Healing PCOS & its Relationship with Anxiety w/ Jillian Greaves, Dietitian | Ep. 41

Welcome to the get yout Life Back podcast. And I have a quick fact before we jump in. In this amazing interview, did you know that among women with PCOS that research shows that upwards of 39% of them report struggling with significant anxiety and 25% report depression? Today you are going to learn all about pcos and we have an incredible interview that you are not going to want to miss. So sit down, get a cup of tea, get really comfy and welcome to the show. I am here with Jillian Greaves. And Jillian, thank you so much for being here.

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited to connect.

Jillian and I actually found each other on Instagram. And you guys, I just have to tell you, I immediately connected with her vibe, with her heart. If you haven't found her on Instagram yet, make sure that you do that now. So if you're sitting, you're getting all cuddly, put your tea down and open your phone and I want you to go to her Instagram. I'm going to spell it for you. But then if you miss it, don't worry, I'll put it in the show notes. But it's Jillian Greaves, rd. So that's J I L L I A N G R E A V E S R D And I just have to brag on my girl for just a couple minutes here and then we're going to get into the really good stuff. So is it okay if I just like talk a little bit? Why? I think you're so amazing.

Oh my gosh, please.

So a couple of things you guys need to know. So first of all, Jillian is, she created Functional Nutrition and Wellness. And this is a flow functional medicine, nutrition practitioner based program. And she's in Boston. Super cool. But she also does a little bit of traveling. So you're going to want to keep up with all of her awesome activities on her social media because she'll keep you up to date there. But that's not all. She's also, she's the founding nutritionist and she's a registered dietitian, so guru of all things food and nutrition. She's a women's health center specialist and she can support you in a lot of ways, you guys. So she provides comprehensive nutrition and lifestyle counseling to women. That's her jam and her emphasis, her passion. Her focus is pcos, balancing hormones and digestive health which go together. So it's the perfect combination. And so what she does is she's going to help you to identify and address the root cause of your hormone and digestive symptoms and naturally using advanced lab testing, personalized nutrition, supportive lifestyle therapies as a first line intervention. So instead of just going straight for the pill for nil, or getting put on these like crazy just generalist diets that just like that everybody does keto or everybody does Paleo, or everybody does Weight Watchers, she's going to actually individualize it. And she does this with actual testing to personalize this for you. So it's really cool. Jillian's mission is to empower women to take back control of their health, reclaim their confidence, so that you can live life at its fullest potential. She has a website, Jillian Greaves.com so another thing, if you're like, if that just sold you and you're like, oh my gosh, I need to know more about this girl, make sure you go to her Instagram and in her bio there's a link. You click on that link. And my most favorite thing that she has going on right now is there's a course that you can take right now wherever you are, from the privacy of your own home. And it's a nutrition course for pcos. And it's called Eat to Heal youl pcos. And it's a really great self paced mini course. So all of that being said, you're gonna get a great amount of information out of this interview. And Jillian, again, thank you so much for being here.

Oh, my gosh, thank you for having me and for that wonderful introduction. I appreciate it.

My favorite question, my favorite way to jump into this conversation is to learn about you. Your why. Why do you focus where you do? Why do you do what you do? What is your why, my love? Yeah.

