Doctor Reveals the Secret to Hormonal Balance (and Whole Health)

So today we're talking about terrain based medicine and of course, hormones. Because we have to talk about hormones. That's one of our favorite topics here. Because as Dr. Sharon still says, it's a juicy slice of the pie. It's a very important part. However, if we do not clean up our nervous system, deal with fascia, allow our lymph and bite to flow, etc. Then we are going to be missing out on all the hormone magic. So just slapping hormones on without working on that first could create problems. So today I've got my new friend as I moved to Arizona and very intelligent doctor. Guess I love talking to her. All things medicine. Dr. Sharon Stills. Welcome to Midlife Conversations. I'm so happy you're here.

Oh, thank you. I'm thrilled to be here. I love that you're my new friend and you moved to Arizona.

You know, I actually met Sharon or Dr. Stills right before I moved here. We were at a mutual friend's house in San Diego and I was just talking to her and she happened to mention she lives in Scottsdale. Little did I know I was moving to Scottsdale at that time. So as soon as I did, she was one of the first people I reached out to to have lunch. And we've been friends ever since. But here's the thing about Dr. Sharon Sales. She is a naturopathic medical doctor, but she's got a very unique background. And one of the first things I wanted to ask her about is that she is well known for bioregulatory medicine. What does that even mean? Can you help us? It sounds fancy, but I want to know what it actually means.

It is fancy. So basically, bioregulatory medicine, or European biological medicine, is the type of holistic medicine that's practiced overseas in Germany and Switzerland and Austria and so forth. And when I was a naturopathic medical student a long time ago in the late 90s, I saw that there were some doctors that were like getting amazing results that no one else was getting. And I was like, what are they doing? And I found out that they were using a set of these isopathic remedies called the Sonom remedies. So I'm the kind of person who like sees something that's working and goes after it. And so I started learning about the Sonam remedies and fast forward, I started working for the company that distributes the son of remedies. I started while I was still in naturopathic medical school, teaching all over the country, studying in Switzerland, working at the Paracelsus Clinic with Dr. Thomas Rao and learning from him. And so I got very involved in what is known as bioregulatory medicine. So what exactly is it? Because most of us listening know about functional medicine, right? We know about allopathic medicine, which is typical medicine, that we go to the doctor, we get a pill. We know about functional medicine, which is a little different, right? We look for the root cause. We're checking for heavy metals, or we're looking at your gut microbiome. But bioregulatory medicine encompasses that. But so much more. Bioregulatory medicine is looking at you as an individual. So looking through a constitutional lens, because what works for me may not work for you or for you, or for you, because we all have different constitutions. We all have different ways we excrete. We all have different ways we experience the world. We all have different ways that we can or cannot tolerate something. Something. Bioregulatory medicine also looks at the body as a complete organism. So we're looking at regulation. How is the nervous system affecting the regulation of organs? And so when we look at regulation, we have to look at you entirely. So what type of restrictions do you have in your body? What type of blockages do you have? Do you have? And we look. I'm like the doctor who talks about dentistry more than most dentists. And so we're looking at your mouth because about 70% of blockages occur in the mouth, whether it be periodontal disease, whether it be amalgam fillings, whether it be galvanic currents, whether it be root canals or cavitations, infections in the jawbone. And so we have to clear the blocks. I'm looking at scars on your body, and it can be the original scar. Your belly button could be a scar from a cesarean section. It can be a scar from an accident you had. And those scars create a blockage in flow of your nervous system, how the cells repolarize, they create a blockage in your acupuncture meridians, and so on and so forth. So we have to open up the scars. We have to make sure your system, your extracellular matrix. So that's another thing that's different about bioregulatory medicine. We're not just saying the cell and the mitochondria is the be all end all because the cell and the mitochondria actually float in your extracellular matrix. It's the space within the cells. And that's truly where health begins and ends. That's where the mitochondria get messages from. And if your ph is off if your lymph is constricted, if you have mineral deficiencies, if you have emotional issues. So bioregulatory medicine also takes a big part of, of thinking about your emotions. And so we hear a lot about mind body medicine, but I don't just give it lip service. I really dig in because they have to be like running together, parallel. So those are a handful of things.

Yeah, I know that you just. Now of course, I've got a gazillion questions on that and I'm just going to kind of go down. So you and I have a mutual friend, Dr. Sabrina Salt, and we. One of the first things that she told me when I met her and I had my explant is I had these deep scars from that. And she said we need to address those scars or you are going to create a block. And I didn't understand that until you literally just said that. So that's one of the things that I'm going to be working on with her is getting rid of that tissue. So let's start with that. Talk about scars and what that creates in our body. I've not fully understood that. What does that mean? It creates blocks.

So scar therapy comes from neural therapy, which is another German technique. And what it's saying is that if you have a scar, so there's different ways it shows up. It can just show up locally. Like yes, from having an explant, which woohoo, amazing. Like so happy you did that. But it can affect your lymphatic flow in your breast tissue. Right. Because now you have a scar there, now there's not an open flow. Also the other thing that gets stuck in scars is emotions. So very common to inject someone's scars and see them cry or get angry or have an emotional release. Because a lot of times these scars are associated with a surgery or an accident or an incident. And so we have to think about the emotional component too. But these scars are blocking, they're blocking the free flow of information. And so I go in and I inject with procaine and. And then I also add homeopathic.

