Hormone Prosperity Podcast with Dr. Kyrin Dunston

The Perfect Stool: Why Healing Your Gut Is Essential For Hormone Health

If you're a woman in your 40s, 50s, or beyond, you know that hormone health is key. But did you know that gut health is essential for hormone balance?

 

In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Lindsey Parsons, a Certified Health Coach specializing in helping clients locally and nationally heal gut health issues and reverse autoimmune disease naturally as well as lose weight without cutting calories and hosts the podcast "The Perfect Stool: Understanding and Healing the Gut Microbiome", joins us to discuss the gut-hormone connection.  

 

Lindsey shares with us:

 

•   How the gut and hormones are interconnected

 

•   How to heal your gut for better hormone health

 

•   The link between gut health and autoimmune disease

 

•   Type of tests to diagnose gut issues

 

•   How to create a healthy gut environment

 

•   Why some people suffer from SIBO as a chronic long term illness

 

•   The latest treatments for GI problems like  fecal microbiota transplant, breathwork, and colostrum

 

• And more!

 

If you're interested in learning more about the gut-hormone connection and how to heal your gut for better hormone health, tune in now!

 

[00:00:00] "I'd rather pay for healthy food now than healthcare later." Would you? So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again.

 

[00:00:23] As an OB GYN, I had. Discover for myself, the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results.

 

[00:00:41] And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenge. Join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Hey everybody.

 

[00:01:00] And welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me. My guest today is Lindsey Parsons. She has an amazing podcast called The Perfect Stool, Understanding And Healing, The Gut Microbiome. When I discovered her recently, I saw her podcast and I saw all the amazing guests she had and just really the depth and breadth of her knowledge in gut health and healing.

 

[00:01:26] And I know how central this is to hormone health and overall health. I had to have her on the podcast. And I reached out and she kind of said, well, I don't really do that kind of thing. I said, no, please, you gotta come talk to my ladies. So I bring her here to you today and I hope you enjoy her as much as I do.

 

[00:01:45] In addition to hosting the podcast, the perfect stool. She's a certified health coach and she works in Tucson. She specializes in helping clients nationally heal gut health issues and reverse autoimmune disease, as well as lose weight without cutting calories who doesn't want that. She also has this wonderful quote about a calorie not being a calorie.

 

[00:02:06] And she tells a little bit of a story about that, but you don't want to miss. She talks about fecal transplants, which if you don't know about that, you're gonna wanna hear about that. She talks about colostrum use for healing gut issues. We talk about SIBO testing. What tests to do. 

 

[00:02:28] We talk about everything.

 

[00:02:29] So you'll see this episode is a little all over the place because I was super excited to talk to her. I knew I only had her for max an hour, so I was trying to jump around and hit all the things that I really wanted to chat with her about. You like it, and I hope you take it as an invitation to listen to her podcast and go more in depth into a lot of these issues that are of interest to you.

 

[00:02:54] There are way more than we could even cover. And I think we talked for 35, 40 minutes, so she has even way more available. So without further ado, please welcome Lindsey Parsons.

 

[00:03:06] Thank you.

 

[00:03:08] So glad to have you here. I don't remember where I found your podcast, but I was super excited when I did the perfect stool, understanding and healing, the gut microbiome, and then all the amazing guests and topics that you've had and how in depth you go.

 

[00:03:27] I was like, I have to talk to you. 

 

[00:03:31] and I have to have you on the podcast. So thank you so much. Yeah, well, I appreciate you for inviting me. So I think that a lot of people in the general public who are looking for answers to their health, tend to only look for physicians. I'm glad to see that that's changing because I think there are some amazing health coaches, for instance, like you out there who really go so much deeper into a lot of these issues and really are better experts than a lot of physicians on things like you are for gut health.

 

[00:04:06] So talk to us about how you became so passion. About gut health and really what led you down that. 

 

[00:04:15] So it was really my own health struggles that led me into this path. So years ago, unbeknownst to me, my, an episode of food poisoning led to something called Post infectious IBS, which I only actually found out within the last year or so is an autoimmune diagnosis that I have because I didn't have a typical presentation of IBS, which you might think of as, you know, may having diarrhea six times a day or severe constipation.

 

[00:04:47] I didn't have either of those, but. I did have gut symptoms that, you know, including bloating and reflux and things like that, that went on for years. And when I did see traditional doctors didn't really get a lot of help other than suggesting I take proton pump inhibitors, which I did for something like 10 or 15 years.

 

[00:05:08] And now they super strict about not taking more than two weeks at a time. So, you know, the long term damage from that, you can only imagine. . And when I did eventually find my way to a functional medicine provider and was put on a course of herbal treatment for something called SIBO or small intestine, bacterial overgrowth, which is what happens when you have this post infectious IBS.

 

[00:05:29] What happens is you have an autoimmune situation where the Migrating motor complex or the process by which food is cleared through your intestines after eating is impacted negatively and is attacked by your own body. Therefore, you don't have that clearing of the intestines and clearing of the bacteria and the intestines.

 

[00:05:50] So you get these overgrowths and stagnation, and then you end up with bloating every time you eat, because it's coming, the food's coming in, and immediately the bacteria are going crazy and producing gases. So I had that going on for years and you know, you meet a lot of people that have a lot of bloating after they eat and they just sort of rack it up to, I ate too much or, you know, a whole number of things.

 

[00:06:12] So. I did finally see somebody and they cleared the placebo for me. Eventually it took herbals and then followed by Rifaximin, which is a prescription, very expensive prescription drug that, that takes care of it. And then over time started changing my diet, getting rid of gluten, getting rid of dairy.

 

[00:06:29] Really, you know, reducing sugar significantly. And all of those things contributed to me getting much better. And then I also had several autoimmune diagnoses that, you know, cuz when you have these kind of gut issues, you can have followed on autoimmune issues. And so I had Hashimoto thyroiditis, which really, you know, when I found out about that, that really kicked me into gear about trying to turn things around because the doctor had said to me, oh, you can just wait until your thyroid's gone.

 

[00:06:55] Then we'll put you on. You know, thyroid hormones. And I thought, oh, I'm just gonna sit around and wait until my entire thyroid's destroyed by this. No, that's not what I'm gonna do. 

 

[00:07:05] right. But that's such a typical mainstream medical approach. Um, nothing to do. You have raging thyroid peroxidase antibodies, you have Hashimotos and they do nothing.

 

[00:07:16] And then they literally say, we're not gonna do anything, you know, until you're you burn out your thyroid, which is just kind of insane. So then what happened at that point? I think I, all of this is a bit perhaps out of order, but I did eventually get off gluten, get off dairy and for a while off of Soy.

 

[00:07:34] Yeah, mm-hmm and, and, and I just kept retesting my hormones as I, my, I mean, my antibodies, rather my thyroid antibodies as I retested those foods. So it took a couple years. I, you know, I stayed off gluten for a year before I think I even retested, but then I, you know, you try it again and you see what happens and, and each of those foods.

 

[00:07:52] So anyway, I ultimately decided gluten and dairy are the two things that I'm most sensitive to. And then of course, everyone should stay off added sugar. So I try and avoid that in any case. And. Ultimately, I never had to take any thyroid hormones. My antibodies are now at zero. They're all completely normal and I never, now they can still see the damage from Hashimotos when they all use an ultrasound on my thyroid, but I still have normal TSH levels.

 

[00:08:17] I mean, not even just normal, optimal TSH levels. That's awesome. 

 

[00:08:21] I want everyone listening to hear that clearly. She just told you that she healed herself from Hashimoto has no antibodies and has optimized thyroid function. This is what's possible with a root cause approach. And I think that when I talk about this on the podcast or on social media, people don't believe me because it's such an anomaly in mainstream medicine.

 

[00:08:44] And of course, regular doctors will look at you. Like you're crazy and say, that's not true, but it happens every day. We see it's an everyday miracle. So I love that you came down this path and you became so passionate about gut health. And I think to me, it makes sense why you focus on having the autoimmune disease or diseases focused on gut health, but I don't know  that's gonna make sense to everyone.

 

[00:09:11] Can you help them make that link betweeut health and autoimmune disease.

 

[00:09:15] Absolutely. So. There are three things that are necessary for an autoimmune condition to happen. And one is a genetic predisposition for that particular autoimmune disease. So some people's bodies will attack one, some one organ, some people's bodies will attack a different organ.

 

[00:09:32] Then you need to have a leaky gut or intestinal permeability, which means that the tight junctions in your intestines are not holding together or there are holes through actual cells in the intestines that are letting. Both toxins, undigested, food, bacteria, body parts, all sorts of things that your immune system is going to then start attacking.

 

[00:09:54] And then you activate the immune system like this. And that's what inflammation is in essence. And when you have undigested gluten proteins in particular or gliadin, it's called is the protein in gluten. It resembles the cells in your thyroid gland and your body will attack this protein and then also create antibodies that attack your thyroid.

 

[00:10:19] So in essence, it's a, what they call molecular mimicry or some sort of confusion in your body where it starts attacking itself. So that's always at the root of all autoimmune diseases. Yes. 

 

[00:10:30] So if you have an autoimmune immune disease, I always tell people by definition you have a gut problem and people will say to me, well, My gut works just fine.

 

[00:10:39] I eat, I poop. I don't have loose stool. I'm not constipated. I don't get indigestion gas, bloating. And they say, I don't have a gut problem. I say, yes, you do. If you have a autoimmune disease, you've got a gut problem. So where is the disconnect? Why do people seemingly have no gut symptoms? But they have a gut problem, help us understand that.

 

[00:10:58] Well, sometimes I think what happens is there's a balance of bacteria in the gut, such that your stool looks okay, right? Like maybe, you have some constipating bacteria and you have some loosening bacteria and together they've canceled each other out. But that doesn't mean that you don't have a leaky gut.

 

[00:11:16] Typically there is some sort of gut infection causing leaky gut, but it doesn't necessarily. I mean, you could have toxins that are also in play or mold or things like that, but in general, something is causing your gut to be leaky. So, you know, it's interesting because sometimes I will see people's gut tests for potential stool donors for fecal transplants.

 

[00:11:39] And. And I'll say, oh no, you can't take this person's stool. They may have good stool, and they may seem healthy and have good digestion, but it's just full of problems. Like, I mean, they have, you know, major pathogens that you'd never wanna take on. So just because you don't have any obvious gut problems doesn't mean something's not gonna show up on a test, right?

 

[00:11:58] Yeah. I mean, you may not overtly have symptoms, but that doesn't mean that on a microscope or on the micro level, you're not having problems you are. If you have an autoimmune. Yeah. So you mentioned testing, let's start with that. Cause a lot of people, you know, they're used to going to their regular doctor and what happens at their regular doctor.

 

[00:12:19] Oh doc, I have indigestion after I eat. No tests are done and they're given a proton pump inhibitor or Hey doc, I can't poop. No tests are done. And then they're given some pro motility agent for their gut. Hey doc, I alternate diarrhea, constipation. oh, diagnosis of exclusion. You have irritable bowel syndrome.

 

[00:12:39] Mm-hmm and they're put on anti-spam. So they're not used to doing gut stool tests. And I remember when I first started doing this work and I started with my gynecologic patients and I told them they needed to do a stool test and they would look at me like I was crazy. What are you talking about? Well, you need to poop in this pie plate and send it off to scoop it into these little tubes and send it to the lab.

 

[00:13:01] And they're like, what? I'm not doing that cuz no doctor ever asked them to do that. mm-hmm so talk about, you know, the testing, maybe what are some of your favorite tests to do and what it shows you and how people can get comfortable with this idea of pooping in the pie plate? 

 

[00:13:21] Well, I have to say the people who come to me have no problem giving up their stool for a test because they are coming typically with gut issues.

 

[00:13:28] However, yeah, my favorite is the GI map. I like that one because it includes H pylori and I have found it now over the course  of. Three or four years now of helping people with gut issues that people who are severely constipated often have an overgrowth of H pylori or just a high level of it that's given their symptomatic is also problematic.

 

[00:13:51] So that's a bacteria that causes ulcers or stomach cancer, but not always only when it has certain virulence factors. Nevertheless, people will typically present with stomach pain with reflux, but sometimes just constipation. Sometimes they don't have those upper GI symptoms with H pylori. So I like that it includes also the GI map.

 

[00:14:14] You know, a number of different levels of bacteria in the gut. So you can see if certain classes or certain Gena or certain species are elevated or too low, both of the commences, the normal good ones, and then the potentially pathogenic and then the actual toxic pathogenic ones. It also includes all the parasites.

 

[00:14:33] So you can catch up somebody as a para and then it includes markers of gut health and just digestion. So, like, do you have enough pancreatic enzymes? Do you have elevated levels of beta lyase, which ties into hormones? Do you have sufficient secretory, IGA, or is that super elevated? Indicating your gut immune system is on high alert and trying to fight something.

 

[00:14:55] So I just like that it's a good overall test of various markers. And then of course it has marker for Calprotectin, which is a marker of inflammatory bowel disease and the inflammation in the colon. 

 

[00:15:07] Yes. That's actually my favorite too. So great minds think alike. I think it really gives you the most comprehensive view.

 

[00:15:14] And sometimes people will come to me and say, well, I had a volume test. Can't you use that? and I go, yeah, that's not useful at all. Can you share with your people your thoughts on the bio, that one or any other one of these direct to consumer tests are not as far as I'm concerned, clinically useful. They might be good for the consumer, but they typically, you know, they will make all sorts of commentary about what diet changes are necessary, for example, based on your microbiome and no harm in trying those things.

 

[00:15:49] But when you're dealing with parasites or digestive dysfunction, Dysbiosis, et cetera. I think you need a clinical level test for that kind of stuff. There's just not a lot of actionable for a practitioner. There's not a lot of actionable information on a volume test. I agree. 

 

[00:16:11] I, I think the same is true for a lot of the DNA direct to consumer test.

 

[00:16:15] Like, is it 23? And me, it's just not all the actionable information that you would want. Like the Alzheimer's gene mm-hmm , that's something I think everyone should have. And, uh, they don't include. Oh, really? I feel like they've included in well, so, oh, maybe they have, well, you can take, you can pull the raw data.

 

[00:16:34] I'll sometimes ask my clients for their raw data and I put it in genetic genie and I run that. And then I see, cause I, because I know that I'm, I'm APO four, three Aprile four. Homozygous. So I have my high Alzheimer's risk, which I, the only reason I know that is from the 23 and me. So I know it came through may, either on genetic gen genie or directly on 23 and me.

 

[00:16:55] Great. 

 

[00:16:56] And so how has that empowered you? Do you feel like it's empowered you or disempowered you to have that information?

 

[00:17:03] I don't know that I would be doing anything different because I'm already somebody who seeks to optimize my health and have been my entire life. So I don't know, but I think as I get older, I'm definitely going to be more attentive to any kind of lapses in memory.

 

[00:17:21] And then at some point I'm probably going to get hooked up with that. Program the Dale BNS program related to Alzheimer's just to make sure that I'm doing absolutely everything preventative and everything testing wise, to make sure I don't lose my memory any sooner than necessary. Yes, absolutely. The Recode protocol.

 

[00:17:38] And I think there are 28 parameters, 28 things you need to be doing that are totally worthwhile. My mom. It has advanced Alzheimer's. So it's something I'm very keenly aware of and, you know, it's too late for her. Like I shared in a recent TEDx talk that I did talk about her only risk factor was that she had been menopausal for three decades without hormone therapy.

 

[00:18:01] And that is, of course, one of the main tens of the Recode protocol is using. Hormones therapy, natural hormone therapy. Speaking of which the podcast is called the hormone prescription. So I tie everything into hormones because to me, everything in the body is related to hormones. So how does let's go back to autoimmune disease with gut dysfunction, leaky gut.

 

[00:18:25] Intestine intestinal hyperpermeability as a key factor. 

 

[00:18:30] How does this interact with the hormonal meal, you and the body?

 

[00:18:32] In my particular case, I'm not sure if there's a huge interaction, but in general, I mentioned on the GI map, there's a hormone, uh, I mean an enzyme called beta Gluar days and that. Is an enzyme that breaks the tight bond between glucuronic acid and toxins, including circulating estrogens in the intestines.

 

[00:18:55] And so when that gets elevated in certain bacteria in the gut, produce it so certain bacteria from the, the, uh, class ties also certain clostridia E coli. And there's a lot of healthy E coli, not just the ones that are known to be pathogenic and stalac rheumatic. So there's a number of different bacteria that produce it.

 

[00:19:18] And when those tend to get overgrown, then you can have access. Beta glucoronide and then this is breaking apart, this bond and recirculating estrogens in the body, which can lead to estrogen-related breast cancer, potentially colon cancer. So there's some correlations between those and. When that happens, what you can do to reverse it is to move to a lower fat, lower meat diet, to more of a plant-based diet because higher fiber will help undo that process.

 

[00:19:50] Yes, it's so 

 

[00:19:51] true. The beta glucuronidase. So anyone who is suffering, which is very common sometimes in thirties and forties year old women, before they go through menopause with excess estrogen. And symptoms of that. It could be fibroid, endometriosis, heavy, painful periods, which is often associated with weight gain bloating.

 

[00:20:13] These are estrogen dominant conditions. You gotta look at your beta Glu UASE in your stool because it could be elevated. So that could be one of the key causes of one of your hormonal imbalances And then the other thing I always like to say for anyone with an autoimmune disease is you've got a foot on the accelerator of inflammation and that's this leaky gut, but you have no break on your car.

 

[00:20:39] And that would be cortisol, which is your body's natural steroid. So what do they do when you have a flare up of any type of inflammation or autoimmune disease? Steroids is the treatment and that's your body. Cortisol inside naturally. So you have a brake failure and you have a foot on the accelerator.

 

[00:20:57] So it's kind of a two-prong problem. So you've got to address both, but by healing your gut, you can work on your cortisol as well.

 

[00:21:03] So let me interrupt you for a second, because when you said all those things, as I think of this stuff now more in terms of my client than myself, but I did actually have estrogen dominance.

 

[00:21:15] No, no doubt. I had always low progesterone and I went through years of infertility. So I, I assumed that all of my gut stuff was at the root of that as well as the autoimmune stuff and probably, uh, you know, some thyroid issues. 

 

[00:21:28] Yeah. You know, I think it's, isn't it Louis pastor who said death begins in the colon and I think  it's absolutely true.

 

[00:21:37] The gut is the center of your body physically. And it's the center of your health. Literally. It has branches to everything. And, you know, I always like to say. I ask people, what's your biggest interface with the external environment? And they say, oh my skin. And I say, no, think again. And it takes them a minute and most people don't get it.

 

[00:21:58] It's your gastrointestinal tract, cuz you're taking the external environment and you're putting it inside of you into this tube. That seems like it's in you, but it really just passes through and interacts. So it's like an inner skin and it's as big as two doubles tennis courts, the surface area. And so.

 

[00:22:17] Really that's your biggest ability for the environment to program you? You mentioned genetics, right? That's part of probably five, 10, maybe 20% of our health, but then what turns on those genes? In terms of our epigenetic code and, and food is the biggest programmer of that, that we're putting into our body and think of all the food you eat in the day.

 

[00:22:41] So I, I wanted to, to touch on something else. You said, well, we were talking about testing and I think you mentioned earlier about that you had SIBO small intestine bacteria overgrowth. 

 

[00:22:53] Yes. What are your favorite tests to diagnose that? And it's such a Gnarly topic for the people who have it. How do you get rid of it?

 

[00:23:02] You mentioned the migrating motor complex, which a lot of people really don't have that working. So there's no motility going. So can you talk about SIBO?

 

[00:23:14] I don't tend to use breath tests. I'll start by saying mm-hmm . I tend to use the GI map and organic acids in general. When I see somebody with some type of presentation of bloating and what look like SIBO symptoms.

 

[00:23:31] Mm-hmm that being said, if. After looking at those and after taking herbal supplements to get rid of bacterial overgrowth, there still seems to be no resolution. I may recommend either the trio smart, especially if I suspect there could be hydrogen sulfide overgrowth, or I might recommend the IBS smart test to see if they have post.

 

[00:23:57] Infectious IBS to see if they have that autoimmune component and are always gonna be dealing with SIBO. So some people just get this overgrowth, they clean it up once, and they're all good. And then other people like me are going to constantly have to be fighting it. So I have to take something each night.

 

[00:24:12] A prokinetic. In order to keep things moving in my migrating motor complex and just be conscientious of not eating tons. No, not snacking all day long, letting my intestines empty out completely and periodically have to kind of Rell the bacteria. I have to take antimicrobials, you know, every year, roughly.

 

[00:24:31] In some quantity when I start to see things getting bloated again. Okay. 

 

[00:24:35] So now the average person listening and probably a lot of the clients that you see and that I see they've been to their regular doctor and they've got this bloating problem. That seems pretty consistent. They're probably not gonna get any of these tests.

 

[00:24:50] Are they, there are some doctors at this point who will order SIBO, breath tests. That's not unheard of now at this point for GI doctors and some will have heard of, and may be using some, the trio smarter, the IBS smart, because they are, they were developed by an MD who is the expert at, Mark Pimentel.

 

[00:25:10] Who's the expert in SIBO and who does try and reach that traditional audience or conventional, I should say audience, but typically you'll have to ask for and seek out these more. Specialized tests with somebody who's either practicing functional medicine, a natural path, a health coach, somebody who is mm-hmm, more of a non-conventional expert in gut health.

 

[00:25:34] Yes. 

 

[00:25:35] And so it sounds like you're describing, which has kind of been my experience too, with people who have SIBO. Some people do recover, and they don't have a problem any longer, but there is a subset of people who this is a very chronic problem. Can you talk a little bit about why someone might suffer with that as a chronic long term condition?

 

[00:25:57] Sure. So I did talk about. The primary, I guess I think about it as the primary, but I'm not actually sure. In terms of percentages, but I did mention the primary, which is the post infectious IBS, there, incidents of food poisoning, where you have an autoimmune problem, you can also have of course thyroid issues that can contribute to it.

 

[00:26:17] Hypothyroid, you can have traumatic brain injuries that are causing issues with the vagus nerve and with. Movement in the intestines from that of course infections, diabetes can be a root cause. Mold toxicity. You can have problems with your production of stomach acid, so you can have low stomach acid or hypochlorhydria.

 

[00:26:41] And that can cause. Overgrowth of bacteria or poor bio flow, uh, lack of pancreatic enzymes or brush border enzymes. There can be deficiencies in your secretory, IGA. If you've been under periods of extreme stress that can reduce secretory IGA, which is your gut immune defense, which is what is killing off these bacteria that are coming in.

 

[00:27:00] Mm-hmm , you can have medications that you're taking that could be causing problems and slowing your motility, obviously proton pump inhibitors, but also antidepressants. Anti SMOs opiates, narcotics. Then you can also have issues that are physical in nature. So you've had a past abdominal surgery and you could have adhesions for example, that are keeping your intestines from flowing properly endometriosis, which I also had, can be a root cause.

 

[00:27:28] Alors Danlos syndrome can also cause problems with motility. And then you can have dysfunction of your I valve. 

 

[00:27:35] Yeah. There's such a long list of problems that you can have that can contribute to this. And I think, you know, people listening, I kind of want, because you have such breadth and depth of knowledge.

 

[00:27:48] For them to really get a good idea of what you, what you know, and what you offer. You have so much information on your podcast. We're definitely gonna give everyone, um, we'll put the link in the show notes to the podcast. And I was just looking at all the episodes you have. I was like, oh my gosh, I wanna talk to her about this.

 

[00:28:11] I wanna talk to her about that. I want her to share this. I want her to share. And so I think even if you're listening and you're like, oh my gosh, you guys are going way too fast and covering way too much ground. That is information for you to spur your interest, to go watch. Or listen to Lindsey's podcast, cuz she has so much valuable information.

 

[00:28:32] And then you can select the topics that interest you and you can listen to those. She talks about the FMT, the fecal microbiota transplant as a treatment. And I'm wondering if you could share a little bit about what that is and what it's used for? Cause I don't think a lot of people know that. An up and coming treatment for our GI problems.

 

[00:28:54] Okay. So FMT in the US is legal only in non-experimental contexts for recurrent C difficile infections, which is very potent bacteria that causes, you know, explosive diarrhea that can kill you and kills. I don't know something like 40,000 people a year. So if you have recurrent C diff, that's not treatable by antibiotics a couple times, then you could, in theory, if you can access it, get a fecal transplant done in a hospital.

 

[00:29:23] And it's basically taking the stool from a healthy donor and either putting it in capsule format or in ENMA format. And then you get a retention en ENMA of it. And for C diff it's usually just one treatment for other. So in other countries it's legal for other conditions like. IBS or inflammatory bowel disease with different levels of success, given the condition, even for autoimmune conditions, for any number of things, even, even conditions you might think aren't connected to.

 

[00:29:58] The gut is like ALS or multiple sclerosis. Well, that's autoimmune. So you may think that, but in any case, there are definitely some testimonies on a number of different conditions. So in, in particular, I think I know of clinics that do this in Australia, in the UK, in The Bahamas in Canada. Now I think there's one in Mexico focusing on, on children with autism in particular.

 

[00:30:23] Oh, and I think there used to be one in Argentina. I'm not sure if that's still there. So around the world, you can do treatments. And typically those will last for two five-day courses, essentially over the course of two weeks during the work week. And, you know, there are just some amazing testimonials of, of, oh, and of course mental health.

 

[00:30:41] I hadn't even discussed that cuz I have a lot of stories of people with serious mental health issues from bipolar to depression, to anxiety and pan and pan pans and pan, does that have been resolved after fecal transplants? And then of course it's also being used and in a particular, very purified form, that's an experimental form being used for autism.

 

[00:31:03] So it has the potential to be quite life changing, which is not to say it is for everyone. Uh, there's a Facebook group full of people who have tried it and it didn't help them. So I think the donor quality and just sort of the good match between the donor and the recipient are also important. So it's not always a foolproof thing.

 

[00:31:22] I. but, but there are for those, for whom it makes a difference, boy, it sure can make a big difference. Yeah. And I think probably some people listening are thinking, wow, that's really radical. Cuz I know when I talk about coffee, ENMA some people just really freak out. they're like what? I'm not doing.

 

[00:31:39] Putting what in my butt. No. And so when we talk about a fecal transplant via enema, I know some people get freaked out, but you know, if anybody listening has heard any of the recent data or information or knowledge that we have about the microbiome and how key it is for our overall health, you really, for some people could call it almost like getting a brain transplant, cuz your gut is your second brain.

 

[00:32:04] And. See the podcast episode that you had with the woman who I think she healed herself from bipolar using fecal transplant. Can you talk a little bit about her story?

 

[00:32:15] So she was in Australia and had bipolar for many years. I think she had probably, I think if I recall correctly, I think there had been suicide attempts.

 

[00:32:27] She had been in the hospitalized maybe five times with, you know, major depressive episodes. So. It was a serious and ongoing problem for her, from which she would emerge, you know, for periods of time when she could function normally, but mostly couldn't hold down a job. She did get married though, to a wonderful man who also had a wonderful stool.

 

[00:32:49] And at some point heard about yeah. 

 

[00:32:52] New criteria for finding a partner. 

 

[00:32:55] Absolutely. 

 

[00:32:56] So did I get a stool sample before we seriously? Well, she didn't test it or anything. She just tried it and sure enough. It really worked for her. I think she, I think she did it more intensely at first and then more periodically afterwards, but it absolutely pulled her out of her depressions.

 

[00:33:15] And, you know, in large part resolved her bipolar. I wouldn't say she said it wa I think she emphasized it. Wasn't like a hundred percent cure, but from what I could hear, it really turned her life around. So she just DIYed it. She DIYed it. Yeah. So there's a lot of people doing that in the US, by the way, they're just finding donors.

 

[00:33:35] They may or may not be testing 'em I always recommend, of course, if you're gonna consider a donor that you do the full protocol of testing, which involves both blood tests for infectious diseases and sexually transmitted transmitted infections, as well as a stool test to, to make sure they don't have any of the major stool pathogens that you could potentially get.

 

[00:33:52] Because especially if you're doing it. Reasons related to gut issues. And you're, if you're in fragile health, like, especially if you have any kind of inflammatory bowel disease, you can really mess yourself up. If you bring in a pathogen and your gut is not prepared to fight it. 

 

[00:34:07] Yes. Yeah. I would say, you know, it'd be similar to having sex.

 

[00:34:11] It's pretty intimate. You might wanna even more so.

 

[00:34:15] Right. Even more so. Yeah. Wow. So much. And then I was wondering, I saw you had another, a few episodes. I. On colostrum. Yeah. The one with ni not Nike, is that how you say his name and how and breathwork and colostrum that he used to restore his gut. And I was wondering if you could talk about some of that.

 

[00:34:39] So colostrum is the first milk that comes out of the breast and, or the cow in this case, because if you buy it, you're buying cow colostrum and. It is full of antibodies and transfer factors and immunoglobulin. And in particular, now they're also selling these serum bovine immunoglobulin, which are extracted from colostrums.

[00:35:05] So I often recommend those to clients who have serious gut issues, because it just kind of enhances your. Immune system in the gut, without specifically, it's not like an antibiotic, which kind of indiscriminately kills. It's more like bringing in an extra immune system. Mm-hmm . So I often do recommend those powders to people who have something that you don't quite want to hit with an antimicrobial right off the bat.

 

[00:35:29] So anyway, so in his case though, he used a colostrum to heal his gut. And so it's just, I think it's just a way of bringing in a new immune system to the gut slowly but surely and helping it turn itself around. Yeah, I love them as like, you it's like a supportive, I don't know that it fixes necessarily.

 

[00:35:47] It's a bandaid and it gives support in the short term and can help promote healing. So I love them. And then I was just interested. For you to also talk about breathwork, which is something that I use in my programs all the time with people. Um, I teach them about the nature of HR V heart rate variability and parasympathetic sympathetic, autonomic nervous system balance.

 

[00:36:09] And how that really programs your gut, your guts motility. Is that something that you recommend for people?

 

[00:36:16] I have recommended it to certain people since that podcast in particular. And then since I read the word, the book breath by while I'm in the middle of it by James Nester Yes. So I definitely have gotten more interested in the breath and how it relates to good health in particular.

 

[00:36:32] Now, if I have a client who snores, I'll suggest mouth taping, mm-hmm . If I have a client for whom. Everything has been tried in terms of diet changes in terms of supplements and antimicrobials. And there's still kind of the root cause of their stress or of their dysfunction has not been identified. I'll really think about breath work and or some other type of practice like meditation or yoga, etcetera, to start reducing stress and just bringing some focus.

 

[00:37:05] But  I probably have not exploited it to the extent that it could be, because there's always so many different things you can bring in with a client and you don't want to overload them. 

 

[00:37:15] That is so true. And along those lines, I'm wondering if, because we've jumped all over the place, cuz I'm just so excited to talk to you.

 

[00:37:23] And there's so many things I wanna ask you about and chat with you about, but for everybody listening, can you kind of bring it full circle, maybe using a who comes to mind that maybe had really been suffering for a long time. And who came to you and kind of, what is the process you usually take people through. And what does, what does a gut journey look like?

 

[00:37:46] for people? So I have such a variety of clients, from people who think they've been suffering a long time because they've had something for a year versus people who've had something for 15 years. And, but I would say, uh, a typical journey might be somebody who comes in with a little more complexity.

 

[00:38:02] Maybe they have both gut issues and autoimmune issues. Typically, we would just have a first appointment to talk over a complete medical history in the way that no doctor has ever sat and listened to you where I'm gonna totally try and understand all the potential root causes of what has come to pass and how they've ended up where they are.

 

[00:38:20] And then together we'll decide on what tests fit in based on. What their symptoms are and then what their budget is because obviously not everybody can afford a thousand dollars worth of testing right off the bat. It would be lovely if everybody could, but not everyone can. So we have to be thoughtful about that.

 

[00:38:37] And then typically we'll get the results back, and then we'll go over those results and all the potential things that could help given what, what was found on the test. And I'll educate them about the protocols that practitioners use to deal with those that's come up, be it some type of dysbiosis or SIBO or overgrowth of candida.

 

[00:38:57] Or something like the ion profile, we may be looking at deficiencies in amino acids or in fatty acids or vitamins and minerals that can come up on organic acids or on the ion profile. So we'll look at that. And then typically I'm recommending things to them over a period of time because you can't again, throw.

 

[00:39:15] A hundred supplements at a person at the same time, people can only take so much. I mean, there are, people are just like, give it all to me. I want it all right now but other people are gonna be like, yeah, that's too much both financially and too much in terms of taking pills. So, you know, I'll, I'll explain to them what, what the different supplements the benefits are and what I think in a good order would probably be for doing it.

 

[00:39:37] And then diet changes, of course, will be recommended based on. What they've already tried, but I find that by the time people get to me, they're usually already eating some version of a paleo diet, or I do occasionally get people who are plant based and I often have to push them towards getting more protein.

