She Did Everything Right and Still Needed a Hip Replacement

So, I'm so happy to have this conversation because I'm talking today with Zohra Benhamou, and she is a gerontologist. So, what is that? That was a biohacker of aging long before biohacking aging was cool. Gerontologists study the biochemistry and the experience of aging across biological, sociological, and psychological perspectives. And, Zohra has been leading the charge for years. She is also the podcast host of Hack My Age. And today, we had a very special conversation because we happened to be speaking a few days before my hip replacement. And Zora has been very open about her experience of having hip replacement in her 50s, much like I have. And what we went through today is some of the things that you may not be aware of and why you may actually be having hip problems and other issues that could lead to something like this, even when you're younger and athletic. So, this is a great, great conversation for the gym girlies, the weightlifters, the sports enthusiasts that might be having niggling problems and trying to figure out what's really going on. Because we go through my experience and her long-term experience of what does it mean to have hip replacement and how do you go through some surgery like that and come out on the other side stronger, better, faster. So, join me today on Menopause Mastery with Zohra. So I have a— I think it's almost like a confession because I don't think I've actually talked about this at length on the podcast. But Zora and I met through a triangulation of friends. I can't even remember, Zora, who it was that introduced us. But we met because I'm scheduled for a hip surgery in 3 days and Zora has already had a hip replacement. And, you know, I had this like, pardon me, but what the fuck? How did this happen to me? Right. And this is what we're going to talk about today. It's all of the things that go around joint health, osteoarthritis. And Zora, you have been through so much of this and you are an expert in gerontology and all that other stuff. So let's talk a little bit. I'd like to know, how did you fuck up your hip?

Right. I know. What can we tell the audience to avoid doing what I did? And, uh, well, first I want to explain to people I'm a gerontologist. That means somebody just who studies aging and longevity. And we look at not only the biological aspects of aging, but the psychological and the sociological aspects of aging. So we look at the whole life course from birth until death to see why do we get certain diseases? What happened here? How can we slow this down? And, and on all those things. So when I had hip osteo— I was diagnosed with hip osteoarthritis and I, I didn't even know what that word was. And a lot of people confuse osteoarthritis and osteoporosis.

No, no, no.

They're totally different. Osteoporosis is low bone mineral density. And that's where your bones can be fragile and you have a fracture, more likely to fracture if you fall. And then osteoarthritis is degenerative joint disease. The joints are losing their cartilage and you eventually get this sort of bone on bone. It's inflammatory disease and it's very painful. And some people need surgeries and I happen to be one of them. I actually had two of them, 12 weeks apart. And so I've gone through the mill and I, and whenever I've gone through the hard parts of crying and why me? It doesn't make any sense. Everyone who knows me knows I walk the talk in terms of what I'm sharing. And I really, as best to my knowledge, I'm doing all the quote unquote right things. So nobody could believe this happened to me, the gerontologist, the girl who's healthy, the girl who's like doing all these right things. And that was a hard thing for me to accept. And I shared my whole osteoarthritis journey because I was, when I was told this and told you need hip surgery, I laughed. Hahaha, you don't know me. I'm very disciplined and I have very good resources and I know a lot of things and I can biohack my way out of this. And so it was— and when— and certain things worked for a while, and then till they didn't work anymore. And then you get into this negative spiral and you start thinking, why me? What happened? But I think I've got a couple of tips on how to change that mindset, but I want to stop here because I could— if you get me on a roll about hips and arthritis and surgery, it's like I will not shut up. So I'm gonna— I'm just gonna like pause here for a second.

Yeah, you know, your story is very similar to mine. I was like, osteoarthritis is for old people, right? Yeah, osteoarthritis for old people. I've been active, I've been weight training since my 20s. I have been a triathlete. I've done all these things. I was a gymnast. And, you know, what's funny is since I'm scheduled for a hip replacement, you know, and I never really had pain in the front of my hip for the longest time. Let me qualify that. For the longest time, my injury really started probably 30 years ago with an SI joint disruption and sprain forever ago on the left side. And, that was this chronic thing that would come and go. I would throw it out of whack. I would have this sharp pain in the back and couldn't stand up. And, it was a soft tissue thing. So, I did all of the biohacking soft tissue things, worked with PTs, worked with trainers, all this stuff, this stuff. And so, that was the thing that was always chronic until all of a sudden, it was in the front of my hip. And, I had to go to get an MRI because I think I'm brilliant and I'm like, "I think I have a partial labral tear." You know, because I was like, all of a sudden I'm getting pain in my pelvis. It feels like somebody's jamming a poker into my pelvis and I can't walk and I can't move my legs apart very far. Like, you know, like sitting in a V, you just can't do it.

And it hurts to sit and even get in the car or on a bike.

Oh yeah. Getting on a bike. I'm a cyclist. Yeah. Getting on a bike or cycle, you're just like, you're about ready to black out, right? So, so I go get it done and I think I'm brilliant because of course nothing could happen to me because I take such good care of myself. And my husband's like, he forced me to do it. So I come back and I think it's a partial labral tear. And it was a train wreck, Zora. I mean, an absolute train wreck. And I got the MRI back. I mean, I had a full labral tear, complete loss of cartilage. There was nothing left. The, the, basically the acetabulum, which is that rounded part of your, you know, your femur bone that kind of meets your femur and your hip, jammed up edema. So I was like breaking down bone. It was mushy. And I'm like, Oh, how'd that happen? Because I thought if you had osteoarthritis and loss of cartilage, that you would absolutely feel it in the place in which the damage was happening. And that is not true.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. That's— it happens. It's— but not to everybody, right? Not everybody. And some people don't. And some people have severe osteoarthritis on a scan. And they don't feel pain. And some people don't have very much and you can't open your legs. Like, it's, it's crazy. It's really, really nuts. But yes, I think some— one question somebody asked me before about osteoarthritis was, what does it feel like? Because you, you, you said you had a— sorry, a labral tear. Now, the, the labral tear and the edema, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And cartilage.