Oh, my gosh. And, you know, my. I have lots of whys and I think there are kind of a couple things specifically that really brought me to do this work and to feel so impasse, you know, so passionate about functional medicine, nutrition, and women's health. And I guess there's sort of like a professional, you know, angle and then a personal angle where, from a personal perspective, you know, about 10 or so years ago, I went through some of my own health challenges where, you know, to make a very long story short, I was in a phase of life where things were, you know, really busy. I was in grad school, I was, you know, working full time in a clinical research setting. And I was also running half marathons and eating a plant based diet and doing loads of HIIT training. And I had been on hormonal birth control for over a decade. And at this time where I felt like I was doing all of these great things for my body, things really started to go haywire. And I started to experience a lot of anxiety. I wasn't sleeping well, I was breaking out in rashes. I was bloated. And I really started to dig into the research on female physiology and kind of understand how I was supporting my body and what was sort of misaligned and really started to learn about hormonal birth control. And I sought out care from my PCP and said, hey, I'm really concerned about this prolonged birth control use and some of these potential side effects and what this might be masking. And, you know, she essentially kind of laughed. Laughed in my face and said, you know, you know, you should probably stay on the birth control and, you know, there's nothing wrong with you type situation. And, you know, I would see a dermatologist and they'd recommend, you know, here's a cream, or, you know, another provider, and they'd say, here's the, you know, anxiety medication. And, you know, I'm by no means anti medication. But, you know, clearly there were bigger things driving the issues that I was experiencing. So I found the world of, you know, functional medicine, and my mind was really blown and started to do a lot of research and get advanced training. And I actually connected with a naturopath who was phenomenal and guided me through healing my own body and really kind of transforming the way that I approach things to eliminate the symptoms I was experiencing and to kind of bring things back into balance. So going through that experience and the struggles that I did to sort of find answers really motivated me to want to support other women and seek out training so I could give women the support that I wished I had had when I was kind of struggling early on. So that's sort of what started to drive my interest in all of this and really kind of create the why behind, you know, the work that I do with women. And I think with the PCOS things in particular. One of my first jobs as a dietitian was working at a big Boston hospital as an outpatient dietitian, where I worked in an endocrinology department and saw tons of women with pcos. Lots of young women who would come to me that were told to lose weight and were basically eating nothing, right? They're eating like 1200 calorie diets. They're on the birth control for the irregular periods, they're on the appetite suppressants for the weight, they're on the spironolactone for the androgens, and they weren't feeling better, and if anything, they were often feeling worse. And it was this game of whack a mole that I was seeing happening with people's health, where it was reacting to every symptom. And I felt like there has to be a better way. And that is what really motivated me to seek out more training, specifically in PCOS and learning how common it was. I just felt so called and driven to supporting women with PCOS and really making it my mission to give them access to these valuable tools and resources that functional medicine has to offer to get control of their health and to feel really good at the end of the day.

So you're speaking about a paradigm shift. In a lot of ways, your personal experience is you're having these symptoms, and for all intents and purposes, most people objectively would have said, jillian, you're doing everything right. Like, you're exercising, your body is performing. That's objectively really pretty amazing. And at the same time, your body is also giving you the feedback that it's in need of support. A healthy body doesn't need to produce rashes. It doesn't need to produce these other things you're experiencing. And what I admire about you is that when you are faced with this fork in the road of just complicitly just taking and using the creams and continuing to do what you were doing, you very likely could have achieved the same results, Right? But you did something different. You pursued greater education and you worked in order to listen to the messages from your body, and you were able to work towards healing. And so the conversation, you've kind of guided us actually to a perfect segue into really, the main focus of today's conversation, which is pcos. And so can you actually tell our listeners maybe, who haven't heard of PCOS before, what. What it actually is?

Yes. So PCOS stands for polycystic ovarian syndrome. And PCOS is a complex metabolic and endocrine disorder, and it impacts an estimated 1 in 10 women in the US and potentially more. So it's incredibly common. But I would not be surprised if a lot of people are just hearing about it for the first time, because it is not talked about enough. There's not enough research in that entire arena and funding and things like that. But it is super, super common. Most people, when they think about pcos, they think of PCOS as a fertility disorder, which, yes, having PCOS can make it more challenging to ovulate naturally and ovulate regularly. But it is not just a fertility disorder. It is really a disorder or a syndrome that impacts all of the systems in the body. It impacts the immune system and the brain and the cardiovascular system and the gut, and can produce systemic symptoms that are really unpleasant to deal with. And that also can increase the risk for a variety of chronic conditions down the line. I think something that's important to clarify too about PCOS is that PCOS is not a disease and it's a syndrome, meaning that it's kind of a collection or a constellation of different symptoms and it can really manifest differently in each individual.

One thing that is a common myth that a lot of people are now learning is that polycystic ovarian syndrome doesn't necessarily mean that you're going to have some cysts on your ovaries. Right? So it's like what you're saying is that maybe person A has a bunch of cysts and that's in a way how they found the diagnosis. But you may have diagnosable PCOS without having the cysts. And so I'm curious if you could talk a little bit more about some ways for people to start to self assess. Is this something that might be valuable for me to look into screening for?

