Episode Transcript
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Mary (00:05):
Welcome to No Shrinking
Violence.
I'm your host, Mary Rothwell,licensed therapist and certified
integrative mental healthpractitioner.
I've created a space where wecelebrate the intuition and
power of women who want to breakfree from limiting narratives.
We'll explore all realms ofwellness, what it means to take
up space unapologetically, andhow your essential nature is key
(00:28):
to living life on your terms.
It's time to own your space,trust your nature and flourish.
Let's dive in.
Hey, violets, welcome to theshow.
One thing I learned from myyears working at a college is
that people can hear something adozen times, but until they
(00:48):
know they need it, they oftendon't internalize the
information.
For example, every semester wetalk to new students about all
the support services they haveavailable on campus, from
counseling to academic successcoaches to career center resume
help.
This information was given tothem verbally as well as in
print.
It was often on every classsyllabus.
(01:09):
Yet so often when students werestruggling academically or
emotionally, they had no ideawhere to go to get help.
It wasn't uncommon to hear, oh,I didn't know there were free
counseling services, or alsocommon.
I never thought I wouldstruggle with the stuff they
talked to us about when I was afreshman.
So it's human nature to managethe information we attend to.
(01:31):
To pay attention only to whatwe feel is pertinent to our
current situation Makes sense,right.
It keeps us from feelingoverwhelmed.
Well, whether you're a womanwho has already navigated the
choppy waters of menopause, oryou feel like you're not even in
the boat yet, I have a feelingthat the information my guest
will share today will bevaluable to everyone, whether it
(01:53):
makes you say, oh, that'swhat's going on, or oh, I need
to remember that's a thing whenI get to perimenopause.
My guest today is Amita Sharma.
Like so many women, includingmyself, it was her personal
struggles as a perimenopausalwoman that put her on the path
to where she is today.
She recognized that our currentmedical landscape often
(02:16):
neglects to address topics suchas menopause, sexual health.
Well.
For women, that is stress andanxiety, and it can be difficult
to find evidence-based,integrative solutions tailored
to women's unique needs, atleast in a holistic, truly
impactful way.
In fact, research on women'shealth issues is an amazingly
(02:37):
small percentage of all researchdone, even today.
Even today, thankfully, theknowledge about the issues women
face in midlife is changingslowly, and it's people like
Amita that are contributing tothat change.
She is the co-founder ofNourish Doc, a holistic wellness
platform dedicated toempowering women through every
(02:58):
stage of their hormonaltransition, from PMS to
perimenopause and beyond.
She has pioneered a culturallysensitive, accessible and
innovative self-care appdesigned to support women with
evidence-based integrativewellness solutions tailored to
their unique needs.
Welcome to no Shrinking Violets, amita.
Amita (03:18):
Thank you.
Thank you so Mary .
I love the work that you'redoing and I really appreciate
bringing this topic out in thelimelight and normalizing the
discussion about everything likesexual health, anxiety,
depression, all the things thatwe as women feel stigma, so I'm
super thankful.
Mary (03:38):
Well, yes, thank you for
that, and just looking at your
website, you have so many richoptions, so I can't wait to dig
in a little bit more into whatyou have and what you offer.
So could you start with maybetelling us how your personal
experience shaped your wellnessplatform vision?
Amita (03:56):
Yeah, so I'm not a
medical doctor or a holistic
expert like you.
I'm just a regular woman outthere, you know, struggling it
out, making a living, you knowand certain you know.
About a decade back, theperimenopause hit me and,
honestly, I thought I was havingmedical issues.
I had no clue the wordperimenopause exists and, to my
(04:21):
surprise, I interviewed over3000 holistic experts and they
had the same experience as me.
It's not that I was not alone,because this particular phase of
my life was never explained tome anywhere.
Even when I visited my healthspecialist or physician's office
(04:44):
, nobody mentioned that.
So you can imagine my journeyof over a decade suffering in
silence and being almost likehaving a shame associated with
what I'm going through, withoutreally solving the puzzle.
That was my journey in theperimenopause that I felt low
(05:08):
self-esteem, anxiety, sexualhealth, loss of libido, my
relationships, my career, myfinancial, my spiritual wellness
, my mental health, my physicalwellness everything got impacted
.
