Gut Health, Libido and Cortisol: The Overlooked Triangle with Dr. Diane Mueller

Welcome to The Perfect Stool: Understanding and Healing the Gut Microbiome. This is your host, Lindsey Parsons, and today I'll be speaking with Diane Mueller, ND, DAOM, a board-certified sexologist and the owner of My Libido Doc. She hosts the Libido Lounge podcast, runs an online training institute, and teaches medical professionals around the world in functional medicine. With dual doctorates in naturopathic medicine and acupuncture and oriental medicine, she centers her work on the belief that a healthy libido is a cornerstone of overall holistic wellness. But before our conversation, if you haven't yet followed or subscribed to the show, be sure to do so. If you want to get transcripts of the podcast, pop over to my website, HighDesertHealthCoaching.com, and sign up for my newsletter. You'll also get my recently updated free ebooklet, Finding Your Root Cause Through Stool and Organic Acids Testing, when you sign up. If you haven't yet done my quiz on which stool or functional medicine test would help you get to your root cause, you You can find a link in the show notes and take that. Now on to the show.

Welcome to the podcast, Diane.

Thank you, Lindsey. Good to be with you again.

Yeah, it's my pleasure to have you back. So I had you on episode 43 in March of 2021 talking about Lyme disease and mold illness.

So I'm curious how you made the transition to talking about sexual wellness and libido.

Yeah, it's a great question. And I would say I haven't like completely made the transition. It's more around I have my foot in both arenas now. And you know, some of it, honestly, it's like we get into this world. It's like if you people go back and listen to that episode, they'll hear my story of Lyme and mold, right? And so I went through crazy illness with Lyme and mold, and that was a large part of what led me into pursuing that as a niche in my clinical career. And if we go back even further than that original story, we get to a story from about 2001. I was, I was probably even a couple years earlier than that. It was probably more like 20, 2019. 2019, I was in high school— I'm sorry, I was in college— and I had this very, very strange vulvar pain. And so this was before I was in medicine, this was before I really even knew anything about holistic health, and I did not know what to do with this pain. So I went to the, the university doctor, the university facility, and they ran tests and everything was normal, just like the same thing that, you know, we've talked about a million times on your podcast before. And I was left with this pain and I I don't know what this is. Like, the medical community doesn't know what it is. It's keeping me up at night and it's really disturbing. And so I was talking to my roommate, a very dear friend of mine at the time, about it, and she handed me a book that was like extremely shocking to me at that point in time, which was the book called Sex for One by Betty Dodson. And it's all about self-pleasure and masturbation. And it was so— it was like very shocking to me because I grew up extremely Catholic. There was a lot of shame I had around sex and my sexuality. And so when I got this book, it was like I didn't— I honestly didn't even know what to do with it, but I was desperate one night, so I started reading it. And it was very interesting, these stories that Betty talked about in this book. And some of them really I related to. And the stories— some of the stories talked about women who had experienced severe pain that had gone away through self-pleasure. So one very desperate evening, I tried it and I was like, oh, the pain went away, this is kind of cool. And I tried it again the next day because the pain came back, pain went away again. And that went on for about a week and then the pain was just completely gone. So that was really the first intro into just like being curious about sex and about libido, about the— well, this wellness side of things. And it really led me to what I, a quote that I say numerous times throughout my book, which is, pleasure is not just about desire, but something we require. And so really for the past 2 and a half decades, it's just been something that is like a side reading hobby, reading about relationships, reading about sex, reading about tantra, reading about different relationship styles and, you know, and just exploring this on the side. And it wasn't until. Several years ago when I got divorced and was really going through just like the trauma of divorce that I, you know, like asked different questions. And some of the questions I started asking were like, well, what really causes people from a standpoint of relationships to say separate or get divorced or breakup or whatever? And one of the things I found is in survey after survey after survey, Intimacy or lack of intimacy came up as one of the top 5 reasons. And so, and you know, fast forward then even to 2023 when Harvard put out a study on longevity and on wellness. And what Harvard found in their study was, and this was a longitudinal study over, I think it was like 75 years, very, very long study where they looked at diet, lifestyle, They lab tested for a ton of different biomarkers. They looked at sleep, they looked at all these things that we talk about in holistic wellness. And one of the things they found, the number one thing they found that was the peak, the number one reason for people living a healthy life was the quality of their relationships. So, you know, so it's like I had already made the decision before that study came out that I was like, I wanted to start talking out about sex and sexual wellness. And then when that study came out, that really further propelled me to wanting to do this. So, you know, I still do have my Lyme practice and my mold practice, and I still love that and care for those people, you know, very, very dearly and was still very much involved in that world. But I do also have a foot in this other world in part because I am, you know, like you are a very, very interested in holistic wellness. And I feel like this side of relationships and sexual intimacy is one of these things that is still sadly so taboo, even though we're seeing these surveys and these research saying that like, actually this is one of the most important things. And for whatever reason, Lindsey, I seem to have a knack for wanting to talk about the things, you know, Lyme and mold are also kind of like this, that are a little on the edge that like, you know, people don't wanna always talk about in the public eye. So it really was just kind of like a, a perfect fit for another, another pot to play in, so to speak.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So that's interesting, your story. When you look back now with the knowledge you have, how do you make sense of what changed for the pain? Like, was it the orgasms? Was it the blood flow? What do you, or was it a mental thing?

I, I think it's a little bit of all of it. The best I, and I, I appreciate the question because yes, obviously I've gone back and reflected upon this. I think as anybody in the profession would. My best guess as to what was happening is I think it was a level of interstitial cystitis, which, you know, in wellness we sometimes call leaky gut of the bladder, right? Where that bladder wall is a little bit inflamed and that pain can radiate. And we see oftentimes there's a, with that, there's a neurological dysfunction where it's like the brain is, or the bladder is sending the signal to the brain through it's being irritated and that sort of thing that it is needing to urinate even though it doesn't. And there can be this radiating kind of pain and these radiating sensations from it. So that's what I've been best able to hypothesize is what was going on. And we do see that orgasms, that changing the neurological reprogramming, which orgasms can do, can actually reset neural pathways. So I believe that's like, you know, to my best hypothesis at this point. And you know, I'm always changing hypotheses as I learn more information. But at this point, that's what I think was going on back then.

Okay.

Interesting.

So tell us about how sexual health and gut health interact.