 

[00:39:54] Somehow mm-hmm, potentially moving towards eating some animal protein or some seafood, just because I can see frequent deficiencies, amino acids when that happens. And, it's also very common to see mental health issues in my clients. So if that's the case, then I'm often. You know, educating them about the amino acids that can bring up serotonin and dopamine.

 

[00:40:16] And you can see the deficiencies of that  on an organic acid test, or you can see actual levels of the amino acids on the ion profile. And then with autoimmune stuff, then we're also looking at supplements that can help reduce inflammation if we've already addressed gut stuff. So typically we'd go through addressing any kind of gut.

 

[00:40:36] But then after that, if they're still flaring, then we might look at anti-inflammatory supplements, like, you know, fish oil or SPMS, or I get the name of right off the bat. Oh, alpha glyco, ISO Quatrine Soin BAIC or Cuban. Yeah. Curcumin. Right. Those kind of anti-inflammatory things. So over time, you know, I'll educate them about each kind of supplement and how it might play a role in helping them heal.

[00:41:04] and yeah, so I'll ultimately see people over the course of five appointments that might take most of a year and slowly but surely help them restore their health and get them at least to a point of stability. There's no magic cure in terms of autoimmune disease. Not everybody's gonna have the results I did because I caught it early enough and there was not so much damage to my thyroid.

 

[00:41:25] So. You know, you have a certain amount of damage, and it's not gonna be, you're not gonna reverse it, but you may reduce your medication dosages and you may at least get to a point of stability or potentially if, if the client is interested, get off any kind of, you know, steroid medications or. Other autoimmune prescription medications.

 

[00:41:46] Yeah. Immunosuppressive drugs. Right. I'm curious to know. 

 

[00:41:49] I mean, we're, we're getting short on time. I'm gonna have to let you go, but I wanna know your thoughts on alcohol, cuz my thoughts are not necessarily popular. So I just want to see where you stand on that with gut health. Well, it is toxic. There's no question about that.

 

[00:42:05] And it does. Kind of go in and cause some damage to gut bacteria. And if you're having guest right and upper GI issues, for sure. It's definitely not helpful. That being said, I can't say I'm a non-drinker, so I'm not, but generally my clients who are really sick are just not drinking in the first place.

 

[00:42:26] So I'm not having to tell most of them to stay away from alcohol there, but they've already done it themselves. So obviously you want to stay at the lowest levels. You want to be considered a low level drinker, not a moderate level, which unfortunately for a woman is no more than a drink a day. And for men no more than two, up until 65 than one after 65, if I recall correctly.

 

[00:42:47] And then the other things is that people wanna say, do we all have to stop eating gluten and cow smoke dairy Lindsey? 

 

[00:42:55] We'll typically recommend cutting out gluten and dairy to everybody for some period of time. Now, if I have a very simple case of SIBO that resolves quickly and easily, and the person says, I don't seem to have any problem with gluten, I cut it out, and I put it back in, and I had no difference.

 

[00:43:12] Then I won't necessarily say you have to cut out gluten. If you have an autoimmune issue, I'm gonna say gluten's gone for life.

 

[00:43:20] Yeah. I, I generally would agree with that for sure Lindsey, so much great information that you shared today. I know everybody listening has been like, it's a whirlwind Kyrin, you took her all over the place.

 

[00:43:31] I know, I know guys, but I wanted you to get a sampling of everything that she has to offer. There's so much more, even on her podcast, the perfect stool, which is an amazing name. And great content. You've had some of the same. Yes. I've had Steve Wright and Dr. Gray SL and they're probably more if I continue to look at it, I did wanna ask you about this before we wrap up, you shared, uh, some quotes that you like before we started with me and I just wanna share this one.

 

[00:44:01] A calorie is not a calorie. And can you tell everyone what that means to you?

 

[00:44:04] Absolutely. So, number one, I, before I did this, I was. A, an advocate for healthier school food. And one of the things that we fought the most in that particular battle in Montgomery County, Maryland, was to try and reduce the sugar in school food.

 

[00:44:22] And I remember sitting at a hearing with the state Senate, trying to get a bill passed, to reduce sugar in school food, and having. Former home EC teacher who was a state Senator said, well, a calorie's just a calorie. And I said, no, it is not. In fact, that is a soda marketing campaign to try and convince you.

 

[00:44:41] You can just go calories and calories out, just exercise more, and you can drink your Coke every day, which I definitely do not believe. So part of the issue with calories is that they're not metabolized the same. So for example, when you eat protein, 25 to 30% of it is. Of the calories of protein is used up just in digesting the protein.

 

[00:45:01] Whereas it's, it's a much lower number for carbohydrates and fat. So, you know, something like six to 8% of the carbs are used to digest carbs and two to 3% of the fat. So therefore you're getting a lot more calories from your fat and your carbs. And then. You also have different foods and have that have different impact on the body.

 

[00:45:20] So for example, fructose versus glucose, glucose can be used by almost all your cells. Fructose is going to your liver and ultimately, mostly being stored as fat. So, you know, that's why the whole thing against high fructose corn syrup, not to say glucose is good, but just to say that, that they impact your body differently.

 

[00:45:37] And then of course you have fiber. So, you know, if you eat a hundred calories of almonds versus a hundred calories of soda, That impacts your body in a completely different way because the almonds have healthy fats, and they have fiber, and that is gonna slow down the absorption of the calories of any sugars, et cetera, that are in the food when you're eating fiber.

 

[00:45:59] So it just makes a complete difference in which kinds of foods you're eating. A calorie is not a calorie. It's so true. 

 

[00:46:04] And I, I really love to help people understand that a lot of people believe the food that they eat is only about calories. And it's speaking to your system on so many levels. Right.

 

[00:46:17] Mm-hmm, in so many languages at one time. It's like they're having this international language conference. It's speaking because of its bio force. It's life force, it's PR it's Chi, whatever you want to call it, it's speaking nutrition, right? Certain vitamins, which are not present in soda and in the almonds are of course speaking the fiber language, right.

 

[00:46:39] Or it's not speaking fiber language. And so about so much more than macronutrients, which are calories. It's about micronutrients, energetic nutrients. And I think that goes to the other quote that you shared with me that I love. I'd rather pay for healthy food now than healthcare later. So one of people's biggest objections to doing this type of work is eating, trying to eat healthy and particularly organic.

 

[00:47:07] And so talk a little bit about that and then we'll go ahead and wrap up.

 

[00:47:09] Oh, I just have, I've been of the philosophy since I have tried to turn around my health, that that indeed it is worth it to pay for more expensive organic foods and in particular, and this is a lot of people, they, they think, well, I, I mostly buy organic vegetables and I say, do you eat Pasteur raised meats?

 

[00:47:29] How about your dairy products? Are they pasture raised? So I don't, I, the only dairy I. Is butter and GE. And so I make sure that those products and, and I know it cost $4 more, a pound for pasture raise butter, but I get it because that's where all the toxins from the body settle into your fat. 

 

[00:47:54] So if you want to maximize your, you know, or minimize your consumption of toxins, then you definitely wanna look for high quality meat and wild cut seafood and that kind of thing not. And then of course, low mercury seafood at that. When you're looking for your animal products, cuz the animals, you know, you think about everything else. It's the build up the entire environment and the plants that builds into the  animal and the protein and the fat.

 

[00:48:10] So true. 

 

[00:48:14] Thank you so much, Lindsey for joining us today, Lindsey Parsons, we are gonna have links in the show notes. You've got a free E booklet available on your website, finding your root cause through stool and organic acids testing. So I'll have a link over to that.

 

[00:48:29] We'll have a link to the 30 minute breakthrough session that people can do by phone or video chat. We'll have a link to the podcast also that you definitely wanna check out if you're interested in your health and healing from a root cause. Gut is a huge part of that. So you want to go there and check out the perfect stool so you can have the perfect stool and thanks so much for joining me today.

 

[00:48:53] Any last words you'd like to leave everybody? 

 

[00:48:54] No, I just wanna thank you so much for bringing me on and for checking out my podcast and recommending it. I really appreciate it. 

 

[00:49:02] It is absolutely my pleasure to have you here, and thank you all for listening today. Thanks for spending a little bit of your day with us.

 

[00:49:10] Hopefully you have learned something today that you can put into action. This is all about taking action to move your. To the brilliance that it can be. I thank you for joining me, and I'll see you next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40.

 

[00:49:32] When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and life that we. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time.

 

[00:50:02] Remember, small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

Get Lindsey Parsons's free e-booklet: “Finding Your Root Cause Through Stool and Organic Acids Testing.”

https://highdeserthealthcoaching.com/newsletter/

 

30 Minute Breakthrough Session with Lindsey Parsons - by phone or video chat

https://calendly.com/highdeserthealth/30-minute-breakthrough-session-by-phone-or-vi-clone

 

Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

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Master Your Stress Reset Your Health

Do you feel like your health is spiraling out of control? Are you struggling to manage your stress and feeling overwhelmed?

 

If so, you're not alone.

 

Midlife women are under more stress than ever before, and it's taking a toll on our health. From work to family to our social lives, we are constantly juggling and trying to do it all.

 

But what if there was a way to reset your health and manage your stress? Dr. Doni Wilson is here to help us do just that.

 

On this episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Wilson, a Naturopathic Doctor, certified professional midwife, certified nutrition specialist, and bestselling author of Master Your Stress, Reset Your Health, shares her expertise on how to master your stress and reset your health. She offers practical tips and advice on how to make small changes in your life that can have a big impact on your overall health.

 

For more than 22 years, she has helped thousands of patients overcome health challenges and achieve wellness by using specific strategies that address the whole body and ultimately resolve the underlying causes of distress. Dr. Doni suffered from migraines for over 20 years, and in the process of solving them, she developed her Stress Recovery Protocol.

 

Dr. Doni brings awareness to the impact of stress on our health and how it is possible to recover from burnout and become resilient to stress in the media and at public and professional events. You can find her blog, podcast, called How Humans Heal, and her Self C.A.R.E.™ program at DoctorDoni.com

 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to recover from burnout and become resilient to stress
• The connection between stress and hormone imbalances
• Why it's important to get to the root cause of your health problems
• The different types of stress
• How stress affects our genetic expression
• The CARE method of stress recovery
• How hormones and neurotransmitters influence our stress response
• And much more!

 

If you're ready to make some changes in your life and take control of your health, this episode is for you. Tune in now and learn how to master your stress and reset your health with Dr. Doni Wilson.

 

(00:00): "You can't pour from an empty cup," says Dr. Doni Wilson. She's gonna teach you how to master your stress to reset your health in today's podcast.

 

(00:10): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin. Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.

 

(01:04): Hi everybody. And welcome back to the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thanks so much for joining me today, where we're gonna talk about mastering your stress to reset your health with Dr. Doni Wilson. It's so true that you can't pour from an empty cup. It's so much of, many of us are living our lives at midlife from an empty cup, wondering why we feel terrible. And our health is tanking. While Dr. Doni Wilson has cracked the code on mastering your stress, which is the key to reset your health. She's gonna tell you all about it today. She is a naturopathic doctor, certified professional midwife certified nutrition specialist and bestselling offer of master your stress, reset your health. For more than 22 years, she has helped thousands of patients overcome health challenges and achieve wellness by using specific strategies that addressed the whole body and ultimately resolved the underlying causes of distress. She suffered from migraines for over 20 years. And in the process of solving this, she developed her stress recovery protocol. Dr. Doni brings awareness to the impact of stress on our health and how it is possible to recover from burnout and become resilient to stress in the media at public and professional events. You can find her blog podcast called how humans heal and her self C a R E program at Dr. doni.com. Please help me welcome Dr. Doni. 

 

(02:31): Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited about your book. That's already out faster, your stress reset your health, and we're gonna dive into it. I know people hear so much about stress and we can tend to not pay attention when people are talking about it, but I want everyone to really pay attention because here you have a doctor who specializes the, in this and is saying that this is the thing that you need to do to reset your health. How did you come to this?

 

(02:58): Understanding? It was through life experience. A lot of it really, you know, like, because I, in addition to going through various stresses of my life, like training to be a naturopathic doctor and a midwife and being a mom and running a practice and running a business, you know, but I think a lot of people go through these stresses, right. But it's just that I came through it also with my own health issues. I had migraines for over 20 years, I was getting migraines and these were migraines that would take me out for days. Like I'd be literally in the bed or on the floor. And I would try different treatments, different medications. I tried acupuncture. I tried herbs, I'm trained as naturopathic doctor. So I was like, I'm willing to try anything. And still it wasn't helping. These migraines would just keep coming. And each time it would knock me down.

 

(03:49): Like, I'd be like, what else am I supposed to do? I can't, how am I supposed to keep going like this in having these unpredictable migraines happening and no solutions. And I think, you know, that's why I relate to a lot of people out there who maybe that's not migraines. Maybe they have some other health issue where they feel like they've been trying and they just are not getting answers and they're not feeling better. And it's just that in my case, because I, of my training and my interest in understanding the human body and willingness, right. I'm willing to do, if it needs to be a diet change, if it needs to be a supplement, if it, what, if it's a test I need to do, I'm like I'm willing to do it. And so I just kept on working on it and I kind of worked on it in isolation actually, honestly, because I felt too ashamed.

 

(04:41): I, and I think a lot of people feel this way too, when they have symptoms caused by stress, we feel like we're, it's not supposed to happen. We're supposed to be better than that. Right. We're supposed to be able to charge through life and keep up with everything and it's not supposed to affect us. And so I didn't feel like I could say anything cuz I felt embarrassed. And so instead I just worked on it in isolation. I did along the way I was, I was speaking and I was publishing articles and publishing books and say of everything I learned, right? Like what helped. And there were many things along the way, over the past 20 some years where I was like, well, this dietary change made a difference. This approach made a difference. And every time I found something, I would talk about it that way.

 

(05:26): But I wouldn't necessarily talk about it from my perspective of having migraines. Right? And so only in the past couple years, because I was still getting the migraines, you know, I maybe saw 10% difference or 20% difference or 50% difference. And I was like, but they're still happening. And it was only just a few years ago that I ended up making a whole bunch of additional changes. And the ever since then the migraine stopped that. And one of the major changes I made is I started talking about it and this is why, you know, I'm here talking with you today about it saying if the more we can actually become aware and talk about how stress is affecting us, that's the first step for changing the whole pattern, right? Like get out of silence about it.

 

(06:16): When you talk about stress, can you define for everybody what you're talking about? Are you just talking about, I have too many things to do on my to-do list. It's never ending. My family makes me crazy. And life just feels stressful. Or are you talking about something else also?

 

(06:37): Definitely. And I'm so glad you're asking this question. This is one of the questions that when I'm on an airplane, by the way, the person sitting next to me, this is one of the most common questions they ask me is like, what do you mean by stress? You know, cuz they'll ask me, what do you do? And I say, I specialize in stress and they say, what do you really mean by that? And the thing is is that we like the ones you mentioned. We often think about our day to day, psychological stresses, our deadlines, our financial stresses. And these are definitely stresses that affect us. But that's not the only stresses that affects us in the category of stress. I would also include things like lack of sleep. Like when we, you know, last night yesterday, for example, I had to take an early morning flight.

 

(07:23): I did not get enough sleep. I'm very aware that that was a stress on my body that I'm gonna need to recover from today. Right? But it's the awareness. This was a stress. Also certain foods can be a stress to us, right? If we are consuming foods that are gonna be inflammatory to our bodies, throw off our blood sugar levels, disrupt or cause leaky gut and disrupt our gut bacteria right now, the food we're eating is actually stressing our system. Or another example is toxins toxins, either in the products we're putting on our skin or on our food as pesticides or in our environment, these toxins are also a stress on our system. And so when we look at it from that perspective, a even a injury can be a stress, right? Or a surgery can be a stress like we know from science it's anything that triggers our stress response and causes our body to need to go into a recovery in order to get back to optimal again.

 

(08:24): Yes. So I hear you mentioning, it's not just psychosocial and this is what I want everyone to hear because if you only think it's that you'll miss. Yeah. The rest of the iceberg under the ice, ,

 

(08:39): It's a big ice for Gunda there for

 

(08:42): Right. The chemical stressors I heard you mentioned, which could be foods that you're eating, that you think are healthy, but might be causing you a stress response. It, it could be so many things. It could be something in the deodorant that, that you're using. It can be flying in an airplane itself is stressful. Right?

 

(09:00): exactly. And so the key is that because a lot of people will say to me, well, can you teach me how to be stress free? And I say to them, that's not my goal. It would be impossible. First of all, because as humans we're gonna have stress. And in fact, we want to have some stress there's stresses that are good for us. Exercise create is a stress that at a certain quantity is good for us. It helps our bodies to be challenged, to grow muscles, you know, and, and use our heart. It's not about eliminating all stress. Really? The goal is how do we understand where the stress is? So just conversation we're having, how do we notice the stresses that we have in our lives and how do we ensure that we have enough to counterbalance it enough? What I call anti-stress to counterbalance the stress so that our bodies can come back to optimal on a regular basis. It's when we, when we don't have enough, anti-stress we get thrown off, right? I know you're familiar with this where we just get, we get burned out. We get, it becomes normal and familiar to feel constantly stressed.

 

(10:13): Yes. I love that. It's about having enough anti-stress to counterbalance the stress we have. It's not about teaching people how to be stress free. That is a quotable. I love that. Mm-hmm and Donny, you talk about five different types of stress and that's the first time I've heard that. So I'm super excited for you to talk about that. What are the five types?

 

(10:37): Okay. So this is based on cortisol and adrenaline levels. So let's, this is understanding the stress response. We have a built in stress response system. We have these stress hormones that communicate stress throughout our bodies. We have cortisol, which a lot of people have heard about cortisol as a stress hormone and adrenaline. We want our cortisol adrenaline. Actually, we don't have enough. That's not good either. We need to have just the right amount at a certain time of day under certain circumstances, right? So we need a Al amount of cortisol adrenaline. And so what happens is when we're under this chronic stress that you and I are talking about, our cortisol and adrenaline levels become disrupted either too high or too low. And it's not the same for everyone, but the treatment is different. So here's the thing is a lot, a big mistake I see often is people, maybe they notice they have stress.

 

(11:34): Maybe they even have their cortisol levels tested. And then they decide I'm gonna take a supplement to help with my cortisol. But if they're not taking the right herbs and nutrients in that supplement to address their specific imbalance, they're not gonna feel better. And I see this mistake happen all the time, right? That all the time they're taking the wrong supplement for this situation. So this is why I'm so standing out and saying, listen, we have different stress type patterns when you're under stress is different than when I'm under stress likely, right? Like, so we need to know are us dress type pattern where your cortisol and adrenaline are stuck in a high mode. In which case we are gonna give specific treatment for that to help bring it back to optimal or our us dress type where your cortisol and adrenaline are stuck in a low mode where they're too low.

 

(12:30): And now your're functioning with two little cortisol adrenaline. Well, we can address that, but we need to use the right herbs and nutrients that help raise it back up to optimal, right. Or there can also be the opposites. What a person could have high cortisol, low adrenaline or high adrenaline, low cortisol. So it's imp what I found in my, in my practice and in my research is it's so important to know where you are so that we can give you the right treatment. And even then we need the treatment to be specific to your stress type, to be effective.

(13:04): Yes. So true. I see it all the time. In fact, someone had, I think reached out to me on social media last week and said something about, I think I have adrenal fatigue is what she said. And I've been taking, she named this supplement, but I don't feel any better was her complaint. And of course I said, well, you need to get tested yeah. Yeah. So talk about like, how do you figure out your stress type? How do you know if you're high, low, low, high everybody's high everybody's low?

 

(13:34): How do you know? So, and here's the thing is you mentioned the, the NA the word adrenal fatigue. This is a common terminology that's used, but it's really vague. It doesn't tell us anything, right? It doesn't tell us what's going on with your cortisol and adrenaline. So I tend to call it instead. Adrenal distress, adrenals distress means to me, there's some imbalance with your cortisone adrenaline, but now we need to find out what that imbalance is. And I did develop in, in the book, the master, your stress reset your health book, mm-hmm . And on my website, I developed a quiz. You can take where you go through and you, you answer the questions and it tells you likely what your stress type is. So at least your close to, you know, knowing what it is. So you can treat it specifically best is if you can do a test, and this is where we do cortisol testing, but we don't just test the cortisol at one time a day, right?

 

(14:26): We gotta test the cortisol in the morning when you wake up, when it should be a little higher, and then we're gonna test it in the middle of the day, the evening and the bedtime, when it should be lowest, right? If we only tested one time a day, we're missing a lot of the information. We need to measure it at different times a day, which we can do either in saliva or urine. So people can do this test at home. Like you can spit in a tube at different times a day, or we collect urine at different times of day to measure your cortisol. And then you're gonna know, is my cortisol too low or too high? Or maybe it's even a combination of the two. Maybe you have too low at certain times of day too high at certain times of day, right? Yes.

 

(15:04): And this, and then we can also measure the adrenaline levels. Adrenaline can be measured in the urine. So this, again, a test you can do at home. So then we actually know what, how stress is affecting you. These are your internal stress messages, and they're not just responding to the stress of today or the stress of yesterday. They're actually responding to the stress of your life and even your parents' life, right? Like this is when we look at your cortisol and adrenaline levels, it's showing us your unique pattern that exists in your body at this point in time, based on your genetics and your stress exposure. And we need that information because then we can actually help you feel better. So if you, like you said, this person said they're taking something, but they don't feel better. That's a clear sign to me that they're probably taking the wrong product for their stress time.

 

(15:58): Right. And I hear that all the time. I'd love what a couple things you just said, I wanna highlight. So you mentioned that your body's responding to stress, not only that you're dealing with, but of your parents. Can you talk a little bit about that? Cuz I think that's probably foreign to most people.

 

(16:16): Yeah. It's actually a study show. I mean, we, we look at, first of all, childhood exposure to stress, we know that when we are exposed to, to stress in childhood, which most, all of us had some degree of stress in our childhood that that influences our health throughout our lives. Unless we start doing stress recovery and helping our bodies recover. Right. And not only that, but the studies show that stress that from our parents and our grandparents affects our genetic expression. So it affects how our body responds to stress in this lifetime is so amazing. Right? And I look at it as, I mean, there's always two sides of the coin, right? We could look at it as well. My grandparents went through all this stress or I had all this stress in my childhood. So now I'm doomed to have increased risk of diabetes and dementia and heart disease and cancer. Or you could look at the other side of the coin and you could say, wow, I know my parents had stress. I know I had stress, but I also know that I can do something about it. Starting at whatever point you are in your life, you can make diet changes. You can start doing recovery activities, start addressing your stress type so that you can decrease your risk of health issues going forward.

 

(17:33): So true. And you mentioned something else about genetics, is that, is that how our trans the stress is transported from generation to generation? Isn't it through the, through genetics?

 

(17:44): Yeah. Through what we call epigenetics or genetic expression mm-hmm so we, you know, for so long, even scientists were like, we, they thought we were gonna figure out the human genome and be able to match up to every health condition. And we were gonna solve all the health conditions by knowing our genes. Right. We were like, oh, you know, all the genes we're gonna solve everything. And so they ran this huge human genome project and studied all the genes. And when they came out the end of it, they figured out that that was not the case. That actually what's more determinant of our health and our risk of health issues is our stress exposure and our environment . So that says like, okay, yes, of course we have genes and we have this genetic interplay from that we are born with, from our ancestors. However, that doesn't mean it's set in stone. We have every ability to shift that genetic expression going forward and for future generations.

 

(18:43): Yes. Super important to know. Can you talk a little bit about your care method of stress recovery?

 

(18:50): Mm-hmm so I use the acronym care to mean clean eating, adequate sleep, recovery activities, and exercise. So these are all daily activities that we can choose, right? And even eating is something we definitely do every day. Sleeping is something we hope we do every day. recovery activities and exercise. There's ways that we can choose each of these areas. That's gonna help us with our stress recovery. And there's a ton of research on all of these areas. This is, I have all the references in the book because I was so interested. I really wanted to see, is it even possible that we should be implementing diet and sleep and exercise and even recover activities like meditation based on our stress type. Like, is there a certain time of day or duration or type of activity, that's gonna be better for someone who has high cortisol, high adrenaline, I call a stress magnet, you know, where, how should they be implementing care versus the person who has low cortisol, adrenaline, who I call blah and blue, how should they be implementing care? And so that's, what's in the book is like, so I want you to be able to know your stress time and then know how to implement your clean, eating, your sleep, your recovery activities and your exercise in a way that matches your body. So your body can actually recover.

 

(20:21): Yeah. I think a unique approach for each person is so important and I love how you outline the different phases in your book, and you give details on what everybody should be doing. So we'll for sure link to the quiz so they can take it. I do encourage everyone to get the book cuz it's she really, Dr. Donny has done an excellent job of outlining exactly what you need to do, how to know what your stress type is. Three step approach, unique for your situation. So you can kind of sort this out. And I have seen so many people actually who use this type of very structured, detailed information that you offer, fix this without ever having a test. 

 

(21:04): Yeah. It's definitely possible. You can. That's why in the book it's like you could fo literally follow the steps in the book and have such an improvement. And the key here is that, you know, because I know people hear about all different kinds of approaches to health. What I'm doing is I'm looking from a bird's eye view. I'm looking at it as how can we be most strategic about recovering from any health issue? So let's say a person has autoimmunity, right? And we know that autoimmunity is triggered by stress, right? The research says it very clearly, but they don't give you any directions on what to do about it. We just know stress causes autoimmunity. So what we wanna say is, oh my gosh, if there's an autoimmune condition, say Hashimotos or Crohn's disease or rheumatoid arthritis or any other of the hundreds of autoimmune conditions we need, if we really wanna be solving it effectively, we need to be thinking of it from how do we help the body recover from stress so that we can turn off the autoimmunity and the person can then go through their life without having autoimmunity.

 

(22:10): Amazing. I see it in all the time with my patients, right? Or you name it any other health, even if it's a, you know, even if it's say a blood sugar imbalance or fatigue or anxiety, these are symptoms to me, these are indications that the body is overstressed. And it's trying to tell us that, right? It's giving us symptoms that are saying, it's a stress alarm going off saying some there's a stress signal that's ending up causing these either digestive issues, hormone imbalances, immune related issues and neurological or nervous system issues. That's how it shows up. And so this strategy to me is so important for everyone as an underlying root cause strategy, right?

 

(22:56): Yes. It's so true. Can you share maybe some stories of clients you work with? You know, most of the women who listen to my podcast are somewhere between 40 to 60, some older, some younger, and invariably they know that stress is affecting their health. Yeah. And I know when it happened to me, when I was in my forties, , you know, late forties and I weighed 243 pounds and I only had enough energy to work and sleep. And I had depression, anxiety. My hair was falling out, no sex drive. I had irrit all about, like I had this laundry list of what I call, right. The laundry list of midlife, metabolic complaints about the effects of stress right here. I was board certified OB GYN. And I know there are women listening right now who are saying like, okay, I get it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Stress. But how do I know that if this is for me, I'd love, love it. If you could share some stories of some patients that you've worked with, who this they might identify with and say, oh my gosh, that's me. I have those symptoms. I need to take that quiz. I need to read that book.

 

(24:05): Yeah. Because a lot of times we're kind of functioning and we're not even really, we're like, it's so unusual and familiar. We don't even realize, oh, this, this was caused by stress. Like sometimes it's, it's something like if you're grinding your teeth at night, or you mentioned your hair's falling out. Right. So it could be symptoms like that where you're like, okay, now I've gotta go to get a mouth guard from my teeth because I'm grinding my teeth. I have maybe it's anxiety, but maybe you're not calling it anxiety. Maybe it's like just constant worry. Right? Mm-hmm maybe this worry, ruminating thoughts where you feel like you can't turn your brain off and it's like, you have a long list of things and you never, lot of, lot of times women say to me, I feel like I never get a break. Right. They're running from taking care of kids to, to taking care of, you know, their home, to taking care of their job or their business or whatever they're, they're doing else in their lives.

 

(24:57): Or even from 40 to 60, like this is where maybe the kids are going to college and now they, but there's always something on your to-do list. Right. You're always like I have this long to-do list. And I feel like there's never time for me. That is a, a sign for me that there, that this is like, okay, we need to intervene. It also can be, as you mentioned, severe fatigue where you feel like you wake up in the morning and you're like, I can't do anything until I've have had like several cups of coffee. And another way it shows up is in the evening, if you feel like you just can't wait for this alcohol. Right. You're like, I know, oh yeah. This and, and not to say that, like, I mean a little bit of coffee's okay. And a little bit of wine or alcohol's okay too.

 

(25:40): But when it get becomes where we feel like we can't even survive the next day, right. Without this, another cup of coffee or another glass of wine now we're, we're kind of medicating the stress with coffee and wine, right? So we have to kind of be honest with ourselves and say, wait a minute, is this just something I'm enjoying once in a while? Or is this where I'm depending on this for me to get through my day and accomplish these tasks, it can also show up as like I'm thinking of a, a, a patient. I, I was so excited this week. I spoke to two patients who have gone come through my phase 1, 2, 3, this step by step protocol. You mentioned, they're now at phase three and I am celebrating with them. And they're both in the 40 to 60 age range. One of them first came to me with severe anxiety and severe digestive symptoms, like bloating, gas, irritable bowel syndrome.

 

(26:36): She's like, how am I supposed to do this? She has children. She runs her own practice as well. She's like, how am I supposed to, to do this? I'm constantly. And she was having a lot of cravings. This is another way it comes up food cravings, right? Mm-hmm like your craving sugar, you or your appetite changes. Maybe you feel like you, nothing tastes good. And then you end up just overeating something that, you know, you really don't wanna be eating, but it's the only thing you can decide to eat. Right? And so she was just like, so feeling so awful, she was like, how am I supposed to keep going and keeping up with taking care of my daughters and myself and my family and my home. So she, we did this panel. We've saw that her cortisol levels were com were totally low.

 

(27:21): Her adrenaline was totally high. And so I guided her through the process. We have to first lower the adrenaline that's high before we can raise the cortisol that's low. And this is a key piece, cuz I think a lot of times people get stuck here. They find out they have low cortisol, but if someone's not checking also their adrenaline levels or knowing that this is the difference between the blah and blue stress type versus the tired and wired stress type and their treatment is different. So if you're treating yourself as blah and blue, but you're really as tired and wired, you're not gonna feel better. You're gonna feel worse. Mm-hmm so we have to first lower that high adrenaline. Once the high adrenaline comes down, then she was like, oh finally my mind feels like it's not racing. Finally. I feel like I can breathe and have a little calmness in my day and I can start. Then you can start to choose some of the selfcare it's hard to choose self-care when you're going, when you, you can't even catch your breath bakes basically. Right.

 

(28:20): So true.

 

(28:21): So then she was able to calm enough, but then, then I listen for patients to say to me, okay, the anxiety calmed down now I'm just tired. And I'm like, that's good. Because that tells me you're in phase two, we're ready to support the low cortisol. Then I can start the supplements to raise the cortisol back up to optimal. And you, the person starts to get their energy back and other things start to come back. Right? Libido comes back, digestion starts working again. Skin looks better. Everything starts to, you're like, oh my gosh, I'm back. You know? And we didn't, sometimes we don't even realize we lost ourselves. But when we find ourselves again, we're like, whoa, I was so far off of this. and then what happens is in phase three, this is why it's so exciting when I get to talk to them in phase three is they're like, first of all, they're like, thank you so much. I'm so glad I found you because I couldn't figure this out before. And I've been to all these other practitioners that didn't figure it out. They're like, but they also realize they have this empowerment and, and this feeling of like, now they know what to do to maintain over time. These women say to me, now I know if I'm under stress again, I know exactly what I need to do to get myself back on track before I end up back in burnout again.

 

(29:38): Yes. And I love the subtitle of the book. So it's master your stress, reset your health, the personalized program to calm anxiety, boost energy, and beat burnout. So I wanna encourage everybody if you're hearing yourself and what Dr. Dami is saying. And you're you thought that you've had it an adrenal issue and maybe you can't afford, not everyone can afford to go to a practitioner and work one on one and have the test and you can get great results with a program like this. And you're hearing the symptoms that you have. I'm definitely gonna encourage you to go take the quiz and read the book and do what she says, because you know, it works. If you're stuck in, I call that the, uh, coffee, wine, tango coffee in the morning to wind up and wine in the afternoon to wind down. That was me in my forties for sure. And I didn't realize I was medicating my, my, uh, stress issues, but now I know better. So I'm gonna encourage you to definitely check it out. And then also I wanted you to just talk a little bit, a little bit about your podcast.

 

(30:41): Yes, yes, yes. Oh my gosh. I'm so enjoyed having you on my podcast. It's called how humans heal. So you can find it where you usually listen to podcasts. It's also on YouTube. So if you prefer YouTube, just look for how humans heal and you can listen to you. And I talking about what YouTube, I love it. And then yes, my, you can also find it through my website at Dr. doni.com. I have a blog and, and everything there as well.

