October 28, 2024 • 21 mins
Unlock the secrets to achieving optimal breast health by balancing hormones and reducing inflammation through the artful combination of energy and functional medicine. Explore the information on breast cancer types and learn about the crucial role of hormone receptors in shaping treatment plans. We also highlight the importance of personalized screening strategies, emphasizing how each person's unique history and risk factors should guide their approach to breast cancer screening, including mammogram guidelines.
Discover practical strategies to support your body's natural detoxification processes and promote hormone balance. This episode covers everything from dietary shifts, like minimizing processed foods and embracing antioxidant-rich plants, to lifestyle changes, such as resistance training and stress management. Learn how to reduce toxin exposure by making mindful choices, like opting for BPA-free products and organic produce, guided by the Environmental Working Group's "Dirty Dozen" list. I also share my experiences transitioning to natural personal care products, offering practical tips on reducing chemical exposure in everyday life. Empower yourself with the knowledge and tools to make healthier choices for a vibrant, wellness-oriented lifestyle.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
We're going to talk about breast health and
balancing the hormones to reduceour breast cancer risk.
So I am a Reiki practitioner.
I'm also a physician.
I've practiced internalmedicine for 20 years, as of
this year and then I got startedas a functional medicine
(00:20):
practitioner about I think it'sbeen about two years.
I am not fully certified in thefunctional medicine world, but
I am a practitioner of it.
So functional medicine andenergy medicine actually go
together really well.
It's one of my favorite topicsis talking about putting those
together because they're justone in the same.
(00:41):
But when it comes to our breasthealth this is Breast Cancer
Awareness Month and some of thethings that we'll discuss
although we're discussing itunder the realm of breast health
it's just good all-around stuffwe want to do for ourselves
when we balance our hormones.
It doesn't just prevent breastcancer, it helps us feel good,
it prevents all kinds of things.
(01:03):
So breast cancer where we arein the most recent research and
where medical science has us now.
(01:23):
I always like to say it thatway because the nature of
medical science is that newdiscoveries are made.
This could change, but from thebest that we know of now in the
treatment regimens for breastcancer work off the basis that
there are basically three maintypes of breast cancer.
There's actually breastpre-cancer types as well, but we
(01:47):
don't get too much into that.
So much because in thosepre-cancer types and that is
discovered, most likely abnormalmammogram leads to a breast
biopsy and then the pathologistlooks at that tissue and sees
that there might be cells ofinflammation or cells that are
showing accelerated growth, butthey're not cancer so they're
not trying to spread.
(02:08):
But these types here are frombiopsy.
So abnormal mammogram leads toultrasound that localizes the
abnormal part and the biopsy isdone.
And then from that tissue thepathologist will look to see if
this is breast cancer and theylook at the cells.
They look for certain distinctcharacteristics of those cells
(02:33):
that define it as cancer, whichare abnormal cells that grow
that don't have normal checksthat the body can stop its
growth, and cell types that wantto spread beyond their origin,
where they can cause damage toother tissues and drain the body
system because of theirunchecked growth, that they
require too much energy to growand that's where they do their
damage.
But in the breast cancer realm,the hormone receptors.
(02:56):
So if their breast cancer isthere, does the breast cancer
have receptors for the hormones,estrogen?
Does it have the receptors forprogesterone or does it not have
any of those receptors?
So this ends up coming upbecause the treatment options
that are offered depend on ifthose receptors are there.
(03:17):
And in general what's thoughtis that if those hormone
receptors are there, then thetreatment can be a little bit
less harsh because you can blockthose hormones in the cells
either with medications or withIVs.
And then also it does appearthat the breast cancer types
(03:38):
that have the hormone receptorstend to respond better and
faster to treatment.
The triple negative breastcancers means that it is a
cancer cell but it does not haveany of those hormone receptors.
Those type of cancers tend tobe more aggressive, so they tend
(03:58):
to be treated a lot morecarefully because there's not as
many treatment options.
However, this advice, as far asyou know, a holistic approach
supports, you know, every typeof breast cancer diagnosis.
