How to Use Stress as a Tool for Hormone Balance

Real quick, before we dive into this episode, I have a little sleep secret I want to tell you about. Look, sleep is crucial for your fitness, but it's crucial for just plain old everyday life and function. And I find I sleep great unless I have a migraine. And I've had more than my fair share since perimenopause all the way through postmenopause. My secret weapon was Blue Sky CBD sleep gels. Each gel contains 25 milligrams of CBD and 25 milligrams CBN for deep restorative sleep. Something about it helps to reduce inflammation, which I believe for me was key in helping me get to sleep. But the biggest thing is so many of the over-the-counter solutions, whether for sleep or migraines, can ruin gut health, and liver health. Neither one of those did I want to be problematic for me. So this option is recommended by healthcare providers worldwide and backed by thousands of happy customers, many of whom come from our Flipping 50 community. There is zero THC, so it's non-habit-forming. It's made by a trusted family-owned company that we all can feel good about. Third-party tested for purity and potency. And if you're interested, you too can try a sample for just $6. But even better, you can get 30% off forever with discount code FLIPPING50. That's FLIPPING50. Just go to flipping50.com/blueskycbd. We'll put that link in the show notes and you'll find it everywhere on Flipping 50 at My Favorites. What are you waiting for? Good night. How can stress be a tool for hormone balance? My guest and I dish on the topic of stress in this episode and how you can harness stress as a tool for your hormone balance. Knowing exercise is a stressor and that maybe what led you here, we have to deal with stress. All of us have to deal with stress, not only of the emotional relationship financial type, but of the physical kind that comes from sleep deprivation or exercise overdone or skipped, skimpy, or less than ideal in some other way meals. And that's just to name a few. So this is about how to cope and the discussion about adrenal insufficiency or cortisol imbalance. And by the way, that can mean too high or too low, and both are problematic. So imbalance is the key word there. I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50, where I address your top struggles and concerns, and I share what to eat and how to move and how to change your mindset, often about the first two, so you can have the energy and vitality that you want, need, and deserve in this second and better half. My guest today is Dr. Amy Day, is a women's health and hormone expert who who's been in the forefront of the natural women's health movement since 2004 when she received— listen— the fourth naturopathic doctor license in the state of California. She's a sought-after speaker, the founder and clinic director of the Women's Vitality Center in Oakland, California, and creator of the Vitality Club, an online perimenopause support community. Using a unique approach called the Vital Method, her team offers care that combines lifestyle counseling functional lab testing, nutritional supplements, and bioidentical hormones to help women 40 and over feel great in and about their bodies and stay vital through the all stages of life. And look, if you need a little help right now, this is really what we're talking about. The Flipping 50 Cafe membership was made just for women in menopause, based on science, based on you. We are open while this is airing live. So if you are lucky enough to get in during open enrollment time at the end of the year, we open both the option for monthly and the option for an annual— significant saving over that monthly rate right now. Now's the time to get started, started exercising, not in the way a 30-something would or necessarily you're 40-something, but the way that right now you hit your priorities. I'll put the link to that in the show notes. Show notes today will follow, so don't miss it because you'll be able to connect with Amy as well as resources and other episodes that you might really love. Let's get started. Dr. Amy Day, thank you so much for being here with us.

Hi, Debra. It's so great to be here. Thank you.

All right, we're just talking about a topic that nobody has any of this, um, you know, like nobody has any stress, uh, but really what we don't know is what to do with it, how to harness it. But before we dive into that, first of all, tell us about you. You are— this is your first time, this is your Virgin Flipping 50 episode. So usually we have repeat flyers. But tell us a little bit about you and what got you into women's health.

