June 4, 2025 • 28 mins
The principal focus of this podcast episode revolves around the intricate and often misunderstood transition of perimenopause that women experience, which can last up to a decade. We engage in a profound dialogue with our guest, Amita Sharma who shares her personal journey through this transitional phase and the significant impact it has had on her life and professional endeavors. The conversation emphasizes the necessity for both awareness and education regarding the myriad of symptoms associated with perimenopause, as well as the role that partners and society must play in supporting women during this time. Furthermore, we explore the essential lifestyle modifications and holistic approaches that can empower women to navigate this challenging period healthily and gracefully. Ultimately, our discussion aims to destigmatize this natural transition, fostering a greater understanding and acceptance within both personal and professional spheres.
The dialogue presents a compelling exploration of the intersection between personal experience and broader societal implications pertaining to perimenopause. The speakers recount their individual journeys, highlighting how the onset of hormonal fluctuations can lead to significant life disruptions, including challenges in professional settings. This aspect of the conversation underscores the urgent need for workplaces to recognize and accommodate the realities of women experiencing perimenopause, thereby dismantling the stigma that often surrounds these discussions.
Additionally, Amita articulates the importance of self-care and lifestyle modifications as fundamental strategies for navigating the complexities of perimenopause. She emphasizes the necessity of a holistic approach that encompasses dietary changes, exercise, and mental health practices, all of which can alleviate some of the distressing symptoms associated with this transition. The episode serves not only as a source of information but also as a beacon of hope, illustrating that with the right support and resources, women can thrive during this challenging phase. Through insightful commentary and shared experiences, the speakers inspire a collective movement toward greater awareness and advocacy for women's health issues.
Takeaways:
- In our discussion, we highlighted the importance of understanding perimenopause as a significant transitional phase for women, which often lasts up to a decade.
- Amita explores how hormonal fluctuations during perimenopause can lead to various symptoms, including hot flashes, mood swings, and changes in gut health.
- She emphasizes the necessity of open communication regarding perimenopause, as many women feel embarrassed or ashamed to discuss their experiences.
- Amita advocates for a holistic approach to managing perimenopause, incorporating lifestyle changes, dietary adjustments, and self-care practices to enhance well-being.
- She discusses the role of partners and society in supporting women through this transition, stressing the need for education and normalization of these discussions.
- We introduced our initiative to provide accessible resources and support for women navigating the complexities of perimenopause and menopause.
Links referenced in this episode:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:49):
Well, Amita, welcome to thepodcast. How you doing today?
Great. Great. Thank you somuch, you know, for including this
topic, including me. So I'mreally excited to have this conversation.
Well, I like to shock myaudience. You know, if I always give
them the same kind of content,they kind of get used to it. So I
like to kind of mix it up alittle bit. And you have an interesting
(01:11):
topic as we talked aboutbefore we got on. It's like, you
may not be a woman, but youeither have a woman in your life
or in your workplace, andthat's impacted by this topic. And
it's a good thing for us tolearn more about how we can better
understand each other.
Absolutely. And, you know,things will unfold as we start the
discussion.
Good. Let's start with myfavorite question, though. What's
(01:32):
the best piece of advice youever received?
You know, it was from aspiritual guru, and I used to be
very kind of. I was never aconfident person when I was growing
up, and she told me to believein yourself and listen to your inner
voice. I think that's the bestadvice I've ever gotten.
That's good. I like that.Because a lot of times we ignore
(01:54):
our feelings. And God has away of trying to connect to us through,
I always say, various sources.Sometimes it's music, sometimes it's
friends, sometimes it's advicewe get, and it's just a matter of
tapping into whatever he'strying to communicate to us.
Absolutely. And sometimesthings that are happening in your
life that. That you did notthink it should have happened that
(02:16):
way, or a person is behavingin a way and you try to blame yourself.
Right. How can I improve toplease this person? It's very hard
to listen to your inner voice,that whatever is going on is not
right. So I think it's hardfor us to do that. We always get
muddled up with voices thatare telling us what to do, not listening
(02:38):
to what your heart is tellingor, you know, what your mind is saying.
Exactly. That's very true. Asyou think about your journey in life
and in your business, who aresome people that served as a mentor
or even to inspire you ontheir. On your journey?
There hasn't been, like amentor mentor. But I am definitely
(03:00):
inspired by some of the womenin today's day and age who are trying
to make a difference. LikeMelinda Gates is one of the persons.
I truly admire what she'strying to do. She has the courage
to stand on what she believesin, and she's trying to help A lot
of women with her charitableorganizations and the work that she's
(03:24):
doing. I think she's oneperson that I think I admire a lot
for the courage. It's not easyto leave the richest man in the world.
I don't know if I, you know,I'm thinking if I had been, would
have been. It's verydifficult. You know, the money clouds
your judgment here.
(03:44):
I'm sure she didn't leaveempty handed, but.
I know, I know.
That's a good point. A goodpoint though.
Yeah.
So tell us about your personaljourney through perimenopause and
how it inspired you to cofound neurostock.
Yeah. So you know,perimenopause is something which
(04:06):
most of us are not evenfamiliar with this term. And so,
and I was oblivious as well.And the only way I found out, well,
actually I learned about thisterm two, three years back when I
started digging into what Iwanted to do for Narayish Talk. But
at the time I started havingstrange symptoms at workplace, which
(04:27):
were very embarrassing, whichsomething I could not talk about.
And, and, and that issomething. And I didn't realize I
was barely 40 years old and Idid not realize at the time that
I was entering these hormonalfluctuations and the term called
perimenopause. I wascompletely oblivious of that. And,
and, and at that time I didnot think, one day I'll be sitting
(04:49):
and we'll be talking aboutthis topic and I'll be talking, you
know, getting a company out ofit. I had never, I just wanted to
survive. It was so bad.
