An interview with Jill Nicolini and Sherri Griggs

Welcome to the Balanced Body Podcast, where Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness in Omaha, talks to us about health, wellness, and balancing hormones.

Sherri Griggs joining us here from Balanced Body Health and Wellness from Omaha, Nebraska. Excited to have her back here on the show. Uh, their medical clinic which offers menopause symptom relief. Ladies out there, I'm getting close to it, and there's so much that we need to learn about with hormones because I'm confused. I have questions myself, but really, ladies, listen up. We have our expert joining us here today. Sherri, how are you?

I'm doing great, thank you. How are you?

I'm doing fantastic. And by the way, just to point out the website, balancedbodymedical.com. Is that correct?

Correct.

Beautiful health and wellness. And we're so excited to talk to you today. The only provider to offer the Menopause Method in Nebraska. Let's talk. So please introduce yourself to everyone to start.

Registered nurse, also known as a nurse practitioner. And I have gone on a path more about hormones and how they affect our body and what we can do to optimize those so that we all feel better.

Sherri, can you hear me okay?

Oh, there you are.

Yeah, I'm having trouble hearing you. You're cutting a little bit in and out during your introduction there. Would you mind just repeating some of it because you kind of were cutting in and out? I'm not sure if it's your phone. Would you mind just sharing a little bit about what you do with hormones again? Not a problem.

Yes, absolutely. What I do is I help optimize your hormones, and that means what works best for you, getting them at a level that takes care of your symptoms and where you feel your best, right?

Yes.

Because we can— we can do a lab test. You know, you go to your doctor, you have your blood work done, and they say, oh, you're within the normal limits. Well, that's great, right? But what if you're at the low end or the high end and we can— and you don't feel good, but you're still normal, so we don't do anything about it. What I do is I optimize it. So I'll still keep you within what's considered normal limits, but I'll optimize it so you feel good and you feel like yourself again.

Beautiful. So you mentioned you were a nurse practitioner, is that correct?

Correct, yes.

Perfect.

I heard that part before.

I was going to ask a little bit about your background. So tell us what brought you here into the medical field to start. Tell us a little bit about your background, where you're from and grew up and all your passion and then how we got here.

Oh my gosh. Well, it was quite a journey. It was definitely not a straight shot from A to B. It was all over the place. But when I look back, when I was 5 years old, I was on a television show and they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up and I said a doctor. Well, that was a few years ago and things were different then. And she said to me, oh no, no, girls are nurses.

Not doctors.

And interestingly, I did. I started out as a nurse. I actually started out as a medical assistant because I didn't want to go to school for so long and just kept going back, got my registered nurse, my bachelor's, my master's, and then went past my master's to get specialized training in hormones and metabolic syndrome, which has a lot to do with our So it's— I did a few things in between getting to this point, but I am— it's come full circle. I'm right back in the medical field again.

Well, congratulations, and thank you for being here to teach us. Look, because I'm 45, I just got diagnosed with osteopenia, right? So these are things that start happening to our body as a woman we don't know, and the doctors just say, okay, yeah, you have osteopenia, just take more calcium. I'm like, really? Like, I'm 45. I thought this doesn't happen until you get older, and no one has answers. Can I just ask your take on someone with osteopenia and osteoporosis? I know you're working with people with that.

Absolutely. Well, here's what we found is right as our hormones start to dwindle and they start to go away, we stop making them, that's what actually will cause your osteopenia and your osteoporosis. Now, there isn't a set age. We know that the average age of menopause is 51 years old and that means you've on without a period for 12 months. But your hormones actually start to go down long before that. At the age of 20, we start to lose some of our hormones.

Right.

30, we start to lose some of our hormones. And there are women that go into an early menopause and their estrogen starts to dip. So I haven't seen you, I don't know, but it's very possible that some of these changes have started to happen a little bit Earlier, and that's why you are starting to have this osteopenia. Now, it is reversible.

Oh.

It is reversible with the placement of your hormones. Yes, vitamin D, definitely, right? Calcium, definitely. But you're catching it early, and it, it, it can be reversed.

But see, not one doctor has told me that. Not one doctor told me that. They said just take calcium. So where do you go, right? Because not everyone has a place to go. Doctors aren't treating you with hormonal issues, are they?

They're not. And I actually did ask one of my preceptors because her answer was, you know what, this is normal, you'll just get through it, this is aging. Well, I hate to tell you, so is high blood pressure. It's aging, just get through it. But wait, we treat that?

