Episode #79: The Essential Oils Menopause Solution, with Dr. Mariza Snyder

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. Hi, I'm Dr. Tabatha, the Functional Gynecologist. I'm a board-certified OB-GYN and functional medicine physician. I've embraced the world of functional medicine and wellness through my own personal health journey, and I'm super excited to share my wisdom and unique perspective as it pertains to women's health. So if you're struggling with hormone imbalance, weight gain, period issues, anxiety, insomnia, you name it, Then you've come to the right place. I want to be your functional gynecologist. So welcome. Hi ladies, welcome back. Oh my gosh, I'm so excited for this episode. I am. interviewing Dr. Marisa Snyder. She is like just an amazing woman. She actually has an awesome podcast that was kind of the inspiration for me to do my podcast. And she is just doing so many amazing things, helping women get their hormones balanced naturally. And she, she's on fire. She just had a baby at 40 and she just launched like her umpteenth book. She's a bestselling author. She's amazing. But her book, The Essential Oils Menopause Solution, came out of her mom's experience of going through menopause. And she has created the most comprehensive, beautiful program for women to really just feel empowered and reclaim their health during this perimenopausal transition, which we're going to talk about because this time period can last up to a decade. Oh my goodness. Like you, You can start experiencing things in your late 30s, early 40s. And I see it all the time with my patients. You guys aren't realizing what's going on, or maybe you're realizing and it's all being blamed on hormones. And I know that that's how I was trained as a gynecologist is, oh, you just must need more estrogen, or it's just your hormones. And kind of we brush it off. And really, There's so much more to the picture. There are root causes that your gut and liver aren't functioning well. You're not doing your self-care and you're not nourishing your body and you are developing, you know, insulin resistance or having no metabolic flexibility. So all of these things Dr. Marisa and I are going to talk about today because she just has so much insight into how you can take control of how you're feeling, especially Especially during, you know, 35 and above, because pretty much once you've gone through puberty and your early reproductive years, your body starts to be affected by your diet and your lifestyle and your environment in such a major way, like in a way that our great-grandmothers never had to deal with because of our different society and the way that we live nowadays. But there are I want you to feel empowered in this episode because there's amazing things that you can do to take back control of how you feel. If you're, you know, suffering from PMS and headaches and breast tenderness and crazy periods or insomnia, exhaustion, you know, all these things, gut issues. Definitely women are having major gut issues, IBS, constipation. They don't feel like they're digesting their food. They're getting— the gallbladder pain, that right upper quadrant pain when you eat, all these things, like, it's all impacted by your daily habits, your, you know, what you're doing on the daily on a consistent basis. And so Dr. Marisa is amazing at really inspiring you and getting you to, like, try new things, change up what you're doing on the daily and see how quickly you can transform how You feel. So I love her new book, and she has a 21-day hormone makeover program in this book. This is what her mom did to, like, reclaim her health and feel amazing and get over this perimenopausal hump. But it really is designed for most adult women. So I actually would love for you guys to all do the 21-day makeover. I think everybody would benefit from it, even if you're not having major symptoms, but you know that you could feel better. You know you can take it to the next level. Her program is just comprehensive and amazing, and it's going to get you there. So definitely check that out. The link is in my show notes, but I am super excited for this episode. So it's been a long time coming. I love Dr. Marisa, and so I hope you'll stay tuned and listen. And thank you so much for giving me your time. You're you know you're listening and you're hanging out with me, and I'm just. So appreciative because I do this for you. You know, honestly, this is why I do this. And if you are enjoying it, I would love for you to leave me a five-star review. Leave me, you know, tell me what you want to hear more about. Tell me what touched you. What's that golden nugget you're going to take from this episode and start incorporating into your life? Because like I say, when you keep adding on. to your new habits, old bad habits are going to fall away because your life is going to be filled with amazing new habits that you've created and you're consistently doing. So those changes will happen. You can be a whole new woman in the next year. It's amazing. So awesome. Let's get started with this episode. Well, welcome, Dr. Marisa, to the Functional Gynecologist Podcast.

I am so honored to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

Oh my gosh. It's my honor. I can't wait to have this conversation. It's long overdue for women. Like we were just saying, like menopause is not talked about enough.

No, nor is perimenopause, either of these phases. You know, we focus so much on puberty, so, so critical that, that girls are set up for success and they know their bodies and they have that body literacy. Um, so we, we, we Do educate on that, although, you know, we could do a better job most likely on that area as well. And then, you know, a lot of us, you know, step into childbearing and we have a pretty good sense of how that's running as well, although I always recommend that women track their cycle so they really have a great knowing of what's going on in their bodies. But then we don't— we kind of just like shove it under the rug, you know, for perimenopause into menopause. And I think there's a lot of confusion. One, what goes on in these 2 beautiful phases and what that means for us in our bodies and for us in our emotional and mental well-being.

Yeah, exactly. I think it's so important that we define perimenopause. So let's explain to my listeners what perimenopause is, because I see it all day, every day. Women just think that you're supposed to have this normal, regular period and then stop and be done. And they get confused about this transition period called perimenopause. So what's going on during that time?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, as you can imagine, kind of just like we ramped up in puberty to childbearing, it takes us about 9 years, 7 to 9 years of going through puberty for women are fully kind of in that mature state of like, okay, my body's fully ready to make these babies. And as you can imagine, you know, it's a very energetic process. You think about the amount of mitochondria inside of our ovaries are more mitochondria than any other organ system in the body. It's like 15,000. Because as you can imagine, making humans is a very, very energetic process.

