156: Hormones, Stress & PCOS - How to identify root cause and health from within with Dr. Cassandra Wilder

Hello again, everyone, and welcome to today's show. If you're one of the 130 million people that are dealing with Sirs Lyme disease, autoimmune disease, or other conditions that are impacted by mold on a daily basis, and you need to learn how to eliminate that exposure, then you're in the right place. My name is Brian Carr and you're listening to Mold Finders Radio.

Hey, everyone, what's going on? I mean, today's cool because we're talking about something that I have no biological connection to. What I'm just like super fascinated by. And also I know that a large amount of you who listen to this, this will have a biological connection to you. And frankly, the show's not about me. It's about you. So we have Dr. Cassandra Wilder on today. She's a naturopathic doctor, she's an integrated hormone expert. And what we're going to be doing today is talking about sort of the connection between hormone imbalance, understanding how that might impact your cycle. Right. Because I've learned literally so much recently about women's cycles, I can't even tell you with what my wife has been learning. It's incredible. And then also getting into talking about like, pcos, which I know a lot of people deal with and a lot of people kind of feel lost with it. And so kind of connecting the dots of all that stuff and having a very female specific conversation today from a guy who just wants to help. So with all of that.

Cassandra, how's it going?

Great. I'm very excited to be here.

Good. We're excited to have you. Well, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and how you got into this and often, you know, all the fun things.

Yeah, well, probably like almost every woman listening, I felt like growing up, I didn't get the education I needed about my body. So when I was dealing with really irregular periods and painful periods in my adolescence, I didn't feel like I had the basic information I needed to know what to do. So When I was 18, I went to a gynecologist and I had all built up in my mind that this was going to be a life changing appointment. They were really going to help me and we were going to figure out what was going on. And as probably everyone can guess, my appointment was like five minutes long and I just left with birth control. So that was the only way that they knew to help. So that didn't sit right with me. And even though I was really young, that began to brew this big Question of, like, is this really how we treat women in the medical system? Is this really the best that we can do? So I went on to do my undergrad in health and nutrition, and that still didn't sit right with me. It was very food guide, pyramid based and very, again, like, there's no such thing as balancing or fixing things. Everything is about treatment and kind of just keeping you alive. And so when I found naturopathic medicine, I was like, these are my people. These are people that think like me and believe you can get to the root of things and uncover why things are happening. And so while I was in naturopathic school, I got to be my own guinea pig and really put to the test, you know, if I'm learning all this about balancing my hormones and getting to the root of my cycle issues, does it really work? And shocker, it worked. It was life changing. And so I've been so passionate about this work ever since. And helping women feel validated and heard and have solutions to the symptoms they're dealing with.

Well, let's not just stay alive, let's enjoy being alive. Yeah, yeah, I'm with you everywhere.

Everywhere.

This is the. Hey, take this, Bill. Take this.

Exactly. Yeah.

Cool. Well, I'm excited to get into this with you. I'm going to learn a whole lot today, I'm sure, as will many other people. This, this may be the dumbest that I sound on a show probably in one period of time. So I'm really excited to come in with like blank slate. I am yours to mold and teach. So I'm really excited about this. So let's.

Let'S start at the top. So I mean, for me and you tell me, so I'm gonna be asking lots of questions. I'm not gonna be like posing things. It seems like the hormone imbalance is sort of the place where we start understanding like everything else is happening, but people don't really understand even if they have a hormone imbalance. So before for this, you have symptom sets that are indicators that there might be a thing. So do we start there and sort of work down this process and go kind of step by step and.

Sure, yeah, we can highlight. Yeah. What does a hormone imbalance look like? And probably most people listening to this will check a lot of these boxes because it's estimated over 60% of women have a hormone imbalance, you know, and over 90% of women deal with PMS related symptoms. So the, the frequency at which women are dealing with this is pretty staggering. But yeah, the big Hormone imbalance symptoms that it seems like most people think about are, you know, chronic fatigue, trouble sleeping, bloats, infertility, irregular periods, painful periods, hair thinning, getting little hairs on your chin.

Excess weight. I mean, those are the big ones that I think most women complain of. And probably everyone listening can check off one of those.

Well, and it's interesting because I hear a lot of those symptoms when people come to us, which obviously we're not helping people with this, right? But the horror, the impact on hormones from. So let's back up like a now another step. So you have your symptoms, but what are, what are some of the key triggers? I'm sure there's multiple things. I'm sure there's genetics, I'm sure there's environment. I'm sure there's whatever there is. So what are kind of the main contributors that start creating the imbalances that start getting you hairs on your chin and your weight gain and your, I mean, hair thinning? All these things I've heard and seen. So I definitely know that at least the environment side is a piece of it because I see it all the time. But I guess two questions. What are some of the, just some of the lists, right. Are some things we could think of and then what. Which ones do you think are like the highest kind of contributor to it? Like what has the biggest impact on it?

