Ever felt like your body is betraying you despite your best efforts with diet and exercise? You're not alone. As we uncover in this fascinating conversation with Louise Digby, registered nutritional therapist and creator of the Nourish Method, those unexpected changes might have more to do with your hormones than your habits.
Louise Digby specializes in helping women balance hormones naturally through personalized nutrition and lifestyle strategies, including:
Advanced blood work to identify root issues
Customized nutrition and lifestyle plans
Stress and sleep management techniques
👉 Explore The Nourish Method → https://www.louisedigbynutrition.com/
✨ Want a quick reset? Try Louise’s 5-Day Metabolism Reset to repair your metabolism and balance hormones naturally!
👉 Join the Reset → https://www.louisedigbynutrition.com/challenge
Revitalize your faith and fitness with a morning routine that does not sacrifice your sleep and does start each day with God's Word and a workout. Join the community today at www.earlymorninghabit.com
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
the actual causes of hormone imbalance tend to be
more linked to gut health andliver function and deficiencies,
and stress and toxic load.
These are all things that candisrupt the balance of your
hormones.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi Rising Stars, Welcome to today's live training
and member-only Q&A.
If you are joining us later viathe Rise Renew podcast, welcome
.
We are so glad that you're here.
Ladies, as we get older, weoften start to feel more
sluggish and sometimes we feeloff.
However, unlike what mosttraditional doctors will tell
(00:43):
you, the fact is your hormonescould be the missing link.
If that's you, you're feelingsluggish, foggy, frustrated with
the changes in your body.
Hormones, not just lifestyle,could be the issue, and
perimenopause which, by the way,for many women starts in mid
thirties bring shifts incortisol, insulin and thyroid
(01:09):
function that can leave youfeeling stuck and out of balance
, no matter how well you eat orhow hard you exercise.
Today we have Louise Digby.
She is a registered nutritionaltherapist and creator of the
nourish method, and she helpswomen uncover these hidden
hormonal imbalances, usesadvanced blood work that helps
(01:31):
to uncover some of theseunderlying root causes that most
healthcare approaches tend tooverlook.
So we are going to dive intoday on how hormones drive
energy, mood, metabolism.
Luis is going to share how shehelps you learn how to work with
your body, not against it, andultimately, how some of this
(01:52):
advanced testing, how tounderstand it, what you're
looking for and then, ultimately, what we do in response to
those results to help you thriveand rise with more energy.
So, louise, welcome, it's suchan honor to have you here.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Thank you so much for having me and thank you for
that lovely introduction as well.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, I would love to hear a little bit about how you
got started.
I am guessing you're based inthe UK, based on your lovely
accent.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou do.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Sure.
So I graduated in nutrition backin 2012.
And when I first startedpracticing, I was working with
everyone and anyone, whatevertheir health goals, whatever,
you know, whoever they were andwhat I noticed was that pretty
much everyone whether they cameto me for depression or IBS or
(02:45):
skin problems or anything theyall also wanted to lose weight
as well, and so I had kind ofthat group of people that would
come to me, but then I'd alsohave a group of people who would
just come for weight loss, andI think what was interesting to
me was that it was the peoplewho focused more on the health
(03:10):
side of things that got the bestresults, as opposed to the
people who focused on the weightside of things, the people that
were focusing on restrictingcalories and portion control and
that sort of thing.
They didn't really get very far.
And so I also noticed thatthere was a group of women women
(03:31):
who were in their late 30s, 40sand 50s who had the most
challenging time when it came tooptimizing their health and
losing weight.
So I really wanted to bring allof that together and understand
why the people that wanted tolose weight struggled and the
you know, particularly the womenwho seem to be trying the
(03:53):
hardest and the most disciplinedgot the worst results.
So that's kind of how I gotinto that area really.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, and so I think what I'm hearing you say is
really what you ended upfocusing on are women who were
in perimenopause and menopause.
Would that be accurate?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, and I think, a question that a lot of us end up
having.
So I'm 38 and it's right atthat age where, historically,
when I used to think menopause,38 was not crossing my mind,
because no one talks aboutperimenopause.
It's like you've heard aboutmenopause but most of us are
only just within the last coupleof years really hearing more
(04:37):
about this idea of perimenopauseand how much of the struggle in
this decade really like 35 to45, it ranges but how a lot of
that struggle might actually berelated more to hormones.
So I guess question number onewould be what would be some
symptoms or indications thatthere could be hormone
(05:02):
imbalances, that there could behormone imbalances?
Because I asked that?
Because not every woman inperimenopause struggles like the
other woman in perimenopause.
So there's really there's a lotof diversity in what women are
even experiencing.
So talk to me about symptoms ofa woman who should be, for
(05:25):
example, getting the blood workdone, doing a deeper dive to
look at her hormones.
What might she be experiencing?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
There can be a huge range of symptoms, but I think
some of the early signs can be achange in your menstrual cycle.
For some women, that can bethat they bleed for longer, or
it might be that their cyclebecomes shorter, or maybe it
becomes more irregular, and it's, you know, normal to have the
(05:55):
odd blip, particularly if you'regoing through some stress or
something like that.
But if your cycle isconsistently different to how it
used to be, then that's areally good sign that you know
there could be some changeshappening in how your hormones
are balanced and how they'rebeing produced.
Um, and along with that, I findthat a really common kind of
(06:19):
set of symptoms are digestiveissues.
Um, estrogen has, you know,quite a an intricate
relationship with lots of thingsin the body, including our gut
health, and I find a lot ofwomen start noticing more
bloating, maybe being more proneto constipation or maybe
developing some foodsensitivities.
(06:40):
That could, of course, be causedby other things, but if you're
noticing that, at the same timeas, perhaps, your menstrual
cycle changing, maybe it'sbecoming more difficult to lose
weight, or maybe you startgaining weight despite not
changing anything, those can besome real key signs and also, I
think more PMS, like symptoms,can be a strong sign as well.
