Female Biorhythm, Optimizing for Peak Performance, Unique Leadership Abilities with Kayla Osterhoff

This episode is brought to you by Nootopia. Nootopia is a bioptimizers company with the first ever 100% personalized nootropic stack. Think a powerful brain-specific supplement. Nootopia has been a real game changer for me. When I take one of their stacks, I get hyper-focused for the toughest tasks. My verbal fluency and creativity improved dramatically and reduced stress to boot. To say goodbye to afternoon energy crashes, boost your emotional intelligence, activate neurogenesis, and more, check out nootopia.com/claudia to receive 10% off your order. That's nootopia.com/claudia. Hello, longevity friends. This is your host, Claudia von Boeselager, and welcome to the Longevity and Lifestyle Podcast, where I invite pioneers and thought leaders in all things longevity and lifestyle to give you the strategies, tools, and practices to live better and help you reach your highest potential. Today's guest is Kayla Osterhof. Kayla has a unique background and expertise across a spectrum of health sciences, which led her to develop a truly holistic understanding and approach for health optimization, peak performance, and resilience of the mind and body. Kayla has dedicated the last several years of her career to researching women's neurology, psychology, and physiology. Her investigative efforts into the brain and minds of women led her to a major discovery about women's unique cognitive and leadership abilities. Kayla is now dedicated to sharing her research discoveries to empower women leaders around the globe. Kayla is trained across the health sciences with a Bachelor of Science in Health Ecology, a Master of Science in Public Health and Epidemiology, and currently pursuing her doctoral degree in the field of neuro psychophysiology. In this episode, we dig into how women's health, psychology, neurology, and biochemistry are interlinked, the female biorhythm, how female hormones impact the brain, female superpowers throughout the month and how to optimize for each, the need to take things into our own hands, discovering strategies to amplify leadership, and much more. Before we begin, please hit subscribe to the podcast to get your weekly dose of longevity and lifestyle inspiration and share this episode with those you love. I would also love to hear from you, dear listeners, so please leave a comment below to let me know what you think, or reach out on Instagram @longevityandlifestyle. Please enjoy.

Welcome to the Longevity and Lifestyle Podcast, Kayla. Such a pleasure to have you on today.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm super excited for our conversation today.

So Kayla, I have to say that since we met at the Miami conference last year, you've really inspired me in the work that you're doing. So I'm particularly excited to have you on the podcast, and I'd love to start with your unique and interesting background combining both brain and mental health and women's health. Can you share your journey and maybe the different moments along the way that inspired you to do what you're doing now?

Yeah. You know, I come from a family history of addiction and mental health issues and specifically, you know, what inspired me most in my career path and actually started off by shifting. I was initially studying to become a physical therapist and while I was working down that career path, my mom actually ended up having an overdose from opioid addiction. And that really caused all kinds of upheaval in our family, but it caused her a lot of issues with her brain function and her mental health specifically. And at the time when that happened, I was finishing up my undergrad degree in health ecology. And at that point I was so angry with the healthcare system because that was the culprit for my mother's addiction. All of the drugs that she was taking were prescribed, and not only were they prescribed, but they were taken as prescribed. And that really led her down a dark path. So I was really just looking for answers. Why did this happen to my mom? And how can doctors who are supposed to do no harm end up causing a life-threatening addiction? And not really address the root causes of what is causing the pain or the surgeries or whatever it is that ended up giving those kind of pain medicines. Right. So I switched gears and I went to get my master's for public health. And from there, I went on to work at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for several years. And my initial intention was to go there and work on the opioid epidemic. But when I got there, I ended up working in global health. Which was super fun and exciting. I got to travel all around the world, work on all the emergency responses and stand-up cardiovascular disease programs in small countries. It was really rewarding work. And as this was happening, my mom's mental health and cognitive function was getting worse and worse. And so I've always been fascinated by the brain and I've always taken psychology and neurology classes all throughout my education, just because it's my personal hobby, right? Is to study the brain. And so at that point I was doing a lot of research to help my mom and get her in with, you know, functional neurologists and really learning about the brain and the intricacies of everything there. And so that led me to pursue my doctoral degree in neuropsychophysiolog. And in that field of work, and I've been on that path for 4 and a half years now, and I have about a year and a half left before I'm finished up with my dissertation process. So that's a long haul, but But it's been super fun and very rewarding. And in those studies, I really found some interesting things about women's health and women's psychology, women's neurology, and women's biochemistry, and how everything is really interrelated. And that a woman's biology has a cyclic nature to it, unlike our male counterparts that are more on more of like a repeating 24-hour system. The female system, meaning the whole body and all the systems involved in it, not only the reproductive parts, but the whole body really follows a monthly cyclic rhythm. And then starting to dive into that, I found all kinds of interesting research and information and putting it together, really learning about the female biorhythm as the key or the missing link to feminine health, not only cognitive health and function and psychological health and function, but women's health in general. And so it's been kind of an interesting path with all kinds of different turns that I never expected. But yeah, I guess that's what landed me where I am now.

