Becoming Your Own Health Detective in Midlife

Hi everybody, I'm Dr. Sanda Moldovan, periodontist and nutritionist. Welcome to the Holistic Dentistry Podcast, the show that gives you the tips and tools to detoxify your mouth for a healthier body as we explore together the root cause of disease. Remember, you're not healthy until your mouth is healthy, so take care of it in the most in a natural way. Hi everyone, welcome to another episode on The Holistic Dentistry Show. I'm your host, Dr. Sanda Moldovan, and today we are chatting with Natalie Jill, midlife health expert and fat loss authority. Natalie Jill is a renowned midlife fat loss expert who has revolutionized how women approach health optimization and aging with her gift for simplifying complicated health topics. She empowers women to transform their bodies and reclaim their vitality during midlife and beyond. As the creator and host of the top-rated podcast, which I was a guest in, Midlife Conversations with Natalie Jill, she's changing cultural narratives around age, potential, and possibility. Now over 50 herself, just like me. Natalie serves as a living example of what's possible when you embrace midlife with the right mindset and strategies. She's impacted and transformed the lives of over 250,000 women. And really, Natalie, I'm so impressed with your— all your accomplishments. I'm super excited to chat with you today. So welcome to the show.

Thanks for having me.

Yes, I'm talking with you. Excellent. And let's talk about fat loss because I noticed, you know, as I've gotten older in my late 40s, started to put on weight. And I'm like, I'm doing the same things, although, you know, I'm working probably just as hard. Yeah. And, um, what are some of your, like, things that you go to, or some advice you have to give to women that are in their late 40s and are experiencing this?

So first of all, it's not as simple as it was in our 20s and our 30s and even early 40s. So we have to break free of the mindset of, I just need to do more of what I used to do. So when you're in your 20s and your 30s, for example, almost anything you do is going to work. So we naturally in our 40s start going to, well, I just need to do more of that. Whatever I did before that was like really great for me, that worked, I just do more of that. And what that typically ends up feeling like for midlife women is I've gotta restrict more. Uh, so eat less of what I like. I need to do less and then I need to move more. So, and then we get into this conversation of what's wrong with me? Like, why aren't I motivated? Or I don't, feel like it anymore, like I used to. And why does it feel harder? So what's changed though, is as our hormones start declining and changing, so perimenopause and the menopause, we have a lot of actual changes. Now it doesn't mean it's not possible. It absolutely is possible. You can be fitter, stronger than you ever were before. However, the way that we did it, we have to rethink that and we have to let go of what used to work. And we have to be open-minded that there's a whole new season that we're walking into. And it's more than just working out and eating less. It's a bigger picture than that.

Now tell us about that bigger picture. What should we be looking at? Yeah.

So, so I used to, when I taught fitness and fat loss initially for many years, I had it in 3 buckets. It was state, plate, and weight. So state was sort of your mindset, your belief set around, is it possible? Which I still very much believe. And then your plate was what you're eating. And then the weight was more the weights that you're moving, the workouts you're doing. Now, as we get older, it's not a bad thing. It's a good thing, but we have to become what I call being our own health detective. We have to be our own health detective. And the reason is the bucket expands. So there's a bunch of different areas, and these are not doomsday. It's all about information that we need to start looking at. For example, I'll put 'em into some big buckets, our gut health. And then I would probably put with that now oral biome, which I know you talk a lot about, but we need to look at gut and oral biome. What is happening there? Because that's going to impact everything. That's one bucket. Thyroid is another huge one that we need to look at. Things start changing with thyroid and we have to pay attention there. Then there's the entire hormone bucket. So all of the things, especially the sex hormones. So what's happening with estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, what's happening with those? And then there are these other layers too of being a health detective where I can talk about even DNA, like where does DNA play a role? We have to start looking at these different buckets and playing health detective in those areas because if any of those areas are off, it doesn't matter how hard you work out or how strict you're eating or how much you believe it's possible. If the something's off in those areas, you, you're basically fighting an uphill battle.

Absolutely. Now, so let's start with the first one, with the gut microbiome. And you mentioned also the oral, but the gut microbiome, do you measure that or how do you look at that?

