September 4, 2025 • 57 mins
In this empowering episode, I sit down with Dr. Rachel Vong, a naturopathic doctor who specializes in women’s thyroid health, especially hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s.
We dive into the connection between thyroid function, perimenopause, and weight loss—exploring why so many women struggle with fatigue, weight gain, and hormonal shifts even when they’re “doing everything right.”
Dr. Vong breaks down the importance of optimal lab testing, the dangers of chronic dieting, the role of inflammation, and how sustainable lifestyle changes can restore health and resilience. You’ll leave with practical takeaways, a fresh perspective on weight gain, and the encouragement to advocate for yourself on your health journey.
Dr. Rachel Vong is a licensed Naturopathic Doctor in Toronto, Canada with a passion and clinical focus on thyroid disorders, specifically hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's Thyroiditis. She runs a successful 4 month comprehensive thyroid program called the Thyroid Reset System that has helped hundreds of women with hypothyroidism and Hashimoto’s reclaim their energy, lose weight effortlessly and get back to feeling like themselves again.
Having struggled with debilitating anxiety, burnout, and a myriad of gut issues herself for several years, it has become her mission in life to help guide and empower other women to take charge of their own health so that they can live a life that they love.
If you want to connect with her, you can find her at the links below!
drvongnd@gmail.com
https://www.drvongnd.com/thyroidresetsystem
https://www.instagram.com/drvongnd
https://www.facebook.com/groups/244653034411113
00:22 Meet Dr. Rachel Vong
01:03 Thyroid 101: Role in Health & Energy
01:44 Signs of Hypothyroidism
02:28 Perimenopause vs. Thyroid Symptoms
05:17 Why Testing & Family History Matter
07:54 Beyond Thyroid: Other Key Markers
09:30 Normal vs. Optimal Lab Ranges
12:01 Thyroid, Metabolism & Weight Gain
17:39 Reframing Weight Gain as Protection
20:23 Case Study: Reducing Inflammation
24:23 Nutrition, Inflammation & Resiliency
27:14 The Risks of Chronic Restriction
29:36 Stress, Hormones & Perimenopause
31:52 Small, Sustainable Lifestyle Shifts
35:3
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Angie (00:00):
What's up runners?
Welcome back to the Real LifeRunners podcast.
Today we're diving into a topicthat so many women in midlife
struggle with, but often don'tget clear answers about, and
that's the thyroid.
If you've ever felt like you'redoing all the right things, like
you're running, you'reexercising, you're eating well,
and yet you're still gainingweight, exhausted, cold all the
time, or dealing with hair.
And brain fog, your thyroidcould be playing a big role.
(00:23):
Today I am joined by Dr.
Rochelle Vong, a naturopathicdoctor from Toronto who
specializes in helping womenwith hypothyroidism and
Hashimoto's reclaim theirenergy, lose weight without
endless restriction, and startfeeling like themselves again.
This podcast is so full ofinformation.
We talk about how the thyroid isthe body's ma metabolism
(00:44):
regulator.
Why so many symptoms?
Overlap with perimenopause andmenopause and how to tell, like
how to start untangling what'sactually going on in your body
because thyroid dysfunction andperimenopause symptoms often
look the same.
We dig into the differencebetween optimal ranges and
normal ranges in our blood workand how blood sugar and
(01:05):
inflammation play into weightstruggles, and most importantly,
you have.
Way more control than you'vebeen told in the past.
So I can't wait for you guys tohear all of the information that
Rochelle brings to today'spodcast.
So if you have any questions orif you wanna connect with
Rochelle, all of her informationis in the show notes.
So let's dig in.
(01:48):
Welcome to the podcast today,y'all.
I'm so excited to have Dr.
Rachel Vong here with me.
What's up, Rochelle?
How are you?
Rachel (01:55):
Hello.
So good.
I'm so happy to be here.
Angie (01:57):
I'm so glad you're here.
I am so excited to dive into ourconversation today.
So I'm gonna let Rachelintroduce herself.
So tell us a little bit aboutwho you are and what you do.
Rachel (02:08):
Yeah, so I'm Rachel.
I'm a naturopathic doctor.
I'm based out of Toronto,Canada, and, I focus on a very
specific niche and demographic.
So I help women with thyroiddisease, specifically
hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's.
I help these women reclaim theirenergy, lose weight
effortlessly, and just get backto feeling like themselves
again.
Angie (02:29):
Lose weight effortlessly.
Yeah.
I love that.
I know that's, there's a lot ofpeople that are listening to
this that are probably like,that made their ears perk up a
little bit.
Like effortlessly Wait, saymore.
so let's start, the thyroid issuch an important organ in the
body, and I think it's one thatis not well understood by a lot
of us.
(02:49):
So can you start us off withjust a little thyroid 1 0 1?
explain Yeah.
the thyroid's role in the body,like what does it do and, why is
it so important?
Rachel (02:58):
Yeah, and as you said, like I think a lot of people
underestimate the importance ofthe thyroid, and it's a very
small organ, so it's, itactually sits at the base of our
neck.
It looks like a littlebutterfly, but it literally
impacts everything.
So our thyroid hormones.
Regulate our metabolism.
It regulates our weightmanagement.
It regulates our appetite.
(03:20):
our temperature production, likeliterally every cell in our body
is impacted by our thyroidhormones.
So you can imagine that if youdon't have enough or you have
too much.
It can really throw everythingoff tilt.
And a very common, again,because I work with women with
hypothyroidism, meaning youdon't have enough thyroid
hormones, often we do see thatthe main signs and symptoms
(03:43):
would be things like weightgain, especially when you don't
change anything.
Like a lot of these women havenot changed their exercise, have
not changed their diet.
Literally nothing has changed,but all of a sudden they're
gaining a lot of weight.
That is, tends to be a reallykey sign of hypothyroidism.
Also, feeling cold all the time.
Like you're the coldest personin the room, you're wearing a
sweater and everyone's like hotin a t-shirt.
(04:04):
That tends to be a sign.
hair loss, fatigue, likedebilitating fatigue,
constipation, like you can seehow, again, it literally impacts
the entire body.
Angie (04:14):
Yeah.
And so I think that's reallyimportant because, we are gonna
get into perimenopause andmenopause, in our conversation
today because a lot of whatyou're explaining can also be a
side effect or a symptom ofperimenopause.
So it becomes this thing of, howcan we figure out what exactly
is going on?
And I think that's why it's soimportant to have this
conversation so that we canreally.
(04:35):
Continue to educate ourselves inwhat exactly is going on in our
body so that we can startchecking boxes.
because.
What people a lot of peopledon't understand is that there's
no one good test forperimenopause.
So you can't just go and take ablood test and decide whether or
not you're in perimenopause, butwe can take a blood test and
figure out what's going on withour hormones, and I think that
(04:57):
it's really important that weunderstand that because while
there are some things that wecan attribute to perimenopause.
We wanna make sure that we'reruling other things out first.
And I think that the thyroid isa big one because there's a lot
of overlap there of like thesymptoms of a thyroid issue and
symptoms in perimenopause.
Rachel (05:16):
Yeah.
I find, a big proportion of myclientele actually are women
going through perimenopause andmenopause and they're always,
one of the questions they ask meis like, how do I know, how do I
know if it's menopause?
How do I know it's my thyroidand Yeah, it's really tough.
'cause again, like all thosesymptoms that I mentioned, even
like insomnia and mood swingsand all that stuff can be either
one.
Yeah.
But the thing that's importantto note, and what you were
(05:38):
talking about is that.
There's so many things happeningin tandem during that period of
per perimenopause and menopause.
So it can be very hard toentangle what belongs to what
thing.
But it's important to understandthe process behind, like what is
actually happening in your bodyduring this time.
Like it's a very importanttransition in a woman's life.
Like it's inevitable.
(05:58):
We're all gonna go through it atsome point.
But it doesn't have to suck.
a lot of people think, oh gosh,I'm going through it now.
It's gonna suck.
Or even younger women who arethinking forward to be like, oh
my gosh, I saw my mom go throughit.
I don't want the same thing asher.
So it doesn't have to be thatway.
And I think that's why it's soimportant to have this
conversation now.
So that.
Again, you educate yourself andyou take the right steps to
(06:20):
learn more about what ishappening and you can be
proactive.
Because the more proactive youcan be, the less that
transition's gonna suck.
Angie (06:29):
Absolutely.
Let's get into if you have aclient that's coming to you and
telling you, some of thesymptoms that you're talking
about with, especiallyspecifically with the weight
gain.
And specifically, someone that'sworking out and they just find
like they're gaining weight andnothing that they do can help.
I've changed nothing andnothing's helping.
So where do we start?
Rachel (06:49):
Yeah.
So that happens like 99% of thetime with the clients that I
work with.
Yeah.
and some of the women I workwith know they have a thyroid
issue, so that's one thing, butif you don't, then that's where
I think comprehensive blood workcan be so helpful.
Yeah.
Again, just to understand like,where's this coming from?
And the thing that really don'tmind my language, but pisses me
(07:10):
off is when they go to theirconventional doctors and they're
just given that oh, it's just apart of aging.
you're fine.
Everything looks fine.
When in reality like, this isnot normal.
You shouldn't be just gainingweight out of nowhere.
Yes, you might be aging, butthat doesn't always have to come
with that kind of symptom.
So it's important at that pointto, again, just dig deeper, know
(07:31):
that there is a reason, there isabsolutely a reason for it.
You just have to find what itis.
And so for, the work that I dois.
That deep dive investigation.
Okay.
What kind of testing do we do?
So obviously looking at thethyroid, that's a huge one
because in the majority of casesI do find that the thyroid is
off, and because the thyroiddoes regulate metabolism, when
(07:55):
we hit perimenopause andmenopause, I always say, In a
woman's life, we go throughdifferent hormonal transitions.
So puberty is a obvious big one.
Pregnancy and childbirth isanother, and then perimenopause
and menopause.
So three kind of major hormonalshifts in a woman's life.
At every.
Transition.
(08:15):
There is an opportunity to seelike a glitch in our system
because at the end of the day,these hormonal shifts can be
like stressors in the body.
So depending on the woman,sometimes these transitions can
be glitches.
So for a woman who has say likea predisposition for a thyroid
issue, so if your mom hasthyroid disease, if your grandma
has thyroid disease, if there'ssome sort of.
(08:37):
Genetic, like family history,you are definitely more at risk
for yourself developing athyroid issue.
And all you need is a trigger ora glitch to happen.
So it could be again, postpartumis very, a very common time, but
perimenopause and menopause isanother very common time, which
is why a huge, like so many ofmy clients are in that stage of
their lives.
(08:58):
if you're in that.
Time, if you are noticing thatyou are experiencing some
perimenopausal symptoms oryou're at that age and you're
noticing that weight gain comingoutta nowhere, then I would say
definitely start looking at thethyroid because it could.
It could be that it glitched.
It's a weird word to say, therecan be a change in your thyroid
hormones, and also the immunesystem as well.
(09:20):
And all of that can affect yourmetabolism.
And all of a sudden now yourmetabolism set point is lower
and that can cause the immediateweight gain that you see.
Okay.
So definitely deep dive intoblood work.
Angie (09:32):
Yeah, I agree.
And so what other, besides justlooking at our thyroid hormones,
what other markers in our bloodshould we be looking at?
Rachel (09:41):
Yeah, so I.
Aside from the thyroid, whichagain includes all your thyroid
hormones and even your thyroidantibodies, that's really
important.
I like to look at a fewdifferent things.
So nutrient levels is important.
So looking at your vitamin D,looking at your B12, looking at
your iron, like these nutrientsare so important for metabolism,
for overall optimal health.
(10:01):
For energy.
I wanna make sure that all ofthese things are optimized.
As well as looking atinflammation markers.
Also really important, and I canget a little bit into that later
if you want, but inflammationtends to be another big culprit
for stubborn weight loss andtends to happen and come about
around that time of, again,perimenopause and menopause.
(10:22):
because of some blood sugar.
Regulation issues, but generallywe see like an increase in
inflammation.
And inflammation can be like awarning signal to the body.
The body doesn't likeinflammation, so when it sees
that there's a heightened level,it will actually down regulate
your metabolism because it'strying to conserve energy.
So that's where we see, again,that metabolic set point.
(10:43):
Come down and then the weight goup.
So I like to see, can we see itin the blood work?
So we'll do, inflammationmarkers?
also look at hormones,especially again, if you're
going into perimenopause andmenopause, it can be valuable to
see where is your estrogen at?
Where's your progesterone at,where's your testosterone at?
So getting that really holistic,high level look at your health
(11:05):
Can give us so many differentclues as to where the barriers.
Might be coming from.
and it could be a combination ofa lot of different things, but
it's important to look at yourhealth from a bird's eye view.
Angie (11:16):
Yeah.
And I also would love for you totalk a little bit too about the
difference between being withina normal range and being
optimal.
Yes.
Because I think that's a bigthing that a lot of people don't
understand and they go to theirdoctors and they get some of
these blood panels done and.
And the doctor says, oh, all ofyour blood is normal.
Blood work looks fine,everything you're normal.
(11:37):
But then when you actually lookat it and you see where you are
on that quote unquote normalspectrum, there's a huge range
for some of these things.
Yeah.
And so just because you mightfall into the normal range, that
doesn't mean that you're in theoptimal range for feeling good
and having good health.
Rachel (11:53):
Exactly.
And I'm gonna just talk aboutthe thyroid specifically here.
Yeah.
Because, I see this a lot whereagain, you're gaining weight for
No reason and you're tired andyour hair is falling out.
So you'll go to the doctor andthe doctors will often run
usually one test, and it's TSH,so thyroid stimulating hormone.