Super exciting. And also where you've landed as such, because I think it's such a pioneering concept to actually move away from how typically women's health was dealt with and not really representative of actual true case. Maybe you can talk briefly just for my listeners listening. Why have women been so excluded from research and why has this been such an issue until now?

Yes, it's really interesting because women represent 51% of the world's population, right? However, 51% of the world's population remains this mystery. We don't know a lot, as much as we know about male biology, for instance, about feminine biology. And just for instance, I've studied the health sciences, the hard sciences my whole life through to a terminal degree. And nowhere along the path did I ever take any science class on women's biology specifically, or women's physiology specifically. You know, we learn about the reproductive system and we learn about the menstrual cycle and female hormones, But that's as far as it goes. There's no information about how that female hormone cycle actually has a global impact on all the physiological processes in a woman's body. And specifically, it's really interesting how those chemicals, right? Cause hormones are chemicals, how those chemicals impact our brain function, which we can talk about later. But the reason why. We are misunderstood. And the reason why we're not included in education, you know, nowhere along the line of education from elementary school to middle and high school, to college, to graduate school, doctoral degrees, nowhere along the line are we being educated properly about women's biology and physiology and women's health at all. And that's a result of what you mentioned, which is that women have been left out of clinical research since the beginning of research, right? So that's been the case all along. And for a couple of reasons, one, because women are risky research subjects, and that's because we have the potential of becoming pregnant at any time, right? When we're actively cycling. And the other reason why is because women are difficult research subjects. And this goes back to the cyclic nature of the feminine biology. Because we are constantly changing because of our ever-changing biochemistry. We are essentially, you know, 4 different women throughout the course of a month. And if you think about that as a researcher, which I am a researcher, I totally understand that it is kind of a nightmare to research a subject that is constantly changing. You just can't control for that. So back in 1977, the FDA actually formally banned all women of childbearing potential from clinical research. And then it was overturned not until the '90s, '93, which is crazy that it took that long to overturn that crazy ban. But even when it was overturned, to this day, women are critically underserved and misrepresented and underrepresented in the clinical research. And so that remains a problem and it remains a big blind spot and a gap in the scientific community of about how to properly, one, understand, and two, support feminine health.

What would be a solution to that, Kayla?

I think there are several solutions. One is getting research like mine and other female scientists really out there, getting the message out there that women operate differently, have a completely different operating system than their male counterparts. And offering women, first of all, permission to do things differently. And secondly, allowing them to have flexibility in order to do things differently. And that's really what we need as women in order to thrive, because our biology is very different because we're not well represented in the scientific literature. We have to take things into our own hands and we have to do our own self-experimentation. And so the bio-individual approach that is popular in the biohacking community, which I love, is more important for women specifically because we can't rely on the standardized protocols and we can't rely on the results and the findings coming from research because it's done on male bodies only. So we really have to take things into our own hands.

I think that this day and age, it's high time to start doing that. And some of the tools and resources are actually out there. You've touched on some exciting topics that I'd like to ask a few follow-up questions with. First of all, you were talking about the chemicals or hormones on brain function. Can you expand on that?

Yes. This is one of my favorite topics of all time, and we could probably spend an entire hour just on this. I know we could, but what's really interesting is when you look at the female brain versus the male brain, there are some interesting differences. One is out of 80 or so brain areas that have been studied, looking at the differences between female and male brains, the female brain is more active in about 70 of them. Now that doesn't tell us a lot just at face value, except that the female brain operates differently than the male brain. But interestingly, there are a couple of areas that are specifically impacted and operate a different way in the female brain, which is the prefrontal cortex, the hippocampus, and the hypothalamus. Now, these three areas are really interesting because these are areas of the brain that are associated with leadership. So decision-making, acuity, memory consolidation, emotional intelligence. These are areas of the brain that are key for those functions specifically. So women kind of have an enhanced ability for those specific cognitive functions. And the reason why is because when you look at these areas of the brain, they actually have high densities of estrogen and progesterone receptors. So estrogen and progesterone are not only sex hormones or female sex hormones, They are actually really important neurochemicals because they actually modulate our brain function. So as estrogen and progesterone flow, ebb and flow throughout the month, right? There are times when we have higher estrogen. There are times when we have low estrogen. There are times when we have higher progesterone and lower progesterone. So this actually changes the way that our brain functions throughout the month. And so it's really interesting when you start to look at the intricacies of this, and this is starting to be researched now, though there's not a lot out there. And so it's taken me about the last 6 years to really scour through all the published research. And I keep my eye on everything that currently comes out to see what we know about the female brain. And when you put it all together, all the pieces of the puzzle together, you get this really interesting picture that shows that the female hormone cycle, which has 4 specific phases, which we can talk about in a moment, but the female hormone cycle with its 4 specific phases has an interesting impact and a very different cognitive function and biochemical signature for each of the phases. And so technically, you know, women have different cognitive, what I call superpowers during each phase of their hormone cycle. That if they understand this, they can actually leverage that for higher performance and better health.