So breast health we know of inour common talk is, of course,
(04:25):
getting breast cancer screeningor a mammogram and starting
mammograms a certain period oftime.
It used to be the advice wasevery woman should get a
mammogram, starting at the ageof 40 and she should have a
mammogram every year for therest of the time she's alive and
she should have a mammogramevery year for the rest of the
time she's alive.
We actually have multipleguidelines now as far as when
(04:47):
mammograms should start and howoften.
The way I approach this with mypatients is I tell them that we
just need an individualizedapproach.
So it needs to depend on yourpersonal history, your family
history, your personalpreference as well.
There are some women who don'thave any family history of
(05:08):
breast cancer.
They themselves will come in asrelatively low risk of breast
cancer for several reasons.
They just don't like mammograms.
For those women they are goingto be on that spectrum of
screening less often andpotentially screening later.
They may be appropriate tostart their breast cancer
screening at the age of 45, andthey may be appropriate with
(05:30):
getting their breast cancerscreening done every two years.
If a woman has a family historyof breast cancer, particularly
family history of breast cancerin first-degree relatives, male
or female, or multiple familymembers with breast cancer in
first degree relatives, male orfemale, or multiple family
members with breast cancerPotentially if she's got a
family history of certain typesof cancer and if those started
(05:53):
at a younger age, for her itmight be more appropriate to
start breast cancer screening ata younger age.
It could be as young as 35.
And some women, because oftheir family history they may
need to start breast cancersurveillance and awareness as
young as their 20s and theirapproach is individualized
(06:14):
because it might not even bemammograms.
It may be taking breastultrasounds at a younger age.
So it's very individualized.
Best to discuss with yourdoctor what's going to work for
you.
But for the kind of thecatch-all now was, it went back
because for a while they weresaying no, don't start till 45,
start earlier.
But the catch-all advice thatwe're taking now is consider a
(06:36):
baseline mammogram at 35,consider starting at 40 for
regular mammograms.
Consider getting your regularmammograms every one to two
years In your 70s.
Discuss with your doctor if youstill want to continue breast
cancer screening, if you'vealways had normal mammograms In
the breast tissues, the hormonesestrogen, progesterone and
(06:59):
testosterone, which affect everypart of our body but they come
into play as far as too much,not enough.
In women.
These levels are fluctuatingmonth to month during the years
that you're having children andduring the years that you are
not having children.
So that's of course puberty.
We don't really have the breasttissue.
(07:20):
Much then to discuss.
And then later in life, duringmenopause, where those levels
may be starting to go down.
They may be going down in ajagged fashion, maybe a little
up on estrogen, a little bitdown.
Or if you've got a history ofcertain conditions where you may
have carried too much estrogenin your life, those estrogen
levels might be staying highwhile progesterone and
(07:42):
testosterone drop your life.
Those estrogen levels might bestaying high while progesterone
and testosterone drop.
Interesting enough, ifsomeone's on a weight loss
journey, all of these hormonesare stored in the fat and if
they're having a successfulweight loss, those fat cells are
releasing their contents, whichis fat.
They may have spikes or changesin these hormone levels, and so
(08:04):
that's kind of good to be awareof and it's kind of a good
explanation why some women, asthey're on a weight loss journey
, may have had fertilityproblems and then, as they
successfully lose weight, theyeasily become pregnant as these
hormone levels become releasedinto the bloodstream, become
available and help to regulatetheir ovulation, and that allows
(08:25):
for a successful pregnancy,where they may not have been
able to do that when theycarried more of that weight.
So, just as I was saying before,that imbalances and as far as
like what hormone balance is.
It's individualized because itdepends on, of course, the
(08:48):
gender you are and what youroptimum hormone balance is.
It also depends on where youare in life chronologically,
because there are times that youmight benefit from more of
these hormones.
There may be times you benefitfrom less of these, and it
depends on then, as far asgender, are you having babies,
wanting to get pregnant or not?
(09:09):
And then also just physically,how you're feeling and what you
want to accomplish.
And then your individual riskfactors for breast cancer
feeling and what you want toaccomplish.
And then your individual riskfactors for breast cancer.
