September 24, 2024 • 64 mins
In this episode, we explore the transformative power of menopause management with the renowned Dr. Prudence Hall. Dr. Hall shares her journey from traditional gynecology to integrative and regenerative medicine, revealing how bioidentical hormones can ease menopausal symptoms and improve women’s health. We discuss the importance of a personalized, holistic approach tailored to each woman’s unique needs, empowering them to make informed decisions about their hormone health.
We also dive into the world of functional medicine, examining the impact of stress, inflammation, and detoxification on overall wellness. Dr. Hall provides real-life insights into perimenopause and menopause, while highlighting the role of sleep and the challenges posed by environmental toxins. Tune in to discover how bioidentical hormone therapy and a holistic approach can help you navigate menopause with vitality and grace.
CONNECT WITH DR. HALL:
- https://www.thehallcenter.com/
- https://www.facebook.com/DrPrudenceHall/
- https://www.drprudencehall.com/
- Free Book: https://www.drprudencehall.com/book-download
CONNECT WITH PUURLEE: https://m.mtrbio.com/puurlee
SUBMIT A QUESTION OR REQUEST A TOPIC:
I would love to hear from you! Please record your question or topic request to be featured in a future episode: https://www.speakpipe.com/Puurlee
DISCLAIMER:
*This podcast and its contents are for informational purposes only and are not intended to replace professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always consult your physician or a qualified health provider for any questions concerning a medical condition or health objectives. Additionally, the advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for every individual and are not guaranteed for business, personal, or wellness success. Use discretion and seek professional counsel when necessary.
AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER:
*Some of the resources and advertisements shared throughout the podcast episodes may contain affiliate links. If you use these links to buy something, I may earn a commission.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Nika Lawrie (00:06):
Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Larie podcast
.
Dr Prudence Hall, welcome tothe show.
I'm so happy to have you heretoday.
Dr. Prudence Hall (00:18):
I'm inspired already.
Thank you for having me.
Nika Lawrie (00:21):
Awesome.
Well, I'm really excited.
I think this is such animportant topic we're going to
talk about, like menopause andperimetopause, and obviously
pretty much every woman goesthrough it.
But I think there's a lot ofmisnomers or misconceptions and
a lot's kind of changed in howwe approach supporting women
(00:42):
going through this process overthe last 10, 20 years or so.
So I'm excited to speak aboutthis with you today.
Dr. Prudence Hall (00:50):
Well, thank you.
It's my passion.
I've done this for four decadesand I'm one of the beloveds of
bioidentical hormones, so I'mvery happy to talk to your
audience and mine about thistopic.
Nika Lawrie (01:03):
Yeah, I'm definitely going to ask you
about your thoughts and hormonesas we go through it.
I think it's such an importantthing that a lot of women don't
even understand or don't evenknow is available to them.
But before we get into that,can you just tell us, tell me, a
little bit about your story?
How did you go from kind oftraditional medicine over to
integrative or regenerativemedicine?
Dr. Prudence Hall (01:22):
Yes, well, I graduated from my residency
program.
I was a resident in gynecologyand obstetrics.
It really wanted the poor LosAngeles hospitals, so we had
many women coming across theborder with no prenatal care and
you know, terrible emergencies.
So I was very well trained.
I mean thank you, thank you,usc, for that knowledge.
I mean thank you, thank you,usc, for that knowledge.
(01:43):
And when I went into privatepractice, like eight years later
, I was ready for anything.
I mean anything.
But my menopausal patientsstarted coming to me and saying
I'm having hot sweats and I'mdesperate and you know all the
symptoms that we'll talk aboutlater, and I didn't know how to
handle them.
Nika, I kind of did what I wastaught to do in my residency.
(02:09):
I'd been in the menopauseclinic, I got the one blood
level, the follicle stimulatinghormone, put them on some
medication and see you in a year.
Nika Lawrie (02:17):
Send them on their way, yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (02:18):
Yeah.
So they came back two monthslater and said ProDens, this is
not working, yeah, crying anddesperate.
And so, you know, one of thethings that I learned is I don't
know how I learned it inmedical school, I must have
learned it some other place butreally to listen to the pain and
to the problems that people aretelling me they have.
(02:42):
And so I started really alifelong investigation of who
are we as women.
Are we this chronological age?
Are we maybe something morethan that which I discovered?
Yes, we can talk about thatlater.
And you know, what were othercountries doing with menopause?
Germany and France were wayahead of the game.
Nika Lawrie (03:03):
Yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (03:04):
I started bringing bioidentical hormones
back from France and it justkept on unraveling.
It's not just the ovary, it'sthe thyroid, it's the adrenals,
it's the inflammation, it's thehigh sugars, it's you know.
So it just yeah, it just is.
Nika Lawrie (03:21):
It's a beautiful integration of the body that we
have these things and I feellike so much of that has been
(03:47):
lost sort of through the schoolbooks and you know, medical
training and those kinds ofthings.
So I'm glad you said thatdefinitely, oh, thank you.
Dr. Prudence Hall (03:51):
Well, I was taught that we were in the art
of medicine.
You know, it was one of the artsand as I became more involved
with it in my residency, Irealized each person is unique
and physiology is different andtheir sensitivities to things is
very different.
Their beliefs as to how theywant their body treated is
different and truly we're giventhis canvas that already has a
(04:14):
lot of color and paint and thenwe interact with that person,
who's either quite formed andevolved or many times very young
and naive about who they areand what their health is about.
Nika Lawrie (04:28):
Yeah, definitely, I think there's.
You know, one of the big thingsI'm really trying to do is
educate women on the optionsthat are out there for their
body so they can make theseinformed decisions on, you know,
what they do want to use andwhat they don't, and how it
impacts their body, and so Ithink you know I love that
you're educating people on thistopic because it's so, so
(04:50):
important and, like you know Isaid at the top of the show,
every woman's going to gothrough this at some point, and
so learning how the body worksis really important for each
person's journey.
Dr. Prudence Hall (04:59):
Yeah, and I think one thing oh, excuse me,
no, no, go ahead.
Oh, I was just in response tothat.
A lot of women feel that you gothrough menopause and then
you're on this other sunny sidewhere there's no menopause.
Yeah, but I explain a lot towomen that once you go into
menopause and the average age is44 to 49, then you stay in
(05:19):
menopause for the rest of yourlife that could be 40, 50 years
feeling most of the symptomsthat you have worsening with
diseases.
And it's only when you correctthe hormones back to more
youthful levels that the bodybecomes youthful again.
So it's really important, Mika,in terms of how we approach
(05:41):
this.
Nika Lawrie (05:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
Can you tell me how did you gofrom kind of this more?
You touched on a little bit,but you really started out in
more of a traditional path inmedicine and then you've really
incorporated regenerativemedicine and more of a holistic
approach.
What did that look like?
(06:02):
How do you start to reallyfocus on regenerative medicine
as a support system formenopause?
Dr. Prudence Hall (06:11):
You know, very, very good question.
So I think that, first of all,having curiosity and a desire to
learn as a lifelong learner isvery important, and I've always
been fairly, even as a child, Iremember my mother would try to
give me, you know, tylenol orsomething like that, and I don't
know, I don't know, you know,and I was kind of worried about
(06:34):
a lot of poisoning and things asa child.
So I must have come in withsome of this knowledge that you
know.
Beware of traditional medicine,because really I simply didn't
partake in traditional medicineat all.
I would, you know, kind of takeherbs or vitamins and things
(06:55):
like that, even when I was quiteyoung.
But what really changed myphilosophy was Jeff Bland.
Jeff Bland is the father, drJeff Bland is the father of
functional medicine and I don'teven know when I did his program
, but it was so many years agothat I was one of about 30
(07:16):
people sitting up in GiggsHarbor learning from the
maestros of how to integratedifferent components of the body
together, and I had to do hisclass twice.
I did it once in Giggs Harborand then once in Santa Monica,
where there were at least athousand people.
I couldn't believe it.
Yeah, I mean, it was like itwas a growing field and I
(07:38):
learned that, in a way, what Isynthesized is there are blocks
of knowledge.
We have the immunology, whichimpacts everything, but that's
affected by inflammation in ourdiet and our lifestyle.
And then we have the genetics.
10% of diseases are genetic.
90% of them that arise arelifestyle.
(07:59):
But you want to know what thosegenetics are so you can respect
them.
And Dr Bland was very big intohis Big Bold Health is his
website, by the way intogenetics and you know what
happens with stress.
I learned all these things thatI wasn't taught in medical
school.
I mean, stress is very, veryimportant, as is inflammation,
(08:20):
as is toxicity.
Well, why do you need todetoxify?
I mean, you know, I'm drinkingregular water and well, because
it causes, it's the root corecause of many diseases.
Nika Lawrie (08:33):
Many, many diseases .
Dr. Prudence Hall (08:34):
Yeah, so functional medicine.
The tree is starting to die.
The leaves are turning brown.
Yeah oh, let's paint the leaves.
Nika Lawrie (08:41):
Yeah, that's such a good way of putting it.
Western medicine yeah, makethem green, that's such a good
way of putting it Westernmedicine.
Dr. Prudence Hall (08:46):
Yeah, you know.
Nika Lawrie (08:47):
Yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (08:47):
And you know, no, you want to water and
nourish and do all that to thetree.
So I really learned a verydifferent way of managing, I
would say more than just health,because part of functional
medicine is the spiritual aspectof people and their belief,
(09:10):
certainly their metabolism andtheir detoxification process and
all of that.
But it was just a miracle.
Thank you, dr Bland.
You know I use it every day andfrom there I went on a
spiritual path.
Nika Lawrie (09:23):
Absolutely, I fully relate to that.
I joke with my mom that, likeDr Mark Hyman, or functional
medicine is the gateway drug tolike this whole holistic
spiritual path of like healingyourself and healing other
people and figuring out, butthere's so much science behind
all of it too.
Like it's not.
You know, it doesn't justbecome kind of this spiritual
(09:44):
thing.
It's like, oh, the science isactually saying we should do
this and not fill our bodiesfull of chemicals and, you know,
fake food and all of thesethings.
Like this approach is prettysimple really.
Dr. Prudence Hall (09:55):
So yeah, yeah , it's amazing and Mark is
terrific.
Yeah, love you, mark.
Love you, mark, I mean hisgrass-fed protein, I would say
four days of five I'm drinking,so he's terrific.
Nika Lawrie (10:11):
Yeah, and I just, yeah, go ahead.
No, no, go ahead.
Oh, I was just.
I just love that he's been ableto bring it to kind of the
forefront, to kind of publicawareness more generalized,
opposed to being in the fringesof health and wellness, right,
right.
Dr. Prudence Hall (10:27):
Well, health and wellness does not belong in
the fringes, it belongs solidlywithin, I would say one foot
solidly in science.
And that's how Dr Bland wouldteach.
You know everything, singlething he said was backed by four
or five different references.
You know solidly in science andalso in the mystic aspects of
our lives.
(10:47):
Yeah, because we don't knowconsciousness.
No one can define it, nobodyactually knows how thoughts are
created in our mind, but fortime infinitum I mean now
currently with Joe Dispenza youknow our thoughts are very, very
important in terms of ourhealth.
Nika Lawrie (11:04):
Yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (11:04):
I mean, you think it, you'll feel it, it'll
become it, yeah, so, but wedon't know much about that.
Yeah, and I talk with peoplewho know a lot about the mind
and how it functions, and thatis very important to understand
that it's not just this.
You know that, it's all of thisMm-hmm Our emotional age, our
(11:28):
biological age, our spiritualage, our chronological age, and
how we address each of thosecomponents.
I mean, people die from grief,oh yeah.
Nika Lawrie (11:35):
Huge yeah All the time.
Yeah, yeah, I love it.
It's such a great way ofpackaging it, definitely so I
want to ask you I want to talk alittle bit about perimetopause
and menopause and you mentionedthat, like once you don't go
through menopause and get to theother side, can you describe
kind of what that journey lookslike, say, from maybe a
(11:57):
35-year-old woman forward for 10or 20 years?
However, you think needs to bepackaged to explain it?
Dr. Prudence Hall (12:06):
So it's important for young women and
we're all young in a way forwomen chronologically younger to
understand that their hormonesstart to decline in their 30s.
That doesn't mean they can'thave a child.
I've delivered many women in mypast who were having babies at
45 and 47, things like that.
(12:26):
But our hormones decline.
So where our estrogen andthat's one of the main ovarian
hormones, along withtestosterone and progesterone.
So when our estrogen starts todecline just a little bit let's
say from you know, maybe day six, at 200 picograms per ml, it
(12:46):
goes to maybe 175 or 160.
And we feel that in our body wefeel more restless.
There's a restlessness, anxietyabout us.
Pms becomes pronounced becausewe have this peak of estrogen
that rises to 300 to 500 aroundovulation time days 11, 12, 13,
(13:11):
sort of like that.
14 or 12, 13, 14 when weovulate, and then it kind of
settles down to around 200.