Yeah.

And so slowing down that entire endocrine system, the reproductive system, it takes a moment and for good reason. It deserves that time of wind down. And over that time, your ovaries are kind of like, okay, okay, I'm kind of getting to a point of retirement. Yeah, we all have that decision. We have a sense of when we're going to retire and we kind of start planning that. Well, your ovaries do the same.

What?

And that is perimenopause. And in perimenopause, I think of perimenopause as 4 phases. That first early, early, early, early phase, you know, a lot of women that's in our late 30s, I would say that's, we'll start to feel some shifts. Maybe we, you know, exercising in the evening, it just isn't serving us the way that it used to. That extra glass of wine at night, oh, isn't feeling so great the next day. Our stress response is just not feeling as easy to recover from. Like, we're beginning to see shifts and changes. Maybe we're putting on a little bit of weight and we hadn't changed anything. Those are the types of things we may see. Your cycle may not have shifted yet. You may not see lesser days on the luteal side of your cycle, on the second phase of your cycle, but you're beginning to feel some hormone shifts nonetheless. I think this is a great time to start, if you haven't started tracking your cycle yet, to get a great app like Kindara or Flo, whatever app you love, and start looking and seeing what is going on in real time. Then around 42, 43, women are like, oh my goodness, what is this? That's usually, that's kind of like the defining shift. I call this phase 2 of perimenopause. At this point, progesterone has been dropping. It's been gradually decreasing. And for many of us, that can happen a little bit earlier. I know for me, my progesterone levels had tanked by the time I was 35 years old, and that had a lot to do with my lifestyle that I was living. And I, as I got, I just had a brand new baby boy. We were talking about that. And I got pregnant when I was 40, but before I got pregnant, I had a miscarriage, like, like so many women do. And we were looking at what could have been the contributor. When I thought my, my, my progesterone levels were at a decent level, we had felt like when we looked at them again, that maybe it wasn't enough. And so I ended up supplementing with bioidentical progesterone to get pregnant. And then I maintained that dosage. Until my second trimester. And so we start to see that in women. Not every woman's trying to get pregnant in their late 30s and their 40s, but we do know that progesterone is necessary. And everyone case by case is different. I just wanted to give an example of how progesterone played a role in my life recently because I had tanked it earlier in my 30s. But progesterone drops. The thing with progesterone, Is it is a stress support hormone. It helps to support, it helps to buffer our stress response system. And as it drops, we're going to find that maybe things that we could kind of brush off before, we're not able to brush off as easily anymore. We also have an increased propensity for depression and feeling anxious. So just a heads up on when progesterone is dropping, it's that beautiful mood buffering hormone that we all just took for granted. And now it's— she's slipping away into the night. And we just have to be mindful of that as we're moving into our 40s. Around this time as well, in our 43, 44, we start to feel the estrogen swings up and down the roller coaster ride. Some days estrogen is going to be as high as when it was when you were pregnant. Other days it's going to be right down, dropped to the bottom of the bottom, like you would be in menopause. It's going to keep doing this. And it has a lot of that conversation between the ovaries and the limbic system and the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland. Follicular stimulating hormone, and luteinizing hormone are shooting messages to the ovaries. And sometimes the ovaries are like, I don't care. I don't really want to do anything about that. So some months you may not even ovulate. Other months you may ovulate twice. You may have 2 eggs, you know? So it gets really crazy. And one of the things that's super critical to know as well, and this is one of the big issues that I find that women are struggling with, is their metabolic resilience begins to drop. Insulin sensitivity begins to decrease. And that's because estrogen is an insulin-sensitive hormone. As we start to lose estrogen, we start to lose some of that metabolic resilience. Now, the beautiful thing is, is the reason why I'm sharing this is that there's a lot that we can do about it, but it's important that we know about it so it doesn't sideswipe us. If we can step into these phases like, oh, as I start to reduce my reproductive hormones and designed to do so, our bodies are meant to do that. I can pivot the way that my body's pivoting. I can make changes the way my body's making changes. So then we get into phase 3 of perimenopause. I call this the eye of the storm. This is where everything's hitting the fan, potentially migraines, estrogen dominance, heavy bleeding, fibrocystic breasts, painful periods, severe PMS symptoms, bloating, you know, maybe depression, anxiety, mood swings, all of that. It's just a cluster of things happening. Night sweats, hot flashes. I could just go on. And depending on how we set our bodies up for success moving into our late 40s, some women may just experience, oh, my period is shorter, my cycle's shorter. That would be happening into your early to mid-40s. And it could happen into your late 40s as well, depending on what's going on with your body and your reproductive capacity. But some women will just notice that their cycle got shorter. And then other women, they have the slew of all of the symptoms that I mentioned just a second ago. And then as we step into our late 40s, into maybe even our early 50s, 51 is the average age for menopause, that defining moment where you don't have a period for 12 months. But I call it the menopause The menopause waiting room is stage 4, and that is where you're just waiting to see if you don't have a period for 12 months. And you could not have one for 3 months, and then it comes right back. And you could have not have one for 5 months, and it comes right back. And so you're in this perpetual waiting room as you are nourishing and loving up on your body to get to that defining moment of menopause. And then, depending on how you love to define it, that could be menopause right there, and the rest is post-menopause. Or to me, I think the redundant terms, all of it's just menopause moving forward.