Having too much estrogen canhave some kind of icky effects
on the breast, because there'scertain types of estrogens that
are inflammatory, they mess withour DNA and cause the DNA to
(09:32):
get a little bit weird or angry,and that estrogen can fuel some
of those types of breast cancerand that estrogen can fuel some
of those types of breast cancer.
So we don't always really wantthat.
And then, of course, prolongedexposure, and that comes from
that's the question that they'lloften ask when they're getting
ready to do a mammogram is whatage did you start your period?
What age.
Did your period stopped, ifthey've stopped?
(09:53):
Because the thinking is that ifyou have longer reproductive
years you may be exposed to moreestrogen and they need to take
that into account when they lookin your breast as far as risk
stratification.
And then the environmentalissues.
The one that comes up quite abit is environmental toxins,
because we know now that certainenvironments, certain things
(10:15):
that have been put into ourenvironment, been taken out of
our environment, can affect ourhormone levels and certain
synthetic compounds can act likesome of these hormones in our
body.
I have a handout on foreverchemicals.
I think I'll send that out inthe email.
But the forever chemicals andbreast health is actually super
important because it turns outthat, unfortunately, the first
(10:36):
chemicals are in our environment, but there are some steps that
we can take to reduce ourpersonal exposure to these
chemicals.
(11:00):
Needs to do for you, but signsthat your hormones may not be
optimized, might not be in thebest place for you, are changes
in the weight that we don't want, because sometimes we do need
our weight to change, sometimeswe don't.
If you are a woman that hasperiods, if the cycles are
changing regular to often notoccurring at all, and
particularly for regular cyclesand you're wanting to become
pregnant, the mood changes, moodswings.
(11:26):
A lot of times in my primarycare world that's the first
thing that's presented to me isanxiety.
But when we have an opportunityto ask more questions in my
functional medicine practice wereally delve into that a lot
more.
It turns out that it's not justanxiety, that there's a pattern
to it and it has something todo with these hormonal
fluctuations that may not be agood thing and sleep issues,
which so many things can disruptour sleep.
(11:48):
But for men and women, changesin the hormones where they're
not optimized can make us eithersleep too much and be tired or
keep us from sleeping restfully.
So when we take this functionaland holistic approach, how we
(12:11):
support our hormone balance.
In my 20 years of medicalpractice, what I had noticed is,
before I even had learned aboutfunctional medicine, was that
my patients were seeingpractitioners and they would
initially tell me about theirsymptoms and they would see a
practitioner and start a hormonereplacement regimen of some
(12:31):
kind, hoping to alleviatesymptoms, and then, oddly enough
, they would come back to me andthe symptom they were trying to
alleviate actually got muchworse, because it turns out like
I was saying that hormonebalance is individualized.
It depends on what you needfrom your body, what your body
needs from you, where you are inlife, your genetics, your
gender, a number of things, sothat some of those will be
(12:54):
called perimenopausal ormenopausal symptoms that a woman
may have, and they mayabsolutely be in perimenopause
or menopause, and they start aregimen of adding estrogen and
then it turns out they alreadyhad too much estrogen and you
throw all that extra estrogenand they actually feel worse.
So sometimes hormonereplacement is the way to go and
(13:16):
it's necessary, it's what'sneeded, but adding more doesn't
always help.
But balancing the hormones andstarting with what goes into
your body as far as foods andfor men, women, everyone getting
enough fiber in the fiber thathits your stomach and the fiber
that hits your small intestinesis so awesome because that extra
(13:39):
fiber is going to do severalthings for you.
That fiber is going to soak upwaste products that we don't
want and help take it out ofyour system.
When that fiber hits your smallintestines, it can work with
your liver.
As your liver is trying to getrid of toxins in your body.
The fiber can be there and takeit out of your system through
your stool.
(13:59):
And then, of course, fiberkeeps our digestive system
regulated and moving and a lotof our detoxification that
happens, which is getting rid ofproducts that we don't want,
happens through the digestivetract.