Wait, you inject with. What did you call it?

Procaine.

Procaine. And is that different? And what's the advantages of doing that versus injecting with prp?

Well, procaine is an anesthetic. It's what they use in Germany. And it opens up, it resets the cellular membrane potential.

Okay.

And then I add to it different homeopathic remedies that are good for anti inflammatory, for getting Circulation going for, getting movement going. The way they discovered it, it was like, for anyone who wants to nerd out, you can Google neurotherapy, you can read about the Honicke brothers. They're the ones who discovered it. And it like, they discovered, like, if you have a scar, say up here, it can be affecting through the nervous system, through acupuncture, meridians, it can be affecting your knee.

Wow.

So you can inject one place and have resolution in another place, which goes back to bioregulatory medicine. Seeing you as a whole system, not, you know, the other thing that I didn't mention is that we really delve into the bioenergetics, into energy, and not just, you know, what organisms are missing and need to be repleted in your microbiome, biome, which of course is important, but we're looking at light and sound and color. These are all things that I incorporate when working because we heal on so many different frequencies.

That makes sense. Okay, I've got a lot of questions about that, too. I'm adding it to my list. So I want to stay on the scars for a minute here because this is a big. So a lot of people say that they can help break up scar tissue for this reason, but they go about it in so many different ways. So how do we know that we're getting the right information? Like you just mentioned, you do it with this anesthetic and then homeopathic remedies. I've heard doctors say that they do it with prp. I've heard people say they just do it with like a gua sha or fascia blasting. So how do we know does it all work? And what's the. Is there pros and cons to those different methods?

Yeah, that's a great question. And so, you know, I find sometimes, like, if you're not licensed to inject, then you go and look for other ways to do things. So, like, you can use green, you can use neurostimulators to block, you know, like you said, a fascia blaster. You can use other things, and they can definitely contribute. But I'm like, old school. I'm like, neural therapy was done with procaine injections. That's how I do it. That's how I see that I get the best results. So, you know, I would recommend looking for someone in your area who does neural therapy. There are people who do it. And then, you know, you can always work with someone else. I mean, I will muscle test so you can, you know, find a strong muscle and Then touch your scars and see. See? And like 99% of the time your muscle's gonna go weak. So it's a good way for me to explain to patients like, because it's hard to sometimes like this little scar is.

Yeah, that makes sense.

So. But it really is affecting your whole nervous system regulation.

So PRP would be spinning down your own blood and injection is that effective. I know that that's not what you do. Do you know any. Why do some doctors lean towards that for breaking down scars?

Yeah, I mean I'm so. I'm PRP is not my thing because my son, who's also a doctor, that's his thing.

Okay.

The PRP to him. So I've honestly never heard of using prp.

Got it.

Therapy. But you know, it would make sense because it's anti inflammatory and so it's going to help break things down. And the truth of the matter is typically one treatment. It's not like you're just going to get one treatment and it's going to be a done deal.

Okay.

You might want to experiment. Find someone who does it with prp. Find someone who's going to work with color and your fascia. Find someone who's going to do neural therapy and kind of see because there's never just one solution. Right. It's always multi.

Well, that's something I'm about to venture into as to breaking up those. Because I do have pretty significant scars from the explant right over my chest. So I've thought, okay, this, it's time to address that. So I'll keep everyone posted on what I learned going down that journey for sure.

So I just want to point out another important thing that I didn't bring up is tonsils. So that is a very common area because I do computerized regulation thermography where I'm checking how the body is regulating, where I can see where scars are blocking things. And tonsils is a very common area that I really scars. And this could be if you had your tonsils removed and there's a scar from the removal from the surgery. Or it could be that you still have your tonsils but they're not functioning that well. Because we have to remember our tonsils are an expression of what's going on in our immune system, in our gut.

Wow.

We could have issues with our tonsils. So I often go in and inject patients tonsils and it sounds horrific.

Sounds horrific.

I like to be on the injecting and not the thing. But I've had it done and it's really not that bad. It feels like a pinch, but it can open up. Like, if you have sinus issues, if you have lymphatic issues, if you have swollen glands, if you're sick all the time, if you have digestive issues, opening up your tonsils can be thing.

Okay, so while we're on the topic of. You mentioned that sometimes people can't inject a little, go down fascia. Let's talk about fascia for a minute, because there's a lot of controversy, surprisingly, over fascia. I didn't think there was so much controversy over, but it turns out that there is a lot of people doing fascia release techniques using devices to break up scar tissues. Cellulite. What are your thoughts? I know you're a fan of it, but what are your thoughts on the benefits of that? Why is there controversy over it if you know. I don't even know if you know that there's controversy. Okay. It's controversy for everything, I feel like. And then what do we need to look for when we're doing FASC release techniques?

Now I'm curious. I'm like, how could there be controversy over fashion?

Controversy over everything.

That is true. That is true.