That is a routine test doneusually.
(12:14):
And like even part of yourannual and all that.
However, that hormone, so thatcomes from the brain actually,
that's a brain signal that goesto your thyroid to tell your
thyroid how much thyroid hormoneto produce.
So we're only looking at onemarker.
First of all.
it's not indicative of theoverall function of your
thyroid, but it's just onemarker that comes from the
brain.
(12:34):
So that's a problem in and ofitself.
But with that marker alone, asyou've said, the range of normal
is quite wide.
I think it's like 0.32 to 4.5 orsomething like that.
Yeah.
Now somebody who's sitting at a0.32 is gonna look very
different and feel verydifferent than someone who's at
a 4.5.
(12:54):
So we cannot say that people atboth ends of these ranges are
normal.
Exactly.
So what we're trying to aim foris really this optimal range.
So when most people are in thisoptimal range, they feel great.
Their health is optimal.
So really with every marker, notjust thyroid, but every single
lab marker, we really gotta getrid of this idea that as long as
(13:17):
we're in the normal range, we'refine.
That is not true.
We really wanna strive foroptimal, because if your TSH is
at a four.
And you're gaining weight, guesswhat?
Your thyroid is likely involvedin this.
Your thyroid is not okay.
Angie (13:30):
Yeah, and I think that people don't really get that.
And one way that I like to lookat it is we obviously are a
running podcast, and so as arunner you can go out and you
can run a 5K and say you runthat 5K in 36 minutes and you're
like, okay, you ran a 5K, that'sin the normal range, like you
(13:50):
were able to complete the 5K,right?
But as a runner.
We often want to get a littlefaster, right?
Do a little better.
Like we want to improveourselves and see how fast can I
get here?
So 36 might be in the quoteunquote normal range, but what
if we, but you know what, I kindof wanna get under 30, I wanna
get under that 30 minute mark,and that's because you wanna.
(14:12):
Optimize your running.
Yes.
And that's the same thing here,right?
Just because you're in thenormal range, just because you
were able to complete a 5Kdoesn't mean that you were happy
about your time and yourperformance here.
And it's the same with ourhormones and our blood markers
is just because we're in thatnormal range does not mean that
is our optimal levels for us tobe at.
Rachel (14:30):
Yeah,
Angie (14:31):
I love that comparison, by the way.
That's really good.
I just came up with it on thespot, so there you go.
Rachel (14:36):
So good.
Alright, but no, you're right.
Like optimal is best Yeah.
for everything and sometimestoo, like it allows you to be
proactive because if you seethat things are still normal but
not optimal, that is literallythe best time to take action.
Yeah.
To make changes because you'renot at a point where maybe
things aren't necessarilysignificant or severe.
(14:56):
But again, it, things arechanging.
Like you have gotta trust thatthere, it's your body's telling
you something.
Yeah.
That something is off.
Yeah.
Angie (15:02):
We don't need to wait until we're pathological, until
we run actually in a diseaseprocess to make changes.
And I think that's really thebig thing.
I think the difference betweenthe way that you practice
medicine and the way that a lotof western doctors practice
medicine, is that, we in thewestern medicine world are very
good at.
Treating diseases and managingdisease, but we are not good at
(15:27):
promoting health and reallyoptimizing health.
And I think that it's a hugemindset shift and a shift in
perspective of which one do youreally wanna pay attention to?
Are you, do you wanna just be inthe normal range so that you can
avoid disease?
Or do you wanna be in an optimalrange so that you can really
feel your best and promote?
Good health and be able to dowhatever you wanna do both now
(15:48):
and in the future.
And I dunno about everybodylistening, but that's definitely
what I'm shooting for.
when we talk about the optimalrange, is that optimal range the
same for each person or wouldyou say that it varies from
individual to individual.
Rachel (16:01):
It definitely ranges.
It depends on what tests you'relooking at.
Okay.
like for example, hormones, Theoptimal range for hormones is
going to depend on age.
A lot of the times.
So like an estrogen level for ayoung female is gonna be very
different than from someonewho's in, perimenopause.
For example, so it does dependon the in individual.
And that's where, again, withhealth, you've gotta look at the
(16:23):
individual in front of you.
So like knowing that you are adifferent person than even your
sister and your mother, And soit's important to take that deep
dive to see where can weoptimize here.
Beautiful.
Angie (16:35):
Yeah.
So what role does the thyroidplay when it comes to metabolism
and weight loss?
Why is weight gain such, a keysymptom when it comes to thyroid
issues?
Rachel (16:48):
Yeah, so again, like the thyroid hormones regulate what
your me metabolic set point is.
you know how much food you'reeating and how much exercise
you're kind, like the wholecalories and calories out.
Calculation.
your thyroid kind of sets whatthat number is.
So as long as you are eating, acertain amount and you're
exercising a certain amount, andit like.
(17:09):
Cancels each other out, you'renot gonna gain any weight,
right?
If you eat less than your kindof, set point, then you're gonna
lose weight.
So all of that kind of, it'sjust for someone without, say, a
metabolic issue or a thyroidissue, it's pretty mathematical
in that sense, right?
But for women who have thyroidissues, that equation
unfortunately goes out thewindow.
(17:30):
It's not gonna apply because ifsomeone's metabolic setpoint has
been lowered, which happens withhypothyroidism, they could be
eating in a supposed caloriedeficit and not see any weight
loss because their metabolicsetpoint has been lowered so
much.
So that's the problem that wesee is that these women.
(17:51):
Are working their butts off.
like they're in the gym fivedays a week.
They're running, they're doingCrossFit, they're literally
killing themselves, working outand even eating in a calorie
deficit.
And nothing is budging.
And you can imagine that'sfrustrating.
Audio Only - All Particip (18:08):
Yeah.
And
Rachel (18:09):
if anyone's listening, I'm sure so many of you're in
the same boat, I don't know whythis is not working like this
is, this used to work for me 20years ago?
Why is it not working for menow?
And it's because of the factthat your metabolism has gone
down and we call that likemetabolic inflexibility, so it
can't account for the changes incalorie intake and expenditure
and all that stuff.
(18:29):
So that's the problem here withwomen who have thyroid disease.
and remembering that at the endof the day, like your body is
First of all, your T threehormones, if you don't have
enough.
That's why, again, it's notbeing able to push up that
metabolic setpoint.
But generally speaking too, withhypothyroidism, there's so many
other different things happeningin your body.
(18:49):
As I've said before,inflammation tends to be rampant
in your body.
Blood sugar dysregulation.
adrenal dysfunction issue, socortisol imbalance.
So you, you'll start seeingother things happening in the
body and often these are allagain, warning danger signs to
the body.
So you know, your body will gointo kind of more defensive mode
protection mode.
(19:10):
Yeah.
Because of all these things andthat will push your mepo me
metabolism even lower.
'cause your body's trying toprotect you.
I often say we sometimes have toreframe how we see and view,
weight and weight gain.
Often women think it's a resultof what they are doing and a lot
of, there's a lot of like guiltand anger put on themselves.
(19:32):
And shame.
And shame.
Angie (19:33):
Yeah.
Rachel (19:34):
But instead I want you to think, your body is
protecting you.
Weight gain, Adipose tissue isactually protective.
it will give you energy.
It will keep you warm.
Like your body's literallyadding on more adipose tissue
because it feels that there's athreat.
Yeah.
It feels unsafe.
And that's why we're gainingweight.
So your body is doing everythingthat it can to protect you.
(19:57):
And if we can just acknowledgethat it's not trying to, Does it
punish you for anything like
Angie (20:02):
or sabotage you or sa a lot of people use that word, the
sabotage word, but it's reallyprotection and
Rachel (20:08):
survival.
Yeah, but it's protection.
It's survival.
And what we need to do is firstof all, acknowledge that, And
thank our bodies for doing theamazing things that it does for
us.
And then listen to our bodies tosay, okay, I hear you.
There's something going on.
Now it's my job to look into it.
Let's see.
Where, why do, why does my bodyfeel unsafe?
Angie (20:30):
Yes.
Rachel (20:31):
let's find that.
things like, again, inflammationand, Chronic infections, gut
infections, like there's so manythings that could be going on,
but if we can identify thesethings, which we can,'cause
we've got lots of coolfunctional testing and all the
things, and actually address'emand we remove the threat, and
this is why I say effortlessweight loss, I don't just throw
(20:51):
that word around.
If you can remove the threat andthe body feels safe again The
body will let go of that weightand it will feel and look
effortless.
Angie (21:03):
Yeah,
Rachel (21:04):
it's not that you have to change anything.
you're not being asked to workout more or eat less.
You just have to remove what thebarrier or the blockage is for
your body right now.
It's not that your body can't doit, it's just there's so many
barriers right now for you.
So we just gotta uncover thatand remove that, and you will
see that weight shed.
Angie (21:25):
Yeah.
I love that reframe so much, andI think that it's so important
for women to really understandthat because like you said,
there is a lot of guilt andshame and pointing fingers at
yourself like, there must besomething wrong with me when
your body's just doing exactlywhat it's supposed to do.
Exactly, and it's.
Such a beautiful thing when youcan understand that you can give
(21:46):
your body a little hug and saythanks, thank you body for
protecting me.
Thank you for doing this for me.
Like you're doing exactly whatyou're supposed to be doing.
Okay.
Now let's get to the bottom ofthis.
Exactly.
So where do we start?
when we start to realize, Okay.
I hear you, Rochelle.
Things are things, my body'sunder threat, but where do I
start here?
Where do I start to uncover whymy body feels threatened?
Rachel (22:09):
Yeah.
I would love to use an examplebecause I actually had a client,
come into the program and shehad very typical hypothyroid
symptoms, so she was extremelyexhausted.
She had, I think it was threekids under.
Four.
And so you can imagine
Angie (22:26):
that's
Rachel (22:26):
gonna very, that's
Angie (22:27):
gonna put
Rachel (22:27):
anybody's
Angie (22:28):
fight
Rachel (22:28):
or flight on, on guard there.
Yeah.
she's tired, right?
She is, she's a busy mom ofyoung kids.
but she also had a thyroidissue, which is, it just makes
it, compounds that right.
Her hair was falling out.
She was so bloated.
and that's another thing likethe thyroid is very intimately
tied to your gut health.
So a lot of people with thyroidissues will experience tons of
(22:51):
bloating, like often looking sixmonths pregnant by the end of
the day, every day.
constipated, nauseous, like alot of issues.
And so she was even throwing upfrom the discomfort of the
bloating.
Just not a good, not in greatshape.
and there was some stress too.
She was taking care of herfather at the time, so there was
just a lot going on in her life.
But she loves to run.
(23:12):
She's actually a runner herselfand she's, she loves being
active, but of course, just witheverything going on, and
especially with the energy Shejust couldn't get back into it.
Like she would do little runshere and there, but like she
really wanted to run a halfmarathon, but she just could
not.
Go through the training, shejust couldn't get herself there
physically.
(23:32):
Yeah.
And even she even said even ifshe did go for a run, she'd feel
so depleted after.
it would take her days torecover, whereas before it was
like nothing, Yeah.
So she definitely felt likesomething is not allowing my
body to do this anymore.
And so she found my program andshe, we started working together
and one of the first things thatI do with all of my clients is.
(23:55):
Try to reduce inflammation asquickly as possible because
again, most of these women aredealing with a lot of
inflammation.
Angie (24:01):
Yeah.
Rachel (24:01):
So nutrition is probably one of the best ways to address
inflammation.
and We had her do ananti-inflammatory diet.
So just really ensuring that shewas eating foods at work,
bringing down inflammation, andgetting her macros in the right,
proportions, her protein, carbs,fats, and all the things that
alone helped so much to get herenergy back up.
(24:25):
But that's the thing, like withinflammation, it's not just one
thing, one improvement that youwill see.
Inflammation really does affect.
All areas of your health,including your recovery time,
joint pain, muscle pain,weakness, strength, like all
these things can be affected byinflammation.
So already, just by addressingthe inflammatory piece and
(24:46):
bringing inflammation down, shefelt stronger.
She felt more resilient.
And often that's what it takesto be able to, Run for longer
and more, for more often and,hit those prs and all that
stuff.
Like you, you need thatresiliency.
You need to build thatresiliency.
So
Angie (25:01):
absolutely
Rachel (25:02):
she did that plus some other things.
We worked on her gut health alittle bit, worked on her
adrenals, but we really didn'tdo all that much.
I think for her inflammation wasprobably the biggest block for
her.
And within a couple months sheran her first 10 k, or sorry,
not, no, sorry, not 10 k.
Half marathon in 10 years.
It's been 10 years since she ranone and she finally ran one and
(25:24):
she was blown away by her ownresults because she ran faster
than she thought she would.
And she felt great.
Yeah.
Like great.
So just to show you that, it'snot that you can't do it, but
there just sometimes you justhave to remove that block.
Angie (25:38):
Yeah.
Rachel (25:38):
Whatever that is.
So for her it was inflammation,but as I've said for other
people, I, I do a lot of gutwork, Some people have a lot of
what we call dysbiosis imbalancein bacteria.
some, for some others it's a lotto do with their blood sugar.
So we have to adjust the insulinresistance.
it's hard to say generally whatthese things are because it can
look very different for everysingle person.
Angie (25:59):
But what I'm hearing you say is that it's so much
connected to our nutrition aswell.
Because that's obviously whereyou started with this client,
and I'm guessing with a lot ofother people too.
Every client, yeah.
Is getting her to actually,yeah.
Eat foods that are going tonourish her body and decrease
inflammation, versus justfocusing on weight loss and
(26:21):
restriction, which is what somany people do in this phase of
life, right?
They try to eat lower calorie,they try to eat low carb, they
try to eat low fat, and itthrows your body completely off,
especially if you're a runner orany sort of.