So, starting with the nutritionand just simple, like eating a
fiber, including cruciferousvegetables that can actually be
(14:21):
cabbage, it can be broccoli,broccolini, but somehow
including those even you have tosneak them into your diet.
And eating foods that help lowerinflammation, which you know.
The catch all term, I tell mypatients is if it tasted really
good and you wanted a secondserving of it, it's probably
inflammatory.
Unfortunately, processed foods,foods high in sugar, those kind
(14:43):
of things Supporting yourbody's ability to get rid of
toxins, to detoxify.
So water, simple, inexpensive,staying well hydrated, starting
your day with a nice amount ofwater just to hit your digestive
tract, because your kidneyshave the other major detox
(15:04):
pathway and your kidneys willeliminate certain toxins through
them.
When we stay well hydrated,that allows enough water to get
through the kidneys that thekidneys can flush themselves out
, because they can become areservoir of holding on to
toxins and things which couldlead to formation of kidney
stones and other stuff.
So water is always the best wayto go.
(15:24):
Consuming foods that are highin antioxidants this is,
colorful, plant-based foods isthe easy catch-all.
Exercise helps our body tostabilize hormones in that
whenever we engage our muscles,our muscles will initiate a
cascade that will encourage thehormone pathway that leads to
(15:46):
the production of estrogen,progesterone and testosterone.
To produce slightly moretestosterone and when I work
with a lot of my patients thatare testosterone depleted,
that's often what I encouragethem is to consider resistance
training, because that's anatural way to encourage
testosterone production.
Just a little bit over time,rather than adding a big bolus
(16:09):
of it through supplement, helpsthe hormone cascade,
particularly in the adrenalglands, because when we carry
too much stress, there arecomplicated set of steps and
mechanisms.
The adrenal glands will sort ofkick into gear and produce more
stress, producing hormones,particularly cortisol.
(16:32):
That will impact the body in anumber of ways, from poor wound
healing to changes in the colorof the skin to elevated blood
sugars.
So managing stress although itsounds overly simplified, just
realizing that like hey, if wehave certain things that we do
that create stress, can wereduce that a little bit more?
Because if that impacts ourhormone cascade, it can increase
(16:54):
our risk of breast cancer andother cancers.
So again, and I'll include thatforever chemicals I'll send out
in the email because I'm gonnahave to search for.
But wherever we can reduce ourtoxins and fortunately our
world's a little toxic we justcan't get around it.
(17:15):
It's toxic chemically, a littlebit toxic emotionally and we
can't control the environmentaround us, which we could, could
, but we can't.
But what we can do is avoidtoxins where we can, such as in
plastics.
So as you're restocking, doingthings at home, trying to avoid
plastic containers or just overtime, maybe replacing plastic
(17:39):
containers where you can,minimizing our exposure to one
of those forever chemicals, justBPA.
And the nice thing is the foodindustry is starting to help us
out by letting us know whenthings don't have BPA, when
linings and canned food don'thave it.
So just your awareness of it andstarting to look around for it,
when possible, choosing organicproduce.
(18:04):
So this part gets a little bittough.
But there are certain grocerystores that only carry organics
and don't use any type ofpreservatives on the outsides of
those organics or of thoseproduce.
That's not always possible,unfortunately, because of cost
and accessibility.
(18:24):
So if it's not possible havinga high quality produce wash, so
as soon as you purchase yourproduce, giving it a good wash.
There's several produce washesyou can use at home where you
put some in a bowl and you swishthe vegetables or fruit around
and you rinse them off and letthem dry and that can help
remove some of that coating.
There's the environmentalworking groups, dirty Dozen I
(18:46):
think you can just Google thatterm, dirty Dozen and they'll
tell you which of the producesthat, if you can't find organic,
you want to avoid.
Because of the nature of theproduce, it allows it to absorb
more of that stuff.
Using natural personal productsand the way I would approach
this is that we don't have tothrow out all of our cosmetics
(19:06):
and all of our personal useproducts, but as you get close
to replacing something, beforeyou toss out the empty bottle,
just have a look at what itcontained in it and decide if
you want to restock with that.