Yeah, absolutely. And it is challenging to get a PCOS diagnosis, unfortunately, which means women are often struggling for longer than they need to. And there's also some controversy around the diagnostic criteria for pcos. But currently kind of the standard for a PCOS diagnosis is the Rotterdam criteria, which is going to sort of lays out that you should have two of the following three. So, you know, absent or irregular cycles, elevated androgens confirmed, you know, clinically and chemically. For those of you that don't know what androgens are, they're a category of male hormones that women also have. So things like, you know, testosterone and, you know, Androstenidione and DHEA. DHEAs and women with PCOS often have elevation, you know, or higher levels of these androgen hormones. And then the third criteria being the polycystic ovaries, which essentially means that women will have larger numbers of immature follicles. So you can not have any polycystic appearing ovaries and you can have an absent or irregular cycle and you can have symptoms of high androgens. So some things to potentially look out for in terms of high androgen symptoms would be things like unwanted hair growth, male pattern baldness, or head hair loss, cystic acne. So those are sort of the symptoms I would pay attention to oftentimes Women with PCOS not always, but often might experience really acute, rapid changes in body weight that don't really feel necessarily fully aligned with kind of the diet and lifestyle that they live. So paying attention to some of those shifts and kind of what's happening with the menstrual cycle can give you a lot of clues around whether or not you might want to talk to your provider about pcos.

And a lot of those changes around the menstrual cycle are what leads people to go receive examination. And so if you're having menstrual cramps or if your periods are too heavy or if they're irregular and that maybe I had a period twice this month, and then I skipped three months. And so oftentimes, the menstrual symptoms are what guides women to go to the doctor. But like you're saying, it could be different in other people. And so what I love to do as a naturopath is just think about overall health and wellness. And so in your story, you had a rash, but it didn't necessarily mean it was just a derm issue. It's just simply your body is communicating, hey, I'm out of balance. I need support. And so great clinicians like you are able to look at what the body is saying and try to identify why it may be saying that. And so it could be pcos, it could be something else. And it's all about getting to the root cause for each person, person. So I love, love, love what you're saying about this.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think that's. That's one of the things that is not talked about enough with PCOS is that, you know, there's this laundry list of symptoms that, you know, women can experience, and it's. It does. It ends up being that game of whack a mole often where, you know, we're. We're chasing symptoms and we end up on this hamster wheel where nothing is actually, you know, getting better or resolving. And we really need to pause and ask why? Why is this happening? Why is this happening now? What are the factors that are sort of driving this dynamic in the body and causing your body to produce these symptoms or signals, those SOS signals saying, like, hey, something's off. And I think when you can understand the why, it's so incredibly empowering because you have this kind of clear path for how to support your body, and.

Nutrition is part of that, and that's your zone of genius in terms of dietitian work and nutrition and lifestyle. So could you tell us a little Bit about how nutrition can play a role in pcos.

Yeah, so nutrition can play. And it's definitely one piece of the puzzle, but it's a big piece of the puzzle. And nutrition can have a significant impact on how the body is functioning as a whole and how symptoms are progressing or so as a couple examples of how nutrition can be so valuable for pcos. So one of the kind of main core root causes or drivers that is common in about 75% of women with PCOS is insulin resistance or issues with blood sugar. So using food to support stable blood sugar with things like, you know, meal timing and spacing, meal composition to support blood sugar, focusing on key micronutrients, you can really, really impact what's happening with insulin and blood sugar. So that alone is huge and really foundational for pcos. We also know that low grade inflammation and gut imbalances are common in pcos. And you know, we can use food therapeutically to, you know, establish an anti inflammatory dietary pattern and you know, prevent, you know, protect the body from some of that oxidative stress. You know, when it comes to gut dysfunction, you know, as an example, making sure we're getting adequate amounts of fiber and lots of diversity with fibers to sort of protect and preserve all of that, you know, great gut microbial diversity. And we also know that micronutrient deficiencies are really common in pcos. And it's not fully understood if it's related to increased needs or more of these being excreted. But as an example, like magnesium, one study had reported women with PCOS were 19 times more likely to be deficient in magnesium and other things like B vitamins and zinc and you know, or omega 3 fatty acids. So we can really effectively use food to replete these nutrients and help the body to maintain balance and to minimize symptoms.

