're not exercising. That's one of the benefits that people love about high intensity interval training that the, the fat burning continues when they're not working out. You're not necessarily gonna get that if you don't get that recovery time. So if you're being led into another high intensity interval before you're fully recovered, just know that you are getting an aerobic exercise class and that's not necessarily a bad thing. Aerobic exercise is good for you too.
(29:49): Yeah, right. Yes. So get, I mean hit training and intermittent fasting. You can't go wrong doing both of those actually. And then what about weights? Cause I'm sure that's a part of your routine as well. And I think so many women are extremely confused about weights. I think a lot of women avoid them altogether. They go to resistance training. No, I don't do it. I see other women who use two and five pound weights, which in my humble opinion is probably not enough stress on the muscles than what's needed. And I think people are just confused. So help enlighten us
(30:29): Well again, this is something that's gonna be very, very individual for the person numbers are going to change depending how strong you become. As you continue to work out, you hopefully will continue to get stronger and be able to lift heavier weights. Oftentimes what I will tell people is to just start counting their reps because that's the repetitions because that's really the easiest way to start tracking how much weight you should be using when you are working two strength training and that resistance training. That's going to work on really toning your muscles. I'm not talking about bulking up your muscles because bulking is gonna require a lot of fine tuning of your nutrition. Again, that's another discussion. We can save, save that for a little bit, but just to get that really toned physique and stronger muscle structure, which is also very important for the human body.
(31:27): Your repetitions really should not be going any longer than about eight repetitions. When you do eight repetitions of any exercise, we'll just go with the most basic exercise I can think of right now, which is the bicep curl. You grab a weight, you start doing it up and down, up and down. You count to eight. If that last script is really difficult to do, and you might not be able to do another one without some sort of an assistance, then that amount of weight, the weight of that dumbbell is appropriate for you to do true strength training. You've done eight repetitions and you are about maxed out. You wouldn't be able to do another one unless you really had some assistance. That is the right wait for you to use in strength training. At that time, of course, as you get stronger, you might start being able to go higher.
(32:19): You might be able to reach 10 without, before someone would have to assist you. If you were at 10, then that means you need to grab a heavier weight and go even higher. So that's the point where you would start increasing the amount of weight you're getting. If you are going more than 10, 11, 12, again, that is rate you are still gonna gonna be getting some sort of a workout, but you're going to be achieving different things. When you're getting up to 10 to 15 repetitions while holding a weight that is going to be conditioning for your muscles, but you're not really gonna be doing the strength training that is going to help in terms of really shaping your body.
(33:00): Okay? And I know some people are wondering, I think one of the reasons why many women use lower weights is they're afraid they're going to bulk up, which has not been my observation. That that's a problem and loss of muscle and bone mass is those are two of the hugest contributors to deterioration of our health. As we age contributing to cognitive decline, osteoporosis, hip fracture, all kinds of things. But I know there are some women listening who are like, okay, he you're, you've done fitness modeling. You know how to get that, but really nice muscular definition. Tell us your secrets. So please share your secrets with them.
(33:40): Well, again, it's going to depend upon how much muscle you really wanna show. Some people really like that define the little Deloid cap on their shoulders. Some people don't, again, it's a matter of your personal preference in terms of what you want your body to feel like. And of course it also happens to matter on what your body is naturally going to develop. There's a lot of genetics involved as well. However, when you're working out, if you see that when you're doing eight pound repetitions, that your muscles are really starting to take shape, then you're doing great in terms of what your exercise is going to be able to do. If you're doing the eight repetitions and you're not really starting to see the shape that you're liking, that may be an indication that your nutrition is often your muscles. Aren't getting all of the nutrition it needs in order to appropriately shape your body.
(34:35): Oftentimes that involves the protein that you're taking in. So this again differs from person to person, but you can think about numbers along the lines of three quarters of a gram to one full gram of protein. When you're talking about how much protein that you want on a daily basis on your compared to your body weight. So when you're getting that much protein in, then you're talking about the body builders, I'm super heavy type of diet. That's going to get you that bulk, most women are not taking that much. So you would only need to take more along the lines of a quarter to half of a gram, if you wanted to just get more shape.
(35:26): So just to translate and clarify what you're saying for people, women who want to bulk up like a body builder, they would take a gram protein for pound of body weight. So if you're 150 pounds, you eat 150 grams of protein, but if you just want, have average muscle mass, it would be about half, half that or five grams. Yeah. Correct. All right. Just wanted to, so
(35:49): There's a lot of, again, there's a lot of fine tuning of your nutrition when it comes to bulking up. And if you're not getting that huge amount of protein, as well as carbohydrates, there's a lot of hydrates into doing that as well because your body needs fuel to build that much muscle up as well. Most women are simply not going to eat that mini grams of carbohydrates and protein in order to bulk up to that body Boulder level. So I wouldn't necessarily worry about doing that, but you may be just needing to increase your protein level more. If you see that your muscles aren't taking the shape that you would like.
(36:27): I had a medical assistant who worked for me a few years ago and she did bikini competitions. And I had no idea how much work went into preparing for that. It was a real lesson for me. I mean, her diet was so regimented so far out from the competition, but week by week as to the macronutrient proportions and grand, she had to eat and her work out schedule, it was really an extra part-time job. And she was a wife and a mom. I mean, she looked amazing, but I think a lot of us, when we see women in these competitions, at least I used to think, oh, she's born that way. It's her genetics. And you know, it's really not a big deal until I saw that this is an entire part-time job for her. It was very strict, very regimented. And it was emotionally challenging. Also I saw the pressure on her, but she loved it. So ,
(37:28): It's definitely for someone. And if you can handle that type of pressure and that type of stress, then certainly go for it. But that's, again, that's very much of an athlete's mentality yes. To, to compete at that level. And again, you don't need to do that in order to look great and be healthy. So you don't need to compare yourself to those athletes.
(37:52): Yes. Athletes, and that's the right word. And then they're in a different category. Cause I don't look at football players and think, wow, that's so regimented, how good do that? You know, I, but I give myself a break. I don't have to be like the bikini or fitness competition women. So as we wrap up, we've covered two very important topics. And there's one thing we topic we haven't covered on that applies to both that. I think we'd be remiss if we didn't touch on and that is sleep. Can you talk about the importance of sleep for not only weight loss and maybe you preparing for your competitions, but for preventing and treating caregiver syndrome and burnout?
(38:31): Oh my gosh. Sleep is so important in absolutely every single thing that you mentioned, it's important in terms of preventing caregiver syndrome, preventing that burnout simply because your body needs that recovery time. So very important. The recovery that you get during the night to actually fuel yourself during the day is so important to making sure that you are physically and mentally still able to thrive during the day. So absolutely must be able to do that. It's also important because if you are trying to do something like lose weight, there are various hormonal changes that occur specifically during your sleep that can affect your ability to do that. Of course, we talk about recovery and your body being able to refuel itself during the evening times, but there's also specific changes that happen in terms of your appetite, hormones lectin and Graylin. And oftentimes those hormones change such that you start to want to eat more, that appetite hormone that makes you want to eat more.
(39:48): That starts to go up when you're not getting enough sleep. So you need to get enough sleep so that you don't have these cravings of wanting to eat when you are awake. So that is another important thing. I really think that sleep in it in and of itself is important in terms of duration. But it's also important in terms of when you're getting that sleep, there are different cycles that your body goes through different cycles of sleep that your gut body goes through when you get your rest. And when you're able to sleep earlier in the day, then you're going to get more of that restorative sleep. That's really going to help you during the, the morning and the rest of the day. So if you're able to fall asleep a little bit earlier in the evening, I say, get maybe even two to three hours before midnight, you're able to do that. You're gonna end up getting more restorative sleep. As far as duration goes, there are a lot of different opinions, a lot of different research based on all of the different research that I've looked at. The minimum number that I'm looking at is around seven and a half hours of sleep. So that's my recommendation in terms of how much sleep you should be getting so that you get the benefits of the recovery time, the restorative effects for your body B and the changes in your appetite that they don't happen as well.
(41:15): Yeah, seven and a half hours at least earlier better. And I know some women say that they wake up early and then I say, well, what time are you going to bed? And they say 11 or 12 o'clock well, if you get bed earlier, you might stay asleep longer. But I think that's super important. What you mentioned about the leptin and grillin changing with sleep, and when you're sleep deprived, then you get cravings, food cravings, and nobody wants that. And for caregivers, you know, it is so cortisol, restorative, you detox during your sleep and with their, especially your brain detoxifies, you also consolidate memories. So sleep, I call it the nectar of life. And if you're not getting enough nectar in your life, you need to get more sleep nectar.
(42:02): I love that it will help
(42:04): it will help your way. It will help if you are in a crunch for care syndrome or burnout, but even just for all of us who have such full lives right now, I D know about U Venus, but between my phone and my iPad and my computer and the mail and all the things that are going on in the it's like, it feels a little overwhelming how you feel that way right now.
(42:29): Definitely. Which is why I definitely my time away from my electronics
(42:35):\ Yeah, just shut it all down. And I had to do that earlier today. Just go for a walk in nature, look at the dragon flies and the trees and the birds. And so anyway, this has been a great conversation. I think it we've covered a lot of important topics. You're such a role model for women everywhere. You accomplish so much, and you do it with such style and equanimity, everybody listening. I've been around Dr. Venus, and she's just the most calm, humble, loving person. You would never know that she's accomplished all the things that she's accomplished and that she helps so many people. And I think you just walking in the world, being who you are, inspires women and people everywhere to do their best and live their best lives. So thank you so much for coming on the podcast and sharing your wisdom and your story, a very personal story and everything that you have to offer. Thank you so much.
(43:37): I do appreciate that. And thank you. You've lifted my spirits today.
(43:42): and we do have a free download that Dr. Venus has for you. We will have the link in the show notes and it is her. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about it? 15 minute, better body blueprint. What are they gonna find there?
(43:59): You're going to find some very simple steps. There are actually five hacks that you can add to your daily life that you can accomplish with just 15 minutes of your day. That will help you be healthier, hopefully happier because you are healthier and feeling really, really good. So I think that it's gonna be super helpful for you if you're really wanting to achieve that, that better body and you're crunched for time. So just gimme 15 minutes. I'm not asking for that whole, all the treadmill,
(44:30): Just gimme 15 minutes. okay. Now, before we go, I have to share something. I just saw on the prep sheet that I did not see before, and I cannot believe this. So one of the things Dr. Venus put on the prep sheet is that we could talk about her returning to competition at age 50. There is no way you are 51st off. Oh my gosh. So y'all you must load download her better body blueprint. Cause literally we've been at masterminds together and I thought she was 30 years old. So now I just saw this. I didn't see at age 50. So you for sure. Wanna check out her tips. Thanks so much for joining me, Dr. Venus. Thank you. And thank you all for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so glad you chose to spend some time with us today. Hopefully you learned something that you can put into action in your life to start moving your health towards the optimum health that you deserve. It is your birthright. So hopefully it was entertaining, but mostly educational and inspirational. Pick one thing, take action today, and then share your results with me on social media. And until
(45:51): Next week
(45:52): I will see you. Peace, love and hormones. Y'all
(45:55): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Get FREE access to The 15-Minute Better Body Blueprint by Dr. Venus Ramos.
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CLICK HERE.
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Do you want to improve your health and lose weight? Are you tired of feeling sluggish and bloated? If so, then it's time to try intermittent fasting!
Intermittent fasting is a powerful tool that can help you reset your metabolism, burn fat, and improve your overall health. But it can be tough to get started.
That's why we're excited to have Gin Stephens on the show today.
Gin Stephens is the author of the NY Times and USA Today bestseller Fast. Feast. Repeat., and Delay, Don't Deny: Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle, an Amazon #1 best seller in the weight loss category, as well as Clean(ish): Eat (Mostly) Clean, Live (Mainly) Clean, and Unlock Your Body's Natural Ability to Self-Clean (2022), another Amazon #1 bestseller in several categories. Gin has lived the intermittent fasting lifestyle since 2014, losing over 80 pounds. She is the host of 2 top-ranked podcasts: Intermittent Fasting Stories and the Life Lessons podcast (w/Sheri Bullock). You can join her private community by going to ginstephens.com/community.
Gin will share her secrets for success with intermittent fasting, including how to overcome obstacles, what to eat (and what not to eat), and how to make fasting a sustainable lifestyle.
In this episode, you'll learn:
► The benefits of intermittent fasting
► How to get started with intermittent fasting
► How to overcome obstacles to success
► What to eat (and what not to eat) while intermittent fasting
► How to make intermittent fasting a sustainable lifestyle
So, if you're ready to learn how to lose weight, feel great, and take control of your health, then this episode is for you! Tune in now and start your journey to better health today.
(00:00): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(00:53): Hey everybody. And welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. I have a special guest you're gonna love when I met her recently at one of our masterminds. I loved her immediately and you will too. She is a wealth of knowledge and just so warm and relatable and has such a gentle way of making what I can kind of make really complicated, pretty easy and simple to follow, which is a gift. So I'll tell you a little bit about her, and then we'll get started. Gin Stephens is the author of the New York Times and USA Today Best seller, Fast. Feast. Repeat., and Delay, Don't Deny: Living an Intermittent Fasting Lifestyle, an Amazon number one bestseller in the weight loss category, as well as Clean(ish): Eat (Mostly) Clean, Live (Mainly) Clean, and Unlock Your Body's Natural Ability to Self-Clean (2022), another Amazon. Number one best seller in several categories. Jen has lived the intermittent fasting lifestyle since 2014, losing over 80 pounds. Choose the host of two top rank podcast, Intermittent Fasting Stories and The Life Lessons podcast with Sheri Bullock. And you can join her private community by going to ginstephens.com/community. Welcome Gin.
(02:18): Well, so nice to see you. Good to be here with you today.
(02:22): Yeah, I'm so excited to have you here. And we are doing a live podcast interview with masterclass. So some of the ladies from my midlife metabolism programs are here and they're gonna get to listen and watch live and then ask questions later, which is a super fun benefit of being in my programs. So I think they'll really enjoy that. So how did you get started with intermittent fasting? It sounds like you were overweight. What was going on for you?
(02:54): Yeah, I was actually obese and , it's a hard word to say, right? I was 210 pounds at five five, and you know, I have a long weight loss, weight loss story, just like so many people do that involves lots of years of yo-yoing, right? Probably most women and men these days can relate to that. And I was always looking for a way to lose the weight and keep it off for good, but it never happened. You know, I, I thought about this recently and it just struck me, you know, I've been at my goal now since 2015, I've been in the same goal range, wearing the same clothes. This is the first time I'm 53. I just turned 53. This is the only time in my life from birth that I have maintained a stable weight for a period of time. Cause you know, the first, you know, whatever it is, 18 years you're growing.
(03:42): So I was growing and then right for the next years I was yo-yoing. I mean, there was always a time when every year I was getting bigger than I was dieting, then I was gaining and I was losing and it just kept going. And like probably so many people listening the yo-yo years get, get higher. Right. You lose some, then you gain more, then you lose a little, then you gain more. And so that's pretty much what happened to me. You know, I did all the things starting from my first diet. Really. I was counting calories during college. Like so many of us were mm-hmm and my first like real diet though, I think was the low fat era. When I graduated from college, it was the early nineties. So I started with the low, low fat loss. A lot of weight, looked awful, ate a lot of snack Wells oh my gosh.
(04:29):I remember those. And also, do you remember SpaghettiOs had zero grams of fat, zero grams of that 11 on spaghetti and snack Wells, which is certainly not what, what they meant with eat low fat. Right. But that's what I was doing. Probably most people too, but I just kept trying everything over the years, you know? And it got wackier and wackier from the HCG diet lost a lot of weight gained even more back. I took doctor prescribed diet pills. It was super get those. They'll give 'em to you. You lose the weight long as you keep taking 'em. Right. But that was no good, but it basically, I trashed my metabolism with all of those diets. Now I first heard about intermittent fasting, probably around 2009. You know, I was the person that would go to the Amazon weight loss category and look at all the books that were bestsellers and see what people were doing.
(05:21): And I would buy them. And actually I would first read the comments, right? What everybody said on Amazon, looking for that next best diet. So it's no surprise that I stumbled upon intermittent fasting and I would dabble in it here and there from oh nine to 14. But you know, we didn't know anything about it. Back then. Mm-Hmm everyone who was writing about intermittent fasting in the early days all said it works cause you're eating fewer calories. So here are some ways to eat fewer calories through intermittent fasting. And there was like a five hour window that was Dr. Burt hearing's fast five plan. There was alternate daily fasting. You could do. You were having a down day followed by an up day. You know, one day you did it one day, you didn't. And but every single plan talked about, it's just calorie restriction in an eating window or every other day.
(06:08): So I would dabble in it. But you know, I didn't understand so many things. I know now I didn't understand about insulin. I didn't understand about being metabolically flexible and what that means. And so I dabbled and my body never became adapted to fasting any of the times that I tried it. Cause I didn't give it long enough. Mm-Hmm I also didn't understand something. I now call the clean fast, which you can talk about a little bit later, but basically I lived in the hard part and it never got to be something that felt easy or good mm-hmm so I just kept dieting and all those years still wasn't doing well until finally in 2014, I went on a family cruise and we were in the Caribbean for seven days. It was a wonderful trip, but I looked at the pictures of me with my family and like those formal night pictures on a cruise ship.
(06:59): Mm-Hmm yeah. I was like, who is that in the picture? I looked like myself, but like inflated, like someone had put a pump in my mouth and my whole body just felt inflated. And I remember on that trip, we did this wonderful excursion where we were hiking up the Mayan ruins and it was really hard to carry my body, which was 80 pounds heavier than it is today. Up those Mayan ruins up those steps. I was like, I just can't do this. And so I was just miserable the whole time. So I came back home and said, this is the time I've gotta do something. Well, I turned to HCG one more time. and of course, you know, I was like, I can't do this ever again. I can't do this ever again. So I quit that. And that summer, August of 2014, I found my way back to intermittent fasting for the last time.
(07:43): Meaning that I stuck with it. There's the difference. I stuck with it and I never quit doing it. And so I wanted to lose 75 pounds. I lost those 75, went on to lose about five more. And I've been maintaining the loss since 2015, which is wow. Astonishing. Because like I said, I had never been the same weight season after season after season. So that's, what's, what's changed for me is maintenance has been, you know, pretty easy. My honesty pants get a little tight. I know what to do. You know, I've now been through menopause. I went through that at 51 and yeah, my body just keeps feeling great and intermittent fasting is not so secret.
(08:27): Well, not so secret secret, that sounds like a book. So I know everybody will dive into the details, but I know some people are thinking really Jen, you didn't exercise and work out at the gym, like crazy. Really Jen, you didn't, you know this, that or the other, none of that.
(08:43): No. And you know, really, I've never been someone who loved to do a lot of exercise. And interestingly enough, I had my DNA analyzed through 23. Me ran it through a couple of different third party websites. That'll tell you things about yourself. I was so not surprised when it came to exercise, my DNA report said not likely to lose weight with exercise and some people get the opposite. Some people have a genetic profile where exercise is required for them to lose weight. But for me, I mean, I, I do exercise. Don't get me wrong. I'm now doing water aerobics. We just moved. I do water aerobics every single day that I can get to it. And I'm an active person. I'm not sedentary, but exercise has never been that. Like I never once started an exercise program and bam, the weight came off. It's always had to be something else.
(09:30): Right. Okay, great. So let's dive into it. You talked about when intermittent fasting first came out, there were different people with different plans and you kind of bopped around and tried different ones. Mm-Hmm talk about what was the plan that you initially started with? Are you still with that? What are the details kind of, and then also maybe break down some lingo. I think hopefully most people have heard of intermittent fasting so they know what you're feeding window needs, right? You're fasting interval, things like that, but maybe they don't so feel free to fill in the basics. I'm always doing the podcast as a listener and some people are gonna be newbies and others are gonna be experts. So I try to keep them all along for the ride. So feel free to detail us.
(10:13): All right. Well the most common intermittent fasting approach is the daily eating window approach, which is formally known as time restricted eating, which some people like a lot better because you know, the word fasting is a little scary. You know, I didn't make this up. There's a saying that that goes along with fasting and it's brilliant. And the saying goes like this diets are easy in contemplation, but hard in execution. Right. You know, we've all like thought about a new diet, oh, this is gonna be fabulous. But then we crash and burn. Cause it's really hard to keep up a restrictive diet long term. Well, fasting is completely opposite. Fasting is hard in contemplation, but it's easy in execution. It only sounds like it's gonna be hard. You know, what was really hard was all the diets that I was doing when I was eating, you know, small meals all throughout the day that was miserable.
(11:02): The low calorie diets I did before. But with intermittent fasting, once your body adapts and you find what really works well for you and your body is metabolically flexible. Mm-Hmm you get to figure out what your ideal eating window is, what time of day that works best for you. We're not all the same. I have an evening eating window. Some of my foundations, I mentioned earlier with Dr. Burt, hearing's fast five approach and he's 19 five. That's what he did himself. And that was one of the very earliest. I think that was the earliest book out about eating windows. He just kind of figured it out and he didn't start eating till five and he had a five hour eating window. So that's fast five. He started five. You go for five now. Of course, that's not exactly how I do it. I don't wait till five to open my window, but that's what worked for him.
(11:50): So his program was wait till five, then have a five hour eating window. He's like, or you can move it around. However you want. Mm-Hmm , which is really what I did. So a five hour eating window is a great eating window length for me. And I feel better when I opened my window in the afternoon today I opened three 30 and I had like a little snack. And then I had dinner with my husband before we started talking today. We usually don't eat till around seven, but I ate a little earlier today just for y'all mm-hmm and, and my window is closed. So I probably had a three hour eating window today. And that's just how it worked because by the time we're done, I'm not gonna want to eat again. And I've had enough. I'm not hungry anymore, but it's a very flexible way to live.
(12:31): But just this morning, you know, you mentioned, I have a podcast called intermittent fasting stories today. I interviewed, I think it was number 249 on the podcast and she has a morning eating window. She opens her eating window at seven 30 in the morning and she has a light breakfast. And then she has a really hearty lunch around one o'clock then she closes her window and that's it. And then she fast till the next morning. So she has about a six hour eating window every day. And that works really well for her, but hers is in the morning. So, you know, if you hear people telling you, here's how you must do it, here's how you must structure your day. Here's when the best time to have it is ignore all that. My mission in life is to teach people that you're very much a study of one when it comes to how long your eating window should be, how long your fast should be, what you're eating and your eating window, all of that is gonna be very individual for you. And I want people to feel empowered, to experiment and find what feels right to them. I have a chapter in my book, fast FET repeat, and it's called tweak it till it's easy. And I mean that mm-hmm, , it's your role as someone who's trying something to tweak it until it feels easy till it feels like a lifestyle, because when you find what works best for you, it really does become an easy lifestyle.
(13:50): Yeah. I hear that from people I've tried it and my biggest challenge, and maybe we can talk about this a little cause I'm sure I'm not the only one is with the exercise. I work out a hard first thing in the morning. And what was happening is I was trying to open my feeding window in the afternoon and I was working out like a feed in the morning and I just started having, literally I noticed my skin sagging and then someone said to me, well, you're probably losing collagen cuz you're not getting enough protein cuz you're working out like that. I was like, you know what? That's true. And so how do you navigate this with exercise?
(14:29): Well, again, that is you haven't found your sweet spot. You, that was obviously not your sweet spot. And also I would like to ask when you were fasting, were you fasting clean? What were you having to drink during the fast
(14:42): Water?
(14:43): Okay. Just water. Well then that's good. That's that's important. Cause a lot of people are not. So I wanted to throw that out there, but you know, it sounds to me like perhaps with the amount of working out that you were doing waiting until afternoon to open your eating window was not your sweet spot.
(14:59): Right?
(14:59): You gotta squeak. It feel it's easy.
(15:01): But my challenge is so I need to eat because I'm gonna go work out, but I'm really not hungry until, so it's like,
(15:10): Well, so the issue was the skin sagging and that was it.
(15:14): No, I also didn't feel good. Okay.
(15:16): Well if you didn't feel good then that's not a good sign. You wanna feel good? Yeah. Cause the key is you wanna feel good, but like for me, and I guess I'm doing water aerobics. That's not maybe as intense as what you're doing, but a lot of people in the fasting community are able to work out hard and then keep asking for hours. How long were, did you try it? How long did you give it?
(15:35): Oh gosh, I'd have to look back. But it was for a few months.
(15:38): Okay. Okay. Yeah. Well by then, you know, you would expect that you would be adapted by then. So it sounds like to me, perhaps your eating window, wasn't best for you to wait till the late afternoon.
(15:49): Yeah. So I know that's one thing I struggled with. I've heard other people talking about it too. And then the other concern I know a lot of people have, maybe you can speak to, this is getting enough protein in, in a shorter eating window.
(16:04): You know, that's an interesting question. We do get that a lot. And something to keep in mind is not all of our protein needs have to come from the foods that we're eating. Now that might sound crazy. So let me explain. You've heard ology before, right? Yeah. Otology is our, body's basically it's our body's recycling and upcycling system, but I was an elementary teacher for 28 years. So I like to explain things in a simple way. It's our body's upcycling program. So when you're in the fasted state, your body is looking around, well, nothing's coming in, let's see what's around. And so your body breaks down old proteins and recycles them and can use those old proteins to build new things. So when you're fasting clean, now, if you're eating all day long, like breakfast, snack, lunch snack that actually Downes Autophy and downregulated Autophy, it gets worse and worse.
(17:01): The older we get mm-hmm . And so, you know, living in the modern world where we are eating all the time, most people are down regulated. Autophy leads to a lot of the problems that come along with aging. But when we're fasting, especially when we're fasting clean, we have increased Autophy. So Autophy is upregulated. We're better able to recycle those old junky proteins. So I'm able to build muscle. When I, when I just started doing my water aerobics in the past month or so since we just moved to a new, a new place, new neighborhood doing the water aerobics, I am building muscle, working out in the fasted state every morning, just doing that water aerobics. And I haven't increased the amount of protein that I'm eating, but I mean maybe I have without realizing it because I also am a big believer in the protein leverage hypothesis. Have you heard that that before?
(17:49): No. Talk about that.
(17:51): All right. Well, I can't remember who came up with a protein leverage hypothesis. Was it professor Nokes? I'm not sure Tim Nokes maybe, but basically it says that we have in our bodies, like we're a lot smarter than we give ourselves credit for our bodies, let us know what they need. So if you're not getting enough protein, your body is going to crave more protein until you give it what it needs. And so, you know, if, if you were like, you're eating and you're finding that you're unsatisfied, that might be your body saying, Hey, we need more protein. It's not gonna let you not get enough protein over time. And so, you know, when you think about what I said, auto, our body is recycling the protein plus during your eating window, if you are hungry for protein, we just really might not need also as much as we've been led to believe Dr. Jason fun. I'm sure you're familiar with his work. He has a great blog post about that. I think it's called how much protein is excessive or something. Mm-Hmm . And basically that people are always worried about not getting enough protein when really it's less of an issue than we realize.
(18:59): Okay. So is that something that you usually recommend that people track? How many grams of protein they're getting? Yeah. So it's more of an intuitive, let your body decide what it was. Well,
(19:09): You know, really, like I said, our bodies are pretty smart and I haven't noticed muscle loss. Like I said, I'm 53. I don't do anything harder than water aerobics. with my little weights in the water and I've not had trouble with muscle wasting and I've been doing fasting for years now and I was going to happen. It would've happened, right?
(19:29): Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. Definitely would've but I know that's something
(19:32): That I have large communities and I left Facebook in early 20, 21 and we had almost half a million group members when I left. And one other thing about fasting is when, when you're fasting clean, we have upregulated human growth hormone. So when you have upregulated human growth hormone and you have a lot of apathy going on and you're nourishing your body well during your eating window, you're absolutely going to be fine. You know, if you do notice that, oh gosh, you know, maybe I'm losing a little muscle, just add a little 13, but you don't have to count it. It doesn't have to be that hard. We've got people doing all sorts of things in our community, building muscle, like crazy, just eating intuitively with their bodies and not counting in a single macro.
(20:17): Yeah. Let's dive into that. Cause we're so we come from that calorie counting culture, the macro culture and this many grams of this and this many grams of that. And people oftentimes will even say to me like, well, how many grams of protein carbs fats should I be getting and what types and they want, they want the rules and I'm pretty much an intuitive eater. So , but I will tell people if they ask, so what is your take on that? Well,
(20:45): I mean, how did people ever survive before we had ? I mean, right. I mean, like if you go back in time, you know, people were not like dropping dead from if food was plentiful, any environment in the world where food was plentiful, people just knew what to eat and how much to eat. Right. They did not make it hard. And if you go to like the blue zones, now that mm-hmm, , you're familiar with the blue zones. Yeah. Yeah. Mm-Hmm five pockets in the world. National geographic has researched them where people live to be over a hundred. If you walked into some of those blue zones and said, let's talk about macros. They would look at you. Like you're nuts. Those people are living to be over a hundred. They're not counting a single calorie. They're not counting a single macro they're living long and healthy lives. And there's a lot of factors that go together to make that happen. But they're eating real foods like their ancestors did. Mm-Hmm and they're not counting a thing.
(21:41): Right. And so that's how you usually teach and work with peoples just intuitively. But there are some people who would try that and they would go for the Hogan dos and the Ben and Jerry's and you know, all the things.
(21:54): Here's the beautiful thing about intermittent fasting. There's something we call appetite correction. And Dr. Bur hut hearing came up with that phrase as well. But it's just a beautiful phrase. And it means that your body will direct you to what you need as far as how much food you need. And also what you know, most of us find when we're intermittent faster, as you, you know, people may start off eating the standard American diet, but over time your tastes change. Yes. Weirdest thing, you actually tune back into your hunger and satiety signals. Our bodies do not count calories. Our bodies count nutrients. So when you are intuitive and you are not just cramming every emotion down all day long with food, like I'm gonna say, I used to do when I was obese, I was eating for morning till night, because of course that was also what we were told to do.
(22:46): We were told to eat breakfast within 30 minutes of your feet, hitting the floor and have frequent snacks, cuz that would boost your metabolism. That's what we were all told and how come I was 210 pounds. Right? I was doing all the things. And so I could not hear any signals from my body at that point. But now that I'm an intermittent faster, like, oh the Brussels sprouts look good. And so you may start off eating the standard American diet, but over time, it's amazing how your body directs you to like the first time you eat something that used to be your favorite thing. Like I can remember the first time I had a, a Starbucks, pumpkin spice latte after I'd lost the weight and been maintaining for a while. And that had always been my favorite, you know, when it was latte season and my window was open one day I was at target, there was a Starbucks in there. I'm like, I'm gonna have a pumpkin spice latte and my window was open. It's gonna be delicious. And I tasted it and I'm like, why does this taste like bug spray? This tastes awful. And I'm like, they have changed the recipe of no, they didn't change the recipe. my taste buds changed. The more real food you eat, the more you're fasting and living that lifestyle, your body just, it really changes in a way you just couldn't expect.
(24:01): Yeah. You know, for me it was CBOs. When I weighed 2 43, I would eat Cinnabons
(24:07): And those are not even good. Are they? I had one in an airport in like maybe 2018 cuz you know, it smelled so good. I was with my sister, we were flying down. It tasted like, like poison.
(24:18): Yes. Like poison. It tastes like chemicals,
(24:21): Chemicals. Exactly.
(24:22): Right. So I love the intuitive and I noticed for me, if I'm not stressed, I will intuitively eat very healthy things. And it's only when the stress comes that I want sugar.
(24:35): They're looking for soothing. Right.
(24:38): They're right. All right. So we talked about that. No macros, I loved what you said. That's a quotable. Our bodies do not cap calories counts, nutrients mm-hmm . And then in terms of, you know, you hear so many things, are you also recommending a flexible kind of intuitive window that changes all the time based on how you feel or do you find that people do better when they set it and stick to it? And
(25:07): That depends on the person that's gonna be very individual. There are some people that need more structure just because if it's too loosey goosey, then the next minute they're not fasting anymore. Right. Right. Like it's so flexible. They forgot to do it. So in fast Fe repeat, I have something called the 28 day fast start. And that is a period of time when people are, are learning how to do it. Your body is developing the skills that it needs behind the scenes to flip that metabolic switch to fat burning. And so that you're metabolically flexible. And so it is very much more like here is how you're going to do it day to day as your body is adapting. But then after those 28 days, that's where the tweak till a dizzy part comes in, and you start to figure out what works for you.
(25:50): And there's a lot to be said for mixing things up from day to day, you know, like one day, if you have a one-hour eating window, cuz you were super busy and crazy that day, but that doesn't mean you need to do that tomorrow. Tomorrow. You're probably gonna need a little bit longer. So we don't want to be too rigid and overs restricting for our bodies. So it's really like for me, I would just stick to, you know, as long as I have like a five-hour eating window, pretty much from day to day, I could move it around. When I was losing weight, that really worked well for me. Other people find they might need an eight-hour eating window. Maybe five hours is too restrictive, but someone else might find they need a four-hour eating window because they tend to overeat. If they eat for five, it just really is all about learning about yourself and responding to how it's going.
(26:35): I love that. That's something that I talk about all the time I called your body. She, you know, talked to her what she's gonna tell you what she needs, but we are so socialized out of listening internally and we're so externally directed. So it really is this re acquaintance. And it sounds like you are really teaching that too. Like your body knows what it needs and what it doesn't need. And if
(27:00): It doesn't feel good, it's telling you for a reason, there's something that is not feeling good. Like what you were doing before your body told you that was not working. That was not your asking protocol for whatever reason you hadn't found it yet.
(27:14): No, and I haven't, I haven't
(27:15): Tried it person.
(27:16): No, see that's a thing I'm not hungry till the afternoon, but I like to work out. So I haven't figured out how to fix that. So I just stopped doing it. I'm like, this is not working. I don't feel good. I'm not doing it, but
(27:29): I guess it might be hard for you to work out later in the day. Yeah.
(27:33): Yeah. It's a morning thing. So, well, I'll figure it out. I'm wondering you have this great podcast where people talk about their stories with intermittent fasting. Could you share some of your favorite stories from people you've had on the podcast?
(27:48): You know, one of the most fun that I've had that I enjoyed so very much, I talked to a guest and she had been on extreme weight loss that extreme makeover, weight loss edition, Jackie arena is her name. And she's been in my community from way back when we were on Facebook. She's been in my group now she's in my off Facebook, private community. And she told her story, she lost over 200 pounds. Mm-Hmm in a year of doing extreme makeover, weight loss edition. And she talked about, and it was fascinating to talk to her because when I wrote fast Fe repeat, I talked about weight loss and all of that. Are you familiar with the Minnesota starvation experiments that they
(28:28): Take? No, what's
(28:30): That well in the Minnesota starvation experiments, basically trying to figure out, you know, how much food do people need to live? What happens if we really restrict how much that people are eating? So they had these conscientious objectors who weren't fighting in world war II and they're like, we'll use y'all. And so they put 'em on this, like I think a college campus in Minnesota and they studied them and what these were men and they put 'em on 1500 or something calories a day mm-hmm , which we probably are like, that's just what you do. You eat 1500 calories a day, but they studied them on this. What they called that a starvation diet. And so it was fascinating. I, I write about this in the introduction to fast FEAS repeat, but it talked about all the things they went through. Like they started to become obsessed with food.
(29:13): They started to have feelings of wanting to bend and all these things that were happening to their bodies as they were restricting, restricting, restricting. And when I talked to Jackie, I mean it was like textbooks when the, the experiences that she went through going through that extreme weight loss, cuz it was basically just eat less and less and less and less. As you continue to lose that much weight, you have to just eat less and even more, less, more restriction, less and less and more and more working out. We've all seen those shows. And so by the end of it, I mean she had tanked her hormones. She was no longer having cycles. She had textbook. I mean obviously the Minnesota starvation experiment was men, but everything that they went through, as far as like on that, that starvation regimen she was going through and it took her years to get her hormones back in a good place.
(30:05): And so, I mean that just lets you know how dangerous diet culture is, but she, after that, you know, she regained weight obviously, cuz your body is fighting back mm-hmm whenever you have, you know, they also did the biggest loser studies did you? Right. I saw that one. That was so interesting. Similar kind of a thing. They restricted so much that everything's, their metabolism slowed down. And then of course, as soon as they couldn't keep up that level, bam here came the way back and then their metabolisms were slower than when they had started. Right. So it was just fascinating to talk to her. And then she found intermittent fasting how that has been completely different and how she has finally been able to lose the weight through intermittent fasting and found peace around food that, that she didn't have before. And it was just so interesting to hear the, all the theory basically she's lived it all the, the bad diet theory followed watching.
(31:03): She's a living example. She's a living example of every single theory that I talk about in fast fees, repeat of like, here's what they found. Here's what the research says. She's lived it and all of her experiences really show it. So I loved that episode. I mean, I've talked to, like I said, 249 today and most of them are just normal people. One that I really loved was Dr. Mark Matson. Are you familiar with his work? No, I haven't heard of him. You may have heard of his work and not known it. Do you remember in the end of 2019, when there was that big new England journal of medicine article about fasting, it came out on like December 26th, 2019 and suddenly, and fasting was all over the news. Yes. People were talking about how healthy it was. Well, Dr. Mark Matson was the author of that new England journal of medicine article.
(31:51): And it turns out he wrote it because a lot of doctors were having patients starting to come in to their practice and saying I'm doing intermittent fasting, but the doctors didn't really know a lot about it. So they were like, we need to know more about this. And so the new England journal of medicine reached out to Dr. Mathson and asked him to write that review article. So it's a review article. So it covers all the science, all the, the best information that's out there. And it was really amazing when that came out in 2019, because I was running these Facebook groups and when people would join, we're like, why do you wanna join? And people always said, I wanna lose weight. I wanna lose weight. But all of a sudden people started saying, I wanna get healthy. I wanna live longer. I wanna prevent Alzheimer's because suddenly the conversation was shifted and people realized intermittent fasting is a very healthy way to live.
(32:38): And I really credit mark Mathson for that. But he came on my podcast and intermittent fasting stories and talked about his story. And you know, he worked at John's Hopkins for his whole research career mm-hmm and he actually started doing intermittent fasting in the eighties wow. As grad student or something and just how he, he naturally gravitated towards, but he studied fasting and the effects on the brain, he's a neurological researcher, and you know, the anti-Alzheimer's properties and all the things like that and how it helps our neurological health in so many ways. But it was really fascinating to talk to him. And then everything in between just, you know, normal people who are fascinating. I've talked to doctors who live a lifestyle. I've talked to the mom next door, the dad next door. And I love talking to everybody because in 249 stories, everyone has something new to bring to the table to talk about how intermittent fasting has changed their life.
(33:31): I love that you mentioned something earlier about this starvation experiment, which I didn't know about. That sounds horrible. What is the difference with calorie restriction, where you're eating all the time and the food obsession and the wanting to binge versus having a shortened eating and a great
(33:52): Question. And I love that you asked it. Okay. So let's talk about how our bodies get fueled. Most people, especially now, if you look around, most people are carrying a whole lot of energy around in their bodies, right?
(34:04): a lot of energy equals fat. You're
(34:06): Carrying a lot of calories or like, like a calorie suit, right? People are wearing a calorie suit and those calories, if you can access them, the calories you have in stored fat, they provide great fuel for your body. And the key is you wanna be able to tap into those fat stores and use that energy. Well, that's where low calorie diets, where you're eating all day long. That's where it breaks down. We're not meant to eat tiny little amounts of food all day long, like a little drip, drip of a feeding tube or something. We're not meant to do that. And it has to do with the hormone. Insulin. Insulin is our storage hormone. And when insulin is high and when insulin levels are high, like if someone has insulin resistance type two diabetes, basically you have high fasted levels of insulin. Your insulin's high all the time.
(34:57): Insulin is anti lipolytic, meaning it locks down your fat stores. So when you have high levels of insulin all the time, you have a really hard time accessing your stored fat and burning it for fuel. We have all experienced that when you're doing the low calorie diet and you're having your tiny little breakfast and you're drinking your diet soda, and then you're having little snack. You are keeping your insulin high all the time. And I'll talk in a minute about why diet sodas do that and why they're not part of the clean fast, because they cause an insulin response. But in the meantime, your insulin is up, up, up all the time. You cannot tap into your fat stores very well. It's like they're locked away, right? So you are not well fueled. You're having a low calorie diet, but because insulin is high that the low calorie diet isn't fueling you and you can't get to your fat stores.
(35:47): So now your body has to, downregulate your metabolism, it's in a panic. Well now how fasting is different. Yeah. Once your metabolically flexible and you're fasting and you're keeping your insulin levels low during the fast, suddenly your body can now see all that fat too, and your body can start using the fat for fuel. And so just as I talked about your meeting, some of your protein needs through Autophy you're meeting some of your fuel needs through the fat that your body is burning. So we actually have one study that was really interesting. They followed people over a 72 hour F. Now I'm not recommending people start bathing for 72 hours. I eat every day. But when they were studying the people over these 72 hours, they looked at what their metabolic rate was doing. And everyone had like a baseline metabolic, right when they started.
(36:38): And then as time went on, their metabolic rate actually went up over the course of this fast. It was a 72 hour fast, like I said, and then it reached a peak at a certain point. And then it started to trim slowly down again. And so by the time they got to the 72, the end of the 72 hours, their metabolic rate was actually higher than it had been at baseline, but trending downward. So, you know, what does that tell us that tells us that fasting, when we start tapping into those fast stores, our bodies get going and they can actually ramp up that metabolic rate, but it also tells us that we don't wanna just keep fasting forever and ever cuz if you follow that trajectory down, I mean, eventually it would've gone below baseline. So that's why extended fasting for days and days at a time that is gonna affect your metabolic rate over time. So you wanna find the balance between fasting and feasting and that's really important cuz you can over fast and that's not a good thing.
(37:36): Yes. That's a great explanation. Thank you for explaining that. And I think some people might not know what metabolic flexibility is. I mean, you've kind of described it, but can you talk a little bit more about that?
(37:48): It's really how we're we're designed to be. Our bodies are designed to be able to use whatever fuel source is available. At the time we have the ability to store fat for when we need it. Our body can take that stored fat and our livers can turn fat into keytones, which fuels our brain beautifully. And we have plenty of energy to do what we need when there's, when there's not food around. But when food is available, we can flip that switch and we're, you know, using that food for fuel. So what happens when there's no food for fuel, your body flips the switch back to using your fat stores. So we are meant to be metabolically flexible and have the ability to switch from one source to the other. And we lose that metabolic flexibility in today's modern world with the eating all the time, nobody ever has to flip that switch to fat burning. And that is why, you know, I talked about the 28 day fast start when people have to let their bodies adapt. That's why, because when you first start your body, it doesn't wanna do that. And you also may not even have those fat burning enzymes built up your body just really cannot do it yet. And you also have to get insulin down over the over time. But at first you you're gonna be hangry. You're gonna be tired. Your body's like, come on. Where's the latte that I'm used to having at 10:00 AM.
(39:04): where's
(39:05): The breakfast burrito from the drivethrough or whatever it is. And eventually though your body's like, all right, fine, fine. I'll go tap into the fat store. Then it flips that switch. And there you go.
(39:19): Yeah. It's kind of like, you have to be your body's parent and like, Nope, you're not getting that. Nope. You're not getting that. Exactly. You know, the kids are like, can we have a cookie? Can we have a cookie? And I'm getting to know dinners coming. And they devour the Brussels spout cuz they didn't get the cookie. So now I'm
(39:35): Not, your body wants the cookie. And if you don't give it the cookie, if you eat your fat,
(39:39): eat your fat, go eat fat. Right. Right. So there's so much to talk about with this. I definitely want to recommend that people get your books, read your books during your community. I just love the titles that you have. There's so descriptive and clear. And I think that makes it very accessible to pretty much everyone. And I love that and you're so real and it's just great. So we'll have links to the books in the show notes. We'll also put a link to your community so that people can go there and actually grab links to your podcast too. And put those in there so everybody can listen. Thank you for staying up late to meet with us.
(40:26): It's not really that late. I just don't usually do things that I have to be active after dinner. Cause I had dinner usually after dinner I'm in wind down mode.
(40:36): Got it. Got it. Well, we will get you there soon. We'll have a few questions and answers any last things that you wanna share with everyone before we wrap? No, I didn't.
(40:46): Didn't talk about the clean fast, which is super duper important. Okay. Go ahead. Have during the fast and a lot of people have tried intermittent fasting and for whatever reason, they were not successful. And when I talk to people who are like, oh yeah, I tried that. It didn't work for me. There are usually two things that come up time. And again, one, they didn't give it long enough. Mm-Hmm and two, they were not fasting clean. So let's talk about what it means to fast clean. You know, I just talked about how we wanna keep insulin down. That's so important. So we can tap into our fast stores. Well, what causes to have an insulin response? Eating? Obviously we're not eating we're fasting, but also it turns out the taste of sweetness. If our brain thinks food is coming in, right? Even if it's a diet Coke, our brain doesn't understand the cephalic phase insulin response is when you taste something like that, diet soda, your brain says, we know what sweetness means.
(41:38): It means that sugar is coming in because in nature, everything that is paired with sweetness is like, you know, sugary or fruit or honey or whatever. Right? And so your pancreas goes ahead and pumps out some insulin because it knows you're gonna have high blood sugar soon. But then again, you're having this diet soda because it has zero calories. No sugar comes in, but you still have high insulin. And so you wanna keep your insulin down so your body can tap into your fat stores. So avoid anything. That's sweet. See all these miracle sweeteners. You're like this one doesn't raise your insulin. This one doesn't your brain doesn't know the difference. It doesn't milk fruit. It's like, no, it just tastes sweetness. And so you wanna avoid anything sweet. Don't put anything in your coffee to add sweetness or your tea. Don't add anything like that.
(42:26): But, and you wanna avoid things like lemon, apple, cider vinegar, anything that might have a food like taste, avoid those things. Cinnamon, all that avoid all that. The second goal is we wanna have, we wanna be tapping into our fat stores for fuel. So you don't wanna take in sources of fat during the fast don't put the butter in your coffee, the cream in your coffee. Don't put anything in your coffee. other than the coffee, don't take exogenous. Keytones cuz if you're taking in another source of fuel, your body's gonna use that. It's not gonna tap into your fat stores. We don't just wanna have keytones. We wanna make 'em from our stored fat. Yeah. If you're putting MCT oil in your coffee, your body's gonna take that MCT oil and turn it into keytones. But you want to get your keytones from your own body, fat, not from something you're putting in your coffee cup.
(43:16): And so the third thing we wanna do, our third fasting goal is we wanna have that increased auto and to do that, we don't wanna take in any sources of protein because protein, halts auto. So don't have bone broth or anything like that, you know? And if you start, you know, listening to people here and there there's all sorts of really bad recommendations, like oh 50 calories, doesn't break a fast. That is not true. Like in that case you could literally just like eat a jelly bean every five minutes and like fasting and that is not fasting. And some people are like, well what about a little splash of cream? Because this fasting expert over here says it's okay to put in a little splash of cream. Well, what is cream? Well it's dairy. If dairy is nature's perfect food for growing a mammal baby at the time of their life where they're growing the most rapidly.
(44:06): Does that sound like fasting? No, no anti dairy. Keep it in your eating window. If, if dairy works for you, but dairy is in no way, shape or form fasting, neither is almond milk. That none of that is that's not fasting yeah. So stick to the clean fast plain water, plain sparkling water, no flavors added. Don't add anything in there for flavor. It's not supposed to be a flavor adventure. We're taking a break from that. You can have all the flavor adventure you want in your eating window. You can have black coffee, plain tea. Now why can we have the black coffee and the plain tea? Well, those have a bitter flavor profile and that is not associated with the cephalic phase insulin response.
(44:48): That is very important. Thank you for explaining that. And you know what I realize we didn't talk about which we gotta hit on. This is like you said, when the new England journal article came out in 2019, people shifted from it. Wasn't about weight loss. They wanted to be healthy. Right? Can you just hit on the highlights of all the diseases that intermittent fasting is recruiting to help
(45:12): I cannot because the list would be so long. I
(45:15): Know like,
(45:16): You know, as a medical professional yourself, anything that's connected with insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome inflammation. I mean, that's like the root of like everything, right?
(45:27):Everything,
(45:27): Insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, inflammation. Those are the things that intermittent fasting helps with. So anything that would be, if you go downstream from whatever medical condition and the downstream
(45:40): Problem,
(45:42): If you ever read B's book why we get sick?
(45:45): I have not. No,
(45:46): You gotta read that next. Get that book. Okay. If you will, if you haven't read fast, Pete, read that, but then need to read then Dr. Benjamin Bick. Men's why we get sick. And it basically makes the case. He's like the premier insulin resistant expert in the world, I think. And it basically talks about how insulin resistance, how it CA and he walks you through it, you know, how does it affect us in menopause? How does it affect, oh yeah. His health. How does it? And it's really the root of everything. So getting your insulin and can under control is just so important. It, it will, I mean, you type two diabetes. I mean, I think people say crazy things on the podcast that have been helped by, you know, I mean simple things. Yes. But people have had crazy results that you wouldn't even expect. I talked to somebody last week, she was wheelchair bound due to, she had some autoimmune type things that were going on and intermitent, festing, she's not been in a wheelchair. I mean, she's now like gained her mobility bag and I mean, it it's like you would never write all this in a book, cuz it sounds like too far fetched, but when people tell you their own story, you know that it's true.
(46:51): Yeah. That's amazing. I mean, I always say that insulin is that loose thread on the knotted ball of yarn of all your hormones and you gotta get it right. And I'm a big believer in, there are two prescriptions we need as women, as we age, we need the written one for natural hormones and we need this kind of life prescription. So thank you very much, Gin Stephens for coming on the podcast and sharing your wisdom with all of us.
(47:20): Well, I love doing it
(47:22): and thank you all for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Hopefully you've heard something today that has sparked your interest and maybe you're willing to take the plunge and try it start with one of Gin's books, fast beast, repeat or delay don't deny, join one of her communities. Try out her 28 day program, do something don't just listen and say, oh yeah, that's great. I'll think about it later. I want you to take action. So I wanna hear about it on social media. Yeah. Jump on Instagram, Facebook and let me know what you're trying and how it's working for you. And I will see you next week. Thanks so much for spending this time with us until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all
(48:09): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
► Clean (ish) Supplemental Materials
Download the free companion pdf that contains all of the reflect and take action pages from Clean(ish), as well as the activities from part 3 of the book. CLICK HERE.
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The Delay, Don't Deny Community. CLICK HERE to join.
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We all know that our gut health is important for our overall health, but did you know that our oral microbiome is just as important? In fact, research has shown that there is a strong link between our oral health and our overall health.
For example, studies have shown that people with gum disease are more likely to develop heart disease, stroke, and other chronic illnesses. Therefore, it's important to take care of your oral health in order to maintain your overall health.
David Lin is a leading expert on the oral microbiome and he's going to be joining us on the show today to talk about how we can maintain our oral health and why it's so important for our overall health.
About David Lin:
David Lin PhD is Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Bristle. David received his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, his MS in Biology from California State University, Fullerton, and his BS in Biotechnology from University of California, Davis. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Genentech before becoming a Scientist at Twist Bioscience. He has over 10 years of molecular biology, microbiology, genomics, and synthetic biology, and infectious disease experience across academia, public health, and industry.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- What the oral microbiome is and why it's so important for our health
- How to maintain a healthy oral microbiome
- The link between our oral health and overall health
- How poor oral health can lead to chronic illnesses
- And much more!
So tune in now to learn how you can maintain a healthy oral microbiome and improve your overall health!
(00:00): "Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere." - David Lin.
(00:08): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:04): Hi, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today, David Lin PhD is a co-founder and chief scientific officer at Bristol. You might think of Bristol as bristles on your toothbrush. This is a different kind of bristle. Maybe you've heard about the connection between your oral microbiome and your overall systemic health like heart and brain and more. Maybe you haven't, but whether you have, or haven't, you need to know about this. And if you know a little bit about it, you need to know more. So David is gonna share that with you today so that you don't just sit there worrying like a rocking chair about your health and what can you do, but you really get some actionable information, some steps that you can take to improve your health and taking care of your oral microbiome is one of those things that you're not gonna hear about at your dentist that you could be doing to move your health to the next level.
(02:09): So I'll tell you a little bit about David and then we'll get started. David received his PhD in microbiology and immunology from the university of Michigan and armor and his MS in biology from California state university Fullerton, and his bachelor's in biotechnology from university of California Davis. That's a lot of science. He is a science nerd. Let's just say . And he loves talking about the oral microbiome. He was a post-doctoral researcher at Gentech before becoming a scientist at twist bioscience and has over 10 years of molecular biology, microbiology, genomics, and synthetic biology and infectious disease experience across academia, public health and industry. This is just the guy you want informing you about how to understand the key of your oral microbiome for better, better health. Welcome David.
(03:08): Thank you. I'm very excited to be here.
(03:10): Yes. I think that most people are not aware of how this small little real estate on their face, their mouth affects the entire rest of their body to such a high degree. So I really wanted to have you on to highlight that for them and they can get some tools and start taking action to improve their oral health so they can improve their overall health. What introduced you to the big impact that oral health has on systemic health?
(03:44): That's a good question. Well, I'm a scientist by training and through many years of school, I've learned to a lot about microbiology, a lot about bacteria and basically the way that they do things and how they interact with your body. And recently, at least in the past decade or two, there's been a lot of research that has shown that the gut microbiome is really important for your overall health. It helps with digestion. It controls a lot of your mood and it does a lot of things, but what's been largely ignored is that there's actually another microbiome. That's the second largest and most diverse microbiome in your body. And it's your mouth. You swallow a hundred billion bacteria every day. You are what you eat and those bacteria are in your mouth. And they do so much for us that we really don't. We don't acknowledge. Did you know that oral bacteria, they actually control some of your blood pressure the way they do this is by reducing nitrate. So there's this circular connection in your mouth where they can reduce nitrate. And that increases the nitrate level, nitric oxide levels in your blood. That's just one of many ways that they help you do things.
(04:49): You know, that's interesting. I know some people, women are listening and saying, oh, maybe when I go for my blood pressure check at my doctor's office, I should ask them to check my oral microbiome. I think the average doctor would just look at you, like, what are you talking about? It would . They probably wouldn't know what you're talking about in terms of clinical utility. I know you're affiliated with a company that does testing of the oral microbiome. What percentage of doctors would you say are savvy about this interaction and actually know to order tests like this recommend tests like this work with tests like this?
(05:25): Very, very few. So I think one of the things about medicine is that it's relatively slow moving. There's a lot of tradition that's been built into not only systemic medicine, so, you know, your physician, but also dentistry. Dentistry is a really old practice and they haven't introduced almost any new technologies for like a hundred years. We still operate in the same way we've been doing for a long time. And that is we treat the symptoms as we see them, which is really unfortunate. There's very little preventive measures that we use to really tackle some of the biggest problems we have. I mean, cavities and gum disease, everybody still gets them. It's like, I think 70% of individual over 65 will have periodontal disease and it's entirely preventable. It's just a bacterial infection. That's a very long term bacterial infection. And if you catch it early enough, you don't have to get it.
(06:13): Same with cavities. Cavities are very specific bacteria. They colonize your teeth, they create acid. And unfortunately practitioners nowadays, they, most of them really don't use any of these kinds of tools to screen their patients. I think some of that may have to do with medicine itself, just the way that that we practice. And the other part of it is really that research moves very slowly. So academia to translate a research, finding into something that's really useful for people takes a very long time of development. And hopefully, you know, my company bristle, we're trying to address that at least for oral health.
(06:47): Yes, it's so true. It can take decades. I think that the average is something like three decades and sometimes it's way longer than that, for instance the use of fluoride and toothpaste and water, how does that affect the oral biome?
(07:05): Yeah. So there haven't actually been any very compelling trials regarding the use of at least every day fluoride, which is a very low concentration in your toothpaste, but generally it's not a very powerful antimicrobial. It really doesn't do that much in killing bacteria. But what it really does is to help you remineralize your teeth because fluoride actually helps to reserve calcium onto your tooth surface. So it helps protect your teeth that way. But I think what's more exciting is not just things like fluoride, but there have been newer compounds that have been out where people have shown kind of that they don't have systemic effects like fluoride does, but they can still help re minimalize teeth. So something like nano hydroxy, appetite, even things like arginine. So arginine is, is just an amino acid, but it helps prevent cavities. And, and the way it does it is by actually modulating the oral microbiome. It's a very interesting connection.
(08:05): And is that when swallowed orally Swed orally and how is it administered that it's shown to decrease cavities by altering the microbiome? Yeah,
(08:16): So arginine it just, if you chew it and if it sticks around on your teeth, I'm not actually sure if there have been any tests for ingestion, but if you chew it or if you apply it as a toothpaste, it acts as a prebiotic and it activates this pathway called the arginine D M a pathway, which increases the pH of the mouth and the, the way it modulates the oral microbiome is that there's some bacteria that can metabolize the Aine very well and turn it into ammonia, which increases the pH. And that actually prevents the acid generating bacteria from colonizing the tooth because acid generating bacteria actually really like acidic environments and ammonia is the opposite. So it, it prevents them from growing.
(08:56): Okay. And so what are some everyday habits that people might have that might hurt their oral microbiome and what are some habits they might have that might improve?
(09:07): The first one is using alcohol based mouthwash. That's really bad for you actually. So alcohol is an antiseptic that we use, you know, on our hands. We use it to disinfect things, but it turns out that the microbiome of the mouth, there are very important, good bacteria in there that are important for preventing the bad ones from growing and those good ones. We can kill them by using alcohol based mouthwash. So there was a study recently that had shown that routine use of over the counter mouthwash was actually associated with hypertension. And the reason for that was because these nitrate, reducing bacteria were actually completely going away and they didn't come back because these people were using mouthwash twice a day. And so you never give a chance for good bacteria to populate. And you ended up with dysbiosis of the mouth. That's
(09:54): Fascinating that the regular use of the alcohol containing mouthwash increased hypertension, fascinating. What are some other habits that we have that hurt our oral microbiome?
(10:05): Definitely our diet. This probably isn't unique to just the oral microbiome, but the amount of sugar and processed food that we eat is just off the charts now, compared to where we were even just 20 years ago, even 30 years ago. And so the rates of cavities have gone sky high. And so that's like the main thing that I tell most people it's well, can I fix right now without having to buy anything or actually like change my habits besides diets gotta be diets. Like the diet is the only thing that is entirely controllable and will fix of most of the problem. Stop eating sugar. just the simple sugars are a huge problem.
(10:44): just stop. Just say no,
(10:46): Just
(10:47): Say no. Okay. And how about flossing and brushing? Just gotta say it cuz some people still didn't get the memo.
(10:54): Oh my gosh. It's really surprising. Right. And I think we always recommend people brush twice a day floss once a day, we actually published a little bit of research of our own, of what flossing does to the microbiome. We actually saw that flossing frequency correlates with improvements in oral health and the oral microbiome. So when we measure the microbiome, what we're talking about is there's very specific bacteria in your mouth that we call them periodontal pathogens. And they're the ones that cause gum disease. And we measure these in your saliva at Bristol. And we measure them against the bacteria that prevent them from growing. And we found that people who floss once a day had very low levels of these bacteria, of the bad bacteria in their mouth compared to the good ones, but the people who didn't floss at all, it was an inverse correlation.
(11:40): They had very low levels of the good ones and a lot of the bad ones, why this happens. We think it's because most of these pathogens they're called a robes, which means that they can't grow in the presence of oxygen. They really like your gum line. And they like growing into the pockets of your teeth because there's no oxygen there. And so by flossing you can introduce oxygen. You can also mechanically remove some of the dental plaque that's down there that protects from the environment. And really you want those pockets to be exposed to saliva. You want them to be exposed to anything you don't want them to just be rooted in bacteria in pathogenic bacteria.
(12:15): Can we give some of them names? Cause I know it would be easier they could hear. So what are some of the good bacteria that we want to foster that we wanna make friends with?
(12:25): Yeah. So there's a few bacteria such as amorous pair of influenza. Your, the names are not that important, but most of them are aerobic. So they're strep. ATOC minus. I think if you go to a website, you'll, you'll find a list with a way to spell them out. But generally these are they're in your mouth. And the way that they protect you is actually really interesting. They make a set of compounds called bacteriocins well, not all of them, but some of them do. And this, these bacteria sins are really good at killing other bacteria, specifically killing anaerobic bacteria. It's really interesting. They cause oxidative stress in those bacteria. And that's a, a mechanism where oxygen can kind of is extremely detrimental to their growth. And some of these bacteria sins act as stress inducers.
(13:15): So the AOBs wanna hide little cavities and cause problems. Mm-Hmm as acidosis, which is then gonna start eroding teeth. What about mouth breathing and the health of your microbiome, right? There's been recent data about the number of people that are mouth breathers and how it can adversely affect your microbiome and mouth taping has become a thing. Can you talk a little bit about that?
(13:42): Absolutely. So mouth breathing is a really interesting phenomenon and it doesn't really directly affect the oral microbiome in that it's the mouth breathing itself, but the active mouth breathing actually reduces the amount of saliva in your mouth. And saliva's really important because it has antimicrobial peptides. It has antibodies in it, it has minerals and most importantly, it just helps to keep your mouth clean. So you're constantly shedding saliva from, I think it's like hundreds of salivary glands in your mouth and they really helped to just shed things. It helps to coat your teeth, coat your gums and make it so that the bacteria in your mouth are kept at low levels. Because once you get outgrowth, that's when problems really happen. And by mouth breathing, you're drying up the salivary glands. You're reducing the amount of saliva on your teeth and your gums and dry mouth is the main cause of oral microbiome dysbiosis, which
(14:38): Is cause is that for most people?
(14:39): Yeah. A lot of people have dry mouth and they're not actually aware dry mouth causes, gum disease, cavities, bad breath, extremely common, but people think they wake up in the middle of the night. They've been mouth breathing that it's totally normal. And they're like, eh, I'll just drink a glass of water. But you know, this constant act of mouth breathing and having a dry mouth every day leads to dysbiosis.
(15:00): And for everybody listening, before you go seal your mouth up with a piece of tape, read about how to do mouth taping please. Cuz I know, I remember when I first heard about it and I thought mouth taping, I thought it meant a piece of tape, a crushable mouth. So don't do it until you read about it and learn about it. So my people are mostly women 40 to 60 and over and they're wanting to know what they can do to improve their health. And how does they've learned about the microbiome and the gut? And now they're wondering, how is this David? How is this oral microbiome affecting the rest of my health? Yeah, what's it doing?
(15:40): Oh my goodness. Where to start? So we briefly discussed how the oral microbiome helps control blood pressure. Right? We talked about nitrate, but there's so many other ways. So one really big study that came out a few years ago showed that there's certain bacteria in your mouth that have actually been implicated in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. So this bacteria is called Pomona gingivalis. And since then there's been a lot of studies and looking at whether or not they can actually prevent Alzheimer's disease just by either killing these bacteria, removing them or blocking their activity. And companies have come up from this, just looking at Talis. So that's one way these bacteria, they end up in your brain somehow and then
(16:24): Any early data from any of those studies you can share or nothing yet.
(16:29): I think it's a little early, there was one clinical trial that had very early data that looked promising where they had. So Ponas, gingivalis creates this protein that cuts other proteins and this drug targets that protein, that cuts stuff. And they saw that. I think there was a mild decrease or a mild improvement in cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer's disease by using a drug like this. But it was probably a very small study. And I think they're expanding that now.
(16:56): Okay, great. And then I cut you off cuz you were getting ready to talk about something else systemically.
(17:00): Yeah. The oral microbiome's been implicated in so many different things. So another big one is cancer, both in oral cancer and surprisingly colorectal cancer, which I guess is surprising to most people. But when you think about, you know, a hundred billion bacteria being swallowed every day, it becomes pretty obvious that there's this one bacteria called fuser bacterium nucle. And for some reason, this little bug is really, really good at causing inflammation. And what it does is it happens to be in very high abundance in people with tumors. It really likes the tumor environment. Why we don't really know why, but people have shown that people who have fus nucle in their tumors, those tumors grow a lot more aggressively. And the prognosis for those people is much worse than the people who don't have, have SLE.
(17:51): Okay. What about heart disease? You know, that's the number one killer of women over 50. Most women don't worry about it. Believe it or not. They're more worried about breast cancer, but they should be concerned about their hearts. How does the oral microbiome interact with the heart?
(18:07): Yeah. Park sees the number one killer in the United States. And there's actually a lot of interactions between the oral microbiome and the heart. Somehow bacteria in the mouth actually end up in the bloodstream. We don't really know how this happens, like a lot of things, but for instance, atherosclerotic plaque, the plaque that's high cholesterol and it builds up inside your arteries and, and can cause a blockage. People have found oral bacteria in there. They found Fusor bacteria, NLE, Pomona tr Tova a lot of these gum disease pathogens just happen to make it into the bloodstream. We think that the people who have gum disease, they're more susceptible to this happening because the gum disease actually causes damage to the gum tissue and allows them to invade and, and get into your bloodstream. But the mechanism for how this happens is still very unclear. There's also other bacteria in the mouth that can cause infecti endocarditis. It's a pretty rare condition, but somehow again, the bacteria in the mouth, they end up in the heart and they cause an infection.
(19:05): Interesting. So I'm curious, has anybody done any studies on longevity as it relates to the makeup of the oral microbiome?
(19:14): Nope. Not yet. Not
(19:16): Yet.
(19:17): Very good question. I wish we did. so I will say that people have looked at oral health in longevity, but not really the oral microbiome longevity, right? Like there's a very strong correlation between good oral health and longevity. Mm-Hmm because the people who can eat longer, eat solid foods or good foods for longer and to do better. And so it wouldn't be surprising if you found that the people that live longer have very healthy oral microbiomes because in order to have healthy teeth who need a healthy oral microbiome, but so far no study definitively.
(19:52): Okay. Interesting. I was just curious, and I know that at Bristol, you guys offer tests for the oral microbiome. Can you talk a little bit about what people could do to be proactive about assessing their oral biome and promoting a healthy oral biome?
(20:13): Yeah. First thing I always say is take a test because that's really the only way you can get data around it. So it's kind of like for instance, for diabetes, a lot of people don't know their status for diabetes. And the only way they know is by going get a blood test, and it's the same for oral health. You really don't know there's no lab tests or have there hadn't been any lab tests for oral health until bristle came along. And so you really need to get the data around it, to know what your starting point is to know what you need to improve because there's very specific recommendations we can make based on the makeup of your oral microbiome. So, I mean the first thing about being proactive is fix your diet brush twice a day, floss once a day, reduce your mouth breathing, try and eat more nitrate foods with nitrate in them. So there's leafy greens and let's see eat more arginine. If you can. Other than that, the recommendations we make could be for specific probiotics to help you improve your oral health. But we don't know which ones, unless you take a test.
(21:12): Okay. So on the test, what kind of information do you get?
(21:15): So we give a variety of scores that are based on your oral microbiome. Really. We look at all the bacteria in your mouth. Eventually we'll also report on the different viruses and fungi because we know that they're also really important for oral disease. But right now, if we're talking about just bacteria, you get scores for your cavities. So we tell you what kind of bacteria in your mouth can contribute to cavities. What kind of bacteria in your mouth can contribute to gum disease, which ones in the mouth that are also implicated in gut inflammation and bad breath. And we're adding, we're adding new features all the time. So,
(21:50): Okay. So it's not one where you're gonna get specific bacterial names. You're basically going to get some type of score. I'm looking at the sample report where you'll get a beneficial bacteria score. And then it will say how you stack up next to healthy people. You get a tooth case score and you'll be told how you stack up compared to people who are healthy people with tooth decay and you'll get a gum inflammation score. And you'll be told compared to people with inflammation, healthy people and you, and then also halitosis bad breath, you'll get a score. And then based on the results you'll get, excuse me, diet and hygiene tips. Is that right?
(22:31): More than that too. Okay. You'll get specific recommendations for probiotics, if possible, and different kinds of supplements that could help you and included in each of the scores. We also do give the bacteria names. We give your abundance of each of the bacteria and how you relate to other people for those different bacteria. And a lot of times it's really hard to interpret that kind of information. Like I can tell you that you have, you know, Pomona gingivalis, but what does that really mean for you? So we try to contextualize it into these scores.
(23:01): I see that I just have a basic, and then there is a breakout where it does show you your bacteria related to these different items and you get custom recommendations based on this. So I didn't see that before.
(23:14): Okay. And each test with the recommendations, we also provide a coach. So we have a dental hygienist on staff who is educated in the oral microbiome and what you can do to improve it. And we provide one coaching call to everyone who, who takes the test so that you can better understand how you can improve oral health, because we know that everybody is different. And so the recommendations we make may not entirely be applicable to you because you have a very specific need. And so we try to build around personalized medicine because we don't think there's a one size fits all approach for anybody really.
(23:46): Right. That's so true. And I love that you give a coaching appointment, they can go through that. I really think that in this day and age, where if you're trying to be proactive about your health and be as healthy as you can now and going forward in the future, this needs to be a part of your plan, right? Not just visiting the dentist twice a year and getting your teeth clean, not just brushing and flossing, but really assessing your oral microbiome as well as your colorectal microbiome and doing all the tests that I talk about. I say all the things, I really think this needs to be a part of it. How did you become interested in this topic? I always wanna know why people do what they've been.
(24:28): So I was trained as a scientist. I did my master's studying antibiotic resistance, so I studied bacteria. And then afterwards I wanted to do something different. I went to study a virus dengue virus during my PhD. And I decided, well, at the time I went to university of Michigan where there's a very big consortia of people studying the gut microbiome. And so the neighboring lab actually studies the interaction between the mouth and the gut. They use a lot of tools to look at how bacteria get from the mouth to the gut and whether or not they can cause disease. And so they published a few studies and that was kind of the start of my foray into it because I used to, we do a thing called journal club. It's basically research sharing between the different labs and, and that's where I first got interested. And so when I came back to California, where I grew up, I decided I wanted to study something with the microbiome. And what I decided to, to embark on was this very complicated interaction between the microbiome, the immune system and neurons. So neurons can interact with the immune system in the gut. And it's really important for actually maintaining homeostasis and keeping a healthy gut. But the way it happens is extremely complicated.
(25:45): Podcast level, like very,
(25:47): I'm not even sure I could explain it very well. Basically the summary at the time of me studying this was that neurons actually create proteins that help recruit immune cells. So there's different types of cells and the immune system that live within your tissue. So normally we refer to immune cells as in your blood and they help to monitor the, the health of your body. But some of them actually live inside of tissues and there's very specific. They're called macrophages. They can sample the environment, they eat stuff, and then they tell your body what's there. And it turns out that neurons, if you get rid of the neurons, then these macrophages also go away. And so these macrophages are in the gut and they're held there by neurons and they help to sample the environment of the gut to tell you, do you need to have diarrhea because there's something bad in here or are you okay because neurons also happen to control the motor function of the gut. So it's a very interesting interaction.
(26:45): Yes. So much science behind all of this. I think it's fascinating. I think what's important for everybody today to get the message. Is that the, or the bacteria in your mouth matter for your, the rest of your system matter for your brain health and do you get dementia or not matter for your heart and do you get heart disease or not matter for many aspects of your health and that to be proactive, you need to test not guess that's something I always say. And treat, I'm just wondering, it sounds like they've found association for instance, with certain of these pathogenic bacteria and hypertension, but have they proved causation and done any interventional studies to say that if you change these bacteria, then your blood pressure will improve. Yeah. Yes.
(27:33): , that's a really good question. That's so what people have done is they've introduced nitrate as a supplement in the mouth. And what they look at is two measurements. The first is salivary nitric oxide. So how much nitrate is being reduced in your saliva and how much nitrate is being reduced into your blood? And so a few studies have very small studies have gone into adding these supplements and it modulates the microbiome in a way that shifts towards more nitrate, reducing bacteria. And that in turn increases your nitric oxide in the blood. So not only have they done a depletion study, where they looked at the people who took mouthwash and it killed all the bacteria, mm-hmm, , they've also boosted them and saw a boost in the blood. Very
(28:15): Interesting. I love that. That is and Pally. We're just, this field is in its Macy and we're gonna have all kinds of designer, probiotics and treatments, hopefully for the mouth in the near future. I will look forward to that and we'll have in the show notes, a link to your blog, and then you do have a discount code for anybody who wants to order a test. So we'll have a code Kyrin, one 50, we'll have the link you can use in the show notes. If you're driving, please don't try to do it. Look it up now , we'll have the link in the show notes. We'll have the code Kyrin one 50 for 15% discount. And you can also look at a sample oral health test report. Like the one I was looking at we'll have the link for that. And I asked David before we started to share a couple quotes on life that he liked to with me. And, you know, I love a good quote. So they're all great, but I'm gonna share this one. Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.
(29:23): So are you not a worrier? you not worry at all? I
(29:27): Try not to be. I really try not to be. I really like this quote, cuz worrying is the same as doing nothing. Right? It's kind of like your test don't guess by worrying, you're really just sitting there and guessing you don't really know what's gonna happen. Why don't you go do something about it? Just go test, go find out.
(29:43): I love that. It is yeah. Test don't guess do something. It's just, it's rehearsing possibilities. And, but we can do it. I wonder if abnormal microbiome in your mouth is associated with increase in worrying. That would be an interesting study. David, you might wanna do that one.
(29:58): There were a few that had suggested some mental health issues were associated with oral microbiome changes. So there was depression, schizophrenia. Alzheimer's like we just talked about a number of things. Yeah.
(30:10): That is fascinating. I think there's gonna be way more data coming out on this association. I mean, we've got the vagi biome. We have our ocular biome. We've got them all over.
(30:22): We didn't even talk about the vaginal microbiome, the oral microbiome, the same bacteria that cause bacterial VA happen to be the ones that are in the mouth that cause gum disease.
(30:31): How fascinating, who knew? Do you guys offer any testing for that?
(30:37): So the, we do have a report on the bacteria. We don't call them out explicitly, but I think one of the, one of the scores we'll probably add in the future will be something like that will be a vaginal dysbiosis score because there's been a few studies that have shown the same strains of bacteria in the mouth. They actually end up colonizing the gut and then in turn, they end up in the vagina. Right. And so if you have dysbiosis either in your gut or in your mouth, that could definitely translate down to the vagina too.
(31:07): Fascinating. So fascinating. David Lin, thank you so much for coming on the hormone prescription podcast and sharing this information with us. I very much appreciate it.
(31:19): Absolutely likewise, me too.
(31:22): And thank you all for listening to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you've heard something today that you'll take and put into action to improve your health. It's great to have education atta, but ultimately what's gonna make an impact on your health and your life are the actions that you take. So go check out David's blog, maybe order a test kit, do the test, get the information, take action. And remember if you wanna mouth tape, read about how to do it properly first and I will see you next week. Thanks so much for joining me until then peace, love and hormones.
(32:02): Y'all thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you feel like your brain has been on a downhill spiral since you turned 40? You're not alone. The mid-life crisis is real, and it's affecting more women than ever before.
But there's hope! In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we chat with Dr. Louann Brizendine about how to upgrade your brain at midlife and thrive.
Dr. Brizendine is a leading expert on the female brain, and she shares her insights on what's going on inside our heads during this time of transition. She also gives us practical tips on how to improve our cognitive function and protect our mental health as we age.
Louann Brizendine, M.D. completed her degree in Neurobiology at UC Berkeley, graduated from Yale School of Medicine, and did her internship and residency at Harvard Medical School. She has also served on both the faculties of Harvard University and University of California at San Francisco. She founded the Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic at UCSF. Her New York Times bestseller, The Female Brain, and its follow-up, The Male Brain, continue to be read around the world. Her eagerly anticipated book, THE UPGRADE: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond, is out in April 2022. Now, as the Lynne and Marc Benioff endowed professor of clinical psychiatry at UCSF, Dr. Brizendine continues to speak, write, research, and consult.
In this episode, you'll learn:
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What's going on inside our brains during the mid-life transition
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How to improve your cognitive function as you age
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Tips for protecting your mental health in midlife and beyond
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The latest research on the female brain and how it changes in midlife
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And more!
If you're ready to learn how to upgrade your brain in midlife and thrive, this episode is for you!
(00:00): In this episode, find out why the upgrade previously known as the transition is the gateway to the best years of your life.
(00:09): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.
(01:03): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you for joining me today. You're gonna love my guest today. Dr. Louann Brizendine, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. But first let me say, she's talking about the upgrade. What is the upgrade for women? Well, it used to be called the transition, which meant all kinds of bad things, bad outcomes, things you don't want for women, but she is reframing this time of life as being the upgrade. And I love that because it's really true. You are getting an upgrade, not a downgrade, despite what you might have been told or you've been led to believe. And she's gonna tell you how to maximize that so that this can be the best time of your life. Dr. Louann has some amazing credentials. She completed her degree in neurobiology at UC Berkeley.
(01:57): She graduated from Yale school of medicine and she did her internship in residency at Harvard medical school. You can't get much better credentials than that. She served on the faculty at Harvard and university, the E of California at San Francisco. She founded the women's mood and hormone clinic at USCF. Her New York times bestseller the female brain and its follow up. The male brain continued to be read around the world. Her eagerly anticipated book, the upgrade, how the female brain gets stronger and better and midlife and beyond is now out and available. She is the Lynn and mark Benioff and do professor of clinical psychiatry at UC S F. She continues to speak right research and consult. Please help me to welcome the brilliant I'm Dr. Louann Brizendine. Welcome Dr. Louann to the podcast.
(02:50): Thank you, Dr. Kyrin, nice to meet you and see you. And I'm just delighted to be here with your audience because you know, your people are my people
(02:59): Yes, our people are the same. we
(03:05): Treat the, we treat the same group of patients. I do my medical center. They say Louann treats above the neck and we treat below the waist.
(03:12): Yes. I love that. But most people think that they're such a dichotomy there. Well, above the neck and below the waist, there's no relationship, but that's exactly what you talk about in your books is how connected our female hormones are to our brain function.
(03:32): Absolutely. I don't think people know that. I think, you know, once you hear it and you understand you go like the light bulb on your head goes, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course the brain, the pituitary control all the other hormones in the entire body.
(03:46): It's so true. And the hormones in the brain and just all the intermixing, which I'm sure we'll get into how vital sex hormones are for cognitive function for brain function. But I wanna start just talking about your book, the upgrade, because I think this is really radical and I'm hoping you can explain to everybody, we always talk about the menopause transition. I actually talk about the menopause spectrum and how it's not a point in time, and you go through this spectrum of change, but talk about what the upgrade is and how it differs from the transition.
(04:24): You know, you and I speak the same language actually, because that's why I, with all my patients, I hated those words. Like the perimenopause menopause is cuz it's like, it's, those are medical diagnoses in a way. And they're just a little slice of what actually is happening. It's not the whole woman, this transition that we're going through from like about age, you know, 38 to 48 that we kind of call in the big brackets kind of AKA the perimenopause. Yeah. That's something that's happening just to kind of the, the ovaries and the follicles are, you know, starting to not be as healthy and they're starting to like die off and we lose them, but that's just, that's the medical diagnosis of that transition. So, but I called it the transition because it's, there's so much more that's going on for us women. There's all kinds of relationship, things, emotional things, things in terms of our work life things in terms of our children, that's like, there's all kinds of layers of stuff that's going on in our brain.
(05:14): So the transition, and then once you hit finish the transition, you go into what I call the upgrade and the upgrade, AKA menopause it's as you. And I know the definition of menopause actually lasts for one day, right? It's the day, 12 months after your last period is called menopause. It lasts for one day and then the next day you're in post-menopause. So, you know, it doesn't really, these words don't really kind of work for what we experience as women. And so certainly not what our women patients are experiencing. And it's so cool. I mean, once you hit the upgrade, they, after the rock and roll of the hormonal fluctuations of the menstrual cycle, the perimenopause, all of your fertility years, your brain circuits are and your body you're free of that, those waves that crash over you every month. And people don't realize that the hormones are changing, not just stuff in your ovary and your uterus, but they're changing all kinds of stuff in your brain circuits for your memory.
(06:12): Remember like three or four days before ovulation, it's a huge estrogen Sur just making you be, you wanna be kind of, you sway your hips a little more. You put a little makeup, it a little sexier. You know what you're doing is mother NA under the hood mother, nature's got you all wired hormonally to go out there looking for the best sperm. You know, those couple of days before ovulation, our sex drive goes up. We're all, you know, we're ready to rock and roll. I've got UA, our hips, actually our voice goes higher, all that stuff. We talk faster, et cetera. And then of course the PMs time comes, you're crashing. You know, you're having all of those irritability and those spurts of anger and tearfulness and my clinic, we call it the crying over dog food commercials sign, you know, we can Boohoo over anything.
(06:55): So the cool thing is, is that once you hit the upgrade, baby, that's gone and you've got all of this circuitry in there. That's working really well to just your dance card is open to add new things. You're not gonna have to struggle with your hormones being jerked around. You're not gonna be dealing with fertility hormones. You're not gonna be dealing with being pushed out there, looking for the best firm, whatever it is. You know, you've got all of this incredible space and brain power that comes and is able to like take on new project, new purpose women, lots of women, you know, in America, the biggest number of new businesses are started by women over 50.
(07:33): Yes. I always tell women that I work with that. I'm kind of sneaky. Cuz do I wanna help you with your health? Yes, but I'm really sneaky cuz I know you're sitting on gifts that you aren't using and you aren't delivering to the world cause you don't feel good. So if I can help you feel better, then you will get off your assets and give your gifts. And so I think it really aligns with what you're talking about. The upgrade so many women see this as downgrade TBA, oh,
(08:08): That's wrong, wrong, wrong. That's no, that is so wrong. And this that's because society is still looking at it that way too. And where as these things start inside us, as soon as we start looking at ourselves as an upgrade, then society starts to follow along behind us. We have to take that for ourselves. We have to claim that territory, claim that for ourselves mm-hmm and it is an upgrade. And once women realize that and start seeing it as like, yes, your fertility years are over, but 50 women that are 50. Now many, a chunk of us will live to be a hundred plus you know, those women that are just starting in the early Perry, you know, a lot of those women will live to be, you know, 110, you know, there's, you've got more than half your life there. So you gotta, wow, you got this whole new chapter. I, I have a chapter in the book book that's called finding new purpose as well. I go through all the rock and roll of the, for women that are younger. I've had women in their thirties, they read this book and they go, oh God, Dr. Luann, thank you. I feel so much better. I thought it was all over when I was 40, you know, there's feeling so hopeful that there is more to it than just like things being, being over when you're 40 or 50.
(09:17): Yeah. And so what are the gifts? Why do you call it an upgrade? I get it. But I think there are a lot of women and men out there who aren't gonna get it. So what is new, better, special about this time.
(09:32): Okay. So let's go back to that jagged up and down of your hormones all during your fertility cycle, remember your brain circuits. So part of your brain circus was one of the little areas called the hippocampus, not the hippopotamus, but the hippocampus. You know, it's a really important area in your brain. If you stuck your fingers right in above your ears, by about an inch into your brain on both sides, that's where they live a little guys, the size of your, you know, your fingertips. But they're really important cuz it's the way you form all your memories. You attach your memories and it's a big memory cognition center in your brain. And every month the estrogen goes up and it sprouts like 25% different connections in that area. And then it gets all born down during the last two weeks when a progesterone comes and pours like weed, killer her on all those connections.
(10:17): So it's like building up, taking down, building up, taking down. So that's just one little area of the brain it's happening in other areas too. We don't know that we don't teach that or talk about it yet because the new technology is just being able to show that. So women need to know that that buildup tear down, build up, tear down. It's not letting you stand firmly on the shore. You stand more firmly and see further when you're able to just count on a more stable brain power every day of the month. You're not being jerked around by your hormones anymore.
(10:47): Yes . And so you talk about all the benefits that occur. Like we're more relaxed. Our brain is more even chilled. Our moods are more even keeled. Now I know a lot of my people who listen to this podcast are wondering, well, Louann under Louann, are you talking about this is with hormone therapy or without cause they know me. They're listening to me all the time. And I always talk about why doing menopause naturally is a bad idea, the increased risk for disease and what I call midlife metabolic mayhem. And so help them understand, is this something that I'm gonna experience just naturally? Or is this something that I need hormone therapy to help me experience? How do I experience the upgrade?
(11:42): Okay. So I wrote this book and I had to stop tiptoeing through the tulips on this issue, right? Cause I was part of the generation where when women's health initiative came out in 2002 women's health initiative, you know, to stopped the hormones for all the women in the country. And I know you and I are seeing all these women now that have had these women that unfortunately went through this transition before we were back to being able to give women their hormones back, we see all kinds of problems. You know, they're getting osteoporosis and the Alzheimer's situation in terms of the actual evidence based medicine on that is being looked at right now. So we don't know some of that piece about the dementia, but a lot of the evidence is pointing to the fact that the brain needs estrogen too on going remember men, men don't fall off a cliff.
(12:26): Like we do hormones at that stage. They go on in a 60 year old man and a 60 year old woman. If she's not taking hormone replacement, guess what? Dr. K they have four times more estrogen in their brain than we do at age six. And, and that's why they have increases for prostate cancer. Yes, exactly. And that's what osteoporosis as much as women too, right? I mean, it's just basic biology. And once, you know, listen, biology is destiny, unless you know what it's doing to you. Yes. And once know, once you know what it's doing to you, then you can take appropriate action for yourself. So I tell women, they go, oh, why don't I get breast cancer? If I take hormones, blah, blah, blah, whatever the answer is, no women, the evidence shows that women in the five to 10 year of taking hormone replacement therapy after the change don't have any increased risk of breast cancer, unless you have the breast cancer gene.
(13:21): So I basically just test my patients, all their genes. I just test them to see if they have any of the breast cancer genes. And then you're in a different category. But if you're not in that category, then yes, you may safely take hormones after that period of time, that will help you get through that. Now, if you've had a hysterectomy, you're in the, you're in the lucky group, right? You're in the lucky group because you only have to take estrogen. You don't have to take progesterone because you don't have a uterus anymore. So those women in my practice are the happiest actually that they don't have any have to take any progesterones. So the mixing and I talk about that in chapter three and four of the book, kind of the mixing and matching of the estrogen and the progesterone and different aspects of that.
(14:00): So yes, I really feel that that women should have the opportunity and doctors should not hesitate to, you know, women that are having difficulty sleeping. Remember the three pillars, right? The three pillars of your brain function, the three pillars of that little stool, three cord stool stool is only stable with three little legs. So one of the big legs is sleep for your brain, cuz remember, and that's why I bring this up in the context of pour my replacement there. Because if you're not sleeping, cuz you're sweating all night, you're up all night long and you're just like, your brain is erect. Now remember what happens in your brain? It's sleep is that all the little cells you've been talking to each other and your brain all day long, chat, chat, chat, chat, they're making all this garbage Gar they're called garbage proteins. They're just like, there's spewing trash around all over your brain.
(14:43): At night, those little neurons, they shrink down. They shrink back and they leave these little channels in between the cells where the whole body gets to flush out. They just come out with the hose and it flushes out all the garbage at night when you're sleeping. But if you're not sleeping those cells don't shrink back and you're not flushing out the garbage outta your brain every night. So that's one of the big deals about making sure you're getting good sleep during this transition. And lots of times, as you know, and I know it's like, gosh, a patient who's not sleeping. You put them on estrogen sometimes within a week, they're sleeping well again and their brain is clearing up from that brain fog that the other two little parts of the stool are of course having that Mediterranean type diet. So you keep your inflammation down.
(15:26): You keep your nutritional level up while your vitamins up and that extra corner of the stool. And of course the other one is muscles. Remember muscles, the big study on women at age 80, those 80 year old women who had the best cognition had the best muscle function, strongest leg strength, the strongest leg strength, and basically that leg strength and the muscles communicate with the brain. I tell women cuz one of the biggest muscles in our body is the butt muscle, your glute muscle. So I say one of the things I gave this little tip on TikTok and Instagram, that one of the best things for your brain is to do, but squeezes. So ladies, when you're sitting down at your computer, when you're standing, brushing your teeth or in the grocery line or driving somewhere, do your butt squeezes. If you aim for a thousand a day, that's good. I figure if I can do, if you can do a hundred a day, that's good. Keep the muscles going. Cuz the muscles release things into your bloodstream called Mykines that stimulate the brain as well as the whole nervous system that stimulates the brain. So that talk back and forth study just came out last week in the new England general showing people's muscle strength is really a big prevention of dimension. So those are the three, three little stool. Just the little legs on the stool is the sleep, the diet and the muscles.
(16:37): Okay. Super important. And that's one of the reasons why I think testosterone is so important to maintain that muscle mass, because like you said, it's related directly to brain health
(16:47): Cuz I think that's come up a lot with women and you know, of course all of us, it's not FDA approved in the United States, but the European women have had it for 20 years. European women have a, a compound that just comes in a little like little pump that you pump out one pumpy you run it on your wrists and that's your testosterone supply for the day, but we don't have it here.
(17:04): Well we have bioidentical compounded hormones and I'm a big believer in test don't guess. So test the levels and optimize to optimal physiologic levels using a custom compound prescription.
(17:19): Absolutely.
(17:21): Yeah, but we talk a lot about with men that they lose muscle mass, their dopamine goes down, they feel like they've lost their edge when they go through cuz their testosterones going down. But the same things happen for women too. And really in America we only talk about testosterone as it relates to women's sex drive, but it's about so much more it's about brain health and neurotransmitter balance and muscle mass. So it's, I think it's super important.
(17:49): Yeah. I think that it has to be individually tailored made to each woman because I have, I've had a lot of women that you know, that the downside is that you get a little bit, you get more irritable, it's easier to have it's even for women to have road rage road rage on testosterone.
(18:04): I think, yeah. If it's too high, you can definitely have that. But if you get that sweet spot, I mean we, women have testosterone throughout our lives and most of us don't have a problem with it. So if we can get it at that sweet spot that's right for each woman, then I think she doesn't have an overabundance of aggressive tendencies or anything like
(18:24): That. The DHA can sometimes be okay for some women as long as they don't get acne from it, you know?
(18:30): Yes. Okay. So those three pillars I know in the book, boy, you go through so many things. I don't know which to ask you about first let's talk about dementia. So I recently did a, a Ted talk and I, I talked about my mom who has all advanced Alzheimer's and really the only risk factor she had was she had been menopausal without hormone therapy for three decades. And so that's probably her biggest risk. And so hormones are a part of that, but what are other ways that people can fend off dementia, increase longevity and wellbeing.
(19:07): So those studies are really being done. And I think that the estrogen replacement, one of the things we look at that why women have more than men is first of all, of course, women live longer, but you know, not that much longer, like, you know, we're at three or four years longer and that's about it. So, but women, for some reason do have more dementia. I have some of my colleagues who are specialists in Alzheimer's and they really think that that women at the transition should definitely be taking estrogen replacement during this transition to help keep their brain active and functioning. So there's just so many receptors in the brain that for estrogen estrogen receptors, like if you just looked at your, you took a picture of my brain right now with like a special filter that just showed you the estrogen receptors all over men, it would look like the United States with a massive COVID outbreak.
(19:55): You know, they'd be like if they little dots everywhere, you know, cause estrogen receptors throughout our brain and obviously our body too. So that is one thing I suggest for women, the dementia also inflammation. So we think of that inflammation. I talk about this in the book I talk about in the, I have a chapter that's called, you know, the neuroscience of self care and that chapter chapter six and also chapter 14 specifically talks about keeping your brain healthy and avoiding dementia. And besides the estrogen replacement, there's all kinds of things about inflammation and inflammation does not just mean an infection. We always kind of think of it as meaning an infection, but there's a lot that we're learning about. What's called it's a really little technical turn it's called sterile inflammation. It basically means inflammation without an infection. And that happens in our body all day long all the time.
(20:43): And we need to clear out that inflammation all the time. So things like the Mediterranean diet and things like just basically trying to keep all of your vitamin levels at the right level is really very helpful to keeping inflammation down. So anything that you can do, keeping your microbiome and your gut healthy, which is basically comes from eating really healthy fibers. I mean, you do not need to take a handful of probiotics every day. I mean, some people like to take those, but sometimes, sometimes those cause a lot of trouble for people who have small intestine problems and larger intestine problems taking too many probiotics can be a disaster, but some people it can be okay for others. But keeping your microbiome healthy basically comes from eating healthy fibers in your diet, you know, both the soluble and the insoluble fibers. So really paying attention to feeding the wonderful, healthy bacteria down in your colon, cuz they then release compounds that go into your bloodstream right through your gut. So you can help decrease inflammation by feeding your microbiome, the healthy bacteria. I think it kind of like my special little garden down there in my colon that I'm, you know, I just wanna make sure it has the right fertilizer and I right water every day. Just think about it as something you're trying to take good care of and grow to be its most beautiful.
(21:56): I remember this book, maybe you do two called my secret garden. Do you remember that book? That's learned about sex? It was at my friend's house and I found this book, my secret God, but now to me, my secret garden is my gut garden.
(22:12): Yes. True. I know, I know. I think of my little babies down there that I'm just trying to like keep healthy and keep feeding them the right stuff and et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, you're absolutely right. That's one of the important things about this secret and microbiome. So that's something else that really can help keep the inflammation in your body down. And we do know that things like alcohol, alcohol really amps up your inflammation in your body and your brain. And it does all kinds of things to basically well increases your risk of breast cancer. It increases your risk of dementia. It's really, I know that's such a part of our culture, but you know, women, we do everything. We women do everything just to try to look healthy and stay healthy at this stage. That's one of the things not in eating like handful of, you know, sweets, like, you know, you don't go through a whole, a box of bond bonds anymore. Do we?
(23:01): no, we don't. And I love that you talk about in the book, really the dangers of alcohol, I think a lot of practitioners skirt over it because they don't wanna be the bad guy, but I was just talking with a client this morning and she's like, really? I can't have any alcohol. I said, no, you can do what you want. I'm just gonna educate you about the consequences of the choices you're making. And then actually one of my health coaches who works with me in my program said, everybody's asking me about switching out their alcohol for cannabis. Is that better? I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that.
(23:37): I think that the cannabis question is really interesting and I mean just in terms of, in terms of its harmfulness to you versus alcohol, I do agree with that first one. I agree that it's probably less, much less harmful than alcohol to your health and your brain actually. However, there's all kinds of things with it that we don't entirely understand right now. I mean, for one thing, it can give you the munch she's really bad. It can make you put on weight, you know? So all of our efforts are trying to keep that the belly fat down, it doesn't help with that cuz it just makes you wanna eat carbs. So, you know, it's like everything in moderation. I mean the best healthiest thing is to switch alcohol to water.
(24:17): Yeah. But I used to think I would get the same effects like I could drinking 12 years ago and I would do a yin yoga class after work. And I would feel like I had a glass of wine and you really invoke that parasympathetic nervous system. So I think there are a lot of ways to get around the wine o'clock routine.
(24:37): I think once people become meditators are doing yoga or doing, you know, things that are, that are much more stimulating your bagel nerve and your parasympathetic nervous system. When I talk about in the book, the alternate nostril, the nine round NOST thing and also the nurturing moment meditations that I talk about in the book too. There's there are ways that just really calm your nervous system and increase your bagel, nervous system, your parasympathetic nervous system. And actually in Atlanta at Emory university, they have a whole division that basically is researching and teaching the compassionate meditation practices.
(25:11): Oh, I love that. And you have so many resources in the book, so I can't everybody listening or highly recommend it and some great stories. You're gonna see yourself in these stories. And I'm wondering if you can share a little bit Dr. Elaine, about what inspired you to write this book?
(25:30): I wrote the book, the female brain, and it came out, you know, in 2006. And it was really about from the moment of conception up until the transition until the upgrade, you know, it was at that stage. And the last chapter in that book is called the mature female brain in chapter seven. So it's basically that book sort of stopped about the time to take off on all the things about the upgrade. And I wrote that at a time when I hadn't experienced those parts of life into the upgrade yet. And so when I started going through those years and things myself, I realized, oh my gosh, there's so much more to tell that I hadn't told that so important that has to do with our brains and our hormones and just our entire life and the stories of our life as they basically, you know, chapter eight is also on mothering adult children, you know, mothering adult, you know, teens and adult children and a whole nother thing.
(26:21): You know? So the, you know, the female brain book, I have a chapter, chapter five is on, it's called the mommy brain, but that was from pregnancy. You know, it was a whole different look and I hadn't experienced what it's like to try to mother an adult son. You know, I was like, are you kidding? You have to, there's all kinds of landmines you have to learn to avoid. So, so that's the reason I decided to write is there's just so much more that I felt needed to be said. And also the end of the book also goes through what we go through in terms of decisions that we make either with our parents as they're aging. And I'm sure you've had to do a lot of that, which is really painful and very difficult, but it's stuff that we need to talk about. We need to be aware of that stage of our lives.
(27:03): It is it's so important and you know, we are the sandwich generation. So I know a lot of women who are between children who maybe haven't left the nest quite yet, and parents who need their time and attention and care. And you talk about the importance of community connection, the epidemic of loneliness, how that's affecting us, what advice do you have for a woman who's navigating the sandwich, ears, getting her upgrade. And you talk about the wisdom phase and she's thinking Dr. Luanne, how do I bring my wisdom? Like I'm just overrun with all these responsibilities. How can you help her navigate this
(27:45): Again? You're juggling as fast as you can. When you like with, when you used to have really young children and infants saying you're having a job and trying to juggle, I know what that's like. That's like a little it's really you look back at and like, God, I've got PTSD from doing that
(28:01): Too. Oh, my
(28:03): Being a doctor being in the early part of your career where you're basically, I was at a university, I was in the shark tank and I was really in the shark tank cuz I was one of the only women. There are all these guy professors and they don't, they don't even know what to do with you. They just think that you're weird. But anyway, , and now you're in a different stage where you've got, like you say some probably mid-teens or teens at home. And then you're also trying to sandwich generation trying to care for. So, and then you're having all this experience of finally being released from all the hormonal pushes and pulls. And you may have some more brain power and some more, you know, you may have some more slots on your dance card that you get to fill, but all they may be being filled up with the needs and care taking of others. And I think there's a time that I have three words to say to women it's called self care, self care, self care, because you can only take care of others really, truly on an ongoing basis from your overflow of being filled up yourself with what you need. So you gotta put your own oxygen mask on first, before you can help others.
(29:06): I know it's so true. And I, we say it, but I still see women struggling with that. But I think we can both give you all, if you're listening permission, permission to love yourself first, right? You have a prescription.
(29:22): Not the reason it's not selfish is because you've gotta keep your gas tank filled up in order to help others and to help yourself. So you gotta track whatever practice you find. That's good. That's working for you. If you're doing compassionate meditation, you're learning that you nurturing moment meditation that I talk about or you're joining other women. I mean, I think that's women. We get a lot of love and care from our women friends. You know, we end from our, from some of our social engagements and we need to keep the channels open with our girlfriends. Actually, there's the study that, that I talk about in the book about where if you go out twice a week with at least three to four of your girlfriends, you live 15 years longer.
(30:02): Oh, I love that
(30:04): Shocking number, a shocking number. So it don't feel like it's a selfish thing. If you're, you know, we women, we feel like we need to keep ourselves alive and healthy cuz we feel that we're helping these other people with their lives. And we can't just bail on our life. Cuz we have other people that we love that we wanna care for. And yet we have to learn that it's not selfish at all on the contrary to take really good care of yourself and fill up your own gas tank so that you can put your own oxygen mask on and be able to help others. You must help yourself first and only be able to give to others from your overflow. The only thing you've got to give us on a constant basis is from your over. So ladies fill up your gas tank first.
(30:46): Yeah. And you share in the book, I wasn't aware of this, that there's the greatest increase in suicides among women over 60 and it's not being studied or really discussed. I wasn't aware of that
(30:57): Really shocking. Nobody's talking, you know, we are all talking about teen suicide, right? I mean, that's the thing that gets everybody's mind cuz it's like it happens at schools and et cetera, et cetera. But, and the alcoholism alcoholism level in women over 60 is skyrocketing. Especially since COVID, it's really, I mean it's a real listen, those women, women 60 plus are in a health crisis right now.
(31:20): It is so true. And I think w H I, the women's health and issue study has a lot to do with that. Cuz there's so many women, I think what is the statistic? Less than 5% of women are using hormone therapy and all the consequences that that brings. Right?
(31:37): Remember it went from 40% almost being on it to, and when that came out within the next two years, it struck to eight to 5%. And you know, a lot of the women that were seeing that are 60 plus they didn't. And a lot of my girlfriends didn't get it. I mean I did cause I'm a doctor. I had a hysterectomy when I was 53, my girlfriend was my surgeon. She put the patch on me in the recovery room and she says, Laurie, you're gonna do this patch and you're gonna keep it. So, you know, I had the advantage of like having medical care at that time, even though we think about it 2005 was only three years after the w H I or two years after the w H I came out.
(32:11): Right.
(32:11): And so osteoporosis, I mean, I have so many girlfriends whose bones are just falling to bits. There are osteoporotic, you know? So I just feel like at any rate, it's a crisis and we doctors, you know, you and I we're in this. And I mean, we feel it for our patients, you know, doesn't it make you mad sometimes. I mean, just makes me really mad that this was allowed to go on for so long. This was allowed to go on for 20 years and it's still going on. I have so many patients come to me. I'm sure you do too. That they can't find anybody to give them hormones.
(32:42): Yeah. I mean, that's one of the reasons I created her hormone club, a telemedicine membership nationwide. So women could access, testing and treatment with natural hormones because there are so many doctors still who won't prescribe it and advise against
(33:00): It. Why it's not because they don't care for their patients. It's cuz they're scared. And remember for 20 years, the OB GYN profession has not been teaching in residencies. Some of them come out of there with less than one lecture in their whole residency on hormone therapy. They don't even know they they're, they're basically uneducated
(33:22): So true. And when I was researching for my Ted talk, I came across articles. You know, it wasn't just us, me saying it, new England journal of medicine, journal of women's health and Mayo clinic proceedings all had articles on the fact that doctors are not trained in the management of women's hormones at midlife and beyond and are unprepared to treat women at this stage of life. I said, it's not me saying it it's documented incredible journals. So I think, you know, in any woman listening, you're probably not gonna get the whole story at your regular doctors. It's not their fault. They're good people. It's just that they're not taught that
(34:00): They're not. And so we did have some mega you and I have a megaphone out there and I feel, I don't know about you, but you, we both, you and I can tell, we feel as part of our mission to let women that's. Part of the reason I wrote this book is part of my mission to let give women permission, to do many, many things with their life at this transition, but also give them permission to seek out and get the hormones. They need to protect their bones, protect their brain, to protect their sleep, et cetera, et cetera, and not have brain fog and be going down the rabbit hole of depression and anxiety. I'm sure you see the depression and anxiety that this stage of life causes. And it's like, of course, estrogen replacement doesn't treat a, a full on full blown clinical depression, but it can stop a lot of women from a slippery slope of sliding down there. I'm sure you've seen that in your practice all the time.
(34:48): Oh my gosh. If I didn't have my hormones, when this started for me, the spectrum in my forties, I wanted to die. So , I know when women tell me that they're miserable and they're in their forties or beyond usually sex hormones are a part of that, you know, but they're going to their doctors and getting SSRIs or antidepressants, which isn't the whole story. And I've never found a woman who came in from an SSRI and said, oh my gosh, I feel amazing.
(35:17): Hi, absolutely not. As a matter of fact, they feel they can't have an orgasm cuz SSRI block their orgasms. And a lot of women don't even know that and they're not actually told that that much. And then, and then they also, they, they put on the drug Paxil, the one that's called peroxetine it's also called BI. You know, it's given for hot flashes too. It is the number. One of all the SSRI that causes on average 18 pounds of weight gain per year.
(35:40): Yeah. I'm not signing up for that.
(35:42): no, I know. I just that's that's you know, it's just not a, so the reality is, is that SSRI are really fabulous to help people over a, a, a glitch difficult spot. They can be very helpful. Then what happens though, is people get stuck on them because the withdrawal syndrome of trying to get off of them makes women feel temporarily while they're trying to taper off slowly. That's why take people down on really tiny, tiny taper to, I take them off from over two months. Most, some doctors will take them off over two weeks and then they crash and burn, but you get rebound depression from it unless you do it slowly. And so they think that underneath it all, they're really still that depressed. They need those meds for the rest of their life. And they're told by some doctors, they need them for the rest of their life.
(36:27): Well, they don't. I mean, so anyway that you gotta get me, that's one of my hobby heart. I swear. I mean, I've used those drugs for my entire career, cuz they're very helpful. And of course I treat a lot more, you know, anxiety and depression than you do. Cause that's, you know, that's where a lot of people come to me for, but they're women that are on glitches of their hormones. I don't wanna see them go down that rabbit hole. I wanna see them have their hormones balanced correctly before they go down that rabbit hole.
(36:51): Yes. Oh my gosh. So much to talk about. I'm gonna encourage everyone to get the book and read it. It is, there's a plethora of information, inspiration, wisdom. I'm wondering if you can share, we will have a, a link in the show notes where you can go download the first chapter of the book for free Dr. Louann's website. So we'll have that link in the show notes, but what are you planning to do with the rest of your upgrade and this wisdom phase in life?
(37:20): Well, you know, I'm, by now I'm doing the book tour and I'm doing lots of podcasts. I'm wanting to, you know, speak to as many women as I possibly can over this next year. And there's so much more than I'm starting to work on a PBS series on this topic. So stay tuned. I think that may come out next to March, but if it happens, I'll, I'll keep you posted fingers crossed the, all the editors and the producers wanna do this. Cause I think women really need like women. You see women all the time. Women are desperate and there's really, I feel that there's a failure on the medical professions part to help women at this stage of life. They just bail on them. They don't help them. So I'm so glad that you're out there doing this and we need to multiply you times a hundred thousand.
(38:01): Oh, I mean, we need you in every city, whatever I know, thank God for the thank out for the internet, cuz you can do it all over now. But you see that all the time. Don't you feel the same. It's just like, I feel that women are they're suffering needlessly. I want, I know listen. Life is full of suffering. Life is the truth of the matter is look, life is full of suffering. We're only human. All of us have suffering in our life, but there's a level at which you don't have to have suffering because of your hormones. Like leaving your body during the state of life. You know, we have a fix for that. Now it can help you. So I just want women to feel, don't
(38:34): Feel, feel guilty or bad about it just because your doctor doesn't know about it. Go find another doctor. Yeah, stop going to the hardware store for milk. They don't have it. They won't have it. Not gonna have it. So just go to the milk store and you know, so the hormones, thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Louann, this has been wonderful. Everybody go get the book. I can't recommend it highly enough. We will look for your PBS special, super excited about that. We will have the link in the show notes to go, go to Dr. Louann's website and download the first chapter four free on her website. And thank you so much for joining us today. Oh, it's my deep deep honor and pleasure to get to speak with your audience and to get to meet you as well. So anyway, best of wishes to all of you and your audience. Thank you for having me and thank you all for joining me for another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kirin. I want you to take action with the information you have heard. Dr. Louann has a wealth of information. She cite all the studies. She's got the data in her book. You wanna get this book for sure. And then I want you to take action and follow me on social. And let's talk about what you're doing. I will see you again next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all
(39:51): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com or we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Are you ashamed to talk about your pelvic floor? You're not alone. Millions of women suffer from incontinence and other pelvic floor disorders, but they're often too embarrassed to seek help.
In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're joined by Jana Danielson, a pelvic floor specialist who's here to dish the secrets to pelvic floor success. From how to keep things tight down there to how to manage incontinence, Jana's got the lowdown on everything you need to know about keeping your pelvic floor healthy and happy.
Jana Danielson helps women have better pelvic floor function by using the Cooch Ball, the world’s first patented pelvic floor fitness tool for women. She is an Amazon Best Selling Author, the Founder of Lead Pilates and Lead Integrated Health Therapies, and the Metta District, an online wellness community. Jana has coached and consulted with tens of thousands of women from all over the world to help improve their quality of life, their confidence, and their impact in this world.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- The symptoms of a weak pelvic floor and how to know if you have one
- How the pelvic floor is connected to the whole body and why it's important to keep it strong
- The secrets to pelvic floor success
- How to keep things tight down there
- How to manage incontinence
- The importance of pelvic floor health
So, whether you're suffering in silence or just want to learn more about how to take care of your lady parts, this is the episode for you! Tune in now and get started on your journey to pelvic floor success.
(00:00): Joseph Pilates said, breath is the first and last act of life. And somewhere in the middle, we forget how to do it. What does this have to do with the secrets to pelvic floor success, stay tuned and you'll find out.
(00:15): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates our rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.
(01:09): Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thanks so much for joining me today. We're talking about pelvic floor disorders and how to be successful in helping and healing them today with Jana Danielson, you're gonna love her. It really struck me how incredibly revolutionary what she has created is after I interviewed her and looked more into the product that she's developed and the educational platform that she's developed for women suffering with pelvic floor disorders, which is, mm, a lot of us as we age, frankly, and she's gonna go through, how do you identify if you have a pelvic floor disorder, it's not really common Parlin that we say, Hey, do you have a pelvic floor disorder? And so she's gonna talk about the symptoms that you would be having that could alert you, that you have some type of pelvic floor dysfunction going on.
(02:12): And more than that, she's got solutions, amazing solutions. And I really love how, when we lean into the problems that we're so hard, lean into those questions that we can come up with some revolutionary answers and solutions. And Jana did just that. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. So Jana Danielson helps women have better pelvic floor function by using the cooch ball. The world's first patented pelvic floor fitness tool for women. She's an Amazon bestselling author, the founder of lead Pilates and lead integrated health therapies and the meta district, an online wellness community, Jana has coached and consulted with tens of thousands of women from all over the world world to help improve their quality of life, their confidence, and their impact in this world. Welcome Jana.
(03:06): Thank you, Dr. Dunston. It's great to be here.
(03:09): I'm so excited to have you join me today. We haven't really talked about pelvic floor health on the podcast, how that's happened. I don't even know cuz it's a super important topic and you've created an amazing product for women to use before we talk about that. Can you talk a little bit about how you became so interested in and became an expert in pelvic floor health for women?
(03:33): Yeah, absolutely. So I am the mom of three boys. They're now 17, 19 and 21. So I, it's not like I'm a new mom, but in my career I had a career shift about 16 or 17 years ago from the world of corporate into wellness, entrepreneurship and Pilates actually for me became a vehicle that I used for my own healing. A lot of undiagnosed pain, a lot of protecting a lot of holding, a lot of tension in my body, which created a lot of dysfunction and a lot of disconnection from my body. And so through Pilates, I started to understand the way our body worked as systems. You know, we're not pieces. We think sometimes were arms and legs and organs and skin and hair. And, but we're much more than that. We're a skeletal system and lymphatic system and a reproductive system and a digestive system.
(04:26): And what I started learning through my training and my own healing was that these systems when compromised are not just standalone compromised systems, they're gonna impact other systems in the body. And when that happens, using the hyphenated word, DISE dis-ease is one of the outcomes that can be present in the body. And that's what was happening with me. I became a very, I was, I looked seemingly healthy on the outside, but on the inside I was slowly, I felt like I was slowly dying. I was losing my voice. I became a very, not so confident. Young woman didn't know if I'd ever be able to be a mom. Didn't know why I would marry my high school sweetheart, who just proposed to me because my body was not working for me. And when I found Pilates, it completely changed my life. And as part of that, I guess, experience 16 weeks into starting my Pilates journey. I was off all 11 medications that I had been prescribed to manage different symptoms that I had been experiencing for two years prior to that. And it really intrigued me.