I've definitely in my ownpersonal life gone to using
beauty products with the leastamount of chemicals, using
scent-free lotions and soapswherever I can, just to reduce
(19:29):
chemical burden, and Idefinitely go on to that, just
to reduce what we get, becausewhen you see those labels and
the more chemicals that theyhave, maybe it doesn't harm you.
Maybe it does, and it's justgoing to be impossible to know.
So when you can get to feweringredients, or even if you're
crafty and you start making yourown lotions or those kind of
(19:49):
things where you know what youput in it, that way just reduces
your overall exposure.
We're going to talk about breast health and
balancing the hormones to reduceour breast cancer risk.
So I am a Reiki practitioner.
I'm also a physician.
I've practiced internalmedicine for 20 years, as of
this year and then I got startedas a functional medicine
(00:20):
practitioner about I think it'sbeen about two years.
I am not fully certified in thefunctional medicine world, but
I am a practitioner of it.
So functional medicine andenergy medicine actually go
together really well.
It's one of my favorite topicsis talking about putting those
together because they're justone in the same.
(00:41):
But when it comes to our breasthealth this is Breast Cancer
Awareness Month and some of thethings that we'll discuss
although we're discussing itunder the realm of breast health
it's just good all-around stuffwe want to do for ourselves
when we balance our hormones.
It doesn't just prevent breastcancer, it helps us feel good,
it prevents all kinds of things.
(01:03):
So breast cancer where we arein the most recent research and
where medical science has us now.
(01:23):
I always like to say it thatway because the nature of
medical science is that newdiscoveries are made.
This could change, but from thebest that we know of now in the
treatment regimens for breastcancer work off the basis that
there are basically three maintypes of breast cancer.
There's actually breastpre-cancer types as well, but we
(01:47):
don't get too much into that.
So much because in thosepre-cancer types and that is
discovered, most likely abnormalmammogram leads to a breast
biopsy and then the pathologistlooks at that tissue and sees
that there might be cells ofinflammation or cells that are
showing accelerated growth, butthey're not cancer so they're
not trying to spread.
(02:08):
But these types here are frombiopsy.
So abnormal mammogram leads toultrasound that localizes the
abnormal part and the biopsy isdone.
And then from that tissue thepathologist will look to see if
this is breast cancer and theylook at the cells.
They look for certain distinctcharacteristics of those cells
(02:33):
that define it as cancer, whichare abnormal cells that grow
that don't have normal checksthat the body can stop its
growth, and cell types that wantto spread beyond their origin,
where they can cause damage toother tissues and drain the body
system because of theirunchecked growth, that they
require too much energy to growand that's where they do their
damage.
But in the breast cancer realm,the hormone receptors.
(02:56):
So if their breast cancer isthere, does the breast cancer
have receptors for the hormones,estrogen?
Does it have the receptors forprogesterone or does it not have
any of those receptors?
So this ends up coming upbecause the treatment options
that are offered depend on ifthose receptors are there.
(03:17):
And in general what's thoughtis that if those hormone
receptors are there, then thetreatment can be a little bit
less harsh because you can blockthose hormones in the cells
either with medications or withIVs.
And then also it does appearthat the breast cancer types
(03:38):
that have the hormone receptorstend to respond better and
faster to treatment.
The triple negative breastcancers means that it is a
cancer cell but it does not haveany of those hormone receptors.
Those type of cancers tend tobe more aggressive, so they tend
(03:58):
to be treated a lot morecarefully because there's not as
many treatment options.
However, this advice, as far asyou know, a holistic approach
supports, you know, every typeof breast cancer diagnosis.
So breast health we know of inour common talk is, of course,
(04:25):
getting breast cancer screeningor a mammogram and starting
mammograms a certain period oftime.
It used to be the advice wasevery woman should get a
mammogram, starting at the ageof 40 and she should have a
mammogram every year for therest of the time she's alive and
she should have a mammogramevery year for the rest of the
time she's alive.
We actually have multipleguidelines now as far as when
(04:47):
mammograms should start and howoften.
The way I approach this with mypatients is I tell them that we
just need an individualizedapproach.