Active woman that is exercisingregularly, you have to feed your
body.
And if you are not nourishingyour body with the proper foods,
(26:42):
then you are going to haveincreases in inflammation,
increases in gut issues, and somany other things because you're
not giving your body the fuelthat it needs.
And I think that's such animportant shift again, right?
that way that we're looking atour food intake and the way that
we're looking at nutrition.
Not just looking at calories andcalories out and making sure
(27:02):
that I'm hitting the rightnumber of calories every day,
but am I giving my body enoughprotein?
Am I giving my body enoughcarbohydrates and the good
carbohydrates so that I can havemore energy?
Because carbohydrates are ourenergy source, and protein helps
us build stronger muscles andhealthy fats help with our
nerves and our gut and like allthese other things, right?
(27:23):
Looking at this, like you said,very holistically from that
bird's eye view and saying, whatdoes my body need right now?
Yeah.
And what can I eat to give it tomyself?
Rachel (27:32):
Yes.
And I love that you said thatbecause I think the narrative
right now, at least for women inweight loss is that you just
have to exercise more and youjust have to eat less.
And that's it.
I hear this all the time.
I do too.
Angie (27:45):
And it's complete baloney, especially if you're
already aware of what you'redoing.
And if you're exercising, theanswer is definitely not.
Eat more and or eat less andmove more.
Rachel (27:56):
Yeah, that's not the answer.
And with women who have,metabolic issues like
hypothyroidism,
Angie (28:02):
yeah.
Rachel (28:02):
It's even more important to not do that because, I find
that your resiliency is alreadyso low.
And when I say resiliency I meanlike your ability to handle
stress, your ability to handleinflammation.
Like we are all born with apretty good.
level of resiliency.
And that's why we're able to,occasionally eat junk food and
do this and do that and not haveit completely wreck your system.
(28:25):
But with hypothyroidism, thatresiliency has become much, much
lower.
And when you're eating less, andthis is very, factual
information, research shows usthis.
Yes.
When you're eating in a chroniccalorie deficit, that can
actually add more stress to awoman's.
Body and with, again, yourresiliency being so low, it
(28:46):
means that stress impacts youthat much more.
And stress, we all know aboutcortisol.
I think you, I'm sure you'vetalked about cortisol before.
Yeah.
But cortisol is a fat storinghormone.
So if we, if our bodies are nowmore stress and we have more
cortisol raging through oursystem, this is literally going
to signal to our bodies to storemore fat.
(29:07):
So all that calorie deficit,Strategy and exercising more,
which can also be a stressor.
Yes.
All of that is adding to thesignal of, Hey, I think we're
stressed out here.
My bot our, we can't handle thisright now, so we're gonna just
store more fat.
'cause you're telling us thatwe're actually more in danger
mode here.
Angie (29:26):
Yep.
Yep.
a hundred percent.
And I'm so glad you said thatbecause I, that's one of the
things I try to tell people allthe time, and they, it's so hard
for people to make that shiftbecause of diet, culture and the
things that we've been told fordecades and decades, Of the eat
less and move more.
that's just how it is.
It's just that equation.
That's the only thing we have tothink about, which is such an
(29:47):
oversimplification like yes.
Calories matter, but not whenyou're like your, like you said,
not when your body's notoperating optimally.
Yeah.
And that.
Chronic stress and overstressand adaptability, like you, you
call it resiliency.
I like to call it adaptability.
It's both, right?
But it's essentially like ourbodies are amazing and they can
(30:09):
take on so much.
We just have to learn how tosupport them a little better and
yeah.
that's where I think things getreally confusing for women.
Especially in this phase oflife, because now, like you just
mentioned, say you have athyroid issue and now your
metabolic set point is lower,which means that your body is
less resilient, your body's lessadaptable.
Now you throw on perimenopauseand the loss of estrogen on top
(30:32):
of all.
Yes.
That And so now estrogensdoesn't even have your back
anymore.
And so there's all of thesemultiple factors that are
affecting you.
And that's what I think makes itso confusing and frustrating for
so many women.
Yeah.
Rachel (30:45):
I know totally.
and that's where again, we haveto take more of that
comprehensive approach Inlooking at what's going on
because it's so complex, becauseit's so multifactorial,
Absolutely.
but yeah, I think that Just foranyone who's thinking, does that
mean I can't be working out?
And what should I be doing here?
I always say that sometimesyou're, you just need to take a
(31:07):
break before you can ramp backup.
Audio Only - All Particip (31:09):
Yeah.
And
Rachel (31:10):
recognizing, and I've seen this.
A lot where some women whoagain, used to go to the gym
five days a week Already justshifting to let's just say low
intensity workouts or maybetaking more breaks.
So having maybe two days a weekinstead of the five.
Just that shift alone can causeweight loss.
Yes.
Which is Crazy, if you thinkabout it.
(31:31):
Totally counterintuitive toeverything we've been told.
Completely.
So I have seen that to happen.
Now I'm not saying it's gonnahappen for every single woman
But just goes to show you againthe impact that, exercising and
that physical kind of demand onour body, like what that
actually does to our hormones.
And especially with, the changeslike the hormonal shifts that we
(31:52):
do experience in terms ofperimenopause And menopause,
where now we're having drops inour hormones.
It's interesting because duringthat period of life, we go from,
having our ovaries and ourreproductive organs doing most
of the hormone production to nowour adrenal glands.
And I think that's where thisbecomes even more important when
we're talking about stress and,physical adaptability if you
(32:15):
will.
So when we go throughperimenopause and menopause, our
adrenals take over.
Some of that hormone or most ofthat hormone production from the
ovaries.
So if you already are somebodywho has gone through a lot of
stress in their life, maybealready acknowledges that they
have a bit of adrenaldysfunction going in, this is
where I see that a lot of womenwill have some more significant
(32:39):
kind of like menopausal symptomsbecause their adrenals are
having a very hard time copingwith that shift.
And again, because the adrenalsare taking over.
It becomes more important tomanage stress because the
adrenals are already overworkedtrying to manage that hormone
production load.
Now it's okay, if we're gonnapush our bodies, we're
(33:01):
exercising too much or we'reeating too little.
We're just telling our adrenals,Hey, We're just gonna work you
till you can't work anymore.
And the adrenals will like poopout too.
And then now you've got thatwhole thing with cortisol and
everything that comes with that.
this is where again, we justhave to be very mindful of kind
of the stage of life that we'rein and what our physiology is
(33:22):
doing, what's happening in ourbodies, and realize that there
is a better approach.
and like you said, it startswith kind of just understanding
and that shift in mindset.
Definitely.
that we don't need to push ourbodies so much and that we don't
need to restrict,'causerestriction often is not the
answer and is not helping you atall.
We need to nourish, we got tofuel.
(33:44):
Bodies, and hormones require alot of resources, like I said,
good fats, proteins, right?
We need to have enough of thesethings so that your body has
enough building blocks toactually make the hormones.
Angie (33:56):
Absolutely.
And I, there's also I think, alot of fear around that.
when I talk to women about thisidea of maybe you're overdoing
it and maybe you're restrictingtoo much, I think you actually
need to eat more.
And like the number of timesthat I've said that to someone.
And the response that I'vegotten has been fearful of,
(34:16):
yeah, I can't, but what if IStart eating more and then I
just keep gaining more weight.
Because again, that's thenarrative we've been told, Is
that if you eat more, you'rejust gonna gain weight.
And I think there's so much feararound that too, of if I let my
foot off the gas and don'texercise five days a week, or if
I start to eat more and don'tkeep myself in this calorie
(34:37):
deficit, then.
God forbid what is gonna happen.
So can you address that fearthat a lot of people have around
this idea?
Rachel (34:46):
Yeah, I hear it a lot as well.
Yeah.
and I get it.
I totally get it.
Especially when like theevidence that you have is
stacking.
with that thought.
Yeah.
So I do understand that, but Ithink that's where, again, just
like that education piece isreally important to like really
truly understand like the impactof what is, your activities and
how that's actually impactingyour hormones, but also.
(35:09):
Doing that comprehensive kind ofdeep dive.
'cause I often, if I haveclients like that, then usually
in the, when we do ourcomprehensive blood work, we see
what's going on with theirthyroid.
We see what's going on withtheir adrenals a lot of the
time.
It's that like light bulb ahamoment for them to be like, oh,
maybe there is more to my weightloss struggle than just the
calories and calories out issue.
(35:31):
Maybe this thyroid thing isactually a bigger deal than I
thought, or oh, maybe this Thefact that my cortisol is tanked,
like that has something to dowith it.
So I think just like even justopening your eyes to the
awareness of there could be moregoing on in your body and that
starts with, again, just beingmore comprehensive with your
investigation.
So I find that tends to help myclients feel more.
(35:52):
I don't know, just less, alittle bit less fearful in
understanding that there couldbe more going on than meets the
eye.
and all too, if we're gonna makechanges to their exercise
regimen or their diet, like it'snever drastic anyway.
We do it very slowly.
Even if it's just like addingone little more like snack
midday to start, or, we're gonnacut down by one day or cut this
(36:14):
one day by half the time, we'rejust gonna make small changes,
small transitions, so they stillfeel con in control
Audio Only - All Participant (36:20):
Of
Rachel (36:20):
the situation without, and being able to experiment, if
you will, with that as well.
So that's at least what myclients have found worked for
them.
Angie (36:29):
I agree.
I think that starting with smallsteps that are very doable and
sustainable is the key here, andI love that's what you teach
with your clients as well.
Because when I.
Talk to people or hear peoplegoing on these very drastic
metabolic reset type of diets.
It's always this red flag thatgoes up for me because, maybe
you can get some results.
(36:50):
And I have friends that havedone these very significant
severe, I, I like severe extremetype of diets, called that are
claiming to reset yourmetabolism and.
It works at the beginning,right?
And then it doesn't anymorebecause it's very hard to
sustain that type of restrictionin your regular life.
(37:12):
I wanna shift a little bitbecause you talked about,
looking at holistically.
all the things that are going onin the body.
Can you speak a little bit aboutblood sugar and insulin
resistance?
Because you, you mentioned thata little bit before.
but like the role of blood sugarregulation and insulin
resistance and how your thyroid,connects all of those things and
how those things also affect ourme metabolism and our weight.
Rachel (37:36):
Yeah.
This is probably one of myfavorite topics to talk about
because I do just find it, it'sso important and can be.
Like really, pivotal insomeone's kind of transformation
because when we can actuallyaddress insulin resistance,
everything can change.
for a woman going throughperimenopause and menopause, we
(37:58):
obviously know that there isgonna be hormonal shifts.
Like estrogen and progesterone.
Now these hormones are not justsex hormones that, affect
reproduction and sexualdevelopment and all that, but
they actually do play into a lotof other hormones in the body,
which is like super cool.
So estrogen, in particular.
We see that it actually canimpact immune function And can
(38:21):
impact, like other hormonesignaling.
So for example, insulin.
So insulin is that hormonethat's released from the
pancreas in response to anincrease in blood sugar.
So when we eat something, it'sbroken down into glucose and it
enters our blood bloodstream.
Our pancreas will then releaseinsulin to help that sugar go
into our muscles to be used forenergy and for fuel.
(38:42):
That's normal.
Now again, estrogen can actuallylike talk to insulin to tell it
how you know how well to do itsjob essentially.
And the thyroid, same thing.
T three hormones can actuallyimpact insulin signaling and
insulin function as well.
So you can see how likeinsulin's doing its job, but it
has a lot of differentsupervisors and managers around
(39:05):
to ensure that it's doing itsjob, right?
Yes.
But unfortunately, if one ofthose managers goes array and it
just goes crazy, then it doesimpact how insulin does its job.
So for estrogen, the fact that,with perimenopause.
And menopause.
We do see lots of differentfluctuations, but especially
through menopause.
(39:26):
When we hit like a low withestrogen, we lose a little bit
of that signaling power frominsulin.
And so we, that's where we see,and that's why we see so many
issues with blood sugar afterperimenopause.
And with insulin's such animportant and crucial hormone
because like cortisol, it alsois a fat storing hormone, When
(39:47):
we have increases in insulin inour bloodstream, that's where
again, we see that signalsaying, Hey, we need to store
more adipose tissue.
And then we start seeing a lotof that weight gain come about.
So a lot of the women I workwith, when we're trying to
investigate stubborn weightloss, insulin resistance, or
blood sugar dysregulation tendsto be the culprit for like at
(40:11):
least 70 to 80% of them.
It's huge.
And especially in thatpopulation of women who are
going through perimenopause andmenopause because of how
estrogen and insulin go hand inhand, Okay.
And you, on top of that, youhave the glitch in the thyroid,
right?
So you also have that componentthat also impacts insulin
signaling.
With insulin resistance,essentially, it's your insulin
(40:33):
is no longer working the way itshould.
You know your cells are notresponding to insulin as well.
So when that happens, insulinstarts to build in the
bloodstream as well as glucose.
And those two things are notgreat because now you've got a
buildup of insulin, which I saidis signals the body to store
fat, which is gonna make it veryhard for you to lose weight.
(40:56):
And then you've also got abuildup of glucose, which can,
increase your risk factor forthings like diabetes.
And then we start seeing like alot more of these kind of blood
sugar rollercoasters.
We see really high highs ofglucose because insulin's not
doing its job, but then we seealso low lows because now the
brain's actually gonna tell thepancreas to dump insulin into
the blood.
(41:16):
It's like you're not doing yourjob.
Why is there so much glucose inthe blood?
So insulin comes in and it justdoes its job, but too well,
where then your blood sugarcrashes.
Now these ups and downs cancause a.
The whole array of symptoms.
