Dr. Amy Shah On Hormones, Cortisol & Why You’re So Tired

Why do so many women feel exhausted, dismissed, or confused about their health?

Why are painful periods, chronic fatigue, and burnout so often labeled “normal”?

And how did women’s hormones go so long without being properly studied?

 

In this episode of A Really Good Cry, Radhi sits down with integrative medicine doctor and hormone expert Dr. Amy Shah for an honest, grounding conversation about women’s hormones, stress, and the gaps in modern healthcare. Together, they explore why so many women struggle to get real answers, how stress and cortisol quietly shape our health, and what it actually means to support hormones in a sustainable way.

 

From period pain and hormone testing to gut health, nutrition, perimenopause, and burnout, this episode breaks down complex science into language that feels accessible, validating, and empowering. Dr. Shah shares why there is no single “magic fix” for hormone balance—and why listening to your body, supporting your nervous system, and nourishing your gut can make a meaningful difference over time.

 

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• Why many hormone tests don’t reflect what women are actually experiencing
• Which symptoms women are taught to ignore—but shouldn’t
• How stress and cortisol affect women differently than men
• Why gut health and nutrition play a major role in hormone balance
• What actually helps support hormones without extreme diets or trends

 

This conversation isn’t about quick fixes or perfection—it’s about understanding your body, questioning what you’ve been taught to tolerate, and learning how to support your health with more awareness and compassion.

 

Follow Dr. Amy Shah:

https://amymdwellness.com/

https://www.youtube.com/@dramyshah/

https://www.instagram.com/dramyshah/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyshahmd/

https://www.facebook.com/amyshahmd

 

Follow Radhi:

https://www.instagram.com/radhidevlukia/

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCxWe9A4kMf9V_AHOXkGhCzQ

https://www.facebook.com/radhidevlukia1/

https://www.tiktok.com/@radhidevlukia

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're always been told to get smaller, and all of
our diets are based on that. What about a diet
that's teaching you to get stronger, that's helping you move
into your power as you get older.

Speaker 2 (00:10):
Doctor Amy Shy is a double Board certified medical doctor.
She's a nutrition specialist and a New York Times bestselling author.
Her newest book, Hormone Havoc, reveals the root cause of
hormone issues and practical ways to bring them back into balance.

Speaker 1 (00:22):
When our hormones are off, it literally changes our entire day,
our mood, the way we feel, and it's so understudied.
Nineteen ninety three, which is not too long ago, was
the first time that the NAH actually mandated that we
include women in studies.

Speaker 3 (00:37):
No way.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
So every single study on every medication and every condition
is on men.

Speaker 2 (00:44):
I'm RADI WKA and on my podcast A Really Good Cry,
we embrace the messy and the beautiful, providing a space
for raw, unfiltered conversations that celebrate vulnerability and allow you
to tune in to learn, connect and find comfort together.

Speaker 3 (00:59):
Amy, thank you so much for being here, Thank you
for having me.

Speaker 2 (01:02):
I'm so excited. I love well. You've had two best
selling books, which is incredible. But this book was absolutely incredible,
and I think it is so needed in the world
of health for women. I think every woman is so confused,
especially about this topic of hormones. And I really appreciated
how simple you made it.

Speaker 1 (01:19):
Oh, I appreciate that. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:21):
I want to start by asking what took you from
obviously writing books about your book so efing Hungry and
I'm so effing tired to writing a book about hormones.

Speaker 3 (01:30):
Why did you feel that was so important right now?

Speaker 1 (01:32):
Oh? Or hormones rather, hormones are run so much of
our body, you know, like when our hormones are off
or we're right before our period, it literally changes our
entire day, our mood, the way we feel, and it's
so understudied. Yeah, nineteen ninety three, which is not too
long ago, was the first time that the NAH actually

(01:54):
mandated that we include women in studies no way. So
every scene study, on every medication and every condition is
on men. And I felt like, Wow, what I was
noticing after the pandemic is I started to really share
more on social media and where I saw the whole
where I felt like the energy that I was needed

(02:17):
was around women's health and nutrition, because it's like both
underserved and confused, and so I think I kept saying, like, oh,
there's like so much interest whenever I post about nutrition
for hormones or how our hormones affect us, And so
I decided that that was the angle I was going
to take this time.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Yeah, and I think it's even more confusing for people
now because of social media, where you can you hear
so many opposing views, so many opposing diets, so many
opposing trends, that we should be doing this, and then
the next week you're told that you shouldn't be doing it.
What do you from all the work that you've seen
and all the research you've done, what do you think
at the moment is like the biggest lie that women

(02:58):
are being told about their hormones?

Speaker 1 (03:00):
Oh gosh, there's so many really, Okay, give me a few.
First of all, there's no one supplement or thing like
this magic trick that can balance your hormones. I think
that's number one, and I think we're all looking for
that magic pill. That's why I talk about my podcast
is called save Yourself, because at some point you learn

(03:22):
that there's not a pill or a person or a
thing that's gonna save you, right, because we're all suffering
with hormone issues, and so many of us are looking
for solutions to say that there's a one stop solution
or there's a one step thing that you can take
to make it go away. It's just not true, even
hormone therapy. Like I talk a lot about women in
perimenopause and menopause and they're all like, oh, well, just

(03:44):
start hormone therapy. But just like birth control, just like supplements,
just like pills, it's not like you just take one
thing and then everything gets better. Yeah, So that's one
of the biggest ones.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
And I feel like your podcast calling saving yourself, I
feel like you also have to believe that you can
help yourself. Yes, that's so much Like that's such a
big part of especially for women, and women's intuition and
how intuitive you are with your body and how you
have to tune into your body so much. It's like
you also have to have this belief that actually, even

(04:15):
though I'm being told that everybody else can fix me,
I do have a belief that I know how to
fix my body and I can understand my body back
to then maybe somebody else can.

Speaker 1 (04:24):
Right that you're your best healer. And one of the
things I always think about is like as a doctor,
lots of people will say like what should I do?
What should And I always think, like, my goal is
to help you find your own gifts. So, like, you know,
the whole goal for the book, for example, I want
you to read the book and then go find your gifts.
You know, that would be the goal because it's not

(04:44):
about telling you what to do.

Speaker 2 (04:47):
Yeah, because everyone's so individual, Yeah, what are some things
that women are being told are normal in their body?

Speaker 3 (04:52):
But it's actually not that normal.

Speaker 1 (04:54):
So one of the things is that there's really no
good test for hormones. So no matter what people tell you,
no matter what they try to sell you, right now
in twenty twenty six, we still don't have a great
hormone test, and so a lot of times women will
go in with hormonal complaints and doctors will say, everything
looks normal.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
Yes, my friends get told that all the time. They like,
but I'm tied all the time.

Speaker 1 (05:17):
But yes, that's why, because we don't really have an
answer yet for hormone imbalance. We don't have a test,
so how you know we can't know.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
That, so all these tests that they get done.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
So let's say you go on go in to the
doctors and get a hormone panel done where they give
your estrogen, your testosterone, you know whatever, that all the
markers that they recommend. Are you saying that the parameters
aren't quite right or are you saying that generally how
they're testing it is actually just can be completely inaccurate

(05:48):
for your body.

