Balancing Your Hormones For A Healthier Life

In this Talk, I talk to hormone health educator Candace Burch to help us understand all things hormones… wow, is she a WEALTH of information!

We talk about how hormones impact our lives from our teenage years all the way through menopause, the symptoms of hormonal imbalances, and all the related topics when it comes to hormones: birth control, fertility, anxiety, acne, PCOS, stress and SO much more. You will walk away with a much better understanding of the role of each hormone in your body and the empowered choices you have when it comes to balancing your hormones.

Listen to discover: The classic signs and symptoms of hormone imbalances, some of the things that can contribute to hormone balance, hormonal changes you can expect in each stage of life, the key female hormones and the importance of adrenal health, how to approach hormone testing and replenishment/supplementation, and the root cause of PCOS.

Transcript

Hello,

Hello and happy summer 2023.

We are officially in the month of July,

Which marks our summer series.

So we do this every single summer.

What we do is we take the best of the best shows from the last 12 months,

Your favorites,

And we run them through the summer months.

Yes,

I'm so excited.

Today we have All Things Hormones with Candice Burch.

This was such a great show.

You guys loved this show.

It is absolutely worthy of listening to again and again and again,

Honestly.

But I don't want you to think I'm going to be sitting back here all summer doing nothing because I've got some really exciting news for you guys.

I actually am writing a new book.

I have an agent,

I have a publisher,

And I am going to be head down all summer long,

Writing,

Writing,

Writing.

So I could not be happier about that and more to come on that.

But that is what I'm going to be doing this summer as well as some other things I have up my sleeve.

Got maybe an online course and some other things coming out in the fall and the winter months that I'm also working on.

My summer is going to consist of a lot of writing as well as a lot of kayaking.

Don't think that I am just going to be working because I will spend a lot of time on the lake as well.

So I hope you guys are going to have a wonderful summer as well.

But this is just the first of many shows coming up.

So we've got you covered all summer.

Don't you worry about that.

So here we go with today's show,

Which is balancing your hormones for a healthier life with Candice Burch.

Such a great show.

Can't wait to hear what you think about it.

Catch me on social media and let me know.

Hello everybody and welcome to the Adult Chair Podcast.

I am Michelle Chalfant.

You guys,

Today's show,

Oh my goodness.

What a conversation I had on hormone health.

This show is going to be one that you're going to want to share with everybody you know.

I just got to tell you,

Wow,

Wow,

And more wow.

Today on the show I had the lovely Candice Burch on and she is a hormone health educator and holy moly does she know her stuff.

I have been someone that has been intrigued with hormones for many years and not because I had horrible periods when I was a teenager and I know that's TMI,

But going back about 20 years,

I had a lot of fatigue.

Could not figure out what was going on.

I went to the doctor,

I went to my OB,

Nobody knew what was going on.

I of course went to some alternative practitioners.

Of course I also knew I was an empath.

I did work on boundaries,

Which helped immensely,

But I knew it was something else.

I got to tell you,

Always trust your gut.

You know best about your health.

Even when my internist and my OB,

They were saying,

No,

There's nothing wrong.

We can't see anything wrong.

We have no idea,

Et cetera.

I kept digging because my intuition said there is someone out there that will be able to help you.

Thank goodness I was led to a phenomenal naturopathic doctor in Nashville and I went in for one session and she said,

Take these tests.

I took the tests,

Came back.

I was in stage four adrenal fatigue.

Really no wonder I was exhausted.

I went back and talked to my internist about that.

It was interesting because she said,

This is 20 years ago probably,

She said to me,

Yeah,

I don't really believe in that.

I thought,

That's okay.

You know what?

We can't expect doctors to know everything about everything,

Right?

That's okay.

But you know your body better than anybody,

Better than any doctor,

But then better than anybody and you have intuition.

So always trust that.

So anyway,

I have worked with quite a few now,

Different naturopathic doctors over the years and the difference is a naturopathic doctor,

What they are known for is to go to and find the root of the issue.

They don't treat symptoms.

They get the root of the issue.

Yeah.

So I worked with this doctor almost 20 years ago now and she was able to not only give me supplements for my adrenal fatigue,

But talk to me about hormone balance and all the kinds of things and wow,

I got so much energy back.

I used to have to take naps every single day.

I do not do that anymore.

So speaking of hormones though,

Let's get back to today's show,

Which is everything about hormone health.

I really wanted to take you guys on a journey from teenage years all the way through menopause and what it looks like to have a hormone imbalance.

So that is what we did.

We started out from the age of probably 15,

16,

13 and went all the way into our 50s,

60s and 70s.

So there's not a person that's not going to enjoy this show.

And for you men out there,

Share this with anyone at all that you think that might need the show,

Any of your lady friends,

Because let me tell you,

We need to understand our hormones so we can feel healthy and in balance.

We talked about everything from acne to anxiety to depression to birth control to IUDs.

We talked about actually natural birth control methods.

We talked about fertility,

PCOS,

Perimenopause,

Menopause,

Cravings,

Weight.

I mean,

When I tell you we went into it,

We went into this.

So I cannot wait to hear what you all think about this show.

Please hit me up on social media.

You know I love to hear from you.

We even talked about bioidentical hormones and pellets.

So I asked all the things.

I swear I could have had her on the show for probably six hours.

We could have gone on and on and on.

And I probably will have her on again.

Something that I shared with you guys the last week or so is that I have created for you all a self-worth bundle because there's not a person on the planet after working with clients for 25 years that I have found that does not need help with self-worth.

Now again,

There's a scale.

Some people need a lot of self-worth and some people need a little.

But what I've created are targeted meditations,

They're guided meditations that help you to raise your self-worth as well as journaling prompts to help you feel more worthy.

So head on over to theadultchair.

Com forward slash worthy and you'll be able to grab that self-worth bundle right now.

That's theadultchair.

Com forward slash worthy.

That's W-O-R-T-H-Y.

Okay.

Let me tell you a little bit more about Candice Burch.

She is a hormone health educator with a master's in health education and over 25 years of experience in this field.

In 2017,

She founded Your Hormone Balance as a one-on-one consulting practice and is now joined by her two daughters,

Ryan and Jess,

Who have expanded YHB's reach to women all around the world.

Thank goodness,

Because let me tell you something,

You can do long distance sessions with these people.

Anyone around the world can have sessions with them.

Just saying.

Here we go.

Candice's background includes leading educational patient and provider initiatives at ZRT Laboratory as their director of education for 12 plus years,

As well as spearheading a nationwide hormone testing and rebalancing weight loss program for Metabolic Research Center.

Candice continues to raise awareness about hormone health and disease prevention through her work as a writer,

A speaker,

And a podcaster.

She co-hosts the WTF,

Which is Women Talking Frankly podcast with her close friend and nurse practitioner,

Kyle McAvoy.

Let me just tell you how excited I am about this show.

It is hard to find people in this world that do hormone health,

That work with us to balance our hormones.

And this woman,

Candice Birch,

Is doing it.

So here we go with Candice Birch.

So welcome to the Adult Share Podcast,

Candice Birch.