Yeah.

And, and I have osteoarthritis too.

I was like, oh, And the arthritis. Yeah. Okay. So you had that as well. So, so, and that was a really good question because in menopause we say, oh, I have joint pain, I have frozen shoulder. And so you go, oh my God, do I have osteoarthritis? I'm going to have a hip replacement. No, no, that's not always the case. And so, so for me, it started out with a hip impingement. That feels like a pinching of the hip. Yeah. And, and so it's almost like every time you squat, you feel a little, a little pinch. And that's, that's how it started. And again, of course, I ignore it. Like, I don't know, that it's, it's, you, you label it to aging because I wasn't studying gerontology back then, or you label it to, oh, maybe I was just a little overactive and I need to rest. And you rest and it can, you know, can, it can get better. And I did some physiotherapy and actually that worked. Really well. I was bounced back on my feet after, after a couple of weeks of physiotherapy. I, because I was got to the point where it kind of comes and goes. There's some people who have, at least for me, it was, oh, I'm feeling severe pinching and now I gotta slow down, I gotta stop, go see a physio, and then I just get myself sorted and, uh, and then kind of be back to the races with my exercise. And, uh, but, but it did start with the pinching. And then when I did eventually get an MRI, I had a bone deformation like the bone was, it had a wonky little knob that kept clicking and on the, on the other, on the rest of the hip. So that's where this sort of loss of the cartilage was happening as well. And in the beginning, you're, it's not that painful. And if you're somebody who likes to, you know, exercise and go, oh, you know, it's just push right through it, which, which I probably shouldn't have, but I did. And, and so that's how it eventually started to me. Then you start to get a bit more pain. And then you could— then you can't stand up without pain. So you're holding on to a table to push yourself up, or holding on to a chair to push yourself up, and you go very slowly because you know it's going to be painful. Or to get on the bike, you can't lift your leg up high, you can't. So the loss of the range of motion, it just gets— the range gets tighter and tighter and tighter until you're walking with your two feet always in front of you and never having anything at an angle. And to forget crossing your legs. I mean, you can't do that. And because it's just too painful. Some people— I didn't have this, I'm not sure if you have it— some people literally cannot sleep at night and the pain is there. For me, as long as I didn't move, I was fine. If I stand and I don't move, it was okay. If I was laying down— so I was lucky in the sense that I could sleep. It didn't disrupt my sleep. Some days were worse than others. I mean, if I tend to overdo it or, or or something, you know, just kept me up because it was throbbing. So it can happen, but generally speaking, so people have a different experience and that's why I would like for people, I thought that was a very good question somebody asked me so that you know, but when it comes to menopause, the women who are listening to your episodes are probably going through menopause, could be having the joint pain. I always say the low-hanging fruit is just let's check out your hormone levels, let's check out if a little estradiol can help that joint pain because in my community, helps a lot. And it's not because you have some debilitating disease, it's just you lost some estrogen.

Yeah, I mean, because, you know, our bones, our bursa sacs, our collagen production, all of that is estrogen-dependent. And, you know, and so we, we start to expect that sort of just, oh, I feel creaky and discomfort and all of that. But we may be overlooking signs of other things. You know, the other thing that I thought was very interesting, because of course I start digging into this, because I, I got to the point probably 15 years ago where I could not lay on my left side. Right.

Yeah.

And it's because I thought it was my SI. I'm like, it's damaged. And, you know, I went through all of the— put PRP in there, put stem cells, do this— didn't change anything really, honestly. It might have made it a little bit better for a short period of time, but what it was really going on was tendinopathy, right, on, you know, basically that entire hip joint, which is the one that I have to get replaced. And I think women often get overlooked here, you know, and they've, they've made adaptive behavior changes not recognizing that if you can't lay on one side because of extraordinary pain from the pressure of your body on it, that's not just— pardon me— just pain. That may be signs of deterioration of ligaments, joints, tendons, all of those things. And, I just kind of accepted it because my hips were unstable. I had a chronic injury that I was unwilling to go and do a surgical intervention in my SI joint. But, what was really occurring is I think there was already a labral tear. And I was just working my way through it, you know.

Yeah. Yeah. Is there anything you could have done for the label tariff early on that you think would have helped?

You know, what's funny is I got to the point where I, you know, I would go through periods where my SI joint would hurt. So squatting, you know, a lot of the things that I would do to, you know, athletically would— I couldn't do, right? Or I would have to massively modify. Then I would work on it and get it better. And so, I did PT off and on. I worked with— I worked with an exceptional trainer here in Dallas for about 3.5 years to try and create stability and turn on— because the other thing that happens when you have these injuries that are so common to women like lower back and SI is your glute muscles turn off on one side. The other side takes brunt force and you don't realize that you have lost stability between those. And so, you favor it. And so, I worked with him for 3 years on— I'd be in the gym doing something that looked like nothing, right? Like you look at it and it looks like some weird pose and I'm shaking, sweating because I can barely stand up onto that leg. But, what it did do was restabilize my hips, right? So, for several years, my SI joint pain had gone away. And that's why when all of a sudden I started having sharp pain in the front and dull pain and burning and all that other stuff, I was like, What just happened? You know, because I thought I had recovered everything, right? That I had done all the things that I could do. Um, and so I, you know, I look at that and say, okay, there's things that we just overlook and we don't realize this is a sign of something occurring that if we get the right instructions at that time, we might be able to intervene.

I think so too. I don't know if you've ever heard of, um, Pentosan polysulfate.

Yes.

