Hormone Prosperity Podcast with Dr. Kyrin Dunston

Heal Your Body Cure Your Mind

Welcome to the latest episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we have the pleasure of hosting Dr. Ameet Aggarwal, a renowned naturopathic doctor and a global authority in holistic medicine. As one of the top 43 naturopathic doctors worldwide, Dr. Ameet has transformed the lives of thousands of people by helping them find relief from trauma, anxiety, depression, and chronic disease.
  
In this insightful conversation, Dr. Ameet reveals his secrets to healing both the mind and body for faster, long-lasting relief from burnout, anxiety, depression, chronic disease, and trauma - truly enlightening for any midlife woman seeking to improve her mental and physical health.

Episode Highlights:

- Holistic Medicine: Dr. Ameet shares his experience in combining holistic medicine, psychotherapy, homeopathy, and emotional healing for optimal overall health.

- Healing from Burnout: Discover practical tips and insights on how to recognize and address burnout in your daily life, and find the balance necessary for improved mental and physical wellbeing.

- Resources: Learn about Dr. Ameet's free holistic medicine online course and his highly informative books, all available on his website (www.drameet.com) for those wanting to dive deeper into the world of holistic healing.
  
This episode is an absolute must-listen for midlife women eager to dive deeper into the world of holistic healing and take actionable steps to improve their mental and physical health. Dr. Ameet's approach to wellbeing is a powerful force for healing and empowerment – don't miss out!

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Healing has an aspect of letting go of the perceived self so that the true self can emerge. Dr. Ameet Aggarwal. Stay tuned and find out how to heal and access your true self so you can live your best life.

Speaker 2 (00:16):

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

Speaker 1 (01:10):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I hope you're having a great day. Thank you so much for joining me today as we dive in with Dr. Ameet Aggarwal on how to heal 360 degrees. Not only your physical health, but your mental and emotional health, your nervous system. You're gonna love this doctor as much as I do because he really takes a holistic view of healing. A lot of doctors say that they do, but when you get down to it, they don't. And he really does. He gets it. He shares his journey from growing up, basically being beaten by adults as a child, and how that was really normalized in his culture. So he didn't think that that was a part of his health and healing journey. But after becoming a naturopath, his journey unfolded to show him that there's so much more to healing than just the physical aspects like hormones and gut health and all the things that we talk about mitochondrial health.

Speaker 1 (02:14):

And that's been part of my journey too, which I share a little bit of in this episode as well. So if you're missing these components, and if you're thinking, oh, that's not me. I didn't have trauma, I wasn't beaten. Really about 90% of us are affected by trauma in forms of relational trauma where our needs aren't met for nurturing care and support as children. And that affects our health and it directly impacts our hormones, particularly our cortisol, which, you know, I call her queen cortisol. So when the queen's not happy, she takes everything down right off with their heads. That's a mean queen. And you want a happy queen cortisol so that she supports you in feeling great, being physically healthy and living your best life so that you can have hormonal prosperity and do all the things that that allows you to access, like traveling the world or having a new career or hobby or improving your relationships.

Speaker 1 (03:15):

And that's what makes life fulfilling and worth living. He also talks about this quote I shared in the teaser. What is this idea of letting go of your perceived self so that your true self can emerge? If that's quizzical to you, you're gonna wanna stay tuned and so much more. So I'll tell you a little bit about him and then we'll get started. He's voted one of the top 43 naturopathic doctors worldwide and he's helped thousands of people around the world heal from trauma, anxiety, depression, and chronic disease by combining holistic medicine, psychotherapy, homeopathy, and emotional healing. So if you want faster relief from burnout, anxiety, depression, chronic disease and trauma, by healing your mind and body together and listening to his journey and his teachings, I think you're going to find it very valuable. Please help me welcome Dr. Ameet to the show.

Speaker 3 (04:07):

Thank you, Kyrin. Really excited to dive into looking at how liver trauma, gut health, homeopathy, family constellations, and all these energetic therapies can balance our hormones and improve overall mental and physical wellbeing.

Speaker 1 (04:22):

Yes, so important. And as a physician coming from a traditional medical background, I came at these topics kind of in a different way than some other people maybe, where it was all about the physical and it was all biomechanics and physiology and it was a very newtonian view of the body, right? Medications and surgery. And you know, it's funny, I, I grew up with this very holistic mother in New York City and she used to give my sister and me golden seal and echinacea when we were sick and make us sweat out fevers. And none of our friends did that. So we thought she was weird and crazy. And then I went off to medical school 'cause I knew I wanted to work with women, helping them to heal. And I looked around and I said, well, what's the biggest toolbox I can get to help women?

Speaker 1 (05:13):

And I said, well, I'll get my medical doctorate. That's the biggest toolbox. But it wasn't only until my health faltered in the forties and that solution provided no answers, that I really started becoming disillusioned and saying, wow, do I, we really know anything about healing women or people in medicine because all the women at midlife were having the same problems and just circling the drain. Like I was at 243 pounds with myriad health problems. And then I found functional medicine, which really did help me heal a lot of my physical fatality, lose the weight, get off the prescription medications, and addressed a lot of that. And I thought I had found all the answers, but oh no, wait, there's more <laugh>. Right? And then that brought me to the emotional healing, the energy healing, the energy work. And I find that's the missing piece for a lot of people. And they're not necessarily used to hearing about that from a traditional doctor. So what I love about what you do is that you bring all of that right up front and say, Hey, you wanna heal. These are all the things that you need to look at. How did you come to have such a global, balanced, deep approach to healing and health?

Speaker 3 (06:34):

Well, the thing is, a lot of women make a mistake of only taking hormonal remedies for their hormones. Or even if they're taking natural remedies, they take natural remedies to control symptoms, right? Whether they can kamyl to relax or only GABA for anxiety or agne castus or some D I m or I three C to balance hormones and they're missing the root cause. So in my journey for health suffering from anxiety, depression, skin issues, gut health issues, the whole thing, as well as a lot of childhood trauma, and I'll talk about how to heal childhood trauma with family constellations, E M D R and homeopathy. But through my journey, I realized there's, we have five pillars of health, right? And most women need to know this because when we heal, the five pillars of health, anxiety, depression, hormones, weight, skin issues, arthritis, all these start getting better.

Speaker 3 (07:26):

These five pillars are gut health, which many people are familiar with, right? And then there's liver health, liver detox. Most people ignore the liver and the liver's, the master control of hormones, not the ovaries or not the testes, right? The liver is the major metabolizer of hormones and also affects your gut health. And I'm gonna show how everything is interconnected. So when you start healing your liver in using some of the best remedies I wanna mention today, then everything will come more into balance and you'll need less supplements over time. Then the other pillar is your adrenal system, right? Adrenal glands make adrenaline, cortisol, they balance your hormones, they help with hormone conversions, and they also manage your fight, flight or freeze response in response to trauma. Okay? And help you survive trauma. And they also respond to chronic inflammation. So they burn out very fast if somebody is excessively traumatized, overly stressed or overly inflamed.

Speaker 3 (08:21):

And I'm gonna teach you how to basically heal inflammation, heal your gut, detoxify your liver release trauma as well, so your adrenal glands are stronger and therefore you have more hormonal balance. Then another pillar is healing emotional trauma and lifestyle issues. These are the simple traumas from childhood, whether it's physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse or abandonment or small traumas. You know, mom disappearing for a while or mom and dad arguing or just being left alone too long at boarding school or a normal school. There's multiple little teas that go out. Go on out there, right? Our nervous system is affected by the nervous system of our caregivers, right? Energetically, we don't realize that it's not only the traumas that happen to us, but the nervous system of our caregivers modulates or regulates our own nervous system. And that's very important to look at. Then the fifth pillar I love talking about in healing with clients and also the retreats we do here in Africa and in Europe is healing ancestral trauma using family constellations therapy, right?

Speaker 3 (09:18):

So looking at has there been miscarriages and abortions in the family, secret lovers, murders, abandonments traumas to your grandparents, great-grandparents. 'cause We basically inherit these traumas from our ancestors and from our parents. And if we don't include miscarriages and abortions, then these basically missing children get manifested or represented by us, the siblings, the surviving siblings and children in symptoms such as O C D, anxiety, depression, and physical symptoms as well. Okay. So let's start with the basics. Let's talk about how to heal all these pillars and how everything is interconnected with hormones, mental health, physical health, and chronic disease. Right?

Speaker 1 (09:59):

Well, before we do that, I do wanna do that, but how did you get, personally, I wanna know personally, how did you get all this understanding? I just, it's rare that I find somebody who has this breadth and depth of understanding. So in your journey, can you just share with everyone what the unfolding was? I think it helps them Okay. To really understand. Yeah. <laugh>.

Speaker 3 (10:25):

Okay. So I grew up in boarding school and felt quite abandoned. And then I grew up in local schools as well where we were beaten normal. That beating was normal. So to be hit by a cane for, I don't know, being late for school or getting your thumbs wrong or just 'cause the teacher was not in a good mood. And so I got picked on a lot by teachers. So I grew up with a lot of insecurity and then boarding school didn't help feeling really let down by my parents. So not trusting anymore in my, in a consistent caregiver caregiving presence. Like I love my parents to bits of course, but something altered in my nervous system based on the abandonment. And people have to recognize that there's a subtle alteration that goes on when you're a child and something happens. Okay? It doesn't have to be a major trauma.

Speaker 3 (11:09):

And of course you grew up eating junk food, right? Coca-Cola burgers, whatever it may be. So, you know, I typically had the gut issues, a bit of gas, bloating, diarrhea, inconsistent stool, acne, fatigue, anxiety, depression, you name it. And during university I did a lot of drugs. You know, every single drug you can think about under the sun, <laugh>, literally. And so I did my work through life and then came across naturopathic medicine. And in naturopathic medicine, that's where I came across the importance of diet, first of all. And then healing the gut with probiotics, vitamin D glutamine, and other supplements I talk about in my online course, which we'll share later. By healing the gut, I realized inflammation was reducing my body. And because basically when you have a leaky gut or a healthy gut, toxins leak into the bloodstream and cause inflammation everywhere in the body leading to asthma, eczema, arthritis, hormonal imbalances, skin issues, et cetera.

Speaker 3 (12:08):

And then through my journey, I also started studying gestalt psychotherapy and trauma therapies. So I went through a lot of healing for childhood traumas, right? And low self-esteem issues, mental issues that were affecting my mood and my personality. I thought it was just my personality to be fearful or anxious and uncertain about myself. And then it came up that these were caused by the way I was brought up, the things that happened to me, the way I adjusted myself based on the threat during childhood. And when I healed these wounds and felt contact and love and communication from a therapist, from the group therapies that I went to, my confidence grew, my emotional resilience grew. I burnt out less. I was much more powerful in my school environment. So in naturopathic college, I burnt out less. I was a higher performer because I had released entanglements and wounds that were using up my energy and exhausted my adrenal system, right?

Speaker 3 (13:06):

So I found the importance, I saw the importance of healing emotional wounds using therapy. And I also started healing emotional wounds using homeopathy. And we'll talk about ho homeopathy and energetic medicine can release childhood trauma and also heal your mood much faster than using psychotherapy alone. All right? See what happens when you're traumatized as a child, these traumas stay in your nervous system and your nervous system is stuck in a fight, flight or freeze response based on these experiences. And then as an adult, when you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed, your adrenal glands and your nervous system again going to fight, flight or freeze. Additionally though, these old wounds from childhood are also triggered, right? So you go into more fight, flight or freeze, these get re-triggered. So your nervous system is in, is basically is exhausted and overwhelmed from a combination of childhood stress and adult stress.

Speaker 3 (13:59):

And most people walk around, you know, thinking they're over a childhood trauma, but their body keeps the score, which is the title of a famous book out there. The body stays with this trauma and then everyday stress retriggers that trauma and that exhausts your adrenal glands. And when your adrenal glands are exhausted, you're going into cortisol imbalance, right? 'cause Your adrenal glands produce cortisol in a nice rhythm. When you have a cortisol imbalance that throws off your conversion of your conversion of basically basic hormone molecules into estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone. So right away you go into hormonal imbalances. When you have hormonal imbalances and, and also cortisol imbalances. So your feel good neurotransmitters, your brain chemicals start dropping that serotonin, dopamine, gaba, melatonin, all these start going down. And then you have more anxiety, depression, insomnia, O C D symptoms as well. And chronic fatigue and burnout and a sense of overwhelm from any new things that you need to do in life.

Speaker 3 (14:58):

So you get stuck in routines and you're afraid of trying new things because your body's looking for safety and consistency. It's not necessarily your personality. It's literally burnout and cortisol excess and the inability to make new brain connections, nerve connections in your brain. So that ability is known as neuroplasticity. And basically the ability for to have neuroplasticity diminishes as we become more inflamed from leaky gut and more cortisol imbalanced from a combination of leaky gut inflammation as well as chronic stress throwing o off our cortisol levels. And so combining psychotherapy and naturopathic medicine showed me the importance of healing the body and the mind. And then healing the liver is something I just came across, or I don't know, it downloaded into my conscience the importance of liver health. Not many people were talking about healing the liver. And I discovered, I mean it's, it's already there in traditional Chinese medicine that livers the master organ controls hormones, produces beautiful bile.

Speaker 3 (15:59):

Yeah, bile juice for digestion and also helps move your bowels. So people who are constipated often have a bile, lack of bile flow. And they're taking laxatives, they're taking magnesium, taking stool softeners, but they're not healing their liver. That's a big mistake. But when you heal your liver, then more bile flows and bile is a lubricant for your stool. And bile improves peristalsis, the motility of our intestines, which also helps with bowel movements. And also bile is, it helps with digestion. So if you have low bile flow, you'll get more gas, bloating, constipation, heartburn as well because bile affects the way your stomach produces acid or your liver affects the way your stomach produces acid. Then the other thing is when your liver is stagnant, because your liver controls hormones when your liver is stagnant, right? Right. With too many toxins, too much alcohol. Too much pesticides.

Speaker 3 (16:47):

Too much inflammation as well from leaky gut or even the birth control pill, too much coffee, sugar, et cetera. And then we go into hormonal imbalance. So you'll get breast tenderness. Yeah. maybe some fibrocystic breasts or nodules, ovarian cysts, endometriosis. Right. Clotting and cramping during menses. All these P M s symptoms, you can see yeah. Are due to usually low progesterone levels and high estrogen levels, which comes from liver stagnation. And then the gas and the loading are also because of poor flow. So you can see, and the mood swings are, because usually a low progesterone means that gaba the anti-anxiety neurotransmitter doesn't work so well in the brain. Okay. this is a mouthful, but there's free videos on my website that'll walk you through healing the gut liver adrenals and emotional healing. And you can watch those at your own time. So basically when the, you can see how your p m S symptoms come with basically female issues like cramping, clotting, breast tenderness, as well as digestive issues like the gas floating constipation or diarrhea, as well as mood issues, anxiety, insomnia, and depression, maybe irritability. Right. And in Chinese medicine, irritability is connected to stagnant liver as well. Right. So if your liver is very stagnant, you're gonna get angry, easily aggressive. And that's the excessive <crosstalk>. You

Speaker 1 (18:09):

It's so true. And that's actually a part of my story. So I did all that functional medicine work, but I would, I was so angry for no reason, like over out of proportion to the situation. And I didn't realize one, it had to do with liver, but my acupuncturist taught me about that. And then also that the power of, now, I can't think of his name right now. Ecker

Speaker 3 (18:32):

Toll.

Speaker 1 (18:32):

Ecker Tolle, he says, you know, the anger is in you and it, and it's that stored emotion from childhood trauma. And so, and I, I wanna talk about liver and all these other things, the physical things. But I, like I said, what's so unique that you offer is talking about all these other things. And so I find that the women I work with, they don't think they're traumatized. And that was me. Right. I knew my family was, we used to say, let's put the fun back in dysfunctional. You know, we had a dysfunctional family and we would laugh about it, but I didn't know until I knew when I got older. And I actually saw this post by Patrick Han, who's a wonderful therapist who helps people with childhood trauma online. And he had this post actually today, how bad it was won't hit home until you hear a safe person's reaction to your story.

Speaker 1 (19:27):

And it was only through the work working with a compassionate therapist who heard the things that I told her. And she was appalled. And until I understood really what healthy relating should have looked like from a parent to a child and then really started unpacking this anger. So what do you say to people who think, well I had the typical upbringing for my community and Sure. You know, I didn't get em emotional nourishment and spiritual nourishment and all these things, but it was just normal to really get, no, this is you, this is pretty much, I think it's estimated 97% of us have this. How do you help people to really get that and not dismiss it and say, I don't need that.

Speaker 3 (20:09):

Good question. So at the retreats we run, I encourage people to actually express anger and get in touch with that rage and anger that's inside of them. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> anger is healthy, you know, healthy aggression because it establishes boundaries. It gets our needs met. Like we can say, you know, like, I hate you, I hate you, I hate you. Hit a pillow and everything and feel that, feel that rage and like boundary coming up inside of you without the shame and guilt. 'cause A lot of people are so scared of feeling anger because it basically, they equate it to being abandoned or put down or, or shut down by their parents or excluded by their family members. So we swallow the anger and we we're not even aware that we have it. But if you're looking for an optimal life, optimal health confidence, then it's good that you get in touch with and be comfortable with a whole spectrum of your emotions.

Speaker 3 (20:58):

And that's what we encourage people to do, is really feel the whole spectrum in a safe environment with positive feedback around it. I'm not asking you to beat people up and become a violent person. That's very different. Violence. Yeah. Is not necessarily anger or equates to anger or healthy aggression. Okay. That's out of control. But in a way to create limits for yourself and communicate with people in a non apologetic way. Right. And I think you can feel the energy coming from me. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> is your business. That's what I do with people at the retreats. And then in the course that I teach in the online course that's available for everyone. We also recommend homeopathic remedies to help release stored anger. No. Vomit is a great homeopathic remedy that basically helps people who are overly aggressive or stuck, have stuck anger. And also who have liver issues, maybe chronic constipation, heartburn, nausea, right?

Speaker 3 (21:53):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so when you use homeopathy or when I use homeopathy on a person, then the healing goes much deeper because it heals the emotions as well as the physical body together and the mind. And also we'll talk about how certain remedies I'll teach you which ones can also heal childhood trauma. So instead of relying on therapy and therapy and therapy, which is great as well, a remedy can take therapy much faster. How do I say? It can help therapy work much faster and deeper. Okay. So that's, I basically get people to normalize their,

Speaker 1 (22:28):

I'm sorry to interrupt, but, so basically you're saying you give them an experiential, an experience of getting in touch with that anger for them to know that it's

Speaker 3 (22:39):

There's there Yes, exactly. Okay. Yes. Yeah. But we don't force it or put ideas into people's head that they should be angry or there's anger where there's none. Right. It's really about creating safety and acknowledgement and you know, getting them to feel somatically, what really exists. 'cause When you feel it in your body, you know it's true. That's the important thing. 'cause When you start expressing from your body, then a lot of deeper healing takes place. Which is very different from just expressing from your mind. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> the idea of these therapies that we do. So I combine gestalt therapy, family constellations, E M D R, somatic experiencing. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> is that you really embody your emotions. So my next retreat is called embodied self love. Really? So you embody and feel, you know your needs and your aggression and your shame and your vulnerabilities. Yeah. In a very safe, supportive manner so that you come out alive and thrive as a true human being.

Speaker 1 (23:39):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Oh that's wonderful.

Speaker 3 (23:42):

Yeah.

Speaker 1 (23:43):

Yeah. Okay. So now I interrupted you back talking about liver and the vial and all the things. So pick up where you'd like to take that.

Speaker 3 (23:50):

So the liver's, the mastro organ, right? Let's look at your intestines. First of all, your intestines are like a tube. A nice lining. Kept healthy by good bacteria and good food over time with antibiotic use of poor diet. Inflammatory foods like gluten, dairy, et cetera. The lining gets damaged, the good bacteria get killed off and the lining gets damaged. Then toxins leak into the bloodstream. Cause inflammation everywhere, leading cause for asthma, eczema, arthritis, a lot of chronic health issues as well as hormonal imbalance. The good bacteria in your gut are responsible for producing neurotransmitters such as serotonin and dopamine and gaba. And so when these good bacteria get killed off, then your neurotransmitter production goes down and therefore then you get more mental health symptoms, more anxiety and depression. Now all this inflammation goes to the liver and inflammation also creates toxins. And the toxins have to be processed by your liver.

Speaker 3 (24:37):

Your liver's also inundated with pesticides on a daily basis. You know, environmental toxins, maybe alcohol to my sugar. And also it provi, it basically does over 500 functions from cholesterol metabolism, hormone balancing, blood sugar storage, iron storage, B vitamin storage. All these things are happening. Your liver. So your liver gets slammed with toxins, slammed with inflammation. And also stress goes and contracts your liver through the vagus nerve. I don't talk about that. So all these things lead to liver stagnation or liver cheese stagnation as we call in Chinese medicine. The liver stops working so well produces less bile, which cause the gas, bloating, constipation, et cetera we talked about. And also, when you produce less bile, your microbiome, your gut health becomes unhealthy again because bile is important to kill off the bad bacteria. And it also breaks down fatty acids, which are important to basically feed the good bacteria.

Speaker 3 (25:31):

So your bile is not digesting fats too well either. And you're not absorbing nutrients either. So you're going to nutrient depletion on healthy microbiome, which is leading to more leaky gut, more chronic inflammation. It's a vicious cycle. Hormonal imbalance as well. And a whole myriad of like blood sugar storage issues, fatty liver disease, cholesterol metabolism issues, progesterone deficiencies. And also propensity towards certain types of cancer. Because remember the hormones are not being metabolized properly now. And so of course we need to heal the liver. And so how do we do that? First is remove inflammatory foods, whether it's gluten or dairy, right? Do the gut healing protocols in my course or with another naturopathic doctor. Okay. Whether it's probiotics, vitamin D or other amino acids. Remove it and like I said, remove the inflammatory foods and then heal the liver with, I use bitter foods.

Speaker 3 (26:23):

It could be, you know, rocket or aula. It could be bitter Gord, it could be dandelion root. You know, I love using herbs such as milk thistle, dandelion, other herbs that are in the course as well. Cruciferous vegetables are excellent. So that's your cabbage. Brussels sprouts, broccoli, those are great in phase two detoxification. And antioxidants are super important 'cause your liver's detoxifying on a regular basis. So it's inundated with oxidative damage. So you need the antioxidants could be glutathione, it could be vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E. All these things will help optimize liver function. Yeah. Organic berries are high in antioxidants. They will help with liver function. And so when you heal your liver, bile starts flowing properly, your gut starts healing. So inflammation reduces hormones come more into balance, your skin clears, weight reduces significantly. Weight gain is often due to of course water retention cholesterol metabolism, sugar metabolism. And very connected to liver metabolism. A lot of people struggling to lose weight have a liver stagnation issue,

Speaker 1 (27:29):

Right? I know a lot of people right now are listening and they're getting overwhelmed 'cause they're like, oh my gosh, all this. And you want me to look at my anger and my trauma <laugh>, it's, you're probably feeling a little overwhelmed. So you mentioned starting with diet, which I totally agree that's the number one place to start. And if I know we're gonna give resources, you've got a book, you've got courses, you've got a retreat coming up. But if someone is thinking what is, what's maybe, what are the 1, 2, 3 top things that I might start working with to start healing? What would those things be?

Speaker 3 (28:10):

So it's about healing the gut and the liver and the emotions. Those are the top three. Literally removing the time. <Laugh>

Speaker 1 (28:18):

Sims said, you say it so easy. It's probably, those are the hardest things I find just even in my health journey. I always say health is a journey, not a destination. Navigating that gut liver journey, navigating that emotional healing journey, navigating all these things there, it's a continual unpacking and kind of course correcting process. So what things could they start implementing maybe today that they could do?

Speaker 3 (28:46):

Like I said, removing the inflammatory foods is a great start. You know, look at what foods you're sensitive to. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, including more bitter foods in your diet. Right? And more, more cruciferous vegetables as well. If you're not sensitive to them, that's a great start, right? Avoiding excessive, excessive sugar, excessive coffee, excessive gluten, dairy. All those things are great starts. And then mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, there's a free video I have as well on, on these resources that are mentioning on the site where it'll help you release certain stuck emotions, right? So become comfortable with your emotions. And the exercise goes like, I'll walk you through it very briefly. Just you can put one hand on your forehead, one hand behind your head just to reset your nervous system or settle it down. And you can say to yourself, take a deep breath in and out first for a couple of moments. You might be feeling anxious, you might be feeling overwhelmed. And don't fight it. Just say to yourself, it's safe for me to be overwhelmed from time to time. Use the words from time to time or once in a while, very purposefully. Then you can say, it's safe for me to let go of some of this information from time to time.

Speaker 3 (29:52):

I don't need to understand everything right away once in a while. So you're really given permission for your body to relax in your mind, to open up. It's safe for me to reconnect with myself once in a while, or let go of pressure from other people from time to time. Yeah. You can notice how at the end of the sentence, of using the words once in a while and from time to time, that's those endings are very important because it gives your nervous system the permission really to let go of the pressure and also to feel the emotions it doesn't wanna feel or you think you shouldn't feel. Yeah. And then you become more and more comfortable with your nervous system because emotions are natural responses to, to your stimuli, right? Whether you're feeling anxious, angry, disappointed, incapable, these are valuable senses that you're getting that tell you something about what you're facing right now.

Speaker 3 (30:54):

So it's safe to feel though once in a while, that starts the journey of self-love. Or you're not fighting yourself in your emotions and stigmatizing yourself anymore. And from that point, I find that when people continue to do the other exercises in the course, they get much better results because they've made peace with their own internal spectrum of emotions. So healing the gut, avoiding inflammatory foods, you know, more bitter foods, more drinking water of course, and becoming comfortable with your own emotions, I would say. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> is one of the best starts you can do. And deep breathing. So when you breathe deep, yeah. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative> like five deep breaths, maybe five times a day your diaphragm begins to massage your liver. One. Right? A lot of people have liver stagnation because they're shallow breathing. So the diaphragm is not massaging the lymphatics and detoxifying your liver.

Speaker 3 (31:43):

Very important movement is very important for detoxification. When you deep breathe as well, what happens is you reset your vagus nerve, this big beautiful nerve, a parasympathetic nerve that controls your breathing, your digestion, your liver, your heart rate, right? Even produces chemicals that affect your gut microbiome. And so when you do deep breathing, you regulate your vagus nerve and you calm down, you'll reset your parasympathetic state basically. And when you do that, then your liver functions better, your digestion, your motility improves. Okay? And your mind calms down. You come out of fight, flight, or freeze response. So it's a very positive feedback cycle when you do these active breathing exercises and active care for yourself. So when you practice self-care, yes, even in small amounts, your body gets used to it and it becomes less difficult because it becomes more familiar territory. Our difficulty with making changes is because of the lack of familiarity.

Speaker 3 (32:39):

Remember I said in the beginning, when we're burnt out and stressed out, we need familiar things, comfort zones, whether even if it's harmful to our health. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, we stick to those things. So the beginning of the journey, it feels a bit difficult, but when you do small amounts, like sometimes I might not feel like exercising i'll and it's been a long day, I'll just go down and put, do five pushups, then half an hour later after a Skype call, I'll go and do some situps. So small amounts, I don't have a routine where I can go for an hour and do a good workout at the gym. But these small, small things suddenly after 3, 4, 5 days are much stronger. Exercise feels less painful. And these hunger pangs that I have will reduce as well. Often I eat out a boredom, right? Or I'm nervous and stressed.

Speaker 3 (33:22):

Yeah, I'll go mu Yeah, I'll always munch on stuff. And what I've discovered beautifully is i'll, when I'm feeling that P of hunger, I'll quickly go and do some sit-ups. But like I say this with caution. 'cause If your blood sugar's low and you need to eat something, of course check with your doctor and make sure you're getting your blood sugar regulated. Me personally though, right? What I found some of my hunger cravings are not from low blood sugar, but from anxiety or boredom. So I'll throw in a bit of exercise there maybe for five, 10 minutes. That's it. Some movement, go for a walk, hunger reduces immediately. I feel better about myself and I'm getting stronger every day.

Speaker 1 (33:55):

Yes. These are so many powerful tools that you're sharing. And we're definitely gonna have Dr. Amit's information and links in the show notes for you so you can find out more. But before we wrap up, I have to ask you about this quote that you've shared. Healing has an aspect of letting go of perceived self so that true self can emerge. Can you talk about that a little bit,

Speaker 3 (34:18):

<Laugh> and what that means? I'm glad you noticed that saying not many people notice that. So perceived self is our idea of our personality and our self post the wounds that we have experienced in life. Yeah, I am a angry person, I'm a soft person. I'm not confident, I'm not loved all that. And so when we start letting go of those compensations or armors, right? Then the true self begins to get felt. We start to feel our vulnerability, our softness, our our love, our our lovable. Well all parts of us are really lovable, but you know, that authentic sense of being. And when we let go of this armor, then also the contractions in our physiology, the fight flight to freeze response in our adrenal system, the contraction in our liver all starts to dissipate. So organ functions start healing as well. So by healing the mind, right, and letting go of these armors and moons, the body starts to heal. So heal your mind, therefore your body heals. And as your body heals and you let go of the armors, true self emerges. And true self is really you thriving, optimal health. Feeling, feeling joy and sadness when, when it's important to feel those things. Okay? But not getting stuck in a routine of emotions. So at the retreats we go full spectrum. We get you to feel every single thing and come back to safety, stillness and allow your experience of really the depth of difficult emotions and feeling cared for at the same time.

Speaker 1 (35:51):

Yeah. I love this quote because it's so true that, you know, I, when I work with women, I tell them, the person you are now can't have the health and vitality and joy and life that you want. You have to become somebody that can have those things. And so you know how Joseph Campbell talks about the hero's journey that every journey is, that starts with some crisis, right? For a lot of women at midlife, it's a health crisis. How am I gonna overcome this? I don't know what to do, I don't know where to go. And you go on this journey and you pick up resources and you have challenges and you have setbacks and you find more resources. And at the end, you know, like in Star Wars or in the Dorothy, in the Wizard of Oz, you get the thing that you set out to get.

Speaker 1 (36:40):

But really what you get is you become someone different and you become that true self, like you described, who is the person who can have those things. And so I find that a lot of women, they don't want anything to change about their lives, but they wanna lose weight or they wanna have energy, they wanna have hair growth or sex drive or no depression, or you name fill in the blank symptoms, what I call midlife metabolic mayhem. They want those symptoms to go away, but they don't want anything to change <laugh>. And they don't want to look at, you know, their two espresso per morning habit. And they don't wanna look at the fact that their relationship with their partner, they basically become roommates and they're not intimate at all, or they don't wanna look at these things. So how do you help people open to this? 'cause I think that's a little threatening of a statement to people who don't like change. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And they're like, I like who I am. I don't wanna be someone else. <Laugh>. So how do you help them open to that possibility?

Speaker 3 (37:43):

So first is education. When people realize the connection between the gut, the liver, the adrenal system, hormones, and the mood. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, most of my clients, 99% of, often after hearing the connection, they comply with the protocols. One. Number two, I use a lot of homeopathy, right? Homeopathic remedies, which also helps shift the mind and get people to regain confidence, have less fear. And when you shift that and you have less fear, you're more able to take risks and you have more self-love and confidence and you're less, you have less food cravings automatically and you're less addicted to substances, right? Addiction is sometimes is just need for familiarity. And so these reduce and the changes happen very quickly. But that's using a lot of the protocols in, in terms of coaching or psychotherapy. I acknowledge the need for safety and to be still right because change, what does change bring about it?

Speaker 3 (38:35):

It might bring about isolation, it might bring about detachment or separation, a sense of aloneness. And those need to be acknowledged, right? When did you last feel alone? Why was it so difficult? What does it mean by, you know, having a conversation with your partner? Does it mean conflict? Does it mean violence? Does it mean looking bad? Where, what are those wounds? Is that from your mom or from your dad? So I'll do a lot of family consolation therapy as well, where I find clients are loyal to their parents' misery. What does that mean? So if mom was with an addicted or alcoholic or abusive partner, I will be protective of mom. I will rescue mom. And I'll also feel guilty about being happier than mom. I don't deserve to be happier than mom was. And you'll see this very often. We'll have patterns of generations having similar kinds of relationships as their parents did with abusive partners, dissatisfying partners.

Speaker 3 (39:28):

This comes out of a blind loyalty. We have an unconscious loyalty to the system, to the system that we're born into. And using family constellations therapy at the retreats and of course online. Then what happens is we help disentangle these loyalties. We help disentangle these loyalties. So you can say, dear mom, I really respect you and I love you so much. You know, please forgive me if I look at dad with equal love as I look at you, not many people can say that if one of one of the parents is abusive, and because dad is important energy for us as well, right? It's half our life force. And please forgive me if I leave this pain with you and I have a better, like I find happiness where you couldn't, you know, please bless me or look at me with love and a smile.

Speaker 3 (40:13):

Please smile upon me if I find happiness where you couldn't or where you suffered. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. So you almost give yourself permission and feel permission from the people you're loyal to, to thrive in life. So these healing sentences are extremely important for transformation as well. You know, you can go to therapy till the cows come home, but if you don't heal these blind loyalties, you will be stuck in these patterns. And that's why I encourage people to really seek out family constellations therapy as well in their healing journey. Combined with homeopathy, of course. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Yeah. And supporting the adrenal system. A lot of people find it difficult to change 'cause the adrenal system is burnt out. So change feels overwhelming. And when I support the mm-hmm <affirmative> with adaptogens and, but first we need to detoxify the liver and make sure there's less inflammation.

Speaker 3 (41:00):

But when we support the adrenal system with adaptogens and maybe phosphatidyl seine or some other positive mood nutrients, they have more confidence. They have the ability to basically try new things rather than rely on all patterns. They feel good automatically inside. So they wanna do more good things. Then you start creating small positive habits and that creates a reward. Like you feel satisfied. So when you feel satisfied action, you get a reward result. Like it's a reward symptom, a dopamine rush. And so your body starts becoming addicted or wanting yeah, the positive effects of the positive steps you're taking. So there's more motivation really to eat healthier and to avoid the alcohol, to avoid the excessive coffee and to go for that walk or that ride,

Speaker 1 (41:48):

Right? Yeah. Sometimes just calming some of the things down, especially cortisol can really help. And I've been amazed being here in Dubai at the level of energy work and healing, nurturing modalities are available. Family constellation therapy. There's so many therapists here. When I was in South Florida doing my shaman training, there's like one lady <laugh> who does it in all of South Florida. And here I, there's, I've seen probably at least six or eight, which is kind of amazing. So it's something I'm gonna dive into. Thank you so much for sharing all of this wonderful information with us. Inspiration. I think you really are helping people to see that it's, it's not just the physicality, it is the emotionality, it's the family, it's the ancestors, which is a whole other conversation that maybe we'll have another time. It's your energy, it's your nervous system, it's, it's everything. So women listening, if you want full body healing, life healing and really to live the life that you deserve to live, I think all people deserve brilliant health that supports them in living their life, their dreams. You definitely wanna check out Dr. Ameet's resources that he has available where can everybody find out more about all the wonderful things that you've shared with us? We'll put all the links that he mentions in the show notes. So don't worry about writing them down, they'll be there for you. But what, where can they find you?

Speaker 3 (43:19):

So my website is dr amate.com, that's D R A M E E t.com. There's a free ebook and video course as well on healing the five pillars of health. That's your gut, liver, adrenals, emotions, and some talks about family constellations. And there's a full course there as well, which goes into all my protocols for with homeopathy, herbs, et cetera, for healing the gut, liver adrenals, emotional healing exercise, so trauma healing exercise as well. And then I do retreats around the world as well as I teach a course, an in-person course to help you really become better at helping others with anxiety and depression and helping yourself. It's an experiential course. And if you don't find those links in the website because they're kind of reserved for people in the online course, send me an email, right? And if you have a group of people or you wanna join me in Europe or Africa or anywhere else in the world, send me an email and we'll organize a retreat or an in-person training for you and your group. It'll be a pleasure for me.

Speaker 1 (44:11):

Wonderful. And we'll put that email in the show notes, we'll get all that information for you. Thank you so much for your journey and for your own healing, because now you can share it with the world. And I very much appreciate you joining us today.

Speaker 3 (44:27):

I thank you and I thank the universe actually yeah, for this healing journey that healing, like you say, helped me share and give more back to the world. So thank you everyone for listening.

Speaker 1 (44:35):

Yeah. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I know for sure you learned something today that you can take action on. Maybe it's that you even start thinking about, Hmm, am I really feeling my emotions? Am I processing them? What component could this be of my healing? Maybe this is what's holding me back, or family constellation therapy or whatever it is. Reach out to me on social media, tell me about it. 'cause You know, I love hearing about it. And we'll have another wonderful episode for you again next week. I will see you then. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (45:14):

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

 

► Free Course & eBook on Healing Your Gut, Liver, Adrenal Fatigue, Emotional Trauma, Anxiety, Depression and Weight gain with holistic medicine, homeopathy, family constellations therapy & psychotherapy by Dr. Ameet Aggarwal - CLICK HERE.

 

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

It might be time to check your hormones.

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

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

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

 

► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?

It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.

We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!

CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.

 

Stay Off My Operating Table - A Cardiac Surgeon Shares How

Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! Today, we have a truly special guest, Dr. Philip Ovadia, a renowned cardiac surgeon, author, and expert on metabolic health. Grab a cup of tea, settle down, and prepare to be inspired by Dr. Ovadia's transformational journey and expert advice on overcoming obesity and maintaining a healthy heart. 🚀

 

In this episode:
* Discover Dr. Ovadia's fascinating journey from being an obese heart surgeon to becoming a passionate advocate for metabolic health.
* Uncover the essential principles of optimizing your metabolic health for preventing heart disease and other chronic illnesses.
* Learn how a low-carb, nutrient-dense diet can invigorate your body, mind, and hormone balance in midlife.
* Gain practical tips on how to address your own metabolic health challenges and make lasting lifestyle changes.
* Get a peek into Dr. Ovadia's latest book, Stay Off My Operating Table, and his telehealth practice, Ovadia Heart Health.

 

 Episode Highlights 🔥
Dr. Ovadia shares how his personal struggles with obesity and metabolic health led him to revolutionize his own life and the lives of countless others:
* His inspiring weight loss journey - shedding almost 100 pounds through a low-carb focused way of eating and adopting a primarily carnivorous diet since 2019.
* The secrets of his extensive research on the health benefits of low-carb diets with a focus on heart health, including personal discussions with leading physicians and experts in the field.
* A fascinating look at how Dr. Ovadia's hands-on clinical experience with heart disease and personal insights have informed his telehealth practice, Ovadia Heart Health, and his approach to preventing and treating metabolic and heart diseases through lifestyle and dietary modifications.

 

Don't Miss This Life-Changing Conversation! 🎧

Midlife women, this episode is tailor-made for you! Join us as we explore the journey of an incredible physician and author who's paving the way for a healthier future, one person at a time. Listen, learn, and be inspired to take charge of your own well-being today!  💪🏼

Subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and never miss any of our life-changing conversations!

 

► Get your FREE Physician Vetting Guide from Dr. Philip Ovadia

Use the Physician Vetting Guide to find out if your doctor understands the importance of metabolic health. CLICK HERE.

 

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

It might be time to check your hormones.

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

We offer advanced hormone testing and treatment from Board Certified Practitioners, so you can feel confident that you're getting the best possible care. Plus, our convenient online consultation process makes it easy to get started.

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

 

► Do you feel exhausted, moody, and unable to do the things that used to bring you joy?

It could be because of hormonal poverty! You can take our quiz now to find out if your hormone levels are at optimum level or not. Take this quiz and get ready to reclaim your life; say goodbye to fatigue and lack of energy for good.