And right before the period itstarts to decline.
So women in their 30s tell methey have more PMS, they can't
sleep as well, they've gained 10pounds for no reason.
Prudence, I'm exercising, I'meating well, I mean, they tell
(13:33):
me this and it's true, Iabsolutely believe them and they
feel changes in their skin andin their muscle mass.
They have less skin.
They also have a little bitless sexuality which.
I always address with women.
So it's just like, yeah, youknow, I love my husband or my
partner, and now it could bebecause they've just had
(13:55):
children and it takes probablytwo years to recover our
sexuality after having a child.
But these are very big tip-offs.
Get your hormones checked, Seewhere you are, and I use a lot
of herbs with women.
At this stage I useprogesterone.
I used to think that PMS wascaused by a progesterone
(14:18):
deficiency and now I'm sure Imean, having measured hundreds
and hundreds of thousands ofwomen's levels that it's really
estrogen deficiency and maybe alittle bit of progesterone
deficiency.
When the periods start tobecome irregular, that's also a
sign of perimenopause, like, ohyeah, my cycles used to be 30
days apart and now they're 26 or25.
(14:41):
Okay that woman needs someprogesterone to stretch out her
cycle a little bit.
So be aware of that.
Don't chalk it up to stressnecessarily from work or from
being driven crazy by kids.
A lot of women do that.
Oh, it's just outside of me,it's my parents need me, this
(15:01):
needs me.
I mean, look inside, becausethere's both an outside process
which I honor and we can talk alot about that, you know, as
patients and doctors you know orthere's the inside process.
So menopause and perimenopauseis an inside job.
Stress does affect it.
(15:22):
You know we want ovarianpreservation as much as we can
and we can talk about how to dothat a little bit later.
But by 40, most women arereally in perimenopause and
those symptoms can become morechallenging to them.
You know a patient this morning, for example, I saw a new
(15:44):
patient and she told me she saidlook, I have two weeks of PMS.
She was 42,.
Two weeks of PMS.
Maybe I have one good weekduring the entire cycle.
I'm going crazy.
I just I don't want my husbandto touch me and she was quite
deep in menopause.
You know, some of her levelswere like I would say, within a
(16:06):
year of menopause at 42.
I see this all the time.
And then menopause is whenthere is no estrogen, and
testosterone also can becomequite low, as well as
progesterone.
We don't ovulate in menopause,so 44 to 48 or 49.
20 years ago, when I wasactually quite a mature doctor,
(16:31):
by that time I really started torecognize that menopause was
happening younger.
Nika Lawrie (16:38):
Yeah, I was going to ask about that.
Have you seen it shift toyounger ages over the last 20,
30?
Dr. Prudence Hall (16:44):
years, I would say it's shifted to at
least five to 10 years youngerand I think that's due to
toxicity in our environment.
Stress, you know, women are nolonger just workers or mothers.
I mean, we tend to the flock.
Nika Lawrie (17:02):
Everything, yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (17:03):
Everything.
And now, when you add thephones to it and the computers,
and the light flickering and allof that, it really does stress
the body and our hormones arevery sensitive to that yeah, one
(17:29):
of the things I noticed formyself, starting to kind of
transition over the years, wasthis constant feeling of just
overstimulation just over.
Nika Lawrie (17:33):
It was, you know, social media and the news and
just lifestyle and and trafficoutside and everything.
It was just these micro hitsconstantly of information or
stuff that I had to process andit genuinely felt like my body
could not process things fastenough for everything that was
(17:55):
coming at me and it just feltcontinuously overstimulated.
And I think there's a big partof just stress and hormones that
are linked to that.
But it was also just theenvironment that we live in
doesn't give us a break ever.
There is no downtime, there isno disconnect time, and that can
be so damaging to our mentaland physical health, our
(18:18):
emotional health too.
Dr. Prudence Hall (18:20):
That is so true.
Yeah, and we're not sleepingenough.
My patients tell me they sleepsix hours when they're lucky, so
we really need eight to nine.
Yeah, there's variations, youknow.
There are a couple ofvariations, with people who have
specific genes and they cansleep two hours, but most of us
are kind of, you know, eight tonine hours.
(18:40):
And sleep is when the bodydetoxifies itself.
So in this toxic environment wereally need enough sleep, not
digesting our food.
So you eat three to four hoursbefore dinner, four hours before
sleep.
Four hours is better if you can.
So then the body is just freeto detoxify all the stuff that
(19:01):
we have ingested and breathed in.
Yeah, and you know one thingabout menopause is a lot of
women when I see them on theirfirst visit, all the stuff that
we have ingested and breathed in.
Yeah, and you know one thingabout menopause is a lot of
women when I see them on theirfirst visit.
I mean, this was last week thatI actually saw two patients who
were clearly in menopause theirfollicle-stimulating hormone.
One of them was 78 and one ofthem was 60, around 60.
(19:22):
And anything above 20 reallydoes indicate menopause.
That's the brain hormone thatcalls down to the ovary and says
I need more estrogen.
So the higher that number is,you know, the deeper in
menopause you are.
And they both had periods.
One of them had very regularperiods.
It's like, can I talk to youabout menopause Because you're
(19:42):
pretty deep in menopause, andshe said, oh, I can't possibly
be.
I have regular periods.
So that is not a good, reliableway to know if you're in
menopause or not.
Nika Lawrie (19:52):
It's the symptoms, that's what I was going to ask.
What are some reliable factorsor signs that we can look at to
start to understand where wemight be kind of in the journey?
Dr. Prudence Hall (20:04):
Yeah, yeah Well, first of all I want to say
that I didn't recognize my ownperimenopause and so it's harder
for us to see ourselves.
Sometimes people can reflectback to us what they're seeing
if they do it kindly.
But the symptoms are gainingweight.
Women will gain any placebetween 10 and 40 pounds, 30
(20:25):
pounds being average.
But I see women who gain 60 or70 pounds during this time, from
, you know, their mid-30s totheir mid-40s, for example,
feeling anxious and overwhelmed,just like you described, nika.
You know, feeling anxious andfeeling there's increased worry.
Some women tell me I used todrive the freeways and now I
(20:46):
can't.
Or I used to present so easilyto my team and now I'm nervous.
So this anxiety, also less joy,or frank depression.
A lot of women tell me theyjust I don't know.
I don't know what's happened,I'm just depressed.
It's not coming from theoutside, it's like what's
happening in your life.
Yeah, I don't know, there'sjust no joy left.
(21:08):
Hot flashes are common.
A lot of women do notexperience them because
basically you need your adrenalglands to generate a hot flash.
Adrenal glands sit on top ofthe kidneys and they're your
stress glands and when thosebecome deficient, burnout that
you aren't going to reallygenerate a hot flash.
So a lot of women will missmenopause or perimenopause
(21:30):
because they simply don't havehot flashes.
I consider that a ratherominous sign.
Hot flashes generally mean thatyour adrenals are pretty
functional, and then things likebrain fog, gi distress this was
one of the things that Ilearned.
A little later, women would cometo me and say I have GERD and
(21:50):
bloating and I can't digest myfood.
That is a menopausal symptom,for sure, and one of my
menopausal symptoms,perimenopausal symptoms was OCD.
I remember I'm thinking backand a little bit embarrassed
that I used to think that mycharts were dangerous.
I have always had this kind ofparanoia.
So I'd be holding a chart likethis and say, oh, it's dirty, I
(22:14):
put on gloves and I'd walkaround the frigging clinic
wearing my gloves and it's likewait, prudence, you're acting
nuts, what's on?
And so you know all those kindof strange mood things where
you're a little more paranoid,more frightened, more um and
let's see what else.
Nika Lawrie (22:33):
Brain fog I mentioned that yeah, it's funny,
I think, you know I hear somany women so I'm 39 and I have
friends that are in this circleand I hear so many things that
you're saying I've heard friendssay or I've experienced myself,
and I'm like ding, ding, ding.
I'm like, oh, we're probablyall starting to like move into
it and we know time-wise it is.
(22:54):
But it's funny hearing thethings you're saying and I'm
like, yes, all these women arestarting to feel or experience
these things.
Dr. Prudence Hall (23:03):
So, yeah, yeah, we do, and sleeplessness,
of course, is a big one.
I used to be a good sleeper andnow I'm awake at three and I'm
vacuuming the house or I'mreading, or I'm listening to
podcasts, yeah, or yeah, it'sjust light, I'm just tired.
Fatigue, of course, is a hugesymptom of menopause.
(23:23):
I'm tired.
I'm tired in the morning, I'mtired in the afternoon.
Those mean different things,but fatigue is very common.
Nika Lawrie (23:31):
So how do we start addressing that?
Sorry if you could go ahead andshare, oh no, no, no, no.
So how do we start addressingthat?
Before we get into hormonereplacement, are there things
that we can start doing just forourselves at home, like more
natural approaches, simplerthings that we can do to really
support the journey.
Dr. Prudence Hall (23:54):
So it does start with our diet and and with
(24:19):
a functional medicine.
Up at the clinic in GiggsHarbor they would do the
standard I call.
Have been many different dietsbefore, but really understanding
that food is medicine and thatit starts with the diet.
So the diet isanti-inflammatory, so where does
inflammation come from?
Dairy?
Some people react to dairyGluten, which is wheat and all
(24:46):
the.
I mean there's so many productsthat have gluten in them.
You can look it up, but fakecrab was one of the ones that I
wasn't aware of.
Actually it was pure gluten andcouscous, that's pure wheat.
And then eliminating thingssuch as corn, which is fairly
intolerant and allergic topeople, and nightshades.
(25:08):
For some people that would betomatoes, mushrooms uh, eggplant
, things like that.
Also, um, things like, uh well,they're lectins that that are
being spoken about quite a bit.
Um, so, decreasing lectins inour diet.
Well, they're lectins that arebeing spoken about quite a bit.
So, decreasing lectins in ourdiet.
So you go on a pure diet whereall of that is just lifted off
(25:32):
the body for a couple of weeks.
Good, fresh water, good sleep.
Like I mentioned, gentleexercise I never start women
exercising.
I also take care of men inmidlife, but I never start women
exercising when they'reexhausted, because exercise can
be an additional stress.
And then teaching just verysimple relaxation and stress
(25:58):
techniques, such as a big breathin through the nose, hold it
for four seconds, releasingthrough the mouth Now I've
participated in studies wherethat is being measured and three
breaths out eight, to the countof eight, into four and out
(26:20):
eight.
You can do it in different waysDoes incredible things to relax
the stress.
And and so more sleep, purefood, better stress.
Now there's certain supplementsthat are really good and I
don't know if we want to getinto to supplements, but fish
(26:42):
oil omega-3 fish oil is verygood.
Nika Lawrie (26:44):
Yeah, that was actually one I would definitely
have recommended too, yeah.
Yeah, I mean what are someothers that you tend to
recommend?
Dr. Prudence Hall (26:54):
Magnesium Absolutely.
Magnesium is a lifesaver.
And magnesium glycinate atnight, two to 500 milligrams is
wonderful for the brain and alsofor inducing sleep and
relaxation.
Magnesium is used in a thousanddifferent I would say reactions
(27:17):
in our body.
So it's important and there aremany different types of
magnesium, some that bring you alittle bit more awake in the
morning, but magnesium glycinateat night is great.
There's one set of supplementsthat has proven longevity and
that's glucosamine, chondroitin,and so I take that every day.
(27:37):
I take about 1,500 milligrams aday and it has a strong
anti-inflammatory and anti-paineffect.
So when I'm really working outand feel it afterwards, when I'm
taking glucosamine andchondroitin very routinely, I
feel much less pain and muchless inflammation.
(27:59):
Then there's also NAC Much lessinflammation.
Then there's also NAC,n-acetylcysteine.
So NAC I take about 1,800milligrams a day, 900 in the
morning, 900 at night and thatbreaks down into glutathione,
(28:27):
and glutathione is one of thebody's natural antioxidants and
is really a very, very good wayto stop our body from oxidizing.
Now, oxidation is like a nailbeing left outside in the rain
and at rust.
You know we have iron in ourbody in a very wet environment.
Nika Lawrie (28:34):
Inside, I'm told One of my favorite analogies
similar to that is it's like apiece of toast in a toaster and
it's getting golden and thenbrowner and darker and turns to
black and it burns right.
And that's the.
That's our aging process on theinside, oh god that's great,
nika.
Dr. Prudence Hall (28:53):
Yeah, that is , and and that dark stuff is
toxic yeah, it's a carcinogen.
Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah yeah,and resveratrol is great.
I take about a yeah, exactly,and to maintain our endocrine
glands.
Nika Lawrie (29:04):
I think it's so important to note, too, that you
(29:25):
know, a lot of the supplementsthat you recommended are things
that we likely would have gottenfrom food.
You know, a long time ago, whenwe were eating more naturally
and things weren't processed asmuch, but that our diet's gotten
so pitiful here in this countrythat it's really there are many
, many nutrients or vitamins orminerals that we're just not
getting from the food we'reeating, and so we do need to
(29:47):
supplement in certain places,and each person's going to be
different and each person'sneeds are going to be different.
