Menopause & Perimenopause Secrets: Conquer PMS, Weight Gain, Hot Flashes with Cycle Syncing with Candace and Jess Suchan | #452

Menopause and perimenopause symptoms like PMS, stubborn weight gain, hot flashes, and mood swings can dramatically impact your quality of life. But did you know you can manage and even overcome these issues through cycle syncing?

Dr. J dives deep into the secrets of cycle syncing, a powerful technique for aligning your lifestyle, nutrition, and exercise with your body's natural hormonal rhythms. Learn practical steps to ease symptoms, boost metabolism, stabilize mood, and reclaim energy and well-being.

If you're dealing with hormonal imbalance, weight fluctuations, sleep disturbances, or intense PMS symptoms, this video provides proven tips to balance your hormones naturally and effectively.

 

 

00:00:00           Hey everyone, Dr. Justin Marchegiani here back with BeyondWellness Radio. Today we'll be chatting with Jessica and Candace, a motheraughter duo from your hormonebalance.com. We'll be talking about all things female hormone. Today we'll be talking about testing. We'll be talking a little bit about physiology and science and what's happening and then also some strategies that you guys can implement as well. Jess and Candace, welcome to the podcast. How y'all doing? Great. Thanks for having us. Awesome.

 

00:00:27           Nice to meet you guys. Awesome. So, why don't we just kind of just we chatted in the pre-in about Candace, how you kind of started your healthc care journey in the natural female hormone balance world. Why don't we just start there a little bit and then we can kind of bring everyone up to current day. Yes. Okay. So, when I got to around 48 years old, I was uh the mom, the late the late mom uh coming to motherhood late. I had a six-year-old and a nineyear-old and I was having a hot flash every 20 minutes

 

00:00:57           and a mood swing in between and you know I was sort of middle of winter open the windows everybody is freezing so what put on a sweater what do I care I'm I'm having mood swing and at one day Ryan my little one looked at me with tears in her eyes it was like she didn't recognize me she was afraid of me and I I realized that this was uh this was a milestone moment I was in just turning you know 50 and I was like so many women still today not understanding am I in pmenopause what's happening you know

 

00:01:32           it's this must be a hormonal thing so I decided to since I was in the health education space I was a journalist for you at that time writing all about health articles and I thought what the hell I'm not even looking at my hormones so I wrote to Dr. John Lee who wrote the book What Your Doctor May Tell You About Menopause. Um, and he also wrote What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Premenopause. And he was one of the first people out there that put this whole discussion on the map. So, I wrote

 

00:02:00           to him and I said, “I'm a woman in menopause. I have two daughters that I'm, you know, that are afraid of me and I I I want to learn. I I'm a health educator. I want to specialize in this. What can I do?” And his co-author, Virginia Hopkins, wrote back to me and said, “Well, Dr. Lee is sort of he's he's on the way to retirement, but you know, there's a there's a Dr. David Zava in Portland, Oregon, who has started saliva testing, made saliva testing available for the commercial market, which it hadn't really been before.

 

00:02:31           Saliva testing was used in scientific pro in the scientific province, but wasn't made available. So I called him up and went out there and probably had a hot flash in front of him or a few of you. He said, ‘Th that's good because I've been looking for someone like you who can do some education for me and who knows what hot flash is. And he said, “So how could I have advertised for that? I knew I would find you.” So that's kind of how it happened. He became my mentor. I was hired on the spot and was there for 12 years. And the

 

00:03:01           whole emphasis was educate, educate, educate. At that point in time there was an explosion of um uh functional medicine was happening. Jonathan Wright was doing urine testing. There were other people in the field but it wasn't that known um universally and Dr. Zavas started lecturing for PCCA pharmaceutical compounding centers of America. So we were going all over the country and you know it just ensued that I met everybody in that space in those years and learned from them and learned from you know we were doing testing at

 

00:03:36           the time we were doing thousands of tests and now I think they've done millions of tests over 10 million tests with ZR. So, I'm really in the saliva camp and we can talk about that more, but I think when I left ZRT finally um because I I you know, it got to be that you get into the higher echelons and then you're not really talking to the people that are that are needing the help and the information. So, I left and I I started uh Your Hormone Balance and it's just an amazing thing that my daughters are now involved in this too

 

00:04:07           because they used to run screaming from the room whenever I would talk about hormones. She was so sick of it. Not to mention having to deal with me, right, crashing my having having my meltdowns. So, right. Quite the wild ride. Yeah. And how about you, Jess? Do you want to interject, too? Yeah. So, I mean, I obviously I didn't grow up wanting to be in the hormone business. In fact, it's probably the last thing I thought I would do because she was so passionate about it and always bringing it up. You

 

00:04:38           know, it was in high school any little ailment that we had was like, “We should check your hormones. It's probably it's probably a hormonal thing. Your adrenal needs adrenals need help.” You know, she wasn't big on me getting on hormonal birth control and I did it anyway. And I ended up just having to go through my own journey and my own path and spent about 12 years yo-yo dieting, gaining and losing the same 45 pounds and was very much in that restrict binge mentality. I was on hormonal birth control. Um, I didn't have a natural

 

00:05:10           period. I was experiencing a lot of symptoms when I hit around 30, which were pretty concerning. Like very low energy, 3 p.m. crash, very low libido. The biggest thing was debilitating migraine headaches. And so it was kind of that rock bottom moment where I felt like, okay, I'm ready to go back to my roots, ask my mom for support and help. I'm ready to transition off hormonal birth control, test my hormones. I did all the things, uncovered all of these imbalances, and went on to really follow the protocol that we now support our

 

00:05:43           clients with, which we weren't doing at the time. The business wasn't around quite yet. It almost was. Um, and as a result, you know, I was able to transition off hormonal birth control and get a natural period back and jump off two years, right? No, it took eight months after coming off of hormonal birth control, but that required, and we can talk about this later, but, you know, adding in more foods, focusing on blood sugar support, adding in specific supplements, bioidentical progesterone cream, really starting to be intentional

 

00:06:15           about the movement and the way that I treated my body. And because I saw such a huge change, I feel like this is how a lot of healers and educators and doctors are in the space that you kind of it was almost like I didn't have a choice. I had to help other women to to do this as well. And so I went back to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition to become a board-certified holistic health coach, took their hormone health extension course, and really studied with my mom and then eventually joined

 

00:06:42           forces as a partner with your hormone balance. Awesome. Well, let's start just kind of break down some of the physiology and what's going on here. So, we're talking about menopause, we're talking about pmenopause, and then we're talking about maybe cycle irregularities or PMS. So, I just want to kind of frame things out a little bit and I want to get your guys take on it. So, menopause is pretty a little more straightforward, right? We haven't had a cycle for 12 months, right? Typically 12 complete

 

00:07:06           cycles, right? No cycles at all. We start to have the classic symptoms. hot flashes, could be weight gain, could be sleep issues, could be vaginal dryness, mood irritability, skin elasticity. That's getting your menopause. Then your permenopause is you're starting to have some of these menopausal symptoms throughout the month, but you're still cycling. Was that that' be the biggest way to differentiate parmenopause and menopause. That's a good summary. Yeah. And then we just have our run-of-the-mill PMS, which which could

 

00:07:33           can easily feel like pmenopause, too. I think the biggest differentiating thing would be like permenopause is going to be more throughout the month where PMS is more going to be that week or so before your period and into the period. Is that be the diff the biggest differentiator there? Well, and also with pmenopause, one of the number one signs is irregular cycles and it's not always that's but that is one of the first signs is your period starts to maybe become longer than it ever was before or you're skipping a period here

 

00:08:05           and there and ovulatory cycles which means that you're not producing enough progesterone because progesterone is produced upon ovulation. So that's one of the main um I know uh differentiators. Yeah. Yeah. And just I think um you see a lot more hot flashes with permenopause than you do with PMS. You you can see them but and then usually that PMS is that week or soish time frame where per menopause could be any time. It may not be at a specific time during the month. Exactly. Yeah. The the hormones really start to

 

00:08:34           fluctuate in pmenopause and that's where all these symptoms, you know, it's often called the roller coaster. Women feel like they're on a roller coaster. they can't they can't get off and the symptoms are usually unfamiliar to them, you know, or or whatever symptom, right? But but it seems like from what I've seen in test results over the years, um even after uh 911, I remember we started seeing more adrenal stress in the dial curve of cortisol and seeing more women with fluctuating hormones who were in

 

00:09:03           their young, you know, in their late 30s. We used to think of pmenopause being more of a mid4s onset. Um but but younger and younger women seem to be experiencing these hormonal fluctuations. So where they're you know they're up and they're down and they have symptoms of estrogen deficiency and symptoms of estrogen dominance at the same time. Um and you know all these changes in their moods and their memory and their sleep. And it really is that pmenopause period that's harder. I think the bumps are, you know, the they're

 

00:09:36           more difficult and they and it lasts it can last for eight to 10 years which depending on when it started depending on your stress levels depending on your nutrition so many women are not eating properly you know there in especially in pmenopause I think those years are you know we've got women who are at the peak of performance they've got a power they're in their you know a powerful job or they've got a full-blown career they've got kids They've got aging parents. They're trying to stay thin and

 

00:10:07           they're they're trying to exercise. They're trying to get some time in for themselves. And it's pretty difficult. And women are so notorious for doing things for everybody else but themselves. So when I talk to women that age, they rarely have time to to practice self-care. They tend to equate it with selfishness. That's not everyone. I mean the rare people realize but the more stress you're you're handling the more stress starts to take center stage in your life the worse that pmenopause is you know as an experience of of

 