Well, there's a number of different ways. I don't personally do it. Um, but this is something that I educate women around in with testing. So you'll, I, I'm a fan of testing, not guessing. So understanding what's going on there, and there's a number of different tests you could do. You could do a stool analysis. If you're doing oral biome, that's a different test that you, you know much more about than me, but the swab test there But understanding that if we don't look at that, we're ignoring a huge area that could be, that could be creating all kinds of issues. So for example, if you have a pathogen in your oral biome or in your gut biome, if you've got something that is a pathogen, you've been feeding this for a long time and it's basically taking a priority over other areas of your health. So you eat nutrients, it's going towards supporting that versus what it needs, where you need to support your body. So you might be thinking, why am I always tired? Why do I have foggy head? Why do I have low energy? And you're thinking, I just need to work out harder. I need to eat stricter. And what you're real— not realizing is you've got a pathogen, you've got something going on in your gut or in your oral biome that could be throwing you off. And I could take that into other areas too. So let's just say cortisol, for example, we hear a lot about cortisol dysregulation, nervous system dysregulation. Well, what a lot of women don't realize is just something as simple as your oral biome being off could be creating a cortisol dysregulation because your body, if it senses an infection, it sense senses something off, it's going to start releasing cortisol to try to help you with that. So you're thinking, I've gotta meditate more, I've gotta do more breathwork, I've gotta just be more zen. And you're wondering why you have this internal buzz. You might have an underlying infection you don't even know you have.

My gosh, I'm so glad you mentioned this because even in dentistry, you know, it's not something that we go, you have an infection, let's see what your cortisol's doing. Like we don't think that way yet. There's still this separation of medicine and dentistry.

Yeah, it's the first thing I think of honestly, when, when somebody tells me they have high cortisol, I mean, obviously I'll go through the, the main things, but what was frustrating me so much is I'll hear high cortisol. And most people, when you hear high cortisol or dysregulated nervous system, they tell you literally meditate, breathe, more yoga. That's amazing. But when you have that internal buzz and that high cortisol, I don't know if you've ever experienced it personally. I have. When that is there, the last thing you can do is just tell yourself to go meditate. It does not work that way. You've gotta calm yourself down first. So how do you calm yourself down? Well, a lot of women just turn to, to drugs. So it's like, oh, I'll get a pharmaceutical or I'll, I'll do that. That might be fine temporarily, but you're not fixing the root. So something as simple as a dental infection, for example, could be driving all of that. And just by getting that cleaned up, fixed, it's amazing how your cortisol will regulate.

Yeah. Wow. I'm glad you brought this up. A lot of people think, oh, if I had a dental infection, I would feel it. Mm-hmm. But that's not true because there's so many silent infections that are going on in the mouth.

No.

For example, having a root canal that's infected, that tooth is dead. So, you know, it's not gonna let somebody know, yeah, hey, I'm infected, but I'm dead.

I'll tell you a real story here that it aligns with all of this. So when I talk about these different buckets, I'm a really big believer of toxic load. So we are exposed to toxins every day.

So.

Whether that's our skincare products, the foods that we're eating, the air that we're breathing, the environment we're living in. You're in a house around mold, whatever it is. We are exposed to that stuff every day. And then on top of that, you've got things happening in your body. So like, call it these infections or gut dysbiosis. You've got hormones changing. You've got all these things happening, right? Well, there becomes this load, this toxic load bucket where now where maybe you didn't feel these things years ago, now that it's compounded, it starts wreaking havoc on your entire body. So all these things start to. Compound and you've got this toxic load problem. So I'll give you a real example. I'll walk you through exactly what got me thinking this way and why I teach women this. So several years back, here I am in fat loss, health, nutrition, and I started having a blood sugar dysregulation. So simple thing, you're like, okay, blood sugar dysregulation, type 2 diabetes runs in my family. I'm in my 40s. Maybe there's, you know, maybe it's that. So that was the first thought. Well, I couldn't get it down. So no matter what I ate or did not eat, I could not move my blood sugar. My A1C was pre-diabetic. So I'm, you know, going extreme keto. I'm be— I'm a nutritionist. I know this. I'm like, I can master this. Could not get it down. Our mutual friend Laura Frontero says to me, you know, parasites can cause blood sugar dysregulation. I looked at her like she had horns on her head. Like, what are you talking about? I didn't know anything about this yet. So I, after not being able to figure this out, not being able to get it down with berberine or food, any of that, I was about to do metformin. I decided to do a gut biome test with her. I did that, learned I had parasites, did a full parasite cleanse, and some people might be turning their nose up, like, whatever. But right away my blood sugar started getting regulated. And so that was like a first glimpse of what's going on. Well, when that happened, it had me looking at then what was feeding this? Like, how did I even get parasites? What was leading to that? Because there's always a, the root behind the root. There's a cause behind the cause. And I wanted to figure that out. Come to learn through detective work that not only did I have black mold in my house, but that I I also had a ruptured breast implant. I had a silicone gummy implant. It was ruptured. I didn't know this. So again, this is all separate things. Could you would think these are just separate, but it really does compound toxic load. So I move out of the house, I remove my implants right away. Inflammation's coming off. I'm releasing weight. I'm feeling better. Everything's improving. So now I'm on this, this toxic, you know, load understanding. I wanna learn more. I wanna learn more. All my labs are fine. I go, you know, a year and a half, 2 years, everything's good.