Right.
Survive my workplace, survivemy life, survive my relationships.
Because everything went topsyturvy that I can tell you that.
(05:10):
So for, for being a man, notunderstanding it, maybe even women
don't understand it. Can youkind of define for us what is perimenopause?
Yeah. So perimenopause at thetransition years for women before
they hit menopause. So, somenopause is not a switch that happens
for, you know, that cessationof periods for women. Menstrual cycle
(05:32):
stops at that time when awoman hits menopause. And that's
generally 51, 52. That's theaverage age. But most of us don't
realize that the before ourbody hits that menopause, the body
starts preparing a woman. Itcould be a decade, it could be a
few years, it could be up to adecade or more. And that is the transition
(05:56):
years when the hormones, thefemale sex hormones start behaving
erratically and women startGetting irregular periods. And like
I said, it could take up to 10years before the actual cessation
of the menstrual cycle happensfor a woman. So this perimenopause,
these transition years whenthere's women, you know, hormones
(06:19):
are going all over and thereare so many symptoms that come up
unprepared, unpredictable. Allthose things are happening during
the.
Perimenopause phase as womenare going through that. What are
some things you've discoveredin your work to help them deal with
this transition period?
So, so, so many things changefor women. See, we don't understand
(06:41):
as women, even as a society oras a community all over the world
is that so many things changefor women when these hormone fluctuations
are happening. Like, like yourgut microbiome changes, your brain
changes, believe it or not. Sothese are major changes that are
happening. So you have tomodify your diet, you have to change
(07:03):
your lifestyle. These are someof the things. This is like non negotiable
kind of a thing if you want to survive.
Sure, yeah.
Navigate this journey, youknow, without any, like. And it's
not just one pill that's theproblem. Like, you know, this morning
I was, there's so many weightloss pills that are coming up. You
take a pill and boom, it goes.Unfortunately for the perimenopause
(07:25):
journey, you can't take onepill. You can take one pill for the
hot flash, but then somethingelse would go wrong is what I'm saying.
Right. So you have to changeyour diet, your lifestyle modifications,
you have to bring in health,exercise. These are the just fundamentals
women have to do if they donot want to end up with a chronic
(07:47):
conditions. You know, whenthey're much older or they don't,
they can have, you know, theycan manage their perimenopause journey
properly if they don't makethese things.
What are some symptoms thatwomen need to be aware of? Because
I think sometimes you saidthey're not aware it's happening.
So what should they be lookingout for as per. Menopause is beginning
(08:09):
to happen because everybodygoes through a different time, I'm
sure, different ways. What aresome common things that they could
say, hey, I think this is thebeginning of something?
Yeah. So. So the first thingis the irregular menstrual cycle.
That's the first sign womanwould know initially in the earlier
phase of perimenopause. It's,it's kind of, it's not after 21 days
(08:34):
or 20, 28 days, whatever, it's15 days, it's shorter and then as
a woman starts progressingcloser to menopause, it goes further
apart. So as a result of that,some of the common symptoms are hot
flashes, night sweats. That'swhat I had. And then as a part of
that, you can't sleep atnight. Now as a lack of sleep in
(08:57):
the morning, you're fogged up,your brain is fogged up. You're not
able to focus. And because ofthat, you can get anxiety. And because
of anxiety, your gut healthgets constipated and you can have
mood swings, emotionaloutbursts. Sometimes you feel like
crying. And then because ofall this, because of the gut health
is now kind of screwed up. Youtend to put on weight, specifically
(09:21):
around the midriff. Thebloating. The bloating starts happening.
It sometimes gets so bad thatduring the day you're kind of going
like a balloon from one toanother. So. And then hair thinning
is another one. So skin,there's so much. It's, it's like
everything, right? And, and,and also for some women, loss of
(09:42):
libido and, and pain, youknow, so that can impact relationships.
So it's like, I'm saying it'snot just one thing. It's. It's like
a multitude of so many things,but these are all common. These are
not uncommon, by the way.There are, there's a lot of common.
Now the difference is it'sdifferent for every woman, and it's
(10:02):
also different for, for womenas per cultural and ethnic background.
That is the key, keydetermination here as well.
You say this could take up to10 years for this. To. How in that
process, how do you, how doesyour partner support you in that.
Cause that's, that's a longtime to go through these mood swings,
(10:24):
the changes in your. So, but,so what are some things that the
people in the life who areimportant can do to help support
women as they go through this,this transition?
It's very important and I tellyou why. 60% of women who are going
through divorce are duringthis phase of life, perimenopause,
menopause. So certainly nobodyhas put the correlation, but certainly
(10:46):
if someone has to do theresearch study, there would be a
correlation of this right now,the first thing is the education.
We don't understand thisphase. That's the, that is the fundamental
problem. The perimenopausephase specifically is what I'm talking
about. Even as a woman, asmen, we don't understand this phase.
So the first really is theeducation, the awareness of how it's
(11:09):
lasting 10 years and what isit that you can do to educate yourself
to changing your lifestyle? Ifsomeone needs an expert advice, I'm
talking about health expertadvice, you know, seeking it out,
being open communication, allthese things would help. But right
now the problem is it's stillconsidered a taboo topic. There's
(11:31):
a shame involved in this.Sometimes there's a guilt factor.
You know, women are like that.There's. They're trying to look the
way they used to look whenthey were 20 years old, trying to
do the diet part, not eatingproperly. So the partner has to also
understand these feelings awoman is going through. And it's
(11:52):
hard, it's not easy. But theonly way you could do that is by
open communication, awarenessof this topic, like you and I are
doing now.
