Unflustered: The Midlife Hormone & Energy Reboot

Foreign. Welcome back, Synergy listeners. We are so excited that you're here, and more excited than that. We are excited that you're putting questions into the R2R app with synergy. We launched that a few weeks ago, and we're really engaging with you guys in a really great way. And we've been getting questions from you guys on a lot of fronts. Right. It's so interesting, the things that are coming in, and we want to honor those questions. So hang with us today. We may bounce around quite a bit because we're hitting these questions from every possible angle. But what I will say is, you know, prevention is not optional. If you're in this phase of life, age 35 to 55 and beyond, it's no longer, should I be. It's yes, you should be taking care of yourself in a way that's going to fortify your health, not just short term, but long term. We're playing the long game here. You know, we want to feel well, we want to age well, not just for the short term, but for the long term. So Lori and I are going to be bouncing this around today.

Yes. And I'm going to say exactly, Kelly, because this is the time to stop thinking. I'll deal with it when it happens and start thinking. I'm going to make sure that this doesn't happen. So today we're going to have a little bit of fun with answering some of those questions and. And seeing where it takes us. So hang on.

Yeah. So, Laurie, what are the questions? What one? Which question do you want to start with?

Well, give me an easy one. Right. So give me an easy one, Kel.

So this is one that we hear a lot, and, you know, we're hearing it on the app, but I'm also hearing it clinically. Every day is. You know, I used to be able to handle stress well. I could roll with pretty much anything. And now I feel so dysregulated. I get hit with a stressor, and it not only knocks me down and off my game, and I may respond in a way that's just not very helpful, but it also makes me feel fatigued for a few days after. Like, what's up with that?

Yeah, so I get that question a lot in the clinic, too, and it's. It's really interesting that it doesn't. This isn't just happening with our ladies that have been on a health journey for a while. These are. These are oftentimes those that have their. Their might. They might be new to the journey or they've been on it for a while, and a lot of times what I'll say to them is, listen, let's go back to the basics foundationally. What are you doing in respect to what are you eating, what are you drinking, how are you sleeping, moving and thinking? Because a lot of times we don't show up very well when we're not sleeping very well. In fact, many times we don't because that's our recovery time. So I would say if sleep, which is your superpower, is not where it needs to be, you're not going to bed on time, staying up a little late, maybe browsing, getting stuck on Facebook, or in the constant loop all the time, then let's get that under control. And then let's go back to the basics of blood sugar regulation. This is a period of time in which we are busy, busy, busy. We're usually in that sandwich generation, sometimes taking care of our parents at the same time as raising kids, and we're not eating regularly enough. And blood sugar dysregulation can. Can very much lead to the symptoms that, you know, you're describing. So start with the basics and understand that hormone regulation isn't just about sex hormones. That's a big piece of the equation. But at the end of the day, you've got to get your other hormones regulated, too. We got to think about your adrenals, your stress response. We have to think about your thyroid, which is your metabolism. And we definitely have to think about how are you fueling your body to keep blood sugar nice and stable so you're not broken. That's what I would tell them. You're not broken. You know, spend some time really dissecting what you're currently doing. Yeah, and I want to go.

I want to go back to what you said, Lori, about the adrenal glands and it not just being about sex hormones. And what I want to say to that is, you know, your adrenal glands are kind of your backup plan for your sex hormones. And if we keep those adrenal glands nice and healthy by protecting our sleep, getting adequate protein, controlling our blood sugar, moving our body, all of those things, then we tend to rock through sex hormone shifting quite well. But if we start having sex hormone shifting at a time when our adrenal glands are stressed out, that's more often the time when we feel more dysregulated. We feel like we don't have a safety net. And in fact, you don't have a safety net in that situation. Your adrenal glands are not Helping you to the degree that they could be helping you. So small things that we could be doing. I think about sleep and I think about the need for magnesium. You know, a lot of us are magnesium depleted. It's one of the most common nutrient deficiencies that we'll encounter for both men and women, but especially for women. And it's such an important nutrient for hormone balance and specifically for sleep. So sometimes just adding a little magnesium at bedtime can go a long way of helping us not only get to sleep, but stay asleep. Lori, what would you say? What are some other tips that we could do to help protect the adrenals, kind of rebuild that safety net, so to speak, of adrenal reserves?