(05:36): Could you talk a little bit about what was going on for you in detail? Like you said, your body just wasn't working for you, you're on all these medications. I know everybody's wondering like what in the world was happening.
(05:47): So for me it was manifesting or presenting itself as digestive pain. And this had started when I think back to it, like back in high school, I am the first born child. I am a pretty driven individual and I would get this pain. And I always in my mind just thought, well that's because I am vying for that high mark on that test. Or I wanna make that team or I want it right. And I just chalked it up to nerves. My little small town doctor also chalked it up to nerves and I just started taking tongues. Cause I just thought it was, you know, a little bit of acid in my gut. And it turned out to be much more than that. The pain, it was like a, a baseball size pain just back from my belly button. And it would overcome me. I would be doubled over.
(06:37): It was hard to breathe. I would find myself sitting at my desk at work, kind of pressing the angle of the desk into just above my belly button and I would breathe and that would kind of calm it down for me. It hurt when I moved, it hurt when I didn't move. It hurt when I was sexual with my then fiance, it hurt when I was going for groceries it, so I actually named my pain. I named my pain, the edge and it personified that part of me that I had zero control over and it helped me to, to cope. Right. And so the medications started to get added on as I went through a process of specialist specialist specialist, this test, that test to the point where I sat with members of my medical team. And they told me that they believed that the pain was in my head and that I was seeking attention and that there was nothing more that they could do for me.
(07:31): And so that's when Pilates, it was a dark time for me. I was in a very, not so great space in my mind. Back then, I wouldn't have said that I was depressed, but as I look back, yeah, I was. And what I decided one day when I saw Madonna on the cover of a fitness magazine in the grocery store and it had the word Pilates splashed across it, I decided that I would buy that magazine and read that article because I was a big Madonna fan. And what I read was words that talked about alignment of the spine and breathing with this muscle called the diaphragm and balance with the front of the body and the back of the body. And there was words like eccentric, like length and muscles. And I thought, oh, this is kind of like yoga. I should do this.
(08:18): You know, I had a yoga practice and I went to my first Pilates class and it actually was one of the most disturbing lack of confidence, 50 minutes of my life. And if I wasn't such darn keener, and if I hadn't taken my new Pilates mat to the front row of that class, I would've rolled it up and I would've made a B line, but I, I went right to the front right by the instructor. And when she started speaking to me that day, she should have been speaking a foreign language because she was saying things like inhale through your nose to expand the space in your torso, exhale out of your mouth, make this H a ha sound. As you let the air exit and you let your ribs melt into, like, she was saying these things. And I was like, what is she actually saying?
(09:08): Cause my down body would not do any of it. And I didn't know, should I laugh or should I cry? And, and after the class I rolled up my mat and my instructor walked up to me and she, well, she said to me, just hang, hang out for a few minutes. So she said goodbye to everybody else. She walked up to me, and she wrapped her arms around me. And I melted, I burst into tears because for the first time in my life, I actually did not know what was wrong with me because I couldn't do the simple act of breathing. The first thing we do when we
(09:48): On
(09:48): His body, right, is we take that first big gasp of air and we breathe. I couldn't even do that. And it was very humbling for me. And all my instructors said to me that day was come back on Thursday. That's all she said. And she opened up her arms and I walked out and my husband was waiting for me or my fiance at that point was waiting for me outside. And I walked out and it looked like I was chopping onions. My eyes were like red and puffy from crying. And he is like, what the hell just happened in that class? Like why, why, why are you on your knees crying? And I was like, I just have to come back on Thursday. That's all I kept saying, I have to come back on Thursday. And that was one of those defining moments for me in my life, where I was, where I realized maybe I was looking in the wrong place for my healing. Maybe I actually had the empowerment to see within me if I could heal here first. And that's what I did. And over the next 16 weeks, I went twice a week to that class and I practiced and I practiced and I practiced. And by Christmas of that year, I had weaned myself off of all 11 of my medications. And I was just ripe for wanting to know more about the body. And that's really how my journey started.
(11:08): Okay. Yeah. You know, we who do yoga, we think we know Pilates, and then you go to a Pilates class and you're like, I don't know Jack about this and the breathing I'm with you. You go. And it's like, have I ever breathed the breath in my life? You think where you go to Pilates? Like you're doing it all wrong. OK. So that started your journey. And then you eventually became a master teacher, and you've got companies that teach Pilates. Yeah. And so what led to the pelvic floor revelation?
(11:39): Yeah. So for me through my Pilates training and going to different conferences and meeting different people, I was always intrigued. So before Pilates, I used to teach other forms of fitness. And I never had heard before that the pelvic floor was a part of the core. I always thought your erectus abs and your O Bleaks and your transverse abs, that was your core. And as I started to learn that the core, the way I was taught is a cylindrical-shaped system. You have on the very outer layer at the front of your body, your six pack, right? Those reus, a dominance, and then deeper to that, you have the sling system of the internal and external or external O Bleaks that twist you and, you know, pick up your purse off the floor. Then you've got those deep transverse abs that start in your low back, wrapped to your front, like a corset to give you shape and posture security for your POS or for your organs.
(12:35): But then there's a top and a bottom to that cylinder. The diaphragm is the main muscle of respiration like that mushroom cap sits at the top of the cylinder of the core. And the pelvic floor finishes the structure as the floor of the core. And I was like, okay, wait a minute. So this is actually true when I'm doing my abdominal work through Pilates or before I used to teach boot camps. I never ever once cued my own body or cued my clients to activate their pelvic floor as they were doing a plank or doing, you know, curling up doing a roll up in Pilates. And I was like, how did I miss this? What did I do to miss this major fact? And so I just started digging more and more and more. And through my learning, I understood that the diaphragm and the pelvic floor work in a unit as a system like BFFs in the body.
(13:29): So when the diaphragm is not properly functioning and as women, we carry attention in two main spots, right? Head, neck, and shoulders and through the pelvis. So we have been given this primary breathing muscle in our body, the diaphragm that's huge and very underutilized. And then of course, we've been given the secondary breathing muscles that live in our neck, they're called the scale lanes and the sternal mastoid. And they're like little strips of like beef jerky. They're meant to help when needed. They're not meant to be like the lead actress in a movie, but for so many of us, because of our forward head carriage, the tension we carry, you know, we grip our jaw. We forget to breathe during the day we use those little beef jerky muscles as the primary breathers. And so at that point, ladies, we're like a little, a beautiful little goldfish using our gills to breathe on the side of our neck, adding more and more and more tension.
(14:31): Cuz those muscles already have a job. They ought to hold our head up. We forget that we have this beautiful big muscle to diaphragm that when, when not used, when not functional directly impacts our pelvic floor. And I was like, it was like this light bulb moment where I was like, oh my gosh, I need to start teaching this way. I need to start teaching beyond the keel cuz it is, I call it beyond the keel because when a keel, any movement taught improperly can be detrimental from a functional perspective. Right. So I just started like gobbling up more and more information and trying different things out. And the women I was teaching, it was like, again, like me in that first Pilates class, I was speaking a different language. They're like, we're supposed to be using our pelvic floor when we breathe. And I'm like, yes, on the exhale, it's like drawing, you know, drawing that pelvic floor up like slurping up a straw, like picking up a grape with your vagina.
(15:30): That's the exhale. Because when we take a big breath in our lungs filled with air, our diaphragm is at rest because the diaphragm from the pelvic floor buddies, when the diaphragm rest, the pelvic floor has to rest. When we exhale the lungs empty of air, the diaphragm gets to kind of come into its full glory and work. And that's when the pelvic floor works. Right? So that's why when we're lifting up our kids or picking up weights or bags of groceries, we wanna lift and stand on that exhale phase of breath. It's gonna protect our low back our organs and our pelvic cause our pelvic floor is in action. So that's what started to intrigue me. And then I did some work with Dr. Bruce Crawford. Who's a urogynecologist from Reno, Nevada, and his research showed that 90% of women with any sort of pelvic floor dysfunction, either coughing or sneezing and peeing a bit, or you know, hyper tone where there's just a lack of tone in the muscle or frequency where I don't have to go pee now.
(16:28): But like in a nanosecond, if I don't get to the bathroom, I'm gonna have an accident. All of those women, if there were 10 of them in a room, nine of those women could be taught how to use those muscles connect with those nerves and release that fascia in that area in a new way to create an environment for function. Only one of those women would have to get wheeled into a surgery room to get a pelvic floor mesh pinup surgery. And I was like, hold on here. So what you're saying is that movement can heal 90% of these cases. How empowering is that? And that's really what was the impetus for me to be like, I wanna do more about this. And I knew already for my Pilates training, that things like, you know, using a foam roller or a pinky release ball on your shoulders or a foam roller on your it band, the, you know, the piece of fashion between and the hip would provide healing release of the fascia, healthy blood flow oxygen, rich nutrient, rich environment for those cells to flourish. I was like, how would I create that in the pelvic floor? And that's what I did with the Cooch ball. And, and when I started to educate about it, it was challenging for me because no one talks about their pelvic floor. Everyone pretends they're good. Like
(17:43): Everyone pretends, they don't have one. No, they don't have a vagina because nobody talks about, they think, think vagina is a bad word, which it's not, but let's back up a little bit, cuz this is really good. So some people know what we're talking about when we said pelvic floor dysfunction, you mentioned briefly some of the symptoms. Yeah. But just so everybody listening can identify, is this me? Or is this not me? Okay. I mean, it probably applies to most women who have had children because there's so much dysfunction that occurs when that big baby comes through and rips through everything. But can you kind of go through the symptoms that women would be identifying or noticing if they have pelvic floor dysfunction?
(18:29): Yeah. Okay. So think of it like a continuum, like a number line. Okay. So on one end of the spectrum, we have what is called hyper H Y P E R tonic. Okay. Hyper tone. Too much tone, too much tension too tight. Okay. So constipation is actually a very common symptom that a lot of women don't realize can be attributed to the pelvic floor pain during intercourse is another symptom of a pelvic floor that is too tight, right? Even just general pelvic floor pain can be an indicator of some dysfunction in that area. On the other side of the spectrum, there is high tone. H I P oone a lack of tone. All right, there can be, this is where yeah. You might cough or sneeze or a laugh and have a little bit of wedding, or maybe you're starting a learn to run program.
(19:32): Although I do have to say in hyper tone, sometimes that coughing or sneezing too can cause a little bit of an accident because you're holding, holding, holding all the time and you do that sneeze. Right. And there's a little bit of displacement of, of urine. And so those are some of the more common there is urge frequency as well. And urge is actually, it is a pathway, a neural pathway that starts to get developed when we don't wait for our bladder to actually completely fill before the brain sends the message. Like I better go to the bathroom. And so what happens over time and we've probably all done this before, even as moms like to our kids, okay, we're going on a little road trip, go to the bathroom. I don't need to go mom, just go try, but I don't have to go, just go try.
(20:18): Right. And we, we sit when they just don't need to, or you just don't need to then don't because what that starts to train is if you start to empty your bladder and it's only a third full, when it gets a third full, your brain's gonna be like, oh, it's a third fold and you're gonna go and you're gonna pee for like five seconds and be like, well, is that it right? And then less than an hour later, you're gonna be going again. So there's all of these little parts to pelvic floor, you know, health and wellness, wellness. Now women who have had yes, large babies, a hundred percent, there can be some pelvic floor dysfunction women going into menopause. I think we just anticipate as our hormones are changing, the tone of the pelvic floor is gonna change. And that's just become something we just expect as we age.
(21:05): And it doesn't necessarily always have to be that way. I have clients who have never had babies. I have had clients I have had actually moms buy my product for their 9, 10, 11 year old tween daughters who are still wetting the bed and don't wanna go to a sleepover because they, and in a lot of these cases, these young girls are like high level dancers or figure skaters or performers. And they are, they're teaching their body to hold right, to create a shape. And they're actually having pelvic floor dysfunction at those ages being shown as bedwetting. And we've had tremendous success there. Right? So one of the main messages through this education around what is a pelvic floor dysfunction symptom is it's not just for older ladies and women that have had babies. It's like, we think about, we want strong glutes so we can walk up and downstairs.
(22:08): We want strong arms so we can, you know, have a high level of functioning in our life activities of daily living. But yet, like you said earlier on tuck to Dunton, there's some people that don't even think we have a pelvic floor or they'll use terms like down there, like you said, they don't use vagina. They don't talk about any of that. And men too have pelvic floors, men, pelvic floor dysfunction can show itself as erectile dysfunction. It can show itself as back pain, tight hips, even in women. Right? And there's a main nerve that comes out of our brain down into that area of our body called the ental nerve. And the Al nerve is pretty special. Cause it does two main things. It's a sensory nerve. So the sensuality of that area of our body, and it's a motor nerve, it's like the main messaging system from our brain to our pelvic floor.
(22:58): And even things as simple as our posture, putting our phone in our back pocket. Think back to our high school days. I know maybe some of you were like me where I would lay on my bed with a coat hanger to zip up my acid wash jeans, cuz they were so tight, right? Like remember those days. And so even the clothing that we wear, the shoes that we wear, it all plays into this ability for this floor. It's a series of muscles that are kind of layered on each other, like a hammock. And over time when we don't take care of it because we live on a planet with gravity, prolapse can be an outcome of a lack of pelvic floor understanding and health because those organs can start to descend mm-hmm and we can fix in a grade one and two, but once those organs have start to displace themselves outside of the body, all the cooch ball work in the world is not gonna bring those back up inside. So we wanna avoid that,
(24:01): Right? Oh my God. So this is such a good conversation. So I have to give a little Latin lesson real quick. When I was in medical school and we had to learn anatomy, we had this ginormous book with all these Latin terms and we had to memorize them. I was obsessed with looking up at the origins of these words. So Pual is from Latin. It means ashamed. And it is the nerve that interviews the vulva and vagina. Is that ridiculous? Right? And that's where hysterectomy comes from. They said that that was what made a woman's womb is what made her hysterical. So hysterectomy was taking out the hysteria part of her. So I know, I hope everyone is very upset right now hearing this, but this is how the female genitalia has been named. So there's a reason why we're all ashamed to say vagina.
(24:52): We act like we don't have one. We call it down there. And so I wanna say free yourself, everybody pause this recording. And I want you to scream out loud right now, vagina, vagina, vagina. okay. And start calling your parts by their anatomic names. But actually vagina comes from also, I can't remember if it's Greek or Latin, which means the sheath of a man's sword. That's what vagina comes from. So you really don't wanna call it that either. So Yi is kind of the thing that we should be calling it. So I correct myself. I forgot that. So Yi. So anyway, I had to say that, but I think this is fascinating. What you're saying about girls, young girls. I had no idea about that. And then I also wanted to ask you, a lot of women suffer with Vaness, you know, where they get this spasm of those pelvic floor muscles, making intercourse painful, if not impossible, especially if there's a history of sexual trauma. Is this something that you would include in pelvic floor dysfunction that the ball that you're gonna tell us all about in a second might help.
(26:02): Yeah, absolutely. And you know, there is such a right now my latest anatomical obsession is the so as muscle and I'm like really diving D I, I go through these phases, right. And I am just right now, like super obsessed with the function that the, so as plays with the pelvic floor and the pelvic organs and the location of them. And so when you talk about Vaness and any sort of like spasmodic experience that, that people have when I'm using and kind of coaching on with, with my coach ball clients, sometimes we don't go right into the pelvic floor. Like we actually will work around it. So we'll get them, get them to actually start using their ball. And we'll talk more about it as a way to like a pelvic floor release laying on their tummy or sorry, a so as release, laying on their tummy, we'll do a lot of work into the sacrum, you know, into that SI area with the ball, we do a lot of release work through part of the glute, especially through the pure form.
(27:12): And we start to just gently pay attention to get some healthy blood flow and a little bit of like aha around the area. And then, you know, we'll come into working with the pelvic floor, cuz sometimes there's such a pattern like you, you mentioned trauma, especially with sexual trauma. There is such a deeply rooted pattern neurologically that the Physica like, you know, that woman literally has no control will just get, even get the ball close to her, sitting on it. And she's like, I'm out camped. Right? Right. So we really have to focus on and we play around with breath. We'll do some sniffing breath. We'll do some more calming breath work. And that's why it's kind of like that. I always explain it to my women. Like if you see a squirrel and you've got a handful of sunflower seeds and you really want that little squirrel to eat those sunflower seeds, you kind of have to turn your head away from the Palm of your hand. As you slowly bring it down to the ground and slide over to the squirrel. Otherwise if you come hard and fast, the squirrel's gonna dart, right? Mm-Hmm this in a lot of cases with our pelvic floor, we need to come at it in a slow, steady way so that our brain, our mind and our body can come together to start to have a bit of a healing experience.
(28:34): Okay. Great point. So now let's get to talking about this amazing device that you developed and I know everybody can't see because this is audio only. So you're gonna have to check out Jana's webinar on it. She'll and you can watch it. So talk about the Cooch ball.
(28:53): Yeah. So the Cooch ball was the outcome of me sitting night after night at my kitchen table with my complaining about why does no one talk about the pelvic floor? Why did none of my clients ask me questions? And then my inbox is full. Like I, you know, I was on my little rant and finally he said to me, Janna, do something about it or stop talking about it. And it was like I said, what do you mean do something about it? He's like, well, make something, create something, create something that you can use to help your clients connect with this part of their body. And I was like, okay. And the next day I started creating and I started just playing around as a mom of three boys. We had all different kinds of balls in our basement. I started sitting on them and it was kind of like the three bears, some were way too hard and way too small.
(29:43): Some were way too big and way. And I was like, I'm just gonna make my own. And that's what I did. I spent in my true entrepreneurial fashion, I got on the phone and I was calling big corporate sporting goods manufacturers like Spalding will. And I would introduce myself and I'd be I'm Janet Danielson from Saskatoon, Canada. And I'm a Pilates instructor and I wanna make this pelvic floor ball. Who would I talk to in your organization? And I would get, I got laughed at, I got hung up on and I just, I didn't quit. I didn't quit. And so I found a manufacturer offshore and I created the ball and I got a patent lawyer and he's like, yep, there's a design and utility patent here. I got, my first unit arrived in January of 2020. I was off to Tampa for a shark tank type entrepreneurial competition with the home shopping network.
(30:33): And I won that competition and was scheduled to go back to Tampa, to shoot my first eight minute show in April of 2020. And then the gift of COVID landed on our doorstep three weeks before. And I put, I just put up a landing page and started a webinar. And that's the humble beginnings of the coach ball. The focus of it, why it's called the cooch ball. First of all is because I wanted it to have a sassy, chic name. I wanted it to catch people's attention and I wanted to start the conversation. That was my number one. Why pick a name that might be a little edgy for some people because it opens the door to having the conversation and that's what needs to happen. It's called the ball for men. It's a three minute experience ladies. It is what happens on the ball.
(31:28): And I really rooted into the research that I, the Dr. Bruce Crawford, I had mentioned him before, is that any muscle in our body that is lacking oxygen rich, nutrient rich, and is restricted in its function because of this connective tissue called fascia, think of fascia as like cheese cloth, or like linen that wraps every single fiber of muscle in our body. And it not only wraps it, but it starts to restrict like AOA constrict or snake. It starts to restrict and stick to it. And it basically suffocates the muscle from the oxygen-rich nutrient-rich blood that it needs to thrive. When that happens, the muscle slowly starts to become dysfunctional and die. So when we wanna improve the function of our body, the look, the, feel, the function we need blood flow. When you sit on the ball and you work up to three minutes a day and you can sit on your couch, you can sit on the floor.
(32:28): If you can't get on the floor, you just sit on a chair and you breathe diaphragmatically so that the weight of your body, when it's on the ball creates this beautiful interaction where that cheese cloth type tissue, the fascia starts to melt because of the force of the ball in the area. All right, we start to feel tingly, warm blood flow. And for some women, it takes weeks and weeks and weeks to actually experience the blood flow because there's so tight or so disconnected, they don't feel it, but that's the biofeedback that our body gives us. Right? And then the diaphragmatic breathing that I walk, you know, my women through gets the diaphragm working and wakes up the pelvic floor. So that in this three minute experience, you're getting the release and you're getting the strength simultaneously. And it, it it's I, regardless of where you fall on that spectrum of hypertonic and hypotonic that we talked about 10 minutes ago, because it's a duality, the duality of the experience on the ball meets the needs of really any body. So that's how it works.
(33:40): Okay. So you sit on it, you do certain breathing practices, which you teach and it works by increasing blood flow. It doesn't go. Cause when I first saw it, I was like, is she gonna have put that inside our vagina? Cause how many inches is it?
(33:56): It's five graciously. It's a five inch diameter. So I
(34:02): ,
(34:03): No, this bad girl is just, it's an external product. Yeah. And it's great. You know what? I have women that use this. I'm a big proponent of pelvic floor physiotherapy. So it's a great compliment to pelvic floor physiotherapy. I have clients who have been fitted for pessaries that use this with their pessary. So it really does not discriminate as far as where you are in your pelvic health journey. If you are tuning into this podcast and you're like, this is the first time I'm actually learning about all of this. And I need a little bit more my product. It's not just for those advanced learners that have an understanding of their anatomy and what happens. No, it really is for everybody. Even if you think, well, I don't cough and sneeze and pee. I don't have pain during intercourse. It's preventative maintenance. Just as much as it is healing. Something that may slightly dysfunctional.
(34:59): Okay. So let me ask, is it like Perineum massage? Is that what you would kind of call it? Is that what it's doing to increase blood flow or
(35:08): Yes. I mean, it does, obviously you're sitting right on your perineum. Honest, there is gonna be that sensation, not so much like massage, but more just like maybe stretch I would say, but what's happening inside the body is the weight of the body on the ball. Like I said, is getting to those fascial restrictions in and around that muscle tissue, it's also freeing up. Like we learned earlier, the ental nerve that ashamed nerve. It is giving that nerve a little bit of room to be like, oh my gosh, I can now send messages more clearly and receive them. I can now have more sensation here because I don't have that fascia that's restricting me. I have all of this amazing blood flow that is nurturing me and I can really start doing, I can reconnect what my job actually is, what my function actually is. Mm-Hmm so, so those are some of the things that are happening, like simultaneously from a physiological perspective while you're on the ball.
(36:11): Okay. So now I know somebody's thinking this, so I gotta ask it. Yeah. Do people ever have orgasms while they're using it?
(36:18): Okay. So let me tell you this. So yes, yes. And I'm gonna give an example in my own life. So I never thought of myself as someone that was blocked, right? Like I'm a pretty open person. I, you know, anyways, my work with my roots chakra and exploring my own body is I am like light years where I was three years ago. When I started playing around with this idea of launching this ball, you guys, ladies, there is so much magic. Our pelvis is like a cauldron. We have become so disconnected from our divine feminineness and, and the power, the sheer power we hold in the pelvic bowl of our body and the roots chakra in what it can do as the base of our channeling. Our energies are just the magic that we are as women and the sensuality and orgasmic experience on the ball can be very real.
(37:29): Yeah. Because the erectile tissue, isn't just in the clitoris, everybody listening, if you're not familiar with your clitoris, you need to listen up. But it is a little mini penis, the, the arms and legs, hopefully you caught Susan Bratton's anatomy lesson at the stop the menopause madness summit, if you're listening. Cause she described it beautifully. They go all the way around the opening to the vagina under the pubic bone. So it seems to me, if you're sitting on the cooch ball and you're moving, that's getting stimulated. I love how you describe the pelvis as a caldron. That's really cool. But yes, so many women, oh my gosh. It makes me wanna cry. When women say I've never had a orgasm, Dr. Kyrin. And I'm just like, oh my gosh. And they didn't have anyone to talk to about it. They didn't feel comfortable talking to their doctors about it. And it really is your birthright ladies. And it's so important. It helps to balance your hormones for God's sake. So it's very important for your overall health. You have that functionality for a reason. So do you have any stories that you can share with us about women who maybe were having blocked sexuality? Maybe they never have an orgasm or maybe they were having difficulty to orgasm or maybe women who were just for having other pelvic floor dysfunction and then they used this and they had improvement.
(38:53): Yeah. Yeah. You know, I wanna share a story with a young client. I had, she was in her late twenties. She had spent, since she was a little girl, you guys remember like the river dance, the Highland dancing fourth. Yeah. And so she was a Highland dancer. She was an elementary school teacher, like I said, newly married. And she came to me and in, within about three minutes of us connecting in her first session, she was in tears and I'll never forget the words she said to me. She said, Janna, I've been married for six months. I've been with my new husband for almost two years. She said on Wednesdays, I wake up and I have the worst headache. And my stomach is in knots all day long because Wednesday nights are the night in her words that I let him buck and I am in such pain for that 15 minutes.
(39:47): And I'm manifesting all of this anxiety all day long on Wednesday, knowing that when we go into bed, I, this is gonna be my experience. And then I wake up on Thursday morning and I'm so thankful that I have another seven days before it happens again. She said, I am fearful that I will lose my husband. I am fearful that I will never be a mom. And she said, I have never in my life experienced any form of pleasure, any form of sexual pleasure, I don't believe it actually exists. And this was through her SOS. Right? And so we got her going with the ball. She probably I'm gonna say the first week or so that she was using her Cooch ball. She was maybe able to stay on it for about 30 seconds. That was it. And we would use like one of those, it was called a sit fit.
(40:40): So it was kind of like a spy like cushion, right? She couldn't even sit on the hard floor on it. We had to take a little bit of the ouch factor away and we would just focus on her breathing. And so 30 seconds turned into 60 seconds about a month or six weeks after that, she started telling me that there's not as much pain on Wednesday nights. And we would just, we were progressing and progressing and progressing. And I'm gonna say about four months in, she came to her weekly session and she said, Dana, I, I didn't orgasm. But she said, I actually didn't cry while my husband was making love to me, I was able to relax. And I could think of myself being on the coach ball and on the inhale relaxing. And she said, he said that being inside my vagina was a completely different experience for him.
(41:31): It wasn't like he was trying to, to break through a rock wall. And it was a beautiful story because about seven months after we started working together, she got pregnant with her first baby. She was, became so confident in herself, in her relationship. And that's a story for me that is really special because like you said, it is our birth right to be able to experience our body or have, you know, ourselves or have someone experience in that way to create that outcome. And there are so many women, like you said, that just either don't believe it's in the cards for them or they don't deserve it. And that's not true.
(42:12): Yes. That, isn't true. What a beautiful story. And I love how this ball really is. There's so much more we could talk about, I'm thinking of a million questions, but I know we've been at it for almost an hour, so we probably need to wrap up, but I'm gonna invite everyone definitely to get your free gift and a tenure webinar for sure. But that whole, that SAC chakra, the sexual chakra, the roots chakra so much trauma for women in that area related to our emotions related to our sexuality related to our power in the world. And I love how, what you created is really, it's kind of a concrete way for women to conceptualize and begin to not only address physical problems in that area, but bring attention to those emotional, spiritual, energetic blocks, I think is what I hear you saying, is that right?
(43:08): Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. It's not a one dimension physical thing. There are all these other aspects of the emotionality, the sensuality, the spirituality, and you start to uncover them in layers. That's the beautiful thing is you start to uncover them in layers and just that sense of consciousness and moving up that scale so that it is joyful. It is a joyful part of your body, not a part that you despise or pretend doesn't exist.
(43:38): Awesome. Well thank you for making that. I can't wait to get mine. Jana's sending me one. I'll let you all know how I do with it and how it unfolds for me. Maybe we'll have Jana back. If you love this episode, let me know. Cuz there is so much more that we can talk about. I didn't even get to share some of the amazing quotes she had from Joseph Pilates. I'll share this one, but then we gotta wrap up, breathing is the first and last act of life. And somewhere in the middle, we forget how to do it. And I love how you talked about the core really is it's a ball with a top of the diaphragm, the bottom of the pelvic floor and then the side walls. And so relearning how to breathe is something that you help women to do. And while you heal their pelvic floor, we have a link in the notes to a four part mini masterclass that has created for, for you, how to transform pain into inspiration. We will have the link in the show notes, and then you have a webinar coming up soon, the healthy pelvic floor webinar. And I know you do those regularly. So do you wanna tell people about the free gift they can download and the webinar that you're offering?
(44:53): Yeah, absolutely. So the free gift ladies is really my, the roadmap that got me out of my pain cycle. So I offer it's a four part little mini series, 15 minutes of a session. And it's just one strategy that you can start doing in that moment to help to change your life. And then of course the healthy pelvic floor webinar, the link like Dr Kyrin said to register will be in the show notes. We just take a different approach at different than what you've learned today on the podcast. We're gonna learn some of the secrets of the pelvic floor and it really is the perfect time. If you feel like a coach ball is in your future, I'm gonna say this as a businesswoman, don't get it today. Don't go and register using the link that Dr. Kyrin gives you to go to the webinar because there are some really great offers that you can't get on my website. So
(45:55): Right.
(45:55): Be patient be patient is only a couple weeks away. Wait for that webinar on the 1st of September. And then you will grab a bunch more value and bonuses that you otherwise would be unable to.
(46:08): Yeah, you definitely wanna use the link cause you'll get goodies that you won't get on the website, but thank you for that. Thank you for joining us today. Jana, it's been wonderful talking with you. Like I said, we could talk about so many things related to this topic and maybe after I've had my cooch ball experience, we will have you back, and we can talk some more
(46:28): Amazing
(46:30): Thank you for so much. And thank you all for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast. I hope you have learned something inspirational, informational that will help you move your health towards the brilliance that you deserve. I want you to take action. You know, I tell you that every week and really what I want you to do is sign up for Janna's webinar on the pelvic floor secret and listen to all her wisdom about the pelvic floor. Because as you can hear, and from listening, probably more of us women than not have pelvic floor dysfunction and who couldn't always have better sexuality and sensuality, that's really part of good hormone balance and good health. So go check it out, click link in the show notes and I will see you next week until then peace, love and hormones.
(47:25): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Have you ever considered the air quality in your home? If you're like most people, the answer is probably no. But did you know that the air inside your home could be up to five times more polluted than the air outside? And if you're a woman in her midlife years, that's something to take very seriously.
Therese Forton-Barnes is an indoor air quality expert and she's joining us today on the Hormone Prescription Podcast to talk about the dangers of indoor air pollution and what we can do to protect ourselves.
Therese is the Household Toxins Health Specialist and the Head Guru at The Green Living Gurus. She spreads the awareness of chemical exposure that could cause many autoimmune illnesses, cancer, and other ailments through her Green Living with Tee weekly podcast, her blog, the Green parent pioneer coaching program for families with children, and Tee’s organics line of household cleaners and products.
In this episode, you will learn:
- The dangers of indoor air pollution
- The things that contribute to indoor air pollution
- The toxins and carcinogenic chemicals found in indoor air
- How to protect yourself from indoor air pollution
- What you can do to improve the air quality in your home
So if you're concerned about the air you're breathing, make sure to tune in and learn everything you need to know about indoor air quality and take action to protect your health.
(00:00): Plan your life. Like you will live forever and live your life. Like you may die tomorrow. Therese's mom.
(00:08): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.
(01:04): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so glad that you've joined me today. My guest today is Therese Forton Barnes and she is a toxin guru, or we're gonna be talking about the dangers of indoor air quality will be detailing the potential hazards to your indoor air quality and talking about what you can do about it. Her mom is the one who shared that quote that I offered in the teaser plan. Your life like you will live forever and live your life. Like you may die tomorrow. And I absolutely love that. I think it really speaks to addressing toxins in your life. They are long acting, and their effects temporarily are very delayed. So you wanna plan like you're gonna live forever, but you wanna live like you may die tomorrow. So we're gonna tell you the things you need to go in and get rid of to improve your indoor air quality and your health. I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. Therese is a household toxins health specialist, and she's the head guru at the Green Living Gurus. She spreads awareness of chemical exposure that could cause many autoimmune illnesses, cancer, and other elements through her green living with tea weekly podcast, her blog, the green parent pioneer coaching program for families with children and teas organics line of household cleaners and products. Welcome Tee. Thank you for having me today. Looking forward to our chat.
(02:42): I love talking about toxins because there's so many of them and I think that it can be overwhelming when people hear about this topic to think, oh my God, how do I even begin to detoxify my life? My home, my car, my work, all the things that they need to detoxify. And I love that we've decided to focus on indoor air quality. I don't think that a lot of people realize how vital this is. Why is this so important Therese?
(03:14): So our indoor air is potentially two to 100 times more polluted than the outdoor air. And these are reports that have been put out by the environmental protection agency. And the reason why our indoor air in our homes, our offices, you name it is because our homes are now built to be airtight. Everybody wants to keep the air in to conserve energy. And the problem is you're not getting enough circulation throughout the home and enough clean air coming through your home. But the worst part about it is the amount of products that are being used in your home. Whether it's cleaning supplies, laundry, detergent, dry cleaning, coming in furniture. That's been sprayed with anti fire retardants and it goes on and on and on. And you're breathing these chemicals in all day long in your home. And so the indoor air in your home is just as important as your outdoor air or as important as a food you're eating too. So these are just things I love to focus on because it's something that people don't realize it, that they need to really look at their indoor air.
(04:29): I think that's so true. And you, you highlighted a couple points. I wanna just emphasize that most people focus on aspects of the environment. They have no control over, which is outdoor air quality mm-hmm can you move? Sure. I had a patient a few years ago who lived in the middle of Iowa in the middle of farm country, and there were pesticides in her air and she knew it was a problem. And there was really nothing she could do about it other than move from where she lived while she wasn't paying as much attention to the air quality inside. And oh, when we did, she found out she had moldy things in her house that were affecting her health. So I think this is really where you have a large degree of control to change the outcome. And I also wanted to highlight when you were talking, I was thinking about a lot of people are very familiar with the discomfort that comes from rereading air inside a mask over and over again, since we've had to do it for the past few years.
(05:33): And so think about that, your house is really like a mask, a big mask that you live in. And so if you have bad breath and you're breathing it in and out through a mask, you're getting that bad breath over and over again. It's the same in your house. If you have poor quality air, all the windows and doors are shut and they builders pride themselves on a well sealed home. That's energy efficient that really can have detrimental effects for us in terms of if we have poor air quality, we're rebreathing it over and over and over again. So let's start tea with the biggest offender. What is the number one offender you would say in the indoor air quality space that could potentially harm people?
(06:21): Well, in my mind, it is the cleaning products people are using because the cleaning products, people are using them every day, potentially spraying some cleaning products on counters almost every day to clean up your kitchen, whether it's to floor. And then if you have children or dogs, so they're even cleaning more. And many of the chemicals in these commercial cleaning supplies have extremely toxic ingredients in them and many have cancer-causing ingredients in them. So those are getting into your lungs. They're getting into the dust, that's on the floor in your house, that's regenerating throughout your home, and you're not getting rid of those chemicals in your house because you're using them. It's not like you're washing with water right afterwards, too. That, and goes along with that is also cleaning supplies in a SA in a different category, but it's your laundry detergent. So that's a, another cleaning supply, right?
(07:27): But that is now in addition to the chemicals that you're potentially using to clean your clothes, you're also breathing in potentially chemicals coming from your clothes, from your sheets. They could be out guessing all day long in your home. You could be breathing them in when you even leave the house. And they're venting. They're also venting into your house at some point, at some level, I know they vent outside, but you still can get those fumes inside your house. So those products, those chemicals, and if you think about walking down a laundry, I mean, a supermarket aisle where all your cleaning supplies are and you smell that smell. Those are all chemicals out guessing from all of those cleaning products that literally that's, what's happening in your home, too. Those chemicals just about gas.
(08:21): So let's dive into specifically, what are the toxins and carcinogenic agents in cleaning products? Let's start there. And I will add that, you know, I read that that years ago, Madison avenue was trying to figure out how to increase sales or promote their product above others in terms of cleaning products and particularly laundry. And they discovered that the first thing that people did when their laundry came out of the dryer to see if it was clean, was they smelled it. And that's how this whole perfusion of yeah. Smells. And so when you walk down the aisle, you can smell it. But I think most people smell that and they go, oh, that's the smell of clean . Yeah, right. So can you break down? What are the toxins and carcinogenic agents and cleaning products and laundry detergents?
(09:14): Well, one category is VOCs VOCs of volatile, organic compounds. Now there are hundreds, if not thousands of different chemicals that make those volatile organic compounds up, and those are ones that are just dangerous to get into your system. And you're breathing them every day. Now, the list of chemicals that potentially are made up of those VOCs and also all the other com is endless. I mean, there's been ammonia. Everybody knows ammonias in some cleaning products. There's, I mean, I can't, I'd have to pull up my, I have a list of all the chemicals that I could tell you that are in there. And I actually have that those chemicals that you can avoid in my free guide on my website, that I know you're offering your listeners. And it's a great guide because it lists what ingredients you should look for. The top ingredients you should look for in these cleaning supplies that are potentially getting into your house.
(10:15): So, and benzene is another one that has been known to be in some products. The biggest thing, if anybody wants to make a change to look for in cleaning products and in laundry detergent, and you hit the nail on the head is when they smell something, they think that that's a fresh smell. Unfortunately, that's the word fragrance. And that's a fragrance that is in those products. That is, they think that that's a lemon fresh smell or a lavender fresh smell. But unfortunately there is most likely no lavender and no lemon in there. And if there is, and they say that it's ascended with lavender oil, they only have to have 2% lavender in there. Unfortunately, many of the cleaning products, many of the laundry detergents have so many chemicals in them. They have to put fragrance in them to kill the smell of the chemicals that you're cleaning with.
(11:12): So you're getting twice as many chemicals as you really need to be cleaning with and putting in your laundry, but the word fragrance and people don't understand this when they buy products. And even it's in shampoo, it's in deodorant, fragrance is a trade secret. And it goes back that in 1940s, when the perfume industry and specifically Chanel number five was one of the companies that got our government to create this trade secret, because they did not want anybody knowing what was in their perfume. And so they said, okay, well, if you put the word fragrance on there, you do know how to detect, say what is in your product. This holds true today, still that law, that anybody can make a product, put the ingredients in there. But if you put the word fragrance on there, you do not have to tell them what's in there.
(12:00): Well, fragrance is made up of a laundry list of different chemicals in it. And lately three different studies were done that they found benzene in fragrance. And benzene is a common ingredient in fragrance and benzene is a known carcinogen. So some of them potentially cause cancer, but that causes cancer and they found it in a sunscreen recently. So the list goes on and on and on. But if you can get away from the fragrance, you're making a great step in the right direction to reduce your toxic load inside your home. And that goes with candles too. I mean, everybody wants something that smells fresh. We all associate with that freshness with probably growing up and our mothers and whatever they cleaned with. But unfortunately in the past 40, 50 years, clean is not what clean should be. And the chemical company has really created this mess in my mind to make us think that that is the way a house should smell. And it's, unfortunately that's not clean. That's unfortunately making your house more toxic and dirty for your body.
(13:18): So true. And everybody loves a new car smell, new house smell. And I say, run from the new car and the new house. So yes, the VOCs ammonia, benzene fragrance, which are mostly made from petroleum byproducts. So you wouldn't sit there sniffing gasoline at the gas station, nor do you wanna spray it on your fabrics at home or clean with it. And a question that I don't think a lot of people get is. And my kids used to say this to me all the time when they were growing up, when I kind of got on the bandwagon. Finally, when I saw the light about my own health at midlife, and I became trained in anti-aging metabolic and functional medicine and realized that toxicity was a problem. Cuz as a regular MD, we are taught, these are not issues. And that's how most of America and most industrialized countries are operating that this isn't a problem. But can you talk about cuz the next question my kids used to say, well, they wouldn't allow it. They wouldn't allow it. If it was toxic, they wouldn't allow it. If it caused cancer and I'd say, well, who's they to my kids first off. But I find this is the case with a lot of adults. They really think that there's some regulatory body that would not allow dangerous chemicals to be in our cleaning products. Can you address that?
(14:40): Yeah. And this is a very common, I hear it all the time and what I try to get people to understand is a little bit of history. Cuz sometimes history helps people understand why things are the way they are today. You know the fragrance thing. Oh. And people start understanding, wow, I can see where that happened, but why did that happen? Well, in the United States, we have a law here that your product is safe until it is proven guilty in the European union. It's opposite. They have to prove a product is safe before it can even go on the market. So you take these products, let's just take the sunscreen. I mentioned that many sunscreens actually for that matter, they got pulled off the market last fall. They were all on the market with benzene in the product. Now that would've never passed in the European union because they would've never been able to prove that that was safe.
(15:38): But unfortunately these companies here local in us, they now their back paling like, oh, we didn't know benzene was in our product and denying it. Of course they're gonna deny it. But so that is the biggest problem I see with products that is not food. Food has to be proven, safe and pharmaceuticals in that matter before it goes onto the market. So we have to be our own watchdogs here in the United States. We have to look at our labels. We have to read our ingredients. We have to know, unfortunately, no EPA is not protecting us when it comes to that. They are not. The FDA is when it comes to the food because as best they can, you know, I battles, I pick with that too. But with the EPA and all these products that are on all the shelves that we are buying in the grocery store, in the pharmacy, we have to look and see what we are using because either you are going to trust the company or you have to trust yourself because this, these have not been approved for human consumption or for cleaning. They might be say that they get rid of bacteria, but they are not going through all the ingredients and all those products and making sure that they are safe and the companies are not either.
(16:57): Yeah. The other thing I don't think a lot of people get is that even the individual ingredients that could potentially be toxic may have a low level of toxic potential, but nobody has studied the cumulative additive effect of these toxins together. And a hundred years ago, we might come in contact with just a couple chemicals in our lifetimes. And now we have 85,000 new chemicals since 1950. And no one has looked at the effect on newborns or uh, fetuses or women who are pregnant or children or adults, the cumulative additive effects and interactive effects of these toxins. So I remember that being one of the most impactful sources of information that I learned during my fellowship training was just, we're kind of in the wild, wild west when it comes to chemicals, we're in a live human experiment. Yeah. Where we're saying, okay, let's take the population of the world and let's dump 85,000 new chemicals and let's see what happens because they really haven't been vetted. So now we've talked a little bit about the cleaning products, the double problem of not only are they, the cleaning products, agents themselves potentially toxic or carcinogenic, but then you add on top the fragrance. When I see that word, I run and laundry detergent. Now talk about other laundry substances like dryer sheets and bleach and things like that.
(18:39): Dryer sheets, oh, dryer sheets. Oh, I can smell dryer sheets when I walk by vent. And when I walk by a person, I now have my husband. He can smell them on people these days, but dryer sheets are another one dryer sheets. You will not find the ingredients on a dryer sheet. Dryer sheets have known carcinogens in them. They are all chemicals that basically coat your clothing with these chemicals. So they don't stick together. Unfortunately they're loading them with other chemicals' fragrance to put them in there because those chemicals that they are coating your clothes with, they have to offset those to the smell of that chemical. So it's just like one bad thing after the next with dryer sheets. So that's another definitely bleach another, I mean you have to pick your poisons right. To try to get rid of everything right away. No, but you start with the most important things like getting rid of the dryer sheets, replacing them with wool dryer balls and some essential oils in those wool dryer balls. If you really want some sense and slowly getting rid of things that could potentially be affecting your breathing, which is our most important thing I'm addressing here because the indoor air in your home right now is so polluted potentially. So definitely dryer sheets are a big, big no-no in my book.
(20:05): So what dryer balls, can you talk a little bit about what those are and what they do and how they work and also the use of essential oils if people really love that fresh scent?
(20:17): Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I use dryer balls. I don't have much static, fortunately, because I don't have any chemicals in my laundry and washing machine or dryer because the chemicals will make your clothes tick even more. It's just a double edged sword.
Speaker 3 (20:35):
I have to say. I don't think that's a coincidence, right? So the more problems Madison avenue can give you the need to solve. And if they make your clothes, if the chemicals make them more static clingy, oh, well then you need something to treat the static clinging. I mean, that's true with women's hormones after they started using E equivalent or horse estrogen also known as Premarin in the beginning of the 19 hundreds for women, while then they created the problem of, um, uterine cancer. And instead of going back and saying, well, probably this was misguided, they just created a pro Jin to counteract the effects to prevent uterine cancer. So that is the way of industry, right? We live absolutely in that type of a capitalist society. That's always looking for advantage. So I wouldn't be surprised if there was some engineering to actually increase the static clinging. So you actually have to have dryer sheets.
(21:33): Absolutely. And it all goes all big circle of money and pharmaceutical industry and the chemical companies. And they're all tied into one another and it's a monster and it toxic. And we have to really, again, rely on ourselves and people like you and me and many other people out there that really are knowledgeable stepping back and looking at the whole big picture. Why is all this happening? I look at cancer. I mean, my aunt had ovarian cancer and this is originally why I really got so involved in this. And she was so healthy, but she used baby powder every single day in her private parts. And she got ovarian cancer and now low and behold baby powder causes ovarian cancer and it's still on the market. So I always look at where cancer has came from, look at where it is now. Do you hear any big cancer Institute talking about preventing cancer?
(22:34): We have a major one here. No, cause it's such a humongous industry. And the pharmaceutical industry feeds that industry. And I personally don't think they want it to go away because it would put out so many people out of business. I try talking about cancer prevention all the time, because I want people to prevent using chemicals in their lives that potentially can cause cancer or are known to cause cancer. But they don't talk about that. Unfortunately. And same it with Endocet disrupting chemicals. We could talk about that forever too. And what they're doing to kids, hormones and boys and the mess that's causing with kids' bodies and mimicking their estrogen and progesterone. So I think people get scared and I even have some best friends who are like, oh, it's so overwhelming. And I try to talk them through it. And it's just, you make little changes and the people that I've helped and a lot of different clients, you just take one step at a time.
(23:37): And it usually is starting with your cleaning, starting with your laundry, detergents, getting rid of that fragrance. Once you start there, then you're gonna be, be more aware. You're gonna start. I get people sending me, oh look, you told me about these PFAS chemicals in my non-stick cookware that and they see an article and then they start making changes on their own, which I love seeing. I sort of get the ball rolling with them and then they're aware of it. And then they start seeing more and more things reports coming up. Luckily now it's all over the place. There's so many things going on out there that people are starting to realize how toxic so many of these products are, but it's taking those baby steps and really just reading ingredients and knowing what you're putting on your skin. You wouldn't eat those chemicals. Why would you be putting them on your skin?
(24:29): So, and you made it such a great point. It's the cumulative effect. They might say that these chemicals in the lotion you're using is fine because it's, you know, low dosage. But how is that mixing with the chemical you're putting on your hair or your deodorant? They're all getting into your system somehow and through your skin or breathing or eating and how are they mixing in your body? I don't wanna know that, but I just think that this is just time for people to start looking at how they are in taking any of these chemicals. And you really have to look at everything you're using because we are living in a toxic world and it's getting worse.
(25:13): Yeah. I think the other thing most people don't realize is the temporal nature of toxin exposure to time to disease is so long. The lead time that nobody associates that, oh, when they get cancer, they're not thinking about the 30 years that they use dryer sheets and a toxic laundry detergent. Nobody that doesn't flash before your eyes. Right? Most of us think genetics, which is really only five to 10% of cancer. It's what, whether we turn our lifestyle, turns those genes on or not. So there's so many exposures and they are over such prolonged periods of time that no one gets this Eureka moment of, oh my God, it was the dryer sheets. Right. Which is fortunate and unfortunate. I mean, you know, think toxins that are that quickly, identifiable are usually not legal for human use or consumption, but it makes it challenging for us. Let's step onto. So you said cleaning products, laundry, detergents, and laundry agents. What would the next category in the indoor air quality space?
(26:29): Well, I mentioned candles candles. I'd like to bring up candles. And Kyrin on that last note that you just said, it's just this past weekend. I was at one of my best friend's homes and I was trying to get her to get a reverse osmosis system and, and talking her through how toxic our water can be, which we could talk about that too. But, and then I always am helping her at her house. She's like, oh, we're fine now. I mean, none of us have cancer now. And that's exactly what you just said. You don't wanna think about, you wanna prevent as much as possible. And I had to convince him like Kathy, so all the kids are going away to college, blah, blah. And like, you have to, if you really want to try to decrease your toxic load, you've gotta look at everything.
(27:12): So it just hit me when you said that, like, that's so true. I mean, even though you're, we're, I'm almost 60, but you don't want cancer when you're 70, do you? I mean, we all don't want cancer. We all don't want illnesses and it's trying to prevent all these illnesses and not just, I feel like it's Russian roulette, we're all playing Russian roulette with all these products we're using. So candles. Yes. Candles. So many people love candles. Almost everybody loves candles. So many candles can be same thing. The chemicals that they're using in the wax, even if it's soy. So people think, oh, I bought a soy candle. It's okay. That's not necessarily true. And also the wick can be led. So if you're burning fragrance in your house with a lead wick, you are burning chemicals in the air while these candles are lit in your home.
(28:08): I did not know that the wicks could be lead. Oh my gosh.
(28:11): I'm yes. That's
(28:12): Crazy.
(28:13): Okay. It is crazy. And the fragrance, oh my God. When I'm in somebody's home with the candle, people are kind of scared for me to go in their home period.
(28:21): Me too. Don't it's a compliment.
(28:24): Oh totally. I enjoy it. I mean, my friends are always like Curring around. I'm like, don't you worry? I'll look it around, but get rid of that candle immediately over there. Cuz I look for candles. They're out gassing. Even if they're not lit with the chemicals that are in them. And again, people have to be careful because many of them will say SCED with essential oils. That's not necessarily fragrance free. So again, it only has to have 2% essential oils for them to say that on there. So cuz essential oils, which I love, I don't know if I told you this, but I have a cleaning product line. Very basic one that I use essential oils. They're very powerful. They're wonderful. Their cleaning properties are great, but you have to know what you're doing with essential oils too. And they are great and they're great to use in many products. So,
(29:14): So what kind of candle should we be using Tee?
(29:16): Well, there's some good ones out there on the market. Fontana is a great line. Look up Fontana. Fontana is a made safe product. Made safe.org is a fabulous organization. Environmental working group, EWG. Many of your listeners may have heard of them. They're fabulous. ewg.com. You can look on their website and plug in your products to see on a scale of one to 10, what kind of chemicals are in them? But a whole other step up from that is the made safe organization. They analyze products and they, if it's a made safe organization like anything made safe certifies, I don't even look at the label because I know it is made safe. And I know that organization inside and out, so font has gone through the process of having their candles certified. So love Fontana, but there's other ones out there too, but you just have to be careful what you're buying. There's so many sold at farmer's markets. I know that because I'll talk to the people that are making them and what is in it. What are you using? And you just wanna know what you're burning in your home. It's almost the same thing as an air freshener that you're spraying. You gotta look at those chemicals, anything you're spraying in your home, a candle will do the exact same thing.
(30:36): Oh my gosh. Please tell me the next category is
(30:42): Air freshers, air freshers. How about the ones when you get in an Uber or a Lyft and they put those plugins in their vents, almost every single one does it. It makes me insane. I've tried complaining to Uber and Lyft endlessly. It doesn't work, but those or plugins in your house or any kinda spray aerosol can be toxic in itself. But anything you're using to spray in your home is you're breathing it in, period. So if you're smelling anything that can potentially be cancer-causing chemicals or other chemicals that can cause other illnesses.
(31:22): Yeah, this is really my pet peeve. I mean, partially because I had multiple chemical sensitivity a few years ago when I was made sick by a building and breast implants. But also because they're ubiquitous and they're highly toxic. And actually the studies do show that up to a third of people react. But the majority of them do not associate any health reaction with the air freshener, plugin, whatever, wherever the sense comes from because they're ignorant of the causal relationship. And I, I like to say that we're in the air freshener stage of where we were with cigarettes back when I was a kid in the sixties and seventies, right? Yes. Secondhand smoke. Wasn't a thing. Nobody was up in arms about it. And people freely smoked around their kids in the home. And now I know you probably can't go to jail or get a ticket for it, but it's not allowed.
(32:20): Yeah. Yeah. Can't
(32:21): Smoke, endorse. And so I think in another few decades, we'll get there when people wake up to the air freshener problem.
(32:28): Yeah, I totally agree. And some of the same chemicals in cigarettes are also used in air fresheners and cleaning supplies. You are spraying chemicals in your home. I mean, there's no difference to me whatsoever. And you brought up, I often hear, oh, I have a sore throat, or I have a sniffles headache. I know I'll get a sore throat, sniffles headache. If I sleep in a bed with fragrance sheets, like I go to Airbnbs, I have to bring my own sheets, open up the windows. We just went to one and it was so toxic. I couldn't. And they used, I don't oh, she told me they used gain with lavender and that it, it wasn't toxic. It
(33:08): Wasn't. Yeah.
(33:09): I was like, uh, anyway, so I'm just used to bringing my own sheets and pillows and towels now
(33:15): Towels I do too. Oh,
(33:16): Absolutely. A hundred percent. And if I forget them, I go by them. I'd rather have, you know, the new ones than the ones washed in laundry detergent anyway. So we were getting air fresheners.
(33:28): Yes. And I wanna add here, cuz I think you brought up a great point that we should highlight. Some people are sitting here. Going to Kyrin I have no idea what you're talking about. How would I even know if I had a problem in my house? And so I'm wondering if you can expound on that. I mean, I usually tell people, well, if you go out and spend a day at the beach or in the forest, camping or hanging out with friends, and then you come home in your locked envelope, and you notice certain things, nasal stuffiness, sore throat, itchy, watery eyes, itchy skin, maybe even rashes, stomach upset. It can show up as, or irritation. It can show up as mood irritability. I mean, it can be so subtle, and you think, oh, I'm just in a bad mood. Must have been that news report I listened to. And it may very well be that you are getting exposed to toxins in your home.
(34:31): Two other big ones, snoring and also terrible sleeping patterns. And habits are two big ones. I hear all the time and your body has to work so hard, getting rid of these toxins and processing them. So your organs are constantly fighting off toxins. They're made that way. Right. But to do that. And so our bodies are not made to fight off all these chemicals that are coming at us left and right, you walk out the door, you can't help what you're going to encounter, but you can when you're inside. And we like to say, you don't know, you feel bad until you feel better and until you right. They don't know. They really don't. And they think it's the pollen. They think it's, you know, they'll make excuses, or they just have allergies or it's allergy season or a headache. Why do I have a, well, you got a headache for a reason and you gotta listen to your body, even acne for that matter.
(35:36): Your skin's telling you something. And so many of these chemicals, I mean, I talk about cancer all the time, and we hear about them disrupting hormones. They can also be obesity, gens, too. Obesity. Gens are just like what they sound like. They cause obesity. So many of these chemicals make you fat. Many of them could potentially make your skin look older. You look older. So acne, many of them cause, but they all work differently in all of our bodies. Again, we don't know what they're doing to us and how they're mixing, but until you start getting rid of them and starting to clear the way for cleaner, fresher air, cleaner, fresher, and products in your home, I guarantee you especially get rid of fragrance. You will start to feel better and start realizing I hear it from every single person. Like I can't believe, I thought that was lemon fresh. I thought, I can't believe I slept in fragrance sheets for 20 years. Yeah. Okay. You might have felt fine, but what was it doing to your skin? What was it doing to your organ? So
(36:38): Right. What are the other big categories that we need to take a look at in our homes?
(36:43): Well, I mention what you cook your food with what you cook your food with what you store your food in. And of course food is huge. That's a whole, we could talk about food and organic food and making sure you eat as much organic food is possible and stay away from the pesticides that are being sprayed on all these non-organic foods that because once they start spraying them with pesticides, they gotta spray 'em with a lot more. And it's just a terrible cycle out there with Roundup and glyphosate and other chemicals coming on the market to take the place of glyphosate. So food of course, but what are you cooking your food in? So nonstick pans, which a lot of people used to know as Teflon were made with these chemicals, it's a whole series of chemicals called PFAS, P F a S or P F O S. And they're just coming to the surface right now and how toxic these chemicals are. And they're it's inflamed retardant, um, materials that firefighters use. They've used to put it on couches. They used to put it on furniture, on rugs, kids,
(37:45): Kids, sleepwear,
(37:46): Kids, sleepwear, dental, floss, dental floss, look for PFAS, free dental floss and kids, sleepwear and furniture. This is going back to the cigarette companies. The reason why kids slept wear and furniture is being was, but some of it still is being sprayed with fire. Retardants is because the cigarette companies, people were burning, and you know, were coming from the same generation. They fall asleep with their cigarettes in their hands in bed. This is the 1950s and sixties, right? And the government went to the cigarette company said, you need to put something in the cigarette. So they don't burn while people are burning their beds. And the cigarette company came back and said, oh no, we have a better idea. Why don't we spray all the furniture with fire retardant, spray, all the kids, baby clothes to sleepwear with fire retardant, baby's beds with fire retardants. And it's crazy to think about it, but that was the law. That's what
(38:48): They did. No. I'm like let's stop smoking in bed.
(38:51): Exactly. Hello. So that is where, and now you hear about all these firemen getting cancer from this fire. Um, not only from this stuff they use to put out the fire, but these houses that are burning down are loaded with toxic chemicals. So anyway, so, but the pans, when I was getting to the pans, those nonstick pans are made with PFAS chemicals. So I've gone through more people's homes and had them get rid of those pans, especially if they're scratched, which 99% of them are because you're only supposed to use wood on them and not metal. And most people don't use wood all the time. Anyways, I'll give
(39:30): A hundred dollars to anyone listening who has a UNS scratched. Yeah. Uh I pan I can't for over a year.
(39:40): Yeah, exactly. So a green pan is okay. That's a ceramic pan. People like their non-stick pans. The only problem is they last only a few years. So I like stainless steel, the old-fashioned way and my lodge cast iron pans. And I always say your pan does not have to be sparkling clean every single time you use it. If you ever go through a kitchen and look at all their stainless steel pans, it looks used. So that is one of my big things, is what you're cooking with. Because again, people are cooking every day and also those chemicals that you are cooking, those pans, those chemicals can also get in the air in your home as well. So, and what you're storing your food in? I do not like plastic whatsoever. I only use glass to store any of our food in because the chemicals in those plastic containers can leach into your food as well.
(40:32): So, and of course never MWA or plastic if you ever do microwave. So those are the top things that I would do. You can take it to a whole other level. Like I have air quality monitors in my house. So I'm measuring the amount of chemicals that are in my house. It tells me if any chemical is exceeding what it should be in here. And it's usually if, uh, something's brought into the home randomly and then air purifiers are another way that people can reduce the chemicals in your home as well. Dry-clean is another one. Dry cleaning depends on where you dry-clean. But if you have the option of airing out your dry cleaning before you bring it into your house, that is great. Let it out gas in your garage or outside. Especially if you have it sitting in your car and driving with it, open up the windows, those toxic fumes from the dry cleaning can also irritate your lungs as well. And you don't even know it. So,
(41:31): And there are a lot of now, now environmentally friendly, nontoxic, dry cleaners, and a lot of them, you can mail your dry cleaning to them and they will mail it back to you. So you don't have to live near one. Let's talk a little bit more about the air monitor and air purifier, cuz I think if people have listened this far and most of the people in my community, they get that this indoor air quality is a situation and then they wanna know, okay, well, do I need an air quality monitor? And if so, what are my options? And what should I look for? And do I need air filtration? And what should I look for? Can you talk a little bit about that?
(42:09): Yeah, absolutely. So the air quality monitor that I really love, it's called hoo it's, U H O O. You can buy that almost anywhere. I love it because I can monitor it on my phone. It's hooked up to the wifi, but it measures for rayon as well. So in the Northeast where I am in Buffalo, New York, a lot of rayon is in the Northeast. And so it measures for VOCs and another series of chemicals on there for mail to hide. So in my home, it's pretty, you're not gonna find many toxic chemicals in here, but I like having that air quality monitor for a peace of mind. I take it with me too when I can just so I can see, you know, I have fun playing with it. I'll take it to people's homes and show them that,
(42:58): Oh, I bet you are a favored guest.
(43:00): Oh yeah. Oh aren't I though pulling it out of my purse. Well, I always, I'm pretty cautious. I know who I can pull it out with and who I can, but they love it because the shows them like, wow, this really measures. Where do you think the VOCs are coming from? And then we'll look around and there'll be a perfume bottle somewhere close by in the bedroom that could be out guessing into their bedroom. Or, you know, I look at the air quality monitor as for your home. It's like getting your blood work done for your body. You wanna know what's going on in your body. If you have any issues, outstanding issues or something is wrong, right? You go for a physical, the doctor sends you in for blood work. Everything comes back fine. Well this air quality monitor your home is so important.
(43:44): Your air is so important to have it as a peace of mind to know, okay, I'm living in a clean air in my home. So in my mind, it's just, you know, gives me a peace of mind that it's a very clean air in our house. Then the indoor air purifier, which of course was a huge thing for COVID because it was cleaning the air for people and people wanted, I sold a ton of those. I actually represent one here in Buffalo. I love the most, not because it's in Buffalo, but it's Austin air purifier. It's 100% made in the United States here in Buffalo, all the parts, you name it because you have to be careful with that with a lot of things, parts that are made overseas, some of the plastics come out gas in your air purifier while they're running. So you have to be really careful with some of that.
(44:35): So the, it collects 99.9% of bacteria and chemicals and VOCs and from aldehyde. So if you have any chemicals floating around, it will collect those chemicals in the filter, and it's, and there's a lot of other good ones on the market out there. I just love this one the most. And we have one in our bedroom and I'll tell you my husband. I tell people this all the time. I mean, he used to snor so bad. Like I thought the roof was gonna come off the house. And once we installed the air purifier, I can sleep with this Norrie now I barely even hear it. And I called Austin air and I said, could this be possible? It's the air pur where they're like, of course he said, you see those floating dust particles going around when the sun beams in, well, that's what it's collecting. And that can be getting in people's lungs and causing them to snort at night and dust mites and everything else, you know, that you could be sleeping and breathing in amongst the chemicals that could be out guessing in your bedroom from the sheets. So it's just being conscious of what you're taking in is the most important thing. And then trying to get to your house as clean as possible.
(45:45): Yeah. I didn't realize we have gone so long. We're gonna need to wrap up. I did wanna just tie in this quote from your mom that I love plan your life. Like you will live forever and live your life. Like you may die tomorrow. I think that that really speaks to the whole toxin situation. If you're gonna plan, like you're gonna live forever, you need to address these things that you can't see and live your life. Like you're gonna die tomorrow, monitor your air quality, filter the air, get rid of these products. And I think we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about new construction and the dangers there you mentioned for Malda Hyde. I was made sick by a new office that I went and worked in because of the off gassing of the VOCs and their formaldehyde. I was actually rendered where I, I had a toxic and encephalopathy. Wow. Luckily what you was reversible, but can you talk a little bit about that?
(46:44): Yeah. So new build is there's a lot of absolutely. And out gassing of all these products and windows is being made. So you don't have any air leaking in. I'm so happy. I live in 120 year old home where the air is leaking out and leaking in. But so you need air flow in a house. So you could be getting so tired in a home because I hear people all the time, how tired they are, not only you're being tired, but those new from paint to any kind of flooring to what they're putting on the flooring to the, uh, walls to the ceilings. I mean, those are all products that are coded in potentially, uh, harmful chemicals. Now, thank God paints. You'll see all the time, low VOC paint. There are some better products out there building materials that are better products. But I have a, a home inspector that I work with once in a while.
(47:43): And he'll go through and homes just to see for different berries things that you know, he does, but he calls some of the homes. He said some of the homes I go in it they're like coffins. They're sleeping in these homes that no air is getting moving around. They're loaded with all these new products that have chemicals emitting off of them and they emit for a while. It's not something you have to get them out gas for a while. So new builds, I would definitely be concerned. And definitely if you're in a new build, I would absolutely have air purifiers running all the time.
(48:19): Yeah. And don't bring a new baby home to a new build. Please it's just overwhelm their detoxification system. It drives me crazy when I watch HD TV, which is my absolute favorite channel. I love architecture and design and building. And when these people are like, oh, we gotta get the new bill ready. So we bring the baby home and I'm thinking, no, don't do that to your child. And most people are not aware of the dangers of that. So we would be remiss if we didn't discuss it. You know, this actually is in the mainstream information back when they had the hurricane in new Orleans and they brought in all these trailers for people to live in, in temporary housing, I think it was 30% of them got deathly ill for moving into these trailers all at one time. So this was a population study and they discovered it was from the formaldehyde. So because we all move into new homes, popcorn style there's no, it doesn't seem like there's causality, but this was very clear and undeniable. So hopefully this will lead to some building regulation changes. Thank you so much T for the wonderful information, you have a free gift that everybody can access and download top 10 toxins to avoid, uh, where it'll have the link in the show notes. Anything you wanna say about that?
(49:42): Oh yeah. It's a guide. If you go to the shop tab and tab down, I think it's the top one toxins to avoid. So, and just read your ingredients, start reading your ingredients and knowing your labels, just like you would reading your ingredients and any food that you would eat as well, reading ingredients that you're using in your home and treat your home. Like it's your best friend because you need it as much as it needs you.
(50:05): I always say that your home is your second body treat us like your second body but most people are so challenged in caring for their first body. uh, it's usually not the first thing I say, but it really is your second body mm-hmm . So T's also got a 15% off a code. Dunston two zero that you can use. Uh, we'll have that in the show notes as well. If you're interested in purchasing any of her products and I wanna thank you team for joining us today.
(50:35): Oh, you're very welcome. And you know what? That should have been 20% off DUNS than 20. So even better, there'll be 20% off. So I'm gonna email you that link just so you don't make a mistake on that one.
(50:47): Okay. We'll have it in the show notes for you. Thank you all for joining us today. Thank you for your interest in your health and for really creating the brilliant health that you deserve. I hope that you've enjoyed today's podcast episode and that you've learned something and mostly that you take the information you've learned and you take action. So I want you to think about the one change that you're gonna make based on this information, whether you're driving a car or you're working out at the gym, just make a note based on what I heard today, I am going to do X today. Just one thing. And you'll find if you hear good information and you just take action on one thing with every podcast episode you hear or blog that you read, you'll look back in a few months and you'll see how far you've come with your health and your life. So that's my instruction.
(51:44): To you.
(51:44): Thanks so much for joining me. I'll see you next week for another episode until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all
(51:52): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you feel like you're aging before your time? Do you have wrinkles, gray hair, and low energy?
If so, you're not alone. But there's good news!
According to our guest for this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Joy Kong, it's possible to turn back the clock by harnessing the power of stem cells.
Joy Kong, M.D. is a UCLA-trained, triple board-certified physician (American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, American Board of Addiction Medicine, American Board of Anti- Aging & Regenerative Medicine). She is the president of Uplyft Longevity Center in Los Angeles, California, where she specializes in stem cell therapy, ketamine therapy, as well as a wide range of therapeutic modalities to improve patients' overall health by enhancing their body's innate regenerative potentials.
Dr. Kong shares in this podcast episode her groundbreaking research on how stem cells can be used to regenerate tissue, improve hormone function, and reverse the effects of aging. She also provides practical tips on how midlife women can take advantage of this exciting new technology.
In this episode, you'll learn:
- What are stem cells, and how do they work?
- How stem cells can be used to regenerate tissue, improve hormone function, and reverse the effects of aging
- How to use stem cells for health and longevity
- The latest research on stem cells and aging
- Skin care products from stem cells
So if you're ready to feel younger, more vibrant, and full of life, this is the episode for you!
Tune in now and learn how to harness the power of stem cells to regrow your parts, heal your hormones, and reverse aging.
(00:00): Do you ever wonder what all the buzz is about stem cell therapy and if it might be for you or not? My gift today, Dr. Joy Kong is gonna help you understand the benefits of stem cell therapy. And if this is right for you, stay tuned.
(00:16): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.
(01:10): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm excited to dive into the topic of stem cells with you. It's such an important topic. I mean, after all, we wouldn't be here on this planet. If it weren't for stem cells, we would start as stem cells, right? When the embryo is formed in the uterus from the sperm and egg meat, we are stem cells. And then all of those cells differentiate into the various organs and parts of our body. And we become adult humans, but stem cells still form this reservoir. That's available to us to recreate our bodies' moment to moment, but their number decreases over time. And this is one of the reasons that aging happens. So maybe you've heard about the buzz about stem cells. Maybe you've heard about some controversies.
(02:09): We're gonna dive into that too. What's FDA approved. What's not and why. And we might even give you some ideas or inspiration for how you might want to access and use stem cells for your various health ailments or to achieve your aspirations of becoming fairly immortal, living a long time and being healthy while you do it. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Dr. Joy and then we'll get started. Dr. Joy Kong is a medical doctor. She's trained at UC a N triple board certified American board of psychiatry and neurology American board of addiction, medicine, American board of antiaging and regenerative medicine. Wow, that's a lot of work. She's the president of the uplift longevity center in Los Angeles, California, where she specializes in stem cell therapy, ketamine therapy, as well as a wide range of therapeutic modalities to improve patients overall health by enhancing their bodies, innate regenerative potentials.
(03:13): She is an avid educator and the founder of the American academy of integrative cell therapy, a a I ct.org, where she trains other physicians on stem cell therapy. And she conducts clinical research on stem cell therapy. And she's a published author in many scientific journals now to provide her patients with the best regenerative medicine products. She founded Cher biologics, where she developed the most potent and comprehensive stem cell product in the country with a patent pending formulation, as well as a 100% natural stem cell cream chair Omni. And we've got a link for you in the show notes with a discount code to get her skin cream. And you wanna get this cream trust because if you could see her face on this podcast, you'd be like, oh my God, her skin is amazing. I want that. She's sending me a bottle and I'm gonna let you know how I do with it.
(04:09): I'm gonna take before and after pictures too. So we can see what happens with my skin. She was recognized for her contribution in the field of regenerative medicine and awarded the top doctor of the year in stem cell therapy in 2019, as well as stem cell doctor of the decade in 2021 by the prestigious I a O T P that's the international association of top professionals. She also has a memoir. She wrote tiger of Beijing and it's garnered tremendous interest. It was named 2020 book of the year and showcased at times square. She was also featured in the 2021 book heroes leaders, legends, the power of the human spirit, along with movers and shakers, such as Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra and Maya angel. You might know a few of them, so we'll help me to welcome Dr. Joy Kong to the podcast.
(04:59): Thank you for inviting me, Kyrin.
(05:01): So happy to have you on today. You can speak about so many topics that I want my listeners to hear about. We're gonna start with stem cells, cuz that's really what you're known for and so passionate about, and you've developed products to help people and really have a unique way at looking at this technology and using it with people. I think that they need to know about, but let's start at with the basics. cause a lot of people have an idea of what stem cells are and they think, you know, it only, they only come from placenta and that that's really a violation and we shouldn't be using them. So can you talk about what stem cells are?
(05:45): Yeah. There's such a wide array of the types of stem cells. You know, in our current, you know, our bodies, we all have a ton of stem cells. Of course, as we get older, we lose more and more, but in each of your tissue, there are organ specific stem cells. But when we go back to the origin, we all came from a fertilized egg. So that was the first quintessential stem cell. And from that one stem cell, you can form a multitude of stem cells and somehow these cells know how to migrate and how to form a three dimensional structure that became eventually the baby. So as the baby's organ started to form, then you get more of more specialized cells. But before these cells, from that single fertilized egg to reach the stage of a tissue specific stem cell, there could be a thousand different variations and they're all stem cells.
(06:37): So in, in this baby, you know, eventually the organs are formed and there are cells that are organ cells, but they're also tissue specific stem cells. I say a liver they're liver stem cells that can form a liver cell. So in our body, throughout our body, we have all these stem cells. So there's, you know, it's like a continuum of this stem cell evolution in the body. And not only we have tissue specific stem cells, there are certain stem cells that are really special. One of the most special one is called Kinal stem cells. So these are cells that are all over your blood vessels. So anywhere you have blood vessel supply, blood supply, you have these cells that are huddling around the blood vessels, waiting for signals from the blood or sensing the signals in the neighbor neighborhood of all these other cells. And, and they're, they have this communication coordination effect that they are able to tell what the local cells should be doing by sensing what's going on in the blood, or they can figure out what's needed in the local tissue and send out signals to the blood.
(07:45): So they have this, you know, like I call them the master of regeneration. So conductor in the symphony of regeneration. So we still have those stem cells in our body. And that's what people are doing with fat deriv stem cells. They're trying to extract fat, but they're really not getting stem cells from fat. They're getting the stem cells that are along the blood vessels, that supplies the fat cells. And then you can U utilize those cells for regeneration. So there's so many different sources. You can get stem cells from Meru blood. You can get stem cells from blood, you know, in the small amount, but you can get it, you know, if on bone marrow. So the embryonic stem cells that, that has controversy mm-hmm was in the beginning that you know, of stem cell research, they thought that's the, the end all be all.
(08:32): And, and that's the, the best source. And they were able to grow they were extracting cells from five to seven day old embryo and utilizing those cells to form any organ, you know, or cells of any tissue type and does involve destroying an embryo, which is where the controversy comes. But we've moved. You, you know, far from that, there's still research done embryonic stem cells, but clinically there's no one in this country, legally that's actually doing embryonic stem cell treatments. They are using a person's own, you know, extracted from your own body or using birth tube, which are biological waste. You know, after the baby is born, they, you know, usually they will discard the placenta and the Bual cord. But now we know that they have incredibly powerful regenerative cells in these tissues. And that's what a lot of doctors use and that's what I use.
(09:32): And I believe that's a superior source, which is why I've lectured on the subject in various stem cell conferences. And I put my lecture online is called, are all MSCs created equal. So even when you're looking at mechy stem cells, they're not really the same whether or not it's from an adult source, from the bone marrow, from the fat or from the birth tissue, even within different birth tissue compartments, the cells are all a little different. They have different potentials to become different types of cells. They have different growth factors they secret. So there's vast amount of difference, even though they're all messing Al stem cells, right. The cells that are Hulings. So there's huge variations, you know, of what's going on out there.
(10:17): Okay. So thank you for clarifying that no fetuses were harmed in the making of the stem cells that Dr.Kong is talking about. Okay. So everybody can relax. So autologous from yourself, right. Stem cells. So getting harvesting them from your body, you mentioned menstrual blood. I know some women out there are gonna be Googling that in five seconds, looking up, how do I get stem cells out of my menstrual blood to use it? Is that really something that's used in clinical practice?
(10:46): Not much in this country, but I think overseas, there may be some clinics that are using it. Yeah.
(10:51): Okay. Just curious, because I hadn't heard that, but I know you can get cord blood, babies, cord blood banked to save the cells for later use if you want it for your child. That's something that was big back when I delivered babies, which has been a long time since I did that. So these stem cells, makeable stem cells. What can you use them for, for, in terms of healing in the body? What kind of applications?
(11:20): Yeah. So first of all, of course, you know, as well as I do that, no claims can be made if there's no FDA indication. So the only FDA indication for stem cell therapy is for Buco blood or bone marrow derived stem cells for chemo reconstitution. So basically replacing your blood system, regenerating white blood cells, red blood cells, the whole blood system, that's the only FDA indication everything else will be off-label use. So there's no direct FDA indication. However, research has been extremely active all around the world, which is why I put together the course for American academy of integrative cell therapy. So for interested is a, a I ct.org on there. I have a lot of articles listed of, for different conditions, clinical excerpts. I have, you know, hundreds of articles that I share with doctors when they take the training, they're all categorized by organ systems and disease categories like over 30 categories within each category.
(12:24): They're, you know, they could be 10 subcategories. So it's very extensive. And they're also some case studies of people who that have been treated that have gotten great results. So while I cannot make any claims, I can't speak from my own clinical experience cause I'm really excited for how well my patients did, but I also am willing to share, you know, research results of you know, all these different conditions. If you look at research from cardiovascular system issues, atherosclerosis, congestive heart failure, different kidney diseases, liver cirrhosis, you know, central nervous system conditions, autism, and C O P D you know, different lung fibrotic conditions, all kinds of autoimmune diseases. And it's you know, powerful evidence on all kinds of autoimmune issues. And even including things like eye conditions, years, you know, hearing pretty much, you know, like most organ systems are covered.
(13:23): So there has been really great results. And even for just general anti-inflammation, they have shown to reduce inflammatory markers and also improve the markers of aging, such as hair, skin, energy level sex drive, and then showing anti-aging benefits when these animals, so animal studies were done where these animals were given older animals, given regular IV treatment. And with the, the IV stem cell treatment, these animals showed that in their brain and their muscles, the neurotropic factors, you know, the neurotransmitter levels, the growth factor release, inflammatory markers, everything was reverted back to younger state. So there's powerful, anti-aging benefits. So basically as we age, we're losing more and more stem cells, just, you know, a number when we were born, every one in 10,000 cells is a mess. Kinal stem cell, right? They're everywhere. And when we reach our teenage years, it's already one in a hundred thousand.
(14:28): So you got tenfold less as far as you know, the ratio. And then when you reach your forties, it becomes one in 400,000. And when you reach your eighties is one in 2 million. So this is why we are getting wrinkles. We're, you know, we're starting to decline in our immune system. We're getting more cancers is because your body can't keep up. It cannot regenerate, you know, wear and tear disease, osteoarthritis, you know, we are wearing and tearing our tissue so much more when we're little kids, but it's fixed right up. You don't get osteoarthritis, but when you are older, old injuries, your body, all of a sudden just can't keep up anymore. It just can't give you enough replacement to regenerate. And then you get lots of weight and pains. So we are running outta stem cells. And that's why I'm such an advocate of using these stem cell therapy to replace what's lost.
(15:23): So all this regenerative, this powerful life force that's doodling. As we age, now we can replace it so we can give body the signals. It used to receive just like what you do with hormone replacement, all these important signals that start to get less and less. You replace the signal. All of a sudden you can bring yourself way ahead, right. Of how you were doing because your body was starving of these signals. So these cells have, you know, huge array of signaling capacities. And, you know, like for example, I just gave you a quick rundown of the kind of capability these cells have, first of all, hugely anti-inflammatory they? So rather than a single hormone, right? These are life cells. They're able to secrete lots of different factors, cytokines that can reduce inflammation. Mm-Hmm they also have anti-fibrotic properties. So they can molecules that can break down scar tissue.
(16:22): They also have immune modulating properties. So they can shift immune system from more inflammatory to a more anti-inflammatory state. They have angio properties because they can sense signals to help your blood vessel, to form more blood vessels and supply more nutrients. And, you know, like blood exchange. And they also have direct antimicrobial properties. They actually secret antimicrobial peptides. They have anti-cancer properties that has been shown, and it has been used in research for cancer treatments and showing great results. And it also have what's called anti apoptotic property. So it prevents program cell death when tissues are injured, just like when we see in stroke, you may have the area that the blood supplies cut off and that's where the cells die. But the neighboring cells start to die as well is because of the signaling cascade. That's triggering the apoptosis program, cell death, and that's where the cells can come in and abort those processes. So it can stop these cells from going on these death path. So there's all this wide array of actions and that's why is so exciting. And, and that's why it's such an elegant treatment. It can help so many things in the cell, right. Also have the ability to define their way , but let's
(17:43): Back up for a second. Cause I do wanna dive into certain applications that I think people will be most interested in, or people have talked to me about in the past. But before we do that, you mentioned the only FDA claims are allowed for bone marrow and cord blood kind of rebuilding of the blood system, usually after cancer, after it's eradicated for blood cancers. So what if the FDA doesn't allow any indications? Not for intravenous, not for focal use, what are people actually using it in clinical practice for, in America right now? Okay. So
(18:26): This is where we come to the 2017 policy from the FDA where they were there's concern. These products can be used and they're very, you know, they're holistic products, their natural products, and the FDA wanted to regulate the me drugs, right? So one sided argument is that these are not drugs. These are tissue transplantations, you know, not that different from transplanting organs or blood. So the FDA decided, okay, if you do not change the cells by putting in all kinds of chemicals, enzymes, you're not basically changing the characters of the cells and you're not growing them into huge numbers. We're gonna allow you to use them as tissue transplant. We're not gonna categorize 'em as drugs. So we don't require, we don't have the same standards, right? We don't require you to do medical studies and get clinical approval. So that's what we're using. We're using the message tissue transplant. So as physicians, we can provide tissue transplantation, right? That's part of what we can do. So just like grafting, you know, a piece of you know, artery, you know, when we do, you know, grafting, we can put it from one person to another person bone grafting. So this is all part of what physician can can do. And that's what a lot of doctors are operating under.
(19:44): And so you can use those intravenously or locally, like intra particular in a joint,
(19:50): Local tissue injections. That's where there's least least concerns from the FDA. I don't think they liked the idea of intravenous treatments because somehow, you know, that they didn't like the idea of a systemic effect, even though everything would put in the body has a systemic effect. You can put something in a joint, it was still have a systemic effect. So I don't know where that policy came from, but you know, that's what their concerns are. So there are doctors who are doing intravenous therapy because of the vast amount of research showing incredible safety and then also efficacy. So from the clinical studies, the key is no claims should be made because if you are doing intravenous, that's considered, you know, more toward drug route. If that's the case, you know, then no claim should be made, right? It's an experimental procedure. So you inform people properly that there has been no FDA approval and this experimental and you understand the risks and benefits and alternatives. So that's how doctors are doing it is by giving proper consent and telling people that there's no guarantee of, of effect. Although there can be research that you can educate the patients on, okay, this condition, look at all these research results, but you know, still no claims can be made
(21:11): Well. And, and what's true for a lot of the medications and treatments that we use in medicine. They're not FDA-approved I mean, if you look at when I practiced obstetrics, we used to give something called Turine for what we call lysis. If women went into premature labor, that's not FDA approved for stopping labor, but we used it for that. So we use lots of things in medication. I want everybody listening to understand that this doesn't mean this is illegal. It doesn't mean that it's anything nefarious. It just means that they've said we don't regulate this , and it's out of their jurisdiction. And so we use lots of what we call off-label. Okay. So now we've gotten that out of the way
(21:57): Of medications used that theirs are actually, off-label used yes. In math practice, 80%, like vast majority are not FDA approved, but that's what doctors have decided to be helpful. And that has become a standard. And then everybody do it, right?
(22:13): So if the research shows it, if you, if you wait till the FDA approves it, you could be waiting forever, and you know, life is short. So you need to get some help now. And stem cells are pretty amazing. So can we talk about maybe how you are using it in your practice? What are some specific applications that you're finding the best results with? And if you wanna touch on the research too, that would be great.
(22:42): Yeah. So first of all, of course, musculoskeletal issues, you know, I do local injections into joints, into soft tissue. So that has been really, really helpful for anything. So like
(22:56): Your arthritis, if someone's told they need a knee replacement you're rebuilding cartilage?
(23:01): Yeah, my first patient, he was 69 years old. And he was told by two orthopedic surgeons that he absolutely needed bilateral knee replacement. So he wanted to try stem cells as a last ditch resort. So because of how large the knee joint is, the way that the cartilage is nourished, the inner two-thirds, the cartilage nourished by the sono fluid in the joint capsule. But the outer one-third is nourished by the blood supply. So it's better to attack from both angles. Of course, we know that, you know, by replacing stem cells, the stem cells do interact with the immune system, help boost the immune system. So there's like all these other effects, but, but we're targeting both ants for the, for the knee. And what's interesting was, so this is six years later, he's going to all kinds of trade shows. He's never had an operation.
(23:49): He's walking four miles every day, barely feels his knees. And what's really fascinating was the next day after the treatment. He said, you know, I slept through the night and I haven't been able to sleep through the night for decades because I had a rotator cuff tear when I was a, you know, late teens and when my car rolled over. So it never fully healed. Every time I shift in my bed, I wake up from the sharp pain. So he slept through the night. It, that huge anti-inflammatory effect. I didn't even know about his shoulder. He never told me about it. So that just shows you that this is why it's so exciting, right? The cells have intelligence. And if there's screaming inflammation in his rotator cuff and the cells, you know, they're attracted to those signals mm-hmm and they went there and they helped him fix it. So this is, you know, he's, he's great. He's doing fantastic. That was my first case. Of course, I'm gonna be hooked .
(24:41): And so he received these stem cells intravenously and in the joint, in the knee joint, both as you were attacking it, both sides and then voila, this shoulder injury that he had. And can you talk a little bit about the data on knees and joints? Because I think it's pretty impressive.
(25:01): Yeah. Yeah. Well, one of the studies really fun, such an interesting study because they use people who have bilateral knee basic osteonecrosis. So, both knees are really are rotting basically because of steroid. So these people supposedly need bilateral knee replacement. So what they did was that they divide these 30 people like midline, one knee received, knee replacement, the other knee, they give them stem cell injections. And what's fascinating was this is, I think, about 12 years study. So in the end, what happened was out of all the knees that were replaced, six needed revision surgery. So 30 needs, right, 30 patients, 30 needs were replaced six out of those needed revision surgery because they weren't doing too well out of the 30 needs that got stem cell injections, only one ever needed replacement. So that's a powerful statistic. Yeah,
(26:01): It's phenomenal. And I know some people are listening, then they're Googling, where can I get this done? But I guess, can you talk a little bit about, for instance, a knee injection, what's the cost for stem cell therapy for something like that.
(26:16): So for mild to moderate condition, it costs about $4,000 for severe, you know, cuz we need more product to be used and they are expensive. It costs $7,000 at my clinic, but I do tend to use the IV route, especially when a person's over the age, 55 or so because they just, they, they have lagging regenerative capabilities. So I do tend to add the IV treatment, which has been to have, you know, tremendous anti-aging benefits, but also it's gonna amplify the results. The more products that's used, the more expensive it gets. So the range is between, I'll say when people come to my clinic, the range is 7,000 to $15,000. That's how much it usually costs.
(27:00): And the reason I asked that question is because I always try to do the interview from the viewpoint of my listener. And I know that's what they're wondering, but what I wanna say as a consumer, that that's really the wrong question to ask
(27:17): Right. Everybody wants to know when they hear what I do when they hear what Dr. Joy does, does my insurance cover it? How much does it cost? And the answer is no, your insurance doesn't cover it cuz they're not interested in you being optimally healthy. They're not interested in you necessarily avoiding a joint replacement. And I've talked about that on other podcasts, how really the churn and burn of our medical system is profiting off of your illness. So only you have are the one to take the vested interest and say, yeah, instead of going on this vacation or buying this fancier car, I would rather avoid surgery for various reasons and invest it in my health for whether it's natural hormone replacement therapy or stem cell therapy are all of these tools that I teach you about on the podcast that most of you get the value of. And so that's why I asked that question is cause I wanted to, to bring it up and just to, as a marketer, remind everyone to question why you have the beliefs that you have and why you think the thoughts that you do cause ultimately the quality of your health will be determined by the quality of questions that you ask about your health and how much does it cost is not an empowering question.
(28:32): Such a great, but that
(28:34): Yes. Okay. So knees, now I know you've developed this a skincare line. I wish y'all could see her skin. It's absolutely gorgeous. Can you talk about your stem cell based skincare line and kind of what's the story behind how you developed that?
(28:51): Okay. Being in the antiaging field, of course we're getting educated on what we put on our body, what we ingest, you know, just, you know, the whole aspect. So skincare products, household, you know, cleaning products, I mean, and all these can have huge effect on, you know, hormone disruption and just all kinds of toxicity. So when I realized what was, you know, all these cosmetic products and I thought this was really scary, you know, I really don't want to put all these chemicals on my skin, which is the most absorbent organ in the body. So I thought, okay, let me find a natural cream, all natural cream. So I would spend a lot of money buying some Korean cream and they said, it's all natural. But then when I actually looked at the ingredients after using it for a while, I was like, what's this?
(29:37): And what's that, oh my God, you know, that's, that's not all natural. So I, I was like, okay, now I need to find true all natural product, go to natural expos and getting some samples. And then I'll leave in my drawer for like a month or two, by the time I was ready to try them out and they're separated into different layers. I thought, you know, these people know how to make a cream. You know, that's when I was so frustrated and I was like, you know what? I have access to stem cells to peptides and I can design my own cream. So why don't I just make an amazing cream, you know, first of all, for myself, cuz I don't have one, I need one. And then after I make it, I can share it with everybody else. So that's really how it came about.
(30:16): It just, it was frustrating to find a decent cream. So I make sure it's a hundred percent natural. Even the preservative is a hundred percent is a natural preservative because I refuse to and use any synthetic, even if it means extending the life sh the shelf life of the product. So it has, you know, a big component of a stem cell from the political cord and they're not not alive. You know, I'm not claiming that there are any life cells because it it's, it's impossible to keep the cells alive, but they do have all these regenerative signaling molecules that are still in, you know, in them. And they're still, you know, they're well preserved so that once you put on the skin, they can give your skin the right signals. And I also put all these different peptides that are known for skin regeneration, you know, for anti-inflammatory actions, you know, reducing wrinkles, improving collagen production. And then I put in, you know, all these incredible natural oils, natural oils can be hugely powerful. And then all these different, interesting herbal extracts that have, you know, anti pigmentation properties and, you know, sun protection properties, just incredible skin, regenerative properties and then antioxidants and pre prebiotics. So that's the, the whole formula. It just, I'm very proud of it because it's just, it's impossible to find something like that on the market. That's a true a hundred percent natural product.
(31:41): It is so true. And all my ladies, like in my gut detox program, they're always, what can I use? What can I use? And you know, I'll recommend something and we'll research it and then, oh, by the way, it's got this chemical in it. And oh, by the way, it's got that chemical and everybody listening. Dr. Joy told me before we started recording that she's gonna give everyone a special code to get a discount on her product. So we'll have that in the show notes for you and a link so you can check them out. I haven't tried them, but I am super excited to do so. And I will do that. And then I'll report back to everyone, to all my listeners about them,
(32:20): Do it before and after picture, you know, for themselves, you seriously and no cheating, you know, same lighting, same spots, same time of day. We have, you know, doctors who are stock expensive products in our office, you know, European products, you know, Korean product, you know, they're phasing them out because they love this cream so much, you know, estheticians were really experienced who have seen everything on the market. They absolutely love this product. So I'm really proud of
(32:44): It. Yes, you should be. It sounds amazing. And I'm just wondering, there's all kinds of data with, you know, my thing is hormones and just using natural hormone therapy and decreased number depth and size of wrinkles, decrease skin sagging. Right? All of the data on how it improves the quality of our skin. Also our hair and nails.
(33:07): I've definitely seen it in people who are using the cream. I mean, you know, stem cells have been used for as far as for wound repair, you know, it's hugely powerful and I've seen people who have you know, within a couple weeks, you know, two, three weeks the reduction in fine wrinkles. So there's, you know, pretty rapid, you know, regenerative properties. Mm-Hmm, decreased pigmentation and, and some have people with with lesions falling off. So it definitely is very, yeah, very powerful. So a lot of it is through injection, but you can, you know, inject and I do that with wound care. I can inject along the rim of the wound and that just is so, so incredible, you know, getting the wound to close, but topically, it can because we have a, you know, an ingredient to help with deep penetration of mm-hmm the molecules. This is why you don't need a separate toner, a serum, you know, eye cream moisturizer. You don't need, you don't need a whole, you know, line of product. You just need this one because it's deep penetrating. You don't need to use those tricks to get the product, to get deeper into your skin.
(34:21): Yeah. I think most people think that their skin is solid, but it's really porous and permeable. And anything you put on your skin goes through your bloodstream and goes to the deeper layers and really is very accessible to the rest of your system. So let's, I wanna talk about heart disease. And also if you can autoimmune disease, you mentioned it earlier that there are really a lot of FDA indication, well, not FDA indications, but studies that have been done that show that there's improvement with these types of disorders. Can you talk a little bit about the use of stem cells for those things?
(35:01): Yeah. For heart disease, they've shown for like an atherosclerosis decreas in plaque size at the aortic root. So they actually dissected the vessel and, and show an imaging and how the macrophages aggregation, you know, was changing. You know, how there's just much, much less plaque that's in the blood vessels. And it has been shown to improve ejection fraction in people with heart failure or people who have myocardio infarction. So heart attack also helped to regain cardiac function and repair the cardiac tissue and breaking down scar tissue. So, you know, when we have heart attack and, you know, we have debt tissue and scarring tissue. So because the antifibrotic properties of the cells, they can help break down scar tissue and form new tissue. So it's pretty impressive.
(35:51): Okay. And this would be with an intravenous application.
(35:54): Yeah. So the studies have done either intravenous or intra intra cardio injections, so they can okay. Inject into PE pericardium or into the heart, you know, muscle self, so different types of injections, but they have all shown really good results.
(36:10): Awesome. The name of the prescription is the hormone. The name of the podcast is the hormone prescription. So I always try to tie everything into hormones. How does this affect hormones? You mentioned about the cytokines and the growth factors that come along with these stem cells, the signaling molecules. And so can you talk a little bit about how this interacts? Yes,
(36:32): Actually it's fascinating. You know, cause one of the sections I cover in my horse is reproductive health and they've done studies on animals like menopausal rats or just aging animals and giving them stem cells, younger stem cells, they showed in increase in ovary size, increase in number of follicles, increase in estrogen levels and decrease in FSH and LH. Right. so that's all good sign and the increase in number of pregnancies. So that's pretty powerful evidence that it actually enhances hormone levels and improve re reproductive health.
(37:14): Yes. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean stem cells and growth factors and all these things you're talking about affect everything. And like you mentioned earlier, it's, anti-aging it reverses aging. There are some things you can do without the use of stem cells to improve all of these parameters. Aren't there. What kinds of are there things I know some people are wondering, I don't want stem cells, Kyrin, but I'm wondering, are there other things I can do?
(37:42): well, healthy practices. Of course, you know, you want to eat very healthy and do exercise and make sure you detox, get the toxins out of your body, maybe through saunas and you know, Inre sauna or, you know, other supplements. I mean, all those are really, you know, wonderful ways. There's so many hacks where we're like at a biohacking blossom right now, it can be dizzying, you know, seeing all the things you can do, but I still don't believe there's anything that can replace the power of life itself. I'm giving life. You know, when I inject these stem stem cells into the body, I'm injecting the origin of life, right? The early, early life. And what is in those cells, the first stem cell, the fertilized egg, how does it know to form an entire human being? This is an incredible miraculous feat.
(38:39): How does it know? So what kind of incredible intelligence is in that cell is embedded in that DNA, right? So I'm transplanting just maybe part of that intelligence because as the cells get older and older, you lose more and more of that kind of intelligence, but I'm giving early cells and they still contain a lot of that intelligence. What's really cool is that the stem cells, the me Kinal stem cells from these birth tissue, they're actually in between embryonic stem cells, as far as how primitive and powerful they are embryonic stem cells and the stem cells in the baby. When these cells, when, when these Al cord and placenta, when they were formed, a lot of these young cells were trapped during the embryogenesis. So they are keeping a lot of their early characteristics. This is why it's. So, you know, it is so powerful because they, you know, they're kind of a part embryo stem cells, but they don't have the problem. The embryonic stem cells, which is OMA formation, right? Uncontrolled growth. They don't have the drawbacks of the embryonic stem cells, but they carry a lot of powers of the embryonic stem cells.
(39:48): You know, I love that. You said what you said the way you said it, because I'm thinking again from the listener, they're thinking, oh, I don't wanna do all that. But they do the same thing with hormone therapy, joy. They go, no, I wanna do menopause naturally. Right. And I always like to say, no woman ever said, I'm gonna do osteoporosis naturally. my daughter. Dr. Told me I have osteoporosis and I'm just gonna do it naturally. I'm just gonna take some calcium and vitamin D no, they're like, oh my gosh, I'll be at risk for hip fracture. I could die from that. I could become incapacitated where I can't a emulate or live independently. I want, and they want treatment for it. Right. Women come to menopause and they're like, yeah, I'm gonna do it naturally. It's a natural phase of life. I'm not gonna do anything.
(40:34): And I go, that's fine. As long as you're educated about the consequences of that choice, mm-hmm right. You know, and the fact that neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's are reduced by 79% and women who use hormone therapy for at least six years. Well, do you wanna reduce risk of getting Alzheimer's they go? Yeah. Well then hormone therapy would be a part of that macular degeneration. The number one cause of blindness in women who are 65 reduced with hormone therapy. And it's the same, like you just said, there's nothing that will replace stem cells. Nothing. If you really care about your health to the most degree, like if you ask most women in terms of your values, what do you care about? Most they say, oh my health. But then you ask them to categorize where they spend their time and their money and the health is on the bottom. So you gotta have this value shift and all this to say that, you know, I heard what you said, and I totally agree with you. There's really nothing that stem cells, there's no replacement for them. Just like, they're no replacement for hormones.
(41:40): Love that. So thank you for all
(41:41): That in perspective. Yeah. , it's brilliant with, you know, shifting that people's perceptions cuz they say one thing and then they're actually to
(41:50): Another another.
(41:51): So if you put it that way, you know, do you wanna do osteoporosis naturally? I mean that's a whole that's yeah. That's brilliant because people, they don't realize that's what they're doing.
(42:01): Well, thank you so much for sharing this wonderful information. I know you are passionate about ketamine therapy too. I'm gonna direct everyone to your website cuz we're already been going quite long, but they wanna find out more. We will have links to Dr. Joy's website. We'll have a link to her skincare products and a code for our discount. If you wanna use that, any other links that you would like us to put in the show notes? Dr. Joy.
(42:24): Yeah. So my YouTube channel just joy Kong MD. I have a lot of educational videos there. So people wanna dive deeper into different aspects of stem cells. I talked about five common mistakes that doctors make when they do stem cell therapy. I talk about what happens when other people's DNA are in your body. What does it really mean? Is that something to be alarmed about? You know, what are the three stages healing of stem cell therapy and you know, and what about treatment is in Panama? What's the difference? Are they better? So I go into all these specific questions that people have and I really try to, to, to get people a perspective because just not enough information is out there. Well, a lot of confusing information, but not a clear guidance for people.
(43:10): Yes. Wow. That's amazing. So much, so many resources that you have for people and they can seek treatment with you locally in LA. Is that correct?
(43:20): Yeah. So I'm in yeah, Los Angeles area, my clinics uplift longevity center. So we, I do have people who fly from all over the country and around the world to, to come to our clinic. Okay.
(43:30): So we'll have a link for that. Also all the links in the show notes, everyone. Thank you, Dr. Joy for coming and sharing your wisdom, your passion, your expertise, and really awakening to us to what's possible with stem cells. Thank you for doing,
(43:47): Yeah, we don't have to age and decline, you know, like I was joking with my, you know, my friends, but yeah, what we want is to be vibrant, vibrant, happy, vibrant. And then we're gone. That's the way we go.
(43:59): I literally, you're a walking billboard for that. I'm like she's must have been in medicine for as long, almost as long as I Haven. And she looks like she's 20. So stem cells. Yeah. I think that's where it's at
(44:15): With, with you. I have been doing IV stem cells on myself every three months for the fat past six years. You know, I don't because I'm usually, I'm already very healthy. You know, I take good care of myself, so I don't notice the difference. But other people, when people who don't see me every day, they notice it. They were telling me I'm looking younger and younger and this, you know, I was like, wow, really? Cuz I can't tell by looking myself every day, but I can tell now that Facebook keep reminding me of these happy anniversaries, you know, look at you seven years ago, they think I was gonna be happy because I was younger. And I was looking at is like, oh my God, I was aging. I didn't even know. So only now I have, you know, kind of reversed. It it's much easier to post a picture cuz I don't need to mess with it. You know, I look fine before. I was like, no, it's the lighting. It's a problem. So I was always trying to make myself look better and I still didn't look that great because you know you anyhow. So I was blaming the lighting, but now you're
(45:12): Blaming the lighting. It's not lighting y'all let's say you don't have enough stem cells. so now everybody's gonna have to go stalk your YouTube. Yes. They'll get educated, but they wanna see you aging in reverse, including me just TBH. I gotta be honest, but thank you so much for joining me and thank you for listening today. Thank you for joining me. Hopefully you've learned something that will empower you to take a step with your health, towards the brilliance that you deserve. We will have another great topic for you next week. I hope you have a wonderful week until then peace, love and hormones y'all
(45:52): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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If you're a woman in your 40s, 50s, or beyond, you know that hormone health is key. But did you know that gut health is essential for hormone balance?
In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Lindsey Parsons, a Certified Health Coach specializing in helping clients locally and nationally heal gut health issues and reverse autoimmune disease naturally as well as lose weight without cutting calories and hosts the podcast "The Perfect Stool: Understanding and Healing the Gut Microbiome", joins us to discuss the gut-hormone connection.
Lindsey shares with us:
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How the gut and hormones are interconnected
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How to heal your gut for better hormone health
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The link between gut health and autoimmune disease
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Type of tests to diagnose gut issues
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How to create a healthy gut environment
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Why some people suffer from SIBO as a chronic long term illness
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The latest treatments for GI problems like fecal microbiota transplant, breathwork, and colostrum
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And more!
If you're interested in learning more about the gut-hormone connection and how to heal your gut for better hormone health, tune in now!
[00:00:00] "I'd rather pay for healthy food now than healthcare later." Would you? So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again.
[00:00:23] As an OB GYN, I had. Discover for myself, the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results.
[00:00:41] And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenge. Join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Hey everybody.
[00:01:00] And welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me. My guest today is Lindsey Parsons. She has an amazing podcast called The Perfect Stool, Understanding And Healing, The Gut Microbiome. When I discovered her recently, I saw her podcast and I saw all the amazing guests she had and just really the depth and breadth of her knowledge in gut health and healing.
[00:01:26] And I know how central this is to hormone health and overall health. I had to have her on the podcast. And I reached out and she kind of said, well, I don't really do that kind of thing. I said, no, please, you gotta come talk to my ladies. So I bring her here to you today and I hope you enjoy her as much as I do.
[00:01:45] In addition to hosting the podcast, the perfect stool. She's a certified health coach and she works in Tucson. She specializes in helping clients nationally heal gut health issues and reverse autoimmune disease, as well as lose weight without cutting calories who doesn't want that. She also has this wonderful quote about a calorie not being a calorie.
[00:02:06] And she tells a little bit of a story about that, but you don't want to miss. She talks about fecal transplants, which if you don't know about that, you're gonna wanna hear about that. She talks about colostrum use for healing gut issues. We talk about SIBO testing. What tests to do.
[00:02:28] We talk about everything.
[00:02:29] So you'll see this episode is a little all over the place because I was super excited to talk to her. I knew I only had her for max an hour, so I was trying to jump around and hit all the things that I really wanted to chat with her about. You like it, and I hope you take it as an invitation to listen to her podcast and go more in depth into a lot of these issues that are of interest to you.
[00:02:54] There are way more than we could even cover. And I think we talked for 35, 40 minutes, so she has even way more available. So without further ado, please welcome Lindsey Parsons.
[00:03:06] Thank you.
[00:03:08] So glad to have you here. I don't remember where I found your podcast, but I was super excited when I did the perfect stool, understanding and healing, the gut microbiome, and then all the amazing guests and topics that you've had and how in depth you go.
[00:03:27] I was like, I have to talk to you.
[00:03:31] and I have to have you on the podcast. So thank you so much. Yeah, well, I appreciate you for inviting me. So I think that a lot of people in the general public who are looking for answers to their health, tend to only look for physicians. I'm glad to see that that's changing because I think there are some amazing health coaches, for instance, like you out there who really go so much deeper into a lot of these issues and really are better experts than a lot of physicians on things like you are for gut health.
[00:04:06] So talk to us about how you became so passion. About gut health and really what led you down that.
[00:04:15] So it was really my own health struggles that led me into this path. So years ago, unbeknownst to me, my, an episode of food poisoning led to something called Post infectious IBS, which I only actually found out within the last year or so is an autoimmune diagnosis that I have because I didn't have a typical presentation of IBS, which you might think of as, you know, may having diarrhea six times a day or severe constipation.
[00:04:47] I didn't have either of those, but. I did have gut symptoms that, you know, including bloating and reflux and things like that, that went on for years. And when I did see traditional doctors didn't really get a lot of help other than suggesting I take proton pump inhibitors, which I did for something like 10 or 15 years.
[00:05:08] And now they super strict about not taking more than two weeks at a time. So, you know, the long term damage from that, you can only imagine. . And when I did eventually find my way to a functional medicine provider and was put on a course of herbal treatment for something called SIBO or small intestine, bacterial overgrowth, which is what happens when you have this post infectious IBS.
[00:05:29] What happens is you have an autoimmune situation where the Migrating motor complex or the process by which food is cleared through your intestines after eating is impacted negatively and is attacked by your own body. Therefore, you don't have that clearing of the intestines and clearing of the bacteria and the intestines.
[00:05:50] So you get these overgrowths and stagnation, and then you end up with bloating every time you eat, because it's coming, the food's coming in, and immediately the bacteria are going crazy and producing gases. So I had that going on for years and you know, you meet a lot of people that have a lot of bloating after they eat and they just sort of rack it up to, I ate too much or, you know, a whole number of things.
[00:06:12] So. I did finally see somebody and they cleared the placebo for me. Eventually it took herbals and then followed by Rifaximin, which is a prescription, very expensive prescription drug that, that takes care of it. And then over time started changing my diet, getting rid of gluten, getting rid of dairy.
[00:06:29] Really, you know, reducing sugar significantly. And all of those things contributed to me getting much better. And then I also had several autoimmune diagnoses that, you know, cuz when you have these kind of gut issues, you can have followed on autoimmune issues. And so I had Hashimoto thyroiditis, which really, you know, when I found out about that, that really kicked me into gear about trying to turn things around because the doctor had said to me, oh, you can just wait until your thyroid's gone.
[00:06:55] Then we'll put you on. You know, thyroid hormones. And I thought, oh, I'm just gonna sit around and wait until my entire thyroid's destroyed by this. No, that's not what I'm gonna do.
[00:07:05] right. But that's such a typical mainstream medical approach. Um, nothing to do. You have raging thyroid peroxidase antibodies, you have Hashimotos and they do nothing.
[00:07:16] And then they literally say, we're not gonna do anything, you know, until you're you burn out your thyroid, which is just kind of insane. So then what happened at that point? I think I, all of this is a bit perhaps out of order, but I did eventually get off gluten, get off dairy and for a while off of Soy.
[00:07:34] Yeah, mm-hmm and, and, and I just kept retesting my hormones as I, my, I mean, my antibodies, rather my thyroid antibodies as I retested those foods. So it took a couple years. I, you know, I stayed off gluten for a year before I think I even retested, but then I, you know, you try it again and you see what happens and, and each of those foods.
[00:07:52] So anyway, I ultimately decided gluten and dairy are the two things that I'm most sensitive to. And then of course, everyone should stay off added sugar. So I try and avoid that in any case. And. Ultimately, I never had to take any thyroid hormones. My antibodies are now at zero. They're all completely normal and I never, now they can still see the damage from Hashimotos when they all use an ultrasound on my thyroid, but I still have normal TSH levels.
[00:08:17] I mean, not even just normal, optimal TSH levels. That's awesome.
[00:08:21] I want everyone listening to hear that clearly. She just told you that she healed herself from Hashimoto has no antibodies and has optimized thyroid function. This is what's possible with a root cause approach. And I think that when I talk about this on the podcast or on social media, people don't believe me because it's such an anomaly in mainstream medicine.
[00:08:44] And of course, regular doctors will look at you. Like you're crazy and say, that's not true, but it happens every day. We see it's an everyday miracle. So I love that you came down this path and you became so passionate about gut health. And I think to me, it makes sense why you focus on having the autoimmune disease or diseases focused on gut health, but I don't know that's gonna make sense to everyone.
[00:09:11] Can you help them make that link betweeut health and autoimmune disease.
[00:09:15] Absolutely. So. There are three things that are necessary for an autoimmune condition to happen. And one is a genetic predisposition for that particular autoimmune disease. So some people's bodies will attack one, some one organ, some people's bodies will attack a different organ.
[00:09:32] Then you need to have a leaky gut or intestinal permeability, which means that the tight junctions in your intestines are not holding together or there are holes through actual cells in the intestines that are letting. Both toxins, undigested, food, bacteria, body parts, all sorts of things that your immune system is going to then start attacking.
[00:09:54] And then you activate the immune system like this. And that's what inflammation is in essence. And when you have undigested gluten proteins in particular or gliadin, it's called is the protein in gluten. It resembles the cells in your thyroid gland and your body will attack this protein and then also create antibodies that attack your thyroid.
[00:10:19] So in essence, it's a, what they call molecular mimicry or some sort of confusion in your body where it starts attacking itself. So that's always at the root of all autoimmune diseases. Yes.
[00:10:30] So if you have an autoimmune immune disease, I always tell people by definition you have a gut problem and people will say to me, well, My gut works just fine.
[00:10:39] I eat, I poop. I don't have loose stool. I'm not constipated. I don't get indigestion gas, bloating. And they say, I don't have a gut problem. I say, yes, you do. If you have a autoimmune disease, you've got a gut problem. So where is the disconnect? Why do people seemingly have no gut symptoms? But they have a gut problem, help us understand that.
[00:10:58] Well, sometimes I think what happens is there's a balance of bacteria in the gut, such that your stool looks okay, right? Like maybe, you have some constipating bacteria and you have some loosening bacteria and together they've canceled each other out. But that doesn't mean that you don't have a leaky gut.
[00:11:16] Typically there is some sort of gut infection causing leaky gut, but it doesn't necessarily. I mean, you could have toxins that are also in play or mold or things like that, but in general, something is causing your gut to be leaky. So, you know, it's interesting because sometimes I will see people's gut tests for potential stool donors for fecal transplants.
[00:11:39] And. And I'll say, oh no, you can't take this person's stool. They may have good stool, and they may seem healthy and have good digestion, but it's just full of problems. Like, I mean, they have, you know, major pathogens that you'd never wanna take on. So just because you don't have any obvious gut problems doesn't mean something's not gonna show up on a test, right?
[00:11:58] Yeah. I mean, you may not overtly have symptoms, but that doesn't mean that on a microscope or on the micro level, you're not having problems you are. If you have an autoimmune. Yeah. So you mentioned testing, let's start with that. Cause a lot of people, you know, they're used to going to their regular doctor and what happens at their regular doctor.
[00:12:19] Oh doc, I have indigestion after I eat. No tests are done and they're given a proton pump inhibitor or Hey doc, I can't poop. No tests are done. And then they're given some pro motility agent for their gut. Hey doc, I alternate diarrhea, constipation. oh, diagnosis of exclusion. You have irritable bowel syndrome.
[00:12:39] Mm-hmm and they're put on anti-spam. So they're not used to doing gut stool tests. And I remember when I first started doing this work and I started with my gynecologic patients and I told them they needed to do a stool test and they would look at me like I was crazy. What are you talking about? Well, you need to poop in this pie plate and send it off to scoop it into these little tubes and send it to the lab.
[00:13:01] And they're like, what? I'm not doing that cuz no doctor ever asked them to do that. mm-hmm so talk about, you know, the testing, maybe what are some of your favorite tests to do and what it shows you and how people can get comfortable with this idea of pooping in the pie plate?
[00:13:21] Well, I have to say the people who come to me have no problem giving up their stool for a test because they are coming typically with gut issues.
[00:13:28] However, yeah, my favorite is the GI map. I like that one because it includes H pylori and I have found it now over the course of. Three or four years now of helping people with gut issues that people who are severely constipated often have an overgrowth of H pylori or just a high level of it that's given their symptomatic is also problematic.
[00:13:51] So that's a bacteria that causes ulcers or stomach cancer, but not always only when it has certain virulence factors. Nevertheless, people will typically present with stomach pain with reflux, but sometimes just constipation. Sometimes they don't have those upper GI symptoms with H pylori. So I like that it includes also the GI map.
[00:14:14] You know, a number of different levels of bacteria in the gut. So you can see if certain classes or certain Gena or certain species are elevated or too low, both of the commences, the normal good ones, and then the potentially pathogenic and then the actual toxic pathogenic ones. It also includes all the parasites.