I love that you mentioned thatthere are so many different things
that a woman is going through.Her gut biome is off, her hormones
are off, her hair is thinning.There's a lot of change she has to
(12:15):
make in her lifestyle anddiet. How do you know or what tests
do women get duringperimenopause that says, okay, here's
the way to holisticallyapproach this aspect of the perimenopause
journey you're on. Becausethere's so many things going on at
once.
Yeah. So typically I'm not amedical doctor. I just have to put
a medical disclaimer herebefore I. But I have interviewed
(12:40):
about 1500 or maybe a lot ofholistic health experts, including
medical doctors. So typicallywhat the medical doctors are saying
is the Dutch test, It's aDutch test is of like a universal
test for hormone hormones.And, but the problem is it cannot
be. Sometimes it, it, it's notaccurate because of the fluctuations
(13:02):
that's happening during day today in a woman's life. Right. So
let's say if someone says,okay, I'm going through perimenopause,
I'm like two years in and Iget this Dutch test that might not
be accurate. That's theproblem. So you almost have to have
a baseline and you're normal,like you know, pre menopausal like
before the perimenopause. Theother test they talk about is the
(13:25):
gut microbiome test. They canfigure out, you know, if the gut
health is impaired, they needto fix it. So that's the other test
that a lot of doctors end updoing, you know, and then they are
also doing regular blood workto see any deficiencies, nutritional,
you know, any deficiencies atall. So these are all the things
(13:47):
women should, you Know, I tryto get on a regular basis to make
sure that, you know, I haveall, all the necessary nutrients.
Right, right, exactly. So wetalk about the relationship part
of this. What's it like in theworkplace when women are going through
perimenopause?
So workplace can be veryembarrassing. I mean it was for me
(14:08):
because the thing was I didnot understand that I was going through
perimenopause. If I hadunderstood this is what I'm going
through, I would have been alittle bit better. So I think most
of women are like that.They're just caught unprepared. So
suddenly you're sitting in ameeting and you start sweating. It
can be very embarrassing. Andyou might think that something else
(14:33):
is going on in your body andyou might not relate this perimenopause
because you're still youngeror young. Young enough, I should
say that. So I think theworkplace is very important for the
managers and the work thecorporates to incorporate this. The
reason is 50% of the workforceis women. Now whether we like it
(14:53):
or not, that is the truth.Right. You know, so how do you support
them? And most of the womenagain at workplace, they don't talk.
I mean I never talked toanyone. I was like, oh my God, if
I go talk to someone like anhr, what am I supposed to do? And
they will judge me, you know,that I can't do my work. So see,
(15:15):
all these feelings startcoming, right? So I'm telling you
my feelings. I'm like, oh myGod, people are going to judge me.
I can't do my work properly. Ican't even hold myself properly in
front of the people. I startsweating like a crazy person. I don't
know what to do. Right. So, sothe women feel kind of embarrassed
and, and, and, and just don'tknow what to do sometimes.
(15:38):
Exactly.
It has to be normalized,Right. This is not a disease. See,
we, we. This wholeperimenopause is not something someone
has caught on a disease thatit's not a chronic disease that you're
going to live. We never wantto talk about it. We need to normalize
the discussion everywhere iswhat I'm saying. Right, Right.
So tell us about what you doto help women through this period.
(16:00):
So our focus is step numberone is self care. Right. If no matter
if you get on hrt, it's ahormone replacement therapy. What
a lot of doctors say women cando to help themselves. But if you
don't take care of yourself,self care. When I talk about a self
care I was talking about, youknow, really incorporating holistic
(16:23):
therapies. What I mean is yourchanging of diet, your exercise,
your yoga, your breath work.Right. Your hypnotherapy, your counseling.
Because mental health becomesan issue for women, a lot of them.
And then also youraromatherapy, your. Some of the ayurvedic
massage therapies, some of theacupuncture sessions. These are the
(16:46):
things that women can dothemselves in the sense like if they
learn how to take care ofthemselves. Then of course the consulting
or guided sort of with theexperts is supplementation. Right,
Supplementation. We don'trecommend that you start taking all
kind of herbs in your bodynow. Right. But the right type of
(17:09):
supplementation with the rightkind of consultation, these are things
what we are talking aboutinitially. And then if someone needs
an hrt, which is a hormonereplacement therapy a lot of doctors
want, so you should do that.It depends on every woman. Every
woman is different. Right. Sothose are the things. What we are
(17:30):
trying to do is reallystarting with the basics of education,
self care, then go to the nexttier of guided with the expert and
then the consultation with theexpert and then whatever you want
to do, hrt. So I want to makeit affordable. I don't want to be
this to be again, only forrich women or only for women who
(17:52):
are privileged. Right, right.Again, we are going to have a disparity
or inequity. Right. And that'snot right. That's not right.
No, it's not.
Yeah.
So share a success story ofsomeone who you've worked with during
this process. We always liketo hear success stories of how someone's
managed to. Because we needwomen to know that you will survive
(18:14):
this.
Yeah, yeah. So most of thepeople I've interviewed have been
women who have, who tried alot of different things and then
they ended up doing what I'mjust describing. Right. Changing
their entire lifestyle and allthat. I myself, I can share my success
story because I know it muchbetter. And like I was explaining
(18:38):
you, I was a mess in the senseit, it kind of engulfed me. It was
like an octopus, you know,everywhere. All my, my entire facets
of my life were impacted and Idid not know what to do. So I had
to end up changing my entirediet to becoming more cautious about,
(19:00):
you know, not necessarilyvegetarian, but letting go of red
meats, alcohol, processedfoods, eating fresh foods, loading
up on the phytoestrogensbecause it already has estrogen,
one of the hormone that startsgoing down for women when they get
the perimenopause things likethat, right. And then taking care
(19:21):
of my gut health veryaggressively and putting some supplements
like ayurvedic supplements orherbs, bringing it every single day,
like triphala, like cumin,coriander, carom seeds, a lot of
herbs and spices, like ginger,turmeric, these kind of things, Right.