It's a million dollar question right there.

That's what no one wants to hear. But chronic stress definitely is at the forefront of a lot of this. And chronic stress is not just the things that you're experiencing in your life, but it is also your habits. So, you know, blood sugar dysregulation, I think falls under chronic stress. So if we're not nourishing ourselves adequately, low calorie diets, chronic dieting, over exercising, all of this may feel separate to stress, but what that does in the body is increase cortisol and cause your body to have a stress response, which is then going to impact everything down the line, like progesterone, testosterone, thyroid hormones. So I think that is the biggest piece. It all boils down to why does the body feel stressed? The female body is different to the male body in that our body at all times is assessing safety. And so if our body does not feel safe, it doesn't feel like it's an okay time to ovulate. It, in theory, is not a safe time to get pregnant. Everything else starts to decline. And so when you think about low calorie diets and you think about over exercising, you think about the environment causing us to have an inflammatory reaction is really where it starts.

You know, it's. I love that explanation because it actually is very straightforward and singular. But when you talk about stress, there's so many things that get to that and then it's trying to understand those different pieces. And some of them, from what you're saying, are easy sounds like easy. Things that you can try to address on your own without getting super deep diving into testing and expenditures, you know, money and things like that. And then some of it might require a little bit more going down those roads. One thing you didn't mention, which I'm curious because, you know, I know that there is a stress release and so I wonder how often you see but like anxiety, things like that, you know, as opposed to just sort of. The anxiety is a physical issue, but like people think of it as more of a mental issue of what's going on. Although your body doesn't actually think it's mental, it's tricked to think it's physical. But like, do you see a lot of, of anxiety and, and those types of symptoms also being a contributor into what we're saying?

Oh, a hundred percent, yeah. I think most women find even in their cycle, in that late luteal phase, as their period's approaching, most women find that anxiety is far more intense at that time of the month. So we can definitely equate it to the hormones and what's specifically happening on a hormonal level at that time of the month and just see how interwoven it all is.

Can I ask like a sidetracker? I want to learn about the cycles. Yeah, I've been learning about it. Selling offline, I'll say with everybody. So my wife and I have been experimenting with fasting and all the health benefits that come with it. I might do another episode. It's all about it because it's super cool. But learning that like a female doesn't fast the way that our male us and if they do it can create a lot of issues in terms of like how severe periods are and like, and like when you do it. So I've been learning the phases of the cycle, like when it starts, when it ends, when you should be exerting more, when you should be exerting.

So have been having. Getting into that and.

Anyway, sorry guys, just so everyone knows because I don't have time to go edit this. Siri just started talking to me on my computer and I just, I just had.

So.

Anyway, where was I going I completely lost my Siri.

What?

Do you have any idea where I was going?

We're wanting to talk about cycle phases maybe, or.

Just a breakdown of the cycle.

Yeah, I think we're gonna get there. Guys, sorry, this is amateur hour over here. And again, you're getting like ra. I'm not gonna edit this. I'm not. I. I can't get an edit. So here's how it is. Let's just keep going. I'll probably rethink my question and maybe you people listening can somehow in the past, beam your thoughts to me and maybe I will figure out what the question was that you knew I was going at otherwise. So, yes, cycle, hormone, components of cycle. Okay, so if you're getting hormone imbalances, I guess it's probably like the next step for me in kind of connecting the dots across. We have symptoms, we have different. I remember what my question was going to be now, which is, why does anxiety increase when you're in that stage right before your period starts? And is there anything that we can do if we know that that's coming to try to counteract that? That's where I was going with an anxiety question. Sorry, everybody.

Yes. So in the middle of your cycle, you're supposed to ovulate. And when you ovulate, that's how you make your hormone progesterone. And when you ovulate, your corpus luteum, a temporary endocrine gland, is what's going to be making that progesterone for about the next two weeks until your period. So throughout your luteal phase, which is between ovulation and your period, you should have this hormone being produced. Progesterone is interesting because when there is an absence of it. So if you did not ovulate, you're going to be more likely to deal with things like PMS and anxiety, breast tenderness and all of the lovely fun mood stuff that we all like, you know, love to deal with every month. So that's one piece of it. Or if you have a progesterone insufficiency, that can also cause you to deal with more anxiety. And so with that in mind, then we can see the most protective thing we can do if we struggle with anxiety before our period is to back up and look at the active ovulation. Is it actually happening? We can't just assume that it is just because we have semi regular periods. And then even if it is happening, are we making adequate progesterone? And that's largely going to be based on our nutrient Levels and our general caloric intake. So if you're under eating, or if you're not maybe nourishing yourself the best, or if you are always skipping breakfast, you're living on coffee, it makes sense. Your body's not going to have the resources it needs to make that corpus luteum. Takes a massive amount of energy to do that.