Well, I want to highlight magnesium because I agree with you. And there are multiple different types of magnesium and we get that question a lot. Is, is there a specific type? And, you know, Meg 3 and 8 crosses the blood brain barrier, which for some people just settles the brain because sometimes our brain's going, going a million miles an hour. It's working in our sleep. And more of that total body magnesium support would be like a glycinate. And so there are different types of magnesium. If you are, if you accidentally stumble upon maybe mag, glycinate, I'm not going to say or sorry, magnesium citrate. And you are maybe having constipation. That's a, that's a good thing, right? That's a good thing to use for constipation. But if you are on the loose side, because sometimes when we're running from that tiger, we can be on the loose side. That wouldn't be the ideal type of mag. So I just wanted to go back to that for a minute. So what else would I. What I would say or what I say to that question? Protect your morning things. You know, we had a podcast earlier that you and I talked about honoring certain behaviors and disciplines. And I would say, and I sometimes get chills talking about this, but I had a profound change in my overall health and well being when I learned to prioritize my mornings. Not racing out of bed, spending five or 10 minutes, once waking up to breathe, do a meditation, spend some time in gratitude. It set the tone of my entire day and it was completely profound for me. So that would be one. And then I do believe that there are nutritional supplements that are very helpful in aiding and helping the way I show up. And I would say that, you know, with aphatogenic herbs, ashwagandha relora, those types of things can have great benefit And I feel like I have. I had to come to terms with that because, you know, sometimes we all are kind of like pill fatigue. You know, I'm taking this and I'm taking that. And, you know, we do have to sift through and figure out what's right for us. So I did find, and I do find that the use of those are a game changer for me, especially during the work week. Not so much on the week.

So adaptogenic herbs, for you guys listening, that don't. Haven't heard that term before, those are herbs that help support the adrenal glands. So they may upregulate for some people and they may downregulate for others. So they're going to adapt to what your body needs at that given time. So that's the beauty in them is you don't really have to necessarily know where you are in that cascade to know that they will be providing a little bit of a safety net. So I love adaptogenic herbs as well.

And there's some great books about, you know, the morning too, like how. How Elrod writes the book specifically around making your mornings amaz. Right. So I do think looking up, there's you. You might have your favorite, you know, devotional, you may have your favorite book, you may have just maybe it's not reading at all. Maybe it's just running down a list of things that you're grateful for. But I would just really encourage looking at your mornings because if that alarm clock goes off, which we know that's much better to get up to a body clock. So I would tell you, don't use an alarm clock if you're not using one. If you're using one, maybe not use it all the time, but if we using one, that is really kind of over exaggerating that whole cortisol awakening response, that response. So we get to wake up in the morning, so we have this cortisol surge, which is that stress hormone, and then what do we do? You know, we get out of bed and it's almost like off to the coffee pot, Right. And so then we are then adding fuel literally to the fire and really keeping that response high. And that sets the tone of our day. And I, I know when we met with Deanna Minick, she spoke about getting natural light. So I would add that in. But we can't do everything, even if you just do one or two things to really make your Meg your morning amazing.

And I want to go back to the alarm clock conversation because I think oftentimes changing the Ringtone. If you're using your phone. Right. It's a ringtone that you're waking up to. If you've gone through a stressful event and your body is used to a certain ringtone, oftentimes it's helpful to change that to something really gentle, something fun and playful, and maybe turn the volume down. You don't need to be blasted out of bed or you shouldn't need to be blasted out of bed. If you need to be blasted out of bed, we need to have a bigger conversation.

That is right.