Okay?
So if you're somebody who, tendsto like crash after lunch, you
feel like between two to 4:00 PMyou always need to take a nap.
(41:39):
That can be a sign of bloodsugar regulation issues.
If you have intense sugarcravings, especially at
nighttime That can also be asign of blood sugar
dysregulation or insulinresistance.
And it's all because of this upand down and up and down of your
blood sugar.
personally, this is somethingthat I experienced as well in
my, a decade ago when I wasgoing, going through my own
(42:01):
health.
issues.
I had no idea.
Actually, I was very clueless atthe time before I went to
naturopathic medical school, soclueless about blood sugar and
the impact that it really had onmy health, but it really
impacted my cognition.
I had a lot of brain fog.
I had have anxiety as well.
Every time I hit a low in myblood sugar, I would be so
(42:21):
anxious and I have no idea why.
And just like all the things.
So I just feel I think everyoneneeds to be aware of.
The impact of their blood sugarand how it can really impact it
just quality of life.
and the potential symptoms thatthey have and how that is all
related, but especially when itcomes to weight, knowing that
insulin resistance can be a verycommon reason why someone can't
(42:46):
lose weight.
And it's just especially commonin women who are going through
perimenopause and menopause.
Angie (42:52):
Yeah.
And is that something that wouldshow up on a blood test?
How would someone know that theyhave higher levels of insulin or
blood glucose?
Rachel (43:00):
Yeah, so there's a couple ways to test.
At the minimum, you can run afasting glucose and a fasting
insulin on blood work.
And then when you get thosevalues, I will plug it into a
calculator called Homa ir, soHOMA dash ir.
You can literally just Google.
It's Tons of free calculatorsout there, and you just plug
those numbers in and it'll giveyou a ratio, and the ratio will
(43:22):
tell you basically how.
Insulin resistant or not.
You are.
Okay.
and then I usually like to dothat every four months, four to
six months to track somebody'sprogress in terms of their
protocol.
Now, that's one way of doing it.
I wouldn't say it's the mostaccurate way, but it's probably
the easiest.
Way to track.
Yeah.
Another way to do it would bedoing an, we call like a two
(43:44):
hour insulin, glucose challenge.
If you've ever been pregnant,When you drink that nasty sugar
drink.
Yeah.
And then they have to do theblood tests on you like every 30
minutes.
That's essentially what it is.
So it's just seeing how yourinsulin and your glucose
responds to a glucose load.
So that's actually a much moreaccurate test.
It's just that not everyone hastwo hours or three hours to
(44:05):
spend at a lab to get pricked.
and then another way is actuallywearing a CGM.
Okay, so you know, a continuousglucose monitor, and I love
those actually because the bloodwork will show you a point in
time like you know, in themorning or that two hour window.
But the CGM can tell you so muchabout your day to day activities
(44:25):
and what things that you'reeither doing or eating that is
contributing to that blood sugarrollercoaster.
Because people often think, whenthey hear blood sugar, they
think diet.
And a lot of people are like, Idon't eat sugar.
I don't eat poorly.
Like I'm sure a lot of your,list listeners and audience are
clean eaters as are like myclients.
(44:47):
they're not eating junk, a lotof them.
and so they're just puzzled asto why they wouldn't have
insulin resistance.
Audio Only - All Participan (44:54):
And
Rachel (44:54):
what else they can do to even correct it if they're
already eating clean.
But you'll find that when youdo, when you actually wear a
CGM, you'll notice that it's somuch more than just.
Nutrition and food that canspike your blood sugar.
Yes.
And again, that's it's so coolwhen you think about the
connections between all thedifferent hormones, but often
the biggest culprit is stress.
Angie (45:16):
Yep.
Rachel (45:17):
And it's not even mental emotional stress.
It could also be physicalstress.
So for you runners out there, ifyou can access a seat gm, wear
it while you're running and seewhat happens.
Because sometimes, if the bodyperceives what you're doing as
too stressful, you are going tosee a spike in your blood sugar
(45:37):
because it literally is tellingyour body that you're stressed.
And cortisol will go up andcortisol will.
Spike your blood sugar.
So it's all really interesting.
But, just having, so wouldn't
Angie (45:46):
you say that's that's a normal response though, for like
in the body?
Rachel (45:51):
It can be, but it depends on how long you're doing
it for, how often you're doingit for, and again, your baseline
kind of resiliency.
So it can be okay for somepeople, and again, normal, I'm
not saying that your blood sugarshouldn't be spiking at all like
we Because that's that.
Angie (46:05):
We want to have spikes in our blood sugar because that's
what's getting the energy to ourworking muscles a hundred
percent.
So there is gonna be that.
Rachel (46:13):
The problem though, is when we see irregular rhythms,
or patterns to that, right?
If we're seeing too many spikes.
Or too many of these ups anddowns, like too many of the
rollercoasters and stuff likethat.
Okay.
and also we're looking atsymptoms as well, so we do have
to still look at the big pictureright.
Of things, but it's just likereally interesting and can be
really insightful to just seelike what else Might be adding
(46:36):
to this because when we'retrying to address insulin
resistance, we are actuallytrying to blunt a little bit of
those ups and downs.
Sure.
Angie (46:44):
That makes sense because, yeah, that makes sense.
And it's funny because my sisteractually just did a self
experiment and she was wearing aCGM just to see what, what was
going on.
And that was, those to me weresome of the most interesting
findings that she had was notjust.
Which foods were spiking herThat she had, was definitely not
expecting to spike her, but thenalso what other events and
(47:07):
stress was a big one.
Like when she was in a place,maybe where she was disagreeing
with her husband.
I don't wanna say a fight,right?
But like, when she had like adisagreement and she was like
all, Holding onto someresentment or whatnot.
Yeah.
She's my blood sugar was justspiking, like it completely
unrelated to anything I waseating.
And it was just so interestingof how the stress and the
(47:28):
different things were affectingthat.
Or if she had, one too manyespresso martinis right then,
like she's my blood sugar spikedfor three days straight.
Wow.
And there was nothing that Icould do about it.
Like I was eating.
Super clean, but it was, my bodywas still recovering from what I
did over the weekend, Yeah.
I'm gonna have her on thepodcast because I would love to
talk to her about, just some ofthe things that she observed.
(47:48):
But I love that's, you mentionedthat because it's not just the
things that we're eating, right?
Yeah.
Like it is all of these thingsthat we've been talking about,
This whole episode.
Rachel (47:57):
Yeah.
So I think it's really cool.
Just again, just about learningmore about your body.
Angie (48:01):
Yeah.
Rachel (48:01):
Essentially.
Absolutely.
And you'll find everyone's sodifferent and as long as you
figure out what is working ornot working for your body, like
that's what's key.
Angie (48:09):
Absolutely.
So we've talked a lot abouthypothyroidism and I want to
respect your time here, but Ijust wanted to touch, a little
bit on Hashimoto's,'cause I knowthat's one.
Other area of expertise that,that you have.
How does Hashimoto's differ fromwhat we've been talking about
today, both in the symptoms andsome of the things that we need
(48:30):
to take a look at?
Because I know there's a lot ofrunners out there that have
Hashimoto's or other forms ofhyperthyroidism, can you speak
to that?
Rachel (48:38):
Yeah, so Hashimoto's, I would say, adds a little layer
of complexity to the picturebecause now we're involving the
immune system.
Okay?
So Hashimoto's thyroiditis is anautoimmune disease.
That causes hypothyroidism.
So I would say 90% of women whohave hypothyroidism have
Hashimoto's.
(48:58):
And it's crazy because hypo
Angie (49:01):
or hypo?
Rachel (49:01):
Hypo.
Angie (49:02):
Hypo, okay.
Rachel (49:03):
Hypo, yeah.
Low thyroid.
So 90.
Exactly.
Low thyroid.
So 90% of women who havehypothyroidism or low
functioning thyroid haveHashimoto's.
Okay.
So it's a huge percentage ofwomen.
And like I said, it just addsanother level of complexity.
'cause now we have to look atthe immune system.
The reason why you have a lowfunctioning thyroid is because
(49:26):
your immune system has literallycreated antibodies, thyroid
antibodies that will then attackthe tissue of your thyroid,
causing inflammation, causingdamage.
Then eventually can result inthe.
Compromisation of the actualthyroid function.
So then, in saying that, you cansee how that does take time.
(49:46):
So a lot of women actually haveHashimoto's for many years
before they actually develophypothyroidism.
And this is why I'm such a hugeproponent of being proactive
because Hashimoto's is aprogressive disease.
It may take a long time, but itis, ever, progressing right.
So the sooner you can catch it.
(50:06):
The sooner you can implement.
Action items and do things thatcan actually help to potentially
stall or reverse the process.
Okay.
the immune system is a wholeother area that we have to look
at and that goes into a lot ofother things, but there's a lot
of different things that canactually affect the immune
system and why it's potentially.
Dysfunctional.
We're looking at gut health,we're looking at stress, we're
(50:29):
looking at liver health.
We're looking at environment andtoxins and like all these kinds
of things.
So still taking a verycomprehensive look, but just a
little bit different.
A little bit of a differentperspective, different lens that
we have to put on when we'relooking at Hashimoto's.
But that said, like if you aresomebody who you know, you have
Hashimoto's, you have.
Thyroid antibodies, but youdon't have hypothyroidism.
(50:51):
However, you still experienceall the symptoms like fatigue or
even just again, weakness inyour muscles or, poor recovery
time, like all these things, allof that can be a result of the
Hashimoto's process itself.
You don't have to havehypothyroidism to experience
those symptoms because thatimmune system dysfunction that's
(51:12):
happening.
Those antibodies.
It is creating, like I said, alot of inflammation.
There is a lot of inflammationthat comes as a result of that.
And we talked about inflammationalready.
Yeah.
and so that autoimmune processis inflammatory.
There's a lot of thingshappening.
So there's still so many, areasthat you can explore and you can
work on to help with reducinginflammation and to calm that
(51:33):
immune system so that you canfeel better,
Angie (51:36):
Yeah.
Basically what I'm hearing yousay in all of this is really
understanding that you havecontrol over how you feel, and a
lot of it is tied to stress andthe lifestyle choices that we're
making in our lives, like bothwith our exercise and our
nutrition.
Rachel (51:57):
Huge like, and we're told the complete opposite.
I cannot tell you how manydoctors, endocrinologists, all
specialists, whatever, who tellmy clients, it doesn't matter
what you eat, it doesn't matterhow you exercise, it doesn't
matter what you do.
You can't change your thyroiddisease.
You can't.
Do anything about it that isjust completely false.
(52:18):
Like you have so much controlover this.
You have so much power in thetrajectory of your health.
Yeah.
And we need to take our, we haveto claim our power back.
Angie (52:28):
Heck yeah.
Heck yeah.
I'm on board.
Let's get more people on boardwith that.
Yeah.
'cause I think that's, you areright, like it's such a toxic
message that is out there ofyeah, there's nothing you can do
about it.
And none of that stuff.
Stuff matters.
I remember my husband wasdiagnosed with ulcerative
colitis when he was in histwenties, and the
gastroenterologist told him,yeah, your food doesn't matter.
(52:51):
And I was like, whatcha talking?
Like it's an intestinal disease?
What?
In what world would his foodintake not play some sort of
role?
I don't know how much of a role,but no, none whatsoever.
Yeah.
And so I just, I didn't believethat and we changed the way that
we ate and he has not had totake.
Meds for over, like for decades.
(53:13):
Amazing.
And he's had no flareupswhatsoever.
So amazing.
He's actually healed himself.
And I'm not saying that issomething that's available to
everyone at, so please don't saythat.
I'm not saying if you have uc,don't take your meds.
But I'm just saying like thereis always a connection.
Rachel (53:27):
Yeah.
Angie (53:28):
And it's just a matter of really understanding our bodies,
listening to our bodies, takingthose steps.
To reduce stress, to nourish andsupport all of the different
systems in our bodies, ourimmune system, our thyroid, all
of the different body systemsthat work together to make us a
(53:48):
healthy individual.
And I just absolutely love, yourapproach to all of that.
So thank you so much foreverything that you've shared
with us today.
Is there anything else that youwant to add before we wrap up
today?
so many things, but so manythings.
I know.
Rachel (54:03):
I'm like, we could just have another hour of
conversation here too.
Yeah.
But I'm like, like I am justsuch a huge, like I wanna
empower women.
like I said, I just, I reallywant.
You to just claim your powerback in this whole journey?
I think we give too much of ourpower away to, our, like
healthcare providers.
Not to say you can't, youshouldn't listen to them or you
(54:25):
shouldn't trust them.
But I just think that there'sjust such a gap in the
knowledge, that some of ourpractitioners have and in just
like the overall approach tojust overall wellness, And so Do
your research, listen topodcasts, like really immerse
yourself in this kind of more, Iguess I call it functional world
(54:48):
because there is just so muchout there and you'll realize
like how many more things thatyou.
You can do for yourself.
That can really move the needle.
Despite what the conventionalnarrative says, So I just want
you to know, if you feel acertain way, you don't feel
well, there is absolutely areason for it, and you can find
(55:10):
out what that is and dosomething about it.
Angie (55:13):
Absolutely.
I 100% agree and I want to, I'mon that, in that same mission
with you of empowering morewomen to really be their own
advocates And really do what isright for them because we know,
like when we tap into ourselves.
We know when something's off.
We know that something's notright here.
(55:34):
Yeah.
And I really want people tostart trusting them more.
Yeah.
And to then seek help and notjust take a surface level answer
from someone that says, oh, it,my doctor said my blood work was
normal.
So I guess it's just in my head.
And that is such a lie, that weneed to continue to break and.