So that's really important toknow, but that you can't just
get it.
From eating even a super clean,super healthy diet, you won't
always get everything that youneed.
Dr. Prudence Hall (30:02):
Even a super clean, super healthy diet, you
won't always get everything thatyou need.
Oh, that's so important.
It's so important and you know,farm to table organic pasture
raised.
You don't necessarily have tobe a vegetarian.
When I was a vegetarian,actually for 20 years my sugar I
(30:25):
revived my, the A1C, thehemoglobin A1C measures.
Four months of sugar damage.
How much damage do I have inour body due to sugar over the
last four months?
And you don't want sugarglomming and covering your cells
because that's toxicity.
And my hemoglobin A1C was 5.8,as a vegetarian, I know.
So I immediately started, youknow, changing.
This was a long time ago.
(30:45):
Yeah, I was 30, you know 25, 30.
But it's you know.
You want to make sure that youdon't have too many
carbohydrates like thatPlant-based.
Plant-based.
The greens, the oranges, thereds the best things to eat in
terms of sugar things areberries, blackberries,
(31:08):
strawberries, blueberries have alittle bit more sugar level,
but still very good.
Maybe an apple now and then.
Nika Lawrie (31:13):
Yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (31:14):
Yeah, I love them.
Yeah, go ahead.
No, no, no, we're both excited.
Nika Lawrie (31:19):
Yeah, well, I was going to say I think you know,
one of the things I see a lotwith women who go vegetarian or
vegan is that they don't getenough protein, and then that
protein will just the lack ofprotein really impacts their
ability to gain and maintainstrong muscles, and then that'll
impact the hormones and itbecomes this whole unhealthy
cycle for them.
(31:39):
And so I think it's reallyimportant that, if people are
going the vegan or vegetarianroutes, to really understand how
to bring in all that protein aswell, right, Well, I was eating
rice with vegetables, pastawith vegetables, potatoes, all
the good starches.
Dr. Prudence Hall (31:57):
Yes, I'm cooking with a vegetarian chef
and it's like like, oh my god,my kids did grow, though.
Yeah is six, six, nine, oh mygoodness, six, five.
So you know, I think.
I think it's important to knowthat water is important.
You know the quality of thewater, so you want to make sure
(32:19):
that it's pure, that you don'tdrink it out of plastic, because
the plastic gets inside of you.
We actually have littleparticles of plastic in our
brains and in our arteries.
This is something that's a verynew exposure for humans to
experience.
Nika Lawrie (32:34):
Yeah, it's huge.
I think you know I'm so excitedto see the education that's
starting to happen around theenvironmental toxin world and
you know plastics and phthalatesand parabens and all these
pieces that are impacting us BPA.
You know everything that'sflooded our personal care or
(32:57):
makeup, our food supplies andhow they're really, really
impacting women's health.
I mean it's having an impact onmales as well.
Especially we're starting tosee that decline in male
fertility.
But the impact on women'soverall health not just
fertility health is massive.
Dr. Prudence Hall (33:17):
Massive, yeah , so it would be nice if we
could create a kind of safe zonearound ourselves.
I remember one study that cameout in Cancer Magazine where
they were saying that one sprainof the house or yard increased
childhood leukemia by 30%.
Wow, I'm not sure where thatdata has gone at this point.
(33:39):
It just you know, one out oftwo people in our lifetime gets
cancer.
And so having a safety bubblearound us clean water, clean air
, good supplements you know youreally can impact your health
with that.
Iodine is very important too.
You know.
Iodine helps the thyroid tostay healthy and to function
(34:03):
well.
Yeah, the amount of iodine thatwe should ingest is you know
that varies a lot.
It goes any place from 12.5milligrams, which is a lot, all
the way down to one or two ormaybe three milligrams a day,
because in order to make athyroid molecule we need four
iodines.
And we can get it through ourdiet, as you said, nika, seaweed
(34:27):
, salads and seafood, but ourdiet is not very high in iodine.
Nika Lawrie (34:32):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Let's transition to hormonereplacement therapy.
I know I've really seen itchange a lot over the last 20
years or so.
I think it's becoming far moreaccepted and women are becoming
aware of it.
The experience I've had with itis I remember being much younger
(34:55):
and my mom starting to gothrough menopause and getting
hormone therapy and this wasgosh, probably 30, 35 years ago,
and she had to fight herdoctors for it.
She had to pay out of pocketfor it.
She had to.
You know, most of her friendsthought she was crazy because
she was going to get cancer fromhaving, you know, adding
(35:17):
estrogen to her body.
Like I remember it just beingthis really big deal and her
telling me make sure you figureout how to do this when you get
older, because it'll change yourtransition, it'll make the
symptoms easier to handle andit'll make your life better.
Going through a menopause andthe conversation with my mom
just always stuck in my head.
(35:37):
And so now I see you know thetherapies being much more common
and accessible, what is yourtake on it?
Dr. Prudence Hall (35:47):
And how have you seen that transition?
Well, this is my professionallife for the rest of it, so I
see it with great love, carrie.
A lot of the burden beenattacked, you know, and now
vindicated.
But I would say that, just toput it in historical perspective
, in the 1940s, first of all, inthe 1920s, nobody had any idea
(36:11):
about hormones.
There wasn't even that name inour vocabulary.
We were still talking aboutethers and things like that.
And then penicillin wasdeveloped in 1920, 1924, around
there 2024.
And then we started to be awarethat women were not doing well
(36:32):
at a certain age it was usuallyin their 50s, and so a lot of
investigation started.
And in the 40s, primarin wascreated.
In the 40s, primarin wascreated.
Now Primarin stands forpregnant, prim mayor horse and
is urine.
So they had tried a lot ofdifferent things to help women
(36:52):
with hot flashes and to feelbetter, and Primarin seemed like
it was the godsend.
And then they started realizingwhoa, we're giving women this
Primarin and they have a lotmore endometrial cancer.
So they came up with aprogesterone.
They still weren't knowing thatmuch about hormones,
progesterone and they createdmedroxyprogesterone or Provera.
(37:14):
Fast forward to 2001,.
They did a big study looking atwomen who are not on hormones,
women who are on primarin alonebecause they'd had a
hysterectomy and they felt likethey didn't need that protection
of Provera.
And then primarin and Provera,and what they found is that the
women who were on primarin andProvera had considerably higher
(37:38):
breast cancer and they you knowthese women also had more
dementia, more heart disease.
It was not helping in thoseareas.
Sometimes it was the same,sometimes it was more, and they
ended up identifying Provera asthe cause of the increased
breast cancer.
Actually, with Primarin, whichthey did, another study in 2020
(38:02):
that was published.
So it was about it was 20 yearslater maybe it was 2021 that it
was published showing thatwomen on Primarin just alone not
the Prevera and women comparedto women who took no estrogen
had significantly less breastcancer.
So that was like, okay, I meannow they proved it.
(38:23):
We knew it for 20 years before,but now they proved it.
But someplace, I would say,around the early 1980s, is when
bioidentical hormones started toreally become more popular Now
in Europe.
I mean, I remember in myresidency which was, you know,
1978, 80, 81, 82 in gynecology,that we were using injections of
(38:49):
estradiol, of estrogen, but itwas clumsy and you'd get these
high levels and then women wouldstart to need it again and so
definitely that technology hadcome in earlier.
It had started coming in in theearly 70s, but having them
available to women started tobecome very popular and, as I
said, the French and the Germanswere quite a bit ahead of us
(39:11):
and I was going back and forthto France a lot during that time
.
So I'd bring them back and trythem because my patients who
were on Primarin, which I'd beentrained with, were not doing
well.
The symptoms weren't relievedand I noticed that they were
starting to get heart diseaseand they had no increased
sexuality and that was a realproblem for some women, and they
(39:37):
also were experiencing brainfog that wasn't clearing,
experiencing brain fog thatwasn't clearing.
But with the bioidenticalhormones those symptoms and the
diseases that arise from thesymptoms of menopause were not
being experienced.
So you know, bioidentical meansexactly the same hormones that
(39:59):
you're making and that I'mmaking.
Thank God women have the samehormones I learned making and
that I'm making.
Thank God women have the samehormones.
I learned pretty quickly thatthe delivery method mattered,
that some women could absorbtransdermal hormones.
I just have a bunch of themhere, you know, because I make
them and tell patients aboutthem every day.
But you know, some womencouldn't really absorb the cream
(40:22):
very well and I started workingwith little trokes that you
would put under your tongue, andthen drops and then vaginal
inserts.
You know, the birth controlpill actually created the
vaginal ring and also we havethat for menopause.
So I was experimenting withlots of different things as they
would become available.
So when I was there, thesethings were not available.
(40:44):
We had Primarin, we had Provera.
Finally, prometrium came in.
I remember that was a very bigday.
Prometrium is a bioidenticalprogesterone made by
pharmaceutical companies,because we were all creating it
as doctors and as compoundingpharmacies.
They were really starting tospring up in the early 80s.
Yeah, and I saw amazing thingsNika, yeah that I've had four
(41:13):
women in my practice have aheart attack Only four.
That's the number one cause ofdeath in women.
Yeah, and they're all alive.
Yeah, they're all great.
That's awesome, yeah.
So I started learning a lotabout the protection and how the
brain was protected byestradiol and the hormones and
(41:34):
the bones.
Gold standard for bone loss andbone loss prevention is
bioidentical estrogen.
And so I just kept adding youknow different types of hormones
.
Testosterone for women isextremely important.
Now, a man I hold in greatesteem, abe Morgenthaler, that I
(41:57):
know and he's a professionalfriend, I really love him went
before the FDA and Congress notlong ago.
He was telling me, presentingwith all the data, that
testosterone was critical forwomen just like it was for men.
He's the father of testosteronetherapy, yeah, and he went with
his Harvard team and I knowsome of that Harvard team.
I mean they have more data thana camel has water in the desert
(42:21):
, but really they snowed themwith data and still testosterone
was not approved for use inwomen.
Now I use it for women.
Almost every woman who's inmenopause has a lower
testosterone and she tells methat she's less confident and
her muscle mass is not buildingand she's losing her bones and
(42:42):
she doesn't have a sex drive andshe can't have orgasms like she
used to and that she just feelsthat her brain is kind of more
circular, less directional, andso testosterone, that's a very
important hormone.
It's exactly the same hormonethat we make.
And then you know there are theother thyroid, t3, t4.
(43:05):
Rather than just usingSynthroid or Levothyroxine,
which is T4, use both of themand I use a product that comes
from New Zealand.
I'm so lucky to have it, newZealand.
It's a porcine glandular and ithas T3, t7, t5, t4, you know.
So it's very, very much likeour own thyroid.
(43:28):
Very much like our own thyroid.
Yeah, so you use thesedifferent hormones D3, that's
not a supplement, that's ahormone.
Nika Lawrie (43:38):
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Prudence Hall (43:39):
You know, when there's a huge epidemic of
low D3 in the United States andaround the world.
I take care of people from allover the world and I used to
think well, some societies aregoing to do much better than us.
You know, with menopausethey're going to be much later
and I've really seen that to betrue.
Nika and D3 levels vitamin D isthe same.
(44:02):
I see it being very low in mostsocieties.
Nika Lawrie (44:06):
Yeah, I think it's just us being endorsed so much
anymore and being covered inclothing, and we just don't have
that same exposure anymore.
Dr. Prudence Hall (44:16):
Yeah, and melanoma is certainly on the
rise.
I know many patients who havehad melanomas and luckily
they're surviving now withinteresting immunotherapy and
things like that.
So pharmaceutical companiesdefinitely have their place.
You know, with some of thesegroundbreaking kinds of
medications they're coming upwith, I don't think that that
(44:39):
should be first line whatsoeverin our way of treating the body.
You know, I mean we're notProzac deficient, you know when
we're depressed, oh yes,deficient.
You know when we're depressed,oh yes your pulse act deficient,
it's you know we're probablywe're serotonin deficient or
dopamine deficient.
(44:59):
So we can supplement with 5-HTPand various other things to
help bring the brain back to amore youthful level and a
healthier level.
Nika Lawrie (45:08):
What are your thoughts between the creams and
the pellets?
Do you have any preferencebetween them, or is it just?
Dr. Prudence Hall (45:14):
person.
Oh yes, so I use five differentmethods for delivering estrogen
and it's not in the birthcontrol pill.
I wish we could talk about that.
I don't know if we'll have time, but please don't use the birth
control pill.
Nika Lawrie (45:27):
Thank you.
I was like we could do a wholeother episode on birth control
if you would like to, because Iwould love to do that.
Dr. Prudence Hall (45:35):
I've never seen hormones as decimated from
anything else is from the birthcontrol pill.
So when I measure women on thebirth control pill, which I've
done hundreds and hundreds,their estradiol levels will be
10, 15, and they have thesymptoms that menopausal women
frequently have they're tired,they're gaining weight, their
brains don't work, they're onAdderall because they have ADHD.