Yeah, you're right.

So why don't we treat our women who are having issues and they need this hormone replaced? Well, I asked her and she said, you know, Sherri, I don't have time to learn another specialty.

Wow.

And that helped me understand because before I was a little judgmental, right? I'm a little judgmental here. This is out there. Why aren't we doing it? And it is a specialty. It is— everybody's different. Everybody needs a different amount. What works for one person doesn't work for another. How are we going to replace them? What are we going to use? You might feel wonderful with your estrogen at a certain level. And someone else might not. So it definitely is a specialty, and that's why a lot of our traditional providers, as I call them, they don't do it because it would require them to go back and learn. It's a whole other specialty, and we know that they are— they're already challenged with time and having the ability to take care of people the way they'd like to. Yeah.

Well, thank you for sharing that. All right.

Well, there's so much to you and to your practice, so where did you want to Well, I guess I feel in a sense I kind of started it when you have said, Jill, where do I go? What do I do?

Yeah.

Right? The sad part about it is for some of us is, you know, women, we, we need testosterone. That's normal. We need that. We need that for our muscles so that we don't get sarcopenia, which is muscle loss, right? We need that for our libido. We need to feel good. We need it.

Right.

To feel energized, but yet the FDA doesn't approve it for women. So it's finding a specialist who understands, has studied this specialty, and knows how to treat you. They don't just focus on one thing. And we have some— now, personally myself, I say I'm a medical provider. I am looking at The whole person. I don't want to put hormones into a toxic body. So we want to make sure that your body itself is balanced before we just give you hormones. There are a lot of businesses out there that have added hormones to their current practices and they don't look at it that way. So it's finding somebody that is going to look at the whole person and want to balance all of you. Not just give you the hormones because it all works together. If you're insulin resistant, which many of us get to be as we get older, insulin's a hormone. Thyroid, it's a hormone. Cortisol, are you stressed? Because if you're stressed, that's a hormone. And so we need to address all of these and it's very important that when you find or you're told, well, there's nothing that can be done. Or my favorite is, I'm having a lot of anxiety and I've never had anxiety. Well, here's an antidepressant, right? We're just going to treat your symptom, not your cause. These are symptoms of menopause. These are symptoms of hormonal imbalances. There are all— there are practitioners out there everywhere, in every state, in every country that can help you. Sometimes you just have to look a little harder depending on where you Wow, you're right, you're right.

And now, are you strictly working with those in your state, or do you work other states as well?

Well, right now— and this is something I need to find the answer out for myself— I have a friend that lives in New Jersey. She is going to come see me. I can get her started on hormones. You do have to— because of my practice, I do have to see you. So you're in Nebraska, I can treat you. But the question then came up, so I do need to see you at least once a year, but if I'm having the pharmacy send your medication to you, which they will send that to you directly, am I approved to do that if you live in another state? So I need to find that out because I know the RN is reciprocal and the medical license is reciprocal, but there are certain restrictions on nurse practitioners. So you probably, at the minimum, I do know you need to come visit me, and it may be that I don't know if I can send her a prescription or not because she's in another state. So I don't quite have that answer yet.

Okay, not a problem. Well, at this time of the show is where we got to take a quick commercial break. Would you mind sharing the best form and all forms of contact, and then we'll take that break, and when we return, we'll continue to talk about the work you're doing and how you can help our ladies out there.

Absolutely. I can be reached by email at info@balancedbodymedical.com. Info, I-N-F-O, @balancedbodymedical.com. And my phone number is 402-807-5333. Again, that's 402-807-5333.

All right everyone, stay tuned. We're going to take that break and when we return, we'll obviously talk more about the work you're doing. We'll be right back. Broadcasting from the business capital of the world, this is the Podcast Business News Network. Joined live here once again by Sherri Griggs. We're excited to have her here as an expert on us ladies out there. Yes, Balanced Body Health and Wellness from Omaha, Nebraska, offering so many different menopause symptom relief and use of bioidentical hormones and so much more to help those with incontinence, heart disease, osteoporosis. You name it, she can help you. And we're excited to have her here and to focus on the preventative aspect that can help us down this journey. So welcome back to the show. What else should us ladies be aware of and at what age do we— should we seek treatment? I mean, do we do it before menopause starts or when do you recommend?