Really help women understandthat there's nothing wrong with
(55:54):
you.
But yeah, there's a lot andthere's also a lot that you can
do.
yeah, trust yourself.
Alright, Rochelle, where can ourlisteners connect with you If
they wanna, follow you or workwith you, where can they connect
with you?
Rachel (56:07):
Yeah, so I am on Instagram.
My handle is at Dr.
Vong nd so you can definitelygimme a follow over there.
DM me anytime.
I'm super easy to chat with.
So just send me a message if youliked this episode, if you have
any questions about it.
And my team offers free 45minute discovery calls as well.
If you are somebody who's youknow what, I've had this thyroid
(56:28):
issue for a while, or I suspectI have a thyroid issue.
And I just wanna get to thebottom of it.
I wanna figure out what to do.
Like we just, we offer freeconsults, so you can definitely
book one there and it's allthrough my Instagram, so
Angie (56:40):
love it.
And we will link to all of thatin the show notes below so that
you guys can just access thatvery easily.
Thank you so much, Rochelle, forbeing welcome on the podcast
today, and, we'll talk to youguys soon.
Thank you.
What's up runners?
Welcome back to the Real LifeRunners podcast.
Today we're diving into a topicthat so many women in midlife
struggle with, but often don'tget clear answers about, and
that's the thyroid.
If you've ever felt like you'redoing all the right things, like
you're running, you'reexercising, you're eating well,
and yet you're still gainingweight, exhausted, cold all the
time, or dealing with hair.
And brain fog, your thyroidcould be playing a big role.
(00:23):
Today I am joined by Dr.
Rochelle Vong, a naturopathicdoctor from Toronto who
specializes in helping womenwith hypothyroidism and
Hashimoto's reclaim theirenergy, lose weight without
endless restriction, and startfeeling like themselves again.
This podcast is so full ofinformation.
We talk about how the thyroid isthe body's ma metabolism
(00:44):
regulator.
Why so many symptoms?
Overlap with perimenopause andmenopause and how to tell, like
how to start untangling what'sactually going on in your body
because thyroid dysfunction andperimenopause symptoms often
look the same.
We dig into the differencebetween optimal ranges and
normal ranges in our blood workand how blood sugar and
(01:05):
inflammation play into weightstruggles, and most importantly,
you have.
Way more control than you'vebeen told in the past.
So I can't wait for you guys tohear all of the information that
Rochelle brings to today'spodcast.
So if you have any questions orif you wanna connect with
Rochelle, all of her informationis in the show notes.
So let's dig in.
(01:48):
Welcome to the podcast today,y'all.
I'm so excited to have Dr.
Rachel Vong here with me.
What's up, Rochelle?
How are you?
Rachel (01:55):
Hello.
So good.
I'm so happy to be here.
Angie (01:57):
I'm so glad you're here.
I am so excited to dive into ourconversation today.
So I'm gonna let Rachelintroduce herself.
So tell us a little bit aboutwho you are and what you do.
Rachel (02:08):
Yeah, so I'm Rachel.
I'm a naturopathic doctor.
I'm based out of Toronto,Canada, and, I focus on a very
specific niche and demographic.
So I help women with thyroiddisease, specifically
hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's.
I help these women reclaim theirenergy, lose weight
effortlessly, and just get backto feeling like themselves
again.
Angie (02:29):
Lose weight effortlessly.
Yeah.
I love that.
I know that's, there's a lot ofpeople that are listening to
this that are probably like,that made their ears perk up a
little bit.
Like effortlessly Wait, saymore.
so let's start, the thyroid issuch an important organ in the
body, and I think it's one thatis not well understood by a lot
of us.
(02:49):
So can you start us off withjust a little thyroid 1 0 1?
explain Yeah.
the thyroid's role in the body,like what does it do and, why is
it so important?
Rachel (02:58):
Yeah, and as you said, like I think a lot of people
underestimate the importance ofthe thyroid, and it's a very
small organ, so it's, itactually sits at the base of our
neck.
It looks like a littlebutterfly, but it literally
impacts everything.
So our thyroid hormones.
Regulate our metabolism.
It regulates our weightmanagement.
It regulates our appetite.
(03:20):
our temperature production, likeliterally every cell in our body
is impacted by our thyroidhormones.
So you can imagine that if youdon't have enough or you have
too much.
It can really throw everythingoff tilt.
And a very common, again,because I work with women with
hypothyroidism, meaning youdon't have enough thyroid
hormones, often we do see thatthe main signs and symptoms
(03:43):
would be things like weightgain, especially when you don't
change anything.
Like a lot of these women havenot changed their exercise, have
not changed their diet.
Literally nothing has changed,but all of a sudden they're
gaining a lot of weight.
That is, tends to be a reallykey sign of hypothyroidism.
Also, feeling cold all the time.
Like you're the coldest personin the room, you're wearing a
sweater and everyone's like hotin a t-shirt.
(04:04):
That tends to be a sign.
hair loss, fatigue, likedebilitating fatigue,
constipation, like you can seehow, again, it literally impacts
the entire body.
Angie (04:14):
Yeah.
And so I think that's reallyimportant because, we are gonna
get into perimenopause andmenopause, in our conversation
today because a lot of whatyou're explaining can also be a
side effect or a symptom ofperimenopause.
So it becomes this thing of, howcan we figure out what exactly
is going on?
And I think that's why it's soimportant to have this
conversation so that we canreally.
(04:35):
Continue to educate ourselves inwhat exactly is going on in our
body so that we can startchecking boxes.
because.
What people a lot of peopledon't understand is that there's
no one good test forperimenopause.
So you can't just go and take ablood test and decide whether or
not you're in perimenopause, butwe can take a blood test and
figure out what's going on withour hormones, and I think that
(04:57):
it's really important that weunderstand that because while
there are some things that wecan attribute to perimenopause.
We wanna make sure that we'reruling other things out first.
And I think that the thyroid isa big one because there's a lot
of overlap there of like thesymptoms of a thyroid issue and
symptoms in perimenopause.
Rachel (05:16):
Yeah.
I find, a big proportion of myclientele actually are women
going through perimenopause andmenopause and they're always,
one of the questions they ask meis like, how do I know, how do I
know if it's menopause?
How do I know it's my thyroidand Yeah, it's really tough.
'cause again, like all thosesymptoms that I mentioned, even
like insomnia and mood swingsand all that stuff can be either
one.
Yeah.
But the thing that's importantto note, and what you were
(05:38):
talking about is that.
There's so many things happeningin tandem during that period of
per perimenopause and menopause.
So it can be very hard toentangle what belongs to what
thing.
But it's important to understandthe process behind, like what is
actually happening in your bodyduring this time.
Like it's a very importanttransition in a woman's life.
Like it's inevitable.
(05:58):
We're all gonna go through it atsome point.
But it doesn't have to suck.
a lot of people think, oh gosh,I'm going through it now.
It's gonna suck.
Or even younger women who arethinking forward to be like, oh
my gosh, I saw my mom go throughit.
I don't want the same thing asher.
So it doesn't have to be thatway.
And I think that's why it's soimportant to have this
conversation now.
So that.
Again, you educate yourself andyou take the right steps to
(06:20):
learn more about what ishappening and you can be
proactive.
Because the more proactive youcan be, the less that
transition's gonna suck.
Angie (06:29):
Absolutely.
Let's get into if you have aclient that's coming to you and
telling you, some of thesymptoms that you're talking
about with, especiallyspecifically with the weight
gain.
And specifically, someone that'sworking out and they just find
like they're gaining weight andnothing that they do can help.
I've changed nothing andnothing's helping.
So where do we start?
Rachel (06:49):
Yeah.
So that happens like 99% of thetime with the clients that I
work with.
Yeah.
and some of the women I workwith know they have a thyroid
issue, so that's one thing, butif you don't, then that's where
I think comprehensive blood workcan be so helpful.
Yeah.
Again, just to understand like,where's this coming from?
And the thing that really don'tmind my language, but pisses me
(07:10):
off is when they go to theirconventional doctors and they're
just given that oh, it's just apart of aging.
you're fine.
Everything looks fine.
When in reality like, this isnot normal.
You shouldn't be just gainingweight out of nowhere.
Yes, you might be aging, butthat doesn't always have to come
with that kind of symptom.
So it's important at that pointto, again, just dig deeper, know
(07:31):
that there is a reason, there isabsolutely a reason for it.
You just have to find what itis.
And so for, the work that I dois.
That deep dive investigation.
Okay.
What kind of testing do we do?
So obviously looking at thethyroid, that's a huge one
because in the majority of casesI do find that the thyroid is
off, and because the thyroiddoes regulate metabolism, when
(07:55):
we hit perimenopause andmenopause, I always say, In a
woman's life, we go throughdifferent hormonal transitions.
So puberty is a obvious big one.
Pregnancy and childbirth isanother, and then perimenopause
and menopause.
So three kind of major hormonalshifts in a woman's life.
At every.
Transition.
(08:15):
There is an opportunity to seelike a glitch in our system
because at the end of the day,these hormonal shifts can be
like stressors in the body.
So depending on the woman,sometimes these transitions can
be glitches.
So for a woman who has say likea predisposition for a thyroid
issue, so if your mom hasthyroid disease, if your grandma
has thyroid disease, if there'ssome sort of.
(08:37):
Genetic, like family history,you are definitely more at risk
for yourself developing athyroid issue.
And all you need is a trigger ora glitch to happen.
So it could be again, postpartumis very, a very common time, but
perimenopause and menopause isanother very common time, which
is why a huge, like so many ofmy clients are in that stage of
their lives.
(08:58):
if you're in that.
Time, if you are noticing thatyou are experiencing some
perimenopausal symptoms oryou're at that age and you're
noticing that weight gain comingoutta nowhere, then I would say
definitely start looking at thethyroid because it could.
It could be that it glitched.
It's a weird word to say, therecan be a change in your thyroid
hormones, and also the immunesystem as well.
(09:20):
And all of that can affect yourmetabolism.
And all of a sudden now yourmetabolism set point is lower
and that can cause the immediateweight gain that you see.
Okay.
So definitely deep dive intoblood work.
Angie (09:32):
Yeah, I agree.
And so what other, besides justlooking at our thyroid hormones,
what other markers in our bloodshould we be looking at?
Rachel (09:41):
Yeah, so I.
Aside from the thyroid, whichagain includes all your thyroid
hormones and even your thyroidantibodies, that's really
important.
I like to look at a fewdifferent things.
So nutrient levels is important.
So looking at your vitamin D,looking at your B12, looking at
your iron, like these nutrientsare so important for metabolism,
for overall optimal health.
(10:01):
For energy.
I wanna make sure that all ofthese things are optimized.
As well as looking atinflammation markers.
Also really important, and I canget a little bit into that later
if you want, but inflammationtends to be another big culprit
for stubborn weight loss andtends to happen and come about
around that time of, again,perimenopause and menopause.
(10:22):
because of some blood sugar.
Regulation issues, but generallywe see like an increase in
inflammation.
And inflammation can be like awarning signal to the body.
The body doesn't likeinflammation, so when it sees
that there's a heightened level,it will actually down regulate
your metabolism because it'strying to conserve energy.
So that's where we see, again,that metabolic set point.
(10:43):
Come down and then the weight goup.
So I like to see, can we see itin the blood work?
So we'll do, inflammationmarkers?
also look at hormones,especially again, if you're
going into perimenopause andmenopause, it can be valuable to
see where is your estrogen at?
Where's your progesterone at,where's your testosterone at?
So getting that really holistic,high level look at your health
(11:05):
Can give us so many differentclues as to where the barriers.
Might be coming from.
and it could be a combination ofa lot of different things, but
it's important to look at yourhealth from a bird's eye view.
Angie (11:16):
Yeah.
And I also would love for you totalk a little bit too about the
difference between being withina normal range and being
optimal.
Yes.
Because I think that's a bigthing that a lot of people don't
understand and they go to theirdoctors and they get some of
these blood panels done and.
And the doctor says, oh, all ofyour blood is normal.
Blood work looks fine,everything you're normal.
(11:37):
But then when you actually lookat it and you see where you are
on that quote unquote normalspectrum, there's a huge range
for some of these things.
Yeah.
And so just because you mightfall into the normal range, that
doesn't mean that you're in theoptimal range for feeling good
and having good health.
Rachel (11:53):
Exactly.
And I'm gonna just talk aboutthe thyroid specifically here.
Yeah.
Because, I see this a lot whereagain, you're gaining weight for
No reason and you're tired andyour hair is falling out.
So you'll go to the doctor andthe doctors will often run
usually one test, and it's TSH,so thyroid stimulating hormone.
That is a routine test doneusually.
(12:14):
And like even part of yourannual and all that.
However, that hormone, so thatcomes from the brain actually,
that's a brain signal that goesto your thyroid to tell your
thyroid how much thyroid hormoneto produce.
So we're only looking at onemarker.
First of all.
it's not indicative of theoverall function of your
thyroid, but it's just onemarker that comes from the
brain.
(12:34):
So that's a problem in and ofitself.
But with that marker alone, asyou've said, the range of normal
is quite wide.
I think it's like 0.32 to 4.5 orsomething like that.
Yeah.
Now somebody who's sitting at a0.32 is gonna look very
different and feel verydifferent than someone who's at
a 4.5.
(12:54):
So we cannot say that people atboth ends of these ranges are
normal.
Exactly.
So what we're trying to aim foris really this optimal range.
So when most people are in thisoptimal range, they feel great.
Their health is optimal.
So really with every marker, notjust thyroid, but every single
lab marker, we really gotta getrid of this idea that as long as
(13:17):
we're in the normal range, we'refine.
That is not true.
We really wanna strive foroptimal, because if your TSH is
at a four.