I get my labs done regularly.

I have this high MPO marker, myeloperoxidase. I think I'm pronouncing that right. MPO, it's an inflammation marker on your blood. And I had high cortisol. So I'm thinking just like everyone else does, oh, I've gotta be more zen. I've gotta relax. It's just stress. You know what's going on here. But I have this MPO marker. I come to find out MPO is inflammation and very much related to dental infections. So I'm thinking, okay, this is toxic load again.

Mm-hmm.

So let's keep chasing that. I go and have a cone beam scan, which I know you talk about. Yeah. And I find that an old root canal has a 4mm pocket and the starts of an infection. So right away I say, let's take it out. Let's get it out. We get the tooth out. Nothing really changes. Still feel my high cortisol. I have another tooth, cracked crown, cracked crown with a little bit of a pocket, not a root canal. Replace that. The next day I feel the cortisol drop. Literally. Wow. The next day it drops. Now, all of these things could sound like, oh my gosh, Natalie has another problem. What are all these things? Got it. These are all normal things that we chalk up to. These are just aging. This is wear and tear. This is over time. But all those things compound, things compounded, compounded lead to health problems and lead to weight loss resistance and lead to all of these things.

So.

It's not a just, it's just, oh, just explant, just pull a root canal out, just get your crown checked. It's not the, that it's always asking the questions and going deeper. And when you're saying I can't release weight or I've got all these problems or aches and pains, don't just stop at the one cause. Like what is the reason behind that reason? When I say be a health detective, that's what I'm talking about.

Yeah. So really understanding the environment cuz you know, the, the mold situation, was it in your house?

It was in our house and we moved.

Yes. Yeah. So, so a lot of people live with that and then you're throwing in the root canals and then you're throwing in other environmental factors and then that's how you get sick.

It's, it's the load. So people, you know, it's funny because you'll see somebody that's talking about mold poisoning, for example, and those same people, they're also talking about explanting or a root canal and you're like, wait, is there another problem they're having? Well, no, what's happening is the same thing I'm talking about. They have learned to be a health detective. So they had something that was not being solved. They couldn't figure out why they had the headache, the sinus infection, the whatever it was. Whatever the thing. And in digging, they started uncovering and then wanting to undo toxic load. So that's where that comes from. It's not that you have people that are all of a sudden these crazy hypochondriacs and they have a million things wrong with them. It's that we all have all these things. We're all surrounded by this. And as we get older, we're in our fifties, in our sixties, these things compound and you've gotta start striking them off if you wanna have true longevity and really be healthy. Yeah.

I love that we're talking about this, you know, the, the health detective, because everyone has to empower themselves to, or motivate themselves to become the health advocate for themselves. For sure. Right. And, and of course finding coaches like you or biological dentist who could help them uncover and remove those little pieces one by one. Yeah. But I would love to hear, yeah, go ahead.

No, I was gonna say, and what happens is, you know, we didn't even talk about hormones yet, but what happens is a lot of midlife women, they start feeling bad. They are gaining weight. They're not feeling amazing. And they go, okay, I'm cleaning up my diet. I'm working out. I wanna be more motivated. I'll just do hormone replacement. Hormone replacement's amazing. However, if you've got these other issues going on, that's not gonna help you. Then you've got other pro— so for example, if you've got problems in your gut and you add estrogen replacement, where do you think your estrogen's metabolizing? Like we're gonna have other issues there. So this all really does need to work together.

