The Unseen Link: Hormonal Imbalance, Lifestyle, and Disease

Wellness is a practice, not just a word.

Welcome to the Synergy podcast where myself, Kelly Engelman and Lori Essery shed light on powerful tools and topics that nourish.

Your body and most importantly, feed your soul.

Welcome back, senergy listeners. We are so excited to be back in studio producing today. I have a very special guest and co host today, Lori Essery, that's going to be joining us. Thanks, Lori, for being here. We're focusing our conversation today on breast cancer awareness and I wanted Lori to share her story about her diagnosis with breast cancer a few years ago. She walked through that diagnosis and I just think there's some richness and some healing potential in her sharing her story, number one. And I think there are some key insights that you guys would really, really appreciate. So, Laurie, thank you for being and being my friend and being the voice of functional medicine and the voice of healing.

Yeah, I appreciate you asking. And, you know, when we originally started talking about this, you know, it's not easy to share your story and I'm used to being a co host with you. Right. And asking other people their questions and. Yeah. So today a conversation about, you know, where does it begin, though, right. Breast cancer. You know, I think we all know that cancer doesn't just show up. And I think what we may or may not know is that none of us are immune to disease.

Absolutely.

But I thought I've been doing all these great things for years. Right. Like, I'm a functional medicine expert. You know, I've been. I've been practicing for, you know, 17 years. I've been in the field for a long time. And here I was in 2019, faced with a diagnosis of breast cancer. And so the story began. Now, in hindsight, I realize many, many years ago in my 20s, you know, being diagnosed with, at the time, a lack of blood sugar control. And essentially my body was in a state of dysfunction for many, many years before the disease state, cancer arrived. But back in those early years of my life, in my 20s, when blood sugar was not good, I didn't realize the connection to disease. And I think Hindsight is always 2020. We know so much more today than we knew then. But going back, that is where the story began. You know, it's a story that when faced with the diagnosis in 2019, I think the questions that anyone would ask were no different that I asked myself that probably anyone else asks is why and how? Why and how. How does that happen and why.

Yes. So let's go back to the story because you were obviously in the middle of your practice, stress was a little bit higher than typical for that period of time. And you were considering doing some reconstruction surgery with breast implants. So tell us about, like, that whole how the realization of breast cancer even came about, because I think that's pretty miraculous too. And intuition for you was a big part of that, right?

It absolutely was. So I had been really struggling with exposure to mold in my home and had gotten quite sick and as you know, had nearly died from just from chronic inflammatory response syndrome. In hindsight, didn't even know. Right. My body was just completely taxed and burdened. And, you know, I was running the beach one day, which is just a profound time for me, particularly on the beach where I can look at the ocean and the waves. It's a. It's a time of reflection for me. It's a meditation. It's a prayer time. And as I was running the beach, it was, you need a mammogram. And I'm like, what? You need a mammogram? I'm like, where does that even come from? Like, where I just had a thermography three months ago. Everything's fine. I don't feel bad. You know, you. You need a mammogram. And I think that that part of that, you know, the backside to that story was I was considering prior to that having my breast implants out because I had had multiple surgeries in my twenties for both of my breasts that resulted in having such a lack of breast tissue that my breasts became very deformed. And I had the surgery back then. Right. So that's the backstory to, I think, where my thought process was going. But that intuition of, you need to have a mammogram. And then as I got back to. After my 4 mile run back to the tent, I remember saying to my mom, who was there, mom, I think I need to have a mammogram. And she goes, what are you talking about? And I said, well, I think I need to have my breast implants out. And she's like, what are you talking about? And at that moment, I was like, I just think I do. So, yes, intuition was a big start to getting the diagnostic testing that led to my diagnosis.

Right.

And then returning home to get the testing that I. That led to the diagnosis.

Yeah. So I'm just thinking about you had had a thermography three months prior to that kind of knowing that you needed a mammogram.

Right.

And that thermography looked normal. There was nothing suspicious on that. Thermography is my Point. And I think there's a lot of fear. There's been a lot of fear in the functional space, in people seeking out functional medicine. A lot of times they have this fear of doing a mammogram routinely. You know, is that exposure to radiation going to increase risk for breast cancer? That's been brought up in the, in the community for quite some time now. Leaning on thermography as a way of screening has been kind of the thought process in, well, if I get my thermography, if it's not suspicious, then maybe I don't need a mammogram kind of thinking.

Right.

We've all had those conversations. So what would you say to that now?