And I'd love to dive into that as well, because I think that this is probably one of the most fundamentally exciting areas to actually see this as a superpower unleashing for women. Let's talk about that. So can you describe the 4 different phases and what the different superpowers are and what the advantages are and how to optimize that.

Yes, absolutely. So, you know, what's interesting, and you may relate to this too, I know I certainly do, you know, maybe 6 years or so, if you had asked me what phase of my menstrual cycle I'm in, I'd be like, you know, either I'm having my period or I'm not having my period. And which is silly because I've been educated in human biology and physiology and biochemistry and all of that stuff. And I was like, wasn't educated in the different phases and it wasn't important to me. However, you know, now I am very aware of all 4 phases and not only that, the biochemical and physiological signature of each phase and how it impacts me and kind of offers this different version of me 4 times throughout the month. So phase 1 is really the common one that most women are aware of, and then maybe they're not aware of any of the others or maybe one of the others. So phase 1 is menstruation. And so that's when we're actively having our period or some women who don't have a period, which is really important. They may not have an active period. They still have all of these 4 phases. So just to note that if there's any ladies out there listening that are like, wait, I don't have a period. Well, you still have all 4 phases. So all of this still applies to you. So in phase 1 menstruation, this is marked by the lowest levels of estrogen and progesterone. And so with the lowest amount of estrogen and progesterone in our body, a couple of interesting things happen. So one is that our metabolic function slows down and the generation of ATP also slows down. When we're looking at our neurochemical situation, we see that we have less of our mood-boosting neurochemicals during this time. So serotonin, dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine, those more excitatory neurotransmitters have a lower activity during that first phase. So if you think about that functionally, we have, you know, a lower mood or a more subdued mood, and we have lower energy naturally. And what we typically do as women, because we're not taught about this and we're not given permission to do things differently, we push through, right? So we drink extra cups of coffee and we work out really hard and we work basically against our natural flow, our natural physiology. And so if you can imagine this by like, we're swimming upriver and we're utilizing what little resources we have or less resources than we may have during other times. So what this translates to is naturally this is a great environment for us to kind of slow down and go inward because if we look at what's happening with our cognitive function during this phase, we have some cognitive superpowers. One, during this phase specifically, we have heightened what the scientific community calls cognitive empathy. Now this is a fancy scientific term for intuitive insight. So a woman's intuition, first of all, is a real thing. We're starting to understand it scientifically now, but also it is heightened during menstruation. If we are listening to our body and we're giving it what it is wanting, it is wanting us to slow down. It is wanting us to go inward. And so we have this higher ability if we do that, if we allow ourselves to do that during that first phase to Assess, right? Assessment. Figure out what's working, what's not working. Do our analysis type of work during that phase because our cognition is geared more towards that type of work in phase 1. So going from phase 1 into phase 2, we're going into the follicular phase. Technically, the follicular phase includes menstruation, but we'll keep it as a phase 2 for this purpose. But in the follicular phase, this is marked by a steady rise to a peak of estrogen specifically. So one of those two really important biochemicals that we're talking about with the menstrual cycle. So as estrogen rises to a peak, so does our production of ATP. So does glucogenesis and glycolysis, which is giving more and more energy for the body, right? Our energy levels are rising through this time. So we have more stamina, we have more power, strength, and endurance. And so does our mood-boosting neurochemicals. They are rising as estrogen is rising as well. And so our mood is improving. Our energy levels are improving. And interestingly, when we look at what's going on in our brain, our emotional intelligence is heightened during this phase. And our ability to navigate is heightened. So our navigational ability starts to come online. Align stronger during this phase specifically in our ability to strategically think. So if you think about this in phase 1, we're doing our analysis, we're doing our decision-making kind of process that is kind of an inward process. And then in phase 2, we're taking action. Our emotional intelligence is increasing, our navigational and strategic ability is heightened. So that's when we can actually work with our teams, delegate projects, lead, Our leadership ability is really heightened during this phase because our ability to interact with others and our stamina to do so is heightened. So going from that phase to the next one, which is ovulation, which is actually more of a phase change than a phase in and of itself, because it's very short. It's only 1 to 3 days, but this is marked by a peak in estrogen, the highest point of estrogen throughout the whole month., but also a peak, a little spike in luteinizing hormone and follicle stimulating hormone, two of the other ovarian hormones that we have. So what happens during this phase is we have our highest level of energy, our highest mood. I actually call this the bloom phase. I have little nicknames for all the phases. This is the bloom phase because we're feeling our very best during this phase. And our charismatic influence is heightened during this time when we're looking at our cognitive function. So if you think about that in application, this is a great time to be doing our presentations or pitches, a great time to be doing social networking or any kind of networking ability, a great time to be working with our strategic partners or doing strategic partnership reach out and really leveraging that extra cognitive influence that we have access to during that time. And then going from that phase into the back half of our cycle. So those first 3 phases really mark the first half of our cycle. So the first 2 weeks, it's not always 2 weeks for every woman. Every woman's cycle is very different. However, for this instance, for an average, you know, 28 to 30 day cycle, the first half is a couple of weeks. And that includes all 3 of those first phases. The back half is the solid 2 weeks after that, the luteal phase. And this is my favorite phase. This is what I call the brainy phase. And my nickname for it is the grow phase because our brain is literally growing and our ability to learn is heightened during this phase. And that's because progesterone becomes the star of the show during the back half. Now, this really interesting biochemical and neurochemical does some really cool things to our brain. One of which is it heightens brain-derived neurotrophic factor. So BDNF, probably you're familiar with. I know that you are. So this really cool chemical does a couple of things. Well, it does many things, but a couple of which are increasing our neuroplasticity. So how our brain is shaped, and this is really talking about our neural pathways and, you know, behaviors and ability to learn. And it also heightens our neurogenesis. So not only is our ability to create new behaviors and learn new things heightened during this phase, but also our ability to grow new neurons is heightened during this phase. Another cool thing that happens is we have heightened activity of GABA neurotransmitter, and GABA neurotransmitter is involved with getting quality sleep and memory consolidation and neural pruning. And so we get this extra boost in our ability to consolidate and create memories and our ability to change and create new behaviors and literally grow our brain and, you know, enhance the health of our brain. But there's one big but. We have to be able to prioritize sleep during this phase because we're getting that little extra boost from GABA, which GABA is really important to help us to start to switch the brain into sleep mode. And so it gets us prepared for restful sleep and helps us to get restful sleep. It also helps with the melatonin process or interacts intricately with the melatonin process, which is our sleep hormone, right? So in order to benefit from the cognitive superpowers that we get during this phase of enhanced acuity, especially verbal acuity, but also the enhanced ability to learn and also teach, really. During this time, we have to be able to get quality sleep. All the time, of course, we want to get quality sleep, but specifically you need to guard your sleep during those last couple of weeks and really prioritize so that you can benefit from the cool things that are happening in your brain during that phase.

