Menopause Method 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.

We're so excited to have our friend Sherri Griggs here joining us again live from Omaha, Nebraska. BalancedBodyMedical.com. Yeah, that's Balanced Body Health and Wellness. She's here to talk today more about the work she does to help, well, many of us women with menopause symptoms and hormones and all of that, but really to help decrease a lot of ailments. So welcome back today. How are you?

Thank you, Jill. I'm doing great. How are you today?

I'm doing well, sweetheart. Thanks for asking. So please introduce yourself to our listeners.

Yes, my name is Sherri Griggs. I am a certified nurse practitioner. I own and am the main practitioner at Balanced Body Health and Wellness here in Omaha, Nebraska, and we help people with hormonal imbalances and metabolic imbalances.

And let me also ask a little bit about, you know, the work you do. Again, hormones, you mentioned balancing, but this is strictly for ladies, or do you work with some men too?

I also work with men. Men, right? They have andropause. We have menopause and they have andropause. Doesn't that sound kind of strange? Shouldn't menopause be for the men?

Yeah.

But yes, yes, I can help them out. And you know, that's one of the things— Jill, if you don't mind if I say a little bit about Andropause?

Sure, go ahead.

Yeah, one of the things that men don't realize, you know, they think of, oh, my testosterone's going low, maybe I'm having some erectile dysfunction. But what one of the— a lot of the things that happen before that ever— they ever get to that point They'll start running high cholesterol. They will start to notice they're losing their muscle mass. And, you know, men also have estrogen in their system, and as their testosterone decreases, they still have that estrogen and they start to find themselves putting weight on in their stomach area like women do.

Yeah.

So those are all some symptoms of andropause as they start to make less testosterone as they age.

Hmm, interesting. We need to get some of that back, right?

Yeah, yeah, because gosh, wouldn't that be wonderful if— let's just say that your doctor puts you on a statin, a cholesterol medication, and you find out all you had to do is just replace your testosterone and now you don't need that anymore?

That would be wonderful. Awesome.

Yep. Yeah, to find out the root cause of what— what is that, right? Unless, of course, Now we start to talk a little bit— I know I've touched on metabolic before, but unless of course along with that cholesterol or some blood sugar issues and, you know, then it's not just your testosterone. However, testosterone can affect blood sugar and insulin sensitivity in men. So do we know if you're at that point metabolic or do we know if you have testosterone issues?

Hmm, how do we figure it out?

So we test, right? We look at those testosterone levels and we look at the insulin level, not just the blood sugar and the hemoglobin A1c, and start out with replacing that testosterone.

Okay.

And see what— and then see. Obviously it's going to help with muscle mass, it's going to help prevent bone loss.

Okay.

Protect the heart. And then we test again to see if some of those other levels have changed, whether or not we see an improvement in the cholesterol level or an improvement in the blood sugar levels. And obviously, if we get the testosterone optimized, it's where it needs to be, and you feel good everywhere else, and just that cholesterol hasn't changed and the blood sugar hasn't changed, then— Maybe we're looking at it being a metabolic syndrome. Generally, those are hereditary though. So you will have had somebody in your family that's had issues with diabetes and cholesterol and potentially heart attacks or heart disease. So, you know, we start by taking a really good history along with the testing.

Okay.

Well, and how does it work, by the way, just to point out, you're in Omaha, Nebraska. Are you able to help only those in your state or can you work with people worldwide?

Well, I can work with people— I don't know if I would say worldwide— within the United States for certain because some of these medications, and testosterone is one of them, is a scheduled drug, so it's one that the FDA is very careful about. But if we need to replace thyroid or something like that, I would need to be able to call a prescription into a pharmacy. Now, I do have to see you a minimum of once a year in Omaha, Nebraska.

Okay.

But then after that, we can do things via telemedicine.

Got it. Okay, perfect. Good to know. And now for today's show, did you have an area specifically that you wanted to address to get into for today?

You know, we did not plan ahead for anything, so No need.

Yeah, are you there? So what did you— that's okay. So what did you, what did you want to share for today? Now that we're here talking about all the services you provide, what do you think would be knowledgeable to your listeners? If you want to talk about, you know, what are the testing aspects, the statistics, statistical aspects, or, you know, of course, part of the other services that you offer?