 

(31:07): Awesome. Well, I have to ask you, I mean, we have talked about cortisol, which is a hormone. We've talked about epinephrine, neuro epinephrine, which are really hormones. You know, neurotransmitters are just like brothers and sisters to, to hormones, but I would be remiss if I didn't ask you to connect how these hormones and neurotransmitters interact with things like thyroid estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, can you comment on that?

 

(31:38): Absolutely. And here's the thing is, so when we're, when we're under stress and our cortisol goes either too high or too low, and adrenaline goes too high or too low, they're signaling to everywhere else in our body, including all the hormones. So from thyroid insulin and even ovarian hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, all the hormones, get this stress. You know, it's like a text message. I think of it. Like they get the text message and they're like, okay, we're in stress mode. Do the stress thing, which the thing is when we're under stress, we tend, it tends to drop our thyroid function. It tends to drop our insulin function. So now our blood sugar goes higher. It tends to drop ovarian function. So now we have less progesterone, estrogen, all, Ew, you're more likely to have PMs symptoms or fibroids or heavy bleeding in general or irregular cycles or menopausal symptoms for that manner.

 

(32:37): I mean, so many women that I help and I know you do too, in that perimenopausal years, if the cortisol is off balance, you're way more likely to experience perimenopausal symptoms. And yes, we're gonna address the estrogen and progesterone and testosterone and get them balanced. But amazingly, when we get the cortisol and adrenaline balanced, it's so much easier to manage these other hormones because now you're sending, you want your cortisol adrenaline to send a healthy signal to your body so that all of these other hormones can fall in line. As soon as the cortisol goes off, it's like a domino effect, right? It just wipes everything out. And as soon as the cortisol's on track, everybody's lining up and in a, in a nice harmony, you know, so they're talking to each other, these hormones are talking to each other and the more we can balance cortisol, the easier it is to keep the rest of them optimized too.

 

(33:32): So true. That's why I call her queen cortisol. She, it, she will be served. So I love that you wrote this wonderful book, talking about how to master your stress and reset your health. And that means master your queen cortisol, she will be very happy. Your thyroid will improve your insulin. Blood sugar will improve. Your sex. Hormones will improve. Like everything gets better.

 

(33:54): So everything gets better. So, and to me, it's like, it's the ultimate multitasking, right? We always, we kind of like multitasking, but sometimes when we're multitasking, we're inefficient. Right. But to me, this is a good way to multitask because by optimizing your cortisol, you're fixing so many other things, right? So it's like, Simplify it all.

 

(34:16): It is. It's literally like having the cleaning lady come to your house and clean your house. So you don't have to worry about it. Just do the one thing. Yeah. Thank you. and Dr. Doni for joining me, thank you for this wonderful resource for men and women. I really appreciate it. And thank you so much for joining me today.

 

(34:34): You're welcome. Thank you for having me.

 

(34:36): And thanks to everybody listening. Thanks for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. I want you to not just have this information and have learned something. I want you to actually take this information and implement it in your life. So go to the show notes, click, take the quiz, check out Dr. Doni's podcast. It is amazing. She has fantastic guests. You will learn a lot and go get your master, your stress, reset your health book and start taking action today. And then think about all the ways that your life is gonna improve. Once you get this under control, share it with me on social media, what you are doing, what actions you're taking and look forward to hearing about it. And until next week, peace, love and hormones. Y'all

 

(35:22): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

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Feeling tired? Can't seem to lose weight, no matter how hard you try?

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Try Her Hormone Club for 30 days and see how it can help you feel better than before.

 

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How To Turn On Your Cell’s Fat Switch And Lose Weight After 40

Have you ever wondered why it's so hard to lose weight after you turn 40?

 

If you have, you're not alone. In fact, it's a question that many women ask themselves as they approach middle age.

 

The good news is that there is an answer. And, even better, it turns out that there is a simple way to turn on your cell's "fat switch" and lose weight, no matter your age.

 

That's what Dr. Betty Murray is here to talk about in this episode.

 

Dr. Murray is a nutrition expert, certified functional medicine practitioner, and speaker. She helps women 40+ harness their hormones to lose weight, optimize sleep, restore energy, and thrive in life.

 

During her research for her PhD, Dr. Murray made 4 key discoveries that lead to hormone imbalances that plague women over 40. Restoring balance to these key metabolic pathways is the basis of her Hormone Reset Program which has helped her, and her clients lose weight with ease, restore sleep, and turn up their energy.

 

She is the host of This Functional Life Podcast and the founder and CEO of Living Well Dallas Functional Medicine Center. Dr. Murray is a frequently featured nutrition expert on Fox News Broadcasting, CW33, NBC, and CBS.

 

So, if you're ready to learn how to turn on your cell's fat switch and lose weight after 40, then this episode is for you.

 

In this episode, we discuss:

• The 4 key discoveries that lead to hormone imbalances in women over 40
• How to turn on your cell's "fat switch"
• How your genetics that controls estrogen detoxification may lead to weight gain and risk for diabetes, obesity, and cancer
• Body positivity and how to love your body at any age
• The role estrogen plays in weight loss
• The role of the nervous system in your hormonal function and your fat retention
• Foods to avoid that screw up your hormones
• And much more!

 

If you're struggling with your weight, or if you're just curious about how to lose weight after 40, then this episode is a must-listen.

 

So, grab a cup of coffee, put your feet up, and enjoy!

 

(00:00): Erica Jong said, "If you don't risk anything, you risk even more." And if you're struggling with your weight and excess fact, then you might not even be aware of why or what you're risking. And my guess today is gonna tell you all about how to unlock this situation. So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth of about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.

 

(01:14): Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so grateful that you chose to join us today. Welcome today. My guest, Dr. Betty Murray is going to help shed some light on why your cells’ fat switch is stuck, and you can't seem to lose any weight after four eight after 40. This is true for women, but also for men losing weight no longer is a math problem where it's calories and minus calories out. It becomes way more complex. And maybe you have really tried everything, you're at your wits end, and you just can't figure out what's wrong. No worries, Dr. Betty is gonna help you figure it out. She's the host of this functional life podcast and has a very dynamic practice. Her graduate work has focused on the difference inside the cell mitochondrial function and carbohydrate metabolism. Don't worry if you're like, what are you talking about?

 

(02:12): Betty is gonna explain it to you and she's gonna help you understand why if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. That's a quote from Erica young, which is prolific and really applies to us at midlife. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Betty and we will get started. She's a nutrition expert, certified functional medicine practitioner and speaker Dr. Betty Murray. She's a PhD candidate. MSCN if F M C P all those initials after her name, she helps women over 40 harness their hormones to lose weight, optimize, sleep, restore, energy, and thrive in life. And who doesn't want that during her research for her PhD, she made four key discoveries that led to hormone imbalances that plague women over 40 restoring balance to these key metabolic pathways is the basis of her hormone reset program. She's the host of this functional life podcast and the founder and CEO of living well Dallas functional medicine center. And she's a frequently featured nutrition expert on Fox news, podcasting, CW 33, NBC and CBS. Welcome Betty Murray.

 

(03:20): Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to be here.

 

(03:23): Me too. I'm so excited to have you. I loved your interview and the stop, the menopause madness summit. And I said, Betty, you gotta come on the podcast and talk to all of us women over 40 about really what's going on inside ourselves. Why are we gaining weight? Um, we're gonna dive into that in a second, but I gotta share with everyone, or have you share why you're so passionate about this topic of weight gain in women over 40?

 

(03:53): I came to functional medicine and functional nutrition originally because I was diagnosed with colitis and I kind of went on my own journey to try and figure out how I could do things with my diet and lifestyle to keep from taking harsh drugs. And, you know, through that process was able to really, you know, kind of heal that. And honestly, I've been, you know, knock on wood flare free for more than a decade. And, but when I hit my forties, so I've never been a naturally thin person, but in my teens and twenties and thirties, I was able to maintain body composition by doing what everybody hears, you know, in high intensity intervals and doing some weight training and eating really, really lean right, low, low carb. And I could have the occasional cheat and it would all work when I hit my forties. It was like some major switch turned off.

 

(04:40): My hormones got worse. Like everybody talks about heavier periods, more moodiness and sleep problems that were already a problem. And that, you know, became almost unyielding, you know, two or three hours a night awake. And I went back to my functional medicine peers, cuz I was already in the industry and tried hormones, tried all these different things and no matter what I did, I might get my sleep slightly better, or I might, my periods might be a little bit better, but I could not lose weight to save my life. I'm a nutritionist. So, you know, it's one of those things like you don't wanna be sitting in the room with somebody talking about weight loss and those kind of things, when you yourself are struggling. And I, and I, and all the women I was seeing, I could just feel it for them cuz I was in it with them. And so when I went back to school for my PhD, cuz I just, I love to learn. That really was where I centered a ton of my research is what is different between men and women? Because I think any woman can tell you if they go on a dietary change with a male, it's like two different worlds, a guy gives up beer and pizza and they drop 20 pounds. 

 

(05:44): Lettuce and...

 

(05:46): Right. 

 

(05:47): Let guys do the beer and pizza, no beer and pizza diet, which does not work for any woman.

 

(05:53): And most of the women I see are the ones that are like, I'm doing all the right things. They're working out, you know, every morning, and they're eating low, low-carb and they're drinking just water, and they can't figure out why it's not working. And so that's really where I went on this journey because I myself was in it. And I just I saw all these women struggling with it. And the other thing that just broke my heart, and it was true for me and true for most of my clients is at some point in our conversation, they would say, you know, Betty, I want my life to be about this, this next season. Right? Cause when you get to your forties and fifties, we're looking at this next season of life. Maybe it's I want to do this with it. I wanna have a bigger impact.

 

(06:30): I wanna have a better relationship. And then they would almost always say Betty, if my body was different, I could, if I felt at home in my body, if the vehicle that I'm driving every day was where I felt comfortable. My life would be better. Then I would do X mm-hmm . And that for me broke my heart because I think women in this time period of life, we are in such a great opportunity to leave our impact. However, we wanna do that, whether it's with our family and kids or reaching out into the world or change the world. But a lot of times we're holding ourselves back because we don't feel at home in our body anymore. That just drives me at this point. That's why I do my podcast. It's why it's, you know, I, I go to the clinic every day. It's why I really reach out and try and help women because I, I truly believe we are the ones that are gonna change the world.

 

(07:19): You're speaking my language. I got the chill, bums going all up and down because that's why I do what I do. And you know, it really gets to this quote you shared with me before we started from Erica J if you don't risk anything, you risk even more. And I see so many women just giving up because they can't do what they wanna do in life because of their health, they can't get their health where they want it to be. And I consider my mission to help women get physically in shape so that they can give, deliver the gifts that they have to give to the world that are gonna save the world. What are your thoughts on that?

 

(08:00): Absolutely. You know, I, and sometimes that risk, you know, is really uncomfortable. So when I work with women in my hormone reset group, part of what we do is we start acting on those dreams, desires and goals, even though we don't feel as if we should could or would, right? So I'll give a really good personal example and you know, people might be uncomfortable with this. So for obviously more than a decade of my life, I was not comfortable in my own body. It affected my relationship with my husband. Cause I'm like, please don't look at me. You know, please don't look at me. So one of the things that I started doing is I started taking pictures of myself, slightly provocative, nothing, nothing nasty, but you know, for my husband and I, you know, I would set up my phone on a little, you know, a little stand I'd take a bunch of pictures, I'd take 50 in one of 'em I'd be like, that's not too bad. Right. Cause that's where you brain

 

(08:49): It. Right.

 

(08:51): And then I would show them to 'em and he would be like, you look beautiful. It wasn't for that response. It was for me to look through all those photos and go, this one looks good. Cause it started out. This one looks okay. And then it started out going and then it started changing to, I look, look pretty in this one, I look hot in this one. I send this to me. And so like weird things like that, that it seems so foreign to people help you start to own that beauty. Like the younger women and today are embracing body positivity. And as healthcare workers, we, we have this fine line between, we want body positivity, but we need to be healthy, but you don't see anybody our age doing it, Paulina, PVA. She does it. But none of us are really standing in it and going, yes, you know, I have some scars, I have some, you know, I have some jiggly bits, but I'm still beautiful.

 

(09:39): You know, you know, it's so true. Let's have a little divergence. We're gonna get into the hard science. Y'all, don't worry. It is the hormone prescription podcast after all, but let's go down this little detour because I was actually thinking the same thing the other day, when I saw the cover of the new sports illustrated with the woman, who's very curvy. And I actually interviewed a woman on the podcast when I first started it several years ago, who is a younger woman. I believe she weighs 350 pounds who actually has a huge following about it. And I saw some of the comments about the sports illustrated cover. And they're saying, are we now, uh, condoning obesity and core health in service of not shaming anyone and being body positive. And I'm just wondering what other people's thoughts are. So since you brought it up, can you talk a little bit about that?

 

(10:33): Yeah. You know, it's, it is hard because I do think cuz I think it's a circular thought. I know my body opinion changed by the time I was at like at the end of elementary school. Right. As, as soon as you hit that tween years, I think a lot of times our eating habits and other things that may lead to weight gain. And then cuz it starts as a little bit of weight gain. Then you get a lot of metabolic changes that adds to that weight loss. It's not as easy as calories and calories out. But I think the shame that we feel about our body that often develops when we're teenagers that we carry into our adulthood, mm-hmm, perpetuates behaviors that also make us more likely to use food as comfort and emotional and those kinds of things. So I think there is an important part of body positivity, but I also think that we have to look at, if somebody is significantly overweight, they do have all kinds of additional risks for chronic disease like diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, even cancer. But I think if we keep coming at it from the shame game and making people feel less than, but whether it's through media or other things for not being, you know, the ideal 1% person, then we're gonna perpetuate a bigger problem, you know, mm-hmm so I think it is a timeline dance. And it's one that I struggle with all the time, how to, how to handle it in an emotional way. And then also in a professional way. Cause I have a pro professional responsibility, right. To be real of what the risk factors are.

 

(11:58): Yeah. I agree with you. Well I think when we look at a lot of health problems, there is shame attached to them. I think there's a lot of shame associated with type two diabetes for instance, or sometimes for hypertension or high cholesterol people think in their minds, oh, well you must be eating too much salt. You must be eating too much animal fat. You must be eating too much sugar, but we don't have that around things like autoimmune conditions. If someone has lupus or multiple sclerosis, we really don't have shame around that. So I don't know that weight issues are unique in that respect. I do think that our generation, well, at least I might be a little older than you, my generation. I mean, I was steeped in like a Dell Davis and Jack Lane and oh my gosh, thin and Twiggy and you got to be so thin.

 

(12:50): And I look back, I had to pull out some photos of myself when I was younger for my Ted talk, that's coming up and I look how skinny I was and I thought I was fat. I know so that's, I think that's really insane making people who are healthy, feel like they're overweight, but I do think it's a very fine line cuz it's my understanding from the data that even a 10%, if you're 10% over your ideal body weight, there are consequences to be had from that. And that's not much if you're, if you're ideal body, weight's 150 pounds and your 15 pounds overweight, my understanding of the data is you are going to have consequences. And so I struggle with that. I still think we should embrace everyone. Scars, bulges, you know, skin blotches, all the things that we all naturally have and love that. But I don't think, you know, I personally don't think that the like the sports illustrated cover is condoning poor health. I think they're just celebrating beauty in all of its various forms.

 (13:57): Absolutely. Well, the definition of beauty has been different over millennia, right? So if we look back into the Renaissance being curvy meant that you were fertile. Right? Right. So no, just depends what time period. So beauty is defined by time period and paradigm and the zeitgeist of the time I'm slightly younger than you, but I definitely hit the, you know, the supermodel era of the eighties. And then right after that, my early twenties was heroin chic, cuz nothing's better looking than somebody that looks like they do heroin. Right. you know, and so you, you, those mixed messages and those messages that we get, I think are damning and damaging and metabolic damage that results in obesity, which is a hundred percent metabolic changes in the cells that cause that, but we take it and still as a medical community treated as a morality problem, which makes me crazy. Yeah. Because it's not a morality and a, and a behavioral problem. It is a metabolic problem that happens. And the problem is you can't give up eating. Right.

 

(14:57): Can't you cannot stop

 

(14:58): That. Yeah. It's like, oh, I'm just not ever gonna eat again. That doesn't work. So yeah. So I think it is all those things. So my goal going forward is to help people understand what's happening inside their cells, what's happening with their hormones, how we might be able to manipulate that both therapeutically in a short term to fix some of the problems and then how to live ongoing, where I can maintain a healthy weight. That means my body feels healthy. Cuz a lot of times the other thing is we, we have a number on the scale and it's often a number we've had like 18 to 22 and that's the number we feel like we need to be when we weren't at hormonal peak yet it might not really be the most ideal weight for us. And I like for people to focus on what does healthy feel like? What does it mean? Can I run around and play with my grandkids? Can I go hiking? Can I bike 60 miles in a weekend? Like those things to me are more meaningful because those are real gauges of, can you live your life? It's not a number on a scale.

 

(15:53): Yes. I love that. It isn't a number on a scale and light with that. Let's dive more into the science. So I know that you focus on four main areas that lead to hormonal balances that plague women over 40 and contribute to the weight game. I love how you talk about this cellular fat switch. And basically that this fat switch gets turned on by these factors. And we have to learn about them to turn that switch off. So let's start, start there and talk about what these factors are.

 

(16:28): Right? So some of these people may have heard these stats. So statistically a woman's metabolism will slow about 5% for every decade, right? And most women experience about a 10 to 15% increase in body weight around the belly, just from entering menopause. Right? So the thing to remember is that estrogen, when it's balanced with the other hormones and everything's working in, in, in synchrony is actually sliming. But when it's out of balance too high or too low, we have a problem. We have, we play that sort of exorbitant price for that. So part of what we see is we have inside the cell, we have mechanisms that help our cell either burn your carbohydrate forms like glucose or fat and really what's happening is that stuff has to be happening inside the cell in a very, very orchestrated way. And a lot of times we focus on you gotta lower your insulin, which then, you know, makes your body able to burn fat.

 

(17:26): Well, my question always was is if women's metabolism changes at a rate that's different than men, what role must estrogen play? Cuz it does. So there's a fat switch inside the cell and it's controlled by a cellular metabolite called uric acid. So uric acid gets produced inside the cell and it's produced when there's damage inside the cell when there's damage to the DNA in RNA. And so when your at acid rise rises inside the cell, it acts as a switch and lowers the cellular mechanic. So think of it as the powerhouse inside the cell, it makes that powerhouse slow down. So, you know, for anybody that's in our age group, instead of having a brand new rock and Tesla, you have a 1984, you go, so everything slows down and, and this, this came about, this is not my research. This is another gentleman. Uh, Rick Johnson, I believe he's found a university of Colorado, I believe that's right.

 

(18:18): But they found that this change, this mechanism is something that happened millions of years ago when we went from being ape two man. And it was what allowed us to make it through an ice age. So the apes that actually had this switch turned on where uric acid would come up and slow. The powerhouse survived, you know, a, basically a disaster, which was an ice age where food was not available. So this uric acid response is to some degree, a starvation response. It's also the response of hibernation. So that's how they found it. They started looking at bears and squirrels and things that hibernate. And as the bears go into the spring and summer, where they start eating more high fructose, I, environmental things like fruits and things like that, honey, we would see this increase in uric acid. They would start gaining body fat.

 

(19:06): And then when they got to the wintertime and they'd go to hibernate, they'd be able to use that body fat over the winter to survive. So the rise in uric acid slows the powerhouse and slows down your ability to burn fat. And it's doing it through a bunch of mechanisms, which we won't really go into. So the interesting thing is women. When they go through menopause, have an automatic increase in uric acid, to the extent of at least about a 0.2, a point and a two at a minimum. And part of this is there is interplay between estrogen and the cellular mechanics in the mitochondria that affect uric acid levels. So if uric acid rising inside the cell is the switch that tells the slow to slow down. And now we can't burn fat or carbohydrates very efficiently. It is intimately tied to the actions at perimenopause and menopause when we lose estrogen. So that's super huge because a lot of women are like, wait, I'm eating low carb, I'm burning 400 calories a day in my exercise and I'm eating 1200 calories. How can I possibly not lose weight? And it's cuz the hormones and the interest cellular the stuff going on inside the cell directly control whether you burn those calories or not.

 

(20:13): Cause your fat switch is off. Right? it

 

(20:18): Right? It's on. It's on. Yeah. Well and then depending on what you eat, you may be turning it on all the time. Right? Cause food uric acid.

 

(20:27): Talk a little bit about that. Cuz everybody's wanting to know Betty, what foods are gonna be turning my switch on and which ones turn 'em off.

 

(20:34): Anything with fructose in it, high fructose corn syrup is the devil never eat it, never touch it. Don't do it. Anything with high fructose amounts now fruit like strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, apples do have some fructose resident in it, but it's got fiber and water and all this other stuff and it's not gonna raise that fructose level in your body. So fructose is the primary driver of uric acid in the body period, alcohol, sugar, processed flour. So anything that's baked, any kind of processed things that we've manufactured, cookies, crackers, breads, all of those things. If we eat them too much, they're gonna raise uric acid and then the other most insidious thing. And I think this is where this may be hiding for a lot of women. I know it is for a lot of women in my group is that a lot of the food additives raise uric acid, things like MSG, idolized, yeast extract, ye extract, flavor enhancements are all things that we've added to foods that make them taste more flavorful that actually raise uric acid.

 

(21:36): You know, you and I both grew up in the same age in the seventies. We had definitely a small percentage of the population that was overweight, but the obesity epidemic ballooned in the eighties and then it accelerated. So if we look at what happened to our food supply, high fructose corn syrup was introduced in the eighties, the use of crappy seed oils, which is a whole other conversation like soy corn, all of those things. And then the massive explosion of food additives and flu flavor enhancements has exploded. The other thing that raises uric acid and this is gonna upset. A lot of women I think are of these foods. So things like Parmesan, cheese, your charco trees. So all the women that are like, I just want a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers and, and some, you know, salami and I'd be happy, guess what? That food's gonna raise it. And I'm one of those people, like if I'm on my deathbed, I'm probably gonna have that.

 

(22:30): Okay. We'll get it ready for you, but maybe not so much right now. Right?

 

(22:35): Right. You can have it, but you just can't have it frequently. So, and then depending on your genetics, you either have a hair trigger uric acid switch, or it might be like a moderate uric acid switch.

 

(22:45): Let's talk a little bit about that cuz I know that's one of the four factors that you talk about your genetics. So you talked about the hair trigger switch. So what genetics are we talking about? Cuz everybody's wondering, do I have that?

 

(22:57): The truth is, is all of us have that enzyme URI case? We, to some degree. So all of us have an expression of that. There is a very small percentage of the population that don't and guess what they can't gain weight period at all. Zero zip never and, and we're talking handful. So if you're hopeful, that's not us. Right. Um, so all of us have that switch to some degree and then the degree in which it gets turned on, depends on a, the other thing that the research is kind of indicating is the more you do those foods and the more you've done this over time, the more hair trigger it is. Cause you gotta remember, it's a starvation response. It's our body thinking we're starving with plenty of food. So there's another enzyme that's also there. And genetically we may have this more expressed or less expressed is a thing called the polyol pathway.

 

(23:41): And the polyol pathway is where our body takes glucose. So the blood sugar circulating around in the body changes it to fructose. And so fructose again, we just learned is terrible for the uric acid. It also gets metabolized differently than glucose. It doesn't have insulin control. So if you're doing a, you know, low carb diet, but you're eating things that drive that uricase activity and drive uric acid up and what little glucose you may have circulating in your bloodstream, your body can convert it to fructose. And again, it's part of this sort of starvation pathway. That pathway is amplified as we go through menopause. So we are more likely to do that. What's interesting. Same gentleman, Dr. Johnson. They were looking at this pathway and when you're dehydrated. So let's say you're dehydrated. You had a bunch of coffee. You're having a smoothie with some fruit and stuff in it, but you probably don't have enough.

 

(24:36): You're not hydrated well enough. Mm-hmm being dehydrated increases the activity of turning glucose into fructose in everybody. That was a mic drop moment for me. When I heard that, I was like, oh my gosh. It's not just that it helps your selling your mechanics, but it quite literally changes whether your body is gonna make fructose and drive uric acid up. So those two genes we all have, but as women, we have genes that control how our body metabolizes estrogen. So can we take the estrogen that we make and can we get it outta the system? So think about it this way, our estrogen, we wanna use it. We need to wrap it in a bunch of different tissue wrappers. And those are, those are handled by your genes and your enzymes. And then you eventually get it to the trash can. People that have mutations that slow down the pathway for getting rid of estrogen.

 

(25:24): One of them's called co methyl. Transferase the other one's called C Y P one B one or cytochrome P 4 51 B one. Those are genes that help our liver sort of package stuff. If those are slow to do that, you are gonna have an increased  risk of metabolic syndrome, diabetes and obesity as a female, as you go through into perimenopause and menopause, the research shows that, and it's because there are alterations to how your body handles glucose. And the other side of it is, I think, and I haven't seen this in the research. I think that this might be part of the mechanism that increases our liver's capacity to make glucose out of amino acids. So let me back up, so I can explain that mm-hmm , our body always needs glucose. Red blood cells must have it. The brain must have glucose if you're not a good fat burner.

 

(26:14): So if you don't have ketones, we gotta have glucose. So our body has a mechanism inside the liver that can take glucose. I mean, I'm sorry, amino acids. So that's proteins broken down, and it can take it and convert them through a thing called glucose neogenesis into glucose. So your body can use it. I think that there's an interplay between that and these hormone metabolism genes, because we know that women are amplified. Also in that pathway, we are more capable of going through glucogenesis at a greater level as we go into perimenopause and menopause than we were when we were in our twenties and thirties and all of our hormones were balanced. It's that our survival mechanisms are sort of ramped up. We're designed to conserve nature, care about women being able to reproduce, right? So our bodies are generally designed to conserve. We don't need a lot of men on the planet. They just need to be hot,

 

(27:06): Right? no, no.

 

(27:09): You know, because, because truthfully, if you look at what nature cares about, can we reproduce and keep the species going? So we are designed to make sure that our body can manufacture food when we need it and make them, you know, make the body work properly. And so we have those things that are automatically turned on by our genetics. We have the estrogen detoxification pathways that a significant percentage of us are slow to do. I have those genes. That's how I ended up down this pathway and that I'm gonna have a harder time losing weight as those hormones start to fluctuate. And especially once estrogen kind of drops,

 

(27:42): You know, there are so many important points that you bring up there. So let's unpack this a little bit. So it is true that biological nature sees us as reproductive organs, basically mechanisms, and to bring a baby to life and take care of it for 18 years. And when we go through menopause, the hormonal changes are such that we're almost disposable, and we're only one of two species that lives any length of time in menopause. There's a certain species of whale that is the other species, but every other species of animal, when the female loses reproductive capacity, she dies. But I think that what we don't recognize is that some of the changes that we undergo actually do promote our death. Even though we don't die quickly, it's kind of like a slow death. And so I want everyone to wake up to the fact that everybody who listens knows that I am a firm believer that you can't have optimal health without balancing your hormones and hormone replacement.

 

(28:41): But this issue of how we package and detoxify our liver, our estrogen, I think is huge. And I think it's one of the biggest places where mainstream medicine totally misses the boat. And so I would encourage every woman listening. If you don't know your sip, one B one, and your C OMT. And if you don't know what we're talking about, we're talking about estrogen, detoxification pathways in the liver. You have got to find somebody who can help you dissect your genetics on that and figure out what you're doing with your estrogen or not. And if you're one of many women, most women are worried about breast cancer, which is actually not a thing that you're likely to ever die from. But it seems like more women are concerned about that. Then the consequences of no hormones, definitely you need to get these checked because if they don't function properly, your risk for breast cancer will be increased. And I know I'm on a little bit of a rant here, but I think it's so important. This idea is not only do you have the right hormones on the bus and are they in the right seat at the right level, but are they getting off the bus when it's their bus stop?

 

(29:52): Yeah, I believe for me, that was a major mechanism in my forties, as I hit perimenopause and all these things were going nuts. You know, I have. This is where my entire PhD was looking at hormone metabolism. And I was basically doing two things. I was estrogen dominant and estrogen toxic, and I was doing all the right things, but it was one of those things I needed to probably monitor it. , you know, a lot. And a lot of that research wasn't there when I first went into or was there, but wasn't commercially available. And now we have the capacity to test this and look at it, look at the genes and also the way to get rid of it. But there's a significant portion of women walking around with mutations there.

 

(30:29): It's so true, Betty. So everybody listening, hopefully you've heard that. And the other thing you mentioned that I wanna highlight that you don't hear everybody talk about is the role of the nervous system in your hormonal function and your fat retention or not. Right. So can you give a little more detail on that? Because I don't think that everybody knows about that.

 

(30:56): Yeah. So your nervous system, you know, is, uh, are the nerves that go out from the brain and communicate, and you know, and your brain and communicate to the body. And so they communicate through neurotransmitters and most of us know things like cortisol, cortisols bad. It leads to insulin resistance which leads to weight gain, but the nervous system is also responsible for giving the nerve message to your fat cells, to tell your fat cells, to dump the fat out, so you can burn it. So the nervous system sends out MES through NOP, epinephrine and epinephrine that are there that are supposed to help transport basically the fat out of the fat cell and be able to get it to particularly your muscle cells to burn and the nervous system activity of those hormones and neurotransmitters becomes weaker when we get older. So as estrogen levels decline, these also become weaker epinephrine and neuroepinephrine are also affected by C OMT, right?

 

(31:52): So if your cots messed up, they're probably gonna be a little bit off mm-hmm . So as we go into pen menopause, the jiggly bit fat that we don't like. So the stuff that's on the outside of the muscle, like the hip thighs, but abdomen that requires a ton of nerve responses. There's adrenal receptors in there that pick up the epinephrine and or epinephrine and, and sort of get that message. They sort of go to sleep. So the fat on the outside of your body is first in, last off. It's very hard for your body to do that. Particularly if you're not moving enough, if you're sedentary, cuz you don't feel good, those nerve cells sort of go to sleep. And so a lot of women may embark on an exercise routine or other things, and they don't see movement fast enough. They're like, oh the fat's not coming off yet.

 

(32:33): It's because that jiggly bit stuff is the last. So I like to paint this picture cause I think it helps people kind of move through that discomfort of it's not moving fast enough. Think of your muscles, like your legs, your hips, your abdomen, your butt as a piece of meat. Right? So think of it as it's prime rib. So prime rib, if you've ever looked at it, has fat running through it and then cutaneous fat or the fat on the surface on the outside, your body has to nerve and get that muscle tissue to burn everything off on the inside first. So it becomes a filet, and then it finally gets to the fat on the outside, and it's through that nervous system response. So here's a really cool thing. Did you know that a person that is twitchy, you all know these, usually they're a boy, not that it's not girls, but you know, they move kind of herky jerky.

 

(33:19):They, um, they're always, something's bouncing, something's twitching, some finger, something like that. They just can't sit. Still. Those people burn an average of 500 to 800 more calories because of the way their nervous system responds to twitching. And these, uh, these UN not uncontrolled, but non-flu movements. And so you think about how many women are like, you know, no, I'm very poised. I'm not bouncing a knee. I'm not doing that. It's quite literally because it keeps stimulating, stimulating these cells. So being somebody that moves and Turkey jerky actually helps it's O it's odd it's because these cells don't work very well.

 

(33:51): Well. So we should all take that up. Just be one of these people is moving and constantly

 

(33:59): But you think about it. It's very like the people that are, you know, the ones that you're like, do you know they're yeah. Do you ever, they, they are often thinner.

 

(34:08): I used to be married to one.

 

(34:09): Oh, my husband's always got his knee bouncing, and he can eat an exorbitant amount of food. He's got an eight pack at 56. It's like he used to make me crazy. Right? So the nervous system's really, really important. The other thing that happens is we have a transporter in our muscle tissue that transports glucose into the cell, right? And it's a transporter called Glu four. We have diabetes medications that we're trying to build for this stuff. Gluten forward gets sleepy when we go through menopause. So it makes it harder to get sugar inside the muscle cell. So you kind of think of it this way, the sugar Mo molecules sitting on a corner, waiting to get into the muscle cell, and they can see the Uber driver at the corner, and they're waiting for it. But the Uber drivers never get there cuz they're off in the distance cuz they're only doing about four miles an hour. So these transports become slow. Now it sounds terrible. Cause people go, oh man, now what do I do? It sounds like I'm screwed. Right? yeah. So the truth is we can turn all those things back on.

 

(35:06): You know, it's funny cuz you're you're saying now it sounds like I'm screwed, and I'm thinking no, the, the answer is just, don't go through menopause. And then I know people look at you, like what do you mean? Don't go through menopause, keep your hormones like they were before you went through menopause, and then you don't have to have any of this. That is the secret y'all

 

(35:27): Yeah. It's it's interesting. Cuz if, if female hormones balanced was so damaging and it was gonna cause cancer and all these other things, then we should see an extraordinary amount of cancer in 20 and 30 year olds. When they're at hormonal peak,

 

(35:41): Exactly

 

(35:42) Balanced hormones are what, tell the body that we're still supposed to be on the planet and we're valid and important to the planet. When you take 'em away, the body goes, oh, time to decay, right. Time to break down and fall apart.