You heard about that. So this is something everybody's listening. I think I was offered this. It's a drug and you need a doctor and it's— you have to inject it in yourself.

And it's—

I hate injecting. It's just annoying. And but I— when you're desperate, you just— I try anything and I just don't want surgery. I did everything I could to avoid surgery. And, and what that was explained to me by Dr. Elizabeth Yurth. Do you know her? She's with the Boulder Longevity Institute. And And what she calls this is, this is an inflammatory thing. It's not a wear and tear thing. So people who are listening, don't like stop exercising because you think like you're gonna get— or we overtrained, or that's not what happened. And she told me, you are not a professional athlete, and professional athletes do not get this at your age. So get that out of your head that you did something wrong. It's— there's many other reasons we can go over, the 9 risk factors of osteoarthritis, but you what she offered was pentosan polysulfate, and it's a drug that was used originally with racehorses and their osteoarthritis. And then they're— now they have human trials, and now they're showing some really good promise. I don't think it's FDA approved yet. It's kind of used off-label. But if you could find a doctor, I would— I think my problem, it didn't work with me, but I think it was too late. And if you look at this drug called PPS or pentosan polysulfate, it's quite amazing in terms of the benefits like that. Yeah, this— it's just what I figured. If it doesn't work, then man, I'm getting all these other great things with this. And so, so that is something I would really recommend somebody who maybe can catch it earlier on. That might help calm the inflammation and, and get, get rid of that. But for me, in my case, whenever I took an HSCRP— this is the C-reactive protein blood test that you take for inflammation— It was always like zero. I'm like, no zero, I can feel it in my hips. Like, what? Because we'll see, that obviously was just not sick, but, but it is one of those things I still believe. Obviously it's inflammation. My, my, it's just a cascade of inflammation is the way she described it, and it's out of control. And certain genes that you may have, at least I had, are great in certain cases, but in this case they're overreacting. You just go for a walk and your body thinks it's on fire, so it just spits out more inflammation to try to put out this fire. And in fact, that's not the case.

Yeah, and you know, it's, it's, you know, I'm glad you brought up hs-CRP because there's hs-CRP and sed rate often are not going to reflect these kind of inflammatory cascades. Like hs-CRP is a vascular inflammatory cascade. Other things can raise it like viral infections and autoimmunity, but you're generally not going to see your joint inflammation there. And so, people go, "Oh, I'm fine." I'm like, "Yeah, but you're in pain." Pain is a sign of inflammatory response, right? Somewhere, somehow. And, you know, and it's understanding where that's happening and whether you can intervene enough to sort of bring that inflammatory response down and avoid injury. PPS, I've had a lot of people say they were using it post-surgical intervention too to help with the recovery. Process, right? Yeah, you know, um, so I, yeah, I think there's definitely opportunities there. You know, I'm curious, um, in your research, number one, as a gerontologist, and also your kind of personal experience, and then also helping people understand osteoarthritis and joint pain, one of the things that I spoke with both orthopedic surgeons and also neurosurgeons was the occurrence of lower back pain and specifically SI joint pain in women. Because some of it is our anatomical difference between men and women. And then it depends. Like, I'm a very curvy girl. I have wide hips. You know, I was never the— you know, when I was trying to bodybuild, I never had that skinny little profile. It was like I had a badonkadonk butt before it was popular. You know what I mean? Like, I was just like, why can't my hips lean out? Because your bones are not going to lean out, right? And so, you know, the thing is, is when a woman leans forward, her hips flare out in a way. Part of it's the pelvic floor, part of it's the anatomy so we can give birth. Whereas a man, when he's hinging or bending forward, the hips don't flare out to the side, meaning that we have less pressure on that SI joint and the lower back. So, basically, the SI is where the hips and the sacrum meet. You know, and when I was talking to my surgeon, he said lots of women end up here, particularly on the left side, because of the instability created by the SI joint.

Oh, I didn't know this.

This is not either. And then he asked me, are you hyperflexible? I'm like, oh, hell yeah, I was a gymnast. And I'm like, turn everything backwards, you know. And he's like, me too. He's like, you're likely going to end up here. So if you were hyperflexible, or you did flexibility-based exercises or sports, your risk factors are greater because you destabilize those joints.

And yeah, and I was born flexible. Like, I didn't do anything to like train for it. I thought it was— I was really cool. Do that really cool in yoga.

If you could touch your thumb to your wrist, you were hypermobile.

Exactly. So yeah, they were— it's— if you're on YouTube, you can see it's just— you think it's cool until it's not. And, and that's— that's one of the risk factors as well, just being hypermobile. And, and I remember I've been to hundreds of yoga classes with different teachers all around the world because as a nomad, I always pop into classes and probably only had 2 of them say, hey, hey, hey, hey, you don't need to go that far.

You—

and they kept me in a range. I'm like, no, it's okay. I don't feel it until I— yeah, but no one, no one. And, and evidently yoga teachers do have, uh, quite high rates of osteoarthritis, but very rarely told. So you don't need to push it. If you're hyperflexible like us, then you just stay within range.

Yeah, absolutely. All right, so let's, so let's talk a little bit about kind of what did you do to prepare for your hip surgeries, your hip replacements, and what did you learn from those experiences? So if somebody's walking into this like me, what would you say? I did this, don't do that, do this.