Well, you know, I I wouldn't mind bringing up a couple of case studies, a couple of patients that I have seen and some of the situations that people might not realize. Now, I don't recall if I had talked about one of my patients that was having fatigue in the afternoon, okay?

Yes.

And we checked her thyroid levels. And I'm waiting back yet on her cortisol levels. But what we found was that— so thyroid levels, generally a provider will just check the TSH, the thyroid stimulating hormone. That hormone is what our body gives off when we need more thyroid. So if that hormone is in the normal range, Then we consider everything to be okay.

Uh-huh.

Now, what we've learned is that that's not always the case. You can have your hormone in the normal range, but your T3 and your T4, your active— excuse me— what your body uses actively, your T3, it changes T4 to T3, might be low. And you think, now why would that be? Well, TSH has ranges.

Okay.

So maybe my body on the lower range—

Okay.

Meaning I don't— I'm not stimulating a lot of hormones, thyroid stimulating hormone, meaning I have enough in my system. Doesn't mean I do. Okay? So just because it's in a range— where did these ranges come from? They came from testing people.

Mm-hmm.

And that's why it's a range. It's not an exact because what's normal for me, meaning it's normal on the lab work, or normal for you doesn't mean we have the exact same levels of T4 and T3 in our system. So she was actually on the low end of her T4. She was not optimized. Now, when we talk about optimized, an optimized level is still within the normal levels, but it's a smaller, tighter scale that we use.

Okay.

Okay? So for instance, the lab said that anything 0.6 or above is okay.

Mm-hmm.

Now, this particular patient, Hers was 0.8.

Oh.

So you think, well, yeah, it's okay, it's in that normal. But we like to see optimized above 1.

Okay.

Right? So the difference between the normal, what you call your scale, and your optimized is different.

Yeah.

So I actually gave her a very small dose of T4.

Okay.

Thyroid, just a tiny— a small dose, but gave her one that she could still break in half. And I said, I want you to take this every morning.

And this is a pill you're talking about, a pill, correct? Or capsule?

Okay, talking about a pill. Thyroid pill. A lot of people have heard it, uh, levothyroxine.

Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

So just gave her a small dose of that. I told her if she had trouble falling asleep or she felt like she was— had too much caffeine or jittery or anxious, to cut it in half. I spoke to her on Tuesday and she said, I've not felt jittery, I'm still falling asleep okay, and I am no longer tired in the afternoon. Wow. Wow. Wow. From something so simple. Now, we will recheck her levels. Recommendation is 6 to 12 weeks, so I do it right in half, right about 8 weeks, just to make sure she's still in the testing reference range.

Okay.

And in optimal. Okay? Optimal, real tight, 1 to 1.3. I want her to be right in there.

Okay.

So that's a really good example of some of the things that's different, some of the things that are different, because her medical provider, wonderful primary care provider, did the normal, checked her TSH and said, you're fine, I don't know why you're tired. But she wasn't optimal.

Got it. So your tests obviously clearly are— what's the word— more invasive, more What's the word I'm looking for?

Well— Specific?

More—

Specific?

Yeah.

Yeah, I would say specific. It's the same lab work that another practitioner does. It's just that, that we have learned through functional medicine, through some of the newer things. Here's the deal. Again, nothing wrong with a practitioner that doesn't do that. Nothing wrong with her practitioner, but that's not how they were trained.

Okay.

Okay? That's not how— when I went through endocrinology and worked in endocrinology 30 years ago, that's not how we were trained. You looked at the TSH, it looked good, everything was fine. But we learned that just because it's in that reference range doesn't mean everything's fine.

Yeah.

Because everyone's different.

Mm-hmm.

So we've tightened it down with what we call our optimal ranges. And we also do that with hormones. Now I know that this particular patient will be low because she is menopausal. She's in complete menopause, so she will be low. So our goal will be to get her to her optimal range to where she feels good, has no symptoms of too much estrogen or too little estrogen or too much progesterone or too little progesterone. So that we get her to exactly where she is and then we will test to make sure that she is within the safe reference ranges. And additionally, this is an extra test that goes along with The Menopause Method that Dr. Rosensweet has put together. We will make sure that her hormones are metabolizing properly.