It was not just only hotflashes.
That was my journey goingthrough perimenopause.
(05:28):
And I'll come to the nourishtalk, but I just wanted to
emphasize my journey a littlebit because I think a lot of
women can relate to this wholebrain fog and sleep and all
those issues that I'm talkingabout.
Mary (05:40):
Absolutely yes, yes, and
you know I think it's changing.
So you mentioned 10 years ago Ithink we're probably in about
the same age range, but I thinkyou know prior to now and we're
getting better.
I don't think women even talkedabout it.
Like you mentioned the wordshame and I think anytime women
(06:02):
struggle they tend to think oh,it must just be me because
everybody else seems to be okay.
So it can be kind of lonelytill you start to recognize and
even a lot of the stories thatwomen tell on my podcast.
A lot of us have experiencedthe same thing.
But until you actually have theopportunity to talk to other
(06:22):
women, it can be really lonelyand it can feel like my gosh,
shouldn't I be doing better?
Why am I the only onestruggling?
Amita (06:30):
Yeah, you know so, in our
generation both of our
generation, right?
Women rarely talked about thistopic about 10 years back, to be
honest with you, right, youknow I would go in even women
dinners or get together andnobody talked about it.
Now it's different, absolutely.
(06:51):
Things have changed completelya lot.
And Oprah is talking, hal Berryis talking, you know, so many
of these celebrities andinfluencers are actually
bringing this topic out, but itcan be very lonely and isolated
and the problem is not only theloneliness.
The problem is that lack of careduring this phase of a woman's
(07:12):
life can lead to chroniccondition when she gets 55 or 60
years and above, and 80% of uswomen have that in United States
.
That's the data.
So that is the scary part.
Right, it's not okay.
Now I'm done with myperimenopause.
Okay, I'm in menopause, let'ssay, and I'm okay.
(07:32):
No, you are not okay.
And all that is leading, thelack of care that you have been
doing as a woman, is going tolead you probably as diabetic as
having the start of anosteoporosis, maybe having had
some heart health issues, aweight gain, maybe onset of slow
(07:53):
dementia All these things womenhave more than men and that's
happening to senior, you know 60plus year old women more 80%,
like I said.
You know 60 plus year old womenmore 80%, like I said.
Mary (08:05):
Very true, very true
Because I don't think our
allopathic or conventionalmedical community, they don't
have the training and I'm notsaying that in a blaming way.
I think that, especially inthis country, our system is set
up to be linear.
That diagnose, give medication,you get better.
(08:26):
And the more we know and a lotof what we're recognizing now
are things that other cultureshundreds of years ago already
knew some things about herbs andjust sort of how the body
worked.
But I think as you start tolearn more about holistic and
integrative solutions and that'sa lot of what my work is you
(08:49):
find out that all those thingsthat you just mentioned, they're
more prevalent and you know weblame hormones and it is because
our hormones shift andeverything in our body, our
whole endocrine system has toadjust, but it's so connected to
nutrition and lifestyle.
Amita (09:10):
Yes, and you know the
thing that you talked about, the
centuries old systems likeAyurveda, acupuncture.
You know traditional Chinesemedicine, all these systems that
.
The interesting thing is that Icannot comment on China.
What happens in China?
I think traditional Chinesemedicine is practiced a lot,
probably in that country.
Ayurveda and some of the othersystems the other countries have
(09:33):
did also adopt more Westernmedicine because just for the
sake of what America is doingmight be right you know what I'm
saying, like you know, so.
So they also adopted alifestyle, which they, they
already had perfect herbs andall those things.
Instead of doing that, theyadopted a lifestyle that was a
(09:54):
kind of, um, western lifestyle,just to, uh, the fear of you
know, uh, formal, you know what,what you call it right right
fear of missing out, yep yep andthe fear of missing out, right,
yeah, so so it's.
It's interesting, all thesecultures, they had a perfectly
good diet and and herbs and allthat thing.
Instead of um embracing that,they incorporate.
(10:17):
They most of the time wentafter the western lifestyle and
now they're recognizing they,because of the rise of chronic
conditions in some of thecountries is astronomical it's
diabetes, it's like unbelievablein some of these countries,
right?