Thank you so much for that in-depth overview. And I think there's so many follow-on questions, but just for people to understand, I mean, quality what is quality sleep, and everyone will have a different definition, right? So from your point of view, and particularly around that neuroplasticity, neurogenesis timeframe, what is quality sleep? What would you say is a non-negotiable time that people should really take for sleep?

So it's different for different people, but it's not that different because we all need about 7 to 8 hours of quality sleep. You know, between 7 and 9 is what each person really requires. So the amount of sleep can vary, but there is some cool research that actually shows that the most restful hours of sleep are actually between 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM, you know, no matter where you are in the world. So during those hours, you want to try to be asleep if you can, because that's when the most memory consolidation and neural pruning happens during those hours. And you know, exactly why that is, I'm not sure we know, but if you can be asleep between the hours of 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM and get 7 to 9 hours, then that's a really good start.

Really helpful. And thank you also for sharing between 11:00 PM and 2:00 AM. I've recently come back from the US, so I'm on jet lag thing, and I've been trying to adjust my timings as well. So good reminder to make sure I'm asleep before 11. So thank you, Caleb, for that. I'd love to dive into our unlocking basically the different superpowers throughout the month. You've obviously touched on that, but from a practical point of view, let's say you are working in a company, right? And you have your male— or even like, say, in a bank or wherever it is that you work, right? And you have your male counterparts who, as you said yourself, have a 24-hour testosterone cycle, whereas you're on a completely different schedule. How can women understand themselves better and take this information into their own hands to actually create a structure where possible to really release their superpowers?

