What is Glutathione and How Can it Support Menopause?

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. Exactly what is glutathione? If you are wondering that yourself, it's not to be confused with glutamine. It may be something that you are less aware of, and it certainly doesn't make it into conversations where, say, creatine and amino acids are. So glutathione Is it one of the cool kids that you need to hang out with? In this episode, we're going to talk about it. Look, in 2019, glutathione first became a regular in my refrigerator. I was in need of detoxing in the biggest and baddest way from mold exposure in the house I was living in at the time, still being mitigated, and I was using everything in my arsenal, including activated charcoal and sauna, only purified water for me, reducing all my food sensitivities in order to allow my body to heal. But glutathione was like first line of defense and the first thing out of the mouth of my functional doctor friends. Thank goodness for that, that I'd asked. So if you don't quite know how to answer what is glutathione? My guest today will clear it all up for both you and I. My guest, Dr. Gina Nick, is a world-renowned naturopathic physician, researcher, and formulator based in Newport Beach, California. With a dedication to holistic wellness, she's known for her expertise in treating a wide range health concerns, from autoimmune diseases to addiction recovery, anxiety, and more. And you will think she is a midlife woman's expert once you hear today's episode. After graduation from medical school, she became the director of research for a leading supplement company, earning the company billions. She's since held the roles of executive healthcare consultant to local and government agencies and president emeritus of the California Naturopathic Doctors Association. As the founder and director of HealthBridge in Newport Beach, her practice was awarded Top Medical Practice of 2017, a testament to her commitment to excellence. As a published author, entrepreneur, and certified yoga instructor, Dr. Gina is a multifaceted professional with a passion for improving the lives of others with her unwavering commitment to nurturing health naturally. She's not just your typical medical professional. Dr. Gina is a nurturing soul, a devoted mom, and an advocate for holistic well-being. And she is one of the few attendees also in the weight room before sessions at conferences that we both attend. She's licensed in both California and Hawaii and is excited to share her journey with you. I'm Debra Atkinson. You're listening to Flipping 50. I started this podcast over a decade ago to answer questions about fitness in menopause and beyond before you knew to ask them. The goal to to help accelerate your results with science and the practical application of proven protocols while living your best life. There's no more powerful health influencer in the world than a midlife woman, and it's not just about you but the 3 generations that you influence. My unique 40-year career, including being a university senior lecturer in kinesiology, an industry subject matter expert, and an international speaker, to founder of the first and the only exclusively made-for-menopause and beyond fitness membership in the world. Every week I interview experts behind the scenes and the science of optimal hormone balancing, fitness, and longevity, and share answers to our community's questions so you can have the vitality and the energy that you want, need, and deserve. Hello and thank you so much for being here, Dr. Gina Nick.

It's a pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.

Very good. We are gonna really unpack this and, and I love this so much and I didn't know how much I needed glutathione until I really, really did. But there's so much else to unpack. So those of you not exposed to mold and didn't have the introduction I did, let's just like back this up to square one. What is glutathione?

So glutathione, I refer to it as the mother of all antioxidants. So like the master antioxidant. It's manufactured in every cell in our bodies, which speaks to the importance of it. It's a combination of 3 amino acids, so it's a tri— it's called a tripeptide. So it's a combination of 3 amino acids that supports detoxification. It's one of the key components in your, every one of your cells detoxing from whether it's mold, any toxin, you know, toxins that come from exposure to viruses, bacteria, yeast, mold, pollution, you name it, stress. The body has to deal with that. And there are innate mechanisms in place. There's the human detoxification system. That's an amazing system. And powerful system in our body that handles all of that for us. Well, glutathione is like the main component in that whole system. And so it's very powerful for clearing hormones from the body. It helps with lowering inflammation throughout the body. It also helps with lowering inflammation in the brain. So I love, I love to talk about that, especially with women who are in that perimenopause, menopausal phase. There's not a lot of information out there on Why do you all of a sudden, why are you having the mood swings? They'll say hormone imbalance, but why, why are you feeling depressed and then anxious? And you know, all of those things, not able to sleep. A lot of it can be tied to this concept of neuroinflammation. And guess what? Glutathione plays a huge role in lowering neuroinflammation and helps prevent and treat those things.

