Hormone Prosperity Podcast with Dr. Kyrin Dunston

Understanding The Key Of Your Oral Microbiome For Better Health

We all know that our gut health is important for our overall health, but did you know that our oral microbiome is just as important? In fact, research has shown that there is a strong link between our oral health and our overall health.

 

For example, studies have shown that people with gum disease are more likely to develop heart disease, stroke, and other chronic illnesses. Therefore, it's important to take care of your oral health in order to maintain your overall health.

 

David Lin is a leading expert on the oral microbiome and he's going to be joining us on the show today to talk about how we can maintain our oral health and why it's so important for our overall health.

 

About David Lin:

David Lin PhD is Co-founder and Chief Scientific Officer at Bristle. David received his PhD in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, his MS in Biology from California State University, Fullerton, and his BS in Biotechnology from University of California, Davis. He was a postdoctoral researcher at Genentech before becoming a Scientist at Twist Bioscience. He has over 10 years of molecular biology, microbiology, genomics, and synthetic biology, and infectious disease experience across academia, public health, and industry.

 

In this episode, you'll learn:

 

• What the oral microbiome is and why it's so important for our health
• How to maintain a healthy oral microbiome
• The link between our oral health and overall health
• How poor oral health can lead to chronic illnesses
• And much more!

 

So tune in now to learn how you can maintain a healthy oral microbiome and improve your overall health!

 

(00:00): "Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere." - David Lin.

 

(00:08): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.

 

(01:04): Hi, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today, David Lin PhD is a co-founder and chief scientific officer at Bristol. You might think of Bristol as bristles on your toothbrush. This is a different kind of bristle. Maybe you've heard about the connection between your oral microbiome and your overall systemic health like heart and brain and more. Maybe you haven't, but whether you have, or haven't, you need to know about this. And if you know a little bit about it, you need to know more. So David is gonna share that with you today so that you don't just sit there worrying like a rocking chair about your health and what can you do, but you really get some actionable information, some steps that you can take to improve your health and taking care of your oral microbiome is one of those things that you're not gonna hear about at your dentist that you could be doing to move your health to the next level.

 

(02:09): So I'll tell you a little bit about David and then we'll get started. David received his PhD in microbiology and immunology from the university of Michigan and armor and his MS in biology from California state university Fullerton, and his bachelor's in biotechnology from university of California Davis. That's a lot of science. He is a science nerd. Let's just say . And he loves talking about the oral microbiome. He was a post-doctoral researcher at Gentech before becoming a scientist at twist bioscience and has over 10 years of molecular biology, microbiology, genomics, and synthetic biology and infectious disease experience across academia, public health and industry. This is just the guy you want informing you about how to understand the key of your oral microbiome for better, better health. Welcome David.

 

(03:08): Thank you. I'm very excited to be here.

 

(03:10): Yes. I think that most people are not aware of how this small little real estate on their face, their mouth affects the entire rest of their body to such a high degree. So I really wanted to have you on to highlight that for them and they can get some tools and start taking action to improve their oral health so they can improve their overall health. What introduced you to the big impact that oral health has on systemic health?

 

(03:44): That's a good question. Well, I'm a scientist by training and through many years of school, I've learned to a lot about microbiology, a lot about bacteria and basically the way that they do things and how they interact with your body. And recently, at least in the past decade or two, there's been a lot of research that has shown that the gut microbiome is really important for your overall health. It helps with digestion. It controls a lot of your mood and it does a lot of things, but what's been largely ignored is that there's actually another microbiome. That's the second largest and most diverse microbiome in your body. And it's your mouth. You swallow a hundred billion bacteria every day. You are what you eat and those bacteria are in your mouth. And they do so much for us that we really don't. We don't acknowledge. Did you know that oral bacteria, they actually control some of your blood pressure the way they do this is by reducing nitrate. So there's this circular connection in your mouth where they can reduce nitrate. And that increases the nitrate level, nitric oxide levels in your blood. That's just one of many ways that they help you do things. 

 

(04:49): You know, that's interesting. I know some people, women are listening and saying, oh, maybe when I go for my blood pressure check at my doctor's office, I should ask them to check my oral microbiome. I think the average doctor would just look at you, like, what are you talking about? It would . They probably wouldn't know what you're talking about in terms of clinical utility. I know you're affiliated with a company that does testing of the oral microbiome. What percentage of doctors would you say are savvy about this interaction and actually know to order tests like this recommend tests like this work with tests like this?

 

(05:25): Very, very few. So I think one of the things about medicine is that it's relatively slow moving. There's a lot of tradition that's been built into not only systemic medicine, so, you know, your physician, but also dentistry. Dentistry is a really old practice and they haven't introduced almost any new technologies for like a hundred years. We still operate in the same way we've been doing for a long time. And that is we treat the symptoms as we see them, which is really unfortunate. There's very little preventive measures that we use to really tackle some of the biggest problems we have. I mean, cavities and gum disease, everybody still gets them. It's like, I think 70% of individual over 65 will have periodontal disease and it's entirely preventable. It's just a bacterial infection. That's a very long term bacterial infection. And if you catch it early enough, you don't have to get it.

 

(06:13): Same with cavities. Cavities are very specific bacteria. They colonize your teeth, they create acid. And unfortunately practitioners nowadays, they, most of them really don't use any of these kinds of tools to screen their patients. I think some of that may have to do with medicine itself, just the way that that we practice. And the other part of it is really that research moves very slowly. So academia to translate a research, finding into something that's really useful for people takes a very long time of development. And hopefully, you know, my company bristle, we're trying to address that at least for oral health.

 

(06:47): Yes, it's so true. It can take decades. I think that the average is something like three decades and sometimes it's way longer than that, for instance the use of fluoride and toothpaste and water, how does that affect the oral biome?

 

(07:05): Yeah. So there haven't actually been any very compelling trials regarding the use of at least every day fluoride, which is a very low concentration in your toothpaste, but generally it's not a very powerful antimicrobial. It really doesn't do that much in killing bacteria. But what it really does is to help you remineralize your teeth because fluoride actually helps to reserve calcium onto your tooth surface. So it helps protect your teeth that way. But I think what's more exciting is not just things like fluoride, but there have been newer compounds that have been out where people have shown kind of that they don't have systemic effects like fluoride does, but they can still help re minimalize teeth. So something like nano hydroxy, appetite, even things like arginine. So arginine is, is just an amino acid, but it helps prevent cavities. And, and the way it does it is by actually modulating the oral microbiome. It's a very interesting connection.

 

(08:05): And is that when swallowed orally Swed orally and how is it administered that it's shown to decrease cavities by altering the microbiome? Yeah,

 

(08:16): So arginine it just, if you chew it and if it sticks around on your teeth, I'm not actually sure if there have been any tests for ingestion, but if you chew it or if you apply it as a toothpaste, it acts as a prebiotic and it activates this pathway called the arginine D M a pathway, which increases the pH of the mouth and the, the way it modulates the oral microbiome is that there's some bacteria that can metabolize the Aine very well and turn it into ammonia, which increases the pH. And that actually prevents the acid generating bacteria from colonizing the tooth because acid generating bacteria actually really like acidic environments and ammonia is the opposite. So it, it prevents them from growing.

 

(08:56): Okay. And so what are some everyday habits that people might have that might hurt their oral microbiome and what are some habits they might have that might improve?

 

(09:07): The first one is using alcohol based mouthwash. That's really bad for you actually. So alcohol is an antiseptic that we use, you know, on our hands. We use it to disinfect things, but it turns out that the microbiome of the mouth, there are very important, good bacteria in there that are important for preventing the bad ones from growing and those good ones. We can kill them by using alcohol based mouthwash. So there was a study recently that had shown that routine use of over the counter mouthwash was actually associated with hypertension. And the reason for that was because these nitrate, reducing bacteria were actually completely going away and they didn't come back because these people were using mouthwash twice a day. And so you never give a chance for good bacteria to populate. And you ended up with dysbiosis of the mouth. That's

 

(09:54): Fascinating that the regular use of the alcohol containing mouthwash increased hypertension, fascinating. What are some other habits that we have that hurt our oral microbiome?

 

(10:05): Definitely our diet. This probably isn't unique to just the oral microbiome, but the amount of sugar and processed food that we eat is just off the charts now, compared to where we were even just 20 years ago, even 30 years ago. And so the rates of cavities have gone sky high. And so that's like the main thing that I tell most people it's well, can I fix right now without having to buy anything or actually like change my habits besides diets gotta be diets. Like the diet is the only thing that is entirely controllable and will fix of most of the problem. Stop eating sugar. just the simple sugars are a huge problem.

 

(10:44): just stop. Just say no,

 

(10:46): Just

 

(10:47): Say no. Okay. And how about flossing and brushing? Just gotta say it cuz some people still didn't get the memo.

 

(10:54): Oh my gosh. It's really surprising. Right. And I think we always recommend people brush twice a day floss once a day, we actually published a little bit of research of our own, of what flossing does to the microbiome. We actually saw that flossing frequency correlates with improvements in oral health and the oral microbiome. So when we measure the microbiome, what we're talking about is there's very specific bacteria in your mouth that we call them periodontal pathogens. And they're the ones that cause gum disease. And we measure these in your saliva at Bristol. And we measure them against the bacteria that prevent them from growing. And we found that people who floss once a day had very low levels of these bacteria, of the bad bacteria in their mouth compared to the good ones, but the people who didn't floss at all, it was an inverse correlation.

 

(11:40): They had very low levels of the good ones and a lot of the bad ones, why this happens. We think it's because most of these pathogens they're called a robes, which means that they can't grow in the presence of oxygen. They really like your gum line. And they like growing into the pockets of your teeth because there's no oxygen there. And so by flossing you can introduce oxygen. You can also mechanically remove some of the dental plaque that's down there that protects from the environment. And really you want those pockets to be exposed to saliva. You want them to be exposed to anything you don't want them to just be rooted in bacteria in pathogenic bacteria.

 

(12:15): Can we give some of them names? Cause I know it would be easier they could hear. So what are some of the good bacteria that we want to foster that we wanna make friends with?

 

(12:25): Yeah. So there's a few bacteria such as amorous pair of influenza. Your, the names are not that important, but most of them are aerobic. So they're strep. ATOC minus. I think if you go to a website, you'll, you'll find a list with a way to spell them out. But generally these are they're in your mouth. And the way that they protect you is actually really interesting. They make a set of compounds called bacteriocins well, not all of them, but some of them do. And this, these bacteria sins are really good at killing other bacteria, specifically killing anaerobic bacteria. It's really interesting. They cause oxidative stress in those bacteria. And that's a, a mechanism where oxygen can kind of is extremely detrimental to their growth. And some of these bacteria sins act as stress inducers.

 

(13:15): So the AOBs wanna hide little cavities and cause problems. Mm-Hmm as acidosis, which is then gonna start eroding teeth. What about mouth breathing and the health of your microbiome, right? There's been recent data about the number of people that are mouth breathers and how it can adversely affect your microbiome and mouth taping has become a thing. Can you talk a little bit about that?

 

(13:42): Absolutely. So mouth breathing is a really interesting phenomenon and it doesn't really directly affect the oral microbiome in that it's the mouth breathing itself, but the active mouth breathing actually reduces the amount of saliva in your mouth. And saliva's really important because it has antimicrobial peptides. It has antibodies in it, it has minerals and most importantly, it just helps to keep your mouth clean. So you're constantly shedding saliva from, I think it's like hundreds of salivary glands in your mouth and they really helped to just shed things. It helps to coat your teeth, coat your gums and make it so that the bacteria in your mouth are kept at low levels. Because once you get outgrowth, that's when problems really happen. And by mouth breathing, you're drying up the salivary glands. You're reducing the amount of saliva on your teeth and your gums and dry mouth is the main cause of oral microbiome dysbiosis, which

 

(14:38): Is cause is that for most people?

 

(14:39): Yeah. A lot of people have dry mouth and they're not actually aware dry mouth causes, gum disease, cavities, bad breath, extremely common, but people think they wake up in the middle of the night. They've been mouth breathing that it's totally normal. And they're like, eh, I'll just drink a glass of water. But you know, this constant act of mouth breathing and having a dry mouth every day leads to dysbiosis.

 

(15:00): And for everybody listening, before you go seal your mouth up with a piece of tape, read about how to do mouth taping please. Cuz I know, I remember when I first heard about it and I thought mouth taping, I thought it meant a piece of tape, a crushable mouth. So don't do it until you read about it and learn about it. So my people are mostly women 40 to 60 and over and they're wanting to know what they can do to improve their health. And how does they've learned about the microbiome and the gut? And now they're wondering, how is this David? How is this oral microbiome affecting the rest of my health? Yeah, what's it doing?

 

(15:40): Oh my goodness. Where to start? So we briefly discussed how the oral microbiome helps control blood pressure. Right? We talked about nitrate, but there's so many other ways. So one really big study that came out a few years ago showed that there's certain bacteria in your mouth that have actually been implicated in the progression of Alzheimer's disease. So this bacteria is called Pomona gingivalis. And since then there's been a lot of studies and looking at whether or not they can actually prevent Alzheimer's disease just by either killing these bacteria, removing them or blocking their activity. And companies have come up from this, just looking at Talis. So that's one way these bacteria, they end up in your brain somehow and then

 

(16:24): Any early data from any of those studies you can share or nothing yet. 

 

(16:29): I think it's a little early, there was one clinical trial that had very early data that looked promising where they had. So Ponas, gingivalis creates this protein that cuts other proteins and this drug targets that protein, that cuts stuff. And they saw that. I think there was a mild decrease or a mild improvement in cognitive decline in patients with Alzheimer's disease by using a drug like this. But it was probably a very small study. And I think they're expanding that now.

 

(16:56): Okay, great. And then I cut you off cuz you were getting ready to talk about something else systemically.

 

(17:00): Yeah. The oral microbiome's been implicated in so many different things. So another big one is cancer, both in oral cancer and surprisingly colorectal cancer, which I guess is surprising to most people. But when you think about, you know, a hundred billion bacteria being swallowed every day, it becomes pretty obvious that there's this one bacteria called fuser bacterium nucle. And for some reason, this little bug is really, really good at causing inflammation. And what it does is it happens to be in very high abundance in people with tumors. It really likes the tumor environment. Why we don't really know why, but people have shown that people who have fus nucle in their tumors, those tumors grow a lot more aggressively. And the prognosis for those people is much worse than the people who don't have, have SLE.

 

(17:51): Okay. What about heart disease? You know, that's the number one killer of women over 50. Most women don't worry about it. Believe it or not. They're more worried about breast cancer, but they should be concerned about their hearts. How does the oral microbiome interact with the heart?

 

(18:07): Yeah. Park sees the number one killer in the United States. And there's actually a lot of interactions between the oral microbiome and the heart. Somehow bacteria in the mouth actually end up in the bloodstream. We don't really know how this happens, like a lot of things, but for instance, atherosclerotic plaque, the plaque that's high cholesterol and it builds up inside your arteries and, and can cause a blockage. People have found oral bacteria in there. They found Fusor bacteria, NLE, Pomona tr Tova a lot of these gum disease pathogens just happen to make it into the bloodstream. We think that the people who have gum disease, they're more susceptible to this happening because the gum disease actually causes damage to the gum tissue and allows them to invade and, and get into your bloodstream. But the mechanism for how this happens is still very unclear. There's also other bacteria in the mouth that can cause infecti endocarditis. It's a pretty rare condition, but somehow again, the bacteria in the mouth, they end up in the heart and they cause an infection.

 

(19:05): Interesting. So I'm curious, has anybody done any studies on longevity as it relates to the makeup of the oral microbiome?

 

(19:14): Nope. Not yet. Not

 

(19:16): Yet.

 

(19:17): Very good question. I wish we did. so I will say that people have looked at oral health in longevity, but not really the oral microbiome longevity, right? Like there's a very strong correlation between good oral health and longevity. Mm-Hmm because the people who can eat longer, eat solid foods or good foods for longer and to do better. And so it wouldn't be surprising if you found that the people that live longer have very healthy oral microbiomes because in order to have healthy teeth who need a healthy oral microbiome, but so far no study definitively.

 

(19:52): Okay. Interesting. I was just curious, and I know that at Bristol, you guys offer tests for the oral microbiome. Can you talk a little bit about what people could do to be proactive about assessing their oral biome and promoting a healthy oral biome?

 

(20:13): Yeah. First thing I always say is take a test because that's really the only way you can get data around it. So it's kind of like for instance, for diabetes, a lot of people don't know their status for diabetes. And the only way they know is by going get a blood test, and it's the same for oral health. You really don't know there's no lab tests or have there hadn't been any lab tests for oral health until bristle came along. And so you really need to get the data around it, to know what your starting point is to know what you need to improve because there's very specific recommendations we can make based on the makeup of your oral microbiome. So, I mean the first thing about being proactive is fix your diet brush twice a day, floss once a day, reduce your mouth breathing, try and eat more nitrate foods with nitrate in them. So there's leafy greens and let's see eat more arginine. If you can. Other than that, the recommendations we make could be for specific probiotics to help you improve your oral health. But we don't know which ones, unless you take a test.

 

(21:12): Okay. So on the test, what kind of information do you get?

 

(21:15): So we give a variety of scores that are based on your oral microbiome. Really. We look at all the bacteria in your mouth. Eventually we'll also report on the different viruses and fungi because we know that they're also really important for oral disease. But right now, if we're talking about just bacteria, you get scores for your cavities. So we tell you what kind of bacteria in your mouth can contribute to cavities. What kind of bacteria in your mouth can contribute to gum disease, which ones in the mouth that are also implicated in gut inflammation and bad breath. And we're adding, we're adding new features all the time. So,

 

(21:50): Okay. So it's not one where you're gonna get specific bacterial names. You're basically going to get some type of score. I'm looking at the sample report where you'll get a beneficial bacteria score. And then it will say how you stack up next to healthy people. You get a tooth case score and you'll be told how you stack up compared to people who are healthy people with tooth decay and you'll get a gum inflammation score. And you'll be told compared to people with inflammation, healthy people and you, and then also halitosis bad breath, you'll get a score. And then based on the results you'll get, excuse me, diet and hygiene tips. Is that right?

 

(22:31): More than that too. Okay. You'll get specific recommendations for probiotics, if possible, and different kinds of supplements that could help you and included in each of the scores. We also do give the bacteria names. We give your abundance of each of the bacteria and how you relate to other people for those different bacteria. And a lot of times it's really hard to interpret that kind of information. Like I can tell you that you have, you know, Pomona gingivalis, but what does that really mean for you? So we try to contextualize it into these scores.

 

(23:01): I see that I just have a basic, and then there is a breakout where it does show you your bacteria related to these different items and you get custom recommendations based on this. So I didn't see that before.

 

(23:14): Okay. And each test with the recommendations, we also provide a coach. So we have a dental hygienist on staff who is educated in the oral microbiome and what you can do to improve it. And we provide one coaching call to everyone who, who takes the test so that you can better understand how you can improve oral health, because we know that everybody is different. And so the recommendations we make may not entirely be applicable to you because you have a very specific need. And so we try to build around personalized medicine because we don't think there's a one size fits all approach for anybody really.

 

(23:46): Right. That's so true. And I love that you give a coaching appointment, they can go through that. I really think that in this day and age, where if you're trying to be proactive about your health and be as healthy as you can now and going forward in the future, this needs to be a part of your plan, right? Not just visiting the dentist twice a year and getting your teeth clean, not just brushing and flossing, but really assessing your oral microbiome as well as your colorectal microbiome and doing all the tests that I talk about. I say all the things, I really think this needs to be a part of it. How did you become interested in this topic? I always wanna know why people do what they've been.

 

(24:28): So I was trained as a scientist. I did my master's studying antibiotic resistance, so I studied bacteria. And then afterwards I wanted to do something different. I went to study a virus dengue virus during my PhD. And I decided, well, at the time I went to university of Michigan where there's a very big consortia of people studying the gut microbiome. And so the neighboring lab actually studies the interaction between the mouth and the gut. They use a lot of tools to look at how bacteria get from the mouth to the gut and whether or not they can cause disease. And so they published a few studies and that was kind of the start of my foray into it because I used to, we do a thing called journal club. It's basically research sharing between the different labs and, and that's where I first got interested. And so when I came back to California, where I grew up, I decided I wanted to study something with the microbiome. And what I decided to, to embark on was this very complicated interaction between the microbiome, the immune system and neurons. So neurons can interact with the immune system in the gut. And it's really important for actually maintaining homeostasis and keeping a healthy gut. But the way it happens is extremely complicated. 

