Have you found yourself forgetting a close friend’s name, or even fumbling to recall your own address? That unsettling brain fog isn’t just "getting older"—it could be a sign of something deeper. Welcome to this episode of The Hormone Prosperity Podcast, where I, Dr. Kyrin, your trusted Hormone Prosperity Coach, uncover the hidden culprit behind these frustrating moments of forgetfulness—hormonal poverty.

💡 What Brain Fog REALLY Means: Forgetting words, losing focus, or constantly feeling mentally “off” aren’t just random occurrences. They’re signs of a larger issue—midlife metabolic mayhem caused by hormonal imbalance. Discover how this phenomenon plays out in perimenopause and menopause and why so many women over 40 experience it.

🌿 Hormonal Poverty Explained: What is hormonal poverty, and how does it affect not only your cognition but your overall health? I coined this term to shine a light on the under-discussed yet vital role of sex hormones, insulin, cortisol, and thyroid hormones in maintaining your mental clarity, energy, weight, and vitality.

🚨 The Untold Risk: Did you know hormonal poverty can increase the chances of developing Alzheimer's and other life-altering diseases? I even share the heart-wrenching story of my own mother, whose battle with severe Alzheimer’s was painfully linked to decades spent in hormonal poverty without treatment.

🩺 The Medical Blind Spot: Why do mainstream medical practices fail to diagnose or treat hormonal poverty? Learn the difference between “normal” lab results and optimal function—and why settling for “normal” leaves you far from thriving.

✨ Empowerment Through Action: I’ll equip you with steps to assess your hormonal health and introduce tools to actively reclaim your wellness. Take the quiz to uncover if you’re in hormonal poverty and join my 7-day Hormone Bliss Challenge to start your path to vibrant health today.

👩‍🔬 Your Roadmap to Hormonal Prosperity: It only takes small but specific changes to go from “barely surviving” to fully thriving. No more blaming it on age—get ready to take control of your health!

Midlife doesn’t need to be a period of decline—it can be a time of vitality, clarity, and joy if you give your body the hormonal support it needs. With 60+ symptoms of hormonal imbalance negatively impacting millions of women, this is a conversation that mainstream medicine just isn’t having… but YOU deserve to have.

This episode is about more than just identifying a problem—it’s about empowering you to take action, feel supported, and understand you’re not alone.

✅ Step 1: Take my 2-minute quiz to determine if you could be in hormonal poverty.

✅ Step 2: Join the 7-day Hormone Bliss Challenge where I guide you through actionable steps to reclaim your energy, focus, and vitality.

👉 Take the Quiz and Start the Challenge Here

Know someone who could benefit from this episode? Send it their way! Together, we can help over 100 million women move from hormonal poverty into hormonal prosperity.

💖 Loved this episode? Leave a review and help more midlife women discover this life-changing information.

Here’s to a life full of peace, love, and hormones—because bliss is your birthright.

Podcast Episode Transcript:

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):

And maybe this has happened to you. You see a friend in the street, you've known them for years, you know, you know their name, but all of a sudden you can't think of what is her name. And you get all tense and feel embarrassed, right? If that's you, you're not alone. That is one of the 60 plus symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem and hormonal poverty. Greetings, friend. Welcome to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast with me, the hormone prosperity coach, Dr. Kyrin. Here's where intelligent women over 40 go to get credible guidance and inspiration on getting out of hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity and the joy and vitality that brings. Go from asking disempowering questions like, what's wrong with me? To asking empowering questions like, what would hormonal prosperity do? Hashtag ww PD. Join me as we dive into today's episode and get started on your journey off the couch, into your genes and back into life, because bliss is your birthright. And a healthy body filled with hormonal prosperity is the vehicle that gets you there. Welcome. Let's get started.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:14):

So brain fog is a great question in menopause and perimenopause, a woman wrote in saying that she was trying to pick up her prescription at the pharmacy, and the woman at the counter asked her for her address, and she was fumbling and bumbling because she couldn't even remember her own address. And maybe this has happened to you. You see a friend in the street, you've known them for years, you know, you know their name, but all of a sudden you can't think of what is her name. And you get all tense and feel embarrassed, right? If that's you, you're not alone. That is one of the 60 plus symptoms of midlife, metabolic mayhem and hormonal poverty that can occur after the age of 40 or even before the age of 40. And it can make your life extremely difficult to live and just complete activities of daily living, things that you do every single day.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:12):

And so what's going on here? You go to your doctor and you say, oh, I'm forgetting things, right? Maybe they run some tests to see if you have mild cognitive impairment, early cognitive impairment, and they say that, oh, you're fine. 'cause You're worried about Alzheimer's, and nobody ever says to you, oh, well maybe you have hormonal poverty because they probably don't know that term. It's actually a term that I coined to help women understand what's happening to them as they age with their health. With the 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem that can lead to disease, seven of out of 10 of the top 10 causes of death are increased by being in hormonal poverty. And this is something your doctor's not talking to you about. That's why I'm talking to you about it. And if you wanna know if this is you, you can take my quiz that I developed to help you understand.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:06):

Could you be in hormonal poverty? Your brain actually depends on not only your sex hormones, estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, but all of your hormones to be optimized to function normally. Some of you know that my mom has severe Alzheimer's disease and that she was the healthiest person I knew and that the only risk factor she had for getting Alzheimer's disease was that she was in hormonal poverty for three decades without treatment because her doctor didn't believe in hormone therapy. Not only that so estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, but she probably had undiagnosed insulin, cortisol, thyroid issues because her doctor didn't go by the standards that I use to diagnose disease where there's hypofunction. You might not have an actual disease that your mainstream doctor identifies, but you can have suboptimal function. And if you are not functioning optimally, this is what you need to understand.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:15):

This is going to cause you to have hormonal poverty and brain fog, forgetfulness, lack of clarity, right? So you're the one at the pharmacy, can't remember your own address, you can't remember your lifetime friend's name. And so I want to, I really see my mission in life as awakening women to this truth, because what you're getting at your mainstream doctor's office is not the truth, right? They're gonna listen to your heart, listen to your lungs, they're gonna do blood work, most of which you don't know what it is. You're just gonna say, oh, my doctor said my blood work was fine. And what you don't realize is that they're telling you you don't have a disease or disease from a mainstream medical perspective, but they are not looking for optimal function. And the difference between having a disease and having suboptimal function is night and day.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:14):

It's the difference between you living your life optimally right brain on all cylinders. Click, click, click. You can remember things, you are focused and you take action in your life and you get the outcomes that you want. Your weight is where you want your energy is where you want your sex drive, your hair, your digestion. You don't have arthritis or myalgias pain in your muscles. You don't have the 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem, right? That's optimization. But how most people, most women over 40 in the western world are living is with chronic conditions that are medicated. Now, some women will tell me, well, I don't have high blood pressure. And I'll say, well, what medications are you on? And then they'll list their medications, one of which is an anti-hypertensive medication. And I say, but I thought you said you don't have high blood pressure or hypertension.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:07):

And they'll say, oh, I don't. My medication controls it, so I don't have that problem. And what you don't understand is no, you still have hypertension and you're still subject to the consequences of hypertension just over a slower and longer period of time, right? Medications that control symptoms do not fix the symptoms and don't obviate you from having or opt you out from having the consequences of that, like increased risk of heart disease, increased risk of stroke, and all the other consequences of high blood pressure. So don't fall for mainstream medical practices of only diagnosing disease, only giving medications or doing surgery to control disease. This will never get you health optimization. It will never reduce your risk of seven out of the top 10 causes of death. It won't get you health optimization. I will leave you in midlife metabolic mayhem with the symptoms like brain frog, like the person who asks this question and not living life optimally.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:15):

So if you look at, do you have hormonal poverty, which I teach you about in my hormone bliss challenge, then you can understand what you actually need to be doing to identify, am I in hormonal poverty? You can start by taking the quiz. But then in the seven day challenge, I actually take you through the exact steps that I use to get out of hormonal poverty and that I've helped thousands of women use to get out of hormonal poverty so that you can have a higher standard of health for yourself and avoid disease in the future. Optimize how you're living now. Get rid of the 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem. So thank you so much for the question. It's a great question that so many women have, and I'm so grateful that you asked it today. I'll see you in the next episode. Until then, peace, love, and hormones. Y'all,

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:20):

Thank you so much for joining me on your journey from hormonal poverty into the promised land of hormonal prosperity. Loved today's episode. Share it with someone you care about, love the show. Consider writing a review and help other women find it too. Remember, we're all in this together right now. There are well over 100 million women suffering in hormonal poverty without answers. Please be of service by sharing, rating, and reviewing the show. Help us reach at least 1 million of these women this coming year from one previously suffering woman to another. I thank you. See you next week.

Are you thriving, or just surviving in your midlife health? If you’ve been struggling with low energy, unexplained weight gain, mood swings, or "midlife metabolic mayhem," you’re not alone—but you deserve better.

In this episode, Dr. Kyrin introduces the empowering concept of Hormonal Prosperity, a state of thriving health where your hormones supply everything your body needs for optimal function. Much like financial prosperity, hormonal prosperity provides you with "hormonal savings" to fund not just survival, but vitality, strength, and joy in your daily life.

Dr. Kyrin shares profound insights, personal stories, and holistic strategies to help women transform their health journeys and reclaim their vitality.

• The difference between hormonal poverty and hormonal prosperity and why it matters.
• How to start asking "why" questions to uncover the root cause of your symptoms.
• The crucial connection between hormones, metabolism, and weight normalization.
• Why common medical approaches often fall short and how to take charge of your health.
• Explore the concept of the hormonal spectrum and why it’s more helpful than traditional diagnoses.
• Dr. Kyrin’s personal breakthrough and how it inspired her to transform women’s health care.
• Simple steps to identify hormonal imbalance and reclaim your midlife vitality.

Hormonal prosperity is not just about fixing symptoms—it's about empowering your body to thrive. If you’re ready to leave the prescription tango behind and step into a life of energy, balance, and joy, this episode is for you.

🔗 Tune in now to discover how to move from hormonal poverty to hormonal prosperity. Remember to subscribe so you never miss an episode!

👉 Subscribe to the Hormone Prosperity Podcast and the Hormone Prosperity Coach YouTube channel for more inspiring content and actionable advice.

Hormone Prosperity Coach https://www.youtube.com/c/KyrinDunstonMD

Hormone Prosperity Podcast https://bit.ly/thehormoneprescriptionpodcast

Together, we’ll empower each other to ask the right questions and find answers that lead to lasting health and happiness. Let's stop the madness and start a movement towards hormonal prosperity! 🌟

❓HAVE A QUESTION and want my advice? You're invited to write to me at hello@kyrindunstonmd.com.  

I select e-mails with a clear question around hormone poverty (such as symptoms of Midlife Metabolic Mayhem, diseases caused or exacerbated by hormonal poverty, accelerated aging, early death, etc.) and achieving hormone prosperity using the two hormone prescriptions needed (one written and the other not) that are of reasonable length and detail and of interest to significant numbers of the audience. I regret I'm not able to answer all messages sent.  I appreciate your willingness to contribute to the community.

Welcome to another enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we empower midlife women to achieve optimal health and wellness. This week, we have a truly inspiring guest, May Britt Searty, who takes us on a profound journey into the world of Family Constellations Therapy and its remarkable impact on our ancestry and health.

In this episode, May Britt Searty shares her incredible story of personal transformation and professional dedication. From battling a severe skin disease in her youth to discovering holistic healing practices, May's path has been anything but ordinary. Join us as we explore:

• May’s Early Journey:
• How a severe skin disease led her to a life-changing visit to a macrobiotic specialist.
• Becoming a vegetarian and its role in her 5-year healing process.
• Backpacking adventures and studying various holistic therapies, including Anatomy, Physiology, Cranio Sacral Therapy, and The Rosen Method.
• A Bold Move to Bahrain:
• Trading a high-paying marketing job for a position managing a women’s health section in a key hotel.
• The cultural immersion and deepening of her life’s purpose.
• Meeting her husband and gaining new perspectives that opened the world to her.
• Holistic Health and Spiritual Development:
• Extensive studies and certifications in Physio Massage, Cranio Sacral Therapy, Reiki, Reflexology, Naturopathy, and more.
• The significant role of Family Constellation and Holistic Coaching in her current practice.
• Living and working across the globe, including the UK, Bahrain, Kenya, Egypt, Nigeria, Germany, Qatar, and Dubai.
• Personal Insights and Inspirations:
• May’s experiences as a mother and how it has shaped her understanding of life.
• Her view on work as a passion rather than a job.
• Hopes and excitement for the emerging future.

1. Understanding Family Constellations Therapy:

• Learn how your family's past can influence your present and future health.
• Discover the therapeutic process of Family Constellations and its benefits.

1. Holistic Healing and Personal Growth:

• Insights into integrating various holistic practices for overall well-being.
• The importance of celebrating femininity and personal development.

1. Empowerment Through Change:

• Find inspiration in May Britt’s willingness to take risks for her passion.
• The value of diverse cultural experiences in enriching personal and professional life.

Are you ready to explore the depths of your ancestry and how it impacts your health? Tune in to this powerful episode with May Britt Searty and discover the transformative potential of Family Constellations Therapy.

Thank you for joining us on this incredible episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast. We hope May Britt Searty’s story has inspired you to explore new avenues of healing and personal growth. Stay tuned for more episodes that bring you closer to achieving your health and wellness goals.

Remember, your health is your greatest wealth. Until next time, take care and stay empowered!

► Family Constellation & Holistic Coaching by May Britt Searty: CLICK HERE

► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.

With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.

Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.

Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!

CLICK HERE to sign up NOW!

Are you a woman in your midlife years struggling with the debilitating effects of fibromyalgia? If so, you are not alone. In fact, an estimated 8% of the adult population worldwide suffers from this condition.

Fortunately, there is hope. In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we talk to Dr. Rodger Murphree, an expert on hormones and fibromyalgia, about some of the latest research on this topic.

During the show, Dr. Murphree reveals:

• Clinically proven protocols for correcting the multiple symptoms of fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome.
• Why conventional treatments for fibromyalgia often fail
• The symptoms of fibromyalgia and how they can be warning signs for other underlying health conditions
• The diet and lifestyle changes that can help to address the root causes of fibromyalgia
• And more!

If you are ready to start feeling better and want to learn more about fixing the root causes of fibromyalgia, then this episode is for you. Tune in now and let’s get started on your journey to recovery!

[00:00] Life is short. If you're not careful, you'll miss it. Dr. Roger Murphy is my guest today, and we're gonna talk about fibromyalgia and what it has to do with your hormones. If you're suffering with this, you've likely had a long road and you're missing a lot of your life and it just shouldn't be. So we're gonna tell you how to get out of the predicament you're in, in this episode. 

[03:12] Oh, I'm so excited to be here. I, you know, last time we got together just enjoyed our conversation so much. And I learned some things that, that I didn't know, and I was really delighted to be able to learn something new and uh, yeah. Thank you. I'm so excited to be here.

[03:27] Yeah. Super excited to talk about fibromyalgia. It's actually a part of my story. I don't focus on it too much, but those who know me and listen to my podcast probably have heard me talk about that. I had that. I just had horrible unrelenting pain in many places on my body on a consistent basis. And before I got on my journey, in addition to weighing 243 pounds and being super tired and it's really something that's hard for the general public to understand even those people who have it because they go from doctor to doctor not being diagnosed. And there's so few doctors who really understand what fibromyalgia is all about. So can we just start by talking about what it is and how might someone suspect that they have this?

[04:20] So there's writings about fiber Maia in the, the 18 hundreds. Uh, and um, over the years there have been more and more writings about it, but it didn't, you know, it didn't happen to really hit the, the map, you know, be put on the map until 1990 when the American college of rheumatology came out with the criteria for the diagnosis. So it's been around, you know, it's been around for 30 something years is, uh, something that people know about. But unfortunately we still have a lot of misconception about fibromyalgia. We have doctors who still don't acknowledge that, that it's a real entity. Those that do acknowledge that we do have a thing called fibromyalgia. Don't really know how to treat it. They've largely given up on it.

[05:12] Uh, but fibromyalgia is a syndrome like Aero bowel syndrome or metabolic syndrome. It's a group of symptoms that people have in common. And we give it a name to describe those symptoms, but fibromyalgia, which affects about 8% of the adult population worldwide. This is what the estimates are anywhere from four to 8%, primarily women between the ages of 35 and 60. It is an illness characterized by diffuse achy, sometimes disabling pain, fatigue, brain fog, irrit bowel, resto syndrome, low moods anxiety. So it's a very long list of symptoms that come underneath this title called fibromyalgia.

[05:59] Yes. And there are specific criteria to be diagnosed with it, but like Dr. Roger said, it's really hard to get a diagnosis. There aren't that many doctors that are that familiar with it. And what is a mainstream treatment typically of fibromyalgia?

[06:16] . It's just so frustrating that, you know, it makes me laugh because it's so really so sad, but in conventional medicine, as you know, so well, it's all about treating symptoms. Oftentimes that's really what the focus is. And you know, there's a time and a place for that. Thank goodness. You know, we, we, we have the wherewithal and we have the prescription medications and the surgeries and things that we need to be able to treat some of these things. But in fibromyalgia, the conventional medicine protocols, relying on drug therapy alone have been a dead end. The surveys show this, that even the American college rheumatology on their own website, now they've taken this down, but they used to say that they don't recommend that patients take anti-inflammatories pain, medications, sleep aids are anti-seizure medications because they're not effective long term.

[07:12] And they have potential side effects. And where we're at right now in conventional medicine is that most conventional doctors will tell their patients that you just have to learn to live with it. And they, they don't believe you can overcome fibromyalgia because what they've seen day in and day out is that there are patients that they've recommended these different medications, Neurontin, and Ella, and AlTiN these other things they don't improve. And their take on it is, well, we've given you the drugs that are approved for fibromyalgia, and you're really no better, you know, four or five years later, it's really your it's your fault. And you're just gonna have to learn to live with it. So that's where we're at right now in conventional medicine. 

[08:24] Yeah, it's unfortunate. And I would say that's definitely a mainstream model cuz when I see people in my story too, includes this when you really get to the underlying root cause I find that it's extremely treatable. So talk about your approach. You've held a fibromyalgia summit. You've been specializing in this for years. You've written a book about it. You really are one of the gurus about fibromyalgia. 

[08:54] Hope. Well, so I have to go back a little bit. So 20 years ago when I had my first patient referred to me for fibromyalgia, I had no idea what I was getting into and you know, from your own journey and then from seeing patients, you, you kind of hear their symptoms and you think there's no way you can have this many things wrong with you. You mean you look normal. And then of course you look at their blood work and most of the time everything's normal. Their said rate CRP, their inflammatory markers normally are okay, but there's a tendency to look at this individual as a hypo contract and I'll be candid. That was my first reaction to my patient, Sheila Sheila Jones, who came to see me 20 years ago. But I started just working with her using just good sound nutrition and some functional medicine testing to find out that she had things wrong with.

[09:43] She had candid to overgrowth and some food allergies and leaky gut. I started treating her and within three months, this illness that I didn't really know much about and her doctor said, we don't really know what it is, but here you hear some muscle relaxers and some pain pills come back in six months and we'll see how you do well. She got well, Karen in three months just doing some basic stuff that I would do on really kind of anybody is a functional medicine practitioner. 

[10:32] And I started just kind of bringing those different therapies together and then eventually realized that there's some really key things that if you get these key things right for the fibromyalgia patient, he or she usually is, she is going to have the best opportunity to overcome their fibromyalgia symptoms. And really the only way for someone fibromyalgia to be able to feel good again, long term is they gotta get healthy. And that sounds so simplistic. I realize that, but it's about finding and fixing the underlying causes of these symptoms. And then, so there's four key things that make up what I call the Murry method and the mur jumpstart protocols, which if you do these four things, you focus on these four things as a fibromyalgia patient, your odds of, of dramatic improvement are really good.

[11:59] So fibromyalgia is just a name. That's all it is. So it doesn't cause the pain. It doesn't cause the low energy, it doesn't cause the insomnia or the poor sleep. It's just a name. And so what you wanna look at is, okay, what could be some of the triggers for chronic pain, low energy, brain fog, low moods and irritable bowel, resto sex syndrome. What's the common denominator? Well, the first common denominator is poor sleep. So we know with studies, it doesn't matter really to me, whatever your condition is. If you've got a chronic health condition, the place to start is making sure that you're able to get consistent deep restorative sleep. Cuz when you get that deep restorative sleep, that's when the body's repairing itself.

[12:48] And what we see with fibromyalgia is a struggle to fall asleep and they struggle to stay asleep. So they all have sleep issues. They never feel refresh. They're not going into that deep Delta wave restorative sleep. And we know that if you're not getting consistent, good sleep, you're gonna have all the symptoms that I've mentioned in fibromyalgia. You're you're obviously gonna be tired, right? Lethargic. You're gonna have brain fog. We know that you increase your inflammatory chemicals by 40%, you create all sorts of stress in the body. Oxidative stress. 

[13:48] So it made sense to me, let's just get 'em sleeping through the night, right? And that's where I focus is the first thing is to make sure that they're able to consistently get that deeper store to sleep. And a big part of that for me, was realizing early on that everyone with fibromyalgia is low in this brain, chemical called serotonin. And that's, you know, we've had two drugs that have been approved for fibromyalgia, Illa and Alta, which are selective serotonin and no uptake inhibitors. But serotonin is the key for these people.

[14:54] So they were not able to produce the serotonin that they needed. And when you're low in serotonin, your pain threshold goes down. And those with fibromyalgia have a condition called ALA Donia, which is low pain threshold. So their pain is magnified. And what I found is as I raised that serotonin by using five ay triptan and then high doses, but safe doses of vitamins and minerals and amino acids, I was able to get their serotonin levels up, which raised their pain threshold, lowered their pain, helped with their mental clarity. Their moods, uh, helped with irritable bowel cuz you have more serotonin receptors in your intestinal tract than you do in your brain. So by getting their serotonin levels up, I was able to help them with many of the symptoms associated with fibromyalgia, but probably the biggest one. 

[16:39] So many of us, you know, women at midlife have trouble with that. And particularly like you're describing with fibromyalgia this low serotonin that may be innate as well as the disruption in sleep causes all kinds of inflammatory cascades to be set off. And so that started really helping your patients to improve.

[17:00] Well, so what I saw is that once I got them sleeping and, and five HTP was how I started that. So I'd have them take five HTP, 30 minutes for bed with a little bit of grape juice to release the, the glucose would trigger insulin response, which would help that five HTP get past the blood brain barrier and work quicker. So once they started taking the five HTP and started sleeping through the night, then the next thing that I had to work on was that these individuals have depleted their stress coping glands, the, the, uh, the adrenal glands. So stress becomes magnified. They they're deficient in cortisol, D H E a. 

[17:52] And so they would overdo it. They would, they would do things that they couldn't normally do. You know, if fibromyalgia robs you of so many things robs you of your health, that robs you of your social life, a lot of times, your intimacy, your career, you know, all these things are taken from you because you find with fibro, you really can't do a lot. If you try to do more than normal, you have these things called fibro flares where your symptoms are accentuated. 

[18:35] They could have more stamina and resistance to it. So it didn't really wipe 'em out when they encountered it. And that's when I started, when I had the, for a number of years, I had a medical practice where I had five medical doctors working with me and we use Corte. So we use cortisol, you know, prescription medication, very, as you know, it's a very safe dose. It's it's um, about a fourth or a fifth, the strength of prednisone, but we use Corte and we saw that patients now they could handle stress better. 

[19:25] Although I recommend that you get a particular type of adrenal glandular, it needs to be just cortex, whole glandular, adrenal supplements have not only the cortex, which is mainly cortisol DHA, but also have the me doula part of the adrenal, which is very stimulating, cuz it has adrenaline. And the worst thing you can do for these individuals is to hype them up. They can't tolerate that. They're their autonomic nervous system is already on overload. It's already hypersensitive. So for those you listening, make sure you're gonna get adrenal supplements. 

[20:30] Now the RDA that recommended dietary allowance is some 60 years outta date. And it's really just enough to keep you from getting scurvy or Berry Berry. You know, it's not, you know, it really ain't gonna do anything. That's why people take a multivitamin, a central or whatever. They never feel any different. They never look any different. You've gotta use high doses. What I call optimal daily allowance, which is sometimes 5,000 times stronger than the RDA recommended disease allowance

[21:34] But we were using that protocol before every people really knew what it was. And we were seeing when we gave them these high doses of vitamins and minerals, that they slept better. They had less pain, they felt better mentally and physically, but UN you know, it wasn't feasible for people to come get an IV every week, travel 2, 3, 4 or five hours away. Like some people did between the cost and the inconvenience. It just, you know, it wasn't compatible. So years ago I developed a formula, a fibro formula, which has high doses of vitamins and minerals, all the B vitamins in the methylated form, malic acid, high doses of magnesium, which is a natural muscle relaxer, all the amino acids, which are the building blocks of the hormones that I know you talk so much about. 

[22:39] That is my new favorite wording for RDA is yeah. Recommended disease allowance.

[22:48] why, I mean, you think about that. I know like the multivitamin I'm sure that you have you recommend right. Is, is, you know, probably got, I don't know, was 50 to a hundred milligrams of B2 in it. And which is what I think that's what 500 times stronger or a thousand times stronger than what the RDA is. And if you don't use these higher doses, people are just not gonna improve.

[23:08] Right. I always talk to people about that. So listen up, you know, the one a day, Centrum, silver, it sounds great. They're cheap, but you don't want it. It's a waste of your time and your money. So I love that recommended disease allowance. I just had to say that. And you know, the other thing I wanted to share is that you mentioned Myers cocktails. They actually used to give the nutrients rectally like a Myers cocktail. They called it a Murphy drip on the battlefield in wars, going back a hundred years ago. So it's not new. 

[24:03] No, please. And you know, I think the thing is, I, I know you encounter this too. You're interacting with a patient and you're sharing with them the importance of vitamins and minerals. And they're giving you this look like how are vitamins and minerals gonna help me when I've been on Neurontin and I've been on oxycodone or whatever it is. I mean, they they've been on heavy duty pharmaceutical therapies. And you're, you're saying, you know, the only way really to do it is to get healthy and to get healthy. You know, you've gotta take these vitamins and minerals, but you need to do it in a dosage. That's gonna make a difference. 

[25:04] Know, even I saw my hairdresser selling vitamins and all these little gummies that you take, they're supposed to help your hair. And I'm just like, what? But it's so true. It's that simple. Y'all, it's the basics, you know, like Dr. Rogers talking about and nutrient support at high doses, optimal doses, not the recommended disease. Allowance is a key part of that. Yeah. It's a key part of healing. Anything really?

[25:30] I think so. I think so, you know, people ask me, what's the number one supplement you'd recommend. And I would say, get the best multivitamin that you can, one that you like, you know, you're, if you like a li you know, if you can't take a pill, find a liquid, whatever it is, but get the best multivitamin that, that you can tolerate. That's where you put your money and then you build around that. Otherwise you're gonna be like the patients set Dr. Karen. And I see where they've got this big Santa Claus bag of supplements that they, you know, usually it's the spouse, you know, in my practice, it's, they're mostly female. 

[26:18] Seriously. I, that, I mean, you know, that makes me so sad because it's really, it's just diagnostic of our current medical system that, that isn't doesn't have the answers, but also Dr. Google. And so people are looking for information all over. And so what's lacking in the information, age is wisdom. So if you're listening to this, no matter what you've got to heal, vitamins and nutrients are a part of it, but you've gotta have be strategic about it. 

[26:52] So number four, but before I go there, you triggered this. I just wanna mention this yeah. That the, um, Janet trave, which she was a very prominent physician back in, well, she's the physician to Kennedy and Johnson mm-hmm and she wrote the trigger point manual. So bifacial manual. And in that book, there's, uh, I think there's two or three chapters. And all it is in those chapters is about vitamins and minerals and the role they play in reducing pain. And, you know, so this is not, this is not something that we don't know about. It's just something that's been ignored. You know? So this was being written about 50 years ago, 60 years ago.

[28:00] So definitely your diet is super important. No doubt about it, but it's just as important. What you're able to absorb as it is what you eat. So what I have found is the fibromyalgia community is notorious notoriously deficient in these nutrients because of number one, poor diet, oftentimes, but even the individuals and you get these who are what I, what I call health nuts in a, in a very nice way who eat even healthier than I do, which I eat really, really healthy. And I know you do, but they eat. What I would think is even healthier than I do. And they're still just miserable.

[29:03] They had these things that were preventing them from absorbing the nutrients in their foods. And also even, even being able to use the supplements, the nutrients that they were taking in a pill form, they couldn't even digest those because so many of them would have a problem where they would eat. They'd take their supplements and then have a dumping syndrome. They'd have to run to the bathroom. 70% of the people with fibromyalgia have irritable valve. And, and so I realized that we're gonna have to make sure that we clean up the diet that's important. So a low sugar, low carb diet is most effective for, for these individuals usually, but they also need be on digestive enzymes. That was the simplest quickest way to make sure that they were absorbing their nutrients and getting the most out of them is by getting them on a good digestive enzyme. 

[30:31] And you know, it's funny when I practiced mainstream medicine, I am guilty of that too. That fibromyalgia was this enigma and it was untreatable and nobody knew what to do with it. And even with myself, I didn't know what to do and my physician didn't know what to do. And now I look at it from a functional perspective and I go, it's so super simple. You treat the cause. Yeah. And these are the causes and when you treat the cause the symptoms go away. So , how has your practice evolved since you, I mean, you came from more of a chiropractic background, right?

[31:22] Yeah. It's it's, I mean, I never would've chosen fibromyalgia, who would be crazy enough to do that. and I love 'em. I mean, you know, so I, I think they're the most wonderful people in so many ways. They're very challenging, no doubt about it, but just like your complicated patients, once you figure out some of the common denominators, it becomes a much easier, but yeah, I started off as, just as a chiropractor and I had a very busy practice.

[32:12] And then that started growing into my realizing that that was more fun than doing the hands on work. I really enjoyed the biochemistry mm-hmm and really started doing the training in functional medicine. And then I got kind of a reputation here in Birmingham, Alabama being a, a doctor who was really good with medical misfits. The people who'd been everywhere, tried everything or just wanted something different than conventional medicine. And, and I started getting referrals from the medical community and one of those was a patient with fibromyalgia. And when Sheila came to see me, I mean, again, my first thought was she's a hypochondriac, but the more I heard her story, I realized she's 35, she's a career.

[33:29] . And so you've held a summit that people can still access on fibromyalgia and you've held several others. Tell everybody about all the resources that you have available.

[33:39] Well, depending on when this airs, the fibromyalgia summit is being launched in may of this year 2022. And you can learn more about that@yourfibrodoctor.com. You can, but it's a free online summit. It's free. You can, there's 30 different specialists. We cover everything from insomnia and poor sleep to balancing neurotransmitters, to brain chemicals for anxiety and depression. We have presentations on IRO, bowel, leaky, gut food allergies, thyroid, which we hadn't really mentioned. I know that's a big one for you, hormone replacement therapy. So there's all sorts of, you know, various dynamics that go into rebuilding this individualized fibro. It's kinda like, um, peeling the layers of an onion. You know, you have to peel these layers away till finally you peel 'em all away. And there's this person who radiates health again. 

[35:02] Yes. And then don't you have, you have other books and you've got, tell everybody about all the, the goodies that you have for them. .

[35:11] So in uh, October I'll be doing a super healthy lung summit and that's all gonna be about respiratory health, including long haul protocols. Mm protocols for asthma food allergies, seasonal allergies, Mo talk, all allergies, mold toxicity, mass cell histamine dominance. So that'll, that'll be out in October, 2022 and I've written five books. So three on fibromyalgia and then two, one book on, uh, heart disease, which your doctor won't tell you. And then one on anxiety and depression using orthomolecular medicine, which is vitamins minerals, amino acids, and essential fatty acids to treat mood disorders.

[35:52] Boy, could we have a whole conversation about heart disease? What your doctor won't tell you

[35:56] oh, so many medical myths out there, right? About, about cholesterol and, and all the, all the stuff that's out there that when you really look behind the, the smoke and the mirrors, you see that it's much you do about nothing, right?

[36:10] Yes. So we'll have to do that on another episode, but this has been wonderful. You really have laid out a path for people to follow who are suffering with fibromyalgia or maybe for people who suspect that they have it, but they're not sure. Or they've gone from doctor to doctor and they're not getting a diagnosis. So thank you so much for that. If we are able to air this before the, your fiber summit airs will definitely have a link in the show notes, we'll try and get it out before then. But if not, you're, if it's after you can still access it and we'll have that link in the show notes for you, Dr. Rogers shared this quote with us before that we recorded the episode that life is short. If you're not careful, you'll miss it. And I love that. It's so true. 

[37:22] Well, just for more information about the jumpstart protocols, you can go to your fibro store.com and there's four free videos that are about 10 minutes, 10 minutes each, but it goes over in a little more detail than I could today about how and why these things work. And these are things you can buy anywhere over the counter. So, but the videos really go into a little bit more detail to explain how it all comes together. 

[37:46] Right. Thank you so much for these incredible resources. And thank you for listening to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kirin. I'll see you next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening.

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Are you struggling with hormonal imbalances and health issues? Are you ready to feel better but not sure where to turn?

If so, this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is for you!

In this episode, host Dr. Kyrin Dunston welcomes Dr. Carolyn Messere, a former colon and rectal surgeon who had a drastic awakening about the truth of her role as a physician that transformed her health, her life, and career. Her journey speaks volumes about essential tasks in life that women must overcome to heal and achieve the brilliant health that is their birthright. She supports busy professionals to help them have energy, and better moods at a healthy body. In addition, in 2015, she became aware of the healing power of indigenous plant and animal medicines and psychedelics and became the medical director for a plant medicine group in Peru.

In this episode, you will learn about:

-What could indigenous plant and animal medicines and psychedelics do for you and your health in midlife?

-How can psychedelics help heal hormonal imbalances?

-What are the risks and benefits of using psychedelics?

-Where to find more info about psychedelics

If you are struggling with hormonal imbalances or other health issues and are interested in exploring psychedelics as a treatment option, this episode is for you!

So grab a cup of tea and join us for this enlightening conversation with Dr. Carolyn Messere.

[01:05] Back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm so grateful that you are choosing to spend this time with me. I have something very interesting for you today. Some of you have reached out on social media with questions about plant and animal medicines, indigenous ones, and psychedelics. You've heard about all the research that's being done and the new indications for plant and animal medicines and some psychedelics. And you're wanting to know my opinion and experience, and I'm wanting to share that with you today. So that's exactly what we're gonna dive into my guest today is a, a colleague and friend who has a lot of experience in this realm. She actually was the medical director, a plant medicine group in Peru, where they had healing retreats for people with autoimmune and other diseases, and she saw some miraculous things happen. And so it's become a part of the practice that she personally uses and uses with her patients.

[02:07] I'll tell you a little bit about her and then will get started. Dr. Carolyn Messere is a former colon and rectal surgeon who had a drastic awakening about the truth of her role as a physician that transformed her health, her life and career. Her journey speaks volumes about essential tasks in life that women must overcome to heal and achieve the brilliant health that is their birthright. She supports busy professionals to help them have energy, better moods at a healthy body. In addition, in 2015, she became aware of the healing power of indigenous plant and animal medicines and psychedelics and became the medical director for a plant medicine group in Peru. There, she organized healing retreats for people with autoimmune diseases, Crohn's disease, autoimmune thyroiditis, and chronic fatigue, and working with a group of Chappo Eros who specialized in plant medicines from the jungles. She witnessed people with miraculous changes and some got better in just six weeks. Welcome Dr. Carolyn Messere.

[03:07] Thank you very excited to be here. It's not often I get the opportunity to talk about this. You know, almost every time we have any kind of get together with the, the mastermind. We always try to, I always try to talk about this kind of stuff, because it is the cutting edge right now with medicine. When you really look at it, and we've been looking at jungle medicine for a really long time, you know, we've tried to find cancer, cures, and all sorts of things like that with jungle medicine. But what we haven't really looked at is the fact that in virtually every advanced society that has ever existed in the world, going all the way back to the beginning, there has been a role for psychedelics. And we are the only ones that don't do it. Americans, you know, really when it comes down to it, the Europeans knew about it.

[03:55] For sure. The Celts knew about it. Certainly the south Americans know about it. The central Americans know about it. The Russians were have, you know, the, the word shaman comes from Russian. So there's been a psychedelic factor in pretty much every religion and every society that has existed. And we are the only ones that have been missing it. And it's not a big surprise that we're depressed. We're anxious, we're sick, we're not healthy. We have autoimmune diseases. You know, all of these things are going on in our, in our society. And it's not that surprising because we're really missing out on that opportunity to have a true spiritual connection.

[04:33] It's amazing. I don't think most people realize that a lot of the medicines that are now commercially available and made by big pharma actually come from plant and animals like anesthesia comes from toad venom. , that's where they developed anesthesia from. So every day it's used globally to put people to sleep and it comes from frogs and antibiotics originally came from molds and so big farmers. Yeah.

[05:03] And a lot of medicines came from herbs too, like aspirin.

[05:05] Right. And so big farmers always looking to exploit if you will. Nature's remedies. My question kind of is why don't we just use the natural substances and now they're really, they're looking at combo, which comes from toads or frogs. They're looking at, at its elements to boost the immune system. Mm-hmm so why don't I let you tell your story though, of kind of your evolution with medicine. I think it's a natural evolution, don't you? Yeah. You're a basic regular corporate doctor. Mm-hmm you realize we're not really helping anyone. We're doing pill for every ill surgery for every symptom medicine, and then you go searching for something better, either cuz you have health problems or your family members and you just get the sense, we're not helping people. And then you discover a root cause resolution approach. Right. But then at some point don't you think if you're really a seeker of ultimate health and healing that you get to psychedelics?

[06:03] I do. I mean, I think what it really comes down to is that there's really no healing without spiritual healing, you know, when it really comes down to it. And I wanna make sure that people understand that psychedelics aren't only spiritual. I mean there's definite medicinal qualities to them, but the whole point of, of having a relationship with psychedelics is to have a spiritual awakening when it really comes down to it.

[06:30] CA talk a little bit about that because you know, historically, and there really was a, a definite separation of church and state and science and religion several hundred years ago. And how does that affect us? Why, you know, most people who are listening probably haven't don't hear about spirituality and medicine at all ever.

[06:50] Right, right.

[06:51] And it's taboo for some people. So can you help them understand why this is and why you think it's essential?

[06:58] Because I feel like when you look at getting to the root cause of something, there's definitely physical, you know, that's a big part of things and lots of people get exposed to things like toxins. And a lot of these psychedelics can help you to clear toxins out of the system. There's no question that, you know, Iowa does that combo does that. And I began several of them really do help to clear the, to clear that out. So there's no question, I have a physical remedy in these things. However, what we don't have for most of us is we don't really have a true spiritual connection. 

[07:49] And if we don't have a connection with some higher power and everybody gets to define to me, personally, everybody gets to define their higher power. I spend some time in 12 step programs. And I would say that one of the things that makes, makes or breaks you in this 12 step program is having a belief in something that is higher than you because let's face it. We're very imperfect as human beings, we're, we're imperfect. And we struggle and get frustrated with our imperfection and having that higher power allows us to see that there's a quote by the Buddha that basically says you can search the entire world over and not find somebody more worthy of love than you yourself. 

[08:56] Yeah. That's a beautiful quote. And you know, I think some people hear this and they think, oh, well, you know, I'm this religion, I have a, a connection to something greater than myself. Can you just explain what's the difference between religion and spirituality and right. Yeah.

[09:13] Yeah. I'm not here to convince somebody that not be, you know, not to follow their religion. Absolutely not. I'm here. I think more for the people who are seekers, you know, and many of us are seekers when it really comes down to it. I spent much of my life seeking. I started out Catholic and went through almost every other religion. , you know, I dabbled in Catholicism, Episcopalianism Baptist, non-denominational Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism. I've looked at all of it. So I consider myself a seek. And the truth is that I all came back down to the fact that I believed in God and that God was an important part of my life. And how I choose to relate to God is, is maybe what's different. But the God that I had in all of those places was the same.