Yes. And especially somebody that has like a high level of mercury, speaking of toxicity, or a lot of mercury fillings in their mouth, they're gonna, it's going to affect their absorption and their leaky gut for sure.

Yeah.

Now I would love to know what happened to your root canal. What'd you end up doing?

Yeah. So I, well, I have a big hole in my mouth right now. I, so I've, I had two root canals, uh, 30 years ago after I had those done. Gosh, within the last 20 years, I knew that root canals were bad. I decided I would never have a root canal again. That was not gonna be an option in my life. Was not gonna do that and always wanted them out, but was told, and we are told a lot by conventional dentists, like, oh, leave it alone unless it's infected. Like, it's fine. So they always really sort of bothered me. To me, it's like having, you know, mummification of something in your mouth. It's literally a dead tooth in your mouth. So it just doesn't sit right with me. So I always knew I would get them out. I was just keeping an eye on them. I had a cone beam scan every year for the last few years, uh, just to see if what was going on. I do go to a biological dentist, check the pockets, make sure. So as soon as that one was showing an increased pocket size and showing something on a cone beam, it wasn't even a question. It was, let's remove it. So I removed that one. It is— I did not immediately place an implant. I will be putting a ceramic implant in on that one and then a ceramic crown. Once that one is restored, then I'll go ahead and remove that other one. I didn't want to be missing two at the same time. So that was my plan.

Oh no, the other root canal. Okay.

The other root canal. So I still have one that's not showing an infection right now and it's not showing anything. But if that, that will come out next.

No, I think you're doing the right thing. You know, a lot of people are terrified of like, oh my God, what am I going to do without teeth? But I think really talking to your and creating this plan that you have. Okay, we're going to finish this side and then going to the other side. Yeah. There's a lot of different dentists out there that recommend different things. I know there's this group from Europe, they say, no, take everything out at once and replace everything immediately. I think it's better the way you're doing it. Yeah. What's right for you.

Well, I thought about, so here's the thing. I do think that it's possible. I mean, and I actually was in dentistry for many, many years, which is funny before I ever even got into what I do now. So I happen to know a weird amount about implants and teeth. An unusual amount about around them, but because that was my industry for, for many years.

But what did you do in the dental field?

Yeah, I was dental implant company.

Okay.

Yeah. So I knew I have a whole background with dental labs and dental implants. So I always would say root canals are holding spaces for implants. So I knew back then that if I ever needed another root canal, I would just go right to an implant. So I was never afraid of the dental implant. Now, some people have asked me, because I've shared on social when I did the root canal removal, Well, is it an implant just as bad? Well, nothing's going to be as good as your own real healthy tooth, right? But when you take a dead tooth, when it's dead, now it's— you're putting literally dead bacteria in your mouth. A mummy. It's taxidermy in your mouth. That to me is way worse than to me doing a ceramic implant or even probably a titanium implant in my mind. So, so my thought process is that. But when you said about same day, if your doctor is up to speed on same-day placement and they are confident with that, and that is their strength, that's fine. Most dentists are not. They want to go to the traditional, let's let it heal on the bone. And to me, surgeon confidence is gonna be very, very important. So yes, that doctor you're talking about in Germany, I know him, I've interviewed him on my show. He's amazing. That's what he does. That's great if you're in Germany or if you fly to Germany. Yeah. But I know a lot of the dentists here, if that's not what they're comfortable with, I don't wanna push a dentist into something they're not comfortable with, as that's how you do get a failure. Yeah.

Yes, I agree with you. And, and it's good to interview your dentist. You know, if somebody's listening and they say, just ask him, are you confident? How many implants have you done? You know, some people are just starting. And how complicated is my case? Because some cases are more complicated than others. So it's good to ask and be informed.

If it was a front tooth, I probably would do, you know, if it was a front tooth, it also depends where, what tooth it is. Mine are, it's a first molar.