Yeah, there's a couple things that I think are so important and, you know, when we talk about, and I know you talk so much about the microbiome on your show and it's important for everybody to understand, like we have a genital microbiome as well. So men have a microbiome on their penis. Women have a microbiome of their vagina and We don't know quite as much, unfortunately, in science what's going on with the male genital microbiome. But for women, we do know that the microbiome of the vagina is a huge part of what is keeping it healthy, what is keeping it from infection, and also what is helping it to, like, is, is sex to feel good, for the lubrication to happen, those sorts of things. We also know that the gut is a reservoir for the vaginal microbiome. So the lactobacilli species that we see so prevalent in the vagina actually are stored in the gastrointestinal tract. So we see that when people have common abnormalities of the GI tract, anything from our SIBOs to our imbalances in our good bacteria, or the ones that kind of overgrow a little bit too much, all of our commensals, or when people have infections, parasites, those sort of things. That we can get a change in those species, especially those lactobacilli, cuz those are the really important species of the vagina and therefore a change in the vaginal microbiome. And all of a sudden somebody might experience more likely infections. They might experience pH issues, they might experience odor issues, they might experience things that just don't feel as good from an insertion perspective. And so we can see all of that. And when things aren't functioning very well down there, like we tend to not have as much desire for anybody to go there. Or ourselves. So that is one thing. And then I know you've talked about this on your show before, but I think because of the context, it's good to at least drop this again for people to hear that we do know that part of the proper recycling and reutilization of hormones such as estrogen requires a proper gut hormone balance. And when those gut hormones are out of balance, we can run into situations where we are not recycling estrogen as properly. Sometimes we can lead to too much estrogen, and that scenario, and it can throw off our hormones and therefore throw off our libido and sex drive due to that as well.

So this week is Podcastathon, where podcasts around the world are sharing about nonprofits that they believe in during their podcasts.

So I'm sharing a short interview with Thomas Myron, Chief Development Officer of Love146, one of the charities I've donated to for many years running that works to fight human trafficking.

Welcome, Thomas.

Good afternoon, Lindsey Parsons. So great to connect and thank you for all your support over the years.

Yeah, it's been my pleasure. So one of the things that first attracted me to Love146 was the name. So can you explain where the name came from?

Absolutely. So to understand Love146 and to understand our organization, I think that you really have to understand our name and where we came from. So close to 25 years ago, our co-founder, a gentleman by the name of Rob Moritz, traveled to a country in Southeast Asia to uncover child trafficking. Now he was standing in a brothel with undercover investigators looking through a glass at young girls. These girls were actually wearing red dresses. Menus were being passed around with different prices for different acts towards these girls. Each of the girls had a number pinned to their dress that corresponded to these menus. While most of the children sat motionless there watching cartoons on these crackling old TVs. There was one girl who, as per Rob's story, just couldn't keep her stare away from him and the team there. It was this piercing gaze, and her number that she had on her chest was 146. So they had stripped her away of so many things, including her name. And mind you, having a right to a name and an identity is actually enshrined in the Conventions of the Rights of the Child. So all children have a right to an identity. And they have a right to a name. Without a name, it's very difficult to have access to any basic services. So basically out of this came this insatiable drive from Rob and team to fight for her and so many children like her, to take her number as, as our name, to give them back their life, to try to work against others happening, coming into a similar situation from her. And that's how Love146 was formed in our mission to end child trafficking.

Trying to hold it together after hearing that story again after so many years. Approximately how old was this girl?

You know, Rob and team were unfortunately never able to speak with her, and unfortunately it's heartbreaking. We don't know what happened to that girl, but based on their estimates, she was right around 10 years old, a little younger than 10.

Yeah. Okay. So can you tell me about the different programs that your organization supports and where they're located?

Absolutely. So while we have a range of different programs, we have two main flagship program areas, one on prevention and one on support for survivors. This happens in a couple of locations. We still have programs in the Philippines and work in some other countries internationally. And we have a large footprint right here in the US where child trafficking and exploitation continues to be a massive issue, which doesn't get the attention that it deserves. So within the prevention education component, we work with law enforcement, with schools, with healthcare providers, with communities, anybody basically who plays a role in the safety and wellbeing of children. At educating them on what trafficking is, at equipping them with the knowledge of identifying trafficking and building their resilience and strengthening their awareness of the pathways and referral systems should they suspect that trafficking is taking place or is in the process of being formed, including grooming. And that also includes online, of course. We have a large program called Not a Number that is actually being implemented in nearly 40 states nationally in the US, so a near national footprint. We also have a remarkable survivor care program. The majority of that program is focused on Connecticut, where young people who are suspected to be trafficked are referred to Love146. We conduct rapid assessments to investigate if trafficking is indeed taking place. Then we also have emergency response connected to this called rapid response. Long-term care and also transitional services which focus on skilling and connecting young people who are within our care system to economic opportunities. Now, while their economic situation is not the only determinant in if a child or a young person is trafficked, we do see that the rate of being re-trafficked significantly decreases if a young person can stand on her or his own two legs from a financial perspective. And one of One of the many things that's unique with Love146 and something that we pride ourselves on, Lindsey, is that we don't close a case ever. While there is a care program that survivors can go through, should they at any point in life later on need support, need counseling, need anything that we can provide, we will always be there to support these even years after they've been in our formal support system.

And are these people in the Survivor Care Program coming from all over the US or just the Connecticut area?

Mainly the Connecticut area and all socioeconomic demographics as well.

Okay. So can you tell me more about the prevalence of human trafficking here in the US and what that looks like?

It's a great question and actually something that still requires a lot of data, Lindsey. We have a lot of humility with regards to the data that we do indicate. Globally, the ILO estimates that there are about 50 million people being trafficked and exploited at any given moment right now. Now, out of these 50 million, about 10 million are children. 12% of these are in sexual exploitation, and 88% are in forced labor and marriages where a lot of sexual exploitation also happens. The data in the US is not at the level that we would like with regards to the national level. So we defer to smaller sample sizes conducted in different states, including one by the University of Minnesota that was conducted in 2019 that indicated that about 1.5, so 1.4% of all high school students self-identified as had been trafficked. So while we don't have a significantly statistically verified data point, we do have smaller sample sizes across different states, but there's no question that the prevalence is much higher than people would expect.

And what does that trafficking look like in the context of the US?

It can look like anything. It can look like online grooming and trafficking for sexual favors for that individual. It can be more organized within a certain situation, can be sexploitation as well, where once a victim or survivor of this comes into this, into this web, it's very difficult to break through and break out of that web of challenges, including all the stigma and the challenges that very often this youth or child faces or perceives to face within her or his community.

Okay.

So if people are interested in supporting Love 146, where should they go?

So please go to love146.org. There you find a range of different assets that you can look at. And of course, we are nonprofits, so we survive and we're able to do our work based on the investment and the kindness of individuals, corporations, foundations, and government as well, who give us funding and support our cause. But trafficking is also a social challenge. So we always encourage everybody to read up on child trafficking trafficking and child exploitation, to educate yourselves and ourselves, to spread the word, and to also figure out referral pathways should you suspect that trafficking is taking place in your community, because no community is immune from this, as we have seen and heard so, so many times. So there are lots of things in addition to financially supporting, but also fighting against trafficking, Love146.org has a range of assets.

Okay. Thanks. Um, yeah, I used to work, well, briefly in accounting at the Polaris Project who run the National Human Trafficking Hotline, or at least they did at that time.