(07:06):
You know, being more susceptibleto mood changes or finding
perhaps that more of your cycleis dominated by fluctuating
moods or difficulty controllingcravings or energy fluctuations
the type of thing that we mightconsider it to be somewhat
(07:27):
normal to have a day or so ofthat typically.
But if that starts becomingmore than a week, two weeks,
then that could be a sign thatthere's more going on there.
Of course, no one should reallybe experiencing those symptoms
if everything is well andeverything is all in balance.
(07:48):
But many women probably findthat for most of their
menstruating life they mighthave a few days of PMS at least.
If that starts getting worse,then that's a sign that maybe
things are kind of heading moretowards that perimenopause
transition.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, and I also you know it's interesting because I
think for a lot of us it becomeshard to isolate these symptoms,
like you mentioned, because somany other factors affect.
You know, stress can affectyour digestive system.
I mean, stress alone can affectso many of the things that you
just mentioned which youhighlighted.
(08:28):
Right, it might notspecifically be perimenopause,
and so I guess that kind ofleads to the next question is if
there is a concern, especiallyif you're entering, you know,
statistically speaking, the agewhere those hormone imbalances
could be a player in yoursymptoms.
Talk to us about the testingthat is done, because I think I
(08:52):
speak for a lot of women whenthis is a very ambiguous concept
.
When you hear get your hormonestested, most women really have
no idea what that actually means.
Like what is being tested, whatare we actually looking for,
why do we care, what are wegoing to do about it?
So I think it'd be reallyhelpful to just hear an
understanding of what are weactually testing, what is normal
(09:15):
and what isn't, and what mightthat indicate for?
Speaker 1 (09:20):
us.
There's kind of a couple oflevels of testing.
Really, you've got the testingthat you might have done if you
were to go to your doctors and Ithink it's probably similar
where you are as it is here inthe UK.
They're really, when they'retesting your hormones, when it
comes to sex hormones, they'rereally just looking at are you
ovulating, which is what theyuse as a measure of copulating,
(09:44):
which is what they use as ameasure of, you know, are you
perimenopausal?
Are you menopausal?
And that's estrogen,progesterone.
Often here they won't even testthe estrogen and the
progesterone.
They'll just look at um, fshand lh, um, just to see if you
are ovulating or not, um, ifthey might look at those things
(10:05):
more, if you're on hrt or ifthey're trying to assess whether
you have a need for hrt butit's not often done as just a
standard or maybe yourmenopausal, perimenopausal.
Let's test the hormones.
You seem to have to push for itmore here, but I don't know if
that's the same where you are,but those are the hormones that
(10:29):
may get checked.
But then there's also thethyroid hormones as well, and
again, often it's it's quite abasic level of testing.
They tend to just look at yourtsh and maybe your t4 if you're
lucky which are again just avery basic measure of how your
(10:49):
thyroid is functioning andthere's a lot of issues with
thyroid testing as a whole.
Um, but though that can behelpful information, for sure it
can tell you if your thyroid'sfunctioning at a basic level,
and that's important to knowbecause that's, you know,
something that really controlsyour metabolism and also
(11:10):
interacts with your sex hormonesas well.
Um, when it comes to how usefulthose tests are for the sex
hormones, they have limitedvalue.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
If things are really out of whack, then, yes, you'll
have to see that and just letladies know what sex hormones
are, just in case anyone's like.
What are sex hormones?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, so when I'm talking about sex hormones,
really I'm mainly talking aboutestrogen, progesterone, the FSH
and LH, and testosterone as well, although doctors are always
really reluctant to go as far asto test testosterone here.
So, yeah, those are the sexhormones that we're thinking
(11:51):
about, but blood tests havelimited value when it comes to
the sex hormones.
They tell you how much of thosehormones are in your blood, but
it doesn't really show youthose more subtle fluctuations
or how they might fluctuate overthe course of the month.
So that's when doing moreadvanced testing can be more
(12:14):
helpful, because there's muchkind of more in-depth ways that
we can look at both the thyroidand sex hormones and how your
body metabolizes those hormones.
You know how your body breaksthem down and processes them,
which is a really key part ofhormone balance.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
That can often be where imbalances arise that can
often be where imbalances arise,and so give us a sense of when.
One, what the more advancedtesting looks like.
But then, two, what are welooking for right For the woman
that might be concerned?
This is what I'm feeling.
Maybe I have this imbalance inhormone levels.
(12:52):
What are you looking forMeaning?
What kind of imbalances mightwe see, and what might that be
translating to physically?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So common imbalances around the time of perimenopause
can be initially women canbecome estrogen dominant, which
is that can be that you have toomuch estrogen, but more often
it's that your progesterone isdropping quicker than your
estrogen is, so both aredeclining but the progesterone
(13:27):
is dropping off more quickly.
So they become out of balancewith each other and it's really
important that they're inbalance because estrogen is a
very strong hormone.
We kind of call it the divahormone.
When we have too much inrelation to progesterone, we're
more likely to experience PMSand mood swings and heavy
(13:49):
bleeding and difficulty managingour weight and more
inflammatory symptoms, and theprogesterone is a more kind of
calming hormone that balances itout.
So that's quite a common issuethat women see towards the early
stages of perimenopause andthen, as time goes on, you're
more likely to experience thesymptoms of low oestrogen, which
(14:14):
can be more like drying skin,aging skin or dryness in various
areas, hair loss and hairthinning.
It can be muscle loss and boneloss and it's kind of more
difficult to maintain musclemass and that goes hand in hand
(14:38):
with it being more difficult tomanage your fat percentage as
well.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And I think you said something that's really helpful
to understand, because this isnot my area of expertise at all.
So this is wonderful and youcan correct me if I'm totally
off here.
But the normal cycle of thesesex hormones for women, meaning
the natural course of things, isthat initially estrogen will go
(15:08):
up a little bit andprogesterone will go down, and
then initially estrogen drops.