00:10:38           aging. Yep. And I test women, thousands of women over the last 15 years, cycling age in their 40s. And what I'm seeing more and more of is lower progesterone, lower DHEA, lower hormones, even women in their 20 and 30s where it could be at parmenopausal, even menopausal level. I see progesterone in that five, six, seven ng per ml level where healthy, you know, cycling ludial phase levels maybe around 15 to 20. So I see significant drops and and it makes sense because you will convert progesterone into cortisol

 

00:11:12           and stress hormones. So the more stressed you are and stress can come from hidden inflammatory sources. It can come from dislycemia. It can come from inflammatory foods, gluten, gut stress. How about all the xenoestrogens in the environment gunking up our detoxification systems? There's a lot of issues. And this chronic stress also then impacts like the feedback loop from the brain, right? the LH and the FSH feedback loops that then talk to the ovaries. Can you talk about the chronic stress, what it's doing, and and talk

 

00:11:40           about a little more about the feedback loop, that HPA access as well? Well, I I I think that the chronic stress is just, you know, the inability of women to to manage their stress. They're trying to do everything all at once. and and we see these levels, you know, we're looking in a test result for a cortisol pattern that is highest in the morning. The cortisol awakening response should be highest. Those levels should stay robust through the noon and then start gradually dropping evening into nighttime. And instead, I'm often very

 

00:12:15           low levels in the morning and people saying that they can't get out of bed. it's so difficult to drag themselves out of bed and and you know sort of a less than robust levels at noon and yet these high levels um higher levels towards evening and nighttime and you know the kind of tired but wired syndrome so you can't get out of bed in the morning and you can't you're ready to run a marathon at night and you know I mean the the the whole hypothalamic pituitary axis adrenal axis is involved in this this

 

00:12:47           whole feedback loop is completely offset the the oversight of homeostasis in the body is is offset by these cortisol hormones that start to predominate. I mean, if if progesterone is low, then the adrenals go wanting. They're going to they're going to steal any progesterone they can get from the reproductive from its reproductive responsibilities. The pregnanc of progesterone that's so important. Actually, I was just listening to an interview with you and Dan Kish, and you were really emphasizing the importance of

 

00:13:19           pregnalone, which I think is still something that's I I don't think many people know about it or or think about taking it, but I think that could be a real bonus. Is that is that very helpful to get that HPA axis back on track, the use of pregnant, I I think it can be very helpful. But if you want to go one step above that, I mean, what makes pregnet alolone? It's cholesterol. So, I think having healthy animal fats, animal proteins provide really good building blocks. Plus, you know, you're going to

 

00:13:46           get a lot of fat, soluble vitamins, vitamin A, and you're not getting a whole bunch of carbohydrate and processed food with it. You know, if especially if it's grass-fed or we're choosing good quality sources, there's a lot of nutrient intensity there. I think that's a big one, too. Yeah, absolutely. I mean, to your point earlier where you've seen people in their 20s and 30s that have levels that look like someone in maybe menopause. Oh, yeah. I had a client who literally just got her period for

 

00:14:14           the first time pretty much ever and she's 35 and it's because she has been a marathon runner since she was basically 16 years old and also struggled with periods of anorexia and some other eating disorders and just struggles with um consistency in her diet. And so her body was in this state of malnourishment in addition to, you know, not getting enough protein or healthy fats, very much focusing on carbohydrates for her runs, but not getting in those anti-inflammatory fats. Um, had been on birth control at one point, um, and then

 

00:14:54           was very nutrient deficient from that as well. And so it can be really hard when you're working with someone like that to convince them that they need to eat more. and correct, you know, and fats which are higher in calories, right? And so the building blocks of hormones, but building blocks, yeah, of you know, cholesterol being the backbone of sex hormone production. So, and and that's not an anomaly, you know, it's happening. It doesn't necessarily have to be a marathon runner, but I see women

 

00:15:23           all the time who are in steep calorie deficits for years, and then the only time that they're not in a calorie deficit is when they are binging. and or you know intentionally on vacation or whatever it is. And that's a huge stress on your body to have those big swings in addition to, you know, trying to keep up with maybe their male counterparts workout routines and hitting HIT training, you know, four time four or five times a week, which is what I used to do, surviving off of caffeine and energy energy drinks, skipping meals,

 

00:15:57           fasting before the workouts. And here you have maybe complete a amenorhea where you're not having a period at all or a lot of anovulatory cycles which then again you're not producing enough progesterone and the body just doesn't feel safe enough to ovulate and so we really have to create that safety uh in the body in order to you know be begin to ovulate and create a more regular cycle without a lot of PMS which is the goal and that disruption of the progesterone um goes So you know I think a lot of people don't understand you say

 

00:16:32           the word stress and they think of acute things like accidents injuries um you know but it's really so much or you know work stress or money stress or or family stress but but the but there are the stressors of overex exercise is a stressor body. We know that those women you're talking about, she hadn't had a period. They're not ovulating. They're not producing the right amounts of hormones. And you know, when progesterone is low or any of the sex hormones are low, other hormones, it's like the instruments in the orchestra,

 

00:17:05           you get this imbalance. So, for instance, the uh estrogen and progesterone, if they're they're taking a hit, they're not going to be able to do their anti-androgen responsibilities of keeping androgens in check. So then you have higher levels of testosterone. You have, you know, and then you start, you have symptoms of the acne and the oily skin and the feeling edgy and irritable and the weight gain in the abdomen and and down the road perhaps some, you know, the development of PCOS. I I I just think that women don't

 

00:17:37           realize that undereating, not getting enough protein, not getting enough good fat, the building blocks of hormones, taking, you know, hormone cholesterol lowering drugs is is lethal for production of hormones. The different stresses on our bodies are not always quite so obvious. But I I think it's important for women to understand that it's when you drink coffee on an empty stomach and call that breakfast and then run off to do your spinning class madly exercising five, six days a week. Um, and a lot of women are doing that and

 

00:18:10           they're so frustrated. And what's happening? They're getting belly fat that they can't lose. A a typical cortisol uh sign of of imbalanced cortisol and an HPA axis that is impaired. You know, that sort of thing drives people crazy. People don't understand why they're not sleeping well when cortisol is high at night. We see that a lot. What happens with the appetite hormones? They're on the sleepwake cycle. They get out of balance and you've got le you've got grein, the hunger hormone rising. So, you're

 

00:18:40           hungrier. You got sugar cravings. And you've got leptin, the hormone that's telling you you're full dropping. There's so many intertwined things that are going on that that have to be explained so that people actually get what you you know what all is going on and then start to take it apart and and approach each of these things that we need to do. And I think a lot of the lowc calorie dogma and a lot of the low-fat dogma of like the 90s to to the 2000s. I think women tend to be more health consscious and this type of

 

00:19:09           eating is like one of the worst ways to to to negatively impact your hormones because then you just you cut out all the raw material to build your hormones. And then when you start going into the calorie model like like Jess said earlier, well fats has nine grams nine calories per gram where protein or carbs have four. So let's cut out the one that has more. So then you start going lower calorie again. And then if you go low fat, then you tend to eat more processed foods, right? Because the only way you

 

00:19:33           can get really low fat is either you eat very lean pieces of protein or you eat a lot of food that are packaged in these lowc calorie bags that then avoid a lot of that the fats or if they have fats in it, it's processed vegetable oils that are rancid and oxidized. So it's just the first thing I think is going back to a just getting the raw material in. And then you talked about stress earlier. lowc calorie dieting can actually be a stressor or even intermittent fasting if you're a female who already has hormonal

 

00:19:58           issues and then you're not allowing consistent nutrition and stable blood sugar throughout the day because you're fasting or doing maybe just coffee in the morning that can be a stressor too, right? Yeah, absolutely. I mean it's there's so many factors. It starts with how you start your day. I always say that creates a ripple effect throughout the rest of the day. So if you are getting up and I mean especially the pmenopause age to my mom's point those are women in their late 30s early 40s a lot of them tend to have young children

 

00:20:28           or even teens and so and that's kind of my primary de demographic for my clients and it's so hard to you know get your kids ready and off to work and off to school and still make time to feed yourself. And so that's where I see a lot of the racing to the coffee pot. then you're stressed in the morning and your cortisol is already highest in the morning, which is good because we need that to get up and go. But if you're pummeling stress on top of that already high level and then you know we're skipping breakfast and then our blood

 

00:20:56           sugar levels are crashing and then naturally we're going to reach for something that's quick and easy, which isn't always something balanced. And it creates this kind of vicious cycle throughout the day. then you're crashing at 3 p.m. and then that's why you see the line outside of Starbucks, people getting their pastries and their coffee fix and then you know you're getting to the end of the day and maybe eating this huge meal before bed and then you're struggling with sleep and then that ripples into the next day. And so it

 

00:21:25           really is, I always say it starts with the morning and how you nurture your nervous system in the morning and even just setting aside that 5 to 10 minutes to create something quick. Balanced meals do not have to take a long time. There's so many things that you can make um you know, prep chia puddings with protein in it and um just a a simple smoothie, a protein smoothie with healthy fats. I think it really is just starting with okay, how can I prioritize myself first before I prioritize everybody else and even, you know, not

 

00:22:00           grabbing your phone first thing in the morning. I think that's something many of us are guilty of. But then all of a sudden, the rest of the world has your attention and has control over your day versus you being able to have control over your day and the way that you start it. And so I just feel like the morning is, you know, I think people are obsessed with morning routines, but I also think that they are incredibly important and to bio-individualize it to you as well. I think interestingly, how

 

00:22:26           about the the uh phone at night that the people that are on their cell phone at night and can't sleep and don't have any idea. They're playing Words with Friends at 3:00 in the morning. before bed they're re they're on their cell phones and they're they there's so many people that are not aware of the impact of the blue light upon the you know disruption of melatonin um and and that's so you know here we are in the morning we're on our phone and at night we're on our phone and in in both I would I would argue that a lot