Do you know that number offhand?

I don't know the number offhand, uh, Lindsey Parsons.

Okay.

I've got it here. It is 888-373-7888. That was 888-373-7888. Okay. Well, thank you so much for sharing about this with us, and I hope some people will come and support you as a result.

Thank you so much, Lindsey. We need all the supporters just like you, and I would be curious, what drew you to Love146 in the beginning, and what has driven you to continue not just supporting us, but also advocating for us and being a partner? Through all these years.

It was definitely that story that drew me originally and continues to draw me. And just because I think there's really no more horrible thing you could do to a human being short of killing them than trafficking them and exploiting a child like that. I mean, I imagine the consequences are lifelong. So yeah, anything I can do to stop that, basically.

Thank you for standing with us, and we stand in you and in that mindset as well.

Okay. Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Yeah, let's talk a little bit more about that, the estrogen dominance, beta-glucuronidase connection.

Yeah. So we know that that beta-glucuronidase is that enzyme, right? Anytime we see that A-S-E, we know that's an enzyme. And we know that in certain situations, gastrointestinal infections, SIBO, these scenarios, we can see an increase in that enzyme. And so what's supposed to happen with estrogen is estrogen is detoxed through the liver, through our phase 1 and phase 2 liver metabolism. Pathways. And when it's detox, we are essentially getting rid of any sort of recycled components. And what this beta-glucuronidase enzyme does is once these recycled components are broken down in the liver, they make their way into the guts and we are excreting them. But if people have too much of this enzyme, which we see in certain gastrointestinal infections, and they have too much of this enzyme, then we can actually see those, those estrogen components that are recycled, they actually will start to reform back together into whole estrogen. And then reabsorbed. And so the body was trying to get rid of 'em for a balance and now we reabsorb them. So now we have a higher amount of estrogen and that's when we get into that estrogen dominant scenario.

Yeah. I know that I had estrogen dominance my whole life and I still do even now when I'm having to supplement with estrogen, uh, with, with patches now that I'm in menopause. But the funny thing is I still don't have ideal estrogen metabolism. But anyway, what are the symptoms of estrogen dominance?

You know, that's really interesting, right? It can be anything from bloating to acne to irritability to mood swings to changes in sleep. You know, I feel like these hormones, when we look at them, it's almost like similar to when we talk about the gut and we are looking at, okay, well, you know, a lot of people will say the gut is the root of all illness, right? And we say that because there's so many different symptoms that can come from gut imbalances and hormone imbalances, I really feel are very similar. We can have symptoms of headaches, of migraines, right? There's so many different things that can come from these imbalances. So it is, it's very, very, very widespread, which is why I think it's important when we're looking at things to say we need to test for sure, because a lot of the things that are going to be an estrogen imbalance symptom like I'm talking about can also be a symptom of many other You know, many other scenarios. And I think the point that you brought up too around like, oh, you're in menopause, you're, you're taking supplemental estrogen, HRT, and then you're noticing like that you're still in estrogen dominance is a really important point to make because I think a lot of people when they are on hormones and I'm, I'm in perimenopause, I'm using estrogen patches, they're saving my life. I love, love, love, love, love an estrogen patch. Really, it's like making all the difference with sleep and mood and so many things. And for me, when I look at hormones and, you know, I'm like regularly running my Dutch test, you know, and there's other tests similar to that on the market, of course, just our urinary hormone test. And for me, what's like super interesting is when I break down estrogen, I have a real— I've known this for years— I have a real high tendency to break down estrogen into the 4-OH or the 16-OH pathway. And, you know, for your listeners, like, those are the pathways that tend to be more problematic. If you make too much of these recycled components of estrogen, like the 4-OH, that's when you can— like, the 4-OH is like a breakdown product of estrogen, and if you're making too much of it, it can damage your DNA, for example. So we want to be very, very careful that when we are taking hormones, that yes, we're looking at markers, and a lot of times people are only measuring you know, monitoring their progress with these by symptoms and by serum markers. And serum markers honestly are a great way in general when you're on HRT to monitor the levels of HRT, but you're gonna miss these breakdown recycled components of estrogen. So some people, it's like, it's not even an estrogen dominant thing where it's like you have good amount of estrogen, you have good amount of progesterone, but it's a problem where you're not metabolizing the estrogen too quickly enough and well enough where it could even present even like an estrogen dominant scenario in the body, even though that's not what we would classically label it as.

Yeah. In fact, I was mislabeling, so I have the exact same problem, although for me it's just the 4-OH pathway. I just did the Vibrant Hormones Zoomer. I'm wait— waiting to take the results to my naturopath to get a, an official recommendation. But in the meantime, I started taking DIM and calcium D-glucarate and extra NAC, what do you do for your excess 4-OH and 16-OH pathways?

Yeah, DIM is definitely huge. You know, calcium D-glucarate's gonna help a little bit more with that phase 2 process. So, you know, just for the listeners too, it's like estrogen, just like anything else in the body, we have our phase 1 part of our liver breakdown, which is kind of doing that first part of detox, and then we have that phase 2. So that works for hormones as well as all of our toxins, chemicals, molecules, etc. So DIM tends to work more on that phase 1. So that's when we're saying, hey, we want more of this estrogen to turn into the healthy 2-OH version and away from the 4-OH or 16-OH versions. And then phase 2 is where we further break down estrogen, and that's when we get into the processes known as glucuronidation, methylation, and that's a little bit more where that calcium D-glucarate tends to come So DIM, super interesting because DIM is absolutely what I have found in studies to be the best.

Indole-3-carbinol, IC3, will also work pretty well, which is literally the worst tasting supplement I've ever taken in a pill. It's so bad. It is like eating mothballs.

It's really bad.

It's true.

It's true. The only thing that I think that is worse than that are like some of the really bitter herbs that we have in Chinese medicine. Some of those can get really pretty nasty. But, but yeah, it's, you're absolutely right on that.

If DIM does the same thing, then I'll stick with the DIM.

Totally. And that's what I use. And so, and you know, the tricky thing about DIM is that DIM will both lower estrogen and it will help estrogen go down the 2OH, the better pathway. But as far as actually converting and getting the estrogens to go down that better pathway, there's just really nothing that compares to DIM. So It is what I, I'm using at this point, both for myself and for patients. And the results are just phenomenal. I am moving honestly, like mine is moving slower than I see a lot of patients move. And I think that's probably just due to genetics, you know, from that estrogen detox pathway, but it's still moving. I still, mine was at, it was like really bad. I had 76% of the 4-OH and 16-OH mean I only had 24% of that 2-OH and we want between 60 and 80% of that 2OH. So I saw in about a 3-month period, the last time I had tested, I saw it drop by 17%, which was great. So, you know, it's taking me— my point is it's like moving slower because I do see other people, it moves even faster than that, but it's still moving. The other point to make there is the 16OH is actually useful for people to have. You do want small amounts of it. It is proliferative, meaning it does cause cells to multiply. So there is some sort of link with cancer on that one. However, it also causes bone cells to multiply. So we also do want enough 16-OH to make sure that we are stimulating our bone cells to grow, which we all know is so important with menopause. And that's another reason for people to consider, especially if you are using HRT, but even if you're not, to run these urinary hormone panels, because you do want to make sure not only are you majority detoxing through the healthy estrogen pathway, that you're also making a little bit of that 16-OH because you do need it to really stimulate that bone regrowth.