 

(35:54): It is so true. And the idea that we believe otherwise, this notion that anything we were given that made us healthy and developed us into the healthy, vital, alive adults that we become is bad for us. Just boggles my mind, what we will actually believe. And it's like, we park our brains sometimes. You know, I think we women, we give up our power, a bit of a rant here, but we give up our power, and we look to other external authorities to tell us what is the truth? When you just use your common sense, right? It's like if someone tried to tell you that, oh, that calcium that you're getting in your diet is bad for you. And it's, you know, the calcium that's in your atherosclerotic plaque, in your heart causing heart disease is what's causing heart disease. Right? If somebody told you that, I would hope you would say that's insane.

 

(36:51): Calcium is needed. It's what helps me grow and develop healthy bones and have good neuro transmission and all of this. But this idea that people say the hormones, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone that make us healthy. All of a sudden when we replace it in menopause, they're gonna turn on us and cause breast cancer and all these other problems, it's insane to me. But I think that we, women, should stop questioning things. And if someone told you that was true of calcium, oh no, don't take calcium. It's gonna fog up your arteries and cause plaque and heart disease, we hopefully would say, that's insane, but we don't do the same with hormones. Is this making sense? Or am I sounding crazy?

 

(37:30): no, absolutely. So the, the thing that I would, I would recommend everybody think about and I think I'm gonna do a podcast on this. So as a researcher, right? So I'm actually truly a researcher. I spend time digging through the research, making up hypotheses, proving my hypotheses either right or wrong. Right. So the first thing you have to think about is you gotta check your premise, a good scientist and a good researcher comes up with a hypothesis, a hypothesis. And that's their question. Is this true? Yes or no, a good researcher goes to disprove their hypothesis. They don't go to prove it. Most of the research, particularly the women's health study that still gets quoted and should be retracted and burned at the stake for its inappropriateness and its poor methodology was started by people that wanted to prove that hormones were bad for women over 50 that were over, you know, past menopause.

 

(38:23): That's the premise that most of them went into it with and did a poor study design, which is probably too much more than what we get into that. So you have to check your premise. And the problem is, almost all of our research is funded by outside interests that want a particular outcome. And it's also being conducted by people that have a selection bias and a personal bias that they're translating into their research. So the best thing you could ever do is if you're looking at something, and you believe something, you should always go look for what the other side says. I am required to do that as a researcher. I must look at everything that contradicts what I think before I can really go and do my study. But unfortunately, a lot of the research that gets published, and particularly stuff in, in major media is poorly done. The methodology is terrible and our health is paying for it.

 

(39:16): Extraordinarily as women. And particularly as women, I think it's just egregious because, because of our high levels of estrogen progesterone, and we have testosterone too, and then we lose it in such a dramatic fashion over a very short period of time and the consequences are devastating, literally. So, all right, we have gone down a little bit of a rabbit hole. I'm wondering if you can leave everyone with a little optimism about what's possible for them and how they can get this beautiful vehicle that they've been given to live this life and into the shape that they need so that they can deliver the gifts that they have so that they can risk and do the things they wanna do. Like we started talking about Erica Jung's quote, "If you don't risk anything, you risk even more." What have you got left to do on this planet before you leave it? This is like the third act, the second act, whatever act you wanna call it, you've gotta have great health to get there. And that means a healthy weight, healthy energy. So what's possible. And how do you get there?

 

(40:27): So definitely I don't want anybody to, just to hear what I said and go, oh my gosh, it sounds like it doesn't work. Because for me, as I dug through this and found this, I was able to drop 35 pounds without extraordinary. Like without killing myself, I can eat foods today. I'm metabolically flexible. So I can, I can have some carbohydrates, and it's not like it's gonna go straight to my butt. By the next day I can eat a high protein, low-carb diet. And I'm fine. I can, I can go through things like intermittent fasting where I'm not, you know, ready to cloth somebody's eyes out. Cause I'm starving because my body is efficient. Right? So some of the things that you can easily do right now. So the first thing is all those foods that I listed off that raise uric acid, check yourself, check yourself and try not to eat so many of those, right?

 

(41:12): It's not that you don't have any of them, cuz it's impossible to really remove everything. But you wanna, you wanna kind of make sure that you're not driving it. So if you, so even if you go get a skinny margarita, cuz I hear this all the time, I'm gonna have a skinny margarita. Mm-hmm they're using an agave that is almost all fructose. So if I do that before I eat a meal, and I'm dehydrated, I'm setting myself up for bad stuff. Right? So take out the high fructose corn syrup, the fructose, the aged foods, the food additives eat foods in their whole natural form because it's the food additives that are also causing a problem yet the sugar out of the diet watch your alcohol cuz that also raises uric acid. The other thing is to make sure you're well hydrated. So you're not turning on that fructose conversion from glucose, cuz you could do that all day long every day, particularly before you eat the other thing.

 

(41:58): So when we look, I think it's really important to find out, you know, obviously we do genetics, we do hormone metabolism. I think it's really important for women to know how you're wired. Mm-hmm , you know what works for one person doesn't work for another and when you know those rules, it makes it easier for you to manipulate. So things like hormones, metabolism, testing, and DNA are super important, but even if you don't have that, the next thing I would make sure that I'm doing is that I'm doing movement. That helps turn on some of that nervous system stuff. You know, I alluded to it because if I have a slow nervous system to burn my fat and my transport for sugar into the muscle cell is slow. The two things that I make sure I really, really want to do is I need to turn on that nervous system.

 

(42:42): So you know, some of my people we practice like, you know, those sorts of, kind of crazy little movements, but I need to move more. That doesn't mean exercise more cuz sometimes women are overdoing it, and they're driving cortisol and a bunch of other stuff, but I need to move more. So think I'm walking, I'm doing more general movement. Mm-hmm and I need to do exercise that stimulates the heck outta my big muscle groups, your butt, your hips, your thighs, your legs. So that means that I need to do weightlifting. And weightlifting's super important also to bone density and other things, which is a huge area of concern for women our age and above. So weightlifting stimulates that Glu four transport along with more movement and high intensity intervals. But that doesn't mean I do two a days. right. That doesn't mean I have so many women that work out too much because they think if I keep burning it, I'll get it off, you know, but that could be counterproductive, but we do need to move more particularly for sedentary, cuz it's very hard for our body to do that stuff. And that could be simply just going out and walking in nature. I think that's another big part of it is like getting a little more centered, getting a little more, you know, time to yourself, getting a little more time in nature also helps.

 

(43:51): Yeah. So true. So there is hope you can have the best health of, of your life over 40. It's perfectly possible. You just need to find a guide who can help you get there, and you need to do it, and you need to do it now because like Cheryl Sandberg says, we need women at all levels, including the top, to change the dynamic, reshape the conversation to make sure women's voices are heard and heated, not overlooked and ignored. Thank you so much for joining me, Betty. Thank you for the research you do. And the work you do, we will have links to Betty's social media to her podcast, but tell everybody about these resources that you have and where they can find out more about.

 

(44:30): You. Certainly. So, so definitely my podcast is this, this functional life, and we cover these topics in more. You can also find a link in the show notes for a quiz, a hormone type quiz. So you can understand what's at play cuz again, your hormones, all interplay and that's a fun quiz that gives you a lot of information. And then if you look me up@bettymurray.com, you can find information about me and the things that I do. 

 

(44:55): Yes, the hormone reset quiz definitely we'll have the link in the show notes. You can go there and find your unique hormonal imbalance, and we'll have the link in the show notes. So you wanna do that and thank you so much, Betty for joining me. It was so good to see you.

 

(45:09): Yes. Thank you for having me.

 

(45:11): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

 

Take the Hormone Reset Quiz from Dr. Betty Murray  to find out your unique hormonal imbalance:

Some women over 40 experience hormonal imbalances that cause body composition changes, fatigue, and mood swings. Click the button below to take the Quiz, and you'll get a FREE personalized hormone balancing guide.

https://quiz.metabolicblueprint.com/sf/cd62b0ef

 

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Menopause Tsunami: How to Ride the Hormone Waves Like a Badass

Ladies, it's time to take control of your hormones and ride the waves. In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Shelly Burns, a doctor of chiropractic, a gym owner, a fitness expert for 20 years, a life coach, and creator of The FIT Menopause Blueprint™ who shares her insights on how to manage menopause and keep your cool during the hormone tsunami.  So whether you're in the thick of menopause or just starting to feel the effects, this episode is for you. 

 

You'll learn: 

• Four pillars of hormone health
• Lifestyle changes to make to manage your menopause symptoms
• The best foods to eat during menopause
• Working out during menopause
• Top mindset strategies to remove menopause roadblocks
• And so much more! 

 

If you're struggling with menopause or know someone who is, this episode is a must-listen. Share it with a friend and let's get through this transition together! 

 

(00:00): All energy is only borrowed. And one day you have to give it all back. That's a quote from the avatar movie. What does this have to do with perimenopause and menopause and riding the hormone waves like a badass? stay tuned. And you'll find out with my guest, Dr. Shelly Burns.

 

(00:20): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us, keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones and our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.

 

(01:13): Hey everybody. And welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so grateful that you decided to join us today. You're gonna love my guest. She and I have been in the mastermind together for quite a bit of time. And we share a passion for women's health hormones, all things menopause and perimenopause, and she has helped so many women. She had an amazing summit around menopause recently that you might have attended. And she's got a lot of other great resources, and she's very inspirational. So you're gonna love her. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. And we'll even dive into that quote that I shared with you from the avatar movie. I mean, I saw the movie, but I didn't remember this quote till Shelly brought it to my attention and I love it.

 

(02:02): And I'll tell you why in the episode. So Shelly Burns is a doctor of chiropractic. She's also a gym owner, CrossFit and a fitness expert, and she's been doing that for over 20 years. She's also a life coach and creator of the Fit, Menopause Blueprint. She has always been passionate about health, fitness, and wellness. And she's gonna tell you why she's particularly passionate about women's health and the perimenopause and menopause in the episode. And she strives to be a guide for women battling hormonal obstacles, which is like just about every one of us over 40. She feels no woman should be staring at themselves in the mirror wondering who is looking back at them. Has that happened to you or feeling alone in their struggles? I know that's happened to me. Women need to be helping women. So welcome Dr. Shelly Burns.

 

(02:56): Thank you, Dr. Kyrin for having me today.

 

(02:59): Really excited to have you and talk about hormones and menopause. Two of my favorite topics. And I know everybody is gonna be curious as to why are you so passionate about menopause and about hormones? How did that happen?

 

(03:18): Well, right now I'm 45 currently. And when I was 43, I've always been really in shape, taking care of my body. I race these international races. I travel. And then within, I'm gonna say three months, I gained 20 pounds. I started out with mild anxiety that grew to major anxiety and panic attacks within eight months and slowly over this period of time, I went from feeling like a badass to not even being able to look at myself in the mirror. I wasn't sleeping. I was exhausted day and night. I, even if I tried to take a nap during the day, I couldn't take a nap. So I would go to my, went to my primary doctor and, and he prescribed me an anti-anxiety med. And then two months later I was even more anxious and I was confused. Because I'm like, well, now I'm taking this stuff because cause I'm not a big, uh, prescription.

 

(04:11): I don't really like to take things if I can help it. So the fact that I couldn't control my anxiety really bothered me. So then I went back, he increased the dose. I started having major panic attacks. He increased the dose again and added something else. And finally, my relationship was not doing very well cause I could not even communicate what I was feeling or what I was going through. And I'm a big communicator. So the fact that I couldn't even pinpoint what was going on or why I was feeling so terrible, I decided to go to another doctor because I felt like I was maybe just going crazy. So she did a blood test and did all that stuff. Not, I didn't know what she was testing for. I was just like, yeah, sure. When she came back, she started asking me things like, well, do you sweat at night?

 

(04:53): And like wake up. I'm like, yeah, but you know, I sleep in bed with five dogs and a person. And she, I said, so it was either that or I kept thinking I had COVID, and she's like, no, no. How many times a week? And I said, well, at least two or three. And so she started asking those questions that I didn't really know what she was trying to ask. And she's like, well you're in perimenopause and this could be why the anxiety you're, you're increasing cortisol. You're you're not sleeping. You're having night sweats. And the weight gain was another big one. And then I started breaking out, which I still kind of have a problem with that, but that's kind of how it all started. My, because when she told me you're in peri menopause, I think my reaction was like, what? Like I'm not 50 I'm 43. And she goes, oh no, no. So I learned a lot just in that one sentence, like you're in per menopause, cuz I almost was appalled that she said I was in menopause, but that was just my, that was my education and ignorance at that point, I didn't, I've never had never heard of it. I knew what menopause was, but that was about it. That's kind of what started it.

 

(05:51): Yeah. You know, it's, you're not unique in that. I mean here I was OB GYN. My health was a show in my forties and it never occurred to me. This is the menopause transition. It never once occurred to me. So we have this kind of dialogue going on, that, oh no. Menopause is, you know, for women in their fifties when the period stops completely and everything else before it has nothing to do with it. I think we should change the whole transition to make it call it the menopause transition. And it starts really at 40 so that we can include our sisters in the forties. Cuz then they won't think, like you said, you thought you were crazy. I thought I was crazy too. And here I had the credentials to know I should've known better, but you know, we're not taught that. So we don't know what we're not taught. So you're very passionate about it. And you come from a fitness background, right?

 

(06:47): Yeah. I I've owned a gym for 20 years. Well one was in LA and then I moved to North Carolina and had another gym. But in that time, I became a personal trainer while I was in chiropractic school. So for about 20 years, I've done both. So really into doing the things we can to con you know, to help ourselves live longer. Um, I, I wanna be 80 and be able to be out doing what I wanna do. I don't wanna be, you know, stuck in a wheelchair on a cane. So I'm very passionate about just longevity through taking care of our bodies.

 

(07:19): Yes, absolutely. I love this quote that you shared with me before we started from the avatar movie. All energy is only borrowed and one day you have to give it back. What does that mean?

 

(07:32): From my perspective, cuz when I first read that or saw that it was, I loved it because I do feel like we are, we are in this temporary space, our bodies are in this temporary space and we, if, if your spiritual in any way, you know, our energy is coming from a higher power. And to me, it's just, that we're using it while we're here. It's not ours, but we're given this opportunity to live this life in our own, in our best way. And so to give it back means like, you appreciate what you have at the momentin the moment. Like I have another quote. I like to say at the end of my podcast, I am trying to enjoy every moment of every movement because in my head we're like, we're not guaranteed another movement. I've met people that are in wheelchairs and all sorts of situations that they didn't see coming. So I'm always like we have these bodies, like let's use 'em and enjoy 'em and, and have that freedom that we like to do, like go hiking or ride a bike or go swimming. It's just a powerful thing that we have that we should use this energy that we're given.

 

(08:30): Yeah. I love this concept because it, it really speaks to something that I talk with people about the fact that we kind of are this soul, this energy being, and we come to earth, but that every particle that physically makes up our body is given to us by the plants and animals and resources first that when we're in the womb that our mother consumes and transmutes that literally organize around the energy that we are and create our bodies. And then when we're born, we continue to take the external environment, you know, fruits, vegetables, animal proteins, into our body  and change it. So we're taking that energy from their bodies, plant bodies, animal bodies, and we're changing it into our flesh and blood. And then when we're done with it, we discard the body, and we're still the energy. And so I love, I know I saw avatar, but I don't remember this quote, but I love that you pulled this out.

 

(09:31): All energy is only borrowed. And one day you have to give it back. And I love the concept. Like, are we being good stewards of it? Because it's not just for us. It's given to us on loan and I don't know about you, but if a friend loans me a pair of shoes, I take better care of it than I do my own shoes. And so I love this concept of it's just ours to borrow, and we have to give it back. Okay. So let's dive into how we can be good stewards of this energy that is ours to use in this lifetime. I wanna talk a little bit, I know you have the new book coming out, menopause, tsunami, how to ride the hormone waves, like a bad. Who wants that? Y'all I know each one of you so what are some principles behind that? I think it gets to your four-step system, is that right?

 

(10:25): Yeah. So basically when I found out I was in para menopause, being a chiropractor and fitness and in the whole, the body, I really dove into research, which I know you and I have talked about this before. Like I really dove into the research and, and how to approach being in this period differently. Like why wasn't my workout six days a week, sometimes two days, why weren't they working anymore? Why wasn't my nutrition working anymore? I was doing the same thing I did in my thirties, but I could barely lose a pound. So I really like diving into life over 40. And like, what are the best workouts were the best nutrition, things like that. And I put together this thing called the fit menopause blueprint, which is where I developed the four pillars, which are fitness, nutrition, mindset, and self-care. So in the book I break down kind of my journey and how I found these four pillars.

 

(11:12): And then what I do within the four pillars. So like fitness, for example, uh, that pillar, I do own a CrossFit gym. Now I love the competitiveness of CrossFit, but I've also learned over time that I can't put that much stress on my body anymore and expect to get the results. So it was almost when I decreased the strain I was putting on my body and still got in really good workouts, like hit type workouts. I was getting, I started getting results. So I almost stopped doing what I was doing and looked at it differently. Even though I wasn't torturing my body. Like you do in CrossFit, I still was getting in workouts, but I wasn't taking my body to that high cortisol level where I wasn't gonna recover or get the effects and the benefits of the exercise. So that's like, that is, is the fitness when I go more in depth than there and talk about like exactly what the benefits of HIIT and things like that, and then nutrition and then self-care and mindset. 

 

(12:05): Can we talk about a little more in depth about the fitness, cuz I think what you're mentioning, women listening are experiencing and they're like, wait a minute, wait a minute, Shelly, tell me more about that. Because you know, there are different groups of women who really are in my community and one of the groups is those are those women who do CrossFit and they're real fitness fanatics and they get into their forties. And then all of a sudden exactly what you said, I'm working out like crazy and I can't even lose a pound. So can you speak a little bit more in detail about what's happening, why that's happening and do we need to work out differently? So...

 

(12:50): What in my own journey and then my clients, cuz now I, now I help other people with this. I have found that I still do CrossFit, but I do two to three days a week of CrossFit. And what I stop doing is the really heavy lifting. So I like to lift, but I don't need to take my body to that extreme of really straining underneath really heavy weights. Some women can do that, but as I got older, I realized I can't do that. So with that two to three times a week of CrossFit, and then I do the other two to three times a week of HIIT. Now HIIT is the high intensity interval training, but a lot of women do hit wrong. You'll see boutique gyms where they're like HIIT workouts, and they're 45 minutes to an hour long, but hit workouts. If you do them correctly, you're not gonna last 45 minutes to an hour.

 

(13:33): HIIT workouts tend to be, I've seen all different stats, but seven minutes to like 20 minutes. But the idea is when you are doing that work period, let's say 45 seconds on and 15 seconds off that 45 seconds, you are supposed to be hitting 90% of your max capacity of what you have to give. So that 90%, you're not gonna be able to keep a 90% capacity over45-minuteute period. That's not gonna happen. So those people that are doing those hit long, long workouts are not quite doing hit. And that's why sometimes hit is not getting people the results that they want. You wanna do shorter workouts, shorter bursts, where you get that rest period. So you're getting the heart rate up down your body's getting recovery. You're not taking it to that threshold of extreme stress like you do in, in some workouts.

 

(14:19): So we do have to work out differently and from what, what I've changed and from, from what the lady, my clients changed, it's made a huge difference because I also had people in my gym that when they found out I was doing this over 40 fitness, they signed up even, they were already members at the gym. And one of their biggest things they said to me is I've been doing CrossFit with you now for a year, two years. And my body hasn't changed at all. Like I still have this, you know, a little bit of weight in my waist. And a lot of the women had maybe 10, 15 pounds of lose, not anything major like 50 pounds or a hundred pounds. So, they were frustrated cuz they've been doing it for so long. They were working out four or five days a week.

 

(14:54): They weren't getting any results. And I said, listen, how about we change it up a little bit. Let's do two to three days of CrossFit. I will write up two to three days of hit workouts, and we'll try to decrease the strain on your body. And all of a sudden, within four weeks they could tell they, their energy was higher. They were, were covering, up, they were sleeping better. So then I was like, okay, fitness, you know is on it, but it's not the whole thing. Cuz obviously nutrition is 90% of somebody's journey and health. So I do feel like with the hit workouts, people just are doing them wrong. Mm-hmm , it's been taken too far where in order to get the most benefits from hit workout, it's 90%. I mean, you're at a sprint for 30, 45 seconds. Mm-hmm you get that rest period to bring it down. So that is the fitness part. And it's just, we as women think we have to do six, seven days a week, cuz that's what we did before. But our, we are not in our thirties anymore and that's not going to get us the results. There might be a small handful of women that get results doing that. But I mean, ideally we're fighting against our own bodies when we do that.

 

(15:54): Got it. All right. So number one, we've gotta change our output with our fitness, but you just said nutrition is 90% of the results we're getting. So explain that to us, Shelly.

 

(16:05): So with nutrition and owning a gym, everybody likes to just think it's all about working out, but it does matter what we put in our bodies, and I'm not one that's of strict nutrition. I'm not a nutritionist, but I just have been doing nutrition challenges and have a lot of certs of nutrition. And in my chiropractic degree, we Studi a lot of pharmacology and nutrition and things like that too. So I always feel like we're fueling our bodies. So I'm one that I don't like to drink my calories. I like to eat them. So if I'm gonna have something, I prefer it to be something that I would enjoy eating. But with nutrition, it can be hard because you want to have, you want it to be part of your lifestyle. You wanna enjoy what you're eating. A lot of people go on vacation, and they have this thing where they feel like they're torturing themselves.

 

(16:48): So it's really this uncomfortable and unhealthy relationship with food because we should still be able to go out and have a good meal or, you know, have a drink here and there. And which is a lot of people I realized women's hold up as they're like, can I drink alcohol? And maybe it's just cuz we're all over 40 now. And we need to drink, drink more often. But yeah, a lot of, a lot of women struggle with even when they hear the word nutrition, they think they have to cut all a bunch of stuff out and starve themselves. But what I try to get women to do is just eat whole foods, try to stop eating the processed foods, you know, eat more fruits and vegetables, vegans, you know, they have to find their own source of protein because two, one of the most important things, which I'm sure you'll agree is we have to increase our protein in this time. That's the number one thing I learned in nutrition for women over 40 and impairing menopause, we have to increase our protein. We're decreasing muscle mass and bone density over time. We're fighting against that. So we have to fuel our bodies with what it needs to stay strong.

 

(17:44): Yes we are protein deficient y'all so you got to up your protein. So definitely we've got fitness changes we need to make in our regimens. We've got nutritional input changes. And then you talked about mindset. I know that's one of your favorite topics. Let's dive into that a bit. What, you know, I think people hear about mindset so often when they hear it, they kind of just tune out and go. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Stress management. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mindset. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So what does that mean to you? How can you help them get it so that it really has impact for them?

 

(18:18): Yes. Mindset was one of those. I always say, I always said it was woo. Woo. I'm like, yeah. Okay. Whatever. Just like you said, but the more I started reading, I was reading a lot of women that were in their fifties and postmenopausal, and they were talking about looking back and how they were struggling at the time. But now that they're through it, they're trying to like to give the, the younger people hope like, listen, it's, it's a period of time, but they were like living life. They were like, this is the best, best they've ever felt and they're in their fifties. So it kind of made me think about it a little differently. I started like researching like, well, why are they feeling better? You know, what are they doing? And, and how are they, why do they think this is their best life at 50?

 

(18:58): So I really started diving into that. And then I came across a ton of limiting beliefs. Like I'm not good enough. I'm never gonna lose this weight. All those things that women struggle with, I could have the healthiest girl in the gym here. Who's everybody would want to be, if you put her in a lineup of 10 people, everybody would pick this girl to be, and she is so negative, but that's like what women do. Like we are so hard on ourselves and she's like perfect to everybody else. But then she's still has things bad to say about ourselves. So as women, it's a battle constantly with how we talk to ourselves. Um, how people maybe have talked to us in our past. So with mindset, I first try to get women to look at this period of life differently. Yeah. It's hard. We're struggling to get up during the day.

 

(19:40): Maybe you're, you're one that is really struggling at your job. You know, things like that, where we just are facing all this stress from the outside, which is increasing our cortisol, which we don't want. So it's about wrapping our head around like, yes, this is where we're at, but I know if I take care of myself, if I'm taking care of myself, there are good things going on inside my body. Even if I'm not quite benefiting from all of it, like we are, we still need to increase our muscle mass and bone density or, or try to keep what we have. So mindset is just important to embrace where you're at. Even if you're struggling, like you're having a bad day. Sometimes the best thing to do is go out and go for a walk, like getting that in nature and that freedom and just knowing and being appreciative of where you're at. Like we talked about, like we have these bodies, like why are we gonna waste them sitting around on a, on a couch or not really doing things we wanna do. Mm-hmm skydive and stuff when I'm 60. So I'm trying to like preserve as much as I can just so that I can live life. Like why retire and, and not be able to do much cuz you haven't taken

 

(20:40): Care. Wait, have you been skydiving?

 

(20:43): No, but it's on my bucket list.

 

(20:44): Is it on your bucket list? Okay. So let's dive into this and I agree with you, you know, I think mindset is everything. It's everything at every age. But particularly at midlife, if we buy into the BS that society says who we are over 50 or even over 40 as women we're doomed. Right? Cause we're basically told by society that we are old undesirable, sexless over the hill, like we're done. And I think nothing could be further from the truth. So what are your top strategies? Like you mentioned using your body, going for a walk, like what are your top strategies for people who are in that negativity? Like it's not possible for me, it's too late for me, all these negative beliefs that we have, I'll never lose the weight. I'll never right. So 75% of us at the age of 60 are overweight or oh obese. In my opinion, it's because we believe that that's what's normal quote, unquote normal because seven 75% of us have it. It's not what's possible. Right? We can be a healthy, we can be the best weight we've ever been. We can have the highest muscle mass we've ever had, but we have to make up before it can happen in our bodies. It has to happen in our minds. We have to make up our minds first. And so what are your top strategies for people to stop believing the BS and change their mindset and their beliefs.

 

(22:16): So I almost have to come at it from a different angle with clients in that I have to start getting them small wins from the beginning. So one of my top things I try to do first is increase somebody's energy, help them increase their energy so that they then have energy to a lot of 'em are like, I have no energy to do that. I have five kids and a husband and you know, whatever. So it's increased energy. So these small wins and then getting them to be like, I feel better. And then as a coach and as a trainer and as a professional, then it's trying to get them to almost embrace that on their own, like a life coach being a life coach too. Like you're trying to get them to figure out what is making them feel better. So I have to come at it like a different angle.

 

(22:59): But before we talk about that, you mentioned the whole, I was going to this therapist during this time. I didn't know I was in perimenopause and he was a man in his forties and he was said to me, cuz I was like, I'm really frustrated. Like I can't run. I'm not racing. Like I've gained weight. And he's like, well, you know, you just, you know, you're over 40 now. Sometimes you just have to accept where you're at. And he said multiple of these comments over a period of like a month. And then another time he said, I said, I have this anxiety. I just don't, it's getting worse. And he's like, well maybe you just need to learn to, to live with the anxiety. Cause that's not gonna go away. He said so many things like that, that it like in my brain, I, I don't have the ethics of that or the morality of that.

 

(23:39): Like I feel like there's gotta be something I can do. I'm not just gonna roll over. Which is what I felt like he was telling me to do. I'm like, no, I'm active. I see women in my races that are sixties and 65 and they're ripped and they're, they're in really good shape. I said, I can see myself doing that. And that's where I wanna be. So that alone is like, well, I just wanted to say that before cuz I was really fighting a, the, a therapist that was, I was going to for help. And that's what he was putting in my brain was that this is just, I just need to accept where I'm at. And if I never, if I would've listened to him, I never, would've gone to this other doctor. And then obviously I let that guy go. That therapist go, cuz he was, he almost was holding me back from where I thought I could be.

 

(24:19): Oh I think it's so true. And I wanna reiterate what you're saying, Shelly, to everybody listening, you know, medical professionals are some of the worst when it comes to negative mindset, beliefs about women over 40 and they will, we are be it's because what we're, it's what we're taught. We are taught that women it's normal for their age to be overweight, tired, have no sex drive, lose hair, just all the things and be anxious, right? And that it's only gonna get worse. You can only use medications to try to control it. And there's nothing else. And, and that's a bunch of BS. So I would reiterate that you cannot go to traditionally trained practitioners, not MDs deals, therapists, all of them. They're not trained in that. So if you go to the hardware store for milk, you're not gonna get it. So you need to go to a different store. So what are some practices you found personally that have been helpful beyond disbelieving your practitioner?

 

(25:23): Beyond my therapist. So as far as the mindset, which was probably the hardest for me, because for eight months I had been beating myself up, like I'm a trainer and I gained weight. So I had to get outta the mindset that everybody was looking at me like, how am I, how am I coaching and treating and training people. When I, when I'm unhealthy, I look unhealthy. But when I talk to people, they're like, it doesn't look like you gained that much. You gained some weight. But, but in my head I was so hard on myself. I mean, I would look in the mirror and be like, who the heck are you? Like? You know, I just didn't even like myself. So what I had to do with mindset wise is I spent a lot of time really trying to dive into why I believe these things as far as what other people thought of me, like it should have mattered, right?

 

(26:09): Like all these other people's opinions shouldn't shouldn't matter. But I had to be kinder to myself and more gentler I spent, I gave myself and this is where the self care comes in. I just spent more time with myself. I started doing things like I'm not a big pedicure manicure person, but I started like going and getting a pedicure or I would go for a 20-minute walk or I started just doing acupuncture and not a lot of people do that stuff cuz they're in pain. I would go just to help balance out my hormones naturally. Or I would do massage. Like I really started trying to take care of my body. And with that, and with the small changes, like we talked about strategies with the women, these small wins, I just had to give myself the small lens. I had to just start feeling better about myself and building up like the fitness, changing the fitness, the nutrition, different things like that to where I, I started believing that or reading about other people that were so happy in their fifties. And I thought, you know what? This is just a time period. And I'm not gonna let, I'm very stubborn. I'm like, I'm not gonna let this beat me. If somebody tells me I need to do this, I'm gonna do it. Just like that therapist was like, no, you're not ever gonna be able to run and stuff again. And I'm like,

 

(27:15): Yeah, I'm like,

 

(27:19): And every woman is different. A lot of women, if they have a lot of weight to lose, let's say 50 plus pounds, it's their mindset is gonna be different coming in. They need to be more nutrition geared. I feel like because for someone that's coming in with 10, 15 pounds, their nutrition just needs to be cleaned up a little bit. They're probably already eating pretty healthy. They're just not getting enough protein. Let's say, but for somebody has a lot more weight to lose it's they have a lot more depth to their, their pain points. They're they're struggling a lot more mentally. So each client I get, I look at differently and I really try to work that with that client individually. So that's kind of where I start. I just try to feel where they're at. And I wanna know those deep things that they're feeling that they won't tell anyone else.

 

(28:04): Cuz like all those things I was telling myself, I wasn't, I couldn't put a word on it to express to my partner what I was feeling and like we were not doing good. So it's just being able to talk to somebody too, the support in the community, which I know you have your own huge support and community system. And that during this time I feel like has been the most beneficial for a lot of my clients. They like knowing that somebody else is going through what they're going through. Maybe not the exact same, but that mm-hmm , we're all gonna get through this. We're just gonna go through some ups and downs or like my books has the waves, the hormonal waves, but it's not beating yourself up in the meantime, but enjoying that we still have these bodies that we are, we get the pleasure and you know, the time to take advantage of using. So let's use 'em

 

(28:44): Yeah. Let's use 'em until we lose 'em for sure. So what other things, anything else you'd like to share on your fit, menopause blueprint or your menopause tsunami? How to ride the hormone waves like a badass. I know you mentioned the four pillars. We talked a little bit about each one, any last words or most impactful things that you'd like to leave everyone with Shelly?

 

(29:08): Well, I mean the biggest thing for me is, is really slowing myself down to appreciate what I, what I do have. Like a lot of times we get so busy in our lives that we forget, we forget those things. We forget like how far we've come, even as a person or as a human being and all the hurt we've been through and the negativity and, and that we ultimately are in control of how we feel like we, you can, you can start talking better to yourself. But what I like to do is I just like to enjoy fitness. I, there is a way to enjoy it. If you find something that you like to do, it doesn't have to be torture all the time. Um, and then I really do try to find that 20 minutes a day of self care time, whether it be reading, I have a client who her family just refused to give her 20 minutes a day.