Yeah, sure. It's, it's an honor to be here, and it's— yeah, just, you've been at this a long time. You have so much great, uh, content and so many great resources that you offer your community. So thank you for having me. And, uh, yeah, I am a naturopathic doctor and a women's health and hormone expert. And as the founder of the Women's Vitality Center, you know, we, we love working with people as they're transitioning through perimenopause and beyond is really our specialty. And for me, my journey has had different phases to it. I was actually diagnosed with endometriosis while I was in naturopathic medical school, and that just really got me focused on women's health and hormones and like learning what I could do for myself. And then over the years, as I got, you know, one thing after another, endometriosis, migraines, digestive issues, multiple rounds of adrenal fatigue, which we'll talk about, and kind of finally got to a place where I felt like I, I had my health in a pretty smooth place. And then I realized I was in my mid-40s and all sorts of things started changing for me and added this whole extra layer. And it has just been— I'm still in the midst of it, so it's just been a series of learning about my body and how to adjust and realize that I need to take care of myself in different ways because my body has different needs now. So, yeah, it's been, it's been an interesting journey for myself personally. And then, you know, helping thousands of patients over— it's been almost 20 years in practice now. So, yeah, it's been a lot of learning about women's health and the joys of helping other women and patients through their issues too.

Love that. And I'd have to echo that too. And there's nothing like actually going through it yourself to then realize, okay, each one of us is different. And as much as I could have read this in a book and knew it, thought I had the empathy, then when you go through it yourself, you really have the empathy, right?

So true, so true. I think that one of the most important lessons in becoming— in me being able to be a doctor is for me to have been a patient, continue to be a patient, and, and but to recognize that every person's journey is unique. And that's the, the beauty of a holistic approach, especially, is all the different angles we can look at and how, how unique each person is.

Now, when— before we go forward, we should mention also, I mean, the 4th naturopathic doctor license in the state of California. So you've been doing this for a minute too, and you were also like one of the first in line.

Yes.

Yeah, that's pretty awesome.

Yeah, it's, you know, the, the profession of naturopathic medicine is licensed state by state, um, so I, I had good timing and, and was, was, yes, just starting my practice in California, right at the time that I'm standing on the shoulders of giants, like right at the time of all the people who were here before me had put in so much work and effort to pass the licensure so that naturopathic doctors could practice medicine in California. So much gratitude to them and good, good timing for me. And, and then, yeah, really being on the, on the forefront of the movement here.

So, so at that point in 2004, I'm not— very many people were talking about it. I mean, at least, and I would say this from in 2004, I was still in the Midwest, and so that's not like the hillbillies, but, you know, I think we're a little bit more conservative in the Midwest. And of course, I no longer am, and I went from there to Boulder, so I got— I jumped right into the hot spot of, okay, no, now you're gonna wake up. But were people saying, what are you doing?

Oh yes, yeah, a classic refrain, a natural.

What?

Um, and still, it's, it's a multisyllabic word that many people struggle with, like natural.

What is it?

So, like, natural medicine. It's called naturopathic, but it's just natural medicine and a really holistic approach to looking at how the body works and how to support the body in the least invasive ways first. And, and really bridging the world of— we're trained as primary care doctors, so bridging the world of Western conventional medicine and the alternative, you know, more holistic modalities and approaches to health. So kind of being that gap. So it doesn't have to be, oh, you do everything alternative and you never look at, you know, what might be going on from a conventional perspective or the other way around. Right. A lot of people are raised and used to being familiar with conventional medicine but don't realize like, oh, nutrition and herbs and other ways of taking care of myself, mind-body medicine. Um, so, so the field of naturopathic medicine brings that all together.

Yeah, and I love that. That I think is really what all of us want, is okay, let's not like isolate and say, oh, that's bad, this is good, or vice versa, but to say, what tool do I need for what's going on right now?

Exactly.

In order to get me the best outcome with the least amount of negative side effects, right?

Absolutely. I always say there's a time and a place for everything, you know, when it comes to prescription medications, surgery, procedures. Like, there's a lot of things that I don't do, but there's a time and a place for it. And I think really having the— a team approach to, uh, health when you're dealing with an issue and getting different perspectives and Um, yeah, having, having support from various angles.

