Why Fixing Your insulin Makes Menopause (And Other Things) Magic

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 <affirmative> and lack of estrogen and then the lack of estrogen, right? Estrogen affects the, the insulin receptors, ex estrogen affects the U utilization of ES insulin. And then when we have this blah blah blah <laugh> that happens at perimenopause and then the blah that happens at menopause, you know, the weight dropping down, then we have a problem. So when did I realize this? I mean I started realizing this in patients a long time ago. Like, I don't know, probably 20 years ago, maybe even more. A lot of the problems that my patients were having were related to insulin

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. <affirmative>. And so I think we should be testing it the, the minute any kid gets tested, right? I think usually you go to a doctor and you have your annual exams.

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 <affirmative> have, you know, some crazy stuff that you're dealing with. But that's not what medicine, mainstream conventional medicine is based on. That's what functional medicine is based on.

 

Speaker 1 (11:24):

Okay. So let's give us quick synopsis so everyone can write this down. Not if you're driving <laugh>, but they can write this down. What tests should they everyone be having specifically?

Speaker 3 (11:36):

I think fasting glucose, fasting insulin? You mean in terms of metabolic health or overall <laugh>

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 <affirmative>. And then fasting insulin should be between two and five, ideally two to three hemoglobin a1c and ideally it should be right around five, you know? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, give or take a little bit, but right around five they're saying okay, you're 5.7 or you're not quite 5.8. So you're not insulin resistance yet. Oh you're 5.8 now you're insulin resistant. I mean it's, it's crazy. Right? So we're wanting them to be around five, which is an average glucose of about 96, 97, 98, something like that.

Speaker 3 (12:42):

Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. But then we also wanna look at inflammatory markers because it, this whole insulin resistance thing in inflammation is huge. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And so we wanna look at creactive protein, highly sensitive creactive protein. I like to look at homocysteine because that's a huge one, especially when we're talking cardiovascular and there's so many cardiovascular complications out of control. Insulin, I a full thyroid panel. Right. Because they're all interrelated and if you have a thyroid problem, you can't fix your insulin problem, you have an insulin problem, you can't fix your thyroid problem, you gotta fix both. Right? Right. So those are my mainstays and of course CBCs and all the blood counts, liver enzymes, cuz they're all connected. Right? Right. We have to set a complete panel. But those are the things that are often missed on the standard panel. G G T, I don't know if you've noticed this because you probably don't, you probably include it, but most panels that they get at their hospital, their doctor, they don't include G t, which is a liver enzyme, but it's a really good marker of exposure to toxins. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, why are we not looking at and alcohol? Yes. They go, oh, I don't drink very much, I don't drink very much. Oh, why is your G G T 35? Come on. Right, right. I've had people where I've looked at their G G T and I said, what are you doing for, did you, I don't usually drink. Well did you go to a party or a wedding right before you had this tested? Oh yeah. How did you know that? Yeah, I just, the blood doesn't lie.

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 <laugh> what would you want people to know about alcohol in their health? Because everybody wants to say, well the French drink two glasses of red wine a day, they have no cardiovascular disease. I can drink it with impunity. I'm not doing anything to myself. So what are your thoughts on that? That,

Speaker 3 (14:51):

So I'm not popular with my alcohol opinions. <Laugh>, I'm against it. Well it's not me either. Alcohol, it's organic, I don't care. Number one, it's addictive. And here's the thing. People say, I'm not gonna get addicted. I'm not gonna get addicted. You don't know when you cross that threshold. And some people cross that threshold at, you know, they just drink two glasses of wine a day. But then if they miss it, they're like, you know, right. They're that alcoholic. Like, I gotta get it. I gotta get it. Anything that's addictive, I'm against. Same thing with caffeine, with coffee. Like people say, oh but it's organic and it doesn't have the fungus in it and I'm putting CT oil in it and I'm making it healthy, but it's addictive. I watch people, you probably see the same thing at the conferences we go to.

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 <laugh>, why don't we just, why don't we just like do the work so that you feel comfortable with who you are to just be who you are and be silly and fun and serious when you need to. Right. But to be able to turn it on and off because if you're drinking, you can't turn it back on. You can't turn your brain back on.

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):

<Laugh>, you know, it's not even in the state. Like we can't get it anywhere here except by, you know, the, the guy on the corner that's selling it. And usually it's not in gummies, it's in, you know, and anyway that I don't wanna get people into the seediness of it and possibly get things laced that are bad. I don't think, I think that would be calmer. That would be a better alternative. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> if it's small amounts. But again, people, the jury's out I think on how addictive T H C is. Yeah. Like some people say it's not, and some people say it is, it depends on the maturity of their brain. But what about if there's social anxiety? A lot of times that's, there's some imbalances that are related there, right? Magnesium zinc and B6 for example. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> Right. Imbalances there. And they may say, well I take a, I take a multi and I have my B6 and my may need more of it because of a genetic tendency to not get rid of the, what am I, what am I trying to think? The, the word. The word just escape my mind. But there's a particular chemical that gets produced from hemoglobin that we can't eliminate. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. This is, we're gonna play the 20 questions. Gabe <laugh>. So you're gonna guess what I'm thinking of cuz my brain isn't coming up with the word not purines anyway. It'll come to me.