So yeah, it's a little tricky. Yeah. Yeah. First molars are usually the ones that we've had since we were 6 years old. Yeah. So unfortunately they break down usually first. Now on the other side, you mentioned you have a cracked crown and what's interesting about the cracked crown, and that was not a root canal, I think you mentioned.

No, it was not. It was a porcelain fused to metal cracked crown. But also you would think that wouldn't be an issue. Like some people are like, okay. Yeah. And I wasn't even concerned necessarily about the metal. However, when you start having bacteria, like, so like let's just say you're flossing your teeth and you have an odor. You have bacteria there. So if you have that, or when you're going to the dentist and they're checking your teeth and they're charting and they're saying these numbers, they're talking about recession, your gum. When that starts receding, you've got bacteria there. You've got an issue. I mean, your audience knows this, you know this way more than me, but that is not healthy. So when you have that, your body will treat that like an infection. It's trying to, to fight and protect it. So you're releasing cortisol. So sometimes when your blood markers are going up, it's not as extreme as an old root canal. It could be just bad dental work that's old or chipped or all kinds of things there.

Yeah, exactly. And in dentistry, you know, dental work needs to be upgraded once in a while. Just like we upgrade our cell phones, we need to upgrade our dentistry. But actually what's interesting about cracked crowns is that when they're cracked and bacteria, bacteria seeps in there in a warm and moist environment, it's actually not just bacteria, it's also mold.

So, yeah, that's even worse.

Yeah. So it, whenever, you know, we take crowns that are cracked or broken or leaking underneath, underneath, wow. It can be black.

Factual. That's that. Yeah. You know, it's funny when even me who knows a lot about this, I had, when I removed the root canal, my biological dentist said, we really need to fix that crown. And I said, well, it's not hurting and it's, you know, it's expensive and let's just do this first. And she, she was the one who said, this is as important. And in my mind I'm thinking, well, it's not a dead tooth, but you know what? That was the one that was creating more of my problems. And I wouldn't have thought that.

Yes, it's true. And a lot of people have this thought, oh, it doesn't hurt, so I could put it off.

Yeah. But we don't want to— neither one of mine hurt, the old root canal or this. Yeah.

We don't know the impact it's having on the body and it will have some sort of impact. And of course, like you said, it depends on genetics. And that's another topic I wanna talk to you about is how you use genetics in your— Yeah.

So, so our DNA is everything, is everything. So what might affect your husband or you or your best friend or somebody else differently, it's because of genetics typically. So for example, you could have the same specific gene as somebody else, but a different expression of it and have a different reaction. Let me give you an example. MTHFR. A lot of people have the MTHFR gene, and then we hear this generic advice. If you have the MTHFR gene, you need methylated B vitamins. I know some of your listeners have heard that. You have meth— MTHFR, take methylated B vitamins. Well, it depends if you have a certain expression of the MTHFR, which I happen to have one, a variant of that. That will backfire and that will make you feel like you're on speed and it will make your cortisol and everything else worse. So it's a very much, it depends. So genetics are kind of our blueprint to what's going on with our body, and this is with everything. So you can look at like, break down cholesterol for example. You can look at your cholesterol numbers, but based on what you actually have genetic-wise markers, things are gonna affect you different. Genetics also help us understand what type of food we should be eating, the type of diet we should follow, a type of exercise that's great for us or maybe not so supportive. So there's a gazillion genes and there's a whole deep conversation, but to leave that out of the equation is, is not a great idea because that is why, like, my husband can eat and take certain supplements and be fine. And for me, I'll have a very different reaction.

I'm glad we're talking about this, especially MTHFR is such a big one also for in dentistry and biological dentistry where you want to detoxify the mouth. Yeah. Not just from microbes, from metals. And it's really, really important that the detoxification pathways are working properly. Yeah.

So let's talk about detox for a second here because this is a perfect example. If you've got slow COMT, okay, gene expressions, your body will be very slow to detox things, which means your downstream does not work very effectively. It's slow, which is fine. However, when you start adding a ton of upstream things like mitochondrial support, So all these things that we hear are so amazing, all like CoQ10 and red light and like there's NAD and NMN, all these things are mitochondrial support. It's basically putting gasoline on gas if you do not have good downstream or good detox pathways. So sometimes you might have your, you're like, my husband and my best friend do all these things and they feel amazing, but I go get an IV of, you know, methylated B vitamins and CoQ10 and whatever, and I feel terrible. Well, that's why, because What's happening is you're not detoxing properly. You're not, you have a slow backlog and we're adding all this gasoline onto the ga— onto the flames and we feel worse. So that's another example of where your gene expression is super important. And I think unfortunately most doctors are not looking at all of those things.