And I would like to say that this next, to really be kind of our first question content-wise, is a review for my listeners, but I'm not certain that that's true for everybody. I know that with our Flipping 50 Menopause Fitness Specialists, we really hone in on this and, and I'll give you all the Reader's Digest training right now. You're one step closer to being a menopause fitness specialist, and that is that the number one thing that you can do for your client is what we tell trainers, is help them reduce their stress or enhance their coping skills. So talk about, please, why does stress matter so much when it comes to the overall hormone balance we have.

Yeah, it's great. It's, you know, it's one of the reasons I feel so connected to you and your message and your work and everything, Debra, is that, that belief and recognition of just how central and just core stress is. So one of, one of the things that I think I feel like most people, it sounds like in your community especially, but I think even in the general population, most people have the sense that like stress is problematic, probably, in their, in their health and well-being and can cause issues. When it comes to hormone balance specifically, stress— the part of our endocrine or hormonal system that, that responds to stress is our adrenal glands, and two little glands that sit on top of our kidneys in the mid-back. And they're, they're tiny little glands, but they're super important in helping us to respond respond to stressors. And when our adrenals are, uh, quote unquote burned out or fatigued, or that our stress response system is not working properly or it's just overwhelmed from so much stress going on, that makes it so that the adrenals aren't able to function in the ways that they're supposed to in supporting the rest of our hormone balance and really other aspects of health too. But I like to point out, oftentimes when we're dealing with hormone issues, when people say, oh, my hormones are off, or I want to get my hormones tested, we're usually thinking about estrogen and progesterone for women and people with female bodies. So estrogen and progesterone, those are sex hormones— estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone— that are produced from the ovaries. But really, the adrenals play a huge role in helping with the topsy-turvy times of perimenopause and then help as a support and adding a layer of support in during menopause because the adrenal glands are actually capable of making estrogen and progesterone as well. And, when we're under so much stress and the adrenals aren't able to do that, it makes it that much harder when we're experiencing and going through the changes and ups and downs of estrogen and progesterone.

I was just gonna say, since, you know, stress here is such a big part of everybody's lives, that I would say that with love and respect to our audience members, a woman in midlife is really in a perfect storm. I know we've always— with boomers, we birthed the term the sandwich generation, but I would venture to say that a woman who's between 40 and 60 is always, eternally going to be the sandwich generation as it turns over from one to the next. We've got young children, maybe young adult children who still are dependent on us and, you know, aging older parents and our peers and our partners. I mean, it's just coming at us from all places. And we are probably also beginning to really reflect like, am I doing what I really want to do? Whether that's relationships or career. So we're pivoting. Sometimes you're at the, the peak of your career, and, and other times you're at the peak of, I'm ready to jump off this cliff and do something else. So stress is going to be a big thing, and you know, it's not going to go away. Otherwise, we're wishing meaningful people and purpose away. We wouldn't want to do that. So what do we do about it?

Yeah, it's great. It's great. I love what you're pointing out there for sure. And it's, it's a challenging time. There's like all this turmoil happening internally in our bodies and our physiology and hormones. And then oftentimes there's all these demands and turmoil going on in our lives externally too. So I think that we can get a lot of messaging about like, oh, stress is really problematic. But here a person is sitting there looking at their life and how they're feeling and like, what am I supposed to even do about that? Like, I have stress. So, like, you can't just, you know, leave everything and live some, you know, life with zero stress. Like, what is that? No, I don't know how anyone could do that. So what can we do about it? I love what you mentioned earlier, that helping people to reduce stress or enhance your coping skills of how you manage your stress. I think those are both really important aspects. How much stress is coming in and what are you doing about it when you do experience the stress? Changing your mindset about stress even can be such a powerful thing. And I recently, taking a closer look at the work of Kelly McGonigal and the upside of stress. Are you familiar with her work?