 

00:22:57           of people at this point do know that blue light is is I hope so an interference. I think there's obviously still some people that don't, but I think that it's an addiction. There's still it's like we can know that something isn't necessarily beneficial for our sleep. And that's something I work with clients all the time. I know I know I shouldn't be checking my phone right before bed, but you know, it's like at the end of a long day, it is the easy thing. It's the easy thing to do. The hard thing to do would be to turn

 

00:23:27           off your phone and put your laptop away and not watch TV and really just focus on your breath or listen to a guided meditation or read a calming book or journal. Um, but if you can stick to it for I say for seven days, just start with seven days, you will notice the impact in how you feel so quickly that you're going to have that motivation to keep moving because motivation doesn't just come randomly. It comes from experiencing results and then feeling motivated to keep doing what you're doing. Yeah. I think it's important to

 

00:23:58           have healthy habits. And the healthier your nervous system is, the more you can adapt from, you know, watching TV to go into sleep. But if you can't do that, then you have to pace in that time for your body to adapt and or add in nutrients like magnesium or theine, things that will help bring your nervous system down or or just do simple strategies of like, hey, when you watch that TV show, put some blue blocking glasses on, have all your lights dim down really low. So you at least mitigate some of the stress with some

 

00:24:24           other kind of hobbies or habits in between there to kind of lessen the the blow, if you will. Yeah. And I mean, I think it's interesting, too, that it sounds like not even that much of a hack, but starting with if you're the person who watches a show at night with your significant other, with your food, while you're watching the show, and then you also have your phone next to you, and you're checking your phone while you're watching the show, while you're eating. This is going to impact not only

 

00:24:52           your cortisol and your stress levels and your nervous system, but also the ability to digest and absorb your foods because you actually assimilate more nutrients from your food when you slow down when you eat. And you'll have a lot more satiety. And so I tell people, okay, let's not try to do everything overnight, but let's start with can you put your phone in a different room and just be present at least with the show that you're watching with your partner and start there. And even just doing that, I have clients that are like, “Oh

 

00:25:23           my gosh, I was so much more present. I enjoyed the experience so much more. I wasn't anxious because I'm also on my phone sending emails and you know and then it's like okay then let's take it a step further and back it up and have dinner before you watch the show and then also keep the phone out of the dining room and then then after that okay let's start the show a little bit earlier give yourself a 20-minut buffer after the show so you can get in bed and do something a little bit more calming

 

00:25:52           um and I think it's you know we got to we got to layer on I think when we go from one extreme to the other. That's where people burn out and they're not going to be consistent. Yeah, that too. True. I 100% agree with that. We just try to have good habits, layer in some good habits um to try to neutralize it and try to make sure we have good sleep. And the the more fragile someone's nervous system is, the more we have to be more strengthened. So, I think some good testing to assess nervous system function is adrenals.

 

00:26:20           Adrenals can be a really good window into adaptation. So looking at your cortisol rhythm can be a good sign of how adaptive your HPA axis is. Or also looking at your DHEA sulfate reserves from your adrenals because we know that that's the backup generator as your ovarian function starts to drop. That becomes the building blocks to help fill in what's not being made by the adrenals. So let's talk more about that, Candace. Well, um I think uh I I mean I noticed too that often there's low DHEA on board

 

00:26:53           with women who are, you know, living this this stress life. And um you know, it it's can be so helpful to supplement with DHEA. We I I never I hate to when I see like a woman I talked to the other day, 5 foot 10, 138 lbs, 36 years old, hasn't had a period in ages, wants to have a, you know, wants to get pregnant, very concerned about her weight that she's gaining a little weight at 138 pounds when she's 510. And you know, she's just got this, she's a tired but wired person. And her estrogen you see

 

00:27:31           in these people, these are where you see the levels that look like menopause. She's got low estrogen, low progesterone, low DHEA. Um the cortisols were, you know, opposite of what they should be, low in the morning, high at night. And um you know, I don't like to have you could look at that test result and you could say, well, your estrogen's low, your progesterone's low. let's get you on some, you know, the the immediate thing might be if you're at a doctor who doesn't know any better, let's write a

 

00:27:59           prescription for these hormones. But you have to start in a person like that with adrenal support. That's the first place to to really to begin. And so that starts, you know, that gets into doing all those things that we're talking about here. And also with supplements, I think, you know, most people are deficient in magnesium. Many people are not using B complex and the B you know they may be taking B12 to increase their energy but not aware that all the B all the B complex the B5 and B6 in particular are so important for adrenal

 

00:28:33           support. The adaptogenic herbs that are out there that can be so uh so helpful. Um, and DHEA is a great way to help, you know, the body produce its own convert to um, uh, testosterone and then to estrogen preferentially, but the body knows in its wisdom how to use these supplements, especially when they are matching up with um, the receptor sites. you know, you're you're delivering a bioididentical form of these hormones so that they're not synthetic, but they're made to duplicate the molecular

 

00:29:07           structure and function of our own hormones and then they can get in there, fit onto that receptor site and start jamming, you know, flip the switches that matter. I I so I think yeah I mean we have to utilize I like to see a duplication of physiology as as close as we can get to to duplicating to mimicking physiology is what we want to do. We want to use, you know, phytoestrogens, plant-based foods that have that are similar to estrogen in their structure and can they're they're weaker estrogens, but they can mimic

 

00:29:42           that activity at the cellular level. And that's the way to begin, I think, gently, you know, slowly um at some point if and and then retesting to monitor how those changes are occurring, especially if you're using anything like progesterone. I personally when I was 48 and I had all those symptoms, I started making changes to my lifestyle, not drinking coffee so much and not you know skipping meals and running rushing around all the time. But I also needed a little something. I needed some I needed

 

00:30:15           some support that came in the form. I remember the first adaptogenic drug uh uh herb I used was Dong Quai and it it was so and it it's another estrogen mimicker and it was such a game changer. It just took me right out of the black hole that I was in. um and and other herbs that I started using. And then progesterone, I I did end up testing and find at that point I didn't even know there was such a thing as you know the a test. But um when I tested I was awfully low in all these hormones and a little

 

00:30:48           bit of progesterone, just the lowest effective dose, you know, in a in a topical delivery system, so we're not having to compromise the gut and the liver was really magic. I think my girls would say I I became a person you could live with again. Yeah. We're like, “Mom, where's your cream? You should put that on.” And what about what about testosterone, too? Because I I I looked at some of the lab markers and kind of looked at everything. I didn't realize that most women may not, but the most predominant

 

00:31:17           hormone in a female's body is actually testosterone by by two to 3x compared to estrogen and five to six compared to progesterone outside of that that ovulation period. I never knew that. That's interesting. Now I think most women they can get pathological levels of testosterone if they don't manage their blood sugar. If they have insulin resistance they develop PCOS. So that's to a bad level. That's actually the number one cause of infertility in women is PCOS which that the androgens and then that can impact prolactin. But

 

00:31:45           let's talk about testosterone. Where does that come in? And are you supporting testosterone with certain herbs? Are you doing it via DHEA and having that trickle downstream those antigens pathways? I you know I I am not a big fan of suggesting I I mean obviously we don't prescribe anything but I would much rather go the indirect route of who's talking about DHEA that will convert and and also supporting the adrenals and doing you know strength training I think is a great way it is a great way to

 

00:32:18           boost lean muscle and thus you know wake up those testosterone receptors. I think taking so many women are doing um the the pellets uh that that I haven't I haven't many of the people that come to us have done pellets and went from hero to zero. You know, they feel fantastic at first and then a few months later the thing the it crashes and they crash and it's not you know I I there never should be a hormone taken in isolation. Never. Well, you can go run a pellet. There's so many studies on pellets where they'll

 

00:32:51           do a pellet for four to 6 months and then the first month it's here, the next month it's here, next month it's here, and then if you look at where you were month one to month four or six, there's like a 60 or 80% drop. It's like, well, if you're going to do hormones and you're not cycling anymore, we want to keep that hormone pretty stable dayto day, but when you have that kind of variation months apart, that's not going to feel good. It doesn't feel good. And then what about the conversion to estrogen? I always think I think that in

 

00:33:17           men who rush to get testosterone injections not even realizing that it's increasing their testosterone levels. It I mean it can convert to I mean that it's um um that it's that it's converting to estrogen and and you see uh SHBG abnormalities in those people in in men as well and women. though we don't usually oh we we don't usually test men but I have seen interesting situations with men that are all about testosterone and don't realize that men and women share all the same hormones right just

 

00:33:53           in differing amounts you said I thought it was interesting too what you said about testosterone being the main hormone and I think that's you know the has a predominance in especially during menopause because you know the estrogen the progesterone are down the cortisol is sort of running the show and testosterone remains sort of steady. It's not it's not as influenced by this fluctuation. So that's where you get, you know, women who are older were always dealing with the chin hairs and and the bad moods and the crabiness and

 

00:34:23           the weight gain around the abdomen and, you know, all of those issues that really um I think relate to that steady level of testosterone in the absence of the other supportive hormones as they decline. I also think I was going to say I also think all around just blood sugar support is for everything that we're talking about especially with high testosterone levels it's so incredibly important to support your blood sugar and so because we see a lot of insulin resistance right tied with high high

 

00:34:57           testosterone and so that's really where I begin I mean huge fan of supplementation and everything that we've been talking about adrenal support nourishing the nervous system but we can do all of that as well through prioritizing blood sugar balance. And what I see with a lot of clients that come to us and to me specifically is they're not actually eating an unhealthy diet. They're eating a lot of them are eating whole foods. They listen to podcasts like this. That's how they find us, right? So they're listening to all

 