 

(29:51): Like she had kids. And so we came up with something where she was like, I want 20 minutes, you know, to her husband, I need you to take care of the kids. I'm gonna go in the bedroom and I just need 20 minutes and I'll come out when I'm done. Well at first they were like, Ugh. But they started realizing when, when she came out of the bathroom, how much better or out of the bath bathroom, out of the bedroom, how much better she was feeling like she was less stressed and more at peace. And so they started like, go take your 20 minutes. Like so just little things that can make a big impact. Something you gotta communicate to your loved ones too. Like they don't, maybe they don't realize like how draining, how much you have on you. And if you're holding it all in, you're gonna explode, which is not healthy at all. Cuz we already are fighting the mood swings and the irritability. So you don't wanna make that stuff worse.

 

(30:36): Yes, absolutely. Well, thank you so much for your passion about this premenopausal menopausal time of life and for the work that you do. I think that together we can really make this the best time of life. In my opinion, it should be the best time of your life. And if it's not, you are doing it wrong. So , you've gotta get some information and inspiration so that you can move past what society says this time of life should be for us into what is possible. So you've gotta get skills, knowledge, tools, support is always what I say. Three pronged approach. And Shelly, thank you for that, that you provide, you have a great download free download for everyone. The top 12 per menopause, menopause secrets revealed. We will have the link in the show notes. Do you wanna tell everybody a little bit about that?

 

(31:31): So the ebook is just a little bit more trying to educate women. So it was more geared towards some like me that has no clue coming to it. So it goes over like even what hormones are symptoms of, uh, perimenopause and menopause and even the stages of menopause. So it's more of an educational tool where I don't go in depth in the four pillars in that it's more of a, this is what's gonna happen to you. Every woman's gonna go through it, just set yourself up for, you know, being aware that it's coming or share it with someone who like my mom, I asked my mom why she didn't share, uh, why she didn't tell me this was coming. And she said, when she was younger, they just were told they were moody and cranky. Like there was no, there was no she's like, so I didn't even really know what perimenopause and she's been through it and still didn't even know how to explain it. So yeah. So the ebook is just, and then I have other things on my, my website that can be downloaded free habit, stacking guides and things like that. So that's just Shelly burns. Uh, Dr. Shelly burns.com.

 

(32:30): Okay. We will have that in the show notes too. Dr. Shelly burns.com. We will have the link to download the top 12 perimenopausal menopause secrets revealed. It's interesting. What you just mentioned. One of my colleagues just texted us, texted us in a group thread that we all belong to. That she's at a small business development seminar sitting next to a 40 something woman who said, do you remember that mandatory mother-daughter tea? We had to all go to in about fifth grade where they told us how our bodies were about to change and what to expect with a little tool kit to go. She says, we need to do the same thing for women approaching Perry menopause. What a brilliant idea we for sure do survival kit perimenopause, tee time or something like we'll have to come up with a catchy name, but anyway, thank you so much for joining me today, Shelly.

 

(33:15): I hope everyone will check out Shelly on Facebook, Instagram, check out our website and go download the guide. Thank you so much for joining me today, Shelly. Thank you Dr. Kyrin, and thank you all for joining me for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you have gotten some knowledge, tools and inspiration that you can use to move towards what is possible for you at this time of life. Because like I said, if you're not thinking this is the best time of my life, you're doing it wrong. So join those of us who really are having the best times of our life and figure out what it is that you need. Get the knowledge, tools, and support that you need. Thanks for joining me. I'll see you next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all

 

(34:05): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

 

Get Dr. Shelly Burns’s “The Top 12 Perimenopause and Menopause Secrets Revealed” ebook for FREE.

CLICK HERE: https://ebook.menopausesecrets.com/

 

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How To Protect Your Brain And Prevent And Reverse Dementia

Do you have a loved one suffering from dementia? Are you worried about your own cognitive health as you age? If so, this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is for you!

 

Our guest, Dr. Heather Sandison, the founder of Solcere Health Clinic, and Marama, the first residential care facility for the elderly of its kind, and a leading expert in the field of integrative medicine, shares her insights on how to protect your brain and prevent or reverse dementia.

 

In this episode you will learn:

• The role that hormones play in brain health
• The benefits of lifestyle changes, including diet and exercise, for cognitive health
• The genetic determinism of Alzheimer's disease and what you can do to mitigate your risk
• The tests and treatments available to prevent and treat dementia
• The complex system science approach versus the reduction approach to brain health
• And much more!

 

If you are interested in learning more about how to protect your brain and prevent or reverse dementia, this episode is a must-listen!

 

(00:00): Do you think that dementia is a done deal and that once you get it, you'll always have it. Well, you need to listen up because that's actually a lie.

 

(00:12): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us, keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.

 

(01:05): Hi, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. If you believe that dementia is a done deal in that, once you have it, you will always have it. It will progress and get worse. Then you need to listen up because that is just not true anymore. The truth is that you can prevent and reverse cognitive decline and Alzheimer's and other types of dementia. When you take a root cause all systems approach. And my guest today is an expert on this. She is going to break it down for you. She's also hosting a wonderful summit that is coming up on Alzheimer's and cognitive functioning and dementia and how to prevent and reverse it. So I definitely want you to attend that. We'll have the link in the show notes, because this is for everyone.

 

(02:00): You know, don't hear this title and think, oh, uh, my brain is fine, right? It takes decades to develop cognitive decline and dementia. And so if you have a brain, and you're a human, and you're getting older, which is just about every one of us, then you need to listen up, cuz you need to be doing things, taking steps to protect your precious brain, your mainframe computer. Now. So we'll dive into talking to Heather. She gave a masterclass today about all the things that you need to be doing for your brain. Don't be overwhelmed though, because in her summit she's going to go into with experts like me, way more detail. And of course I'm the hormone expert and hormones. You definitely need a prescription for hormones. If you want to protect your brain, you cannot have optimized brain function without it. So we'll dive into that, but I'll tell you a little bit about Dr.

 

(02:56): Heather and we'll get started. She's really rather remarkable. Dr. Heather Sandison is the founder of SOCE health clinic and MIMA the first residential care facility for the elderly of its kind at SOCE Dr. Sandison and her team of doctors and health coaches focused primarily on supporting patients, looking to optimize cognitive function, prevent mental decline and reverse dementia by addressing root causes of imbalance in the brain and body. This is something all of you should be doing. She was awarded a grant to study an individualized integrative approach to reversing dementia and is a primary investigator on the it H N C L R clinical trial at Marama. Dr. Sandison has created an immersive residential experience in the lifestyle proven to best support brain health. She understands that changing her diet, adding nutrients, creating community and optimizing a healing environment are all challenging. Even for those with full cognitive capacity at Marama, she's done the work for you, all you or your loved one need to do is show up. She is also the host of the reverse Alzheimer's summit and collective insights podcast, where she works to share what is possible for those suffering with dementia. Welcome Dr. Heather Sandison.

 

(04:23): Thanks. It's so exciting to be here with you.

 

(04:25): Yeah, I am so excited about your summit coming up. Many of my listeners know that my mom suffers with advanced Alzheimer's and I really I'm so passionate about helping others to know how to prevent and reverse cognitive decline. Cuz personally, I think it is the most devastating disease someone could be diagnosed with. How did you come to be so passionate about preserving cognitive capacity and preventing and reversing Alzheimer's?

 

(04:59): Well, as you know, it's an absolutely torturous disease, not only for the person experiencing it, but for all of their loved ones who have to watch this slow painful demise. And the reason I became so passionate was because there's a bit of injustice in this, right? I was told that there was nothing you could do for dementia by very well meaning very well educated instructors when I was in school just 10, 12 years ago, right? Like this is very recent history I was told. There's nothing you could do to suggest otherwise is to give someone false hope and that's just cruel. Right? So don't do that. And then fast forward a few years I saw Dr. Bison speak at a conference and I was really intrigued because his approach, he was saying, you could reverse dementia. You could reverse cognitive decline. And his approach made a lot of common sense.

 

(05:54): It just wasn't common practice to kind of put all of functional medicine together and apply it to someone with dementia. So what he was describing was BA essentially complex system science approach, the opposite of the reductionistic approach that conventional medicine has been taking for decades, where they try to create one pill or one IV formula that's gonna cure Alzheimer's right. And then everybody's gonna get on it and nobody's gonna have it again. Well, this is really a false premise. It doesn't work because it's based on this idea that beta amyloid plaques or tell proteins these pathological or, or histological really physiological changes. They're almost like scar tissue in the brain that they are the ones that cause dementia or, or Alzheimer's when in fact it's what causes that scar tissue is what causes dementia. And so what I saw after seeing Dr Bison speak was that I was intrigued, right.

 

(06:55): I, I was skeptical, but I was curious. And so like when I had and did his training, I came back to my office still skeptical, but my first patient Linda came into my office after I was on Dr. Bison's website. Right. I was on the list of people who had been trained by him. And so I had patients showing up asking, uh, because there weren't other people in San Diego who had been trained by him at that point. And so Linda came in with her husband, very enthusiastic, totally committed to doing everything she could. Now for your listeners who aren't familiar with a mocha score, this is the Montreal cognitive assessment. And it's a score out of 30. So 30 is perfect. We really wanna get over 26, especially as we're aging. And when we start to be able to measure cognitive decline. So this can be sometimes you hear this called mild cognitive impairment.

 

(07:46): And I won't go on the tangent about how I feel about that use of language . But as you get down into the teens, lower teens, this is Alzheimer's disease. This is relatively severe dementia, where you're having trouble taking, having a conversation. Maybe you get lost in familiar places. You aren't nonverbal. Like you can still have a conversation, but often you're repeating yourself. Unable to work is very typical at this stage. Now, by the time you get to a two, a three, a four, this person is, is answering with yes or no statements, right? They're they can't hold complex concepts in their mind. They can't hold questions for very long. And this is where Linda was. Linda was at a two out of 30. So she could answer with yes or no. Her handwriting had been affected. So it was a bit shaky. It was at a very severe slant.

 

(08:35): It was very, very small letters. Her relationship with her husband of course, was severely affected. They couldn't hold a conversation and he loved her so much. I mean, it was so inspiring to watch how committed he was to her and how much he wanted to work hard to get her back. And I could see in Linda, she had this big, bright smile, and she was in there. She wore these loud, amazing clothes, you know, lots of mismatch and lots of color and hats and accessories. It was just great. And you could see who she had been and these little remnants personality that were peaking through. Well, her and her husband went home and they got out of a moldy bedroom. She got hers removed from her mouth. She got on biodentical hormones. She started all of the supplements. They went fully keto. They started ballroom dancing three to four times a week.

 

(09:28): And they started walking like vigorous walking exercise every day of the week and low and behold, six, seven weeks later, she came back and her mocha was a seven. Her life had been transformed. So she was now bickering with her husband about something that had happened on the ride to the clinic, which I was just like in disbelief. I could, I thought, you know, I was looking at her mocha scores, her worksheets and going, did we do it wrong? Like, did we miss anything? Like I just, my brain couldn't process that this was possible because I had been told the old refrain that people are still told that, that you couldn't do this. That this was impossible that I started crying because I was like, wait, what? This really works. And especially, I didn't have the confidence that it would work with someone with such severe disease.

 

(10:18): So when I saw in that moment, when I saw what was possible for Linda, I mean, how could anyone not commit themselves to this for the rest of their lives, right? Like this is possible for Linda. Then what's possible for everyone else who is younger. Who's just noticing those first signs that their brain isn't working the way it used to 10 or five years ago. What's possible for people who know their genetic risk, if they can prevent it from ever even starting. We know that dementia, the changes in the brain, the inflammation, the toxic assaults, the, the infections, the imbalances that cause dementia, the trigger that scar tissue formation, those imbalances start decades before anyone notices changes in their cognitive function, in their memory. And so if we can intervene sooner, we can make Alzheimer's optional. People do not have to go down the torturous path that your mom has.

 

(11:19): You could be scared. Your children could be spar. The torture of having to watch that of having to put someone in a home because they don't feel like they have the capacity to both raise their own children, work their full-time job, manage their house and care for the, their debilitated loved one with dementia. My life's purpose is changing the narrative around this, which is why I was so grateful that you joined me on the reverse Alzheimer's summit to help me in this crusade around telling people that I'm sorry, respectfully. I disagree with your neurologist who told you here's acept and Meda. It doesn't work very well. Get your affairs in order. There's nothing else that can be done. There's actually an overwhelming amount that can be done to support someone who's noticing their memory fading.

 

(12:07): Oh my gosh. She said so much in there. And when you told Linda's story and how she and her husband just went and made radical changes in seven weeks had marked improvement. I cried because it's just such demonstrative of what is possible when people really take this seriously and they do all the things and they radically reevaluate and change their lifestyle. What is possible? It's sad to me that it requires us to have such pain in order to do it. We have to go so far that people aren't willing to do it, but I love that they did it. Oh my gosh. You've said so many things. all right. So let's dive into this, but I, I think this idea of complex systems science approach versus reduction approach really is the whole shift in paradigm in medicine that is about antiaging, metabolic, functional medicine.

 

(13:06): It is the healthcare revolution. It is the next frontier. There's so many areas where we take this reductionist approach. Like it's just a disease, it's just symptom management and you have to deal with it and you have to control it, particularly not only with dementia. I think dementia is where this shows up as just this hopeless attitude of, oh, this is it. Get your affairs in order here, take these medicines. They don't really help. So let's dive a little into all the things that you've got to do, but I wanna start by talking, you mentioned genetic risk and I know people have heard there's Alzheimer's gene. They can't, most people readily access this, or maybe they can maybe, you know, of a place that people can get this, unless their doctor orders it. Can you talk a little bit about the genetics? What is the genetic determinism level with Alzheimer's and what's available? Mm-hmm

 

(14:04): yeah, there's a lot of agency here, right? Like, so even if you have the worst genetics, there's still a chance that you'll be in the camp that doesn't get dementia. Right. So there it's much more about epigenetics than it is about genetics. Right? So that, that, the way I describe it to patients is it's as if an architect has written the, has drawn the plans for a house and that's your genetic, so that's the plan. And then where you build that house, if it's by the beach, or if it's up in the mountains or it's in the desert, if there's carpet or tile, or, you know, if it's facing east or west, if there's a happy family or a sad family in it, right? Like all of these epigenetic effects determine what that house ends up looking like. And, and if it's a great house to live in or not, and that's essentially your body, right?

 

(14:50): So there's this genetic plan. And then there's the phenotype or what actually gets expressed, which is the actual house that gets built. Right? And so what we put into that house, what we put into that house that, you know, houses our soul that is so critically important to how that plan gets manifested. And so when we look at genetics, there are a few things and we are now, uh, you do have to get it through a doctor, but we are now offering the Alzheimer's risk test. And this takes not only APO E for genetics. So APO E genetics, let me describe APO E real quick, because this is kind the one that people know the most about and is the most indicative of late onset Alzheimer's. So there are a very rare form of early onset Alzheimer's and this would be your AP P your amyloid precursor protein and your Priscilla one and two.

 

(15:41): We do not test for that. So for that, we have people go to a geneticist and, and understand their risk there. Now, even if they do have that risk, that elevated risk, we wanna be as proactive as possible, right? This just means you need to work a little harder than your neighbor or your spouse to do all of the things on the bison protocol and prevent this risk for manifesting. There is still a way this genetics are not determination, right? You, you, it's not black and white that you are destined to have, uh Alzheimer's if you have these genes. So, but what we wanna do is we wanna get on top of it faster. So then APO E APO E our ancestors all had APO E four, four, APO E basically predisposes you to create amyloid plaques earlier, quick, more quickly, when you are exposed to something that's causing inflammation in the brain.

 

(16:34): So amyloid and tell proteins that they're antimicrobial, they're there to protect us. So they've been vilified and conventional medicine as the cause of Alzheimer's, but they're actually there in response to a trigger in the brain. And so, if you are creating these quicker, you do have a higher risk of dementia. And what we see this also APOE also affects fat metabolism, particularly saturated fat metabolism. So if you have a co you have a copy from mom, a copy from dad, and if you have an APOE four from mom and an APOE four from dad, you have a 50% chance of developing dementia. So my job is to make sure you're in the 50% that never gets any sign of cognitive decline. Now, the general population has about a 13% risk of developing dementia. So this is a highly increased risk. Now, if you have an APO E there's two, three, and four, two is pretty rare, but a three, four, it happens.

 

(17:30): And this means you've got one, a three from mom or dad, and then a four from mom or dad. You have about a one in three risk of getting dementia. So again, I wanna keep you in that 66% that never gets dementia. Then if you have a, a two, three or a three, three or 2, 2, 1 of the other combinations without a four from mom or dad, then you have about a 9% risk of developing dementia. There's a little bit of protection actually from having an APOE two. So we use the Alzheimer's risk test, which takes another 112,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms, and takes them through an algorithm that was developed in the UK, and then gives someone a score. A very it's easy to look at, right? It's not a lot of snips. It's not one of these kind of through the internet, you get your raw data things.

 

(18:16): This is a, this gives you a score that has a, a lot of very sophisticated data. That's been compiled and then analyzed. And it gives you a score out of one. So one being very high risk, zero being very low risk, and it includes a O E four, but also other genetic snips, single nucleotide polymorphisms. So if I'm talking to someone who is, say the daughter of someone with dementia, or the son of someone with dementia, maybe even the sibling or cousin of someone with dementia, this is a great test to take because there are people with a O E four who actually have relatively low genetic risk. There are people without a O E force positive alleles who have relatively high risk. And so we don't wanna oversimplify. Uh, and this test is the most accurate in determining whether or not someone will develop dementia. It's even more accurate than looking at amyloid in say, imaging or cerebral spinal fluid, or however, they're they find, um, ways to do that. Now, uh, I think they might even have a blood test that's available for research.

 

(19:22): Okay. I know everybody's listening and, and really, I have never met a person who's not concerned about this. Although most women are most concerned about breast cancer. They're I think this is really where they should focus, because if you do get breast cancer in this day and age, you're most likely not going to diet from it, but an Alzheimer's dementia will certainly pause significant disability and premature death. So people can get this from your clinic. Can they get this from any doctor? Cuz I know there are women listening who are like, okay, I hear you, Dr. Heather, I need this test. Where do I get it?

 

(19:58): So anyone in the us can get it through our clinic. What we do is we have a doctor who will review it with you and then they can help you find a BR trained provider near you. If you have high risk, we're gonna wanna do that quick. But if you have low risk, you know what a relief. So we have a doctor who can help you get that test. It's it's a pretty new test. It's clear. So it it's not reimbursed by insurance yet. So it's on the cutting edge. It's used most commonly actually in the pharmaceutical industry so that the scientists there can determine who's at higher risk and then target those people for drug discovery and for, and for the, the science that they're doing. Now, we wanna apply this so that we can get people preventing dementia. And so that's why I've really done my best to make it as widely available as possible, even though not many doctors in the us are offering it. So through my clinic, anywhere in the us, you can get this test done. And then we'll, you'll talk to a doctor here at Ary who will talk you through the implications and, and the interpretation of that, and then help get you supported by the bison train provider who can take it from there.

 

(21:05): Okay. Awesome. And we will have the links and the show notes for all of this. So you can go there and get the links. And Dr. Heather has a great download for you, which will come to before we wrap up. So, okay. So we've got our risk, everybody. I think everyone should get checked now do not wait. And then let's talk about this complex system science approach versus reduction approach. You mentioned my favorite topic, hormone therapy. My mom was without hormones for, you know, over three decades. And that really was the only risk factor she had for dementia. And I am a huge proponent of the benefits of hormone replacement therapy. Not only for cognitive function, I mean, se what is it? 77 or 79% reduction in getting Alzheimer's if a woman is on hormone replacement therapy, I mean, that's just insane. It should be criminal not to give it

 

(22:05): Well, you, you mentioned the breast cancer risk, right? This is I think what, yeah, a lot of people from pulling the trigger on a hormone replacement and I think what you said was perfect, right? Like, no, of course we don't want anyone to get breast cancer. However, there's been a lot of data that was misconstrued by the media that was misinterpreted. You know, they've gone back to the women's health initiative study and put some caveats on this whole idea that there was an increased risk of breast cancer. That was with oral estrogens. That was when non-bio identical estrogens. So we're not talking apples to apples when we consider bio identical hormone replacement now. And when you think about aging and what's going to be the most torturous, the most debilitating, the most expensive breast cancer is highly treatable. We are so lucky that we live in a time when breast cancer is really highly treatable. Mm-hmm . So even if there is this like a little bit of increased risk, which my understanding of the data.

 

(23:05): Actually it's reduction, there's a reduction in risk of getting breast cancer. If you're on biodentical hormones. So you have a reduction in risk of breast CA of cancers. It all cause mortality, the, any reason for death, you have a reduction in risk for, and then the two things that affect women as they age, the most that are the most debilitating are gonna be a fall or dementia. These are gonna be the things that end you up in, in skilled nursing for too long, and then result in death and a torturous death where you're separated from your family, because you have to be in, in, in, you know, some kind of high acuity care and then dementia. I mean, this is torturous. Not only because just in and of itself, it's absolutely demoralizing. You lose all of your, of course cognitive capacity over time, but you also, you lose your dignity more than anything.

 

(23:54): And this can last for a decade or more. No one knows when the torture is going to end it also it's financially bankrupting, right? Not only is it emotionally bankrupting and exhausting for any caregiver, it is financially bankrupting as well. And so if we can prevent falls and we can prevent dementia by getting on hormones, particularly if someone already has say osteoporosis or risk of bone disease or has risk of dementia, either genetically or they're starting to notice changes, particularly as they go through menopause, then the risks are far outweighed by the benefits when we consider hormone replacement therapy, if it's bio identical and the estrogen is used topically.

 

(24:39): Yeah. So, so well said, thank you for sharing all of that. I agree. And wouldn't you say that the causes, uh, the factors that contribute to the creation of dementia are, are similar same factors to what contribute to bone thinning and osteoporosis.

 

(24:59): Absolutely. Well, that's one of the amazing things about this co this complex system science approach, right? Is that instead of saying, what's that one thing that causes dementia, what we say is, Hey, how can we get every cell in the body working and functioning better? And when we do that, well, low and behold, the side effects are that your blood pressure normalizes, your hemoglobin A1C goes back to normal. You no longer have diabetes, your osteoporosis starts to improve. Yeah. The, the kind of the four part approach to like my formula for osteoporosis is estrogen replacement with, of course with progesterone and testosterone got nice and balanced and help with muscle building. So biodentical hormone replacement with estrogen being most important there, vitamin D with K minerals and then, uh, weight bearing exercise. And with those four things, I also like to check osteocalcin and beta cross ops and the blood every six months and then a DEXA scan every two years. And with that kind of plan, that basic simple plan. I see the majority of my patients, their bones get stronger on Dexus year, uh, every other year when we check.

 

(26:07): Yes. Awesome. So I hope everybody's listening and taking care of these things. And I know in the summit that you're hosting, I'm super excited about it. You have experts that are gonna go in way more detail into all of these. So everybody listening needs to click the link in the show notes and sign up for that now, because you know, hopefully you're getting the, the message loud and clear that dementia is preventable and you can do things and you need, need to get on this early and often and take care of it. Or if you're already walking down that lane that you need to get out of it. So definitely wanna check that out, but briefly, what are some of the other factors I know you've touched on them. We've D we've talked about genetics in a little more detail, bioidentical hormones. What are some other factors that need to be addressed?

 

(27:02): Yeah, well, we're giving away the keto diet guide. So I wanna talk a little bit about the fuel that brain runs on. So the vast majority of us live our days in glycolysis burning sugar for fuel. So ATP is that fuel it's like that gasoline that gets our cells going. It gives them all the energy to make new memories, to make those connections in the brain. We've all had that feeling of being kind of tired and it's a heavy lift to do something mentally. Well, if we are on our burning sugar for fuel that over time as we age, our brains are less sensitive to both sugar and to insulin that allows the sugar into the cells from the blood into the cells to be turned into fuel. So this doesn't work as efficiently. Now this is regardless of if you have diabetes or insulin resistance, anyone as we age, if we have been on a sugar, uh, burning carbohydrates for fuel.

 

(27:55): And when I say sugar, I also be pasta bread, corn, you know, tortilla chips, all of the carbs, even squash and fruit. When we have been having consuming that every day for our entire lives, we don't get an opportunity to go into ketosis and burn fat for fuel. And so the brain starts to become less sensitive. It no longer efficiently burns sugar. And what we can do, this is the magic of the ketogenic diet is that we can flip the switch. We can turn our energy production from turning sugar into fuel, to turning fat into fuel and just switching the fuel. I mean, this is I, this is just divine design. It makes me I would get chills. When I think about how intelligent the body is and how is able to change out the fuel and burn it really efficiently. And so what people notice is that after getting on a ketogenic diet, they sleep better. They wake up with more energy, they lose weight. If that's the goal, cuz it's, it's very modulating for weight, their blood sugar improves and their memory comes back. They feel sharper cognitively. So I don't know if Kyrin you've ever been asked like, yo, is there a way that you can get more hours in my day? I just feel like there's not enough time

 

(29:16): For everything,

 

(29:17): Especially women, right? We're like doing so much constantly juggling and a ketogenic diet in my personal experience is the way to get another for me. I get another hour and a half in my day because instead of dragging myself out of bed at six 30 or seven, I'm up at five and I'm ready to go. This is certainly for me. I personally find it magic. And for so many of my patients, there was actually a, so many of my patients also report this. Now there was a, a trial done. It was a small feasibility trial of just nine participants. It was done in Florida and it was published in January of 2022 where they took nine again, nine participants with some co measurable cognitive decline. And they put them on a ketogenic diet for just six weeks. And they had statistically significant changes in cognitive functions. Six weeks later, if you were struggling with cognitive issues, this is the first spot. This is the first place to go. This does a lot of the heavy lifting. And I would say, this is about if I were to weight all of the interventions, cuz there's a lot, right? This can start to feel overwhelming and complex. But if I were to weight them, I would say the ketogenic diet does about half of the lifting.

 

(30:28): I love that you really put it into perspective. So it's not about weight. I think people hear keto diet and they think it's only about weight. And a lot of people don't have a weight problem, completely dismiss it, but you really highlight the importance of it and this metabolic flexibility and theology that you get with it. It's like the diet that keeps on giving. But do you think people should do it all the time?

 

(30:56): Yeah. Such a great point. I'm so glad you said that because no, it's just as bad to always be burning sugar for fuel as it would be to always be burning fat for fuel. So that term metabolic flexibility is really the goal. Our ancestors, our hunter gather ancestors did not have sugar available all the time. They did not have fat available all the time. They had periods of fasting. And so again, our divine design, the way we are, our design is to go back and forth between ketosis burning fat for fuel and glycolysis burning sugar for fuel. And when we, if our body, the chance to do that, the way our hunter gather ancestors did our body works better. It's almost, it's a bit of a stressor. This concept is called the hormetic effect or hormesis where we ask the body to be under a little bit of stress, just like exercise does this. Some calorie restriction or intermittent fasting can do this. And then the ketogenic diet is a fasting mimicking diet where we stress the body a little bit in order to get it to be more resilient. And so as we do that, we, we have, we also get, as you mentioned, auto, we senescent cells are kicked out of the system. We recycle them. We get rid of them. So that the cells that, that replace them are new and more efficient, more optimally functioning.

 

(32:17): Yes. Awesome. What other factors? So you, you laid it out keto diet as big does 50% of the heavy lifting. I love that. What are some other factors though that people might be alerted that they might need to attend to in

 

(32:31): Our practice at SOCE? And certainly through the medicine protocol, we wanna be comprehensive about how we do this. So there are two big things that increase my confidence that this approach is going to work one you're early on in the disease process. So you've just started noticing changes. If you even have it all the best is prevention, right, where you've never even noticed changes. So first thing that increases confidence is that we aren't waiting until the disease is severe. The second thing that increases my confidence is how comprehensive you can be about applying the treatment plan. So if you can do all of it, then my confidence goes through the roof. This is a lot like Linda. They did it all and they did it all right out of the gate and they got the benefits. So I get it. Not everybody's able to do that.

 

(33:15): And even small changes you will get benefit from. But as we stack them on top of each other, you get, you get this kind of virtuous cycle. They all work better when they work together. Okay. So we wanna be systematic about how we approach this and Dr. Bren trains providers this way. And certainly at Ary, we aim to be, uh, systematic and have check boxes, right? Because it can be a lot and feel overwhelming. So the way I think about it is we want to address there's five primary things that cause complex chronic disease. In my model, that it's toxicity, which have three flavors of toxicity microtoxins or biotoxins that come from the indoor air environment, most commonly heavy metals and then chemical toxins. These are things like petrochemicals. If you live near the freeway, this can be parabens, PCBs, SS, pesticides, herbicides, things that are in groundwater that contaminate groundwater, uh, those can come from lots of areas in the environment, but we can measure all three flavors of those toxins and then we can get them out and check that box that hopefully becomes something that you complete.

 

(34:21): So you get rid of all the mycotoxins get rid of all the metals, change up your environment at home or the personal care products or the cleaning products you use. And then we don't have to worry about that anymore, unless there's a new exposure. So toxins, I start there because that's a nice way to kind of check that box and move on. Now your cells can work better, cuz they're not defending you from toxicity or they're not, they're not trying to, uh, the way that Dr Renison puts it. It's great. Um, he says, imagine your brain is like a country. My brain is St right? You're focused on fighting off invaders like infections or defending from things like toxins. You're not building the infrastructure of new memories of roads and schools, right? In this analogy, you're not creating new memories. You're too busy defending, right?

 

(35:06): All of your resources are going in that direction. So we wanna get rid of toxins. We wanna have enough nutrients, right? We've gotta have the resources. We've gotta have the building blocks. We need those amino acids. We need those fats. We need those minerals to make all of these biochemical reactions that are necessary for memory building for quick thinking, we need all of those present. If we're depleted, then that's not going to happen efficiently. And then third, we wanna address stressors on the system. So this could be things like sleep deprivation. This could be as stress from, you know, psychosocial stressors, ort S D caregivers are very high risk of developing dementia. They have two and a half times the risk of the population, just because you're a caregiver for someone with dementia, because we often right caregivers wanna put the person they're caring for first.

 

(35:57): So they're not getting their own exercise. They're not getting enough sleep. It's highly stressful situation. So I really encourage caregivers to listen closely and prevent this disease. Managing stressors. I often will recommend meditation. Meditation is personally something I benefit from having a regular daily practice of mindfulness, meditation, prayer, whatever feels best for you. So managing stressors is another one. Then structure is another one. So we have toxins, nutrients, stressors, structures, structure is gonna be, is your airway open? Are you getting, are you getting oxygen to your brain at night? If you have sleep AP, even if it's mild sleep apnea, you wanna treat this aggressively. I don't care what sleep medicine says. If you are having apnea events at night, that is basically mild brain damage. And I am not okay with that. We have to treat. So whether that means going to your dentist and getting an oral appliance that keeps your airway open.

 

(36:59): Some people use the mouth tape. I know that sounds a little bit counterintuitive, but you can tape your mouth closed at night so that it forces you to breathe through your nose. Some people will get the nasal strips that, and I like the breathe, right? If you get the generics, they don't work as well. There's of course, the C a P the, the, which has forces pressure into the airway. The other thing that you can do is get the a, a P, and this is the Cadillac. What, from what my patients tell me, this is the Cadillac of C P much more Cadillac.

 

(37:30): Why is that? Why did they say that?

 

(37:33): The con, so the AAP is alternating pressure. So the C a P is continuous pressure. And so it doesn't matter what your body's doing. There's no feedback in the system. It just blows, you know, pressure in air I interior system. And when you use the AAP, it adjusts as you're sleeping as, and as you go into different events and then getting the mask that fits right or getting the pillow, whatever, I know that it can take effort going back and forth with sleep medicine, and it can be costly, but this is worth it. Find what works for you. And I've had patients say, oh, I feel like I'm gonna die when I have that mask on. And then it, I push them like, no, no, you've gotta figure this out and do something. Whatever works for you. And then, sure enough, a couple weeks later, they're like, I can't sleep without it.

 

(38:21): I it's changed my life because now I wake up feeling rested for the first time in a decade or more. So treating sleep apnea, excuse me, very, very important, getting enough, sleep enough rest. And then of course, you know, structurally traumatic brain injuries put people at risk for dementia. So again, the falls, you know, if a woman has a fall regularly and she's hitting her head, this is a really big deal. I'll also say here, the research on women and traumatic brain injuries is lagging behind because a lot of this is done on professional athletes and combat veterans, where there is an epidemic of untreated brain traumatic brain injuries that happens in women who are victims of domestic abuse. And I really hope that in the next couple of years, we see a lot more resources going into this because it's just such a tragedy.

 

(39:14): Just the way I think about our seniors, right? Who are unnecessarily suffering with dementia is that this it's the squandered resource. They are these people at the height of their wisdom and experience who are, are leaving society. And my job is to help bring them back into the fabric of society so they can be contributing to their families while women who are victims of domestic violence is a very similar thing, but almost just more awful to think about that. We don't know what the combination of asphyxiation. So if someone's being, this gets so graphic and Ugh makes me shutter, but someone who is being both strangled and having, getting traumatic brain injuries at the same time is really having severe detrimental effects on their brain. And we don't know what if progesterone is high. What if she's at a place in her cycle where progesterone is high or low or estrogen is high or low, and these things are happening at the same time and it's happening repeatedly, right?