Yeah. So what you mentioned is really important because we don't always have 100% control over our schedule. However, we do have 100% control over many things. So it's really about the low-hanging fruit and making little changes that are within your control, which we can all do. So for instance, if you're working in a 9 to 5, kind of a job, you can't necessarily say, oh, I'm on my menstrual cycle. So I am not going to work during these days, nor would you really want to, because you want to be able to use that extra cognitive ability that you have during that time, that cognitive empathy, that intuitive insight to do your assessment parts of your job. So if you can take little breaks or spend, you know, the breaks that you normally get doing some more inward mindfulness practices and taking care of yourself, kind of going inward instead of, you know, maybe you spend your lunch hour usually socializing. Well, maybe during that first week you can spend a little more time on your own and do meditation or do some guided visualization or something that will enhance that intuitive insight so that you can really tap into that and use it for your work. So, you know, you can assess where your resources are going. So your resources are your hours. The resources are your money. The resources are the people in your workspace. So maybe you can utilize your team more effectively during this time and rely on them to maybe, you know, cover for you in some of the meetings, or, you know, you can maybe shift your work schedule so that you can work a little shorter hours during that first week. And then maybe the second week you work a little extra longer hours so that you're still getting your normal amount in. And the cool thing is when you start to make these shifts, you actually get a lot more done in less time because you're working more efficiently and you're working in partnership with your body and your physiology instead of swimming upriver, like we talked about and going against it and just kind of wasting your resources. Another thing that you can do to be mindful in that first phase is to watch your consumption of coffee. For instance, you don't want to overstimulate to compensate for that lower level of energy. You want to allow your body to have that lower natural level of energy and let that be okay, because the ability that you're getting doesn't require high amounts of outwardly focused energy, right? So then going into phase 2, like I said, maybe this is when you want to interact more with your teams and really beef up your schedule with meetings And maybe you wanna do your team trainings, or maybe this is when you want to really be able to lead projects. And then going into ovulation, if you have the ability, great to schedule your pitches and your presentations or anything that you need to be more influential, you can try to schedule that around that. And it doesn't have to be the exact 1 to 3 days. It can be a little before or a little after, and you still have that that heightened charisma, right? That charismatic influence during that time. And then going into the luteal phase, again, you still have control over your sleep schedule. You're not working while you're sleeping. So prioritize and protect that sleep so that you can really tap into those benefits. And I just wanna mention that this is just scratching the surface of what's going on in our physiology, in our neurology, in our biochemistry, during each of these phases, but I wanna give some concrete examples that any of your listeners hearing this today can take away and start to make some shifts. And the first thing is, one, give yourself permission to do things differently. And then number two is give yourself the flexibility in order to do that. So even if you have a stringent schedule or workflow, or, you know, a boss that really watches over what you do, there are still pieces that you can give yourself some flexibility that are within in your control.

Thank you. So helpful. And I think with anything, I'm a big fan of testing, right? And I think, you know, A is kind of understanding, B is planning, and then testing it. And I would just encourage listeners to try it out, right? So it doesn't need to be for tomorrow, but hey, you know, the next 2 to 3 months, try to actually align and do it that way and see what the benefits are. And I think one of the key things you said before was you'll actually get more done and more profoundly than you would actually think you would. And I think that's one of the most exciting things as well. And also the self-acceptance that, hey, you know, I am different and I'm not the one that's able to power through till whatever hours it is that need to be done in the day that my male counterparts potentially do. Right.

So, yeah, you know, and I've worked with really high-powered CEOs and women that run Fortune 500 companies and women from all walks of life, you know, stay-at-home mothers to people who are running major big big teams that typically work, you know, 80-hour weeks and they're all able to make some shifts. And even the smallest shifts have really great impact and have really great outcomes. So, you know, if the women are interested in kind of diving into this, I do have an 8-week program coming up where I actually work directly with a small group of women to actually learn all of this in depth, the science and the application part. And it really changes their life. It changes their workflow. It changes how they view themselves and how they operate in partnership with their body. And like I said, I've had women of all shapes and sizes in these programs, and all of them are able to make adjustments that completely change and transform the way that they get things done.

It's so exciting because I'm a former investment banker back in the day, so very male-dominated space, and then went into the tech and startup area as well. So, you know, I've been at investor conferences I was the only female as well. So to know and to have that confidence as well and to empower women, you know, I mean, you typically see at these, you know, 80-plus hour a week jobs that the women just can't, you know, keep up at the same pace and for obviously different reasons as well trickle out. But if you can empower them to restructure themselves and their month and their years so that they can actually be at their best, so exciting, I think. So Really love that. I'd love to talk about how one can optimize oneself. I mean, we talked about the different phases and the superpowers, but let's take it to another level in terms of like biohacking specifically around the different phases. What are some tips and recommendations that you could give for people very interested in optimizing and getting the best out of this?

