Managing Menopause

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Hey, it's JJ Virgin. And welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show where I talk nutrition, exercise, mindset and lifestyle with some of the coolest people in the world. Plus, I give you tips that you can put into fast action to uplevel your health so that you can go out there and live that big life you're meant to live. Now, today's show is all about hormone harmony before, during and after menopause wisdom with longevity and women's health expert Dr. Anna Kabeca. You know what she really calls it and I love this title. She calls it Magic Menopause and I wanted to bring her in because we get so many questions about that because heck, so many of us are dealing with it. And what's so fun here is that Dr. Anna Kubeca has been a longtime friend. I think I've known her over a decade now and she was one of my pals at my 50th birthday party. In fact, it was like a bunch. There were actually four hormone docs at my birthday party. We all were down in South Beach. How crazy is that? It was super fun. So let me tell you a little bit about Dr. Anna and Dr. Anna Kabeca has also been near and dear to my heart. When my son was in the hospital, she was one of the first people to reach out and share with me one of the therapies she'd learned about when she was in medical school at em. Really just been consistently there and she's super smart and always doing the work. When she had her own family tragedy, they went off for a year and did a healing journey and spent a lot of time out in the Amazon where she developed some new products and new therapies. She is just super cool and walks the talk. So let me tell you a little bit about her. She's a certified gynecologist and obstetrician and she's also board certified in anti aging and regenerative medicine. An expert in functional medicine and an expert in women's health. She specializes in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and natural alternatives, successful menopause and age management. She earned her medical degree from Nova Southeastern University. And then she did her residency at Emory, and now she still hangs out and lives in Southeast Georgia. She's always trying to get me to come out to her island that she lives on. She lectures all over the place on restorative health and women's health issues and trains other physicians in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy and functional medicine. She's got five kids, and she speaks four languages. She grew up in a multilingual and cultural household and has been all over the place and trained all over the place. Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, South America. And she also created. Co created the sexy younger U telesummit, and she also created the women's restorative health program, sexual cpr. And now she's got this very cool concept. In fact, I was like, anna, this is the coolest thing I've ever heard. She calls it Magic Menopause. But there is a concept in here that she created I literally never heard of before. And I immediately said, that's the book trademark. That this is going to be huge, and I'm super excited to share it with you. She's going to explain it, but you're going to absolutely want to go deeper on this, because this is something I think can lay over everything that we're doing. So today's guest on Magic Menopause is Dr. Anna Kabeca. All right, so let's do it. Dr. Anna Kabeca, welcome to the show. I'm so glad you're here with me today.

Oh, I'm delighted to be here with you too, jj.

I get pummeled about menopause all the time. It's one of the top questions I get asked about. So let's dive right into it, since you are the menopause master here. What are some of the most common symptoms of menopause?

Really? One of the biggest symptoms that really drive women crazy, make us go crazy even, are the hot flashes and night sweatshirts. So that disrupts our lifestyle, it disrupts our sleep, just kind of changes up our circadian rhythm. So that's one of the big ones. The other areas of menopausal issues are definitely the moodiness, the fatigue, the weight gain, hair loss, the hormonal symptoms, such as the irregular cycle, you know, lengthening of cycles, or breakthrough bleeding or ovarian cyst and breast changes, and all those gynecologic symptoms that kind of come in at the same time as menopause. But some of the most troubling ones are really the hot flashes, the weight gain, and the Drop in energy. And the brain fog is right up there too.

Hey, I'll share one that I hadn't heard about until it happened to me. And it was actually how I knew this was all happening. I couldn't recover from going to the gym. Like, I would do my normal workouts, and I just felt like I was sore all the time and I just didn't have the energy like I used to have when I went to the gym. So it was more than just fatigue. I felt like I was just a little bit inflamed.

Oh, absolutely. It's actually what I noted with my research is increased acidity. Right. So it's harder for us to get and stay alkaline with whatever these hormonal changes are. And we have protective hormones, progesterone, pregnenolone, some of our mother hormones, and those decline during this time. And that can also shift our PH balance.

Okay, well, let's talk more on that because people may go, what? Acid alkaline ph? And I think that there's. That's kind of a concept that we throw out there, but I don't think it's widely understood. So can you, like, simplify that one down for all of us?