00:35:27           the health podcasts. They're nourishing their mind. They're aware of these things and they're eating whole foods. I mean, of course, there's not everybody is eating all whole foods. I don't even do that myself, but for the most part, they're aware. The thing that I'm finding is that they're not aware of how to properly combine their foods. So, maybe they're eating, like we talked about earlier, a chia pudding, but they're just using the chia seeds and the almond milk and the fruit and maybe some oats. And then it's basically carbs

 

00:35:58           and a little bit of fat and like a tiny bit of protein. And so, while that's quote unquote healthy, because we see that all over Instagram as like a healthy option, we're gonna look at that and say, “Okay, let's increase the protein. I want us to be at a minimum of 20, 25 to 35 grams of protein.” Start with that foundation. Make sure that we have a really good fiber source so that we're slowing the absorption of the carbohydrates. We're bringing in an anti- couple one to two to three servings of anti-inflammatory fats. And

 

00:36:31           then if we are going to have a carbohydrate, we're choosing a nutrient-rich carbohydrate that's going to be able to support. So maybe glyphosatefree oats or we're doing sweet potatoes or we're using like a whole grain bread or something like that. And so it's not, for me at least, it's not cutting out carbs completely or demonizing a specific macronutrient. It's learning how to properly pair it. And then I always say bring in bliss boosts which are it's just my word for fresh herbs and seasonings, adaptogens,

 

00:37:03           um superfood powders and things like that. And so I have a formula called the sexy six formula that includes these six things at every meal. And I always encourage people to do a cup to two cups or more of low glycemic vegetables at every meal as well. Obviously, breakfast is a little bit harder, but if you can't get it in at breakfast, you know, maybe do a little green scoop on the side or just I always throw spinach and my eggs. You know, there's easy ways of getting it in. But once we nail that, I see so

 

00:37:33           many symptoms improve. I mean people can see a drastic uh I mean I have seen people completely uh eliminate their panic attacks just from balancing their blood sugar and bring down their anxiety levels and eliminate the 3pm crash and be able to release weight more easily. And I'll see testosterone levels come down as well. And so it has this huge ripple effect. And I just don't think it's still not talked about enough because we are still in a society, especially as it relates to weight loss and fitness, that is so

 

00:38:12           focused on calories and macros. And while those are important, it completely negates the balance of foods and the specific nutrients that you're getting at each meal. And some of those foods you're talking about also should do include and should include the cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and brussel sprouts and kale and cauliflower that are so uh effective at um promoting proper estrogen metabolism. Uh which is you know a big key. There are the what three pathways the good pathways the bad pathways. We

 

00:38:50           want it we want to move that estrogen down the proper pathway so that it's the body uses it and loses it. It isn't recirculated. That's where things like calcium dlucarate and DIM can come in as supplements if people are estrogen dominant um to try to to to bring those estrogen levels, you know, to have healthy metabolism, not have it recirculating in the body, which can happen so so easily. And we see, you know, high levels of estrone and stored stored estrogen in women's bodies, which is a real risk for breast cancer because

 

00:39:27           estrogen is a growth hormone. We don't want it, you know, we don't want we need to regulate its growth activity. It's what's behind breast cancers and endometriosis and and the long-term problems that we see, but also um you know the early problems that we see in people like the heavy the heavy painful periods and you know the cysts and and all of that fibroids, fear of hugging, breast tenderness, that kind of thing. So anyway, with with our diets, yeah, it's important to get in the crucifer, not not to eat them raw, but to steam

 

00:39:59           them, sauté them, bring them in, and and if it's hard to get the amount of uh crucifer you need every day, which can be quite a bit, you you can use the dim, which is an extract uh that that has that that sulfor. So when we look at our estrogens, right, we have the two, four, the 16, and the two is the more protective, right? where the four and 16 can be a little bit more cancerous or a little bit more DNA damaging. Right. So, we want to you said the sulfur like the dim or the sulforophane you mentioned

 

00:40:29           calcium very the estrogen's down to that that phase 2 detox that we want that down pathway and I think Jeffrey Bland talked about that back in the day. He was one of the first people to start discussing that important thing. That's one of the places where urine testing can be helpful because you can track that. You can see if your hormones are metabolizing down the proper pathways. We don't I I don't get into that complexity of testing because I find most women are just needing to, you know, they're approaching this and it's

 

00:41:01           all a learning curve right now. So, just to start with saliva testing, which is great because it measures without needles, you know, without causing stress. It's really the gold standard of of adrenal testing because needles can skew those results. It's non-invasive. You use it in the p, you know, you can test at optimal times and then you can you can see um you know what your levels are. Uh I forgot what what was I just lost my train of thought. We're talking about we're talking about the estrogens

 

00:41:31           and and um Oh yeah, the tracking of the path. Two is good, four and 16 are not quite as good. And then just just to kind of give some of the nutrients, right? Your B vitamins, your magnesium, your your your folate, your B12, your choline, your knack, and again, some of the foods, your leafy greens, your eggs, any beef liver, you know, those are going to asparagus, all your cruifer, those are the big things that you can do to kind of push those estrogens from four to 16 into that more safer two range. I'm curious from you, since I

 

00:42:00           know that you specialize in gut health, too. What are your thoughts on llutamine like taking that as a supplement and glycine? Well, I mean I think those are good nutrients to kind of promote gut healing, help the interasytes heal, but you still have to figure out why the gut's getting raw or irritated to begin with, right? There could be, you know, SIBO, bacteria imbalances, there could be H pylori, maybe we're not breaking the food down enough, you know, hydrochloric acid, enzymes, bile. Um, and you know, on the hormonal side, if

 

00:42:26           we have a lot of dispiosis, dispiosis can make that betaglucaronase enzyme. That's an enzyme that that it basically junks up estrogen detoxification. So we we conjugate, we bind it to a protein and then that protein comes off when we have a lot of bad bacteria. That enzyme takes the handcuffs off and doesn't kind of reabsorb estrogen. Yeah. Then it reabsorbs. So So it was protein bound. It's like someone who has handcuffs are being escorted out of the the club, right? And then you take the handcuffs

 

00:42:53           off now they go back and create a ruckus. It's like that in your body with with these conjugated hormones. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's where calcium dlucarate can be quite helpful. It inhibits the action of beta gluc glucaronidase and also just getting rid of the the bad bacteria, knocking it down from cutting out the foods to feed it or using botanicals to kind of knock down some of those herbs or or bringing up probiotics to help crowd out some of them as well. Totally. Yeah. And I think that's where,

 

00:43:20           you know, I think I I get it. People get overwhelmed with all of this stuff and it's like sometimes I'll hear things like, “Oh, I just want to focus on my hormones and then I'll focus on the gut and the liver and it's like we have to focus on all of it together.” Um, it's it's so important and I think it is overwhelming with all of the testing that's available. And so that is why we like to simplify it with saliva testing because we have so many clients that I mean we've tested thousands at this

 

00:43:49           point. And I would say, you know, 90% of the clients that we've worked with that have had standard blood testing, everything comes back quote unquote normal and that's not how they feel, you know, and they're like, I I feel crazy and this is not I know that I I don't I know that things Can you talk Can you talk more about why though? Like why is that? What's blood testing missing that some of the other more functional testing is picking up? I I can speak to that just you know the the the thing about blood testing I remember Dr. Zavi

 

00:44:21           used to say you know they're complimentary but you're you're looking at different things. I I'm I used to work with Mark Newman who owns the Dutch he runs the Dutch testing precision analytics. Yeah, precision analytics. But we developed that. He actually was head of the saliva lab at ZRT and he developed that testing at ZRT and then he went off started precision analytics. Um but uh and we do we did blood testing too. We do blood spot dried blood spot testing of thyroid all the thyroids and vitamin D. I've used that before. Is

 

00:44:54           that accurate for ZRT that the blood spot? Yeah, I think thyroid you know. Yeah, Dr. Zava is a big proponent. He's got lots of papers on that and but the blood spot can be used in a non-invasive painless way to measure those things easily as most doctors don't the standard doctor isn't going to measure free T4 and free T3 and TPO antibodies. So dry blood spot can be used for that. Um also I'll use that patients that are hours from like a lab core quest too or any thyroid. You know if they're hours

 

00:45:25           away we'll just do a ZRT and have them complete it. That's perfect. But I mean the blood the blood the standard blood draw can create stress because of needles. You can't you're not going to prick yourself four times to measure your dal cortisol curve. That's that's pretty difficult to get a blood draw four times in one day to measure that. It's also not measuring the unbound fraction of hormone that's left. You know that the the fraction of hormone that is becoming unbound because the pituitary just said, “Hey, she's working

 

00:45:56           out. we need a little more testosterone over here. Let's release some and put it into the cell. Need it. So, when you measure in saliva, you're really measuring, you're capturing that 2 to 4% fraction that's left the bloodstream and it's moving. It's on its way to the target tissues. Whereas, you can't get that in a blood test unless you're measuring free levels, but that's not a standard blood draw. So, I'm talking about a standard blood draw is not going to it's going to measure bound hormones

 

00:46:22           bound to their carrier protein in the bloodstream, not you know the unbound bioavailable level of hormone. And then when you get into urine testing, you're looking, you know, you're really getting into the weeds. And I I started to say with with the urine testing and tracking, you know, when you start with a saliva test and you see all these if you see a bunch of imbalances and you've got high estrogen and you've got, let's say, a history of of breast cancer in your family, you might want to go on and

 

00:46:49           do some of this um testing of uh you know the uh the what do I mean to say for the for the for the urine testing? Yeah. The pathways pathway the urine because then you could see the metabolized from 24 to 16 and how it's being detoxified, right? Yes. Yeah. You don't. And so are you supportive of the Dutch testing? I've been using Dutch for quite a few years, but I've used saliva 15 plus years. What's your take on the two, you know, looking at hormones from the urine andor hormones from the saliva? Well, I'm supportive of it, but

