Mona SharmaCelebrity nutritionist and wellness advocate

Is Your Health Advice Based on Male Biology?

15 May 2025 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:08

In this segment of the interview, Mona Sharma asks Alisa Vitti to explain infradian rhythms, a term that refers to biological cycles longer than a day. Vitti contrasts infradian rhythms with circadian rhythms, noting that for women the monthly menstrual cycle is a primary infradian rhythm. She describes how the shifting balance of estrogen and progesterone across the follicular, ovulatory, and luteal phases influences brain chemistry, metabolism, stress response, and immune function, effectively making a woman’s physiological state change week by week. Vitti argues that most health advice is based on circadian (day‑to‑day) patterns and therefore overlooks these monthly fluctuations, and she suggests that aligning self‑care practices with the menstrual cycle can better support women’s health.

Chapters

Never is there mention of how a woman's schedule should change. That's a side topic, but infrared rhythm, can you break it down? Like what is it? And it's specific to women obviously, but.
Just like what is it? So what you need to know about it is circadian rhythms are about, you know, a cycle that takes place over the course of a day. And infradian rhythm is a cycle that takes place over a longer period of time. And in our case as women, it's our monthly menstrual cycle. If you live only from the circadian, day in and day out, something is missing for you as a woman, which is that flow of shifting energy through your infraredian experience over your menstrual cycle over the course of a month. As you go through that, having different ratios of these of hormones, estrogen with then progesterone, you know, comes into the picture in the luteal phase. All of this affects your brain chemistry, your metabolism, your stress response system, your immune system. You are a different creature each week of the cycle. And by aligning your self care practices with that ebb and flow of what feels right and.