Yeah, yeah, absolutely. And so let's talk about the. Just kind of. When we talk about getting alkaline, you hear that in the health space all the time, like, alkaline diets get alkaline, 80% alkaline, 20% acidic. What all does that mean? And that really comes down to is, it's not talking about. We're not talking about our blood ph, which our body keeps in homeostasis by maintaining that very delicate blood ph. But what we talk about is just in, in general, like, how is our mineral status? And the better our mineral status, the lower our inflammation, the more alkaline we are. And so when we look at that concept, we can look at acidity means inflammation, means high sugar means industrialism. Right. If you conceptualize it that way, can visualize that like New York City. And then alkaline would be like out in nature, the Amazon. Low inflammation, lower risk of cancer, breast protective, decreased joint pain. So improved recovery after the gym, better hormonal balance, easier for us to lose weight, less inflammation and more alkaline. So we're more alkaline in those states. So that's what, like think of the Amazon jungle. So Amazon versus industry.

Well, we all want to be Amazons, so Amazonians.

I think we are Amazonians.

We are, we are, we are. So let's. I would love to do a great contrast because I think a lot of people listening can understand this first part of the question. Then I want to show you the sharp contrast to show them. So someone's going through menopause. What would typically, like, they'd go to their doctor and say, okay, I'm getting hot flashes. So what's the, what's the typical course of action there?

Yeah, and typically they come in, I've got hot flashes, maybe they're having vaginal dryness, drop in libido, other very common issues as well. And so, like, the conversation will start. Okay, well, let's check your hormones. And the standard hormone evaluation would be a blood LH and FSH on around cycle day three to say, okay, are you in, Are you in menopausal hormones? And if your labs come back normal, well, you're not menopausal yet, come back in six months or a year, you know, and, or recognizing. Okay, we need estrogen on board. And in fact, that may not be what you need on board at the time.

So now let's contrast it because I see more and more of this as people go in. And generally what I get from, you know, everybody posting on Facebook is they tend to get a birth control pill in Prozac. Yeah, yeah, there, that's going to fix it. So what do you do? So someone comes to you, and I know that you found some different ways to handle this that work. So what are the key solutions that you've discovered and tested that you're seeing are helping people?

Yeah, absolutely. And I think I do want to elaborate a little bit more on that because, like the period, the perimenopause, ladies, if you're in your 30s and you're experiencing irregular periods, you know, breakthrough bleeding, increasing symptoms of pms, those are perimenopausal symptoms as well. And so you can be in your 30s experiencing this, even night sweats and hot flashes. Now that's going to be more with extreme hormonal imbalances, but it typically does lead. Okay, let's slap a birth control pill on and just control your periods. Okay, you've got pms, still don't like your husband. Here's some Prozac. You won't care. Right. And the next thing is, while you're still bleeding, having cysts, and let's go ahead and take out your uterus. And while you're there, since you're over age 85, let's take out your ovaries at the same time to decrease that really remote risk of ovarian cancer. And then you come back and say, well, I'm still not feeling good. And, you know, I don't even want to have sex, nor can I remember the last time I had sex. And it's not because it's been that long ago, you know, and so the memory issues are there. And the next thing we're doing is writing a referral to the Psychiatrist. Psychiatrist. And, you know, they're scheduling an appointment with a divorce attorney. Right. I mean, it's like a bad sequela.

Yeah.

Situations that happen in the. If we're not addressing the underlying issue so early on, it's often estrogen dominant. And you'll hear me talk about that over and over again. And so we want to get progesterone on board, but we want to detox the body, alkalinize the body. Because what I found, jj, like I always joke, I said, I've been through menopause three times now at 3,944, and now at. At 49, 48 and 49. Now I'm 50, and I'm like, okay, I'm not in menopause anymore. You know, so it's, you know, I joke about it, but hormone imbalance, stress is really. We handle it differently as we go through these significant menopausal changes. And so when we were able to detox in our 20s and 30s, and hormones were able to be really balanced. Right. It's harder in our 40s and 50s. So bringing in and actually testing and checking your alkalinity makes a difference. I think in the functional medicine space, we're all like, okay, detox because your liver's metabolizing your hormones. Let's get you on some probiotics, antibiotics. Let's get you on liver. You know, phase one and phase two. Detox support fish oils, you know, my mighty maca greens. Let's just pile this on you and let's. That's the functional medicine space. But it's more than that. If we're not actually testing and checking to see that our bodies are alkaline, we'll actually be surprised. The modern American working women, maybe they're 50 like me, have a third grader and one off to college, right? So big span of children or maybe empty nesting. But the stress is there and the life lifestyle more indoors than outdoors for many of us, takes a consequence on our. On our ph balance, our ability to detoxify, especially in this hormonal state. So it's harder for us to stay balanced, to stay sane. I like to joke, you know, and so that's part of the therapeutic approach to menopause. Getting on some bioidentical hormones, you know, adding or progesterone, starting with that, detoxing, getting your body alkaline and trying to stay there with checking urinary ph. Again, there are limitations, but that's a good thing to check. And then working through any tweaks that we need to do with the hormone and the lifestyle is so important. I think, you know, more than anyone that, you know, health is about 25% diet and exercise. You know, it's a big part of it, but it's not the whole picture. The way we think, the way we live, the toxins in our environment, et cetera, play a really big role.