Yeah. Yeah. Oh my gosh. I love how you break it down into 4 different stages, because I think that is so helpful for women to understand. Like it's a journey. This is not a light switch that's getting turned off. Right. Like it's a moment. It is.

It's potentially 15 years of our life. That is, that is the— and then for some of us it's only 7 or 5. It just really depends. But for some of us it can be easily 14 to 15 years from inception, like start where things begin to shift all the way to you are in full-fledged menopause. And we think about those particular years. Those are the years that you're raising your children, maybe when they're on the older side, but you're still taking care of them. These may be years where you're starting to take care of other family as well. Your is probably where it's beginning to be in its major peak, where you're really doing the big things in the world that you always wanted to do. And let's be honest, you are all things to everybody all the time.

Always.

So there's a lot of other external factors playing a role in what I consider to be a major defining moment in our lives as women. And so it's no wonder that the perimenopause experience, the spectrum of perimenopause, can get swept under the rug and ignored. Um, because we've got so much other things externally going on in the world.

Yeah, and I love that we're shedding light on this and you're making it, you know, women realize that this can be a beautiful time in your life. You should embrace it and feel empowered because there is so much that you can actually do to change how you feel. So you mentioned insulin, and I will tell you, I see this every day with my patients. Nobody's checking their blood sugar and their fasting insulin, and they can't understand why They're waking up in the night and they can't lose the weight and they have the brain fog and you check a hemoglobin A1C and they have prediabetes and they have no idea. Like, yeah, can you speak to that?

It's well above the normal. Yeah, it's so scary. I cannot tell you how many hemoglobin A1Cs I see all the time and they are 7, 8, 9, you know, scary numbers. And oftentimes women, they have to beg and plead to get a hemoglobin A1C test even ran.

Yes, exactly. I think conventional medicine is not on board until you have like the diagnosis of diabetes, and there's just so much you can do before that to get you off that path onto another path, right? So insulin is super important. It's not just your sex hormones. I would love for you to talk about energy because I know that you have so many beautiful self-rituals that you talk about and just ways to like help women boost their energy during this time.

Energy, besides the weight, the stubborn weight gain, the weight resistance, energy is the number 2 biggest concern. Number 3 is sleep. No surprise. I just tie that right into energy as well, right?

Yeah.

And energy, I believe, is a phenomenal indicator of your overall health. Like it is, it is showing you what is going on on the inside. And so if you are exhausted on the outside, best believe your body is exhausted on the inside. And all of that is being driven by mitochondrial function. I know I got to bring it up earlier with the ovaries, but your mitochondria are— I call them the— I used to call them the divas of the cells. I call them like the moms of the cells. Like, they are, they are involved in so much and they're taking on so much all the time. And so over time, like moms, later, later, they can get super worn out, they can get super burned out. And when that happens, Our mitochondria, unlike mamas, they get to hibernate. We don't ever get to hibernate.

Right? Oh my God.

But they do, and they will turn off. They will receive kind of a stranger danger message that says things are not safe. And so your mitochondria will actually start to kind of turn off or hibernate and not make ATP, not make energy for you. And so my intention is like, what can we do to increase your, your energy capacity, to increase your mitochondrial function. And if you're open to it, I'd love to share some of my recommendations.

Oh my God, that would be amazing.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Well, absolutely. Well, the first step, I think one of the most important pieces, um, is going to be circadian rhythms. Is, you know, just like we run on a cycle every 28 days, women are so cyclical in many, many ways. We also run on a cycle 24/7, and that is the circadian rhythm cycle. And what really sets us up for success is having a beautiful evening routine where we are using blackout curtains. We turn off the electronics and the blue light a couple of hours before bed. We don't have anything to eat 3 hours prior to going to sleep, and we have some nourishing rituals that really get our brain and our body ready for rest. What I learned the hard way is you cannot Tasmanian devil your way into bed every single night. It doesn't work. Your brain is just running on way too much energy and mental chatter. And so I love using essential oils. I love reading a beautiful book, maybe having a meditation that you can tap into, like a 5-minute real quick meditation that you can tap into. Just having rituals that tell your body, kind of like right now how we're doing with our baby. Like, we have a little nighttime ritual for Kingston because rituals are really great for babies to know that it's bedtime.

Yes.

Well, guess what? That does not change. That is the same for adults too.

Why do we think that the rules don't apply to us? I don't know.

I mean, babies got FOMO. It's the hardest thing to do is to get them to sleep. You think about how hard it is to get adults to go to bed too, right? We have FOMO. We, we want to stay up and finish the things and, and, and worry about the list we didn't accomplish that day, whatever's going on in our minds. But setting ourselves up for success, you know, getting that deep Sleep, rest, that REM sleep. So, so critical. 8 hours a day. If you want to measure it, you can do an Oura Ring. There's a lot of other applications. My husband's wearing a— oh, I forget what type of device he's wearing right now. And I was like, don't even measure our sleep right now. I don't want to know what we're not getting.

Yes. Oh my gosh, you poor thing.