Yeah. The reason I say that is I had shared my friend Tamara Renee, who's amazing, who, when I'm in San Diego, she does fascia blasting on me. And it's been great. It's like, it's great for skin. It's great for muscle tone. It's. I just. I like it. It doesn't feel good when you're doing it, but it feels good after. And I had shared a few times on social, and I had a lot of direct messages about, oh, there's lawsuits over fat. I didn't. I had no idea. So there's just. And then it can make cellulite worse. I never heard that.

No. I mean. So first of all, like, your fascia is this really important structure that is covering every organ, every bone, every tendon, every ligament, every. Everything in your body. And I think of it as like Saran Wrap. And so you know how, like, when you're taking up and wrap and it's all straight and you're like, oh, good. And then it gets all crinkled. And so that's like what your fascia does. It gets crinkled like that and you have to open it up because if your fascia is sprinkled, your lymphatic system is within the fascial system now. That's not flowing. Your lymphatic system is what's bringing the good stuff in, taking the garbage out, which is really funny because I hear the garbage being taken out like it's happening in real time. And so, you know, why wouldn't you want to open this? Your fascia is responsible. It's really an energetic network. So it's like the terrain inside, it's monitoring what's going on outside, it's monitoring what's going on inside. It's changing, it's making differences. If you have pain, like there is always a fascial component to it. So it's just something that's not really. I mean, I think now like fashion lymph is getting more attention than it ever has. Yeah, I've been talking about this for like 23 years. So. But it's like, you know, if you take nothing else but you just take a different lens of how you look at your body, because I feel like we all are like, what's the magic pill? You know, you're here, you prefer to be a vitamin, right, or an herb, but still, like, what's the magic pill? What's the food I should or shouldn't eat? What's the magic, you know, push up, I need to do or whatever. And like, we have to like take a step back because when we're in that. What's the, what's the, what's the. First of all, our nervous system is not regulated. We're in an anxiety mode. We're not giving attention or honor to our body, to the innate wisdom in our body, what our body knows how to do if we just let it be. And we're not looking at our system as a system. We're not saying, oh, what are these big systems? Have I cleared my scars? Because when you have scars, you can't have a free flowing fascial system. You can't have a balanced terrain. When you have stuff going on in your mouth. You can't have health in the body. Like every tooth, there's so many different levels it happens on. But for first off, like, every tooth is related to an acupuncture meridian. So your wisdom teeth, for example, are related to your heart and your small intestine. Your front teeth are related to your kidney and your bladder. Your upper molars, this is one that I see all the time. Your upper molars are related to your stomach meridian. And your stomach meridian passes right through your breasts. So we see a very high correlation of women who've had root canals in that breast tooth and then they get breast cancer. We Remove the root canal and clean it out. We do other things too, but we can get the breast cancer to reverse. And so I see this all the time because I run a thermography scans on my patients and we're testing not just like a camera picture, we're actually measuring 130 points. And I can see the teeth, I can see where the teeth are not regulating. And not every time, but most times someone has a bladder infection, you know, chronic infections or issues, and it's like there's something going on in those teeth or they have breast issues and they have this, or they have lung issues or colon issues. So you know, I was taught this very young over in, in Switzerland, in Europe actually. Most of the clinics that I'm associated and work with they dentist right under the same mouth. And so you go see the dentist. My teacher taught me, you know, I want to make my job easy. Like they go see the dentist first and get their that handled. So when they come to me, they're already clear and I don't have to worry about interfering. So I've kicked many a patient out of my office who are like, you know, I can't afford to see the dentist in you. And I'm like, well then go see the dentist. Get that handled.

Wow. I want to talk about that for a minute because I went down a hole. In fact, I had a dentist on my show. It was not a biological dentist or holistic. I had wanted to have a really knowledgeable dentist on because I had a lot of questions about what we need to remove in our teeth. Most of the people listening to my show are watching this on YouTube. They're in midlife like us. So they grew up with getting amalgam fillings. We grew up knowing, thinking that root canals were the answer when you had a problem with your tooth. So I went down a whole process when I was cleaning up toxic load of. I removed all my amalgams that just happened within the last year. And but I do have one root canal now. I have not removed it yet because it is not infected. And it was done by an endodontist under X X ray and it was done the best that it could be done. So I was really weighing what are the pros and cons to going through the process of taking it out, which is not easy by the way. It's a whole process to remove a root canal, let it heal, bone graft, put a ceramic implant in. It's a whole process. And I decided for me right now to leave it alone because I don't have an infection. I don't have problems. But I decided that every year I'd have a cone beam. I would really have a radiologist look at it. Just really go deep on there. But help me with that understanding and when is it okay to keep him? Like I just justified and made. Maybe that's completely wrong. When do we always need to be removing them? Help us understand. I should. Is there any instance when we should be considering a root canal with a problem tooth?

That's a lot of questions.

I know, sorry. It's a lot.

That's okay. That's okay. I want to make sure I answer them all. So first of all, if you are listening, because what you just described is a separate situation. But I would say if you are listening, there's never a reason to get a root canal. Go see a biological dentist. And you know, you got to search because, you know, there's different degrees. You can call yourself a biological dentist, but, you know, your training and so forth can differ. Yes, but always pull the tooth. Always get a zirconium implant, always work with someone. Never. Because a root canal is saving a dead tooth and the teeth are organs and we would never, if we had a necrotic gallbladder, we don't save it. Or an appendix, we, you know, if it's too far gone, I'm not saying you should remove these organs, but we take it out. We never in medicine say we're going to keep the dead organ, but.