[10:08] Okay. And so back to the psychedelic medicines, mm-hmm what are they doing? Cause I think a lot of people have an idea when they hear psychedelics, they think of the sixties at Woodstock, people rising and acting crazy and getting high. And so what does that mean? What does psychedelic mean? What's what are they doing?

[10:29] Well, psychedelic basically disconnects you from your brain in some way or another, so that your brain kind of is allowed to imagine greater than what we normally will allow it to do. Cause we, again, we, we're very imperfect and we have a lot of emotions and we have a lot of places in ourselves that we have developed a certain way that we do things right. And we mm-hmm most of those things came from our parents, our grandparents, our teachers, our, our friends, you know, we, by the time we're 30 or 40, we've developed a certain way to be. And we're not even really sure where we got it from. Right. And one of the things about psychedelics is it allows you to kind of disconnect from that and your brain to just kind of do its own thing. And so do you think it's and your body may or may not have a reaction to that? You know, it depends some of the medicines have far more body reaction than others.

[11:28] Do you think it's fair to say that it's basically telling your conscious mind your ego to go sit in a chair and be quiet and letting your subconscious, that really runs the show. Yep. Reveal itself. Do you think that's fair?

[11:42] Well, I think that's a fair thing to say. And you know, I, I think, you know, that's definitely a topic to get into is, is what runs the show. Exactly. And a lot of people spend time trying to figure out how to get rid of your ego. Mm-hmm don't bother you need it. It has to do something right. It's it's not there for nothing. So, you know, I hear a lot of people, especially, you know, I think particularly when I was studying Buddhism, a lot of people there, they strive to get rid of their ego. 

[12:28] So it's a little bit, it's maybe sometimes a little over rational or over worried about things. But if you learn to have a relationship with your ego, that allows it to be there when it needs to be there and you don't pay attention to it all the time, that's gonna be a happier life. Mm-hmm so, yeah, mm-hmm so I think, you know, when you're in, when you're in psychedelics, is it even the subconscious? I don't really even know I have a feeling. 

[13:21] And also it depends on what those other people are doing. For the most part. I would say that I think there's something that's even deeper. That's like this, I don't know what you would call it. Maybe it's the spiritual mind. You know what I'm saying? Mm-hmm, , it's the part of you that knows that you have always been loved. It's the part of you that knows that you don't have to deserve to be loved. It's the part of you that knows that no matter what you do, no matter who you are, no matter where you came from, you're loved, you're taken care of you're connected to everyone else and to everyone else mm-hmm and something larger than you. Yeah, exactly. We don't have that experience without, I mean, I know people can do it with breathwork. I've seen it. I've done it. I think you can do it with breathwork.

[14:09] I don't think you have to take AUC agenda, have an experience mm-hmm but I find that, you know, certain hallucinogens just really give you that connection. But of course the other thing to look at is for all of us, I think there's always the possibility to have what we call. I don't know. I don't wanna call it a bad trip because I don't think there are any bad trips, but there are, I certainly have had experiences in medicine where I was frightened, where something came up for me, that was very scary for me. But the reality was that I needed to connect to that thing. In order to see that even in that situation, I was loved. It may not happen in the journey.

[15:10] Why do you think that plant medicines and psychedelics could be particularly used for, for women at midlife?

[15:18] I think that's a big change in our lives because we go from being fertile and moms and you know, there's a certain expectation of us in our fertile years. That changes when we get into more of that, that menopausal postmenopausal hair, menopausal stage in life. One of the things that happens too, is that, you know, we've spent most of our lives for good or ill being victims to our ho hormones as women, people make jokes about it, right? Oh, she's on her period. Don't go near her, you know? Oh, she's got PMs. Yeah. We'll just, we'll deal with her next week. You know? And men definitely make fun of us for it, you know? Oh, oh, oh, oh, I saw the tampons in the bathroom. I'm just gonna like go somewhere else for a week. And then we get to this place where we're no longer doing that.

[16:09] Mm-hmm, where there's our rhythm changes in our lives. We no longer have that cycle that goes up and down with our hormones. And we start to get a little bit less worried about things, a little bit less involved in things a little bit less run by our hormones. And then we lose our hormones and we, and we can get pretty moody because we don't have a good balance. So I think that's a great time to really develop redevelop our confidence in ourselves or if we never had it to develop that confidence in ourselves. Right. I think I personally think menopause has been the best thing that ever happened in my life.

[16:51] Because like I said, I was no longer like in that position of having to worry about, did I get my period this month? Is it late? Is it early? Am I having symptoms? Is it, should I worry about that? It's longer than usual or shorter than usual? Or is there some possibility I got pregnant and didn't plan it? You know, like all of that stuff went away and in the beginning it was unpleasant. You know, I'm not gonna say it wasn't unpleasant when, before I figured out how to balance my hormones out and get my, you know, my progesterone levels at an, at a place where I could actually like, not feel too angry all the time. cause I think progesterone what's nice about progesterone is it's kind of a feel good hormone if you do it right. I

[17:39]  Yeah. The other thing about menopause and midlife is that I don't know, I kind of got to this place. Oprah calls it the it fifties. It's like, you just don't care what people think you're say anymore. And you're like, I'm gonna be myself. I'm gonna do what I wanna do. I'm gonna be who I came here to be. Cuz you know, you don't have forever.

[17:59] Right. And it is kind of a liberating time. But the other thing that I came up against was, well, what is it that you wanna accomplish in this life and why aren't you doing it? What's stopping you. And so that's kind of the other appeal to me of plant medicines. And one of the reasons I decided to start talking about it publicly is because if you go online, I think that there are lots of people interested in these types of technologies, including women at midlife. But if you go online, you think it's all like tech guys in Silicon valley and young people doing it. And all the podcasts that talk about it is like it's guys and young guys and techy guys, and you don't see women at midlife talking about this, but there are lots of us out there using these technologies. 

[18:59] Oh absolutely. Yeah. I'm not sure where I would be right now if I hadn't, you know, one of the opportunities that I had when I was in Peru was I got to sit in ceremony every night with a shaman and I didn't drink every night. I didn't take iowaska every night, but I probably did. I probably sat in 20 ceremonies where I drank. And so, and when you do it day after day after day after day, it's a different experience than just coming into it and going, you know, like the first time I did it, it's kind of funny that you say that the first time I did it, I did it with a bunch of Silicon valley guys. 

[19:38] It was me and one other woman who wasn't techy from Silicon valley and then the rest of them were guys and they had all done, you know, LSD. And they were like microdosing, which I had never heard of. I didn't even know what microdosing was and you know, so I did, that was my first experience was to spend 10 days in Peru with a bunch of, of Silicon valley guys. And, and it was an interesting experience, but I was definitely the oldest woman there. I was the only person, you know, who was postmenopausal. It was a different experience than I kind of thought it would be.

[20:36] San Pedro. Yeah. Yeah. So what do you think is important? Maybe you could name some of the, talk a little bit about the research that's being done and some of the things the FDA's

[20:46] Getting ready to approve and a little bit about that. So one of the first things is that we now have approval to do research with SIC Ibin, which is the main ingredient in mushrooms. So that's one of the biggest things. If you go back, it's interesting. If you go back to the sixties, they did a lot of research with LSD, LSD, just, you know, it is a psychedelic, but it's not a natural, it was made in a lab. So it's a little bit different than using something that's naturally grown. So, but there was lots and lots and lots of research done.

[21:38] The federal government decided to make psychedelic research illegal. So we went many, many, many, many years before we were allowed to really do anything. And then one of the first ones that was available for research was MDMA. It's also, I think it's XTA C or it's it's at least one of the components in ectasy. So that was one that was allowed to be used in the research laboratories, but only in very distinct places with very, you know, a lot of pre-planning and a lot of approval from the government and all of that kind of stuff. And then now we've got a lot of places that are doing suicide and research.

[22:37] It's not legal. One thing that's also happened is that the, a lot of people have made it a religious requirement for them to be able to do mushrooms or to be able to do peyote mm-hmm . So a lot of people have made it a religious requirement. And so the government's had a hard time with that because technically there, these people aren't wrong about that, that it's been used. I mean, really like I started off at the very beginning of our talk psyche have been used as a spiritual experience in every society from the very beginning except Americans except well, except, well the native Americans, the native Americans did. Right, right, right. There's some really good books out there about how, you know, the impact that psychedelics have had on religion.

[23:44] Lots intertwining and references that are veiled and not direct in a lot of religious texts about these medicines.

[23:52] There's a guy, I can't remember the name of the book. I'll, I'll send it to you. There's a guy wrote a whole book about how the Catholic church initially did use psychedelics and then they scrubbed the whole thing clean. They took every reference to it and put it in a vault. And that was the end of it. But the vault is still there and he got access to it cuz it's in the Vatican.

[24:13] Interesting.

[24:14] So pretty interesting.

[24:15] Definitely share that book. All right. And so the average person, you know, we've got our wonderful midlife women listen to this podcast. They wanna know about balancing their hormone. So I definitely wanna touch on, do these psychedelic medicines relate to hormone balance at all? Is there any benefit to be had regarding hormone balance with psychedelics?

[24:37] I think the answer to that is still to be determined if you look at when, when we were in Peru, it's not just the psychedelics, but there's a lot of other medications and there also there's in Peru. It's interesting. There's way more psychedelics than just iowaska. But very few of them get talked about because iowaska kind of, I think it, it, it got picked up by the, the Silicon valley guys and they made a big thing about it.

[25:265] Any in particular that relate to hormones that you wanna mention. I'm just curious,

[25:30] Not that I really am familiar with. I haven't really seen it. I mean, I do think, I think, again, any of these things that are gonna support your emotional balance and your spiritual balance are gonna support your hormone balance because ultimately the biggest thing that happens to us that can cause real problems with hormone balance is stress and overproduction of cortisol. So anything that's gonna lower your stress make you less worried every day. My sister finds it amusing. Cuz I joke about the fact that many of my patients are what you call the worried well, right? But they are the worried, well, you know, it's a little bit maybe dismissive because their worry is what's contributing to their medical problems. And so when we teach people, you are connected. There is a power higher than you. You are loved, you are taken care of. There is hope for you. There's yeah. Then I think that's the biggest thing is if you get that cortisol level balanced and you start to understand that you don't have to worry about everything, you really don't have to worry about anything. Right. It'd be, if I remember that every single day and I don't right, we don't

[26:46] Right. I think you're so right about the cortisol. And that's what I was thinking. That's how these relate and also giving you this experience of being connected to everyone and everything and something greater than yourself. Mm-hmm because I know I was a terrible worrier and you know, there's this saying, uh, in 12 step that if you don't have a God, then you have to be one. When you think you have to be, God, you try to control everyone and everything all the time. And it's an impossible task and you exhaust yourself and you make yourself crazy and you also don't accept yourself and love yourself. Exactly. And so for me, the, the plant medicines give me, have I had never had that experience. 

[28:05] And what I think is interesting about that is that we think that the thing that happens to us at midlife is we lose our, our estrogen.

[28:14] For most of us, we had way too much estrogen to begin with so maybe a little less estrogen is good, but the hard thing is we lose progesterone and we lose testosterone.

[28:26] So, and testosterone is like, you're like, go, go, go. I'm the hero. Like I can do this. You know, we can't live without it. And it doesn't occur to us as women. That testosterone is that important to us. But you know, I remember you sitting down and saying to me, I, you know, to me, I just can't even imagine not giving somebody testosterone. If they, you know, if, if their levels are low, just doesn't make sense. 

[29:30] Right. I'm just thinking, what do women listening wanna know? Probably some people never even are unaware of the changes that are happening with research and approval and medical indications for these medications. And now that maybe their interest is a little peak. Well, I wonder if any of these could help me or would I get that Dr. Carolyn, how do I find out more? Where would you direct them to find out and get more information on this?

[29:56] So the people who have been doing this kind of stuff for the longest was probably maps and you can look them up pretty easily on the internet and they are training more and more and more people in, in how to work with psychedelics. They started out with MDMA, like I said, that was, you know, kind of the big, that was one of the things that you were allowed to do. And now they're shifting so that they're starting to do some psilocybin, which is like I said, the active ingredient and mushrooms, because what psilocybin has been shown is to help people with depression and anxiety. 

[30:45] Yeah. And then also for addiction, some incredible IGA IO, cocaine, and methamphetamine one trip, and they're healed

[30:59] And you know, I do wanna caution people though that it doesn't always happen that way. Mm-hmm . And the other thing is that even if you do get significant change with the first journey, we all have a backslide ability. So it's good to have an option to be able to participate again, because we, the one thing it's really funny, I think from the moment we're born, the thing we forget almost every day is our connection. 

[31:44] such a good reminder. And just for everyone map stands for multidisciplinary association for psychedelic studies, it's M a PS O R G mm-hmm . And thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Carolyn, where can they find out more about the work that you're doing?

[32:05] I still don't have a website. I'm gonna get that set up really soon. So the best way to find me, I think a lot of times I'm on Facebook, I can be found there. And the other place that you can find me is I'll send you a link from the page for my, um, practice better page, and they can get more information about it there.

[32:30] All right, there you go. Thank you, Dr. Carolyn. Thanks. Thanks for joining us. All right, everybody. Thank you for joining us for another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kirin. I hope you found this information important and interesting, and maybe your interest is Pete. I would definitely check out maps.org for the latest information on these medications, the trials that are underway and, and really the state of the yard of the data on the plant and some animal medicines. And I look forward to seeing you next week and until then peace, love and hormones.

[33:09] Thank you so much for listening. I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormone and balance these vital regulators to create the health and the life that we deserve. If you're enjoying this podcast, I'd love it. If you give me a review and subscribe, it really does help this podcast out so much. You can visit the hormone prescription.com, where we have some free gifts for you, and you can sign up to have a hormone evaluation with me on the podcast to gain clarity into your personal situation until next time, remember, take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. Talk to you soon.

You can follow Dr. Carolyn Messere on her Facebook account for updates and learn more about alternative and holistic health.

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Are you looking for a natural way to beat autoimmune diseases? If so, then listen in to this exciting new episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, where we're joined by Palmer Kippola - an expert on beating autoimmune conditions naturally.

Palmer is a certified Functional Medicine Health Coach and the author of the best-selling book, Beat Autoimmune. She has helped countless women overcome their autoimmune diseases and regain control over their health. In this episode, she shares her best tips and secrets for naturally healing from these chronic conditions and getting your life back on track. Palmer also reveals her story of how she became so passionate and such an expert at helping people reverse autoimmune disease.

In this episode, you will learn about:

• The key signs and symptoms of autoimmune diseases and how to recognize them.
• How does autoimmune relate to food toxins, gut health, and hormone balance 
• The importance of paying attention to your body's signals, and the techniques you can use to listen better.
• How a healthy diet, exercise, stress management, and other lifestyle habits play an important role in healing from these conditions.
• Palmer's holistic framework for complete autoimmune recovery called F.I.G.H.T.S.™

If you're struggling with an autoimmune disease, or know someone who is, then this episode is a must-listen! Tune in now and start your journey to wellness today.

[00:57]  Some of you may remember her from the stop, the menopause Manness summit. She was very popular, cuz she's talking about a popular women's health topic, autoimmune disease, and her name is Palmer Kippola. I'm gonna tell you a little bit about her, but she healed herself from multiple sclerosis, which is really unheard of in corporate medicine. If you ask corporate medical doctors, can you heal yourself from multiple sclerosis or autoimmune disease? They will flat out tell you that you're gonna have that for your, the rest of your life. And what I'm gonna tell you is I know far too many people who actually have reversed these diseases and are incomplete remission.

[01:53] Palmer is a certified functional medicine health coach and the author of the bestselling book beat autoimmune Palmer has helped thousands of people reverse autoimmune conditions after struggling to heal herself from multiple sclerosis and succeeding Palmer will share her holy framework for a complete autoimmune recovery called fights. The fights protocol offers transformational health recovery. For those with autoimmune conditions seeking to avoid the harms of immunosuppressant medications and optimize their health. Welcome Palmer. 

[02:43] Am delighted to be thank you so much for having me, Dr. Kyrin.

[02:46] Yes. I loved having you on the stop. The menopause madness summit, everyone loved your segments. And I thought we need to bring you out from the summit from behind the summit curtain and into the light of day so that you can share your information expertise, inspiration around autoimmune disease, huge problem for women at midlife and beyond which we'll get into. But first I want was wondering if you could share your story of how you became so passionate and such an expert at helping people reverse autoimmune disease.

[03:27] I would be delighted to, uh, I have to take you back in time a little bit to the pre-internet days because I was 19 years old and up until I turned 19 is a happy, healthy well-adjusted young woman. And this particular moment I was home from my freshman year of college and just work in a summer job. And one morning I woke up and the souls of my feet were all tingling. That feeling like you've slept on a limb all night and it just won't wake up. So I thought, oh, it'll just go away, but it didn't just go away. So I got to work by noon. It, the symptoms had really, really crept up my, my legs, like a vine. I called my mom and dad and who called the family doctor who said get her over to the neurologist at UCLA today. So that's what we did.

[04:19] I had a very quick exam. As in five minutes, she had me walk across the floor, do the heel toe heel toe, touch my fingers to my nose. And she pronounced I'm 99% certain that you have Ms. Multiple sclerosis. And if I'm right, there's nothing you can do except take medication. And later I actually learned that she had pulled my parents aside and told them to prepare for my life in a wheelchair because that's where I was heading. So we had never heard of Ms. This is now in the mid eighties. This was no one had heard of autoimmune conditions. 50 years ago. It was so rare to, you know, no of one that had anything like this. So we left, terrified, went home by nightfall. The tingling had crept under my neck. And by the time I went to sleep, I had gone completely numb neck down and I would stay completely numb for a full six weeks.

[05:17] So it was an absolutely terrifying and we had no hope we had no information on what you could do. There was no Dr. Google. And so all I could do was lay on the couch. And so that's what I did to wait. And I'm very fortunate that I had loving parents who were there. 

[06:04] So I pondered and puzzled and reflected. Why did I get the Ms. I wonder, I wonder. And it came to me as a flash of insight. And I need to just go back a little bit farther in time because I had been adopted as a baby by very loving parents, but my dad had been a fighter pilot whose way was the right way. And we butted heads quite a lot. And Dr. Kara, I have to tell you that my earliest childhood memory is actually of me somewhere between the ages of three and five. 

[06:58] I was hypervigilant. I was always on, and I don't have any idea how I knew at the time. And I just envisioned my immune system as PAC men that were going around and gobbling up the bad guys. Right. I, I didn't know anything further than that, but I had this insight that I had become hypervigilant and therefore my immune system was in overdrive. It too had become hypervigilant. And I learned years later, of course, that that is the autoimmune attack. It's an over vigilant immune system that starts attacking your body's own self tissues. 

[07:58] And again, there's nothing you can do except take medication. You're gonna go downhill. You'll be in a wheelchair, possibly have a shortened life. I never gave up searching for answers. And I finally found functional medicine in the year 2010. And that's when I found out that I had non celiac, gluten sensitivity, I removed the gluten, did a whole host of other things, but that was my biggest baddest root cause of all. And now we know that gluten creates a leaky gut in anyone who eats it and that's research from 2015. So that is my story.

[08:33] Yeah. It's such a powerful story. You know, I've known people, who've had Ms. I one friend who actually died from it at a very early age, it's a highly debilitating disease and certainly can shorten your lifespan. And there are lots of other autoimmune diseases that similarly cause disability and premature death. So it's a very serious problem. And the incidence is higher among women and particularly women at midlife and beyond. So I think it's a very serious topic and you're a Testament to the fact of what can happen. 

[09:37] And just telling it shut up and stop talking to me is never the answer you really wanna ask. I love that that woman asked you, why do you think you have this? And it took a long time, sounds like decades to unravel, but ultimately that became your life purpose. And so I'm gonna end invite everyone to lean into the symptoms you're having and ask, why do you have it instead of taking a drug to shut that symptom up? So Palmer, then you've got a protocol called F I G H T S that you use, it's a holistic framework for complete autoimmune. 

[10:35] Oh, I love it. It's a such a powerful invitation. And I wanna say to start with that auto immunity is now affecting children. This is not just women in midlife anymore. So there's a real opportunity to, to address this proactively as early as we can there, it's now, uh, juvenile, rheumatoid arthritis is a thing, right? So we must to get on this immediately. And so after I healed, I decided to study this full time auto immunity, why we develop auto immunity and what we can do to reverse it. And I quit my day job to study this full time. And I just lived on PubMed and anybody who has any curiosity about how to do this can find the same information it's all there. So I was just wanting to share the truth and what I found. And I also, at the same time decided to become a functional medicine, health coach.

[11:29] And so I studied auto immunity. I became a functional medicine, certified health coach, and I that time and time again, as we helped our clients heal, they got better as they addressed these factors. So I sat down after I was, it was suggested to me by a leading immunologist, Dr. Ariso VO Donny, that I consider writing a book about this because too many people are being affected by auto immunity. And not enough doctors are trained in actually how to treat people. I mean, to your point, it's all about immune suppression instead of addressing the root causes. 

[12:22] It stands for food infections, gut health, hormone, balance, toxins, and stress. And I lamented that it did not spell peace, but in fact, , it was more metaphorically appropriate. I have to go back to my dad because while he was, you know, one could say the villain of the piece, right? The person that was perpetrating the conflict in our home, you know, nothing is ever that simple. 

[13:20] Yes, I think it's such a great book. It really, it's kind of like the Bible on how to reverse autoimmune naturally. So I encourage anyone suffering with autoimmune to get it and read it. Don't have contemporary investigation. I actually get it and look at it. I love this other quote you shared with me from James Baldwin, not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed that is not faced. And I think part of the problem with our current corporate medical system is that we're not really facing our health challenges.

[14:20] What is wrong in my body? What are you showing me? And I love that, you know, it's telling you food. So fights food. Food is a problem. It's telling you, excuse me. Infections are a problem. Gut health is a problem. Hormone bounce is a problem. Toxins are a problem. Stress is a problem. And so then you have the opportunity. Uh, knowledge is power, cuz then once you have the knowledge, you can do something about it. 

[14:53] Absolutely. And before I delve into that, I just wanna say how much I agree with what you're saying, the symptoms I encourage clients to thank them. They are messengers from your body, letting you know that something is outta balance. And it's kind of like, you know, the engine light on your dashboard of your car. You get outta hammer and start smashing your dashboard. No, you'd go get it checked out to see what's wrong with your engine, but we don't treat our bodies this way. Right? We just shove it under the rug and this is an opportunity to really empower yourself. 

{15:37] Let's go into each one. And so food is really the highest leverage category. People heal 60 to 80% of the way and sometimes a hundred percent of the way just addressing foods. I got an email last week from someone who read my book. And she, you said, I just followed your food plan, which is the autoimmune paleo program. I just call it a 30 day food vacation. It's a positive spin on the classic elimination diet, take out the inflammatory foods. And she said, my symptoms 95% better just by addressing food. So number one, and that's why start with food is the first chapter in the book. We gotta start there.

[16:36] And that is how the whole autoimmune cascade starts. When you start creating holes in your gut, it allows, you know, good and bad things to get into your bloodstream. And that's when your immune system just takes off, starts attacking those things. And then you get the molecular mimicry, oh, by the way that gluten particle in your bloodstream looks a lot like your thyroid tissue, which is just absolutely crazy to me, but it's a thing. So you gotta stop eating gluten full stop.

[17:11] If you're listening to us now and you've been listening to my podcast and you are still eating gluten, you are not paying attention. so little cold water in your face. Stop it. Yeah. If, if your health is not picture perfect, if you have any symptoms, you need to stop eating gluten. Yeah.

[17:32] All right. All right. Shall we move on? Because I don't do fights in the book as it's spelled, because the next step is to look at your gut health and okay, this is a really important one, too. We treat our guts like garbage disposals. We are just throwing in food, you know, of any kind of variety and much of our food. The conventionally grown food is actually genetically modified to contain a product that is Roundup resistant. And glyphosate is one of the biggest batty chemicals that we're facing in our environment today. And if you're eating conventionally grown meat in particular, you gotta pay attention. And see if you can turn that around to be eating grass fed 100% wild meat. Why? Because we're not just what, whatever we eat. We're whatever we eat ate and you wanna be eating and that eat what they're supposed to be eating, which is cows graze on grass. 

[18:51] For everybody listening. So they might say, so what it's farmed, can you explain why that's a problem?

[18:57] Well, when it's farmed, there are going to be fed things that they're not supposed to be eating. So it is not in a fish's nature to, you know, wanna feast on soy and wheat, but that's what they're actually being fed. So oftentimes farmers and fish farmers, they want the best price and they wanna sell their stuff. And you know what? Corned meat tastes good, cuz it's really fatty, but it's not good for the cows and it's not good for the fish. So, you know, sometimes getting used to grass fed meat can be a little more challenging because it's not necessarily as fatty delicious as what you've been used to eating your smoked s

[19:51] That's a great point. There is no middle point. It's either making you healthier or making you sicker. There is no in between. So ask yourself before you lift your fork and stick it inside your mouth as this promoting health or promoting disease. So what would we look at with gut health? 

[20:13] Offender. It really is because it's, it's kind of like sidestream, you're not aware that you're doing it. And this, what we're doing here is to create awareness about everything that we can be doing so that we can be in control of our health outcomes. So it's just super important that every little thing you do at the end of your fork matters. And if organic is an issue in terms of cost for people, you know, consider, I'm sure you've talked about the environmental working group, they have their clean 15 and the dirty dozen, just make sure you know, that you're following those guidelines so that you at least are taking the best care. 

[21:07] So that's why I talk about it here. Super important to make sure that we're treating our guts. Well, the other thing that I'll add to gut health while we're on the topic is mm-hmm, antibiotics. Mm-hmm, , it's like a nuclear bomb for your gut. And because we need our microbiomes to help protect our health and help create our hormones and a everything that you talk about, we have to be really, really vigilant about what we are putting in our gut. And one of the things that's harming us as a species is the high level use of antibiotics. And by the way, glyphosate, which we've just talked about was patent is as an antibiotic. That was its first use. 

[22:06] Yeah, absolutely. That should be last resort. Yep. Okay, great. So gut health and then what would come next? So we've got food and gut health.

[22:15] Then we wanna move on to infections because this is super, super important. If you have already cleaned up your diet, you've addressed your food sensitivities and you're doing really well. You are, are, you know, taking care of your gut and you're still not getting better. It's time to consider infections. And this is something that we see in our practice. So I collaborate with a couple of natural paths and we help people who are not getting better after doing the diet changes. And we find time and time again, a collection of infection that include yeast and parasites and chronic Lyme and on and on. But there's so many things that people can do on their own in the infections category. And I would say overall to consider this category, it's not the bug, it's the terrain. So how you are treating yourself, your gut health, your life.

[23:11] We have to unburden our immune systems. And that is the best way I know of to help really make us Bulletproof against infections. The current one like coronavirus and these chronic infections that are in us that we may not know about because they're stealth and they're hidden. So what can you do to unburden your immune system? Step one, you gotta remove the sugar. You gotta remove the sugar. Another thing that I am super in favor of is moving. We were built to move. So move your body, stop eating the sugar and set a bedtime.

[24:16] Right. You know, it's such a, a great point and everybody knows probably people were going, yeah, I know Palmer. I'm supposed to go to bed at a certain time. And I know, I know these things, but the thing is that we don't do it. and I think it's important that you hear the fact that the terrain matters and that these chronic infections, I mean, most of us have chronic infections. And when you talk about terrain, the what popped into my head was a tree in the forest, one alive and dead.

[25:06] So if your terrain is kind of crappy, let's say, and you stay up late, you don't really tend to your gut health, you eat sugar, which feeds most of these ball. Then your terrain is terrible and you're like that dead tree in the forest. And you're gonna be riddled with these chronic infections that are hard to diagnose, right? Palmer oh, hard, hard to treat hard to get rid of and how you really get rid of them is you fix your terrain. Would you like to add anything about that?

[26:07] Oh, I, that was so beautifully said, I love the metaphor of the trees. I think that's perfect. I don't need to say anything else about it. It's um, beautiful.

[26:20] Then we gotta get to toxins and this is considered to be the biggest driver of autoimmune conditions are toxins. And Donna Jack is Jackson. NAZA's beautiful book. The autoimmune epidemic, which came out in the early two thousands was really a spotlight on the reason for the increase in auto immunity. Today, I already shared that when I was diagnosed at age 19, no one had heard of these autoimmune conditions. And today there are 150 known autoimmune conditions. And maybe one in three, one in five people are dealing with autoimmune symptoms, whether they have a formal diagnosis or not. So why is that? There are so many more chemicals in our environment is a huge driving factor. 

[27:45] But there's more to it than that because we are sometimes victims of the things that are in our environment. We are seeing more and more BPA in people that we're testing. We're seeing more and more glyphosate. We're seeing more and more of these pesticides and herbicides. And there's some things that are harder to get out than others. But this is where knowledge is power. Just learning about what you're putting on your face and your body and your self care and your home care and what you're cleaning with. It all matters. And we talked about, you know, you're either building health, creating health, or you're moving against it. It's, it's really binary in that way. And every little bit it matters. 

[28:42] It does. And I have a pet peeve in this category. I wondering if you could speak to it, which is the artificial scented candles and the plugins.

[28:52] So many people don't get that. Your, your scented laundry detergent, that they've got all these commercials with people smelling and they're so happy and the dryer sheets and the fabric softeners and the, the plugins and the centered candles and the air sprays. And can you talk a little bit about that?

[29:12] I can, it is a shared pet peeve and I haven't been in an Uber in a really long time, but without getting in an Uber with the guy, who's got four of those I'm tree,

[29:28] from the, the mirror it's maddening and people just don't know they don't. So I will say that the word fragrance and perfume or parfum, which is like the French word that you think is like, oh, it must be beautiful. It's French. It must be great for me. It's actually code for PHS and plastics. You don't want it in your body and sometimes, okay, this is going to get kind of gross people out, but it's sometimes what's in those fragrances is made from fever, anal gland. Did you know that?

[30:10] Yeah. It's a thing. It's a gross thing. Just know that your products and what you're eating and what you're drinking and any body care product, if it says fragrance or perfume or scent or anything like that, manufacturers are allowed to put whatever they want into that product or perfume or sent a dryer sheets. So that's part of the plan to remove the toxic load, to remove anything with those words.

[30:43] Yeah. So just stop using the sense y'all, , it's so bad for you and you don't even realize it. I mean, I have so many friends who use these things and they just don't get it. So of course I give them articles, which they love, but you know, they're also carcinogenic. So they cause cancer. Most people don't realize that, so, okay. We've got to get rid of the toxins. I'll get off my soapbox. And then what's next. After the toxins Palmer,

[31:10] Stress is the elephant in the room and stress is the elephant in the room because it is so insidious pervasive. We are all more stressed than we've ever been. We are just always on. And I know you talk a lot about high cortisol and the setting, the stage for any kind of health problem in your life. Auto immunity is usually triggered by some shocking event, some major stress in life, but it can be perpetuated by ongoing stress by chronic stress. Mm-hmm, , that's a piece of it. The other part of stress that is the bigger elephant that's hidden is the chronic childhood trauma, the developmental trauma.

[32:18] And there is proof and studies that point to the fact that if you've experienced neglect abuse had a family member imprisoned, or your parents were divorced, or the death of a loved one as a child, that there is a greater likelihood that you will experience auto immunity and other chronic disease later in life. It is, it's both shocking and empowering. And I love talking about this because there's so much that people can do. This is your childhood does not determine who you are, but this is going back to the James Baldwin quote of not everything is face can be changed, but nothing that is not faced or, you know what I'm saying,

[33:04] Face. Exactly. And if you're not facing the fact that you had trauma, if you're not addressing it, if you're not releasing the emotions that happened in childhood and taking responsibility for it, you may be perpetuating health issues.

[33:23] Right? And I think this is super important too. And I know we're getting short on time, but I think people are really getting it, that I had overwhelming experiences as a child, and it's affecting my health. They get that. Can you just name some of the things that people can start doing to start working through that? Cuz I think that's what P people are really hungry for. Well, what do I do about it? I get it. But what do I do about.

[33:47] I'm actually creating a course around this first and foremost is awareness. Just being really true to yourself that something hap or something may have happened is step one that self-awareness and sometimes to access that even the act of journaling of writing things down is super powerful and freeing. Get it on the page. If you don't like to write, draw, paint, whatever you can do to get it out of you and onto the page, you don't have to share it with anybody unless you want to, but get it out for you. 

[34:51] And he offers some excellent ways to do that. So get it on the page. Number two, learn how to breathe properly. He talks about soft belly breathing and some of this stuff sounds so simple and how can this really help? But actually what happens when we have trauma that we're just stuck in that overdrive in that chronic fight flight, we've got to regulate our nervous systems. And the biggest regulator that we have for our nervous system is right under our nose. In fact, it is our nose. So taking big, deep belly breaths into our belly all the way and letting it out, letting it all go doing that proactively, maybe 10 soft belly breaths a day can be so soothing and helpful and just getting us out of that fight flight and into that rest and digest. So that's another access point. And another thing that I'll mention is the concept of shaking and dancing.

[35:48] So if you've ever watched an animal like a dog, if you take a dog to a park and it gets into a thing with another dog and they start going at it, you'll notice it afterwards, the dog shakes mm-hmm, , it's shaking off the trauma and after it shakes off, it's fine. But what do we do? We experience whatever traumatic event and we ruminate about it. It gets stuck on a loop and we play it over and over again. And it's it's, we're not safe. We gotta shut down. We tuck it deep away. And what Dr. Gordon talks about in the transformation is you can do this at any time, decades after the trauma that you've experienced to help your body clear the trauma, because it's not enough just to do the cognitive therapy. We've got to get it out of our bodies because of the concept of the stay in the tissues. So do what you can to shake, to dance, to let it go draw, take those deep belly breaths. And that would be a found a fantastic foundation for addressing trauma.

[36:51] Oh, those are some great pointers Palmer. Thank you for those. And before we wrap up the name of the podcast is the hormone prescription because all roads lead to hormones and hormone balance is, uh, one of your fights components. So how does autoimmune relate to hormone balance? How what's the connection there for everybody listening?

[37:165]  I know you talk a lot about these on your podcast, low vitamin D. Number one is something that we can can control. It's the easiest hormone imbalance to correct. So know your levels and get your vitamin D levels up. This is vitamin D three, make sure you take it with K2. Another one that's low across the board is thyroid. This is a huge factor in the autoimmune equation. In fact, hypothyroid, most women in particular have an autoimmune thyroid condition Hashimotos which you know of. So low thyroid, we also have low D H E a, and that is quite common across the board in people with auto immunity.

[38:11] So again, know your numbers, get tested, do what you can do to, to raise those three. Then there are three that are excessively high across the board in people with autoimmune issues. One is estrogen dominance and that's not just estrogen being high. It's estrogen high in relation to progesterone, which I know you talk about a lot and that's super important and it doesn't just affect women. This is affecting men too. Another one that is high is cortisol. This is the dark Lord or you call queen cortisol. You gotta lower your cortisol and be in control of that. And finally, we have high insulin. 

[39:25] Thank you so much Palmer for sharing your journey and your expertise. I love it when people's pain become their purpose. And that certainly is true for you. And this other quote you shared from RS gray, she believes she could. So she did, you did right? You believed that you could. And I wanna give a shout out for everybody who's listening. Who's struggling maybe with autoimmune or some other health problem. 

[40:25]I do. I do. So the biggest question I get from people is what do I eat to beat an autoimmune condition? What do I eat? I hear different things from different people, and I believe that you're in the best position to figure that out for your yourself. So this is a little ebook that goes into all of the things that you need to consider taking out of your diet for about a month. I call this the 30 day food vacation and then tell you what you can eat so that you can eat to beat auto immunity. And you can find that@palmerkipp.com slash gift.

[41:04] If I can do it, you can do it. This is not just my story. This is the story of every single human being who takes the, the first step and then the next towards their optimal health. And so many people have recovered from auto immunity. And that's why in the book, I didn't just share my story. I tell the story of a dozen doctors who had been medically conventionally trained medical doctors. Mm-hmm who developed auto immunity and then had to find answers like you,

{41:47] It's so true. So don't give up, keep looking, finding answers. Hopefully you've got gotten some here. Thank you, Palmer so much for joining us today.

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Are you in your midlife years and feel like you've lost your youthful glow? You're not alone! Many women reach a point in their lives when they feel like their hormones are out of whack, their energy levels are low, and their skin isn't as radiant as it used to be.

If you're looking for ways to naturally reset your hormones and reclaim your health and beauty, this episode is for you! In the latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Trevor Cates shares her expertise on how to achieve hormonal balance and beautiful skin from the inside out.

You'll learn about:

• The importance of hormones in overall health and beauty
• Facts about hormones and how they affect the body
• Common myths about hormones and hormone replacement therapy
• Skin - hormones connection and the aging process
• Beauty myths and secrets for ageless skin
• And much more!

So, tune in and learn how you can reset your hormones for health and harmony - and natural beauty!

[00:51] Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I'm super glad that you are joining me and my guest today. She has an amazing docu-series coming up called hormones, health and harmony, as well as a new book, the natural beauty reset. We're gonna dive into those. There's a link in the show notes to sign up for the hormones, health and harmony docu-series that's coming up.

[01:48] So I'm gonna tell you a little bit about Dr. Trevor CAS and then we'll get started. Dr. Trevor CAS is author of the USA today, bestselling book, clean skin from within the upcoming natural beauty reset, the seven day program to harmonize hormones and restore radiance and founder of the spa doctor natural skincare line. She was the first licensed female naturopathic doctor in California, and she served at several world renowned spas in park city. Utah goal is to inspire and empower women to find the keys, to harmonize their hormones and open their eyes to their natural beauty and to be a guide to help illuminate their path. She has been featured on various TV shows, including the doctors and extra TV. Dr. Kates is host of the hormones, health, and harmony docus series, the woman's doctor podcast and the public television special younger skin from within welcome Dr. Trevor Kates.

[03:11] Thank you. It's so great to be here with you.

[03:14] I had so much fun taping your docus series, hormones, health, and harmony with your team amazing team. And I am so excited for the world to hear what 50 experts have to say about hormone's health and harmony. And I know they're excited to hear about it too, or, and I don't wanna make the whole podcast about the docus, even though I think it's amazing, but I wanna give people a little highlight about what are they gonna learn there? Why should they show up? Who is this for?

[03:44] So I'm so excited to share this with everyone. And really, and I know you talk a lot about hormones and women's health, so your people are used to this, but so many women out there think that symptoms like PMs and, and fertility and insomnia and unexplained weight gain, and hormonal acne are just like just regular parts of being a woman mm-hmm . But we know, and we just need to get this information out to women that these are, while these symptoms are common, they're not normal.

[04:42] And I really am excited for people to see you, but it's busting myths, getting real information about how we can balance our hormones. And it is a nine part documentary series. So there's a lot and it's launching May 10th and we have each episode goes live for a day for 24 hours. People can watch it for free.

[05:20] Combating is the substandard quality of life that we've accepted as women because our, the dogma current doesn't have answers for the problems that plague us, that have to do with our hormones and the rest of our health. And so we think there's something wrong with us or that we have to put up with it and that it's normal, cuz all our friends have it and that's just not true. So we're gonna, we debunk a lot of myths in this docuseries and really show the pathway forward. 

[06:24] Well, I, gosh, there was so much, and I would have to say that some of the intricacies of lab testing and so I, so one of the experts we had to is a lot of lab testing and she dove deep into that. And some of that technology is fascinating of what we can learn and all the different ways that we can test, not only our hormone levels, but the metabolites of our hormones and also the toxicity level levels.