So now it's coming to life like, oh my God, we just didn't
incorporate what we already hadand Western, now we invest
(10:41):
Western part of the world in theUnited States, and Canada and
UK are now focusing, beginningto focus more on the integrative
, the functional medicine, theintegrative part of it, because
that is what can work, movingforward.
Mary (10:56):
Yes, absolutely.
It's kind of like farming.
Like if we go back and look atthe old practices of farming,
you know it was.
It worked with the kind of hownature worked and the earth
worked.
And now we spray fields andbecause we want a quick fix, we
think we just want to take adrug.
And when we talk aboutfunctional medicine, integrative
(11:17):
, holistic, all of those typesof terms, it's typically not a
quick fix because we're shiftingour entire body ecosystem and I
think it's important torecognize that it does take a
lot of effort and I will go backto what is on your website.
You could obviously have anapproach that is multi-pronged
(11:39):
because it is not linear.
So, as we sort of go back towhat we used to know, we are,
first of all, in a faster world.
So we have to change thatmindset and we really have to
look at what are we ingesting,because you know they're finding
that sugar is really key toeverything heart disease and
(12:04):
Alzheimer's.
They're calling Alzheimer's nowtype 3 diabetes.
So there's so much that has todo with what we put into our
bodies and I think starting totake that approach and look at
those things is really important.
Amita (12:20):
Absolutely yes.
And, like you said, you know,one of the things with the
integrative holistic medicine isthat it's not, unfortunately,
one pill that will fix you.
You know, like we have so manypills that are coming out with
for weight gain and weight loss,I mean, so in holistic you have
to work a little bit harder butit pays off.
(12:42):
That's it pays off right,because you are incorporating an
healthier lifestyle on a dailybasis.
So you're going to live a morehealthy, fuller life as you get
older, versus if you starttaking, being on medications in
your earlier, like 40s or 50s orwhatever, then you're going to
(13:03):
have all these side effectswould accumulate, bubble up as
you get older, still are comingto terms with it.
Overall, people are learningabout it, but still it's
convenient to pop up.
That is how the attitude youknow, that's how the common
person's framework is right, themental framework.
Mary (13:25):
Yes, and the other thing
that I think can be a challenge
is that not everything works thesame for every woman.
So I could tell you okay, Itake ashwagandha or, you know, I
spray magnesium spray on myfeet and those things help me
sleep.
I've had other women say theydon't work for me or that didn't
(13:46):
even change anything.
So I think we also have torecognize that this idea of
linear medicine, where onemedication is going to solve the
problem for everyone in ouramazingly complex bodies, that
isn't what happens.
Amita (14:03):
Absolutely right.
Yes, and that's why one sizedoesn't fit all and menopause.
But coming back to theperimenopause menopause topic,
we know that how this isdifferent as per the ethnicity
of a woman, the age is differentand as well as the symptoms are
also different on a very higherlevel.
(14:25):
And then, when you go into thenitty gritty detail, of course
each woman is different, basedon her emotional wellness, her
body and all those attributesright.
So we have to consider eachhuman being as individual, not
one pill that would fix all theissues, complicated issues, what
(14:46):
a woman goes through throughthe perimenopause, menopause
journey.
Mary (14:51):
Yeah, and I do want to get
into more per Perry through
post-menopause.
But first I want to say I'mglad you brought up culture
because I think that plays a bigrole, because our epigenetics
plays into all of this, and Ithink we also have to recognize
that a lot of the things thatwe're talking about when you're
talking about integrativemedicine or functional medicine
(15:12):
sometimes there's a cost barrierand we have an issue obviously
with poverty in this country,and so that divide between being
able to access a holistic typefoundation can be a challenge
for some people.
Amita (15:30):
Exactly, and that's why
one of the things when I talk to
so many of holistic expertslike yourself, you know they're
doing an incredible job but it'scost prohibitive for majority
of the population out there, youknow, in this case, women.
So that's what we have beenworking for the last two years
to collaborate with experts andcome up with a solution that's
(15:54):
affordable to every woman in theworld.
So we'll get to that.