[00:14:33] So you can catch up somebody as a para and then it includes markers of gut health and just digestion. So, like, do you have enough pancreatic enzymes? Do you have elevated levels of beta lyase, which ties into hormones? Do you have sufficient secretory, IGA, or is that super elevated? Indicating your gut immune system is on high alert and trying to fight something.
[00:14:55] So I just like that it's a good overall test of various markers. And then of course it has marker for Calprotectin, which is a marker of inflammatory bowel disease and the inflammation in the colon.
[00:15:07] Yes. That's actually my favorite too. So great minds think alike. I think it really gives you the most comprehensive view.
[00:15:14] And sometimes people will come to me and say, well, I had a volume test. Can't you use that? and I go, yeah, that's not useful at all. Can you share with your people your thoughts on the bio, that one or any other one of these direct to consumer tests are not as far as I'm concerned, clinically useful. They might be good for the consumer, but they typically, you know, they will make all sorts of commentary about what diet changes are necessary, for example, based on your microbiome and no harm in trying those things.
[00:15:49] But when you're dealing with parasites or digestive dysfunction, Dysbiosis, et cetera. I think you need a clinical level test for that kind of stuff. There's just not a lot of actionable for a practitioner. There's not a lot of actionable information on a volume test. I agree.
[00:16:11] I, I think the same is true for a lot of the DNA direct to consumer test.
[00:16:15] Like, is it 23? And me, it's just not all the actionable information that you would want. Like the Alzheimer's gene mm-hmm , that's something I think everyone should have. And, uh, they don't include. Oh, really? I feel like they've included in well, so, oh, maybe they have, well, you can take, you can pull the raw data.
[00:16:34] I'll sometimes ask my clients for their raw data and I put it in genetic genie and I run that. And then I see, cause I, because I know that I'm, I'm APO four, three Aprile four. Homozygous. So I have my high Alzheimer's risk, which I, the only reason I know that is from the 23 and me. So I know it came through may, either on genetic gen genie or directly on 23 and me.
[00:16:55] Great.
[00:16:56] And so how has that empowered you? Do you feel like it's empowered you or disempowered you to have that information?
[00:17:03] I don't know that I would be doing anything different because I'm already somebody who seeks to optimize my health and have been my entire life. So I don't know, but I think as I get older, I'm definitely going to be more attentive to any kind of lapses in memory.
[00:17:21] And then at some point I'm probably going to get hooked up with that. Program the Dale BNS program related to Alzheimer's just to make sure that I'm doing absolutely everything preventative and everything testing wise, to make sure I don't lose my memory any sooner than necessary. Yes, absolutely. The Recode protocol.
[00:17:38] And I think there are 28 parameters, 28 things you need to be doing that are totally worthwhile. My mom. It has advanced Alzheimer's. So it's something I'm very keenly aware of and, you know, it's too late for her. Like I shared in a recent TEDx talk that I did talk about her only risk factor was that she had been menopausal for three decades without hormone therapy.
[00:18:01] And that is, of course, one of the main tens of the Recode protocol is using. Hormones therapy, natural hormone therapy. Speaking of which the podcast is called the hormone prescription. So I tie everything into hormones because to me, everything in the body is related to hormones. So how does let's go back to autoimmune disease with gut dysfunction, leaky gut.
[00:18:25] Intestine intestinal hyperpermeability as a key factor.
[00:18:30] How does this interact with the hormonal meal, you and the body?
[00:18:32] In my particular case, I'm not sure if there's a huge interaction, but in general, I mentioned on the GI map, there's a hormone, uh, I mean an enzyme called beta Gluar days and that. Is an enzyme that breaks the tight bond between glucuronic acid and toxins, including circulating estrogens in the intestines.
[00:18:55] And so when that gets elevated in certain bacteria in the gut, produce it so certain bacteria from the, the, uh, class ties also certain clostridia E coli. And there's a lot of healthy E coli, not just the ones that are known to be pathogenic and stalac rheumatic. So there's a number of different bacteria that produce it.
[00:19:18] And when those tend to get overgrown, then you can have access. Beta glucoronide and then this is breaking apart, this bond and recirculating estrogens in the body, which can lead to estrogen-related breast cancer, potentially colon cancer. So there's some correlations between those and. When that happens, what you can do to reverse it is to move to a lower fat, lower meat diet, to more of a plant-based diet because higher fiber will help undo that process.
[00:19:50] Yes, it's so
[00:19:51] true. The beta glucuronidase. So anyone who is suffering, which is very common sometimes in thirties and forties year old women, before they go through menopause with excess estrogen. And symptoms of that. It could be fibroid, endometriosis, heavy, painful periods, which is often associated with weight gain bloating.
[00:20:13] These are estrogen dominant conditions. You gotta look at your beta Glu UASE in your stool because it could be elevated. So that could be one of the key causes of one of your hormonal imbalances And then the other thing I always like to say for anyone with an autoimmune disease is you've got a foot on the accelerator of inflammation and that's this leaky gut, but you have no break on your car.
[00:20:39] And that would be cortisol, which is your body's natural steroid. So what do they do when you have a flare up of any type of inflammation or autoimmune disease? Steroids is the treatment and that's your body. Cortisol inside naturally. So you have a brake failure and you have a foot on the accelerator.
[00:20:57] So it's kind of a two-prong problem. So you've got to address both, but by healing your gut, you can work on your cortisol as well.
[00:21:03] So let me interrupt you for a second, because when you said all those things, as I think of this stuff now more in terms of my client than myself, but I did actually have estrogen dominance.
[00:21:15] No, no doubt. I had always low progesterone and I went through years of infertility. So I, I assumed that all of my gut stuff was at the root of that as well as the autoimmune stuff and probably, uh, you know, some thyroid issues.
[00:21:28] Yeah. You know, I think it's, isn't it Louis pastor who said death begins in the colon and I think it's absolutely true.
[00:21:37] The gut is the center of your body physically. And it's the center of your health. Literally. It has branches to everything. And, you know, I always like to say. I ask people, what's your biggest interface with the external environment? And they say, oh my skin. And I say, no, think again. And it takes them a minute and most people don't get it.
[00:21:58] It's your gastrointestinal tract, cuz you're taking the external environment and you're putting it inside of you into this tube. That seems like it's in you, but it really just passes through and interacts. So it's like an inner skin and it's as big as two doubles tennis courts, the surface area. And so.
[00:22:17] Really that's your biggest ability for the environment to program you? You mentioned genetics, right? That's part of probably five, 10, maybe 20% of our health, but then what turns on those genes? In terms of our epigenetic code and, and food is the biggest programmer of that, that we're putting into our body and think of all the food you eat in the day.
[00:22:41] So I, I wanted to, to touch on something else. You said, well, we were talking about testing and I think you mentioned earlier about that you had SIBO small intestine bacteria overgrowth.
[00:22:53] Yes. What are your favorite tests to diagnose that? And it's such a Gnarly topic for the people who have it. How do you get rid of it?
[00:23:02] You mentioned the migrating motor complex, which a lot of people really don't have that working. So there's no motility going. So can you talk about SIBO?
[00:23:14] I don't tend to use breath tests. I'll start by saying mm-hmm . I tend to use the GI map and organic acids in general. When I see somebody with some type of presentation of bloating and what look like SIBO symptoms.
[00:23:31] Mm-hmm that being said, if. After looking at those and after taking herbal supplements to get rid of bacterial overgrowth, there still seems to be no resolution. I may recommend either the trio smart, especially if I suspect there could be hydrogen sulfide overgrowth, or I might recommend the IBS smart test to see if they have post.
[00:23:57] Infectious IBS to see if they have that autoimmune component and are always gonna be dealing with SIBO. So some people just get this overgrowth, they clean it up once, and they're all good. And then other people like me are going to constantly have to be fighting it. So I have to take something each night.
[00:24:12] A prokinetic. In order to keep things moving in my migrating motor complex and just be conscientious of not eating tons. No, not snacking all day long, letting my intestines empty out completely and periodically have to kind of Rell the bacteria. I have to take antimicrobials, you know, every year, roughly.
[00:24:31] In some quantity when I start to see things getting bloated again. Okay.
[00:24:35] So now the average person listening and probably a lot of the clients that you see and that I see they've been to their regular doctor and they've got this bloating problem. That seems pretty consistent. They're probably not gonna get any of these tests.
[00:24:50] Are they, there are some doctors at this point who will order SIBO, breath tests. That's not unheard of now at this point for GI doctors and some will have heard of, and may be using some, the trio smarter, the IBS smart, because they are, they were developed by an MD who is the expert at, Mark Pimentel.
[00:25:10] Who's the expert in SIBO and who does try and reach that traditional audience or conventional, I should say audience, but typically you'll have to ask for and seek out these more. Specialized tests with somebody who's either practicing functional medicine, a natural path, a health coach, somebody who is mm-hmm, more of a non-conventional expert in gut health.
[00:25:34] Yes.
[00:25:35] And so it sounds like you're describing, which has kind of been my experience too, with people who have SIBO. Some people do recover, and they don't have a problem any longer, but there is a subset of people who this is a very chronic problem. Can you talk a little bit about why someone might suffer with that as a chronic long term condition?
[00:25:57] Sure. So I did talk about. The primary, I guess I think about it as the primary, but I'm not actually sure. In terms of percentages, but I did mention the primary, which is the post infectious IBS, there, incidents of food poisoning, where you have an autoimmune problem, you can also have of course thyroid issues that can contribute to it.
[00:26:17] Hypothyroid, you can have traumatic brain injuries that are causing issues with the vagus nerve and with. Movement in the intestines from that of course infections, diabetes can be a root cause. Mold toxicity. You can have problems with your production of stomach acid, so you can have low stomach acid or hypochlorhydria.
[00:26:41] And that can cause. Overgrowth of bacteria or poor bio flow, uh, lack of pancreatic enzymes or brush border enzymes. There can be deficiencies in your secretory, IGA. If you've been under periods of extreme stress that can reduce secretory IGA, which is your gut immune defense, which is what is killing off these bacteria that are coming in.
[00:27:00] Mm-hmm , you can have medications that you're taking that could be causing problems and slowing your motility, obviously proton pump inhibitors, but also antidepressants. Anti SMOs opiates, narcotics. Then you can also have issues that are physical in nature. So you've had a past abdominal surgery and you could have adhesions for example, that are keeping your intestines from flowing properly endometriosis, which I also had, can be a root cause.
[00:27:28] Alors Danlos syndrome can also cause problems with motility. And then you can have dysfunction of your I valve.
[00:27:35] Yeah. There's such a long list of problems that you can have that can contribute to this. And I think, you know, people listening, I kind of want, because you have such breadth and depth of knowledge.
[00:27:48] For them to really get a good idea of what you, what you know, and what you offer. You have so much information on your podcast. We're definitely gonna give everyone, um, we'll put the link in the show notes to the podcast. And I was just looking at all the episodes you have. I was like, oh my gosh, I wanna talk to her about this.
[00:28:11] I wanna talk to her about that. I want her to share this. I want her to share. And so I think even if you're listening and you're like, oh my gosh, you guys are going way too fast and covering way too much ground. That is information for you to spur your interest, to go watch. Or listen to Lindsey's podcast, cuz she has so much valuable information.
[00:28:32] And then you can select the topics that interest you and you can listen to those. She talks about the FMT, the fecal microbiota transplant as a treatment. And I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about what that is and what it's used for? Cause I don't think a lot of people know that. An up and coming treatment for our GI problems.
[00:28:54] Okay. So FMT in the US is legal only in non-experimental contexts for recurrent C difficile infections, which is very potent bacteria that causes, you know, explosive diarrhea that can kill you and kills. I don't know something like 40,000 people a year. So if you have recurrent C diff, that's not treatable by antibiotics a couple times, then you could, in theory, if you can access it, get a fecal transplant done in a hospital.
[00:29:23] And it's basically taking the stool from a healthy donor and either putting it in capsule format or in ENMA format. And then you get a retention en ENMA of it. And for C diff it's usually just one treatment for other. So in other countries it's legal for other conditions like. IBS or inflammatory bowel disease with different levels of success, given the condition, even for autoimmune conditions, for any number of things, even, even conditions you might think aren't connected to.
[00:29:58] The gut is like ALS or multiple sclerosis. Well, that's autoimmune. So you may think that, but in any case, there are definitely some testimonies on a number of different conditions. So in, in particular, I think I know of clinics that do this in Australia, in the UK, in The Bahamas in Canada. Now I think there's one in Mexico focusing on, on children with autism in particular.
[00:30:23] Oh, and I think there used to be one in Argentina. I'm not sure if that's still there. So around the world, you can do treatments. And typically those will last for two five-day courses, essentially over the course of two weeks during the work week. And, you know, there are just some amazing testimonials of, of, oh, and of course mental health.
[00:30:41] I hadn't even discussed that cuz I have a lot of stories of people with serious mental health issues from bipolar to depression, to anxiety and pan and pan pans and pan, does that have been resolved after fecal transplants? And then of course it's also being used and in a particular, very purified form, that's an experimental form being used for autism.
[00:31:03] So it has the potential to be quite life changing, which is not to say it is for everyone. Uh, there's a Facebook group full of people who have tried it and it didn't help them. So I think the donor quality and just sort of the good match between the donor and the recipient are also important. So it's not always a foolproof thing.
[00:31:22] I. but, but there are for those, for whom it makes a difference, boy, it sure can make a big difference. Yeah. And I think probably some people listening are thinking, wow, that's really radical. Cuz I know when I talk about coffee, ENMA some people just really freak out. they're like what? I'm not doing.
[00:31:39] Putting what in my butt. No. And so when we talk about a fecal transplant via enema, I know some people get freaked out, but you know, if anybody listening has heard any of the recent data or information or knowledge that we have about the microbiome and how key it is for our overall health, you really, for some people could call it almost like getting a brain transplant, cuz your gut is your second brain.
[00:32:04] And. See the podcast episode that you had with the woman who I think she healed herself from bipolar using fecal transplant. Can you talk a little bit about her story?
[00:32:15] So she was in Australia and had bipolar for many years. I think she had probably, I think if I recall correctly, I think there had been suicide attempts.
[00:32:27] She had been in the hospitalized maybe five times with, you know, major depressive episodes. So. It was a serious and ongoing problem for her, from which she would emerge, you know, for periods of time when she could function normally, but mostly couldn't hold down a job. She did get married though, to a wonderful man who also had a wonderful stool.
[00:32:49] And at some point heard about yeah.
[00:32:52] New criteria for finding a partner.
[00:32:55] Absolutely.
[00:32:56] So did I get a stool sample before we seriously? Well, she didn't test it or anything. She just tried it and sure enough. It really worked for her. I think she, I think she did it more intensely at first and then more periodically afterwards, but it absolutely pulled her out of her depressions.
[00:33:15] And, you know, in large part resolved her bipolar. I wouldn't say she said it wa I think she emphasized it. Wasn't like a hundred percent cure, but from what I could hear, it really turned her life around. So she just DIYed it. She DIYed it. Yeah. So there's a lot of people doing that in the US, by the way, they're just finding donors.
[00:33:35] They may or may not be testing 'em I always recommend, of course, if you're gonna consider a donor that you do the full protocol of testing, which involves both blood tests for infectious diseases and sexually transmitted transmitted infections, as well as a stool test to, to make sure they don't have any of the major stool pathogens that you could potentially get.
[00:33:52] Because especially if you're doing it. Reasons related to gut issues. And you're, if you're in fragile health, like, especially if you have any kind of inflammatory bowel disease, you can really mess yourself up. If you bring in a pathogen and your gut is not prepared to fight it.
[00:34:07] Yes. Yeah. I would say, you know, it'd be similar to having sex.
[00:34:11] It's pretty intimate. You might wanna even more so.
[00:34:15] Right. Even more so. Yeah. Wow. So much. And then I was wondering, I saw you had another, a few episodes. I. On colostrum. Yeah. The one with ni not Nike, is that how you say his name and how and breathwork and colostrum that he used to restore his gut. And I was wondering if you could talk about some of that.
[00:34:39] So colostrum is the first milk that comes out of the breast and, or the cow in this case, because if you buy it, you're buying cow colostrum and. It is full of antibodies and transfer factors and immunoglobulin. And in particular, now they're also selling these serum bovine immunoglobulin, which are extracted from colostrums.
[00:35:05] So I often recommend those to clients who have serious gut issues, because it just kind of enhances your. Immune system in the gut, without specifically, it's not like an antibiotic, which kind of indiscriminately kills. It's more like bringing in an extra immune system. Mm-hmm . So I often do recommend those powders to people who have something that you don't quite want to hit with an antimicrobial right off the bat.
[00:35:29] So anyway, so in his case though, he used a colostrum to heal his gut. And so it's just, I think it's just a way of bringing in a new immune system to the gut slowly but surely and helping it turn itself around. Yeah, I love them as like, you it's like a supportive, I don't know that it fixes necessarily.
[00:35:47] It's a bandaid and it gives support in the short term and can help promote healing. So I love them. And then I was just interested. For you to also talk about breathwork, which is something that I use in my programs all the time with people. Um, I teach them about the nature of HR V heart rate variability and parasympathetic sympathetic, autonomic nervous system balance.
[00:36:09] And how that really programs your gut, your guts motility. Is that something that you recommend for people?
[00:36:16] I have recommended it to certain people since that podcast in particular. And then since I read the word, the book breath by while I'm in the middle of it by James Nester Yes. So I definitely have gotten more interested in the breath and how it relates to good health in particular.
[00:36:32] Now, if I have a client who snores, I'll suggest mouth taping, mm-hmm . If I have a client for whom. Everything has been tried in terms of diet changes in terms of supplements and antimicrobials. And there's still kind of the root cause of their stress or of their dysfunction has not been identified. I'll really think about breath work and or some other type of practice like meditation or yoga, etcetera, to start reducing stress and just bringing some focus.
[00:37:05] But I probably have not exploited it to the extent that it could be, because there's always so many different things you can bring in with a client and you don't want to overload them.
[00:37:15] That is so true. And along those lines, I'm wondering if, because we've jumped all over the place, cuz I'm just so excited to talk to you.
[00:37:23] And there's so many things I wanna ask you about and chat with you about, but for everybody listening, can you kind of bring it full circle, maybe using a who comes to mind that maybe had really been suffering for a long time. And who came to you and kind of, what is the process you usually take people through. And what does, what does a gut journey look like?
[00:37:46] for people? So I have such a variety of clients, from people who think they've been suffering a long time because they've had something for a year versus people who've had something for 15 years. And, but I would say, uh, a typical journey might be somebody who comes in with a little more complexity.
[00:38:02] Maybe they have both gut issues and autoimmune issues. Typically, we would just have a first appointment to talk over a complete medical history in the way that no doctor has ever sat and listened to you where I'm gonna totally try and understand all the potential root causes of what has come to pass and how they've ended up where they are.
[00:38:20] And then together we'll decide on what tests fit in based on. What their symptoms are and then what their budget is because obviously not everybody can afford a thousand dollars worth of testing right off the bat. It would be lovely if everybody could, but not everyone can. So we have to be thoughtful about that.
[00:38:37] And then typically we'll get the results back, and then we'll go over those results and all the potential things that could help given what, what was found on the test. And I'll educate them about the protocols that practitioners use to deal with those that's come up, be it some type of dysbiosis or SIBO or overgrowth of candida.
[00:38:57] Or something like the ion profile, we may be looking at deficiencies in amino acids or in fatty acids or vitamins and minerals that can come up on organic acids or on the ion profile. So we'll look at that. And then typically I'm recommending things to them over a period of time because you can't again, throw.
[00:39:15] A hundred supplements at a person at the same time, people can only take so much. I mean, there are, people are just like, give it all to me. I want it all right now but other people are gonna be like, yeah, that's too much both financially and too much in terms of taking pills. So, you know, I'll, I'll explain to them what, what the different supplements the benefits are and what I think in a good order would probably be for doing it.
[00:39:37] And then diet changes, of course, will be recommended based on. What they've already tried, but I find that by the time people get to me, they're usually already eating some version of a paleo diet, or I do occasionally get people who are plant based and I often have to push them towards getting more protein.
[00:39:54] Somehow mm-hmm, potentially moving towards eating some animal protein or some seafood, just because I can see frequent deficiencies, amino acids when that happens. And, it's also very common to see mental health issues in my clients. So if that's the case, then I'm often. You know, educating them about the amino acids that can bring up serotonin and dopamine.
[00:40:16] And you can see the deficiencies of that on an organic acid test, or you can see actual levels of the amino acids on the ion profile. And then with autoimmune stuff, then we're also looking at supplements that can help reduce inflammation if we've already addressed gut stuff. So typically we'd go through addressing any kind of gut.
[00:40:36] But then after that, if they're still flaring, then we might look at anti-inflammatory supplements, like, you know, fish oil or SPMS, or I get the name of right off the bat. Oh, alpha glyco, ISO Quatrine Soin BAIC or Cuban. Yeah. Curcumin. Right. Those kind of anti-inflammatory things. So over time, you know, I'll educate them about each kind of supplement and how it might play a role in helping them heal.
[00:41:04] and yeah, so I'll ultimately see people over the course of five appointments that might take most of a year and slowly but surely help them restore their health and get them at least to a point of stability. There's no magic cure in terms of autoimmune disease. Not everybody's gonna have the results I did because I caught it early enough and there was not so much damage to my thyroid.
[00:41:25] So. You know, you have a certain amount of damage, and it's not gonna be, you're not gonna reverse it, but you may reduce your medication dosages and you may at least get to a point of stability or potentially if, if the client is interested, get off any kind of, you know, steroid medications or. Other autoimmune prescription medications.
[00:41:46] Yeah. Immunosuppressive drugs. Right. I'm curious to know.
[00:41:49] I mean, we're, we're getting short on time. I'm gonna have to let you go, but I wanna know your thoughts on alcohol, cuz my thoughts are not necessarily popular. So I just want to see where you stand on that with gut health. Well, it is toxic. There's no question about that.
[00:42:05] And it does. Kind of go in and cause some damage to gut bacteria. And if you're having guest right and upper GI issues, for sure. It's definitely not helpful. That being said, I can't say I'm a non-drinker, so I'm not, but generally my clients who are really sick are just not drinking in the first place.
[00:42:26] So I'm not having to tell most of them to stay away from alcohol there, but they've already done it themselves. So obviously you want to stay at the lowest levels. You want to be considered a low level drinker, not a moderate level, which unfortunately for a woman is no more than a drink a day. And for men no more than two, up until 65 than one after 65, if I recall correctly.
[00:42:47] And then the other things is that people wanna say, do we all have to stop eating gluten and cow smoke dairy Lindsey?
[00:42:55] We'll typically recommend cutting out gluten and dairy to everybody for some period of time. Now, if I have a very simple case of SIBO that resolves quickly and easily, and the person says, I don't seem to have any problem with gluten, I cut it out, and I put it back in, and I had no difference.
[00:43:12] Then I won't necessarily say you have to cut out gluten. If you have an autoimmune issue, I'm gonna say gluten's gone for life.
[00:43:20] Yeah. I, I generally would agree with that for sure Lindsey, so much great information that you shared today. I know everybody listening has been like, it's a whirlwind Kyrin, you took her all over the place.
[00:43:31] I know, I know guys, but I wanted you to get a sampling of everything that she has to offer. There's so much more, even on her podcast, the perfect stool, which is an amazing name. And great content. You've had some of the same. Yes. I've had Steve Wright and Dr. Gray SL and they're probably more if I continue to look at it, I did wanna ask you about this before we wrap up, you shared, uh, some quotes that you like before we started with me and I just wanna share this one.
[00:44:01] A calorie is not a calorie. And can you tell everyone what that means to you?
[00:44:04] Absolutely. So, number one, I, before I did this, I was. A, an advocate for healthier school food. And one of the things that we fought the most in that particular battle in Montgomery County, Maryland, was to try and reduce the sugar in school food.
[00:44:22] And I remember sitting at a hearing with the state Senate, trying to get a bill passed, to reduce sugar in school food, and having. Former home EC teacher who was a state Senator said, well, a calorie's just a calorie. And I said, no, it is not. In fact, that is a soda marketing campaign to try and convince you.
[00:44:41] You can just go calories and calories out, just exercise more, and you can drink your Coke every day, which I definitely do not believe. So part of the issue with calories is that they're not metabolized the same. So for example, when you eat protein, 25 to 30% of it is. Of the calories of protein is used up just in digesting the protein.
[00:45:01] Whereas it's, it's a much lower number for carbohydrates and fat. So, you know, something like six to 8% of the carbs are used to digest carbs and two to 3% of the fat. So therefore you're getting a lot more calories from your fat and your carbs. And then. You also have different foods and have that have different impact on the body.
[00:45:20] So for example, fructose versus glucose, glucose can be used by almost all your cells. Fructose is going to your liver and ultimately, mostly being stored as fat. So, you know, that's why the whole thing against high fructose corn syrup, not to say glucose is good, but just to say that, that they impact your body differently.
[00:45:37] And then of course you have fiber. So, you know, if you eat a hundred calories of almonds versus a hundred calories of soda, That impacts your body in a completely different way because the almonds have healthy fats, and they have fiber, and that is gonna slow down the absorption of the calories of any sugars, et cetera, that are in the food when you're eating fiber.
[00:45:59] So it just makes a complete difference in which kinds of foods you're eating. A calorie is not a calorie. It's so true.
[00:46:04] And I, I really love to help people understand that a lot of people believe the food that they eat is only about calories. And it's speaking to your system on so many levels. Right.
[00:46:17] Mm-hmm, in so many languages at one time. It's like they're having this international language conference. It's speaking because of its bio force. It's life force, it's PR it's Chi, whatever you want to call it, it's speaking nutrition, right? Certain vitamins, which are not present in soda and in the almonds are of course speaking the fiber language, right.
[00:46:39] Or it's not speaking fiber language. And so about so much more than macronutrients, which are calories. It's about micronutrients, energetic nutrients. And I think that goes to the other quote that you shared with me that I love. I'd rather pay for healthy food now than healthcare later. So one of people's biggest objections to doing this type of work is eating, trying to eat healthy and particularly organic.
[00:47:07] And so talk a little bit about that and then we'll go ahead and wrap up.
[00:47:09] Oh, I just have, I've been of the philosophy since I have tried to turn around my health, that that indeed it is worth it to pay for more expensive organic foods and in particular, and this is a lot of people, they, they think, well, I, I mostly buy organic vegetables and I say, do you eat Pasteur raised meats?
[00:47:29] How about your dairy products? Are they pasture raised? So I don't, I, the only dairy I. Is butter and GE. And so I make sure that those products and, and I know it cost $4 more, a pound for pasture raise butter, but I get it because that's where all the toxins from the body settle into your fat.
[00:47:54] So if you want to maximize your, you know, or minimize your consumption of toxins, then you definitely wanna look for high quality meat and wild cut seafood and that kind of thing not. And then of course, low mercury seafood at that. When you're looking for your animal products, cuz the animals, you know, you think about everything else. It's the build up the entire environment and the plants that builds into the animal and the protein and the fat.
[00:48:10] So true.
[00:48:14] Thank you so much, Lindsey for joining us today, Lindsey Parsons, we are gonna have links in the show notes. You've got a free E booklet available on your website, finding your root cause through stool and organic acids testing. So I'll have a link over to that.
[00:48:29] We'll have a link to the 30 minute breakthrough session that people can do by phone or video chat. We'll have a link to the podcast also that you definitely wanna check out if you're interested in your health and healing from a root cause. Gut is a huge part of that. So you want to go there and check out the perfect stool so you can have the perfect stool and thanks so much for joining me today.
[00:48:53] Any last words you'd like to leave everybody?
[00:48:54] No, I just wanna thank you so much for bringing me on and for checking out my podcast and recommending it. I really appreciate it.
[00:49:02] It is absolutely my pleasure to have you here, and thank you all for listening today. Thanks for spending a little bit of your day with us.
[00:49:10] Hopefully you have learned something today that you can put into action. This is all about taking action to move your. To the brilliance that it can be. I thank you for joining me, and I'll see you next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40.
[00:49:32] When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and life that we. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time.
[00:50:02] Remember, small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
Get Lindsey Parsons's free e-booklet: “Finding Your Root Cause Through Stool and Organic Acids Testing.”
https://highdeserthealthcoaching.com/newsletter/
30 Minute Breakthrough Session with Lindsey Parsons - by phone or video chat
https://calendly.com/highdeserthealth/30-minute-breakthrough-session-by-phone-or-vi-clone
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Do you feel like your health is spiraling out of control? Are you struggling to manage your stress and feeling overwhelmed?
If so, you're not alone.
Midlife women are under more stress than ever before, and it's taking a toll on our health. From work to family to our social lives, we are constantly juggling and trying to do it all.
But what if there was a way to reset your health and manage your stress? Dr. Doni Wilson is here to help us do just that.
On this episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Wilson, a Naturopathic Doctor, certified professional midwife, certified nutrition specialist, and bestselling author of Master Your Stress, Reset Your Health, shares her expertise on how to master your stress and reset your health. She offers practical tips and advice on how to make small changes in your life that can have a big impact on your overall health.
For more than 22 years, she has helped thousands of patients overcome health challenges and achieve wellness by using specific strategies that address the whole body and ultimately resolve the underlying causes of distress. Dr. Doni suffered from migraines for over 20 years, and in the process of solving them, she developed her Stress Recovery Protocol.
Dr. Doni brings awareness to the impact of stress on our health and how it is possible to recover from burnout and become resilient to stress in the media and at public and professional events. You can find her blog, podcast, called How Humans Heal, and her Self C.A.R.E.™ program at DoctorDoni.com
In this episode, you'll learn:
- How to recover from burnout and become resilient to stress
- The connection between stress and hormone imbalances
- Why it's important to get to the root cause of your health problems
- The different types of stress
- How stress affects our genetic expression
- The CARE method of stress recovery
- How hormones and neurotransmitters influence our stress response
- And much more!
If you're ready to make some changes in your life and take control of your health, this episode is for you. Tune in now and learn how to master your stress and reset your health with Dr. Doni Wilson.
(00:00): "You can't pour from an empty cup," says Dr. Doni Wilson. She's gonna teach you how to master your stress to reset your health in today's podcast.
(00:10): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin. Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.
(01:04): Hi everybody. And welcome back to the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thanks so much for joining me today, where we're gonna talk about mastering your stress to reset your health with Dr. Doni Wilson. It's so true that you can't pour from an empty cup. It's so much of, many of us are living our lives at midlife from an empty cup, wondering why we feel terrible. And our health is tanking. While Dr. Doni Wilson has cracked the code on mastering your stress, which is the key to reset your health. She's gonna tell you all about it today. She is a naturopathic doctor, certified professional midwife certified nutrition specialist and bestselling offer of master your stress, reset your health. For more than 22 years, she has helped thousands of patients overcome health challenges and achieve wellness by using specific strategies that addressed the whole body and ultimately resolved the underlying causes of distress. She suffered from migraines for over 20 years. And in the process of solving this, she developed her stress recovery protocol. Dr. Doni brings awareness to the impact of stress on our health and how it is possible to recover from burnout and become resilient to stress in the media at public and professional events. You can find her blog podcast called how humans heal and her self C a R E program at Dr. doni.com. Please help me welcome Dr. Doni.
(02:31): Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited about your book. That's already out faster, your stress reset your health, and we're gonna dive into it. I know people hear so much about stress and we can tend to not pay attention when people are talking about it, but I want everyone to really pay attention because here you have a doctor who specializes the, in this and is saying that this is the thing that you need to do to reset your health. How did you come to this?
(02:58): Understanding? It was through life experience. A lot of it really, you know, like, because I, in addition to going through various stresses of my life, like training to be a naturopathic doctor and a midwife and being a mom and running a practice and running a business, you know, but I think a lot of people go through these stresses, right. But it's just that I came through it also with my own health issues. I had migraines for over 20 years, I was getting migraines and these were migraines that would take me out for days. Like I'd be literally in the bed or on the floor. And I would try different treatments, different medications. I tried acupuncture. I tried herbs, I'm trained as naturopathic doctor. So I was like, I'm willing to try anything. And still it wasn't helping. These migraines would just keep coming. And each time it would knock me down.
(03:49): Like, I'd be like, what else am I supposed to do? I can't, how am I supposed to keep going like this in having these unpredictable migraines happening and no solutions. And I think, you know, that's why I relate to a lot of people out there who maybe that's not migraines. Maybe they have some other health issue where they feel like they've been trying and they just are not getting answers and they're not feeling better. And it's just that in my case, because I, of my training and my interest in understanding the human body and willingness, right. I'm willing to do, if it needs to be a diet change, if it needs to be a supplement, if it, what, if it's a test I need to do, I'm like I'm willing to do it. And so I just kept on working on it and I kind of worked on it in isolation actually, honestly, because I felt too ashamed.
(04:41): I, and I think a lot of people feel this way too, when they have symptoms caused by stress, we feel like we're, it's not supposed to happen. We're supposed to be better than that. Right. We're supposed to be able to charge through life and keep up with everything and it's not supposed to affect us. And so I didn't feel like I could say anything cuz I felt embarrassed. And so instead I just worked on it in isolation. I did along the way I was, I was speaking and I was publishing articles and publishing books and say of everything I learned, right? Like what helped. And there were many things along the way, over the past 20 some years where I was like, well, this dietary change made a difference. This approach made a difference. And every time I found something, I would talk about it that way.
(05:26): But I wouldn't necessarily talk about it from my perspective of having migraines. Right? And so only in the past couple years, because I was still getting the migraines, you know, I maybe saw 10% difference or 20% difference or 50% difference. And I was like, but they're still happening. And it was only just a few years ago that I ended up making a whole bunch of additional changes. And the ever since then the migraine stopped that. And one of the major changes I made is I started talking about it and this is why, you know, I'm here talking with you today about it saying if the more we can actually become aware and talk about how stress is affecting us, that's the first step for changing the whole pattern, right? Like get out of silence about it.
(06:16): When you talk about stress, can you define for everybody what you're talking about? Are you just talking about, I have too many things to do on my to-do list. It's never ending. My family makes me crazy. And life just feels stressful. Or are you talking about something else also?
(06:37): Definitely. And I'm so glad you're asking this question. This is one of the questions that when I'm on an airplane, by the way, the person sitting next to me, this is one of the most common questions they ask me is like, what do you mean by stress? You know, cuz they'll ask me, what do you do? And I say, I specialize in stress and they say, what do you really mean by that? And the thing is is that we like the ones you mentioned. We often think about our day to day, psychological stresses, our deadlines, our financial stresses. And these are definitely stresses that affect us. But that's not the only stresses that affects us in the category of stress. I would also include things like lack of sleep. Like when we, you know, last night yesterday, for example, I had to take an early morning flight.
(07:23): I did not get enough sleep. I'm very aware that that was a stress on my body that I'm gonna need to recover from today. Right? But it's the awareness. This was a stress. Also certain foods can be a stress to us, right? If we are consuming foods that are gonna be inflammatory to our bodies, throw off our blood sugar levels, disrupt or cause leaky gut and disrupt our gut bacteria right now, the food we're eating is actually stressing our system. Or another example is toxins toxins, either in the products we're putting on our skin or on our food as pesticides or in our environment, these toxins are also a stress on our system. And so when we look at it from that perspective, a even a injury can be a stress, right? Or a surgery can be a stress like we know from science it's anything that triggers our stress response and causes our body to need to go into a recovery in order to get back to optimal again.
(08:24): Yes. So I hear you mentioning, it's not just psychosocial and this is what I want everyone to hear because if you only think it's that you'll miss. Yeah. The rest of the iceberg under the ice, ,
(08:39): It's a big ice for Gunda there for
(08:42): Right. The chemical stressors I heard you mentioned, which could be foods that you're eating, that you think are healthy, but might be causing you a stress response. It, it could be so many things. It could be something in the deodorant that, that you're using. It can be flying in an airplane itself is stressful. Right?
(09:00): exactly. And so the key is that because a lot of people will say to me, well, can you teach me how to be stress free? And I say to them, that's not my goal. It would be impossible. First of all, because as humans we're gonna have stress. And in fact, we want to have some stress there's stresses that are good for us. Exercise create is a stress that at a certain quantity is good for us. It helps our bodies to be challenged, to grow muscles, you know, and, and use our heart. It's not about eliminating all stress. Really? The goal is how do we understand where the stress is? So just conversation we're having, how do we notice the stresses that we have in our lives and how do we ensure that we have enough to counterbalance it enough? What I call anti-stress to counterbalance the stress so that our bodies can come back to optimal on a regular basis. It's when we, when we don't have enough, anti-stress we get thrown off, right? I know you're familiar with this where we just get, we get burned out. We get, it becomes normal and familiar to feel constantly stressed.
(10:13): Yes. I love that. It's about having enough anti-stress to counterbalance the stress we have. It's not about teaching people how to be stress free. That is a quotable. I love that. Mm-hmm and Donny, you talk about five different types of stress and that's the first time I've heard that. So I'm super excited for you to talk about that. What are the five types?
(10:37): Okay. So this is based on cortisol and adrenaline levels. So let's, this is understanding the stress response. We have a built in stress response system. We have these stress hormones that communicate stress throughout our bodies. We have cortisol, which a lot of people have heard about cortisol as a stress hormone and adrenaline. We want our cortisol adrenaline. Actually, we don't have enough. That's not good either. We need to have just the right amount at a certain time of day under certain circumstances, right? So we need a Al amount of cortisol adrenaline. And so what happens is when we're under this chronic stress that you and I are talking about, our cortisol and adrenaline levels become disrupted either too high or too low. And it's not the same for everyone, but the treatment is different. So here's the thing is a lot, a big mistake I see often is people, maybe they notice they have stress.
(11:34): Maybe they even have their cortisol levels tested. And then they decide I'm gonna take a supplement to help with my cortisol. But if they're not taking the right herbs and nutrients in that supplement to address their specific imbalance, they're not gonna feel better. And I see this mistake happen all the time, right? That all the time they're taking the wrong supplement for this situation. So this is why I'm so standing out and saying, listen, we have different stress type patterns when you're under stress is different than when I'm under stress likely, right? Like, so we need to know are us dress type pattern where your cortisol and adrenaline are stuck in a high mode. In which case we are gonna give specific treatment for that to help bring it back to optimal or our us dress type where your cortisol and adrenaline are stuck in a low mode where they're too low.
(12:30): And now your're functioning with two little cortisol adrenaline. Well, we can address that, but we need to use the right herbs and nutrients that help raise it back up to optimal, right. Or there can also be the opposites. What a person could have high cortisol, low adrenaline or high adrenaline, low cortisol. So it's imp what I found in my, in my practice and in my research is it's so important to know where you are so that we can give you the right treatment. And even then we need the treatment to be specific to your stress type, to be effective.
(13:04): Yes. So true. I see it all the time. In fact, someone had, I think reached out to me on social media last week and said something about, I think I have adrenal fatigue is what she said. And I've been taking, she named this supplement, but I don't feel any better was her complaint. And of course I said, well, you need to get tested yeah. Yeah. So talk about like, how do you figure out your stress type? How do you know if you're high, low, low, high everybody's high everybody's low?
(13:34): How do you know? So, and here's the thing is you mentioned the, the NA the word adrenal fatigue. This is a common terminology that's used, but it's really vague. It doesn't tell us anything, right? It doesn't tell us what's going on with your cortisol and adrenaline. So I tend to call it instead. Adrenal distress, adrenals distress means to me, there's some imbalance with your cortisone adrenaline, but now we need to find out what that imbalance is. And I did develop in, in the book, the master, your stress reset your health book, mm-hmm . And on my website, I developed a quiz. You can take where you go through and you, you answer the questions and it tells you likely what your stress type is. So at least your close to, you know, knowing what it is. So you can treat it specifically best is if you can do a test, and this is where we do cortisol testing, but we don't just test the cortisol at one time a day, right?
(14:26): We gotta test the cortisol in the morning when you wake up, when it should be a little higher, and then we're gonna test it in the middle of the day, the evening and the bedtime, when it should be lowest, right? If we only tested one time a day, we're missing a lot of the information. We need to measure it at different times a day, which we can do either in saliva or urine. So people can do this test at home. Like you can spit in a tube at different times a day, or we collect urine at different times of day to measure your cortisol. And then you're gonna know, is my cortisol too low or too high? Or maybe it's even a combination of the two. Maybe you have too low at certain times of day too high at certain times of day, right? Yes.
(15:04): And this, and then we can also measure the adrenaline levels. Adrenaline can be measured in the urine. So this, again, a test you can do at home. So then we actually know what, how stress is affecting you. These are your internal stress messages, and they're not just responding to the stress of today or the stress of yesterday. They're actually responding to the stress of your life and even your parents' life, right? Like this is when we look at your cortisol and adrenaline levels, it's showing us your unique pattern that exists in your body at this point in time, based on your genetics and your stress exposure. And we need that information because then we can actually help you feel better. So if you, like you said, this person said they're taking something, but they don't feel better. That's a clear sign to me that they're probably taking the wrong product for their stress time.
(15:58): Right. And I hear that all the time. I'd love what a couple things you just said, I wanna highlight. So you mentioned that your body's responding to stress, not only that you're dealing with, but of your parents. Can you talk a little bit about that? Cuz I think that's probably foreign to most people.
(16:16): Yeah. It's actually a study show. I mean, we, we look at, first of all, childhood exposure to stress, we know that when we are exposed to, to stress in childhood, which most, all of us had some degree of stress in our childhood that that influences our health throughout our lives. Unless we start doing stress recovery and helping our bodies recover. Right. And not only that, but the studies show that stress that from our parents and our grandparents affects our genetic expression. So it affects how our body responds to stress in this lifetime is so amazing. Right? And I look at it as, I mean, there's always two sides of the coin, right? We could look at it as well. My grandparents went through all this stress or I had all this stress in my childhood. So now I'm doomed to have increased risk of diabetes and dementia and heart disease and cancer. Or you could look at the other side of the coin and you could say, wow, I know my parents had stress. I know I had stress, but I also know that I can do something about it. Starting at whatever point you are in your life, you can make diet changes. You can start doing recovery activities, start addressing your stress type so that you can decrease your risk of health issues going forward.
(17:33): So true. And you mentioned something else about genetics, is that, is that how our trans the stress is transported from generation to generation? Isn't it through the, through genetics?
(17:44): Yeah. Through what we call epigenetics or genetic expression mm-hmm so we, you know, for so long, even scientists were like, we, they thought we were gonna figure out the human genome and be able to match up to every health condition. And we were gonna solve all the health conditions by knowing our genes. Right. We were like, oh, you know, all the genes we're gonna solve everything. And so they ran this huge human genome project and studied all the genes. And when they came out the end of it, they figured out that that was not the case. That actually what's more determinant of our health and our risk of health issues is our stress exposure and our environment . So that says like, okay, yes, of course we have genes and we have this genetic interplay from that we are born with, from our ancestors. However, that doesn't mean it's set in stone. We have every ability to shift that genetic expression going forward and for future generations.
(18:43): Yes. Super important to know. Can you talk a little bit about your care method of stress recovery?
(18:50): Mm-hmm so I use the acronym care to mean clean eating, adequate sleep, recovery activities, and exercise. So these are all daily activities that we can choose, right? And even eating is something we definitely do every day. Sleeping is something we hope we do every day. recovery activities and exercise. There's ways that we can choose each of these areas. That's gonna help us with our stress recovery. And there's a ton of research on all of these areas. This is, I have all the references in the book because I was so interested. I really wanted to see, is it even possible that we should be implementing diet and sleep and exercise and even recover activities like meditation based on our stress type. Like, is there a certain time of day or duration or type of activity, that's gonna be better for someone who has high cortisol, high adrenaline, I call a stress magnet, you know, where, how should they be implementing care versus the person who has low cortisol, adrenaline, who I call blah and blue, how should they be implementing care? And so that's, what's in the book is like, so I want you to be able to know your stress time and then know how to implement your clean, eating, your sleep, your recovery activities and your exercise in a way that matches your body. So your body can actually recover.
(20:21): Yeah. I think a unique approach for each person is so important and I love how you outline the different phases in your book, and you give details on what everybody should be doing. So we'll for sure link to the quiz so they can take it. I do encourage everyone to get the book cuz it's she really, Dr. Donny has done an excellent job of outlining exactly what you need to do, how to know what your stress type is. Three step approach, unique for your situation. So you can kind of sort this out. And I have seen so many people actually who use this type of very structured, detailed information that you offer, fix this without ever having a test.
(21:04): Yeah. It's definitely possible. You can. That's why in the book it's like you could fo literally follow the steps in the book and have such an improvement. And the key here is that, you know, because I know people hear about all different kinds of approaches to health. What I'm doing is I'm looking from a bird's eye view. I'm looking at it as how can we be most strategic about recovering from any health issue? So let's say a person has autoimmunity, right? And we know that autoimmunity is triggered by stress, right? The research says it very clearly, but they don't give you any directions on what to do about it. We just know stress causes autoimmunity. So what we wanna say is, oh my gosh, if there's an autoimmune condition, say Hashimotos or Crohn's disease or rheumatoid arthritis or any other of the hundreds of autoimmune conditions we need, if we really wanna be solving it effectively, we need to be thinking of it from how do we help the body recover from stress so that we can turn off the autoimmunity and the person can then go through their life without having autoimmunity.
(22:10): Amazing. I see it in all the time with my patients, right? Or you name it any other health, even if it's a, you know, even if it's say a blood sugar imbalance or fatigue or anxiety, these are symptoms to me, these are indications that the body is overstressed. And it's trying to tell us that, right? It's giving us symptoms that are saying, it's a stress alarm going off saying some there's a stress signal that's ending up causing these either digestive issues, hormone imbalances, immune related issues and neurological or nervous system issues. That's how it shows up. And so this strategy to me is so important for everyone as an underlying root cause strategy, right?
(22:56): Yes. It's so true. Can you share maybe some stories of clients you work with? You know, most of the women who listen to my podcast are somewhere between 40 to 60, some older, some younger, and invariably they know that stress is affecting their health. Yeah. And I know when it happened to me, when I was in my forties, , you know, late forties and I weighed 243 pounds and I only had enough energy to work and sleep. And I had depression, anxiety. My hair was falling out, no sex drive. I had irrit all about, like I had this laundry list of what I call, right. The laundry list of midlife, metabolic complaints about the effects of stress right here. I was board certified OB GYN. And I know there are women listening right now who are saying like, okay, I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stress. But how do I know that if this is for me, I'd love, love it. If you could share some stories of some patients that you've worked with, who this they might identify with and say, oh my gosh, that's me. I have those symptoms. I need to take that quiz. I need to read that book.
(24:05): Yeah. Because a lot of times we're kind of functioning and we're not even really, we're like, it's so unusual and familiar. We don't even realize, oh, this, this was caused by stress. Like sometimes it's, it's something like if you're grinding your teeth at night, or you mentioned your hair's falling out. Right. So it could be symptoms like that where you're like, okay, now I've gotta go to get a mouth guard from my teeth because I'm grinding my teeth. I have maybe it's anxiety, but maybe you're not calling it anxiety. Maybe it's like just constant worry. Right? Mm-hmm maybe this worry, ruminating thoughts where you feel like you can't turn your brain off and it's like, you have a long list of things and you never, lot of, lot of times women say to me, I feel like I never get a break. Right. They're running from taking care of kids to, to taking care of, you know, their home, to taking care of their job or their business or whatever they're, they're doing else in their lives.
(24:57): Or even from 40 to 60, like this is where maybe the kids are going to college and now they, but there's always something on your to-do list. Right. You're always like I have this long to-do list. And I feel like there's never time for me. That is a, a sign for me that there, that this is like, okay, we need to intervene. It also can be, as you mentioned, severe fatigue where you feel like you wake up in the morning and you're like, I can't do anything until I've have had like several cups of coffee. And another way it shows up is in the evening, if you feel like you just can't wait for this alcohol. Right. You're like, I know, oh yeah. This and, and not to say that, like, I mean a little bit of coffee's okay. And a little bit of wine or alcohol's okay too.
(25:40): But when it get becomes where we feel like we can't even survive the next day, right. Without this, another cup of coffee or another glass of wine now we're, we're kind of medicating the stress with coffee and wine, right? So we have to kind of be honest with ourselves and say, wait a minute, is this just something I'm enjoying once in a while? Or is this where I'm depending on this for me to get through my day and accomplish these tasks, it can also show up as like I'm thinking of a, a, a patient. I, I was so excited this week. I spoke to two patients who have gone come through my phase 1, 2, 3, this step by step protocol. You mentioned, they're now at phase three and I am celebrating with them. And they're both in the 40 to 60 age range. One of them first came to me with severe anxiety and severe digestive symptoms, like bloating, gas, irritable bowel syndrome.
(26:36): She's like, how am I supposed to do this? She has children. She runs her own practice as well. She's like, how am I supposed to, to do this? I'm constantly. And she was having a lot of cravings. This is another way it comes up food cravings, right? Mm-hmm like your craving sugar, you or your appetite changes. Maybe you feel like you, nothing tastes good. And then you end up just overeating something that, you know, you really don't wanna be eating, but it's the only thing you can decide to eat. Right? And so she was just like, so feeling so awful, she was like, how am I supposed to keep going and keeping up with taking care of my daughters and myself and my family and my home. So she, we did this panel. We've saw that her cortisol levels were com were totally low.
(27:21): Her adrenaline was totally high. And so I guided her through the process. We have to first lower the adrenaline that's high before we can raise the cortisol that's low. And this is a key piece, cuz I think a lot of times people get stuck here. They find out they have low cortisol, but if someone's not checking also their adrenaline levels or knowing that this is the difference between the blah and blue stress type versus the tired and wired stress type and their treatment is different. So if you're treating yourself as blah and blue, but you're really as tired and wired, you're not gonna feel better. You're gonna feel worse. Mm-hmm so we have to first lower that high adrenaline. Once the high adrenaline comes down, then she was like, oh finally my mind feels like it's not racing. Finally. I feel like I can breathe and have a little calmness in my day and I can start. Then you can start to choose some of the selfcare it's hard to choose self-care when you're going, when you, you can't even catch your breath bakes basically. Right.
(28:20): So true.
(28:21): So then she was able to calm enough, but then, then I listen for patients to say to me, okay, the anxiety calmed down now I'm just tired. And I'm like, that's good. Because that tells me you're in phase two, we're ready to support the low cortisol. Then I can start the supplements to raise the cortisol back up to optimal. And you, the person starts to get their energy back and other things start to come back. Right? Libido comes back, digestion starts working again. Skin looks better. Everything starts to, you're like, oh my gosh, I'm back. You know? And we didn't, sometimes we don't even realize we lost ourselves. But when we find ourselves again, we're like, whoa, I was so far off of this. and then what happens is in phase three, this is why it's so exciting when I get to talk to them in phase three is they're like, first of all, they're like, thank you so much. I'm so glad I found you because I couldn't figure this out before. And I've been to all these other practitioners that didn't figure it out. They're like, but they also realize they have this empowerment and, and this feeling of like, now they know what to do to maintain over time. These women say to me, now I know if I'm under stress again, I know exactly what I need to do to get myself back on track before I end up back in burnout again.
(29:38): Yes. And I love the subtitle of the book. So it's master your stress, reset your health, the personalized program to calm anxiety, boost energy, and beat burnout. So I wanna encourage everybody if you're hearing yourself and what Dr. Dami is saying. And you're you thought that you've had it an adrenal issue and maybe you can't afford, not everyone can afford to go to a practitioner and work one on one and have the test and you can get great results with a program like this. And you're hearing the symptoms that you have. I'm definitely gonna encourage you to go take the quiz and read the book and do what she says, because you know, it works. If you're stuck in, I call that the, uh, coffee, wine, tango coffee in the morning to wind up and wine in the afternoon to wind down. That was me in my forties for sure. And I didn't realize I was medicating my, my, uh, stress issues, but now I know better. So I'm gonna encourage you to definitely check it out. And then also I wanted you to just talk a little bit, a little bit about your podcast.
(30:41): Yes, yes, yes. Oh my gosh. I'm so enjoyed having you on my podcast. It's called how humans heal. So you can find it where you usually listen to podcasts. It's also on YouTube. So if you prefer YouTube, just look for how humans heal and you can listen to you. And I talking about what YouTube, I love it. And then yes, my, you can also find it through my website at Dr. doni.com. I have a blog and, and everything there as well.
(31:07): Awesome. Well, I have to ask you, I mean, we have talked about cortisol, which is a hormone. We've talked about epinephrine, neuro epinephrine, which are really hormones. You know, neurotransmitters are just like brothers and sisters to, to hormones, but I would be remiss if I didn't ask you to connect how these hormones and neurotransmitters interact with things like thyroid estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, can you comment on that?
(31:38): Absolutely. And here's the thing is, so when we're, when we're under stress and our cortisol goes either too high or too low, and adrenaline goes too high or too low, they're signaling to everywhere else in our body, including all the hormones. So from thyroid insulin and even ovarian hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, all the hormones, get this stress. You know, it's like a text message. I think of it. Like they get the text message and they're like, okay, we're in stress mode. Do the stress thing, which the thing is when we're under stress, we tend, it tends to drop our thyroid function. It tends to drop our insulin function. So now our blood sugar goes higher. It tends to drop ovarian function. So now we have less progesterone, estrogen, all, Ew, you're more likely to have PMs symptoms or fibroids or heavy bleeding in general or irregular cycles or menopausal symptoms for that manner.
(32:37): I mean, so many women that I help and I know you do too, in that perimenopausal years, if the cortisol is off balance, you're way more likely to experience perimenopausal symptoms. And yes, we're gonna address the estrogen and progesterone and testosterone and get them balanced. But amazingly, when we get the cortisol and adrenaline balanced, it's so much easier to manage these other hormones because now you're sending, you want your cortisol adrenaline to send a healthy signal to your body so that all of these other hormones can fall in line. As soon as the cortisol goes off, it's like a domino effect, right? It just wipes everything out. And as soon as the cortisol's on track, everybody's lining up and in a, in a nice harmony, you know, so they're talking to each other, these hormones are talking to each other and the more we can balance cortisol, the easier it is to keep the rest of them optimized too.
(33:32): So true. That's why I call her queen cortisol. She, it, she will be served. So I love that you wrote this wonderful book, talking about how to master your stress and reset your health. And that means master your queen cortisol, she will be very happy. Your thyroid will improve your insulin. Blood sugar will improve. Your sex. Hormones will improve. Like everything gets better.
(33:54): So everything gets better. So, and to me, it's like, it's the ultimate multitasking, right? We always, we kind of like multitasking, but sometimes when we're multitasking, we're inefficient. Right. But to me, this is a good way to multitask because by optimizing your cortisol, you're fixing so many other things, right? So it's like, Simplify it all.
(34:16): It is. It's literally like having the cleaning lady come to your house and clean your house. So you don't have to worry about it. Just do the one thing. Yeah. Thank you. and Dr. Doni for joining me, thank you for this wonderful resource for men and women. I really appreciate it. And thank you so much for joining me today.
(34:34): You're welcome. Thank you for having me.
(34:36): And thanks to everybody listening. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. I want you to not just have this information and have learned something. I want you to actually take this information and implement it in your life. So go to the show notes, click, take the quiz, check out Dr. Doni's podcast. It is amazing. She has fantastic guests. You will learn a lot and go get your master, your stress, reset your health book and start taking action today. And then think about all the ways that your life is gonna improve. Once you get this under control, share it with me on social media, what you are doing, what actions you're taking and look forward to hearing about it. And until next week, peace, love and hormones. Y'all
(35:22): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Have you ever wondered why it's so hard to lose weight after you turn 40?
If you have, you're not alone. In fact, it's a question that many women ask themselves as they approach middle age.
The good news is that there is an answer. And, even better, it turns out that there is a simple way to turn on your cell's "fat switch" and lose weight, no matter your age.
That's what Dr. Betty Murray is here to talk about in this episode.
Dr. Murray is a nutrition expert, certified functional medicine practitioner, and speaker. She helps women 40+ harness their hormones to lose weight, optimize sleep, restore energy, and thrive in life.
During her research for her PhD, Dr. Murray made 4 key discoveries that lead to hormone imbalances that plague women over 40. Restoring balance to these key metabolic pathways is the basis of her Hormone Reset Program which has helped her, and her clients lose weight with ease, restore sleep, and turn up their energy.
She is the host of This Functional Life Podcast and the founder and CEO of Living Well Dallas Functional Medicine Center. Dr. Murray is a frequently featured nutrition expert on Fox News Broadcasting, CW33, NBC, and CBS.
So, if you're ready to learn how to turn on your cell's fat switch and lose weight after 40, then this episode is for you.
In this episode, we discuss:
- The 4 key discoveries that lead to hormone imbalances in women over 40
- How to turn on your cell's "fat switch"
- How your genetics that controls estrogen detoxification may lead to weight gain and risk for diabetes, obesity, and cancer
- Body positivity and how to love your body at any age
- The role estrogen plays in weight loss
- The role of the nervous system in your hormonal function and your fat retention
- Foods to avoid that screw up your hormones
- And much more!
If you're struggling with your weight, or if you're just curious about how to lose weight after 40, then this episode is a must-listen.
So, grab a cup of coffee, put your feet up, and enjoy!
(00:00): Erica Jong said, "If you don't risk anything, you risk even more." And if you're struggling with your weight and excess fact, then you might not even be aware of why or what you're risking. And my guess today is gonna tell you all about how to unlock this situation. So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth of about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.
(01:14): Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so grateful that you chose to join us today. Welcome today. My guest, Dr. Betty Murray is going to help shed some light on why your cells’ fat switch is stuck, and you can't seem to lose any weight after four eight after 40. This is true for women, but also for men losing weight no longer is a math problem where it's calories and minus calories out. It becomes way more complex. And maybe you have really tried everything, you're at your wits end, and you just can't figure out what's wrong. No worries, Dr. Betty is gonna help you figure it out. She's the host of this functional life podcast and has a very dynamic practice. Her graduate work has focused on the difference inside the cell mitochondrial function and carbohydrate metabolism. Don't worry if you're like, what are you talking about?
(02:12): Betty is gonna explain it to you and she's gonna help you understand why if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. That's a quote from Erica young, which is prolific and really applies to us at midlife. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Betty and we will get started. She's a nutrition expert, certified functional medicine practitioner and speaker Dr. Betty Murray. She's a PhD candidate. MSCN if F M C P all those initials after her name, she helps women over 40 harness their hormones to lose weight, optimize, sleep, restore, energy, and thrive in life. And who doesn't want that during her research for her PhD, she made four key discoveries that led to hormone imbalances that plague women over 40 restoring balance to these key metabolic pathways is the basis of her hormone reset program. She's the host of this functional life podcast and the founder and CEO of living well Dallas functional medicine center. And she's a frequently featured nutrition expert on Fox news, podcasting, CW 33, NBC and CBS. Welcome Betty Murray.
(03:20): Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.
(03:23): Me too. I'm so excited to have you. I loved your interview and the stop, the menopause madness summit. And I said, Betty, you gotta come on the podcast and talk to all of us women over 40 about really what's going on inside ourselves. Why are we gaining weight? Um, we're gonna dive into that in a second, but I gotta share with everyone, or have you share why you're so passionate about this topic of weight gain in women over 40?
(03:53): I came to functional medicine and functional nutrition originally because I was diagnosed with colitis and I kind of went on my own journey to try and figure out how I could do things with my diet and lifestyle to keep from taking harsh drugs. And, you know, through that process was able to really, you know, kind of heal that. And honestly, I've been, you know, knock on wood flare free for more than a decade. And, but when I hit my forties, so I've never been a naturally thin person, but in my teens and twenties and thirties, I was able to maintain body composition by doing what everybody hears, you know, in high intensity intervals and doing some weight training and eating really, really lean right, low, low carb. And I could have the occasional cheat and it would all work when I hit my forties. It was like some major switch turned off.
(04:40): My hormones got worse. Like everybody talks about heavier periods, more moodiness and sleep problems that were already a problem. And that, you know, became almost unyielding, you know, two or three hours a night awake. And I went back to my functional medicine peers, cuz I was already in the industry and tried hormones, tried all these different things and no matter what I did, I might get my sleep slightly better, or I might, my periods might be a little bit better, but I could not lose weight to save my life. I'm a nutritionist. So, you know, it's one of those things like you don't wanna be sitting in the room with somebody talking about weight loss and those kind of things, when you yourself are struggling. And I, and I, and all the women I was seeing, I could just feel it for them cuz I was in it with them. And so when I went back to school for my PhD, cuz I just, I love to learn. That really was where I centered a ton of my research is what is different between men and women? Because I think any woman can tell you if they go on a dietary change with a male, it's like two different worlds, a guy gives up beer and pizza and they drop 20 pounds.
(05:44): Lettuce and...
(05:46): Right.
(05:47): Let guys do the beer and pizza, no beer and pizza diet, which does not work for any woman.
(05:53): And most of the women I see are the ones that are like, I'm doing all the right things. They're working out, you know, every morning, and they're eating low, low-carb and they're drinking just water, and they can't figure out why it's not working. And so that's really where I went on this journey because I myself was in it. And I just I saw all these women struggling with it. And the other thing that just broke my heart, and it was true for me and true for most of my clients is at some point in our conversation, they would say, you know, Betty, I want my life to be about this, this next season. Right? Cause when you get to your forties and fifties, we're looking at this next season of life. Maybe it's I want to do this with it. I wanna have a bigger impact.
(06:30): I wanna have a better relationship. And then they would almost always say Betty, if my body was different, I could, if I felt at home in my body, if the vehicle that I'm driving every day was where I felt comfortable. My life would be better. Then I would do X mm-hmm . And that for me broke my heart because I think women in this time period of life, we are in such a great opportunity to leave our impact. However, we wanna do that, whether it's with our family and kids or reaching out into the world or change the world. But a lot of times we're holding ourselves back because we don't feel at home in our body anymore. That just drives me at this point. That's why I do my podcast. It's why it's, you know, I, I go to the clinic every day. It's why I really reach out and try and help women because I, I truly believe we are the ones that are gonna change the world.
(07:19): You're speaking my language. I got the chill, bums going all up and down because that's why I do what I do. And you know, it really gets to this quote you shared with me before we started from Erica J if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. And I see so many women just giving up because they can't do what they wanna do in life because of their health, they can't get their health where they want it to be. And I consider my mission to help women get physically in shape so that they can give, deliver the gifts that they have to give to the world that are gonna save the world. What are your thoughts on that?
(08:00): Absolutely. You know, I, and sometimes that risk, you know, is really uncomfortable. So when I work with women in my hormone reset group, part of what we do is we start acting on those dreams, desires and goals, even though we don't feel as if we should could or would, right? So I'll give a really good personal example and you know, people might be uncomfortable with this. So for obviously more than a decade of my life, I was not comfortable in my own body. It affected my relationship with my husband. Cause I'm like, please don't look at me. You know, please don't look at me. So one of the things that I started doing is I started taking pictures of myself, slightly provocative, nothing, nothing nasty, but you know, for my husband and I, you know, I would set up my phone on a little, you know, a little stand I'd take a bunch of pictures, I'd take 50 in one of 'em I'd be like, that's not too bad. Right. Cause that's where you brain
(08:49): It. Right.
(08:51): And then I would show them to 'em and he would be like, you look beautiful. It wasn't for that response. It was for me to look through all those photos and go, this one looks good. Cause it started out. This one looks okay. And then it started out going and then it started changing to, I look, look pretty in this one, I look hot in this one. I send this to me. And so like weird things like that, that it seems so foreign to people help you start to own that beauty. Like the younger women and today are embracing body positivity. And as healthcare workers, we, we have this fine line between, we want body positivity, but we need to be healthy, but you don't see anybody our age doing it, Paulina, PVA. She does it. But none of us are really standing in it and going, yes, you know, I have some scars, I have some, you know, I have some jiggly bits, but I'm still beautiful.
(09:39): You know, you know, it's so true. Let's have a little divergence. We're gonna get into the hard science. Y'all, don't worry. It is the hormone prescription podcast after all, but let's go down this little detour because I was actually thinking the same thing the other day, when I saw the cover of the new sports illustrated with the woman, who's very curvy. And I actually interviewed a woman on the podcast when I first started it several years ago, who is a younger woman. I believe she weighs 350 pounds who actually has a huge following about it. And I saw some of the comments about the sports illustrated cover. And they're saying, are we now, uh, condoning obesity and core health in service of not shaming anyone and being body positive. And I'm just wondering what other people's thoughts are. So since you brought it up, can you talk a little bit about that?
(10:33): Yeah. You know, it's, it is hard because I do think cuz I think it's a circular thought. I know my body opinion changed by the time I was at like at the end of elementary school. Right. As, as soon as you hit that tween years, I think a lot of times our eating habits and other things that may lead to weight gain. And then cuz it starts as a little bit of weight gain. Then you get a lot of metabolic changes that adds to that weight loss. It's not as easy as calories and calories out. But I think the shame that we feel about our body that often develops when we're teenagers that we carry into our adulthood, mm-hmm, perpetuates behaviors that also make us more likely to use food as comfort and emotional and those kinds of things. So I think there is an important part of body positivity, but I also think that we have to look at, if somebody is significantly overweight, they do have all kinds of additional risks for chronic disease like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, even cancer. But I think if we keep coming at it from the shame game and making people feel less than, but whether it's through media or other things for not being, you know, the ideal 1% person, then we're gonna perpetuate a bigger problem, you know, mm-hmm so I think it is a timeline dance. And it's one that I struggle with all the time, how to, how to handle it in an emotional way. And then also in a professional way. Cause I have a pro professional responsibility, right. To be real of what the risk factors are.
(11:58): Yeah. I agree with you. Well I think when we look at a lot of health problems, there is shame attached to them. I think there's a lot of shame associated with type two diabetes for instance, or sometimes for hypertension or high cholesterol people think in their minds, oh, well you must be eating too much salt. You must be eating too much animal fat. You must be eating too much sugar, but we don't have that around things like autoimmune conditions. If someone has lupus or multiple sclerosis, we really don't have shame around that. So I don't know that weight issues are unique in that respect. I do think that our generation, well, at least I might be a little older than you, my generation. I mean, I was steeped in like a Dell Davis and Jack Lane and oh my gosh, thin and Twiggy and you got to be so thin.
(12:50): And I look back, I had to pull out some photos of myself when I was younger for my Ted talk, that's coming up and I look how skinny I was and I thought I was fat. I know so that's, I think that's really insane making people who are healthy, feel like they're overweight, but I do think it's a very fine line cuz it's my understanding from the data that even a 10%, if you're 10% over your ideal body weight, there are consequences to be had from that. And that's not much if you're, if you're ideal body, weight's 150 pounds and your 15 pounds overweight, my understanding of the data is you are going to have consequences. And so I struggle with that. I still think we should embrace everyone. Scars, bulges, you know, skin blotches, all the things that we all naturally have and love that. But I don't think, you know, I personally don't think that the like the sports illustrated cover is condoning poor health. I think they're just celebrating beauty in all of its various forms.
(13:57): Absolutely. Well, the definition of beauty has been different over millennia, right? So if we look back into the Renaissance being curvy meant that you were fertile. Right? Right. So no, just depends what time period. So beauty is defined by time period and paradigm and the zeitgeist of the time I'm slightly younger than you, but I definitely hit the, you know, the supermodel era of the eighties. And then right after that, my early twenties was heroin chic, cuz nothing's better looking than somebody that looks like they do heroin. Right. you know, and so you, you, those mixed messages and those messages that we get, I think are damning and damaging and metabolic damage that results in obesity, which is a hundred percent metabolic changes in the cells that cause that, but we take it and still as a medical community treated as a morality problem, which makes me crazy. Yeah. Because it's not a morality and a, and a behavioral problem. It is a metabolic problem that happens. And the problem is you can't give up eating. Right.
(14:57): Can't you cannot stop
(14:58): That. Yeah. It's like, oh, I'm just not ever gonna eat again. That doesn't work. So yeah. So I think it is all those things. So my goal going forward is to help people understand what's happening inside their cells, what's happening with their hormones, how we might be able to manipulate that both therapeutically in a short term to fix some of the problems and then how to live ongoing, where I can maintain a healthy weight. That means my body feels healthy. Cuz a lot of times the other thing is we, we have a number on the scale and it's often a number we've had like 18 to 22 and that's the number we feel like we need to be when we weren't at hormonal peak yet it might not really be the most ideal weight for us. And I like for people to focus on what does healthy feel like? What does it mean? Can I run around and play with my grandkids? Can I go hiking? Can I bike 60 miles in a weekend? Like those things to me are more meaningful because those are real gauges of, can you live your life? It's not a number on a scale.
(15:53): Yes. I love that. It isn't a number on a scale and light with that. Let's dive more into the science. So I know that you focus on four main areas that lead to hormonal balances that plague women over 40 and contribute to the weight game. I love how you talk about this cellular fat switch. And basically that this fat switch gets turned on by these factors. And we have to learn about them to turn that switch off. So let's start, start there and talk about what these factors are.
(16:28): Right? So some of these people may have heard these stats. So statistically a woman's metabolism will slow about 5% for every decade, right? And most women experience about a 10 to 15% increase in body weight around the belly, just from entering menopause. Right? So the thing to remember is that estrogen, when it's balanced with the other hormones and everything's working in, in, in synchrony is actually sliming. But when it's out of balance too high or too low, we have a problem. We have, we play that sort of exorbitant price for that. So part of what we see is we have inside the cell, we have mechanisms that help our cell either burn your carbohydrate forms like glucose or fat and really what's happening is that stuff has to be happening inside the cell in a very, very orchestrated way. And a lot of times we focus on you gotta lower your insulin, which then, you know, makes your body able to burn fat.
(17:26): Well, my question always was is if women's metabolism changes at a rate that's different than men, what role must estrogen play? Cuz it does. So there's a fat switch inside the cell and it's controlled by a cellular metabolite called uric acid. So uric acid gets produced inside the cell and it's produced when there's damage inside the cell when there's damage to the DNA in RNA. And so when your at acid rise rises inside the cell, it acts as a switch and lowers the cellular mechanic. So think of it as the powerhouse inside the cell, it makes that powerhouse slow down. So, you know, for anybody that's in our age group, instead of having a brand new rock and Tesla, you have a 1984, you go, so everything slows down and, and this, this came about, this is not my research. This is another gentleman. Uh, Rick Johnson, I believe he's found a university of Colorado, I believe that's right.
(18:18): But they found that this change, this mechanism is something that happened millions of years ago when we went from being ape two man. And it was what allowed us to make it through an ice age. So the apes that actually had this switch turned on where uric acid would come up and slow. The powerhouse survived, you know, a, basically a disaster, which was an ice age where food was not available. So this uric acid response is to some degree, a starvation response. It's also the response of hibernation. So that's how they found it. They started looking at bears and squirrels and things that hibernate. And as the bears go into the spring and summer, where they start eating more high fructose, I, environmental things like fruits and things like that, honey, we would see this increase in uric acid. They would start gaining body fat.
(19:06): And then when they got to the wintertime and they'd go to hibernate, they'd be able to use that body fat over the winter to survive. So the rise in uric acid slows the powerhouse and slows down your ability to burn fat. And it's doing it through a bunch of mechanisms, which we won't really go into. So the interesting thing is women. When they go through menopause, have an automatic increase in uric acid, to the extent of at least about a 0.2, a point and a two at a minimum. And part of this is there is interplay between estrogen and the cellular mechanics in the mitochondria that affect uric acid levels. So if uric acid rising inside the cell is the switch that tells the slow to slow down. And now we can't burn fat or carbohydrates very efficiently. It is intimately tied to the actions at perimenopause and menopause when we lose estrogen. So that's super huge because a lot of women are like, wait, I'm eating low carb, I'm burning 400 calories a day in my exercise and I'm eating 1200 calories. How can I possibly not lose weight? And it's cuz the hormones and the interest cellular the stuff going on inside the cell directly control whether you burn those calories or not.
(20:13): Cause your fat switch is off. Right? it
(20:18): Right? It's on. It's on. Yeah. Well and then depending on what you eat, you may be turning it on all the time. Right? Cause food uric acid.
(20:27): Talk a little bit about that. Cuz everybody's wanting to know Betty, what foods are gonna be turning my switch on and which ones turn 'em off.
(20:34): Anything with fructose in it, high fructose corn syrup is the devil never eat it, never touch it. Don't do it. Anything with high fructose amounts now fruit like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples do have some fructose resident in it, but it's got fiber and water and all this other stuff and it's not gonna raise that fructose level in your body. So fructose is the primary driver of uric acid in the body period, alcohol, sugar, processed flour. So anything that's baked, any kind of processed things that we've manufactured, cookies, crackers, breads, all of those things. If we eat them too much, they're gonna raise uric acid and then the other most insidious thing. And I think this is where this may be hiding for a lot of women. I know it is for a lot of women in my group is that a lot of the food additives raise uric acid, things like MSG, idolized, yeast extract, ye extract, flavor enhancements are all things that we've added to foods that make them taste more flavorful that actually raise uric acid.
(21:36): You know, you and I both grew up in the same age in the seventies. We had definitely a small percentage of the population that was overweight, but the obesity epidemic ballooned in the eighties and then it accelerated. So if we look at what happened to our food supply, high fructose corn syrup was introduced in the eighties, the use of crappy seed oils, which is a whole other conversation like soy corn, all of those things. And then the massive explosion of food additives and flu flavor enhancements has exploded. The other thing that raises uric acid and this is gonna upset. A lot of women I think are of these foods. So things like Parmesan, cheese, your charco trees. So all the women that are like, I just want a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers and, and some, you know, salami and I'd be happy, guess what? That food's gonna raise it. And I'm one of those people, like if I'm on my deathbed, I'm probably gonna have that.
(22:30): Okay. We'll get it ready for you, but maybe not so much right now. Right?
(22:35): Right. You can have it, but you just can't have it frequently. So, and then depending on your genetics, you either have a hair trigger uric acid switch, or it might be like a moderate uric acid switch.
(22:45): Let's talk a little bit about that cuz I know that's one of the four factors that you talk about your genetics. So you talked about the hair trigger switch. So what genetics are we talking about? Cuz everybody's wondering, do I have that?
(22:57): The truth is, is all of us have that enzyme URI case? We, to some degree. So all of us have an expression of that. There is a very small percentage of the population that don't and guess what they can't gain weight period at all. Zero zip never and, and we're talking handful. So if you're hopeful, that's not us. Right. Um, so all of us have that switch to some degree and then the degree in which it gets turned on, depends on a, the other thing that the research is kind of indicating is the more you do those foods and the more you've done this over time, the more hair trigger it is. Cause you gotta remember, it's a starvation response. It's our body thinking we're starving with plenty of food. So there's another enzyme that's also there. And genetically we may have this more expressed or less expressed is a thing called the polyol pathway.
(23:41): And the polyol pathway is where our body takes glucose. So the blood sugar circulating around in the body changes it to fructose. And so fructose again, we just learned is terrible for the uric acid. It also gets metabolized differently than glucose. It doesn't have insulin control. So if you're doing a, you know, low carb diet, but you're eating things that drive that uricase activity and drive uric acid up and what little glucose you may have circulating in your bloodstream, your body can convert it to fructose. And again, it's part of this sort of starvation pathway. That pathway is amplified as we go through menopause. So we are more likely to do that. What's interesting. Same gentleman, Dr. Johnson. They were looking at this pathway and when you're dehydrated. So let's say you're dehydrated. You had a bunch of coffee. You're having a smoothie with some fruit and stuff in it, but you probably don't have enough.
(24:36): You're not hydrated well enough. Mm-hmm being dehydrated increases the activity of turning glucose into fructose in everybody. That was a mic drop moment for me. When I heard that, I was like, oh my gosh. It's not just that it helps your selling your mechanics, but it quite literally changes whether your body is gonna make fructose and drive uric acid up. So those two genes we all have, but as women, we have genes that control how our body metabolizes estrogen. So can we take the estrogen that we make and can we get it outta the system? So think about it this way, our estrogen, we wanna use it. We need to wrap it in a bunch of different tissue wrappers. And those are, those are handled by your genes and your enzymes. And then you eventually get it to the trash can. People that have mutations that slow down the pathway for getting rid of estrogen.
(25:24): One of them's called co methyl. Transferase the other one's called C Y P one B one or cytochrome P 4 51 B one. Those are genes that help our liver sort of package stuff. If those are slow to do that, you are gonna have an increased risk of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and obesity as a female, as you go through into perimenopause and menopause, the research shows that, and it's because there are alterations to how your body handles glucose. And the other side of it is, I think, and I haven't seen this in the research. I think that this might be part of the mechanism that increases our liver's capacity to make glucose out of amino acids. So let me back up, so I can explain that mm-hmm , our body always needs glucose. Red blood cells must have it. The brain must have glucose if you're not a good fat burner.
(26:14): So if you don't have ketones, we gotta have glucose. So our body has a mechanism inside the liver that can take glucose. I mean, I'm sorry, amino acids. So that's proteins broken down, and it can take it and convert them through a thing called glucose neogenesis into glucose. So your body can use it. I think that there's an interplay between that and these hormone metabolism genes, because we know that women are amplified. Also in that pathway, we are more capable of going through glucogenesis at a greater level as we go into perimenopause and menopause than we were when we were in our twenties and thirties and all of our hormones were balanced. It's that our survival mechanisms are sort of ramped up. We're designed to conserve nature, care about women being able to reproduce, right? So our bodies are generally designed to conserve. We don't need a lot of men on the planet. They just need to be hot,
(27:06): Right? no, no.
(27:09): You know, because, because truthfully, if you look at what nature cares about, can we reproduce and keep the species going? So we are designed to make sure that our body can manufacture food when we need it and make them, you know, make the body work properly. And so we have those things that are automatically turned on by our genetics. We have the estrogen detoxification pathways that a significant percentage of us are slow to do. I have those genes. That's how I ended up down this pathway and that I'm gonna have a harder time losing weight as those hormones start to fluctuate. And especially once estrogen kind of drops,
(27:42): You know, there are so many important points that you bring up there. So let's unpack this a little bit. So it is true that biological nature sees us as reproductive organs, basically mechanisms, and to bring a baby to life and take care of it for 18 years. And when we go through menopause, the hormonal changes are such that we're almost disposable, and we're only one of two species that lives any length of time in menopause. There's a certain species of whale that is the other species, but every other species of animal, when the female loses reproductive capacity, she dies. But I think that what we don't recognize is that some of the changes that we undergo actually do promote our death. Even though we don't die quickly, it's kind of like a slow death. And so I want everyone to wake up to the fact that everybody who listens knows that I am a firm believer that you can't have optimal health without balancing your hormones and hormone replacement.
(28:41): But this issue of how we package and detoxify our liver, our estrogen, I think is huge. And I think it's one of the biggest places where mainstream medicine totally misses the boat. And so I would encourage every woman listening. If you don't know your sip, one B one, and your C OMT. And if you don't know what we're talking about, we're talking about estrogen, detoxification pathways in the liver. You have got to find somebody who can help you dissect your genetics on that and figure out what you're doing with your estrogen or not. And if you're one of many women, most women are worried about breast cancer, which is actually not a thing that you're likely to ever die from. But it seems like more women are concerned about that. Then the consequences of no hormones, definitely you need to get these checked because if they don't function properly, your risk for breast cancer will be increased. And I know I'm on a little bit of a rant here, but I think it's so important. This idea is not only do you have the right hormones on the bus and are they in the right seat at the right level, but are they getting off the bus when it's their bus stop?
(29:52): Yeah, I believe for me, that was a major mechanism in my forties, as I hit perimenopause and all these things were going nuts. You know, I have. This is where my entire PhD was looking at hormone metabolism. And I was basically doing two things. I was estrogen dominant and estrogen toxic, and I was doing all the right things, but it was one of those things I needed to probably monitor it. , you know, a lot. And a lot of that research wasn't there when I first went into or was there, but wasn't commercially available. And now we have the capacity to test this and look at it, look at the genes and also the way to get rid of it. But there's a significant portion of women walking around with mutations there.
(30:29): It's so true, Betty. So everybody listening, hopefully you've heard that. And the other thing you mentioned that I wanna highlight that you don't hear everybody talk about is the role of the nervous system in your hormonal function and your fat retention or not. Right. So can you give a little more detail on that? Because I don't think that everybody knows about that.
(30:56): Yeah. So your nervous system, you know, is, uh, are the nerves that go out from the brain and communicate, and you know, and your brain and communicate to the body. And so they communicate through neurotransmitters and most of us know things like cortisol, cortisols bad. It leads to insulin resistance which leads to weight gain, but the nervous system is also responsible for giving the nerve message to your fat cells, to tell your fat cells, to dump the fat out, so you can burn it. So the nervous system sends out MES through NOP, epinephrine and epinephrine that are there that are supposed to help transport basically the fat out of the fat cell and be able to get it to particularly your muscle cells to burn and the nervous system activity of those hormones and neurotransmitters becomes weaker when we get older. So as estrogen levels decline, these also become weaker epinephrine and neuroepinephrine are also affected by C OMT, right?
(31:52): So if your cots messed up, they're probably gonna be a little bit off mm-hmm . So as we go into pen menopause, the jiggly bit fat that we don't like. So the stuff that's on the outside of the muscle, like the hip thighs, but abdomen that requires a ton of nerve responses. There's adrenal receptors in there that pick up the epinephrine and or epinephrine and, and sort of get that message. They sort of go to sleep. So the fat on the outside of your body is first in, last off. It's very hard for your body to do that. Particularly if you're not moving enough, if you're sedentary, cuz you don't feel good, those nerve cells sort of go to sleep. And so a lot of women may embark on an exercise routine or other things, and they don't see movement fast enough. They're like, oh the fat's not coming off yet.
(32:33): It's because that jiggly bit stuff is the last. So I like to paint this picture cause I think it helps people kind of move through that discomfort of it's not moving fast enough. Think of your muscles, like your legs, your hips, your abdomen, your butt as a piece of meat. Right? So think of it as it's prime rib. So prime rib, if you've ever looked at it, has fat running through it and then cutaneous fat or the fat on the surface on the outside, your body has to nerve and get that muscle tissue to burn everything off on the inside first. So it becomes a filet, and then it finally gets to the fat on the outside, and it's through that nervous system response. So here's a really cool thing. Did you know that a person that is twitchy, you all know these, usually they're a boy, not that it's not girls, but you know, they move kind of herky jerky.
(33:19):They, um, they're always, something's bouncing, something's twitching, some finger, something like that. They just can't sit. Still. Those people burn an average of 500 to 800 more calories because of the way their nervous system responds to twitching. And these, uh, these UN not uncontrolled, but non-flu movements. And so you think about how many women are like, you know, no, I'm very poised. I'm not bouncing a knee. I'm not doing that. It's quite literally because it keeps stimulating, stimulating these cells. So being somebody that moves and Turkey jerky actually helps it's O it's odd it's because these cells don't work very well.
(33:51): Well. So we should all take that up. Just be one of these people is moving and constantly
(33:59): But you think about it. It's very like the people that are, you know, the ones that you're like, do you know they're yeah. Do you ever, they, they are often thinner.
(34:08): I used to be married to one.
(34:09): Oh, my husband's always got his knee bouncing, and he can eat an exorbitant amount of food. He's got an eight pack at 56. It's like he used to make me crazy. Right? So the nervous system's really, really important. The other thing that happens is we have a transporter in our muscle tissue that transports glucose into the cell, right? And it's a transporter called Glu four. We have diabetes medications that we're trying to build for this stuff. Gluten forward gets sleepy when we go through menopause. So it makes it harder to get sugar inside the muscle cell. So you kind of think of it this way, the sugar Mo molecules sitting on a corner, waiting to get into the muscle cell, and they can see the Uber driver at the corner, and they're waiting for it. But the Uber drivers never get there cuz they're off in the distance cuz they're only doing about four miles an hour. So these transports become slow. Now it sounds terrible. Cause people go, oh man, now what do I do? It sounds like I'm screwed. Right? yeah. So the truth is we can turn all those things back on.
(35:06): You know, it's funny cuz you're you're saying now it sounds like I'm screwed, and I'm thinking no, the, the answer is just, don't go through menopause. And then I know people look at you, like what do you mean? Don't go through menopause, keep your hormones like they were before you went through menopause, and then you don't have to have any of this. That is the secret y'all
(35:27): Yeah. It's it's interesting. Cuz if, if female hormones balanced was so damaging and it was gonna cause cancer and all these other things, then we should see an extraordinary amount of cancer in 20 and 30 year olds. When they're at hormonal peak,
(35:41): Exactly
(35:42) Balanced hormones are what, tell the body that we're still supposed to be on the planet and we're valid and important to the planet. When you take 'em away, the body goes, oh, time to decay, right. Time to break down and fall apart.
(35:54): It is so true. And the idea that we believe otherwise, this notion that anything we were given that made us healthy and developed us into the healthy, vital, alive adults that we become is bad for us. Just boggles my mind, what we will actually believe. And it's like, we park our brains sometimes. You know, I think we women, we give up our power, a bit of a rant here, but we give up our power, and we look to other external authorities to tell us what is the truth? When you just use your common sense, right? It's like if someone tried to tell you that, oh, that calcium that you're getting in your diet is bad for you. And it's, you know, the calcium that's in your atherosclerotic plaque, in your heart causing heart disease is what's causing heart disease. Right? If somebody told you that, I would hope you would say that's insane.
(36:51): Calcium is needed. It's what helps me grow and develop healthy bones and have good neuro transmission and all of this. But this idea that people say the hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone that make us healthy. All of a sudden when we replace it in menopause, they're gonna turn on us and cause breast cancer and all these other problems, it's insane to me. But I think that we, women, should stop questioning things. And if someone told you that was true of calcium, oh no, don't take calcium. It's gonna fog up your arteries and cause plaque and heart disease, we hopefully would say, that's insane, but we don't do the same with hormones. Is this making sense? Or am I sounding crazy?
(37:30): no, absolutely. So the, the thing that I would, I would recommend everybody think about and I think I'm gonna do a podcast on this. So as a researcher, right? So I'm actually truly a researcher. I spend time digging through the research, making up hypotheses, proving my hypotheses either right or wrong. Right. So the first thing you have to think about is you gotta check your premise, a good scientist and a good researcher comes up with a hypothesis, a hypothesis. And that's their question. Is this true? Yes or no, a good researcher goes to disprove their hypothesis. They don't go to prove it. Most of the research, particularly the women's health study that still gets quoted and should be retracted and burned at the stake for its inappropriateness and its poor methodology was started by people that wanted to prove that hormones were bad for women over 50 that were over, you know, past menopause.
(38:23): That's the premise that most of them went into it with and did a poor study design, which is probably too much more than what we get into that. So you have to check your premise. And the problem is, almost all of our research is funded by outside interests that want a particular outcome. And it's also being conducted by people that have a selection bias and a personal bias that they're translating into their research. So the best thing you could ever do is if you're looking at something, and you believe something, you should always go look for what the other side says. I am required to do that as a researcher. I must look at everything that contradicts what I think before I can really go and do my study. But unfortunately, a lot of the research that gets published, and particularly stuff in, in major media is poorly done. The methodology is terrible and our health is paying for it.
(39:16): Extraordinarily as women. And particularly as women, I think it's just egregious because, because of our high levels of estrogen progesterone, and we have testosterone too, and then we lose it in such a dramatic fashion over a very short period of time and the consequences are devastating, literally. So, all right, we have gone down a little bit of a rabbit hole. I'm wondering if you can leave everyone with a little optimism about what's possible for them and how they can get this beautiful vehicle that they've been given to live this life and into the shape that they need so that they can deliver the gifts that they have so that they can risk and do the things they wanna do. Like we started talking about Erica Jung's quote, "If you don't risk anything, you risk even more." What have you got left to do on this planet before you leave it? This is like the third act, the second act, whatever act you wanna call it, you've gotta have great health to get there. And that means a healthy weight, healthy energy. So what's possible. And how do you get there?
(40:27): So definitely I don't want anybody to, just to hear what I said and go, oh my gosh, it sounds like it doesn't work. Because for me, as I dug through this and found this, I was able to drop 35 pounds without extraordinary. Like without killing myself, I can eat foods today. I'm metabolically flexible. So I can, I can have some carbohydrates, and it's not like it's gonna go straight to my butt. By the next day I can eat a high protein, low-carb diet. And I'm fine. I can, I can go through things like intermittent fasting where I'm not, you know, ready to cloth somebody's eyes out. Cause I'm starving because my body is efficient. Right? So some of the things that you can easily do right now. So the first thing is all those foods that I listed off that raise uric acid, check yourself, check yourself and try not to eat so many of those, right?
(41:12): It's not that you don't have any of them, cuz it's impossible to really remove everything. But you wanna, you wanna kind of make sure that you're not driving it. So if you, so even if you go get a skinny margarita, cuz I hear this all the time, I'm gonna have a skinny margarita. Mm-hmm they're using an agave that is almost all fructose. So if I do that before I eat a meal, and I'm dehydrated, I'm setting myself up for bad stuff. Right? So take out the high fructose corn syrup, the fructose, the aged foods, the food additives eat foods in their whole natural form because it's the food additives that are also causing a problem yet the sugar out of the diet watch your alcohol cuz that also raises uric acid. The other thing is to make sure you're well hydrated. So you're not turning on that fructose conversion from glucose, cuz you could do that all day long every day, particularly before you eat the other thing.
(41:58): So when we look, I think it's really important to find out, you know, obviously we do genetics, we do hormone metabolism. I think it's really important for women to know how you're wired. Mm-hmm , you know what works for one person doesn't work for another and when you know those rules, it makes it easier for you to manipulate. So things like hormones, metabolism, testing, and DNA are super important, but even if you don't have that, the next thing I would make sure that I'm doing is that I'm doing movement. That helps turn on some of that nervous system stuff. You know, I alluded to it because if I have a slow nervous system to burn my fat and my transport for sugar into the muscle cell is slow. The two things that I make sure I really, really want to do is I need to turn on that nervous system.
(42:42): So you know, some of my people we practice like, you know, those sorts of, kind of crazy little movements, but I need to move more. That doesn't mean exercise more cuz sometimes women are overdoing it, and they're driving cortisol and a bunch of other stuff, but I need to move more. So think I'm walking, I'm doing more general movement. Mm-hmm and I need to do exercise that stimulates the heck outta my big muscle groups, your butt, your hips, your thighs, your legs. So that means that I need to do weightlifting. And weightlifting's super important also to bone density and other things, which is a huge area of concern for women our age and above. So weightlifting stimulates that Glu four transport along with more movement and high intensity intervals. But that doesn't mean I do two a days. right. That doesn't mean I have so many women that work out too much because they think if I keep burning it, I'll get it off, you know, but that could be counterproductive, but we do need to move more particularly for sedentary, cuz it's very hard for our body to do that stuff. And that could be simply just going out and walking in nature. I think that's another big part of it is like getting a little more centered, getting a little more, you know, time to yourself, getting a little more time in nature also helps.
(43:51): Yeah. So true. So there is hope you can have the best health of, of your life over 40. It's perfectly possible. You just need to find a guide who can help you get there, and you need to do it, and you need to do it now because like Cheryl Sandberg says, we need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation to make sure women's voices are heard and heated, not overlooked and ignored. Thank you so much for joining me, Betty. Thank you for the research you do. And the work you do, we will have links to Betty's social media to her podcast, but tell everybody about these resources that you have and where they can find out more about.
(44:30): You. Certainly. So, so definitely my podcast is this, this functional life, and we cover these topics in more. You can also find a link in the show notes for a quiz, a hormone type quiz. So you can understand what's at play cuz again, your hormones, all interplay and that's a fun quiz that gives you a lot of information. And then if you look me up@bettymurray.com, you can find information about me and the things that I do.
(44:55): Yes, the hormone reset quiz definitely we'll have the link in the show notes. You can go there and find your unique hormonal imbalance, and we'll have the link in the show notes. So you wanna do that and thank you so much, Betty for joining me. It was so good to see you.
(45:09): Yes. Thank you for having me.
(45:11): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Ladies, it's time to take control of your hormones and ride the waves. In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Shelly Burns, a doctor of chiropractic, a gym owner, a fitness expert for 20 years, a life coach, and creator of The FIT Menopause Blueprint™ who shares her insights on how to manage menopause and keep your cool during the hormone tsunami. So whether you're in the thick of menopause or just starting to feel the effects, this episode is for you.
You'll learn:
- Four pillars of hormone health
- Lifestyle changes to make to manage your menopause symptoms
- The best foods to eat during menopause
- Working out during menopause
- Top mindset strategies to remove menopause roadblocks
- And so much more!
If you're struggling with menopause or know someone who is, this episode is a must-listen. Share it with a friend and let's get through this transition together!
(00:00): All energy is only borrowed. And one day you have to give it all back. That's a quote from the avatar movie. What does this have to do with perimenopause and menopause and riding the hormone waves like a badass? stay tuned. And you'll find out with my guest, Dr. Shelly Burns.
(00:20): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us, keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones and our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.
(01:13): Hey everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so grateful that you decided to join us today. You're gonna love my guest. She and I have been in the mastermind together for quite a bit of time. And we share a passion for women's health hormones, all things menopause and perimenopause, and she has helped so many women. She had an amazing summit around menopause recently that you might have attended. And she's got a lot of other great resources, and she's very inspirational. So you're gonna love her. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. And we'll even dive into that quote that I shared with you from the avatar movie. I mean, I saw the movie, but I didn't remember this quote till Shelly brought it to my attention and I love it.
(02:02): And I'll tell you why in the episode. So Shelly Burns is a doctor of chiropractic. She's also a gym owner, CrossFit and a fitness expert, and she's been doing that for over 20 years. She's also a life coach and creator of the Fit, Menopause Blueprint. She has always been passionate about health, fitness, and wellness. And she's gonna tell you why she's particularly passionate about women's health and the perimenopause and menopause in the episode. And she strives to be a guide for women battling hormonal obstacles, which is like just about every one of us over 40. She feels no woman should be staring at themselves in the mirror wondering who is looking back at them. Has that happened to you or feeling alone in their struggles? I know that's happened to me. Women need to be helping women. So welcome Dr. Shelly Burns.
(02:56): Thank you, Dr. Kyrin for having me today.
(02:59): Really excited to have you and talk about hormones and menopause. Two of my favorite topics. And I know everybody is gonna be curious as to why are you so passionate about menopause and about hormones? How did that happen?
(03:18): Well, right now I'm 45 currently. And when I was 43, I've always been really in shape, taking care of my body. I race these international races. I travel. And then within, I'm gonna say three months, I gained 20 pounds. I started out with mild anxiety that grew to major anxiety and panic attacks within eight months and slowly over this period of time, I went from feeling like a badass to not even being able to look at myself in the mirror. I wasn't sleeping. I was exhausted day and night. I, even if I tried to take a nap during the day, I couldn't take a nap. So I would go to my, went to my primary doctor and, and he prescribed me an anti-anxiety med. And then two months later I was even more anxious and I was confused. Because I'm like, well, now I'm taking this stuff because cause I'm not a big, uh, prescription.
(04:11): I don't really like to take things if I can help it. So the fact that I couldn't control my anxiety really bothered me. So then I went back, he increased the dose. I started having major panic attacks. He increased the dose again and added something else. And finally, my relationship was not doing very well cause I could not even communicate what I was feeling or what I was going through. And I'm a big communicator. So the fact that I couldn't even pinpoint what was going on or why I was feeling so terrible, I decided to go to another doctor because I felt like I was maybe just going crazy. So she did a blood test and did all that stuff. Not, I didn't know what she was testing for. I was just like, yeah, sure. When she came back, she started asking me things like, well, do you sweat at night?
(04:53): And like wake up. I'm like, yeah, but you know, I sleep in bed with five dogs and a person. And she, I said, so it was either that or I kept thinking I had COVID, and she's like, no, no. How many times a week? And I said, well, at least two or three. And so she started asking those questions that I didn't really know what she was trying to ask. And she's like, well you're in perimenopause and this could be why the anxiety you're, you're increasing cortisol. You're you're not sleeping. You're having night sweats. And the weight gain was another big one. And then I started breaking out, which I still kind of have a problem with that, but that's kind of how it all started. My, because when she told me you're in peri menopause, I think my reaction was like, what? Like I'm not 50 I'm 43. And she goes, oh no, no. So I learned a lot just in that one sentence, like you're in per menopause, cuz I almost was appalled that she said I was in menopause, but that was just my, that was my education and ignorance at that point, I didn't, I've never had never heard of it. I knew what menopause was, but that was about it. That's kind of what started it.
(05:51): Yeah. You know, it's, you're not unique in that. I mean here I was OB GYN. My health was a show in my forties and it never occurred to me. This is the menopause transition. It never once occurred to me. So we have this kind of dialogue going on, that, oh no. Menopause is, you know, for women in their fifties when the period stops completely and everything else before it has nothing to do with it. I think we should change the whole transition to make it call it the menopause transition. And it starts really at 40 so that we can include our sisters in the forties. Cuz then they won't think, like you said, you thought you were crazy. I thought I was crazy too. And here I had the credentials to know I should've known better, but you know, we're not taught that. So we don't know what we're not taught. So you're very passionate about it. And you come from a fitness background, right?
(06:47): Yeah. I I've owned a gym for 20 years. Well one was in LA and then I moved to North Carolina and had another gym. But in that time, I became a personal trainer while I was in chiropractic school. So for about 20 years, I've done both. So really into doing the things we can to con you know, to help ourselves live longer. Um, I, I wanna be 80 and be able to be out doing what I wanna do. I don't wanna be, you know, stuck in a wheelchair on a cane. So I'm very passionate about just longevity through taking care of our bodies.
(07:19): Yes, absolutely. I love this quote that you shared with me before we started from the avatar movie. All energy is only borrowed and one day you have to give it back. What does that mean?
(07:32): From my perspective, cuz when I first read that or saw that it was, I loved it because I do feel like we are, we are in this temporary space, our bodies are in this temporary space and we, if, if your spiritual in any way, you know, our energy is coming from a higher power. And to me, it's just, that we're using it while we're here. It's not ours, but we're given this opportunity to live this life in our own, in our best way. And so to give it back means like, you appreciate what you have at the momentin the moment. Like I have another quote. I like to say at the end of my podcast, I am trying to enjoy every moment of every movement because in my head we're like, we're not guaranteed another movement. I've met people that are in wheelchairs and all sorts of situations that they didn't see coming. So I'm always like we have these bodies, like let's use 'em and enjoy 'em and, and have that freedom that we like to do, like go hiking or ride a bike or go swimming. It's just a powerful thing that we have that we should use this energy that we're given.
(08:30): Yeah. I love this concept because it, it really speaks to something that I talk with people about the fact that we kind of are this soul, this energy being, and we come to earth, but that every particle that physically makes up our body is given to us by the plants and animals and resources first that when we're in the womb that our mother consumes and transmutes that literally organize around the energy that we are and create our bodies. And then when we're born, we continue to take the external environment, you know, fruits, vegetables, animal proteins, into our body and change it. So we're taking that energy from their bodies, plant bodies, animal bodies, and we're changing it into our flesh and blood. And then when we're done with it, we discard the body, and we're still the energy. And so I love, I know I saw avatar, but I don't remember this quote, but I love that you pulled this out.
(09:31): All energy is only borrowed. And one day you have to give it back. And I love the concept. Like, are we being good stewards of it? Because it's not just for us. It's given to us on loan and I don't know about you, but if a friend loans me a pair of shoes, I take better care of it than I do my own shoes. And so I love this concept of it's just ours to borrow, and we have to give it back. Okay. So let's dive into how we can be good stewards of this energy that is ours to use in this lifetime. I wanna talk a little bit, I know you have the new book coming out, menopause, tsunami, how to ride the hormone waves, like a bad. Who wants that? Y'all I know each one of you so what are some principles behind that? I think it gets to your four-step system, is that right?
(10:25): Yeah. So basically when I found out I was in para menopause, being a chiropractor and fitness and in the whole, the body, I really dove into research, which I know you and I have talked about this before. Like I really dove into the research and, and how to approach being in this period differently. Like why wasn't my workout six days a week, sometimes two days, why weren't they working anymore? Why wasn't my nutrition working anymore? I was doing the same thing I did in my thirties, but I could barely lose a pound. So I really like diving into life over 40. And like, what are the best workouts were the best nutrition, things like that. And I put together this thing called the fit menopause blueprint, which is where I developed the four pillars, which are fitness, nutrition, mindset, and self-care. So in the book I break down kind of my journey and how I found these four pillars.
(11:12): And then what I do within the four pillars. So like fitness, for example, uh, that pillar, I do own a CrossFit gym. Now I love the competitiveness of CrossFit, but I've also learned over time that I can't put that much stress on my body anymore and expect to get the results. So it was almost when I decreased the strain I was putting on my body and still got in really good workouts, like hit type workouts. I was getting, I started getting results. So I almost stopped doing what I was doing and looked at it differently. Even though I wasn't torturing my body. Like you do in CrossFit, I still was getting in workouts, but I wasn't taking my body to that high cortisol level where I wasn't gonna recover or get the effects and the benefits of the exercise. So that's like, that is, is the fitness when I go more in depth than there and talk about like exactly what the benefits of HIIT and things like that, and then nutrition and then self-care and mindset.
(12:05): Can we talk about a little more in depth about the fitness, cuz I think what you're mentioning, women listening are experiencing and they're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, Shelly, tell me more about that. Because you know, there are different groups of women who really are in my community and one of the groups is those are those women who do CrossFit and they're real fitness fanatics and they get into their forties. And then all of a sudden exactly what you said, I'm working out like crazy and I can't even lose a pound. So can you speak a little bit more in detail about what's happening, why that's happening and do we need to work out differently? So...
(12:50): What in my own journey and then my clients, cuz now I, now I help other people with this. I have found that I still do CrossFit, but I do two to three days a week of CrossFit. And what I stop doing is the really heavy lifting. So I like to lift, but I don't need to take my body to that extreme of really straining underneath really heavy weights. Some women can do that, but as I got older, I realized I can't do that. So with that two to three times a week of CrossFit, and then I do the other two to three times a week of HIIT. Now HIIT is the high intensity interval training, but a lot of women do hit wrong. You'll see boutique gyms where they're like HIIT workouts, and they're 45 minutes to an hour long, but hit workouts. If you do them correctly, you're not gonna last 45 minutes to an hour.
(13:33): HIIT workouts tend to be, I've seen all different stats, but seven minutes to like 20 minutes. But the idea is when you are doing that work period, let's say 45 seconds on and 15 seconds off that 45 seconds, you are supposed to be hitting 90% of your max capacity of what you have to give. So that 90%, you're not gonna be able to keep a 90% capacity over45-minuteute period. That's not gonna happen. So those people that are doing those hit long, long workouts are not quite doing hit. And that's why sometimes hit is not getting people the results that they want. You wanna do shorter workouts, shorter bursts, where you get that rest period. So you're getting the heart rate up down your body's getting recovery. You're not taking it to that threshold of extreme stress like you do in, in some workouts.
(14:19): So we do have to work out differently and from what, what I've changed and from, from what the lady, my clients changed, it's made a huge difference because I also had people in my gym that when they found out I was doing this over 40 fitness, they signed up even, they were already members at the gym. And one of their biggest things they said to me is I've been doing CrossFit with you now for a year, two years. And my body hasn't changed at all. Like I still have this, you know, a little bit of weight in my waist. And a lot of the women had maybe 10, 15 pounds of lose, not anything major like 50 pounds or a hundred pounds. So, they were frustrated cuz they've been doing it for so long. They were working out four or five days a week.
(14:54): They weren't getting any results. And I said, listen, how about we change it up a little bit. Let's do two to three days of CrossFit. I will write up two to three days of hit workouts, and we'll try to decrease the strain on your body. And all of a sudden, within four weeks they could tell they, their energy was higher. They were, were covering, up, they were sleeping better. So then I was like, okay, fitness, you know is on it, but it's not the whole thing. Cuz obviously nutrition is 90% of somebody's journey and health. So I do feel like with the hit workouts, people just are doing them wrong. Mm-hmm , it's been taken too far where in order to get the most benefits from hit workout, it's 90%. I mean, you're at a sprint for 30, 45 seconds. Mm-hmm you get that rest period to bring it down. So that is the fitness part. And it's just, we as women think we have to do six, seven days a week, cuz that's what we did before. But our, we are not in our thirties anymore and that's not going to get us the results. There might be a small handful of women that get results doing that. But I mean, ideally we're fighting against our own bodies when we do that.
(15:54): Got it. All right. So number one, we've gotta change our output with our fitness, but you just said nutrition is 90% of the results we're getting. So explain that to us, Shelly.
(16:05): So with nutrition and owning a gym, everybody likes to just think it's all about working out, but it does matter what we put in our bodies, and I'm not one that's of strict nutrition. I'm not a nutritionist, but I just have been doing nutrition challenges and have a lot of certs of nutrition. And in my chiropractic degree, we Studi a lot of pharmacology and nutrition and things like that too. So I always feel like we're fueling our bodies. So I'm one that I don't like to drink my calories. I like to eat them. So if I'm gonna have something, I prefer it to be something that I would enjoy eating. But with nutrition, it can be hard because you want to have, you want it to be part of your lifestyle. You wanna enjoy what you're eating. A lot of people go on vacation, and they have this thing where they feel like they're torturing themselves.
(16:48): So it's really this uncomfortable and unhealthy relationship with food because we should still be able to go out and have a good meal or, you know, have a drink here and there. And which is a lot of people I realized women's hold up as they're like, can I drink alcohol? And maybe it's just cuz we're all over 40 now. And we need to drink, drink more often. But yeah, a lot of, a lot of women struggle with even when they hear the word nutrition, they think they have to cut all a bunch of stuff out and starve themselves. But what I try to get women to do is just eat whole foods, try to stop eating the processed foods, you know, eat more fruits and vegetables, vegans, you know, they have to find their own source of protein because two, one of the most important things, which I'm sure you'll agree is we have to increase our protein in this time. That's the number one thing I learned in nutrition for women over 40 and impairing menopause, we have to increase our protein. We're decreasing muscle mass and bone density over time. We're fighting against that. So we have to fuel our bodies with what it needs to stay strong.
(17:44): Yes we are protein deficient y'all so you got to up your protein. So definitely we've got fitness changes we need to make in our regimens. We've got nutritional input changes. And then you talked about mindset. I know that's one of your favorite topics. Let's dive into that a bit. What, you know, I think people hear about mindset so often when they hear it, they kind of just tune out and go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Stress management. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mindset. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what does that mean to you? How can you help them get it so that it really has impact for them?
(18:18): Yes. Mindset was one of those. I always say, I always said it was woo. Woo. I'm like, yeah. Okay. Whatever. Just like you said, but the more I started reading, I was reading a lot of women that were in their fifties and postmenopausal, and they were talking about looking back and how they were struggling at the time. But now that they're through it, they're trying to like to give the, the younger people hope like, listen, it's, it's a period of time, but they were like living life. They were like, this is the best, best they've ever felt and they're in their fifties. So it kind of made me think about it a little differently. I started like researching like, well, why are they feeling better? You know, what are they doing? And, and how are they, why do they think this is their best life at 50?
(18:58): So I really started diving into that. And then I came across a ton of limiting beliefs. Like I'm not good enough. I'm never gonna lose this weight. All those things that women struggle with, I could have the healthiest girl in the gym here. Who's everybody would want to be, if you put her in a lineup of 10 people, everybody would pick this girl to be, and she is so negative, but that's like what women do. Like we are so hard on ourselves and she's like perfect to everybody else. But then she's still has things bad to say about ourselves. So as women, it's a battle constantly with how we talk to ourselves. Um, how people maybe have talked to us in our past. So with mindset, I first try to get women to look at this period of life differently. Yeah. It's hard. We're struggling to get up during the day.
(19:40): Maybe you're, you're one that is really struggling at your job. You know, things like that, where we just are facing all this stress from the outside, which is increasing our cortisol, which we don't want. So it's about wrapping our head around like, yes, this is where we're at, but I know if I take care of myself, if I'm taking care of myself, there are good things going on inside my body. Even if I'm not quite benefiting from all of it, like we are, we still need to increase our muscle mass and bone density or, or try to keep what we have. So mindset is just important to embrace where you're at. Even if you're struggling, like you're having a bad day. Sometimes the best thing to do is go out and go for a walk, like getting that in nature and that freedom and just knowing and being appreciative of where you're at. Like we talked about, like we have these bodies, like why are we gonna waste them sitting around on a, on a couch or not really doing things we wanna do. Mm-hmm skydive and stuff when I'm 60. So I'm trying to like preserve as much as I can just so that I can live life. Like why retire and, and not be able to do much cuz you haven't taken
(20:40): Care. Wait, have you been skydiving?
(20:43): No, but it's on my bucket list.
(20:44): Is it on your bucket list? Okay. So let's dive into this and I agree with you, you know, I think mindset is everything. It's everything at every age. But particularly at midlife, if we buy into the BS that society says who we are over 50 or even over 40 as women we're doomed. Right? Cause we're basically told by society that we are old undesirable, sexless over the hill, like we're done. And I think nothing could be further from the truth. So what are your top strategies? Like you mentioned using your body, going for a walk, like what are your top strategies for people who are in that negativity? Like it's not possible for me, it's too late for me, all these negative beliefs that we have, I'll never lose the weight. I'll never right. So 75% of us at the age of 60 are overweight or oh obese. In my opinion, it's because we believe that that's what's normal quote, unquote normal because seven 75% of us have it. It's not what's possible. Right? We can be a healthy, we can be the best weight we've ever been. We can have the highest muscle mass we've ever had, but we have to make up before it can happen in our bodies. It has to happen in our minds. We have to make up our minds first. And so what are your top strategies for people to stop believing the BS and change their mindset and their beliefs.
(22:16): So I almost have to come at it from a different angle with clients in that I have to start getting them small wins from the beginning. So one of my top things I try to do first is increase somebody's energy, help them increase their energy so that they then have energy to a lot of 'em are like, I have no energy to do that. I have five kids and a husband and you know, whatever. So it's increased energy. So these small wins and then getting them to be like, I feel better. And then as a coach and as a trainer and as a professional, then it's trying to get them to almost embrace that on their own, like a life coach being a life coach too. Like you're trying to get them to figure out what is making them feel better. So I have to come at it like a different angle.
(22:59): But before we talk about that, you mentioned the whole, I was going to this therapist during this time. I didn't know I was in perimenopause and he was a man in his forties and he was said to me, cuz I was like, I'm really frustrated. Like I can't run. I'm not racing. Like I've gained weight. And he's like, well, you know, you just, you know, you're over 40 now. Sometimes you just have to accept where you're at. And he said multiple of these comments over a period of like a month. And then another time he said, I said, I have this anxiety. I just don't, it's getting worse. And he's like, well maybe you just need to learn to, to live with the anxiety. Cause that's not gonna go away. He said so many things like that, that it like in my brain, I, I don't have the ethics of that or the morality of that.
(23:39): Like I feel like there's gotta be something I can do. I'm not just gonna roll over. Which is what I felt like he was telling me to do. I'm like, no, I'm active. I see women in my races that are sixties and 65 and they're ripped and they're, they're in really good shape. I said, I can see myself doing that. And that's where I wanna be. So that alone is like, well, I just wanted to say that before cuz I was really fighting a, the, a therapist that was, I was going to for help. And that's what he was putting in my brain was that this is just, I just need to accept where I'm at. And if I never, if I would've listened to him, I never, would've gone to this other doctor. And then obviously I let that guy go. That therapist go, cuz he was, he almost was holding me back from where I thought I could be.