 

00:47:20           I have to say because we because he developed it at ZRT, we have the same exact test. We test all of those all of those pathways and very completely. Oh, that's cool. I'll check that out. That's cool. And you know, I think Dr. Zava actually encouraged Mark. He he he developed it and it's brilliant and it's really popular and I think it has its place. I just don't think it's a good place to begin because it's very it's a difficult test to interpret. You've got to be working with a functional medicine

 

00:47:49           doctor. They can be functional medicine doctors are I like uh Dr. Dr. Kaish's idea of having a membership kind of uh uh uh relationship with your doctor so that you don't just wait till something's wrong, but you're always monitoring and you're always being coached so that you can see how things are going. And if with saliva testing, if someone has complications, they're not getting better from the simple for, you know, the adrenal support and and all these things we've been talking about, then maybe it's time to do the

 

00:48:19           more complex comprehensive testing in urine. Um, it's also non-invasive. And I think it's it's just we're measuring different things. You're measuring metabolites in urine. You're measuring the breakdown of hormones. In saliva, you're measuring the hormones, you know, that are actually bioavailable. And in blood, you're measuring bound hormones. So, you're measuring different things. You're getting different information. So, with the Dutch, you're getting free fraction metabolites, but you're also

 

00:48:47           getting total. The one thing that I liked is you could see a lot of HPA access dysfunction when you see high amounts of total but very low free or vice versa high amounts of free very low total usually there could be like an anemia or low thyroid. So I liked how you could see some of the imbalances on that. Yeah. important. I think people, you know, the one thing I I find is a problem is that we get a lot of people who do not understand their urine test results there, you know, and that that's a big problem in the world of testing

 

00:49:20           anyway, getting the right inter, you know, getting someone to interpret the results properly and help you understand. How many times do you just get a test result, here are the numbers, you don't understand what they mean, there's a range. What are some of the biggest things on that test that people miss or even clinicians miss? On the on which test? On the urine test? On on the urine or on the saliva test, the ones that you see the most of? Well, you know, you have all these there these myriad metabolites and I they each take

 

00:49:48           explanation. You know, what does that really mean? And and how does that just overwhelming and I don't think that they're very well explained because most women I talked to that did the testing had no idea what it really meant. Maybe they got some information around the pathways, but you know, I'm sure doc What about doctors like you? How much time do you spend interpreting those results for your clients when you do when you run a urine test? Oh, we'll go over that for 30 minutes. Yeah. Break it

 

00:50:16           down and and you got to connect it to their lifestyle to, you know, your okay, you're you're exercising late, maybe that's why your cortisol is going up at night or let's talk about your food. you're you're skipping meals here because that that pl so you want to understand their lifestyle and overlap it so you understand what's driving it too and of xenoestrogens that that's another thing that I think you can get a better handle on with urine testing and that that is something we haven't mentioned but you know we talk about

 

00:50:42           lack of ovulation causing disruption of hormone stressors that are not quite as obvious all the time the undereating all of these things we've mentioned but what about the you know we're living in a sea of toxins that are duplicating um you know they're they're estrogen mimickers. So you think of a a toxin that comes in a xenoestrogen and BPA. It goes to that receptor site. It binds to the same receptor site competes with the naturally occurring estrogen, kicks the naturally occurring estrogen off its

 

00:51:14           receptor site and starts occupying that site like like somebody who comes to stay at your house and sleeping on your couch and won't leave, you know? Right. Okay. Rid of them. Yeah. And also we we just we're in a sea of it whether it's in microplastics in our water. So, we need, you know, at least a good RO filter or we're consuming too much plastics or god forbid you're a cashier at Whole Foods and you're handling the receipts that are layered in BPA mean non-stop. It is interesting how that's changed

 

00:51:42           now. People say, “Do you want your receipt?” And you usually say, “No, because I think people have some idea that those inks, you know, one of the things I don't want.” Or I take a picture of it. I'm like, “I got it.” Microlastics in tea bags. Yeah. So, um I have started using loose tea. I think that's important. Tea tea maker is awesome. Just use a little bit of loose tea. But loose tea, no more tea bags, people, because there's the numerous microlastics in there. But, you know, also plastic in general, not heating

 

00:52:12           your food in plastic. How about these foods that are in boil in the bag? What could be worse? Oh, yeah. Or if you're microwaving anything in plastic, people do it all the time. Well, and also even just the little things you don't think about like cutting on a plastic board. Yeah. Plastic cutting board and then putting that food plastic utensils. the black plastic. Um, people use those for, you know, spatulas and, uh, you know, I think that's a great first place to start is by being aware of the plastics because that is, I would

 

00:52:47           say, yeah, the the most problematic in terms of how frequently people are using plastic. Even, you know, even my husband, he still has some plastic water bottles that he brings with him to the gym. And I'm like like I don't want to be your your coach right now, but please just yesterday I got him to agree to buy um a different like a reusable water bottle. Um yeah, and you know it's those little things that you don't you don't think it's that big of a deal, but I always say think about how frequently

 

00:53:16           you're using these things. And also if if you're using something on your skin or you're ingesting something, think about not only how often are you using it, but what is the surface area that it's covering. So if you're putting body lotion on your whole body every single day, that's probably something you want to switch out quickly. If you're cutting on your plastic cutting board, you probably want to start with that. if you're drinking out of your water bottle. Um, versus feeling like you have

 

00:53:44           to switch out everything overnight, which again can be incredibly overwhelming. And I don't think any of us are perfect. Um, as that as that goes, but I do think an awareness and finding swaps and brands that perform really well and are also a similar price point, which is totally doable now. We have so many options. I mean, you're going to find the comet under your sink. you know, you're trying you you got to gradually get rid of this stuff, but cleaning products can be so toxic. Um, cosmetics, uh, hair, you know, all our

 

00:54:16           personal care products, hormones in food, antibiotics, and, you know, the meat and the hormones that are that beef, cattle are shot up with, we have to be aware of all of this stuff and try to just avoid it as best as possible. And I think we're living in an era where we can do that a little more easily. We have we have good we have good choices. We have clean. So, here's here's a simple hack you can do. Just take a picture of an ingredient label, upload it the chat GPT, and just say list out each ingredient and then give it an

 

00:54:45           environmental wellness group score because they have all their scores and then it'll break each thing down and give it a score and tell you if it's cancer caused. Oh, I love that. We usually use the skin deep database on EWT. It just it just it just basically uses it through chat GBT. That's amazing. So, it makes it more because then you can upload a picture. Have you heard of Yuka? The Yuka app. You can just take a picture of the barcode of any product while you're in the store. It'll it'll come up with a whole um

 

00:55:15           rundown of how healthy that is and you know what what it contains that may be toxic and killing you. One thing I mean EWG or cosmetic skin is great. Those are you mentioning receipts. I I have a bone to pick with all these tattoos. What about tattoos? I mean, you see people with, you know, their their arms are it's a trendy thing, especially here in Oregon. And my god, I'm thinking that ink, it's, you know, that's that's a it's loaded with heavy metals. It's also corn in there. Even corn and some so some food

 

00:55:49           additives that could be, you know, allergenic, bad stuff. I know. I have tattoos. Not a lot. I have like six or seven little ones. But now, now I'm questioning, should I get an eighth? Probably not. I think this is something we need to raise, though. I haven't I think I haven't read much about it. I haven't seen that there's you know now we're talking about microplastics good. We need to be talking about the inks in in tattoos and and how lethal and toxic they may be. I remember writing some time ago an article called is your

 

00:56:18           lipstick make is making you sick? There's lead in lipstick cadmium and eye shadow. You know these these things are they're turning into xenoestrogens and disrupting your endocrine system. So, it's that's another big piece of all of this that we're talking about. And let's switch gears and talk about birth control options. I know Jess, you were talking about your history being on birth control. I think you said eight months coming off and getting your cycle back. Um, if when females come to me and

 

00:56:46           they want non hormonal methods, I mean, obviously you have things like a rhythm method, you have just general barrier methods, and you have maybe a paragard IUD, which can have side effects, but at least it's non hormonal. Um, so those are kind of the general more non hormonal. I want to get your take on those. And then what you did to help get yourself off of the typical more hormonal methods, whether it's like a low estrogen, a yasmin, an ethanol estradiol. Then they have some of the synthetic progesterone, the levordestro,

 

00:57:11           whether it's like the kylina, the marina, um, Kylina, Marina, and there's one more. Um, the big three on the Oh, right. Skyler, yeah, those are the big three. I think Marina is the highest and then I think Kylen is the lowest. So those are like the synthetic kind of progesterone ones. Yeah. I don't want to get I was on hormonal birth control. So uh ethanol acid everything I cycled through so many different types of birth control because because of side effects just I mean I I was young. I didn't know what I was

 

00:57:47           taking and yeah, some side effects also, you know, going to Planned Parenthood and trying to get it for free and then I would go and they'd be like, “Oh, you know, we don't have that one that you were taking now. Let's get you on something else.” So, I see. Yeah. Yeah. Switching back and forth. And so, I mean, the biggest thing with hormonal birth control pills is that it is working to prevent pregnancy by shutting down ovulation and essentially stopping communication between the brain and the ovaries. And it's highly recommended by

 

00:58:18           OBGYNS and doctors for women that are having painful periods or irregular cycles or acne or anxiety, depression. It seems to be it seems to be the default recommendation. And so what we have to remember is that it can supp it's like putting a band-aid on on a bullet hole, right? It can suppress some of these problems. And I mean even still for women with endometriosis for example sometimes it's almost a necessary evil for a period of time for the pain. But then the problem is that again it's suppressing everything so that when you

 