But the challenge becomes, ifI'm hearing correctly, when
estrogen is rising, like wewould expect it to, but
progesterone is dropping tooquickly, then we sort of have
this gap between them where wewould want progesterone to
(15:31):
slowly drop as the estrogenslowly rises.
Is that correct?
Am I hearing?
Speaker 1 (15:35):
that?
Yeah, absolutely, and that's abig part of why we talk about
balance, because it's not somuch about the actual levels of
hormones, and that can be why itcan be misleading testing
hormones in isolation.
So it's really helpful to getthe full picture and also, you
know, just testing hormonesrandomly at a point in time it
(15:59):
isn't very meaningful.
We need to understand where youare in your cycle, when you
last ovulated and what all theother hormones are doing around
that.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
So is advanced, is more advanced testing.
And, ladies, the reason that Ibrought that up and pointed that
out is and Louise just touchedon it beautifully is that these
processes are normal, like thisis normal, you're not abnormal
because these things arehappening.
It's more so like you're notnecessarily trying to fix a
(16:30):
higher estrogen and then a lowerestrogen.
It's, like Louise just said,it's balancing it, cause I think
we have this wrong ideasometimes, like I'm diseased.
Right, it's like there's thisdisease or something.
Like this is very normal.
It's just healthcare needs toshift to help women transition
through these normal processeswith more comfort.
I mean that's the goal here,like we shouldn't be miserable
(16:52):
in these transitions.
If we can help, yeah.
Yeah the numbers more like,because what you just said that
I heard is that it's like theisolated numbers which we I see
a lot here in the United Stateswith gynecological testing.
(17:14):
It is more isolated, there'sless like cracking, meaning
you're actually looking at thetrend like what does more
advanced testing look like?
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
you, you can track over multiple days.
You know, in an ideal worldthat's great, although it can be
quite a costly option.
Um, but what's more helpful islooking at, kind of the the
journey that your hormones gothrough.
So from how they're produced tothe types.
(17:51):
You know there's multiple typesof oestrogens.
There's three different typesof oestrogens that we have.
So looking at all those freeoestrogens and then their
metabolites, which is what theyget broken down into, and
looking at a whole journeythrough to how they're
eliminated.
And sometimes that can meandoing a Dutch test, which is a
(18:12):
test that looks all of thosethings and doing something like
that alongside nutrient testingand gut health testing, maybe
even looking at the liver aswell, because all of those are
areas that really come into playwith balancing hormones.
And you know we talk abouthormones a lot as if they are
(18:32):
the problem, but really they'restill a symptom.
The actual causes of hormoneimbalance tend to be more linked
to gut health and liverfunction and deficiencies, and
stress and toxic load.
These are all things that candisrupt the balance of your
hormones Because, like you weresaying before, it's perfectly
(18:53):
normal to go through thistransition where your hormones
start to decline when theybecome out of balance with each
other.
That's something that tends tobe more driven by might be poor
estrogen detoxification.
You know, when we have thatinitial spike in estrogen at the
beginning of perimenopause,that could well be linked with
(19:15):
poor estrogen detoxification.
Or maybe you're not havingregular enough bowel movements
and you're reabsorbing some ofthe hormones from your guts and
the change in these hormones cankind of trigger off some of
these issues as well and makethem more prominent.
So when I talk about advancedtesting, often what I'm really
(19:39):
referring to is going that leveldeeper and not just looking at
the hormones but looking at howthe whole body is functioning.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So you get these results back and give us a case
study of maybe the most commonwoman and that sounds demeaning.
I'm not meaning that to sounddemeaning, but like the most
common patient that you see, thewoman that maybe most typically
goes through your office.
(20:10):
What do those imbalances looklike?
And then what are you doing solike?
Just give us a case example,what that looks like, how you
even approach that.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, so I'd say the typical woman who comes to me.
They tend to be someone who'salready eaten pretty well,
they're already pretty activeand they've found that the
weight is starting to go ondespite them not changing
anything or despite their bestefforts.
(20:45):
And when we run the tests, firstof all, they've often already
been to their doctors to havehormone testing and, um, you
know, look for deficiencies andthe standard kind of basic
testing that doctors do, andthey've usually been told that
everything's absolutely normaland they just need to try harder
to to lose the weight, or tooften that they'll be told lose
(21:07):
weight and then all yoursymptoms will improve.
Um, but when we run the moreadvanced tests, what we often
find is so often there are gutissues, when that might be an
issue with absorbing nutrientsproperly or imbalances in the
gut, bacteria and yeast.
Typically it can be anovergrowth of those things which
(21:28):
can cause inflammation andcravings and disruption to
absorption.
We very often find quitesluggish liver pathways, so
people aren't detoxingefficiently, and so often we
find that the thyroid isn'tfunctioning optimally as well
and there might be various otherthings going on.
But those are some reallycommon things that we see and
(21:48):
functioning optimally as well,and you know, there might be
various other things going onbut those are some really common
things that we see.
Is that blood work, by the way?
Primarily that you're takingblood work.
It's a combination of blood andurine so that we can assess
things in the ideal way.
So some of these things aren'tbest assessed through blood, and
I like doing organic acidtesting, which is where we're
(22:12):
really looking at the wasteproducts that are produced as a
result of all the metabolicprocesses that are happening in
your body.
That gives us a good insightinto things like how your
mitochondria are working and howthat fat burning and energy
production process are happening, and your individual need for
various nutrients.
So, yeah, when we try toaddress these issues, first of
(22:40):
all, we always do it in astep-by-step way rather than
like overhauling everything atonce.
We just work on one thing at atime, because any changes that
you make, you want to make surethey're going to be sustainable.
You know something that you canstick with in the long term,
because otherwise there's nopoint.
The issues will come back.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And you know which one works.
Ladies, if I could say this amillion times don't do
everything at one time, becausethen you don't know what's
working.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yes, yes, that's so true um and so where we start
will depend on the individual,but if there are gut issues, we
so often start there andnormally before we've got the
test results back.