(24:19): Oh I think it's so true. And I wanna reiterate what you're saying, Shelly, to everybody listening, you know, medical professionals are some of the worst when it comes to negative mindset, beliefs about women over 40 and they will, we are be it's because what we're, it's what we're taught. We are taught that women it's normal for their age to be overweight, tired, have no sex drive, lose hair, just all the things and be anxious, right? And that it's only gonna get worse. You can only use medications to try to control it. And there's nothing else. And, and that's a bunch of BS. So I would reiterate that you cannot go to traditionally trained practitioners, not MDs deals, therapists, all of them. They're not trained in that. So if you go to the hardware store for milk, you're not gonna get it. So you need to go to a different store. So what are some practices you found personally that have been helpful beyond disbelieving your practitioner?
(25:23): Beyond my therapist. So as far as the mindset, which was probably the hardest for me, because for eight months I had been beating myself up, like I'm a trainer and I gained weight. So I had to get outta the mindset that everybody was looking at me like, how am I, how am I coaching and treating and training people. When I, when I'm unhealthy, I look unhealthy. But when I talk to people, they're like, it doesn't look like you gained that much. You gained some weight. But, but in my head I was so hard on myself. I mean, I would look in the mirror and be like, who the heck are you? Like? You know, I just didn't even like myself. So what I had to do with mindset wise is I spent a lot of time really trying to dive into why I believe these things as far as what other people thought of me, like it should have mattered, right?
(26:09): Like all these other people's opinions shouldn't shouldn't matter. But I had to be kinder to myself and more gentler I spent, I gave myself and this is where the self care comes in. I just spent more time with myself. I started doing things like I'm not a big pedicure manicure person, but I started like going and getting a pedicure or I would go for a 20-minute walk or I started just doing acupuncture and not a lot of people do that stuff cuz they're in pain. I would go just to help balance out my hormones naturally. Or I would do massage. Like I really started trying to take care of my body. And with that, and with the small changes, like we talked about strategies with the women, these small wins, I just had to give myself the small lens. I had to just start feeling better about myself and building up like the fitness, changing the fitness, the nutrition, different things like that to where I, I started believing that or reading about other people that were so happy in their fifties. And I thought, you know what? This is just a time period. And I'm not gonna let, I'm very stubborn. I'm like, I'm not gonna let this beat me. If somebody tells me I need to do this, I'm gonna do it. Just like that therapist was like, no, you're not ever gonna be able to run and stuff again. And I'm like,
(27:15): Yeah, I'm like,
(27:19): And every woman is different. A lot of women, if they have a lot of weight to lose, let's say 50 plus pounds, it's their mindset is gonna be different coming in. They need to be more nutrition geared. I feel like because for someone that's coming in with 10, 15 pounds, their nutrition just needs to be cleaned up a little bit. They're probably already eating pretty healthy. They're just not getting enough protein. Let's say, but for somebody has a lot more weight to lose it's they have a lot more depth to their, their pain points. They're they're struggling a lot more mentally. So each client I get, I look at differently and I really try to work that with that client individually. So that's kind of where I start. I just try to feel where they're at. And I wanna know those deep things that they're feeling that they won't tell anyone else.
(28:04): Cuz like all those things I was telling myself, I wasn't, I couldn't put a word on it to express to my partner what I was feeling and like we were not doing good. So it's just being able to talk to somebody too, the support in the community, which I know you have your own huge support and community system. And that during this time I feel like has been the most beneficial for a lot of my clients. They like knowing that somebody else is going through what they're going through. Maybe not the exact same, but that mm-hmm , we're all gonna get through this. We're just gonna go through some ups and downs or like my books has the waves, the hormonal waves, but it's not beating yourself up in the meantime, but enjoying that we still have these bodies that we are, we get the pleasure and you know, the time to take advantage of using. So let's use 'em
(28:44): Yeah. Let's use 'em until we lose 'em for sure. So what other things, anything else you'd like to share on your fit, menopause blueprint or your menopause tsunami? How to ride the hormone waves like a badass. I know you mentioned the four pillars. We talked a little bit about each one, any last words or most impactful things that you'd like to leave everyone with Shelly?
(29:08): Well, I mean the biggest thing for me is, is really slowing myself down to appreciate what I, what I do have. Like a lot of times we get so busy in our lives that we forget, we forget those things. We forget like how far we've come, even as a person or as a human being and all the hurt we've been through and the negativity and, and that we ultimately are in control of how we feel like we, you can, you can start talking better to yourself. But what I like to do is I just like to enjoy fitness. I, there is a way to enjoy it. If you find something that you like to do, it doesn't have to be torture all the time. Um, and then I really do try to find that 20 minutes a day of self care time, whether it be reading, I have a client who her family just refused to give her 20 minutes a day.
(29:51): Like she had kids. And so we came up with something where she was like, I want 20 minutes, you know, to her husband, I need you to take care of the kids. I'm gonna go in the bedroom and I just need 20 minutes and I'll come out when I'm done. Well at first they were like, Ugh. But they started realizing when, when she came out of the bathroom, how much better or out of the bath bathroom, out of the bedroom, how much better she was feeling like she was less stressed and more at peace. And so they started like, go take your 20 minutes. Like so just little things that can make a big impact. Something you gotta communicate to your loved ones too. Like they don't, maybe they don't realize like how draining, how much you have on you. And if you're holding it all in, you're gonna explode, which is not healthy at all. Cuz we already are fighting the mood swings and the irritability. So you don't wanna make that stuff worse.
(30:36): Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your passion about this premenopausal menopausal time of life and for the work that you do. I think that together we can really make this the best time of life. In my opinion, it should be the best time of your life. And if it's not, you are doing it wrong. So , you've gotta get some information and inspiration so that you can move past what society says this time of life should be for us into what is possible. So you've gotta get skills, knowledge, tools, support is always what I say. Three pronged approach. And Shelly, thank you for that, that you provide, you have a great download free download for everyone. The top 12 per menopause, menopause secrets revealed. We will have the link in the show notes. Do you wanna tell everybody a little bit about that?
(31:31): So the ebook is just a little bit more trying to educate women. So it was more geared towards some like me that has no clue coming to it. So it goes over like even what hormones are symptoms of, uh, perimenopause and menopause and even the stages of menopause. So it's more of an educational tool where I don't go in depth in the four pillars in that it's more of a, this is what's gonna happen to you. Every woman's gonna go through it, just set yourself up for, you know, being aware that it's coming or share it with someone who like my mom, I asked my mom why she didn't share, uh, why she didn't tell me this was coming. And she said, when she was younger, they just were told they were moody and cranky. Like there was no, there was no she's like, so I didn't even really know what perimenopause and she's been through it and still didn't even know how to explain it. So yeah. So the ebook is just, and then I have other things on my, my website that can be downloaded free habit, stacking guides and things like that. So that's just Shelly burns. Uh, Dr. Shelly burns.com.
(32:30): Okay. We will have that in the show notes too. Dr. Shelly burns.com. We will have the link to download the top 12 perimenopausal menopause secrets revealed. It's interesting. What you just mentioned. One of my colleagues just texted us, texted us in a group thread that we all belong to. That she's at a small business development seminar sitting next to a 40 something woman who said, do you remember that mandatory mother-daughter tea? We had to all go to in about fifth grade where they told us how our bodies were about to change and what to expect with a little tool kit to go. She says, we need to do the same thing for women approaching Perry menopause. What a brilliant idea we for sure do survival kit perimenopause, tee time or something like we'll have to come up with a catchy name, but anyway, thank you so much for joining me today, Shelly.
(33:15): I hope everyone will check out Shelly on Facebook, Instagram, check out our website and go download the guide. Thank you so much for joining me today, Shelly. Thank you Dr. Kyrin, and thank you all for joining me for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you have gotten some knowledge, tools and inspiration that you can use to move towards what is possible for you at this time of life. Because like I said, if you're not thinking this is the best time of my life, you're doing it wrong. So join those of us who really are having the best times of our life and figure out what it is that you need. Get the knowledge, tools, and support that you need. Thanks for joining me. I'll see you next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all
(34:05): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
Get Dr. Shelly Burns’s “The Top 12 Perimenopause and Menopause Secrets Revealed” ebook for FREE.
CLICK HERE: https://ebook.menopausesecrets.com/
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Do you have a loved one suffering from dementia? Are you worried about your own cognitive health as you age? If so, this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is for you!
Our guest, Dr. Heather Sandison, the founder of Solcere Health Clinic, and Marama, the first residential care facility for the elderly of its kind, and a leading expert in the field of integrative medicine, shares her insights on how to protect your brain and prevent or reverse dementia.
In this episode you will learn:
- The role that hormones play in brain health
- The benefits of lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, for cognitive health
- The genetic determinism of Alzheimer's disease and what you can do to mitigate your risk
- The tests and treatments available to prevent and treat dementia
- The complex system science approach versus the reduction approach to brain health
- And much more!
If you are interested in learning more about how to protect your brain and prevent or reverse dementia, this episode is a must-listen!
(00:00): Do you think that dementia is a done deal and that once you get it, you'll always have it. Well, you need to listen up because that's actually a lie.
(00:12): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us, keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.
(01:05): Hi, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you believe that dementia is a done deal in that, once you have it, you will always have it. It will progress and get worse. Then you need to listen up because that is just not true anymore. The truth is that you can prevent and reverse cognitive decline and Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. When you take a root cause all systems approach. And my guest today is an expert on this. She is going to break it down for you. She's also hosting a wonderful summit that is coming up on Alzheimer's and cognitive functioning and dementia and how to prevent and reverse it. So I definitely want you to attend that. We'll have the link in the show notes, because this is for everyone.
(02:00): You know, don't hear this title and think, oh, uh, my brain is fine, right? It takes decades to develop cognitive decline and dementia. And so if you have a brain, and you're a human, and you're getting older, which is just about every one of us, then you need to listen up, cuz you need to be doing things, taking steps to protect your precious brain, your mainframe computer. Now. So we'll dive into talking to Heather. She gave a masterclass today about all the things that you need to be doing for your brain. Don't be overwhelmed though, because in her summit she's going to go into with experts like me, way more detail. And of course I'm the hormone expert and hormones. You definitely need a prescription for hormones. If you want to protect your brain, you cannot have optimized brain function without it. So we'll dive into that, but I'll tell you a little bit about Dr.
(02:56): Heather and we'll get started. She's really rather remarkable. Dr. Heather Sandison is the founder of SOCE health clinic and MIMA the first residential care facility for the elderly of its kind at SOCE Dr. Sandison and her team of doctors and health coaches focused primarily on supporting patients, looking to optimize cognitive function, prevent mental decline and reverse dementia by addressing root causes of imbalance in the brain and body. This is something all of you should be doing. She was awarded a grant to study an individualized integrative approach to reversing dementia and is a primary investigator on the it H N C L R clinical trial at Marama. Dr. Sandison has created an immersive residential experience in the lifestyle proven to best support brain health. She understands that changing her diet, adding nutrients, creating community and optimizing a healing environment are all challenging. Even for those with full cognitive capacity at Marama, she's done the work for you, all you or your loved one need to do is show up. She is also the host of the reverse Alzheimer's summit and collective insights podcast, where she works to share what is possible for those suffering with dementia. Welcome Dr. Heather Sandison.
(04:23): Thanks. It's so exciting to be here with you.
(04:25): Yeah, I am so excited about your summit coming up. Many of my listeners know that my mom suffers with advanced Alzheimer's and I really I'm so passionate about helping others to know how to prevent and reverse cognitive decline. Cuz personally, I think it is the most devastating disease someone could be diagnosed with. How did you come to be so passionate about preserving cognitive capacity and preventing and reversing Alzheimer's?
(04:59): Well, as you know, it's an absolutely torturous disease, not only for the person experiencing it, but for all of their loved ones who have to watch this slow painful demise. And the reason I became so passionate was because there's a bit of injustice in this, right? I was told that there was nothing you could do for dementia by very well meaning very well educated instructors when I was in school just 10, 12 years ago, right? Like this is very recent history I was told. There's nothing you could do to suggest otherwise is to give someone false hope and that's just cruel. Right? So don't do that. And then fast forward a few years I saw Dr. Bison speak at a conference and I was really intrigued because his approach, he was saying, you could reverse dementia. You could reverse cognitive decline. And his approach made a lot of common sense.
(05:54): It just wasn't common practice to kind of put all of functional medicine together and apply it to someone with dementia. So what he was describing was BA essentially complex system science approach, the opposite of the reductionistic approach that conventional medicine has been taking for decades, where they try to create one pill or one IV formula that's gonna cure Alzheimer's right. And then everybody's gonna get on it and nobody's gonna have it again. Well, this is really a false premise. It doesn't work because it's based on this idea that beta amyloid plaques or tell proteins these pathological or, or histological really physiological changes. They're almost like scar tissue in the brain that they are the ones that cause dementia or, or Alzheimer's when in fact it's what causes that scar tissue is what causes dementia. And so what I saw after seeing Dr Bison speak was that I was intrigued, right.
(06:55): I, I was skeptical, but I was curious. And so like when I had and did his training, I came back to my office still skeptical, but my first patient Linda came into my office after I was on Dr. Bison's website. Right. I was on the list of people who had been trained by him. And so I had patients showing up asking, uh, because there weren't other people in San Diego who had been trained by him at that point. And so Linda came in with her husband, very enthusiastic, totally committed to doing everything she could. Now for your listeners who aren't familiar with a mocha score, this is the Montreal cognitive assessment. And it's a score out of 30. So 30 is perfect. We really wanna get over 26, especially as we're aging. And when we start to be able to measure cognitive decline. So this can be sometimes you hear this called mild cognitive impairment.
(07:46): And I won't go on the tangent about how I feel about that use of language . But as you get down into the teens, lower teens, this is Alzheimer's disease. This is relatively severe dementia, where you're having trouble taking, having a conversation. Maybe you get lost in familiar places. You aren't nonverbal. Like you can still have a conversation, but often you're repeating yourself. Unable to work is very typical at this stage. Now, by the time you get to a two, a three, a four, this person is, is answering with yes or no statements, right? They're they can't hold complex concepts in their mind. They can't hold questions for very long. And this is where Linda was. Linda was at a two out of 30. So she could answer with yes or no. Her handwriting had been affected. So it was a bit shaky. It was at a very severe slant.
(08:35): It was very, very small letters. Her relationship with her husband of course, was severely affected. They couldn't hold a conversation and he loved her so much. I mean, it was so inspiring to watch how committed he was to her and how much he wanted to work hard to get her back. And I could see in Linda, she had this big, bright smile, and she was in there. She wore these loud, amazing clothes, you know, lots of mismatch and lots of color and hats and accessories. It was just great. And you could see who she had been and these little remnants personality that were peaking through. Well, her and her husband went home and they got out of a moldy bedroom. She got hers removed from her mouth. She got on biodentical hormones. She started all of the supplements. They went fully keto. They started ballroom dancing three to four times a week.
(09:28): And they started walking like vigorous walking exercise every day of the week and low and behold, six, seven weeks later, she came back and her mocha was a seven. Her life had been transformed. So she was now bickering with her husband about something that had happened on the ride to the clinic, which I was just like in disbelief. I could, I thought, you know, I was looking at her mocha scores, her worksheets and going, did we do it wrong? Like, did we miss anything? Like I just, my brain couldn't process that this was possible because I had been told the old refrain that people are still told that, that you couldn't do this. That this was impossible that I started crying because I was like, wait, what? This really works. And especially, I didn't have the confidence that it would work with someone with such severe disease.
(10:18): So when I saw in that moment, when I saw what was possible for Linda, I mean, how could anyone not commit themselves to this for the rest of their lives, right? Like this is possible for Linda. Then what's possible for everyone else who is younger. Who's just noticing those first signs that their brain isn't working the way it used to 10 or five years ago. What's possible for people who know their genetic risk, if they can prevent it from ever even starting. We know that dementia, the changes in the brain, the inflammation, the toxic assaults, the, the infections, the imbalances that cause dementia, the trigger that scar tissue formation, those imbalances start decades before anyone notices changes in their cognitive function, in their memory. And so if we can intervene sooner, we can make Alzheimer's optional. People do not have to go down the torturous path that your mom has.
(11:19): You could be scared. Your children could be spar. The torture of having to watch that of having to put someone in a home because they don't feel like they have the capacity to both raise their own children, work their full-time job, manage their house and care for the, their debilitated loved one with dementia. My life's purpose is changing the narrative around this, which is why I was so grateful that you joined me on the reverse Alzheimer's summit to help me in this crusade around telling people that I'm sorry, respectfully. I disagree with your neurologist who told you here's acept and Meda. It doesn't work very well. Get your affairs in order. There's nothing else that can be done. There's actually an overwhelming amount that can be done to support someone who's noticing their memory fading.
(12:07): Oh my gosh. She said so much in there. And when you told Linda's story and how she and her husband just went and made radical changes in seven weeks had marked improvement. I cried because it's just such demonstrative of what is possible when people really take this seriously and they do all the things and they radically reevaluate and change their lifestyle. What is possible? It's sad to me that it requires us to have such pain in order to do it. We have to go so far that people aren't willing to do it, but I love that they did it. Oh my gosh. You've said so many things. all right. So let's dive into this, but I, I think this idea of complex systems science approach versus reduction approach really is the whole shift in paradigm in medicine that is about antiaging, metabolic, functional medicine.
(13:06): It is the healthcare revolution. It is the next frontier. There's so many areas where we take this reductionist approach. Like it's just a disease, it's just symptom management and you have to deal with it and you have to control it, particularly not only with dementia. I think dementia is where this shows up as just this hopeless attitude of, oh, this is it. Get your affairs in order here, take these medicines. They don't really help. So let's dive a little into all the things that you've got to do, but I wanna start by talking, you mentioned genetic risk and I know people have heard there's Alzheimer's gene. They can't, most people readily access this, or maybe they can maybe, you know, of a place that people can get this, unless their doctor orders it. Can you talk a little bit about the genetics? What is the genetic determinism level with Alzheimer's and what's available? Mm-hmm
(14:04): yeah, there's a lot of agency here, right? Like, so even if you have the worst genetics, there's still a chance that you'll be in the camp that doesn't get dementia. Right. So there it's much more about epigenetics than it is about genetics. Right? So that, that, the way I describe it to patients is it's as if an architect has written the, has drawn the plans for a house and that's your genetic, so that's the plan. And then where you build that house, if it's by the beach, or if it's up in the mountains or it's in the desert, if there's carpet or tile, or, you know, if it's facing east or west, if there's a happy family or a sad family in it, right? Like all of these epigenetic effects determine what that house ends up looking like. And, and if it's a great house to live in or not, and that's essentially your body, right?
(14:50): So there's this genetic plan. And then there's the phenotype or what actually gets expressed, which is the actual house that gets built. Right? And so what we put into that house, what we put into that house that, you know, houses our soul that is so critically important to how that plan gets manifested. And so when we look at genetics, there are a few things and we are now, uh, you do have to get it through a doctor, but we are now offering the Alzheimer's risk test. And this takes not only APO E for genetics. So APO E genetics, let me describe APO E real quick, because this is kind the one that people know the most about and is the most indicative of late onset Alzheimer's. So there are a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's and this would be your AP P your amyloid precursor protein and your Priscilla one and two.
(15:41): We do not test for that. So for that, we have people go to a geneticist and, and understand their risk there. Now, even if they do have that risk, that elevated risk, we wanna be as proactive as possible, right? This just means you need to work a little harder than your neighbor or your spouse to do all of the things on the bison protocol and prevent this risk for manifesting. There is still a way this genetics are not determination, right? You, you, it's not black and white that you are destined to have, uh Alzheimer's if you have these genes. So, but what we wanna do is we wanna get on top of it faster. So then APO E APO E our ancestors all had APO E four, four, APO E basically predisposes you to create amyloid plaques earlier, quick, more quickly, when you are exposed to something that's causing inflammation in the brain.
(16:34): So amyloid and tell proteins that they're antimicrobial, they're there to protect us. So they've been vilified and conventional medicine as the cause of Alzheimer's, but they're actually there in response to a trigger in the brain. And so, if you are creating these quicker, you do have a higher risk of dementia. And what we see this also APOE also affects fat metabolism, particularly saturated fat metabolism. So if you have a co you have a copy from mom, a copy from dad, and if you have an APOE four from mom and an APOE four from dad, you have a 50% chance of developing dementia. So my job is to make sure you're in the 50% that never gets any sign of cognitive decline. Now, the general population has about a 13% risk of developing dementia. So this is a highly increased risk. Now, if you have an APO E there's two, three, and four, two is pretty rare, but a three, four, it happens.
(17:30): And this means you've got one, a three from mom or dad, and then a four from mom or dad. You have about a one in three risk of getting dementia. So again, I wanna keep you in that 66% that never gets dementia. Then if you have a, a two, three or a three, three or 2, 2, 1 of the other combinations without a four from mom or dad, then you have about a 9% risk of developing dementia. There's a little bit of protection actually from having an APOE two. So we use the Alzheimer's risk test, which takes another 112,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms, and takes them through an algorithm that was developed in the UK, and then gives someone a score. A very it's easy to look at, right? It's not a lot of snips. It's not one of these kind of through the internet, you get your raw data things.
(18:16): This is a, this gives you a score that has a, a lot of very sophisticated data. That's been compiled and then analyzed. And it gives you a score out of one. So one being very high risk, zero being very low risk, and it includes a O E four, but also other genetic snips, single nucleotide polymorphisms. So if I'm talking to someone who is, say the daughter of someone with dementia, or the son of someone with dementia, maybe even the sibling or cousin of someone with dementia, this is a great test to take because there are people with a O E four who actually have relatively low genetic risk. There are people without a O E force positive alleles who have relatively high risk. And so we don't wanna oversimplify. Uh, and this test is the most accurate in determining whether or not someone will develop dementia. It's even more accurate than looking at amyloid in say, imaging or cerebral spinal fluid, or however, they're they find, um, ways to do that. Now, uh, I think they might even have a blood test that's available for research.
(19:22): Okay. I know everybody's listening and, and really, I have never met a person who's not concerned about this. Although most women are most concerned about breast cancer. They're I think this is really where they should focus, because if you do get breast cancer in this day and age, you're most likely not going to diet from it, but an Alzheimer's dementia will certainly pause significant disability and premature death. So people can get this from your clinic. Can they get this from any doctor? Cuz I know there are women listening who are like, okay, I hear you, Dr. Heather, I need this test. Where do I get it?
(19:58): So anyone in the us can get it through our clinic. What we do is we have a doctor who will review it with you and then they can help you find a BR trained provider near you. If you have high risk, we're gonna wanna do that quick. But if you have low risk, you know what a relief. So we have a doctor who can help you get that test. It's it's a pretty new test. It's clear. So it it's not reimbursed by insurance yet. So it's on the cutting edge. It's used most commonly actually in the pharmaceutical industry so that the scientists there can determine who's at higher risk and then target those people for drug discovery and for, and for the, the science that they're doing. Now, we wanna apply this so that we can get people preventing dementia. And so that's why I've really done my best to make it as widely available as possible, even though not many doctors in the us are offering it. So through my clinic, anywhere in the us, you can get this test done. And then we'll, you'll talk to a doctor here at Ary who will talk you through the implications and, and the interpretation of that, and then help get you supported by the bison train provider who can take it from there.
(21:05): Okay. Awesome. And we will have the links and the show notes for all of this. So you can go there and get the links. And Dr. Heather has a great download for you, which will come to before we wrap up. So, okay. So we've got our risk, everybody. I think everyone should get checked now do not wait. And then let's talk about this complex system science approach versus reduction approach. You mentioned my favorite topic, hormone therapy. My mom was without hormones for, you know, over three decades. And that really was the only risk factor she had for dementia. And I am a huge proponent of the benefits of hormone replacement therapy. Not only for cognitive function, I mean, se what is it? 77 or 79% reduction in getting Alzheimer's if a woman is on hormone replacement therapy, I mean, that's just insane. It should be criminal not to give it
(22:05): Well, you, you mentioned the breast cancer risk, right? This is I think what, yeah, a lot of people from pulling the trigger on a hormone replacement and I think what you said was perfect, right? Like, no, of course we don't want anyone to get breast cancer. However, there's been a lot of data that was misconstrued by the media that was misinterpreted. You know, they've gone back to the women's health initiative study and put some caveats on this whole idea that there was an increased risk of breast cancer. That was with oral estrogens. That was when non-bio identical estrogens. So we're not talking apples to apples when we consider bio identical hormone replacement now. And when you think about aging and what's going to be the most torturous, the most debilitating, the most expensive breast cancer is highly treatable. We are so lucky that we live in a time when breast cancer is really highly treatable. Mm-hmm . So even if there is this like a little bit of increased risk, which my understanding of the data.
(23:05): Actually it's reduction, there's a reduction in risk of getting breast cancer. If you're on biodentical hormones. So you have a reduction in risk of breast CA of cancers. It all cause mortality, the, any reason for death, you have a reduction in risk for, and then the two things that affect women as they age, the most that are the most debilitating are gonna be a fall or dementia. These are gonna be the things that end you up in, in skilled nursing for too long, and then result in death and a torturous death where you're separated from your family, because you have to be in, in, in, you know, some kind of high acuity care and then dementia. I mean, this is torturous. Not only because just in and of itself, it's absolutely demoralizing. You lose all of your, of course cognitive capacity over time, but you also, you lose your dignity more than anything.
(23:54): And this can last for a decade or more. No one knows when the torture is going to end it also it's financially bankrupting, right? Not only is it emotionally bankrupting and exhausting for any caregiver, it is financially bankrupting as well. And so if we can prevent falls and we can prevent dementia by getting on hormones, particularly if someone already has say osteoporosis or risk of bone disease or has risk of dementia, either genetically or they're starting to notice changes, particularly as they go through menopause, then the risks are far outweighed by the benefits when we consider hormone replacement therapy, if it's bio identical and the estrogen is used topically.
(24:39): Yeah. So, so well said, thank you for sharing all of that. I agree. And wouldn't you say that the causes, uh, the factors that contribute to the creation of dementia are, are similar same factors to what contribute to bone thinning and osteoporosis.
(24:59): Absolutely. Well, that's one of the amazing things about this co this complex system science approach, right? Is that instead of saying, what's that one thing that causes dementia, what we say is, Hey, how can we get every cell in the body working and functioning better? And when we do that, well, low and behold, the side effects are that your blood pressure normalizes, your hemoglobin A1C goes back to normal. You no longer have diabetes, your osteoporosis starts to improve. Yeah. The, the kind of the four part approach to like my formula for osteoporosis is estrogen replacement with, of course with progesterone and testosterone got nice and balanced and help with muscle building. So biodentical hormone replacement with estrogen being most important there, vitamin D with K minerals and then, uh, weight bearing exercise. And with those four things, I also like to check osteocalcin and beta cross ops and the blood every six months and then a DEXA scan every two years. And with that kind of plan, that basic simple plan. I see the majority of my patients, their bones get stronger on Dexus year, uh, every other year when we check.
(26:07): Yes. Awesome. So I hope everybody's listening and taking care of these things. And I know in the summit that you're hosting, I'm super excited about it. You have experts that are gonna go in way more detail into all of these. So everybody listening needs to click the link in the show notes and sign up for that now, because you know, hopefully you're getting the, the message loud and clear that dementia is preventable and you can do things and you need, need to get on this early and often and take care of it. Or if you're already walking down that lane that you need to get out of it. So definitely wanna check that out, but briefly, what are some of the other factors I know you've touched on them. We've D we've talked about genetics in a little more detail, bioidentical hormones. What are some other factors that need to be addressed?
(27:02): Yeah, well, we're giving away the keto diet guide. So I wanna talk a little bit about the fuel that brain runs on. So the vast majority of us live our days in glycolysis burning sugar for fuel. So ATP is that fuel it's like that gasoline that gets our cells going. It gives them all the energy to make new memories, to make those connections in the brain. We've all had that feeling of being kind of tired and it's a heavy lift to do something mentally. Well, if we are on our burning sugar for fuel that over time as we age, our brains are less sensitive to both sugar and to insulin that allows the sugar into the cells from the blood into the cells to be turned into fuel. So this doesn't work as efficiently. Now this is regardless of if you have diabetes or insulin resistance, anyone as we age, if we have been on a sugar, uh, burning carbohydrates for fuel.
(27:55): And when I say sugar, I also be pasta bread, corn, you know, tortilla chips, all of the carbs, even squash and fruit. When we have been having consuming that every day for our entire lives, we don't get an opportunity to go into ketosis and burn fat for fuel. And so the brain starts to become less sensitive. It no longer efficiently burns sugar. And what we can do, this is the magic of the ketogenic diet is that we can flip the switch. We can turn our energy production from turning sugar into fuel, to turning fat into fuel and just switching the fuel. I mean, this is I, this is just divine design. It makes me I would get chills. When I think about how intelligent the body is and how is able to change out the fuel and burn it really efficiently. And so what people notice is that after getting on a ketogenic diet, they sleep better. They wake up with more energy, they lose weight. If that's the goal, cuz it's, it's very modulating for weight, their blood sugar improves and their memory comes back. They feel sharper cognitively. So I don't know if Kyrin you've ever been asked like, yo, is there a way that you can get more hours in my day? I just feel like there's not enough time
(29:16): For everything,
(29:17): Especially women, right? We're like doing so much constantly juggling and a ketogenic diet in my personal experience is the way to get another for me. I get another hour and a half in my day because instead of dragging myself out of bed at six 30 or seven, I'm up at five and I'm ready to go. This is certainly for me. I personally find it magic. And for so many of my patients, there was actually a, so many of my patients also report this. Now there was a, a trial done. It was a small feasibility trial of just nine participants. It was done in Florida and it was published in January of 2022 where they took nine again, nine participants with some co measurable cognitive decline. And they put them on a ketogenic diet for just six weeks. And they had statistically significant changes in cognitive functions. Six weeks later, if you were struggling with cognitive issues, this is the first spot. This is the first place to go. This does a lot of the heavy lifting. And I would say, this is about if I were to weight all of the interventions, cuz there's a lot, right? This can start to feel overwhelming and complex. But if I were to weight them, I would say the ketogenic diet does about half of the lifting.
(30:28): I love that you really put it into perspective. So it's not about weight. I think people hear keto diet and they think it's only about weight. And a lot of people don't have a weight problem, completely dismiss it, but you really highlight the importance of it and this metabolic flexibility and theology that you get with it. It's like the diet that keeps on giving. But do you think people should do it all the time?
(30:56): Yeah. Such a great point. I'm so glad you said that because no, it's just as bad to always be burning sugar for fuel as it would be to always be burning fat for fuel. So that term metabolic flexibility is really the goal. Our ancestors, our hunter gather ancestors did not have sugar available all the time. They did not have fat available all the time. They had periods of fasting. And so again, our divine design, the way we are, our design is to go back and forth between ketosis burning fat for fuel and glycolysis burning sugar for fuel. And when we, if our body, the chance to do that, the way our hunter gather ancestors did our body works better. It's almost, it's a bit of a stressor. This concept is called the hormetic effect or hormesis where we ask the body to be under a little bit of stress, just like exercise does this. Some calorie restriction or intermittent fasting can do this. And then the ketogenic diet is a fasting mimicking diet where we stress the body a little bit in order to get it to be more resilient. And so as we do that, we, we have, we also get, as you mentioned, auto, we senescent cells are kicked out of the system. We recycle them. We get rid of them. So that the cells that, that replace them are new and more efficient, more optimally functioning.
(32:17): Yes. Awesome. What other factors? So you, you laid it out keto diet as big does 50% of the heavy lifting. I love that. What are some other factors though that people might be alerted that they might need to attend to in
(32:31): Our practice at SOCE? And certainly through the medicine protocol, we wanna be comprehensive about how we do this. So there are two big things that increase my confidence that this approach is going to work one you're early on in the disease process. So you've just started noticing changes. If you even have it all the best is prevention, right, where you've never even noticed changes. So first thing that increases confidence is that we aren't waiting until the disease is severe. The second thing that increases my confidence is how comprehensive you can be about applying the treatment plan. So if you can do all of it, then my confidence goes through the roof. This is a lot like Linda. They did it all and they did it all right out of the gate and they got the benefits. So I get it. Not everybody's able to do that.
(33:15): And even small changes you will get benefit from. But as we stack them on top of each other, you get, you get this kind of virtuous cycle. They all work better when they work together. Okay. So we wanna be systematic about how we approach this and Dr. Bren trains providers this way. And certainly at Ary, we aim to be, uh, systematic and have check boxes, right? Because it can be a lot and feel overwhelming. So the way I think about it is we want to address there's five primary things that cause complex chronic disease. In my model, that it's toxicity, which have three flavors of toxicity microtoxins or biotoxins that come from the indoor air environment, most commonly heavy metals and then chemical toxins. These are things like petrochemicals. If you live near the freeway, this can be parabens, PCBs, SS, pesticides, herbicides, things that are in groundwater that contaminate groundwater, uh, those can come from lots of areas in the environment, but we can measure all three flavors of those toxins and then we can get them out and check that box that hopefully becomes something that you complete.
(34:21): So you get rid of all the mycotoxins get rid of all the metals, change up your environment at home or the personal care products or the cleaning products you use. And then we don't have to worry about that anymore, unless there's a new exposure. So toxins, I start there because that's a nice way to kind of check that box and move on. Now your cells can work better, cuz they're not defending you from toxicity or they're not, they're not trying to, uh, the way that Dr Renison puts it. It's great. Um, he says, imagine your brain is like a country. My brain is St right? You're focused on fighting off invaders like infections or defending from things like toxins. You're not building the infrastructure of new memories of roads and schools, right? In this analogy, you're not creating new memories. You're too busy defending, right?
(35:06): All of your resources are going in that direction. So we wanna get rid of toxins. We wanna have enough nutrients, right? We've gotta have the resources. We've gotta have the building blocks. We need those amino acids. We need those fats. We need those minerals to make all of these biochemical reactions that are necessary for memory building for quick thinking, we need all of those present. If we're depleted, then that's not going to happen efficiently. And then third, we wanna address stressors on the system. So this could be things like sleep deprivation. This could be as stress from, you know, psychosocial stressors, ort S D caregivers are very high risk of developing dementia. They have two and a half times the risk of the population, just because you're a caregiver for someone with dementia, because we often right caregivers wanna put the person they're caring for first.
(35:57): So they're not getting their own exercise. They're not getting enough sleep. It's highly stressful situation. So I really encourage caregivers to listen closely and prevent this disease. Managing stressors. I often will recommend meditation. Meditation is personally something I benefit from having a regular daily practice of mindfulness, meditation, prayer, whatever feels best for you. So managing stressors is another one. Then structure is another one. So we have toxins, nutrients, stressors, structures, structure is gonna be, is your airway open? Are you getting, are you getting oxygen to your brain at night? If you have sleep AP, even if it's mild sleep apnea, you wanna treat this aggressively. I don't care what sleep medicine says. If you are having apnea events at night, that is basically mild brain damage. And I am not okay with that. We have to treat. So whether that means going to your dentist and getting an oral appliance that keeps your airway open.
(36:59): Some people use the mouth tape. I know that sounds a little bit counterintuitive, but you can tape your mouth closed at night so that it forces you to breathe through your nose. Some people will get the nasal strips that, and I like the breathe, right? If you get the generics, they don't work as well. There's of course, the C a P the, the, which has forces pressure into the airway. The other thing that you can do is get the a, a P, and this is the Cadillac. What, from what my patients tell me, this is the Cadillac of C P much more Cadillac.
(37:30): Why is that? Why did they say that?
(37:33): The con, so the AAP is alternating pressure. So the C a P is continuous pressure. And so it doesn't matter what your body's doing. There's no feedback in the system. It just blows, you know, pressure in air I interior system. And when you use the AAP, it adjusts as you're sleeping as, and as you go into different events and then getting the mask that fits right or getting the pillow, whatever, I know that it can take effort going back and forth with sleep medicine, and it can be costly, but this is worth it. Find what works for you. And I've had patients say, oh, I feel like I'm gonna die when I have that mask on. And then it, I push them like, no, no, you've gotta figure this out and do something. Whatever works for you. And then, sure enough, a couple weeks later, they're like, I can't sleep without it.
(38:21): I it's changed my life because now I wake up feeling rested for the first time in a decade or more. So treating sleep apnea, excuse me, very, very important, getting enough, sleep enough rest. And then of course, you know, structurally traumatic brain injuries put people at risk for dementia. So again, the falls, you know, if a woman has a fall regularly and she's hitting her head, this is a really big deal. I'll also say here, the research on women and traumatic brain injuries is lagging behind because a lot of this is done on professional athletes and combat veterans, where there is an epidemic of untreated brain traumatic brain injuries that happens in women who are victims of domestic abuse. And I really hope that in the next couple of years, we see a lot more resources going into this because it's just such a tragedy.
(39:14): Just the way I think about our seniors, right? Who are unnecessarily suffering with dementia is that this it's the squandered resource. They are these people at the height of their wisdom and experience who are, are leaving society. And my job is to help bring them back into the fabric of society so they can be contributing to their families while women who are victims of domestic violence is a very similar thing, but almost just more awful to think about that. We don't know what the combination of asphyxiation. So if someone's being, this gets so graphic and Ugh makes me shutter, but someone who is being both strangled and having, getting traumatic brain injuries at the same time is really having severe detrimental effects on their brain. And we don't know what if progesterone is high. What if she's at a place in her cycle where progesterone is high or low or estrogen is high or low, and these things are happening at the same time and it's happening repeatedly, right?
(40:09): If this is something that ha occurs over and over again, what we see is that these women don't get the help that they need. We don't have the science going into what's going on. And then, because they have essentially a form of dementia, their social worker, who, whoever is there to help them, doesn't realize that maybe they're not working the plan. They're not following the instructions just because they're so overwhelmed and their brain isn't working any as well as it used to because of these injuries. So I really hope that, you know, as speaking to a female audience, there needs to be more compass. There needs to be more support for those who are suffering with dome domestic abuse. And we basically need to understand that they have a form of dementia. Structurally traumatic brain injuries are a very big deal, right? If you get hit over the head with a baseball bat, if you were in a car accident, if you've slipped and fall and hit your head and lose consciousness, even if you don't lose your con lose consciousness, if you have headaches or some sort of recovery time after this is a sign that you have inflammation in your brain, and there are things that we can do right away.
(41:17): Afterwards, we use IV N a D S choline, PSAL serum, high dose fish oils, high dose meth B12, and the sooner we can treat a traumatic brain injury, the better the, the potential that there will be significant recovery. So we talked about toxins, nutrients structure, and now infections. So therefore infections that really stand out here, what is herpes? So herpes. If you ever get outbreaks, whether they're cold sores on your mouth or genital herpes, you wanna treat this relatively aggressively. So I'm a naturopathic doctor, right? I got a big med per medication person, but when it comes to herpes and, and chronic herpes outbreaks, you wanna be treating that aggressively because that can trigger inflammation in the brain, right? We know that herpes kind of stays dormant in the nervous system. Well, whenever it gets retried, that is causing more inflammation in the brain. And this comes out of studies in Taiwan where there's big epidemiological data that showed that people who were treated aggressively with like a, an antiviral, a medication, a prescription antiviral had a lower incidence of dementia than those who had herpes, but were not aggressively treated with, with the pharmaceuticals.
(42:25): So we wanna be getting ahead of that, basically, making sure that those outbreaks are not happening regularly and work with your doctor, of course, on that. So herpes is one PGE GVAs is another. So this is oral health, making sure that there aren't infections in the mouth part of this is just geography, right? You, your mouth is pretty close to your brain. The other thing is that when you get, uh, many people will know that in dentistry, if you've had a knee replacement or a hip replacement, before you go in for a cleaning, you take an antibiotic. Well, the reason is because when you get that cleaning, it introduces those bacteria into your blood and it, that bacteria can then get onto that artificial joint and not be detected and create a, a big problem. It can also create heart disease. It can create cardiac inflammation, can lead to strokes and to cardiac events, and it can trigger the inflammation associated with dementia.
(43:20): So we want to make sure that our oral health, you health starts in the gut and the gut starts in the mouth. So this is really critical that we ha see, I think, a biological dentist we're getting cone being x-rays so that we're catching any insidious small infections in there, early on and effectively treating them. So we have herpes P and GVAs and Lyme disease. So neuro Lyme can be very debilitating. There's a lot of controversy in the field around Lyme, but my opinion is that that there's ly or co-infections present for anyone exhibiting symptoms of dementia, or Alzheimer's that you wanna aggressively treat that with a Lyme literate doctor and get rid of that once. And for all, a neuro Lyme can be very debilitating and also confusing because Lyme is the great imitator. So it looks like a lot of other things and will often go undetected.
(44:13): So anyone with dementia, I do screen them for Lyme and Lyme coinfections. And then the fourth one, many people are familiar with is COVID 19, right? So I know there are a lot of people who would not associate themselves with having dementia at all, but they've suffered with the brain fog following COVID and these viruses. And I think COVID was such a great illustration that it's really these foundations. And I would say it's stressors, structure, nutrients, and, and toxic burden that create whether or not we have balance in those, right? If we have balance the right amounts in the right places at the right times, we have the right amounts of things, then our immune system functions. Well, right. And these are the people who got COVID, but never had a single symptom. And then if we have a lot of imbalance in the system, these are gonna be the people who got COVID in either passed away, right.
(45:03): Unfortunately, or who suffered with long haul COVID right. There's alway already some sort of inflammation, some sort of imbalance. And then that virus comes in and the host that body, that house, that we're in succumbs to the perpetuating cytokine storms or whatever is next in terms of signaling that comes after that virus. And so we want to make sure we're getting that house in order those foundational pieces set. And also looking at that, you know, going back and reassessing, if somebody is struggling with long haul COVID, how can we optimize this? The function of every cell in the body, get those cytokines out. Plasmapheresis is something that's been looked at for dementia, as well as for long haul. COVID so DNRs or the Gupta program. I'm, I'm a fan of the Gupta program for retraining, the limbic system and helping with long haul. COVID there's a lot that we can do. But again, this is, this is part of that landscape of things that lead to dementia over time, that triggering of inflammation of that cytokine storm, that then trigger the production of beta amyloid plaques Andal proteins, which cause are related to, um, Alzheimer's dementia.
(46:18): Woo. Okay. Everybody take a deep breath. I know some people are hyperventilating right now, cuz they were with you on the keto diet and now they're like, oh, I have to do what. Okay. Just breathe. Y'all you're gonna go to the summit. Number one. And you're gonna get way more detail on everything. Dr. Heather has talked to you about today. So you're gonna know exactly what to do after you go to the summit. Exactly. So don't hyperventilate. You don't have to learn it all today and you're gonna go download her keto guide. Number one, we're gonna have the link in the show notes. Um, but I'll, I'll speak it out. It's SOCE right. S O L C E R e.com.
(46:59): Yeah. SOCE solutions for the Cerebra soul or soul shining light. Uh, like sun on the brain. SOCE
(47:06): There we go. Okay. So we'll have that in the show notes, we will have the link to join the summit in the show notes. So you definitely wanna go there. If you're driving, don't click it now, but wherever you're going, when you get there, click it and sign up. You will have experts. There are gonna tell you exactly what to do, including me. We'll talk about biodentical hormones. Of course, my favorite topic, Dr. Heather, thank you so much for this very insightful and inspiring. Look at dementia and Alzheimer's and how we don't have to go down that road. Have, you know, that story that the person's walking down the road and every time they walk down the street, they fall into the same hole. And then even though they try and go, the next time they try to walk around it, they end up falling in it and sometimes they walk past it, but then they end up falling in the hole and sometimes you, the person eventually learns that they can just go down a different street. So it kind of reminds me of that story. You can just go down a different street. People, you don't have to go down the street that most people in, in developed countries are going down towards, uh, dementia or cancer. All the things we're talking about also reduce your risk of cancer. Oh, by the way,
(48:21): All those scary diseases of aging. They are complex chronic diseases and conventional medicine, unfortunately does not shine in that space. Right? If you're in a car accident, if you have a bacterial infection, get to the ER, get to urgent care. But when we talk about diabetes, dementias cancers, this is really where we need to take a step back and take this more comprehensive complex system science approach and get all of those cells working optimally.
(48:50): Yes. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Heather, we will see you at the summit. Thank you for joining us.
(48:55): Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure to be here
(48:58): And thank you all for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kirin. I know that you learned something that you can start implementing today in your life to improve your health and go down a different street. I look forward to hearing what that is. Join me on Facebook or Instagram at Kirin Dunston MD, and we will have a conversation about it. And until next week, peace, love and hormones y'all.
(49:25): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
Learn how to begin Keto, get food lists, how-tos, tips, and checklists from Dr. Heather Sandison's free Keto Diet Guide.
Get it here: https://www.solcere.com/
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Do you have trouble focusing? Feeling forgetful? Do you feel like your brain is in a fog? You're not alone. According to Dr. Romie Mushtaq, many midlife women experience what's called "brain drain," which can be caused by hormonal imbalance.
In our latest episode, we're joined by Dr. Romie Mushtaq to talk about how brain drain can impact our hormonal health. She is here with a cure for your busy brain called ''brainSHIFT."
Dr. Romie is a triple board-certified physician, award-winning speaker, & national media expert. She mixes her unique authority in neurology, integrative medicine, and mindfulness to transform cultures and teams.
Dr. Romie Mushtaq currently serves as Chief Wellness Officer at Evolution Hospitality, where she has scaled a mindfulness and wellness program for over 7000 employees. These days, her most underutilized pre-pandemic talent is running through airports in high heels.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How brain drain can impact our hormones
- What are some of the signs that we might be experiencing a brain drain
- How to support our hormonal health during menopause
- Action tips to shut off our busy brain
- Dr. Romie's BrainSHIFT Protocol to help support our brain health
- And more!
So if you're struggling with brain drain, or you just want to learn more about how to support your hormonal health during menopause, tune in now!
[00:00:00] Is brain drain robbing your hormonal sanity. Your brain is not a bulletin board. Your brain deserves boundaries. Join me today for Dr. Romie Mushtaq. So the big question is how do women over 40, lus,e us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones and our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife.
[00:00:21] If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism. Lasting weight loss and supercharged energy after 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue.
[00:00:40] Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of.
[00:00:59] [00:01:00] My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast. Hi everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so grateful that you're choosing to spend your valuable time today here with me today and my homey, Dr. Romie, you're gonna love Dr.
[00:01:21] Romie. She is all about brain health and functional brain health. Did you know that your hormones. Originate in your brain and are a part of your nervous system. Yep. We're gonna talk about that too, but mostly we're going to dive into brain drain. Is it robbing your hormonal sanity? And if you're feeling like your brain has become a bulletin board, I know I have lately, then maybe you need some boundaries in your brain.
[00:01:48] She talks about the brain shift protocol and how to help people shift out of the states that drain their brain. They happen to be the same things that drain their hormones and how to [00:02:00] sleep well and have a great sex drive and emotional equanimity and great memory and mood and clarity and all the things that a healthy brain gives you.
[00:02:09] So I'll tell you a little bit about her, and then we will get started. So. Do you have a busy brain? Do you have trouble focusing on your to-do list? Are your thoughts racing through your mind when you try to fall asleep? Have the usual stress management techniques stopped working for you? Dr. Romie is here with a cure for your busy brain called brain shift.
[00:02:32] Dr. Romie is a triple board certified physician award-winning speaker and national media expert. She mixes her unique authority in neurology, integrated medicine and mindfulness to transform cultures and teams. Dr. Romie currently serves as chief. Wellness officer at evolution hospitality, where she has scaled a mindfulness and wellness program for over 7,000 employees.
[00:02:57] These days, her most underutilized [00:03:00] pre-pandemic talent is running through airports in high heels, please. Welcome Dr. Romie Mushtaq. Oh Dr. Kyrin, thank you so much for having me here with your community. We speak such a like-minded language and our work is on one continuous spectrum. So anytime I get to sit here and share your work with my audience and vice versa, it's truly a gift.
[00:03:23] Yes. I love speaking with you. My audience loves hearing what I call woke doctors and talk hormones and health. And so maybe before we get, get started, you could talk a little bit about your evolution as a physician who really gets it, that a root cause approach is best. Kyrin it is. And you know, if folks have watched my Ted talk from 2014, went viral, they know part of the story of physician burnout and a route to mindfulness long before burnout was a term.
[00:03:55] I entered neurology Kyrin at a time when less than 5% of the brain doctors [00:04:00] in the United States were women. But here's the other story that I don't get to share often enough that I think you and your listeners will appreciate is that I was just an intern and in my residency and female patients were coming to me all the time.
[00:04:14] Doctor, please help. My doctor, my male, doctor's not listening to me. Something is going on with my epilepsy or migraines during my periods or I'm in menopause. And that for fast forward, that led to my area of expertise in research as an academic neurologist. So I was seeing patients, I was researching the effect of women's hormones on the brain and Kyrin and I had this realize.
[00:04:38] That I never in my entire life had had a regular menstrual cycle and I had fought really bad acne and needed Accutane. And I kept wondering, I have so many of these symptoms of thyroid and here I am researching it. And I went to the endocrinologist here at a prestigious academic medical institution where I used to [00:05:00] work, and they blew me off because my TSH was borderline.
[00:05:04] And I'm sure I, you know, I don't have my medical records from back then that they didn't do the entire panels that you and I are taught in integrative and functional medicine. And I suffered not only from an irregular menstrual cycle, but from infertility. Then the stress of being a female physician, doing research, working 120 hours a day, and you fast-forward to me, ending up very sick and ending up in life, saving surgery.
[00:05:28] And I'm laying in the hospital going, God help me. I have no adult skills to know what I do next in my life and everything I learned in medical. School is not going to help me. I give gratitude to the surgeons who saved my life. So traditional medicine was a part of it. How do I stay healthy and listen girl long before there were podcasts, cuz I feel like an old auntie talking to you.
[00:05:47] YouTube wasn't really online. There were no apps on our phone. I made my way on a journey around the world, working with mindfulness and Iveta teachers. And it was when I went to go get board certified and integrative [00:06:00] medicine that someone took my full thyroid panel. And we started, we diagnosed and started to treat the Hashimoto seriously.
[00:06:09] And then I got my menstrual cycle back regularly, and I still feel really emotional about it because I know mindfulness teaches us not to look back, but I think. Wow. Had a doctor listened, how different would my life be? Would I have been able to have children? Would I have been with that partner that I was with and the fertility challenges and my menstrual cycle and health issues and burnout got in the way.
[00:06:31] And so I think I personally know what it feels like to suffer, and that's why I'm here. And I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to fall apart on your podcast. I'm normally so poised and speak for a living. So give me a second to pause and gather myself. It is fine. I bring that out in people like honesty to the point of tears, everybody.
[00:06:50] when they talk to me says, I didn't mean to cry, but it's a safe place, right? It's a safe place. Yes. What, and you said so many poignant things. [00:07:00] Everything I learned in medical school is not. Going to help me. So I want to point that out. I say the same thing. There was a point at which I realized when I weighed 243 pounds and I had chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia and depression and anxiety and IBS and gastritis, and my hair was falling out in all the things I realized.
[00:07:20] Everything I learned in medical school is not going to help me. And what you said. You know, maybe I would've been able to have children, right?There are women out there right now who are dealing with what you dealt with. Similar situations who have a diary problem who have not had failed to be diagnosed by mainstream corporate medicine who have infertility because of a thyroid problem.
[00:07:45] Hormone and menstrual irregularities who are suffering, and they're thinking, well, I'm going to buy $30 copay, HMO doctor. Isn't that all I need to do. So I want to shout out to all you women who can identify with Dr. Rome's [00:08:00] sharing. And it, it is just not enough. If you're gonna go to your corporate doctor that was trained, like we originally wore you're, that's what you're gonna get.
[00:08:08] So I'm glad you're here, cuz it means you're waking up and thank you for sharing that story. It's just going to hit a lot of people. Yeah. I mean, here's the humbling part. I'm a doctor and deep in my heart. I knew something was wrong for years and I couldn't get help and we did. But here's the next part of that story.
[00:08:28] And we'll transition into my work now is I was sitting now board certified in integrative medicine. It was before I launched the brain shift Institute, I was seeing patients one to one here in Orlando where his home and our doc hormone doctors, like you, Dr. Herron had diagnosed everything correctly.
[00:08:44] They were on their hormone regimen, whether it was thyroid, whether it was menopause, transition, menopause, whatever it may. And yet they were still suffering from brain and mental health symptoms. And that's where I came in. Like, you can be doing everything, [00:09:00] right. Quote, unquote, eating clean, you have the hormones.
[00:09:03] And yet something is still off with the brain. I mean, I know when I started to treat the Hashimotos and get on the right nutrition protocols for myself, that my own busy brain calmed down, like I finally felt like the young Romie I was in childhood. You know, recognized was a joyful, happy, bubbly, talkative spirit, but you know, there's a lot more than just a thyroid.
[00:09:26] And, and so if your listeners are like, oh, okay, I'm gonna fast forward through this podcast episode. No stop. Because we're about to dig a lot deeper yeah. So let's start doing that. So you are a neurologist that makes sense that you would focus on the brain. You know, you shared so many wonderful quotes with me, which I love a good quote.
[00:09:45] And you said this, your brain is not a bulletin board, your brain deserves boundaries. And I was like, oh my gosh, that's amazing. Because I feel like my brain is a bulletin board. Can you say more about that? Yeah. You know, Kyrin, I'm gonna backtrack and say, this is. [00:10:00] Prior to the pandemic, the start of the global pandemic, I was a, uh, one of the go-to experts in corporate America for stress management.
[00:10:06] And at that time I used to say, do you have too many browser windows open on your computer and in your brain? Right? But now the reality has sunk in that most of your and my clients are working from home. Some at the front lines, there are now multiple screens, open and devices. And the world has just gotten more chaotic, whether it's the news cycle, whether it's personal grieving, I mean, we've all struggled.
[00:10:30] And what we found was the traditional stress manage advice, management advice we were giving before the pandemic. I mean, didn't nobody wanna hear their home. Dr. Romie say, oh, just eat Barry's and breathe and everything's gonna be fine. And what it really is it's it's like, it felt like it was like this barrage.
[00:10:47] Post-it notes at your brain of everything going on in the world, which are really important issues, the pandemic and racial justice. And then there is this thing of my personal life, and I have no life I'm [00:11:00] working all the time or I'm, I'm trying to work and the kids are home and everything going on to this, this over stimulation that made the busy brain that I had been researching the last few years, even.
[00:11:12] Worse and that's what it is. And so when we talk about your brain needs boundaries, you know, often can we be real Kyrin? It's like, sure. I think a lot of the women, you and I. They'll get up in the morning and brush their teeth and step on the scale to check their weight. Am I right ladies? Oh yeah. Mm-hmm yep.
[00:11:29] Yeah, they do it. Everybody does. How many of us say, what am I going to do for my brain today? Good question. We don't do that. And that's what I mean, your brain deserves boundaries. Your brain is the hero of your life. Yes. Everything starts there. And so that's where I come in and I've been focusing the research on the busy brain.
[00:11:52] And what that is is I go as a board certified neurologist and integrative medicine doctor to go this far, Kyrin and [00:12:00] say neurology and psychiatry. Got it wrong that in adults, Anxiety adult onset ADHD or D attention deficit disorder and insomnia are not three separate diseases because what have we been doing in traditional medicine?
[00:12:14] Largely is you get a stimulant for D. Or you get something to calm down the anxiety or you take caffeine all day and you have wine or, uh, some Boje supplement and an Instagram influencer all day to take. So your whole life is stimulate yourself all day. How do you calm down or sedate yourself at night?
[00:12:34] And that's actually a busy brain that it's all one root cause. Of these three disorders and that's what I get to and, you know, specifically in women. So by the time the women reach me, Dr. Kyrin, they may not likely have not worked with an expert such as yourself on their hormones, but most of them to be honest are clean eaters.
[00:12:55] They have an exercise regimen, they're quoted, doing everything right that society has told [00:13:00] us to do and still suffering from these symptoms. And that's where we come. Yes, thank you for explaining that. And I just wanna emphasize that you said your brain is the sheer of your life. It absolutely is. You know, most women don't get that their brain is their mainframe computer that runs everything.
[00:13:18] And when that runs out, Byebye it's over. And most women don't wake up to this fact until it's too late. Like they actually get a diagnosis of dementia and nobody told them at period menopause and menopause that the brain needs these sex hormones. To be optimally healthy and help prevent dementia.
[00:13:38] Nobody told them that their cord ISOL yeah. Stress hormone, which I know you're gonna cover needs to be balanced in order to protect the green. So I just wanna tell everybody listening, listen up. your homie. Dr. Romie is telling you what time it is. If you wanna protect your brain. Starts now it doesn't start in 10 or 20 years [00:14:00] cuz then it could be too late.
[00:14:01] Well, it's not even the memory loss only Dr. Kyrin, which is so important to your point because we know Alzheimer's and dementia affects women at three to five times the rate as men. But here's the thing it is Women are in a mental health crisis right now with record numbers of depression, anxiety, diagnosis of bipolar disorder and exiting the workforce.
[00:14:24] And you, and I often see, like to my point earlier, I'm taking the medicine and the supplements for my thyroid. Why am I not better? I'm on an intermittent fasting or ketogenic diet. Why am I not losing weight? Well, because we didn't handle stress and sleep first, we start with the brain and everything else.
[00:14:42] Follow. So it doesn't mean you only deal with the brain and the protocols. You know, I work with colleagues like yourself when we identified that shift protocol, S H I F T the H is hormones. So that's a crucial part for both men and women, different hormones and those gender assigned male at birth, but [00:15:00] that's where we go, that they have to work in tandem.
[00:15:03] You can't just be saying, I need to replace thyroid or manage adrenal fatigue or my sex hormones and not address the. Great point. Do you wanna talk a little bit more about the shift protocol? Yeah. Mm-hmm so we talked about the busy brain and we're gonna give your listeners a free test to take that I'm all about like, not wearing stress as a badge of honor.
[00:15:24] If you're listening to this saying girl, what woman isn't stressed right now in the global pandemic, let's get a number we assess, we don't guess just like Dr. Kyrin checks, her hormone levels. It's the same. We assign you. Are you normal? Which is brain power, mild, which is brain drain. Uh, just means a little bit of an energy leak.
[00:15:41] That's quick to fix, or are you brain strain and heading towards burnout? So number one, know your number, so we can start from there. Then we go into the shift protocol that when we get to the root cause of the specific pattern of inflammation, where there's hyper excitability in your brain, what does that mean?
[00:15:58] It means. [00:16:00] Me getting a notification on my phone of today's news headline right now, while I'm trying to focus on the interview with you is not only going to distract me. It's actually creating a higher level than normal of stress hormones in my brain that I've lost focus. And I feel like until I put my finger to the screen and get a little dopamine hit to calm it down.
[00:16:23] I can't move forward. Now imagine that with email inboxes and chat window and children and pets and everything going on. So that's what the busy brain is the root cause. Everyone's a little different, but here are the five key areas they fall under. S is for your sleep cycle are circadian rhythm. That's the first place I look, I look at what the hormones in your brain, the HPA hypothalamic, pituitary to thyroid adrenal access are doing.
[00:16:48] The second one is H your role of hormones, which is, you know, your thyroid adrenal to your sex hormones. The third is I is inflammatory markers or markers of inflammation. We look [00:17:00] at things like vitamin D three, which I know you. And I agree as like a pro hormone methylation disorders, other things like that F is how we use food to fuel ourselves and tease the role of technology.
[00:17:11] So that was a lot to digest. And if you're like, wait, I'm gonna robot this podcast and listen, just calm down. It's all there on social media and the website for free. This is actually Karen, an eight week wellness program. We give to our corporate clients with brain shifts or micro habits that stack upon each other to first address, sleep insanity, and then address energy and focus in the second half.
[00:17:33] But balancing hormones is a key part of that for both men and women. Great. Thank you for detailing that let's dive into cuz the H is hormones. You mentioned the thyroids thyroid hormones, adrenal HPA axis the interaction. Also, you mentioned sex hormones. So you mentioned a whole lot of hormones. My seven main metabolic drivers.
[00:17:55] I relate everything to hormones, all health problems particularly for women. [00:18:00] Wow. Stat on dementia and Alzheimer's being three to five times. I gotta back up and ask you as prevalent in women as men. Tell me, say more about why that happens before we dive more into hormones. Yeah, let's go back to Alzheimer's.
[00:18:13] So I disagree with the men who drove the literature and. Said it's because women live longer than men. That is not true. If you even go to the websites of Alzheimer's association, they write that when you carefully look at the medical literature, that is absolutely not true. There are other factors that drive dementia in women.
[00:18:38] The first and foremost we know is poor cardiovascular health, that women are not likely to get attention to your blood vessels, the diabetes, the. High cholesterol, the hypertension, those things that we know that risk for heart attack, or even, you know, Dr. Karen, you and I know this from our days in traditional medicine, women would arrive with atypical [00:19:00] symptoms of heart attack or stroke in the emergency room, and it often got missed until it was too severe.
[00:19:05] So that's the number one driver as poor. Cerebral vascular health. The second driver that we know was that it is the role of hormones, but people think it's just the estrogen and progesterone. It starts back to the thyroid that when we look at the data that it's estimated and Dr. Kyrn, please correct me.
[00:19:26] But as I'm researching my book, one in eight women in the United States has subclinical hypothyroid disease. It's more prevalent in women of color. Yeah. I would say it's probably higher than that, but yeah. Documented. Yeah. Documented. Right. Mm-hmm but it's not getting screened at all. Right. Or like the story I shared earlier, my doctors are like, well, yeah, you have some symptoms, and it's borderline, but we're not gonna do anything about it.
[00:19:52] I'm like what. Right. Translation. You're not suffering enough. Yes. You're not sick enough to require a hospital bed. So this doesn't [00:20:00] require the pills. And even the pills that sometimes traditional medicine gives is not the whole story. Right. And, and that's your area of expertise? I won't get into the nuances of thyroid, but the thyroid hormone, we know.
[00:20:13] That even in people that are teenagers or twenties or thirties that have low thyroid show up severely depressed and prevented your brain chemistry, all these systems that are tagged and work together in your cell structure and function. To promote, understanding comprehension and memory are tied to this entire HPA, hypothalamic, pituitary, thyroid adrenal access.
[00:20:39] Then on top of it, when, if you are really stressed out and you have high stress hormone levels going at a time in menopause transition menopause, we know that there's this NA alone steel phenomenon. And then you're struggling with, you know, the neuroprotective effects of estrogen and progesterone. Yes.
[00:20:56] You heard me say that, right? Estrogen and progesterone protect [00:21:00] your brain at all stages of the life cycle. How do I know this? Because early in my neurology residency, I would see, oh, couple days, right before your menstrual cycle and the abrupt changes in estrogen, progesterone, what would happen? Women would.
[00:21:13] Awful breakthrough seizures or migraines. So like it is protective of every function in your brain. So that is not only for memory, but for women who have headaches and even for mood disorders, Kyrin. So important in what you are saying. And I hope everybody is hearing this. She didn't Dr. Romie. Didn't just say estrogen for your brain.
[00:21:34] She said estrogen and progesterone and thyroid and cortisol. So you gotta hear it. And she said, This is probably the number two reason for the increased risk of dementia in women. And like I tell women, you know, they say, well, do I need to use hormone replacement therapy? And I say, well, what do you want 80 to look like?
[00:21:55] Do you even want to get to 70 or 80? And if you want to get there, do you [00:22:00] want to be able to walk and talk? To your, oh, I see what you're saying. So do you wanna live that long? If you want to, you gotta deal with it. And then what do you wanna to look back? Because I really wanna backtrack it because hormones get a bad rap for women and menopause, transition and menopause.
[00:22:16] And you're like, okay, these integrated functional medicine doctors are just giving these women hormones so that they look young and their weight is managed. But no, it actually protects your heart and brain from a heart attack and stroke. The number one killer of women. Yes. Like this is your homey, Dr.
[00:22:31] Romie brain doctor saying, protect your hormones for the sake of your heart and your brain. And of course all these other things, the, your skin, your sexuality, your weight are, are so important and critical, but like, I also want you to be healthy. I want you to have your memory. I want your heart to be working.
[00:22:48] And I, you know, so, so that's where we are with the hormones. But gosh, we've derailed far from busy brain. I'm gonna let you bring it back into where we need to. We need to go here because women just don't even know [00:23:00] what they're not getting at their corporate doctor's office. And they think cuz they get their pap smear in a booby check and the rectal for blood that they're getting everything they need.
[00:23:08] And you, if you are not getting your hormones, you're living in hormonal poverty and it is going to mess up your mood and your brain and your heart, and so many other things. So I say, keep on preaching because there aren't enough. Us out here speaking the truth people. And I wanna refocus on the brain because too often, can I be real with you?
[00:23:30] We talk about dementia. Mm-hmm and that's really hard for a woman to hear, because one, it may trigger. Most of us have a loved one. That's suffered from dementia Alzheimer's and we don't wanna face that. And to be honest, Karen, I can't or you. We say, this is what I hear from women. Focus on what's gonna happen 15, 20, 30 years from now.
[00:23:49] I don't even know if I'll get through the end of the week. Right. But the issue is when you have a busy brain, that's due to hormone imbalance, what happens often in traditional corporate [00:24:00] medicine is Ugh. You're like every other woman coming in here, you're middle age, you're tired from your kids. You're depressed.
[00:24:06] You kind of get this judgment that, Ugh, you were lack, work, life balance. And girl, let me just tell you something. I am on this kick that I tell every HR professional or event planner that calls me for speaking work. Life balance is a myth. It is a euphemism from the patriarchy meant to make women think you need to be perfect.
[00:24:25] Stop that it's not your work and life that needs to be been balanced. It's your brain that we start to balance. And then your body comes naturally. And what do I mean by brain? It's like right now, whatever your listeners are dealing with, your brain power is fueling all of it. It's fueling your mood.
[00:24:44] Are you depressed? Are you feeling anxious or are you feeling calm? No matter what life is handing you, are you sleeping? you know, the 10 things that they gave you at work to remember to do. You wrote it down and you still forgot it. This is all your brain. It's not [00:25:00] true. That a younger woman who just graduated from college or grad school is gonna take your job because your brain is failing because of aging, it's failing because of inflammation and hormones play a key part of that.
[00:25:13] Yeah. Do you wanna say more about that inflammation? And hormones and the brain. Yes. So if we can have a brain science break here and sure, Dr. Karen will help translate it. If I get too much into my geek girl mode, but by now any of your listeners know some of the basics that there's an area of our brain known as the limbic system that creates a stress response.
[00:25:36] So an emotional stress, a physical stress comes your stress. Hormone levels get elevated. Let's take it to the next level is that limbic system is connected like an interwoven web, like the global airspace to key areas of your brain. One of them being your hypothalamus, your hypothalamus. Is where the circadian [00:26:00] rhythm or biological clock of your entire life is stored.
[00:26:03] If you follow Eastern wisdom, they say your spirit is directly connected here to the hypothalamus and the Panal gland, but let's talk about it. Your cycle. There is a 24 hour cycle, Karen in your body and my body, depending on our ancestry where we're currently living. That says, during this part of your 24 hour cycle, this organ is gonna be active or this one's gonna be resting and restoring.
[00:26:29] Right. And the, it works in this beautiful symphony and it all starts here from the hypothalamus. And this includes the 50 hormones that govern every function of our brain. Every function of your immune system, of your gut health, your respiration, your kidneys, there is a neuro hormone for everything. So it's beyond just your thyroid estrogen, progesterone testosterone.
[00:26:55] We start up there and when that circadian rhythm is off due to [00:27:00] chronic stress, which for many of us in the last three years, that's the case and give yourself grace, if that's what's going on. Now that circadian rhythm is unbalanced and it's kind of like the clock is reading. It's three o'clock in the afternoon.
[00:27:15] You need to go pick up the kids, but it's really 6:00 AM. And the kids haven't gotten outta bed to get ready for school, right? That's what's going on with your brain and your hormonal health. So this is gonna drive your pituitary and thyroid to be stressed. So metabolic issues in my world, a busy brain.
[00:27:31] It's why you're feeling anxious. And you have a adult onset D D. Then it's gonna go down and affect your adrenal glands and your pregnant alone that you need for both sex hormones, for men and women. And your adrenal gland is now going to make all these stress hormones and going into adrenal fatigue, your immune system shot.
[00:27:48] So you're more likely to get ill or, you know, you know, we're in a pandemic, even if it's not COVID 19 succumbed to mold or fungal infections or small, uh, Sebo, small [00:28:00] intestine bacterial over. All of this is related to a disruption in that circadian rhythm of our brain. And the end result for women is. The sex hormone imbalance that starts everywhere from a delayed onset of your menstrual cycle at menarchy to irregular periods.
[00:28:20] Like you heard me talk about to infertility issues all the way to menopause, transition symptoms and menopause. So that is the cycle that I talk about that we address in brain shift and hormones are like a key puzzle piece in that, in that whatever is imbalanced needs to be rebalanced and. Dr. Kyrin, I'm gonna go this far and get your thoughts on it.
[00:28:41] One of the things I hear, you know, people are gonna listen to you and I, that are in the integrative medicine community. And they say, well, I don't need the biodentical hormones from Dr. Kyrin or Dr. Romie. We can just do this with nutrition. That's the number one pushback I get. Or just give me a supplement and they, I see them [00:29:00] misusing a lot of the I've herbs that are actually depressing cortisol during the day and making you more tired.
[00:29:06] Like, I, I, I see so many misuse of things, so I really would love for you to dress this because my community is gonna listen to this when I'm like, you need to go to a woman like Dr. Kyrin who specializes in getting your hormone labs and is going to give you a personalized recipe of bio identical hormone.
[00:29:22] To take, I it's so important. And I think that point gets missed for people that are in the know, oh my gosh, my home, Dr. Romie, I will gladly address that because I agree with you. There's a whole fragment of holistic functional integrative healthcare providers, some credentialed, some health coaches, various.
[00:29:44] Specialties. And they tell women that you can get all the benefits you need for your brain, for your heart, for all the beautiful parts of your body that you wanna preserve for as long as you live to have excellent quality of life [00:30:00] without. Hormone replacement. And I say rubbish, rubbish, absolute rubbish.
[00:30:06] All the data clearly shows yeah. That in order to have optimum bone strength and muscle mass, which equals lack of fat accumulation, right. Overweight and obesity, which 75% of us are by the time we're 60 mm-hmm mm-hmm you can't do. Without natural hormone replacement, you can't help prevent the number one killer of women over 50 heart attack, heart disease.
[00:30:34] You can't preserve your brain and prevent Alzheimer's and dementia. You can't do all these things with a supplement. And it's so funny because, you know, tell me what you think Romie, but there's really a value judgment when it comes to women's hormones because no woman ever. When told by her doctor, oh, you're having a little bit of bone thinning.
[00:30:51] I think you should take 1200 milligrams of calcium and maybe up your vitamin D and your vitamin K the woman says, oh, of course, no woman [00:31:00] ever says, no, I'm gonna do bone thinning naturally. Yes, I'm gonna go without right. I'm gonna do this naturally. But you get this value judgment with menopause and perimenopause and women are going into a state of hormonal poverty.
[00:31:14] And so many women say I'm gonna do menopause natural. I'm not gonna take hormones. I'm gonna take this supplement. And they're led to believe by many experts that they are getting everything they need. And I can't tell you how many women join my programs in their seventies, Uhhuh, who say, I feel like I was the generation that.
[00:31:34] That got the BS because we were sold a raft of nonsense and we weren't given the opportunity to know the truth about our health. And I know I'm getting on my soapbox, but preach sister preach well, because for me, it's not just the estrogen and progesterone, Karen, like, you know, in my world, that's important.
[00:31:53] I, by the time people come to me, if their busy brain score is really high in their end brain drain, then I know they need. [00:32:00] The estrogen, progesterone testosterone they're in menopause transition, maybe even early, I'm even hearing this for thyroid and subclinical thyroid. Yes. And, and that like bothers me because I would really like for a licensed doctor to look and see, of course there is important nutrition protocols and certain supplements that are, you know, clinically studied to.
[00:32:23] Benefits in Hashimotos or in graves disease or subclinical hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism, but medications or hormones are still often needed. And I think that's where I wanna come in. This message from is could we be a bridge builder? That you don't go to one extreme or the other where you're all corporate medicine or you're all, I'm gonna go do a few Oana in the yoga studio.
[00:32:50] Take a shot, a wheat as, and take the supplement from this, you know, Instagram influencer. There's something in between. And that's hormone replacement, [00:33:00] please. It's so true. And hopefully I think everyone gets getting our point and you know, it wasn't an issue over a hundred years ago. We didn't, our lifespan wasn't as long as it is now.
[00:33:10] And we are the only other mamalian species that lives significant degree of our lifespan in menopause, right. Whales and humans. So we didn't have to face these questions years ago. And unfortunately, I mean, I we're getting off on a tangent, but most doctors are not taught to speak hormone and I. I still am board certified OB GYN.
[00:33:31] And I practice as a basic corporate OB GYN for years. And until I realized, I didn't know how to speak hormone, and that's why I couldn't fix my own health. So that's why I had to go to school to learn how to speak hormone. And then I realized that most doctors don't really understand hormones. I did wanna add on the brain health front that, you know, that's actually how I teach my ladies.
[00:33:52] Dr. Romi is that the foundation of their health is about communication. And that comes from your nervous system. Mm-hmm [00:34:00] mm-hmm and that hormones actually originate. In your nervous system. And most people aren't aware of that. So it is a brain function. It is, they originate in your brain. So to me, that's, I agree with you, you said earlier, it all starts with your brain hands down.
[00:34:15] Yeah, I agree. And so what are you going to do for your brain today? So before, you know, you step on the scale and nutrition. Sure. Some of the nutrition things you're gonna do for your brain, but I always, I honor it in like mind. Spirit. That's gonna honor your brain like spiritually. We all have just had so much grief or suffering or lost some of us, but most of us I'm in corporate America and everyone is suffering no matter what industry in the last few years.
[00:34:41] So what can you do to regenerate your spirit? It can be. Reconnecting with loved ones, um, whatever that is for your spirituality being out in nature. And then there's the idea of what are you doing for your mind? And you're gonna love this one, but you don't know how many people come through. Brain shift, Dr.
[00:34:57] Kyrin and they are committed. They get the lab slip, [00:35:00] they go get their hormones checked. They're all over it. We're gonna do digital detox. We're gonna do the sleep protocol. Dr. Romy's giving us. Yet before they do that, they're watching the evening news or the CSI crime shows mm-hmm . And you can do that for your mind.
[00:35:16] Like, no, no. Yeah, because our, our spirit and our brain. Doesn't understand that that's the TV. Our spirit actually feels like I'm in the middle of the crime scene, or I'm sitting here in the middle of this news cycle, chaos, and that's what you're doing to your nervous system. And then there's the body and you and I have talked hormones, you know, we can talk movement.
[00:35:37] There's so many things, but I really just wanna say that if you have a busy brain, Don't allow someone to shame you that you're a woman and you don't have work life balance. It's what are you doing for the state of your brain? And with the shift protocol, S we start with your sleep cycle and circadian rhythm and age is hormones.
[00:35:58] And that is the [00:36:00] foundation. Yeah. I wanna just start wrapping up with this quote that you shared. Your brain is not broken. Your mind is not a mess. You are whole, and so don't internalize. This criticism that you don't have work life balance. And Dr. Romie, could you leave us with a few kind of top three take action tips to shut off our B busy brain.
[00:36:21] We're gonna have the link to take your busy brain quiz in the show notes so everybody can go there. It's uh, Dr. Romie, Dr. R O M I e.com/test T E S T. And we'll also have it in the show notes driving. Don't try and write that down, but if you wanna leave us just with your top take action tips, in addition to taking that quiz, no you're gonna take and assess and not guess your stress levels.
[00:36:48] Mm-hmm . And then the most surprising thing that I think you're going to hear me say that your busy brain needs is to schedule eating comfort food. When you look back in your childhood or your early adult [00:37:00] life, was there food that you remember a grandparent made or tied to a religious holiday or your ancestry schedule that, and remember that joy that is attached to the food.
[00:37:11] And the second thing with your comfort food is create connection with someone and I'll especially do this shout out to anybody that is single alone. It may be by choice. You may have been widowed. You may be divorced. Could you reach out to someone, especially that's living at home alone because their busy brain is going to calm down with the connection.
[00:37:32] And the fact that you're giving that connection will also honor your spirit. So I've given you two things, right? Is comfort food, not stress eating, and honor your culture, your religion, your, your path of those foods. Two is connection. And the third one is give yourself compassion. And that's what I mean when I say your brain is not broken, your mind is not a mess.
[00:37:53] And you are whole at any given moment when we're smart women, we understand I wanna [00:38:00] wake up and be a better woman today than I was yesterday. And my health needs today may be different than two years ago, let alone a decade ago, but don't allow the guilt and the shame and the trauma of the number on this.
[00:38:11] Scale or the fact that you're really anxious and you couldn't get through your work day today, traumatize you even further give yourself that compassion, your brain is not broken. Your mind is not a mess. You are whole. So when we start with that place of comfort, food and connection, and self-compassion the naturally all the next steps of the treatment protocols just fall into place.
[00:38:32] I love that. I absolutely love that it's nourishing food for your body. It's food for your heart food for your soul, the comfort food connection, and compassion. Thank you so much, Dr. Romie for joining us today. Thank you for the work that you do for the busy brain quiz and the brain shift protocol. Please tell everybody where they can connect with you and find out.
[00:38:56] It is well, Dr. Kyrin, thank you so much for having me with your [00:39:00] community. I'm at Dr. Romie, D R R O M I E on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and the same website. And you know, what do me a favor if you decide to have comfort food tag, Dr. Kyrin and I on social media with your comfort food and hashtag brain shift, we wanna celebrate that connection with.
[00:39:19] Absolutely. Thank you so much for joining us today. I want you to not just take this as entertainment or edutainment, but I want you to reflect on everything that you've heard today and make a promise to yourself about some. Actions that you are going to take. That's actually, what's going to shift your life and your experience in your body.
[00:39:43] So what are three things that you're gonna do differently going forward from listening to this podcast? And I look forward to hearing about that on social media too. And until next week I will see you then until then peace, love and hormones. Thank you so much for [00:40:00] listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40.
[00:40:03] When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your.
[00:40:37] That begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Do you know what peptides are and how they can help with hormone optimization?
Listen in as Dr. Tracy Gapin joins The Hormone Prescription Podcast to discuss peptide therapy for hormone and health optimization at midlife - for both men and women.
As we age, our hormones naturally decline. This can lead to a host of issues, including fatigue, weight gain, mood swings, and more. Peptide therapy can help optimize hormone levels, resulting in improved energy levels, better sleep, and a general feeling of well-being.
In this episode, you will learn:
- What peptides are and how they can help optimize hormone levels
- The benefits of peptide therapy for both men and women
- The best time to start peptide therapy
- How peptide therapy can help with weight loss, energy levels, and more
If you're interested in learning more about peptide therapy and how it can help you feel your best in midlife, tune in now!
[1:00] My guest today is a little unusual for a guest on this podcast. Why? Because he specializes in men's health. Well, Dr. Kyrin, you're thinking, why are you having a doctor who specialize in men's health? Because for most women, we've got men in our lives who are important to us and it matters, but also in many areas, there's a lot of overlap and he's gonna be talking about peptides and how they can be used to help with hormone balance and health optimization at midlife and beyond. And maybe we'll have a little guy talk to because what woman couldn't use to know more about the men in her life and how they function and how to help them.
[01:58] So Dr. Gapin is a board certified urologist world renowned health and performance expert, and the founder of the Gapin Institute for high performance health and the men's telehealth startup on Novi health, kind of like the counterpart to the hormone club. I think that's super cool. He's a thought leader, a professional speaker and the author of the bestselling books, male 2.0 and codes of longevity. His passion and purpose is providing fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurs, and athletes, a personalized path to optimize health and performance. Welcome Dr. Gapin.
[03:15] Thanks so much appreciate being here.
[03:17] So super excited to get started. So you're an, a urologist by training, but you have evolved your training to provide a functional approach for men so that they can have high performance at midlife and beyond. And you've created, uh, telehealth startup too. So can you talk a little bit about your journey from mainstream corporate medicine to where you are now?
[03:41] So I am a board certified urologist, a men's health expert. Um, I was in traditional, if you will, Western medicine, forgs 25 plus years, including training. And I hit a wall. I got to a point where, um, I had some health issues that really, uh, changed my life. I was incredibly fatigued. I couldn't focus, couldn't sleep. I was about 30 pounds overweight and I knew something was wrong. And I went to see a, a local internal medicine doc here in town. And, uh, he ran some tests and, uh, the results were pretty terrible. And what really changed everything for me was he told me what I need to do was simply eat more vegetables. I need to lose some weight, exercise more. And if that doesn't work, maybe I'll be put on a statin, a prescription medication.
[04:29] And I left that day really confused because I knew I needed a lot more than that. And as a men's health expert, you would think that I would have the answers myself, but I didn't because I realized that at that point that we are failing, you know, traditional healthcare is all based on disease. We have disease care, crisis care, not healthcare. We are reactive simply waiting to treat illness or disease when it occurs rather than being proactive and intentional and, uh, focused on promoting health. And that's really what my book, Mel, 2.0 is all about, um, my sense for the gap Institute. That's what that's all about as well.
[05:21] And you know, it's interesting when I work with women, I come from OB GYN background, exclusively work with women when they get better than the next question is, well, where do I send my, the men in my life, my husband, my partner, my son, the men in my life. And so this is why one of the reasons why I thought it would be great to have Dr. Gin on the show is because this is where you send them. . This is who you send them to, is the person who specializes in helping men.
[06:09] We would wear to a black tie dinner. And that was our reproductive capacity, our special superpower organs to make a baby in our hormones. But I learned from a functional approach that nothing could be further from the truth. And we really foundationally are very different. So I'm a fan of unique approach. Someone who specifically works with men and who knows them inside and out like Dr. Gapin and someone who knows women like I do. So that's my plug. But one of the things we're gonna focus on is peptides today. How did you become aware of the science of peptides and the power of peptides? What was that journey like?
[06:49] . I go see that doctor, you know, because of that experience. And so I think it's really important for the women in your audience to understand that, that you need to be advocates for your men because oftentimes men will not be proactive enough to take charge of their health and they'll simply wait for a problem. And typically that problem that will finally get them to see a doctor is issues with sex. And so don't wait for that to happen. Jump on it well before then, obviously. So that being said, um,
[07:49] I did work with men at one point in the past decade, and you're I found that you're exactly right. You know, they wouldn't come cuz they're tired. They wouldn't come because they can't sleep, or they don't have their drive. But when they couldn't get an erection, that they would say, you know, something's wrong. And I, I would really, but I would find a lot of them were still hesitant to even have that conversation with doctors. So how can the women who are listed, who are in my audience, whose partners are having difficulty with erectile dysfunction, even get their partners to talk to doctors about that, how do they do that?
[08:33] So I'm going to give you 20 seconds of science here that I think is important to understand how an erection has increased blood flow to penis. What causes that a molecular level is increased nitric oxide secretion from the blood vessels that cause Vasodilation and increased blood flow. What affects nitric oxide production while most notably insulin resistance, insulin resistance blocks, nitric oxide production. So that's the correlation between metabolic issues in your body, your nutrition, your stress, your sleep, et cetera, which has a dramatic effect on your sex life. And so women recognize that if there's an issue with ed in your man, it could potentially be a sign of major underlying health issues that need to be checked out.
[09:40] Yeah. Like heart disease, heart attack. So super important. I always tell them when something's wrong below the belt, there's really something wrong above the belt and that could kill you. So you need to investigate that. All right. So now back to the peptides, when did that get on your radar? Yeah.
[09:57] So when I recognize that our healthcare system is failing, that really sent me on a journey to learn, how can I really transform men's health? How can I reinvent the way we think about health and performance and longevity. And that's where I learned about functional medicine. I learned about epigenetics, which is, you know, the science of how our lifestyle and our genetics interact to affect our health, both good and bad. Um, I learned about hormone optimization and it's amazing that in medical school, in general surgery residency, in urology residency, I'm talking about 10 years of medical training before I actually went out there and hung my shingle up.
[10:44] And so I promise I'm getting to your peptide question and along my way here, you're fine. You know, when I think of health, I think of it like a high performance bicycle wheel. You have the hub and that hub can be energy, weight, sex, cognitive focus, whatever it may be. And you have spokes coming out of that wheel. And each of those spokes are vitally important aspects of your health that are directly impacting that core function. That may be things like insulin resistance. I just mentioned, which is how your body handles glucose. It may be what you're eating when you're eating.
[11:29] It may be how your body handles toxins. It may be your sleep. It may be your stress. It may be hormones. And I want to emphasize not just testosterone. You know, men are so focused on testosterone, which certainly is important and levels are plummeting worldwide. We could talk about but there are other hormones that are critically important in men as well. You know, we have growth hormones. We have D H E cortisol insulin melatonin, vitamin D. It goes on, tThere are probably 15 hormones that we care about. Those are all different spokes of the wheel. And so coming back to this concept of cellular medicine, it's a systems approach to health. And so how do we impact all of the, the systems in your human body to achieve that outcome? And that's where peptides come in. Peptides allow us to, to specifically address things like inflammation at the cellular level, specifically impact immune function.
[12:17] We use peptides for specifically musculoskeletal repair. All of these different functions are working at a cellular level to impact what we're trying to accomplish. And so that's really the, the beauty of peptide therapy is that it allows a very precision based approach to health mm-hmm and they're not drugs. They're not pharmaceuticals. You know, peptides are nothing more than chains of amino acids. They're short proteins, and they're signaling molecules that our bodies already recognize. You know, as we age our levels of certain peptides decline and what we're doing with peptide therapy is really helping our body to restore those levels. So I'll give you a great example here.
[13:09] And there's a process involved there. And so we can stimulate our bodies to increased production of growth hormone, and that's gonna be amazing for helping things like sleep. One of the biggest complaints I hear with high performing men and women who I work with is trouble with sleep. It can help with weight loss. It could help with energy, with mood. It could help with metabolism, exercise capacity on and on and on growth. Hormone is a critical hormone that is often ignored. And so that's where we can really look at peptides to have a very precision based approach.
[13:37] So thank you for explaining that. I know some people, when they first hear about this concept of peptides that could help, and they're, they're told, oh, well they're basically amino acid that change their proteins. They say, oh, I don't need all that. I'm justgoing toa take a protein supplement or amino acid supplement or a collagen supplement. And my body's going to know what to do with it. So I don't need these fancy targeted things. What, what do you say to that?
[14:05] So when you're taking, you know, collagen, when you're doing protein, you know, weigh or P protein, whatever, you know, yeah. You're getting amino acids, but, uh, I want to be clear, a peptide has to be a very specific sequence taken in the exact right way for it to be effective. Mm-hmm . And so you're really talking apples and oranges that there's really no comparison. And the beauty of peptides comes down to it's non-pharmaceutical it is asuddenly sudden molecule that your body recognizes. the, the side effects are, are typically negligible and again, at a cellular level, amazing potential benefits.
[14:42] Mm-hmm so they're non-pharmaceutical but some of them require a prescription. Why is
[14:47] So there are numerous ways of getting peptides. You can get peptides over, you know, direct to consumers from these companies that are, uh, completely unregulated. It is the wild west out there. When, when you're looking at these and I, I would say that any place where a consumer, a non-physician can go purchase peptides, I would be very wary of it because the oversight of, and the, and the quality assurance at those places is truly questionable. And so when I prescribe, and I use the word carefully there to prescribe peptides for my patients, they come from compounding pharmacies, pharmacies that have oversight. They have quality assurance. They have to, um, have certificates of authenticity and, and they get tested regularly to be sure that you're actually getting what you're supposed to be getting. Um, and that's where I think a lot of people run into trouble where when you go over the counter, uh, direct to consumer you, you just don't know what the heck you're getting and you get side effects or issues, complications, or it doesn't work. And then you, you, you think that it was the pep tie when in fact it was purely just the, the source.
[15:48] Okay. So it, they, you need a prescription because they come from a compounding pharmacy, but it's not regulated by the FDA, but if you get one from a compounding pharmacy, you know that you're working with an organization that is regulated itself, so you should be getting a good quality. Correct?
[16:03] You're spot on, correct there. That it is, you know, peptides, they're not FDA approved because to clarify this for the FDA to approve something, it has to actually undergo clinical trials through the FDA. And that's what pharmaceutical companies do when they develop a drug for that drug to be sold. It has to go through that process. You'll never get that process to be done for a peptide because it's a by definition, generic product, because it is simply a chain of amino acids that any compounding pharmacy with the right equipment can produce manufacturer. And so it is therefore by definition, generic and the, the millions of dollars that are needed to produce these massive prospective, double blinded clinical trials to get a drug clear through the FDA. It's it's impossible.
[16:54] And so that's why my program my, my high level program is called N one performance health. And it's called N one, because everything we do is N of one medicine or N equals one medicine. And, and Kyrin, you, and I know what that means, but for the listeners, that means that everyone is uniquely different. And it's an individualized approach. Understanding, you know, at a cellular level, what things do, but that everyone's going to respond differently, and we have to really tailor individualized things. And so to that effect, a lot of the peptides we use are based on tons of science, don't get me wrong. We're not, we're not being cavalier. Mm-hmm , but they're not gonna, it's not possible for them to go through that FDA approval process.
[17:33] Yeah. Kind of like the bioidentical hormones
[17:37] Everyone loves to say, oh, they're not FDA approved. Well, estrogen is, and testosterone is, but when they compound it in this unique preparation that nobody's going to do that study. Yeah. So you mentioned, you
[17:50] Know, a comparison, I'm sorry to interrupt you. A co a comparison I would make is to say, well, vitamin D's not FDA approved. Well, it it's vitamin D it's generic. It's like, it's, it's, you can't approve, like, no one's going to do studies. It's just, that it's a hormone that we need. Vitamin D is in fact, a hormone, not a vitamin that we need. And so you don't need FDA approval to know that it is needed and how it works
[18:11] Is a great point. Yeah. Sorry, D is not FDA approved. Right. All right. So you mentioned growth hormone, which I, I think is super important. What are some of your other peptides that you might use to have various effects? What are some of the most powerful ones that you see at midlife that would be, that are important for men that are also important for women?
[18:33] That's actually very important as well when it comes to certain recent illnesses that we may have experienced. Right. And so I love them and alpha for improving boosting immune function, both men and women, you know, there are, are actual recent studies that came out, supporting its use for certain, um, illnesses that have been around lately. I love thy and alpha for immune function. Thy and beta is, uh, closely related. Uh, it is incredible when it comes to musculoskeletal repair, we're looking at tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bone. I just had elbow surgery and I am using thymus and beta for recovery for my elbow surgery, for example. So that's amazing. And again, boosting your body's ability to heal properly. This is not a pharmaceutical, again, it's a peptide with the, the amino acid sequences that are needed to, to achieve that specific outcome.
[19:52] And speaking of that recent illness that some people, a lot of us have had, I had it, you helped greatly. We were at a conference in, on the West Coast and one of our colleagues who didn't attend called us from Atlanta, and she was in a bad way, having thinking she had to go to the emergency room, and you actually talked with her and got her hooked up with certain peptides to help her. Yeah. And I mean, unfortunately she had a more severe case, but I really think she credits the peptides as really helping her.
[20:27] Yeah. Yeah. I got sick, uh, way back in March 2020, when everything first started, I was one of the first ones to get super sick that second week of, of March. And I took a combination of four different peptides that I'm sure had a dramatic effect on my recovery.
[20:40] Do you want to mention the thymus and alpha and beta part of that?
[20:44] Yeah. So th ayin, um, alpha is a great again, immune function Pepi that I really recommend.
[20:50] Yeah. Okay. Great. All right. So boosting immune system function, what are some of the others that you would say, oh, wow, everybody needs this. Cause like for women over 40 or 50, I say, you know, we all need our estrogen progesterone testosterone.
[21:05] n. So someone specifically focused on reducing inflammation, um, in the gut oral BPC is fantastic. I've had several patients who initially came to see me with nothing more than serious irritable bowel symptoms. And a month later they're on BPC, and they're completely fine. And I'm like, Hey Mike, how you doing with your gut? He's like, what do you mean? I'm like your gut stuff. And he completely forgot he even had it. And it was so pretty amazing how BBC cleared that up pretty quickly. BBC subq injection is also great for musculoskeletal or joint inflammation. So when we're looking at inflammation in the joint arthritis, injury, surgical repair, that sort of thing as well. So I love B BPC for inflammation, but again, there's not a peptide that I would recommend that every single person needs to be on.
[22:25] So having said that some people listening are thinking, well, how do I know which ones I need? Is it by symptoms? So is it like a symptom And then you get, like you said, joint inflammation, and then I need BPC subq, or is it based on laboratory findings? How does, how does somebody know?
[22:45] I think the answer is you work with a professional who is experienced at assessing patients from a functional perspective, understanding what's needed and prescribing the appropriate peptides. I can't tell you how often I'll have both men and women come in the office here and Hey, I really want this. I really want D S I to sleep deep sleep inducing peptide. For example, I really need, I heard about, I read about D S I, I really want to have that one, or I really want Mo SC, which is this mitochondrial biogenesis, peptide, uh, this or that. And when I actually talk to them and dive deeper into understanding their health issues, challenges, goals, that's not all what they actually need. And so I would caution against any, you know, person out there with, without medical experience, trying to go out and buying your own peptides. Peptides are amazing, but they should be really used in the context of a much bigger, more, you know, uh, systems approach to health.
[23:32] I like to emphasize, you know, a foundation of, you know, emphasis on fixing and correcting issues with sleep and stress and detox and hormones and nutrition and movement and mindset and breathing, all that stuff I think is critically important. And there's a tendency to fall back into that pill for every ill approach, with disease model medicine, and try to apply that same approach with peptides. And that's not how it works. You know, this is again, part of a systems approach to health. It's understanding how all the inputs to our human system are ultimately affecting that outcome. And peptides are great, but think of them as the icing on top of the cake.
[24:10] Yes. Progress is impossible without change. And those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything from George Bernard Shaw. So really that's the hard work of health. Anyone can take a supplement, anyone can really follow any diet. Yeah. But doing the hard work of changing the way you're living your life. Has that been a factor for you in, in regaining your health? Did you find there were any thought or feeling patterns that you had to transform to optimize your health?
[25:14] Definitely. Yeah. Great question. So, you know, when I wrote my book, Mel, 2.0, you know, M a L E is actually an acronym for mindset, aging lifestyle and environment. And it's my system's approach to health. And it starts with M for mindset because until you fix that until you get your mind, uh, properly focused, you're never going to have success with everything else. And so I, I'm a huge advocate for mindfulness practices and uh, even meditation. That sort of stuff is wonderful. I also emphasize living with intention. And so every guy I work with, the first question I ask, one of the first questions I ask is what is your, why? Why are you doing this? And he'll say, well, I wanna lose 30 pounds. No, that that's. Excuse my language. You, you, you're not here cuz you wanna lose 30 pounds. What will that get you?
[26:01] And so if you only focus on these superficial things like weight loss, without focusing on the real, why then we're never gonna be successful. And so focusing on what is your why to me is really paramount. And then the next step is getting rid of limiting beliefs. And so like you were just alluding to most men have these thoughts that I'm too old to change. I'm set in my ways I can't change. This is how it is or the best one. I don't have time. I don't have time nonsense. That's nonsense. You don't have time. It's all about how do you schedule your day? What is your priorities? Again, it comes back to the three words that I emphasize living with intention.
[26:45] Yeah. I don't have time as code word first. I don't see the value in it. Really? Yes,
[26:51] We all get the same 24 hours in a day. We all have the same amount of time. You know, it's interesting. We were talking the other day with this specific group of women we're talking with now, uh, about blue zones and how one of the, the characteristics of the Arians in those communities was that they all had a life purpose that they could articulate. They had a why they had a why for why they do everything and what was important. And they lived with intention. So I had have given everyone the challenge to share their life purpose, be able to articulate it, everybody listening. I'm gonna invite you to do that too. Cuz you, you heard it also from Dr. Gin, that it's important. And you mentioned that your wife is amazing. I have to ask you about that. Cuz I know there's some women who are saying, oh, I want my husband to say that about me. What makes you say that about her?
[27:46] You know, I had a, I had a childhood with, with no real strong father figure. And so now for, for me, it's all about how can I be present and engaged with my family and, and give them what they need. And at the same time, I couldn't do that without my wife who is incredibly supportive and nurturing and loving and um, you know, we're a team and, and that's, you know, it should be easy. You know, one of my colleagues here, he's out there in the dating world, which I, I couldn't imagine being there again, but I gave him the, the guidance that it should be easy.
[28:24] . There's be times where, where you disagree with things, but it should still always be easy. And you're always in alignment, always in the same page. So I love the fact that we are a team. She's my best friend. And, and actually when I was filling out your form, I, I had to give you three quotes and the first two were easy. I say 'em every day and the throw one, like I need to throw a quote and, and she's Sarah sitting next to me. My wife's amazing. Yeah she is. And so I wrote that. So ,
[28:49] I love that. Well, let's share the other two too. You said, I believe there's nothing more than important than the quality of your life. And that starts and ends with your health. I couldn't agree more. And you also said you don't get today back, so make it count. Do you wanna say any more about all of these?
[29:06] Yeah. So the, the second one there, my brother-in-law John, he was this larger than life guy who everyone loved everywhere. He went, he was everyone's best friend and uh, loved him. He died of a heart attack at the age of 49 way too young. And we found out after the fact that he, although he looked like he was healthy, he was actually in fairly poor health for a while, but we never would've known, you know, what was striking about John was almost every day I saw him. He would say to me, Tracy, you don't get today. Back, make a count. He was that kind of positive, powerful person in my life. And when he passed at a very young age, it made that, that comment that he would always say that much more powerful and it still resonates with me today. Yeah. So that's that quote you don't get today back.
[29:51] So make account mm-hmm and then the, the first one, you know, I feel that we have a short time on this earth and we need to live life to its fullest and reach our full potential and to experience that you have to make your health, your top priority. And so often people don't. So often people are, again, back to the mindset part, not viewing it properly and not placing the emphasis where it needs to be. And so I believe that the quality of your life is important and you should be allowed to, and you should expect to have fun and enjoy life. But if you're not healthy, if you're not, well, you could never do that. So you gotta take care of that first. So that's what that's about.
[30:28] I could not agree more. And everybody listening, Dr. Gin is doing a wonderful little masterclass with women in my program. So as soon as we jump off the podcast interview, they're gonna get to have a private Q and a with him and really pick his brain about the men in their life and, um, how to help them to be their healthiest, which I think is super important. Like you mentioned earlier, women are the healthcare decision makers in their family. So it's, you know, I hate to say it, but we, we have a big responsibility to make sure that the men in our lives are getting what they made fair or not fair. It just is what it is. So we're gonna have chats about that as well, as more in depth on peptides and how the, we can get the icing on our cake with our health. So we'll be diving into that. Dr. Gapin, I keep saying it incorrectly. I apologize. How can people find out more? Where can they send the men in their lives? What resources, um, do you have for everybody?
[31:26] Sure thing. Yeah. So, um, my website is Dr. Tracy Gapin.com and, um, I have a couple free gifts if your audience would be interested,
[31:34] Please, if you wanna tell 'em about it, that's great. Absolutely. We will have links in the show notes, but feel free to talk about it. Yeah,
[31:40] So since we're talking about peptides, um, if you'll check out, um, my website for my center, which is gap institute.com, um, there, you can get a copy of my ultimate peptide guide, which will dive a lot deeper specifically into what we talked about today, Karen, about peptides and, and all the different peptides that we use that you could check out, uh, download from the site. But I'll also share the listeners if you wanted, uh, text health to 2 6, 7, 8, 6, and I'll put that number in the chat 2, 6, 7, 8, 6, uh, text the word health. What you'll get from there is a free copy of my secrets to high performance health guide. Cool. We'll also get a complimentary digital copy of my book mail 2.0, which I published, um, bestselling book a couple years ago. And if your men would like to get a, a complimentary discovery call with my team to understand how we can help them. Um, they're welcome to do that as well with the link that will be provided.
[32:35] Awesome. So they would use the text link.
[32:37] They'll be given a link. Exactly. That's right.
[32:39] Oh, okay. When they go there. Okay,
[32:40] Great. Yeah. Yeah. The text health is 2 7, 8, 6.
[32:43] Thank you for those amazing resources. I hope you continue to think that your wife is amazing and that she thinks the same of you. I love that. You know, I, I think that every great relationship is founded on great health. So congratulations to both of you for doing, doing the work and thank you for sharing, um, your wisdom and your journey with us. Thank you for sharing your passion for peptides and for root cause resolution medicine and health, and any last word you'd like to leave everyone with or any take action challenges.
[33:16] Yeah. I'm gonna give y'all one simple thing that everyone can do starting today that will actually make a amazing impact on your life. You may not even realize it, but how you breathe has a direct effect on performance, how you breathe, affects tissue oxygenation, which affects your brain, affects your ability to lose weight, your ability to build muscle, your exercise capacity and so on. And so I want you to think about breathing through your nose. One simple single change that you can make starting today right now is close your mouth. And I mean that in the most loving way possible break
[33:53] So true. So yes, continue to breathe through your nose as much as possible. Thank you so much Dr. Gapin for joining us today.
[34:02] And thank you all for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you have learned something today that has inspired you, or maybe it's challenged you something that you're going to take action on. Don't let this just be information that goes in one ear and out the other, but ask yourself, how are you going to start to use this information to make changes in your life. Sometimes small steps lead to powerful impact. So I challenge you to do something different today, and I will talk to you next week when we'll have more hormone, fun and games until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening.
Get a copy of Dr. Gapin’s 10 Secrets to High-Performance Health, a digital copy of his book, and a free discovery call with his team.
Text Health to 26786
You may also visit his website:
https://drtracygapin.com/
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Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast!
In this episode, we're talking about how healthy conflict resolution can improve your relationships and your health. Our guest is Mary Shores, author of the book Conscious Communications.
Mary shares her insights on why it's so important to resolve conflict in a healthy way, and gives us some practical tips on how to do just that. If you're struggling with conflict in your life, whether at home or at work, this episode is for you!
In this episode, you will learn:
-Why healthy conflict resolution is so important
-How to resolve conflict in a healthy way
-Practical tips for resolving conflict in your own life
-And more!
So tune in now, and learn how healthy conflict resolution can improve your relationships and your health!
[00:55] You're gonna love our guest today and the topic that we are discussing. It's all about communication. How conscious is your communication? And like in the quote that I started the episode with, are you able to change your mind about things or are you seeking optimal health and hormone balance saying I wanna be exactly the same way I am now doing what I'm doing, thinking what I'm thinking. And I want my hormones to change because I hate to tell you, but mm it's not gonna happen because you do have to change your mind to change your hormones.
[01:54] Mary shores is an innovative communication expert and bestselling author who transforms people's words to help them fall back in love with their work and their customers. 15 years ago, Mary discovered a game changing formula to improve connections among people. It all started with a, do not say list and grew into an entire strategy that will fix your relationships, which by the way, will fix your hormones and your health. Welcome Mary. My pleasure to be here. I'm so excited. Yes. I love your book. And just so I don't forget to, to say the whole title, Mary shores, conscious communications, your step by step guide to harnessing the power of your words, to change your mind, your choices and your life published by hay house.
[03:04] So, you know, since this is a hormone show, I'll go ahead and say this. But when I was 19 and one time I had went to a doctor, they put me on a, an antibiotic, but didn't tell me that antibiotics cancel out birth control. So I ended up pregnant after a healthy pregnancy. I was met with sudden tragedy when my daughter had suffered lack of oxygen to the brain for over five minutes due to umbilical cord asphyxia, which basically meant the way they explained it to me was that her umbilical cord had ruptured. So my daughter Haley was born with severe and profound brain damage. This left her blind death and on life support.
[03:58] And the thing is though, when I got done with that ordeal, I was really lost in life. You know what I mean? I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I felt like my peers had, had moved on, had started their careers. So I decided to go into the family business, which is debt collection. And so oftentimes people don't understand like where is this connection between like debt collection, communication and connection. But for me, I think that because I had lived on the other side of Stu financial stability during that time with my daughter, I had absolutely no resources.
[04:45] And I definitely saw the connection between how debt collectors communicate with people and how that, that causes so much stress and trauma, you know, and I realized very quickly that the common denominator is just having a debt can be a trauma, let alone the way that people are stigmatized over it, or the way that they're treated over it.
[05:41] So I just started to study and I wanted, you know, my big aha moment came when one day I looked at the phone and I said out loud, I just want the next person. I speak to, to be happier at the end of the call than they were at the beginning. Now that was so many years ago. And honestly, I had no idea how I was going to make that happen. But I started with one concept, which was this do not say list. And the do not say list is exactly what it sounds like. It's a list of words we never say, which are no, not can't won't however, and unfortunately
[06:19] So I'm sorry for your loss. And it sounds like it forced you to go into the family business. And because you had this kind of spiritual bent already, and you were going into what probably most people think of as a non-spiritual business, you had a different perspective to bring, to kind of evolve that. And so thank goodness you said, I just want the next person I talk to, to feel better after I get off the phone with them than when they got on the phone, when I got on the phone with them. And so you have the, the do not say list, which I love. I try not to use those words as well.
[07:05] Even if it's reasonable, I get angry immediately because nobody likes being told, no, you can't, you can't have that or no. And tell me what you can do. Don't tell me what you can't do. So this started the do not say list. And then how did it evolve from there? Cuz really you've come to this place now where you've taken it to a whole nother level and your personal journey, evolutionary journey, I think really will speak volumes to women, many women at midlife who are wondering like, what's wrong with me? What's happened to me. I don't know. I feel like myself and my own skin anymore. How do I feel good. And so what happened next on your journey? That was your evolution.
[08:05] And so I turned to neuroscience and specifically neurobiology because I wanted to know like what is happening in the brain and the body and the nervous system when we're communicating and turns out that was like the most brilliant thought I had ever really had because you know, starting with a, do not say list, what I learned was when we are, and it doesn't matter if you're speaking the words or if you're hearing the words, but what's happening when we're enveloped in these negative words, you know, if we're talking to customer service and they say, you know, unfortunately our policy is yada yada, yada.
[08:57] You know, if you're familiar with the David Hawkins frequency scale of emotions, those words are really driving us down the frequency scale of emotions. So my goal was like, how can I move people up? This frequency scale of emotions? And in the book I call this cleanser clog. So it's really like everything. You say, everything you do, every action you take. And this is in all areas of life, not just communication, but every choice you make is either, you know, moving you down that scale, creating a disconnection from what you really want, or it's moving you up that scale. And you know, when you talk about feeling good, it's like if you rate yourself, say on a scale of one to 20 at any given time, and you say, you know, how well do I feel today? And if that answer is, you know, below a 10, then there's a problem we need to like do cleansing activities.
[09:48] So I started to think, how can we create a connection? And that started with validation. So really taking a deep dive into understanding that we're truly all wired for empathy, but we've sort of trained it out of ourselves. And I think that this starts it when we're young children, you know, we have expectations put upon us, we have layers and layers of what other people think we should be when we can take a moment.
[10:48] And so what that allows us to do is take a, a sigh of relief and just drop in and not be so frantic. So the idea here is that we wanna cancel the nervous system. We wanna cancel the fight or flight response, right? And we wanna activate the parasympathetic response by saying connecting words. You are not alone. I can understand that. That sounds really challenging. And that's the step that we're really missing in our communication journey, that it doesn't mean that we're agreeing with someone.
[11:45] It's just acknowledging the emotion. You also do it. If someone has just shared something, that's really amazing. You can say, you know, thank you for sharing that with me. It sounds so exciting. So that's really that first step in the process, but it's such an important step because when you provide a validation, what you're actually doing is you are increasing oxytocin, vasopressin, serotonin, and dopamine. And I don't need to tell you doctor that those are very happy, healthy bonding hormones, right?
[13:19] So you definitely wanna get the book power versus force by David Hawkins. And he talks about quantifying the frequency of emotion. So I just wanted to let them know about that. And then I think it's so key what you said, the number one need that we have is to feel heard and understood everybody listening, just think like, what do you want more than anything from the people in your life. You want to feel heard, you get upset when people don't really hear you. You're like, you're not listening to me.
[14:05] And, you know, once our material needs are met for shelter and food and rest and things like that, we have these needs to be self-actualized self-expressed to be seen, to be heard, to be validated. And I love, I always my nervous system, you can feel it viscerally, calm down when you get on a customer service call and they immediately say, and you know, when they say this, that they've had training, wow, I'm sorry that you're dealing with that. I know that must be really frustrating. And you're just like, oh, this person it matters.
[14:58] Right. I've been heard and I've been validated, you know, it's interesting. I just came back from this trip in Mexico and I always ask for a cent free chemical free room, wherever I travel, cuz I don't want those VOCs in my, my body doesn't like them. And so I did request one and my room wasn't even ready when I got there. It took another two hours cuz they said you were requested a special room. And I go in my room and they have that scent, you know like most hotels put a scent cuz they think it increases your perceived value of what they're offering. You just like they'll put plastic, some hotels over the top of the drinking glasses in the bathroom.
[15:47] And I also love that you brought in the neuroscience of how this relates to hormone balance, that your oxytocin, dopamine serotonin and your vasopressin, all of these are improved and your sympathetic nervous system, when you are validated and you are heard. So how do you teach people in the book to start tweaking their words and their thoughts and their communication for improved hormone balance? I know that's not, not what you say in the book is the goal, but my people they know that's the goal.
[16:36] And so I'm training other collection agencies. I'm doing training for customer service, but it's really about when you're in that moment, you know, and I, I can tell you a little story with this because a lady that told me this, this story just really warms my heart. Her stepson had sent her a pretty emotionally charged text message. And he was blaming her for his difficult relationship with his father. You know, she immediately felt her walls going up. So step one is when you immediately feel, you know, this person has said something and now you feel your walls going up.
[17:26] So when you know ahead of time that you're going to use some sort of validation statement, you really train yourself that this is the script or the prompt, if you will, that you're going to respond with no matter what. So when she got this text message and she felt her walls going up, she knew reacting defensively would only lead to more conflict, causing more layers of disconnection in their relationship. Now she hadn't heard from him for a number of years before this text message came in. She just got it out of the blue mm-hmm . So instead she used all three steps of our communication, uh, code. And she said, you know, I can certainly understand how deeply you must be hurting.
[18:19] And she said, she'd be happy to pick him up and see him in person. And he didn't respond for quite a while. Instead after a while he called her. And for the first time, in a long time, they had a healthy conversation all because she was able to build a connection that really hadn't existed before. So you know, what you're doing is you're bringing stability to a situation.
[19:08] And then now their mind can be open to a solution. You know, if you've ever been talking to someone and you've got this like great idea for them and, and you feel like you have the right solution, but they're not hearing you, you know, and perhaps they get into story mode where they start repeating that story over and over and over again, if somebody is repeating their story on repeat, that is a sign that they do not feel heard and understood. And the moment that you can validate, not that they're date, not that their story is true. You're validating the emotion that they have associated with that story, because that is truly what helps them process the emotion move through it so that we can be emotionally receptive. You know, our brain space can get stuck on one thing, right? Mm-hmm . And when we follow these steps properly, people can be more open to what we have to say to them.
[20:42] And our energy is our what Dr. Marisa calls, the intangibles, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and our interactions with people. And we really underestimate the power of the emotions. I love that. You're saying you've got to, when the story's on repeat, you've got to hear the emotion and validate that it's not necessarily the story that needs to be validated, but how they are feeling, because that is the essence of what energy is running through their body. And until that's addressed, it will run everything.