So I want to go back to them because I've actually never heard anyone really talk about acid alkaline balance in menopause. Like, I've never heard that brought into it. And I remember when you were telling me this offline, we were chatting a couple weeks, maybe it was a month or so ago, I was like, oh, my gosh, that's the coolest concept ever. And it is this concept of keto alkalinity. So kind of a new approach, and I would love you. I know this is not one that we're going to be able to kind of nail in a short podcast, so I know that. I'm hoping you have something that you can send people to to get more info, but could you just briefly explain that? Because I've actually never heard of this before. I know you came up with it. And what I love the most is you've got the science behind this. You get the biochemistry. But so often you'll read a study and go, all right, well, there's the science. But then when you actually apply it to people, it doesn't work. Or, you know, something works, but you don't have the science to back it up. And this is one where there's the science behind it. And you've now been using it successfully applying it into an area that hasn't been applied before, which is menopause. So I'd love you to give a sound bite answer to what this is and how it can help those of us who are going crazy during menopause.

Oh, my gosh, yeah, absolutely. And then we're already going crazy during menopause. We add on a ketogenic diet, which has so many health benefits, then we just become keto crazy. Right? What I was trying to figure out, my dad had, you know, was caretaking my dad who's 90. And I started, I'm like, he needs a ketogenic diet. I'm going to put him on this. And I kept just getting cranky. And so I figured it out. They started checking my urine. I was very acidic. No matter what I did, as healthy as I was eating, I was tremendously acidic. So I really focused on getting alkaline and felt amazing added in, you know, work to get keto alkaline, which is sometimes very hard because of the higher proteins, higher fats. Right. And that can turn be very acidic food choices. And so combining the two, though, gives you, in really two words, energized, enlightenment. I mean, you feel clear, you feel bright, you feel cognizant, you feel aware, you feel more loving and peaceful and receptive, all those beautiful things. And in menopause, no, there's no studies out on menopausal women, Right. And most of the nutrition work is done on men or very fit younger women. So this is a whole new area. And I did, I took 130 women through my program called Magic Menopause, and I'm like, okay, it works for me. It worked for a test group of eight to 10 women in my little community here on St. Simon's Island. And then I took it to 130 women around the world, and lo and behold, it works outstandingly. And then the ability to just measure and stay accountable to ourselves, like checking to make sure, okay, yes, I'm alkaline and really thinking, okay, I eat really well anyway. But I thought I was on a ketogenic diet, but, you know, I'm not really there. Or she was. They're very acidic. So we had all this great kind of data come from it that showed that when you combine the two, it just creates the clarity, the loss of hot flashes, the hormonal balance, the increased libido, the brain willpower. I mean, weight loss, tremendous results. And you're like, oh, my gosh, you feel really 10 years younger. And it's an inspirational thing because as women entering, you know, in our 50s, we have this. We have so much to give back. We have so much to enjoy. We've worked really, really hard and often don't feel like we can even take out the trash without being exhausted. Right? So it's. It's re empowering ourselves. JJ and I had one woman, she's 73 years old, retired Flight ATT, and didn't always want to take flying lessons. And at the end of the program, she sent me a picture of her and her plane Taking flying lessons. I mean, there's no age limit. Our age range in our program was 38 to 73. And I recognized that that was not a sound bite, was it?

No.

I got so excited.

All right, I know, and I'm glad. I know you have. I know you have something that you'll be able to give everyone. I'm going to get to that too, because I always make sure their guests have some cool way for people to go deeper with them as a gift. But before I get there, I have just a little speed round, a real little speed round to ask you about, like, if. And I'm not even giving you any warning about this, Anna. So if you could do just one thing every day, what is the one thing that you do every day that makes the biggest difference in your life?

It's my expression of gratitude. I would say that gratitude, journaling, honestly, being able to just write down thanks, give thanks, express thanks is the biggest thing I can do. It sets my frame for the entire day.

Oh, I love that. That is so awesome. And I'm sure people weren't expecting that they'd say, oh, have some greens. But, you know, it's like it starts with mindset first. As we all know now. Dr. Anna Kabeca, where should people go because they're dying to have more and they want to dig into this and finally get back into hormone balance and not feel like crazy, bloated and tired.