We've been working on bloodsugar balance and and getting
enough protein and that sort ofthing, um, but once the results
come back, we very often startwith working on gut health,
(23:30):
because that has such a knock-oneffect on everything else in
the body, um, so we'll kind ofgo through it step by step,
strategically, like that, and,and that will involve dietary
changes, but not necessarilygoing on a diet in fact, never
going on a diet more making surethat the person is eating
enough of what they need andthat will look different for
(23:53):
each person, but basicallymaking sure that we're getting
plenty of nutrients, plenty ofmacronutrients, micronutrients
into the diet.
Focusing on exercise, again, notbeing prescriptive, but more
thinking about what does thisperson need to thrive?
And very often I have lots ofwomen that come to me that are
(24:16):
overdoing it a bit when it comesto the cardio and the intensity
, and very often we're thinkingabout actually scaling it back
in terms of let's do morewalking, let's do more strength
training, yoga, pilates,swimming, those sorts of things,
as opposed to running marathonsor, you know, spending hours on
the cross trainer or whatever.
(24:36):
Um, so tweaking their activity,also going beyond food and
exercise and thinking aboutthings like stress and sleep and
toxic load, exposure toenvironmental toxins and, of
course, mindset as well, because, again, there's no point making
(24:58):
these changes if you knowthere's going to be
self-sabotage coming in,emotional eating coming in,
because they're going to justmake you feel like you're
failing, basically.
So working on mindset is reallykey to bring all of this
together.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I'm just curious if you could say, in your years of
experience, if you could giveone nutritional recommendation,
one thing that you have seenmore often than not be the key
to improvement, what would it be?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
that's a really big question, and I would probably
be inclined to say proteinbecause, despite all of the
noise around protein it wouldhave been my answer about it
despite it being on.
You know what everyone's talkingabout.
Still, I look at so many fooddiaries and I very rarely see
(25:54):
someone who is eating enoughprotein consistently.
And you know it doesn't have tobe.
You know that you're onlyeating protein.
We obviously don't want that atall, but we just need to be
getting it in consistently andin good quality forms as well,
because, unfortunately, when alot of the food diaries that I
look at are achieving enoughprotein, often it's in very
(26:18):
processed forms, which has itsown issues.
So, yeah, that's probably thebest place to start for most
people.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Ladies, did you notice I did not give any hints.
They all know here how much Italk about protein.
It's the key to unlocking somany quality things about our
health.
So love that.
Tell us more about what youoffer, because I think where a
lot of us struggle and Alisontouched on it is that we don't
know where to go to get thistesting.
(26:47):
Half of it is just the realitythat you know.
We know we need more advancedtesting, but who do you go to to
see?
Because when you Google it it'syou'll get everything under the
sun and then you have no ideaif you can even trust the person
that you're going to to see.
So one, do you do this type oftesting?
You're in the UK.
Is it something you can dovirtually, if you will?
(27:09):
And then just tell us a littlebit about what you offer and
where people can follow you,join you learn from you.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yeah.
So, yes, I do do this testingwith my clients and, yes, it's
something that we can dovirtually, because we have labs
in the US as well that we canaccess.
So we yeah, I mean there arethere'll be other places that
you can get testing from.
You know, maybe for afunctional medicine doctor, the
(27:41):
experience that many of myclients who have been to a
functional medicine doctor havehad some of them have had a
great experience some of themhave just had tests done, been
prescribed supplements and thenthat's it, and it hasn't been
the full lifestyle interventionwhich is so critical, because I
really feel that supplements arelike the cherry on top.
They really help everything tokind of come together.
(28:05):
Alone, they can be prettyuseless, to be honest.
So that's just some experiencethat some of my clients have had
with functional medicinedoctors, but I'm sure many of
them are fabulous as well, soyou could go to a functional
medicine doctor.
But, as I say, we do do thetesting as part of our program,
the Nourish Method, and this is,as I say, where we bring it all
(28:27):
together and take you through astep-by-step approach with
one-to-one consultancy and kindof making sure that we address
all of the things that come upin a really holistic, strategic
way where you're going to beable to maintain it long term,
um, so, to find out more aboutthat, you could visit my website
(28:48):
, which islouisedigbynutritioncom, and I
also have a five-day challenge,which is quite a good way of
dipping your toe or kind of likea stepping stone, and that's
all about getting thefoundations in place.
Uh, you know, we talk a lotabout what we've spoken about
today in more detail thehormones, repairing your
(29:11):
metabolism, getting into toxicload and how stress impacts your
body.
Um, so we get those foundationsin place in my metabolism reset
challenge and then, you know,if you want to continue your
journey, then the nourish methodis a good next step after that.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Love that.
What is the URL for themetabolism reset?
Where do people go?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
If you go to louisedigbynutritioncom forward,
slash challenge that should,that should take you to it
awesome.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
We'll make sure that that is all in the show notes
and also in the app.
Ladies for the early morninghabit community.
I love what you do.
It's such an honor to have youand it's so fun when we get to
meet people from literallyacross the ocean or across the
pond, as we might say and thankyou for the amazing work that
(30:07):
you're doing.
Let me pray for us before we goand also thank God for you.
Luis.
Lord, thank you so much forjust the blessing that you give
us through education and lifeexperience and the way that we
can learn from each other.
Thank you for the service thatLouise is offering women and
(30:29):
empowering other women to thriveand there's just always so much
to uncover and to learn and I'mso grateful for the expertise
that you have given other peopleto share.
And I pray your blessing overLouise.
I pray your hand over her work,over her heart, over her home,
and that the fruit of her laborwould just be sweet.
(30:52):
And thank you for the work thatshe's doing.
I pray for the rest of us as wego forward in our week.