[21:33] And so I think what you're saying, I think for some women it's, if you're disconnected from your own feelings, how can you validate another is what I'm thinking? Because I find that some, if people are disconnected and, and a lot of times that's the problem at the root of hormone, imbalance is nervous system dysregulation, disconnection from emotions. How in the world can somebody who's in that state learn to connect with their emotions is the first thing, because I'm thinking, how is she going to validate another? Does that make sense?
[22:38] The good news is that we're actually all wired for empathy. Every single one of us, um, is wire wired for empathy. I heard Dr. Gur ma say that in a, in a talk recently. And I was so happy. He said that because some of us don't believe that we are. So the first thing is understand that every one of us is actually wired for empathy. The second part that I wanna say is that the research shows that when you, when you provide empathy, whether you feel like you're empathetic, whether you think you can do this or not, but if you actually just force yourself to do it like a feedback cycle, it actually starts to strengthen the brain connections to make you more empathetic.
[23:41] And so as you provide these validation statements and especially, you know, for my staff, because they're doing this day in and day out, we require them to do it with every single person that they're speaking to. And we actually measure it, you know, in our quality assurance calls, they are actually improving upon their own empathetic response. So the reason I'm telling you this is because if you're listening to this and you wanna try it, don't worry. If you feel that you will not be able to do it, if you can just say the words, like I said, when you feel your walls going up, just say those words, you know, that sounds really challenging.
[24:32] Even if you don't mean them, because it's okay, the feeling will come when you say it and you practice it, you will start to actually increase those same happy, healthy hormones in yourself. And that is certainly mm-hmm, a huge thing. You will feel better about yourself. You'll know that you made an impact on another person and it's, it can hu. I mean, I remember the first, in the first few years when people were telling me, you know, Mary, I took this training and it didn't just change my communication. It literally changed my entire life. And I still hear that now to this day.
[25:09] So why do you think Mary, we are hardwired for empathy, little kids, you see this, oftentimes you see, you see more kids helping each other in the playground than you do one kid clobbering, another to take their toy. So why do you think that when I look around, I see a, a lack of empathy in a lot of places. So why is this happening? Well,
[25:32] I'll speak to the lack of empathy first, and this is just a theory. So this is not science based. This is just like my own observation, my own opinion. But I think that we we've been living through some disconnected times for probably about three decades. You know, we have women entering the workforce when, you know, 60 years ago that wasn't really the case. So we've sort of been going through this, um, conscious evolution of sorts, you know, and it changes the way things naturally were for, for millennia before that. And I think that there is a, a challenge with how children are being raised, you know, and I think it starts with coming out with bullying.
[26:19] And especially as women, that's not what we were built for. You know, that is that we were built to nurture. We were built to love. We are pure love, right. But if our behaviors are sort of creating a fork in the road, we've just gotta figure out that, that new balance. And so I have found that definitely through communication. It's a way it's a starting point, just one starting point of many mm-hmm where you can begin to train yourself back into that natural way. And especially, you know, I don't know about you, but I've been diving deep into like the feminine energy concept as well. And there's just so much to that.
[27:26] Yeah, I know. I mean, we were, we were we for sure, I wasn't schooled in, you know, what is this energy body that we have? What is feminine energy? What are all these things? And so now I think a lot of us weren't and we're having to relearn it at a later age, you have so much great information in here. A as you're talking, I know one of the things in the book that you talk about is, you know, the empathy for not only other people, but for ourselves, and you talk about self love and you know, there's so, so many platitudes, oh, love yourself and get a pedicure.
[28:21] And it's impossible to help someone heal their hormones when they have this negative chatter, it's almost like they have this abuser in their mind. That's constantly berating them cuz their cortisol will never get out of the toilet. How do you help women to start to change their thought patterns, to have empathy for themselves first and really turn the light of love onto themselves
[28:56] There's no way that your girlfriend is gonna look at you and tell you how horrible you are. Right. Mm-hmm no way she's immediately gonna tell you, you know, I know you're gonna get out of this. I know you're gonna be okay. I believe in you. It's okay. You know, she's going to go into that mode because she cares about you and loves you, but it's, it's almost like you have to step out of yourself and be your own girlfriend because you know, that's one of the things I learned. And so what I did, I kind of created this, I think as a five step process, I call it five steps to break through your breakdown.
[29:44] And so what I did was I wrote a list of all of the current issues or perceived issues I had in my life. You know, I think, I think it was like, uh, a key employee had just resigned and I had a big tax bill to pay with my business. You know, I just had some, a list of things. So I wrote out this list and there ended up being 20 things on the list. And when I looked at the list, I immediately had empathy for myself and I, and I remember looking at that list in the moment when I realized like, wow, anyone going through this amount of chaos in their life would be feeling the same way I do. So it's that same validation.
[30:38] So like I would go deep into my mind because of my own past traumas and think I'm gonna turn into a bad lady someday. I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna be able to, uh, support myself. Well, what is that? That's the fight or flight, you know, that's our basic, when you talk about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you know, that's that basic survival rung that we need food and shelter just to survive.
[31:24] And so when we're coming from that, you know, when you're talking about like manifesting, anytime you're manifesting from a place of fear and chaos, you are only going to create more fear and chaos. So it's like you have to slow yourself down. So once you can, you know, look at your situation, perhaps conjure up some empathy for yourself. And one thing I really recommend have a cry session if you can't cry, which I couldn't cry. I mean, if you would've met me six years ago, it had probably been 20 years since I shed a tear. Wow. That is such a, you know, somebody who's disconnected from their emotions.
[32:18] But if we try to take actions when we're still in the fear and the chaos of the moment, really anything we try to create is gonna turn around and it's, it's not gonna work out the way that you think, but once you raise yourself up and whether you call that frequency, vibration, you know, feeling better, whatever words you like to use, anything you manifest from a place of empowerment is going to show up in your life faster, better, stronger, and be more long lasting.
[33:03] It's just like if you ate steak every single day and that's all you ate, it's not healthy, right. It's unbalanced. And that emotion, energy, and motion needs to move through your body. And so if you're not crying, there's something wrong. Just like if you're not laughing, there's something wrong. And I, as you were talking, I was thinking, I love the suggestion you gave about the movies. What are some of your favorite movies to bring on a good cry?
[33:41] Well, recently I watched, um, the unforgiven with Sandra Bullock. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's absolutely beautiful. I was crying the entire time. You know, another one I'm good at this now, so I can bring up the tears at, at any movie really. Right. Another one was, uh, the tender bar that is a Ben Aflex show. It's really just a heartwarming movie. You know, it doesn't even have to be a sad movie or like peanut butter, Falcon, just these heartwarming stories that can bring emotion up in your body and something you said that I, I would really want to piggyback on. We were built to experience these emotions.
[34:39] Which means she raised me that way, the positive psychology movement while it's good. And, and we do wanna have a positive attitude or we wanna, you know, we wanna focus on, on the positive, but we've taken it so far into our society where there's almost like a guilt and shaming. If you have a negative thought that negative thought is a message for you. If you're feeling an, a it or a pain, that is a message for you. David Hawkins has another book called letting go, where he really takes you through a process where you get in touch with where these emotions are stored in your body. Mm-hmm another tip that I would have is, um, body work, you know, getting a massage it's self care. I agree with you. It's it's not about a spa day. It's about how you take care of yourself and emotions get lodged in the body.
[35:48] Yeah. Very powerful. Because emotion is stored in the tissue. When you get body work to have a release. And then all of a sudden memories might start coming up. Feelings might start coming up and to allow that, and that's loving yourself right. To, to allow that we are gonna need to wrap up. I love this book. And one thing I wanna make sure to talk about is the a hundred things. I love about me. Talk about how this exercise came about. And I want you to, to kind of give everyone a challenge to do this.
[36:19] It sounds simple. So I believe at the time I was working with a friend of mine, he's a dating coach. And he had given me this assignment, which was to write a hundred things that I love about myself. He's really trying to get me to see my own value. Right. But the exercise just turned into something much deeper for myself. And I started writing a list and it's like, oh, I like my long hair. And I love my long legs. And you know, you kind of go through this superficial list of things.
[37:01] This is not just about writing a love list about yourself, because what happened to me after, you know, the month was over when I got to number 99, number 99 and number 100. I remember I wrote, I am radiant. What I love about myself is I am radiant. And I think that that was number 99. And then number 100 was, I am a powerful creator and I could never have come to that moment of realization.
[37:55] So I've had women tell me like, oh, I love that. I love the color teal. And then all of a sudden they, she was wearing a teal blouse and someone complimented her on that color. I've had all these like little strange sort of, um, synchronistic things that have happened with this list. So I really encourage you to do this because, and it will take a while. It's not, I know it sounds easy, but it's not easy, but don't give up until you get to a hundred. So you just take a piece of paper and you say 100 things.
[38:39] So it's about communication, not only with others, but yourself, because the communication you have with yourself really sets the tone for your hormonal balance, which is the foundation for your physical health and wellbeing, mental and emotional health and wellbeing. And I'm gonna challenge you to do those things. Maybe pick up a copy of Mary's book, conscious communications, where can they find the book, Mary, and find out more about you?
[39:21] I think the easiest place to find the book is on Amazon and it's just conscious communications on Amazon. And then also my, my favorite social media is LinkedIn. I know that isn't everyone's favorite social media. So we also have Instagram and Facebook. My website is Mary shores.com. That is M a R Y S H O R E S. And you can find all of our social media links on there. So love to connect with anyone. If you've, if you're checking out the book, I always say, if you read the description or the back cover of it you'll know right away, whether this book is for you.
[39:57] Thank you so much, Mary, for that great resource for writing this for your journey, for your tender, loving care of women at midlife and the tools that you've offered for us. I think they're very powerful. So I'm gonna challenge everyone to, uh, take a look at conscious communications, do your a hundred things and really up level your communication. Maybe look at some of the books we've mentioned by David Hawkins, the letting go book, the power versus force. Even the one by Pema children is good. She's got some beautiful books because having great hormone balance at midlife and beyond and great health is not just about going to the gym and kicking it out with vitamin X, right? It's not just about eating the right diet. It's not just about supplements. Are those things important? Sure. They are, but they're not they're necessary, but not sufficient. So you really have to up level, like we started the episode talking about changing your mind.
[40:56] So I really want you to start thinking about what am I willing to change? What am I willing to let go of with my chronic thought problem patterns? We think over 70,000 thoughts a day 99% of them are the same. So what new thoughts are you willing to bring in today? What emotions are you willing to allow? What kind of TLC nurturing are you going to allow yourself to give to yourself and to others in your life so they can have that empathy. So I think that great questions yield great opportunity for improvement and new actions in the future. Thank you so much for speaking with us today, Mary, about this and sharing your wonderful book.
[41:51] Thanks so much for spending your precious time with us and, uh, look forward. If you wanna join me on Instagram at Kirin Dunston MD or Facebook at Kirin Dunston MD. Look forward to your comments about Mary's episode and her book. And I would love it. If some of you would post your a hundred things you love about yourself. Wanna ask me a question. I do a Q and a episode every month. So you can do that on my website. Just go on the podcast page and click the microphone and you can leave me a voice memo. Yep. I'll hear it. And maybe I'll respond during our next episode until next week. Peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening.
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Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast! In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Nicole Huffman to discuss how our subconscious beliefs can impact our hormone balance.
If you're struggling with hormonal issues, it's important to explore all potential causes - including your beliefs and mindset. As Dr. Huffman explains, our subconscious beliefs can have a powerful impact on our physical health, including our hormone balance.
If you're ready to dive deeper into exploring your own beliefs and how they might be impacting your health, tune in now! You'll learn valuable insights from Dr. Huffman that can help you create lasting positive change in your life.
In this episode, you will learn:
- How our subconscious beliefs can impact our hormone balance
- What kind of beliefs might be causing hormonal imbalances
- How to start exploring your own subconscious beliefs
- Lifestyle and diet tips for optimizing hormone health
- Methods to use for unresolved stress
- How to enhance your energy and vitality at any age
- And more!
So whether you're struggling with hormonal issues or just want to learn more about how our beliefs impact our health, tune in now for an enlightening conversation with Dr. Nicole Huffman.
If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to the Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review! We appreciate your support as we continue working to empower women everywhere to take control of their hormone health.
[01:19] My guest today. You're gonna love her. I know you love all my guests, but you're really gonna love her because she's gonna talk about a topic that's super important and just might the missing key. When it comes to your hormone balance, I find that women who don't achieve the hormone balance and health, that's possible for them over a 40 often neglect this step. So this is why it's super important.
[02:12] Dr. Nicole Huffman is a naturopathic medical doctor and her passion is finding the root cause of her patients and balances and dis ease, not just solving the symptom picture. She believes the body has the ability to heal itself, given the correct personalized treatment plan. And after restoring the basic determinants of health, a certified neuro emotional technique practitioner, Nicole knows firsthand the dramatic effects that healing negative subconscious beliefs can have on health. She explores these and more topics related to root cause resolution approaches to health on her biweekly podcast called coffee with the docs. Welcome Dr. Nicole Huffman.
[03:26] I'm so excited to ha,ve you and dive into the topic of, are your subconscious beliefs hurting your hormone balance? I, yes. Right? So I know some people are wondering why aren't they so excited, weirdly excited about this topic? Why tell everyone why you're excited about it?
[03:45] And I don't necessarily think it's because doctors like don't wanna help their patients with that. I think honestly, just a lot of practitioners aren't really taught how to help and especially the docs who are, you know, sort of in the more standard standard type of medicine who are helping with hormones. It's just not part of their repertoire to really deal with that side. But we know as practitioners in the functional world, that if you look at hormones and if your stress hormone cortisol is too high or which is gonna affect insulin, it's also gonna affect all of our sex hormones, which is gonna throw off the whole hormonal balance. And so it's just so important to look at that piece of the puzzle.
[04:43] And I know the first thing that women say to me is like Dr. Kiran, how of my , how does my subconscious thought that runs my body have anything to do with my hormones? They're like, no, no, I've got a very menopause problem. I've got a menopause problem. I don't have a subconscious thought problem.
[05:15] I think there's that quote that's like you can't solve the problem with the same brain that created it. I mean, it is one of those things where it is helpful to have a practitioner, somebody who does work with a subconscious mind sort of help you identify what belief systems you may have. And if you were talking even just about what you were just saying with menopause, like if you have a subconscious belief program, that's like, well, my mom started menopause early than I'm going to too. Well, your body listens to everything your mind says, right?
[06:05] And so I do think there are little tricks and tools to kind of figuring out your own subconscious belief systems and really that's how come, you know, meditation can be so helpful because it's being aware, it's taking a step back and observing yourself, which is hard to do, you know, observing without judgment, but you can kind of start to see like, oh gosh, I always tend to think this one thing today, I was working with a patient where she had kind of figured out on her own that every time she experiences a lot of joy, something bad happens.
[06:54] Yeah. I think that's super important to, to realize. I remember when I practiced regular gynecology, women used to come in and they'd be in their forties having crazy periods cuz that's what we do in our forties. And they would say, well, my mother had a hysterectomy when she was 45. So I think it's time for mine.
[07:16] And so you mentioned that working with someone who can help them to identify. So I know some people are thinking, whoa, who would I look for? What kind of person would I look for? Who helps people with their subconscious beliefs?
[07:37] I mean, so one of the practices, modalities I use to help my patients with their emotional, I don't even really wanna call it emotional work. I feel like the word emotional just gets such a bad reputation. But if we look at it as sort of solving unresolved stress, right? Like we know that if there is stress in the body, that's unresolved, it's gonna cause and balances. Right? So if we look at it that way, the modality I like to use is something called neuro emotional technique. So I do know that you can look for different practitioners, not everybody practices the exact same, but you know, if that's a resource and then I would say there are so many other different types of ways to access that area and kind of the subconscious brain and figure out how to create more balance.
[08:39] And EFT, emotional freedom technique. That's a pretty widely used technique. Now there's a lot of different practitioners in that. One of my fellow colleagues does hypnosis work. That's another really powerful way to access the subconscious brain. So I, you know, a lot of it is dealing with somebody that you trust, right? So if you have a functional practitioner like yourself, or if you're wor somebody who's working with me and they wanna dive deeper and it's not something that I wanna do or tackle fully on my own, then I've got some people that I recommend as well. But there's just so many different ways to access it that I don't know.
[09:51] Yeah. I think those are all great techniques. And I love that you mentioned meditation first because I find for a lot of people they're just so busy that they're not aware of the conversations going on in the background, in their mind. That is the content of the subconscious mind.
[10:44] Absolutely. I mean, what I learned back in the day was that our subconscious brain runs about 98% of the show. So that seems like a pretty decently high percentage. So we might wanna understand a little bit more about what our subconscious mind is saying then. And also we have to understand that it's not bad. This isn't like a bad or good, or we have to get those thoughts out. Our subconscious brain is constantly trying to keep us safe.
[11:37] You know, as you're talking, Maslow's hierarchy of needs popped into my head. Mm-hmm because I was thinking about the fact that we are neurologically wired for safety, right? Mm-hmm reptilian brain keep us safe at all costs, but we have this need for self-actualization
[11:59] can go. Exactly contrary. I, I always tell the women, I work with that part of your health problems is that you're not doing what you wanna do in all areas of your life. There's usually some what I call spiritual constipation or creative constipation.
[12:18] That. And you've got to do the things that you came here to do in order to free up that energy. So it's, it's no longer stuck, which is along Maslow's hierarchy of needs. But like you're talking about our subconscious is programed to keep us safe. So most of us have safety beliefs running in the background. Oh, you can't quit your job because then you'll be homeless and destitute. Oh, you can't, you know, you can't this, you have to that. What are your thoughts about that?
[12:49] I completely agree. I feel like a lot of my patients too, I'll see them. They're tired. Right? Fatigue is such a complaint. And it's like, well, okay, are, are they actually tired? Cuz their body doesn't have energy maybe, but are they also tired? Because nothing is really that inspiring to them right now. Right. They they're in a job where they're like you were saying like, I love them spiritually constipated. They don't have that relationship with the diviner whatever. Or they aren't in a job that's super fulfilling. They feel like they're doing the same thing every day. They're you know? Right. I mean, you're, you're not gonna be this inspired, energetic person. Sometimes if the life stuff isn't necessarily together, now there can be somebody, another person who's doing all those same things.
[13:57] It's so true. It's like, how's your marriage? How are your relationships? How's your job? You know, the whole time at you're at work. Are you thinking if I have to do this one thing again, I'm gonna stick a fork in my eye. you know, your body hears that
[14:12] yep, absolutely. And to the point where you should sort of be careful about certain things that you're saying, I mean, no doubt. So I just feel like the first step really is as simple as just being aware. Right. And then I think there's a million steps you can take after that.
[14:31] Awesome. So let's dive a little deeper into this issue of hormone balance and subconscious beliefs. So maybe everybody listening's thinking, okay, I get it. My subconscious beliefs are, are part running part of the show, but what hormones are being affected, can you help everybody understand
[14:50] That? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm gonna break it down from more of just like a stress component. Right. Okay. I mean we know like I was kind of saying earlier, like if your cortisol is off, right, you're having some underlying stress. And when I say underlying stress is, you know, sometimes I have patients and I'm sure you do too. Who are like, yeah, nothing really stressful is going on in my life though. So why do I have low testosterone? Why do I have low progesterone? And I'm like, all right, let's take a step back.
[15:43] And when your body is stressed, it's not thinking, Hey, now's a great time to have a baby. Or now's a really great time to get my reproductive system in order, right? When the body's stressed, it's number one, objective is survival, that's it? And so our progesterone levels are low. Our testosterone levels are low that can affect our estrogen, our D H G a levels. And then we might start having like some really wonky periods might skip a period. Maybe we have really heavy bleeds because our estrogen is way outta control and we don't have the progesterone reserves to balance it either.
[16:39] How, when you have higher amounts of cortisol, your oxytocin go down and when your cortisol is higher, your insulin goes higher. So we're talking about just one hormone that can really start throwing off the balance of so many different things and oxytocin for those of you just need a little refresher. I mean, that's the hormone of safety and of love and connection. And if you're not feeling that way, maybe one of your subconscious belief systems is I deserve to be alone, or I'm never gonna find a partner or whatever it might be around love. Maybe your oxytocin levels are lower than we'd like them, and that's gonna upset your sex hormones as well. Does that make sense?
[17:20] Absolutely. And I love how you linked it so clearly to what you said earlier, solving unresolved stress and even these low levels of stress and, and just, you know, being at work and thinking negative thoughts about your job or your coworkers or your boss or your being at home and thinking negative thoughts about your partner or current world conditions. Yes. Thinking negative thoughts about I, I went down that negative pathway. I have to admit it with certain life events recently. It took me a minute to get myself together.
[18:22] So we talked about some methods that you use and recommend to help solve unresolved stress. And I know some people are listening now and they're thinking, oh, you mean my body's listening to that rampage. That goes on my, in my head when I drive in traffic every day. yes. So what are some steps that you might give people today who are now realizing? Ooh, I didn't know that this was affecting my hormones and I have unresolved stress that they could start using.
[19:02] Absolutely. I mean, like we sort of talked about just calming the brain, slowing down, listening to what some of those thoughts that we might be saying in our head, you know, one of the things I really like to do, I don't know if you ever looked at the book. Gosh it's so it's old called the artist's way. She talks a lot about doing morning pages. So you literally wake up and you're just writing three pages every morning, even if it's not, you know, anything really exciting. It's just that idea of kind of getting that subconscious brain, those thoughts out onto the page.
[19:53] Like I mentioned before, Dr. Joe Des Benza. I just, sometimes it's nice to hear somebody else's voice guiding you into certain things, and then you feel like you have some direction instead of I feel like I hear so many people say, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing or thinking about. It's like, well, nothing supposed to be thinking about nothing and that's really hard to do. So I do find like guide meditations can be really helpful. And if you're somebody who is interested in sort of working with somebody, you know, whether it's somebody like me or another practitioner who does neuro emotional technique, I think that can be really helpful just to have somebody else help you out a little bit to see mm-hmm , you know, what some of those thoughts might be.
[20:43] Maybe that's your relationship. Maybe that's your career path. Maybe that's where you're living or who you're surrounding yourself by your friendships. Right? Because it's everything around that comprises your health, not just what you're eating, what supplements you're taking. And if you're curious about how it is affecting your health, I'm sure, you know, if they're working with you or if they're working with, you know, another practitioner like myself actually measuring your hormones, I think is great. Whether you're doing it with something like a Dutch test or a serum, uh, you know, maybe day 19 through 22 of your cycle, something like that.
[21:35] I mean, the world stuff is huge right now for people. And I've been finding that even just helping and doing some emotional work with people around what's going on in the world and, you know, getting rid of, not getting rid of, but maybe lessening that voice of I'm. I can't be happy cuz I'm not in control. Right. Because there's so much going on. That's not in our control and really there is any ways. And so how can you find joy despite of that? And at, and I think also, I mean, I noticed my own stuff, just moving to, I live in a ranch now in Colorado and it's beautiful and there's, you know, it's a lot more manual labor than I've done in quite some time in my hormones shifted significantly. And again, it was a good stress. I love where I live and I love the change, but it was such a drastic change on my body that even good stresses can throw off your hormones too. So I think a lot of it is just taking stock instead of just, okay, well I'm this age. So now my hormones do this. It's like, it doesn't have to necessarily be like that. It's more, how can we look at our life as a whole and what maybe other things that just start changing for women around their forties.
[22:49] Yes. I love that. You said it doesn't have to be that way. I hope everybody heard that you can take matters into your own hands. And I'm wondering not all physicians, most regular docs and, and not all naturopaths, like you are really talk about subconscious beliefs affecting hormones and health. So how did you come to know this and become more interested in this as an aspect of your patient's health that you needed to help them with?
[23:19] Absolutely. I would say quite reluctantly my mentor had suggested that I take a course on neuro emotional techniques. So I could also help my patients with, we call it the triad of health. So there's how are things affecting a patient chemically, structurally or emotionally? And I was like, eh, I don't think I really wanna get into the emotional side of my patients. And he's like, uh, I think, I think you should go take this course. And you know, when your mentor tells you to do something and you're like, okay, fine. so I was having horrible seasonal allergies.
[24:14] Right? So there's a hundred people in the class and he starts doing neuro emotional work on me. And it's very quick, right? A lot of our patients say it's like six years of therapy in 30 seconds. It's not a long drawn out thing. It's not talk therapy. And so using applied kinesiology or muscle testing, he, my allergy point turned out to be emotional allergy point is just a reflex point on the body that we used for applied kinesiology or muscle testing. And it turned out, it went back to when my parents had gotten divorced when I was 11.
[25:06] So I was like, wow, this is embarrassing. And I was so exhausted from it that actually at the lunch break of the seminar, I went, took a nap in my car. And within three days my seasonal allergies were completely gone. I mean, completely gone. This was something that I had struggled with my whole life. And so that was all I needed to learn more, to dig more. I was still a medical student. I got certified in this technique while in med school. And I use it with my patients, um, almost every day. And it's not just allergies, right?
[26:01] And so we start using this applied kinesiology in ways of accessing the subconscious mind and applied kinesiology or muscle testing, isn't the only way to use that. It's just how I learned this one technique. And it was such a game changer for me. And now I live in a, I mean, I live in a ranch with horses. I couldn't even touch a horse before. So for me it was so profound that I knew there had to be something more to this. And you know, some people will be like, well, don't you think it's just the placebo effect.
[26:45] And I love using things like homeopathy and flower essences, and other things for people who might not wanna do a lot of the standard emotional work. There are so many different ways you can access it using these different energetic remedies. And the people don't even have to believe in it or be open to it because you'll see how their body changes. But I will have to say is that if someone isn't open to it, there's another belief system there, right? Because again, it's just the subconscious brain trying to keep them safe. So that was sort of my own, I guess, initiation into this world.
[27:22] A great story. I love it. Yes. Emotional component, the intangibles like Dr. Marisa calls them your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs, super powerful for your health. It reminds me of a technique. A friend of mine performs called site K, which was developed by Bruce Lipton, where they do use the different energy work to reverse test your beliefs and your feelings and thoughts. And then to reverse the kind of energy that's run, you're running your body's running on that.
[28:10] You do have to be open to it. That's kinda why I love homeopathy is because I do feel like homeopathy and flowers and sometimes can access a point where if they're a little skeptical, it gets them more open to being able to look at other things. But I just find, and I'm sure you have these people too, when you're miserable enough or you're really ready to look for a change in your health. You sort of don't care how crazy something looks and yeah. And I always feel like a lot of people will say like, oh gosh, energy medicine. It's so woo, woo. And I'm like, energy medicine is the future man. So get on board . I mean, it's just, it uses quantum physics and it uses things that are way more scientific than most of us can even comprehend.
[29:14] Yes. And I just wanna reiterate what you're saying that it is scientifically proven. I just read a wonderful book about it called tuning the human biofield. And she goes through all the science and why all of these methods are basically validated and the, the energy body and the energy work. And, and she also talks about why mainstream medicine doesn't accept it.
[29:45] So yeah. I love this quote that you shared from Nelson Mandela. I hadn't heard this one. There is no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. And I'm wondering if you can share what that means to you and how this infuses the work that you do with your patients.
[30:04] All I know is that I, when I go into something, I kind of go all in. And so if there tends to be spaces where I'm like, ah, it just feels like we need a change or we need to infuse some more joy. Like when this whole pandemic thing first started happening, I was like, all right, I gotta find an outdoor sport. That something that's brings me joy because you know, that's just me. I can't sit inside my house all day. Right. Mm-hmm and I'm, and I wasn't gonna do that anyways, besides the point. But so I sort of landed into horseback riding as a way of, and it was perfect.
[30:52] I mean, we went trail rides, we did all these outdoors things and now I live on a ranch. I mean, it was just, so I just find that for me personally, I think that we are all capable of so much if we sort of step outside of our comfort zones. And one of my favorite questions is like, what can I do now that will bring me more joy? Or what can I start soon that will bring more joy and creativity. And for me at the time was getting involved with horses now for somebody else that might be, you know, painting, or it might be, I just think fear, fear, which also can, you know, is a subconscious brain, prevents a lot of people from doing things that they might really love doing.
[31:53] I so agree. And so many women seems like when they get to menopause, perimenopause is coming and then menopause and they're like, I just wanna retire and they've given up, why do you think this is that so many of us just give up?
[32:12] I feel like part of it is what we've been taught or told about menopause, right? I mean, it's this horrible thing. And we go through and we feel terrible and we lose our sex drive and blah, blah, blah. Right. I just feel like a lot of it is the stories that we've been told or things that have been passed down. So again, changing those belief patterns and changing those thoughts. And also I'm sure there is a component of just when you're some of your hormones go down, there are some things that change.
[33:04] You know, just different things like that. I think there's so many ways we can change and work with our physiology. That's changing to still lead these really bold and beautiful lives. But a lot of it, I think is just women are taught that there's nothing they can do. This is just something they have to go through. And I'm so glad that there are more doctors like you who are starting to show that this isn't some, we just don't have to do this. And it doesn't have to be horrible. There's so many ways that we can work with our bodies to make it wonderful.
[33:37] Yeah. As you were talking, I was thinking, I totally blame hormones, but then as you were talking longer, I was like, well, I totally blame doctors. because we're not doing a good job of telling women. You don't have to suffer this way. There is a better way and we can help you. But it really is in my opinion, hormones and doctor's fault. Absolutely.
[34:05] And I do think when your hormones change, I mean, there's no doubt. There's a lot that changes in our energy and our vitality, but I do also feel like there are ways to enhance that if that makes sense.
[34:18] Yes, absolutely. What are some of your favorite ways? I know you talked about testing. I, we, we always are about tests don't guess, but for women who are kind of, definitely in their forties, fifties, what are some lifestyle changes that you pretty universally recommend women make that you find help them?
[34:39] Yeah. I think part of it again, is finding some sort of passion and joy, right? A lot of these women either have kids and they haven't really done a lot for themselves lately. So finding, you know, something that brings them joy and them passion because that's gonna ignite a whole lot of things. I also think that women's bodies are just genuinely not as insulin sensitive anymore. So I do recommend a lot of dietary changes, whether that looks more like a Brianna talks about like a keto green or just a more low carb, higher fat approach to life, maybe adding in some more fasting. I think women who are in menopause do really well with fasting and they seem to feel a lot better.
[35:59] Yes. I agree with all of that. And some the, just the small things that you've mentioned have, can have powerful impacts. So whether you're not, you're a woman who's resourced to get the high level tests that we mentioned earlier or not. These are things that you can start doing in your life pretty quickly and inexpensively. I love your podcast coffee with the docs, and I know I'm gonna be on a guest on there soon. And I'm wondering if you can share you've you've done a lot of episodes. What are some of your most memorable guests and topics and takeaways from interviewing all those doctors?
[36:40] Oh, what a fun question. Let's see. One of the favorites that just pops into my mind right away was interviewing Todd white. Who's the CEO of dry farm wines. We were chatting for almost 45 minutes before we even started talking about wine. It was so funny. He was talking so much about living a purposeful life and how you eat and fasting and meditation and how it's an integral part of his company. I just found it to be super fascinating, sort of like we were just talking about like incorporating everything, not just, oh, this supplement, oh, this biodentical progesterone.
[37:41] And I just felt like that was a really, really amazing episode too. And it's one of our more recent ones that we just, so I think a lot of it though, and I have to say, we always ask every guest two questions. So I'll ask you and you are on ours, but one of them is what is your latest biohack? And it's funny, some people are like, I hate that word. And I'm like, that's fine. , what's something that makes your life easier. And you know what a lot of people said while we were recording during these last two years, a lot of people said the sun.
[38:44] Yeah. I love that. As you were saying it, I'm thinking, yeah. I'll sign up for that more sun, more nature, more beach, more being outdoors.
[39:07] awesome. Well, I am so glad to have you on today and to talk on this topic of how our subconscious beliefs affect our hormones. I know that everybody's gotten a lot out of it and I'd love that you mentioned joy many, many times. I always take notes on some of the, the insightful things my guests say, and you said, what can I do now? That will bring me more joy. And so I want to leave everyone with that. And I want you to think when we get off the podcast, what can you do now that could bring you more joy, because if you move towards joy, you're moving towards hormone balance.
[40:01] Yeah. Thank you. So I'm pretty active on Instagram. Mine is Dr. Nicole N M D like naturopathic medical doctor. Uh, my website is Dr. Nicole Huffman, H U F F M a N. And that's as I'm not on like the talks and all those things yet. So just kind of sticking with the one and then our podcast, which we have episodes that come out every two weeks. Sometimes we'll have one come out weekly and that's coffee with the docs.
[40:35] Yes, definitely. Look Dr. Nicole up, check out her podcast, visit her on Instagram, check out her website. Thank you so much for being with us today, Nicole, and keep up the awesome work that you're doing.
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It's time to talk about our happy places - our vaginas! On this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, host Dr. Kyrin Dunston is joined by special guest Dr. Betsy Greenleaf, an OBGYN and pelvic floor physical therapist, premier womens health expert, a best-selling author, entrepreneur, inventor, and business leader specializing in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery for over 20 years, to talk all things vagina. Dr. Greenleaf, is a trailblazer as the first female in the United States to become board certified in Urogynecology, CEO of The Pelvic Floor Store, a blog at drbetsygreenleaf.com, and she is the host of Some Of Your Parts Podcast, and host of the happy vagina rally summit.
She dedicated to women's wellness and the notion that you are greater than the sum of your parts. and BODY MIND SPIRIT podcast that focuses on the trinity of total health. She is the best-selling co-author of You Were Made To Be Unstoppable.
In this episode you will learn:
-How your vagina changes throughout your life
-Pelvic floor physical therapy and how it can help with things like incontinence, pain during intercourse, and more
-The importance of self-care for your vagina
-And much more!
So whether you're dealing with the changes that come with menopause, are concerned about your pelvic health, or just want to learn more about taking care of your vagina, this episode is for you! Tune in now and let's get started on having a happy vagina for a happy life.
[01:15] Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kirin. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today. We are gonna talk about vaginas. Yes, I know this is probably something that you don't hear talked about that much, but the truth is you have one, you take it with you everywhere, and it's a big part of what makes you a healthy woman. And my expert today knows this better than anyone. She is an expert in vagina house. She has a great event coming up. We're gonna tell you about, and she has a voice and she's not gonna be silent. And you shouldn't be silent either about what's going on for you. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we will get started. Premier women's health expert, a bestselling author, entrepreneur inventor, and business leader, specializing in female, pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery for over 20 years.
[02:14] Dr. Betsy Greenleaf is a trailblazer as the first female in the us to become a board certified Euro gynecologist. Yay, Betsy. She is the CEO of the pelvic floor store. She has a blog at Dr. Betsy greenleaf.com. She's the host of some of your parts podcast, and also she hosts the happy vagina rally summit. We're gonna tell you about she's dedicated to women's wellness and the notion that you are greater than the sum of your parts and body mind spirit podcast that focuses on the Trinity of total health. She's the best selling co-author of you are made to be unstoppable. Welcome Dr. Betsy Greenley.
[02:55] You so much, Dr. Kirin for having me here. I'm so excited. I love talking to you. So this is gonna be great.
[03:00] yes. Betsy is so much fun. Not only is she brilliant, uh, when it comes to women's health and special, especially vaginal ecology and pelvic floor things, but just such a free thinker and out very outspoken. She shared the quote from Alan Albright with me before this episode, and I said this so speaks to who she is in the world. And I think who I am too, right. It took me quite a long time to develop a voice. And now that I have it, I am not going to be silent. So did you used to, to not have a voice on important matters?
[03:37] You know, I, unfortunately I think I've always just kind of not had a filter, just spoke my mind, but I did find very quickly that especially in traditional medicine, especially in, in, unfortunately the time that I did my training being in a male dominant field, that people did not wanna hear me. And it did get me in trouble, especially my first, my actually very first job. I came out in the early two thousands thinking, come on, it's two thousands. Like, you know, this is crazy. Like how bad can, you know, medicine be? And I'm going into a hospital where it was like stuck in the 1950s. And so they were not used to having somebody that spoke up.
[04:42] Later on, I spoke to some of my family colleagues and they're like, you, what is the doctor's lounge? And I was like, uh, last time I looked, I do have a degree. They're like, oh, we don't go in there. Only the men go in there. So yeah. So unfortunately I kind of learned the hard way that people don't always wanna hear what you have to say. So I do have a tendency to rock the boat, but I just, you know, as much as they've tried to squelch me over the years, I still haven't learned to shut up and I'm just gonna keep talking.
[05:12] oh my gosh. You just brought back so many memories from when I first came out of residency and went to work in this hospital and the doctor's lounge. Oh my gosh. Yes. You were like an anomaly. You were like a rare bird walking into the Seren Getty and they would look at you like they were like lions you're doing here. And do you know what? I even remember that in the, so in the surgical suite, they didn't even have a female doctor's locker room. Yes. The only doctor's locker room, they said, this is the doctor's locker room was for males and females. So they would tell us, you have to go in there and change. I'm just remembering this. And of course, none of us wanted to, so we didn't.
[06:05] I think it's still like that in some of the hospitals I go to, it says like doctors' locker room and then there's the nurses' locker room. And I'm like, but there's a lot of male nurses. And obviously there's a lot of female doctors. So, but you know, the, the men go into the doctors when the female go into the nurses.
[06:21] and God forbid, you would, you would raise your hand or say something at the, you know, the OB GYN staff meeting. They really would look at you like with these daggers, like, are you real? Like, it's enough that we gave you a seat at the table, but you're gonna open your mouth and say something really
[06:38] It's actually, you know, it's funny too. Cause I actually even started out in general surgery before I switched to OB G a N. And I remember walking into the operating rooms and like the doctors would look up and they'd be like, uh, you, what am I gonna talk to you about? And I would go home and study the sports page. Everybody else was study like surgery, textbooks. I was studying the sports page. So I had something I could walk in and talk to them about.
[07:04] Maybe I should have done that. I didn't think of that. And I think it's important thatm in listening know kind of what the environment was like for us and still is in the hospital environment, because it will help you to understand a lot of why you're not getting what you need from medicine. Because if this is the oppressive environment that the doctors are living in, when it, it comes to women, this is what is being translated to you, without words in the care that you're receiving or not receiving, and the attention to your vagina and lady parts that you're probably not getting to the level that you need it. So that's why I think it's important to know. So let's dive into talking about, well, first you're the first certified urogynecologist female in the us. That's amazing. Yeah. What prompted you to want to go into urogynecology?
[08:06] You know, what's interesting. So I told you I started out in general surgery and I was the person who I wanted more of a relationship with my patients and listen, general surgeons are amazing people, but I found for me, they were too much like body mechanics, you know, get in, get the job done, get out, but I, and not have a relationship with the patients. And so I wanted a relationship with, with the patients I was going around on general surgery and I was the one who was rounding and being.
[08:56] I didn't necessarily wanna deliver the babies partially. Cause I like to sleep at night babies come at all hours of the day. And so they told me that doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. And it wasn't until my very last rotation as a OB GYN resident that I did Euro guide. And I'm like, this is amazing. I mean, this is what I've been telling people. I wanna do, you know, I was being told before, like, that's blasphemous, you can't just do the surgical aspect. And so, yeah. So I found that and uh, I got really lucky because I was a month from graduation and most fellowships have already accepted their fellows into the program.
[09:59] Yeah. Amazing. And so you've had this really deep dive into pelvic floor disorder. I know you're very passionate about the VA biome and you're holding this event, uh, the puppy vagina rally, that's coming up soon. We will have a link in the show notes for you guys to sign up. And what are some of the most interesting things that you learned doing the interviews for this event about the vagina that you would like to share with.
[10:32] Everyone? You know, it's been so much fun cuz every time I interview people, I think like all of us as we talk to people, it's not just the conversation, but then it's an exchange and we're learning so much from each other. I think, you know, part of it was being traditionally trained. We didn't get a lot of training in sexuality. In fact, actually they took it out of the curriculum when I was in medical school. And I think even when it was in the curriculum, it was only like a week long. So we have a couple speakers that talk about sexuality that like from Susan Bratton to, I have a woman who is the erotic massage coach.
[11:31] And I'm like bringing in this woman, who's the tic massage coach, like talking to her, first of all, she is just so much fun. I'm like, wow, I never even thought about that as like an option. And when you first hear about it, she does these classes on like how to like kind of, you know, get your partner aroused. But I was like, well, that doesn't sound fun for, for me or the woman, but it is super empowering.
[12:27] So it has been really enlightening along the way. And of course we have you talking about menopause on the summit too. So a lot of fun little tidbits from Dr. Karen. So it is just, it was a lot of fun making it. And I mean, I can't, I could go off on hours for all the different speakers that we had. We actually had to kind of hold it down to 30 speakers. Cause that was the other thing at first, it was turning into this week long summit. And my, I really wanted to address busy women because I don't know about you, but I don't really have a lot of time to sit there and watch a lot of videos. So I wanted, we decided to par it down, make it 30, 30 different speakers over a four day period. So in like short half hour session. So you could just kind of get in, get the information and get back on, you know, with your life.
[13:18] Yeah, I am super excited to hear it. Definitely wanna hear about that massage therapist you talked about. So why is the vagina so important? I know some women here get it. Any woman who's had recurrent Vitis. Oh my gosh. That's probably one of the most frustrating things for women. And if you've had that, you probably know what a big deal the vagina is. But I think that most people don't get the importance of the vagina. Just like they don't get the importance of their mouth. People are like, yeah, my mouth, what do you, what about it? I chew food. I swallow it. I go to the dentist, I brush my teeth big deal. And I'm like, no, your mouth is everything. So why is the vagina so important when it comes to women's health?
[14:05] And it it's been fascinating over the years to find the connections between the gut, the brain and the vagina. And even if you're talking about the mouth, when we talk about microbiome, so microbiome are the small microorganisms that live in different areas of our body. So our microbiome of our mouth is different than that of our gut is different than the vagina, but they all interact. So, you know, starting with the mouth, we're 75% of us are chronically dehydrated. So if you're dehydrated, you're gonna actually throw off the healthy bacteria in the mouth and that's where your digestion begins. And if your digestion isn't good or the bacteria in your mouth, isn't good.
[14:56] That's gonna throw off your gut health and your stomach health. And we know that the gut health, 95% of our happy hormones are made in our gut. And 80% of our immune system is made in our gut. So if our gut is off, that can lead to inflammatory conditions, autoimmune conditions, probably 90% of the medical conditions out there today are either caused by or aggravated by things in the gut. And then things like anxiety and depression are aggravated by our gut. And then if the gut is off, that throws off the microbiome of the vagina, and then we're more susceptible to recurrent geese and recurrent vaginal infections.
[15:57] And so it will dampen sex drive and fertility. And because the brain doesn't know the difference between wanting to have a baby wanting to have fun. So now a lot of times we, you know, women, especially postmenopausal women would come in that like I have no sex drive, gimme hormones and hormones are a great tool and they are amazing and they work, but in some women, it doesn't completely fix the problem. And then we gotta go look at the, the microbiome because if the microbiome of the vagina is off, the brain is going okay, it shouldn't be reproducing right now. Let's dampen everything.
[16:46] I think that's so important. So thank you for highlighting that is that, you know, with the modern age birth control, we have uncoupled sex from reproduction and we just wanna have it because we enjoy it. It improves intimacy or for whatever reason your body doesn't see it that way, it still sees it. As you get, you're rewarded with a sex drive when you are optimally healthy, cuz then it thinks you'll make a healthy baby and you'll be around to take care of it for 18 years. But how interesting that there's data that if you, your vaginal environment is off, that it's gonna feed back into your brain to be a kill switch on your sex drive.
[17:50] Yeah. And then it feeds into, you know, hormones do play a part because if we're not getting estrogen well and there's other receptors in the vagina, if we're not getting hormones to the vagina, the vaginal tissue thins out and our healthy bacteria, the lactobacillus lives in like the symbiotic relationship with us. Like it lives off our, off of our dead tissues, which sounds kind of gross, but it eats something called glycogen and it survives on that. And in return, the healthy bacteria produces hydro peroxide, which keeps the vagina very acidic, which fights all the yeast and the bacteria.
[18:40] Everything connects to everything else, thing else everything's related. Um, and I love how I love when women see that light bulb go off and no longer is it like, oh, I just have a recurrent vaginitis problem. And they get it that, oh my gut micro flora is off. Oh my mouth, my hormones. Right? All these things. And so we're gonna have a link to the happy vagina rally. I'm wondering, they're gonna get lots of great information there. There's so many women I find in their forties and fifties who start having problems with their pelvic floor. And I find I'm amazed by this. You're probably used to this. They don't even wanna talk about it, but to their providers, cuz they're so embarrassed, I've had women, uh, and I'll ask them, are you having a problem with, you know, something protruding from your vagina you're notch for what it is and they'll go yes. And I say, well, why don't you say something?
[19:59] Sure. You know, this is, I can't tell you. I mean, being a gynecologist is what I did every single day of my life. And yet every single day I would have a woman in the office that goes, oh, I'm the only one this has ever happened to. Right. and I'm like, no, in fact, actually 50% of women will have a pelvic floor support problem. And so the way we're built, unfortunately gravity takes over everything. I mean, you know, everything starts heading south, you know, from our boobs to like ear lobes to our vaginas and some women who've had babies are a little higher risk of things, drooping and dropping though.
[20:52] I mean, we're just, everything's going to gravity. And so inside our pelvis, you have your bladder, you have the vagina, you have the rectum and these things can start drooping and dropping and falling out. And part of it's from ligament damage, not, you know, you know, whether it's having a baby or being constipated and straining too much or maybe coughing or lifting something too heavy. And then the problem is we start losing muscle mass. We lose about 8% muscle mass for every decade that we live.
[21:42] But what lot of times they'll say like, well, sometimes people come in, they think they have a tumor. Cause all of a sudden something's hanging between their legs. Mm-hmm and usually it's the vagina that's bulging. You're seeing the mucosa, like the skin of the vagina that's protruding. And well, sometimes we refer like the bladders falling out, the vagina is falling out. The uterus is falling out the rectum falling out. Like nothing's gonna be falling and dropping on the floor.
[22:27] Or the rectum's gonna start leaning on the vagina and push it out. And basically everything's just kind of flopping and collapsing and stage four prolapse is actually where the vagina can fall down and turn inside out and hang between the legs. So that is possible. So if you're experiencing anything that's dripping or dropping, you know, get it checked out. Uh, at the same time, I know it's kind of shocking. If so that happens, cuz it can be a gradual process or somebody could lift something heavy. And if they're not lifting properly, you gotta blow out as you're lifting. But if you hold your breath and all of a sudden pop there goes something and you're finding it between your legs, it is not a surgical emergency.
[23:31] Yeah, it is shocking cuz nobody talks about it, but we're talking about it and I'm glad you're here. So now if it happens to you or your BFF send texts, you what is this photo? And you can be like, no problem. It's PE it's pop pelvic organ prolapse. Yes I got you. Right. And so like, say that did happen. I know I've heard, I knew this doctor, she trained up in the Appalachia and she's like, they would put potatoes, put a potato up there to hold it up.
[24:02] You know, what's so funny in ancient Egypt, they used to use like rocks or pomegranates. And then Roman times they'd use rocks or potatoes, which I don't recommend any of those things. They do make medical devices called pessaries, which are usually made out of silicone. And they're coming all kinds of crazy shapes and sizes. Some like look like very small Frisbees all the way to, they look like donuts or cubes.
[24:48] Some people have heard about vaginal mesh and I see the 1-800-BAD-DRUG commercials. And I have to say vaginal mesh is not a hundred percent as bad as it was made out to be, but that's a whole nother topic. But when I first came out, I was doing surgery on everybody cuz that's what you were treating to do. And then one day I realized, wait a minute, why am I doing surgery? If it's not bothering the person or if it's not causing health conditions. And so you don't necessarily need to have surgery there's non-surgical options. Or if it's not causing recurrent urinary tract infections or it's not affecting your kidneys, it can actually just be followed and you can kind of leave it alone and manage it that way. But you do have to get it checked out to make sure it's not affecting your kidneys or your urinary tract.
[25:33] Yeah. So what is a treatment? So pessaries are one option. The mesh was big fiasco and our doctors even using mesh at this point, say there's somebody listening. Who's like knows that she's got stress, urine incontinence. She's got a cystic seal, right? The bladder's falling. Maybe she has a recusal and or an entere. So the backside's coming down too. What should she look for in trying to find someone to complete a surgical repair for her? What, what things are available?
[26:03] You know, there's are some regular gynecologists are very well trained in this, but I, of course I'm a little partial to Euro gynecologists or someone who's gone through female pelvic reconstructive training the problem with any of the surgeries. And this is something that as a profession we've learned over time is none of them are a hundred percent permanent. It's not like you get your appendix out and like you no longer have your appendix like the process that caused you to have that in the first PA place. And the fact that we know that some people are just genetically have weaker tissue, even when you put it back surgically, it can recur.
[26:50] So there are a number of surgeries. There's ones that go can go through the vagina and it's not like people always ask, well, why don't you just find the ligaments that are torn and just rehook up into those? Well, a lot of times those ligaments are so thin and non-existent, there's not anything really to rehook up into, but there are still vaginal procedures though. The vaginal mesh only refers to the mesh that's placed through the vagina and mesh has been used for surgery for hernia surgery since the eighties. So mesh is actually still used, but it's actually placed in through the abdomen and that's not considered vaginal mesh.
[27:41] And people always ask like, is a robot doing my surgery? And I'm like, no, no, no, it's the doctor's running the robot. The robot has the ability to do finer movements. So mm-hmm and then basically they're reconstructing and wrapping this material. And it's usually like a thin mesh around the vagina and kind of attaching it to the tailbone to reconstruct that, that ligament. And then I have to say over the years, I've gotten a lot of, uh, questions about mesh. Like some people picture it in their mind as being like a window screen. It's not that rough.
[28:29] When you were talking about like, why can't you just reattach the tendon? So I was thinking it's not like a cut shoelace. It's more like panty hose. That's been so stretched.
[28:39] Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. If you could like run in your that's a great I and where were you when I BA Brazilians of years ago? And I could have used that. Yeah. Like if you get a run in your, your stockings, you're not gonna sit there and try to try to sew it back up cuz you're just gonna make more runs and it's just gonna keep going. And there's really not much to pull together.
[29:00] And the mesh. Yeah. It's like TWI or it is like panty hose kind of like a really fine fishnet panty hose, but alright, so some great solutions there. Well tell them about what they're going. Who else is gonna be, uh, the happy vagina rally summit. I'm there? You talked about Susan. She's amazing. Any other people and we will have the link in the show notes and it airs on what days?
[29:28] June 9th through 12th.
[29:30] Ninth through 12. Yeah. So anything else you wanna share about what? Good goodness they will get there.
[29:35] Yeah. Even though we call it the happy vagina rally, it's not everything about vaginas is we're talking everything from perimenopause to menopause and vaginal health. So we're kind of covering it all. So we have Kevin Ellis, the bone coach talking about osteoporosis when, uh, which was actually interesting. When I interviewed with him on his podcast, we actually found studies that connected bone health with vaginal health, which I was fascinated by. I was like, what? We have people like Susan Bretton. We have we Jagger. Who's the, the erotic therapist. We have JJ Virgin talking about sugar and your diet. We have Deborah Atkinson talking about exercise and how, why we can't lose weight. As we get older. I have Dr. Aika Becca talking about hysterectomies and menopause. I have some your other urogynecologist talking about prolapse, talking about incontinence, different vulva dermatology, a vulva dermatologist on Dr. Lynette Maren.
[31:21] Vagina smoothies. There's a pelvic meditation. This was actually fun. I, I, I actually created this pelvic meditation. I started looking into things beyond traditional medicine and looking into some of these alternative therapies and sound therapy and certain wavelengths that are supposed to stimulate your pelvic chakra, which is opens up creativity. And we created a pelvic meditation at a certain frequency as with something called Bial beats where it's like slightly different tones in each ear and actually has a relaxing property to the brain, which was actually fascinating to look into and create. So we have a little bit of everything going on. It it's all gonna be a lot of fun.
[32:33] Can, and it's funny, you mention, it's funny, you mentioned the vagina spa because that's in the works. That's in the works.
[32:40] Ah . Yeah. And you know, I was gonna ask you along those lines, I have to we'll end with this. So I go to this, don't tell anyone, but like one of my favorite places in Atlanta, when I go there is Jeju sauna. Do you know Jaju?
[32:55] No.
[32:56] So JJO is this, I don't know. It's like 20,000 square feet, Korean bathhouse up in Gwinnett county. Oh. And they have first off every kind of sauna you could wanna go to. Right? They've got the Jade sauna and this salt rock sauna and the gold sauna. And like all these saunas, they've got steam rooms, they've got the best foot reflexology I've ever had. Every time I go there, I get the foot reflexology. They have this Korean scrub where the women, you lay naked on this table. It's like this big room of all these, they look like surgical tables T VH, and they scrub you down. You're like totally naked. They have a towel over your head. If you didn't know what was happening, you'd think it was really weird. And they scrub down to your body with this scrub and it is, it is just, it's wonderful.
[34:08] You know, it's funny you bring that up cuz I know that was made super popular, especially with Gwyneth PTRO. I know she's been kind of touted as making that super trendy and there is a lot of belief that vaginal steaming can help with fertility or the biome or menopause. I think when you come, I I'm really into body mind spirit. So I think if you believe it's gonna help, it's going to help. And I think it's maybe very relaxing, but honestly it doesn't work anywhere close to what people think it believes does. They think they're gonna sit on this pot of herbs and that this steam is gonna go up in the vagina and clean it out. But Reno is gynecologists.
[35:05] So the steam is really not gonna get up there. Plus you have the lips of the VVA that are kind of protective and for most, and there's so much, I always say, vulvas are like snowflakes. There's not like there's not, they all they're all look different. But for the most part, the lips of the VVA are kind of keeping that area closed. So it would be really difficult for that team to get up in there and steam things out the way people are picturing it. But if you think it's relaxing to do so, I'm like, okay, you know, go ahead and do it though.
[36:05] Yeah. So if you've had one, check me out on Instagram or Betsy and let's hear your experience, I'd love to know I did it one time cuz I wanted to see and the herbs are great. You get to breathe them in. So I'm wondering if actually it has more respiratory benefit than anything else I else have
[36:26] I'm with you. Like the vaginas collapsed down. It's not a stove pipe and so I don't really know how much benefit there is to it. But I do think that if you have a belief around it and it could be working at an energetic level on the energy body and on that SAC chakra, that is all about creativity. So I we'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on that. So check out Betsy on her Instagram, what's your Instagram, Betsy
[36:52] At Dr. Dr. And then Betsy Greenleaf underscore you gotta put the underscore. This is my second account. I kind of okay. off the Instagram. Talk about not keeping my mouth shut. I off the Instagram. God's the first, the first account. So
[37:06] yeah. Well, let's end with this other quote you had from Anne Rand, which I love it. The question isn't who's going to let me it's who is going to stop me? Well, Instagram may try, but the vagina lives on with the happy vagina rally. Thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Betsy Greenleaf, we will see you at the happy vagina rally.
[37:33] And thank you for joining us for another episode up the hormone prescription with Dr. Kirin. It's been my pleasure to have you here today. I want you to take in mind some of the things that we've shared. If you learned something that could benefit another woman, please do consider sharing it. And I want you to think about developing your voice and not being silent. What is it that you need to speak up about and be truthful about?
[38:00] Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you.
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Have you been struggling to lose weight and keep it off? If you're a woman in her 40s or 50s, you're not alone. In fact, many women experience what's known as "midlife weight loss resistance."
But the good news is that there are steps you can take to overcome this resistance and finally achieve your weight loss goals.
On this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're joined by Stu Schaefer, a 20-year award-winning celebrity weight-loss coach. He specializes in helping people put their bodies into The Thermogenic State, so they burn fat 24/7… and lose weight as they did in their 20s. He's here to share his insights on how to overcome midlife weight loss resistance.
You'll learn:
- The benefits of thermogenic foods
- How to eat for your hormones
- The real reason why it's so hard to lose weight as you get older
- The simple tweak to your diet that can make all the difference
- How to boost your metabolism and burn fat around the clock
- Foods to avoid if you want to lose weight
- Type of diet that will help you lose weight
- And more!
If you're ready to finally overcome your weight loss resistance and get back on track, this episode is for you. Tune in now and start losing weight today!
[01:44] So Stu Schaefer is a 20 year award-winning celebrity weight loss coach. And he specializes in helping people put their body into the thermogenic state. So they burn fat 24 7 and lose weight like they did in their twenties. Who wants that everyone stew struggled with anorexia and his teens. And when he overcame his eating disorder, he realized that he wanted to help people create their perfect body in a healthy, sustainable way. Since then St has helped thousands of people transform their body and empower themselves to create massive success in their life. Welcome Stu. So happy to be here. This is gonna be great. It's gonna be awesome. It's always fun to talk to you because you have such clarity around the issues that my people wanna know about, which is weight loss resistance at midlife. How do I get rid of this belly? How do I get my butt to shrink my thigh? All the things. Not necessarily because of a vanity issue, but because they know it's related to health problems and they know cuz they've been hearing me say that fat, excess fat is not just decoration. It's metabolically active. And it's like, you have this extra endocrine organ that's then messing with your hormone. So, so many problems with excess APAC tea. So how did you become interested and an expert in this field? Why don't we start with that too?
[03:19] That's a great question. And you mentioned something really quick that I want to touch on before I forget you just mentioned something that's gold. And you said when women have this excess body fat, it reeks havoc with their hormones and will get to this. Remind me about this because most of the women who see me think their hormones are off and that's the cause of their weight gain, but actually their hormones being off is a symptom. Okay. And so when they hit, they, every woman that I've ever talked to says, well, I hit my fifties and my hormones changed and that's why I gained weight. And that's not usually the truth. The truth is something's off that reeked havoc with your hormones and caused you to gain weight.
[04:07] Well, you mentioned in the intro that I was anorexic and I was in, um, my first year of high school when I was 13, between eighth and ninth grade, I ended up breaking into a house in my neighborhood with two friends. I thought they were my friends and uh, I ended up getting arrested. Now when you're 13, every little thing is the end of the world. Anyway, and this was like the end of the end of the world. And because of that, it just, I had this self hatred. You also mentioned the self love idea in the intro and I was just despised myself. And as a result, thank goodness that when I was younger suicide wasn't as gratified as it is now. There no one was committing suicide, but I possibly could have cutting. Wasn't a thing I possibly could have. What I turned to was anorexia as a way of self punishment.
[04:59] And so for about a year and a half, I battled with that and it was very real. And what got me out of it quite honestly, was I had a nervous breakdown. It was ninth grade. I had a full load of classwork that I wasn't used to between that and not eating and not being able to function. Everything just came to a head and I just broke down and was crying. And that was the turning point. And out of that, ironically, what got me out of that mess was I decided to do a program. Now this doesn't work for many people who have an eating disorder, but for me it was something I could focus on. And I had anxiety for 30 days straight because every day I was eating four or five times a day and every time I ate, I thought I was gonna get fat.
[05:44] So I was an, I had anxiety all day. Now at the end of 30 days, this was the critical moment in my life. This shaped everything because it broke off that false belief system. I could see that I hadn't gained the weight. In fact, I looked better. I felt better. I wasn't as emotional I could function. And I had this clear vision and experience of what it's like on both sides. And I said, oh my gosh, I want to be a health coach because I can see the difference that this kind of change and transformation can make in a person's life. And I understand, and very compassionate when someone is feeling overwhelmed, anxious, doesn't know what to do. There's so much information. They don't like their body. And it just, there are some days I just wanted to hide under the covers and just wish that everything would go away. And that was the defining moment for me,
[06:47] Grew up really fast and out of that came this passion for helping people. What do you think is the biggest misconception that people have about losing weight?
[06:58] This is a good question. And I'll tell you flat out is it's still perpetuated. In fact, if you were to line up a hundred experts, including doctors and you ask them, how do you lose weight? 99 out of a hundred are gonna tell you that the only way to lose weight is to go into a calorie deficit. They won't even say that that's one way. They'll say it's the only way. That's how I was trained. When I became certified health coach and trainer, you know, it works for some people, usually when you're younger, but it's only temporary. I mean, I was doing that.
[07:43] The door was open and she said, Hey, I said, uh, I'm like cleaning up. I'm like, okay, well, how can I help you? And she's still sweating. She's breathing heavy. She goes, look, I wanna lose between 30 and 50 pounds. And I've tried everything and nothing works well. I'm in my twenties at this time. And I am embarrassed to admit this, but I'm kind of arrogant. And in my mind I was thinking, yeah, right. You know, you're just eating too much. You' not working out enough. Like, that's just what we're taught. It's like, oh, it's simple. So I said, I assured her that I could help her. She decided to work with me and we tried for five weeks and she did not lose a pound. Now her background. She said that typically, if she did a diet, she might lose three to five, but then she'd hit a plateau, gain it right back and then gain seven to 10 pounds over the next year.
[08:30] All right. Well now I'm thinking, oh my gosh, we tried everything. Well, the 200 ounces of water, grapefruits Adkins was hot at the time. She tried that south beach, the zone diet, you know, you have to remember, this was back in 2009. These were all the trending diets. And she was eating less than 1200 calories a day, borderline a thousand. She was working out two hours a day. She's sitting across the desk crying, saying, I told you, I told you, I told you, I'm thinking I blew it.
[09:17] I could tell how emotional she was about it. So I went on this deep dive research quest. I was bound and determined to figure out what is going on here? Why is the normal stuff not working? And after about two weeks, I figured it out. It's something called repress metabolic syndrome or RMS. And what happens essentially is when you diet too much or you don't eat enough or you exercise too much or a combination of those things, it essentially causes your metabolism to shut down. And it puts your body in this state called the catabolic state where your body's actually storing fat and burning muscle.
[10:10] And this is called putting your body into the thermogenic state and the way you do it essentially is you eat more and exercise less totally counterintuitive. So I go back to Ashley, I'm all excited. And I kind of explained to her what I just explained to you. And I said, we gotta, I need you to start eating more and exercising less. Well, you can imagine she's looking at me like, what are you nuts? She's like, there's no way I'm gonna do that. I can't even lose a pound. I'm barely eating anything. I'm exercising two hours a day. This is gonna make me gain weight. And I said, look, let's give me a week, give it a week. Let's do this.
[10:52] Well, the first week she lost two pounds. I'm thin I'm sitting there going like, yes, we've got, this is working. She's not convinced. Cuz remember she had lose three to five and gain it back. So she's like, oh right. This is what my body normally does. But she was willing to give it a shot. Okay. We didn't go the opposite direction. The next week she lost two and a half pounds every single week for 12 weeks in a row, she lost between two and two and a half pounds. And she ended up losing a total of 37 pounds of body fat while simultaneously increasing her lean body mass slightly, which is very important for metabolic reasons. And she looked at me and she goes, I don't understand how this was possible. How did this work? And I was telling her, look, this is because we put your body in the thermogenic state.
[11:39] When you work with your body, magical things happen. You can eat more. Your body revs up, you start burning fat all the time. So Kirin I'm thinking, oh my gosh, if it worked with someone like Ashley, who was like so challenged, how would it work for all my other clients who are already losing weight, doing the normal calorie deficit. So I go to 'em and I say, tell 'em what happened? Are you willing to try this? Yeah, let's try it. Not only did they start losing weight faster, working out half the time and also eating more. But their energy went through the roof, their cravings vanished. They were never hungry. And their hormones started normalizing because they weren't restricting or cutting out any types of foods. Then I was like, oh my gosh, there's something to this. This is incredible. That's how I figured this out.
[12:30] Awesome. so you, you mentioned, you know, there are hormones normalized. So one thing you mentioned earlier is that women say my hormones went out of balance and I gain. So we might have to agree to disagree there because you know, we, women do have this menopausal thing that is associated with weight gain where we go through per menopause and menopause. So which came first, the chicken or the egg. How do you help women address weight, hormone balance for midlife women?
[13:00] Is to lose this question, Uhhuh. Yeah. This is a good question. What happens is this? I'm not saying that the hormones changes. Aren't real. Mm-hmm I'm saying that that's not necessarily the cause of everything. Normally there's something else that causes the hormones to go outta whack to begin with mm-hmm okay. So, and this is typically how it works. When we get older, as we age everyone, you, me, everyone. We get more sensitive. Now this is obvious. If you were to compare a 20 year old woman and a 90 year old woman, you'd be obvious. Oh yeah. If the 90 year old tried to do what the 20 year old did, you know, she could probably die just your, your bodies get more sensitive, right? Where we're more resilient when we're younger. So what happens is this, maybe that I'm the only one that had this experience.
[13:49] But when I was in college, I would see the girls guys too. But I'm talking about girls here. I'd see the girls go on a binger Friday night and a binger Saturday night and pull an all night or Sunday night for the exam. They had Monday. And then Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, they'd work out two hours a day to undo all the damage they did and get ready for the next weekend. Okay. Well they looked fantastic, but guess what? That's not good for your body. Okay. It was never good for the body, but it worked for them at the time. So what happens is people develop bad habits that ha that allow them to lose weight when they're younger. And they keep those bad habits that actually prevent them from losing weight. As they hit a certain age, it's not because the hormones change per se.
[14:35] It's because our bodies get so much more sensitive. And those bad habits oftentimes are the culprits that make the hormones change. This is what I'm talking about. This is that kind of dichotomy. Now when you eat correctly and when talk about that, there's four components of eating. I call it the food quadrant. There's not only what you eat and how much you eat, but there's when you eat certain foods, the timing and how you combine foods together at each meal. And that's when the magic happens. When you do that and you put your body in this thermogenic state, one of the side effects is that your hormones balance, they normalize. Now I'll tell you the order. They do it in the first thing that normalize is right away within days is your insulin and blood sugar. The second one that balances cortisol. And you know, we've talked about that.
[15:24] Karen on Instagram a couple times, that's like the mama hormone right there. Right? I think you call it the queen hormone or something like that. Yeah. And then the third that balances or normalizes a bit is thyroid. Now, obviously if you have an autoimmune like Hashimotos or hypothyroid, it may not balance all the way, but many of my clients, they have reduced significantly. Any thyroid medication they've been on and I have a client right now, as a matter of fact, her name is Holly. She has no thyroid. She was convinced she wouldn't be able to lose weight and she's losing weight just fine. When those big three hormones balance the insulin, the cortisol and the thyroid that opens the gates for your other sex hormones to start normalizing naturally, these are the progesterone testosterone, estrogen.
[16:44] Yeah. I totally agree with you about these bad habits that we pick up that affect our other hormones. Like our insulin, our cortisol, this feast or famine workout crazy. Don't work out. We develop these habits and we have Unbound hormones. And then we, women get to midlife. We blame it all on our sex hormones. And then we chase that, that train, but that train never gets to the station because you don't know about all these other things. So thank you for highlighting that.
[17:26] Food. You know, this is a great, uh, point because I had a, a client not too long ago and she was 52, her name's Brenda. And she said, I can't eat carbs. If I do, I blow up like a balloon. Every time I try to get carbs back into my nutrition, that's what always happens. So she was going low carb. Well, the problem with going low carb or no carb is that can cause diet induced hypothyroidism. Okay? Since the nineties, this is a medical term. Since the nineties, we've known that two things can cause diet induced, hypothyroidism, eating a diet that's too low in carbohydrates or too high in fats, even good fats. Now I happen to have seen more women in the last three years with diet induced hypothyroidism than I had in the 17 years before that combined much of the reason I believe is because of the ketogenic diet is so low carbon.
[18:19] So high fat, it's kind of hitting that thyroid from both sides. So this particular woman Brenda had done this. Okay? So not only was her thyroid outta whack, her sex hormones were outta whack. I, the first thing I said is, look, we're gonna have to add carbs. You have to eat carbs. Carbs are actually really good. And I'll explain why in just a second. But she was very frightened by it. In fact, she said, look, I'm not gonna weigh myself because if the scale goes up, I'm just, I'm gonna die. I said, fine. Don't weigh yourself, but I need you to take progress photos and waste measurements. So we have some form of tracking here other than the scale. And she said, okay, deal.
[19:09] I said, how was your weekend? It was a Monday morning. I said, how was your week? She said, oh my gosh, first time that I can remember two days in a row. I woke up to my alarm clock. I haven't slept this good in years. Now this is a good indicator that your hormones are balancing. Okay? When you start sleeping. And she said she wasn't moody anymore. This is because she was eating enough of the right foods to allow her body to get into this nice thermogenic state.
[19:56] Now there's a catch to this, right? All of us have a limit just like vitamins. It's like, oh, vitamin C is good. Well, if you take too much, it's useless. The body does. It only absorbs what it can. And you pee out the rest. Well with food you only have a, a certain amount. You can absorb you don't pee out the excess. Okay. What ends up happening is you store it as fat. Now carbs have the second highest thermogenic effect. This is what nobody talks about. They have a 20% thermogenic effect. Fat has almost zero. It has between a zero and 3% thermogenic effect. So it really doesn't cause you to burn fat.
[20:42] Now you need fats for hormone, balancing and skin and, and other things like this, right? But they make you full. So if you're eating too many fats and you get full, then you won't have an appetite to eat some of the other foods that would actually force your body to burn fat. I see this so often now, and I, you know, wasn't long ago I had a client named Mary 52. She had done keto for eight years now. She started doing it because she wanted to get rid of seizures and it can do that. And it did it for her. However, over eight years, it totally depleted her body. Put her into the repress metabolic syndrome.
[21:35] Now for the fir, I'm gonna tell you how this can affect your body for the first four weeks, four and a half weeks, she only lost two pounds. And she said, I'm really discouraged. I said, Mary, I get ya. I said, but look, how's your sleep. She goes, amazing. I go, how's your energy. She goes, well, that's kind of the only reason I'm still optimistic. I haven't had this much energy in years. I go, how are your exercise sessions going? She goes, great. I'm getting stronger. I said, aha. I said, stay the course. I can see what you're doing.
[22:18] She lost two pounds that week, the next week, two pounds, the next week, two pounds, 10 weeks in a row. And she lost 26 pounds. And she goes, oh my gosh. She goes, I would've given up after that first four and a half weeks, I would've said, oh, this isn't working. It took four weeks for her body to undo that damage that she had done by depleting it so much. And then once we started fueling it correctly, bam, she was ready. Now the problem was she was eating tons of nuts and avocados and seeds because that's what everyone says to do.
[23:10] That's not true. The truth is this. And you know, this Karen, every different food you put in your body has a different chemical reaction in your body. Period. It affects your hormones differently. Doctors will tell you this in the same breath, as they tell you that all you need to do is go into a calorie deficit. So the key is getting the right foods in the right combination to create the chemical reaction you want in your body. Most people want to create a chemical reaction that does two things causes 'em to burn fat and increases their energy. So they feel amazing. And as a side effect, they optimize their health and hormones.
[24:03] Well, here's the downside. We know saturated fats are generally not that great in, in high quantities. And we know trans fats are definitely not good, but people go, well, the omegas are great. Kind of that's only half the story. There is a specific omega three fatty acid. That's really good. And that's the one that's found in fish. Okay. Salmon, macro sardines, these types of things. Cardine okay. This type, this type of omega three fatty acid. Now there's omega three fatty acids found in other foods, but not this type. This is the type that will encourage some fat burning in the body that helps with your hormones and endocrine system. And that can help fight chronic diseases.
[25:13] Okay. And so again, you get half the story out there and then everyone runs with it, but they don't explain the subtle differences and these subtle differences, they make all the difference. And that's why when I clients have told, I have told me, I've tried everything. I've tried this, I've tried that. And when we make these subtle tweaks and then they finally get the results, it's like a breath of fresh air. It's like this huge weight has lifted off their shoulders. And this is the difference, right?
[25:50] I love talking with you Stu because you know, it's so true that everyone is like, oh, what's the latest diet. And, and when I was coming along, it was the grapefruit diet, the cottage cheese diet, south beach, the zone, those were the things. And it's like, everyone's like, yay. The zone diet, you know, the cottage cheese diet. Oh the grapefru, it's just like, everybody's, omega3s are the answer. Omega six is, are the answer. And it's like, oh my gosh, let's just go to science. And you go to the science and you're like, y'all, this is how it works.
[26:27] Is P are D you just gotta go back to the basic science that hasn't changed in a long, long time. I do wanna touch on this topic because we were we're limited in time. Uh, I know we're doing finishing up with a masterclass, everybody listening to the podcast, we got a bunch of lucky women here who get to pick STUs brain. When we get off the podcast who are members of my program. And that's one of the benefits you get of being in my program. You get a front row seat masterclass with a lot of these experts. A lot of what I talk about is not only hormone balance, but how women have to detoxify that. That's part of their weight gain and mitochondrial function or dysfunction is part of their weight gain. How do you work with those things? And what do you recommend for women at midlife to help with those aspects of wake eight?
[27:21] This isn't actually, it's a really good question. So there are two things that I do. So one of the things is that over the last 20 years that I've done this, I happened to just always work with women over 40 and over 50, it was wherever I grew up. I, I grew up in a town where that was the predominant demographic. So since I was a young trainer, I've always worked with women who were in their forties, fifties and beyond. And I just learned, and I thought that this was normal. And I never realized that this is actually quite difficult. And it's a very special thing.
[28:07] Okay. And these, then someone might have a gut issue. Okay. KDA, leaky, gut. CIBO something like this same thing. I'd work with them. And we'd find these high risk foods that a lot of times would agitate them, cause them to gain weight and same with thyroid issues. Okay. Well, what I noticed was over these things, these high risk foods were all the same. Now, these aren't just the typical high risk foods that you hear about like dairy and gluten. Okay. Those are two of the highest risk foods in peanuts and sugar, but these were other things like kale, broccoli, in some cases, sometimes bell peppers or tomatoes.
[29:01] So something's off, they have a undiagnosed food sensitivity that may not show up on a test, to be honest with you or a gut issue undiagnosed perhaps, or an autoimmune that they don't know about, or they do know about it, doesn't matter whether you know it about it or not. And so I'll say, look, let's pull some of these foods. And they'll say, really, I eat a, a broccoli cauliflower, you know, brussel sprout some of these healthy foods. And when we pull 'em, they start losing the weight. And then when we put 'em back in, they'll gain the weight and it goes totally against everything that you would ever hear. But some vegetables require a specifically, very balanced gut biome to be able to properly digest those. And if your gut is off, it, ain't gonna work and it's gonna cause inflammation and weight gain.
[29:49] And so you have to go through a period of pulling out some of these high risk culprits so that your body can actually adapt and adjust and normalize. And then you can integrate these back. In. In fact, I have a client right now. She's still working with me, her name's Kathy, she's 53. Now she lives in New York and she is a nurse she's on her feet all day. And she said for 15 years too, I've tried everything. You can imagine. She rattled off everything. You just did. Kirin Adkins, south beach zone, you name it.
[30:34] And no one would ever notice. Okay? So we cut out some of these high risk foods. And in the first three weeks she lost nine pounds. And she said, holy smokes. I feel amazing. She had no energy after work. Now, after work, she had so much energy. She could do her full workout. We found out it was, there were two foods. Now we've since found there, there are a few more. And recently she said, gosh, I need to go to my rheumatologist. I said, what are you talking about? She goes, my joints feel like they're swelling. I go, well, you've added in all these foods without talking to me, pull 'em out really quick.
[31:18] The more you eat a food, they'll higher. The likelihood that she'll develop antibodies to it. So sure enough, she cut it out. She was able to lose. If I remember correctly, 24 pounds, she's since been able to keep it off. She's jet, set it over to Switzerland and Paris and all these different vacations and is able to splurge and eat normally and not worry about dieting. And she's fine. She's able to maintain. But again, we're now kind of looking at what are these foods she's not eating any unhealthy foods, nothing that would be obvious like gluten or dairy, which one of these veggies is your body rejecting.
[32:11] That's actually causing an antibody inflammatory response. That's causing your knuckles to feel swollen. This is what happens now. Only someone who's I'm sorry, but only someone who's worked this out on the street. Who's failed miserably. Many times is gonna know and understand what to look for because this isn't in any of the textbooks. It's not, it's not okay. And this is the key. So what happens is I've met more women and remember there was a kale craze. We've got some women here. I bet all of you remember the kale craze, everyone was putting kale in their shakes, making CAEs.
[32:48] And that caused more women to gain weight and develop weird issues than anything I had seen in my career. And this was just awesome. Okay. Someone's asking. Right. Well how, how do you test it? Well, I don't test because I just know what the foods are, cuz I've done this for 20 years, but if you were gonna try to test it on your own, where would you start? I mean, it's hard and I don't recommend doing this with any of my clients, but you could do a basic elimination diet, which is very difficult and it's not realistic to maintain, but essentially you'd have to wipe out all foods except for maybe like fiber or so, and then start systematically adding them back in this takes a long time and it's can be hard and arduous. I honestly don't have a test.
[33:49] I would just wanna add that this is definitely a part of my story too. You know, I was reacting to cauliflower, supposed to be healthy. Right? Mm-hmm almonds, peaches, blueberries who knew mm-hmm so definitely a part of my story
[34:03] Tell, you know, and I had a client named Locklin who was actually on my podcast and she was doing great with her weight loss. And we went from two hours a day, no joke, two hours a day to 30 minutes, a day of exercise and increased her caloric intake by 50%. And she lost 18 pounds. But then she hit a plateau and I said, Locklin, what have you changed? She goes nothing. I said, okay, I'm I'm gonna study. I'm gonna go through a fine tooth comb with what you've been eating. She added one thing at night almonds because she was hungry and she wanted a healthy fat, but she said, oh my gosh, I got these weird hormonal symptoms.
[34:50] You asked about the gut health stuff. That's number one. I said there were two things. Number two is I always take a very specific type of silver. This is not colloidal silver. It's a special ized, structured silver where they bond it to a water molecule, which is an antimicrobial it's only strong enough to kill the bad bacteria in your body. It is not strong enough to kill the good bacteria and it also kills fungus and mold and yeast. So this will wipe out candida it'll help with leaky gut it'll wipe out CIBO. This is my magic bullet that I use. And it's easy to take no risk of uh, no side effects and no risk of overdosing in any way, shape or form.
[35:36] Awesome. Thank you for addressing those things. I know we still haven't talked about self love and weight loss, which we've got to talk about. So I'm almost wondering if we need to cut it into two episodes, but let's go there and we'll figure out how to do the logistics later. But you do have an amazing training that you're gonna share with everyone. We're gonna give you the link in the show notes when Stu is done, but we've gotta talk about this issue because so many of us, particularly women, gosh, we have a lot of self hate around our bodies and lack of self acceptance. Some people say I don't hate myself, but if you don't wanna stand there naked in front of a mirror and you can't love all parts of your body, that's a lack of self-acceptance mm-hmm , which is kind of like hate.
[36:39] So I'm not gonna hold anything back here because people here listening are in the right place to hear this message at the right time. Our mind, not our brain, our mind has a profound, physiological impact that not many people are aware of. Okay. In fact, if you go to again, if you took a thousand coaches, health coaches, weight loss coaches, maybe one, two or three out of a thousand would understand how to incorporate mindset in a way that would actually cause physiological changes in your body.
[37:34] Let's say you have a man with two personalities. We'll call him Frank and Joe. Okay. I talk to all my clients about this, cuz it's amazing. The researchers or doctors or nurses or whoever will be observing this person and he'll say, hi, I'm Frank. Oh, Hey Frank. Well, we're gonna do a physical on you. Okay, great. And they'll do a physical, the blood work, the hearing the vision, the whole deal. And Frank has perfect health. 10 minutes later, he goes, Hey, I'm Joe. Oh, Hey Joe, we're gonna do a physical. And Joe has diabetes and requires glasses. Okay. Same body, same physical vessel, two different personalities, 10 minutes apart, completely different physiological characteristics. Now in the eighties they went, okay, something's wrong with our instrumentation something. This can't be. But over the last 40 years, they are like seeing this not uncommon by the way.
[38:27] And they're realizing how much our mind impacts our body. Now I'll give everyone here. A simple example that I always talk to my clients about to iterate this point. Most of us have had this experience. We're asleep in our own bed, in our own room. It's quiet, it's comfortable. It's warm, it's peaceful. And all of a sudden we wake up. Our heart's pounding. Our adrenaline is up. Our cortisol is up. Our blood pressure is up. Our respiratory rate is up and we're sweating and nothing happened there. Wasn't a bang. The bed didn't shake. We had a nightmare. Okay. Well a nightmare is nothing more than an unconscious visualization. That is it.
[39:30] This is why some people will go through the right actions and still not get results because their mindset is so off. And I'll give you a practical example in just a second. Their mindset is so off that they are causing their body to be in a state of. And I always get these backwards, the parasympathetic or sympathetic, you know, when your cortisol's up, they're causing their body to be all in this weird, stressed out state that they can't lose weight. They can't get the results.
[40:21] One week she did her way away in and checked everything. And she weighed 147.8 pounds. At the end of the week, she did her next checkin. We wanted to see how everything was working and she weighed 147.0 pounds and she said, oh, that's familiar. And she says, oh my gosh, do something's wrong? I didn't lose any weight. And I go, what are you talking about? You almost, you lost a pound. She goes, no, look, I'm still 1 47. I go, you went from 1 47 0.8 to 1 47. I go, it, everything is right on track, calm down.
[41:17] They have a lot of evidence from their past and they have a lot of doubt and fear and anxiety about losing weight and food. And, and, oh, I go, I'm probably gonna have to cut carbs and I can't eat this. And they have all these, these negative experiences is locked up in their, uh, proof and, and, and in their subconscious conditioning. And so all these things rear their head and these are real things that have a real physiological impact. You have to, how do you know, how do you know if you're, if you're using your mindset against you, I'll tell you the easiest way.
[42:16] Takes a couple minutes, twice a day. That's it? It's no different than working out. You do the reps period, but most people don't understand this. They don't grasp it. And even when they set goals, they set a goal that anytime they think of the goal, it makes 'em feel nervous and upset and anxious and doubtful. And they're using their own goals against them too. And so it backfires. And then they wonder why they're not getting the results. And it's because they're putting themselves in this chronic state of negative mindset versus positive. Ultimately the best attitude you could possibly be in. And the one we call self love is when you truly and totally accept yourself for how you are right now, 100%.
[43:24] That was so worth it. That was, we had to, you had to go there. So thank you for going in deep on that. I really appreciate it. I love this. This is my favorite quote that you said , if you have any negative emotion, you are using your mindset against your body. I think that's a big hunk of truth that everybody needs to really take in. Thank you so much, Stu. I love talking to you. You explain things so clearly and concretely that I think people really understand. You really are always with weight loss resistance.
[44:22] So I wanna really give everyone, I always just want to add value and, and give people clarity so they can really have some direction okay. And say, oh my gosh, I know what's been going on. So there's a masterclass. You can watch that I've recorded. That goes over this material in more depth, there's a fat loss blueprint and then a thermogenic quiz where you can take it and kind of see how well or how close you are to be putting your body in that thermogenic state.
[44:50] Awesome. Thank you so much for those amazing resources. We'll put them with both part, one of the podcasts and part two. I don't know how, or maybe we'll just have one really long one cause we just might have to do that. And we'll have a link in the show notes where you can check that out. You definitely wanna hear what Stu has to say. If you've, if you're a woman at midlife and you've got a weight problem because he knows the answers. So I definitely recommend that. Thank you so much, Stu for joining us today, we're gonna jump into the masterclass and thank you all for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kirin.
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Are you a woman in your midlife years struggling with the debilitating effects of fibromyalgia? If so, you are not alone. In fact, an estimated 8% of the adult population worldwide suffers from this condition.
Fortunately, there is hope. In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we talk to Dr. Rodger Murphree, an expert on hormones and fibromyalgia, about some of the latest research on this topic.
During the show, Dr. Murphree reveals:
- Clinically proven protocols for correcting the multiple symptoms of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
- Why conventional treatments for fibromyalgia often fail
- The symptoms of fibromyalgia and how they can be warning signs for other underlying health conditions
- The diet and lifestyle changes that can help to address the root causes of fibromyalgia
- And more!
If you are ready to start feeling better and want to learn more about fixing the root causes of fibromyalgia, then this episode is for you. Tune in now and let’s get started on your journey to recovery!
[00:00] Life is short. If you're not careful, you'll miss it. Dr. Roger Murphy is my guest today, and we're gonna talk about fibromyalgia and what it has to do with your hormones. If you're suffering with this, you've likely had a long road and you're missing a lot of your life and it just shouldn't be. So we're gonna tell you how to get out of the predicament you're in, in this episode.
[03:12] Oh, I'm so excited to be here. I, you know, last time we got together just enjoyed our conversation so much. And I learned some things that, that I didn't know, and I was really delighted to be able to learn something new and uh, yeah. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.
[03:27] Yeah. Super excited to talk about fibromyalgia. It's actually a part of my story. I don't focus on it too much, but those who know me and listen to my podcast probably have heard me talk about that. I had that. I just had horrible unrelenting pain in many places on my body on a consistent basis. And before I got on my journey, in addition to weighing 243 pounds and being super tired and it's really something that's hard for the general public to understand even those people who have it because they go from doctor to doctor not being diagnosed. And there's so few doctors who really understand what fibromyalgia is all about. So can we just start by talking about what it is and how might someone suspect that they have this?
[04:20] So there's writings about fiber Maia in the, the 18 hundreds. Uh, and um, over the years there have been more and more writings about it, but it didn't, you know, it didn't happen to really hit the, the map, you know, be put on the map until 1990 when the American college of rheumatology came out with the criteria for the diagnosis. So it's been around, you know, it's been around for 30 something years is, uh, something that people know about. But unfortunately we still have a lot of misconception about fibromyalgia. We have doctors who still don't acknowledge that, that it's a real entity. Those that do acknowledge that we do have a thing called fibromyalgia. Don't really know how to treat it. They've largely given up on it.
[05:12] Uh, but fibromyalgia is a syndrome like Aero bowel syndrome or metabolic syndrome. It's a group of symptoms that people have in common. And we give it a name to describe those symptoms, but fibromyalgia, which affects about 8% of the adult population worldwide. This is what the estimates are anywhere from four to 8%, primarily women between the ages of 35 and 60. It is an illness characterized by diffuse achy, sometimes disabling pain, fatigue, brain fog, irrit bowel, resto syndrome, low moods anxiety. So it's a very long list of symptoms that come underneath this title called fibromyalgia.
[05:59] Yes. And there are specific criteria to be diagnosed with it, but like Dr. Roger said, it's really hard to get a diagnosis. There aren't that many doctors that are that familiar with it. And what is a mainstream treatment typically of fibromyalgia?
[06:16] . It's just so frustrating that, you know, it makes me laugh because it's so really so sad, but in conventional medicine, as you know, so well, it's all about treating symptoms. Oftentimes that's really what the focus is. And you know, there's a time and a place for that. Thank goodness. You know, we, we, we have the wherewithal and we have the prescription medications and the surgeries and things that we need to be able to treat some of these things. But in fibromyalgia, the conventional medicine protocols, relying on drug therapy alone have been a dead end. The surveys show this, that even the American college rheumatology on their own website, now they've taken this down, but they used to say that they don't recommend that patients take anti-inflammatories pain, medications, sleep aids are anti-seizure medications because they're not effective long term.
[07:12] And they have potential side effects. And where we're at right now in conventional medicine is that most conventional doctors will tell their patients that you just have to learn to live with it. And they, they don't believe you can overcome fibromyalgia because what they've seen day in and day out is that there are patients that they've recommended these different medications, Neurontin, and Ella, and AlTiN these other things they don't improve. And their take on it is, well, we've given you the drugs that are approved for fibromyalgia, and you're really no better, you know, four or five years later, it's really your it's your fault. And you're just gonna have to learn to live with it. So that's where we're at right now in conventional medicine.
[08:24] Yeah, it's unfortunate. And I would say that's definitely a mainstream model cuz when I see people in my story too, includes this when you really get to the underlying root cause I find that it's extremely treatable. So talk about your approach. You've held a fibromyalgia summit. You've been specializing in this for years. You've written a book about it. You really are one of the gurus about fibromyalgia.
[08:54] Hope. Well, so I have to go back a little bit. So 20 years ago when I had my first patient referred to me for fibromyalgia, I had no idea what I was getting into and you know, from your own journey and then from seeing patients, you, you kind of hear their symptoms and you think there's no way you can have this many things wrong with you. You mean you look normal. And then of course you look at their blood work and most of the time everything's normal. Their said rate CRP, their inflammatory markers normally are okay, but there's a tendency to look at this individual as a hypo contract and I'll be candid. That was my first reaction to my patient, Sheila Sheila Jones, who came to see me 20 years ago. But I started just working with her using just good sound nutrition and some functional medicine testing to find out that she had things wrong with.
[09:43] She had candid to overgrowth and some food allergies and leaky gut. I started treating her and within three months, this illness that I didn't really know much about and her doctor said, we don't really know what it is, but here you hear some muscle relaxers and some pain pills come back in six months and we'll see how you do well. She got well, Karen in three months just doing some basic stuff that I would do on really kind of anybody is a functional medicine practitioner.
[10:32] And I started just kind of bringing those different therapies together and then eventually realized that there's some really key things that if you get these key things right for the fibromyalgia patient, he or she usually is, she is going to have the best opportunity to overcome their fibromyalgia symptoms. And really the only way for someone fibromyalgia to be able to feel good again, long term is they gotta get healthy. And that sounds so simplistic. I realize that, but it's about finding and fixing the underlying causes of these symptoms. And then, so there's four key things that make up what I call the Murry method and the mur jumpstart protocols, which if you do these four things, you focus on these four things as a fibromyalgia patient, your odds of, of dramatic improvement are really good.
[11:59] So fibromyalgia is just a name. That's all it is. So it doesn't cause the pain. It doesn't cause the low energy, it doesn't cause the insomnia or the poor sleep. It's just a name. And so what you wanna look at is, okay, what could be some of the triggers for chronic pain, low energy, brain fog, low moods and irritable bowel, resto sex syndrome. What's the common denominator? Well, the first common denominator is poor sleep. So we know with studies, it doesn't matter really to me, whatever your condition is. If you've got a chronic health condition, the place to start is making sure that you're able to get consistent deep restorative sleep. Cuz when you get that deep restorative sleep, that's when the body's repairing itself.
[12:48] And what we see with fibromyalgia is a struggle to fall asleep and they struggle to stay asleep. So they all have sleep issues. They never feel refresh. They're not going into that deep Delta wave restorative sleep. And we know that if you're not getting consistent, good sleep, you're gonna have all the symptoms that I've mentioned in fibromyalgia. You're you're obviously gonna be tired, right? Lethargic. You're gonna have brain fog. We know that you increase your inflammatory chemicals by 40%, you create all sorts of stress in the body. Oxidative stress.
[13:48] So it made sense to me, let's just get 'em sleeping through the night, right? And that's where I focus is the first thing is to make sure that they're able to consistently get that deeper store to sleep. And a big part of that for me, was realizing early on that everyone with fibromyalgia is low in this brain, chemical called serotonin. And that's, you know, we've had two drugs that have been approved for fibromyalgia, Illa and Alta, which are selective serotonin and no uptake inhibitors. But serotonin is the key for these people.
[14:54] So they were not able to produce the serotonin that they needed. And when you're low in serotonin, your pain threshold goes down. And those with fibromyalgia have a condition called ALA Donia, which is low pain threshold. So their pain is magnified. And what I found is as I raised that serotonin by using five ay triptan and then high doses, but safe doses of vitamins and minerals and amino acids, I was able to get their serotonin levels up, which raised their pain threshold, lowered their pain, helped with their mental clarity. Their moods, uh, helped with irritable bowel cuz you have more serotonin receptors in your intestinal tract than you do in your brain. So by getting their serotonin levels up, I was able to help them with many of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia, but probably the biggest one.
[16:39] So many of us, you know, women at midlife have trouble with that. And particularly like you're describing with fibromyalgia this low serotonin that may be innate as well as the disruption in sleep causes all kinds of inflammatory cascades to be set off. And so that started really helping your patients to improve.
[17:00] Well, so what I saw is that once I got them sleeping and, and five HTP was how I started that. So I'd have them take five HTP, 30 minutes for bed with a little bit of grape juice to release the, the glucose would trigger insulin response, which would help that five HTP get past the blood brain barrier and work quicker. So once they started taking the five HTP and started sleeping through the night, then the next thing that I had to work on was that these individuals have depleted their stress coping glands, the, the, uh, the adrenal glands. So stress becomes magnified. They they're deficient in cortisol, D H E a.
[17:52] And so they would overdo it. They would, they would do things that they couldn't normally do. You know, if fibromyalgia robs you of so many things robs you of your health, that robs you of your social life, a lot of times, your intimacy, your career, you know, all these things are taken from you because you find with fibro, you really can't do a lot. If you try to do more than normal, you have these things called fibro flares where your symptoms are accentuated.
[18:35] They could have more stamina and resistance to it. So it didn't really wipe 'em out when they encountered it. And that's when I started, when I had the, for a number of years, I had a medical practice where I had five medical doctors working with me and we use Corte. So we use cortisol, you know, prescription medication, very, as you know, it's a very safe dose. It's it's um, about a fourth or a fifth, the strength of prednisone, but we use Corte and we saw that patients now they could handle stress better.
[19:25] Although I recommend that you get a particular type of adrenal glandular, it needs to be just cortex, whole glandular, adrenal supplements have not only the cortex, which is mainly cortisol DHA, but also have the me doula part of the adrenal, which is very stimulating, cuz it has adrenaline. And the worst thing you can do for these individuals is to hype them up. They can't tolerate that. They're their autonomic nervous system is already on overload. It's already hypersensitive. So for those you listening, make sure you're gonna get adrenal supplements.
[20:30] Now the RDA that recommended dietary allowance is some 60 years outta date. And it's really just enough to keep you from getting scurvy or Berry Berry. You know, it's not, you know, it really ain't gonna do anything. That's why people take a multivitamin, a central or whatever. They never feel any different. They never look any different. You've gotta use high doses. What I call optimal daily allowance, which is sometimes 5,000 times stronger than the RDA recommended disease allowance
[21:34] But we were using that protocol before every people really knew what it was. And we were seeing when we gave them these high doses of vitamins and minerals, that they slept better. They had less pain, they felt better mentally and physically, but UN you know, it wasn't feasible for people to come get an IV every week, travel 2, 3, 4 or five hours away. Like some people did between the cost and the inconvenience. It just, you know, it wasn't compatible. So years ago I developed a formula, a fibro formula, which has high doses of vitamins and minerals, all the B vitamins in the methylated form, malic acid, high doses of magnesium, which is a natural muscle relaxer, all the amino acids, which are the building blocks of the hormones that I know you talk so much about.
[22:39] That is my new favorite wording for RDA is yeah. Recommended disease allowance.
[22:48] why, I mean, you think about that. I know like the multivitamin I'm sure that you have you recommend right. Is, is, you know, probably got, I don't know, was 50 to a hundred milligrams of B2 in it. And which is what I think that's what 500 times stronger or a thousand times stronger than what the RDA is. And if you don't use these higher doses, people are just not gonna improve.
[23:08] Right. I always talk to people about that. So listen up, you know, the one a day, Centrum, silver, it sounds great. They're cheap, but you don't want it. It's a waste of your time and your money. So I love that recommended disease allowance. I just had to say that. And you know, the other thing I wanted to share is that you mentioned Myers cocktails. They actually used to give the nutrients rectally like a Myers cocktail. They called it a Murphy drip on the battlefield in wars, going back a hundred years ago. So it's not new.
[24:03] No, please. And you know, I think the thing is, I, I know you encounter this too. You're interacting with a patient and you're sharing with them the importance of vitamins and minerals. And they're giving you this look like how are vitamins and minerals gonna help me when I've been on Neurontin and I've been on oxycodone or whatever it is. I mean, they they've been on heavy duty pharmaceutical therapies. And you're, you're saying, you know, the only way really to do it is to get healthy and to get healthy. You know, you've gotta take these vitamins and minerals, but you need to do it in a dosage. That's gonna make a difference.
[25:04] Know, even I saw my hairdresser selling vitamins and all these little gummies that you take, they're supposed to help your hair. And I'm just like, what? But it's so true. It's that simple. Y'all, it's the basics, you know, like Dr. Rogers talking about and nutrient support at high doses, optimal doses, not the recommended disease. Allowance is a key part of that. Yeah. It's a key part of healing. Anything really?
[25:30] I think so. I think so, you know, people ask me, what's the number one supplement you'd recommend. And I would say, get the best multivitamin that you can, one that you like, you know, you're, if you like a li you know, if you can't take a pill, find a liquid, whatever it is, but get the best multivitamin that, that you can tolerate. That's where you put your money and then you build around that. Otherwise you're gonna be like the patients set Dr. Karen. And I see where they've got this big Santa Claus bag of supplements that they, you know, usually it's the spouse, you know, in my practice, it's, they're mostly female.
[26:18] Seriously. I, that, I mean, you know, that makes me so sad because it's really, it's just diagnostic of our current medical system that, that isn't doesn't have the answers, but also Dr. Google. And so people are looking for information all over. And so what's lacking in the information, age is wisdom. So if you're listening to this, no matter what you've got to heal, vitamins and nutrients are a part of it, but you've gotta have be strategic about it.
[26:52] So number four, but before I go there, you triggered this. I just wanna mention this yeah. That the, um, Janet trave, which she was a very prominent physician back in, well, she's the physician to Kennedy and Johnson mm-hmm and she wrote the trigger point manual. So bifacial manual. And in that book, there's, uh, I think there's two or three chapters. And all it is in those chapters is about vitamins and minerals and the role they play in reducing pain. And, you know, so this is not, this is not something that we don't know about. It's just something that's been ignored. You know? So this was being written about 50 years ago, 60 years ago.
[28:00] So definitely your diet is super important. No doubt about it, but it's just as important. What you're able to absorb as it is what you eat. So what I have found is the fibromyalgia community is notorious notoriously deficient in these nutrients because of number one, poor diet, oftentimes, but even the individuals and you get these who are what I, what I call health nuts in a, in a very nice way who eat even healthier than I do, which I eat really, really healthy. And I know you do, but they eat. What I would think is even healthier than I do. And they're still just miserable.
[29:03] They had these things that were preventing them from absorbing the nutrients in their foods. And also even, even being able to use the supplements, the nutrients that they were taking in a pill form, they couldn't even digest those because so many of them would have a problem where they would eat. They'd take their supplements and then have a dumping syndrome. They'd have to run to the bathroom. 70% of the people with fibromyalgia have irritable valve. And, and so I realized that we're gonna have to make sure that we clean up the diet that's important. So a low sugar, low carb diet is most effective for, for these individuals usually, but they also need be on digestive enzymes. That was the simplest quickest way to make sure that they were absorbing their nutrients and getting the most out of them is by getting them on a good digestive enzyme.
[30:31] And you know, it's funny when I practiced mainstream medicine, I am guilty of that too. That fibromyalgia was this enigma and it was untreatable and nobody knew what to do with it. And even with myself, I didn't know what to do and my physician didn't know what to do. And now I look at it from a functional perspective and I go, it's so super simple. You treat the cause. Yeah. And these are the causes and when you treat the cause the symptoms go away. So , how has your practice evolved since you, I mean, you came from more of a chiropractic background, right?
[31:22] Yeah. It's it's, I mean, I never would've chosen fibromyalgia, who would be crazy enough to do that. and I love 'em. I mean, you know, so I, I think they're the most wonderful people in so many ways. They're very challenging, no doubt about it, but just like your complicated patients, once you figure out some of the common denominators, it becomes a much easier, but yeah, I started off as, just as a chiropractor and I had a very busy practice.
[32:12] And then that started growing into my realizing that that was more fun than doing the hands on work. I really enjoyed the biochemistry mm-hmm and really started doing the training in functional medicine. And then I got kind of a reputation here in Birmingham, Alabama being a, a doctor who was really good with medical misfits. The people who'd been everywhere, tried everything or just wanted something different than conventional medicine. And, and I started getting referrals from the medical community and one of those was a patient with fibromyalgia. And when Sheila came to see me, I mean, again, my first thought was she's a hypochondriac, but the more I heard her story, I realized she's 35, she's a career.
[33:29] . And so you've held a summit that people can still access on fibromyalgia and you've held several others. Tell everybody about all the resources that you have available.
[33:39] Well, depending on when this airs, the fibromyalgia summit is being launched in may of this year 2022. And you can learn more about that@yourfibrodoctor.com. You can, but it's a free online summit. It's free. You can, there's 30 different specialists. We cover everything from insomnia and poor sleep to balancing neurotransmitters, to brain chemicals for anxiety and depression. We have presentations on IRO, bowel, leaky, gut food allergies, thyroid, which we hadn't really mentioned. I know that's a big one for you, hormone replacement therapy. So there's all sorts of, you know, various dynamics that go into rebuilding this individualized fibro. It's kinda like, um, peeling the layers of an onion. You know, you have to peel these layers away till finally you peel 'em all away. And there's this person who radiates health again.
[35:02] Yes. And then don't you have, you have other books and you've got, tell everybody about all the, the goodies that you have for them. .
[35:11] So in uh, October I'll be doing a super healthy lung summit and that's all gonna be about respiratory health, including long haul protocols. Mm protocols for asthma food allergies, seasonal allergies, Mo talk, all allergies, mold toxicity, mass cell histamine dominance. So that'll, that'll be out in October, 2022 and I've written five books. So three on fibromyalgia and then two, one book on, uh, heart disease, which your doctor won't tell you. And then one on anxiety and depression using orthomolecular medicine, which is vitamins minerals, amino acids, and essential fatty acids to treat mood disorders.
[35:52] Boy, could we have a whole conversation about heart disease? What your doctor won't tell you
[35:56] oh, so many medical myths out there, right? About, about cholesterol and, and all the, all the stuff that's out there that when you really look behind the, the smoke and the mirrors, you see that it's much you do about nothing, right?
[36:10] Yes. So we'll have to do that on another episode, but this has been wonderful. You really have laid out a path for people to follow who are suffering with fibromyalgia or maybe for people who suspect that they have it, but they're not sure. Or they've gone from doctor to doctor and they're not getting a diagnosis. So thank you so much for that. If we are able to air this before the, your fiber summit airs will definitely have a link in the show notes, we'll try and get it out before then. But if not, you're, if it's after you can still access it and we'll have that link in the show notes for you, Dr. Rogers shared this quote with us before that we recorded the episode that life is short. If you're not careful, you'll miss it. And I love that. It's so true.
[37:22] Well, just for more information about the jumpstart protocols, you can go to your fibro store.com and there's four free videos that are about 10 minutes, 10 minutes each, but it goes over in a little more detail than I could today about how and why these things work. And these are things you can buy anywhere over the counter. So, but the videos really go into a little bit more detail to explain how it all comes together.
[37:46] Right. Thank you so much for these incredible resources. And thank you for listening to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kirin. I'll see you next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening.
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Are you struggling with hormonal imbalances and health issues? Are you ready to feel better but not sure where to turn?
If so, this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is for you!
In this episode, host Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcomes Dr. Carolyn Messere, a former colon and rectal surgeon who had a drastic awakening about the truth of her role as a physician that transformed her health, her life, and career. Her journey speaks volumes about essential tasks in life that women must overcome to heal and achieve the brilliant health that is their birthright. She supports busy professionals to help them have energy, and better moods at a healthy body. In addition, in 2015, she became aware of the healing power of indigenous plant and animal medicines and psychedelics and became the medical director for a plant medicine group in Peru.
In this episode, you will learn about:
-What could indigenous plant and animal medicines and psychedelics do for you and your health in midlife?
-How can psychedelics help heal hormonal imbalances?
-What are the risks and benefits of using psychedelics?
-Where to find more info about psychedelics
If you are struggling with hormonal imbalances or other health issues and are interested in exploring psychedelics as a treatment option, this episode is for you!
So grab a cup of tea and join us for this enlightening conversation with Dr. Carolyn Messere.
[01:05] Back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so grateful that you are choosing to spend this time with me. I have something very interesting for you today. Some of you have reached out on social media with questions about plant and animal medicines, indigenous ones, and psychedelics. You've heard about all the research that's being done and the new indications for plant and animal medicines and some psychedelics. And you're wanting to know my opinion and experience, and I'm wanting to share that with you today. So that's exactly what we're gonna dive into my guest today is a, a colleague and friend who has a lot of experience in this realm. She actually was the medical director, a plant medicine group in Peru, where they had healing retreats for people with autoimmune and other diseases, and she saw some miraculous things happen. And so it's become a part of the practice that she personally uses and uses with her patients.
[02:07] I'll tell you a little bit about her and then will get started. Dr. Carolyn Messere is a former colon and rectal surgeon who had a drastic awakening about the truth of her role as a physician that transformed her health, her life and career. Her journey speaks volumes about essential tasks in life that women must overcome to heal and achieve the brilliant health that is their birthright. She supports busy professionals to help them have energy, better moods at a healthy body. In addition, in 2015, she became aware of the healing power of indigenous plant and animal medicines and psychedelics and became the medical director for a plant medicine group in Peru. There, she organized healing retreats for people with autoimmune diseases, Crohn's disease, autoimmune thyroiditis, and chronic fatigue, and working with a group of Chappo Eros who specialized in plant medicines from the jungles. She witnessed people with miraculous changes and some got better in just six weeks. Welcome Dr. Carolyn Messere.
[03:07] Thank you very excited to be here. It's not often I get the opportunity to talk about this. You know, almost every time we have any kind of get together with the, the mastermind. We always try to, I always try to talk about this kind of stuff, because it is the cutting edge right now with medicine. When you really look at it, and we've been looking at jungle medicine for a really long time, you know, we've tried to find cancer, cures, and all sorts of things like that with jungle medicine. But what we haven't really looked at is the fact that in virtually every advanced society that has ever existed in the world, going all the way back to the beginning, there has been a role for psychedelics. And we are the only ones that don't do it. Americans, you know, really when it comes down to it, the Europeans knew about it.
[03:55] For sure. The Celts knew about it. Certainly the south Americans know about it. The central Americans know about it. The Russians were have, you know, the, the word shaman comes from Russian. So there's been a psychedelic factor in pretty much every religion and every society that has existed. And we are the only ones that have been missing it. And it's not a big surprise that we're depressed. We're anxious, we're sick, we're not healthy. We have autoimmune diseases. You know, all of these things are going on in our, in our society. And it's not that surprising because we're really missing out on that opportunity to have a true spiritual connection.
[04:33] It's amazing. I don't think most people realize that a lot of the medicines that are now commercially available and made by big pharma actually come from plant and animals like anesthesia comes from toad venom. , that's where they developed anesthesia from. So every day it's used globally to put people to sleep and it comes from frogs and antibiotics originally came from molds and so big farmers. Yeah.
[05:03] And a lot of medicines came from herbs too, like aspirin.
[05:05] Right. And so big farmers always looking to exploit if you will. Nature's remedies. My question kind of is why don't we just use the natural substances and now they're really, they're looking at combo, which comes from toads or frogs. They're looking at, at its elements to boost the immune system. Mm-hmm so why don't I let you tell your story though, of kind of your evolution with medicine. I think it's a natural evolution, don't you? Yeah. You're a basic regular corporate doctor. Mm-hmm you realize we're not really helping anyone. We're doing pill for every ill surgery for every symptom medicine, and then you go searching for something better, either cuz you have health problems or your family members and you just get the sense, we're not helping people. And then you discover a root cause resolution approach. Right. But then at some point don't you think if you're really a seeker of ultimate health and healing that you get to psychedelics?
[06:03] I do. I mean, I think what it really comes down to is that there's really no healing without spiritual healing, you know, when it really comes down to it. And I wanna make sure that people understand that psychedelics aren't only spiritual. I mean there's definite medicinal qualities to them, but the whole point of, of having a relationship with psychedelics is to have a spiritual awakening when it really comes down to it.
[06:30] CA talk a little bit about that because you know, historically, and there really was a, a definite separation of church and state and science and religion several hundred years ago. And how does that affect us? Why, you know, most people who are listening probably haven't don't hear about spirituality and medicine at all ever.
[06:50] Right, right.
[06:51] And it's taboo for some people. So can you help them understand why this is and why you think it's essential?
[06:58] Because I feel like when you look at getting to the root cause of something, there's definitely physical, you know, that's a big part of things and lots of people get exposed to things like toxins. And a lot of these psychedelics can help you to clear toxins out of the system. There's no question that, you know, Iowa does that combo does that. And I began several of them really do help to clear the, to clear that out. So there's no question, I have a physical remedy in these things. However, what we don't have for most of us is we don't really have a true spiritual connection.
[07:49] And if we don't have a connection with some higher power and everybody gets to define to me, personally, everybody gets to define their higher power. I spend some time in 12 step programs. And I would say that one of the things that makes, makes or breaks you in this 12 step program is having a belief in something that is higher than you because let's face it. We're very imperfect as human beings, we're, we're imperfect. And we struggle and get frustrated with our imperfection and having that higher power allows us to see that there's a quote by the Buddha that basically says you can search the entire world over and not find somebody more worthy of love than you yourself.
[08:56] Yeah. That's a beautiful quote. And you know, I think some people hear this and they think, oh, well, you know, I'm this religion, I have a, a connection to something greater than myself. Can you just explain what's the difference between religion and spirituality and right. Yeah.
[09:13] Yeah. I'm not here to convince somebody that not be, you know, not to follow their religion. Absolutely not. I'm here. I think more for the people who are seekers, you know, and many of us are seekers when it really comes down to it. I spent much of my life seeking. I started out Catholic and went through almost every other religion. , you know, I dabbled in Catholicism, Episcopalianism Baptist, non-denominational Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism. I've looked at all of it. So I consider myself a seek. And the truth is that I all came back down to the fact that I believed in God and that God was an important part of my life. And how I choose to relate to God is, is maybe what's different. But the God that I had in all of those places was the same.
[10:08] Okay. And so back to the psychedelic medicines, mm-hmm what are they doing? Cause I think a lot of people have an idea when they hear psychedelics, they think of the sixties at Woodstock, people rising and acting crazy and getting high. And so what does that mean? What does psychedelic mean? What's what are they doing?
[10:29] Well, psychedelic basically disconnects you from your brain in some way or another, so that your brain kind of is allowed to imagine greater than what we normally will allow it to do. Cause we, again, we, we're very imperfect and we have a lot of emotions and we have a lot of places in ourselves that we have developed a certain way that we do things right. And we mm-hmm most of those things came from our parents, our grandparents, our teachers, our, our friends, you know, we, by the time we're 30 or 40, we've developed a certain way to be. And we're not even really sure where we got it from. Right. And one of the things about psychedelics is it allows you to kind of disconnect from that and your brain to just kind of do its own thing. And so do you think it's and your body may or may not have a reaction to that? You know, it depends some of the medicines have far more body reaction than others.
[11:28] Do you think it's fair to say that it's basically telling your conscious mind your ego to go sit in a chair and be quiet and letting your subconscious, that really runs the show. Yep. Reveal itself. Do you think that's fair?
[11:42] Well, I think that's a fair thing to say. And you know, I, I think, you know, that's definitely a topic to get into is, is what runs the show. Exactly. And a lot of people spend time trying to figure out how to get rid of your ego. Mm-hmm don't bother you need it. It has to do something right. It's it's not there for nothing. So, you know, I hear a lot of people, especially, you know, I think particularly when I was studying Buddhism, a lot of people there, they strive to get rid of their ego.