I very much.

Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, just that idea of recognizing that the way that you think about stress and what you let stress mean in in your life can make such a difference too. So we do want to take steps to have, have boundaries and look at, at, you know, where stressors are coming from in our lives. But there's also things we can do with mindset like that and with physiological support for resilience also.

Love it. And I guess I would chime in there in terms of Exercise. I mean, this is kind of where I would put both hands out, palms up, and say, you know, when your right hand is life and life stressors are up, you know, the ones you can't control, they're going to keep coming at you no matter how much you watch laughing baby videos or listen to music or dance around in your living room, they're still going to be there and it's going to be high. That's when the ones you can manipulate, we want to drop down, like exercise, you know. And I think a lot of people are surprised to hear that, thinking, I have to do that, I have to hit my quota, I have to. And yet this is where it all changes, and where, you know, it changes because— and it changes for me because I I— it took me to be here in this moment myself to realize we may have been doing it wrong in the fitness industry for everyone for way too long because we just give a quota on things. We say do X amount, do X amount of minutes or steps or points or heart rate at certain point or for minutes. And, and we fail to ask, how do you feel? Hello. You know, but exercise is the one thing.

And what hormone phase are you in right now?

Yes. Oh yes, that's a whole nother can of worms. Yeah, exactly. So when we talk about that, we talk about, you know, if you're regularly, say— and I'm saying this not that you should be doing this, listener— but if you're regularly, say, running 4 miles several times a week, and that was— you enjoy that and you like that. When you're going through a period of stress from anything, that may be too much. It may no longer be what is ideal for you to attain the fitness level that you want, because in combination with all the other things, it's just too much. What, what do you see, Dr. Amy, when people come to see you? At what point are they I'm wondering, what is it? How far bad, how far gone do we have to go to come see you?

Well, you know, the adrenal system, there's different like phases of dysregulation that can happen. And I think that it's important to recognize that the symptoms or how you're experiencing whatever can be different along the way. So in earlier stages, you can feel really revved up and really motivated and wanting to push it and feel like waking up anxious and feeling this like high amount of energy. And that can be happening from a high cortisol response. And the— I love what you're saying so much, Debra, because I think so many people in the fitness world and I think so many of the messages that women get from the fitness world in general has to do with like push harder and do more. And, you know, this like keep, keep doing more, more, more, more in order to feel better, like you'll be healthier if you exercise more. And I think that when someone is going through this like heightened state, it can feel really tempting. They may want to do that, but it does add more stress into the system that is already experiencing the stress that it's experiencing. So, in the, in the more like mid-range response to stress over time, what will happen is something we call a reverse curve. Like, instead of having good energy to get up and go first thing in the morning, you'll be tired and kind of dragging yourself and hard to get, get going., but then in the evening time perk up and have this second wind, or if you feel like you're that night owl and you can finally get things done, or you're like wanting to do your exercise or something, like be more vigorous in the later part of the day, that's, that's a reverse curve and kind of a second phase of, of adrenal dysregulation. And then the final phase, which is unfortunately we do have a lot of people come to us and they're, they're in this more adrenal burnout. Which is where it's just you're just tired all the time. You just have a hard time getting going in the morning. You're tired and foggy and unmotivated through the day. You can be exhausted at nighttime, but it could still feel really hard to actually fall asleep and get restorative sleep at night. You can be having cravings like your body is just like asking for nourishment and rest and, and a different way of taking care of yourself. Yourself when you're in that phase. And even though you might want to have more energy and lose weight and feel more— have clearer thinking during the day and everything, which we think exercise helps with all of that, and movement does, but we want to change how we're doing our movement, right? And not adding more stress into the body. But you do want to be moving and taking care of yourself. Different ways.

Yeah, I love that. And I loved how you, you actually started with that when you were describing yourself and did that so eloquently, you know, that, you know, my, my own self-care just looks different now. That I think is so, so important. So can you distinguish this, or I mean, as a, as a generality, or is this very unique to individuals, like distinguish eustress or positive stress from distress or negative stress?