So, anyway, we need estrogenfor our brain.
(45:55):
Dale Bredesen let me just getthis book.
I show it to women all the time.
Dale Bredesen, one of theforemost researchers in brain
health, has told me thankgoodness for prescribing
estrogen.
It is so important for thebrain.
But the birth control pillsuppresses our own natural
estrogen.
Now what was your question?
Nika Lawrie (46:18):
What's your preference between pellets or
creams or injections all thosedifferent options.
Dr. Prudence Hall (46:24):
Yeah.
So testosterone pellets for menwork very well, although there
are so many other ways to get itnow that I don't think it's
necessary really.
But for women, when you use apellet it's gone within three
months.
Testosterone is frequently gonewithin two.
So you have to make a nick inthe skin, you have to insert the
(46:45):
pellet Stereo, strip it down.
And it's not my favorite methodbecause I see the levels,
because I've followed the levelsIn some women.
I have followed them every weekand I remember in the beginning
of this work, when I was doingit, there were patients that I
would follow their hormonelevels every three days because
I was really trying to learn whyisn't this person responding to
(47:09):
what everybody else is?
And I found fascinating thingsfrom that.
But you know it declines.
And then you know I mean mypalate patients would come back
and I'd say, well, let's add alittle cream on the second month
.
And so I like creams, vaginaluse, I like sublingual use with
(47:29):
drops or trokes.
You know the patch.
I use the pharmaceutical patch,I would say, for a third of my
patients because it's covered byinsurance, which is good.
I mean this little thing willcost $50 and you can get two
months out of it, sometimes more.
This little testosterone is$50,.
(47:49):
You'll get four months out ofit usually, but still it's nice
to have it covered by insurance.
And you know people have dogsand little pets, that you know
where it can be absorbed intothe dog skin and that's not good
.
Yeah, children, nursing motherspostpartum depression is due to
low estrogen and so I put a verylow dose patch on those women
(48:11):
and you can't have that near thebaby, but sometimes it just
works better than the creams.
Yeah.
So pellets?
I would say I haven't put apellet in probably in five years
, oh wow, except into men.
Yeah, yeah, see, a lot of timeswe'll fluctuate the hormones.
(48:32):
For example, we'll bring inprogesterone for two weeks out
of the month.
Sometimes we'll stop estrogenfor three days at the end of the
month or decrease that dosethree days at the end of the
month.
It kind of depends on theperson.
With pellets you don't have anyof that flexibility.
Nika Lawrie (48:46):
Yeah, that was.
That was the question I wasgoing to ask.
Is needing that flexibility,depending on how you know where
the woman is in her cycle, oryou know how the hormones are
changing throughout the month,or I mean, gosh, even day to day
it can completely change.
Dr. Prudence Hall (49:02):
So yeah, yeah , yeah, well, jonathan Wright,
who is, who is one of the greatpeople in our field he's a
naturopathic physician and isdefinitely one of the great
people in our field.
He's a naturopathic physicianand is definitely one of the
pioneers in bioidenticalhormones also and he said that
using pellets was a crime.
(49:22):
He basically said it wasimmoral, something like that.
I don't want to misquote him,but he was definitely against it
because there wasn't the kindof flexibility where you could,
you know, I mean, once thepellet is in, it's in, it's in,
yeah, yeah, and you can't haveany flexibility in terms of
cycling or withdrawing hormonesfor a few days or anything like
that.
Nika Lawrie (49:40):
Yeah, that's a very good point.
Yeah, definitely.
Dr. Prudence Hall (49:44):
But some people love them.
You know Some doctors use themsuccessfully.
I who's using bioidenticalhormones.
Oh, thank God.
Nika Lawrie (49:54):
Thank you, you're my colleague Help what the side
effects could be, what thepositive effects can be, so that
the patient, the person who'sactually dealing with it, gets a
very clear picture of what toexpect and how to plan around,
(50:17):
whatever the effects could be.
So yeah, so you wrote a bookRadiant Again and Forever.
Can you talk a little bit?
Just what's in the book?
Why should people check it out,and are there a couple
takeaways that maybe we'd getfrom the book?
Thank, you.
Dr. Prudence Hall (50:36):
I remember writing that book.
I wrote it between the hours ofprobably wrecking my health,
between 10 and 2 am.
Nika Lawrie (50:42):
Those hours you're supposed to be sleeping?
Dr. Prudence Hall (50:44):
Yes, I'm writing another book.
That's very exciting.
It's about remembering livingin the desert and, as a young
doctor, going and doinginternships.
Oh, it's very exciting Cool.
Nika Lawrie (50:56):
Yeah, I can't wait to check that one out this book,
radiant.
Dr. Prudence Hall (50:59):
Suzanne Summers asked me to write the
book.
She said oh nice, I'veinterviewed you enough.
Can you write your own friggingbook?
And I did.
I did.
Yeah, the first book I wrotewas the wrong book.
I gave it to her and she saidPrudence, that's not the book I
told you to write.
She said each chapter must be adifferent hormone analysis with
a different patient.
And so I went back and wrotethat one and she wrote the
(51:20):
forward Takeaways are when youread the book.
It's free.
It's on my website,thehallcentercom.
Nika Lawrie (51:29):
Yeah, yeah, I'll put a link in the show notes.
Dr. Prudence Hall (51:31):
Yeah, so it's free and I wrote it not to make
money from it, but to educatepeople from it.
And the takeaways are you candiagnose yourself in each
chapter.
For example, here's a patientwith low thyroid, here's a
patient with sexual difficulties, here's a patient with terrible
PMS, with menopause, withperimenopause and these are the
(51:54):
solutions at the back of eachchapter how I dealt with that
patient.
Nika Lawrie (51:58):
So you hear her story.
Dr. Prudence Hall (52:00):
You hear a lot of pain.
You really come into my consultroom and you hear the
discussion of how I approach.
You know each patient.
Yeah, and it's a little bit.
You know, women come to mefrequently for menopause, but
frequently they'll just say look, I'm depressed.
Yeah, that's my main symptom.
(52:21):
And so what causes depression?
Well, low estrogen, lowtestosterone, low DHEA, low
pregnenolone.
Those are the adrenals, aborderline low thyroid.
That's a very subtle thing, thethyroid.
And so you know.
But you really start to see whoyou are with these chapters.
And then the last threechapters are about possibility
(52:43):
and purpose for our lives, and Italk about some of the
inspiring women that I've takencare of.
I mean, they're back tothemselves, they're on fire,
they're passionate, they startorphanages and climb big
mountains and write and becomepainters and, oh my God, this is
why I'm still doing this.
Nika Lawrie (53:04):
That's.
I mean, that is my drivingfactor.
Is that when you help womenheal and feel their best, my
driving factors that when youhelp women heal and feel their
best, the things that they cando to make the world a better
place is just, it's inspiring,it's unbelievable and it's just
it's such a magical thing to seehappen.
So I commend you for the bookand for the work you're doing.
I think it's so, so importantand just life-changing for so
(53:26):
many women.
So, thank you.
Dr. Prudence Hall (53:28):
Thank you, and thank you for giving me the
opportunity here to meet your,your families.
Nika Lawrie (53:33):
Absolutely.
Dr. Prudence Hall (53:34):
Yeah, to reach more people.
Nika Lawrie (53:39):
I have one.
I have one last question, for Iguess it's technically two
questions.
But before I get to the verylast question, where can the
listeners find you?
How can they connect with you?
Dr. Prudence Hall (53:48):
Well, they can go to my website, you know,
thehallcentercom.
Or they can go to Dr PrudenceHall MD.
That's the second website Ihave.
I'm on a lot of the socialmedia, so they can go on YouTube
, where we're going to be soon.
Nika Lawrie (54:02):
Perfect, yes.
Dr. Prudence Hall (54:03):
And TikTok is not really where I excel.
No worries On Instagram.
I'm not a great social mediaperson, frankly.
Nika Lawrie (54:18):
I don't think most of us are.
I think it's a required pieceof the business, not necessarily
something that we all love todo, but I think, as long as
there's some good education outthere, that it's important to do
.
Dr. Prudence Hall (54:33):
The world has become so unified in a way I
mean as we're splitting apartlike atoms.
In many parts of the worldthere is a unity of thought and
consciousness that I've noticedin more and more people, so it's
like we're starting to bloomand social media is as bad as it
can be for young kids and youknow where we're being kind of
(54:57):
trained like Pavlov's dogs towant likes and to want things.
It really does spreadinformation in a great way.
You know, medicine's 25 yearsbehind science and behind
studies and that's somethingthat Dr Bland and everyone was
talking about in functionalmedicine that, with all of these
people speaking, big experts.
Nika Lawrie (55:19):
I just had that conversation with a dear friend
of mine the other day.
She has this really cool.
She basically wrote a bookabout this whole idea.
It's relating to physics andmanifestation and stuff like
that.
But there's real science behindit and I was telling her.
I said, you know, in the medicalworld it takes, you know, on
(55:42):
average, 17, you know I heardifferent 17, 20 years, 25 years
for the latest research totrickle down to your general
practitioner.
Like it's.
It's going to take, you know,two decades for your general
practitioner to learn about thelatest technique or latest
information.
But then you go on aninfluencer's podcast and they've
read the research and theyshare it out with millions and
(56:05):
millions of people know withinfive days of that research
coming out right.
Like it's.
This completely different worldand the power that social media
gives us to disseminate thatinformation is incredible.
Hopefully it's used more forgood than bad, but you know
that's still to be decided, butI think using it as a tool for
(56:28):
good is such a great thing bedecided, but I think using it as
a tool for good is such a greatthing.
Dr. Prudence Hall (56:32):
It's wonderful it's wonderful and
yeah, we're lucky.
We're lucky to be born intothis.
We are To this time, Definitelyyeah, this time of change and
change is incredible.
I've been watching a lot ofMichael Singer kind of
reconnecting with Michael Singer.
He did the Untethered Soul, ohyeah, Okay yeah, and I read his
(56:57):
book probably three times yearsago, right, and then I just
reconnected with him.
He was talking about how smallwe are on this planet, floating
in billions of miles, and so whyshould we really expect
everything to show up and pleaseus?
Yeah, so you know this kind ofunderstanding people speaking
this kind of language, whetherit be in scientific terms,
psychological terms, emotionalor spiritual terms, it gets
(57:20):
transmitted, like you said, likerockets around the world.
Yeah, yeah, and it's reallysweet to see how we're all
evolving.
I mean just following Mike alittle bit and seeing what he's
now on to.
Or you know Mark Hyman or JeffBland, or Huberman.
You know all these people.
(57:40):
It's great.
William Lee, he's a good one tofollow, yeah, yeah definitely
Well.
Nika Lawrie (57:46):
Dr Hall, my last question for you today what is
something that you would like toshare to inspire the listeners?
It can be an experience you'vehad something you've learned,
something someone shared withyou, just something you'd like
to leave behind to inspireothers.
Dr. Prudence Hall (58:06):
Wow.
We are each of us.
The full range of possibilityWithin each of us is God.
We are connected, we are thewaves as part of the ocean.
You know, we are the bliss thatis just waiting to be lit and
(58:28):
ignited.
And knowing ourselves, the pathof self-knowledge, the path of
for my path, my path is is oneof devotion as well as the
intellect, but really getting toknow who you are and and
knowing that being is actuallymore important than doing.
(58:50):
And one story that has inspiredme so much is John O'Donohue.
Have you heard of JohnO'Donohue?
Nika Lawrie (58:59):
No, I haven't.
Dr. Prudence Hall (59:01):
Wonderful poet, irish poet, friends with
David White, who's anotherwonderful poet, and he started
out as a not as a monk, what dothey call him as a Catholic
priest.
And he lived in a small townand this is the very beginning
of his career and he would go tothe houses and give the last
rites and he would say I'm hereto perform the last rites.
(59:25):
No, no, it can't be.
Oh well, it is, but I had somuch more to do and I wish I'd
done that.
And why didn't I do this?
And I was so timid and soafraid.
And then they would die and he,you know, tells he's now
(59:45):
deceased, but he would tell thisstory about how person after
person would be dying withregret of the things that they
should have done, and why didn'tthey do it and why were they
afraid?
And why did they, et cetera.
And then the scoundrel of thetown he drank and he danced and
he loved.
He was a Zorba type of a guy,you know Zorba, the Greek type
(01:00:07):
of a guy.
And he got divorced, you knowthat was, he didn't go to church
and the, you know, johnO'Donohue, went to his house and
said my son, it's time to giveyou the last rites.
It is time for you to leave.
He said, ah, I get to meet mymaker.
He has been talking to me forall me life and now I get to
(01:00:28):
meet him.
He said, well, do you haveregrets?
Do you have sorrows?
He said, no, no, I danced andloved and prayed my way through
life, but, son, you never cameto church.
God and I have always beentogether.
And now he will greet me withlove.