Exactly. Exactly. So the other question that we oftentimes get is, you know, why am I not sleeping? What hormones are changing that are creating sleep disruption for me?

Yeah. So some really start complaining of that whole sleep issue much earlier than what would be be perceived to be perimenopause or menopause. Lots of different reasons why we start having hormonal shifts earlier. But progesterone is one of the bigger ones that we see. And it's profound. When we do create a harmony of our overall hormones, not just one. Again, we are hormone balancing. We kind of go back to that over and over, over again. I think so many times people, it's all about hormone replacement. And I think you and I have taken a real step stance about. No, it's hormone optimization and hormone balancing. But progesterone is a key hormone that can absolutely create disruption to sleep. Not. It's sometimes it's not even a difficulty falling asleep. In fact, people say I fall asleep fine, it's staying asleep, but other people will say it is falling asleep for them. So it could be both. But that's a major player.

Yeah, progesterone is a major player. And progesterone supplementation can be beautiful for someone that needs that because it does provide a calmness, especially taking oral progesterone. Oral progesterone converts into a metabolite that is very calming to the brain. And so topical progesterone, I know you can buy that over the counter. It. It may help support progesterone in some ways, but it doesn't necessarily give you the calming effect. And so oral progesterone can be beautiful in helping to kind of regulate. And it is, it is oftentimes the first hormone that gets dysregulated during that perimenopausal phase. Having said that, testosterone for some women is the. For some women is the hormone that gets dysregulated. Right. Especially with birth control pill use. And even testosterone dysregulation can cause Challenges with sleep for some women, I have found.

That's right. That's right. And we would be remiss not to talk about melatonin in relationship to cortisol. Right. So if we are, and this is something I hear a lot, I fall asleep on the couch, I'm so tired. Then I wake up and I walk myself to the bedroom, and then I just can't go to sleep. What is that about? And you're getting a second wind, so you're getting a cortisol surge again. And when cortisol goes up, melatonin is low. And we need melatonin for healing and repairing. And so really honoring that bedtime routine, to utilize that honoring of that, to balance those hormones that are necessary to not only fall asleep, stay asleep and recover and heal while you are sleeping.

Yeah. So they say your bedtime routine starts in the morning. So I loved what you said earlier about getting up and if possible, getting outside and getting some sunlight exposure to the retina early in the day, because that primes the pineal gland to actually make melatonin. And then at nighttime, lights out cold and dark is what helps you release melatonin. So cold is 68 degrees or colder, according to research. And so, you know, put on the, put on the sweatshirt if you need to, to get the temperature down. And then completely dark. You know, no cell phone light, no night lights. Right. Any, any hint of light to the retina will disturb melatonin production for many people. And so really figuring out what does that bedroom need to look like? What do I need to be doing activity wise before bed? And I find so many people are out at night with kids, you know, all the activities that are happening, ball games and things like that. And so you're rushed to get home, get yourself together, and get in the bed. But as much as you can set up that bedtime routine in a way that creates calmness and coolness and comfort.

We always talk about the things that should happen in the bedroom. Should that be, you know, a question that we don't really get? That question, but we often have to talk about that question is because I do think we, you know, our bedroom can become a workplace. It can become a place where we are having conversations that really should be happening outside of the bedroom. So really honoring the sacredness and the space of the bedroom for the two things you always say.

I say the bedroom is for sleep and sex only. Everything else needs to happen outside that bedroom. That bedroom should be your sanctuary for safety and comfort. And if we're Doing things like working in the bed, checking our emails while we're laying there, scrolling in the bed. We're just not allowing the sacredness to happen that really should be happening in that bedroom. So that would be my wellness wisdom advice, is get everything else out of.

That bedroom, including the wi fi routers and the TV and the animals.