So talk to me about like so many other things, our levels of production are declining. Is that true of glutathione as well?

So what happens, it's my truth that our bodies have not evolved to the point of being able to handle the volume of toxins that we are all exposed to. And women are particularly vulnerable to this because we have these hormonal cycles there's this elaborate system in our body that is very vulnerable to exposure to toxins. And the volume of toxins we're exposed to has exponentially increased over time. And so it's more, you know, our bodies manufacture the glutathione. I don't think there's as much of an issue there. It's more our bodies are using up the glutathione that we have quicker than we're able to replenish it. And then all of a sudden you have toxic overload. And you have symptoms of mold toxicity, neuroinflammation, and so forth.

Okay. Talk to me about the other goodness. So obviously if you've got a, if you've got a real problem, you're exposed to mold and boom, I've got to mitigate this. How do I do that? What other specific problems would there be that would be like your immediate, let's make sure we've got this going on?

Glutathione. I mean, I honestly, I think everybody benefits from it in one way or another. That's why I'm so passionate about this. Why does everyone not know about this? You know, this antioxidant? It's kind of complicated to say. It's not like the most sexy name, glutathione, you know? So it's hard to remember. It's a little confusing to say. I've been in the nutritional supplement world for more than 2 decades. And if I was to pick one thing to recommend, if I only could pick one thing, it would be glutathione because it's so foundational. To everything else. And so it helps with your skin. It helps to increase collagen synthesis. So that's— and it works really well for that. If you have any sort of heavy metal exposure, glutathione is my first line of defense. That's what I prescribe for any sort of mood disorder. So depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, all the way through to things like cognitive decline, Alzheimer's disease. Even Parkinson's disease, I will go to, I'll turn to glutathione as a really important treatment. And that sounds like the best thing since sliced bread. And the reason why it will, every, like I said, every cell in your body is making it.

Yeah.

That speaks to how important it is. And it impacts all the different systems in your body. So that's why it's so powerful.

So talk to me a little bit about if To anybody listening, so number one, I think you mentioned collagen, which I think is so odd that we're hearing tons about everywhere you turn is collagen. If you're a woman in midlife, I would bet you that if you're on any social media timeline, collagen is coming through. You're getting it. But we're not making this connection, collagen and glutathione. That's— nobody's saying that. So yeah, why don't more of us know about this? Where have you been hiding?

Well, I sort of And the way, I mean, I've used, I've been, I was taught to use glutathione from when I was in medical school and I used it in my practice. And, but really when I took the deep dive into this was I was actually hired by a company who manufactures a form of glutathione that is proven to be stable in the body, even though it's taken in oral form. Because the problem with glutathione is it does, it's not always bioavailable. It doesn't always work.

Anyway.

That's honestly because we're all so busy, but I was hired to actually research it in my practice. And so I was able to take that time to focus on this and learn that there are over 100,000 clinical studies on glutathione.

Oh my gosh.

I'm like, wait a second. This is amazing. And so I went and I gave a lecture in London. There was like about 600 healthcare practitioners from all over the world there. And I talked about glutathione and neuroinflammation. And a small fraction of the audience even like used it in their practice. Maybe they heard of it, but they don't use it. They don't recommend it. And I was like, okay, this is before COVID Like, I want to make glutathione a household name. I want everybody to know about this. So starting with the practitioners, right? Where they're like, they're inspired to use it more frequently. And then all the way down to every consumer, like, you know, allowing people to have access to it, know what it is. And use it. And so, and then COVID hit and I was homeschooling my daughter and just nobody knew what COVID was. You know, just doing these house visits with all the garb on, you know, giving injections. And anyway, I came across a research study that had demonstrated that glutathione could help prevent a severe reaction to COVID just because of the whole— its impact on inflammation. Basically, right?

Wow.

So it was at that point where I was looking at my daughter and she was working on some online assignment, like, I want to create glutathione in a form that tastes good, that's similar to like a Pixy Stick, like a candy that can go in every child's lunchbox. And that really was the start of me deciding I'm doing this. And then, you know, fast forward 3 years and it's— we have Best Daily Ever. The Pixy Stick form is, is like an immune support formula for kids and adults.