And he just smiled and died.
(01:00:48):
And John O'Donohue says lookbrave in your life, do the
impossible, don't be afraid.
Don't need the church or theintermediaries, or your parents
or the society to tell you whatto do.
Be your own brave and strongindividual in love, with a true
(01:01:10):
heart.
Nika Lawrie (01:01:11):
Oh yeah, so beautiful.
It's going to make me tear up.
It's such a good story andsomething I very much believe in
too.
So thank you for sharing that,dr Holly.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, yeah, thank you forcoming on the show and sharing
all your expertise with us too.
I really really appreciate you,so thank you.
Thank you for coming on theshow and sharing all your
expertise with us too.
I really really appreciate you,so thank you.
Dr. Prudence Hall (01:01:32):
Thank you, such a joy.
Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Larie podcast
.
Dr Prudence Hall, welcome tothe show.
I'm so happy to have you heretoday.
Dr. Prudence Hall (00:18):
I'm inspired already.
Thank you for having me.
Nika Lawrie (00:21):
Awesome.
Well, I'm really excited.
I think this is such animportant topic we're going to
talk about, like menopause andperimetopause, and obviously
pretty much every woman goesthrough it.
But I think there's a lot ofmisnomers or misconceptions and
a lot's kind of changed in howwe approach supporting women
(00:42):
going through this process overthe last 10, 20 years or so.
So I'm excited to speak aboutthis with you today.
Dr. Prudence Hall (00:50):
Well, thank you.
It's my passion.
I've done this for four decadesand I'm one of the beloveds of
bioidentical hormones, so I'mvery happy to talk to your
audience and mine about thistopic.
Nika Lawrie (01:03):
Yeah, I'm definitely going to ask you
about your thoughts and hormonesas we go through it.
I think it's such an importantthing that a lot of women don't
even understand or don't evenknow is available to them.
But before we get into that,can you just tell us, tell me, a
little bit about your story?
How did you go from kind oftraditional medicine over to
integrative or regenerativemedicine?
Dr. Prudence Hall (01:22):
Yes, well, I graduated from my residency
program.
I was a resident in gynecologyand obstetrics.
It really wanted the poor LosAngeles hospitals, so we had
many women coming across theborder with no prenatal care and
you know, terrible emergencies.
So I was very well trained.
I mean thank you, thank you,usc, for that knowledge.
I mean thank you, thank you,usc, for that knowledge.
(01:43):
And when I went into privatepractice, like eight years later
, I was ready for anything.
I mean anything.
But my menopausal patientsstarted coming to me and saying
I'm having hot sweats and I'mdesperate and you know all the
symptoms that we'll talk aboutlater, and I didn't know how to
handle them.
Nika, I kind of did what I wastaught to do in my residency.
(02:09):
I'd been in the menopauseclinic, I got the one blood
level, the follicle stimulatinghormone, put them on some
medication and see you in a year.
Nika Lawrie (02:17):
Send them on their way, yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (02:18):
Yeah.
So they came back two monthslater and said ProDens, this is
not working, yeah, crying anddesperate.
And so, you know, one of thethings that I learned is I don't
know how I learned it inmedical school, I must have
learned it some other place butreally to listen to the pain and
to the problems that people aretelling me they have.
(02:42):
And so I started really alifelong investigation of who
are we as women.
Are we this chronological age?
Are we maybe something morethan that which I discovered?
Yes, we can talk about thatlater.
And you know, what were othercountries doing with menopause?
Germany and France were wayahead of the game.
Nika Lawrie (03:03):
Yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (03:04):
I started bringing bioidentical hormones
back from France and it justkept on unraveling.
It's not just the ovary, it'sthe thyroid, it's the adrenals,
it's the inflammation, it's thehigh sugars, it's you know.
So it just yeah, it just is.
Nika Lawrie (03:21):
It's a beautiful integration of the body that we
have these things and I feellike so much of that has been
(03:47):
lost sort of through the schoolbooks and you know, medical
training and those kinds ofthings.
So I'm glad you said thatdefinitely, oh, thank you.
Dr. Prudence Hall (03:51):
Well, I was taught that we were in the art
of medicine.
You know, it was one of the artsand as I became more involved
with it in my residency, Irealized each person is unique
and physiology is different andtheir sensitivities to things is
very different.
Their beliefs as to how theywant their body treated is
different and truly we're giventhis canvas that already has a
(04:14):
lot of color and paint and thenwe interact with that person,
who's either quite formed andevolved or many times very young
and naive about who they areand what their health is about.
Nika Lawrie (04:28):
Yeah, definitely, I think there's.
You know, one of the big thingsI'm really trying to do is
educate women on the optionsthat are out there for their
body so they can make theseinformed decisions on, you know,
what they do want to use andwhat they don't, and how it
impacts their body, and so Ithink you know I love that
you're educating people on thistopic because it's so, so
(04:50):
important and, like you know Isaid at the top of the show,
every woman's going to gothrough this at some point, and
so learning how the body worksis really important for each
person's journey.
Dr. Prudence Hall (04:59):
Yeah, and I think one thing oh, excuse me,
no, no, go ahead.
Oh, I was just in response tothat.
A lot of women feel that you gothrough menopause and then
you're on this other sunny sidewhere there's no menopause.
Yeah, but I explain a lot towomen that once you go into
menopause and the average age is44 to 49, then you stay in
(05:19):
menopause for the rest of yourlife that could be 40, 50 years
feeling most of the symptomsthat you have worsening with
diseases.
And it's only when you correctthe hormones back to more
youthful levels that the bodybecomes youthful again.
So it's really important, Mika,in terms of how we approach
(05:41):
this.
Nika Lawrie (05:42):
Yeah, absolutely.
Can you tell me how did you gofrom kind of this more?
You touched on a little bit,but you really started out in
more of a traditional path inmedicine and then you've really
incorporated regenerativemedicine and more of a holistic
approach.
What did that look like?
(06:02):
How do you start to reallyfocus on regenerative medicine
as a support system formenopause?
Dr. Prudence Hall (06:11):
You know, very, very good question.
So I think that, first of all,having curiosity and a desire to
learn as a lifelong learner isvery important, and I've always
been fairly, even as a child, Iremember my mother would try to
give me, you know, tylenol orsomething like that, and I don't
know, I don't know, you know,and I was kind of worried about
(06:34):
a lot of poisoning and things asa child.
So I must have come in withsome of this knowledge that you
know.
Beware of traditional medicine,because really I simply didn't
partake in traditional medicineat all.
I would, you know, kind of takeherbs or vitamins and things
(06:55):
like that, even when I was quiteyoung.
But what really changed myphilosophy was Jeff Bland.
Jeff Bland is the father, drJeff Bland is the father of
functional medicine and I don'teven know when I did his program
, but it was so many years agothat I was one of about 30
(07:16):
people sitting up in GiggsHarbor learning from the
maestros of how to integratedifferent components of the body
together, and I had to do hisclass twice.
I did it once in Giggs Harborand then once in Santa Monica,
where there were at least athousand people.
I couldn't believe it.
Yeah, I mean, it was like itwas a growing field and I
(07:38):
learned that, in a way, what Isynthesized is there are blocks
of knowledge.
We have the immunology, whichimpacts everything, but that's
affected by inflammation in ourdiet and our lifestyle.
And then we have the genetics.
10% of diseases are genetic.
90% of them that arise arelifestyle.
(07:59):
But you want to know what thosegenetics are so you can respect
them.
And Dr Bland was very big intohis Big Bold Health is his
website, by the way intogenetics and you know what
happens with stress.
I learned all these things thatI wasn't taught in medical
school.
I mean, stress is very, veryimportant, as is inflammation,
(08:20):
as is toxicity.
Well, why do you need todetoxify?
I mean, you know, I'm drinkingregular water and well, because
it causes, it's the root corecause of many diseases.
Nika Lawrie (08:33):
Many, many diseases .
Dr. Prudence Hall (08:34):
Yeah, so functional medicine.
The tree is starting to die.
The leaves are turning brown.
Yeah oh, let's paint the leaves.
Nika Lawrie (08:41):
Yeah, that's such a good way of putting it.
Western medicine yeah, makethem green, that's such a good
way of putting it Westernmedicine.
Dr. Prudence Hall (08:46):
Yeah, you know.
Nika Lawrie (08:47):
Yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (08:47):
And you know, no, you want to water and
nourish and do all that to thetree.
So I really learned a verydifferent way of managing, I
would say more than just health,because part of functional
medicine is the spiritual aspectof people and their belief,
(09:10):
certainly their metabolism andtheir detoxification process and
all of that.
But it was just a miracle.
Thank you, dr Bland.
You know I use it every day andfrom there I went on a
spiritual path.
Nika Lawrie (09:23):
Absolutely, I fully relate to that.
I joke with my mom that, likeDr Mark Hyman, or functional
medicine is the gateway drug tolike this whole holistic
spiritual path of like healingyourself and healing other
people and figuring out, butthere's so much science behind
all of it too.
Like it's not.
You know, it doesn't justbecome kind of this spiritual
(09:44):
thing.
It's like, oh, the science isactually saying we should do
this and not fill our bodiesfull of chemicals and, you know,
fake food and all of thesethings.
Like this approach is prettysimple really.
Dr. Prudence Hall (09:55):
So yeah, yeah , it's amazing and Mark is
terrific.
Yeah, love you, mark.
Love you, mark, I mean hisgrass-fed protein, I would say
four days of five I'm drinking,so he's terrific.
Nika Lawrie (10:11):
Yeah, and I just, yeah, go ahead.
No, no, go ahead.
Oh, I was just.
I just love that he's been ableto bring it to kind of the
forefront, to kind of publicawareness more generalized,
opposed to being in the fringesof health and wellness, right,
right.
Dr. Prudence Hall (10:27):
Well, health and wellness does not belong in
the fringes, it belongs solidlywithin, I would say one foot
solidly in science.
And that's how Dr Bland wouldteach.
You know everything, singlething he said was backed by four
or five different references.
You know solidly in science andalso in the mystic aspects of
our lives.
(10:47):
Yeah, because we don't knowconsciousness.
No one can define it, nobodyactually knows how thoughts are
created in our mind, but fortime infinitum I mean now
currently with Joe Dispenza youknow our thoughts are very, very
important in terms of ourhealth.
Nika Lawrie (11:04):
Yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (11:04):
I mean, you think it, you'll feel it, it'll
become it, yeah, so, but wedon't know much about that.
Yeah, and I talk with peoplewho know a lot about the mind
and how it functions, and thatis very important to understand
that it's not just this.
You know that, it's all of thisMm-hmm Our emotional age, our
(11:28):
biological age, our spiritualage, our chronological age, and
how we address each of thosecomponents.
I mean, people die from grief,oh yeah.
Nika Lawrie (11:35):
Huge yeah All the time.
Yeah, yeah, I love it.
It's such a great way ofpackaging it, definitely so I
want to ask you I want to talk alittle bit about perimetopause
and menopause and you mentionedthat, like once you don't go
through menopause and get to theother side, can you describe
kind of what that journey lookslike, say, from maybe a
(11:57):
35-year-old woman forward for 10or 20 years?
However, you think needs to bepackaged to explain it?
Dr. Prudence Hall (12:06):
So it's important for young women and
we're all young in a way forwomen chronologically younger to
understand that their hormonesstart to decline in their 30s.
That doesn't mean they can'thave a child.
I've delivered many women in mypast who were having babies at
45 and 47, things like that.
(12:26):
But our hormones decline.
So where our estrogen andthat's one of the main ovarian
hormones, along withtestosterone and progesterone.
So when our estrogen starts todecline just a little bit let's
say from you know, maybe day six, at 200 picograms per ml, it
(12:46):
goes to maybe 175 or 160.
And we feel that in our body wefeel more restless.
There's a restlessness, anxietyabout us.
Pms becomes pronounced becausewe have this peak of estrogen
that rises to 300 to 500 aroundovulation time days 11, 12, 13,
(13:11):
sort of like that.
14 or 12, 13, 14 when weovulate, and then it kind of
settles down to around 200.
And right before the period itstarts to decline.
So women in their 30s tell methey have more PMS, they can't
sleep as well, they've gained 10pounds for no reason.
Prudence, I'm exercising, I'meating well, I mean, they tell
(13:33):
me this and it's true, Iabsolutely believe them and they
feel changes in their skin andin their muscle mass.
They have less skin.
They also have a little bitless sexuality which.
I always address with women.
So it's just like, yeah, youknow, I love my husband or my
partner, and now it could bebecause they've just had
(13:55):
children and it takes probablytwo years to recover our
sexuality after having a child.
But these are very big tip-offs.
Get your hormones checked, Seewhere you are, and I use a lot
of herbs with women.
At this stage I useprogesterone.
I used to think that PMS wascaused by a progesterone
(14:18):
deficiency and now I'm sure Imean, having measured hundreds
and hundreds of thousands ofwomen's levels that it's really
estrogen deficiency and maybe alittle bit of progesterone
deficiency.