It's so true. And I think this is where dentistry has an opportunity as we're doing this detoxification to pair up with a practitioner.

Yeah.

To help us because we can't do it all. So I highly encourage any dentist or hygienist listening right now and they're looking at, you know, their patients who are detoxifying, it could be detoxifying from periodontal disease. Totally. You know? Yeah. Yeah. We, we need to understand these pathways and, and dentistry, unfortunately, you know, DNA analysis hasn't really taken off except for maybe a couple markers like IL-6.

Yeah. Yeah. We're looking at, and then same with like de— there's some things that are like, for me personally, I'll spend more time on detox things. So like I, I love my sauna. I love my— I'll take, uh, I'll do Urolithin A for mitochondria, things that help detox, help clean out. But I will avoid things that are adding input. So adding that energy, that for me, that ramps me up too much. Even something like red light, which I absolutely love, I've gotta be very strategic and very short amount of time with it. If I do too long on the red light, it will do that same thing to me and ramp me up too much.

Interesting. I have never heard this about the red light.

I'm actually a big fan of it. Yeah. It helps mitochondria. So think about that. Depending on your genetic makeups, that could be great for some people. For some it's too much, it's too stimulating.

What's the easiest way nowadays for people to test, you know, for their genetics? Is it a blood test?

So many different, there's so many different tests for that. The question is you wanna find somebody that's actually an expert in DNA because you can get a DNA test and just go into ChatGPT or whatever, but it's not gonna be as dialed in as a clinician that's really an expert in that. So you ask your, you ask your practitioner who is, is ask them what their knowledge is around DNA testing. And if they say they don't believe in it or whatever, and then I'd probably find another doctor. But I think, you know, I think about, I've had probably 7 DNA tests over the years. They, it's all telling you the same information, but just different test companies I've tried. But taking a look and understanding your DNA is actually important. You know, it's so funny. I'll, I'll have friends sometimes say the doctor wanted to run a DNA test and they don't want to because they don't wanna know if they have certain genes for things. That's what they're saying. Like, they, cuz they're looking at it as a doomsday. Like, well, I don't wanna know if I have a cancer gene or if I have this. I don't look at it that way. I look at it as very empowering. It's your guidebook. So I don't look at it as I'm gonna find out I have a doomsday. It's more, you're gonna find out what you, what you're born with, what you have, so you can learn how to support that so it doesn't express a certain way.

Exactly. And I think, you know, it's so important to know our genetics because little tweaks like that, whether in supplementation or diet, even exercise, you know, my, my genetics says I'm, I do really well with strength training, you know? So, so that's what I'm going for. Yeah.

That's great.

Um, yeah, so it's really important to do that. Some people, one of the complaints I hear is like, oh no, they're gonna steal my DNA information. And, uh, you know, I'm afraid. Do you hear that? What are your thoughts on that?

I don't really, I mean, I guess, I mean, it depends on how you wanna live your life, you know? And that is very much, I don't think that way. That's like, I'm, I'm in the process of moving back to California from Arizona and I can have all kinds of people can tell me why that's doomsday and terrible and the politics and the taxes and all. And I don't even like look at that. I'm like, well, I'm gonna be happy in California. Like I, it's the beach, the sunshine, the weather. So it's how we look at life, right? Like, I understand the being concerned and worried about some things, but we also have to live our life and enjoy it. So you're gonna find a block with me on things like that because I don't like to hear that. I don't even like to put those things in my, in my radar. I understand that's a risk for some people. I will tell you, the company that I've worked with many times, a DNA company, they destroy their stuff. My friend Kash Khan actually founded that company, and they literally destroy after they test, so your information is not going anywhere. But yes, if you're concerned, you can look at that. But I'm also gonna ask you a bigger question on how you're living life when you walk around being concerned about everything like that. So I'd rather, you know, I, I want the guidebook. I wanna understand. I'm less worried about what someone's gonna do with my DNA really.

