#27 Solving the Menstrual Cycle Information Deficit with Nicole Jardim

The information provided in this podcast is educational and not intended to diagnose or treat medical conditions. Dr. Donnie Wilson struggled for decades to solve her numerous health issues and heal her body. But with focused determination, she healed herself, and in doing so, she discovered the Dr. Donnie stress recovery Protocol. On this show, you're going to hear from doctors, nutritionists, and Experts along with Dr. Donnie, who will give practical advice and wisdom to help heal your body. This is how humans heal.

I'm very excited to introduce you to Nicole Jardim today. She wrote the book called Fix youx Period. And I'm very excited to have her come today and talk with us about women's menstrual cycles because this is such an important topic that we don't always get to talk about, and it's just amazing to be able to get to talk about it with you, Nicole. So thank you so much for joining us and sharing your insights. Nicole is a health coach, but start off by telling us more about that. What drew you to being a health coach and to focusing on helping women with their menstrual cycle?

Well, thank you so much for having me. I am so grateful to be on your podcast, and I really feel like this information.

Should be given to every single person who has a menstrual cycle. I mean, really. And actually, everyone, really everyone needs to know this because we are walking around with a major menstrual cycle information deficit as far as I'm concerned, and it causes massive lifelong problems for us. It really is a major issue. And for me, I was one of those people who had no idea about her menstrual cycle. I didn't know what was going on with my body at all. And my mom had had terrible periods like I did, and so she just made the assumption that this was normal. She'd never been educated on it. Right. I know. So it was one of those situations where for years, I had tremendously heavy periods. You know, the kind that you're putting a towel down on your bed as a teenager and at your friend's house when you go to spend the night, mortifying. And, you know, you're terrified of going to school because you think you're gonna leak through your clothes, because that's also something that really warrants leaving the planet. I mean, it's just like, how do you ever survive that? So you're right.

When you think about it, you're like, here we are supposed to get used to this. Like, this is supposed to be normal. But, you know, I know a lot of women who struggle like, with those things you're describing, and they don't know who to talk to about it or is it normal or what to do. And also, a lot of times if, when you go to the gynecologist, they're going to end up recommending a birth control pill. That's right. Like if you're having heavy bleeding or cramping or PMS and you go to the gynecologist, their main tool, their main option is a birth control pill, where, of course, it's taking over for your ovaries with these synthetic hormones. But at the same time, you know, I think a lot of women are asking themselves, is this Is a birth control pill really the only option? Is there a way that I can manage and master my hormones so that it doesn't have to be right? It can. Is that what you hear, too? Just feel like they just don't have any options. And it just either you have these terrible symptoms or you're on a birth control pill. Right.

It seems like it's no in between.

Yeah.

No in between at all. That's been my biggest beef with conventional medicine, is that women are, first of all, we're not educated, so we have no idea what the heck is going on under the hood. And then secondly, we go to the doctor and we're offered this, and we're offered it quite aggressively in many cases. And so what are you going to do if you don't really know the answers to what's going on with your body? You're going to shrink back and you're likely going to accept their solution because you're going to this doctor or whoever you're seeing, and they're supposed to be the experts on how bodies work. So it makes sense that this is what we end up doing. And that's exactly what happened to me. I also had really painful periods as well, and it was miserable. And so this went on for so many years. And then finally, at 19, my mom said, okay, let's go to the gynecologist. Let's see what they have to say. Okay, fine, Mom. So that's what I did. And I immediately was prescribed the pill, and that's what I took. And I was thrilled because I felt like this was going to give me my life back. I had other friends who'd been on the pill for a while, and, you know, I was finally part of the cool girl group who were on the pill. This was, you know, was a sign of being very cool to be taking this birth control pill. And so that's what I did for five years. And I went from the poster child for period problems to being the poster child for pill related problems. And yeah, I could not catch a break at all. It was miserable. And I heard this, some iteration of this story from women over the last decade of doing this work. I mean, from thousands and thousands of them, as I'm sure you have too. And it's so unfortunate. We have to find a middle ground. And it just can't be that you're on the pill for every single female related problem or you just have to suffer through it. And I get completely why teenagers and women in their 20s and then women in their 40s just go on the pill because it seems like the period panacea, so to speak. And that's what ends up happening for so many of us when there are so many other solutions.

Oh my gosh. And so did you then go on a path to discover this yourself and how to solve it yourself? Tell us a little bit more about your journey.

Oh, it's been such a journey. I wish I had known then what I know now, but I suppose we all say that. So, yes, it was five years on the pill and it was great. Don't get me wrong. Suddenly I had lighter periods. It came every single month, 28 days, as we know. And I had pain anymore, so I felt like I had my life back. My moods were stable, everything was great. And then fast forward a year or two and I started to get these chronic yeast infections and then it turned into urinary tract infections. And then my hair started falling out. And then I had melasma all over my face. And I remember a doctor telling me, this is so weird. Only women who are pregnant usually get this. I'm like, oh, great. Okay, awesome. And, you know, this just went on and on. Every couple of months there would be something new. Then it was joint pain and then severe gut health issues. I saw so many doctors, nobody really had any solutions. And as a result, I just gave up. And I thought, okay, well, what else do I do? And a friend of mine luckily suggested I see her acupuncturist. And he was the first person in many years to say to me that this was probably linked to the pill. And I 100% did not believe this man. I was like, no, no way. And here we are. And eventually he convinced me. I came off the pill. I did acupuncture once a week. I changed my diet. I mean, these were. I was in college. I mean, I had no idea what I. This was Just based on what he was telling me and kind of things that I was learning from other people. I would end up going to these talks. Like, one of them was David Wolfe. Many, many years ago, he was speaking in Orlando, where I was going to school, and I thought, okay, let me just go check him out. And it just all started to come together. So it was major trial and error over a decade.