So this is just common everyday. Everybody has it in the kitchen.
(19:44):
It's nothing new. And thenadding exercise, meaning yoga and
strength training and breathwork. So important. Adding strength
training helps with the bones.Our bones start going down and the
breath work, if you learn howto do the breath work properly, helps
you calm down. There's a lotof research we all know with the
meditation, right? So allthose things, I started incorporating
(20:08):
simple meditation, nothing,sitting for like 10 minutes, even
2 minutes, 5 minutes, andusing some simple breath work and
simple yoga postures. And thenthe third thing I started doing was
incorporating some of theayurvedic massage therapies that
help you calm down. So therewas one called Shirodhara. They put
medicated oil on this righthere. Helps with your hair. And,
(20:32):
and also, yeah, amazing. Helpswith your hair loss, believe it or
not. Also helps with your,your sleep, anxiety, stress. It has
clinic research, clinicaltrials have been done.
And what's the name of it again?
Shirodhara. S H I R O D H A RA. It's a. It's a very classic Ayurvedic
(20:53):
therapy. I don't know if it'soffered in United States. Maybe some
of the ayurvedic practitionersare offering, but you kind of lie
down and then they just startdropping a lukewarm medicated oil
right here for 45 minutes. Andthis therapy has the research, as
I said, and then some of theother therapies in Ayurveda that
(21:15):
I have been proactively using,some acupuncture and then hypnotherapy.
So all these things slowly,slowly. If you start doing it and
putting it on a everydaybasis, you will see the difference.
Believe it or not, I, I feelmore energetic now than I felt during
(21:35):
my perimenopause years. And,and, and you know, my hair is still
intact, so so far, so good.
That's good.
Yeah.
For people who want to knowmore, especially women, what are
some places that can go andget more research? Because I know
some people just like to know,where can I find out more? And also
(21:59):
maybe for guys too, who kindof have a wife or a mother going
through it, where can theyfind more information about this
kind of help? Them be informedabout how to be supportive and helpful.
So that's what we've beentrying to build. Right. A platform.
You know, PubMed is a greatsource by the way, you know, research,
(22:20):
but it's a lot of work right.To find different research. And then
there are other. I'm not sureif there's a single resource that
you could say okay, I want tofind out about menopause. There are
a lot of doctors who are doingpractice of menopause as a, you know,
there's not somewhere thatcould be affordable and I could say
(22:42):
oh go, go over there. But, butthat's what we are trying to do at
Nourish Doc is really to buildthese complete a huge library and,
and the resource and keepingit like five bucks a month so that
you know, we can survivesomething like that, that, that people,
men or women can learn aboutthis whole journey of perimenopause,
(23:06):
menopause and some of theother things that go along with that.
All the symptoms. But maybesome of the blogs have some resources,
you know, but it's not verycomprehensive. I should say that,
you know, there are some appsbut they're kind of teeny bit here
and there. So everybody'strying to do a teeny bit information
(23:29):
here. Like more. Most of theresources that I know are recommending
hrt, more hormone replacementtherapy. Right. And so it's not really
one place where you can sayokay, I can find everything. It's
hard. And that's what we aretrying to do. We are trying to do
that. I'm not saying we arethere yet, but we're trying to do
(23:51):
that.
And you mentioned that you'regoing to launch things soon. So tell
us about when that's going tobe online. Everybody can kind of
tap into what you're doing.
Yeah, within a month. That'sthe hope. We are just getting our
content up. The idea is tolike I said to. We built a platform,
a holistic wellness platform,what we call it, for midage women
(24:15):
to help them with theirjourney. The idea is to make it super
affordable. So we're going toprice it like $5 per month per person
so that they can learn aboutthis perimenopause, menopause and
all the symptoms that go alongwith that. And, and there'll be also
actionable insights that womencan do to change their diet or exercise.
(24:37):
The things that I was talkingabout. So probably in a month's time,
within a month time, we arejust uploading our content and making
it available to general publicin the month of May, hopefully I
can offer it as a Mother's Daypresent. Right, that. Yeah.
So what do you hope from yourwork, the work that you're doing
(24:57):
and others that will happen inthe future around women going through
this hormone transitional period?
You know, I want to normalizethis discussion. Right. I don't want
it to be with shame and guiltand hush hush. The way it is right
now, we feel that, oh, we'vedone something wrong as women. Oh,
my God, I need to hide it. Ican't tell my family. I'm going through
(25:21):
this. Right. I mean, these aretypical feelings. And I thought,
I'm the crazy person. And whenI interviewed 1500 women across the
board, across the world,across cultural, ethnic, it didn't
matter. All of them were same.I was shocked. I was honestly shocked.
I thought I come from aculture which is a little bit subservient
(25:42):
to women and, you know, butthat's why maybe I am who I am. You
know, all those things in myhead. Right. But it didn't matter.
I'm telling you, every singlewoman, no matter. In America too,
in the United States, I'mtalking about Latino, doesn't matter.
Everyone had the similarfeelings. I'm like, oh my God, where
did we go wrong in the world?Exactly right. So it needs to be
(26:07):
normalized. It needs to be normalized.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah.
So I love to ask my gueststhis question. What do you want your
legacy to be?
You know, I just want to makean impact. I really want to make
a social impact in improvingpeople's lives. I always wanted to
do that. I did not know how Icould do it. I had to make money
(26:29):
to survive. But really, mylegacy, I really want to leave with
making a social impact, inthis case, women's life on topics
that are not being discussedopenly. So that's what I would like
it to be.