We want every woman to live her best life — free from any signs or symptoms of hormonal poverty, so they can relish their everyday moments with confidence and joy. Imagine having a strong immune system, vibrant skin, improved sleep quality… these are all possible when hormones are balanced!

CLICK HERE now and take the #WWPHD Quiz to discover if you’re in hormonal poverty — it only takes 2 minutes! Let’s get started on optimizing your hormone health today.

It’s Not Perimenopause, It’s Stress - The Missing Link You Don’t Have A Plan For

In this enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're joined by Dr. Tricia Pingel, a naturopathic physician and expert on adrenal fatigue. Dr. Pingel shares her invaluable insights on stress and its impact on midlife women, particularly relating to the symptoms that many assume to be perimenopause. 
  
Throughout the episode, Dr. Pingel demonstrates her vast expertise and experience as a source of hope, knowledge, and motivation for people who are looking for ways to address the root cause of their symptoms. From identifying the underlying causes of stress to correcting nutrition depleted by stressful conditions, Dr. Pingel's practical and multidimensional approach shows listeners how to repel incoming stressors and return to their happy, vibrant, and energetic selves.
  
In addition to discussing her experience and approach to helping patients restore their health, Dr. Pingel shares her personal journey of overcoming health struggles and personal loss. Through creating a community of positivity and gratitude, Dr. Pingel inspires her listeners to live every day to the fullest, embracing a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
  
In this empowering episode, you'll learn about:

- The importance of addressing stress as the root cause of symptoms
- The challenges with temporary 'quick fixes,' and why they often don't provide long-term solutions
- How to recognize and address the underlying causes of stress in your life
- The crucial role nutrition plays in restoring health and well-being
- Dr. Pingel's personal journey of overcoming obstacles and creating a community of positivity
  
Don't miss this inspiring and informative episode that sheds light on the impact of stress on midlife women and offers practical guidance for a healthier, more balanced life. Tune in to The Hormone Prescription Podcast to take the first step toward transformation and healing.

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music? Michael Jackson, join me as Dr. Tricia Pingel. The hip hop energy doc shares with you her secrets to creating vitality at midlife and beyond.

Speaker 2 (00:17):

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

Speaker 1 (01:10):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today is super high energy and super positive, and you are gonna be inspired to do something audacious with your health and your life after. After listening to her. I make a promise to do something towards the end of the show that you'll wanna hear about and that you're gonna see on Instagram in the near future. So that should be super exciting and she has a great story like most of the docs who do the kind of work that I do, because most of us come to this work from Pain Paying Pitch pushes us to our purpose. So we're here for a reason to share with you so that you, you can get out of pain. I'll tell you a little bit about Dr.

Speaker 1 (01:58):

Tricia and then we'll get started. She is a naturopathic physician and yes, that's a real medical doctor. I like to say that instead of going to regular MD or do school naturopathic doctors smart enough to get it right the first time and go the natural route. So they have lots of wonderful wisdom and training and she's an expert on adrenal fatigue and the physical impact of stress on the body. She's super passionate about it. She's impacted many family members in her life and you're gonna wanna hear about that too. She's the founder of Pingle Progressive Medicine where her team takes a multidimensional and integrative approach to healthcare and treats a wide range of medical conditions. She's a source of hope, knowledge, and motivation for others who are, have experienced temporary quick fixes for their symptoms, but seek to find the root cause and heal their bodies.

Speaker 1 (02:53):

She has helped thousands of people restore their health by showing them how to identify the stress, causing their symptoms, restoring their nutrition depleted by stress and assisting in changing their mindset to repel incoming stressors so that they can return to their happy, vibrant and energetic selves. She's appeared on many, many podcasts, shows, summits, and she is known as the hip hop energy doc. She's found dancing all over her social media media, cheering on her two boys at football and creating healthy vegan recipes in her kitchen, snuggling her three dogs and cat at home where she lives in Arizona. She did have her own health struggles, as did her family members and personal loss. She strives in creating a community of positivity, gratitude, and living every day to its fullest potential. Please help me welcome Dr. Tricia Pingle to the show.

Speaker 3 (03:47):

Thank you. It is so nice to be here. Thank you for having me. I can't wait to dive in and have an amazing chat today.

Speaker 1 (03:53):

I know, me too. And let, we gotta start by talking about your hip hop dancing that you do. I too love to dance. I don't dance hip hop, but you've got the energy for it. And I know a lot of women listening, that's what they're here seeking is like, why don't I have the energy to do the things I wanna do? So maybe share a little bit about how you came to have this great energy at the stage of life that you're in.

Speaker 3 (04:20):

Yeah, I think, you know, dance is one of the things I say that saved me. 'cause When I was younger I used to dance and it was how I found joy. And my dad was a musician, grew up listening to music. Music was part of what brought me joy and happiness. And as I got older and I went through, you know, stressors, losing my dad at 24 years old, you know, going through medical school, getting married, having children, having symptoms throughout my life that were always dismissed. You know, the things like acne and heavy menstrual periods and bloating and all of that brings into a stress and kind of took me away from myself. And I talk to a lot of women in their forties particularly where they say, gosh, Dr. Pingle, I really feel like I've lost who I am. I feel like I've lost my joy.

Speaker 3 (05:04):

I feel like I'm not the same person I used to be. And I'm mean, and I'm irritable and I'm snappy and I don't sleep well. And I was going through a lot of that in my thirties and when I finally recognized it, I thought, this is it. I need to go back to what I wanna do for my soul. And I put myself into a hip hop class. I hadn't done hip hop in maybe 20 years. And I put myself in a class with a bunch of teenagers, 14, 15, 16 years old and in an advanced class. And I said, I'm just gonna do this. I'm gonna commit this to myself. And I can say without of doubt, out of all the things that I did to be well out of the diet, the stress reduction, the supplements, the best thing I ever did was put myself back in that hip hop class.

Speaker 3 (05:51):

Because as soon as I started moving and I started reconnecting my head and my body, there was a massive change that happened. I found more energy, I found more joy. I found the ability to just let loose. And so I've just been carrying that thread. I've been so, I've been dancing, gosh now regularly with these teenagers for maybe seven to eight years now. And I love it. I just absolutely love it. I couldn't be any happier than when that music is on and my body is new <laugh>, it's my favorite. It's my favorite, favorite part of my life, honestly. I love it. And I, when I don't have class, if they're on a break or something, I'm miserable. It's sad. <Laugh>,

Speaker 1 (06:30):

I totally identify with with that as well. Dance was a, I call it dance therapy and it's a real part of my wellbeing as well. When I got healthy and lost a hundred pounds, I started salsa dancing. Well, I used to ballroom dance first, but then it was so rigid and they always, they wanted me to compete and I'm like, I just wanna have fun. So I quit that and I started salsa dancing and now I've done zoo and Zumba and all of this. It's very social, it's athletic, it's expressive, artistic. So you really do get in your body and it's part of what brings me joy as well. And I think that's part of what keeps me healthy. I love that you do the hip hop online. I'm sure everybody really enjoys seeing that and they're like, I wonder how I can get that energy.

Speaker 1 (07:19):

But for somebody who's listening who's kind of at that midlife stage and they're thinking, oh yeah, that's a a pipe train, Dr. Tricia, I am too tired. Like I don't even have the energy. I know that you talk about stress a lot and how it affects our health, the difference between internal and external stress. You talk about people who don't even realize that stress is a factor because we women are our houses and we just power through everything. Right? Raise your hand if that's you multitask, take care of ev anything and everything all at once. So I don't know if that's a part of your story that you wanna share. How did you come to realize that stress was such a big factor? Yeah,

Speaker 3 (08:03):

It's crazy. And first of all, I love do it all women. I love that we just strive for all of this, but unfortunately our bodies are not built for that on the go lifestyle. And I think with the technology that we've brought in the iPhones, the, you know, the constant stimulation, the social media, we're actually setting ourselves and our children up for a lot of serious health issues. And we're seeing that in our society. We're seeing more sensitive diabetes, we're seeing more sensitive cancer, cardiovascular disease, higher inflammatory responses, immune problems. And I think a lot of this is coming from this everyday stuff that we try to do and all these goals that we set for ourselves. But we don't give our bodies much grace to go with the rhythm. One of my favorite quotes is from Michael Jackson and it kind of ties into the dancing.

Speaker 3 (08:47):

And this is that everything living has a rhythm. Do you feel your music? And I think we spend so much time just running past it and just running and pushing through and pushing through and pushing through that we don't stop to actually feel our own rhythm and feel our own music. And that's actually to our decline. When you ask about internal and external stressors, I think most of us know what external stressors are and we all deal with it every single day. Spouses, children, money, jobs, whatever comes at us, you know, the pool pump breaks, you know, things like that that happened at the last minute. But when we have that stress response in our body to those external factors, even scrolling through Instagram, we actually create an internal stress on our body. Whether that be a nutrient deficiency, it could simply be an imbalance of dopamine to serotonin.

Speaker 3 (09:36):

We have changes in our menstrual cycles in women that that give internal stresses at certain times. Menopause is quite a big stressor. And then if you have other things that are going on, let's say problems with blood sugar or you know, underlying genetic conditions, those also cause stresses on the body. So I think a lot of us spend so much time when I ask saying, are you under stress? And they're like, oh, you know, I have a great life. I have all this stuff. I have a great business, I do all these things and I get through it all. I think I'm fine. I don't think we realize how much that's actually impacting our internal environment. And in order to have energy, we have to give our body time to rest. We have to actually pull away from that instinct to do everything and allow our bodies to heal and repair.

Speaker 3 (10:18):

And by doing that, our body has the energy and the resources to create more energy, which ironically then allows us to do more. So in my own personal story, everything that I do now, I couldn't do 10 years ago, I was just exhausted and fatigued and just like these women that you're talking about, just unable to even handle anything. Just snapping at everything, feeling lost, feeling sad, not having the energy to do what I want to do. And it wasn't until I backed away and realized how much stress I was really putting on myself internally in nutritional deficiencies, in imbalances, in my hormones that were really, really causing the problem. So I think it's important for us to recognize how much our bodies actually know what to do and how much we're our minds maybe are pushing us beyond that. And we need to back off a little bit and have a little bit more grace. But

Speaker 1 (11:09):

You know, as I'm hearing you makes perfect sense. You're preaching to the choir 'cause that was me. And there's so much out there about you're doing too much, you're too much dish, you're drinking the coffee in the morning to wind up, you're drinking the wine to wind down. So you know, at some point you have to say like either you've got your head in the ground and you don't wanna hear the truth that you need to stop doing so much. Or <laugh> what? What is it that women aren't getting? Because I talk to women and they say, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I know, but they actually won't stop. Like I have a woman in my midlife metabolism program right now and totally anonymous, I'm not gonna mention her name, but she, she goes at it, she's so successful in the things that she has done in her community as a wife and a mom.

Speaker 1 (12:02):

And when you talk to her, she seems so poised and so full of energy. And then you look at her salivary cortisol and you're like, how is she even standing up? And to get her to even realize that something wrong, she had to get a breast cancer diagnosis, right? Because stress then affects your cortisol and then that increases your risk of cancer. And then when people get cancer, then they pay attention and they go, oh, what am I doing wrong? But to really get her to understand that she's doing too much, this external stress you're talking about is like a herculean task. So what does it take for a woman to really change what she's doing and change her life? I think

Speaker 3 (12:42):

Having a physician working with you that shows you what it's doing. You know, I think so often you go to the doctor for it and just say, gosh doc, I'm really not sleeping that well. And they're like, oh, here's a medication, or Hi, I'm just not, I don't have the energy I need. Well here's an antidepressant. And nobody's saying, Hey, let's sit down and see could there be something going on? Is there an imbalance? And when you do a full lab workup and you look at it from a functional perspective and you look at it, what's going on and what's happening, there's so many times where I'm going through a lab review and the woman looks at me and says, oh my God, I had no idea, right? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And then many of us have family members that have lost their lives too young, you know, and linked back to stress or something was preventable.

Speaker 3 (13:21):

And I think there's so much health consciousness going on in our generation right now and in my age group in particular that we're looking at, our parents go and we're like, how can we change that? We don't wanna be that. We don't, we don't wanna leave our kids at 59 years old like my dad did. Or you know, and I think, so a lot of women are seeking answers and they're going to the physician asking for these types of tests and they're not getting clear and can answers 'em what they need to do. There's no doubt stress in the, you know, the, if you go to the doctor and they have to put in your diagnosis code, it's not like they say stress, they'll say fatigue, you know, insomnia, headaches, bloating, constipation, hair loss, perimenopause, these are all in there, but they're all the exact same symptoms of stress.

Speaker 3 (14:03):

And I think a lot of people, my mission is to get people to recognize that when you have the symptoms of all these other conditions, they are exactly the same symptoms of what you have when your body is under stress. And it takes you working with a physician and seeking a physician that can help you find these imbalances. And then once you do, it's amazing. It could be as simple as a vitamin C deficiency and you throw some vitamin C in there and you're back to yourself. You know, it could be as simple as changing your workout just slightly to do some toning exercises that benefit the calming nervous system, the parasympathetic nervous system. Such small little tweaks and getting women to recognize that is just us getting out there, you and me and talking about it and talking about our experiences and talking about how we've gone through it and how we've gained energy back by doing this exact thing. All of us want the same thing. We wanna be happy, we wanna have energy, we wanna be able to do everything we wanna do. We wanna be connected with others. You know, this is kind of an innate, the innate wants of women and we can actually do it if we pay attention to how much we're beating ourselves up in the meantime.

Speaker 1 (15:09):

Yes, <laugh>, we can, yeah. So paying attention. And I do think it takes people like you and me out there telling people and doing the testing and showing them, like, I never heard of salivary cortisol testing in my medical training as a board certified OB G Y N for, you know, over 14 years. It just wasn't even something I knew about. And you know, I'll never forget when I learned about it and I said, oh, I'm gonna do this test and I did it and I had no cortisol. I was like the woman I just described, thank God I didn't have a breast cancer diagnosis at the time. It was a wake up call. It was a real wake up call. And I think that a lot of women don't realize going to their, you know, neighborhood H M O $30 copay doctor, that they're not getting everything that's available that could help them to understand what's going on with their health and actually get that, that vitality back. So I think it's super important that we're out there telling people what's available.

Speaker 3 (16:11):

Absolutely. And I think women are seeking it. They know, like they know something's not right, it's just they're showing up and being told everything's fine. And then being given a therapy that we haven't even looked at those levels. I mean, you know, as much as I do that cortisol and progesterone have very much of a relationship. So a lot of doctors are just out there pumping a bunch of progesterone without even considering the cortisol impact of it. And it, it takes, our body is an amazing machine and it has the ability to adapt. We adapt to our environment. If you're in the woods and you see a bear, your entire biochemistry and physiology changes in order to save your life and that doesn't include producing testosterone to have sex, your body's not interested in that moment, in that, right? We change everything to, to running, right.

Speaker 3 (16:57):

And then we wonder why is our libido so low? You know, where we work 12 hours a day, we take care of the kids, we clean the house, we do all this stuff, and we have no interest in sex. Gee, <laugh>, you know, is it a, is it a testosterone problem or is it a cortisol problem that's causing a testosterone problem? And I think when we start looking at the body as an adaptive being and really paying attention to those little things that we can do along the way, it can make such a drastic impact on our lives. And I hope that everyone out there listens to that and seeks that answer because it doesn't have to be complicated. We do have to be kind to ourselves. You know, we can't keep self-deprecating and pushing ourselves beyond belief. We can only go so far. My grandmother used to say, and this was my grandmother way back in the day, you can't burn a candle at both ends and expect it to keep burning. And that is 100% true. At some point you're gonna burn out. And at that point is unfortunately where most women, you know, start seeking the help. You know, when they get a cancer diagnosis or they or they can't move forward. And that's what happened to me and that's why I just want people to understand you can catch it actually before that happens. You can actually prevent that from happening from what you're hearing is happening to your friends, to your family, you know, to your loved ones.

Speaker 1 (18:09):

Right. And then what does that do to your nutrient status? Because you're eating food? You know, it's funny, when I weighed 243 pounds, I used to think I had the best nutrition 'cause I was weighed so much more and I had eaten so much more food, which now I look back and I think that's insane. But I don't think that most people are aware of the effects of stress on their nutrient status.

Speaker 3 (18:36):

Yeah, I mean you could be doing everything right. You could be eating this amazing diet and still being impacted by the stress and you're not getting utilization. So let me talk about how stress impacts that and it does that in a couple different ways. So number one, just us running from that bear and adapting to that stressor depletes our B vitamins, particularly B five, B six, B 12, which are highly involved in the way that we break down our food, you know, to create energy. I mean they're essential for the creation of a T p. It also impacts our mineral status. So we'll start to deplete things like magnesium, potassium, we start to get imbalances in our electrolytes, which have impacts on our thyroid, has impacts on muscle contraction, cramps, sleep, those types of things. We also have a pretty big depletion in antioxidants, particularly vitamin C.

Speaker 3 (19:26):

So when you start to have that direct impact in the nutrients, it impacts everything else in the body. It impacts our production of serotonin. It impacts the way that we manufacture and utilize hormones like estrogen, testosterone, progesterone. It changes the way that we utilize thyroid that we create. It changes the way that we absorb the nutrients from our food. And this is where stress impacts us. The second thing is when you're running from a bear, you're not gonna digest your food. We were kind of set up with these two different nervous systems and many people have heard them as fight or flight or rest and digest. And when you're in a fight or flight, you're not resting and digesting. So when you're running from something and keeping up with that schedule and going and going and going, your body down regulates its digestion, which means you could be eating the most amazing diet and not get a lick of that nutrition because your body has slowed the digestion changed the absorbability due to it dealing with the threat.

Speaker 3 (20:22):

So it actually comes at you at a double whammy. And then the third whammy is once those are imbalanced, that's another internal stress, which then has more impact on cortisol, which causes more nutritional deficiencies, more downregulation, more symptoms. So by just simply saying, okay, I'm a busy woman and I'm out there running all day long, what's my B vitamin status? What's my vitamin C status? What's my mineral status? Do I have trouble digesting things? Do I, am I noticing bloating? Do I get heartburn? You know, just being aware of some of the things that are being impacted really can make a huge difference in preventing future problems. So I always recommend in general that these are the supplements that most busy women need to take. They need to be on a B vitamin, they need to be on vitamin C and antioxidants. They need to be on a mineral and they need to be on a probiotic. Because all of those are definitely being impacted simply by the lifestyle alone.

Speaker 1 (21:17):

Yes, absolutely. Amen to that. And then what's the consequence if you have these nutrient depletions and you don't know about it?

Speaker 3 (21:25):

Yeah, the consequences

Speaker 1 (21:26):

Happen.

Speaker 3 (21:27):

Yeah. Lots of symptoms. So commonly I see impacts in sleep almost immediately. Not sleeping soundly, trouble falling asleep, waking up in the middle of the night, lots of changes in mood because serotonin is highly regulated in the gut. It's also made with B vitamins and vitamin C and magnesium and all these things that that I've just mentioned. So I see a lot of anxiety and underlying just baseline irritability, very commonly as it progresses, I start to see more of thyroid issue, primarily in the conversion of thyroid. And I don't wanna get too technical, but you know, you could have an outright low thyroid function or you could have a subclinical state where you're making the thyroid but you're not utilizing it well. So the body starts to store, it starts to store thyroid, it starts to store estrogen. And that's when you start to see these symptoms that look like perimenopause, heavy periods, irregular cycles, headaches, hair loss, wrinkles, you know, poor muscle tone, all these things that we attribute to hot flashes, all these things that we attribute to menopause or perimenopause.

Speaker 3 (22:30):

But what they really are is a reaction of your body because it can't make what it needs to make. If you were manufacturing, you know, a water bottle on a conveyor belt, there's all these pieces that go into making this water bottle. And when a piece is missing, you have to figure out another way to compensate. And that's what our body does all day. When it's under stress, Hey, I need to make serotonin, I don't have vitamin C. Where can I pull that from? Where can I get that right? So it pulls from other pathways in order to prioritize different ones. And that's where we start to see symptoms. And instead of treating the symptom and suppressing the symptom, we need to ask the question, why am I having anxiety? Am I having anxiety because I have an imbalance? Because I have a nutrient deficiency because I'm pushing myself too far? And when you answer that question, the solution is actually ridiculously simple. You just replete what you're missing. You fill that gap on that conveyor belt. And that's where a lot of the nutritional therapy comes in. In my world of dealing with stress is how can I help the body, you know, get more parts for that conveyor belt while we work on mind body aspect to try to calm the body. We also need to support it. So we support it with a lot of nutrition. A ton of nutrition.

Speaker 1 (23:46):

Yes, it's super important. I think that everyone really needs micronutrient testing to see where their levels are. I'm sure you're a proponent of tests, don't guess as well. <Laugh>.

Speaker 3 (23:57):

Yeah, abs. Absolutely. I love micronutrient testing. And that, back to one of your earlier questions, that's one of those aha moments where, you know, my client looks at me and says, oh my God, I had no idea. And once you know you can do something about it, I mean, we're all pretty hard people if they're hardworking people, if there's a problem and we can figure out how to fix it, we will fix it. So we've gotta identify where the weak links are so that we can fix it. And then it's not so complicated. Then you're not spending hours at the doctor's office just saying, doc, I'm not getting better. I'm not getting better. It's like, hey, we tested this, we saw we were low in iron, we repleted that. Now the iron's back to normal. How are your symptoms? And then how is that impacting other areas when we bring up iron, what does that do to other nutrients at that point? We're always adapting and that's what's so, mm-hmm <affirmative>, gosh darn amazing about our bodies is that we can adapt to every little thing. And if we play into that adaption and work with it rather than against it, if we feel our rhythm <laugh>, then it's amazing what we can do.

Speaker 1 (24:58):

Yeah, it's so true. And you know, but what do you say to people who are like, I just wanna do the testing once, I wanna know what I need, supplements I need to take, and then I wanna go on my merry way and I don't ever wanna look at that again. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (25:12):

It's a shame. I have had people like that. They usually come back about five years later and say, okay, I was wrong. Can we look at this again? <Laugh>, <laugh>, you know, one of the things that I've come to realize just in my own health journey is you're never done getting Well, it's a spectrum where there's an area of health and there's an area of disease. And as we grow and we change and we get older, we change, our chemistry changes, our metabolism changes, things change. And we have to constantly be adapting and growing to that. I don't think anyone can just say, okay, I'm gonna do everything in two months and then I'm gonna be well for the rest of our lives. That's not realistic. <Laugh>, I, I mean, just like I said, just a cell phone alone. I mean, how many times do people check their phone a day?

Speaker 3 (25:51):

I think it was like upwards of 80 times a day for adults and like double that for children. And it's not even buzzing, right? It's just, we're just innately always stimulating ourselves. We live in this stimulated society and unless society's gonna change, which it's not, we're just gonna keep developing and growing technology and we need to actually address that because otherwise we're just gonna keep changing. So health is a spectrum and I really prefer to work with my clients for a very long period of time. Most of my clients have been me with, been with me for a very long period of time. And every year we're looking at, okay, what were our wins and what do we still need to grow on? What do we still need to learn? How are we gonna get into that mindset of true wellness and health? And that takes time. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, it's hard. The hardest part, I don't know if you agree, the hardest part is the mindset part. The mind body part is the hardest one to get a handle of because our brains trick us <laugh> into thinking we have to deal with something else first, that everyone else comes first or other things come first instead of just breathing or being in the moment.

Speaker 1 (26:54):

Yeah, it's so true. And as you're talking, I'm thinking, it's not like we think, oh, I'm gonna brush my teeth really good right now and then I won't ever have to do it again. Or I'm gonna clean my house so well I'm never gonna have to clean it again. No. But somehow, I don't know, when it comes to natural healing or nutritional changes or the things we're talking about, I don't know where we get this mentality from that I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna do it and I'm gonna get healthy and then I'm not gonna have to do it anymore. And I always say, health is a journey, not a destination. <Laugh>, it's not like you arrive <laugh>.

Speaker 3 (27:31):

Yeah. You know, and I get, I get that all the time, you know, oh well how long do I have to do this nutrition plan for? How long do I have to abstain from alcohol for before I can put it back in? You know, it's like, well I don't know if you can put it back in. We're just gonna have to take this journey, you know, as it goes. And listen to what the body's trying to tell us and adapt to that as we go. One of the biggest obstacles that I get, or objections I guess, is they say, gosh, Dr. Penal, am I gonna have to eat plants like that for the rest of my life? <Laugh>? Am I gonna have to eat like you and exercise every day like you do <laugh>? And I'm like, here's the thing to me, because I've gone through this transformation with my health, it isn't a burden to me to eat.

Speaker 3 (28:10):

Well, in fact, my body wants to eat well, it, it craves eating well. If I wanted to eat poorly, I couldn't. I physically couldn't because my body will be like, no, you are not eating that. And it's just a, I want to feel well, I have more energy and can do more than I've ever done in my entire life at 47, way more than I ever did when I was 22. It's an amazing thing. And when I see my clients transform and hit that point where I'm at, where they're like they want to be well, they want to continue to eat well because they feel so good, nothing's a better feeling and I know that I set them up. Nothing. You know, nothing is a better feeling. It's the most inspiring thing. It's why you and I show up every single day. It's to help people make that realization that they don't have to abuse their bodies to feel well.

Speaker 3 (28:54):

And I think we do that. You know, we drink alcohol, we deprioritize exercise or self-care for other people to help other people. And we think we're doing good when in reality we're focusing on everybody else and not ourselves and we're actually putting ourselves at detriment. But when you flip that, you can do so much more. You can give back to society. You can help so many more people. You have the energy to do what you want. You enjoy exercise, you enjoy food, you start dancing again. You know, you do things that truly allow you to appreciate every single moment, which unfortunately not everyone recognizes until something drastic happens. I've lost my entire family above me. So my parents, my grandparents, and I lost them all at a fair, fairly long young age. And to me that's changed my perspective on how I spend time with my kids, how I spend time with my friends and my family and the gratitude that I give forth every single day.

Speaker 3 (29:45):

Because this is a gift. I'm on lease, right? My life is on lease. It could go at any time. And I just want to be the best that I can be. And I wanna be able to give the knowledge that I've learned through this process to as many people as possible so that they can give it to other people so we can all reconnect and be healthy and well and live this life to the fullest. I, I can't think of anything more. And I think we spend so much time worrying about all those nitpicky things, right? Did we do this on time? Did so-and-so like it when we did that? Did that person ignore my text? You know, what is so-and-so doing on their vacation? You know, we worry about everybody else and we don't spend enough time really worrying about ourselves because we think it's selfish and it's not.

Speaker 1 (30:25):

It's not, is it

Speaker 3 (30:26):

<Laugh>? <Laugh>? It's not. It allows you to give more. You can do more, so much more. And we can help raise our kids to not set them up for the same thing we set ourselves up for, which scares Olivia daylights outta me with like two year olds on cell phones scrolling through YouTube. I'm like, no. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 1 (30:44):

<Laugh>. Oh no. So

Speaker 3 (30:46):

With a diet Coke in hand, right? <Laugh>,

Speaker 1 (30:49):

I'm wondering if, you know, it's so funny, I'm, I'm in Dubai right now and they have McDonald's here and they have McDonald's ads and I was noticing, so they have it with Arabic letters, which I think are very artistic and beautiful, the Arabic writing and, and I had this thought, is McDonald's healthier? Because the writing about it is pretty <laugh> over here still as unhealthy. And you know, hopefully McDonald's won't mind that I say that 'cause they know that some of their products have been shown to be challenging. But anyway, I just had that thought. And it's the same for the sodas and things that I see in foreign countries in a foreign language with pretty writing. It doesn't look to me as toxic as I know it is in the US or I encountered it for decades. Do you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 3 (31:37):

I do. And you know, it's all marketing and marketing images in our heads of what's been told to us to be healthy or not healthy, right? So if it looks different, we're like, oh, that's healthy. I mean they do the same thing. Supplements. I've seen some supplements out there that are so beautiful. Their label is so beautiful and they're absolute junk. And I'm like, but they're selling like hotcakes 'cause their label is so beautiful. You know? So yeah. You know, and, and I think all of our habits are ingrained in exactly the same way. At some point we had an image in our brain that made it say, oh, we should eat that. Or This makes me feel good when I eat. What are they called? The little egg sausage McMuffins or whatever. I feel good when I eat that. So then whenever I feel depressed, I'm going to eat a sausage McMuffin.

Speaker 3 (32:16):

Right? I don't even know if that's the name. I haven't been to a McDonald's in years, but those are the things we have to use our mind to override. You know, I feel good when I eat quinoa and avocado, right? But it took me a while to overcome that, right, right. To overcome that pre I guess notion in my head. And I think that's one of the biggest challenges we have right now in our country. Particularly because we're just so inundated with information everywhere and it's so overwhelming and you don't know what to believe and you don't know what to look at and you don't know it's healthy. And I think that causes a lot of people just to be overwhelmed by the whole process and say whatever, I'll just eat whatever because this is too much work. It's not as much work as you think. You just need to have a trusted guide to help you, help you get through it and evaluate what you're doing.

Speaker 1 (32:57):

Yes. A trusted guide is essential and you are one. Dr. Tricia, thank you so much for coming and sharing your exuberance, your joy, your wisdom, your inspiration. I know people listening feel very inspired and hopeful from hearing you. I do, for sure. But you've got a wonderful total health cookbook that everybody can access for free. We will have the link in the show notes and tell everybody where else they can connect with you online.

Speaker 3 (33:29):

Absolutely. Dr pingle.com is my website and that has links to everything and you know, will always be updated with different things. But if you enjoy dancing and having fun and learning, you definitely should follow me over on Instagram at Dr. Pingel or Facebook at Dr. Tricia Pingel. I'm also on all the other social media channels. Pinterest has a lot of my recipes. Just, you know, search me up and definitely say hello. I'm here to connect with people. That's what I want. I wanna connect and inspire and grow and get us all, you know, working together so we can do everything we wanna do. So if you do follow me, pop a little note in one of my feeds and say, Hey, you know, saw you here. Nice to meet you. I would love to meet all of you. So thanks. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (34:12):

And we will have all those links in the show notes, so don't worry about writing them down. We've got 'em for you so you can just click them. Thank you so much Dr. Tricia for joining us today. It's been wonderful. You've inspired me. I realized since I got to to by two weeks ago, I haven't been dancing, so I am gonna go dancing sometime this week and have, have some joy. 'cause It's just, it's one of the most, if, if anyone listening, if you haven't danced in a while, I challenge you to go turn some music on and just dance around your living room. It, it's the most joy inspiring activity I can think of. So and involve. Thank you so much. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (34:50):

The kids are, the kids enjoy it too, and it prompts a lot of laughs and it's a connecting experience. And by the way, when you do start dancing, I want you to record it and post it so I can dance next to you on a duet or something. So pull, pull that up, do that.

Speaker 1 (35:02):

Let's do it. Okay. We'll do it. Promise. So thank you so much Dr. Trisha and thank, thank you so much for the work you do, and thanks for being here.

Speaker 3 (35:10):

Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (35:11):

And thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Hopefully you've learned something that you will put into action today to move your health towards the brilliant health that you deserve. I look forward to hearing what changes you're making. You can reach out to me on social media, on Facebook and Kiran Instagram at Kyrin Dunston MD Ann, until next week, peace, love, and hormones

Speaker 2 (35:37):

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

 

► The Total Health Cookbook by Dr. Tricia Pingel. Filled with nutrient dense, easy to make and impressive recipes to support adrenal health. Sign up and files will be emailed to you! CLICK HERE.

 

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The Thyroid Debacle: Why the Current Medical Model is Keeping You Sick and Unwell

Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, the go-to resource for midlife women seeking to better understand their hormones and how to navigate this often-challenging stage of life. Today, we are honored to have the brilliant Dr. Eric Balcavage as our guest.
  
Dr. Balcavage is the proud owner and founder of Rejuvagen and has made exceptional strides in the world of functional medicine, earning him a reputable position as a licensed Chiropractor in Pennsylvania. Drawing upon his wealth of knowledge and years of experience in the field, Dr. Balcavage will be diving deep into the truths behind thyroid physiology and the shortcomings of the current medical model.
  
In this eye-opening episode, get ready to learn about:

- The crucial role that thyroid physiology plays in our everyday lives, particularly for midlife women
- The complexity of bile physiology, and what it has to do with hormonal balance
- The decisive factors that influence detoxification, oxidative stress, methylation, and chronic illness
  
Here's a taste of Dr. Balcavage's wisdom from the episode:

"Understanding thyroid physiology is paramount for midlife women, as changes in hormonal balance can directly affect our overall well-being."
  
Dr. Balcavage's journey into understanding thyroid physiology began when he encountered a staggering number of patients who were continually misdiagnosed or underdiagnosed due to the restrictive parameters of the current medical model. Inspired by the undeniable need for a more comprehensive approach, he set out on a quest to dig deeper into human physiology and develop a more refined understanding of hormonal challenges that midlife women face, specifically thyroid disorders.
  
Throughout this episode, Dr. Balcavage shares personal anecdotes, professional insights, and invaluable advice on how to take control of your hormonal health. Armed with these enlightening perspectives, you will be better equipped to advocate for yourself in navigating the current medical model—which, as Dr. Balcavage bluntly puts it:

"The traditional medical model's approach to thyroid health is flawed. It's far too narrowly focused, ineffectual, and doesn't paint the full picture."
  
So, join us on The Hormone Prescription Podcast as we pull back the curtain on the state of thyroid healthcare, empowering you, our midlife women listeners, to push past the constraints of the current medical model and embark on a journey toward better health and vitality. Don't miss this transformative episode with Dr. Eric Balcavage!
  
Remember to subscribe, rate, and leave a review for future episodes, and always consult your healthcare provider before making any changes to your health regimen. Until next time, stay tuned for more empowering conversations on The Hormone Prescription Podcast!

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

The thyroid debacle. Why the current medical model is keeping you sick and unwell. Stay tuned to hear Dr. Eric Balcavage with his unique perspective.

Speaker 2 (00:11):

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

Speaker 1 (01:04):

Hi everybody. Welcome to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. As we are going to talk about the thyroid debacle. Dr. Eric is a chiropractor who's functional medicine trained who really has a unique way of articulating the difficulties with thyroid management, not only in traditional corporate allopathic medic medicine or medical model, but in a functional medicine model model. This is where a lot of us actually get it wrong too, because we just change trying to chase T four. We're trying to chase T three. And a lot of practitioners don't look to identify and address the underlying root cause of thyroid disorders, which you must do if you're going to fix thyroid disorders once and for all. So Dr. Eric has written a book, the Thyroid Debacle, and he has a very unique perspective about a cell danger response that you're going to want to hear about.

Speaker 1 (02:08):

There's a lot of information here. It's very dense. He talks very quickly. So if you don't catch it all, you might wanna play it a little more slowly than usual so you can hear everything. But there's lots of good information in here, and we're gonna tell you the top three steps to start taking to address your thyroid problems. And he talks a lot about testing and so much else in this episode. So I'll tell you a little bit about him and then we'll get started. So Dr. Eric Balcavage is an actually recognized speaker and educator on various health related topics including thyroid physiology, biophysiology detoxification, oxidative stress, methylation, and chronic illness. He's a functional medicine practitioner and a licensed chiropractor in Pennsylvania and is the owner and founder of rejuven, a functional medicine clinic in Chads Ford, pa. Welcome Dr. Eric to the show. Well, thanks

Speaker 3 (03:04):

For having me. How you doing?

Speaker 1 (03:05):

I'm doing great. How are you doing today?

Speaker 3 (03:08):

I'm doing fantastic. So

Speaker 1 (03:09):

We are gonna talk about one of my favorite topics, thyroid, because that's one of the things that kept me stuck for years. 243 pounds with all my chronic health problems. And I kept thinking, I know I've got to have a thyroid problem. I have the top five symptoms, right? I'm overweight, I'm tired. I had hair loss, constipation, anxiety, and a host of other things. But every time I would do the standard thyroid profile as a board certified ob, G Y N, it would come back, quote unquote normal. And I started thinking I was crazy. And I even remember the last time Dr. Eric that I went to my internal medicine doctor and I said to her, I have to have a thyroid problem. Look at me. And she yelled at me and she said, fine, we're gonna check it one last time. But if it's normal, then it's just because you eat too much and you don't exercise enough that you're having all these problems.

Speaker 1 (04:09):

And she made me come to her office to get the lab results 'cause she was so fed up with me. And many people listening can probably relate to that because so many patients really do have low thyroid, but the tests come back normal. And I remember when I went to her office and drove across town that Tuesday, it was just starting to rain, and I was so afraid she was gonna tell me it was normal again. And that's exactly what she told me. And she yelled at me and said, you just eat too much and don't exercise enough. And I went in my car and closed the door and the rain was coming down and I started crying because I thought, I'm just crazy. There's really nothing wrong with me. And I know there's somebody listening right now who thinks that, so let's get into thyroid, the thyroid debacle, and how my story was not at all unique. It's actually very common. Do you wanna talk about that?

Speaker 3 (05:01):

Yeah, I, I think a huge problem for a lot of people is that we assume that two tests and ma many times, one test assess the state of thyroid physiology in the whole body. So most people, if they have, they're tired, they're fatigued, they're gaining weight, they're constipated, they have depression, anxiety, irritability, they have all these symptoms and they Google them, they go, sounds like a thyroid condition since your thyroid hormone drives the metabolism of the body. And so if you have the signs and symptoms and you get tested in a traditional allopathic model, what allopathic physicians have been trained to do much like yourself is to assess to run one test. And many times it's called A T S H, but many physicians will run a T S H with a reflex to free T four. And so what they're looking at is this marker, T S H.

Speaker 3 (05:55):

If that's out of the normal lab reference range, then there's a possibility based on the model that somebody might have either hypothyroidism or hyperthyroidism. If the T s H is elevated, they might have hypothyroidism where their thyroid gland can't make enough thyroid hormone. And if it's below the lab reference range, then they might have hypothyroidism. And if it's, if the value's outta the reference range, then the lab automatically runs what they call a free T four test. And T four is the primary hormone that's made by the thyroid gland. So what they wanna see is if the T s H is high, is it because there's the thyroid glands not making enough T four, or if the T s H is lab low, is it because there's too much thyroid hormone being made? But if you have tired fatigue, all the symptoms of hypothyroidism, they're looking to see is that T S H high and the free T four low.

Speaker 3 (06:46):

And they're assuming that as long as the values are with TSH is within that reference range, that there isn't a thyroid problem that they can address. And their primary reason for that is in allopathic world, they're typically not re recommended all the guidelines, you've read them all, I'm sure the guidelines don't recommend intervention with thyroid hormone replacement until the gland is damaged or destroyed to a point that it can't make sufficient thyroid hormone anymore. Until that happens, until there's overt glandular dysfunction, the general recommendations aren't to provide thyroid hormone. And so they'll say, Hey, they're your thyroid's fine. The thyroid gland could be fine. But what causes hypothyroid signs and symptoms is less about the gland and more about what's happening inside your individual cells and tissues, which isn't fully represented by A T S H in a free T four. And that's where most people struggle and have problems.

Speaker 3 (07:51):

So to back it up for your listeners, you have trillions of cells in your body. They're like people. They need to bring nutrition into the cell and then turn that food energy into cellular energy so they can make proteins and peptides and hormones and all kinds of good stuff, hair and skin and all this stuff that makes us feel and function well. And T three is a, is the active thyroid hormone that really drives that process. So we have this gland that's right underneath our chin in the middle of our neck and it's, it's called our thyroid gland. And when it gets stimulated, when the body senses that there's more thyroid hormone is needed, the pituitary gland generates a hormone called T ss h thyroid stimulating hormone, it signal it goes to the thyroid gland, and that triggers more hormone production. The thyroid gland primarily makes T four, that's the primary circulating hormone.