When the periods start tobecome irregular, that's also a
sign of perimenopause, like, ohyeah, my cycles used to be 30
days apart and now they're 26 or25.
(14:41):
Okay that woman needs someprogesterone to stretch out her
cycle a little bit.
So be aware of that.
Don't chalk it up to stressnecessarily from work or from
being driven crazy by kids.
A lot of women do that.
Oh, it's just outside of me,it's my parents need me, this
(15:01):
needs me.
I mean, look inside, becausethere's both an outside process
which I honor and we can talk alot about that, you know, as
patients and doctors you know orthere's the inside process.
So menopause and perimenopauseis an inside job.
Stress does affect it.
(15:22):
You know we want ovarianpreservation as much as we can
and we can talk about how to dothat a little bit later.
But by 40, most women arereally in perimenopause and
those symptoms can become morechallenging to them.
You know a patient this morning, for example, I saw a new
(15:44):
patient and she told me she saidlook, I have two weeks of PMS.
She was 42,.
Two weeks of PMS.
Maybe I have one good weekduring the entire cycle.
I'm going crazy.
I just I don't want my husbandto touch me and she was quite
deep in menopause.
You know, some of her levelswere like I would say, within a
(16:06):
year of menopause at 42.
I see this all the time.
And then menopause is whenthere is no estrogen, and
testosterone also can becomequite low, as well as
progesterone.
We don't ovulate in menopause,so 44 to 48 or 49.
20 years ago, when I wasactually quite a mature doctor,
(16:31):
by that time I really started torecognize that menopause was
happening younger.
Nika Lawrie (16:38):
Yeah, I was going to ask about that.
Have you seen it shift toyounger ages over the last 20,
30?
Dr. Prudence Hall (16:44):
years, I would say it's shifted to at
least five to 10 years youngerand I think that's due to
toxicity in our environment.
Stress, you know, women are nolonger just workers or mothers.
I mean, we tend to the flock.
Nika Lawrie (17:02):
Everything, yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (17:03):
Everything.
And now, when you add thephones to it and the computers,
and the light flickering and allof that, it really does stress
the body and our hormones arevery sensitive to that yeah, one
(17:29):
of the things I noticed formyself, starting to kind of
transition over the years, wasthis constant feeling of just
overstimulation just over.
Nika Lawrie (17:33):
It was, you know, social media and the news and
just lifestyle and and trafficoutside and everything.
It was just these micro hitsconstantly of information or
stuff that I had to process andit genuinely felt like my body
could not process things fastenough for everything that was
(17:55):
coming at me and it just feltcontinuously overstimulated.
And I think there's a big partof just stress and hormones that
are linked to that.
But it was also just theenvironment that we live in
doesn't give us a break ever.
There is no downtime, there isno disconnect time, and that can
be so damaging to our mentaland physical health, our
(18:18):
emotional health too.
Dr. Prudence Hall (18:20):
That is so true.
Yeah, and we're not sleepingenough.
My patients tell me they sleepsix hours when they're lucky, so
we really need eight to nine.
Yeah, there's variations, youknow.
There are a couple ofvariations, with people who have
specific genes and they cansleep two hours, but most of us
are kind of, you know, eight tonine hours.
(18:40):
And sleep is when the bodydetoxifies itself.
So in this toxic environment wereally need enough sleep, not
digesting our food.
So you eat three to four hoursbefore dinner, four hours before
sleep.
Four hours is better if you can.
So then the body is just freeto detoxify all the stuff that
(19:01):
we have ingested and breathed in.
Yeah, and you know one thingabout menopause is a lot of
women when I see them on theirfirst visit, all the stuff that
we have ingested and breathed in.
Yeah, and you know one thingabout menopause is a lot of
women when I see them on theirfirst visit.
I mean, this was last week thatI actually saw two patients who
were clearly in menopause theirfollicle-stimulating hormone.
One of them was 78 and one ofthem was 60, around 60.
(19:22):
And anything above 20 reallydoes indicate menopause.
That's the brain hormone thatcalls down to the ovary and says
I need more estrogen.
So the higher that number is,you know, the deeper in
menopause you are.
And they both had periods.
One of them had very regularperiods.
It's like, can I talk to youabout menopause Because you're
(19:42):
pretty deep in menopause, andshe said, oh, I can't possibly
be.
I have regular periods.
So that is not a good, reliableway to know if you're in
menopause or not.
Nika Lawrie (19:52):
It's the symptoms, that's what I was going to ask.
What are some reliable factorsor signs that we can look at to
start to understand where wemight be kind of in the journey?
Dr. Prudence Hall (20:04):
Yeah, yeah Well, first of all I want to say
that I didn't recognize my ownperimenopause and so it's harder
for us to see ourselves.
Sometimes people can reflectback to us what they're seeing
if they do it kindly.
But the symptoms are gainingweight.
Women will gain any placebetween 10 and 40 pounds, 30
(20:25):
pounds being average.
But I see women who gain 60 or70 pounds during this time, from
, you know, their mid-30s totheir mid-40s, for example,
feeling anxious and overwhelmed,just like you described, nika.
You know, feeling anxious andfeeling there's increased worry.
Some women tell me I used todrive the freeways and now I
(20:46):
can't.
Or I used to present so easilyto my team and now I'm nervous.
So this anxiety, also less joy,or frank depression.
A lot of women tell me theyjust I don't know.
I don't know what's happened,I'm just depressed.
It's not coming from theoutside, it's like what's
happening in your life.
Yeah, I don't know, there'sjust no joy left.
(21:08):
Hot flashes are common.
A lot of women do notexperience them because
basically you need your adrenalglands to generate a hot flash.
Adrenal glands sit on top ofthe kidneys and they're your
stress glands and when thosebecome deficient, burnout that
you aren't going to reallygenerate a hot flash.
So a lot of women will missmenopause or perimenopause
(21:30):
because they simply don't havehot flashes.
I consider that a ratherominous sign.
Hot flashes generally mean thatyour adrenals are pretty
functional, and then things likebrain fog, gi distress this was
one of the things that Ilearned.
A little later, women would cometo me and say I have GERD and
(21:50):
bloating and I can't digest myfood.
That is a menopausal symptom,for sure, and one of my
menopausal symptoms,perimenopausal symptoms was OCD.
I remember I'm thinking backand a little bit embarrassed
that I used to think that mycharts were dangerous.
I have always had this kind ofparanoia.
So I'd be holding a chart likethis and say, oh, it's dirty, I
(22:14):
put on gloves and I'd walkaround the frigging clinic
wearing my gloves and it's likewait, prudence, you're acting
nuts, what's on?
And so you know all those kindof strange mood things where
you're a little more paranoid,more frightened, more um and
let's see what else.
Nika Lawrie (22:33):
Brain fog I mentioned that yeah, it's funny,
I think, you know I hear somany women so I'm 39 and I have
friends that are in this circleand I hear so many things that
you're saying I've heard friendssay or I've experienced myself,
and I'm like ding, ding, ding.
I'm like, oh, we're probablyall starting to like move into
it and we know time-wise it is.
(22:54):
But it's funny hearing thethings you're saying and I'm
like, yes, all these women arestarting to feel or experience
these things.
Dr. Prudence Hall (23:03):
So, yeah, yeah, we do, and sleeplessness,
of course, is a big one.
I used to be a good sleeper andnow I'm awake at three and I'm
vacuuming the house or I'mreading, or I'm listening to
podcasts, yeah, or yeah, it'sjust light, I'm just tired.
Fatigue, of course, is a hugesymptom of menopause.
(23:23):
I'm tired.
I'm tired in the morning, I'mtired in the afternoon.
Those mean different things,but fatigue is very common.
Nika Lawrie (23:31):
So how do we start addressing that?
Sorry if you could go ahead andshare, oh no, no, no, no.
So how do we start addressingthat?
Before we get into hormonereplacement, are there things
that we can start doing just forourselves at home, like more
natural approaches, simplerthings that we can do to really
support the journey.
Dr. Prudence Hall (23:54):
So it does start with our diet and and with
(24:19):
a functional medicine.
Up at the clinic in GiggsHarbor they would do the
standard I call.
Have been many different dietsbefore, but really understanding
that food is medicine and thatit starts with the diet.
So the diet isanti-inflammatory, so where does
inflammation come from?
Dairy?
Some people react to dairyGluten, which is wheat and all
(24:46):
the.
I mean there's so many productsthat have gluten in them.
You can look it up, but fakecrab was one of the ones that I
wasn't aware of.
Actually it was pure gluten andcouscous, that's pure wheat.
And then eliminating thingssuch as corn, which is fairly
intolerant and allergic topeople, and nightshades.
(25:08):
For some people that would betomatoes, mushrooms uh, eggplant
, things like that.
Also, um, things like, uh well,they're lectins that that are
being spoken about quite a bit.
Um, so, decreasing lectins inour diet.
Well, they're lectins that arebeing spoken about quite a bit.
So, decreasing lectins in ourdiet.
So you go on a pure diet whereall of that is just lifted off
(25:32):
the body for a couple of weeks.
Good, fresh water, good sleep.
Like I mentioned, gentleexercise I never start women
exercising.
I also take care of men inmidlife, but I never start women
exercising when they'reexhausted, because exercise can
be an additional stress.
And then teaching just verysimple relaxation and stress
(25:58):
techniques, such as a big breathin through the nose, hold it
for four seconds, releasingthrough the mouth Now I've
participated in studies wherethat is being measured and three
breaths out eight, to the countof eight, into four and out
(26:20):
eight.
You can do it in different waysDoes incredible things to relax
the stress.
And and so more sleep, purefood, better stress.
Now there's certain supplementsthat are really good and I
don't know if we want to getinto to supplements, but fish
(26:42):
oil omega-3 fish oil is verygood.
Nika Lawrie (26:44):
Yeah, that was actually one I would definitely
have recommended too, yeah.
Yeah, I mean what are someothers that you tend to
recommend?
Dr. Prudence Hall (26:54):
Magnesium Absolutely.
Magnesium is a lifesaver.
And magnesium glycinate atnight, two to 500 milligrams is
wonderful for the brain and alsofor inducing sleep and
relaxation.
Magnesium is used in a thousanddifferent I would say reactions
(27:17):
in our body.
So it's important and there aremany different types of
magnesium, some that bring you alittle bit more awake in the
morning, but magnesium glycinateat night is great.
There's one set of supplementsthat has proven longevity and
that's glucosamine, chondroitin,and so I take that every day.
(27:37):
I take about 1,500 milligrams aday and it has a strong
anti-inflammatory and anti-paineffect.
So when I'm really working outand feel it afterwards, when I'm
taking glucosamine andchondroitin very routinely, I
feel much less pain and muchless inflammation.
(27:59):
Then there's also NAC Much lessinflammation.
Then there's also NAC,n-acetylcysteine.
So NAC I take about 1,800milligrams a day, 900 in the
morning, 900 at night and thatbreaks down into glutathione,
(28:27):
and glutathione is one of thebody's natural antioxidants and
is really a very, very good wayto stop our body from oxidizing.
Now, oxidation is like a nailbeing left outside in the rain
and at rust.
You know we have iron in ourbody in a very wet environment.
Nika Lawrie (28:34):
Inside, I'm told One of my favorite analogies
similar to that is it's like apiece of toast in a toaster and
it's getting golden and thenbrowner and darker and turns to
black and it burns right.
And that's the.
That's our aging process on theinside, oh god that's great,
nika.
Dr. Prudence Hall (28:53):
Yeah, that is , and and that dark stuff is
toxic yeah, it's a carcinogen.
Yeah, yeah, exactly yeah yeah,and resveratrol is great.
I take about a yeah, exactly,and to maintain our endocrine
glands.
Nika Lawrie (29:04):
I think it's so important to note, too, that you
(29:25):
know, a lot of the supplementsthat you recommended are things
that we likely would have gottenfrom food.
You know, a long time ago, whenwe were eating more naturally
and things weren't processed asmuch, but that our diet's gotten
so pitiful here in this countrythat it's really there are many
, many nutrients or vitamins orminerals that we're just not
getting from the food we'reeating, and so we do need to
(29:47):
supplement in certain places,and each person's going to be
different and each person'sneeds are going to be different.
So that's really important toknow, but that you can't just
get it.
From eating even a super clean,super healthy diet, you won't
always get everything that youneed.
Dr. Prudence Hall (30:02):
Even a super clean, super healthy diet, you
won't always get everything thatyou need.
Oh, that's so important.
It's so important and you know,farm to table organic pasture
raised.
You don't necessarily have tobe a vegetarian.
When I was a vegetarian,actually for 20 years my sugar I
(30:25):
revived my, the A1C, thehemoglobin A1C measures.
Four months of sugar damage.
How much damage do I have inour body due to sugar over the
last four months?
And you don't want sugarglomming and covering your cells
because that's toxicity.
And my hemoglobin A1C was 5.8,as a vegetarian, I know.
So I immediately started, youknow, changing.