That's really interesting when we think about the why, under the why, under the why, under the why and keep digging deeper, it's like, okay, well it looks like you're luteinizing hormone is up. Well, why? Well, that could be because there is a neurotransmitter biofeedback imbalance. Well, why? Well, it looks like there could be changes in the serotonin being made in your gut. Well, why? Okay, well it's your bacterial composition in your gut. Okay, well why? You know, so it's like you're talking about this, I can kind of imagining like a spiral. We're like unwinding the spiral to get to the base of the base. And so really fundamentals in health including lifestyle, including nutrition. And a couple of things that you pointed out that I want to emphasize are insulin resistance and so making sure that you're supporting blood sugar. And then also what's happening with gut flora composition. And so in terms, let's focus in on the blood sugar for a moment here. Can you talk a little bit about what blood sugar imbalances may look like in symptoms?

Yeah, so that's a great question. And so in terms of blood sugar imbalances, we can experience symptoms of high blood sugar, we can experience symptoms of low blood sugar. And I also think it's important to know that because there's a lot of talk around with insulin resistance, meaning our cells are resistant to insulin and they're essentially not utilizing glucose from carbohydrates efficiently or how they should. There's a lot of talk about high blood sugar. Right. And wanting to avoid high, high blood sugar, but you can experience high blood sugar and also very much have issues with low blood sugar as well. So in terms of symptoms to look out for, feeling, you know, hitting really low points, where you feel like, hangry, shaky, irritable, and you're kind of physiologically excited, experiencing kind of blood sugar lows, in terms of blood sugar highs, feeling really tired, lethargic after meals, things like brain fog, fatigue, having trouble feeling satiated or kind of full after eating lots of sugar. Carbohydrate cravings can sort of be an indication that we're right in that blood sugar roller coaster throughout the day. So those are. Would be some of the primary things that I would look out for.

And a conventional doctor may simply just recommend metformin. And so a lot of women, they go into their doctor, their doctor suspects that there could be something going on with polycystic ovaries. They may notice that with testing, there's high insulin. And so metformin is a starting supplement, or not a supplement, but a starting medication. And you're able to help people by actually getting to the root cause of that with lifestyle, with dietary changes. So we talked a little bit about diet and so you talked about anti inflammatory, you talked about antioxidants to help. You said get rid of some of that oxidative damage or counteract that. You talked about microflora, talked about fiber. What about a few lifestyle changes that you typically suggest to people? Yeah.

So in terms of kind of general lifestyle changes, I definitely am a huge advocate, as I know you are too, for sleep, adequate sleep, and working on things like sleep hygiene and supporting your circadian rhythms. So trying to make sure that we're getting into a good routine with sleep. Trying to aim for maybe that seven to nine hours a night can be really, really helpful for supporting metabolic health, for supporting the gut, for supporting things going on with blood sugar. If we're not sleeping, everything else is going to be really challenging. But I think that working on sleep and prioritizing, protecting time for that to the best of your ability is a really important one. Another one would be establishing a movement routine that is really supportive of hormone health, which is always a challenging one to navigate. Because I think, you know, in our modern society, women are just told like, eat less, work out more, right? And it's this idea of, you know, more is always better. And what I find, particularly in women with pcos, is that this can actually make symptoms worse if we're driving our bodies into the ground and jacking up those stress hormones and contributing to inflammation and blood sugar dysregulation. So trying to find that sweet spot where you're incorporating that gentle metabolic movement like walking, doing things like low impact strength based movement, if you are doing any more rigorous movement like high intensity training, or, you know, running, cycling, just being really thoughtful about how those things are serving you and making sure that you're providing your body with adequate recovery. And then, you know, I also love talking about things like endocrine disruptors with clients and, you know, sort of different things in our environment that could be interfering with hormones or driving inflammation. So those would be some big kind of lifestyle things that I like to really kind of dig into with clients.

