Is BrainDRAIN Robbing Your Hormonal Sanity?

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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