Wow. Wow. And how is. How are you? What are you. How are you now? What do you experience now? Like, what was the transformation for you?

It was so huge. It was, you know, one of the biggest moments for me, I think, was I was working in film production at the time. That was what I studied in school. And I ended up being on a big commercial with, you know, a big celebrity, and it was a huge commercial. And I was terrified to do it because I was getting my period, and I just didn't know what was gonna happen. And so this was after months, you know. Right. The unpredictability of trying to plan your life around your period. So fun. And so I remember, you know, this was months of academ and just working on my health. And I remember getting it, and things were so much better. I mean, it was manageable. Who knew you could have a period that was manageable? And I did, and it didn't completely disrupt the whole, you know, my work on the production. So I realized then that that was a major turning point. And as I, you know, and over the years, I continued to work in film production, which was so hard on my personal life, on my taking care of myself, getting to doctor's appointments, things like that. And I, you know, things started to start. You know, they started to basically go backwards, which really sucked. And I realized then that I had to get out of that career because it was literally ruining my life and my health, which took years. And that was, again, the catalyst for moving into health coaching. And so that's how I got into health coaching. And then I did a women's health coach certification and lots more training on hormones and things of that nature. Here I am. Yeah, it's been a long journey. It's almost 20 years now.

It's amazing when you look back and you're reminding me, because way back when, I had some of those same issues as well. I had a lot of mostly painful menstrual cramps.

Which I know a lot of women experience that, where you just in pain, and you're either going towards some sort of pain medication to temporarily get you out of pain, but it's that Same anticipation each month of here comes. You know, I know I'm going to be in pain. And how am I going to get through these days of my life every month, you know, in the same experience.

And I was on birth control pills too, for a while and ended up realizing they were causing, similar to your story, a lot of side effects. Now I know I have an MTHFR gene mutation, actually two of them. You do?

Yes.

More about MTHFR today, too. Then they didn't test for that. They didn't have any idea. They just. I would get these giant bruises and they're like, luckily this is when I was in college, same kind of time, age time. And luckily the doctor said to me, you know what? I think you should probably stop that birth control pill since you're getting these huge bruises for no reason. And of course, the bruising went away and I had to then come back to figuring out these painful menstrual cramps. And in naturopathic medical school. I love that you mentioned acupuncture, because that was a lifesaver for me as well. Would like, be in the acupuncture clinic, the student acupuncture clinic, when I was a naturopathic student. And I would head up to the acupuncture clinic like every week, all the time. I'd be like, please. My cat here, by the way, is trying to join us.

That's who you. The whiskers. You see.

Oh, my goodness. He's like, I'm a cat.

Like, I'm an animal smotherer. So, like, he's so cute to me right now. Love that he's just all up in your business.

Is it time for my snuggles? Anyway, so.

Anyway, so I have that experience as well, and acupuncture was a lifesaver. The other thing that happened for me was that a lot of the naturopathic things that I tried, which were supposed to help.

Some of the things like taking B vitamins and some of the liver supportive herbs actually made me feel worse. And so I was. I don't know if you had that experience or sometimes people who can relate, like sometimes even the natural therapies can make you feel worse if it's not the right fit or the right timing. And so I kind of had to, like, get through that and get to a point where I had to figure out for myself what was it for my body. I can't. I couldn't just jump into kind of that. The classics. And I think this is one of the things I love about Your book is. You really highlight that we're individuals and there's not just one perfect vitamin or even not one perfect diet for everyone with menstrual symptoms. Tell us a little bit more about how you discovered that. Like, what is your. How do you relate to that? You know, women as individuals when it comes to these symptoms?

Yes. Oh, I hear you so much on this, on feeling the frustration of trying the things that everyone says are tried and true, and then you having the weird response. I always felt like I was the weirdo, too, who just didn't have the same responses as everyone else. And that was really what led me down this path to really understand that we are so unique and that, yes, bodies are all generally the same. I mean, we all do a lot of the same things, but then there are underlying genetics or genetic mutations or just like genetic SNPs generally that will cause us to respond differently. And also, too, when we think about current life circumstances, past life circumstances, childhood trauma, you know, my dad died when I was 11 in a plane accident. And that complete. Yeah, I mean, that completely changed the trajectory of my life and certainly got me into the work that I'm doing, because I don't know that I would have had all of the problems in my teenage years that I did end up having because of the experience of that. And so I think that we have to take into account all of these aspects of someone's life and their health when determining how to help them, as you well know. And the menstrual cycle is so amazing in that it looks a little bit different for everyone. Generally, there are some guidelines in terms of what's normal and what's not. But someone will say to me something like, well, I have super heavy periods. What does this mean? I'm like, well, is your liver working properly? Are you detoxing? Estrogen, effectively. Gut messed up. Is there something going on where estrogen is being reconverted into active forms of estrogen and then going through your gut lining and going back into your bloodstream? Are you exposed to xenoestrogens? Are there genetic issues with your body's ability to detox? There's so many aspects to this. And then it's crazy because that same person would go to a doctor and they'll just be put on the pill for their heavy periods. Meanwhile, they're not even tested to see if they have a clotting disorder, which they might have. And their risk of dying from being on the pill is significantly heightened. So there's, you know, we gotta Dig, as you know. And that's not what's happening. That's what I want all women to do.