Speaker 3 (08:50):

It's in a, it's a less active hormone. It still has activity, but it's less active what the cells do with that T four. Once that T four enters the bloodstream and a little bit of the active form, T three enters the bloodstream, but it's really at a ratio of about 10 to one, eight to one maybe. But that thyroid hormone enters into the bloodstream then like almost all hormones in the body, it gets docked onto a, like an like a taxi cab. We call 'em binding globulins. And they get escorted through the bloodstream to the cells and tissues that need hormone. Once they get to a cell or tissue that needs hormone, the hormones become free of that binding globulin or get outta the taxi cab. And now they can get it, get to the cell. Once those hormones are at the cell, then there's another step the cells have to determine do they want more hormone or not want more hormone.

Speaker 3 (09:43):

If it's a cell that's in low stress manufacturing mode, it's gonna bring T four in maybe a little bit of T three in, and it's going to convert the T four into T three. That T three goes to the receptors inside the nucleus, inside the mitochondria, and turns on the manufacturing process so that the cell can generate the energy, can bring glucose in other nutrients in, and make the stuff that makes us feel good. That requires a lot of energy. So we burn glucose, we burn fats, we feel and function good, we're able to maintain our weight. And then when we have enough metabolism, those cells say, okay, I'm gonna slow this process down. It can kind of bring less thyroid hormone in or deactivate the thyroid hormone to slow the metabolism back down. That's how it should work. And that's what we call homeostasis.

Speaker 3 (10:34):

But for a lot of people, they've got some type of dangerous physiology going on. There's stress, there's inflammation, there's infections, there's toxins, there's organisms that are impacting a cell. And if the cell is starting to perceive danger, because if there's a bacteria or a virus or some toxicity, that cell innately says, whoa, we need to shift from manufacturing and shift our attention to cell defense. We need to make more inflammatory chemicals. We need to ramp up the immune system to find the threat and kill it. And the dimmer switch to determines whether we're in manufacturing mode, high metabolism, making hair and skin and hormones, or whether we're in cell defense mechanism is the amount of thyroid hormone in the cell. The amount of T three in the cell can turn on the manufacturing, but higher levels of T three in the cell can also turn off the immune inflammatory process.

Speaker 3 (11:29):

But if I have, if I have a cell stress or cell danger response going on, I don't wanna increase the manufacturing. I don't wanna make more sex hormones. I don't wanna make more proteins and peptides that could support the threat. I don't wanna bring more glucose into the cell that could support the threat. I wanna slow the metabolism down, I wanna ramp up the defense mechanisms. And to do that, the cell reduces the amount of T three in the cell, slows down the mitochondria, reduces glucose coming into the cell, ramps up inflammation so it can fine and just dam and destroy mm-hmm. The threat. Mm-Hmm. And that okay, unfortunately causes hypothyroid symptoms even if you have a perfectly functioning thyroid gland and plenty of thyroid hormone in the bloodstream. So

Speaker 1 (12:12):

Are you talking about subclinical hypothyroidism where T S H is in the quote unquote normal range? And so is T three and T four? Is that what you're talking about?

Speaker 3 (12:22):

So you could have hypothyroid signs and symptoms and have a perfectly normal T S H. It could be a low T ss H and still have hypothyroid signs and symptoms. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So if somebody has the signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism, then we have to look at a more comprehensive thyroid panel to assess is that, is there a reduced conversion of T four to T three? And then we want to take the next steps, like if there is a reduced conversion of T four to T three, are there inflammatory mechanisms that would be driving that process? And then we also wanna consider what tissues are being, IM impacted by that immune inflammatory process.

Speaker 1 (13:00):

Okay. Let's back up a minute. 'cause I know we got very granular, very fast and we probably lost some people. So I wanna back up a little bit and take a little bit wider view. Your book is called The Thyroid Debacle, why the Current Medical Model is Keeping You Sick and Unwell. And before we started recording, you were talking about how your approach to thyroid disorders is different. And so you were talking about what allopathic medicine does, what a root cause functional approach is, and then going beyond. So I think that would be great for everyone to hear. Do you wanna talk a little bit about what the thyroid debacle is?

Speaker 3 (13:38):

Yeah, I think it's the fact, I think it goes to the fact that we treaties every person that has hypothyroid signs and symptoms or actually has hypothyroidism as if they're in that state, we call homeostasis that if we're just gonna give them thyroid hormone, it's gonna do what we wanted to do. Whether it's T four or T three, we assume it's gonna work inside the cells and it doesn't work the same if we're in homeostasis versus allostasis. So we have to change our thinking as clinicians and, and stop thinking that the immune system's outta control and destroying the gland for no apparent reason, or that this body forgot how to convert T four to T three. And if I just flood the system with T four and T three, it's gonna work the way I should. We have to, as clinicians start to understand and explain to our patients that they're not broken, their bodies are adapting to some type of excessive cell stress response.

Speaker 3 (14:31):

And if we address the things that are causing the excessive cell stress, that's how you get their body to convert T four to T three efficiently. That's how they get their immune system to stop damaging and destroying their thyroid gland. I think we make the mistake in, especially in functional and integrative medicine, that it's the reason that people don't feel well is, is because they can't convert T four to T three versus they're adaptively doing that and giving them T three can provide a just another drug providing a temporary fix, but it doesn't address the root issues.

Speaker 1 (15:09):

Yeah. So you talk about hypothyroidism as a spectrum disorder. What do you mean by that?

Speaker 3 (15:15):

In allopathic medicine, and even to some degree in functional medicine, we consider that hypothyroidism starts when the gland can't make thyroid hormone anymore. T S h's lab high T four, free T four is lab low. That's when hypothyroidism starts. We might ev, and that's not when hypothyroid starts, in my opinion, that's the end stage of hypothyroidism. What the literature shows is that by the time you're diagnosed with primary hypothyroidism, you've lost 90% of the function of your thyroid gland. So that's not the beginning. That's like saying cardiovascular disease starts when you have your first heart attack or diabe blood sugar dysregulation starts when you get diagnosis di di with diabetes. Everything's a process in the body. So my thought process and my hypothesis is that hypothyroidism typically starts at the individual cell and tissue level, not at the thyroid gland level. So that's why somebody like you says, Hey, I'm tired, fatigued, I don't feel well, I have hypothyroid signs and symptoms, but my T S H is still normal.

Speaker 3 (16:18):

My free T four is still normal. And it's because we're checking what the gland output is potentially and not considering that what is ultimately causing hypothyroid signs and symptoms isn't about the gland, it's not about what's in the bloodstream, it's about how much T three is hitting the receptors inside the cell, and that's under the control of the individual cells and tissues to a large degree. So I think most hypothyroidism starts at the cell and tissue level. And if it's short-term, you get short-term si hypothyroid signs and symptoms, you get an upregulation of the immune inflammatory system. We address the cold, the virus, the bacteria and it, and those signs and symptoms go away. But if the stress becomes chronic and persistent, then not only do we have cellular tissue, hypothyroidism start to occur, but now we get glandular thyroiditis that starts to occur and eventually we lose gland function. And that's why if you're then just giving T four or maybe just T three, the symptoms, the improvement's only temporary and partial. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And we don't get full resolve in, in either re regardless of the medication you're taking.

Speaker 1 (17:27):

And so you talk about the cell gave your response, you've talked a little bit about that, what's going on in the cell as a big determinant. And then you talk about the fitness factors that help you determine each patient's stress load. So how can everybody listening know, how do they know, are my cells in a cell danger response? How would somebody know before we get to the fitness factors, how would somebody know?

Speaker 3 (17:53):

Well, if you feel awesome, you have plenty of energy, no real signs or symptoms, you sleep eight hours, you feel well rested, you've got good muscle mass, limited extra body fat tissue on you, you've got tons of energy, great libido, probably not in the cell danger response, but if you have chronic health issues gaining weight, I mean gaining weight and seeing blood sugar dysregulation would be two of the easy things to say that there's something wrong with your cellular physiology. But beyond that, look at, if you have lots of signs and symptoms, there's some type of abnormal physiology going on. And that's when you start needing to say, maybe I'm in this allostatic state or cell danger response and not in homeostasis. 'cause Homeostasis means that I make enough energy to do everything I need to do at a cellular level efficiently. So the caloric intake is appropriate. I can make sex hormones, I can do everything I wanna do. That's homeostasis. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:48):

Well you just described like 60 to 80% of women over 40 have some list of signs and symptoms going wrong with their health. So we're pretty much all, that's

Speaker 3 (18:58):

Because probably 60 80% of the people have a cell danger response. And if you look at the population of the US, six 50 to 60% of the US population is overweight or obese, 50 to 60% of the population is on a statin. 50 to 60% of the population is diabetic. So yeah, I think that's easy to say that. Yeah, 40 to, I mean, a large percentage of people are grossly unhealthy to Yes.

Speaker 1 (19:21):

Yes we are. And so the average person listening that they're like, check that's me. Particularly if they're suspecting that they have a thyroid problem, how do they get at the root of, well, why are my cells having a cell danger response? And what are the specific issues that I personally need to address to help improve my thyroid so that I don't go through this? The chacha, the T four chacha with the allopathic practitioner, the T three chacha with the functional practitioner, and they wanna get out of that dance. How do they figure out what is causing the cell danger response for their cells in particular?

Speaker 3 (20:00):

Well, I mean, it's easy to do a self-assessment. And it's one of the things that Dr. Kelly and I, who was my co-author in the book, we talk about the fitness factors and we talk about the difference kind of aspects of your physiology that are probably contributing to the excessive stress load. And so when we talk about stress, most the time everybody thinks about emotional stress is the problem, right? This external thing that then causes us to have this angst. But stress comes in lots of different forms. You're never gonna be stress free. That's never the goal of what you're trying to accomplish. What you need to be able to do is stress the physiology and allow for recovery. So when we think about what creates excessive cell stress, it could be a number of factors. One of the things in my situation in my forties, I was still tr, you know, doing a lot of sports and training.

Speaker 3 (20:49):

I was doing triathlons at that point in time and training hard. And you know, few hours of physical training per day run into businesses, coaching, being a dad, sleeping four hours a day. And I had a great, I mean, my diet was good. I was physically active, mindset was good. But the big thing that drove me to have chronic inflammatory immune and thyroiditis issues was I was over training and limited recovery on top of poor breathing habits due to multiple broken noses. So I wasn't breathing well, I was over training, I wasn't allowing for recovery. So one day is not that big of a deal, my body's able to adapt. But do that over and over again and you start to create an excessive stress response on the tissues and your cells and tissues say like, enough already, let's try and shut this thing down.

Speaker 3 (21:38):

But as many athletes are, they go, I, pain is weakness leaving the body or discomfort is weakness leaving the body. And we try and just keep pushing forward. And then if you have that type of stress on your system, plus respiratory stress plus work stress plus emotional stress plus relationship stress, at some point the stress becomes excessive. And then I need to shift how my cellular physiology works. And I'll give you an example of how I typically express the cell danger physiology to my clients. And that is, do you have kids yourself? Yep. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Okay. Do you love your kids? Yeah. Okay. So let's say this weekend you're gonna have a huge party at your house, right? One of your kids, your favorite one is sitting at your kitchen island, right? Eating food. You've got four burners on, you're cooking a whole bunch of food, you're doing wash, you're cleaning, you're doing everything all at the same time, and somebody breaks into your home and starts attacking your child.

Speaker 3 (22:38):

Are you gonna continue to cook? Nope. Are you gonna take time to turn the burners off? Put everything in nice glass Tupperware? Nope. Okay. Are you gonna try and slide one more Load of wash in? Nope. Finish vacuuming. No. Are you gonna try and take a nap? Nope. Sex? Nope. Okay. So if I walked into your house and I saw the foods burning on the stove, the house is a disaster, a mess. Vacuum cleaners running down, running in the middle of the floor, clothes are all over the place. I can make a couple decisions, right? I can make some thoughts. I could just say, well, you're a terrible cook and terrible housekeeper, so I'm gonna fix this and I'm gonna hire you a chef and I'm gonna hire you a housekeeper and I'll fix the problem. And it look, they come in, they clean, clean it up, everything looks awesome.

Speaker 3 (23:27):

Or I can ask a better question, which is, why is this happening? Is there an explanation for why you would leave the food burning on the stove, leave the vacuum cleaner, running, leave the house a disaster? And maybe I start to investigate that so we can make one of two choices that you're terrible cook chef, just like we could say the thyroid physiology's broken and the cell physiology is, is outta control. Or we could say, is this an appropriate adaptive response? So when somebody has, is feeling tired and fatigued and has signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism, or actually is diagnosed with hypothyroidism but still doesn't feel well on the medication, is their immune system outta control? Are they unable to convert T four to T three or is what we're seeing? Not broken physiology, but adaptive physiology. It's the appropriate response given the stressors that are put on the system.

Speaker 3 (24:21):

Mm-Hmm. And my argument is whether it's an allopathic approach or a functional medicine approach, we shouldn't be getting in the way and trying to fix an imbalance if it's an adaptation. And we shouldn't be assuming that everything's broken physiology, but start to look at the wisdom of the body and start to say, maybe this is adaptive. And what I need to identify is what's creating that excessive stress response. And if I address that, if I find out that you're in your basement fighting off an attacker and I take down the attacker and we get that attacker, you know, off of you and in custody and get rid of them, that's the solution. You weren't being a terrible housekeeper and cook. You were doing exactly the right thing you should have been doing. And the signs and symptoms, the burning food and the stuff all over the place was what we should be seeing. The signs and symptoms that you have, my hormones don't regulate. I'm gaining weight even though I'm eating and exercising appropriately. We need to look at those signs and symptoms and stop trying to like play, you know, whack-a-mole with those results and or those lab values and start to say, okay, what's create, why is the body adaptively doing that? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And when we do that, that's what functional medicine is, in my opinion.

Speaker 1 (25:39):

Okay. And so what is the strategic thyroid solution is to identify and fix these root causes. Do you wanna talk about maybe the top three most important ones You list dietary, fitness, sleep, fitness, respiratory, fitness, emotional, physical, habitual, environmental, fitness, metabolic and genetic. What would be the top three in your opinion?

Speaker 3 (26:01):

Well, I think the top three would probably be, and we think about the things that we have the greatest control over and cost us next to nothing. Okay. And they're all important for the listener. She kinda ran through those, but they're all important. But definitely respiratory fitnesses would be right at the top of my list if you breathe inappropriately, and I would say the vast majority of us breathe inappropriately. We over breathe, we mouth breathe, especially at night when nobody's really paying attention. If you over breathe or excessively mouth breathe, you wind up reducing carbon dioxide levels. You wind up creating what we call hypoxia at the tissue level. And as soon as you induce hypoxia at the tissue level, low oxygen, you can't burn fat as a fuel efficiently. You downregulate your thyroid physiology and that's gonna set the stage for chronic immune inflammatory processes.

Speaker 3 (26:58):

So it doesn't cost anything to improve your breathing, it just takes time and activity or time and training. And first thing you gotta do is be aware. So how do you be become aware that you might have a respiratory, for my clients, I, I give them a respiratory fitness questionnaire, have 'em go through those things. But key things to keep an eye on are, you know, do you snore? And you may say, well I never snore. Well, how do you know <laugh>? Well, nobody complains. Well that doesn't mean you don't, right? And so if you're a mouth breather, if you snore, if you have a history of cavities or gum disease, there's a good chance that you're a mouth breather. If you've had a deviated septum or a broken nose, probably a good chance that you are a more of a mouth breather. If you get stuffy or congested at night, it's probably a good indication that you're gonna tend to be more of a mouth breather.

Speaker 3 (27:45):

And so assess it, address it, retrain your body's ability to breathe appropriately. If you, the other thing you could do is you could check your respiratory rate. I think you and I went to school, they, we, the average respiratory rate somewhere between 15, maybe 18 breaths per minute was considered normal. But really optimal is somewhere between six and 10 breaths per minute for optimal health. And most people aren't even close to it. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And the other thing I have my patients do is do a controlled breath hold time test where they blow all the air out, hold their breath until they start to get their first SI signs of anxiousness or panic. And if that number optimally, that number should be being closer to over 40. But you know, a lot of people with chronic health issues, it's under 20, under 10, they, their poor breathing habits, maybe a really big contributor to what's creating some of their problems.

Speaker 3 (28:37):

And it doesn't cost you anything to check it and it doesn't cost you anything to retrain your breathing. And there's plenty of things out there that if you need guided care yoga, there's lots of yoga type breathing things. There's Wim Hof and all these things that can teach you and train you how to rebreed. And you don't have to, but you really don't have to pay for anything. You just gotta work on it. I would say number two would be good nutrition. And despite the craziness in the functional medicine space today where we've circled the diet religions in and we're shooting in at each other, the focus of somebody's dietary strategy you know, it should be a whole food based diet, 80% of the time is a great place to start. If you're eating a lot of processed foods, start there, stop doing it.

Speaker 3 (29:27):

Right? That's an easy thing to do. And you can say, well, do I need to be carnivore? Do I need to be keto? Do I need to be vegetarian, vegan, paleo, medi? What do I need to be? Get rid of all those fancy names and religions and just start shifting your diet to being 80% of the time whole food based. That's a great place to start. What we've done in functional medicine and this in the, in our industry is somebody's found that they did something. It helped them, helped the patient. So therefore everybody should be doing it. And what we have to consider that a carnivore diet could be really beneficial to somebody for a short period of time. Paleo diet could be very beneficial for somebody for a short period of time. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, maybe vegan or vegetarian, depending on what you're doing and how you're doing and what's going on with your physiology. Variation in diet may be, may be important to change, but the real issue isn't with what type of whole food diet we should be eating. We should be reducing the toxic load of the processed foods. And if we just do that, most people are gonna start to become healthier, more satisfied. Right. <Laugh>. And then, and then I'd say the third thing is, well, I was

Speaker 1 (30:33):

Gonna say just before you go to that, we just need to stop eating the crap and just <laugh>, right. Eat for real food.

Speaker 3 (30:40):

We've lost touch with what we think healthy food is because we have stickers and labels that we stick on things and say, oh, this is, this is organic, this is whatever, and we think, oh, then it must be good. Well not, so it's all marketing.

Speaker 1 (30:58):

Right. Okay. Sorry to interrupt. And so the third thing would be,

Speaker 3 (31:03):

I think it's one of those things you, that everybody can work on that's really important for health and wellbeing is quality sleep. Too many of us, and I was one of those, I was like, you can sleep when you're dead. So, you know, I could stay up late studying, doing research, get up early so I could start training four hours of sleep. I was, I thought that was like a badge of like honor. I wore that proudly for probably 20 years, but I didn't realize the negative consequences it really had on my physiology. You can't heal and recover. Your brain does not process things appropriately if you don't sleep appropriately. Yeah. You don't, you can't clear out the toxins in the brain if you don't get good quality restorative sleep. And the vast majority of us are not getting it. We're on TVs or cell phones or whatever.

Speaker 3 (31:48):

We're taking stimulants too late in the day. We're sleeping with somebody who snores and keeps us from waking up or sleeping with our kids or our dog that keeps us awake. We're doing so many things to disrupt our sleep patterns and we don't realize how impactful that can be on our physiology. But those are three things that don't cost you anything to do tomorrow that you easily, you can easily assess just by googling healthy whole food diet. How do I check my respiratory rate? How do I improve my sleep? And you do those foundational things. You, your sleep may still not get, may not be as good as you want it to be, but you still have to start with good sleep habits and behaviors to be even have a chance of getting a better night's sleep.

Speaker 1 (32:34):

Right. And you can read about the other fitness factors in the book book. So I definitely recommend that. But I gotta ask you, where's spiritual fitness on that list?

Speaker 3 (32:44):

Well, I think that fit for me that fits into that psychological or emotional fitness category, like what goes on between the six inches of your ears has a huge impact on your physiology. So we talk about things in there, like, I think one of the things that's really important for people who are really anxious or depressed or sad or unhappy with their life is I think to have, whether, I don't care what religion somebody is, but I think having some spiritual beliefs is really important. And the other thing is the principles that we learn in whatever church you go to or whatever, you know, whatever spiritual philosophy you grew up in, those found, many of those foundational principles are just good things to, you know, good principles to live by. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And if you live by a lot of those principles, you're gonna feel in, you're gonna feel and functional better from an emotional, from a spiritual standpoint.

Speaker 3 (33:34):

A lot of times people think that their life is terrible. My life is awful. I'm in such bad shape. Everything is terrible for me. Blah, blah, blah, blah. Those are the people I usually say, you need to volunteer, you need to go volunteer, you need to go help somebody mm-hmm. Who's in worse shape than you. And start to start to realize, you know, even though things may not all be going right, that there is some blessings in your life and some benefits in your life, but sometimes we're so stuck in our stuff and we're so focused on how terrible things are and what's wrong, that we can't actually see how good what's around us is. And so yeah, I think you have to have some, that, that spiritual piece is part of the emotional psychological fitness.

Speaker 1 (34:15):

Yeah. I mean, what you're saying is so true. I, the other day I was all in my head about my problems and I'm in Dubai and I met a guy on the waterfront who moved here with his family from Syria at 19 to study computer science. And he lost his two sisters a few months ago in the war in Syria. And here I am thinking that I have issues and he told me it's okay. And I said, really <laugh>. And so it just really puts things in perspective. But for me in particular, the thyroid has a lot of spiritual meaning for women. I think that's one of the reasons why women have such a greater rate of thyroid dysfunction, particularly because it's in that throat chakra or energy center where you're supposed to speak your truth and so many women don't. So in particular, it's something that I talk with women about. So I was curious where that fit into your, your perspective.

Speaker 3 (35:09):

I'm not as in tune maybe from a, from a chakra perspective as you are, and there may be something to that, I don't know necessarily. But I do think what goes on, whether consciously or or subconsciously between the six inches of your ears has a drastic influence of your overall health and wellbeing. I mean, if you have a lot of trauma, a lot of emotional burden that's gonna create a windup of the limbic system, a windup of the sympathetic nervous system, a downregulation of the, a parasympathetic, and for the listener, you know, the sympathetic nervous system is that flight or flight response. And the parasympathetic is kind of the rest and recovery response. And so if in my mind I'm stressed, I'm worried I've got negative thoughts going on in that space and I can't manage and control it, that is going to drive a state of danger.

Speaker 3 (36:01):

It's a state of fear, a state of, of fight or flight response. And that will totally shift your physiology. I mean, if I was being chased by the tiger and I'm running for my life, I'm probably not gonna make digestive hormones 'cause I don't need the hormones. Right. I'm probably not gonna make appropriate levels of sex hormones because I don't need those. I'm not stopping to have sex. Right. I am running right. And so my physiology adapts to what's going on in my environment, whether it's the physical environment or the spiritual or emotional environment, my body's going to adapt to that environment.

Speaker 1 (36:37):

Right. Dr. Eric, thank you so much for raising the conversation level around thyroid disorder diagnosis and treatment. The book is the Thyroid Debacle. Why the current medical model is keeping you sick and unwell. Where can people connect with you online and found that, find out more about the work that you're doing?

Speaker 3 (36:57):

Sure. My website is rejuven center.com. So if somebody wants to learn more about me, they can go there. If they wanna have a, what we call a discovery consultation, just kind of chat about what's going on and what maybe the right strategies are or if I'm a, if they wanna potentially work with me, what that looks like. I do have a podcast that calls it, it's called the Thyroid Dancers Podcast, where we talk about not just thyroid physiology, but I talk about everything through the lens of the cell danger response. So I don't care what condition you have, we're talking about those foundational principles, physical fitness, emotional fitness, all those things that we kind of hinted to in the discussion. I've got a YouTube where all my podcasts are listed on there, as well as wherever you get your podcast, you can get 'em, you can download those. The podcast I do Thursdays, I do thyroid Thursday videos, they're on YouTube and I, my team puts them on Instagram. That's probably where I'm not really spend too much time on social media, but that's where we post, like on Instagram. And then anybody who's I, we do regular posts on there. And then any commentary that's, that comes in, those are a lot of times what becomes the content for a podcast, A Thyroid Thursday or an Instagram post. So those are the best places to reach out and hear more about what I'm doing.

Speaker 1 (38:12):

Awesome. Well, thank you so much for joining us today. Well,

Speaker 3 (38:15):

Thanks for the invitation. It was great.

Speaker 1 (38:17):

And thank you for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Ki. Hopefully you learned something today that you will put into action, maybe start figuring out what's triggering your cell danger response, because pretty much most all of us went in over 40, have it and start doing something about it. Like Dr. Eric, Eric was talking about, looking at your food, looking at your sleep, looking at your breathing. The this is a place to start. Reach out and tell me about it on social media at Kyrin Dunston MD on Facebook and Instagram. I look forward to having and continuing the conversation with you there. And until next week when I'll see you for another episode, peace, love, and Hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (38:58):

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

 

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See ya later, Ovulator: Mastering Menopause With Nutrition, Lifestyle And Hormones

Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, titled "See Ya Later, Ovulator: Mastering Menopause With Nutrition, Lifestyle, And Hormones"! In this enthralling episode, we sit down with the amazing Esther Blum, an all-around authority on conquering menopause with an integrative approach from a dietitian's perspective.
  
Esther Blum is an Integrative Dietitian who has made it her mission to help women navigate the whirlwind of menopause. With Esther's extensive experience and undeniable expertise, she has guided countless women through the challenging waters of hormonal changes in this significant life stage. Her presence isn't just felt with her clients—she's made appearances on the Today Show, ABC-TV, and has even taken on the role of menopause mentor for none other than Gwyneth Paltrow!
  
Throughout the episode, we dive into the depths of menopause, discussing Esther's background and her journey in becoming such a sought-after expert.

In this episode, you'll learn:

- Esther's wealth of knowledge, shedding light on how vital lifestyle, nutrition, and hormonal therapy can play a role in achieving optimal hormonal balance for women going through this phase.

- Esther's groundbreaking approach ensures that women can master menopause without the extreme stress and confusion it often brings.

- The essentials of a hormone-balancing diet, how to promote self-advocacy, and the role of therapy in this crucial phase of women's lives.

You'll be left with not only a better understanding of menopause but also equipped with tools to manage and thrive during this time.
  
Don't miss this enlightening and engaging episode filled with life-changing insights and actionable solutions for mastering menopause. Tune in to The Hormone Precription Podcast with our special guest, the esteemed Integrative Dietitian and Menopause Expert, Esther Blum, and embrace the journey through menopause with newfound confidence and understanding.

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):
See you later, emulator and other Esther Blum is about menopause, nutrition, lifestyle and how to transform your life.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
So the big question is, how do women over 40 like us, keep weight off, have great energy, balance our hormones in our moods, feel sexy and confident, and master midlife? If you're like most of us, you are not getting the answers you need and remain confused and pretty hopeless to ever feel like yourself again. As an O B G Y N, I had to discover for myself the truth about what creates a rock solid metabolism, lasting weight loss, and supercharged energy after 40, in order to lose a hundred pounds and fix my fatigue. Now I'm on a mission. This podcast is designed to share the natural tools you need for impactful results and to give you clarity on the answers to your midlife metabolism challenges. Join me for tangible, natural strategies to crush the hormone imbalances you are facing and help you get unstuck from the sidelines of life. My name is Dr. Kyrin Dunston. Welcome to the Hormone Prescription Podcast.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Hey everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today is passionate about menopause. She's passionate about nutrition, she's passionate about living a full life and she's got lots of wisdom to share. She's an integrated dietician by training for over three decades, but of necessity became a menopause expert and she's helped lots of women, thousands of women, in fact, through nutrition, hormones and self-advocacy. She's the author of several books. She's just really an advocate for women's health and to stop the gaslighting that's going on when it comes to women's hormones in healthcare. And she's wise beyond her years. I'll tell you a little bit about her and we'll get started. So, Esther Blum is an integrative dietician and menopause expert. In the last 27 years, she's helped thousands of women master menopause through nutrition, hormones and advocacy. She's the bestselling author of, see You Later, ovulators Need Women, don't Get Fat, eat, drink, and Be Gorgeous. Secrets of Gorgeous And The Eat, drink and Be Gorgeous. Project known as Gwyneth Paltrow's Menopause Mentor and by course for helping women thrive through menopause. Esther was also voted best nutritionist by Manhattan Magazine. She has appeared on the Today Show, a b C TV and Good Day New York, and is frequently quoted in Goop well and good Forbes and Time Magazine. Please help me welcome Esther Blum to the show. Thank you for having me.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
So excited to talk about menopause always and nutrition and lifestyle and what I call all the things. I love the title of your book. So I'm wondering if we can start there. See you later. Ovulators <laugh>. Where, where did you get the title from? That book?

Speaker 3 (03:08):
Whatever. Yeah. You know what? It's funny. I literally saw online a woman who had had like a menopause or, or a hysterectomy party and she had these cookies with See You Later, ovulators on them. So I had used it as a subtitle for section or a chapter of the book and my publicist was like, no way man. That's gotta be the cover. Like, it's just so catchy and it was available. So I went with it. Okay. Yeah, it's really my homage to like get out like uterus and ovaries. You, you served me well. Thank you so much. Can we just wrap this party up now and can we be free of the monthly cycles and the cramps and the irritability and the bloating and the breast tenderness and the moodiness and the insomnia, <laugh>, you know, just all those things. I'm like, let's just welcome in the next chapter for our bodies with power and grace and really joy.

Speaker 1 (04:07):
So you have been a dietician for a while, is that correct? Yeah,

Speaker 3 (04:12):
Almost three, almost three decades. I'm like a hundred now <laugh>

Speaker 1 (04:16):
You're a hundred. And so what changed your focus to menopause? Hmm.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
It started because I worked in hospitals the first five years of my career. I actually started out working with wic, the WIC program at Boston City Hospital and then went to graduate school and got my master's in clinical nutrition and went back to hospital work, worked in cardiology units and, but started opening a private practice on the side and after about five years, I got certified in functional medicine. 'cause I was like, I'm really not making a difference, giving someone 10 minutes of diet instruction or working in the WIC office. Like, I was like, here's the benefits of high fiber beans and get your calcium from cheese. That there really, I wasn't making a difference. And so with functional mess and I wanted to get in at a more preventive level. And when I opened that, immediately menopausal women came into my practice and I was like, oh my gosh, I'm in my twenties.

Speaker 3 (05:15):
I don't even know how to treat. So I certainly didn't know much about hormone replacement at the time, but I did know about whole food diets and intermittent fasting and really optimizing insulin sensitivity and weight loss, like stubborn midsection, weight loss and the cortisol belly. So I got to work with diet therapy then. And over the years, really there's been such an evolution in the research. I mean, since I've started practicing, you know, the North American Menopause Society has had two different position papers that Women's Health Initiative study was out there in the early days of my practice. And then since then it's been, you know, the guidelines have been updated. So it, I've seen a lot of changes in my trajectory through menopause.

Speaker 1 (06:05):
Yes. Lots of changes. And so what are the biggest challenges? I mean, everybody listening, we talk about menopause a lot that you, you see with women and, and how has it evolved over time? So you, you went from nutrition, then you became functional medicine certified, and I know that you talked with women about hormones as well. And so how did that come into the picture? Yeah,

Speaker 3 (06:31):
Well, because I really wasn't doing, you know enough, like when I'm not solving, I, I don't think about the people who I'm helping as much as the people who I'm not helping. And there comes a point for some women, diet and lifestyle makes a huge difference, right? You ditch alcohol, you cut back on caffeine, you clean out sugar, you're gonna help a woman resolve her hot flashes and improve her sleep and her blood sugar and weight loss and cortisol management. But will it help a woman with brain fog? Will it help a woman with severe insomnia? Will it help a woman maintain her bones? Not necessarily. There comes a point when it's really time to bring in hormones for that last piece of the pie. And I always say it's not the whole pie. Don't think hormones are, you can't out hormone your, your lifestyle. You can't out supplement your lifestyle. It's got to be a multifaceted approach. It has to be stress management is number one in menopause. It's really critical. Sleep, digestion, optimizing protein, getting your strength training in, getting your, your steps in every day, your supplements if needed. Then the hormones, it's multifactorial.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Yeah, I love that You can't out hormone your lifestyle, but you also can't out lifestyle your hormones. <Laugh> You know, I always say that menopause is a state of hormonal poverty. The consequences of that hormonal poverty may be symptomatically more severe or less severe for some women. But the changes are happening in hormonal poverty. And if you're not educated on them, that's what I talked about in my TED talk then, you know, you're at increased risk like my mom for Alzheimer's dementia. And the only risk factor she had was she was in untreated menopause for three decades. So I do think it's an essential part, the the puzzle. And so how do you counsel women? Because it's really hard when they traditional doctors won't give them the standard of care, basically is no hormones right? Or exactly for three symptoms and Right. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (08:49):
Well that was another reason why I wrote see a later ovulators because I have 20 pages of studies in the back of the book that support the use and the importance of hormone replenishment or now it's called M R t, right? Menopause replenishment therapy. But I, well, no matter what you call it, you know, it's very intimidating to confront a white coat. I even gave my book to my doctor and of course she did not read it. But you know, my advice <laugh> <laugh>, I know, and I mean, just like, sidebar here for a minute, real talk ladies. You know, I had this like ovarian cyst that ruptured back in November and I was in extraordinary pain and I, I came home and laughed. I said to my husband, I could have written what they told me. They were like, well, I said, so where are my treatment options?

Speaker 3 (09:42):
And they said, well, you can either go on the pill or go on the I U D or have a hysterectomy. And I said, Nope, what else you got? And they said, take lots of ibuprofen. And I was like, wow, I'm kind of screwed here. So I'm right in the trenches with you ladies. This is why I wrote the book was to like tell all of our stories and understand that medical gaslighting is really not, it's not okay. And if a dietician is researching and accessing all these studies and your doctor is not, and your doctor's A G Y N, then that's lazy medicine. If your doctor isn't updating the standards of warnings on hormones, that's lazy medicine. So what you can say is this is, you know, hey, I know you're not very into hormones, but just let me try it for three months.

Speaker 3 (10:36):
<Laugh>, I've done the research, but I have plenty of research studies if you wanna look at them in my book, in this book here. And I've done my research and the research shows they're safe and effective and can really prevent, you know, bone loss, loss of gray matter, increased risk of coronary artery disease and I really wanna try them. So a lot of doctors will capitulate to that. However, your Dr. May not monitor a follow up with your hormone labs the way you really should be following up. So the other alternative is vote with your wallet, find a new doctor. Like if you didn't like your hairstylist, if you didn't like your dry cleaner, you would find a new one. Why are we so afraid to look for new doctors? Especially when so many do telemedicine now. So that's another thing we wanna remember and, and yes, often they're out of pocket and we do have to lay out the cash, but insurance often reimburses for a good portion of this. And you will save time and you will save money and you will save nights and years of insomnia and bloating and weight gain and migraines and real struggles that impact your quality of life.

Speaker 1 (11:48):
Yeah. You know, I, I was laughing when you said your Dr. May say, yeah, I'm not that into hormones, which is kind of insane when you think about it. But literally that's what doctors are saying a lot of times to their patients without saying it. If you read between the lines, I'm not that into hormones. So yeah, that's actually why I created her hormone club. I don't even know, I don't think I mentioned to you, we created an all-in-one telemedicine solution for women to get bioidentical hormone testing and treatment with bioidentical estradiol EST trial, progesterone and testosterone. Nationwide in the United States we have board certified doctors in every state. So because people were not able to access this after I did the stop the Menopause Madness summit, we've now done three of them. Women said, we get it. We, we need hormones, where do we go?

Speaker 1 (12:41):
And we didn't have anywhere to send them. So one day I said, oh yeah, we need a telemedicine solution. And so I created it. So everybody listening there is access to this in your neighborhood. It may not look like what you're used to where you drive and find parking and sit with your butt hanging out in a little paper gown for an hour waiting to the doctor <laugh> only to leave with a fist full of prescriptions that don't fix your problem. Like you can actually be in your pajama bottoms at your dining room table on Zoom, getting a hormone prescription. So that's just, you

Speaker 3 (13:14):
Could tell me more about this <laugh>. Yeah, I need your info please. Thank you.

Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah. So we'll cover that. But in nutrition, what do you think is the most, what are the biggest issues you see for women in perimenopause and menopause with their nutrition and where do they have the biggest impact in those symptoms? If they're really gonna master their lifestyle to help master their hormones, where do they start?

Speaker 3 (13:44):
So I have three menno laws for fat loss and they're very simple and very straightforward and completely doable for everybody. So number one is to optimize your protein intake. And most people think they're eating and enough protein without understanding the research. And this always upsets the vegetarians and vegans. But I'm telling you what worked for you in your twenties and thirties does not work in your forties, fifties and beyond. So, and it's challenging for women because a lot of times during perimenopause and menopause, the gut changes, right? The digestive fire really decreases our, we don't produce as much stomach acid. The lining of the small intestine changes as progesterone and estrogen declines. So what happens is we feel like a lot of people say, I can't eat so much meat. It feels so heavy and they really struggle. It's another layer to struggle to optimize protein.

Speaker 3 (14:42):
But the research points that points to getting at least four ounces of protein at breakfast, lunch and dinner. Or if you're intermittent fasting, it's more challenging. You know, I say get at least seven to eight ounces of protein if you can at a meal and then have a little snack in between. But basically you need a minimum of a hundred grams of protein per day to not only maintain muscle mass, but really to build it. And a lot of people will have, you know, an egg for breakfast and maybe like a couple shrimp on a salad for lunch crumb or crumbled up chicken or an an egg. And then dinner is like the big meal, the steak, chicken, fish. So we really need to distribute evenly. Your body needs a minimum threshold of four ounces of protein at breakfast, lunch, dinner in order for you to optimize your anabolic capabilities or your ability to build muscle and plain in English.

Speaker 3 (15:41):
So that's something, just optimizing protein at breakfast is huge. So that can be done with a cup of cottage cheese, two eggs and two whites or two eggs plus some Turkey or ham or smoked salmon. A protein shake with two scoops of protein power. So if you're vegetarian you could do pea protein or you can do whey protein as well. So those are just some really simple easy strategies. Like just saying to someone, just add one more scoop of protein powder. They're like, oh, I can do that, no problem. Or just add a little more protein. What it does is protein raises serotonin and dopamine in the brain. So you're gonna offset your sugar cravings, you're gonna triple your energy and your mental focus and you're not gonna get the 4:00 PM crashes. So you will sleep better at night, again, crave less, better energy.

Speaker 3 (16:33):
And building muscle won't be as hard as it is already in menopause. It can be harder. So that's mental law number one, mental law number two is to make sure that you flip your ratios. And what do I mean by this? Make sure that if you're getting a hundred grams of carbs a hundred grams of protein a day or 120, then your carbs fall 70 to a hundred grams. You, most of us, most of the women I see have much greater carb to protein ratios and we need to flip those and have protein outweigh carbs. Now the carbs I'm talking about are the starchy carbs, unlimited, ve you know, vegetables don't, I don't count those towards your carbs. They have fiber and water. They're not gonna, nobody's getting fat on spinach and artichokes here, right? Watch your portions of rice or potatoes or sweet potatoes or, but they're still very beneficial, which is my mental law number three, which is to eat carbs at night.