So then does that require some form of testing to really understand if you're first off? Let me ask a more I don't know what I'm talking about question. It sounds like it's possible for you to ovulate, not know that you're ovulating totally.

And it's really common also for women to just assume they're ovulating, and then when we actually look a little deeper, they're not. That's actually the most common thing I see.

So is it doing like the ovulation strips to have a better understanding, or is there a better way to know if you're actually ovulating or not?

The best way at home is by tracking your basal body temperature. So you can do an oral temperature, or I use a device called the temp drop that you stick on your arm at night. So that will measure your temperature because when you ovulate, progesterone stimulates your thyroid. So you'll see a pretty significant temperature increase. One ovulation has happened, and then that temperature will stay elevated until your period. So that's the best way. You can also confirm this with a blood test around day 20 of your cycle to see if progesterone was made. Um, so at home, though, the best way is basal body temperature.

Got it. And can we. You were going to go here and then I got lost five minutes ago. Can we talk about the phases of the cycle? And because, like, when I, when I heard about it, it actually didn't make sense. I was thinking of it like backwards basically, of like the start and the finish point.

Yeah.

And I actually know now, after learning myself that there's a bunch of women that don't actually know this. So I think it might be helpful to even put some context around what these different points are within the. Within the cycle phase.

Totally. And I didn't know these phases till I was like 25 or something, so there's no shame. And I was just teaching at an event in southern Utah, and again, I pulled the whole room and just asked, you know, what is the first phase of our cycle? What's the second phase? And, you know, there was maybe 1 or 2% of this entire crowd that knew these phases, you know, so it's just. Nobody talks about it. There's no shame. So, yeah, we can really break it down into four cycle phases. Everybody thinks of the period, but the period is really just one very small part to all of this. And the first day of our cycle is our period. Our people. People think the period is the end of the cycle, but really that is the beginning. Yeah, the end.

At the end comes the worst part. And then the starts at the beginning. That's how I always thought of it. It's clear, sweaty.

The beginning. The beginning of all the goodness. So day one of your cycle, we might say that's five to seven days. We really want to see it under seven days for health reasons. And when we're on our period, our hormones are at their lowest point, which is why it's normal to some extent to feel slightly more introverted, slightly more like low energy. Of course, we don't want to see extremes in any of that. But it is important to note that your hormones are at their lowest point and you are in that shed and reset portion of your cycle. Then you move into your follicular phase and this is when estrogen and testosterone start to rise. And so most women feel really, really good in this phase. They're going to have more of a libido. They'll start to see cervical mucus, they'll feel more energetic, generally have a really positive mood. And everything right here is building towards the entire purpose of the menstrual cycle, and that is ovulation. Ovulation is so important. I can't even illustrate how important it is really. But it's how you make your hormones like progesterone. It's protective for you as you age. Obviously it's essential if you want to have a baby.

There are so many benefits to ovulation and yet nobody really talks about it. And how, you know, frequently are young women put on birth control methods that turn off ovulation without ever having this conversation with the patient. You know, these are things that. That keep me up at night. So.

But at ovulation, you'll make those hormones and you'll also have that little egg viable in the fallopian tube for up to 24 hours. So women can only get pregnant for 12 to 24 hours in an entire month.

Can I just say interject before you or that. When I learned this, I was like, how are people accidentally getting pregnant? Odds of you getting pregnant are so small. Like, yeah, I just. It blew my mind.

Biology is like no, we're going to continue the race.

Yeah, I know, I know. It is kind of crazy. Of course, though, it's you guys that make it a little more complicated because sperm can live for up to five days. So this is where you're telling me this.

Oh, my.

I know.

And so this is how. Yeah. Surprises happen where, say you have unprotected sex today and you ovulate four days from now, you can still get pregnant. You know, that's what makes it so hard to wrap your mind around. But also then it makes more sense, right? Where if that sperm is in there and in those five days you ovulate, there's a fair chance that you could get pregnant.