Oh,

Well,

Thank you.

I'm delighted to be here,

Michelle.

I was just telling you,

I think we should clone you.

Yeah,

Well,

And put you all around the world,

What you're doing.

I can talk to people all around the world,

But I'm in my seventies now.

So I'm,

I sort of need to,

I'm kind of not in retreat,

But sort of trying,

It would be nice to have a clone.

Well,

My daughter is a clone.

Oh,

Good.

Because Sue can at Body Bliss by Jess,

She's my mini me.

And then there are lots of people out there now that are talking hormones.

The awareness has grown hugely since I got into this probably 20 years ago,

Nobody was talking about hormones.

It was all HRT.

And if they talk about it,

It was all always about,

You know,

Hey,

You're going to end up being a dried up old crone.

If you don't take chemical hormones and,

And you know,

There's no way out,

There's no other choice.

Well,

There are many choices and many options and many concepts that women need to be aware of.

So that's what I just keep talking.

I'll probably keep talking until I'm 95 years old.

Well,

I'm so glad to hear that.

We need you to keep talking.

I'm going to ask you as many questions as I can in this hour that we have together,

But Oh my goodness.

We may have to have you on for part two.

I have a feeling because all right,

Here we go.

Here we go.

So I'm so excited about this show.

I can't even tell you hormone imbalance.

Let's start out with what are the classic signs and symptoms of hormone imbalance.

And what I like to do is I want to even start.

And I know we're going to pretty much talk about women,

But I want to touch on men,

But we need to talk about women to begin with,

But this might apply to girls and boys when they're teenagers.

What does a hormone imbalance look like for a teenager?

Well,

For a teenager,

It's probably going to be irregular,

Painful,

Heavy periods or acne or mood swings,

Irritability.

And in fact,

Those two things,

Heavy periods,

The kind where you're wrapped,

Rolled up in a ball and can't go to school that day,

Or you've got to go home from school or whatever is going on there because it's just so unbearable for some people.

I remember a college roommate just constantly being in pain every time she got her period.

And by the way,

Painful periods are not normal.

How many women have I talked to that think,

Oh,

My mother had painful periods.

I have painful periods.

That's just goes with the territory.

No,

It doesn't.

A period should never be painful,

But it's one of the big reasons why so many gals in their teenage years are put on birth control.

It's the default.

You've got,

And some girls have been put on birth control when they're 13 years old,

When their periods maybe aren't really properly established yet.

So,

When their cycles are not established.

So there's a lot of eating disorders,

All kinds of things that affect young people.

There's a great book called the teenage hormone takeover by Nisha Jackson,

Which I think she's a naturopath and very knowledgeable.

And any mom who's going through this should read that book.

I remember when I turned 50,

Which is classic menopause age,

Average age of menopause onset,

My daughter got her period.

It was the same day that I turned 50 and I was thinking,

Oh,

My poor husband,

Wall to wall hormones.

Wow.

Oh my gosh.

Yeah.

But with teenagers that,

You know,

There are there,

Those are the classic symptoms and the default is almost always to put them on birth control.

And I can't tell you how many women I've met that were put on birth control,

Or I've talked to at 15,

13 and have,

Were on it for 15 years or 20 years,

Even women in their forties and fifties.

I talked to you,

Some of them are still on birth control.

So you just described me to a T when I was 16,

That was me that couldn't go to school wrapped up in a ball with a heating pad was in excruciating pain and they put me on birth control.

That's exactly what happened.

Yep.

And you were asking about the symptoms.

So obviously main symptoms is the heavy,

Heavy,

Painful,

Long periods,

Sometimes irregular periods the,

The skin breakouts,

The,

The PMS,

You know,

PMS is really interesting.

There's about 150 symptoms that go along with PMS.

And it was defined by a woman doctor in England back in the fifties,

Dr.

Katarina Dalton,

Who had had migraines all her life.

She was beset by migraines,

But when she was pregnant and all those lovely hormones that Baby was swimming in a sea of hormones,

Optimal hormone levels.

She never had a migraine.

So she started out,

She started looking into what what's going on with my hormones when I'm pregnant,

As opposed to when I'm not.

And you know,

And does she actually define this pre-menstrual syndrome that was linked to deficiencies and imbalances of hormones.

And I think she wrote the first paper on PMS,

But everything from migraines to you know,

Excess facial hair to meltdowns and panic attacks,

Anxiety,

You know,

All the things that so many women describe when they have PMS.

And that's a big sign.

You know,

If you've got Jekyll and Hyde moods and on your family's running for the exits,

When you're there all exactly when,

When the period starting,

Or if you're throwing open the windows in the middle of winter,

As perimenopausal women are doing,

Telling everyone put on a sweater,

If you're cold,

Tough,

You know,

Too bad.

These things are good,

Good signs and symptoms that you probably,

But so many women are not aware of the symptoms or they become their symptoms.

They think they don't realize the whole concept of hormone imbalance is relatively new.

I'd say in the last 10,

12 years,

People are now using the term all,

You know,

As though it's an ordinary thing,

But it wasn't even known about that.

Was there such a thing as a hormone imbalance when I first got involved in this,

By the way,

We have a great symptom quiz on our,

Your hormone balance website,

And women can go to that quiz and answer a lot of questions about symptoms and the extent to which you suffer from symptoms.

Usually the extent to which you're suffering from a probable hormone imbalance.

So that's at your hormone balance.

Com.

And I think if you take that quiz,

There's a discount on our test kits too,

But that's a good way to start knowing yourself is a really good way.

We will add that right into the show notes.

Thank you for sharing that.

That's perfect.

Thank you.

So I want to,

I just want to back up just for one second,

You know,

As a teenage girl is going into,

Um,

Uh,

Or when they're getting their,

Their periods,

You know,

What would cause what causes this hormone imbalance?

Is it pretty common for most people or no,

Is there something that's happening before No,

It's pretty common.

It's just that if you're,

If we're still talking about teenagers,

If their periods haven't established properly,

If they're not,

You know,

It's a lot of is to do with a lack of ovulation.

Um,

We don't always ovulate if we're stressed or if we're hungry or if we're,

We're restricting,

Uh,

Proteins or good fats or a lot of younger women ethically,

Uh,

Are,

Are,

Are vegetarians for ethical reasons and not to bash vegetarians.

But sometimes that means that there's not enough of the,

You know,

There's too much restriction of the good fats and proteins that are actually the building blocks of hormone production.

So food restriction to how many teenagers are on extreme diets over exercise,

You know,

Training too much and constantly,

Um,

You know,

Working out so that your body is in a state of stress and that kind of thing that,

You know,

Working out and overworking out is a real stressor that can stop ovulation.

So if we're not ovulating,

We're not making the proper amount of progesterone.

We may not be creating enough estrogen to,

To grow that egg in the follicle.

So,

You know,

Ovulation disruption is one of the big reasons why people become,

Uh,

You know,

Hormonally imbalanced.

And there are many reasons why the ovulation can be disrupted.

And that's something that's important to be aware of.