[07:23] it sure is. I used to have a friend who was a physician. He said, you know what? They call the physician who treats herself. I said, no, he's like an idiot. Cause I was trying to fix my own St. And uh, he's like, no, that was surprising. And what was most inspirational in all of the data that you gathered, what really gave you hope?

[07:50] I can't begin to tell you how many tears we shed listening to people's stories. And these are experts that were sharing their stories. I'm sorry, I'm just getting Terry, just thinking about some of the stories. These are experts, right? But they've all been on their own journey, including you and for them to be so open and vulnerable and share what they went through and how they came out on, on the other side, better for it. And they're so, so inspiration and that when, you know, sometimes we just feel so beaten down and we feel so lost without answers. And yet hearing these stories is just reminds us of there's hope and that we can get through this.

[09:09] And so the words of wisdom and the stories were actually, I think my, my favorite part, and then of course, some of my favorite episodes are the two toxic episode. Four is two toxic and it talks about, we talk about toxins in the environment and how that plays a role in our health. But we don't just dwell on that. We actually talk about the solutions to getting through that. And then of course I love episode six on sex and romance and episode eight on honor, your lady parts. Those are all fun ones. So there's so much great information in there.

[09:47] Yes. I know. I cried a couple times doing them, the interviews, cuz I'm so passionate about the topic and I know that you are too, and I think it's so important. If you can share with everyone, why do this? It was a huge investment of your time, your passion, your money. I mean, I can't even begin to fathom the huge investment you've put into this. So why?

[10:14] Yeah. Well, I certainly had my struggles as well. My struggles started off more with skin issues and that's what led me to become a naturopathic doctor. And I could tell you, or for anyone who struggled with skin issues, it's one of those things it's hard to hide. You can hide other symptoms, but you can, it's hard high skin problems. So it was such so embarrassing as a child to go through that, which is what put me on the path become a naturopathic doctor. But also throughout my life personally had struggles with poor model imbalances. 

[11:11] So it's harder to be thin. And so putting on a little extra weight is normal at 30 years sold. And I remember leaving her office being so mad and I was already an naturopathic doctor, so I knew better, but I was, I thought, there's no way. This is true. And so of course I balanced, I got outta the off that hormonal birth control. I balanced my hormones and I got back into shape and I am certainly fitter. 

[11:49]But yeah, you know, I have my own personal stories. We all do. Right. We have our hormonal stories and I just, over the years, seeing patients I've been seeing patients for 22 years is the biggest thing that women talk to me about hormonal struggles. And a lot of times women don't even realize that their symptoms are related to hormonal imbalances. That's why I wanted to get this out there because like my weight gain at 30, it was, my hormones were out of balance, but most people would've just said to me, well, you just need to exercise more and eat better. 

[12:56] It's so true. Women say that to me all the time that I didn't even know that that problem was related to my hormones with, with the depression, with the, I can't sleep with the, you put, fill in the blank. And I say, honey, that's why the name of my podcast is the hormone prescription. It's like every pro, if you're female and you have a health problem, hormones are the foundation of your health as a woman. Part of that is a hormone problem. So I love that you're really people are gonna get that insight in this docu-series I think it's phenomenal. 

[13:57] Yeah, well our skin is our outer reflection of our overall health. And as you know, it's our largest organ it's right on the surface of our bodies. And I think a lot of times we forget that, of that connection. So I started focusing on skin when I was working at the Waltor spa in park city and I was doing a two week weight loss program and my patients would come in at the end of the two weeks and they'd say, Dr. Kates, I lost all this weight felt great, but what surprises me is my skin. I didn't know, my skin could look this good. 

[15:18] Yeah. Like what kinds of myths? just give us a couple.

[15:22] We look in the mirror at ourselves, we look at other people to help us feel beautiful or for a validation of that. But I think it's important for people to realize that true connection of when we feel healthy. And part of that is when our hormones are balanced, when we feel healthy, we can feel more beautiful and really that a lot of that comes from within. But when our hormones are out of balance and we're feeling when we're not sleeping well, when our mood is all over the place, we'll look in the mirror at ourselves and beat ourselves up and we'll look at other women and we'll say, oh, I wish I was young. 

[16:48] I love that movie with the comedian where she hits her head and then cuz she has low self-esteem and then she hits her head and then she thinks she's beautiful. Society's definition of beautiful. And she behaves that way and her whole life changes because she believes it. It doesn't have anything to do with what you actually look like, but we as women and as you were talking, I'm thinking no men look in the mirror and compare themselves to other men, oh, he's got better packs and biceps. And like men don't do this, but we really are socialized that our value has so much to do with our appearance. 

[17:39]  Thank you for that, that we delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. So along those lines, what, what about what we're thinking? Yeah,

[18:08] So absolutely the way that we think can be very toxic to our bodies and actually impact our hormonal balance as well because when we're stressed out, we're beatings ourselves up that impacts our adrenal function, which then can affect many other hormones in the body and affects our nervous system, our stress. And so it's heightened. So really we want to realize and recognize. I think the first thing is to just recognize when you have, when you're starting to beat yourself up, like, wow, that's really not a good thing for me. And that negative thought or that negative thing that I'm thinking or saying to myself is really beneficial and that's really the first step in it. And I think then there are lots of different ways that you can process through and help heal old patterns and wounds and things like that. But being able to shift that is really crucial.

[19:05] We don't just born beautiful. And some people might think, oh well she's just naturally beautiful or whatever, but really so much of beauty comes from life experience. And so, especially as we get older, it gives us an opportunity to be beautiful in other ways. And the experience that we have in life can make us more beautiful. I think that some of the most beautiful women I've ever known are in their seventies and eighties and nineties, I feel very blessed that I have some really great role models 

[20:12]  You know, you look so healthy and vital and alive and your doctors and you're so accomplished. And so they discount what's possible for them. They say, I can't do, I can't have the health that you guys have. I can't have the skin that you have. And so one thing that I've been really focusing on is pulling back and telling the hard stuff about admitting the changes that, you know, I've gone through from being a caterpillar, to being a butterfly. And I'm wondering if you would be willing to pull back the curtain a little and share some things that you've had to overcome on you, your journey.

[21:08] Yeah, absolutely. As I mentioned, I struggle with my skin as a child and I, it was more eczema and hives and bumps and itchy rash, so appear. But I was, I did not feel like a normal kid and I had a really low self-esteem as a kid. And yet I, I was in the that's. I grew up in this family of what society really considers as beautiful people. And I thought I was the ugly duckling. I grew up this way.

[22:03] I will sometimes get rosacea if I don't, you know, stick with my eating plant and all of that. I understand the struggles with that, but I think that this time in my life, so I'm 49 years old and it's funny a couple years ago, I said, okay, before I turn 50, I wanna make some big, more changes in my life. It's never stopped for me. There's all else. And so one of the biggest things that's happened for me lately is that I was going from one relationship to another after my divorce 10 years ago. And so a year ago, by the time I'm 50, I'm gonna meet, meet the man of my dreams and I'm gonna be married. And so Karen, I just got married.

[23:10] What? Congratulations.

[23:18] so I think, and I had to dig deep and do a lot of work on myself and emotionally kind of unravel some of the things and the patterns that I had around relations ships, the way that I thought of myself, the way I was showing up. And I did a lot of that hard work. And then all of a sudden, he just showed up in my life.

[23:39] That's amazing. And you know, I just wanna highlight for everyone listening. Everybody has their stuff. Everybody's got struggles, physical struggles, relationship struggles, life struggles. I don't care how good you think the package looks on the outside. Right. And if you've seen some of these models that do the shots, what it looked like before, they got their makeup and hair done. And then after, you know, you'll know it's true. All these, the photoshopped end product is what you're seeing and comparing yourself to, but we've all got struggles and we are no different than you.

[24:47] Yeah, I think it is important to realize, especially for those of us tend to be a little bit of perfectionist or type a personalities is that failure can feel like so devastating and we can feel like we've made the biggest mistakes, but if we don't fail, that means that we're not really putting ourselves out there and it doesn't give us that opportunity to really grow.

[25:39] And I think that so often we're in the middle of what we consider to be a failure and we can't see the other side of it. So I just wanna tell people, if you feel like you're in that place right now, just keep going. And there is light on the other side thing. There is hope. And especially if you're listening to Dr. Dunston's podcast, which has a lot of great opportunities and information and, and resources for you, the hormone's health and harmony dokey series does as well to reach out to people and get help and get through that time.

[26:22] Yes. Then your pain becomes your purpose. I have another mentor. He always says, there's no such thing as failure when you're doing something you think is failing, it's working on you. It might not be working externally, but it's working on you to help you to become the person who can do the thing and be successful at it on the outside. And you have to go through that in order to be successful on the outside. 

[27:09] Yeah. It's free May 10th each episode, we'll start with episode one, it'll be live for 24 hours. People can watch it and then we'll switch to the next episode, the following day. So we can get through all nine episodes by the 18th. And so it's important to watch it when it goes live mm-hmm so that you can watch it free.

[27:30] Awesome. Thank you so much for that wonderful resource. We'll have more information on Dr. Kate's book, natural beauty reset. That's coming out in the fall when it gets a little bit closer. So state tuned for that. And what any parting words that you would like to leave everyone with?

[27:50] Yeah, I think that we've, you know, we've covered a lot here and I really think about the daily choices that we make are really what helps us move forward. And I think about him in, in four different areas. And I talk about them in my book and those are around food movement, mindset, and also skincare, if you wanna talk about skin. And so I think it's, if you can do things within each of those category every day, even if there's small steps, like just start choosing switch over to a and some natural skin care products.

[28:41] I love that simple, easy, powerful Dr. Trevor, Kate, thanks so much for joining us and thank you for this incredible resource that you are sharing with the world. Can't wait.

[28:52] And thank you all for joining me for another episode of the hormone prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I hope that you learned something today that can impact your life. You should, for sure. Wanna check out the docu series. So click the link in the show notes, go and sign up, and then set aside time in your calendar. Now to watch each episode, when it goes live each day, you could even do a watch party with some girlfriends and watch it together and have a discussion afterwards around what you've learned. And what's inspired you. I look forward to joining the conversation with you on my Facebook FA page or Instagram. So jump over there and we'll have a conversation about it. And I will see you next week until then peace, love and hormones. Y'all thank you so much for listening. 

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Do you know what the number one killer of women is in midlife? If you said heart disease, you’re right!

In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Dr. Beverly Yates joins us to share her knowledge of how to prevent and reverse heart disease.

Dr. Yates is a leading expert in natural hormone replacement therapy and has helped countless women achieve optimum health and well-being. In this conversation, she shares her insights on how the menopause transition can impact heart health and what steps we can take to protect ourselves.

You’ll learn about:

-The link between hormones and heart health

-The impact of the menopause transition on heart health

-How to prevent and reverse heart disease

-And much more!

If you’re concerned about your heart health or want to learn how to protect yourself from this deadly disease, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in now!

[01:03] So without further ado, I will tell you a little bit about Dr. Beverly Yates, and then we will started, she's done a lot of stuff ladies. So her bio is very substantial. So here we go. Dr. Beverly Yates, naturopathic doctors, a diabetes expert, an author who has over 28 years of experience of working with those who struggle with blood sugar issues related to type two diabetes and pre-diabetes and feel like nothing works for them.

[02:03] Dr. Yates creates breakthrough changes in the habits that cause blood sugar issues. This allows her clients to finally get off of the blood sugar roller coaster, have more energy and create the level of health that lets them live the life of their dreams. She is the creator of the Ys protocol, a simple and effective lifestyle - based program for people who have type two diabetes or pre-diabetes to lower blood sugar levels, achieve healthy A1C and fasting blood sugar levels and have more energy to live life the way they want to. She's worked with thousands of people, helping them to lower their blood sugar levels to a healthy range and get control over their health.

[03:29] Yep. The summer is at the end of July. That's right.

[03: 31] End of July that you don't want to miss. She was chosen as the lead doctor for a new three - doctor panel TV show on ABC CT. And they did not green light the series, but I know another TV show is in your future. Dr. Bev Dr. Ye has been featured in the media, including ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS NPR, black news channel Fox series, XM, MINDBODY green essence magazine, good housekeeping woman, world readers, digest, Rodale press, and more welcome doctor advocate.

[04:05] Wow. What a lovely intro. Thank you so much, Dr. Karen, for your invitation to be a part of here with your group and also to, you know, explore a topic that is just, it really just needs to be on everyone's mind, frankly. There's other, um, illnesses that people are far more aware of, and they don't know, understand that heart disease is still far away.

[04:28] Yeah. Particularly in women and you find all kinds of information about other issues, you know? And when I ask myself why that is, this is what I think. Tell me what you think that people really think, oh, my doctor's got that covered. I don't need to worry about that. I don't need to look for that on social media. Yeah. And it's also silent, and you know, I've diagnosed so many women probably like you have, you know, coronary artery blockage from a coronary calcium scan. So can you talk a little about that a little bit more? 

[05:18] Yeah. That's a great intro. Let's take back the covers here and have a heart disease is one of those silent processes whereby the time it's clear and someone's symptomatic. The process has been in place for years, if not decades, right? Just like diabetes. It tends to sneak up on people. And unless they have clear testing, clear assessment, you know, some kind of a, a rational testing process, diagnostic imaging, looking at blood markers, et cetera. 

[06:02] A lot of people have this misperception and I really want to make this point clear for women, men, anyone people has this misperception that if you lead a healthy lifestyle, you will avoid problems. It's not true. It's not that simple. Don't we wish. And if you have a genetic risk from your family, if you have a lifestyle or a past set of chronic stresses or traumas, they can all set you up for heart disease that could potentially be lethal. 

[06:50] There's some good news to be had around this too, especially for women. But meanwhile, we all have to do what we can. And I think one of the reasons we don't have about this is that selling you the solution after the problem for really expensive heart surgery, to have your chest cracked open and have your heart re plummed and other things like that is just worth so much more money than the things that you could do well before that's ever needed. It will never ever have that huge expense.

[07:36] But when I started on this path and I learned about some options that aren't standard of care, like coronary calcium scanning, I started sending all my at-risk women for it. And I literally would have some women, they would call from the center and say, she, you know, almost had a complete blockage in all three arteries. And we would send her to the ER, and she ended out with a stent or a bypass. Right. And her life was saved, but it's not even recognized in mainstream medicine. So because it's this silent killer and women don't even know how they can protect themselves?

[08:37] Yeah. That's a great question. You know, even today in 2022, it is not necessarily the standard of care that insurance companies will pay for a coronary calcium scan. Right? And any, depending on where you live, that scan could cost you somewhere between $75 to $300. And for some people it can be lifesaving. If it determines that there's a blockage, you know, off to the cath lab, you go, or maybe it's time to have your chest cracked, but at least it was before you had that coronary failure, that myocardial infarction a heart attack that can drop you like a rock and potentially kill you. 

[09:19] So when we go through menopause, obviously a lot of our hormone shift in change, right? As much of that conversation starts though before the time of actual menopause aging of all kinds, that conversation in your body really starts to shift somewhere between the ages of 38 to 42. And at that point somewhere between age 38 to age 42, about 1% to 4% shift per year. Now, if you are comfortable with money and finances, think about it.

[10: 07] So you wanna then start to manage and maintain and boost your aging conversation, so you can live long and live well when it comes to cardiovascular health and making sure that your heart has what it needs and the rest of your cardiovascular system. It's just so, so important to have a healthy lipid profile, to have the fractions be at a good ratio to each other and to not have issues with the blood vessels that feed the heart. Those are called the coronary vessels, coronary meaning heart vessels, right?

[11:01] And you can call around and shop around. You know, when you call hospitals and outpatient centers, et cetera, probably less expensive in an outpatient center compared to hospital has much bigger overhead as you might expect, but it's worth making that call to find out. It would be lovely if we had almost like a door dash of equivalent for health. So we can just look it up on an app and know how much it will cost me.

[11:41] I really can't. And today it's so true. It couldn't be easier, right. To make this transparent. Why is it so hard? You know, I've had times like, uh, I remember once when one of my kids needed surgery for something and I called around, get an idea, what would the out-of-pocket cost be? The time they were much younger, you know, we're trying to pay for school, this other thing. And I could not get anything on anybody. And it was really crazy. I mean, I knew all the ICD codes, the CPT code, I had all the numbers. Right. All the big words and, and the people who ran through the phone were like, I have no idea. I

[12:22] I mean, but you're right. It's like shopping on canal street in New York. It's like, no prices on anything. How much is that bag? And they'll be they'll, they'll kind of size you up and go for you $375.

[12:40] You are a tourist anywhere in the world. They think you might be from the US, you know, the price went up. So yeah, I got that.

[12:46] Right. So just as a public PSA, we might save some women's lives today. Can you tell everyone what a calcium scan is and that their doctor's not going to order this for them. And you can maybe help me understand why that is. Um, that they can, like I've said people, sometimes I've seen Groupons for like $89, and you can go get it, and it can save your life. 

[13:14] Yeah. So a coronary calcium scan is an imaging, a simple imaging where your body scans specifically your chest to capture your heart. And it's looking at your heart, it's looking at the chambers of the heart. And it's looking at the blood vessels that feed the heart, particularly the ones that sit right on the top surface here, the coronary arteries, right? Those are the blood vessels that are dedicated to the heart. They're going nowhere else. They're simple. 

[13:55] This is why blood pressure is lower. Other things. This gives the heart a way to rest that lower blood pressure number. For instance, the diastolic numbers. Like if your blood pressure is one 20 over 80, that 80, the lower number is critical. That's your heart at rest. Again, it never really stops. So I was able to relax. You can't relax. 

[14:43] That's what the compromise is about. And after a certain amount of blockage, that's usually when people become symptomatic, maybe they're short of breath for no particular reason. Any exertion at all is exhausting. They might find that they have chest pains. Yes or no. And for women, the presentation of chest pains is very different from it is for men. Frequently. 

[15:26] Maybe she's got pain in her shoulder. It might be on the left side. It might not. It might be on the right side. It can be very confusing almost all the time. When women have heart attacks, they'll say, I didn't feel well. I felt profoundly unwell. That's usually the most presenting symptom. And so it's kind of easy to get that overlooked. 

[16:12] It's still considered perspective or experimental or research controversial, whatever. It's not condoned in terms of conventional medicine. And as such insurance companies do not feel required to pay for it. It hasn't yet gotten to that status of being part of the standard of care. And so people will look at you often with a side eye, and they will not prescribe it or recommend it. You can go and get these things yourself.

[17:09] O C C L U S I O N occlusion in the absence of a blockage or occlusion. Right then you're good in terms of whether or not the heart is getting what it needs for blood flow. Now, can we talk about another aspect of this that usually isn't put together? Is that okay, please? Absolutely. There's stress echocardiograms. Now, from the point of view of a cardiologist, this is something I happen to agree with them on a stress echo, as it's called more, you know, familiarly, a stress echocardiogram, in my opinion, is a gold standard.

[18:03] If you are a woman with larger breast masks, this could be one of the most awkward tests you will have in your life, worse than a mammogram in some ways to be clear but worth it. Okay. All right, wait a minute. I'm just, I'll talk about it right now. fellas do not go through all this drama. So with the ultrasound head there, and you'll have 12 EKG leads all around you electrocardiogram that is recording the electrical activity of the heart. So what they're doing is they're going to have you initially walk light load, right?

[18:46] You'll see whether all the valves are flapping or not. And you also see one of the most critical, sensitive measures you can ever imagine for the function of your heart called L V E F left ventricular ejection fraction in plain language, how much blood that has now just been oxygenated from your lungs and has come back to the heart is actually going to go out of that sucker and around the rest of the body to deliver that oxygen. You don't wanna, it all stick in there. So when that ejection fraction gets lower, like significantly under 50, say it's 30%, 25%, 20%, 14%, et cetera. That's where congestive heart failure happens. 

[19:43] So the stress echo you like as the gold standard for diagnosing coronary artery disease or looking for function of the heart, or what do you like that for

[19:54] The heart function is the heart functioning well, okay. Make sure it's getting blood in. And the blood is getting back out because it's not doing us any good. If the blood's going in, and it's not leaving, that's why people have these problems with clots. You see all these medications being promoted for lowering clots, blood thinners, et cetera. This is what's. This is why, right? Heart disease. 

[20:15] Right? But I know there's some people listening, going, Dr. Bev, do I need to ask for a stress echo 

[20:22] Think it's a great baseline test. I do, especially in your middle life years. I think it's a great baseline. And if you have a history of being an athlete, if you've been athletic, if you are a big a person who was huge on dancing, anything that was aerobics in nature, some of the more vigorous things I've seen for cheerleading, absolutely qualify as far as I'm concerned, their athletes do as well as the individual and team sports. Anything that involved running, lifting resistance or weight training. I think it's a good idea for you to get that test. Here's why you will have a natural increased growth called a hypertrophy of that left ventricle wall.

[21:38] Yes, absolutely. All right. So that's another test. Let's back up a little and talk about the risk factors. Mm-hmm for heart disease. Sure. And you mentioned earlier genetic dyslipidemias mm-hmm can you talk about what are the risk factors that really need to be addressed and mitigated, and then we'll weave that into lipids?

[22:01] Sure, sure. So risk factors. One of them is something that's affecting many people right now, as we work our way through this pandemic situ and that is sitting too much sitting throughout the day, sitting on an airplane or a bus or a train or whatever it is, right? Extended periods of sitting are a real risk factor. So that's one, another issue is a complete lack of exercise and any kind of exercise. It could be dancing to your favorite music. It doesn't mean you have to go to the gym and do some, some specific, right it's simply movement. 

[22:45] Your blood lipids love that fiber, the healthier ones are more likely to be pronounced when you've got plenty of fiber on board. So green leafy vegetables are a great way to get fiber. You can have ground FLA seeds, a few nuts and seeds. Those have fiber in them, fruits, fresh fruits, absolutely other kinds of vegetables, not necessarily green ones. All of those food groups have fiber naturally in them, can take fiber as supplements. 

[23:22] Smoking's another risk factor. Smoking basically sets your blood vessels on, on fire. If you will, it's a kind of inflammation and the sort of damage that smoking those blood vessels makes it far more likely that the unfriendly lipids will park in the blood vessels and turn into those Velcro balls. I talked about it. So their Velcro balls happen.

[23:51] Yes. And the sitting the smoking. And I know you're gonna talk about blood sugar and diabetes, right?

[24:01] Absolutely. Blood sugar, um, problems where blood sugar rises chronically high and doesn't come back down or the blood sugar roller coaster for people who go from super high to really low, super high, to really low experience, to hang, reach phenomenon, hungry and angry who have first too much blood sugar. And then not enough, it just plummets like a rock off a cliff. This is a problem, right? It's another risk factor.

[24:34] That blood sugar wants to hang onto the proteins in your blood. The proteins belong there, but too much blood sugar does not. And you have extra blood sugar. It hangs on those proteins to create big old honk and molecules called protein glycan. 

[24:52] Tries to get through your tiny little capillaries. Well, it doesn't fit. it's too big. And so all of your circulation starts to be compromised. So then when you have the unfriendly fractions of that, of the lipids, they see this mess and one of them joins it's a pile it just gets bigger and bigger. It's a problem.

[25:13] Yeah. So let, so the blood, sugar's a problem. Definitely gotta get that under control. Yep. And let's segue into the lipids. So let's talk about that. How does that contribute and what testing do people have? And let's dive into that.

[25:30] Lipid fractions that we care about, here are the ones that should be on most lab tests. They are HDL, which stands for high density, lip protein; there's LDL, which is low density, lip protein. Then there's V LDL, which stands for very low density like protein. There are some other fractions as well. One of them that is super helpful to know about is called lipoprotein little a right. So lipoprotein little a it's either shown as a lowercase, a or in parentheses an after the word lipoprotein, depending on the lab, the lab, company's way of doing that call out. 

[26:20] Think of it as like beach balls in your blood. It's good. It's not thick into anything. It's kind of natural. Telon it's not toxic at all. In this case, it's just good for you. It doesn't cause problems and cholesterol as a large category is the building block a substrate for all the sex hormones. We actually want cholesterol in the body. What we care about is what the body is doing to the cholesterol or interacting with it. So if you have the presence of other kinds of inflammation, which we'll talk about later, this is where lipid pro profiles and fractions matter a lot.

[27:08] Same is true for V LDL, a very low density lipoprotein in the presence of inflammation. It too can be troublesome. LDL is more likely to take people out compared to V LDL triglycerides.They, too, are another fraction of lipid, and they can definitely be problematic. And it's all about inflammation. So back to where we talked about the biggest loser in one of their trainers, Bob Harper, who you know, seemed to be amazingly fit and in shape and blah, blah, blah, and still dropped like a rock from a heart attack. Well, it turned out he hadn't unfriendly cholesterol profile, a very unfriendly one. And again, if he hadn't been in a place where people saw him drop over from a heart attack, he probably would've died because he wouldn't have gotten help fast enough.

[28:11] No, I do. And I'm trying to think of the name of that famous marathon runner who also dropped dead from a heart attack. So just because you're physically, you look physically fit doesn't mean that you are. Yeah. So when people get a regular lipid profile from their doctors, they usually get what total cholesterol, LDL VDL chide and HDL, correct. 

[28:39] Right. And so I also gonna say is that sufficient, and I just want to let everybody listening in the podcast know that Dr. Bev is getting ready to give a master class to the women in my midlife mastery program. And so that's who she's talking to. when she's showing, uh, look, look at my hands and stuff.

[29:09] And the course of now 30 years of, of clinical practice and growing where they'll come in, their total cholesterol number will be higher than 200. So it's considered L of or high, right. It automatically falls into the category of at risk. However, a lot of times for these women, especially in midlife and older it's because their HGL fraction has gone up the protective good gal, good girl, kind of cholesterol. 

[29:50] They've been told, oh, it's high cholesterol. It's time to put you on a statin as a reflexive response, irrespective of anything else about their lifestyle. And it's not, in my opinion, in a scientific, clinically measured way to go. It doesn't make sense. If your cholesterol profile is dominant with HDL high density protein, you have an unusual amount of protection and that's good. And if you don't have inflammation, it's even better because now it is highly unlikely. You'd be is such a low risk category for a heart attack, right? You just are. Now the other way, this could go HDL is low and V LDL or more likely LDL, usually LDL and triglycerides will elevate more so than V LDL. 

[30:52] And when it comes to lip profile, we care a lot because stress at the moment for a reason that you burn it off with activity, like you literally had to lift the car off a loved one, you were literal, really running from a bear for instance is okay, it's good for us. It keeps us safe. It can save lives. The problem with stress is when it's chronic, and it runs away with us, and we are trapped, we feel overwhelmed. And those chemicals surge throughout our body, whether it's cortisol, the primary stress, chemical adrenaline, some other things, right, neurotransmitters, they all get in the mix. 

[31:52] And if enough of it builds up, it creates what's called those Atheros or those fattythis fatty buildup, those fatty plaques on the walls of the blood vessels. That's where the word athero sclerosis will come from where it's this process where, because the blood vessels been damaged now, the fats are trying to patch it. And the fat's really hard to sign to patch. It that's just a bad patch. 

[32:26] You know, this is super important. What you just said about chronic stress. And this is what gets back to the hormones. Ladies. I always say everything leads to hormones . So by the time we hit midlife, it's usually not only our sex hormones that have a problem, but this is one of the reasons why we have what we call pathologic menopause in, in America is because our cortisol stress hormone has been struggling for years. And usually at midlife really takes a hard hit. Well, while you're having stress, this cortisol is working on your arteries and causing these micro injuries that become a hospitable place for toxic lipoproteins to, to set up shop and start blocking your arteries. So stress is not just a mental health issue. It is a physical issue. 

[33:45] I'd like to leave everyone with this. Please take action. Most of these processes are silent and invisible. And by the time you start to develop symptoms, you know, you're well on the way to some serious outcomes. So being proactive, this is one of those times when you are so richly rewarded and don't let someone Buffalo you into ignoring something that's important for your health. So if you have a family history of heart disease, you really need to be particularly vigilant because you may have a genetic predisposition to it, but please understand how you live your life, your lifestyle and the environment you're in and how many tox exposed to like you live near a factory or a source of diesel fumes, et cetera, all these things accumulate and make that difference for your health. Please be proactive. Clearly if you're here, if you're listening to Dr. Kirin and the good, wonderful work she's doing the great stuff she does with the hormone club, then you're probably really dialed in and tuned in to continue to take action because the person has to live with the problem. 

[35:34] Yes. So well said, I love this quote that you shared with me from Maya Angelou. We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but really admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty. I don't think I've heard that quote from her before and it's fabulous. And I think it speaks to this situation because so many women want to transform their health. And they're looking for the one thing, the one super supplement, the one diet that's gonna fix everything. And it really is a labor of love and very intensive, right?

[35:57] Yes. Thank you so much. I know you have the guide on how to improve your hemoglobin A1C and fasting blood sugar numbers and beyond for those people who are wanting to improve their blood sugar and decrease their risk for heart attack, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, including strokes. And we will have the link in the show notes. Do you wanna tell them a little bit about that?

[36:20] Yeah, sure. So in that guide, you know, I, the information there is clear and we talk about the big topics that affect it. Some of it would be things you would expect like around nutrition. All, some might be some things you may not know that some aspects of gut health, other things interact to really make that difference. 

[36:59] Great. Well, thank you so much for that wonderful resource and thank you for the work that you do and for sharing this important, very important information with us today.

[37:08] You're welcome. Thank you for letting me be a part of your mission here. Um, I really love that we are so aligned with helping people live their best lives.

[37:15] And thank you all for listening to another episode of the whole hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kyrin. I'm very grateful that you've taken time out of your precious day to spend it with us. Hopefully you have learned some information that's going to impact your life in a positive way. And I hope that you share that information with your loved ones.

Get this for FREE: How to Improve Your A1C and Fasting (Morning) Blood Sugar Numbers (and Beyond) by Dr. Beverly Yates

https://bit.ly/blueprint-diabetes-nutrition-secrets

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Have you ever wondered why you are prone to hormone problems?

In this episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast, we talk with Dr. Aviva Romm about why women are more likely to experience hormone imbalances and what we can do to prevent them.

Dr. Aviva Romm is a leading authority on natural health and holistic medicine, and her insights will help you understand your own body better. She is a midwife, Yale-trained MD and Board Certified Family Physician who specializes in Integrative Gynecology, Obstetrics, and Pediatrics, with a focus on women's endocrinology. She's also a world-renown herbalist, and author of the textbook, Botanical Medicines for Women's Health, as well as 7 other books, including The Adrenal Thyroid Revolution and her new book, Hormone Intelligence, an instant New York Time Bestseller, which explores the impact of the world we live in on women's hormones and health, and brings us a new medicine for women that is holistic and natural, while being grounded in the best science and medicine, have to offer. A practitioner, teacher, activist, and advocate of both environmental health and women's reproductive rights and health, she has been bridging traditional medicine, total health ecology, and good science for over three decades.

In this episode, we discuss the importance of listening to your "hormone intelligence" and how it can guide you to making better choices for your health.

You will learn:

-Why women are more prone to hormone problems

-What you can do to prevent hormone imbalances

-How to listen to your "hormone intelligence"

-The importance of making choices for your health

And much more!

[01:01] Welcome back to another episode of the hormone prescription podcast with Dr. Kirin. Thank you so much for joining me today. We are going to jump into some hormone deliciousness today with Dr. Aviva Ram. Some of you probably already know her because she is one of the queen bees of hormones. She's a medical doctor. She's also a nurse midwife. Her background is in nurse midwifery. We actually found out that we went to the same high school in New York City, Bronx science.

[01:56] So maybe you will learn some tips on how to tune back into what she's telling you and transform your hormones and your health. I think that that quote really exemplifies what Dr. Aviva Ram is all about. She shared this quote with me before we met for her interview. And it's really what she wants for you. It's what I want you. I think that you will get lots of information that can help you to thrive and not just survive in this life. Cause if you're just surviving, you're not doing it right.

[02:55] So Dr. Aviva Ram is a medical doctor and a midwife. She's Yale trained for her medical degree and she's a board certified family physician who specializes in integrative gynecology, obstetrics and pediatrics with a focus on women's endocrinology. She's also a world renowned herbalist and author of the textbook botanical medicines for women's health as well as seven other books, including the adrenal thyroid revolution and her new book, hormone intelligence and instant, New York times bestseller, which explores the impact of the world. We live in on women's hormones and health and bring us a new medicine for women that is holistic and natural while being grounded in the best science and medicine have to offer a practitioner, teacher, activist and advocate of both environmental health and women's reproductive rights and health.

[04:16] I am super excited to talk to you about hormones in, oh my gosh. I freaking love your book and agree with really everything that you say. And I love how honest you are and you're honest. I mean, it's unfortunate, but we've gotta face some hard truths right now about the care that we are giving women or should I say not giving women. And I love that you are honest and that you really stop the medical gas lighting that's going on. And you say women, you are right. You are not being taken care of. You're not being nurtured. So talk about how you became so passionate about women's health.

[04:56] Well, it started out really early for me. I, as we were chatting about before, um, Karen and I, you all, we, we both went to the same geeky science high school in New York. We both went to Bronx high school of science and I knew I wanted to be a physician even as early as ninth grade, but I wanted to get out of New York and I was living in a housing project. 

[05:53] And we're talking back to 1981. So this was a long time ago. And when I started to look at the history of women's health, the fact that at that time in 81, the C-section rate was already becoming a concerning issue, how high it was getting. And at that point, it hadn't even hit 19% yet. Now we're at like 34% nationally in 1981, it was still legal for black and brown women to be sterilized at childbirth without their consent in California, for example. 

[06:57] So it kind of goes pretty far back deep in my roots of the things that I was just very blessed and ballsy enough to like that combination of like stepping out there to dare, to take some chances. And then those people were in my path to help me understand. So that really kind of just pushed me to a whole new commit, to deeply understanding healthcare. And I became a home birth midwife.

[07:49] And at that time too, you know, we're talking like 81 all the way into the mid two thousands. Believe it or not things like herbal medicine, nutrition, midwifery, these were really fringe. I mean, really, really fringe. The medical model was not giving any of these things, even lip service at that time. It was like you were either in the system or you were out of the system. 

[08:52] So I also wanted to be a voice and an advocate for people needing it, but like increasingly my mission is now to also just be a voice and an advocate for changing healthcare because healthcare providers are getting burned out on how healthcare is too. So that's kind of, you know, in a nutshell, the journey and where I've come through and come to. And then, you know, I was part of that. I went to medical school. I mean, I went to Yale, I got my MD and did my internship in internal medicine, women's health. And I did my residency in family medicine, cuz I wanted to add in the OB and the pediatrics, which most internal medicine docs don't do. I couldn't do the OB. I started the interview, no like I to interview in OB programs. And I actually withdraw my applications because I was like, I am gonna be so unhappy as a midwife doing OB in that system. So I really give you credit for doing that. For me, family medicine was a softer way to be able to stay aligned with what I, who I was and where I was going.

[09:56] You know, it's interesting that, you know, you point out that a lot of herbal medicine was on the fringe home. Midwifery was fringe. When I came out of residency in 96, a couple years later, I actually started being the backup for the midwives locally. And they had applied for privileges at the hospital to do liver decades before and been blocked repetitively.

[10:37] And that's for the nurse midwives. Right. So that was for CMS. It wasn't even like the traditional direct entry midwives. And they had the CMS had an obstacle and they're trained in the medical model.

[10:50] Right. And even after the commission and the suit, they say the hospital has to entertain their application. When they reapply, they would always lose their application and bottom line, they weren't gonna let them in. And then I came and the tides had turned politically and it was then in Vogue to have birthing suites yeah. And allow the family in and have midwives. 

[11:22] Yeah. That's amazing. You know, in Georgia, there are over 90 countries that have no OBGYN at all, no hospital access at all. So we were really trying to advocate. In fact, I just spoke this past year to the, um, Georgia state legislature. And we did a lunchtime hour for them still trying to get a home birth midwives licensed. It's very difficult for nurse midwives to attend home births because they're under the auspices of the OB GYN. So if the OB GYN don't approve it, they can't do it or they'll lose their licenses and privileges. So they can't do it. 

[12:18] It is insanity. And I may be a little liberal on this, but I really think that it doesn't take all the training that we OB GYNs have to deliver a baby. And this medicalization of the process, really, I think the majority of births would be handled by midwives.

[12:35] That's my, yeah. I mean, we've seen that in every, I mean, we're not talking, you know, in the middle of the Outback somewhere and you know, Australia, we're talking about the middle of like the Congo. We're talking about Western nations that have demonstrated that year after year after decade, after decade, Canada, Germany, UK, Sweden, et cetera, et cetera, that home birth is optimal for otherwise healthy women. 

[13:31] And I think like, you know, along with the medicalization that you mentioned an overmedicalization, we see this incredible and infantilization as if adult women should have to be told what we're allowed to as opposed to like, may I, or is it okay if I do this procedure or check you? And it's not just in birth, it's pelvic exams, breast exams, how we're talked to in the doctor's office. 

[14:24] It is, you are so right. It is so true. And I really think it's time for a complete revamping of women's healthcare, really a revolution. And I think your book is a great place to start because you cover a lot of these kinds of sociopolitical issues in there. So can you tell everyone what hormonal intelligence means?

[14:46] Yeah. So to me it means a couple of things. So one this idea that we have actually an innate biological blueprint that really hasn't changed over eons of time when women menstruate, the same way we get pregnant, the same way we give birth the same way internationally. We go into menopause basically at the same age that may have changed a little bit historically over time, the age that we did, what these processes repeat over and over and over same hormones, the hormones haven't changed, you know, since we first started walking on two feet and actually even before. 

[15:39] We can't just say, oh, well, that's because you're a woman or that's because you have estrogens because you have a uterus. We haven't always had all of these problems. And certainly not at the scope and magnitude and amount of women that and people with a womb that experience them now. So hormone intelligence on the one hand is understanding that we have this innate biological blueprint, hormone intelligence is also having the intelligence or wisdom to understand that blueprint.

[17:05] It's so true. In my medical training, I really was taught and got the impression that we were little men and, and that we had this little extra accessory pack, like a little black bag you might wear to a black tie event. That was our female hormone pack that conferred oh, interesting. The ability to reproduce. And that was like a separate department and it really didn't affect who we are foundationally. And you know, in my journey I've learned that nothing could be further from the truth we are. 

[17:46] Totally. And I think sometimes too, because as women, you know, we all know the statements. What are you on your period? I mean, we had a president that said to a reporter, is that you're, you know, is that blood coming out of your hoots or whatever right now, you know, it's like the, to admit that our hormones have an impact on our life and our actions and thoughts and behaviors.

[18:32] Yeah. And you know, I love how you talk about just the words that we use to describe our anatomy. Can you talk a little bit about that and kind of moving towards a less violent nomenclature that is more nurturing and supportive of us.

[18:49] Yeah. We tend to have a very male centered and militaristic approach to health in general. I mean, we all hear, you know, in this moment of the pandemic, right? Like your immune system fighting and battling, and we're very keyed into this war mentality and with, with women's bodies, I mean, all the parts are named after men, even pelvic floor exercises were for women were originally named after Dr. Keel. You know, we have our Bartels glands, we have all these pouches of Douglas. 

[19:45] So I really like to reclaim body parts whenever we can use an Ana correct name. That's great. But I do think we need to rethink some of those names and maybe rename things. But you know, when we can just call things what they are pelvic floor instead, you know, pelvic floor exercises, instead of Kas, you can say birth canal, if you want to, instead of vagina and not everyone who has one wants to get birth. So how do we rethink it? It's so funny, but because my oldest daughter is here visiting me right now and she's 33 and she was saying how funny it was. 

[20:30] And my daughter was like, it's so funny, mom. Whenever I hear it, she's like I cringe cuz it was so embarrassing when I was a kid. But she's like, it's so popular now. And it's not necessarily the perfect word, but it is at least a respectful term for women's really means the VVA. That's another thing too. 