Yeah, animals are interesting. You know, they can really disrupt sleep and so people think it's cute. They've got a puppy and they want to love on that puppy and they want to sleep with that dog. That dog's going to get old. So it's usually the elderly dogs, right, that we've trained to do that, that ultimately need to be getting up at night and need to be going out during the night and we've allowed them to be in the bed. And that's just a hard habit to break once you start having that habit. So I would encourage you to think about the habits that you're setting up for your bedroom in the way of pets that would interfere with sleep because that's, you know, getting woken up three or four times a night with the pet is just not helping you. Hey, friend, a quick pause from the episode. Lori and I want to make sure that you know about something that we pour our hearts into.

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Can'T wait to walk this journey with you. Now back to the episode.

So what's that? Next question, Kelly.

Okay, let me see. What other questions are we getting? We're tiptoeing into the second questions, right? Tiptoeing into the sex questions. So one of the questions that we're getting is like, why have I lost interest? You know, why would I rather do the laundry or wash the dishes than having sex with my husband?

Which I. I do believe it could be multifactorial. Right. We are, you know, women that are in a grind, I would say stage of our lives of go and do and perform and achieve. And oftentimes the number of plates that we're spinning and the demands take priority. And it's just, just, I'm done, I'm tired. And I can imagine that that's probably what our male counterparts may feel as well. But for us, as we see a dip in hormones that also play into that, then we have a double whammy because we are busy and we are going and we're tired. Were hormone imbalance, which usually means not just sex hormones, adrenal hormones, as we just said, thyroid metabolism, all of our hormones, glucose and insulin, which makes us feel fatigued and tired too. And then we compound that on a reduction in specifically testosterone, which is happening earlier and earlier and earlier. And so we're seeing this beginning in some of our clients in their mid-30s. Are you seeing that as well?

Seeing it even earlier than that. And some of that has to do with birth control pill use early in age. That birth control pill use will alter sex hormone binding globulin. And oftentimes, even after we stop oral contraception, that does not rebound. And as a result, even if we're producing enough testosterone, we're not utilizing that testosterone. And it definitely affects the libido. And, you know, there are other things stress response can affect the way that we produce testosterone. And so I do think that it's oftentimes not something, especially in the younger population, that's thought about too much, but it is something we need to be thinking about and asking about. Like, has my cognitive function changes changed? Because not just sec. We don't just think about testosterone for sex. We think about it for drive and motivation. And so if you're feeling like you just don't have the drive that you used to have, whether that's sexual drive or just productivity, I would be questioning, do I have enough testosterone? Am I producing enough testosterone? Am I using that testosterone well? And then as you mentioned, earlier, it is multifactorial. Our drive for sexual connection is multifactorial. If we feel like we're running from a lion all the time, running from thing to activity to kid, event to work, the last thing that we're going to be thinking about really is sex. And so really thinking about how can I carve out space for that connection. And having some non sexual connection is really important too. You know, we want to feel connected to our partner oftentimes before we will engage in that partner. So when I'm having this discussion with the patient, I'm oftentimes asking, you know, are you able, when you do connect, are you able to become aroused and then are you able to have orgasm? And if those two things are intact, then we can typically fix the desire piece or at least work around the desire piece because that desire oftentimes for females does go down. And it's good to have open and honest conversation with our partner about that too. I was visiting with a couple in their 30s last week and both of them were in the consult, which was really fun and just having a really open and honest conversation about her, letting him know, I still love you, I'm still interested in you, but you're going to have to get the conversation started. And if you'll get that conversation started, it'll be game on. Right? And so it was really good. I think I would encourage all of you to have those conversations because each of you will wax and wane over time. And if you just make it normal to have those conversations, then you can keep that spark alive and keep that activity going. And then don't be afraid to have that conversation with your provider. You know, dig into what are those hormones doing and what can you be doing to get balance there? Because it's an important part of your, of your life and your journey.