And you're gaining weight, guesswhat?
Your thyroid is likely involvedin this.
Your thyroid is not okay.
Angie (13:30):
Yeah, and I think that people don't really get that.
And one way that I like to lookat it is we obviously are a
running podcast, and so as arunner you can go out and you
can run a 5K and say you runthat 5K in 36 minutes and you're
like, okay, you ran a 5K, that'sin the normal range, like you
(13:50):
were able to complete the 5K,right?
But as a runner.
We often want to get a littlefaster, right?
Do a little better.
Like we want to improveourselves and see how fast can I
get here?
So 36 might be in the quoteunquote normal range, but what
if we, but you know what, I kindof wanna get under 30, I wanna
get under that 30 minute mark,and that's because you wanna.
(14:12):
Optimize your running.
Yes.
And that's the same thing here,right?
Just because you're in thenormal range, just because you
were able to complete a 5Kdoesn't mean that you were happy
about your time and yourperformance here.
And it's the same with ourhormones and our blood markers
is just because we're in thatnormal range does not mean that
is our optimal levels for us tobe at.
Rachel (14:30):
Yeah,
Angie (14:31):
I love that comparison, by the way.
That's really good.
I just came up with it on thespot, so there you go.
Rachel (14:36):
So good.
Alright, but no, you're right.
Like optimal is best Yeah.
for everything and sometimestoo, like it allows you to be
proactive because if you seethat things are still normal but
not optimal, that is literallythe best time to take action.
Yeah.
To make changes because you'renot at a point where maybe
things aren't necessarilysignificant or severe.
(14:56):
But again, it, things arechanging.
Like you have gotta trust thatthere, it's your body's telling
you something.
Yeah.
That something is off.
Yeah.
Angie (15:02):
We don't need to wait until we're pathological, until
we run actually in a diseaseprocess to make changes.
And I think that's really thebig thing.
I think the difference betweenthe way that you practice
medicine and the way that a lotof western doctors practice
medicine, is that, we in thewestern medicine world are very
good at.
Treating diseases and managingdisease, but we are not good at
(15:27):
promoting health and reallyoptimizing health.
And I think that it's a hugemindset shift and a shift in
perspective of which one do youreally wanna pay attention to?
Are you, do you wanna just be inthe normal range so that you can
avoid disease?
Or do you wanna be in an optimalrange so that you can really
feel your best and promote?
Good health and be able to dowhatever you wanna do both now
(15:48):
and in the future.
And I dunno about everybodylistening, but that's definitely
what I'm shooting for.
when we talk about the optimalrange, is that optimal range the
same for each person or wouldyou say that it varies from
individual to individual.
Rachel (16:01):
It definitely ranges.
It depends on what tests you'relooking at.
Okay.
like for example, hormones, Theoptimal range for hormones is
going to depend on age.
A lot of the times.
So like an estrogen level for ayoung female is gonna be very
different than from someonewho's in, perimenopause.
For example, so it does dependon the in individual.
And that's where, again, withhealth, you've gotta look at the
(16:23):
individual in front of you.
So like knowing that you are adifferent person than even your
sister and your mother, And soit's important to take that deep
dive to see where can weoptimize here.
Beautiful.
Angie (16:35):
Yeah.
So what role does the thyroidplay when it comes to metabolism
and weight loss?
Why is weight gain such, a keysymptom when it comes to thyroid
issues?
Rachel (16:48):
Yeah, so again, like the thyroid hormones regulate what
your me metabolic set point is.
you know how much food you'reeating and how much exercise
you're kind, like the wholecalories and calories out.
Calculation.
your thyroid kind of sets whatthat number is.
So as long as you are eating, acertain amount and you're
exercising a certain amount, andit like.
(17:09):
Cancels each other out, you'renot gonna gain any weight,
right?
If you eat less than your kindof, set point, then you're gonna
lose weight.
So all of that kind of, it'sjust for someone without, say, a
metabolic issue or a thyroidissue, it's pretty mathematical
in that sense, right?
But for women who have thyroidissues, that equation
unfortunately goes out thewindow.
(17:30):
It's not gonna apply because ifsomeone's metabolic setpoint has
been lowered, which happens withhypothyroidism, they could be
eating in a supposed caloriedeficit and not see any weight
loss because their metabolicsetpoint has been lowered so
much.
So that's the problem that wesee is that these women.
(17:51):
Are working their butts off.
like they're in the gym fivedays a week.
They're running, they're doingCrossFit, they're literally
killing themselves, working outand even eating in a calorie
deficit.
And nothing is budging.
And you can imagine that'sfrustrating.
Audio Only - All Particip (18:08):
Yeah.
And
Rachel (18:09):
if anyone's listening, I'm sure so many of you're in
the same boat, I don't know whythis is not working like this
is, this used to work for me 20years ago?
Why is it not working for menow?
And it's because of the factthat your metabolism has gone
down and we call that likemetabolic inflexibility, so it
can't account for the changes incalorie intake and expenditure
and all that stuff.
(18:29):
So that's the problem here withwomen who have thyroid disease.
and remembering that at the endof the day, like your body is
First of all, your T threehormones, if you don't have
enough.
That's why, again, it's notbeing able to push up that
metabolic setpoint.
But generally speaking too, withhypothyroidism, there's so many
other different things happeningin your body.
(18:49):
As I've said before,inflammation tends to be rampant
in your body.
Blood sugar dysregulation.
adrenal dysfunction issue, socortisol imbalance.
So you, you'll start seeingother things happening in the
body and often these are allagain, warning danger signs to
the body.
So you know, your body will gointo kind of more defensive mode
protection mode.
(19:10):
Yeah.
Because of all these things andthat will push your mepo me
metabolism even lower.
'cause your body's trying toprotect you.
I often say we sometimes have toreframe how we see and view,
weight and weight gain.
Often women think it's a resultof what they are doing and a lot
of, there's a lot of like guiltand anger put on themselves.
(19:32):
And shame.
And shame.
Angie (19:33):
Yeah.
Rachel (19:34):
But instead I want you to think, your body is
protecting you.
Weight gain, Adipose tissue isactually protective.
it will give you energy.
It will keep you warm.
Like your body's literallyadding on more adipose tissue
because it feels that there's athreat.
Yeah.
It feels unsafe.
And that's why we're gainingweight.
So your body is doing everythingthat it can to protect you.
(19:57):
And if we can just acknowledgethat it's not trying to, Does it
punish you for anything like
Angie (20:02):
or sabotage you or sa a lot of people use that word, the
sabotage word, but it's reallyprotection and
Rachel (20:08):
survival.
Yeah, but it's protection.
It's survival.
And what we need to do is firstof all, acknowledge that, And
thank our bodies for doing theamazing things that it does for
us.
And then listen to our bodies tosay, okay, I hear you.
There's something going on.
Now it's my job to look into it.
Let's see.
Where, why do, why does my bodyfeel unsafe?
Angie (20:30):
Yes.
Rachel (20:31):
let's find that.
things like, again, inflammationand, Chronic infections, gut
infections, like there's so manythings that could be going on,
but if we can identify thesethings, which we can,'cause
we've got lots of coolfunctional testing and all the
things, and actually address'emand we remove the threat, and
this is why I say effortlessweight loss, I don't just throw
(20:51):
that word around.
If you can remove the threat andthe body feels safe again The
body will let go of that weightand it will feel and look
effortless.
Angie (21:03):
Yeah,
Rachel (21:04):
it's not that you have to change anything.
you're not being asked to workout more or eat less.
You just have to remove what thebarrier or the blockage is for
your body right now.
It's not that your body can't doit, it's just there's so many
barriers right now for you.
So we just gotta uncover thatand remove that, and you will
see that weight shed.
Angie (21:25):
Yeah.
I love that reframe so much, andI think that it's so important
for women to really understandthat because like you said,
there is a lot of guilt andshame and pointing fingers at
yourself like, there must besomething wrong with me when
your body's just doing exactlywhat it's supposed to do.
Exactly, and it's.
Such a beautiful thing when youcan understand that you can give
(21:46):
your body a little hug and saythanks, thank you body for
protecting me.
Thank you for doing this for me.
Like you're doing exactly whatyou're supposed to be doing.
Okay.
Now let's get to the bottom ofthis.
Exactly.
So where do we start?
when we start to realize, Okay.
I hear you, Rochelle.
Things are things, my body'sunder threat, but where do I
start here?
Where do I start to uncover whymy body feels threatened?
Rachel (22:09):
Yeah.
I would love to use an examplebecause I actually had a client,
come into the program and shehad very typical hypothyroid
symptoms, so she was extremelyexhausted.
She had, I think it was threekids under.
Four.
And so you can imagine
Angie (22:26):
that's
Rachel (22:26):
gonna very, that's
Angie (22:27):
gonna put
Rachel (22:27):
anybody's
Angie (22:28):
fight
Rachel (22:28):
or flight on, on guard there.
Yeah.
she's tired, right?
She is, she's a busy mom ofyoung kids.
but she also had a thyroidissue, which is, it just makes
it, compounds that right.
Her hair was falling out.
She was so bloated.
and that's another thing likethe thyroid is very intimately
tied to your gut health.
So a lot of people with thyroidissues will experience tons of
(22:51):
bloating, like often looking sixmonths pregnant by the end of
the day, every day.
constipated, nauseous, like alot of issues.
And so she was even throwing upfrom the discomfort of the
bloating.
Just not a good, not in greatshape.
and there was some stress too.
She was taking care of herfather at the time, so there was
just a lot going on in her life.
But she loves to run.
(23:12):
She's actually a runner herselfand she's, she loves being
active, but of course, just witheverything going on, and
especially with the energy Shejust couldn't get back into it.
Like she would do little runshere and there, but like she
really wanted to run a halfmarathon, but she just could
not.
Go through the training, shejust couldn't get herself there
physically.
(23:32):
Yeah.
And even she even said even ifshe did go for a run, she'd feel
so depleted after.
it would take her days torecover, whereas before it was
like nothing, Yeah.
So she definitely felt likesomething is not allowing my
body to do this anymore.
And so she found my program andshe, we started working together
and one of the first things thatI do with all of my clients is.
(23:55):
Try to reduce inflammation asquickly as possible because
again, most of these women aredealing with a lot of
inflammation.
Angie (24:01):
Yeah.
Rachel (24:01):
So nutrition is probably one of the best ways to address
inflammation.
and We had her do ananti-inflammatory diet.
So just really ensuring that shewas eating foods at work,
bringing down inflammation, andgetting her macros in the right,
proportions, her protein, carbs,fats, and all the things that
alone helped so much to get herenergy back up.
(24:25):
But that's the thing, like withinflammation, it's not just one
thing, one improvement that youwill see.
Inflammation really does affect.
All areas of your health,including your recovery time,
joint pain, muscle pain,weakness, strength, like all
these things can be affected byinflammation.
So already, just by addressingthe inflammatory piece and
(24:46):
bringing inflammation down, shefelt stronger.
She felt more resilient.
And often that's what it takesto be able to, Run for longer
and more, for more often and,hit those prs and all that
stuff.
Like you, you need thatresiliency.
You need to build thatresiliency.
So
Angie (25:01):
absolutely
Rachel (25:02):
she did that plus some other things.
We worked on her gut health alittle bit, worked on her
adrenals, but we really didn'tdo all that much.
I think for her inflammation wasprobably the biggest block for
her.
And within a couple months sheran her first 10 k, or sorry,
not, no, sorry, not 10 k.
Half marathon in 10 years.
It's been 10 years since she ranone and she finally ran one and
(25:24):
she was blown away by her ownresults because she ran faster
than she thought she would.
And she felt great.
Yeah.
Like great.
So just to show you that, it'snot that you can't do it, but
there just sometimes you justhave to remove that block.
Angie (25:38):
Yeah.
Rachel (25:38):
Whatever that is.
So for her it was inflammation,but as I've said for other
people, I, I do a lot of gutwork, Some people have a lot of
what we call dysbiosis imbalancein bacteria.
some, for some others it's a lotto do with their blood sugar.
So we have to adjust the insulinresistance.
it's hard to say generally whatthese things are because it can
look very different for everysingle person.
Angie (25:59):
But what I'm hearing you say is that it's so much
connected to our nutrition aswell.
Because that's obviously whereyou started with this client,
and I'm guessing with a lot ofother people too.
Every client, yeah.
Is getting her to actually,yeah.
Eat foods that are going tonourish her body and decrease
inflammation, versus justfocusing on weight loss and
(26:21):
restriction, which is what somany people do in this phase of
life, right?
They try to eat lower calorie,they try to eat low carb, they
try to eat low fat, and itthrows your body completely off,
especially if you're a runner orany sort of.
Active woman that is exercisingregularly, you have to feed your
body.
And if you are not nourishingyour body with the proper foods,
(26:42):
then you are going to haveincreases in inflammation,
increases in gut issues, and somany other things because you're
not giving your body the fuelthat it needs.
And I think that's such animportant shift again, right?
that way that we're looking atour food intake and the way that
we're looking at nutrition.
Not just looking at calories andcalories out and making sure
(27:02):
that I'm hitting the rightnumber of calories every day,
but am I giving my body enoughprotein?
Am I giving my body enoughcarbohydrates and the good
carbohydrates so that I can havemore energy?
Because carbohydrates are ourenergy source, and protein helps
us build stronger muscles andhealthy fats help with our
nerves and our gut and like allthese other things, right?
(27:23):
Looking at this, like you said,very holistically from that
bird's eye view and saying, whatdoes my body need right now?
Yeah.
And what can I eat to give it tomyself?
Rachel (27:32):
Yes.
And I love that you said thatbecause I think the narrative
right now, at least for women inweight loss is that you just
have to exercise more and youjust have to eat less.