The three that you emphasized are sleep, movement and then looking at endocrine disruptors. I want to piggyback on some of these because these are brilliant. And so sleep, there's this really interesting feedback relationship between serotonin and melatonin. And so in order to make melatonin, we have to break down serotonin. And so when you're talking about circadian rhythm, I really want to emphasize the relationship between that and our mood, our depression, our anxiety, our emotional well being. Because if we are sleeping all the time, or sleeping too often, or sleeping irregularly, then our body may end up breaking down more serotonin to create the melatonin so that you're groggy, your brain foggy, you're exhausted, you don't have the get up and go, the lack of motivation, but then the low mood. And so getting your circadian rhythm is really important to keep that on track for mood stability. And then of course, the way that that can impact your Endocrine system. And so sometimes people hear this conversation, they're like, oh my gosh. Well, I've done everything that I can to sleep. And so the things that you're describing, making sure just get back to the basics like you said, sleep hygiene and all of the different types of tools to help your body restore that. And so then the second thing you were talking about that I loved is movement. And you're talking about how when we overdo it, like your story, you know, in the beginning you were just pounding, you were doing like we said, it seemed like everything was right. But what my presupposition is is that it's very likely that your stress hormone is really high. And for example, cortisol is one of our stress hormones. And so when that stress hormone goes high, cortisol actually causes your body to break down stores of glycogen into glucose. And so then you have higher amounts of glucose that are in your system. And if you have PCOS symptoms, you know, the syndrome right then in the insulin resistance is a part of that puzzle, then that could make you worse. It could aggravate what's going on. And so you're educating us. I love this so much. About number one is listen to your body and number two is make sure that you're getting the feedback on what is best for you. Whether that is some gentle exercise or maybe it is hiit training, but being really strategic about what's actually happening with that. And then the third that you said, remind me of the third. It was endocrine disruptors, right?

Yes.

Yeah. And so when I hear you say endocrine disruptors, I'm thinking of things like plastics that we melt, like when we heat up to go food in the microwave. Is that kind of what you're talking about?

Totally. Yep. Yeah. Yeah. So definitely, I think, you know, plastics are, you know, obviously a huge one, you know, and I kind of, I really try to go for the, the low hanging fruit with these things and the things that, you know, could be fairly easy, you know, to make some swaps around and that are also going to sort of move the needle with exposure without driving yourself insane. So I think, you know, plastics are a big one. Personal care products and particularly things with, you know, Fragran, the synthetic fragrances, you know, household kind of cleaning products. Those are the things I usually start with, making sure that, you know, we can get potentially, you know, you know, some filtered water, if that's, you know, in the budget and, you know, kind of going from there. But those are Some of the things I'll start with, and I have to.

Call myself out here right now with you as my witness and everyone who's listening is personal care products, right? And so I'm really conscientious of like my shampoo and like, I don't use bounce dryer sheets. I use essential oils and like a little ball, like so in certain areas, I'm doing really well, but where I am, making really poor choices. I hate to say this out loud, but it's with cosmetics, it's so bad. And I'm saying this because there's a test that I like to run. It's called the Great Plains Labs Nonmetal Solvent Toxicity Test. And I've been running this test on people for probably the last eight to 10 years. And again and again and again I see these high numbers and it's just, it's cosmetics, personal care products. I was like, oh, my gosh. And so when I ran this test on myself, those numbers were high. And so I'm looking at my environmental factors and my biggest culprit, which I really think is the biggest culprit because I took it out, retested, and this number's a lot better, but it's really pretty. Bright red lipstick. I love my bright red lipstick, but oh my gosh, like, it's right in our mouth. We're licking it. It's absorbing our body. So like you're saying, is really being creative and trying to figure out, okay, what are my non negotiables, but where can I make changes and be really honest with myself about what might be contributing to my hormonal and mood imbalances?

Yep. Yeah, exactly. And everyone's going to have different priorities and, you know, take this information to, you know, to apply it to themselves. I will say, though, and I have no, no affiliation with, with these guys at all. But Beauty Counter does have some really amazing bright red lipsticks and a variety of colors that are. I don't miss any other type anymore.

I'm writing this down. You're gonna hear the rustling of me getting a pen out. Beauty Counter. If you guys are lipstick lovers like me, see, I'm very sadly not wearing any. But it's crazy how these things sneak in.

I know.

And it's, you know, we want to be beautiful too.

I was going to say is Ilia for, for makeup. Their products are really great.

How do you spell that? Do you have that handy?

I think it's I, I, L, I.

A. Oh, I was not even close. I had an E in There I L I A Ilia and then beauty counter. Thank you for, for that. I'm always looking for bright red lipstick that is guilt free.

Yes. I love it. I think you might, I might, I think you might find a winner between those two.

I'm gonna, I'm gonna order it and I'm gonna take a picture and I'm gonna tag you in it and then tell you that I'm really grateful for feeling beautiful and detoxed.

Awesome.