 

(25:45): Podcast level, like very,

 

(25:47): I'm not even sure I could explain it very well. Basically the summary at the time of me studying this was that neurons actually create proteins that help recruit immune cells. So there's different types of cells and the immune system that live within your tissue. So normally we refer to immune cells as in your blood and they help to monitor the, the health of your body. But some of them actually live inside of tissues and there's very specific. They're called macrophages. They can sample the environment, they eat stuff, and then they tell your body what's there. And it turns out that neurons, if you get rid of the neurons, then these macrophages also go away. And so these macrophages are in the gut and they're held there by neurons and they help to sample the environment of the gut to tell you, do you need to have diarrhea because there's something bad in here or are you okay because neurons also happen to control the motor function of the gut. So it's a very interesting interaction.

 

(26:45): Yes. So much science behind all of this. I think it's fascinating. I think what's important for everybody today to get the message. Is that the, or the bacteria in your mouth matter for your, the rest of your system matter for your brain health and do you get dementia or not matter for your heart and do you get heart disease or not matter for many aspects of your health and that to be proactive, you need to test not guess that's something I always say. And treat, I'm just wondering, it sounds like they've found association for instance, with certain of these pathogenic bacteria and hypertension, but have they proved causation and done any interventional studies to say that if you change these bacteria, then your blood pressure will improve. Yeah. Yes.

 

(27:33): , that's a really good question. That's so what people have done is they've introduced nitrate as a supplement in the mouth. And what they look at is two measurements. The first is salivary nitric oxide. So how much nitrate is being reduced in your saliva and how much nitrate is being reduced into your blood? And so a few studies have very small studies have gone into adding these supplements and it modulates the microbiome in a way that shifts towards more nitrate, reducing bacteria. And that in turn increases your nitric oxide in the blood. So not only have they done a depletion study, where they looked at the people who took mouthwash and it killed all the bacteria, mm-hmm, , they've also boosted them and saw a boost in the blood. Very

 

(28:15): Interesting. I love that. That is and Pally. We're just, this field is in its Macy and we're gonna have all kinds of designer, probiotics and treatments, hopefully for the mouth in the near future. I will look forward to that and we'll have in the show notes, a link to your blog, and then you do have a discount code for anybody who wants to order a test. So we'll have a code Kyrin, one 50, we'll have the link you can use in the show notes. If you're driving, please don't try to do it. Look it up now , we'll have the link in the show notes. We'll have the code Kyrin one 50 for 15% discount. And you can also look at a sample oral health test report. Like the one I was looking at we'll have the link for that. And I asked David before we started to share a couple quotes on life that he liked to with me. And, you know, I love a good quote. So they're all great, but I'm gonna share this one. Worrying is like a rocking chair. It gives you something to do, but it gets you nowhere.

 

(29:23): So are you not a worrier? you not worry at all? I

 

(29:27): Try not to be. I really try not to be. I really like this quote, cuz worrying is the same as doing nothing. Right? It's kind of like your test don't guess by worrying, you're really just sitting there and guessing you don't really know what's gonna happen. Why don't you go do something about it? Just go test, go find out.

 

(29:43): I love that. It is yeah. Test don't guess do something. It's just, it's rehearsing possibilities. And, but we can do it. I wonder if abnormal microbiome in your mouth is associated with increase in worrying. That would be an interesting study. David, you might wanna do that one.

(29:58): There were a few that had suggested some mental health issues were associated with oral microbiome changes. So there was depression, schizophrenia. Alzheimer's like we just talked about a number of things. Yeah.

 

(30:10): That is fascinating. I think there's gonna be way more data coming out on this association. I mean, we've got the vagi biome. We have our ocular biome. We've got them all over.

 

(30:22): We didn't even talk about the vaginal microbiome, the oral microbiome, the same bacteria that cause bacterial VA happen to be the ones that are in the mouth that cause gum disease.

 

(30:31): How fascinating, who knew? Do you guys offer any testing for that?

 

(30:37): So the, we do have a report on the bacteria. We don't call them out explicitly, but I think one of the, one of the scores we'll probably add in the future will be something like that will be a vaginal dysbiosis score because there's been a few studies that have shown the same strains of bacteria in the mouth. They actually end up colonizing the gut and then in turn, they end up in the vagina. Right. And so if you have dysbiosis either in your gut or in your mouth, that could definitely translate down to the vagina too.

 

(31:07): Fascinating. So fascinating. David Lin, thank you so much for coming on the hormone prescription podcast and sharing this information with us. I very much appreciate it.

 

(31:19): Absolutely likewise, me too.

 

(31:22): And thank you all for listening to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you've heard something today that you'll take and put into action to improve your health. It's great to have education atta, but ultimately what's gonna make an impact on your health and your life are the actions that you take. So go check out David's blog, maybe order a test kit, do the test, get the information, take action. And remember if you wanna mouth tape, read about how to do it properly first and I will see you next week. Thanks so much for joining me until then peace, love and hormones.

 

(32:02): Y'all thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

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How To Upgrade Your Brain At Midlife To Thrive

Do you feel like your brain has been on a downhill spiral since you turned 40? You're not alone. The mid-life crisis is real, and it's affecting more women than ever before.

 

But there's hope! In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we chat with Dr. Louann Brizendine about how to upgrade your brain at midlife and thrive.

 

Dr. Brizendine is a leading expert on the female brain, and she shares her insights on what's going on inside our heads during this time of transition. She also gives us practical tips on how to improve our cognitive function and protect our mental health as we age.

 

Louann Brizendine, M.D. completed her degree in Neurobiology at UC Berkeley, graduated from Yale School of Medicine, and did her internship and residency at Harvard Medical School. She has also served on both the faculties of Harvard University and University of California at San Francisco. She founded the Women's Mood and Hormone Clinic at UCSF. Her New York Times bestseller, The Female Brain, and its follow-up, The Male Brain, continue to be read around the world. Her eagerly anticipated book, THE UPGRADE: How the Female Brain Gets Stronger and Better in Midlife and Beyond, is out in April 2022. Now, as the Lynne and Marc Benioff endowed professor of clinical psychiatry at UCSF, Dr. Brizendine continues to speak, write, research, and consult.

 

In this episode, you'll learn:

 

• What's going on inside our brains during the mid-life transition

 

• How to improve your cognitive function as you age

 

• Tips for protecting your mental health in midlife and beyond

 

• The latest research on the female brain and how it changes in midlife

 

• And more!

 

If you're ready to learn how to upgrade your brain in midlife and thrive, this episode is for you!

 

(00:00): In this episode, find out why the upgrade previously known as the transition is the gateway to the best years of your life.

 

(00:09): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.

 

(01:03): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you for joining me today. You're gonna love my guest today. Dr. Louann Brizendine, I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. But first let me say, she's talking about the upgrade. What is the upgrade for women? Well, it used to be called the transition, which meant all kinds of bad things, bad outcomes, things you don't want for women, but she is reframing this time of life as being the upgrade. And I love that because it's really true. You are getting an upgrade, not a downgrade, despite what you might have been told or you've been led to believe. And she's gonna tell you how to maximize that so that this can be the best time of your life. Dr. Louann has some amazing credentials. She completed her degree in neurobiology at UC Berkeley.

 

(01:57): She graduated from Yale school of medicine and she did her internship in residency at Harvard medical school. You can't get much better credentials than that. She served on the faculty at Harvard and university, the E of California at San Francisco. She founded the women's mood and hormone clinic at USCF. Her New York times bestseller the female brain and its follow up. The male brain continued to be read around the world. Her eagerly anticipated book, the upgrade, how the female brain gets stronger and better and midlife and beyond is now out and available. She is the Lynn and mark Benioff and do professor of clinical psychiatry at UC S F. She continues to speak right research and consult. Please help me to welcome the brilliant I'm Dr. Louann Brizendine. Welcome Dr. Louann to the podcast.

 

(02:50): Thank you, Dr. Kyrin, nice to meet you and see you. And I'm just delighted to be here with your audience because you know, your people are my people

 

(02:59): Yes, our people are the same. we

 

(03:05): Treat the, we treat the same group of patients. I do my medical center. They say Louann treats above the neck and we treat below the waist.

 

(03:12): Yes. I love that. But most people think that they're such a dichotomy there. Well, above the neck and below the waist, there's no relationship, but that's exactly what you talk about in your books is how connected our female hormones are to our brain function.

 

(03:32): Absolutely. I don't think people know that. I think, you know, once you hear it and you understand you go like the light bulb on your head goes, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Of course the brain, the pituitary control all the other hormones in the entire body.

 

(03:46): It's so true. And the hormones in the brain and just all the intermixing, which I'm sure we'll get into how vital sex hormones are for cognitive function for brain function. But I wanna start just talking about your book, the upgrade, because I think this is really radical and I'm hoping you can explain to everybody, we always talk about the menopause transition. I actually talk about the menopause spectrum and how it's not a point in time, and you go through this spectrum of change, but talk about what the upgrade is and how it differs from the transition.

 

(04:24): You know, you and I speak the same language actually, because that's why I, with all my patients, I hated those words. Like the perimenopause menopause is cuz it's like, it's, those are medical diagnoses in a way. And they're just a little slice of what actually is happening. It's not the whole woman, this transition that we're going through from like about age, you know, 38 to 48 that we kind of call in the big brackets kind of AKA the perimenopause. Yeah. That's something that's happening just to kind of the, the ovaries and the follicles are, you know, starting to not be as healthy and they're starting to like die off and we lose them, but that's just, that's the medical diagnosis of that transition. So, but I called it the transition because it's, there's so much more that's going on for us women. There's all kinds of relationship, things, emotional things, things in terms of our work life things in terms of our children, that's like, there's all kinds of layers of stuff that's going on in our brain.

 

(05:14): So the transition, and then once you hit finish the transition, you go into what I call the upgrade and the upgrade, AKA menopause it's as you. And I know the definition of menopause actually lasts for one day, right? It's the day, 12 months after your last period is called menopause. It lasts for one day and then the next day you're in post-menopause. So, you know, it doesn't really, these words don't really kind of work for what we experience as women. And so certainly not what our women patients are experiencing. And it's so cool. I mean, once you hit the upgrade, they, after the rock and roll of the hormonal fluctuations of the menstrual cycle, the perimenopause, all of your fertility years, your brain circuits are and your body you're free of that, those waves that crash over you every month. And people don't realize that the hormones are changing, not just stuff in your ovary and your uterus, but they're changing all kinds of stuff in your brain circuits for your memory.

 

(06:12): Remember like three or four days before ovulation, it's a huge estrogen Sur just making you be, you wanna be kind of, you sway your hips a little more. You put a little makeup, it a little sexier. You know what you're doing is mother NA under the hood mother, nature's got you all wired hormonally to go out there looking for the best sperm. You know, those couple of days before ovulation, our sex drive goes up. We're all, you know, we're ready to rock and roll. I've got UA, our hips, actually our voice goes higher, all that stuff. We talk faster, et cetera. And then of course the PMs time comes, you're crashing. You know, you're having all of those irritability and those spurts of anger and tearfulness and my clinic, we call it the crying over dog food commercials sign, you know, we can Boohoo over anything.

 

(06:55): So the cool thing is, is that once you hit the upgrade, baby, that's gone and you've got all of this circuitry in there. That's working really well to just your dance card is open to add new things. You're not gonna have to struggle with your hormones being jerked around. You're not gonna be dealing with fertility hormones. You're not gonna be dealing with being pushed out there, looking for the best firm, whatever it is. You know, you've got all of this incredible space and brain power that comes and is able to like take on new project, new purpose women, lots of women, you know, in America, the biggest number of new businesses are started by women over 50.

 

(07:33): Yes. I always tell women that I work with that. I'm kind of sneaky. Cuz do I wanna help you with your health? Yes, but I'm really sneaky cuz I know you're sitting on gifts that you aren't using and you aren't delivering to the world cause you don't feel good. So if I can help you feel better, then you will get off your assets and give your gifts. And so I think it really aligns with what you're talking about. The upgrade so many women see this as downgrade TBA, oh,

 

(08:08): That's wrong, wrong, wrong. That's no, that is so wrong. And this that's because society is still looking at it that way too. And where as these things start inside us, as soon as we start looking at ourselves as an upgrade, then society starts to follow along behind us. We have to take that for ourselves. We have to claim that territory, claim that for ourselves mm-hmm and it is an upgrade. And once women realize that and start seeing it as like, yes, your fertility years are over, but 50 women that are 50. Now many, a chunk of us will live to be a hundred plus you know, those women that are just starting in the early Perry, you know, a lot of those women will live to be, you know, 110, you know, there's, you've got more than half your life there. So you gotta, wow, you got this whole new chapter. I, I have a chapter in the book book that's called finding new purpose as well. I go through all the rock and roll of the, for women that are younger. I've had women in their thirties, they read this book and they go, oh God, Dr. Luann, thank you. I feel so much better. I thought it was all over when I was 40, you know, there's feeling so hopeful that there is more to it than just like things being, being over when you're 40 or 50.

 

(09:17): Yeah. And so what are the gifts? Why do you call it an upgrade? I get it. But I think there are a lot of women and men out there who aren't gonna get it. So what is new, better, special about this time.

 

 

(09:32): Okay. So let's go back to that jagged up and down of your hormones all during your fertility cycle, remember your brain circuits. So part of your brain circus was one of the little areas called the hippocampus, not the hippopotamus, but the hippocampus. You know, it's a really important area in your brain. If you stuck your fingers right in above your ears, by about an inch into your brain on both sides, that's where they live a little guys, the size of your, you know, your fingertips. But they're really important cuz it's the way you form all your memories. You attach your memories and it's a big memory cognition center in your brain. And every month the estrogen goes up and it sprouts like 25% different connections in that area. And then it gets all born down during the last two weeks when a progesterone comes and pours like weed, killer her on all those connections.

 

(10:17): So it's like building up, taking down, building up, taking down. So that's just one little area of the brain it's happening in other areas too. We don't know that we don't teach that or talk about it yet because the new technology is just being able to show that. So women need to know that that buildup tear down, build up, tear down. It's not letting you stand firmly on the shore. You stand more firmly and see further when you're able to just count on a more stable brain power every day of the month. You're not being jerked around by your hormones anymore.

 

(10:47): Yes . And so you talk about all the benefits that occur. Like we're more relaxed. Our brain is more even chilled. Our moods are more even keeled. Now I know a lot of my people who listen to this podcast are wondering, well, Louann under Louann, are you talking about this is with hormone therapy or without cause they know me. They're listening to me all the time. And I always talk about why doing menopause naturally is a bad idea, the increased risk for disease and what I call midlife metabolic mayhem. And so help them understand, is this something that I'm gonna experience just naturally? Or is this something that I need hormone therapy to help me experience? How do I experience the upgrade?

 

(11:42): Okay. So I wrote this book and I had to stop tiptoeing through the tulips on this issue, right? Cause I was part of the generation where when women's health initiative came out in 2002 women's health initiative, you know, to stopped the hormones for all the women in the country. And I know you and I are seeing all these women now that have had these women that unfortunately went through this transition before we were back to being able to give women their hormones back, we see all kinds of problems. You know, they're getting osteoporosis and the Alzheimer's situation in terms of the actual evidence based medicine on that is being looked at right now. So we don't know some of that piece about the dementia, but a lot of the evidence is pointing to the fact that the brain needs estrogen too on going remember men, men don't fall off a cliff.

 

(12:26): Like we do hormones at that stage. They go on in a 60 year old man and a 60 year old woman. If she's not taking hormone replacement, guess what? Dr. K they have four times more estrogen in their brain than we do at age six. And, and that's why they have increases for prostate cancer. Yes, exactly. And that's what osteoporosis as much as women too, right? I mean, it's just basic biology. And once, you know, listen, biology is destiny, unless you know what it's doing to you. Yes. And once know, once you know what it's doing to you, then you can take appropriate action for yourself. So I tell women, they go, oh, why don't I get breast cancer? If I take hormones, blah, blah, blah, whatever the answer is, no women, the evidence shows that women in the five to 10 year of taking hormone replacement therapy after the change don't have any increased risk of breast cancer, unless you have the breast cancer gene.

 

(13:21): So I basically just test my patients, all their genes. I just test them to see if they have any of the breast cancer genes. And then you're in a different category. But if you're not in that category, then yes, you may safely take hormones after that period of time, that will help you get through that. Now, if you've had a hysterectomy, you're in the, you're in the lucky group, right? You're in the lucky group because you only have to take estrogen. You don't have to take progesterone because you don't have a uterus anymore. So those women in my practice are the happiest actually that they don't have any have to take any progesterones. So the mixing and I talk about that in chapter three and four of the book, kind of the mixing and matching of the estrogen and the progesterone and different aspects of that.

 

(14:00): So yes, I really feel that that women should have the opportunity and doctors should not hesitate to, you know, women that are having difficulty sleeping. Remember the three pillars, right? The three pillars of your brain function, the three pillars of that little stool, three cord stool stool is only stable with three little legs. So one of the big legs is sleep for your brain, cuz remember, and that's why I bring this up in the context of pour my replacement there. Because if you're not sleeping, cuz you're sweating all night, you're up all night long and you're just like, your brain is erect. Now remember what happens in your brain? It's sleep is that all the little cells you've been talking to each other and your brain all day long, chat, chat, chat, chat, they're making all this garbage Gar they're called garbage proteins. They're just like, there's spewing trash around all over your brain.

 

(14:43): At night, those little neurons, they shrink down. They shrink back and they leave these little channels in between the cells where the whole body gets to flush out. They just come out with the hose and it flushes out all the garbage at night when you're sleeping. But if you're not sleeping those cells don't shrink back and you're not flushing out the garbage outta your brain every night. So that's one of the big deals about making sure you're getting good sleep during this transition. And lots of times, as you know, and I know it's like, gosh, a patient who's not sleeping. You put them on estrogen sometimes within a week, they're sleeping well again and their brain is clearing up from that brain fog that the other two little parts of the stool are of course having that Mediterranean type diet. So you keep your inflammation down.

 

(15:26): You keep your nutritional level up while your vitamins up and that extra corner of the stool. And of course the other one is muscles. Remember muscles, the big study on women at age 80, those 80 year old women who had the best cognition had the best muscle function, strongest leg strength, the strongest leg strength, and basically that leg strength and the muscles communicate with the brain. I tell women cuz one of the biggest muscles in our body is the butt muscle, your glute muscle. So I say one of the things I gave this little tip on TikTok and Instagram, that one of the best things for your brain is to do, but squeezes. So ladies, when you're sitting down at your computer, when you're standing, brushing your teeth or in the grocery line or driving somewhere, do your butt squeezes. If you aim for a thousand a day, that's good. I figure if I can do, if you can do a hundred a day, that's good. Keep the muscles going. Cuz the muscles release things into your bloodstream called Mykines that stimulate the brain as well as the whole nervous system that stimulates the brain. So that talk back and forth study just came out last week in the new England general showing people's muscle strength is really a big prevention of dimension. So those are the three, three little stool. Just the little legs on the stool is the sleep, the diet and the muscles.

 

(16:37): Okay. Super important. And that's one of the reasons why I think testosterone is so important to maintain that muscle mass, because like you said, it's related directly to brain health

 

(16:47): Cuz I think that's come up a lot with women and you know, of course all of us, it's not FDA approved in the United States, but the European women have had it for 20 years. European women have a, a compound that just comes in a little like little pump that you pump out one pumpy you run it on your wrists and that's your testosterone supply for the day, but we don't have it here.

 

(17:04): Well we have bioidentical compounded hormones and I'm a big believer in test don't guess. So test the levels and optimize to optimal physiologic levels using a custom compound prescription.

 

(17:19): Absolutely.

 

(17:21): Yeah, but we talk a lot about with men that they lose muscle mass, their dopamine goes down, they feel like they've lost their edge when they go through cuz their testosterones going down. But the same things happen for women too. And really in America we only talk about testosterone as it relates to women's sex drive, but it's about so much more it's about brain health and neurotransmitter balance and muscle mass. So it's, I think it's super important.

 

(17:49): Yeah. I think that it has to be individually tailored made to each woman because I have, I've had a lot of women that you know, that the downside is that you get a little bit, you get more irritable, it's easier to have it's even for women to have road rage road rage on testosterone.

 

(18:04): I think, yeah. If it's too high, you can definitely have that. But if you get that sweet spot, I mean we, women have testosterone throughout our lives and most of us don't have a problem with it. So if we can get it at that sweet spot that's right for each woman, then I think she doesn't have an overabundance of aggressive tendencies or anything like

 

(18:24): That. The DHA can sometimes be okay for some women as long as they don't get acne from it, you know?

 

(18:30): Yes. Okay. So those three pillars I know in the book, boy, you go through so many things. I don't know which to ask you about first let's talk about dementia. So I recently did a, a Ted talk and I, I talked about my mom who has all advanced Alzheimer's and really the only risk factor she had was she had been menopausal without hormone therapy for three decades. And so that's probably her biggest risk. And so hormones are a part of that, but what are other ways that people can fend off dementia, increase longevity and wellbeing.