Give us strength, give uscourage, and thank you so much
for the many blessings that youhave given us and pray that we
would go forward well inside andoutside Jesus' name amen.
the actual causes of hormone imbalance tend to be
more linked to gut health andliver function and deficiencies,
and stress and toxic load.
These are all things that candisrupt the balance of your
hormones.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hi Rising Stars, Welcome to today's live training
and member-only Q&A.
If you are joining us later viathe Rise Renew podcast, welcome
.
We are so glad that you're here.
Ladies, as we get older, weoften start to feel more
sluggish and sometimes we feeloff.
However, unlike what mosttraditional doctors will tell
(00:43):
you, the fact is your hormonescould be the missing link.
If that's you, you're feelingsluggish, foggy, frustrated with
the changes in your body.
Hormones, not just lifestyle,could be the issue, and
perimenopause which, by the way,for many women starts in mid
thirties bring shifts incortisol, insulin and thyroid
(01:09):
function that can leave youfeeling stuck and out of balance
, no matter how well you eat orhow hard you exercise.
Today we have Louise Digby.
She is a registered nutritionaltherapist and creator of the
nourish method, and she helpswomen uncover these hidden
hormonal imbalances, usesadvanced blood work that helps
(01:31):
to uncover some of theseunderlying root causes that most
healthcare approaches tend tooverlook.
So we are going to dive intoday on how hormones drive
energy, mood, metabolism.
Luis is going to share how shehelps you learn how to work with
your body, not against it, andultimately, how some of this
(01:52):
advanced testing, how tounderstand it, what you're
looking for and then, ultimately, what we do in response to
those results to help you thriveand rise with more energy.
So, louise, welcome, it's suchan honor to have you here.
Speaker 1 (02:06):
Thank you so much for having me and thank you for
that lovely introduction as well.
Speaker 2 (02:10):
Yeah, I would love to hear a little bit about how you
got started.
I am guessing you're based inthe UK, based on your lovely
accent.
Tell us a little bit about whatyou do.
Speaker 1 (02:22):
Sure.
So I graduated in nutrition backin 2012.
And when I first startedpracticing, I was working with
everyone and anyone, whatevertheir health goals, whatever,
you know, whoever they were andwhat I noticed was that pretty
much everyone whether they cameto me for depression or IBS or
(02:45):
skin problems or anything theyall also wanted to lose weight
as well, and so I had kind ofthat group of people that would
come to me, but then I'd alsohave a group of people who would
just come for weight loss, andI think what was interesting to
me was that it was the peoplewho focused more on the health
(03:10):
side of things that got the bestresults, as opposed to the
people who focused on the weightside of things, the people that
were focusing on restrictingcalories and portion control and
that sort of thing.
They didn't really get very far.
And so I also noticed thatthere was a group of women women
(03:31):
who were in their late 30s, 40sand 50s who had the most
challenging time when it came tooptimizing their health and
losing weight.
So I really wanted to bring allof that together and understand
why the people that wanted tolose weight struggled and the
you know, particularly the womenwho seem to be trying the
(03:53):
hardest and the most disciplinedgot the worst results.
So that's kind of how I gotinto that area really.
Speaker 2 (04:02):
Yeah, and so I think what I'm hearing you say is
really what you ended upfocusing on are women who were
in perimenopause and menopause.
Would that be accurate?
Speaker 1 (04:14):
Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2 (04:15):
Yeah, and I think, a question that a lot of us end up
having.
So I'm 38 and it's right atthat age where, historically,
when I used to think menopause,38 was not crossing my mind,
because no one talks aboutperimenopause.
It's like you've heard aboutmenopause but most of us are
only just within the last coupleof years really hearing more
(04:37):
about this idea of perimenopauseand how much of the struggle in
this decade really like 35 to45, it ranges but how a lot of
that struggle might actually berelated more to hormones.
So I guess question number onewould be what would be some
symptoms or indications thatthere could be hormone
(05:02):
imbalances, that there could behormone imbalances?
Because I asked that?
Because not every woman inperimenopause struggles like the
other woman in perimenopause.
So there's really there's a lotof diversity in what women are
even experiencing.
So talk to me about symptoms ofa woman who should be, for
(05:25):
example, getting the blood workdone, doing a deeper dive to
look at her hormones.
What might she be experiencing?
Speaker 1 (05:35):
There can be a huge range of symptoms, but I think
some of the early signs can be achange in your menstrual cycle.
For some women, that can bethat they bleed for longer, or
it might be that their cyclebecomes shorter, or maybe it
becomes more irregular, and it's, you know, normal to have the
(05:55):
odd blip, particularly if you'regoing through some stress or
something like that.
But if your cycle isconsistently different to how it
used to be, then that's areally good sign that you know
there could be some changeshappening in how your hormones
are balanced and how they'rebeing produced.
Um, and along with that, I findthat a really common kind of
(06:19):
set of symptoms are digestiveissues.
Um, estrogen has, you know,quite a an intricate
relationship with lots of thingsin the body, including our gut
health, and I find a lot ofwomen start noticing more
bloating, maybe being more proneto constipation or maybe
developing some foodsensitivities.
(06:40):
That could, of course, be causedby other things, but if you're
noticing that, at the same timeas, perhaps, your menstrual
cycle changing, maybe it'sbecoming more difficult to lose
weight, or maybe you startgaining weight despite not
changing anything, those can besome real key signs and also, I
think more PMS, like symptoms,can be a strong sign as well.
(07:06):
You know, being more susceptibleto mood changes or finding
perhaps that more of your cycleis dominated by fluctuating
moods or difficulty controllingcravings or energy fluctuations
the type of thing that we mightconsider it to be somewhat
(07:27):
normal to have a day or so ofthat typically.
But if that starts becomingmore than a week, two weeks,
then that could be a sign thatthere's more going on there.
Of course, no one should reallybe experiencing those symptoms
if everything is well andeverything is all in balance.
(07:48):
But many women probably findthat for most of their
menstruating life they mighthave a few days of PMS at least.