Yeah, and these are awesome, by the way. I just had mine today, and it's— yeah, I would have to say, yeah, it's not like I don't mind taking the supplement because it tastes— it actually tastes good. It's not a, you know, I can tolerate it kind of thing. It actually is really a nice flavor. So thank you for doing that. But you've said this word a couple of times, and this is such a big deal for women in menopause. There's probably more here, but inflammation. Yes, you know, and more and more women not regulating their blood sugars very well. So we know inflammation is going up, we've got all these aches and pains mysteriously arriving, and injury-prone women who are like, I'm trying to do the right thing, I'm trying to exercise, but I keep getting hurt. I mean, how is inflammation supported by glutathione and What else for midlife women specifically can we unpack to help? Because as you probably well know better than I, there are a lot, a myriad of symptoms women are tolerating.

Well, look, when especially women going through that perimenopausal and menopausal phase, yeah, we know that a hormone deficiency causes inflammation. So start there. Right? And so as our hormones decline, inflammation goes up. That's just what happens, you know. So then we talk about how to balance hormones and help prevent that from happening, because inflammation is what triggers the symptoms, you know, the aches and the pains, making you more accident-prone, not healing as quickly from injuries, feeling more fatigued, so you're not wanting to move as much, you know, and all of those things impacting blood sugar levels. So just Bottom line is, as hormones decline, inflammation goes up. And then you add the level of stress that we're all under, you know, these days.

Yeah.

That, that compounds the inflammation that we're already dealing with. And then you add something like COVID or exposure to another thing that, and there's multiple things, but that also triggers inflammation. And it's like, you know, whoa. And so for women who don't know what the heck is going on, you know, aren't studying this day in and day out, right? For you and I, we're so immersed in it that for us, it's like, of course inflammation is causing all this and here's what you do. But most women are not taking, you know, like who has the time to sit there and research this stuff and study it and understand what's really happening. But at the end of the day, inflammation equals pain, mood disorders, sluggishness, weight gain, all those things that women are told now, well, it's just, you just deal with it. It's just, you know, part of, part of this phase in your life. And I'm like, no, it's not. And that's where I like to find like the simplest route to get a result. And that's where, so glutathione again, because it's manufactured in every cell in our body. And because it plays such an important role in lowering inflammation and removing a cause for inflammation, right? It's removing a cause, toxic exposure, right? And the system being bogged down by toxins. So you're removing that because you're supporting your body's natural mechanisms that get rid of that stuff. So by doing that, you're helping to prevent those symptoms and also heal them.

Hey, this is Debra Atkinson, and there is one thing you can't do in the gym at your age, and that's get all the protein that you need. You've got to do that in the kitchen. To make it easy for myself, not only to get the protein but the fiber, the fruits and vegetables, I went daily, I started drinking a smoothie a day 30 years ago. But when I realized all the junk, the sugar, and the extras that you don't want, that I don't want, hiding in most protein powders, that's when I finally caved in after years of saying I will never ever ever sell supplements. Stop skipping, skimping, and sabotaging yourself in the morning after workouts. By always being prepared. Look, yep, I agree, real food first. But it's just not convenient to carry a turkey sandwich. Sometimes the protein— and don't forget the fiber— they kill cravings and they boost satiety. And you've got to make it easy to do the right thing. You can use code PODCAST for 10% off your first order at Lipping50.com today. So I know that there's some vitamin C in here. Is there a, is there an ideal cocktail to take glutathione so it's like it actually is enhanced, does its job better, or is absorbed better? Yeah.

Yeah. Vitamin C works hand in hand with glutathione. They help each other to recirculate. So because glutathione gets recirculated in the body, it gets to an oxidized form and then goes back to what's called a reduced form. And so your body's constantly trying to maintain an optimal level of glutathione in a form that works, that it's active, right? So vitamin C is super important. Glycine. So there's— I like using glycine because glycine is one of the peptides in glutathione. So it's one of the amino acids, but glycine also helps with blood sugar balance, weight loss, helps calm the brain. And so that's another one that I like including, you know, when I'm looking at like what will help enhance the effects of glutathione.