So it needs to depend on yourpersonal history, your family
history, your personalpreference as well.
There are some women who don'thave any family history of
(05:08):
breast cancer.
They themselves will come in asrelatively low risk of breast
cancer for several reasons.
They just don't like mammograms.
For those women they are goingto be on that spectrum of
screening less often andpotentially screening later.
They may be appropriate tostart their breast cancer
screening at the age of 45, andthey may be appropriate with
(05:30):
getting their breast cancerscreening done every two years.
If a woman has a family historyof breast cancer, particularly
family history of breast cancerin first-degree relatives, male
or female, or multiple familymembers with breast cancer in
first degree relatives, male orfemale, or multiple family
members with breast cancerPotentially if she's got a
family history of certain typesof cancer and if those started
(05:53):
at a younger age, for her itmight be more appropriate to
start breast cancer screening ata younger age.
It could be as young as 35.
And some women, because oftheir family history they may
need to start breast cancersurveillance and awareness as
young as their 20s and theirapproach is individualized
(06:14):
because it might not even bemammograms.
It may be taking breastultrasounds at a younger age.
So it's very individualized.
Best to discuss with yourdoctor what's going to work for
you.
But for the kind of thecatch-all now was, it went back
because for a while they weresaying no, don't start till 45,
start earlier.
But the catch-all advice thatwe're taking now is consider a
(06:36):
baseline mammogram at 35,consider starting at 40 for
regular mammograms.
Consider getting your regularmammograms every one to two
years In your 70s.
Discuss with your doctor if youstill want to continue breast
cancer screening, if you'vealways had normal mammograms In
the breast tissues, the hormonesestrogen, progesterone and
(06:59):
testosterone, which affect everypart of our body but they come
into play as far as too much,not enough.
In women.
These levels are fluctuatingmonth to month during the years
that you're having children andduring the years that you are
not having children.
So that's of course puberty.
We don't really have the breasttissue.
(07:20):
Much then to discuss.
And then later in life, duringmenopause, where those levels
may be starting to go down.
They may be going down in ajagged fashion, maybe a little
up on estrogen, a little bitdown.
Or if you've got a history ofcertain conditions where you may
have carried too much estrogenin your life, those estrogen
levels might be staying highwhile progesterone and
(07:42):
testosterone drop your life.
Those estrogen levels might bestaying high while progesterone
and testosterone drop.
Interesting enough, ifsomeone's on a weight loss
journey, all of these hormonesare stored in the fat and if
they're having a successfulweight loss, those fat cells are
releasing their contents, whichis fat.
They may have spikes or changesin these hormone levels, and so
(08:04):
that's kind of good to be awareof and it's kind of a good
explanation why some women, asthey're on a weight loss journey
, may have had fertilityproblems and then, as they
successfully lose weight, theyeasily become pregnant as these
hormone levels become releasedinto the bloodstream, become
available and help to regulatetheir ovulation, and that allows
(08:25):
for a successful pregnancy,where they may not have been
able to do that when theycarried more of that weight.
So, just as I was saying before,that imbalances and as far as
like what hormone balance is.
It's individualized because itdepends on, of course, the
(08:48):
gender you are and what youroptimum hormone balance is.
It also depends on where youare in life chronologically,
because there are times that youmight benefit from more of
these hormones.
There may be times you benefitfrom less of these, and it
depends on then, as far asgender, are you having babies,
wanting to get pregnant or not?
(09:09):
And then also just physically,how you're feeling and what you
want to accomplish.
And then your individual riskfactors for breast cancer
feeling and what you want toaccomplish.
And then your individual riskfactors for breast cancer.
Having too much estrogen canhave some kind of icky effects
on the breast, because there'scertain types of estrogens that
are inflammatory, they mess withour DNA and cause the DNA to
(09:32):
get a little bit weird or angry,and that estrogen can fuel some
of those types of breast cancerand that estrogen can fuel some
of those types of breast cancer.
So we don't always really wantthat.
And then, of course, prolongedexposure, and that comes from
that's the question that they'lloften ask when they're getting
ready to do a mammogram is whatage did you start your period?