Speaker 1 (05:49):
That's a great question. So our hormones go on a
kind of roller coaster through the month, right, So the
level that's normal is like between twenty and two hundred,
and so say for you, this is abnormal, but the
range it's like, it's not going to come up. So
what happens is everybody gets these tests and you don't

(06:11):
end up finding anything. It's because we don't have the
ability to really know what your normal synchrony is and
how off you are from that, and so it ends
up just being like, Okay, it looks normal, it's within range.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Yeah, two to two hundred, you're right, there's such a
huge gap in the ranges.

Speaker 1 (06:28):
And you might be someone who like if it was
a way off and there's something very wrong, like you know,
obviously zero or like you know, yes, you'll find it.
Most people are in the ranges of the normal. And
so that's I think why hormone imbalance is so confusing,
because doctors for so many years were just like, oh,
you're fine, You're just you're just you know, working really hard.

(06:49):
You're just getting older, that's it.

Speaker 2 (06:51):
Would you recommend that a woman so that they're able
to test against themselves, like, let's say you can't have
a range that's normal, but to have an idea of
your own body, would you recommend women get tested or
they get their homoe tested every year to see if
there's shifts and changes or is that still not going
to be as accurate?

Speaker 1 (07:08):
Okay, So here's the thing. When a woman has like,
say you are feeling tired and something's off, I definitely
do want you to get your labs done. There's so
many other things that could be your be twelve. It's low.
Iron deficiency is so common. Up to forty percent of
women that are menstruating can have iron deficiency, and so like,

(07:29):
there's so many things that we should Vitamin D. Eighty
percent of women like going through this perimenopause journey are
vitamin D deficient. So there's so many things that you
should be checking for, but you know, we don't really know. Yes,
you should definitely check your hormones at some level to
make sure they're not completely way too high or way
too low. But a perimenopause, for example, is one thing

(07:51):
that you don't need labs to actually diagnose.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Okay, so hold that thought for a seconds. So I
want to come back to perimenopause. What are some symptoms
that women shouldn't be agnoying? Like if they're feeling certain things?
Are they like three or four things you're noticing people
are getting regularly that they shouldn't actually be be feeling
is normal?

Speaker 1 (08:09):
Okay? Number one period cramps that are so bad that
you miss work or that you can't get out of bed.
So we I'm sure you'd know too, and I know
to when we were growing up, there's lots of friends
or people or even ourselves that would have period cramps
so bad that they were disabling. And I think women
don't realize that that could be a sign of endometriosis

(08:33):
or other problems. And it's because our medical system doesn't
know enough. So you could go to the doctor and
be like, my period cramps are really bad, and they're like,
oh yeah, so everybody else.

Speaker 3 (08:41):
Yeah, I take a part of I'm all your good.

Speaker 1 (08:43):
Yeah, you wouldn't even know that that was abnormal, right,
Like that's not normal. And then the other thing that's
not normal is like our cycle is actually like a
vital sign. And so if you're someone who is exercising
so hard or working so hard or so thin that
you're not getting a period every month, that's a sign

(09:04):
that something is off. Like that is not something to
be ignored.

Speaker 2 (09:07):
It's really difficult when you're not having your period to
have any symptoms or signs sometimes because that is such
a beautiful signal that your body gives you of whether
your female health is doing okay or whether there's something
to check. And then when that's missed, it's almost like
your body's missing a whole system that gives you those signals.

Speaker 1 (09:26):
It's adult, so like our hormones are going up and
down like waves, and when you're on like say it,
we're all contraceptives. It's adult that it's more even through
the month, and so you're not getting the ups and downs,
but then you're also not getting, like you said, like
the signs that you need sometimes to actually make intuitive decisions.

Speaker 2 (09:47):
When I was younger, I used to get really bad
period pain. And then when I started learning more about
nutrition and I studied ariveda the changes that I made
in my body, I could tell a healthier lifestyle completelylely
shifted my whole period. Like now what, I don't even like,
you know, I can continue on my normal day, Like
I know I'm on my period and I might be

(10:08):
a bit sad and I'll cry the day before, but
I don't. It doesn't disable me, Like it doesn't make
me feel like I can't do things in my day.
But that is very normalized.

Speaker 1 (10:18):
It's very normalized, and people just don't know enough about
women to say like, hey, that's actually not normal. You
need to go get checked out, like you get an ultrasound,
get some testing done, Like is there something else going on?
I mean that's so sad, right, Like women will wait
like ten years before they ever get diagnosed us.

Speaker 3 (10:35):
Yeah, because they're told it's just and partible of being
a woman.

Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (10:38):
Where do you think hormone disruption starts?

Speaker 2 (10:40):
Like if you had to, is there a pinpoint time
that you're noticing that when people start doing this or
Is there a specific age that you're seeing hormones starts
homones start changing significantly?

Speaker 3 (10:50):
Can you pinpoint where it all kind of begins?

Speaker 1 (10:53):
Oh, it's so fun being a woman. Okay, So there's
the big hormonal shift of puberty, and so you know,
as you know, some people go through puberty it's like easy, breezy,
and others have like all kinds of things that are
mood swings and acne and hair like all kinds of things. Right, So, similarly,
pregnancy and perimenopause are all times where your hormones are

(11:15):
in shift and things are changing and it's very individual,
you know, but there are some things that we should
know about it. Like I think that women know all
about periods, because not all about They still don't know
enough yet we get at least a little bit of
coaching on it. And even with pregnancy there's a little
bit of coaching, but with perimenopause there's no coaching. It's

(11:39):
literally the most overlooked area in all of medicine, not
just women's health. So that's really really sad.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Are there any specific tips you mentioned pregnancy for women
that they should be aware of for when they are
trying to get pregnant or during pregnancy. Well, things that
they should be doing to prevent too much homewoand disruption.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Well, I think what you said, we'll hit the nail
on the head. I think the reason why my book
and my work is about nutrition is that I honestly
think that if you shift your nutrition and even your
healthy practices your lifestyle, you can really optimize yourself for fertility,
but also for perimenopause.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
Yeah, and what about with perimenopause? Is there anything specific?
I would love to hear the research that you've done
and what you find has really helped people with the
symptoms or the dealing the onset of.

Speaker 3 (12:29):
Yeahs, healthy lifestyle.

Speaker 1 (12:32):
Okay, so if people who smoke or are generally eating
very unhealthy tend to have worse symptoms. So our gut
and our hormones are like intimately intertwined, and so when
you improve your gut health, you will improve your hormone health.
So one of the biggest things I tell women is
as they start to move into that territory, and we
can talk about like what age and what slience there is.

(12:54):
As you start to move into that territory, or even
a little bit before that, start working on your gut,
start to get it into better place, because you are
going to have less symptoms and maybe even reverse them
first symptoms that you have.

Speaker 2 (13:08):
Are there specific foods or habits that you recommend for that?

Speaker 1 (13:12):
Yeah, So I have a dietary framework that I talk
a lot about in the book. It's called thirty thirty three. Yes,
so you can be vegan, you can be carnivor you
can be paleo. You can. It's not about a diet.
It's not about buying any special stuff. It's about getting
thirty grams of protein in your first meal, thirty grams
of fiber throughout the day, and three servings of probiotic

(13:34):
foods every day. Okay, all of those are science backed.
There's thousands of studies on each of those parameters. And
the reason why I thought is like, we're so busy,
we don't have time to be on restrictive diets. We're
always been told to get smaller, and all of our
diets are based on that. What about a diet that's
teaching you to get stronger, that's helping you move into

(13:55):
your power as you get older.