It's a really good way of saying that there's. It can. One symptom, like just heavy bleeding or just having menstrual cramps, could have many different possible causes. And any one person, it might be even multiple of those causes. And so our role with women becomes this process of.

Understanding all those possibilities and starting to dig and look at the symptoms and help women understand their bodies more. And I think that's another one thing that I really love about your book is I always believe that the more people understand their own bodies, the better they can then figure it out, because then you can kind of intuitively connect and go and look for patterns, but you kind of know what patterns you're looking for. And this book really teaches people. Here's the patterns you can kind of anticipate as a human. Right. Like as a human woman. Here's the patterns that we can anticipate, and here's the possible ways that those patterns get thrown off track. Now let's apply that to your body and go, where is it that your body's getting a little leaning a little more this direction or that direction? And how can we use things like diet and nutrients and herbs and lifestyle or acupuncture to help guide it closer to where it's going to create more of a hormonal balance? And as you're mentioning, not just like a lot of times people, I think, hear about estrogen and progesterone, these sort of women's hormones, but the understanding that it's about the balance of the estrogen and progesterone, but it's also about how well your body can detoxify the estrogen. Like, I think that's one of the things that, like you said, we don't learn in elementary school. We learn about estrogen and progesterone. We learn about that there's ovaries making estrogen and progesterone, but we don't learn that there's a detoxification of the estrogen. Let's talk about that a little bit more in terms of what happens there and where that gets jammed up.

Oh, I know, right? It's like a whole thing. It's so interesting you said that we learn about these things, and I feel like some of us do. I went to Catholic high school. I did not learn about this stuff at all. Yes, I didn't learn anything. And hence the reason I was completely clueless and you know, I would go to the doctor and make up a date for my last period. That's how clueless I was and how much I didn't think any of it mattered at all. And so if I can learn this stuff, anyone can learn this stuff. That's what I always say. Because it's complicated, right?

Like it's a mystery. Like they make it seem like almost like keeping women in the mystery or in the dark.

But it's your body and you need to know how it's working and what it needs, you know. So, yeah, just I love being able to like, you know, pull back that veil and be like, hey, let's talk about this thing that a lot of like in many generations women never talked about their period.

You know, like it's inherent shame, truly. And we have been. We've come to the point where we're definitely out ahead, where now menstruation has, is out and about and it's not going back into hiding. And we're talking about it. I actually just was doing an interview with an organization called Girl up and they have chapters all over the world and this particular one was in India. And just having that conversation with so many of these women and it's really there, which is so exciting. I feel like we still have a lot of work to do. But I agree it creates so much disempowerment and misunderstanding and many misconceptions just abound about female bodies. And I think that that keeps us, keeps us disempowered and also keeps us like we're second class citizens. Like we don't deserve to know this information and then we suffer for years on end because of it, which to me is completely unacceptable.

Yeah. I'm so glad and I'm so. And congratulations. I mean, and thank you for being part of just opening that conversation and helping women feel comfortable talking about it and asking questions. Because it is, I think through that observation and question asking that, you know, we can get closer to you understanding it. But yeah, I think just realizing that it isn't such a complicated mystery, like we actually, like, I don't know. I'll share with you one way that I explained the menstrual cycle. Just because I found over the years that it worked for my brain and sometimes helps for others too. And I'm curious about how you explain it, but. But one of the ways I think about it is that, which is pretty amazing that our body works in these two week patterns, right? Like we have the period, the date we always call day one as the first day of the period and about two weeks later is when ovulation happens. So it's on these two. And then two weeks after ovulation is the next period, which is what makes it 28 days. You know, it's like 14 days to the ovulation and another 14 days to the next period. And when you start to realize that, you realize that we realize the symmetry of it, which is really amazing and beautiful. And also the connection with nature, of course, because a lot of women can find that that pattern matches up with the moon cycle, which is, which is so awesome too, to start to. You can start to really see your, the part of nature in you and how your body is just doing what it's supposed to do. We just need to help it, you know, if it gets out of balance and the.

Anyway, so that, the other cool thing with the moon, by the way, with the ovulation, of course, is that when we're exposed to the full moon at night during ovulation, it actually helps ovulation because the light exposure at night decreases the melatonin. And so the ovaries then do a better job of ovulating, which is pretty cool.

Amazing. It's like, it's so awesome to talk about this stuff. I love it.

Yeah. And so you start to, even if you're not sleeping outside under the full moon, or even if your cycle is not currently lined up with the moon cycle, you could turn on a night light at that mid cycle time, day 14 to 16, to help promote an ovulation. And then once, once ovulation happens is when the progesterone happens, then the ovaries make this progesterone because estrogen's there the first two weeks and it's there the second two weeks. But the progesterone really only happens the last two weeks. And it's when you ovulate. Like to think about it's ovulation that makes the progesterone happen. And the key to progesterone is you want this progesterone to be. So this is the part where I, where I think about it like throwing a basketball through a hoop. Like if you throw the basketball and it goes up and it has a nice arch and it comes right down through the hoop. It's landing right at a 21, 28 day cycle, right? Just like with nice, nice arch and shoot right through the hoop. And your period happens at 28 days. But if that progesterone is a short throw, you know, if it's like it's not going to make the hoop. It's going to land, you know, 21 days. Probably you're going to get a period at 21 days or you're going to get, you know, some disruption in the timing of your cycle or the, the amount of bleeding that happens. But or else if the progesterone kind of overshoots, it can make for a long cycle. So thinking of it as like, you just want that progesterone to do a nice arch and hit and then when it drops is what gets the period to happen. And I think just understanding that sometimes can help women to go, oh, okay, that's what I'm feeling. No wonder I get, that's why we sometimes get those PMS symptoms. The 10 days or two weeks before the period is because that's when is this estrogen and progesterone in balance and is the progesterone doing its nice arch, you know, Anyway, so that's how I, that's how I explained it. But I'm curious how, tell us more how you think of that and what you find helps women to understand that PMS time and what's going on there.