 

(19:07): So those studies are really being done. And I think that the estrogen replacement, one of the things we look at that why women have more than men is first of all, of course, women live longer, but you know, not that much longer, like, you know, we're at three or four years longer and that's about it. So, but women, for some reason do have more dementia. I have some of my colleagues who are specialists in Alzheimer's and they really think that that women at the transition should definitely be taking estrogen replacement during this transition to help keep their brain active and functioning. So there's just so many receptors in the brain that for estrogen estrogen receptors, like if you just looked at your, you took a picture of my brain right now with like a special filter that just showed you the estrogen receptors all over men, it would look like the United States with a massive COVID outbreak.

 

(19:55): You know, they'd be like if they little dots everywhere, you know, cause estrogen receptors throughout our brain and obviously our body too. So that is one thing I suggest for women, the dementia also inflammation. So we think of that inflammation. I talk about this in the book I talk about in the, I have a chapter that's called, you know, the neuroscience of self care and that chapter chapter six and also chapter 14 specifically talks about keeping your brain healthy and avoiding dementia. And besides the estrogen replacement, there's all kinds of things about inflammation and inflammation does not just mean an infection. We always kind of think of it as meaning an infection, but there's a lot that we're learning about. What's called it's a really little technical turn it's called sterile inflammation. It basically means inflammation without an infection. And that happens in our body all day long all the time.

 

(20:43): And we need to clear out that inflammation all the time. So things like the Mediterranean diet and things like just basically trying to keep all of your vitamin levels at the right level is really very helpful to keeping inflammation down. So anything that you can do, keeping your microbiome and your gut healthy, which is basically comes from eating really healthy fibers. I mean, you do not need to take a handful of probiotics every day. I mean, some people like to take those, but sometimes, sometimes those cause a lot of trouble for people who have small intestine problems and larger intestine problems taking too many probiotics can be a disaster, but some people it can be okay for others. But keeping your microbiome healthy basically comes from eating healthy fibers in your diet, you know, both the soluble and the insoluble fibers. So really paying attention to feeding the wonderful, healthy bacteria down in your colon, cuz they then release compounds that go into your bloodstream right through your gut. So you can help decrease inflammation by feeding your microbiome, the healthy bacteria. I think it kind of like my special little garden down there in my colon that I'm, you know, I just wanna make sure it has the right fertilizer and I right water every day. Just think about it as something you're trying to take good care of and grow to be its most beautiful.

 

(21:56): I remember this book, maybe you do two called my secret garden. Do you remember that book? That's learned about sex? It was at my friend's house and I found this book, my secret God, but now to me, my secret garden is my gut garden.

(22:12): Yes. True. I know, I know. I think of my little babies down there that I'm just trying to like keep healthy and keep feeding them the right stuff and et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, you're absolutely right. That's one of the important things about this secret and microbiome. So that's something else that really can help keep the inflammation in your body down. And we do know that things like alcohol, alcohol really amps up your inflammation in your body and your brain. And it does all kinds of things to basically well increases your risk of breast cancer. It increases your risk of dementia. It's really, I know that's such a part of our culture, but you know, women, we do everything. We women do everything just to try to look healthy and stay healthy at this stage. That's one of the things not in eating like handful of, you know, sweets, like, you know, you don't go through a whole, a box of bond bonds anymore. Do we?

 

(23:01): no, we don't. And I love that you talk about in the book, really the dangers of alcohol, I think a lot of practitioners skirt over it because they don't wanna be the bad guy, but I was just talking with a client this morning and she's like, really? I can't have any alcohol. I said, no, you can do what you want. I'm just gonna educate you about the consequences of the choices you're making. And then actually one of my health coaches who works with me in my program said, everybody's asking me about switching out their alcohol for cannabis. Is that better? I'm wondering what your thoughts are on that.

 

(23:37): I think that the cannabis question is really interesting and I mean just in terms of, in terms of its harmfulness to you versus alcohol, I do agree with that first one. I agree that it's probably less, much less harmful than alcohol to your health and your brain actually. However, there's all kinds of things with it that we don't entirely understand right now. I mean, for one thing, it can give you the munch she's really bad. It can make you put on weight, you know? So all of our efforts are trying to keep that the belly fat down, it doesn't help with that cuz it just makes you wanna eat carbs. So, you know, it's like everything in moderation. I mean the best healthiest thing is to switch alcohol to water.

 

(24:17): Yeah. But I used to think I would get the same effects like I could drinking 12 years ago and I would do a yin yoga class after work. And I would feel like I had a glass of wine and you really invoke that parasympathetic nervous system. So I think there are a lot of ways to get around the wine o'clock routine.

 

(24:37): I think once people become meditators are doing yoga or doing, you know, things that are, that are much more stimulating your bagel nerve and your parasympathetic nervous system. When I talk about in the book, the alternate nostril, the nine round NOST thing and also the nurturing moment meditations that I talk about in the book too. There's there are ways that just really calm your nervous system and increase your bagel, nervous system, your parasympathetic nervous system. And actually in Atlanta at Emory university, they have a whole division that basically is researching and teaching the compassionate meditation practices.

 

(25:11): Oh, I love that. And you have so many resources in the book, so I can't everybody listening or highly recommend it and some great stories. You're gonna see yourself in these stories. And I'm wondering if you can share a little bit Dr. Elaine, about what inspired you to write this book?

 

(25:30): I wrote the book, the female brain, and it came out, you know, in 2006. And it was really about from the moment of conception up until the transition until the upgrade, you know, it was at that stage. And the last chapter in that book is called the mature female brain in chapter seven. So it's basically that book sort of stopped about the time to take off on all the things about the upgrade. And I wrote that at a time when I hadn't experienced those parts of life into the upgrade yet. And so when I started going through those years and things myself, I realized, oh my gosh, there's so much more to tell that I hadn't told that so important that has to do with our brains and our hormones and just our entire life and the stories of our life as they basically, you know, chapter eight is also on mothering adult children, you know, mothering adult, you know, teens and adult children and a whole nother thing.

 

(26:21): You know? So the, you know, the female brain book, I have a chapter, chapter five is on, it's called the mommy brain, but that was from pregnancy. You know, it was a whole different look and I hadn't experienced what it's like to try to mother an adult son. You know, I was like, are you kidding? You have to, there's all kinds of landmines you have to learn to avoid. So, so that's the reason I decided to write is there's just so much more that I felt needed to be said. And also the end of the book also goes through what we go through in terms of decisions that we make either with our parents as they're aging. And I'm sure you've had to do a lot of that, which is really painful and very difficult, but it's stuff that we need to talk about. We need to be aware of that stage of our lives.

 

(27:03): It is it's so important and you know, we are the sandwich generation. So I know a lot of women who are between children who maybe haven't left the nest quite yet, and parents who need their time and attention and care. And you talk about the importance of community connection, the epidemic of loneliness, how that's affecting us, what advice do you have for a woman who's navigating the sandwich, ears, getting her upgrade. And you talk about the wisdom phase and she's thinking Dr. Luanne, how do I bring my wisdom? Like I'm just overrun with all these responsibilities. How can you help her navigate this

 

(27:45): Again? You're juggling as fast as you can. When you like with, when you used to have really young children and infants saying you're having a job and trying to juggle, I know what that's like. That's like a little it's really you look back at and like, God, I've got PTSD from doing that

 

(28:01): Too. Oh, my

 

(28:03): Being a doctor being in the early part of your career where you're basically, I was at a university, I was in the shark tank and I was really in the shark tank cuz I was one of the only women. There are all these guy professors and they don't, they don't even know what to do with you. They just think that you're weird. But anyway, , and now you're in a different stage where you've got, like you say some probably mid-teens or teens at home. And then you're also trying to sandwich generation trying to care for. So, and then you're having all this experience of finally being released from all the hormonal pushes and pulls. And you may have some more brain power and some more, you know, you may have some more slots on your dance card that you get to fill, but all they may be being filled up with the needs and care taking of others. And I think there's a time that I have three words to say to women it's called self care, self care, self care, because you can only take care of others really, truly on an ongoing basis from your overflow of being filled up yourself with what you need. So you gotta put your own oxygen mask on first, before you can help others.

 

(29:06): I know it's so true. And I, we say it, but I still see women struggling with that. But I think we can both give you all, if you're listening permission, permission to love yourself first, right? You have a prescription.

 

(29:22): Not the reason it's not selfish is because you've gotta keep your gas tank filled up in order to help others and to help yourself. So you gotta track whatever practice you find. That's good. That's working for you. If you're doing compassionate meditation, you're learning that you nurturing moment meditation that I talk about or you're joining other women. I mean, I think that's women. We get a lot of love and care from our women friends. You know, we end from our, from some of our social engagements and we need to keep the channels open with our girlfriends. Actually, there's the study that, that I talk about in the book about where if you go out twice a week with at least three to four of your girlfriends, you live 15 years longer.

 

(30:02): Oh, I love that

 

(30:04): Shocking number, a shocking number. So it don't feel like it's a selfish thing. If you're, you know, we women, we feel like we need to keep ourselves alive and healthy cuz we feel that we're helping these other people with their lives. And we can't just bail on our life. Cuz we have other people that we love that we wanna care for. And yet we have to learn that it's not selfish at all on the contrary to take really good care of yourself and fill up your own gas tank so that you can put your own oxygen mask on and be able to help others. You must help yourself first and only be able to give to others from your overflow. The only thing you've got to give us on a constant basis is from your over. So ladies fill up your gas tank first.

 

(30:46): Yeah. And you share in the book, I wasn't aware of this, that there's the greatest increase in suicides among women over 60 and it's not being studied or really discussed. I wasn't aware of that

 

(30:57): Really shocking. Nobody's talking, you know, we are all talking about teen suicide, right? I mean, that's the thing that gets everybody's mind cuz it's like it happens at schools and et cetera, et cetera. But, and the alcoholism alcoholism level in women over 60 is skyrocketing. Especially since COVID, it's really, I mean it's a real listen, those women, women 60 plus are in a health crisis right now.

 

(31:20): It is so true. And I think w H I, the women's health and issue study has a lot to do with that. Cuz there's so many women, I think what is the statistic? Less than 5% of women are using hormone therapy and all the consequences that that brings. Right?

 

(31:37): Remember it went from 40% almost being on it to, and when that came out within the next two years, it struck to eight to 5%. And you know, a lot of the women that were seeing that are 60 plus they didn't. And a lot of my girlfriends didn't get it. I mean I did cause I'm a doctor. I had a hysterectomy when I was 53, my girlfriend was my surgeon. She put the patch on me in the recovery room and she says, Laurie, you're gonna do this patch and you're gonna keep it. So, you know, I had the advantage of like having medical care at that time, even though we think about it 2005 was only three years after the w H I or two years after the w H I came out.

 

(32:11): Right.

 

(32:11): And so osteoporosis, I mean, I have so many girlfriends whose bones are just falling to bits. There are osteoporotic, you know? So I just feel like at any rate, it's a crisis and we doctors, you know, you and I we're in this. And I mean, we feel it for our patients, you know, doesn't it make you mad sometimes. I mean, just makes me really mad that this was allowed to go on for so long. This was allowed to go on for 20 years and it's still going on. I have so many patients come to me. I'm sure you do too. That they can't find anybody to give them hormones.

 

(32:42): Yeah. I mean, that's one of the reasons I created her hormone club, a telemedicine membership nationwide. So women could access, testing and treatment with natural hormones because there are so many doctors still who won't prescribe it and advise against

 

(33:00): It. Why it's not because they don't care for their patients. It's cuz they're scared. And remember for 20 years, the OB GYN profession has not been teaching in residencies. Some of them come out of there with less than one lecture in their whole residency on hormone therapy. They don't even know they they're, they're basically uneducated

 

(33:22): So true. And when I was researching for my Ted talk, I came across articles. You know, it wasn't just us, me saying it, new England journal of medicine, journal of women's health and Mayo clinic proceedings all had articles on the fact that doctors are not trained in the management of women's hormones at midlife and beyond and are unprepared to treat women at this stage of life. I said, it's not me saying it it's documented incredible journals. So I think, you know, in any woman listening, you're probably not gonna get the whole story at your regular doctors. It's not their fault. They're good people. It's just that they're not taught that

 

(34:00): They're not. And so we did have some mega you and I have a megaphone out there and I feel, I don't know about you, but you, we both, you and I can tell, we feel as part of our mission to let women that's. Part of the reason I wrote this book is part of my mission to let give women permission, to do many, many things with their life at this transition, but also give them permission to seek out and get the hormones. They need to protect their bones, protect their brain, to protect their sleep, et cetera, et cetera, and not have brain fog and be going down the rabbit hole of depression and anxiety. I'm sure you see the depression and anxiety that this stage of life causes. And it's like, of course, estrogen replacement doesn't treat a, a full on full blown clinical depression, but it can stop a lot of women from a slippery slope of sliding down there. I'm sure you've seen that in your practice all the time.

 

(34:48): Oh my gosh. If I didn't have my hormones, when this started for me, the spectrum in my forties, I wanted to die. So , I know when women tell me that they're miserable and they're in their forties or beyond usually sex hormones are a part of that, you know, but they're going to their doctors and getting SSRIs or antidepressants, which isn't the whole story. And I've never found a woman who came in from an SSRI and said, oh my gosh, I feel amazing.

 

(35:17): Hi, absolutely not. As a matter of fact, they feel they can't have an orgasm cuz SSRI block their orgasms. And a lot of women don't even know that and they're not actually told that that much. And then, and then they also, they, they put on the drug Paxil, the one that's called peroxetine it's also called BI. You know, it's given for hot flashes too. It is the number. One of all the SSRI that causes on average 18 pounds of weight gain per year.

 

(35:40): Yeah. I'm not signing up for that.

 

(35:42): no, I know. I just that's that's you know, it's just not a, so the reality is, is that SSRI are really fabulous to help people over a, a, a glitch difficult spot. They can be very helpful. Then what happens though, is people get stuck on them because the withdrawal syndrome of trying to get off of them makes women feel temporarily while they're trying to taper off slowly. That's why take people down on really tiny, tiny taper to, I take them off from over two months. Most, some doctors will take them off over two weeks and then they crash and burn, but you get rebound depression from it unless you do it slowly. And so they think that underneath it all, they're really still that depressed. They need those meds for the rest of their life. And they're told by some doctors, they need them for the rest of their life.

 

(36:27): Well, they don't. I mean, so anyway that you gotta get me, that's one of my hobby heart. I swear. I mean, I've used those drugs for my entire career, cuz they're very helpful. And of course I treat a lot more, you know, anxiety and depression than you do. Cause that's, you know, that's where a lot of people come to me for, but they're women that are on glitches of their hormones. I don't wanna see them go down that rabbit hole. I wanna see them have their hormones balanced correctly before they go down that rabbit hole.

 

(36:51): Yes. Oh my gosh. So much to talk about. I'm gonna encourage everyone to get the book and read it. It is, there's a plethora of information, inspiration, wisdom. I'm wondering if you can share, we will have a, a link in the show notes where you can go download the first chapter of the book for free Dr. Louann's website. So we'll have that link in the show notes, but what are you planning to do with the rest of your upgrade and this wisdom phase in life?

 

(37:20): Well, you know, I'm, by now I'm doing the book tour and I'm doing lots of podcasts. I'm wanting to, you know, speak to as many women as I possibly can over this next year. And there's so much more than I'm starting to work on a PBS series on this topic. So stay tuned. I think that may come out next to March, but if it happens, I'll, I'll keep you posted fingers crossed the, all the editors and the producers wanna do this. Cause I think women really need like women. You see women all the time. Women are desperate and there's really, I feel that there's a failure on the medical professions part to help women at this stage of life. They just bail on them. They don't help them. So I'm so glad that you're out there doing this and we need to multiply you times a hundred thousand.

 

(38:01): Oh, I mean, we need you in every city, whatever I know, thank God for the thank out for the internet, cuz you can do it all over now. But you see that all the time. Don't you feel the same. It's just like, I feel that women are they're suffering needlessly. I want, I know listen. Life is full of suffering. Life is the truth of the matter is look, life is full of suffering. We're only human. All of us have suffering in our life, but there's a level at which you don't have to have suffering because of your hormones. Like leaving your body during the state of life. You know, we have a fix for that. Now it can help you. So I just want women to feel, don't

 

(38:34): Feel, feel guilty or bad about it just because your doctor doesn't know about it. Go find another doctor. Yeah, stop going to the hardware store for milk. They don't have it. They won't have it. Not gonna have it. So just go to the milk store and you know, so the hormones, thank you so much for joining me, Dr. Louann, this has been wonderful. Everybody go get the book. I can't recommend it highly enough. We will look for your PBS special, super excited about that. We will have the link in the show notes to go, go to Dr. Louann's website and download the first chapter four free on her website. And thank you so much for joining us today. Oh, it's my deep deep honor and pleasure to get to speak with your audience and to get to meet you as well. So anyway, best of wishes to all of you and your audience. Thank you for having me and thank you all for joining me for another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kirin. I want you to take action with the information you have heard. Dr. Louann has a wealth of information. She cite all the studies. She's got the data in her book. You wanna get this book for sure. And then I want you to take action and follow me on social. And let's talk about what you're doing. I will see you again next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all

 

(39:51): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com or we have some free gifts for you and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► Get Dr. Louann Brizendine's first chapter of her book "The Upgrade" - How a woman’s brain gets “upgraded” in midlife, inspiring and guiding women to unlock their full potential.

 

CLICK HERE to download for free.

 

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

 

It might be time to check your hormones.

 

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

 

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The Secrets To Pelvic Floor Success

Are you ashamed to talk about your pelvic floor? You're not alone. Millions of women suffer from incontinence and other pelvic floor disorders, but they're often too embarrassed to seek help.

 

In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're joined by Jana Danielson, a pelvic floor specialist who's here to dish the secrets to pelvic floor success. From how to keep things tight down there to how to manage incontinence, Jana's got the lowdown on everything you need to know about keeping your pelvic floor healthy and happy.

 

Jana Danielson helps women have better pelvic floor function by using the Cooch Ball, the world’s first patented pelvic floor fitness tool for women. She is an Amazon Best Selling Author, the Founder of Lead Pilates and Lead Integrated Health Therapies, and the Metta District, an online wellness community. Jana has coached and consulted with tens of thousands of women from all over the world to help improve their quality of life, their confidence, and their impact in this world.  

 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• The symptoms of a weak pelvic floor and how to know if you have one
• How the pelvic floor is connected to the whole body and why it's important to keep it strong
• The secrets to pelvic floor success
• How to keep things tight down there
• How to manage incontinence
• The importance of pelvic floor health

 

So, whether you're suffering in silence or just want to learn more about how to take care of your lady parts, this is the episode for you! Tune in now and get started on your journey to pelvic floor success.

 

(00:00): Joseph Pilates said, breath is the first and last act of life. And somewhere in the middle, we forget how to do it. What does this have to do with the secrets to pelvic floor success, stay tuned and you'll find out.

 

(00:15): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates our rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.

 

(01:09): Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thanks so much for joining me today. We're talking about pelvic floor disorders and how to be successful in helping and healing them today with Jana Danielson, you're gonna love her. It really struck me how incredibly revolutionary what she has created is after I interviewed her and looked more into the product that she's developed and the educational platform that she's developed for women suffering with pelvic floor disorders, which is, mm, a lot of us as we age, frankly, and she's gonna go through, how do you identify if you have a pelvic floor disorder, it's not really common Parlin that we say, Hey, do you have a pelvic floor disorder? And so she's gonna talk about the symptoms that you would be having that could alert you, that you have some type of pelvic floor dysfunction going on.

 

(02:12): And more than that, she's got solutions, amazing solutions. And I really love how, when we lean into the problems that we're so hard, lean into those questions that we can come up with some revolutionary answers and solutions. And Jana did just that. So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. So Jana Danielson helps women have better pelvic floor function by using the cooch ball. The world's first patented pelvic floor fitness tool for women. She's an Amazon bestselling author, the founder of lead Pilates and lead integrated health therapies and the meta district, an online wellness community, Jana has coached and consulted with tens of thousands of women from all over the world world to help improve their quality of life, their confidence, and their impact in this world. Welcome Jana.

 

(03:06): Thank you, Dr. Dunston. It's great to be here.

 

(03:09): I'm so excited to have you join me today. We haven't really talked about pelvic floor health on the podcast, how that's happened. I don't even know cuz it's a super important topic and you've created an amazing product for women to use before we talk about that. Can you talk a little bit about how you became so interested in and became an expert in pelvic floor health for women?

 

(03:33): Yeah, absolutely. So I am the mom of three boys. They're now 17, 19 and 21. So I, it's not like I'm a new mom, but in my career I had a career shift about 16 or 17 years ago from the world of corporate into wellness, entrepreneurship and Pilates actually for me became a vehicle that I used for my own healing. A lot of undiagnosed pain, a lot of protecting a lot of holding, a lot of tension in my body, which created a lot of dysfunction and a lot of disconnection from my body. And so through Pilates, I started to understand the way our body worked as systems. You know, we're not pieces. We think sometimes were arms and legs and organs and skin and hair. And, but we're much more than that. We're a skeletal system and lymphatic system and a reproductive system and a digestive system.