Speaker 3 (13:57):
That's actually not Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 2 (13:59):
I have a question about women who obviously work really hard.
You mentioned stress. Now, there's so much online that talks
about how overachieving women and women who are high achievers
they tend to have kind of more hormone issues. Yes,
that's something you're seeing, and well do you think that's
because of cortisol?

Speaker 1 (14:18):
Okay, so almost everyone that I work with as my
patients now when we're talking about like women's health, it's
like really high achieving women who can't seem to get
control over their stress. So they start to eat better,
maybe they start to even you know, take exercise better,
but that piece of the cortisol and the nervous system

(14:41):
being so activated because we're asked to do so many
things as women. Not only are we asked to you know,
work and do amazing things in this world, but then
we're also asked to like often be mothers or often
be caretakers for our family. Often we're told to look
a certain way, dress a certain way, be a certain way.
There's there's a lot of pressure, and then you're like

(15:01):
trying to have a social life, and then you're trying
you know, it's a lot a lot of women are
having trouble kind of managing that nervous system and the
cortisol levels, and so that's something I see a lot
in high achieving women.

Speaker 2 (15:15):
Okay, so let's talk about quarters as a little bit more,
because I'm sure many people listen to this are like,
oh God, I've got high quarters that I don't know
what to do. Foods that can help to reduce quartisol levels.

Speaker 1 (15:25):
Okay, So when just to move back a step back
a little bit. When you wake up in the morning,
that's when your cortisol is highest, and that's a good thing.
It wakes you up. That's actually what wakes you up,
makes you feel energized. Okay. Cortisols like very tightly linked
to adrenaline, so you feel energized. You want your cortosol
to be high. People have low cortisol in the morning,
they feel tired, they feel listless, Like you don't want that, Okay,

(15:47):
So you want it to be high, and then you
want it to come down, and then by the end
of the evening you want it to be at its
lowest so that you can fall asleep and have a
RESTful night sleep. What happens to most women, not most,
many women, especially high achieving women, is that that evening
time is when you're checking emails. It's when you're out
and about. You're getting blue light, you're getting stimulated, you're

(16:07):
in a fight, you're you know, like having all this
stuff happening, and then you're trying to tell your body, Okay,
go to bed, go to bed. Yeah, and it's like no,
so and maybe you've had a lot of caffeine. So
that's the number one thing, like late in the day.
So not only is your lifestyle so crazy, but now
you have something in your body that's actually keeping you
up and keeping your cortosolt levels up. So you definitely

(16:28):
want to move the coffee up. I'm a big coffee
fan and t fan, but I want you to have
like ten hours before bed because it kind of delays.
And then the other thing that people are often doing
is we're not getting enough sunlight. And sunlight is a
really good way that our eyes send a message to
our brains and our hormones of what they should be doing.

(16:51):
So if you didn't get sunlight early in the day,
at the end of the day, the body doesn't know
that it's time to unwind. And and then one big
thing I think people nutrition wise, the biggest mistake I
think people make is that they eat a super late dinner,
like big, huge dinner late at night. And you believe
in arivida, and everybody knows that thousands of years ago

(17:14):
we didn't have uber eats, and like we couldn't have
like a four core course huge meal at midnight, like
it was not possible. Our bodies are designed to be
in repair mode when you are going to bed, and
so if you delay that, your cortisol levels are going
to be messed up, your sleep will be messed up.
Your insulin levels will also be affected.

Speaker 2 (17:34):
Okay, so let's go through a typical day of a
quartisol balancing life, like if we were living, yes, cortisol
balanced life.

Speaker 3 (17:41):
I wake up in the morning, what's the first thing
I do.

Speaker 1 (17:43):
You're going to get some light?

Speaker 3 (17:44):
Okay, I'm going to go outside, and even.

Speaker 1 (17:46):
If it's cloudy day, like today is a cloudy day here,
it doesn't matter. The light outside is still at least
ten to one hundred times brighter than inside. And if
you are in a place because I know we're in
the middle of winter, you are in a place that
absolutely there's no light. And you've lived in London, so
you can get a sun lamp, a happy light like

(18:07):
from Amazon actually or any store where it mimics the
sun no way. Yeah, and you can put it on
your desk or when you're getting ready ten to fifteen minutes.

Speaker 3 (18:18):
And it's different to the lights that we have in
our homes.

Speaker 1 (18:21):
Yes, okay, it's a special lamp that has ten thousand
blocks of light, so it's kind of mimicking kind of
a sunlight, and you want to keep it close, like
ten to twelve inches from your face. They actually use
that in schools in many countries where there's a very
little daylight, like in the northern hemisphere, to kind of
let the children play around with the sun lamps. It's
really great for mood and energy. So yeah, start with that, okay.

Speaker 2 (18:44):
So we start with that, and then am I working
out or am I eating before I work out?

Speaker 1 (18:49):
Okay? So that I'm going to actually be very woman
forward in this case. I don't think there's a rule
on that.

Speaker 3 (18:57):
Okay.

Speaker 1 (18:58):
So I love thirty grams protein in the morning, but
you know what, I know there's some days I want
to just go for a quick walk or yoga and
I'm okay, I don't need so maybe I'm going to
have my thirty grams right after a workout. But if
I'm going to do like usually if you're doing something competitive,
high intensity where you're measuring your strength or your like,
you know time, that's the time that you want to

(19:19):
get your food before it.

Speaker 3 (19:21):
And why is that?

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Because obviously there's so much to do with intimate and
fasting up that you have such a large break between
when you eat your dinner and then when you have
your breakfast. And then the idea that if you're eating
before your workout, am I really getting a good workout
in am I burning as much as I should be?

Speaker 3 (19:38):
And so what is the way up of that?

Speaker 2 (19:40):
What's the benefit of eating before a really strenuous workout,
and what can happen if for long periods you don't.

Speaker 1 (19:46):
So for women, we're very cortisol sensitive, and long piers
of fasting and heavy exercise without eating can be very
stressful to our bodies. And so it's a very female thing,
and there's a lot of people who will argue either way.
What I realize is that thirty grams of protein in

(20:07):
the morning is really really beneficial to women. But it's
okay if you like for a lot of us we're
not doing a strenuous, like timed competitive workout. But for
those people, there's people out there who are like, women
need to eat as soon as they get up because
their cortisol levels will be imbalanced. And that is true
that women tend to be a little more stressed sensitive,
and so we don't do well with those long, long fasts,

(20:30):
and we don't do well with very strenuous exercise without
breaks or without food. So getting yourself kind of really
tuning in to yourself and going back to aravida, I
think like probably you know that we are supposed to
naturally take breaks from food, right, We're not supposed to
be eating all the time. Like in America, they've had

(20:51):
people like measure like literally when they put their flask
food in their mouth and when they wake up and
have the first and it's like less than eight hours,
like maybe six seven, eight hours that they're taking a break,
like all of us should be taking a twelve hour place. Yeah, yeah,
like you know that's like something I think intermint fasting
has gotten be labeled bad, but you should be doing
some kind of intermint fasting. I mean I would call

(21:14):
it circadian fasting because it's like based on the sun
and the dark cycle. So if you've gotten your twelve
hour fast and you feel like eating, go for it.
If you feel like going for thirteen fourteen hours, great,
But most women don't do well with super super long fast.
There are some people here and there that can do it,
but it's not It's very different than men. Men can
often fast all the way to dinner and be fine.