You know, I've been asked that a lot. And, you know, my answer has been, first of all, I hadn't had a thermography for approximately two years. And I think one of the things we have to realize is when you initially have your baseline thermography, you're advised to go back in six months. Right. And then yearly thereafter, unless there's an abnormality, doing it sooner to fully disclose, first of all, I had a delay in getting my thermography, but when I had my thermography, absolutely, it was, it was normal. And so I would say now that I do believe that there are a multitude of different diagnostic tests that we can do as well as our own self. Breast exams. And we all need to be completely proactive.

Yes.

We need to be doing all of those. Absolutely. But I don't believe that there is one way, like one size fits all.

Yes.

I do believe that we have to work with our provider of care, ask really good questions and determine what's right for us, whether that be thermography alternating with mammography, maybe it's ultrasound. But I wouldn't recommend just choosing one way. I would have a discussion. Right. And that's what we say about everything that we recommend is have a discussion with your qualified healthcare professional, you know, discuss your history. There are different reasons to have different types of diagnostic tests.

Right.

You know, sometimes it's more appropriate to have an mri. You know, I had had multiple surgeries. I had implants. It was not easy to palpate at all. It was tiny. Right. So, yes, it's not a one size fits all, diagnostically speaking.

So let's dig into the whole topic with your story about, you know, this concept of dysfunction versus disease, because it sounds like in your 20s you had some dysfunction of blood sugar going on, and that dysfunction over time could have made you predispositioned. You know, there is a connection between dysregulation and blood sugar and cancer risk.

Right.

Central obesity sometimes is a risk factor for patients with cancer, you know, especially breast cancer. You know, breast cancer is the number one cancer for females. So it's a big deal. It's something that we should be paying attention to. What would you say about that cascade for you with blood sugar dysregulation and cancer diagnosis?

Yeah, so I think, first of all, when I discovered during pregnancy actually that my blood sugar was dysregulated, and then post pregnancy, it maintained a level that was elevated, but not beyond a disease threshold. I was told that there it was, okay, right, Just exercise, change up your food and it'll be better. But during that time, there wasn't an exploration of what were the drivers of that condition. Right. So now functional medicine, root cause approach is instead of just looking at the symptom of the blood sugar dysregulation, it's really looking at that root cause. So if we back up the story even further, in high school, there was a lot of hormone as a whole, dysregulation hormone as a whole, not having regular periods, having excessive menstruation, to the point of even talking about birth control use. Right. And then I was on birth control pills, and I was on them for an extended period of time and then came off of them, and then was not able to get pregnant, then had endometriosis, I mean, you hear this, right? Dysfunction, dysfunction, dysfunction. And then had a laparoscopy and had surgery for endometriosis, then was able to get pregnant, and then after being able to get pregnant, had very difficult pregnancies, let's say, you know, having gestational diabetes, ending up having elevated blood pressure, preeclampsia, C sections, early deliveries. Right, let's go on. So, yes, I think that there was an ongoing amount of dysfunction and hormonal dysregulation for a long time. Sex hormones, blood sugar hormones, likely adrenal hormones, but not past the disease threshold.

Right.

To which someone would say, doctors would say, you have this, let's treat with this. And therefore, to me, pre and prior to my education, I did not put that connection together. And so now in hindsight, there is no doubt in my mind that, and we know this, that a lack of blood sugar control is the primary driver of inflammation, or as we say, it's the primary driver of inflammation. And inflammation then is a primary driver of blood sugar dysregulation, and it becomes a slew. Right. So that state of dysfunction, then if we stay in that chronicity of that state, we will end up with a disease state, and it could be just about anything. Hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes, osteoporosis, Parkinson's disease, neurological disease. You know, must we go on? But for me, my cards were breast cancer.

Right.

So in spite of everything that was done from the standpoint of good nutrition and those things, I think that what I didn't understand was the relationship between adrenal health and other hormones.

I think your story is a very familiar story. In the world that we live in today, there's oftentimes dysregulation in blood sugar, polycystic ovarian syndrome, endometriosis, dysregulation, and menstrual cycles early in life. And we are oftentimes as clinicians not making the connection to those adrenal hormones and the stress response and dysregulation in blood sugar that if we made that connection early, what could we be preventing when that person hits their 40s and 50s where their increased risk for cancer or other chronic disease states go up? So I think my message to get out there is not to produce an element of fear, but in any way in patients, but an element of awareness that the things that we do early in our teens and our twenties and our thirties set us up for what we experience later. And having said that, it's never too late to make those changes.