What age.
Did your period stopped, ifthey've stopped?
(09:53):
Because the thinking is that ifyou have longer reproductive
years you may be exposed to moreestrogen and they need to take
that into account when they lookin your breast as far as risk
stratification.
And then the environmentalissues.
The one that comes up quite abit is environmental toxins,
because we know now that certainenvironments, certain things
(10:15):
that have been put into ourenvironment, been taken out of
our environment, can affect ourhormone levels and certain
synthetic compounds can act likesome of these hormones in our
body.
I have a handout on foreverchemicals.
I think I'll send that out inthe email.
But the forever chemicals andbreast health is actually super
important because it turns outthat, unfortunately, the first
(10:36):
chemicals are in our environment, but there are some steps that
we can take to reduce ourpersonal exposure to these
chemicals.
(11:00):
Needs to do for you, but signsthat your hormones may not be
optimized, might not be in thebest place for you, are changes
in the weight that we don't want, because sometimes we do need
our weight to change, sometimeswe don't.
If you are a woman that hasperiods, if the cycles are
changing regular to often notoccurring at all, and
particularly for regular cyclesand you're wanting to become
pregnant, the mood changes, moodswings.
(11:26):
A lot of times in my primarycare world that's the first
thing that's presented to me isanxiety.
But when we have an opportunityto ask more questions in my
functional medicine practice wereally delve into that a lot
more.
It turns out that it's not justanxiety, that there's a pattern
to it and it has something todo with these hormonal
fluctuations that may not be agood thing and sleep issues,
which so many things can disruptour sleep.
(11:48):
But for men and women, changesin the hormones where they're
not optimized can make us eithersleep too much and be tired or
keep us from sleeping restfully.
So when we take this functionaland holistic approach, how we
(12:11):
support our hormone balance.
In my 20 years of medicalpractice, what I had noticed is,
before I even had learned aboutfunctional medicine, was that
my patients were seeingpractitioners and they would
initially tell me about theirsymptoms and they would see a
practitioner and start a hormonereplacement regimen of some
(12:31):
kind, hoping to alleviatesymptoms, and then, oddly enough
, they would come back to me andthe symptom they were trying to
alleviate actually got muchworse, because it turns out like
I was saying that hormonebalance is individualized.
It depends on what you needfrom your body, what your body
needs from you, where you are inlife, your genetics, your
gender, a number of things, sothat some of those will be
(12:54):
called perimenopausal ormenopausal symptoms that a woman
may have, and they mayabsolutely be in perimenopause
or menopause, and they start aregimen of adding estrogen and
then it turns out they alreadyhad too much estrogen and you
throw all that extra estrogenand they actually feel worse.
So sometimes hormonereplacement is the way to go and
(13:16):
it's necessary, it's what'sneeded, but adding more doesn't
always help.
But balancing the hormones andstarting with what goes into
your body as far as foods andfor men, women, everyone getting
enough fiber in the fiber thathits your stomach and the fiber
that hits your small intestinesis so awesome because that extra
(13:39):
fiber is going to do severalthings for you.
That fiber is going to soak upwaste products that we don't
want and help take it out ofyour system.
When that fiber hits your smallintestines, it can work with
your liver.
As your liver is trying to getrid of toxins in your body.
The fiber can be there and takeit out of your system through
your stool.
(13:59):
And then, of course, fiberkeeps our digestive system
regulated and moving and a lotof our detoxification that
happens, which is getting rid ofproducts that we don't want,
happens through the digestivetract.
So, starting with the nutritionand just simple, like eating a
fiber, including cruciferousvegetables that can actually be
(14:21):
cabbage, it can be broccoli,broccolini, but somehow
including those even you have tosneak them into your diet.
And eating foods that help lowerinflammation, which you know.
The catch all term, I tell mypatients is if it tasted really
good and you wanted a secondserving of it, it's probably
inflammatory.
Unfortunately, processed foods,foods high in sugar, those kind
(14:43):
of things Supporting yourbody's ability to get rid of
toxins, to detoxify.