Speaker 2 (21:36):
So we're gonna have a little snag at least if
we're doing a strenuous workout, ideally a protein snug.

Speaker 3 (21:41):
Yeah, And then I'm doing my workout.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
And then is there anything midday or any little tips
that you could give women doing the day that they
should be incorporating, yes into their life.

Speaker 1 (21:51):
So, for example, if you are someone who does the
strenuous workout, you shouldn't do it every day. So I
used to go to those classes. I think everybody knows
about these classes where it's like.

Speaker 3 (22:01):
Hit work U.

Speaker 1 (22:01):
Yeah, like I hit workout, and I would do it
every day and I would not get enough sleep and
I would have a stressful day and then I would
and I wasn't getting the results. And so you definitely,
if you're someone who's wanting a cortisol reset, Try swapping
it out with yoga, try swapping it out with the
sunny walk. So you really want to get a lot
of So the if you're trying to reset your cortisol

(22:23):
on a perfect day, you're going to get at least
one hour of nature time that day. So whether it's
a walk, where it's we're split up through the day.
So in the middle of the afternoon, you might go
for a walk, you might do some meditation, some mindfulness,
get your body. Usually we all have this circadian lull
around three pm, and that's why around the world people

(22:44):
usually take naps. But here in the US, you might
want to do meditation, or you might want to go
for a Nichure walk.

Speaker 3 (22:50):
Yeah, that's so true.

Speaker 2 (22:51):
Usually around three o'clock is when I need to jump
on the treadmill with my laptop and work while I'm walking,
because I can feel my energy levels dipping and I
need a little bit of a boost.

Speaker 1 (23:00):
Exactly, that's natural for everyone, and so using that to
maybe your advantage is a good idea. And then the
real cortisol manage management needs to start in the evening.

Speaker 3 (23:12):
Taka tell us about it.

Speaker 1 (23:14):
So in the evening time you three hours two to
three hours before bed. You don't want to do a
heavy workout. You don't want to have the animated conversation
with your husband or your family members. Save the fights
for tomorrow, Yeah, save your fights for the next morning.
And you know, because if you have a fight or
like even if it's something exciting, right, exciting energizing the email,
that's like, oh shit, I forgot to do something all

(23:37):
that If it comes right before bed, that's it. Your
cortisol levels are through the roof, right, So you want
to kind of cut that out, you want We talked
about caffeine alcohol no alcohol at night. Alcohol at night
is a sleep killer, and so that's something that a
lot of people are doing. And then they're getting a
lot of blue light in the evening. People are getting

(23:58):
like all kinds of bright they're going to target at
like ten o'clock at night and get it like all.

Speaker 3 (24:03):
That midnight stroll.

Speaker 1 (24:04):
Yeah, and it's so it's disrupting your sleep. And like
I'm talking about like you know, like I said, high
chieving women, you know, you're doing all these things and
then a late night you're still up and about and
you know, being really active, but really two to three
hours before bed. Do you want to use that time
to really wind your body down and have some Maybe
you read a book at that time, maybe you turn

(24:25):
off all the bright lights and maybe you just use
a red light, you know, or and not get Yeah.

Speaker 2 (24:31):
Yeah, I'm such a My team always gets mad at
me because well certain people, because they don't they when
it hits about four o'clock at the moment it gets
dart And I really don't like artificial light. Yes, And
it's so funny because always battling between I'm like, no,
it's not dark enough.

Speaker 3 (24:44):
Yeah, we don't need any lights on.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
I really struggle with artificial light and the way that
it affects my sleep as well, and so I usually
try and keep all the lights really dim put some
candles on. I love that it makes such a difference
to my sleep.

Speaker 1 (24:56):
If I'm part of cortisol reset, it's really not having
so much exposure. So when I talk about protosole readsail,
we're talking about this. It's kind of like if you
go to India or you go on a retreat to
like on a you know, something to reset your mind
or body that you're already doing that naturally. It's just
that here, we'd have to like reprogram our lives to
fit in maybe a couple of days where we can

(25:18):
like actually set that protosol and then go, you know,
then we're feeling better.

Speaker 2 (25:23):
I've started to read at night, and I find it
so interesting because if I'm watching something, I can stay
awake for hours. As soon as I sit on the sofa,
even if it's seven o'clock and I start reading a book,
I'm ready to go to bed, but then like half
an hour and it just shows that actually our natural
body and our natural instinct is so ready to sleep
when the as soon as the sun goes down, our

(25:45):
body's preparing for sleep. But these different lights and these
different stimulations, they actually make us stay awake longer than
our body even wants to.

Speaker 1 (25:53):
So there's this amazing researcher on that point. There's this
amazing research group in San Diego, and he wanted to
prove a point about Stracadian rhythms, and so all these
people in his lab were saying that they're night owls
and all this stuff. So he took them all on
a camping trip where they were in his cave where
it was like pitch black after sun sundown, and he

(26:14):
was like, okay, you know, let's see and all. He's like,
pretty much every single human is just wired in a
way that we are within one hour or so of
each other. So yes, there are people who tend to
fall asleep a little bit later, but it's not like, okay,
every there's half the people are night owls and half
the people we are. We are sun and dark sensitive,

(26:35):
and so people we are supposed to wake up when
it's light and being dark when it's night. And one
thing he told me that was so transformative to me.
He's like, you can't switch that no matter what you do.
There's people who work night shifts for years, but it's
like their bodies are still on day night cycle, so
it's not like you can change that.

Speaker 2 (26:56):
So well, there's night owls fell a seat by like
eight pm when they were in the woods.

Speaker 1 (27:00):
We're out in the cave. All the people that said
that they are naturally nailes and they could never sleep, yeah,
they all fell asleep.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
It also reminded me of what you were saying about
no exciting conversations or anything. My husband was always wanting
to talk when we get into bed, and I'm like
it is literally it's bedtime.

Speaker 3 (27:16):
Yes, I am.

Speaker 2 (27:17):
As soon as I'm awake in the morning, I'm ready
to go. I want to have every conversation. I'm like,
what about this, what about this? The schedule and all
these exciting He's like, I've just woken up. And so
it's so funny because for me, as soon as I'm
getting to it, I'm like, this is bedtime and I'm
ready to knock out.

Speaker 3 (27:31):
Yes, he's like, so what do you think about this?
Did you know I did that?

Speaker 2 (27:33):
I was like hmm, yeah, okay, and I'm like, it's
bad time now.

Speaker 1 (27:38):
And did you know you can use this as that
women need more sleep than men?

Speaker 2 (27:43):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (27:43):
Really, I don't know if you see that in your
own personal life, but women.

Speaker 2 (27:48):
Generally need less sleep in terms of my body clock
just wakes me up in the morning and I'm good.

Speaker 3 (27:52):
But but yeah, I can.

Speaker 1 (27:53):
But we need more recovery. Yeah, I like women tend
to need some like recovery fry.

Speaker 3 (27:59):
Yes, I need recovery from people at us.