[21:25] It's so true. Ava and I used to, when I practiced basic OB GYN, which I don't do anymore, I used to keep a mirror in my exam rooms and I would show everyone when we would have the speculum exam, this is what your cervix is and show them their anatomy. And I was surprised how many women had never looked yes. At their anatomy.

[21:47] And when do they're like, oh, that's amazing. Or that's really cool or wow, that's not what I thought. Yeah.

[21:54] I am for anatomy and biology education, age appropriate all the way through our training. Just so I think we'd have a lot fewer health problems. I love how you explain cuz this is so I harp on and I love how you describe this. Hormones are messengers, symptoms are messages. So I don't think a lot of people understand what is the role of hormones? What are they doing? Can you talk a little bit about that as messengers and then symptoms? 

[22:38] Yeah. For sure. Well, as you and I both know, I mean even in basic medical school, basic endocrinology, we learn that hormones are chemical messengers and that's what they literally are. They are produced in one part of the body, in a gland. So that could be your hypothalamus, your pituitary, your thyroid, your adrenals, your ovaries, and then those chemicals are released. And usually like when we're talking about female hormones, we're talking about estrogen or progesterone testosterone, but many others play an important role like cortisol on thyroid, hormone and insulin. And so they're released from wherever their origin place is.

[23:38] And then they rip in one and they cause it to mature and it releases and then that place that's left over produces hormones. So they're just these beautiful signaling molecules. And really, they shouldn't make too much noise. I mean, we shouldn't really be that aware of their presence in any significantly UN uncomfortable way. They should just do their job. But some of the jobs that they do, for example, estrogen does make our breasts get fuller each month. 

[24:35] But the kind of crossing over into the line of where a, now it becomes a symptom is when it's causing you discomfort in your life. So your breasts are killing you. Like you can't even put your bra on premenstrually. That may be a symptom of too much estrogen. And for some women that can be a risk factor for fibro cystic, uh, for cystic breast disease, but also for breast cancer, having too much estrogen that causes you to have a lot of really heavy periods of really a lot of pelvic discomfort may be also a risk factor for uterine fibroids because of that too much estrogen we've been taught as women that all of these signs that we get each month, you know, restfulness PMs, heavy periods, late periods, cravings, incredible mood swings are just kind of par for the course of being women. 

[25:41] They actually tell us when things aren't going quite according to that hormone, an intelligent blueprint. So if we ignore or suppress those little symptoms and signs, even if they're just causing us, you know, minor discomfort, but definitely discomfort, we're potentially suppressing opportunities, stall other problems later on. So that's why it's so important to listen to these little symptoms and these little messages and take them seriously often when we don't listen to them. When they're small, they start getting louder and louder and louder until they're in full, full blown condition. So that's why I say that symptoms are important messages from our hormones.

[26:24] Yes, absolutely. And you know, I love how you say don't care. Know the messenger.

[26:31] Because the symptom is there to tell you something, you know, I always, I call our body, she and she's telling you.

[26:44] Right. And Tylenol may be great for the moment, right. But if we're doing that day in and day out, we are missing an opportunity. And a lot of the gynecologic conditions that are very common, whether it be PMs or whether it be menstrual cramps or polycystic ovary syndrome, or a lot of breast tension, you know, cyclically, skipped, irregular, all those things are harbingers of later conditions in the sense that many of them are triggered by excessive inflammation or insulin resistance or blood, blood sugar. I balance. 

[27:47] Great. Well, and I know everyone should get the book, but can you give them a little kind of overview of wherever they are at whatever stage of life, whatever they're dealing with, maybe heavy irregular, painful periods, P C O S whatever it is, what kind of would be a general overview of the path that they should take to start addressing these problems?

[28:11] Yeah. So I think the first thing is really just to acknowledge that you're having them and then be forgiving of yourself. I know we both love quotes. And one of my favorite quotes is Maya Angelus. Like the font of she's the quote goddess. So she really is my source of often my favorite quotes, but she says, I'm gonna paraphrase. But you know, we do what we can with the information we have when we have it. And when we know better, we do better. So the first thing is just to be really honest with yourself about the symptoms you're having, cuz as women, we are taught to ignore them, suppress them, pretend they're not happening to gloss right over them. 

[28:56] So if you don't know your body parts, if you don't know what your uterus is, your bladder is your intestines. The difference between your vagina and your VVA, where your ovaries are. Look at a good image, go to my book, go online and start to identify, you know, what are those symptoms? What are they associated with? And if you can find a wonderful provider, that's always a great step to have someone you can really partner with in exploring what's going on. 

[29:48] And then, so with my book, for example, and in my medical practice, I help women identify not just what the medical symptoms are and the medical condition is. But what are the things that we know that may be contributing to those that we can do something about? So for example, we know that women who have really painful periods often have more inflammation and we know that movement, some dietary changes like reducing red meat, reducing dairy, increasing fruits and vegetables, not even rocket rocket science can really make, really make a difference. 

[30:55] So for example, one study that I thought was really interesting, looked at a group of teenage girls who were using body products that were very high in S which is a form of plasticizer. It makes plastics soft and they were also drinking out of plastic, water bottles and plastic cups. So the researchers measured their blood level of thas had them go. I think it was one week only of no body products that had added those in it. So like clean body products or no body products and just no more drinking out of plastic. And within that week period of time, their th levels plummeted. Well, we also know those fallates and many environmental chemicals act as what are called endocrine disruptors.

[32:03] But I love and often repeat to my patients. And in, when I teach is your body has the capacity to heal beyond anything you've ever been led to believe. And I don't mean that just, you know, if you just change your thoughts, your fibroids are gonna go away or you're not gonna get breast cancer. Health is much more complicated than that. And disease is much more complicated than that. But in conventional medicine, we're taught that our medical conditions are basically genetically programmed and they're fixed and they're inevitable. 

[32:59] But then of course, you know, sometimes it does need a little bit more. So that's where partnering with a good integrative practitioner, your conventional practitioner who knows integrative therapies may help you. And of course that's where my book and articles that I have. I'm sure you have articles too. Can really come in handy to learn from people that you trust. What supplements, what specific foods, what specific, you know, we know that there are a few specific yoga postures that really have been found in research to help with menstrual cramps as an example. And this is so with my book, but also, you know, when we think about women's reproductive health, my book covers the first time you have a period all the way till through Perry menopause.

[33:57] It is. Thank you for outlining. All of that. I know when I was reading the book and you told you have a section called women, women unseen and unheard, and you quoted if just one doctor had listened to me, I wouldn't have lost years of my life to this end quote. And I talk to women every day. I know you do too, who they're just so there's so much frustration. They're not being heard. They read your book, they hear us talking online and they know that a higher standard of care is available for them, but they're really having trouble accessing it.

[35:05] Yes. And you have to, I mean, it's so hard because we're so taught to be polite and not question authority, but it's your body, you know, your body best. If you're really, if you're experiencing something, don't let someone else Gaslight you and tell you you're not, or dismiss it as just stress. I mean, stress may play a part in what's going on, but if you're experiencing anxiety, depression, period problems, fertility challenges, heavy periods, menopausal symptoms. Don't just let somebody tell you, that's just normal.

[36:02] Like being more bold or being more sexualized or like a, you know, in an empowered way. And so I always, I say to women, I even have an article about this on my website, learn to channel your Sasha fierce, like whatever that is for you, it can be any name. You, it can be a wonder woman. It can be Sasha fierce, whoever you, it is for you, but channel her when you go into a physician's office and hold your power. And there's so many things you can do to make notes about what your questions are. 

[36:46] I mean, you are sometimes vulnerable when you go into a system and your doctor has seven or 10 minutes to see you amongst the 50 patients. He or she may be seeing that day and is trained in a system to dismiss women and absolutely not trained at all to recognize that there's more to healing and health and wellness than just, you know, here's a pill. Here's that pill here is a surgery or whatever, whatever. 

[37:25] Yeah. I love that. Channel. Your inner Sasha fierce, put your big girl panties on and yep. And just do it. One of the things that I really work with, all the women I work with on with their health is their energy body, I and their story and their hi her story. And I love how Carolyn me says that your biography becomes your biology. And so it's really an integral part of the work I do with women. I love this quote you shared from Clarissa Pinola, Estees the doors to the world of the wild self.

[38:30] Couldn't agree more about our stories and how we think of our stories and how we tell our stories. And in fact, in hormone intelligence, in my medical practice, the book and, and what I do with my patients, one on one, one of the things that I do share is a practice on writing your story, reading your story, and rewriting your story so that you are the heroine of your, so many of us have stories that include mistreatment or trauma or being in the dark about something that was going on in our bodies. 

[39:25] And nobody said, uh, you could have endometriosis, no matter what, that's not normal. You shouldn't suffer like that. So astonishing. So really writing your story, whether that is your life story and how you are, where you are right now, or just your gynecologic and reproductive health story. And the other thing, and the reason I ask women to read that and rewrite our story is that very few of us are ever taught that we can be the author of our story.

[40:14] You know, if you had a gynecologic variant that was victimizing, for example, 7% of women now report birth trauma. There's a percentage of women in the United States now having such significant birth trauma, that it is diagnosed as PTs D women who struggle horribly with endometriosis or P C O S who become so identified with the trauma are so identified with the diagnosis that they feel victimized by their own bodies or by the health system. 

[41:29] And rather than seeing them as a deficit, how can we see them as our superpower? And it's a little bit like that Japanese artist, I think it's called Kenui where you take the wounds of a broken piece of pottery and you paint them with gold so that they're like they're actually sealed back together with gold so that the broken vessel becomes even more of you beautiful and more of an art piece than maybe even the original one as it was sort of created to be.

[42:28] And so for me, I'm very, very alert to my environment. I'm also incredibly about what's going on in my environment. I had to learn to read faces and expressions easily as a child for my own physical and emotional safety. But I'm also deeply aware of the facial expressions and sense of safety of my patients and others, and able to just read subtle nuance. So how can you reframe so that those parts of you are now a gift that you can bring forward to the world and also recognize when you're activated. So those parts are driving you in a not healthful way. 

[43:33] I love that. Thank you so much for sharing it. You're welcome. And I could just go on talking, talking, talking to you, but I do wanna be respectful of our listeners' time and attention. Thank you so much for joining us today, Dr. Aviva Romm, do you have any, where can people find you? Where can they find out more? I know they can get the book, hormone intelligence, wherever books are sold, but tell the 'em all the places that they can find

[43:57] You. Okay. So I love hanging out on my Instagram. I am one of those weird people. I don't love social media in general and all the bad things about it, but I do love connecting with my community. So if you go to Dr. Aviva RO on Instagram, you will find me. And that's really me and the comments and DMS. So, you know, it's just quick, like little tips and, and things I'm thinking about and a little glimpse into my life. That's a great place. And then if you want tons of articles, podcasts, videos, eBooks information, my website is the place to go. It's just Aviva rom.com and it's very easy to navigate.

[44:38] Awesome. Thank you so much for those great resources. Thank you for the work you do. Thanks for helping with the revolution when it comes to women's health. I have to ask you this one last question. Yeah. What is it gonna take for us to really overhaul the way women's health is handled, uh, in the mainstream,

[44:56] You know, it's already happening, you know, when you talked about mid, you talked about midwives, right. And midwives create a presence. I mean, it was really women in a sea change kind of way speaking up for and demanding what they want. And sadly, the medical system is also a, it is an industry and it's driven by consumer demand. So the more we all actually channel our Sasha fierce, the more we actually do say to our providers.

[45:40] We, we, we actually can change it with where we are, where we put our money in healthcare. You know, the more we're going to get other forms, the nutritionist that we're seeing, the health coaches that we're seeing that creates that sea change also.

[45:53] Right. Great. Thank you so much for that. Thank you for joining us today, Dr. Aviva Romm,

[45:57] You are so welcome. Thank you for having me.

Get a FREE copy of Dr. Aviva Romm’s book:

Hormone intelligence - The Woman MDs Guide to Healing Your Periods, Reversing PCOS, Easing Endometriosis, Increasing Fertility, Rekindling Your Sex Drive, Cooling Hot Flashes, and Feeling Really Good in Your Body Again

CLICK HERE: https://avivaromm.com/book/

Q & A Episode each month

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In today's episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're joined by Dr. Keesha Ewers to discuss how energy healing can impact your hormones. We'll be discussing how past childhood trauma can have a lasting impact on your health as an adult, as well as the benefits of energy healing modalities such as yoga and meditation to hormone balance.

Dr. Keesha Ewers is board certified in functional medicine and Ayurvedic medicine, a Doctor of Sexology, trauma-informed psychotherapist, family practice ARNP with a specialty in integrative medicine, a conscious dying doula, and the founder and medical director of the Academy for Integrative Medicine Health Coach Certification Program.

Keesha has been in the medical field for over 30 years. After conducting the HURT Study in 2013 (Healing Un-Resolved Trauma), she developed the HURT Model for understanding how past childhood trauma impacts adult health. This led to the creation of the Healing Trauma Through the Chakra System online program and the You Unbroken online program for patients to heal their trauma and the Mystic Medicine deep immersion healing retreats she leads at her home on San Juan Island, WA.

In this episode you'll learn:

-How trauma can impact your hormones

-The benefits of energy healing for hormone-related issues

-How yoga and meditation can help to heal trauma

-What you can do to start healing your own trauma

We hope you enjoy this episode! Be sure to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast.  And don't forget to leave us a rating and review if you enjoyed it!

[00:54] We are gonna talk about something today that you might think doesn't have anything to do with hormones, but it does. And we're going to draw the line between the two for you and help you understand why vibration has so much to do with your hormones and vice versa. 

[01:50] Dr. Keisha Ewers is a board certified in functional medicine and IIC medicine. She's a doctor of sexology trauma informed psychotherapist family practice, a N R P with a specialty in integrative medicine. Al​​so a conscious dying doula and the founder and medical director of the academy for integrative medicine, health coach certification program. Keisha has been in the medical field for over 30 years. And after conducting the hurt study in 2013, Hurtt stands for healing, unresolved trauma. 

[03:05] She's also hosting the upcoming summit on vibrational medicine, which we'll have links to in the show notes, healing with vibration summit, and she's got special interest in expertise as well. In fact, I was thinking of all the things I know you've done since that bio was written. 

[03:36] We are made up of energy sound travels, you know, in waveforms, light travels in wave forms. The way that our heartbeat is in the form, our E EEG from our brain waves forms, the ocean comes in and waves and goes out and tides, right? 

{04:33] And so everything's vibrations, we're we as our human organism in the context of the earthly environments that we're in, it's all vibrations. And so how those vibrations impact each other is going to really have a lot to do with our health, our mood, our longevity, like all of it is affected with how we're vibrating. 

[05:45] The perception of fear will start to set off a whole cascade of hormone messenger chemicals in your body that alert the body, how to vibrate, right? So those adrenals need to get to work. Cortisol goes through, this is a vibratory quality. So vibrational medicine is really becoming aware of how you're vibrating. Like every thought, every feeling has its own vibration. 

[07:09] Yes. Thank you for that explanation. And yeah, I think as you were talking, I was thinking, I think everybody's familiar with, well, radio waves, the, if that's a wave form, right. But I don't think they think of us as human. 

[08:02] And then right when I turned 30, I was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis, and it was this fascinating sort of overnight change. That's how my patients describe it too. Like all of a sudden I'm sick, which actually isn't accurate. The body's been trying to get your attention for a long, long time, but how we are with ourselves, you know, it's, it's like we definitely have to kind of all into the pothole before we wake up. 

[08:57] And, and the doctor that was seeing me asked, you know, do you have a family history of autoimmune disease? And I remember thinking about that and saying, yeah, I think, I think my grandfather had it and had rheumatoid arthritis and was in a wheelchair at the end of his life with it. He died before I ever knew him, his fifties, which is where I am right now is in my fifties. And she said, well, that's what you have. 

[09:43] And I just remember saying, well, hang on, hang on. I'm very, very disciplined. I make my own food. I'm very healthy, you know, is there anything else? And she just said, no, it's genetic. You know, just kinda like closing the book, putting it on the shelf. That's the end of the discussion. 

[10:31] And what I just read was so interesting and revolutionary to me, you know, it was like, we're not all the same. We have different ways. We're supposed to feed in water and take care of ourselves. There's no one dietary protocol that's right for everybody. And that, by the way, autoimmune disease is undigested anger. 

[11:27] I am attacking myself. And so I thought, when was the first time I wanted to die?  I don't have any clear cognition about wanting to die right now. You know, I don't want to die. So I started going backwards asking that question and I found this little 10 - year old girl version of myself who was being sexually abused by the vice principal of the elementary school that I was attending.

[12:16] I have a stomach ache, you know, and, but I didn't know the word sex, you know, I didn't know the word molest or abuse. Like I didn't know any of the language that was attached to this. And really, I thought it must be because there was something inherently wrong with me. And so when I started looking at that version of myself from this 30 - year old perspective, I went, oh this has to be connected. Like it has to be.

[13:35] Yeah. Thank you for sharing all of that. And um, you know, I know I share part of your story and a lot of women listening do and a lot of women, you know, it's not okay for us to be angry. We're told. 

[14:04] At some point that has to be digested. Right. And then digested, and we're taught that anger is bad. It's a negative emotion as a vibrational quality in the whole law of attraction world too. Right. And that's another one that I go, oh no, like you have to let your emotions digest properly and not judge them. And then they can move through. 

[14:38] And so the entire idea of emotions being their vibrational energies, they are right. And so they have to be digested. So what modalities might you have used, or you've used with clients or might be talked about in the vibrational health summit? 

[15:17] So in the hurt model, healing, unresolved trauma model that emerged from my work, I show, you know, first you have this event and, and we have capital T trauma have lower case T trauma and everybody's had trauma. So not everybody's had capital T trauma. The kind that we're talking about when we're talking about sexual abuse, but you can have trauma that is like tripping in front of the entire class in the cafeteria and, and everyone laughs at you or missing the spelling word and the, or not being able to get to the top of the rope and the presidential challenge in front of everyone. Like all of these.

[16:32] So, you know, it's this really interesting experience to be a child and to have all these little, little tiny experiences throughout the, the jungle of childhood where you didn't have maybe a well attuned, securely attached caregiver who was attuned to you and help you, you navigate. So our brains are not fully developed till we're 26 years old and we don't have our prefrontal cortex online yet. 

[17:29] So it's going to be like, everyone's so different and how you create the belief and the behavior pattern that goes with whatever your capital T your lower case T traumas are. Then that's how we lock it. It really does. Like, so sometimes energy workers will do like chakra work with somebody, and they'll feel really good, but then they still have the button that gets pushed. Right.

[18:20] Then they're back to the races again, that just the next time. And so with the hurt model, what I show is, you know, how that button gets created, that get pushed all the way through your adult life, where at first you have the event, then you have a feeling, okay. So if we use my sexual abuse, it's an easy one to track.

[19:10] So you make up a meaning to whatever it is that is happening. Right. And for me, the meaning was people that say, they're in charge and want to protect children, probably can't be trusted. You know, like it's a lie. And so I have to, my belief was I am going to have to be perfect to survive this. 

[20:03] I actually have never met anyone with an autoimmune disease that does not have perfectionism in there. And so that's a very untenable way to live your life, to think you always have to be perfect. I was on that road until I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, because it was governing everything. I drove myself so hard. So, and it came from sitting in that little desk. 

[20:58] And we have to learn how to do that internally. So I start there because if you feel like your safety or survival is constantly on the line, subconsciously nothing else you do is ever going to work. Like you can fix your microbiome until the cows come home and keep going back to those adrenals, and they'll keep turning over, right? Your hormones will never get balanced because you keep having this survival issue.

[22:19] And what, what happens is if you think someone's going to come, if you just care enough, then someone will pay attention to you. That's how we get connected to narcissists. That's how we get into codependent relationships like that does not work. You have to become the parent to you that you always needed. And so I will teach you how to do that. Like how to repair that attachment, how to attach to yourself, how to become grounded, safe, and secure inside your own system. So then you're resonating a vibration that magnetizes others like that to you, right then you're at a higher level of relating. It's not need based.

[23:04] Yeah. So your vibe shifts your vibration and then the law of attraction can bring you what you want. Not what you don't want for a lot of us who say it doesn't work. It's because we have undigested anger. 

[23:23] There's a child part in there that's resentful and frustrated and disempowered and angry and your adult self, maybe have the spiritual, the bypass part, right. That can radiate out love and compassion and want to attract with the adult part once. But you have to actually heal that child part because she's in the background screaming.

[23:52] Yeah. It's a really interesting dynamic for people that have been doing a lot of work and are waking up and exploring consciousness and maybe are, you know, into yoga, action, prayer. And they, they forgive, and they go into the law of attraction from their adult brain. But they've bypassed it. It's like building a school on a trash heap. Right? 

[24:55] You know what you're talking about so much reminds me of a lot of the 12-step work, which is kind of the first level of addiction recovery, whether it's Overeaters anonymous, alcoholics and anonymous, whatever your thing is anonymous. And basically it is fake till you make it behavior change. 

[25:38] One of the things I love about summits is connecting to people and, and the interviews, right. It's just so amazing. So I loved rolling MCRA interview. He's the researcher that for heart math, and you know, really talking about this entrainment that we have with each other and ourselves, you know, vibrationally that we're all in like what Rupert Shere calls the morphogenetic field, and we're influencing it. 

[26:20] So you guys are going to have to go look at the summit, and you can see that  we will have the links in the show notes. And I also wanted to ask you because since the last time you were on the podcast, didn't you haven't you completed or in the process of doing your ministerial training?

[26:49] Yeah. I've been doing a master's in divinity. Yeah.

[26:52] Yeah. How has that changed or informed the work that you do?

[26:57] Went into it because I was starting to notice an up and what a couple of Princeton researchers have called deaths of despair in our culture and deaths of despair are overdoses suicides from a variety of different ways and means, and non-alcoholic catty liver disease. And you know, we do have a lot of that and this was pre-pandemic when I started and this was on. Right. And what I started noticing is as this uptick is going up, we also have an uptick in narcissistic personality disorder diagnoses. 

[28:04] Right. And at that time again, pre-pandemic, I was a little worried about the lack of community. Maybe people were experiencing it when they didn't have a synagogue or a mosque or a church or a temple, you know? And I thought, where is that getting replaced? Is that why there's so much of this increase in narcissism, an increase. And so I was looking at, at the research of the narcissistic epidemic and what was being shown to be at the root of that. 

[28:53] So I went in wanting to really explore that, like what's the role of divinity in this? How do we help people reattach again, it's attachment trauma in my mind to source to their own divine source, you know? And instead of needing it from out here, can they find it here? Can they reconnect to that? That has been my interest in what I was up to. And so I think it informs my work. 

[29:48] Yeah. So I have to ask you on this topic or your thoughts on the use of psychedelic and other medicines that may not be mainstream for people to heal these really core, like you said, existential attachment wounds.

[30:04] Right? Yeah. So we tend to like to start and stop the conversation with parents and parent-child bonding. And you know, like it's much bigger than that, right. As I just mentioned, right. And now post pandemic, there's also the bond of the community broken in the way. Right? And so I am an M DMA certified AED psychotherapist. I've trained for 10 years in the use of wa Huma with a teacher in Peru, initiated wa Humira or medicine woman.

[31:11] And so I looked at so many studies from different religions, and it turns out that plant, the use of plant medicine is head and shoulders above anything in efficacy for reducing gut anxiety and to reattaching us to source like we get our left brain out of the way that says that everything has to be proven. We have to see it, feel it, touch it, smell it, taste it, or it doesn't exist and allow the right brain to come forward with the opposite of that.

[32:08] Now take a little nap. You'll be required later when it's time to balance the checkbook. So, you know, uh, you're not going to be killed. You're not going to go anywhere for good, but just, just come to sleep for a little while, you know, and it, and it allows you to get in touch with a lot of its dead. After you go through childhood with your imagination, like the right brain, the ability to be able to get into energy flow, to feel vibratory changes too, you know, so plant medicine assists in that.

[33:01] But if you are not integrating, which takes a skilled therapist to work with you to do this, you know, to give you how to integrate that, then all it is a cool experience. That then means nothing. And I, it doesn't heal you, it doesn't help change anything. So you have to go through like that hurt model and be able to apply it, you know, to helping with attachment trauma, whether it's you feel like you've been betrayed by life or God or the culture or the government or your parents or your spouse, you know, or yourself, and, you know, really heal that and integrate what comes through

[34:24] Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Yeah. I would, I agree with that. The integration is everything. Yeah. And it's often missing. Yeah. With the way we've, McDonaldized a lot of these medicines.

[34:38] I mean, I'm seeing on Facebook now that you can actually order a ketamine box and just do home therapy. Right. Where, so you're taking the substance by yourself.

[35:15] How does somebody find someone who's expert at being an integration coach? Cause that's not a skill set that most standard therapists, psychotherapists or family therapists have, how do they find someone?

[35:30] I was certified through maps, a similar disciplinary approach to psychedelic research and studies, and they emphasized most of the training was integration. So it's not like, um, so if you get certified with maps, that's a good one because it's all about the integration. So I would say that's probably a good place. You know, these things aren't legalized yet. Right?

[35:57] So people can't advertise. I mean, I've come out, and I've been talking on summits and saying, yeah, like I run groups, right. So people can contact me, but it's not something where the California C I S is, you know, has a psychedelics research program. Like I said, John's Hopkins has tons of money now that they have allocated toward this research. So we're still in that research stage of bringing out enough science to sink a ship many times over for the FDA to finally go, oh, you know, so MDMA is in its third round of FDA trials. 

[36:58] Yeah. So eventually you know I have been legalized in the state of Oregon, but right now they're in this, the position of creating oversight, you know, like pulling all of like, what's the infrastructure going to look like? 

[37:30] Great. Well, thank you so much for sharing that and for your transparency, I think that it's, it speaks a lot to, people need to hear this, that practitioners who are credentialed, use these things help with these things and that they are available. 

[37:55] Yeah. So let's dive back to the summit, and then we're going to wrap up the podcast, but I just will have the link in the show notes where you can find out more, you can see all the experts, what they're talking about, any last words about the summit that you wanna share, 

[38:11] That this is an innovative and unique way of opening up a perspective. A lot of people haven't maybe spent too much time in. And so I would just really encourage you to listen to, it goes from like the vibration is how to organize your home environment. I did a talk on boss, which is the sister science of yoga and IIC medicine, which is where I came from. And you know, like what are some very easy things you can do inside your office and home to have, do the energy move in a way that helps you be healthy and abundant and happy, right? 

[39:11] Thank you so much. And as you're talking, I'm realizing, I promised at the beginning name, we were gonna talk about vibration and hormones, which we didn't get to, but everybody listening, Dr. Keisha is doing a masterclass with participants in one of my programs when we get done. So we will talk about that.

FREE Online Summit hosted by Dr. Keesha Ewers:

Healing with Vibration 2.0 will provide you with all the information you need to understand:

• Yourself (& everything else) as energy
• Vibrational healing modalities & how they work
• Techniques you can start implementing today
• How non-beneficial energies cause dis-ease
• Links between immune dysfunction & emotions
• The energetics of healing cancer
• Frequencies that can access & address unconscious trauma
• How to heal leaky boundaries with yourself & others

The world’s leading experts on vibrational health share the science behind practices that can awaken energies in you that bring resilience, vitality, and joy!

CLICK HERE to register:

https://healingwithvibration.byhealthmeans.com/?idev_id=25286

Q & A Episode each month

Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):

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Join The Hormone Bliss Challenge 

FEEL ENERGIZED, SEXY & CONFIDENT IN YOUR BODY AGAIN... IN JUST 5 DAYS.

Discover How To Balance Your Hormones & Jumpstart Your Metabolism So That You Can Lose Weight & Regain Energy!

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Is it Too Late for Natural Hormone Therapy?

This is a question that I get all the time from midlife women. And it's a great question because, as we age, our bodies go through so many changes.

One of the most common changes is a decline in hormone production. This can lead to all sorts of problems, like hot flashes, night sweats, weight gain, mood swings, and more.

Fortunately, there's a way to combat these changes: natural hormone therapy.

Natural hormone therapy can help to restore your body's hormone levels back to where they were when you were younger. This can help to alleviate all sorts of symptoms and make you feel like yourself again.

However, some women worry that it's too late for them to start natural hormone therapy. They think that their bodies have already changed too much and that it's too late to make a difference.

In this episode, we discuss the topic of natural hormone therapy and whether it is too late for midlife women to benefit from this type of treatment. We also cover the following topics:

-Taking estrogen if you have osteoporosis

-The benefits of natural hormone therapy for midlife women

-The risks associated with hormone replacement therapy

-How to know if natural hormone therapy is right for you

And much more!

If you are a woman in midlife who is struggling with hormone imbalances, this episode is a must-listen. Tune in now and learn everything you need to know about natural hormone therapy and how it can help you feel your best.

[00:59] Thanks so much for joining me today for our special monthly Q and A episode. Thank you to those of you who submitted questions on my website, KyrinDunstonmd.com. You can go to the podcast page, and you'll see the section with a microphone, and you can click it, and you can talk to me. 

[01:52] Mary left this message. And I think that it probably speaks to what a lot of you are dealing with right now. She is apparently a former patient from when I practiced basic corporate OB GYN. And you can hear in her message about what I was dealing with and she sees the transformation and what I'm doing now. 

[02:49] Hello, Dr. Dunston. My name is Mary Brown. I was a former patient of yours in Savannah. And actually I saw your PA and I have to say every time I saw you in your office, you looked so stressed out and so burned out and so exhausted. And I'm glad that you found a new vocation.

[03:33] And if you're a woman at midlife, and you sound like how I used to be just a hot mess and really not thriving, then listen up because I help women now undergo the exact same transformation that I underwent. Not necessarily with your career, but with your health. And if your career is stuck, then maybe it has to do with your health. Because you have to get it unstuck first. 

[04:31] . But Catrina said she was on a low dose of estrogen until age 56. And she's had none for two years. She's 58 and she is not on any med, other medications she says, and she says, can I re-start?

[05:29] She said my doctor gave me prescriptions for Gabapentin and Vagifem at 53. Is that right? But no estrogen. And she says that she has been diagnosed with osteoporosis already at 53. And all she was given was GA Pentin and Vagifem is that right? And she says, I think I'm, I should have estrogen. And I don't. So that's another question, a little different from Catrina's question, but there's a little overlap there.

[06:36] And she wants to know if that's a wise thing to do. And she's also been in menopause for a while. So that's the similarity with all these questions. And maybe you have this question too. You've been in menopause for a while. Maybe you have been diagnosed with osteopenia, which is bone thinning to a certain degree. And then once it passes this certain degree, it becomes osteoporosis or maybe you're having other adverse health consequences from hormonal poverty and menopause. 

[07:35] So you have hormone sex, hormone receptors all over your body. They help all systems in your body stay healthy. They're not just about your sex drive and your reproduction. They're about your overall functioning. They're anti-inflammatory so most women function better when they're not in hormonal poverty and they feel better and function better. 

[08:38] You roll out the red carpet for her, because she's a loyal friend, right? She comes every week. She brings treats. She brings pictures. She brings great conversation and connection, and you really look forward to her visits, and you roll out the red carpet. Every time she comes, she's welcome. 

[09:28] Let's have a quick cup of coffee, but you don't really roll out the red carpet like you used to. Well, it's kind of the same with the hormone receptors on your cells. When these hormones are not around, it takes a lot of energy for you to roll out the red carpet for your friend, right? 

[10:23] It costs me a lot of time, energy, and money to do it and I'm not gonna do it. So it starts taking off the receptors and the receptors start going away. And that's where this five year window comes from at the end of five years. It's thought that you really don't have the number of receptors in order to receive the information from these hormones.

[11:20] And then maybe you don't go all out like you used to, but you get some things ready, refreshments, and you get your house prepped, and you clear your schedule. Well, your body is the same. It will start putting an effort back into rolling out the red carpet when these hormones come knocking. So your body has the flexibility, the ability to adapt. And when the hormones are available, it can make receptors. 

[12:25] So I kind of like Karen, that you and your doctor decided you didn't want the bisphosphate. You didn't say why in your message and that would've been a treatment for osteoporosis, but I'm thinking it has something to do with the fact that there's some data on bisphosphonate that shows that yes, it increases bone density, but the quality of bone is not that good. 

[13:19] So I like this approach. I will say most corporate doctors are not really willing to put any woman on hormone therapy. Who's had a D V T because it does increase the viscosity and coagulability meaning clothing ability of your blood. And so if you've had a clothing event, a lot of corporate doctors will say, you can't try hormone bones

[14:22]  How does your brain function improve? How does your sleep improve? How does your weight improve? How do all the things that hormones benefit improve. So thank you so much for that question, Karen, and then this relates to Ruth's question two. 

[15:25] And they consider the only two symptoms, urogenital, atrophy, vaginal dryness, and hot flashes. And they do put osteoporosis in there, but you won't find most corporate doctors going there first because they're afraid. Why are they afraid? That's a whole other discussion, but most of them don't understand the data. And the difference between synthetic hormones and biologically identical hormones and tic hormones do have a lot of risk and do increase your risk for breast cancer. Things like medroxyprogesterone, acetate and Equiline, which is horse estrogen. And, that medroxyprogesterone acetate is progestin. 

[16:29] If estrogen causes breast cancer, everybody with estrogen would get breast cancer, and they don't have estrogen. Can they get breast cancer? Yes, but it's about one, 100, the rate of women. So that right there to tell you, it's not estrogen itself that causes breast cancer. 

[17:24] So nothing wrong with VA fem at 53. But if you have a diagnosis of osteoporosis, the osteoporosis absolutely needs to be treated hands down. Most people are not aware. Osteoporosis takes decades to develop. We start losing bone mass at the age of 30. And if we do nothing to counteract this, it just progresses annually.

[18:37] And unfortunately, a third of women who have a hip fracture will die from that hip fracture. And a third will become disabled where they can no longer live independently and that can make 80 look like something you wouldn't ever want, right? Living in assisted living out of your own home with people, you don't know how to eat food, you wouldn't choose to eat right and lose your independence. So osteoporosis is not a joke. 

[19:51] My experience from being a board certified OB GYN for almost well since 1998, is that the corporate doctrine is their concern with what, what is the diagnosis? What drug do I need to give? What surgery do I need to do? And so they're not as concerned with what's causing your osteoporosis, and they don't really, and aren't trained in the art and science of deciphering, why you're losing bone mass. 

[20:59] You can still access it at stopthemenopausemadness.com. I highly recommend that you watch both part one and part two, and that you start doing the things that she's talking about to help reverse your bone loss. In addition to addressing it with bio identical hormones and possibly other medications

[22:16] Your cardiovascular endurance is probably pretty poor, right? Because the activity that keeps these things vital and upgraded hasn't been happening. And so they might say, well, yeah, you can do it, but it's going to take you a while to see results, and you have to be consistent, and you got to commit to a program of action, but you should start noticing something a little something maybe in a few months and then a few months later something else. 

[23:21] The pros outweigh the cons of it. So how long should you commit? I mean, I definitely would say six months, if not 12 months, because it takes time for your body to realize what's happening and up regulate the receptors.

[24:24] And I invite everybody else to listen. What questions do you have about your hormones and your health as a midlife woman? Tony Robbins said it, the quality of the questions you ask determines the quality of your life. It's true in every area. It's true for your finances. It's true for your career, your creativity, your relationships, and no more true than with your hormones and your health. 

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In this episode, we're joined by Dr. Lara Briden - a world-renowned hormone expert. She's here to share her expertise on how to repair your hormones and your period.

Dr. Lara Briden is a naturopathic doctor and author of the bestselling books Period Repair Manual and Hormone Repair Manual. She has more than 20 years of experience in women's health and currently has consulting rooms in Christchurch, New Zealand, where she treats women with PCOS, PMS, endometriosis, perimenopause, and many other hormones and period-related health problems.

Whether you're struggling with PMS, menopause, or any other hormonal issue, this episode is a must-listen! Dr. Briden shares her top tips for balancing your hormones naturally, as well as what to do if you're dealing with a more serious hormone issue.

If you're ready to get your hormones back on track, tune in now! You won't regret it.

You'll learn:

- How to repair your hormones and your period naturally

- What to do if you're struggling with a hormone issue

- The top tips for balancing your hormones naturally

- How to get your hormones back on track

- Types of treatments might be offered to women in traditional and modern medicine and naturopathic medicine

So what are you waiting for? Press play and join us on this exciting episode of the Hormone Prescription Podcast!

[01:14]  She has a very kind of global evolutionary view of hormonal function, which really matches mine. So I love talking to her. She's a big thinker and she likes to help women to understand what their hormones mean on a bigger picture than just every day, regulating their period and, uh, producing reproduction. 

[02:15]  We met recently when we did the event with Dr. Cabeca and I have looked at your beautiful book, hormone repair manual, which I love, and you have some really unique concepts that I know everybody's gonna really appreciate hearing about. 

[03:12]  I came to just discover that women's bodies and women's hormones respond so well to nutritional interventions, even more so than I had been taught to expect when I went through naturopathic college. So out of that, well, some of my first work was in Canada. 

[04:38]  And you call Perimenopause the second puberty.

[04:58]  If you're 41, 42, 43, you are in the territory of perimenopausal second puberty, and it's the, our hormones winding down, although as we'll talk about they don't do so in a, you know, quiet quietly kind of way.

[05:56] Very off the early phases of per menopause is actually high levels of estrogen spiking up to three times higher than we had in our twenties and thirties. And that's that kind of high estrogen exposure combined with low progesterone. 

[07:09] When you say primarily neurological, what kinds of things would women be experiencing? 

[07:19]  Other neurological symptoms include sleep disturbance. That's a big one in our forties for some women and migraines. 

[08:38] And that kind of lack of stress tolerance and stress resilience I find is so subtle and so pervasive. And that we, women, tend to blame ourselves. It's almost like the price that men go through where they kind of lose their edge, but we go through it usually a decade or even more, but ahead of time.

[09:16] So there's a lot going on, and it's understandable that you might think I've just, I'm doing too much and that's, that's a factor, but there is also this hormonal factor and this brain rewiring factor.

[10:04] Can you talk a little bit about what types of treatments might be offered to women in a traditional medical practice for this time of life or these symptoms we've just talked about and why that might be a good idea or a bad idea?

[10:32] So, you know, the conventional approach is just to shut that down. I would argue, and I know you and I are on the same page about a lot of things like this is not the time to be shutting down the ovaries.

[11:17] You're including bone health and brain because our female hormones are quite beneficial for lots of different systems. And so, yeah, I would say there's a lot more to do acknowledging that sometimes symptoms can, can seem quite strong or be, be quite strong. 

[12:24] And so that could be a nice treatment, especially in the earlier phases of perimenopause when there's still quite a lot of estrogen, but very little progesterone that in fact, that the fact that we lose progesterone before we lose estrogen, is where a lot of the symptoms early symptoms come from.

[12:55] So can you talk about how vital these menstrual cycles are for us to create this reserve? Because once we stop cycling, yeah. We don't have it anymore. So what are we building up?

[13:34] Estrogen is also this, we're talking about estradiol now, which is our main estrogen that the ovaries make. It's also very good for the cardiovascular system. It's excellent for the brain. 

[14:39] Estradiol is anabolic and helps to build muscle. So these are all, you know, strong benefits and there's evidence, several lines of evidence that con the contraceptive, you know, the estrogen and the contraceptive drugs in the pill does not have the same benefits. And then there's the progesterone that we've just talked about. 

[15:32] And then, and actually losing progesterone, as I mentioned, is one of the reasons the neurological symptom's startup in our early forties, but the other couple benefits of real progesterone for general health is that it modulates immune functions so can help to reduce the risk of autoimmune disease. 

[16:34] 35 to 40 years of menstrual cycles is important, not just for making a baby, but also to help to reduce the risk of dementia, cardio, heart disease, diabetes, and breast cancer and osteoporosis sorry, and breast cancer. 