So water, simple, inexpensive,staying well hydrated, starting
your day with a nice amount ofwater just to hit your digestive
tract, because your kidneyshave the other major detox
(15:04):
pathway and your kidneys willeliminate certain toxins through
them.
When we stay well hydrated,that allows enough water to get
through the kidneys that thekidneys can flush themselves out
, because they can become areservoir of holding on to
toxins and things which couldlead to formation of kidney
stones and other stuff.
So water is always the best wayto go.
(15:24):
Consuming foods that are highin antioxidants this is,
colorful, plant-based foods isthe easy catch-all.
Exercise helps our body tostabilize hormones in that
whenever we engage our muscles,our muscles will initiate a
cascade that will encourage thehormone pathway that leads to
(15:46):
the production of estrogen,progesterone and testosterone.
To produce slightly moretestosterone and when I work
with a lot of my patients thatare testosterone depleted,
that's often what I encouragethem is to consider resistance
training, because that's anatural way to encourage
testosterone production.
Just a little bit over time,rather than adding a big bolus
(16:09):
of it through supplement, helpsthe hormone cascade,
particularly in the adrenalglands, because when we carry
too much stress, there arecomplicated set of steps and
mechanisms.
The adrenal glands will sort ofkick into gear and produce more
stress, producing hormones,particularly cortisol.
(16:32):
That will impact the body in anumber of ways, from poor wound
healing to changes in the colorof the skin to elevated blood
sugars.
So managing stress although itsounds overly simplified, just
realizing that like hey, if wehave certain things that we do
that create stress, can wereduce that a little bit more?
Because if that impacts ourhormone cascade, it can increase
(16:54):
our risk of breast cancer andother cancers.
So again, and I'll include thatforever chemicals I'll send out
in the email because I'm gonnahave to search for.
But wherever we can reduce ourtoxins and fortunately our
world's a little toxic we justcan't get around it.
(17:15):
It's toxic chemically, a littlebit toxic emotionally and we
can't control the environmentaround us, which we could, could
, but we can't.
But what we can do is avoidtoxins where we can, such as in
plastics.
So as you're restocking, doingthings at home, trying to avoid
plastic containers or just overtime, maybe replacing plastic
(17:39):
containers where you can,minimizing our exposure to one
of those forever chemicals, justBPA.
And the nice thing is the foodindustry is starting to help us
out by letting us know whenthings don't have BPA, when
linings and canned food don'thave it.
So just your awareness of it andstarting to look around for it,
when possible, choosing organicproduce.
(18:04):
So this part gets a little bittough.
But there are certain grocerystores that only carry organics
and don't use any type ofpreservatives on the outsides of
those organics or of thoseproduce.
That's not always possible,unfortunately, because of cost
and accessibility.
(18:24):
So if it's not possible havinga high quality produce wash, so
as soon as you purchase yourproduce, giving it a good wash.
There's several produce washesyou can use at home where you
put some in a bowl and you swishthe vegetables or fruit around
and you rinse them off and letthem dry and that can help
remove some of that coating.
There's the environmentalworking groups, dirty Dozen I
(18:46):
think you can just Google thatterm, dirty Dozen and they'll
tell you which of the producesthat, if you can't find organic,
you want to avoid.
Because of the nature of theproduce, it allows it to absorb
more of that stuff.
Using natural personal productsand the way I would approach
this is that we don't have tothrow out all of our cosmetics
(19:06):
and all of our personal useproducts, but as you get close
to replacing something, beforeyou toss out the empty bottle,
just have a look at what itcontained in it and decide if
you want to restock with that.
I've definitely in my ownpersonal life gone to using
beauty products with the leastamount of chemicals, using
scent-free lotions and soapswherever I can, just to reduce
(19:29):
chemical burden, and Idefinitely go on to that, just
to reduce what we get, becausewhen you see those labels and
the more chemicals that theyhave, maybe it doesn't harm you.
Maybe it does, and it's justgoing to be impossible to know.
So when you can get to feweringredients, or even if you're
crafty and you start making yourown lotions or those kind of
(19:49):
things where you know what youput in it, that way just reduces
your overall exposure.
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