115. Fueling Your Life Force: Dr. Erika Siegel on Hormones, Mitochondria & Midlife Energy

Episode Transcript
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Dr. Erika Siegel (00:00):
The more beneficial things you add in, it

(00:02):
just starts to crowd out thethings that, you know, the
improper living things. It justthey feel good, and they they
start to create their ownmomentum. So grab grab just one
thing. Drink a glass of watertomorrow morning right when you
wake up before coffee, beforeanything else.

Kate Northrup (00:18):
Hi. Welcome to Plenty. If you are watching this
on YouTube, you'll see that weare on location today at an
incredible summit in Palm Beachcalled Eudaimonia. And my first
guest is doctor Erica Siegel whois the author of The Nourish Me
Kitchen which is an incredibletwo part book series. One is a

(00:39):
functional medicine guide athome.
You can look up anything. It isthe first of its kind to be able
to go and figure out what youneed to do. And two is
incredible recipes. The forwardwas written by doctor Zach Bush.
If you know me, you know you Ilove him.
So in this episode, we talkabout how to bolster your energy
reserves, how to fine tune yourintuition so that you can listen

(01:01):
to your body as your bestmedical provider, and also some
incredible tips on breast healthand more. So enjoy the episode
with the incredible doctor EricaSiegel. Welcome to Plenty. I'm
your host Kate Northrup andtogether we are going on a
journey to help you have anincredible relationship with

(01:24):
money, time, and energy and tohave abundance on every possible
level. Every week, we're gonnadive in with experts and
insights to help you unlock alife of plenty.
Let's go fill our cups.

Please note that the opinions and
perspectives of the guests onthe Plenty podcast are not
necessarily reflective of theopinions and perspectives of
Kate Northrup or anyone whoworks within the Kate Northrup
brand.

Hey, Erica. Hi, Kate. I'm so happy you're here.

Thank you so much for having me.

Thank you. Thank you. Okay. So you went to
medical school

Mhmm.

And combined a traditional more of a
traditional or allopathic withmore of an eastern
complementary. What do you youdon't don't call it like, what
do you call it?

Yeah. So I went to a naturopathic medical
school. Yep. Four years of somesort of conventional training.
Yep.
And I did my master's inoriental medicine. So I have my
license in acupuncture. And thecombination is really an
integrative approach, an Eastmeets west approach to medicine.

And, what was it for you? So, both of my parents
are doctors. One of them is waytraditional. One of them is
super not. So, I've hung in thewellness world

Mhmm.

My whole life. And I have found

Yes.

That healers Mhmm. Tend to have a core story
or experience from their ownlife that brought them to
becoming a healer. Yeah. Do youhave that?

And if

so, what is it?

I do have a core story. My core story is a
childhood story. My family offour, we were just sort of
humming along as a nice familyin New Jersey. And my dad had a
widowmaker heart attack when Iwas eight. He survived.
And he lived to be 89 because mymom basically took it upon

(03:18):
herself to learn how to manageheart health and how to explore
every avenue from conventionalto alternative and mix the two
in a scientific and aggressiveapproach. And he lived quite
well because of her pioneeringspirit and creativity. And I

(03:40):
think I just learned that therewere options. Yeah. That it
wasn't just one system, thatthere are so many systems of
medicine.
And why not choose the best ofall of them to apply to And

what was did she have any medical training?

No. None. What was her background?

Like, career wise? She was an

artist, and she helped run my dad's law
firm. Wow. But she what I thinkinspired her was that she knew
that there were other options,and she's just someone who
doesn't give up. So she just hasa really strong spirit. And that
inspired me to learn what Icould from different avenues of
medicine and differentpractices.

Yeah. That's so beautiful. And, I mean, it
sounds like she really, in manyways, saved his life. Yeah. Oh,
one 100 So beautiful.
Yeah. What I find is, as someonewho's always been you know, I'm
very out of the box when itcomes to health. I always have
been because of how I wasraised. And, my father and other
people that I come into contactwith are very much like,

(04:39):
allopathic medicine is God. Sois surgery.
So is pharmaceuticals. Right.And, like, no availability for
really anything else. My dad'snot so much like that anymore,
but, like, I know I I come upagainst this, and I know other
people who are listening to theshow Yeah. Do as well, where,
like, maybe they're married tosomebody Mhmm.

(05:00):
Who's like, well, my doctor saysto eat fiber one bars, and
that's it. So I'm not gonna takea vitamin, or I'm not gonna
like, da da da, and that's justthe way it is. And they're not
open at all. Mhmm. What do yourecommend for people who have
people that they love Mhmm.
Who just are like really boughtinto the traditional system, and

(05:23):
it's heartbreaking because theythere's no wiggle room there.

Yeah. It is really challenging because we
come up against that dogma allthe time. True. That there's
only one system approach. And ifwe don't know the answer, there
is no answer.
Right? That is often what we'retold. If we don't know the
answer, then there isn't ananswer. Right. And I think what
I share with people is they haveto treat themselves the way they
wish to be treated, andhopefully others will learn from

(05:49):
their successes.
And we cannot convince othersthat something is right for
them, but we can educate them,we can share information, And we
can also share the way that wechoose to live. So I appreciate
in one of your recent podcasts,you shared that you you know
that your body is your ally. Andthat it is sort of working on
your behalf, and you listen toit. And so what I try to

(06:12):
encourage people is listen toyour body. Does your body say
that this is a yes?
Or does it say that it's a maybeor a no? And I don't think that
we should be overriding our ownintuition. And so if your
intuition says this food feelslike a yes, or this practice, or
this idea feels like a yes, thenI think it's worthy of
exploration. Mean, we've onlybeen practicing allopathic

(06:32):
medicine for the last hundredyears or less. Right.
Even much less than that. Sowhat about the centuries of
wisdom that preceded this time?And you also can't convince
people, so you have to just backaway with grace and say, I
appreciate what you think isimportant for you. I'm gonna do
what's important for me. Andwhat I found in my life is a lot

(06:53):
of people have kind of comearound because they see the way
that I live.
They see the way that I feel.They see what I'm educating
people on, and they're like,well tell me more. Is there an
option? Because maybe they'verun out of options in the
allopathic model, so they becomecurious.

And, you know, I've just met you. Mhmm. I
walked in like ten minutes

ago. But

I will say, I was surprised when you told me you
have a 16 and 17 year old

Yeah.

Because you have a tremendously youthful, vibrant
energy about you, and so thatspeaks volumes.

Yeah.

Right?

Right.

And I'm sure people at this point are like,
alright.

Okay. Tell me what you're Right. Yeah. I
celebrated my fiftieth birthdaythis year. Oh, amazing.
Happy birthday. Thank you. And,yeah, it's it's kind of
interesting getting to thispoint of my career because I'm
twenty five years in. Yeah. Andnow people are listening a
little more closely.
They're like, okay. Somethingyou're doing is working because
you seem to be really healthy.Yeah. So And

also like Yeah. There's like healthy Yeah. But
there's also life force.

Right. Mentality is quite They

are not always right? They're not always the
same. I mean, of course, theycan come together, but Mhmm. One
of the things that I know, youknow, our listeners are really
interested in is cultivatingtheir inner energy reserves. And
and to me, that's the same ascultivating your life force.
Yes. So when it comes to youknow, I'm I'm sure you've you've
worked with thousands ofpatients at this point. Many of

(08:15):
them female, I would

have Yes. Many.

Most, in fact. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. And so what do
you find are the biggest energysucks for women that are like
draining our life force?
You know, other than maybe theyears of waking up all night
with babies and breastfeeding,which is kind of its own thing.