Yeah, just like your lifestyle and your workflow, it should adjust and be different in each of the 4 phases. So, you know, have you ever heard the term or the phrase consistency is the key to success? Right. So that's a complete lie for women. Consistency is the killer of success for women because we need to do things differently because, you know, essentially we're 4 different people biochemically speaking throughout the course of a month and, you know, cognitively speaking as well. So we want to have different routines and that includes our biohacking routine. So one thing that's really popular and kind of a pet peeve of mine in the biohacking community, which is mostly male-driven, right? Most of the influencers in this space are men. And, you know, men that don't have the understanding of the female biology and how really detrimental it can be to suggest that they do the same biohacking routines every day, that really tends to work well for our male counterparts and is healthy and okay for them. However, it can be very destructive for women and it can really harm our hormones specifically. So one of those things is fasting, you know, intermittent fasting. It's all the craze. Everybody is intermittent fasting these days. All the influencers suggest that we all intermittent fast, if not long-term fast. And there are some absolutely amazing benefits from fasting. Fasting is one of my favorite biohacking tools. However, there's only a short window when it is actually safe to be fasting for women. And in fact, there's only a short window when it is safe for women to follow more of a, like a ketogenic type diet. So the keto diet and fasting are two really popular things in the biohacking community that aren't always safe for women. So with fasting specifically, This is healthy and pretty safe to apply during that first week of our cycle, during menstruation. That seems counterintuitive based on, you know, you may have cravings or you may want your comfort foods or whatever that is. However, remember our metabolic function slows down during that time. So our caloric requirements are lower. But also it's far enough away from when we need to be producing higher levels of those two key hormones that it's not going to detrimentally impact that. Whereas if we're fasting through, for instance, the follicular phase, then we will harm our estrogen production or we risk harming our estrogen production. So that's one example, phase one. That's a great biohack to implement during that phase. And then maybe stay away from it the rest of the time.

Okay, perfect. Sorry to interrupt, but I just want to ask a question specifically to that as well, because there's different definitions of fasting. So someone's like, is it a week-long fast versus a 12-hour window? What would you say is, you know, optimal for— and obviously this isn't medical advice, everyone should seek their own practitioner— but just in general, for informational purposes, for your average female, healthy female that would be interested You know, is it a 12-hour window of fasting, 14 hours? What would be sort of a good range?

12 hours and under is generally pretty safe for any time. I wouldn't consider that fasting. And, you know, that may be from like 6 PM to 6 AM or whatever. If you finish your last meal at 6 PM and you don't eat breakfast till 6 AM, that should be fine and safe throughout any of the phases. When you start increasing that window to be, you know, 14, 16, 18 hours Some people do 20 hours and really only eat within a 4-hour window. That, or, you know, 14 and above, I would reserve for that first week. And I would not do anything over 14 the rest of the time so that you can protect your hormone health specifically. Now, if you want to do a long-term fast, that's when I would apply it is during that first week. I don't think a long-term fast is necessary or, you know, maybe even safe for every woman. It really depends depends on your situation and what your goals are and what's going on with your health, what's going on with your stress levels. That's really important is you have to understand your stress threshold and if it has been surpassed, because if you do something like fasting, you have to understand that even though that is a form of eustress, right? Positive stress that can cause what is called hormetic stress, which helps the body to grow, right? Or it helps us to grow and become better and more resilient. But even eustress becomes distress if our stress threshold is already met. So something really interesting, you know, we won't dive fully into in this conversation because it's very intricate. However, it's important to understand that there are certain times during our cycle where our stress threshold is naturally higher and naturally lower. So this also has to come into consideration when you're choosing your biohacks. Because things like fasting or even cold thermogenesis, again, positive stress, but that becomes distress if you're already surpassed your stress threshold. So just one example of this is in the back half of our cycle, that luteal phase, we have more of a sympathetic quality to our nervous system. And this has physiological replications, which means that, you know, we have higher breathing rates, we have higher cardiac function and more kind of stress on the cardiac system. And all kinds of things. But what's important to know is because of that, our stress threshold is lower than it typically is during other times in our cycle. So, you know, if you're already stressed out and then you're in the luteal phase, which means that your stress threshold is lower than it normally is, then you're probably surpassing that stress threshold with the types of stress you have. So you may want to steer away from biohacks like, well, definitely fasting, but also like cold thermogenesis or anything like, you know, rigorous exercise, any of those types of stress that are typically considered positive but would be negative in this case.