Speaker 1 (28:01):
Yeah, people events and exercise. Like, women are not small men.
We can't just do everything they do. And it's a
great thing. We have amazing abilities, you know as women.
But we can't. We have more. Our bodies need more
recovery from cortosol and nervous system. That's why when we

(28:21):
try to work these same nine to five jobs a
corporate setting, that's why corotosol tends to get in disarray.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Yeah, I know that a lot with JJ can do
events four nights a week like he has been this week.
He's had an event every single night. If I go
to an event one night, I need two to three days.
Don't have an event otherwise I feel like I'm burnt
out socially and so. But he's just got so much
social energy, and I think it's part of his personality.
But I also think it's the ability to recuperate quite

(28:50):
fast and not get as affected.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
I guess, yeah, And I think I think we tend
to not give ourselves the recovery, and that's how people
get So. For example, if you are someone who needs
that recovery, say you did do the four nights. You
say you went with him all four nights, and then
the way you feel at the end is just not
serving you.

Speaker 2 (29:11):
You needed that recovery, ye, and then sit in a
dark room for the weekend and just hi ben.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Ag Yeah, and then you just get burned out and
feel and I think it's changed. It also for me,
it's changed as I get older. Like I think when
I was younger, I could just go, go go when
it comes to social and then I think as I
got older, like now I'm like, is it because I'm
more into health or is it because I'm getting older,
Because I'll I'll be like I just need a walk,
I just need to go outside. I just need to

(29:36):
be in nature and like have a good night's sleep,
and then I can like reset for the next.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
Okay, do you think there's an age window that you've
seen that women can reverse or recover faster with hormone imbalances? Like,
is there an ideal window that people should really start
thinking about their home in health?

Speaker 1 (29:53):
Okay, the magic window, honestly is like thirty five to
forty five is like the window where you get to
your peak muscle mass about at age thirty, and you
also get to kind of like the peak hormones around
twenty five thirty. So like after when you're in that
window of thirty five to forty five, it's a time

(30:13):
where you can preserve kind of your muscle mass and
your bone and your hormones in a window, and if
you did nothing for those ten years, there's a lot
of catchup that you'll have to do at forty five
to kind of go back in time and get your
hormones in check.

Speaker 2 (30:30):
And with that you mean diet lifestyle, Like, is there
anything specific within that age range that you've seen people
do that has really helped them.

Speaker 1 (30:39):
The number one thing I think that you need to
change is diet, but also exercise, so in lifestyle, So
from thirty five to forty five is like, Okay, now
my muscles are not just building themselves and our bone
is not just building itself like it used to. So
you want to take action on doing things to stimulate
the muscles, to stimulate the bone, And same thing with

(31:01):
our gut. So our gut, as our hormones start to change,
starts to have less bacteria and is able to less,
you know, help with hormones and mood and all that stuff.
So you need to support that gut. So if twenty
five to thirty or thirty five to forty five, you
start to eat better, you start to manage those circadian
rhythms better, you start to really take care of the

(31:22):
gut bacteria you're going to be in a much better
place forty five onwards.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
And the place to start is the thirty thirty three three, Yes.

Speaker 3 (31:31):
Thirty thirty three.

Speaker 1 (31:32):
It is something that you can start. And then the
things you can do is like you know, if you
haven't weight trained ever in your life, you want to
start doing things, go and push and pull things to
stimulate your muscles and bones. You want to start to
get more nature. If you haven't been really managing, like
we said, if you're not managing your circadian rhythms or

(31:52):
your sleep, you want to start doing that because that's
your critical window that you can really change your entire
trajectory of.

Speaker 2 (31:59):
Your Now, you talked about the gut already, and in
your book you talk about the estrobollom did I say,
right eestra below estro below, and how the gut impacts
are hormones. So I know you mentioned having probiotic foods,
but are there any other foods that you recommend to
really boost that.

Speaker 1 (32:17):
Gut being from Yeah, exactly, the gut bacteria. Their food
is fiber. So rather ninety five percent of Americans don't
eat enough fiber because we don't really talk about it,
Like if you're trying to fix your hormones. Somebody's like, oh,
eat more fiber. It's like it doesn't even connect in
our culture, but it's actually very important. So ninety five

(32:38):
percent of people don't get enough, and we know that
for a typical American they get about twelve grams and
if you added just five grams of fiber to their diet,
you would extend their life by seven to ten percent.

Speaker 3 (32:53):
Wow, what's an easy way to get fiber into your diet?

Speaker 1 (32:57):
Okay, things that you wouldn't even think have fiber. Avocata, oh,
blue blueberries and raspberries are really high in fiber, which
they don't see. Fiber rich foods chia seeds. One tablespoon
of chia seeds is uh, five grams of fiber. So
that whole thing about eating five more grams of fiber

(33:18):
is something that you can just get with one tablespoon.
So those are like super super easy things of flax
seeds as well. So fiber is not just you know,
a supplement or something. It's in. So many foods like
pears actually surprisingly have a ton of fiber. Can we
eat fruit with the skin on?

Speaker 2 (33:38):
Oh?

Speaker 3 (33:38):
Yeah, I know.

Speaker 2 (33:38):
I still haven't gotten into that yeah, it has. Do
you think I can bring myself to eat that skin?
The fairiness just gets me.

Speaker 1 (33:44):
But you can get the sun gold that doesn't have
the fur. So I you know what I did. This
is your trick. Okay, when you're flying and like desperate
for like fruit, put it in your bag and minor
we're like a little bit firm. So by the time
I was like starting, I just needed something fresh. It
was like, and you're in a plane, so you could

(34:06):
cut it and make it smaller pieces, but it's just
so easy to eat it.

Speaker 3 (34:09):
Like an apple.

Speaker 2 (34:10):
Yeah, for anybody, I know I mentioned thet estro buttra
extra bloyah.

Speaker 3 (34:15):
Will you just explain to people what that is because
I forgot to.

Speaker 1 (34:17):
Okay, so most people, all people have bacteria in their gut.
They have trillions of bacteria. I mean, it's like weird
to imagine, like there's like an entire ecosystem that lives
inside of us, and they're helping make decisions. They're helping
make decisions every single day about our immune system or

(34:37):
what mood we want to be in, how full we are,
and how how much estrogen we should recirculate or take
out of the body, and so what the estro Bolom
does is specifically for women. It actually forty percent of
the estrogen in our body can get recirculated from those bacteria.
They will decide the bacteria decide how much you need

(35:00):
or how much you need to get rid of. And
so it's really important for us to nourish those bacteria
because they're like our little soldiers and our body, and
we are killing them just without even knowing we're not.
We're starving them to death, and then we're killing them
with antibiotics and being so clean, and we are not
playing outside a nature enough and to get natural bacteria.

(35:22):
We're not eating enough fermented foods, and so it's really.

Speaker 3 (35:25):
Sad fermented foods, veggies and fru yes.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
So it sounds so simple, doesn't it, But for some
reason we make it so complicated.

Speaker 1 (35:31):
I know, a fermented foods. It's so interesting. When I
was doing research for this book, I understood that every
single culture in the world, every single used fermented foods
because fermentation was the only way you could preserve things
right before refrigerators and modern processing. And so the real
way to eat foods is having some fermented foods. But

(35:54):
we are completely lost that in our modern culture.

Speaker 2 (35:57):
Also, it tastes so good with your food. I love
having like a pickle sour krau. Yes, it just adds
so much to your meal as well. It adds like
a flavor that you don't usually get in your food.

Speaker 1 (36:06):
That's actually true. And you know, one of the things
I learned also in this when I was doing research
for this book is that things like sour dough and
like Indian like Italy or dosa, even though you're cooking it,
even though the bacteria are dead, you know, with sour dough,
and same with Josa or Italy, those bacteria that are

(36:27):
dead from that fermented flower are still really beneficial. Oh
really got like they have a lot of effects on
They're called post biotics. So post biotics are super healthy too,
and so sour dough or fermented dough foods are actually
really great for our health.