I just mentioned some of them,

But that's what nobody thinks about.

What about,

So then as a teenager or even as an,

As a woman,

If we don't go on the pill and let's,

Again,

I want to start with teenagers and just kind of go,

Go through life all the way up to,

Into,

Into menopause.

But as teenagers,

What,

You know,

Again,

Doctors are still putting kids on the pill.

Like what do we,

What do we,

If someone's listening to this and they have a daughter,

What would they do with their daughter?

If it's not the pill?

I've heard a lot of teenagers now are using an IUD.

Oh yeah.

Well,

As an alternative,

As an alternative to a synthetic hormonal birth control,

There's now,

Um,

Thank God there are fertility trials.

So one can track their,

Um,

You know,

Track their cycles and know when they're ovulating.

So when they're fertile,

That,

That five,

Six days of being fertile,

There's family awareness method of tracking your cycles and the,

Um,

Thermo symptom,

Thermo method where you're,

You're looking at your,

The mucus,

The cervical mucus is really important.

Easy,

Easy enough to learn about that.

My daughter,

Jess is a real expert on that.

Check out her.

Oh,

Good.

But,

But there are ways to know when you're ovulating and when you're fertile and,

And so,

You know,

To avoid if,

If that teenager is sexually active,

That can be helpful.

So yeah,

There are alternatives.

There are good alternatives to birth control.

Natural cycles is a good one now,

But hormonal birth control just really makes things so much worse.

Yeah.

It really shuts down.

Most of these,

Uh,

Birth control methods shut down ovulation.

That's the whole idea.

Okay.

When you shut down ovulation,

You're really shutting down the production of hormones and creating,

You know,

The worst kinds of imbalances,

Just kind of making everything much worse when,

And especially when progesterone and estrogen are shut down,

Then you,

You know,

The ovaries also produce testosterone and that can be also,

Um,

Inhibited.

And so,

You know,

We start to be in a deficient state.

I've talked to young women that have the same symptoms as women in menopause.

Wow.

You know,

And their teens and twenties that are,

That have hot flashes and night sweats and vaginal dryness and all kinds of problems that are akin to a woman in her fifties,

Sixties,

When hormones are naturally declining.

So then as we age again,

Do what else is there?

If I'm in,

I remember when I was in my twenties,

Again,

When I was 16,

They had me on triphasal and I remember so many people in my twenties were also on that.

And it was,

I mean,

We were all depressed.

We were all depressed.

I think the estrogen was way too high or something was off with those.

And I went on,

I don't obviously,

I don't need,

You don't know me,

But I don't need anything anymore.

But,

Um,

And I stopped that when I was 30,

I just cold Turkey stopped all that.

It was really hard on my body,

But what do people do?

Oh,

I was sorry.

I was going to just say,

Hold that thought.

I was one of those first,

Uh,

I was a sixties girl,

You know,

The,

When the birth control first came out and I was one of the first in line to get the birth control,

I wanted to live with my boyfriend and I didn't want to get pregnant.

And I just remember being on birth control and doing nothing but crying.

I'll let you guys cry all the time.

Everything made me cry.

I remember the old classic crying at commercials and my skin broke out horribly.

I hadn't ever,

I still have the acne scars from that bout of,

Of breakout that was constant.

It was so depressing.

I remember just looking in the mirror.

So I mean,

What,

What to do,

I think is for you asked about moms who have teenagers or any of us,

I mean,

It really does start with,

Um,

So many things when you talk about holistic approaches to harm to health or hormonal health in any case,

It's always about nutrient dense protein,

You know,

Good nutrition.

So you're eating,

You're eating food that is healthy,

Whole,

Not processed,

Not loaded with sugar,

Which so upsets,

You know,

The insulin,

Uh,

Cortisol,

Insulin,

Blood sugar balance.

That's key keeping blood sugar stable.

And when we eat at odd hours and skip breakfast and restrict foods that creates a whole,

You know,

That's an imbalance in itself when we're not sleeping well,

Because we're on our computer late at night,

Playing words with friends,

You know,

Not getting all that blue light into our eyes.

That's disrupting melatonin and take and creating sleep deficiencies.

When we are,

Um,

Over-exercising dieting,

Like Jess talks about,

She,

I didn't even realize as her mom,

When she was in college,

She was on a diet constantly.

She said,

How many young girls are constantly dieting and want to be thin.

And that creates,

You know,

That's such a,

A trigger for imbalance because it means deprivation,

Depriving yourself of the foods you need.

And a lot of the vegan people I talk to,

If they are not good at combining proteins and good fats,

You know,

If they're not,

If they don't know how to create a complete protein,

Let's say the classic beans and rice,

They often will admit that their go-to is simple carbs because they're hungry.

So on the go,

They're eating carbs.

Well,

That's creating sugar imbalances,

You know,

So your blood sugar is up and down all of the time.

So for moms,

It's,

It's really about getting that,

You know,

I remember in our family,

It was sitting down at the table together,

Having dinner,

Putting the phones away,

Having good conversation and good whole food that wasn't processed.

It wasn't injected with hormones.

Moms have to be aware,

Reading ingredients,

How many,

How many,

You know,

Just like dairy products and poultry are injected with synthetic hormones that are loaded with estrogen.

And we talk about gaining weight and,

You know,

Estrogen is injected into these cattle and chickens to make them grow fat faster.

So they produce more product,

Right?

Well,

It makes us grow fat faster.

So it's that sort of thing.

It's the holistic,

Making sure your kid gets to sleep at a certain,

At a particular hour.

It isn't like I was on my phone.

Which again,

You know,

With teenagers,

They're not going to listen to us,

You know,

As,

And I don't have any teenage girls or I have boys,

But they're,

They're grown now,

But yeah,

I,

That's a hard thing to do because teenage girls or,

And boys,

They don't want to listen to us by the time they're talking about this now.

And they'll say,

I didn't listen to my mom,

But I listened to her.

And my,

One of my daughters lost her period for two years after being on birth control for many years and then getting off of it,

She didn't get her period back for that long.

And I always talk about,

You know,

How I didn't listen to my mom when she was telling me I can't be dieting and fasting and overworking myself all the time.

Now I'm listening.

So would you say that the,

Then as we age,

You know,

Twenties,

Thirties,

Forties,

It sounds like the symptoms of a hormone imbalance are pretty much the same,

No matter what age we are.

Would you say that emotional imbalance?

It could even be acne.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Blood.

I mean,

The symptoms are,

There are many symptoms on our test report requisition form.

There are,

There's a whole raft of symptoms to fill out,

But first of all,

There's so pre menopause is girls in their twenties up to the thirties,

Shouldn't really be having hormonal imbalances.

If all is,

You know,

If,

If the things we're talking about,

We're eating right,

We're sleeping,

Right.

Our stress levels are not constantly chronically high.

And I mean,

Stress is not stress.

There's good stress and there's bad stress.

There's Christmas and weddings and parties and,

You know,

Sports events and all that.

That's,

That's good stress.

But we,

And then there's the obvious bad stressors,

Injury accidents,

Exposure to chemicals,

Things that we maybe can't control.