And so evenings, evening's super critical. And then the morning is equally as critical. So melatonin is what we want to fire up in the evening. Natural sedative relaxation hormone. We want to use it. Melatonin is so critical to restoration and repair at night, but we cannot fire melatonin off if we're in front of the Netflix TV or Instagram or YouTube or whatever it may be. We've got to be able to let melatonin do its job, and we signal that when it's a dark, cozy environment ready to turn, turn the brain off. Then in the morning, cortisol is the hormone that wakes us up in the morning. It's called the cortisol awakening response. And that takes you from like groggy waking up to like get in your butt in gear to make your coffee and do all the things. Now, if we want to really leverage the cortisol awakening response and set our mitochondria and our circadian rhythms up for success, in the first 15 to 20 minutes of you waking up, you go outside. It could be your deck, it could be your front yard, it could be your backyard, it could be the street. I don't care. in and make sure that you are out there for about 5 minutes minimum, taking deep belly breaths to, to really increase that vagal tone so that we are managing stress even better throughout the day. You are getting the vitamin D, you are getting the nature, and you are telling your mitochondria, I love you. I love you because I am supercharging you up right now. Your mitochondria love to be outside. They love nature. They love to be activated in the morning. Such a great way to reset those circadian rhythms. Now, if you want to upgrade on this, go take a 10-minute walk, do sun salutations in yoga, or even work out outside as well, getting where you fit in. I— we live on a hill. And so the first thing I do in the morning after I pump is I go down, I get outside, put on my little sneakers, and I walk down my hill. And this hill is steep.

It's steep.

And then I walk up the hill and then I go and do my workout. And so, and I usually do this, I am also, I do an intermittent fast, I do a circadian fast. So it's usually 13 to 15 hours. So I love to work out during my fast. And then I break my fast with, I'm not gonna lie, I break first, I break my fast with a lot of water. I have a really amazing detox water that I drink with apple cider vinegar and everything. And then I drink coffee. I'm not gonna lie.

Well, especially now when you're sleep deprived with the little baby.

Yes, but I do my 20 ounces of water first and foremost when I'm outside doing my thing. Then I get my coffee and then I usually break my fast with a little bit of fat, um, to kind of fire up, um, fat burning mode. So if we work out when cortisol is still high and we're boosting that cortisol awakening response and we're still a little bit of a fast, From the night before, we, we go into major fat burning mode right out the gate. It's the best way to set your metabolism up for success and to really create more sensitivity with insulin levels. So that's one of my— that's my morning routine to get started. Then throughout the day, I recommend 3 or 2 meal magic. Basically what I mean by that is no snacks, no snacks. Have a 4 to 5 hour break between meals. Because as you can imagine, I think about like processed carbohydrates and sugar and processed foods, you know, hydrogenated fats. You think about the gateway door into firing off insulin and firing off, you know, poor metabolic function. That's just a constant knock at the door. Knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock, knock. And that is going to drive inflammation, drive hemoglobin A1C up. You're going to see insulin levels skyrocket as well. Things are just going to be off. The weight's going to come on, abdominal belly fat, all of that's going to ensue. But let's say you've cut all the processed foods out. Let's say you've cut all the sugar out and yet you're still gaining weight. And a lot of that has to do with many of us had been told that snacking throughout the day was a great idea. But instead of something constantly knocking at your door and overwhelming you, especially your mitochondria, imagine someone just knocking on your door every half hour.

Oh.

Just every half hour.

Yeah.

And, and your cells and your mitochondria and your digestive system is just like, What? Again, I got to go to the door and answer this door and do the work and break down these substrates because that snack is ultimately, it's just work for the body. And it's very rare that a snack or snack foods are nutrient dense. It's not too often that we're seeing like a snacky food being high protein, high fiber, high healthy fat. And so being really mindful about those, those 2 or 3 meals, depending on what you're doing, and having those breaks in between will also help to create that metabolic flexibility and really allow for your mitochondria to recover so that they can clean shop and work better for you.

Yeah. Oh my gosh, you're speaking my language. Like, I remember living in that life, you know, you eat constantly because what you're eating is not nourishing. It's not satiating. And I think that for a lot of women is hard to get to that point. You have to break up with your snacks. You have to eat the healthy fats, the protein, the fiber so that you aren't feeling hungry an hour later. You know, if you want to eat a bowl of cereal that is absolutely garbage, you're going to be hungry an hour later, right? Yeah.

Hungry, starving. And we know the research demonstrates— I know you know this as well— is that when you're, you're Your cells, it's so crazy. Your cells can be glucose-starved for what they need when you're eating calorie-deficient foods, nutrient-deficient foods.

Right.

And so what that does is it triggers the brain to say, we are starving. We're starving. You need to solve this problem. And it just triggers up these cravings constantly throughout the day. So yeah, you have your breakfast at 8 o'clock or 9 o'clock at night or 9 o'clock in the morning. And then at 11 o'clock, you need something else. And then at 1 o'clock, then you have lunch. At 2 or 3, you need something else. And so it becomes this vicious cycle. And we know that when we're snacking and we're eating nutrient-depleted foods like chips and crackers and oftentimes bars. And I used to think that Kind Bars were— I used to pretend that a Kind Bar was doing something good for me. And it's just sugar. It's just lipstick on a pig is really what it is. Oh my gosh.

Absolutely.

But the brain doesn't know any better and it's thinking it's starved and it's constantly just screaming messages at you to eat again. And we just get into this perpetual cycle that, that we have, especially for us as women, as we head into our 30s and 40s, we've got to break. And that's the beautiful thing is we have the full ability to do so as long as we understand, hey, you know, my body in my 20s is not my body in my 30s and my 40s. Like, even think about when you were 30, if anyone's listening and they're already past 30, the difference between 30 and 35.