You also mentioned something in the green room before we got started. I'm like, oh, you're so speaking to my audience. And the other one was like regularity. Yeah, you know, I— there are so many women here, we've talked about this many times on the show, and everyone will come to someone like a fitness professional and no one else has really unpacked this or helped them know, I know this is your normal, but this isn't normal. You can improve this. There's a better way, you know. So talk about what's the relationship, how is it that glutathione supports regularity, regular bowel movement.

Yeah, and so it's glutathione paired with magnesium. So I put magnesium in the formula too, and magnesium is kind of a go-to for helping to move your bowels. And, and glutathione again helps to support the whole human detoxification system, and your colon is a major component in the human detoxification system. And glutathione is very helpful in maintaining, like, the gut microbiome, keeping that in balance, and supporting detoxification even through the colon. And so it helps, but, you know, to move things through. And there are other things that help as well. You know, you have to look at things like thyroid, progesterone levels also impact your bowel movements. Hydration is a big one for sure, but glutathione and magnesium, that combination seems to work really nicely to keep things moving.

So you mentioned putting these in a lunchbox for kids. So is this, you know, a dose that is for anyone, any age, or is— can you overdo this? So I know I have overachievers in my audience. I see you all out there, by the way. You know, they're like, oh, one's good, 3 must be better. I mean, talk to us about that because my audience needs to hear this.

Yeah. I'm the same way. So, so there's a smaller Pixie Stick for kids. It's a half dose.

Oh, okay.

The dose. And what I, I call this best daily ever, you don't have to take it every day, but it's something where I'm a big fan. I've told my patients this, shared this with them for years, do something every day. That supports the human detoxification system. Do something every day. Like, put that in your consciousness, you know, whether it's doing sauna therapy or exercise or maintaining hydration or taking glutathione, but do something daily that is supporting your body's ability to heal itself, to detox and heal itself, right? And so the dosage I used is like, something that's safe to take daily. And so you're not going to overdo it, but you don't need to take more. I mean, there's a lot in here, you know, and it, and the form, a lot of glutathione when you take it in oral form doesn't work. So this is a form that is, has been proven through clinical research studies. It's backed and proven to boost blood levels and red blood cell levels. And so it's effective and you don't need to take high doses. In fact, there's Dr. Patel. He wrote The Glutathione Revolution. And so he's another, you know, we talk about glutathione and he says, you know, don't do IVs of glutathione. It's a total waste. You know, it doesn't even get into the cells. The molecule's too big, et cetera. And I don't know whether that's true or not, but what I do know is that glutathione is under tight homeostatic control, which basically means your body has mechanisms in place that keep your glutathione levels at a very specific amount. So, so more isn't better.

Hmm.

Okay. More isn't better. Yeah. And so there is this like mechanism, it's called maintaining tight homeostatic control, not just homeostatic control, but tight homeostatic control, meaning it's serious about maintaining a specific amount of glutathione. So I'm about working with your body, right? And not giving it too much, not giving it too little. And so I, when I went to decide on dosages for this, I looked at, you know, what does the body make on its own? What's found in food? You know, what are the doses found in food? And, and I use those as my baseline because I wasn't looking to have you take high doses every day. Just like a physiologic dose so that the body can use it and you don't burden the body and you only get the benefits from it. So that was the idea behind the formula. And then adding like glycine, because if you take glycine, it helps your body make its own glutathione too. Right.

Where, what are some foods that are high in glutathione? Yeah.

Well, not that I'm an advocate for hamburger meat, but hamburger meat is a source of glutathione, avocados. Broccoli, radishes, peaches, cherries. Make sure they're organic because look, if you're taking the foods to boost glutathione levels to support detoxification, don't take those foods when there's a residue of toxins on it. It's like, yeah, um, but those are some foods that are good sources of glutathione. But it seems to me we need more, so that's where the supplementation comes into effect. And I do believe in the future, we're going to need more and more and more because of the— just the volume of toxins we're exposed to. Even, um, glutathione helps to protect our bodies from radiation. So when you talk about like EMFs, right, electromagnetic frequencies, and there's more and more discussion about that, and we don't know everything yet, but there's some data coming out making the association between exposure to these types of radiation that we can't see But it's triggering cancer and a host of other symptoms. Glutathione is actually shown to protect your cells from damage from radiation of all forms.