That's more acute stress,

But the kind of stressors that are constantly coming in that we don't,

If stress starts to take center stage in our lives and we feel overwhelmed and out of control,

That's,

That's a real game changer in terms of hormones.

So I think for young people,

It's hard to be aware of all this and to get it all right.

But,

But a lot of the younger women I talk to are becoming more aware and they're realizing if I just,

You know,

Do these,

You know,

Live,

Live in a balanced way and the most balanced lifestyle I can,

And no one's ever going to be in perfect balance,

But being aware of the importance of these basics in our lives can really cause,

You know,

Cause us to become more in balance.

We,

We will ovulate,

We will have normal periods.

We will not have PMS and horrible mood swings and irritability.

We'll be able to sleep.

We won't be bloated and gaining weight every time our period is approaching or crying and angry.

Let's add anger.

Yeah,

I was an angry PMS girl.

Yeah,

For sure.

Angry and anxious is a big,

That are out of balance.

So you know,

It's actually women in premenopause 20s,

30s really shouldn't be having these kinds of symptoms of imbalance.

And then when we get into what we call perimenopause,

Which is the stage between like late thirties into the mid forties is when it really starts to,

The hormones inevitably,

This is inevitable.

They do start to shift because there's a long,

There's a long road to menopause,

You know,

But when we enter perimenopause,

We,

The hormones do start to shift in the ovaries journey to towards menopause.

They're kind of packing their bags,

But it takes eight to 10 years for them to,

You know,

They're not,

They don't become defunct.

They will still produce some hormone,

But by the time we're 50,

They're not producing anywhere near the optimal amounts of hormones that women in their twenties and thirties should be producing at ovulation because ovulation is becoming erratic or hormone production is becoming erratic.

And this is where symptoms are not so much your fault,

You know,

Because you're not eating or you're drinking too much,

You're not sleeping.

It's more that this is nature's,

You know,

The biological path.

But so that's when we get into having to take extra special tender care of ourselves,

Women who are in their late thirties.

Sometimes we see women in their late thirties going into perimenopause early with all of these up and down rollercoaster symptoms.

This means approaching menopause and that's that eight to 10 years,

But it can come on earlier and it can be more intense and it can be the Jekyll and Hyde sort of thing.

According to how,

You know,

What our lives are like.

So many women in their late thirties and forties,

They've got kids,

They've got full-time jobs,

They've got,

You know,

They've got,

They're under pressure.

They may love their jobs.

They may be very high performing,

But they're working eight,

10 hours a day.

During COVID,

So many women I talked to take teachers.

They were,

They were teaching online and teaching their own kids at home and trying to,

You know,

Just trying to do it all.

And now that we're kind of re-entering the crazy busy life where we're running around,

Like these are the women that are so pressured between children and in-laws and aging parents and job responsibilities and career goals and relationship issues.

I mean,

It's a lot trying to stay thin,

Trying to look good,

You know,

Getting to the gym.

People are getting up at 4 30 in the morning,

Not,

You know,

Not sleeping and then on their computers late at night,

Too tired and wired.

Yes.

So this is when,

So there's this inevitable road to hormones shifting,

But they shouldn't be shifting like a roller coaster.

You know,

They're going to shift and there's going to be a decline in progesterone in particular because progesterone is the hormone that we make upon ovulation.

We only make it upon ovulation and progesterone is the hormone that balances estrogen.

So if we don't ovulate or if we miss a cycle,

If we don't,

We miss one cycle and we don't ovulate,

Then we may have worse symptoms of what we call estrogen dominance,

Where there's a lot of estrogen around that was produced,

Or even it can be a,

We can have a decrease in estrogen production,

But because we didn't make enough progesterone that cycle,

That estrogen is,

Is high relative to our progesterone levels.

And that's when we can become bloated and moody.

That's when PMS is really takes hold,

You know,

This excess of estrogen and the low progesterone.

So that's sort of in a way inevitable,

But how extreme it is,

How,

You know,

How steep the declines or the peaks and the valleys,

Like,

Remember,

I don't know if you're old enough to remember seesaws.

Do we still have seesaws?

I don't know if we still have them,

But I'm old enough to know what they are.

I remember being,

Being on the seesaw and something slams on you,

You're hanging up there,

Legs dangling,

And you're in a terrified state and then you're slammed to the bottom.

That's kind of what perimenopause can feel like if you've gotten to the point where,

You know,

We're allowing stress to kind of take over where in order to cope,

We're up in the morning,

Don't have time to eat,

But we're drinking coffee on an empty stomach,

You know,

Some caffeine and skipping lunch or eating at our desk,

Not taking breaks.

I think a lot of people don't even know how to relax anymore.

I agree with you there.

Holy moly.

You know,

So would you say then,

Because of,

You know,

Doing everything we can to keep hormones in balance,

What about this whole thing with intermittent fasting?

Is that a good thing for women or no?

You know,

There's some good research about intermittent fasting being helpful in terms of getting insulin and blood sugar into a more balanced state,

Giving your body a chance to digest and re,

You know,

Reboot and all of that.

There's great arguments for it.

But when I see someone who's stress levels,

Which we measure by cortisol,

Cortisol is a stress hormone that the body makes not only in response to stress,

But that the body has to make to get us up in the morning.

I mean,

We can't live without cortisol.

It regulates our blood sugar,

Insulin relationship.

So it's all about energy.

It's all about how well we process,

You know,

How well we,

We,

I should have said our sleep wake cycle,

How well we sleep and how our immunities respond to illness.

So people who are not sleeping well,

Who get sick frequently and don't bounce back,

You know,

Are,

I remember talking to a woman who was a lawyer and she's,

She was telling me she worked 14,

She works 14 hours a day and she just gets through the day by drinking coffee.

We can see this in a curve.

We measure cortisol morning when it should be highest so that you're at your,

There's something called the cortisol awakening response.

Cortisol should be highest in the morning after a good night's sleep.

Hopefully,

Sometimes it's high after a bad night's sleep because it's been rising throughout the night because we're in a state of stress and never get into deep sleep.

But at any rate,

Cortisol should be high in the morning to get us going.

We should feel refreshed.

And how many people do I talk to don't feel refreshed when they wake up in the morning,

They feel tired and exhausted.

That cortisol curve,

It's on a circadian rhythm.

It should gradually drop,

But gradually.

So by noon,

We should still be at a nice level within range,

Good energy,

You know,

Still bopping through the day and then gradually lowering to nighttime for calming and sleep.

And it should be at its lowest point at night.

But some people are very low in the morning and they're very high at night.

So if I see patterns like that,

I mean,

Many people are like that,

Or they're just wonky.

Their peaks and valleys are extreme.

Those are the people that are really having,

What was that question you asked me?

I was trying to answer that and I just started thinking about something else.

Oh my gosh.

No,

Because you got me going down the adrenal fatigue road,

Which I've had forever.

I mean,

I always am managing because that was my issue with cortisol.

So I think a lot of us will definitely relate to what you're saying.

Oh,

That's what it was.