Yeah.

It was, it was a big difference. Like, and then you think about your difference between 35 and just 39. Like, your body is shifting. And the beautiful thing is, is if we make the changes, um, and the beautiful thing about all of it is that these changes, as, as unfun as they may sound to some of us, These are— these changes have so many side benefits.

Yeah.

So many side benefits, you know, protecting your bones, protecting your brain, cardiovascular support, you know, reducing inflammation. There's so many. Think about like the longevity that we get to have, the long game of having energy and vitality into our 70s and 80s and beyond because we chose to pivot when our bodies pivoted.

Yes, I think that is probably the most important thing you've said. You know, like, women need to embrace this time and really do everything they can to make it the healthiest time of their life. Because you said, like, we're juggling everything. We're taking care of our parents, probably. We're still raising our children. We're at the peak of our careers. We're doing amazing things. We want to go out, hang out with our girlfriends, and we want to look good. and still feel young and healthy. And so I think we need to really embrace this idea of you got to take care of yourself, you got to do the self-care rituals, you have to pay attention to what you're putting your body and nourishing yourself with. So I feel like this book isn't just for menopausal women, you know.

Yeah.

I think it's so much more the perimenopausal or any adult woman at this point, I just think that we need to remind— be reminded that it is time to take care of us.

Yes, that is the big, big message. And I know society has sold us a lot of a bill of goods around the wind down and the sugar and cream in our coffee, like a lot of the things. And a lot of these things just aren't— they are not serving us when we can tap into that. You know, I know that drinking a glass or 2 of wine for some women is like a way to relax and settle down, but you have to think about the serious implications of alcohol on the brain, on the digestive system, on our insulin levels. It just, it has a profound impact. And so we've got to be able to swap out some of these habits, some of these lifestyles that we have that are helping us to reduce our stress levels and bring in other habits that are really going to nourish us. That's what's going to make Make the big change. Now I'll be honest with you. I remember when it shifted for me with wine, and I and because I love a great, great Italian Barbaresco. I love a great Barbera, and all of a sudden I was like, oh no no no no! My liver is like, please don't, please don't do this to me anymore. And you just I just had to have that moment, you know, of really asking myself, like what is serving you? What is going to serve you? What's going to serve you in the morning? How are you? How What's going to help you to show up the way that you want to show up in the world? And wine wasn't doing that for me anymore. Well, it probably wasn't ever doing that for me at all, but it definitely started becoming more of a detriment than it was— like, the cost outweighed the benefit.

Yeah.

So I think for a lot of us. Yeah.

Oh, I was just going to say the biggest thing I see is women waking up multiple times in the night when they're drinking wine in the evening. Is that what you were experiencing?

Oh yeah. I mean, your liver, hot flashes, night sweats, night sweats for me, for sure. I hadn't gotten to a place of hot, hot flashes. But yeah, my liver just taking a major beating and waking up the next day and just feeling a little foggy, a little fuzzy. And, you know, once you get to a place where you wake up in the morning and you feel amazing, you feel refreshed, you feel ready to get into your day, you feel ready to really step up and serve your people. You have got a great mood. You have got a great outlook. Life is happening for you, not to you. You don't want to go back away from that.

Right.

You know, once you experience that and what you realize is that it is the daily thoughts and habits that are driving so much of our behavior every single day. You know, we are one thought away from cinnamon in our coffee or sugar in our coffee. We are one thought away from that candy bar snack or using an essential oil to boost our mood. You know, we're one, we're one thought away from, you know, one glass of wine to half the bottle, you know? And so we're always, we're, we're really kind of in a lot of ways negotiating with ourselves with those thoughts. And I think the more that we can get into the thought pattern of how is this gonna nourish me? Is this gonna help me show up the way that I wanna show up? Is this gonna help me feel great tomorrow? Is, is my mitochondria gonna love me for this? You know? I think when we start to ask ourselves those questions and get really clear about what's really going to love up on me, like my body, my emotional wellbeing, my mental capacity? And we start to make decisions from that standpoint. Our habits, our life begins to look very different than, than what it may have been looking like heading into our 30s and 40s.

Yeah, that mindfulness is key. And I think we saw it during COVID when everybody was like on the this permanent vacation. So every night was like, okay, I guess I'll have wine. And, you know, I just had so many patients who got into that rut of they would wake up feeling terrible because they didn't sleep. And like you said, they're feeling groggy in the morning and they feel like, okay, I guess I'll just drink some more to get rid of that feeling. And you— it's a slippery slope and you really do have to like be mindful and make the decision like, I'm going to do something different. I'm going to love on my body and choose something different from myself. I think that's such an important point. Oh my goodness.