Oh yeah, I really love that analogy. I think it's brilliant and it perfectly describes or at least creates a vision for what progesterone should look like on a chart. So I love that. And I think that when we're talking about.

What'S normal, what's not, I think that that is a big struggle for a lot of women because they feel like they have no idea. And so in terms of those parameters, I always, I talk about a 25 to 35 day window, but the research does show that a 29 day cycle is the norm. And of course the moon cycle is 29 and a half days, which is, is kind of cool. So there is that. I also have noticed though, a lot of women then start to freak out and try to be all perfect and they get, try to get in sync with the cycle, with the moon cycle. So I just, you know, I always want to say to women too, don't worry if you're not perfectly in alignment with the full moon and the new moon. It's no big deal. We're all connected to nature, part of the earth.

Right? Because I think that, you know, it's such a good way of bringing this concept of stress to it. Like, I don't know if you've noticed this, but definitely stress affects the ovary function and I even think the ovaries pick up on our thoughts like, so if you start stressing about, is my cycle lining up with the moon? It's enough to kind of mess with your ovaries, you know, so you kind of have to almost observe that some women are even more sensitive than others. But as you might find, as soon as you start to stress or be anxious about something, the ovaries respond and they kind of do a little shift in a different direction. And so they can, I think the ovaries can really teach us to relax and trust. Right. Because that's when they're most likely to kind of align and do their most optimal cycle, is when we're most relaxed.

Yes. Which seems to be a very difficult feat these days, doesn't it? I feel like modern women were just bombarded with an unfortunate, you know, it's an unbelievable amount of stress at this point and it's coming from every different angle. And it's just, to me, it's unprecedented. It's just not something that previous generations dealt with, at least in the West. I mean, there's many countries in the world where there's been unrest and things like that for generations. So it's one of those things where I've gotten that sense from everyone I've worked with that it's just coming from all these directions and it's very difficult to manage. And I had to change my career, I had to move. I did all of these things to get my cycle back on track. Because ultimately your menstrual cycle is a direct reflection of your overall health. And what we don't realize is that when cortisol is out of whack, when your brain and your HPA axis are not working properly and your digestion isn't working properly, or you're eating too many foods that are not agreeing with your metabolism and you're causing insulin imbalances and blood sugar problems, those two issues are so normalized in our society. Oh, you don't sleep, take a sleeping pill and you can't wake up, just drink some coffee or drink a gallon of coffee. And so we have all of these problems that go on for years, as you well know, and yet those are not addressed. And so of course there's a trickle down effect that is impacting your menstrual cycle and your sex hormones. And as a result, you start to see menstrual cycle related issues. But that's after, usually after years of, of things going wrong behind the scenes. And so that's really what I think we need to address. I mean, because ultimately, if you address what's going on in your life mentally and emotionally and then what's happening with your food and your digestion. So many of the period problems that we have go away. And so that's, you know, I talk about this as a hormonal hierarchy just to try and simplify this because I know, you know, this like women will come to me and they'll say I have like a plethora of problems. They'll talk about 20 different issues they've got going on and I'm like, well those are actually all connected upstream and if you work on the upstream issues first, then the downstream issues are going to resolve. But we're so busy treating symptoms and trying to work against a system that only treats symptoms that it's hard to sell that because we don't buy it, we don't believe it.

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And this is such an important point and I think, you know, sometimes the way I'll think about it is yes, there's things we can do that potentially could have like an immediate benefit directly on your menstrual symptoms or on your menstrual cycle. You know, let's say magnesium for example, we know is one of the best nutrients, right, for looking forward to hearing your thoughts on it. But magnesium comes to mind because it's like, like it's going to be muscle relaxing. So it could help with muscle cramp, their menstrual cramps and it also helps with estrogen detoxification. So it's like, and it, you know, most of us are depleted in magnesium. So yes, we could think about, let's use Magnesium to help with the current symptoms. But I absolutely agree with you. We have to be thinking about how is the stress in the world around you, or like you mentioned earlier, stress from earlier in your life affecting your hypothalamus and that hypothalamus. The hypothalamus in the brain communicates with the adrenals to make cortisol, but it also communicates with the ovaries. So if the, and we know when our, when our brain in our body's in stress mode, I call it stress mode, we're pumping out the cortisol. And really if cortisol is too high or too low. Right. So it should be higher in the morning and gradually down through the day. Which I love your diagrams by the way on this is they're so, they're, they're cute and yet they're scientific and perfect and understandable and just a way where you show how the brain is talking to the ovaries and the brain is talking to the adrenal glands. And if this cortisol is out of balance because of our stress exposure, it's gonna affect the ovaries. And I love your point too about blood sugar. That's just another, that's, that's insulin balance. And insulin is just another hormone made by the pancreas, but it's also affected by stress and it's affected by our diet. And when that insulin is affected, it also affects the ovaries. So it's not like these ovaries are this isolated thing.