But, yeah, yes, absolutely,that is a huge thing.
So there we have a medicalsystem where an average medical
doctor only has seven minutes tokind of look, glance over you
and give you some prescriptionand God knows what happens after
that.
Right, no follow-ups, nothing.
(16:20):
And then on the other side, onthe other spectrum, we have a
functional medicine practitionerwho will spend 45 minutes with
you or one hour, but the cost ofthat of course they have to you
know everybody has to survivein the world can run into $1,000
, $1,000, which insurancedoesn't cover.
So in the in the age, a worldwhere it's recession and tariffs
and eggs going out of yourreach every single day, an
(16:46):
average American you cannotexpect them to spend thousands
of dollars going into even ifthey want to going into a
holistic medicine doctor, andyou know this has been validated
by so many naturopathic doctorsthat I have interviewed.
They said they had to shut downtheir practices because people
couldn't afford to see them.
They want to, but they can'tafford it because insurance
(17:07):
doesn't cover.
Now they're doing onlytelemedicine.
So how do you bring this wholebridge, this gap of the right
care?
Mary (17:18):
Yeah, it's a really it's a
really important issue.
It's very frustrating.
One of the things that I loveabout this show is that it does
bring information for free topeople.
Now, let's be clear neither ofus are medical professionals, so
we need to be clear about that.
But a lot of what we're talkingabout can be helped with
(17:42):
lifestyle shifts.
So one of the things I try todo is, for each show, give
people something that they canstart to apply to their lives
pretty immediately.
So, from your knowledge, howcan women integrate holistic
wellness into daily routines,like, let's say, three lifestyle
habits that you think might bemost impactful for women to
(18:03):
start to build into their dailyhabits?
Amita (18:08):
So lifestyle habits.
First of all is simplemeditation.
Like me time you know, fiveminutes of just it could be
breath work.
Actually, I personally likebreath work more because then it
helps cleanse your system.
That's number one.
It's very important.
Number two is when you wake upin the morning, having some warm
(18:30):
tea that's herbal tea cleansesyour gut health.
You know, I typically haveturmeric, anti-inflammatory,
ginger turmeric.
So having that making sure yourgut health is pretty good.
And the third thing isincorporating a balanced meal
and incorporating the right typeof protein and carb proportions
(18:51):
.
These three things, if you payattention as women are
navigating the perimenopause,it's at least the beginning.
I'm not saying that you'regoing to start feeling overnight
better, but if you fix yourdiet with the right type of
protein and you wake up in themorning, you take care of your
gut health and you do somebreath work to calm yourself
(19:11):
stress level, because we are allso stressed out as a society,
these three habits will at leaststart getting you into some
kind of a next level of holisticlifestyle.
Mary (19:26):
Yeah, routine is really
important, and I would add to
that to really be aware of howyou intake sugar, because it is
everything and it actually pullsnutrients from our cells so it
can be digested because it hasno nutrition value.
So if we consume too much sugar, we're actually putting our
(19:50):
body in a state where it can'tget enough nutrition because
that sugar is pulling so muchfrom our cells.
So I could do a five-hour showon that, but I want to park that
out there.
I don't want people to feelpressure about oh, I can't have
sugar.
But I think awareness is thefirst place to start.
If there's one thing that youcan start to adjust and for me,
(20:13):
I love sugar in my coffee, so Iget coconut sugar and it has
half the glycemic index.
So that's a tiny little thing,but I think any of these little
things you can do are gonna behelpful.
So thank you for that.
Good suggestions.
Now I wanna shift a little bitinto menopause, because I think
(20:33):
for some of us and it was kindof the point I was trying to
make in my intro it sneaks up onus because we're doing good,
we're doing good and all of asudden it might be mood swings
or this brain fog that starts,or we have our first hot flash
and it's like what is going onand these things we're talking
about.
Starting these things early canactually lessen the issues that
(20:57):
we face in menopause.
But one of the things that wedon't talk about and I think
affects every woman when allthese hormones shift, our
estrogen goes down to near zero.
When we are fully throughmenopause, our progesterone is
affected, which helps us adjustto stresses, but we don't talk a
(21:18):
lot about the changes in oursexual desire or the impacts on
sexual health.