 

(40:09): If this is something that ha occurs over and over again, what we see is that these women don't get the help that they need. We don't have the science going into what's going on. And then, because they have essentially a form of dementia, their social worker, who, whoever is there to help them, doesn't realize that maybe they're not working the plan. They're not following the instructions just because they're so overwhelmed and their brain isn't working any as well as it used to because of these injuries. So I really hope that, you know, as speaking to a female audience, there needs to be more compass. There needs to be more support for those who are suffering with dome domestic abuse. And we basically need to understand that they have a form of dementia. Structurally traumatic brain injuries are a very big deal, right? If you get hit over the head with a baseball bat, if you were in a car accident, if you've slipped and fall and hit your head and lose consciousness, even if you don't lose your con lose consciousness, if you have headaches or some sort of recovery time after this is a sign that you have inflammation in your brain, and there are things that we can do right away.

 

(41:17): Afterwards, we use IV N a D S choline, PSAL serum, high dose fish oils, high dose meth B12, and the sooner we can treat a traumatic brain injury, the better the, the potential that there will be significant recovery. So we talked about toxins, nutrients structure, and now infections. So therefore infections that really stand out here, what is herpes? So herpes. If you ever get outbreaks, whether they're cold sores on your mouth or genital herpes, you wanna treat this relatively aggressively. So I'm a naturopathic doctor, right? I got a big med per medication person, but when it comes to herpes and, and chronic herpes outbreaks, you wanna be treating that aggressively because that can trigger inflammation in the brain, right? We know that herpes kind of stays dormant in the nervous system. Well, whenever it gets retried, that is causing more inflammation in the brain. And this comes out of studies in Taiwan where there's big epidemiological data that showed that people who were treated aggressively with like a, an antiviral, a medication, a prescription antiviral had a lower incidence of dementia than those who had herpes, but were not aggressively treated with, with the pharmaceuticals.

 

(42:25): So we wanna be getting ahead of that, basically, making sure that those outbreaks are not happening regularly and work with your doctor, of course, on that. So herpes is one PGE GVAs is another. So this is oral health, making sure that there aren't infections in the mouth part of this is just geography, right? You, your mouth is pretty close to your brain. The other thing is that when you get, uh, many people will know that in dentistry, if you've had a knee replacement or a hip replacement, before you go in for a cleaning, you take an antibiotic. Well, the reason is because when you get that cleaning, it introduces those bacteria into your blood and it, that bacteria can then get onto that artificial joint and not be detected and create a, a big problem. It can also create heart disease. It can create cardiac inflammation, can lead to strokes and to cardiac events, and it can trigger the inflammation associated with dementia.

 

(43:20): So we want to make sure that our oral health, you health starts in the gut and the gut starts in the mouth. So this is really critical that we ha see, I think, a biological dentist we're getting cone being x-rays so that we're catching any insidious small infections in there, early on and effectively treating them. So we have herpes P and GVAs and Lyme disease. So neuro Lyme can be very debilitating. There's a lot of controversy in the field around Lyme, but my opinion is that that there's ly or co-infections present for anyone exhibiting symptoms of dementia, or Alzheimer's that you wanna aggressively treat that with a Lyme literate doctor and get rid of that once. And for all, a neuro Lyme can be very debilitating and also confusing because Lyme is the great imitator. So it looks like a lot of other things and will often go undetected.

 

(44:13): So anyone with dementia, I do screen them for Lyme and Lyme coinfections. And then the fourth one, many people are familiar with is COVID 19, right? So I know there are a lot of people who would not associate themselves with having dementia at all, but they've suffered with the brain fog following COVID and these viruses. And I think COVID was such a great illustration that it's really these foundations. And I would say it's stressors, structure, nutrients, and, and toxic burden that create whether or not we have balance in those, right? If we have balance the right amounts in the right places at the right times, we have the right amounts of things, then our immune system functions. Well, right. And these are the people who got COVID, but never had a single symptom. And then if we have a lot of imbalance in the system, these are gonna be the people who got COVID in either passed away, right.

 

(45:03): Unfortunately, or who suffered with long haul COVID right. There's alway already some sort of inflammation, some sort of imbalance. And then that virus comes in and the host that body, that house, that we're in succumbs to the perpetuating cytokine storms or whatever is next in terms of signaling that comes after that virus. And so we want to make sure we're getting that house in order those foundational pieces set. And also looking at that, you know, going back and reassessing, if somebody is struggling with long haul COVID, how can we optimize this? The function of every cell in the body, get those cytokines out. Plasmapheresis is something that's been looked at for dementia, as well as for long haul. COVID so DNRs or the Gupta program. I'm, I'm a fan of the Gupta program for retraining, the limbic system and helping with long haul. COVID there's a lot that we can do. But again, this is, this is part of that landscape of things that lead to dementia over time, that triggering of inflammation of that cytokine storm, that then trigger the production of beta amyloid plaques Andal proteins, which cause are related to, um, Alzheimer's dementia.

 

(46:18): Woo. Okay. Everybody take a deep breath. I know some people are hyperventilating right now, cuz they were with you on the keto diet and now they're like, oh, I have to do what. Okay. Just breathe. Y'all you're gonna go to the summit. Number one. And you're gonna get way more detail on everything. Dr. Heather has talked to you about today. So you're gonna know exactly what to do after you go to the summit. Exactly. So don't hyperventilate. You don't have to learn it all today and you're gonna go download her keto guide. Number one, we're gonna have the link in the show notes. Um, but I'll, I'll speak it out. It's SOCE right. S O L C E R e.com.

 

(46:59): Yeah. SOCE solutions for the Cerebra soul or soul shining light. Uh, like sun on the brain. SOCE

 

(47:06): There we go. Okay. So we'll have that in the show notes, we will have the link to join the summit in the show notes. So you definitely wanna go there. If you're driving, don't click it now, but wherever you're going, when you get there, click it and sign up. You will have experts. There are gonna tell you exactly what to do, including me. We'll talk about biodentical hormones. Of course, my favorite topic, Dr. Heather, thank you so much for this very insightful and inspiring. Look at dementia and Alzheimer's and how we don't have to go down that road. Have, you know, that story that the person's walking down the road and every time they walk down the street, they fall into the same hole. And then even though they try and go, the next time they try to walk around it, they end up falling in it and sometimes they walk past it, but then they end up falling in the hole and sometimes you, the person eventually learns that they can just go down a different street. So it kind of reminds me of that story. You can just go down a different street. People, you don't have to go down the street that most people in, in developed countries are going down towards, uh, dementia or cancer. All the things we're talking about also reduce your risk of cancer. Oh, by the way,

 

(48:21): All those scary diseases of aging. They are complex chronic diseases and conventional medicine, unfortunately does not shine in that space. Right? If you're in a car accident, if you have a bacterial infection, get to the ER, get to urgent care. But when we talk about diabetes, dementias cancers, this is really where we need to take a step back and take this more comprehensive complex system science approach and get all of those cells working optimally.

 

(48:50): Yes. Awesome. Well, thank you so much, Dr. Heather, we will see you at the summit. Thank you for joining us.

 

(48:55): Thank you so much. It's been such a pleasure to be here

 

(48:58): And thank you all for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kirin. I know that you learned something that you can start implementing today in your life to improve your health and go down a different street. I look forward to hearing what that is. Join me on Facebook or Instagram at Kirin Dunston MD, and we will have a conversation about it. And until next week, peace, love and hormones y'all.

 

(49:25): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

Learn how to begin Keto, get food lists, how-tos, tips, and checklists from Dr. Heather Sandison's free Keto Diet Guide.

Get it here: https://www.solcere.com/

 

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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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Peptide Therapy For Hormone And Health Optimization At Midlife - For Both Men and Women

Do you know what peptides are and how they can help with hormone optimization?

 

Listen in as Dr. Tracy Gapin joins The Hormone Prescription Podcast to discuss peptide therapy for hormone and health optimization at midlife - for both men and women.

 

As we age, our hormones naturally decline. This can lead to a host of issues, including fatigue, weight gain, mood swings, and more. Peptide therapy can help optimize hormone levels, resulting in improved energy levels, better sleep, and a general feeling of well-being.

 

In this episode, you will learn:

• What peptides are and how they can help optimize hormone levels
• The benefits of peptide therapy for both men and women
• The best time to start peptide therapy
• How peptide therapy can help with weight loss, energy levels, and more

If you're interested in learning more about peptide therapy and how it can help you feel your best in midlife, tune in now!

 

[1:00] My guest today is a little unusual for a guest on this podcast. Why? Because he specializes in men's health. Well, Dr. Kyrin, you're thinking, why are you having a doctor who specialize in men's health? Because for most women, we've got men in our lives who are important to us and it matters, but also in many areas, there's a lot of overlap and he's gonna be talking about peptides and how they can be used to help with hormone balance and health optimization at midlife and beyond. And maybe we'll have a little guy talk to because what woman couldn't use to know more about the men in her life and how they function and how to help them.

 

[01:58] So Dr. Gapin is a board certified urologist world renowned health and performance expert, and the founder of the Gapin Institute for high performance health and the men's telehealth startup on Novi health, kind of like the counterpart to the hormone club. I think that's super cool. He's a thought leader, a professional speaker and the author of the bestselling books, male 2.0 and codes of longevity. His passion and purpose is providing fortune 500 executives, entrepreneurs, and athletes, a personalized path to optimize health and performance. Welcome Dr. Gapin.

 

[03:15] Thanks so much appreciate being here.

 

[03:17] So super excited to get started. So you're an, a urologist by training, but you have evolved your training to provide a functional approach for men so that they can have high performance at midlife and beyond. And you've created, uh, telehealth startup too. So can you talk a little bit about your journey from mainstream corporate medicine to where you are now?

 

[03:41]  So I am a board certified urologist, a men's health expert. Um, I was in traditional, if you will, Western medicine, forgs 25 plus years, including training. And I hit a wall. I got to a point where, um, I had some health issues that really, uh, changed my life. I was incredibly fatigued. I couldn't focus, couldn't sleep. I was about 30 pounds overweight and I knew something was wrong. And I went to see a, a local internal medicine doc here in town. And, uh, he ran some tests and, uh, the results were pretty terrible. And what really changed everything for me was he told me what I need to do was simply eat more vegetables. I need to lose some weight, exercise more. And if that doesn't work, maybe I'll be put on a statin, a prescription medication. 

 

[04:29] And I left that day really confused because I knew I needed a lot more than that. And as a men's health expert, you would think that I would have the answers myself, but I didn't because I realized that at that point that we are failing, you know, traditional healthcare is all based on disease. We have disease care, crisis care, not healthcare. We are reactive simply waiting to treat illness or disease when it occurs rather than being proactive and intentional and, uh, focused on promoting health. And that's really what my book, Mel, 2.0 is all about, um, my sense for the gap Institute. That's what that's all about as well. 

 

[05:21]  And you know, it's interesting when I work with women, I come from OB GYN background, exclusively work with women when they get better than the next question is, well, where do I send my, the men in my life, my husband, my partner, my son, the men in my life. And so this is why one of the reasons why I thought it would be great to have Dr. Gin on the show is because this is where you send them. . This is who you send them to, is the person who specializes in helping men. 

 

[06:09] We would wear to a black tie dinner. And that was our reproductive capacity, our special superpower organs to make a baby in our hormones. But I learned from a functional approach that nothing could be further from the truth. And we really foundationally are very different. So I'm a fan of unique approach. Someone who specifically works with men and who knows them inside and out like Dr. Gapin and someone who knows women like I do. So that's my plug. But one of the things we're gonna focus on is peptides today. How did you become aware of the science of peptides and the power of peptides? What was that journey like?

 

[06:49] . I go see that doctor, you know, because of that experience. And so I think it's really important for the women in your audience to understand that, that you need to be advocates for your men because oftentimes men will not be proactive enough to take charge of their health and they'll simply wait for a problem. And typically that problem that will finally get them to see a doctor is issues with sex. And so don't wait for that to happen. Jump on it well before then, obviously. So that being said, um,

 

[07:49]  I did work with men at one point in the past decade, and you're I found that you're exactly right. You know, they wouldn't come cuz they're tired. They wouldn't come because they can't sleep, or they don't have their drive. But when they couldn't get an erection, that they would say, you know, something's wrong. And I, I would really, but I would find a lot of them were still hesitant to even have that conversation with doctors. So how can the women who are listed, who are in my audience, whose partners are having difficulty with erectile dysfunction, even get their partners to talk to doctors about that, how do they do that?

 

[08:33] So I'm going to give you 20 seconds of science here that I think is important to understand how an erection has increased blood flow to penis. What causes that a molecular level is increased nitric oxide secretion from the blood vessels that cause Vasodilation and increased blood flow. What affects nitric oxide production while most notably insulin resistance, insulin resistance blocks, nitric oxide production. So that's the correlation between metabolic issues in your body, your nutrition, your stress, your sleep, et cetera, which has a dramatic effect on your sex life. And so women recognize that if there's an issue with ed in your man, it could potentially be a sign of major underlying health issues that need to be checked out.

 

[09:40] Yeah. Like heart disease, heart attack. So super important. I always tell them when something's wrong below the belt, there's really something wrong above the belt and that could kill you. So you need to investigate that. All right. So now back to the peptides, when did that get on your radar? Yeah.

 

[09:57]  So when I recognize that our healthcare system is failing, that really sent me on a journey to learn, how can I really transform men's health? How can I reinvent the way we think about health and performance and longevity. And that's where I learned about functional medicine. I learned about epigenetics, which is, you know, the science of how our lifestyle and our genetics interact to affect our health, both good and bad. Um, I learned about hormone optimization and it's amazing that in medical school, in general surgery residency, in urology residency, I'm talking about 10 years of medical training before I actually went out there and hung my shingle up. 

 

[10:44] And so I promise I'm getting to your peptide question and along my way here, you're fine. You know, when I think of health, I think of it like  a high performance bicycle wheel. You have the hub and that hub can be energy, weight, sex, cognitive focus, whatever it may be. And you have spokes coming out of that wheel. And each of those spokes are vitally important aspects of your health that are directly impacting that core function. That may be things like insulin resistance. I just mentioned, which is how your body handles glucose. It may be what you're eating when you're eating.

 

[11:29] It may be how your body handles toxins. It may be your sleep. It may be your stress. It may be hormones. And I want to emphasize not just testosterone. You know, men are so focused on testosterone, which certainly is important and levels are plummeting worldwide. We could talk about but there are other hormones that are critically important in men as well. You know, we have growth hormones. We have D H E cortisol insulin melatonin, vitamin D. It goes on, tThere are probably 15 hormones that we care about. Those are all different spokes of the wheel. And so coming back to this concept of cellular medicine, it's a systems approach to health. And so how do we impact all of the, the systems in your human body to achieve that outcome? And that's where peptides come in. Peptides allow us to, to specifically address things like inflammation at the cellular level, specifically impact immune function.

 

[12:17] We use peptides for specifically musculoskeletal repair. All of these different functions are working at a cellular level to impact what we're trying to accomplish. And so that's really the, the beauty of peptide therapy is that it allows a very precision based approach to health mm-hmm and they're not drugs. They're not pharmaceuticals. You know, peptides are nothing more than chains of amino acids. They're short proteins, and they're signaling molecules that our bodies already recognize. You know, as we age our levels of certain peptides decline and what we're doing with peptide therapy is really helping our body to restore those levels. So I'll give you a great example here. 

 

[13:09] And there's a process involved there. And so we can stimulate our bodies to increased production of growth hormone, and that's gonna be amazing for helping things like sleep. One of the biggest complaints I hear with high performing men and women who I work with is trouble with sleep. It can help with weight loss. It could help with energy, with mood. It could help with metabolism, exercise capacity on and on and on growth. Hormone is a critical hormone that is often ignored. And so that's where we can really look at peptides to have a very precision based approach.

 

[13:37] So thank you for explaining that. I know some people, when they first hear about this concept of peptides that could help, and they're, they're told, oh, well they're basically amino acid that change their proteins. They say, oh, I don't need all that. I'm justgoing toa take a protein supplement or amino acid supplement or a collagen supplement. And my body's going to know what to do with it. So I don't need these fancy targeted things. What, what do you say to that?

 

[14:05] So when you're taking, you know, collagen, when you're doing protein, you know, weigh or P protein, whatever, you know, yeah. You're getting amino acids, but, uh, I want to be clear, a peptide has to be a very specific sequence taken in the exact right way for it to be effective. Mm-hmm . And so you're really talking apples and oranges that there's really no comparison. And the beauty of peptides comes down to it's non-pharmaceutical it is asuddenly sudden molecule that your body recognizes. the, the side effects are, are typically negligible and again, at a cellular level, amazing potential benefits.

 

[14:42] Mm-hmm so they're non-pharmaceutical but some of them require a prescription. Why is

 

[14:47] So there are numerous ways of getting peptides. You can get peptides over, you know, direct to consumers from these companies that are, uh, completely unregulated. It is the wild west out there. When, when you're looking at these and I, I would say that any place where a consumer, a non-physician can go purchase peptides, I would be very wary of it because the oversight of, and the, and the quality assurance at those places is truly questionable. And so when I prescribe, and I use the word carefully there to prescribe peptides for my patients, they come from compounding pharmacies, pharmacies that have oversight. They have quality assurance. They have to, um, have certificates of authenticity and, and they get tested regularly to be sure that you're actually getting what you're supposed to be getting. Um, and that's where I think a lot of people run into trouble where when you go over the counter, uh, direct to consumer you, you just don't know what the heck you're getting and you get side effects or issues, complications, or it doesn't work. And then you, you, you think that it was the pep tie when in fact it was purely just the, the source.

 

[15:48] Okay. So it, they, you need a prescription because they come from a compounding pharmacy, but it's not regulated by the FDA, but if you get one from a compounding pharmacy, you know that you're working with an organization that is regulated itself, so you should be getting a good quality. Correct?

 

[16:03] You're spot on, correct there. That it is, you know, peptides, they're not FDA approved because to clarify this for the FDA to approve something, it has to actually undergo clinical trials through the FDA. And that's what pharmaceutical companies do when they develop a drug for that drug to be sold. It has to go through that process. You'll never get that process to be done for a peptide because it's a by definition, generic product, because it is simply a chain of amino acids that any compounding pharmacy with the right equipment can produce manufacturer. And so it is therefore by definition, generic and the, the millions of dollars that are needed to produce these massive prospective, double blinded clinical trials to get a drug clear through the FDA. It's it's impossible.

 

[16:54] And so that's why my program my, my high level program is called N one performance health. And it's called N one, because everything we do is N of one medicine or N equals one medicine. And, and Kyrin, you, and I know what that means, but for the listeners, that means that everyone is uniquely different. And it's an individualized approach. Understanding, you know, at a cellular level, what things do, but that everyone's going to respond differently, and we have to really tailor individualized things. And so to that effect, a lot of the peptides we use are based on tons of science, don't get me wrong. We're not, we're not being cavalier. Mm-hmm , but they're not gonna, it's not possible for them to go through that FDA approval process.

 

[17:33] Yeah. Kind of like the bioidentical hormones

 

[17:37] Everyone loves to say, oh, they're not FDA approved. Well, estrogen is, and testosterone is, but when they compound it in this unique preparation that nobody's going to do that study. Yeah. So you mentioned, you

 

[17:50] Know, a comparison, I'm sorry to interrupt you. A co a comparison I would make is to say, well, vitamin D's not FDA approved. Well, it it's vitamin D it's generic. It's like, it's, it's, you can't approve, like, no one's going to do studies. It's just, that it's a hormone that we need. Vitamin D is in fact, a hormone, not a vitamin that we need. And so you don't need FDA approval to know that it is needed and how it works

 

[18:11] Is a great point. Yeah. Sorry, D is not FDA approved. Right. All right. So you mentioned growth hormone, which I, I think is super important. What are some of your other peptides that you might use to have various effects? What are some of the most powerful ones that you see at midlife that would be, that are important for men that are also important for women?

 

[18:33] That's actually very important as well when it comes to certain recent illnesses that we may have experienced. Right. And so I love them and alpha for improving boosting immune function, both men and women, you know, there are, are actual recent studies that came out, supporting its use for certain, um, illnesses that have been around lately. I love thy and alpha for immune function. Thy and beta is, uh, closely related. Uh, it is incredible when it comes to musculoskeletal repair, we're looking at tendons, ligaments, cartilage, bone. I just had elbow surgery and I am using thymus and beta for recovery for my elbow surgery, for example. So that's amazing. And again, boosting your body's ability to heal properly. This is not a pharmaceutical, again, it's a peptide with the, the amino acid sequences that are needed to, to achieve that specific outcome.

 

[19:52] And speaking of that recent illness that some people, a lot of us have had, I had it, you helped greatly. We were at a conference in, on the West Coast and one of our colleagues who didn't attend called us from Atlanta, and she was in a bad way, having thinking she had to go to the emergency room, and you actually talked with her and got her hooked up with certain peptides to help her. Yeah. And I mean, unfortunately she had a more severe case, but I really think she credits the peptides as really helping her. 

 

[20:27] Yeah. Yeah. I got sick, uh, way back in March 2020, when everything first started, I was one of the first ones to get super sick that second week of, of March. And I took a combination of four different peptides that I'm sure had a dramatic effect on my recovery.

 

[20:40] Do you want to mention the thymus and alpha and beta part of that?

 

[20:44] Yeah. So th ayin, um, alpha is a great again, immune function Pepi that I really recommend.

 

[20:50] Yeah. Okay. Great. All right. So boosting immune system function, what are some of the others that you would say, oh, wow, everybody needs this. Cause like for women over 40 or 50, I say, you know, we all need our estrogen progesterone testosterone.

 

[21:05] n. So someone specifically focused on reducing inflammation, um, in the gut oral BPC is fantastic. I've had several patients who initially came to see me with nothing more than serious irritable bowel symptoms. And a month later they're on BPC, and they're completely fine. And I'm like, Hey Mike, how you doing with your gut? He's like, what do you mean? I'm like your gut stuff. And he completely forgot he even had it. And it was so pretty amazing how BBC cleared that up pretty quickly. BBC subq injection is also great for musculoskeletal or joint inflammation. So when we're looking at inflammation in the joint arthritis, injury, surgical repair, that sort of thing as well. So I love B BPC for inflammation, but again, there's not a peptide that I would recommend that every single person needs to be on.

 

[22:25] So having said that some people listening are thinking, well, how do I know which ones I need? Is it by symptoms? So is it like a symptom And then you get, like you said, joint inflammation, and then I need BPC subq, or is it based on laboratory findings? How does, how does somebody know?

 

[22:45] I think the answer is you work with a professional who is experienced at assessing patients from a functional perspective, understanding what's needed and prescribing the appropriate peptides. I can't tell you how often I'll have both men and women come in the office here and Hey, I really want this. I really want D S I to sleep deep sleep inducing peptide. For example, I really need, I heard about, I read about D S I, I really want to have that one, or I really want Mo SC, which is this mitochondrial biogenesis, peptide, uh, this or that. And when I actually talk to them and dive deeper into understanding their health issues, challenges, goals, that's not all what they actually need. And so I would caution against any, you know, person out there with, without medical experience, trying to go out and buying your own peptides. Peptides are amazing, but they should be really used in the context of a much bigger, more, you know, uh, systems approach to health.

 

[23:32] I like to emphasize, you know, a foundation of, you know, emphasis on fixing and correcting issues with sleep and stress and detox and hormones and nutrition and movement and mindset and breathing, all that stuff I think is critically important. And there's a tendency to fall back into that pill for every ill approach, with disease model medicine, and try to apply that same approach with peptides. And that's not how it works. You know, this is again, part of a systems approach to health. It's understanding how all the inputs to our human system are ultimately affecting that outcome. And peptides are great, but think of them as the icing on top of the cake.

 

[24:10]  Yes. Progress is impossible without change. And those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything from George Bernard Shaw. So really that's the hard work of health. Anyone can take a supplement, anyone can really follow any diet. Yeah. But doing the hard work of changing the way you're living your life. Has that been a factor for you in, in regaining your health? Did you find there were any thought or feeling patterns that you had to transform to optimize your health?

 

[25:14] Definitely. Yeah. Great question. So, you know, when I wrote my book, Mel, 2.0, you know, M a L E is actually an acronym for mindset, aging lifestyle and environment. And it's my system's approach to health. And it starts with M for mindset because until you fix that until you get your mind, uh, properly focused, you're never going to have success with everything else. And so I, I'm a huge advocate for mindfulness practices and uh, even meditation. That sort of stuff is wonderful. I also emphasize living with intention. And so every guy I work with, the first question I ask, one of the first questions I ask is what is your, why? Why are you doing this? And he'll say, well, I wanna lose 30 pounds. No, that that's. Excuse my language. You, you, you're not here cuz you wanna lose 30 pounds. What will that get you?

 

[26:01] And so if you only focus on these superficial things like weight loss, without focusing on the real, why then we're never gonna be successful. And so focusing on what is your why to me is really paramount. And then the next step is getting rid of limiting beliefs. And so like you were just alluding to most men have these thoughts that I'm too old to change. I'm set in my ways I can't change. This is how it is or the best one. I don't have time. I don't have time nonsense. That's nonsense. You don't have time. It's all about how do you schedule your day? What is your priorities? Again, it comes back to the three words that I emphasize living with intention.

 

[26:45] Yeah. I don't have time as code word first. I don't see the value in it. Really? Yes,

 

[26:51] We all get the same 24 hours in a day. We all have the same amount of time. You know, it's interesting. We were talking the other day with this specific group of women we're talking with now, uh, about blue zones and how one of the, the characteristics of the Arians in those communities was that they all had a life purpose that they could articulate. They had a why they had a why for why they do everything and what was important. And they lived with intention. So I had have given everyone the challenge to share their life purpose, be able to articulate it, everybody listening. I'm gonna invite you to do that too. Cuz you, you heard it also from Dr. Gin, that it's important. And you mentioned that your wife is amazing. I have to ask you about that. Cuz I know there's some women who are saying, oh, I want my husband to say that about me. What makes you say that about her?

 

[27:46] You know, I had a, I had a childhood with, with no real strong father figure. And so now for, for me, it's all about how can I be present and engaged with my family and, and give them what they need. And at the same time, I couldn't do that without my wife who is incredibly supportive and nurturing and loving and um, you know, we're a team and, and that's, you know, it should be easy. You know, one of my colleagues here, he's out there in the dating world, which I, I couldn't imagine being there again, but I gave him the, the guidance that it should be easy.

 

[28:24] . There's be times where, where you disagree with things, but it should still always be easy. And you're always in alignment, always in the same page. So I love the fact that we are a team. She's my best friend. And, and actually when I was filling out your form, I, I had to give you three quotes and the first two were easy. I say 'em every day and the throw one, like I need to throw a quote and, and she's Sarah sitting next to me. My wife's amazing. Yeah she is. And so I wrote that. So ,

 

[28:49] I love that. Well, let's share the other two too. You said, I believe there's nothing more than important than the quality of your life. And that starts and ends with your health. I couldn't agree more. And you also said you don't get today back, so make it count. Do you wanna say any more about all of these?

 

[29:06] Yeah. So the, the second one there, my brother-in-law John, he was this larger than life guy who everyone loved everywhere. He went, he was everyone's best friend and uh, loved him. He died of a heart attack at the age of 49 way too young. And we found out after the fact that he, although he looked like he was healthy, he was actually in fairly poor health for a while, but we never would've known, you know, what was striking about John was almost every day I saw him. He would say to me, Tracy, you don't get today. Back, make a count. He was that kind of positive, powerful person in my life. And when he passed at a very young age, it made that, that comment that he would always say that much more powerful and it still resonates with me today. Yeah. So that's that quote you don't get today back.

 

[29:51] So make account mm-hmm and then the, the first one, you know, I feel that we have a short time on this earth and we need to live life to its fullest and reach our full potential and to experience that you have to make your health, your top priority. And so often people don't. So often people are, again, back to the mindset part, not viewing it properly and not placing the emphasis where it needs to be. And so I believe that the quality of your life is important and you should be allowed to, and you should expect to have fun and enjoy life. But if you're not healthy, if you're not, well, you could never do that. So you gotta take care of that first. So that's what that's about.

 

[30:28] I could not agree more. And everybody listening, Dr. Gin is doing a wonderful little masterclass with women in my program. So as soon as we jump off the podcast interview, they're gonna get to have a private Q and a with him and really pick his brain about the men in their life and, um, how to help them to be their healthiest, which I think is super important. Like you mentioned earlier, women are the healthcare decision makers in their family. So it's, you know, I hate to say it, but we, we have a big responsibility to make sure that the men in our lives are getting what they made fair or not fair. It just is what it is. So we're gonna have chats about that as well, as more in depth on peptides and how the, we can get the icing on our cake with our health. So we'll be diving into that. Dr. Gapin, I keep saying it incorrectly. I apologize. How can people find out more? Where can they send the men in their lives? What resources, um, do you have for everybody?

 

[31:26] Sure thing. Yeah. So, um, my website is Dr. Tracy Gapin.com and, um, I have a couple free gifts if your audience would be interested,

 

[31:34] Please, if you wanna tell 'em about it, that's great. Absolutely. We will have links in the show notes, but feel free to talk about it. Yeah,

 

[31:40] So since we're talking about peptides, um, if you'll check out, um, my website for my center, which is gap institute.com, um, there, you can get a copy of my ultimate peptide guide, which will dive a lot deeper specifically into what we talked about today, Karen, about peptides and, and all the different peptides that we use that you could check out, uh, download from the site. But I'll also share the listeners if you wanted, uh, text health to 2 6, 7, 8, 6, and I'll put that number in the chat 2, 6, 7, 8, 6, uh, text the word health. What you'll get from there is a free copy of my secrets to high performance health guide. Cool. We'll also get a complimentary digital copy of my book mail 2.0, which I published, um, bestselling book a couple years ago. And if your men would like to get a, a complimentary discovery call with my team to understand how we can help them. Um, they're welcome to do that as well with the link that will be provided.

 

[32:35] Awesome. So they would use the text link.

 

[32:37] They'll be given a link. Exactly. That's right.

 

[32:39] Oh, okay. When they go there. Okay,

 

[32:40] Great. Yeah. Yeah. The text health is 2 7, 8, 6.

 

[32:43] Thank you for those amazing resources. I hope you continue to think that your wife is amazing and that she thinks the same of you. I love that. You know, I, I think that every great relationship is founded on great health. So congratulations to both of you for doing, doing the work and thank you for sharing, um, your wisdom and your journey with us. Thank you for sharing your passion for peptides and for root cause resolution medicine and health, and any last word you'd like to leave everyone with or any take action challenges.

 

[33:16] Yeah. I'm gonna give y'all one simple thing that everyone can do starting today that will actually make a amazing impact on your life. You may not even realize it, but how you breathe has a direct effect on performance, how you breathe, affects tissue oxygenation, which affects your brain, affects your ability to lose weight, your ability to build muscle, your exercise capacity and so on. And so I want you to think about breathing through your nose. One simple single change that you can make starting today right now is close your mouth. And I mean that in the most loving way possible break

 

[33:53] So true. So yes, continue to breathe through your nose as much as possible. Thank you so much Dr. Gapin for joining us today.

 

[34:02] And thank you all for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you have learned something today that has inspired you, or maybe it's challenged you something that you're going to take action on. Don't let this just be information that goes in one ear and out the other, but ask yourself, how are you going to start to use this information to make changes in your life. Sometimes small steps lead to powerful impact. So I challenge you to do something different today, and I will talk to you next week when we'll have more hormone, fun and games until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening.

 

Get a copy of Dr. Gapin’s 10 Secrets to High-Performance Health, a digital copy of his book, and a free discovery call with his team.

Text Health to 26786 

You may also visit his website:

https://drtracygapin.com/

 

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Conscious Communications: How Healthy Conflict Resolution Can Improve Your Relationships and Your Health

Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast!

 

In this episode, we're talking about how healthy conflict resolution can improve your relationships and your health. Our guest is Mary Shores, author of the book Conscious Communications.

 

Mary shares her insights on why it's so important to resolve conflict in a healthy way, and gives us some practical tips on how to do just that. If you're struggling with conflict in your life, whether at home or at work, this episode is for you!

 

In this episode, you will learn:

-Why healthy conflict resolution is so important

-How to resolve conflict in a healthy way

-Practical tips for resolving conflict in your own life

-And more!

 

So tune in now, and learn how healthy conflict resolution can improve your relationships and your health!

 

[00:55] You're gonna love our guest today and the topic that we are discussing. It's all about communication. How conscious is your communication? And like in the quote that I started the episode with, are you able to change your mind about things or are you seeking optimal health and hormone balance saying I wanna be exactly the same way I am now doing what I'm doing, thinking what I'm thinking. And I want my hormones to change because I hate to tell you, but mm it's not gonna happen because you do have to change your mind to change your hormones.