If that starts getting worse,then that's a sign that maybe
things are kind of heading moretowards that perimenopause
transition.
Speaker 2 (08:06):
Yeah, and I also you know it's interesting because I
think for a lot of us it becomeshard to isolate these symptoms,
like you mentioned, because somany other factors affect.
You know, stress can affectyour digestive system.
I mean, stress alone can affectso many of the things that you
just mentioned which youhighlighted.
(08:28):
Right, it might notspecifically be perimenopause,
and so I guess that kind ofleads to the next question is if
there is a concern, especiallyif you're entering, you know,
statistically speaking, the agewhere those hormone imbalances
could be a player in yoursymptoms.
Talk to us about the testingthat is done, because I think I
(08:52):
speak for a lot of women whenthis is a very ambiguous concept
.
When you hear get your hormonestested, most women really have
no idea what that actually means.
Like what is being tested, whatare we actually looking for,
why do we care, what are wegoing to do about it?
So I think it'd be reallyhelpful to just hear an
understanding of what are weactually testing, what is normal
(09:15):
and what isn't, and what mightthat indicate for?
Speaker 1 (09:20):
us.
There's kind of a couple oflevels of testing.
Really, you've got the testingthat you might have done if you
were to go to your doctors and Ithink it's probably similar
where you are as it is here inthe UK.
They're really, when they'retesting your hormones, when it
comes to sex hormones, they'rereally just looking at are you
ovulating, which is what theyuse as a measure of copulating,
(09:44):
which is what they use as ameasure of, you know, are you
perimenopausal?
Are you menopausal?
And that's estrogen,progesterone.
Often here they won't even testthe estrogen and the
progesterone.
They'll just look at um, fshand lh, um, just to see if you
are ovulating or not, um, ifthey might look at those things
(10:05):
more, if you're on hrt or ifthey're trying to assess whether
you have a need for hrt butit's not often done as just a
standard or maybe yourmenopausal, perimenopausal.
Let's test the hormones.
You seem to have to push for itmore here, but I don't know if
that's the same where you are,but those are the hormones that
(10:29):
may get checked.
But then there's also thethyroid hormones as well, and
again, often it's it's quite abasic level of testing.
They tend to just look at yourtsh and maybe your t4 if you're
lucky which are again just avery basic measure of how your
(10:49):
thyroid is functioning andthere's a lot of issues with
thyroid testing as a whole.
Um, but though that can behelpful information, for sure it
can tell you if your thyroid'sfunctioning at a basic level,
and that's important to knowbecause that's, you know,
something that really controlsyour metabolism and also
(11:10):
interacts with your sex hormonesas well.
Um, when it comes to how usefulthose tests are for the sex
hormones, they have limitedvalue.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
If things are really out of whack, then, yes, you'll
have to see that and just letladies know what sex hormones
are, just in case anyone's like.
What are sex hormones?
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Yeah, so when I'm talking about sex hormones,
really I'm mainly talking aboutestrogen, progesterone, the FSH
and LH, and testosterone as well, although doctors are always
really reluctant to go as far asto test testosterone here.
So, yeah, those are the sexhormones that we're thinking
(11:51):
about, but blood tests havelimited value when it comes to
the sex hormones.
They tell you how much of thosehormones are in your blood, but
it doesn't really show youthose more subtle fluctuations
or how they might fluctuate overthe course of the month.
So that's when doing moreadvanced testing can be more
(12:14):
helpful, because there's muchkind of more in-depth ways that
we can look at both the thyroidand sex hormones and how your
body metabolizes those hormones.
You know how your body breaksthem down and processes them,
which is a really key part ofhormone balance.
Speaker 2 (12:31):
That can often be where imbalances arise that can
often be where imbalances arise,and so give us a sense of when.
One, what the more advancedtesting looks like.
But then, two, what are welooking for right For the woman
that might be concerned?
This is what I'm feeling.
Maybe I have this imbalance inhormone levels.
(12:52):
What are you looking forMeaning?
What kind of imbalances mightwe see, and what might that be
translating to physically?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
So common imbalances around the time of perimenopause
can be initially women canbecome estrogen dominant, which
is that can be that you have toomuch estrogen, but more often
it's that your progesterone isdropping quicker than your
estrogen is, so both aredeclining but the progesterone
(13:27):
is dropping off more quickly.
So they become out of balancewith each other and it's really
important that they're inbalance because estrogen is a
very strong hormone.
We kind of call it the divahormone.
When we have too much inrelation to progesterone, we're
more likely to experience PMSand mood swings and heavy
(13:49):
bleeding and difficulty managingour weight and more
inflammatory symptoms, and theprogesterone is a more kind of
calming hormone that balances itout.
So that's quite a common issuethat women see towards the early
stages of perimenopause andthen, as time goes on, you're
more likely to experience thesymptoms of low oestrogen, which
(14:14):
can be more like drying skin,aging skin or dryness in various
areas, hair loss and hairthinning.
It can be muscle loss and boneloss and it's kind of more
difficult to maintain musclemass and that goes hand in hand
(14:38):
with it being more difficult tomanage your fat percentage as
well.
Speaker 2 (14:45):
And I think you said something that's really helpful
to understand, because this isnot my area of expertise at all.
So this is wonderful and youcan correct me if I'm totally
off here.
But the normal cycle of thesesex hormones for women, meaning
the natural course of things, isthat initially estrogen will go
(15:08):
up a little bit andprogesterone will go down, and
then initially estrogen drops.
But the challenge becomes, ifI'm hearing correctly, when
estrogen is rising, like wewould expect it to, but
progesterone is dropping tooquickly, then we sort of have
this gap between them where wewould want progesterone to
(15:31):
slowly drop as the estrogenslowly rises.
Is that correct?
Am I hearing?
Speaker 1 (15:35):
that?
Yeah, absolutely, and that's abig part of why we talk about
balance, because it's not somuch about the actual levels of
hormones, and that can be why itcan be misleading testing
hormones in isolation.