[17:45] And the concept that a man only needs, uh, testosterone for reproduction, nobody would buy that. No, but I really feel like as women, we are reduced in our reproductive capacity when it comes to our hormones and, you know, really that's how I was taught in medical school and residency. It's like, we're just little men. 

[19:12] And actually we know from some of the research that, that deposit, the pregnancy hormone deposit into the bank account of long term health is also very good. I think you get a big dose of estrogen and progesterone with pregnancy. 

[19:52]  I'm envisioning, you know, it's like getting an inheritance from your ancestors only it's your kids. So don't see your kids never, ever, never give you anything. Yeah. They gave you the opportunity to build hormonal reserves.

[10:09] I'm wondering if you can talk a little bit about that you have in the book, the meaning of menopause through an evolutionary lens, which probably everybody, most people listening haven't heard.

[20:22] So, you know, I've been looking at health and biology through the lens of evolution for a long time and researching the book and reading about this aspect of menopause was quite meaningful for me, both kind of intellectually, but also personally, because I'm now I'm about to, I think I have graduated to menopause. 

[21:12] And part of that from me is the meaning through an evolutionary lens, which just means the most, a lot of there's several lines of evidence to suggest that menopause is not new menopause is not an accident of living too long that our ancestors should they be lucky enough to survive childhood and young adults, hood and childbirth and all the hazards that our ancestors faced, should they be lucky enough to survive all those things? 

[22:07]  And I just love this, that a longer human lifespan may have evolved or been selected for because of how advantageous or beneficial post reproductive women were to their groups, to their family groups. 

[23:05] We tend to think of our shift in metabolism with menopause as a, you know, a bad thing that creates weight gain. But I do also like to reframe it for our ancestors, that would've been a good thing that we could get away with fewer calories potentially. 

[23:51] And yes, we also have, we have accumulated wisdom, but we also have this emotional equanimity, and we have gifts that we need to give. 

[24:28] it obviously works from a survival standpoint to, in certain, you know, species to have older females around and just, this is where I sort of mean by the meaning of menopause, you know, it's um, yeah, it's important. It's been important for humans

[25:13] Perimenopause can be so hellacious that by the time it's over, you're like, please just stop. That was me just stop. But I went through that phase kind of before I knew what I knew. 

[25:50] So it's important that women don't fear unnecessarily at the same time. It's not your, you know, if you do encounter symptoms, it doesn't mean you've done something wrong necessarily. Like there's a lot of variability, both genetically and for different reasons of who experiences were symptoms versus not so bad. 

[26:36] You know, once you get true into your potentially, you know, mid fifties and beyond, there's still a few things to keep track of with your health, but overall things should be a lot more stable.

{27:26]  I think this is a critical window for health. It's also a window of opportunity to do something about that and feel better. 

[28:05] What are some of your favorite actions to help your patients at that time so that they really can protect their brain?

[28:13] We'll just let's list it in quick, like just obvious things like moving your body, cuz actually movement and building muscle is really good for the brain, which seems a little counterintuitive, but the research is very solid on that. I talk about magnesium, which is a simple supplement, but the brain loves it.

[29:03] Estrogen supports the brain in lots of different ways. I think women can get a, can survive that drop in estrogen if they don't have insulin resistance or if their brain is healthy in other ways. 

[29:55]  There's been some new research that one of, one of the proposed mechanisms that estrogen is good for the brain. And I'm sure it's just one of many, but one is that estrogen helps. 

{31:36]  Like there could be a problem with insulin resistance or metabolic syndrome even years before blood sugar blood glucose goes high into the diabetes range. So there's different ways to test it.

[33:05] I mean screening tests, fasting glucose and fasting insulin. If they're elevated, then you kind of know, you know, and the A1C, but if not, you can do the tolerance test just like when you are pregnant.

[33:43] But it also, as we've been talking about, impacts the brain. It has a big risk factor for cardiovascular risk, even to some extent for breast cancer and osteoporosis, like all the risks, all the things that we're worried about. And it's common as you, I don't know if you said this statistic already, but for people over 40 or 50, especially like this is about one and two people, probably about one and two of your listeners or like definitely have insulin resistance. 

[34:30] And also as you know, like a lot of environmental toxins increase risk of insulin resistance. So there are things working against us, especially for anyone with a genetic predisposition. 

[35:22] Would've been actually a superpower for those women because they could have, they had a, they were like lean. They didn't, you know, they could just sort of survive on less basically cuz they, we had have a, you know, reduced requirement for calories with menopause, arguably.

[36:12] My first step is satiety. So this often involves pro well not often. This is about protein. Protein is our primary appetite from a biology perspective. 

[37:06] So actually what happens is our appetite is geared such that we will keep eating until we get enough amino acids that day, every single day and, and the body is so full of protein that it doesn't care. 

[37:56]  I mean a hundred calories snack, snack bags, you know, they'll be like only a hundred calories in this bag, but your body will not be satisfied. 

[38:17] So step one for my patients is to reach that protein requirement. It's a lot higher for people than they realize. I think especially women tend to under protein, maybe not always, but also this is a cruel irony, but insulin resistance increases the requirement for proteins. 

[39:08]  Like wait until your stomach acid kicks in. Like you're actually hungry, which I think for a healthy person is going to be around nine or 10:00 AM.

[40:28] Magnesium actually just helps with sugar cravings. It just makes you feel good, satisfied. And then you can easily just say, no, I'm not going to have that dessert.

[41:36] women always, we always feel like we have to explain ourselves, you know, but men might be like, I don't want that. I'm not going to have that. I, I don't have, you know, no reason given it's like, I'm not going to eat that. It's like just, you know, be like that, just don't explain yourself.

[42:13] hormone replacement therapy and you were touching on the fact that it can actually increase insulin resistance.

[42:36] So estradiol, especially, I mean, I would say estrogen therapy helps to improve insulin resistance and weight loss. Like was very little doubt about that in my mind. I know some bizarrely, somehow estrogen gets blamed for weight gain or well, okay. It depends on what we're talking about. 

[43:31] Obviously testosterone has many benefits for women. We do have some, when we're in our reproductive years, we get this really intriguing little boost up in testosterone just before ovulation that some of these sports people are studying, because women get this surge in kind of confidence and performance around that time.

[44:30] The argument is, you know, with P C O S, which comes first, the insulin resistance or the high androgens, the research actually suggests high androgens come first, generally with that condition. 

[45:29] But what happens is when estradiol and progesterone drop away, we lose out on the beneficial antiandrogen effect of those two hormones. So the androgens, the testosterone shines through and that is potentially contributing to insulin resistance. 

[46:21]  I just, you know, the data says that 50% of women in menopause are deficient and testosterone, but I'd say in the women I work with, it's more like 90%, and it's just so vital for brain function. 

[46:50]  but I'm just curious for myself, what dose of testosterone might you prescribe? Like, just for example, like just for someone who I guess it

[47:01] Depends on a transdermal, it depends on what they're we test don't guess of course, yes.

[47:07] So at the hormone club, which is our telemedicine solution for women in 47 states in the US to get, uh, by identical hormone therapy, we test, right. So we do the Dutch test, the dried urine metabolite test and see where their levels are. 

[47:42] how closely do you look at S H B or sex hormone binding globulin, because this is another, and this is just a, a background thing. It's on a blood test. It's actually quite important. I think for women in general, to have that in a good range, it tends to drop at menopause. 

[48:25] So it is important to know that because then your free fraction will be higher, kind of one of know what you're, what you're dealing with. 

[48:40] I'm one wondering if you can share with everyone just some of your daily practices that help you to keep your hormones balanced and your health in tiptop shape.

[48:59] And then I guess the other things for health are like, we didn't talk a lot about it today, but just quit alcohol basically or seriously think about quitting it or reducing it dramatically, even though it's nice. It's lovely to have a beer with dinner. That would be my preference, but it's not worth it. Especially during the tumultuous rewiring phase of per menopause.

[50:12]  I know you have a free download of the first two chapters of the period repair manual and hormone repair manual, both. And we will have the link in the show notes. 

Free download to the first two chapters of Period Repair Manual and Hormone Repair Manual by Dr. Lara Briden:

https://www.subscribepage.com/larabriden

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There's a lot of talk about hormones these days. You might have heard that they're responsible for everything from mood swings to weight gain. But what about their role in immune resilience and breast cancer?

In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're talking with Dr. Lindsey Berkson about the vital role of hormones in immune resilience and breast cancer. Dr. Berkson is a highly respected physician and author who has dedicated her career to helping women achieve optimal health.

During our conversation, Dr. Berkson discusses the importance of hormone balance for maintaining good health, as well as how hormonal imbalances can increase susceptibility to disease. She also shares some tips for keeping your hormones in balance and boosting your immune system.

Join us for this episode of The Hormone Prescription as we chat with Dr. Lindsey Berkson about the vital role hormones play in keeping us healthy. You'll learn why it's important to keep your hormones in balance and find out how you can do that with natural strategies like diet and lifestyle changes. You'll also hear about the latest research on hormone-related cancers, and find out how you can reduce your risk. So tune in and get empowered to protect your health!

[02:03] And we're gonna talk about a topic that's very important right now, and that is immune resilience, right? Who's concerned about immune resilience, uh, just about every human on the face of the planet. 

[03:00]  Lindsey Berkson has been a thought leader in pioneer, in functional medicine for over four decades and has authored over 21 groundbreaking books on women and hormones, gut health toxicity, including safe hormones, smart women, which is available online with a background in chiropractic and naturopathic medicine

[05:23] Sexiest Hottest, most beautiful 70 some year old you'll ever see. And so she says, well, you know, I've been on natural hormone therapy for what, 20 years. 

[05:34] So I waited five years to try and be prudent and to make sure that I'd clean mammograms and clean serum, cancer markers and inflammatory markers. And then I went on hormones.

[06:02] . People, I think, don't realize that their hormones have anything to do with their immune system, let alone their health resilience. 

[07:18]  So first of all, in the business, we have always known that hormones send signals to satellite dishes called receptors and whatever tissue has these receptors, they're called target tissues. That's where a hormone signals. 

[08:23] And we know that 70% of your immune system lives in the lining of your gut and testosterone. The male hormone sends signals to that. 

[09:21] And if an older woman wasn't on hormone replacement, she suddenly had the same statistics of severe COVID a, if she didn't have early intervention, but if she was on hormone replacement, then she had similar safety statistics against COVID like younger women did. 

[10:17] And the other thing is we talk about the role of the gut with immunity. So a healthy gut opens and closes. You eat a meal and after you eat a meal, supposedly digest your food to tiny little pieces, amino acids, die peptides, tri peptides.

[11:22]  So we have greater immunity because we have greater sex steroid hormones when we're younger. And when we age, we are more vulnerable.

[12:20] Because it seems like we women carve out when it comes to hormones. Why, why do we have these opinions and values that somehow it's shameful or bad to use hormones or to bolster ourselves?

[13:16] And I love your show because I wanna bust that at bull crap, because what it is is that aging picks up speed. You age faster in your forties than you did in your thirties. 

[15:14] We're so afraid of shaming people for being overweight that we tell a whole nation, nothing about losing weight, cuz COVID loves overweight and flamed bodies. 

[16:11] You know, by the way, hormones help you keep a trimmer torso. That's one of the reasons you gain more weight when you get older. 

[17:07] But the litigious atmosphere made doctors afraid of the women's health initiative and we're afraid to call it like it is. We want everything to be so moderate and middle road that we're willing to sacrifice the smarter kids in the, the kids that are in the midrange. 

[18:05]  And you're consequently your health and your life are going to be substandard until you die, which will be premature because you will live longer if you use natural hormone therapy.

[19:00] And in none of those cases where women were given right after treatment, hormone replacement and they were tracked for so many years and not one of those 26 studies did women on hormones do worse.

[19:53] There's more of us that are older than more of us than are younger and it's accumulating. And within another 10, 20 years, the majority of Americans are gonna be over 65, which has never happened before. 

[20:46] So they decided to do a study to prove that hormones prevent heart disease and keep you healthier and feminine forever. 

[22:05] But in Europe they've primarily been using biologically identical hormones for decades.

[22:19] So they came out and said to reanalyze the data because we didn't buy the conclusions of the data. And when we reanalyze it, we made a big, big discovery that in the control arm, they forgot to control for which women had taken estrogen historically.

[23:13] And if they did get breast cancer, once they had been historically on estrogen replacement for a little bit, they had a 44% decreased mortality case incident.

[25:14] Women on hormones had a decreased incidence of getting Alzheimer's disease by 69%. But if they were on bio identical hormones, they had a decreased incidence of Alzheimer's disease by 72 to 73%.

[26:08] It's key though, to hear what Dr. Lindsay is saying about estrogen, protecting against breast cancer, protecting against cognitive decline in Alzheimer's among other things. I mean heart disease and heart attack, which we always gave it to prevent.

[28:10] There are those who are motivated by deprivation and fear and lack, and they're going to lose something they already have or not get something that they want. And then there are those who are motivated by pleasure.

[29:00] So when you're true, more hormonally out of balance, you're a more fearful, anxious person.

[29:24] So we are a much dirtier air food and water, which all of adversely they're endocrine disruptors. So I wrote one of the very first books on endocrine disruption called hormone deception.

[30:16] They talk about if they're not looking for a super orgasm, they really are not functional and they'll go, oh, well I know I sat too much this month and I ate too much processed food and I know, but it's, it's outta control. 

[31:29] You may render them in, of making decisions based on healthy cognition. And basically you block their hormones, you screw their hormones up and people can't function optimally. 

[32:13]  And one of the things is balancing your hormones and getting them for which, for each woman, has her own individual hormonal footprint. And that's why it's important to work with a doctor that honors that like yourself, when your hormones are more balanced, you understand that you wanna never ever give up, but you wanna push yourself. 

[33:13] The more muscle mass you have, which of course testosterone replacement is one way to maintain it. But resistant exercises are another way. 

[34:06] Because if you are, you know, you need the androgens, you need the testosterone and your regular doctor probably is not only not aware of that, doesn't know how to properly test for it. 

[34:30] If a doctor tells you there's nothing left to be done for you, or it just means they know, wait, what is it? It just means they know nothing left to be done for you.

[36:03] And I was told many times in my fifties, you're just not, you're not getting any younger. You have to learn to age gracefully. 

[36:47]  I love feeling well. And I love feeling so young and well and full of energy. I'm flying all over the country, lecturing, isolating everyone else's isolating and scared of everything.

[39:22] And that's pretty much a steady diet, lots and lots of diverse pigments in those different colored plants, protect your eyes, protect your brain, protect you against cancer. 

[40:11] So I work out, I try to find things to turn a fire in my belly. So I love what I do a lot, but not all the time cuz nobody loves what they do all the time.

[40:52]  I think vitamin F fun is an important component to life. And so canoeing for me is fun and hanging with girlfriends is fun, but I eat plant food. I work out regularly. 

[42:00] I don't believe in doing this obsessively every day, but I take 30 to 40 to 50 supplements a day, depending on what I'm dealing with. Um, I only have one kidney, so I can't overwhelm it.

[42:43] So I do a lot of botanicals and I've just created a new line for Biotics, with one product that clears off your receptors.

[43:35] Thank you so much for sharing your regimen because I think people, well, two things, some people, they overestimate what it takes to get their health back in line and keep it there. And a lot of people underestimate. 

[45:24] What does it take to have six pack abs in your seventies? And you mentioned getting your hormones at the optimal levels, and this is not gonna happen in corporate medicine. 

[45:42] And what really gave, so realizing that estrogen protected against breast cancer and that you died less from a, if you did get it. So that was huge.

[47:49] So I got courage to go higher than the little toe in the water by taking just the right amount to eliminate the symptoms. And boy, the minute I did that, I shed weight. 

[48:21] And that's why at the hormone club, we test, we don't guess everybody gets monitored and followed with the dried you're in testing because you got to, to know where that person is, cuz it is a unique blueprint. 

[49:24] I have lots of books out on Amazon and some of them are on my website and I also do some consulting telemedicine. And I see patients in person in Florida, Naples, Florida at Dr. Pearl Mutter's old clinic, the Naples center for functional medicine.

[50:55] Dr. Lindsay and I have been talking about what we could do together, cuz we are both on a mission to make your health the best that it can be as you get older so that you can enjoy more of life. 

Join thousands of people around the globe receiving updates from Dr. Lindsey Berkson in hormones, nutrition and gut health.

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Q & A Episode each month

Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):

https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin

Join The Hormone Bliss Challenge 

𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 to be the first to know when the challenge starts again! 

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Welcome back, ladies! The latest episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is here, and it's one you won't want to miss. This time, we're joined by the inspirational Verónica Moreno, an expert in Mindset Coaching and Deep Healing. If you're a midlife woman feeling trapped by past conditioning or weighed down by self-doubt, this episode offers a lifeline.

Meet Verónica Moreno:

Verónica isn't your average mindset coach. With a rich background that spans powerful Energy Healing techniques—including Emotional Freedom Technique & Matrix Reimprinting, Theta Healing, Pranic Healing, and Shamanic Energy Medicine—she brings a unique, multifaceted approach to personal development and healing. Combining these methods with the results-oriented world of Coaching and the therapeutic insights of Humanistic Integrative Counseling, Verónica has empowered women from nearly 20 countries to reclaim their power and live authentically.

Key Takeaways from the Episode:

1. Verónica’s Journey:

• Discover how Verónica's own path to becoming an expert in Mindset Coaching and Deep Healing has shaped her innovative approach.

1. Understanding Common Challenges:

• Learn about the common challenges that midlife women face, like past conditioning, self-doubt, and people-pleasing, and how to break free from these patterns.

1. Powerful Energy Healing Techniques:

• Get introduced to various Energy Healing techniques such as Emotional Freedom Technique & Matrix Reimprinting, Theta Healing, Pranic Healing, and Shamanic Energy Medicine. Understand how these techniques can be applied to reclaim your power and create a fulfilling life.

1. Inspiring Success Stories:

• Hear real-life success stories of women who have transformed their lives through Verónica's methods, illustrating the universal nature and effectiveness of her approach.

1. Actionable Steps to Reclaim Your Power:

• Walk away with actionable steps and guidance on starting your own journey of reclaiming power. Verónica emphasizes the importance of self-awareness, self-love, and living an authentic life.

In today's fast-paced world, midlife women often find themselves juggling multiple roles and responsibilities, sometimes losing sight of their own needs and desires. This episode is a gentle yet powerful reminder that it's never too late to reclaim your power and start living the life you truly want. Verónica's expert advice and inspiring stories will leave you feeling motivated and equipped to make meaningful changes in your life.

Ready to transform your life? Tune into this episode and take the first step toward breaking free from your past and stepping into your power. Don't forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review—we love hearing from you!

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Thank you for being a part of our community. Together, we can support each other to live our best lives. Tune in, take notes, and start your transformation today!

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• Tune In Now to listen to this empowering episode.
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► 7 day course Step Into Your Power with Confidence and Joy from Verónica Moreno. A step by step process to break free from the past, reclaim your power and create the life you truly want to live. CLICK HERE.

► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.

With our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, you can reclaim your youth and feel as amazing as you did in college. Our proven system is designed specifically for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism, and start seeing real results.

Imagine waking up with more energy than ever before. Feeling confident and sexy in your own body. No more mood swings or uncontrollable weight gain – just pure blissful balance throughout menopause.

Sign up now for our 7-day challenge and start seeing incredible results within days! Attend daily interactive Q&As with our experts, take assessments to track your progress, and learn the exact steps needed to achieve hormonal harmony. You deserve this – don't wait any longer!

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You've been struggling with thyroid issues for months, years, or maybe decades. And you still haven't gotten it right. You've tried every diet, supplement, and lifestyle change out there. But you still don't feel like yourself.

You're not alone! In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, Elle Russ explains how to boost your confidence by fixing your thyroid. She'll teach you everything you need to know about the thyroid gland, how it affects your mood and energy levels, and how to correct any imbalances.

Elle Russ is the bestselling author of Confident As Fu*k and The Paleo Thyroid Solution. She is a TV-film writer, master coach, and the host of The Elle Russ Show. You can learn more about her at ElleRuss.com.

In this episode you'll learn:

• What's different about a mainstream corporate medical approach to thyroid
• The signs and symptoms of thyroid imbalances
• How to test your thyroid function
• What test results mean
• How to correct imbalances in your thyroid
• Tips for living a thyroid-friendly lifestyle
• How do we keep our stress down and keep our cortisol in balance to help our thyroid
• And more!

Don't miss this important episode on boosting your confidence by fixing your thyroid. Be sure to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast, so you don't miss any future episodes. And if you enjoy the show, please leave us a rating and review. We love hearing from our listeners!

Get a FREE audiobook from Elle Russ! Two 7 minute guided meditations (money / health) + two 50 minute affirmation tracks (confidence / abundance).

CLICK HERE: https://bit.ly/ellerussfreegift

Q & A Episode each month

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https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin

Join The Hormone Bliss Challenge 

𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 to be the first to know when the challenge starts again! 

CLICK HERE:

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One of the biggest challenges we face as we get older is maintaining our energy levels and keeping our hormones in balance. In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we're joined by Debra Atkinson, a Wellness Coach hormone balancing fitness expert and the founder of Flipping50.

She has helped over 250,000 Women flip their second half with the vitality and energy they want. She's the best selling author of us still got it girl, the after 50 Fitness formula for women navigating fitness after 50 Your GPS for choosing programs and professionals you can trust and hot not too bothered.

Debra hosts flipping 50 TV and the flipping 50 podcast, an AARP top podcast for 50 Plus. She is a frequent speaker at TEDx present and TEDx presenter excuse me, of everything women in menopause, learned about exercise may be alive. She has 38 years full time fitness experience. She's an international fitness presenter for associations including International Council on active aging, a lot of alphabet soup fitness agencies, you may or may not be familiar with IDEA, NSCA, and Athletic Business, and CanFitPro.

She's an American Council on Exercise subject matter expert and prior Senior Lecturer in Kinesiology at Iowa State University. Debra is also the founder of flipping fifty.com, and creator of the flipping 50 fitness specialist program for fitness professionals. She is a frequent contributor at HuffPost, Sharecare, and other featured outlets and on the Education Advisory Board for medfit.org.

Debra shares her wisdom on how to exercise safely and effectively as we age, and offers some great tips for keeping our hormones in check. She also tells us about her journey to becoming a fit and healthy 50-something.

In this episode you'll learn: 

• Flipping the expectations with aging and menopause.
• Empowering longevity and enjoyment of it with muscle and bone strength.
• The lies that we're all believing about exercise over 50 that are keeping us stuck
• And more!

So if you're looking for ways to boost your energy and feel better about yourself, be sure to listen to this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! And don't forget to subscribe and leave your questions and feedback.

Join Debra Atkinson’s Stronger: Tone and Define Program.

THIS IS A SPECIAL 12 -WEEK STRONGER program designed based on research featuring women in perimenopause, menopause, and beyond… by a Medical Exercise Specialist who knows:

• you’re not broken, you’re just juggling hormones and joints that have had some injuries or some fun!
• you aren’t 22 but your also not in need of chair yoga!
• what works for 22 year old fit males (subjects in 60% of studies) will not work for you
• your greatest limits are what you don’t yet know about hormone balancing exercise and how it’s unique from traditional exercise prescriptions you’ve done for 30+ years (or never done)
• YOU should enjoy this second half MORE than the first:  you earned it!

CLICK HERE:

https://bit.ly/strongin22

Q & A Episode each month

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Join The Hormone Bliss Challenge 

𝗦𝗶𝗴𝗻 𝘂𝗽 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗘𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝗕𝗶𝗿𝗱 𝗡𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗳𝗶𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗟𝗶𝘀𝘁 to be the first to know when the challenge starts again! 

CLICK HERE:

https://bit.ly/hormonebliss

How to age beautifully using the holistic science of beauty? How do you use the inside out, to care for your outer appearance? The Hormone Prescription Podcast is back with another episode! On this week's show, Rachel Varga will be discussing how hormone balance factors into healthy, glowing skin. Whether it's reducing wrinkles or restoring the skin's youthful glow, hormone balancing is a great way to prevent and correct various skin problems. 

Rachel Varga is a Board Certified Aesthetic Nurse Specialist with over 20,000 procedures performed and the author of unlocking your vitality. She's an international clinical trainer for other physicians and nurses, a celebrity skin expert. She's been featured on Bulletproof Radio as the health expert podcast with JJ virgin live with Dr. KellyAnn, Petrucci and Naveen Jain, and more. 

Rachel is also a speaker and a four-time academically published award-winning author in the field of plastic anesthetic nursing, as well as an executive board member and peer reviewer for the plastic surgical nursing journal. Through education on skincare skin and laser rejuvenation, nonsurgical solutions, healing lifestyle, and biohacking practices. Rachel helps inspire others with her unique toolkit to navigate and strategize aging and possibly well using the holistic science of beauty.

In this episode you'll learn: 

• The holistic science of beauty and how to know if you have a healthy skin
• The skin problems of women during midlife and beyond
• How inflammation affects our skin and what we can do about it
• Practical tips to help you achieve radiant and glowing skin
• The types of supplements for a better skin health
• The safe options that you can take for skin problems like wrinkles, sagging, etc.
• And more!

[03:21] one of the characteristic things that we tend to notice with our skin as we age usually starts to happen at about age 37 to 41. This is when we start to see changes in our hormones, we lose a little bit of estrogen in some cases, which can lead to then loss of collagen and elastin.

[08:13]  So at the end of the day, we want to make sure we're taking very potent antioxidants in our diet so that we have that internal protection.

[12:57] And I'll talk about some science about why going into the forest is good for you. There's all these compounds that are released from trees and plants that like terpenes, for example, they can be very helpful and supportive at combating inflammation. Also, the way that I like to get into the woods, is I like to get into areas where there's no cell phone reception, or Wi Fi or anything like that.

[18:06] And I love how you talk about nature therapy and describe that kind of draining off those positive ions. I love to go to the beach at least once if not twice a week and just put my feet in the sand and in the ocean

[19:04] Because at the end of the day, when we're working with mature skin, we you can't use the same skincare routine that is going to work for a teenager, you need more advanced and stabilized peptides, antioxidants, like vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A retinol. 

[23:53] And I know that some people are saying but Rachel, like me, some people would be like a friend of mine who wants to know whose face is sliding. Her skin is sliding down her face. What is our safe option for wrinkling, sagging, volume loss, all of these things that women at midlife and beyond are dealing with to fix them more acutely.

[25:14] And then for the body, we need to make sure that we're doing strength conditioning, cardiovascular conditioning, and flexibility and stability. So lifting the weights, doing the cardio, doing the yoga, Qigong are great balancing practices as well. 

Download Rachel Varga’s Free Treatment Planning Guide and Sophisticated Skin Cheat Sheet:

 RachelVarga.ca/treatment-planning-guide

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Q & A Episode each month

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Did you know that there is a link between mold toxicity and those pesky symptoms of fatigue, nervousness, mood swings and brain fog?

My guest for this episode, Bridget Danner knows this first hand as she has suffered from all of these symptoms before. She also spent years feeling lost and confused about how to heal.

Bridgit Danner has been a licensed acupuncturist since 2004 and a certified Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner since 2015. After losing everything to toxic mold, Bridgit now educates about toxins and how to detoxify through a functional approach. 

Mold toxicity is one of the most common toxic exposures that people are exposed to. We all know that healing takes time, but in this episode, we talk about how you can speed up that process by taking some super simple steps, so you start feeling better now - not months from now.

You'll learn:

• What is mold toxicity
• The symptoms of mold toxicity
• What you can do to detoxify your body after being exposed to mold
• How toxic molds travel throughout our homes and how they are making us sick
• How molds impact our hormones
• And much more!

[01:14] Hormones are imbalanced because they're reacting to other things in your environment like mold. So sometimes you have to address the thing that your hormones are reacting to in order to get your hormones in line.

[02:08] Over 50% of the homes in America are estimated to have mold contamination.

[05:11] I got my own environmental illness of toxic mold, pretty severely and had to deal with that in my life, in my personal life and my personal health.

[05:59] So I started just talking more about detox techniques and how to detox and then over time really moved into the mold specialty cuz I, I do think there's still a big gap there.

[07:20] And it took probably about eight years until I found out I had mold and that time I just had various symptoms coming and going, you know, with, I had anxiety, insomnia, chronic pain, breakthrough bleeding, gut issues, a lot of immune issues like getting sick too often, um, having a lot of like chills and they would kind of come up and down, right? 

[09:12] So, you know, looking back, I can see that there were some things we, we could have known about if we were more aware of mold, we just weren't, but it can happen in newer homes too, when they're built too tightly.

[10:09] So, you know, looking back, I can see that there were some things we, we could have known about if we were more aware of mold, we just weren't, but it can happen in newer homes too, when they're built too tightly.

[11:10] Mold is probably one of the hardest things to diagnose. There you're usually many years delay and people actually receive a diagnosis and it's hard to treat. 

[12:19] One is that issues that aren't resolved are worsening. You know, we're not meant to get sicker and sicker every year or, you know, just have these stubborn, right? It's not like just some of us are meant to have IBS. There's a reason.

[13:43] You can tell me if this is true or not that over 50% of the home and commercial buildings in the United States are affected by mold. Is that correct?

[15:10] if you're doing all the right things and it's not working check for toxins, I love that you say this because I think that's the hallmark message from this episode is if you're doing what I call all the things and your health is not where it's supposed to be, then you gotta check for toxins and mold would probably be top on the list.

[16:49] So you're inhaling right into your nose, like these VOCs and these mycotoxins and these bacterial fragments that are coming off the water damage right up into your brain. Basically that information goes right to your brain. And those little microtoxins can travel like anybody's business. 

[17:54] So you can have suppressed hormone production, which I was experiencing for years and just being told it was stress. So that's like a big one right there. And if you're trying to get pregnant or you're trying to make it through menopause or whatever, that's gonna be a problem.

[19:05] Most people aren't aware that the quickest way to get into your brain is through your nose. 

[19:31]  One of the reasons why is for humans, because they are very good at not killing us and living off of us. Whereas some viruses just go too far and bacteria, they're too acute, too virulent. 

[20:48] There's so much actually tons of studies because in animal husbandry, in, in livestock production mold has been a big issue for a long time because the feed is moldy and then it affects the health and the animals and reproduction. 

[22:14] And then once you find out that mold is a part of the problem, detangling that mess can be insurmountable. So how should someone start approaching that?

[22:53]  So sauna and coffee and amount were probably my two biggest favorites when I was at my sickest and there's things I still do today to detox.

[23:18] So a lot of basic things that just support healing and movement of toxins, as long as we'll talk about this next, as long as you can eliminate and handle those toxins, supporting the liver, making sure you're pooping, then the nose toxins can exit. 

[25:35] If you don't move it, right. You're just feeling sluggish. You're feeling heavy, right. You're not thinking well and nobody wants to live like that. 

[28:14] One of the things that I find most women have to come to terms with is that your symptoms and your illness are calling for a greater expression of you and your life that's different from the life you're living. And it sounds like you really accepted that. 

[28:44] Sometimes we're not seeing what isn't working for us until we have a health crisis or some other crisis. And that crisis creates an opportunity to change a hundred percent. 

[30:46] Diet can play a factor, but a big part of my journey, especially being divorced in the last couple of years, is really like, how do I wanna show up for myself? What thoughts do I wanna choose? Like what beliefs give me my best life. 

Get Bridgit Danner’s freebies:

Recipes for Liver Detox

Your Complete Guide to Health Recovery from Toxic Mold

The Math Diet Guide

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Q & A Episode each month

Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):

https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin

Women go to gynecologists because who else are you going to go to? That's the closest thing for women's health, but there are some things women should know about their hormones that they're not getting at their OBGYNs, particularly the fears and facts behind hormone replacement therapy.

The only way you're going to learn about this stuff is by listening to this episode: The Scary Truth About your Hormones Your OBGYN Doesn’t Want You To Know.

The real scary truth about your hormones is that they affect everything about your health - especially if you don't know about them! We'll help you stay informed.

We're going to demystify and know the truth about this very important topic.

Here’s what you'll learn from this episode:

• The consequences of that hormonal deprivation that are gonna cause us to decrease our lifespan and our vitality
• Fears about hormone replacement therapy
• The facts that women should know about their hormones that they're not getting at from their OB GYNs
•  How do you get access to functional medicine doctors

[02:47]The podcast is my gift to you. I'd like you to give it forward to other women in your life and women you don't even know and probably will never know together we succeed, or together we fail.

[07:25] . But what I don't think women realize is that O B GYN is a surgical residency. And that was part of why I loved it as well. 

[13:01] So 50 million women in menopause right now, 2 million of us go into menopause each year. We are in a state of hormonal deprivation in menopause. 

[14:42] And so I really want women to take away from this today, like, listen to your body. It's trying to tell you something. When gynecologists keep offering bandaid solutions, they're covering up that message and you're not hearing it. 

[15:45] one of my favorite things that hormones do is they regulate your immune system. So it's really cool when women get pregnant, their estradiol level goes down because you're carrying a half of a foreign human in you that you're growing, and you don't want your immune system to attack it because you'll miscarry.

[16:46] So there's such fear about hormones, the ACOG American college of obstetricians and gynecologists recommendation for hormone replacement therapy is for symptom management for the shortest period of time in the least amount of dose. And they only recognize two symptoms of menopause.

[17:42] And so, like, it was standard for women to be on hormone replacement therapy for heart protection and brain protection.

[18:41] And so it's very complicated. It's very political, but I want women to understand what that study really said was that if you start hormones more than seven to 10 years after menopause, you probably have an increased risk of blood clot and stroke, because you already have started to develop heart disease and liver disease, et cetera.

[20:00] If you do a bioidentical estradiol, your body is not processing it the same way. And if you take a patch, it's bypassing the liver. 

[21:05] So if you use micronized bioidentical, progesterone, you know, or made from Mims topical over the counter, that doesn't react in your body the same way that is not feeding breast tissue in the same way. 

[21:43] And that, you know, I remember that conversation we had where we just said, you know, OB GYNs are hurting women. And it's sad to admit, I have a lot of good friends who are OB GYN. Yeah. 

[23:43] That is good news. It's kind of amazing though, that, you know, the body is made the way it's made because it actually functions really well. so you think that the first inclination would be, well, we naturally have progesterone to balance out and like, I like how you say, keep your, our estrogen in check.

[24:13] So if you've had a hysterectomy and you're on estrogen, oh my goodness. Get on progesterone because progesterone is like our natural anti-anxiety harm. 

[25:36] But how do women get access to doctors like us? I mean, I know they go to the hormone club where you're helping us also as one of our F and they can get prescriptions, but how do they navigate this for themselves? How do they really learn the truth? 

[26:38] Like you just need to find the information, you need to do your own research. You need to talk to each other and share each other's stories. Because that is actually where I started to learn as a physician, I listened to my patients. 

[27:30] If you're comfortable, because that is the only way the system is gonna change is if you spark their curiosity and for them to go and do the research and find the world of health and wellness, as opposed to conventional gynecology, which was very much focused on disease. 

[28:28] And that's really exemplified in what you're saying is ask questions, share information, and then you'll know if you have an open-minded physician or not. If they really listen to you and they go investigate further and come back to you, that's someone you can work with. 

[29:20] It almost always starts in the gut. We have to heal your gut and get your gut functioning and everything related to your gut, your liver, your gallbladder, all of that needs to be functioning well to metabolize your hormones, to absorb the ingredients, to make your hormones, to excrete your hormones.

[31:36] So it goes through the five systems of your body that really affect your hormone balance. And the gut is the first one. And so I am just giving you some really easy, actionable tips that you can start doing today, like to make a shift and see a change in your hormones. 

Get your FREE gift from Dr. Tabatha Barbers:

The Functional Gynecologists Guide to Balancing Your Hormones

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Q & A Episode each month

Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):

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When you hit that dreaded midlife, hormonal transition or menopause, moodiness constantly runs rampant in your body. You constantly feel like you're losing control. Then one day out of the blue, I got this email from a listener who was feeling quite hopeless when she suddenly realized it wasn't just her in this situation.

We live in a world where we can easily get in touch with people to share our vulnerabilities in hopes they will understand and help give us resources to fall back on.

Well here at The Hormone Prescription Podcast, we don't aim to only educate but also inspire you to take action by sharing personal stories that I think could resonate with you too! So today, I wanted to answer your hormone pressing questions, especially if you're not sure what's appropriate for you!

You’ll learn:

• How to formulate empowering and transformative questions, so you will get the best answers.
• How to treat and uncover the root causes of hormonal imbalances symptoms
• How often should you be checking your hormone levels
• HRT & progesterone pills side effects
• And more!

[02:41] You've got health symptoms and you want answers and that's why we added the Q and a, but I want to make sure that you are formulating your questions in a way that's going to give you the best answers.

[04:37] A possibility is what can transform your health into something else. So if you don't ask that transformative question, you don't get informed. You don't get transformed. So to ask the right question is harder than to answer it.

[05:39] But a great question is what's causing the symptom and what test do I need to uncover the root cause of this problem?

[07:35] How often should you be checking your hormone levels? 

[09:12]  I do not believe we were created to use chemicals to solve any of our life changing situations. God planned ahead for our wellness at creation. 

[10:02] I began the progesterone pills this past Friday evening. I wake up with a horrible headache, anyone else?

[10:58] I think that a lot of times when we're doing certain holistic remedies, whether it's bioidentical hormones or supplements, we get ideas in our heads about causation. And there's such a thing as correlation versus causation.

[11:52] And so symptoms are its way of speaking to us and telling us when I have a headache, something's wrong in my head, I have inflammation. 

[12:38]  And when you're changing so many things at once, it's sometimes hard to discern and Unie the threads and knots of your health as to what's causing a problem. 

[14:28] And around the same time she started taking the progesterone and she decided that it was the progesterone that was stopping her from sleeping. Well, well, this is why you gotta ask empowered questions because more likely it was that she, her, her melatonin was high because she was taking melatonin and it's not harmful to have a high melatonin on your Dutch test. 

[17:17] And if you are getting headaches and you're taking progesterone capsules, I would look into what other additives are in that progesterone capsule, like peanut oil. 

[18:16]  That's my goal for you this year is that you go more deeply into learning how to be your own, how health detective, your own sleuth, and really learn how to listen powerfully to what your body is telling you.

[19:11] And again, if you're someone who'd like to volunteer to do an on-air consultation for free to demonstrate to others what it is like and what insight can be garnered by looking from a root cause resolution approach. Please leave me that message here as well. 

I hope you’ve found some answers to your hormone questions, or at least that these stories have given you new perspectives on how it feels to be a woman in the midst of hormonal changes. If there are topics we haven’t touched on yet, don't hesitate to ask! We want this podcast to feel like an open forum where everyone can come and chat about what's important for them. Subscribe and leave us a review below, so we can serve you better!

Q & A Episode each month

Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):

https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin

Imagine if there was a simple, easy way to overcome fatigue, improve sleep, increase energy levels and productivity at work, jumpstart weight loss, improve the look of your skin without expensive medical procedures or treatments...

 It sounds too good to be true right?

A way that not only reduces stress but actually combats the root causes of the leading causes of disease, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, metabolic syndrome and diabetes.

Well, scientists have discovered this natural "drug" called gratitude, which is an amazing addition to any healthy lifestyle for achieving optimal health.

The Science Behind Gratitude Can Change Your Life!

The past decade has seen an explosion in research on the science of gratitude. From how gratitude may help reduce depression and improve mental wellness, to the enormous implications it can have on cardiovascular health, cancer recovery, weight loss, athletic performance and much more.

Here’s what you’ll learn from this episode:

• Benefits of gratitude
• How to practice gratitude
• Concrete studies showing how gratitude significantly affects our health in a good way
• Affirmations that will help you create the foundation for health abundance

[3:07] Because when he talks about acknowledging, the good that you already have in your life is the foundation for all abundance. 

[5:18] Have a quiz that you can take where you can see how grateful you actually are in a second. 