Sorry.

I always,

I've been losing my train of thought lately because I started thinking about all this other stuff.

Very menopausal.

Yes.

About intermittent fasting.

Oh,

Intermittent fasting.

Yes,

That's what it was.

Sorry.

I was following you along down the adrenal fatigue road.

Yeah.

Because if I see someone with adrenal fatigue and mind you,

That can look like a flat line.

Sometimes we don't see any rise in the morning.

Just everything is low,

Low,

Low.

And we're pushing through our day.

We're dragging ourselves out of bed.

We can't get going.

I wouldn't recommend intermittent fasting for that kind of a person who's suffering from adrenal fatigue.

We need to nourish ourselves.

It's like putting on the oxygen mask.

You've got to nourish yourself.

The adrenals are key to everything,

Really.

We can't,

In fact,

In the approach to balancing hormones,

If we're not taking care of the adrenal glands that are so fundamental to our energy,

To our immunities,

To our sleep,

We can't really just expect to take a bunch of good supplements.

And there are plenty of good supplements out there.

There are bioidentical hormones made from plants that are much safer than synthetics.

There's fertility tracking so we don't have to use hormonal birth control.

We have so many good options now,

But they're not going to work if our adrenals are constantly being taxed,

If they're constantly in overdrive because we are overbooked,

Overcommitted,

Over-training,

Over-eating,

Over-craving.

Craving and blood sugar imbalances can cause us to eat things constantly.

I remember listening to your interview with Gretchen Rubin and she was saying,

I'm an abstainer because if I don't abstain,

I'll just eat every cookie in the bag.

Well,

She should look to her adrenals,

Actually.

Yeah,

Right?

It's like if you're one of those people that can't control your food cravings,

You're wired to have those cravings.

It's not your fault.

It's not your lack of control.

It's your hormonal imbalance,

Your adrenals trying out for balance.

I was so glad to hear this because I think,

And it's interesting about the intermittent fasting.

I read a lot of studies that said that they were for men.

There are not a lot of studies with intermittent fasting with women.

Most of them have been done for men.

Here we are as women doing what these,

And again,

I'm all about being equal and all of that.

That's not what this is about.

It's about our bodies are so different than men's bodies.

We get periods.

We are hormonally different.

So to say that we can get up and do intermittent fasting like they do,

I don't know.

And I think it's so important with adrenal fatigue because I had that and someone that I was working with said,

Absolutely,

You are not allowed to do that.

I want you to get up and exercise in the morning because your cortisol is so high.

That's it.

But not too much exercise because I don't want you to burn yourself out.

So that's so delicate with our hormones.

I think the point you make about this,

So many studies being done on men,

A lot of the way that the exercise programs are based on studies and research and exercise programs for men and aren't really best suited to women,

Especially in different phases of the cycle.

And that's an important awareness that has come out of this growing education around hormone balance.

Alyssa Vitti,

Who's somebody you would want to interview,

She wrote Women Code and In the Flow.

And she actually came up with this whole concept of cycle syncing,

Which talks about the four phases of our cycle,

The menstrual cycle,

Where right before our menstruation,

Our hormones are low,

Then our follicular phase where estrogen and testosterone are rising,

The egg is growing in the ovary.

Now we're feeling a rise in energy.

This is a good time to do more intense exercise or ask your boss for a raise.

Then the ovulatory phase and the luteal phase,

Those phases of the cycle are so different that men don't have those at all.

We have these cycles and we actually need to sync what we eat,

The kinds of activities we engage in,

The kind of exercise we engage in,

The kinds of stress management.

All of these things can be synced to our cycle.

So I really recommend people getting that book,

Looking up Alyssa Vitti and learning more about that so that you can start getting to know your own cycles better and fitting your lifestyle and your activities into your cycles.

You're going to feel,

I think women feel a whole lot better.

This is a way to individualize what we need and not be sort of tracking what the research tells us it is so much based on men.

See,

We're a problem for research.

We get periods,

We get pregnant.

I know,

Right?

Question for you about hormone replacement therapy.

How do you feel about that?

What is your take on that?

Well,

I feel like women need hormone replenishment,

Especially at a particular point in life,

Especially at menopause and at perimenopause when ovulation becomes so erratic and women are going through these ups and downs.

In a test report,

You can see these ups and downs and the symptoms that are associated with those ups and downs can be pretty severe.

So replenishing with a bit of bioidentical hormone can be really,

Really important to get people back on track.

Now in younger women,

There are things like herbs like chaseberry vitex.

Vitex is the Latin word for chase tree berry,

Which is an herb that's been used for hundreds of years.

And that can really help younger women kind of trigger the pituitary gland to signal the ovaries to say,

Hey,

Come on,

Let's ovulate.

Let's make a little bit more progesterone.

Let's get you back in balance.

Progesterone is the great balancing hormone.

That's a really important one in younger years.

I wouldn't recommend hormones for younger women.

And certainly I would like to hope that women are becoming more aware of these alternatives to synthetic birth control,

Because that's definitely being on hormones.

And I think that's a mistake.

Not a good idea.

Obviously,

If we have other ways to control family planning,

Then we should do it.

As far as perimenopausal women go,

They can get extreme relief,

Great relief from these herbs,

From adrenal adaptogens,

From supporting the adrenals with B vitamins.

Let's take B6 for one of the 12 B vitamins.

And by the way,

I think B vitamins should be taken together as a complex because they work in synchrony.

But B6 is crucial for progesterone production.

So bananas,

Eggs,

Spinach,

You look up all the foods that promote good hormone production,

And that can be a way to go.

But at the same time,

We might need a little bit of what we're missing as the ovaries kind of peg out.

And if we're not waking up in the morning,

Having any energy,

And we're pushing ourselves through the day,

And we're living on coffee and sweets,

And we're ruled by our cravings,

Then we know that we've got adrenals in overdrive.

Aviva Rom is another brilliant doctor out there who wrote,

She's written The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution.

The adrenals and the thyroid work closely together.

So if the adrenals are taxed and overworked and underperforming,

Then so too will the thyroid.

And that's when we start to feel lethargic and have no libido,

And we're gaining weight and we can't lose it.

So in that case,

Sometimes a little dose of progesterone,

What I call a Goldilocks dose of a plant-based progesterone can be such a turnaround.

I can use myself as an example.

When I hit 48,

I was a journalist in England for many years.

When we moved back to the States,

I was still doing my journalism and I was living on,

I had kids,

You know?

And I would pull all nighters to get my deadlines,

To get my deadlines done.

And I was just a screaming Mimi.

I was having hot flashes every 20 minutes,

Which is an exaggeration,

Night sweats at night.

So I wasn't sleeping.

I was extremely irritable.

I'd get up and drink coffee,

Didn't have time for anything,

Was screaming at the kids.

And one day I remember Ryan,

My little one looking at me,

She was maybe three or four.

She's looking at me with tears,

Standing in her eyes like,

Mommy,

What,

Who are you?

She didn't even recognize me.

You know,

I was like,

Mean,

Mean mommy.

Come back to us.