 

(04:26): And what I started learning through my training and my own healing was that these systems when compromised are not just standalone compromised systems, they're gonna impact other systems in the body. And when that happens, using the hyphenated word, DISE dis-ease is one of the outcomes that can be present in the body. And that's what was happening with me. I became a very, I was, I looked seemingly healthy on the outside, but on the inside I was slowly, I felt like I was slowly dying. I was losing my voice. I became a very, not so confident. Young woman didn't know if I'd ever be able to be a mom. Didn't know why I would marry my high school sweetheart, who just proposed to me because my body was not working for me. And when I found Pilates, it completely changed my life. And as part of that, I guess, experience 16 weeks into starting my Pilates journey. I was off all 11 medications that I had been prescribed to manage different symptoms that I had been experiencing for two years prior to that. And it really intrigued me.

 

(05:36): Could you talk a little bit about what was going on for you in detail? Like you said, your body just wasn't working for you, you're on all these medications. I know everybody's wondering like what in the world was happening.

 

(05:47): So for me it was manifesting or presenting itself as digestive pain. And this had started when I think back to it, like back in high school, I am the first born child. I am a pretty driven individual and I would get this pain. And I always in my mind just thought, well that's because I am vying for that high mark on that test. Or I wanna make that team or I want it right. And I just chalked it up to nerves. My little small town doctor also chalked it up to nerves and I just started taking tongues. Cause I just thought it was, you know, a little bit of acid in my gut. And it turned out to be much more than that. The pain, it was like a, a baseball size pain just back from my belly button. And it would overcome me. I would be doubled over.

 

(06:37): It was hard to breathe. I would find myself sitting at my desk at work, kind of pressing the angle of the desk into just above my belly button and I would breathe and that would kind of calm it down for me. It hurt when I moved, it hurt when I didn't move. It hurt when I was sexual with my then fiance, it hurt when I was going for groceries it, so I actually named my pain. I named my pain, the edge and it personified that part of me that I had zero control over and it helped me to, to cope. Right. And so the medications started to get added on as I went through a process of specialist specialist specialist, this test, that test to the point where I sat with members of my medical team. And they told me that they believed that the pain was in my head and that I was seeking attention and that there was nothing more that they could do for me.

 

(07:31): And so that's when Pilates, it was a dark time for me. I was in a very, not so great space in my mind. Back then, I wouldn't have said that I was depressed, but as I look back, yeah, I was. And what I decided one day when I saw Madonna on the cover of a fitness magazine in the grocery store and it had the word Pilates splashed across it, I decided that I would buy that magazine and read that article because I was a big Madonna fan. And what I read was words that talked about alignment of the spine and breathing with this muscle called the diaphragm and balance with the front of the body and the back of the body. And there was words like eccentric, like length and muscles. And I thought, oh, this is kind of like yoga. I should do this.

 

(08:18): You know, I had a yoga practice and I went to my first Pilates class and it actually was one of the most disturbing lack of confidence, 50 minutes of my life. And if I wasn't such darn keener, and if I hadn't taken my new Pilates mat to the front row of that class, I would've rolled it up and I would've made a B line, but I, I went right to the front right by the instructor. And when she started speaking to me that day, she should have been speaking a foreign language because she was saying things like inhale through your nose to expand the space in your torso, exhale out of your mouth, make this H a ha sound. As you let the air exit and you let your ribs melt into, like, she was saying these things. And I was like, what is she actually saying?

 

(09:08): Cause my down body would not do any of it. And I didn't know, should I laugh or should I cry? And, and after the class I rolled up my mat and my instructor walked up to me and she, well, she said to me, just hang, hang out for a few minutes. So she said goodbye to everybody else. She walked up to me, and she wrapped her arms around me. And I melted, I burst into tears because for the first time in my life, I actually did not know what was wrong with me because I couldn't do the simple act of breathing. The first thing we do when we

 

(09:48): On

 

(09:48): His body, right, is we take that first big gasp of air and we breathe. I couldn't even do that. And it was very humbling for me. And all my instructors said to me that day was come back on Thursday. That's all she said. And she opened up her arms and I walked out and my husband was waiting for me or my fiance at that point was waiting for me outside. And I walked out and it looked like I was chopping onions. My eyes were like red and puffy from crying. And he is like, what the hell just happened in that class? Like why, why, why are you on your knees crying? And I was like, I just have to come back on Thursday. That's all I kept saying, I have to come back on Thursday. And that was one of those defining moments for me in my life, where I was, where I realized maybe I was looking in the wrong place for my healing. Maybe I actually had the empowerment to see within me if I could heal here first. And that's what I did. And over the next 16 weeks, I went twice a week to that class and I practiced and I practiced and I practiced. And by Christmas of that year, I had weaned myself off of all 11 of my medications. And I was just ripe for wanting to know more about the body. And that's really how my journey started.

 

(11:08): Okay. Yeah. You know, we who do yoga, we think we know Pilates, and then you go to a Pilates class and you're like, I don't know Jack about this and the breathing I'm with you. You go. And it's like, have I ever breathed the breath in my life? You think where you go to Pilates? Like you're doing it all wrong. OK. So that started your journey. And then you eventually became a master teacher, and you've got companies that teach Pilates. Yeah. And so what led to the pelvic floor revelation?

 

(11:39): Yeah. So for me through my Pilates training and going to different conferences and meeting different people, I was always intrigued. So before Pilates, I used to teach other forms of fitness. And I never had heard before that the pelvic floor was a part of the core. I always thought your erectus abs and your O Bleaks and your transverse abs, that was your core. And as I started to learn that the core, the way I was taught is a cylindrical-shaped system. You have on the very outer layer at the front of your body, your six pack, right? Those reus, a dominance, and then deeper to that, you have the sling system of the internal and external or external O Bleaks that twist you and, you know, pick up your purse off the floor. Then you've got those deep transverse abs that start in your low back, wrapped to your front, like a corset to give you shape and posture security for your POS or for your organs.

 

(12:35): But then there's a top and a bottom to that cylinder. The diaphragm is the main muscle of respiration like that mushroom cap sits at the top of the cylinder of the core. And the pelvic floor finishes the structure as the floor of the core. And I was like, okay, wait a minute. So this is actually true when I'm doing my abdominal work through Pilates or before I used to teach boot camps. I never ever once cued my own body or cued my clients to activate their pelvic floor as they were doing a plank or doing, you know, curling up doing a roll up in Pilates. And I was like, how did I miss this? What did I do to miss this major fact? And so I just started digging more and more and more. And through my learning, I understood that the diaphragm and the pelvic floor work in a unit as a system like BFFs in the body.

 

(13:29): So when the diaphragm is not properly functioning and as women, we carry attention in two main spots, right? Head, neck, and shoulders and through the pelvis. So we have been given this primary breathing muscle in our body, the diaphragm that's huge and very underutilized. And then of course, we've been given the secondary breathing muscles that live in our neck, they're called the scale lanes and the sternal mastoid. And they're like little strips of like beef jerky. They're meant to help when needed. They're not meant to be like the lead actress in a movie, but for so many of us, because of our forward head carriage, the tension we carry, you know, we grip our jaw. We forget to breathe during the day we use those little beef jerky muscles as the primary breathers. And so at that point, ladies, we're like a little, a beautiful little goldfish using our gills to breathe on the side of our neck, adding more and more and more tension.

 

(14:31): Cuz those muscles already have a job. They ought to hold our head up. We forget that we have this beautiful big muscle to diaphragm that when, when not used, when not functional directly impacts our pelvic floor. And I was like, it was like this light bulb moment where I was like, oh my gosh, I need to start teaching this way. I need to start teaching beyond the keel cuz it is, I call it beyond the keel because when a keel, any movement taught improperly can be detrimental from a functional perspective. Right. So I just started like gobbling up more and more information and trying different things out. And the women I was teaching, it was like, again, like me in that first Pilates class, I was speaking a different language. They're like, we're supposed to be using our pelvic floor when we breathe. And I'm like, yes, on the exhale, it's like drawing, you know, drawing that pelvic floor up like slurping up a straw, like picking up a grape with your vagina.

 

(15:30): That's the exhale. Because when we take a big breath in our lungs filled with air, our diaphragm is at rest because the diaphragm from the pelvic floor buddies, when the diaphragm rest, the pelvic floor has to rest. When we exhale the lungs empty of air, the diaphragm gets to kind of come into its full glory and work. And that's when the pelvic floor works. Right? So that's why when we're lifting up our kids or picking up weights or bags of groceries, we wanna lift and stand on that exhale phase of breath. It's gonna protect our low back our organs and our pelvic cause our pelvic floor is in action. So that's what started to intrigue me. And then I did some work with Dr. Bruce Crawford. Who's a urogynecologist from Reno, Nevada, and his research showed that 90% of women with any sort of pelvic floor dysfunction, either coughing or sneezing and peeing a bit, or you know, hyper tone where there's just a lack of tone in the muscle or frequency where I don't have to go pee now.

 

(16:28): But like in a nanosecond, if I don't get to the bathroom, I'm gonna have an accident. All of those women, if there were 10 of them in a room, nine of those women could be taught how to use those muscles connect with those nerves and release that fascia in that area in a new way to create an environment for function. Only one of those women would have to get wheeled into a surgery room to get a pelvic floor mesh pinup surgery. And I was like, hold on here. So what you're saying is that movement can heal 90% of these cases. How empowering is that? And that's really what was the impetus for me to be like, I wanna do more about this. And I knew already for my Pilates training, that things like, you know, using a foam roller or a pinky release ball on your shoulders or a foam roller on your it band, the, you know, the piece of fashion between and the hip would provide healing release of the fascia, healthy blood flow oxygen, rich nutrient, rich environment for those cells to flourish. I was like, how would I create that in the pelvic floor? And that's what I did with the Cooch ball. And, and when I started to educate about it, it was challenging for me because no one talks about their pelvic floor. Everyone pretends they're good. Like

 

(17:43): Everyone pretends, they don't have one. No, they don't have a vagina because nobody talks about, they think, think vagina is a bad word, which it's not, but let's back up a little bit, cuz this is really good. So some people know what we're talking about when we said pelvic floor dysfunction, you mentioned briefly some of the symptoms. Yeah. But just so everybody listening can identify, is this me? Or is this not me? Okay. I mean, it probably applies to most women who have had children because there's so much dysfunction that occurs when that big baby comes through and rips through everything. But can you kind of go through the symptoms that women would be identifying or noticing if they have pelvic floor dysfunction?

 

(18:29): Yeah. Okay. So think of it like a continuum, like a number line. Okay. So on one end of the spectrum, we have what is called hyper H Y P E R tonic. Okay. Hyper tone. Too much tone, too much tension too tight. Okay. So constipation is actually a very common symptom that a lot of women don't realize can be attributed to the pelvic floor pain during intercourse is another symptom of a pelvic floor that is too tight, right? Even just general pelvic floor pain can be an indicator of some dysfunction in that area. On the other side of the spectrum, there is high tone. H I P oone a lack of tone. All right, there can be, this is where yeah. You might cough or sneeze or a laugh and have a little bit of wedding, or maybe you're starting a learn to run program.

 

(19:32): Although I do have to say in hyper tone, sometimes that coughing or sneezing too can cause a little bit of an accident because you're holding, holding, holding all the time and you do that sneeze. Right. And there's a little bit of displacement of, of urine. And so those are some of the more common there is urge frequency as well. And urge is actually, it is a pathway, a neural pathway that starts to get developed when we don't wait for our bladder to actually completely fill before the brain sends the message. Like I better go to the bathroom. And so what happens over time and we've probably all done this before, even as moms like to our kids, okay, we're going on a little road trip, go to the bathroom. I don't need to go mom, just go try, but I don't have to go, just go try.

 

(20:18): Right. And we, we sit when they just don't need to, or you just don't need to then don't because what that starts to train is if you start to empty your bladder and it's only a third full, when it gets a third full, your brain's gonna be like, oh, it's a third fold and you're gonna go and you're gonna pee for like five seconds and be like, well, is that it right? And then less than an hour later, you're gonna be going again. So there's all of these little parts to pelvic floor, you know, health and wellness, wellness. Now women who have had yes, large babies, a hundred percent, there can be some pelvic floor dysfunction women going into menopause. I think we just anticipate as our hormones are changing, the tone of the pelvic floor is gonna change. And that's just become something we just expect as we age.

 

(21:05): And it doesn't necessarily always have to be that way. I have clients who have never had babies. I have had clients I have had actually moms buy my product for their 9, 10, 11 year old tween daughters who are still wetting the bed and don't wanna go to a sleepover because they, and in a lot of these cases, these young girls are like high level dancers or figure skaters or performers. And they are, they're teaching their body to hold right, to create a shape. And they're actually having pelvic floor dysfunction at those ages being shown as bedwetting. And we've had tremendous success there. Right? So one of the main messages through this education around what is a pelvic floor dysfunction symptom is it's not just for older ladies and women that have had babies. It's like, we think about, we want strong glutes so we can walk up and downstairs.

 

(22:08): We want strong arms so we can, you know, have a high level of functioning in our life activities of daily living. But yet, like you said earlier on tuck to Dunton, there's some people that don't even think we have a pelvic floor or they'll use terms like down there, like you said, they don't use vagina. They don't talk about any of that. And men too have pelvic floors, men, pelvic floor dysfunction can show itself as erectile dysfunction. It can show itself as back pain, tight hips, even in women. Right? And there's a main nerve that comes out of our brain down into that area of our body called the ental nerve. And the Al nerve is pretty special. Cause it does two main things. It's a sensory nerve. So the sensuality of that area of our body, and it's a motor nerve, it's like the main messaging system from our brain to our pelvic floor.

 

(22:58): And even things as simple as our posture, putting our phone in our back pocket. Think back to our high school days. I know maybe some of you were like me where I would lay on my bed with a coat hanger to zip up my acid wash jeans, cuz they were so tight, right? Like remember those days. And so even the clothing that we wear, the shoes that we wear, it all plays into this ability for this floor. It's a series of muscles that are kind of layered on each other, like a hammock. And over time when we don't take care of it because we live on a planet with gravity, prolapse can be an outcome of a lack of pelvic floor understanding and health because those organs can start to descend mm-hmm and we can fix in a grade one and two, but once those organs have start to displace themselves outside of the body, all the cooch ball work in the world is not gonna bring those back up inside. So we wanna avoid that,

 

(24:01): Right? Oh my God. So this is such a good conversation. So I have to give a little Latin lesson real quick. When I was in medical school and we had to learn anatomy, we had this ginormous book with all these Latin terms and we had to memorize them. I was obsessed with looking up at the origins of these words. So Pual is from Latin. It means ashamed. And it is the nerve that interviews the vulva and vagina. Is that ridiculous? Right? And that's where hysterectomy comes from. They said that that was what made a woman's womb is what made her hysterical. So hysterectomy was taking out the hysteria part of her. So I know, I hope everyone is very upset right now hearing this, but this is how the female genitalia has been named. So there's a reason why we're all ashamed to say vagina.

 

(24:52): We act like we don't have one. We call it down there. And so I wanna say free yourself, everybody pause this recording. And I want you to scream out loud right now, vagina, vagina, vagina. okay. And start calling your parts by their anatomic names. But actually vagina comes from also, I can't remember if it's Greek or Latin, which means the sheath of a man's sword. That's what vagina comes from. So you really don't wanna call it that either. So Yi is kind of the thing that we should be calling it. So I correct myself. I forgot that. So Yi. So anyway, I had to say that, but I think this is fascinating. What you're saying about girls, young girls. I had no idea about that. And then I also wanted to ask you, a lot of women suffer with Vaness, you know, where they get this spasm of those pelvic floor muscles, making intercourse painful, if not impossible, especially if there's a history of sexual trauma. Is this something that you would include in pelvic floor dysfunction that the ball that you're gonna tell us all about in a second might help.

 

(26:02): Yeah, absolutely. And you know, there is such a right now my latest anatomical obsession is the so as muscle and I'm like really diving D I, I go through these phases, right. And I am just right now, like super obsessed with the function that the, so as plays with the pelvic floor and the pelvic organs and the location of them. And so when you talk about Vaness and any sort of like spasmodic experience that, that people have when I'm using and kind of coaching on with, with my coach ball clients, sometimes we don't go right into the pelvic floor. Like we actually will work around it. So we'll get them, get them to actually start using their ball. And we'll talk more about it as a way to like a pelvic floor release laying on their tummy or sorry, a so as release, laying on their tummy, we'll do a lot of work into the sacrum, you know, into that SI area with the ball, we do a lot of release work through part of the glute, especially through the pure form.

 

(27:12): And we start to just gently pay attention to get some healthy blood flow and a little bit of like aha around the area. And then, you know, we'll come into working with the pelvic floor, cuz sometimes there's such a pattern like you, you mentioned trauma, especially with sexual trauma. There is such a deeply rooted pattern neurologically that the Physica like, you know, that woman literally has no control will just get, even get the ball close to her, sitting on it. And she's like, I'm out camped. Right? Right. So we really have to focus on and we play around with breath. We'll do some sniffing breath. We'll do some more calming breath work. And that's why it's kind of like that. I always explain it to my women. Like if you see a squirrel and you've got a handful of sunflower seeds and you really want that little squirrel to eat those sunflower seeds, you kind of have to turn your head away from the Palm of your hand. As you slowly bring it down to the ground and slide over to the squirrel. Otherwise if you come hard and fast, the squirrel's gonna dart, right? Mm-Hmm this in a lot of cases with our pelvic floor, we need to come at it in a slow, steady way so that our brain, our mind and our body can come together to start to have a bit of a healing experience.

 

(28:34): Okay. Great point. So now let's get to talking about this amazing device that you developed and I know everybody can't see because this is audio only. So you're gonna have to check out Jana's webinar on it. She'll and you can watch it. So talk about the Cooch ball.

 

(28:53): Yeah. So the Cooch ball was the outcome of me sitting night after night at my kitchen table with my complaining about why does no one talk about the pelvic floor? Why did none of my clients ask me questions? And then my inbox is full. Like I, you know, I was on my little rant and finally he said to me, Janna, do something about it or stop talking about it. And it was like I said, what do you mean do something about it? He's like, well, make something, create something, create something that you can use to help your clients connect with this part of their body. And I was like, okay. And the next day I started creating and I started just playing around as a mom of three boys. We had all different kinds of balls in our basement. I started sitting on them and it was kind of like the three bears, some were way too hard and way too small.

 

(29:43): Some were way too big and way. And I was like, I'm just gonna make my own. And that's what I did. I spent in my true entrepreneurial fashion, I got on the phone and I was calling big corporate sporting goods manufacturers like Spalding will. And I would introduce myself and I'd be I'm Janet Danielson from Saskatoon, Canada. And I'm a Pilates instructor and I wanna make this pelvic floor ball. Who would I talk to in your organization? And I would get, I got laughed at, I got hung up on and I just, I didn't quit. I didn't quit. And so I found a manufacturer offshore and I created the ball and I got a patent lawyer and he's like, yep, there's a design and utility patent here. I got, my first unit arrived in January of 2020. I was off to Tampa for a shark tank type entrepreneurial competition with the home shopping network.

 

(30:33): And I won that competition and was scheduled to go back to Tampa, to shoot my first eight minute show in April of 2020. And then the gift of COVID landed on our doorstep three weeks before. And I put, I just put up a landing page and started a webinar. And that's the humble beginnings of the coach ball. The focus of it, why it's called the cooch ball. First of all is because I wanted it to have a sassy, chic name. I wanted it to catch people's attention and I wanted to start the conversation. That was my number one. Why pick a name that might be a little edgy for some people because it opens the door to having the conversation and that's what needs to happen. It's called the ball for men. It's a three minute experience ladies. It is what happens on the ball.

 

(31:28): And I really rooted into the research that I, the Dr. Bruce Crawford, I had mentioned him before, is that any muscle in our body that is lacking oxygen rich, nutrient rich, and is restricted in its function because of this connective tissue called fascia, think of fascia as like cheese cloth, or like linen that wraps every single fiber of muscle in our body. And it not only wraps it, but it starts to restrict like AOA constrict or snake. It starts to restrict and stick to it. And it basically suffocates the muscle from the oxygen-rich nutrient-rich blood that it needs to thrive. When that happens, the muscle slowly starts to become dysfunctional and die. So when we wanna improve the function of our body, the look, the, feel, the function we need blood flow. When you sit on the ball and you work up to three minutes a day and you can sit on your couch, you can sit on the floor.