Wow. Okay. And back to inflammation. So one of the things that— it's so interesting. We happen to be just coincidentally, although maybe not, it's no accidents. We're running a continuous blood glucose group this month and helping them understand what's the value of having this on, what can you do? But I'm learning a lot about our audience, and they're somewhat attached to sugar, but they don't know it because they're— they'll be consuming foods that are high in sugar, but they're masked a little bit, you know, it's not a sweet food, and they don't realize this is metabolizing as sugar in their body pretty quickly. But talk about sugar and inflammation, and why is that so problematic? Why is sugar number one so problematic? Talking to a group of, of females who grew up where sugar was okay because it was low fat.

Yep. Yeah, yeah, all those fat-free foods.

Uh-huh.

Yeah, yeah, that convert into fat basically in your body. So there's so much to that. I would say, as it relates to women and hormone balance, I would say one of the worst things that consuming a lot of sugar does is impact cortisol levels. Cortisol is the stress hormone. You have a lot of cortisol receptors in your stomach, and when you are under a lot of stress or when you consume a high amount of sugar, which stresses your body out, it tends to cause fat deposits in your stomach in particular. Right.

Well, there's the mic drop. So there it is. I knew it was coming.

So, yeah, it's like it's real. And glycine is awesome for helping to regulate blood sugar levels. Like, it's so simple, you know, it's such a simple thing. It's glycine is just one amino acid. It has a slightly sweet flavor to it. And even when I was formulating this, I always say this formula was like divinely inspired. So I literally woke up and I'm like, oh my gosh, I know exactly what I'm going to sweeten this with. It's going to be glycine. And it's so cool because this amino acid has a slight sweet flavor to it, but it helps to regulate blood sugar levels and it helps with weight loss.

Well, the only, only word here that's appropriate is sweet. Okay.

Yeah. Yeah. I love the continuous blood glucose monitors. Those are great. Yeah. And they're so helpful because Like what I've noticed with my patients is they won't realize that certain foods that they think are healthy for them are the actual issue. And then things that they thought were like, I can never eat this again, were really not that big of a deal. And so it's like learning what, what actually impacts your body.

Um, and the value of, I think, the continuous blood glucose monitor also, even beyond food, is that it makes women realize there's an impact that not sleeping very well last night has on you. That argument that you had this morning is— this is impacting your blood sugar as well, and it's making you potentially react differently to those foods. So what about the same thing? Somebody is under a lot of toxic stress and not clearing that out. So another, another reason for the glutathione.

Yes.

Yeah.

Yes.

Got it.

Yes. Yeah.

Okay.

Yeah. I mean, it's—

I want to go back, back, back, back to you. And so often we're doing things in our adult lives and careers based on having gotten here because we struggled with something. Is there any of that in your prior life or struggling with something that, that also is a motive for you wanting to do and dig?

Yeah.

Yes.

Yes. And so I would say, I mean, there's been a lot of things. This is funny actually. So when I was president of the California Naturopathic Doctors Association, I started like the, I, there, or I helped to work on their continuing medical education program. This is way back when, and then I was giving a lecture and I was preparing for it and it was on stress. Right, and inflammation and the connection between inflammation, the body and inflammation, the brain, and how that can trigger mood issues and all of that. And it was all about how if you go through repeated stressful events over time without a break in between, without your body having time to get back to a state of balance or homeostasis, that's when the issues start. That's when all the problems start. It's like stressful event, stressful event, stressful event, right? With no space in between for the body to recalibrate because it has the ability to. So my gosh, I look at when I gave that lecture before, when life was, you know, it was pretty good. I mean, I had traumatic issues occur in childhood that probably triggered all of this, right? My interest in neuroinflammation, managing stress, the connection with hormones, exposure to toxins, how that impacts it. I mean, I'm sure Sure, you know, it was triggered way back when. But I find it so interesting that I went into great detail putting this presentation together, and I really— it was like I touched on the mental, the emotional, the spiritual, all of it, right? When talking about how to treat it and talked about staying in the eye of the storm. And that was like just before I started to really hit some major life stresses. I mean, it was like one issue after another— divorce and then a single parent, custody issues. I mean, it was just like stress, stress, stress, stress with no break in between. None. And then all of a sudden I experienced major burnout. I was like, I can't do anything anymore. I was this high achiever and doing all these things, and it was like I flatlined. And what helped me the most was detoxing, was taking the time to support my detox mechanisms. All of a sudden, like, I would think clearer, I would feel better. I didn't— I wasn't as reactive, you know? And so, yeah, and then I'm still in, in process, right? I'm still— I grow every day and learn more every day, but I'm very passionate about helping women in particular because of my own experience, you know, women and mothers to live their very best life because I realized how much potential I had within me that was being blocked because of— I was allowing the stresses and the toxins to slow me down and keep me from being me.