So it's really helpful to getthe full picture and also, you
know, just testing hormonesrandomly at a point in time it
(15:59):
isn't very meaningful.
We need to understand where youare in your cycle, when you
last ovulated and what all theother hormones are doing around
that.
Speaker 2 (16:10):
So is advanced, is more advanced testing.
And, ladies, the reason that Ibrought that up and pointed that
out is and Louise just touchedon it beautifully is that these
processes are normal, like thisis normal, you're not abnormal
because these things arehappening.
It's more so like you're notnecessarily trying to fix a
(16:30):
higher estrogen and then a lowerestrogen.
It's, like Louise just said,it's balancing it, cause I think
we have this wrong ideasometimes, like I'm diseased.
Right, it's like there's thisdisease or something.
Like this is very normal.
It's just healthcare needs toshift to help women transition
through these normal processeswith more comfort.
I mean that's the goal here,like we shouldn't be miserable
(16:52):
in these transitions.
If we can help, yeah.
Yeah the numbers more like,because what you just said that
I heard is that it's like theisolated numbers which we I see
a lot here in the United Stateswith gynecological testing.
(17:14):
It is more isolated, there'sless like cracking, meaning
you're actually looking at thetrend like what does more
advanced testing look like?
What are you doing?
Speaker 1 (17:26):
you, you can track over multiple days.
You know, in an ideal worldthat's great, although it can be
quite a costly option.
Um, but what's more helpful islooking at, kind of the the
journey that your hormones gothrough.
So from how they're produced tothe types.
(17:51):
You know there's multiple typesof oestrogens.
There's three different typesof oestrogens that we have.
So looking at all those freeoestrogens and then their
metabolites, which is what theyget broken down into, and
looking at a whole journeythrough to how they're
eliminated.
And sometimes that can meandoing a Dutch test, which is a
(18:12):
test that looks all of thosethings and doing something like
that alongside nutrient testingand gut health testing, maybe
even looking at the liver aswell, because all of those are
areas that really come into playwith balancing hormones.
And you know we talk abouthormones a lot as if they are
(18:32):
the problem, but really they'restill a symptom.
The actual causes of hormoneimbalance tend to be more linked
to gut health and liverfunction and deficiencies, and
stress and toxic load.
These are all things that candisrupt the balance of your
hormones Because, like you weresaying before, it's perfectly
(18:53):
normal to go through thistransition where your hormones
start to decline when theybecome out of balance with each
other.
That's something that tends tobe more driven by might be poor
estrogen detoxification.
You know, when we have thatinitial spike in estrogen at the
beginning of perimenopause,that could well be linked with
(19:15):
poor estrogen detoxification.
Or maybe you're not havingregular enough bowel movements
and you're reabsorbing some ofthe hormones from your guts and
the change in these hormones cankind of trigger off some of
these issues as well and makethem more prominent.
So when I talk about advancedtesting, often what I'm really
(19:39):
referring to is going that leveldeeper and not just looking at
the hormones but looking at howthe whole body is functioning.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
So you get these results back and give us a case
study of maybe the most commonwoman and that sounds demeaning.
I'm not meaning that to sounddemeaning, but like the most
common patient that you see, thewoman that maybe most typically
goes through your office.
(20:10):
What do those imbalances looklike?
And then what are you doing solike?
Just give us a case example,what that looks like, how you
even approach that.
Speaker 1 (20:22):
Yeah, so I'd say the typical woman who comes to me.
They tend to be someone who'salready eaten pretty well,
they're already pretty activeand they've found that the
weight is starting to go ondespite them not changing
anything or despite their bestefforts.
(20:45):
And when we run the tests, firstof all, they've often already
been to their doctors to havehormone testing and, um, you
know, look for deficiencies andthe standard kind of basic
testing that doctors do, andthey've usually been told that
everything's absolutely normaland they just need to try harder
to to lose the weight, or tooften that they'll be told lose
(21:07):
weight and then all yoursymptoms will improve.
Um, but when we run the moreadvanced tests, what we often
find is so often there are gutissues, when that might be an
issue with absorbing nutrientsproperly or imbalances in the
gut, bacteria and yeast.
Typically it can be anovergrowth of those things which
(21:28):
can cause inflammation andcravings and disruption to
absorption.
We very often find quitesluggish liver pathways, so
people aren't detoxingefficiently, and so often we
find that the thyroid isn'tfunctioning optimally as well
and there might be various otherthings going on.
But those are some reallycommon things that we see and
(21:48):
functioning optimally as well,and you know, there might be
various other things going onbut those are some really common
things that we see.
Is that blood work, by the way?
Primarily that you're takingblood work.
It's a combination of blood andurine so that we can assess
things in the ideal way.
So some of these things aren'tbest assessed through blood, and
I like doing organic acidtesting, which is where we're
(22:12):
really looking at the wasteproducts that are produced as a
result of all the metabolicprocesses that are happening in
your body.
That gives us a good insightinto things like how your
mitochondria are working and howthat fat burning and energy
production process are happening, and your individual need for
various nutrients.
So, yeah, when we try toaddress these issues, first of
(22:40):
all, we always do it in astep-by-step way rather than
like overhauling everything atonce.
We just work on one thing at atime, because any changes that
you make, you want to make surethey're going to be sustainable.
You know something that you canstick with in the long term,
because otherwise there's nopoint.
The issues will come back.
Speaker 2 (22:59):
And you know which one works.
Ladies, if I could say this amillion times don't do
everything at one time, becausethen you don't know what's
working.
Speaker 1 (23:07):
Yes, yes, that's so true um and so where we start
will depend on the individual,but if there are gut issues, we
so often start there andnormally before we've got the
test results back.