 

(32:28): If you can't get on the floor, you just sit on a chair and you breathe diaphragmatically so that the weight of your body, when it's on the ball creates this beautiful interaction where that cheese cloth type tissue, the fascia starts to melt because of the force of the ball in the area. All right, we start to feel tingly, warm blood flow. And for some women, it takes weeks and weeks and weeks to actually experience the blood flow because there's so tight or so disconnected, they don't feel it, but that's the biofeedback that our body gives us. Right? And then the diaphragmatic breathing that I walk, you know, my women through gets the diaphragm working and wakes up the pelvic floor. So that in this three minute experience, you're getting the release and you're getting the strength simultaneously. And it, it it's I, regardless of where you fall on that spectrum of hypertonic and hypotonic that we talked about 10 minutes ago, because it's a duality, the duality of the experience on the ball meets the needs of really any body. So that's how it works.

 

(33:40): Okay. So you sit on it, you do certain breathing practices, which you teach and it works by increasing blood flow. It doesn't go. Cause when I first saw it, I was like, is she gonna have put that inside our vagina? Cause how many inches is it?

 

(33:56): It's five graciously. It's a five inch diameter. So I

 

(34:02): ,

 

(34:03): No, this bad girl is just, it's an external product. Yeah. And it's great. You know what? I have women that use this. I'm a big proponent of pelvic floor physiotherapy. So it's a great compliment to pelvic floor physiotherapy. I have clients who have been fitted for pessaries that use this with their pessary. So it really does not discriminate as far as where you are in your pelvic health journey. If you are tuning into this podcast and you're like, this is the first time I'm actually learning about all of this. And I need a little bit more my product. It's not just for those advanced learners that have an understanding of their anatomy and what happens. No, it really is for everybody. Even if you think, well, I don't cough and sneeze and pee. I don't have pain during intercourse. It's preventative maintenance. Just as much as it is healing. Something that may slightly dysfunctional.

 

(34:59): Okay. So let me ask, is it like Perineum massage? Is that what you would kind of call it? Is that what it's doing to increase blood flow or

 

(35:08): Yes. I mean, it does, obviously you're sitting right on your perineum. Honest, there is gonna be that sensation, not so much like massage, but more just like maybe stretch I would say, but what's happening inside the body is the weight of the body on the ball. Like I said, is getting to those fascial restrictions in and around that muscle tissue, it's also freeing up. Like we learned earlier, the ental nerve that ashamed nerve. It is giving that nerve a little bit of room to be like, oh my gosh, I can now send messages more clearly and receive them. I can now have more sensation here because I don't have that fascia that's restricting me. I have all of this amazing blood flow that is nurturing me and I can really start doing, I can reconnect what my job actually is, what my function actually is. Mm-Hmm so, so those are some of the things that are happening, like simultaneously from a physiological perspective while you're on the ball.

 

(36:11): Okay. So now I know somebody's thinking this, so I gotta ask it. Yeah. Do people ever have orgasms while they're using it?

 

(36:18): Okay. So let me tell you this. So yes, yes. And I'm gonna give an example in my own life. So I never thought of myself as someone that was blocked, right? Like I'm a pretty open person. I, you know, anyways, my work with my roots chakra and exploring my own body is I am like light years where I was three years ago. When I started playing around with this idea of launching this ball, you guys, ladies, there is so much magic. Our pelvis is like a cauldron. We have become so disconnected from our divine feminineness and, and the power, the sheer power we hold in the pelvic bowl of our body and the roots chakra in what it can do as the base of our channeling. Our energies are just the magic that we are as women and the sensuality and orgasmic experience on the ball can be very real.

 

(37:29): Yeah. Because the erectile tissue, isn't just in the clitoris, everybody listening, if you're not familiar with your clitoris, you need to listen up. But it is a little mini penis, the, the arms and legs, hopefully you caught Susan Bratton's anatomy lesson at the stop the menopause madness summit, if you're listening. Cause she described it beautifully. They go all the way around the opening to the vagina under the pubic bone. So it seems to me, if you're sitting on the cooch ball and you're moving, that's getting stimulated. I love how you describe the pelvis as a caldron. That's really cool. But yes, so many women, oh my gosh. It makes me wanna cry. When women say I've never had a orgasm, Dr. Kyrin. And I'm just like, oh my gosh. And they didn't have anyone to talk to about it. They didn't feel comfortable talking to their doctors about it. And it really is your birthright ladies. And it's so important. It helps to balance your hormones for God's sake. So it's very important for your overall health. You have that functionality for a reason. So do you have any stories that you can share with us about women who maybe were having blocked sexuality? Maybe they never have an orgasm or maybe they were having difficulty to orgasm or maybe women who were just for having other pelvic floor dysfunction and then they used this and they had improvement.

 

(38:53): Yeah. Yeah. You know, I wanna share a story with a young client. I had, she was in her late twenties. She had spent, since she was a little girl, you guys remember like the river dance, the Highland dancing fourth. Yeah. And so she was a Highland dancer. She was an elementary school teacher, like I said, newly married. And she came to me and in, within about three minutes of us connecting in her first session, she was in tears and I'll never forget the words she said to me. She said, Janna, I've been married for six months. I've been with my new husband for almost two years. She said on Wednesdays, I wake up and I have the worst headache. And my stomach is in knots all day long because Wednesday nights are the night in her words that I let him buck and I am in such pain for that 15 minutes.

 

(39:47): And I'm manifesting all of this anxiety all day long on Wednesday, knowing that when we go into bed, I, this is gonna be my experience. And then I wake up on Thursday morning and I'm so thankful that I have another seven days before it happens again. She said, I am fearful that I will lose my husband. I am fearful that I will never be a mom. And she said, I have never in my life experienced any form of pleasure, any form of sexual pleasure, I don't believe it actually exists. And this was through her SOS. Right? And so we got her going with the ball. She probably I'm gonna say the first week or so that she was using her Cooch ball. She was maybe able to stay on it for about 30 seconds. That was it. And we would use like one of those, it was called a sit fit.

 

(40:40): So it was kind of like a spy like cushion, right? She couldn't even sit on the hard floor on it. We had to take a little bit of the ouch factor away and we would just focus on her breathing. And so 30 seconds turned into 60 seconds about a month or six weeks after that, she started telling me that there's not as much pain on Wednesday nights. And we would just, we were progressing and progressing and progressing. And I'm gonna say about four months in, she came to her weekly session and she said, Dana, I, I didn't orgasm. But she said, I actually didn't cry while my husband was making love to me, I was able to relax. And I could think of myself being on the coach ball and on the inhale relaxing. And she said, he said that being inside my vagina was a completely different experience for him.

 

(41:31): It wasn't like he was trying to, to break through a rock wall. And it was a beautiful story because about seven months after we started working together, she got pregnant with her first baby. She was, became so confident in herself, in her relationship. And that's a story for me that is really special because like you said, it is our birth right to be able to experience our body or have, you know, ourselves or have someone experience in that way to create that outcome. And there are so many women, like you said, that just either don't believe it's in the cards for them or they don't deserve it. And that's not true.

 

(42:12): Yes. That, isn't true. What a beautiful story. And I love how this ball really is. There's so much more we could talk about, I'm thinking of a million questions, but I know we've been at it for almost an hour, so we probably need to wrap up, but I'm gonna invite everyone definitely to get your free gift and a tenure webinar for sure. But that whole, that SAC chakra, the sexual chakra, the roots chakra so much trauma for women in that area related to our emotions related to our sexuality related to our power in the world. And I love how, what you created is really, it's kind of  a concrete way for women to conceptualize and begin to not only address physical problems in that area, but bring attention to those emotional, spiritual, energetic blocks, I think is what I hear you saying, is that right?

 

(43:08): Yes. That's exactly what I'm saying. It's not a one dimension physical thing. There are all these other aspects of the emotionality, the sensuality, the spirituality, and you start to uncover them in layers. That's the beautiful thing is you start to uncover them in layers and just that sense of consciousness and moving up that scale so that it is joyful. It is a joyful part of your body, not a part that you despise or pretend doesn't exist.

 

(43:38): Awesome. Well thank you for making that. I can't wait to get mine. Jana's sending me one. I'll let you all know how I do with it and how it unfolds for me. Maybe we'll have Jana back. If you love this episode, let me know. Cuz there is so much more that we can talk about. I didn't even get to share some of the amazing quotes she had from Joseph Pilates. I'll share this one, but then we gotta wrap up, breathing is the first and last act of life. And somewhere in the middle, we forget how to do it. And I love how you talked about the core really is it's a ball with a top of the diaphragm, the bottom of the pelvic floor and then the side walls. And so relearning how to breathe is something that you help women to do. And while you heal their pelvic floor, we have a link in the notes to a four part mini masterclass that has created for, for you, how to transform pain into inspiration. We will have the link in the show notes, and then you have a webinar coming up soon, the healthy pelvic floor webinar. And I know you do those regularly. So do you wanna tell people about the free gift they can download and the webinar that you're offering?

 

(44:53): Yeah, absolutely. So the free gift ladies is really my, the roadmap that got me out of my pain cycle. So I offer it's a four part little mini series, 15 minutes of a session. And it's just one strategy that you can start doing in that moment to help to change your life. And then of course the healthy pelvic floor webinar, the link like Dr Kyrin said to register will be in the show notes. We just take a different approach at different than what you've learned today on the podcast. We're gonna learn some of the secrets of the pelvic floor and it really is the perfect time. If you feel like a coach ball is in your future, I'm gonna say this as a businesswoman, don't get it today. Don't go and register using the link that Dr. Kyrin gives you to go to the webinar because there are some really great offers that you can't get on my website. So

 

(45:55): Right.

 

(45:55): Be patient be patient is only a couple weeks away. Wait for that webinar on the 1st of September. And then you will grab a bunch more value and bonuses that you otherwise would be unable to.

 

(46:08): Yeah, you definitely wanna use the link cause you'll get goodies that you won't get on the website, but thank you for that. Thank you for joining us today. Jana, it's been wonderful talking with you. Like I said, we could talk about so many things related to this topic and maybe after I've had my cooch ball experience, we will have you back, and we can talk some more

 

(46:28): Amazing

 

(46:30): Thank you for so much. And thank you all for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast. I hope you have learned something inspirational, informational that will help you move your health towards the brilliance that you deserve. I want you to take action. You know, I tell you that every week and really what I want you to do is sign up for Janna's webinar on the pelvic floor secret and listen to all her wisdom about the pelvic floor. Because as you can hear, and from listening, probably more of us women than not have pelvic floor dysfunction and who couldn't always have better sexuality and sensuality, that's really part of good hormone balance and good health. So go check it out, click link in the show notes and I will see you next week until then peace, love and hormones. 

 

(47:25): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► Get Jana Danielson’s 4 part mini master class: Transform Pain Into Inspiration

CLICK HERE to get access.

 

► The Healthy Pelvic Floor Webinar by Jana Danielson

 

This empowering webinar and fitness strategies could help you:

• Learn more about your body & its systems
• Improve the function of your pelvic floor muscles
• Understand how your posture impacts metabolism
• Create noticeable shifts in mobility & core strength
• Reduce pelvic floor, lower back & hip pain
• Strengthen bladder control
• Boost confidence, pleasure & happiness
• Gain a supportive community to tap into for success

 

CLICK HERE to sign up.

 

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

 

It might be time to check your hormones.

 

Most people don’t even know that their hormones could be the culprit behind their problems. But at Her Hormone Club, we specialize in hormone testing and treatment. We can help you figure out what’s going on with your hormones and get you back on track.

 

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The Dangers of Indoor Air Quality

Have you ever considered the air quality in your home? If you're like most people, the answer is probably no. But did you know that the air inside your home could be up to five times more polluted than the air outside? And if you're a woman in her midlife years, that's something to take very seriously.

 

Therese Forton-Barnes is an indoor air quality expert and she's joining us today on the Hormone Prescription Podcast to talk about the dangers of indoor air pollution and what we can do to protect ourselves.

 

Therese is the Household Toxins Health Specialist and the Head Guru at The Green Living Gurus. She spreads the awareness of chemical exposure that could cause many autoimmune illnesses, cancer, and other ailments through her Green Living with Tee weekly podcast, her blog, the Green parent pioneer coaching program for families with children, and Tee’s organics line of household cleaners and products.

 

In this episode, you will learn:

• The dangers of indoor air pollution
• The things that contribute to indoor air pollution
• The toxins and carcinogenic chemicals found in indoor air
• How to protect yourself from indoor air pollution
• What you can do to improve the air quality in your home

 

So if you're concerned about the air you're breathing, make sure to tune in and learn everything you need to know about indoor air quality and take action to protect your health.

 

(00:00): Plan your life. Like you will live forever and live your life. Like you may die tomorrow. Therese's mom.

 

(00:08): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.

 

(01:04): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so glad that you've joined me today. My guest today is Therese Forton Barnes and she is a toxin guru, or we're gonna be talking about the dangers of indoor air quality will be detailing the potential hazards to your indoor air quality and talking about what you can do about it. Her mom is the one who shared that quote that I offered in the teaser plan. Your life like you will live forever and live your life. Like you may die tomorrow. And I absolutely love that. I think it really speaks to addressing toxins in your life. They are long acting, and their effects temporarily are very delayed. So you wanna plan like you're gonna live forever, but you wanna live like you may die tomorrow. So we're gonna tell you the things you need to go in and get rid of to improve your indoor air quality and your health. I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started. Therese is a household toxins health specialist, and she's the head guru at the Green Living Gurus. She spreads awareness of chemical exposure that could cause many autoimmune illnesses, cancer, and other elements through her green living with tea weekly podcast, her blog, the green parent pioneer coaching program for families with children and teas organics line of household cleaners and products. Welcome Tee. Thank you for having me today. Looking forward to our chat.

 

(02:42): I love talking about toxins because there's so many of them and I think that it can be overwhelming when people hear about this topic to think, oh my God, how do I even begin to detoxify my life? My home, my car, my work, all the things that they need to detoxify. And I love that we've decided to focus on indoor air quality. I don't think that a lot of people realize how vital this is. Why is this so important Therese?

 

(03:14): So our indoor air is potentially two to 100 times more polluted than the outdoor air. And these are reports that have been put out by the environmental protection agency. And the reason why our indoor air in our homes, our offices, you name it is because our homes are now built to be airtight. Everybody wants to keep the air in to conserve energy. And the problem is you're not getting enough circulation throughout the home and enough clean air coming through your home. But the worst part about it is the amount of products that are being used in your home. Whether it's cleaning supplies, laundry, detergent, dry cleaning, coming in furniture. That's been sprayed with anti fire retardants and it goes on and on and on. And you're breathing these chemicals in all day long in your home. And so the indoor air in your home is just as important as your outdoor air or as important as a food you're eating too. So these are just things I love to focus on because it's something that people don't realize it, that they need to really look at their indoor air.

 

(04:29): I think that's so true. And you, you highlighted a couple points. I wanna just emphasize that most people focus on aspects of the environment. They have no control over, which is outdoor air quality mm-hmm can you move? Sure. I had a patient a few years ago who lived in the middle of Iowa in the middle of farm country, and there were pesticides in her air and she knew it was a problem. And there was really nothing she could do about it other than move from where she lived while she wasn't paying as much attention to the air quality inside. And oh, when we did, she found out she had moldy things in her house that were affecting her health. So I think this is really where you have a large degree of control to change the outcome. And I also wanted to highlight when you were talking, I was thinking about a lot of people are very familiar with the discomfort that comes from rereading air inside a mask over and over again, since we've had to do it for the past few years.

 

(05:33): And so think about that, your house is really like a mask, a big mask that you live in. And so if you have bad breath and you're breathing it in and out through a mask, you're getting that bad breath over and over again. It's the same in your house. If you have poor quality air, all the windows and doors are shut and they builders pride themselves on a well sealed home. That's energy efficient that really can have detrimental effects for us in terms of if we have poor air quality, we're rebreathing it over and over and over again. So let's start tea with the biggest offender. What is the number one offender you would say in the indoor air quality space that could potentially harm people?

 

(06:21): Well, in my mind, it is the cleaning products people are using because the cleaning products, people are using them every day, potentially spraying some cleaning products on counters almost every day to clean up your kitchen, whether it's to floor. And then if you have children or dogs, so they're even cleaning more. And many of the chemicals in these commercial cleaning supplies have extremely toxic ingredients in them and many have cancer-causing ingredients in them. So those are getting into your lungs. They're getting into the dust, that's on the floor in your house, that's regenerating throughout your home, and you're not getting rid of those chemicals in your house because you're using them. It's not like you're washing with water right afterwards, too. That, and goes along with that is also cleaning supplies in a SA in a different category, but it's your laundry detergent. So that's a, another cleaning supply, right?

 

(07:27): But that is now in addition to the chemicals that you're potentially using to clean your clothes, you're also breathing in potentially chemicals coming from your clothes, from your sheets. They could be out guessing all day long in your home. You could be breathing them in when you even leave the house. And they're venting. They're also venting into your house at some point, at some level, I know they vent outside, but you still can get those fumes inside your house. So those products, those chemicals, and if you think about walking down a laundry, I mean, a supermarket aisle where all your cleaning supplies are and you smell that smell. Those are all chemicals out guessing from all of those cleaning products that literally that's, what's happening in your home, too. Those chemicals just about gas.

 

(08:21): So let's dive into specifically, what are the toxins and carcinogenic agents in cleaning products? Let's start there. And I will add that, you know, I read that that years ago, Madison avenue was trying to figure out how to increase sales or promote their product above others in terms of cleaning products and particularly laundry. And they discovered that the first thing that people did when their laundry came out of the dryer to see if it was clean, was they smelled it. And that's how this whole perfusion of yeah. Smells. And so when you walk down the aisle, you can smell it. But I think most people smell that and they go, oh, that's the smell of clean . Yeah, right. So can you break down? What are the toxins and carcinogenic agents and cleaning products and laundry detergents?

 

(09:14): Well, one category is VOCs VOCs of volatile, organic compounds. Now there are hundreds, if not thousands of different chemicals that make those volatile organic compounds up, and those are ones that are just dangerous to get into your system. And you're breathing them every day. Now, the list of chemicals that potentially are made up of those VOCs and also all the other com is endless. I mean, there's been ammonia. Everybody knows ammonias in some cleaning products. There's, I mean, I can't, I'd have to pull up my, I have a list of all the chemicals that I could tell you that are in there. And I actually have that those chemicals that you can avoid in my free guide on my website, that I know you're offering your listeners. And it's a great guide because it lists what ingredients you should look for. The top ingredients you should look for in these cleaning supplies that are potentially getting into your house.

 

(10:15): So, and benzene is another one that has been known to be in some products. The biggest thing, if anybody wants to make a change to look for in cleaning products and in laundry detergent, and you hit the nail on the head is when they smell something, they think that that's a fresh smell. Unfortunately, that's the word fragrance. And that's a fragrance that is in those products. That is, they think that that's a lemon fresh smell or a lavender fresh smell. But unfortunately there is most likely no lavender and no lemon in there. And if there is, and they say that it's ascended with lavender oil, they only have to have 2% lavender in there. Unfortunately, many of the cleaning products, many of the laundry detergents have so many chemicals in them. They have to put fragrance in them to kill the smell of the chemicals that you're cleaning with.

 

(11:12): So you're getting twice as many chemicals as you really need to be cleaning with and putting in your laundry, but the word fragrance and people don't understand this when they buy products. And even it's in shampoo, it's in deodorant, fragrance is a trade secret. And it goes back that in 1940s, when the perfume industry and specifically Chanel number five was one of the companies that got our government to create this trade secret, because they did not want anybody knowing what was in their perfume. And so they said, okay, well, if you put the word fragrance on there, you do know how to detect, say what is in your product. This holds true today, still that law, that anybody can make a product, put the ingredients in there. But if you put the word fragrance on there, you do not have to tell them what's in there.

 

(12:00): Well, fragrance is made up of a laundry list of different chemicals in it. And lately three different studies were done that they found benzene in fragrance. And benzene is a common ingredient in fragrance and benzene is a known carcinogen. So some of them potentially cause cancer, but that causes cancer and they found it in a sunscreen recently. So the list goes on and on and on. But if you can get away from the fragrance, you're making a great step in the right direction to reduce your toxic load inside your home. And that goes with candles too. I mean, everybody wants something that smells fresh. We all associate with that freshness with probably growing up and our mothers and whatever they cleaned with. But unfortunately in the past 40, 50 years, clean is not what clean should be. And the chemical company has really created this mess in my mind to make us think that that is the way a house should smell. And it's, unfortunately that's not clean. That's unfortunately making your house more toxic and dirty for your body.