Yeah.

Estrogen, progesterone are not these isolated hormones. It's all in a communication with the rest of our body. And if the rest of the body's out of balance is going to affect the ovaries. So it's like we have to take that big picture approach to get long term benefit. Otherwise you're just constantly, you know, taking the something to try to manage the symptoms, you know.

But it's like whack a mole, isn't it? Like putting out fires is basically what you're just doing. Yeah, yeah, totally. I completely agree with what you're saying. And I think that again, we're as practitioners who don't really subscribe to the just treating of the symptoms thing that happens. We are sort of working upstream a bit because we have been, you know, when you think about the birth control pill and why it's so popular still, you know, it came out in 1960 or came to market in 1960, that's a long time ago. And when you think about the fact that it's still so popular, it just. Because it feeds into the narrative that taking a pill is just so much easier, and that's what we've been sold for so long. And so it really does require a bit of a paradigm shift around how you're going to treat your body. And like you said, I loved you said that hormones, they're not separate entities. And your ovaries are not just living in isolation in your body. And I talk about that a lot, too, about this idea that everything is connected. Well, we know that, but a lot of people don't, because I feel like modern medicine has siloed different parts of our bodies. I mean, when I was having pill problems, I went to a GI doctor and I went to my gynecologist repeatedly, and I went to a dermatologist for my skin issues and the hair problems, and I could go on and on. I went to a rheumatologist because I had all this joint pain, and. And nobody was connecting the dots or having that conversation. And yet, when we know that everything is talking to each other, all of these endocrine glands are communicating with the release of hormones. And when women understand this, they're like, what? And their whole lives are changed. Like, the doors are blown open on their old belief systems, and they're much more inclined to make these changes because they will see changes. They'll see results almost immediately.

And I think it's a good point to think, because some women maybe been on a birth control pill and afraid to come off the pill, because it's like you're thinking, if I come off this pill, I'm going to end up right back in the migraines and the acne and the pms. And so, of course you're going to feel hesitant. But hopefully just even this conversation and your book will help them to realize, actually there's so many tools that you can start implementing even before you come off the pill. Right.

Let's talk about that more. Talk us through some of your kind of initial steps. You encourage people to start with.

Yeah, and, you know, it's a lot easier than I think we've been led to believe. So for me, my initial steps start with what's on your plate. And I know that's the same for you, too. But I agree that taking steps before coming off the pill will save you a whole lot of pain and hurt. As far as I'm concerned. It took me years after coming off the pill to figure things out. And I feel that what's on Your plate is so critical. I ask women in the first chapter, actually. Well, not the first. It's the first week of the protocol. But I'm talking to them about, how do you make your plate? What does that actually look like? Can you just move some things around so that the focus is not so much on the protein or the meat or whatever it is that you're eating there, but it's on the vegetables and on the leafy greens, and there are veggies that are supportive of how your liver works. And those are a lot of the micronutrients that you'll find in the leafy greens and green vegetables in general, like broccoli and asparagus and things like that. And so when we start to shift that focus, amazing things happen. I think the other thing is bringing it back to the stress and the mindfulness. It's how you're chewing your food. We don't chew our food. We're a whole culture of people who take five bites and then we swallow. And we know this.

We're, like, trying to get somewhere. We have a project or appointment or.

Right. Or we're working and eating.

Going all day without eating at all.

Yes, it's a huge problem. So that's the first thing, really, just paying attention to the food side of things. And I recognize, too, that this is done. This can be done incrementally. You don't have to suddenly change the entire way your plate is arranged. And, you know, suddenly you're eating this amount of fat and this amount of protein and this amount of carbohydrates in the form of the veggies. I think it's definitely a bit of a learned experience, depending on where you were at. And then chewing your food is huge because if you don't chew your food, your pancreas doesn't get the signals correctly. It totally messes your blood sugar up. Your digestive tract is not ready. That food is then not digested properly just from chewing. And then as a result, it puts a big burden on your whole GI tract. And so when you just. These are, like, quick wins that I think we all need, because, again, we're accustomed to needing that. That immediate satisfaction. So I start there, and then we talk about blood sugar and paying attention to how you feel after you eat. I mean, I basically, if I polled the women, like in my group program right now, for instance, I'd say 90% of them have never paid attention to how they feel after they eat. And it's amazing because most of them feel tired or they're hungry within an hour or two, starving, reaching for chocolate or caffeine or just craving sugar after they eat, or they want to take a nap. And they've just. We've been perpetually in the belief that this is normal. And yet when you're actually paying attention to blood sugar, as you know, this is something that is going to mean that you're not hungry for three or four hours, even longer after you eat. You have energy, you actually can get things done. Cognitive function is actually working. And so this is stuff that is so foreign to a lot of us because, again, we've been told that if you're hungry, just keep eating or you should starve yourself, because that's what I was told in the 90s. And, you know, so there's a lot of. I mean, there are a lot of things that we can do. We just have never, ever been told that. All the nuances of just like the basics, like food and blood sugar and chewing your food.