Yeah, it's great. It's so, so helpful to, to recognize the difference of those kind of like good stress and bad stress. Like, I don't really love labeling things good and bad, but kind of that, that concept. Um, stress gets demonized. It gets like put in this bucket of like, oh, it's bad and it's always problematic. We've already said like how you're— how you think about your stress makes a difference and that. But there's also really even sources of stress that can be, have, be really positive in our lives. Like if you're, you know, starting a new relationship or buying a new house or starting a new, you know, career or project or something that you're excited about doing, or even if you're nervous about it but it's something that you're excited about and you feel drawn to, we actually fuel ourselves with that kind stress. If you truly had no stress going on all the time, it would be kind of boring. It would just be, you know, just nothing, nothing new, nothing challenging, just same, same, same. Which, when you're under, under a lot of stress, that might sound really appealing to experience for a little while.

Yeah, where, where do I get that?

Just the same every day. But, but really, we get joy and excitement and meaning and purpose from, from having a challenge and having something that we're— where it's growing, right? It's, it's that, that ability to take the next steps in your life to becoming more of who you are and having the influence in the world that you are here to have and, and make, you know, having your impact. So I think that recognizing that there are positive stresses like that, and when we are able to capture that and harness that to motivate ourselves and to motivate ourselves for things that we know that we need to do. So something we talk with patients a lot about at the Women's Vitality Center is how being really committed to something that's really important to you in your life is an important part of your health journey. So we're not just recommending people, you know, eat this way or exercise this way or do this for sleep or take these supplements or take these hormones. We're also talking to people about what matters to you in your life and what's going to be possible for you when you're— when all of this is working and you're feeling better. How does that influence the rest of your life, the people in your life, the projects that you're doing, the things that you're excited about? Because your health can really support you to do all of that. And when you can feel excited and motivated, It's, it's an experience of stress, but it's, it's in this more positive way to feel really excited and fired up about what you're doing and having your health supporting you to do that. And that can help with commitment and with, with motivation. Like, all right, I need to get up and do my morning practice, or I need to, you know, make that meal that's going to be the healthier choice, or, or do, you know, my exercise routine or my wind down at bedtime, like doing all of those things. Staying motivated to do that because you know it's part of something that's really important to you and you're, you're pushing yourself in that direction.

So good. Something comes to mind while you're talking, and you know, it's really interesting that I think people get to a point where they don't feel good, or as good— women in particular in midlife don't feel as good when they're exercising. As it used to make them feel good. And there's several things going on here, but wondering if you've got any background or, or have experienced this. There's some scientific studies that say that there are fewer, like, receptors for dopamine in the brain during midlife and menopause. And so there's a reason why you're not experiencing that little high that you used to. Like, it's, it's not gonna give you the same, and, and trying harder probably is gonna backfire because that, that will be more stress on cortisol and adrenals. And so it's going to be worse, not better, you know, unlike a drug. Sometimes doing more, going harder or longer might fit it for a while. But have you experienced that or read anything about the dopamine receptors being lower or reduced?

Yeah, yeah, it's a, it's a really interesting frame on it, Debra, because I think that, that chasing that dopamine hit is, is a really important thing to recognize. That's part of what's driving that, that kind of thing. So our brains absolutely change as we move through perimenopause and menopause. There's, um, it's it's fascinating and complicated. And yeah, but the experience of dopamine and how your moods and emotions and everything change and what, what kinds of things influence you in different ways, it's very— it's fascinating. Yes. And I think that recognizing that instead of pushing harder to go for that, that type of dopamine, uh, runner's high, exhausted, like, like that, that feeling that you got from like really pushing yourself in the past, recognizing that now you might come to a place that feels really good, but it's a different kind of good. And that might be through a yoga class or through, you know, just a shorter version of a strength training thing that doesn't push the cardio as hard as what you might use to, you know, you might have done earlier in your life. So I think it's, it's being open to there being new definitions of what, what that good feeling is, because I think that there's still ways, and I'm sure you, you would say the same, of like that through movement you can still feel good. And but it might be a different kind of movement and a different kind of feeling good, but it's still possible to achieve that.