 

(13:18): So true. And everybody loves a new car smell, new house smell. And I say, run from the new car and the new house. So yes, the VOCs ammonia, benzene fragrance, which are mostly made from petroleum byproducts. So you wouldn't sit there sniffing gasoline at the gas station, nor do you wanna spray it on your fabrics at home or clean with it. And a question that I don't think a lot of people get is. And my kids used to say this to me all the time when they were growing up, when I kind of got on the bandwagon. Finally, when I saw the light about my own health at midlife, and I became trained in anti-aging metabolic and functional medicine and realized that toxicity was a problem. Cuz as a regular MD, we are taught, these are not issues. And that's how most of America and most industrialized countries are operating that this isn't a problem. But can you talk about cuz the next question my kids used to say, well, they wouldn't allow it. They wouldn't allow it. If it was toxic, they wouldn't allow it. If it caused cancer and I'd say, well, who's they to my kids first off. But I find this is the case with a lot of adults. They really think that there's some regulatory body that would not allow dangerous chemicals to be in our cleaning products. Can you address that?

 

(14:40): Yeah. And this is a very common, I hear it all the time and what I try to get people to understand is a little bit of history. Cuz sometimes history helps people understand why things are the way they are today. You know the fragrance thing. Oh. And people start understanding, wow, I can see where that happened, but why did that happen? Well, in the United States, we have a law here that your product is safe until it is proven guilty in the European union. It's opposite. They have to prove a product is safe before it can even go on the market. So you take these products, let's just take the sunscreen. I mentioned that many sunscreens actually for that matter, they got pulled off the market last fall. They were all on the market with benzene in the product. Now that would've never passed in the European union because they would've never been able to prove that that was safe.

 

(15:38): But unfortunately these companies here local in us, they now their back paling like, oh, we didn't know benzene was in our product and denying it. Of course they're gonna deny it. But so that is the biggest problem I see with products that is not food. Food has to be proven, safe and pharmaceuticals in that matter before it goes onto the market. So we have to be our own watchdogs here in the United States. We have to look at our labels. We have to read our ingredients. We have to know, unfortunately, no EPA is not protecting us when it comes to that. They are not. The FDA is when it comes to the food because as best they can, you know, I battles, I pick with that too. But with the EPA and all these products that are on all the shelves that we are buying in the grocery store, in the pharmacy, we have to look and see what we are using because either you are going to trust the company or you have to trust yourself because this, these have not been approved for human consumption or for cleaning. They might be say that they get rid of bacteria, but they are not going through all the ingredients and all those products and making sure that they are safe and the companies are not either.

 

(16:57): Yeah. The other thing I don't think a lot of people get is that even the individual ingredients that could potentially be toxic may have a low level of toxic potential, but nobody has studied the cumulative additive effect of these toxins together. And a hundred years ago, we might come in contact with just a couple chemicals in our lifetimes. And now we have 85,000 new chemicals since 1950. And no one has looked at the effect on newborns or uh, fetuses or women who are pregnant or children or adults, the cumulative additive effects and interactive effects of these toxins. So I remember that being one of the most impactful sources of information that I learned during my fellowship training was just, we're kind of in the wild, wild west when it comes to chemicals, we're in a live human experiment. Yeah. Where we're saying, okay, let's take the population of the world and let's dump 85,000 new chemicals and let's see what happens because they really haven't been vetted. So now we've talked a little bit about the cleaning products, the double problem of not only are they, the cleaning products, agents themselves potentially toxic or carcinogenic, but then you add on top the fragrance. When I see that word, I run and laundry detergent. Now talk about other laundry substances like dryer sheets and bleach and things like that.

 

(18:39): Dryer sheets, oh, dryer sheets. Oh, I can smell dryer sheets when I walk by vent. And when I walk by a person, I now have my husband. He can smell them on people these days, but dryer sheets are another one dryer sheets. You will not find the ingredients on a dryer sheet. Dryer sheets have known carcinogens in them. They are all chemicals that basically coat your clothing with these chemicals. So they don't stick together. Unfortunately they're loading them with other chemicals' fragrance to put them in there because those chemicals that they are coating your clothes with, they have to offset those to the smell of that chemical. So it's just like one bad thing after the next with dryer sheets. So that's another definitely bleach another, I mean you have to pick your poisons right. To try to get rid of everything right away. No, but you start with the most important things like getting rid of the dryer sheets, replacing them with wool dryer balls and some essential oils in those wool dryer balls. If you really want some sense and slowly getting rid of things that could potentially be affecting your breathing, which is our most important thing I'm addressing here because the indoor air in your home right now is so polluted potentially. So definitely dryer sheets are a big, big no-no in my book.

 

(20:05): So what dryer balls, can you talk a little bit about what those are and what they do and how they work and also the use of essential oils if people really love that fresh scent?

 

(20:17): Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I use dryer balls. I don't have much static, fortunately, because I don't have any chemicals in my laundry and washing machine or dryer because the chemicals will make your clothes tick even more. It's just a double edged sword.

Speaker 3 (20:35):

I have to say. I don't think that's a coincidence, right? So the more problems Madison avenue can give you the need to solve. And if they make your clothes, if the chemicals make them more static clingy, oh, well then you need something to treat the static clinging. I mean, that's true with women's hormones after they started using E equivalent or horse estrogen also known as Premarin in the beginning of the 19 hundreds for women, while then they created the problem of, um, uterine cancer. And instead of going back and saying, well, probably this was misguided, they just created a pro Jin to counteract the effects to prevent uterine cancer. So that is the way of industry, right? We live absolutely in that type of a capitalist society. That's always looking for advantage. So I wouldn't be surprised if there was some engineering to actually increase the static clinging. So you actually have to have dryer sheets.

 

(21:33): Absolutely. And it all goes all big circle of money and pharmaceutical industry and the chemical companies. And they're all tied into one another and it's a monster and it toxic. And we have to really, again, rely on ourselves and people like you and me and many other people out there that really are knowledgeable stepping back and looking at the whole big picture. Why is all this happening? I look at cancer. I mean, my aunt had ovarian cancer and this is originally why I really got so involved in this. And she was so healthy, but she used baby powder every single day in her private parts. And she got ovarian cancer and now low and behold baby powder causes ovarian cancer and it's still on the market. So I always look at where cancer has came from, look at where it is now. Do you hear any big cancer Institute talking about preventing cancer?

 

(22:34): We have a major one here. No, cause it's such a humongous industry. And the pharmaceutical industry feeds that industry. And I personally don't think they want it to go away because it would put out so many people out of business. I try talking about cancer prevention all the time, because I want people to prevent using chemicals in their lives that potentially can cause cancer or are known to cause cancer. But they don't talk about that. Unfortunately. And same it with Endocet disrupting chemicals. We could talk about that forever too. And what they're doing to kids, hormones and boys and the mess that's causing with kids' bodies and mimicking their estrogen and progesterone. So I think people get scared and I even have some best friends who are like, oh, it's so overwhelming. And I try to talk them through it. And it's just, you make little changes and the people that I've helped and a lot of different clients, you just take one step at a time.

 

(23:37): And it usually is starting with your cleaning, starting with your laundry, detergents, getting rid of that fragrance. Once you start there, then you're gonna be, be more aware. You're gonna start. I get people sending me, oh look, you told me about these PFAS chemicals in my non-stick cookware that and they see an article and then they start making changes on their own, which I love seeing. I sort of get the ball rolling with them and then they're aware of it. And then they start seeing more and more things reports coming up. Luckily now it's all over the place. There's so many things going on out there that people are starting to realize how toxic so many of these products are, but it's taking those baby steps and really just reading ingredients and knowing what you're putting on your skin. You wouldn't eat those chemicals. Why would you be putting them on your skin?

 

(24:29): So, and you made it such a great point. It's the cumulative effect. They might say that these chemicals in the lotion you're using is fine because it's, you know, low dosage. But how is that mixing with the chemical you're putting on your hair or your deodorant? They're all getting into your system somehow and through your skin or breathing or eating and how are they mixing in your body? I don't wanna know that, but I just think that this is just time for people to start looking at how they are in taking any of these chemicals. And you really have to look at everything you're using because we are living in a toxic world and it's getting worse.

 

(25:13): Yeah. I think the other thing most people don't realize is the temporal nature of toxin exposure to time to disease is so long. The lead time that nobody associates that, oh, when they get cancer, they're not thinking about the 30 years that they use dryer sheets and a toxic laundry detergent. Nobody that doesn't flash before your eyes. Right? Most of us think genetics, which is really only five to 10% of cancer. It's what, whether we turn our lifestyle, turns those genes on or not. So there's so many exposures and they are over such prolonged periods of time that no one gets this Eureka moment of, oh my God, it was the dryer sheets. Right. Which is fortunate and unfortunate. I mean, you know, think toxins that are that quickly, identifiable are usually not legal for human use or consumption, but it makes it challenging for us. Let's step onto. So you said cleaning products, laundry, detergents, and laundry agents. What would the next category in the indoor air quality space?

 

(26:29): Well, I mentioned candles candles. I'd like to bring up candles. And Kyrin on that last note that you just said, it's just this past weekend. I was at one of my best friend's homes and I was trying to get her to get a reverse osmosis system and, and talking her through how toxic our water can be, which we could talk about that too. But, and then I always am helping her at her house. She's like, oh, we're fine now. I mean, none of us have cancer now. And that's exactly what you just said. You don't wanna think about, you wanna prevent as much as possible. And I had to convince him like Kathy, so all the kids are going away to college, blah, blah. And like, you have to, if you really want to try to decrease your toxic load, you've gotta look at everything.

 

(27:12): So it just hit me when you said that, like, that's so true. I mean, even though you're, we're, I'm almost 60, but you don't want cancer when you're 70, do you? I mean, we all don't want cancer. We all don't want illnesses and it's trying to prevent all these illnesses and not just, I feel like it's Russian roulette, we're all playing Russian roulette with all these products we're using. So candles. Yes. Candles. So many people love candles. Almost everybody loves candles. So many candles can be same thing. The chemicals that they're using in the wax, even if it's soy. So people think, oh, I bought a soy candle. It's okay. That's not necessarily true. And also the wick can be led. So if you're burning fragrance in your house with a lead wick, you are burning chemicals in the air while these candles are lit in your home.

 

(28:08): I did not know that the wicks could be lead. Oh my gosh.

 

(28:11): I'm yes. That's

 

(28:12): Crazy.

 

(28:13): Okay. It is crazy. And the fragrance, oh my God. When I'm in somebody's home with the candle, people are kind of scared for me to go in their home period.

 

(28:21): Me too. Don't it's a compliment.

 

(28:24): Oh totally. I enjoy it. I mean, my friends are always like Curring around. I'm like, don't you worry? I'll look it around, but get rid of that candle immediately over there. Cuz I look for candles. They're out gassing. Even if they're not lit with the chemicals that are in them. And again, people have to be careful because many of them will say SCED with essential oils. That's not necessarily fragrance free. So again, it only has to have 2% essential oils for them to say that on there. So cuz essential oils, which I love, I don't know if I told you this, but I have a cleaning product line. Very basic one that I use essential oils. They're very powerful. They're wonderful. Their cleaning properties are great, but you have to know what you're doing with essential oils too. And they are great and they're great to use in many products. So,

 

(29:14): So what kind of candle should we be using Tee?

 

(29:16): Well, there's some good ones out there on the market. Fontana is a great line. Look up Fontana. Fontana is a made safe product. Made safe.org is a fabulous organization. Environmental working group, EWG. Many of your listeners may have heard of them. They're fabulous. ewg.com. You can look on their website and plug in your products to see on a scale of one to 10, what kind of chemicals are in them? But a whole other step up from that is the made safe organization. They analyze products and they, if it's a made safe organization like anything made safe certifies, I don't even look at the label because I know it is made safe. And I know that organization inside and out, so font has gone through the process of having their candles certified. So love Fontana, but there's other ones out there too, but you just have to be careful what you're buying. There's so many sold at farmer's markets. I know that because I'll talk to the people that are making them and what is in it. What are you using? And you just wanna know what you're burning in your home. It's almost the same thing as an air freshener that you're spraying. You gotta look at those chemicals, anything you're spraying in your home, a candle will do the exact same thing.

 

(30:36): Oh my gosh. Please tell me the next category is

 

(30:42): Air freshers, air freshers. How about the ones when you get in an Uber or a Lyft and they put those plugins in their vents, almost every single one does it. It makes me insane. I've tried complaining to Uber and Lyft endlessly. It doesn't work, but those or plugins in your house or any kinda spray aerosol can be toxic in itself. But anything you're using to spray in your home is you're breathing it in, period. So if you're smelling anything that can potentially be cancer-causing chemicals or other chemicals that can cause other illnesses.

 

(31:22): Yeah, this is really my pet peeve. I mean, partially because I had multiple chemical sensitivity a few years ago when I was made sick by a building and breast implants. But also because they're ubiquitous and they're highly toxic. And actually the studies do show that up to a third of people react. But the majority of them do not associate any health reaction with the air freshener, plugin, whatever, wherever the sense comes from because they're ignorant of the causal relationship. And I, I like to say that we're in the air freshener stage of where we were with cigarettes back when I was a kid in the sixties and seventies, right? Yes. Secondhand smoke. Wasn't a thing. Nobody was up in arms about it. And people freely smoked around their kids in the home. And now I know you probably can't go to jail or get a ticket for it, but it's not allowed.

 

(32:20): Yeah. Yeah. Can't

 

(32:21): Smoke, endorse. And so I think in another few decades, we'll get there when people wake up to the air freshener problem.

 

(32:28): Yeah, I totally agree. And some of the same chemicals in cigarettes are also used in air fresheners and cleaning supplies. You are spraying chemicals in your home. I mean, there's no difference to me whatsoever. And you brought up, I often hear, oh, I have a sore throat, or I have a sniffles headache. I know I'll get a sore throat, sniffles headache. If I sleep in a bed with fragrance sheets, like I go to Airbnbs, I have to bring my own sheets, open up the windows. We just went to one and it was so toxic. I couldn't. And they used, I don't oh, she told me they used gain with lavender and that it, it wasn't toxic. It

 

(33:08): Wasn't. Yeah.

 

(33:09): I was like, uh, anyway, so I'm just used to bringing my own sheets and pillows and towels now

 

(33:15): Towels I do too. Oh,

 

(33:16): Absolutely. A hundred percent. And if I forget them, I go by them. I'd rather have, you know, the new ones than the ones washed in laundry detergent anyway. So we were getting air fresheners.

 

(33:28): Yes. And I wanna add here, cuz I think you brought up a great point that we should highlight. Some people are sitting here. Going to Kyrin I have no idea what you're talking about. How would I even know if I had a problem in my house? And so I'm wondering if you can expound on that. I mean, I usually tell people, well, if you go out and spend a day at the beach or in the forest, camping or hanging out with friends, and then you come home in your locked envelope, and you notice certain things, nasal stuffiness, sore throat, itchy, watery eyes, itchy skin, maybe even rashes, stomach upset. It can show up as, or irritation. It can show up as mood irritability. I mean, it can be so subtle, and you think, oh, I'm just in a bad mood. Must have been that news report I listened to. And it may very well be that you are getting exposed to toxins in your home.

 

(34:31): Two other big ones, snoring and also terrible sleeping patterns. And habits are two big ones. I hear all the time and your body has to work so hard, getting rid of these toxins and processing them. So your organs are constantly fighting off toxins. They're made that way. Right. But to do that. And so our bodies are not made to fight off all these chemicals that are coming at us left and right, you walk out the door, you can't help what you're going to encounter, but you can when you're inside. And we like to say, you don't know, you feel bad until you feel better and until you right. They don't know. They really don't. And they think it's the pollen. They think it's, you know, they'll make excuses, or they just have allergies or it's allergy season or a headache. Why do I have a, well, you got a headache for a reason and you gotta listen to your body, even acne for that matter.

 

(35:36): Your skin's telling you something. And so many of these chemicals, I mean, I talk about cancer all the time, and we hear about them disrupting hormones. They can also be obesity, gens, too. Obesity. Gens are just like what they sound like. They cause obesity. So many of these chemicals make you fat. Many of them could potentially make your skin look older. You look older. So acne, many of them cause, but they all work differently in all of our bodies. Again, we don't know what they're doing to us and how they're mixing, but until you start getting rid of them and starting to clear the way for cleaner, fresher air, cleaner, fresher, and products in your home, I guarantee you especially get rid of fragrance. You will start to feel better and start realizing I hear it from every single person. Like I can't believe, I thought that was lemon fresh. I thought, I can't believe I slept in fragrance sheets for 20 years. Yeah. Okay. You might have felt fine, but what was it doing to your skin? What was it doing to your organ? So

 

(36:38): Right. What are the other big categories that we need to take a look at in our homes?

 

(36:43): Well, I mention what you cook your food with what you cook your food with what you store your food in. And of course food is huge. That's a whole, we could talk about food and organic food and making sure you eat as much organic food is possible and stay away from the pesticides that are being sprayed on all these non-organic foods that because once they start spraying them with pesticides, they gotta spray 'em with a lot more. And it's just a terrible cycle out there with Roundup and glyphosate and other chemicals coming on the market to take the place of glyphosate. So food of course, but what are you cooking your food in? So nonstick pans, which a lot of people used to know as Teflon were made with these chemicals, it's a whole series of chemicals called PFAS, P F a S or P F O S. And they're just coming to the surface right now and how toxic these chemicals are. And they're it's inflamed retardant, um, materials that firefighters use. They've used to put it on couches. They used to put it on furniture, on rugs, kids,

 

(37:45): Kids, sleepwear,

 

(37:46): Kids, sleepwear, dental, floss, dental floss, look for PFAS, free dental floss and kids, sleepwear and furniture. This is going back to the cigarette companies. The reason why kids slept wear and furniture is being was, but some of it still is being sprayed with fire. Retardants is because the cigarette companies, people were burning, and you know, were coming from the same generation. They fall asleep with their cigarettes in their hands in bed. This is the 1950s and sixties, right? And the government went to the cigarette company said, you need to put something in the cigarette. So they don't burn while people are burning their beds. And the cigarette company came back and said, oh no, we have a better idea. Why don't we spray all the furniture with fire retardant, spray, all the kids, baby clothes to sleepwear with fire retardant, baby's beds with fire retardants. And it's crazy to think about it, but that was the law. That's what

 

(38:48): They did. No. I'm like let's stop smoking in bed.

 

(38:51): Exactly. Hello. So that is where, and now you hear about all these firemen getting cancer from this fire. Um, not only from this stuff they use to put out the fire, but these houses that are burning down are loaded with toxic chemicals. So anyway, so, but the pans, when I was getting to the pans, those nonstick pans are made with PFAS chemicals. So I've gone through more people's homes and had them get rid of those pans, especially if they're scratched, which 99% of them are because you're only supposed to use wood on them and not metal. And most people don't use wood all the time. Anyways, I'll give

 

(39:30): A hundred dollars to anyone listening who has a UNS scratched. Yeah. Uh I pan I can't for over a year.

 

(39:40): Yeah, exactly. So a green pan is okay. That's a ceramic pan. People like their non-stick pans. The only problem is they last only a few years. So I like stainless steel, the old-fashioned way and my lodge cast iron pans. And I always say your pan does not have to be sparkling clean every single time you use it. If you ever go through a kitchen and look at all their stainless steel pans, it looks used. So that is one of my big things, is what you're cooking with. Because again, people are cooking every day and also those chemicals that you are cooking, those pans, those chemicals can also get in the air in your home as well. So, and what you're storing your food in? I do not like plastic whatsoever. I only use glass to store any of our food in because the chemicals in those plastic containers can leach into your food as well.

 

(40:32): So, and of course never MWA or plastic if you ever do microwave. So those are the top things that I would do. You can take it to a whole other level. Like I have air quality monitors in my house. So I'm measuring the amount of chemicals that are in my house. It tells me if any chemical is exceeding what it should be in here. And it's usually if, uh, something's brought into the home randomly and then air purifiers are another way that people can reduce the chemicals in your home as well. Dry-clean is another one. Dry cleaning depends on where you dry-clean. But if you have the option of airing out your dry cleaning before you bring it into your house, that is great. Let it out gas in your garage or outside. Especially if you have it sitting in your car and driving with it, open up the windows, those toxic fumes from the dry cleaning can also irritate your lungs as well. And you don't even know it. So,

 

(41:31): And there are a lot of now, now environmentally friendly, nontoxic, dry cleaners, and a lot of them, you can mail your dry cleaning to them and they will mail it back to you. So you don't have to live near one. Let's talk a little bit more about the air monitor and air purifier, cuz I think if people have listened this far and most of the people in my community, they get that this indoor air quality is a situation and then they wanna know, okay, well, do I need an air quality monitor? And if so, what are my options? And what should I look for? And do I need air filtration? And what should I look for? Can you talk a little bit about that?

 

(42:09): Yeah, absolutely. So the air quality monitor that I really love, it's called hoo it's, U H O O. You can buy that almost anywhere. I love it because I can monitor it on my phone. It's hooked up to the wifi, but it measures for rayon as well. So in the Northeast where I am in Buffalo, New York, a lot of rayon is in the Northeast. And so it measures for VOCs and another series of chemicals on there for mail to hide. So in my home, it's pretty, you're not gonna find many toxic chemicals in here, but I like having that air quality monitor for a peace of mind. I take it with me too when I can just so I can see, you know, I have fun playing with it. I'll take it to people's homes and show them that,

 

(42:58): Oh, I bet you are a favored guest.