Speaker 3 (36:45):
Oh that's so good to know.

Speaker 2 (36:46):
Yeah, apart from periods, I know you touched on when
we talk about symptoms of homemade disruption. Apart from piers
they say someone has a regular period, are there any
other symptoms that women might be feeding on a daily
basis that could indicate that they've got home in im balance?

Speaker 1 (36:59):
Well, the number one symptom is fatigue, and fatigue so
hard because fatigue, that's why it's so hard to diagnose,
and that's why women are so underserved in this world,
is because fatigue is just brushed off like, oh, you're tired,
you must be lazy, you know, like and okay, I
have to tell you this crazy story. So they found

(37:22):
out that women that are having heart attacks heart attacks, okay,
life threatening heart attacks often present with just fatigue and
they're not having the crushing chest pain to the arm
because all that studies that were on men. Those studies
were on men, and the men had crushing heart pain
on the left radiating to the left. Shop. Women often

(37:45):
have weird symptoms when they're having a heart attack, like
they feel nauseous or maybe they feel tired of just
like off and they were being sent home because you
know when women say they're tired, people are like, oh,
that can be serious, Like that's just like and fifty
percent worse outcomes in women with heart attacks because a
lot of these symptoms are different in women. So fatigue

(38:08):
can be anything from you didn't have a good night
sleep to a heart attack.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
Right, I actually is it is my prime way of
knowing whether there's something I'm going to of course if
you're like a new mum or something that's just expected,
but in times where you're not expecting it, like if
I don't wake up, I usually wake up without an alarm,
but if I'm noticing that my I'm going to bed
at the same time, but waking up later and later,

(38:32):
I'm not okay.

Speaker 3 (38:32):
I need to get my iron.

Speaker 2 (38:33):
Checked, yes, might be twelve checks. Need to get my
homewone checked. It is actually my prime indicator to know
that something isn't right. Either I'm burning myself out or
something biologically is going wrong, because especially if you're used
to being quite regular and quite rhythmic in your body,
you really notice the difference.

Speaker 1 (38:51):
I think that's absolutely the best case scenario, is that
you know yourself so well that you would know that
something was off, so when you do feel fatigued, that
you can see. But most people are many titles the time.
There's just or they don't know they're a schedule stor
irregular exactly that they don't even know they're not in tune.
So I think that being in tune would be the

(39:13):
ideal of the situation. But fatigue is unfortunately one of
the biggest signs of hormone imbalance, and it's unfortunate because
it gets confused with them.

Speaker 3 (39:24):
Yeah, that's going on now for women.

Speaker 2 (39:25):
Obviously, we talked about how intimate and fasting obviously isn't
great for long periods for women. But let's say women
is trying to lose weight. Someone's trying to get the
benefits of weight loss while also you know, supporting their
homone health. What kind of diet or what kind of
calorie deficit or you know what, it is actually possible
to be able to have the perks of weight loss

(39:47):
if they're looking for it while also still looking after
their hormones and not being too extreme.

Speaker 1 (39:51):
Yeah, I love that question, because, especially if you're talking
about the women in their thirties and forties and fifties,
hairy menopause and menopause, it becomes a lot harder to
lose weight, and a lot of women are starting to
notice that their weight is shifting more towards their valleys,
and so one of the biggest things that that's why

(40:12):
the thirty thirty three includes a lot of protein, because protein,
as you know, can make you feel fuller, and it
can also kind of help you build muscle, So that's
a good one. And then second thing is walking or
low impact activity. So one of the things that they've
noticed in studies is that women tend to move less

(40:33):
and less as they get older. And they're like, you
know the mount and if you think about it, that
you moved in your teens and twenties tends to go
down in your thirties and then in your forties and
so and that little bit of movement like just that
climbing stairs walking around that actually was burning a lot

(40:55):
of calorie without making you stressed out. So it's not
a high intensity workout. And so one of the things
I find really effective for women not only just to
lose weight, but to feel better in their bodies is
to just add more little movements to the day, like
micro maybe you take a call and upside while you walk,
or maybe you take the steps, or maybe you add

(41:18):
in some micro movements. So one of the best tricks
I put on Instagram is like people who sat for
eight hours a day for a walk at the end
of the day, they're better off actually doing a mini
like squats in between each meeting, like fifteen ten to
fifteen bodyweight squats instead of waiting till the end of
the day and actually doing a workout. Because these mini

(41:41):
movements our body actually really not only craves them for insulin,
blood sugar, and circulation, but it's also great for someone
who's like maybe trying to get a little like their
weight off from their belly and they want to or
maybe they're trying to keep their waiting check or something,
and so just keeping those that body moving and not
sitting for like eight, ten, twelve hours a.

Speaker 3 (42:03):
Day, yeah, become a bit. You become so stagnant when
you end up doing that.

Speaker 2 (42:06):
Low carb diets now, I feel like for a lot
of women on their way lost journey, carbohydrates feel like
the enemy, even though they're just so good. How do
we feel about low carb diets? Is there a negative
impact for women having too many carbohydrates and their hormones
or is it beneficial?

Speaker 1 (42:23):
It just depends on who you are. So I like
moderately low carb, meaning that like you're eating fruit. So
I don't think there should be any diet in the
world that tells you not to eat fruit. Because a
lot of people who are on low carb diets aren't
allowed to eat like vegetables and fruit Like that's insane,
Like there's no data that says that you should cut

(42:45):
out fruits and vegetables from your diet. If you're going
on that low carb diet, that's not good for you
long term. But high carb diets, especially if it's high
carb like from refined carbs, yes, that's actually not doing
your hormones any favor. So what happens is your blood
sugar levels go way up, and then your insulin goes up,

(43:08):
and then your cells become insulin resistant because it's like
if someone was knocking on your door all the time,
you just kind of like it was like, oh, yeah,
it's them again. Yeah, you're not gonna rush the open. Yeah,
And so your body becomes insulin and resistant, and that
leads to diabetes, that leads to weight gain, that leads
to heart disease, and so you don't want to have

(43:29):
a super high refined carb diet. Now, if you're saying
high carb diet like fruits and vegetables and nuts and
seas like Mediterranean type diet, great for some people that's
considered high carb, but that's high carb. Is just how
much energy do you need are you eating? Like if
you're eating enough calories for your body, and some of

(43:49):
them are a lot of them are coming from fruits
and vegetables amazing.

Speaker 2 (43:53):
So there hasn't been any research to show that a
low cop diet can help with hormone regulation.

Speaker 1 (43:57):
No, low carb diets in general, if they're very very
low carb can help in certain conditions to get you
in ketosis. But in general, you don't want an extremely
low carb diet. A lower refined carb diet is what.

Speaker 3 (44:14):
Yeah, that makes sense. Complex carbohydrates.

Speaker 2 (44:16):
Yes, has there been any research done around eating red
meat and the homeown disruption?