Speaker 3 (17:35):
You know, protein by day, carbs at night. Why would I have you eat carbs at dinner? People think, oh my god, I'm gonna get so fat. That's ridiculous. You're far more insulin sensitive later on in the day than you are earlier in the day. And carbs again, you're gonna get a slight insulin bump even if you pair your carbs with a protein. And with vegetables, if you have, you know, a cup of sweet potatoes or quinoa or rice or lentils, yes your blood sugar will go up some and that tamps down your cortisol. So it really helps you sleep at night. And most people are like, wait, you're telling me to eat carbs? I get to eat more protein and feel less hungry. Like it's an abundance of riches at that point. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (18:20):
I was so surprised when you said that. Eat carbs at dinner. I know everyone's going Yes, <laugh>, she said he carbs at dinner. Yes, exactly right. Yeah, I love that. Three fat loss. So protein for sure, you definitely, most of us women as we age, why do we do that? We lower and lower our protein, we don't get enough. And flipping the ratio of carbs to proteins and eating carbs at dinner mm-hmm. <Affirmative>. So yeah, I see how that could really help. Insulin resistance is such a problem for perimenopausal and menopausal women. Do you have any other tips that you could offer them to help with their insulin? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>?

Speaker 3 (19:03):
Yes. So the next level, okay, so those are like kind of the foundations for fat loss. But let's say you're like Esther, I'm not, I'm not hungry in the morning. Like a lot of my menopausal mamas just aren't even hungry in the morning. And so for those women, I really love intermittent fasting and there's three ways you can do intermittent fasting and why intermittent fasting just means really simply shortening your eating window. And it's really beneficial in resetting those insulin receptors because your body has to dig deep into your fat stores and it really resets your insulin receptors beautifully. So number one is you can start with a 12 hour fast. You finish your dinner by 7:00 PM you do not eat breakfast until 7:00 AM or later. That's like a really gentle fast. See how you do with that? Just cutting out nighttime eating can be very beneficial.

Speaker 3 (19:55):
Then number two is you can really shorten your window to, you know, between 10 and six or 12 and six, getting, you know, a good six to eight hour eating window that also shreds body fat and can really offset. And you know, if you want like black coffee or tea in the morning, that's fine, just dough, add anything to it or so you don't break your fast. And then option three, which I love is the five two method. And that's where you eat normally five days outta the week and then two days out of the week, ideally not next to each other. You have 500 calorie days and a 500 calorie day is usually not eating during the day. And then you have a supper meal where you have like a chicken breast, a half cup of starch and two cups of steamed vegetables. And that also that really restricted eating just not only burns body fat but really helps reset insulin sensitivity.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah. The, the 500 calorie diet, if you can do it, I can't, I'd almost, I do better not eating at all <laugh> than eating 500 calories.

Speaker 3 (21:06):
Yes. Yes. And some women feel that way too and just wanna drink some bone broth or water. That's what, that's the thing, right? Is bioindividuality, like other women in my practice, cannot fast at all. It either triggers, you know, overeating later in the day, binge eating or disordered eating. So we don't wanna do that. Or if you're feeling just so shaky and irritable and you cannot even concentrate, it's probably not for you. Now if you fall in that camp, you're gonna need to eat more and move more. So most women I see have very stalled fat loss and kind of a sluggish thyroid. 'cause They've been chronically dieting like to the tune of nine to 1200 calories a day for years and years and years and they, the weight just isn't coming off. So mm-hmm. <Affirmative> for those women, right? A you can try, you know, super low carb, I don't wanna use the word keto, but keeping your carbs like 50 to 70 grams a day for a couple of weeks and coming off then or only having carbs on your weightlifting days or, you know, my other option is to really, you know, walk at least 15,000 steps a day and go to the gym, lift heavy two to three times a week, learn.

Speaker 3 (22:26):
And you may say, well what's a heavy weight? Heavy weight is when it brings you to failure. After, you know, by the third set you can only do six to eight where you really just, your muscles just will not lift. And most of us are lifting far lighter than we need to be. We're a lot stronger than we think we are. So there's many ways to skin a cat. Some of my ladies, again, we diet them up, then we cut calories for a couple weeks, then we diet them up where we, we get them eating 15 to 1800 calories a day and they're losing weight. Other women do well with the fasting protocol. Other women do well just by bumping up their movement every day. So it's really, and and, and allowing yourself to be hungry, not snacking, you know, allowing four to five hours between meals and if you're hungry between meals, gotta bump up your protein. That's how you know you're not eating enough protein if you can't make it five hours between the meal.

Speaker 1 (23:22):
Yes. And the weights, talk a little bit about that. It's super important and most of us aren't doing any weights. Like we think it's all about the aerobics or we're not looking heavy enough. Weights, <laugh>. And I like how you described it in your third set. You really shouldn't be able to do that many reps. That's how you're exhausting that muscle. A lot of women worry about getting bulky muscles. They don't want to, but gosh, who is it? I, I saw he said something like, it's survival of those with the best muscle mass or something like this. <Laugh>.

Speaker 3 (23:54):
Yes. Muscle is,

Speaker 1 (23:55):
It's all about muscle mass. Yeah. Talk

Speaker 3 (23:57):
About that. Muscle is the organ of longevity and ladies, you do not have the testosterone to bulk up. Okay? You're not Michael Phelps eating 5,000 calories a day and has the testosterone of a younger man. Even if you're using bioidentical testosterone, you're still getting a micro dose. You're not, you're not gonna look like a dude and what's gonna happen. And women will say, well I tend to bulk up. No, you're not cutting calories enough. If you're bulking up, you're probably eating too much. Even Arnold Schwartzenegger, at the height of his bodybuilding when he wanted to get lean, he cut down to 1500 calories a day. So you really have to think about your caloric intake and log your food if you think you're bulking up. So back to, so diet is 80% the weights yes, heavy weights. Some women will say four pounds is a lot.

Speaker 3 (24:55):
And, and listen, you can do Pilates. I've done Pilates classes with four pound weights where my arms just instantly burned because the muscles are really isolated. But it will work the muscle. But if you really truly wanna build the muscle, then yes, you do need to build up to 10 pounds, 15 pounds, 20 pounds, 30 pounds, you know it, you don't have to injure yourself or your joints. And you do it very slowly. Maybe you start off a month using, you know, five to eight pound weights and by the end of four weeks you're ramping up to eight to 12 pound weights. You're adding in one set worth of 10 pound weights, the first two sets where at eight pounds. So you can incrementally increase your weight or do one set as a warmup, a lighter weight, and get heavier weights with each progressive set.

Speaker 1 (25:45):
Yeah. I love lifting weights, <laugh>. I can't say enough about it. I think it's the best way to like take out your frustrations and work out that stress and just go lift heavy things. Ladies, go lift heavy. There's a reason that guys have been doing it is because it makes them feel good mentally. I think it's almost more a mental than a physical exercise.

Speaker 3 (26:08):
Yes it is. And believe me, if it's any consolation, like I don't enjoy lifting weights. I enjoy how I feel after, and I enjoy having my booty look good in a pair of jeans or my arms look good in a tank top. It's all, it's vanity. Whatever works for you, do it. Or just knowing like, hey, I wanna get up off the floor, you know, in my 60 seventies and eighties the way I did in my twenties and thirties. Or hey, I don't wanna break a bone. I've got family history of, you know, osteoporosis and I, I don't wanna go down that road. I wanna offset my hospital bills and you know, my sick time because falls and fractures are the leading cause of death in people over the age of 65.

Speaker 1 (26:50):
Amen. And there's so much you can do to prevent that and we just think it's not gonna happen to us. Right, right. And the truth is it does happen to us. Yes. I'm wondering if you could talk about some of the most inspiring stories of women who are in perimenopause or menopause women you've worked with, you know, over the years who really stick in your mind. Because right now there are women listening to us talk who are sitting there going, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've heard all this diet, nutrition, weights. I feel like crap. My doctor can't help me. There's no hope for me. I am the exception. There's no answer and there's no

Speaker 3 (27:29):
Hope. Oh yeah.

Speaker 1 (27:31):
And what I want them to know is yes, there is, because I was that woman 20 years ago. Right now we are the light for those women. So can you talk about some of those most inspiring stories?

Speaker 3 (27:46):
Yes. Okay. And you can see her testimonials. She gives a video on my website, esther blum.com. You can see both recorded and written. So first I'm gonna speak about my client, Julie, who when she came to me, had so much pain, so much inflammation, everything from reflux to horrible back pain. She was very overweight. She couldn't do any physical exercise or so she thought, and she drank like a sailor, I mean really heavily relied on alcohol to take care of her stress and depression, which please, it's not an antidepressant, that's for sure. It worsens the situation. So I was like, Julie, get in your pool. Get in your pool. Just start moving. Just start moving your body. Thank God she had a pool. Then we got her to add in protein, we got her to cut back on booze. We got her, you know, we added in some supplements.

Speaker 3 (28:45):
We were very slowly and incrementally. She lost 40 pounds in a month just doing the most simple foundational. Now most people don't lose 40 pounds in a month. That's extreme. That's a lot, right? But so much of what she had was fluid retention and inflammation. So for her, it worked really well. She got her energy back, she decreased her back pain tremendously to the point where she converted her daughter's bedroom into a home gym and was able to lift and her husband came and lifted with her. So that was like a ginormous success story. Then I think of my client, Laura, who came to me, totally different, right? Laura didn't have a lot of weight to lose. She had about five pounds of vanity. She called 'em vanity pounds. She wanted to lose. And she had, she was a single mom and her son would always tell her she had halat ptosis.

Speaker 3 (29:40):
And she was like, oh my god, I can't possibly date this way. And she was drinking wine and she was also not sleeping. And she, although she was a candidate, you know, we did her tests. And although she was a candidate for hormones, she really did not wanna use biodentical hormones. She wanted to conquer this through lifestyle. So I said, okay. So again, we ran her labs, I did some stool testing. She had a significant amount of h pylori, which is a bacteria that loves to shut off hydrochloric acid production in the gut. So it survives in a very alkaline environment. So she was having all this reflux because she didn't have the hydrochloric acid, she needed to kind of keep her pyloric sphincter shut. So we killed off the h pylori repopulated, her gut with stomach acid. Her bad breath went away. She, we also cleaned up her diet.

Speaker 3 (30:32):
She, you know, again, we did have to clean out alcohol ladies, I'm not gonna lie, there's really no way around it. Alcohol doesn't do your body any favors. Even one drink a week is really disruptive to fat loss, blood sugar, and can keep you in an estrogen dominant state while your liver is trying to detox alcohol. It will detox alcohol long before estrogen. It's just the way it is. So anyway, we cleaned up Laura's diet. We gave her a lot of magnesium at bedtime and other calming nutrients. And her sleep greatly improved. She is in a long-term relationship and actually got engaged. She got rid of her halat ptosis and she, she lost five pounds. She got really lean and started lifting weights and really got very sinan and lean. So those are just two of my women. Again, their testimonials are on my website. So it is possible, it really, whether you wanna lose five pounds, whether you need to lose 75 pounds, pounds, it is possible. The greatest limiter is not your hormones. It's not your diet as much as your limiting beliefs around what you deserve to have and your commitment to yourself. That's really the rate limiting factor. It really is. Like talk,

Speaker 1 (31:51):
Just talk a little bit more about that and how it's, how would someone know that you're talking to her that she has limiting beliefs?

Speaker 3 (31:58):
Because we all have limiting beliefs. We've internalized messages that we heard when we were younger that made us feel not enough in one way or another. And so we have to really think about why we want something. Right? When someone wants to lose weight, I say, well, why do you wanna lose weight vanity? It really, I mean, vanity always comes up first, right? I wanna good my clothes, I wanna feel sexy and bad. I wanna feel confident. But then the why's go deeper. Like, I wanna be able to keep up with my grandchildren one day. I want a better quality of life. I watch my mother get sick and die from diabetes and have horrible neuropathy and not have a, not be able to travel and have fun in her life. It's really getting in touch with your why. Getting in touch with your beliefs about why you can't have those things.

Speaker 3 (32:48):
'Cause We can all, like the universe, pores a vacuum. The universe wants us to be abundant, understanding that we're not supposed to be fat, sick and broke. We're supposed to be rich in love and relationships and financially abundant, but also abundant in how we love on ourselves. And asking ourselves really like, yeah, I want a bar of chocolate. I want a bottle of wine, but is that gonna love me back? We know it's not right. So maybe I cut down to one square of chocolate a couple times a week. Maybe I put myself on a 90 day alcohol free challenge and maybe I experiment and see what's the harm in trying this? What will happen? Let me just observe objectively what's gonna happen to my body, my state of mind, and let me try taking, you know, two or three classes on an app or on YouTube or hiring a trainer and you know, just figuring out instead of saying like, I can't have this, flipping that on its head and saying, how can I make this happen?

Speaker 1 (33:56):
Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>,

Speaker 3 (33:57):
How can I make this happen?

Speaker 1 (34:00):
Right? I think it's so true and, and more it has to do with what we believe we can have and can we do it. And I think so many of us just cut off. We don't believe that it's possible for us. We believe we're, we're terminally unique and that we we'll never be successful. And that's why I wanted you to share those stories. Thank you for sharing them. Yeah. there so that people can hear what's possible for women who think that there's no hope. 'cause There is so much to be hopeful for, right?

Speaker 3 (34:30):
Yes. And the other piece is really being so careful, and this is the greatest gift of midlife I have found, is being so careful who you surround yourself with. Because when you start to take on healthy diet changes and when you start to cut out alcohol, some people around you are probably not gonna like that. And the ones who don't like that are probably not gonna be your biggest supporters. They're like the bucket of crabs, right? You know the story about the bucket of crabs where, right. There's always a couple crabs at the top of the pile trying to crawl out of the bucket. They're like, I see it, I'm going for it. And then crabs at the bomb keep trying to pull those crabs right back down. So like, think about who you're surrounding yourself with. If you say to someone, oh yeah, I'm, I'm not drinking right now, not, I can't drink, I'm not drinking right now.

Speaker 3 (35:21):
And somebody's like, come on, just one, it's not gonna hurt. That's not someone you wanna socialize with, right? You wanna socialize with the people who say, good for you. Great. I'll join you. Let's get a mocktail, let's get some club soda, whatever. Because it's, you have to one of my greatest tenets of success is surrounding myself with people who are far wealthier and successful and have a growth mindset, a way bigger growth mindset than me. That dream bigger than I ever even knew was possible. I'm like, oh, I never thought about that. Those are the people you're gonna need to clean house with these changes. And that's why I think also people are deeply terrified to change because they don't

Speaker 1 (36:01):
Wanna, 'cause they're gonna let go.

Speaker 3 (36:03):
They wanna let go of what feels very unsafe and very uncomfortable for them. Change is uncom,

Speaker 1 (36:09):
Right? And these are, it is, but it is the only sure thing in life is change. And why not make it positive change if you have a choice. Esther, I thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing your wisdom and experience with mastering menopause, with nutrition, lifestyle, and hormones. Your book, SIA Ovulate and all the other resources you've created for everyone.

Speaker 3 (36:34):
I have a special offer for everyone here listening today, and that is to download my Happy Hormone cocktail. And you're gonna go to esther blum.com/cocktail and receive incredible ways to improve your sleep, fix your gut, and eliminate hot flashes during perimenopause and menopause.

Speaker 1 (36:56):
Awesome. Thank you so much for that. We will have the link in the show notes, so don't worry about trying to write it down. If you're driving, we'll have it there for you. Where can people find out more about you and connect with you online?

Speaker 3 (37:07):
Yes. So come hang with me on Instagram at Gorgeous Esther and get on my list. You will get Premier offers from me before the general public does, but also you're gonna get weekly cutting edge education on hormones, lifestyle, all the things we talked about today. So just join me@estherblum.com.

Speaker 1 (37:29):
Awesome. We will look for you there. And thanks so much for the work you're doing and for the wisdom that you've shared.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
Thank you so much,

Speaker 1 (37:37):
And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Hopefully you've learned something today that you can put into effect to start making changes towards the brilliant health that you deserve. It is your birthright. I look forward to hearing about those on Instagram and Facebook, and I'll see you next week for another episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (38:01):
Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40 when we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it if you'd give me a review and subscribe. It really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation. Until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

 

► Get Esther's Freebie "The Happy Hormone Cocktail" - CLICK HERE

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Here’s Why We Don’t Know What True Health Really Is: Find Out How To Create It Now

Welcome to another exciting and informative episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, specifically designed for midlife women! In today's episode, we are joined by the insightful and experienced Dr. Anoop Kumar. Dr. Kumar will discuss why we don't know what true health is, and most importantly, how we can create it for ourselves.
  
With a background in clinical medicine and mind-body integration, Dr. Kumar is a leading voice in the field of health and healthcare transformation. His unique perspective on health invites us to explore and redefine our understanding of wellbeing in a holistic manner.
  
During the podcast, Dr. Kumar explores:

* The concept of health as a holistic experience, encompassing physical, emotional, and spiritual wellbeing
* How the healthcare industry often focuses on the physical body, neglecting other crucial aspects of health
* The importance of integrating mind-body perspectives for a comprehensive understanding of human nature and unlocking true healing potential
  
Listeners will leave this episode feeling inspired and armed with practical tips for incorporating mind-body integrative approaches into their own health journeys.

Don't forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast for more valuable insights on health and wellbeing! 

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

“Health is the expression of human potential.”  - Dr. Anoop Kumar. Find out in this episode why we don't know what health truly is and how to create it.

Speaker 2 (00:12):

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

Speaker 1 (01:06):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today, Dr. Anoop Kumar, is going to share some really progressive perspectives on health that really are essential to creating health. I mean, first off, most of us don't really know what true health is. We know what treating disease is, and we know what controlling disease is, but do you really know what true health is or how to create it? Well, Dr. Kumar does, and he's gonna share that with you today. He's gonna help you understand what's missing from your approach, what you're not considering, what you might not have thought of. And he has a very unique perspective and some very inspirational stories. And he's going to talk about how health is the expression of human potential without addressing that question directly.

Speaker 1 (02:00):

That's actually a quote I got from him. But I do agree that health is the expression of human potential. So see if you can read between the lines and give your own explanation of how health is the expression of human potential. After you give a listen and share your thoughts with us on social media, you can find me at Kyrin Dunston MD on Instagram and Facebook. I look forward to communicating with you. So I'll let you know a little bit about Dr. Kumar and then we'll get started. He is a leading voice for health and healthcare transformation, bringing clarity to the full spectrum of clinical medicine, MINDBODY integration and human potential. He is co-founder of Health Revolution, a company building a complete ecosystem for healing, beginning with the Health Jumpstart course and the Healing Is Possible podcast. He offers regular webinars featuring healing meditations and conversations on Big Picture Health. Dr. Kumar grew up experimenting with the philosophy of non-duality, eventually finding ways to integrate its comprehensive perspective of human nature with biomedical science. He is board certified in emergency medicine and holds a master's degree in management with a focus in health leadership. He is the author of Michelangelo's Medicine, and is this a dream? As well as of numerous articles, integrating mind body perspectives. Please help me welcome Dr. Anup Kumar to the show.

Speaker 3 (03:25):

Thank you. It's great to be here with you, Kyrin.

Speaker 1 (03:28):

So I think this will be an interesting conversation starting with, and maybe you can just start talking about this. Here's why we don't know what health truly is. I mean, I guess I'll first say that I think I know what health is, but I thought that, you know, I was learning how to help people create actual health when I went to medical school. Yeah. I wanted to help women to the best of my ability. So I looked around at all the options for the toolboxes that I could learn about and become educated in. And I said, oh, getting my MD medical doctorate will give me the biggest toolbox. Yes. So that's why I got my MD only to discover after over a decade of practicing that I probably didn't really know what health was when my own health failed. Yeah. So what's going on here?

Speaker 3 (04:16):

Well, so I would agree with you. When I went to medical school, I also saw that the way we're looking at human being is incomplete. I had a lot of background in philosophy and spirituality growing up. My parents were really heavily into that. So that was, in a way, my first education. My primary education was in those philosophical perspectives that I had been experimenting with in my life. And so, by the time I got to medical school and you know, we learned our anatomy and physiology and biochemistry and so on, I saw that we were learning a lot about a little, you know what I mean? So it's like we're basically taking the human being and looking at the human being through a relatively narrow lens and then studying that lens intensely. So there's a whole lot of knowledge, but it's about a narrow spectrum of being human.

Speaker 3 (04:58):

And I'll give you an example of let's say four or five things that I think limit our understanding of what health is. Let me first say that you mentioned that, you know, you feel like you know what health is. I think all of us know to some extent, so I'm not saying we have no idea. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, but I'm just saying the outer limits of what health could be, health after all, comes from the word whole. So what does it mean to be whole? What does it mean to be complete? In other words, what is the potential of a human being? Right? Like, what is the possibility for a human being? I think these are the questions that we, of course don't ask in healthcare, because the healthcare focus is really studying disease. So you and I study anatomy, physiology, biochemistry, embryology, and so on.

Speaker 3 (05:37):

And at some point we turn to pathology, pathophysiology. And it's like after that there's no turning back. Most of what you learn, even through continuing medical education, is about pathophysiology, diagnostic frameworks, and then treatments for those diagnostics for those diagnoses. So I think the bend, the tendency of health, healthcare, and research in general kind of assumes that we know, yes, this is the human being anatomy and physiology, but now what's going wrong is where the research is. So I think that that general direction needs to be broadened so that we ask broader questions about health and human potential. And lemme just give you a few examples of that. Number one, what we consider as, let's say, the bedrock of clinical medicine is human anatomy, right? We define the human being in a particular way, and it's based on that map of the human being that we decide what's going well, what's not going well, and we make our diagnosing treatments.

Speaker 3 (06:32):

But in fact, a human body is not the same thing as a human being. And we know that because you can look at a living human being and you can look at a body that that is dead. And we know the two are different. There's something fundamentally different about them. And yet, when we try to model a human being, what we do is strictly talk about the body. So at some point centuries ago, we made the decision that when we modeled the human being, human anatomy, we're not gonna look at mind. We're not gonna look at subtler processes of the human being that have been documented in other cultures, such as in Ayurveda or in traditional Chinese medicine or in yoga. We don't look at chakras, we don't look at meridians. None of that stuff has a place in our model of anatomy. We simply look at physical structures, right?

Speaker 3 (07:13):

And to me, like this should be on the front page of the New York Times, that in different cultures, they literally have different models of anatomy for the same species. We're all the same species, as far as I know. And yet, despite that fact, different cultures have different models of anatomy, and we don't know what to do about it, and we ignore it. We don't even talk about it. We just say, well, that stuff doesn't make sense, or we don't get it. Or it's not important, despite the fact that based on your model, your diagnosis is made and your treatment is made. So if our models are incomplete, then naturally it follows that our diagnoses and our treatments are incomplete. Right? So I think there's a huge lack of curiosity in medicine as to, Hey, why don't we understand that? Rather than just brushing it off saying, why don't we understand it?

Speaker 3 (07:56):

How can we understand it? Well, how, what do we have to augment in our knowledge not to throw away what we know, but to augment what we know and include this other perspective? Right? So that's point number one is if you don't know the human being completely, if you don't model the human being completely, then we are not going to know what health is. We can only gonna know partial approaches, which is why we have a disease-based care, disease-based approach to health in mm-hmm <affirmative> in what we call modern medicine. Second example, and this will surprise most physicians, most scientists, most people who have surprised science, who have studied science, is that we don't know what the body's fundamentally made of. All right? So just hear me out on this one. So when, when we were kids, we learned to play with those little solid balls that were atoms, and we connected them with the sticks, the molecular model kits, and we put them all together and we said, wow, this is what we are.

Speaker 3 (08:44):

You put a bunch of this together and, and that's how you get Karen, and that's how you get a new, and that's how you get everybody, right? And what's crazy is that after fourth grade or so, which is some fourth or fifth grade, whenever we did that first, or heard about that first, our understanding of what we're made of never advanced. So you can go to high school, you can go to graduate school, you can go to medical school, you can do fellowship, you can do C M E, and what we are made of that understanding never advances. It's still, yeah, a bunch of little balls and sticks, right? Which is mind boggling. <Laugh>, right? <Laugh> like what, what we, what we, it's, it's laughable what you think about, but it's true. What we, what we do understand is the complexity of how they interact.

Speaker 3 (09:25):

So we learn more about molecular models and how they interface and intracellular communication, but when you go down to the bottom, it still balls and sticks. It never went beyond fourth grade or fifth grade, right? Right. And the thing is, if you ask somebody, if you ask a doctor, ask a scientist what a human body is made of, we'll say, well, it's made of organs. What's that made of? It's made of tissues. What's that made of? It's made of cells. Then you get down to macromolecules and then molecules, then you get to atoms, subatomic particles, and finally you get to the smallest bits of matter that we know, which are called elementary particles. And you know what's crazy, Karen? After that, everybody stops asking questions. It's like, until then we always act, what's that made of? But what's that made of? But what's that made of?

Speaker 3 (10:08):

But once you get to elementary particles, it's like the room goes dark, right? Right. And that's because then you get into quantum physics and you get into a different kind of topic. And in medical school, you know, we don't touch that stuff. So it's, the answers get too difficult for us to understand. I mean, even, even among physicists, there's so much interpretation as to what quantum physics is actually telling us. That's still up in the air as to what it's actually suggesting about life and about being alive and about human beings. So nevermind in medicine, we don't even go near that stuff. So we just say, you know what? Balls and sticks good enough for me, we're done. Right? But in fact, we know that when we get into that, that these tiny particles that the body is constituted from are actually local vibrations in non-local fields of energy.

Speaker 3 (10:54):

And to that, we say, what I don't know what to do about that. That's not in my framework. That's not in the philosophy. I was taught by the way, we were all taught philosophy. We just, we weren't taught, we weren't told we were taught philosophy, right? And so we don't ask that question, but that's the truth. At a fundamental level, we do not know what the human body is made of. And that should be shocking to most people because the idea is that in medicine we know so much. But even such a fundamental question, we don't know. And for the most part, we don't think it's important because we believe all the stuff is subatomic, atomic, and on beyond that. But I think there's a clear link, a very distinct link between the fact that we don't know the fundamental nature of the body. And we also see ourselves completely, the two are very linked.

Speaker 3 (11:37):

Let me keep moving here. Point number three as to why, you know, we don't know what health is, is we don't know what the mind is. So neither do we know what the body is fundamentally made of, but the mind itself is not an object of inquiry in medicine, right? You and I know that biomedical science is based on the idea that subatomic particles and elementary particles are primary. They're fundamental. And that's what we need to know about and their interactions. And we can derive all understanding of health disease treatment from that. That's the idea. Nowhere in that picture is mine. And if you ask somebody, well, where does it go? Where does this idea of mind go? How can we fit that into your model of anatomy? What we say is, well, it's this little poofy cloud that comes out of the brain, right?

Speaker 3 (12:20):

We all learn that when we're watching cartoons, right? When it's like loony tunes or the somebody's chasing somebody else and they hit 'em in the head and see the circles and the stars, where you see the puff of clouds, that's like a thought it, we're basically teaching philosophy. We're basically saying that it is the brain that creates thoughts or creates this little cloud that we call the mind. But of course, that's a philosophical opinion. It's not a scientific fact. And there are ways to look into that that can actually suggest even other ideas. Like for example, the brain itself could be a representation, a mental representation. That's just another philosophical perspective that is still entirely consistent with science. What gets me Kiran is that despite the fact that mind is not really the domain of biomedical science, despite the fact that we don't know what the mind is, and there's nothing like the encyclopedias on mine that exist in other cultures in biomedical science, despite that we have the audacity to diagnose mental illness and talk about mental health at length.

Speaker 3 (13:21):

And I think we really go wrong here. We tend to conflate suffering and confusion and difficulty with something like a disease. And then what we try to do is map that to neurotransmitters. And then we have this whole, you know, serotonin, serotonin hypothesis, dopamine hypothesis, and so on. I'm not denying that there are correlations between serotonin and dopamine and mental states, but to say that those are primary or going via the brain and via neurotransmitters is the way to address mind and the health of the mind is again, I think a mistake and a limitation. And I'll just touch on one more point. So we've touched on some critical things. Number one is that we don't really study health, we more study disease. Number two, we don't understand what the body's fundamentally made of Number three, we don't know what the mind is. Number four is that there are people healing from all kinds of diseases all around us, and we don't talk about it, or we don't print it in journals, right?

Speaker 3 (14:17):

We don't write these up. And yeah, I think you and I both know that cuz we're both kind of operate in that field. I've interviewed so many people for my healing as possible podcast who have healed from everything that you're not supposed to heal from, including rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, advanced cancer, severe heart disease that was supposed to get bypass surgery and on and on and on. Severe diabetes type two diabetes, but severe type two diabetes. And so if that's the case, if people are healing from all of these conditions, then why is it that a lot of us don't know about it? Why is it that we doctors don't really know about it? Well that's, that's because number one, people don't like to talk about it because there's so much stigma around saying, well, that's unscientific, or there's no real evidence for that. But what happens is this is the self-fulfilling prophecy because we don't write up the case studies, we don't publish them nearly to the extent that they're happening.

Speaker 3 (15:08):

And then we turn around and call them anecdotal and we say, oh, it's a, it's a unique or it's a miracle, or it's by chance. But we're kind of making that happen because we're not talking about it and we're not writing it up. And what I realized that really blew my mind is that because we are not talking about these, what's happening is that our prognosis are really inaccurate, right? The denominator of all the cases we're looking at is insufficient, because included in that denominator is not all the cases of healing that are happening by means that are outside of medicine. So that's another reason we don't know what health is. And finally, I would say the biggest one is that we have confused complimentary medicine and conventional medicine, right? This is the biggest one. And I would ask everybody to really focus on this cuz this is the most powerful one.

Speaker 3 (15:56):

I think we tend to believe that everything other than what we call modern medicine is complimentary medicine, right? So traditional Chinese medicine, ida, yoga, meditation, lifestyle changes, all of this is complimentary medicine. And we believe that modern medicine is, is conventional medicine. And by that we mean generally in terms of treatment, it's pills and procedures, it's pills and surgeries are the predominant or IV medications are the predominant medicine in conventional medicine, or rather in modern medicine. And I think we have entirely inverted that we've gotten it completely backwards, right? And, and here's why. The real complimentary medicine is modern medicine, because it's supposed to be used as and when the person is getting sick or they need some intervention. Whereas all of these other systems are designed to sustain and enhance life, right? Complimentary medicine is by definition that which is complimentary. If you take away pills and surgeries, for most people, they're gonna be okay.

Speaker 3 (16:55):

They're at least going to live. And many will do quite fine without that. But if you take away what is primary nutrition, movement, connection rest from people, a human being can't live. That's the fundamental sustenance that human beings have lived on for millennia since we've been here. Right? So that is the true conventional medicine by convention, nutrition, movement, connection, and rest. What I call the four engines. Activating these four engines is what facilitates health and healing period for millennia. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, that is conventional medicine. Complimentary medicine is that which we can do without but can enhance life. And that is the modern medical system. So there's this complete inversion of terminology that has it backwards. So people tend to use the medical system as primary medicine, and that's a mistake. That's when we start to have problems. That's when we have diseases that can't be cured and that linger forever.

Speaker 3 (17:47):

Whereas to use it appropriately is to use it as needed when things come up as a compliment to the four engines of nutrition, movement, connection, arrest. So I say, you know, I'm emergency medicine, I work as an ER doc, I was working on the front lines during the pandemic. Emergency medicine is like bread and butter, allopathy and nothing else, right? It's, it's hardcore allopathy, hardcore biomedical science. And I say, right by virtue of that, I'm a complimentary medicine doctor, okay? Because if you use me as primary medicine, that's a problem. And the difference between me and primary care, of course there is a difference. But it's the same ideology, it's the same biomedical science, it's the same philosophy. And it's not a philosophy and a science that is suited for everyday care and sustenance. It's suited as a compliment to nutrition, movement, connection, and rest. So these are, okay, I've talked a lot. I've given you a few big points here as to why we don't know what health is.

Speaker 1 (18:46):

All right? So I know everybody listening is a little overwhelmed right now because a lot of these concepts are really new to them, and you had a lot of new ones. So everybody listening, just breathe. Take a big breath in, let's all do it together, end through your nose and let it out through your mouth. <Laugh>, we're gonna break it down for you. Don't worry, ladies, we got it. So let's kind of break these down in a little more detail so that people can really understand what you're talking about. Because I think most everybody listening was taught that we, we are Legos, right? We are Legos, yes. Yes. And we we're new Tony in anatomy, and yes, they don't realize that they've been indoctrinated, I won't say brainwashed, yes, but indoctrinated into a belief system that is a philosophy of health. And it's like, we're the fish in the water so we can't see the water.

Speaker 1 (19:42):

And now we're telling people you're in water. Like it's telling a fish. You live in water and the fish would go, what? Water? What are you talking about? Right? And so it's kind of this waking up process that has to happen that everybody's on a different journey with on a different timeline. Yes. And I wanna help them to understand. So I agree with you, this issue of quantum physics, right? We stop asking, but I do think the science has bridged this next level, but medicine just, it's kind of here. No evil, see, no evil speak no evil. They're like, no, no, no, no, I don't wanna hear it. I don't wanna hear it. I don't wanna, I don't wanna think about the things that I don't know. Yes. So can you ta talk a little bit about maybe some information that would, you know, you stated very matter of factly that Ayurveda traditional Chinese medicine, right? All of these ancient belief systems are valid, but to most people they've been told that's not true.

Speaker 3 (20:41):

Yes.

Speaker 1 (20:42):

Okay, good question. What can you say to people that bridges that gap between we're just sticks and balls connected. Yeah. And we are quantum physics that says that these ancient healing tools are valid, and we're more than Newtonian anatomy help them understand, right?

Speaker 3 (21:02):

Sure. Great question. So what everybody in the audience I invite you to understand and take a deep breath and consider, is that all the experts that are talking about how we're primarily this, or primarily atoms, if there are I, I think many experts say otherwise, but the belief that we are these primary primarily atoms that we're made up of this physical matter, et cetera. This comes from unexamined philosophy. And this is really important to understand. So we as physicians, we don't take in-depth philosophy classes. And all of you in the audience, I'm guessing the vast majority of you have not taken in-depth philosophy classes. And yet, despite that, both you and I were indoctrinated, as Kiran says a perfect word in a way of thinking. That said, physical stuff is the main stuff that matters. Nobody told you that, you know, Mrs. Jones didn't sit you down in first grade and say that, but everything we do is based on that, right?

Speaker 3 (22:00):

It's like, look at how things are made of, let's dissect the frog, let's dissect the leaf. What are we looking at? The physical stuff. Think about when you were a baby, right? When did your parents applaud you? When did they praise you? It's when they said, this is your nose, this is your shoulder, this is your stomach. And you were able to pair at that and they said, yay, congratulations. Yay. Look at Jamie. Or look at Jamie, look at Jose. Right? So all the, the adoration that we get, the kudos that we get, the awards that we get, everything is based on attending to physicality. Now, contrast that with your experience. I would bet that most people in the audience right now are not primarily aware of your body right now. You're not aware of your fourth toe right now, you're likely not aware of your heart, you're not aware of your liver, you're not aware of your neck unless you have some pain there.

Speaker 3 (22:50):

Or you had some recent issue. For the mass majority of vast majority of people, the majority of our attention is not on the physical body. It's in our minds. So for example, you may be experiencing, you may be thinking, Hmm, that's interesting. You may be experiencing curiosity, you may be experiencing doubt. Oh, I don't know, that doesn't quite make sense to me. Or you might say, huh, that's something to think about. Or you may be kind of buzzing, like, oh, this is really inspirational. All of these are happening in the mind. And by default, the vast majority of people are experiencing the mind the vast majority of the time. And yet in medicine, there is no model for mind. There's no mental anatomy, there's no mental physiology, there's no clear explication of how the mind relates to the body and why there's no exploration of other cultures and other philosophies that discuss this in detail.

Speaker 3 (23:36):

So right there, you can see this is like two ships passing at night, right? One is a body centric physical perspective, and another one is how we live our lives, which is mostly through our experiences. In fact, you can say that the two most significant experiences in anybody's life are love and pain or love and fear, or love and suffering. And they're both mental experiences, right? And yet there's no model for that in medicine. So what I wanna first do is draw your attention to this huge body mind chasm that exists in medicine. And secondly, I'd like to tell you that doctors, scientists, et cetera, are trained for the vast majority of their, at least for the first, let's say 18 to 30 years of their life, the same way you were in terms of philosophy. We've learned the exact same philosophy, which is that the body is what matters.

Speaker 3 (24:27):

You get kudos when you talk about the body. You get medals and awards for talking about the body. And if you talk about the mind too much, you're kind of strange, right? And, and that's alternative <laugh> and that's different, right? Right. Now what quantum physics has done is that it has taken us to a very unusual place where it has shown us through experimentation that the smallest bits of solid matter that we're so comfortable with, because we love stacking those legos. We love playing Tetris. We love building things, you know, sandcastles, like smaller grains of sand, build larger sand castles. We're so entrained in this small parts make big holes. We're so entrained in this unexamined implicit philosophy that when quantum physics comes along and says, well hold on their partner, those little tiny balls of matter are actually vibrations when you look closely enough and their vibrations, not with a specific boundary, but their vibrations in a vast field of energy.

Speaker 3 (25:24):

It's something like if you had a, an infinite bedsheet, suppose you had a bedsheet that was so big, you could stretch across the whole earth, right? Actually stretch beyond the whole universe. But let's just say the earth for now. And this vast bedsheet, you could kind of push, you could poke on one side of the bed sheet and you could see it sticking out on the other side, right? You can kind of see this, this dent in the bed sheet. That dent is like a particle. Now that is no different than the entire bed sheet. It's the sheet itself locally behaving as a vibration or a dent or a wrinkle that we say, Hey, look, there's a wrinkle and we ignore the entire bed sheet. That's what's happening today in medicine. We're looking at the particles and ignoring the fact that what a particle is is nothing but a local vibration in a vast field of energy, right?

Speaker 3 (26:08):

And we totally leave that out because we don't know what to do do with that. And I say that the reason we don't know what to do with that is because we are locked in this philosophy that says body and particulate stuff is what is most important. Can I go one step further here, Karen? Sure. Go ahead. This, just bear with me here. This may be, we're just gonna go off the deep end just for fun. Okay? All right. Okay. I want to explain to you one hypothesis, one way of trying to understand why that is, how all of this makes sense. How can a small particle be actually this infinite field of energy? How does that make sense? How does that reconcile with what we know now? And here's what I would suggest to you. Okay? Imagine that you are with a friend going for a Sunday drive.

Speaker 3 (26:51):

Okay? You're in, you're in the car, you're going for a drive, and your friend is talking to you and, and imagine this is a dream. So you're sleeping at night, you're having this dream where you and your friend are going for a drive, and your friend is saying, man, I heard this podcast today. And there was some crazy stuff that we were talking about, right? Somebody was saying that these little bits that were made of, you know, like cells and particles. Yeah, yeah, I know that. Okay. Somebody was saying that those little bits are actually just vibrations in a huge field of energy. Can you imagine that? So in the dream, this person's saying, so like this little thumbnail, if I take a little bit of it and I could somehow hold up a little particle of that, they're saying that that's actually this whole thing, everything that's happening around us, the car, the Sunday drive, the sun, even the other planets, isn't that wild?

Speaker 3 (27:34):

How can that be? Doesn't make any sense. Now, within that dream, it doesn't make sense, right? But let's say we step outside that dream, as you and I are now, we're now outside the dream and we're looking in on that dream that they're having. And what we see is that the little particle that that person in the dream was talking about when they tried to look into what it is, what they found is that it was made of that entire field that the entire dream was made of. Well, what was the dream made of? It was naturally, it was mind, right? A dream is literally made of the mind. That is what a dream is. The mind represents itself as characters, as space, as time, and as little bits of matter. And so it only makes sense that if in that dream people try to look into the smallest thing and really find out with the most rigor, the most determination, the most scientific accuracy.