Right?

It's never too late to start working on the disruptors of metabolic dysfunction and inflammation.

Absolutely. And I'm super glad that you said that because, you know, kind of going back to the patients that we get the privilege of treating every day, you know, we say the four pillars or now we say five. Right. Nutrition, detoxification, exercise or movement of the body, hormone balance, and then mindset. Right, Mindsets. If we're. If we're talking about a chair, it's those four legs to the chair, and mindset's the cushion. You know, if we can sit in that chair, it wouldn't be a useful chair without mindset.

Right.

But that leg of hormones, I think, is so powerful because there's such interconnection that I agree that unfortunately in medicine, historically, we've done a very poor job at connecting the dots. And when we are young walking through that, and I'm speaking right now to, you know, girls who are in their teens and twenties with already having hormone dysregulation and going on the pill for excessive periods and whatever other symptomatology. And I too, don't want to create fear, but I want to challenge you. Ask questions, ask the question why? And really poke at your providers of care in a way that be curious and ask. Because those signs are a symptom of an underlying dysregulation that if you don't understand, if you just put patchwork on it right now at that time, which may alleviate symptoms. But that patchwork, unfortunately, can actually create a delay in you understanding what needs to be done, and then a disease state ensues that you had the ability much earlier to change. And I think that's the message more than anything, is that I want to get out there, is that I'm not regretful or sad. I'm not. It's hard. Having walked through it, it's hard. But it's a story that's powerful. And our stories change lives. And our ability to share that story, it has the power to get other people aware and maybe, just maybe prevent. And even if it's one, it's prevention. So asking those questions, those hard questions, connecting those dots, if you don't have a provider of care that is willing to hear and listen and connect those dots for you, you know, have those dots connected and the how is. How do you do it? Is. It's blood work. It's. It's more advanced testing. It's not just looking at a simple CBC and a chemistry. It's looking at hormone labs. Now it's looking at metabolism, urinary metabolism of hormones. It's working with a qualified health care provider of care that can take you beyond and really digging deeper into that and investigating to find out what those connections are. And then sitting down with you and laying out a customized individualized plan that can help you create, if you will, an executable plan. I mean, at the end of the day, we're all busy. We are. Our lifestyles are crazy. Our bandwidths are limited. We all know we need to be eating good. We just don't always know what that looks like or more importantly, like, how to do it. But if you sit with someone after you understand and you know you need to make those changes, then invest in what needs to be done to get a plan that you can execute that is something that you can do. And it's doing it in steps. I mean, you know, there's ladders to go up for a reason, and there's rungs in those ladders. And you got to take every step right. Every step up is another step in the right direction. And it takes each and every one of those Steps to make that change, it's a critical element, is don't just connect the dots in here, but take actionable steps early to reverse the risk of disease. Again, not to make you immune, because let's be honest, let's go back to what I said initially. There is no such thing as being immune to disease.

Right.

I think we're so blessed today in the way that we are able to evaluate patients from a functional medicine stance. You know, historically we've only been able to look at blood labs for hormones, or maybe salivary labs for hormones, but now we can actually see how those hormones are being metabolized. You know, are you at risk based on the way you, you metabolize your hormones at developing some of these hormone related cancers? And that's part of the good news that we can see it. And the other good news is that we can help you fix it. So if you're not metabolizing well, it doesn't mean you always have to not metabolize. Well, you know, we can optimize hormone metabolism through what you eat, how you move your body, staying hydrated, keeping your stress level under control, protecting the adrenal glands. I mean, all of those are very powerful ways of us helping you navigate that hormone imbalance, regardless of where you sit in your life cycle.