[12:28] So it's a little bit, it's maybe sometimes a little over rational or over worried about things. But if you learn to have a relationship with your ego, that allows it to be there when it needs to be there and you don't pay attention to it all the time, that's gonna be a happier life. Mm-hmm so, yeah, mm-hmm so I think, you know, when you're in, when you're in psychedelics, is it even the subconscious? I don't really even know I have a feeling.
[13:21] And also it depends on what those other people are doing. For the most part. I would say that I think there's something that's even deeper. That's like this, I don't know what you would call it. Maybe it's the spiritual mind. You know what I'm saying? Mm-hmm, , it's the part of you that knows that you have always been loved. It's the part of you that knows that you don't have to deserve to be loved. It's the part of you that knows that no matter what you do, no matter who you are, no matter where you came from, you're loved, you're taken care of you're connected to everyone else and to everyone else mm-hmm and something larger than you. Yeah, exactly. We don't have that experience without, I mean, I know people can do it with breathwork. I've seen it. I've done it. I think you can do it with breathwork.
[14:09] I don't think you have to take AUC agenda, have an experience mm-hmm but I find that, you know, certain hallucinogens just really give you that connection. But of course the other thing to look at is for all of us, I think there's always the possibility to have what we call. I don't know. I don't wanna call it a bad trip because I don't think there are any bad trips, but there are, I certainly have had experiences in medicine where I was frightened, where something came up for me, that was very scary for me. But the reality was that I needed to connect to that thing. In order to see that even in that situation, I was loved. It may not happen in the journey.
[15:10] Why do you think that plant medicines and psychedelics could be particularly used for, for women at midlife?
[15:18] I think that's a big change in our lives because we go from being fertile and moms and you know, there's a certain expectation of us in our fertile years. That changes when we get into more of that, that menopausal postmenopausal hair, menopausal stage in life. One of the things that happens too, is that, you know, we've spent most of our lives for good or ill being victims to our ho hormones as women, people make jokes about it, right? Oh, she's on her period. Don't go near her, you know? Oh, she's got PMs. Yeah. We'll just, we'll deal with her next week. You know? And men definitely make fun of us for it, you know? Oh, oh, oh, oh, I saw the tampons in the bathroom. I'm just gonna like go somewhere else for a week. And then we get to this place where we're no longer doing that.
[16:09] Mm-hmm, where there's our rhythm changes in our lives. We no longer have that cycle that goes up and down with our hormones. And we start to get a little bit less worried about things, a little bit less involved in things a little bit less run by our hormones. And then we lose our hormones and we, and we can get pretty moody because we don't have a good balance. So I think that's a great time to really develop redevelop our confidence in ourselves or if we never had it to develop that confidence in ourselves. Right. I think I personally think menopause has been the best thing that ever happened in my life.
[16:51] Because like I said, I was no longer like in that position of having to worry about, did I get my period this month? Is it late? Is it early? Am I having symptoms? Is it, should I worry about that? It's longer than usual or shorter than usual? Or is there some possibility I got pregnant and didn't plan it? You know, like all of that stuff went away and in the beginning it was unpleasant. You know, I'm not gonna say it wasn't unpleasant when, before I figured out how to balance my hormones out and get my, you know, my progesterone levels at an, at a place where I could actually like, not feel too angry all the time. cause I think progesterone what's nice about progesterone is it's kind of a feel good hormone if you do it right. I
[17:39] Yeah. The other thing about menopause and midlife is that I don't know, I kind of got to this place. Oprah calls it the it fifties. It's like, you just don't care what people think you're say anymore. And you're like, I'm gonna be myself. I'm gonna do what I wanna do. I'm gonna be who I came here to be. Cuz you know, you don't have forever.
[17:59] Right. And it is kind of a liberating time. But the other thing that I came up against was, well, what is it that you wanna accomplish in this life and why aren't you doing it? What's stopping you. And so that's kind of the other appeal to me of plant medicines. And one of the reasons I decided to start talking about it publicly is because if you go online, I think that there are lots of people interested in these types of technologies, including women at midlife. But if you go online, you think it's all like tech guys in Silicon valley and young people doing it. And all the podcasts that talk about it is like it's guys and young guys and techy guys, and you don't see women at midlife talking about this, but there are lots of us out there using these technologies.
[18:59] Oh absolutely. Yeah. I'm not sure where I would be right now if I hadn't, you know, one of the opportunities that I had when I was in Peru was I got to sit in ceremony every night with a shaman and I didn't drink every night. I didn't take iowaska every night, but I probably did. I probably sat in 20 ceremonies where I drank. And so, and when you do it day after day after day after day, it's a different experience than just coming into it and going, you know, like the first time I did it, it's kind of funny that you say that the first time I did it, I did it with a bunch of Silicon valley guys.
[19:38] It was me and one other woman who wasn't techy from Silicon valley and then the rest of them were guys and they had all done, you know, LSD. And they were like microdosing, which I had never heard of. I didn't even know what microdosing was and you know, so I did, that was my first experience was to spend 10 days in Peru with a bunch of, of Silicon valley guys. And, and it was an interesting experience, but I was definitely the oldest woman there. I was the only person, you know, who was postmenopausal. It was a different experience than I kind of thought it would be.
[20:36] San Pedro. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you think is important? Maybe you could name some of the, talk a little bit about the research that's being done and some of the things the FDA's
[20:46] Getting ready to approve and a little bit about that. So one of the first things is that we now have approval to do research with SIC Ibin, which is the main ingredient in mushrooms. So that's one of the biggest things. If you go back, it's interesting. If you go back to the sixties, they did a lot of research with LSD, LSD, just, you know, it is a psychedelic, but it's not a natural, it was made in a lab. So it's a little bit different than using something that's naturally grown. So, but there was lots and lots and lots of research done.
[21:38] The federal government decided to make psychedelic research illegal. So we went many, many, many, many years before we were allowed to really do anything. And then one of the first ones that was available for research was MDMA. It's also, I think it's XTA C or it's it's at least one of the components in ectasy. So that was one that was allowed to be used in the research laboratories, but only in very distinct places with very, you know, a lot of pre-planning and a lot of approval from the government and all of that kind of stuff. And then now we've got a lot of places that are doing suicide and research.
[22:37] It's not legal. One thing that's also happened is that the, a lot of people have made it a religious requirement for them to be able to do mushrooms or to be able to do peyote mm-hmm . So a lot of people have made it a religious requirement. And so the government's had a hard time with that because technically there, these people aren't wrong about that, that it's been used. I mean, really like I started off at the very beginning of our talk psyche have been used as a spiritual experience in every society from the very beginning except Americans except well, except, well the native Americans, the native Americans did. Right, right, right. There's some really good books out there about how, you know, the impact that psychedelics have had on religion.
[23:44] Lots intertwining and references that are veiled and not direct in a lot of religious texts about these medicines.
[23:52] There's a guy, I can't remember the name of the book. I'll, I'll send it to you. There's a guy wrote a whole book about how the Catholic church initially did use psychedelics and then they scrubbed the whole thing clean. They took every reference to it and put it in a vault. And that was the end of it. But the vault is still there and he got access to it cuz it's in the Vatican.
[24:13] Interesting.
[24:14] So pretty interesting.
[24:15] Definitely share that book. All right. And so the average person, you know, we've got our wonderful midlife women listen to this podcast. They wanna know about balancing their hormone. So I definitely wanna touch on, do these psychedelic medicines relate to hormone balance at all? Is there any benefit to be had regarding hormone balance with psychedelics?
[24:37] I think the answer to that is still to be determined if you look at when, when we were in Peru, it's not just the psychedelics, but there's a lot of other medications and there also there's in Peru. It's interesting. There's way more psychedelics than just iowaska. But very few of them get talked about because iowaska kind of, I think it, it, it got picked up by the, the Silicon valley guys and they made a big thing about it.
[25:265] Any in particular that relate to hormones that you wanna mention. I'm just curious,
[25:30] Not that I really am familiar with. I haven't really seen it. I mean, I do think, I think, again, any of these things that are gonna support your emotional balance and your spiritual balance are gonna support your hormone balance because ultimately the biggest thing that happens to us that can cause real problems with hormone balance is stress and overproduction of cortisol. So anything that's gonna lower your stress make you less worried every day. My sister finds it amusing. Cuz I joke about the fact that many of my patients are what you call the worried well, right? But they are the worried, well, you know, it's a little bit maybe dismissive because their worry is what's contributing to their medical problems. And so when we teach people, you are connected. There is a power higher than you. You are loved, you are taken care of. There is hope for you. There's yeah. Then I think that's the biggest thing is if you get that cortisol level balanced and you start to understand that you don't have to worry about everything, you really don't have to worry about anything. Right. It'd be, if I remember that every single day and I don't right, we don't
[26:46] Right. I think you're so right about the cortisol. And that's what I was thinking. That's how these relate and also giving you this experience of being connected to everyone and everything and something greater than yourself. Mm-hmm because I know I was a terrible worrier and you know, there's this saying, uh, in 12 step that if you don't have a God, then you have to be one. When you think you have to be, God, you try to control everyone and everything all the time. And it's an impossible task and you exhaust yourself and you make yourself crazy and you also don't accept yourself and love yourself. Exactly. And so for me, the, the plant medicines give me, have I had never had that experience.
[28:05] And what I think is interesting about that is that we think that the thing that happens to us at midlife is we lose our, our estrogen.
[28:14] For most of us, we had way too much estrogen to begin with so maybe a little less estrogen is good, but the hard thing is we lose progesterone and we lose testosterone.
[28:26] So, and testosterone is like, you're like, go, go, go. I'm the hero. Like I can do this. You know, we can't live without it. And it doesn't occur to us as women. That testosterone is that important to us. But you know, I remember you sitting down and saying to me, I, you know, to me, I just can't even imagine not giving somebody testosterone. If they, you know, if, if their levels are low, just doesn't make sense.
[29:30] Right. I'm just thinking, what do women listening wanna know? Probably some people never even are unaware of the changes that are happening with research and approval and medical indications for these medications. And now that maybe their interest is a little peak. Well, I wonder if any of these could help me or would I get that Dr. Carolyn, how do I find out more? Where would you direct them to find out and get more information on this?
[29:56] So the people who have been doing this kind of stuff for the longest was probably maps and you can look them up pretty easily on the internet and they are training more and more and more people in, in how to work with psychedelics. They started out with MDMA, like I said, that was, you know, kind of the big, that was one of the things that you were allowed to do. And now they're shifting so that they're starting to do some psilocybin, which is like I said, the active ingredient and mushrooms, because what psilocybin has been shown is to help people with depression and anxiety.
[30:45] Yeah. And then also for addiction, some incredible IGA IO, cocaine, and methamphetamine one trip, and they're healed
[30:59] And you know, I do wanna caution people though that it doesn't always happen that way. Mm-hmm . And the other thing is that even if you do get significant change with the first journey, we all have a backslide ability. So it's good to have an option to be able to participate again, because we, the one thing it's really funny, I think from the moment we're born, the thing we forget almost every day is our connection.
[31:44] such a good reminder. And just for everyone map stands for multidisciplinary association for psychedelic studies, it's M a PS O R G mm-hmm . And thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Carolyn, where can they find out more about the work that you're doing?
[32:05] I still don't have a website. I'm gonna get that set up really soon. So the best way to find me, I think a lot of times I'm on Facebook, I can be found there. And the other place that you can find me is I'll send you a link from the page for my, um, practice better page, and they can get more information about it there.
[32:30] All right, there you go. Thank you, Dr. Carolyn. Thanks. Thanks for joining us. All right, everybody. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kirin. I hope you found this information important and interesting, and maybe your interest is Pete. I would definitely check out maps.org for the latest information on these medications, the trials that are underway and, and really the state of the yard of the data on the plant and some animal medicines. And I look forward to seeing you next week and until then peace, love and hormones.
[33:09] Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.
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Are you looking for a natural way to beat autoimmune diseases? If so, then listen in to this exciting new episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we're joined by Palmer Kippola - an expert on beating autoimmune conditions naturally.
Palmer is a certified Functional Medicine Health Coach and the author of the best-selling book, Beat Autoimmune. She has helped countless women overcome their autoimmune diseases and regain control over their health. In this episode, she shares her best tips and secrets for naturally healing from these chronic conditions and getting your life back on track. Palmer also reveals her story of how she became so passionate and such an expert at helping people reverse autoimmune disease.
In this episode, you will learn about:
- The key signs and symptoms of autoimmune diseases and how to recognize them.
- How does autoimmune relate to food toxins, gut health, and hormone balance
- The importance of paying attention to your body's signals, and the techniques you can use to listen better.
- How a healthy diet, exercise, stress management, and other lifestyle habits play an important role in healing from these conditions.
- Palmer's holistic framework for complete autoimmune recovery called F.I.G.H.T.S.™
If you're struggling with an autoimmune disease, or know someone who is, then this episode is a must-listen! Tune in now and start your journey to wellness today.
[00:57] Some of you may remember her from the stop, the menopause Manness summit. She was very popular, cuz she's talking about a popular women's health topic, autoimmune disease, and her name is Palmer Kippola. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her, but she healed herself from multiple sclerosis, which is really unheard of in corporate medicine. If you ask corporate medical doctors, can you heal yourself from multiple sclerosis or autoimmune disease? They will flat out tell you that you're gonna have that for your, the rest of your life. And what I'm gonna tell you is I know far too many people who actually have reversed these diseases and are incomplete remission.
[01:53] Palmer is a certified functional medicine health coach and the author of the bestselling book beat autoimmune Palmer has helped thousands of people reverse autoimmune conditions after struggling to heal herself from multiple sclerosis and succeeding Palmer will share her holy framework for a complete autoimmune recovery called fights. The fights protocol offers transformational health recovery. For those with autoimmune conditions seeking to avoid the harms of immunosuppressant medications and optimize their health. Welcome Palmer.
[02:43] Am delighted to be thank you so much for having me, Dr. Kyrin.
[02:46] Yes. I loved having you on the stop. The menopause madness summit, everyone loved your segments. And I thought we need to bring you out from the summit from behind the summit curtain and into the light of day so that you can share your information expertise, inspiration around autoimmune disease, huge problem for women at midlife and beyond which we'll get into. But first I want was wondering if you could share your story of how you became so passionate and such an expert at helping people reverse autoimmune disease.
[03:27] I would be delighted to, uh, I have to take you back in time a little bit to the pre-internet days because I was 19 years old and up until I turned 19 is a happy, healthy well-adjusted young woman. And this particular moment I was home from my freshman year of college and just work in a summer job. And one morning I woke up and the souls of my feet were all tingling. That feeling like you've slept on a limb all night and it just won't wake up. So I thought, oh, it'll just go away, but it didn't just go away. So I got to work by noon. It, the symptoms had really, really crept up my, my legs, like a vine. I called my mom and dad and who called the family doctor who said get her over to the neurologist at UCLA today. So that's what we did.
[04:19] I had a very quick exam. As in five minutes, she had me walk across the floor, do the heel toe heel toe, touch my fingers to my nose. And she pronounced I'm 99% certain that you have Ms. Multiple sclerosis. And if I'm right, there's nothing you can do except take medication. And later I actually learned that she had pulled my parents aside and told them to prepare for my life in a wheelchair because that's where I was heading. So we had never heard of Ms. This is now in the mid eighties. This was no one had heard of autoimmune conditions. 50 years ago. It was so rare to, you know, no of one that had anything like this. So we left, terrified, went home by nightfall. The tingling had crept under my neck. And by the time I went to sleep, I had gone completely numb neck down and I would stay completely numb for a full six weeks.
[05:17] So it was an absolutely terrifying and we had no hope we had no information on what you could do. There was no Dr. Google. And so all I could do was lay on the couch. And so that's what I did to wait. And I'm very fortunate that I had loving parents who were there.
[06:04] So I pondered and puzzled and reflected. Why did I get the Ms. I wonder, I wonder. And it came to me as a flash of insight. And I need to just go back a little bit farther in time because I had been adopted as a baby by very loving parents, but my dad had been a fighter pilot whose way was the right way. And we butted heads quite a lot. And Dr. Kara, I have to tell you that my earliest childhood memory is actually of me somewhere between the ages of three and five.
[06:58] I was hypervigilant. I was always on, and I don't have any idea how I knew at the time. And I just envisioned my immune system as PAC men that were going around and gobbling up the bad guys. Right. I, I didn't know anything further than that, but I had this insight that I had become hypervigilant and therefore my immune system was in overdrive. It too had become hypervigilant. And I learned years later, of course, that that is the autoimmune attack. It's an over vigilant immune system that starts attacking your body's own self tissues.
[07:58] And again, there's nothing you can do except take medication. You're gonna go downhill. You'll be in a wheelchair, possibly have a shortened life. I never gave up searching for answers. And I finally found functional medicine in the year 2010. And that's when I found out that I had non celiac, gluten sensitivity, I removed the gluten, did a whole host of other things, but that was my biggest baddest root cause of all. And now we know that gluten creates a leaky gut in anyone who eats it and that's research from 2015. So that is my story.
[08:33] Yeah. It's such a powerful story. You know, I've known people, who've had Ms. I one friend who actually died from it at a very early age, it's a highly debilitating disease and certainly can shorten your lifespan. And there are lots of other autoimmune diseases that similarly cause disability and premature death. So it's a very serious problem. And the incidence is higher among women and particularly women at midlife and beyond. So I think it's a very serious topic and you're a Testament to the fact of what can happen.
[09:37] And just telling it shut up and stop talking to me is never the answer you really wanna ask. I love that that woman asked you, why do you think you have this? And it took a long time, sounds like decades to unravel, but ultimately that became your life purpose. And so I'm gonna end invite everyone to lean into the symptoms you're having and ask, why do you have it instead of taking a drug to shut that symptom up? So Palmer, then you've got a protocol called F I G H T S that you use, it's a holistic framework for complete autoimmune.
[10:35] Oh, I love it. It's a such a powerful invitation. And I wanna say to start with that auto immunity is now affecting children. This is not just women in midlife anymore. So there's a real opportunity to, to address this proactively as early as we can there, it's now, uh, juvenile, rheumatoid arthritis is a thing, right? So we must to get on this immediately. And so after I healed, I decided to study this full time auto immunity, why we develop auto immunity and what we can do to reverse it. And I quit my day job to study this full time. And I just lived on PubMed and anybody who has any curiosity about how to do this can find the same information it's all there. So I was just wanting to share the truth and what I found. And I also, at the same time decided to become a functional medicine, health coach.
[11:29] And so I studied auto immunity. I became a functional medicine, certified health coach, and I that time and time again, as we helped our clients heal, they got better as they addressed these factors. So I sat down after I was, it was suggested to me by a leading immunologist, Dr. Ariso VO Donny, that I consider writing a book about this because too many people are being affected by auto immunity. And not enough doctors are trained in actually how to treat people. I mean, to your point, it's all about immune suppression instead of addressing the root causes.
[12:22] It stands for food infections, gut health, hormone, balance, toxins, and stress. And I lamented that it did not spell peace, but in fact, , it was more metaphorically appropriate. I have to go back to my dad because while he was, you know, one could say the villain of the piece, right? The person that was perpetrating the conflict in our home, you know, nothing is ever that simple.
[13:20] Yes, I think it's such a great book. It really, it's kind of like the Bible on how to reverse autoimmune naturally. So I encourage anyone suffering with autoimmune to get it and read it. Don't have contemporary investigation. I actually get it and look at it. I love this other quote you shared with me from James Baldwin, not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed that is not faced. And I think part of the problem with our current corporate medical system is that we're not really facing our health challenges.
[14:20] What is wrong in my body? What are you showing me? And I love that, you know, it's telling you food. So fights food. Food is a problem. It's telling you, excuse me. Infections are a problem. Gut health is a problem. Hormone bounce is a problem. Toxins are a problem. Stress is a problem. And so then you have the opportunity. Uh, knowledge is power, cuz then once you have the knowledge, you can do something about it.
[14:53] Absolutely. And before I delve into that, I just wanna say how much I agree with what you're saying, the symptoms I encourage clients to thank them. They are messengers from your body, letting you know that something is outta balance. And it's kind of like, you know, the engine light on your dashboard of your car. You get outta hammer and start smashing your dashboard. No, you'd go get it checked out to see what's wrong with your engine, but we don't treat our bodies this way. Right? We just shove it under the rug and this is an opportunity to really empower yourself.
{15:37] Let's go into each one. And so food is really the highest leverage category. People heal 60 to 80% of the way and sometimes a hundred percent of the way just addressing foods. I got an email last week from someone who read my book. And she, you said, I just followed your food plan, which is the autoimmune paleo program. I just call it a 30 day food vacation. It's a positive spin on the classic elimination diet, take out the inflammatory foods. And she said, my symptoms 95% better just by addressing food. So number one, and that's why start with food is the first chapter in the book. We gotta start there.
[16:36] And that is how the whole autoimmune cascade starts. When you start creating holes in your gut, it allows, you know, good and bad things to get into your bloodstream. And that's when your immune system just takes off, starts attacking those things. And then you get the molecular mimicry, oh, by the way that gluten particle in your bloodstream looks a lot like your thyroid tissue, which is just absolutely crazy to me, but it's a thing. So you gotta stop eating gluten full stop.
[17:11] If you're listening to us now and you've been listening to my podcast and you are still eating gluten, you are not paying attention. so little cold water in your face. Stop it. Yeah. If, if your health is not picture perfect, if you have any symptoms, you need to stop eating gluten. Yeah.
[17:32] All right. All right. Shall we move on? Because I don't do fights in the book as it's spelled, because the next step is to look at your gut health and okay, this is a really important one, too. We treat our guts like garbage disposals. We are just throwing in food, you know, of any kind of variety and much of our food. The conventionally grown food is actually genetically modified to contain a product that is Roundup resistant. And glyphosate is one of the biggest batty chemicals that we're facing in our environment today. And if you're eating conventionally grown meat in particular, you gotta pay attention. And see if you can turn that around to be eating grass fed 100% wild meat. Why? Because we're not just what, whatever we eat. We're whatever we eat ate and you wanna be eating and that eat what they're supposed to be eating, which is cows graze on grass.
[18:51] For everybody listening. So they might say, so what it's farmed, can you explain why that's a problem?
[18:57] Well, when it's farmed, there are going to be fed things that they're not supposed to be eating. So it is not in a fish's nature to, you know, wanna feast on soy and wheat, but that's what they're actually being fed. So oftentimes farmers and fish farmers, they want the best price and they wanna sell their stuff. And you know what? Corned meat tastes good, cuz it's really fatty, but it's not good for the cows and it's not good for the fish. So, you know, sometimes getting used to grass fed meat can be a little more challenging because it's not necessarily as fatty delicious as what you've been used to eating your smoked s
[19:51] That's a great point. There is no middle point. It's either making you healthier or making you sicker. There is no in between. So ask yourself before you lift your fork and stick it inside your mouth as this promoting health or promoting disease. So what would we look at with gut health?
[20:13] Offender. It really is because it's, it's kind of like sidestream, you're not aware that you're doing it. And this, what we're doing here is to create awareness about everything that we can be doing so that we can be in control of our health outcomes. So it's just super important that every little thing you do at the end of your fork matters. And if organic is an issue in terms of cost for people, you know, consider, I'm sure you've talked about the environmental working group, they have their clean 15 and the dirty dozen, just make sure you know, that you're following those guidelines so that you at least are taking the best care.
[21:07] So that's why I talk about it here. Super important to make sure that we're treating our guts. Well, the other thing that I'll add to gut health while we're on the topic is mm-hmm, antibiotics. Mm-hmm, , it's like a nuclear bomb for your gut. And because we need our microbiomes to help protect our health and help create our hormones and a everything that you talk about, we have to be really, really vigilant about what we are putting in our gut. And one of the things that's harming us as a species is the high level use of antibiotics. And by the way, glyphosate, which we've just talked about was patent is as an antibiotic. That was its first use.
[22:06] Yeah, absolutely. That should be last resort. Yep. Okay, great. So gut health and then what would come next? So we've got food and gut health.
[22:15] Then we wanna move on to infections because this is super, super important. If you have already cleaned up your diet, you've addressed your food sensitivities and you're doing really well. You are, are, you know, taking care of your gut and you're still not getting better. It's time to consider infections. And this is something that we see in our practice. So I collaborate with a couple of natural paths and we help people who are not getting better after doing the diet changes. And we find time and time again, a collection of infection that include yeast and parasites and chronic Lyme and on and on. But there's so many things that people can do on their own in the infections category. And I would say overall to consider this category, it's not the bug, it's the terrain. So how you are treating yourself, your gut health, your life.
[23:11] We have to unburden our immune systems. And that is the best way I know of to help really make us Bulletproof against infections. The current one like coronavirus and these chronic infections that are in us that we may not know about because they're stealth and they're hidden. So what can you do to unburden your immune system? Step one, you gotta remove the sugar. You gotta remove the sugar. Another thing that I am super in favor of is moving. We were built to move. So move your body, stop eating the sugar and set a bedtime.
[24:16] Right. You know, it's such a, a great point and everybody knows probably people were going, yeah, I know Palmer. I'm supposed to go to bed at a certain time. And I know, I know these things, but the thing is that we don't do it. and I think it's important that you hear the fact that the terrain matters and that these chronic infections, I mean, most of us have chronic infections. And when you talk about terrain, the what popped into my head was a tree in the forest, one alive and dead.
[25:06] So if your terrain is kind of crappy, let's say, and you stay up late, you don't really tend to your gut health, you eat sugar, which feeds most of these ball. Then your terrain is terrible and you're like that dead tree in the forest. And you're gonna be riddled with these chronic infections that are hard to diagnose, right? Palmer oh, hard, hard to treat hard to get rid of and how you really get rid of them is you fix your terrain. Would you like to add anything about that?
[26:07] Oh, I, that was so beautifully said, I love the metaphor of the trees. I think that's perfect. I don't need to say anything else about it. It's um, beautiful.
[26:20] Then we gotta get to toxins and this is considered to be the biggest driver of autoimmune conditions are toxins. And Donna Jack is Jackson. NAZA's beautiful book. The autoimmune epidemic, which came out in the early two thousands was really a spotlight on the reason for the increase in auto immunity. Today, I already shared that when I was diagnosed at age 19, no one had heard of these autoimmune conditions. And today there are 150 known autoimmune conditions. And maybe one in three, one in five people are dealing with autoimmune symptoms, whether they have a formal diagnosis or not. So why is that? There are so many more chemicals in our environment is a huge driving factor.
[27:45] But there's more to it than that because we are sometimes victims of the things that are in our environment. We are seeing more and more BPA in people that we're testing. We're seeing more and more glyphosate. We're seeing more and more of these pesticides and herbicides. And there's some things that are harder to get out than others. But this is where knowledge is power. Just learning about what you're putting on your face and your body and your self care and your home care and what you're cleaning with. It all matters. And we talked about, you know, you're either building health, creating health, or you're moving against it. It's, it's really binary in that way. And every little bit it matters.
[28:42] It does. And I have a pet peeve in this category. I wondering if you could speak to it, which is the artificial scented candles and the plugins.
[28:52] So many people don't get that. Your, your scented laundry detergent, that they've got all these commercials with people smelling and they're so happy and the dryer sheets and the fabric softeners and the, the plugins and the centered candles and the air sprays. And can you talk a little bit about that?
[29:12] I can, it is a shared pet peeve and I haven't been in an Uber in a really long time, but without getting in an Uber with the guy, who's got four of those I'm tree,
[29:28] from the, the mirror it's maddening and people just don't know they don't. So I will say that the word fragrance and perfume or parfum, which is like the French word that you think is like, oh, it must be beautiful. It's French. It must be great for me. It's actually code for PHS and plastics. You don't want it in your body and sometimes, okay, this is going to get kind of gross people out, but it's sometimes what's in those fragrances is made from fever, anal gland. Did you know that?
[30:10] Yeah. It's a thing. It's a gross thing. Just know that your products and what you're eating and what you're drinking and any body care product, if it says fragrance or perfume or scent or anything like that, manufacturers are allowed to put whatever they want into that product or perfume or sent a dryer sheets. So that's part of the plan to remove the toxic load, to remove anything with those words.
[30:43] Yeah. So just stop using the sense y'all, , it's so bad for you and you don't even realize it. I mean, I have so many friends who use these things and they just don't get it. So of course I give them articles, which they love, but you know, they're also carcinogenic. So they cause cancer. Most people don't realize that, so, okay. We've got to get rid of the toxins. I'll get off my soapbox. And then what's next. After the toxins Palmer,
[31:10] Stress is the elephant in the room and stress is the elephant in the room because it is so insidious pervasive. We are all more stressed than we've ever been. We are just always on. And I know you talk a lot about high cortisol and the setting, the stage for any kind of health problem in your life. Auto immunity is usually triggered by some shocking event, some major stress in life, but it can be perpetuated by ongoing stress by chronic stress. Mm-hmm, , that's a piece of it. The other part of stress that is the bigger elephant that's hidden is the chronic childhood trauma, the developmental trauma.
[32:18] And there is proof and studies that point to the fact that if you've experienced neglect abuse had a family member imprisoned, or your parents were divorced, or the death of a loved one as a child, that there is a greater likelihood that you will experience auto immunity and other chronic disease later in life. It is, it's both shocking and empowering. And I love talking about this because there's so much that people can do. This is your childhood does not determine who you are, but this is going back to the James Baldwin quote of not everything is face can be changed, but nothing that is not faced or, you know what I'm saying,
[33:04] Face. Exactly. And if you're not facing the fact that you had trauma, if you're not addressing it, if you're not releasing the emotions that happened in childhood and taking responsibility for it, you may be perpetuating health issues.
[33:23] Right? And I think this is super important too. And I know we're getting short on time, but I think people are really getting it, that I had overwhelming experiences as a child, and it's affecting my health. They get that. Can you just name some of the things that people can start doing to start working through that? Cuz I think that's what P people are really hungry for. Well, what do I do about it? I get it. But what do I do about.
[33:47] I'm actually creating a course around this first and foremost is awareness. Just being really true to yourself that something hap or something may have happened is step one that self-awareness and sometimes to access that even the act of journaling of writing things down is super powerful and freeing. Get it on the page. If you don't like to write, draw, paint, whatever you can do to get it out of you and onto the page, you don't have to share it with anybody unless you want to, but get it out for you.
[34:51] And he offers some excellent ways to do that. So get it on the page. Number two, learn how to breathe properly. He talks about soft belly breathing and some of this stuff sounds so simple and how can this really help? But actually what happens when we have trauma that we're just stuck in that overdrive in that chronic fight flight, we've got to regulate our nervous systems. And the biggest regulator that we have for our nervous system is right under our nose. In fact, it is our nose. So taking big, deep belly breaths into our belly all the way and letting it out, letting it all go doing that proactively, maybe 10 soft belly breaths a day can be so soothing and helpful and just getting us out of that fight flight and into that rest and digest. So that's another access point. And another thing that I'll mention is the concept of shaking and dancing.
[35:48] So if you've ever watched an animal like a dog, if you take a dog to a park and it gets into a thing with another dog and they start going at it, you'll notice it afterwards, the dog shakes mm-hmm, , it's shaking off the trauma and after it shakes off, it's fine. But what do we do? We experience whatever traumatic event and we ruminate about it. It gets stuck on a loop and we play it over and over again. And it's it's, we're not safe. We gotta shut down. We tuck it deep away. And what Dr. Gordon talks about in the transformation is you can do this at any time, decades after the trauma that you've experienced to help your body clear the trauma, because it's not enough just to do the cognitive therapy. We've got to get it out of our bodies because of the concept of the stay in the tissues. So do what you can to shake, to dance, to let it go draw, take those deep belly breaths. And that would be a found a fantastic foundation for addressing trauma.
[36:51] Oh, those are some great pointers Palmer. Thank you for those. And before we wrap up the name of the podcast is the hormone prescription because all roads lead to hormones and hormone balance is, uh, one of your fights components. So how does autoimmune relate to hormone balance? How what's the connection there for everybody listening?
[37:165] I know you talk a lot about these on your podcast, low vitamin D. Number one is something that we can can control. It's the easiest hormone imbalance to correct. So know your levels and get your vitamin D levels up. This is vitamin D three, make sure you take it with K2. Another one that's low across the board is thyroid. This is a huge factor in the autoimmune equation. In fact, hypothyroid, most women in particular have an autoimmune thyroid condition Hashimotos which you know of. So low thyroid, we also have low D H E a, and that is quite common across the board in people with auto immunity.
[38:11] So again, know your numbers, get tested, do what you can do to, to raise those three. Then there are three that are excessively high across the board in people with autoimmune issues. One is estrogen dominance and that's not just estrogen being high. It's estrogen high in relation to progesterone, which I know you talk about a lot and that's super important and it doesn't just affect women. This is affecting men too. Another one that is high is cortisol. This is the dark Lord or you call queen cortisol. You gotta lower your cortisol and be in control of that. And finally, we have high insulin.
[39:25] Thank you so much Palmer for sharing your journey and your expertise. I love it when people's pain become their purpose. And that certainly is true for you. And this other quote you shared from RS gray, she believes she could. So she did, you did right? You believed that you could. And I wanna give a shout out for everybody who's listening. Who's struggling maybe with autoimmune or some other health problem.
[40:25]I do. I do. So the biggest question I get from people is what do I eat to beat an autoimmune condition? What do I eat? I hear different things from different people, and I believe that you're in the best position to figure that out for your yourself. So this is a little ebook that goes into all of the things that you need to consider taking out of your diet for about a month. I call this the 30 day food vacation and then tell you what you can eat so that you can eat to beat auto immunity. And you can find that@palmerkipp.com slash gift.
[41:04] If I can do it, you can do it. This is not just my story. This is the story of every single human being who takes the, the first step and then the next towards their optimal health. And so many people have recovered from auto immunity. And that's why in the book, I didn't just share my story. I tell the story of a dozen doctors who had been medically conventionally trained medical doctors. Mm-hmm who developed auto immunity and then had to find answers like you,
{41:47] It's so true. So don't give up, keep looking, finding answers. Hopefully you've got gotten some here. Thank you, Palmer so much for joining us today.
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Are you in your midlife years and feel like you've lost your youthful glow? You're not alone! Many women reach a point in their lives when they feel like their hormones are out of whack, their energy levels are low, and their skin isn't as radiant as it used to be.
If you're looking for ways to naturally reset your hormones and reclaim your health and beauty, this episode is for you! In the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Trevor Cates shares her expertise on how to achieve hormonal balance and beautiful skin from the inside out.
You'll learn about:
- The importance of hormones in overall health and beauty
- Facts about hormones and how they affect the body
- Common myths about hormones and hormone replacement therapy
- Skin - hormones connection and the aging process
- Beauty myths and secrets for ageless skin
- And much more!
So, tune in and learn how you can reset your hormones for health and harmony - and natural beauty!
[00:51] Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm super glad that you are joining me and my guest today. She has an amazing docu-series coming up called hormones, health and harmony, as well as a new book, the natural beauty reset. We're gonna dive into those. There's a link in the show notes to sign up for the hormones, health and harmony docu-series that's coming up.
[01:48] So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Dr. Trevor CAS and then we'll get started. Dr. Trevor CAS is author of the USA today, bestselling book, clean skin from within the upcoming natural beauty reset, the seven day program to harmonize hormones and restore radiance and founder of the spa doctor natural skincare line. She was the first licensed female naturopathic doctor in California, and she served at several world renowned spas in park city. Utah goal is to inspire and empower women to find the keys, to harmonize their hormones and open their eyes to their natural beauty and to be a guide to help illuminate their path. She has been featured on various TV shows, including the doctors and extra TV. Dr. Kates is host of the hormones, health, and harmony docus series, the woman's doctor podcast and the public television special younger skin from within welcome Dr. Trevor Kates.
[03:11] Thank you. It's so great to be here with you.
[03:14] I had so much fun taping your docus series, hormones, health, and harmony with your team amazing team. And I am so excited for the world to hear what 50 experts have to say about hormone's health and harmony. And I know they're excited to hear about it too, or, and I don't wanna make the whole podcast about the docus, even though I think it's amazing, but I wanna give people a little highlight about what are they gonna learn there? Why should they show up? Who is this for?
[03:44] So I'm so excited to share this with everyone. And really, and I know you talk a lot about hormones and women's health, so your people are used to this, but so many women out there think that symptoms like PMs and, and fertility and insomnia and unexplained weight gain, and hormonal acne are just like just regular parts of being a woman mm-hmm . But we know, and we just need to get this information out to women that these are, while these symptoms are common, they're not normal.
[04:42] And I really am excited for people to see you, but it's busting myths, getting real information about how we can balance our hormones. And it is a nine part documentary series. So there's a lot and it's launching May 10th and we have each episode goes live for a day for 24 hours. People can watch it for free.
[05:20] Combating is the substandard quality of life that we've accepted as women because our, the dogma current doesn't have answers for the problems that plague us, that have to do with our hormones and the rest of our health. And so we think there's something wrong with us or that we have to put up with it and that it's normal, cuz all our friends have it and that's just not true. So we're gonna, we debunk a lot of myths in this docuseries and really show the pathway forward.
[06:24] Well, I, gosh, there was so much, and I would have to say that some of the intricacies of lab testing and so I, so one of the experts we had to is a lot of lab testing and she dove deep into that. And some of that technology is fascinating of what we can learn and all the different ways that we can test, not only our hormone levels, but the metabolites of our hormones and also the toxicity level levels.
[07:23] it sure is. I used to have a friend who was a physician. He said, you know what? They call the physician who treats herself. I said, no, he's like an idiot. Cause I was trying to fix my own St. And uh, he's like, no, that was surprising. And what was most inspirational in all of the data that you gathered, what really gave you hope?
[07:50] I can't begin to tell you how many tears we shed listening to people's stories. And these are experts that were sharing their stories. I'm sorry, I'm just getting Terry, just thinking about some of the stories. These are experts, right? But they've all been on their own journey, including you and for them to be so open and vulnerable and share what they went through and how they came out on, on the other side, better for it. And they're so, so inspiration and that when, you know, sometimes we just feel so beaten down and we feel so lost without answers. And yet hearing these stories is just reminds us of there's hope and that we can get through this.
[09:09] And so the words of wisdom and the stories were actually, I think my, my favorite part, and then of course, some of my favorite episodes are the two toxic episode. Four is two toxic and it talks about, we talk about toxins in the environment and how that plays a role in our health. But we don't just dwell on that. We actually talk about the solutions to getting through that. And then of course I love episode six on sex and romance and episode eight on honor, your lady parts. Those are all fun ones. So there's so much great information in there.
[09:47] Yes. I know. I cried a couple times doing them, the interviews, cuz I'm so passionate about the topic and I know that you are too, and I think it's so important. If you can share with everyone, why do this? It was a huge investment of your time, your passion, your money. I mean, I can't even begin to fathom the huge investment you've put into this. So why?
[10:14] Yeah. Well, I certainly had my struggles as well. My struggles started off more with skin issues and that's what led me to become a naturopathic doctor. And I could tell you, or for anyone who struggled with skin issues, it's one of those things it's hard to hide. You can hide other symptoms, but you can, it's hard high skin problems. So it was such so embarrassing as a child to go through that, which is what put me on the path become a naturopathic doctor. But also throughout my life personally had struggles with poor model imbalances.
[11:11] So it's harder to be thin. And so putting on a little extra weight is normal at 30 years sold. And I remember leaving her office being so mad and I was already an naturopathic doctor, so I knew better, but I was, I thought, there's no way. This is true. And so of course I balanced, I got outta the off that hormonal birth control. I balanced my hormones and I got back into shape and I am certainly fitter.
[11:49]But yeah, you know, I have my own personal stories. We all do. Right. We have our hormonal stories and I just, over the years, seeing patients I've been seeing patients for 22 years is the biggest thing that women talk to me about hormonal struggles. And a lot of times women don't even realize that their symptoms are related to hormonal imbalances. That's why I wanted to get this out there because like my weight gain at 30, it was, my hormones were out of balance, but most people would've just said to me, well, you just need to exercise more and eat better.
[12:56] It's so true. Women say that to me all the time that I didn't even know that that problem was related to my hormones with, with the depression, with the, I can't sleep with the, you put, fill in the blank. And I say, honey, that's why the name of my podcast is the hormone prescription. It's like every pro, if you're female and you have a health problem, hormones are the foundation of your health as a woman. Part of that is a hormone problem. So I love that you're really people are gonna get that insight in this docu-series I think it's phenomenal.
[13:57] Yeah, well our skin is our outer reflection of our overall health. And as you know, it's our largest organ it's right on the surface of our bodies. And I think a lot of times we forget that, of that connection. So I started focusing on skin when I was working at the Waltor spa in park city and I was doing a two week weight loss program and my patients would come in at the end of the two weeks and they'd say, Dr. Kates, I lost all this weight felt great, but what surprises me is my skin. I didn't know, my skin could look this good.
[15:18] Yeah. Like what kinds of myths? just give us a couple.
[15:22] We look in the mirror at ourselves, we look at other people to help us feel beautiful or for a validation of that. But I think it's important for people to realize that true connection of when we feel healthy. And part of that is when our hormones are balanced, when we feel healthy, we can feel more beautiful and really that a lot of that comes from within. But when our hormones are out of balance and we're feeling when we're not sleeping well, when our mood is all over the place, we'll look in the mirror at ourselves and beat ourselves up and we'll look at other women and we'll say, oh, I wish I was young.
[16:48] I love that movie with the comedian where she hits her head and then cuz she has low self-esteem and then she hits her head and then she thinks she's beautiful. Society's definition of beautiful. And she behaves that way and her whole life changes because she believes it. It doesn't have anything to do with what you actually look like, but we as women and as you were talking, I'm thinking no men look in the mirror and compare themselves to other men, oh, he's got better packs and biceps. And like men don't do this, but we really are socialized that our value has so much to do with our appearance.
[17:39] Thank you for that, that we delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. So along those lines, what, what about what we're thinking? Yeah,
[18:08] So absolutely the way that we think can be very toxic to our bodies and actually impact our hormonal balance as well because when we're stressed out, we're beatings ourselves up that impacts our adrenal function, which then can affect many other hormones in the body and affects our nervous system, our stress. And so it's heightened. So really we want to realize and recognize. I think the first thing is to just recognize when you have, when you're starting to beat yourself up, like, wow, that's really not a good thing for me. And that negative thought or that negative thing that I'm thinking or saying to myself is really beneficial and that's really the first step in it. And I think then there are lots of different ways that you can process through and help heal old patterns and wounds and things like that. But being able to shift that is really crucial.
[19:05] We don't just born beautiful. And some people might think, oh well she's just naturally beautiful or whatever, but really so much of beauty comes from life experience. And so, especially as we get older, it gives us an opportunity to be beautiful in other ways. And the experience that we have in life can make us more beautiful. I think that some of the most beautiful women I've ever known are in their seventies and eighties and nineties, I feel very blessed that I have some really great role models
[20:12] You know, you look so healthy and vital and alive and your doctors and you're so accomplished. And so they discount what's possible for them. They say, I can't do, I can't have the health that you guys have. I can't have the skin that you have. And so one thing that I've been really focusing on is pulling back and telling the hard stuff about admitting the changes that, you know, I've gone through from being a caterpillar, to being a butterfly. And I'm wondering if you would be willing to pull back the curtain a little and share some things that you've had to overcome on you, your journey.
[21:08] Yeah, absolutely. As I mentioned, I struggle with my skin as a child and I, it was more eczema and hives and bumps and itchy rash, so appear. But I was, I did not feel like a normal kid and I had a really low self-esteem as a kid. And yet I, I was in the that's. I grew up in this family of what society really considers as beautiful people. And I thought I was the ugly duckling. I grew up this way.
[22:03] I will sometimes get rosacea if I don't, you know, stick with my eating plant and all of that. I understand the struggles with that, but I think that this time in my life, so I'm 49 years old and it's funny a couple years ago, I said, okay, before I turn 50, I wanna make some big, more changes in my life. It's never stopped for me. There's all else. And so one of the biggest things that's happened for me lately is that I was going from one relationship to another after my divorce 10 years ago. And so a year ago, by the time I'm 50, I'm gonna meet, meet the man of my dreams and I'm gonna be married. And so Karen, I just got married.
[23:10] What? Congratulations.
[23:18] so I think, and I had to dig deep and do a lot of work on myself and emotionally kind of unravel some of the things and the patterns that I had around relations ships, the way that I thought of myself, the way I was showing up. And I did a lot of that hard work. And then all of a sudden, he just showed up in my life.
[23:39] That's amazing. And you know, I just wanna highlight for everyone listening. Everybody has their stuff. Everybody's got struggles, physical struggles, relationship struggles, life struggles. I don't care how good you think the package looks on the outside. Right. And if you've seen some of these models that do the shots, what it looked like before, they got their makeup and hair done. And then after, you know, you'll know it's true. All these, the photoshopped end product is what you're seeing and comparing yourself to, but we've all got struggles and we are no different than you.
[24:47] Yeah, I think it is important to realize, especially for those of us tend to be a little bit of perfectionist or type a personalities is that failure can feel like so devastating and we can feel like we've made the biggest mistakes, but if we don't fail, that means that we're not really putting ourselves out there and it doesn't give us that opportunity to really grow.
[25:39] And I think that so often we're in the middle of what we consider to be a failure and we can't see the other side of it. So I just wanna tell people, if you feel like you're in that place right now, just keep going. And there is light on the other side thing. There is hope. And especially if you're listening to Dr. Dunston's podcast, which has a lot of great opportunities and information and, and resources for you, the hormone's health and harmony dokey series does as well to reach out to people and get help and get through that time.
[26:22] Yes. Then your pain becomes your purpose. I have another mentor. He always says, there's no such thing as failure when you're doing something you think is failing, it's working on you. It might not be working externally, but it's working on you to help you to become the person who can do the thing and be successful at it on the outside. And you have to go through that in order to be successful on the outside.
[27:09] Yeah. It's free May 10th each episode, we'll start with episode one, it'll be live for 24 hours. People can watch it and then we'll switch to the next episode, the following day. So we can get through all nine episodes by the 18th. And so it's important to watch it when it goes live mm-hmm so that you can watch it free.
[27:30] Awesome. Thank you so much for that wonderful resource. We'll have more information on Dr. Kate's book, natural beauty reset. That's coming out in the fall when it gets a little bit closer. So state tuned for that. And what any parting words that you would like to leave everyone with?
[27:50] Yeah, I think that we've, you know, we've covered a lot here and I really think about the daily choices that we make are really what helps us move forward. And I think about him in, in four different areas. And I talk about them in my book and those are around food movement, mindset, and also skincare, if you wanna talk about skin. And so I think it's, if you can do things within each of those category every day, even if there's small steps, like just start choosing switch over to a and some natural skin care products.
[28:41] I love that simple, easy, powerful Dr. Trevor, Kate, thanks so much for joining us and thank you for this incredible resource that you are sharing with the world. Can't wait.
[28:52] And thank you all for joining me for another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I hope that you learned something today that can impact your life. You should, for sure. Wanna check out the docu series. So click the link in the show notes, go and sign up, and then set aside time in your calendar. Now to watch each episode, when it goes live each day, you could even do a watch party with some girlfriends and watch it together and have a discussion afterwards around what you've learned. And what's inspired you. I look forward to joining the conversation with you on my Facebook FA page or Instagram. So jump over there and we'll have a conversation about it. And I will see you next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening.
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Do you know what the number one killer of women is in midlife? If you said heart disease, you’re right!
In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Beverly Yates joins us to share her knowledge of how to prevent and reverse heart disease.
Dr. Yates is a leading expert in natural hormone replacement therapy and has helped countless women achieve optimum health and well-being. In this conversation, she shares her insights on how the menopause transition can impact heart health and what steps we can take to protect ourselves.
You’ll learn about:
-The link between hormones and heart health
-The impact of the menopause transition on heart health
-How to prevent and reverse heart disease
-And much more!
If you’re concerned about your heart health or want to learn how to protect yourself from this deadly disease, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in now!
[01:03] So without further ado, I will tell you a little bit about Dr. Beverly Yates, and then we will started, she's done a lot of stuff ladies. So her bio is very substantial. So here we go. Dr. Beverly Yates, naturopathic doctors, a diabetes expert, an author who has over 28 years of experience of working with those who struggle with blood sugar issues related to type two diabetes and pre-diabetes and feel like nothing works for them.
[02:03] Dr. Yates creates breakthrough changes in the habits that cause blood sugar issues. This allows her clients to finally get off of the blood sugar roller coaster, have more energy and create the level of health that lets them live the life of their dreams. She is the creator of the Ys protocol, a simple and effective lifestyle - based program for people who have type two diabetes or pre-diabetes to lower blood sugar levels, achieve healthy A1C and fasting blood sugar levels and have more energy to live life the way they want to. She's worked with thousands of people, helping them to lower their blood sugar levels to a healthy range and get control over their health.
[03:29] Yep. The summer is at the end of July. That's right.
[03: 31] End of July that you don't want to miss. She was chosen as the lead doctor for a new three - doctor panel TV show on ABC CT. And they did not green light the series, but I know another TV show is in your future. Dr. Bev Dr. Ye has been featured in the media, including ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS NPR, black news channel Fox series, XM, MINDBODY green essence magazine, good housekeeping woman, world readers, digest, Rodale press, and more welcome doctor advocate.
[04:05] Wow. What a lovely intro. Thank you so much, Dr. Karen, for your invitation to be a part of here with your group and also to, you know, explore a topic that is just, it really just needs to be on everyone's mind, frankly. There's other, um, illnesses that people are far more aware of, and they don't know, understand that heart disease is still far away.
[04:28] Yeah. Particularly in women and you find all kinds of information about other issues, you know? And when I ask myself why that is, this is what I think. Tell me what you think that people really think, oh, my doctor's got that covered. I don't need to worry about that. I don't need to look for that on social media. Yeah. And it's also silent, and you know, I've diagnosed so many women probably like you have, you know, coronary artery blockage from a coronary calcium scan. So can you talk a little about that a little bit more?
[05:18] Yeah. That's a great intro. Let's take back the covers here and have a heart disease is one of those silent processes whereby the time it's clear and someone's symptomatic. The process has been in place for years, if not decades, right? Just like diabetes. It tends to sneak up on people. And unless they have clear testing, clear assessment, you know, some kind of a, a rational testing process, diagnostic imaging, looking at blood markers, et cetera.
[06:02] A lot of people have this misperception and I really want to make this point clear for women, men, anyone people has this misperception that if you lead a healthy lifestyle, you will avoid problems. It's not true. It's not that simple. Don't we wish. And if you have a genetic risk from your family, if you have a lifestyle or a past set of chronic stresses or traumas, they can all set you up for heart disease that could potentially be lethal.
[06:50] There's some good news to be had around this too, especially for women. But meanwhile, we all have to do what we can. And I think one of the reasons we don't have about this is that selling you the solution after the problem for really expensive heart surgery, to have your chest cracked open and have your heart re plummed and other things like that is just worth so much more money than the things that you could do well before that's ever needed. It will never ever have that huge expense.
[07:36] But when I started on this path and I learned about some options that aren't standard of care, like coronary calcium scanning, I started sending all my at-risk women for it. And I literally would have some women, they would call from the center and say, she, you know, almost had a complete blockage in all three arteries. And we would send her to the ER, and she ended out with a stent or a bypass. Right. And her life was saved, but it's not even recognized in mainstream medicine. So because it's this silent killer and women don't even know how they can protect themselves?
[08:37] Yeah. That's a great question. You know, even today in 2022, it is not necessarily the standard of care that insurance companies will pay for a coronary calcium scan. Right? And any, depending on where you live, that scan could cost you somewhere between $75 to $300. And for some people it can be lifesaving. If it determines that there's a blockage, you know, off to the cath lab, you go, or maybe it's time to have your chest cracked, but at least it was before you had that coronary failure, that myocardial infarction a heart attack that can drop you like a rock and potentially kill you.
[09:19] So when we go through menopause, obviously a lot of our hormone shift in change, right? As much of that conversation starts though before the time of actual menopause aging of all kinds, that conversation in your body really starts to shift somewhere between the ages of 38 to 42. And at that point somewhere between age 38 to age 42, about 1% to 4% shift per year. Now, if you are comfortable with money and finances, think about it.
[10: 07] So you wanna then start to manage and maintain and boost your aging conversation, so you can live long and live well when it comes to cardiovascular health and making sure that your heart has what it needs and the rest of your cardiovascular system. It's just so, so important to have a healthy lipid profile, to have the fractions be at a good ratio to each other and to not have issues with the blood vessels that feed the heart. Those are called the coronary vessels, coronary meaning heart vessels, right?
[11:01] And you can call around and shop around. You know, when you call hospitals and outpatient centers, et cetera, probably less expensive in an outpatient center compared to hospital has much bigger overhead as you might expect, but it's worth making that call to find out. It would be lovely if we had almost like a door dash of equivalent for health. So we can just look it up on an app and know how much it will cost me.
[11:41] I really can't. And today it's so true. It couldn't be easier, right. To make this transparent. Why is it so hard? You know, I've had times like, uh, I remember once when one of my kids needed surgery for something and I called around, get an idea, what would the out-of-pocket cost be? The time they were much younger, you know, we're trying to pay for school, this other thing. And I could not get anything on anybody. And it was really crazy. I mean, I knew all the ICD codes, the CPT code, I had all the numbers. Right. All the big words and, and the people who ran through the phone were like, I have no idea. I
[12:22] I mean, but you're right. It's like shopping on canal street in New York. It's like, no prices on anything. How much is that bag? And they'll be they'll, they'll kind of size you up and go for you $375.
[12:40] You are a tourist anywhere in the world. They think you might be from the US, you know, the price went up. So yeah, I got that.
[12:46] Right. So just as a public PSA, we might save some women's lives today. Can you tell everyone what a calcium scan is and that their doctor's not going to order this for them. And you can maybe help me understand why that is. Um, that they can, like I've said people, sometimes I've seen Groupons for like $89, and you can go get it, and it can save your life.
[13:14] Yeah. So a coronary calcium scan is an imaging, a simple imaging where your body scans specifically your chest to capture your heart. And it's looking at your heart, it's looking at the chambers of the heart. And it's looking at the blood vessels that feed the heart, particularly the ones that sit right on the top surface here, the coronary arteries, right? Those are the blood vessels that are dedicated to the heart. They're going nowhere else. They're simple.
[13:55] This is why blood pressure is lower. Other things. This gives the heart a way to rest that lower blood pressure number. For instance, the diastolic numbers. Like if your blood pressure is one 20 over 80, that 80, the lower number is critical. That's your heart at rest. Again, it never really stops. So I was able to relax. You can't relax.
[14:43] That's what the compromise is about. And after a certain amount of blockage, that's usually when people become symptomatic, maybe they're short of breath for no particular reason. Any exertion at all is exhausting. They might find that they have chest pains. Yes or no. And for women, the presentation of chest pains is very different from it is for men. Frequently.
[15:26] Maybe she's got pain in her shoulder. It might be on the left side. It might not. It might be on the right side. It can be very confusing almost all the time. When women have heart attacks, they'll say, I didn't feel well. I felt profoundly unwell. That's usually the most presenting symptom. And so it's kind of easy to get that overlooked.
[16:12] It's still considered perspective or experimental or research controversial, whatever. It's not condoned in terms of conventional medicine. And as such insurance companies do not feel required to pay for it. It hasn't yet gotten to that status of being part of the standard of care. And so people will look at you often with a side eye, and they will not prescribe it or recommend it. You can go and get these things yourself.
[17:09] O C C L U S I O N occlusion in the absence of a blockage or occlusion. Right then you're good in terms of whether or not the heart is getting what it needs for blood flow. Now, can we talk about another aspect of this that usually isn't put together? Is that okay, please? Absolutely. There's stress echocardiograms. Now, from the point of view of a cardiologist, this is something I happen to agree with them on a stress echo, as it's called more, you know, familiarly, a stress echocardiogram, in my opinion, is a gold standard.
[18:03] If you are a woman with larger breast masks, this could be one of the most awkward tests you will have in your life, worse than a mammogram in some ways to be clear but worth it. Okay. All right, wait a minute. I'm just, I'll talk about it right now. fellas do not go through all this drama. So with the ultrasound head there, and you'll have 12 EKG leads all around you electrocardiogram that is recording the electrical activity of the heart. So what they're doing is they're going to have you initially walk light load, right?
[18:46] You'll see whether all the valves are flapping or not. And you also see one of the most critical, sensitive measures you can ever imagine for the function of your heart called L V E F left ventricular ejection fraction in plain language, how much blood that has now just been oxygenated from your lungs and has come back to the heart is actually going to go out of that sucker and around the rest of the body to deliver that oxygen. You don't wanna, it all stick in there. So when that ejection fraction gets lower, like significantly under 50, say it's 30%, 25%, 20%, 14%, et cetera. That's where congestive heart failure happens.
[19:43] So the stress echo you like as the gold standard for diagnosing coronary artery disease or looking for function of the heart, or what do you like that for
[19:54] The heart function is the heart functioning well, okay. Make sure it's getting blood in. And the blood is getting back out because it's not doing us any good. If the blood's going in, and it's not leaving, that's why people have these problems with clots. You see all these medications being promoted for lowering clots, blood thinners, et cetera. This is what's. This is why, right? Heart disease.
[20:15] Right? But I know there's some people listening, going, Dr. Bev, do I need to ask for a stress echo
[20:22] Think it's a great baseline test. I do, especially in your middle life years. I think it's a great baseline. And if you have a history of being an athlete, if you've been athletic, if you are a big a person who was huge on dancing, anything that was aerobics in nature, some of the more vigorous things I've seen for cheerleading, absolutely qualify as far as I'm concerned, their athletes do as well as the individual and team sports. Anything that involved running, lifting resistance or weight training. I think it's a good idea for you to get that test. Here's why you will have a natural increased growth called a hypertrophy of that left ventricle wall.
[21:38] Yes, absolutely. All right. So that's another test. Let's back up a little and talk about the risk factors. Mm-hmm for heart disease. Sure. And you mentioned earlier genetic dyslipidemias mm-hmm can you talk about what are the risk factors that really need to be addressed and mitigated, and then we'll weave that into lipids?
[22:01] Sure, sure. So risk factors. One of them is something that's affecting many people right now, as we work our way through this pandemic situ and that is sitting too much sitting throughout the day, sitting on an airplane or a bus or a train or whatever it is, right? Extended periods of sitting are a real risk factor. So that's one, another issue is a complete lack of exercise and any kind of exercise. It could be dancing to your favorite music. It doesn't mean you have to go to the gym and do some, some specific, right it's simply movement.
[22:45] Your blood lipids love that fiber, the healthier ones are more likely to be pronounced when you've got plenty of fiber on board. So green leafy vegetables are a great way to get fiber. You can have ground FLA seeds, a few nuts and seeds. Those have fiber in them, fruits, fresh fruits, absolutely other kinds of vegetables, not necessarily green ones. All of those food groups have fiber naturally in them, can take fiber as supplements.
[23:22] Smoking's another risk factor. Smoking basically sets your blood vessels on, on fire. If you will, it's a kind of inflammation and the sort of damage that smoking those blood vessels makes it far more likely that the unfriendly lipids will park in the blood vessels and turn into those Velcro balls. I talked about it. So their Velcro balls happen.
[23:51] Yes. And the sitting the smoking. And I know you're gonna talk about blood sugar and diabetes, right?
[24:01] Absolutely. Blood sugar, um, problems where blood sugar rises chronically high and doesn't come back down or the blood sugar roller coaster for people who go from super high to really low, super high, to really low experience, to hang, reach phenomenon, hungry and angry who have first too much blood sugar. And then not enough, it just plummets like a rock off a cliff. This is a problem, right? It's another risk factor.
[24:34] That blood sugar wants to hang onto the proteins in your blood. The proteins belong there, but too much blood sugar does not. And you have extra blood sugar. It hangs on those proteins to create big old honk and molecules called protein glycan.
[24:52] Tries to get through your tiny little capillaries. Well, it doesn't fit. it's too big. And so all of your circulation starts to be compromised. So then when you have the unfriendly fractions of that, of the lipids, they see this mess and one of them joins it's a pile it just gets bigger and bigger. It's a problem.
[25:13] Yeah. So let, so the blood, sugar's a problem. Definitely gotta get that under control. Yep. And let's segue into the lipids. So let's talk about that. How does that contribute and what testing do people have? And let's dive into that.
[25:30] Lipid fractions that we care about, here are the ones that should be on most lab tests. They are HDL, which stands for high density, lip protein; there's LDL, which is low density, lip protein. Then there's V LDL, which stands for very low density like protein. There are some other fractions as well. One of them that is super helpful to know about is called lipoprotein little a right. So lipoprotein little a it's either shown as a lowercase, a or in parentheses an after the word lipoprotein, depending on the lab, the lab, company's way of doing that call out.
[26:20] Think of it as like beach balls in your blood. It's good. It's not thick into anything. It's kind of natural. Telon it's not toxic at all. In this case, it's just good for you. It doesn't cause problems and cholesterol as a large category is the building block a substrate for all the sex hormones. We actually want cholesterol in the body. What we care about is what the body is doing to the cholesterol or interacting with it. So if you have the presence of other kinds of inflammation, which we'll talk about later, this is where lipid pro profiles and fractions matter a lot.
[27:08] Same is true for V LDL, a very low density lipoprotein in the presence of inflammation. It too can be troublesome. LDL is more likely to take people out compared to V LDL triglycerides.They, too, are another fraction of lipid, and they can definitely be problematic. And it's all about inflammation. So back to where we talked about the biggest loser in one of their trainers, Bob Harper, who you know, seemed to be amazingly fit and in shape and blah, blah, blah, and still dropped like a rock from a heart attack. Well, it turned out he hadn't unfriendly cholesterol profile, a very unfriendly one. And again, if he hadn't been in a place where people saw him drop over from a heart attack, he probably would've died because he wouldn't have gotten help fast enough.
[28:11] No, I do. And I'm trying to think of the name of that famous marathon runner who also dropped dead from a heart attack. So just because you're physically, you look physically fit doesn't mean that you are. Yeah. So when people get a regular lipid profile from their doctors, they usually get what total cholesterol, LDL VDL chide and HDL, correct.
[28:39] Right. And so I also gonna say is that sufficient, and I just want to let everybody listening in the podcast know that Dr. Bev is getting ready to give a master class to the women in my midlife mastery program. And so that's who she's talking to. when she's showing, uh, look, look at my hands and stuff.
[29:09] And the course of now 30 years of, of clinical practice and growing where they'll come in, their total cholesterol number will be higher than 200. So it's considered L of or high, right. It automatically falls into the category of at risk. However, a lot of times for these women, especially in midlife and older it's because their HGL fraction has gone up the protective good gal, good girl, kind of cholesterol.
[29:50] They've been told, oh, it's high cholesterol. It's time to put you on a statin as a reflexive response, irrespective of anything else about their lifestyle. And it's not, in my opinion, in a scientific, clinically measured way to go. It doesn't make sense. If your cholesterol profile is dominant with HDL high density protein, you have an unusual amount of protection and that's good. And if you don't have inflammation, it's even better because now it is highly unlikely. You'd be is such a low risk category for a heart attack, right? You just are. Now the other way, this could go HDL is low and V LDL or more likely LDL, usually LDL and triglycerides will elevate more so than V LDL.
[30:52] And when it comes to lip profile, we care a lot because stress at the moment for a reason that you burn it off with activity, like you literally had to lift the car off a loved one, you were literal, really running from a bear for instance is okay, it's good for us. It keeps us safe. It can save lives. The problem with stress is when it's chronic, and it runs away with us, and we are trapped, we feel overwhelmed. And those chemicals surge throughout our body, whether it's cortisol, the primary stress, chemical adrenaline, some other things, right, neurotransmitters, they all get in the mix.
[31:52] And if enough of it builds up, it creates what's called those Atheros or those fattythis fatty buildup, those fatty plaques on the walls of the blood vessels. That's where the word athero sclerosis will come from where it's this process where, because the blood vessels been damaged now, the fats are trying to patch it. And the fat's really hard to sign to patch. It that's just a bad patch.
[32:26] You know, this is super important. What you just said about chronic stress. And this is what gets back to the hormones. Ladies. I always say everything leads to hormones . So by the time we hit midlife, it's usually not only our sex hormones that have a problem, but this is one of the reasons why we have what we call pathologic menopause in, in America is because our cortisol stress hormone has been struggling for years. And usually at midlife really takes a hard hit. Well, while you're having stress, this cortisol is working on your arteries and causing these micro injuries that become a hospitable place for toxic lipoproteins to, to set up shop and start blocking your arteries. So stress is not just a mental health issue. It is a physical issue.
[33:45] I'd like to leave everyone with this. Please take action. Most of these processes are silent and invisible. And by the time you start to develop symptoms, you know, you're well on the way to some serious outcomes. So being proactive, this is one of those times when you are so richly rewarded and don't let someone Buffalo you into ignoring something that's important for your health. So if you have a family history of heart disease, you really need to be particularly vigilant because you may have a genetic predisposition to it, but please understand how you live your life, your lifestyle and the environment you're in and how many tox exposed to like you live near a factory or a source of diesel fumes, et cetera, all these things accumulate and make that difference for your health. Please be proactive. Clearly if you're here, if you're listening to Dr. Kirin and the good, wonderful work she's doing the great stuff she does with the hormone club, then you're probably really dialed in and tuned in to continue to take action because the person has to live with the problem.
[35:34] Yes. So well said, I love this quote that you shared with me from Maya Angelou. We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but really admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. I don't think I've heard that quote from her before and it's fabulous. And I think it speaks to this situation because so many women want to transform their health. And they're looking for the one thing, the one super supplement, the one diet that's gonna fix everything. And it really is a labor of love and very intensive, right?
[35:57] Yes. Thank you so much. I know you have the guide on how to improve your hemoglobin A1C and fasting blood sugar numbers and beyond for those people who are wanting to improve their blood sugar and decrease their risk for heart attack, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, including strokes. And we will have the link in the show notes. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about that?
[36:20] Yeah, sure. So in that guide, you know, I, the information there is clear and we talk about the big topics that affect it. Some of it would be things you would expect like around nutrition. All, some might be some things you may not know that some aspects of gut health, other things interact to really make that difference.
[36:59] Great. Well, thank you so much for that wonderful resource and thank you for the work that you do and for sharing this important, very important information with us today.
[37:08] You're welcome. Thank you for letting me be a part of your mission here. Um, I really love that we are so aligned with helping people live their best lives.
[37:15] And thank you all for listening to another episode of the whole hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. I'm very grateful that you've taken time out of your precious day to spend it with us. Hopefully you have learned some information that's going to impact your life in a positive way. And I hope that you share that information with your loved ones.
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Have you ever wondered why you are prone to hormone problems?
In this episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast, we talk with Dr. Aviva Romm about why women are more likely to experience hormone imbalances and what we can do to prevent them.
Dr. Aviva Romm is a leading authority on natural health and holistic medicine, and her insights will help you understand your own body better. She is a midwife, Yale-trained MD and Board Certified Family Physician who specializes in Integrative Gynecology, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics, with a focus on women's endocrinology. She's also a world-renown herbalist, and author of the textbook, Botanical Medicines for Women's Health, as well as 7 other books, including The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution and her new book, Hormone Intelligence, an instant New York Time Bestseller, which explores the impact of the world we live in on women's hormones and health, and brings us a new medicine for women that is holistic and natural, while being grounded in the best science and medicine, have to offer. A practitioner, teacher, activist, and advocate of both environmental health and women's reproductive rights and health, she has been bridging traditional medicine, total health ecology, and good science for over three decades.
In this episode, we discuss the importance of listening to your "hormone intelligence" and how it can guide you to making better choices for your health.
You will learn:
-Why women are more prone to hormone problems
-What you can do to prevent hormone imbalances
-How to listen to your "hormone intelligence"
-The importance of making choices for your health
And much more!
[01:01] Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kirin. Thank you so much for joining me today. We are going to jump into some hormone deliciousness today with Dr. Aviva Ram. Some of you probably already know her because she is one of the queen bees of hormones. She's a medical doctor. She's also a nurse midwife. Her background is in nurse midwifery. We actually found out that we went to the same high school in New York City, Bronx science.
[01:56] So maybe you will learn some tips on how to tune back into what she's telling you and transform your hormones and your health. I think that that quote really exemplifies what Dr. Aviva Ram is all about. She shared this quote with me before we met for her interview. And it's really what she wants for you. It's what I want you. I think that you will get lots of information that can help you to thrive and not just survive in this life. Cause if you're just surviving, you're not doing it right.
[02:55] So Dr. Aviva Ram is a medical doctor and a midwife. She's Yale trained for her medical degree and she's a board certified family physician who specializes in integrative gynecology, obstetrics and pediatrics with a focus on women's endocrinology. She's also a world renowned herbalist and author of the textbook botanical medicines for women's health as well as seven other books, including the adrenal thyroid revolution and her new book, hormone intelligence and instant, New York times bestseller, which explores the impact of the world. We live in on women's hormones and health and bring us a new medicine for women that is holistic and natural while being grounded in the best science and medicine have to offer a practitioner, teacher, activist and advocate of both environmental health and women's reproductive rights and health.
[04:16] I am super excited to talk to you about hormones in, oh my gosh. I freaking love your book and agree with really everything that you say. And I love how honest you are and you're honest. I mean, it's unfortunate, but we've gotta face some hard truths right now about the care that we are giving women or should I say not giving women. And I love that you are honest and that you really stop the medical gas lighting that's going on. And you say women, you are right. You are not being taken care of. You're not being nurtured. So talk about how you became so passionate about women's health.
[04:56] Well, it started out really early for me. I, as we were chatting about before, um, Karen and I, you all, we, we both went to the same geeky science high school in New York. We both went to Bronx high school of science and I knew I wanted to be a physician even as early as ninth grade, but I wanted to get out of New York and I was living in a housing project.
[05:53] And we're talking back to 1981. So this was a long time ago. And when I started to look at the history of women's health, the fact that at that time in 81, the C-section rate was already becoming a concerning issue, how high it was getting. And at that point, it hadn't even hit 19% yet. Now we're at like 34% nationally in 1981, it was still legal for black and brown women to be sterilized at childbirth without their consent in California, for example.
[06:57] So it kind of goes pretty far back deep in my roots of the things that I was just very blessed and ballsy enough to like that combination of like stepping out there to dare, to take some chances. And then those people were in my path to help me understand. So that really kind of just pushed me to a whole new commit, to deeply understanding healthcare. And I became a home birth midwife.
[07:49] And at that time too, you know, we're talking like 81 all the way into the mid two thousands. Believe it or not things like herbal medicine, nutrition, midwifery, these were really fringe. I mean, really, really fringe. The medical model was not giving any of these things, even lip service at that time. It was like you were either in the system or you were out of the system.
[08:52] So I also wanted to be a voice and an advocate for people needing it, but like increasingly my mission is now to also just be a voice and an advocate for changing healthcare because healthcare providers are getting burned out on how healthcare is too. So that's kind of, you know, in a nutshell, the journey and where I've come through and come to. And then, you know, I was part of that. I went to medical school. I mean, I went to Yale, I got my MD and did my internship in internal medicine, women's health. And I did my residency in family medicine, cuz I wanted to add in the OB and the pediatrics, which most internal medicine docs don't do. I couldn't do the OB. I started the interview, no like I to interview in OB programs. And I actually withdraw my applications because I was like, I am gonna be so unhappy as a midwife doing OB in that system. So I really give you credit for doing that. For me, family medicine was a softer way to be able to stay aligned with what I, who I was and where I was going.
[09:56] You know, it's interesting that, you know, you point out that a lot of herbal medicine was on the fringe home. Midwifery was fringe. When I came out of residency in 96, a couple years later, I actually started being the backup for the midwives locally. And they had applied for privileges at the hospital to do liver decades before and been blocked repetitively.
[10:37] And that's for the nurse midwives. Right. So that was for CMS. It wasn't even like the traditional direct entry midwives. And they had the CMS had an obstacle and they're trained in the medical model.
[10:50] Right. And even after the commission and the suit, they say the hospital has to entertain their application. When they reapply, they would always lose their application and bottom line, they weren't gonna let them in. And then I came and the tides had turned politically and it was then in Vogue to have birthing suites yeah. And allow the family in and have midwives.
[11:22] Yeah. That's amazing. You know, in Georgia, there are over 90 countries that have no OBGYN at all, no hospital access at all. So we were really trying to advocate. In fact, I just spoke this past year to the, um, Georgia state legislature. And we did a lunchtime hour for them still trying to get a home birth midwives licensed. It's very difficult for nurse midwives to attend home births because they're under the auspices of the OB GYN. So if the OB GYN don't approve it, they can't do it or they'll lose their licenses and privileges. So they can't do it.
[12:18] It is insanity. And I may be a little liberal on this, but I really think that it doesn't take all the training that we OB GYNs have to deliver a baby. And this medicalization of the process, really, I think the majority of births would be handled by midwives.
[12:35] That's my, yeah. I mean, we've seen that in every, I mean, we're not talking, you know, in the middle of the Outback somewhere and you know, Australia, we're talking about the middle of like the Congo. We're talking about Western nations that have demonstrated that year after year after decade, after decade, Canada, Germany, UK, Sweden, et cetera, et cetera, that home birth is optimal for otherwise healthy women.
[13:31] And I think like, you know, along with the medicalization that you mentioned an overmedicalization, we see this incredible and infantilization as if adult women should have to be told what we're allowed to as opposed to like, may I, or is it okay if I do this procedure or check you? And it's not just in birth, it's pelvic exams, breast exams, how we're talked to in the doctor's office.
[14:24] It is, you are so right. It is so true. And I really think it's time for a complete revamping of women's healthcare, really a revolution. And I think your book is a great place to start because you cover a lot of these kinds of sociopolitical issues in there. So can you tell everyone what hormonal intelligence means?
[14:46] Yeah. So to me it means a couple of things. So one this idea that we have actually an innate biological blueprint that really hasn't changed over eons of time when women menstruate, the same way we get pregnant, the same way we give birth the same way internationally. We go into menopause basically at the same age that may have changed a little bit historically over time, the age that we did, what these processes repeat over and over and over same hormones, the hormones haven't changed, you know, since we first started walking on two feet and actually even before.
[15:39] We can't just say, oh, well, that's because you're a woman or that's because you have estrogens because you have a uterus. We haven't always had all of these problems. And certainly not at the scope and magnitude and amount of women that and people with a womb that experience them now. So hormone intelligence on the one hand is understanding that we have this innate biological blueprint, hormone intelligence is also having the intelligence or wisdom to understand that blueprint.
[17:05] It's so true. In my medical training, I really was taught and got the impression that we were little men and, and that we had this little extra accessory pack, like a little black bag you might wear to a black tie event. That was our female hormone pack that conferred oh, interesting. The ability to reproduce. And that was like a separate department and it really didn't affect who we are foundationally. And you know, in my journey I've learned that nothing could be further from the truth we are.
[17:46] Totally. And I think sometimes too, because as women, you know, we all know the statements. What are you on your period? I mean, we had a president that said to a reporter, is that you're, you know, is that blood coming out of your hoots or whatever right now, you know, it's like the, to admit that our hormones have an impact on our life and our actions and thoughts and behaviors.
[18:32] Yeah. And you know, I love how you talk about just the words that we use to describe our anatomy. Can you talk a little bit about that and kind of moving towards a less violent nomenclature that is more nurturing and supportive of us.
[18:49] Yeah. We tend to have a very male centered and militaristic approach to health in general. I mean, we all hear, you know, in this moment of the pandemic, right? Like your immune system fighting and battling, and we're very keyed into this war mentality and with, with women's bodies, I mean, all the parts are named after men, even pelvic floor exercises were for women were originally named after Dr. Keel. You know, we have our Bartels glands, we have all these pouches of Douglas.
[19:45] So I really like to reclaim body parts whenever we can use an Ana correct name. That's great. But I do think we need to rethink some of those names and maybe rename things. But you know, when we can just call things what they are pelvic floor instead, you know, pelvic floor exercises, instead of Kas, you can say birth canal, if you want to, instead of vagina and not everyone who has one wants to get birth. So how do we rethink it? It's so funny, but because my oldest daughter is here visiting me right now and she's 33 and she was saying how funny it was.
[20:30] And my daughter was like, it's so funny, mom. Whenever I hear it, she's like I cringe cuz it was so embarrassing when I was a kid. But she's like, it's so popular now. And it's not necessarily the perfect word, but it is at least a respectful term for women's really means the VVA. That's another thing too.
[21:25] It's so true. Ava and I used to, when I practiced basic OB GYN, which I don't do anymore, I used to keep a mirror in my exam rooms and I would show everyone when we would have the speculum exam, this is what your cervix is and show them their anatomy. And I was surprised how many women had never looked yes. At their anatomy.
[21:47] And when do they're like, oh, that's amazing. Or that's really cool or wow, that's not what I thought. Yeah.
[21:54] I am for anatomy and biology education, age appropriate all the way through our training. Just so I think we'd have a lot fewer health problems. I love how you explain cuz this is so I harp on and I love how you describe this. Hormones are messengers, symptoms are messages. So I don't think a lot of people understand what is the role of hormones? What are they doing? Can you talk a little bit about that as messengers and then symptoms?
[22:38] Yeah. For sure. Well, as you and I both know, I mean even in basic medical school, basic endocrinology, we learn that hormones are chemical messengers and that's what they literally are. They are produced in one part of the body, in a gland. So that could be your hypothalamus, your pituitary, your thyroid, your adrenals, your ovaries, and then those chemicals are released. And usually like when we're talking about female hormones, we're talking about estrogen or progesterone testosterone, but many others play an important role like cortisol on thyroid, hormone and insulin. And so they're released from wherever their origin place is.
[23:38] And then they rip in one and they cause it to mature and it releases and then that place that's left over produces hormones. So they're just these beautiful signaling molecules. And really, they shouldn't make too much noise. I mean, we shouldn't really be that aware of their presence in any significantly UN uncomfortable way. They should just do their job. But some of the jobs that they do, for example, estrogen does make our breasts get fuller each month.
[24:35] But the kind of crossing over into the line of where a, now it becomes a symptom is when it's causing you discomfort in your life. So your breasts are killing you. Like you can't even put your bra on premenstrually. That may be a symptom of too much estrogen. And for some women that can be a risk factor for fibro cystic, uh, for cystic breast disease, but also for breast cancer, having too much estrogen that causes you to have a lot of really heavy periods of really a lot of pelvic discomfort may be also a risk factor for uterine fibroids because of that too much estrogen we've been taught as women that all of these signs that we get each month, you know, restfulness PMs, heavy periods, late periods, cravings, incredible mood swings are just kind of par for the course of being women.
[25:41] They actually tell us when things aren't going quite according to that hormone, an intelligent blueprint. So if we ignore or suppress those little symptoms and signs, even if they're just causing us, you know, minor discomfort, but definitely discomfort, we're potentially suppressing opportunities, stall other problems later on. So that's why it's so important to listen to these little symptoms and these little messages and take them seriously often when we don't listen to them. When they're small, they start getting louder and louder and louder until they're in full, full blown condition. So that's why I say that symptoms are important messages from our hormones.
[26:24] Yes, absolutely. And you know, I love how you say don't care. Know the messenger.
[26:31] Because the symptom is there to tell you something, you know, I always, I call our body, she and she's telling you.
[26:44] Right. And Tylenol may be great for the moment, right. But if we're doing that day in and day out, we are missing an opportunity. And a lot of the gynecologic conditions that are very common, whether it be PMs or whether it be menstrual cramps or polycystic ovary syndrome, or a lot of breast tension, you know, cyclically, skipped, irregular, all those things are harbingers of later conditions in the sense that many of them are triggered by excessive inflammation or insulin resistance or blood, blood sugar. I balance.
[27:47] Great. Well, and I know everyone should get the book, but can you give them a little kind of overview of wherever they are at whatever stage of life, whatever they're dealing with, maybe heavy irregular, painful periods, P C O S whatever it is, what kind of would be a general overview of the path that they should take to start addressing these problems?
[28:11] Yeah. So I think the first thing is really just to acknowledge that you're having them and then be forgiving of yourself. I know we both love quotes. And one of my favorite quotes is Maya Angelus. Like the font of she's the quote goddess. So she really is my source of often my favorite quotes, but she says, I'm gonna paraphrase. But you know, we do what we can with the information we have when we have it. And when we know better, we do better. So the first thing is just to be really honest with yourself about the symptoms you're having, cuz as women, we are taught to ignore them, suppress them, pretend they're not happening to gloss right over them.
[28:56] So if you don't know your body parts, if you don't know what your uterus is, your bladder is your intestines. The difference between your vagina and your VVA, where your ovaries are. Look at a good image, go to my book, go online and start to identify, you know, what are those symptoms? What are they associated with? And if you can find a wonderful provider, that's always a great step to have someone you can really partner with in exploring what's going on.
[29:48] And then, so with my book, for example, and in my medical practice, I help women identify not just what the medical symptoms are and the medical condition is. But what are the things that we know that may be contributing to those that we can do something about? So for example, we know that women who have really painful periods often have more inflammation and we know that movement, some dietary changes like reducing red meat, reducing dairy, increasing fruits and vegetables, not even rocket rocket science can really make, really make a difference.
[30:55] So for example, one study that I thought was really interesting, looked at a group of teenage girls who were using body products that were very high in S which is a form of plasticizer. It makes plastics soft and they were also drinking out of plastic, water bottles and plastic cups. So the researchers measured their blood level of thas had them go. I think it was one week only of no body products that had added those in it. So like clean body products or no body products and just no more drinking out of plastic. And within that week period of time, their th levels plummeted. Well, we also know those fallates and many environmental chemicals act as what are called endocrine disruptors.
[32:03] But I love and often repeat to my patients. And in, when I teach is your body has the capacity to heal beyond anything you've ever been led to believe. And I don't mean that just, you know, if you just change your thoughts, your fibroids are gonna go away or you're not gonna get breast cancer. Health is much more complicated than that. And disease is much more complicated than that. But in conventional medicine, we're taught that our medical conditions are basically genetically programmed and they're fixed and they're inevitable.
[32:59] But then of course, you know, sometimes it does need a little bit more. So that's where partnering with a good integrative practitioner, your conventional practitioner who knows integrative therapies may help you. And of course that's where my book and articles that I have. I'm sure you have articles too. Can really come in handy to learn from people that you trust. What supplements, what specific foods, what specific, you know, we know that there are a few specific yoga postures that really have been found in research to help with menstrual cramps as an example. And this is so with my book, but also, you know, when we think about women's reproductive health, my book covers the first time you have a period all the way till through Perry menopause.
[33:57] It is. Thank you for outlining. All of that. I know when I was reading the book and you told you have a section called women, women unseen and unheard, and you quoted if just one doctor had listened to me, I wouldn't have lost years of my life to this end quote. And I talk to women every day. I know you do too, who they're just so there's so much frustration. They're not being heard. They read your book, they hear us talking online and they know that a higher standard of care is available for them, but they're really having trouble accessing it.
[35:05] Yes. And you have to, I mean, it's so hard because we're so taught to be polite and not question authority, but it's your body, you know, your body best. If you're really, if you're experiencing something, don't let someone else Gaslight you and tell you you're not, or dismiss it as just stress. I mean, stress may play a part in what's going on, but if you're experiencing anxiety, depression, period problems, fertility challenges, heavy periods, menopausal symptoms. Don't just let somebody tell you, that's just normal.
[36:02] Like being more bold or being more sexualized or like a, you know, in an empowered way. And so I always, I say to women, I even have an article about this on my website, learn to channel your Sasha fierce, like whatever that is for you, it can be any name. You, it can be a wonder woman. It can be Sasha fierce, whoever you, it is for you, but channel her when you go into a physician's office and hold your power. And there's so many things you can do to make notes about what your questions are.
[36:46] I mean, you are sometimes vulnerable when you go into a system and your doctor has seven or 10 minutes to see you amongst the 50 patients. He or she may be seeing that day and is trained in a system to dismiss women and absolutely not trained at all to recognize that there's more to healing and health and wellness than just, you know, here's a pill. Here's that pill here is a surgery or whatever, whatever.
[37:25] Yeah. I love that. Channel. Your inner Sasha fierce, put your big girl panties on and yep. And just do it. One of the things that I really work with, all the women I work with on with their health is their energy body, I and their story and their hi her story. And I love how Carolyn me says that your biography becomes your biology. And so it's really an integral part of the work I do with women. I love this quote you shared from Clarissa Pinola, Estees the doors to the world of the wild self.
[38:30] Couldn't agree more about our stories and how we think of our stories and how we tell our stories. And in fact, in hormone intelligence, in my medical practice, the book and, and what I do with my patients, one on one, one of the things that I do share is a practice on writing your story, reading your story, and rewriting your story so that you are the heroine of your, so many of us have stories that include mistreatment or trauma or being in the dark about something that was going on in our bodies.
[39:25] And nobody said, uh, you could have endometriosis, no matter what, that's not normal. You shouldn't suffer like that. So astonishing. So really writing your story, whether that is your life story and how you are, where you are right now, or just your gynecologic and reproductive health story. And the other thing, and the reason I ask women to read that and rewrite our story is that very few of us are ever taught that we can be the author of our story.
[40:14] You know, if you had a gynecologic variant that was victimizing, for example, 7% of women now report birth trauma. There's a percentage of women in the United States now having such significant birth trauma, that it is diagnosed as PTs D women who struggle horribly with endometriosis or P C O S who become so identified with the trauma are so identified with the diagnosis that they feel victimized by their own bodies or by the health system.
[41:29] And rather than seeing them as a deficit, how can we see them as our superpower? And it's a little bit like that Japanese artist, I think it's called Kenui where you take the wounds of a broken piece of pottery and you paint them with gold so that they're like they're actually sealed back together with gold so that the broken vessel becomes even more of you beautiful and more of an art piece than maybe even the original one as it was sort of created to be.
[42:28] And so for me, I'm very, very alert to my environment. I'm also incredibly about what's going on in my environment. I had to learn to read faces and expressions easily as a child for my own physical and emotional safety. But I'm also deeply aware of the facial expressions and sense of safety of my patients and others, and able to just read subtle nuance. So how can you reframe so that those parts of you are now a gift that you can bring forward to the world and also recognize when you're activated. So those parts are driving you in a not healthful way.
[43:33] I love that. Thank you so much for sharing it. You're welcome. And I could just go on talking, talking, talking to you, but I do wanna be respectful of our listeners' time and attention. Thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Aviva Romm, do you have any, where can people find you? Where can they find out more? I know they can get the book, hormone intelligence, wherever books are sold, but tell the 'em all the places that they can find
[43:57] You. Okay. So I love hanging out on my Instagram. I am one of those weird people. I don't love social media in general and all the bad things about it, but I do love connecting with my community. So if you go to Dr. Aviva RO on Instagram, you will find me. And that's really me and the comments and DMS. So, you know, it's just quick, like little tips and, and things I'm thinking about and a little glimpse into my life. That's a great place. And then if you want tons of articles, podcasts, videos, eBooks information, my website is the place to go. It's just Aviva rom.com and it's very easy to navigate.
[44:38] Awesome. Thank you so much for those great resources. Thank you for the work you do. Thanks for helping with the revolution when it comes to women's health. I have to ask you this one last question. Yeah. What is it gonna take for us to really overhaul the way women's health is handled, uh, in the mainstream,
[44:56] You know, it's already happening, you know, when you talked about mid, you talked about midwives, right. And midwives create a presence. I mean, it was really women in a sea change kind of way speaking up for and demanding what they want. And sadly, the medical system is also a, it is an industry and it's driven by consumer demand. So the more we all actually channel our Sasha fierce, the more we actually do say to our providers.
[45:40] We, we, we actually can change it with where we are, where we put our money in healthcare. You know, the more we're going to get other forms, the nutritionist that we're seeing, the health coaches that we're seeing that creates that sea change also.
[45:53] Right. Great. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for joining us today, Dr. Aviva Romm,
[45:57] You are so welcome. Thank you for having me.
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In today's episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're joined by Dr. Keesha Ewers to discuss how energy healing can impact your hormones. We'll be discussing how past childhood trauma can have a lasting impact on your health as an adult, as well as the benefits of energy healing modalities such as yoga and meditation to hormone balance.
Dr. Keesha Ewers is board certified in functional medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, a Doctor of Sexology, trauma-informed psychotherapist, family practice ARNP with a specialty in integrative medicine, a conscious dying doula, and the founder and medical director of the Academy for Integrative Medicine Health Coach Certification Program.
Keesha has been in the medical field for over 30 years. After conducting the HURT Study in 2013 (Healing Un-Resolved Trauma), she developed the HURT Model for understanding how past childhood trauma impacts adult health. This led to the creation of the Healing Trauma Through the Chakra System online program and the You Unbroken online program for patients to heal their trauma and the Mystic Medicine deep immersion healing retreats she leads at her home on San Juan Island, WA.
In this episode you'll learn:
-How trauma can impact your hormones
-The benefits of energy healing for hormone-related issues
-How yoga and meditation can help to heal trauma
-What you can do to start healing your own trauma
We hope you enjoy this episode! Be sure to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast. And don't forget to leave us a rating and review if you enjoyed it!
[00:54] We are gonna talk about something today that you might think doesn't have anything to do with hormones, but it does. And we're going to draw the line between the two for you and help you understand why vibration has so much to do with your hormones and vice versa.
[01:50] Dr. Keisha Ewers is a board certified in functional medicine and IIC medicine. She's a doctor of sexology trauma informed psychotherapist family practice, a N R P with a specialty in integrative medicine. Also a conscious dying doula and the founder and medical director of the academy for integrative medicine, health coach certification program. Keisha has been in the medical field for over 30 years. And after conducting the hurt study in 2013, Hurtt stands for healing, unresolved trauma.
[03:05] She's also hosting the upcoming summit on vibrational medicine, which we'll have links to in the show notes, healing with vibration summit, and she's got special interest in expertise as well. In fact, I was thinking of all the things I know you've done since that bio was written.
[03:36] We are made up of energy sound travels, you know, in waveforms, light travels in wave forms. The way that our heartbeat is in the form, our E EEG from our brain waves forms, the ocean comes in and waves and goes out and tides, right?
{04:33] And so everything's vibrations, we're we as our human organism in the context of the earthly environments that we're in, it's all vibrations. And so how those vibrations impact each other is going to really have a lot to do with our health, our mood, our longevity, like all of it is affected with how we're vibrating.
[05:45] The perception of fear will start to set off a whole cascade of hormone messenger chemicals in your body that alert the body, how to vibrate, right? So those adrenals need to get to work. Cortisol goes through, this is a vibratory quality. So vibrational medicine is really becoming aware of how you're vibrating. Like every thought, every feeling has its own vibration.
[07:09] Yes. Thank you for that explanation. And yeah, I think as you were talking, I was thinking, I think everybody's familiar with, well, radio waves, the, if that's a wave form, right. But I don't think they think of us as human.
[08:02] And then right when I turned 30, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and it was this fascinating sort of overnight change. That's how my patients describe it too. Like all of a sudden I'm sick, which actually isn't accurate. The body's been trying to get your attention for a long, long time, but how we are with ourselves, you know, it's, it's like we definitely have to kind of all into the pothole before we wake up.
[08:57] And, and the doctor that was seeing me asked, you know, do you have a family history of autoimmune disease? And I remember thinking about that and saying, yeah, I think, I think my grandfather had it and had rheumatoid arthritis and was in a wheelchair at the end of his life with it. He died before I ever knew him, his fifties, which is where I am right now is in my fifties. And she said, well, that's what you have.
[09:43] And I just remember saying, well, hang on, hang on. I'm very, very disciplined. I make my own food. I'm very healthy, you know, is there anything else? And she just said, no, it's genetic. You know, just kinda like closing the book, putting it on the shelf. That's the end of the discussion.
[10:31] And what I just read was so interesting and revolutionary to me, you know, it was like, we're not all the same. We have different ways. We're supposed to feed in water and take care of ourselves. There's no one dietary protocol that's right for everybody. And that, by the way, autoimmune disease is undigested anger.
[11:27] I am attacking myself. And so I thought, when was the first time I wanted to die? I don't have any clear cognition about wanting to die right now. You know, I don't want to die. So I started going backwards asking that question and I found this little 10 - year old girl version of myself who was being sexually abused by the vice principal of the elementary school that I was attending.
[12:16] I have a stomach ache, you know, and, but I didn't know the word sex, you know, I didn't know the word molest or abuse. Like I didn't know any of the language that was attached to this. And really, I thought it must be because there was something inherently wrong with me. And so when I started looking at that version of myself from this 30 - year old perspective, I went, oh this has to be connected. Like it has to be.
[13:35] Yeah. Thank you for sharing all of that. And um, you know, I know I share part of your story and a lot of women listening do and a lot of women, you know, it's not okay for us to be angry. We're told.
[14:04] At some point that has to be digested. Right. And then digested, and we're taught that anger is bad. It's a negative emotion as a vibrational quality in the whole law of attraction world too. Right. And that's another one that I go, oh no, like you have to let your emotions digest properly and not judge them. And then they can move through.
[14:38] And so the entire idea of emotions being their vibrational energies, they are right. And so they have to be digested. So what modalities might you have used, or you've used with clients or might be talked about in the vibrational health summit?
[15:17] So in the hurt model, healing, unresolved trauma model that emerged from my work, I show, you know, first you have this event and, and we have capital T trauma have lower case T trauma and everybody's had trauma. So not everybody's had capital T trauma. The kind that we're talking about when we're talking about sexual abuse, but you can have trauma that is like tripping in front of the entire class in the cafeteria and, and everyone laughs at you or missing the spelling word and the, or not being able to get to the top of the rope and the presidential challenge in front of everyone. Like all of these.
[16:32] So, you know, it's this really interesting experience to be a child and to have all these little, little tiny experiences throughout the, the jungle of childhood where you didn't have maybe a well attuned, securely attached caregiver who was attuned to you and help you, you navigate. So our brains are not fully developed till we're 26 years old and we don't have our prefrontal cortex online yet.
[17:29] So it's going to be like, everyone's so different and how you create the belief and the behavior pattern that goes with whatever your capital T your lower case T traumas are. Then that's how we lock it. It really does. Like, so sometimes energy workers will do like chakra work with somebody, and they'll feel really good, but then they still have the button that gets pushed. Right.
[18:20] Then they're back to the races again, that just the next time. And so with the hurt model, what I show is, you know, how that button gets created, that get pushed all the way through your adult life, where at first you have the event, then you have a feeling, okay. So if we use my sexual abuse, it's an easy one to track.
[19:10] So you make up a meaning to whatever it is that is happening. Right. And for me, the meaning was people that say, they're in charge and want to protect children, probably can't be trusted. You know, like it's a lie. And so I have to, my belief was I am going to have to be perfect to survive this.
[20:03] I actually have never met anyone with an autoimmune disease that does not have perfectionism in there. And so that's a very untenable way to live your life, to think you always have to be perfect. I was on that road until I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, because it was governing everything. I drove myself so hard. So, and it came from sitting in that little desk.
[20:58] And we have to learn how to do that internally. So I start there because if you feel like your safety or survival is constantly on the line, subconsciously nothing else you do is ever going to work. Like you can fix your microbiome until the cows come home and keep going back to those adrenals, and they'll keep turning over, right? Your hormones will never get balanced because you keep having this survival issue.
[22:19] And what, what happens is if you think someone's going to come, if you just care enough, then someone will pay attention to you. That's how we get connected to narcissists. That's how we get into codependent relationships like that does not work. You have to become the parent to you that you always needed. And so I will teach you how to do that. Like how to repair that attachment, how to attach to yourself, how to become grounded, safe, and secure inside your own system. So then you're resonating a vibration that magnetizes others like that to you, right then you're at a higher level of relating. It's not need based.
[23:04] Yeah. So your vibe shifts your vibration and then the law of attraction can bring you what you want. Not what you don't want for a lot of us who say it doesn't work. It's because we have undigested anger.
[23:23] There's a child part in there that's resentful and frustrated and disempowered and angry and your adult self, maybe have the spiritual, the bypass part, right. That can radiate out love and compassion and want to attract with the adult part once. But you have to actually heal that child part because she's in the background screaming.
[23:52] Yeah. It's a really interesting dynamic for people that have been doing a lot of work and are waking up and exploring consciousness and maybe are, you know, into yoga, action, prayer. And they, they forgive, and they go into the law of attraction from their adult brain. But they've bypassed it. It's like building a school on a trash heap. Right?
[24:55] You know what you're talking about so much reminds me of a lot of the 12-step work, which is kind of the first level of addiction recovery, whether it's Overeaters anonymous, alcoholics and anonymous, whatever your thing is anonymous. And basically it is fake till you make it behavior change.
[25:38] One of the things I love about summits is connecting to people and, and the interviews, right. It's just so amazing. So I loved rolling MCRA interview. He's the researcher that for heart math, and you know, really talking about this entrainment that we have with each other and ourselves, you know, vibrationally that we're all in like what Rupert Shere calls the morphogenetic field, and we're influencing it.
[26:20] So you guys are going to have to go look at the summit, and you can see that we will have the links in the show notes. And I also wanted to ask you because since the last time you were on the podcast, didn't you haven't you completed or in the process of doing your ministerial training?
[26:49] Yeah. I've been doing a master's in divinity. Yeah.
[26:52] Yeah. How has that changed or informed the work that you do?
[26:57] Went into it because I was starting to notice an up and what a couple of Princeton researchers have called deaths of despair in our culture and deaths of despair are overdoses suicides from a variety of different ways and means, and non-alcoholic catty liver disease. And you know, we do have a lot of that and this was pre-pandemic when I started and this was on. Right. And what I started noticing is as this uptick is going up, we also have an uptick in narcissistic personality disorder diagnoses.
[28:04] Right. And at that time again, pre-pandemic, I was a little worried about the lack of community. Maybe people were experiencing it when they didn't have a synagogue or a mosque or a church or a temple, you know? And I thought, where is that getting replaced? Is that why there's so much of this increase in narcissism, an increase. And so I was looking at, at the research of the narcissistic epidemic and what was being shown to be at the root of that.
[28:53] So I went in wanting to really explore that, like what's the role of divinity in this? How do we help people reattach again, it's attachment trauma in my mind to source to their own divine source, you know? And instead of needing it from out here, can they find it here? Can they reconnect to that? That has been my interest in what I was up to. And so I think it informs my work.
[29:48] Yeah. So I have to ask you on this topic or your thoughts on the use of psychedelic and other medicines that may not be mainstream for people to heal these really core, like you said, existential attachment wounds.
[30:04] Right? Yeah. So we tend to like to start and stop the conversation with parents and parent-child bonding. And you know, like it's much bigger than that, right. As I just mentioned, right. And now post pandemic, there's also the bond of the community broken in the way. Right? And so I am an M DMA certified AED psychotherapist. I've trained for 10 years in the use of wa Huma with a teacher in Peru, initiated wa Humira or medicine woman.
[31:11] And so I looked at so many studies from different religions, and it turns out that plant, the use of plant medicine is head and shoulders above anything in efficacy for reducing gut anxiety and to reattaching us to source like we get our left brain out of the way that says that everything has to be proven. We have to see it, feel it, touch it, smell it, taste it, or it doesn't exist and allow the right brain to come forward with the opposite of that.
[32:08] Now take a little nap. You'll be required later when it's time to balance the checkbook. So, you know, uh, you're not going to be killed. You're not going to go anywhere for good, but just, just come to sleep for a little while, you know, and it, and it allows you to get in touch with a lot of its dead. After you go through childhood with your imagination, like the right brain, the ability to be able to get into energy flow, to feel vibratory changes too, you know, so plant medicine assists in that.
[33:01] But if you are not integrating, which takes a skilled therapist to work with you to do this, you know, to give you how to integrate that, then all it is a cool experience. That then means nothing. And I, it doesn't heal you, it doesn't help change anything. So you have to go through like that hurt model and be able to apply it, you know, to helping with attachment trauma, whether it's you feel like you've been betrayed by life or God or the culture or the government or your parents or your spouse, you know, or yourself, and, you know, really heal that and integrate what comes through
[34:24] Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. I would, I agree with that. The integration is everything. Yeah. And it's often missing. Yeah. With the way we've, McDonaldized a lot of these medicines.
[34:38] I mean, I'm seeing on Facebook now that you can actually order a ketamine box and just do home therapy. Right. Where, so you're taking the substance by yourself.
[35:15] How does somebody find someone who's expert at being an integration coach? Cause that's not a skill set that most standard therapists, psychotherapists or family therapists have, how do they find someone?
[35:30] I was certified through maps, a similar disciplinary approach to psychedelic research and studies, and they emphasized most of the training was integration. So it's not like, um, so if you get certified with maps, that's a good one because it's all about the integration. So I would say that's probably a good place. You know, these things aren't legalized yet. Right?
[35:57] So people can't advertise. I mean, I've come out, and I've been talking on summits and saying, yeah, like I run groups, right. So people can contact me, but it's not something where the California C I S is, you know, has a psychedelics research program. Like I said, John's Hopkins has tons of money now that they have allocated toward this research. So we're still in that research stage of bringing out enough science to sink a ship many times over for the FDA to finally go, oh, you know, so MDMA is in its third round of FDA trials.
[36:58] Yeah. So eventually you know I have been legalized in the state of Oregon, but right now they're in this, the position of creating oversight, you know, like pulling all of like, what's the infrastructure going to look like?
[37:30] Great. Well, thank you so much for sharing that and for your transparency, I think that it's, it speaks a lot to, people need to hear this, that practitioners who are credentialed, use these things help with these things and that they are available.
[37:55] Yeah. So let's dive back to the summit, and then we're going to wrap up the podcast, but I just will have the link in the show notes where you can find out more, you can see all the experts, what they're talking about, any last words about the summit that you wanna share,
[38:11] That this is an innovative and unique way of opening up a perspective. A lot of people haven't maybe spent too much time in. And so I would just really encourage you to listen to, it goes from like the vibration is how to organize your home environment. I did a talk on boss, which is the sister science of yoga and IIC medicine, which is where I came from. And you know, like what are some very easy things you can do inside your office and home to have, do the energy move in a way that helps you be healthy and abundant and happy, right?
[39:11] Thank you so much. And as you're talking, I'm realizing, I promised at the beginning name, we were gonna talk about vibration and hormones, which we didn't get to, but everybody listening, Dr. Keisha is doing a masterclass with participants in one of my programs when we get done. So we will talk about that.
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Is it Too Late for Natural Hormone Therapy?
This is a question that I get all the time from midlife women. And it's a great question because, as we age, our bodies go through so many changes.
One of the most common changes is a decline in hormone production. This can lead to all sorts of problems, like hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, mood swings, and more.
Fortunately, there's a way to combat these changes: natural hormone therapy.
Natural hormone therapy can help to restore your body's hormone levels back to where they were when you were younger. This can help to alleviate all sorts of symptoms and make you feel like yourself again.
However, some women worry that it's too late for them to start natural hormone therapy. They think that their bodies have already changed too much and that it's too late to make a difference.
In this episode, we discuss the topic of natural hormone therapy and whether it is too late for midlife women to benefit from this type of treatment. We also cover the following topics:
-Taking estrogen if you have osteoporosis
-The benefits of natural hormone therapy for midlife women
-The risks associated with hormone replacement therapy
-How to know if natural hormone therapy is right for you
And much more!
If you are a woman in midlife who is struggling with hormone imbalances, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in now and learn everything you need to know about natural hormone therapy and how it can help you feel your best.
[00:59] Thanks so much for joining me today for our special monthly Q and A episode. Thank you to those of you who submitted questions on my website, KyrinDunstonmd.com. You can go to the podcast page, and you'll see the section with a microphone, and you can click it, and you can talk to me.
[01:52] Mary left this message. And I think that it probably speaks to what a lot of you are dealing with right now. She is apparently a former patient from when I practiced basic corporate OB GYN. And you can hear in her message about what I was dealing with and she sees the transformation and what I'm doing now.
[02:49] Hello, Dr. Dunston. My name is Mary Brown. I was a former patient of yours in Savannah. And actually I saw your PA and I have to say every time I saw you in your office, you looked so stressed out and so burned out and so exhausted. And I'm glad that you found a new vocation.
[03:33] And if you're a woman at midlife, and you sound like how I used to be just a hot mess and really not thriving, then listen up because I help women now undergo the exact same transformation that I underwent. Not necessarily with your career, but with your health. And if your career is stuck, then maybe it has to do with your health. Because you have to get it unstuck first.
[04:31] . But Catrina said she was on a low dose of estrogen until age 56. And she's had none for two years. She's 58 and she is not on any med, other medications she says, and she says, can I re-start?
[05:29] She said my doctor gave me prescriptions for Gabapentin and Vagifem at 53. Is that right? But no estrogen. And she says that she has been diagnosed with osteoporosis already at 53. And all she was given was GA Pentin and Vagifem is that right? And she says, I think I'm, I should have estrogen. And I don't. So that's another question, a little different from Catrina's question, but there's a little overlap there.
[06:36] And she wants to know if that's a wise thing to do. And she's also been in menopause for a while. So that's the similarity with all these questions. And maybe you have this question too. You've been in menopause for a while. Maybe you have been diagnosed with osteopenia, which is bone thinning to a certain degree. And then once it passes this certain degree, it becomes osteoporosis or maybe you're having other adverse health consequences from hormonal poverty and menopause.
[07:35] So you have hormone sex, hormone receptors all over your body. They help all systems in your body stay healthy. They're not just about your sex drive and your reproduction. They're about your overall functioning. They're anti-inflammatory so most women function better when they're not in hormonal poverty and they feel better and function better.
[08:38] You roll out the red carpet for her, because she's a loyal friend, right? She comes every week. She brings treats. She brings pictures. She brings great conversation and connection, and you really look forward to her visits, and you roll out the red carpet. Every time she comes, she's welcome.
[09:28] Let's have a quick cup of coffee, but you don't really roll out the red carpet like you used to. Well, it's kind of the same with the hormone receptors on your cells. When these hormones are not around, it takes a lot of energy for you to roll out the red carpet for your friend, right?
[10:23] It costs me a lot of time, energy, and money to do it and I'm not gonna do it. So it starts taking off the receptors and the receptors start going away. And that's where this five year window comes from at the end of five years. It's thought that you really don't have the number of receptors in order to receive the information from these hormones.
[11:20] And then maybe you don't go all out like you used to, but you get some things ready, refreshments, and you get your house prepped, and you clear your schedule. Well, your body is the same. It will start putting an effort back into rolling out the red carpet when these hormones come knocking. So your body has the flexibility, the ability to adapt. And when the hormones are available, it can make receptors.
[12:25] So I kind of like Karen, that you and your doctor decided you didn't want the bisphosphate. You didn't say why in your message and that would've been a treatment for osteoporosis, but I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that there's some data on bisphosphonate that shows that yes, it increases bone density, but the quality of bone is not that good.
[13:19] So I like this approach. I will say most corporate doctors are not really willing to put any woman on hormone therapy. Who's had a D V T because it does increase the viscosity and coagulability meaning clothing ability of your blood. And so if you've had a clothing event, a lot of corporate doctors will say, you can't try hormone bones
[14:22] How does your brain function improve? How does your sleep improve? How does your weight improve? How do all the things that hormones benefit improve. So thank you so much for that question, Karen, and then this relates to Ruth's question two.
[15:25] And they consider the only two symptoms, urogenital, atrophy, vaginal dryness, and hot flashes. And they do put osteoporosis in there, but you won't find most corporate doctors going there first because they're afraid. Why are they afraid? That's a whole other discussion, but most of them don't understand the data. And the difference between synthetic hormones and biologically identical hormones and tic hormones do have a lot of risk and do increase your risk for breast cancer. Things like medroxyprogesterone, acetate and Equiline, which is horse estrogen. And, that medroxyprogesterone acetate is progestin.
[16:29] If estrogen causes breast cancer, everybody with estrogen would get breast cancer, and they don't have estrogen. Can they get breast cancer? Yes, but it's about one, 100, the rate of women. So that right there to tell you, it's not estrogen itself that causes breast cancer.
[17:24] So nothing wrong with VA fem at 53. But if you have a diagnosis of osteoporosis, the osteoporosis absolutely needs to be treated hands down. Most people are not aware. Osteoporosis takes decades to develop. We start losing bone mass at the age of 30. And if we do nothing to counteract this, it just progresses annually.
[18:37] And unfortunately, a third of women who have a hip fracture will die from that hip fracture. And a third will become disabled where they can no longer live independently and that can make 80 look like something you wouldn't ever want, right? Living in assisted living out of your own home with people, you don't know how to eat food, you wouldn't choose to eat right and lose your independence. So osteoporosis is not a joke.
[19:51] My experience from being a board certified OB GYN for almost well since 1998, is that the corporate doctrine is their concern with what, what is the diagnosis? What drug do I need to give? What surgery do I need to do? And so they're not as concerned with what's causing your osteoporosis, and they don't really, and aren't trained in the art and science of deciphering, why you're losing bone mass.
[20:59] You can still access it at stopthemenopausemadness.com. I highly recommend that you watch both part one and part two, and that you start doing the things that she's talking about to help reverse your bone loss. In addition to addressing it with bio identical hormones and possibly other medications
[22:16] Your cardiovascular endurance is probably pretty poor, right? Because the activity that keeps these things vital and upgraded hasn't been happening. And so they might say, well, yeah, you can do it, but it's going to take you a while to see results, and you have to be consistent, and you got to commit to a program of action, but you should start noticing something a little something maybe in a few months and then a few months later something else.
[23:21] The pros outweigh the cons of it. So how long should you commit? I mean, I definitely would say six months, if not 12 months, because it takes time for your body to realize what's happening and up regulate the receptors.
[24:24] And I invite everybody else to listen. What questions do you have about your hormones and your health as a midlife woman? Tony Robbins said it, the quality of the questions you ask determines the quality of your life. It's true in every area. It's true for your finances. It's true for your career, your creativity, your relationships, and no more true than with your hormones and your health.
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In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Lara Briden - a world-renowned hormone expert. She's here to share her expertise on how to repair your hormones and your period.
Dr. Lara Briden is a naturopathic doctor and author of the bestselling books Period Repair Manual and Hormone Repair Manual. She has more than 20 years of experience in women's health and currently has consulting rooms in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she treats women with PCOS, PMS, endometriosis, perimenopause, and many other hormones and period-related health problems.
Whether you're struggling with PMS, menopause, or any other hormonal issue, this episode is a must-listen! Dr. Briden shares her top tips for balancing your hormones naturally, as well as what to do if you're dealing with a more serious hormone issue.
If you're ready to get your hormones back on track, tune in now! You won't regret it.
You'll learn:
-
How to repair your hormones and your period naturally
-
What to do if you're struggling with a hormone issue
-
The top tips for balancing your hormones naturally
-
How to get your hormones back on track
-
Types of treatments might be offered to women in traditional and modern medicine and naturopathic medicine
So what are you waiting for? Press play and join us on this exciting episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast!
[01:14] She has a very kind of global evolutionary view of hormonal function, which really matches mine. So I love talking to her. She's a big thinker and she likes to help women to understand what their hormones mean on a bigger picture than just every day, regulating their period and, uh, producing reproduction.
[02:15] We met recently when we did the event with Dr. Cabeca and I have looked at your beautiful book, hormone repair manual, which I love, and you have some really unique concepts that I know everybody's gonna really appreciate hearing about.
[03:12] I came to just discover that women's bodies and women's hormones respond so well to nutritional interventions, even more so than I had been taught to expect when I went through naturopathic college. So out of that, well, some of my first work was in Canada.
[04:38] And you call Perimenopause the second puberty.