Well, and we get to crowd out the things that are not serving us. You know, we can bring in the good first. You know, we can start with a really simple morning routine. They could start with drinking water before for coffee, like a big, big glass of water with some lemon and cucumber to support the liver and support the gut. You know, like a little detox water, gut-loving water, call it whatever you love. And then, you know, instead of putting cream and sugar in your coffee, maybe it is just cinnamon. Maybe it's just a little, just a little swap like that. And then, you know, in the morning, instead of having a sugary breakfast like cereal or a bar, maybe it's a green smoothie with protein and avocado, or maybe it is a, you know, a Greek yogurt without sugar in it with, with berries and, you know, whatever, like something really It is like, and some almonds, or maybe it is an omelet, you know, like what it could be like making sure that we are getting that protein out the gate. Maybe it is, that is how we start those simple little wins that we can start just having that little morning routine that boosts our metabolism and we start to feel a little bit better. We start to wake up feeling a little bit more refreshed. We went outside right when we woke up and we feel that energy charge. Like we start to experience these wins. wins. And very quickly, we want more of that. We want— so, you know, and so that's how I always love to start women out, is like, what, what ways in which that we can create some simple wins for you that are easy, cost-effective, or inexpensive, or free, that is going to move the needle from a 5 to a 7, or from a, you know, a 7 to a 9. And then you get a taste of that feel-good, good energy life, good energy body, and you're like, okay, what else can I do? You know, what, what other things can I make changes out of and swaps out of? And for me, you know, I, I'd love to say that I went from, from hot mess, chronic fatigue, autoimmune issues to superstar overnight, but I didn't. And it does take us time to get to that place, but there's no better time than today. That I know of. I think the more that we can begin to implement those little changes and those little shifts and we feel that difference, we just want more of that. I can't imagine, I mean, my sleep is the one thing that is compromised right now because of our baby, but otherwise everything else is dialed because it has been ingrained in me for so long, you know?

I think that is key, and when you start getting those wins, you can actually start having changes in your physical symptoms. Those heavy periods can go away, that PMS, those horrible headaches. You know, I just think if women really embrace this idea that they had control over how they felt, and it doesn't take that long. You know, I love your 21-Day Hormone Makeover program because 21 days, that is doable for everybody. Like, get on board and And see, maybe you don't need to go to the gynecologist and get that pill or that surgery, you know. I mean, that was— that's my major thing. Like, look at the alternatives, see what else you can do on your own, you know. Embrace the idea of shifting your lifestyle and your diet and your choices and just get mindful. And you never know, you could really just reclaim your health that way, right?

Absolutely. Well, I think my mama is such a great example. And before I share an example of my mama, I had someone reach out to me in my DMs. She's been on the 21-day program. She did it for longer. And the last time she had her hemoglobin A1C was a couple of months ago, because every 3 months she's been watching it, and it was 9.2.

Wow.

Very scary height. And so she was like, well, I'm going to do— because I talk so much about insulin, I talk so much about metabolic function. This program is designed to get your insulin levels back in line. And so she did the program, I think, for 60 days and had then had her hemoglobin A1C read again and it was down to 5.1. That's so awesome. Yeah. She was like, I cannot tell you how excited I am. Oh my goodness. And I was like, yeah, that's the goal. The one, at least one big part of the goal of that program was to love up on your liver and your gut, help support the stress support system, you know, lower, lower your stress response mode, but also stabilize insulin levels and, and help support and help reduce inflammation. That was the point of that 21-day. Now, I always recommend if you're feeling great in 21 days, you know what, maybe do it for the month, maybe do it for 6 weeks. Like if you're feeling good. And because the goal for that program in my newest book was that I wanted it to feel so sustainable and I wanted you to come out of it feeling feeling so good that you were like, okay, how much of this can I adapt into my real life every single day?

Yeah.

Because I basically live this 21-day program every single day because I track— I don't have my CGM on right now, but I have worn a CGM for different times. And when I'm on my 21-day makeover program, I score a— I have a metabolic score of 88 to 95% every single day. And when I fall off of that Program to some degree, because I don't have a lot of metabolic flexibility in general, I just don't personally. I have a lot of diabetes in my family. And when we look at my genetics, it shows that I have a slightly greater propensity for diabetes in general. And so if I am not really clean and really good about locking in how I eat and how I love up on my body, I can drop, I can get to a score of 65%. Metabolic score. And so I can, I can slip off that, that beautiful optimal range so easily. And I don't think a lot of women realize until we see it in real time when we're measuring this, how easy it is for us to just slip out of our optimal range. I was blown away by how quickly I could— it could go off the rails for me. And I'm in it just with one simple thought, one simple change in what I ate. I could derail myself for the rest of the day. And that's how sensitive our endocrine system is to our external environment. I think a lot of women don't realize that.

Right.

We do have a lot of resilience, but as we get older, our hormones are so sensitive to our external environment that it's no wonder we are struggling with so many chronic conditions. It's no wonder we're dealing with a high level of prediabetes and obesity and And, you know, 88% of us have a metabolic level of dysfunction as adults. And so that's an alarming stat that is so true for us as women, especially as we head into menopause and beyond or perimenopause and beyond.

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Thank you for sharing that, because I think people see you and you have it all together and they just assume it's easy for you. Right. And so people need to realize That everybody's got their struggles. You know, everything's not perfect. It can be a challenge, but it's worth doing because you feel so amazing and you're having a baby at 40 and rocking it. It's because you're consistent with what you're doing. And you mentioned your mom's story. Like, I just love this. You know, this was why you wrote your book and she did your program. I oh my gosh! Is she still like? Oh yeah.

Oh my God. My mama is my number one fan. You know, someone will be your number one fan if you, you've made some major changes in their life and their body.

Yes.