I remember very early in this walk of hormone dysregulation. And I remember, I love my gynecologist. You know, he birthed my two biological children. And I felt like I had a really great relationship with him and I still definitely respect him, no doubt. But I remember when I was offered, and this was early when ablations were an option, and I remember sitting with him and, you know, due to the irregular bleeding, him mentioning, you know, that, you know, that I should have an ablation at the time. You know, again, hindsight's 20 20. Let's keep saying that, right? Hindsight's 20 20. But I remember saying, okay, you know, I'm going to go forward with this. Is there anything else I can do? Right. Is there anything else I can do? Anything said, you know, no, you know, you've done what we could do, and now this is really the next best step. Unless you want to have a hysterectomy. Okay, I'm quite young. No, don't want to have a hysterectomy. So I had an ablation. And I remember going back to my visit afterwards after the ablation. And we won't go into the story of what the recovery of the ablation was, but I Just remember, just a foul smell for days and just what. How it made my body feel, right? And I went into him and I go, I know you're a man, right? And you're gynecologist and a man, but I got to have an honest conversation with you. As anyone mentioned, you know, what this procedure not only feels like, right? But what it smells like. For days, I felt like I was dying, like my body was just dying. And I said, you know, are you sure there's just nothing else that could have been done? And he's like, lori, this is it. You know, I really feel like this is going to help you. And granted, I have not had a period since. But once again, in hindsight, testing that we now have available to your point today, today that we did not have available to us then, not only serum testing of hormones, they had that. They had that, which is one point in time, right? Then salivary was available, then the urinary. Urinary metabolites. What we have available to us today, and the magnitude of that would have likely changed that scenario and would have really given insight to the fact that my levels and my hormones were so imbalanced for so long that set the stage to the bad soil, I like to say, Right. Hormonal dysregulation is. It leads to bad soil. Right. So when there's bad soil, unfortunately, weeds grow in the garden. Weeds grow in the garden. So, yeah, we do have a great amount of testing available to us now, and there's no reason, but again, it's just not offered typically in the traditional realm of care. So you. You do have to seek out. You have to seek out. You have to be brave, you have to be curious, you have to read. And, you know, some of my favorite books now that I would recommend is, you know, Dr. Lindsay Berksen does a great job and talking about safe hormones, smart women. Safe hormone smart women.

Right.

I think that's a fantastic book just about hormonal dysregulation as a whole and what choices we do have as ladies and what symptoms, Right. What are those symptoms and what are they? You know, what kind of symptoms are we having and what do they relate to? And then she's got a second book that I think is incredible called Hormone Deception, and that's about environmental. Right, Environmental influences that affect our hormones, like you were talking about earlier.

Yeah. And there's so much we can do to help navigate that, you know, help to harness those hormones in a way to decrease inflammation, to allow for proper offloading of those Hormones. There's just so much from a lifestyle perspective that we can do to navigate that piece. So, yes, I do believe the testing. And thank you for mentioning those books. Those would be great resources for patients who are interested in hormone balance and are interested in really keeping their hormones balanced as they go through their, their different life cycles.

You know, and I think that remembering that prevention is the key. Right? Prevention's the key. And how do we prevent. Not only by eating differently, you know, sugar, sugar's poison to our bodies. I mean, I think that that message is pretty loud and clear, but maybe not to the degree, but sugar is absolutely poison to the body.

It is.

But I want to say something about sugar because I think that we beat ourselves up about sugar, right? We are genetically primed to crave sugar. You know, back in the hunter gatherer days, you only found a beehive maybe once a year and you got into some honey. You did not have sugar sitting around all the time. But we still have the same genes, we still have the same genetic prime to crave that sugar.

Right.

So to your point, it is a killer, it is inflammatory. But be gracious with yourself and don't have it in your environment.

Right.

Don't think that if it's in the pantry that you're gonna be able to say no for a long period of time. Trust a friend on that one. Right? That's right. That's right. You know, setting your environment up in a way where it's just not part of your day to day environment, definitely you have to go find it to consume it. It's not just sitting there in your pantry or in your freezer.

Right.

You definitely have to be intentional about that. So definitely getting sugar out of the diet would be one of the first ways that I believe that you can take an active role in preventing all disease states, not just breast cancer. But we know that cancer as a whole. You know, sugar feeds cancer. It's like adding a growth element to your abnormal cells. We all have cancer cells. I think I started out by saying that we all have cancer cells, right? So it's a matter of are we doing things in our lifestyle and making choices to cause that to duplicate, replicate, or are we doing things and do we have countermeasures and things like antioxidants and our other lifestyle countermeasures to decrease that risk? So that's number one. You know, I think number two, something we don't talk about enough, and it's a work in progress for me. That's part of the hard Part of sharing a story. There has to be vulnerability. Right. Sleep is a big deal. Right. And I was recently listening to a podcast. It's called Sleep is a Skill. And I was like, it is. It's a skill. It has to be worked on. It doesn't just happen. Maybe it happened easy in your 20s, right. But I'm going to tell you right now, it doesn't happen easy the older we get. You know, you have children, right. And those children have children. And then life lifes and hormones become dysregulated and all of those things. So sleep is a skill. And you know, at the end of the day, I have to say that one of the pivotal areas that I don't think gets enough attention is the role that sleep has in prevention of disease.