Wow. Talk to me about our kids today. I— are they— are— were we worse off because of the way we grew up and what we've been exposed to, or are they going to experience even more of it? Where are we?

So I have— my daughter's 12, you know, and so I've been, you know, at the elementary schools and all of that, you know, for years and kind of observing and being involved with the kids at that level. And they're, they're so— they're exposed to so much technology and less arts and less, less time outside and all that. And so when I look at that, I'd say If you just look at how the human body is designed, the human body thrives when there's time out in nature, you know, and exercising outside, listening to the sounds of nature regulates the stress hormones. And I know just in that age group, stress is a major issue now. You know, a lot of these kids are dealing with anxiety and depression that are stress-related. It's an issue. I mean, everywhere I turn. You know, I have one of my dear friends, his beautiful family, intact family, everything on the outside is like perfect and wonderful human beings. And their daughter is all of a sudden like dealing with an alcohol problem. And she's like 15 now, 15, which it's like elite athlete, straight-A student. And I'm going, how did this happen? It's not in the family. It's like, what is— and, and it's, it's tied to just volume of stress that these kids are exposed to. So we weren't, I don't think, exposed to as much stress. And I don't feel like our kids' bodies, just like ours, are equipped to handle the volume of stress and toxins that we're exposed to. I just don't.

Yeah.

And that's where I think encouraging time outside as much as possible, you know, kids. I started a foundation, the Brain Health and Mental Wellness Foundation, and I did a summit, an in-person summit last year. And we had a whole kids program there. And yeah, and we had all these arts and crafts projects, but we also had them pack their own picnic. So we had these picnic baskets and they, and we had them, you know, put all the fresh foods and eggs and everything in this picnic basket. And what we were teaching was, first of all, picking quality foods, whole foods, but then taking the time to sit outside. When you're eating in nature and like reinforcing that concept.

Very cool.

Yeah, like a couple years ago I was volunteering at my daughter's school and there was like an— it was a free art program where basically during recess the woman would bring out every like different art mediums and it was called free art because the children could just do what they wanted. They didn't have to paint that one particular sunflower. Yeah, they got to just pick whatever they wanted and create whatever they wanted. And we had them at the summit as well. And I was watching that the kids thrive they loved it. I'm like, we need more of this. We need kids to be exposed to more of this so that they, they're able to counter the exposure that they have to the stresses that I think are more than what we, we had. We had— our parents didn't know much about nutrition. I mean, like, I lived on Skittles and things like that. You're like, I'm like, really, Mom? Now I know why I studied nutrition.

Well, and our parents They didn't talk about stress either. No, right? I mean, nobody, nobody was talking about it. I think we talk about it with our kids, you know, at a much younger age. But also in the green room before we turn this on, we were talking about your daughter and, you know, she's into horses. And I think like what a godsend probably for her, right? That she's around animals and that, you know, whether it's quote unquote, you know, equine therapy or not, it is, right? I mean, just interacting with animals. There is something actually about, you know, girls who grow up around horses, but it's probably the same for, for a boy with a dog or anything. I think again, another place to just calm the nervous system.