Oh yes, I think I have a whole pod— series of podcast episodes on it because I had two. So I, I did the first surgery and then I did the second, like what did I learn from the first and I did the second one. And then I also have a PDF of the Wolverine Protocol, which was put together for me the perioperative surgery. That means the time before and during and after the surgery is— there are things need to do. And that was put together by all the amazing guests that we have on, on my podcast, who you have on your podcast too. You— I tapped into those resources. Is it okay? I said, I'm doing this, so how do I prepare? So that's where I got this protocol from. And, and there, there are many things to do. We won't get into all of them, but maybe some of the bigger levers. And one of them is no matter what kind of surgery you get, build muscle. Keep that muscle tone strong because you're gonna need that for recovery. And I know it's hard if you have hip or knee or some kind of a joint pain where you're limited. It's okay. If you can't move your legs, you can move your arms. And if you, you should be doing your physiotherapy anyways. As dorky as it looked, as you and I were just doing a teeny tiny leg lift, that's all you could do. You do it. And, and what, uh, I learned is that I— when I was first told, probably almost 2 years before my surgery, I was told no impact exercises, no strength training, lifting heavy, because all of this would put pressure on the joint. And so that's what I did. And I started crying going, I'm gonna lose all this muscle that I built, I worked so hard to build up. And through the protocols that I got, I not only did not lose muscle, but I actually gained 1.6 of my muscle mass before going into that surgery. So don't fret. The worst thing you can do is stop moving. Motion is lotion. Joints need fluid. And so I think that's like one of the biggest levers. And I know it's painful, but you can find other ways to work around this. Why you work with a professional, hopefully, who can get you to the point where you can— don't stop, because— and go right up into the surgery doing the exercise you need. And then, and post-surgery, you're going to have to do those as well. And that's why many hospitals and doctors, they want you to move the soon after your surgery, you got to get the blood flow, you got to get a circulation, you got to tame this inflammation. And then the more— the, the better you do your exercises, whatever it is that they want you to do, even if it's a teeny tiny toe curl, like, you do it because that will get you stronger. And so that's, that's number one. I think that's one of the biggest levers. But the second one I would say is get the protein in because you need to feed those muscles. Like, they can't grow if you don't feed them. So, and especially if you're going into a surgery you're going to need more protein than the average person because you're, you're just cutting through tissue and muscle and need to repair that. And, and it can't repair— it'll be hard, much harder to repair without giving it those building blocks. So I would say up your protein. And I know it's so hard to get protein as it is normal, but that's where we can use things like essential amino acids or a protein powder just to fill in those gaps until you can you know, you're more recovered. Okay, so that's two of the big, big levers in terms of preparation, because we're talking about the preparation, but after as well, you're going to need those, those proteins. Um, the, the other thing I would say is try to, as hard as it is to, try to focus on sleep and stress management, because when you sleep, that's also when you repair. So, so before, and I, it you gotta find ways in terms of taming that inflammation if you are in a lot of pain. And it's not just about taking a bunch of painkillers 'cause that's gonna ruin your gut. So you find other things that can help, and it may be just curcumin, it may be some red light therapy, some people like acupuncture. I've tried hundreds of them like you, and there's some that been more successful for me and some that completely failed, but they work for somebody else. So, so I wouldn't want to poo-poo this and say on a scale of 1 to 10, you know, it works like a 2. No, because it may work for a 10 for you. It just did it for me, and there it's worth giving it a shot. So prioritizing your sleep, and it means manage that pain so that you can sleep, but also don't push it by scrolling all night and, and getting fewer hours. You need that deep sleep for repair and recovery, and that's It's hard both on both ends. You know, right now you're in pain or it's hard to sleep or it's, you gotta sleep on a side, it's frustrating, do your best. But post-surgery, your doctor's gonna give you a lot of medication. And that was the time where I said, I don't care, give it to me. I need to sleep, no questions asked. Like, I don't wanna take drugs and like anti-inflammatory, I'm not proud. I don't need to wear a badge and say I didn't take any painkillers, no. Now is the time for me to take painkillers, whatever that meant, because I just wanted to sleep and repair and rejuvenate. So that was another thing to try your best that you can and take that time off. I took off, I'd stopped working completely for 2 weeks. It was a full 2, like nobody bothered me, no meetings, no nothing. And after 2 weeks, I was fine. Now everybody has different timelines for the surgery. Maybe some people just need a few days, some people need more than 2 weeks, but try to like block off your calendar, don't do anything, say yes, allow people to serve you and cater to you, enjoy that time. And I almost now look back on that time with a lot of nostalgia, even though it was like a painful period, I felt special. My kids were catering on me, they were cooking for me, they made me a little coffee or they made me, they were washing my feet.

And the struggle is real, right?

The struggle is real.

Getting clean is going to be a struggle, right? Yeah, when you move on.

Exactly. Oh, one thing I want to mention that are really important, I think it's a great— I don't know if you have these, but when I talked about building muscle and it's a struggle and do your best with your physio, one thing that I did that really saved me was the blood flow restriction bands, or some people call it, um, um, Oh, forgot, there's other words, blood flow modification and all that. So these are bands that you put on your arms or your legs and they inflate with air and you, there's some that have a cyclical mode or whatever, just they partially cut off the blood flow and it's modifying the blood flow. It's not like you're, you know, you're completely cutting this off. It's slightly modifying this. And when that happens and you release the bands, there's burst of growth hormone that happens, your own endogenous growth hormone, which is fabulous. And this is something that— there are two camps that you'll see if you YouTube this. You'll see two types of people using this. It'll be like the gym bros who want to lift a little bit of weight, or they're stuck in COVID, or they want to get their muscles there. And the rehab people— and the rehab people use this because you're getting a surgery. So post-surgery, they use these tools in order to not lose muscle, because when you go into surgery surgery, it's so common to lose muscle, but you don't have to, right? I've shown that you don't have to if you do these things, if you get them in place. So the— look up BFR or blood flow restriction. There's so many different brands out there. They all work. They've— I've used a ton of them. I've interviewed researchers on these things, people. It just— they all work. They all have their pros and cons in terms of a device, but you can use these at home. Before, they used to be only in the clinic. Now you can use these at home I was using them every day from the moment they told me you cannot do impact or strength. I put these on, I was walking around the house, I was on my computer during my little rehab session, and that's when I use them. And I use them post-surgery as well, not directly, and you don't put it right on my leg or your, you know, what if you have the, the cut there, but you have the other leg because it's a systemic, uh, thing that's happening. Get the benefits systemically. So I would highly recommend looking into that because it's such an easy win, and on top of all the other things that you're doing. But, but that's why physios use these, to not lose the muscle mass, and you can actually grow it if you, you know, obviously doing other things as well.