Speaker 3 (28:23):

And if they really do that and try to find out what that particle is, they're going to find out that there's no such thing as a particle. Because the entire thing is mined. There are no definite boundaries in that dream other than the boundaries superimposed by the mind. So every little thing in a dream, whether it's a rock or a hammer, or whether it's a thought in the dream, or whether it's water or something soft, when you look into it deeply enough from a scientific perspective, if we're good with our science, it will have to show us that that tiny thing is not actually something tiny, but something vast that is representing itself as something tiny. And I think that is what quantum physics is telling us. And that's why we cannot accept that in medicine. We're so wedded to the idea that the physical stuff creates the mental stuff, that the brain creates the mind. We cannot consider the inverse opinion, which is that mind or consciousness is fundamental, and it represents itself as these physical particles and on up as they build up into atom's, molecules and the body,

Speaker 1 (29:25):

Right? Yeah. But it is kind of insane when you think about it. Consciousness. How can you assess health or talk about health without addressing consciousness? But that is the very earth on which health doesn't want to tread. And I don't know if that goes back to when there was separation of church and state made. At some point that decision was made. And so we are living the results of the decision to kind of excise spirituality, excise consciousness from health. So I think it's important that we're having the conversations that you are discussing. And you mentioned earlier when you were talking about the four aspects, that there are no writeups on people healing. Yes. People heal in, in what we call miraculous ways every single day. Yes. But it's, yes, it's considered anecdotal. And so the very yardstick by which we measure scientific validity, the doubleblind placebo controlled trial, yes, you can't have, but science does just discount these anecdotes and say, oh, that's anecdotal and that's spurious. And it's not consistent. So, but we never question and say, wow, that we created that yardstick by which we're measuring everything and we just discard everything. That's not doubleblind placebo control trial proven, right?

Speaker 3 (30:51):

Yes, 100%. And, and the thing is, as long as we can say it's miraculous or unusual, we don't have to really pay attention to it. That's the catch 22 is like, on one hand it sounds amazing, it's like, wow, what a miracle it happened. But what we don't say is, well, that happened to a hundred other people too, but we just don't talk about it, or we don't know about it. And we don't create an environment where people want to talk about it. If we were really scientists, if we were really interested in helping people heal, we would create a database. That'd be the first thing that NIH would do, right? Here's a database, super easy to use, what was the diagnosis? How did it heal? And then an investigator would call you, how did you do it? Research it. And we would have hundreds of thousands of cases of these around the world, and we would very quickly get to what is it that helps? And I can guarantee you it's gonna be nutrition movement, connection, arrest, it's gonna be factors along those lines. Because no matter who is healed, it's always some combination of these. But we don't do that. So as long as we don't do that, we can keep saying it's anecdotal or it's miraculous. And I think that's where we do a disservice to the public.

Speaker 1 (31:51):

Yeah, I agree. And I, I really like how you talked about that we confuse complimentary and conventional medicine, but the real complimentary is modern mess medicine. Yes. The pills and procedures, but that the conventional medicine really is food connection cetera. Yes. And that's really what doctors should be focusing on. Yes. So how can, can you tell people maybe how they would get started? Because I love that concept with their own practice of conventional medicine, but things would they start paying attention to. Yes.

Speaker 3 (32:26):

So we actually have a chorus called the Health Jumpstart Chorus on our website. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> at Health Revolution. If you go to health revolution.org/courses, there's one course called Health Jumpstart, which actually goes through these four nutrition, movement, connection, and rest. And there are 10 minute talks. You can do a, a talk daily where it's like a talk plus a simple practice that you can do to start moving in this direction. And it's not about being perfect, it's just about starting a process. You know, I'll go into this a little bit more detail. Nutrition, number one, lowest hanging fruit nutrition is to cut out processed foods, right? There's so much varying advice on nutrition, but I can tell you one thing that nobody advocates, nobody advocates eating processed foods, right? That's pretty much universal, universally agreed on. And there's hardly anything that's universally agreed on in nutrition.

Speaker 3 (33:14):

But every expert will say less processed food is another way of saying food. That's not really food, right? So eat real food, cut out processed food. And then the other thing is a plant predominant diet. So plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. Now, beyond that, there's all kinds of customization that a person can do. But I will tell you, Kiran, I think you'd probably agree that if we just did that, the number of diseases that would go away by simply cutting out processed foods and eating more fresh fruits and vegetables is monumental. So that's monumental. That's beginning of nutrition. Another huge part of nutrition is what you and I are doing now, Kira. And that is telling a better story, nutrition for the mind, right? To Uhhuh, to really give people the story. What is true, what is to be looked at? What do we need to assess more closely?

Speaker 3 (34:00):

And what is the big picture here that ties all of this together, right? This time that we're in, what's happening in health and healthcare? What's happening in the world? What's happening to our power? How we can get our power and our independence back? What is that big story? And that's what we really like to tell at Health Revolution is a big story of what's going on and how we need to take our power back by activating these four engines of nutrition, movement, connection, arrest. Because that's really how you start to it. It's almost like living your life in advocacy for yourself, right? Because it's when the health starts to suffer, it's when we become dependent on other systems that are incomplete and that that take disease based approaches to care. That's when things start to get difficult. So number one is taking that power back, which every person can do, no matter what their situation is by activating these engines.

Speaker 3 (34:51):

So nutrition for the body, nutrition for the mind movement is manyfold movement. Of course, exercise is there, but I don't wanna limit to exercise, right? Because not everybody has to exercise in the same way. I say range of motion itself is powerful. If you have a joint, use it. You know, when you get up in the morning, every single joint, take it through its full range of motion. I do it even my, like, let's say my index finger, my d i p, my distal joint of my index finger, which we generally might not use. I'll flex it and extend it. Why? Because I have it. It's there, it's moment matters. So, you know, move your eyes all up and down, rotate them around, rotate them side to side, you know, move your neck, basically use that full range of motion. It gets the blood circulating, it gets your energy flowing and you just feel more vital when you do that.

Speaker 3 (35:41):

That's one aspect of moving the body. The other huge one is moving the breath, right? Rather than the shallow breathing that comes from the neck up, the full breath using the diaphragm, right? That that expands the trunk fully and kind of, and livens the whole body. The breath is so vital by the way, because it is probably the single biggest thing that connects what we call the mind and what we call the body in the er. You can, you can be, you can bet that if somebody's breathing fast and shallow that they're anxious, right? Even before you see them. If you look at the respiratory rate, you can tell fast and shallow equals anxious, slow and deep equals restful, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So the breath and the body are intimately connected. And if you have a person breathing shallow and fast in the er, I'll make sure that my breath is deep and restful. Because it's almost like who is going to influence who somebody's going to move towards the other in terms of mental state, right? So it becomes very important to be aware of your mental state and how to ground yourself with the breath. So that's, we talked about moving range of motion. Sorry, go ahead. Sorry

Speaker 1 (36:45):

To interrupt you, but you just reminded me of a story. When I was a resident ob gyn one day there was a patient <laugh>, you know, sometimes a little naive day goes a long way. And I think I was a second year, so I didn't know everything yet. And patient had tachypnea, she was breathing very rapidly and nobody could figure out why. You know, they had done an arterial. Yeah. And they had done all this whole workup and they come to me and they're like, well, what do you think? So I go in there and I observe her and she's really huffing and puffing and I, I said to her, why are you breathing so fast? She says, I don't know. I said, stop. And she stopped

Speaker 3 (37:21):

<Laugh>. Yeah. And

Speaker 1 (37:27):

Stop doing it. Yeah. And the problem went away. And it was very interesting. I really think that she was anxious. Yeah. So to your point, I think she was anxious and so she was shallow, rapid breathing. Yeah. Yeah. And when I just brought her mind to it, she stopped. Yeah. And problem solved. But how many of those problems could be solved if we paid better attention? But I agree with you about the breath.

Speaker 3 (37:51):

I agree. And, and we see that in the ER too. You know, and sometimes, sometimes I have the time to sit there with a person and they might be coming in with tachypnea or they feel short of breath or they feel chest discomfort. And sometimes you can talk to them and if you have enough time, you kind of hear what's going on in their life, what's stressing them out. And sure enough, mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, by the end of a six minute conversation, they're not breathing like that anymore. You know? And that often, and if, if they're truly feel better and all their symptoms have resolved and, and in your exam and your evaluation, everything else looks okay, you might have saved them six hours in the er, who knows how much their bill would've been. And that's simply under, now not all te chimney is that, of course, as we both know.

Speaker 3 (38:36):

But you know, knowing that and considering that is critical. So that's movement of the breath. The other two kinds of movement kirin are moving our emotions. I, you know, I cannot tell you how many people I've heard have healed from conditions by moving their emotions. And again, this goes back to if you think that the brain creates the mind and emotions and therefore there's some strange link somewhere, it's not so clear. But if you subscribe to another philosophy that is still entirely scientifically consistent, which is that consciousness is fundamental and matter or body is its representation, then mm-hmm. <Affirmative>, we can see how anything that's lodged in the mind, like repressed emotions that have been stored for decade and have become stonelike and are manifesting as let's say tightness or muscular s stricture, which can lead to breathing difficulties, which can lead to pneumonia and who knows what else. Right. I can people just by releasing emotions I've seen heal from Crohn's disease after decades, despite having bowel, bowel resection and bowel obstructions and multiple infections just from one session of hypnosis. There's one person I know who healed from Crohn's disease, all their symptoms went away. Yeah. Other person that's, yeah.

Speaker 1 (39:49):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>, go ahead. That I was gonna say, that's fascinating. Before you tell the other example, if you can talk a little bit more about that, because that concept of not feeling emotion thing that came to me in the past few years and I didn't really understand what it meant and now I totally understand what it meant and what it feels like as an embodied sensation and find that so many people are in their minds thinking, thinking and labeling emotions, but they don't actually feel them. Yes. And it's a different experience when I feel people drop into the emotions and feel them because emotions are energy, emotion. They want to be run through, they want to be processed. And when you don't, you get a block. So can you explain that in a way that people might have a real understanding, cuz I think more of us than not, do not process our emotions or feel them.

Speaker 3 (40:40):

Yeah. Well you know, I can tell you my story. There's definitely a point in my life where I had to, on my own journey, I had to feel emotions that I had held in for so long. And that really changed, you know, everything about my life in a way. One story that comes to mind is when I was in medical school, the backstory is that I was born in, in DC in the United States and we moved back to India for a few years. So I lived there when I was a small kid for a few years and stayed with my grandmother for a little while, was very close to her in Guerra, in South India. Living in the village, you know, running around barefoot and just having, having a ball all the time. And then we moved back to the United States and have lived here since then.

Speaker 3 (41:23):

But I was very close to her. And at some point when I was in, I think, I think it was about ninth grade or so, my grandmother passed away in India. And I never really had that chance to mourn cuz it had been so long since I'd seen her intermittently, but never spent that much time with her again. And, you know, it was kind of just felt kind of disconnected. And I was also very much in my head thinking about so many things, ninth grade. And then med school came around later. And by that time in medical school around that time, I was going through a lot of changes. Just in my own experience. I was getting into meditation, a lot of changes were happening within myself. And I remember one night I heard the song, and it's a, the language that we speak is, is called Maam, it's A Language in South India.

Speaker 3 (42:04):

And it was a mala song. And the meaning of the song says it is goes like this, it says, you know, without saying anything, you went away. Do you still remember me? And so I heard that and it just like, it hit me like in my core, like in the depths of my heart. And I felt like my grandmother was saying that to me, you know, like, you know, like, you were here, you were living with me and then you just up and went to the US and you know, do you still remember me? Not in an accusatory way, but like, just in a loving way. Oh, do you remember me? You know, I'm your grandma. And of course I did remember her, I still felt very close to her. I still feel close to her now. But I had kind of, you know, intellectually built a wall so that I wasn't experiencing that.

Speaker 3 (42:49):

But when I heard this song, it all came flooding back. And I think I spent, I don't know, two or three, four hours keeping that song on a repeat and bawling my heart out for hours that night. I was literally, I've never cried like that in my life. I was literally on the floor in the fetal position with these deep earthen sobs coming out. And it was intentionally on repeat that I was doing that. And I can tell you that after that, that released so much in me that allowed me to continue on my journey. You know? And I know that if I had not done that, that that certain hardness or that tension that I kind of knew was there, but I also was kind of ignoring that could never have been released. And I know that down the line leads to that dise, that dis hyphen ease leads to disease in so many ways.

Speaker 3 (43:41):

And so, you know, one story I can tell you was the story of Crohn's disease. Somebody, I talked to somebody who, who we interviewed, she, she's on the Healing is Possible podcast, you can check out the full story. But the story was that when she was a kid, she felt like the only time she could get attention from her parents is when she was sick. They worked, I think she lived on a farm and she was always working, her parents were always working and she always had to do things. I never felt like she could just rest, you know, take time and just rest and be a kid. And when she did this hypnosis session, this all came back to her. Right? And so what came to her is like, that's the only time I could rest. And it's almost like her body was in a sense making her sick so that she could rest or get that rest.

Speaker 3 (44:23):

Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And of course this came to her, right? Nobody told her this. And in fact, if you tell somebody this, they're likely to slap you. Say, you know how, how dare you say that, you know, I'm making this up and that my body's doing this. And of course that's not what's being said. No, nobody's making anything up. We're just talking about responses of the human system to receive what it needs, which is perfectly natural and perfectly understandable. So she arrived at this understanding during this one hypnosis session. Again, this is after multiple admissions to the hospital. Even a bowel resection, meaning part of the bowel was cut out. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, even after all that one hypnosis session where she realized this, that my body is doing this because it needs this space to rest, it needs this care. And when she realized that, she said, okay, I can give myself that.

Speaker 3 (45:10):

I don't need that anymore. And literally after that session, she stopped having any symptoms. And it's been five years or so now. So a classic example of how the body presents something that's in the mind. I'll give you one more example, which is with ulcerative colitis, another inflammatory bowel disease. This was a guy who's a psychotherapist in New York City. He's also on the Healing As Possible Podcast. This story, he was actually helping people get off of medicine and get better without being as dependent on medicine when he could do it safely. But he was super stressed out. He was always thinking about them even on vacation. He was thinking about them because obviously that's a, it's a critical function and you have to get that right, otherwise people can really suffer. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. So he was always thinking about that, totally stressed out. And he had totally ignored what he always wanted to do, which is kind of make independent movies or, or shoot these films.

Speaker 3 (46:00):

And at some point when he was on vacation super and then he, some point he started having chronic diarrhea and fevers and infections and doctors put him on all kinds of medicine. You know, first it was prednisone, then other steroids, then immunosuppressants. But he was still having diarrhea and it was getting worse and worse and worse, abdominal pain. And finally they said, you know, we have to look at resection again. We have to look at cutting out part of your bowel. And he's like, this is insane. I'm young, I'm healthy, I'm an athlete. Like I don't understand how this is happening. I need to, I just gotta do something about this. So while on vacation stressed out, he said, I think I know what this is. I just don't feel good about what I'm doing. I'm too stressed out all the time. I wanna do what I wanna do.

Speaker 3 (46:40):

And he said he'd made the hardest decision of his life, which is to quit that job. And he wasn't sure about financial security and to get on a plane to, I think it was Europe that he went to. And he said it wasn't just the money, he was worried about being incontinent on the flight cuz he was going 15 times a day or more. And he said that happened. He had to suffer that on the plane. It happened over and over and over. But then he said, A new a funny thing happened once I made that decision, my diarrhea went down from 15 times a day to eight times a day. And then another month hap went by and it was four times a day and another month went by and it totally stopped. And today he has zero symptoms on no medication. This is a guy who was told he was going to have bowel resection within the next few months.

Speaker 3 (47:22):

And the only thing he's changed was stopping that job. Now was it easy? Of course it's not easy. There're not a lot of people who would make that decision. Where's the money gonna come from and, you know, how are you gonna suffer that plane trip? But you know, I think it's a, it's a commentary on our society that we put people in such difficult situations about their health that we don't say, you know what, you need six months, here you go. But these are ways, clear examples of how the body, I'm sorry, how the mind and the hormones and neurotransmitters associated with certain activities can stimulate inflammation in the body by creating a chronic state of inflammation through increasing the circulating cytokines in the blood. And that chronic inflammation then leads to conditions including heart disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and many other things.

Speaker 1 (48:08):

Right. Wow. Those are great examples. I think everybody should check out your podcast for sure. We'll have a link to it in the show notes and then we'll also have a link to the course that you have for everyone. The Three Minds Course. Yes. And so tell everyone about the Three Minds Course and where they can find you online.

Speaker 3 (48:28):

Okay. So the Three Minds Course is actually the free course. And that is, if you really want to dive into this possibility of consciousness being fundamental and matter of being its representation, this is the course. It's an entirely new way of seeing yourself and seeing the world that again, is entirely consistent with science. So it takes you through, you know, what is the first mind, what is the second mind and what is the third mind? That's the first part of the course. And then really gets into the analysis. You know, how does that make sense? What does it mean? What are some examples of that? And then it goes through some of the science that, that supports this, how we can use the current science and say, okay, I can see how this actually supports this model of the world. So you can find that at, if you go to health revolution.org/courses, you can go and click on the Three Minds Course and the other course that's there, of course the Health Jump Start course that teaches a person to activate their four engines.

Speaker 1 (49:24):

Awesome. Thank you for those resources. Thank you for this very important discussion that people need to hear about really why we don't know what true health is or how to achieve it. And giving them insight into the true conventional medicine. The, the four aspects of it. Yes. How they can get started with that. And really the importance of starting to understand the mind, what it is and how to work with it to help your health so that you can heal because healing is possible. What are some of the, of the other great stories they're going to hear on your podcast?

Speaker 3 (50:02):

There is a story of Liz, who is an I C U nurse who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis. Even initially was not so sure. And then she had the classic features on M R I that was found to be multiple sclerosis and was going down the usual treatment route was getting worse and worse and worse. And then she did a combination of things, different aspects of nutrition, movement, connection, and rest. And by changing that, by meditation, by changing what she ate, she found, I forgot the exact words. Words that she used. I think she said she could push the disease right. In the sense that she could feel it coming on. And then when she played with certain levers in her life, she could kind of push it away and stay symptom free. So that's a great story. Another's a story of Emily.

Speaker 3 (50:51):

Emily was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, I think, I believe she was in her thirties maybe, if I'm not mistaken, and got to a point where it was so severe that she couldn't hug her kids. And you know, she just heartbreaking, heartbreaking to, to, to tell her to hear her story. When she tried to hug them, she would feel so much pain in her body. And she's like, I can't do this. And she was on immunosuppressants and so many meds. And then she started to read and open her mind. And again, nutrition for the mind, hear that healing is possible, consider other perspectives, try some new things. And she told her doctor, she's like, I don't wanna be on this medicines. I have to, I need to try to heal this. And her doctor, her doctor said, Emily, you're gonna be in a wheelchair by the time you're 40, which I frankly think is cruel.

Speaker 3 (51:36):

You know, I wasn't there. I don't know the context, but I just think that's not the right thing to say to somebody. You know, you, we can have our opinions, but I think we support our patients in what they want and we tell them what we know. But to, I, I think that's a criticism that, that we need to stay away from regardless. Emily went on this journey and now is nearly symptom free, but she's way past, well, I wanna say way past where I take that back. She's definitely past 40 and she's not on any medication and she feels great most of the time. So that's another story. I'll give you one more powerful one. This is a story of Dr. Jimmy Conway, who's an orthopedic surgeon in, I wanna say Louisiana. No, not Louisiana, in Oklahoma City, I believe. He said, you know, he grew up, you know bacon, eggs, sausage, you know, every meal, something like that, heavy meats.

Speaker 3 (52:27):

And he said, he actually said that I knew I was gonna die, is what he said at some point. Or I knew something was gonna happen to me. But, you know, he was just on this lifestyle and then doing surgeries and just going at it full speed. And one day he had some left arm pain went in sure enough, had the angiogram and he's got multi-vessel disease. And he sees the cardiac surgeon standing over him, who was actually somebody he knew from medical school who said, Jimmy, you need to have bypass surgery in the next couple days, otherwise you're not gonna make it. And you know, his, basically his life is staring him in the face. So he goes home and he's getting ready for it. And obviously, you know, no exercise, nothing to, to stress your heart out in the meantime. And he comes across his book, how to Prevent and Reverse Heart Disease by Dr.

Speaker 3 (53:18):

Caldwell Esselstyn. And he starts reading it, and then he gets inspired and he calls a surgeon and says, Hey, I'm canceling the surgery. The guy says, are you crazy? You're not gonna make it. He says, I can't do it. I need to try this. And he switches to a plant-based diet. And I can tell you that that's what, over 10 years ago, I think. And he is totally symptom free right now. And for people think that heart disease, I want, it's important for people to understand that heart disease is reversible. Not every single case, but in many cases, and Jimmy was one of the most severe cases, your heart disease happens because of atherosclerotic buildup on the vessels, on the lining of the vessels. And a plant-based diet has been shown to reverse, not just stop, but reverse the buildup that's in those vessels. And he's just one of many stories of people who avoided heart surgery and avoided stents by switching to a plant-based diet. So there's so many stories like that that I, I could keep going, but please do listen to podcast.

Speaker 1 (54:20):

Yeah, that's a great just sampling of what's available. And so I wanted everyone to hear the inspiration that's there. Healing is possible. I hope you will check out that episode. We will have links to all of the things that Dr. Kumar has mentioned in the show notes. So if you're driving, don't try and write them down. We'll have the links in the show notes wherever you get, whenever you get where you're going, you can click them. Thank you so much, Anup, for the work that you're doing. It's so important. Thank you for this wonderful conversation. It's very much appreciated.

Speaker 3 (54:52):

Thank you, Karen. It's a pleasure to be here and, and thank you for the work you do.

Speaker 1 (54:55):

And thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. Thanks so much for joining us today. I hope you've learned something that inspires you to take action on your health, to know that healing is possible, brilliant health is possible, it's your birthright. And if you're not experiencing that well, then you need to get moving so that you can just take one step today. What's something that you could do different to move into the right direction? And I'll see you next week when we'll have another great guest on the podcast. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (55:31):

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

 

► Get access to Dr. Anoop Kumar's FREE course - CLICK HERE.

This course invites you to reconsider fundamental assumptions about who you are and what the nature of this world is. It asserts that consciousness is fundamental and that matter is its pattern, in a manner consistent with science. It asserts that the body is the representation of the mind, rather than the body being the source of the mind. Seeing yourself and the world in this way brings openness, clarity, and infinite possibilities.

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

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Reversing Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Is Possible With The Right Protocol

Welcome back, Hormone Prescription Podcast listeners! We're so glad you've joined us for an exciting and eye-opening interview with a world-expert on Hashimoto's disease - Dr. Anshul Gupta. 
  
Dr. Gupta is a best-selling author, speaker, researcher, and Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician with advanced certifications in Functional and Integrative Medicine. With his passion for helping his patients and people all over the world, he has been awarded Reader's Choice, Best Doctor in Northern Neck Area.
  
Having worked at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine alongside Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Gupta has an extensive background in helping people find the root cause of their health issues and reversing these conditions.
  
In this episode, we dive deep into understanding Hashimoto's disease and the incredible journey Dr. Gupta has taken to provide relief and hope to those affected. We explore his unique protocol for success and how he has helped thousands of patients reverse their health issues by using the concepts of functional medicine.

Some highlights from our conversation with Dr. Gupta include:

• Understanding Hashimoto's disease
• Dr. Gupta's proven protocols
• The role of functional medicine in reversing health issues
• The impact of peptide and integrative therapies

Don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity to learn more about reversing Hashimoto's thyroiditis from the expert himself, Dr. Anshul Gupta.  

Be sure to share this episode with friends, family, and anyone in need of inspiration and hope to reverse Hashimoto's disease. Thank you for listening to The Hormone Prescription Podcast, and stay tuned for more insightful and life-changing episodes!

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

“Health is like money. We never have a true idea of its value until we lose it.” - Josh Billings, stay tuned. In this episode, Dr. Anshul Gupta is going to tell you how to reverse Hashimoto's.

Speaker 2 (00:14):

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

Speaker 1 (01:07):

Hi everyone, and welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today has his own story of healing from thyroid problems at midlife. And although he's a guy, thyroid problems are more prevalent in women, particularly Hashimoto's thyroiditis, which is epidemic proportions globally and it is curable. Y'all is the case. No one sent you the memo and you have Hashimoto's and you have antibodies. You can get rid of the antibodies and reverse Hashimoto's. So I want you to listen to this episode even if you don't have a thyroid problem and you don't have Hashimoto's. This episode is chock full of information from a board certified family practice doctor, and yours truly about how to find the underlying root causes of whatever problems you're having, even if it's not a thyroid problem. So take it from the two of us, both board certified medical doctors who had our own health crises and had to find answers.

Speaker 1 (02:11):

That's where you'll find the answers from a root cause resolution approach that will help you today. In particular, we're talking about Hashimoto's thyroiditis. So I'll tell you a little bit about Dr. Gupta and then we'll get started. Dr. Anshul Gupta is a best-selling author, speaker, researcher, and the world expert in Hashimoto's Disease. He educates people worldwide on reversing Hashimoto's disease. He's board certified in family medicine and he has advanced certification in functional medicine peptide therapy. And he's also fellowship trained in integrative medicine. He's worked at the prestigious Cleveland Clinic Department of Functional Medicine alongside Dr. Mark Hyman and has helped thousands of patients to reverse their health issues by using the concepts of functional medicine. His dedication towards his patients was recognized when he was awarded Reader's Choice Be Best Doctor in Northern Neck Area, and he's now on a mission to help 1 million people reverse their health conditions To achieve this mission. He has written a bestselling book called Reversing Hashimoto's, and he's also started a virtual functional medicine practice, a blog and a YouTube channel so he can reach people from all over the world. His blog and YouTube videos have already reached more than 2 million people worldwide. Please welcome Dr. Anshul Gupta to the show. Thank you

Speaker 3 (03:32):

So much for having me over here. It's a pleasure.

Speaker 1 (03:34):

So Hashimoto's thyroiditis is at epidemic proportions among women globally and you really have narrowed in on this disease and how people can reverse it naturally. What got you so interested in Hashimoto's thyroiditis?

Speaker 3 (03:52):

So actually like started with my own health journey. So by training I'm a family physician, so just after finishing my family medicine residency, I was in a private clinic doing family medicine work. But just couple of years into my practice I started getting a lot of symptoms. You know, I was getting a lot of tiredness by afternoon. I had to take a nap during my lunch hour just to kind of function. I was gaining a lot of weight even though I did not change my diet or exercise, I was having a lot of gut issues, terrible stomach pain, and the pain will just hit me randomly any point in the day and could not figure out what was causing it. And afterwards I would, after I finished my clinic, I was just brain foggy. I was not able to concentrate on things, not remember things properly, but the main issue was the stomach pain.

Speaker 3 (04:42):

I could not figure it out. So I started taking acid reflux medication to see if it would help. That did not do anything. Then I saw a GI specialist who did endoscopies, colonoscopies, blood works, ultrasounds, everything was normal. They added even more medications and it was working. I was having horrible stomach pain and everything was getting worse. That's where I found functional medicine. I got trained into functional medicine and made a protocol for myself, implemented a stepwise process of changing my lifestyle, ch changing supplements, everything. Within one month, my stomach pain was gone. Within six months I lost 40 pounds. You know, my energy levels were so up that even participated in a five K rugged maniac. And for me, actually, I've never an athletic person, so for me to do that was a big thing. My brain fog went away, you know, like my stomach was so good.

Speaker 3 (05:35):

So that was a life-changing experience for me that my health completely transformed within a few months of implementing the protocol. Then actually I got this opportunity to work at the Cleveland Clinic Functional Medicine Center with Dr. Mark Hyman. He wanted to do research in functional medicine. I was absolutely interested into that. When I started working over there, I noticed that I was attracting these middle-aged females and they all had very similar issues as mine. They were all tired, they were all having weight issues, they had gut problems, they were all brain foggy and the common denominator was that they all had Hashimoto disease and they were all falling off what the doctor wanted them to do of taking this medicine, but still not getting better. So that prompted me to research into Hashimoto's Disease, what is causing these females not to get better and what can be done?

Speaker 3 (06:27):

So through my research, you know, I kind of found out there were like several reasons for that and I developed this three step process, which implemented in several females while working over there. And we saw phenomenal results. Not only their quality of life improved, we were able to improve their thyroid numbers, their antibodies went away, their thyroid medicines were reduced. So we saw those great results. So that actually prompted me to share this with even wider audience and I wrote this book called Reversing Hashimoto's so that people kind of understand what is wrong with them and how they can get better.

Speaker 1 (07:02):

Yes. So physician healed thyself, you healed yourself and then you're proceeding to help other people. And so what really, what do you wanna talk a little bit about your three step process for Hashimoto's?

Speaker 3 (07:16):

Absolutely. so in Hashimoto's disease, a lot of people actually don't know is that it is very different from hypothyroidism. Hashimoto's disease is an autoimmune condition where your body is actually producing antibodies to destroy your own thyroid gland. And when people are going to the regular doctors and getting levothyroxine medicine that is supporting the thyroid gland, but not doing anything to address the underlying problem of autoimmunity or inflammation. So that's the very first step. We need to know why our body is producing these antibodies. So that's the first step that, you know, we have identified root causes that play a role. So in very first step, we actually want people to identify their root causes because everybody has different root causes that are playing a role. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, so identified five major root causes of big classes, of root causes that play a role. So those are food, ities, nutritional deficiencies, toxins, chronic infections and stress.

Speaker 3 (08:15):

So all of these combined together actually lead to Hashimotos disease. Now, most of the people are looking for just one root cause and once they find one root cause they stop then and there. They do not do a complete evaluation. It's very important to understand that most people will have at least two plus root causes, which are playing a role together to cause Hashimoto. So that's the very first step, people to understand what is root causes and what are their root causes that are playing a role. And then in the second step we start actually fixing, you know, like this thyroid which has been destroyed because of inflammation and autoimmunity. So in that aspect, you know, we have created this mito thyroid diet where we are focusing on actually two aspects of things. First of all, removing foods which are destroying the thyroid gland and then actually including foods which are healing for the thyroid gland and reduces inflammation in the body.

Speaker 3 (09:09):

So that's aspect of this like diet that we do get people started on. And plus the supplements. Supplements which are again supporting the thyroid gland, which are, have shown that they can help Hashimoto's patients reduce their antibodies and get better. So that's the second step. Start healing the process. And the last step or the third step is removing the toxicities. So in that aspect we work on removing the stress component by kind of help them incorporating stress reduction techniques and removing toxins by living in a toxin free environment. And the third thing is removing infections. The chronic infections, which can be parasites or Lyme disease or barella, bia, any of those chronic infections are playing a role. Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. So that's the complete three-step process, which I recommend for people that you know, can help definitely improve the quality of life and also improve their antibody numbers. Right.

Speaker 1 (10:00):

I I thought it was interesting that you said most people only look for one root cause and then they stop. But the really, in traditional medicine, they don't look for any root causes. You'll find millions of women being treated, treated, I say in quotation marks for Hashimoto's thyroiditis because are they really being treated if the underlying cause is not being treated? I'd argue no, they're just being placed on Synthroid and left and meanwhile their immune system is destroying the thyroid gland further and further and further year after year after year. And so no real healing occurs. So I love your approach and that you've got this three step process to find the underlying cause. Z plural, it's usually never one. I say that these causes and functional medicine are kind of like ants at a picnic. There's never just one <laugh>. There's always way more than one. You mentioned in your second step you help them to identify healing thyroid foods to add to the diet and hurting thyroid foods. Do you wanna talk a little bit about what some of those healing and hurting foods might be for the thyroid?

Speaker 3 (11:07):

Absolutely. So let's first start with the food which are hurting the thyroid. So again, we have good amount of research that suggests that diet can play a good important role. So in that aspect, you know, like certain foods, you know, causes something called food sensitivities. So that food sensitivity ultimately leads to leaky gut issues. And the leaky gut ultimately, you know, is an important role in Hashimoto seas. So a lot of people don't know the difference between food sensitivities and food allergies. They think that both of them are same. So kind of a little bit plugin over here that, you know, they're totally different things. Food allergy is a condition, let's say like if you have a peanut allergy, you eat peanuts, suddenly you are like blow up like a balloon or like, you know, you have highs all over your body, you have difficulty breathing, you land up in the emergency room, that's food allergy, food ity is that, let's say you eat gluten and your body says, Hey gluten, I don't like you, but it's okay.

Speaker 3 (11:59):

So they start producing very small amount of antibody against gluten and then slowly and slowly these antibodies actually start attacking your thyroid gland and that's what food sensory is all about. So we have seen several food which actually can lead to Hashimoto's by this food sensory method. One of them is gluten, the second one is dairy, the third one is soy, then comes corn. Then sugar is another thing which actually works in the different method, Northern food ities. But sugar hijacks the immune system and can again kind of play an important role in Hashimoto's. And then comes the processed food and the processed meats. We have to stay away from those also. So I think these are all the food aspects that, you know, we have kind of decent amount of research that suggests that that is a first step of removing these foods. Now in certain situations when their Hashimoto's antibodies are really very high or they're really having worse symptoms, sometimes we might have to also remove lectin containing foods, which can be the nightshades sometimes, which can be in like nuts and seeds and things.

Speaker 3 (13:03):

But I think for a normal person with Hashimoto's and other things, starting with removing the first five categories is great. And then if they're not getting the results, then moving and removing the other categories are important. So these are the foods to remove mm-hmm <affirmative>. Then what are the foods that we should include that are thyroid healing foods? So in that aspect, antioxidant containing foods, especially non-starchy colorful vegetables are really very important because each and every color that vegetables have carry a different antioxidants and that helps support the thyroid gland in kind of reducing inflammation and also provides them the right whites and minerals to gain support the production of the thyroid hormone. So definitely the more colorful your diet is, the better it is, especially coming from the non-starchy vegetables. Then comes a good quality fats again, you know, like we are living in a world where fats have been shammed really bad.

Speaker 3 (13:57):

Every kind of fat is really bad, but what we know is that there are good fats and there are bad fats. So it's very important to educate people about good fats because each and every cell of our body is lined with good fat. Our brain, 60% of them are made with fat. So our body needs good fat. So in that aspect, again, fatty fishes are great, have avocado, avocados are good. If we can tolerate nuts and seeds like chia seeds, flax seeds, you know, like those are again, good options. Olive oils, coconut oils, those are good fats that are definitely thyroid, supporting foods. Then comes the good quality protein. You know, whether it's coming from fish chicken or if you are a vegan or a vegetarian, again coming from nuts and seeds or your lentils and legumes, again, very important to have good quality protein because all those amino acids are again, needed for your thyroid gland and in body in general to kind of keep the immune system in Good check. Then you know, like again another things are certain spices like turmeric and ginger again are great to include because again, they have like, you know, great anti-inflammatory properties which supports your thyroid gland and again, healthy detoxification and your body to function better. So these are all thyroid healing foods that should be included. Then obviously if you want to include certain grains or gluten-free grains like keno and brown rice can also be an option just to kinda support your complex carbohydrates and your body needs.

Speaker 1 (15:24):

Yes, I'm this quote you shared with me before we started from Josh Billings health is like money. We never have a true idea of its value until we lose it. I know when a lot of people hear the foods that you just mentioned to add, they think that it's going to be expensive to eat that way to eat to support their thyroid. And I find that a lot of people, when you tell them the foods that you want them to eat, which is a lot of fresh fruits and vegetables and high quality proteins and fats say, oh that's gonna be expensive. I can't afford that. What, what do you say to that? How do you help them work through that?

Speaker 3 (15:57):

So again, you know, it's, as you all you suggested that it's kind of a misconception for a lot of people that you know, everything is so expensive, it's all about planning. We say that, okay, well you just have to plan your meals around it and you have to look for like local grocery stores. You don't have to like shop at the expensive grocery stores or going to Whole Foods or anything, right? Go to your local stores, which you know, can have easily these produce which are at a very cheaper price. And again, you know, the quantity of these things when you eat them, you don't have to eat a huge quantity because you get full very easily by eating all those veggies and things. So then you're not consume them so much and again, if you're meal planning and cooking at home, then again you're saving all that money that you'll be ex, you know, like spending when you're going to outside in restaurants.

Speaker 3 (16:42):

So in actually long run, people actually save money by eating this kind of diet and cooking food at home. And by cooking again, a lot of people say, well, I'm in a very busy job, you know, I have so many different responsibilities, I don't have the time because that's again, a very important thing for a lot of people, that limitation of the time. But again, I tell people it doesn't take too much time. You know, you, we have ways for people to kind of, you know work around with the limitation of the time they have. Do batch cooking, do cookings on the weekends, you know, then you can save that food for later on. Also, again, like easy recipes, you don't have to go for complicated recipes, which require an hour or so easy recipes with certain ingredients, again, make it so much easier for people to cook and also like, you know sustain their jobs and also their like responsibilities. So I think this is easily done within the budget as well as within the time constraint that a lot of people have. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (17:36):

I agree. And when I started on my functional medicine journey, I probably like, oh, what, 15 years ago I had to learn how to cook some new things and I went and got these kind of used cookbooks. I think I got eight of them and that had a lot eliminated a lot of the foods that you mentioned for thyroid. I don't have Hashimoto's, but I did have hypothyroidism and I just learned several of the recipes from there that I could cook that eliminated gluten, dairy, corn, all the things dairy that you mentioned. And at first it was like learning any new skill and it was challenging and then after a while it became second nature. So I just wanna encourage anybody listening that if I can do it, you can do it for sure. I promise you, you didn't mention cruciferous vegetables like broccoli. I know I've seen on social media sometimes you'll see a lot of these little memes saying, oh, you shouldn't eat broccoli if you have Hashimoto's. And I'm just wondering if you can kind of settle that for people if that's an issue or not.

Speaker 3 (18:38):

Absolutely. Again, yes, I totally like, you know forgot to mention that point. So crucifers vegetables is a complete myth. This actually started like, you know, around 20 years ago we had this very small research study on rabbits where they were fed a lot of cruciferous vegetables, like excessive amount for their like weight. And they saw that, you know, like the absorption, you know, like of tired medicine from their gut was a little bit on the lower side. So that prompted a discussion. All these are TROs and you know, they should be completely avoided. Now, 20 years ago, the main reason of hypothyroidism was not Hashimoto's, it was actually low iodine. So that was a legitimate concern at that point of time. But now coming forward in 20th century, we rarely see i o D in deficiency as the number one reason. The number one reason currently through research is Hashimoto's disease, more than 70% of people who are having hypothyroidism.

Speaker 3 (19:34):

The main reason is Hashimoto's. And we have a couple of research studies which clearly suggest that cruciferous vegetables are really good for Hashimotos because first of all, cruciferous vegetables are high in different vitamins and minerals like iron content, vitamin K, you know, like and other minerals mm-hmm <affirmative> like magnesium and things. And plus they have antioxidant like cetin, which again very helpful for your thyroid gland. And plus they have a detoxifying compound called sulforaphanes, which help to remove toxins from your liver, help support your liver. So they're actually so nutrition so good. So definitely they are very, very useful and if you have Hashimoto's disease then I think they should be part of your diet. 

Speaker 1 (20:14):

Will second that. I say amen each or crucifers your cauliflower, broccoli, asparagus, Brussels sprouts, they're so good for you and, and and it's really been a myth on social media and there are so many foods you do need to cut out. Don't cut out the ones you don't need to cut out like broccoli, so eat your broccoli. You mentioned iodine and there's a lot of controversy about iodine use in people with Hashimoto's. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 3 (20:41):

Actually, again, that very important point because again, the traditional way, even with a lot of naturopaths or like a a p like you know, natural medicine people, they are putting people on a very high doses of iodine if they have a di, if a thyroid problem. But what they're not understanding is that the research is very clear in Hashimoto's disease specific people too little of iodine can cause Hashimoto's disease, but too much of iodine can also cause hashimo disease. So we have to be right in the middle of that. Now the problem is this, we do not have a perfect test to check for iodine in a person's body. We do have this blood test, we have this urine test, you know, which can be done. But again, those are not a perfect measure of things. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, so that's kind of, you know, the problem that we go into.