So is that why. I see. By the way, my wife has an app. She tracks all of this stuff. I know exactly what is. Which is actually helped me understand, like her headspace better and be able to like, be there for her in different ways and not like, you know, whatever. But is that why in the, in her app, so you said that you basically ovulate on like a single day or like one or two days, but like in her app, it'll show like a seven day window. Is it accounting for the fact that, like, if there's anything in here, it'll get you.

Yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah. Because whether you want to avoid pregnancy or get pregnant, you need to know that window to know either be really careful and use a barrier method or have lots of fun and, you know.

Try to make a baby barrier down and go. Make that happen. Okay, I interrupted you at stage three. So there's one more, there's one more phase.

Yes. The final phase is the luteal phase. And this is usually when women have the most symptoms. Your luteal phase is 10 to 14 days of your month. So if you have a hormone imbalance, it can literally feel like half of the month is really, really challenging. This is when women may have mid cycle spotting, the breast tenderness, the pms, irritability, trouble sleeping, food cravings. Like when someone has a hormone imbalance, it can be a really, really hard time. And if we didn't make that progesterone, if we didn't ovulate, this phase is even more likely to be really, really intense. So this is where looking at your hormones really is so valuable because then we can start to understand why these symptoms are happening and then start to make a game plan to address it.

So does it make sense to think of it then, that if you're in that fourth phase, which is that 14 day window and you're starting to see. See more of these symptoms that are happening. And there seems to be a lot of them, that it's more of an indicator that there is a hormonal balance. Like, is that a place to sort of like, I'm going to evaluate my body for the month, start tracking my cycle. Day one, I hit the button, goes through, and if I'm noticing my pretty heavy symptom sets here in the back end of that, the back two weeks of that, then that is like, okay, I should really be getting in to try to figure out if there's hormonal issues here, because that's when it would be, like, magnified. Is that how I'm understanding what you're saying?

Yeah. And I, I wouldn't necessarily, you know, immediately think, oh my gosh, great, I have a hormone imbalance. But I would start to have that curiosity of, I wonder why this is happening and is this the way that it has to be? Is it normal to feel all these symptoms? And if the answer is no, then I would start to look into options.

Got it. I mean, just the fact of, like, being aware and understanding where you are in this flow and then kind of like checking in with yourself and saying, you know, what are the symptoms?

Are they.

Do they. Do I feel they're excessive? Like, what's going on? Opening the door to start going down and examining this stuff as opposed to not really understanding it. Like, I don't feel good. My periods are the worst. I mean, my wife, her periods were bad. Was bad. And now I've told you this beforehand. We learning about fasting and how to fast around cycle, we started learning that, like, leading up to cycle, you should actually be easier on yourself. Like our. Her. Her interpretation always been when, when period starts, I need to take it easy because I'm out of commission. She was out of commission for like two days. Just like I could. I can't do anything. And it was like, oh, if I ease into it beforehand when my body is like, prepping for all of this stuff, when I shouldn't be pushing it hard, it makes it easier on the back end and the severity has plummeted in and how bad it is. It's like after I saw that happen, it's like, wow, this is like crazy. Very interesting. So.

Okay, so I, I'd like to kind of move as we start talking about why. Why you or where you might. Might start suspecting an imbalance and what's going on to what. And we've kind of talked sort of like what does that imbalance feel like in terms of symptom sets? Right. One of the things that I wanted to get into, because we never really talked about it from a hormone connection, is PCOS specifically. Obviously, there's a big hormonal component to that. There's, you know, 5 to 6 million women that are dealing with this. You know, with pcos, it's a big chunk of people, and. And I know a lot of times the answer is, oh, we can't fix it, or I'll take this or do that. Yet I've seen other stories where you can actually completely reverse it if you understand what's going on in your body and how that's triggering it. My short amount of research seems to be that it is really tied to a hormone piece, and if we're able to adjust that, it then will handle the ovarian cysts and the. And the androgens and all that stuff that started come off of that. That was my quick, like, overview. But I would love to hear from someone who actually knows what they're talking about on this, like, the role that hormone plays in that and sort of what we're looking at to fix there in order to kind of stabilize, slash, slash, reverse this. And frankly, like, how frequent, you know, if. If you're not seeing a cycle frequently, if people have infrequent cycles, it seems like that's maybe like an indicator that this is either coming or there's something that you're dealing with. So love to just open it up there and start that talk.