And I remember having another meltdown in a restaurant.

They looked at me wrong.

You know how your teenagers.

Yes,

I know.

It made me so furious.

I slammed my glass down on the table and walked out of the restaurant,

Was marching down the street,

You know,

In a state.

I mean,

Is that normal?

No,

I,

That was,

It was when I was a health educator,

I thought,

Okay,

Woman,

You need to get a handle on this.

And I started reading.

One of the first books I read was Dr.

John Lee.

What's your doctor may not tell you about premenopause.

He had gone over to England to study with Katarina Dalton,

The woman that discovered PMS.

He had a huge practice in mill Valley,

Came back and never used a synthetic hormone again on any of his women patients and never had a case of breast cancer in his practice either.

Because way too much estrogen is 97% of breast cancers are linked to that growth hormone activity of estrogen,

Which drives so many things like fibroids and you know,

The growth of tumors,

Et cetera.

I'm going to ask you about estrogen.

I'm trying to think of the book that I just recently read a few months ago on estrogen.

And I'm again,

Reading studies that say estrogen might not be as bad as they're saying for breast cancer.

Well,

There isn't,

There is no evidence that shows that a bioidentical,

If you're talking about replacement,

Which was your question,

Replenishing a bit of estrogen,

And we're talking about Goldilocks doses that are mimicking natural physiology.

We're not talking about using a hormone to make ourselves at 50,

Feel like we're 20 again.

We're talking about using the amount that our bodies would,

Could make naturally,

Which is a very small amount.

The delivery of a hormone is important too.

If it's transdermal or topical,

It goes right to the target tissues of the body,

The cells that really need it.

Because hormones bind to a cell like a puzzle piece.

They fit into the receptor site of a cell and they're supposed to fit properly and naturally occurring hormone that's will fit properly.

A synthetic hormone never fits properly.

It creates all kinds of problems.

It's like opening the door to the cell instead of opening it nicely and getting in there and flipping all the master switches like a chemical messenger,

Normal hormone would do.

Medics kind of bang the door in,

Barge in and take over the machinery and may stay forever.

Like the unwanted guests that won't leave.

I am a fan of hormone replenishment.

If there's testing involved,

Never without testing.

You have to test your hormones to know if you have an imbalance and to what extent and which hormones are out of balance.

And then you can properly and appropriately use an individualized dose tailored to your needs that we are able to suggest an over-the-counter hormone.

But as you said,

Estrogen can be,

It can be very protective of our bones,

Of our blood vessel.

Estrogen has so many functions.

We need it for bone density.

We need it for blood vessel flow,

The motility of the flow through the vessels.

We need it for digestion.

We need it for serotonin production,

The happy hormone.

We need it for our brain,

For our moods.

It's such an important hormone.

It's just that it's a growth hormone and it's a potent growth hormone.

So it has to be kept in check and balanced.

And that's where progesterone comes in.

So for older women or women in perimenopause,

In menopause,

You can never use estrogen on its own.

But we call it unopposed.

That's the major rule of thumb.

You don't use estrogen on its own.

You use it in concert with progesterone in a balanced dose to mimic natural physiology.

That's what we're trying to do.

Mimic mother nature.

Got it.

We're not trying to use huge amounts as a fountain of youth approach,

But rather to support our body as we grow and age and want to feel like ourselves.

So many women say,

I don't feel like myself and I want to be me again.

Like me terrorizing their children.

And 100 years ago,

Women didn't live much past 50.

Did this matter?

But now we're living to be 85,

90.

We can't be running on empty.

So yes,

I'm a fan of hormone replenishment when testing takes place first in measured doses and retesting while using hormone to make sure it's working for us.

And that if doses need to be adjusted,

Yeah,

Then we can.

So when we go through menopause,

Does this mean we would,

And I like your word instead of replacement replenish.

I really like that word.

Does that mean that we need to have our hormones replenished until the day we die?

Or is it just until menopause or how long does that normally last or happen?

Well,

This is what so many women will say.

I've been through menopause.

I'm done.

I don't really need to be using hormones,

But the fact is no,

You haven't,

You haven't,

You're not done.

Menopause doesn't end.

You're in menopause from the time you go into menopause until the day you die.

Yes.

Okay.

And if you want to support your bones and your breast health and your,

And your brain and your muscles and your moods and all of that,

And you want to feel good into old age,

Then yeah,

A little bit,

A little bit of replenishment is not a bad thing forever.

I mean,

I'm 74.

I've been using bioidentical hormones for probably 20 years.

Yeah.

Well,

That was my question.

Cause I am like,

It would make sense then that we would continue to use them.

So I'm glad to hear you say that.

And in concert with the adrenal support,

Of course,

Always.

Yes.

Another thing I should have mentioned is that progesterone is a direct precursor of cortisol.

So the adrenal glands actually need progesterone a great extent to even produce enough cortisol to get us up in the morning and to keep us going and to regulate our blood sugar and insulin,

Which is all about our energy.

Right?

So all of these hormones break down to other hormones.

They work in synchronicity and they interact.

So that's where when you use a little bit of this,

You can support the whole hormone picture and especially the adrenals,

Because once we get into menopause,

As per the question,

Do we need this forever?

The adrenals are our only source of hormone because the ovaries have pretty much packed up.

So adrenals need extra,

Super loving,

Tender care.

And that we do with all those things I talked about,

Making sure we get the time we need to rest and relax,

But we also need those nutrients and we need a little bit of the hormone that helps to support the adrenals in their big job.

Because now they have all these jobs to do and now they've got to make hormone too.

They've got to pick up the slack from the ovaries.

Right.

Okay.

That makes so much sense.

So you would recommend to supplement then and help the ovary or the adrenals?

Well supplementation for the adrenals would be adrenal support.

And we have a rebalancing guide that we send out with every test report.

So if we see adrenal imbalances of any sort,

Low cortisol in the morning,

High cortisol at night,

Which by the way,

High cortisol at night is really problematic because it disrupts the sleep wake cycle.

Yeah,

Of course.

And it also increases appetite hormones because appetite hormones operate on the sleep wake cycle.

So if someone has a high night cortisol,

They're usually the person that has lots of food cravings,

Feels hungry and is up at three in the morning looking in the refrigerator for something to eat.

Yeah.

It's hardwired to overeat.

But yeah,

I think there's no particular hormone that is just for the adrenals.

It's just that this little Goldilocks amount of a topically delivered hormone,

Hopefully topically,

I think even NAMS,

The North American Menopause Society is now saying transdermal topical use of hormones where it goes instead of through the gut and the liver,

The first pass effect goes right to the cells,

Spares the liver having to metabolize all of this hormone.

So you're saying the best is when you put the drops on your wrist or something.

Versus like the pellets or versus like,

Again,

The birth control pill or something like that.

Right.

An oral pill,

You have to take a much higher dose to get an effective dose because it has to go through the GI tract and the liver.

It's harder on the liver and the GI tract.

Pellets are interesting.

That's kind of most of the women that I have talked to that have been on pellets feel great at first they're flying high,

But it's an amount that goes in and stays in the body for a good six months or so.