So can you talk about some ofthose things so we can normalize
a little bit having this partof the conversation?
Amita (21:31):
Yeah, it's actually one
of.
We don't talk about this at alland this is one of the symptoms
that women have loss of libidoand it happens to men also as,
like you said, hormonal shiftsare going down and these
hormones are very important forthe sexual health part of our
body.
Or you know our life, or youknow our life.
(21:57):
So what can you do?
I mean, you know there could bedifferent things that each
woman faces because of the Idon't want to go too technical,
but there could be pain, youknow, in the intercourse when
the vaginal wall is thinning,there could be dryness, you know
all these issues can happen towomen and they don't want to now
engage in these physicalrelationships, you know, with
their partner or their spouses,and that can add a lot of
(22:19):
anxiety and stress.
Now, that is one of the thingsthat's very important for a
couple and you could, if youdon't talk about this openly
with maybe you need a sexualtherapist, as an example, to
talk about it openly and whatcan you do to bring the blood
flow to that part of your body,like maybe you need pelvic uh
(22:41):
health or a sexual healththerapist who can help you with
some kind of an exercises toreally invigorate that part of
your um, you know, area, right,um and so or um.
One of the doctors actually Iwas talking to MDs, in fact, she
was talking about orgasmicmeditation that has a lot of
(23:05):
research behind this to helpthat part of the, you know,
sexual health part of it.
So the other part also a lot ofpeople swear there's again
research about is the breathwork different type of breath
work that can help you know withthat part of the body.
(23:25):
And then, of course, the pelvichealth therapy from physical
therapists.
There are pelvic floorspecialists now to strengthen
your pelvic floor.
So that kind of therapy alsocan help with you know, a lot of
women.
So there's a lot of things thatyou can do, but the reality is
(23:49):
that it can go down and you haveto be, you know, mindful that
it can go down and what is itthat you can do to help yourself
?
Right, and these are some ofthe options that I'm just
talking about, which does haveyou know, evidence behind it.
Mary (24:07):
Mm, hmm, yeah, and I think
it's another topic that can
bring shame, because we havethese societal ideas of what
women are supposed to be and doand want to do and I think when
that, when those things changeand sometimes it changes also
because it hurts, like it's notsomething that's always
enjoyable as we get older,because when that estrogen
(24:30):
changes, then things likelubrication change.
You know all of those things,but you brought up some really
good points, and one is pelvicfloor.
So we know that women shouldreally continue to do
strength-bearing exercisesthrough.
It's one of the most importantthings that we can do and
especially if you've hadchildren, the muscles in our
(24:52):
pelvis can change and we don'toften think about that.
But I don't know what episode itwas, but I did talk with a
pelvic floor specialist.
She's a physical therapist whospecializes in pelvic floor and
it's really important knowledgeto know that there are things
that can be done.
And it wouldn't necessarily besomething that your gynecologist
(25:14):
would talk to you about, butthey can do a referral to a
pelvic specialist that canactually talk you through
different exercises that you cando and you bring up breathing,
and I hear that all the timefrom physical therapists that
work with pelvic floor is wethink that breathing is well.
(25:34):
We do it even without thinking,so it can't really have that
big of an impact.
But it is so impactful when weuse it intentionally, either for
stress management or for thingslike relaxing, and it does play
a role in pelvic health.
Amita (25:51):
Yes, there's a diaphragm
breathing, particularly because
we we do shallow breathing,right when we're breathing like
a normal thing, right, and andthe and the breathing from your
tummy.
The diaphragm breathing that'skind of when you take longer
inhale and exhales, and oneparticularly breathing.
It's called kapal bhaati andit's going like that, you know.
(26:15):
So it starts cleaning up,clearing up your stomach, you
know, from, from the deeper partof your body, and it helps a
lot to to cleanse the toxinsfrom, believe it or not, and and
so so there are a lot ofdifferent breathing techniques
that that women should learn and, and you know, I just very
(26:37):
quickly told you aboutKapalbhati and there are a lot
of other alternate.
I'm sure you know about thealternate nostril breathing and
so many different breathings canhelp our parasympathetic system
, because stress is also relatedwith our pelvic floor.