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 <laugh> done every year.

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 <affirmative>, a continuous glucose monitor. So you can actually see, oh I just ate this meal, you know, oh this meal kept me nice and steady. Or you just poke the thing. People don't like to do that as much. But you know, when you poke, poke you have a meal, you test your blood sugar beforehand with the finger prick you have the meal. And then I usually have people test right after because sometimes it starts to go up and then every half hour or so, 20, I like to say 15 to 20 minutes because you wanna catch the peak.

Speaker 3 (23:46):

But once you know how long your peak takes to get mm-hmm. <Affirmative> to like, if you find it, it's always 45 minutes. Why am I doing this? Just test it at 45 minutes. And then you find, what is that peak, the height of the glucose after a meal and then it comes down, what is that for my average foods? And then you eliminate those foods that cause a high peak. In my opinion. It shouldn't go above one 10 in my opinion. And also the clinical research I've done and in the people I've worked with where we go in and we just say, just let's just test this on your normal food. And then they shift their diets and they do a metabolic reset. I take people through like a 30 day metabolic reset of really not doing anything that's gonna raise their insulin levels. So we're addressing the stress, we're getting them to do movement but not over, you know, not training for a marathon because that could be stressful cells to go up.

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. <Affirmative>. So, but when we're home and he's exercising, like he goes out for a 10 mile bike ride or a 10 mile hike or he's exercising like crazy and he has diabetes in his family, his doc, his father was on insulin type two, but his pan pancreas wore out. So I know he has that genetic tendency. I have diabetes in my family, but also I know from testing I looked at my genes, I look at genes and my genes are like, yeah, I'm not good with <laugh> with handling sugars.

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. <affirmative>, you don't go out and buy, you know, Domino's pizza for the family. Right. You don't, you want your whole family to be eaten healthfully, but there's certain things you may have to restrict mm-hmm. <Affirmative> well the way they don't, so it's not like eating two meals, it's like making a core meal and then you make some side dishes. How hard is it to put on a pot of rice? Right. Right. How hard is it to steam up some something, you know, or put, put a piece of fish in the oven or whatever they, they want to eat that you don't want to eat. You just don't mix it in with the, the main meal. Right. Which is what you want.

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, <laugh> it's a new skill. Yes. But I agree it can be done. I wanna ask you about the role of exercise or supplements for helping out with insulin resistance at in perimenopause and menopause.

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, <laugh>, you know, just breathe.

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 <affirmative>. And nothing tastes as good as healthy feels. I love all of these. Do you wanna elaborate on any of them?

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 <laugh>. Yeah. Right. And that when we don't have good health, we lose our joy. And so I think that what we do to help people become healthy really does help to increase joy in the world. You are certainly a vision of that and I thank you so much for shedding light on this super important topic. This really can take a lot of menopausal women down and they don't even know it. They're just thinking it's their sex hormones and they don't realize Yes. That there are these other hormones like insulin that are vital. So thank you. Yeah. Thank you for sharing this. We have Dr. Rita Maria has some amazing gifts for you. We're gonna have a link in the show notes. She has her hormone balancing elixirs, she's gonna talk about that. We have, she has her hormone hacking breakfast menus, I think for menopause. Right. So do you wanna talk a little bit about these?

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. <Laugh>. Doesn't matter. Right. So it's a really nice little book that has a base recipe and then several like for energy and for stamina. And then there's a list in there of the different herbs and spices and things you can substitute in based on what hormones you're trying to balance. Awesome.

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. <Affirmative>. And I had somebody say, oh wow, after a month my hair's growing back, my look at how thick my hair is after a month. So other people heard her say that and they started using it and I kept getting stories like that. I'm like, is there a way I can patent this? And you know, a million dollars by <laugh> selling the hair balancing elixir. Right. But that was, it's really fun and people love them. And I have, in my kitchen, I have my elixir station, so I have all these glass jars kind of like this, but they're straight up and down. Oh, you can't see it if, if you're listening, but like a a, you know, a 24 ounce, a

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. <laugh>, orange juice, coffee, a donut, a bagel a a croissant or if they're really being good oatmeal donut, a hormone balancing 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 <laugh>. So we need breakfast rescue. So thank you for that. And thank you for the elixir. And we will have the link in the show notes so you can find it there and tell everyone where else they can find you and connect with you.

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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