Well, that's great. So, Amita,where can people find you and your
website and connect with youon social media?
(26:49):
Yeah, the best way is to go toour website, www.nourishdoc.com.
everything is connected. Weare very active on social media on
most of the social mediachannels. And when the app is up,
hopefully by Mother's Day,there will be a link that women or
(27:09):
men even can gift to theirspouses or partners or who that they
can start learning about allthis topic.
Well, this is an importanttopic. Like I said, so many people
either are going through it orhave someone in their life who's
going through it and so havinginformation so that we can be supportive
(27:29):
of one another and moreunderstanding and give women the
support they need to helpnavigate through these trends because
no one likes transition but toknow to have the tools to be able
to figure out what to do isalways helpful. So thank you for
what you do.
Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.This is an important topic and the
(27:49):
only thing I want to add is weas a society all over the world we
focus more on the reproductivephase of a woman's life and we've
ignored what happens after thereproduction and this is where we
are coming in to really lay alot of emphasis after the reproductive
phase of a woman's life. Right?
Yeah, exactly. Well thank youso much and you have a great day
(28:11):
and blessings on that website.Hopefully comes out as a great Mother's
Day gift for all the women inour lives.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
Well, Amita, welcome to thepodcast. How you doing today?
Great. Great. Thank you somuch, you know, for including this
topic, including me. So I'mreally excited to have this conversation.
Well, I like to shock myaudience. You know, if I always give
them the same kind of content,they kind of get used to it. So I
like to kind of mix it up alittle bit. And you have an interesting
(01:11):
topic as we talked aboutbefore we got on. It's like, you
may not be a woman, but youeither have a woman in your life
or in your workplace, andthat's impacted by this topic. And
it's a good thing for us tolearn more about how we can better
understand each other.
Absolutely. And, you know,things will unfold as we start the
discussion.
Good. Let's start with myfavorite question, though. What's
(01:32):
the best piece of advice youever received?
You know, it was from aspiritual guru, and I used to be
very kind of. I was never aconfident person when I was growing
up, and she told me to believein yourself and listen to your inner
voice. I think that's the bestadvice I've ever gotten.
That's good. I like that.Because a lot of times we ignore
(01:54):
our feelings. And God has away of trying to connect to us through,
I always say, various sources.Sometimes it's music, sometimes it's
friends, sometimes it's advicewe get, and it's just a matter of
tapping into whatever he'strying to communicate to us.
Absolutely. And sometimesthings that are happening in your
life that. That you did notthink it should have happened that
(02:16):
way, or a person is behavingin a way and you try to blame yourself.
Right. How can I improve toplease this person? It's very hard
to listen to your inner voice,that whatever is going on is not
right. So I think it's hardfor us to do that. We always get
muddled up with voices thatare telling us what to do, not listening
(02:38):
to what your heart is tellingor, you know, what your mind is saying.
Exactly. That's very true. Asyou think about your journey in life
and in your business, who aresome people that served as a mentor
or even to inspire you ontheir. On your journey?
There hasn't been, like amentor mentor. But I am definitely
(03:00):
inspired by some of the womenin today's day and age who are trying
to make a difference. LikeMelinda Gates is one of the persons.
I truly admire what she'strying to do. She has the courage
to stand on what she believesin, and she's trying to help A lot
of women with her charitableorganizations and the work that she's
(03:24):
doing. I think she's oneperson that I think I admire a lot
for the courage. It's not easyto leave the richest man in the world.
I don't know if I, you know,I'm thinking if I had been, would
have been. It's verydifficult. You know, the money clouds
your judgment here.
(03:44):
I'm sure she didn't leaveempty handed, but.
I know, I know.
That's a good point. A goodpoint though.
Yeah.
So tell us about your personaljourney through perimenopause and
how it inspired you to cofound neurostock.
Yeah. So you know,perimenopause is something which
(04:06):
most of us are not evenfamiliar with this term. And so,
and I was oblivious as well.And the only way I found out, well,
actually I learned about thisterm two, three years back when I
started digging into what Iwanted to do for Narayish Talk. But
at the time I started havingstrange symptoms at workplace, which
(04:27):
were very embarrassing, whichsomething I could not talk about.
And, and, and that issomething. And I didn't realize I
was barely 40 years old and Idid not realize at the time that
I was entering these hormonalfluctuations and the term called
perimenopause. I wascompletely oblivious of that. And,
and, and at that time I didnot think, one day I'll be sitting
(04:49):
and we'll be talking aboutthis topic and I'll be talking, you
know, getting a company out ofit. I had never, I just wanted to
survive. It was so bad.
Right.
Survive my workplace, survivemy life, survive my relationships.
Because everything went topsyturvy that I can tell you that.
(05:10):
So for, for being a man, notunderstanding it, maybe even women
don't understand it. Can youkind of define for us what is perimenopause?
Yeah. So perimenopause at thetransition years for women before
they hit menopause. So, somenopause is not a switch that happens
for, you know, that cessationof periods for women. Menstrual cycle
(05:32):
stops at that time when awoman hits menopause. And that's
generally 51, 52. That's theaverage age. But most of us don't
realize that the before ourbody hits that menopause, the body
starts preparing a woman. Itcould be a decade, it could be a
few years, it could be up to adecade or more. And that is the transition
(05:56):
years when the hormones, thefemale sex hormones start behaving
erratically and women startGetting irregular periods. And like
I said, it could take up to 10years before the actual cessation
of the menstrual cycle happensfor a woman. So this perimenopause,
these transition years whenthere's women, you know, hormones
(06:19):
are going all over and thereare so many symptoms that come up
unprepared, unpredictable. Allthose things are happening during
the.
Perimenopause phase as womenare going through that. What are
some things you've discoveredin your work to help them deal with
this transition period?