My mom, you know, for, for years, I mean, she was a single mom for 2 girls, to 2 girls, my sister and I, and she had been running on fumes. I mean, I kind of knew, and she didn't know, but she, she had taught me to do the same, you know, and, you know, you watch what your mama does. My mama was hustling. She was extremely efficient. She was very productive. And so for many years, my worth was predicated on my production, productivity. I think for a lot of us as women in particular, that is the case.

Yeah.

And so my mama, I watched my mom burn herself into the ground many, many times. And it's so amazing. Like I said, our resilience, I knew that under the hood things were really falling apart, but man, she made it look like she was keeping it together. But when she finally got into phase 3 and phase 4 of perimenopause, all those symptoms that I mentioned, she had them all. And she was in the eye of the storm. And it had been all those years of letting lifestyle go that it finally— the piper came to pay. You know, you can only borrow from yourself for so long. And so, you know, she, she didn't want to tell me. I think she had a lot of shame around it. And so she went to a different practitioner and they wouldn't even test her hormones. They just put her on a synthetic estrogen patch. She was already estrogen dominant. And they didn't— I mean, it just— no one— we didn't look. No one looked. I knew she was estrogen dominant, but I didn't even know she was on the patch. So she ultimately— progesterone had tanked a long time ago as well. And so being on this estrogen patch just made her more estrogen dominant. So she had severe bloating, weight gain, migraines, breasts were hurting all the time, heavy bleeding, just, just a hot mess of a situation.

Wow.

And, but the big thing was she fell into this really dark depression. And finally, 3 months, she called me in the middle of the night and was like, I'm so scared, something's wrong with me. And that's when I realized that she was just— she had— she was not overdosing on estrogen, but she had way too much in the system. It was definitely a major imbalance. And that's what ended up transpiring for her. And every woman's very different. That's why I think it's so important, especially at these ages, to really be looking at your labs to know what's really going on. And so we, we had her, we weaned her off of all of that. And I put her on what, what then was a 60-day program. Today I dialed it down to a 21-day program, but by all means, anyone can do it for 60 days or for 90 days, however long you love to do it. And in that 60 days, she dropped 25 pounds. She, her mood came back. She had more energy. She was sleeping throughout the night. The hot flashes were gone and everything. We cleaned up her liver. self-cared her up, um, and got— made sure we filled in those nutrient gaps. She was very low in iron and B12 and B9. She was struggling with, with some of her, um, low in vitamin D. And so we cleaned all that up as well. And, um, it was right before she was about to turn 50. And I remember she was a different woman. She's like, I literally feel like I'm in my 30s again. Like, I didn't think that this was possible. I could ever get this back again. Wow. And she decided she made a declaration, and I didn't at the time. She would be sharing it with me, but it was more clear for her. I didn't really realize it until she was into her 50s that she was living this new life. But she decided that she was going to live her 50s and beyond on her terms. She was gonna do it with her new energy. She was gonna play competitive tennis. She was gonna run marathons. She was gonna have hair extensions and eyelash extensions, and she was gonna look. look and live her best life. I love it. And that is exactly what she did. And so she ran like 70 marathons and half marathons. She was competing in tennis matches. I mean, and she just looked gorgeous and glowing. She literally looked like she was in her 30s and living her best life. And still to this day, she just finished a marathon a couple of weeks ago on Mother's Day, Mother's Day weekend before she flew to Hawaii with That gives me goosebumps.

I mean, that is just so beautiful and so empowering. And I hope that everybody listening is like, I can do that. You know, I can take control of my life and make it look different. I love the idea of getting into a new decade with a whole new plan for your life. It's beautiful.

Yeah. And right after you had been at the lowest of low.

Yes.

Right. You had thought you had hit like ground zero. And within a year and a half, massive transformation. Honestly, within less than 3 months, massive transformation. But then stepping into this ain't my mama's menopause. This is not how I'm going to reinvent exactly how I want this to go. I'm going to live the life I've wanted to be living. And, and that's really— it was really for my mom. I mean, here's the thing, we've got all the tools, we've got all the resources, We can implement those, the healthy habits out the gate. We— I've got all that. It's literally in this book. But it's the mindset that is the game change.

Yes. Well, and you did hit another really important point, like your mom went to a gynecologist and got an estrogen patch because unfortunately, I hate to admit it, that's how we're trained. We're trained like estrogen is really the only concerning hormone at that time. And if you're having symptoms in perimenopause, you must need more estrogen. I mean, we really aren't taught that progesterone is an important hormone. It's just to protect the uterus. And it's— it really does women a disservice. And so I want my listeners to understand, like, if things don't feel right or make sense, you can get a second opinion. You can go somewhere else. You can question your physician.

Like, It—

they don't necessarily know everything. So I just— that's such an important point. And it kills me that your mom struggled because of the medical system, you know. So I really want women to understand that there's more than just finding the right pill for your situation. So absolutely.

Well, and estrogen and progesterone aren't going to fix the metabolic concerns. They're not going to fix the inflammation. They're not going to fix the burdened liver or the unhappy gut or the exhausted mitochondria. It's again, using that statement again, it's like putting lipstick on a pig. We're just not going to. So we've got to be honest about what other things are happening and contributing to hormonal imbalance inside of the body. that as much as I would love a progesterone serum and an estrogen patch to go in and clean up and fix, it's simply just not true. And I think so often women, they come in with all of these symptoms that I just mentioned and issues, and when they're just given those as a solution and told that it's going to fix it all, you know, and maybe a week or two they feel okay, but then they're right, they're like, wait, I'm right back where I started. Because there were root causes that were driving these symptoms that we— that estrogen and progesterone were never intended to solve.