Absolutely, yeah. Pcos, or Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome, is such an interesting diagnosis. I say that because I meet a lot of women in my practice who come to me and they say, yeah, I have pcos. And I always ask, what criteria did your doctor go off of when you were diagnosed? And sometimes they say, just because I had irregular periods. And as I'll share in a moment, that doesn't necessarily mean you have pcos. So there seems to be a discrepancy on why some doctors diagnose women with pcos. But then in another breath, I'll talk to someone who matches all the symptoms of pcos and they've never been diagnosed with it. So it's a very weird diagnosis in that I think far more women than even the numbers even begin to Capture actually have PCOS. So some people say 1 in 10, others say 1 in 5. So we have anywhere between 10 to 20% of the population. But per the Rotterdam criteria, to be diagnosed with pcos, you must present with two of the following three criteria. So one is irregular periods, one is polycystic ovaries, as confirmed with an ultrasound, and the third is high androgens, like you said, confirmed with hormone testing. So you can see how if a doctor is just saying you have irregular periods, it means you have pcos. That's not necessarily accurate. So the hormone piece, though, is massive with pcos. High androgens are really what give PCOS a lot of the stereotypes. Like, if we think of the stereotype of a woman with pcos, her hair on her head is thinning, she's got little chin hairs, so she's having to pluck or shave her face every day. She may have acne, greasy hair, greasy skin weight that she just can't get off. And all of that is coming from the androgens, like testosterone that are simply too high. And so with pcos, unfortunately, the Western approach to treat this is birth control. And that's such a disservice, and I'll even dare say lazy medicine, because if a woman has irregular cycles, she's probably not ovulating. So if we give her a medication that's going to further her not ovulating, that's the opposite of helping her. That's called a band aid. And it's really, really unfortunate. And sometimes doctors will also give metformin for.

Trying to somewhat manage blood sugar, but neither of these fix the root cause. And this is where if a woman at 20 is diagnosed with PCOS, she might be the woman in my office at 40 who's been on birth control for 20 years and is like, can anyone just listen to me and give me real answers and support and solutions?

So addressing the hormone piece is huge. And that's by encouraging regular ovulation and then getting to the root of those high androgens. And the. One of the biggest causes of high androgens is blood sugar dysregulation.

Count out.

That was a lot. But I could say. I could say so much more.

No, it is a lot. Okay, so for saying that one of the biggest reasons for the androgens is blood sugar, then, are we. It's not necessarily a diet thing. Are we saying that the hormone. That your hormones are sort of like, not allowing you to. So maybe there's an insulin issue that's now happening because your hormones are out of balance. Like, can we dive in? Like, maybe that's the reason. But is there, like, kind of a precursor to that? So because, like, I think, oh, change my diet, blood sugar, and maybe that fixes it. But I have this feeling that's actually not totally the answer. So that's why.

That's why it's definitely part of it. Insulin resistance is very, very, very common, especially with women with PCOS. But it's even estimated up to 80% of people in general have insulin resistance. So this is just a really chronic problem, and many people are pre diabetic and don't know it.

I think women, though, are even more susceptible because of diet culture. Like, literally every woman I work with is like, name a diet. I've done it like anything. I've restricted. I've eaten 800 calories a day. I've eaten 3,000 calories a day. And nobody really feels very confident in building a balanced meal three to five times a day. So so much of what I do in my practice is getting back to the basics with nutrition and teaching them how to pair a protein and a fat and a carb at every meal and how to eat every three to four hours and these really fundamental things that nobody really talks about because that's not a sexy diet you can sell, you know, at the bookstore. This is.

It sounds like it to me. You mean I can eat multiple food and just pair them together smartly instead of doing all these more ridiculous things?

Right.

My wife actually started.

Managing macros and under. I don't look at it, but so the meals that got placed in front of me because she's the best wife ever, were balanced. Right. And I noticed in my body that there was differences in regularity and things that were happening just from having that going on. Right, yeah. So that does make a lot of sense. I mean, you're balancing blood sugar because you're adding fats when you're adding carbs, and you're like balancing blood sugar now. Right. There's just like some natural things that are going on when you're doing that.

That seems to tie back. So we went all the way beginning we're saying that that stress ultimately is sort of the root. And so the blood sugar piece is part of the stress component of it. Right. How many people you know that you work with when you're trying to get back to root? Because that's where we started. So kind of like understand how it's going. What. What are, like the top three roots that you find with people.

Who. Top three or five.

General concept. What are the.

Yeah, I think for sure one is the blood sugar piece, and not just really blood sugar, but maybe just nutrition in general and getting back to those foundations with them. Most Women I work with are under eating calorically. So you wouldn't believe how many women I work with say, you know, I eat really good and I, I take really good care of myself. And then we'll have them do food journals. And there's never any judgment, but sometimes I look at these food journals and these women are eating like 1200 calories a day. That's how much a 4 year old needs. So if you're not 4, you need a lot more than 1200 calories a day. So this chronic undernourishment is going to cause this stress. So yeah, I think undernourishment and just not knowing how to pair meals and just feeling confused in general about food is like dairy good? Is meat bad? Is gluten gonna kill me? Like, nope, everybody's so confused right now.