00:58:54           decide to eventually come off of hormonal birth control because you want to get pregnant or you're getting older, whatever your reasons are, you're not feeling well, um you can experience this cluster of side effects, this resurgence of symptoms that you went on the pill to suppress in the first place. and sometimes they come back with a vengeance and then there's additional symptoms. And so, um, that's obviously with the IUD, it's not necessarily suppressing ovulation. And I shouldn't say obviously, but the IUD is not

 

00:59:27           suppressing ovulation in all cases. I hormonally. Yeah. Um, I think it was the Marina IUD that they showed the first year it suppresses ovulation in about 85% of cases when the dose is its highest and then it starts to go down from there. So, you can still be ovulating, which is why I do prefer if we're going to choose between the pill and the IUD, I would choose an IUD over the pill. Um, but that being said, once we get to a point where we do want to come off of, especially the pill, a lot of women will just kind of

 

01:00:03           cold turkey it and then they experience all of these symptoms and they're like, “Oh my god.” And then they get scared and they go back on it. And so what I always recommend if you can is take 3 to 6 months to gradually transition. Don't come right off of it. take spend three months repleting the nutrients that get depleted specifically from the pill. So like vitamin C, magnesium, selenium, um the B vitamins and so I mean one of the easiest ways of doing that is just getting on a really high quality

 

01:00:37           prenatal. We love weatal because the ratios do you know about it? Okay, weal is one of the best on the market. There's so so many prenatalss that are just what's special about it has it has a higher levels of all of the B vitamins which a lot of times a lot of times in uh prenatalss you're actually getting very low imbalanced amounts. Um it has a good amount of choline, a good amount of magnesium. It has a great amount of vitamin D3 plus K2 which you don't always find in a prenatal. There's 4,000 IU of vitamin D. That's a good

 

01:01:12           amount. So, it's got the right balance of nutrients. It's also very well studied and researched. The founders actually started by creating a male prenatal because there weren't many on the market being that men are 50% of the equation. And so, now they have a male and female prenatal. So, I always get a woman who wants to transition on a high quality prenatal and then making sure that they are really nourishing nourishing their nervous system. And so we'll do that through um cycle syncing practices where we're cycling certain

 

01:01:44           nutrients um with that's a whole another conversation. We can't really cycle sync when we're on hormonal birth control. But what we can do is we can adopt some of the practices like bringing down highintensity exercise especially during heightened periods of stress balancing it out with more restorative movement. So adding in a lot more walking, yoga, stretching, mobility, strength training is huge. I try to get all women to strength train. Um, and we'll really just allow make sure that the body feels

 

01:02:19           as safe as it possibly can. We'll obviously bring in some magnesium and make sure that we're focusing on blood sugar support. And then once they start to transition off of hormonal birth control, they're either not experiencing symptoms or they're way reduced. And that's what happened in my case. I really didn't have any symptoms when I transitioned off. Other than that, I didn't have a period. And it took about 8 months of consistency until I got my period back. But that's when I added in progesterone, bioidentical progesterone

 

01:02:49           cream, because my progesterone levels were so low since they had been suppressed by by the pill. So then in terms of well in terms of okay what do we transition to? We still don't have great options. The only uh non hormonal IUD is the copper IUD and paragard. Yeah. And unfortunately a lot of women experience side effects. They experience really heavy bleeds pain. Um and so I've I've seen a lot of women that have had to come off of that including my sister. And so I say, you know, it is a bio-individual approach. It can work

 

01:03:27           well for some, but my my choice is the fertility awareness method. And it really is just tracking your cycle, taking your basil body temperature. And there's so many wearables that help make this so easy. You can get the aura ring which is connected to natural cycles which basically overnight is taking your basil body temperature and then eventually giving you this algorithm once it has enough data that will tell you if you're either in a fertile or non-fertile phase. And I mean it's user dependent so you have to be consistent

 

01:03:59           with it. You have to make sure that you are collecting enough data and then ideally you're also tracking other things like cervical fluid changes, symptom changes and you're not just doing that and you know if you're not if you're not trying to get pregnant, you don't want to just rely on that instantly. I would say use backup protection even uh during the quote unquote nonfertile days until you really have the method down and you feel really confident that you know how to use it. But it is it can be up to

 

01:04:33           99.6% effective with perfect use. Yeah, the healthier you are, the more consistent your cycle is. And I just I tell my female patients, get a get good app like Flow or Kendara or one of the apps that you mentioned. Get some OPK strips and test a couple of times in your cycle of when you are typically ovulating. It's usually it's going to be between 12 to 15 and then two to three days on the front and the back side of that you just have a barrier protection with that and then that's usually going

 

01:04:59           to give you that upwards of 99 exactly. And I think the thing though that people have to know is that basil body temperature tracking only tells you that you have already ovulated, not the ovulation is approaching. Whereas OPK tests can give you an idea of when ovulation is approaching as well as cervical fluid changes. And so I think that's important to note because it's like well it's a little late if you already ovulated, you know. Well, with the with the temperature though, you could get a little bit of a

 

01:05:32           start because there's a drop first, right? There's a drop of.3 Fahrenheit and then a spike. So, I think you may get a little bit if you see a drop. Again, if you have multiple methods with OPK plus you're looking at cervical mucus and then you add an extra thing, then you you got you're pretty Yeah. I mean, I like a wearable because especially with Aura Ring, if you can afford it, it's it's going to filter out some of the inconsistencies like if you cuz temperature readings are really finicky, unfortunately. And so, if you

 

01:06:00           drink alcohol the night before, you were traveling or you got up to pee a few times, it can increase your temperature. And because it's by such a small amount, um, it can impact results. So, I like that. I think orura ranging, it probably waits 3 to 4 days of high temperature readings before it actually confirms ovulation. It's not going to tell you, oh, you ovulated just because you had one high temperature a day. Right. Right. That makes sense. I also recommend using a lot of herbs that work on the HPA G access like JY or Don Quai

 

01:06:32           or or even giving organ glandulars too. Um there's a lot of nutrients that are specific to those tissues that can be in those organs. And so those are tend to be a really good reset when you're off a cycle or off not having a cycle, not having what happens is the hormones are so high because you're giving it synthetically and so it shuts down the FSH and the LH. So it starts to bring some of those upstream signaling hormones. Do you have an organ meat capsule that you like? There's a couple that are out there. Um,

 

01:07:00           I think Ancestral Health, uh, or Ancestral Health has a couple that are out there. Also, Ancient Nutrition, they have a couple. And then you got companies like Biotics have a few and Standard Process has some pretty good ones as well. Yeah. That'll have the full kind of pituitary ovary type of connection feedback. Yeah. I've been wanting to add that in myself for energy. Yeah. Oh, no. I think I think organ meats, if you look at ancestral, you know, cultures, organ meats were always kind of harvested and they were given to

 

01:07:28           the to the women that were going to be getting pregnant soon in that tribe. And so there was a lot of intuition that these glands had lots of and so, you know, instead of eating it today, we can get in supplemental form, which can still be great even if you're not of cycling age or even if you're not like trying to conceive, it's still going to provide beneficial health. Yeah. You know another herb that I I just started reading about recently. I was blown away, fenugreek, which is an Indian aruvedic Persian herb that has been used

 

01:07:56           for centuries by Indian women. Evidently, they use it all through the life cycle. The young girls use it for period cramps. The older women use it for menopausal things. And and they did some studies. I was looking at life extensions um research and they did this uh there there's some pretty good randomized trials out there that look at women 45 to 58 who had like 500 milligrams of fenugreek seed and for like 42 days and there were these amazing improvements like 31% increase in estradiol which is the active form of

 

01:08:30           estrogen. Yeah. and um all kinds of symptom relief on the menopause rating scale like down you know hot flashes 35% down and overall like a 76% improvement in symptoms so I was I was kind of excited about fenugreek I had never I've never heard about that but I've seen that for increasing testosterone in women as well as improving libido women who are breastfeeding increases breast milk production too so lots of good benefits there yeah I mean I I also like I mean maca is wonderful uh white pe white peony, Shepherd's Purse, uh you

 

01:09:03           know, Vitex or Chase Tree, you know, you mentioned Don Kai or Black Kohash can be some good estrogen modulators too that can help. Um and then just getting the diet dialed in. That's so key because if we don't have all that cholesterol and all those fats soluble vitamins, that that's the backbone. All of our hormones that are like downstream, right? Those are all steroid based hormones, right? Your progesterone, your estrogen, that's all that's all going to be um cholesterol based. And then all your

 

01:09:29           upstream like from your pituitary up, those are all peptide based for the most part. That's all protein based. So that's why protein and fat together are so important for your Oh my gosh. Yes. Last night I made my husband and I grass-fed steak with herb grass-fed herb butter from Cary Gold. Have you had that? The grass-fed herb one. Oh my gosh, it's so good. With mushrooms and asparagus. We just had a ton of veggies, grass-fed butter, and the steak. It was so satisfying. It was so so good. Yeah.