Yeah, I think that's amazing. And I love that you have a very gentle, compassionate approach. Because. Because I believe that, too, that I think a lot of this also starts with just having compassion and understanding for ourselves. You know, accepting this is the body I'm in, and let me just be gentle with myself and not put high expectations. It's not like you have to do everything perfectly starting this minute. It's a matter of, like, let me learn little by little. Let me just try chewing my food a little bit more and notice how I feel. And it's amazing what a difference can make just from those little incremental steps of awareness and acceptance of our bodies. That's awesome. I'm glad to hear about your. Tell us more about your program that people can do.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, I mean, it's pretty much laid out in the book, but I also do it live and in person with people as well. And like I said before, I just wanted to give everyone the foundation because. Because we tend to go from step one to step five without really the foundational approach. And that, I think is really problematic because, of course, we can take magnesium and we can take zinc, and we can take all of these supplements, and they definitely help. There's no doubt about that. But when we're not addressing the foundation, that I think is where we really run into problems. And then we're spending thousands of dollars on testing, and we still haven't addressed the most basic part of our health. And that is, like, we were just talking about the nutrition side of things. What nutrients Are you lacking in and how do you get more of those? And then how you're eating that food? And then of course, the second part of it for me is blood sugar. To actually testing your blood sugar, how are you responding to a meal or a certain food and really getting that under control. Because, you know, this, like, this is a critical component of our health and the fact that our whole world is basically in state of chronic.

Unwellness, I suppose you could say, because of blood sugar problems, and we are not doing anything about it. It's an epidemic. And so that to me is huge.

You use the same term I noticed as me, which is the blood sugar roller coaster. So much of us are like, this is how I learned from myself too. When I was a student in nutrition before I went to naturopathic school, we had to do glucose testing on ourselves as a nutrition student. And it was such an eye opener for me. So I love that you do that with the people in your course because it's one of the only ways where we can actually get an immediate, you know, like, if I eat this food, what happens with my blood sugar? And if I'm. Sometimes it's foods that, you know, you would think are healthy. You know, like you could be having fruit and vegetables and your blood sugar might be like going way up and then dropping way down that roller coaster ride. And you're like, what's going on? And you might be even, you know, going to practitioners and getting diagnosed with anxiety or bipolar or you know, like, or, you know, lot of different diagnoses, but they're not really going to tell you, hey, you know what, what if we just help you to eat in a way that keeps your blood sugar put you more like on the kiddie roller coaster, right?

Yes.

Instead of like the loop roller coaster of blood sugar, how can we do like, you know, just that's, you know, a little bit of blood sugar rise and then your insulin gets it back down again. And the other thing I love that you're addressing when you addressing blood sugar right away is because that means it's likely going to also help a lot of women with pcos. So not just PMS and the heavy bleeding and cramping we've been talking about, but PCOS comes a lot back to these same things and endometriosis. So there's a lot of other menstrual related issues that like you're saying, comes back to just how we're eating, what we're eating, but how we're eating in terms of what's on the plate and how frequently and how it affects our blood sugar.

So it's amazing. Like, I love that. I agree completely. We have no idea the connection between insulin and our ovaries and the fact that, you know, there's so much going on there. There's such a big conversation where your ovaries are so significantly influenced that it can cause anovulatory cycles. You're basically, your ovaries might produce more testosterone instead of the estrogen that they need to make, and this disrupts the entire feedback loop. And we don't even get that. And then we have irregular periods, and we don't know why. And then, of course, we're put on the pill for it. And that's just never addressed over sometimes over decades. And so that's. I think one of the biggest problems is that the insulin connection to how our ovaries function and the hormones that are made versus what would happen if our blood sugar was stable. And that, to me, is like, it's the crux of it. And then, you know, from there, I walk everyone through what's going on with your gut health, because, again, another seriously overlooked part of hormone healing, as, you.

Know, people think, oh, my gut can't have anything to do with my menstrual cycle, you know, because it doesn't seem like it. You know, it seems like there are two different areas. No judgment there. It's just not in our way. But it's huge. And the research is showing this. It's so amazing, isn't it? Like, the research. I love looking at the research on the gut bacteria related to, say, PCOS or even fertility, too. You know, you start to go, wow, these gut bacteria have something to do with my menstrual cycle. Oh, my gosh. I got to figure out my digestion to figure out my menstrual cycle. It's pretty, pretty amazing.

I cannot agree with you more. I was fascinated, doing the whole gut health protocol in the book and just doing this research, because, like you said, the gut bacteria is a major problem. I mean, like, when you think about the fact that there are histamine issues and that plays a role in several period problems like endometriosis and heavy periods. And then I found this research through Dr. Grace Liu, actually, about progesterone and the fact that lipopolysaccharides, or LPS for short, are impacting or can impact the corpus luteum and actually cause lower progesterone production, I'm just like, there's the direct connection between the gut, between gut dysbiosis and how ovaries function and how they make progesterone. That to me is huge. And she sort of deduced from it that perhaps that's the reason why we have such an epidemic of low progesterone in our culture. And it's incredible. I mean, like, this is stuff that we just need to know so that we can then continue to make educated decisions about our bodies.

Well, and it kind of brings me back to just thinking, because some women might be thinking, well, you know, in terms of like birth control and kind of thinking, hey, well, I'm. Why not be on the pill? Or if I'm not on the pill, what am I going to do about birth control? Because, you know, it's, it's, you know what I mean? Like, I think that's where a lot of maybe this too, right? Or questions you hear. And I think one of the reasons for potentially not being on the pill is because of the risks that they often don't talk about. There are cancer risks associated with being on the pill long term that they don't always tell you about. Besides just the other symptoms, the side effects you might have from the pill. But there can also be these long term cancer risk effects of the pillow. I don't know if you have any more to add about that.