Speaker 3 (21:26):

So I don't recommend people going on very high doses of iodine. I think if you can replenish iodine through food, that is definitely the first good source. So all that seafood, if you are eating like sea vegetables like seaweeds, those are great resources for that. If you are not able to do that or you don't like them, that's where, you know, like little bit of I o D into your supplements, like up to 200 micrograms. I think that's a decent amount to do it. But some people are doing like thousand micrograms or 2000 micrograms a day and clearly that might be actually harming their thyroid by harming their Hashimoto's rather than actually helping them.

Speaker 1 (22:02):

You mentioned sea vegetables and I find that that's foreign to a lot of particularly western diets. And so that's something that you can get recipes from cookbooks and I say if you don't like 'em or you think you don't like them, try them again. Get some new recipes and try them in different ways. I found this great recipe for a hijiki shrimp salad with some wasabi. That's amazing. And I don't think most people aren't familiar with hijiki, so just try some different ones and expand your food vocabulary. I think that'll serve you. You talked about some of the root causes that people have to identify. You mentioned toxins, stress and infections. How does somebody go about addressing these? Because there's some people listening who they have a traditional doctor. Do you think that the average person can educate their traditional doctor to be able to do the proper investigation to under identify the underlying root causes? Or is this something that will require specialist evaluation?

Speaker 3 (23:06):

Yeah, most of the regular doctors do not understand the concept of root causes, that it's completely foreign to them because again, you know, like being a conventionally trained family physician, I was seeing tons of Hashimoto's patients before also, and whenever somebody says What should I be eating? I would say, just go and home and eat whatever you like.

Speaker 1 (23:24):

Right? Whatever you like.

Speaker 3 (23:25):

Yeah. So I've done that myself. So I know that the convention doctors would not be able to understand it's nothing wrong that they have a bad reason for it. It's basically they're not trained into that. So that's the reason they do not know the concept of, you know, root causes. So that's where coming to a specialist, like a functional medicine or integrative medicine specialist who understands the concept of root cause approach will be the best bet for doing it. And the other problem is that a lot of conventional labs actually are not equipped to test for all of these things. So that's where, you know, these advanced functional medicine labs are the way to go for it if you want to know what kind of toxins are there, how much is there and do we have any kind of, you know, infections going on in the gut, all of those things, you know, or other infection like Lyme disease and things, regular doctors do not have access to it. So then working with a specialist would be useful in that aspect. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (24:18):

I think it's so true in my OB G Y N training, never once did I hear or say the word root, the words root cause. It's just not a concept in mainstream medicine. It's you treat the symptom when the symp with a drug or surgery and when the symptom is gone you claim victory, but meanwhile other problems are accruing. And I'm wondering if you could talk about, we don't have time to go through all of the different root causes. You've got that in your book. We're definitely gonna have links to all of your resources in the show notes. But what are some of the most surprising common underlying root causes you think are often missed that people should be looking for?

Speaker 3 (24:59):

I think the number one root cause that a lot of people are not aware of or get missed is the toxins. I think 90% of my clients, you know, like whoever Hashimoto's Disease are dealing with some or the other kinds of toxins. And the problem is this, most of these toxins, a lot of people are not even aware that their environment has these toxins. So first of all, you know, we have these heavy metals like lead and mercury and arsenic and aluminum. They're hidden into a lot of different things that we are using on the regular basis. Now again, our food might actually be contaminated with them also, like, you know, fishes lot of times can have high mercury unless, you know, we are making a choice of, you know, getting fish from a good source lead is actually frequently contaminated in the water. So again, like if you don't have a proper filtration system, we might be getting exposed to it.

Speaker 3 (25:49):

Certain kind of spices actually we talked about like, you know, turmeric and ginger and other things. If they're coming from Asian countries, then again they can be actually contaminate with lead rice can have arsenic. So you see like, you know, I'm not saying to eat, not eat all of these things. What I'm saying is that unless we have a high index of suspicion, these toxins might be hidden there. So this is just the heavy metals then comes the mold toxins, you know, like you know, in our environment we are seeing more and more people being affected with mold toxins. Whether that is in their houses, whether it is the workplaces, whether it is a Airbnbs or hotels they might be spending time into all of these spaces might have more toxins that they are totally unaware of. Then comes the environmental toxins. Each and every day we are producing more and more chemicals, right?

Speaker 3 (26:35):

And these chemicals definitely are affecting our body in a very negative fashion. So whether that was like pesticides or glycosides, you know, like which are coming through our food or whether those are like other environmental toxins, like several cleaning products we are using in our house. And the last amount of toxins are, especially for females, all that skincare products they're using, starting from the soaps and cosmetics, they are laden with toxins. Most females, oh this just on my skin, but you and me know that the skin is the biggest organ of our body. Anything we put on the skin can get absorbed into our bloodstream and can reach thyroid. And over the course of days to weeks to years that toxin load keeps on increasing and again, kind of hijacks an immune system and starts attacking our own thyroid gland. So I think the very first thing people should large looking is their environment and start looking to reduce the amount of toxin exposure that they're having by buying cleaner products, by kind of buying cleaner cost medics, you know, kind of trying to eat organic if possible. You know, all those things. And that actually there's a great resource, you know, which your users might already know is like E W G, which is an environmental working group, great website has a great app, lot of good resources. You can actually check your cosmetic products over there and you can actually find cleaner products over there that you can buy. So that's a great resource for a lot of people to use.

Speaker 1 (28:01):

Yes, I love the environmental working group. That's a wonderful resource. You said early on talking about the different underlying root causes that you have to have a high index of suspicion. And as you were saying that, I was thinking in 2023, the fact that you're a human on the planet at this time with all the toxins that we have and all the molds that we have and all of these micro infections. Really most everyone who has Hashimoto's should be checked for all of these heavy metals, molds, et cetera, don't you think?

Speaker 3 (28:36):

Absolutely, yes. You know, I totally agree with that. As I said, almost every client that I see, if we are doing a toxin test on them, they do have some or the other hidden toxins in their system. So it is like given that they will be having, you know, like toxins in the system and everybody should be checking for them. So now they know which toxins they're dealing with because not all toxins are the same and the protocols can be different for different toxins. So you have to do that specific protocol to remove that particular, but definitely toxins are playing a major role in almost every client of mine. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, you know, like we work on their detox system to remove the toxin.

Speaker 1 (29:11):

It's so true. And another quote you shared from Kevin Trudeau, most people have no idea how good their body is designed to feel. I think is AP applicable here? I do talk to women who have Hashimoto's and they've had part of an evaluation they've had looking for maybe one root cause or two root causes, but they never get to the place where they say, oh my gosh, I didn't know I could feel this good. Can you talk a little bit about how persistent does a woman need to be? How diligent does she need to be? But also how does a woman know when she's gotten to that place where she's addressed all the underlying causes and she feels as good as she can feel? How does she know when she's gotten there and how does she get there? So

Speaker 3 (29:56):

Again, you know, like unless you do the protocol, unless you change things, you do not know how good you can feel. Because it's been years people that come to see us have been suffering, have not been in good shape in their health for years. And sometimes like after some time, that becomes your second nature. Oh well yes, I'm tired. So what's the big thing? Oh, well you know, I'm not able to exercise, so what's the big deal? Well, my mood changes very frequently. I don't feel the joy in my life anymore. So what, you know, that's kind of middle age that happens with everybody, right? Oh, I'm brain foggy because I'm getting old, right? So these are the excuses, right? Lot of women, you know, have been told they're not kind of, you know, thinking about these things, but people around them, or when they go to the doctors or any of the providers, they tell them, oh, that's normal to feel this way, but let me tell you, that is not normal.

Speaker 3 (30:45):

You should not be feeling this way. If you have feeling that your quality of life is not the same as before, then certainly you are missing out on things. And if you feed your body with the right things, if you kind of, you know, remove all the TOXs from your system, then your body gets better. So most of our females, like within a few months, they kind of not cannot imagine how good they can feel like going from like having a couple of naps in a day to actually going out to the gym and stocking a workout or doing a marathon. A lot of clients are doing it, not able to lose weight from losing like, you know, 15, 20 pounds is very normal in within four to five months for a lot of females. And actually not knowing what is clarity of mind because they have been so confused or overwhelmed all the time with all the responsibilities.

Speaker 3 (31:34):

And suddenly now they become so organized because they have that mental clarity to kind of do things and perceive what needs to be done. So these are bigger changes like, you know, like, you know, impacts the quality of life and now they actually see like the world and I say kind of HD space because first they were looking at world in an SD or like just a normal way. And now suddenly that the whole world becomes hd, they want to feel alive again. They say, I want to do things and I can do things. That's the biggest like, you know thing that almost each and every of our client when they work with us, they said, you know, I just feel that I got my life back again.

Speaker 1 (32:11):

Yeah. And that really is what it should feel like. I mean, I'm in my fifties and I've never felt better. Most of the time I should say of course I have my days. But if you're getting the answer from your providers that, oh, it's normal to wanna nap at midlife and you shouldn't have a great sex drive and you, it's okay to have lost your joy and medicate yourself with wine and chocolate, run <laugh>, right? Run to someone who can actually help you. And I love this not Han quote that you also shared and because it really speaks to kind of my philosophy on health, keeping your body healthy is an expression of gratitude to the whole cosmos, the trees, the clouds, everything. I really do believe that we, we have not only a right to optimum health, but we have an obligation. Can you talk a little bit about what this quote that you shared means to you?

Speaker 3 (33:06):

Yeah, I think, you know, like we have forgotten what it feels like to be healthy. First of all, a lot of people are just kind of relying on medications to do their job and just kind of take their health to the next level. And that's not a reality. I'm not against medications. Absolutely. If you need the medications, you need it, but medications are just one tool in your toolbox that can make you feel better. There are several other tools. So your physical health definitely is one tool that you need to improve, but your mental and spiritual health is another tools that we need to focus on. And a lot of times, you know, I think we have this disconnect, you know, like in our modern world, we are living where we just feel the physical health takes the priority and that's the only thing we need to focus on.

Speaker 3 (33:48):

And less and less people are focusing on the mental aspect of things and the spiritual aspects of things. So I think those are the things that we definitely need to kind of build that purpose, you know, of our life where we need to get better, we need to get the quality of life not only for ourselves, but also for our family, for our friends, for our kids, for everybody around us. Because what I've seen is that females are the center place in a family and if one female gets healthy, everybody around them actually suddenly becomes healthy. A lot of times, you know, like females come to see me, well you started me on this protocol and things, you know, I, I'm, I'm mainly cooking in the house, so my husband has already lost like 35 pounds and I'm already lost only to 15 pounds. And I'll say, well that's good. At least you lost 15. But we see these very often, their husband's health are getting better. Suddenly their mom's health are getting better, the kids are doing good in the school, much better than before, right? So you're not just doing it for yourself, we are doing it for your family and everybody else. And it's very important to focus on the mental and the spiritual aspect of health. That is definitely one of the missing pieces a lot of people do not pay attention to.

Speaker 1 (35:01):

I wholeheartedly agree. I think that that mental aspect, the emotional aspect, the spiritual aspect, and how do you tell people to start addressing that in their lives? I find that sometimes people who have a particular religion, they don't want to talk about that in terms or spirituality in terms of their physical health. And so I'm just wondering how you approach that.

Speaker 3 (35:24):

I think the way I approach is that, you know, like we have clearly have research studies that says that if you are stressed out, that is definitely a very big cause of Hashimoto disease. And again, stress can be physical, mental, and spiritual. So I tell them that, you know, that is happening just contributed, you know, in your disease process and unfortunately your disease process is making you feel not so good. And that is again, leading to more stress in all of these aspects of your life, whether it's physical, mental, or spiritual. So I tell them, you know, like whatever activity you like to participate, you like to do, start doing those things. That reduces the stress. Whether that is meditation, whether that is prayer, you know, whether that is kind of being a part of a community or a group or breathing exercises, anything that resonates with you is very important to incorporate just for a few minutes, 10, 15 minutes in your day mm-hmm is going to change your life yet going to kind of break that stress cycle and going to start making you feel better.

Speaker 3 (36:26):

So that's where, you know, and again, internet is good in that aspect. You have all these different kinds of meditations depending on what religion or belief system that people have. You know, it is available. So I try to kind of encourage people to look inside of themselves and kind of find that happy place, you know, that kind of brings joy to them and they want to go to that place again and a again every day basis because if they're finding joy, that kind of motivates them to go to that place every day. So I try to help them to find that happy place of them. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>,

Speaker 1 (36:56):

Yes, you have to deal with the stress and find your joy and I think it really is worth it. I think that so many women with Hashimoto's believe that it's a life sentence and that they're never going to regain their physical capacity in terms of energy, sex drive, mindfulness or mental capacity or memory, whatever it is. And on a daily basis, I see women go from having very high th antithyroid antibodies to none whatsoever undetectable. And I'm wondering if you could share your experience with that and give people the hope that they really deserve to have that. This is pretty reversible <laugh>.

Speaker 3 (37:36):

Absolutely. So we have obviously several stories about it, but you know, I'm just kind of currently working with this client, you know, had amazing story. A young female 34 years of age came to see us six months ago, was given a diagnosis of Hashimoto's four years ago, but she had symptoms even before that. She was again like a mom of two kids. So after the second pregnancies is where her symptoms started, she was tired all the time. She started gaining weight and was not able to lose that weight. She was having horrible stomach bloating and like constipation issues. Doesn't matter what she eats, she will just feel like she was bloated all the time. Because of that, she was having a lot of mood changes. Sometimes she'll feel low mood, sometimes stressed out or anxious. So she kept on going to doctors, something is wrong with me.

Speaker 3 (38:19):

They kept on doing only one blood test, which was the tsh, which was initially normal. She was told, well maybe you're just stressed out. Maybe you need to see a psychiatrist or a counselor. So she obviously saw a psychiatrist, even tried medications but actually backfired. She failed worse. So she stopped the medicines after three or four years, you know, after going through all this audio, finally her TA such did show that she has hypothyroidism. So she was happy. Oh well finally I found it and I'm going to get this medicine. Everything will be okay. She was start on the medicine, no changes. She was still feeling the same way as you. She was feeling again. Couple of years into that she started researching on internet what was going on. Then somebody suggested maybe you have Hashimoto's, a seizure. She went to a doctor and asked them to check the antibody levels and bingo, obviously she had Hashimoto's, a disease, but a regular doctor says, well what if you have Hashimotos diseases?

Speaker 3 (39:09):

Your protocol or your program is going to be the same. Your thyroid numbers are within normal limits at T S H, so I'm going to put you on the same medicine. So that's where she was completely disheartened and lost hope that she could actually get better. So that's where she started looking into functional medicine. She found me and then started working with us. Her antibody levels were like, you know, 1200 or so, very, very high mm-hmm <affirmative>, although thyroid numbers, the T S H was in normal limits. She was taking the medicine. So then the first thing we did was that again, we looked at what are the potential root causes playing a role. So then she had some toxin exposures, like the mold toxins. She moved into this new house five years ago and that's where her symptoms got worse. She was exposed to a lot of stress at different parts in her life, which again was playing a role.

Speaker 3 (39:52):

And plus, you know, she had gut issues, you know, like we found that she had candida infection in her gut. So we made a stepwise plan, you know, like focused on the lifestyle changes, put her on some supplements, kinda addressing all of these and underlying root causes. And slowly and slowly couple of months into our protocol, again, amazing things happen. Her energy came back. She was a busy professional, actually she was running her own private like business, but she was not able to pay attention because she was so tired. But now actually she doubled her business, you know, like she was going on vacations with her kids, kids all the time. She was able to participate in kids' activities, you know, she already lost 11 pounds, you know, like working with us. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and then the biggest was result from that 1100. Within six months her antibodies levels came back to zero.

Speaker 3 (40:37):

Yes. So doctor completely flipped out. She said, I've never seen that happening. I think this is a lab error. I think we need to repeat it. She said, no, I'm working on it. So I believe that. She said, no, I don't believe it. I would like to repeat it. She said, I am not paying for it. She said, I don't. She said, I will. Doctor said I will pay for it, don't worry. Like I'll make sure you do not get charged. She repeated the blood test and again, the antibodies levels were undetectable. Doctor said, I don't know what you're doing, but something you're doing is working. Keep doing that. So she was so happy that finally, you know, like not only my numbers are better, my life is back. She said, you know, this is a complete win-win situation for her now.

Speaker 1 (41:14):

Absolutely. So if you're listening and you're suffering with Hashimoto's or if you've got health concerns, you're tired, overweight, un any unresolved health concerns or symptoms definitely get checked. If you have some of the most common symptoms of thyroid disorders, like being tired or keeping weight on being constipated, losing your hair, having dry skin, brittle nails, anxiety, depression, mood disorders, memory disorders, I mean the list is extremely long. So really for a woman, if you're having any health symptoms, you need to get your thyroid properly checked. And that doesn't mean a standard of care, thyroid profile. It means seven or eight parameters that are done by a doctor who understands root cause identification, who understands root cause resolution like Dr. Gupta. Dr. Gupta has some amazing resources for you. We're gonna put links in the show notes to his book, to his YouTube channel, to his website, and also to his thyroid quiz. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about the thyroid quiz?

Speaker 3 (42:21):

Yeah. So again, you know, like a lot of people are having this question, how do I know what rules root causes I have? So obviously like, you know, we do not have a perfect way, but you know, like based on my kind of research and working with a lot of people, I kind of put together this quiz where people can answer kind of a couple of, or a bunch of questions and that can actually tell them that whether that particular root clause, you know, they should be looking into that or not. So after taking this quiz, they actually, you know, like order those five categories of root causes. They get a score in each category and that can tell them like what multiple categories they need to focus on to actually improve their thyroid and that those are the categories that they might be the major root causes for those people. So very easy quiz, you know, like people can maybe finish off in like five or 10 minutes, but then they get a g great kind of score that way in each category to know if they'd have no idea what root cause might be playing a role.

Speaker 1 (43:14):

Great. Thank you so much for that resource. If you are having any of the symptoms we've been talking about, I encourage you to go to the link that will be in the show notes and take the quiz. Read Dr. Gupta's book. If you've got Hashimoto's, you suspect you've got it. He really knows what he's talking about in terms of identifying and fixing the root causes. Reversing Hashimoto's is possible and it's probable if you take the right steps. So I encourage you to do that. Thank you so much for the work that you're doing, Dr. Gupta, and thank you so much for joining us today.

Speaker 3 (43:48):

Oh, it's a pleasure being over here. I totally like admire the work that you are doing, especially in women health, health space, helping so many people and sharing so much knowledge. You know, like, so I think you're giving hope to millions and millions of women out there that you know they can get their life back. So thank you so much for having me on the show.

Speaker 1 (44:07):

Thank you and thank you listener for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kirin. I hope that you've learned something today that you can put into action to take steps to move your help to the brilliant help that you deserve. It's available to you at any and every age. I look forward to hearing what steps you take and what outcomes you have on social media. So find me at Karen Dunston on Instagram or Facebook, and I will see you next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.

Speaker 2 (44:39):

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

 

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

Welcome to the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we dive deep into the world of hormones and empower you with the knowledge you need to take control of your hormonal health. In today's episode, "Why Fixing Your Insulin Makes Menopause (And Other Things) Magic", we are joined by the amazing Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo. With over 30 years of clinical experience and a wealth of expertise under her belt, Dr. Ritamarie is a true authority on functional health and holistic healing. 

About Our Guest: Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo

Dr. Ritamarie, the founder of the Institute of Nutritional Endocrinology, is passionately committed to transforming our current broken disease-focused system into a true health care system. She believes in finding the root cause of health challenges and using the wisdom of nature combined with modern scientific research to restore balance. A licensed Doctor of Chiropractic with certifications in Acupuncture, Nutrition, Herbal Medicine, and HeartMath®, Dr. Ritamarie specializes in insulin, thyroid, adrenal, and digestive imbalances. She is also a master at using palate-pleasing, whole fresh food as medicine.

As a best-selling author, speaker, and internationally recognized nutrition and functional health authority, Dr. Ritamarie shares her wealth of knowledge through her podcast, Reinvent Healthcare, promoting a global movement for root-cause care.

Key Takeaways: Insulin's Role in Menopause

In this episode, we delve into the critical role insulin plays in menopause and how fixing your insulin can lead to a "magical" menopause journey. Dr. Ritamarie shares her expertise on how balancing insulin levels supports hormone regulation, weight management, and overall well-being during this significant life transition.

Some highlights from our conversation include:

- The connection between insulin resistance and menopausal symptoms 
- How diet and lifestyle changes can dramatically improve your insulin sensitivity 
- The importance of regular exercise and stress management in balancing blood sugar levels 
- How hormone balancing can lead to better sleep, increased energy, and improved quality of life

Dr. Ritamarie's insights will have you feeling inspired, motivated, and more informed about the significant role insulin plays in your hormonal health during menopause and beyond.

Tune In and Transform Your Menopause Journey!

Ready to discover the magic of fixing your insulin during menopause?Join us for this illuminating conversation with Dr. Ritamarie Loscalzo in the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. Don't miss out on these valuable insights and practical advice to help you take control of your hormonal health and make your menopause journey a truly magical experience!  

If you found this episode helpful, be sure to share it with your friends and leave us a review to help other midlife women find the podcast. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an episode!

Until next time, here's to your hormonal health!

Speaker 1 (00:00):

“Don't exchange what you want most or what you want at the moment.” Dr. Rita Marie Loscalzo.

Speaker 2 (00:07):

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

Speaker 1 (01:01):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. My guest today, Dr. Rita Mari Loscalzo. It was one of your favorites in the Stop The Menopause Madness Summit, the Summit 2.0 and the Summit 100 because she's amazing and I love her. She's just a force. She is a force of nature. She has so much passion. She's on purpose. She helps so many people. She's a brilliant wealth of knowledge, a font of knowledge, and she walks the walk and talks the talk. So you're gonna love hearing her talk about a super important topic, insulin resistance and menopause and perimenopause. She talks about why insulin resistance is really an issue for both men and women, males and females at every age. So why should everyone be concerned? She's gonna make sure that you're aware of the tests that you need and how to read them properly.

Speaker 1 (02:01):

Because what your lab says is normal doesn't mean that's what's optimal and you should be shooting for. So she's gonna clarify that. She's gonna help you understand how I know if Dr. Rita Maria is talking to me. She's gonna cover the top strategies you can use if you are having insulin resistance that you can start using today. She gives you some real practical knowledge and you're just gonna love our conversation cuz she's amazing. I will remind you a little bit about Dr. Rina Marie Loscalzo and then we'll get started. She is the founder of the Institute of Nutritional Endocrinology. She's passionately committed to transforming our current broken disease focus system into a true healthcare system where every practitioner is skilled at finding the root cause of health challenges and uses the wisdom of nature combined with modern scientific research to restore balance. Dr. Rita Maria, licensed doctor of chiropractic with certifications in acupuncture, nutrition, herbal medicine and heart math specializes in insulin, thyroid and adrenal and digestive imbalances. She's also a master at using palate pleasing whole fresh food as medicine and is a bestselling author, speaker and internationally recognized nutrition and functional health authority with over 30 years of clinical experience. Her podcast Reinvent Healthcare provides health and wellness practitioners around the globe to be part of the movement to provide root cause care to people in need. Please help me welcome Dr. Rita Mari Scalzo to the show. I'm super

Speaker 3 (03:42):

Excited to be here. I love having our conversations and just really sharing valuable information that helps people get their health back, get their lives back. So thank you for inviting. I

Speaker 1 (03:52):

Know, right, right. Oh I'm so, it's always a great conversation with you and I don't even know where to start cuz there's so many things that I would love to talk to you about. But I know we're gonna dive into insulin and menopause. I guess I would start with when did you first realize that this was a colossal problem for women as they age, that insulin resistance was an issue?

Speaker 3 (04:16):

Well, what I first realized is that it's an, it's a problem at any age and that it's mostly ignored for so long that it becomes serious as we get to menopause. Do you know what I mean? It's like it's a problem in young people, it's a problem in children, right? But nobody's measuring it properly until it gets like it could be 30 years in the making and then all of a sudden somebody hits menopause and boom, right? They're like suddenly off the charts with their fasting blood sugars and they're having all the highs and lows and we suddenly say, oh, this person has insulin resistance or even diabetes and it gets worse at menopause. So part of why it gets worse is menopause is the cumulative effect, right? Part of it is that throughout time people are eating a bunch of garbage, being exposed to a lot of chemicals, not being able to detoxify their environment, having a lot of stress.

Speaker 3 (05:08):

Their cortisol levels are through the roof which raises blood sugar, which then affects insulin and insulin resistance. And it's suddenly like, like everything else, it hits the fan at menopause. Cuz now there's this serious change in hormones. Mm-Hmm <affirmative> and lack of estrogen and then the lack of estrogen, right? Estrogen affects the, the insulin receptors, ex estrogen affects the U utilization of ES insulin. And then when we have this blah blah blah <laugh> that happens at perimenopause and then the blah that happens at menopause, you know, the weight dropping down, then we have a problem. So when did I realize this? I mean I started realizing this in patients a long time ago. Like, I don't know, probably 20 years ago, maybe even more. A lot of the problems that my patients were having were related to insulin

Speaker 1 (05:58):

Imbalance. So yeah, you've known it for a long time. I came in through the traditional route where in mainstream medicine, you know, insulin isn't a thing. We don't check it unless you're diabetic and you know, the parameters that we use are just, are wholly and adequate. Yeah. Can you talk a little bit about that? Cuz people still get confused with my recommendations for monitoring your insulin. And I always say insulin is that loose thread on the knotted ball of yarn. I used to knit when I was in college and my, I had this cat and the cat used to bat my yarn all over the place and then I would've to untangle it after my knitting session. And you know, how do you untangle a knotted bowl of yarn? Cuz that's what your hormones are doing by the time you get to menopause is you find the loose thread. And I always say that the loose thread is insulin. So when you mention that it's not being tested properly and really it affects everyone all ages, which is so true, diabetes is increasing in grade school children to epidemic proportion. So what should people be getting tested for?

Speaker 3 (07:05):

Well, first of all, I think everybody needs to have a baseline insulin tested. Of course we, we do fasting glucose, that's you learned in medical school, do fasting glucose and as long as it's below one 20, they're fine. Don't worry about it. But we should be testing fasting insulin. We absolutely should be. Because you know, kids who, like some kids can go hours and hours playing and then they, you know, they don't have to eat and other kids are like, they're, you know, crazy because they haven't eaten in a while. High levels of insulin show themselves first as that I can't make it more than a couple of hours between meals, right? Mm-Hmm. <affirmative>. And so I think we should be testing it the, the minute any kid gets tested, right? I think usually you go to a doctor and you have your annual exams.

Speaker 3 (07:45):

But here's the thing, the good and not good, you might have learned in medical school that anything up to 19 was good. If you look at the labs, it says up to 19 for fasting, insulin is fine. That's a serious, serious problem. And when we look at more of the functional ranges, two to five, and ideally two to three, like if somebody's really in good control, their fasting insulin should be between two and three. And I can tell you how many people I have worked with that they come in with fasting insulins in the twenties, some people even in the thirties, and they've been told, oh you're fine. It's not a problem. You're not diabetic but you're heading to be become diabetic. So it's really important. A lot of people say test a1c, there's a lot of, I like a1c, hemoglobin A1C to test like your averages of your glucose over time.

Speaker 3 (08:32):

But there's so many variations in that, like in athletes and if you're anemic and all this, where it could be a false reading, insulin is not gonna be a false reading. If you have a good fasting glucose and your fasting insulin is high, you are heading for a disaster. And it may take 10, 20, even 30 years before disaster hits. But meanwhile all the metabolic changes that are caused by high levels of insulin, which is stiffening of the arteries, which is blood pressure changes, changes in thyroid reception, you know, the receptors for thyroid, all that stuff is happening over time. And then suddenly the person gets DIA diagnosis as diabetic and then suddenly they have all these problems. And for some people they have all the diabetic challenges before they even become diabetic. I had one guy had the retinopathies and they say, oh what, what's going on? His, his A1C was 10. Nobody ever caught that cuz his fasting glucose was 95. Right? Yeah. So these people are being missed.

Speaker 1 (09:32):

Yeah. You know, it's so true. When I did my fellowship training in the anti-aging metabolic and functional medicine, we had this one professor, can't think of his name right this second, but I, I'll never forget sitting there watching him and him kind of going through all the things you we are talking about and kind of saying how mainstream medicine manages it. You know, they check a fasting blood glucose, it's 95, they don't get excited. Of course we functional people get very excited and they just watch it kind of go up and up and up and they never check anything else. And then all of a sudden people have complications of diabetes even though they don't have a diagnosis of diabetes. And then they look and oh, we did a hemoglobin a1c, you have diabetes, you get to wear the team jersey, you get to stick your finger for the rest of your life and take these medications. And it's like you get to join the team. But why was nobody looking to see that you were being recruited for 5, 10, 20 years?

Speaker 3 (10:28):

So, because it's not the medical model, right? The medical model is based on treating disease and there's some great tools for, you know, broken bones and surgery. I mean there's some good tools for massive infections, but we're not looking for helping people prevent disease, not looking to help people be healthy. It's looking for disease and then we can treat it. I watch things, you know, when I do blood chemistries, you probably do the same. You map 'em out. And so when you're looking at somebody's, let's say their liver enzymes, right? And you're going, oh, your liver enzymes are fine, but they're five points higher than they were last year. They're still in ideal range, but they were, oh, and the year before they were five points lower than that and you, what's going on? What kind of toxicity are you dealing with? Do you have mold in your house? Do you mm-hmm <affirmative> have, you know, some crazy stuff that you're dealing with. But that's not what medicine, mainstream conventional medicine is based on. That's what functional medicine is based on.

 

Speaker 1 (11:24):

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

Speaker 3 (11:36):

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

Speaker 1 (11:42):

Overall? Well when we're talking about for insulin management and then also if you can give the optimal values what they should be looking for. Sure. Yeah. Fast fasting and yeah,

Speaker 3 (11:53):

Glucose should be in, you know, low eighties, you know, up to 85. Could be in the seventies, right? If it's below that, then you wanna make sure, oh, if you're on a keto diet, it's probably gonna be in the sixties or seventies, no big deal. Somebody's eating a ton of carbohydrates and they're fasting glucose is in the sixties, then they probably have some kind of craziness like this going on and that's why it's so low. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And then fasting insulin should be between two and five, ideally two to three hemoglobin a1c and ideally it should be right around five, you know? Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>, give or take a little bit, but right around five they're saying okay, you're 5.7 or you're not quite 5.8. So you're not insulin resistance yet. Oh you're 5.8 now you're insulin resistant. I mean it's, it's crazy. Right? So we're wanting them to be around five, which is an average glucose of about 96, 97, 98, something like that.

Speaker 3 (12:42):

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

Speaker 1 (14:06):

No, I think that we humans like to think that we're not affecting our bodies with our habits and things that we do like drinking. So it is kind of like you've got this crystal ball when you do do the GT and you see it's elevated and you say, were you drinking at a party? And they're like, were you spying on me? Yes. Your body does notice alcohol. Like talk like let's just have a little diversion. Talk about alcohol for a minute. Oh what <laugh> what would you want people to know about alcohol in their health? Because everybody wants to say, well the French drink two glasses of red wine a day, they have no cardiovascular disease. I can drink it with impunity. I'm not doing anything to myself. So what are your thoughts on that? That,

Speaker 3 (14:51):

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

Speaker 3 (15:36):

Like, I gotta go get my coffee. If you gotta go get your coffee, there's something metabolically out of balance that you need to correct. If you have a cup of coffee every now and then, cuz you go out with a friend and you just want the taste of it. That's very different. Same thing with alcohol. Every now and then you grab a glass of wine. But there were some studies that showed that even two glasses of wine a day a week, not a day, a week increase the risk of breast cancer by 14%. That's huge. I always say to people wish you like better your breasts or your coffee, your breasts or your, or your your alcohol. You know, I kind of like my breasts and I wanna keep them where they're, I don't, yeah. I don't wanna them for the, the 30 seconds on my tongue of pleasure with alcohol or, or caffeine.

Speaker 3 (16:20):

So I'm against it. It affects the lining of your gut. It affects the absorption, it affects the, certainly the microbiome because it's like sugar. It affects the liver and it gets absorbed like sugar. So it's like right. Sugar right into the bloodstream. So it, it can of course lead to fatty liver. That's what we see. And we're seeing a lot of people who are not alcoholics these days that have fatty liver. Like I, I saw a statistic like 49 or 50% of the population has fatty liver. Wow. I mean it's truly preventable. Right? So I don't like alcohol and it affects brains, it kills brain cells and it affects your, of course it affects your cognition and your ability to drive or you know, to think clearly. And we use it to lose inhibition. And I'm like, why don't we just lose inhibition <laugh>, why don't we just, why don't we just like do the work so that you feel comfortable with who you are to just be who you are and be silly and fun and serious when you need to. Right. But to be able to turn it on and off because if you're drinking, you can't turn it back on. You can't turn your brain back on.

Speaker 1 (17:24):

Right. That's right. I'm curious what you think about this cuz you know, I have similar unpopular views about alcohol and health and I, you know, I just don't drink. But I have some patients who they really like it because they have a certain degree of social anxiety. And so I've started recommending that they use some form of T H C B gummies or droplets or something like that. And I'm wondering if you have any opinion on that because I say it won't affect your health as negatively.

Speaker 3 (17:55):

Yeah. I don't really, oh, so you said T hc not C, B D or did you say

Speaker 1 (18:00):

Right T HC tc so that you,

Speaker 3 (18:03):

Because it's outta my jurisdiction to even prescribe something like that. Mine you

Speaker 3 (18:07):

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

Speaker 1 (19:16):

It'll come to you. Yeah. It'll

Speaker 3 (19:17):

Come to me. But it's basically a byproduct of hemoglobin production and the body in certain people can't get rid of it and it builds up and that creates a lot of the social, an anxiety and V6 and zinc help to eliminate that. And you can do a urine test to see if there's a problem there and you can address that. Right. Some of the other things with social anxiety might be, you know, old traumas and emotional things and working with it on that end. But as a temporary kind of bandaid solution, I think they're probably better off if they can get that non illegally and not and safely, let's just say safely. Right?

Speaker 1 (19:56):

I meant legally I wasn't saying illegal. So yeah. It's just something I've been playing around with because the alcohol is a toxicant and most people don't realize that. And you know, you can, if you drink too much, you will die. It's, it's a toxicant. So if you're trying to get your health straightened out best not to do that. But let's jump back to insulin. All right. So we've talked about the test, we've talked about what they should be looking for, but what are the symptoms that a woman might notice? Say she's been going to the doctor, she really doesn't have health problems, but then she's noticing she's gaining weight around her middle and then of course the cycles are getting less and less and then eventually stop and you know, the top symptoms of perimenopause and menopause where you're losing your sex drive and maybe getting some hair loss and some memory and and cognitive functioning are going down. What would key her in that? Dr. Rita? Marie's talking to me. I need to look at this. I know you think everyone should I do too. Yeah, I think everybody

Speaker 3 (21:00):

Should, but what would, yeah,

Speaker 1 (21:01):

It's not convinced. So

Speaker 3 (21:03):

Everybody's not convinced and by the way it's pylori.

Speaker 1 (21:06):

Well that would be a zebra, but Yeah, you should, you can.

Speaker 3 (21:09):

It would be, but it's not as, and not as much of a zebra as you think. Right. It's actually more common than we think. And I've done the, the blood test, not the blood. It's a urine test.

Speaker 1 (21:18):

Right. So looking for other causes of social anxiety. Totally agree with you.

Speaker 3 (21:22):

You wanna look at that, right? We always wanna have, here's the thing, we wanna get to the cause. We wanna correct the imbalances that's causing things. And then we want to, in the interim or while we're working on the cause, we wanna look at the the least invasive symptom management that we can come up with. Absolutely. The least invasive. So going back to that, how would they know? Well they're craving sugar after they eat a big meal, they're still hungry and they want more, usually something sweet. They can't go for more than a few hours without eating or after eating. They feel, you know, when they do, they feel kind of, you know, spacey and crazy. They're under a lot of stress and that cortisol, you know, causes it and they're gaining that weight around the middle is a real clear sign. If you're gaining weight around the middle, it's very often a sign of insulin resistance. Right. So all of those things, what else? You know that fatigue, you know, you, me, you mentioned that, right? All of those things add up, right? I'm tired all the time. I never used to be, I'm craving sugar. I can't get full after a meal. I can't make it long spaces between meals. All those things are indications that, that you need to check this out as well. Yeah. But it's not just garden variety menopause.

Speaker 1 (22:32):

Right. I agree. But, and I do think all women should have this <laugh> done every year.

Speaker 3 (22:39):

Every year it's part of their $35 test. Come on. If the doctor won't do it, you get it on your own $35. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (22:46):

Right. Okay. So now, and the truth is, in my experience, more women than not have some degree of insulin resistance as they approach 50 and past 50. Yeah. So once you know you have a problem, how do they go about addressing it?

Speaker 3 (23:04):

Well, it's all the things we teach in general, right. It's addressing the, the diet. It's addressing the lifestyle. It's addressing the stress, addressing the sleep spacing of the meals movement. And with the food, I love getting people to either get a C G M. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>, a continuous glucose monitor. So you can actually see, oh I just ate this meal, you know, oh this meal kept me nice and steady. Or you just poke the thing. People don't like to do that as much. But you know, when you poke, poke you have a meal, you test your blood sugar beforehand with the finger prick you have the meal. And then I usually have people test right after because sometimes it starts to go up and then every half hour or so, 20, I like to say 15 to 20 minutes because you wanna catch the peak.

Speaker 3 (23:46):

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

Speaker 3 (24:37):

Right. And then change the diet and get rid of the refined stuff. Get rid of the sugars. Even a lot of people, I'm one of them, don't do well with grains of any kind. Yeah. I don't do well with grains of any kind. It could just causes my, I mean checked every single one wild rice is O okay. It doesn't go up as high. Very sweet fruit. I figured out that if I eat very sweet fruit, I have to eat it with a lot of greens to slow down the absorption and then I can have my mango. So then I can have, or I've have a mango with an avocado that will dissipate that high peak. But learning how to eat the foods, the good healthy foods that raise glucose, find out what your trigger foods are and then you eliminate them. And for everybody it's gonna be sugar.

Speaker 3 (25:20):

Example, my husband and I go out for our anniversary uhhuh. We go to a restaurant that used to have this amazing menu and they've changed it a lot. So we're picking and choosing and I go, oh the Brussels sprouts with sriracha should be fine. We taste it, it's a little sweet. I'm like, there's probably maple syrup or you know, balsamic glaze or something in this. Right. I ate it anyway just to see. And my blood sugars went up to like 1 35. He decides to get the crab cakes with breaded crab cakes. And I'm like, that's crazy. His went up to 1 72.

Speaker 1 (25:55):

Oh my goodness.

Speaker 3 (25:56):

Okay. So it's just, we learn and he's going, oops, I guess I'm not gonna do that again. I thought I could get away with it after all the good food I've been eating. Like we all have a different genetic tendency and some people can get away with it for longer and other people can't. So I

Speaker 1 (26:10):

Love that you mentioned your husband cuz I don't believe I've met him, but I don't think so. But he eats healthy kind of like you do and low glycemic. And

Speaker 3 (26:20):

He does. He does. And he makes most of our food. So he, you know, and he'll, he'll do something he'll like when we're out. He'll have, he will have gluten when we go out. He'll have a little dairy when we go out. I don't wanna eat any of those things. Right. And he is not as strict as I am. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So, but when we're home and he's exercising, like he goes out for a 10 mile bike ride or a 10 mile hike or he's exercising like crazy and he has diabetes in his family, his doc, his father was on insulin type two, but his pan pancreas wore out. So I know he has that genetic tendency. I have diabetes in my family, but also I know from testing I looked at my genes, I look at genes and my genes are like, yeah, I'm not good with <laugh> with handling sugars.