This was a long time ago.
(30:45):
Yeah, I was 30, you know 25, 30.
But it's you know.
You want to make sure that youdon't have too many
carbohydrates like thatPlant-based.
Plant-based.
The greens, the oranges, thereds the best things to eat in
terms of sugar things areberries, blackberries,
(31:08):
strawberries, blueberries have alittle bit more sugar level,
but still very good.
Maybe an apple now and then.
Nika Lawrie (31:13):
Yeah.
Dr. Prudence Hall (31:14):
Yeah, I love them.
Yeah, go ahead.
No, no, no, we're both excited.
Nika Lawrie (31:19):
Yeah, well, I was going to say I think you know,
one of the things I see a lotwith women who go vegetarian or
vegan is that they don't getenough protein, and then that
protein will just the lack ofprotein really impacts their
ability to gain and maintainstrong muscles, and then that'll
impact the hormones and itbecomes this whole unhealthy
cycle for them.
(31:39):
And so I think it's reallyimportant that, if people are
going the vegan or vegetarianroutes, to really understand how
to bring in all that protein aswell, right, Well, I was eating
rice with vegetables, pastawith vegetables, potatoes, all
the good starches.
Dr. Prudence Hall (31:57):
Yes, I'm cooking with a vegetarian chef
and it's like like, oh my god,my kids did grow, though.
Yeah is six, six, nine, oh mygoodness, six, five.
So you know, I think.
I think it's important to knowthat water is important.
You know the quality of thewater, so you want to make sure
(32:19):
that it's pure, that you don'tdrink it out of plastic, because
the plastic gets inside of you.
We actually have littleparticles of plastic in our
brains and in our arteries.
This is something that's a verynew exposure for humans to
experience.
Nika Lawrie (32:34):
Yeah, it's huge.
I think you know I'm so excitedto see the education that's
starting to happen around theenvironmental toxin world and
you know plastics and phthalatesand parabens and all these
pieces that are impacting us BPA.
You know everything that'sflooded our personal care or
(32:57):
makeup, our food supplies andhow they're really, really
impacting women's health.
I mean it's having an impact onmales as well.
Especially we're starting tosee that decline in male
fertility.
But the impact on women'soverall health not just
fertility health is massive.
Dr. Prudence Hall (33:17):
Massive, yeah , so it would be nice if we
could create a kind of safe zonearound ourselves.
I remember one study that cameout in Cancer Magazine where
they were saying that one sprainof the house or yard increased
childhood leukemia by 30%.
Wow, I'm not sure where thatdata has gone at this point.
(33:39):
It just you know, one out oftwo people in our lifetime gets
cancer.
And so having a safety bubblearound us clean water, clean air
, good supplements you know youreally can impact your health
with that.
Iodine is very important too.
You know.
Iodine helps the thyroid tostay healthy and to function
(34:03):
well.
Yeah, the amount of iodine thatwe should ingest is you know
that varies a lot.
It goes any place from 12.5milligrams, which is a lot, all
the way down to one or two ormaybe three milligrams a day,
because in order to make athyroid molecule we need four
iodines.
And we can get it through ourdiet, as you said, nika, seaweed
(34:27):
, salads and seafood, but ourdiet is not very high in iodine.
Nika Lawrie (34:32):
Yeah, yeah, definitely.
Let's transition to hormonereplacement therapy.
I know I've really seen itchange a lot over the last 20
years or so.
I think it's becoming far moreaccepted and women are becoming
aware of it.
The experience I've had with itis I remember being much younger
(34:55):
and my mom starting to gothrough menopause and getting
hormone therapy and this wasgosh, probably 30, 35 years ago,
and she had to fight herdoctors for it.
She had to pay out of pocketfor it.
She had to.
You know, most of her friendsthought she was crazy because
she was going to get cancer fromhaving, you know, adding
(35:17):
estrogen to her body.
Like I remember it just beingthis really big deal and her
telling me make sure you figureout how to do this when you get
older, because it'll change yourtransition, it'll make the
symptoms easier to handle andit'll make your life better.
Going through a menopause andthe conversation with my mom
just always stuck in my head.
(35:37):
And so now I see you know thetherapies being much more common
and accessible, what is yourtake on it?
Dr. Prudence Hall (35:47):
And how have you seen that transition?
Well, this is my professionallife for the rest of it, so I
see it with great love, carrie.
A lot of the burden beenattacked, you know, and now
vindicated.
But I would say that, just toput it in historical perspective
, in the 1940s, first of all, inthe 1920s, nobody had any idea
(36:11):
about hormones.
There wasn't even that name inour vocabulary.
We were still talking aboutethers and things like that.
And then penicillin wasdeveloped in 1920, 1924, around
there 2024.
And then we started to be awarethat women were not doing well
(36:32):
at a certain age it was usuallyin their 50s, and so a lot of
investigation started.
And in the 40s, primarin wascreated.
In the 40s, primarin wascreated.
Now Primarin stands forpregnant, prim mayor horse and
is urine.
So they had tried a lot ofdifferent things to help women
(36:52):
with hot flashes and to feelbetter, and Primarin seemed like
it was the godsend.
And then they started realizingwhoa, we're giving women this
Primarin and they have a lotmore endometrial cancer.
So they came up with aprogesterone.
They still weren't knowing thatmuch about hormones,
progesterone and they createdmedroxyprogesterone or Provera.
(37:14):
Fast forward to 2001,.
They did a big study looking atwomen who are not on hormones,
women who are on primarin alonebecause they'd had a
hysterectomy and they felt likethey didn't need that protection
of Provera.
And then primarin and Provera,and what they found is that the
women who were on primarin andProvera had considerably higher
(37:38):
breast cancer and they you knowthese women also had more
dementia, more heart disease.
It was not helping in thoseareas.
Sometimes it was the same,sometimes it was more, and they
ended up identifying Provera asthe cause of the increased
breast cancer.
Actually, with Primarin, whichthey did, another study in 2020
(38:02):
that was published.
So it was about it was 20 yearslater maybe it was 2021 that it
was published showing thatwomen on Primarin just alone not
the Prevera and women comparedto women who took no estrogen
had significantly less breastcancer.
So that was like, okay, I meannow they proved it.
(38:23):
We knew it for 20 years before,but now they proved it.
But someplace, I would say,around the early 1980s, is when
bioidentical hormones started toreally become more popular Now
in Europe.
I mean, I remember in myresidency which was, you know,
1978, 80, 81, 82 in gynecology,that we were using injections of
(38:49):
estradiol, of estrogen, but itwas clumsy and you'd get these
high levels and then women wouldstart to need it again and so
definitely that technology hadcome in earlier.
It had started coming in in theearly 70s, but having them
available to women started tobecome very popular and, as I
said, the French and the Germanswere quite a bit ahead of us
(39:11):
and I was going back and forthto France a lot during that time
.
So I'd bring them back and trythem because my patients who
were on Primarin, which I'd beentrained with, were not doing
well.
The symptoms weren't relievedand I noticed that they were
starting to get heart diseaseand they had no increased
sexuality and that was a realproblem for some women, and they
(39:37):
also were experiencing brainfog that wasn't clearing,
experiencing brain fog thatwasn't clearing.
But with the bioidenticalhormones those symptoms and the
diseases that arise from thesymptoms of menopause were not
being experienced.
So you know, bioidentical meansexactly the same hormones that
(39:59):
you're making and that I'mmaking.
Thank God women have the samehormones I learned making and
that I'm making.
Thank God women have the samehormones.
I learned pretty quickly thatthe delivery method mattered,
that some women could absorbtransdermal hormones.
I just have a bunch of themhere, you know, because I make
them and tell patients aboutthem every day.
But you know, some womencouldn't really absorb the cream
(40:22):
very well and I started workingwith little trokes that you
would put under your tongue, andthen drops and then vaginal
inserts.
You know, the birth controlpill actually created the
vaginal ring and also we havethat for menopause.
So I was experimenting withlots of different things as they
would become available.
So when I was there, thesethings were not available.
(40:44):
We had Primarin, we had Provera.
Finally, prometrium came in.
I remember that was a very bigday.
Prometrium is a bioidenticalprogesterone made by
pharmaceutical companies,because we were all creating it
as doctors and as compoundingpharmacies.
They were really starting tospring up in the early 80s.
Yeah, and I saw amazing thingsNika, yeah that I've had four
(41:13):
women in my practice have aheart attack Only four.
That's the number one cause ofdeath in women.
Yeah, and they're all alive.
Yeah, they're all great.
That's awesome, yeah.
So I started learning a lotabout the protection and how the
brain was protected byestradiol and the hormones and
(41:34):
the bones.
Gold standard for bone loss andbone loss prevention is
bioidentical estrogen.
And so I just kept adding youknow different types of hormones
.
Testosterone for women isextremely important.
Now, a man I hold in greatesteem, abe Morgenthaler, that I
(41:57):
know and he's a professionalfriend, I really love him went
before the FDA and Congress notlong ago.
He was telling me, presentingwith all the data, that
testosterone was critical forwomen just like it was for men.
He's the father of testosteronetherapy, yeah, and he went with
his Harvard team and I knowsome of that Harvard team.
I mean they have more data thana camel has water in the desert
(42:21):
, but really they snowed themwith data and still testosterone
was not approved for use inwomen.
Now I use it for women.
Almost every woman who's inmenopause has a lower
testosterone and she tells methat she's less confident and
her muscle mass is not buildingand she's losing her bones and
(42:42):
she doesn't have a sex drive andshe can't have orgasms like she
used to and that she just feelsthat her brain is kind of more
circular, less directional, andso testosterone, that's a very
important hormone.
It's exactly the same hormonethat we make.
And then you know there are theother thyroid, t3, t4.
(43:05):
Rather than just usingSynthroid or Levothyroxine,
which is T4, use both of themand I use a product that comes
from New Zealand.
I'm so lucky to have it, newZealand.
It's a porcine glandular and ithas T3, t7, t5, t4, you know.
So it's very, very much likeour own thyroid.
(43:28):
Very much like our own thyroid.
Yeah, so you use thesedifferent hormones D3, that's
not a supplement, that's ahormone.
Nika Lawrie (43:38):
Mm-hmm.
Dr. Prudence Hall (43:39):
You know, when there's a huge epidemic of
low D3 in the United States andaround the world.
I take care of people from allover the world and I used to
think well, some societies aregoing to do much better than us.
You know, with menopausethey're going to be much later
and I've really seen that to betrue.
Nika and D3 levels vitamin D isthe same.
(44:02):
I see it being very low in mostsocieties.
Nika Lawrie (44:06):
Yeah, I think it's just us being endorsed so much
anymore and being covered inclothing, and we just don't have
that same exposure anymore.
Dr. Prudence Hall (44:16):
Yeah, and melanoma is certainly on the
rise.
I know many patients who havehad melanomas and luckily
they're surviving now withinteresting immunotherapy and
things like that.
So pharmaceutical companiesdefinitely have their place.
You know, with some of thesegroundbreaking kinds of
medications they're coming upwith, I don't think that that
(44:39):
should be first line whatsoeverin our way of treating the body.
You know, I mean we're notProzac deficient, you know when
we're depressed, oh yes,deficient.
You know when we're depressed,oh yes your pulse act deficient,
it's you know we're probablywe're serotonin deficient or
dopamine deficient.
(44:59):
So we can supplement with 5-HTPand various other things to
help bring the brain back to amore youthful level and a
healthier level.
Nika Lawrie (45:08):
What are your thoughts between the creams and
the pellets?
Do you have any preferencebetween them, or is it just?
Dr. Prudence Hall (45:14):
person.
Oh yes, so I use five differentmethods for delivering estrogen
and it's not in the birthcontrol pill.
I wish we could talk about that.
I don't know if we'll have time, but please don't use the birth
control pill.
Nika Lawrie (45:27):
Thank you.
I was like we could do a wholeother episode on birth control
if you would like to, because Iwould love to do that.
Dr. Prudence Hall (45:35):
I've never seen hormones as decimated from
anything else is from the birthcontrol pill.
So when I measure women on thebirth control pill, which I've
done hundreds and hundreds,their estradiol levels will be
10, 15, and they have thesymptoms that menopausal women
frequently have they're tired,they're gaining weight, their
brains don't work, they're onAdderall because they have ADHD.
So, anyway, we need estrogenfor our brain.
(45:55):
Dale Bredesen let me just getthis book.
I show it to women all the time.
Dale Bredesen, one of theforemost researchers in brain
health, has told me thankgoodness for prescribing
estrogen.
It is so important for thebrain.
But the birth control pillsuppresses our own natural
estrogen.
Now what was your question?
Nika Lawrie (46:18):
What's your preference between pellets or
creams or injections all thosedifferent options.
Dr. Prudence Hall (46:24):
Yeah.
So testosterone pellets for menwork very well, although there
are so many other ways to get itnow that I don't think it's
necessary really.
But for women, when you use apellet it's gone within three
months.
Testosterone is frequently gonewithin two.