[6:20] So right here, you've got a concrete study showing that they've done it with people receiving chemotherapy and found for cancer, that they've had better outcomes with the chemo regimens. 

[7:23] I know we're all afraid of breast cancer, but I'm telling you, you need to pay attention to heart disease. Well, our gratitude practices improve that. 

[8:25] I want you to up your gratitude quotient and acknowledge the good that you already have in your life and create that foundation for abundance. 

[9:23] I'm asking you to just take some time to focus on how beautiful and complex and intricate and loyal and supportive your body is and how you experience many, many miracles every single day in this body that you've been given to go through life with. 

[10:25]  We are foundationally hormones and, and this energy body has to be fed and nourished and gratitude is the one of the ways you can feed and nourish. 

[11:27] So you've got to address this and there are energetic disruptions in this framework that underlie every medical condition and symptom and can't sleep.

[12:27] Your call to action is to start to unwind that by cultivating balance in this energy body, and it starts with gratitude.

[13:26] And with that, I will leave you with this lovely affirmation and gratitude track that will help you create that foundation for health abundance in 2022, peace, love and hormones. 

[14:29]  I am grateful for the effortless communication of my body. Thank you for balancing my hormones.

[17:16] Thank you for staying strong. Even when you're broken. Thank you for being a safe place for me to reside. 

[20:04] Thank you for reverence for the divine and not knowing it all. Thank you for contentment with where I am right this very minute. I

[23:16] Thank you for another 365 day chance to experience all the best that love and life have to offer. 

[25:25] Take small steps each day to balance your hormones and watch the wonderful changes in your health that begin to unfold for you. 

Take the gratitude quiz

https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/quizzes/take_quiz/gratitude

Studies on gratitude:  ​​https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/resources/studies?_ga=2.231905046.841908345.1641831558-1380330748.1641831558#

Q & A Episode each month

Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):

https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin

Join The Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge!

My proven system for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism and start to lose weight, regain energy, balance their moods, feel sexy & confident, look great and master midlife - IN JUST 12 DAYS!

Live Group Coaching has already started, but you can still sign up!

CLICK HERE to join now:

Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge

There are many reasons why you may feel like you’re in a thyroid battle and your doctor just can’t figure it out. From symptoms to blood tests, it can feel like the whole medical world is in the dark about what’s going on with your thyroid. It’s so frustrating! But the good news is that it doesn’t have to be that way.

In this episode, I’m going to share with you how we can get a really clear picture of how our body is functioning and what we need to do to fix it, even if you’ve already had one or more thyroid tests, and it came back normal. 

You'll learn:

• Thyroid is the main metabolic driver
• Thyroid problems are the result of survival adaptations
• Your interface with external environment is all about survival (eating, sleep) and the stress response to keep you alive (fight, flight, freeze, fawn)
• Importance of hormone balance
• Visualization is a great key to success

[3:00] Health hormones are the foundation of women's health. 

[3:51] We've also got the feature where we're going to be doing some example consultations on the phone of what I do with my one on one clients. 

[9:16]  So hair, skin, nail problems, fatigue, you are tired and anxiety and mood disorders and lack of focus are the five categories of symptoms with low thyroid.

[11:58] You will never fix your thyroid by trying to fix your thyroid. 

[12:56]  So what happens when your thyroid is low, your metabolic driver is low. Your metabolism is low. You don't convert fat and sugar into energy. 

[14:00] Your body has certain inputs and outputs, that program, how it functions.

[14:59] So everything that your body interfaces with externally could be a potential threat to your physical survival. And your body has developed all its systems and processes to protect you, to keep you thriving and protect you.

[17:55] There is nothing that has more significance or impact on your hormonal balance than what you eat and join me for the Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge, starting January 24th, because I'm going to teach you all about how the external environ interacts and your food is your external environment, how it interacts with your hormones. 

[18:59] Cortisol is a part of that and is one of your main hormones, one of your main metabolic drivers, and that also is triggered by your interaction with the external environment. 

[20:00]  So you cannot directly impact your thyroid without impacting the others, so you've got to balance this whole hormonal symptom.

[21:16] Why can't I fix my thyroid? Because you’ve got to fix these other hormones. 

[25:02] Say yes to 2022 is the year that I got unstuck with my thyroid by not addressing my thyroid. 

[26:16] So the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. 

[30:43] I know that incredible vitality occurs for women over 40. When we learn to speak hormones and balance these vital regulators to create the health that we deserve. 

You’ll learn how to get a complete picture of your thyroid function so that you’ll know what to do next, and so that you’ll know what your doctor should be doing.

Let’s go deeper! Tune in now and share this episode with the women you know who might benefit from this important topic. Don’t forget to subscribe and leave a review!

Q & A Episode each month

Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):

https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin

Join The Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge!

My proven system for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism and start to lose weight, regain energy, balance their moods, feel sexy & confident, look great and master midlife - IN JUST 12 DAYS!

Live Group Coaching starts on the 24th of January 2022!

CLICK HERE to join now:

Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge

Do you ever feel like the health goals you set for yourself are constantly out of reach? Have you tried diet after diet, exercise program after exercise program, to get your hormones in balance only to end up with frustrating results that never seem to last?

If this is you, then listen closely! Today's episode will challenge everything you think about how our bodies work. We will make the case for why, even though it seems counterintuitive, vision and goals can help your body achieve what it needs to do naturally. Because vision helps align the pieces of your life, vision helps create a holistic approach that goes beyond just quick-fix band-aids. Vision brings change from places unseen, so that what was not possible before becomes effortless.

Vision brings alignment, vision creates change from within. And it turns out that's the only way real lasting health changes can happen. It's well known that our hormone levels are integral to everything in our lives including but certainly not limited to mood, weight loss goals, libido levels, energy levels and so on. But if you have spent any time at all researching how hormones work inside the body, you know there are dozens of different hormones involved in every process imaginable - making vision an essential part of your holistic approach to finally balancing your hormones for good.

Hormone balance sounds overwhelming, but there's a simple solution that can help you reach all your health goals faster.

Hormones + Vision = Optimal Health & Success

In this episode, Dr. Kyrin Dunston discusses the things that will help you accomplish your 2022 wellness resolution towards balanced hormones.

You'll learn:

• Planning with intention & having a vision
• How to jumpstart your hormone balancing journey
• Q & A with Dr. Kyrin
• Hormone Bliss Challenge
• And more!

[01:07] All health goals occur with hormone balance. Hormones are the foundation of your health.

[2:07] We're adding a Q and A episode each month when I'm going to answer your questions.

[7:38] I also have new programs for you like the hormone bliss challenge.

[10:42] Everything is created twice, including you. You are a thought in the mind of the universe.

[11:35] You have to have a vision of your health, and then you go about creating it.

[13:25] So number one is your vision. Where are you going? Number two, where do you start in detail?

[15:03] Your health is a hero's journey. When you have health challenges, you are being called to something greater.

[16:45] It starts with having a vision of overcoming the challenge usually, and, and for women at midlife that starts with hormones, you got to overcome the hormone challenge.

[18:48] You can create your health and design your health and your life with that same intention. But you got to know where you're starting. You got to have a plan, and you got to  have a guide.

[20:35] You can always just come when it comes back around, and I've got new tools for you with the hormone list challenge. So you definitely want to check that out. And it launches on January 24th.

[25:48] My mission in life is to educate and support women at midlife and beyond to make this the best time of their lives.

[26:39] Join me for the hormone bliss challenge. Join me with the Q and A Episodes. It will be amazing. Come join us. Get a clear vision, get a plan.

It's time to get the inside scoop on what's really going on inside your body and mind so that maybe, just maybe this time, you can finally take action once and for all.

The Surefire Way To Accomplish Your Health Goals In 2022

Q & A Episode each month

Submit your questions here (leave me a voicemail):

https://bit.ly/AskDrKyrin

Join The Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge!

My proven system for women at midlife who want to balance their hormones, reset their metabolism and start to lose weight, regain energy, balance their moods, feel sexy & confident, look great and master midlife - IN JUST 12 DAYS!

Live Group Coaching starts on the 24th of January, 2022!

CLICK HERE to join now:

Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge

Is there an end in sight for Alzheimer’s? 

We are finally starting to get the message that prevention is the key to ending the nightmare of dealing with Alzheimer’s.

What can you do to lower your risk for Alzheimer’s and to maximize your brain health as you age? 

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Aaron Hartman, is a physician, clinical researcher and professor who specializes in helping people identify and correct the functional causes of disease including helping them prevent and reverse Alzheimer’s Disease using Dr. Dale Bredeson’s RECODE protocol.

Like most of us who have transitioned from practicing dysfunctional medicine, centered around suppressing symptoms with drugs and surgery, to functional medicine, healing that addresses the cause of disease and dysfunction, Dr. Hartmann has had an incredible personal journey that lead him to the uncomfortable realization that the tool box he was given with his MD training was insufficient to address his daughters health concerns and most of the chronic conditions that trouble humans throughout life.

The good news is that you are never too old to make changes that help your brain stay healthy and to ward off dementia. This episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast is all about living a healthy lifestyle at midlife and beyond. It includes: how to eat for brain health, how to sleep for memory and how to manage stress to keep your mind sharp.

Tune in, learn more and be the best version of yourself!

Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.

Get a copy of Dr. Aaron Hartman’s FREE ebook:

Building Resilience:  Harness Your Body's Power to Heal

https://bit.ly/draarongift

Grab the guide and create a plan to begin to live the vibrant life you were made for!

In this guide you'll learn:

• 7 KEYS to the resilience of blue zones
• Basic preventative health strategies of functional medicine
• Lifestyle measures to boost your resilience and improve your immune system function
• Ways to improve your health if you or your loved one have acquired a chronic illness
• A new trajectory for your health and wellness!

Welcome back to another empowering episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! Today, we have a special guest whose story will inspire and enlighten you—Ashok Gupta. Ashok is an internationally renowned speaker, filmmaker, and health practitioner. He has dedicated his life to helping people overcome chronic illnesses and reach their full potential.

In this episode, Ashok shares his personal journey of battling ME, also known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, during his time at Cambridge University. Through his own neurological research, he not only managed to get himself fully recovered but also developed a groundbreaking recovery program called the Gupta Program. This neuroplasticity-based "limbic retraining" program has been helping countless individuals around the world since 2007.

• Ashok Gupta's Personal Journey:

Discover how Ashok went from a chronic illness sufferer to a globally acclaimed health practitioner, filmmaker, and speaker.

• Understanding Limbic Retraining:

Learn about the concept of "limbic retraining" and how it can effectively improve conditions like ME/CFS, fibromyalgia, and Long Covid.

• Hormonal Imbalances & Limbic Retraining:

Insightful commentary on the challenges faced by midlife women with hormonal imbalances and how limbic retraining can be a game-changer in addressing "hormonal poverty."

• The Gupta Program:

Explore the neuroplasticity approach of the Gupta Program and practical tips on implementing limbic retraining in your daily life.

• Latest Research & Success Stories:

Highlights of the latest medical research and real-life success stories related to limbic retraining, offering hope and empowerment to those struggling.

This episode is a treasure trove of valuable insights and practical advice for midlife women who are navigating the complexities of hormonal imbalances. Ashok Gupta's expertise and personal experience make this a must-listen episode for anyone seeking to improve their health and well-being through innovative approaches like limbic retraining.

Tune in now to hear Ashok Gupta's incredible story and gain actionable insights into improving your hormonal health. Don't forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review to help us reach more listeners like you!

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Speaker 1 (00:00):

Are you prepared to lose everything you've got in life? Well, Neil Donald Walsh is quoted as saying, you'll have everything you want in life when you're prepared to lose it. All confused by that and how it relates to your hormones and your health. You'll definitely wanna stay tuned to hear Ashok Gupta, tell you why.

Speaker 2 (00:20):

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

Speaker 1 (01:13):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today as we talk with Ashok Gupta about limbic retraining, how it can improve the hormonal poverty that you're experiencing as a woman over 40 or maybe even sooner than that. Most women don't realize the interconnection between their nervous system and their hormonal system and also their immune system and so many other connections, which we're gonna talk about in this episode. But they are intricately connected and it's affecting you. Whether you're aware of this or not. Ashuk is, gosh, he's a lifelong learner who likes to go in depth and his pain has become his purpose. And he's been on a journey for many years since university to help himself and help others to heal the underlying root causes of many chronic diseases that come in the NICS category, which we'll talk about that you probably have heard of, but you may not be familiar with.

Speaker 1 (02:23):

And they're actually related to hormonal poverty and hor imbalance, perimenopause, menopause, PCOS, all the things that plague women or can plague women throughout the life cycle. We're gonna dive into that as well. So needless to say, if you have a female body <laugh>, then this applies to you and it's something you're probably not hearing about in many places. So I hope that you'll join me and also that very quizzical Neil Donald Walsh quote. We're gonna talk about that as well as some others. So I'll tell you a little bit about a shift and then we will get started. Ashush Gupta is an internationally renowned speaker, filmmaker, health practitioner who has dedicated his life to supporting people through chronic illness and achieving their potential. He suffered from chronic fatigue syndrome around 25 years ago when he was studying at Cambridge University. And through neurological research that he conducted, he managed to get himself a hundred percent better.

Speaker 1 (03:23):

He set up a clinic to treat others and he's published a well-known neuroplasticity limbic retraining recovery program and known as the Gupta program in 2007. He has published several medical papers. He is undergone several randomized controlled trials around this program that he's created and published them. He's published trials on lung covid, chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, showing that the treatment is effective. He'll give us the details on that in the interview. And he's continually researching these conditions in a way that allows him to provide workable, daily use accessible solutions to so many of us who suffer with these problems. Please help me welcome us Gupta to the show.

Speaker 3 (04:14):

A delight to be here. Thank you for inviting me.

Speaker 1 (04:16):

Yes, lovely to have you. I actually have heard about your program from some colleagues who use it with their clients, so I'm super excited to have you on. I don't think a lot of people are familiar with the topic that we're gonna talk about and how really it applies to everyone. We're gonna talk about specific uses and how it might apply and really, I think in the times that we're living in with so much stress, everybody talks about, oh, you need to manage your stress, but what does that really look like on a daily basis? And also I don't think how people get that the nervous system is really triggered or programmed to have adverse responses to stress and what do you do about it? So we're gonna dive into neuroplasticity, limbic training recovery, which is as shooks program that he's developed and even an app I believe, which will get him to talk about, so what, what does that even mean? Limbic retraining? Why should we care about this? Why do we need this?

Speaker 3 (05:19):

Yeah, <laugh>. So great starting point for our conversation. Yeah, so look, when we go to a hospital, right, isn't it interesting how modern medicine separates and divides the different departments? Yeah. So in a hospital you will have a separate psychology department, a separate neurology department, a separate immunology department. And so we've got very used to this idea that there are, that the body's like a car and different things go wrong in different parts of that car. And we go to the right department and specialist who fixes that part of the car. But in the modern era, the types of diseases that people are suffering from are not hardware issues. They're not physically things wrong with a car. They're electrical issues. IE the nervous system, the electrical system, the information system. It's like when you go to the garage and your car has a fault, they often plug in a machine and it resets all the electrical system, the car, and all the warning lights go off and the system comes back to normal.

Speaker 3 (06:13):

And so in a similar way, when we're talking about limbic retraining or brain retraining, what we're saying is that traditional ill illnesses have been more reductionist in the way that we treat them. There's something wrong over here, there's something wrong over here, there's something wrong with the leg, let's fix that. But modern diseases are the interconnectedness that require a more holistic response. And that comes down to the software systems, not the hardware systems. So the nervous system is like the software that's running the computer of your body, the physical hardware of your body. And that's where we often get bugs. Just like in modern computers, we get bugs. And so brain retraining is saying, well, let's retrain those bugs and get our system back to balance. And a lot of those bugs we believe are in the unconscious brain, in the limbic system, part of the brain and the limbic system.

Speaker 3 (06:57):

Part of our brain is the more emotional part of the brain. And once again, we go back to old medicine as I call it, that would perceive the limbic system as purely responsible for our emotional responses, our fight or flight response, et cetera. But now we're discovering that the brain doesn't differentiate between an emotional response, a biological response. What these responses are are survival responses. The brain enacts survival responses. And so while we're retraining the brain, we're not only impacting on emotional responses but also physiological responses. And our immune response is a defensive survival response. And we've now discovered ways that we can influence that immune response and then enable the body to come back to balance. So that's a long way of kind of describing what we mean by brain retraining and limbic retraining. Right.

Speaker 1 (07:44):

Thank you for explaining that. And if anyone's listening now and you're thinking, oh, I don't need to listen to this, it doesn't apply to me. Yes, it applies to you <laugh>, <laugh>, it applies to every human and all mammals really on the face of this planet, particularly with the, the levels of stress that we're encountering. And I hope that you're clearly hearing what is saying, how this part of the brain is completely integrated with our emotional system, our nervous system, our immune system. So I think a lot of women are surprised when I teach them, for instance, in my hormone bliss challenge, which is coming up soon, that how they feel their emotions are related to their hormonal balance. And so if you have a particularly problematic emotional feelings that are coming up, depression, anxiety, that's related to your hormones through your nervous system, so exactly what we're talking about today.

Speaker 1 (08:46):

So if you're a woman in perimenopause, pre menopause, menopause, post menopause and you're struggling, part of the problem that you're struggling with with is not only a hormone problem but a nervous system problem. And that's exactly what we're talking about today. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. So this does apply to you and it really applies to, I love your analogy of the car. That's brilliant. And the electrical system, it really applies to all of us and particularly women because we are disproportionately affected by a lot of these. You talk about neuro immune condition syndromes, NICS, which is interesting. I've never heard it called that. So can you talk about what, what are NICS neuro immune condition syndromes?

Speaker 3 (09:31):

Yeah. So that's a label that we've given to a whole range of different diseases that we call those modern diseases. So there's neuro immune diseases. So that means are the neuro, the nervous system affected and the immune system affected. So that's conditions like chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, long covid, and then also sensitivity reactions. So mold illness and also related to that Lyme because Lyme and mold often, you know, occur and then a whole bunch of pain syndromes, right? So all of these come under the banner of neuro immune condition syndromes where they've got commonalities between the symptomatology that is presenting itself. And if I can give a analogy of how I believe these nicks start, because I think if we go through that, that theory, I think that would be really useful to, to frame our discussion. So these neuro immune condition syndrome we see, you know, I mean we all know somebody's got long covid, right?

Speaker 3 (10:22):

Who's got lingering effects of covid so common in the population, why is this happening? Well, I like to go back to first principles of us as human beings. What is the biggest question of all? Why are we here <laugh>? Now we could answer that from a philosophical perspective and that would be a lovely conversation. But let's start with a scientific perspective. We are here because over millions of years of evolution, our bodies have adapted to our environment, learn how to survive and pass on our genes to the next generation. So we are survival machines and the brain's number one priority and the body's number one priority is survival. That's what can pass on those genes. Now what's happened is that in our modern life and modern world and the way we're living our lives, those threats to survival have increased or certainly the brain perceives them as increased.

Speaker 3 (11:11):

So for instance, we're more exposed to pollution if the brain sees as a threat, we're more exposed to toxins in our food, we're more exposed to daily stresses and strains of life. And now social media means that unconsciously we compare ourselves to all the best, most amazing people in the world and and compare ourselves to that top 0.1% of people out there, right? So we setting ourselves unrealistic expectations of life. So all of these things impact on our system. So our system feels more under threat, physically, emotionally, biologically. Which then means that when an illness comes along, normally our bodies just fight it off and go back to standby mode. So let's say for instance, mold, we have a mold exposure. Normally our brain perceives that this is dangerous, is able to create a response to deal with that mold exposure. And normally our systems will go back to balance.

Speaker 3 (12:00):

But I believe in a whole range of these different exposures, whether it's viruses, bacteria, mold, lying, the system errs on the side of caution because survival is the number one priority. So when we have exposure to that threat, the brain fights off that condition, but goes into over defense mode that even once it's fought off the threat, it errs on the side of caution and keeps stimulating the immune system and the nervous system unnecessarily. And what that then does is completely disrupt our hormonal balance, completely disrupt our autonomic nervous system, our gut, and all of these different processes in the name of survival. And for me this has to make sense because there's millions of people who are suffering from these conditions. Why is it so many people are have a system which is malfunctioning? It is because we now live in a more threat induced environment, which means our system is overstimulating these defensive responses. And that's why we're seeing, if you talk about emotional defensive responses, we're seeing anxiety and depression skyrocket at the moment in the population, especially since Covid. And we are seeing the number of neuro immune conditions also skyrocketing because of this threat system which is over responding. And if I can give an analogy, which I think many of my patients find really useful. So Kiran, are you a fan of, I don't know, game of Thrones or maybe a fairytales?

Speaker 1 (13:20):

I love fairytales. A good fairytales.

Speaker 3 (13:21):

Fairytales. There we go. So imagine that you are queen of your kingdom. So you are Queen Kiran. That's a nice, that's a nice ring to it. Queen Kiran, you are queen kirin, queen of your kingdom and your castle. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. And you have an army which is your nervous system which defends the castle. And you have your navy, which is your immune system that also defends the castle from threats. And so when an invader comes over the hill, that could be a virus, a bacteria, gut problems, whatever it is comes over the hill. Your army and navy are able to fight off that threat effectively. But imagine there's now a drought in your kingdom. So now the kingdom is weaker, the army and navy are weaker because of the stress of the drought. Now an invading army comes in, could be covid, could be mold, whatever it is.

Speaker 3 (14:08):

Now your army and navy have to fight much harder to fight off this incoming threat because they're weaker. So it takes 'em a lot longer. The battle lasts a lot longer. And even once the army and navy feel they've defeated the incoming invader, they aren't sure because they think what happens if the invader is hiding in the forest or is somewhere peripherally in the body. So they come to the weekly meeting with Queen Kirin and they say, queen Kirin, we're not sure if we fully fought off the invader and the kingdom could fall. So we need all the resources now. We need all the food, the water, the wheats, the iron, everything needs to be channeled to us. And of course queen Kirin, you think that's a logical thing to do. We need to ensure survival of the kingdom. So now the army and navy are on a hair trigger.

Speaker 3 (14:52):

They keep firing off their weapons of war, which causes excessive inflammation in the body because some of those arrows start falling back into the kingdom causing internal inflammation and challenges and hormonal imbalances as well. 'cause Our system isn't designed to be in this overactive defensive state. Then what happens is opportunistic infections. So the spies in the kingdom start flourishing 'cause they're not the anti spy. The the secret service is not getting funded well. So now we get opportunistic infections or opportunistic viral infections, bacteria, pathogens, mycotoxins, all these types of things starts flourishing in the system because the army and navy is taking up all the bandwidth of the body and is fighting its non-existent threat. As this system continues, the weaker and weaker the kingdom gets from all of this over defensiveness, the more and more the army and navy believe we're still in danger.

Speaker 3 (15:44):

So they keep firing off more and more weapons of war, which gets the kingdom even weaker and so on and so on. And that's why often we then stay in this non homeostasis. We stay in this state of overstimulation, lack of homeostasis, autonomic dysfunction, gut dysfunction, hormonal dysfunction, all of these things are interconnected. And I believe they're all triggered by underlying reason, which is a system which is an imbalance because it's doing the thing that it thinks is best. Survival. Survival is number one priority. And what brain retraining is, is realizing that a lot of these symptoms that we're experiencing hormonal imbalance, guts, mycotoxins, these are downstream effects of an over defensive system. So brainery training is the next time the army or navy have their meeting with you, you say to them, my dear generals, the war is over. You can stand down, get back to balance, get back to standby mode.

Speaker 3 (16:39):

And what that does is it then means that the autonomic nervous system and the immune system start coming back to a level of homeostasis. And what we find with our patients, and we've done lots of studies which we'll talk about, then all of the downstream effects start also resolving themselves and therefore the gut challenges the fatigue, the health compromising effects all start coming back to balance and people start getting better and they start recovering. So you start, you, we came to this flow of thinking from the question, what is a neuro immune condition syndrome? So I believe neuro immune condition syndromes covers a whole variety of these modern diseases that we haven't found a magic pill for that doctors really don't have much that they're able to support. And yes, there's lots of great work that people like yourselves are doing in terms of supplements and medications that can support healing. But we often find that as soon as one has a stress, guess what all of the symptoms come back again or many of the symptoms come back and we have to find another route towards healing. And what we're saying to a lot of practitioners is the brain retraining piece. If you use that in compliments with traditional avenues, it magnifies the power of healing because you are, you are targeting from not only downstream but also the upstream causes as well.

Speaker 1 (17:52):

Yeah, thank you for that analogy that that really helps. And I guess one other I'll offer that's coming to my mind is a friend of mine called it, it's, you know, the limbic system is your smoke alarm. And it's like all of our smoke alarms are going off even though there's no fire, there might have been a fire at one time, whether that fire was a mold exposure or lime or foods you're sensitive to or maybe some type of childhood be big T trauma or little T trauma or something. And that the smoke alarm just gets stuck in this on state that keeps our entire system in a state of hyper arousal, kind of sympathetic outflow with, with parasympathetic deprivation. And then that causes a whole host of other problems. I love it when people like you come with great analogies that really help people understand what's going on for their body, why this applies to them. We really are, we're on assault just listening to the, the radio or looking at the TV with everything that's going on in our modern lives. And so this applies to all of us. And I love this quote you shared with me, I had to think twice about it. I think it's brilliant. Your brain can heal your body when you get your mind out of the way. <Laugh>, <laugh>,

Speaker 3 (19:18):

There's a lot to a lot to unpack in that. Yeah, <laugh>.

Speaker 1 (19:22):

Yeah. So talk a little bit about that and then maybe we can start talking about the program that you've developed, but yeah, that, that's a mind bending quote

Speaker 3 (19:31):

<Laugh>. So we are looking at three different components. We are looking at the body, our physical body, we are looking at our brain, which is the physical component that houses the electrical system or it's the kind of the head of the nervous system as it were. And then we're looking at the mind, which is our subjective experience of consciousness, of being awake, of being alive. And traditional medicine doesn't really necessarily look at the consciousness piece, right? It looks at the brain and the body in the very neutral scientific terms. But these three pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are constantly interacting and affecting each other. Every emotional condition, you call it trauma, it could be depression, has a physiological component. So we know that for instance, 50% of depression cases involve excessive inflammation. Every emotional condition has a physical component. Every physical condition has an emotional component.

Speaker 3 (20:22):

Now they, they are not separate and therefore often we may not realize it, but our mind and the way that we think and the way that we interact with our condition impacts on the condition itself and also impacts on how the brain can get back to homeostasis. So our program is not a psychological program, it is not CBT, but what it is is it's saying let's look at these three components and look at the interactions and look at how we can create the best environment for the brain to feel that we are safe and that it can switch off these overactive arousal systems so we can get our health back. And a key piece of jigsaw that relates to that quote is our past traumas. So we know that women are more likely to develop these conditions compared to men. And also that if someone has a background of let's say little T trauma or big T trauma, they also are three to four times more likely to get one of these types of chronic illnesses.

Speaker 3 (21:20):

And that's because we believe that whether it's your experience in the womb, how stressed your mother was, how stressful the birthing experience was, and then the first five years of life are hugely formative in terms of your sense of safety, your relational context with your mother and father. All of those impacts on your nervous system and how trigger happy it is to threats around you based on its sense of safety. And so in a similar way, our mind impacts our physical body because if we have never felt safe emotion in our past, why would our body believe that we're safe physiologically? Because once again, the brain does not differentiate between the different types of threats. They're just threats that need to be mitigated. And that's our clue as to why people with trauma are more likely to have these types of conditions. And it may not even be trauma, it can just be a, a sense of a lack of nurture from our past. And that's where these pieces come together. So that's why I kind of created that quote to make sure that we're aware of these different components and how they interact.

Speaker 1 (22:17):

I love that. That's so beautifully said and explained. I don't know that I've ever heard it more beautifully explained. If we've never felt safe emotionally, why would our body believe we are safe physiologically now? Right. The fire alarm is on. And so the program that you developed, and maybe this is a good time to ask you to share with everyone your background and how you came to develop this program because it, it really helped to, I don't wanna put words in your mouth, but transform and save your life in a lot of ways. Correct? Absolutely. So how did that happen?

Speaker 3 (22:49):

So it was the mid nineties and I was studying as an undergrad at Cambridge and I had a virus, didn't think much of it and the virus kind of went away, but I started feeling physiologically really bad. So extreme fatigue, extreme exhaustion. I'd look at a textbook and couldn't even read it. I had to crawl to the bathroom sometimes 'cause my energy was so low and I thought what on earth is going on here? And in my worst moments I was, you know, almost suicidal because it's a horrible condition, you know, you just don't feel like you can do anything. And I go from doctor to doctor and they'd say, we dunno what you have. We have no explanation for it. We have no treatment for it. We don't even know, really know what to call it. And you might have it for the rest of your life.

Speaker 3 (23:29):

And you can imagine for a young man that was a almost a death sentence that's like a brick wall in front of you saying you have this disease and we don't, we can't help you. And I met hundreds of others who were also suffering from similar conditions. And that started my lifelong quest to try and understand these conditions. And I made a contract with the universe and I said, if I can just get myself, well even if it's not fully, if I can just get myself well, I will dedicate the rest of my life to helping others with this condition because there's so much untold suffering that's going on that we don't see because these conditions aren't really taken so seriously because they don't, they're not seen as increasing mortality necessarily. And that started my lifelong quest. And so I then researched brain neurology physiology and I came up with a hypothesis as to what causes these conditions, which I published online in 1999 and then in Medical Hypothesis Journal in 2002 and then set up a clinic to treat others. And since then we've become a online program with an app and we've published several medical studies and randomized controlled trials on our treatments as well. So that's been my journey and like all of us in, or many of us in these professions, we've gone through our own challenges, our own suffering and are looking to improve the lives of others because we've found something that's helped.

Speaker 1 (24:41):

Yeah, we are both here fulfilling our contracts with the universe. <Laugh>, I have a similar contract and I think that a lot of us who do the type of work that we do with communities and patients that are underserved by corporate medicine had a a similar story of not being helped and served by the corporate medical establishment. And so we found the answers. And so I'm so glad you're here listening if you're listening right now. So do you wanna talk a little bit about what's involved? I know that you have a free trial you're gonna share with everyone and we're, we're gonna talk a little bit more about that coming up. But what kinds of activities are involved with limbic retraining? It sounds like I'm gonna have to do brain surgery. I know somebody's thinking it sounds complicated. <Laugh>

Speaker 3 (25:33):

<Laugh>. Well I love that maybe one day science will progress and we can just flip open the head re we do in a car, fix a few wires and then done. But unfortunately that technology hasn't come so until then we are gonna have to do it manually. Yeah. Internally ourselves. And that involves various brain exercises that we have. So we teach a patient to recognize these danger signals on the periphery of consciousness. Yeah, because the brain has a safety valve, it always checks with our consciousness as to whether what it is doing is the right thing, the right defensive response. And most of us aren't aware of that day-to-day. But we enable people to tune into that and retrain the brain that we are not in the same state that we were at the original exposure to that threat. Life has moved on, we are now safe.

Speaker 3 (26:21):

And that doesn't happen the first time, the second time, the third time you have to repeat this. And that's where neuroplasticity comes in. The idea that our brain is malleable, changeable, we can rewire it towards health and that's what we do in the Gupta program. So we are now an app which makes it super easy to use. And the way it works is people can come to our website or download the free app and then, and obviously that'll be in the show links and they can take our free trial 28 day free trial where they can go through the videos and audios and learn a lot more about their condition and should they then decide to take on the full program. Then that involves watching videos, weekly webinars with myself. And something that has been an absolute game changer in terms of brain retraining and nervous system regulation is something called daily Gupta size. <Laugh>. Now what

Speaker 3 (27:13):

Lay on words there, daily Gupta size, we recognize that patients are often isolated. They lack motivation to put these practices in to daily routines. So we have daily Zoom calls with our trained coaches where we take people through the exercises that they need. So if you're not somebody who can follow a program and integrate it, just come online every day or whatever, whatever days you can, and we take you through everything that you need each day so it becomes a regular part of your daily practice. And that has been a game changer for our patients. And we have like two to 300 people a day who come on to these Zoom calls and it's a real sense of community and support as well. And so there's a whole package of techniques, events that people can then come to and we hold people's hand. We would take them through the brain retraining.

Speaker 3 (27:58):

Yeah. So that's how it essentially works. And until we have independent phase three trials, so currently we're doing phase one and phase two trials. We've shown great data and I'll share some of that with you. But until we have the large scale phase three trials, we offer a one year money back guarantee on the subscription so people can use it and after six months if they, if it's not for them or they think it's working for them, they can return it no questions asked and get their money back and use that money for something else. So we think people have got nothing to lose by giving this this way of doing things a go. Right.

Speaker 1 (28:27):

I love that you, you have a name for a Gupta size that's awesome. And that it's done in community because one of the biggest stressors we have right now in modern society is that we're so disconnected from our families, friends, loved ones living a lot of us in, in isolation and loneliness is at epidemic levels worse on your health than smoking. And so I know with me, I do my programs with women only in groups because the connection is part of what, when we have that co-regulation with other people, we need that as humans, as homo sapiens and it really helps. So I love that you have that and yeah, do you wanna talk a little bit about the research that you've done? I'm really interested to hear more about that.

Speaker 3 (29:15):

Yeah, definitely. Look, there can be so many things on the internet right now on Instagram, Facebook, you're scrolling through. Everyone's got some kind of healing methodology for all these different diseases, but for us, the science matters. Yeah. Mm-Hmm <affirmative>. So therefore we spent a lot of time and effort and money on supporting research studies in this particular field. And so we published a couple of recent randomized control trials. So we did one on fibromyalgia and we found that after eight weeks of our program compared to a relaxation program on our program, within eight weeks, patients notice a 40% reduction in their fibromyalgia scores. But zero response in the control group, we halved anxiety, halved depression, halved pain, and doubled functional capacity. And that's just within eight weeks. And these wow effects lingered and stayed on for six months or sorry, five months. So that's a four month, three month follow up.

Speaker 3 (30:07):

So that was one study which published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, which is one of the top journals. And recently we just did a study on long covid and we found that, well we were comparing our program to a wellness program. So it was a real proper control that wellness program had sleep and diet and supplements and all the good things that we are told to do to keep our health at a good level. So compared our program to that equivalent structural program and after three months our program was four times more effective at reducing fatigue and twice as effective at increasing levels of energy. And so it's quite rare in a medical study you get a 400% response compared to the the control group that's once to get a published randomized control trial that people can see on our website. And then another study we just published, which wasn't an RCT but was a clinical audit of our patients, we found that across 14 different conditions. So this includes Lyme disease and POTS and chronic fatigue and long covid across 14 different diseases. After just three months on our program, people had anywhere between a 60 to 120% improvement in their symptoms. And what this showed is that this idea that one program can impact on lots of different diseases because they may have the same underlying pathology, if we target that underlying pathology, we can heal a whole host of different conditions. And that's once again a published study that people can, can take a look at on our website.

Speaker 1 (31:31):

Yeah, I'd love that. Thank you for sharing that. It sounds like a lot of work but also a very worth it to validate this modality that has applications across disease spectrum. So for every aspect of that car that you talked about in the beginning, the the how the body is very mechanistically viewed in mainstream medicine and it's really not. We are living beings that every part affects every other part. I'm wondering before we close, if you can talk about this Neil Donald Walsh quote that you shared with me that I love and I'd love it if you could ex help everyone understand you could talk about a little bit who Neil Donald Walsh is. He's he, well he's the writer of conversations with God and other books and the quote is, you'll have everything you want in life when you are prepared to lose it all. What does that mean and how does that apply to what we're talking about today?

Speaker 3 (32:26):

It's an ancient Eastern philosophy. It comes from the ancient Vedic tradition, which is this idea that when we have an attachment to a specific result, we cause ourselves stress, right? So if we really want that job and we go to the interview, if we are really, really desperate to get that job, how are we gonna come across in the interview? We're gonna come across stressed, less self-assured, less confident in our ability to get that job because we are coming from a place of desperation. So it's that place of where desire turns into desperation or an intention turns into desperation. And so when we're so attached to result fist clenched, we actually push those things, those very things that we want. We push them away from ourselves. Now how is this relevant to healing? Sometimes when we put so much emphasis on our physical bodies and our physical conditions and we are desperate to get better and we have a hypervigilance of these disease states within us, although it can feel like that means we're monitoring it and trying to find solutions, actually we may push healing away from ourselves because we are in a state of desperation.

Speaker 3 (33:35):

And in that desperation to heal from it, we actually tense up our nervous system and push away the very thing that could heal it, which is a more relaxed nervous system. Therefore, acceptance of our current state is the first step to healing. And that's a core part of what we do in our program as well.

Speaker 1 (33:51):

I love that. Therefore, acceptance is, is the first step. You know, this applies very much to women who are wanting to, to achieve pregnancy and having difficulty. And they don't realize that in ruminating on getting pregnant and they're not getting pregnant and I've gotta get pregnant. And the stress levels are going up, that they're actually negatively impacting their hormones and their nervous system, their limbic system, and they're causing it to be in a survival state that says, I'm not safe. And then you can't get pregnant in that state. So gosh, I never heard Neil Donald Wash apply to our health. That's brilliant <laugh>. But yes, the attachment and acceptance, there's literature I love that says acceptance is the answer to all my problems today. And really it does start with accepting it otherwise, a, a lot of the healing that we do, even from a functional perspective is very what I've heard called transactional.

Speaker 1 (34:52):

I do this detox for myself and I want my body to give me X result. And it's no wonder that we go about healing that way sometimes because that's the kind of society that we live in. It's very much a transactional society. Relationships are transactional. I give you this money, you give me this, but our bodies are living systems that do respond to the intention with which we try to heal our bodies. So I think coming from a place of understanding that and loving ourselves, so to me self-love is not a transactional activity. It needs to be a, a very holistic, nurturing, ground up activity where our intention is to give our body everything that it needs, everything that she needs, I like to say to heal. So I love that you put that intentionality into your Gupta size, <laugh> and the Limby training program.

Speaker 3 (35:49):

Yeah, absolutely. The idea of we are where we are, it's already happened. If I don't accept what has already happened within my body right now, all I'm doing is resisting and I'm in a resistant state. And what we resist persists that famous quote. So to get outta that resistance state and calm our nervous system, the first state is accepting whatever is so right now. And from that place of acceptance, we can then say, I now save my energy instead of worrying about this, I save my energy to be able to look at solution orientated processes and set that intention for health. And that's really how that quote comes in.

Speaker 1 (36:26):

Yes, I love that our nervous system is activated when we're in that resistance state. So it starts with acceptance. I love that you're gonna share a free trial with everyone. Thank you so much for that. I myself would love to try it and, and even would invite you to come back after I've tried it and we can talk about my experience. I don't know if that would be beneficial. I'd love to, yeah,

Speaker 3 (36:49):

Give you complimentary access and then we can see how you respond to it, what you think of it, and have another chat. That would be lovely.

Speaker 1 (36:56):

Yeah, that would be lovely. And so tell everyone where they can connect with you online and around learning more about the program that you're offering. We will have the link in the show notes, but tell everyone how to connect with you.

Speaker 3 (37:11):

Yeah, so it's simple. They can come to our website, which will be in the show notes@guptaprogram.com or they indeed can go to app store or play store and just download the, the free app and straight away start retraining your brain. You can look at videos, audios, and even some of the daily Gupta size. The first part of it, the nervous system regulation is free. It's free to anybody on the planet. It's our kind of gift back to the planet. So you can join that for free and kind of experience those first, you know, ways of looking at your nervous system and yeah, that's how they can find out more.

Speaker 1 (37:41):

Awesome. Thank you so much shook for your journey, turning your pain into your purpose and for sharing your mission and your contract with the universe, with us and with the world. Thank you so much.

Speaker 3 (37:54):

Thank you so much.