Right.

With teeth. And then we fill them with typically toxic substances like gutta percha.

Gutta percha. Yeah.

And then we have these low grade chronic infections because all these little canals cannot. The immune system can't get to them. It can't clean them out. And so it festers. So what tooth is your root canal on?

It's a molar.

Okay. So, you know, if it's an upper molar, that's. It is the first tooth I was just talking about. So it's different for everyone. Like I said, I do the contact regulation thermography. So I would test it. Okay, come over, we'll do a thermography. And.

Okay.

Like, is it regulating? Is it causing a problem?

Let's do that. Sharon and I'll talk, I'll share on. So I'll share the journey about this because I really went through this with the root canal, like knowing I would not get one now. Now I do believe most people are infected and are causing problems. Maybe it's just wishful thinking. I'm like, well, I Don't have any issues. It's not infected. I saw a biological dentist that said it's totally fine right now just to watch it. So I've justified leaving it in.

I don't know who the dentist is and I don't want to get into it. But a true biological dentist would never say root canal is totally fine because, you know, and I totally hear you. I do. And we don't know. Right. Like, is it going to cause a problem down the road? It certainly can. We don't know. Could it sit there forever? People who've had root canals. So you really have to take the bigger picture into.

Yeah. Okay.

And see.

So we're going to do the thermography and we'll test and decide. You do know this biologicalness. I'll share with you later. But you know her. Yeah, I know. No, she didn't say that. They're good, by the way. She just said, let's keep an eye on it. She understood the concerns with going in and taking it out. So. So there was not. She wasn't saying it's good, keep it. It just said she. Okay, so there's that.

So.

So you believe everyone's root canal should come out? Pretty much.

Pretty much. And then of course, course, you know, it's like as a physician, it's my job for patients to figure out, like, when is the right time to do that? Is that like the first thing we got to go after? Are there other things? You know, we also have to be thinking about cavitations and getting CT comb beam scans and having someone who understands how to read them look at them to make sure you don't have underlying infections and things going on.

What's a cavitation? Speaking of which, because I know you had that removed. Can you share what, what that is and why people need to understand what that is?

So cavitations are infections in your actual jawbone. And they, they most often come, often they're in the wisdom teeth because a lot of people have had their wisdom teeth removed or where you've had another tooth pulled and they didn't pull the periodontal ligament, they didn't clean it out properly and you don't get proper oxygenation and nutrients flow back in and you end up with an infection in the jawbone and it can be a, again like a root canal, this low slow burn of stressing out your immune system. So now your immune system is derailed and has to go after these low grade infections, rather things that it should be going after that you're being approached with every day. And so they can cause anything from autoimmune disease to chronic infection, to long haul to cancer, to on and on. They can contribute. So I look at these things. So I use the analogy of a backpack. And so I feel like everyone is born with a backpack. Some of us get teeny weeny little itty bitty backpacks. I got a little itty bitty backpack. What does that mean? It means I have a weaker constitution. It means I was very ill as a child growing up before I understood how to like naturally take care of myself. It meant if they mowed the lawn, that's it. I was done for the day because my backpack was so small that any insult that came into it would affect me and I would be symptomatic. Some of us who have like big strong constitutions think like, you know, aunt Mabel who's 100 and rocking on the porch and smoking her cigarette and drinking her whiskey and like, she's fine. Right. She got this big giant backpack. So EMFs can come at her root canal, this can come at her, and she's like, yeah, whatever, give me.

That explains some people. Yes.

And so we have to think about, you know, our backpacks and what do we have under our control? What can we put in or take out of our backpack to make our toxic load our chronic load? Like, yes.

Okay, I like that answer. Because it's not. Because that's the example people always throw out. Well, my aunt or my husband or my. This they live to blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And they didn't have. So it makes sense. But it is the load of it over time. And we're all made up differently. So we want to give ourselves the advantage of not creating that toxic load.

Yeah. And it's like, you know, typically when you like, something chronic sets in, there's often an emotional event that happens, has happened right then.

Yes.

Or three months before. I can't tell you how many women I see who were diagnosed with breast cancer. And it's after a betrayal, it's after a divorce, it's after a bad thing with their male boss or their brother or, you know, so every cancer has an emotional cycle to it and things that are typically related to it. So breast cancer is often betrayal by a man or it's not self care, it's not taking care of yourself, it's putting everyone else first. Lung cancer has a lot to do with letting go and grief and things of that nature. So you see someone who loses someone near and dear to them and Then all of a sudden they can't speak and they, like, lose their voice, and then they start coughing. And so we have these things weaving in and out on top of the WI fi and the glyphosate and the mercury and. And all of these other things. You know, it's not easy to be a human these days. We have to really be paying.