[04:58] If you're 41, 42, 43, you are in the territory of perimenopausal second puberty, and it's the, our hormones winding down, although as we'll talk about they don't do so in a, you know, quiet quietly kind of way.
[05:56] Very off the early phases of per menopause is actually high levels of estrogen spiking up to three times higher than we had in our twenties and thirties. And that's that kind of high estrogen exposure combined with low progesterone.
[07:09] When you say primarily neurological, what kinds of things would women be experiencing?
[07:19] Other neurological symptoms include sleep disturbance. That's a big one in our forties for some women and migraines.
[08:38] And that kind of lack of stress tolerance and stress resilience I find is so subtle and so pervasive. And that we, women, tend to blame ourselves. It's almost like the price that men go through where they kind of lose their edge, but we go through it usually a decade or even more, but ahead of time.
[09:16] So there's a lot going on, and it's understandable that you might think I've just, I'm doing too much and that's, that's a factor, but there is also this hormonal factor and this brain rewiring factor.
[10:04] Can you talk a little bit about what types of treatments might be offered to women in a traditional medical practice for this time of life or these symptoms we've just talked about and why that might be a good idea or a bad idea?
[10:32] So, you know, the conventional approach is just to shut that down. I would argue, and I know you and I are on the same page about a lot of things like this is not the time to be shutting down the ovaries.
[11:17] You're including bone health and brain because our female hormones are quite beneficial for lots of different systems. And so, yeah, I would say there's a lot more to do acknowledging that sometimes symptoms can, can seem quite strong or be, be quite strong.
[12:24] And so that could be a nice treatment, especially in the earlier phases of perimenopause when there's still quite a lot of estrogen, but very little progesterone that in fact, that the fact that we lose progesterone before we lose estrogen, is where a lot of the symptoms early symptoms come from.
[12:55] So can you talk about how vital these menstrual cycles are for us to create this reserve? Because once we stop cycling, yeah. We don't have it anymore. So what are we building up?
[13:34] Estrogen is also this, we're talking about estradiol now, which is our main estrogen that the ovaries make. It's also very good for the cardiovascular system. It's excellent for the brain.
[14:39] Estradiol is anabolic and helps to build muscle. So these are all, you know, strong benefits and there's evidence, several lines of evidence that con the contraceptive, you know, the estrogen and the contraceptive drugs in the pill does not have the same benefits. And then there's the progesterone that we've just talked about.
[15:32] And then, and actually losing progesterone, as I mentioned, is one of the reasons the neurological symptom's startup in our early forties, but the other couple benefits of real progesterone for general health is that it modulates immune functions so can help to reduce the risk of autoimmune disease.
[16:34] 35 to 40 years of menstrual cycles is important, not just for making a baby, but also to help to reduce the risk of dementia, cardio, heart disease, diabetes, and breast cancer and osteoporosis sorry, and breast cancer.
[17:45] And the concept that a man only needs, uh, testosterone for reproduction, nobody would buy that. No, but I really feel like as women, we are reduced in our reproductive capacity when it comes to our hormones and, you know, really that's how I was taught in medical school and residency. It's like, we're just little men.
[19:12] And actually we know from some of the research that, that deposit, the pregnancy hormone deposit into the bank account of long term health is also very good. I think you get a big dose of estrogen and progesterone with pregnancy.
[19:52] I'm envisioning, you know, it's like getting an inheritance from your ancestors only it's your kids. So don't see your kids never, ever, never give you anything. Yeah. They gave you the opportunity to build hormonal reserves.
[10:09] I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about that you have in the book, the meaning of menopause through an evolutionary lens, which probably everybody, most people listening haven't heard.
[20:22] So, you know, I've been looking at health and biology through the lens of evolution for a long time and researching the book and reading about this aspect of menopause was quite meaningful for me, both kind of intellectually, but also personally, because I'm now I'm about to, I think I have graduated to menopause.
[21:12] And part of that from me is the meaning through an evolutionary lens, which just means the most, a lot of there's several lines of evidence to suggest that menopause is not new menopause is not an accident of living too long that our ancestors should they be lucky enough to survive childhood and young adults, hood and childbirth and all the hazards that our ancestors faced, should they be lucky enough to survive all those things?
[22:07] And I just love this, that a longer human lifespan may have evolved or been selected for because of how advantageous or beneficial post reproductive women were to their groups, to their family groups.
[23:05] We tend to think of our shift in metabolism with menopause as a, you know, a bad thing that creates weight gain. But I do also like to reframe it for our ancestors, that would've been a good thing that we could get away with fewer calories potentially.
[23:51] And yes, we also have, we have accumulated wisdom, but we also have this emotional equanimity, and we have gifts that we need to give.
[24:28] it obviously works from a survival standpoint to, in certain, you know, species to have older females around and just, this is where I sort of mean by the meaning of menopause, you know, it's um, yeah, it's important. It's been important for humans
[25:13] Perimenopause can be so hellacious that by the time it's over, you're like, please just stop. That was me just stop. But I went through that phase kind of before I knew what I knew.
[25:50] So it's important that women don't fear unnecessarily at the same time. It's not your, you know, if you do encounter symptoms, it doesn't mean you've done something wrong necessarily. Like there's a lot of variability, both genetically and for different reasons of who experiences were symptoms versus not so bad.
[26:36] You know, once you get true into your potentially, you know, mid fifties and beyond, there's still a few things to keep track of with your health, but overall things should be a lot more stable.
{27:26] I think this is a critical window for health. It's also a window of opportunity to do something about that and feel better.
[28:05] What are some of your favorite actions to help your patients at that time so that they really can protect their brain?
[28:13] We'll just let's list it in quick, like just obvious things like moving your body, cuz actually movement and building muscle is really good for the brain, which seems a little counterintuitive, but the research is very solid on that. I talk about magnesium, which is a simple supplement, but the brain loves it.
[29:03] Estrogen supports the brain in lots of different ways. I think women can get a, can survive that drop in estrogen if they don't have insulin resistance or if their brain is healthy in other ways.
[29:55] There's been some new research that one of, one of the proposed mechanisms that estrogen is good for the brain. And I'm sure it's just one of many, but one is that estrogen helps.
{31:36] Like there could be a problem with insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome even years before blood sugar blood glucose goes high into the diabetes range. So there's different ways to test it.
[33:05] I mean screening tests, fasting glucose and fasting insulin. If they're elevated, then you kind of know, you know, and the A1C, but if not, you can do the tolerance test just like when you are pregnant.
[33:43] But it also, as we've been talking about, impacts the brain. It has a big risk factor for cardiovascular risk, even to some extent for breast cancer and osteoporosis, like all the risks, all the things that we're worried about. And it's common as you, I don't know if you said this statistic already, but for people over 40 or 50, especially like this is about one and two people, probably about one and two of your listeners or like definitely have insulin resistance.
[34:30] And also as you know, like a lot of environmental toxins increase risk of insulin resistance. So there are things working against us, especially for anyone with a genetic predisposition.
[35:22] Would've been actually a superpower for those women because they could have, they had a, they were like lean. They didn't, you know, they could just sort of survive on less basically cuz they, we had have a, you know, reduced requirement for calories with menopause, arguably.
[36:12] My first step is satiety. So this often involves pro well not often. This is about protein. Protein is our primary appetite from a biology perspective.
[37:06] So actually what happens is our appetite is geared such that we will keep eating until we get enough amino acids that day, every single day and, and the body is so full of protein that it doesn't care.
[37:56] I mean a hundred calories snack, snack bags, you know, they'll be like only a hundred calories in this bag, but your body will not be satisfied.
[38:17] So step one for my patients is to reach that protein requirement. It's a lot higher for people than they realize. I think especially women tend to under protein, maybe not always, but also this is a cruel irony, but insulin resistance increases the requirement for proteins.
[39:08] Like wait until your stomach acid kicks in. Like you're actually hungry, which I think for a healthy person is going to be around nine or 10:00 AM.
[40:28] Magnesium actually just helps with sugar cravings. It just makes you feel good, satisfied. And then you can easily just say, no, I'm not going to have that dessert.
[41:36] women always, we always feel like we have to explain ourselves, you know, but men might be like, I don't want that. I'm not going to have that. I, I don't have, you know, no reason given it's like, I'm not going to eat that. It's like just, you know, be like that, just don't explain yourself.
[42:13] hormone replacement therapy and you were touching on the fact that it can actually increase insulin resistance.
[42:36] So estradiol, especially, I mean, I would say estrogen therapy helps to improve insulin resistance and weight loss. Like was very little doubt about that in my mind. I know some bizarrely, somehow estrogen gets blamed for weight gain or well, okay. It depends on what we're talking about.
[43:31] Obviously testosterone has many benefits for women. We do have some, when we're in our reproductive years, we get this really intriguing little boost up in testosterone just before ovulation that some of these sports people are studying, because women get this surge in kind of confidence and performance around that time.
[44:30] The argument is, you know, with P C O S, which comes first, the insulin resistance or the high androgens, the research actually suggests high androgens come first, generally with that condition.
[45:29] But what happens is when estradiol and progesterone drop away, we lose out on the beneficial antiandrogen effect of those two hormones. So the androgens, the testosterone shines through and that is potentially contributing to insulin resistance.
[46:21] I just, you know, the data says that 50% of women in menopause are deficient and testosterone, but I'd say in the women I work with, it's more like 90%, and it's just so vital for brain function.
[46:50] but I'm just curious for myself, what dose of testosterone might you prescribe? Like, just for example, like just for someone who I guess it
[47:01] Depends on a transdermal, it depends on what they're we test don't guess of course, yes.
[47:07] So at the hormone club, which is our telemedicine solution for women in 47 states in the US to get, uh, by identical hormone therapy, we test, right. So we do the Dutch test, the dried urine metabolite test and see where their levels are.
[47:42] how closely do you look at S H B or sex hormone binding globulin, because this is another, and this is just a, a background thing. It's on a blood test. It's actually quite important. I think for women in general, to have that in a good range, it tends to drop at menopause.
[48:25] So it is important to know that because then your free fraction will be higher, kind of one of know what you're, what you're dealing with.
[48:40] I'm one wondering if you can share with everyone just some of your daily practices that help you to keep your hormones balanced and your health in tiptop shape.
[48:59] And then I guess the other things for health are like, we didn't talk a lot about it today, but just quit alcohol basically or seriously think about quitting it or reducing it dramatically, even though it's nice. It's lovely to have a beer with dinner. That would be my preference, but it's not worth it. Especially during the tumultuous rewiring phase of per menopause.
[50:12] I know you have a free download of the first two chapters of the period repair manual and hormone repair manual, both. And we will have the link in the show notes.
Free download to the first two chapters of Period Repair Manual and Hormone Repair Manual by Dr. Lara Briden:
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There's a lot of talk about hormones these days. You might have heard that they're responsible for everything from mood swings to weight gain. But what about their role in immune resilience and breast cancer?
In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're talking with Dr. Lindsey Berkson about the vital role of hormones in immune resilience and breast cancer. Dr. Berkson is a highly respected physician and author who has dedicated her career to helping women achieve optimal health.
During our conversation, Dr. Berkson discusses the importance of hormone balance for maintaining good health, as well as how hormonal imbalances can increase susceptibility to disease. She also shares some tips for keeping your hormones in balance and boosting your immune system.
Join us for this episode of The Hormone Prescription as we chat with Dr. Lindsey Berkson about the vital role hormones play in keeping us healthy. You'll learn why it's important to keep your hormones in balance and find out how you can do that with natural strategies like diet and lifestyle changes. You'll also hear about the latest research on hormone-related cancers, and find out how you can reduce your risk. So tune in and get empowered to protect your health!
[02:03] And we're gonna talk about a topic that's very important right now, and that is immune resilience, right? Who's concerned about immune resilience, uh, just about every human on the face of the planet.
[03:00] Lindsey Berkson has been a thought leader in pioneer, in functional medicine for over four decades and has authored over 21 groundbreaking books on women and hormones, gut health toxicity, including safe hormones, smart women, which is available online with a background in chiropractic and naturopathic medicine
[05:23] Sexiest Hottest, most beautiful 70 some year old you'll ever see. And so she says, well, you know, I've been on natural hormone therapy for what, 20 years.
[05:34] So I waited five years to try and be prudent and to make sure that I'd clean mammograms and clean serum, cancer markers and inflammatory markers. And then I went on hormones.
[06:02] . People, I think, don't realize that their hormones have anything to do with their immune system, let alone their health resilience.
[07:18] So first of all, in the business, we have always known that hormones send signals to satellite dishes called receptors and whatever tissue has these receptors, they're called target tissues. That's where a hormone signals.
[08:23] And we know that 70% of your immune system lives in the lining of your gut and testosterone. The male hormone sends signals to that.
[09:21] And if an older woman wasn't on hormone replacement, she suddenly had the same statistics of severe COVID a, if she didn't have early intervention, but if she was on hormone replacement, then she had similar safety statistics against COVID like younger women did.
[10:17] And the other thing is we talk about the role of the gut with immunity. So a healthy gut opens and closes. You eat a meal and after you eat a meal, supposedly digest your food to tiny little pieces, amino acids, die peptides, tri peptides.
[11:22] So we have greater immunity because we have greater sex steroid hormones when we're younger. And when we age, we are more vulnerable.
[12:20] Because it seems like we women carve out when it comes to hormones. Why, why do we have these opinions and values that somehow it's shameful or bad to use hormones or to bolster ourselves?
[13:16] And I love your show because I wanna bust that at bull crap, because what it is is that aging picks up speed. You age faster in your forties than you did in your thirties.
[15:14] We're so afraid of shaming people for being overweight that we tell a whole nation, nothing about losing weight, cuz COVID loves overweight and flamed bodies.
[16:11] You know, by the way, hormones help you keep a trimmer torso. That's one of the reasons you gain more weight when you get older.
[17:07] But the litigious atmosphere made doctors afraid of the women's health initiative and we're afraid to call it like it is. We want everything to be so moderate and middle road that we're willing to sacrifice the smarter kids in the, the kids that are in the midrange.
[18:05] And you're consequently your health and your life are going to be substandard until you die, which will be premature because you will live longer if you use natural hormone therapy.
[19:00] And in none of those cases where women were given right after treatment, hormone replacement and they were tracked for so many years and not one of those 26 studies did women on hormones do worse.
[19:53] There's more of us that are older than more of us than are younger and it's accumulating. And within another 10, 20 years, the majority of Americans are gonna be over 65, which has never happened before.
[20:46] So they decided to do a study to prove that hormones prevent heart disease and keep you healthier and feminine forever.
[22:05] But in Europe they've primarily been using biologically identical hormones for decades.
[22:19] So they came out and said to reanalyze the data because we didn't buy the conclusions of the data. And when we reanalyze it, we made a big, big discovery that in the control arm, they forgot to control for which women had taken estrogen historically.
[23:13] And if they did get breast cancer, once they had been historically on estrogen replacement for a little bit, they had a 44% decreased mortality case incident.
[25:14] Women on hormones had a decreased incidence of getting Alzheimer's disease by 69%. But if they were on bio identical hormones, they had a decreased incidence of Alzheimer's disease by 72 to 73%.
[26:08] It's key though, to hear what Dr. Lindsay is saying about estrogen, protecting against breast cancer, protecting against cognitive decline in Alzheimer's among other things. I mean heart disease and heart attack, which we always gave it to prevent.
[28:10] There are those who are motivated by deprivation and fear and lack, and they're going to lose something they already have or not get something that they want. And then there are those who are motivated by pleasure.
[29:00] So when you're true, more hormonally out of balance, you're a more fearful, anxious person.
[29:24] So we are a much dirtier air food and water, which all of adversely they're endocrine disruptors. So I wrote one of the very first books on endocrine disruption called hormone deception.
[30:16] They talk about if they're not looking for a super orgasm, they really are not functional and they'll go, oh, well I know I sat too much this month and I ate too much processed food and I know, but it's, it's outta control.
[31:29] You may render them in, of making decisions based on healthy cognition. And basically you block their hormones, you screw their hormones up and people can't function optimally.
[32:13] And one of the things is balancing your hormones and getting them for which, for each woman, has her own individual hormonal footprint. And that's why it's important to work with a doctor that honors that like yourself, when your hormones are more balanced, you understand that you wanna never ever give up, but you wanna push yourself.
[33:13] The more muscle mass you have, which of course testosterone replacement is one way to maintain it. But resistant exercises are another way.
[34:06] Because if you are, you know, you need the androgens, you need the testosterone and your regular doctor probably is not only not aware of that, doesn't know how to properly test for it.
[34:30] If a doctor tells you there's nothing left to be done for you, or it just means they know, wait, what is it? It just means they know nothing left to be done for you.
[36:03] And I was told many times in my fifties, you're just not, you're not getting any younger. You have to learn to age gracefully.
[36:47] I love feeling well. And I love feeling so young and well and full of energy. I'm flying all over the country, lecturing, isolating everyone else's isolating and scared of everything.
[39:22] And that's pretty much a steady diet, lots and lots of diverse pigments in those different colored plants, protect your eyes, protect your brain, protect you against cancer.
[40:11] So I work out, I try to find things to turn a fire in my belly. So I love what I do a lot, but not all the time cuz nobody loves what they do all the time.
[40:52] I think vitamin F fun is an important component to life. And so canoeing for me is fun and hanging with girlfriends is fun, but I eat plant food. I work out regularly.
[42:00] I don't believe in doing this obsessively every day, but I take 30 to 40 to 50 supplements a day, depending on what I'm dealing with. Um, I only have one kidney, so I can't overwhelm it.
[42:43] So I do a lot of botanicals and I've just created a new line for Biotics, with one product that clears off your receptors.
[43:35] Thank you so much for sharing your regimen because I think people, well, two things, some people, they overestimate what it takes to get their health back in line and keep it there. And a lot of people underestimate.
[45:24] What does it take to have six pack abs in your seventies? And you mentioned getting your hormones at the optimal levels, and this is not gonna happen in corporate medicine.
[45:42] And what really gave, so realizing that estrogen protected against breast cancer and that you died less from a, if you did get it. So that was huge.
[47:49] So I got courage to go higher than the little toe in the water by taking just the right amount to eliminate the symptoms. And boy, the minute I did that, I shed weight.
[48:21] And that's why at the hormone club, we test, we don't guess everybody gets monitored and followed with the dried you're in testing because you got to, to know where that person is, cuz it is a unique blueprint.
[49:24] I have lots of books out on Amazon and some of them are on my website and I also do some consulting telemedicine. And I see patients in person in Florida, Naples, Florida at Dr. Pearl Mutter's old clinic, the Naples center for functional medicine.
[50:55] Dr. Lindsay and I have been talking about what we could do together, cuz we are both on a mission to make your health the best that it can be as you get older so that you can enjoy more of life.
Join thousands of people around the globe receiving updates from Dr. Lindsey Berkson in hormones, nutrition and gut health.
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Join The Hormone Bliss Challenge
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You've been struggling with thyroid issues for months, years, or maybe decades. And you still haven't gotten it right. You've tried every diet, supplement, and lifestyle change out there. But you still don't feel like yourself.
You're not alone! In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Elle Russ explains how to boost your confidence by fixing your thyroid. She'll teach you everything you need to know about the thyroid gland, how it affects your mood and energy levels, and how to correct any imbalances.
Elle Russ is the bestselling author of Confident As Fu*k and The Paleo Thyroid Solution. She is a TV-film writer, master coach, and the host of The Elle Russ Show. You can learn more about her at ElleRuss.com.
In this episode you'll learn:
- What's different about a mainstream corporate medical approach to thyroid
- The signs and symptoms of thyroid imbalances
- How to test your thyroid function
- What test results mean
- How to correct imbalances in your thyroid
- Tips for living a thyroid-friendly lifestyle
- How do we keep our stress down and keep our cortisol in balance to help our thyroid
- And more!
Don't miss this important episode on boosting your confidence by fixing your thyroid. Be sure to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast, so you don't miss any future episodes. And if you enjoy the show, please leave us a rating and review. We love hearing from our listeners!
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𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 to be the first to know when the challenge starts again!
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One of the biggest challenges we face as we get older is maintaining our energy levels and keeping our hormones in balance. In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're joined by Debra Atkinson, a Wellness Coach hormone balancing fitness expert and the founder of Flipping50.
She has helped over 250,000 Women flip their second half with the vitality and energy they want. She's the best selling author of us still got it girl, the after 50 Fitness formula for women navigating fitness after 50 Your GPS for choosing programs and professionals you can trust and hot not too bothered.
Debra hosts flipping 50 TV and the flipping 50 podcast, an AARP top podcast for 50 Plus. She is a frequent speaker at TEDx present and TEDx presenter excuse me, of everything women in menopause, learned about exercise may be alive. She has 38 years full time fitness experience. She's an international fitness presenter for associations including International Council on active aging, a lot of alphabet soup fitness agencies, you may or may not be familiar with IDEA, NSCA, and Athletic Business, and CanFitPro.
She's an American Council on Exercise subject matter expert and prior Senior Lecturer in Kinesiology at Iowa State University. Debra is also the founder of flipping fifty.com, and creator of the flipping 50 fitness specialist program for fitness professionals. She is a frequent contributor at HuffPost, Sharecare, and other featured outlets and on the Education Advisory Board for medfit.org.
Debra shares her wisdom on how to exercise safely and effectively as we age, and offers some great tips for keeping our hormones in check. She also tells us about her journey to becoming a fit and healthy 50-something.
In this episode you'll learn:
- Flipping the expectations with aging and menopause.
- Empowering longevity and enjoyment of it with muscle and bone strength.
- The lies that we're all believing about exercise over 50 that are keeping us stuck
- And more!
So if you're looking for ways to boost your energy and feel better about yourself, be sure to listen to this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! And don't forget to subscribe and leave your questions and feedback.
Join Debra Atkinson’s Stronger: Tone and Define Program.
THIS IS A SPECIAL 12 -WEEK STRONGER program designed based on research featuring women in perimenopause, menopause, and beyond… by a Medical Exercise Specialist who knows:
- you’re not broken, you’re just juggling hormones and joints that have had some injuries or some fun!
- you aren’t 22 but your also not in need of chair yoga!
- what works for 22 year old fit males (subjects in 60% of studies) will not work for you
- your greatest limits are what you don’t yet know about hormone balancing exercise and how it’s unique from traditional exercise prescriptions you’ve done for 30+ years (or never done)
- YOU should enjoy this second half MORE than the first: you earned it!
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How to age beautifully using the holistic science of beauty? How do you use the inside out, to care for your outer appearance? The Hormone Prescription Podcast is back with another episode! On this week's show, Rachel Varga will be discussing how hormone balance factors into healthy, glowing skin. Whether it's reducing wrinkles or restoring the skin's youthful glow, hormone balancing is a great way to prevent and correct various skin problems.
Rachel Varga is a Board Certified Aesthetic Nurse Specialist with over 20,000 procedures performed and the author of unlocking your vitality. She's an international clinical trainer for other physicians and nurses, a celebrity skin expert. She's been featured on Bulletproof Radio as the health expert podcast with JJ virgin live with Dr. KellyAnn, Petrucci and Naveen Jain, and more.
Rachel is also a speaker and a four-time academically published award-winning author in the field of plastic anesthetic nursing, as well as an executive board member and peer reviewer for the plastic surgical nursing journal. Through education on skincare skin and laser rejuvenation, nonsurgical solutions, healing lifestyle, and biohacking practices. Rachel helps inspire others with her unique toolkit to navigate and strategize aging and possibly well using the holistic science of beauty.
In this episode you'll learn:
- The holistic science of beauty and how to know if you have a healthy skin
- The skin problems of women during midlife and beyond
- How inflammation affects our skin and what we can do about it
- Practical tips to help you achieve radiant and glowing skin
- The types of supplements for a better skin health
- The safe options that you can take for skin problems like wrinkles, sagging, etc.
- And more!
[03:21] one of the characteristic things that we tend to notice with our skin as we age usually starts to happen at about age 37 to 41. This is when we start to see changes in our hormones, we lose a little bit of estrogen in some cases, which can lead to then loss of collagen and elastin.
[08:13] So at the end of the day, we want to make sure we're taking very potent antioxidants in our diet so that we have that internal protection.
[12:57] And I'll talk about some science about why going into the forest is good for you. There's all these compounds that are released from trees and plants that like terpenes, for example, they can be very helpful and supportive at combating inflammation. Also, the way that I like to get into the woods, is I like to get into areas where there's no cell phone reception, or Wi Fi or anything like that.
[18:06] And I love how you talk about nature therapy and describe that kind of draining off those positive ions. I love to go to the beach at least once if not twice a week and just put my feet in the sand and in the ocean
[19:04] Because at the end of the day, when we're working with mature skin, we you can't use the same skincare routine that is going to work for a teenager, you need more advanced and stabilized peptides, antioxidants, like vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A retinol.
[23:53] And I know that some people are saying but Rachel, like me, some people would be like a friend of mine who wants to know whose face is sliding. Her skin is sliding down her face. What is our safe option for wrinkling, sagging, volume loss, all of these things that women at midlife and beyond are dealing with to fix them more acutely.
[25:14] And then for the body, we need to make sure that we're doing strength conditioning, cardiovascular conditioning, and flexibility and stability. So lifting the weights, doing the cardio, doing the yoga, Qigong are great balancing practices as well.
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Did you know that there is a link between mold toxicity and those pesky symptoms of fatigue, nervousness, mood swings and brain fog?
My guest for this episode, Bridget Danner knows this first hand as she has suffered from all of these symptoms before. She also spent years feeling lost and confused about how to heal.
Bridgit Danner has been a licensed acupuncturist since 2004 and a certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner since 2015. After losing everything to toxic mold, Bridgit now educates about toxins and how to detoxify through a functional approach.
Mold toxicity is one of the most common toxic exposures that people are exposed to. We all know that healing takes time, but in this episode, we talk about how you can speed up that process by taking some super simple steps, so you start feeling better now - not months from now.
You'll learn:
- What is mold toxicity
- The symptoms of mold toxicity
- What you can do to detoxify your body after being exposed to mold
- How toxic molds travel throughout our homes and how they are making us sick
- How molds impact our hormones
- And much more!
[01:14] Hormones are imbalanced because they're reacting to other things in your environment like mold. So sometimes you have to address the thing that your hormones are reacting to in order to get your hormones in line.
[02:08] Over 50% of the homes in America are estimated to have mold contamination.
[05:11] I got my own environmental illness of toxic mold, pretty severely and had to deal with that in my life, in my personal life and my personal health.
[05:59] So I started just talking more about detox techniques and how to detox and then over time really moved into the mold specialty cuz I, I do think there's still a big gap there.
[07:20] And it took probably about eight years until I found out I had mold and that time I just had various symptoms coming and going, you know, with, I had anxiety, insomnia, chronic pain, breakthrough bleeding, gut issues, a lot of immune issues like getting sick too often, um, having a lot of like chills and they would kind of come up and down, right?
[09:12] So, you know, looking back, I can see that there were some things we, we could have known about if we were more aware of mold, we just weren't, but it can happen in newer homes too, when they're built too tightly.
[10:09] So, you know, looking back, I can see that there were some things we, we could have known about if we were more aware of mold, we just weren't, but it can happen in newer homes too, when they're built too tightly.
[11:10] Mold is probably one of the hardest things to diagnose. There you're usually many years delay and people actually receive a diagnosis and it's hard to treat.
[12:19] One is that issues that aren't resolved are worsening. You know, we're not meant to get sicker and sicker every year or, you know, just have these stubborn, right? It's not like just some of us are meant to have IBS. There's a reason.
[13:43] You can tell me if this is true or not that over 50% of the home and commercial buildings in the United States are affected by mold. Is that correct?
[15:10] if you're doing all the right things and it's not working check for toxins, I love that you say this because I think that's the hallmark message from this episode is if you're doing what I call all the things and your health is not where it's supposed to be, then you gotta check for toxins and mold would probably be top on the list.
[16:49] So you're inhaling right into your nose, like these VOCs and these mycotoxins and these bacterial fragments that are coming off the water damage right up into your brain. Basically that information goes right to your brain. And those little microtoxins can travel like anybody's business.
[17:54] So you can have suppressed hormone production, which I was experiencing for years and just being told it was stress. So that's like a big one right there. And if you're trying to get pregnant or you're trying to make it through menopause or whatever, that's gonna be a problem.
[19:05] Most people aren't aware that the quickest way to get into your brain is through your nose.
[19:31] One of the reasons why is for humans, because they are very good at not killing us and living off of us. Whereas some viruses just go too far and bacteria, they're too acute, too virulent.
[20:48] There's so much actually tons of studies because in animal husbandry, in, in livestock production mold has been a big issue for a long time because the feed is moldy and then it affects the health and the animals and reproduction.
[22:14] And then once you find out that mold is a part of the problem, detangling that mess can be insurmountable. So how should someone start approaching that?
[22:53] So sauna and coffee and amount were probably my two biggest favorites when I was at my sickest and there's things I still do today to detox.
[23:18] So a lot of basic things that just support healing and movement of toxins, as long as we'll talk about this next, as long as you can eliminate and handle those toxins, supporting the liver, making sure you're pooping, then the nose toxins can exit.
[25:35] If you don't move it, right. You're just feeling sluggish. You're feeling heavy, right. You're not thinking well and nobody wants to live like that.
[28:14] One of the things that I find most women have to come to terms with is that your symptoms and your illness are calling for a greater expression of you and your life that's different from the life you're living. And it sounds like you really accepted that.
[28:44] Sometimes we're not seeing what isn't working for us until we have a health crisis or some other crisis. And that crisis creates an opportunity to change a hundred percent.
[30:46] Diet can play a factor, but a big part of my journey, especially being divorced in the last couple of years, is really like, how do I wanna show up for myself? What thoughts do I wanna choose? Like what beliefs give me my best life.
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Women go to gynecologists because who else are you going to go to? That's the closest thing for women's health, but there are some things women should know about their hormones that they're not getting at their OBGYNs, particularly the fears and facts behind hormone replacement therapy.
The only way you're going to learn about this stuff is by listening to this episode: The Scary Truth About your Hormones Your OBGYN Doesn’t Want You To Know.
The real scary truth about your hormones is that they affect everything about your health - especially if you don't know about them! We'll help you stay informed.
We're going to demystify and know the truth about this very important topic.
Here’s what you'll learn from this episode:
- The consequences of that hormonal deprivation that are gonna cause us to decrease our lifespan and our vitality
- Fears about hormone replacement therapy
- The facts that women should know about their hormones that they're not getting at from their OB GYNs
- How do you get access to functional medicine doctors
[02:47]The podcast is my gift to you. I'd like you to give it forward to other women in your life and women you don't even know and probably will never know together we succeed, or together we fail.
[07:25] . But what I don't think women realize is that O B GYN is a surgical residency. And that was part of why I loved it as well.
[13:01] So 50 million women in menopause right now, 2 million of us go into menopause each year. We are in a state of hormonal deprivation in menopause.
[14:42] And so I really want women to take away from this today, like, listen to your body. It's trying to tell you something. When gynecologists keep offering bandaid solutions, they're covering up that message and you're not hearing it.
[15:45] one of my favorite things that hormones do is they regulate your immune system. So it's really cool when women get pregnant, their estradiol level goes down because you're carrying a half of a foreign human in you that you're growing, and you don't want your immune system to attack it because you'll miscarry.
[16:46] So there's such fear about hormones, the ACOG American college of obstetricians and gynecologists recommendation for hormone replacement therapy is for symptom management for the shortest period of time in the least amount of dose. And they only recognize two symptoms of menopause.
[17:42] And so, like, it was standard for women to be on hormone replacement therapy for heart protection and brain protection.
[18:41] And so it's very complicated. It's very political, but I want women to understand what that study really said was that if you start hormones more than seven to 10 years after menopause, you probably have an increased risk of blood clot and stroke, because you already have started to develop heart disease and liver disease, et cetera.
[20:00] If you do a bioidentical estradiol, your body is not processing it the same way. And if you take a patch, it's bypassing the liver.
[21:05] So if you use micronized bioidentical, progesterone, you know, or made from Mims topical over the counter, that doesn't react in your body the same way that is not feeding breast tissue in the same way.
[21:43] And that, you know, I remember that conversation we had where we just said, you know, OB GYNs are hurting women. And it's sad to admit, I have a lot of good friends who are OB GYN. Yeah.
[23:43] That is good news. It's kind of amazing though, that, you know, the body is made the way it's made because it actually functions really well. so you think that the first inclination would be, well, we naturally have progesterone to balance out and like, I like how you say, keep your, our estrogen in check.
[24:13] So if you've had a hysterectomy and you're on estrogen, oh my goodness. Get on progesterone because progesterone is like our natural anti-anxiety harm.
[25:36] But how do women get access to doctors like us? I mean, I know they go to the hormone club where you're helping us also as one of our F and they can get prescriptions, but how do they navigate this for themselves? How do they really learn the truth?
[26:38] Like you just need to find the information, you need to do your own research. You need to talk to each other and share each other's stories. Because that is actually where I started to learn as a physician, I listened to my patients.
[27:30] If you're comfortable, because that is the only way the system is gonna change is if you spark their curiosity and for them to go and do the research and find the world of health and wellness, as opposed to conventional gynecology, which was very much focused on disease.
[28:28] And that's really exemplified in what you're saying is ask questions, share information, and then you'll know if you have an open-minded physician or not. If they really listen to you and they go investigate further and come back to you, that's someone you can work with.
[29:20] It almost always starts in the gut. We have to heal your gut and get your gut functioning and everything related to your gut, your liver, your gallbladder, all of that needs to be functioning well to metabolize your hormones, to absorb the ingredients, to make your hormones, to excrete your hormones.
[31:36] So it goes through the five systems of your body that really affect your hormone balance. And the gut is the first one. And so I am just giving you some really easy, actionable tips that you can start doing today, like to make a shift and see a change in your hormones.
Get your FREE gift from Dr. Tabatha Barbers:
The Functional Gynecologists Guide to Balancing Your Hormones
https://bit.ly/thpp160FREEgift
Q & A Episode each month
Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):
https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin
When you hit that dreaded midlife, hormonal transition or menopause, moodiness constantly runs rampant in your body. You constantly feel like you're losing control. Then one day out of the blue, I got this email from a listener who was feeling quite hopeless when she suddenly realized it wasn't just her in this situation.
We live in a world where we can easily get in touch with people to share our vulnerabilities in hopes they will understand and help give us resources to fall back on.
Well here at The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we don't aim to only educate but also inspire you to take action by sharing personal stories that I think could resonate with you too! So today, I wanted to answer your hormone pressing questions, especially if you're not sure what's appropriate for you!
You’ll learn:
- How to formulate empowering and transformative questions, so you will get the best answers.
- How to treat and uncover the root causes of hormonal imbalances symptoms
- How often should you be checking your hormone levels
- HRT & progesterone pills side effects
- And more!
[02:41] You've got health symptoms and you want answers and that's why we added the Q and a, but I want to make sure that you are formulating your questions in a way that's going to give you the best answers.
[04:37] A possibility is what can transform your health into something else. So if you don't ask that transformative question, you don't get informed. You don't get transformed. So to ask the right question is harder than to answer it.
[05:39] But a great question is what's causing the symptom and what test do I need to uncover the root cause of this problem?
[07:35] How often should you be checking your hormone levels?
[09:12] I do not believe we were created to use chemicals to solve any of our life changing situations. God planned ahead for our wellness at creation.
[10:02] I began the progesterone pills this past Friday evening. I wake up with a horrible headache, anyone else?
[10:58] I think that a lot of times when we're doing certain holistic remedies, whether it's bioidentical hormones or supplements, we get ideas in our heads about causation. And there's such a thing as correlation versus causation.
[11:52] And so symptoms are its way of speaking to us and telling us when I have a headache, something's wrong in my head, I have inflammation.
[12:38] And when you're changing so many things at once, it's sometimes hard to discern and Unie the threads and knots of your health as to what's causing a problem.
[14:28] And around the same time she started taking the progesterone and she decided that it was the progesterone that was stopping her from sleeping. Well, well, this is why you gotta ask empowered questions because more likely it was that she, her, her melatonin was high because she was taking melatonin and it's not harmful to have a high melatonin on your Dutch test.
[17:17] And if you are getting headaches and you're taking progesterone capsules, I would look into what other additives are in that progesterone capsule, like peanut oil.
[18:16] That's my goal for you this year is that you go more deeply into learning how to be your own, how health detective, your own sleuth, and really learn how to listen powerfully to what your body is telling you.
[19:11] And again, if you're someone who'd like to volunteer to do an on-air consultation for free to demonstrate to others what it is like and what insight can be garnered by looking from a root cause resolution approach. Please leave me that message here as well.
I hope you’ve found some answers to your hormone questions, or at least that these stories have given you new perspectives on how it feels to be a woman in the midst of hormonal changes. If there are topics we haven’t touched on yet, don't hesitate to ask! We want this podcast to feel like an open forum where everyone can come and chat about what's important for them. Subscribe and leave us a review below, so we can serve you better!
Q & A Episode each month
Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):
https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin
Imagine if there was a simple, easy way to overcome fatigue, improve sleep, increase energy levels and productivity at work, jumpstart weight loss, improve the look of your skin without expensive medical procedures or treatments...
It sounds too good to be true right?
A way that not only reduces stress but actually combats the root causes of the leading causes of disease, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.
Well, scientists have discovered this natural "drug" called gratitude, which is an amazing addition to any healthy lifestyle for achieving optimal health.
The Science Behind Gratitude Can Change Your Life!
The past decade has seen an explosion in research on the science of gratitude. From how gratitude may help reduce depression and improve mental wellness, to the enormous implications it can have on cardiovascular health, cancer recovery, weight loss, athletic performance and much more.
Here’s what you’ll learn from this episode:
- Benefits of gratitude
- How to practice gratitude
- Concrete studies showing how gratitude significantly affects our health in a good way
- Affirmations that will help you create the foundation for health abundance
[3:07] Because when he talks about acknowledging, the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance.
[5:18] Have a quiz that you can take where you can see how grateful you actually are in a second.
[6:20] So right here, you've got a concrete study showing that they've done it with people receiving chemotherapy and found for cancer, that they've had better outcomes with the chemo regimens.
[7:23] I know we're all afraid of breast cancer, but I'm telling you, you need to pay attention to heart disease. Well, our gratitude practices improve that.
[8:25] I want you to up your gratitude quotient and acknowledge the good that you already have in your life and create that foundation for abundance.
[9:23] I'm asking you to just take some time to focus on how beautiful and complex and intricate and loyal and supportive your body is and how you experience many, many miracles every single day in this body that you've been given to go through life with.
[10:25] We are foundationally hormones and, and this energy body has to be fed and nourished and gratitude is the one of the ways you can feed and nourish.
[11:27] So you've got to address this and there are energetic disruptions in this framework that underlie every medical condition and symptom and can't sleep.
[12:27] Your call to action is to start to unwind that by cultivating balance in this energy body, and it starts with gratitude.
[13:26] And with that, I will leave you with this lovely affirmation and gratitude track that will help you create that foundation for health abundance in 2022, peace, love and hormones.
[14:29] I am grateful for the effortless communication of my body. Thank you for balancing my hormones.
[17:16] Thank you for staying strong. Even when you're broken. Thank you for being a safe place for me to reside.
[20:04] Thank you for reverence for the divine and not knowing it all. Thank you for contentment with where I am right this very minute. I
[23:16] Thank you for another 365 day chance to experience all the best that love and life have to offer.
[25:25] Take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you.
Take the gratitude quiz
https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/gratitude
Studies on gratitude: https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/resources/studies?_ga=2.231905046.841908345.1641831558-1380330748.1641831558#
Q & A Episode each month
Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):
https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin
Join The Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge!
My proven system for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism and start to lose weight, regain energy, balance their moods, feel sexy & confident, look great and master midlife - IN JUST 12 DAYS!
Live Group Coaching has already started, but you can still sign up!
CLICK HERE to join now:
Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge
There are many reasons why you may feel like you’re in a thyroid battle and your doctor just can’t figure it out. From symptoms to blood tests, it can feel like the whole medical world is in the dark about what’s going on with your thyroid. It’s so frustrating! But the good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.
In this episode, I’m going to share with you how we can get a really clear picture of how our body is functioning and what we need to do to fix it, even if you’ve already had one or more thyroid tests, and it came back normal.
You'll learn:
- Thyroid is the main metabolic driver
- Thyroid problems are the result of survival adaptations
- Your interface with external environment is all about survival (eating, sleep) and the stress response to keep you alive (fight, flight, freeze, fawn)
- Importance of hormone balance
- Visualization is a great key to success
[3:00] Health hormones are the foundation of women's health.
[3:51] We've also got the feature where we're going to be doing some example consultations on the phone of what I do with my one on one clients.
[9:16] So hair, skin, nail problems, fatigue, you are tired and anxiety and mood disorders and lack of focus are the five categories of symptoms with low thyroid.
[11:58] You will never fix your thyroid by trying to fix your thyroid.
[12:56] So what happens when your thyroid is low, your metabolic driver is low. Your metabolism is low. You don't convert fat and sugar into energy.
[14:00] Your body has certain inputs and outputs, that program, how it functions.
[14:59] So everything that your body interfaces with externally could be a potential threat to your physical survival. And your body has developed all its systems and processes to protect you, to keep you thriving and protect you.
[17:55] There is nothing that has more significance or impact on your hormonal balance than what you eat and join me for the Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, starting January 24th, because I'm going to teach you all about how the external environ interacts and your food is your external environment, how it interacts with your hormones.
[18:59] Cortisol is a part of that and is one of your main hormones, one of your main metabolic drivers, and that also is triggered by your interaction with the external environment.
[20:00] So you cannot directly impact your thyroid without impacting the others, so you've got to balance this whole hormonal symptom.
[21:16] Why can't I fix my thyroid? Because you’ve got to fix these other hormones.
[25:02] Say yes to 2022 is the year that I got unstuck with my thyroid by not addressing my thyroid.
[26:16] So the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places.
[30:43] I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health that we deserve.
You’ll learn how to get a complete picture of your thyroid function so that you’ll know what to do next, and so that you’ll know what your doctor should be doing.
Let’s go deeper! Tune in now and share this episode with the women you know who might benefit from this important topic. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review!
Q & A Episode each month
Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):
https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin
Join The Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge!
My proven system for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism and start to lose weight, regain energy, balance their moods, feel sexy & confident, look great and master midlife - IN JUST 12 DAYS!
Live Group Coaching starts on the 24th of January 2022!
CLICK HERE to join now:
Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge
Do you ever feel like the health goals you set for yourself are constantly out of reach? Have you tried diet after diet, exercise program after exercise program, to get your hormones in balance only to end up with frustrating results that never seem to last?
If this is you, then listen closely! Today's episode will challenge everything you think about how our bodies work. We will make the case for why, even though it seems counterintuitive, vision and goals can help your body achieve what it needs to do naturally. Because vision helps align the pieces of your life, vision helps create a holistic approach that goes beyond just quick-fix band-aids. Vision brings change from places unseen, so that what was not possible before becomes effortless.
Vision brings alignment, vision creates change from within. And it turns out that's the only way real lasting health changes can happen. It's well known that our hormone levels are integral to everything in our lives including but certainly not limited to mood, weight loss goals, libido levels, energy levels and so on. But if you have spent any time at all researching how hormones work inside the body, you know there are dozens of different hormones involved in every process imaginable - making vision an essential part of your holistic approach to finally balancing your hormones for good.
Hormone balance sounds overwhelming, but there's a simple solution that can help you reach all your health goals faster.
Hormones + Vision = Optimal Health & Success
In this episode, Dr. Kyrin Dunston discusses the things that will help you accomplish your 2022 wellness resolution towards balanced hormones.
You'll learn:
- Planning with intention & having a vision
- How to jumpstart your hormone balancing journey
- Q & A with Dr. Kyrin
- Hormone Bliss Challenge
- And more!
[01:07] All health goals occur with hormone balance. Hormones are the foundation of your health.
[2:07] We're adding a Q and A episode each month when I'm going to answer your questions.
[7:38] I also have new programs for you like the hormone bliss challenge.
[10:42] Everything is created twice, including you. You are a thought in the mind of the universe.
[11:35] You have to have a vision of your health, and then you go about creating it.
[13:25] So number one is your vision. Where are you going? Number two, where do you start in detail?
[15:03] Your health is a hero's journey. When you have health challenges, you are being called to something greater.
[16:45] It starts with having a vision of overcoming the challenge usually, and, and for women at midlife that starts with hormones, you got to overcome the hormone challenge.
[18:48] You can create your health and design your health and your life with that same intention. But you got to know where you're starting. You got to have a plan, and you got to have a guide.
[20:35] You can always just come when it comes back around, and I've got new tools for you with the hormone list challenge. So you definitely want to check that out. And it launches on January 24th.
[25:48] My mission in life is to educate and support women at midlife and beyond to make this the best time of their lives.
[26:39] Join me for the hormone bliss challenge. Join me with the Q and A Episodes. It will be amazing. Come join us. Get a clear vision, get a plan.
It's time to get the inside scoop on what's really going on inside your body and mind so that maybe, just maybe this time, you can finally take action once and for all.
The Surefire Way To Accomplish Your Health Goals In 2022
Q & A Episode each month
Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):
https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin
Join The Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge!
My proven system for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism and start to lose weight, regain energy, balance their moods, feel sexy & confident, look great and master midlife - IN JUST 12 DAYS!
Live Group Coaching starts on the 24th of January, 2022!
CLICK HERE to join now:
Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge
Is there an end in sight for Alzheimer’s?
We are finally starting to get the message that prevention is the key to ending the nightmare of dealing with Alzheimer’s.
What can you do to lower your risk for Alzheimer’s and to maximize your brain health as you age?
Our guest for this episode, Dr. Aaron Hartman, is a physician, clinical researcher and professor who specializes in helping people identify and correct the functional causes of disease including helping them prevent and reverse Alzheimer’s Disease using Dr. Dale Bredeson’s RECODE protocol.
Like most of us who have transitioned from practicing dysfunctional medicine, centered around suppressing symptoms with drugs and surgery, to functional medicine, healing that addresses the cause of disease and dysfunction, Dr. Hartmann has had an incredible personal journey that lead him to the uncomfortable realization that the tool box he was given with his MD training was insufficient to address his daughters health concerns and most of the chronic conditions that trouble humans throughout life.
The good news is that you are never too old to make changes that help your brain stay healthy and to ward off dementia. This episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is all about living a healthy lifestyle at midlife and beyond. It includes: how to eat for brain health, how to sleep for memory and how to manage stress to keep your mind sharp.
Tune in, learn more and be the best version of yourself!
Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.
Get a copy of Dr. Aaron Hartman’s FREE ebook:
Building Resilience: Harness Your Body's Power to Heal
https://bit.ly/draarongift
Grab the guide and create a plan to begin to live the vibrant life you were made for!
In this guide you'll learn:
- 7 KEYS to the resilience of blue zones
- Basic preventative health strategies of functional medicine
- Lifestyle measures to boost your resilience and improve your immune system function
- Ways to improve your health if you or your loved one have acquired a chronic illness
- A new trajectory for your health and wellness!
What is the best way for a woman to achieve optimal health at midlife and beyond? It’s by balancing her hormones. And, the way you do that is by healing your microbiome.
Our guest for this episode, Dr. Grace Liu, is a Functional Medicine trained clinical pharmacist who specializes in complex disease management. She helps clients gain optimal performance through rebuilding the microbiome after damage from modern living using nutrigenomic tools and other advanced functional lab testing to give the solutions, strategies and treatments that reverse modern gut dysbiosis and disease. She is the author of 7 Steps to Heal SIBO” [and SIFO], the Founder of The Gut Institute, Host of the Microbiome Medicine Conferences, and the Microbiome Mastermind and has been featured in GaiaTV, UCSF, Women’s Health Mag, Bulletproof, Ben Greenfield, Human Longevity Project.
In this episode, we cover everything about hormones and your microbiome. We’ll also discuss how these work together to create a healthy or unhealthy environment for your body and soul. You’ll learn what specific diet and lifestyle factors can help heal your microbiome, and much more.
Let’s hear this great interview!
Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.
Get a copy of Dr. Grace Liu’s book, “7 Steps To Heal SIBO: Simple Strategies and Exercises to Understand SIBO, Restore Energy, Beat Belly Fat and Eliminate Brain Fog.”
https://www.amazon.com/Steps-Heal-SIBO-Strategies-Understand/dp/1726737691/
The community is essential to our health. It helps us take care of ourselves, build our immunity, and get the support we need.
Our guest for this episode, James Maskell, has spent the past decade innovating at the cross-section of functional medicine and community. To that end, he created the Functional Forum, the world's largest integrative medicine conference with record-setting participation online and growing physician communities around the world.
He is an in - demand speaker and impresario, being featured on TEDMED, HuffPostLive and TEDx, as well as lecturing for physician audiences around the world. His new company, HealCommunity, creates access to health for everyone by delivering virtual episodes of group care in partnership with doctors, clinics and health systems.
James Maskell shares why communities matter and what makes a community healthy.
He offers practical guidance about how we can build a strong community around us and how that affects our health and well-being, develop our ability to cope with life, and live in a way that is life affirming.
James also talks about why healthcare in groups is superior to one-on one-care and the reason why functional medicine is so expensive and not the standard of care.
Let’s hear about this important topic.
Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.
Get James Maskell’s FREE audiobook, “The Community Cure”:
https://thecommunitycure.com/audiobook
Download Your Copy Today, Get Bonuses & Instructions
On How To Play Your Part In The Movement
What is the best way to get to the root cause of a health issue?
Many people will opt for the latest fad diet or “treatments” rather than doing a thorough assessment. However, there is a better way to find the source of your health issues.
We have so much information out there about how to care for our health. And yet, most of us don’t know which tests are the right ones to do.
Our guest for this episode, Dr. Carrie Jones, shares her expertise and experience in using hormone tests to pinpoint problems and get people on the path to better health.
Dr. Carrie Jones, is a Naturopathic Doctor, FABNE, MPH is an internationally recognized speaker, consultant, and educator on the topic of women's health and hormones.
Recently, Dr. Jones became board certified through the American Board of Naturopathic Endocrinology. She was an adjunct faculty for many years, teaching gynecology and advanced endocrinology/fertility.
While in practice, Dr. Jones served as Medical Director for 2 large integrative clinics in Portland. Most recently, she joined Lifestyle Matrix Resource Center as the Clinical Expert serving the SOS Stress Recovery Program and is the Medical Director for Precision Analytical Inc.
Dr. Jones also explains why it’s essential to do all the blood work tests and to look at what’s going on under the hood when you have a health issue.
Let’s hear more about hormones and why it matters that you get the right tests for your unique health situation.
We hope this episode will inspire you to get to the root cause of your health issues. Test, don’t guess!
Sign up for DUTCH Digest and receive the following for FREE:
Monthly hormone education
Upcoming conferences and lectures
The latest on DUTCH research
Head over to this link:
https://dutchtest.com/
How do we overcome anxiety and achieve our goals?
This is a question I hear all the time, and my guest today, Dr. Chloe Carmichael, shares her tips for harnessing your anxiety, so you can get to your dreams and live your best life. She will walk you through her process of developing a strategy to overcome your anxieties.
I’m sure we all have a story where we’ve overcome something in our past that held us back from succeeding. But you can’t expect to succeed if you don’t take your anxiety in check. I’m going to share a few strategies that have helped me get my anxiety under control.
One of the most helpful things I’ve learned to help me stop thinking about things that don’t matter and stop myself from getting anxious about things that don’t need to be stressed out about is the practice of mindfulness.
If you’re wondering what mindfulness is, it’s the practice of being fully present at the moment. That’s what helps me stay calm, clear and centered because it allows me to be aware of what I’m feeling without getting caught up in it.
You can use mindfulness to help get yourself out of negative emotions, and it’s a great way to combat anxiety. And if you’re having trouble with anxiety, it can be a lot of help.
Dr. Chloe shares her story about how she has learned to harness her own anxiety to help others feel more confident and relaxed.
Her book, Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety, details her stepwise approach to evolving beyond current limitations. Dr. Chloe is an Advisory Board member for Women’s Health Magazine, a featured expert for Psychology Today and has been featured on VH1, Inside Edition, ABC Nightline, the New York Times, Forbes, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and more.
She explains how we can all learn to be less judgmental of ourselves and to accept ourselves the way we are.
Check out this episode if you want to learn how you can harness your anxiety for success.
Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.
Get this for FREE:
Dr. Chloe’s Carmichael Insiders Club 7-Day FREE Access
https://www.drchloe.com/insider-s-club-free-gift-checkout
How to live a wild, healthy and fulfilled life at midlife and beyond?
The first step is to accept where we are at this moment. We are all going through an internal transformation, but it doesn’t have to be a painful one. You don’t have to spend your whole life in a state of pain and suffering.
Our guest for this episode, Dani Williamson is a functional medicine specialist who helps women at midlife experience radical healing and live wild and well. Her TN based practice, Integrative Family Medicine, uses specialized testing to identify the root causes of symptoms and disease and reverse them naturally.
Dani knows firsthand the role that adverse childhood events and mental health play in chronic health conditions and is on the board of the Middle Tennessee chapter of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. Her book Wild & Well: Dani’s 6 Common Sense Steps to Radical Healing is available for preorder on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.
We talk about how we can take better care of ourselves during this age, but also how we can work on our relationship with self-care. We discuss how to stop trying to force yourself to do things you don’t want to do and start focusing on what you want and need to do in your life. We explore the steps that we can take to be more in balance and harmony.
Let’s hear about this awesome topic. Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.
Get Dani’s Food Swapping List for free! Swap as if your life depended on it. https://daniwilliamson.com/
There's a lot of misinformation out there about hormones like estrogen. But the truth is, estrogen is your best friend at midlife!
Learn how this amazing hormone can help you feel more confident with age, helps reduce symptoms of menopause, improves vaginal health and promotes bone and heart health.
So how can you get rid of those fears?
Our guest for this episode, Dr. Sharon Stills, is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor who is known for her successful treatment of both early and advanced stage Breast Cancer and was featured in the Cancer Prevention Summit sharing her expertise on menopause, estrogen and breast cancer.
Let’s hear about this fascinating topic. Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.
Get the FREE e-book: 5 Myths about Menopause
Click this link: https://exciting-trader-6042.ck.page/99bb17f7a7
How to lose weight and keep it off for women at midlife?
We’ve all heard that fasting is a great way to lose weight and keep it off. But how is intermittent fasting different from other diets? How can it help women at midlife?
If you’re looking to lose weight at midlife, fasting is a simple way to reset your hormones and jumpstart your metabolism.
In this episode, we’ll learn about how you can stay motivated to keep up the intermittent fasting regimen and how you can make it work for you.
Our guest for this episode, Cynthia Thurlow, shares her story of weight loss and how she used intermittent fasting as part of her overall lifestyle change.
She gives some helpful tips about how to make sure that your weight loss plan is sustainable and how to avoid some common mistakes that people make when they try intermittent fasting.
Cynthia Thurlow is the CEO and founder of the Everyday Wellness Project, nurse practitioner, international speaker, and globally recognized expert in intermittent fasting and nutritional health. Her TEDx talk, Intermittent Fasting, a Transformative Technique, has over 10 million views. Cynthia has been featured on ABC, FOX5, KTLA, CW, and in Medium and Entrepreneur.
Cynthia's mission is to educate women on the benefits of intermittent fasting and overall holistic health and wellness, so they feel empowered to live their most optimal lives.
If you’re looking for a midlife weight loss plan, I highly recommend this episode.
Let’s listen to what Cynthia Thurlow has to say!
Get your FREE gift here:
https://cynthiathurlow.com/free-downloads/
What’s wrong with me? Why can’t you lose weight?
You’ve probably heard all kinds of theories about why it’s so hard to lose weight. From your genes to your metabolism, it can feel like there are no easy answers. And while a lot of the blame is on the person losing weight, you can’t lose weight if you’re not willing to take responsibility for yourself.
Our guest for today, Dr. Beth Westie, is a chiropractor who, through her own health journey, discovered the power of nutrition to balance hormones and developed the concept of eating for your cycle. She is the author of the Best Selling book, The Female Fat Solution, the creator of the 12-Week Female Fat Solution Challenge, the Eat for Your Cycle™ Method, and the host of The Female Health Solution Podcast.
She has made it her mission to change the way women view their health. Traveling around the country to educate and empower women to take their health into their own hands, she uses nutrition to help women work with the natural cycle of their bodies to achieve lasting weight loss results.
Get your FREE gift:
Over 80 Recipes Specifically Designed To Match Each Phase Of Your Cycle
https://drbethwestie.com/recipes-for-your-cycle-cookbook/
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
What is binge-eating? How can we stop binging? Why does this happen to some people? And what can we do about it?
We all want to be happy and have a good relationship with food. But there is a difference between having a healthy relationship with food and having an unhealthy relationship with food. When we binge and obsess about food, we are not living in alignment with our values. The key to stopping binging and obsessing is to become aware of what you are thinking and feeling about food.
Our guest for this episode, Dr. Glenn Livingston, a psychologist and former Fortune 500 food industry insider who got out of the food prison of obsession and binging and overcame obesity by identifying the brain triggers and pathways that fuel our compulsive eating and developing a program to reverse this pattern. He has completed research on over 40,000 individuals that clarified this pathway as well as the successful way out. He has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Sun Times, ABC, CBS and more.
Dr. Glenn shares his approach to food, and what it means to get out of the food jail.
Grab a copy of the "Never Binge Again" e-book:
https://www.neverbingeagain.com/free-book/
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
We all have energy blocks that hold us back from being the best version of ourselves.
When you’re in an energetic state of health, it’s very possible that you’ll feel like everything’s just going great, and nothing can go wrong. However, when things don’t go so well in your life, whether that’s something small or large, that feeling of “not being able to turn it around”, can be overwhelming.
Energy work is one of the most powerful ways to create lasting change in your life. It can help you heal from trauma, break addictions, get out of a relationship, attract a new partner, and much more.
Our guest for this episode, Dr. Louise Swartswalter, shares her story of how she was stuck in a rut, and how she got out of it. She shares her journey of self-discovery and the steps she took to clear her energy blocks and get back on track.
Dr. Louise Swartswalter, has helped transform lives individually and in groups using a unique multi- dimensional approach including Naturopathy, biofeedback, trauma release work, NLP, life coaching and energy work. Louise is the owner and founder of the Brain- Soul Success Academy and the creator of the BRAIN system TM, a five step transformational program serving clients worldwide. She is passionate about connecting; clearing blocks to success and helping others achieve their optimal health and highest potential.
She enjoys speaking and teaching globally and has shared with audiences on KOB-TV, Good Day New Mexico, KOB radio, as well as at events and professional organizations.
Let’s hear about the tools that Dr. Louise used in her practice and learn how to clear your energy blocks and start living your best life.
We’ll also explore how our emotions influence our energy and how to balance them in order to create positive change in our lives.
Dr. Louise has a FREE gift:
Brain-Soul Success Assessment
Click the link below:
https://www.louiseswartswalter.com/brain-soul-success-assessment/
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Do you ever feel guilty about not being ‘people-pleasing’ enough? Millions of people do, all over the world.
People-pleasing is the desire to be liked by others. It can cause people to overcompensate by doing things they think will make them look good, but which actually make them look bad. This is called “doing what you think, rather than what you know.” It’s very common at midlife and in menopause, because it makes us feel good about ourselves and gives us the sense that we are important and valued. However, it can have some negative side effects on our health.
In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, I interviewed Carmen Hunter about her story of significant experience of betrayal and abandonment to saying no and bringing back that power and honoring what was best for herself. She explains how the habit of people-pleasing can affect our health, and offers some suggestions for how to break this bad habit. Carmen Hunter has over 10 years of health coaching and has been educating and mentoring wellness practitioners for 7 years. She believes that diagnoses are symptoms of a larger health condition and that helping people get well depends on getting back to the basics of health without overwhelming them physically, mentally and emotionally.
Carmen offers practical solutions to these issues and shares her own personal experience in this area. This topic is essential for anyone who struggles with being people-pleasing. You will learn how to take back control of your life and feel better about yourself!
As with all my interviews, I hope that you will enjoy listening to Carmen Hunter’s insights and tips. I am sure that you will find them thought-provoking, informative, and useful.
Carmen Hunter offers a FREE mini-video series about “The Seven Essentials” every human being needs to begin a health journey that feels manageable physically, mentally, financially and emotionally.
Click this link: https://learn.instituteforfunctionalhealthcoaching.com/seven-essentials/
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In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, our guest, Dr. Tara Scott, explains why Natural Hormones are essential in Midlife and how they can be used to enhance physical and emotional well-being.
Dr. Tara Scott, Hormone Guru, helps people find the cause of their symptoms and get them on a path to optimal health. With over 25 years of experience and 3 board certifications in OB/GYN, Functional medicine and Integrative medicine, Dr. Scott has helped thousands of patients struggling with hormone issues including endometriosis, breast cancer, weight gain and more.
Dr. Tara Scott dives deep into the ways that these hormones affect our body, our mood, our libido and how they influence our relationships with other people. We’ll also know what happens when our hormones change over time, as they do throughout life. She also explains why there is such a lack of information regarding the use of these hormones (especially Testosterone) and offers some solutions to this problem.
This is an essential topic for women at midlife who have been feeling unwell, or who are experiencing the menopause transition. As with all my interviews, I hope that you will enjoy listening to Dr. Scott’s insights and comments. I am sure that you will find them thought-provoking, informative, and useful.
Register to Dr. Tara's "Revitalize Academy" and learn more!
https://academy.revitalizemed.com/
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Have you ever thought about why we age so fast? Have you ever heard about methylation dysfunction and wondered why it happens to you?
Methylation is a process that occurs in every living cell, and it plays a very important role in the development of our body. If methylation functions properly, our body will be able to repair and rejuvenate itself naturally. However, if it malfunctions, aging will happen quickly. Furthermore, methylation defect affects DNA in the body and makes you look older and fatter. It’s a genetic disorder that leads to weight gain, fatigue, and depression. DNA is a living substance, and it also contains the information needed for life. The human body has the ability to keep its own cells alive, but it cannot repair and rejuvenate itself. If DNA is damaged, it cannot be repaired, and our bodies will become old and sick.
Dr. Kendra shares her story that led her to studies and research about healing through genetics and specialties in treatment of challenging conditions such as asthma, autism, allergies, and eczema, as well as fertility. She is most passionate about genetic methylation defects as it almost prevented her from becoming a mother.
Let’s hear about her inspirational journey and learn more about methylation defects.
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"We all have two lives to live. The second one begins when you realize you only have one." Confucius
This quote helps my guest, Dr. Patrick Hanaway, creates a positive and new outlook on life by getting people into the natural world and being able to feel it and move towards deeper aspects of healing.
Dr. Patrick Hanaway's main efforts are to transform medical practice, through education, research and clinical care. He is a family physician with expertise in Functional Medicine and leadership who has served as Co-Chair of IFMs Expert Advisory Board, Past President of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, Executive Committee for the American Board of Integrative Medicine, and was the founding Medical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.
Dr. Hanaway is also an initiated [indigenous healer] by the Huichol people of the Sierra Madres and offers traditional healing ceremonies. He is a recipient of the Linus Pauling Award for his pioneering work.
Let’s hear his amazing journey and learn more about how shamanic healing can help to fix your hormones.
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Dr. Amie Hornaman, known as The Thyroid-Fixer, is on a mission to help thyroid patients recover around the world. After her own experience of insufferable symptoms, misdiagnoses, and improper treatment, Dr. Amie set out to help others on the same dead-end medical roller coaster.
Learn more about why your thyroid labs lie and how to understand your optimal blood biomarkers to help you make more informed decisions about your diet, lifestyle, fitness, and supplement choices.
Check the symptoms of Hypothyroidism and know your optimal thyroid values in this free checklist:
https://amie-hornaman.mykajabi.com/opt-in
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“Athletics and fitness have always been a centerpiece of my life. I’m passionate about pursuing peak performance forever, inspiring others to do the same, and having fun along the way!” - Brad Kearns
Brad Kearns, a New York Times bestselling author, Guinness World Record holder, #1 ranked USA high jumper, former US national champion, and #3 world-ranked professional triathlete who teaches peak performance techniques to help others heal and grow physically and personally throughout life, helps women at midlife become a Modern Day MOFO and create a longcut to a longer life in another informative and enlightening episode of Her Brilliant Health Revolution.
Subscribe to the Brad Kearns newsletter and get the following:
Becoming A Modern Day MOFO eBook,
Amazing Feet's e-book,
Longcuts To A Longer Life e-book,
The Keto Reset Diet Recipe Sampler, and 20% off any Primal Blueprint online multimedia educational course!
Head over to this link:
https://bradkearns.com/
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What is Biohacking? How to biohack your health at midlife and what are the benefits?
In this episode, Dr. Lisa Koche, a triple-board certified medical doctor who specializes in anti-aging, regenerative, bio-hacking, and functional medicine, a truth-seeker paving the way for access to unbiased science and medical freedom at her clinic Spectra Wellness Solutions clinic, and the author of "Get Lit and Become A Biohacker" sheds light on biohacking for better health.
For a limited time only, you can get a digital download copy of Dr. Koche’s Book – Becoming a Biohacker – at no cost to you.
https://spectrawellness.com/
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We are all about hormones, but gut health ties into the hormones directly with your cortisol.
Last time Steven Wright, a gut health specialist and the founder of healthygut.com, spent close to $400, 000 to overcome his own health challenges, trained at the Kalish Functional Medicine Institute shared his knowledge about the importance of gut health to overall health and his journey from battling with health challenges to becoming a healthy Gut Specialist.
In this episode, Steven dives deep into leaky gut repair when probiotics and enzymes fail.
Tributyrin-X™ a Revolutionary Professional Grade Postbiotic, is the best postbiotic for restoring your gut health and getting back to the life you want.
Use coupon code: drk15tx for $15 OFF + Free Shipping at checkout until midnight PST of Sep 30, 2021.
Head over to this link: www.healthygut.com/drk15tx
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One of the most difficult parts of life’s journey is experiencing the changes that come with age. Modern medical science brings new hope to women, with groundbreaking therapies that restore natural energy, sex drive, and assist with weight loss.
Peptide therapy is one of the newest options for health and wellness to reverse disease and aging. Being so new, a lot of people may not know about peptide treatments.
Dr. Amber Krogsrud, a Licensed Naturopathic Doctor at My Bright Wellness and Medical Director for KIYA Longevity, trained in regenerative medicine, detoxification protocols, hormone testing and treatment, bioidentical hormone therapy, peptide therapy, and IV nutrient therapy, has a practice in Redondo Beach, CA where she specializes in bio-identical hormones and peptide therapy, a member of the International Peptide Society (IPS) and has completed peptide therapy certification training through the American Academy of Anti-aging (A4M), shares about these powerful peptides, kind of an overview of the options and its benefits.
FREE Peptide Playbook Ebook:
www.peptideplaybook.com
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James Barry's 16 + years in the culinary field started as a private chef. His inauguration into restaurant-style cooking came later when he was the vegan/vegetarian chef on the Vans Warped Tour, which traveled to 50 North American cities in 60 days. Upon returning to Los Angeles, James continued to be a private chef and had the fortune of cooking for celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Mariska Hargitay, George Clooney, Gerard Butler, Sean Puffy Combs, Barbra Streisand, and John Cusack. Not wanting to limit the audience of his healthy and tasty style of cooking, James started Wholesome2Go, a healthy, high-quality food delivery company that served under his leadership in the Los Angeles area for 8 years. Most recently, James launched his first functional food product, Pluck, an organ-based, all-purpose seasoning. It's the first of its kind and an amazingly easy and delicious way to get organ meats into your diet.
He also co-authored the recipes in Margaret Floyd's book 'Eat Naked' and co-authored the follow-up cookbook 'The Naked Foods Cookbook'. He most recently co-authored the recipes in Dr. Alejandro Jungers book, 'Clean 7'.
James Barry dives deep into the benefits of Pluck, the process along with it, nutrient density, organ meat, and more in this episode.
Get a taste of ‘Pluck’ - Nutrition in a pinch!
10% off products - HER10 - https://eatpluck.com/discount/HER10
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Beth O'Hara is a Functional Naturopath, specializing in complex chronic immune conditions related to Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and Histamine Intolerance. She is the founder and owner of Mast Cell 360, a Functional Naturopathy Practice designed to look at all factors surrounding health conditions genetic, epigenetic, biochemical, physiological, environmental, and emotional.
In this episode, Dr. Beth O’Hara will be the guiding light of others regarding Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and mold toxicity and how it affects our overall health and healing journeys.
"7 Most Common Root Causes in Mast Cell Activation Syndrome" written just for you!
https://mastcell360.com/freereport/
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Jonathan Bailor is the Founder, CEO, and Executive Chef of the Inc 500 fastest growing metabolic healing and Diabesity treatment company SANE Solution. He is the creator of the field of Wellness Engineering and authored the New York Times bestseller The Calorie Myth and The Setpoint Diet, starred in and produced the award-winning movie BETTER, has registered over 26 patents, and has been a frequent speaker at Fortune 100 companies and TED conferences for over a decade. Unpack the trending self-help topics of vulnerability, shame, and body image, as well as offering easy-to-understand whole food choices that make sense. Learn more about evidence-based health content that compassionately deals not just with the body, but also the mind and spirit. Jonathan’s gift is the ability to help you easily understand your health and untangle your diabetes, weight, and metabolic problems so that you can heal, lose weight, and feel amazing.
Get FREE recipes and food lists instantly by signing up here:
https://bettermovie.com/
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“Your nutrient intake and your fitness are more powerful risk factors for heart disease than your cholesterol level.” - Dr. Steven Masley
Steven Masley, MD, is a physician, nutritionist, trained chef, and creator of a top PBS health program; 30 Days to a Younger Heart. His latest best-selling book The 30-Day Heart Tune-Up gives you a plan to prevent and reverse heart disease. Seen by millions on PBS, the Discovery Channel, The Today show, and others, Dr. Masley has the right “recipe” for you to prevent or reverse heart disease while having fun and eating delicious food!
This guide will keep your kitchen well-stocked and organized to help you on your own Mediterranean cooking journey.
It can be found here: https://drmasley.com/med-method-kitchen-guide/
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What is a soulmate? What is the unknown secret to relationship success everyone needs to know?
Arielle Ford is the leading personal growth and spiritually based love and relationship expert, who has been living, teaching, and promoting consciousness through all forms of media for over 25 years. Her mission is to help people find love, keep love and most importantly, be love.
Arielle is a gifted writer and the author of 11 books including the international bestseller, THE SOULMATE SECRET: Manifest The Love of Your Life With The Law of Attraction. She is also the author of Turn Your Mate Into Your Soulmate devoted to exploring a simple, fun, and effective way to attain groundbreaking shifts in perception so that you can embrace and find the beauty and perfection in yourself and your mate.
She has been called "The Cupid of Consciousness" and "The Fairy Godmother of Love." whatever stage of life you are in or whatever relationship status you have, Arielle can help you experience the love that is your birthright.
Learn more about how to keep the spark alive and thriving in your relationship in this episode.
Get her free online dating guide at www.arielleford.com/kiss
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“Take care of your body. It's the only place you have to live.” - Jim Rohn
Our greatest temple is our body so it’s vital to take care of our bodies.
Dr. Eric Osansky, a Chiropractor Clinical Nutritionist, and Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner shares how to recover from thyroid and autoimmune thyroid conditions. He is the author of natural treatment solutions for hyperthyroidism and graves' disease and Hashimoto's triggers.
Let us know more about Hyperthyroidism, Hypothyroidism, and Hashimoto’s and how it can affect your overall health in this episode.
Get your Graves' disease and Hashimoto's Triggers Action Points Checklist:
http://thyroidchecklist.com
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Survivors of trauma are everywhere among us, sometimes in our own families. Whether the trauma involved witnessing or experiencing a violent event, surviving a natural disaster, returning home after serving our country as a member of the armed forces in an area of intense, unrelenting combat, struggling to come to grips with life after prolonged domestic or partner abuse, or trying to put the pieces back together after childhood years of physical and/or sexual abuse, neglect or abandonment, the result is the same: trying to mend a life shattered by trauma.
This episode’s guest, Dr. Aimie Apigian, specializes in helping people overcome the effects that negative psychological life experiences have on their physical health. She understands that the missing link preventing people from healing physically arises from adverse emotional events as the founder and CEO of trauma healing accelerated and the biology of trauma coach training program. She helps people and experts alike, truly understand this missing link and how to properly address it to allow healing to occur.
Looking for peace and calm in the middle of the storm? You have come to the right place. Dr. Aimee created this free 16-page introductory ebook to not only understand attachment trauma but to accelerate the healing journey.
Get it here: https://traumahealingaccelerated.mykajabi.com/attachment-trauma-ebook
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You might think that you don’t have a problem with gut, but all diseases begin in the gut. Today’s guest, Steven Wright, a gut health specialist and the founder of healthygut.com, spent close to $400, 000 to overcome his own health challenges. He trained at the Kalish Functional Medicine Institute and is passionate about sharing his knowledge on the importance of gut health to overall health with others. Let’s hear his journey from battling health challenges to becoming a healthy gut specialist, sharing his knowledge with other people.
Restore your gut and transform your life, becoming your best self from the inside out.
Here are your coupon links which for $15 off and free shipping in the United States.
Tributyrin X: healthygut.com/drktrix
HoloZyme: healthygut.com/drkholo
HCL Guard+: healthygut.com/drkhcl
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Today’s guest is a leading couples psychologist, Dr. Sarah Rattray helps disconnected couples approaching their empty nest to rekindle their relationship. As the founder of the Couples Communication Institute, she assists couples in achieving lasting closeness and intimacy through effective communication. Dr. Rattray shares the essential keys to reviving the passion in a relationship through couples' communication.
Is your communication hurting or helping?
Discover your Communication Connection Score.
Take this quick FREE quiz to find out and learn what to do in your relationship. Head over to this link:
https://couplescommunicationinstitute.com/communication-quiz/
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Today’s guest, Kela Smith, a fitness trainer and a wellness educator shares her own journey through healing infertility naturally. She authored "The Hormone Puzzle Method: Solving Infertility Workbook" and "The Complete Hormone Puzzle Cookbook". Kela is the founder of "The Hormone Puzzle Society", a women's health hub for women needing assistance with fertility and hormones. And she hosts "The Hormone Puzzle Podcast" as well as several globally attended online courses.
Learn more about balancing hormones so you can optimize your fertility and thrive in menopause in this episode.
*Please note that Cycle Syncing is a Registered Trademark of Alisa Vitti, who coined the term in her book The Woman Code, and is used in this podcast under Descriptive Fair Use as defined by article 15 U.S.C. § 1115(b)(4), in the United States Patent and Trademark Office and is not being used for any advertisement or sales of any items, solely for educational purposes.
Cycle Optimizing Quick-Start Guide
Fertility Meal Plan
Holistic Nutritional Healing Guide
Get it all for FREE here:
https://coachkela.com/
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Today’s guest, Dr. Carolyn Messere, a former colon, and rectal surgeon shares her drastic awakening about the truth of her role as a physician that transformed her health, her life, and her career. Her journey speaks volumes about essential tasks in life that women must overcome to heal and achieve the brilliant health that is their birthright. She is also a Peak Performance Coach, Workshop Leader, and Communications Expert and supports busy professionals to help them have more energy, better moods, and a healthy body. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Today’s guest, Dr. Sam Shay, DC, IFMCP helps busy health-conscious entrepreneurs obtain and sustain high performance so that they can create more freedom for themselves and others. He will talk about genetic code and weight loss. He is trained in chiropractic functional and acupuncture medicine and he helps people to determine their unique genetic code for successful weight loss, his new book, your missing genes, the revolutionary method, define your ideal diet, the balanced weight, and help stop the clock on the effects of aging details. The three different ways to successfully lose weight based on your genetics.
Your Missing Genes: Your revolutionary method to find your ideal diet, the balanced weight, and help "Stop-the-Clock" of the effects of aging
Get it here: https://drsamshay.com/genetics/
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Today’s guest, Dr. Shayna Peter, a functional medicine doctor and holistic dermatology specialist who has helped hundreds of people treat the root cause of their skin problems and the author of “It's Not Just Acne" which examines the root causes of stubborn midlife acne and how to treat it will provide her knowledge and insights about acne and how it is connected to other midlife health problems that need to be addressed.
Receive the First 2 Chapters of “It’s Not Just Acne” Book
Plus get her cheat sheet “Top 5 Foods That Guarantee Acne Flare-Ups”
https://itsnotjustacne.com/gifts/
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Aging is natural, but so is regeneration. You just have to show your cells the way to go and give them what they need to support you. In this episode, we will learn about ART - Amplified Regenerative Therapies and how to use them to turn back your biological clock.
For three decades Dr. Robyn Benson has helped women turn back their biological clock at the Santa Fe Soul Center for Optimum Health. Using the best of the ART of medicine, that’s Amplified Regenerative Therapies, Robyn has helped women reverse incontinence, sexual dysfunction, joint pain, and the advanced aging that can cause us to look and feel poorly as we age.
FREE ebook:
The 5 Pathways to Youthful Aging
Youthful Aging is a Choice with Regenerative Medicine and Other Pathways – Live Amplified, Youth Restored, Joints Regenerated, Hormonal & Sexual Health Revived!
Link to download:
https://robynbenson.com/gift/
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Our guest for today, Dr. Beverly Yates, an MIT graduate and Naturopathic Doctor with over 27 years of experience helping people solve chronic health problems. She is internationally recognized for her work as diabetes and heart disease expert. She has helped thousands of people get control of their blood sugar levels and transform their lifestyles to be more energetic, focused, and love the way they live. Learn more about the truth about diabetes, how it is affecting women’s health, and the naturopathic methods and changes to unhealthy habits.
Your FREE Download: A Blueprint For Using Nutrition to Thrive with Diabetes
https://bit.ly/blueprint-diabetes-nutrition-secrets
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Our guest for today’s episode, Susan Bratton, a Trusted Intimacy Wellness Expert To Millions of people of all ages, helping them turn “ho-hum” or “nevermind” intimacy into something satisfying and meaningful. She’s the author of 34 books and programs, an award-winning speaker, and an entrepreneur whose ideas have helped millions of people of all ages transform sex into passion. Known as the “Marriage Magician” on tv, Susan is the CEO of two companies, Personal Life Media, an online publication where you can find information about everything from sex and intimacy to finding pleasure during menopause, and the 20 LLC, a line of libido-boosting supplements. Susan is here to help you learn how to turn menopause into menopleasure.
Free eBook “The Sexual Soulmate Pact” Download Plus Soulmate Tips
http://sexualsoulmatepact.com
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Our guest for today, Dr. Amy Day, the founder of The Women's Vitality Center which provides effective, experienced, and compassionate care, using an integrated treatment approach that blends nutrition, fitness, lifestyle counseling, stress management, nutritional supplements, botanical medicines, and bioidentical hormones to help women at midlife heal and experience the optimum vitality that she deserves will tell us about Perimenopause - what it is, how it affects women's lives, why it's important to get/stay healthy in your 40s, and how to help smooth the ride.
Recording of perimenopause 101 workshop
https://womensvitalitycenter.com/workshop-perimenopause-101/
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Today’s guest Amy Stark, an author, speaker, teacher, licensed massage therapist, trained Reiki Master, Reconnective Healer, E.F.T Practitioner, and host of the Ophelia Podcast will tell us about energy medicine and its importance to midlife healing. She is committed to creating happier and healthier lives full of joy and purpose.
Sign up for her newsletter and receive How to Clear Your Energy!, as well as, 11 Ways To Increase Your Energy! Plus, tips on how to shift your mindset and transform your health.
www.starktransformation.com
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Our guest for today, Dr. Deb Matthew MD, The Happy Hormones Doctor, is the best-selling author of “This is not normal: a busy women’s guide to symptoms of hormone imbalance and Why can’t I keep up anymore” will tell us about the hormone mistakes that keep metabolism stuck. Keeping your metabolism high is crucial for losing weight and keeping it off. However, several hormone mistakes may slow down your metabolism so it’s very important for us to know about it to avoid or minimize them as much as possible.
Grab the FREE Ebook, “This is NOT Normal! A Busy Woman's Guide to Symptoms of Hormone Imbalance” at www.IsItYourHormones.com
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Our guest for today, Sarah Phillipe, a registered nurse, a certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner, True Cellular Detox™ Practitioner, and Breast Implant Illness Expert will address all of the root causes that contribute to chronic illness, particularly reversing breast implant illness. We will learn from her how breast implants affect our hormones. Sarah believes that the body has an innate desire to heal if given what it needs, and she focuses on teaching women how to unlock that innate intelligence and heal themselves.
Neurotoxic Questionnaire she uses with all her clients to assess their level of toxicity: https://reversingbreastimplantillness.com/optin
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Passionate about helping others to free themselves from digestive issues and chronic illness to get back to who they truly are, Sinclair Kennally a certified Toxicity and Detox Specialist, our guest for today’s episode will share the truth behind detox myths and how toxins are the root cause of our health epidemics today.
Find out if you need to detox and get some tips on how to begin.
Free quiz: https://vision-nation.com/pages/free-gift
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65% of blindness occurs in older women. A staggering and preventable statistic. Your eyes are not only the windows to your soul but also to your health.
My guest today will shed some light on the vital importance of your overall health to preventing vision loss and preserving this vital capacity as you age. Called America’s Integrative Eye Doctor, Dr. Rudrani Banik is an integrative ophthalmologist who uses validated nutritional and lifestyle approaches to improve vision and brain health. Dr. Rani knows that blindness is preventable by using natural strategies to correct the diseases that cause it.
Enjoy clear vision for a lifetime! Download Dr. Banik’s ebook, “6 Secrets to Eye Health.” https://rudranibanikmd.com/6-ways-to-supercharge-your-vision
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Living in a parasympathetic state is key to our vitality. This is a state where all systems are in balance and the body has enough resources to heal itself. One powerful tool to switch to the parasympathetic mode is essential oils. My guest today, Vibrant Blue Oils founder and author of Healing with Oils Jodi Cohen, spills the secrets to harnessing the power of these tiny substances to make your brain and your body unstoppable at midlife.
Free Ebook:
Download the Bonus Chapter of “Essential Oils to Boost the Brain and Heal The Body” to naturally turn on your body’s ability to heal!
https://boostthebrainbook.com/gift/
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Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum is the founder of Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, an educator, and a licensed clinical psychologist. With over 35-years of experience, she is an extraordinary pioneer who blends functional medicine principles with positive psychology cognitive behaviour therapy. Research shows that no matter which culture you come from, we each have 24 birth strengths that we can choose to take with us into life. Dr. Sandra discusses how being mindful allows us to use these strengths in a way that benefits our overall wellbeing and allows us to achieve our health goals.
In her conversation with Dr. Kyrin Dunston, Dr. Sandra gives a fascinating insight into the root cause resolution approach and how we consider psychology. She discusses the unbreakable spirits of women and the positive psychology that makes them antifragile and encourages them to understand that they are not going to shatter and fall apart. Dr. Sandra talks about the powers of eternal optimism and positivity, and despite fears of the global pandemic, the sky really isn’t falling in. Listen to her talk about how we can each understand how healing emotions directly correlates to our own bodies and health.
Free Ebook:
A Simple Guide to Relaxation Through Breathing
https://functionalmedicinecoaching.org/guide-to-relaxation/
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Permanent weight gain can begin early and continue beyond midlife - if you don’t know how to prevent it. Staying hydrated can greatly contribute to increased metabolism. My guest today, Dr. Dana Cohen, renowned for her commitment to finding the root of dysfunction in the body and providing holistic protocols that effectively restore balance and well-being, will tell us the role of water in midlife metabolism.
Sign up at www.drdanacohen.com and receive the Heal Up One-Day Meal Prep Guide.
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If we break a leg, we wear a cast until the bone heals. You don’t see people walking around in a cast saying they broke their leg 10 years ago. So why do we accept wearing corrective lenses forever? Just like a broken bone, you can heal your vision and my guest today is going to tell you how.
Our health is not age-related, but habit-related and our eyesight is no exception. Claudia Muehlenweg is a holistic vision coach who searches out the cause of our vision problems and works with people to improve their eyesight no matter what their age.
10 Habits for Healthy Happy Eyes https://www.naturallyclearvision.com/10habits
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Are you struggling with fasting and meal-plans that are designed for every body but yours? Do you want to learn the language of your hormones and unlock your ideal body? Our guest this week, Dr. Stephanie Estima, is a female metabolism and body composition expert whose insight into intuitive eating, fasting, sex, and orgasms will help you unlock your inner Goddess to get the body you desire.
Unlock Dr. Stephanie’s bonuses when you buy her new book, The Betty Body, released on February 16th. www.BettyBodyBook.com
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Most people believe that we have no control over our genetics. Some of us are “built” for running, others are “born” skinny, and there is nothing we can do about it. According to naturopathic physician Penny Kendall-Reed, our genes are just another tool that we can use to help us lose weight, combat stress, and improve our health. Find out what your genes can do for your health using her online genetic analysis platform GeneRx.ca.
If you are interested in trying Penny Kendall-Reed’s program, Gene RX, you can find the link at http://pkrhealth.ca/
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Stu Schaefer is a 20 year Award-Winning weight-loss coach who helps people reset their metabolism so that they lose weight effortlessly. In this episode, we talk to Stu about why your diet and exercise routine might actually be interfering with your ability to lose weight at midlife.
Most women are surprised to learn the correct exercise recommendations for them at midlife. Failure to adhere to scientific guidelines for diet and exercise can cause serious health consequences that may last a lifetime. Learn what neglected component of successful weight loss is essential and how to do it the right way. Also discover how to properly program your metabolism to actually let go of the pounds, even if your hormones are struggling.
Stu is offering access to his FREE metabolism quiz and ebook both of which will help you begin the journey to healing your metabolism and losing weight
https://stuschaefer.com/drkyrin/
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In women over 50, the symptoms of adrenal fatigue can often be confused with those of perimenopause and menopause. In this episode, Marcelle Pick sheds light on the differences between adrenal fatigue and menopause, and gives tips for dealing with stress and weight loss resistance. Marcelle Pick is a Nurse Practitioner and a certified Functional Medicine Practitioner who helps women deal with adrenal dysfunction, weight issues, stress, and illness.
If you want to learn more about adrenal fatigue, Marcelle is offering a FREE 58-page eBook on adrenal health when you sign up for her week-long Adrenal Solutions Summit.
CLICK HERE to get Marcelle's Ebook and join the summit!
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In this episode I share the key things I learned from losing weight and healing myself from chronic disease. These keys apply not just to weight but to all health and life problems. This journey was the stimulus for the creation of this podcast and my mission in life to help other women heal and achieve the brilliant health they deserve. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
What does it take to create an extraordinary life after 40?
Too often in our busy lives, we just think about the physical part – when we feel ill we just look at what’s outside but haven’t even thought of the emotional and spiritual aspect of our illness.
Having brilliant health is not just one thing – it involves all of the facets including the physical, mental, spiritual and emotional wellbeing.
Transformational Leadership coach Natalie Matushenko provides her insights, experience and tips on living an extraordinary life after 40 in this week’s podcast episode.
Key Notes:
· What does it take to create an extraordinary life after 40?
· How will it help women?
· Passion and purpose for women over 40
· 7 steps to finding your passion and purpose
Quotes:
“Hormones are there to have us go deeper and deeper within.” – Natalie Matushenko
“All physical illness is ultimately an emotional, energetic, spiritual illness.” – Dr. Kyrin
“If you don’t do the physical work, you’re not going to achieve physical health.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Our life experiences often lead us to having negative views of our life.” – Natalie Matushenko
Links Mentioned:
Natalie Matushenko’s website - https://nataliematushenko.com/
7 Steps to Living Your Purpose Masterclass - https://extraordinarylife.life/p/living-your-purpose
Extraordinary Life after 40 Summit - https://extraordinarylifeafter40.com
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The gap between the care that women are receiving from mainstream medicine for their menopausal issues and what is actually possible is a cavern that must be bridged.
Menopausal women have been relegated to making fun of and laughing at their plight as being overweight, tired, alcohol and chocolate dependent martyrs with no real purpose. This has got to stop!
With proper education, evaluation and treatment the most highly suffering menopausal women can lose the weight, regain her energy, have lovely moods and be sexy, confident and productive. She can have brilliant health and live an unlimited life.
It starts with a commitment to do so and the integrity to step out in a big way. Starting with Dr. Kyrin doing the same, which she discusses in this episode.
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At least 15% of adults will experience depression at some point in their lifetime. In many cases, the symptom of depression occurs as a direct result of specific imbalances present in the body that go undiagnosed due to the current medical paradigm of solely controlling the symptom with pharmaceutical drugs.
What if you could uncover, discover and address the underlying root cause of your depression and be free from this disabling symptom once and for all?
Dr. Achina Stein shares how her son went from preparing to jump to his death from a balcony to thriving in life by doing just this. Her heroic journey transformed her understanding of what true health and healing are and how they are created by addressing the root causes of disease.
Key Notes:
- Making a mental health illness diagnosis
- Factors that affect mental health
- Traditional medical treatment of depression with pharmacologics-is it really better than placebo?
- The role of root cause resolution or functional medicine in addressing mental health illness
Quotes:
“You can’t put a human being who’s very complex into a little box.”– Dr. Achina Stein
“Foods can be poison and food can sometimes heal.” – Dr. Achina Stein
“Your gut is your second brain.” – Dr. Kyrin
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Achina Stein’s website - https://www.achinasteindo.com/
What’s If It’s NOT Depression book - https://www.amazon.com/What-Its-NOT-Depression-Solutions-ebook/dp/B082BGWVD2
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Stem cells may hold the key to regenerating old and malfunctioning body parts. They are being used to regenerate body parts from new knee cartilage to youthful facial skin and in areas that might surprise you.
Double board-certified MD and author of the bestselling book The Hormone Secret, Dr. Tami Meraglia, shares her mastery of this new field of medicine and her experience as the CEO of US Stemology and Seattle Stem Cell Center, the leading stem cell treatment center in the US.
This is an exciting episode that opens new vistas for what is possible for your health.
Key Notes:
- What are stem cell treatments and what are they used for?
- The process of stem cell treatments
- Meditation on the effect of stem cell treatments
- What is the stem cell diet?
- Key factors to address before and after stem cell treatments.
Quotes:
“Your stem cells in your body are considered a drug.” – Dr. Tami Meraglia
“Your brain is the most greedy organ in your entire body.” – Dr. Tami Meraglia
“Your thoughts and feelings are internal pharmacists.” – Dr. Tami Meraglia
“A period of fasting increases the number of stem cells that you naturally have.” – Dr. Tami Meraglia
“Her brilliant health means women need to be the CEO of their own health.” – Dr. Tami Meraglia
“Brilliance is your birth right.” – Dr. Tami Meraglia
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Tami’s website - https://drtami.com/
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What does brilliant health mean to you?
99 episodes of expert sharing what her brilliant health is and how to create it. It is your birthright and unfortunately, not something readily available in your doctor’s office.
While the answer to “what does Her Brilliant Health mean to you?” differs from guest to guest, the goal remains the same – for you to experience the brilliant health that you deserve!
As we celebrate the 100th episode of the podcast, remember to celebrate YOU for taking the next big step towards your health. By realizing that you are a unique and unrepeatable jewel and treating yourself with the respect that you deserve, you can create a path to claim your birth right; brilliant health.
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Your gut is in the center of your body and is literally the center of your overall health status. If you suffer with overweight, lack of energy or any health problem, even if you don’t have gut symptoms, it’s likely that your GI tract is not optimally healthy.
A root cause resolution approach to health problems starts with identifying GI problems and healing them with natural treatments.
Functional Medicine Health Coach Laurie Seely tells you how to identify these problems and what to do about them so that you can experience the brilliant health that you deserve in this episode.
Key Notes:
- Common causes of suboptimal gut health
- Symptoms of gut candida and how to address it
- What questions your doctor should ask you about your gut health
- What your poop says about you
- Recommendations for intestinal healing
Quotes:
“Your body is made to poop after every meal.” – Dr. Kyrin
Links Mentioned:
Laurie’s website - https://laurieseely.com/
7 Steps to Kill Candida and Repair Your Gut https://laurieseely.com/7stepssp/
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Many people are unaware that human sex trafficking is a global problem and a local tragedy affecting young girls on US soil. Children you know and love, in your local community or social circles, may right now be affected.
But, if you don’t know the signs to look for you will likely miss it. And lose the opportunity to make a difference.
The effects of this specific type of female sexual abuse are particularly damaging and difficult to recover from. After being freed from this type of slavery, with the right assistance and rehabilitation, full recovery is possible.
Global Hope 365 CEO and founder, Rima Nashabishi, shares with you her personal story and her mission to raise awareness about human sex trafficking and how you can participate in this imperative to save lives.
Key Notes:
- The difference between prostitution and human sex trafficking
- Child marriage and legality in the United States
- Statistics on incidence of sex trafficking
- Signs to look for in children being trafficked or groomed
- How to can participate in helping this cause
Quotes:
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead
Links Mentioned:
https://www.globalhope365.org/
https://cacoalitiontoendchildmarriage.org/
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Louis Pasteur said that “Death begins in the colon”. And this is still true today. Your gut is the center of your body literally and is figuratively the center of your health. The most essential self-care you can practice is to love your gut.
Gut health is linked to all aspects of wellness and if you’re suffering with any symptoms or disease then, whether or not you have gut symptoms, you must know that you have gut issues that need to be addressed.
Dr. Vincent Pedre, Best Selling Author of Happy Gut, outlines what’s needed for this vital self-care practice. He connects the dots between gut health and mental health, autoimmune disease weight and energy issues and outlines a clear path to recovery.
Key Notes:
- How gut health is related to every aspect of your overall health
- What is the Bodymind and why is it important for your health.
- What is leaky gut and how does it wreck your health.
- The hidden causes of Irritable Bowel Disease
- Ways to discern the messages your gut is sending to you
- Why your gut is the gateway to your immunity
- Why your gut is the sexiest part of your body!
Quotes:
“The gut is the root system of the body; like the roots of a tree-it’s where all your nutrients get absorbed.” – Dr. Vincent Pedre
“We’ve abdicated our responsibility to health care providers and come to believe that it’s the doctor who fixes me with a drug.” - Dr. Kyrin
“I’m not the authority on your body, your body is.” Dr. Kyrin
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Vincent Pedre’s website - https://pedremd.com/
FREE gift - www.happygutlife.com/gift
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Immune system dysfunction is at an epidemic level with serious disability consequences. Mainstream treatments serve to shut the immune system down and fail to address the root cause. Until we address the fact that the immune system is trying to protect us from the toxic environment we live in we will not solve this problem.
New York Times Bestselling Author of The Automimmune Fix, Dr. Tom O’Bryan, explains the factors that incite your immune system to attack you and details the steps that you can take to stop this from happening.
Key Notes:
- Why chronic disease is an issue we can’t solve right now?
- How autoimmunity affects the brain function
- Practical tips to boost your immune and removing toxins in your home
Quotes:
“Your immune system is trying to protect you from wheat, cookies, ding dongs”
“We get so locked up into comfort because the world is so overwhelming for us like never before in history.”
“What is your immune system trying to protect you from?”
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Tom O’Bryan’s website
FREE Gift
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Chemicals in our environment now number over 85,000 and are affecting our health. Yet mainstream medicine doesn’t recognize or address the harmful and cumulative effects of these toxins on our health. Whether coming from your tap water, your food, your cosmetics or cleaning products, your furnishings or your home or car we are living in a sea of toxins that get into our cells and prevent them from functioning normally.
Healing and achieving optimum health requires a systematic approach to preventing these toxins from getting into our bodies and ushering them out. The Toxin Terminator, Aimee Carlson, helps us understand the 5 pillars of living a toxin free lifestyle eliminate toxins from our lives and our bodies so that we can enjoy the brilliant health that we deserve.
Key Notes:
- What are the most common toxins you can find in your home?
- How you can get rid of toxins?
- What are the 5 pillars of living a toxin free lifestyle?
- What should I focus on first within each pillar?
- Are there easy ways to know if this is something we should be paying attention to in our homes?
- What is Greenwashing?
- How to determine your level of toxicity?
Quotes:
“There is not a fix for EVERY body, it’s what works for YOUR body” – Aimee Carlson
“Fragrance is the new smoking.” - Aimee Carlson
“Her brilliant health means that you shine brightly.”- Aimee Carlson
Links mentioned:
Aimee’s website
Environmental Working Group’s website
Healthy Living App from Environmental Working Group
Think Dirty app
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The high failure rate of most weight loss programs demonstrates the fundamental fallacy that weight equals calories in minus calories out. But what is the missing key keeping you from shedding pounds and feeling great in your own skin?
A sluggish metabolism is the problem and one key organ is the controller that determines if your body will hold onto calories or burn them for fuel and energy.
New York Times Bestselling author of The Metabolism Reset Diet, Dr. Alan Christianson, clearly explains how to reset your metabolism and achieve successful “waist” loss by addressing this key organ.
Key Notes:
- What is metabolism and what determines it?
- What is metabolic flexibility?
- What organ holds the key to weight loss and improved energy?
- How do you begin to reset your metabolism?
Quotes:
“You want waist loss, not just weight loss.” - Dr. Alan Christianson
“Her brilliant health is joyously, vibrantly healthy.” - Dr. Alan Christianson
“We must separate health span and life span.” - Dr. Alan Christianson
Links Mentioned:
Website - https://www.drchristianson.com/
FREE Gift - https://metabolismresetdiet.com/challenge.php
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What do you do when your worst nightmare comes true regarding your children or in any area of life? Shut down and concede to what the “experts” say is your fate? Or tap into a strength you didn’t know was available and secure the promise of the outcome you desire?
Asking WWJD (What would JJ do?) helps you to view horrific life events from an elevated perspective and to bend the outcomes more to your liking. Triple-board certified nutrition expert, New York Times Bestselling Author and Fitness Hall of Famer JJ Virgin overcame life’s toughest challenge, fighting for her son’s life, by creating and maintaining a miracle mindset.
JJ’s success in all life arenas demonstrates the power of a miracle mindset. Her process is revolutionary and accessible to all. She tells you how to procure yours in today’s episode.
Key Notes:
- What is a miracle mindset and how to get yours
- Actions to take in the face of a tragedy
- How your mindset ties into your health
- Prioritizing self-care during the pandemic
- Why many of us have limiting beliefs and how to change them
Quotes:
“Prioritize your self-care in the face of adversity”
“Life is just a series of lessons. It’s research and development”
“You’re never better than when you’re challenged”
“Frame your day with positivity”
“Don’t blow up the life raft when you’re drowning”
“Ask for support”
“It’s not about forgiving them it’s about you freeing yourself”
“Step up and show up”
“Flip it from the victim side to the opportunity side”
“Be careful where you put your attention. What you focus on expands.”
“Grab a positivity lifeline.”
“Her brilliant health revolution – the big revolution is the shift to prevention in health.”
Links Mentioned:
Website - https://jjvirgin.com/
GIFT: 5 days to a warrior mom mindset - https://jjvirgin.com/gratitude
Bulletproof’s Dave Asprey’s Forgiveness and Brain Reiwring Program - https://40yearsofzen.com/
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If you’re believing that you’re tired because you’re older and that this is an acceptable fact of life then you have been misled.
If you’re tired there is something wrong that needs to be addressed.
Dr. Karyn Shanks tells you what problems to look for that lead to fatigue and how to begin fixing them now.
Key Notes:
- Symptoms of chronic fatigue-physical, emotional, spiritual
- How to develop your healing story and make it a reality
- Why letting go is the answer to healing
- The importance of love and connection
- How to nourish for vitality and balance
- Why uncovering the hidden meaning of chronic fatigue reveals it’s answers
Quotes:
“You can become your own healer” – Dr. Karyn Shanks
“Sleep is the essential Vitamin S” - Dr. Kyrin
“The diagnosis is a story that limits your healing” – Dr. Karyn Shanks
“Her brilliant health is bright, shiny women!” – Dr. Karyn Shanks
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Karyn Shanks’ website - https://karynshanksmd.com/
Your Healing Story e-book: https://www.karynshanksmd.com/store/your-healing-story/
Heal: A Nine-Stage Roadmap to Recover Energy, Reverse Chronic Illness, and Claim the Potential of a Vibrant New You: https://www.karynshanksmd.com/heal/
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Food sensitivities are the most common, unspoken of causes of illness. Getting tested to food that you are sensitive to is the key to finding it the hidden cause of your chronic disease/illness.
Holistic Health Practitioner, Certified Nutritional Therapist Reed Davis provides great insight and knowledge about food sensitivities. Information like this is empowering and this can also empower your body to take control of your health.
Key Notes:
· Difference between food sensitivities and food allergies
· Common chronic illnesses and diseases caused by food sensitivities
· Different methods of testing and its pros and cons
· What testing options are available?
Quotes:
“Food sensitivity reactions can be very hidden.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Your symptoms are not the problem.” – Reed Davis
“Her brilliant health is about taking responsibility for yourself.” – Reed Davis
Links Mentioned:
Functional Diagnostic Nutrition course - https://www.functionaldiagnosticnutrition.com/
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What wouldn’t you give to shed or lose extra weight?
Keto, paleo and the works – you might have already tried all the diet and exercise out there but your weight does not seem to stay off.
Find out what you’re missing and unlock the secret to successful weight loss.
Key Notes:
- Why diet and exercise will never be enough
- Reasons why the body retains fat and weight
- The science behind weight loss and burning fat
- What addressing the root cause of weight gain does for you
Quotes:
“Hormones are the communicators in your body.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Fat isn’t just decoration, it’s a storage unit for toxins.” – Dr. Kyrin
“You need the key to the fat jail and that’s your nutritional resources.” – Dr. Kyrin
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PMS, irregular and painful menstrual cycles are so common that we’ve all come to believe that this is “normal” when it is not. We’ve also come to believe that suppressing our natural hormones with synthetic and potentially toxic birth control pills is the answer when it is not the healthy choice in the long run.
Guest Expert Nicole Jardim, Certified Women’s Health Coach and author of Fix Your Period, explains why bad periods are indicators of deeper health issues that must be uncovered and addressed for vitality to occur. Details on how to assess the root causes of period dysfunctions and how to address them naturally are discussed.
Key Notes:
- Why what’s ‘normal” with your period isn’t optimal
- The language of your period and what it’s saying
- How to investigate your period problems
- Estrogen excess and deficiency-causes, symptoms and resolution
- The science behind mainstream medical treatments for dysfunctional period
- Natural alternatives to regain your period sanity
Quotes:
“We have completely normalized pain associated with our uterus.” – Nicole Jardim
“Gut health is the number one system that affects your period.” – Dr. Kyrin
Links Mentioned:
Nicole Jardim’s website - https://nicolejardim.com/
FREE period quiz - https://nicolejardim.com/quiz/
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Are you truly fulfilled and happy in all areas of your life right now? If not, this may be one of the root causes of your health concerns. Fork in the Road Life Coach Sheree Clark shares the difficult decisions she had to make at midlife to heal and thrive and how she helps others uncover one of the most avoided factors in healing; making life changes. Discover what might be the missing link in your healing process.
Key Notes:
- What is the fork in the road and why do you need to take it for your health?
- What uncomfortable situations in your relationships, work and health are asking from you
- How to move through fear when making changes
- The pitfalls of ignoring the need for action
- What practical ways and tools that you can use
- The deeper meaning of illness
Quotes:
“Your soul’s call is as unique as your fingerprint.’ – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“If you don’t address discontent in your outer world, you will have to address it in the inner with your health” Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“My life isn’t in several years when I can retire, my life is now” Sheree Clark
Links:
Sheree Clark’s website: https://www.fork-road.com/
Email Sheree at info@fork-road.com
Wild Cards: https://www.fork-road.com/courage-wildcards/
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After decades of prohibition, cannabis has come out of the closet as a healing miracle and been embraced by a society that previously shunned it.
The research is undeniable: Cannabis products have proven health benefits for not only chronic disorders, inflammation and quality of life but also female sexual function, including orgasm.
CBD and Cannabis expert Dr. Mary “Jane” Clifton helps you know if the current craze is hype or hope, what to use when, how much and how to do it safely in this episode.
Key Notes:
- The endocannabinoid system
- Scientifically proven benefits of CBD
- How endocannabinoids affect sexual health
- Considerations when buying CBD, medical marijuana, THC
Quotes:
“Cannabinoids improve intimacy.”– Dr. Mary Clifton
“It is vital to get organic CBD; No pesticides & herbicides.” – Dr. Kyrin
“CBD is amazing to use when you have trouble sleeping compared to alcohol.” – Dr. Mary Clifton
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Mary Clifton’s website - https://cbdandcannabisinfo.com/
Infused Opt-in: https://cbdandcannabisinfo.com/e-book-free-cannabis-cookbook/
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Many women are taught that their menstrual cycles have no relationship to the rest of their health and that irregular, heavy or painful periods are a normal experience. The menstrual cycle represents the health of the ovulatory or reproductive system, an integral member of the vital systems that make up the body. Imbalance or dis-ease in the body will directly affect this system and cause abnormal symptoms.
In 2017 the health of ovulatory function was recognized as a key indicator of overall wellbeing and dubbed The Fifth Vital Sign.
Holistic Reproductive Health Practitioner and Fertility Friday Podcast Host Lisa Hendrickson-Jack is the author of The Fifth Vital Sign. In this episode she details why this vital sign is so important, what it says about your overall health and how to address abnormalities in a proactive and holistic manner.
Key Notes:
- Understanding the menstrual cycle
- The history of the pill and what it does to your body
- Busting the myths of pills and the menstrual cycle
- Historical and psychosocial aspects of the Fifth Vital Sign
Quotes:
“A period on The Pill is not a normal menstrual cycle”– Lisa Hendrickson-Jack
“Know the side effects of the pill.” – Lisa Hendrickson-Jack
“Her brilliant health means reconnecting with your cycles and femininity.” – Lisa Hendrickson-Jack
“The menstrual cycle is a key indicator of your overall health. It is your Fifth Vital Sign.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned
Lisa’s website - http://fertilityfriday.com/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fertilityfriday/
The Fifth Vital Sign book – http://thefifthvitalsignbook.com/
Fertility Friday Podcast - http://fertilityfriday.com/episodes/
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Earning money is a good thing but making smart financial choices with that abundance is a whole different story. In times of crisis, making shrewd financial decisions is vital as it impacts your lifestyle, business, and especially your health.
MoneyZen Financial Expert Manisha Thakor, MBA, CFA, CFP details what you need to know now to create and protect your financial nest egg for health prosperity and future wellbeing. She offers practical tips for creating a financially free life.
Key Notes:
- Embracing joy-based spending
- Essential wisdom about women and money
- The truth about investing
- Knowing your stats and how much you need to invest
- How health and finances are connected
Quotes:
“What are the 5 things that are you grateful for that don’t cost anything?” – Dr. Kyrin
"Money = Health"
“Money gives women voices and choices”
Links Mentioned:
Manisha’s website – MoneyZen.com
Can I Retire? - https://www.amazon.com/Can-Retire-Retirement-Savings-Explained/dp/0981454259
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How is your financial health? You might be wondering that a podcast episode is talking about money and finances but truth be told – money is energy and energy is the basis to your physical health.
It does and will affect your physical and emotional health!
Listen as financial expert Manisha Thakor, MBA, CFA, CFP shares her knowledge about financial and health literacy and achieve joy-based spending.
Key Notes:
- How does money affect your health in all aspects?
- Be, Do, Have approach when it comes to money
- Financial and health literacy
- Health as expense or investment
- 5 Steps to Financial Hygiene
Quotes:
“The basis to both your physical and financial health is your energetic current.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Plan your retirement by preserving your health, not just saving money” – Dr. Kyrin
“Don’t spend more than what you can earn.” – Manisha Thakor, MBA, CFA, CFP
Links Mentioned:
Manisha Thakor’s website - https://moneyzen.com/
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If you’ve been suffering with hormone imbalances that remain unresolved then the problem might actually be due to a histamine problem.
Many are familiar with histamine as the mediator or allergic symptoms but few know about the interaction between histamine and sex hormones and how this hormone can cause female symptoms like heavy painful periods to global problems including gastrointestinal dysfunction, mood and memory problems.
Naturopathic Physician, Hormone Expert and author of Hangry, Dr. Brooke Kalanick, explains this connection, how to know if you have a problem with your histamine and what to do about it.
Key Notes:
- Factors that cause unbalanced hormones
- The connection between histamine and hormones
- How to diagnose if you have histamine issues
- Foods to avoid if you have histamine issues
- Remedies for hormone histamine concerns
Quotes:
“We love supplement one-shot wonders but they rarely fix the problem.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Health is all about balance.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Her brilliant health means being my own best friend.” – Dr. Brooke Kalanick
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Brooke Kalanick’s website - https://betterbydrbrooke.com/
Guide To Lab Testing & Your Hormones - https://betterbydrbrooke.com/lp/lab-guide/
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Fasting – fad, fiction or fact?
While it is regularly practiced by several religions all over the world, fasting has its immense benefits towards not just to your weight but also to achieving longevity and optimal health.
This episode digs in to the science behind various types of fasting, how it helps support your body, how to do it correctly and how it can benefit women of all ages, particularly in menopause. Certified Nutritionist Dr. Mindy Pelz shares her expertise on fasting and resetting your body for brilliant health.
Key Notes:
- Where does fasting fit in for women, especially in menopause?
- The different types of fasting
- What and when you can eat and drink during intermittent fasting
Quotes:
“Dairy products are addictive. They trigger your endorphins.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Fasting can stress your cortisol so it’s not for everyone.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her brilliant health is stepping up and owning the power that is within you.” – Dr. Mindy Pelz
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Mindy’s website - https://drmindypelz.com/
YouTube – https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4cNjUPc2gQKucX3hLUayYQ
The Resetter Collaborative – https://www.facebook.com/groups/resetters/
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How many people you know have been diagnosed with cancer?
It is scary to know that the disease may take a toll on your health too. Prevention is always better than cure. So how would you know if your body is inhabitable to cancer and don’t get cancer?
Following last week’s episode, we have the exceptional Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy talk about cancer prevention and early detection. What tools and lifestyle changes that you can do to shield your body from this dreadful disease.
Key Notes:
- What is circulating tumor cells and how will affect your health?
- What lab work and tests you can take as preventative measure for cancer
- Lifestyle changes and practical ways that you can do to prevent cancer
Quotes:
“Cancer is the result of too much negative inputs in your life.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Always address your stress in your life.” – Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy
“Hormones are important but you get disruption and we create disease.” – Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy
“Cancer starts with one immortal, crazy, haywire cell.” – Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy
“You have to look at your diet – you might be eating that is promoting or decreasing inflammation or disease.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Insight timer app - https://insighttimer.com/
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Cancer does not have to be a death sentence.
There is a negative connotation that getting a cancer diagnosis means that it is the end of it all. Current technologies and modern, advanced research provides different modalities toward healing from cancer. It is just all in the matter of you and how you will change your lifestyle to totally eradicate the disease.
Join me in today’s episode as we learn from the expert Dr. Leigh Erin Connealy about the new medicine and her book The Cancer Revolution.
Key Notes:
- What is the integrative cancer treatment?
- What different modalities can you use to help treat cancer without the usual side effects?
- Can food and diet treat diseases and illness?