 

01:09:58           Yeah, it's it I mean grass-fed butter makes everything better. It does. I went carnivore for a week last week and I had steaks almost every night and I put KY Gold on my steak every night. Delicious. You went carnivore. That's for a week. What are you when you're And I I actually I lost five pounds. I lo Wow. Oh, I I'm I mainly kind of do a lower carb keto paleoish. I'll go mainly just meat and veggies. Like today my wife made me uh some tuna with some cut up kale, some pickles and some avocado with some avocado mayo. So

 

01:10:32           it was nice, you know, like maybe 30 40 grams of protein, some good fats. And then, you know, talking about a simple easy breakfast, my kind of patented breakfast is coffee with about 20 to 30 grams of collagen mixed in and I do a tablespoon of butter, KY Gold, and a tablespoon of MCT oil. So I just do a little kind of butter coffee. So it's like you got the fat, you got the protein, and it's just, you know, still got the morning routine going. Kamana. So it's this brand new superfood. It's mosquite, and it's a superfood, I

 

01:11:03           believe, from Peru. I'll have to double check that, but it's been uh triple lab tested. It's been tested for mold, all of the things. It's really It's a prebiotic, so it's really good for the gut, but you can brew it and steep it just like coffee. So, for but it's caffeine-free. So, for people that don't do well with coffee um or have gut health issues, I've been loving that because I I haven't been able to drink coffee for six years. It's just a trigger for me for my migraines, but I love the taste. And so, this has been

 

01:11:35           great. I feel like I feel the difference in my gut, too, when I drink it. So, I'll do kind of what you do, but I'll do it with that. And then I'll add a scoop of protein or collagen and some coconut milk and some cinnamon and I blend it and then I heat it and I put more cinnamon on the top and that really tides me over and so that then I have a later breakfast. So I think especially for women too on the go that's such a good hack. And you talked about collagen. Collagen is a third glycine, right? So we talked about sorry collagen

 

01:12:05           is more than a third but it's a a third glutamine. So you talked about glutamine earlier for your gut. got a lot of good gut support with those amino acids that are in collagen. Yeah, you can even add bone broth. Yeah. I want to just ask a quick question. You mentioned knack and acetal cysteine as being one of your your essentials and I understand that it's the precursor to glutathione. Um, but I see a lot of people now starting to use a cetal glutathione just you know directly and I'm wondering what what is

 

01:12:35           your feeling about do you prefer to provide something like the precursor so that it converts in the body naturally or use go straight to the glutathione the master antioxidant? Yeah, that's a great that's a great question. So there are studies on the fact that glutathione will not cross the bloodb brain barrier. So I always recommend NAC. You can do glutathione too whether it's reduced liposomaal or acetilated but you want knack because it can cross the blood brain barrier convert to glutathion in the brain. Plus knack is

 

01:13:06           all kinds of women who are trying to get pregnant. Studies on knack 600 milligrams helps with the oxidative stress with the eggs with the ovaries and also it decreases first trimester abortion. I not abortion not miscarriage. It decreases first trimester miscarriage. So it helps with the oxidation of the egg. So it protects it better from just whatever's happening with the free radical stress. Yeah. So it helps with reduce miscarriage and then it helps with just egg quality, egg health, you'll see AMH levels become a

 

01:13:34           little bit more healthier as well. Do you have a brand that you like using it? Oh, I mean there's a lot of good brands out there. As long as you know it's a tier one company like Thor or Designs for Health or There's a lot of good companies out there. Yeah. Quicksilver is good. Yeah. I just try to look at the back and make sure it's in a in a cellulose capsule that breaks down nice. I don't love some companies have the big tablets. I don't love those as much. And just making sure you don't see like rice

 

01:13:57           flour and a lot of that stuff in there. Got to keep it really clean. The quicks is just a liposomaal. Yeah. So liposomaal is great. Yep. That's nice. But NAC is an easy one because like the government did studies just three years ago comparing NAC to to Roamame and Oxidil for hair loss and it it outperformed Roame and Oxidil in phase three clinical trials. Oh my god, that and it helps with some gray hair too because it helps neutralize helps support the pseudocatalase enzyme that helps neutralize some of the um hydrogen

 

01:14:27           peroxide at the follicle level that converts the your hair to to a more gray color. So there's a lot of good benefits with NAC. So just to clarify, you would prefer your preference would be to use the NAC versus going straight to the GL glutathione because you're saying even an acetylized version of glutathione will not cross the bloodb brain barrier. So I I prefer both, but if I could only choose one, if someone was on an extreme budget, I would choose Knack every time. Uhhuh. Especially when there's breathing

 

01:14:57           issues because Knack like they've used Knack in a acetalcyine version for cystic fibrosis kids since the 70s. They'll put them in a nebulizer and it breaks up mucus. It helps with oxidative stress. And so you can do knack in a nebulizer, you know, as you start to get sick. That'll really help with the oxidative stress, the low oxygen, the mucus. And you can just take it orally to break down any of the mucus that you get when you start to get sick or have allergies. So I love knack. It's an anti-mucolytic, right? I anti-ucalytic.

 

01:15:27           It's also antiviral. It's also anti-coagulant. So, there's so many other benefits there. Yeah. I started using NAC when I had pneumonia. We lived in London for a long time and I would consistently get these bronchial things and the last time I got it, I just could not get over it. And I finally learned about NAC. I took it with some cayenne capsules and I fixed myself. Yeah. So, I love it. And then you can nebul if it starts getting dicey, you can even nebulize it. You just, you know, you can get a prescription from Yucamist or

 

01:15:59           there's ways you can do it with sterile saline to to make it really good, too. So, I like that. Um, is there anything else on the fertility side? Well, so one more thing I want to talk about, right? I have I see a lot of women who are like they're in their 20s or 30s, they're fine, and now they're getting into their 40s and like why am I gaining weight? And so, the big thing I you know, outside of just having bad habits that are compounding over time, when you're younger, you have a stronger metabolism.

 

01:16:22           you can overcome stuff, but as your hormones start to drop as you get older, as you go into pmenopause, menopause, those hormones make you more prone to becoming insulin resistant. And so the dietary habits you have in your 20s and 30s and maybe the lack of maybe the excess exercise as you get older, maybe the exercise drops and now you're more insulin resistant, you have to be tighter on your diet, tighter on your exercise to because you got that losing battle with insulin. Can you comment on that?

 

01:16:50           the uh oh um ju just the fact that as we get as females get older, same with males, but males don't have the same hormonal shift that women do, is that as estrogen, progesterone, testosterone drops, we start to become more insulin resistant. Yeah. Well, I'm I'm sort of thinking about first thing, my dog just came in. Um I I I'm thinking about the fact that um you know it's so difficult for women to control the blood sugar when their adrenals are kind of in the ascendancy and and the testosterone as

 

01:17:25           well. I mean we know that um higher insulin increases testosterone at the ovarian level too. So that's a big link. Um and we the other thing when I think about overweight in women I think older women I think about the metabolism slowing down. I think about um the cravings the adrenal issues that promote the cravings that promote the blood sugar imbalance and thus the you know the rise in insulin the the lack of the the sleep disruption that disrupts insulin production as well. And also the fact that so many women are, you know,

 

01:18:02           they're not, we talk so often in menopause about estrogen deficiency and really more often it's about estrogen dominance. It's the progesterone that is really plummeting the we have so little progesterone but we often have estrogen because it's made in fat cells, right? It's converted by the aromatase enzyme in fat cells and we have estrogen dominance that's actually interfering running interference with the conversion of T4 to T3 in the thyroid. So you get a lot of women will go and have their

 

01:18:33           their thyroid tested. They get a TSH test and told everything's normal and yet if you look at the T4 T3 it's not converting and that that's in interfered with by the insulin resistance as well. And that causes of course the weight gain because the thyroid is slowing down or is inhibited. You know the thyroid the thyroid is inhibited. it's still functional but it's not it's not um optimized in its function. Well, and there's also the fact that with low progesterone can you know increase cortisol which then impacts blood sugar

 

01:19:07           which then impacts and then if we're dealing with sleep disturbances which happens in this transition then that also impacts our blood sugar levels. So I think there's so many different it's multiffactorial. Um, I do I would say though that I often see just because I do work with a lot of people that are struggling with weight in this age range, I find that there's a lot of habit changes that occur over these years. And so, you know, I know that it can be a little bit more challenging, but I will say that with

 

01:19:42           some tweaks to the balance again of the foods on your plate and just being being really intentional about increasing strength training because this, especially in the late 30s, 40s, and 50s, is so so crucial for supporting insulin sensitivity and for um balancing blood sugar, increasing ing testosterone, which again goes low when we get into this parmen pmenopause menopause transition. And we're also losing bone mass and muscle mass. And so, you know, I see a lot of people that are still cardio junkies and um really

 

01:20:22           focused and obsessed with that. And so if I can get women, because that's my primary demographic, to come off of all of the highintensity cardio, to actually go for more walks, do more strength training, and really prioritize those three balanced meals with high protein, fiber, and fat, that almost always moves the needle. So the walking is good. And what's your issue with the high intensity interval stuff? So women's bodies are very sensitive to external stressors because obviously the body's main priority is to house and

 

01:20:58           protect a potential fetus. And so unlike men, we're just a lot more sensitive. And so and most of the studies around HIT training, highintensity cardio have been done on a male body because female bodies because of our hormonal fluctuations are frustrating and un and unpredictable. And so we don't make great case studies. And so with women, it's not to say that we have to cut out HIT training. It can still be beneficial for insulin sensitivity, but it's how you place it. So as you get into the second half of the cycle in the

 

01:21:34           ludial phase and especially the premenstrual week when resting cortisol levels are naturally higher we're less resilient to stress that extra cardio and hit can just add that extra stress that pushes us over the edge and can actually result in heightened PMS symptoms and period issues and then can also I've seen in many cases uh create anovvulatory cycles. Um, typically that's paired with other stressors as well. But I do see, like I said previously, the client that was a marathon runner or the clients that are

 

01:22:09           just obsessed with highintensity cardio all month long, oftentimes they are the ones that are not regularly um, ovulating or having irregular cycles. So, it's really just about the balance and being intentional about when you pepper it in and also making sure that you're balancing it with enough restorative movement, strength training, and rest. And but again, it can be really beneficial like in the first half of the cycle, the follicular and ovulatory phases when resting cortisol is naturally lower, we're more resilient

 