Yeah, I mean, that completely makes sense. I mean, it seems like if we're looking at stress holistically, it's like trying to figure out the main places where stress occurs. Right. So one is what's happening inside of your body of what you're putting into it. Right. Which is what you're talking about. Another one is what is your body being exposed to outside that is then triggering stress responses that are happening. That's environment, that's, you know, pesticides and chemicals and mold and tox, all this stuff. Right. So, you know, we talk about one of those a lot, but there's a lot of things that go into that. Right. So your external factors, you have what you're sticking into your body on the internal factors. And then there's sort of the kind of mental component too that generates just as much stress as everything else does. Right. And, and there's so much now about understanding how to regulate your stress response by training your brain and training your body in different ways. Right. Is it breath work? Is it meditation? So like when something hits you, you don't stress as bad. So it feels to me, and again, I'm just kind of trying to put the pieces together from what we're talking about, but it feels like if we can understand how to take a holistic approach to stress reduction, that that's sort of the path to get there. And it's obviously not just one thing, but it's worth kind of looking at all of these things and making efforts in each of those areas and at least investigating each of those areas to see what's going on.

Yeah, and I think that also makes it feel a little less daunting because.

Instead of feeling like, well, what supplements Do I need to take and. And getting kind of lost in the forest with all this? We can come back. We can come back to the foundations, which is just how can I nourish myself, how can I prioritize my sleep and what can I do to reduce my chronic stress? So it, it allows us to create really small but hugely important shifts in our lifestyle.

Just like for an. As an example, if I get a woman to just start eating breakfast within an hour of waking up and not drink coffee on an empty stomach, literally sometimes that improves her symptoms by 30, 40%. I saw how tiny we're talking.

I was scrolling. I told you earlier, before we got on that I was stalking you on Instagram, which then side joke, which I'll say now, it used to be really weird to be stalked online. Now it's like almost, it's almost like an honor for people stalking online.

I don't know.

Anyways, I saw the coffee thing that you just mentioned. I was like, oh, that's pretty interesting. Like, I usually myself, I try to wait like 90 to 120 minutes, you know, an hour and a half, two hours before I have any coffee. But I'm crazy and wake up at 5:30 and work out before my kids wake up. It's like some of the time I can do it. So I'm up forever before. Yeah, before that even happens. So. All right, so. So dialing back. If we understand that our goal here is to try to reduce overall stress, which then will have a positive impact on our hormone regulation, which will then move downstream and help reverse some of these other things. It's not all pcos. There's other things obviously going on here that will help to kind of bring those things in balance. Right. There's no way you're gonna be able to answer this question. So I'm prefacing that. Um.

How.

I wanted to answer in a way where you're not just gonna ask, in a way you're not just gonna laugh at me. So.

If we're doing that, like, what is the time span over to the point where you start seeing some sort of improvement? Right? Because I think one thing that happens a lot exercising is trying to get healthier, it's changing your diet, it's whatever it is. And it's like a human thing. It's like you need to almost some like immediate sort of like, yes, this is working to then feel like you're able to kind of continue go a little longer and even if like you're not feeling it, maybe if at least you understand what the expectation is on timeline or something like that, then you'd be more apt to kind of ease into it and feel that out. So that's kind of why I asked that question, because I feel like, like I meditated this week and I did this and I stopped eating bread for the week and I still feel like crap. So like, so and then they're off the, off the train. Right? So like, like, is there some sort of way to think about a general realistic expectation or, or something like that?

The good news is usually if you are taking that targeted root cause approach within a couple weeks, you should see some sort of a difference. You're not going to feel like 100% improved, but even if you wake up with a little more energy or instead of Your cycle being 39 days, it was 31 days, or your bloat was reduced a little bit, those are the kinds of small wins that tell you you're on the right track. But in terms of feeling a hundred percent better, I think honestly six months to a year sometimes is what it takes.

But some people might hear that and be like, oh my gosh, well, that sounds like forever. And other people hearing that are like amazing. There's hope. Like in six months I could feel like a new person. So, so you can look at that however you want to. But yeah, I would say six months to a year you could feel a night and day difference.