Quotes:
Conventional medicine is about disease. – Dr. Connealy
Insurance companies do not pay for early prevention and early detection. – Dr. Connealy
If stress is not addressed, you will not be healed because you’re always in sympathetic mode. – Dr. Connealy
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Connealy’s website - https://www.connealymd.com/
The Cancer Revolution book - https://www.amazon.com/Cancer-Revolution-Groundbreaking-Program-Reverse/dp/0738218456/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1452571776&sr=8-1&keywords=the+cancer+revolution
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Do you suffer from irregular period, chronic fatigue, mood swings, lack of sleep or uncontrollable weight gain? These are just a few of the myriad symptoms of hormonal imbalance. If you go to a mainstream health practitioner, oftentimes you are given birth control pills to manage the symptoms but don’t really treat the root cause and can do more harm in the long run.
The power of essential oils can help alleviate these symptoms without doing harm to your health. Find out from bestselling author of The Essential Oils Hormone Solution Dr. Mariza Snyder imparts with us her knowledge and expertise coming from long-time research and personal experience about treating hormonal imbalance and how essential oils can help.
Key Notes:
- How hormones affect your health and body
- Symptoms of hormonal imbalance
- What essential oils can help curb your cravings and lift your mood and energy instantly
Quotes:
“I want to be part of the solution and not part of the problem.” – Dr. Mariza Snyder
“Plants have always served our biochemistry.” – Dr. Mariza Snyder
“Core driver of anxiety is fear.” – Dr. Mariza Snyder
“The thoughts that you think cause the emotions that you’re feeling and that directly affects your health.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Say ‘Yes’ to you.” – Dr. Mariza
“Her brilliant health is tapping into our inner wisdom and loving our bodies. Letting that brilliant shine.” Dr. Mariza
Links Mentioned:
Website – drmariza.com
The Essential oils hormone solution - https://www.amazon.com/Essential-Oils-Hormone-Solution-Naturally-ebook/dp/B07D23151V
Essential Oils Hormone Solution Book Bonus - https://www.drmariza.com/hormonebook/
Gift: Hormone Quiz - drmariza.com/hormonequiz
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Polycystic ovarian syndrome affects 10% of the world’s female population and is the leading cause of female infertility.
Irregular periods, acne, hair loss, obesity, sleep disorders are a few of the most common and seemingly unrelated symptoms with PCOS. Find out more about this mysterious disorder and learn how you can heal from it naturally with expert Dr. Felice Gersh.
Key Notes:
- How and why PCOS develops
- Why PCOS affects so many women
- Why birth control pills are contraindicated for women with PCOS
- Key issues in healing PCOS
- What comprehensive lifestyle changes to make to regulate periods within a year
Quotes:
“Lifestyle always wins over medications”- Dr. Felice Gersh
“It’s time for a change” – Dr. Felice Gersh
“Traditional treatment is causing more detriment and really not healing us.” –Dr. Kyrin
“SAD Diet is contributing to PCOS in women” – Dr. Felice Gersh
“Sex hormones are not only about sex” – Dr. Kyrin
“We don’t eat for entertainment” – Dr. Felice Gersh
“My philosophy of healing is: Bad stuff out, good stuff in, balance everything” – Dr. Kyrin
“Eat dinner for breakfast” – Dr. Kyrin
“Her Brilliant Health is Following the light to optimize health” – Dr. Felice Gersh
Links Mentioned:
Website: https://integrativemgi.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.felicegersh/
Amazon book links
PCOS SOS: A Gynecologists Lifeline to Naturally Restore Your Rhythms, Hormones, and Happiness
PCOS SOS: Fertility Fast Track
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Brain fog, significant fatigue and other chronic illness are just few of the symptoms of Epstein - Barr virus (EBV) but lab tests do not usually show that you have it.
How would you know if you are infected?
Listen as Clinical Nutrition Dr. Kasia Kines shares her expertise about Epstein-Barr virus, how it can affect your health and what you can do to reverse or put a stop to it.
Key Notes:
- What is Epstein-Barr virus and how does it affect our health?
- What functional nutrition to help treat and recover from EBV?
- Lifestyle and food that triggers EBV
- Detoxification to prevent chronic illness such as EBV
Quotes:
“Your cortisol is the main determinant of your immune system function.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Antioxidants are not in animal-derived foods.” – Dr. Kasia Kines
“You want to stop toxins from coming by start eating organics.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Improve your immune and cortisol function so that your body can put on a lid to these viral infections.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Her brilliant is loving who you are, what you do and always looking forward to what you can do.” – Dr. Kasia Kines
Links Mentioned:
EBV Help
EBV Self- Quiz
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Is it still possible to find true love in this day and age?
With the verge of the internet and online dating apps, it is no wonder that finding love is just within a tap or slide of your finger. But is it real or lasting?
Finding true love should always start from within. This is what PBS Love Expert, Psychologist & Bestselling Author, Dr. Diana Kirschner talks about on this latest podcast episode. Learn more about your diamond self-identity and how to build a healthy self-esteem and self-love.
Key Notes:
- How to build a healthy self-esteem and self-love
- Diamond self-identity and diamond self-name
- Online dating and how to protect yourself when involving in the process
Quotes:
Love with another has to come from a healthy self-esteem. – Dr. Kyrin
The diamond self-identity builds on your unique gifts. – Dr. Diana Kirschner
Having love of self, love of friends, love of a partner and love of your life is key in creating and maintaining brilliant health for women. – Dr. Kyrin
Her brilliant health is blissful wellbeing. – Dr. Diana Kirschner
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Diana Kirschner’s website
FREE 40 Minute Complimentary Session
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Is there a lack of sexual intimacy between you and your partner but he does not want to talk about it?
Erectile dysfunction is an increasing issue and has been prevalent also with young men. Find out what factors causes this and the importance of addressing the issue.
Old Guy Talks Orest Komarnyckyj gets real and tackles the hard truth about erectile dysfunction and how testosterone therapy can help in bringing back the fire in your bedroom and have a healthy and happy relationship.
Key Notes:
- Sex and relationships and its effects to your health
- Erectile dysfunction and your cardiovascular health
- Find out if your partner should get testosterone therapy
- How to have good sex and healthy intimacy
Quotes:
Erectile dysfunction is the first sign that vascular disease is occurring in the heart and they could be at risk for a heart attack. – Dr. Kyrin
The issue of infertility with the man is increasing. – Orest Komarnyckyj
When you have better relationships, you have better, physical health. – Dr. Kyrin
The power for you is in taking action. -Orest Komarnyckyj
Her brilliant health is about taking advantage of the resources to improve the quality of life. - Orest Komarnyckyj
When your health is good, everything else seems to fall in line too. - Orest Komarnyckyj
Links Mentioned:
Old Guy Talks
My Junk Does Not Work
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Fasting and diet – when you think of these, one of the things that come to mind is not eating food and getting hungry.
Sounds difficult, right?
But what about fasting provide you a significant, positive change in your health, mood and immunity and weight loss is second to its myriads of benefits?
Listen up as GreenSmoothieGirl Robyn Openshaw shares her expertise and knowledge about modified fasting and its scientifically-proven health benefits.
Key Notes:
- What is modified fast, how to do it and its benefits
- The difference between water fasting and modified fasting
- What are science-based facts about the benefits of modified fasting
Quotes:
“You don’t necessarily have to be hungry to achieve the benefits of fasting.” – Robyn Openshaw
“You make potential cancer every single day but your immune system comes and fixes it before it becomes cancer.” – Dr. Kyrin
Links Mentioned:
Robyn Openshaw’s website
Freebies
Vibe Podcast
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Has there been an event in your life in the past that has caused trauma and it is holding you back when it comes to healing?
When you are overwhelmed with a situation – what is your usual reaction? Fight, flight or freeze?
Healing is not only physical but it requires for you to address the mental, spiritual and emotional aspects of your wellbeing.
In this episode, learn how the power of neuroscience based self regulation therapy from psychotherapist Tara Miller, MC, RCC and how it can help heal the mind from traumatic life events that brings you towards achieving brilliant health.
Key Notes:
- What is Self Regulation Therapy and how it can help heal?
- What is trauma, how it is identified if someone has trauma?
Quotes:
“Our brain likes to look for something familiar or known, even if it is not good for us.” – Tara Miller
“Mental health needs functional medicine.” – Tara Miller
“For maximum health, you really need to address the whole thing – physical, mental, spiritual, emotional.” – Dr. Kyrin
Links Mentioned:
Tara Miller’s website – www.taradawnmiller.com
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Conventional medicine treats brain or mental health illness by prescribing pills and usually sends people who suffer from it into a downward spiral leading to depression, anxiety, panic attacks and even suicide.
However, you are not bound to these medications in your lifetime!
Balancing your brain chemistry has been proven to treat the root cause of these diseases and can help you to get your life back in order.
Today’s episode, Dr. Elena Villanueva shares her expertise and knowledge about achieving optimum brain health by finding out the right tests and tools to diagnose the illness properly and target the root cause of the disease.
Key Notes:
- Brain health issues and how to address it naturally
- Factors that can affect or trigger brain health issues
- What is the timeframe of healing when utilizing natural ways
Quotes:
“The body is a wonderful machine and it is very self-regulating.” – Dr. Elena Villanueva
“If you affect one engine in the body, it’s going to cause a domino effect in the body.” – Dr. Elena Villanueva
“The same thing that can cause hormonal imbalance can cause brain chemistry imbalance.” – Dr. Elena Villanueva
“You’ve been trained to believe that doctors are the authority and they know what’s best for your health.” – Dr. Kyrin
“It takes time, devotion and dedication. It doesn’t just take 1 pill and make the symptoms go away.” – Dr. Elena Villanueva
“The ultimate act of self-love is to eat in a way that is nourishing and not eat things that are offensive.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Her brilliant health means having the life that you deserve to have.” – Dr. Elena Villanueva
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Elena Villanueva’s website
13-Step Ebook to Balancing your Brain Chemisty
Crusaders for Health Facebook Group
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When you hear the word ‘ozone’, many of you would think it has any negative effect to the environment and even more so to our health. So when you think of ‘ozone therapy’ as an effective healing modality to myriads of diseases and illnesses.
In this episode, listen as Ozonaut Micah Lowe tells about how this powerful, supercharged form of oxygen O3 can help to treat chronic illnesses such as Lyme, dental issues and other types of diseases including cancer.
Key Notes:
· What is ozone therapy and how it can benefit your health?
· Types of ozone therapy modalities to heal and what diseases it is used for
Quotes:
“Health, especially when you’re sick, is a discipline.” – Micah Lowe
“We start to become oxidatively stressed as we age.” – Micah Lowe
“Her brilliant health is simplicity.” – Micah Lowe
Links Mentioned:
Drs. Ozone website
Watch Micah on YouTube
Free Guide about Ozone Therapy
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Does this sound familiar?
“You’re so sensitive!”
or
“Stop overreacting!”
If you find that your emotions seem to cause you to react to situations instead of respond and that the outcome is not what you really want then it’s time for some emotional push ups with Dr. Tracy Thomas.
Psychologist and Coach Dr. T wants you to know that when you react your body is in a stress response, which is harming your physical health.
Often the missing key in complete healing is lack of emotional muscle. In this week’s episode of Her Brilliant Health Radio find out what emotional strength training is and how to begin flexing your emotional muscles to move towards achieving brilliant health.
Key Notes:
- What is emotional strength?.
- What is the Method for reining in reactivity and restoring responsibility
- Harnessing the power of being an emotionally sensitive person
- The importance of emotional literacy and competency
Quotes:
“So many of my physiological health issues were catalyzed or exacerbated by my emotional reactivity.” – Dr. T
“Your relationship with yourself is not superficial – not just about spas and candles in the bathtub. It’s more detailed than that.” – Dr. T
“You have control over how you react or whether you react.” – Dr. Kyrin
“If you want to live in a healthy house, you have to control your emotional reactions which means getting control of your thoughts and beliefs.” – Dr. Kyrin
“When you’re in pain, you’re in pain from your reactive response.” – Dr. T
“Her brilliant health means an elevated state where all systems in your being are operating the way they were designed to.” – Dr. T
Links Mentioned:
Dr. T’s website
The Method book
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If it’s true that the power that makes the body also makes all of nature and that there is an interconnectedness among all things then it’s logical that nature can be used to help physical healing and science has confirmed this truth.
In this episode, neurologist, herbalist and shaman Dr. Maya Shetreat helps us understand the intimate connection we share with all of nature and how to harness the power of these healing energies for physical, mental and emotional healing.
Key Notes:
- What are ethnobotany and indigenous healing and how they assist healing.
- Why eating dirt will help you be healthier.
- The function of breathwork in healing and practices to use
- Herbs to use to improve organ function, detoxify and for menopausal symptoms
- What is hip closing at menopause and how it can benefit your body
- Plant bathing basics
Quotes:
“Look at the physical, emotional and spiritual aspect if you want healing.” – Dr. Kyrin
“We have all developed a degree of shame to our sexual powers.” – Dr. Maya Shetreat
“Her brilliant health is about trusting your intuition.”– Dr. Maya Shetreat
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Maya Shetreat’s website
The Dirt Cure
Dr. Maya’s Earth Healing Bundle
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The mind is such a powerful tool that you can use to transform your health either in a positive or a negative way. In this episode, listen as Certified Hypnotherapist Kristine Ovsepian, MA, CH.t. teaches us how the process can help an individual and how it can heal.
Find out what techniques can help when it comes to weight loss, stress management, overcoming addiction, depression, overcoming limiting beliefs, fears, etc.
Key Notes:
- What is hypnotherapy and how you can use it towards achieving brilliant health
- Healing through hypnotherapy
- How can hypnotherapy help through transformation from addiction and weight loss, diet and getting unstuck
Quotes:
“Remembering the power of our mind – what we tell ourselves, the body will believe.” – Kristine Ovsepian,MA, CH.t
“Thoughts and feelings directly affect your health through cortisol and your adrenals so all of the health problems you were having are related to that.” – Dr. Kyrin
“The reason why we are lost is because we have so much clutter on the conscious level.” – Kristine Ovsepian, MA, CH.t.
“The grateful heart is a magnet for miracles.” - Anonymous
“Her brilliant health is everyday starting with the intention of being of service and sharing. “ – Kristine Ovsepian, MA, CH.t.
Links Mentioned:
Kristine’s website
Living through Choice book
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When you hear about the word self-care, what is the first thing that comes to mind? Could it be the usual ‘pamper yourself’ day at the spa? Meditation? Journaling?
In this day and age, these types of self-care does not come easy. Typically because of our busy lives who has time to go to the gym or the spa? But there’s a practical and easy way to do an act of self-care through essential oils.
This episode, Samantha Lee Wright shares her knowledge and expertise about essential oils and how you can incorporate it to your daily routine to help with managing stress, giving yourself a boost for the day and even diet!
Key Notes:
- How to use essential oils for efficacy and maximize its benefits
- What essential oils to use for weight loss and diet
- Learn what practical tools or ways for self-care
Quotes:
“Stress is the number one killer”. – Samantha Lee Wright
“Part of our health challenges is because we are so disconnected from nature.” – Dr. Kyrin
“You can intentionally create your own triggers using essential oils in a positive way.” – Samantha Lee Wright
“Her brilliant health means happiness.” – Samantha Lee Wright
Links Mentioned:
Samantha’s website
Get Samantha's Free Essential Oils Quickstart Guide
Order Young Living Oils
The Essential Oil Revolution podcast
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Do you sometimes feel you are being highly sensitive or you feel that you absorb all the energy around you? Do you sometimes think it is more of a curse than a gift because you are unable to control it? In this episode, listen as mentor and EFT Master Trainer Jennifer Moore share her knowledge and expertise about empathic mastery and EFT tapping techniques to clear our negative emotions.
Key Notes:
- What is an empath and how is it different from empathy?
- How can being empathic benefit your health and wellness
- Practical tools to use to protect energy body
- EFT tapping techniques and how it can help to clear out negative energy, food cravings and addictions
Quotes:
“We are all intuitive or empathic – to some degree - but it’s not fostered as a skill when we are younger.” – Dr. Kyrin
“The first step to empathic mastery is to be comfortable with our own feelings.” – Jennifer Moore
“Part of being unhealthy is not paying attention to how you feel.” – Dr. Kyrin
“When we don’t honor that something is no longer serving then it will show up in our body, subconscious and conscious behaviors.” – Jennifer Moore
“Her brilliant health means loving our body, ourselves and accepting who we are and being in the flow.” – Jennifer Moore
“Her brilliant health starts from self-love and from the willingness to do the things that are truly loving and nurturing.” – Jennifer Moore
Links Mentioned:
Jennifer Moore’s website
Empathic Mastery book
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When was the last time you stop from your busy life and took a deep breath? Modern lifestyle can bring so much stress into our body hence we unconsciously introduce diseases to our health.
In this episode, Nutrition Endocrinology Specialist Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo, MS, DC, CCN, DACBN shares how a simple technique can help our bodies to heal and activate balance for our bodies’ parasympathetic and sympathetic functions. Discover what HeartMath is, how you can incorporate it to your daily activities and how can your health benefit from this technique.
Key Notes:
- Heart rate variability and how it affects your health
- How HeartMath can help with the parasympathetic and sympathetic balance
- Tools that you can use to practice HeartMath technique
- What practical ways that you can do to achieve optimum health
Quotes:
“If you pause before menopause, then you don’t have to pause at menopause.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Stress is one of the key underpinnings of our modern lifestyle diseases.” – Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo
“Stepping into menopause is stepping into my power as a woman and as a leader.” Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo
Links Mentioned:
FREE Break the Fast Recipe menu book
HeartMath
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Busy lives often mean that most individuals compromise their health. However, being equipped with the right tools and knowledge when it comes to your health can be empowering and can help you to be successful in your career too.
Listen as Functional Coach Jenn Malecha give you powerful information about navigating back to health.
Key Notes:
- Comprehensive tests that you can do to identify autoimmune, hormonal imbalances and other chronic illness
- The cost and how to invest for your health
- The effects of toxins in your life and health
Quotes:
“Your personality is your health.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Your health is your greatest investment.” – Dr. Kyrin
“One of the reasons why successful women get into these health pitfalls is because we disconnect from our bodies and we stop paying attention to what’s going on.” – Dr. Kyrin
“We need to learn to value sleep more than we value diet and exercise.” – Jenn Malecha
“Your body is unique therefore your diet is too.” – Jenn Malecha
“Her brilliant health means feeling at home and 100% comfortable and confident in your body.” – Jenn Malecha
Links Mentioned:
Jenn Malecha’s website
Follow Jenn on Instagram
5 Gifts to give your Gut to Health
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We’ve all heard about essential oils but there is more to it than just emitting scent for your olfactory pleasure.
Learn what essential oils are useful for weight loss, managing stress and precautions you should consider when using essential oils from licensed pharmacist and board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist Lindsey Elmore.
Essential oils are not called “essential” for nothing.
Key Notes:
- What are essential oils and how they work?
- What essential oils to use for weight loss and aids in digestion
- Safety precautions when using essential oils
Quotes:
“Humans have been exposed to essential oils their entire life.” – Lindsey Elmore
“Essential oils after a meal can be a powerful tool to effectively digest your food.” – Lindsey Elmore
“Physicians are trained to prescribe medicines.” – Lindsey Elmore
“Essential oil can foster courage even when you are told you’re not good enough.” – Lindsey Elmore
“Her brilliant health means living authentically exactly how you were designed without apology.” – Lindsey Elmore
Links Mentioned:
Lindsey Elmore’s website
Powerful Choice – free eBook
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As people age, we tend to fall for the normalcy of lack of mobility due to poor bone health such as osteoporosis, bone fractures, hormonal imbalance and inability to lose weight.
But having brilliant health does not mean someone bound to a chair or bed, it means you enjoying life and the outdoors!
Let the Bone Whisperer Margie Bissinger, MS, PT, CHC show you holistic and natural ways to prevent bone loss with the help of nutrition and diet you can apply to help you live a life full of vibrancy and optimum vitality.
Key Notes:
- Bone and spine care and osteoporosis
- Resistance training and how to improve your bones
- Activities to help rebuild bones and prevent bone loss
Quotes:
“You achieve your maximum bone density by the time you’re 18 to 20 year old range but you start losing it by age 30.” – Dr. Kyrin
“It’s much harder to rebuild bones rather than to prevent it from being lost.” – Dr. Kyrin
“People become empowered when they do strength training.” – Margie Bissinger, MS, PT, CHC
“Building muscle mass does not only help your bones but also your mood.” – Dr. Kyrin
“As we age, we lose balance so if you don’t use it we lose it.” – Margie Bissinger, MS, PT, CHC
“Health diagnosis is actually a blessing because it is an opportunity to uncover what else is a wry in your body that you don’t know about.” - Dr. Kyrin
“Her brilliant health means waking up in the morning with energy, vitality, strength and happiness and excited to embrace the day ahead.” – Margie Bissinger, MS, PT, CHC
Links Mentioned:
Margie Bissinger’s website
Happy Bones Happy Life podcast
Happy Bones Happy Life Online Osteoporosis Course
FREE offer: Improve Your Posture in Two Weeks
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Are you suffering with recurrent acne, rashes, eczema, psoriasis or other skin problems and think….why me? What am I doing wrong?
The Spa Doctor, Dr. Trevor Cates tells you what you’re doing wrong in today’s episode.
Dr. C shines the light on “Why you” by detailing the vital 6 issues you must address internally to have gorgeous skin externally.
Most of us are unaware of the root causes of skin disorders and waste our money on creams and potions that miss the point that your skin is merely a mirror for what’s going on inside your body.
Gut health and hormones are definitely on the list of 6! Which ones are you missing?
Sometimes it just takes a small tweak in what you’re already doing to get the gorgeous skin that you want to be in.
Key Notes:
- Discover how your hormones affect your skin
- Learn the 6 key imbalances that must be addressed to heal skin issues
- Get take action tools to use today to start addressing skin health issues
Quotes:
“Our skin is showing us signs of what is going on in our body.” – Dr. Trevor Cates
“The gut microbiome also helps the skin microbiome.” – Dr. Trevor Cates
“You’re not a victim of your genes and your age.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Skin cancer can manifest in so many different ways, it doesn’t always follow the textbook.” – Dr. Trevor Cates
“Her brilliant health is inner radiance.” – Dr. Trevor Cates
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Trevor Cates’ website
Clean Skin From Within book
The Skin Quiz
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You watch what you eat and think you’re eating healthy but how do you really know if you’re getting what you need from the choices you make?
70% of Americans suffer with nutrient deficiencies which hinder their bodies functioning and contribute to disease.
Functional Nutritionist Shelley Gawith sheds light on the common myths and truths about food and nutrients that we must be aware of.
Otherwise we may be robbing our bodies with every bite we take.
Key Notes:
- Learn how fatigue and other disorders are related to nutritional deficiencies
- Understand why an elimination diet is not optimal for your health
- Discover common micro nutrient deficiencies that contribute to weight issues
- Realize the best way to source nutrients to satisfy your body’s requirements
Quotes:
“What we’re seeing with some restrictive diets is the elimination of key macro and micro nutrients.” – Shelley Gawith
“You can be so nutritionally depleted yet eating a “healthy diet” if you’re not conscious.”– Shelley Gawith
“You want to get your nutrients from your food – it’s the easiest and cheapest way to do it.” – Shelley Gawith
“Her brilliant health means having great energy.” – Shelley Gawith
Links Mentioned:
Shelley Gawith’s website
Free Quiz: How Healthy Are You?
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Your labs say you’re “normal” but you feel anything but that!
You’re on Synthroid but still have symptoms of low functioning thyroid.
Weight gain, fatigue, constipation, thinning hair and foggy thinking are just a few of the symptoms that can result when your thyroid is not optimized.
Maybe your doctor has been checking minimal labs to follow you and neglecting vital tests that could mean the difference between you surviving and actually thriving?
After hitting rock bottom with her health, Board Certified Nutritionist Tiffany Flaten discovered healing through targeted nutrition and her health flourished.
Learn why addressing key nutrient deficiencies is essential to having optimized thyroid function, health and vitality!
Key Notes:
- Understand the nature and epidemic of thyroid illness
- Learn how food sensitivities contribute to thyroid dysfunction
- Uncover why gluten and wheat are particularly troublesome for thyroid disorders
- Discover vital tests to identify specific nutrient deficiencies
Quotes:
“I do believe that eliminating gluten helped with anxiety and depression.” – Tiffany Flaten, CNS, LN
“If you have a health problem then you have a fuel problem because you don’t have the energy to fix the problems that the body naturally wants to fix.” – Dr. Kyrin
“I bless the illness that has brought me to my knees and allowed me to crack open to receive the gift of functional medicine.” – Dr. Kyrin
“If you are struggling with thyroid problems that are unresolved, I think you should look into your nutrients.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Never give up and don’t let others tell you that what you are feeling is normal – listen to your gut.” – Tiffany Flaten, CNS, LN
“Her brilliant health is empowering; taking control of your health by listening to your body and aligning with what you need to do to feel good.” – Tiffany Flaten, CNS, LN
Links Mentioned:
Rock Bottom Wellness
Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss
Energy Anatomy by Caroline Myss
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You’re told you have a disease for which there is no cure. Only medications with terrible side effects that may reduce symptoms but won’t stop your disease from progressing until you are disabled or worse.
Your doctor may not be aware but addressing the root causes of that disease is the answer.
Professor Dr. Terry Wahls took on the medical establishment by not only reversing her Multiple Sclerosis but by changing the prognosis worldwide for others with this disabling disease.
Whatever disease you are suffering with, there are answers in this episode that you need to hear.
You truly deserve a higher level of health than you have been experiencing.
Key Notes:
- Learn what the disease Multiple Sclerosis is
- Understand how foods can trigger illness and disease
- Discover what the microbiome is and its connection to autoimmune diseases
- Get up to date on current treatments for untreatable conditions that actually heal
Quotes:
“I am profoundly grateful that I was so disabled and suffered so many years. I had to have that happened in order to be willing to learn about all this cellular biochemistry and physiology and reshape my approach to disease and health.” – Dr. Terry Wahls
“Disease or dis-ease in the body isn’t a sign that you need medication. It’s really a sign that something’s out of balance in your life.” – Dr. Kyrin
“If you’re working towards a physical goal which matters to you then that’s much more meaningful..” – Dr. Terry Wahls
“When we radically change our diet, we radically change our microbiome.” – Dr. Terry Wahls
“You can reverse so many diseases and disorders by addressing the root cause.” – Dr. Kyrin
“As your cells can run the chemistry of life our energy and vitality improves and a lot of these chronic symptoms begin to melt away.” – Dr. Terry Wahls
Links Mentioned:
Visit Dr. Terry Wahls’ website
Find out about the Wahls Protocol
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Some health conditions go undiagnosed and unresolved despite numerous doctor visits and treatments leaving you feeling hopeless and helpless.
They usually include some degree of pain and fatigue.
Lyme disease is very often the answer. It is highly underdiagnosed.
My guest today, Dr. Tom Moorcroft, specializes in finding the missing piece to your chronic health puzzle and will give you a map to follow on the journey to health and healing in this episode.
Key Notes:
- Understand how to properly diagnose chronic mystery illnesses
- Learn about diagnosing Lyme disease – it’s more common than you think
- Discover how your mindset can affect your healing or continued illness
- Get free resources that you can use to help with your healing
Quotes:
“If you have an infection, your immune system is not working in tiptop shape and you’re prone to other infections.” – Dr. Kyrin
“If you believe that you can’t feel better then it won’t happen for you.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Her brilliant health is blossoming into who you are.” – Dr. Tom Moorcroft
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Tom Moorcroft’s website – Origins of Health
FREE resources you can find on the website
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Common Reasons Treatment Fails… And How to Avoid Them
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Top 5 Brain Detox Tips
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Relax and Reboot
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“Beauty is more than just skin deep.” – we’ve all heard about this but yet we still apply lotions and creams from the outside to try to improve skin appearance.
But the truth is that…..great skin comes from within.
Join “The Skin Whisperer” Dr. Keira Barr as she tells you why your skin tells your story and exactly how to heal your skin by addressing the inside, root causes of what’s bothering it.
After all, you should be comfortable with the skin you’re in.
Key Notes:
- Discover what your skin story is and why this matters
- Find out what emotional skin care is and how to optimize yours
- Understand proper topicals for skin
- Learn skin care product ingredients you must avoid
- Get take action steps for great skin quality from the inside out
Quotes:
“Really tuning in to what your skin is trying to communicate to you is the best way to cut through the noise.” – Dr. Keira Barr
“Your skin story is the story of your life.” – Dr. Kyrin
“It’s okay to listen to me, trust myself and look within rather than looking for external validation.” – Dr. Keira Barr
“Skin beauty happens between the sheets.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Her brilliant health is tuning in to your body and yourself.” – Dr. Keira Barr
“The skin is the window to your body.” – Dr. Kyrin
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Barr’s website
You can email Dr. Barr here
The Skin Whisperer book
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Getting pregnant should be a natural and effortless act.
It can be shocking, even devastating, when pregnancy doesn’t easily happen.
More frequently infertility is becoming the norm in our society and health complications around pregnancy for mother and baby have not really improved, despite our over medicalization of pregnancy care and delivery.
Fertility Expert Dr. Aumatma Shah discusses conceiving holistically and factors to consider before attempting pregnancy to avoid disappointing or disastrous complications for you and your baby.
Key Notes:
- Infertility causes and increase
- Holistic testing available to determine the cause of fertility issues
- Supplements and nutrients to help increase fertility
- Other factors that can affect your fertility and hormone levels
Quotes:
“If you were put on birth control for a hormone issue when you were young, just assume you are going to have a problem getting pregnant.” – Dr. Aumatma Shah
“If you’re on a medication to control a medical problem then you still have that condition and are suffering adverse consequences from it. People are routinely fooled by this.” - Dr. Kyrin
“Antioxidants are crucial when it comes to supporting egg quality.” – Dr. Aumatma Shah
“55% of couples who can’t get pregnant have a male problem.” – Dr. Kyrin
“One of the most important things to do before you consider getting pregnant is to divest your body of toxins.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Her brilliant health is optimal health – you want to feel amazing, vital and have the energy to do the things that you love to do.” – Dr. Aumatma Shah
Links Mentioned:
Holistic Fertility Center – Dr. Aumatma Shah’s website
The Divas Detox Guide – FREE Ebook
003: Environmental Toxicity with Lara Adler, CHHC
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Can you say that your skin is healthy? How is your skin care routine?
You might probably think that when something is wrong with your skin, the first thing that you want to do is treat it by applying over-the-counter steroid ointment or cream that will only provide immediate relief. Did you ever thought about checking your gut to see whether that is causing the flare-ups?
Having experienced skin problems herself, Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS knows exactly how it feels and how to treat it by getting to the root cause of the problem. Listen Jennifer shows you practical and free testing tool that you can do at home so identify if your gut is causing your skin problems.
Key Notes:
- The connecting of skin problems to gut issues
- Skin problems and getting the correct diagnosis
- Natural skin care routine and cleansing
Quotes:
“The skin is connected with everything else.” – Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS
“When there is a problem inside, it’s going to show outside (hair, skin and nails)” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“A lot of what we do with our hair and skin is we remove what’s healthy when the body does a very good job of cleaning itself.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her brilliant health means you want to live in a space where we are empowered to live and love on our own terms.” – Jennifer Fugo, MS, CNS
Links Mentioned:
Jennifer Fugo’s website
Skinterrupt
The Healthy Skin Show
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Excellent nutrition is vital in creating brilliant health.
But what happens when a person suffers from eating disorder?
Three out of four American women suffer with an eating disorder.
Is brilliant health out of reach for most of us?
Functional Nutrition and Eating Psychology Coach Mindy Gorman-Plutzer shares her personal journey of healing and shows how to emerge and transform from an eating disorder through a holistic approach to create the brilliant health you deserve.
Key Notes:
- What is an eating disorder and how is it diagnosed?
- The functional and integrative approach to treating eating disorders
- Navigating the triggers and not managing the disorder
Quotes:
“There is a huge genetic component to eating disorders.” – Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP, CEPC, CHC
“It takes empowerment for sustainable and lasting recovery from anything.” – Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP,CEPC, CHC
“Transformation is not about what we do to change, it’s about what we let go of in order to be.” – Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP,CEPC, CHC
“When you are in a nutrient-depleted state, you don’t have the building blocks to make neurotransmitters in sufficient quantities.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“It’s very difficult to connect to another human being if we’re afraid to connect to ourselves.” - Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP,CEPC, CHC
“Eating disorders are not a choice but recovery is.” - Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP,CEPC, CHC
“Her brilliant health is what emerges when you let go of something that no longer serves.” - Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP,CEPC, CHC
“Her brilliant health is when you think about transformation not as what you do but what you’ve become.” - Mindy Gorman-Plutzer, FNLP,CEPC, CHC
Links Mentioned:
Mindy Gorman-Plutzer’s website - The Freedom Promise
The Freedom Promise book
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If you or someone you love hates seeing those “We’re pregnant!” announcements on Facebook because it hasn’t happened for you yet then…..this is the episode for you! Rates of infertility have skyrocketed recently for many reasons you might not be aware of.
Reasons that matter to your health whether you’re of child bearing age, infertile or not… every woman should know about these hidden factors causing disruption that may be picked up when infertility occurs. Or, Lay silent until something bigger, like cancer occurs.
Fertility Expert Dr. Marc Sklar tells us what we need to know now.
Key Notes:
- The rising infertility rate and factors that contribute to it
- What tools and tests to use to diagnose the cause of reproductive issues
- Natural and holistic infertility treatments
- Importance of sleep and diet to your reproductive system
Quotes:
“We are delaying childbirth with careers and that can be a factor in infertility.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“We are inundated with chemicals since the 1950s and the average person has traces of 400 toxic chemicals in their body.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Exposure to plastics is definitely causing disruption of our endocrine system.” – Dr. Marc Sklar
“When you’re told your blood work is “normal”, that is not the same as being “optimal” and it doesn’t mean you will get pregnant.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“I believe that 70-80% of couples who go through IVF don’t need IVF.” – Dr. Marc Sklar
“Infertility is a place where Functional Medicine shines.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“There’s no pill to take place of the effect of sleep on our health.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her brilliant health means empowerment through knowledge.” – Dr. Marc Sklar
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Marc Sklar’s website
Fertility TV
Fertility Wheel
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Any type of drug can cause side effects in your body and birth control pills are no exception. Headaches, decrease in sex drive, weight gain, acne breakouts and fatigue are just some of the most common side effects from hormonal birth control and there are reasons for this.
Nutrient deficiencies caused by pharmacologic medications often create a host of unwanted symptoms. Although they occur reliably with onset of taking a new medication, most people are not counselled proactively about the need for targeted supplementation and fail to receive information about this issue when problems do occur. They remain in the dark, untreated and suffering.
Listen as Dr. Kyrin and Gene Queen Sarah Morgan explain the specifics of nutrient depletion with medications, what you need to know now to protect yourself. They cover how vital it is to take “The Other Pill” when you are on THE pill.
Key Notes:
- The birth control pill, its side effects and nutrient depletions
- Essential nutrients that are depleted with specific medications
- Other fertility and hormonal nutrients our bodies need
- The Other Pill and how it can benefit your health
Quotes:
“We deplete the body of folate which is a crucial nutrient in early pregnancy.” – Sarah Morgan
“A lot of women are having hormonal imbalance and they are actually estrogen dominant.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“The birth control pill is one of the most widely prescribed drugs in the world.” – Sarah Morgan
“We have unique nutrient needs when we take medication.” – Sarah Morgan
“There is a cost to everything we put into our body.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Sarah Morgan’s website
Buddies in My Belly
VitaminIQ
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Have you been eating good, wholesome foods?
Good health starts in the gut so whatever you put in your mouth can make or break your health. And if you have a leaky gut syndrome, you are more likely to develop an autoimmune disease, food sensitivities or inflammatory conditions.
The good news is that functional medicine can heal leaky gut!
In this episode, learn from these two experts Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Jason Piken as they help you identify the cause of the syndrome, what are the most common symptoms, tools and tests that you can take to identify if you have leaky gut as you might not hear this from your regular doctor and most importantly, what are ways that you can implement to heal.
Key Notes:
- What is leaky gut?
- How to diagnose if you have leaky gut, the elimination and reintroduction diet and how to do it properly
- Factors or stressors that contribute to leaky gut
- Getting tested to see if there is a sign of inflammation
- Identify stressors and managing them to get better health
Quotes:
“When you put food in your mouth it’s not really inside your body.” – Dr. Jason Piken
“You can get rid of your food sensitivities.” – Dr. Jason Piken
“Approximately 60% of people living in America have parasites most of which are benign.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“The bugs inside your gut love to eat fiber.” – Dr. Jason Piken
“Disease or symptom in your body is a message that your lifestyle and environment are hurting you.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“When you have high cortisol it suppresses your ability to digest food.” – Dr. Jason Piken
“The thoughts you think affect your adrenals and cortisols.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Don’t underestimate the effect of the toxins you are inhaling, ingesting in your food and applying in your skin every day.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her brilliant health means you like the way your look, the way you feel and your lab values merit.” – Dr. Jason Piken
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Jason Piken’s website
Leaky Gut Diet Protocol – FREE eBook
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Hashimoto thyroiditis – you may have heard of this because a friend or a relative or maybe you have this disease. With an approximate of 14 million Americans suffering from this autoimmune disease, Hashimoto’s is a very serious topic.
Healing from Hashimoto’s herself; Clinical Nutritionist Inna Topiler shares her personal journey towards healing with the help of Functional Medicine – what certain foods should you eat and what to avoid, managing stress, etc.
She also provide useful information about her upcoming FREE online summit about “Overcoming Hashimoto’s” which is packed with golden insights and tools from experts in the health professional field and educate yourself to combat this uncommonly diagnosed autoimmune disease.
Key Notes:
- Hashimoto’s disease – how to diagnose and treating the root cause
- How Functional Medicine can treat the disease
- Detoxification and other tools to remove toxins and stress from the body
Quotes:
"In Functional Medicine, we help people solve their mysteries so they can be healthy." - Dr. Kyrin Dunston
"We're laughing at the insanity of disjointed medical system that is only concerned with 'what's the diagnosis and what drug do I need to give you?'" - Dr. Kyrin Dunston
"Functional medicine is the path to the WHY - why you have the symptoms and the disease you have." - Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Being Hashimoto’s is an autoimmune disease, we really have to address the whole system and what’s triggering the immune system.” – Inna Topiler
“When you treat the root cause, everything gets better.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Medicine is not bad, but you can go far with natural, holistic therapies that you may not need medication.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Even though the symptoms might be similar, the cause of them can be different because we are all individual.” – Inna Topiler
“Her brilliant health is having vibrant energy, vibrant skin and a digestive system that is working effortlessly and having peace of mind.” – Inna Topiler
Links Mentioned:
Inna Topiler’s website
Health Mysteries Solved Podcast
Overcoming Hashimoto’s Online Summit FREE Registration
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Stressed? What’s the first thing that you think of when you are stressed out – and no we’re not talking about food here but self-care.
What comes to mind when you hear the word “self-care?” Most people think about a trip to the spa or getting yourself “pampered” for the day or having a day out with your girlfriend. But you totally got it wrong!
Radical self-care is not just one day but it is about your lifestyle and how you can manage daily stress which is related to having brilliant health. In this episode, Dr. Kyrin speaks with Licensed Acupuncturist, board-certified herbalist, coach and strategist Brodie Welch about radical self-care and application to our daily lives in order to live a fully brilliant healthy life.
Key Notes:
- What is radical self-care?
- Practical ways that you can exercise self-care on a daily basis
- Managing stress and energy, setting priority and finding balance
Quotes:
“Self-care is a way we embody self-respect.” – Brodie Welch
“Self-care is not a one and done.” – Brodie Welch
“Radical self-care is loving and having devotion to yourself in a way that you are your most precious relationship.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Stress doesn’t exist; it’s how we perceive and think and feel about what’s happening or not happening in our lives.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Finding our way back to the way of nature helps everything unfolds harmony in the body.” – Brodie Welch
“We do tend to treat ourselves like machines but we are just not made that way.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her brilliant health can only be the full expression and embodiments of who she was born to be.” – Brodie Welch
Links Mentioned:
Brodie Welch’s website
Download Brodie Welch’s FREE Manifesto
5 Biohacks to Relieve Stress FREE Ebook
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When you feel thirsty, what do you usually grab to quench your thirst? Is it a can of soda, juice or perhaps just plain water? Any of this will give you relief temporarily but how does it affect your health on a cellular level?
In this episode, we are talking not just about water but structured water. What is it, the importance of drinking structured water for your health and how do you source such? Learn all of these from Integrative Medicine Dr. Dana Cohen as she gives useful insights and knowledge about structured water as outlined in her new book “Quench.”
Key Notes:
- What is structured water and how to make structured water?
- The importance of hydration and how to hydrate properly
- The connection between hydration and chronic illness
Quotes:
“There is no better way of getting structured water but by eating plants.” – Dr. Dana Cohen
“Afternoon fatigue is more likely dehydration.” – Dr. Dana Cohen
“One reason we are dehydrated is because of toxicity.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Low grade dehydration is the first step in preventing and treating any kind of chronic illness.” – Dr. Dana Cohen
“Her brilliant health is when you listen to your body.” – Dr. Dana Cohen
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Dana Cohen’s website
Quench: Beat Fatigue, Drop Weight, and Heal Your Body Through The New Science of Optimum Hydration
EWG’s Water Filter Guide
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Despite the fact that our culture portrays women at middle age as being tired, overweight and “over-the-hill” this should not be the natural course of life for us.
Menopause can and should be a glorious time of life filled with self-discovery, vitality and wholeness.
If you are not experiencing this then there are reasons that must be uncovered for you to live the brilliant life that you deserve.
In this episode Functional Medicine Practitioner Marcelle Pick and Dr. Kyrin explore why you must address the underlying root cause of your weight gain, fatigue and other health issues if you want to heal and how to begin doing that.
They review ground breaking research on how our childhood events affect our health….forever…..and steps to take to remedy their effects.
Key Notes:
- What stress really is and how to determine if it’s affecting your adrenal health.
- Why gut health is key for healing
- How to properly choose and use probiotics
- Why you are biologically programmed to crave sweets and salt under stress
- The deeper call of menopause that’s missed by most people
- The link between weight issues and sexual abuse
- How to get healthier, more beautiful and more confident as you age.
Quotes:
“Women are starting to be glorious in their 50’s and 60’s.” Marcelle Pick NP
“As we get older, we actually get better.” Marcelle Pick NP
“If we don’t deal with our stories then they will deal with us.” Marcelle Pick NP
“Food is the most powerful drug we have.” Marcelle Pick NP
“What all women are really looking for is to feel good about themselves.” Marcelle Pick NP
“Menopause is a journey of self-discovery.” Marcelle Pick NP
“It’s the great American secret that we’ve swept under the rug; that we have these health issues and addictions because of adverse childhood events.” Kyrin Dunston MD
“Menopause is a call to a larger life.” Kyrin Dunston MD
“Imbalances you have been accruing peak by the time you hit menopause. It really is a time to pause and take care of yourself.” Kyrin Dunston MD
Links Mentioned:
Marcelle Pick’s website
The Tapping Solution
Marisa Peer’s website
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Goddesses are usually associated with beauty and wisdom. This is how we usually perceive them. But did you know that you have an inner goddess that is just waiting to be unleashed?
What does tapping into your inner goddess mean and how is it associated with healing?
When it comes to the divine feminine, International Sacred Feminine coach Syma Kharal discusses with us in this podcast episode about the rituals, different archetypes and how to unleash the feminine power within you to aid you towards having brilliant health and it is not just about physical but also the spiritual being.
Key Notes:
- What is the Divine Feminine and how to discover and connect to your Divine Feminine?
- How acknowledging your archetype can help with your own healing
- Tapping into your inner goddess
Quotes:
“My journey is healing is not just the physical and what I’ve learned is that healing is about so much more than medical doctors are trained in.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“The goddess is within anyone.” – Syma Kharal
“Connecting with a goddess in a deeper level for a 40-day period can bring about bigger transformation.” – Syma Kharal
“Her brilliant health is a woman who has embraced her full goddess glory and has come fully into her sacred feminine power.” – Syma Kharal
Links Mentioned:
Flourishing Goddess website
Syma’s YouTube channel
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Is it really possible to eat clean and healthy food in this day and age? If you have been wondering about this and your daily diet routine consists of fast food or something that comes out of the box because you don’t have the time to cook or don’t know how to cook then this episode is for you.
Seasoned radio personality, cook, author and teacher Leanne Ely talks about how cooking change your life especially your health and why is it important to cook your own meal to get the maximum health benefits which you can’t get even from farm-to-table restaurants.
Key Notes:
- How cooking can change your life
- The cost of eating healthy
- Introducing healthy food to your children
Quotes:
“We need to stop looking at cooking as an extra-curricular activity.” – Leanne Ely
“What we cook, what we put on our plate and at the end of our fork is going to impact our health.” – Leanne Ely
“When I discovered Functional Medicine, went for the health and addressed the root causes then the weight started to peel right off of me.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“The #1 skill you could give your children when it comes to promoting their future health is how to have a palate for healthy food, source, cook and prepare it.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Leanne Ely’s website
NutriCoach School
Link to YouTube video
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When you hear about essential oils what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Essential oils are not just for your olfactory pleasure but also can help improve your weight, health and wellbeing, by taking them internally and adding them to your diet.
Natural Living Family founders Dr. Eric & Sabrina Zielinski, also known as Dr. Z & Mama Z, share their expertise utilizing the nourishing aspects of essential oils to aid effective and lasting weight loss in their new book, the “Essential Oils Diet”.
In this episode glean key take away points from their comprehensive program including:
Key Notes:
- Choosing the right food that is free of harmful chemicals
- Recipes that incorporate essential oils for weight loss
- What are bioactive foods and why are they important to your diet?
- Practical and natural ways to balance hormones
- Inflammation reduction using the power of essential oils
Quotes:
“Most of the food that we want to consume doesn’t have food labels such as fresh fruits and vegetables.” – Sabrina Zielinski
“You have to eat what really responds well to you.” – Dr. Eric Zielinski
“We’ve become disconnected with our bodies that we don’t even know the foods that we are sensitive to.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“When you lose weight and you do it right addressing the inflammation and underlying imbalances, your skin regains elasticity and helps to contract.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“If you don’t love and honor yourself, it’s hard to follow a program to eat healthy and you fall prey to eating unhealthy food.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Z and Mama Z’s website
Essential Oils Diet Book
60-Day Challenge Group Coaching
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CBD Oil and Medical Marijuana are making headlines as more and more states allow for the legal use of cannabis products.
If you’ve been wondering whether you could benefit from incorporating cannabis into your lifestyle, then join CBD Oil and Medical Marijuana Expert, Dr. Rachna Patel, as she describes the roles that CBD and Medical Marijuana can play in treating a variety of common chronic issues.
Dr. Patel will also help you understand:
- The legalities behind Hemp, CBD Oil and Medical Marijuana usage
- What to look for when purchasing CBD Oil
- How to read and understand CBD Oil lab tests so that you’ll be certain you’re buying a quality product
Quotes
“Nature has given us a treasure trove of medicine—all in just the right combinations of chemicals for your body.” - Dr. Rachna Patel
“From early menstruation through menopause and beyond, CBD and THC can address health issues through every stage of a woman’s life.” - Dr. Rachna Patel
“Once I knew how Functional Medicine helped me, I couldn’t ignore the fact that medication and surgery sometimes just didn’t work for people.” - Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“At the end of the day, opioids can kill you. Medical Marijuana and CBD will not.” - Dr. Rachna Patel
“I think Medical Marijuana is the answer to the opioid epidemic.” - Dr. Rachna Patel
“Medicine needs more and more people who have come alive and dug deeper to find greater answers to the questions of our day.” - Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her Brilliant Health means finding health and happiness because isn’t that the root of it all?” - Dr. Rachna Patel
Resources Mentioned
Dr. Patel’s Book: The CBD Oil Solution: Treat Chronic Pain, Anxiety, Insomnia, and More-without the High
Dr. Patel’s Facebook Group
Dr. Patel’s Youtube Page
Hemp Oil by Dr. Rachna Patel
For those interested in reading the research available on CDB and Medical Marijuana: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/
Watch the podcast on YouTube
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When someone mentions “balancing your hormones,” where does your mind go?
If you’re like most, Estrogen and Progesterone are the first to come to mind. But achieving brilliant health is about so much more than just the sex hormones.
Join Functional Medicine doctor, Dr. Deborah Matthew, as she describes the delicate dance between your sex hormones, your thyroid, and your cortisol levels.
If you’ve been struggling with daily fatigue, unexplained weight gain or mood swings… …even if you’ve been told your levels are within a “normal” range… ...then don’t settle for that kind of “normal.” You have options and Functional Medicine may have the answers you are looking for.
Quotes
“When I was able to resolve my hormone issues… I got my life back.” - Dr. Deborah Matthew
“I’m not against medication, but too often, they’re just a band-aid. They don’t really get to the root of the problem.” - Dr. Deborah Matthew
“Even if you’ve been told “you’re fine” by a doctor, it’s not normal to continue to have symptoms all the time.” - Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Cortisol, the stress hormone, affects all your other hormones.” - Dr. Deborah Matthew
“One of the first signs of adrenal problems is that you have no tolerance for the normal, everyday stresses that life throws at you.” - Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“You can get well, get off prescription meds and love the way you feel if you can get your hormones balanced.” - Dr. Deborah Matthew “Her Brilliant Health means giving yourself permission to put your own health first.” - Dr. Deborah Matthew
Resources Mentioned:
Dr. Deb’s websites: http://signaturewellness.org/
http://deborahmatthew.com/
This Is NOT Normal!: A Busy Woman’s Guide to Symptoms of Hormone Imbalance by Dr. Deborah Matthew
The Sexy Years: Discover the Hormone Connection: The Secret to Fabulous Sex, Great Health, and Vitality, for Women and Men by Suzanne Somers
Breakthrough: Eight Steps to Wellness by Suzanne Somers
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When life’s stresses send you diving headfirst into a family-sized package of double-stuffed Oreos, it’s time to get curious about what’s really going on.
So dust the crumbs off your lap, put aside the guilt and join Holistic Health Coach, Lisa Lewtan, as she introduces you to new ways to cope with the emotional stress that life throws at you.
Lisa will help you:
- Incorporate mindfulness and curiosity so that you can reconnect with your body
- Identify your emotional triggers and understand the motivations behind your eating habits
- Understand new ways to cope with your stress that don’t require food
You deserve to feel good and through curiosity and observation, you can start making the changes that will lead you to brilliant health.
Quotes
“I started paying attention to my body and that’s when everything changed.” - Lisa Lewtan
“Food has a sneaky way of filling the voids in your life.” - Lisa Lewtan
“Food is one of the great masqueraders.” - Kyrin Dunston, MD
“It’s not really about the food. It’s about understanding new ways to interpret and cope with the stress in your life.” - Lisa Lewtan
“Her Brilliant Health means paying attention and trusting the wisdom of your body.” - Lisa Lewtan
Resources Mentioned:
Gary Craig’s Emotional Freedom Technique (Tapping)
Lisa’s 7 Super Morning Habits
Lisa’s Book:
Busy, Stressed, and Food Obsessed!: Calm Down, Ditch Your Inner-Critic Bitch, and Finally Figure Out What Your Body Needs to Thrive
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When your feminine fire is barely smoldering what do you think that does to your health and your overall experience of life? If you’re not sure what I’m talking about then this episode is for you. Find out what your feminine fire is and why it’s key to living brilliant health and healing in your life.
Discover how your emotions are intimately tied to your passion and sexuality and how to connect deeply with yourself to ignite and release hidden energy.
For women sexuality and sensuality and intimately connected to emotions and our relationship with ourselves. In this episode, Sex, love and relationship coach Amanda Testa shares great tools and easy practices that you can use to reconnect to yourself, your intimate relationships and your emotions.
Key Notes:
- What is Feminine Fire?
- Connecting to the present and activating your senses
- 5 senses ritual
- Self-love and self-worth
Quotes:
“As women we all have this powerful energy within us.” – Amanda Testa
“Sex is about more than just the physical for women. 90% of our sexual responses are in our brain and not in our genitals.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Desire is your connection to intuition.” – Amanda Testa
“The greatest love is loving and appreciating yourself.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Anger is about boundaries. It helps you define what you want and what you don’t want.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“If you don’t feel the depth of your emotions, you will never be able to experience the height to which you can fly with them.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her brilliant health means being whole, nourished, radiantly alive in all areas of your body and your life.” – Amanda Testa
Links Mentioned:
Website – amandatesta.com
Sensuality ritual – amandatesta.com/sensuality
Podcast – Find Your Feminine Fire
Watch the Podcast episode on YouTube
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What does food mean to you? Is it simply nourishment for your body? Or, is it a reward when you feel the need to celebrate or do you reach for a quick bite when you are stressed?
People attribute different values and meanings to food and eating, which can cause health problems when it is overly associated with emotional nourishment. Dr. Melissa McCreery explores the psychology of overeating and why we women literally and figuratively often have too much on our plates and what to do about it.
Key Notes:
- Emotional overeating
- The meaning of food
- Mindful eating
- Managing stress
- Resources to actively soothe yourself instead of food
Quotes:
“Our relationship with food is so much more than food.” – Dr. Melissa McCreery
“We have our own relationship with food but if we don’t have an understanding of all the ways that food comes into play in our lives – we’re missing so much of what’s going on.” – Dr. Melissa McCreery
“We’re often not really paying attention to the color, the smell, the texture of our food to the fullest.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Digestive enzymes are increased if you eat slowly, sit down, savor and are mindful.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“We don’t realize when we’re using food as a substitute for what we really want because mindless eating shuts down our emotion.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“We didn’t learn skills to manage stress and difficult emotions and we learned to leverage food for that purpose.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her brilliant health is expansive.” - Dr. Melissa McCreery
Links Mentioned:
Too Much On Her Plate website - https://toomuchonherplate.com/
Hidden Hunger quiz - http://toomuchonherplate.com/hidden-hungers-quiz/
Podcast episode on YouTube - https://youtu.be/wZ8mcxVCDgI
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Most diets remove desirable foods from your daily regimen and many can create a sense of deprivation because of it. This is why the word “diet” can strike fear in people’s hearts.
But what if you can actually go on a “diet” that doesn’t eliminate foods but instead adds a specific dish to accomplish the same weight loss result? What if this dish is scientifically proven to achieve enormous health benefits including weight loss? That’s not such a scary diet.
Dr. Kyrin speaks with Dr. Susanne Bennett about the science and history of kimchi and it’s use in modern times to improve all aspects of health, including weight. Kimchi has been used for thousands of years and speaks directly to the centerpiece of health in the body; the gut. Kimchi decreases gut inflammation and improves the microbiome, no matter what else you are consuming.
This episode highlights Dr. Susanne’s release today of her newest book “The Kimchi Diet: Revive your Gut, Get Lean, Live Longer." Listen and learn how this delicious fermented vegetable dish can assist you on your healing journey and move you towards brilliant health.
Key Notes:
- Learn the roots of fatigue: The role of mitochondria in the body
- Understand mitochondrial dysfunction and symptoms
- Discover the benefits and science behind The Kimchi Diet
- Learn how to make kimchi at home
Quotes:
“When you lose muscle mass, you gain fat.” – Dr. Susanne Bennett
“Overeating, overexercising and too much gas in your belly affects your mitochondria”. – Dr. Susanne Bennett
“Food can be your medicine but it can be a poison too”. – Dr. Susanne Bennett
“My pyramid of success levels in healing is hormonal balance; toxicity; nutritional deficiency; and mental, emotional, spiritual balance.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Sea salt contains potassium, which contrary to popular belief, hypertensives need.” -Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her brilliant health is grabbing your potential and becoming the very best of who you are.” – Dr. Susanne Bennett
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Susanne Bennett’s website
The Kimchi Diet book
Watch it on YouTube
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Many people fail to create lives that they love living due to 8 unpleasant feelings they are unable or unwilling to deal with effectively. If we don’t know how to move past anger, sadness, guilt, shame, helplessness, embarrassment, disappointment, frustration and vulnerability then we may be subject to living a life less than the true expression of ourselves. A life less glorious and fulfilling than what is possible.
In this episode psychologist and life coach Dr. Joan Rosenberg highlights the One Choice we can make regarding these 8 feelings in 90 seconds that has the potential to transform our lives for the better. This Choice can remove doubt and disappointment and replace it with confidence, emotional strength and self-esteem.
Confidence happens whenever you have the deep sense that you can handle the emotional outcome of whatever you pursue. Dr. Rosenberg is committed to assisting people in creating the confidence to create lives that they love. This episode highlights the essentials of her teachings and starts you on the path to greater fulfillment.
Quotes:
“Confidence happens from the inside out.” – Dr. Joan Rosenberg
“Through speaking we gain confidence.” – Dr. Joan Rosenberg
“When we aren’t in touch with our feelings, we cut off from our bodies and that’s what creates illness.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Fear of rejection is fear of disappointment or embarrassment.” – Dr. Joan Rosenberg
“Her brilliant health is a woman who is grounded from her own experience, has a vision of who she wants to become and embodies that.” – Dr. Joan Rosenberg
“If you neglect the mental, emotional or spiritual – you just won’t get the shiny brilliant health that you deserve.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Joan Rosenberg’s website – https://drjoanrosenberg.com/
FREE gift - https://drjoanrosenberg.com/gift
TedX Talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EKy19WzkPxE
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/qtb6j_U1wuM
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All of us have encountered betrayal – from romantic relationships to family and in the workplace. Betrayal is a universal experience that we must heal properly from in order to move on in a healthy manner. The distinct steps in the Post Betrayal Syndrome, as outlined in Dr. Debi Silber’s clinical studies, must be addressed in a wholehearted manner for proper resolution to occur.
In this episode, Dr. Kyrin interviews Transformational Psychologist Dr. Debi Silber, who’s personal pain drove her mission seeking appropriate healing and ultimately birthed a new standard of care for healing from this most painful of wounds.
Dr. Silber elucidates how unprocessed emotions can wreck havoc with our emotional and physical lives and offers myriad resources and insight into moving forward and thriving.
Key Notes:
- The definition of betrayal
- Understand the Post Betrayal Syndrome and how to know if you have this
- Clearly see the 5 stages of the Post Betrayal Syndrome
- Learn tools to heal each stage successfully
- Gain insight into how betrayal is connected to physical illness
- What is Self-betrayal, how to know when you’re doing it and how to stop.
Quotes:
“Betrayal is the breaking of a spoken or unspoken rule.” – Dr. Debi Silber
“When it comes to betrayal it is personal and intentional. Your whole self is destroyed.” – Dr. Debi Silber
“You can’t be the same person when you are trying to heal an illness. You have to become something different and transform your entire being from the inside out.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“At a time that we need support the most, we are least likely to seek it.” – Dr. Debi Silber
“Self-betrayal is when you don’t honor what’s in your best interest.” – Dr. Debi Silber
“Her brilliant health is being authentic, honoring your truth and when something isn’t right find out why. There is just a brilliant version of you waiting to be healed and unleashed.” – Dr. Debi Silber
Links Mentioned:
Post Betrayal Institute website - http://pbtinstitute.com/
Quiz - http://pbtinstitute.com/quiz
The Unshakable Woman: 4 Steps to Rebuilding Your Body, Mind and Life After a Life Crisis - https://www.amazon.com/Unshakable-Woman-Steps-Rebuilding-Crisis-ebook/dp/B01N5SHR28/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1485902403&sr=8-1&keywords=the+unshakable+woman
TEDx Talk - https://youtu.be/XX30i6nC7ro
Link to YouTube video – https://youtu.be/Nr3nZQNHkZY
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Urinary incontinence affects 13 million American women and is a complaint that can increase with age. Urogynocologist Dr. Betsy Greenleaf explains why this often embarrassing medical problem occurs and shares natural treatments to alleviate the symptoms that often are as simple as changing what you drink!
Pharmaceuticals offered for the treatment of urinary incontinence have side effects and do not treat the underlying root cause of the disorder. Effective strategies are covered to put you back in the driver’s seat to alleviate these symptoms, including some that not only improve your urinary control but also you sex life!
Key Notes:
- Definitions of the different types of urinary incontinence
- Underlying root causes of urinary incontinence under your control
- Tests your doctor can perform to identify type of incontinence and bladder status
- Tools and exercises to improve continence and enhance vaginal muscles and tissue
Quotes:
“Foods that have a high acidity level can cause irritation to the bladder and leakage.” – Dr. Betsy Greenleaf
“Looking into your diet is the first task to reduce urinary urgency.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Americans don’t eat a lot of fermented foods so we’re not replenishing our source of bacteria in our bodies.” – Dr. Betsy Greenleaf
“Your gut health is very important to your vaginal health.” – Dr. Betsy Greenleaf
“Strengthening your vaginal muscles helps incontinence and leads to better sex.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“We are conditioned to seek a drug when we have a medical problem.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Dis-ease or lack of ease in the body is not a sign that you need a drug. It’s a sign that your body is telling you it’s not happy. Your job is to figure out why.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Every drug has a side effect and every drug you take, you are introducing toxins into your body.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Betsy Greenleaf’s online stores - https://pelvicfloorstore.com/ and https://gleafgear.com/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/g_gnX5BeKto
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When you feel stressed – do you reach out for a cookie?
When you feel happy – do you celebrate with eating food that might not in your best interest?
Are there certain emotions you resist feeling? Perhaps anger? Or sadness?
If so, then you might be suffering from emotional eating.
The majority of Americans have a weight problem. Most people are aware what foods promote weight loss and health and may stick to their plan for a while. Eventually, many fall off the straight and narrow and once again begin eating foods that increase the scales.
I’ve seen it over and over again with my clients. And emotional eating is the root cause of it.
In this episode Emotional Eating Expert Tricia Nelson spells out exactly what emotional eating is and details some steps you can begin taking today to moderate it. Tricia truly exemplifies that your pain becomes your purpose. Her journey through emotional eating ultimately led her to her professional expertise and passion.
If you’re struggling with adhering to your eating program the insights shared in this episode might provide the light and direction you are needing to move forward successfully.
Key Notes:
- Discover exactly what emotional eating is and how it relates to food addiction
- How to use the PEP Test (Pain, Escape, Punishment)
- Understand key factors in recovering and healing your hunger
- Learn the relationship between food and sex
Quotes:
“I love food and I love eating but I’m eating to live and not living to eat.” – Tricia Nelson
“Oftentimes, we are eating to kill emotional pain, escape or as a reward.” – Tricia Nelson
“Functional medicine and its tools work but it doesn’t work if you don’t work it – When it doesn’t work it’s often because of compulsive eating.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Emotional eaters are emotional snackers. Eating three full meals a day is the #1 action to take to reduce this.” – Tricia Nelson
“You don’t have a weight problem, you have a perception problem.’” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her brilliant health means shining our light.” – Tricia Nelson
Links Mentioned:
Tricia Nelson’s website - https://www.healyourhunger.com/
10 Weeks to Freedom from Emotional Eating program - https://healyourhunger.lpages.co/10-weeks-to-freedom-from-emotional-eating-now/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/GzOHAPStoTM
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An essential requirement for any type of physical healing is to get the nervous system out of the chronic stress state in which most of us reside and into the opposite anti stress state, parasympathetic dominance, which allows for a relaxation, restoration and healing. The cranial nerve that governs this revitalizing system is called the vagus nerve and learning to activate it in myriad ways can mean the difference between healing or not.
Dr. Navaz Habib expertly details how to leverage the vagus nerve for optimal healing in his new book, Activate Your Vagus Nerve: Unleash Your Body’s Natural Ability to Overcome Gut Sensitivities, Inflammation, Autoimmunity, Brain Fog, Anxiety and Depression. In this episode he shares a sneak peek into some of the key processes you can begin using today to turn on this powerhouse of healing and wellness.
Key Notes:
- Learn exactly what is the vagus nerve is and its key functions
- Understand the importance of the autonomic nervous system in illness and healing
- See why this is called the Buddha nerve and what that means for your health
- Gain insight into how vagus nerve affects immunity and interacts with other body systems positively or negatively
- Learn easy tools and exercises to start activating your vagus nerve today
- Understand why breathing techniques are paramount in any healing program and where to begin
Quotes:
“I’m grateful for my health challenges because they led me to the truth.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“All disease begins in the gut. The vagus nerve turns on the digestive system and starts the path to health in the gut.” – Dr. Navaz Habib
“If you have gastrointestinal disturbance, you have vagus nerve dysfunction.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“The care and feeding of your vagus nerve is paramount to Your Brilliant Health.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Her Brilliant Health means a woman is healthy and able to spread that health to everybody around her.” – Dr. Navaz Habib
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Navaz Habib’s website – http://drhabib.ca/
Dr. Navaz Habib’s book “Activate Your Vagus Nerve” - http://drhabib.ca/vagus-nerve-book/
Watch the episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/OWG7jChNsUw
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Autoimmune disease surpasses cancer in numbers of women affected and is one of the leading causes of death among women. Adverse childhood events have been demonstrated to contribute to this challenging group of diseases where a person’s immune system is literally attacking their own body and often causes death. Traditional medical treatments attempt to suppress the symptoms but don’t address these and other underlying causes.
Dr. Keesha Ewers knows first-hand what it takes to heal from autoimmune disease from the perspective of a patient and a doctor and shares insight from her best-selling book, Solving the Autoimmune Puzzle, with listeners in this episode. Yes, there are lifestyle issues that need to be addressed but metabolizing unresolved hurt and trauma is a key factor in healing from autoimmune disease. Learn why saying “No” is one of the most powerful tools to use.
Also get a sneak-peek into pearls of wisdom from her upcoming book, The Libido Cure, which details the key factors involved in maintaining and obtaining a healthy sex drive. It might not be what you think.
Listen up as these two experienced clinicians who have overcome their own health challenges naturally share their wisdom and suggested take-action steps for you to move closer to brilliant health starting today.
Key Notes:
- Learn the difference between little “t” trauma and big “T” Trauma in childhood
- Understand why psychospiritual dynamics are key in healing from autoimmune disease
- Find out what the autoimmune personality type is and ways to move towards healing
- Get insight into key factors involved in a healthy libido and ways to improve these inputs
- Learn that it’s normal for the majority of women to not have a sex drive in relationship
Quotes:
“Autoimmune disease is undigested anger.” – Dr. Keesha Ewers
“Everybody with autoimmune disease has some perfectionism in them.” – Dr. Keesha Ewers
“Your sex hormones are necessary but not sufficient for a healthy sex drive” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Shine with your own brilliance.”– Dr. Keesha Ewers
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Keesha Ewers’ website – https://www.drkeesha.com/
Your 21 Day Quick Start - https://www.drkeesha.com/quickstart
Watch the podcast on YouTube - https://youtu.be/MH3DUJOUVUM
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Yoga is not just about exercise and flexibility, it is also about healing yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually and mentally. It means union of body and soul and is a unique tool to heal on all levels. Kundalini yoga is a particularly practical method to help you navigate the ups and downs of daily living.
In this episode, International yoga and meditation leader Faith Hunter shares her personal journey of healing through Kundalini yoga and meditation and shares simple practices to implement to handle stress and difficulty as it inevitably arises.
Key Notes:
- Why breathwork is such a powerful healing tool
- Different types of yoga practices
- Kundalini yoga practices and development
- The 7 chakra energy centers in the body
- The top health and wellness benefits of yoga and meditation
Quotes:
“Yoga means union and it was developed to quiet the body so that the soul could speak.” - Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Kundalini is the practice of harnessing the energy within you.” – Faith Hunter
“When energy is flowing we have the capacity to manifest what we want” - Faith Hunter
“Yin yoga is key to healing because it liberates bound up energy.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“yoga practices are rooted in the science of healing the body.” – Faith Hunter
“When the mind is quiet you hear God, Spirit, The Divine, Source, whatever you call it – and then you are open to divine inspiration and guidance. “ – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“ When the mind is quiet you are lowering resistance in your body that is associated with disease.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Having brilliant health is feeling joy, peace and harmony” – Faith Hunter
Links Mentioned:
Faith Hunter’s website - https://faithhunter.com/
Embrace DC (Faith’s studio in DC) - https://www.embracedc.com
YouTube video: https://youtu.be/FHHj_9oIkKw
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A lot of women believe that they will be subject to physical limitations after the age of 50. They believe that their physical ability, strength, endurance and flexibility will all decrease to unsatisfactory levels during this time.
The fact that many women experience these issues is actually due to their belief and due to choosing to not take appropriate actions to move towards health and healing.
Which will you choose?
This week’s guest, Debra Atkinson, author of “Hot, Not Bothered: 99 Daily Flips to Slimmer, Trimmer, Fitter Faster So You Can Master Metabolism Before, During, and (long) After Menopause”, has flipped the script on fitness after 50 and will teach you how to do this too.
Debra shares her insights with Dr. Kyrin about the top 10 reasons you must engage in resistance training to get it and keep it after 50. Details are shared on When should you start? How should you do it? What can you do?
Once you learn all the benefits of resistance training for your fitness level, aging status, disease and your mind and emotions you will be excited to partake in this activity
Join us as we delve deeper into exactly what it takes to achieve brilliant health.
Key Notes:
- Learn the top 10 documented health benefits of resistance training
- Understand how resistance training plays a key role in epigenetics
- Why certain types of exercise are essential to healing mental illness
- Gain insight into how hormonal balance is promoted by exercise
- Why Self-love is the key to brilliant health
Quotes:
“Resistance training directly affects genes referring to aging.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Meditation is more effective treatment for hypertension than medication.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“As we age, our need for recovery increases.” – Debra Atkinson, Flipping 50 TV
“When you exercise, you balance your cortisol levels – which is huge because it governs your immune system & controls your cravings for sugary foods.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Beliefs are nothing more than thoughts and we can change these and make decisions to believe in what’s supportive of us.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Sure, everyone looks at a beautiful girl…But they can’t take their eyes off a confident woman who radiates joy and health. And THAT is available to you at ANY and EVERY age.” Debra Atkinson, Flipping 50 TV
Links Mentioned:
Debra Atkinson’s website - https://www.flippingfifty.com/
Debra Atkinson’s book (Hot, Not Bothered: 99 Daily Flips to Slimmer, Trimmer, Fitter Faster So You Can Master Metabolism Before, During, and (long) After Menopause) - https://www.flippingfifty.com/hotnotbothered/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/WcxjlWUHJpM
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You might not know this but…. good health starts with a healthy immune system and a healthy immune system begins in your mouth! Many of us suffer with abnormal bacteria and inflammation in our mouths that goes unaddressed and contributes to systemic disease. Disorders such as Alzheimer’s Dementia and heart attacks are caused in part by this inflammation.
You might think that you’re doing well in preventing this with your daily habits of brushing and flossing with traditional tooth paste but you’ll be surprised to learn how your toothpaste, or toxipaste, may actually be harming you and actually causing the issues you are trying to avoid.
In this episode, Dr. Kyrin talks to Primal Life Organics CEO Trina Felber, RN, BSN, MSN, CRNA about the key importance of properly cleaning up your dirty mouth and exactly how to do that so you can heal and experience brilliant health.
Key Notes:
- What constitutes a healthy mouth (teeth and gums) and why is this important to overall health?
- Learn what a healthy oral microbiome is and how to promote it for overall health.
- Why common store-bought oral hygiene products are toxic for your health.
- How to heal cavities naturally.
- Safe products that you can use to promote a healthy oral environment.
Quotes:
“Your mouth is your gatekeeper to health.” – Trina Felber
“You can tell that you have inflammation by the condition of the mouth.” – Trina Felber
“Poor oral health correlates to low birth weight in babies.” – Trina Felber
“Our relationship with food is our most intimate relationship.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“You can’t remineralize your mouth by taking supplements, this has to happen inside your mouth.” – Trina Felber
“It’s a shame that bacteria have become the enemy when the majority of them are good for us and healthy.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“We are actually creating an epidemic of superbugs that are resistant to antibiotics because we are getting rid of the good bugs.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Hormone balance is the foundation of health and a lot of these toxins interfere with the hormone balance.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Primal Life Organics website - https://www.primallifeorganics.com/
Teeth Whitening System - https://www.primallifeorganics.com/pages/teeth-whitening-system
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/LiDWbDiEkFI
See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
When was the last time you checked in with yourself? How connected are you to your own self? This episode does not only touch base on the physical aspect of having brilliant health such as exercise or diet, but it also touches base on the spiritual, emotional, intellectual and all other aspects in your life.
Dr. Kyrin digs deep with scholar, spiritual mentor, inspirational teacher, congregational rabbi, and artist Rabbi Sigal on the important things that most people neglect – why are you not doing it? Enjoy this meaningful conversation and learn key nuggets towards having brilliant health.
Key Notes:
- The Dogma, Kabbalah and mysticism
- Health and healing
- Meditation, chanting and its benefits
- Why are you not doing it? What are you grateful about?
Quotes:
“Mysticism is the acknowledgment that every human being has the capacity to be connected or to experience the luminous.” – Rabbi Sigal
“Meditation is not physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional – it’s all of it.” – Rabbi Sigal
“Conversation requires you to interact and dig deep and be present.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Why people are not doing it? Because of the disconnection from themselves and the lack of worth because they’re not paying attention to themselves.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Rabbi Sigal’s website - https://rabbisigal.com/ and http://mendful.org/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/HXmTsR6CrKw
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How do you take care of yourself? Many people claim that they do self-care but is it even the right way? When we feel bad or angry, we tend to process it by what is called “fake self-care,” – eating a box of chocolates or shifting to foods that we believe will “de-stress” us is not entirely self-care but instead it is self-sabotaging.
In this episode, Dr. Kyrin talks to Dr. Duffy Spencer about how we, mostly women, process emotions, what should be the right way to and self-care is not all about being selfish.
Key Notes:
- Resistance to self-care and fake self-care
- How we process our emotions
- Self-sabotaging and the vicious cycle
- Food addiction and other types of addiction
Quotes:
“A lot of people have a self-sabotaging part.” – Dr. Duffy Spencer
“Taking the superficial things is another form of fake self-care.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“The idea of addiction is to stop pain in a quick-fix way.” – Dr. Duffy Spencer
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Duffy Spencer’s website – http://www.drduffy.com/
Dr. Duffy’s SPICE book - http://www.drduffy.com/cds_books.html
Internal Family Systems - https://selfleadership.org/about-internal-family-systems.html
YouTube Video – https://youtu.be/MwSELsGjVHE
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Does number on the scale really matter? Not for Rebecca Bedford. Rebecca is the vlogger/blogger behind Being An SSBBW (Supersized Big Beautiful Women). In this episode, Rebecca tells about her journey and struggles on being overweight, weight loss, being healthy and self-acceptance.
The issue is not about the size, shape or weight but more of how you accept and love yourself. Listen more as Dr. Kyrin discusses with Rebecca about the facts, myths and personal views of body positivity, fat shaming and acceptance within the super-size community.
Key Notes:
- What is SSBBWW?
- Food addiction and weight loss
- Accepting your body and loving yourself
Quotes:
“You can’t be a healthy person if you don’t love who you are.” – Rebecca Bedford
“Self-acceptance comes from within.” – Rebecca Bedford
Links Mentioned:
Rebecca Bedford’s website - http://beinganssbbw.com/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/TtnQBSU9Ve4
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In the verge of her booming corporate career, Holly Bertone, was diagnosed with cancer. After undergoing treatment, a year later she was then diagnosed with Hashimotos and later turned to living holistically and turning to functional medicine. These unexpected turn of events pinkfortitude.com was born.
Listen on how Holly combats her disease using diet and lifestyle. She also shares her personal experience thriving in the workplace with an autoimmune disease. What best practices can you apply and what are your rights in the workplace?
Key Notes:
- What is fortitude?
- How do you thrive with an autoimmune disease/ disability in the workplace?
- How diet and lifestyle change shifts your health positively
Quotes:
“Food is the number one problem when it comes to gastrointestinal dysfunction.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Eating more of a whole foods diet versus just because it's gluten free, it can still be processed and still be inflammatory.” – Holly Bertone
“You could have so much gut damage that you need additional help to heal the gut for the symptoms to go away.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“It's all about your belief.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Pink Fortitude website (Holly Bertone’s website) and FREE ebook bundle - https://pinkfortitude.com/
“Thriving in the workplace with autoimmune disease “ book - https://www.amazon.com/Holly-J.-Bertone/e/B0716HBFCM/ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1?qid=1495669375&sr=8-1&_encoding=UTF8&tag=thecocheasdur-20&linkCode=ur2&linkId=1bfdaade02f3e762f0df4f9f3640d741&camp=1789&creative=9325
Gratitude Builds Fortitude Journal - https://pinkfortitude.mykajabi.com/p/shop-pink-fortitude-journal
Watch the YouTube video here: https://youtu.be/kIZJ8sGNt54
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The topic of brain health is paramount to everyone. Many aged people suffer from memory loss, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. Statistics say that 5.7 million Americans are living with Alzheimer’s disease and it is alarming that while many has recognized the symptoms early on, but has only taken action decades after.
Dr. Kyrin talks to Dr. Ken Sharlin, an Emory University trained and board-certified neurologist and author of the #1 bestselling book “The Healthy Brain Toolbox,” where they delved deeply into his career and common brain disorders, how to integrate food and lifestyle towards prevention of these illness. Listen in.
Key Notes:
- What causes brain disorders such as memory loss, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease?
- Gut-brain connection
- Your diet and your lifestyle and how it can affect your brain and overall health
- Key takeaways for having brilliant health
Quotes:
“Your health is a precious commodity. It is your most valuable asset and it needs to be treated like that with as being an important investment.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“What you're really talking about is a culture change and culture changes are slow and they're painfully difficult.” – Dr. Ken Sharlin
Links mentioned:
Dr. Ken Sharlin’s website - https://sharlinfxmed.com/
“The Healthy Brain Toolbox” - https://healthybraintoolbox.com/
Dr. Ken Sharlin’s functional medicine practice - https://functionalmedicine.doctor/
Jennifer Reis “Divine Sleep Yoga Nidra” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfIikxpis9s
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When you hear about the word “detoxification” what first comes into mind? Does it involve the food that you eat? Is it good to detox on a regular basis? Can everybody detox? There are a lot of questions that most people are unable to get the truth when it comes to this process.
In this episode, Dr. Kyrin talks to naturopathic physician and reformed “Pizza Queen” Dr. Judy Seeger about detoxification. What tools and what other information do you need in order to do the process the right and natural way?
Key Notes:
- How to detox?
- What tools can you use to detox?
- How to assess toxicity level in your body?
- 3 step detoxification process
Quotes:
“Health is brilliant. When you have that brilliant is like I could see the shining that the sparks flying out. . You're going to spark going feeling good.” - Dr. Judy Seeger
“Are you ready to make that change? Because changing the diet is the hardest thing we ever can do.” – Dr. Judy Seeger
“You want something with life in it because life will give life.” – Dr. Judy Seeger
“Good health is a choice and it's a choice that you make 100 or a thousand times a day” = Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Judy Seeger’s website and freebie "21 Easy Steps to Start & Stay On Your Detox" - http://judyseegerdetox.com/
MSQ (Multi-Symptom Questionnaire) - https://drhyman.com/downloads/MSQ_Fillable.pdf
Ewg.org water filters - https://www.ewg.org/tapwater/water-filter-guide.php
Link to YouTube video – https://youtu.be/TrZJ_i4LmDI
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Stress expert Dr. Heidi Hanna speaks on this week’s episode about brain health and how to take care of your brain. The brain is very powerful and is closely connected to the physical and emotional aspect of your body.
People are just becoming inflicted with stress every day and Dr. Heidi and Dr. Kyrin provides useful insights on how you can manage and navigate stress and turn it from negative into something positive. Listen in.
Key Notes:
- Brain health and what you need to do to take care of it?
- What does stress does to your body?
- How do you cope with stress?
- How to turn stress into something positive
- Humor and the brain
Quotes:
“Train our brain to believe that it has everything it needs.” – Dr. Heidi Hanna
“I believe that that's the creative force of the universe. And when you feel that satisfaction, that's a satisfied state, then, it helps to balance your hormones.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“It’s just super important that you become the boss of your brain.” – Dr. Heidi Hanna
“I think gratitude and appreciation is like the special sauce for making the brain change.” – Dr. Heidi Hanna
“I believe stressing is a blessing once you know how to use it.” – Dr. Heidi Hanna
“It’s not about being funny but seeing funny and the more you see funny, the more resilient you are in difficult situations because your brain's just more creative and flexible and resilient.” – Dr. Heidi Hanna
Links mentioned:
Dr. Heidi Hanna’s website - https://heidihanna.com/
Recharge (Free Ebook) - https://heidihanna.com/recharge
India Arie “I am light” - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ism8dBjxKvc&list=RDism8dBjxKvc
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/WdC2yO9e8mI
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In a world where society dictates what beauty is, is another woman’s health burden. Dr. Kyrin talks to health and fitness expert Christina Roulund about breast implant illness. Having personally experienced myriad of symptoms pertaining to her breast implants, Christina provides useful information about what it does and whether you should consider getting explant surgery for those who have implants.
If you have breast implants and are experiencing pain and symptoms which you are unable to identify where it has come from, Christina’s story might resonate with you.
Key Notes:
- What is implant illness?
- Explant surgery and how safe it is
- Self-love and awareness and the connection with your health
Quotes:
“I do think a root cause of all illness is lack of self love or self love deficit disorder” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“I want women to fully love and embrace and appreciate their natural body and not wait until they have something to be happy or to feel sexy” – Christina Roulund
“You have to put your health first, you have to focus on your health, take, take the focus off of your body and focus on your health” – Christina Roulund
Links Mentioned:
Size Happy website – sizehappy.net
Breast Implant Illness Rejuvenation and Education with Christina Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/groups/rejuvenationandeducationwithchristina/
Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/sizehappy_withchristina/
Link to YouTube video – https://youtu.be/ULh_0WW1YY8
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Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer among women and a leading cause of death. Despite the fact that it remains a scary topic for many women who feel powerless to protect themselves from this disease, there are steps that can be taken to help prevent it.
In this episode, Dr. Kyrin interviews Naturopath, Licensed Acupuncturist, Functional Medicine expert and Homeopath Dr. Carol Lourie about breast cancer; what causes it, what can you do to prevent it, your healing journey should you experience it and the path through breast cancer.
Key Notes:
- How cancer develops
- Ketosis and how it helps prevent cancer
- Why intermittent fasting is important
- Helpful tips for women who have been diagnosed or are undergoing treatment for or trying to prevent recurrence of breast cancer
Quotes:
“My simple philosophy is bad stuff out, good stuff in, balance everything.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Breast cancer is a call to action inside of ourselves.” – Dr. Carol Lourie
“I think her brilliant health comes from inside of all women and touches on the inner innate wisdom that we all have, that we need to listen to and respect and honor more and more.” – Dr. Carol Lourie
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Carol Lourie’s website- https://carollourie.com/
Detoxifying Your Home Ebook - https://carollourie.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Healthy-Home-One-Sheet.pdf
The Path of Breast Cancer online course - http://thepathofbreastcancer.com/
Watch the YouTube video here - https://youtu.be/kHMMm0eMF4c
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Young women are used to the idea of having pain in the period as normal but one thing always leads to another. Without knowing the root cause of the symptoms – there is an underlying cause for this. Dr. Kyrin speaks to naturopathic physician Dr. Naomi Judge through her personal experience helps women identify the cause of this. Hormonal balance, can it be achieved without a pill? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.
Having experienced chronic fatigue firsthand, Family Medicine practitioner Dr. Evan Hirsch (aka the Fatigue Doctor) uses the best of Functional Medicine to help patient combat chronic fatigue.
In this episode, Dr. Kyrin talks to Dr. Evan about diagnosing fatigue and the root causes. When conventional medicine normalizes fatigue as a sign of aging, Functional medicine knows otherwise. Listen as Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Evan reveal factors to consider when you are suffering with chronic fatigue symptoms and provide tips and free resources to help you bring back the zest in your life and say goodbye to fatigue!
Key Notes:
- What is fatigue and what causes it?
- How to diagnose if you have fatigue and how to treat it naturally
- Can you DIY your fatigue treatment?
- Role of Functional Medicine to heal fatigue
- Why practicing gratitude everyday can change your physiology
Quotes:
“My philosophy is: Bad stuff out, good stuff in – balance everything!” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“As soon as you start noticing that something’s wrong in the body, you have to start getting it back into balance.” – Dr. Evan Hirsch
“It is not normal that you are tired because of your age.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Having her brilliant health is all about balance – body, mind, spirit - all those cylinders operating. Living a conscious life.” – Dr. Evan Hirsch
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Evan Hirsch’s website - https://www.fixyourfatigue.org/
Bartonella Quiz - https://www.fixyourfatigue.org/bartonella-quiz/
Fix Your Fatigue Free E-book - www.fixyourfatigue.org/download-my-fix-your-fatigue-book/
Byron White formulas - http://www.byronwhiteformulas.com
Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/dxYzVYc80r4
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Triple Board Certified Dr. Anna Cabeca guests on Her Brilliant Health Radio podcast in today’s episode. Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Anna share parallel journeys from practicing traditional medicine (both OB-GYN) to Functional and Integrative medicine to being published authors and offering innovative virtual health optimization programs for women.
Dr. Anna shares her personal journey of healing, focusing on hormones and menopause – learn how she reversed menopause and brought herself back to healthy hormone balance not once but twice. And no chat between two OBGYN’s would be complete without a dose of sex, a sprinkle of self-love and a helping of relationships.
Dr. Anna shares information on her soon-to-be-released book “The Hormone Fix”, available early 2019. Plus, information on how to join her 10 day Breeze Through Menopause Course she will offer in the spring.
Key Points:
- What is the keto-green diet and what it offers to your overall health
- How to balance your hormones and reverse menopause
- How stress and trauma wreck your hormones and your health
- Golden nuggets to having a healthy and brilliant life
- How to have a robust sex life and relationship in menopause
Quotes:
“It’s our choice and decision to be healthy.” – Dr. Anna Cabeca
“Resentment is lack of self-care.” Dr. Anna Cabeca
“Knowing that we are absolutely worthy is necessary.” – Dr. Anna Cabeca
“To get in touch with your inner being, what are you really feeling?” - Dr. Anna Cabeca
“What are the things that we value most in our lives and let’s do more of those.” – Dr. Anna Cabeca
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Anna Cabeca’s website - https://drannacabeca.com/
The Hormone Fix (Dr. Anna Cabeca’s book) – https://www.amazon.com/Hormone-Fix-Naturally-Flashes-Keto-Green/dp/0525621644
The “Hormone Harmony” Special Gift Pack - http://drann.ontraport.com/t?orid=83896&opid=88
Julva Cream – For our delicate femine parts
http://drann.ontraport.com/t?orid=83896&opid=72
Mighty Maca
https://drannacabeca.clickfunnels.com/a-free-gift-for-you?oprid=33128&ref=83896
Link to YouTube video – https://youtu.be/UJgKG5FXSWk
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What does having it ALL mean to you? Can you have it ALL without having brilliant health? What does having brilliant health mean to you? These important questions and more pondered in this episode with Matthew Bivens of the Having it A.L.L. (Abundant Loving Life) Podcast.
Hopefully, you’ve realized that great health starts with a terrific mental and social state. But what, exactly, is needed in these areas to supercharge your health in the right direction?
Matthew Bivens is a Balance Lifestyle Coach who aims to create and experience an abundant loving life every day and to be on what he calls Full Beast Mode. He teaches clients how to create their own balanced life and find their own voice.
Finding your own voice is a central component of creating brilliant health, especially if you’re struggling with thyroid or other neck issues (ore on this later). Listen up as we discover Matt’s unique and proven tools to having it ALL.
Key Points:
- How to nurture your relationship to yourself and your partner
- What is an Abundant Loving Life and how do you achieve it?
- Finding the balance in your life, is it possible?
- Discerning your own inner voice and heeding its desires
- Is living your life from a passionate place possible?
Quotes:
“If you try to have it all based by society, things are going to fall by the wayside.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Health is a journey and not a destination.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Living into that authentic person that is within you is what it means to have brilliant health.” – Matthew Bivens
“A way to build trust is making deposits through the love tank.” – Matthew Bivens
Links mentioned:
Matthew Bivens’ website – http://www.matthewbivens.com/
Having it ALL podcast - http://www.matthewbivens.com/podcast/
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Rachael Pontillo is the best-selling author of “Love your skin, Love yourself” and Co-author of “The Sauce Code”. She is also a Functional Nutritional Practitioner, AADP and IAHC certified health coach, licensed Aesthetician. Her career track involved working in similar industries but her passion to discover a more natural and organic way for better skin has landed her where she is now.
In this episode, Dr. Kyrin and Rachael talks about how the quality of your skin is also an important identifier how your health is. Pointing out what your skin does to your body and how you can be able to take care of your skin, including common skin problems such as acne, eczema, etc. , giving it more glow sans the harmful chemicals.
Key Notes:
- How environmental factors can affect your health and what does your skin do to protect it
- How you can nourish your skin
- What self-love can do for you
- Top common skin problems that people complain about and what you can do about it
Quotes:
“Health is not an event, it’s a journey.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“You have to tell yourself ‘I love you’.” – Rachael Pontillo
“If you don’t love the energetic part of yourself, this will never be the way you want it to be.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Start listening to your body, look at your skin.” – Dr. Kyrin
“Overwhelm attracts overwhelm” – Rachael Pontillo
“Having her brilliant health really speaks to the idea that we are embodying who we really are in all of our divine glory” – Rachael Pontillo
Links mentioned:
Rachael Pontillo’s website - https://rachaelpontillo.com/
Must Have Secrets for Gorgeous Skin course - https://rachaelpontillo.com/must-secrets-gorgeous-skin/
Love Your Skin, Love Yourself book - https://www.amazon.com/Love-Your-Skin-Yourself-Achieving/dp/061585172X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1377052202&sr=1-1
Link To YouTube Video: https://youtu.be/fpaUsWqQFIY
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Listen into this lively discussion between MD converts Dr. Veronica Anderson and Dr. Kyrin as they share their passion for all things Functional and Integrative Medicine with a twist of spirituality.
Dr. Veronica shares her journey from Opthalmologic Surgeon to her true calling as Medical Intuitive and global teacher and leader.
This episode focuses on the connection between physical and spiritual health that is now explained and informed by quantum physics. The spiritual hero’s health journey is described and key tools for successful healing are outlined.
What is your health challenge trying to teach you? Learn this and more in today’s episode.
Key Points:
- How your thoughts and beliefs affect your health
- How you can teach your body to heal itself
- Turning negative emotions (fear, sadness, and anger) to positive (gratitude, love and joy) can shift and impact your health
- Why the answer to your medical concern is not a pill
- How to avoid mis steps on your healing journey
Quotes:
“Everything in the Universe that you’ve seen can be healed.” – Dr. Veronica Anderson
“If you are not working on your soul journey, the Universe is going to continue to hit you hard in a form of an illness or injury until you get it.” – Dr. Veronica Anderson
“Thoughts create beliefs that affect your health so severely that it can cause healing and it can cause death.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Beliefs create physiology.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links mentioned:
Dr. Veronica Anderson’s website – https://drveronica.com
Dr. Veronica’s Ward Off Colds and Flu Tool Kit - http://drveronica.com/flu
Byron Katie – http://www.byronkatie.com/
Caroline Myss - https://www.myss.com/
Louise Hay - https://www.louisehay.com/
Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/LouFN6zOb5U
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In celebration of Breast Health Awareness Month this October, Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Ellie discuss the facts regarding the use of thermography to detect pre-cancer changes in the breast with this revolutionary modality.
Although mammography screening for detection of early breast cancer is still the standard of care, it is fraught with difficulties that are detailed in this discussion.
Thermography has been used for over three decades to detect physiologic changes that lead to breast cancers and has been proven to allow superior detection of the functional changes that predate the development of breast cancer.
Dr. Ellie Campbell is a leader in educating physicians and laypeople regarding the benefits of thermography, early breast cancer change detection and reversal.
She is a pioneer in holistic and integrative healthcare in the greater Atlanta area and educates clinicians nationwide. She is double-board certified in Family Medicine and Integrative Functional Medicine.
Key Topics:
- How to protect yourself from getting the #1 cancer in American women and the number 1 cause of death in women ages 35 to 54
- The pros and cons of available risk assessment tools, including
- Gail Model
- Mammogram
- Ultrasound
- Thermography
- Why mammography is not sensitive and specific enough for early cancer detection
- How the technology of thermography works and why it shows change before mammography
- Simple ways to mitigate your risk of developing breast cancer
- Key factors to consider when choosing a thermography facility
Quotes:
“Gone are the days where you turn over your health to your practitioner, you need to empower yourself and educate yourself about what the guidelines are.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Just because you don’t see it, it doesn’t mean it’s not there.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“The body wants to heal itself; it just needs the right tools.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“There’s so much that you can do to change the course of your health and you have the power to do it.” – Dr. Ellie Campbell
“It’s no longer survival of the fittest. It’s survival of the best detoxifiers.” –Dr. Ellie Campbell
Key Links Mentioned:
Dr. Ellie Campbell’s website - http://campbellfamilymedicine.com
The Gail Factor Breast Cancer Risk Assessment Tool - https://bcrisktool.cancer.gov/
Phluffing Brochure- http://www.cherylchapman.net/pdf/phluff.pdf
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/uRDoaZ1eh8U
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Dr. Shiroko Sokitch is a functional medicine doctor and acupuncturist specializing in chronic illness, pain management, hormone balancing, digestive problems and brain balancing. She opened her practice “Heart to Heart Medical Center” which help patients live the best lives they can.
Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Sokitch delved deeper on how she started her career where she dreamt of becoming a doctor at the age of 5. Her mission was to help patients find their best treatments. She integrates Western medicine and ancient Chinese/Eastern medicine in treating patients. She is able to understand the emotional aspect is connected with the physical aspect of the body.
They also talked about her book Healing When It Seems Impossible – what’s it’s all about.
Key points:
- If you don’t have balance in your body then things will start to fall apart based on traditional Chinese medicine
- Triangle of wellness according to Dr. Sokitch consists of hormone, immune system and nervous system
- Each organ system has an emotional component – each parts of your body has different emotions
Quotes:
There’s a love connection between you and your body. – Dr. Shiroko Sokitch
Your hero’s journey – starts with a challenge, gather your ally and then there’s the quest – Dr. Shiroko Sokitch
There’s always light at the end of the tunnel – Dr. Shiroko Sokitch
Links:
Dr. Shiroko Sokitch’s website and FREE The Hero's Journey ebook: http://hearttoheartmedicalcenter.com/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/m5ePqwKDnPA
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Dr. Jill Carnahan is Functional Medicine Expert who deals with mystery and stealth illnesses in the body that is very chronic and toxic. Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Jill delve deeper into her personal journey on how she came upon with her career as a Functional Medicine doctor.
Little do people know is that autoimmune diseases are caused by nutritional or biochemical imbalances. With her expertise she treats people by providing them personalized medicine that deals with the root cause instead of the usual ‘band-aid solutions.’
In this episode, they talked about how infection and toxic burden affect our body and how daily detoxication such as sauna or Epsom salt baths can help a person combat these risks.
Key topics:
- Toxic burden is prominent and is present even in organic water supply
- Significant toxic burden can be present in your body especially if you have a disease and you’ve been through several doctors and unable to treat the root cause of it
- 3 things that you need – clean air, clean water and clean food
- What you put in your body especially food is 80% to 90% of the battle
Quotes:
We can change autoimmune disease through that portal (diet). – Dr. Jill Carnahan
Our gut is a huge piece of the puzzle because that is where our immune system interfaces with external environment. – Dr. Jill Carnahan
You need to detox every day because you are taking in these things every day. – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Spiritual connection – the meditation, the prayer, the belief in a higher power and having a purpose to impact health means having brilliant health. – Dr. Jill Carnahan
Links:
Dr. Jill Carnahan’s website - https://www.jillcarnahan.com/
Free guidance on mold treatment - https://www.jillcarnahan.com/freegift/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/AynZSDxkb64
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Dr. Heather Paulson is a board certified Naturopathic Oncologist and she is one of the few in the country. Initially, her dream was to become a Marine biologist but a significant event has turned her chosen career to becoming a doctor who focuses on cancer.
Her personal experience with cancer (her father passed away from colon cancer and her husband diagnosed with cancer and going through treatments has helped her realize her path thus together with her training she has successfully created a natural strategy of dealing with the disease and has helped thousands of people.
Listen in as Dr. Kyrin Dunston and Dr. Heather Paulson talked about how cancer affects the body, how to deal with it naturally and get tips on how to prevent it because as we all know – prevention is always better than cure!
Key topics:
- How to reduce risks or prevention of cancer
- Only 5% of cancers are due to familial history but tumors are not inherited
- Exercise can help reduce/ eliminate the risk of getting or recurrence of cancer
- How to treat cancer naturally
Quotes:
“If our immune system’s not working properly, and the soil is not functioning in our body then cancer cells are allowed to grow. It’s like weed in the garden.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Get moving, however you like to move, move.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Take a look at the rhythm of your day and the rhythm of the year and the rhythm of your life and see what your body needs in that moment.” – Dr. Heather Paulson
“Your body is a living organism and what it needs today may not be the same as what it needs in 3 months.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“Having a brilliant health is light shining from the inside out – physical, spiritual or emotional that will cause you to be your brilliant self. ” – Dr. Heather Paulson
Links:
Dr. Heather Paulson’s website - https://drheatherpaulson.com/
Start Living a G.R.E.A.T. life (FREE Ebook) - https://drheatherpaulson.com/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/HdoKIleam9E
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The reigning Queen of Thrones for the past 15 years, Naturopathic Doctor Marisol Teijeiro is a leader when it comes to detoxifying, gut health and creating vitality naturally.
She is the author of “Oh Shit!", a guide to “changing your life royally” by improving your bowel habits. Dr. Marisol also champions the use of Castor Oil Packs, a long ago forgotten staple of healing, which alleviates symptoms such as IBS, leaky gut and myriad other conditions and supports people in moving towards infinite health. Dr. Marisol shares her personal path to being crowned the Queen of Thrones and exactly how this title allows her to have the necessary honest conversations with people about their poop that lead to true health and healing. Your poop is a key messenger of the state of your internal health so getting this one right is key and Dr. Marisol gives you the knowledge, tools and support that you need. Key topics:
- There is a taboo about talking about poop
- Hyper wiping and what it means
- How your emotions such as negative feelings affect your health
- Keep actions you can take today to heal your body, not just with food
- Getting to the root cause of the disease
Quotes: “Digestion is how we are digesting our lives.” – Dr. Marisol Teijeiro “Thoughts are things and emotions are things and they affect your health through your stress hormone, cortisol.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston “Life really is brilliant and we just have to find the tricks to make it happen.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston “Having ‘Her Brilliant Health’ means someone who honors and lives with grace and their guts feel good and they are owning their throne in life.” – Dr. Marisol Teijeiro Links: Dr. Marisol’s website - https://www.drmarisol.com/ Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/C1Ayc2cy6cI
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Jessica Drummond is a Functional Nutrition and Integrative Women’s Health Expert and founder of Integrative Women’s Health Institute. She is passionate about supporting women regaining total control over chronic pelvic pain and hormonal imbalance.
She talked about her professional journey starting in the field of Physical Therapy, Sports Medicine and Orthopedic and jumped into specializing into Women’s Health.
She explained deeper about endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain. She also discussed about how a person’s diet is also connected to the bladder and how it can trigger and can irritate the lining of the bladder. She also revealed that the anti-viral nutrition can mostly be food in several foods such as oregano, rosemary, anti-oxidant foods, etc.
Key topics:
- There are several virus that does not really go away
- Anti-viral nutrition can be found in fruits and vegetables
- Three tips to have brilliant health: laughter, movement, eat as many vegetables as you can possibly enjoy
Quotes:
“Nothing beats personal experience” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
“It’s about creating an anti-viral lifestyle where your body is robust, your digestive function is working well so that it can absorb clean, nutrient densed, very colorful food plan.” – Jessica Drummond
“Having brilliant health is essentially having the energy to do whatever you want. It is about energy and living your life.” - Jessica Drummond
“How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” – Dr. Kyrin Dunston
Links mentioned:
Integrative Women’s Health website - http://integrativewomenshealthinstitute.com/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/AC50h8C_bLA
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Dr. Peter Osborne dubbed as the ‘Gluten-Free Warrior’ and ‘The King of Gluten Allergy’ in his Origins Practice in Sugarland, Texas – he also addresses the root cause/ origins of people’s disease with his bestselling book ‘No Grain, No Pain.’
Looking back 15 years ago people would ignore the fact that gluten is one of the factors as that triggers autoimmune disease. Now there are several gluten-free foods available in most stores across the country.
Dr. Osborne digs deeper about what gluten sensitivity is, when to get tested and what gluten does to your body. Should you stop eating grains? He also talked about how gluten affects your weight.
Key topics covered in this episode include:
- Auto-immune diseases such as celiac disease and leaky gut are found to be a result of gluten in the diet
- Fasting can alleviate pain
- Daily movement can help detoxification
- Number 1 predictive factor for longevity is the quantity of muscle mass they have
- Disease is an accumulated bad decisions
- Elimination diet does not solve the problem
Thanks for listening to the podcast. To learn more about working with Dr. Kyrin go to www.kyrindunstonmd.com
Quotes:
“When you do what you love, it is never work”
“All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed. Second, it is violently opposed. Third, it is accepted as being self-evident." – Arthur Schopenhauer
Links:
Dr. Peter Osborne's website - https://drpeterosborne.com/
Dr. Peter Osborne's No Grain, No Pain Book - http://nograinnopainbook.com/
Link to YouTube video - https://youtu.be/ky3-ejX9u0s
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Spirituality and Health Expert Dr. Deanna Minich talks about coming out of the “science art closet” and bringing essential creativity to healing the physical body.
Dr. Deanna is passionate about bringing forth a colorful whole-self approach to nourishment and bridging the gaps between science, soul, and art in medicine. She is the author of Color Can Heal Your Life, The Rainbow Diet and Whole Detox.
Creative expression is vital to our physical health. Dr. Kyrin and Dr. Deanna share their personal journeys and insights regarding the necessity of integrating creative expression on the physical healing journey for optimum results.
We can’t fully heal physically until we engage our energetic bodies. Our energetic bodies form the framework for our physical bodies. Creative expression is one of the easiest ways to do this.
Lean in to learn about the essential ways that creativity is linked to your physical health and how exactly to begin to engage this aspect of healing.
Remember to share this podcast with someone you love and subscribe to the podcast to receive notifications as soon as new episodes are released.
Key topics covered in this episode include:
- Why creativity is not addressed by your doctor
- Symptoms of creative blocks
- How creative life force helps you heal
- How a woman’s second womb is involved in healing
- The link between emotional, physical healing and creativity
- How to have miracles in your healing journey
- How your stress hormone cortisol is affected by creativity
- The connection between science and spirituality
- The Thyroid gland relationship to speaking your truth
- Why making a date with your emotions is an essential key to healing
Thanks for listening to the podcast. To learn more about working with Dr. Kyrin go to www.kyrindunstonmd.com
Quotes:
“The missing piece to your successful healing is the energetic, artistic piece.” Dr. Kyrin
“Her Brilliant Health means being vital, colorful and full of life force and moving in the best path for one’s own healing.” Dr. Deanna
Links Mentioned:
Insight Timer App: Available in the App store or website https://insighttimer.com/
Feeling Wheel Link: https://www.simplemost.com/feeling-wheel-will-help-better-describe-emotions/
Dr. Deanna Minich’s Website: www.deannaminich.com
Dr. Deanna Minich’s Whole Detox Program: http://whole-detox.com/
Dr. Deanna Minich’s latest book: The Rainbow Diet: A Holistic Approach to Radiant Health Through Foods and Supplements (Conari Press, 2018)-http://deannaminich.com/the-rainbow-diet/
Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/ucGm9ElxIUI
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Today Dr. Kyrin talks with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) expert and host of the upcoming Natural Solutions for PCOS Online Conference, Robin Neilsen, CNC, BCHN about the myriad expressions of this epidemic syndrome and simple solutions to implement to move towards healing.
Learn key symptoms of the #1 syndrome among women to compare to ones you might be having and know if it’s PCOS. Understand why you feel poorly yet your lab work is “normal” and how and why to get your hormones tested.
Stress is epidemic in our society and directly impacts the expression of PCOS. Robin and Dr. Kyrin uncover why this occurs and detail the delicate nature of a women’s hormonal system.
Plus, Robin takes you step by step through her Road Map to healing PCOS that includes the essential keys to healing from this troublesome syndrome and gives a sneak peek to exciting discoveries from her upcoming online PCOS conference.
Lean in to learn about these and more insights into PCOS.
Remember to share this podcast with someone you love and subscribe to the podcast to receive notifications as soon as new episodes are released.
Key topics covered in this episode include:
- Why PCOS is a symptom diagnosis and where to take the quiz
- Why a diagnosis of PCOS is not essential
- The difference between “normal” and “optimal” lab values
- The most common symptoms of PCOS
- Why the birth control pill may not be the best treatment
- Which hormones are imbalanced with PCOS
- Why you need to question everything your doctor tells you
- Why cholesterol is a good and essential nutrient
- What information your cravings tell you
- The Road Map to healing from PCOS
Thanks for listening to the podcast. To learn more about working with Dr. Kyrin go to www.kyrindunstonmd.com
Quotes:
“I am a firm believer that the right way to get heathy is to address the root causes of disease.”
Dr. Kyrin
“Her Brilliant Health is when you’re happy with your life.”
Robin Neilsen
Links Mentioned:
PCOS Quiz: https://www.pcos.com
Natural Solutions for PCOS Online Conference: http://naturalsolutionsforpcos.com/?ap_id=kdunston
Roadmap to Healing PCOS: https://pcos.com/healhormones/
Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/n7x701dLnGk
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Women’s Natural Health Expert, Kyrin Dunston MD, shares her personal journey of healing and talks about just what exactly Her Brilliant Health is and how the podcast will help you achieve it.
A successful OBGYN who seemed to “have it all”, Dr. Kyrin weighed 243 pounds and suffered with myriad health conditions and symptoms including chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, hair loss and low sex drive and was miserable and hopeless.
Despite being a qualified women’s health expert, Board Certified OBGYN, the diagnostics and treatments Dr. Kyrin was aware of failed to uncover a cause for her weight and other health issues and to alleviate her symptoms.
Until she discovered Functional Medicine, a unique specialty that uses special testing of hormones, toxicity and nutritional deficiency to uncover the root causes of disease and physical dysfunction and treats them naturally, with lifestyle modification of diet, activity, stress management and nutraceutical supplementation.
Dr. Kyrin lost 100 pounds and healed from all of the conditions and symptoms she had been suffering with for years. Her personal transformation was quickly followed by a professional transformation as she began using this unique type of medical care with her patients and they, too experienced the same transformative benefits not only on their weight and energy levels but also on their overall health and disease states.
In 2011 Dr. Kyrin retired from OBGYN to practice Functional Medicine full time, first in a traditional one on one office practice setting. Ultimately, her desire to bring knowledge of this type of medical care to a wider audience of women inspired her to write a book detailing her ultra-successful weight loss and health optimization program: Cracking the Bikini Code: 6 Secrets to Permanent Weight Loss Success. Her virtual group programs, including the Bikini Code Boot Camp, proved that women could lose 20-30 pounds from international locales doing the program on their own with weekly contact through the group and Dr. Kyrin. These programs continue to this day.
Her Brilliant Health Radio is the next step towards raising awareness among women worldwide regarding this type of innovative, life giving medical care that doesn’t use drugs to control symptoms as the first option. Instead, it identifies and addresses the underlying root causes of disease and symptoms, in many cases obviating the need for pharmaceutical intervention.
Dr. Kyrin explains her philosophy of health care and just what Her Brilliant Health means in this episode.
Lean in to learn about these and more insights from Dr. Kyrin. Find out exactly what to expect from this podcast going forward and how it might benefit you, and those you love.
Remember to share this podcast with someone you love and subscribe to the podcast to receive notifications as soon as new episodes are released.
Key topics covered in this episode include:
- Difficulties in knowing who to trust for health education and guidance
- Common lingering questions everybody has about their health
- Kyrin’s personal health journey and insights it holds for you
- Why health is a journey and not a destination
- Essential components of healing from physical illness
- Why virtual medicine allows real healing
- The birth and definition of Her Brilliant Health
- What this podcast will deliver
Thanks for listening to the podcast. To learn more about working with Dr. Kyrin go to www.kyrindunstonmd.com
Quotes:
“Her brilliant health leads to her brilliant life!” Dr. Kyrin
“This podcast is dedicated to each beautiful, precious, unrepeatable soul, with a body, that needs your attention in order to serve you and help you to deliver your unique gits and fully enjoy your life.” Dr. Kyrin
“Her Brilliant Health is health that inspires you to Go There! And Do That! To express your unique genius and bring your unique gifts to this world.” Dr. Kyrin
Links Mentioned:
Dr. Kyrin Website: https://www.kyrindunstonmd.com
Her Brilliant Health Radio Website: https://www.herbrillianthealthradio.com
Link to YouTube video: https://youtu.be/90WOsUkbZPc
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Lara is an Environmental Toxins Expert & Educator and a Certified Holistic Health Coach who trains and educates practitioners within the health & wellness community to better understand the links between environmental chemicals and their impact on disease states - from weight gain and diabetes, to thyroid disease and infertility - so they can more comprehensively support their clients and patients. Her clients also include health enthusiasts who are proactive about protecting their and their family's health & wellbeing.
Lara takes a practical, real world approach to dealing with toxins that is informative, accessible, actionable and free from overwhelm.
Many products that we use each day, such as toiletries, cosmetics and cleaning products, contain myriad synthetic chemicals that are harmful to our bodies in various ways. Industry standards for allowable toxin levels in our food, water and personal care and cleaning products generally have not kept pace with the rapidity of their introduction nor account for the additive and long-term effects of exposure.
The endocrine system is particularly vulnerable to disruption by common categories of these toxicants and results in multiple common female health symptoms and diseases.
Helping our bodies cope with these toxins starts with avoidance, avoidance and more avoidance. Followed by removal from the body.
Lara and Dr. Kyrin delve into this vital topic and give practical tips and actions to start taking today to eliminate toxins and improve your health.
Lean in to learn about these and more insights into environmental toxins that are secretly affecting your health adversely right now.
Remember to share this podcast with someone you love and subscribe to the podcast to receive notifications as soon as new episodes are released.
Key topics covered in this episode include:
- Why obesity is a toxicity issue
- Why “they” aren’t fixing the toxin problem
- The cocktail effect of toxicity
- Which products you’re using that contain toxins
- The top contaminants to avoid today and what to replace them with
- Why natural products are not necessarily safe
- Why fat is not just decoration
- Why the Master Cleanse is not your friend
- The #1 action to take to begin detoxing now
Thanks for listening to the podcast. To learn more about working with Dr. Kyrin go to www.kyrindunstonmd.com
Links Mentioned:
Kitchen Detox Program https://www.Laraadler.com
Tools for Teaching Toxicity Course http://teachingtoxicity.com/join/
Is it Chemicals, Not Calories? (free guide) https://www.laraadler.com/chemicals-not-calories-guide/
EWG Guide to Pesticides in Produce https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/
Quotes:
“1+1 does not equal 2 with chemical toxins. There’s a cocktail effect and they amplify each other.” Lara Adler
“We need to start reading all personal care product labels just like we read food labels.” Lara Adler
“Fat is not just decoration. It’s a storage unit for toxins.” Dr. Kyrin
“The #1 thing you need to do for detox is #2!”
Watch the Podcast Video on You Tube: CLICK HERE
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