I love what you said about normalizing the conversation because I do think that some of us grew up in a period of time in which those things were just not talked about. And I'm happy to see our younger generation being willing to have those conversations. And I don't necessarily think it's an age thing. I think it is well more well accepted. But we do have to create a environment that it's not taken personal. Right? It really isn't, because it's not. It is a season to which we're going through and taking it easy on yourself and recognizing that too. You also highlighted or I think you insinuated non sexual touch and non sexual time together. And I do want to Just reiterate that, that, you know, women, they. The whole book, right? Women are from, you know, whatever, Mars, men are from Mars, women are from Venus. Right. We are different. We're just different. You know, so for us, we really, as women, we do have to have certain things, have to be kind of aligned, if you will, and being able to have conversations with our spouses around how to create some things that they could be to kind of set up and same vice versa, things that we could be doing to get them in a state of mind, of readiness for that too. I know they seem to be quite ready all the time. Sometimes we feel that way, right, With. With our men with testosterone because their levels are so much higher than ours. And, you know, that's just the nature of the beast. But having those open conversations around how to. And, you know, one of the things you've shared with me, too, is carving out time. And when you first said that to me a long time, I was like.

Wait a second, she's talking about is. Is scheduling sex. Okay, So I do believe, because I'm a scheduled person, like, I'm just a scheduled person. I'm very scheduled. I don't know how else to say it, but I do think it helps because even if we choose not to, we're both showing up with an intention of being together and having fun and playing, whatever that looks like. Right. However that looks. Yeah. So it's not like you're showing up with obligation, you're showing up with intention. And so as long as we keep the schedule in that way, it's been great. And so it just helps to make sure that we're carving out the time, the space, the energy that we're prioritizing each other. Right. Because the busyness of life, everything else can get put on top of. And if we're not deliberately prioritizing each other, it can get crowded out. And so, yes, I did mention that to my friend that we schedule, and she was like, what are you talking about? Like.

And once you explained it, it made sense. It made sense because we are really busy. And I do think that we run on different, you know, clocks sometimes, you know, our spouses might go to bed earlier than us, and we may go to bed earlier than them. And so really having, you know, whatever that schedule looks like on such and such a night, this is going to be our time. And maybe you pair that with a date night. So it's date night, then that. But whatever that is, it' it's coming together, formulating a plan. It's it's not leaving it the way it is. Because if you leave it the way it is and intimacy does not occur in some fashion. And again, that's intimacy time together. Right. Really being with each other. If it doesn't happen, relationships do degrade. I mean, let's be honest. It does. And so I think it's very important to prioritize. Sexual wellness is a big deal.

It can be the scaffolding that holds the relationship together. So you mentioned date night, and I do think that date night's important. I think that's an important part of relationship. But I did the sexual health certification through A4M a few years ago, and I learned that the worst possible time to have sex was actually Friday night.

Really?

Because everyone is tired. Everyone has just had a week. And then we try to do things together that may not go as well because we're just still carrying everything from the. The week with us. So not to discourage anybody having fun anytime, but I thought that was interesting. I wouldn't have thought of that. I would have thought date night, that's the time to make things happen. But I was. I was interested to find out that that oftentimes that creates a little. A little bit more stress and a little bit more rub. Because just of the demands of the week. So just something to be mindful of. Yeah.

So a common question I get is, is it. You know, it's just. Actually, it's a statement. It's just too late for me to start bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

Okay.

It's just too late. So what do you tell a person that's sitting there who says, you know, I see. I hear you. I hear you talking about hormone balance. I hear you talking about sex hormones. I hear you talking about the improvements of creativity and bone density and muscle mass. But why now? Like, why? Number one, why were people not talking about it before? Why weren't my doctors talking about it before? And then, number two, isn't it too late? Wouldn't my benefits have happened already?