Yep.

And I'll say one of the biggest tools that we have today that we haven't had for very long. One is the oura ring. There are many devices that track sleep, but I do think if you can see objectively measure your sleep, then you're more willing and able to make the changes that you need to make. Because we can fool ourselves into thinking we're getting away with six hours of sleep and we're functioning fine. But at what price? You know, sleep is your time to restore and repair offload. Cellular debris, cancer cells offload. While we're sleeping, our immune system upregulates, sequesters those things and gets them out. If we're not getting good quality sleep and we're not protecting especially that deep sleep, we may not be doing that efficiently. So don't fool yourself into thinking you're getting away with it is costing you something. So I would encourage you to use a device to track. The whoop is a good device. It does a great job of tracking sleep. Oura ring does a great job of tracking sleep. And there are several others out there that I haven't tried out. But those are tools we have sitting right in our toolbox that we could grab and use.

And the third thing I would say is that, you know, don't be scared of understanding your genetics. I think there is some fear, historically, maybe not so much now, about understanding your predispositions. And we have to remember that genes do not predestine us for a disease state. They predispose us. And I do feel like there's a lot of power in understanding your genetics. Genetics affect the way you methylate, the way that you detox. Genes affect your predisposition to blood sugar. Dysregulation genes set the stage for a higher risk for inflammatory conditions. And there's a lot of access now to quality, quality genetic testing that you can get and gain an understanding. And again, through a qualified healthcare practitioner and doing some testing, pairing that information with other information is powerful, very powerful.

So we've got sugar, we've got sleep, we've got genetic testing, we've got hormone testing that we've talked about detox as.

A lifestyle, I think. I mean, there's so much we could talk about, but detoxification as a lifestyle, I think we often talk about detoxification as an event. I'm going to detox, right? I'm going to detox for seven or 14 days. And although those things can be very powerful and very helpful, liver cleanse is very helpful. What we do know is that we need to be intentionally focused on limiting our toxic exposure on a daily basis and not just waiting for the event of Liberty Tox. And so, you know, what can we do to really increase our awareness of environmental exposures and toxins from the cookware that we cook with to, you know, I used to be a runner on and living here where I live, right on the golf cart paths. And the, the gasoline smells to in my house. The plugins, historically, you know, that. And the candles. Yes, but it smells.

I can't tell you how many times I would visit and I would unplug all the plugins. Finally, she got the hint that we need to change out the plugins.

That's right.

But yeah, all those things are bio. They bioaccumulate in the body and they do. They are hormone disruptors. They're nice. They do smell nice. But again, at what price?

Yep, they do. So, you know, and when you put all those things together, again, it's not a prescription for elimination of risk of disease, but it is truly, it's the intentional efforts on a daily basis that reduce risk over time. And so just recognizing there is a very significant difference between disease and dysfunction. And I just urge everybody not to wait until you, you are then the proud owner, or not so proud, let's say, of a disease state that you are actively pursuing or in pursuit of health and looking for and preventing disease through what you eat, changing what you eat, what you drink, how you sleep, how you move and how you think. And that way, you know, I tell everyone now, not only am I thankful that God allowed that to happen in my life so that I could learn so much, I also say that that period of time has really intensified the urgency for me of the need to work on Things that, you know, maybe we all can do this to say, we'll wait on that one. You know, that one's too hard. I'm not gonna. I can't do that one just yet. It's, it's really. We, we have to understand that it is a process. It is something we have to work through, and it is something that we're not going to be perfect at. You know, we're. We're gonna have speed bumps in the road, we're gonna have detours, we're gonna have challenges, but we're gonna work. It works, it pays. And so, you know, I really encourage everyone to take an active ownership of their health. Work hard every day to prevent, get in the hands of or in the office of a qualified functional medicine provider, and don't wait until you have a disease and get it checked out.

Well, Lori, thank you so much for sharing your story again. I know it's not easy. I mean, it puts you in a very vulnerable position, but it's so powerful. Like, we, we heal when we tell our story. We help others heal when we tell our story. And so thank you for doing that today.

You're very welcome. Kelly, thanks so much for listening to today's episode. You can find more information about Synergy at Synergy for Life. That's S Y N E R g e e the number four life.com and.

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The purpose of our Senergy Podcast is to educate. It does not constitute medical advice. By listening to this podcast, you agree not to use this podcast as medical advice to treat any medical condition in either yourself or others, including but not limited to patients that you are treating. Please consult your own physician for any medical issues you may be having.