 

(43:00): Oh yeah. Oh aren't I though pulling it out of my purse. Well, I always, I'm pretty cautious. I know who I can pull it out with and who I can, but they love it because the shows them like, wow, this really measures. Where do you think the VOCs are coming from? And then we'll look around and there'll be a perfume bottle somewhere close by in the bedroom that could be out guessing into their bedroom. Or, you know, I look at the air quality monitor as for your home. It's like getting your blood work done for your body. You wanna know what's going on in your body. If you have any issues, outstanding issues or something is wrong, right? You go for a physical, the doctor sends you in for blood work. Everything comes back fine. Well this air quality monitor your home is so important.

 

(43:44): Your air is so important to have it as a peace of mind to know, okay, I'm living in a clean air in my home. So in my mind, it's just, you know, gives me a peace of mind that it's a very clean air in our house. Then the indoor air purifier, which of course was a huge thing for COVID because it was cleaning the air for people and people wanted, I sold a ton of those. I actually represent one here in Buffalo. I love the most, not because it's in Buffalo, but it's Austin air purifier. It's 100% made in the United States here in Buffalo, all the parts, you name it because you have to be careful with that with a lot of things, parts that are made overseas, some of the plastics come out gas in your air purifier while they're running. So you have to be really careful with some of that.

 

(44:35): So the, it collects 99.9% of bacteria and chemicals and VOCs and from aldehyde. So if you have any chemicals floating around, it will collect those chemicals in the filter, and it's, and there's a lot of other good ones on the market out there. I just love this one the most. And we have one in our bedroom and I'll tell you my husband. I tell people this all the time. I mean, he used to snor so bad. Like I thought the roof was gonna come off the house. And once we installed the air purifier, I can sleep with this Norrie now I barely even hear it. And I called Austin air and I said, could this be possible? It's the air pur where they're like, of course he said, you see those floating dust particles going around when the sun beams in, well, that's what it's collecting. And that can be getting in people's lungs and causing them to snort at night and dust mites and everything else, you know, that you could be sleeping and breathing in amongst the chemicals that could be out guessing in your bedroom from the sheets. So it's just being conscious of what you're taking in is the most important thing. And then trying to get to your house as clean as possible.

 

(45:45): Yeah. I didn't realize we have gone so long. We're gonna need to wrap up. I did wanna just tie in this quote from your mom that I love plan your life. Like you will live forever and live your life. Like you may die tomorrow. I think that that really speaks to the whole toxin situation. If you're gonna plan, like you're gonna live forever, you need to address these things that you can't see and live your life. Like you're gonna die tomorrow, monitor your air quality, filter the air, get rid of these products. And I think we'd be remiss if we didn't talk about new construction and the dangers there you mentioned for Malda Hyde. I was made sick by a new office that I went and worked in because of the off gassing of the VOCs and their formaldehyde. I was actually rendered where I, I had a toxic and encephalopathy. Wow. Luckily what you was reversible, but can you talk a little bit about that?

 

(46:44): Yeah. So new build is there's a lot of absolutely. And out gassing of all these products and windows is being made. So you don't have any air leaking in. I'm so happy. I live in 120 year old home where the air is leaking out and leaking in. But so you need air flow in a house. So you could be getting so tired in a home because I hear people all the time, how tired they are, not only you're being tired, but those new from paint to any kind of flooring to what they're putting on the flooring to the, uh, walls to the ceilings. I mean, those are all products that are coded in potentially, uh, harmful chemicals. Now, thank God paints. You'll see all the time, low VOC paint. There are some better products out there building materials that are better products. But I have a, a home inspector that I work with once in a while.

 

(47:43): And he'll go through and homes just to see for different berries things that you know, he does, but he calls some of the homes. He said some of the homes I go in it they're like coffins. They're sleeping in these homes that no air is getting moving around. They're loaded with all these new products that have chemicals emitting off of them and they emit for a while. It's not something you have to get them out gas for a while. So new builds, I would definitely be concerned. And definitely if you're in a new build, I would absolutely have air purifiers running all the time.

 

(48:19): Yeah. And don't bring a new baby home to a new build. Please it's just overwhelm their detoxification system. It drives me crazy when I watch HD TV, which is my absolute favorite channel. I love architecture and design and building. And when these people are like, oh, we gotta get the new bill ready. So we bring the baby home and I'm thinking, no, don't do that to your child. And most people are not aware of the dangers of that. So we would be remiss if we didn't discuss it. You know, this actually is in the mainstream information back when they had the hurricane in new Orleans and they brought in all these trailers for people to live in, in temporary housing, I think it was 30% of them got deathly ill for moving into these trailers all at one time. So this was a population study and they discovered it was from the formaldehyde. So because we all move into new homes, popcorn style there's no, it doesn't seem like there's causality, but this was very clear and undeniable. So hopefully this will lead to some building regulation changes. Thank you so much T for the wonderful information, you have a free gift that everybody can access and download top 10 toxins to avoid, uh, where it'll have the link in the show notes. Anything you wanna say about that?

 

(49:42): Oh yeah. It's a guide. If you go to the shop tab and tab down, I think it's the top one toxins to avoid. So, and just read your ingredients, start reading your ingredients and knowing your labels, just like you would reading your ingredients and any food that you would eat as well, reading ingredients that you're using in your home and treat your home. Like it's your best friend because you need it as much as it needs you.

 

(50:05): I always say that your home is your second body treat us like your second body but most people are so challenged in caring for their first body. uh, it's usually not the first thing I say, but it really is your second body mm-hmm . So T's also got a 15% off a code. Dunston two zero that you can use. Uh, we'll have that in the show notes as well. If you're interested in purchasing any of her products and I wanna thank you team for joining us today.

 

(50:35): Oh, you're very welcome. And you know what? That should have been 20% off DUNS than 20. So even better, there'll be 20% off. So I'm gonna email you that link just so you don't make a mistake on that one.

 

(50:47): Okay. We'll have it in the show notes for you. Thank you all for joining us today. Thank you for your interest in your health and for really creating the brilliant health that you deserve. I hope that you've enjoyed today's podcast episode and that you've learned something and mostly that you take the information you've learned and you take action. So I want you to think about the one change that you're gonna make based on this information, whether you're driving a car or you're working out at the gym, just make a note based on what I heard today, I am going to do X today. Just one thing. And you'll find if you hear good information and you just take action on one thing with every podcast episode you hear or blog that you read, you'll look back in a few months and you'll see how far you've come with your health and your life. So that's my instruction.

 

(51:44): To you.

 

(51:44): Thanks so much for joining me. I'll see you next week for another episode until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all

 

(51:52): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

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Harness The Power of Stem Cells To Regrow Your Parts, Heal Your Hormones And Reverse Aging

Do you feel like you're aging before your time? Do you have wrinkles, gray hair, and low energy?

 

If so, you're not alone. But there's good news!

 

According to our guest for this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Joy Kong, it's possible to turn back the clock by harnessing the power of stem cells.

 

Joy Kong, M.D. is a UCLA-trained, triple board-certified physician (American Board of Psychiatry & Neurology, American Board of Addiction Medicine, American Board of Anti- Aging & Regenerative Medicine). She is the president of Uplyft Longevity Center in Los Angeles, California, where she specializes in stem cell therapy, ketamine therapy, as well as a wide range of therapeutic modalities to improve patients' overall health by enhancing their body's innate regenerative potentials.

 

Dr. Kong shares in this podcast episode her groundbreaking research on how stem cells can be used to regenerate tissue, improve hormone function, and reverse the effects of aging. She also provides practical tips on how midlife women can take advantage of this exciting new technology.

 

In this episode, you'll learn:

• What are stem cells, and how do they work?
• How stem cells can be used to regenerate tissue, improve hormone function, and reverse the effects of aging
• How to use stem cells for health and longevity
• The latest research on stem cells and aging
• Skin care products from stem cells

 

So if you're ready to feel younger, more vibrant, and full of life, this is the episode for you!

 

Tune in now and learn how to harness the power of stem cells to regrow your parts, heal your hormones, and reverse aging.

 

(00:00): Do you ever wonder what all the buzz is about stem cell therapy and if it might be for you or not? My gift today, Dr. Joy Kong is gonna help you understand the benefits of stem cell therapy. And if this is right for you, stay tuned.

 

(00:16): So the big question is how do women over 40, like us keep weight off, have great energy balance. Our hormones in our moods feel sexy and confident and master midlife. If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself. Again. As an OB GYN, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock, solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy. After 40 in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results. And to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges, join me for tangible natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcome to the hormone prescription podcast.

 

(01:10): Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. I'm excited to dive into the topic of stem cells with you. It's such an important topic. I mean, after all, we wouldn't be here on this planet. If  it weren't for stem cells, we would start as stem cells, right? When the embryo is formed in the uterus from the sperm and egg meat, we are stem cells. And then all of those cells differentiate into the various organs and parts of our body. And we become adult humans, but stem cells still form this reservoir. That's available to us to recreate our bodies' moment to moment, but their number decreases over time. And this is one of the reasons that aging happens. So maybe you've heard about the buzz about stem cells. Maybe you've heard about some controversies.

 

(02:09): We're gonna dive into that too. What's FDA approved. What's not and why. And we might even give you some ideas or inspiration for how you might want to access and use stem cells for your various health ailments or to achieve your aspirations of becoming fairly immortal, living a long time and being healthy while you do it. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Dr. Joy and then we'll get started. Dr. Joy Kong is a medical doctor. She's trained at UC a N triple board certified American board of psychiatry and neurology American board of addiction, medicine, American board of antiaging and regenerative medicine. Wow, that's a lot of work. She's the president of the uplift longevity center in Los Angeles, California, where she specializes in stem cell therapy, ketamine therapy, as well as a wide range of therapeutic modalities to improve patients overall health by enhancing their bodies, innate regenerative potentials.

 

(03:13): She is an avid educator and the founder of the American academy of integrative cell therapy, a a I ct.org, where she trains other physicians on stem cell therapy. And she conducts clinical research on stem cell therapy. And she's a published author in many scientific journals now to provide her patients with the best regenerative medicine products. She founded Cher biologics, where she developed the most potent and comprehensive stem cell product in the country with a patent pending formulation, as well as a 100% natural stem cell cream chair Omni. And we've got a link for you in the show notes with a discount code to get her skin cream. And you wanna get this cream trust because if you could see her face on this podcast, you'd be like, oh my God, her skin is amazing. I want that. She's sending me a bottle and I'm gonna let you know how I do with it.

 

(04:09): I'm gonna take before and after pictures too. So we can see what happens with my skin. She was recognized for her contribution in the field of regenerative medicine and awarded the top doctor of the year in stem cell therapy in 2019, as well as stem cell doctor of the decade in 2021 by the prestigious I a O T P that's the international association of top professionals. She also has a memoir. She wrote tiger of Beijing and it's garnered tremendous interest. It was named 2020 book of the year and showcased at times square. She was also featured in the 2021 book heroes leaders, legends, the power of the human spirit, along with movers and shakers, such as Oprah Winfrey, Deepak Chopra and Maya angel. You might know a few of them, so we'll help me to welcome Dr. Joy Kong to the podcast.

 

(04:59): Thank you for inviting me, Kyrin.

 

(05:01): So happy to have you on today. You can speak about so many topics that I want my listeners to hear about. We're gonna start with stem cells, cuz that's really what you're known for and so passionate about, and you've developed products to help people and really have a unique way at looking at this technology and using it with people. I think that they need to know about, but let's start at with the basics. cause a lot of people have an idea of what stem cells are and they think, you know, it only, they only come from placenta and that that's really a violation and we shouldn't be using them. So can you talk about what stem cells are?

 

(05:45): Yeah. There's such a wide array of the types of stem cells. You know, in our current, you know, our bodies, we all have a ton of stem cells. Of course, as we get older, we lose more and more, but in each of your tissue, there are organ specific stem cells. But when we go back to the origin, we all came from a fertilized egg. So that was the first quintessential stem cell. And from that one stem cell, you can form a multitude of stem cells and somehow these cells know how to migrate and how to form a three dimensional structure that became eventually the baby. So as the baby's organ started to form, then you get more of more specialized cells. But before these cells, from that single fertilized egg to reach the stage of a tissue specific stem cell, there could be a thousand different variations and they're all stem cells.

 

(06:37): So in, in this baby, you know, eventually the organs are formed and there are cells that are organ cells, but they're also tissue specific stem cells. I say a liver they're liver stem cells that can form a liver cell. So in our body, throughout our body, we have all these stem cells. So there's, you know, it's like a continuum of this stem cell evolution in the body. And not only we have tissue specific stem cells, there are certain stem cells that are really special. One of the most special one is called Kinal stem cells. So these are cells that are all over your blood vessels. So anywhere you have blood vessel supply, blood supply, you have these cells that are huddling around the blood vessels, waiting for signals from the blood or sensing the signals in the neighbor neighborhood of all these other cells. And, and they're, they have this communication coordination effect that they are able to tell what the local cells should be doing by sensing what's going on in the blood, or they can figure out what's needed in the local tissue and send out signals to the blood.

 

(07:45): So they have this, you know, like I call them the master of regeneration. So conductor in the symphony of regeneration. So we still have those stem cells in our body. And that's what people are doing with fat deriv stem cells. They're trying to extract fat, but they're really not getting stem cells from fat. They're getting the stem cells that are along the blood vessels, that supplies the fat cells. And then you can U utilize those cells for regeneration. So there's so many different sources. You can get stem cells from Meru blood. You can get stem cells from blood, you know, in the small amount, but you can get it, you know, if on bone marrow. So the embryonic stem cells that, that has controversy mm-hmm was in the beginning that you know, of stem cell research, they thought that's the, the end all be all.

 

(08:32): And, and that's the, the best source. And they were able to grow they were extracting cells from five to seven day old embryo and utilizing those cells to form any organ, you know, or cells of any tissue type and does involve destroying an embryo, which is where the controversy comes. But we've moved. You, you know, far from that, there's still research done embryonic stem cells, but clinically there's no one in this country, legally that's actually doing embryonic stem cell treatments. They are using a person's own, you know, extracted from your own body or using birth tube, which are biological waste. You know, after the baby is born, they, you know, usually they will discard the placenta and the Bual cord. But now we know that they have incredibly powerful regenerative cells in these tissues. And that's what a lot of doctors use and that's what I use.

 

(09:32): And I believe that's a superior source, which is why I've lectured on the subject in various stem cell conferences. And I put my lecture online is called, are all MSCs created equal. So even when you're looking at mechy stem cells, they're not really the same whether or not it's from an adult source, from the bone marrow, from the fat or from the birth tissue, even within different birth tissue compartments, the cells are all a little different. They have different potentials to become different types of cells. They have different growth factors they secret. So there's vast amount of difference, even though they're all messing Al stem cells, right. The cells that are Hulings. So there's huge variations, you know, of what's going on out there.

 

(10:17): Okay. So thank you for clarifying that no fetuses were harmed in the making of the stem cells that Dr.Kong is talking about. Okay. So everybody can relax. So autologous from yourself, right. Stem cells. So getting harvesting them from your body, you mentioned menstrual blood. I know some women out there are gonna be Googling that in five seconds, looking up, how do I get stem cells out of my menstrual blood to use it? Is that really something that's used in clinical practice?

 

(10:46): Not much in this country, but I think overseas, there may be some clinics that are using it. Yeah.

 

(10:51): Okay. Just curious, because I hadn't heard that, but I know you can get cord blood, babies, cord blood banked to save the cells for later use if you want it for your child. That's something that was big back when I delivered babies, which has been a long time since I did that. So these stem cells, makeable stem cells. What can you use them for, for, in terms of healing in the body? What kind of applications?

 

(11:20): Yeah. So first of all, of course, you know, as well as I do that, no claims can be made if there's no FDA indication. So the only FDA indication for stem cell therapy is for Buco blood or bone marrow derived stem cells for chemo reconstitution. So basically replacing your blood system, regenerating white blood cells, red blood cells, the whole blood system, that's the only FDA indication everything else will be off-label use. So there's no direct FDA indication. However, research has been extremely active all around the world, which is why I put together the course for American academy of integrative cell therapy. So for interested is a, a I ct.org on there. I have a lot of articles listed of, for different conditions, clinical excerpts. I have, you know, hundreds of articles that I share with doctors when they take the training, they're all categorized by organ systems and disease categories like over 30 categories within each category.

 

(12:24): They're, you know, they could be 10 subcategories. So it's very extensive. And they're also some case studies of people who that have been treated that have gotten great results. So while I cannot make any claims, I can't speak from my own clinical experience cause I'm really excited for how well my patients did, but I also am willing to share, you know, research results of you know, all these different conditions. If you look at research from cardiovascular system issues, atherosclerosis, congestive heart failure, different kidney diseases, liver cirrhosis, you know, central nervous system conditions, autism, and C O P D you know, different lung fibrotic conditions, all kinds of autoimmune diseases. And it's you know, powerful evidence on all kinds of autoimmune issues. And even including things like eye conditions, years, you know, hearing pretty much, you know, like most organ systems are covered.

 

(13:23): So there has been really great results. And even for just general anti-inflammation, they have shown to reduce inflammatory markers and also improve the markers of aging, such as hair, skin, energy level sex drive, and then showing anti-aging benefits when these animals, so animal studies were done where these animals were given older animals, given regular IV treatment. And with the, the IV stem cell treatment, these animals showed that in their brain and their muscles, the neurotropic factors, you know, the neurotransmitter levels, the growth factor release, inflammatory markers, everything was reverted back to younger state. So there's powerful, anti-aging benefits. So basically as we age, we're losing more and more stem cells, just, you know, a number when we were born, every one in 10,000 cells is a mess. Kinal stem cell, right? They're everywhere. And when we reach our teenage years, it's already one in a hundred thousand.

 

(14:28): So you got tenfold less as far as you know, the ratio. And then when you reach your forties, it becomes one in 400,000. And when you reach your eighties is one in 2 million. So this is why we are getting wrinkles. We're, you know, we're starting to decline in our immune system. We're getting more cancers is because your body can't keep up. It cannot regenerate, you know, wear and tear disease, osteoarthritis, you know, we are wearing and tearing our tissue so much more when we're little kids, but it's fixed right up. You don't get osteoarthritis, but when you are older, old injuries, your body, all of a sudden just can't keep up anymore. It just can't give you enough replacement to regenerate. And then you get lots of weight and pains. So we are running outta stem cells. And that's why I'm such an advocate of using these stem cell therapy to replace what's lost.

 

(15:23): So all this regenerative, this powerful life force that's doodling. As we age, now we can replace it so we can give body the signals. It used to receive just like what you do with hormone replacement, all these important signals that start to get less and less. You replace the signal. All of a sudden you can bring yourself way ahead, right. Of how you were doing because your body was starving of these signals. So these cells have, you know, huge array of signaling capacities. And, you know, like for example, I just gave you a quick rundown of the kind of capability these cells have, first of all, hugely anti-inflammatory they? So rather than a single hormone, right? These are life cells. They're able to secrete lots of different factors, cytokines that can reduce inflammation. Mm-Hmm they also have anti-fibrotic properties. So they can molecules that can break down scar tissue.

 

(16:22): They also have immune modulating properties. So they can shift immune system from more inflammatory to a more anti-inflammatory state. They have angio properties because they can sense signals to help your blood vessel, to form more blood vessels and supply more nutrients. And, you know, like blood exchange. And they also have direct antimicrobial properties. They actually secret antimicrobial peptides. They have anti-cancer properties that has been shown, and it has been used in research for cancer treatments and showing great results. And it also have what's called anti apoptotic property. So it prevents program cell death when tissues are injured, just like when we see in stroke, you may have the area that the blood supplies cut off and that's where the cells die. But the neighboring cells start to die as well is because of the signaling cascade. That's triggering the apoptosis program, cell death, and that's where the cells can come in and abort those processes. So it can stop these cells from going on these death path. So there's all this wide array of actions and that's why is so exciting. And, and that's why it's such an elegant treatment. It can help so many things in the cell, right. Also have the ability to define their way , but let's

 

(17:43): Back up for a second. Cause I do wanna dive into certain applications that I think people will be most interested in, or people have talked to me about in the past. But before we do that, you mentioned the only FDA claims are allowed for bone marrow and cord blood kind of rebuilding of the blood system, usually after cancer, after it's eradicated for blood cancers. So what if the FDA doesn't allow any indications? Not for intravenous, not for focal use, what are people actually using it in clinical practice for, in America right now? Okay. So

 

(18:26): This is where we come to the 2017 policy from the FDA where they were there's concern. These products can be used and they're very, you know, they're holistic products, their natural products, and the FDA wanted to regulate the me drugs, right? So one sided argument is that these are not drugs. These are tissue transplantations, you know, not that different from transplanting organs or blood. So the FDA decided, okay, if you do not change the cells by putting in all kinds of chemicals, enzymes, you're not basically changing the characters of the cells and you're not growing them into huge numbers. We're gonna allow you to use them as tissue transplant. We're not gonna categorize 'em as drugs. So we don't require, we don't have the same standards, right? We don't require you to do medical studies and get clinical approval. So that's what we're using. We're using the message tissue transplant. So as physicians, we can provide tissue transplantation, right? That's part of what we can do. So just like grafting, you know, a piece of you know, artery, you know, when we do, you know, grafting, we can put it from one person to another person bone grafting. So this is all part of what physician can can do. And that's what a lot of doctors are operating under.