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So I assumed because, well, first I have, you know, a grandmother who died of either ovarian or uterine cancer. My sisters had uterine cancer, so my cousin had testicular cancer. So I know the cancer is in the family. So I knew I needed to be careful when I started HRT, but also I had all the symptoms. I had all the hot flashes and all this night sweats and the poor sleep. So all of that told me probably you need to look in deeper. Is that an accurate assessment that like if you're having all those symptoms, you're probably somebody who's not processing hormones in the best way?

I mean, not, it could be that you're not processing 'em in the best way. It also could be that you just don't have the right amount of hormones in you, right? So sometimes it's the one, sometimes it's the other. And, and really, as far as like dosing on hormones, like for people that are on HRT in general, the way to start it is typically most doctors will start people on more of the lower dosing side of things and see how people respond. And from that standpoint, like, yes, it's good to look at labs to make sure you're not off the charts high and crazy amounts when you take these things. But you also wanna make sure that you are looking at and really paying attention to symptoms. So your symptoms, when you are properly hormonally balanced, you will see a lot of these symptoms go away. So it's, it's really the combination of both the symptoms and the labs that you want to consider here.

Yeah.

Yeah.

No, I had to go down, it took a while to get to what I needed and really persisting and looking for new experts and stuff to recommend. It, but I, I have to take 300 milligrams of progesterone a night, plus I've got some testosterone along with moving up my estrogen dose. But the higher dose without the progesterone was causing bleeding. So it was like trying to figure it all out and going through a whole basically DNC because of the bleeding before I, you know, we figured out it was the hormones, which I can't believe we didn't like start with that instead of sending me through this horrible surgery. But anyway.

Right. Yeah. Yeah. Sadly it happens. And I think it's like an important reason to talk about this because I think oftentimes too, not only do women not know. But even if they do, there's still so much fear around the cancer thing, even though there's so much of hormones causing cancer that really has been demystified. And when we look a lot at like the Women's Health Initiative research that came out a couple decades ago, and, and we really look at that, what that research was saying, that was the main study. And there was a few of them, that was the main study that a lot of the cancer warnings were based off of. But when we're actually looking at the stats and we— when you read the study, you realize that the way the media portrayed this, the way the CDC and the doctors like picked this up, was a big misrepresentation of what was in that study. In fact, what was really interesting in that study that is so opposite of what we oftentimes, you know, even say in medicine is that when estrogen was given without progesterone— so many times it's thought in medicine that like, okay, well, estrogen is proliferative and you give progesterone to protect against that. And, you know, and there is like some level of reason for that, right? We see, for example, when people have things like endometriosis and they have all these cells growing outside of the uterus, that balancing that estrogen-progesterone ratio and adding progesterone in tends to really help. But what that study found was that when women were just on estrogen alone, cancer risk actually went down. And that wasn't even told— it was the combination of estrogen and progesterone that saw an increase in cancer risk. But the way the study was analyzed, they made it sound like it was a 20% increase. But if you actually really look go back and look at the data, it was only 1 in 1,000 increase. And the people that did have cancer in that 1 in 1,000, you know, we don't even know for sure if that was caused by that, right? So it's like so small of a risk when you're looking at that numbers. But they also had better survival rates. They also had better long-term health as far as cardiovascular and brain health. So, you know, it's like when these studies are just taken out of context like this and we're taking— we're isolating this one random value and not explaining to the public the entirety of the study, people get scared and I think they make a lot of really bad decisions just based upon not understanding and, and being fed bad data.

Yeah. And then it was that like Premarin made from horse urine, right?

Not correct.

Bioidentical progesterone they were taking and exactly.

Yeah.

There's an entire generation who, that includes my mother, people who were taking hormone replacement therapy, they stopped and they never went back and now they're kind of too old to do it.

Exactly. And that's definitely another thing. I, I'm glad you bring that up because it is another important thing that we really realize the best health benefits are absolutely if you start this within the first 10 years of menopause. And menopause being that single day in time, you know, when it's one year past your last period. And, and, and even earlier starting, you know, the better. So I'm in that weird perimenopause stage of like, am I having a period this month or next month? Or like when it was like, you know, I'm in that weird stage, but I, you know, I've started now. I've been on HRT for for, I guess, about 8 months or so now. And I'm starting now not only because of the symptoms, but also because we see that the sooner you start when you get to this age and really balance that, the better you are cardio protected, the better you are cognitively protected, the better you are bone protected. So we really do want to maximize this and get the best benefits. And you're absolutely right, those, you know, those poor women that were fed this real inaccurate information, now it's like largely too late for them. You know, it's like there might still be some benefit. I'm not saying like not to do it, but from that bulk of that huge benefit, we really know that earlier start, it makes a huge difference.

Yeah. And I mean, the other piece of course is that it's hard to find doctors who are expert in this. So if you're just starting into perimenopause, it's starting to have symptoms, get that appointment now because it may take you one or two providers, three providers before you find the right one who gets it right and fixes this for you. And knows enough and all that. So, so it's a project for everybody heading into menopause.

I agree. Start early and like, and I'll tell everybody real fast about like my book, Want to Want It. Like get this book too because it'll help you. The biggest thing with this is self-advocacy. And so in my book, one of the things I talk about is these are the tests you really need to run. And I break it down very simply as to why, so you can actually interview doctors and say, are you gonna be able to run these appropriate tests that I really need to have run so that you can get the information? Cuz a lot of times doctors are not. And, and you know, we know other things like we know that usually with menopause is another time that we see the thyroid hormone and the thyroid system also start to falter. Oftentimes can happen at menopause. So, you know, making sure you're getting proper thyroid testing and the thoroughness of that and all of that we cover in the book. So you can self-advocate.

Yeah. I love that title, Want to Want It, because I think a lot of times when women hit points of low libido and if they are in a relationship or not, but sometimes the partner just kind of goes along with it and it just sort of fades away. But I mean, it is like the beginning of the death of a marriage, I think. So it is, you want to want to want it, you know, that's like an important part of a relationship. And so that leads into my next question, which is how does having a healthy sex life help with hormonal balance and general health?