Yeah. So you mentioned bioenergetics, and I'm wondering if that is similar to, like, frequencies. And so I've had. And I don't know the. The actual real name for it, but those. A scan, like a frequency scan, where it scans your whole body and it can see if a frequency is off. And it will tell you, like, you have this issue going on in your pancreas or you have this issue there, and it's kind of like freakishly correct. Correct. Do you know what I'm talking about? Those scans, do you believe in those? How does that actually work?

Yeah, I think everything has a frequency. Everything has a signature to it. And those scans, again, it's kind of like muscle testing can be very effective. It has to be the right scan in the hands of the right person who understands how to interpret it. But I rely on energetic scans as well as physical. I'm a real. I like to. To combine everything. Yeah, I think everything matters. And I always feel like when we talk about the mind body complex, we tend to like, lean to one side. Like, either we're like into the mind and we're like, I'm just gonna affirmate away my disease process.

Right.

Or we're like, really into the body and we're like, I'm just gonna organic broccoli the heck out of it. And so it really needs to be a marriage of the two because. Because most illness, if not I would say all illness, has components of each driving it. Sometimes they're different, weighted. Sometimes you do need to lean a little more heavy on the bioenergetic side of things. Sometimes you need to lean a little more on the physical side of things. But I have experiences with both types of patients who are weighing way more to the other, and it never. It never results in complete healing because we are these. These physical bodies. Right. Where these bioenergetic being physical vessel. And we have to address both. And so when I say bioenergetics. Yeah, I mean, using sound, using light, using frequencies, you know, something is easy. Like you can all just go Google on YouTube Solfeggio Frequencies. 5, 28 for the heart or something like that. I also, like, in my personal Practice. I like to use color puncture, which is another thing that I do from Germany. And color puncture is using different colored crystals into different areas on the body. So some of these are acupuncture points, but some of these are just frequencies and mappings that the, the guy who created it, Peter Mandel, who's this amazing 85 year old in Germany that I've gotten to spend time with and that he just, I mean, I believe he just channeled some of this stuff. Yeah. So intense. But by using color, we are affecting biophotons. And biophotons are the bioenergetic communication in the body. So to me, the biophoton communication is the foundation. It underlies the actual biochemical or physiological foundations. So we can make big change. We can use, for instance, yellow to move the lymph, or green to fight against tumor development, or blue to calm things down, or red to speed things up. And we do it by bioenergetic communication in the body.

I love all this and I think it drives me nuts that some people just completely dismiss all of this stuff as like, no, it's pseudoscience. This doesn't work. And my examples I always throw out to them are a couple things. Like one, if you were to close your eyes and just bite a lemon, like in your head, what happens? You start salivating. Like you have a whole body reaction just from imagining that. And then same thing with you play different music, it puts you in a different state. Like there's some music that will fire you up and get you ready to go work out out some music makes you happy, some music that can make you sad, some music that can make you feel relaxed. Like, that's another example. So all of this does work. And to me, when somebody just completely writes it off as like, no, I think they're, they're just missing this whole side of healing and whole side of well being and thriving.

Yeah. I usually say the things that you're resistant to are probably the things you need to run, like, open arm to. Like a lot of times what we're not into is like the answer. Not always, but we just have to be willing to look at that. And the guy who developed color puncture worked with Fritz Pop, who, you know, Nobel Prize in like. So, you know, if you want to look, it is scientific. It's like the oncologist, this is like one of my pet peeves. But it's like the oncologists who say, don't take any supplements when you're doing chemo because they're gonna all interfere. And all it takes is like a quick look in PubMed these days and you can see there are are a laundry list of supplements that actually enhance the effect of chemo. And I'm not saying I'm from for keto, but I'm using this as an example, you know, that make chemo work better, that protect the healthy cells from the chemo. So to me I call that lazy medicine. Yeah. Not willing to look and do the work. You know, I took an oath saying like, you know, I'm going to do what's best for you and I'm going to keep learning because science, medicine, energy, you know, it's a continuing unfolding.

Totally.

And so I would say when you're looking for someone on your team, you know, for a doctor near you, like find someone who's open minded.

Yeah.

One who says, because it always, always blows my mind that like oncologists, like when my patients go, yeah, my chemo, you know, my, I didn't do chemo or radiation. I just worked with this naturopathic doctor and my cancer's gone. That the oncologists don't go, can I have her number? Because when I see a patient and they tell me something amazing, I'm like, can I have that doctor?

Yeah. Versus dismissing it.

I want to learn, I want to see what they're doing. But like most doctors don't do that. Dismiss it in their little pigeonhole.

That makes sense. Okay, I want to get into one of your favorite topics and mine too as of late. I want to talk about hormones a minute and just your thought process on that and why all of this other stuff in place is so critical. Because I notice especially with midlife women, this is like the go to conversation. Like, like they think that's the thing that fixes everything. And then people are very heated and divided between yes, hormone replacement or no, I shouldn't have hormone placement. So let's open up that discussion.