Exactly. It's a temporary band-aid. It'll give you a quick win, but you're going to be right back where you started in a couple of months if you aren't shifting your life. So, so good. Oh my gosh, Dr. Marisa. So tell my listeners where they can get your book and your awesome gift that's included, like so much good stuff.

Well, I have the book in front of me. I don't know if we're doing video, but it's— this is it right here with all of its Tiffany blue beautifulness. The book is on everywhere books are sold— Amazon, Barnes& Noble, Target, all the places, um, and books— bookstores if you're going into bookstores as well. Um, and then, um, I have an amazing book bonus because I wrote way too much for this book, as you can imagine. And so chapters got cut, including chapters on breast health, bone health, heart health, weight resistance, and just understanding menopause myths. So major chapters, literally another 100 pages or more of the book is in the bonuses.

That's awesome. Okay.

Along with a shopping guide to the program and so many other amazing actionable cheat sheets that you can begin to implement immediately. And that is the— that's www.eomenopausebook or eomenopausesolution.com. Either of them will take you there. My website will take you there as well, drmarisa.com.

Awesome. I'll have all those links in my show notes because every woman needs this book. I think it's the guide for all women really to just reclaim their life and their vitality, their energy. And their happiness, right? I love it.

Well, that was my intention for sure, was to really serve women at every capacity I could, um, you know, given what I've been hearing for so many years.

Yeah. Well, thank you so much for all the work you're doing. You're amazing. You're such an inspiration, and I loved having you on. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

All right, I hope you loved that episode as much I could listen to Dr. Marissa all day. Actually, I used to listen to her podcast all the time, so I, I do listen to her all day. She's wonderful. I love her perspective on things. I love that she keeps it natural and really embraces the fact that you have power over how you feel and how your body functions on the daily basis. So she's a beautiful example of creating the life that you want to create by having that mindset and really doing the daily habits that get you to be to the place that you want to be. If you want to have a certain life and feel a certain way and be, you know, mind— healthy mind and spirit, like, make it happen. Start making those shifts. Write down how you want to feel, what you want to do, and then what do you need to make that happen. That is what I have done for the past few years, and it's been life-changing. I mean, you guys know I've been— I've gone through a lot of huge changes, and it's because I'm very mindful about my choices, you know, of what I'm putting in my mouth every day, how I'm moving my body, how I'm interacting with people. And if you can really get mindful and make deliberate choices and change your habits, you're going to just— you're going to get everything that you want. So I would encourage you to do the 21-Day Hormone Makeover. It's going to be awesome. You're going to feel empowered, like, oh my gosh, I have control over how I feel. This This is amazing. And you might need help or guidance from someone like me. You know, you might need a specific supplement for metabolism or glucose control because maybe you have developed insulin resistance or diabetes. Maybe you do need some hormones of estrogen or progesterone or testosterone because your levels have tanked and gotten so bad. From, you know, all these years of dysfunction that you do need that to have a win, to get back into balance. And that's okay as long as you're doing the other things, you're doing the other work. Because like I said, taking hormones, it's kind of a Band-Aid approach, and it will help you feel better for a while, but it won't be the only reason if you do Do have adrenal dysfunction or gut health issues, or you're abusing your liver, you know, that kind of stuff. Like, all that stuff has to be addressed, or the hormones can only help you so much. So I love just taking an individualized approach and just like, let's look at you in your particular situation and your levels of hormones and blood sugar and insulin and cortisol and thyroid. And let's get you optimized because, you know, a lot of times we'll, we'll think like this diet is supposed to be good for everybody or this exercise is supposed to be good for everybody, but it's not true because we're all individuals and we all have different levels of resiliency and we're at different times in our And have different nutrition status, like so many, so many factors. And so I don't want you to ever count anything out or assume that you can't feel better or get relief because what you're doing is not working. It just might be not right for you. So I love working with women one-on-one and finding out like what's going on in your body, not your friend's. Not your sister, not your cousin or your mom. Like, what's going on in your body and how can we support you getting back into balance? What nutrients are you deficient in? What are your hormones? Is your thyroid being attacked? What does your gut microbiome look like? Is it a hot mess? You got yeast overgrowth? You got the wrong bacteria living in your gut? Are you not making digestive enzymes? Enzymes? What's your liver doing? You know, is it not able to metabolize your estrogens appropriately? So many questions that we can answer working one-on-one and really getting to the root cause of your issues. So that is key. That is what I want you to understand, is you can reach out to me. I will help you. I will walk You through this process and we will figure out your root cause issues that you need to tackle. You know, especially if you do like a 21-day hormone makeover and you feel a little bit better, but you're still having issues, then we know like there's more rocks to uncover. There's something that we haven't found out yet. So we need to, you know, don't leave any stones unturned.

Right.

Right? So don't hesitate to reach out for me. I work with women all over the country and now the world. I got women in Australia, Canada, Britain, Hawaii. This—it's wonderful. I love it. I—it's like what I love to do. So I want to help you reclaim your health. I am here for you. Just go to www.dr tabitha. That's 3 A's, no I's. The link is in the show notes, and don't hesitate to reach out. And I want to hear from you. I'm here for you. Okay, ladies. All right, go have a kick-ass week. Bye.