Yeah, one of the things that helped me, and it's not available to everybody, but I met Garrett, uh, who created the Nübi device. And, I don't know if you've ever heard of that. The NuBe device is a neurological device. And so, essentially, it looks like a very big TENS unit, right? But, that's not really what it is. And, he was doing his PhD research and what he recognized, what a lot of people go through once they have an injury is not that the muscle can't turn, that they can't do the activity anymore, it's that the brain, the vagus nerve, the nerves coming off of there is not allowing that movement to happen. Because the brain is doing protection, right? To just make it very easy to understand. You've moved this way before and hurt yourself, so I'm not going to move that way. And, I happened to meet him shortly after I think I did the final just bang on the labral tear. And, I was sitting next to him and I was pressing on my quad because it was hurting so bad for me to sit, but I was in this conference. And, I'm like, "I'm going to die. I'm going to die. I'm going to die. My quads." And, he's like, "What are you doing?" And, I was like, "I did something to my hip. My quad's torn." He's like, "Where do you live?" And, introduced me to somebody in Dallas that had it. So when I went in, because I was like, okay, I was traveling a lot at the time. So when I went in for PT, it's a PT device. They hook it up to the injured place, right? So the back of the hip, the leg, down the calf. And what it does is it sends the same brain signal that your brain would send to tell the nerves to tell the muscles to move. Right? Because that's part of the problem. If you've got an adjusted nervous system response, I had already been doing PT stuff. I've been through so much PT in my life. I was already trying to do the things that I knew how to do. But I can tell you, Zora, in a matter of 2 or 3 visits, I, like, my pain went down by half. My mobility went up by half. My ability to, like, maneuver— like, prior to that, I could— if I want to get on a bicycle, you'd have to turn me on my side, shove it under my legs, and then stand me back up. Because I was trying to figure out how I could get on my bike.

I'm like, once I'm on it, I think I'm okay, you know, because I'm stupid, right?

I know, I know. I've been there. I can't fly my leg over top of it, and I was able to do that. Now, whether I should be doing that, that's a whole nother question. But it was crazy how much of a difference that thing made. And so, once you figure out the wiring, so they figure out where it's misfiring compared to the other side or the other non-injured area, then you work under load. So, as you're doing your free squat or your balance board or other things, it's turned on and it's constantly talking to those muscles and the brain because it's attached back in the back, telling them, do this, do this. And it was like night and day. So, like, I did that moving into surgery. So I've actually— I do all the things that would normally cause pain, right? Adduction, abduction, you know, glute hamstring curls going into it to make sure that those muscles are turned on. And then afterwards, when I get cleared from home health, I'm going right back, you know, I'm gonna be like, turn that sucker on and let it know it needs to work.

That's amazing. So this is a— you go to a clinic for this and you just spend 30 minutes or something like that?

Yeah, yeah, it's like a normal PT visit. A lot of PTs— there's, I think, about 70 clinics across the U.S., and it's Nuebie, N-U-E-B-I-E, Nuebie device. Um, and, and I— it was just, to me, it was amazing because I was like, I've already done PT, I'm gonna do this. And one, he was like, please just go in there, and if it doesn't do it for you, let me know. And then I had met another gentleman who was a mountain biker, wrecked out, like literally went off a cliff, like laying on the ground. His Apple Watch called 911, right? He had to be careflighted out of the canyon. He had like 15 breaks, like some crazy stuff like that. And he was like, you know, 16 weeks later, I was fine. Because he— the first— because he— because he was using the Nübi device. He was like, you know, I had like 2 or 3 hooked up and I was doing— I was like, okay, Whatever that guy did, I want to do, right? You know, so there are tools too. Yeah.

I wonder if we have this in Europe because that could be a lifesaver. And, and, uh, I, I would have been very happy to have that. And on top of it, so you're, you're re— you're building muscle kind of internally and you are then getting less pain and then you're able to, to do that. Okay. That's really cool. For me, actually, what worked that didn't work for you was the PRP for Yeah, I've had maybe 3 rounds, maybe more or less, with my hips. And, and I, and I was good to go for another year and a half. And I was like, good, this is amazing. And so I, but I, when I started, so the, I think there's a lot of controversy that I think between 50 and 80% success rate or something. I don't know, it's, it's not, it doesn't work with everybody. And, and that was about the same feedback that I got because I would go recommend the same guy I went to. People were asking me who, and this was in Spain, and so I said, go see this guy. So they would go see, and it was, it was probably about somewhere between 50 and 60% had some benefits, and then the other no. And I felt bad because I was like, but that's, that's just sort of the game. That's why insurance doesn't pay for these things. But it did, it did save me. It did save me and give— it bought me, it bought me time. And I think that's what PRP can do. If it does work for you, it will buy It will buy time.

Sure. No, I agree. And I think, I think for sure, like, PPS and stem cell and, and PRP, those things can definitely help even on the recovery side, because that's what I'm looking at now. It's like, what things can I do to make that recovery rapid and, and most effective? You know, the other thing that I think people are very nervous about is having a foreign device in their body, right? Like, let me just clarify, I was raised Christian Scientist. I didn't even see a doctor until I was 18. So, the idea of, like, sticking new body parts in, I'm like, and I joke, and I'm like, man, make this thing bionic, dude.