Yeah. I just want to apologize to women at large for the lack of support and the lack of conversation that's been had around hormone replacement therapy. I think we have to start this conversation with the understanding that our definition for menopause is really challenged. You know, menopause is one year without a menstrual cycle, but hormone dysregulation starts 10 years prior to that. And oftentimes women get the message that they don't need to start hormone therapy until they have hit menopause. So that's a magic time, right? Because then we don't know we've even hit menopause to a year later. So it seems kind of arbitrary. And then they get through menopause and they're like, well, I'm done with the hot flashes and night sweats. Why would I want hormone replacement therapy? They've also been taught that they don't need hormone replacement if they're not having vasomotor symptoms. So apologies to you because that's all false information. I don't know how else to say it. So in my mind, sitting here today, looking at the research, it's never too late to start hormone therapy. If we have a reason, if we have something that we're trying to achieve and we think hormones are part of that conversation. So it's never too late. I think statistically we were saying at 1.5 years after menopause, it becomes a little bit more risky for cardiovascular aging and challenges. But with proper testing and evaluation, I don't think that's a hard number. If you are concerned about your brain health, if you are concerned about your bone health, if you are having challenges with vaginal dryness and pelvic floor dysfunction, if you're wanting to optimize longevity and healthevity, I would say the conversation needs to be had. It's a very personal conversation. I never convince someone to start hormone replacement therapy. I believe in intuition when it comes to your health and what tools are going to be best for you. But I do think you deserve the conversation.

Absolutely. And I do know that there is research that getting placed on something for hormone balance within, you know, the first 10 years or being audit in the first 10 years is powerful. We do know that. But if we've missed that window of the 10 years, it's not too late. And I like that. You know, what you said about that and it is personal, it is individualized. But the women that I am seeing in the practice, who are seeing muscle wasting and who are seeing bone degradation, bone density dropping, we know how valuable hormone optimization is in respect to those conditions and we know how important it is for longevity.

Let me just say something. I was just digging into this with my team this past week and this was something that just, just didn't, I didn't realize. But we lose more bone density perimenopausal than we do postmenopausal. There's an accelerated loss that happens in that perimenopausal time frame. And we need to listen up to that because, you know, Once we've lost that bone, it's hard to get it back, right? Once we've lost that muscle, it's hard.

To get it back.

We can get some of that muscle back, but it's harder, harder to do. And so really thinking about when do we need to intervene in the way of helping you understand how to keep that muscle mass on and how to protect your bone mass. So I'm getting going to give you a little bit of a caveat, a little trick to do to kind of test yourself, measuring urinary ph first thing in the morning. So PH strips that you use to measure your pool water, you can buy them on Amazon, you can get them anywhere. Testing yourself first thing in the morning and just seeing. And this is for men and women, you know, are you running acidic? If you're waking up acidic, you're risking bone loss. You're, you're demineralizing to get yourself more alkaline. Okay? And so I would encourage you to do that. It's easy, inexpensive way of looking at bone health in general and really working toward getting your body in an alkaline state to help be a tool to protect your bone mass. Where bone mass goes, so does brain health. So if you're losing bone mass, you're losing brain health. And I think we all want to have a good brain this week. I want to have a good brain. I want to be funny enough when I get older, I don't want to be so rigid, you know, but I don't want to be that funny. So I want to keep my brain.

You know, we know that muscle is the organ system of longevity. And we say it's money in the bank, we say that all the time. But it's true that it also is extremely important in muscle mass mass. And we have so many cards stacked against us, unfortunately, in respect to maintaining muscle mass. You know, our standard American diet is very carb heavy and not protein. Our digestive tracts are a mess. And oftentimes we're not digesting and absorbing. And we're not only not getting enough protein, but we're not digesting and absorbing it very well. So we have a lot of cards stacked against us. And then, you know, to your point, we have lifestyles. When you talk about alkalinity and acidity, we have lifestyles, unfortunately, that are very, unfortunately they are imbalanced in respect to ph, and therefore we pull calcium out of the bone to try to balance our PH of our blood and end up, you know, having weakened bones. So it's never Too late to have a conversation around hormones. You do have to be smart and you have to be. It is very important for you to align yourself with qualified healthcare practitioners that aren't look, or I'm just going to say it this way, that are using the right metrics, listening to you, helping you solve the problems that you're looking to solve, but looking through the window of your safety, safety first, and applying these modalities over time, delivering them in the way that's right for you, whether that be a cream or a pellet or a pill form, whatever that is, and measuring, because we cannot manage what we do not measure. And it's also not too early, and I will say this, and this is extremely important, is that I was always under the impression that being hormone devoid deficient was your greatest risk. The reality of the equation is being hormonally imbalanced as a whole is your greatest risk. And that could be overcorrected or undercorrected. And so you're at just as great of risk being overcorrected. So that's again, qualified healthcare practitioner really working with you to balance them and doing the right testing to help make sure that the right recipe is being used for you. Because that will change. That should change. It's not like set it and forget it. That's another question we get all the time is, am I going to be on these for life and is it the same dosing? Because now that you set me up on my plan, now I can go see so and so primary and they'll just keep writing it for me. Do you get that question?