Yes. Magic menopause.com magicmenopause.com join me. We're starting another round.

Okay, well, what's there? What's there? I'm going to cut you off, missy. You are just. What is there right now? If they go there right now that they can get, that'll get them started right away. Is there something, a cool gift or something there that they can get?

Yes, they will get our menopause quiz. So you'll actually get your report card. How are you doing in menopause again? 30s through?

Awesome. Awesome. And so you'll get that. And I think you've got some mistakes people are making that they'll know never to make because there's a lot of misinformation out there. And you are one of my go tos, one of my longtime pals and one of my go to experts in the field of menopause. So again, that is, I love the name magicmenopause.com jump on over there and grab that. And Dr. Anna, so awesome having you on this. We just got to get together again. So I want to thank you for joining me. And remind everyone to go to magicmenopause.com and after the break, I'm going to be answering a listener's question, so be sure to stay with me. Ready to lose fat fast and keep it off forever. Discover the number one resource for fast and lasting fat loss by visiting JJVirgin.com Access exclusive videos, content, rich blog posts and lots of free resources to help you lose weight and feel better fast and be part of a community. Get ready to transform your life one simple shift at a time by visiting www.jjvirgin.com. welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question. And today's question comes from Sharon in Cincinnati. And it's actually really coming from her husband Ron. And she says, JJ, I'm asking this question for my husband Ron. He's in his late 50s and he's just doesn't seem to have the energy and ability to recover from his workouts and the ability to lose weight like he used to. I notice he has a little, little paunch in his midsection and he's just kind of. What would you recommend? Well, this is a great question because Dr. Anna Kabeca today talked about menopause. And menopause, yes, that's for women, but there's one for guys, too, and it's called andropause. And andropause, which means that for men, you're going to see testosterone going down. And by the way, estrogen can start coming up. You start converting some of your testosterone to estrogen. Or if you that happens, especially if you've got more belly fat, you can become more insulin resistant. But this is something that can happen to men. It generally happens in their late 50s. But by the way, this can happen to younger guys, too, due to stress. Stress is a big trigger here. So a big stressful event as well as a lot of the different xenoestrogens or estrogens in food like soy. You do not want to be feeding your guy soy because soy can raise estrogen or a lot of the xenoestrogens that you'll see in the different plastics and things. So what should you do here? Well, just like we talk about with women where we always want to start with diet and stress management, it still goes through, hey, get on the virgin diet, get on the sugar impact diet, go through your personal discovery process to customize a diet that will work for you. That's step one. And let's go and get insulin sensitive because if you're insulin resistant, you're Actually going to have issues where you're converting more of the testosterone to estrogen. So even if you went and got bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, which a guy will want to do too, you would have challenges keeping that as testosterone. So the first thing is starting with diet and then really working through stress and sleep because those two things, poor sleep is stressful and poor sleep leads to insulin resistance and stress can lower testosterone, need to be dialed in. And of course looking at thyroid function, because if thyroid's not working well, testosterone won't be working well. And then looking at some other things, sleep is huge for testosterone. Also making sure that you're exercising regularly, especially resistance training, getting a little bit of a carbohydrate at night. So what we teach people to do is eat by the virgin diet or sugar impact diet plate. And that's healthy protein, optimal protein, healthy fats, and then some high fiber, slow, low carbs. So non starchy vegetables and things like wild rice or sweet potatoes or pumpkin or squash or legumes. And especially at night, because that's going to help you sleep better and help you boost your testosterone. So these things are key. And then with that go and get your levels tested. So not only are you going to look at, you know, a great blood chem and look at blood sugar and insulin and look at thyroid and look at stress hormones through adrenal salivary index, you also want to look at, of course, your testosterone and your estrogen. So that's where you go work with a bioidentical hormone doctor. But again, you want to come in with all of your house in order is the way I'm going to put it. So that if you do need some testosterone supplementation that you'll need as little as possible because that's what you want to really do with bioidentical hormones, is use the least amount that you need to do and then make sure you're using the supplements in there to help detoxify any metabolites that might come in. A great one. There is dim or to make sure that you're not converting testosterone to estrogen, a great thing. There would be crisis. All right, your amazing functional medicine doctor can help you do all that. Now, if you'd like to submit a question, just go to jjvirgin.com ask and you can leave a voicemail for me. I can't wait to hear from you. And one more way, I'd love to hear from you. I would hugely appreciate it if you could jump on Stitcher or itunes and leave a review for me. It helps a bunch and be sure to subscribe and share the show with your friends. This is JJ Virgin signing off and reminding you that you are worthy Dare to live a life that matters.

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