#238: Is Hormone Therapy Failing You? The Surprising Fix You Haven't Tried...

Hey beautiful, it's Dr. Tabatha.

I want to share something with you that I believe God is doing right now in women's health.

We're in the middle of a massive movement and most people don't even know it. Every single day, 6,000 women in the U.S. enter menopause. That's over 2 million women a year, and by 2030, that's more than 1.2 billion women worldwide. So here's the thing, most of these women feel exhausted, bloated, anxious, disconnected from themselves, and the medical system is Doctors are handing out prescriptions and quick fixes, and no one is helping women heal from the root cause of their issues. That's where Fast to Faith coaches come in. As a certified coach, you'll be equipped to help midlife women balance their hormones, heal their gut, regain their energy, and reconnect their faith, the foundation that so many of us have been missing. And from a business standpoint, woo, this is one of the most lucrative untapped opportunities in the entire health coaching world. The global health coaching industry is expected to reach over $33 billion by 2023, and midlife women are the fastest-growing, highest-spending demographic in that space. Most importantly, these women stay with their coaches. They invest deeply because they are desperate for lasting transformation— body, mind, and spirit. So if you've been feeling that pull and that whisper that you're meant to do more, This is it. Now is the time to rise, to serve, and build a purpose-driven business that not only changes other women's lives but transforms your own in the process. Because when you help one woman heal, you help her family, her marriage, her faith, and her future. That's the ripple effect that we're creating with Fast to Faith. So join me, click the link to come watch this webinar. It might be the one thing that really moves the needle for you in this Next season. I can't wait to see you in there.

Are you looking to elevate your health to the next level? In the Fast to Faith Community, we use fasting, faith, and functional medicine so that you lose weight and achieve your highest health. Hi, my name is Dr. Tabatha Barber. I'm a triple board-certified functional medicine physician. I help women look and feel 10 years younger by integrating fasting, faith, and functional medicine. Download the Fast to Faith app in the Apple Store or the Google Play Store and start your free 7-day trial. You're going to get recipes, meal plans, and my proven 2-10-20-30 method of eating for weight loss. And the Fast to Faith Sisterhood, which is a nurturing, supportive community of women who share challenges, progress, and celebrate successes together. The Fast to Faith app has everything you need to lose weight while deepening your faith. Thrive with the intermittent fasting lifestyle. On this episode of Fast to Faith—

Hormone replacement was not going to fix that. Hormone replacement was going to help some of her symptoms and prevent future issues like bone loss, cardiovascular disease, things like that. But that wasn't the full picture. She really had to do a full-on gut healing regimen. We had to remove foods she was reacting to, multiple foods, because her immune system was on It was confused in her gut, so it was reacting to everything she was putting into her mouth, into her gut. And so you have to get in and break that vicious cycle for things to shift.

Hormone optimization, gut health, faith, fasting, nutrition, beauty secrets, longevity, weight loss, so much more. Welcome to Fasted Faith. Are you ready to look and feel 10 years younger? Let's get started.