Speaker 1 (37:55):

And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I know that you're inspired will by what you've heard today. I think the more tools that you can have in your tool bag for your personal healing, health and wellness to reverse hormonal poverty and get to hormonal prosperity, the better off you'll be. This is a great tool that I'm excited to share with you. So I hope that you'll click the link in the show notes and download and do the free trial. And I'd love to hear about your results. Reach out to me on social media at Kirin Dunston, MD Thanks so much for joining me. Until next week, I'll see you for another episode. Peace, love and Hormones, y'all.

---

► Gain immediate access to the First 3 Sessions of the Complete Gupta Program, Each module is friendly, easy to use and delivers need to know information. CLICK HERE.

► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.

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

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

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What is the best way for a woman to achieve optimal health at midlife and beyond? It’s by balancing her hormones. And, the way you do that is by healing your microbiome. 

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Grace Liu, is a Functional Medicine trained clinical pharmacist who specializes in complex disease management.  She helps clients gain optimal performance through rebuilding the microbiome after damage from modern living using nutrigenomic tools and other advanced functional lab testing to give the solutions, strategies and treatments that reverse modern gut dysbiosis and disease. She is the author of 7 Steps to Heal SIBO” [and SIFO], the Founder of The Gut Institute, Host of the Microbiome Medicine Conferences, and the Microbiome Mastermind and has been featured in GaiaTV, UCSF, Women’s Health Mag, Bulletproof, Ben Greenfield, Human Longevity Project.

In this episode, we cover everything about hormones and your microbiome. We’ll also discuss how these work together to create a healthy or unhealthy environment for your body and soul. You’ll learn what specific diet and lifestyle factors can help heal your microbiome, and much more.

Let’s hear this great interview!

Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.

Get a copy of Dr. Grace Liu’s book, “7 Steps To Heal SIBO: Simple Strategies and Exercises to Understand SIBO, Restore Energy, Beat Belly Fat and Eliminate Brain Fog.”

https://www.amazon.com/Steps-Heal-SIBO-Strategies-Understand/dp/1726737691/

​​The community is essential to our health. It helps us take care of ourselves, build our immunity, and get the support we need. 

Our guest for this episode, James Maskell, has spent the past decade innovating at the cross-section of functional medicine and community. To that end, he created the Functional Forum, the world's largest integrative medicine conference with record-setting participation online and growing physician communities around the world. 

He is an in - demand speaker and impresario, being featured on TEDMED, HuffPostLive and TEDx, as well as lecturing for physician audiences around the world. His new company, HealCommunity, creates access to health for everyone by delivering virtual episodes of group care in partnership with doctors, clinics and health systems.

James Maskell shares why communities matter and what makes a community healthy.

He offers practical guidance about how we can build a strong community around us and how that affects our health and well-being, develop our ability to cope with life, and live in a way that is life affirming.

James also talks about why healthcare in groups is superior to one-on one-care and the reason why functional medicine is so expensive and not the standard of care.

Let’s hear about this important topic.

Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments. 

Get James Maskell’s FREE audiobook, “The Community Cure”:

https://thecommunitycure.com/audiobook

Download Your Copy Today, Get Bonuses & Instructions 

On How To Play Your Part In The Movement

What is the best way to get to the root cause of a health issue?

Many people will opt for the latest fad diet or “treatments” rather than doing a thorough assessment. However, there is a better way to find the source of your health issues.

We have so much information out there about how to care for our health. And yet, most of us don’t know which tests are the right ones to do.

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Carrie Jones, shares her expertise and experience in using hormone tests  to pinpoint problems and get people on the path to better health.

Dr. Carrie Jones, is a Naturopathic Doctor, FABNE, MPH is an internationally recognized speaker, consultant, and educator on the topic of women's health and hormones.

Recently, Dr. Jones became board certified through the American Board of Naturopathic Endocrinology. She was an adjunct faculty for many years, teaching gynecology and advanced endocrinology/fertility.

While in practice, Dr. Jones served as Medical Director for 2 large integrative clinics in Portland. Most recently, she joined Lifestyle Matrix Resource Center as the Clinical Expert serving the SOS Stress Recovery Program and is the Medical Director for Precision Analytical Inc.

Dr. Jones also explains why it’s essential to do all the blood work tests and to look at what’s going on under the hood when you have a health issue.

Let’s hear more about hormones and why it matters that you get the right tests for your unique health situation.

We hope this episode will inspire you to get to the root cause of your health issues. Test, don’t guess!

Sign up for DUTCH Digest and receive the following for FREE:

Monthly hormone education

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The latest on DUTCH research

Head over to this link:

https://dutchtest.com/

How do we overcome anxiety and achieve our goals? 

This is a question I hear all the time, and my guest today, Dr. Chloe Carmichael, shares her tips for harnessing your anxiety, so you can get to your dreams and live your best life. She will walk you through her process of developing a strategy to overcome your anxieties.

I’m sure we all have a story where we’ve overcome something in our past that held us back from succeeding. But you can’t expect to succeed if you don’t take your anxiety in check. I’m going to share a few strategies that have helped me get my anxiety under control.

One of the most helpful things I’ve learned to help me stop thinking about things that don’t matter and stop myself from getting anxious about things that don’t need to be stressed out about is the practice of mindfulness.

If you’re wondering what mindfulness is, it’s the practice of being fully present at the moment. That’s what helps me stay calm, clear and centered because it allows me to be aware of what I’m feeling without getting caught up in it.

You can use mindfulness to help get yourself out of negative emotions, and it’s a great way to combat anxiety. And if you’re having trouble with anxiety, it can be a lot of help.

Dr. Chloe shares her story about how she has learned to harness her own anxiety to help others feel more confident and relaxed.

Her book, Nervous Energy: Harness the Power of Your Anxiety, details her stepwise approach to evolving beyond current limitations. Dr. Chloe is an Advisory Board member for Women’s Health Magazine, a featured expert for Psychology Today and has been featured on VH1, Inside Edition, ABC Nightline, the New York Times, Forbes, Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and more.

She explains how we can all learn to be less judgmental of ourselves and to accept ourselves the way we are.

Check out this episode if you want to learn how you can harness your anxiety for success.

Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.  

Get this for FREE:

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How to live a wild, healthy and fulfilled life at midlife and beyond?

The first step is to accept where we are at this moment. We are all going through an internal transformation, but it doesn’t have to be a painful one. You don’t have to spend your whole life in a state of pain and suffering.

Our guest for this episode, Dani Williamson is a functional medicine specialist who helps women at midlife experience radical healing and live wild and well. Her TN based practice, Integrative Family Medicine, uses specialized testing to identify the root causes of symptoms and disease and reverse them naturally. 

Dani knows firsthand the role that adverse childhood events and mental health play in chronic health conditions and is on the board of the Middle Tennessee chapter of the American Foundation of Suicide Prevention. Her book Wild & Well: Dani’s 6 Common Sense Steps to Radical Healing is available for preorder on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

We talk about how we can take better care of ourselves during this age, but also how we can work on our relationship with self-care. We discuss how to stop trying to force yourself to do things you don’t want to do and start focusing on what you want and need to do in your life. We explore the steps that we can take to be more in balance and harmony.

Let’s hear about this awesome topic. Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.

Get Dani’s Food Swapping List for free! Swap as if your life depended on it. https://daniwilliamson.com/

There's a lot of misinformation out there about hormones like estrogen. But the truth is, estrogen is your best friend at midlife!

Learn how this amazing hormone can help you feel more confident with age, helps reduce symptoms of menopause, improves vaginal health and promotes bone and heart health.  

So how can you get rid of those fears?

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Sharon Stills, is a Naturopathic Medical Doctor who is known for her successful treatment of both early and advanced stage Breast Cancer and was featured in the Cancer Prevention Summit sharing her expertise on menopause, estrogen and breast cancer. 

Let’s hear about this fascinating topic. Share your thoughts with us by leaving your comments.

Get the FREE e-book: 5 Myths about Menopause

Click this link: https://exciting-trader-6042.ck.page/99bb17f7a7

How to lose weight and keep it off for women at midlife?

We’ve all heard that fasting is a great way to lose weight and keep it off. But how is intermittent fasting different from other diets? How can it help women at midlife?

If you’re looking to lose weight at midlife, fasting is a simple way to reset your hormones and jumpstart your metabolism.

In this episode, we’ll learn about how you can stay motivated to keep up the intermittent fasting regimen and how you can make it work for you.

Our guest for this episode, Cynthia Thurlow, shares her story of weight loss and how she used intermittent fasting as part of her overall lifestyle change.

She gives some helpful tips about how to make sure that your weight loss plan is sustainable and how to avoid some common mistakes that people make when they try intermittent fasting.  

Cynthia Thurlow is the CEO and founder of the Everyday Wellness Project, nurse practitioner, international speaker, and globally recognized expert in intermittent fasting and nutritional health. Her TEDx talk, Intermittent Fasting, a Transformative Technique, has over 10 million views. Cynthia has been featured on ABC, FOX5, KTLA, CW, and in Medium and Entrepreneur.

Cynthia's mission is to educate women on the benefits of intermittent fasting and overall holistic health and wellness, so they feel empowered to live their most optimal lives.

If you’re looking for a midlife weight loss plan, I highly recommend this episode.

Let’s listen to what Cynthia Thurlow has to say!

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What’s wrong with me? Why can’t you lose weight?

You’ve probably heard all kinds of theories about why it’s so hard to lose weight. From your genes to your metabolism, it can feel like there are no easy answers. And while a lot of the blame is on the person losing weight, you can’t lose weight if you’re not willing to take responsibility for yourself.

Our guest for today, Dr. Beth Westie, is a chiropractor who, through her own health journey, discovered the power of nutrition to balance hormones and developed the concept of eating for your cycle. She is the author of the Best Selling book, The Female Fat Solution, the creator of the 12-Week Female Fat Solution Challenge, the Eat for Your Cycle™ Method, and the host of The Female Health Solution Podcast.

She has made it her mission to change the way women view their health. Traveling around the country to educate and empower women to take their health into their own hands, she uses nutrition to help women work with the natural cycle of their bodies to achieve lasting weight loss results.

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What is binge-eating? How can we stop binging? Why does this happen to some people? And what can we do about it?

We all want to be happy and have a good relationship with food. But there is a difference between having a healthy relationship with food and having an unhealthy relationship with food. When we binge and obsess about food, we are not living in alignment with our values. The key to stopping binging and obsessing is to become aware of what you are thinking and feeling about food.

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Glenn Livingston, a psychologist and former Fortune 500 food industry insider who got out of the food prison of obsession and binging and overcame obesity by identifying the brain triggers and pathways that fuel our compulsive eating and developing a program to reverse this pattern. He has completed research on over 40,000 individuals that clarified this pathway as well as the successful way out. He has been featured in The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Chicago Sun Times, ABC, CBS and more.

Dr. Glenn shares his approach to food, and what it means to get out of the food jail.

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We all have energy blocks that hold us back from being the best version of ourselves.

When you’re in an energetic state of health, it’s very possible that you’ll feel like everything’s just going great, and nothing can go wrong. However, when things don’t go so well in your life, whether that’s something small or large, that feeling of “not being able to turn it around”, can be overwhelming.

Energy work is one of the most powerful ways to create lasting change in your life. It can help you heal from trauma, break addictions, get out of a relationship, attract a new partner, and much more.

Our guest for this episode, Dr. Louise Swartswalter, shares her story of how she was stuck in a rut, and how she got out of it. She shares her journey of self-discovery and the steps she took to clear her energy blocks and get back on track.

Dr. Louise Swartswalter, has helped transform lives individually and in groups using a unique multi- dimensional approach including Naturopathy, biofeedback, trauma release work, NLP, life coaching and energy work. Louise is the owner and founder of the Brain- Soul Success Academy and the creator of the BRAIN system TM, a five step transformational program serving clients worldwide. She is passionate about connecting; clearing blocks to success and helping others achieve their optimal health and highest potential.

She enjoys speaking and teaching globally and has shared with audiences on KOB-TV, Good Day New Mexico, KOB radio, as well as at events and professional organizations.

Let’s hear about the tools that Dr. Louise used in her practice and learn how to clear your energy blocks and start living your best life.

We’ll also explore how our emotions influence our energy and how to balance them in order to create positive change in our lives.

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Welcome back to another enlightening episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! This week, we dive deep into a topic that resonates with so many of us: bone health. We often think we’re doing enough by following generic health programs, but what if those programs fall short when it comes to bone health? What if there’s a better way to ensure stronger, healthier bones?

In this episode, we are thrilled to welcome Kevin Ellis, famously known as Bone Coach™, into our midst. Kevin is not just any health coach; he's a Forbes-featured certified integrative nutrition health coach, podcaster, YouTuber, bone health advocate, and the founder of BoneCoach.com. With his unique 3-step process and world-class coaching program, the Stronger Bones Solution™, Kevin has transformed the lives of thousands across the globe.

• The Reality of Osteoporosis and Osteopenia: Understanding why traditional programs might not be enough.
• Kevin's Unique 3-Step Process: Learn about the innovative Stronger Bones Solution™ that has helped individuals in over 1500+ cities worldwide.
• Personal Stories and Success: Hear inspiring stories from people who have regained confidence in their bone health journey.
• A Vision for the Future: Kevin's mission isn't just about the present. Discover how he plans to help future generations prevent osteoporosis and lead long, active lives.

Kevin's approach is both inspiring and informative, providing actionable insights and practical steps that you can start implementing today. His dedication goes beyond just addressing current issues; it's about paving the way for a healthier future for our children and grandchildren.

This episode is a must-listen for midlife women who are looking to take control of their bone health. Whether you’ve been diagnosed with osteopenia or osteoporosis or simply want to ensure your bones stay strong and healthy, this episode offers invaluable advice and guidance.

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Bone health is more than just a medical concern; it's a critical component of living an active and fulfilling life. Kevin Ellis’s expertise and passion shine through in this episode, offering you not just hope but a practical roadmap to stronger, healthier bones. Let’s embark on this journey together and make bone health a priority!

Don’t forget to subscribe to The Hormone Prescription Podcast and leave us a review. We love hearing your thoughts and experiences. Until next time, stay healthy and stay strong!

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By engaging with this episode, you’re not just taking steps toward better bone health; you’re joining a global movement dedicated to a healthier, more active future. Listen now and be inspired!

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Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):

You don't have to know where each step is placed day one. You just have to know where you want your path to lead. Kevin Ellis, stay tuned for the Bone Coach who will share his groundbreaking program with you to make sure that your bones stay strong and vital as you age.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:19):

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

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (01:13):

Hi everybody. Welcome back to another episode of the Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. Thank you so much for joining me today. As we talk with Kevin Ellis, also known as The Bone Coach, Kevin has a unique three step process and coaching program called Stronger Bone Solution. He's gonna share with you, he's gonna share so much. He really has a great way of articulating the importance of bone health. We're gonna talk about diagnostics. How do you know if you have an issue with this? What are the correct diagnostic tools you should be undergoing? You're probably not getting this information in your regular doctor's office. I even share a story about one of my clients who had a kind of interesting experience with her primary care doctor around that. So we're gonna dive into that. And you know, bone health is super important. It's kind of one of the most silent diseases because most of us start losing bone mass around the age of 30 unless we're doing something to prevent bone loss.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (02:16):

And most of us are not. And it accelerates more in women than men, which is super unfair. But it's just a reality for various reasons that we're gonna touch upon. Also related to your hormones as we go through midlife. So if you're not doing diagnostics around this and you're not paying attention and being proactive, I promise you this is happening to you. As you're sitting there listening to my voice, whether you're driving your car or gardening or doing the dishes, you are losing bone mass if you're not doing something to prevent bone mass loss if you're over 30. It's just a fact. And so the only way that you really will know this is a problem if you don't do anything about it, is you might fall when you're older and have a fracture, which can be devastating because a third of women who fall and have a hip fracture because they have osteoporosis, will die from it.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:20):

Yes, die. It's one of the leasing causes of death in older women, a third of us who that happens to will become incapacitated, where we can no longer live independently. That means you have to move out of where you've lived your whole life maybe, and into a facility where you have assisted care all the time and you lose your freedom <laugh> and you lose lots of things that come along with that, that change. So I know we talk about it really in this kind of detached, often the future way, like we're not talking about you, but yes, we are talking about you. So this is a vital episode for everyone to listen to. Even if you're a guy, there are men who listen to my show too. Hi guys. And I love that because you help the women in your life and this is you, you need to listen.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:09):

But we're gonna talk about how you can know this is an issue for you earlier. And then most importantly, what do you do about it? Kevin has some great resources for you. He explains things in plain English in a down to earth way just like I do. So I think you're really gonna love our discussion. I'll tell you a little bit more about him and then we'll get started. Kevin Ellis is better known as the Bone Coach. He is a Forbes featured integrative health coach podcaster and is the founder of Bone coach.com. Through a unique three-step process and the world class coaching program called Stronger Bone Solution, he and this team have helped thousands of people with osteopenia and osteoporosis in over 1500 cities around the world get confident in their stronger bones plan. His mission is to help millions of people with osteoporosis build stronger bones and to help our children and grandchildren create a strong and healthy foundation so they can lead long active lives. Please help me welcome Kevin to the show.

Kevin Ellis (05:11):

Thank you so much for having me. I'm looking forward to this. It's gonna be a great conversation.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (05:15):

It is. I have been waiting to have you on the show for a couple years. You are super busy because you have a su super successful program in helping people reverse their bone density and improve it whether they have osteoporosis, osteopenia. And so I'm really glad to have you on the show and share you with my audience. Some of my listeners may know, 'cause I talk about <laugh>, I'm an open book when it comes to my health and my family's health, and my mom has the worst osteoporosis I've ever seen. No surprise that she also has Alzheimer's, right? 'cause The two are connected and connected also with hormone imbalance. She was in hormonal poverty for three decades without treatment. So I think it it's great to launch into this talk really with you telling everyone why you're so passionate about the work that you do.

Kevin Ellis (06:10):

Yeah. 'cause usually when you're thinking about bone health or you're thinking about osteopenia or osteoporosis or stronger bones, you're not typically thinking about the younger male, right? You're, you're typically thinking about somebody later in life. Maybe it's maybe just like you said a mother or a grandmother or an aunt or a friend or someone like that who's experienced the effects of maybe fractures or osteoporosis and how you saw that, how that impacted their quality of life in their later years. So it's usually not the younger male that's passionate about this or talking about this, but for me, my journey really started a long time ago. And like a lot of us in the health space, my journey started through my own health issues and challenges. So when I came outta the Marine Corps, I had a lot of different health issues, high stress, poor sleep, chronic digestive distress, couldn't figure out what was going on.

Kevin Ellis (06:54):

My energy was almost non-existent. Some days I could barely even get out of bed. And then I was diagnosed with celiac disease. And for those who are not familiar, celiac disease is an autoimmune condition where when you ingest gluten, the tiny little nutrient absorption centers inside your small intestine, they're called vii. And I, I like to call 'em roots in your soil. And my roots were becoming damaged and they were becoming blunted and they couldn't do their job. And my body still needed these important nutrients to execute its daily functions, specifically calcium, because calcium is the primary mineral constituent of your bones. But you also need it for muscle contractions, for nerve impulses, for a, a variety of other things. So I wasn't absorbing these important nutrients and my body was going to the largest reserve of minerals I had, which were my bones and pulling from there.

Kevin Ellis (07:40):

So celiac disease led to bone loss and a subsequent diagnosis of osteoporosis. And this was right around 30 years old. And for anyone to get that diagnosis at any point, it can be scary. And you know, for me at a young age, I still was trying to make sense of it all. And there was fear was a very strong impetus and driver for me and also wanting to be there for my kids in the future because I lost my father when I was two months old. And all I ever wanted was to have that person in my life. And I didn't wanna leave my kids in a position where, you know, they didn't have me there too. So I had a pretty strong reason to make improvements and I put this plan together, I did the research, consulted with people, and I ended up turning this, this health journey into a passion. And I became a coach and I built out a program and grew that community to a couple hundred thousand people. And we've got over 10,000 people that have come through these stronger bones programs now. So it's, it's just really a passion of mine through personal experience, but also just seeing the lives of people we've changed and transformed and how they get to live their most best lives that you know in the future. So

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:43):

Yeah, I love hear hearing how people came to do what they do, that they love, that they're passionate about those. So thank you for sharing that. And I think that a lot of women listening right now don't think that we're talking to them because osteopenia, osteoporosis, bone loss really has no symptoms until you are at the point where you start getting fractures, right? It might be spinal compression fractures or you could fall when you're older and and break something. But I find that this is so <laugh> under-discussed in the medical community. And I actually recently had a patient who shared with me that she went and got a bone density. 'cause I advised everyone to get a bone density and based on certain parameters, which we can talk about. And she definitely qualified as needing one. And she went and got it and she had osteoporosis and she took it to her primary care doctor who basically scolded her and yelled at her for getting a bone density.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (09:50):

I don't know if you've come across situations like that, but increasingly I'm having patients come to me where their doctors are getting angry at them for getting screening tests that they really needed, that their doctor didn't recommend bone density being one of them because, you know, his whole attitude was, well now you have osteoporosis, what are I gonna do about that? Because he didn't know what to do. So this is why I love what you do because doctors really don't have an answer. And the fact I was so angry after she told me that, that her doctor got mad at her. So can we talk a little bit about what is appropriate screening? Who should be getting screening? What screening should they be getting? Because I think a lot of the women listening have never had the proper screening and don't even know that they need it and they don't know that we're talking to them.

Kevin Ellis (10:36):

Yeah, this is, this is so important. I'm glad we're talking about this because number one, you as the patient have the right to be the educated and empowered advocate for you. You have the right to ask for tests. You have the right to get those tests done and to see where you're at and get some objective baseline markers and monitor those changes. You as the patient you should be asking for that. That's how you take care of yourself long term. Because a lot of times what happens when I see people, a lot of people, they want to prevent future fractures. They may not already be at that point, but some people I've seen, they've already fractured a lot of times, 5, 10, 15 times, even some. So we want to prevent that from happening. So how do you do that? Well, first let's understand that every single person has bones in their body.

Kevin Ellis (11:18):

Your bone health is important and you're putting on 90% of your bone mass by the time you turn age 18. And by the time you turn 30, the remaining 10% approximately is gonna fill in. And that's what we call peak bone mass or what I call a full bucket, right? So if when you were younger, you had poor diet nutrition, you drank a bunch of sugary soft drinks, you ate a bunch of candy, you weren't getting enough calcium, vitamin D, magnesium K two, you weren't getting enough protein in your diet. Or if you're listening to this and you've got kids or grandkids, think through that lens too. Not just what you went through, but what maybe your kids are going through right now. If we led a sedentary lifestyle, if we weren't out playing sports or being active or moving our bodies and our bones in these short, sharp, dynamic movements to help stimulate good healthy bone growth from a young age or doing gymnastics, right?

Kevin Ellis (12:10):

Get those kids in gymnastics if, if possible because gymnasts have some of the best bone density out there. And then if we had an eating disorder when we were younger, if we took certain medications like glucocorticoids or if we smoked or drank excessively, all of those things could have prevented you from reaching peak bone masses starting with that full bucket. So it's good to understand how, how your bones are being built over time. And it's good to also know, hey there, there are probably some contributors I had in my youth. What are the things I can do now to understand where I'm at and what I need to do to move forward? So I like to see people getting these objective markers and baselines early in your thirties to forties, right? If you get a baseline right around the time you, you achieve peak bone mass, 30 years old, then you can monitor those changes over time.

Kevin Ellis (12:57):

And that's a great place to start. If you're already past 30 and you haven't had a bone density scan yet, you can get one. If you can't go to your doctor and get one, go to an external radiology group and get one. If you have any chronic digestive issues, especially if you have celiac disease, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, any, any of those absorption conditions, you have a reason to go to your doctor and say, Hey, I believe this is contributing to bone loss and I'd like to dig a little bit further. Can we get this test? And that's how you go about having those conversations. Or you can even just say, Hey look, I, I'm not saying no to your recommendations, I'm just saying can you help me get a little bit more data to make the best decision to move forward? Right? So if you just have that kind of dialogue instead of shutting your physicians down, that may lead to MM-hmm <affirmative> better results.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:42):

And then what kind of bone density should they be asking for? Because they're not all bone density testing is created equal <laugh>.

Kevin Ellis (13:50):

That's right. Yeah. So we would look for a DEXA scan, dual energy x-ray absor geometry, it's painless test, kind of like an X-ray, but very low levels of radiation. You lay down on the machine, it does a scan and it tells you your bone mineral density and then it generates a score. And that score is, if it's plus one or minus one, you're gonna be told that's normal and healthy. If it's minus one to minus 2.5, you're gonna be told that's osteopenia. We would call that low bone mass. And that's like a precursor to osteoporosis and minus 2.5 or lower. So minus 2.6, minus 2.7, so on and so forth. That's considered osteoporosis. And the greater the negative number becomes the more severe the osteoporosis. Now important note, bone density is only part of the picture. It's an important part, but it's only part of the picture.

Kevin Ellis (14:37):

So if we wanna really understand stronger bones, you have to know that bone density is the actual mineral content of the bone. Bone quality is the structural integrity of the bone, the micro architecture, how the bone is organized. Those two things combine to create bone strength. So a lot of times you only have part of the picture if you're just getting a bone density scan. So how do I get the bone quality part? Well, there's an add-on software to the DEXA scan that you can get. It's called TBS trabecular bone score. You can call a facility ahead of time, ask 'em if they have the capability and then just confirm with the technician before you start your scan, just say, Hey, do you have the TBS? 'cause It's, it's, you're gonna be able to get all that data just in that one scan, which can be great.

Kevin Ellis (15:20):

So you have bone density, bone quality, there's another technology out there that is, it's more prevalent in Europe, it's making its way more into the US now it's called rems, radiofrequency echo graphic multis spectometry technology. And it's found in a device called echo light. And this looks at the, it's an ultrasound technology that looks at your bone density, your bone quality and gives you a five-year fragility score, like a predictor of fracture basically. And that can also be another tool that you use. And the the last set of tools that I would encourage people to look at are when you get these tests, these, these markers of bone density and bone quality, you have to understand that if you only have one, you don't know if you're actively losing bone right now, present day as we speak. So what are the things that we can look at to understand what's going on right now in our bones?

Kevin Ellis (16:12):

Well, we'll look at bone turnover markers and bone turnover markers. Look at the activity level of cells that are building up and breaking down your bone and let's if the, the bone turnover markers, we're gonna talk about bone resorption. The most sensitive marker for bone resorption is serum CTX. And that is a CT low peptide test. And that looks at the activity level of cells that are breaking down bone. So if that activity level is elevated or even really high, that can be an indicator of active bone loss and a root cause issue that needs to be explored and addressed. And if we have, if we're looking at bone resorption, we also wanna look at bone formation. So the most sensitive marker for bone formation is called P one and P, that's pro collagen type one and terminal propeptide. And this looks at the activity level cells that are building up that bone. So you wanna look at, you wanna look at those two things at the same time. So those are some markers. I love that. And where you're at.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (17:08):

Comprehensive answer. Thank you so much. So everybody listening, we're gonna give some, Kevin has some great resources for you to get further information. So don't freak out about what are all the, this lingo you're hearing about. He's got more resources to really support you in your bone journey, whether you've got great bone mass or you're already losing bone mass because bone mass is something you have to promote. Just like you don't clean your house one time and it stays clean, you have to clean it periodically. So it's something you need to work on. So let's dive into talking about the connection between bone health and hormones because I don't think a lot of women get that there's a connection and particularly women at midlife don't realize that they're being robbed in the middle of the night while they're sleeping a bone mass and it has something to do with their hormones. Can we talk a little bit about that?

Kevin Ellis (18:05):

We most certainly can. So there are different types. There's absolutely a hormone connection, there's a major hormone connection to osteoporosis and bone loss and stronger bones. So let's start with, there are different types of osteoporosis. There is primary osteoporosis that is typically related to a decrease in estrogen. In post-menopausal women. Estrogen has a protective effect on bone as estrogen levels decrease as they do during menopause or even before menopause. That can cause an increase in the activity level of cells that break down bone. And when that activity level elevated and really high, that's gonna cause more bone loss, right? And over time, even in the five years right around that transition, some women can lose up to 20% of their bone mass in that, in that period of time. And that's pretty significant, right? So we have to be aware of that, that major hormonal change that's happening and even take some proactive steps to, to do that.

Kevin Ellis (18:59):

And I know Dr. Karen, you, you talk about this all the time, but in terms of other causes of osteoporosis, there's secondary osteoporosis and that is where it occurs as a result of behaviors, disorders, diseases, conditions, and medications. So there can be different reasons for that bone loss that's taking place. Hormones can absolutely play a role, especially estrogen. And then if we're talking about bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, if that is part of your plan, you know, and it's different for every single person, and I know you talk about this quite a bit, but estrogen can help with the prevention of bone loss, progesterone, testosterone, DHEA can help with supporting the bone building side of things too. So there, there are things that you can do from a hormonal perspective and that again, it varies for every single person. You gotta work with a practitioner to help you figure out what's right for you. But just know those can be some tools to help support you as you start moving in the right direction or even preventing some of that loss from happening.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (19:52):

I just wanna make the point for everybody listening that there really is no current recommendation on use of sex hormones or what I like to call flex hormones because they have flexible functions. It's not just about sex. For the prevention of bone loss, really there isn't. So when you're talking to your doctor about hormones, you're probably not gonna get some of the information that we're sharing with you today about the fact that it does help prevent bone loss. So it's something that you're going to have to bring up. And the fact that flex hormone therapy or getting to a state of what I call hormonal prosperity actually helps you to build bone. There is a recommendation using estrogen in particular to reverse or treat osteoporosis. It's not considered a first line therapy though, which we might get into talking about medications and they don't talk about the use of other bone building agents like testosterone is super important for women too. So I, I'd love to just give that caveat because a lot of times people will hear something on the show and then they go running to their doctor and say, well I heard Kevin talking about this, Karen talking about that, and, and they just get poo-pooed and then they get really confused because they're kind of being gaslit but don't realize it <laugh>. Yeah. So that's why I like to, to tell them what to expect when you bring this information you're super excited about to your, your doctor

Kevin Ellis (21:24):

And, and you have to realize too, and it's just, you kind of just touched on medication. But you have to realize too that when you go into the conventional medical model and you're having these conversations, just know that the standard recommendation that will be provided for you is take some calcium, take some vitamin D, go for a walk, don't lift anything heavy over, you know, very small amounts of weight and here's this medication, take it. And we'll see you in two years for your next bone density scan. I would bet if anyone has already had this conversation with their doctor, 95% of you're like nodding your head. Yeah, that's exactly what I heard. Right? There is so much more to bone health than that. There are so many other pieces and let's even, I'd love to just touch on the medication because that that conversation is gonna come up.

Kevin Ellis (22:13):

So if you're okay with that. Sure. Briefly, I, I would, I'm not anti-medication. I have seen a lot of situations where it's necessary in lifesaving for some people, but I am pro do everything you possibly can naturally first before considering that as an option. Because when it comes to these bone medications, they have a dramatic effect on bone physiology. It's not like taking an aspirin. And there are different categories of these drugs. There are anti-resorptive medications and there are anabolic medications. Anti-Resorptive medications are designed to slow down the activity level of cells that are breaking down bone. Can they do that? Of course they can, but there are risks and side effects that come with their use. So for antiresorptives, this would be broken down into bisphosphonates and rank lain inhibitors. Bisphosphonates, you've probably heard of some of these before would be your Fosamax, your bon niva, your reclass, those kind of drugs, those are bisphosphonates and your rank lain inhibitors are like Prolia.

Kevin Ellis (23:11):

Okay? So bisphosphonates, the safety and efficacy of these drugs, not really well known beyond five years. And as you and I are going about our daily lives, doing our daily activities, exercising, doing chores around the house, we're starting to get these tiny little micro cracks, micro fractures in our bones. That's normal, right? For every single person. That's normal. And then what happens is you have cells within the bone called osteocytes, they're like orchestrators of this bone remodeling process. They sense that damage and they send out a signal and say, Hey, we need to become stronger. And that signal is picked up by other cells and these cells called osteoclast, they come in and they, they scoop out that damaged bone and right behind it, it's a coupled process. You have these other cells called osteoblasts that come in and build stronger, healthier new bone. That is a normal remodeling process that happens throughout our lives.

Kevin Ellis (24:03):

When you're taking some of these medications, especially longer term, multiple years, you can actually slow down that activity level too much to where you start to accumulate that old worn damage weakened bone over time. So even if you're taking one of these longer term and you're seeing improvements or you're seeing stability in your bone density scan, that quality, that structural integrity, it may not be there, right? So you may not actually have stronger bones, your bones may end up being weaker, just, it just depends. So you have to be aware of these things before you jump into them. And then other certain medications like Prolia, you can't just take that medication and then stop taking it because you'll have what's called a rebound effect. And that can increase the risk of ver vertebral fractures. So again, most people don't get that education in a 15 minute conversation before they just jump into taking a medication.

Kevin Ellis (24:54):

And then the other category of drugs are called anabolics. And those drugs are designed to build bone, build better quality bone and build it faster. Can they do that? Yes. Are there risks and side effects and implications of use? Of course. So you can only take 'em for a certain period of time and once you take them you have to follow it with another medication just to not lose the bone you gained. So the reason I tell people this is ask questions. It's okay to pause, to take a deep breath to make those decisions and to, to just make the most educated, empowered decision you can.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (25:26):

Yeah, super important to know about the medications, be an informed consumer, know what your options are because a lot of times you're not gonna get all the information when you're talking to your doctor. You're just gonna get a prescription here, take this. But what I love about what you do and the resource that you have for everybody is that you really help them to understand, like I I always say I'm not the type of physician who's just gonna tell you do what I say because I'm the expert. I'm gonna educate you about how your body works and help you make the best choice for yourself and you do the same. And that's what I love about the work you do. I think gone are the days when we can just abdicate control of our health to our healthcare provider and assume they have our best interests at heart.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (26:09):

We really have to become the CEOs of our own health and have a working knowledge of how our body works. Otherwise, we're gonna kind of get to the later in the finish line and be upset like a woman I talked to recently who's in her eighties and having all these consequences of hormonal poverty and she's really angry and saying, why didn't anyone tell me? Why Didn't anyone tell me what I was signing up for <laugh> when I didn't, when I went into hormonal poverty at menopause and nobody helped me to get out. I, I think something else that's really important. I know we only have so much time to talk today and that's why I love that you have this extra class everyone can attend, which we'll give you details on later, is exercise. I was talking with a client just a couple hours ago about exercise and when most women at midlife hear the word exercise, they think aerobics and <laugh>, they don't think about weight-bearing exercise or if we hear weight-bearing exercise, we don't necessarily think you're talking about weights.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:14):

This woman was actually kind of interesting won't give details on her name or anything, so it's confidential, but the situation I think is very common. I hear this a lot. She didn't wanna lift weights 'cause she didn't wanna bulk up like a man. Also, she was noticing when she was doing certain exercises like squats or arm ex upper arm exercises that she was having discomfort so she stopped doing them. So I know that's a lot of information in there, but basically let's talk about what kind of exercise do you do need to do for your bones?

Kevin Ellis (27:47):

Yeah, exercise is so important. You can be eating all the right foods, which most of the time people think they're eating. I hear this all the time. People are, I feel like I'm eating healthy, I feel like I'm exercising and I still have this condition. Why is this? Well, you have to provide the proper stimulus that your bones need to become stronger and your bones need a couple different types of stimuli. You need impact and you need muscle pulling on bone. So when the muscle pulls on bone, there's this mechanical signal that sends a chemical signal to tell the bones to become stronger. Most people, like I said, when they get diagnosed, they're told, Hey, do some walking. Don't lift anything heavy and just kind of avoid anything that could potentially cause a fall or fracture. Do.Dot that could actually be some of the worst advice that people get is to not put any stimulus on those bones.

Kevin Ellis (28:33):

And the reason I say that is you have to have weight-bearing exercise and you have to have resistance training and muscle strengthening. So what is weight-bearing exercise weight-bearing exercise is anything where your body and your bones are working against gravity to keep you upright. There are things you're doing on your feet and they're placing a good healthy stress on those bones. So that would be, you're walking, you're jogging, you're hiking, you're gardening, you're playing pickleball, you're running around with the kids and the grandkids out in the yard. All those things are considered weight-bearing exercise. It also would be yoga, Pilates, tai chi, qigong, dancing, even All those things are weight-bearing exercise. If you are doing those things, keep doing 'em and you can incorporate this into your plan. Okay? You have to also be aware of non-weightbearing exercise. And this is where your body and your bones are not working against gravity to keep you upright and they are not placing good healthy stress on your bones.

Kevin Ellis (29:27):

And if one of these activities is your primary form of exercise and the only thing you incorporate, you need to do more, right? So if you're doing swimming or cycling, especially swimming, you need to be aware of this. And swimming specifically, it's not that if you do it and it makes you happy and it brings you joy and you're, you just love getting in the pool and swimming around, that's great. You can keep doing this, but don't get in the pool five days a week, swim a couple laps, get out and say, I did my exercise. 'cause You didn't, you have to provide the stimulus that your bones need. And that would be this next form of exercise, which is muscle strengthening and resistance training exercise. And this is where you're bringing in, maybe it's the barbells, the dumbbells, the the resistance bands, the machines at the gym, if that's where your comfort level is at and you're starting to incorporate some, some really good movements that can be helpful.

Kevin Ellis (30:23):

Now, if you are new to weightlifting or resistance training or muscle strengthening exercise, don't be intimidated by some of the things I'm gonna share because you don't have to start at the highest, most intense level. That's not where we recommend people start. We want you to start at a weight that you're comfortable with, that we can look at your body mechanics that we can get you doing things with good form and slowly build up that intensity from there to where you just know how to do it and you're comfortable, right? So that's where we're doing things like squats or this is, it sounds scary, but it's actually not that scary. Dead lifts, right? Overhead presses. And there are other exercises that we can incorporate there too, but those are some great foundational movements that we can incorporate and we want to build up that intensity. Five to 10 repetition range can be a great, a great range to be in, but you gotta have good form, right? So again, you don't have to start at the most intense place day one. You just gotta slowly build up from there.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (31:18):

Yeah, I, I'm so glad that we're talking about this because I do think that just a lot of women miss it. We really do need the weights, the weightbearing activities and working with weights and it's something that a lot of women aren't familiar with, so they shy away from it. And I just thought it was interesting. The woman earlier said that she started having discomfort and so she just stopped doing it and she just wrote that off, I don't need to do that. It hurts <laugh>. Yeah. So it gave us the opportunity to have a, a conversation about, well, no, it's just like when, when something hurts in your body, you've gotta investigate why. Same with lifting weights. If you're having pain, you probably need to look into why.

Kevin Ellis (31:57):

Exactly. And, and just to give you an example, every single person is different. They're at different fitness and activity levels. They have different conditions, they have different pain in their body. So we actually teach people how to modify things to address this. I know we're gonna share this resource here in a little bit, but we'll teach people how to, you know, if they've got pain in any area, any area of their body, their neck, their shoulders, their back, their hips, their knees, their feet, and they're worried about their bones. We teach modifications, adjustments and tweaks to where you can actually provide the stimulus that you need. Or if people have specific conditions that they're trying to navigate, stenosis, scoliosis, spondylothesis, osteoarthritis, degenerative disc, or you've already had a fracture, we will teach modifications, adjustments, and tweaks to make sure you know how to, how to do those things safely and still provide stimulus that you need. So yeah, a lot of times pain, it can either prevent people from taking action altogether or it can compromise their body mechanics and put them at greater risk of injury. So we just wanna make sure they're doing the right things and they've got the right form as they get into these movements.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (33:00):

Two questions I definitely wanna ask you before we wrap up. And number one is, I know some women are probably thinking, so I'm getting thin bones, it's not that big a deal. But what they don't understand are the consequences they're signing up for or the potential consequences of having thin bones. Can you talk a little bit about that? Because I I, more than anything from this episode, I want everyone to really get the message. You need a, you need to check your bone density now it's vital and you need to do something about it if it's not optimal. So what kind of consequences are we talking about?