Yeah, no, I mean, that makes sense, right? We're talking about like turning like a, like a, like the Titanic, slowly. Like there's a lot that has to happen, right? It's not like one thing and everything changes, that makes sense. But knowing that if you're trying to be aware of your body and your symptoms and if you can pick out and understand, hey, I am noticing that this a little bit better. I wonder even if like a practice, like, like writing down your top 10 symptoms and making a chart over the course of four weeks and ranking each one of them every day or something like that, so you can start seeing TR and stuff like that. Because a lot of times like visuals and data really help you prove to yourself that something is going on. Like the objective goes away and it becomes more.

Subjective. Objective. Whichever one of those two words makes sense, I won't.

Okay, so next on this.

What are some things that people can do with that thought in mind? Like if I can see something or there's something that I can get that will help me understand this quicker. Right. Instead of me having to kind of like tinker and try and all these different things. So what, what are some different tests? Whether it's labs or even whether some sort of functional type of, you know, testing on your body or something like that, from the, from the body point of view, are things that someone can do to try to figure out some of these components a little bit faster and get there a little bit faster.

Yes, I'm a big proponent of test. Don't guess, you know, don't go play darts in a dark room and hope you're gonna win. It's much more effective to be able to actually see what's going on so that you can target that. And also the supplement world, you know, is going to tell you their supplements going to fix everything. But unless you know what's actually going on, you're probably going to waste a lot of time and money on supplements that may or may not even be what you need. So some of my favorite tests I do in my practice, the first I do with every patient is called the htma. It's hair tissue mineral analysis. It's an amazing test because it's one of the most accessible, it's one of the most inexpensive to do, and it's one of the most fascinating. So it's measuring the minerals that are being excreted through your hair. So it's also non invasive. And the reason this matters is because at the core behind hormone imbalances, one thing that can really influence hormones are minerals. So, for example, say we have very high calcium show up in a hair test. When calcium is too high, it can actually calcify your cell walls, which means you may have difficulty getting thyroid hormone into your cells or nutrients into your cells. Or if you have really low potassium. Potassium is a deficiency over 90% of the population has. And when that is low, your cells are not as sensitive to take in hormones. So this is where occasionally someone will work with me and they'll send me their thyroid hormone test. And even though they match every symptom of a thyroid problem, they're cold all the time, their hair is falling out, they have no libido, they're exhausted, seemingly everything is normal. Then we'll run the HTMA and we'll see that their potassium is very low and their calcium is really high. So that means they're making their hormones, but they're not getting it into the cells.

So you could run your hormone specific test and it will see that it's there, but it's basically not like bioavailable to you because you have some other blocker that's preventing it from.

Right. This is where. Yeah, it's like doing blood testing for, like, your thyroid is super important, but in a functional setting, I feel like there's a couple tests we run together, so we get a more holistic picture of it. So that test, I feel like, is not run nearly enough. And it is so telling. We can measure your stress response, your adrenal health, we can get indicators into your thyroid health, your blood sugar. It's a really cool test.

So what's the difference in that between, like, a mineral deficiency test? Because are you looking for this? It sounds like you're looking for deficiencies and minerals that then open gates to the cells that allow things in. Or am I misunderstanding that?

I mean, it's somewhat similar through the hair, though. We're looking really at your burn rate, so we're seeing how much you're burning through. Like, if you're in a stress response, you may see sodium and potassium actually show really high on your tests because you're burning through that rapidly in an acute stress response.

And we can also see things like heavy metals if they're showing up in a hair test. So really, if you're eliminating well, or if you're in more of that fight or flight and your heavy metals are staying in your body and not being eliminated. So it is slightly different. But.

Yeah, I could just talk about. It's such a great test.

Yeah, no, it's cool. I had not heard of that until today when we were talking about it, which is super awesome. I'm going to add a couple things on the environment side because we're looking at everything.