And it just sort of dissipates.

So you go from hero to zero and don't feel all that great.

The most steady state delivery of a hormone is to use it topically so that you rub it into the skin or you use a patch.

And then that gives you this steady state that provides the right amount,

Not a huge amount,

Not too little,

Not too much.

I know we're just about at the end of our time.

Can I throw one other topic on the table for us to talk about?

Sure.

PCOS.

Oh,

Yeah.

I can't tell you,

Even when I lived in Nashville for the last 15 years,

I can't tell you how many clients were coming in and seeing me,

Asking me,

What do I do?

And the number just seemed to go up,

Up,

Up,

Up,

Up in the last,

I don't know,

Five years or so.

What,

What is this?

How do we know we have it?

Just give me your info on PCOS.

Cause I know a lot of women are suffering from this.

Okay.

I want to mention Alyssa Vitti again,

Because she's a person that had serious PCOS with all of the symptoms that go with it,

Which is,

You know,

The,

The weight gain,

The terrible acne,

The excess facial hair,

Excess body hair,

Horrible irritability,

And maybe feelings of aggression and rage,

You know,

Sugar cravings and,

And,

You know,

Worst of all,

Infertility issues.

And apart from the amount of those who have a genetic trigger for PCOS,

I think most PCOS is very much linked to insulin resistance and in,

You know,

In,

In balance of blood sugar where you get if you,

If you're,

If you're a person who has a junk food diet or a history of eating processed carbs and sugars over many years the amount of insulin that's generated because of the,

You know,

This overload of,

Of simple sugars in the system,

The body has to produce more insulin to try to control that.

When the cells become resistant to insulin,

It's because there's too much sugar in the system,

Too much simple sugar that's broken down from everything we eat.

The insulin is,

It keeps trying to control that sugar and the cells.

It's kind of like if the pizza delivery man came to your door and kept ringing the bell after you'd already had the pizza delivered,

You would finally close the door and pull down the shade and say,

We don't need any more pizza.

Right.

This is what happened with the cells of the body.

We don't need any more insulin.

They become insulin resistant.

So insulin fails to be able to control the blood sugar in the body.

So blood sugar stays high,

Insulin stays high.

And when insulin is high,

It tends to cause the ovaries to start to churn out androgens.

So instead of creating a nice balanced amount of estrogen and progesterone,

We're not,

We're not,

We're not doing that anymore.

The body is now churning out testosterone and DHEA,

The androgens.

And that is what causes this.

Instead of a nice egg being formed in the follicle,

We start to get the formation of several follicles without a dominant egg.

We start to have all the symptoms that I talked about.

So often it is related to women with PCOS will be put on a pre-diabetic metformin or something for diabetes because they're insulin resistant or they're pre-diabetic.

So really it can be something that is controlled through diet.

Although many doctors will say,

Oh,

There's no cure for this.

You have to be on metformin,

But Elissa Vitti cured herself.

And many people have cured themselves by rebalancing their hormones.

You know,

The androgens,

If they start to overwhelm,

That's,

That's when we see PCOS.

And that's also in sync with women who have been on birth control for many years and their ovaries,

Their ovarian production of estrogen and progesterone is down.

So those two hormones aren't there to counter the effects of this churning out of androgens.

And that's part of the problem too.

So if you're stressed and you're not ovulating for any of the reasons I discussed before,

And you don't have this nice component of estrogen progesterone to,

To,

To balance the androgens,

Then you tend to get into this PCOS cycle,

This vicious cycle.

And it,

You know,

There are many things that women can do.

Changing the diet.

There are supplements,

Inositol is great,

Flaxseed,

Many,

Many things that we can do,

Which we put into our rebalancing guide.

But anyone that has PCOS doesn't need to feel helpless and hopeless.

Don't believe anyone that says there's no cure.

And check out what Elissa Vitti,

Her story is very inspiring.

And she's really,

I think the queen of dealing with PCOS naturally and holistically and getting away from it,

You know,

It's possible.

So I'm hearing you say all this,

Are we born with it?

We're not born with it then it sounds like.

I think there's no,

I don't,

I think there's a genetic component though.

I wouldn't say that there isn't.

I think there's a small percentage that is,

Is it 10?

I'm not sure of the percentage,

But I know that there is a genetic link.

But for the most part,

Women who are,

Have PCOS have developed it over years of lack of ovulation and the other nutritional reasons that I'm talking about.

So if it's not nutritional though,

If someone has a very clean diet,

I'm hearing you say stress again,

Unless I missed that.

Would you say stress then adds to the imbalance of course,

In hormones and it's a cascading negative event.

Yeah.

It's just this imbalance,

You know,

If,

If again,

If progesterone and estrogen are,

Are out of balance,

If cortisol is too,

It is too high,

You know,

These sorts of things.

And this is what testing can tell us.

So we can get a picture.

Women that test are almost thrilled when something shows up,

You know?

I agree.

They don't feel like,

You know,

That it's just all in their head is so many people are told,

Or this is,

You know,

You inherited this,

Not necessarily,

You know,

Necessarily there are,

There's a way to get a handle on it and to see what's happening internally,

Shed light and shine a flashlight on what's going on hormonally,

And then take steps to correct that.

So great.

Thank you so much that you are clearly a wealth of information.

I really appreciate you being on today.

Where would people find you?

Cause I can imagine people have pen to paper,

They're ready to write down or text themselves your,

Your info.

So where would they find you?

You can find me at your hormone balance.

Com.

That's our website.

That's where the symptom check quiz is that will help you to determine if you're likely to have a hormone imbalance and encourage you to test if you do,

Because that's the best way to confirm symptoms.

And I know we've jumped all over the place,

But I hope we've,

You know,

Kind of tackled the main issues.

We have a lot more information.

We have,

We are all about education at your hormone balance.

We have a great Instagram.

My daughters are involved.

The ones that never listened to me and used to run screaming from the room when I talked about hormones,

Ryan,

My youngest is now the,

Our business development manager.

And she's,

She's on the Instagram and Jess is our nutrition health coach.

She helps people take the rebalancing plan and turn it into action.

Oh,

Great.

Diet cycle,

Sinking stress management.

She's a real expert on fertility awareness planning.

There are so many ways we try to help women.

And we have a great newsletter.

So yeah,

Your hormone balance.

Com,

The Instagram,

I'd love to offer your listeners a $50 discount on any of our test kits,

Which you can order on the web.

Thank you.

Is there a code or how would they do that?

If they do want to order a test?

If we used adult chair,

I think adult,

Not the adult chair was going to say adult chair.

Yeah.

Perfect.

And then we have the opportunity for people to talk to me because so many people,

We have a great test result.

It explains everything,

But a lot of people just need someone to talk to.

So they can talk to me to review test results and understand the different hormones.

A lot of women still don't know what estrogen does.

They still don't know what progesterone does.

And it's important to understand that.

And then they can talk to Jess too.

So we have a way to set up consults and many people need,

I think talk therapy is fantastic.

It's how many women say they feel they finally feel they've been listened to after many years of not feeling that way.