So the question that I feel like is the big pink elephant in the room is that we are having this kind of conversation about pcos. We're learning about the relationship between pcos, your blood sugar, PCOS and our mood PCOS and other organ systems. We've talked about what are some root causes, what we can do in terms of diet, we've talked about lifestyle, and we've talked about how we deserve to find the answers to our symptoms and really start doing the healing work. And then the question, the pink elephant is, can PCOS actually get better? Is there hope for PCOS?

1000% yes. And I want to really, really drive this home because, you know, really when women are able to understand what is going on in their bodies and they can put the right things in place to really support their bodies and to address some of these, you know, sort of imbalances or dysfunctions, you can significantly reduce symptoms and even reverse them. And I have seen that time and time again with the women that I work with. It's absolutely possible. And I want to shout that from the rooftops because I think, you know, there's, it's just not talked about enough. And there's so much that women can do to really get to a place where they feel good, you know, physically and mentally, with all of this related to pcos. So it's absolutely possible.

So if you're listening, if you have pcos, if you suspect that you have pcos, even if your well intended healthcare practitioner told you you have PCOS and you're going to have it for the rest of your life is I would just, I have this friend who's a hypnotherapist and she always taps in the middle of the forehead when there's a negative message. She just says, delete that, delete that. Don't bring that in, don't own that. These people cannot fortune tell what your body is and is not capable of achieving. And so there is always hope. And that is what Jillian is describing. And she has seen it. I have seen it in my practice. You can get your life back. Like Jillian said, shout it from the rooftops. Own this. Just take a moment and take a breath and just own that you can get your life back. And so in that process of, okay, I'm going to make some changes. Julian's shared some really good tips here. Can you share with us some of the most common pitfalls or mistakes that you've seen women with PCOS make when trying to resolve it naturally? Yeah.

So, you know, I think probably the biggest mistake I see, which, you know, is in part due to the fact that there's just not enough support for women with pcos, but, you know, is really seeing women very fixated on chasing symptoms and, you know, sort of ending up on that hamster wheel where nothing is getting better. So, you know, as an example with, you know, pcos, oftentimes there's that, you know, acute rapid weight gain that women can experience or they are struggling with where they feel like their body is at. And I think the knee jerk reaction is to chase the weight, right? And it's the workout more, eat less situation, which, like we talked about, can just end up exacerbating everything. So really trying to focus on understanding the why, I think is the absolute most important thing we can do and then to piggyback off of that. I think really the other, I think primary big mistake that I see women make is just kind of punishing their bodies with, you know, nutrition and lifestyle. So, you know, everything is about removal, right? So the eliminate, you know, the elimination diet and avoiding this and removing that and just sort of this deprivation approach to, you know, managing pcos. And I just, you know, physically and mentally, this is not going to be supportive or effective at the end of the day. So I think being able to pause and really try to shift the mindset towards nourishment and support and abundance and really kind of trying to give the body more of what it needs to work optimally versus being fixated on the restriction.

You use the word nourish as I was just thinking it. I love that. And you're reminding me. I have this very beloved mentor. He's my late mentor and when I shadowed him and I was a baby naturopathic wannabe, I was, I was studying, I was in school and I flew up to Connecticut to shadow him. And his treatments, I felt like, were so basic. You know, he would give someone digestive bitters, you'd give him a combo 50, 50 Gentian and Scutellaria and maybe some minerals. And he would do an adjustment and some counseling. And then they'd be off. And I would say, but they had anxiety. Why didn't you give them an anti anxiety herb? Or they also had a skin rash, like, why didn't you give them shea butter? And they had this and this and this and that. And he would always say, nicole, the body can heal itself if you just get out of the way. And I love that. It stuck with me, Jillian. It stuck with me because the thing that I feel like our medical community has created is this idea that my body is in rebellion against me and it needs to be stopped. And so my silly pancreas is screwing up insulin, so I have to take Metformin to knock him back into place. And oh, my gosh, I'm gaining so much weight. I need an appetite suppressant or, you know, all these different things. But rather, what if we just like you said, Gillian, is nourish the body, nurture the body, change our relationship with food, and don't punish the body, but rather respect and look at the body with reverence and get out of the way and allow it to engage in this miraculous healing. And one of the authors that I love so very much, his name is Samuel Hahnemann, he was a German physician in the 1800s, and he talked about the job of a doctor. And when a healer, you know, dietitian, a healer like you and a healer like me is when we've done our job well. The sign of a job well done is that a person can live their life to such an extreme amount of joy that people look upon them with awe, that this person is in such a state of health that people look upon them with awe. And that doesn't help by whack a mole ing their silly symptoms and telling them to stop. It helps by supporting the amazingness of the human body and all of its inherent wisdom. And that's what you do. And so for that sister, I just, like, I. I just like, honor you. I honor the light in you with so much, so much of the light in me.