Yeah. You know, I I actually talk about
this a lot because I find thatmy most common, the most common
situations that I see for womenare that they're burning the
candle at both ends. Managingwork, managing family, managing
community, parents, and theyaren't really working on their
own resourcing. They're nottaking enough care of themselves

(08:55):
and providing their body withwhat their body needs. You know,
sleep and movement and good foodand community and if we don't
have those resources, we getvery drained.
And there's a lot of shouldingon ourselves, right, as women,
as people that are trying tokeep up with this pace. We we
need to do this. We have to dothat. And there's a lot of

(09:17):
pressure to show up in a certainway, and that's really draining.
Yeah.
So if we're if we're always justrunning, and we don't pause, and
we don't drink that glass ofwater, or take ten minutes on
the yoga mat, we will expend ourenergy. And then of course,
there's just the naturalprocesses of aging that we might
not be really listening to andsupporting. You know, we might

(09:39):
not always be ready for poweryoga. Sometimes we might need
some yin yoga time. For years.
Yeah. Yeah, exactly. Pushingthrough, pushing We may also be
masking our fatigue and notlistening, masking it with
caffeine, with sugar, withstress. So stress is a great way

(10:01):
to motivate yourself to movethrough something. So if you
aren't quite feeling like youhave the energy, you might
produce that cortisol responseto get up and go and keep going.
And so we have all these ways ofsaying, oh, I know you're tired,
but we're still gonna do thisthing. And if you don't heed
your body's call for rest andrestoration, it's gonna get

(10:25):
tired. Yes, it is. Yeah.

Okay. Mhmm. So someone's listening and they're
like, I'm really tired. Yeah.And yet Yeah.
I feel like there is so muchpressure and I don't get to
Yeah. Care for myself or I don'tget to right. So obviously, our
lives is a very powerful healing

tool.

Yes. Okay? And, we can't always change the
external. Right? Like, sometimesyou have a chronically ill
partner or parent.
Sometimes you have a verydemanding job you know, you're
the provider. You know, there'slot of Yes. So what are some of
the because, like, I work in therealm of the external things you
can change. Right? Yeah.

(11:07):
And, of course, the internal aswell. But as a health
practitioner, as a doctor, whatare some of the ways that we can
support our body's systems for,stress management or energy
reserve support that maybe don'trequire you to, like, overhaul
your entire life? Even though,quite frankly, I just wanna be
super clear, like, that is worthit and probably the best place

(11:28):
to start. Right. Right.

Right. But

like, where should we start? Yeah.

Well I think weaving in self care as daily
practice and being efficientwith your time, and managing
your time in such a way whereyou know that you've carved out
eight hours for sleep. Yes,sleep. You have carved out
thirty to forty five minutes forphysical movement three, four,
five times a week. Making thosethings such a priority that

(11:57):
nothing budgets them. Mhmm.
And becoming efficient withcooking a bunch of food for a
few hours when you can, puttingin a podcast and chopping up a
bunch of veggies so you knowthat you have good food to reach
for. And most people that arereally productive recognize that
they they could kind of tweaksome things to make the their

(12:19):
life and their day moreefficient Yeah. For taking good
care of themselves. Startingyour day with a full glass of
water. Yeah.
It's an easy one.

Everyone has time for that.

Yes. Before you start with coffee.

If you have time to drink coffee, you have time
to drink water. Yeah.

Yeah. If you have time to scroll for five
minutes, you have time for fiveminutes of body weight squats.

I love that. Yeah. Yeah.

It's just like being honest about how you're
spending your time. If you'respending a lot of time doing
things that you're like, I justneed this to decompress, scroll,
TV, whatever that might be.Alcohol. Maybe that decompress
time could be a walk Yeah.Instead of a scroll, or a walk
with a podcast, or talking to afriend while you do it.
Like, just kind of like brainhack your way into your own

(13:03):
self.

Swaps. Right.

Mhmm. Mhmm. And recognizing that five
minutes of something is betterthan no minutes of that thing.

Yeah. Yeah. Right. Because we so often let
perfect be the enemy of good.

All the time. If you can't get to that one
hour hit class that you want todo, you're going do nothing.
Well, I will do push ups in theairport. In fact, that's like
one of my gimmicks is I do pushups in the airport and video
myself. It's great.
Because I'm going to sit therefor thirty minutes Yeah. At the
gate. Why not?

Yeah. Why not?

Get something done that I need to get I

love that. My mother is like the queen of
doing a pilates mat workout atthe gate and I used to find it
very embarrassing. Yeah. But nowI'm like you're

embarrass my kids all the time.

Such a wonderful weirdo. Right. We have

to be wonderful weirdos. I think
that's the quote. It's like be awonderful weirdo. Like, don't be
afraid to do the thing whereveryou are. Totally.
You know, like my bag is filledwith like produce right now. My
friends always laugh at me like,what produce do have in your
bag? I'm like, oh, me see. I'mlike, oh yeah. And apple,
Carrot, red pepper.
Because I know I'm gonna wantveggies today, and I might not
get them at the hotel.

Okay. So let's talk about produce.

Mhmm.

I I do have some I have vegetable questions.

Oh, I love veggies. Like my

favorite So my husband went through many years
of this crazy experience of,like, profound inflammation
Yeah. Red man syndrome, liketoxic steroid with not topical
steroid withdrawal.

Oh, The

whole thing. Yeah. And one of the things
that's, like, multilayered, andthere were a lot of things going
on there. However, one of thethings that several people said
to him, and I'm so curious aboutthat Mhmm. This, is that
actually eating quite a fewvegetables was, like, high in
histamines, and so he needed to,like, really reduce his

(14:45):
histamine exposure.
So for a time, just for a timeYeah. He was really eating
basically, like, beef Yeah.Brussels sprouts, and, like,
some sweet potatoes, and thatwas it. But it was, like, very
carnivore to bring down theinflammation. Right.
Can you talk about thephilosophy of that? Because,
obviously, we need to eatvegetables, and, like, that's
common knowledge. Yeah. Yeah.Like, Chuck, what's what's the

(15:09):
deal with like, when when arevegetables a problem, I guess,
is my question?

Right. Veggies, well, there is a high
histamine list of foods, andthere are a few vegetables that
land on that list, like avocadosoddly increase histamine. Not
that they're gonna necessarilyincrease inflammation in
everyone, but if your histamineload is at the line, it can toss
you over where you will have ahistamine response, which is

(15:34):
more like a skin response asopposed to joint pain. Got it.
When are vegetables a problem?
Vegetables are interestingbecause they have skins and
seeds, and those can be hard todigest for some people.

Got it.

So they're high in lectins, and those
lectins can be disruptive to thegut lining. There's also the
fact that vegetables, if eatenraw, take a lot of digestive
fire or power to break down.Yes. So even though salads are
great, salads don't feel greatfor every person. So what I
might educate someone on is I'llalways ask them, how do you feel
after you eat a raw salad?

(16:08):
And someone will say, you knowwhat? I actually feel terrible.
But I thought I was doing a goodthing for myself. I say, it's
not that the vegetables are bad,it's that your fire is a little
low. Let's build the fire, andlet's have you eat roasted
vegetables.
Let's have you make a soup withtons of veggies, because those
veggies are gonna be easy todigest. There isn't a one size
fits all approach Of course not.To diet or to veggies, but

(16:30):
veggies is where that's where weget our micronutrients, which is
how our body heals anddetoxifies. So I will never put
down veggies as a category, butthey can be rough on some
bodies.

They're like really fragile Mhmm. And need
some fire Yeah. Need somehealing, need

some So most people can eat squash. That's
always one that I'm like, okay,eat squash. If you're afraid of
veggies, you can still eatsquash. Most people do fine.

Okay. Yeah. That's very helpful. Thank you.

Yeah. And

then I have another question about
vegetables, which is what like,there is so much debate.