Yeah, I get that question. Yeah, I get that statement a lot. And testing over time is really, really important. You know, when we're doing our testing, especially for women on hormone replacement therapy, I always want to take like a 30,000 foot view of like how are these hormones communicating with each other and then what are they doing in your body? And that takes a variety of testing, right? Blood sugar testing, body composition measurements, and then oftentimes Dutch testing, looking at cortisol levels, looking at sex hormones, how they're being metabolized, looking at organic acids for nutrient balance to make sure you have the right nutrients to help keep those hormones balanced, and looking at oxidative stress markers for cancer risk. And so there's a lot that we want to do in the way of measuring so that we're keeping you safe, but also helping you live a vital life. The other question that I get a lot, Lori, is, you know, why I'm eating The same way. I'm exercising the same way. But all of a sudden I have this muffin top that just will not budge. What gives?

Oh, girl. Yes, we do get that question, don't we? So you know that, again, is multifactorial, right? But you have to start peeling it down. Good news and bad news to all of this, right? So, you know, the challenging news is this. Your gut microbiome is a player in hormone metabolism. It's a player in everything. 70 to 90% of your entire immune system is housed in your gut. Women, unfortunately, gain anywhere from 10 to 15 pounds a year. A year. When they are imbalanced, they have dysbiosis, which is abnormal growth of living cells. You could be harboring an infection in your gut. You are completely asymptomatic. You're not having bloating, you're not having gas, you're not having constipation, but you have this bacteria that, unfortunately, they are leading to you gaining weight, even eating good food. So first things first. Starts with the gut.

I'm so glad you said that. That is so, so true. And we see. We see it lived out every single week in our practices. And, you know, I told patients, oftentimes, you're not fat, you're fluffy. Because they've got all this inflammation around their gut, right? And when we start cleaning that up, it just comes off beautifully. And they are like, wow, I had no idea that that was even there. Because to your point, maybe they weren't symptomatic with their gut. Sometimes they are. Sometimes they're having reflux, sometimes they're having gas bloating, especially bloating. But sometimes they're not. And they would never think that the gut is the problem. But we metabolize our estrogen primarily through our gut. And especially if we're not getting enough fiber in our diet, we don't. We don't offload that estrogen very well. And as a result, we recycle that estrogen. And as a result, we have weight gain, especially visceral fat weight gain.

So testing is key first, right? Looking at. Looking at the gut, while at the same time, I do think that we, because of our lifestyles, we have a multitude of environmental toxins. We say, you know, genes load the trigger, but our environment, our lean genes, load the gun, but environment pulls the trigger, right? So, you know, it is really, really important for us to look at our environment and take a period of pause. You know, I love you. And I have worked a long time on developing a metabolic reset program. In which we walk people through a period of time where they deload their body. And we're careful not to say detox. It is somewhat of a detoxification, but the reality is it's more of a deloading, pulling things out that need to be out, putting things in that need to be in and supporting their body's capacity to take out the trash. And so if a person hasn't done that, a period of time, that's where you need to start. Right? So you do the testing and then walk them through a period of time in which they're resetting the body, because that gets them back to some of those basics, right? What you eat, what you drink, how you sleep, move and think. Because sometimes we think we're doing everything right. And how many times have you had them do a dialogue? And they are doing. They're getting a lot. They're imbalances of their macronutrients. Right. They're getting all these carbs, and they're like, I didn't know. And I'm like, you know, log, Log it.