Like, you know, well, I think that's, that's the mind shift. So, so I was avoiding the surgery, so I would look for anything that was bad about surgeries. You know, it's the, it's the, the, the bias. What is it, the negativity bias?

Or yeah, the healthy user bias, confirmation bias.

So I was looking for that. And then of course, when I'd interview somebody who says, oh, you shouldn't get implants, Dental implants, you shouldn't— like, anything metal inside you is really bad, and that's not great. And then when you think about the people who beep when they go through the airport security, I'm like, no way, that's not gonna be me. That's probably really bad for you. And then you have to accept that there are more benefits to risks to a surgery, and that's what I did. And when I accepted that, I was— the confirmation bias went completely the other way, and I found all the good stories about surgeries and the positive outcomes and I called myself bionic. I've said I've got new body parts and I'm just, the whole Jamie Sommers thing is in my head. Yeah. The bionic woman. And that helped. I think it really helps the mindset and you get much more positive about it. You're not resisting anymore. It's when you've accepted that this is it, then you can't wait for that surgery. You're like, when am I, book me in like tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah.

You know, I think it's, you know, I can, equate it to a lot of other women who may have— may be in this space, have been in this space. Back in the day, in my mid-30s or early 30s, nutrition, biochemistry, and I'm going to say it was a level of arrogance and naïveté on my part. I was like, "I'm so not going to need hormones because I'm going to like Ironman this with nutrition." That was my bias. I was like, "This is natural. I have all this stuff. This is natural. If I take really good care of myself, I'm not going to experience what these other women experience." until I get into it. And all of the toolkit that I have doesn't really work. And now, I'm kind of a crusader on the other side. I'm like, "Yes, you need all those nutritional things, but there's not a single supplement on the planet that will replace ovarian function." And I think the body parts and all those other things, like when we were cavemen all the way to the early 1800s, our lifespan only expanded by 5 years. Everything was organic, The waters were clean. You know what I mean? Like, our lifespan was somewhere between 20 and 35, and then by about 1800, we got to about 40. By 1900, we got to like 48, right? The reason why we've been able to make it to 90 and above is because of science, right?

Yeah, like, yeah, the natural thing is to die early. Like, that's, that's very natural. So then it's okay if you, you want to be natural, and but modern medicine, boy, I'm so glad it's there.

Yeah.

I have a new life. I think about the people. Another thing I said to myself when I decided to get the surgery, people, when I told people I'm going to get hip surgery, they would say, oh, I'm so sorry. And I said, no, I get to do surgery because I knew people who couldn't, who didn't, couldn't afford it or had to wait for 2 years on a waiting list. And they were in pain. And I said, I'm very privileged that I had private insurance, that I get to do this. So don't be sorry for me, be happy for me. And I'm going to have a new life. And the people who saw me before and after, and even though I'm very positive and do my best, they're like, wow, you— yeah, you're much better now. And it does, it does bring a new life. We get a second chance with these new body parts. And but you do— I still tell myself it's about a year and a year, year and a half, depending on what hip is. Is it's past the surgery and I still, before I go into a scan or see a doctor or do some kind of procedure, I say, excuse me, I have body parts, new replacements. Like, is that going to be a problem? And so, yeah, you have to get used to asking that question and usually it's not a problem, but I still say it just in case. But I do look at myself as being bionic. I think it It sounds so much cooler.

Yeah, yeah. I'm going to hear the little background dignity, you know? That's exactly how I'm perceiving it. Okay. Oh yeah. So okay. So if somebody were situated or they're maybe experiencing joint pain, hip pain, back pain, those kind of things— give us your top 3 'you need to go look further.' because this is a sign that maybe something's going on here, right? Because again, like we said, women get so accepting of— I just have joint pain, frozen shoulder, my hips hurt, my butt hurts, my knees hurt, my ankles.

Yeah, yeah, I know. I would say, first of all, don't accept that it's normal. It's— your body's just telling you something. Now, it doesn't say that you're gonna need a hip replacement. Maybe you need just to rest a little bit, and you had a little cut. I don't know, something. So you need to, I would say, dial into your body. Don't ignore the pain. Don't push it like I did, because I was, I was still in my 40s going, I can do anything. So let the body rest, let it recover. And, and, and you can try certain things like some of the things that we, we've talked about. And red light therapy is one of those things that helped me to get through this, this, um, some of the pain. So if you, if you If you just wait a little bit without panicking and it goes away, great. Now, if it lingers on and you keep trying things after things after thing and it's not being relieved, um, because it may be relieved and that's fine. If it's relieved, fabulous, get back to your life. You may even need— you may get to know your body and you see, oh, every time I do X, Y, or Z movement, okay, that's not so good for me. Like, maybe don't do those movements. There's so many other movements you can do. Let your body recover. I really think it's a signal to— that your body needs some help or rest, recovery. But if it— if it's prolonged and if it's causing— disrupting your life, that's when you need to go see somebody. And I would say prolonged— if it's more than 6 weeks, that's the kind of thing your body should be able to repair, unless it's again something very, very significant. But in general, I would say 6 weeks is a good time to the body heal, take a break. And if you've given it a really good go and wait 6 weeks, that's when I say go see the doctor. Now, if it's a joint, if it's like a frozen shoulder thing, if it's the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause, if you are in this menopausal phase and you can't move your shoulder more than a certain distance, then I would say, first of all, try some of the exercises at home because maybe it is just through some type of movements and exercise. And you can find these things on YouTube so easy, like how to tell if you have frozen shoulder, what exercises to do. And it's just, you know, mostly holding on to a door and stretching it out. And if that's not working, then I would go see, uh, I would see your menopause doctor. If your menopause doctor, hopefully your doctor who knows things about menopause, and then see if hormone therapy is something for you. Or if maybe you need to increase your hormone therapy. Maybe you're already on it. I was on it, and I was— I was on it, but baby dosages, because I didn't know very much about hormones when I first got started, and I didn't have the right doctors. And I always wonder, oh, could I have prolonged this later, delayed it, or avoided it if I just had robust hormone levels? And I didn't. So I would say definitely go check your hormones, make sure that you're in a good state, not like the minimal effective dosage. We need more in terms of joint pain, and everybody's different on that scale. So, so I think that's where we need to go with the low-hanging fruit before diving into the MRIs and the x-rays and the, you know, the, the surgeons and things like that. I think that's a good place to start because it very, very well may be the, um, musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause, just completely hormone related. And then if that doesn't work, and again, if you see, oh, I did have an injury, oh, it did, well then yeah, maybe it's not your hormones, but, but you should still optimize your hormones and make sure you get enough of that estrogen because estrogen is, is very hydrated. It's very hydrating. So you can— it helps with those joints and the fluid within the joints. So you want to make sure you're optimized, your hormones are optimized anyways, because if you have to go down surgery or you have to go down some other route or some kind of a therapy, just having optimized hormones will help a lot. And you want to be in a good space for that. So yeah, I think that's kind of when the— it's a good question. When do I go? And I think also one thing is I've trained my AI, I've got several AI agents to know me really well. And I kind of consult that and say, what would you say? Not that I would take their advice all the time. I'm health literate. 'Cause if you are health literate, you probably are 'cause you're listening to this podcast. But those people who aren't, it's very kind of could be a dangerous place. You're smart enough to know what, what, where to go, what direction to go to. So I do, I do like to, to get the opinion and say, what would you say based on my DNA, based on my blood work, based on me as a human being and the history that you know of me? Should I go see a doctor? Right. That's another tool you can try to use and it's to your advantage. So but don't always, you know, just to run through. Those are some of the things, you know. I did—