And that's it.
I hear this all the time.
I do too.
Angie (27:45):
And it's complete baloney, especially if you're
already aware of what you'redoing.
And if you're exercising, theanswer is definitely not.
Eat more and or eat less andmove more.
Rachel (27:56):
Yeah, that's not the answer.
And with women who have,metabolic issues like
hypothyroidism,
Angie (28:02):
yeah.
Rachel (28:02):
It's even more important to not do that because, I find
that your resiliency is alreadyso low.
And when I say resiliency I meanlike your ability to handle
stress, your ability to handleinflammation.
Like we are all born with apretty good.
level of resiliency.
And that's why we're able to,occasionally eat junk food and
do this and do that and not haveit completely wreck your system.
(28:25):
But with hypothyroidism, thatresiliency has become much, much
lower.
And when you're eating less, andthis is very, factual
information, research shows usthis.
Yes.
When you're eating in a chroniccalorie deficit, that can
actually add more stress to awoman's.
Body and with, again, yourresiliency being so low, it
(28:46):
means that stress impacts youthat much more.
And stress, we all know aboutcortisol.
I think you, I'm sure you'vetalked about cortisol before.
Yeah.
But cortisol is a fat storinghormone.
So if we, if our bodies are nowmore stress and we have more
cortisol raging through oursystem, this is literally going
to signal to our bodies to storemore fat.
(29:07):
So all that calorie deficit,Strategy and exercising more,
which can also be a stressor.
Yes.
All of that is adding to thesignal of, Hey, I think we're
stressed out here.
My bot our, we can't handle thisright now, so we're gonna just
store more fat.
'cause you're telling us thatwe're actually more in danger
mode here.
Angie (29:26):
Yep.
Yep.
a hundred percent.
And I'm so glad you said thatbecause I, that's one of the
things I try to tell people allthe time, and they, it's so hard
for people to make that shiftbecause of diet, culture and the
things that we've been told fordecades and decades, Of the eat
less and move more.
that's just how it is.
It's just that equation.
That's the only thing we have tothink about, which is such an
(29:47):
oversimplification like yes.
Calories matter, but not whenyou're like your, like you said,
not when your body's notoperating optimally.
Yeah.
And that.
Chronic stress and overstressand adaptability, like you, you
call it resiliency.
I like to call it adaptability.
It's both, right?
But it's essentially like ourbodies are amazing and they can
(30:09):
take on so much.
We just have to learn how tosupport them a little better and
yeah.
that's where I think things getreally confusing for women.
Especially in this phase oflife, because now, like you just
mentioned, say you have athyroid issue and now your
metabolic set point is lower,which means that your body is
less resilient, your body's lessadaptable.
Now you throw on perimenopauseand the loss of estrogen on top
(30:32):
of all.
Yes.
That And so now estrogensdoesn't even have your back
anymore.
And so there's all of thesemultiple factors that are
affecting you.
And that's what I think makes itso confusing and frustrating for
so many women.
Yeah.
Rachel (30:45):
I know totally.
and that's where again, we haveto take more of that
comprehensive approach Inlooking at what's going on
because it's so complex, becauseit's so multifactorial,
Absolutely.
but yeah, I think that Just foranyone who's thinking, does that
mean I can't be working out?
And what should I be doing here?
I always say that sometimesyou're, you just need to take a
(31:07):
break before you can ramp backup.
Audio Only - All Particip (31:09):
Yeah.
And
Rachel (31:10):
recognizing, and I've seen this.
A lot where some women whoagain, used to go to the gym
five days a week Already justshifting to let's just say low
intensity workouts or maybetaking more breaks.
So having maybe two days a weekinstead of the five.
Just that shift alone can causeweight loss.
Yes.
Which is Crazy, if you thinkabout it.
(31:31):
Totally counterintuitive toeverything we've been told.
Completely.
So I have seen that to happen.
Now I'm not saying it's gonnahappen for every single woman
But just goes to show you againthe impact that, exercising and
that physical kind of demand onour body, like what that
actually does to our hormones.
And especially with, the changeslike the hormonal shifts that we
(31:52):
do experience in terms ofperimenopause And menopause,
where now we're having drops inour hormones.
It's interesting because duringthat period of life, we go from,
having our ovaries and ourreproductive organs doing most
of the hormone production to nowour adrenal glands.
And I think that's where thisbecomes even more important when
we're talking about stress and,physical adaptability if you
(32:15):
will.
So when we go throughperimenopause and menopause, our
adrenals take over.
Some of that hormone or most ofthat hormone production from the
ovaries.
So if you already are somebodywho has gone through a lot of
stress in their life, maybealready acknowledges that they
have a bit of adrenaldysfunction going in, this is
where I see that a lot of womenwill have some more significant
(32:39):
kind of like menopausal symptomsbecause their adrenals are
having a very hard time copingwith that shift.
And again, because the adrenalsare taking over.
It becomes more important tomanage stress because the
adrenals are already overworkedtrying to manage that hormone
production load.
Now it's okay, if we're gonnapush our bodies, we're
(33:01):
exercising too much or we'reeating too little.
We're just telling our adrenals,Hey, We're just gonna work you
till you can't work anymore.
And the adrenals will like poopout too.
And then now you've got thatwhole thing with cortisol and
everything that comes with that.
this is where again, we justhave to be very mindful of kind
of the stage of life that we'rein and what our physiology is
(33:22):
doing, what's happening in ourbodies, and realize that there
is a better approach.
and like you said, it startswith kind of just understanding
and that shift in mindset.
Definitely.
that we don't need to push ourbodies so much and that we don't
need to restrict,'causerestriction often is not the
answer and is not helping you atall.
We need to nourish, we got tofuel.
(33:44):
Bodies, and hormones require alot of resources, like I said,
good fats, proteins, right?
We need to have enough of thesethings so that your body has
enough building blocks toactually make the hormones.
Angie (33:56):
Absolutely.
And I, there's also I think, alot of fear around that.
when I talk to women about thisidea of maybe you're overdoing
it and maybe you're restrictingtoo much, I think you actually
need to eat more.
And like the number of timesthat I've said that to someone.
And the response that I'vegotten has been fearful of,
(34:16):
yeah, I can't, but what if IStart eating more and then I
just keep gaining more weight.
Because again, that's thenarrative we've been told, Is
that if you eat more, you'rejust gonna gain weight.
And I think there's so much feararound that too, of if I let my
foot off the gas and don'texercise five days a week, or if
I start to eat more and don'tkeep myself in this calorie
(34:37):
deficit, then.
God forbid what is gonna happen.
So can you address that fearthat a lot of people have around
this idea?
Rachel (34:46):
Yeah, I hear it a lot as well.
Yeah.
and I get it.
I totally get it.
Especially when like theevidence that you have is
stacking.
with that thought.
Yeah.
So I do understand that, but Ithink that's where, again, just
like that education piece isreally important to like really
truly understand like the impactof what is, your activities and
how that's actually impactingyour hormones, but also.
(35:09):
Doing that comprehensive kind ofdeep dive.
'cause I often, if I haveclients like that, then usually
in the, when we do ourcomprehensive blood work, we see
what's going on with theirthyroid.
We see what's going on withtheir adrenals a lot of the
time.
It's that like light bulb ahamoment for them to be like, oh,
maybe there is more to my weightloss struggle than just the
calories and calories out issue.
(35:31):
Maybe this thyroid thing isactually a bigger deal than I
thought, or oh, maybe this Thefact that my cortisol is tanked,
like that has something to dowith it.
So I think just like even justopening your eyes to the
awareness of there could be moregoing on in your body and that
starts with, again, just beingmore comprehensive with your
investigation.
So I find that tends to help myclients feel more.
(35:52):
I don't know, just less, alittle bit less fearful in
understanding that there couldbe more going on than meets the
eye.
and all too, if we're gonna makechanges to their exercise
regimen or their diet, like it'snever drastic anyway.
We do it very slowly.
Even if it's just like addingone little more like snack
midday to start, or, we're gonnacut down by one day or cut this
(36:14):
one day by half the time, we'rejust gonna make small changes,
small transitions, so they stillfeel con in control
Audio Only - All Participant (36:20):
Of
Rachel (36:20):
the situation without, and being able to experiment, if
you will, with that as well.
So that's at least what myclients have found worked for
them.
Angie (36:29):
I agree.
I think that starting with smallsteps that are very doable and
sustainable is the key here, andI love that's what you teach
with your clients as well.
Because when I.
Talk to people or hear peoplegoing on these very drastic
metabolic reset type of diets.
It's always this red flag thatgoes up for me because, maybe
you can get some results.
(36:50):
And I have friends that havedone these very significant
severe, I, I like severe extremetype of diets, called that are
claiming to reset yourmetabolism and.
It works at the beginning,right?
And then it doesn't anymorebecause it's very hard to
sustain that type of restrictionin your regular life.
(37:12):
I wanna shift a little bitbecause you talked about,
looking at holistically.
all the things that are going onin the body.
Can you speak a little bit aboutblood sugar and insulin
resistance?
Because you, you mentioned thata little bit before.
but like the role of blood sugarregulation and insulin
resistance and how your thyroid,connects all of those things and
how those things also affect ourme metabolism and our weight.
Rachel (37:36):
Yeah.
This is probably one of myfavorite topics to talk about
because I do just find it, it'sso important and can be.
Like really, pivotal insomeone's kind of transformation
because when we can actuallyaddress insulin resistance,
everything can change.
for a woman going throughperimenopause and menopause, we
(37:58):
obviously know that there isgonna be hormonal shifts.
Like estrogen and progesterone.
Now these hormones are not justsex hormones that, affect
reproduction and sexualdevelopment and all that, but
they actually do play into a lotof other hormones in the body,
which is like super cool.
So estrogen, in particular.
We see that it actually canimpact immune function And can
(38:21):
impact, like other hormonesignaling.
So for example, insulin.
So insulin is that hormonethat's released from the
pancreas in response to anincrease in blood sugar.
So when we eat something, it'sbroken down into glucose and it
enters our blood bloodstream.
Our pancreas will then releaseinsulin to help that sugar go
into our muscles to be used forenergy and for fuel.
(38:42):
That's normal.
Now again, estrogen can actuallylike talk to insulin to tell it
how you know how well to do itsjob essentially.
And the thyroid, same thing.
T three hormones can actuallyimpact insulin signaling and
insulin function as well.
So you can see how likeinsulin's doing its job, but it
has a lot of differentsupervisors and managers around
(39:05):
to ensure that it's doing itsjob, right?
Yes.
But unfortunately, if one ofthose managers goes array and it
just goes crazy, then it doesimpact how insulin does its job.
So for estrogen, the fact that,with perimenopause.
And menopause.
We do see lots of differentfluctuations, but especially
through menopause.
(39:26):
When we hit like a low withestrogen, we lose a little bit
of that signaling power frominsulin.
And so we, that's where we see,and that's why we see so many
issues with blood sugar afterperimenopause.
And with insulin's such animportant and crucial hormone
because like cortisol, it alsois a fat storing hormone, When
(39:47):
we have increases in insulin inour bloodstream, that's where
again, we see that signalsaying, Hey, we need to store
more adipose tissue.
And then we start seeing a lotof that weight gain come about.
So a lot of the women I workwith, when we're trying to
investigate stubborn weightloss, insulin resistance, or
blood sugar dysregulation tendsto be the culprit for like at
(40:11):
least 70 to 80% of them.
It's huge.
And especially in thatpopulation of women who are
going through perimenopause andmenopause because of how
estrogen and insulin go hand inhand, Okay.
And you, on top of that, youhave the glitch in the thyroid,
right?
So you also have that componentthat also impacts insulin
signaling.
With insulin resistance,essentially, it's your insulin
(40:33):
is no longer working the way itshould.
You know your cells are notresponding to insulin as well.
So when that happens, insulinstarts to build in the
bloodstream as well as glucose.
And those two things are notgreat because now you've got a
buildup of insulin, which I saidis signals the body to store
fat, which is gonna make it veryhard for you to lose weight.
(40:56):
And then you've also got abuildup of glucose, which can,
increase your risk factor forthings like diabetes.
And then we start seeing like alot more of these kind of blood
sugar rollercoasters.
We see really high highs ofglucose because insulin's not
doing its job, but then we seealso low lows because now the
brain's actually gonna tell thepancreas to dump insulin into
the blood.
(41:16):
It's like you're not doing yourjob.
Why is there so much glucose inthe blood?
So insulin comes in and it justdoes its job, but too well,
where then your blood sugarcrashes.
Now these ups and downs cancause a.
The whole array of symptoms.
Okay?
So if you're somebody who, tendsto like crash after lunch, you
feel like between two to 4:00 PMyou always need to take a nap.
(41:39):
That can be a sign of bloodsugar regulation issues.
If you have intense sugarcravings, especially at
nighttime That can also be asign of blood sugar
dysregulation or insulinresistance.
And it's all because of this upand down and up and down of your
blood sugar.
personally, this is somethingthat I experienced as well in
my, a decade ago when I wasgoing, going through my own
(42:01):
health.
issues.
I had no idea.
Actually, I was very clueless atthe time before I went to
naturopathic medical school, soclueless about blood sugar and
the impact that it really had onmy health, but it really
impacted my cognition.
I had a lot of brain fog.
I had have anxiety as well.
Every time I hit a low in myblood sugar, I would be so
(42:21):
anxious and I have no idea why.
And just like all the things.
So I just feel I think everyoneneeds to be aware of.
The impact of their blood sugarand how it can really impact it
just quality of life.
and the potential symptoms thatthey have and how that is all
related, but especially when itcomes to weight, knowing that
insulin resistance can be a verycommon reason why someone can't
(42:46):
lose weight.