Yeah. You know, it's like these vicious cycles we get into. I think in health, one of the biggest things are these vicious cycles of like chicken and the egg, right? So it's like we see that in order to have a healthy libido from a physical side of things, we need good circulation, we need the thyroid balance, we need not too much stress, we need our hormone balance, we need not too much neurological inflammation. So we don't have, you know, many toxins in our body. We need proper gut health as we talked about. So all of these things and more will play into that healthy libido. And then you also get into like, are you sexually bored in bed? Do you trust your partner? Do you have an element of safety? Can you communicate? Can you talk about your sex life? Because we do actually see surveys that show 92% of people that say they're satisfied with their sex life talk about it. So we know we need to talk about it if it's going to be good. So all of these things can play into why a libido is low. Now what's interesting is like stress, for example, is like one of the big ones for people, and this the overwhelm of midlife, right? Where it's like this midlife is oftentimes the time where it's like things start to go haywire here. People are together with their partner oftentimes for years. They are in their career. They have kids oftentimes. They're balancing so many things. And, you know, sex is that thing that's like maybe at 9 o'clock at night, it's like, it comes through the passing thought of like, should we do this? No, I'm so tired. I gotta get up at 4:30, 5:00 AM the next day and start it all over again. Again. And so what's interesting, in an answer to your question here, is we see that orgasm is one of the best ways— and oxytocin that is secreted with orgasm is one of the best ways of actually lowering stress hormone. So I really believe that God, Spirit, Universe, whatever we want to call— anybody wants to call this energy— gave us as humans the power of orgasm in part as a way of actually regulating ourselves and our stress. So, you know, you get an orgasm and all of a sudden your cortisol is— goes way down. It really helps to rebalance that. And so what's interesting about this is like sometimes when I'm talking about this, people will be like, well, you know, I've read online about a 20-second hug or, you know, a 6-second kiss, and we can do these things to raise oxytocin. And those are great. Like petting an animal raises oxytocin. There's all these ways. But to give an example, like this 20-second hug, right, will raise oxytocin in the blood, maybe like 20, 30, 40, 50% is what we see. Sounds pretty good. Well, until you realize that an orgasm's gonna raise it 200 to 500%. So what we actually get from our body rebalancing with oxytocin is so much better with an orgasm.

Orgasm.

And one of the movements in the natural health space is compounded intranasal oxytocin, where you actually use a— get a compounded agency to prescribe oxytocin. It's prescribed and given intranasally. That works really well from an absorption standpoint. That's why it's prescribed that way. But I'm telling you, like, I have never seen anybody, like, take that. Like, I've used it, it's great. I've worked with other people who've it, and you can feel like a little bit of a shift for sure from a standpoint of like, oh, there's like a little shift in calmness. And I think it's a great tool compared to what I've seen in myself as well as women that I talk to that are having profound orgasms and really helping them with stress and resiliency. It's just not even close as to what I think can come from those orgasms. So that's a little bit of that chicken and the egg around like then, okay, so I'm too stressed to have sex, but I'm not having sex, so then I'm not using my fundamental own innate non-prescribed, just made from my own body chemical way of actually balancing that stress and helping me regulate.

Indeed.

Hey, this is Lindsey here, just letting you know that if you're tired of dealing with digestive issues like bloating, indigestion, soft stool, diarrhea, constipation, reflux, acid reflux, IBS, IBD, or the numerous health conditions that come about when your gut is off, like brain fog, weight gain, UTIs, fatigue, mental health issues, or complex conditions like fibromyalgia and ME/CFS. That's my specialty. With my 3 or 5 session gut health coaching packages, we'll discuss different stool and functional medicine tests to find out the root cause of your symptoms. I'll interpret the results and provide clear explanation empowering you to make informed choices for your gut and overall health. And together we'll develop a customized action plan based on your test results so you can find relief and regain your health and vitality. I come from a functional medicine perspective, trying to incorporate the latest peer-reviewed research and educating you on protocols used by functional medicine practitioners, but devoting lots of time and support to my clients the way a doctor simply can't. If you're interested in a 3 or 5 session coaching package, you can sign up for complimentary 30-minute breakthrough session. Or if you can only afford one appointment at a time, you can book an initial 60-minute consultation. Links for those are in the show notes. Now back to the show.

So what are some of the most common gut health issues that are impacting people's sex lives?

But I think a lot of what we mentioned, right? So anything that's gonna really bother that, the microbiome, anything that's gonna bother that beta-glucuronidase and increase that enzyme production. So anything that we're looking at as far as. Our SIBOs, our parasites, our H. pylori, you know, our infections GI-wise. But I also think another big thing that we also want to mention are like protein pump inhibitors, right? Anything that is changing the stomach acid of our body, because not only are we more subject to infections that way, but we're also not going to absorb a lot of nutrients. So we know, for example, that we need iron, manganese, zinc, copper, right? These are some of our top— magnesium— some of our top nutrients that we need in order to make things like sex hormones. We do need some B vitamins in there as well. And so if we're having any stomach issues that are leading to anything around like proper absorption or inabsorption of nutrients, that's going to actually impact our hormonal levels. We know that too low of fat diets— people that are on too low of fat diets or even on things like statins— there's like a concern because cholesterol turns into the nutri— nutrient, DHEA. And DHEA is what we make estrogen and, and testosterone out of. So, you know, potentially if we're eating these really low-fat diets, or if we're seeing our cholesterol numbers be really low— you know, I see sometimes people that are on these cholesterol-lowering statin medications and their cholesterol come in at 120, 130, 140. These are like way too low of numbers. Like, not only is cholesterol good for us from a standpoint of cell health and brain health, but it's also important for a standpoint of hormone health. So if we're doing these work, you're keeping our diet too low and we're not working with those proper nutrient balances, or if we have things like leaky gut, you know, maybe we're eating too much gluten, maybe we are eating, um, things that we have food allergies or food sensitivities, uh, to, maybe we are eating non-organic food in, in high quantities and that's disrupting the microbiome. Maybe there's heavy metals in our gut and throughout our body, which have also been shown to cause leaky gut. You know, we have any of those things, then we have a huge tendency in that arena to not have the nutrient absorptions we need and not being able to make those hormones in the way that we need and keep our body balanced throughout that. We also know that certain nutrients, a lot of our greens, a lot of how the things we have to chew a lot of, can help to generate things like nitric oxide in the body. Nitric oxide is an essential vasodilator. So it's an essential thing to dilate those blood vessels to get that circulation to the penis and also to the vagina. A lot of people don't realize, you know, it's like we have our little blue pills for the penis, which can work very well acutely. They don't really fix any root cause issues, but a lot of people do not realize that as women, we also need circulation to the vagina and to the vulva, to all of our erogenous tissue. Tissue, and that sometimes things like vaginal dryness is actually from not a hormonal problem. It certainly can be, but it's from a circulation problem. So we really want to get that blood flow not only to the penis but to the vaginal tissue as well. And it's equally as important for women.

And a clue in that you might have that problem would be probably that you had high blood pressure.