Yeah.

Here we are at this Eudaimonia Summit. Right?
Yes. This is like a lot ofconversations about longevity.

Yes.

I feel like there is some debate around animal
products

Mhmm.

And plant based. Right. And, like, whether or
not, even from an environmentalstandpoint

Yeah.

Like, plants, all plants are the optimal. I will
tell you, I was raised vegan,macrobiotic, and like all plants
I don't know if it's a traumaresponse or whatever, but

Mhmm.

I feel terrible when I eat vegan. Mhmm. And so
but people are like, well, froma longevity perspective, like
the data is clear. If you wantto live until 120, you've got to
eat only plants. And I'm like,is the data clear?
What do you think?

It's really mixed, actually. In the blue
zones, where people live to be100 or over 100, what they have
found that's common in theirdiet is that they have a plant
forward diet. They tend to allhave sweet potatoes and legumes
as a mainstay of their diet.They also most of them do
incorporate some animal proteinin their diet. It's usually the

(18:03):
the side addition as opposed tothe the main attraction.
So I think if we can gleananything from that, and of
course there are othervariables. They live on certain
latitude lines. Yeah. They livein community. They walk a lot.
There are a lot of things there.But as far as the diet goes, we
there's research that suggeststhat a plant forward diet is a

(18:25):
longevity diet. That doesn'tmean it needs to be vegetarian.
It usually means that animalproducts are not a mainstay of
the diet. And what's reallyimportant to distinguish when we
talk about animal products isthe source.
Mhmm. So a cow that's beenraised in a cage eating corn and
being given antibiotics andpesticide rich food is going to

(18:47):
have a very different meat thana cow that's been pasture
raised, living its life, grassfed, grass finished. The fat's
gonna be different. Theinflammatory profile's gonna be
different. There's gonna be lessarachidonic acid, less tendency
to cause inflammation in theperson who eats Sourcing is
everything, and really there'sother there's other factors.

(19:07):
So when we're in a growth stageof our life, so kid, you know,
raising well, if we're a child,if we're growing a child during
pregnancy, we have higherprotein needs. And it is harder
to get those protein needs metwith a vegetarian or vegan diet.
And when we're older, and maybewe're not building quite as much

(19:28):
muscle, we might not feel likewe need to have as much animal
protein in our diet. Reallytailoring to the person at the
stage of their life. And thenthere's variables like blood
type, you know?
Totally. The O types tend to becarnivores. The A types tend to
be they do fine with a veggieforward diet. But I think it is

(19:49):
it's really individualized, andwhat I see in my practice is I
see vegans that thrive. I seecarnivores that thrive.
I see carnivores that don'tthrive, and vegans that don't
thrive, and so we're alwaystrying to figure out what is,
you know, right for

that Really tailoring.

Yeah. And really listening to your your
own guidance. Does that foodlook good? Does it feel good in
my body? How do I feel after Ieat

it? Yeah.

Do I have more energy? Yeah. Do I have less
energy?

Yeah.

Such a good point. And all those things are
valid, how your own relationshipwith the food. What is
arachidonic acid? Arachidonicacid is it's basically something
that triggers an inflammatoryresponse in our body.

Yeah. Great. I've never heard it before. Yeah. I
love that.
Yeah. Okay. And then in yourbook, The Nourish Me Kitchen,
this is part one is a functionalmedicine guide, which is amazing
for, like, at home, like areference guide. Yes.

Everything you need to

that being done before. Yes. And then part two
is the recipes. In your nourishme kitchen, do you have sourcing
info for people who want to getbetter about the sourcing of
their animal products?

I do. I have a whole chapter dedicated to
sourcing. So, what to look forwith meat and poultry and eggs
and dairy and fish and guidesand quick resource guide, and
even some websites where you canhave things shipped to Because
we really need to focus on oursourcing

of our food. Yeah. Mhmm. Absolutely.
Actually, we found a local soit's like local ish.
It's like within state. Yeah.Grass fed beef, you know. Yeah.
So we can get it shipped to usat least like locally so it's
not coming from across thecountry because then there's
also the fact of like, but nowI'm shipping food.

Like, are we supposed

to be eating local? There's a lot crossed
wires.

It's really hard to do the right thing all
the

time. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. It is.
Yeah. I think that's fair. Yeah.Okay. Most people

Yeah.

Were not raised to trust their bodies. Right. Or
to listen to their bodies. Yeah.So when you say I mean, I know
what this means for me.
Yes. But for someone who wastalked out of listening to their
body their whole life, has onlymore recently started having
that stronger sense of like,maybe I do have some power over

(22:01):
my own choices and body. Whatare some of the signs that they
might look for in that could bean intuitive nudge?

Right. I love this question because it's what
I'm really trying to educatepeople on. We have been
outsourcing our own wisdom for along time. Yeah. You tell me
what to do.
This person said this is what Iwill do.

My doctor said this

twice. Said, my doctor didn't say I should
eat that, so maybe I shouldn'teat it. The end. How do we turn
the lens inside? Yeah.
And one idea that I've come upwith is fostering self care so
well in your own routine thatyou you just get a really
refined sense of what's rightfor you. And self care isn't

(22:44):
just taking a bubble bath orhaving time with girlfriends.
Self care is like the day today. I'm gonna eat that
beautiful soup. I'm gonna movemy body.
I'm gonna get in some sunshineand drink water. Because as you
feel more aligned and you feelbetter, then those little
whispers of feeling off getlouder. And you learn that, oh,

(23:04):
that is not quite Yeah. It'slike a whisper because, okay,
I've been taking really goodcare of this vessel, and now I
know that I can exercise in thisway and get this outcome. And
then the next day you show up,you're like, I didn't really
have much to give.
Like, sure, I'm gonna showcompassion that I didn't wanna
go big. Yeah. But what is thatabout? Is it because I didn't

(23:26):
yeah, it's because I didn'tsleep enough last night.

And then you know because you're so much closer.

Yes.

You're closer. Like, it becomes subtler. Yes.
Or it's always been subtle.Yeah.
But now that you know thedifference, it's almost like
intuition by contrast.

Yes, exactly. Intuition by I love that. And
the fine tuning just becomesthere's more and more trust
there because you're doing selfcare through love, and then that
love kind of comes through. Andyou sometimes I like to ask
myself if I'm thinking about,okay, what do I wanna do right
now? I I imagine the thing.

(24:01):
Do I wanna take a walk? Do Iwanna take a nap? What is it
that I wanna do? And I if Ican't like intellectually figure
it out, I ask my body, well, howwould you feel with a walk? How
would you feel with a nap?
And usually, my body will sortof be like, yes, please. Yeah.
Like, you can just feel

what it's saying. Yeah.

Yeah. I'd like that one, please.

Okay. I love that. Yeah. Okay. So as we wrap
things up here

Yeah.

I know that one of the things you're really
passionate about is breasthealth.

Yes.

So just like what is your if women are concerned
about breast health, if they'rejust really wanting to take good
care

Mhmm.

What are some of the things that we might want to
be thinking about to pour intoour breast health?

Yeah. So I recognize that we have been sort
of trained that the breasts areto be either feared, or they're
just like for nursing orsensuality. They're not really
just this part of our body tointegrate with the rest of us.
And so integrating the breasttissue with the rest of our
body. Massaging the breasts,just like you would do your gua
sha on your Put that lovely oilon your breasts.

(25:00):
Say hello. Massage your breasts.I do a whole thing about breast
massage.

Is that somewhere on the internet that we link?

It's in the Internet. It's in my book. Okay,
great. We've put

it in the show notes.