Yeah, I mean, I think that, gosh, when you think about the fact that you're turning off ovulation, which is a vital female body process, and you're just doing that for years on end, I mean, the research just like osteopenia and osteoporosis, for instance, I mean, the fact that there is definitely a heightened risk of that and women in their 20s are experiencing these conditions after being on the pill, long term, that is huge. I mean, this is your bones, people. And then of course, your cardiovascular health, your skin health, your hair, your fertility, I can't tell you. I now have had multiple women discover that they have premature ovarian failure or primary ovary insufficiency after coming off the pill because of course, it was masking problems that were going on under the surface for so long. And they come off, they're in their 20s and their FSH is at 100.

And they don't know whether they're going to be able to reverse that or not. In many cases it's irreversible. So these are, to me, I take this so seriously and it outrages me actually, because again, we are just not given the information that we need. And so of course, then there's the long term use and then cancer risks. But there's so many other things too. I mean there's like thyroid problems that can result from it, gut related issues, gynecological problems, the change in your vaginal microbiome for instance. I mean, you know, we could go on. I feel like it's just a bucket load of symptoms.

And I think it's important to mention though because sometimes that might, you know, some people are like wait a minute, why, why are we, you know, why work so hard on getting your menstrual cycle regular? And it's because we're trying to avoid those negatives associated with the pill. And also some, some of us who are really not shouldn't be taking a synthetic hormone. Like if you had like you mentioned having a blood clotting disorder or MTHFR gene mutation. Mthfr, for those of you who maybe haven't heard of that, is a gene that has to do with turning folic acid into folate. So it's really about a B vitamin, B9. And a lot of now companies are getting better at making sure that multivitamins and prenatals and B complexes have folate, actually the active form of folate in them. But I would encourage all of you to look at your vitamin that you're taking or your B complex and if it says folic acid then that's worth rethinking because 50% of us have this gene where we're not as able to use folic acid. So you're not going to get the benefit from that. Folic acid really be better to choose a multi orb complex that has methylfolate or the active form of folate. So you know, your body can actually use it. But MTHFR is also known to have increased stroke risk and on a birth control pill. So it's a very. And the doctors don't tend to tell you that. So it's important thing to know for yourself.

Yes, I could not agree with you more. I mean my health problems really got, you know, it's so interesting. I feel like I got mono in college and that was when. And it makes sense as well as my immune system was completely shot while being on the pill. So it's probably like year three and to the pill at that point. I got mono and I just, I never felt like I recovered after that and things went majorly downhill and like I was saying, I was experiencing all of these problems and, and then of course you know, did genetic testing, discovered that, you know, I Had a double mutation, the 677. And it makes. It made so much sense to me. So the fact that this is, you know, and it's obviously it, you know, plays. These genes all play into a role together. It's not just one isolated gene, but. But when I really started to supplement correctly, it all came together. It all made sense. What was wrong ultimately. But what got me into MTHFR was the fertility side of things. And I had these clients who were having multiple miscarriages and their doctors weren't doing anything about it. And I was like, what? And then I discovered this multiple miscarriage cause, this MTHFR thing. And it was through Dr. Ben lynch, our superstar on genetics. And that was so shocking to me because I understood that it made sense, like severe fatigue and anxiousness and chronic pain and being kind of depressed and all of those symptoms I had felt. But the getting and staying pregnant part was fascinating to me. And oftentimes women only discover that they have this mutation or multiple mutations after trying to get pregnant unsuccessfully for a long time, or having several miscarriages, which is so messed up.

Oh, yeah, it's. I feel like that should be, you know, checked right away, that end of progesterone, because so many miscarriages are due to low progesterone. And when I. I mean, it's so rewarding to get to help women in that situation where, you know, where we can say, hey, you know, and so anyone listening, if you have a miscarriage, even one, you know, make sure we know, hey, how's your progesterone? Because if your progesterone's low, so we can address that and we can prevent a miscarriage by addressing progesterone in early pregnancy. But also make sure to find out if you have mthfr, which can be tested in a blood test, but it can also be done in like a, say, ancestry.com, you know, genetic panel, where you can. Where you can get that and much more information. I trained with Ben Lynch. You mentioned Ben.

You did. Amazing.

When I came away from all of his trainings, what I really realized is that the same things that you've been talking about, the dietary changes, the blood sugar balance, the balancing your gut bacteria, those are essential steps to addressing mthfr. A lot of people, even sometimes practitioners, will find out that you have mthfr and then they want to just give you a really high dose of folate or methylfolate, which is not the right way to go. That also is very individualized. Some people would feel worse, like, I Did when I first just put. Started taking a bunch of B vitamins, right?

Me too. Oh God, I was terrible. I wanted to jump off a cliff. I was in such a state, had so much anxiety from methylated vitamin Bs. So I just, I can't take them. I take a different form.

And a lot of it comes back to needing to what I say, unclog the drain of the sink. You know, like if we just turned on the faucet but the drain is clogged, we're going to have, it's going to overflow. We're going to, it's not going to flow, right. It's going to just get jammed up. And so if we can unclog the drain by removing inflammatory foods and healing leaky gut and balancing the gut bacteria and plus addressing some of the stress and the cortisol issues and we're basically getting the body to a healthier state now we've unclogged that drain and you turn on the faucet of the B vitamins and things just flow then and you can actually get the benefit from them. And even then you want to be testing. We test homocysteine to measure, help people to know what's the correct dose of these methylated B vitamins for your body. It's different for everybody. It's not just a one size fits all, 5 milligram or 15 milligram. You know, it's a like less fine tune this and just take what's really necessary. So I think that genetics is, I think of it like we look at our unique genetic tendencies and address them and we look at our stress factors in our diet, even if those stress factors are in certain inflammatory foods or.