Kevin Ellis (33:38):

Yeah, I'm, well, a lot of times the biggest concern is, is fracture, right? So if you have seen anybody later in life, whether it's a mother or grandmother or something like that, I used to work at a retirement home when I was, when I was a lot younger and that was one of the first jobs I had. And I always talk about how that had a dramatic impact on my life because I saw people in their final years and what they looked like and what their quality of life was like, and whether they were hunched over kind of making their way to the dining hall or they, they were just upright chatting, having fun with their friends. And that had a really big impact on me. And the biggest concern that I see people when they come to us is they're concerned about fracture. Because when we have fractures that that's gonna dramatically impact your life, they can be life changing, they can be debilitating six months after a hip fracture, you've only got about 15% of patients can walk across a room unaided every year.

Kevin Ellis (34:26):

We've got about 300,000 hip fracture patients. A quarter of people end up in nursing homes, half of them never regain their previous function. So it's, it's not to, not to scare people because just because you have low bone density doesn't mean you're gonna fracture, right? There are preventative things you can do to build stronger bone to prevent that from even being your fate. A fracture is a possibility and it does happen. So we need to do everything we possibly can to preserve and strengthen this structure that's gonna carry you to an active future. And that's a big part of what we focus on.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (34:55):

Right. And then the other thing I wanted to talk about, we talked about the sex or flex hormones when it comes to bone density, but we didn't touch on cortisol, the stress hormone, which also gets to gut health and bone. And I don't think that a lot of people are a aware of the connection between other hormones like cortisol, which relates to gut health and bone health. Can you talk a little bit about that briefly?

Kevin Ellis (35:21):

Yeah, I certainly can. So there's a major connection, let's even start with the gut health piece too. 'cause Yes, of course stress hormone cortisol that can impact your gut health can increase the, can increase intestinal permeability, leaky gut. But with gut health, there are a couple ways that this can affect your bones. So the first way is kind of what I talked about with celiac disease, the absorption of nutrients and having challenges with, with that, that can cause your body to pull minerals in from the bones and that can, that can lead to bone loss if you have issues with absorption. The other issue when it comes to gut health and bone health is that your bones are living tissue. They're not just these static structures that hold you up right and carry you through life. They do that and they do a really good job of it.

Kevin Ellis (36:04):

But inside your bones you have something called bone marrow. And bone marrow is a soft spongy material. It produces 95% of the blood cells in your body. So if you need help with preventing bleeding and clotting, that's where platelets are gonna come in. If you need help with carrying oxygen to the body's tissues, carrying carbon dioxide away from the tissues back to the lungs, red blood cells are gonna help with that. But if you need help with fighting infections, healing wounds, anything related to the immune system, that's where white blood cells come in. Well, the cells that break down bone are a form of white blood cell. So anything that is stimulating the immune system is speaking in the same language as the cells that break down bone. Where does 70% of your immune system reside in your gut? So if you have digestive issues, especially chronic and long term, it's not just a matter of am I absorbing my nutrients, it's am I stimulating that immune system speaking in the same language as the cells that break down bone and leading to more bone loss.

Kevin Ellis (37:01):

So resolution of those digestive issues is incredibly important. And then if we shift to, if we're talking about the impact of chronic stress and high cortisol on our bones specifically, there are a couple, a couple ways that this can affect our bones. Number one, it can reduce progesterone production and we need progesterone to support healthy bones. The other way is that it actually reduces the ability of the os osteoblasts, the cells that build bone, it reduces their ability to build that bone. And the other thing that we need to be concerned about is high glucocorticoids, these natural steroid hormones, they kill osteocytes, osteocytes are these orchestrators of the bone remodeling process. So we need all of these things to function in a, in a good way. And when we have high stress, elevated cortisol levels or we have cortisol dysregulation, even that can be an issue that comes up.

Kevin Ellis (37:55):

So just be aware that if you have stress in your life, and it may not be, I know we always, we talk about the lion always, but you know, the lion is, is probably not gonna be the, the main stressor in your life. The, it's probably gonna be the, the financial conflict, the family challenges, the keeping up with the perfect lives of the Jones is on social media. Those kinds of things can contribute to and drive that stress response. And you just have to be aware of that and you just need to cultivate a healthy practice around dealing with that stress. And I think if you do that, you you'll be in a really good place at least to start. Yeah,

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (38:31):

For sure. And I love this quote you shared with me before we, we started recording, I have to share with everyone, you don't have to know where each step is placed day one, you just have to know where you want your path to lead. You have certainly given everyone a step for day one when it comes to their bone health journey and let's tell them where it leads. We'll <laugh> we'll have link links in the show notes, but Kevin, tell everyone where they can connect with you online and about this great resource that you have for them to help them continue on their journey. And we'll have the link in the show notes.

Kevin Ellis (39:07):

Absolutely. So you can always find me@bonecoach.com. We got a lot of free resources, stronger bones programs, all that stuff there. And you can always find me on all the social channels too. At Bone Coach or at Bone Coach Kevin, go to Instagram, go to the podcast. Go go. Any of those places you'll find us there. But the best resource I would suggest your audience starts with is if we could leave this in the show notes we kind of talked about, this is my free Stronger Bones Masterclass, comes with a free bone healthy recipes guide. But this masterclass is gonna take anybody who wants to improve their bones, is concerned about their bone health or just wants to have an active future and you want to take care of that structure that's gonna get you there, sign up for this masterclass. It's gonna walk you through step by step. Everything you need to do, it's gonna just gonna walk you through the process we take. We take our clients through step by step by step. It's gonna help you uncover missing pieces in your plan. It's gonna help you get on the right path for stronger bones. And that's the Stronger Bones Masterclass. We'll leave that in the show notes. So check that out, sign up for that. And that's the best resource to get started. Awesome.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (40:07):

Thank you so much for joining us today and sharing this really very important information, Kevin. I really appreciate it. Thanks

Kevin Ellis (40:14):

So much Dr. Ki,

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (40:15):

And thank you for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kyrin. I know you are inspired to lift up the hood of your bone car and take a look at your bones and see what's going in there. If you haven't had proper testing, please, please, please go and get it and then take action. This is vital. So I look forward to hearing about your bone health journey on social media. You can reach out to me on Instagram or Facebook and share your stories and your progress and what you're learning and we'll have another wonderful

Speaker 2 (40:48):

Episode for you

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (40:49):

Next week. Until then, peace, love, and hormones y'all.

Speaker 2 (40:54):

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

► Get access to Kevin Ellis's Stronger Bones Masterclass: Discover The 3-Step Blueprint Osteoporosis "Thrivers" Use To Help Build Strong Bones So They Can Stop Fearing Fracture & Lead Active Lives plus Get a Free Recipe Guide! - CLICK HERE.

► Are you tired of feeling like you're losing control at midlife? Weight gain, low energy, and a decrease in sex drive are all too common. But it doesn't have to be that way.

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

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Do you ever feel guilty about not being ‘people-pleasing’ enough? Millions of people do, all over the world.

People-pleasing is the desire to be liked by others. It can cause people to overcompensate by doing things they think will make them look good, but which actually make them look bad. This is called “doing what you think, rather than what you know.” It’s very common at midlife and in menopause, because it makes us feel good about ourselves and gives us the sense that we are important and valued. However, it can have some negative side effects on our health.

In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, I interviewed Carmen Hunter about her story of significant experience of betrayal and abandonment to saying no and bringing back that power and honoring what was best for herself. She explains how the habit of people-pleasing can affect our health, and offers some suggestions for how to break this bad habit. Carmen Hunter has over 10 years of health coaching and has been educating and mentoring wellness practitioners for 7 years. She believes that diagnoses are symptoms of a larger health condition and that helping people get well depends on getting back to the basics of health without overwhelming them physically, mentally and emotionally.

Carmen offers practical solutions to these issues and shares her own personal experience in this area. This topic is essential for anyone who struggles with being people-pleasing. You will learn how to take back control of your life and feel better about yourself!

As with all my interviews, I hope that you will enjoy listening to Carmen Hunter’s insights and tips. I am sure that you will find them thought-provoking, informative, and useful.

Carmen Hunter offers a FREE mini-video series about “The Seven Essentials” every human being needs to begin a health journey that feels manageable physically, mentally, financially and emotionally.

Click this link: https://learn.instituteforfunctionalhealthcoaching.com/seven-essentials/

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In this episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast, our guest, Dr. Tara Scott, explains why Natural Hormones are essential in Midlife and how they can be used to enhance physical and emotional well-being.

Dr. Tara Scott, Hormone Guru, helps people find the cause of their symptoms and get them on a path to optimal health. With over 25 years of experience and 3 board certifications in OB/GYN, Functional medicine and Integrative medicine, Dr. Scott has helped thousands of patients struggling with hormone issues including endometriosis, breast cancer, weight gain and more.

Dr. Tara Scott dives deep into the ways that these hormones affect our body, our mood, our libido and how they influence our relationships with other people. We’ll also know what happens when our hormones change over time, as they do throughout life. She also explains why there is such a lack of information regarding the use of these hormones (especially Testosterone) and offers some solutions to this problem.

This is an essential topic for women at midlife who have been feeling unwell, or who are experiencing the menopause transition. As with all my interviews, I hope that you will enjoy listening to Dr. Scott’s insights and comments. I am sure that you will find them thought-provoking, informative, and useful.

Register to Dr. Tara's "Revitalize Academy" and learn more!

https://academy.revitalizemed.com/

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Have you ever thought about why we age so fast? Have you ever heard about methylation dysfunction and wondered why it happens to you?

Methylation is a process that occurs in every living cell, and it plays a very important role in the development of our body. If methylation functions properly, our body will be able to repair and rejuvenate itself naturally. However, if it malfunctions, aging will happen quickly. Furthermore, methylation defect affects DNA in the body and makes you look older and fatter. It’s a genetic disorder that leads to weight gain, fatigue, and depression. DNA is a living substance, and it also contains the information needed for life. The human body has the ability to keep its own cells alive, but it cannot repair and rejuvenate itself. If DNA is damaged, it cannot be repaired, and our bodies will become old and sick.

Dr. Kendra shares her story that led her to studies and research about healing through genetics and specialties in treatment of challenging conditions such as asthma, autism, allergies, and eczema, as well as fertility. She is most passionate about genetic methylation defects as it almost prevented her from becoming a mother.

Let’s hear about her inspirational journey and learn more about methylation defects.

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"We all have two lives to live. The second one begins when you realize you only have one." Confucius

This quote helps my guest, Dr. Patrick Hanaway, creates a positive and new outlook on life by getting people into the natural world and being able to feel it and move towards deeper aspects of healing.

Dr. Patrick Hanaway's main efforts are to transform medical practice, through education, research and clinical care. He is a family physician with expertise in Functional Medicine and leadership who has served as Co-Chair of IFMs Expert Advisory Board, Past President of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine, Executive Committee for the American Board of Integrative Medicine, and was the founding Medical Director of the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.

Dr. Hanaway is also an initiated [indigenous healer] by the Huichol people of the Sierra Madres and offers traditional healing ceremonies. He is a recipient of the Linus Pauling Award for his pioneering work.

Let’s hear his amazing journey and learn more about how shamanic healing can help to fix your hormones.

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Dr. Amie Hornaman, known as The Thyroid-Fixer, is on a mission to help thyroid patients recover around the world. After her own experience of insufferable symptoms, misdiagnoses, and improper treatment, Dr. Amie set out to help others on the same dead-end medical roller coaster.

Learn more about why your thyroid labs lie and how to understand your optimal blood biomarkers to help you make more informed decisions about your diet, lifestyle, fitness, and supplement choices.

Check the symptoms of Hypothyroidism and know your optimal thyroid values in this free checklist:

https://amie-hornaman.mykajabi.com/opt-in

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“Athletics and fitness have always been a centerpiece of my life. I’m passionate about pursuing peak performance forever, inspiring others to do the same, and having fun along the way!” - Brad Kearns

Brad Kearns, a New York Times bestselling author, Guinness World Record holder, #1 ranked USA high jumper, former US national champion, and #3 world-ranked professional triathlete who teaches peak performance techniques to help others heal and grow physically and personally throughout life, helps women at midlife become a Modern Day MOFO and create a longcut to a longer life in another informative and enlightening episode of Her Brilliant Health Revolution.

Subscribe to the Brad Kearns newsletter and get the following:

Becoming A Modern Day MOFO eBook,

Amazing Feet's e-book,

Longcuts To A Longer Life e-book,

The Keto Reset Diet Recipe Sampler, and 20% off any Primal Blueprint online multimedia educational course!

Head over to this link:

https://bradkearns.com/

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What is Biohacking? How to biohack your health at midlife and what are the benefits?

In this episode, Dr. Lisa Koche, a triple-board certified medical doctor who specializes in anti-aging, regenerative, bio-hacking, and functional medicine, a truth-seeker paving the way for access to unbiased science and medical freedom at her clinic Spectra Wellness Solutions clinic, and the author of "Get Lit and Become A Biohacker" sheds light on biohacking for better health.

For a limited time only, you can get a digital download copy of Dr. Koche’s Book – Becoming a Biohacker – at no cost to you.

https://spectrawellness.com/

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We are all about hormones, but gut health ties into the hormones directly with your cortisol.

Last time Steven Wright, a gut health specialist and the founder of healthygut.com, spent close to $400, 000 to overcome his own health challenges, trained at the Kalish Functional Medicine Institute shared his knowledge about the importance of gut health to overall health and his journey from battling with health challenges to becoming a healthy Gut Specialist.

In this episode, Steven dives deep into leaky gut repair when probiotics and enzymes fail.

Tributyrin-X™ a Revolutionary Professional Grade Postbiotic, is the best postbiotic for restoring your gut health and getting back to the life you want.

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One of the most difficult parts of life’s journey is experiencing the changes that come with age. Modern medical science brings new hope to women, with groundbreaking therapies that restore natural energy, sex drive, and assist with weight loss.

Peptide therapy is one of the newest options for health and wellness to reverse disease and aging. Being so new, a lot of people may not know about peptide treatments.

Dr. Amber Krogsrud, a Licensed Naturopathic Doctor at My Bright Wellness and Medical Director for KIYA Longevity, trained in regenerative medicine, detoxification protocols, hormone testing and treatment, bioidentical hormone therapy, peptide therapy, and IV nutrient therapy, has a practice in Redondo Beach, CA where she specializes in bio-identical hormones and peptide therapy, a member of the International Peptide Society (IPS) and has completed peptide therapy certification training through the American Academy of Anti-aging (A4M), shares about these powerful peptides, kind of an overview of the options and its benefits.

FREE Peptide Playbook Ebook:

www.peptideplaybook.com

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James Barry's 16 + years in the culinary field started as a private chef. His inauguration into restaurant-style cooking came later when he was the vegan/vegetarian chef on the Vans Warped Tour, which traveled to 50 North American cities in 60 days. Upon returning to Los Angeles, James continued to be a private chef and had the fortune of cooking for celebrities such as Tom Cruise, Mariska Hargitay, George Clooney, Gerard Butler, Sean Puffy Combs, Barbra Streisand, and John Cusack. Not wanting to limit the audience of his healthy and tasty style of cooking, James started Wholesome2Go, a healthy, high-quality food delivery company that served under his leadership in the Los Angeles area for 8 years. Most recently, James launched his first functional food product, Pluck, an organ-based, all-purpose seasoning. It's the first of its kind and an amazingly easy and delicious way to get organ meats into your diet.

He also co-authored the recipes in Margaret Floyd's book 'Eat Naked' and co-authored the follow-up cookbook 'The Naked Foods Cookbook'. He most recently co-authored the recipes in Dr. Alejandro Jungers book, 'Clean 7'.

James Barry dives deep into the benefits of Pluck, the process along with it, nutrient density, organ meat, and more in this episode.

Get a taste of ‘Pluck’ - Nutrition in a pinch!

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Welcome to another inspiring episode of The Hormone Prescription Podcast! This week, we dive into the captivating journey of Christine, a remarkable woman who transformed her life from the depths of hormonal poverty and metabolic chaos to a thriving midlife success story.

• Christine's Personal Journey: Listen as Christine candidly shares her struggles with hormonal imbalance and metabolic mayhem, painting a vivid picture of her life before finding hope and healing.
• Turning Points: Discover the pivotal moments that changed the trajectory of Christine’s health journey, leading her from hopelessness to empowerment.
• Overcoming Obstacles: Gain insight into the strategies Christine employed to combat metabolic mayhem and rise above her challenges.
• Benefits of Working with The Host: Hear firsthand about the transformative benefits Christine experienced through her work with our host, including practical advice and tailored strategies that made all the difference.
• Inspiration for Midlife Women: Learn how Christine’s story can inspire you to take control of your hormonal health and find success in midlife.

In this episode, we delve into Christine’s personal account of facing seemingly insurmountable hormonal struggles. Like many women at midlife, she found herself navigating the confusing and often discouraging world of metabolic issues and hormonal imbalances. But Christine's story doesn't end there. Through perseverance and expert guidance, she discovered a path to reclaim her health and vitality.

Christine shared invaluable practical advice and strategies for women dealing with similar challenges. Whether it's dietary adjustments, lifestyle changes, or understanding the nuances of hormonal balance, this episode is packed with actionable insights to help you on your journey.

Christine provides an insider's view of what it's like to work with our podcast host. She breaks down the process at a granular level, explaining the philosophy behind the approach and why it works when other methods might fail. If you've ever felt overwhelmed by the information overload on Dr. Google, Christine's story will resonate deeply. She highlights how the expert knowledge and personalized care she received made all the difference.

Christine's journey is a testament to the power of resilience and expert guidance. Her transformation from hopelessness to success is not just a story—it's a beacon of hope for every woman at midlife feeling demoralized by hormonal and metabolic struggles.

Don't miss out on this inspiring episode! Tune in now to hear Christine's incredible journey and join our Hormone Balance Bliss Challenge today. Together, let's embark on a path to reclaiming our health and vitality.

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Stay tuned and stay inspired, and remember: you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. With the right support and knowledge, you too can achieve hormonal balance and midlife success.

Happy listening!

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Dr. Kyrin Dunston (00:00):

Thank you so much, Dr. Karen. I truly, I cannot thank you enough. You have not only transformed my life, but you have saved my life in so many different ways and given me a life that I want to have.

Speaker 2 (00:15):

That's what Christine a had to say about working with me. Stay tuned for more details about her experience.

Speaker 3 (00:23):

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

Speaker 2 (01:16):

Hi everybody. Thank you so much for joining me for another episode of The Hormone Prescription with Dr. Kieran. I'm so glad that you're here because you're gonna get to hear a client, Christine, share her experience of working with me. We've got the Hormone Bliss Challenge launching this week on May 23rd. I only do it live a couple times a year. So you definitely don't wanna miss this, especially if you've thought about working with me and you've been wondering what's it like, what am I gonna get out of it? And really wanna understand my philosophy and how I've gone about helping thousands of women's women get out of midlife metabolic mayhem and hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity. Because if you're a woman over 40, most likely, you are experiencing many of these 60 plus symptoms of midlife metabolic mayhem to varying degrees. And it's interfering with you living your life the way that you want to, frankly, the way that you deserve to.

Speaker 2 (02:19):

You deserve to be healthy, vital, alive at every single age. There's no reason really, that you shouldn't feel as good as at 80 as you did at 20. And if you think that's laughable, then you don't know what I know, and you need to definitely come because I'm gonna teach you how to do that and this program. So Christine is a client who has worked with me, and she can give you the insider's view of what that's like, what benefits she's gotten from it, and help you understand a little bit more about the nuts and boats at a granular level that are involved with the philosophy that I share and why it gets results when other things don't. I know you might be feeling a little demoralized because if you're like most women at midlife, you've been going down the Dr. Google route and trying to figure it out by yourself, which I don't doubt that you could given enough time and energy to try to figure it out, but it might take you the 30 years that I've spent as a board certified OB GYN, completing my fellowship in anti-aging, metabolic and functional medicine, treating thousands of patients to have the knowledge and expertise.

Speaker 2 (03:32):

So, hit the easy button button and listen to the episode and you'll find out how you can get on the fast train to where you wanna go with your health and your life. Please help and help me welcome Christine to the show. So how are you doing?

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (03:48):

I am feeling so much better. My mood is stabilized. I am like, I am not girl. All the time. I am. I have enough energy that I'm actually starting to, I'm working out now in the mornings when I get up, I'm sleeping better at night. It is, yeah, it is <laugh> like it's, it's like I'm getting to a whole new me and I love it. It's a great journey and I cannot thank you enough, honestly.

Speaker 2 (04:14):

Oh, my pleasure.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:16):

It's great.

Speaker 2 (04:16):

What kinds of problems were you dealing with that made you seek out help outside of mainstream medicine? What kind of health problems?

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (04:25):

I was experiencing a lot of feeling very tired, feeling beyond tired, lethargic, low energy, not feeling like myself, feeling very angry and on edge all the time. My hair was thinning. I was putting on weight, excessive body hair, facial hair, and feeling very frustrated, quite honestly, through mainstream medicine. I went to a, I had listened to one of your podcasts and I thought I had all this great information, and I went to my gynecologist who came recommended that dealt with women in menopause, was her specialty. And I shared all of this information with her, and she sat there and looked at me and she said, well, you're in your fifties and you have a 6-year-old child. You're you, it's not, you're depressed. You need an antidepressant, and I could, I can run your hormones and I can tell you you're low on estrogen and that doesn't mean anything. You need an antidepressant. And I walked out of there, literally sat in my car and cried, and I listened to another one of your podcasts and had this wonderful opportunity to begin working with you. And everything literally started changing my life around for me working with you.

Speaker 2 (05:35):

Awesome. Oh, thank you. So what have been the most surprising things that you've learned? I'm sorry that you dealt with that at your doctors. Unfortunately, your experience of basically what I call gaslighting is not uncommon, and some women listening probably have experienced that. What has been the most eyeopening to you in the things that you've learned since you've been working in the program?

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (06:01):

I think so much everything, honestly, that I have been learning and continue to learn from you. It is, you are this fellowship trained gynecologist who has this wealth of medical knowledge behind you, and you also embrace different medicines from around the world and those philosophies, and you bring them all together and you put the science behind them for what used to be for areas that used to be considered, oh, this is different. Or it's not real because it's, it hasn't been vetted by us medical standards and we can't con you confirm it. And now so much of that we're seeing is being confirmed of, of different types of medicines and, and different approaches that have been for so long. And being able to combine those and really looking at your whole self, not just a piece of you. And you look at the whole woman and every aspect from the medical to the mental to the spiritual, and how do we bring that together and use that to be able to build what it is that women need, quite frankly. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative> all women. It's not something that should be overlooked. And I think many times it has been overlooked in modern medicine, especially when it comes to women. The focus that you have brought to it and the work that you do and that you bring the science behind it, I think just brings, brings it to a new level for many people.

Speaker 2 (07:25):

Yeah. Thank you. And I remember meeting you the first time and you've come a long way. And can you share about what's changed for you?

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (07:34):

Oh my gosh, everything. I am hitting 55 this summer, and I have a 6-year-old by choice. He was a little medical miracle, and I had always been in really good shape and in really active. And after his birth, like I just started noticing like my energy levels going down. My weight was heavier after birth than be when I was pregnant with my son. And just noticing going, wow, what's going on with me? And like, okay, it's menopause and how do I do and what do I do with this? And just feeling myself, just continuing to go down, becoming more lethargic, becoming more on edge with everything. And after having had the opportunity to work with you and learning from you and following, I have energy again. I'm to the point now where I'm up in the mornings and I'm working out and I'm giving myself that time and that space to be able to not feel guilty about carving out time and making myself a priority, which I think a lot of us forget or feel guilty about if we try to make ourselves a priority because we have to be mom.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (08:36):

We have to be the best at our, our work, and we have to be there for everyone else. And if we take time for ourselves, we feel guilty about it, or that's too selfish. And having learned that, no, it's not selfish, it's a necessity. We have to take care of ourselves and grant ourselves that time. And, and that has truly brought such incredible balance back. My, my children have commented <laugh> about and my 6-year-old mommy, like, I love that you're playing with me more. And, and we're doing more things outside. My daughter's like, yeah, you're not so angry all the time. And she's a teenager, so that says something. Yeah, just saying that says a lot for a 14-year-old to say, wow. And that has just been a huge gift. And even my husband has been very, again, you're back to a more pleasant person than I've seen in a really long time. And we now have time to go out and to do things and to have time together, which is huge. We have not had that in a really long time.

Speaker 2 (09:34):

Yeah. I mean, it's amazing. It's lovely to hear you talk about that because one of the biggest areas that suffers for us when our health suffers is our relationships. And I think that as women, we can really almost be in denial about that truth because people, to be honest, they don't wanna be honest with us and they don't wanna hurt our feelings and say, you know what? You're not showing up as the woman I married or <laugh>. I'm a teenage girl and I don't even wanna be my around my own mom. Right? So they don't say anything and we think that nobody really notices, but I promise you, isn't it like the elephant in the room and then when you get better, everyone says, oh my gosh, you're you're doing so much better. I love this. And so I like that you highlighted that because I think that, I don't know, it was true for me. And it sounds like it was for you too, that I was in total denial about how I wasn't showing up in my relationships. Like I really would have liked to, and nobody, people were too polite in my life to call me out on it. I wasn't showing up as the best doctor that I could have been when I, my health was tank. I wasn't showing up as the best anything. Don't you think that's true?

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (10:46):

A hundred percent agreed. And, and what's really bad is my husband did call me out on it a few times and I lashed out at him. I'm like, what are you talking about? Just, I have all this work and the long hours at work and I, we have two children and we're doing all these things and I had every excuse under the sun as to why it wasn't me per se, because I couldn't, or I wasn't willing at that point to really just stop and take a breath and say, Hey, what's going on with you? Because that meant that if I had to deal with me and take time for myself, then I, in my mind at that point, then I couldn't be there and do what I needed to do for everyone else. And that was being selfish until I met you. <Laugh>. <laugh>

Speaker 2 (11:28):

Changed.

Speaker 2 (11:29):

Yeah. And you mentioned earlier about taking time for yourself. So doing this type of work, it is a time commitment. It's a financial commitment. And I find that's a, a lot of, there are a few reasons why women don't do this, because clearly we're not getting the answers we need at our mainstream doctor's offices. I don't think anyone would argue about that. But then the next is, oh, it's gonna gonna take too much time. Oh, it's gonna take too much money. And then there's the, I don't trust myself to do it. Mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. So those are kind of the things that keep women stuck. And I made a pact with the universe when I discovered this. I said, I'm gonna use it on myself and then if it works, I'm gonna spend the rest of my life helping other women with this information. And it's not just menopause. 2 million of us go into menopause each year. In the United States alone, there are 50 million of us in menopause, but it's the perimenopause, it's the PCOS, it's all the hormone things. We've had women in our programs in their twenties. So what really tipped your hand that you said, this is the thing for me to get where I wanna be. I'm willing to invest the time, willing to invest the money, and I trust myself and I deserve it. What made you make all those decisions?

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (12:45):

Honestly, when I left the gynecologist's office and I saw it in my car and I felt so deflated because I had listened to a series of your podcasts and I went in armed with all this information, I went, this is it. I've got it. And this is this gynecologist who she specializes with women in menopause or perimenopause. I'm like, yes, this is awesome. And being told I was depressing, made an antidepressant, and here's a script <laugh>, I was like, thank you. No, thank you. I said, something has to change because this is not me. I don't want to live like this any longer and I have to figure some things out. Having the support of my husband was huge and tremendous. It was, yeah, you, you need to, he was a hundred percent, yes, you need to figure it out and do what you need to do.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (13:32):

And in terms of investing in myself, I didn't at first see it as investing in myself. I saw it a need to fix myself, for myself to be there for others. And that's where I was when I started with you, Dr. Karen. And you know, in terms of the investment and the money, when you look at the numbers and you crunch it and you crunch the numbers, what you are investing in yourself over the course of a year is less than what we do so much with so many other things going out for dinner. And I'm not saying we shouldn't do those things. We absolutely should. But when you look at what we spend on going out for dinner, going to get a massage, going to the gym, whatever other things we do, when we, you break that cost down, it is a minimal investment.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (14:18):

And honestly, for what you, what the services that you offer for being able to make it affordable, if you break it out over what it costs over the cost of a year, mm-Hmm. <Affirmative>. And then with the gains and learning about that, it's, you are worth the investment in yourself. You are worth that time and the balance and being able to find and, and discover, it's not even about rediscovering yourself. It's about discovering who you are at this point in time and where you want to go with yourself and that work, the work that you do and that you, the journey you help so many women on is you honestly taking four or five different disciplines and bringing them into one, if not more than, and you're giving all of this to us to be able to do. And when you break that down over the cost of a year or cost of a lifetime, it's that <laugh>, the financial piece is not, it is not this astronomical amount that is out of reach for women. It really isn't.

Speaker 2 (15:23):

Yeah. And I'm so excited. So you talk about, to take you where you wanna go, so what do you envision for your future? You've got the 6-year-old, the 14-year-old. What do you envision?

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (15:36):

Honestly, I am, that is where I'm working through right now. Right? I had a whole vision for myself back in my forties. I made a deal with myself that I was gonna go back and, and work on my doctorate. And I was like, oh, I'm never getting pregnant. It's not help happening. Working with modern medicine. I was like, it's just not happening. So I went back and I was like, okay. I got accepted into a doctoral program and then I found out I was pregnant and I was like, oh, did it all, did both. And started a new job. And in the process of that and said, okay, my goal was I was going to retire at 56 and be able just to enjoy. And now I have a 6-year-old and a 14-year-old. So it's a little different. So for me right now, it's really figuring out I want to do next how I want to evolve everything I've done and worked for and, and what is that next piece?

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (16:22):

Not sure yet. And I'm exploring a lot of different avenues and just doing a lot of learning in some different ways and areas to see what it is that I want to continue to do because I'm not ready anymore. Two years ago or a year ago, I was like, oh my gosh, how am I gonna do this? I just wanna be able to retire and just sleep in the mornings and not do anything. And now I have this energy and I'm going, yes. Like what was I thinking? <Laugh>, what is the next step? What do I want to do? And how do I do that? And that's really what I'm focusing on right now.

Speaker 2 (16:55):

Yeah. And I love to hear you say this because I remember where you were and if I had said that to you a while ago, you would've just probably gotten very upset. What do you mean <laugh>? <Laugh>, when our health suffers, the, the, the biggest question, and the Bri biggest problem we have is like, how can I fix myself? How can I survive this? We're not, we let go of our dreams. And I know there's somebody listening right now who's identifying nodding her head saying, oh yeah, I remember I used to have dreams, but I don't even have them anymore. Because today my dream is like, how am I gonna make it through the day without two double espressos and then sleep the whole night? And how am I gonna keep my marriage alive when I don't ever wanna have sex? And how am I going to, you fill in the blank. And I love that the questions have changed for you and they've become expansive instead of contracting, they're expansive. Like, oh, and you have, now I see this and here the energy and vitality to basically do whatever you want, which is awesome.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:01):

Thank you for that. And it's honestly, I would not be here right now if it weren't for you. Oh,

Speaker 2 (18:06):

That is so sweet.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (18:08):

It's the truth. It's the truth. There are so many in all fields that don't truly hear what is being said, let alone listen, but truly hear and have the know and the level of expertise that you do in so many different areas. And the fact that you're also willing to continue on a growth journey professionally, that you're, that you continue to learn and you want to grow. That is incredible. And not many people, quite frankly, in the medical field at this point in their careers, are willing to do that. And that is a huge testament to you.

Speaker 2 (18:47):

Oh, thank you. Yeah. That I do have this lifelong learner in me that's always evolving. And I started my woman shaman training. I'd love to tell you about that. I'm wondering what you would share with a woman who's listening who maybe she's thought about working with me. Believe it or not, there are women, they see me and they hear and they're like, oh my gosh, I need what you have. But there are all these buts that get in the way. Yeah. One woman is coming to my mind who I've actually known personally for, gosh, probably 10 years. And she struggled with her weight and her energy and her health and all these things. And it's like she comes around and she's like, okay, I can't take it anymore. This is the last straw of my health. I'm gonna do the thing. And then she always, her butt gets so big, she doesn't do anything.

Speaker 2 (19:35):

And I'm not talking about her BUT, but her butt, her excuses. And I think the last time I talked with her, she now has fatty liver and pre-diabetes and all kinds of things. And so my job is to help people to reverse these things. And I know what path she's headed down because there is this point of no return. You get down with chronic disease where once you start having anatomic problems, then it becomes very hard to reverse. So anyway, all that to say, what do you say to that woman whose health is really not serving her in being able to live as who she authentically is in this life and express herself? Who's toying with, oh, I know Dr. Kirin can help me, but <laugh> dealing with her buts. And what would you say to her?

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (20:24):

I would say there are always a million reasons why not to do something. And you only need the one reason, and that is yourself. And to give yourself the space and grace to take that risk. Because it is very scary to embark on a journey that can change you and help transform you and to help you become the person you want to be. And it's very easy to stay in a path or on a path that is very comfortable because you know where that's headed and you don't wanna head there, but you think that this is it. And I would just say to take that risk on yourself and and to take that chance and just to engage once with you and not look at a whole program or what the work is that I have to do or should do, just walk in and work with you and then go from there for the next part piece and one step at a time and not look at the overwhelming, this is where I wanna be and how am I gonna do that? That's so much work and it's so difficult. And it all these reasons and all those buts, why not? The one reason why is for you yourself

Speaker 2 (21:30):

Because you deserve it. We all do. Really, as you're talking, I'm thinking it's like if you go into first grade and you start obsessing about, oh my gosh, I've gotta make it through eighth grade, then, then I've gotta go through nine through 12 in high school and then I gotta go to college. And you just go, forget it. It's too long. It's too hard. I can't do, right. It's, we wouldn't do that. So you just look at the next step. And we've got the Hormone bliss challenge launching I think this week. And that gives people a real taste of seven days of working with me live one-on-one to see what it's like, and mostly have the ahas that a lot of people don't get. Because I think that, and I'm just wondering for you, is this true A lot of women, although you get that your mainstream HMO $30 copay doctor isn't giving you the whole truth and they're just giving you pill for every ill or a surgery for every symptom.

Speaker 2 (22:21):

Okay, we get it. We're not served there. But then there's so much online and social media, blogs, podcasts, and we're inundated with information. Mm-Hmm, <affirmative>. And if you're struggling, if you're a woman at midlife, you're probably struggling with some aspect of your health. It's just a fact. You're consuming all this information so you think you know the answers, but you don't even realize what you dunno. And so I'm just wondering, 'cause it sounds like it's, you were listening to podcasts and doing all these things that what we're really, you might have already answered this, it sounds like that the ahas were that you need to do all the things. You can't just do one thing. But I don't wanna put words in your mouth. What were the real ahas once you got down to the granular level, nitty gritty, okay, these are the steps you need to take. What were the ahas for you? What was most surprising? I

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (23:14):

Think the aha. There were so many along the there are, and I can't say there were, there are so many along this journey for me, the first, excuse me, the first aha was, again, as I said before, it is you have these expertises in so many different, and I'm saying four or five, and I know it's way more than that. And I'm, I apologize for underestimating that when you are out there and you are listening to different podcasts and you are researching and you are trying to bring all these pieces together, it was from the first podcast <inaudible>. I literally, I had stumbled upon it. It wasn't something I was actively looking for. I was like, oh, let me just give this a try and hearing your story. And I'm sitting there going, yes, that's me. Yes, that's me. And I'm literally checking off almost every single box that you were talking about, and you were so open and honest about your experiences and your journeys.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (24:09):

That immediately caught me. And I was like, okay, here is a doctor who is willing to put herself out there. Let me see what is the next piece. And then listening to the next part of your podcast and, and you talk about everything. And I'm going, okay, we've heard so many and we've learned, and I grew up with parents who immigrated to this country. So different alternative medicines were this thing for us growing up. And it was like, oh, there were those freaky kids. You know, using these herbal type things, what's up with you? You know, so you hide all those things and you kind of push them to the side. And here you are talking about all these different approaches in, in different combinations. And that was like, that was my first aha. Like, oh my goodness, I can unpack some of this.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (24:54):

And here is someone who is an expert in all these different areas. And then it just continued to grow from there. You treat the whole woman. It is not, piece of it is the whole woman. And again, and with our medicine that is such a compartmentalized, we have specialists, everything or people who generalize, but no one who's an expert in. So all the different parts, to be able to look at us as a whole woman and knowing how everything is connected. And again, for me that aha, oh yeah, remember this. And wow, here is someone who can only is not only speaking to that, but is teaching me and helping me understand how all these different parts are connected and how that will help me become the person I want to evolve into in a healthy manner without taking shortcuts, without looking for a fast fix, without, why isn't this working? And being able to do it in a positive manner that will help me continue to build and grow a healthy version of myself that I want to become

Speaker 2 (26:03):

So beautifully said. I guess I was blessed to be in a female body. So I have walked the walk of all of my clients. 'cause I've been in this body for many years, and then really blessed to have had the health challenges that I've had because they've exemplified that midlife metabolic mayhem that I help women with. So I uniquely, I'm intimate with the pain of it and also the pathway out because as a board certified ob, GYN, it wasn't, those tools weren't that, wasn't it? <Laugh>. And so I have sought out tools for to heal myself and then use them with other women and they actually do work. You just gotta pick 'em up and use them. Right? <laugh>, yes, <laugh>. Absolutely. Right. Well, thank you so much Christine, for sharing your experience. It's so great to connect with you. It's been wonderful working with you and with our health. There's always more to unfold and improve. It's a never ending journey. And I look forward to the future improvements you're gonna make, grateful for the ones you've already made and what you're gonna do, how you're gonna spend that extra energy and vitality and joy that you're creating. Thank

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:17):

You so much, Dr. Kieran. I truly, I cannot thank you enough. You have not only transformed my life, but you have saved my life in so many different ways and given me a life that I want to have. Thank you. Thank you. Oh,

Speaker 2 (27:34):

So grateful to have been a part of your life and your journey. Christine. Thank you. You're

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:38):

Stuck with me. I'm not going anywhere. <Laugh>

Speaker 2 (27:40):

<Laugh>. I know. I feel the same way. So thank you so much. Thanks for doing this. I so much appreciate it and I'll talk to you soon.

Dr. Kyrin Dunston (27:50):

All right. My pleasure. Okay, have a great night. Thanks,

Speaker 2 (27:52):

You too. Bye. Thank you so much for joining me and Christine today and for listening to her experience, and hopefully you've gotten insight into what's possible for your health and your life going forward when you decide to say yes to yourself. We'll have the link in the show notes to the Hormone List Challenge if you would like to join us starting May 23rd to find out how we can help you transform your health and your life to where you want it to be, how you can get out of midlife metabolic mayhem caused by hormonal poverty and into hormonal prosperity. Look forward to seeing you live in the challenge starting on Thursday, if that can serve you well. And until next week, we'll be back with another episode. Peace, love, and hormones, y'all.

Speaker 3 (28:42):

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

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Beth O'Hara is a Functional Naturopath, specializing in complex chronic immune conditions related to Mast Cell Activation Syndrome and Histamine Intolerance. She is the founder and owner of Mast Cell 360, a Functional Naturopathy Practice designed to look at all factors surrounding health conditions genetic, epigenetic, biochemical, physiological, environmental, and emotional.

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Steven Masley, MD, is a physician, nutritionist, trained chef, and creator of a top PBS health program; 30 Days to a Younger Heart. His latest best-selling book The 30-Day Heart Tune-Up gives you a plan to prevent and reverse heart disease. Seen by millions on PBS, the Discovery Channel, The Today show, and others, Dr. Masley has the right “recipe” for you to prevent or reverse heart disease while having fun and eating delicious food!

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