That's, you know, that's definitely a big one, right? Because it's a, you know, it's like when I talk to cardiologists about erectile dysfunction, for example, It's a very common thing that cardiologists will say, that the first time a man actually gets diagnosed with something like a heart problem or a blood vessel problem is when they have erectile dysfunction. That oftentimes that's that thing that's like annoying enough and that like is causing a man enough distress to say, okay, I'm ready to get this checked out. And of course, as we know, you know, as you and I know, it's like these things that affect one part of the body oftentimes affect the whole thing. And if it's a circulatory problem, it's not like it's like only blood flow to the penis, it's going to be blood flow everywhere else, right? So, you know, so blood pressure is an important one. Apolipoprotein B on a serum panel, so that cholesterol marker. Oftentimes people are just looking at total cholesterol, your good and bad cholesterols, the ratio, those sort of things. But the apolipoprotein B apoB for short, is a better marker that you can get pretty cheaply added on if you can get your doctor to run it. That is a blood marker that we'll talk about. It, it's a cholesterol marker, but we've seen in studies is, is very correlated to plaque on the arteries. And if you have plaque on the arteries, there's probably an element of that hardening or just like restriction of blood flow from that side of things. So, you know, definitely blood pressure is good, but I would also really advocate at a minimum to also get that apolipoprotein protein B because it will tell a lot about that arterial health as well.

Yeah.

At risk of being slightly off topic, I did do that test and my, my ApoB was elevated and I, I kind of have just blown it off because my sister has had high cholesterol for years and she got a calcium artery scan and it was zero. And I thought it's probably gonna be the same thing for me because I exercise, I eat well, like I do all the things, like why should I have plaques in my arteries? But, uh, am I being naive?

I mean, I personally, I mean, like doing a, like a, either the CAC score like you're talking about or something like a CIMT, which is an ultrasound of the carotid artery. Those types of tests are great. And I do think it's like worth, like they're going to be more accurate for sure than the ApoB, but I do think they do correlate really highly. So I, if I was in your position, I would still do my due diligence and just, you know, go and get one of those basic things done just to be safe because it is your heart. You know, also of note for listeners, it's like so interesting, right? Like some of the things that are most used commonly for lowering ApoB are things like red yeast rice, CoQ10, those kind of things. And I've seen—

what was the first thing you said?

Red yeast rice. You know that one?

Oh, red yeast rice. Yeah.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So, and that works. It's like the natural version of a statin. Statins, right?

So, right, right, right. Yeah, I've got some in my closet that for some reason I just can't bring myself to take. I don't know why.

Yeah, well, and it's interesting, like, just like it works in the same mechanism of a statin, so it's what's known as an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, which just means you don't make as much cholesterol. And just like a statin, red yeast rice can lower the CoQ10 in your body. So there is a level of like, well, it's better that it's natural, but it still has some mechanism that can be a level of concern. But what I wanted to share with you is that plant sterols— I don't even know, um, plant sterols— I've actually seen more clinical results that I've been happy with, especially in people with familial hypercholesterolemia, where there's that genetic high cholesterol. Okay, yeah, so you might be a really good candidate for plant sterols because, because I don't see people that have that, that genetic tendency respond with red yeast rice near the level as they do with plant sterols. And not I don't still use red yeast rice. I do, but really the plant sterols for that group of people have just blown me away more than that red yeast rice.

I'll have to look into that. So back to the topic at hand.

Um, yes.

Probably one of the most obvious intersections of gut health and sex would relate to anal sex. So I'm curious first whether anal sex causes gut health issues like hemorrhoids or anal fissures or other issues, or if there's a healthy way to do it for avoiding those problems?

It's— I mean, if there is already a vascular problem, right? So if we already have a level of vascular fragility, especially intra-anally, there is probably— it's probably not going to help the scenario. The biggest thing is many people have anal sex without any source of problems as far as causing any sort of hemorrhoids or fissures or those kind of things. There's a few things though, like, like you want to use a ton of Lube is like the most obvious one. So your silicone-based lubes or your oil-based lubes are going to work the best. Your water-based lubes are very, very— like, I love water-based lubes for certain, certain things, but water-based lubes, they're just not as— their viscosity is lower, and so they don't tend to have the level of slipperiness that is needed for anal sex to actually not cause pain. So it's like a of things, like we want to like follow your body. And if your body is, this hurts, this is a big area where it's like, don't just suck it up and be like, all right, we're going to figure this out anyways. Because if you're getting any sort of pain at all, that can be a big sign. Like anal sex, if done well, should actually be pleasure and not pain. And so a lot of how people start with anal sex is doing something like, there's a few different things to start. One, it's always good from a hygiene perspective to bathe before. Bowels are evacuated before. People will even use anal douches sometimes, and these are basically like just water is inserted to the anus via a, just kind of a, a bulb that you squeeze up there. Again, you wanna use lube for this, make sure it's clean, but that can help take care of any sort of the concern around microbiomes and like infection spreading is like, you know, you clean out the orifice before you actually do that.

Act.

And then once people have done that, starting really slowly, like a finger, um, some pe— sometimes people even use gloves or finger condoms for this. And, and you use a little bit of that silicone oil lube, and you really just go around the anal sphincter, that muscle, very, very lightly, just like a light touch, a light pressure. Put a finger there, and a lot of breathing, and a lot of slow insertion, and a lot of pausing. And then, you know, so oftentimes you're just doing that with a finger, and you're getting that anal canal there, you're getting that, that rectum and the tissue there, you're getting that cavity just like used to the sensation. Because a lot of what can happen for people is if this is done too quickly and too intensely, it's a very like sympathetic type of thing, and things like constrict and they tighten. And I think that's when people run into a lot of problems versus like that parasympathetic, that relaxed type of state that is keeping that proper blood flow, that is not overly constricting the muscles. And so if we're doing that correctly and slowly with the right lube and in the right way, I see many, many, many people do this effectively without ever getting any sort of hemorrhoids or fissures and having zero problems. That being said, if you have a tendency to that and you have a history of that, this is something that you might want to be careful of. You know, talk to your doctor about this. Yeah, I would definitely recommend that to say like, okay, are you cleared for for this? Have these hemorrhoids been gone for a long time? Have you had any signs of them? And that sort of thing. And then if you have had them gone for years, then, you know, hopefully the vessels have healed. But again, just going really, really slowly when you do it tends to help people a lot more.

Mm-hmm. And so the anal douching doesn't like remove your microbiome. It's just a small effect.

I mean, it's just, it's just a small effect. It's, it's like gonna probably be similar to doing just a little bit of an Right. So you're not getting far up. It's like you're really, it's really largely just like a small amount into the rectum. So you're not really getting into that large intestine, you know, much of that at all. So there is not much of a risk of really impacting the microbiome. And if anything, it would be extremely small just because the locality of it.

And are there any supplements that you recommend for people who practice anal sex regularly?