Speaker 1 (27:03):

Yeah. My my family, me and my family either. I'm just wondering because a lot of the women I work with, cuz they only work with women, once they get the C G M and they really start learning about their blood sugar and they change how they eat, then they complain, my husband won't eat this way. Or that's sometimes an objection to why they don't even wanna do it in the first place. I can't cook two meals. My family will never accept no grains, no gluten, no sugar, no this, that and the other. I'm wondering how you coach people through that.

Speaker 3 (27:36):

Absolutely. So it's not a matter of cooking two meals. It's a matter of making side dishes for the people who will eat it. So if we're making like a big stir fry, right. I don't eat the rice. If he makes rice, I don't eat the rice. If he makes a big, you know, a big kind of vegetable casserole or roasted vegetables or whatever else, and he'll eat, he'll eat fish with that or he'll eat potatoes with that. I won't eat that. And that's not his most common thing. He does that periodically more for holidays. But we just get along that way. We, we do eat differently. He'll put balsamic vinegar on his salad. I won't, he likes canned arti cho cards. I don't like them. I I just don't like them that way. I want a fresh artichoke if I'm going to eat artichoke. So there's things we don't do, but you make a core meal that is healthy for everyone.

Speaker 3 (28:24):

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

Speaker 1 (28:55):

Yeah. Yeah. It is possible and it can be easy, but I think it does require a little thought and it's thought it's thoughts that people haven't thunk before. So yes, <laugh> it's a new skill. Yes. But I agree it can be done. I wanna ask you about the role of exercise or supplements for helping out with insulin resistance at in perimenopause and menopause.

Speaker 3 (29:20):

Absolutely. So yeah, trained muscles are much more insulin sensitive than untrained muscles. Right. So we just wanna, we wanna work out, you wanna work out within your capacity, right? So somebody who's been a marathon runner and is running five miles a day, that's no big deal. Somebody who's been a couch potato all their life, you don't tell 'em to go out running all day. But you, you also have to look at their state of their adrenals. And most people, by the time they hit me menopause and perimenopause, their adrenals are shot because of all the stressors that they've been under for so long. So we wanna take that into account. So I say the amount of exercise that when you do it, you feel good and you wanna go do it again the next day versus I can't exercise again for three days. That's right.

Speaker 3 (30:04):

Burst exercise is awesome. I have this little thing that I have keep in my office behind me and it's a little stair stepper and you go up and down, up and down, up and down as fast as you can for 30 seconds. And if you do that multiple times throughout the day, the burst training has been shown to increase insulin sensitivity so much better than aerobics. Or the same, right. If you do, 30 seconds is like 30 minutes of aerobics in terms of the effect on insulin sensitivity, of course you don't get the same cardiovascular effects. So doing both. So exercise is super critical. And supplementation, there's certain supplements we know help with insulin sensitivity and they tend to be things that get worn out over time. Right. And or depleted in the soils where people don't generally eat a lot of. So magnesium, magnesium super important for improving insulin sensitivity.

Speaker 3 (30:55):

And we know it's important for hormonal balance. I always put people on magnesium in the second half of their menstrual cycles because it helps with mobilizing and eliminating the extra hormones. And that's what happens in perimenopause. Like it's not that the hormones just suddenly drop, it's a blink and the the levels are so inconsistent. So if we improve the elimination of those, we're gonna do better. Right. Yeah. The, the conjugated, you know, the things that are already metabolized. So what else is good? Chromium is really important. It's really good for that. And we're depleted in our soils. So people benefit from the addition of chromium fatty acids like e b A and d H a, especially D H A has been shown to be insulin sensitizing. And then there's other little foods that I like to throw in at Berberine is an herb. It's a, it's an extract from an herb of like Oregon grape root and golden seal, golden rod.

Speaker 3 (31:46):

There's a bunch of different things. But berberine has been shown to be very helpful for reversing the effects of insulin resistance much safer than metformin. It's been studied alongside mess metformin. And then some foods, like my talking mushrooms traditionally used to help stabilize blood sugar. So much so that some people who have been on it, that have been doing my programs with me, they get to a point where they have to stop taking it at bedtime because their sugars go way down overnight and it wakes 'em up. Wow. That much. That's amazing. Yep. Yeah. I have a handout that you know, you could, you might, I might wanna give you to share with your listeners and it's basically, it's like a six page chart which has pictures of the, of the different foods and herbs and their mechanism and how it affects the insulin. And I can certainly get that to you and you can share that that with your people cuz it's just a really

Speaker 1 (32:40):

Nice I sure would love that.

Speaker 3 (32:42):

And chocolate. Yeah.

Speaker 1 (32:43):

I wasn't aware of the maitake mushrooms. That's fascinating. I'll have to look into that. Yeah. So yes, there are lots of foods, supplements you can add exercise for sure. Changing the way you eat that I, I'd say that's the three pronged stool. But what about the fourth prong in terms of, you know, I've had some women get the cgm, the continuous glucose monitor and then they freak out because they say, Kiran, I didn't even eat anything and my blood sugar went up. And I say, well what were you thinking about? Oh well I was upset at my husband because X, Y, and Z happened. Right? And I go, oh, so we have to have the conversation about how emotions affect your blood sugar. Yes, yes. Can you talk a little bit about that?

Speaker 3 (33:28):

Yeah, that's the stress response. I call it the candy bar eating effect of stress. It's like your sugar goes up as if you ate a candy bar and you didn't have the fun of eating the candy bar. You just got to yell at somebody or get all upset. So yeah. So when the body produces cortisol in response to stress stressful emotions or a stressful situation with someone else, the cortisol is meant to help us run away from tigers. Right. Get safe. So it mobilizes stored sugar. So it'll go to the glycogen stores which are in the liver and the muscles and it'll release those stored sugars so that you can run away. But if there's nothing to run away from, then they just raise your blood sugar and it doesn't go down. So I always tell people if you do have a stressful situation and it raises your blood sugar, go for a little walk, do some, you know, squats at your desk or do some kind of exercise to burn the calories to burn those extra sugars that just got released into your bloodstream. So it's a big thing. I always have people do either meditation or heart math or both or you know, other kinds of things to breathing, breathe techniques, <laugh>, you know, just breathe.

Speaker 1 (34:34):

Just breathe. And I love these quotes that you shared with me before we started that I wanna share. So I wanna talk about them. I'll kind of lay 'em out. You have every choice Matters, which I love. Don't exchange what you want most for what you want in the moment. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And nothing tastes as good as healthy feels. I love all of these. Do you wanna elaborate on any of them?

Speaker 3 (35:00):

Yeah. So we get to make choices all day long. Way more choices than we even are consciously aware that we're making. We just make them right. Are you gonna get up in the morning and meditate? Are you gonna go back to sleep? Are you gonna get up and have a donut and a coffee? Are you gonna go for a run? Like all these choices and every minute throughout the day we have a choice to make and every choice matters and how our bodies biochemically react and how we look and how we feel and how we show up in the world. So every choice matters. The other one don't exchange what you want most for what you want in the moment. One of the things we do with people right at the start of working with them is get them in touch with what their big why.

Speaker 3 (35:39):

What do you, why do you wanna get your help back? What matters most to you? Right? Does it matter that your hands are all crumpled up and you wanna play the piano again and you know, or does it, you wanna be able to play around with your grandchildren? Do you wanna go have a nice, a nice vacation with your partner and hike and not be restricted? And if that's your what you want most and you're sitting there and you have a choice to have some chocolate chip cookies and some cake and some ice cream, you have to think in terms of what do I want most? Is this gonna lead me to the health and the energy that I need for all those things I want most? And you have to say, well nope, I guess not. I'm gonna choose something different. So that's where it means you're exchanging it cuz you're actually saying, oh well I'll just have this. Well you're exchanging what you want most is energy and freedom in your body for 30 seconds on your tongue of chocolate chip cookies or whatever. So that's the other one. And then the third one is, nothing tastes as good as healthy fields cuz you're like, oh, it just tastes so good. But if you've ever felt like truly healthy and unstoppable and like you have energy and stamina and you can do what you want whenever you want, that there's nothing that tastes better to me that I would exchange that for.

Speaker 1 (36:48):

You know, you are the vision of unstoppable, the title of your book, and you're just like a powerhouse of passion and purpose and performance and just what you do for people. You're a force. And can you talk a little bit about, I think this quote, speak to it and everything you've shared today really speaks to it. But talk a little bit about your philosophy on life.

Speaker 3 (37:16):

Wow. My philosophy on life.

Speaker 1 (37:19):

Yeah.

Speaker 3 (37:19):

Fun is super important. Pleasure is super important. Enjoyment. I wanna be able to enjoy every moment. I wanna be able to have the freedom to say, oh yeah, let's go on that hike and not say, oh, I'm too tired, my knees hurt, whatever. So my philosophy is being aligned with purpose, being aligned with nature. I mean, I'd much rather be outside than in here, you know, in in air conditioned room with lights on versus out there. But you know, bringing the computer out and recording a podcast outdoors gets a little tricky. So I don't, I come inside, but I'd much rather be outside. I'd much rather be out there convening with nature and growing vegetables and you know, there's just things that, that's my philosophy on life. I, I wanna be, I wanna be outside more than inside. I wanna be active more than inactive. And I wanna, I wanna have joy and facilitate others to experience the joy that they deserve and they can have.

Speaker 1 (38:18):

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

Speaker 3 (39:16):

Yeah. So the elixir, you know, I, I love herbs and I love drinks and I love creating these things. And I realized, I don't know when, this was like 10 years ago and I started to think, well then, you know, the magical drinks of the you know the ages, right? So what can we put together? So I put together some hormone balancing elixirs. So they're, they've got herbs and mushroom powders. If you're not allergic, you'll leave them out. I always tell people they say, I can't make your thing cuz I'm allergic to that ingredient. Eat it out. <Laugh>. Doesn't matter. Right. So it's a really nice little book that has a base recipe and then several like for energy and for stamina. And then there's a list in there of the different herbs and spices and things you can substitute in based on what hormones you're trying to balance. Awesome.

Speaker 1 (40:01):

Yeah. Thank

Speaker 3 (40:02):

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

Speaker 1 (40:45):

Mason jar.

Speaker 3 (40:46):

Yeah. With a lid. And then at the top of the lid I have the name of what's in there. So I have my EPS and ashwagandha and, and my taki and my, all these different herbs and they're in my kitchen and I have the pot that I can make hot water in and I can just like pour it in and press the button and make hot water. And then I put it all together and the elixir recipes show you how to flavor them and how to spice them. And they're really good. The other one is the breakfast. Most people screw it up when it comes to breakfast. Right. <laugh>, orange juice, coffee, a donut, a bagel a a croissant or if they're really being good oatmeal donut, a hormone balancing breakfast. Right,

Speaker 1 (41:22):

Right, right, right.

Speaker 3 (41:24):

So I put together menus like, here's the five components that you need to have in your meal to start the day. And whether you eat breakfast in the morning or you fast until noon or two, like I sometimes I haven't eaten anything yet today I'll have my breakfast at two. I will include all of those components in my meal to keep my blood sugar steady throughout the day to keep my hormone steady throughout the day. And so I have that and then there's a bunch of recipes in there. So it's really fun.

Speaker 1 (41:52):

Nice. Thank you so much for those. Yes. Breakfast, we really do, we screw up Breakfast in America <laugh>. So we need breakfast rescue. So thank you for that. And thank you for the elixir. And we will have the link in the show notes so you can find it there and tell everyone where else they can find you and connect with you.

Speaker 3 (42:15):

Absolutely. So dr rita marie.com is my main website if you're a health practitioner, I have one called I n E Method, but it's linked from the main site. And then I'm on Instagram, Facebook, where else am I on regularly? Linkedin. And you just look up Dr. Rita Marie there. And then I have a YouTube channel. It's Dr. Rita Marie's Functional Health channel. And I post there, I usually do a live there once a week and I have probably seven, 800 out there. And I have a podcast called Reinvent Healthcare, mainly geared towards health practitioners, functional medicine doctors, nurses, health coaches, et cetera. But a lot of non, a lot of lay people listen in because it's just full of deep media information. And you were on there. Yes,

Speaker 1 (43:00):

We talked. Yes, I was. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (43:01):

Yeah, we did adrenal sex what are we talking about? Menopause Adrenal connection. So yes, it's den healthcare.com.

Speaker 1 (43:09):

Yes. Well check out Dr. Rina Marie and all those places. Definitely go to the show notes, click the link and download those valuable resources. We really can't get enough information about how to eat properly for perimenopause, menopause, how to balance our hormones. It really is, if you've heard me talk, hormones are the foundation of a woman's health. So if you don't get that right, you won't get anything else. Right. So get that right. For sure. Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Rita Marie,

Speaker 3 (43:40):

Thank you.

Speaker 1 (43:41):

And thank you for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Hopefully you've learned something today that you will put into action to start moving your hormones into a balanced direction. I look forward to hearing from you on social media about exactly what you've done and the results that you've gotten. I hope you have a wonderful week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (44:08):

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

 

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Get Dr. Ritamarie's Hormone Hacking Breakfast Menus - CLICK HERE.https://doctorritamarie.isrefer.com/go/HHBM/Dunston/

 

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If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe, rate, and review The Hormone Prescription Podcast on your preferred podcast platform. Your support helps us reach even more listeners, allowing them to benefit from our expert advice and knowledge. ✨

 

 

ALIGNED as F*ck: Transforming Your Inner Assholes (like Anxiety) into Allies

Join us for this empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we dive deep into the power of transforming anxiety into a powerful ally in our lives with clinical professional counselor, Lynn Dutrow. Discover how Lynn's unique perspective and practical strategies can help midlife women turn their inner struggles into incredible strengths.

Guest Details

Name: Lynn Dutrow

Credentials: Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor (LCPC), Author, and Compassionate AssKicker

Background: Psychology, Education, Coaching, and Motorcycle Sales (a story for another day)

Lynn specializes in supporting Responsible Rebels (aka Brave Small Business Owners, Empathic Entrepreneurs, and Purpose-Fueled Professionals) in enjoying their success with less stress. She's also the author of the highly sought-after book, *ALIGNED as F*ck: Transforming Your Inner Assholes (like Anxiety) into Allies.*

In this heart-to-heart conversation, we explore Lynn's personal journey dealing with anxiety, her unique approach to overcoming mental barriers, and how she now helps others find peace and purpose in their lives.

Key Takeaways and Lessons

- The importance of acknowledging and confronting our anxieties and inner struggles

- Practical tips and strategies for transforming anxiety into a powerful ally

- How women in midlife can harness their anxiety for personal and professional growth

- The role hormones may play in our anxiety levels and response

- Techniques that promote self-awareness, acceptance, and healing

If you're a midlife woman who's ready to turn anxiety into a source of empowerment and growth, this episode is not to be missed! Tune in to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and get inspired by Lynn's relatable stories, powerful insights, and practical tools to embrace your anxiety and unleash your potential.

Remember, when you're ALIGNED as F*ck, you are unstoppable!

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude.” Oprah Winfrey, stay tuned. Cause Lynn Dutrow is gonna teach you how to get aligned as f you and how to transform your inner anxiety into allies.

Speaker 2 (00:24):

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

Speaker 1 (01:17):

Hi everybody. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Today we're gonna dive into anxiety again because it is such an important topic for women over 40. There are physical problems including hormonal imbalances, like hormonal poverty that can contribute to anxiety, but there are also mental thought processes that we can have habitually that can cause us to spiral into anxiety. And it makes it very difficult for us to actually achieve what we want to in life, like getting our health straight or doing the things we want with our career or relationships when we're stuck in anxiety. Cuz it's really a colossal waste of energy. As someone who suffered with anxiety in the past myself and sometimes also in the present, it's something that I think can't be talked about enough. More women than not suffer with this.

Speaker 1 (02:13):

Also men. So maybe you'll learn something in the episode today that will really help shed some light. My guest today is a licensed clinical professional counselor and she has a lot of experience in that area. She switched over to coaching. She's gonna tell you why and what the benefits of having a coach are over having a traditional therapist, particularly when it comes to anxiety. She's really action-oriented and we're gonna talk about that quote from Oprah. She's got a couple other great ones from Socrates and Heric Colitis that really get to the crux of what anxiety is all about it. You really have some unique and powerful tools that you can start using today to transform that ruminative thought process that's going on in your brain that really keeps you from living life fully and achieving what's possible for you. So I'll tell you a little bit about her and then we'll get started.

Speaker 1 (03:08):

Lynn Dutrow is a licensed clinical professional counselor. She's an author and compassionate ask kicker with a background in psychology, education, coaching and motorcycle sales, and that's a story for another day. She specializes in supporting the responsible rebels in enjoying their success with less stress. The responsible rebels are brave, smart business owners, empathic entrepreneurs and purpose fueled professionals, people just like you. She is the author of Aligned as. And I will say this is an explicit episode because Lynn speaks, frankly, she curses. So we've marked the episode as such, so if cursing bothers you, we don't have too much, but if it bothers you, have this episode or not play it when there are. She's the author of Aligned As, transforming Your Inner, like Anxiety Into Allies. Please help me welcome Lynn Dutrow to the show.

Speaker 3 (04:05):

Thank you. I'm honored to be here. I'm looking forward to our conversation. So

Speaker 1 (04:08):

One of the first questions I have for you is you're a licensed clinical professional counselor, but now you predominantly do coaching and help people get aligned as we're gonna talk about that. But how did you make the transformation? What made you decide to make the transformation from clinical counseling to coaching?

Speaker 3 (04:34):

So there's, there's a few things that factored into that. One of them simply being, I like to tell people what to do more than, than just the whole tradition, like how does that make you feel? And the also the ability to go beyond what felt like constraints of a typical or traditional counseling. So I do combine, I I really combine both of them. I tell people that I kind of came out of the womb being a good listener and so it's just a natural progression to work in the helping field, but it just has felt more and more like the coaching aspect of it, being able to be a partner with people and not just say, okay, like going back into the healing part, I'm more action oriented. So it's like, okay, this is going on now how do we get you to where things can be easier in how you're doing things?

Speaker 3 (05:30):

So rather than spending all the time in going back and, and looking at like, where did all of this come from? It's okay, what's going on now and how can we take action steps to get you to be living the life that you really wanna be living? So that's the shortest version that I have. why, why coaching appeals to my style more so than traditional counseling. So, and I think I also got started getting a lot of people who just weren't really looking for counseling, but they wanted a partner. They wanted someone to help them understand how anxiety and their other inner were impacting them. So I tend to get people with more high functioning anxiety, which isn't even a DSM diagnosis. So that there's the, there's where you talk, start talking about the constraints of where you, if you're doing counseling, there's the diagnosing and all of that too. So rather help people along rather than get caught in all of that. Yeah,

Speaker 1 (06:30):

I think it's an important topic for people like you to discuss because I think the average person is pretty confused right about now because there's so many different degrees that people can have. They can have a social work degree, they can have a marital and family counseling degree, they can have a be a clinical psychologist, they can have a PhD, they can have a master's, PhD, master's, all the different credentials. And there are so many different types of coaches out there and it's not regulated. So there's no standardization and I think people are confused. But one thing I think women are not confused about is that anxiety is a problem for the majority of us.

Speaker 3 (07:13):

Absolutely. We all have it in one form, form

Speaker 1 (07:16):

Another. Why, why do we, why do we all have anxiety? Lynn, please tell us why.

Speaker 3 (07:23):

Because anxiety's actually part of our survival system. It's there for a reason. It has just been given way too much power and we don't live in the same world where we have to be concerned about the Sabre twos tiger creeping up on us and having our survival system keep us alive. But that same survival system still there. And so the more comfortable we make our lives, the more that survival system and anxiety in particular over does its job. It's making things that aren't actually a threat to our survival, into things to react to. And there's so many things now that I was just talking to someone this morning about how we've made being a woman, being a mother, being a wife, all of those things into like an Olympic sport. And then so then you get all of the, your, your perfectionist gets involved in all of that and you know, we just keep trying to achieve and strive and do all of these things. And so anxiety's there all along the way going, oh, you're not doing it right, you're not doing it right. And ooh, let's panic about this even though there's nothing to panic about. So it's there. And the way that I work with clients is to have to acknowledge and accept it first, and then we're gonna work on changing your relationship to it so that, as I say, you teach it better social skills, get it to actually be working for you instead of against you.

Speaker 1 (08:55):

Well that sounds great and hopefully we can do that today. Give some people an idea of how they can do that. But I just, before we move on to that topic, why have we made our lives into Olympic sport? Why are we such perfectionist? Why do we have to be the best mom, the best wife, the best worker, the best business, the best everything? Where in the world did this come from that now all of a sudden we have to be the best? I don't think that it used to be that way. So what happened? I

Speaker 3 (09:25):

Don't think it used to be that way either. I think that there are a few things that have contributed. Technology is one of them because we can now see what people are doing all over the world for 24, you know, 24 hours a day, seven, seven days a week. And we didn't used to be able to do that. I mean, you know, just as far back as, you know, my parents' generation, they didn't have a television. They could tell what people were doing, you know, from radio or reading, you know, or those sorts of things, but they just got about their day. They went and did whatever they needed to do. And I don't think people were comparing themselves in the way they are now. And so that's, I think a big contributing factor is that, you know, any moment of the day you can pick up your little rectangle that we, you carry around with you and you can jump on social media or anything else and suddenly there's somebody to compare.

Speaker 3 (10:16):

I think we also have made the pursuit of happiness, the pursuit of success in however that has gotten defined, which is to be the best at rather than, and and there's also this avoidance of failure, you know, so if you're walking around avoiding failure, then you've got, the only other option is success because we are very wired to this all or nothing, especially if we have a tendency towards, so this all or nothing, it's like, well, you know, we can't fail so we must succeed. And then there's really nothing in the middle and we're just all over focused on it.

Speaker 1 (10:55):

Yeah. I call it paranoia, . Yes. We all have serious case of paranoia, compare and despair. Alright, so, so you know, I was talking with a friend earlier today who was in a little bit of distress, and as I was talking to her, these words kind of came out of my mouth. You know, everybody says if you're in anxiety, you're in the future, you're not in the present. And what I realized as I was talking to her is that's not, that's not exactly true mm-hmm , it's in the present. What should I do about this now, right now? Right. So you're having to decide on actions, you're having to decide on words that really is a, a a present struggle. And I'm just wondering if you have any thoughts or insights on that that you wanna share? Because they say mindfulness, people have said that mindfulness is a cure for anxiety because you're not being in the present. They say, if you're not in the present, then you know you're on the present. I've heard that. That's not the whole, do you know the saying I'm, I'm thinking of.

Speaker 3 (12:02):

I think so. I love them. You're on the present. That's hilarious. Yeah. So the, so, so my take on this is, yes, mindfulness can be helpful, but, but more from the perspective of learning how to think about what you wanna think about when you want to think about it, and to what you said, I think how anxiety is future oriented, how it impacts the present is that you are feeling like in this moment, I have to make a decision that feels like it's going to impact, you know, the next minute, the next hour, the next day, the next week. And so it feels like all this pressure in the moment. And what you can do with that is say, I can make this decision right now, and if in a minute or an hour or a day or a week from now I realize that the decision I made right here isn't working for me, then I can make another decision. And that's the part that gets us worked up is the, that I'm gonna make a decision now that's gonna dis like completely that I can't change it, you know, this is it, I'm signing up for whatever, and it's staying in the moment to, to trust that I'm gonna make the best decision I can right now. And then if in the future that's not working out in that moment in the future, I can make a different decision.

Speaker 1 (13:27):

Okay. That makes sense. So that's, yes, that's more staying in the present. So what do you think are the most important besides that? Which sounds pretty important. What else is very important for every woman listening to understand about the anxiety that she's got? She's got anxiety about the work she's doing in the world. Maybe she's a business owner, maybe she worked for somebody else, she's anxious. Am I doing enough? Am I good enough? She's worrying about her kids. Is she present enough? Or maybe other family members, spouses, partners, she's afraid she's gonna lose things. You know, there's a a lot big fear we've had in the past couple years. People afraid of losing their health or losing family members or friends to health problems, concerns about money problems. So what is important for all women to, to understand about anxiety?

Speaker 3 (14:19):

Well, I think one of the biggest things is to understand anxiety's role. And so anxiety is meant to do basically two things. It can be a force of good, which is when it's giving you a signal. And I would say in a lot of the cases that you just mentioned, anxiety is attempting to give a signal that you're doing too much, you're expecting too much of yourself. Well, that's probably the biggest one. They, they're expecting too much because too often I think women in particular, especially mothers or well, or, or people at work, so a woman who has a high pressure career, they're taking on too much responsibility. It's like we get a dopamine hit for being competent. We get a dopamine hit, you know, for for being the, the competent, the successful one in the room. So what happens is we feel like we have to do everything, but to be a really good leader, whether that's at work or you have to figure out how to, to delegate, how to let other people, you know, my daughter goes to a Montessori school and one of my favorite Maria Montessori quotes is, you know, basic is something along the lines of don't do for others what they can do for themselves.

Speaker 3 (15:31):

And that's been challenging. But when I tell people that my daughter has been doing her own laundry since she was five, you know, the, the jaws drop that, wait a minute, you know, I, I don't have to do everything for my children or my spouse or I don't have to do everything. I mean, I've worked with, you know, folks VP and higher level in companies and when we really break it down, we realize they're doing too much of what their employees, their subordinates are supposed to be doing because there's such a fear that it's not gonna be done right. Right. So it's teasing through a lot of these thoughts that we have of things having to be done a certain way or done Right. And again, that compare paranoia or compare para paranoia. Yeah. . And so when we can start to discern, is my anxiety giving me a signal?

Speaker 3 (16:21):

Is it, is it telling me something that's actually important and actionable that I can do something different? Or on the other hand, because because anxiety is not always showing up the same way, sometimes anxiety is showing up as noise, right? So that's when it's waking you up at 3:00 AM you know, worrying about something that you have no control over what to do about it in that moment. So the first thing is to distinguish, is my anxiety behaving today and actually giving me a signal about something that would be important for me to take action on, look at differently change? Or is it just being an and giving me noise to, to wind me up? You know, I tell, I tell clients that anxiety's kind of like that, like the neighbor or your cousin or somebody that you had to hang out with. Like you, you weren't, you didn't have a choice.

Speaker 3 (17:13):

Like you had to hang out with them at least some of the time, and you got along okay when it was just the two of you. But if you bring anybody else in, they started acting up and trying to keep your attention. Anxiety's kind of like that. It's like, Hey, wait a minute, I want your attention. So if you start focusing on something else, like I'm gonna draw you back and say, Hey, the only place I can keep you safe is right here. So I'm gonna keep you frozen. I'm gonna keep you stuck. I'm gonna keep you worrying, I'm gonna keep you on the, the hamster wheel, whatever it is. And so learning how anxiety works and how it plays, you know, the what if game and all of those things, that's a, a really great start to changing your relationship with all of those thoughts and feelings that overwhelm you. And

Speaker 1 (17:57):

So I try to tie everything into hormones, which includes the, the nervous system, the autonomic nervous system, sympathetic, parasympathetic. Why do we even have the ability to be anxious? What biologic capability or survival advantage does it confer on us

Speaker 3 (18:14):

To survive, to be alert, to notice, you know, my clients very often, they're the ones that pick up on the subtle things in their environment. They're the ones that, you know, you get something written by them, the the grammar is correct and all of that stuff. They're the ones who are constantly looking for things out of the ordinary because that's how we survived. And I, the a psychiatrist friend of mine, and I, I don't think she probably just repeated it, but it was, you know, basically we all evolved from the anxious people, from the people who were on alert because the people who relaxed dancing around the fire got eaten. Right. So I got it.

Speaker 1 (18:55):

Yeah.

Speaker 3 (18:56):

Right. So we are predisposed to survive, which means we are always on the lookout for things that might be a threat. And that's what I was talking about though, our lives on some level have gotten so comfortable that our survival system isn't quite sure what to do. It still wants to do its job. So it tends then to pick things that if we really stand back and look at them, they're not, nobody's gonna die. Right. But our body is overreacting as if that could be a possibility. So that's where, you know, becoming aware of what is going on and, and why your sympathetic nervous system gets so easily triggered. And I do agree that this can, and I often get people who say, well, I never thought of myself as anxious before. And then I, I look at their age and they're over 40, especially women, and it's like, okay, now what role is either the, maybe you weren't aware before because this is just how you functioned, but it all has to be related and I'm not the medical person, but you know, it all has to be related.

Speaker 3 (20:08):

Because if you are wearing out, you know, if your sympathetic nervous systems on all the time, then you're wearing out your adrenals or you know, the cortisol, all of those things that are then gonna just make all of this worse. So when I have clients, that's what I work on, like a multi-level, is we begin the process of what I call, like the education, just understanding how all of this works. And I think one of my gifts is I take what I call psychobabble and I break it down into real language that people can understand. So like that's with my, with the book that I wrote, you know, that's the comment I get. Wow. It's like, I like it sounds like I'm having a conversation with you and this makes sense to me. And then as we're doing that, then we start digging into some of the other things like what might be going on with clients' hormones, what might be going on with their health, what are they eating, what are their sleep habits look like? And oftentimes I think, I know for myself, when I looked at my hormones, that made a large difference in how my anxiety showed up, the intensity of it. So it definitely got better when as I began to look at my diet and, and how to change, you know, my hormones, my metabolism, all of that. So that is something that mm-hmm. , I think especially every woman, if you're experiencing extreme anxiety or any other mood issues you wanna look at that, it's important.

Speaker 1 (21:33):

Yeah, absolutely. And that's a part of my story that I've shared on the podcast many times. Extreme anxiety on many medications for it. And then when I got my hormones straight and got my gut straight, I didn't need any medications. Right? So if that's you and you're suffering with anxiety, that is the number one thing you want to do. But then beyond that, I do find that I have some thought patterns that tend to lead to anxiety like a lot of people. And I think a lot of the anxiety centers around this quote that you shared with me from otitis, there is nothing permanent except change. We don't like change, Lynn.

Speaker 3 (22:14):

No, we don't. We don't. But the one thing that's inevitable is change.

Speaker 1 (22:21):

Life is just a series of changes.

Speaker 3 (22:24):

Yes. That is something that I work with clients is like to increase their tolerance for discomfort. And I think that's another, you know, as I'm thinking about it, that's another thing that plays into why things are worse now. Because every marketer out there, every company that has hired someone to do their marketing has hired someone who knows that the best way to get us to buy someone buy something is to appeal to our fear and anxiety. Our fear and anxiety. That we're not good enough, that we're not living up to something that, and, and that we don't have to tolerate discomfort at all. You know, there's a pill, there's a blanket, there's a something, there's food, there's something that you can use to change how you feel. What I find is when my clients begin this process of not, their goal isn't to be comfortable and to be certain all the time, because that's what anxiety tells you.

Speaker 3 (23:24):

You have to be comfortable, you have to be certain, well those are illusions. We love them. We love the idea of being able to be certain, to make sure, like if you could sit in my shoes every time, sometimes I think that's why I like to sit alone in the woods and not be around people because the anxious language is just there. Make sure I have to make sure this, I should be doing that. All of this, that's all language that's, that's saying to us that we can in fact be certain and comfortable. And when we can step away from that and really be aware that there really is no way to be certain. And comfort is not, we're not meant to go through this life being comfortable. Some of the best things that we learn about are in the very trying times.

Speaker 3 (24:13):

We learn a lot about ourselves, about what we're here to do. I think it was Glenn and Doyle talks about if you're looking to figure out what your purpose is, figure out what makes you cry. You know? And I love that allowing ourselves to get past what we think society is telling us we should be doing our obligations mm-hmm. and get that, like what, what really makes our, you know, hits us in our heart. And you gotta get, you know, you gotta figure out how to get the, your inner critic and imposter syndrome and and doubt and all of those things. How to keep them from telling you what to do because they're like the secret service and they're gonna always pick the safest, like the safest route. But the safest route isn't always the route that's gonna get us where we're we're meant to go. So being able to take calculated risks and be uncomfortable for periods of time is important in this work.

Speaker 1 (25:07):

Yeah. You know, I love that you're going down this, this line of discussion about this topic. You know, what you're saying speaks to me of, we, we try to make decisions with our heads, right? What's the logical choice? What would a smart person do? And I've recently been learning more and more about something called human design, which I'm not sure if you're familiar with it. See you shaking your head Yes. And it's basically told me that in your brain is not designed to make decisions and nobody's brain is, and I actually am, have an emotional authority. So my emotions are, and other people have a splenic authority or they might have a sacral authority or something like this. No, no. Humans are supposed to be making decisions with our brain and yet that's where we make most decisions. And I love what you shared about Glennon Doyle.

Speaker 1 (25:55):

I love her writing and what you shared about what makes you cry. I talked to so many women midlife who are really confused about their purpose and their path and what would bring them joy and they don't even know what they want. So can you talk maybe about how you help people get in touch with that heart-centered, maybe emotional or splenic or whatever the, your authority is that can help guide you to what would be most meaningful. So you can take those calculated risks, but I think that, you know, if you don't go out on the branch on the limb, you can't get the fruit. So you kind of gotta go out there. So how do you help people navigate that?

Speaker 3 (26:37):

Well, it starts with just that education of how these inner parts of you work and then getting in touch with, well, what, you know, think, you know, it, it's different for different people. Sometimes people are able to get in touch with it when they think back to what they love to do as a child back before all of the expectations were piled on them. What do they find? Like, you know, if you have even five minutes to yourself, what, what do you gravitate to? What do you, what do you like to do? And, and also help them to, because again, I work with so many clients that have the all or nothing thinking they get, somebody gave me feedback in the book where it was like, I, you know, I don't, I don't wanna do any more of this work because it's gonna mean that I'm gonna have to divorce my husband .

Speaker 3 (27:24):

It's right. It's the all or nothing. And so I, I help guide them all on the path that it's, it's not that you have to take one huge step, let's just talk about 1% incremental change. Like looking at what's one little thing that you can do here? And also maybe you won't end up doing the thing that you're passionate about for a career. Like you don't have to give up your job today and go do something that, that you feel passionate about, but maybe you could start volunteering with something that you feel passionate about something. So just walking them through the, getting past their inner to even have a conversation about that things could be different than the way that they are right now. And to just look at little things, tweak a little bit here, tweak a little bit there. I think one of the big conversations that I have with clients is not to set goals.

Speaker 3 (28:17):

You can set intentions, you can have an idea of where you wanna go, but we get too caught up in the failure that happens between, you know, so think, think like with weight loss, it's like, okay, well I wanna lose, I think you said you lost over a hundred pounds. I mean that's big. But you had to, instead of focusing on the losing the a hundred pounds, my guess is you focus on the the things that you could be successful at every day until you got there. And that's what people miss. It's, it's the, oh, I'm gonna set this goal and I don't map out how I'm gonna get there. And so every day I wake up and I feel like I'm a failure cuz I'm not at my goal yet. So how do we break it down into having those successes every day? And so with finding your purpose, it's, let's just break this down and start looking at, you know, what makes, what makes you cry, what ma what gives you makes your heart, you know, feel full, you know, those sorts of things. And then what, how can you incorporate a little bit more of that each day? What are you doing that you can take off your plate? You know, the little thing. So that's how we get started with that. Yes.

Speaker 1 (29:27):

And it reminds me of this other quote you shared from Socrates. The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new. So when I lost all that weight, I focused on, I'm building health. Yeah. I wasn't even focused on the weight loss, I just was doing the things I needed to do to address the underlying causes, the hormonal imbalances, the toxicities, the gut dysfunction. And then the weight just started coming off. So I wasn't even focused.

Speaker 3 (29:59):

Right, exactly. That's exactly it is the changing the way that we focus it isn't, it wasn't ever about the weight loss. It was about making the healthy choices to have a better life. And then you get the, the secondary gain if you will. Oh well look when I did that, when that's what I focused on. So yeah, helping to, to people to see that if you focus too much on a goal that without those steps and without knowing what the deeper meaning behind it is. So that's what you did. And there's where your success,

Speaker 1 (30:34):

Right. And I'm wondering what you think stops most of us for going for what we actually want. So I think there are different categories of women at midlife. Some of us really don't know what we want. We haven't been asked, I've talked to some women and I say, well what is it you really want for your life? And they say, I don't even know anymore. So some of us don't know we have to go through a rediscovery process, but there's some of us who know, but we don't wanna say the thing, we're up free to say the thing cause we're afraid that someone will shame us for it. Or who do you think you are? And you talked about imposter syndrome and then our attitude oftentimes whatever situation we're in at midlife regarding what we truly want in life. And maybe it's great help that we want, maybe we wanna lose a hundred pounds, but we won't even admit it cuz we don't think we can have. It has to do with our attitude. And like you said, Oprah Winfrey shared the greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude. And so many of us have this attitude of silence. We don't, it doesn't even mean that anyone else has silenced us. We've silenced ourselves. We don't say the thing that we need to say or want to say. We don't do the thing, we won't admit the thing. So help us here, Lynn. Yeah,

Speaker 3 (31:58):

Well it's, it goes back to the same thing. It's not safe to do those things. We, I think especially, you know, our generation, I am really curious whether these younger generations, I guess you would call it like the millennials and the Gen Zs, are they gonna have the same trouble when they get to be our age? Because they seem to be able to identify what they want a little bit more, or at least verbalize it. Now whether their experiences will show them, you know, this idea that they can't have it or not, I don't know. But I know like, you know, I'm a child of the eighties and nobody ever asked us what we wanted. So we, we don't know how to even answer that question. And I think though it's tied to safety, what feels safe. And so if you've ever had, and all it takes is one, all it takes is one situation where you spoke up, you said what you wanted and somebody either said, no, you can't have it, circumstances don't allow it.

Speaker 3 (32:59):

Or someone judged you like you did get it and you're feeling really good about it. And someone says, this happened to me like I got a pretty good job, a pretty high paying job out of graduate school. And I found out through the grapevine that somebody that I knew basically said I didn't deserve it. I didn't deserve to at my age to have gotten that job. Now that critical voice is in my head. And so I'm a little more cautious because if you think back to, and this wasn't really in the, in the big picture of things, this wasn't really that long ago. You know, there was a time when if you didn't stay in the favor of the tribe, you couldn't survive because that point in time to try to be a loner didn't really work. And so I think we've carried that forward.

Speaker 3 (33:49):

And so if we don't feel safe to ask for what we want or even get what we, what we think that we want because other members of the tribe are gonna be jealous and judge us, or we're not even just jealous that they have concerns about what's going on in your life and they're gonna say, Ooh, you know, don't take that risk. It doesn't take much for us to say, okay, well then, then I don't feel safe taking this risk or ta or asking for what I want. Mm-Hmm . And so I again built into our, our genetics and the physiology and our conditioning.

Speaker 1 (34:23):

Okay. And then I do wanna ask you before I wanna give Emry on some practical tips, they can start using poor anxiety that they're having. So we'll get to that. But the name of your book is Aligned as, transforming Your Inner, like Anxiety Into Allies. And I'm wondering if you can talk about that title, what does that mean, aligned as, what are your inner? So can you talk a little bit about that and then we'll also talk about some things people can do to get started with their anxiety.