Yeah, definitely agree. And I think that maybe we have to be more conscious of stacking some of the other tools, like getting it— getting the movement in sunshine, or getting it with a friend where we're venting and getting social input as well, or listening to music that you love, you know, combining it with other ways known to help us provide dopamine and serotonin at the same time, maybe you may have to work just a little bit harder to pull all the tools together.

Yeah, I love it. It's the holistic approach to fitness. It's really interesting. Yeah, like bring in, yeah, the social music, our— the rhythms and the beats and how, how that moves you. And, um, yeah, I think those are all really Really beautiful consideration. So, and time of day is something else that I think can make a big difference depending on when your cortisol is kicking in and how your adrenals are holding up, what kind of exercise you do, what, what time of day.

Let's, let's say a little bit more about that because we drive that home too. We have some tenets of Flipping 50, kind of like the Ten Commandments, if you will, but What we like to say is intense early and light late. Oh, I like it. In general, to support sleep, to work with cortisol. But that's not always true for those people whose cortisol is off, you know, that they wouldn't be working with their cortisol because like you said, if they're in that second phase, they probably feel like they, they can't exercise in the morning and would want to later. Yeah. But what are your thoughts about, you know, optimizing time of day and type of exercise?

Yeah, I, I think knowing, you know, there, there, this is one of those places where everyone's different and we, we kind of need to start there and then look at, okay, what are we trying to move towards for kind of optimum physiology? Um, I, you know, some, some people, there's only a little window in the day that they even can fit in exercise or movement. For now, at least, right? Maybe these are longer-term decisions about stress management, about how you're managing your schedule and where you can have buffers to prioritize your own health at the times that you prefer to. But if, if your reality right now is that, you know, I was just talking to someone, like, she has a dance class that she loves. It's at 8 o'clock at night, and it's like a vigorous dance class. And what I said to her was like, it's better to do it than to not do it. And she gets so much out of that class. There's, like you were just mentioning, that social connection, the movement, the rhythms and the way she moves her body, and the positives of that are very present, even though I would consider it a con or a negative that it's at 8 o'clock at night. So I encouraged her, like, look for other opportunities to find a class that gives you those same kinds of things but takes place earlier in the day if you can arrange your schedule to be able to do that.

So it's—

there, you know, there's always working with someone's individual situation and needs. And then there's also working with your individual chemistry, like where, where, you know, if you were to do, for example, a 4-point adrenal cortisol test and look at different times over the course of the day, what is your cortisol production at that time. For people who are really dragging in the morning and then they can perk up in the afternoon, I would still say it's really important to do something first thing because you're training your body. You're asking your adrenals, hey, now is when I want some cortisol, please. And if you do that regularly and consistently over weeks and, you know, 3, 4 weeks, it will— your adrenals actually start getting that message and can start producing more cortisol for you because you're asking for it at the same time every day and your body learns that. But you don't want it to be super intense if you don't have the reserves yet to be able to do something more intense. But you do want to get up and move and get into your body. But then if you have more cortisol, like in the afternoons, then maybe that is when you do, you know, more vigorous workout when you have that that well underneath you, that, that reserve to be able to do the exercise that you want to do.

Yeah, I love that.

But definitely light, late. I love that concept, like winding down at nighttime. I— for people who struggle to get going in the morning, your, your morning starts the night before, and it's really about winding yourself down even if you're exhausted and you could just put your head on the pillow and crash out, it's really, really important to take a little bit of time and intention to calm your nervous system and get yourself into that parasympathetic restful state so that you can have a better rest over the nighttime and be ready to start your day in the morning.