So, so, so many things changefor women. See, we don't understand
(06:41):
as women, even as a society oras a community all over the world
is that so many things changefor women when these hormone fluctuations
are happening. Like, like yourgut microbiome changes, your brain
changes, believe it or not. Sothese are major changes that are
happening. So you have tomodify your diet, you have to change
(07:03):
your lifestyle. These are someof the things. This is like non negotiable
kind of a thing if you want to survive.
Sure, yeah.
Navigate this journey, youknow, without any, like. And it's
not just one pill that's theproblem. Like, you know, this morning
I was, there's so many weightloss pills that are coming up. You
take a pill and boom, it goes.Unfortunately for the perimenopause
(07:25):
journey, you can't take onepill. You can take one pill for the
hot flash, but then somethingelse would go wrong is what I'm saying.
Right. So you have to changeyour diet, your lifestyle modifications,
you have to bring in health,exercise. These are the just fundamentals
women have to do if they donot want to end up with a chronic
(07:47):
conditions. You know, whenthey're much older or they don't,
they can have, you know, theycan manage their perimenopause journey
properly if they don't makethese things.
What are some symptoms thatwomen need to be aware of? Because
I think sometimes you saidthey're not aware it's happening.
So what should they be lookingout for as per. Menopause is beginning
(08:09):
to happen because everybodygoes through a different time, I'm
sure, different ways. What aresome common things that they could
say, hey, I think this is thebeginning of something?
Yeah. So. So the first thingis the irregular menstrual cycle.
That's the first sign womanwould know initially in the earlier
phase of perimenopause. It's,it's kind of, it's not after 21 days
(08:34):
or 20, 28 days, whatever, it's15 days, it's shorter and then as
a woman starts progressingcloser to menopause, it goes further
apart. So as a result of that,some of the common symptoms are hot
flashes, night sweats. That'swhat I had. And then as a part of
that, you can't sleep atnight. Now as a lack of sleep in
(08:57):
the morning, you're fogged up,your brain is fogged up. You're not
able to focus. And because ofthat, you can get anxiety. And because
of anxiety, your gut healthgets constipated and you can have
mood swings, emotionaloutbursts. Sometimes you feel like
crying. And then because ofall this, because of the gut health
is now kind of screwed up. Youtend to put on weight, specifically
(09:21):
around the midriff. Thebloating. The bloating starts happening.
It sometimes gets so bad thatduring the day you're kind of going
like a balloon from one toanother. So. And then hair thinning
is another one. So skin,there's so much. It's, it's like
everything, right? And, and,and also for some women, loss of
(09:42):
libido and, and pain, youknow, so that can impact relationships.
So it's like, I'm saying it'snot just one thing. It's. It's like
a multitude of so many things,but these are all common. These are
not uncommon, by the way.There are, there's a lot of common.
Now the difference is it'sdifferent for every woman, and it's
(10:02):
also different for, for womenas per cultural and ethnic background.
That is the key, keydetermination here as well.
You say this could take up to10 years for this. To. How in that
process, how do you, how doesyour partner support you in that.
Cause that's, that's a longtime to go through these mood swings,
(10:24):
the changes in your. So, but,so what are some things that the
people in the life who areimportant can do to help support
women as they go through this,this transition?
It's very important and I tellyou why. 60% of women who are going
through divorce are duringthis phase of life, perimenopause,
menopause. So certainly nobodyhas put the correlation, but certainly
(10:46):
if someone has to do theresearch study, there would be a
correlation of this right now,the first thing is the education.
We don't understand thisphase. That's the, that is the fundamental
problem. The perimenopausephase specifically is what I'm talking
about. Even as a woman, asmen, we don't understand this phase.
So the first really is theeducation, the awareness of how it's
(11:09):
lasting 10 years and what isit that you can do to educate yourself
to changing your lifestyle? Ifsomeone needs an expert advice, I'm
talking about health expertadvice, you know, seeking it out,
being open communication, allthese things would help. But right
now the problem is it's stillconsidered a taboo topic. There's
(11:31):
a shame involved in this.Sometimes there's a guilt factor.
You know, women are like that.There's. They're trying to look the
way they used to look whenthey were 20 years old, trying to
do the diet part, not eatingproperly. So the partner has to also
understand these feelings awoman is going through. And it's
(11:52):
hard, it's not easy. But theonly way you could do that is by
open communication, awarenessof this topic, like you and I are
doing now.
I love that you mentioned thatthere are so many different things
that a woman is going through.Her gut biome is off, her hormones
are off, her hair is thinning.There's a lot of change she has to
(12:15):
make in her lifestyle anddiet. How do you know or what tests
do women get duringperimenopause that says, okay, here's
the way to holisticallyapproach this aspect of the perimenopause
journey you're on. Becausethere's so many things going on at
once.
Yeah. So typically I'm not amedical doctor. I just have to put
a medical disclaimer herebefore I. But I have interviewed
(12:40):
about 1500 or maybe a lot ofholistic health experts, including
medical doctors. So typicallywhat the medical doctors are saying
is the Dutch test, It's aDutch test is of like a universal
test for hormone hormones.And, but the problem is it cannot
be. Sometimes it, it, it's notaccurate because of the fluctuations
(13:02):
that's happening during day today in a woman's life. Right. So
let's say if someone says,okay, I'm going through perimenopause,
I'm like two years in and Iget this Dutch test that might not
be accurate. That's theproblem. So you almost have to have
a baseline and you're normal,like you know, pre menopausal like
before the perimenopause. Theother test they talk about is the
(13:25):
gut microbiome test. They canfigure out, you know, if the gut
health is impaired, they needto fix it. So that's the other test
that a lot of doctors end updoing, you know, and then they are
also doing regular blood workto see any deficiencies, nutritional,
you know, any deficiencies atall. So these are all the things
(13:47):
women should, you Know, I tryto get on a regular basis to make
sure that, you know, I haveall, all the necessary nutrients.