We should be massaging our breasts. We should
get to know what they feel like.What does normal feel like? Not
because we're looking forcancer, but because it's part of
our body. It's really rich inlymphatic tissue.
It does a lot of detoxification.There's a lot happening in the
chest region, and this is notfor just people with large
mammary glands. It's people withflat chests. It's male, female,
and everything in We all have achest, and there's a lot of

(25:33):
action happening in the armpitsand chest, and so massaging that
area, and then knowing that thefoods that you eat and the herbs
that you take support this areaor maybe detract from the health
of the breasts, and I lovetalking about that. We can do a
whole another episode aboutbreast health.
Okay. And I wanna make sure thatI talk about energy one more
moment, because I don't think Igave you I want more. Need

(25:55):
nutrition. We need to feed ourmitochondria, which are the
energy centers of the cell. Theyneed those micronutrients.
So they need b vitamins, theyneed magnesium, they need
glutathione, they need thosenutrients in order to function.
They also need the breath. We wecannot function without a lot of
oxygen, and so that means a fulldeep inhale, a full big exhale.

(26:17):
And these are the ways that weoxygenate and feed our body and
our blood and our energy is bygiving our body what it needs.

So beautiful. Lots sleep. Lots of sleep. Yeah.
Okay.
So I heard sleep, the rightvegetables for the right person.

Yeah. Right protein. We need protein for
energy every meal.

And I I can only imagine that your book Yeah.
Twofer Yeah. Is a wonderfulguide that covers all of this
Uh-huh. Soup to nuts.

It really does.

Okay. So folks, that's where you can go. Get
yourself the Nourish Me kitchen.

Yeah.

It is a two parter. Number one is the
functional medicine guide. Mhmm.At home, look anything up. Yeah.
You got your thing. Yep. Andthen number two is the recipes.
Yeah. Thank you for being here.

Yeah. Thanks so

much for having come to find you?

Nourishme.com. Oh, that's easy. Amazon. The
bookstore on Amazon too.

Your website is nourishme.com?

You know it.

It's a great website. Yep. Okay. Amazing.
Doctor Erica Siegel.
This was a pleasure.

Thanks, Kate. Such a pleasure.

Welcome back for part two.

Thank you. Thank you

for coming again.

It's great to be here and great to be in this
this studio, the womb. Yeah. ThePlenty womb. Here we are

in the Plenty womb. We didn't have enough time
the first time. We did not haveplenty of time. And so we
brought you back, and I'm sograteful that you were willing
because there's more to talkabout.

So much.

And one of the things that I've been diving
deep into over the last year, Idon't know if I had mentioned
this when we were togetherbefore, but I was quite sick on
and off for a year and a halfYeah. And was getting a fever
every single month. Right. Itwas like fifty fifty whether or
not I was gonna be well or not,which is bizarre because I do
everything Mhmm. To take care ofmyself.

(27:53):
Mhmm. So I really started doinga deep dive on mitochondria and,
well, really everything. But butfor whatever reason, I was
feeling very drawn tomitochondrial health

Mhmm.

And energy levels in general Yeah. Given that mine
were in the toilet. Yes. And soI'm excited to learn from you
about your research, yourclinical experience Mhmm. Around
how can we have good energy?
How can we feel vibrant,especially in a culture that

(28:26):
tells us, well, as you getolder, you're just tired at the
end. Is that true? Let's start

there. I think yes and no. As we age, our cells
become less efficient. And inthat way, we will have less
resources for producing energy,but it doesn't mean that we
can't feel great and vibrant,and it doesn't mean that we
can't do a lot to maximize whatour cells have, you know,
available. And a lot of it isjust improper living that

(28:57):
accumulates over time.
So the aging process, yes,there's the natural decline of
mitochondria cell health overtime, but it's kind of an
accumulation of stressors andoxidative stress that makes
those cells less efficient.Mhmm. Yeah. And there's so much
that we can do to intersect thatand have it have a different

(29:17):
story.

What are some examples of improper living? I
love the way you put that.

Improper living gosh. Maybe that's not
the best way to say it.

I actually really

like Just living is is stressful. Yes. It
is. Right? It is.
Yeah. Well, stressors that, canbe very material, like the food
that we eat if we're eating fatsthat oxidize quickly, or
stressors can be actual stress,staying up too late, worrying,

(29:44):
not tending to the body. Astressor can be an infection.
That's an a stressor to thebody. And not to say that that's
improper, but to the cell, it'sit's not It's not optimal.
It's not optimal. Yeah. And astressor could look like
nutrient deficiency,dehydration. There's so many
ways to stress the body.Overexercising can be a

(30:06):
stressor, and all of thesethings will have an accumulated
effect of stress on the cell andtherefore less efficiency and
perhaps cells that are reallydying that stay around too long,
the senescent cells that shouldbe cleaned out, and our
efficiency in cleaning thosecells out actually goes down as
we

age as well. Okay. So we're hanging out with
essentially, like, dead or dyingcells. Yes. So I have I we're
coming back to that because I'mvery interested.
Yeah. In terms of our improperliving. Yeah. Okay. So we wanna
feel amazing.
We wanna feel vibrant. What isthe eighty twenty? So what what
is the 20% of things? Right?Because as someone who is a

(30:47):
total health nut, I readeverything, I listen to
everything, I'm like up on allthe things.
I want to do all the things, andreasonably speaking, you know, I
run a company, I have two littlekids.

Wanna be flexible.

Just can't fit it all in, honestly. Like, my based
on all the things I want to do,my full time job could be taking
care of myself. Right. But it'snot because it's actually doing
other things. Exactly.
What are the 20% that youbelieve are gonna give us 80% of
those results in terms of ourenergy levels?

Okay. As far as energy levels. Yeah. I love
this question, and it willalways come back to the pillars
of health, which I know you area big proponent of, and you
live, and I've listened to yourpodcasts and your daily
routines, and I'm like, yeah,she's doing it. You are really
doing Tell me if there's onemissing.
There might be missing. Okay.Yeah. And I haven't necessarily
tracked exactly what you have inyour routine. But you tell me

what they are, I'll tell you what I'm missing.

Right. Okay. So first is gonna be nutrition,
what we bring into our body, thenutrients that we not only take
in but absorb, so that is goingto then require good digestion.
Hydration, and that requires theright electrolyte balance in our
body for our water to penetrateour cells. If we're talking
about daily rhythms, exercise isgonna be absolutely part of that

(32:05):
20% that's gonna give us thebiggest return.
The exercise can be a variety offorms. There's, you know, the
resistance training, mobility.There's the high intensity, low
intensity sprint training. Itturns out that all these forms
of exercise are supportive forenergy production. If we're
talking about on a mitochondriallevel, they all increase the

(32:27):
biogenesis or the the newmitochondria, and they also
support the cleaning out of oldmitochondria.
Okay. Cool. Movement is youknow, it has gotta be on that
prescription pad of, like, thefirst few things that are,
prioritized for your daily life.Of course, we want to sleep, and
we wanna prioritize sleep and doeverything that we can do to

(32:50):
optimize that window. There's somuch information about sleep out
there.
I'm sure you've dug into thisquite a bit, but really, like,
having the good patterns so thesleep hygiene is there where
you're sleeping in the dark.You're getting to bed before
midnight. You have a nice Oh mygod.

Midnight, I'd be dying. I have to get to bed
before 09:15.

Right. Yes. Exactly. 10:00.

Before midnight.

Yes. 10:00 is ideal. I mean, what people
should understand is thatsleeping from ten to six is
better than twelve to eight.Those eight hours are not
comparable.