 

(19:44): And so you can use those intravenously or locally, like intra particular in a joint,

 

(19:50): Local tissue injections. That's where there's least least concerns from the FDA. I don't think they liked the idea of intravenous treatments because somehow, you know, that they didn't like the idea of a systemic effect, even though everything would put in the body has a systemic effect. You can put something in a joint, it was still have a systemic effect. So I don't know where that policy came from, but you know, that's what their concerns are. So there are doctors who are doing intravenous therapy because of the vast amount of research showing incredible safety and then also efficacy. So from the clinical studies, the key is no claims should be made because if you are doing intravenous, that's considered, you know, more toward drug route. If that's the case, you know, then no claim should be made, right? It's an experimental procedure. So you inform people properly that there has been no FDA approval and this experimental and you understand the risks and benefits and alternatives. So that's how doctors are doing it is by giving proper consent and telling people that there's no guarantee of, of effect. Although there can be research that you can educate the patients on, okay, this condition, look at all these research results, but you know, still no claims can be made

 

(21:11): Well. And, and what's true for a lot of the medications and treatments that we use in medicine. They're not FDA-approved I mean, if you look at when I practiced obstetrics, we used to give something called Turine for what we call lysis. If women went into premature labor, that's not FDA approved for stopping labor, but we used it for that. So we use lots of things in medication. I want everybody listening to understand that this doesn't mean this is illegal. It doesn't mean that it's anything nefarious. It just means that they've said we don't regulate this , and it's out of their jurisdiction. And so we use lots of what we call off-label. Okay. So now we've gotten that out of the way

 

(21:57): Of medications used that theirs are actually, off-label used yes. In math practice, 80%, like vast majority are not FDA approved, but that's what doctors have decided to be helpful. And that has become a standard. And then everybody do it, right?

 

(22:13): So if the research shows it, if you, if you wait till the FDA approves it, you could be waiting forever, and you know, life is short. So you need to get some help now. And stem cells are pretty amazing. So can we talk about maybe how you are using it in your practice? What are some specific applications that you're finding the best results with? And if you wanna touch on the research too, that would be great.

 

(22:42): Yeah. So first of all, of course, musculoskeletal issues, you know, I do local injections into joints, into soft tissue. So that has been really, really helpful for anything. So like

 

(22:56): Your arthritis, if someone's told they need a knee replacement you're rebuilding cartilage?

 

(23:01): Yeah, my first patient, he was 69 years old. And he was told by two orthopedic surgeons that he absolutely needed bilateral knee replacement. So he wanted to try stem cells as a last ditch resort. So because of how large the knee joint is, the way that the cartilage is nourished, the inner two-thirds, the cartilage nourished by the sono fluid in the joint capsule. But the outer one-third is nourished by the blood supply. So it's better to attack from both angles. Of course, we know that, you know, by replacing stem cells, the stem cells do interact with the immune system, help boost the immune system. So there's like all these other effects, but, but we're targeting both ants for the, for the knee. And what's interesting was, so this is six years later, he's going to all kinds of trade shows. He's never had an operation.

 

(23:49): He's walking four miles every day, barely feels his knees. And what's really fascinating was the next day after the treatment. He said, you know, I slept through the night and I haven't been able to sleep through the night for decades because I had a rotator cuff tear when I was a, you know, late teens and when my car rolled over. So it never fully healed. Every time I shift in my bed, I wake up from the sharp pain. So he slept through the night. It, that huge anti-inflammatory effect. I didn't even know about his shoulder. He never told me about it. So that just shows you that this is why it's so exciting, right? The cells have intelligence. And if there's screaming inflammation in his rotator cuff and the cells, you know, they're attracted to those signals mm-hmm and they went there and they helped him fix it. So this is, you know, he's, he's great. He's doing fantastic. That was my first case. Of course, I'm gonna be hooked .

 

(24:41): And so he received these stem cells intravenously and in the joint, in the knee joint, both as you were attacking it, both sides and then voila, this shoulder injury that he had. And can you talk a little bit about the data on knees and joints? Because I think it's pretty impressive.

 

(25:01): Yeah. Yeah. Well, one of the studies really fun, such an interesting study because they use people who have bilateral knee basic osteonecrosis. So, both knees are really are rotting basically because of steroid. So these people supposedly need bilateral knee replacement. So what they did was that they divide these 30 people like midline, one knee received, knee replacement, the other knee, they give them stem cell injections. And what's fascinating was this is, I think, about 12 years study. So in the end, what happened was out of all the knees that were replaced, six needed revision surgery. So 30 needs, right, 30 patients, 30 needs were replaced six out of those needed revision surgery because they weren't doing too well out of the 30 needs that got stem cell injections, only one ever needed replacement. So that's a powerful statistic. Yeah,

 

(26:01): It's phenomenal. And I know some people are listening, then they're Googling, where can I get this done? But I guess, can you talk a little bit about, for instance, a knee injection, what's the cost for stem cell therapy for something like that.

 

(26:16): So for mild to moderate condition, it costs about $4,000 for severe, you know, cuz we need more product to be used and they are expensive. It costs $7,000 at my clinic, but I do tend to use the IV route, especially when a person's over the age, 55 or so because they just, they, they have lagging regenerative capabilities. So I do tend to add the IV treatment, which has been to have, you know, tremendous anti-aging benefits, but also it's gonna amplify the results. The more products that's used, the more expensive it gets. So the range is between, I'll say when people come to my clinic, the range is 7,000 to $15,000. That's how much it usually costs.

 

(27:00): And the reason I asked that question is because I always try to do the interview from the viewpoint of my listener. And I know that's what they're wondering, but what I wanna say as a consumer, that that's really the wrong question to ask

 

(27:17): Right. Everybody wants to know when they hear what I do when they hear what Dr. Joy does, does my insurance cover it? How much does it cost? And the answer is no, your insurance doesn't cover it cuz they're not interested in you being optimally healthy. They're not interested in you necessarily avoiding a joint replacement. And I've talked about that on other podcasts, how really the churn and burn of our medical system is profiting off of your illness. So only you have are the one to take the vested interest and say, yeah, instead of going on this vacation or buying this fancier car, I would rather avoid surgery for various reasons and invest it in my health for whether it's natural hormone replacement therapy or stem cell therapy are all of these tools that I teach you about on the podcast that most of you get the value of. And so that's why I asked that question is cause I wanted to, to bring it up and just to, as a marketer, remind everyone to question why you have the beliefs that you have and why you think the thoughts that you do cause ultimately the quality of your health will be determined by the quality of questions that you ask about your health and how much does it cost is not an empowering question.

 

(28:32): Such a great, but that

 

(28:34): Yes. Okay. So knees, now I know you've developed this a skincare line. I wish y'all could see her skin. It's absolutely gorgeous. Can you talk about your stem cell based skincare line and kind of what's the story behind how you developed that?

 

(28:51): Okay. Being in the antiaging field, of course we're getting educated on what we put on our body, what we ingest, you know, just, you know, the whole aspect. So skincare products, household, you know, cleaning products, I mean, and all these can have huge effect on, you know, hormone disruption and just all kinds of toxicity. So when I realized what was, you know, all these cosmetic products and I thought this was really scary, you know, I really don't want to put all these chemicals on my skin, which is the most absorbent organ in the body. So I thought, okay, let me find a natural cream, all natural cream. So I would spend a lot of money buying some Korean cream and they said, it's all natural. But then when I actually looked at the ingredients after using it for a while, I was like, what's this?

 

(29:37): And what's that, oh my God, you know, that's, that's not all natural. So I, I was like, okay, now I need to find true all natural product, go to natural expos and getting some samples. And then I'll leave in my drawer for like a month or two, by the time I was ready to try them out and they're separated into different layers. I thought, you know, these people know how to make a cream. You know, that's when I was so frustrated and I was like, you know what? I have access to stem cells to peptides and I can design my own cream. So why don't I just make an amazing cream, you know, first of all, for myself, cuz I don't have one, I need one. And then after I make it, I can share it with everybody else. So that's really how it came about.

 

(30:16): It just, it was frustrating to find a decent cream. So I make sure it's a hundred percent natural. Even the preservative is a hundred percent is a natural preservative because I refuse to and use any synthetic, even if it means extending the life sh the shelf life of the product. So it has, you know, a big component of a stem cell from the political cord and they're not not alive. You know, I'm not claiming that there are any life cells because it it's, it's impossible to keep the cells alive, but they do have all these regenerative signaling molecules that are still in, you know, in them. And they're still, you know, they're well preserved so that once you put on the skin, they can give your skin the right signals. And I also put all these different peptides that are known for skin regeneration, you know, for anti-inflammatory actions, you know, reducing wrinkles, improving collagen production. And then I put in, you know, all these incredible natural oils, natural oils can be hugely powerful. And then all these different, interesting herbal extracts that have, you know, anti pigmentation properties and, you know, sun protection properties, just incredible skin, regenerative properties and then antioxidants and pre prebiotics. So that's the, the whole formula. It just, I'm very proud of it because it's just, it's impossible to find something like that on the market. That's a true a hundred percent natural product.

 

(31:41): It is so true. And all my ladies, like in my gut detox program, they're always, what can I use? What can I use? And you know, I'll recommend something and we'll research it and then, oh, by the way, it's got this chemical in it. And oh, by the way, it's got that chemical and everybody listening. Dr. Joy told me before we started recording that she's gonna give everyone a special code to get a discount on her product. So we'll have that in the show notes for you and a link so you can check them out. I haven't tried them, but I am super excited to do so. And I will do that. And then I'll report back to everyone, to all my listeners about them,

 

(32:20): Do it before and after picture, you know, for themselves, you seriously and no cheating, you know, same lighting, same spots, same time of day. We have, you know, doctors who are stock expensive products in our office, you know, European products, you know, Korean product, you know, they're phasing them out because they love this cream so much, you know, estheticians were really experienced who have seen everything on the market. They absolutely love this product. So I'm really proud of

 

(32:44): It. Yes, you should be. It sounds amazing. And I'm just wondering, there's all kinds of data with, you know, my thing is hormones and just using natural hormone therapy and decreased number depth and size of wrinkles, decrease skin sagging. Right? All of the data on how it improves the quality of our skin. Also our hair and nails.

 

(33:07): I've definitely seen it in people who are using the cream. I mean, you know, stem cells have been used for as far as for wound repair, you know, it's hugely powerful and I've seen people who have you know, within a couple weeks, you know, two, three weeks the reduction in fine wrinkles. So there's, you know, pretty rapid, you know, regenerative properties. Mm-Hmm, decreased pigmentation and, and some have people with with lesions falling off. So it definitely is very, yeah, very powerful. So a lot of it is through injection, but you can, you know, inject and I do that with wound care. I can inject along the rim of the wound and that just is so, so incredible, you know, getting the wound to close, but topically, it can because we have a, you know, an ingredient to help with deep penetration of mm-hmm the molecules. This is why you don't need a separate toner, a serum, you know, eye cream moisturizer. You don't need, you don't need a whole, you know, line of product. You just need this one because it's deep penetrating. You don't need to use those tricks to get the product, to get deeper into your skin.

 

(34:21): Yeah. I think most people think that their skin is solid, but it's really porous and permeable. And anything you put on your skin goes through your bloodstream and goes to the deeper layers and really is very accessible to the rest of your system. So let's, I wanna talk about heart disease. And also if you can autoimmune disease, you mentioned it earlier that there are really a lot of FDA indication, well, not FDA indications, but studies that have been done that show that there's improvement with these types of disorders. Can you talk a little bit about the use of stem cells for those things?

 

(35:01): Yeah. For heart disease, they've shown for like an atherosclerosis decreas in plaque size at the aortic root. So they actually dissected the vessel and, and show an imaging and how the macrophages aggregation, you know, was changing. You know, how there's just much, much less plaque that's in the blood vessels. And it has been shown to improve ejection fraction in people with heart failure or people who have myocardio infarction. So heart attack also helped to regain cardiac function and repair the cardiac tissue and breaking down scar tissue. So, you know, when we have heart attack and, you know, we have debt tissue and scarring tissue. So because the antifibrotic properties of the cells, they can help break down scar tissue and form new tissue. So it's pretty impressive.

 

(35:51): Okay. And this would be with an intravenous application.

 

(35:54): Yeah. So the studies have done either intravenous or intra intra cardio injections, so they can okay. Inject into PE pericardium or into the heart, you know, muscle self, so different types of injections, but they have all shown really good results.

 

(36:10): Awesome. The name of the prescription is the hormone. The name of the podcast is the hormone prescription. So I always try to tie everything into hormones. How does this affect hormones? You mentioned about the cytokines and the growth factors that come along with these stem cells, the signaling molecules. And so can you talk a little bit about how this interacts? Yes,

 

(36:32): Actually it's fascinating. You know, cause one of the sections I cover in my horse is reproductive health and they've done studies on animals like menopausal rats or just aging animals and giving them stem cells, younger stem cells, they showed in increase in ovary size, increase in number of follicles, increase in estrogen levels and decrease in FSH and LH. Right. so that's all good sign and the increase in number of pregnancies. So that's pretty powerful evidence that it actually enhances hormone levels and improve re reproductive health.

 

(37:14): Yes. That's amazing. Yeah. I mean stem cells and growth factors and all these things you're talking about affect everything. And like you mentioned earlier, it's, anti-aging it reverses aging. There are some things you can do without the use of stem cells to improve all of these parameters. Aren't there. What kinds of are there things I know some people are wondering, I don't want stem cells, Kyrin, but I'm wondering, are there other things I can do?

 

(37:42): well, healthy practices. Of course, you know, you want to eat very healthy and do exercise and make sure you detox, get the toxins out of your body, maybe through saunas and you know, Inre sauna or, you know, other supplements. I mean, all those are really, you know, wonderful ways. There's so many hacks where we're like at a biohacking blossom right now, it can be dizzying, you know, seeing all the things you can do, but I still don't believe there's anything that can replace the power of life itself. I'm giving life. You know, when I inject these stem stem cells into the body, I'm injecting the origin of life, right? The early, early life. And what is in those cells, the first stem cell, the fertilized egg, how does it know to form an entire human being? This is an incredible miraculous feat.

 

(38:39): How does it know? So what kind of incredible intelligence is in that cell is embedded in that DNA, right? So I'm transplanting just maybe part of that intelligence because as the cells get older and older, you lose more and more of that kind of intelligence, but I'm giving early cells and they still contain a lot of that intelligence. What's really cool is that the stem cells, the me Kinal stem cells from these birth tissue, they're actually in between embryonic stem cells, as far as how primitive and powerful they are embryonic stem cells and the stem cells in the baby. When these cells, when, when these Al cord and placenta, when they were formed, a lot of these young cells were trapped during the embryogenesis. So they are keeping a lot of their early characteristics. This is why it's. So, you know, it is so powerful because they, you know, they're kind of a part embryo stem cells, but they don't have the problem. The embryonic stem cells, which is OMA formation, right? Uncontrolled growth. They don't have the drawbacks of the embryonic stem cells, but they carry a lot of powers of the embryonic stem cells.

 

(39:48): You know, I love that. You said what you said the way you said it, because I'm thinking again from the listener, they're thinking, oh, I don't wanna do all that. But they do the same thing with hormone therapy, joy. They go, no, I wanna do menopause naturally. Right. And I always like to say, no woman ever said, I'm gonna do osteoporosis naturally. my daughter. Dr. Told me I have osteoporosis and I'm just gonna do it naturally. I'm just gonna take some calcium and vitamin D no, they're like, oh my gosh, I'll be at risk for hip fracture. I could die from that. I could become incapacitated where I can't a emulate or live independently. I want, and they want treatment for it. Right. Women come to menopause and they're like, yeah, I'm gonna do it naturally. It's a natural phase of life. I'm not gonna do anything.

 

(40:34): And I go, that's fine. As long as you're educated about the consequences of that choice, mm-hmm right. You know, and the fact that neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's are reduced by 79% and women who use hormone therapy for at least six years. Well, do you wanna reduce risk of getting Alzheimer's they go? Yeah. Well then hormone therapy would be a part of that macular degeneration. The number one cause of blindness in women who are 65 reduced with hormone therapy. And it's the same, like you just said, there's nothing that will replace stem cells. Nothing. If you really care about your health to the most degree, like if you ask most women in terms of your values, what do you care about? Most they say, oh my health. But then you ask them to categorize where they spend their time and their money and the health is on the bottom. So you gotta have this value shift and all this to say that, you know, I heard what you said, and I totally agree with you. There's really nothing that stem cells, there's no replacement for them. Just like, they're no replacement for hormones.

 

(41:40): Love that. So thank you for all

 

(41:41): That in perspective. Yeah. , it's brilliant with, you know, shifting that people's perceptions cuz they say one thing and then they're actually to

 

(41:50): Another another.

 

(41:51): So if you put it that way, you know, do you wanna do osteoporosis naturally? I mean that's a whole that's yeah. That's brilliant because people, they don't realize that's what they're doing.

 

(42:01): Well, thank you so much for sharing this wonderful information. I know you are passionate about ketamine therapy too. I'm gonna direct everyone to your website cuz we're already been going quite long, but they wanna find out more. We will have links to Dr. Joy's website. We'll have a link to her skincare products and a code for our discount. If you wanna use that, any other links that you would like us to put in the show notes? Dr. Joy.

 

(42:24): Yeah. So my YouTube channel just joy Kong MD. I have a lot of educational videos there. So people wanna dive deeper into different aspects of stem cells. I talked about five common mistakes that doctors make when they do stem cell therapy. I talk about what happens when other people's DNA are in your body. What does it really mean? Is that something to be alarmed about? You know, what are the three stages healing of stem cell therapy and you know, and what about treatment is in Panama? What's the difference? Are they better? So I go into all these specific questions that people have and I really try to, to, to get people a perspective because just not enough information is out there. Well, a lot of confusing information, but not a clear guidance for people.

 

(43:10): Yes. Wow. That's amazing. So much, so many resources that you have for people and they can seek treatment with you locally in LA. Is that correct?

 

(43:20): Yeah. So I'm in yeah, Los Angeles area, my clinics uplift longevity center. So we, I do have people who fly from all over the country and around the world to, to come to our clinic. Okay.

 

(43:30): So we'll have a link for that. Also all the links in the show notes, everyone. Thank you, Dr. Joy for coming and sharing your wisdom, your passion, your expertise, and really awakening to us to what's possible with stem cells. Thank you for doing,

 

(43:47): Yeah, we don't have to age and decline, you know, like I was joking with my, you know, my friends, but yeah, what we want is to be vibrant, vibrant, happy, vibrant. And then we're gone. That's the way we go.

 

(43:59): I literally, you're a walking billboard for that. I'm like she's must have been in medicine for as long, almost as long as I Haven. And she looks like she's 20. So stem cells. Yeah. I think that's where it's at

 

(44:15): With, with you. I have been doing IV stem cells on myself every three months for the fat past six years. You know, I don't because I'm usually, I'm already very healthy. You know, I take good care of myself, so I don't notice the difference. But other people, when people who don't see me every day, they notice it. They were telling me I'm looking younger and younger and this, you know, I was like, wow, really? Cuz I can't tell by looking myself every day, but I can tell now that Facebook keep reminding me of these happy anniversaries, you know, look at you seven years ago, they think I was gonna be happy because I was younger. And I was looking at is like, oh my God, I was aging. I didn't even know. So only now I have, you know, kind of reversed. It it's much easier to post a picture cuz I don't need to mess with it. You know, I look fine before. I was like, no, it's the lighting. It's a problem. So I was always trying to make myself look better and I still didn't look that great because you know you anyhow. So I was blaming the lighting, but now you're

 

(45:12): Blaming the lighting. It's not lighting y'all let's say you don't have enough stem cells. so now everybody's gonna have to go stalk your YouTube. Yes. They'll get educated, but they wanna see you aging in reverse, including me just TBH. I gotta be honest, but thank you so much for joining me and thank you for listening today. Thank you for joining me. Hopefully you've learned something that will empower you to take a step with your health, towards the brilliance that you deserve. We will have another great topic for you next week. I hope you have a wonderful week until then peace, love and hormones y'all

 

(45:52): Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

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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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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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