Yeah. I, I agree with you. We cannot live in fear because it's such a negative vibration, such a low vibration as it is, and we have to live it.

Yeah. And just to give you an example, I have probably the worst genetics. Like I have all the bad, when I started digging in genetics, I have all the bad things. Like literally all the bad things. And if I look at my family history, we have all the stuff and I'm not expressing any of those things currently because I have felt empowered to really understand and change. And I, you know, I look at my mom, for example, she does have type 2 diabetes around the same age as me. She had a blood sugar dysregulation. I don't— my A1C is very low right now. It's like 4.8. It's, it's not even— it's low. Now that dropped from a 5.8. I was pre-diabetic. So my mom, on the other hand, she is now on Metformin many years later. She's in her 70s. But who knows if we had explored her toxic load and all those things, what that would've done. So all these things that we just think are genetic, it could just be that toxic load piling up and you can buy a lot more time by understanding.

Yeah. Now I'm curious, um, how do you work with clients or what's, what's your most typical client that you get?

Yeah. So, well, typically clients come to me through my Total Body Thrive program, which is a kind of a go on your own where I teach all of this. I teach all about about the different topics and how to be your own health detective. And I guide women through that. So I have a very specific program, Total Body Thrive. It's an 8-week program where you literally get all— you learn all of this stuff. And then I do have clients that go on beyond that in either my groups or they'll individually coach with me. But usually people start with Total Body Thrive.

Okay. I love the name. So basically what do they learn there? How to get—

oh my gosh, everything. So they typically will come in first with, I wanna lose weight. That's like the, that's where people usually find me. I wanna release weight. And that's fine. We're, we get into that, of course. So we start the first 3 weeks are actually really, really fun because we really start in vision. So I do a lot of personal development in there because I do think that's the bigger, most important thing in every area of our, of our life is this idea of what's the vision that we want for ourselves. It's not woo-woo. It's not weird. It's actually really fun because it's, if you're listening, if you're a woman listening and you're thinking, I don't want to be X, Y, Z, like I don't wanna be overweight. I don't wanna be this. That's not fun. That's like you're running away from something. So the first thing I do with women is get them into what do you actually want? And we work there on what do you actually want possible for your life? Because when you just say, I wanna be thin, or I don't wanna be X, Y, Z, that's not empowering. But when I can get you clear on what that new life looks like, we start there, which is really fun. And usually just that shift alone starts changing things for people. Then we look at nutrition. We go right back to basics. So I teach unprocessed, natural, real food. I start everyone there, even if you you have your master's in nutrition, we go back there because as we get comfortable in life, we've sort of forgotten some of these basics. Once we have a clean slate there, we've got the right mindset, we're clear on our vision, we've wiped the slate clean with nutrition, then we start getting into health detective work. And that's when we look at gut, thyroid, hormones. We go and become a detective in those different areas, even DNA. And then from there, you usually have a really good idea of what's going on, how to fix it, and we've already moved the scale and we're feeling better. And then from there, I'll usually recommend out if like when somebody's dialed in on one specific area and we're like, okay, we wanna go deeper gut, or we wanna go deeper here. That's when I'll typically refer out there.

That's amazing. Cuz you have a quite a big community, don't you?

I do. Well, I do. I don't do active. I used to do active, like we call 'em launches where I would do big, huge January, for example, launches for Total Body Thrive. And we would have hundreds of women come through at one time. I did not do that this January. I was on a little bit of my own sabbatical. It's a lot of work doing that. So we made it so people can just go about it at their own pace, and that's what they're doing. I may do another one in the near future. I'm thinking about it, but women can always find it and reach out to work with me direct if they want to do that.

That's great. And you're also giving, uh, our listeners a special offer here at, uh, is it the Flat Belly Guide?

Yep. We have— I have all kinds of free stuff for you if you want the Flat Belly Guide. We'll put a link in there, uh, for you that you can try out. And I also have an Age Optimizing Guide if you dive into some tools on age optimizing. So I'll give you the link for both of those in the, for the show notes. Absolutely.

We will put 'em in the show notes. I know we have, but the majority of our listeners are women and I know a lot of 'em are around 50 plus or minus 10, 20. So I know these resources, you know, they would love them. And you had 2 back surgeries.