Right, right, exactly. So wetalk about the relationship part
of this. What's it like in theworkplace when women are going through
perimenopause?
So workplace can be veryembarrassing. I mean it was for me
(14:08):
because the thing was I didnot understand that I was going through
perimenopause. If I hadunderstood this is what I'm going
through, I would have been alittle bit better. So I think most
of women are like that.They're just caught unprepared. So
suddenly you're sitting in ameeting and you start sweating. It
can be very embarrassing. Andyou might think that something else
(14:33):
is going on in your body andyou might not relate this perimenopause
because you're still youngeror young. Young enough, I should
say that. So I think theworkplace is very important for the
managers and the work thecorporates to incorporate this. The
reason is 50% of the workforceis women. Now whether we like it
(14:53):
or not, that is the truth.Right. You know, so how do you support
them? And most of the womenagain at workplace, they don't talk.
I mean I never talked toanyone. I was like, oh my God, if
I go talk to someone like anhr, what am I supposed to do? And
they will judge me, you know,that I can't do my work. So see,
(15:15):
all these feelings startcoming, right? So I'm telling you
my feelings. I'm like, oh myGod, people are going to judge me.
I can't do my work properly. Ican't even hold myself properly in
front of the people. I startsweating like a crazy person. I don't
know what to do. Right. So, sothe women feel kind of embarrassed
and, and, and, and just don'tknow what to do sometimes.
(15:38):
Exactly.
It has to be normalized,Right. This is not a disease. See,
we, we. This wholeperimenopause is not something someone
has caught on a disease thatit's not a chronic disease that you're
going to live. We never wantto talk about it. We need to normalize
the discussion everywhere iswhat I'm saying. Right, Right.
So tell us about what you doto help women through this period.
(16:00):
So our focus is step numberone is self care. Right. If no matter
if you get on hrt, it's ahormone replacement therapy. What
a lot of doctors say women cando to help themselves. But if you
don't take care of yourself,self care. When I talk about a self
care I was talking about, youknow, really incorporating holistic
(16:23):
therapies. What I mean is yourchanging of diet, your exercise,
your yoga, your breath work.Right. Your hypnotherapy, your counseling.
Because mental health becomesan issue for women, a lot of them.
And then also youraromatherapy, your. Some of the ayurvedic
massage therapies, some of theacupuncture sessions. These are the
(16:46):
things that women can dothemselves in the sense like if they
learn how to take care ofthemselves. Then of course the consulting
or guided sort of with theexperts is supplementation. Right,
Supplementation. We don'trecommend that you start taking all
kind of herbs in your bodynow. Right. But the right type of
(17:09):
supplementation with the rightkind of consultation, these are things
what we are talking aboutinitially. And then if someone needs
an hrt, which is a hormonereplacement therapy a lot of doctors
want, so you should do that.It depends on every woman. Every
woman is different. Right. Sothose are the things. What we are
(17:30):
trying to do is reallystarting with the basics of education,
self care, then go to the nexttier of guided with the expert and
then the consultation with theexpert and then whatever you want
to do, hrt. So I want to makeit affordable. I don't want to be
this to be again, only forrich women or only for women who
(17:52):
are privileged. Right, right.Again, we are going to have a disparity
or inequity. Right. And that'snot right. That's not right.
No, it's not.
Yeah.
So share a success story ofsomeone who you've worked with during
this process. We always liketo hear success stories of how someone's
managed to. Because we needwomen to know that you will survive
(18:14):
this.
Yeah, yeah. So most of thepeople I've interviewed have been
women who have, who tried alot of different things and then
they ended up doing what I'mjust describing. Right. Changing
their entire lifestyle and allthat. I myself, I can share my success
story because I know it muchbetter. And like I was explaining
(18:38):
you, I was a mess in the senseit, it kind of engulfed me. It was
like an octopus, you know,everywhere. All my, my entire facets
of my life were impacted and Idid not know what to do. So I had
to end up changing my entirediet to becoming more cautious about,
(19:00):
you know, not necessarilyvegetarian, but letting go of red
meats, alcohol, processedfoods, eating fresh foods, loading
up on the phytoestrogensbecause it already has estrogen,
one of the hormone that startsgoing down for women when they get
the perimenopause things likethat, right. And then taking care
(19:21):
of my gut health veryaggressively and putting some supplements
like ayurvedic supplements orherbs, bringing it every single day,
like triphala, like cumin,coriander, carom seeds, a lot of
herbs and spices, like ginger,turmeric, these kind of things, Right.
So this is just common everyday. Everybody has it in the kitchen.
(19:44):
It's nothing new. And thenadding exercise, meaning yoga and
strength training and breathwork. So important. Adding strength
training helps with the bones.Our bones start going down and the
breath work, if you learn howto do the breath work properly, helps
you calm down. There's a lotof research we all know with the
meditation, right? So allthose things, I started incorporating
(20:08):
simple meditation, nothing,sitting for like 10 minutes, even
2 minutes, 5 minutes, andusing some simple breath work and
simple yoga postures. And thenthe third thing I started doing was
incorporating some of theayurvedic massage therapies that
help you calm down. So therewas one called Shirodhara. They put
medicated oil on this righthere. Helps with your hair. And,
(20:32):
and also, yeah, amazing. Helpswith your hair loss, believe it or
not. Also helps with your,your sleep, anxiety, stress. It has
clinic research, clinicaltrials have been done.
And what's the name of it again?