And it's just especially commonin women who are going through
perimenopause and menopause.
Angie (42:52):
Yeah.
And is that something that wouldshow up on a blood test?
How would someone know that theyhave higher levels of insulin or
blood glucose?
Rachel (43:00):
Yeah, so there's a couple ways to test.
At the minimum, you can run afasting glucose and a fasting
insulin on blood work.
And then when you get thosevalues, I will plug it into a
calculator called Homa ir, soHOMA dash ir.
You can literally just Google.
It's Tons of free calculatorsout there, and you just plug
those numbers in and it'll giveyou a ratio, and the ratio will
(43:22):
tell you basically how.
Insulin resistant or not.
You are.
Okay.
and then I usually like to dothat every four months, four to
six months to track somebody'sprogress in terms of their
protocol.
Now, that's one way of doing it.
I wouldn't say it's the mostaccurate way, but it's probably
the easiest.
Way to track.
Yeah.
Another way to do it would bedoing an, we call like a two
(43:44):
hour insulin, glucose challenge.
If you've ever been pregnant,When you drink that nasty sugar
drink.
Yeah.
And then they have to do theblood tests on you like every 30
minutes.
That's essentially what it is.
So it's just seeing how yourinsulin and your glucose
responds to a glucose load.
So that's actually a much moreaccurate test.
It's just that not everyone hastwo hours or three hours to
(44:05):
spend at a lab to get pricked.
and then another way is actuallywearing a CGM.
Okay, so you know, a continuousglucose monitor, and I love
those actually because the bloodwork will show you a point in
time like you know, in themorning or that two hour window.
But the CGM can tell you so muchabout your day to day activities
(44:25):
and what things that you'reeither doing or eating that is
contributing to that blood sugarrollercoaster.
Because people often think, whenthey hear blood sugar, they
think diet.
And a lot of people are like, Idon't eat sugar.
I don't eat poorly.
Like I'm sure a lot of your,list listeners and audience are
clean eaters as are like myclients.
(44:47):
they're not eating junk, a lotof them.
and so they're just puzzled asto why they wouldn't have
insulin resistance.
Audio Only - All Participan (44:54):
And
Rachel (44:54):
what else they can do to even correct it if they're
already eating clean.
But you'll find that when youdo, when you actually wear a
CGM, you'll notice that it's somuch more than just.
Nutrition and food that canspike your blood sugar.
Yes.
And again, that's it's so coolwhen you think about the
connections between all thedifferent hormones, but often
the biggest culprit is stress.
Angie (45:16):
Yep.
Rachel (45:17):
And it's not even mental emotional stress.
It could also be physicalstress.
So for you runners out there, ifyou can access a seat gm, wear
it while you're running and seewhat happens.
Because sometimes, if the bodyperceives what you're doing as
too stressful, you are going tosee a spike in your blood sugar
(45:37):
because it literally is tellingyour body that you're stressed.
And cortisol will go up andcortisol will.
Spike your blood sugar.
So it's all really interesting.
But, just having, so wouldn't
Angie (45:46):
you say that's that's a normal response though, for like
in the body?
Rachel (45:51):
It can be, but it depends on how long you're doing
it for, how often you're doingit for, and again, your baseline
kind of resiliency.
So it can be okay for somepeople, and again, normal, I'm
not saying that your blood sugarshouldn't be spiking at all like
we Because that's that.
Angie (46:05):
We want to have spikes in our blood sugar because that's
what's getting the energy to ourworking muscles a hundred
percent.
So there is gonna be that.
Rachel (46:13):
The problem though, is when we see irregular rhythms,
or patterns to that, right?
If we're seeing too many spikes.
Or too many of these ups anddowns, like too many of the
rollercoasters and stuff likethat.
Okay.
and also we're looking atsymptoms as well, so we do have
to still look at the big pictureright.
Of things, but it's just likereally interesting and can be
really insightful to just seelike what else Might be adding
(46:36):
to this because when we'retrying to address insulin
resistance, we are actuallytrying to blunt a little bit of
those ups and downs.
Sure.
Angie (46:44):
That makes sense because, yeah, that makes sense.
And it's funny because my sisteractually just did a self
experiment and she was wearing aCGM just to see what, what was
going on.
And that was, those to me weresome of the most interesting
findings that she had was notjust.
Which foods were spiking herThat she had, was definitely not
expecting to spike her, but thenalso what other events and
(47:07):
stress was a big one.
Like when she was in a place,maybe where she was disagreeing
with her husband.
I don't wanna say a fight,right?
But like, when she had like adisagreement and she was like
all, Holding onto someresentment or whatnot.
Yeah.
She's my blood sugar was justspiking, like it completely
unrelated to anything I waseating.
And it was just so interestingof how the stress and the
(47:28):
different things were affectingthat.
Or if she had, one too manyespresso martinis right then,
like she's my blood sugar spikedfor three days straight.
Wow.
And there was nothing that Icould do about it.
Like I was eating.
Super clean, but it was, my bodywas still recovering from what I
did over the weekend, Yeah.
I'm gonna have her on thepodcast because I would love to
talk to her about, just some ofthe things that she observed.
(47:48):
But I love that's, you mentionedthat because it's not just the
things that we're eating, right?
Yeah.
Like it is all of these thingsthat we've been talking about,
This whole episode.
Rachel (47:57):
Yeah.
So I think it's really cool.
Just again, just about learningmore about your body.
Angie (48:01):
Yeah.
Rachel (48:01):
Essentially.
Absolutely.
And you'll find everyone's sodifferent and as long as you
figure out what is working ornot working for your body, like
that's what's key.
Angie (48:09):
Absolutely.
So we've talked a lot abouthypothyroidism and I want to
respect your time here, but Ijust wanted to touch, a little
bit on Hashimoto's,'cause I knowthat's one.
Other area of expertise that,that you have.
How does Hashimoto's differ fromwhat we've been talking about
today, both in the symptoms andsome of the things that we need
(48:30):
to take a look at?
Because I know there's a lot ofrunners out there that have
Hashimoto's or other forms ofhyperthyroidism, can you speak
to that?
Rachel (48:38):
Yeah, so Hashimoto's, I would say, adds a little layer
of complexity to the picturebecause now we're involving the
immune system.
Okay?
So Hashimoto's thyroiditis is anautoimmune disease.
That causes hypothyroidism.
So I would say 90% of women whohave hypothyroidism have
Hashimoto's.
(48:58):
And it's crazy because hypo
Angie (49:01):
or hypo?
Rachel (49:01):
Hypo.
Angie (49:02):
Hypo, okay.
Rachel (49:03):
Hypo, yeah.
Low thyroid.
So 90.
Exactly.
Low thyroid.
So 90% of women who havehypothyroidism or low
functioning thyroid haveHashimoto's.
Okay.
So it's a huge percentage ofwomen.
And like I said, it just addsanother level of complexity.
'cause now we have to look atthe immune system.
The reason why you have a lowfunctioning thyroid is because
(49:26):
your immune system has literallycreated antibodies, thyroid
antibodies that will then attackthe tissue of your thyroid,
causing inflammation, causingdamage.
Then eventually can result inthe.
Compromisation of the actualthyroid function.
So then, in saying that, you cansee how that does take time.
(49:46):
So a lot of women actually haveHashimoto's for many years
before they actually develophypothyroidism.
And this is why I'm such a hugeproponent of being proactive
because Hashimoto's is aprogressive disease.
It may take a long time, but itis, ever, progressing right.
So the sooner you can catch it.
(50:06):
The sooner you can implement.
Action items and do things thatcan actually help to potentially
stall or reverse the process.
Okay.
the immune system is a wholeother area that we have to look
at and that goes into a lot ofother things, but there's a lot
of different things that canactually affect the immune
system and why it's potentially.
Dysfunctional.
We're looking at gut health,we're looking at stress, we're
(50:29):
looking at liver health.
We're looking at environment andtoxins and like all these kinds
of things.
So still taking a verycomprehensive look, but just a
little bit different.
A little bit of a differentperspective, different lens that
we have to put on when we'relooking at Hashimoto's.
But that said, like if you aresomebody who you know, you have
Hashimoto's, you have.
Thyroid antibodies, but youdon't have hypothyroidism.
(50:51):
However, you still experienceall the symptoms like fatigue or
even just again, weakness inyour muscles or, poor recovery
time, like all these things, allof that can be a result of the
Hashimoto's process itself.
You don't have to havehypothyroidism to experience
those symptoms because thatimmune system dysfunction that's
(51:12):
happening.
Those antibodies.
It is creating, like I said, alot of inflammation.
There is a lot of inflammationthat comes as a result of that.
And we talked about inflammationalready.
Yeah.
and so that autoimmune processis inflammatory.
There's a lot of thingshappening.
So there's still so many, areasthat you can explore and you can
work on to help with reducinginflammation and to calm that
(51:33):
immune system so that you canfeel better,
Angie (51:36):
Yeah.
Basically what I'm hearing yousay in all of this is really
understanding that you havecontrol over how you feel, and a
lot of it is tied to stress andthe lifestyle choices that we're
making in our lives, like bothwith our exercise and our
nutrition.
Rachel (51:57):
Huge like, and we're told the complete opposite.
I cannot tell you how manydoctors, endocrinologists, all
specialists, whatever, who tellmy clients, it doesn't matter
what you eat, it doesn't matterhow you exercise, it doesn't
matter what you do.
You can't change your thyroiddisease.
You can't.
Do anything about it that isjust completely false.
(52:18):
Like you have so much controlover this.
You have so much power in thetrajectory of your health.
Yeah.
And we need to take our, we haveto claim our power back.
Angie (52:28):
Heck yeah.
Heck yeah.
I'm on board.
Let's get more people on boardwith that.
Yeah.
'cause I think that's, you areright, like it's such a toxic
message that is out there ofyeah, there's nothing you can do
about it.
And none of that stuff.
Stuff matters.
I remember my husband wasdiagnosed with ulcerative
colitis when he was in histwenties, and the
gastroenterologist told him,yeah, your food doesn't matter.
(52:51):
And I was like, whatcha talking?
Like it's an intestinal disease?
What?
In what world would his foodintake not play some sort of
role?
I don't know how much of a role,but no, none whatsoever.
Yeah.
And so I just, I didn't believethat and we changed the way that
we ate and he has not had totake.
Meds for over, like for decades.
(53:13):
Amazing.
And he's had no flareupswhatsoever.
So amazing.
He's actually healed himself.
And I'm not saying that issomething that's available to
everyone at, so please don't saythat.
I'm not saying if you have uc,don't take your meds.
But I'm just saying like thereis always a connection.
Rachel (53:27):
Yeah.
Angie (53:28):
And it's just a matter of really understanding our bodies,
listening to our bodies, takingthose steps.
To reduce stress, to nourish andsupport all of the different
systems in our bodies, ourimmune system, our thyroid, all
of the different body systemsthat work together to make us a
(53:48):
healthy individual.
And I just absolutely love, yourapproach to all of that.
So thank you so much foreverything that you've shared
with us today.
Is there anything else that youwant to add before we wrap up
today?
so many things, but so manythings.
I know.
Rachel (54:03):
I'm like, we could just have another hour of
conversation here too.
Yeah.
But I'm like, like I am justsuch a huge, like I wanna
empower women.
like I said, I just, I reallywant.
You to just claim your powerback in this whole journey?
I think we give too much of ourpower away to, our, like
healthcare providers.
Not to say you can't, youshouldn't listen to them or you
(54:25):
shouldn't trust them.
But I just think that there'sjust such a gap in the
knowledge, that some of ourpractitioners have and in just
like the overall approach tojust overall wellness, And so Do
your research, listen topodcasts, like really immerse
yourself in this kind of more, Iguess I call it functional world
(54:48):
because there is just so muchout there and you'll realize
like how many more things thatyou.
You can do for yourself.
That can really move the needle.
Despite what the conventionalnarrative says, So I just want
you to know, if you feel acertain way, you don't feel
well, there is absolutely areason for it, and you can find
(55:10):
out what that is and dosomething about it.
Angie (55:13):
Absolutely.
I 100% agree and I want to, I'mon that, in that same mission
with you of empowering morewomen to really be their own
advocates And really do what isright for them because we know,
like when we tap into ourselves.
We know when something's off.
We know that something's notright here.
(55:34):
Yeah.
And I really want people tostart trusting them more.
Yeah.
And to then seek help and notjust take a surface level answer
from someone that says, oh, it,my doctor said my blood work was
normal.
So I guess it's just in my head.
And that is such a lie, that weneed to continue to break and.
Really help women understandthat there's nothing wrong with
(55:54):
you.
But yeah, there's a lot andthere's also a lot that you can
do.
yeah, trust yourself.
Alright, Rochelle, where can ourlisteners connect with you If
they wanna, follow you or workwith you, where can they connect
with you?
Rachel (56:07):
Yeah, so I am on Instagram.
My handle is at Dr.
Vong nd so you can definitelygimme a follow over there.
DM me anytime.
I'm super easy to chat with.
So just send me a message if youliked this episode, if you have
any questions about it.
And my team offers free 45minute discovery calls as well.
If you are somebody who's youknow what, I've had this thyroid
(56:28):
issue for a while, or I suspectI have a thyroid issue.
And I just wanna get to thebottom of it.
I wanna figure out what to do.
Like we just, we offer freeconsults, so you can definitely
book one there and it's allthrough my Instagram, so
Angie (56:40):
love it.
And we will link to all of thatin the show notes below so that
you guys can just access thatvery easily.
Thank you so much, Rochelle, forbeing welcome on the podcast
today, and, we'll talk to youguys soon.
Thank you.
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