I did. Well, I've had 3 backs. Okay. I've had, I have a list. I am like, I am become the ultimate health detective because I'm a walking life of Natalie. You know, it's funny when people say, what do you do? I'm always like, it depends on the day because I think I'm a teacher of life. Like whatever I've walked through, I teach. You know, when I got into fitness and fat loss years ago, it was my own transformation. When I was 35, I had my own massive setback and I gained a lot of weight and I had to learn how to overcome that and fix that. So for many years I taught fitness and nutrition from that perspective, but in my late forties and early fifties, I started having all these crazy setbacks. Injuries, all of the, I mean, I had a ruptured disc in my lower back. I had a torn bicep. I had all these things. I don't think these are all isolated though. I really don't. I think everything I'm talking about with gut health and oral, everything goes together. When your body is not working optimally, when you've got old root canals, when you've got breast implants that are leaking, when you're living in mold, when you've got gut dysbiosis, when you have all that, you are gonna get injured more. More. Like, your body is not working optimally. So it's not that I've had these one-off random, like, why did this happen? I'm very clear now why it all happened. It all happened because it all works together and piles up. So yes, my back, for example, I ruptured a disc, uh, 8 years ago. Uh, I was on set doing fitness videos and I ruptured a disc. It was a pretty gnarly rupture. I had emergency surgery to remove, um, the rupture. I didn't fuse it or do anything at the time. I spent 8 years really working to get around pain and how do I develop my glutes and core to be strong and not feel it. But ultimately, it just— it started to auto fuse together. It was very painful, and I ended up having a disc replacement about a year ago. So glad I did it. So, you know, I think of things like that. How did I get injured? I think it's a compounded effect of all those things. And then, then you also think every surgery adds toxic load. Every— there's so many things that add to this. And, you know, I look at the disc in my back now, it's got titanium in it. So all that stuff is going to continue contribute, which is why we have to be more on top of things we can control.

Yes, absolutely. Amazing. You've been through so much and I feel, you know, with every experience you've had, you're right. It was a lesson that you learned something from. You had a discovery and then we get to share it with, uh, your listeners and your clients.

Yeah. Yeah. I could, I could choose to look at it as, oh my gosh, I'm a train wreck. Or I can look at it as, well, you know what? I've been through a lot. Nobody can talk to me about their excuses or a list of things. Cause I got my list tops them. And every time something happens now, my husband's like, well, I guess it's more content for you. I guess there'll be a podcast about this. I guess you'll have a program about this.

Probably. But you know, it's amazing. And it's so inspiring for everybody even listening today. And for those of you, you can see, you know, the video of you, you know, you're very fit, you're radiant, you have glowing skin and you, you know, after all these challenges, you rose above them.

Thank you. And I hope to continue to, I certainly don't have it all perfect or dialed in, but I will continue sharing as I learn. And I do help a lot of women because I've been through so much of this that, you know, sometimes my husband will listen in on some coaching calls and he's like, how do you know? Like, you're like an intuitive. I'm like, I'm not an intuitive. I've just been through so much. So I understand and I know what to ask. So I'm pretty darn good at helping women figure out what the heck is going on with them. There's yet to be a client that has come through me that I can't help dial in what's going on. I'm really good at helping figure that out. And I believe that why I've walked through so much of this is for that reason.

So if you are one of those women listening to this podcast and you're having a challenge or some challenges in your health, reach out to Natalie. Are you taking—

I am taking new clients. I, yeah, I always am.

So I'm going to put your, your link there because I know it's hard to be alone and not have, you know, absolutely. So yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So much, so much amazing information, Natalie. Thank you so much for being on the show.

Thanks for having me.

Everyone listening, if you like this episode and you know somebody in your life that could benefit benefit from what Natalie and I talked about, please share this episode with that person and leave us a message on our YouTube channel if there's any other topic that you'd like to listen to. Thank you so much, Natalie, and everyone else, stay healthy. Thank you. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please make sure you check out the show notes for any links mentioned in the show. If you like today's show, please invite your friends to listen as well. That would mean a lot to me. Do you have a question you'd like me to answer? Message me on Instagram @drsandamoldovanovan. This is Dr. Sanda Moldovan, and remember, your mouth is the gateway to your health, so take care of it in the most natural and best way possible.