Shirodhara. S H I R O D H A RA. It's a. It's a very classic Ayurvedic
(20:53):
therapy. I don't know if it'soffered in United States. Maybe some
of the ayurvedic practitionersare offering, but you kind of lie
down and then they just startdropping a lukewarm medicated oil
right here for 45 minutes. Andthis therapy has the research, as
I said, and then some of theother therapies in Ayurveda that
(21:15):
I have been proactively using,some acupuncture and then hypnotherapy.
So all these things slowly,slowly. If you start doing it and
putting it on a everydaybasis, you will see the difference.
Believe it or not, I, I feelmore energetic now than I felt during
(21:35):
my perimenopause years. And,and, and you know, my hair is still
intact, so so far, so good.
That's good.
Yeah.
For people who want to knowmore, especially women, what are
some places that can go andget more research? Because I know
some people just like to know,where can I find out more? And also
(21:59):
maybe for guys too, who kindof have a wife or a mother going
through it, where can theyfind more information about this
kind of help? Them be informedabout how to be supportive and helpful.
So that's what we've beentrying to build. Right. A platform.
You know, PubMed is a greatsource by the way, you know, research,
(22:20):
but it's a lot of work right.To find different research. And then
there are other. I'm not sureif there's a single resource that
you could say okay, I want tofind out about menopause. There are
a lot of doctors who are doingpractice of menopause as a, you know,
there's not somewhere thatcould be affordable and I could say
(22:42):
oh go, go over there. But, butthat's what we are trying to do at
Nourish Doc is really to buildthese complete a huge library and,
and the resource and keepingit like five bucks a month so that
you know, we can survivesomething like that, that, that people,
men or women can learn aboutthis whole journey of perimenopause,
(23:06):
menopause and some of theother things that go along with that.
All the symptoms. But maybesome of the blogs have some resources,
you know, but it's not verycomprehensive. I should say that,
you know, there are some appsbut they're kind of teeny bit here
and there. So everybody'strying to do a teeny bit information
(23:29):
here. Like more. Most of theresources that I know are recommending
hrt, more hormone replacementtherapy. Right. And so it's not really
one place where you can sayokay, I can find everything. It's
hard. And that's what we aretrying to do. We are trying to do
that. I'm not saying we arethere yet, but we're trying to do
(23:51):
that.
And you mentioned that you'regoing to launch things soon. So tell
us about when that's going tobe online. Everybody can kind of
tap into what you're doing.
Yeah, within a month. That'sthe hope. We are just getting our
content up. The idea is tolike I said to. We built a platform,
a holistic wellness platform,what we call it, for midage women
(24:15):
to help them with theirjourney. The idea is to make it super
affordable. So we're going toprice it like $5 per month per person
so that they can learn aboutthis perimenopause, menopause and
all the symptoms that go alongwith that. And, and there'll be also
actionable insights that womencan do to change their diet or exercise.
(24:37):
The things that I was talkingabout. So probably in a month's time,
within a month time, we arejust uploading our content and making
it available to general publicin the month of May, hopefully I
can offer it as a Mother's Daypresent. Right, that. Yeah.
So what do you hope from yourwork, the work that you're doing
(24:57):
and others that will happen inthe future around women going through
this hormone transitional period?
You know, I want to normalizethis discussion. Right. I don't want
it to be with shame and guiltand hush hush. The way it is right
now, we feel that, oh, we'vedone something wrong as women. Oh,
my God, I need to hide it. Ican't tell my family. I'm going through
(25:21):
this. Right. I mean, these aretypical feelings. And I thought,
I'm the crazy person. And whenI interviewed 1500 women across the
board, across the world,across cultural, ethnic, it didn't
matter. All of them were same.I was shocked. I was honestly shocked.
I thought I come from aculture which is a little bit subservient
(25:42):
to women and, you know, butthat's why maybe I am who I am. You
know, all those things in myhead. Right. But it didn't matter.
I'm telling you, every singlewoman, no matter. In America too,
in the United States, I'mtalking about Latino, doesn't matter.
Everyone had the similarfeelings. I'm like, oh my God, where
did we go wrong in the world?Exactly right. So it needs to be
(26:07):
normalized. It needs to be normalized.
Yeah, that's a good point.
Yeah.
So I love to ask my gueststhis question. What do you want your
legacy to be?
You know, I just want to makean impact. I really want to make
a social impact in improvingpeople's lives. I always wanted to
do that. I did not know how Icould do it. I had to make money
(26:29):
to survive. But really, mylegacy, I really want to leave with
making a social impact, inthis case, women's life on topics
that are not being discussedopenly. So that's what I would like
it to be.
Well, that's great. So, Amita,where can people find you and your
website and connect with youon social media?
(26:49):
Yeah, the best way is to go toour website, www.nourishdoc.com.
everything is connected. Weare very active on social media on
most of the social mediachannels. And when the app is up,
hopefully by Mother's Day,there will be a link that women or
(27:09):
men even can gift to theirspouses or partners or who that they
can start learning about allthis topic.
Well, this is an importanttopic. Like I said, so many people
either are going through it orhave someone in their life who's
going through it and so havinginformation so that we can be supportive
(27:29):
of one another and moreunderstanding and give women the
support they need to helpnavigate through these trends because
no one likes transition but toknow to have the tools to be able
to figure out what to do isalways helpful. So thank you for
what you do.
Thank you. Yeah, absolutely.This is an important topic and the
(27:49):
only thing I want to add is weas a society all over the world we
focus more on the reproductivephase of a woman's life and we've
ignored what happens after thereproduction and this is where we
are coming in to really lay alot of emphasis after the reproductive
phase of a woman's life. Right?
Yeah, exactly. Well thank youso much and you have a great day
(28:11):
and blessings on that website.Hopefully comes out as a great Mother's
Day gift for all the women inour lives.
Thank you. Thank you so much.
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