What a beautiful week. The leaves are falling. I live in Michigan and there is every autumn color outside. It's absolutely gorgeous. It really does remind me that God is such a beautiful creator. The things that he came up with, I can't even fathom all the different shades of oranges and greens and yellows and browns. And how he takes care of the animals in the changing of the seasons. And the simple fact that the wind that really gusts up right now in September, October, November helps the leaves fall off the trees so that they can do what they need to do. Like, it's just so beautiful when you take a moment and really just Pay attention to all that God has created. Like, I'm in awe of God all the time. And today I am going to talk about a woman who joined my Coaching Certification Academy because I'm in awe of what God is doing in there. And I'm just really excited to share her wins and her epiphanies. And I want you to think about what you're struggling with and what you're going through. So she came to me. She is 49 years old. She had been on BHRT for perimenopausal symptoms, and she thought that was the answer, right? She was seeing a conventional OB-GYN who Surprisingly enough, gave her an estrogen patch and progesterone, and she didn't feel better. She was still struggling with carrying extra weight, feeling fatigued, not sleeping well, and she had other symptoms and issues that she really didn't correlate or put together with her perimenopausal transition. So she heard me on a podcast talking about my Healthy Her program and how gut health determines your gyn health and your hormones. Hormone balance, and she was like, hmm, let me check this out. This sounds really interesting. And so when she came to us, you know, she did a discovery call with my team, and Sarah, who's one of our amazing women on our team, explained to her that a lot of times we see women with hormone issues that are exacerbated or brought on by. chronic gut problems and inflammation, which develop food sensitivities. And then you get stuck in this vicious cycle of inflammation and not being able to balance your hormones and your cells being inflamed and not being able to hear the signals of the hormones. And it's like a whole thing. And so I was finally seeing this woman. She took the leap as she joined the Healthy Her program. And then I saw her for her results appointment. And oh my gosh, I was so happy for her that she decided to pretty much take a leap of faith and realize that there might be more to her issue than just hormone replacement, because she did want to just sign up for hormone replacement and see if I could tweak her levels and see if that is what she needed to feel better. She thought, okay, the conventional doctor just doesn't know what they're talking about. Let me have Dr. Tabatha change my levels, or maybe I need testosterone, whatever. But when I saw her and showed her her test results, we were both like, oh my gosh, I'm so glad you are doing Healthy Her. So she had an elevated insulin that was 22 fasting, It should be 5 or below. She had straight-up insulin resistance. She had a hemoglobin A1C of 5.9. So that is a measure of your average blood sugar over 3 months' time. She was pre-diabetic. She didn't know this. Her doctors hadn't checked these levels. They were focused on the perimenopause issue. And so they were just empirically giving her hormone replacement because her periods were going away and she was having hot flashes and night sweats and not sleeping well and gaining weight. That's fine. And she probably does need hormones, but if you don't fix the root cause of what's driving that imbalance, especially when you're younger, it's going to continue to manifest and show up in other ways. So that was just her blood work. Her thyroid was stuck in this downregulated mode of trying to turn down her metabolism because she also had chronic gut issues going on. And the thyroid will respond to chronic gut issues every time. It will make more reverse T3 instead of active T3. That is like putting your foot on the brake. Slowing everything down. It slows your bowels down, so you're constipated. It slows down your hair growth or even causes hair loss. It prevents you from losing weight or burning fat, and it gives you a little bit brain fog, all the struggles. So we looked at her stool test and she had a parasite going on that she had no idea. She told me that she had a bowel movement. Every day or every other day. It wasn't really anything she was concerned about, but she was waking up at night at 2 or 3 in the morning every time. And often that is a parasite issue. They love to reproduce and wreak havoc in the middle of the night when you're trying to restore and repair. A lot of the liver functions are happening during the night. So she had congested fatty liver from her prediabetes and insulin resistance. So all of these things were going to continue to manifest and get worse. And hormone replacement was not going to fix that. Hormone replacement was going to help some of her symptoms and prevent future issues like bone loss, cardiovascular disease, things like that. But that wasn't the full picture. She really had to do a full-on gut healing regimen. We had to remove foods she was Reacting to multiple foods because her immune system was on fire. It was confused in her gut, so it was reacting to everything she was putting into her mouth, into her gut. And so you have to get in and break that vicious cycle for things to shift. Now, here's the coolest part. So we do this work. She does the Healthy Her program. She gets her insulin down to— 4. 8.5. By the time I see her 3 months later, her hemoglobin A1C was at 5.5, and her gut was healed, and she had released 12 pounds. And mind you, this was in like 3 months, and, and she wasn't trying to lose the weight. She was focused on healing her gut. And so If you really just tackle that inflammation response and shift your microbiome and calm your immune system down and do all those things, your body will naturally release all that inflammation and excess weight that it's holding onto. So if you've heard me in prior episodes talk about fat cells, they store a lot of toxins and So you really need to tackle all aspects of your health to really get on track. And now she's been through all of that and she had such amazing results and she continued to progress and continue her results that when we opened the Coaching Academy, she jumped on board to become a coach. And now she's helping other women. So it's really beautiful to just see her Take back control, not accept the status quo answer of you just need BHRT or you just need your dose changed. Like, let's look for those root causes. Let's figure out what the heck is going on deeper inside. And I'm just so proud of her because what it comes down to is you have to invest in you. You have to take the time. Uh, to make the changes and to see a different future for yourself. And her whole situation reminds me of James 1:2-4. Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete and not lacking anything. So she was up against a trial, like a trial against what she was struggling with. What was she going to do? Was she just going to accept this as her new norm and like, well, I guess I just have to carry around this extra weight. I guess I just, I'm tired. I'm getting old. I guess I'm just not a good sleeper. And like, take on all these lies that aren't Actually true? Like, was she going to accept that? Or was she going to say, no, this doesn't make sense. My body was created to heal and thrive. I have to figure out what's preventing it from doing that. And so she used her trials, her struggles, and pushed on. She persevered. She pushed through and got to the root cause and figured it out and shifted everything. And now she's thriving and helping other women. Like, that is beautiful. That is literally what God calls us to do. It's so good. I'm so excited for the women in my coaching program. They are just incredible women. And I am excited to see what they do. And I'm just in awe of what God really has laid out and the things that he keeps showing me and revealing to me and leading me towards. So I am open and I would love to invite you if you're like, man, that sounds like me. I have been struggling and this BHRT is not fixing me. Let's find the root cause together. The cool thing is I am licensed in over half the country. My team and I can see you even if I'm not licensed in your state. I can still help you shift all of that stuff. You might not even need prescriptions. You might not need me to be licensed in your state. So have a conversation with my team because you deserve to feel better. You don't need to struggle. I promise you. So let me know what your aha is in this situation. Because I know you just got some clarity on something today, and I want to know about it. And I'll talk about it in more detail next time. If you just like send me a message, send me a DM. I am here to serve you. I want to help guide you and help you figure out what's going on in your body because you deserve to feel amazing. So if you could take 30 seconds to give me a 5-star review, that would be even more incredible. It really doesn't take a lot of time, especially if you're on your iPhone listening on your— on the podcast. You just click the 5-star review, write a review. It takes like 30 seconds. If you're watching on YouTube, hit the subscribe button. Help me be seen. Help me help other women. Like, that is one thing that you can actually do. is support other women. Show up, because somehow you found this because somebody else hit subscribe. So pay it forward. It's so good. All right, have an amazing day. I love you.