 

[01:54] Mary shores is an innovative communication expert and bestselling author who transforms people's words to help them fall back in love with their work and their customers. 15 years ago, Mary discovered a game changing formula to improve connections among people. It all started with a, do not say list and grew into an entire strategy that will fix your relationships, which by the way, will fix your hormones and your health. Welcome Mary. My pleasure to be here. I'm so excited. Yes. I love your book. And just so I don't forget to, to say the whole title, Mary shores, conscious communications, your step by step guide to harnessing the power of your words, to change your mind, your choices and your life published by hay house.

 

[03:04] So, you know, since this is a hormone show, I'll go ahead and say this. But when I was 19 and one time I had went to a doctor, they put me on a, an antibiotic, but didn't tell me that antibiotics cancel out birth control. So I ended up pregnant after a healthy pregnancy. I was met with sudden tragedy when my daughter had suffered lack of oxygen to the brain for over five minutes due to umbilical cord asphyxia, which basically meant the way they explained it to me was that her umbilical cord had ruptured. So my daughter Haley was born with severe and profound brain damage. This left her blind death and on life support.

 

[03:58] And the thing is though, when I got done with that ordeal, I was really lost in life. You know what I mean? I wasn't sure what I was going to do. I felt like my peers had, had moved on, had started their careers. So I decided to go into the family business, which is debt collection. And so oftentimes people don't understand like where is this connection between like debt collection, communication and connection. But for me, I think that because I had lived on the other side of Stu financial stability during that time with my daughter, I had absolutely no resources.

 

[04:45] And I definitely saw the connection between how debt collectors communicate with people and how that, that causes so much stress and trauma, you know, and I realized very quickly that the common denominator is just having a debt can be a trauma, let alone the way that people are stigmatized over it, or the way that they're treated over it.

 

[05:41] So I just started to study and I wanted, you know, my big aha moment came when one day I looked at the phone and I said out loud, I just want the next person. I speak to, to be happier at the end of the call than they were at the beginning. Now that was so many years ago. And honestly, I had no idea how I was going to make that happen. But I started with one concept, which was this do not say list. And the do not say list is exactly what it sounds like. It's a list of words we never say, which are no, not can't won't however, and unfortunately

 

[06:19] So I'm sorry for your loss. And it sounds like it forced you to go into the family business. And because you had this kind of spiritual bent already, and you were going into what probably most people think of as a non-spiritual business, you had a different perspective to bring, to kind of evolve that. And so thank goodness you said, I just want the next person I talk to, to feel better after I get off the phone with them than when they got on the phone, when I got on the phone with them. And so you have the, the do not say list, which I love. I try not to use those words as well.

 

[07:05] Even if it's reasonable, I get angry immediately because nobody likes being told, no, you can't, you can't have that or no. And tell me what you can do. Don't tell me what you can't do. So this started the do not say list. And then how did it evolve from there? Cuz really you've come to this place now where you've taken it to a whole nother level and your personal journey, evolutionary journey, I think really will speak volumes to women, many women at midlife who are wondering like, what's wrong with me? What's happened to me. I don't know. I feel like myself and my own skin anymore. How do I feel good. And so what happened next on your journey? That was your evolution.

 

[08:05] And so I turned to neuroscience and specifically neurobiology because I wanted to know like what is happening in the brain and the body and the nervous system when we're communicating and turns out that was like the most brilliant thought I had ever really had because you know, starting with a, do not say list, what I learned was when we are, and it doesn't matter if you're speaking the words or if you're hearing the words, but what's happening when we're enveloped in these negative words, you know, if we're talking to customer service and they say, you know, unfortunately our policy is yada yada, yada.

 

[08:57] You know, if you're familiar with the David Hawkins frequency scale of emotions, those words are really driving us down the frequency scale of emotions. So my goal was like, how can I move people up? This frequency scale of emotions? And in the book I call this cleanser clog. So it's really like everything. You say, everything you do, every action you take. And this is in all areas of life, not just communication, but every choice you make is either, you know, moving you down that scale, creating a disconnection from what you really want, or it's moving you up that scale. And you know, when you talk about feeling good, it's like if you rate yourself, say on a scale of one to 20 at any given time, and you say, you know, how well do I feel today? And if that answer is, you know, below a 10, then there's a problem we need to like do cleansing activities.

 

[09:48] So I started to think, how can we create a connection? And that started with validation. So really taking a deep dive into understanding that we're truly all wired for empathy, but we've sort of trained it out of ourselves. And I think that this starts it when we're young children, you know, we have expectations put upon us, we have layers and layers of what other people think we should be when we can take a moment.

 

[10:48] And so what that allows us to do is take a, a sigh of relief and just drop in and not be so frantic. So the idea here is that we wanna cancel the nervous system. We wanna cancel the fight or flight response, right? And we wanna activate the parasympathetic response by saying connecting words. You are not alone. I can understand that. That sounds really challenging. And that's the step that we're really missing in our communication journey, that it doesn't mean that we're agreeing with someone.

 

[11:45] It's just acknowledging the emotion. You also do it. If someone has just shared something, that's really amazing. You can say, you know, thank you for sharing that with me. It sounds so exciting. So that's really that first step in the process, but it's such an important step because when you provide a validation, what you're actually doing is you are increasing oxytocin, vasopressin, serotonin, and dopamine. And I don't need to tell you doctor that those are very happy, healthy bonding hormones, right?

 

[13:19]  So you definitely wanna get the book power versus force by David Hawkins. And he talks about quantifying the frequency of emotion. So I just wanted to let them know about that. And then I think it's so key what you said, the number one need that we have is to feel heard and understood everybody listening, just think like, what do you want more than anything from the people in your life. You want to feel heard, you get upset when people don't really hear you. You're like, you're not listening to me.

 

[14:05] And, you know, once our material needs are met for shelter and food and rest and things like that, we have these needs to be self-actualized self-expressed to be seen, to be heard, to be validated. And I love, I always my nervous system, you can feel it viscerally, calm down when you get on a customer service call and they immediately say, and you know, when they say this, that they've had training, wow, I'm sorry that you're dealing with that. I know that must be really frustrating. And you're just like, oh, this person it matters.

 

[14:58] Right. I've been heard and I've been validated, you know, it's interesting. I just came back from this trip in Mexico and I always ask for a cent free chemical free room, wherever I travel, cuz I don't want those VOCs in my, my body doesn't like them. And so I did request one and my room wasn't even ready when I got there. It took another two hours cuz they said you were requested a special room. And I go in my room and they have that scent, you know like most hotels put a scent cuz they think it increases your perceived value of what they're offering. You just like they'll put plastic, some hotels over the top of the drinking glasses in the bathroom. 

 

[15:47] And I also love that you brought in the neuroscience of how this relates to hormone balance, that your oxytocin, dopamine serotonin and your vasopressin, all of these are improved and your sympathetic nervous system, when you are validated and you are heard. So how do you teach people in the book to start tweaking their words and their thoughts and their communication for improved hormone balance? I know that's not, not what you say in the book is the goal, but my people they know that's the goal. 

 

[16:36] And so I'm training other collection agencies. I'm doing training for customer service, but it's really about when you're in that moment, you know, and I, I can tell you a little story with this because a lady that told me this, this story just really warms my heart. Her stepson had sent her a pretty emotionally charged text message. And he was blaming her for his difficult relationship with his father. You know, she immediately felt her walls going up. So step one is when you immediately feel, you know, this person has said something and now you feel your walls going up.

 

[17:26] So when you know ahead of time that you're going to use some sort of validation statement, you really train yourself that this is the script or the prompt, if you will, that you're going to respond with no matter what. So when she got this text message and she felt her walls going up, she knew reacting defensively would only lead to more conflict, causing more layers of disconnection in their relationship. Now she hadn't heard from him for a number of years before this text message came in. She just got it out of the blue mm-hmm . So instead she used all three steps of our communication, uh, code. And she said, you know, I can certainly understand how deeply you must be hurting.

 

[18:19] And she said, she'd be happy to pick him up and see him in person. And he didn't respond for quite a while. Instead after a while he called her. And for the first time, in a long time, they had a healthy conversation all because she was able to build a connection that really hadn't existed before. So you know, what you're doing is you're bringing stability to a situation.

 

[19:08] And then now their mind can be open to a solution. You know, if you've ever been talking to someone and you've got this like great idea for them and, and you feel like you have the right solution, but they're not hearing you, you know, and perhaps they get into story mode where they start repeating that story over and over and over again, if somebody is repeating their story on repeat, that is a sign that they do not feel heard and understood. And the moment that you can validate, not that they're date, not that their story is true. You're validating the emotion that they have associated with that story, because that is truly what helps them process the emotion move through it so that we can be emotionally receptive. You know, our brain space can get stuck on one thing, right? Mm-hmm . And when we follow these steps properly, people can be more open to what we have to say to them.

 

[20:42] And our energy is our what Dr. Marisa calls, the intangibles, thoughts, feelings, beliefs, and our interactions with people. And we really underestimate the power of the emotions. I love that. You're saying you've got to, when the story's on repeat, you've got to hear the emotion and validate that it's not necessarily the story that needs to be validated, but how they are feeling, because that is the essence of what energy is running through their body. And until that's addressed, it will run everything.

 

[21:33] And so I think what you're saying, I think for some women it's, if you're disconnected from your own feelings, how can you validate another is what I'm thinking? Because I find that some, if people are disconnected and, and a lot of times that's the problem at the root of hormone, imbalance is nervous system dysregulation, disconnection from emotions. How in the world can somebody who's in that state learn to connect with their emotions is the first thing, because I'm thinking, how is she going to validate another? Does that make sense?

 

[22:38] The good news is that we're actually all wired for empathy. Every single one of us, um, is wire wired for empathy. I heard Dr. Gur ma say that in a, in a talk recently. And I was so happy. He said that because some of us don't believe that we are. So the first thing is understand that every one of us is actually wired for empathy. The second part that I wanna say is that the research shows that when you, when you provide empathy, whether you feel like you're empathetic, whether you think you can do this or not, but if you actually just force yourself to do it like a feedback cycle, it actually starts to strengthen the brain connections to make you more empathetic.

 

[23:41]  And so as you provide these validation statements and especially, you know, for my staff, because they're doing this day in and day out, we require them to do it with every single person that they're speaking to. And we actually measure it, you know, in our quality assurance calls, they are actually improving upon their own empathetic response. So the reason I'm telling you this is because if you're listening to this and you wanna try it, don't worry. If you feel that you will not be able to do it, if you can just say the words, like I said, when you feel your walls going up, just say those words, you know, that sounds really challenging.

 

[24:32] Even if you don't mean them, because it's okay, the feeling will come when you say it and you practice it, you will start to actually increase those same happy, healthy hormones in yourself. And that is certainly mm-hmm, a huge thing. You will feel better about yourself. You'll know that you made an impact on another person and it's, it can hu. I mean, I remember the first, in the first few years when people were telling me, you know, Mary, I took this training and it didn't just change my communication. It literally changed my entire life. And I still hear that now to this day.

 

[25:09] So why do you think Mary, we are hardwired for empathy, little kids, you see this, oftentimes you see, you see more kids helping each other in the playground than you do one kid clobbering, another to take their toy. So why do you think that when I look around, I see a, a lack of empathy in a lot of places. So why is this happening? Well,

 

[25:32] I'll speak to the lack of empathy first, and this is just a theory. So this is not science based. This is just like my own observation, my own opinion. But I think that we we've been living through some disconnected times for probably about three decades. You know, we have women entering the workforce when, you know, 60 years ago that wasn't really the case. So we've sort of been going through this, um, conscious evolution of sorts, you know, and it changes the way things naturally were for, for millennia before that. And I think that there is a, a challenge with how children are being raised, you know, and I think it starts with coming out with bullying.

 

[26:19] And especially as women, that's not what we were built for. You know, that is that we were built to nurture. We were built to love. We are pure love, right. But if our behaviors are sort of creating a fork in the road, we've just gotta figure out that, that new balance. And so I have found that definitely through communication. It's a way it's a starting point, just one starting point of many mm-hmm where you can begin to train yourself back into that natural way. And especially, you know, I don't know about you, but I've been diving deep into like the feminine energy concept as well. And there's just so much to that. 

 

[27:26] Yeah, I know. I mean, we were, we were we for sure, I wasn't schooled in, you know, what is this energy body that we have? What is feminine energy? What are all these things? And so now I think a lot of us weren't and we're having to relearn it at a later age, you have so much great information in here. A as you're talking, I know one of the things in the book that you talk about is, you know, the empathy for not only other people, but for ourselves, and you talk about self love and you know, there's so, so many platitudes, oh, love yourself and get a pedicure.

 

[28:21]  And it's impossible to help someone heal their hormones when they have this negative chatter, it's almost like they have this abuser in their mind. That's constantly berating them cuz their cortisol will never get out of the toilet. How do you help women to start to change their thought patterns, to have empathy for themselves first and really turn the light of love onto themselves

 

[28:56] There's no way that your girlfriend is gonna look at you and tell you how horrible you are. Right. Mm-hmm no way she's immediately gonna tell you, you know, I know you're gonna get out of this. I know you're gonna be okay. I believe in you. It's okay. You know, she's going to go into that mode because she cares about you and loves you, but it's, it's almost like you have to step out of yourself and be your own girlfriend because you know, that's one of the things I learned. And so what I did, I kind of created this, I think as a five step process, I call it five steps to break through your breakdown.

 

[29:44] And so what I did was I wrote a list of all of the current issues or perceived issues I had in my life. You know, I think, I think it was like, uh, a key employee had just resigned and I had a big tax bill to pay with my business. You know, I just had some, a list of things. So I wrote out this list and there ended up being 20 things on the list. And when I looked at the list, I immediately had empathy for myself and I, and I remember looking at that list in the moment when I realized like, wow, anyone going through this amount of chaos in their life would be feeling the same way I do. So it's that same validation.

 

[30:38] So like I would go deep into my mind because of my own past traumas and think I'm gonna turn into a bad lady someday. I'm not gonna, you know, I'm not gonna be able to, uh, support myself. Well, what is that? That's the fight or flight, you know, that's our basic, when you talk about Maslow's hierarchy of needs, you know, that's that basic survival rung that we need food and shelter just to survive.

 

[31:24] And so when we're coming from that, you know, when you're talking about like manifesting, anytime you're manifesting from a place of fear and chaos, you are only going to create more fear and chaos. So it's like you have to slow yourself down. So once you can, you know, look at your situation, perhaps conjure up some empathy for yourself. And one thing I really recommend have a cry session if you can't cry, which I couldn't cry. I mean, if you would've met me six years ago, it had probably been 20 years since I shed a tear. Wow. That is such a, you know, somebody who's disconnected from their emotions. 

 

[32:18] But if we try to take actions when we're still in the fear and the chaos of the moment, really anything we try to create is gonna turn around and it's, it's not gonna work out the way that you think, but once you raise yourself up and whether you call that frequency, vibration, you know, feeling better, whatever words you like to use, anything you manifest from a place of empowerment is going to show up in your life faster, better, stronger, and be more long lasting.

 

[33:03]  It's just like if you ate steak every single day and that's all you ate, it's not healthy, right. It's unbalanced. And that emotion, energy, and motion needs to move through your body. And so if you're not crying, there's something wrong. Just like if you're not laughing, there's something wrong. And I, as you were talking, I was thinking, I love the suggestion you gave about the movies. What are some of your favorite movies to bring on a good cry?

 

[33:41] Well, recently I watched, um, the unforgiven with Sandra Bullock. I don't know if you've seen it, but it's absolutely beautiful. I was crying the entire time. You know, another one I'm good at this now, so I can bring up the tears at, at any movie really. Right. Another one was, uh, the tender bar that is a Ben Aflex show. It's really just a heartwarming movie. You know, it doesn't even have to be a sad movie or like peanut butter, Falcon, just these heartwarming stories that can bring emotion up in your body and something you said that I, I would really want to piggyback on. We were built to experience these emotions.

 

[34:39] Which means she raised me that way, the positive psychology movement while it's good. And, and we do wanna have a positive attitude or we wanna, you know, we wanna focus on, on the positive, but we've taken it so far into our society where there's almost like a guilt and shaming. If you have a negative thought that negative thought is a message for you. If you're feeling an, a it or a pain, that is a message for you. David Hawkins has another book called letting go, where he really takes you through a process where you get in touch with where these emotions are stored in your body. Mm-hmm another tip that I would have is, um, body work, you know, getting a massage it's self care. I agree with you. It's it's not about a spa day. It's about how you take care of yourself and emotions get lodged in the body. 

 

[35:48] Yeah. Very powerful. Because emotion is stored in the tissue. When you get body work to have a release. And then all of a sudden memories might start coming up. Feelings might start coming up and to allow that, and that's loving yourself right. To, to allow that we are gonna need to wrap up. I love this book. And one thing I wanna make sure to talk about is the a hundred things. I love about me. Talk about how this exercise came about. And I want you to, to kind of give everyone a challenge to do this.

 

[36:19] It sounds simple. So I believe at the time I was working with a friend of mine, he's a dating coach. And he had given me this assignment, which was to write a hundred things that I love about myself. He's really trying to get me to see my own value. Right. But the exercise just turned into something much deeper for myself. And I started writing a list and it's like, oh, I like my long hair. And I love my long legs. And you know, you kind of go through this superficial list of things. 

 

[37:01] This is not just about writing a love list about yourself, because what happened to me after, you know, the month was over when I got to number 99, number 99 and number 100. I remember I wrote, I am radiant. What I love about myself is I am radiant. And I think that that was number 99. And then number 100 was, I am a powerful creator and I could never have come to that moment of realization.

 

[37:55] So I've had women tell me like, oh, I love that. I love the color teal. And then all of a sudden they, she was wearing a teal blouse and someone complimented her on that color. I've had all these like little strange sort of, um, synchronistic things that have happened with this list. So I really encourage you to do this because, and it will take a while. It's not, I know it sounds easy, but it's not easy, but don't give up until you get to a hundred. So you just take a piece of paper and you say 100 things. 

 

[38:39] So it's about communication, not only with others, but yourself, because the communication you have with yourself really sets the tone for your hormonal balance, which is the foundation for your physical health and wellbeing, mental and emotional health and wellbeing. And I'm gonna challenge you to do those things. Maybe pick up a copy of Mary's book, conscious communications, where can they find the book, Mary, and find out more about you?

 

[39:21] I think the easiest place to find the book is on Amazon and it's just conscious communications on Amazon. And then also my, my favorite social media is LinkedIn. I know that isn't everyone's favorite social media. So we also have Instagram and Facebook. My website is Mary shores.com. That is M a R Y S H O R E S. And you can find all of our social media links on there. So love to connect with anyone. If you've, if you're checking out the book, I always say, if you read the description or the back cover of it you'll know right away, whether this book is for you.

 

[39:57] Thank you so much, Mary, for that great resource for writing this for your journey, for your tender, loving care of women at midlife and the tools that you've offered for us. I think they're very powerful. So I'm gonna challenge everyone to, uh, take a look at conscious communications, do your a hundred things and really up level your communication. Maybe look at some of the books we've mentioned by David Hawkins, the letting go book, the power versus force. Even the one by Pema children is good. She's got some beautiful books because having great hormone balance at midlife and beyond and great health is not just about going to the gym and kicking it out with vitamin X, right? It's not just about eating the right diet. It's not just about supplements. Are those things important? Sure. They are, but they're not they're necessary, but not sufficient. So you really have to up level, like we started the episode talking about changing your mind.

 

[40:56]  So I really want you to start thinking about what am I willing to change? What am I willing to let go of with my chronic thought problem patterns? We think over 70,000 thoughts a day 99% of them are the same. So what new thoughts are you willing to bring in today? What emotions are you willing to allow? What kind of TLC nurturing are you going to allow yourself to give to yourself and to others in your life so they can have that empathy. So I think that great questions yield great opportunity for improvement and new actions in the future. Thank you so much for speaking with us today, Mary, about this and sharing your wonderful book. 

 

[41:51] Thanks so much for spending your precious time with us and, uh, look forward. If you wanna join me on Instagram at Kirin Dunston MD or Facebook at Kirin Dunston MD. Look forward to your comments about Mary's episode and her book. And I would love it. If some of you would post your a hundred things you love about yourself. Wanna ask me a question. I do a Q and a episode every month. So you can do that on my website. Just go on the podcast page and click the microphone and you can leave me a voice memo. Yep. I'll hear it. And maybe I'll respond during our next episode until next week. Peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening. 

 

 

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Are Your Subconscious Beliefs Hurting Your Hormone Balance?

Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast! In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Nicole Huffman to discuss how our subconscious beliefs can impact our hormone balance.

 

If you're struggling with hormonal issues, it's important to explore all potential causes - including your beliefs and mindset. As Dr. Huffman explains, our subconscious beliefs can have a powerful impact on our physical health, including our hormone balance.

 

If you're ready to dive deeper into exploring your own beliefs and how they might be impacting your health, tune in now! You'll learn valuable insights from Dr. Huffman that can help you create lasting positive change in your life.

 

In this episode, you will learn:

• How our subconscious beliefs can impact our hormone balance
• What kind of beliefs might be causing hormonal imbalances
• How to start exploring your own subconscious beliefs
• Lifestyle and diet tips for optimizing hormone health
• Methods to use for unresolved stress
• How to enhance your energy and vitality at any age
• And more!

 

So whether you're struggling with hormonal issues or just want to learn more about how our beliefs impact our health, tune in now for an enlightening conversation with Dr. Nicole Huffman.

 

If you enjoy this episode, please subscribe to the Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review! We appreciate your support as we continue working to empower women everywhere to take control of their hormone health.

 

[01:19] My guest today. You're gonna love her. I know you love all my guests, but you're really gonna love her because she's gonna talk about a topic that's super important and just might the missing key. When it comes to your hormone balance, I find that women who don't achieve the hormone balance and health, that's possible for them over a 40 often neglect this step. So this is why it's super important. 

 

[02:12] Dr. Nicole Huffman is a naturopathic medical doctor and her passion is finding the root cause of her patients and balances and dis ease, not just solving the symptom picture. She believes the body has the ability to heal itself, given the correct personalized treatment plan. And after restoring the basic determinants of health, a certified neuro emotional technique practitioner, Nicole knows firsthand the dramatic effects that healing negative subconscious beliefs can have on health. She explores these and more topics related to root cause resolution approaches to health on her biweekly podcast called coffee with the docs. Welcome Dr. Nicole Huffman. 

 

[03:26] I'm so excited to ha,ve you and dive into the topic of, are your subconscious beliefs hurting your hormone balance? I, yes. Right? So I know some people are wondering why aren't they so excited, weirdly excited about this topic? Why tell everyone why you're excited about it?

 

[03:45] And I don't necessarily think it's because doctors like don't wanna help their patients with that. I think honestly, just a lot of practitioners aren't really taught how to help and especially the docs who are, you know, sort of in the more standard standard type of medicine who are helping with hormones. It's just not part of their repertoire to really deal with that side. But we know as practitioners in the functional world, that if you look at hormones and if your stress hormone cortisol is too high or which is gonna affect insulin, it's also gonna affect all of our sex hormones, which is gonna throw off the whole hormonal balance. And so it's just so important to look at that piece of the puzzle. 

 

[04:43] And I know the first thing that women say to me is like Dr. Kiran, how of my , how does my subconscious thought that runs my body have anything to do with my hormones? They're like, no, no, I've got a very menopause problem. I've got a menopause problem. I don't have a subconscious thought problem. 

 

[05:15] I think there's that quote that's like you can't solve the problem with the same brain that created it. I mean, it is one of those things where it is helpful to have a practitioner, somebody who does work with a subconscious mind sort of help you identify what belief systems you may have. And if you were talking even just about what you were just saying with menopause, like if you have a subconscious belief program, that's like, well, my mom started menopause early than I'm going to too. Well, your body listens to everything your mind says, right? 

 

[06:05] And so I do think there are little tricks and tools to kind of figuring out your own subconscious belief systems and really that's how come, you know, meditation can be so helpful because it's being aware, it's taking a step back and observing yourself, which is hard to do, you know, observing without judgment, but you can kind of start to see like, oh gosh, I always tend to think this one thing today, I was working with a patient where she had kind of figured out on her own that every time she experiences a lot of joy, something bad happens. 

 

[06:54] Yeah. I think that's super important to, to realize. I remember when I practiced regular gynecology, women used to come in and they'd be in their forties having crazy periods cuz that's what we do in our forties. And they would say, well, my mother had a hysterectomy when she was 45. So I think it's time for mine.

 

[07:16] And so you mentioned that working with someone who can help them to identify. So I know some people are thinking, whoa, who would I look for? What kind of person would I look for? Who helps people with their subconscious beliefs?

 

[07:37] I mean, so one of the practices, modalities I use to help my patients with their emotional, I don't even really wanna call it emotional work. I feel like the word emotional just gets such a bad reputation. But if we look at it as sort of solving unresolved stress, right? Like we know that if there is stress in the body, that's unresolved, it's gonna cause and balances. Right? So if we look at it that way, the modality I like to use is something called neuro emotional technique. So I do know that you can look for different practitioners, not everybody practices the exact same, but you know, if that's a resource and then I would say there are so many other different types of ways to access that area and kind of the subconscious brain and figure out how to create more balance. 

 

[08:39] And EFT, emotional freedom technique. That's a pretty widely used technique. Now there's a lot of different practitioners in that. One of my fellow colleagues does hypnosis work. That's another really powerful way to access the subconscious brain. So I, you know, a lot of it is dealing with somebody that you trust, right? So if you have a functional practitioner like yourself, or if you're wor somebody who's working with me and they wanna dive deeper and it's not something that I wanna do or tackle fully on my own, then I've got some people that I recommend as well. But there's just so many different ways to access it that I don't know. 

 

[09:51] Yeah. I think those are all great techniques. And I love that you mentioned meditation first because I find for a lot of people they're just so busy that they're not aware of the conversations going on in the background, in their mind. That is the content of the subconscious mind.

 

[10:44] Absolutely. I mean, what I learned back in the day was that our subconscious brain runs about 98% of the show. So that seems like a pretty decently high percentage. So we might wanna understand a little bit more about what our subconscious mind is saying then. And also we have to understand that it's not bad. This isn't like a bad or good, or we have to get those thoughts out. Our subconscious brain is constantly trying to keep us safe. 

 

[11:37] You know, as you're talking, Maslow's hierarchy of needs popped into my head. Mm-hmm because I was thinking about the fact that we are neurologically wired for safety, right? Mm-hmm reptilian brain keep us safe at all costs, but we have this need for self-actualization

 

[11:59] can go. Exactly contrary. I, I always tell the women, I work with that part of your health problems is that you're not doing what you wanna do in all areas of your life. There's usually some what I call spiritual constipation or creative constipation.

 

[12:18] That. And you've got to do the things that you came here to do in order to free up that energy. So it's, it's no longer stuck, which is along Maslow's hierarchy of needs. But like you're talking about our subconscious is programed to keep us safe. So most of us have safety beliefs running in the background. Oh, you can't quit your job because then you'll be homeless and destitute. Oh, you can't, you know, you can't this, you have to that. What are your thoughts about that?

 

[12:49] I completely agree. I feel like a lot of my patients too, I'll see them. They're tired. Right? Fatigue is such a complaint. And it's like, well, okay, are, are they actually tired? Cuz their body doesn't have energy maybe, but are they also tired? Because nothing is really that inspiring to them right now. Right. They they're in a job where they're like you were saying like, I love them spiritually constipated. They don't have that relationship with the diviner whatever. Or they aren't in a job that's super fulfilling. They feel like they're doing the same thing every day. They're you know? Right. I mean, you're, you're not gonna be this inspired, energetic person. Sometimes if the life stuff isn't necessarily together, now there can be somebody, another person who's doing all those same things.

 

[13:57] It's so true. It's like, how's your marriage? How are your relationships? How's your job? You know, the whole time at you're at work. Are you thinking if I have to do this one thing again, I'm gonna stick a fork in my eye. you know, your body hears that 

 

[14:12] yep, absolutely. And to the point where you should sort of be careful about certain things that you're saying, I mean, no doubt. So I just feel like the first step really is as simple as just being aware. Right. And then I think there's a million steps you can take after that.

 

[14:31] Awesome. So let's dive a little deeper into this issue of hormone balance and subconscious beliefs. So maybe everybody listening's thinking, okay, I get it. My subconscious beliefs are, are part running part of the show, but what hormones are being affected, can you help everybody understand

 

[14:50] That? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'm gonna break it down from more of just like a stress component. Right. Okay. I mean we know like I was kind of saying earlier, like if your cortisol is off, right, you're having some underlying stress. And when I say underlying stress is, you know, sometimes I have patients and I'm sure you do too. Who are like, yeah, nothing really stressful is going on in my life though. So why do I have low testosterone? Why do I have low progesterone? And I'm like, all right, let's take a step back. 

 

[15:43] And when your body is stressed, it's not thinking, Hey, now's a great time to have a baby. Or now's a really great time to get my reproductive system in order, right? When the body's stressed, it's number one, objective is survival, that's it? And so our progesterone levels are low. Our testosterone levels are low that can affect our estrogen, our D H G a levels. And then we might start having like some really wonky periods might skip a period. Maybe we have really heavy bleeds because our estrogen is way outta control and we don't have the progesterone reserves to balance it either. 

 

[16:39] How, when you have higher amounts of cortisol, your oxytocin go down and when your cortisol is higher, your insulin goes higher. So we're talking about just one hormone that can really start throwing off the balance of so many different things and oxytocin for those of you just need a little refresher. I mean, that's the hormone of safety and of love and connection. And if you're not feeling that way, maybe one of your subconscious belief systems is I deserve to be alone, or I'm never gonna find a partner or whatever it might be around love. Maybe your oxytocin levels are lower than we'd like them, and that's gonna upset your sex hormones as well. Does that make sense?

 

[17:20] Absolutely. And I love how you linked it so clearly to what you said earlier, solving unresolved stress and even these low levels of stress and, and just, you know, being at work and thinking negative thoughts about your job or your coworkers or your boss or your being at home and thinking negative thoughts about your partner or current world conditions. Yes. Thinking negative thoughts about I, I went down that negative pathway. I have to admit it with certain life events recently. It took me a minute to get myself together. 

 

[18:22] So we talked about some methods that you use and recommend to help solve unresolved stress. And I know some people are listening now and they're thinking, oh, you mean my body's listening to that rampage. That goes on my, in my head when I drive in traffic every day. yes. So what are some steps that you might give people today who are now realizing? Ooh, I didn't know that this was affecting my hormones and I have unresolved stress that they could start using.

 

[19:02] Absolutely. I mean, like we sort of talked about just calming the brain, slowing down, listening to what some of those thoughts that we might be saying in our head, you know, one of the things I really like to do, I don't know if you ever looked at the book. Gosh it's so it's old called the artist's way. She talks a lot about doing morning pages. So you literally wake up and you're just writing three pages every morning, even if it's not, you know, anything really exciting. It's just that idea of kind of getting that subconscious brain, those thoughts out onto the page. 

 

[19:53] Like I mentioned before, Dr. Joe Des Benza. I just, sometimes it's nice to hear somebody else's voice guiding you into certain things, and then you feel like you have some direction instead of I feel like I hear so many people say, I don't know what I'm supposed to be doing or thinking about. It's like, well, nothing supposed to be thinking about nothing and that's really hard to do. So I do find like guide meditations can be really helpful. And if you're somebody who is interested in sort of working with somebody, you know, whether it's somebody like me or another practitioner who does neuro emotional technique, I think that can be really helpful just to have somebody else help you out a little bit to see mm-hmm , you know, what some of those thoughts might be.

 

[20:43] Maybe that's your relationship. Maybe that's your career path. Maybe that's where you're living or who you're surrounding yourself by your friendships. Right? Because it's everything around that comprises your health, not just what you're eating, what supplements you're taking. And if you're curious about how it is affecting your health, I'm sure, you know, if they're working with you or if they're working with, you know, another practitioner like myself actually measuring your hormones, I think is great. Whether you're doing it with something like a Dutch test or a serum, uh, you know, maybe day 19 through 22 of your cycle, something like that.

 

[21:35] I mean, the world stuff is huge right now for people. And I've been finding that even just helping and doing some emotional work with people around what's going on in the world and, you know, getting rid of, not getting rid of, but maybe lessening that voice of I'm. I can't be happy cuz I'm not in control. Right. Because there's so much going on. That's not in our control and really there is any ways. And so how can you find joy despite of that? And at, and I think also, I mean, I noticed my own stuff, just moving to, I live in a ranch now in Colorado and it's beautiful and there's, you know, it's a lot more manual labor than I've done in quite some time in my hormones shifted significantly. And again, it was a good stress. I love where I live and I love the change, but it was such a drastic change on my body that even good stresses can throw off your hormones too. So I think a lot of it is just taking stock instead of just, okay, well I'm this age. So now my hormones do this. It's like, it doesn't have to necessarily be like that. It's more, how can we look at our life as a whole and what maybe other things that just start changing for women around their forties.