01:22:40           to stress, we tend to be less insulin resistant. we can add in some of that hit training and extra cardio and actually that ends up being really beneficial for our goals. So, it's the timing. It's the timing. Yeah. And it's also I think you mentioned this earlier, but what time of day are we working out? Um are you doing a highintensity workout right before bed and then struggling with sleep whereas maybe if you put that in the morning after you had like your protein coffee, right? Then it's going

 

01:23:08           to be more beneficial for you. That makes sense. I mean all these all these things that contribute to the stress response the increase in blood sugar the increase in insulin we have to keep in mind so then you've got sugar cravings in people eating that way remember to have fiber fiber fiber slows slows the impact of sugar upon the gut and and um you know brings that down also I think it's important to think about high glycemic foods to become aware of the glycemic load of those foods that hit the system with a rush of sugar that is

 

01:23:42           difficult for the body to to um regulate the time. So, you know, and and it's interesting when you look at the low glycemic versus high glycemic load how certain food like one melon, one type of melon may be really high glycemic whereas another is not. I can't remember. I think it's honeydew is lower than cantaloupe. They're just these subtle differences. But bringing in all of this information can help us to keep that blood sugar insulin controlled or you know at least help the adrenals to do their job. Very good. And then I

 

01:24:16           imagine you said you use the Aura ring for fertility for ovulation. You could also probably use your Aura ring for HRV or readiness score too to probably gauge what kind of exercise you should be doing. I I tell all my female patients the same thing. Make sure whatever exercise you're doing, make sure one, you feel better afterwards than when you started. You should never feel worse. Two, you should be able to emotionally repeat it. You shouldn't feel so depleted, so beaten up. And three, that next day or that night time,

 

01:24:42           if it was a morning workout, you should not feel overly tired, overly sore, hit by a bus. So, if you're doing that, then you can always adjust the intensity, the frequency, the duration, so you you can answer kind of positively to those kind of checks. I love that. That's a really good rule of thumb cuz I I think too I mean I used to be this way where it's like if I'm not so sore and can't walk the next day, you know what it's like actually you shouldn't be incredibly sore and unable to walk, right? The only

 

01:25:08           exception is like you're doing a new movement for the first time. Okay, you're doing lunges or squats for the first time. Okay, fine. But outside of that, yeah, you'd be a little bit sore, right? For sure. That makes sense. And then just for the listeners listening at home, your guys website is your hormone balance. And are you you guys both working with patients one-on-one? Can you talk about what what you do there? Yeah, so I'll give this little spiel. Um, so over at your hormone balance.com,

 

01:25:32           we do we offer our hormone testing and rebalancing packages. So I there's options to choose between and then you can choose to add on a consultation with my mom, Candace, once your results come in and she'll interpret the results with you, spend an hour with you. As you can tell, she's very passionate. She's very invested in every single one of our clients and we also provide a lot of education. There's a whole, you know, we have a whole rebalancing strategy guide. So, a lot of support and ideally we love

 

01:26:03           for our clients to come back and retest in 3 to 6 months and then, you know, to add on another call just to see how things have progressed. And then for me, um, I'm with your home and balance, but my business is bodyblissbyjess.com. And I also take client sessions, but I focus more, as you could probably tell in this conversation, on the nutrition side, the mindset, the nervous system regulation, cycle syncing. So, I'm very much the tangible next steps person. And I find that mindset is incredibly important as

 

01:26:36           well as we're going through these these tough times. So, um, in these transitional years as well. So, yeah, that's kind of how we how we operate. And we have a really great symptom quiz at your horone balance.com. I know you were going to put that in the show notes. Yeah. Anyone listening in the description will be the first two links right right below. Cool. So, yeah, it's a just a great quiz to take to kind of get a gauge of could some of the symptoms you're experiencing be a hormone imbalance. And then you also

 

01:27:02           receive via email some free resources and a discount on testing when you take that quiz. And I I would like to mention that when I when I talk to people and we have our test results, we're looking at the test results together. We are also correlating the symptoms because people put in all of their symptoms, mild, moderate, severe, and then we correlate those symptoms with the levels that are showing up on the test results so that people can understand, yeah, you know, your estrogen's really low. No wonder

 

01:27:31           you have some vaginal dryness there. Um, yes, I just see uh Dr. James L. Wilson. Someone's making a comment. He's he's an old friend, Dr. Wilson. He he coined the term adrenal fatigue and uh he, you know, he first started that that whole conversation, but it's so it is I think it's really it really brings it home when you can put the numbers go beyond the numbers on a test result and link them up with the symptoms you're experiencing, then the whole thing starts to come into focus. Very good. Excellent. Well, anything

 

01:28:05           else you want to leave listeners with? I'm going to put Jess. I'm going to put your info below as well. So, you'll see the your hormone balance link. I'll put Body Bliss by Jess and then I put the quiz, the hormonal quiz that you guys talked about. So, if you guys are looking for that, just look below in the description. You guys will see it there. Anything else, Candace or Jess, you want to leave the listeners with? I I would just say start slow and grow. I know we've talked about a lot of different

 

01:28:28           things and I really like people to feel like they are empowered with the information and the knowledge instead of overwhelmed and that it gets to be this aha moment of okay maybe you know my symptoms are I'm not crazy for experiencing this my symptoms aren't normal and there is support there is help there are people that care and that really want to help and that there's things that I can do that will move the needle relatively quickly but it doesn't need to be done overnight these simple changes can make a world of difference.

 

01:28:58           So, just have patience and kindness with yourself and take it one step at a time. But I definitely think that having professional support is key. And I'd like to speak to the women my age um who are in menopause and have been in menopause for for a while. So many women will say to me, “Well, I'm in menopause. I don't have any hormones anymore, right? I'm I'm out of hormones. So, what does it matter? Do I really need to care about my hormones?” And I think you know what what I often say is well 100 years

 

01:29:26           ago we didn't live much past 50 so we didn't have to worry about this but now we're living to be 85 90 we don't want to be running on empty these hormones have roles to play they have functions in the body that are still very essential to your well-being women need to stay strong as we get older that strength training is so important right you know all the all these things that we can do to maintain maybe it means some hormone replenishment But it is big. You know, the adrenals take over all hormone production at menopause.

 

01:29:57           They've got to pick up the slack. So, it's adrenal support. It's all the things we're talking about. It can make a huge difference to your third act. We have another 30 years to go here. And we cannot be running on empty. So, don't think that you're done. This is, you know, you you these can be the best years of your life if you if you take those those steps. And I I hope to encourage I'm in my 70s now and I'm still rolling along. Great on the beach. That's great. Well, thanks so much, Jess and Candace. You

 

01:30:28           guys talked about a lot of important things. You talked about the nutrients be behind hormones. I mean, you go to your typical OB, they very rarely even talk about nutrients, the building blocks, metabolizing hormones, the xenoestrogens. So, we talked about a lot of the the nutrition, talked about the curving out that kind of blood sugar roller coaster because that can create its own hormonal cascade from cortisol, adrenaline, uh can drop progesterone out. We talked about some of the diet, lifestyle things, exercise importances,

 

01:30:55           insulin resistance. Anything else you want to add? The big stuff, some of the lab testing, we hit the lab testing, u the importance of the adrenals in this whole thing. I think that is just totally ignored by mainstream medicine. You never hear that kind of touched upon or talked about how important cholesterol is in your diet to this, right? It's very easy to be on a lowfat stage, which means cholesterol tends to be low as well if you're going low fat, right? A little known fact that cholesterol is the backbone of hormone

 

01:31:20           production. Cholesterol steroid hormone that Yeah. Well, very good. Feel like we've covered so much. Have we left anything out, listeners? I think we hit it all there. I'll put the links down below. uh bodyb bliss by Jess and your hormonebalance.com. I'll put it all there. One more thing to add that I have a podcast myself called women talking frankly which I co-host with a a n uh with a nurse practitioner Kyle Makavoy and we do mostly talk to women in our age range. We have 55 we have 55 56 episodes now and we've interviewed some

 

01:31:57           people Dr. Sava Kenneth Stevenson who's one of the premier B she's been doing BHRT for ages. Uh Carol Peterson who's the who's who's one of the she was the compounding pharmacist for uh women's international and is now advisor for Quicksilver. So you know some of the people that have been in the field I need to ask Dr. Wilson on too, but some of the people I made contact with both, you know, that are the matrix of this functional medicine world, the founders are on our podcast and it we have some

 

01:32:28           really sometimes we get into the weeds, but I think there's a lot of information that women can can benefit from and it's fun. We just have a conversation like we just had today. So, women talk frankly. Appreciate it. And then Jess, how about you? Anything else? I got Solo 2.0 podcast. I have a podcast as well with my sister. all health, hormones, mindset, personal development. It's great, too. Great. We'll have this all transcribed and we'll put it in the show notes so anyone who's listening can

 

01:32:53           access it. All right, ladies. Nice chat with you all. Great conversation back and forth. I think we put a lot of good actionable information. I guess if someone's listening, it's an hour and a half long. Just take one piece of content. We'll summarize it all up. Take one thing. If if someone could just take one thing, what would it be? Oh, just one thing. Like, all right, I'm overwhelmed. Like, what's that one thing? Support. Take take care. Give your adrenal glands some TLC. You know, the the idea of putting the oxygen mask

 

01:33:21           on before you help anybody else. Look after yourself and look that look after your adrenals. I mean, I think as a starting point that blood sugar one thing if someone wants to take care of themselves, what's the one thing though they can do if they want to take care of themselves in general or for the adrenals like your mom said like what's the one thing I think I think they need B complex to me. Okay, cool. I say I say really focusing on protein and fat and fiber at every meal. Protein, fat, fiber every meal. At

 

01:33:51           least 25 to 35 grams of protein. I think that's a really good first step. Great. Awesome. Well, thanks Jess and Candace. I'll I'll end the stream here and we'll chat with you guys afterwards. Nice shine with