We are all in one right, ourbody is all one, so different
breathing techniques can has alot of evidence, research behind
(26:59):
it as well.
Mary (27:00):
Yes, yeah, and I actually
have a four week sleep course.
That it's an online course butthere's group coaching with it
and you know it focuses on sleepfor women in menopause.
But we, if we make the changesthat we are talking about, you
actually just sleep better often, and I think we make.
(27:23):
I mean, that's another issue wedidn't really get into, but
sometimes when you hit peri topost-menopause, it wrecks your
sleep and it can be because youhave hot flashes or it can just
be that we've accumulated lifeexperiences and we have anxiety.
But the things that we've justbeen talking about breathing and
(27:44):
mindfulness and grounding andpaying attention to your
environment those sound sosimple but they're built into.
I know the program that I haveand I know that you have so many
options.
You have program options anddifferent things on your website
, so can you share a little bitmore about what you offer?
Amita (28:06):
Yeah, absolutely.
So.
We were talking earlier aboutthe cost-prohibitive barriers,
right, how it becomes veryexpensive, how it becomes very
expensive.
So, in order to have that issue, what we have designed is an
app that is starting as aself-serve app based on a
woman's concern.
First of all, she can go intounderstanding what perimenopause
(28:28):
or menopause is, but based onher concern, for example, sexual
health, she can go through thiswhole entire program that has
been with the experts.
Of course that she can doself-care herself, changing her
lifestyle, changing her diet,using hypnotherapy, using
meditation, mindfulness, yoga,breathing All those things are
(28:51):
embedded into the self-careprogram that we are pricing it
at $5 or something a month,right.
And then after that comes aprogram like yourself what you
were talking about is that it isagain online.
Plus it has some kind of agroup coaching.
So that goes to the other tier,you know, the next price tier,
(29:17):
so to speak, again incollaboration with the experts I
want to take as an example.
Then we have the ability forwomen to consult with someone
(29:41):
like yourself or any otherholistic experts who have been
vetted by us, one-on-one.
So what we are trying to do isprovide a comprehensive solution
, but starting price would besuper affordable, like five
bucks, and then going up as perthe need of a woman that is,
really personalizing it as per awoman's culture we have that as
(30:03):
well and as per what sherequires.
Mary (30:07):
Wow, that sounds fabulous
and I love that you're taking
into account cost, but also thatwomen have that empowerment to
kind of drive.
They drive the car right, theygo, they decide what they need
and they work from there.
That's really cool.
So the website is nourish doc.
I will put that in the shownotes and just to quick review,
(30:33):
some of the simple things thatyou can start with are thinking
about what you're consuming,really monitoring your sugar,
moving, doing that morning whereyou're grounding yourself,
maybe having some ginger tea,turmeric tea, something to start
your day.
Set that routine and, again,really taking time each day to
(30:57):
do deep breathing, not only whenyou feel stressed, because
that's when it's hard to do, butI think if you're settling in
for the night and maybe you dohave trouble sleeping, start to
take deep breaths and groundyourself and put your screens
away an hour or two before yougo to bed.
There are so many things thatyou can do to start to really
(31:18):
kind of connect with your bodyand there are so many wonderful
podcasts and YouTube differentchannels that are free, where
you can get a lot of informationif cost is an issue for you in
getting care.
So thank you so much for beinghere today.
(31:38):
Amita, it's been great to talkto you.
Amita (31:41):
Thank you so much, mary,
for what you're doing and, yeah,
look forward to connecting moreand love the work, so thank you
for having me Absolutely.
Mary (31:50):
Thank you, and I want to
thank everyone for listening.
One of the best things aboutthis podcast to me is the
listeners and the community thatwe're creating.
So if you have someone in yourlife that you think would
benefit from the information inthis episode, I would love if
you would forward it to them orleave a review so people can
more easily find my show.
And if you love listening,consider joining the Growing
(32:13):
Garden of Violets and supportthe show using the heart button
or the link at the bottom of theshow notes, depending where
you're streaming from.
And until next time, go outinto the world and be the
amazing, resilient, vibrantviolet that you are.
Thank you.