That is so good. And really coming back to what you were mentioning kind of about the patient you're working with who loves the dance class late at night, That factor we call the joy factor.

There you go.

That, you know, there are some times where we can paint these Ten Commandments and like there are 10 rules, but then we have to sometimes color outside the lines and say, but if we take this thing that somebody loves away from them, you know, is that better or is that worse for them? And the bottom line You know, for her or for anybody who's juggling, is this bad for me? Or do— because I get that a lot as we're describing what happens. Somebody will say, well, am I harming myself by doing this? The answer is, what results are you getting? How do you feel? Because the habits that you've been doing regularly for the last 3 or 4 weeks are showing up like right now. The energy level you have, the sleep you have, the— you know, do you have a good appetite or do you have cravings all the time? I mean, all of those things are compilation telling you, you know, maybe we should tweak one thing and test it, right?

That's nature's biofeedback, right? Yeah, right. I did this for a while and now I feel like this. Like, okay, that tells you something. So your joy factor, I love that. I think it's analogous to what I usually call vitamin P for pleasure. Oh yeah, it's such an important nutrient. And, and, you know, whether it comes to food or practices or exercise or whatever, like that's— there are— there, there's something to be said for having that joy factor or vitamin P in your life and finding ways to amplify that, hopefully over time, more and more in alignment with ways that still support your physiology and help you out too.

So Fantastic. Okay, Dr. Amy Day, people are gonna, gonna want to get a hold of you. How can they do that? Where can they find you?

Yeah, so we have— we actually have an online community that people can join from anywhere. It's called the Vitality Club, and the access to that, as well as information about our practice, is on our website, which is womensvitalitycenter.com. And we have our online community. We actually have a group program around adrenal health. It's called Replenish, and that is something that's, that's available. It teaches you how to self-order an adrenal saliva test so you can learn, you know, specifically where you're at, and teaching about nutrition and fitness and lifestyle and stress management and mindset aspects of rebuilding adrenal health. And there's a whole supplement guide there and So that is available. And the community is, is all about helping women, women plus, we say, because we're inclusive. And the— yeah, for the community, it's about flourishing together through perimenopause and beyond. And it's a great place to connect. Our private practice right now is for patients who are in California. We're looking at expanding. So if you're in a different state, feel free to ask. Um, but we do have our private practice for patients in California as well, where we work individually and, um, really customize. We combine naturopathic medicine and health coaching to support your journey. So you can learn more about that at womensvitalitycenter.com. And it's a great free starting place is our hormone balancing checklist. Um, so an easy PDF download, lots of tips in there for natural ways to approach hormone balance.

So good. So thank you very much. Such a great topic, and I think kind of surrounding the holidays, and it usually lasts post-holiday for a lot of people. And, you know, stress is not ever, you know, void in our daily diet of life, but I think there are just some peak times where it becomes a little bit more important to have that conversation. So I so appreciate this, and I so hope that listeners taking this information, if not you, for a friend, a sister, or even a daughter— we're so used to pushing through, to being, you know, you can count on me, I'll get it done, you know. And sometimes you've got to look deeper at your signs and your symptoms. And it's not a sign of weakness to, to be doing that. So learning how to take care of yourself, such great tips here.

So true. And in the, in the perimenopausal transition time too, this, this questioning of what is, what is happening to my body, like what is going on? I don't understand this. And people go to their doctors and kind of get blown off too of like, oh, it's just normal, just, you just have to deal with it. So that, yeah, it's not, it's not something to be especially stoic about just pushing through. Um, there really are ways to feel better and you deserve to feel better.

So good. All right, listeners. So now it's up to you. If there is a question you still might have on cortisol or adrenals, your insufficiency, you can come to the show notes to connect with Amy and get the resources that she mentioned and show notes will be up flipping50.com/tool-for-hormone-balance. And what are you waiting for? Let's start flipping 50 today.