Of the the like, I mean, I know in Chinese
medicine, it's like liver time,but what's your

It is associated with the Chinese
medicine rhythms in the twentyfour hour cycle, but it's more
about the circadian rhythm, ourmelatonin production, and our
stimulation of hormones andsynthesis during the night. So
growth hormone is happening atnight. We are doing a lot of
liver metabolism and productionand a lot of healing, and we are

(33:51):
we're an organism part of thisplanet that responds to the
light and dark circles just likethe flowers and the everything
else. And although we canoverride it pretty easily with,
you know, our modern day living,we do a lot better when we get
into the natural rhythm, whichis really like, you know, really

(34:11):
kind of winding down at bysunset and asleep soon after and
getting up with the sun. Now, ofcourse, it's different depending
on latitude Yeah.
Where you live. But generallyprioritizing sleep is gonna be
one of those 20%. Prioritizingrest, which is different than
sleep.

I think that's a pillar that I'm missing. Mhmm.

Yeah. The rest piece is really interesting.
It's very hard for productivepeople like you and like me to
say that is as important as thisother thing, because it can feel
wasteful. If I sit and justmeditate for twenty minutes, is
that as important as gettingthose dishes done or Right. You

(34:53):
know, responding to emails?
And it turns out that it is.When we rest, it's not just a
break from stimulation, but it'san opportunity for our nervous
system to get into theparasympathetic. Thank you for
the deep breath. Yeah. Justlike, okay.
Do that

too. Rest now.

Right. Right. Yeah. And that's that's so key.
We can rest without it being,you know, marked off in our our
day.
We can rest while we're driving.Yeah. We can rest while we're
waiting. We can say, oh, I'mgonna be here for two minutes.
I'm gonna breathe.
That counts. Yeah. So the nonsleep deep relaxation. Do you

(35:33):
know that acronym that'sbecoming more

No.

Popular? Nonsleep deep relaxation, it's
like the yoga nidra

Yes. Meditations. Is it literally n s Yeah. D r?
Yeah.
Okay.

Got it. Because antihuberman's talking
about it now. So now everybody'slike, NSDR, NSDR. That's
hilarious.

Yeah. So I

love that. It's basically like allowing the
brain to relax but not sleepbecause

sleep is Really, this is not so much about like,
it is and it isn't. Right? It'snot just your body being at
rest. It is your brain. Right?
Because I think we can be like,oh, no. I'm sitting on the couch
scrolling on my phone. I'mresting.

Exactly. Thank you for pointing that out. It's
really the brain because thebrain is so metabolically
active. Talking aboutmitochondria, the brain cells,
the neurons have the mostpercentage of mitochondria of
any cell in the body. It is likealways on, always working.
It consumes the majority of ourcalories, and it produces the
majority of our ATP energybecause it has so much work to

(36:32):
do. So if we're alwaysnavigating life and all the
stimulation that's coming in,our brain gets tired. And if we
say, okay, brain, you're gonnahave a break right now. I'm
gonna close my eyes. I'm gonnareduce all the input.
I'm gonna maybe do a progressiverelaxation, which is like what
yoga nidra talks you through.You give your brain an

(36:53):
opportunity to start cleaningout the cells that are are ready
to go and to have a differentexperience to go into the
parasympathetic state, which isthe the rest and digest and heal
state. Yeah. So these thesemoments of rest, those are
crucial.

That's great. Yeah. I I love that. You know,
yesterday I was driving toacupuncture, which is inherently
restful as well, but I decidedafter I got off the phone with
my friend, I was like, I'm justgonna drive in silence. Right.
And it felt so nice for fifteenminutes to just be with myself.
Right.

Reduce the input. So even though

my brain was still active because I was
driving

But it was one less

It is. Because Driving is sort of somewhat
autopilot.

Yeah. Yeah. I like how you brought up the idea
of just turning the radio offwhen you're driving, just
reducing one level of input, andwe know being parents that when
we had young children that goingto the supermarket in silence
and just driving the car or justshopping felt like a vacation
because it's less input, lesssensory input.

Yeah. Totally.

Yeah. Which is important for our brain to,
refresh itself.

So really what you're saying is Mhmm. This non
sleep Sleep Deep relaxation.Relaxation. NSDR is reducing
stimulus, certainly reducingphysical activity, but also
reducing input so that our brainYeah. Can rest.

And we

can do that

in degrees. We can do that in different
degrees.

Okay.

Yeah. The Yoga Nidra is an example of bringing
the attention inward, so youaren't totally just, you know,
letting your mind go, you'reactually bringing your awareness
inward, which usually will slowthe breath and allow you to feel
into your body. And that'sthat's really enough input just
to like be connected in thatway.

Yeah, Yoga Nidra is so amazing. There's a
wonderful book called Daring toRest, and then there's another
one by Tracy Stanley, which Icannot remember the name of, but
anyway, you can check those out.It's such a beautiful practice.
Okay. So so sleep Mhmm.
Movement, and rest. Goodnutrition. Good nutrition.

Yeah. Of course, we could go into that
forever, what that means. Right?Like making sure you're hitting
your macronutrient needs,protein, fat, fiber,
carbohydrates. Well, I I callfiber a macronutrient.
It's not. But Yes. Protein,carbohydrate, fat. Yeah. And
then, of course, themicronutrient needs.
Our body needs so many literalminerals and vitamins for all

(39:28):
the cells to do their work andeverything in between. There's
there's a lot of informationthere. I like how you talk about
that one of the pillars to yourhealth is having proper light on
your body and in your eyes.

It really has made the a huge, huge difference
in my well-being.

Yeah. I am getting that. I'm starting to
learn that for myself, andlearning the science behind it
is is what excites me alwaysabout something, especially a
newer or a more popular or newlypopular pillar of health, it's
like, well, why? What's what'sgoing on there? And it turns out
that the mitochondria arereacting to that that light, in

(40:09):
real time.
So, being around the infrared orthe red the red light, the long
wavelength light will stimulatemore mitochondria production,
biogenesis, and repair. Sothat's, looking outside and
being outside around sunriseearlier part of the day and

(40:29):
sunset. Doing that alone canchange your brain, change your
energy, make you feel morealive. Of course, can do red
light therapy with all the thecool gadgets. And I really like
how you are pretty strict aboutyour blue light exposure.

I'm very strict because I notice I feel
hungover. First of all, I feeldead at the end of the day when
I've looked at a screen all daywithout my blue light blockers.
Mhmm. And if I have been on ascreen at night without them, I
feel hungover the next day, likeI was partying until 2AM.

Yeah. It actually damages mitochondria

So that makes

to be exposed to blue light. Yep. In real
time.

So with red light exposure Mhmm. And mitochondrial
activity, do we is it justthrough the eyes, or is there
also benefit of actuallyexposing our skin to the light?

It's eyes and skin, so they each have
different effects on themitochondria. Of course, the
skin requires the light on itfor production of vitamin D, but
there's also mitochondrialbenefit that's different than
eye exposure. So ideally, youstart every day with the blinds
open, and you see light. And Iknow you get up before it's
light, so but, you know, as soonas

the
light's
coming

yeah.

I mean, I do my best.

Yeah. Yeah. But it's ideal to get some of
your skin or as much skincontact as you can to get some
of that, you know, five, tenminutes in the morning, five,
ten minutes in the evening,getting it on your skin actually
has additional benefit.

And obviously sometimes it's too cold to do
that, but even just getting itin your eyes. And what I had
understood is that it's not thesame through a window as it is
when you're actually just seeingthe light. Is that true?

It is not the same as through a window, but
there is benefit through thewindow. So, you know, first
level So again, it's

like the amount you can do is good. Right.

Yes. And and this will affect not just
mitochondria, but melatoninproduction. Our whole circadian
rhythm is going to depend onthese light dark cycles and
trying not to override them. Soas the night comes, trying not
to be in bright lights andcomputer light because, sure,
you'll still stay awake. It willkeep you up, but it's not it's

(42:39):
not the right kind of energy.
It's not an authentic energy.