Okay. Yeah. I've been practicing 23 years and I am started practicing. I actually went to naturopathic medical school to be a pediatrician and ended up being a women's hormone specialist. Naturopathic oncologist. So letting it take you where it will. But I started practicing right about when Suzanne Summers came out with her whole book and her whole thing and a patient brought it into me and said, you know, can I have what she's having? And I like snickered because I only knew Suzanne Summers as the Dumb Blonde Reese Co. But I said, let me Read the book. I have an open mind. And when I saw what she was doing, I was like, oh, she actually, this makes a ton of sense. But let's put it into the context of terrain based medicine. Let's not just magic bullet and think we can just take hormones and that's it. Like, let's really use this menopausal time. Like, I'm always like, the word pause is in there. I write menopause with parentheses around the pause. Because I'm like, it's not just about pausing your menstrual cycle. It is about pausing and really embracing. Like, okay, I'm in my 50s, I plan on living to 130, so I'm not really midlife yet. I'm. I'm on my way. But, you know, let's think about, like, let's take a break, let's have a little exhale and think about what's important to us, what's working, what's not working, what do we want to do, where do we want to go? Like, no one's going to do this for you. You got to do it for yourself. Like, we shouldn't even expect anyone to do it for that's our job as a human being to kind of perspective and take stock. And so when you're doing hormones, you have to think about, like, what kind of terrain is the body, is the, are the hormones going into. Like, we need lymphatic flow to deliver progesterone. We need a balanced microbiome. We need an unrestricted fascial system. We need our bile to be flowing. That's where T4 to T3 conversion happens for thyroid hormone. We need to be, you know, I'm not going to say we need to not be stressed because I really believe if we're not stressed, we're probably dead. Like, it's not about getting rid of stress. It's about learning how to dance with stress. It's learning about how to be in a relationship with stress. Stress. Because stress comes in so many different shapes and sizes these days. And so you're not going to get rid of it. But if you are not regulated, if you do not know how to sit and breathe or be at peace in your own silence and you haven't really thought about, like, what's important, then taking hormones is just, you know, it's a band aid. And I do believe so I really practice root cause medicine, right? I am all about getting to the root cause. But when we get to menopause, the root cause of why we don't feel good is truly because we're out of hormones. Yes. A lot of people who say, oh, I don't want to take hormones. I want to do it naturally. You know, I'm just going to take some black cohosh or some maca or another herb or vitamin E. Like, that's not the root cause. Your body's not all of a sudden deficient in an herb, your body in a hormone. And so. So giving back these hormones in. And there's lots of different viewpoints out there, so I like to give them in doses that are low but are going to have an effect. So too low is not okay because then you're not getting the beneficial effect. And too high is not okay because then you're stressing out your body and you're putting it into a compromised position. And so you really want to put hormones into a balanced body. If you handle all these other things, if you look at all the systems in your body, if you clean up your mouth, if you take care of your scars, then you're not going to need as much hormones as someone else. And I haven't even talked about, you know, obviously, like, you've got the workout stuff handled. You know, you've got to be moving your body, you've got to be sweating, you've got to be hydrating you've got to be eating. The right diet for you, and the right diet for you may change seasonally or by the decades, but you got to be nourishing your body. You got to be doing all these things.

You've got to be.

Be sleeping. And a lot of times you're not sleeping because your hormones are depleted.

So there's so many things I want to ask you about hormones. We've actually had a lot of podcast episodes just about the cancer debate with. With hormones, with, by the way, all that's been debunked, that it's not that hormone replacement does not cause cancer. But before I go further with my question, can you address the Suzanne Summers thing on some level? Because that's the DM I tend to get a lot. But Suzanne Summers died of breast cancer.

So one I was not Suzanne Summers, personal doctor. She did live a long time with, you know, I mean, that book came out when I first started practicing 23 years ago. I don't know what she chose or chose not to do during COVID So that changes, you know, a lot. We have a totally different medical playing field since COVID since vaccines, everything is different. Like the differential diagnosis are different. Everything is different. It's just a reality. So I don't know what she chose to or not to do. I don't even know what she was doing to. Because I know Suzanne Summers. You know, I credit her with like opening me up to bioidentical hormone replacement and rest her soul. And she did a lot for the community, but she went through a lot of iterations. Like she went through the Wiley protocol where they like totally overdose you. And I don't really know what she was or wasn't doing. I do know, you know, I look to my practice. I've been doing this a long time with tens of thousands of women. So. And I also work with a lot of patients who have cancer dealing with a cancer diagnosis. And so I know that I use bioidentical hormones to not only prevent recurrence or prevent it from occurring, but to treat active cancer. Yeah. Because estrogen is just a word and then there's all these different types of estrogen and there are certain estrogen metabolites like 2 methoxiestradiol which does not get enough air time. No one talks about it, but this is actually an anti cancer molecule. They're trying to patent it as a drug. They use it over in Europe and I use it with patients. You can actually get it compounded. So we have to really understand what's happening. We know that progesterone is anti cancer, testosterone, dhea. So the whole mishmash of a story and it blows my mind that like doctors, doctors still. I can't tell you how many patients I come in who see doctors and I'm like they're living under, they're living in like.

Yeah.

That haven't caught up to the totally.