Well, when you start to have symptoms, when you start to get uncomfortable, one of the very first symptoms that you'll start to have is trouble sleeping. That can start as early in your 30s as your progesterone starts to decrease. You'll find, wow, I don't sleep as well. I have trouble falling asleep. My mind is racing. The progesterone is one of our hormones that helps us relax. It's our relaxation hormone. And because that is one of the hormones that starts to— we start to lose at an earlier age, those are some of the first symptoms you start to have. So that's when you want to seek treatment, when you start to have some of those symptoms. Prior to that, you are at that point what I would consider optimized. Your body is happy where it's at. So there wouldn't be any reason to test your hormones.

Okay.

See where they are because different things that happen in our life as we age, different stressors, things like that make a difference. So it's when you start to become symptomatic because then the goal is to take those symptoms away and make you feel better and make you feel good again.

Absolutely. And by the way, just to remind everyone, the website balancedbodymedical.com. Walk us through, you know, some of the specifics of what you're doing and the services in particular that people can learn about. Like I was reading on the website during the break about metabolic syndrome and then balancing the hormones.

Right. Well, there are some different ways to do this. I'll talk about— first one is called the Menopause Method. Dr. David Rosensweet is one of my mentors. He's actually going to be talking to Congress next week. When I had mentioned earlier about the FDA not approving some of those hormones for us, he is there advocating for all of us to make sure that these hormones are not taken away or we're not able to prescribe them anymore. And The Menopause Method, what that uses is that uses hormones in jojoba oil. And jojoba oil is an organic clean oil. A lot of your creams where our hormones are are compounded in, which is how it's done, the best way it's done— excuse me— have solvents in them. And some of these solvents can be toxic for those of us that are autoimmune, have other inflammatory diseases. So that's the Menopause Method. I also offer pellets because some women— I had a woman say to me, I was tired of putting those creams on and I don't want to remember to do that. So you can have a pellet Uh-huh. And that pellet will dissolve slowly. And it's ease of use at that point. If it's a testosterone, estrogen, we do not pellet progesterone, but we can pellet those 2 hormones. And I actually trained that under Deborah Matthews. She's an internationally known physician that specializes in hormones. So metabolic syndrome, now that is something that Uh-huh. It's very interesting and a lot of people have it without realizing it. And that is, you'll find somebody— you see it a lot more in men and you'll see it with elevated cholesterol, some insulin resistance. And as I did a presentation for my networking group yesterday of 95% men, it may be they just need to be optimized with some testosterone. Men actually start to lose testosterone at the age of 40. They lose 1% to 3% per year. And testosterone will make a difference with your cholesterol. So that's where your heart disease information comes in. For women, estrogen is an anti-inflammatory. And a lot of our heart disease and our cardiovascular disease is caused by inflammation in our vessels. So as we are aging and we are losing these hormones, we can start to go into a metabolic syndrome. We have high blood pressure, we have high cholesterol, we are having problems with our blood sugar. Some of us get as far as type 2 diabetes. Some of that is hereditary and/or hormone-based. So we have the old-school way of thinking, well, you know what, just get on a treadmill and stop eating that food and that diabetes will go away. Or your cholesterol will get better if you eat better. Well, that's old-school thinking. That's what I learned back when I worked in internal medicine 30 years ago. That's what it was 30 years ago, but we know different now.

Mm-hmm.

We know that when you start to have these symptoms, we can prevent you from getting sicker. You don't have to be sick.

Mm-hmm.

There is— there are things that can be done to prevent it. Hormones are one of them. They're very basic, and that really just can start the downfall. You hear a lot of women having heart attacks in their 40s and 50s. Because they've lost their estrogen and they've lost the protectiveness for their heart.

Wow.

And yes, it's all very detailed and all— it all fits together.

Oh my goodness. And then, so you mentioned the Omaha Hormone Therapy Clinic. Is that what we call it? Is that the title of your clinic?

It is Balanced Body Health and Wellness.

Okay.

But I am, and then one of the reasons that you will see Omaha Therapy Clinic is understanding that I am not a med spa. Nothing wrong with med spas. I go to one. But we have found that a lot of our med spas start to offer hormones, but just hormones as an added treatment. They don't actually do it all, right? They don't do the medical side of it.

Mm-hmm.

We look at the preventative side of it and look at, is your cortisol elevated? What's your insulin doing? So they're just treating generally your sex hormones. So I'm a hormone therapy clinic. I do not do any of those other services. If you need Botox, I can't help you. That's why I have to go someplace else myself.