Hmm.

So without getting too technical, there are different pathways. For instance, estrogen and testosterone can metabolize. We want to make sure that metabolizes down the proper pathway. So we double-check those metabolites.

Okay.

So that's one of the things that definitely makes me different. I do know I'm the only practitioner in the state of Nebraska. That offers the Menopause Method. I believe I did hear back I'm the only practitioner also in the state of Iowa, although I'm not in Iowa. Omaha, Nebraska does border with Council Bluffs, Iowa, so I have patients— in fact, I have patients that come from Iowa to see me. So I am able to treat them. And— but yes, so it's a very specialized treatment. There are other practitioners in the United States that work with Dr. Rosensweet and His menopause method. And his method is topicals, hormones in jojoba oil, jojoba oil being a very clean, nontoxic carrier. And this particular patient also wanted that. She wanted a topical.

Hmm.

So I'm sure I'll have more to tell about her success as she moves forward.

All right.

And I'd love to share that.

We love— I love hearing stories. All right, Sherri, remind us how we can reach out to you at this time. It's a— we got to take our quick break.

Yeah, so I can be reached at sherri@balancedbodymedical.com. Again, that's sherri@balancedbodymedical.com, or you can also reach me at 402-807-5333. 402-807-5333.

Perfect, sounds good. All right, stay tuned everyone, we will be right back. We are so excited to have our friend here again, Sherri Griggs, joining us. We're talking about all the health benefits that her and her services provide. Again, with functional medicine, there's so many things that we could be learning about. And yes, I understand it's important to go to your regular physician, primary care doctor, which is great. We're not telling you not to do that, but there's also a whole other side of things. And there's people out there like Sherri Griggs who can help you test certain things that maybe they're not testing— the hormones. We talked about testosterone. We talked about different type of hormones and levels. So these things can really help with longevity. your life, also with preventative medicine in a sense, right? So you can find out if someone may be at risk for certain diseases earlier in life and you could be proactive about it.

Correct. Yeah. And wouldn't you rather be proactive and prevent an illness than to have to treat the illness?

Yes.

Yeah, because a lot of times illnesses come with other things, right? For instance, if you're diabetic, It can come with complications.

Yes.

Pretty soon your kidney issues or circulation issues would just be better to prevent it if you can.

Yes. Okay.

So yeah, and I just wanted to remind everybody, I didn't mention that you can schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation with me by going to my website at www.balancedbodymedical.com, and there's a button there you can click to set up a free 15-minute phone consultation as well.

Perfect. All right, good to know. We appreciate that. And did you want to share some of the preventative things that your test could help people become aware of?

You bet. Well, a lot of people— there's been a lot of talk about adrenal fatigue. So adrenal fatigue, we don't necessarily call that anymore. We call that HPA axis dysfunction. We had to— I guess we had to Oh, I said, mm-hmm. Yeah, we just need to make it sound different, more medical, I guess. But, you know, there are things that we can do to prevent that from happening even when you're under a lot of stress and that healthy eating, keeping foods— eating more foods with a lower glycemic index and I tell people I told people this years ago, long before I did my health coach training and before I ever went back to school for my nurse practitioner. I call it the no white stuff diet.

Mm-hmm.

And they're like, what? I'd say, don't eat any white stuff. No white flour, no white sugar, right? Stay away from the white stuff. Dairy is inflammatory, but if you're— white pasta, white sugar, white flour, white bread, white rice, Those are all things with a high glycemic index, meaning that they cause our pancreas to flood the— have to flood the body with insulin because the blood sugar comes up so high. And that is stressful on the body. So we want to keep our body from being stressed. So again, sometimes you can't control your environmental stress. Getting enough sleep.

Yeah.

Making sure you get enough sleep. I read a book a few years ago about how important sleep was, and not getting enough sleep, they've learned, can be the cause of dementia, the cause of depression. We know it causes weight gain.