It's more about understanding exposure before you dive super heavy into it. Right. It's like, is there a problem here? And then if there is, you then try to diagnose. I feel like it's very similar with clinical testing. Is there an issue here? And then we sort of get in and start maybe additional tests here or there based on what we're seeing in the screens. So for the mold bacteria, like water damage, environmental toxin side of things is dust testing in the house. So we have our test called the dust test. Literally, it's like a Swiffer cloth that you wipe dust up with, and it tells you mold species that are present. Are there mycotoxins present? Are there bacterial toxins present? You can see all of that stuff. And again, tying back to what you were saying earlier, it all rounds up to stress response. Right. So if we're seeing that that's coming in from the external point, that's triggering stress, then obviously one things we can do is, hey, if we remove that piece, that's less stress the body's under. Right. So there's one thing you can do on sort of the mold, water damage, bacteria toxin side of things. The other side of things that you could also do in the space is VOC testing. In a, in a home, you can see there's some really awesome VOC testing that you can do that will look at hundreds of different chemical compounds and it will kind of categorize them into like 15, 16 different categories. So you could see things like personal care products might be spiking super high on a chemical side, or maybe it's formaldehyde, because maybe the materials that were used to build your house are probably not, you know, maybe the best. And at that point now you're pumping a carcinogen into the air and a variety of other things that could come up in those. So if we're looking at like holistic, what are all the potential stressors that are going on? These are like in the grand scheme of massive in depth testing, these are affordable tests that can be done on, screening to, on to just get a sense of all right, my internals look like this inside my body looks like this outside my body. We have, you know, kind of the water damage side of it, we have other chemical exposure part of it. And there's a lot going on there that you can see and start seeing. Right. And so, so it's, it's actually really interesting to kind of think of this all as like a holistic stress response response sort of, you know, testing protocol and way to understand the different areas that might be impacting you and then sort of start making, you know, decisions off of that. Okay, what do I dive into first? What's the easiest fix? That's maybe the most, the least expensive that I could try first. And then if that's not working, then maybe where do I go next and that sort of thing. So let's just kind of round that out. But I think that's, that's awesome. I think it's awesome. So for you it's blood testing coupled with HDMA testing. And that gives you a lot of, of insight on what's going on.

Yeah, and I love doing the Dutch test, which is a urine test for hormones. And I of course love the GI map, which is a stool test. And that's where ideally with an integrative doctor, we're not here to sell you every test, but we're here to pick out based on your symptoms, what tests may be the most beneficial?

Yeah. Cool. Gosh. I feel like. I feel like we got through a good amount. Is there anything else that you feel like that I'm not asking because I don't know any of this stuff that I should be asking.

No, I think this was great. I think I would just add. To anyone listening, you know, if you feel like something is off in your body, it is. So listen to your own intuition and your own feeling in your body. If you know that you used to have a higher libido or you used to sleep better or your hair used to be thicker, these are symptoms from your body. And this is an invitation for you to look a little deeper and support your body.

And there's so many free, simple things you can do at home. And then, of course, seeing an integrative doctor can also be really, really supportive if you want to get the lab work and really sift through what it all means.

Yeah, I love that last thought. It's like we. As we get older, we're just like, oh, this is part of getting older. Oh, this happens. This happens. And then once you just get back to how your body's supposed to be working, you feel like you're 30 again, right? Oh, I can feel like this. And I mean, I've heard so many of these stories, right, because, like, once you start removing these big stressors and stuff that's happening, all of a sudden your body starts to find its balance again. Things start to kind of realign where they need to be. Like, oh, I'm not. It's not that I'm. I'm functioning at some above human level. I'm just functioning now as a. As a current normal human. And holy crap, this feels like I'm super. Yeah, like, that can happen. That story happens over and over and over again depending on whatever is impacting you. Right? Like. Like, your body is so cool. It's really trying to fix itself, but if there's something that constantly is pushing it down the other direction, it can only fix so much. So it's like, all right, let's reduce some of the things that are, like, pushing down our body and then give it what it needs, some of the raw materials that it needs in order to start doing what it's. What it's meant to do. And then all of a sudden, the body, like, takes control and starts healing, which is what it's supposed to do, which is really, really awesome.

So, yeah.

Cool.

Well said.

Well, thank you for listening to my questions. Of someone who knows nothing about any of this stuff, but I thought it'd be interesting because I feel like a lot of people don't know a whole lot about this. So if I come in as some guy that knows nothing, hopefully it's explained in a way that makes sense to others who might not know as much as as they want to. So I appreciate you coming on. I'm going to be on your show soon. Pretty soon as well. Share name of your show where people can find you all that good stuff.

Yes. So I have a podcast called Cyclical that you'll be on here very, very soon. And then I'm on Instagram @drcassandra wilder. So if you're looking for lots of followers, free resources, my Instagram is full of it. And then on my Instagram, you can also find my website and see how to apply to be a patient or take a program with me.

Do we say your handle?

Yes. Wilder.

Y. Yeah, I just want to make sure it's out there so.

Awesome people can work directly with you. How does that work?

Yeah, they just apply. And if I feel like I can be of help, then I work remote. So I mail all the functional labs to you and we have sessions together online.

Awesome.

Yeah.

Well, thank you so much. Really appreciate you coming on, sharing what, you know, teaching me some stuff and hopefully some other people some stuff, too. So thank you.

Thank you for having me.

All right.

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