So tell me more about the right kind of energy
and authentic energy. What iswhat do you mean by

that? Yeah. So, well, we think about energy
in a bigger sense. We thinkabout, okay, our cells need
fuel. So that goes back to thenutrition piece, right, to be
able to break it down and do thething and that's that's real
energy.
Our mitochondria use that foodand light for their job of

(43:10):
making the right kind of energy,real energy, which is ATP. And
we are also feeling the rightkind of energy from proper
thyroid function and adrenalfunction. These hormones are
producing the things that weattribute to feeling energized.
Okay. The wrong kind of energyis when we override a system and

(43:32):
we put stressors into the bodyto tell the body, hey, we need
to we need to run from thistiger.
Sorry. We need to stay up andfinish this report. You're just
gonna have to show up. Andthat's the wrong kind of energy
because that's gonna be fueledby cortisol, adrenaline. It
might be fueled by caffeine.
That's the caffeine at the wrongtime of day or for the wrong
constitutional body type, is thewrong kind of energy. It will it

(43:56):
will tell you you're not tired,but it's sort of, you know,
borrowing from Peter to pay backPaul.

Right. So it's like a Band Aid on a on the
indicator light on your car sortof thing to being like, my car's
fixed. What's the constitutionfor a body that would not be
ideal for caffeine?

Yeah. And this is so important for people to
ask that of themselves. Like,how do I feel when I have coffee
or green tea or black tea orchocolate? Because all of these
things are gonna contribute adifferent type of caffeine and
other constituents. And somepeople feel really alert and
awake and alive from that, andthat's okay.

(44:32):
That's good because it increasesblood flow to the brain. It
increases blood flow to themuscles. And if and if that's a
match for your body, great. Somepeople, when they intake those
substances, they might feelenergized and like they can do
the task, but they're also gonnafeel anxious. And they might
feel wired but tired at the endof the day.

(44:53):
So they're they're reallyputting putting additional
strain on their adrenal glandsto mount sort of a stress
response as opposed to a healthycaffeine response. And that is
actually dictated by our liver'sdetoxification of caffeine.
Okay.

And how easily or Yeah. Whatever or effectively
our body is.

Exactly. People will Metabolism. Cycle
it, and it'll just go round andaround and around, and they have
coffee, half a cup of coffee inthe morning, and they can't
sleep for two days.

Yeah. It's interesting because I have
friends who can like down anespresso at 10:00 at night and
go to bed, and I can't reallyhave caffeine past 11:30AM.

Right. They're hyper, metabolizers of caffeine.
Interesting.

Yeah. Yeah. It blows my mind. Yeah.

They also can metabolize other things more
efficiently. So people that tendto be slow at metabolizing
caffeine might be also slow tometabolize toxins in the
environment, Tylenol, painmedication Alcohol. Alcohol.

I mean, that's why I can't drink because I can
have a half a glass of alcoholand have a hangover.

Yeah. I just can't do it.

Yeah. It's just my body is like, please don't do
that. Yeah. I do I do fine withcoffee, but again, it can really
only be like a cup, maybe twoRight. And can't be past really
eleven or 11:30.

Mhmm.

Yeah. And that's just from getting to know
myself. But I will say I gave upcoffee for a year because my
adrenals were everything was atotal mess, and I really hated
it.

You hated not being on coffee.

Yeah. Not having coffee for a year. It was
brutal. Uh-huh.

For a year. Yeah. That's a long time.

Like, I got past a couple weeks, and I was like,
actually, I feel great. I missedit every day. Oh my gosh. I felt
like Yeah. I felt about it theway I have a I I do have a
couple of friends who used to beheroin addicts, and the way they
described the feeling that theyhad about missing it every day
was like, I feel like

Feel the same coffee.

I'm not, by the way, I'm obviously not fully
saying that it is the samething, but it was an interesting
thing. And then when I wentback, I was like, no, no, I'm
just better. I'm better I'm abetter person with coffee.
Right.

Huffier with it. And some people find that,
they think that coffee is theirmatch, but it's really green tea
is a better match or herba mateor

a different kind of Mhmm. Sourcing. Yeah. Yeah. I
used to be a mate person.
I love that stuff.

Yeah.

Maybe I'll go back.

It's very clean burning.

It it, like and it feels it it, like, tastes
like drinking the forest.

Yeah. It's very earthy. It's so

great. Mhmm. Yeah. So okay. Maybe I'll maybe
I'll add that in Yeah.
Or, like, do a swap. Right.Okay. So can you tell me I have
a feeling that many women in ourcommunity might have some
adrenal fatigue, but it may notbe showing up on their labs, or
might have some thyroidsluggishness, but it's not fully
showing up on their labs. Yes.

(47:42):
Can you talk about thedifference between sort of
standard of care and what yourdoctor might be looking for on
the labs versus how you mightknow you actually need support?
Yeah. When your doctor's like,everything's normal. Yeah. And
you're like, I don't feel good.

Right. This is the story of so many women.
Right? Yeah. I don't feel well.

This is what was going on with me. All my labs
were fine. There was zeroissues, and I was like, I'm sick
all the time. Yeah. I'm clearlynot okay.

Yeah. Exactly. There's a lot that we can't test
for appropriately, or or let'ssay are is usually are not
usually tested Yeah. Regardingadrenals. So the adrenals, the
thyroid, and the ovaries, workin a triangle with each other.
They are it's like a threelegged stool and they all
require, support from each otherfor optimal functioning. The

(48:29):
adrenals, which are two littleglands that sit right above the
kidneys, as you know, theyproduce adrenaline, cortisol.
They also have jobs in bloodpressure. They have a lot of
jobs. And when we ask ouradrenals over and over again to
override our desire for sleep,our need for food, our desire

(48:49):
for rest, we start to, get intoadrenal compensation.
So the first the first trendwill usually be overproducing
cortisol, and then we will startunderproducing cortisol. When we
overproduce cortisol, we mightfeel the wired but tired. We
might just feel like amped, butwe probably also feel pretty
productive. And this is verytypical for women, especially

(49:13):
women who work and have kids.They're just like going on all,
you know, all cylinders all thetime.
And then when they drop off iswhen they usually come into the
office, and they're like, Idon't know what's going on. I I
don't have the same zest forlife. I don't have that get up
and go. I usually can respond toa stressor, but then I'm
crashing in the afternoon. Sowhat's usually happening is

(49:35):
their cortisol production is nowgoing down.
Their DHEA production isprobably going down, which is
going to affect the hormones,the ovarian function.

Yeah.

And it all, you know, comes together in this
constellation of just feelingtired, maybe brain foggy, not a
lot of motivation. And sadly,the standard labs on a blood
test aren't going to point toany of that. If you test the
adrenals through the urine orthrough the saliva, you
specialized testing, you cancheck to see what does my

(50:06):
cortisol level look like over atwenty four hour period, which
is how it should be evaluated.Okay. The blood cortisol test,
the first thing in the morningblood cortisol test, all it
tells you is that moment intime, and it tells you also what
it looked like for you to getup, get to the lab, drive there.
So it's not an accuraterepresentation of your morning

(50:27):
cortisol. Like fasting. All ofthat. Yeah. So the only reason
that cortisol is really testedon a lab test, blood test, is to
see if someone has, Addison'sdisease or Cushing's disease,
like a real deal adrenal,pathology.
Everything else is adrenaldysfunction or like not being

(50:47):
optimal, which is completelybeing ignored by most doctors
and what so many people areexperiencing.

So you need a saliva test or a urine test
Yeah. Over twenty four hoursYes. For an accurate read on
your adrenal.

Exactly. Because you'll do five samples

Yeah.