So helpful to know. And I think again, it goes back to the self-awareness of the body. I feel like intricately we do know this, but so many people just feel like you need to push yourself through it and whatever as well. So it's actually just going back to actually listening to what your body actually wants to do and making them the wise, healthy choices as well. I'd love to just touch on— and I know we've covered so many amazing topics and I could go on for another hour, so I definitely think we need to do a round 2 at some stage, Kayla— but for women taking HRT, and this is— I've also had Dr. Louise Newson as a leading menopause and perimenopause practice. I'm actually taking part in now the clinical trial for MenoAge, which is a diagnostic tool to identify where in the perimenopause phase women are. So that's also really exciting at the moment. But how does HRT play a role here, which can include obviously estrogen, progesterone, but also of course testosterone replacement therapy? And then how does this affect women who are menopausal or postmenopausal?

So it's important to know that, yes, we have these 4 phases of our monthly hormone cycle, right?, but women also have different phases of their life cycle that change this monthly cycle. So what's interesting and not researched at all, but something that I am hoping to contribute to the evidence base during my career is that women who are post-menopausal or even perimenopausal, but even women who are post-menopausal still report having a cyclic nature to their biology and physiology. And so my hunch or my theory on this is that because we spend so many years of our life in this cyclic monthly rhythm with our entire physiology, not just our reproductive system, our biology is really set to that pace and groomed to function in a cyclic nature.. And that just doesn't end because we are post-menopausal. So even though at menopause, what happens is we hand over the baton from the ovarian hormones to the adrenals, right? Just for reference, the male biorhythm, which is that 24-hour pace that is set to their biology, which repeats pretty much every day the same. Of course they have life cycles as well, but that cycle is set to the adrenal hormones. Right. And testosterone follows that pace as well. For women, our cycle, our rhythm is set to the pace of the ovarian hormones for the majority of our lives. Right. And then when that baton is passed over to the adrenals, we don't then just become men. Right. First of all, we still have way higher levels of estrogen and progesterone than our male counterparts. Right. And we also still operate in this monthly cyclic rhythm.. Now the empirical evidence for that hasn't caught up, but the anecdotal evidence for that is huge. And, you know, probably there are many postmenopausal women listening to this that are saying, oh yeah, that totally, I totally get that. I do operate in still like a cyclic nature. I have times when I have higher energy or better mood and things like that. So that's one important thing to mention. The other thing is, you know, I mentioned before that even if you don't have a period, you still have all 4 of these phases. And that is true also with hormone replacement therapy. Therapy, you're still typically taking the hormone rhythm or a cyclic schedule, right? That would match the natural rhythm of the ovarian hormones through the month. And so even if you're taking, you know, hormone replacement therapy in the form of birth control, or if you're taking hormone replacement therapy, you know, through perimenopause to help regulate your cycle, you will still go through all 4 phases, though your phases may be longer or shorter, but you can start to track this kind of tracking the way that you're feeling and listening to your body. And you can do this through like a journaling method, or you can actually track your levels of hormones, but that's not really required because you can track your levels of energy, your mood, and you know, you can kind of figure out from there, even with your cognitive function, where you are in that cycle.

Excellent, Kayla. I think we'd definitely love to do a part 2 with you to go into more topics. But before we close out, I wonder if I could ask you a few rapid-fire questions that my audience love. You have so much energy and you are doing so many different projects and things. Do you have a particular morning routine to set yourself up for success?

Yes. And I actually have 4 different morning routines for each phase of my cycle, of course, but consistently my morning routines typically include some kind of mindfulness practice. And I always start my day slow, even if that means it's gotta start slow within a 5-minute period, or it's gotta start slow within an hour or 2-hour period. I always start slow, meaning that first of all, I don't wake up to a cortisol-inducing alarm. If I have to set an alarm, then I will do it to something that's more soothing, like music or chimes, something like that. And then I don't just hop out of bed and I certainly don't hop on my phone and start checking my emails right away, because all of that will spike your cortisol and cause cortisol dysregulation, which by the way, cortisol regulation is intimately tied with insulin regulation and production of estrogen and progesterone. That can be something for another day, but it's really important to have healthy cortisol function, meaning that your cortisol shouldn't peak until, you know, later in the morning. And then from that point, it should steadily decline So having a morning routine that will support that natural cortisol curve is really important anytime throughout the cycle.

So you have a slow start and then meditation, and that's how you kick off your day to win.

Okay. Excellent. There are other things I include in different phases, but those are consistent.

Kayla, do you have a favorite quote or piece of advice that's been a real game changer for you?