I would agree with all of those, you know.

Yeah, I passed the test.

Yay!

I am—

that I think about too is, you know, like the musculoskeletal syndrome of menopause. Yes, we can have like a single frozen shoulder, but often it kind of shows up bilaterally too. Your thumbs hurt, your wrists hurt. When you have one specific joint that's screaming, burning, dull, you know, aching, sharp pain, that's a good sign of injury or pain, right? That's, that's very specific. The other thing that I think gets overlooked too is pelvic floor issues that, you know, because all of your hip structure and spinal cord and all the nerves coming out of the lower back are all subject to what's going on in the pelvic floor and the muscles coming off the lower back. And I think a lot of women overlook other discomforts they may have because of pelvic floor issues. You know, because that's overlooked in women's health and the changes that happen to women in perimenopause and menopause to the pelvic floor. And, we don't realize it's also destabilizing those joints, right? And, I think that's an area where I would love to see more research because a lot of times you don't feel the pain until it has kind of done a lot of— like in my case, all of a sudden, I had massive pelvic floor pain and I was like, "What is that?" I had no idea. And so, I think I think it's recognizing that there could be other anatomical and structural things going on from childbirth or whatever that may subject you to more risk here. You know, diastasis abdominal muscles.

I just don't want people to live with chronic pain. Yeah, because your brain takes a big hit with that and your nervous system as well. So even though you're chill on the outside, which I was very much, every step you take or every move you make your nervous system braces itself for that movement, and that is no good. And that's just accelerated aging we don't need. So don't accept chronic pain as, oh, I'm just aging. Fix it. I don't care how you fix it, but don't live with chronic pain. It's, it's really, really important because it does a lot more damage than you think.

Yeah, that's where my naivete really played in. I was like, this is what you did to yourself, you can just muscle through it. Because most women have really high thresholds for pain, you know. Even talking to my doctors, they were like, who's managing your pain? Who's your pain doc? And I'm like, uh, no. I just was like, no. And they're like, what do you mean no?

Does that exist?

I was like, I don't have a pain doc. They're like, how? What? I go, no, I was like, doing narcos every day? Like, I don't— you know what I mean? So I think there's— yeah, I would agree with you on that one too. It's like, don't, don't—

can I— I want to back up two things if you— if we have time. So I was talking about the perioperative things that we need to do, and I didn't talk about nutrition. And, and that is a big piece. I talked about the protein, but when we're talking about inflammation, we want an anti-inflammatory diet. Okay, so do what you can before and after in terms of getting those vegetables and the fruit and those colorful foods in your life. Those are anti-inflammatory. And I, I, and, and in post, post-surgery, very often you're like, I don't feel like eating, I'm just gonna have a piece of toast and cheese. No, this is the time you need to repair. Now, if you don't feel like eating, I get it. And maybe you're one who wants to listen to your body, that's fine. Take your essential amino acids or drink something that has some nutrients in there. But, but it is really important to, to lower that inflammation. I mean, at the beginning it's great, we need some inflammation to try to hit, knock the repairer. But when you get major surgery, soon you'll want to get that down. And I have— so the nutrition piece, like, you, you speak so well to that. But I do have, if you want to hear some of the advanced biohacks packs that was given to me by the Advanced Biohackers. Yeah, and they try this. I didn't try everything because I couldn't get a hold of it, but, um, you know, if you want to look into this, obviously talk to your doctor and, and get some guidance on it. But, um, there was— there is a whole list of supplements that I won't go into, but, um, you can talk about the anti-inflammatory stuff. But I, I want to go into some of the advanced things. One is Methylene Blue, and that was— that's something that it's not too difficult to get. But again, you need to talk to a doctor about what's your dosage, how much do you take, what's, what's going to be effective. And so that was it. And how long do you— you don't take these things forever. These are sort of therapeutic dosages. And that's that blue. You see people with their blue tongue and all that. And it's an anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, antibacterial. I was like, oh, this is going to be good. So if I'm going to be in the hospital for a few days, which that was my case, I was like, I want to cover my bases. So, so that was one. The other one is called Nandrolone Decant. Have you heard of this?