Over the course of twenty four hours. I
really like the Dutch test.Yeah. It's actually available to
folks, not even through theirdoctor. They can get it online.
Cool. And it will map it outover twenty four hours, like
what does that curve look like?What does your total output look
like? And then you have an ideaof at least what does that day
look like for cortisol output.

Right. Okay. And it's still just a day, however.
It's a better indicator than onemoment in time when you're going
to the Much better. I'm curious.
One of the senses that I havehad because I've of various
places I've read and listened isthat one of the things that can
be not such a great idea whenyou do have some degree of
adrenal fatigue Yeah. Is intenseexercise. And that's tricky when

(51:44):
you're someone who is working onthe pillar of making sure you
get movement, and then there canbe in our culture this idea of
more is more, and I used to be adancer, and I struggled with
body stuff and whatever. And sothere's still some programming
around if it's not hard, itdoesn't count. Right.

(52:05):
But I wonder is, like, how do wegauge how intense our exercise
should be? Mhmm. Becauseobviously you can get movement
without it being intense. Yeah.Right?
Like stretching is Yeah. Allsorts of things.

Well one in I I agree. So exercise that is too
much for an individual willstress their adrenals, and so
that that's where you have tofigure out who what am I you
know, what is my body askingfor? One indication of is this
exercise too much or just rightis how do you feel after you
exercise. If you feel fatiguedafter exercise, like not just

(52:42):
like, oh, that was great. Right.
I've that was a great workout.But you're like, woah, need to
go lay down. It that's too much.Okay. And that means it's
usually the adrenals are thatare like, hey, that was just too
much for me.
I'm already stressed all thetime. Yeah. So, you know, that
HIIT training might not be theright match for someone who is
like always burning the candleat both ends.

Yeah.

However, I do like the efficiency of HIIT
training because you can do ittwice a week and get a lot of
benefit. And a lot of it isintuition. Like, if you feel
like, gosh, I really wouldrather take a walk than a run,
like today, I just wanna walk,then that's probably the right
thing for you to do. But go forthe walk. Yeah.
You know, the the walk is goingto be therapeutic for most

(53:25):
people, and it is really hard toknow. But intuition will take
you very far with what's theright match for me with
exercise. For, women middle ageand up, you know, we we both are
dedicated to strength training.That is so important for our
health and it's actually reallygood for the adrenal glands
because it doesn't stress theadrenal glands quite as much.

(53:47):
Yeah.
Muscle, building muscle, thehypertrophy of muscle takes a
lot of effort from the body, butit's not really stressful
effort. Oh. I really like musclebuilding as an important pillar
of the movement piece becauseit's not terribly hard on the
adrenals unless you're likeheavy heavy lifting, and you're

(54:08):
going for max. That that couldbe a lot. Okay.
But if you're doing eight to 12reps of something, you know, a
few times, the body likes that,and it's it's a good stress
without usually being too big ofa stress.

Okay. One of the things that you spoke about
earlier that I wanted to circleback to was, building up dead or
dying cells

Oh, yeah.

And not releasing them. Yeah. And you said
movement is one of the ways torelease them, but what are some
of those other ways that wemight be missing? Mhmm.

Yeah. So we, so the process of cleaning out
dead mitochondria is called,autophagy, and that is
stimulated by anything that wedo to support mitochondrial
health, but most specificallywe'll see that with, some of
the, like the good stressors,like intermittent fasting cleans

(54:58):
those cells out, hydrotherapy,so either sauna therapy, cold
plunging, cryotherapy, all ofthese things will clean out dead
mitochondria and dead cells.Also, we have a lot of
antioxidants in our diet thatwill help clear out dead cells.
Like chlorella is a greatexample of something that will

(55:19):
quite literally grab and cleanout dead cells.

Cool. Mhmm. I love that. Yeah. Do you put that
in your smoothies and stuff?

I don't like the taste of it. So I It's kinda
gross. I eat the little yeah. Ido not I've done that. Yeah.
And the color is like intense.It's really intense. Yeah. I
like a combination of spirulinaand chlorella together in like
little tabs, and I down thehatch because they they supply
the mitochondria with all of thenutrients that they that it

(55:47):
needs to function. It's like,you know, top five foods for
mitochondrial health, the stuff,the algae.
Okay. Should we? Should talkabout we're jumping around, but
it's okay. Right?

Yeah. No. That's how I am.

Yeah. I am too. Okay. So if we're talking
about foods for mitochondria,like what are the foods that the
mitochondria love? And just toback up a little bit so people
understand what mitochondriaare, they're the little energy
centers in the cells.
We've got thousands of them inour cells. They are basically
what create your cell'scurrency. So not just energy,
but efficiency. Like, job thatit the cell needs to do, the

(56:20):
mitochondria help it help itYeah. Do it better.
Right. Okay. So when we talkabout what is going to improve
mitochondrial health from thenutrition standpoint, foods that
are high in minerals, high inpolyphenols, and high in
antioxidants. So all thecolorful stuff. The ones that
top the list for that arepomegranates, kiwi, walnuts,

(56:43):
omega three fish, blueberries,all those colorful berries, and
the the algaes, the spirulinaand chlorella.
Okay.

Mhmm. Awesome. So ideally, you know, you would be
getting these into your dietevery day, a few times a week,
that sort of thing.

Yeah. Getting these things into your diet.
Also, electrolytes, even thepowdered ones that come from the
supermarket, they are soimportant for mitochondrial
health and act as a nutritionalsource for the mitochondria
because it gives them themicronutrients that they need
for the electron transport forthem to, you know, pass the
electrons down the line.

But like back in the day when there weren't
electrolyte packets that youwould order from Amazon or get
them at the grocery store, howdid people get electrolytes?

Fruits and veggies. That is our primary
source of electrolytes. Yeah. Imean, a cucumber and celery have
as much sodium, potassium,chloride, manganese, magnesium
that you need. Great.
Yeah. So you don't need thepowders. Coconut water is a
great source. Uh-huh. But fruitsand veggies should be our
primary sources of electrolytes.

Great. And what about, like, making those
infused waters? Does that helpwith electrolytes if I was to
put, like, cucumber andstrawberry and some water or not
really?

Yeah. It's gonna it's going to contribute
somewhat. A pinch of salt inthere, sea salt, would bring
that to the next level.

Okay. Great. Mhmm. Awesome. Yeah.
Okay. So I know that we arejumping around, but I wanna go
back and make sure that weaddressed all of the pillars of
health. Okay. Yeah. Because I'mnot sure that we got to

all So we did nutrition, sleep, rest, we did
movement. Well, of course,there's the pillar of I think I
consider this a pillar eventhough it might not be a daily
practice, but it's likeintegrity with yourself, like
tuning in, listening, whetherthat's the decision making of do

(58:32):
I sleep in or exercise or do Ieat this food or not, or the
real deal honesty about like, isthis the right job for me? Is
this the right relationship?Because if we are not aligned
in, you know, what's like trueto us and we're live kinda like
living a lie, like, you can'tyou can't supplement yourself

(58:55):
out of that. Right.
It can support you. But just therecognition, even if you say
it's not the right job, I knowthat, and but I'm choosing to
stay, at least you're like,you're still in integrity with
yourself because you'reacknowledging it.

Yeah. And you're making a conscious choice.
Right. Yeah. That one is soimportant.

It really is.

Now when it comes to, you know, the last chapter
of your book here

Mhmm.

Which is the first part of the nourish me
kitchen, the second part isrecipes, the first part is all
the knowledge and the wisdom

Right.

Is about aging gracefully. Yes. And obviously
that's something that I thinkeveryone is interested in, or at
least the listeners of thisshow. Uh-huh. So clearly
mitochondrial health is relatedto aging gracefully.
Yes. What do you think peoplemiss that might be a less

(59:48):
obvious aspect of I mean, weknow we need to sleep. We know
we need to be outside, we knowwe need to be moving our bodies.
Right. What do you think ages usfaster, or not so gracefully,
that folks are missing?