They have. That's what I always say. If someone tells me that their doctor said that I'm like find another doctor. Because they're just not up to date on the. The research. They're just not even staying open minded. So assuming that we're on board with estrogen and we're on board with hormone replacement, there is a very different of opinion with even guests I've had on the show which I then get confused to. So this is why I want to get your perspective on this about the amounts that make optimal for menopausal woman or even perimenopause. Like I've had guests on that say we need to be doing two patches and have it our level, you know because the highest you can get an estrogen in a estradiol patch is the 1.0. So they're. They put two patches on to 2.0 because they want their estrogen at the, at extra high levels. Then I've got people saying, no, you just want enough to reduce symptoms like hot flashes. Help us. What's your, what's your thoughts here? It gets very confusing.

So I rely a lot on 24 hour urine testing because that is the most accurate way to see your diurnal rhythm. What's going on with your hormones. And it can't be dried urine. It can't be just four samples. It has to be a whole day of 24 hour urine. I'm looking at my little orange jug over there that it gets, you know, you have to collect, collect all your urine. That is the gold standard way to look at how your hormones are.

So that's not a Dutch test. This is something else.

It's not a Dutch test. Now, you know, a 24 hour hormone test, but not a Dutch test. And so what is the best level? It really depends. Like, I have some women because, you know, we have like, we think of a bell curve. So I have some patients, they need like 5 milligrams of estrogen to like hit their levels to feel good, to have the bone loss stop to all the things. Sure. I have other patients who can do it on 0.625 milligrams. Like, I have some, I have like.

Yeah, it's all over the place.

Some really sensitive patients. The average, I would say is anywhere from 1.25 to 2.5 milligrams.

Okay.

And I, you know, is that a patch number?

Like, is that the average patch?

I'm using transdermal creams.

Okay.

Biased. I'm applying it to the external labia, so not to the vagina, but to the moist tissue, your hormones. So a lot of people will have you put it here on your breast. Has to go on the moist mucosal tissue. So it's either external labia or anus. So external labia is better, but that's where we can. So because we get such good absorption there and we don't get dermal fatigue, which is what happens through the, the skin often I can use lower doses and get just as much of a reaction. But I'm really looking to see, like. Yes, we want to have symptom reduction, but the most important, I mean, symptom reduction is important, Right. No one wants to feel like crap. Yeah, but we really want to get protection. Right. We want to protect our hearts and our brains and our bones and our genital urinary system and our Immune system and our lungs and our digestive. Digestive system. And you know, we want the good stuff. We want the hair and the skin and the weight. Like there's nothing that hormones don't affect. And so we tend to think that hormones, sex hormones are because we have hot flashes or we have no libido.

Right.

They're intimately involved in so many disease processes or health processes in our body. And so we don't just want to take enough to get rid of a hot flash. We want to do that, but then we want to check and make sure it's also giving us protection.

Got it. But you're also at the same time saying we're not trying to restore you to the age of a 30 year old's hormone levels, you're just trying to get it so you have, don't have the symptoms and then you have optimal health outcomes for you.

Yeah. Why would you want to be 30?

Okay, so I, that's another, you brought up another question though in what you said about the bias. So I actually was on bias and I was personally, it was not helping with my hot flashes at all. All, nothing. And I just went down a whole rabbit hole on why bias was not amazing. A lot of doctors speak out about that and I'm on a 05 patch and I love it. It's, I'm very happy with that and my levels right now. What is the controversy around bias? Why do some doctors love it like you do and some people hate it? What's the deal?

Well, I think some people who are MDs and don't understand the body as a whole are, you know, are pinpointed and, and what I would say, because I have patients come in who are on the patch and I 24 hour urine test them and if they are metabolizing properly and they're not overdosed on, you know, estrone, they don't have high, high estrone and their estradiol is in place and they have some estriol because estriol is super important. It's anti inflammatory. You have to think of the receptor sites. Right. So estradiol hits both the alpha and the beta data. So it's like, stop, go, stop, go, stop, go. And estriol is like, stop, you know, stop inflammation, stop proliferation. Estriol does have benefits, just like estradiol. It's weaker, but it still protects the brain, it still protects the bone, still protects the urinary tract and so on and so forth. Still can handle symptoms. So there is old data, you know, old years ago now but showing that women who have higher estriol levels, they don't get breast cancer. And if they do, they have a regression quicker. And so I have women come in, and they come in sometimes on patches. And often I find that I need to either add semestriol to the patch or I take them off the patch or their testosterone or DHEA or cortisol. Something else isn't, you know, it's like, has nothing to do with the estrogen. I have seen some women recently actually on patches, and I was like, you know what I'm a big fan of. If it's not broke, don't fix it. You feel good. I'm looking at your results. Your results look good. We'll check you in a year.

Right.

So it's very individualized. You know, I. I've used creams. I've never used patches. For 23 years. I've never met a hot flash I couldn't tame. I am, you know, I was getting.

Five an hour, Sharon. So I. I was. I'm over it. The patch is amazing.

You know, I just. I have patients that have been with me over 20 years now. You know, that I follow. And like, so. Because I started treating menopausal women when I was in my 30s, and, you know, now I'm one. But I just watch these women, you know, they're. They're like having sex. They're feeling great, they have no pain, they're sharp. And so, you know, you find what works for you and you do it. I. I just think it's really important to remember to take it all in context to make sure your metabolites are being looked at. It's a really important piece to make sure your testosterone is optimized. A lot of doctors still think testosterone for women, you know, to make sure your progesterone. So I do just trying to throw out some good pearls for y'.