So I agree.

I couldn't agree more.

Kindly,

All things hormonal to everyone.

You can all benefit.

And you see patients out of state,

Obviously,

Because you're in Oregon,

But you can see anyone around the world.

I take it.

Yes.

You will do consults.

Yes.

We talk to people all over the world and mind you,

I can't prescribe.

I'm not a doctor,

But we can refer people to doctors if they need a prescription.

I work with a Dr.

C.

W.

Randolph,

Who's an OBGYN in Florida.

And he's one of the gurus in the hormone,

Bioidentical hormone movement.

He has created his formulas that he used for 30 years with women bioidentical plant-based,

And they are available in a topical cream and a dispenser that does not require a prescription because we're very small amounts.

So that's very helpful for women that are in places in the world where they can't get their hands on a hormone or talk to a doctor that knows anything about it.

Many doctors out there are getting very savvy with this,

But if you go to a doctor who says it's all in your head,

You can't test hormones because they're too irregular.

You don't need this.

You don't listen.

Just go.

Insist.

Insist on being tested and on a bioidentical if replenishment looks like it could help you.

I think women have to trust their intuition.

And so many women I talk to say,

I knew this was hormonal.

I wasn't making it up,

But I just needed some proof.

Unfortunately,

I don't think a lot of doctors are trained in this.

This is such a specialty.

And I know friends of mine recently have gone to their OBs asking about where I've gone.

I mean,

Even my doctor in Nashville,

Like hormone replacement.

No,

I don't do that.

Here's the pill.

Here's an IUD.

Those are my two options.

And I was like,

Well,

I don't want that anymore.

I need some help balancing.

And it wasn't until I found a functional medicine doctor probably 15 or so years ago changed my whole world.

I was going to say functionalmedicine.

Org has a list of physicians that are trained.

Also ZRT Laboratory,

Which is the test,

Which is where I was the director of education for so long.

And that's the lab we use in our testing.

They also have a physician referral that you can find online.

So women who want the physician,

Functional medicine is where it's at,

Integrative medicine,

Naturopathic medicine,

Nurse practitioners.

I told you I have a podcast called Women Talking Frankly with a nurse practitioner who's been treating women for hormonal issues for 15 years.

So there are a lot more resources now than there were when I first got into this and was having my hot flashes and night sweats every day,

Every 20 minutes.

Well,

We are so grateful for you,

Honestly,

Because we need,

Again,

Women need more of people like you out in the world,

But you're making a huge impact.

And I'm thrilled to have you on the show today to really let women all around the world hear your message,

Because we all have so many of these issues going on and we don't know where to turn.

We just don't know where to turn.

When I moved back to Charlotte two years ago,

I sat down and I have a doctor,

A naturopathic doctor I've used out in Washington state for probably 10 or so years.

But I said,

I wonder if there's someone local here in Charlotte.

And I Googled,

I was like,

I can't find anybody.

I can't find anybody that's like,

It's crazy to me.

You know?

That's why we're trying to fill the gap with education so that women understand what their hormones do,

Why it's important,

Why you are not your symptoms,

Why you don't have to deal with the pain and agony,

Why you don't need to be on birth control till you're 50,

That there are optional options that are natural and safer.

There's no research that shows that bioidentical hormones cause cancer.

There's no research.

There's just,

There's not enough research on bioidentical hormones because big pharma doesn't really want to study bioidentical hormones.

Exactly.

Because,

Yeah,

Because we would feel so much better.

We wouldn't need all these drugs that they're pushing on us.

We wouldn't need them.

We wouldn't need them.

Exactly.

I mean,

They're placed,

But when,

When it comes to,

To synthetic hormones,

They are not useful.

And one of the things I didn't mention,

I would like to mention is it's so important.

You know,

I talked about good fats and proteins,

But also women need to know the cruciferous vegetables.

They need a part two,

But Chris,

So we could really get into,

Cause we've touched on all this,

But not gotten into detail.

I realized that.

But things like cruciferous vegetables,

Broccoli,

Brussels sprouts,

Cauliflower actually help the body to metabolize excess estrogens because so many women become estrogen dominant because of this disruption of ovulation I was telling you about.

And that's where the weight gain becomes so impossible and the mood swings and all of the things that we associate with,

You know,

With being out of balance.

So,

You know,

There are many,

There's,

There are ways to eat especially of these vegetables.

And there's even supplements,

Something called dim,

Which is like eating two pounds of broccoli,

You know?

Yeah.

There's a lot of,

I was going to ask you about that.

Yeah.

I was going to ask you about that.

Cause I've been on that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Good.

And we suggest that when we see these things in the test result and everything we suggest is holistic is bad based is natural.

And there are adrenal adaptogens herbs that can help support the adrenals that are just awesome.

I remember when I first started using Don Kwai,

My mood so improved.

It was,

You know,

Some of it it's,

It's a little bit like magic.

It really is.

And I agree with you.

I mean,

I've balanced myself,

You know,

I don't have to go through a doctor anymore.

It's natural what I'm doing now and I feel great because of it,

But yeah,

Don Kwai,

I know that one too.

So I'm glad you're talking about this,

Michelle,

Because you have such a listenership.

And I think that's,

That's really important.

And I think that's just getting this message out there is just crucial for so many women's life-changing.

It really is.

For having me.

I'm really grateful to you.

I think we're going to have to have you on again for sure,

Because I know that I can feel all the questions already coming in and the comments from people after they hear this.

So,

But thank you for today.

Absolutely.

Just a great,

Great show.

And we'll hope we hope to see you in the future.

Okay.

I hope that you all enjoyed that show.

I got to tell you,

You know,

Moving to Charlotte even two years ago or over two,

Two years ago now,

I remember moving here,

I was asking some of my friends,

I was like,

Well,

Who do I find locally that does hormone health?

You know?

And most of my friends were like,

This girl sort of does it or this person over here,

This doctor,

I think does some of it.

And I was like,

Oh my goodness,

Like we need solid people in the world doing this work.

So I'm so grateful to Candice and her girls for the work that they are doing on an international level.

So,

So grateful.

Do not forget,

They have their promo code adult chair 50 for $50 off the test kit.

We will put that again in the show notes.

And also do not forget,

We've got the self worth bundle for you.

I've created this just for you guys.

And that is at the adult chair.

Com forward slash worthy.

And that's going to give you guided meditations and journaling prompts that target self worth,

Enhancing your own self worth.

All right.

That's all I've got for you guys today.

I will see you next week.

Have a beautiful week and make sure you're living in your adult chair.

Reviews

Very helpful information. Thank you for including resources. I feel empowered and equipped to balance my hormones.

Very much enjoyed this! And of course I found it just in time to celebrate Day 1 of my monthly. Those hormones really are a powerful thing 😆

i’ve been yo-yoing in moods and the hrt just isn’t working anymore… seeking natural alternatives brought me here

Aligned and timely. Thank you. 🙏🏾

I can't say how much this talk have made me feel Hopeful! I will be telling anyone that will listen about what I've learned & the information you have given. Thank you!!