Supplements, not as much, but But I mean, obviously always keep up with your microbiome from that standpoint. But I would like more, it's just like the hygiene and washing things and, and getting that really good quality lube. Now I mentioned silicone and oil-based are two ones. The thing that I like, the most common natural oil one that people tend to use when, you know, they're reading stuff online is coconut oil. We do wanna be a little bit careful about coconut oil because is, you know, things get like sloppy and messy and coconut oil inevitably when you're rubbing it around there will probably a little bit get near the vaginal canal. And coconut oil is very antimicrobial. And so like, that's great when you have an actual infection, but when it's not, you don't really wanna be using something antimicrobial near the vagina, especially because of the microbiome, those issues we talked about earlier. So even though coconut can be lovely from a standpoint of, you know, it has a lovely smell and a lovely viscosity. Viscosity, it's really not the best lube from an oil-based lube to use. What works a lot better is MCT oil. I have MCT oil with CBD. CBD is also another amazing thing to use. I have, um, product discounts on that, so I'll give you my product page, you know, for your links so people can get some great MCT oil with CBD in it that's used for these types of, you know, sexual plays. And I'd say the one thing though, in answer to your question, that you might might want to consider— well, I guess a couple things. Like, I don't generally find that people need supplements with anal play, but if, you know, if you wanted to do something, you might consider something like witch hazel, which is very healing to the veins, and— or something like vitamin C. We do see that when vitamin C levels are low, veins can be— and blood vessels can be a little more fragile. And so vitamin C is an important nutrient for the strength of those blood vessels. So those are a couple things that if people are worried about it and just really are like, hey, we really want to to help with make sure our veins all over our body, our blood vessels all over our body, but in particular, the vasculature of the anus is strong during this, you could consider those couple things as well.

You know, I was just thinking about that because I've seen advertisements for fiber supplements that were hinting at anal sex and they were like gummies. And I mean, when people take fiber gummies, I'm like, yeah, there's really not gonna be a ton of fiber in those gummies.

Correct. Exactly.

It's like, like if you want some fiber, you're gonna need a scoop of it. Like it's gonna be bigger than the size of a gummy.

Yes, exactly. Exactly. It's, you know, some of these things I think we can get really gimmicky. And without— that's why, you know, I think shows like yours are so important because it's like without the knowledge, it's easy to just be like, oh, I read something on fiber, it's good for this gummy. That's easy. It's like we have all these things that taste bad and like, I get to take this as a gummy.

Great, right? Candy. And it's good for me.

Totally. But those things from an efficacy standpoint are probably like a healthy version of a candy at best. Best.

So can you talk a little bit about the pH of the lube you use in a vagina versus in a butt?

Yeah. So pH is really important and pH actually comes into play a lot in our water-based lubes. So in our water-based lubes, what is important is that a lot of the chemicals in these types of lubes can really throw off the pH of the vagina. And so when you're just getting your standard thing at like a sex store or just on Amazon, you really are at risk. And when you throw off the pH of the vagina, you run into the risk of infections and those things we talked about earlier. So one of the best things from a water-based lube perspective to really preserve the pH of the vagina, I have found to be our aloe-based products. And you know, and that like, I'm sure will make a lot of sense to you as a, you know, as a gut expert, because we know aloe for the guts and for all mucous membranes. Is incredibly healing. And so what the aloe-based products have found is that they— in like the research is found around these, it's like just like the, the health of the membrane of the gut, aloe can help the health of the membrane of the vagina and it helps the microbiome of the vagina. It helps preserve that. It helps keep the pH like really consistent. And so a good aloe-based lube is gonna consider all of these things. And so that's really like, that's a really important thing to consider there. It's really the water-based lubes that are, that tend to have the most emphasis on pH that I have found. I haven't found as much of the conversation on pH on some of the oil-based lubes or those kind of things, because I don't think they throw off the health of the microbiome so much. And so anally, you're not even using the water-based lube, so that's not as important. And, you know, again, if people want a good one with product discounts, um, you can find all of that on my product page on my, my website at mylibidodoc.com, and I'll give you that link, you know, like I said. Yeah.

Right. But you wouldn't want low pH, right? An acidic lube on, in an anus.

Right. But you're typically not gonna find that in like a water or silicone-based lube. Right, right.

Okay.

I mean, I'm sorry, in an oil or silicone-based lube. Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah. Oil or silicone.

Right, right, right.

So I have a number of clients, both male and female, who admit to having low libido. So other than obviously working on their relationship, their communication, all of the, the psychological parts and their overall physical health, is there anything you recommend in terms of supplements or anything else to help with libido?

I mean, I really find that low libido is a combination of 3 pillars. And so pillar 1 is all of our physical root causes. So people can go take my free quiz there at libidoquiz.com to figure out like, oh, is there like, and if you take that quiz, it'll spit out answers for you, ideas on testing as well. So that again, that's at libidoquiz.com. So that's a great resource. That's physical root cause pillar. Then the second pillar is the personal root cause. So personal root cause is how well do you know your own body? How well do you have any body shame, right? Do you have any sexual shame? If you are finding yourself in bed and making love or doing anything in the intimacy space and find yourself like checking out a lot where you're like, oh man, my mind was wandering. Some level of that is normal, right? Some level of like, oh wow, like I was having sex and the grocery list like started going. Like most women, if you talk to them, they're gonna admit that that happened to them because we are multitaskers by nature as women. But if you're finding that, goodness, every time you're getting closer and closer to pleasure, like you're just constantly checking out and like you can almost never be present. That's— I'm not talking about you, you know, the random thing like, oh yeah, I shouldn't be doing the list. I'm bringing myself back. Back. That can happen. But if you're like, wow, yeah, every time I get touched here, I'm disassociating, you know, I'm like checking out of my body, that can be a big sign that there's some level of trauma. And it doesn't have to be big T trauma. This can be as simple as somebody, um, say, performing oral sex on somebody and giving a weird face when they did it. And all of a sudden you're thinking like, oh my goodness, like, they give a weird face because I look funny there, or whatever. Right? There can be this very simple small t traumas that lead to a lot of like shame. So we definitely wanna consider that. And then another big thing in the personal root pillar is how well do you know your own body? Meaning like, do you know, like if we're looking at the vulva, right? And so, so it's like if we're looking at the vulva and we look at the clitoris, a lot of people think of just this nub at the top, but the clitoris actually has these long legs. Legs, and these long legs extend, and that is a huge part of the female pleasure, are the legs of the clitoris, which is not the part that you see with the naked eye. And so a lot of this comes in understanding one's own body, like through personal exploration around, oh, this part of my labia, this part of my outer labia, my inner labia, the space between my labia, this is actually a huge point where the uniqueness of oneself gets turned on, right? So we don't know that. It is impossible for our partner to know that. And then like the third pillar really is in that intra-communication. Like, am I safe? Do I feel trust? Do we have desire mismatch? Are we able to talk about that and find ways of getting back on the same page? What happens when I ask for my needs, wants, preference, and desires? Like, you know, those kind of things. So, you know, it's a long-winded answer to your question around, yes, I mean, there are some herbs, you know, we can try our damianas and our horny goatweeds, and you know, there's, there's herbs like that. I don't get into the aphrodisiac world because personally I have found aphrodisiac foods to just be like another marketing thing. You know, the example I give is oysters are an aphrodisiac. If you look up common aphrodisiacs, oysters will pretty much always come up. Probably because they have zinc in high amounts and zinc is helpful for testosterone, which is helpful for the libido. But if you don't like oysters, and people have a love-hate relationship with oysters generally, and you don't like oysters and you're sitting there and you're like just trying to get it to slide down your, your throat and it's like disgusting and it's vile and it's like taking you out of your presence and pleasure, probably not gonna do much for your libido, right? Just take some zinc, you know, get your, get your zinc in other ways. And so So, you know, from that standpoint, it's like healthy diet, free of toxins, balance, just all the normal things that people have heard, you know, so many times on your show are really supportive. And yes, we can do things supporting testosterone through tribulus, works very well. Shilajit as, as an herb works really well. Tongkat Ali, all these herbs can be very supportive of testosterone. And I I have seen clinical results with them. The, um, studies are really positive. So there, yes, there are some things we can do to support. But the number one thing I see, and why I'm like answering this in relationship to the three pillars, is because the number one thing I see is that just about anything, you know, that I think we talk about in health, it's not one root cause. And so it's very easy for people to get on supplement and be like, oh, I didn't notice anything from this. And it doesn't mean it's not helpful. It's mean that if there's 10 different pieces of the root pie, all in these 3 different pillars, that if we just address one of these 10, it's probably not enough for us to notice that improvement in libido and desire. We really do need to make that shift.