Yeah. I'm laughing because I had a patient come in last week who I have seen in the past, haven't seen her in many years, and she was telling me about these healthy cinnamon rolls that she's eating, and she was dead serious. Dead serious. She was having a healthy cinnamon roll every morning, and she did not know why she had gained 10 pounds. And so I was like, tell me a little bit more about this healthy cinnamon roll. And so just not realizing the effect of carb bloating in the morning, you know, and then lack of activity during the day. Right. It was one small change that she had made, but it was an organic, homemade cinnamon roll. So in her mind, it was healthier than. Right. They're healthier. Healthier than. Right. Healthier than what she would buy at the store. 100%. 100%. But it wasn't what her body needed during that time. Right. And so just an interesting conversation. So I do believe in food logging, because otherwise you may, in your mind, think, I'm doing the right things. I'm not overeating. Right. She wasn't overeating. But perhaps it's not what you need for this stage of life.

That's right. That's right. So. So if we get back to the basics after, you know, the conversation, it is multifactorial. It does begin in the gut. So testing is important. Doing some hormone testing is inflammatory marker is important. Getting back to de loading the body and resetting it and then doing a food log and kind of looking at do I think that I'm just doing everything right or am I really right? It gives us a time to really go, go back and do that. And then we have to really think about sleep. Because I can tell you personally and you know my story being fully transparent is you could be doing everything right. Everything right. And not sleeping. And it's just, you're not going to offload body fat. I'm sorry, it's not going to work. And if you're the first person, please look us up. Send. You know, let's do a little study on you because I don't think we're going to find one person like that. You're not going to do it.

So cortisol dysregulation can lead to that mid abdominal weight gain.

Right.

Stress. So as Lori mentioned, having a dysfunctional gut microbiome is a stressor to the point. Body not sleeping is a stressor to the body. Over consuming toxic burden or sugary foods is a stressor to the body. And those things stimulate overproduction of cortisol or dysregulation in cortisol that can lead to met abdominal weight gain. That's very problematic.

Absolutely.

And muscle loss on top of that. And muscle loss. Yeah.

So the perfect storm. The perfect storm. And for you, your symptom may just be that muffin top. Right. But what's happening, it's like the, the iceberg. You know, there's part of what you see which is the muffin, but what's underneath is the greater challenge because all of that leads to inflammatory or inflammation is primary driver of disease. But at the really root of that and what's happening is your immune system dysregulation. So your entire immune system is starting to be an overload and you want your immune system to work on your behalf without you even knowing it. And the reality is is when you're in that state of imbalance, it can't do that. So that's when things start to happen that are bigger issues. Far bigger issues.

Well guys, this has been great, Lori. I'm so excited that we had this time together. As Lori said earlier, you're not broken. Right. This is a stage of life that can be very complex and need a little bit more attention and love. And so I'm glad that you guys tuned in. Please share this with your friends. They're going through very things very similar to you, even if they're not talking about it. Oftentimes when we start having challenges. We run and hide. We don't tell anybody about our challenges. So share this with your friends. Keep your questions coming. We want to make sure that we're answering your questions in this podcast. This is what we're here for and keep just being wonderful.

And it was so awesome to have a day like this to just have some fun at the same time as address very common things that are happening to women our age as well as our children and older than us. So as Kelly said, keep the questions coming. You can put them in the chat of the podcast as well and share our app R2R reset to resilience. We would love to have you this is Women helping women survive life and really give you tools, tips and strategies. Real life from wise women who've been in the trenches for a very long time, working with other clients and patients patients to overcome these challenges and to live their best life. So join us there. The Synergy Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor patient relationship is formed. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have, and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.