Dr. Erika Siegel (01:00:05):
Yeah. I mean, it's the recognition that our
day to day environment is,probably the biggest, source of
our oxidative stressors andthings that are aging ourselves.
So our face products, our ourbody products, our cleaning
products, the pesticides andhormones in our food, the

(01:00:29):
chlorine in our water. And arewe doing everything we can to
mitigate that exposure? I thinkthat some communities are really
dedicated to that.
Some people are really dedicatedto that and other people are
like, you know, what can I do?Not realizing that they do have
a lot of power in, you know,where they're spending their

(01:00:51):
money and what they'reintroducing their body to,
exposing their body to. Yeah.Mhmm.

Kate Northrup (01:00:57):
Yeah. And I think because it takes a slow toll
over time Exactly. It doesn'tfeel as important Right. Or,
like, even a thing. It's like,oh, no.
Windex is fine. Like Right. Thisis not a problem. Like, using
Clorox on my I mean, of course,now I'm throwing brands under
the bus. Right.

(01:01:18):
Anyway, just what you know,whatever. What have you. Or like
aluminum deodorant or something.Right? You don't it's not like
you put on a deodorant withaluminum, and then the next day
you're sick.
Exactly. It's twenty years ofexposure, thirty years of
exposure. So I think that'ssomething important.

And that's such a good point because, like,
we can have a glass of wine andwake up the next day not feeling
great. So we have that immediatefeedback. Yeah. But just like
you said, you use a product andyou're like, I guess I'm fine.
But it's these microinsults thatreally age our cells and our
cellular function.
And sadly, there's so many thatwe can't do something about, but

(01:01:57):
when we have a choice, I highlyrecommend, you

know cleaning products and and with the water
you drink. So what kind yeah.But what kind of filtering?

Well, I like the the Pure water filter.
That's what I use at our home. Idon't do, like, reverse osmosis,
and there's there's a lot morethat I could do with water. I
mean, there's really cool, likeadd hydrogen to your water,
alkalinides, and I just like tomake sure it's at least very
clean. Right.

So no fluoride, no chlorine.

Yeah. So the the Brita water filter, it's
going to be better than nothing,but it's not really at the level
that it could be. Okay. The thecounter water filters that or,
like, the pitcher ones, theyjust they just don't filter
enough. So water filtration,having a filtration on your
shower or your bath.

That's one we need to do. We don't do that. We
need to do that one.

Yeah. There's there's, units for the bath, for
the tub. You just you could justscrew it on and it will, reduce
the chlorine that's comingthrough because you're just if
you're taking a bath I takebaths all the time. You're
literally sitting in chlorine.

Does adding in Epsom salt help at all with
that, or is that just some otherbenefit?

I don't think it has an interaction with the
chlorine to to reduce that, butit has a lot of benefits.

Okay.

Yeah. Alright. I'm a big fan. I take a lot of
Epsom salt baths. Yeah.

No. It's amazing. I mean, obviously, the magnesium
is incredible. It's great foryour nervous system. Mhmm.
But also if you're soaking inchlorine, there's some drawbacks
there.

Right.

Okay. Yeah. So I think I mean, I I absolutely
think that water is one of themost important things that we
can be Yeah. Tending to. Mhmm.
And I think because they'reagain, coming back to what we
talked about at the beginning,there are so many things we
could be doing. So it's like,okay, we have to work with the
time, energy, and money that wedo have, knowing that when we

(01:03:47):
put deposits in and tend to oursleep, add in some non sleep

Deep relaxation. Thank you. Yes. I
know. Takes some rest.
But

anyway, some rest. Yeah. Right? Adding these
things in that that bank of timeand energy, and I believe even
money, will actually get Yes.Right?
So the more we do the 20% thatgets us 80% of the results, the
more reserves we'll have to thenadd in over time.

Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. I mean, for your
audience that is interested inso many different things, health
and abundance, wealth wealthcreation. The better you feel,
the more vital you are, thebigger ways you can show up in
your life, more productive youcan be and, you know, create
more and have more coming backto you.
So this isn't just about beingable to run the marathon or get

(01:04:37):
through your day or look goodwhen you're, you know, middle
age and beyond, but really whatyou're able to make happen in
this world. And Yeah. You know,I know that your your community
is really working and strivingtowards that, and I just what I
wanna tell people is that yourhealth is worth it. This you are
worth it. Your body is worth it.
This is this is your yourtemple, and, you know, honoring

(01:05:01):
it is is is valuable.

Mhmm. I think it's the most important thing.
Yeah. Because anyone who's losttheir health or has a loved one
who has Right. You got nothing.
When your body's not workingright Yeah. It you you literally
everything nothing else in yourlife can work. And so putting in
those daily deposits of that 20%that gets us 80% of the results
really does matter. And it isamazing how much it can make a

(01:05:27):
difference. Like I added inproper light hygiene and sauna.

Mhmm.

And those two things Mhmm. Have dramatically
changed. You know, I did a fewother things, but those two
things have had such a profoundimpact. I have not been sick
since July. Amazing.
And that's incredible Yeah.After what I went through.
Right. So I'm, you know, I'm ahuge proponent of we can do, you

(01:05:53):
know, what is that? It's liketwenty minutes, fifteen minutes,
a few days a week?
Yeah. You don't

have to do it all.

Yeah. It's not it's I did not have to, like,
revolutionize my entire life inany way.

So Yeah.

Yeah. Thank you for your wisdom. Is there any,
like, final piece that you wouldwanna make sure people know
around vitality and tending totheir energy?

Yeah. I think that people should try to invite
in the things that appeal tothem the most when we talk about
all these things that you cando. Like, what sticks out as
something that you feel like youcould get into the fold of your
life easily instead of feelinglike you have to do all of it or
do something really differentand weird? Like, if it appeals
to you, like, oh, saunas, thatsounds nice. Do that.

(01:06:37):
Cool. Do that one thing. Like,try to make it easeful and
something that can really justgo right into the rhythm of your
life. Like, one of the things Iteach parents when they say, my
kid will only eat mac andcheese. And I'm like, okay.
Add broccoli to it. Would couldyour kid eat it with broccoli?
Yeah. That could happen.Alright.
So you already have you havethis pattern, although that
might not be an ideal pattern,mac and cheese for every meal,

(01:07:00):
but now you've added somethingin that's beneficial. And then
the more beneficial things youadd in, it just starts to crowd
out the things that, you know,the improper living things. It
just they feel good, and theythey start to create their own
momentum. So grab grab just onething. Drink a glass of water
tomorrow morning, right, whenyou wake up before coffee,
before anything else.

Yeah. That's a really nice invitation. Yeah.
Thank you.

Yeah. Thank you so much. And it's all here
in my book. Like, I go throughmitochondrial health, adrenal
health, thyroid. Your book is sorobust.
It's really robust.

I what a body of work. I mean, unbelievable.

Thank So

so where can people get themselves a copy of
the Nourish Me Kitchen and andfollow you and

learn everything about on my website,
which is nourishme.com. Thebooks are available on Amazon.
You know, it's all there. I havea lot of blog posts with lots of
information. I have a, new onethat I'm posting this week on
mitochondrial health, so it'llreally dig into the nuts and
bolts.
So we covered some bit here, butyou can read, online about that.

(01:08:03):
And, yeah, I just encouragepeople to educate themselves.
Education is power, and it givesus empowerment to make the right
choices for our body. Amazing.

Thank you for

being here.

Thank you for coming back. Thanks.

I'll come back again.

Yeah. The best.

Thank you so much.

What if managing money felt effortless? You've
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