Speaker 1 (44:21):
So, okay, there's two things. Red meat is really high
in iron hem iron. This is iron that we can
actually use, and so for some women that tends to
be really great to get their iron levels up. However,
red meat in almost every study done across the world
as of today, is something that you want to limit,

(44:45):
and especially processed meat. You know, you're talking the bacons
and the deli meats and all of that, and the
processed the red meat that's coming from not grass fed sources.
I think those are things you should limit. We don't
have any good studies. The jury is still out. I

(45:08):
think the Internet believes that red meat, if it's grass
fed and you're not eating it with a lot of
sugar and carbs, that it's actually not bad for you.
But the long term studies are all convoluted because it's
usually looking at people who are eating burgers. They're also
eating fries, they're also eating so the jury is still
out whether you can eat red meat in a very

(45:29):
healthy way. We believe that's the case, but we don't
have long term studies to show that yet.

Speaker 2 (45:35):
So interesting, Yeah, I feel like I've always had red
meat being the culprit of so many health issues and
diseases and disorders that I thought maybe there might be
a link between the two.

Speaker 1 (45:48):
Of all the long term studies show that the more
you consume red meat, especially from poor sources, the worse
your health is. Hormone and otherwise. The new data is
saying is that partially that's because we were confusing it
with all the other things that come with a high
revenue diet. A lot of people are eating a lot

(46:09):
of unhealthy.

Speaker 3 (46:10):
The process foods.

Speaker 2 (46:12):
So I know we talked about your thirty thirty three formula,
but I think you also have a four three to
two to one in there for movements.

Speaker 3 (46:17):
So tell us a little bit about that.

Speaker 1 (46:18):
Okay, So here's the thing Reddy in every single person
that we look at when they live long, like centenarians,
people who live above one hundred years, they often have
an exercise or a something that they love to do
movement wise, whether it be what biking, walking, you know,

(46:41):
playing tennis, pickleball, whatever it is. And so my fourth
three two one says, four days you want to be
moving your body in a way that makes you happy,
like joy. It can be a walk, it can be hiking,
it can be biking, it can be dancing, something that
you will do all throughout your life life or not
at least long term. And so four days a week

(47:03):
you want to do that. And if you don't know
where to start, just walk. It's like the best best thing,
there's no barriers to it. Three days a week you
want to do something that stimulates that muscle or bone because,
like I said, by the time you're thirty, you get
your peak muscle mass and bone mass. You have to
start to build that as when you start to get older.

(47:25):
And so three days a week you want to incorporate that.
And that doesn't always have to be in the gym,
like lifting heavyweights. It can be a combination of pilates
or like heavy some other kind of like a power
yoga or something. So it doesn't always have to be
three days of in the gym. It can be something different.
And then two is hot therapy, so either hot yoga, sauna, steam,

(47:52):
something that gets your body hot for twenty minutes at
a time. There's some really great data about hot therapy online,
long term health, brain hormones, heart, all of that. And
then the one I don't know if you're going to
light this or not, actually is once a week's sprint.
Oh yeah, So a sprint workout like a high intensity

(48:14):
short very get your heart rate to eighty five percent
of its max. So for people who don't know, if
you take two twenty minus your age, that is your
max heart rate roughly, and then if you go to
eighty five percent of that, that is considered kind of
a sprint. And so you want to do that because
there was a study that showed that if you took
people who were sedentary meaning that they've never worked out really,

(48:38):
and you put them on a two year exercise plan,
you can reverse the age of their heart by twenty years. Wow,
And that was using a sprint workout, so it was walking,
it was weight training, and then they added one sprint.

Speaker 3 (48:54):
Workout a week love sprint walk out. Yeah, yeah, okay, good.

Speaker 1 (48:57):
I'm glad because I was like, I don't know how
you're going to take Some people would I say that,
They're like, I'm not sprending. I hate sprinting.

Speaker 2 (49:03):
Yeah, I love running actually, but I do more sprints
now than long running just because I feel like it's
more beneficial for my body actually.

Speaker 1 (49:10):
One hundred percent. So if you think about that for
three each you want. I never said, like, you know,
do long yeah, like if you enjoy If some people
enjoy long runs for their mental health, I was like that,
but I started to see how it's affecting my hormones
and I really had to change that myself.

Speaker 2 (49:30):
So it makes sense. I felt the same way. And
also just on your bones and your body, it's quite.

Speaker 1 (49:34):
Harsh, exactly, it's very harsh. You have to have the
right form, you have to be really good about injury prevention,
you have to have a good recovery. It's a lot
to keep yourself.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
Like exactly, I would love to move on to supplements
because there is just the whole world of supplements.

Speaker 3 (49:49):
Out oh gosh.

Speaker 2 (49:50):
Yes, and there's everything that says cortisol balances, yes, hormone
regulations and all those things.

Speaker 3 (49:55):
So, you know, do you recommend any supplements.

Speaker 2 (49:58):
Are there any specific vitamin or hubs that you recommend
women should be taking to support the home and health.

Speaker 1 (50:03):
And that's a great question because there's so many supplements
out there, and most people I know, I think they
said like eighty five up to eighty five percent of
people take supplements. I would say like one hundred. I
don't know anybody who doesn't take STEME. When I was
in medical school, I took zero supplements, and it was
because they scared us. They were like, supplements are bad,
they're unregulated, they are often not what they say they are,

(50:25):
and we would see side effects from people taking all
these kind of weird supplements, right, But now I realize
that that's not that's kind of the extreme. Yes, there
are dangerous supplements for sure, and you definitely don't want
to overdose on them, but there are some that can
be really helpful. So the three that consistently come up
in the research for women is vitamin D, magnesium, and

(50:48):
omega three fatty acids, so vitamin D eighty percent of women,
especially as they move through perimenopause and menopause, are vitamin
D deficient, and women in general tend to be vitamin
D deficient even if you're getting some light all the time.
Omega three fatty acids. So we have really good data
that omega threes are great for your brain and great
for inflammation. And there's been very I mean, it's like,

(51:11):
the data is amazing on omega three. If you can
get it from food, great, but you can also supplement
with it. And then magnesium is the one that I
think is surprising to people because magnesium does so many
things in our body. Besides you know, some people maybe
know it for muscle soreness, or it actually helps our brain.
And there are studies that show that women who get

(51:35):
more magnesium actually tend to age slower, especially in their brain.
And so there's really great data and there's all kinds
of different magnesiums.

Speaker 2 (51:44):
I was going to ask you what type of magnesium
should people be taking?

Speaker 1 (51:48):
So magnesium glycinate is magnesium bound to glyciine. That's great
for women. That's great for women's hormones. It helps you
relax and often can be great before bed because it
can help with sleep. There's magnesium citrate that's great for
women with or people with constipation because it kind of
is the thing that people give before colonosopied to kind

(52:10):
of flush out your system. So magnesiums as citrate. There's
magnesium al three on eight. So magnesium al three on eight,
just like magnesium glycinate, actually goes to your brain. It
crosses that blood brain barrier and can help with mood
and brain health. So that's all three on eight. And
then there's some magnesium that you kind of don't absorb well,

(52:31):
like magnesium oxide, so you don't really want to take
that one.

Speaker 2 (52:34):
Okay, Oh, thank you, that's the use. I didn't know
that there was so many different times. Yeah, I was
speaking to this lady. I went to an event and
she was saying, Oh, I've just been I've started taking NAD.
I'm going into perimenopolse and it's really helping me. Is
NAD something that you've seen research on that helps women.