 

[22:49] Yes. I love that. You said it doesn't have to be that way. I hope everybody heard that you can take matters into your own hands. And I'm wondering not all physicians, most regular docs and, and not all naturopaths, like you are really talk about subconscious beliefs affecting hormones and health. So how did you come to know this and become more interested in this as an aspect of your patient's health that you needed to help them with?

 

[23:19] Absolutely. I would say quite reluctantly my mentor had suggested that I take a course on neuro emotional techniques. So I could also help my patients with, we call it the triad of health. So there's how are things affecting a patient chemically, structurally or emotionally? And I was like, eh, I don't think I really wanna get into the emotional side of my patients. And he's like, uh, I think, I think you should go take this course. And you know, when your mentor tells you to do something and you're like, okay, fine. so I was having horrible seasonal allergies.

 

[24:14] Right? So there's a hundred people in the class and he starts doing neuro emotional work on me. And it's very quick, right? A lot of our patients say it's like six years of therapy in 30 seconds. It's not a long drawn out thing. It's not talk therapy. And so using applied kinesiology or muscle testing, he, my allergy point turned out to be emotional allergy point is just a reflex point on the body that we used for applied kinesiology or muscle testing. And it turned out, it went back to when my parents had gotten divorced when I was 11. 

 

[25:06] So I was like, wow, this is embarrassing. And I was so exhausted from it that actually at the lunch break of the seminar, I went, took a nap in my car. And within three days my seasonal allergies were completely gone. I mean, completely gone. This was something that I had struggled with my whole life. And so that was all I needed to learn more, to dig more. I was still a medical student. I got certified in this technique while in med school. And I use it with my patients, um, almost every day. And it's not just allergies, right? 

 

[26:01] And so we start using this applied kinesiology in ways of accessing the subconscious mind and applied kinesiology or muscle testing, isn't the only way to use that. It's just how I learned this one technique. And it was such a game changer for me. And now I live in a, I mean, I live in a ranch with horses. I couldn't even touch a horse before. So for me it was so profound that I knew there had to be something more to this. And you know, some people will be like, well, don't you think it's just the placebo effect. 

 

[26:45] And I love using things like homeopathy and flower essences, and other things for people who might not wanna do a lot of the standard emotional work. There are so many different ways you can access it using these different energetic remedies. And the people don't even have to believe in it or be open to it because you'll see how their body changes. But I will have to say is that if someone isn't open to it, there's another belief system there, right? Because again, it's just the subconscious brain trying to keep them safe. So that was sort of my own, I guess, initiation into this world.

 

[27:22] A great story. I love it. Yes. Emotional component, the intangibles like Dr. Marisa calls them your thoughts, your feelings, your beliefs, super powerful for your health. It reminds me of a technique. A friend of mine performs called site K, which was developed by Bruce Lipton, where they do use the different energy work to reverse test your beliefs and your feelings and thoughts. And then to reverse the kind of energy that's run, you're running your body's running on that.

 

[28:10] You do have to be open to it. That's kinda why I love homeopathy is because I do feel like homeopathy and flowers and sometimes can access a point where if they're a little skeptical, it gets them more open to being able to look at other things. But I just find, and I'm sure you have these people too, when you're miserable enough or you're really ready to look for a change in your health. You sort of don't care how crazy something looks and yeah. And I always feel like a lot of people will say like, oh gosh, energy medicine. It's so woo, woo. And I'm like, energy medicine is the future man. So get on board . I mean, it's just, it uses quantum physics and it uses things that are way more scientific than most of us can even comprehend.

 

[29:14] Yes. And I just wanna reiterate what you're saying that it is scientifically proven. I just read a wonderful book about it called tuning the human biofield. And she goes through all the science and why all of these methods are basically validated and the, the energy body and the energy work. And, and she also talks about why mainstream medicine doesn't accept it. 

 

[29:45] So yeah. I love this quote that you shared from Nelson Mandela. I hadn't heard this one. There is no passion to be found in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living. And I'm wondering if you can share what that means to you and how this infuses the work that you do with your patients.

 

[30:04] All I know is that I, when I go into something, I kind of go all in. And so if there tends to be spaces where I'm like, ah, it just feels like we need a change or we need to infuse some more joy. Like when this whole pandemic thing first started happening, I was like, all right, I gotta find an outdoor sport. That something that's brings me joy because you know, that's just me. I can't sit inside my house all day. Right. Mm-hmm and I'm, and I wasn't gonna do that anyways, besides the point. But so I sort of landed into horseback riding as a way of, and it was perfect.

 

[30:52] I mean, we went trail rides, we did all these outdoors things and now I live on a ranch. I mean, it was just, so I just find that for me personally, I think that we are all capable of so much if we sort of step outside of our comfort zones. And one of my favorite questions is like, what can I do now that will bring me more joy? Or what can I start soon that will bring more joy and creativity. And for me at the time was getting involved with horses now for somebody else that might be, you know, painting, or it might be, I just think fear, fear, which also can, you know, is a subconscious brain, prevents a lot of people from doing things that they might really love doing.

 

[31:53] I so agree. And so many women seems like when they get to menopause, perimenopause is coming and then menopause and they're like, I just wanna retire and they've given up, why do you think this is that so many of us just give up?

[32:12] I feel like part of it is what we've been taught or told about menopause, right? I mean, it's this horrible thing. And we go through and we feel terrible and we lose our sex drive and blah, blah, blah. Right. I just feel like a lot of it is the stories that we've been told or things that have been passed down. So again, changing those belief patterns and changing those thoughts. And also I'm sure there is a component of just when you're some of your hormones go down, there are some things that change. 

 

[33:04] You know, just different things like that. I think there's so many ways we can change and work with our physiology. That's changing to still lead these really bold and beautiful lives. But a lot of it, I think is just women are taught that there's nothing they can do. This is just something they have to go through. And I'm so glad that there are more doctors like you who are starting to show that this isn't some, we just don't have to do this. And it doesn't have to be horrible. There's so many ways that we can work with our bodies to make it wonderful.

 

[33:37] Yeah. As you were talking, I was thinking, I totally blame hormones, but then as you were talking longer, I was like, well, I totally blame doctors. because we're not doing a good job of telling women. You don't have to suffer this way. There is a better way and we can help you. But it really is in my opinion, hormones and doctor's fault. Absolutely.

 

[34:05] And I do think when your hormones change, I mean, there's no doubt. There's a lot that changes in our energy and our vitality, but I do also feel like there are ways to enhance that if that makes sense.

 

[34:18] Yes, absolutely. What are some of your favorite ways? I know you talked about testing. I, we, we always are about tests don't guess, but for women who are kind of, definitely in their forties, fifties, what are some lifestyle changes that you pretty universally recommend women make that you find help them?

 

[34:39] Yeah. I think part of it again, is finding some sort of passion and joy, right? A lot of these women either have kids and they haven't really done a lot for themselves lately. So finding, you know, something that brings them joy and them passion because that's gonna ignite a whole lot of things. I also think that women's bodies are just genuinely not as insulin sensitive anymore. So I do recommend a lot of dietary changes, whether that looks more like a Brianna talks about like a keto green or just a more low carb, higher fat approach to life, maybe adding in some more fasting. I think women who are in menopause do really well with fasting and they seem to feel a lot better. 

 

[35:59] Yes. I agree with all of that. And some the, just the small things that you've mentioned have, can have powerful impacts. So whether you're not, you're a woman who's resourced to get the high level tests that we mentioned earlier or not. These are things that you can start doing in your life pretty quickly and inexpensively. I love your podcast coffee with the docs, and I know I'm gonna be on a guest on there soon. And I'm wondering if you can share you've you've done a lot of episodes. What are some of your most memorable guests and topics and takeaways from interviewing all those doctors?

 

[36:40] Oh, what a fun question. Let's see. One of the favorites that just pops into my mind right away was interviewing Todd white. Who's the CEO of dry farm wines. We were chatting for almost 45 minutes before we even started talking about wine. It was so funny. He was talking so much about living a purposeful life and how you eat and fasting and meditation and how it's an integral part of his company. I just found it to be super fascinating, sort of like we were just talking about like incorporating everything, not just, oh, this supplement, oh, this biodentical progesterone. 

 

[37:41] And I just felt like that was a really, really amazing episode too. And it's one of our more recent ones that we just, so I think a lot of it though, and I have to say, we always ask every guest two questions. So I'll ask you and you are on ours, but one of them is what is your latest biohack? And it's funny, some people are like, I hate that word. And I'm like, that's fine. , what's something that makes your life easier. And you know what a lot of people said while we were recording during these last two years, a lot of people said the sun. 

 

[38:44] Yeah. I love that. As you were saying it, I'm thinking, yeah. I'll sign up for that more sun, more nature, more beach, more being outdoors.

 

[39:07] awesome. Well, I am so glad to have you on today and to talk on this topic of how our subconscious beliefs affect our hormones. I know that everybody's gotten a lot out of it and I'd love that you mentioned joy many, many times. I always take notes on some of the, the insightful things my guests say, and you said, what can I do now? That will bring me more joy. And so I want to leave everyone with that. And I want you to think when we get off the podcast, what can you do now that could bring you more joy, because if you move towards joy, you're moving towards hormone balance. 

 

[40:01] Yeah. Thank you. So I'm pretty active on Instagram. Mine is Dr. Nicole N M D like naturopathic medical doctor. Uh, my website is Dr. Nicole Huffman, H U F F M a N. And that's as I'm not on like the talks and all those things yet. So just kind of sticking with the one and then our podcast, which we have episodes that come out every two weeks. Sometimes we'll have one come out weekly and that's coffee with the docs. 

 

[40:35] Yes, definitely. Look Dr. Nicole up, check out her podcast, visit her on Instagram, check out her website. Thank you so much for being with us today, Nicole, and keep up the awesome work that you're doing.

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Happy Vagina for a Happy Life

It's time to talk about our happy places - our vaginas! On this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, host Dr. Kyrin Dunston is joined by special guest Dr. Betsy Greenleaf, an OBGYN and pelvic floor physical therapist, premier womens health expert, a best-selling author, entrepreneur, inventor, and business leader specializing in female pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery for over 20 years, to talk all things vagina. Dr. Greenleaf, is a trailblazer as the first female in the United States to become board certified in Urogynecology, CEO of The Pelvic Floor Store, a blog at drbetsygreenleaf.com, and she is the host of Some Of Your Parts Podcast, and host of the happy vagina rally summit.

 

She dedicated to women's wellness and the notion that you are greater than the sum of your parts. and BODY MIND SPIRIT podcast that focuses on the trinity of total health. She is the best-selling co-author of You Were Made To Be Unstoppable. 

 

In this episode you will learn:

-How your vagina changes throughout your life

-Pelvic floor physical therapy and how it can help with things like incontinence, pain during intercourse, and more

-The importance of self-care for your vagina

-And much more!

 

So whether you're dealing with the changes that come with menopause, are concerned about your pelvic health, or just want to learn more about taking care of your vagina, this episode is for you! Tune in now and let's get started on having a happy vagina for a happy life.

 

[01:15] Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kirin. Thank you so much for joining me today. Today. We are gonna talk about vaginas. Yes, I know this is probably something that you don't hear talked about that much, but the truth is you have one, you take it with you everywhere, and it's a big part of what makes you a healthy woman. And my expert today knows this better than anyone. She is an expert in vagina house. She has a great event coming up. We're gonna tell you about, and she has a voice and she's not gonna be silent. And you shouldn't be silent either about what's going on for you. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we will get started. Premier women's health expert, a bestselling author, entrepreneur inventor, and business leader, specializing in female, pelvic medicine and reconstructive surgery for over 20 years.

 

[02:14] Dr. Betsy Greenleaf is a trailblazer as the first female in the us to become a board certified Euro gynecologist. Yay, Betsy. She is the CEO of the pelvic floor store. She has a blog at Dr. Betsy greenleaf.com. She's the host of some of your parts podcast, and also she hosts the happy vagina rally summit. We're gonna tell you about she's dedicated to women's wellness and the notion that you are greater than the sum of your parts and body mind spirit podcast that focuses on the Trinity of total health. She's the best selling co-author of you are made to be unstoppable. Welcome Dr. Betsy Greenley. 

 

[02:55] You so much, Dr. Kirin for having me here. I'm so excited. I love talking to you. So this is gonna be great.

 

[03:00] yes. Betsy is so much fun. Not only is she brilliant, uh, when it comes to women's health and special, especially vaginal ecology and pelvic floor things, but just such a free thinker and out very outspoken. She shared the quote from Alan Albright with me before this episode, and I said this so speaks to who she is in the world. And I think who I am too, right. It took me quite a long time to develop a voice. And now that I have it, I am not going to be silent. So did you used to, to not have a voice on important matters?

 

[03:37] You know, I, unfortunately I think I've always just kind of not had a filter, just spoke my mind, but I did find very quickly that especially in traditional medicine, especially in, in, unfortunately the time that I did my training being in a male dominant field, that people did not wanna hear me. And it did get me in trouble, especially my first, my actually very first job. I came out in the early two thousands thinking, come on, it's two thousands. Like, you know, this is crazy. Like how bad can, you know, medicine be? And I'm going into a hospital where it was like stuck in the 1950s. And so they were not used to having somebody that spoke up.

 

[04:42] Later on, I spoke to some of my family colleagues and they're like, you, what is the doctor's lounge? And I was like, uh, last time I looked, I do have a degree. They're like, oh, we don't go in there. Only the men go in there. So yeah. So unfortunately I kind of learned the hard way that people don't always wanna hear what you have to say. So I do have a tendency to rock the boat, but I just, you know, as much as they've tried to squelch me over the years, I still haven't learned to shut up and I'm just gonna keep talking. 

 

[05:12] oh my gosh. You just brought back so many memories from when I first came out of residency and went to work in this hospital and the doctor's lounge. Oh my gosh. Yes. You were like an anomaly. You were like a rare bird walking into the Seren Getty and they would look at you like they were like lions you're doing here. And do you know what? I even remember that in the, so in the surgical suite, they didn't even have a female doctor's locker room. Yes. The only doctor's locker room, they said, this is the doctor's locker room was for males and females. So they would tell us, you have to go in there and change. I'm just remembering this. And of course, none of us wanted to, so we didn't. 

 

[06:05] I think it's still like that in some of the hospitals I go to, it says like doctors' locker room and then there's the nurses' locker room. And I'm like, but there's a lot of male nurses. And obviously there's a lot of female doctors. So, but you know, the, the men go into the doctors when the female go into the nurses.

 

[06:21] and God forbid, you would, you would raise your hand or say something at the, you know, the OB GYN staff meeting. They really would look at you like with these daggers, like, are you real? Like, it's enough that we gave you a seat at the table, but you're gonna open your mouth and say something really

 

[06:38] It's actually, you know, it's funny too. Cause I actually even started out in general surgery before I switched to OB G a N. And I remember walking into the operating rooms and like the doctors would look up and they'd be like, uh, you, what am I gonna talk to you about? And I would go home and study the sports page. Everybody else was study like surgery, textbooks. I was studying the sports page. So I had something I could walk in and talk to them about. 

 

[07:04] Maybe I should have done that. I didn't think of that. And I think it's important thatm in listening know kind of what the environment was like for us and still is in the hospital environment, because it will help you to understand a lot of why you're not getting what you need from medicine. Because if this is the oppressive environment that the doctors are living in, when it, it comes to women, this is what is being translated to you, without words in the care that you're receiving or not receiving, and the attention to your vagina and lady parts that you're probably not getting to the level that you need it. So that's why I think it's important to know. So let's dive into talking about, well, first you're the first certified urogynecologist female in the us. That's amazing. Yeah. What prompted you to want to go into urogynecology?

 

[08:06] You know, what's interesting. So I told you I started out in general surgery and I was the person who I wanted more of a relationship with my patients and listen, general surgeons are amazing people, but I found for me, they were too much like body mechanics, you know, get in, get the job done, get out, but I, and not have a relationship with the patients. And so I wanted a relationship with, with the patients I was going around on general surgery and I was the one who was rounding and being. 

 

[08:56] I didn't necessarily wanna deliver the babies partially. Cause I like to sleep at night babies come at all hours of the day. And so they told me that doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. And it wasn't until my very last rotation as a OB GYN resident that I did Euro guide. And I'm like, this is amazing. I mean, this is what I've been telling people. I wanna do, you know, I was being told before, like, that's blasphemous, you can't just do the surgical aspect. And so, yeah. So I found that and uh, I got really lucky because I was a month from graduation and most fellowships have already accepted their fellows into the program. 

 

[09:59] Yeah. Amazing. And so you've had this really deep dive into pelvic floor disorder. I know you're very passionate about the VA biome and you're holding this event, uh, the puppy vagina rally, that's coming up soon. We will have a link in the show notes for you guys to sign up. And what are some of the most interesting things that you learned doing the interviews for this event about the vagina that you would like to share with.

 

[10:32] Everyone? You know, it's been so much fun cuz every time I interview people, I think like all of us as we talk to people, it's not just the conversation, but then it's an exchange and we're learning so much from each other. I think, you know, part of it was being traditionally trained. We didn't get a lot of training in sexuality. In fact, actually they took it out of the curriculum when I was in medical school. And I think even when it was in the curriculum, it was only like a week long. So we have a couple speakers that talk about sexuality that like from Susan Bratton to, I have a woman who is the erotic massage coach.

 

[11:31] And I'm like bringing in this woman, who's the tic massage coach, like talking to her, first of all, she is just so much fun. I'm like, wow, I never even thought about that as like an option. And when you first hear about it, she does these classes on like how to like kind of, you know, get your partner aroused. But I was like, well, that doesn't sound fun for, for me or the woman, but it is super empowering. 

 

[12:27] So it has been really enlightening along the way. And of course we have you talking about menopause on the summit too. So a lot of fun little tidbits from Dr. Karen. So it is just, it was a lot of fun making it. And I mean, I can't, I could go off on hours for all the different speakers that we had. We actually had to kind of hold it down to 30 speakers. Cause that was the other thing at first, it was turning into this week long summit. And my, I really wanted to address busy women because I don't know about you, but I don't really have a lot of time to sit there and watch a lot of videos. So I wanted, we decided to par it down, make it 30, 30 different speakers over a four day period. So in like short half hour session. So you could just kind of get in, get the information and get back on, you know, with your life.

 

[13:18] Yeah, I am super excited to hear it. Definitely wanna hear about that massage therapist you talked about. So why is the vagina so important? I know some women here get it. Any woman who's had recurrent Vitis. Oh my gosh. That's probably one of the most frustrating things for women. And if you've had that, you probably know what a big deal the vagina is. But I think that most people don't get the importance of the vagina. Just like they don't get the importance of their mouth. People are like, yeah, my mouth, what do you, what about it? I chew food. I swallow it. I go to the dentist, I brush my teeth big deal. And I'm like, no, your mouth is everything. So why is the vagina so important when it comes to women's health? 

 

[14:05] And it it's been fascinating over the years to find the connections between the gut, the brain and the vagina. And even if you're talking about the mouth, when we talk about microbiome, so microbiome are the small microorganisms that live in different areas of our body. So our microbiome of our mouth is different than that of our gut is different than the vagina, but they all interact. So, you know, starting with the mouth, we're 75% of us are chronically dehydrated. So if you're dehydrated, you're gonna actually throw off the healthy bacteria in the mouth and that's where your digestion begins. And if your digestion isn't good or the bacteria in your mouth, isn't good.

 

[14:56] That's gonna throw off your gut health and your stomach health. And we know that the gut health, 95% of our happy hormones are made in our gut. And 80% of our immune system is made in our gut. So if our gut is off, that can lead to inflammatory conditions, autoimmune conditions, probably 90% of the medical conditions out there today are either caused by or aggravated by things in the gut. And then things like anxiety and depression are aggravated by our gut. And then if the gut is off, that throws off the microbiome of the vagina, and then we're more susceptible to recurrent geese and recurrent vaginal infections.

 

[15:57] And so it will dampen sex drive and fertility. And because the brain doesn't know the difference between wanting to have a baby wanting to have fun. So now a lot of times we, you know, women, especially postmenopausal women would come in that like I have no sex drive, gimme hormones and hormones are a great tool and they are amazing and they work, but in some women, it doesn't completely fix the problem. And then we gotta go look at the, the microbiome because if the microbiome of the vagina is off, the brain is going okay, it shouldn't be reproducing right now. Let's dampen everything. 

 

[16:46] I think that's so important. So thank you for highlighting that is that, you know, with the modern age birth control, we have uncoupled sex from reproduction and we just wanna have it because we enjoy it. It improves intimacy or for whatever reason your body doesn't see it that way, it still sees it. As you get, you're rewarded with a sex drive when you are optimally healthy, cuz then it thinks you'll make a healthy baby and you'll be around to take care of it for 18 years. But how interesting that there's data that if you, your vaginal environment is off, that it's gonna feed back into your brain to be a kill switch on your sex drive. 

 

[17:50] Yeah. And then it feeds into, you know, hormones do play a part because if we're not getting estrogen well and there's other receptors in the vagina, if we're not getting hormones to the vagina, the vaginal tissue thins out and our healthy bacteria, the lactobacillus lives in like the symbiotic relationship with us. Like it lives off our, off of our dead tissues, which sounds kind of gross, but it eats something called glycogen and it survives on that. And in return, the healthy bacteria produces hydro peroxide, which keeps the vagina very acidic, which fights all the yeast and the bacteria. 

 

[18:40] Everything connects to everything else, thing else everything's related. Um, and I love how I love when women see that light bulb go off and no longer is it like, oh, I just have a recurrent vaginitis problem. And they get it that, oh my gut micro flora is off. Oh my mouth, my hormones. Right? All these things. And so we're gonna have a link to the happy vagina rally. I'm wondering, they're gonna get lots of great information there. There's so many women I find in their forties and fifties who start having problems with their pelvic floor. And I find I'm amazed by this. You're probably used to this. They don't even wanna talk about it, but to their providers, cuz they're so embarrassed, I've had women, uh, and I'll ask them, are you having a problem with, you know, something protruding from your vagina you're notch for what it is and they'll go yes. And I say, well, why don't you say something? 

 

[19:59] Sure. You know, this is, I can't tell you. I mean, being a gynecologist is what I did every single day of my life. And yet every single day I would have a woman in the office that goes, oh, I'm the only one this has ever happened to. Right. and I'm like, no, in fact, actually 50% of women will have a pelvic floor support problem. And so the way we're built, unfortunately gravity takes over everything. I mean, you know, everything starts heading south, you know, from our boobs to like ear lobes to our vaginas and some women who've had babies are a little higher risk of things, drooping and dropping though. 

 

[20:52] I mean, we're just, everything's going to gravity. And so inside our pelvis, you have your bladder, you have the vagina, you have the rectum and these things can start drooping and dropping and falling out. And part of it's from ligament damage, not, you know, you know, whether it's having a baby or being constipated and straining too much or maybe coughing or lifting something too heavy. And then the problem is we start losing muscle mass. We lose about 8% muscle mass for every decade that we live. 

 

[21:42] But what lot of times they'll say like, well, sometimes people come in, they think they have a tumor. Cause all of a sudden something's hanging between their legs. Mm-hmm and usually it's the vagina that's bulging. You're seeing the mucosa, like the skin of the vagina that's protruding. And well, sometimes we refer like the bladders falling out, the vagina is falling out. The uterus is falling out the rectum falling out. Like nothing's gonna be falling and dropping on the floor. 

 

[22:27] Or the rectum's gonna start leaning on the vagina and push it out. And basically everything's just kind of flopping and collapsing and stage four prolapse is actually where the vagina can fall down and turn inside out and hang between the legs. So that is possible. So if you're experiencing anything that's dripping or dropping, you know, get it checked out. Uh, at the same time, I know it's kind of shocking. If so that happens, cuz it can be a gradual process or somebody could lift something heavy. And if they're not lifting properly, you gotta blow out as you're lifting. But if you hold your breath and all of a sudden pop there goes something and you're finding it between your legs, it is not a surgical emergency. 

 

[23:31] Yeah, it is shocking cuz nobody talks about it, but we're talking about it and I'm glad you're here. So now if it happens to you or your BFF send texts, you what is this photo? And you can be like, no problem. It's PE it's pop pelvic organ prolapse. Yes I got you. Right. And so like, say that did happen. I know I've heard, I knew this doctor, she trained up in the Appalachia and she's like, they would put potatoes, put a potato up there to hold it up.

 

[24:02] You know, what's so funny in ancient Egypt, they used to use like rocks or pomegranates. And then Roman times they'd use rocks or potatoes, which I don't recommend any of those things. They do make medical devices called pessaries, which are usually made out of silicone. And they're coming all kinds of crazy shapes and sizes. Some like look like very small Frisbees all the way to, they look like donuts or cubes. 

 

[24:48] Some people have heard about vaginal mesh and I see the 1-800-BAD-DRUG commercials. And I have to say vaginal mesh is not a hundred percent as bad as it was made out to be, but that's a whole nother topic. But when I first came out, I was doing surgery on everybody cuz that's what you were treating to do. And then one day I realized, wait a minute, why am I doing surgery? If it's not bothering the person or if it's not causing health conditions. And so you don't necessarily need to have surgery there's non-surgical options. Or if it's not causing recurrent urinary tract infections or it's not affecting your kidneys, it can actually just be followed and you can kind of leave it alone and manage it that way. But you do have to get it checked out to make sure it's not affecting your kidneys or your urinary tract. 

 

[25:33] Yeah. So what is a treatment? So pessaries are one option. The mesh was big fiasco and our doctors even using mesh at this point, say there's somebody listening. Who's like knows that she's got stress, urine incontinence. She's got a cystic seal, right? The bladder's falling. Maybe she has a recusal and or an entere. So the backside's coming down too. What should she look for in trying to find someone to complete a surgical repair for her? What, what things are available?

 

[26:03] You know, there's are some regular gynecologists are very well trained in this, but I, of course I'm a little partial to Euro gynecologists or someone who's gone through female pelvic reconstructive training the problem with any of the surgeries. And this is something that as a profession we've learned over time is none of them are a hundred percent permanent. It's not like you get your appendix out and like you no longer have your appendix like the process that caused you to have that in the first PA place. And the fact that we know that some people are just genetically have weaker tissue, even when you put it back surgically, it can recur. 

 

[26:50] So there are a number of surgeries. There's ones that go can go through the vagina and it's not like people always ask, well, why don't you just find the ligaments that are torn and just rehook up into those? Well, a lot of times those ligaments are so thin and non-existent, there's not anything really to rehook up into, but there are still vaginal procedures though. The vaginal mesh only refers to the mesh that's placed through the vagina and mesh has been used for surgery for hernia surgery since the eighties. So mesh is actually still used, but it's actually placed in through the abdomen and that's not considered vaginal mesh. 

 

[27:41] And people always ask like, is a robot doing my surgery? And I'm like, no, no, no, it's the doctor's running the robot. The robot has the ability to do finer movements. So mm-hmm and then basically they're reconstructing and wrapping this material. And it's usually like a thin mesh around the vagina and kind of attaching it to the tailbone to reconstruct that, that ligament. And then I have to say over the years, I've gotten a lot of, uh, questions about mesh. Like some people picture it in their mind as being like a window screen. It's not that rough. 

 

[28:29] When you were talking about like, why can't you just reattach the tendon? So I was thinking it's not like a cut shoelace. It's more like panty hose. That's been so stretched.

 

[28:39] Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. If you could like run in your that's a great I and where were you when I BA Brazilians of years ago? And I could have used that. Yeah. Like if you get a run in your, your stockings, you're not gonna sit there and try to try to sew it back up cuz you're just gonna make more runs and it's just gonna keep going. And there's really not much to pull together. 

 

[29:00] And the mesh. Yeah. It's like TWI or it is like panty hose kind of like a really fine fishnet panty hose, but alright, so some great solutions there. Well tell them about what they're going. Who else is gonna be, uh, the happy vagina rally summit. I'm there? You talked about Susan. She's amazing. Any other people and we will have the link in the show notes and it airs on what days?

 

[29:28] June 9th through 12th.

 

[29:30] Ninth through 12. Yeah. So anything else you wanna share about what? Good goodness they will get there.

 

[29:35] Yeah. Even though we call it the happy vagina rally, it's not everything about vaginas is we're talking everything from perimenopause to menopause and vaginal health. So we're kind of covering it all. So we have Kevin Ellis, the bone coach talking about osteoporosis when, uh, which was actually interesting. When I interviewed with him on his podcast, we actually found studies that connected bone health with vaginal health, which I was fascinated by. I was like, what? We have people like Susan Bretton. We have we Jagger. Who's the, the erotic therapist. We have JJ Virgin talking about sugar and your diet. We have Deborah Atkinson talking about exercise and how, why we can't lose weight. As we get older. I have Dr. Aika Becca talking about hysterectomies and menopause. I have some your other urogynecologist talking about prolapse, talking about incontinence, different vulva dermatology, a vulva dermatologist on Dr. Lynette Maren. 

 

[31:21] Vagina smoothies. There's a pelvic meditation. This was actually fun. I, I, I actually created this pelvic meditation. I started looking into things beyond traditional medicine and looking into some of these alternative therapies and sound therapy and certain wavelengths that are supposed to stimulate your pelvic chakra, which is opens up creativity. And we created a pelvic meditation at a certain frequency as with something called Bial beats where it's like slightly different tones in each ear and actually has a relaxing property to the brain, which was actually fascinating to look into and create. So we have a little bit of everything going on. It it's all gonna be a lot of fun.

 

[32:33] Can, and it's funny, you mention, it's funny, you mentioned the vagina spa because that's in the works. That's in the works.

 

[32:40] Ah . Yeah. And you know, I was gonna ask you along those lines, I have to we'll end with this. So I go to this, don't tell anyone, but like one of my favorite places in Atlanta, when I go there is Jeju sauna. Do you know Jaju?

 

[32:55] No.

 

[32:56] So JJO is this, I don't know. It's like 20,000 square feet, Korean bathhouse up in Gwinnett county. Oh. And they have first off every kind of sauna you could wanna go to. Right? They've got the Jade sauna and this salt rock sauna and the gold sauna. And like all these saunas, they've got steam rooms, they've got the best foot reflexology I've ever had. Every time I go there, I get the foot reflexology. They have this Korean scrub where the women, you lay naked on this table. It's like this big room of all these, they look like surgical tables T VH, and they scrub you down. You're like totally naked. They have a towel over your head. If you didn't know what was happening, you'd think it was really weird. And they scrub down to your body with this scrub and it is, it is just, it's wonderful. 

 

[34:08] You know, it's funny you bring that up cuz I know that was made super popular, especially with Gwyneth PTRO. I know she's been kind of touted as making that super trendy and there is a lot of belief that vaginal steaming can help with fertility or the biome or menopause. I think when you come, I I'm really into body mind spirit. So I think if you believe it's gonna help, it's going to help. And I think it's maybe very relaxing, but honestly it doesn't work anywhere close to what people think it believes does. They think they're gonna sit on this pot of herbs and that this steam is gonna go up in the vagina and clean it out. But Reno is gynecologists. 

 

[35:05] So the steam is really not gonna get up there. Plus you have the lips of the VVA that are kind of protective and for most, and there's so much, I always say, vulvas are like snowflakes. There's not like there's not, they all they're all look different. But for the most part, the lips of the VVA are kind of keeping that area closed. So it would be really difficult for that team to get up in there and steam things out the way people are picturing it. But if you think it's relaxing to do so, I'm like, okay, you know, go ahead and do it though.

 

[36:05] Yeah. So if you've had one, check me out on Instagram or Betsy and let's hear your experience, I'd love to know I did it one time cuz I wanted to see and the herbs are great. You get to breathe them in. So I'm wondering if actually it has more respiratory benefit than anything else I else have

 

[36:26] I'm with you. Like the vaginas collapsed down. It's not a stove pipe and so I don't really know how much benefit there is to it. But I do think that if you have a belief around it and it could be working at an energetic level on the energy body and on that SAC chakra, that is all about creativity. So I we'd love to hear your thoughts and opinions on that. So check out Betsy on her Instagram, what's your Instagram, Betsy

 

[36:52] At Dr. Dr. And then Betsy Greenleaf underscore you gotta put the underscore. This is my second account. I kind of okay. off the Instagram. Talk about not keeping my mouth shut. I off the Instagram. God's the first, the first account. So

 

[37:06] yeah. Well, let's end with this other quote you had from Anne Rand, which I love it. The question isn't who's going to let me it's who is going to stop me? Well, Instagram may try, but the vagina lives on with the happy vagina rally. Thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Betsy Greenleaf, we will see you at the happy vagina rally.

 

[37:33] And thank you for joining us for another episode up the hormone prescription with Dr. Kirin. It's been my pleasure to have you here today. I want you to take in mind some of the things that we've shared. If you learned something that could benefit another woman, please do consider sharing it. And I want you to think about developing your voice and not being silent. What is it that you need to speak up about and be truthful about?

 

[38:00] Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. 

 

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