Mm-hmm.

So, and it burns out your adrenals, right? It's stress on the body. Taking the time during the day to just breathe. So just slow down and take a deep breath, and if you have to, I jokingly say, you work in a stressful environment, go shut yourself in the bathroom for 10 minutes. Find a closet you can hide in, right?

Yes.

Something where you are not bombarded with the lights and the computers and noise and the sound and the people, and just to take a few minutes away, you know, practicing things like yoga. Or meditation, breathing exercises, guided breathing. There are some wonderful things online for guided meditation that are free.

Okay.

So, just doing things like that to help the body calm down from all of the—

Yeah.

Things that are coming at us all the time, 24/7.

Totally, which there's so much.

Some easy preventative stuff there. Yeah, some easy preventative stuff. You know, real quick, we have time, one more patient I want to bring up.

Yes, ma'am.

When I talked about taking a good history from somebody, that you can quite often figure out what's going on and how you can help them, perfect example is a friend of mine. Just recently she came to me and we did her, her labs.

Mm-hmm.

And she and I are talking and I said, you know, one of these imbalances can be taken care of with B vitamins. So I recommend a good methylated— and I always tell people, get a methylated, make sure your B vitamins are methylated. 50% of the population has a I do.

I think we talked about that before, right?

You and I did.

Yeah, yeah, you told me that and I never even— no one's ever told me that. Like, I take this 1 milligram of folic acid every day, right? But nobody tells me that I can't take other vitamins that are regular. And again, to be honest, I don't even know what the word methylated means. Could you just share that with us? Would you mind?

So, so Our body generally methylates things for us, okay?

Okay.

Makes it easier for us to use that.

Yeah, to break down— is that the word? Okay.

Chemical modification. Okay.

Yes.

Yes. So what happens is if you're missing that gene, it's not— you're not able to do that.

Okay.

Okay? So you want the B vitamins like methylcobalamin, Which is your B12, which you normally see as cyanocobalamin. So if you're taking your B vitamins and you see them as cyanocobalamin, your body can't use them. You need methyl cyanocobalamin. So I told her a good B complex, make sure it's methylated, and I said, I think just because of your lifestyle and what goes on with you, that probably something for—

Methylcobalamin.

some stress, something to help to support your adrenal glands. And she said, okay. So I go into— I have a way that I can help patients with supplements. It's called Fullscript. You can go to my website to sign up for it, and if you are— you do that through my website, you do get an automatic discount. But I said, did you ever sign into your account I set you up on? She said, I don't know. So I went into her chart and there, back in December of last year, I had recommended the exact same 2 things I was recommending to her today from her lab work. So 10 months ago, I didn't have those lab results, but because of the history I had taken from her as her friend, I had these 2 recommendations. Now today, as her practitioner, I have the same 2 recommendations. So a lot of times, you know, there are things that, like I said, we know that just— I send all of my patients out the door with a good probiotic if they're not taking one and a digestive enzyme. Everybody needs it. It's just a given. I didn't know this.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah. And many times the B vitamins, um, you know, her B12 level was very low.

Yeah.

And I told her, I said, I know for a fact this works because I used to have to get B12 shots and I don't anymore because I take this particular supplement. And I just had it checked and it was actually right up there.

Mm-hmm. Wow.

Optimal. So I will not recommend something to somebody that I don't know Either personally for a fact works or another practitioner has said, I use this for my patients and it works. These are all prescription supplements. But I just have to say— mention that as I had mentioned earlier, sometimes a good history is just as important as the lab work and that was proven today.

Huh, interesting. Well, we got to figure this out. By the way, we are out of time but we had a great conversation today as usual and I love hearing these stories. You know, so many people out there could benefit from these types of services, especially ladies, men too. Listen up, tell us again how we can reach out to you.

Yes, so again, my website, www.balancedbodymedical.com. You can schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation. You can email me. I gave a different one earlier. It's probably best to do the info@balancedbodymedical.com. Or call the office at 402-807-5333.

Perfect. Thank you so much. Pleasure having you here. I'm looking forward to the next time we get to connect.

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 Rockbrook Plaza.

Thank you.