And of those supplements you mentioned, it seemed like most of 'em were ones for men. Is that accurate? Or were some of them No, not at all. Just—

but thank you for clarifying. They are— most of those things are things for testosterone, but they absolutely work on women. And, you know, as you know from being on testosterone, like, we need testosterone as women too. So those are more testosterone-building supplements, but they are going to be great for libido for women or men, right?

Because testosterone helps with libido in women.

Correct, exactly. And that's a huge, I think, misunderstanding, I think. So I'm glad you brought that up because I think a lot of people are like, just think testosterone, men, testosterone men. And like they do have more testosterone than us women. But if you look at estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone as women, what we actually have the most of in our body is testosterone. We have more testosterone than other sex hormones. We just have way less than the guys.

So totally separate topic, but on our previous recording you talked about having had positive CDTB and vinculin antibodies.

Yeah.

And therefore having post-infectious IBS. So I'm curious if your vinculin antibodies have normalized and if so, how you you did it?

They have normalized. And, you know, it's hard to say how I did it just because of the standpoint of like, I do so many things. So I wish I could say like, oh, this is so clear. But I think it is probably a combination of healing the gut, you know, and doing things like a lot of our demulcent herbs, our aloe, our marshmallow, those kind of things. You know, did some glutamine as well, did a lot of our serum bovine immunoglobulin. So definitely a lot of work on gut, did do a round of Xifaxan for SIBO as well, as well as followed up with LDE, um, low-dose erythromycin. So worked on my migrating motor complex that way. So I imagine also since we see that vinculin so tied in with the MMC and we see that, that low-dose erythromycin can help with that, that, that was a portion of that. It was also getting out of a moldy environment, getting the mold outta my body. You know, there's been a couple run-ins I've had through my life with mold. Once very early on, which is where my career was launched. Sadly, that's not the first time I've ended up in a house that, um, had mold. So I think some of that too is just like detoxing some of that out. So I wish I could have like a straight, like, this was the thing, but my feeling was it's a combination.

Yeah. It's good to know. Yeah.

It's good to know.

Okay. Well, I think that was everything I wanted to ask. Anything, any final parting words you'd like to share with us?

Just, you know, just remember, like, I think the biggest thing is it's so easy to think about sexual to wellness and think— the number of people will say like, well, I've just decided that that's not something that me and my partner do anymore, and like, we're best friends and we don't need that. And I think a really important conversation to have is to ask your partner what sex and what sexual intimacy provides for them. And a lot of times people will say connection, love, stress release, all these different things. And to really get a sense of is this truly impacting your relationship or not? And, and for some people, maybe it's not. I mean, just because surveys say all sorts of things doesn't mean that you're part of the survey, right? There are anomalies, there are people that fall out of those normals, all those things. So it's entirely possible, I believe, that some people are incredibly happy in their relationships without this. But I think oftentimes that comes from an acceptance of like, well, we're not having, so We're just gonna make peace with this, where there's this subtle resentment that is like actually building up. And that's what I really hope to help couples, you know, work through and get stronger in their relationship together regarding. So, you know, so I really do encourage you to have a conversation around like, what does sex provide? As well as like, is there anything in your life from a connection, communication, emotional support, and just feeling good in your body and your relationship that maybe a lack of it is there? And the whole point of this conversation is not to throw anybody under the bus, not to shame anybody, but to get a sense of just like anything else, it's just data. And to say, are we off track by not working on this in our life? And is it impacting our relationship? And if so, the goal there is to find the motivation then to start making this a priority. And it's no different than having a conversation with a nutritionist around like, what do I need to do to really make sure I'm choosing good food and start prioritizing that? With a personal trainer or anything else. You're just really looking to say, what is the level that this choice is actually causing an impact on myself, my wellness, and my relationship? And is it important enough for me to come together with my partner and work on it? So I think it's a really good step for people to consider so we're not just shoving things under the rug because these conversations are things that we're not taught to deal with.

And you know, if you need any help, definitely grab my book, Want to Want It, at wanttowantit.com, and be happy to help you Yeah, no, I, I agree that a healthy sex life just brings such good feelings of wellbeing and the skin-to-skin contact and the oxytocin release and just like such a bonding thing when it's working well and such a source of stress when it's not. So, so it's definitely worth working to get to the place where it's working well. So thank you for bringing this conversation to this gut health podcast.

Thank you for having me, Lindsey. It's always a pleasure.

That was a fun conversation and a bit off my usual topics. So thanks for those of you who stuck it out to hear about libido and sexual wellness and hormones and all that good stuff. You can support the podcast by buying supplements at a discount from my Fullscript dispensary, ordering tests at a discount from my Rupa Health Lab store, or using my affiliate links to iHerb, which is available worldwide, or Amazon. And just to note that you can use my Amazon link to buy anything. So I'd appreciate it if you'd bookmark my link and use it not just for supplements, but for gifts and everyday items to support the podcast. If you'd like to connect with me online, you can follow my High Desert Health Facebook page, join my gut healing Facebook group, or join my newsletter list at highdeserthealthcoaching.com, as well as follow me on Instagram, TikTok, and Pinterest, and X. Links for those are in the show notes. Thanks for joining me today, and here's wishing you all the perfect stool.