Yeah, I haven't. Is that similar to just Nandrolone or—

It's a, it's a steroid. And, and I was like, oh, I don't want steroids, but I didn't get a hold of it, but I probably would have done it. And it's— you need obviously a doctor to prescribe this for you and monitor you. But it's, it's to help with the tissue repair because everything I'm doing right now is just got to be repairing the tissue. And so they say it's anabolic hormone that, say, bodybuilders would use, but you're supposed to use them in a very small dosage and for a certain period of time. And so again, I— that's something to look into. The other thing was BPC-157. These are peptides and thymosin beta-4, or TB-500 is what they call them sometimes. But again, like now everyone's talking about peptides and you can edit this part out if you think that you're going to get like knocked off, but mine was prescribed by a doctor. I wasn't buying this stuff online. I needed— again, you need to figure out what your dosage was. And it was interesting because I did with the first surgery, I had BPC-157 only, and with the second one I added on the TB-500 and I, I saw that my recovery was faster with the second one. So I believe— and again, I was only doing this for a short period of time because I hate injecting myself because I had to inject because peptides, there's nasals and sprays and injectables and supplements. And like, there's all this kind of stuff when you talk about the word peptide. And I was begging my doctor, can I just take a supplement? She was like, nope, you got to bring out the big guns for this one. So yeah, so they are— when you're getting major surgery, you may need that, but it's something to look into and obviously talk to your doctor. And the last thing that was cerebrolysin. Do you know what this is?

No, I'm not familiar with that.

It's, it's an IV drip. I couldn't find it, but it's for the brain, right? Cerebral lysine. And it's a neuropeptide and it helps with, with the nerves, the healing of the nerves. It reduces the inflammation. And because when you've had a bunch of medications and painkillers and all these things with your— it's also the anesthesia— your brain takes a hit. And, and in part of the game of surgery and anesthesia is to not forget. I mean, not, not remember some of the shit that happens to you. I have a whole story because I woke up in the middle of my surgery going, what's going on? And, uh, and it's a whole other story. But, but yeah, but then, you know, my— the next day I was like, is that a dream? Was that not— no, that was the drugs. And that's why you need cerebral lysine to like clear this stuff out.

Yeah.

And, and so this is actually— we don't— yeah. So it's to save the brain and help, help with that. So it's again, something to look at. I couldn't get a hold of it. Probably would have done it if I could. And there was— oh, there was something else. Oh, you're going to love this one. So post-surgery, I was also told to use GHK-Cu copper peptide as a serum, a topical for my scars.

And I know that for scars. Yes.

Yeah. So when she told me this, I was like, okay, I couldn't find a place to get it that I wanted the right— I wanted medical grade and all that, and I couldn't get anything. So with the first surgery, I had none. By the time I had the second surgery, I got a hold of, of a proper medical grade 3% GHKCU, and it finally arrived and I got it. And I said, look, I'm going to do it on one hip. Let the other one go because it was 12 weeks had passed. So I'm going to do 12 weeks with the other hip with the GHK-CU. And you could see the difference is really clear. I had before and after photos. I was like, oh my gosh, there is a difference.

Smoother.

It's, it's less rigid. The color is, is, is lighter, at least more like my skin. And it works. I was fascinated. And so even now, so then I started using them both. I'm like, okay, let's It's been both. And still today, you can see, it's a year, year and a half later, there's a difference. You can see. It's not huge, but you can still see, like, I should have, I mean, I should have, I wanted to do the experiment. I didn't think it would be that powerful, but it is really, it really, really works. But you gotta get one that's more than just the 0.5 or 1%. You get the big, invest in the big, the good stuff, because it does work. Yeah.

Yeah. I think all of those are solid recommendations. You know, TB500, BPC-157, we've got, we've got mostly animals, but we, we do have some human trials and they've been around for a while, but they're ideal for recovery. I would agree. And then the other ones that you gave me, I, I hadn't heard of all those. Nandrolone I had heard of, you know, um, using it in that way kind of, but that's, that's something to think about as well. Yeah.

Yeah. Now these are just a little advanced hacks, but I think they do. It's, it's the icing on the cake. Now, everything I said before, foundational. Yeah. This is the icing on the cake. And if you can afford it and if you got a good doctor and you got, it's worth exploring. Uh, super, it's kind of the supercharging, supercharging your recovery. That's what it is. Yeah.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, Zohra, it has been so fun talking to you and I hope, you know, everybody that's been listening has a, a little better understanding of osteoarthritis and hip injuries and And if you're like us and maybe staring at hip replacement, maybe you're a little less worried or scared about getting it done because it's bionic. You know, now tell my listeners how they can find you, where you're at.

Oh, you can find me at hackmyage.com. Or if you can't remember anything, Zora the Explorer instead of Dora the Explorer, you'll find me. Just Google that. That's my other name. And hackmyage.com has everything. I'm on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn. YouTube, everywhere. So, just reach out to me if you have questions. If you want that Wolverine Protocol, it's an easy-to-read PDF. I've also got the whole episode if you want to, like, understand what this actually means. But, it is something that could be a game changer for any kind of surgery.

Yeah, absolutely. Zora, thank you so much. Thank you.

Oh, thanks for having me. And, good luck. I'm so happy for you. Thank you.

Thank you. And, thank you everybody for listening to Menopause Mastery. If you happen to be watching this on YouTube, don't forget to leave a comment and subscribe. And if you're listening to this on your favorite podcast platform, don't forget to give us a 5-star review. And I'll be back with you next week.