Speaker 1 (52:49):
There's not a whole lot of research about NAD with
women's health, but NAD is something that's very exciting because
we know that NAD goes down as you age, and
it's something that we think that if you replace it
will help you as you age. But it's very like

(53:10):
it's very early. It's hard to know, and there's like,
you know, there's some really great I would say like
those three are the ones that have the most research
behind them, the magnesium, omega three and vitamin D. But
there's a lot of companies like that are doing, like
Metagenics as a company that's came out with an amazing

(53:31):
hormone health kind of women's health blend with herbs and
really well researched in research ingredients. There's you know, lots
of teas and herbs and things that women can use
to kind of help with their mood. For example, saffron
is a great mood booster, Turmeric is like a great
anti inflammatory, and so there's so many things that we

(53:53):
have in our toolbox. So I often say, get those
three and chat and then you can play with everything else,
because as you know, you know, certain people will do
amazing with these things and others will you know, not
want them or not need them. I don't think any
person should be taking fistfuls of supplements like you know,

(54:15):
those people who are like taking ninety seven.

Speaker 3 (54:17):
Yeah, yeah, like.

Speaker 1 (54:18):
I don't because they also like cancel each other out,
or at best they cancel each other out, but they
can also interact in a negative way. And so you
really want to get how many O taking? Be careful
how many, and be careful of the brands you're using.
So like, there's some trusted brands that we know out
there and.

Speaker 3 (54:36):
They give us some recommendations.

Speaker 1 (54:39):
Okay, I mentioned Metagenics. That's a great brand. They do
a lot of research into there, and a lot of
doctors use that one. I like row RHO. I like,
let's see, Momentous is a good one. I like, there's
so many. I take this drink in the morning called
I am E. That's a good one.

Speaker 3 (54:59):
Oh yeah, Jay, just start taking that.

Speaker 1 (55:01):
Yeah, okay, a great. Yeah, it's a it's like something
it's like a multi vitamin.

Speaker 3 (55:05):
Yeah. The problem is yes, right exactly.

Speaker 2 (55:08):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (55:08):
So the thing is, I mean there's so many and
then there's tons of more brands that are great. But
what happens is a lot of people will go to
like Amazon, right, and they'll just order the cheapest one
for you know, the one that looks good. And when
they checked on Amazon. They said like, out of like
the ten that they randomly checked, eight of them didn't

(55:28):
have what they said on the label. Because it's not
they're not for supplements. It's not very strict.

Speaker 3 (55:35):
You can just through recommendation that you should pick your supplements.

Speaker 1 (55:38):
Yeah, so that's the hard part. Like it's like if
I just look in the store, and you just look
in the store, Like how would you even know?

Speaker 2 (55:45):
You know?

Speaker 1 (55:45):
So, third party testing is something I highly recommend to people.
So most of the supplements, Like so I'm working with
mel Robbins on this proachein shop. All these supplements that
you're taking, they need to have third party testing. You
need to know that somebody else that's not affiliated with
the company checked to see if it has what it

(56:07):
has and it doesn't have any contaminants and heavy metals
and all that crap that you do. That's like kind
of the only way. And unfortunately, unless it's third party tested,
that we don't really know if it's right or wrong.
So there's a lot of stuff that's like really scary.
I mean, I've been in the hospital.

Speaker 3 (56:23):
I used to.

Speaker 1 (56:23):
I did my fellowship at Columbia in New York, and
I remember in the hospital. There'd be all kinds of
people hospitalized for like weird supplements that they were taking
the cause liver failure that caused a rash where their
body was peeling off, like you know what it was.
It was crazy, the kind of things that happened to
people when they're taking random things.

Speaker 3 (56:45):
Yeah, so true.

Speaker 2 (56:46):
Just a question on couldtal managers because I know that
there are some supplements out of the cultural balances and managers.
Are there any specific specific brands that you like for that?

Speaker 1 (56:54):
So you know a lot of the things that are
in cortisol reducing supplements like ashwagandha aalthyanine are things that
are in the ones that we talked about there. So
just be careful. One of the things I tell people
all the time, and this happens to me all the time.
You need to look at all the things you're taking
and make sure they don't all have aanda, they don't

(57:15):
all have al they don't all have because if it's
great to reduce your stress, but make sure you're not
getting magnesium and healthy inine and ashraganda from all these
different sources. Pick your one or two and get your
blood checked. If you're on supplements. You need to be
getting your blood tested every quarter at least, or if not,

(57:35):
then every six months or one year.

Speaker 2 (57:37):
Yes, okay, I'm going to do it rapid fy enough okay,
and you can say yes or no, and then you
can also elaborate if you feel like you want to.

Speaker 1 (57:45):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (57:46):
So the first thing is carnival dyet tends.

Speaker 1 (57:49):
To be bad for most people because you're cutting out
fruits and vegetables.

Speaker 3 (57:52):
Yeah, quito for women. Helpful or harmful?

Speaker 1 (57:55):
Oh gosh. Also usually harmful because you're cutting out all
carbon hydrates and you really do like healthy carbohydrates like berries, for.

Speaker 3 (58:05):
Example, potatoes, Yeah, like sweet potatoes.

Speaker 1 (58:07):
I know it's sad, and I mean I was in
that world at one point, and I'm like, you know,
everything is bad, everything's bad.

Speaker 3 (58:16):
We've allay talked about this. But intimateive fasting for women
over thirty yeah no, long term.

Speaker 1 (58:21):
No, no, especially when it's long and it makes you
skip a lot of daytime meals.

Speaker 2 (58:26):
Yeah, that brings me on to one meal a day
for women. There's this whole omad to.

Speaker 3 (58:29):
Tread no said, no, people are very strong.

Speaker 2 (58:32):
No.

Speaker 1 (58:33):
Seed oils okay, seed oils, Okay, I'm going to go
a little scientific this. Okay, seed oils. Obviously we don't
want to eat a ton of seed oils, but the
data shows that they're actually not bad.

Speaker 3 (58:46):
I've heard this.

Speaker 2 (58:46):
I feel like this was a TikTok thing that really
ruined seed oils for people.

Speaker 1 (58:50):
Yeah, it's like it's like seed oils is something that
was blamed for being It's almost like, do you blame
when you look at Big Macs mcnald's meal. Are you
blaming the fries? Are you blaming the burger?

Speaker 3 (59:02):
Are you blaming the oil that it's yeah, exactly so yeah, okay,
thank you. Appreciate a cycle sinking for women?

Speaker 1 (59:10):
Okay, cycle sinking as a one size fits all no, okay,
because everyone's cycle is so different. Like, if you feel
like you can lift heavy on your period, go for it, right,
But it has to be individual. For me, I know
that the week before my period, and for most people,
you're not lifting as heavy, you're not going as hard.

Speaker 2 (59:28):
Drawing my back out if I try to totally prime eyes,
I'm like, no, this is all the time to lift heavy.

Speaker 1 (59:32):
Yes, so cycle sinking in theory is amazing, but to
prescribe it as a like one size fits all. Doesn't
make sense because what if you feel like doing more?

Speaker 3 (59:43):
Yeah, you know, I like the ANSA and Rule diets,
uh raw diets.

Speaker 1 (59:49):
You know, if you're careful about getting all of your nutrients,
which is like really hard, same thing vegan and raw
is similar to me. It's like, yes, but make sure
you were getting all the things.

Speaker 2 (01:00:01):
You need to go toally amazing Amy, thank you so much.
It was a pleasure having you on, and thank you.
Everything you said was so insightful. I think it's going
to help so many people.