Blood sugar imbalances. Let's address the stress factors and we can solve a lot then by doing that. Even the, the genetics of estrogen detoxification we can look at in our genes. You know, it's pretty amazing to be able to look at the genes and see where are those estrogen detoxification pathways and start to be able to anticipate where your body may need help. Plus I'm sure too there's all these other tests we can do to actually measure estrogen and progesterone and estrogen detoxification. And maybe let's just touch on that before we wrap up because I want women to know that they. A lot of times it feels like there's no test. Like a blood test doesn't really show estrogen and progesterone very well. But I think you probably also really turn toward the precision analytical urine hormone panel, where we can see this information. And that alone is eye opening, right, to be able to just, oh, my gosh, see it on paper.

It's amazing, isn't it? I was blown away when I first understood how the Dutch test worked and what it was showing people. And again, when you have this information, you can make informed decisions and you're not just stabbing in the dark trying to figure out what is next and how do I address this estrogen dominance or the symptoms I have of estrogen dominance. And so, so, yeah, I wrote about this and I know you actually asked this question ages ago in the interview about estrogen detoxification, but we went off on a tangent. But I feel like we've now come back. So I think that we underestimate how our livers, what the role our livers play in how our hormones work. And so I always have women say, okay, or I have them visualize. You have a few different types of estrogen, the ones that I think are important just for the purposes of this interview and what we're all dealing with. And those are estrone, estradiol and estriol. And those are broken down in phase one of your liver detox. So they're broken down into two, oh, four, oh, 16, oh, and these are the main metabolites in detoxification. And so what will happen is you can see that on the Dutch test, which I feel like is amazing because they just add layers to your hormones and give you so much insight into why you might have these symptoms. Even if a blood test has shown that your estrogen's fine, your progesterone is fine. So that, I think, is what is so amazing about having that information, because then you can support specific pathways of detoxification with specific nutrients and start to see the movement on those numbers in the testing.

Yeah, it's huge. I mean, for most of the time I've been practicing, we didn't have that test. And I would go by symptoms and blood tests. Again, you can measure estrogen, but it's just going to give you a really wide ballpark range and it's not going to show you the detoxification pathway. So to be able to invest in a test where you can actually see this information, again, it helps you connect with your body because now you can see it visually and then you can. Amazingly, we. We've figured out nutrients. And one of my favorites is thinking about how did we figure out that broccoli extracts can have such an impact on how our liver detoxifies estrogen. Right? Like, when you think about it, I'm like, you know, we're looking at this complexity of our body. And then I'm like, and one of the best solutions is a broccoli extract. And you're like, really?

Like, that's pretty amazing. I mean, yes, eat your broccoli, but when we can get an extract from broccoli and get a good dose of it in a capsule form, we can help with decreasing high estrogen levels. We can help your liver detoxify estrogen with sulforaphane from broccoli. Amazing things can happen. And yes, a person could just decide, well, I'm just going to go try taking broccoli extract on my own. But the difference it makes when you actually see your levels and then you know you're taking the right thing for your body and you can have measure the results.

Right? You're supporting either phase one or phase two. So you know where the clog is or you know where the backlog is happening. And then you just make a much more targeted decision about your health. It's amazing.

It really is. And again, thank you so much. It's so good. And your book, I mean, this is like. I mean, if any, you know, you can get this Amazon, where else you can?

It's everywhere. So Barnes and Noble, Amazon, they're independent bookstores as well. They're stocking it like any online bookstore.

Yeah, cute little picture on the front.

I had to add my sass into this picture because, you know, that was another thing. And I'll just wrap up by saying this really quickly, that women don't even realize that the problems are real problems because they've been so perpetually normalized. So I fought really hard to get that cover because I felt like women need to know that these are actually valid concerns. Your period pain is not normal. Uterine pain actually is indicative of a problem, even though you've been told it's totally okay. So, yeah, that's how that happened.

I love it. And just the validation that happens with that. So, yeah. So Nicole's book is called Fix youx Period. And where's best to find you? Where can they find out more information or get in touch with you?

So my website is nicolejardim.com I have my blog on there. I've been blogging for a long time talking about all this stuff. And then also, if you want to buy the book, go to fixyourperiod.com and you can buy through the booksellers on there and then just enter your email address and receipt number to get a bunch of bonuses that come with the book that I mentioned in the actual book itself. So that's the best place I also am on Instagram. Pretty much spend a lot of time on there, as we all do. It's not healthy, but yeah. Nicolemjardim on Instagram and it's J A.

R D. I m like, Mary, Yes.

Thank you.

You're welcome. You're welcome. And it's. I mean, this is just such an important conversation. And so thank you for having it with me and for putting it out there into the world. I'm sure so many women are grateful for what you're doing to just really help them understand their bodies better and to understand the options that are out there for them to get help and to not have to live their life month after month dealing with these symptoms. So thank you. Thank you so much, Nicole.

Thanks, Donni. Thank you for having me on.

Thanks for listening to how humans heal. If you liked this episode, leave a rating and a review. And for more resources, visit drdani.com.