One quote that I love that I actually got from one of my professors is that you can't control anything. You can only self-regulate. And so that's a nerdy neuroscience reference, but you know, self-regulation is the body's ability through the nervous system to regulate itself in response to stimulus so that we don't have those big cortisol dumps. And so that we don't get overtaxed and use our resources to become very reactive. Right? So the ability to control anything in our lives is an illusion. We really can't control the things in our lives, but we can control essentially the way that we react to those things through taking care of our neurological function and really training our nervous system to be more resilient.

Right. That's super important. That's something that I'm working on this year is sort of rewiring mindsets, et cetera. And there's a quote that I heard recently. I really liked it. It's, you want to be the thermometer. You don't want to be the thermostat. So you don't want to be reacting to outside temperatures. You actually just want to be that constant pace and just just rechecking in and developing those routines so that you can be at your best at any time. Because, you know, challenges are going to come, but it's how you deal with it. So yeah, totally along my, my way. I agree. What are some of the biggest challenges you see with helping women to transform their relationship with work and day-to-day function along the lines of, you know, bringing this, the female biorhythm, into mainstream?

I think it goes back to that first step, which is giving ourselves permission. So, you know, permission not only comes from the outside world for women to do things differently, but it first comes from ourselves. And that tends to be the hardest step because allowing ourselves, first of all, knowing that our bodies operate differently, that helps, that helps for us to give ourselves permission. But then knowing like, hey, my body is brilliantly designed and it actually knows exactly what it wants and needs. I just need to listen to it. I need to come into partnership with it. So kind of guiding women through that first step in, yes, it's okay to do things differently. You don't have to follow all of the recommendations and advice of your favorite influencer if it doesn't feel in alignment with you, which it probably doesn't because that influencer is a man, right? So allowing yourself to do things differently can be the hardest first step, but it's the most important.

Excellent. What is the top 3 most exciting things in the longevity and increasing health span space, Kayla, would you say?

What excites you most? There are so many exciting things out there, and I'm a big fan of all kinds of biotech, and I'm a big fan of, you know, all of the research going on around stem cells and exosomes and all that stuff. Dr. Amy Killen is one of my good friends, and I love her work. She always puts out all the newest and best tech and tools and devices and different things that you can do for longevity and even beauty. So I love following her, but I think my answer is a little more simple than all of that. I think all of those things are good to have, but not necessarily going to really extend your lifespan very significantly as really coming into partnership with your body. And so one thing that I am working on is I've actually developed and patented some new Femtech, some technology for women that will be coming out later this year that will actually be able to track physiological biometrics and tell women where they are in their cycle, what phase they're in, and also what's going on with their biochemistry, their physiology, their cognition, and how to align their lifestyle with those things. And so that will be coming out later this year. And I can't share more on that right now, but I'm really excited for that, because that is gonna be a game changer for women globally. And it'll be so much easier than, you know, having to track these things manually.

That's really exciting. Congratulations. Yeah, I think that will definitely be a big game changer. For my listeners interested in understanding more about women's biorhythm and unlocking their potential, Kayla, where can people follow you and find out more information?

The best place to go is herbiorhythm.com. That website will give you some basic information covering a lot of what we covered today. And that's a place where if you're interested in joining me in one of my programs, that you can get more information and sign up through that. And you can also follow me on social media. On Instagram is the best place @biocurious_kayla. That's a great place to find me as well. But for any of the ladies who are interested in the biorhythm-specific information, it's herbiorhythm.com.

Excellent. Thank you, Kayla. Do you have any final ask, recommendation, or parting thoughts or message for my audience?

Yes.

You know, for all of the ladies listening, And for the men listening here that have a female counterpart in your life, whether it be a mom, a sister, a daughter, a colleague, employee, whatever it may be, which should be all of you, allowing women and ourselves to do things differently. I keep bringing this back up, but it's so important. We don't operate the same and we need different structures, environments, support systems, programs and routines in order to maintain our health and also, you know, increase our performance and be healthy and happy and fulfilled as women.

Thank you so much, Kayla, for coming on and sharing your wisdom. Such an honor to have you on.

Thank you so much.

This has been fun. Hey everyone, it's Claudia von Boeselager here. But before you take off, I hope you enjoyed the episode and learned as much as I did. If so, please hit subscribe so you don't miss out on our next episodes. I would also love to hear what you thought, be it your favorite part, quote, or other feedback from the episode. So please leave a written review on Apple Podcasts or on social media. And if you think this episode will help someone in your own life, share it with them. Together we can change our own lives and the lives around us for the better. Until next week, goodbye, farewell, and choose to live well.