Speaker 3 (34:55):

Sure. So my inner didn't want me to write that book. And so they were coming up with all kinds of obstacles for me. And so aligned was a word that really resonated with me that by getting, you know, getting them in alignment with what I wanted to do was important. So I used the letters of aligned to come up with the concept for each chapter. So there's a chapter A, a chapter L, you know, so on and under each one I talk about different concepts related to that letter. So that's how the whole thing started and it just kind of took off. So the book is really helping you to step by step look at, okay, what are, what's important to understand about how these, what I call inner, the ones who you know, your anxiety, your doubt, the inner critic, the perfectionist, all of that, how they have gotten in charge and how to demote them and teach 'em better social skills.

Speaker 3 (35:53):

So the first chapter talks about just acknowledging that they're there, accepting that they're there. And then the big one, the big step at that point is to anthropomorphize them. And I had to practice saying that word a lot. It does not really, you know, trip off your tongue, but it's giving human characteristics to a non-human form. And so I have found that clients have been very, once they get what they get how to do it, they've been very successful. And because it allows you to basically have a conversation with yourself and those parts of yourself that you're not, that you're scared of, that you're not getting along with that trip you up that sabotage you and to then recognize how to work with them differently. That's where I start people and then I have them look at their language and how to lean into discomfort, how to take a leap and be a leader, find their inner c e o and get these inner lined up and working for you rather than against you.

Speaker 3 (36:53):

And the book has been so well received that I actually am working on a companion workbook. So in the book I give an action step per chapter. So there's like seven, there might be some bonuses in there, but the workbook is actually a action step for every single concept. So there's like 23 or 24 concepts that I cover in the book that the workbook's gonna actually give you more examples as well as an action step for each one. So I'm doing my best to break it down as much as I can for people to really take the time to figure out how they can do this differently and have a, have a better result for themself.

Speaker 1 (37:32):

Okay. So your inner are all the things that stop you from being who you wanna be, doing what you wanna do in life, like anxiety, your inner critic, things like that. Mm-Hmm and getting aligned is teaming them, turning them into allies so that you can actually make the choices and changes that you want to live a more fulfilled life. Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (37:55):

That is correct.

Speaker 1 (37:56):

Okay. I like it . Awesome. Well this is great and I look forward to seeing the workbook. And what tips would you give everyone who is suffering with anxiety, who is listening right now? What are just some of the top three things you might have them start working with? Yeah,

Speaker 3 (38:14):

I, I think those would be the thing is just accept that yeah, this does happen. There's nothing, there's really nothing wrong with you. This is your body giving you a signal that it's time to listen to these voices, but listen to them with a discerning ear to see whether some of what they're trying to say to you are things that are important to address. Because again, it can lead you to saying, okay, like all the things that I've been trying to do for my health, which you know, all of the outdated stuff of eat less, you know, exercise more, all of that, that it's time to find a better path. You know, have your hormones tested, work with somebody who can help you get some relief there so that you can put the rest of the work into action and actually be getting closer to the life that you would like to have without all of your inner trying to say no, you can't have it.

Speaker 1 (39:07):

Okay. So get your hormones tested for sure.

Speaker 3 (39:11):

Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (39:13):

. And what would be a couple of other things,

Speaker 3 (39:17):

Practicing self-compassion. We didn't really talk about that before, but I think, yeah, in this age of all this paranoia and comparisonitis is learning to have self-compassion. I, you know, I talk about language and too often my clients are talking to themselves in a way they would never talk to, you know, a child or their best friend or, or anybody for that matter. And so really starting to know, you know, how you're talking to yourself and how we can be compassionate to others, but we have to learn how to be compassionate to ourselves as well. And then that goes in line, if you're being self-compassionate, then you are finding others because that's one thing too, especially for women. You don't have to do this alone. There are people out there and, and to go back to do you need a therapist? Do you need a coach?

Speaker 3 (40:09):

You know where to start. It's about the relationship. So start noticing who you resonate with and not just who you feel like is gonna tell you what to do, but who feels like somebody that you could work with that would be a partner to you. And not just somebody who seems more powerful or knowledgeable. Just because you know people have a lot of letters after their name doesn't mean that they would be a good fit for you. So that's part of, I think the process as well is finding mm-hmm someone. Cause you don't have to do it alone.

Speaker 1 (40:40):

You do not. There is lots of support and I'm so glad that you've written the book that you've written, that you're working on the workbook that you transitioned to coaching. I think that therapy is wonderful. It's helped me tremendously. And I also think that coaching can be extremely powerful. I've had coach coaching as well, and it can be very action oriented and help you to take actions contrary to what you've been getting because if you keep taking the same actions, you're gonna get the same outcome. Absolutely. So trying something different is key. Yeah. So thank you so much for coming on the show, Lynne, and sharing your insights about anxiety and the inner with us and helping everyone understand how to become as aligned as buck. Any last words you'd like to share with everybody?

Speaker 3 (41:33):

No. Just yeah, keep your eye out if you're, if this interests you at all, like I said, there's the book, there's a workbook you can get on my website and get a taste of the book. I think it's chapter three is available for my website. And I just really appreciate this conversation. It's been great. I hope it was helpful.

Speaker 1 (41:52):

Yes, thank you so much. And thank you all for listening to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. Hopefully you've learned something today that will inspire you to take action and do something different and really figure out what it is you want for your life and go for it. Don't just dream about it. I always say that the dream chooses the dreamer. You didn't choose the dream, it chose you. And that your dreams as humanity calling forth from you, those gifts that only you have, that only you can deliver. So what are those gifts and what are you gonna do to move towards delivering them today? Thanks so much for joining me. I'll see you next week. Until then, peace,

Speaker 2 (42:34):

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

 

►Grab your excerpt from Lynn Dutroe's book ALIGNED As F*cK and get started transforming your Inner Assholes into Allies! - CLICK HERE

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Your Healthiest Healthy: 8 Easy Ways to Take Control

Welcome to The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we bring you inspiring stories and expert insights to help you elevate your health and wellness. Today, we're excited to have the energetic and passionate Emmy-winning TV host, Samantha Harris, join us to talk about her incredible journey to health and wellness.

Her story begins with a shocking breast cancer diagnosis at the age of 40, which led her to rise above the challenge and become a breast cancer "thriver." Samantha channeled her energy into becoming a Certified Health Coach, trainer, and author of the bestselling book "YOUR HEALTHIEST HEALTHY: 8 Easy Ways to Take Control, Help Prevent and Fight Cancer, and Live a Longer, Cleaner, Happier Life."
  
In this episode, you'll discover:

- How Samantha's life took an unexpected turn with her breast cancer diagnosis
- The ways in which she fought and thrived despite the challenge presented by this life-changing event 
- The inspiration behind her bestselling book, "YOUR HEALTHIEST HEALTHY: 8 Easy Ways to Take Control"
- Samantha's perspective on health and wellness as a Certified Health Coach and trainer 
- The importance of taking control of your health and living your healthiest, happiest life

 

If you're inspired by Samantha's story and want to learn more, subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast for more uplifting stories and informative interviews. 

 

Remember to stay healthy, stay inspired, and keep on listening!

 

Speaker 1 (00:00):

Keep doing what you're doing and you will keep getting what you're getting. Samantha Harris, stay tuned for amazing story of healing from breast cancer and beyond to your healthiest healthy.

Speaker 2 (00:14):

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

Speaker 1 (01:07):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. You're gonna love my guest today. She has an amazing story of healing from breast cancer and beyond, to becoming her healthiest healthy, and now that's what she's gonna help you do is become your healthiest healthy. In this episode, she is passionate about health and healing, but more than that, vitality and living a full and meaningful life. So she's gonna teach you all about that. She's very inspiring and she has some amazing wisdom to share about detecting breast cancer, trusting yourself and so many other things. It's just too much for me to tell you. You're gonna love this episode and we're gonna dive into the teaser that I shared with you. Keep doing what you're doing and you'll keep getting what you're getting, which is kind of a motto that she lives by.

Speaker 1 (02:04):

And she's gonna talk about how being kind to herself and really slowing down has been vital to becoming her healthiest, healthy, and might be a key to yours and so much more. So let me tell you a little bit about Samantha and then we'll get started. She's an Emmy winning TV host and she may be best known for her eight seasons as the host of Dancing With the Stars and Years as host of host, such as Entertainment Tonight and Extra from hosting every major Hollywood award show red carpet to starring on Broadway in the musical Chicago. She has been a fixture in the entertainment world. She's currently the host of the World play Game show, tug of Words on Game Show Network. Please help me welcome Samantha Harris to the show. Dr. Kier, I love what you do and how you really help. You know, as a, as a breast cancer survivor who's had to deal with a lot of hormonal issues because I had a hormone positive breast cancer, I am grateful for all the information that you put out there for anyone, whether they've had a deal with a diagnosis or not.

Speaker 1 (03:08):

So thank you for that. Oh, it's my pleasure. It's my passion. It's what I love doing. You know, when I discovered a root cause resolution way to heal my body and lose a hundred pounds and get off all the medications, I said that I would commit my life to teaching other women about this. And so that's why we're here. And I know that you have an amazing story about having estrogen. Was it estrogen receptor positive breast cancer? Oh yeah, pro progesterone, both. And, and so breast cancer is the thing that scares women more than anything. We're all petrified about getting breast cancer, I guess, because so many of us will get it in our lifetimes. It's not common to have your life shortened by it anymore because we have such advances in treatment. But it is possible. My maternal grandmother actually passed away at a very young age due to breast cancer.

Speaker 1 (04:02):

So I'm wondering if you could share your journey with everyone. Absolutely. And I think that it is so important to be able to let women know that we have so much more power and control than we may think. So as I've been a national ambassador for Susan g Koman, probably because of all my time hosting, dancing with the Stars in Entertainment Tonight and all of those and having a, a great national platform for that, but since my breast cancer diagnosis. And so I learned that one in eight women will receive a breast cancer diagnosis over the course of her lifetime, which a alone was shocking, but to me the most shocking part of it was that only five to 10% of those breast cancers are actually hereditary. And when I found out, because I had a, a grandmother who had breast cancer and now she was postmenopausal, so they don't connect premenopausal like mine to hers.

Speaker 1 (04:52):

She lived to 95, thank goodness my dad had colon cancer died at age 50, but he also had Crohn's disease before that. And there are, there is a breast colon hereditary connection. We looked at that, no connection there. So I had no, and I've done 180 genetic tests that are currently available for breast cancer. None of them detected it. So I'm in that 80 or 95, you know, to to 90, 95% of people who don't have a genetic predisposition. Right. And I'm sure there's probably, sure you could throw up a random number like 5% that are just, gosh, who knows what the heck it is. It's some sort of fluke. But, so let's say now that we're at like a good 85 to 90% of breast cancers being not genetic, not being able to be chalked up to some crazy other thing happening in their body.

Speaker 1 (05:44):

And we know the power of epigenetics, right? How our habits and lifestyle choices and our environment that we are living in impact our risk of disease in this case. Mm-Hmm. breast cancer, that was one of the most empowering things that I learned in my early cancer. Versity when I was learning as much as I possibly could. And so as a journalist, I started a research journey to seek out answers. Why are so many women getting it? Why when the hereditary links are so few? And I found it really is what we are putting in and around our bodies that leads not just to breast cancer but other cancers, type two diabetes, heart disease, neurodegenerative disorders and decline. And when I learned that, it made me realize, wow, there's so much more for my health and my outcome of my future that I have con potential control of.

Speaker 1 (06:36):

And I kept, took my power back, I was back in the saddle, I took the reins and I started to make slow but systematic changes in my life. Yeah, I love what you said and how you outline that 90 to 95% of what goes into causing breast cancer is under your control. And, but we're really taught that we're powerless, that we're at the whim or victimization of some nebulous kind of cancer causing God. But the truth is, it's what how we're living your lives, right? Which is what you teach people about in your programs. It's what we're putting in our mouths, what we're putting in our bodies, what we're putting on our hair, what we're not getting rid of, right? What we're not pooping out, what we're not peeing out. Yes. All of these disruptors. So yeah, share a little bit about your journey. I did see, you know, on your website you have some very personal pictures of you going through some very specific cancer treatments.

Speaker 1 (07:33):

If you would love to talk about that. I'm sure women would love to hear about how you survived that very difficult time, what it was like for you. And then coming out of that, what was it like the, the ultimate healing that you did after they got rid of the cancer? Well, I think sharing my journey is really important to me. And, and this is why we have to be our own best health advocates. We need to know our bodies better than anyone else, including the person in the lab coat with all respect to those of you who are in the profession of medicine. And then goodness you are. But we need to know our bodies better than the doctor we're walking into the room with. And that means noticing small changes and not bearing your head in the sand when you find them. So I had a clear M mammogram.

Speaker 1 (08:17):

I was about to turn 40, this is in 2014 actually, 2013. And the results came back clear. It's exactly what I had anticipated because I was the healthy one among my friends and family. I worked out every day I ate my cheese list pizzas and my snack well cookies that were low fat cuz god forbid we eat any fat , you know, I had a meal of red vines because they were fat free. Oh my God. They were the, I had literally, I would go and buy like from smart and final or Costco, like the tub of red vines cuz they would advertise fra fat free food. So I thought free fine to have, forget the fact that I now have learned it's high fructose corn syrup and red dye 40 and all these very harmful and cancerous things. But I didn't know that at the time.

Speaker 1 (09:00):

Right? And so here I am, I'm thinking I'm so healthy and I'm eating copious amounts of animal protein. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, whether it was yogurt or eggs for breakfast and Turkey or chicken or fish or something for lunch and dinner every single day of the week. And I grew up in Minnesota eating every part of the cow. There was so a lot of, a lot of animal in my life. And then here I was, you know, blindsided by this breast cancer diagnosis, which I didn't know because I had a clear mammogram. 11 days later I found a lump changing after a workout, again, knowing your body. And you know, you know, you take off that really tight constricting sports bra and you circle 'em to the left, you circle 'em to the right, you know, you gotta get them moving again. And there I was circling and I went, oh well that's weird.

Speaker 1 (09:44):

What is, what's that lump? I, that's definitely not been there before. But I just had a clear mammogram 11 days before that still didn't stick my head in the sand, didn't realize I needed to be my best health advocate. But I still called the ob. G Y n had me come in the next day, felt around, said it's nothing you, you're returning 40, it's probably glandular. This is what 40 year old breast looked like. Sent me on my way. Said it was nothing a month later, still there, but of course not breast cancer. So went to see my internist, same thing, quick clinical exam, it's nothing sent me on my way. And then it was the holidays and by the time I came up for air, it was about four months after I found that lump and it was still there. And I finally listened to my, now my inner voice screaming at me saying go to someone who looks at breasts every day and that only that the only expert who does is a breast oncologist.

Speaker 1 (10:36):

So I found myself at a cancer center thinking this is ridiculous. I don't have cancer, why am I here? And she did two ne two ultrasounds, a needle biopsy, a subsequent M r i, after those appointments, not one test detected the cancer. And yet she said, you're not crazy though. There's something there. So I'm going to advise. We do a lumpectomy. And we took it out, woke up from that surgery still saying no cancer. Went back a week later, told my husband, you don't need to come with me. It's not cancer. Go literally. I told him, go golf, it's a gorgeous day. Don't waste it in a dark, you know, office in the bottom of basement of a hospital with me. And then I was alone as the words you have ductal carcinoma and site do. And I'm trying to unravel what the heck that means.

Speaker 1 (11:16):

But I just heard the word carcinoma and I knew that meant cancer and lots of diagrams and dots and things she was drawing. And I, all of a sudden the adrenaline and the anxiety and the overwhelm and the scared feelings and every emotion you can imagine hearing you have cancer. My daughters were, our daughters were three and six at the time. I lost my dad when he was 50 and here I was at 40 and I thought like hell, I'm not gonna be there for my kids. And that's when my cancer journey began. And that was, that was 40. Wow. Turning 40 is an event for all of us, but certainly sounds like it was an extreme sport almost for you or an extreme life event. And so then what type of treatment did you undergo for that? So the, this is when you know a lot of personal choice comes into effect as well as many opinions.

Speaker 1 (12:03):

So again, taking your health into your hands and be your own best healthcare advocate. Don't take doctor number one's information as the only, you know the word of God. So literally within the span of a week I saw two more surgical oncologists. So three opinions. I took the lab results to a separate pathologist at a different university hospital just to make sure because we were all basing, you know, it on one lab reading. So we made sure that they agreed that it was actually this particular cancer. Mm-Hmm . It turned out that not only was it ductal carcinoma in situ, which is contained within the duct and really the kind of breast cancer you want because they take it out, it's gone. You're all good. Mm-Hmm . But finding great experts is really important because she listened, the surgeon listened to her gut and in the surgery she said, you know, there was an area on the border, it looked like healthy tissue.

Speaker 1 (12:53):

But for some reason my, my inner voice was saying I needed to take a sample that turned out to be invasive breast cancer. Oh my gosh. So in that moment, my breast cancer journey went from breast cancer light to breast cancer. Serious. And now it was not, you're done now cuz you had the lumpectomy, but it's okay, what's next? So my options were another lumpectomy to make sure we had clear margins and then six weeks of radiation every day or mm-hmm. A single or double mastectomy with or without reconstruction. I opted for the double with reconstruction. I saw multiple, I saw two different radiation oncologists to get their opinions. I saw, I have a second medical oncologist. So I had two opinions about chemo and treatment going forward in the end. And you guys, anyone who is out there listening and maybe newly diagnosed or one what to do, please feel free to always DM me and ask me questions.

Speaker 1 (13:44):

I respond to every single woman who is worried about a cancer diagnosis or is diagnosed and it is Samantha Harris tv, like television on Instagram and, and Facebook, Samantha Harris tv. But then I can explain why I chose not to do the chemo and not to do the radiation. Mm-Hmm . And it's a very personal decision of it on the chemo. Cause a lot of people will probably wanna know is I had a very low Oncotype score, which really show, and I had a very small tumor. So it, to me that was the decision. And now, now, you know, 2014 to now all these years later, I am very grateful that I didn't undergo chemo because of everything else I now know. However, had it been in a much more aggressive tumor, I don't think I would've made that choice. Right. And that's a very personal decision, like you said.

Speaker 1 (14:29):

So if there is anybody listening and you've got every sin cancer diagnosis, I love what you said about getting second opinions, even third opinions, really you do have to be the ceo, get all the information and then make a wise choice for yourself. So I do wanna have that disclaimer that what you necessarily did might not be right for someone listening. So get your healthcare providers and consult and yes, definitely reach out on social media if you do have questions, because I think the more people you can talk to about what's going on with you personally, the better you are. But no one person is the guru for you. You are the expert on your body and your health. I love how you really demonstrated that Samantha, by, even though you had a negative mammogram, 11 days later you felt a lump and you didn't just discount what you felt about your body.

Speaker 1 (15:26):

And I want every woman listening to really hear that because part of what I want you to learn is that you really are the expert. Nobody else can tell you when your body is working on all cylinders at a hundred percent you'll know that inside yourself, in your skin when you feel at home and you have great energy and your weight is where you want it to be and your sleep and your hair and your libido and yes, all the things. So after you got out of the acute phase, your oncologist doctors, they're like, okay Samantha, you're good. We're gonna follow you pretty closely I would imagine. But yes. What did you then do for yourself that you now teach other women? Well, this was the biggest thing, again, the eyeopening that we can be in better control of our health and our health future than we realized.

Speaker 1 (16:18):

So I put that journalist hat on tightly and I dug into research and I spoke to every expert I could and I sought out opinions and answers and asked some really deep questions. And here I was, you know, living my life thinking I was healthy, living my career in a makeup chair every single day. Being as any, whether you're working on TV like very few of us, or doing the nine to five or the mom 6:00 AM to 11:00 PM we all put on makeup or potions and lotions and hair stuff and whatever the shellacking that was done of chemical bombs of potential harmful carcinogens and endocrine disruptors with mess, mess with our hormones, allergens, neurotoxins that are in our products that our own f d A here in the US approves no big deal. No oversight from these companies. No responsibility from these big brands. They just market to us.

Speaker 1 (17:13):

It's October Pink ribbons, slap it on, but hey, we're also giving you breast cancer at the same time. So yes, it sounds very cynical, but I've learned so much and yeah, I'm saying overnight you need to throw out everything in your house and start over. But making small methodical changes that end up changing how you are living your day-to-day life is, is really important. And so I realized the makeup and the haircare I was using the personal care products at home, the cleaning supplies all were filled with toxic junk. The foods I was eating and how I was eating and when I was eating all were really not coming into play to make me live my healthiest healthy life. See, I thought I was healthy and I realized I needed to be my healthiest healthy. And that's, that's why, you know, my whole thing has now the your healthiest healthy from the your healthiest healthy book that really launched a whole program, a membership community with my life coaching and workouts and experts to my live, my courses that are offered and my retreats and really just answering anyone I possibly can through social media and putting as much information out there so that we have the, the tools at our disposal.

Speaker 1 (18:23):

So what were some of the most, you mentioned general categories, makeup, cleaning products, the things you were eating, what were some of the, the specific things that really shocked you when you're like, oh, and I mean maybe you don't wanna mention name brand names of products. I just realized that honestly any major big brand is pretty much like anything. You go to the department store pretty much you can is has a lot of toxic chemicals in it anytime you go down to the drugstore aisle, most of it also pretty toxic, thank goodness. And I will tell you the difference between now and back in 2014, thankfully we have so many the demand as consumers, right? They're finally hearing us, right? Even the big, big brands are starting to have little offshoot brands or an offshoot line of, I mean whether it's, you know, big brand x deodorant that is filled with aluminum and other toxic stuff.

Speaker 1 (19:16):

Now they have their aluminum free version because they realize they were losing some of the market share. And more and more, more kind of mom and pop shopper boutique like makeup brands and skincare brands are now becoming more str mainstream. You go into a place like a Sephora, they finally, and even Target, they finally have their clean brands. I have to look into what their requirements are. I don't know if they're like Samantha's level of clean, but you know what, it's a much baby steps. Might as well start there and you can always level up from there after that. Yes. And I'd say for anyone curious, if you want to look@ewg.org environmental working group.org, they list a lot of the mainstream brands and they, they give the products ratings. They tell you the ingredients that are toxic. But, and yes, a lot of these big brands are offering so-called quote unquote non-toxic products.

Speaker 1 (20:10):

I say that with little quotes, my fingers in the air because they're aware that consumers know certain ingredients are toxic, but they're also aware that consumers are not so educated that they will miss certain other names. So they will actually create different ingredients that have different names that you won't recognize that are probably toxic too. So I find, and what I've done and what I teach my people to do is find the small brands that really are 100% non-toxic and all natural and they just don't have any chemicals. And you're not not gonna find 'em in a big box store. You might find a lot of them online and ask for referrals from friends. There are a lot of blog posts now where you can kind of Google top 15 all natural makeup brands and then research it yourself. Don't take their word for it and discover what's best for you.

Speaker 1 (21:05):

What guidelines do you offer for that? Well, first of all, I you, you already brought up the Environmental Working Group, which is a fantastic resource. They're a nonprofit. I love their one through 10 ratings. One being the cleanest for an overall product or one also being ingredient to ingredient, how toxic that ingredient is. 10 being like runaway fragrance. By the way, red alert is a nine and that's because fragrance is proprietary. So if you have fragrance as an ingredient and that company isn't being transparent and this clo what that fragrance is made of within the product, stay away from it. Because it oftentimes has a lot of one four dioxane, which is a, an endocrine disruptor. It has phthalates, which are endocrine disruptors. And another great point Dr. Karen that you made, which is that a brand might say here's our clean version, but, and it doesn't have to be quote unquote all natural because that also there are synthetic chemicals that are not harmful that the, the good brands will make sure that they are transparent and disclose that are in the ingredients labels.

Speaker 1 (22:07):

So, cause I think people get scared away with all, all natural, that's not gonna work for me. It's not gonna have the staying power if you guys want. So I just finished shooting 65 episodes of a TV show and I had my hair makeup team who I've worked with for many years who are more than happy, they jumped at this and I was so happy we became teammates in this. I said, look, I'm going back on tv, I don't want toxic stuff in the dressing room every day on my face and our hair, us breathing it in. So before we shot, I tasked them with a challenge which was only bring in clean. And if you have a question about it, send the brand my way. I will vet it and let you know if I, if I'm like, it's approved or it's not. And Uhhuh tried a lot of different brands because there are a lot of clean brands.

Speaker 1 (22:51):

But then do they work? Is they, are they effective? Do they give you the appearance that you want on your face or with your hair? Do they have the lasting power? And I was shooting 12 hours a day, six episodes a day. So it was a very intense schedule. So if you want my list as you're listening of Clean Beauty that's been vetted, skincare, makeup, haircare, send me a DM on, mostly on Instagram, but you can try me on Facebook, Samantha Harris tv, like television, I will send you my list. I don't have skin in the game with most of the brands or anything like that. There are one or two that I've partnered with, but you don't have to use them. I'm gonna give you all the info and be straight up with you. Awesome. That's so generous. I hope you will take her up on that offer.

Speaker 1 (23:30):

And I know that in your healthiest healthy eight easy ways to take control is one of those switching out your your beauty products. It is, it is. It's a huge step. And again, it doesn't have to be overnight baby steps. So let's say you're like, okay, I'm ready to switch out my makeup. I know how much money we spend on makeup and all of these things. Mm-Hmm. , right? So I'm not saying go dump out your drawer tomorrow, but maybe start with, in terms of skincare and makeup, start with your lotion, right? Your face cream. Cuz you're covering the biggest amount of skin and surface area, which of course is our biggest organ. It's absorbing all of it into our bloodstream and then your foundation and then level up from there. Maybe it's lipstick because you're eating a lot of it, you know, then maybe move to blush and eyeshadows and so on and just start to level up.

Speaker 1 (24:18):

And the other thing for feminine care, and I know, you know, some of you may already be menopausal and you're not having to deal with menstrual cycles, but for those of you who are still, or you're at that later stage and you're having urine leakage and you have to have those types of pads, make sure that they're 100% organic cotton. Because if I show you what is in, we're talking about the bleach, the cotton that's been grown and and sprayed with Monsanto, glyphosate, and all these other horrible toxic chemicals, and you're putting it next to your most thin permeable skin. No, no, no. Or inside. No, no, no, no, no. , you do not wanna do this. So that's, that's my other little public service announcement. Preach Samantha, preach please. I love it. Right. So, you know, they, people hear people like me out here saying this stuff all the time, but it's about time.

Speaker 1 (25:10):

I love that you come from kind of a more traditional journalist background and that you discovered all this for yourself. I hate how you had to discover it. And I love that you're sharing this information and you're empowering women with this vital information, right? When people see you on TV and they think, oh, she's the pinnacle of beauty. And then you hear what she's sharing y'all about her hair and makeup and she told her people, I'm not sitting in this toxic soup for 12 hours a day every day for how many days. So what other kinds of ways to take control do you think are important for women to know about, to take control of their health? Well, a huge one. And I think possibly one of the biggest things people say, well, you know, I, especially I I even have my my 15 year old who wants, you know, it's all about how do I look, how do I look compared to everybody else?

Speaker 1 (26:03):

I think most of your listeners like, I, I mean we all wanna look good, but I'm kind of past that. I wanna just feel great. I wanna live a long, healthy life in this one vessel that I have. So what can I do? How can I treat my body so that it doesn't just look good, but that it feels amazing and gives me the ability to do the things I need to accomplish. Not just the day to day, but the big picture of things that I yearn to do. Right? I wanna go hike mountains in Italy and I have like all, you know, I wanna get down to the ground with my eventual grandchildren and play and be able to get back up. So you, first of all, you can't out exercise a bad diet. However, right? Daily movement is essential, very, very essential. But food is possibly one of the biggest changes you can make.

Speaker 1 (26:49):

I'm not telling you you have to give up your favorite corner bakery or you have to not have that steak when you go to the restaurant that you just love at that steakhouse. But when we're looking at food in general, we really wanna focus on a plant forward or plant-based diet. So the biggest thing is that women only get about 12 grams of fiber per day on average. And what we need to thrive and live optimally is closer to 30 to 35 grams of fiber per day. And even our own U S D A only says 25 grams, which actually you can talk to any expert worth their salt, they will tell you it's over 30 grams a day we need. And so the way to get that is increase your vegetable intake, you know, really non-starchy veggies. So if you're having a bunch of baked potatoes every day, that's not really qualifying non-starchy.

Speaker 1 (27:37):

We're talking about your cruciferous veggies, which are great cancer fighters. That's gonna be your Brussels sprouts and your broccoli and your cauliflower broccoli sprouts are amazing. You know, all of those cr kale and then leafy greens are at the top of that nutrient density pyramid. If you could only have one thing and you gotta choose what's the best nutrient density for my caloric buck, it would be leafy green, dark leafy greens, but adding in berries, great cancer fighters, tons of fiber getting in those, the chia seeds, the flax seeded flax seeds, also a great cancer fighter, matcha green tea powder changing up kind and the color of veggies that you're having and really making sure that your microbiome right, that's the, the diversity within your gut is as diverse as possible. So you wanna aim for about 30 different plant-based foods per week. And that means not just fruits and veggies, but also nuts and seeds and legumes whole grains.

Speaker 1 (28:32):

So quinoa, taf, amaranth Pharaoh, things like that. All count, which is great. And actually spices and herbs also count, and if you don't, doesn't even take a lot of those to count of as one of those 30. So that was the biggest food change I did was I flipped my plate as the meat eating Minnesotan with a slab front and center. I flip my plate to fill at least half my plate full of veggies at every meal. So my day starts with a smoothie and that's, I began to intermittent fast during covid. So now that's part of my life that's really can be very beneficial as well. And you guys can reach out to me on, on more about intermittent fasting, but so whenever I'm breaking my fast, it's with some cashews or cashews and almonds and then my smoothie because you can pack so many of the nutrients that are great for you and beneficial.

Speaker 1 (29:22):

I think I have something like 18 of my 30, all of fruit and vegetables all in my smoothie in one, one fell swoop. So it's, it's great, you know, you can throw all the goodness in there and then really just getting that variety in. Yes. So what you're eating super important. You've gotta work on that plant forward, plant-based plant predominant for sure. Intermittent fasting is a great tool. We've had a lot of the experts on that on the show. Talking about intermittent fasting, it's a tool that I use as well, but I love to say it's a tool, not necessarily a religion. Yeah. So treat it like, like a tool. All right. So we've talked about getting rid of the toxins. We've talked about your diet. What are some of the other easy ways to take control? And I know you have a lot more in your book, you have a lot more in your programs to go in depth, but I want people to kind of get a, an idea.

Speaker 1 (30:11):

Well, you know, the other thing is that leads to disease is stress. And we all live in such a stressful world because our phones are always dinging us. We're trying to fit 28 hours into 24 or maybe 30. In my mind, in my mind, I feel like I'm always trying to fit too much in and in this go, go, go world, we forget, we, we are praised for lack of sleep and overwork and grinding it out. When really that's to our detriment. First of all, it's not good for our hormones, it's not good, right? Our levels of cortisol, the stress hormone goes through the roof mm-hmm. . And when we live in a state of chronic stress that leads to chronic inflammation, which is the underlying cause of many diseases. So really taking that time every day for self-care and working in, whether it's breath work, meditation, a yoga, a hike, or walk in nature, time with friends, socializing, laughing, these are all stress relievers that are really important to add into your every day life to help beat depression, beat obesity, and beat inflammation.

Speaker 1 (31:16):

Yeah, you're super busy , you're a wife, you're a mom, you're a TV personality, you've got your own programs, your own platform. You're, you're DMing people on Instagram. You know, we tell women this all the time and do we do it a lot of times? No , we don't know how to say no, we don't know how to slow down. We don't know how to sit and just be. How have you reduced the stress in your life to help your co cortisol? I'm, I'm sure everybody would love to know. Breathwork I think has been one of the most powerful tools. I thought for the longest time only meditation and getting to sit for 30 minutes without moving was going to be what I needed to do. I'm still struggling to try to get in a, you know, a 15 or 20 minute meditation on a daily basis.

Speaker 1 (32:01):

But what I did realize that I could do was breathe and breathe, whether it's for 30 seconds or for five minutes or for 15, if I can, where I'm taking good deep belly breaths. There's a whole variety. You guys can google it, you can reach out to Dr. Kirin or to me. There's so many different ways to integrate breath work into your life. But even taking that, you know, two seconds of deep and exhales before you go into a meeting, when you park the car and turn off the ignition before you get out, finding those little cracks in the day where you can add in a couple of deep breaths, it immediately ignites your parasympathetic your rest and digest nervous system. And that can't be active if your sympathetic is in fight or flight. So it automatically deactivates the fight or flight and activates this resting, calming wonderful part of your nervous system.

Speaker 1 (32:57):

And that makes a big difference as well, I find. Mm-Hmm. . The other part is mindfulness. So if you're out maybe walking the dogs or you know, walking from the parking lot to the in, you know, the entrance to a building. If you can do it in a way that's mindful instead of the 4,000 thoughts that are in your head, take a moment while you're to breathe and focus on do you hear the birds chirping? You feel the warmth of the sun on your face, the breeze in your hair. If you're washing the dishes, maybe turn out off the noise around you. Do you feel the warmth of the water and the feel of the suds? Just things like that that are little actually add up to make big impact. Yes. Little things, mindfulness, breathing. Not everybody can meditate and sit still and empty their mind.

Speaker 1 (33:45):

And what about the role of self love? We hear a lot about that. I don't, to me that's not a mani-pedi you share this quote with me before we started that I love be kind, especially to yourself. So can you talk about that and, and how self-love has played a role? I'm sure it has in you healing and doing all of the things that you do and supporting all the people that you support. How does that show up? How are you kind to yourself? Well, in two different ways with self-care, for sure. And my mornings when I'm not traveling or shooting my mornings have become self-care mornings, and sometimes I get guilty about it because I realize all the other things on my to-do list are not getting done like I want them to get done, but I'm giving myself time for that workout to make the smoothie.

Speaker 1 (34:35):

And I have an infrared sauna that I sit at in. And I will say I started out meditating in there and now I, I will say I, I, I'll be honest, I do answer a lot of my dms while I'm in there, but no infrared sweat. I try to put it down for at least 10 minutes and put on a, a guided meditation. So I do breathe and I, I lay down, I put my legs up the wall in the sauna and it's a little portable popup. You guys can reach out to me. I love it because it's much more affordable than those big, you know, structured ones that you see at like infrared Sauna place or in like, some big Hollywood celebrities house that nobody can afford. I'm all about affordable ways to have healthcare hacks. But the other thing is how we talk to ourself in terms of being kind to ourself.

Speaker 1 (35:16):

We oftentimes are worse to ourselves and talk to ourselves whether we're in thought or out loud, worse than we would ever speak to somebody else. So when you pass that mirror next time, and the first thought is, oh gosh, I'm so wrinkled, gosh, I look so fat, whatever it is, first just acknowledge, just acknowledge that you had that thought as your first thought. It's a process. Then the next challenge is flip the script on yourself and find something positive that you like. I love the twinkle in my eye. I love how strong my arms are because I can carry my kids or I can hug my family or whatever that is. So that eventually the more positive self-talk we have and the more we push out the negative self-talk, it's something that our brain, even if we're not saying it out loud, if we're thinking it, our whole body hears it.

Speaker 1 (36:03):

And so it affects our wellbeing and our sense of satisfaction for life and happiness with ourselves. So being kind to yourself and then also it's, you know, the saying of it's a lot easier what to treat someone with syrup than with salt or I with vinegar. I don't know. There's some sort of saying like, but it it, the, the gentle smile to a stranger, someone who's off because you, you know, you cut in front of them and you didn't mean to a warm wave and smile of apology. It will actually go a long way versus giving them the finger back . Yes, so true. And I do think it's so important that we be kind to ourselves and just noticing my own self-talk and hearing other women how they talk about themselves and just this lack of self-love. I was doing an interview earlier and she was the, she was saying that I literally realized that I hated myself and I treated myself that way.

Speaker 1 (36:58):

And then now she's really cultivating this self-love. I totally wish we had time to go through all eight aspects of what you teach women, but we don't have enough time. So I'm gonna direct everyone before we sign off, we'll have you share your program. We'll have the links in the show notes, we'll have you share again, all the places they can find you. But I wanna ask you a question. I don't know if anyone's ever asked you this and you share this quote with me before we started that I love keep doing what you're doing and you will keep getting what you're getting. Where do you think you would be and what do you think would have happened if after your cancer diagnosis and your immediate treatment, you hadn't done the research, you didn't look into this, you just accepted what most women accept.

Speaker 1 (37:49):

Oh, cancer just happens out of the blue. I always say, not out of the blue, but out of the oblivious, where do you think you would be now? Which is what, 10 years later? I first of all would fear the recurrence, but a hundred percent because my chance of recurrence would've been a a lot greater if I hadn't started to make the changes that I am making or the, or the diagnosis, maybe not at this point, but maybe in another 10 or 20 years of another chronic disease that, you know, again, we can't take, I wish we could take 100% control by making these changes. We can't. And if you're stressing too much that, oh gosh, I'm supposed to be intermittent fasting and I broke it at 8:00 AM or I shouldn't be drinking too much wine because it could increase breast cancer risk and I had two glasses last night with friends, that stress is actually going to be more harmful.

Speaker 1 (38:36):

So we have to take everything in stride and find that, that the, the 90 10 rule or even the 80 20 rule, where the majority of the time you're making these helpful decisions. If I hadn't made these choices, first of all, I wouldn't have connected with the incredible women who I have been able to connect with and help and support and guide. And to me that has been the biggest gift of cancer and helping others live their healthiest healthy lives. That's amazing. Yes. Connection. And then with your voice and your platform, what you're able to offer every one in terms of information, I always say knowledge, tools, and support. That's what every woman needs. And so you're able to offer that. Thank you so much for coming on the hormone prescription and sharing your journey and your wisdom and your knowledge, tools and support.

Speaker 1 (39:23):

We'll have all the links in the show notes, but please do talk a little bit about your healthiest healthy community that you've created and the other places that people can find you online. Well, I love that. You know, first of all, I love live television. So the fact that I do live coaching, live workouts and bring in a live guest expert interview every week is just very much in line with what I love to do because I love to talk, but sharing and giving good takeaway. So the, your Healthiest healthy community is a membership based subscription platform, and you get access to me and immediate, you know, or pretty immediate responses in helping you live your healthiest healthy life for those who aren't interested in being part of a, a full group like that. Then I just recently launched Your Healthiest Healthy Courses, and these are basically both coaching sessions and expert guests who are giving topic-based information through the courses.

Speaker 1 (40:14):

So I have a two-part thriving after breast cancer course, a course on intermittent fasting, on gut health, on weight loss. We have them coming up on sleep and hormone balance and so many other topics. So that way you can go, okay, I'm just really right now focused on this. So that's what I want from Samantha. And then the other big thing that I just love and I live for every year are my, your healthiest healthy retreats. I have one in Santa Monica, California Beachside every year does a two day workshop. And then in Utah usually in October or November this year, it's October of 2023, but your Healthiest Healthy retreat. So four days and three nights hiking for all levels, by the way, and meditation and workshops with me and a lot of one-on-one coaching and advice and so much more. And I just, I, I, I just, it's my favorite thing in the whole year.

Speaker 1 (41:03):

I love that. Thank you so much for those amazing resources, Anne, for sharing your brilliance and wisdom with us today on the show. Thank you. Thank you. And again, you guys reach out to me, DM me and I will get back to you. Awesome. Thank you for watch for joining us for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I know that you learned something inspiring, uplifting, informative today, and I'm gonna challenge you to take action, take one step. What's one thing you could do differently today? Maybe take a couple deep breaths as we're closing out this episode. Thanks so much for joining me, and I look forward to seeing you again next week for another episode of The Hormone Prescription. Until then, peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 2 (41:45):

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

 

► Become your healthiest healthy! Get Samantha Harris's complimentary course - CLICK HERE.

 

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