Oh, my gosh. Thank you. And I. And I, you know, honor the same in you. And I think it's. Yeah, it's just so, so powerful what you said. And, you know, innately, the body wants to heal and is so incredibly resilient if we can sort of, you know, give it the right support. So, yeah, so. So incredibly powerful.

So let's make sure we didn't miss anything. So what we talked about in this interview is what is pcos? We talked about the relationship between pcos, lifestyle, nutrition, we talked about the interconnectedness of our hormones, our gut, our sleep, our lifestyle, our adrenals, our mood. We talked about how everything is interconnected which can then this almost feeling of this whole system wide. Where do we start? Right. We talked about why it's so challenging to get a diagnosis or to get conventional support in pcos. We talked about how there is always, always, always hope for reversing and healing PCOS symptoms. We talked about common pitfalls and we talked about little changes that you can start making right away if you're struggling with pcos. And I could probably talk to you for just another hour, Jillian, but what other things do you feel like our listeners need to know as they're finishing up this interview?

Yeah, I mean, I think we, you know, we covered a lot, we covered a lot in a short amount of time. And yeah, I think just to reiterate, the biggest thing would be, you know, if you suspect that you have pcos, if you know, you have PCOS or any other type of, you know, hormonal imbalance, digestive concern, or just, you know, these symptoms in general, you don't have to accept that that is the way things are going to be. Listen to your body, you know, learn about your body and connect with the provider, even if it takes a little bit of time to find that, that person who is really going to support you in, you know, kind of true whole body healing and kind of getting your health to where you want it to be. So to keep pushing and know that your body is very intelligent and to listen to those signals and symptoms.

And Jillian can help you and so make sure you check out her Instagram. I'll put the link in the bio. And Jillian, you do one on one nutrition counseling for those who really want that connection, that support with you, right?

I do, I do. So I offer a variety of kind of one on one functional medicine nutrition programs that are super comprehensive in terms of really kind of digging into what we're talking about and understanding root causes and kind of coming up with a personalized plan. And then I have my eat to heal your PCOS self paced course, which is just a really incredible starting point to kind of build that really supportive foundation with food and to work on shifting the mindset towards, towards food. So those are kind of the two primary ways that people can work with me right now.

And by the way, I love that you have these beautiful and delicious recipes on your website. I am, I'm really particularly excited about your vegan curry chickpea. Salad.

Oh yeah, it's so pretty.

So I just have to know, have you made all of these or are you working with somebody? Like, there's like a lot of those.

Are just like the kind of things that I make. And those are just my little iPhone photos of things that I'll make and share for. For easy recipes. I have all of that simplicity in the kitchen as you'll. You'll see through my recipes. So I like to kind of share some of those things for inspiration.

Oh, my goodness. You guys, you have to check this out. It's@jilliangreeves.com recipes and make sure you check out her Instagram. She does one on one nutrition counseling. She has a free guide to help you balance your sugars and balancing your hormones. She has a eat to heal your PCOS self paced mini course and a wait list for your empowered PCOS program. So if that sounds like your jam, you guys, join the wait list. It's probably going to fill up fast. Like, you have a pretty dedicated community on your social media. A lot of testimonials, a lot of people love you. So if you guys are just even thinking about it, for sure, join the wait list because this is going to be, this is going to be great. Jillian, you're amazing. I'm so grateful for you. Thank you for the work you're doing.

Thank you. It's such a pleasure to be able to connect with you and I feel the same. I just so appreciate the work that you do and what you bring to your community. Thank you.

All right, thank you guys for listening. This has been the get your life back podcast. I am Dr. Nicole. You can find me on my Instagram@DrNicoleCane.com I have a link in my bio where you can learn about all the cool free stuff that we have going on. So if you're struggling with anxiety or depression or if you just want to learn how to optimize your mood and brain health, definitely check it out. We're here for you. All right. Thank you.