Same here. I got it. I got it. But what about— do you also do Preventative medicine and functional medicine, right?

Correct. And so quite frankly, everything I just talked about was that. It actually was— functional medicine is a preventative medicine. And so in some ways, that term has been convoluted by other practitioners that use it that aren't able to prescribe medications and help you on the medical side like I can. But preventative— I actually met it when I went to my preventative functional anti-aging medicine conference last December. I actually met a cardiologist who was no longer working as a cardiologist. He was no longer taking care of people with heart disease. He was taking care of them to prevent their heart disease because he said, I felt so sick when people would come in and we could have prevented this.

Yes.

We could have prevented this heart attack had some of their issues been treated— preventative medicine, functional medicine— prior to them getting to this point. So my hope is that when somebody comes to see me, I will run a full gamut of lab work no matter— no matter what you decide you want to do. I offer packages and regardless of what package you decide you want to do for your health I'm going to do the full gamut because if I can catch something before it gets to the point that we need to treat your symptoms because you're getting sick, then there are things we can do to help prevent it, to prevent you from having that heart attack. Now, nothing's guaranteed.

Of course.

Right? But at least we give you a better chance. Your odds are better that you won't have that heart attack. end up going to that cardiologist if we can catch it early and get you treated.

That is so true. I love that. What an amazing story. A man who worked all those years, right, with heart disease realizing this could be prevented. We could— that's beautiful.

It's—

Yes, it was.

It's a wake-up call to so many of us of all the things that we could do. And, you know, working with Let me just ask, is there anything else that we need to know because there's a lot? Do you offer different supplements? Do you offer just hormones? Do you do vitamins too?

Right. So depending on what we're treating you for, yes, there may be supplements. In fact, my own mom just said she went to her provider. She can't take what is called a statin for cholesterol. I got her what's called some plant sterols and the plant sterols actually have brought her triglycerides and her cholesterol down that her provider said, what are you doing? I'm going to start giving this to my patients.

Wow.

Right? So supplements that are not necessarily a prescription medication, yes. If you need a prescription medication, I can also help you with that. Whatever we need to do to help you to be healthier, to live longer, to feel better, to be balanced, to not have to worry about having some of the issues. My mom's a perfect example. I hope she doesn't listen to this. But she, you know, she did not do hormone replacement. Osteoporosis, high cholesterol. So Some of them, but once you do— once you've gone 10 years outside of not having any hormones anymore, 10 years of menopause, then it can be a little risky and we have to do things a little slower if we're going to treat you with hormones.

Yeah.

But generally, that's the point where we have to be very, very careful and there's a little more risk in it the first year. But— and I say that in case somebody's listening that's saying, oh my gosh, right? So just to know, it can be done, but there are some risks involved for that first year.

And also, can't hormone therapy help with like low libido? For a lot of women out there, that becomes an issue with menopause.

It does, yes, and that's related to testosterone. We need testosterone. It's important for us to have that, and that is what controls your libido. Now we know scientifically, women, it's a lot more in our head, but once you get that testosterone back up to where it needs to be, you will feel better. You'll feel better about yourself. You'll have more energy. If you're working out and you're like, why can't I get rid of this fat and why am I not gaining muscle? You'll be able to start getting muscle again, and that definitely helps your mindset.

All right.

Awesome.

So guys and gals, listen up. By the way, do you help men as well or is it strictly for women?

I can help men as well, yes.

Ah, good to know. See, it's not only us, but men also could benefit from hormone therapy too.

Absolutely. As I had mentioned earlier, they start to lose that testosterone at 40 and it could be the reason you're walking around with some elevated cholesterol Interesting.

Well, thank you so much for being here. Again, balancedbodymedical.com. And Sherri, share your phone number or any other information before we go.

Absolutely. Phone number, 402-807-5333. Again, it's 402-807-5333, and that email was info@balancedbodymedical.com. I-N-F-O, info@balancedbodymedical.com.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Looking forward to the next time we connect. Thank you so much for being here, for joining us, and excited to have you a part of the show. Thanks again. And to all of our listeners, all right, thank you. Please stay tuned, more of the show's on the way.

This has been the Balanced Body Medical Podcast with Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness. If you're looking to find Sherri, go ahead and look for the website balancedbodymedical.com. If you're looking for the business and you want to find Sherri at her office, you can find her at 10815 Elm Street in Rockford Plaza.

Thank you.