So you have to make a nick inthe skin, you have to insert the
(46:45):
pellet Stereo, strip it down.
And it's not my favorite methodbecause I see the levels,
because I've followed the levelsIn some women.
I have followed them every weekand I remember in the beginning
of this work, when I was doingit, there were patients that I
would follow their hormonelevels every three days because
I was really trying to learn whyisn't this person responding to
(47:09):
what everybody else is?
And I found fascinating thingsfrom that.
But you know it declines.
And then you know I mean mypalate patients would come back
and I'd say, well, let's add alittle cream on the second month
.
And so I like creams, vaginaluse, I like sublingual use with
(47:29):
drops or trokes.
You know the patch.
I use the pharmaceutical patch,I would say, for a third of my
patients because it's covered byinsurance, which is good.
I mean this little thing willcost $50 and you can get two
months out of it, sometimes more.
This little testosterone is$50,.
(47:49):
You'll get four months out ofit usually, but still it's nice
to have it covered by insurance.
And you know people have dogsand little pets, that you know
where it can be absorbed intothe dog skin and that's not good
.
Yeah, children, nursing motherspostpartum depression is due to
low estrogen and so I put a verylow dose patch on those women
(48:11):
and you can't have that near thebaby, but sometimes it just
works better than the creams.
Yeah.
So pellets?
I would say I haven't put apellet in probably in five years
, oh wow, except into men.
Yeah, yeah, see, a lot of timeswe'll fluctuate the hormones.
(48:32):
For example, we'll bring inprogesterone for two weeks out
of the month.
Sometimes we'll stop estrogenfor three days at the end of the
month or decrease that dosethree days at the end of the
month.
It kind of depends on theperson.
With pellets you don't have anyof that flexibility.
Nika Lawrie (48:46):
Yeah, that was.
That was the question I wasgoing to ask.
Is needing that flexibility,depending on how you know where
the woman is in her cycle, oryou know how the hormones are
changing throughout the month,or I mean, gosh, even day to day
it can completely change.
Dr. Prudence Hall (49:02):
So yeah, yeah , yeah, well, jonathan Wright,
who is, who is one of the greatpeople in our field he's a
naturopathic physician and isdefinitely one of the great
people in our field.
He's a naturopathic physicianand is definitely one of the
pioneers in bioidenticalhormones also and he said that
using pellets was a crime.
(49:22):
He basically said it wasimmoral, something like that.
I don't want to misquote him,but he was definitely against it
because there wasn't the kindof flexibility where you could,
you know, I mean, once thepellet is in, it's in, it's in,
yeah, yeah, and you can't haveany flexibility in terms of
cycling or withdrawing hormonesfor a few days or anything like
that.
Nika Lawrie (49:40):
Yeah, that's a very good point.
Yeah, definitely.
Dr. Prudence Hall (49:44):
But some people love them.
You know Some doctors use themsuccessfully.
I who's using bioidenticalhormones.
Oh, thank God.
Nika Lawrie (49:54):
Thank you, you're my colleague Help what the side
effects could be, what thepositive effects can be, so that
the patient, the person who'sactually dealing with it, gets a
very clear picture of what toexpect and how to plan around,
(50:17):
whatever the effects could be.
So yeah, so you wrote a bookRadiant Again and Forever.
Can you talk a little bit?
Just what's in the book?
Why should people check it out,and are there a couple
takeaways that maybe we'd getfrom the book?
Thank, you.
Dr. Prudence Hall (50:36):
I remember writing that book.
I wrote it between the hours ofprobably wrecking my health,
between 10 and 2 am.
Nika Lawrie (50:42):
Those hours you're supposed to be sleeping?
Dr. Prudence Hall (50:44):
Yes, I'm writing another book.
That's very exciting.
It's about remembering livingin the desert and, as a young
doctor, going and doinginternships.
Oh, it's very exciting Cool.
Nika Lawrie (50:56):
Yeah, I can't wait to check that one out this book,
radiant.
Dr. Prudence Hall (50:59):
Suzanne Summers asked me to write the
book.
She said oh nice, I'veinterviewed you enough.
Can you write your own friggingbook?
And I did.
I did.
Yeah, the first book I wrotewas the wrong book.
I gave it to her and she saidPrudence, that's not the book I
told you to write.
She said each chapter must be adifferent hormone analysis with
a different patient.
And so I went back and wrotethat one and she wrote the
(51:20):
forward Takeaways are when youread the book.
It's free.
It's on my website,thehallcentercom.
Nika Lawrie (51:29):
Yeah, yeah, I'll put a link in the show notes.
Dr. Prudence Hall (51:31):
Yeah, so it's free and I wrote it not to make
money from it, but to educatepeople from it.
And the takeaways are you candiagnose yourself in each
chapter.
For example, here's a patientwith low thyroid, here's a
patient with sexual difficulties, here's a patient with terrible
PMS, with menopause, withperimenopause and these are the
(51:54):
solutions at the back of eachchapter how I dealt with that
patient.
Nika Lawrie (51:58):
So you hear her story.
Dr. Prudence Hall (52:00):
You hear a lot of pain.
You really come into my consultroom and you hear the
discussion of how I approach.
You know each patient.
Yeah, and it's a little bit.
You know, women come to mefrequently for menopause, but
frequently they'll just say look, I'm depressed.
Yeah, that's my main symptom.
(52:21):
And so what causes depression?
Well, low estrogen, lowtestosterone, low DHEA, low
pregnenolone.
Those are the adrenals, aborderline low thyroid.
That's a very subtle thing, thethyroid.
And so you know.
But you really start to see whoyou are with these chapters.
And then the last threechapters are about possibility
(52:43):
and purpose for our lives, and Italk about some of the
inspiring women that I've takencare of.
I mean, they're back tothemselves, they're on fire,
they're passionate, they startorphanages and climb big
mountains and write and becomepainters and, oh my God, this is
why I'm still doing this.
Nika Lawrie (53:04):
That's.
I mean, that is my drivingfactor.
Is that when you help womenheal and feel their best, my
driving factors that when youhelp women heal and feel their
best, the things that they cando to make the world a better
place is just, it's inspiring,it's unbelievable and it's just
it's such a magical thing to seehappen.
So I commend you for the bookand for the work you're doing.
I think it's so, so importantand just life-changing for so
(53:26):
many women.
So, thank you.
Dr. Prudence Hall (53:28):
Thank you, and thank you for giving me the
opportunity here to meet your,your families.
Nika Lawrie (53:33):
Absolutely.
Dr. Prudence Hall (53:34):
Yeah, to reach more people.
Nika Lawrie (53:39):
I have one.
I have one last question, for Iguess it's technically two
questions.
But before I get to the verylast question, where can the
listeners find you?
How can they connect with you?
Dr. Prudence Hall (53:48):
Well, they can go to my website, you know,
thehallcentercom.
Or they can go to Dr PrudenceHall MD.
That's the second website Ihave.
I'm on a lot of the socialmedia, so they can go on YouTube
, where we're going to be soon.
Nika Lawrie (54:02):
Perfect, yes.
Dr. Prudence Hall (54:03):
And TikTok is not really where I excel.
No worries On Instagram.
I'm not a great social mediaperson, frankly.
Nika Lawrie (54:18):
I don't think most of us are.
I think it's a required pieceof the business, not necessarily
something that we all love todo, but I think, as long as
there's some good education outthere, that it's important to do
.
Dr. Prudence Hall (54:33):
The world has become so unified in a way I
mean as we're splitting apartlike atoms.
In many parts of the worldthere is a unity of thought and
consciousness that I've noticedin more and more people, so it's
like we're starting to bloomand social media is as bad as it
can be for young kids and youknow where we're being kind of
(54:57):
trained like Pavlov's dogs towant likes and to want things.
It really does spreadinformation in a great way.
You know, medicine's 25 yearsbehind science and behind
studies and that's somethingthat Dr Bland and everyone was
talking about in functionalmedicine that, with all of these
people speaking, big experts.
Nika Lawrie (55:19):
I just had that conversation with a dear friend
of mine the other day.
She has this really cool.
She basically wrote a bookabout this whole idea.
It's relating to physics andmanifestation and stuff like
that.
But there's real science behindit and I was telling her.
I said, you know, in the medicalworld it takes, you know, on
(55:42):
average, 17, you know I heardifferent 17, 20 years, 25 years
for the latest research totrickle down to your general
practitioner.
Like it's.
It's going to take, you know,two decades for your general
practitioner to learn about thelatest technique or latest
information.
But then you go on aninfluencer's podcast and they've
read the research and theyshare it out with millions and
(56:05):
millions of people know withinfive days of that research
coming out right.
Like it's.
This completely different worldand the power that social media
gives us to disseminate thatinformation is incredible.
Hopefully it's used more forgood than bad, but you know
that's still to be decided, butI think using it as a tool for
(56:28):
good is such a great thing bedecided, but I think using it as
a tool for good is such a greatthing.
Dr. Prudence Hall (56:32):
It's wonderful it's wonderful and
yeah, we're lucky.
We're lucky to be born intothis.
We are To this time, Definitelyyeah, this time of change and
change is incredible.
I've been watching a lot ofMichael Singer kind of
reconnecting with Michael Singer.
He did the Untethered Soul, ohyeah, Okay yeah, and I read his
(56:57):
book probably three times yearsago, right, and then I just
reconnected with him.
He was talking about how smallwe are on this planet, floating
in billions of miles, and so whyshould we really expect
everything to show up and pleaseus?
Yeah, so you know this kind ofunderstanding people speaking
this kind of language, whetherit be in scientific terms,
psychological terms, emotionalor spiritual terms, it gets
(57:20):
transmitted, like you said, likerockets around the world.
Yeah, yeah, and it's reallysweet to see how we're all
evolving.
I mean just following Mike alittle bit and seeing what he's
now on to.
Or you know Mark Hyman or JeffBland, or Huberman.
You know all these people.
(57:40):
It's great.
William Lee, he's a good one tofollow, yeah, yeah definitely
Well.
Nika Lawrie (57:46):
Dr Hall, my last question for you today what is
something that you would like toshare to inspire the listeners?
It can be an experience you'vehad something you've learned,
something someone shared withyou, just something you'd like
to leave behind to inspireothers.
Dr. Prudence Hall (58:06):
Wow.
We are each of us.
The full range of possibilityWithin each of us is God.
We are connected, we are thewaves as part of the ocean.
You know, we are the bliss thatis just waiting to be lit and
(58:28):
ignited.
And knowing ourselves, the pathof self-knowledge, the path of
for my path, my path is is oneof devotion as well as the
intellect, but really getting toknow who you are and and
knowing that being is actuallymore important than doing.
(58:50):
And one story that has inspiredme so much is John O'Donohue.
Have you heard of JohnO'Donohue?
Nika Lawrie (58:59):
No, I haven't.
Dr. Prudence Hall (59:01):
Wonderful poet, irish poet, friends with
David White, who's anotherwonderful poet, and he started
out as a not as a monk, what dothey call him as a Catholic
priest.
And he lived in a small townand this is the very beginning
of his career and he would go tothe houses and give the last
rites and he would say I'm hereto perform the last rites.
(59:25):
No, no, it can't be.
Oh well, it is, but I had somuch more to do and I wish I'd
done that.
And why didn't I do this?
And I was so timid and soafraid.
And then they would die and he,you know, tells he's now
(59:45):
deceased, but he would tell thisstory about how person after
person would be dying withregret of the things that they
should have done, and why didn'tthey do it and why were they
afraid?
And why did they, et cetera.
And then the scoundrel of thetown he drank and he danced and
he loved.
He was a Zorba type of a guy,you know Zorba, the Greek type
(01:00:07):
of a guy.
And he got divorced, you knowthat was, he didn't go to church
and the, you know, johnO'Donohue, went to his house and
said my son, it's time to giveyou the last rites.
It is time for you to leave.
He said, ah, I get to meet mymaker.
He has been talking to me forall me life and now I get to
(01:00:28):
meet him.
He said, well, do you haveregrets?
Do you have sorrows?
He said, no, no, I danced andloved and prayed my way through
life, but, son, you never cameto church.
God and I have always beentogether.
And now he will greet me withlove.
And he just smiled and died.
(01:00:48):
And John O'Donohue says lookbrave in your life, do the
impossible, don't be afraid.
Don't need the church or theintermediaries, or your parents
or the society to tell you whatto do.
Be your own brave and strongindividual in love, with a true
(01:01:10):
heart.
Nika Lawrie (01:01:11):
Oh yeah, so beautiful.
It's going to make me tear up.
It's such a good story andsomething I very much believe in
too.
So thank you for sharing that,dr Holly.
I appreciate it.
Thank you, yeah, thank you forcoming on the show and sharing
all your expertise with us too.
I really really appreciate you,so thank you.
Thank you for coming on theshow and sharing all your
expertise with us too.
I really really appreciate you,so thank you.
Dr. Prudence Hall (01:01:32):
Thank you, such a joy.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.