All.

Like, I do progesterone in cream and capsule. I split the dose. I learned that a long time ago because they have different mechanisms of action. Action in the body. So the capsule really crosses the blood brain barrier, and it metabolizes down to allopregnanolone, which then hits the GABA receptors. GABA is your major neuroinhibitory transmitter. And so it's like, chill pill, right?

Yeah.

Progesterone is a, you know, forget diamonds. Progesterone is a girl's best friend. And so when I used to have patients, I would say, you know, are you having trouble sleeping or are you anxious? And if they said yes, they got catching capsule, and if they said no, they got cream. But then when I started watching my labs, I started realizing it wasn't enough, one or the other. And that the cream is really what helps the body, what stimulates the osteoblast and helps the bone, what takes care of the breast tissue on the blood sugar. So for years and years now, I just, I split the dose. And if you are having trouble sleeping, like, don't be afraid to, to titrate up your progesterone because 100 milligrams is a standard dose. But I have some women's. Again, you know, bio, individual women need to hit 400 milligrams till they're sleeping. Some women hit 400 milligrams and if that's not working, it's like, okay, well, then there's other reasons why you're not sleeping. But I believe, you know, the hormones, when they're dropping, when we, when we give the body hormones, often, like, like, everything just gets better.

Totally.

You know.

So what I want to say, because I already know the questions I'm going to get from this episode, it's the same questions I get anytime I have anything on hormones. It's a couple things. One, people ask me what am I personally doing? And I don't mind sharing it, but I just want to really say that what I'm doing has nothing to do with what you listening does. Because we're all unique, we're all individual. And my levels, like, my doctors base my levels on what my results show and then we bring them up and then same with you listening, like everyone is different. So like I, yes, I'm on a point I05 patch based on my level. My estrogen was a 20. That's why we went on that. So my estate was a 20. I'm on 200 milligrams of progesterone because of. That's what's working for me. So every one of us has to be on what is meant for us. My other thought I want to throw out there is that. And we're going to let you know how you can work with Sharon, Dr. Sharon Stills, and, and learn more. But you've got to find a doctor that works well with you, that you resonate with. Like, if what she's saying resonates with you, she might be the doctor for you.

You.

If what she's saying is triggering you and you're like, no, then she's maybe not the doctor for you. So there's not A one size fits all there either. I personally have three doctors. I literally work with three doctors. And that's the way that I do it. And they all have different information sometimes. And I go with what feels right to me. So we also have to use our own knowledge and just go, what does that feel right to me? Does that. Does something feel off about that? And I think we have to be our own health advocates and researchers. That being said, how can people work with you? Because I know you can work with people all over the place. Right. They don't have to just be in Arizona where you are.

Where.

How does that work?

I'm opening a big clinic in Arizona, as you know. We're excited. Yes. But yeah, I have patients that work with me from all over the place. They do fly in to establish care with me. And then, you know, we can work.

That's great.

But yeah, I love helping women at this point in time because I feel like, you know, we get gaslit a lot in medicine. Yes. We do a whole episode you on like the major things we're doing.

We know we've had some dinner discussions about it, but dang. We really do so.

But you know, I just see women's health turn around when they are told the truth. And I totally agree what you said. Like, find someone that resonates with you and that it feels like this is a fit. You know, it's like finding a relationship right there. It's a relationship and. But I have seen women who struggle and suffer for. For years and like, it's never too late. Right. That's a misnomer out there. Like, if you miss the first 10 years too, too bad. Yeah. No, that's not true. And like, so many things that you are experiencing that you might not think have to do with hormones could definitely have to do with hormones.

Whether it's.

Or, you know, I mean, it just. Laundry.

Oh. I have a whole long list like that, like just cleared up like that. So, yeah.

Laundry list. So, like, don't discount. Don't let anyone discount. Know your, you know, your intuition, you know, know if you feel like it's a hormone issue. Like, find someone who's gonna listen.

Totally. Great advice.

Important.

How can they find you? Where do they go if they want to like, even find out about working with you?

So Dr. Stills.com is my website. I have a big email list. So if you want to like, keep up with me and find out what we're up up to.

Amazing.

In my web. My email list and I'm trying to be better on social media. You're like very. I'm very inconsistent, so that's okay.

You're busy treating patients. We get it. Thank you so much. By the way. We recorded this podcast live for my365 membership, which means if you ever want to be on while we do a live podcast recording, which means you get to hear this way before it releases ever on YouTube or out there on the podcast world. If you want to be on and be able to stay on after and ask questions, we. We stop recording questions for everybody. We record them for the group. You're welcome to do that. It's Midlife Conversations.com forward slash live. So Midlife Conversations.com Forward slash live. That'll take you to how you can join in on the live conversation. If you liked this episode and you want to make sure you get notified of future episodes. If you're watching this on YouTube, make sure you hit that subscribe button so you don't miss any future episodes. If you're listening to this on podcasts, make sure you're clicking follow, subscribe. So you always hear the new shows releasing? We do about two shows a week now, so thank you so much. Dr. Sharon Stills, we're so happy to have you.

Thank you for letting me come.