We've been working on bloodsugar balance and and getting
enough protein and that sort ofthing, um, but once the results
come back, we very often startwith working on gut health,
(23:30):
because that has such a knock-oneffect on everything else in
the body, um, so we'll kind ofgo through it step by step,
strategically, like that, and,and that will involve dietary
changes, but not necessarilygoing on a diet in fact, never
going on a diet more making surethat the person is eating
enough of what they need andthat will look different for
(23:53):
each person, but basicallymaking sure that we're getting
plenty of nutrients, plenty ofmacronutrients, micronutrients
into the diet.
Focusing on exercise, again, notbeing prescriptive, but more
thinking about what does thisperson need to thrive?
And very often I have lots ofwomen that come to me that are
(24:16):
overdoing it a bit when it comesto the cardio and the intensity
, and very often we're thinkingabout actually scaling it back
in terms of let's do morewalking, let's do more strength
training, yoga, pilates,swimming, those sorts of things,
as opposed to running marathonsor, you know, spending hours on
the cross trainer or whatever.
(24:36):
Um, so tweaking their activity,also going beyond food and
exercise and thinking aboutthings like stress and sleep and
toxic load, exposure toenvironmental toxins and, of
course, mindset as well, because, again, there's no point making
(24:58):
these changes if you knowthere's going to be
self-sabotage coming in,emotional eating coming in,
because they're going to justmake you feel like you're
failing, basically.
So working on mindset is reallykey to bring all of this
together.
Speaker 2 (25:15):
I'm just curious if you could say, in your years of
experience, if you could giveone nutritional recommendation,
one thing that you have seenmore often than not be the key
to improvement, what would it be?
Speaker 1 (25:30):
that's a really big question, and I would probably
be inclined to say proteinbecause, despite all of the
noise around protein it wouldhave been my answer about it
despite it being on.
You know what everyone's talkingabout.
Still, I look at so many fooddiaries and I very rarely see
(25:54):
someone who is eating enoughprotein consistently.
And you know it doesn't have tobe.
You know that you're onlyeating protein.
We obviously don't want that atall, but we just need to be
getting it in consistently andin good quality forms as well,
because, unfortunately, when alot of the food diaries that I
look at are achieving enoughprotein, often it's in very
(26:18):
processed forms, which has itsown issues.
So, yeah, that's probably thebest place to start for most
people.
Speaker 2 (26:26):
Ladies, did you notice I did not give any hints.
They all know here how much Italk about protein.
It's the key to unlocking somany quality things about our
health.
So love that.
Tell us more about what youoffer, because I think where a
lot of us struggle and Alisontouched on it is that we don't
know where to go to get thistesting.
(26:47):
Half of it is just the realitythat you know.
We know we need more advancedtesting, but who do you go to to
see?
Because when you Google it it'syou'll get everything under the
sun and then you have no ideaif you can even trust the person
that you're going to to see.
So one, do you do this type oftesting?
You're in the UK.
Is it something you can dovirtually, if you will?
(27:09):
And then just tell us a littlebit about what you offer and
where people can follow you,join you learn from you.
Speaker 1 (27:19):
Yeah.
So, yes, I do do this testingwith my clients and, yes, it's
something that we can dovirtually, because we have labs
in the US as well that we canaccess.
So we yeah, I mean there arethere'll be other places that
you can get testing from.
You know, maybe for afunctional medicine doctor, the
(27:41):
experience that many of myclients who have been to a
functional medicine doctor havehad some of them have had a
great experience some of themhave just had tests done, been
prescribed supplements and thenthat's it, and it hasn't been
the full lifestyle interventionwhich is so critical, because I
really feel that supplements arelike the cherry on top.
They really help everything tokind of come together.
(28:05):
Alone, they can be prettyuseless, to be honest.
So that's just some experiencethat some of my clients have had
with functional medicinedoctors, but I'm sure many of
them are fabulous as well, soyou could go to a functional
medicine doctor.
But, as I say, we do do thetesting as part of our program,
the Nourish Method, and this is,as I say, where we bring it all
(28:27):
together and take you through astep-by-step approach with
one-to-one consultancy and kindof making sure that we address
all of the things that come upin a really holistic, strategic
way where you're going to beable to maintain it long term,
um, so, to find out more aboutthat, you could visit my website
(28:48):
, which islouisedigbynutritioncom, and I
also have a five-day challenge,which is quite a good way of
dipping your toe or kind of likea stepping stone, and that's
all about getting thefoundations in place.
Uh, you know, we talk a lotabout what we've spoken about
today in more detail thehormones, repairing your
(29:11):
metabolism, getting into toxicload and how stress impacts your
body.
Um, so we get those foundationsin place in my metabolism reset
challenge and then, you know,if you want to continue your
journey, then the nourish methodis a good next step after that.
Speaker 2 (29:29):
Love that.
What is the URL for themetabolism reset?
Where do people go?
Speaker 1 (29:35):
If you go to louisedigbynutritioncom forward,
slash challenge that should,that should take you to it
awesome.
Speaker 2 (29:44):
We'll make sure that that is all in the show notes
and also in the app.
Ladies for the early morninghabit community.
I love what you do.
It's such an honor to have youand it's so fun when we get to
meet people from literallyacross the ocean or across the
pond, as we might say and thankyou for the amazing work that
(30:07):
you're doing.
Let me pray for us before we goand also thank God for you.
Luis.
Lord, thank you so much forjust the blessing that you give
us through education and lifeexperience and the way that we
can learn from each other.
Thank you for the service thatLouise is offering women and
(30:29):
empowering other women to thriveand there's just always so much
to uncover and to learn and I'mso grateful for the expertise
that you have given other peopleto share.
And I pray your blessing overLouise.
I pray your hand over her work,over her heart, over her home,
and that the fruit of her laborwould just be sweet.
(30:52):
And thank you for the work thatshe's doing.
I pray for the rest of us as wego forward in our week.
Give us strength, give uscourage, and thank you so much
for the many blessings that youhave given us and pray that we
would go forward well inside andoutside Jesus' name amen.
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