Yeah. Yes. I mean, it's, I could go on and on and we could have a whole episode just about horses and girls. What I've observed. I mean, it's so, it's amazing. It's amazing. Really to watch the transformation and to see, see just the qualities of these girls that are around horses in the barn. They learn so much. But spending time in nature, listening to the sounds of nature, yeah, is proven to regulate cortisol levels, right, by up to 80%. So there's no supplement— like, glutathione is not going to do that, you know. That is going to do that. The way, just being outside, listening to the sounds of nature, which it seems so easy, but in our society and with the way we do things, kids in school all day long, you know, in front of a computer and all that, it's not that easy, right? But, yeah, it's like in terms of biggest bang for your buck, taking the time and committing to making sure that you, and if you have children or children that you're around, are spending time outside outside in nature, just listening, just listening to, you know, the sounds of nature. And if you don't— aren't able to hear, you have a hearing disorder, I am sure that just being exposed to nature as well, you know, is impacting our cortisol levels. And that's just— it's, it's free.

Yeah.

And it's powerful and it works. It's my favorite time is like going and I've got a little garden and going and doing my little gardening first thing in the morning. I mean, I look forward to it. Because it helps to regulate my stress levels.

So good, so good. Okay, so you being one of us, so midlife woman and a doctor, obviously glutathione, our new best friend. Are there a handful of other things that as a midlife woman, kind of the meta meta, you yourself and you for patients, people that you're advising, that you like to see people taking and to thrive, not just now with symptoms, but also preparing for decades ahead of thrive?

I mean, protein, focusing on protein intake. And then there's so much there. I believe in biochemical individuality where there's not one perfect type of protein or protein mix for every person, whether it's vegan or not vegan or whatnot, but making sure you're getting some quality protein in your diet every day, you know, every meal, especially especially for us, you know, in our age category, I think is, is super important. Vitamin D3, I'm very passionate about making sure you get your levels checked and just make sure that your levels are where they need to be. Super important. And of course, glutathione, vitamin C, magnesium, zinc. Zinc is really important as well. And then also making sure that you're taking something to regulate that gut microbiome. There's so many different pre and probiotics out there, but if you find one that you like, or you've gone to the extent of testing to see what you need, but making sure you've got the right probiotics in your system day to day makes a huge difference with everything going on in terms of symptoms. Those are the biggies. Yeah.

Yeah. I love that. Thank you for rattling those off. Okay. So everybody. I have a link here. So if you too want to try this, you can try this Pixie Stix. They're right here. It's a punch flavor. It's yummy. And it's not just, I can tolerate that. It's actually, oh, this is good, but don't overdo it just because I said that. Okay. So you can find those at flipping50.com/pixiestix. And yes, just like it sounds, but that'll be in the show notes. So I want you to come over to the show notes. You'll have all the links to follow up With Gina, follow her on social as well as her website and learn more if you want to. Gina, do you want to mention some of those links? Where are you most active that people could stalk you?

Oh, I think Instagram is just Dr. Gina Nick, so D-R-G-I-N-A-N-I-C-K. I think that's where we're most active, or @bestdailyever. Perfect. It's drgina.com.

Perfect. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

So, Dr. Gina, Nick, we are an audience of immediate gratification, please. Yesterday's yesterday. A woman wants to know how soon before I start feeling a difference.

Yeah, well, so amen to wanting instant gratification. Look, we're all working so hard and we want— we want to be able to take something that's going to work quickly. So the feedback so far is you'll notice with the Pixie Stix within a couple days You will know that you're taking them. With things like if you're dealing with hot flashes and sleep issues and things like that, you can give it maybe up to 2 weeks of taking it, maybe 4 times, 4 to 5 times a week max. You'll notice it. Some women notice improvement right away and some women it can take a couple weeks. I'm actually thinking about doing like a challenge, like a Pixie a day and then getting feedback. Wouldn't that be fun? Like 2 weeks, a Pixie a day, and then just but nothing else. Like, don't change anything else, just add one. Yeah, a day. And then let's learn what else, because some of the things that I'm getting feedback on, I didn't create the product for. I didn't— I actually didn't create Best Daily Ever for like perimenopausal and menopausal women. That just was like, I mean, bonus. I mean, yeah, I'm like, oh wow, it's working for this. Awesome. It makes sense to me. But it was actually not even designed for that purpose. So, but anyway, anywhere between a couple days to a couple weeks max to notice the difference.

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