In this week's episode of the 'Girl We Grow Now,' podcast host Victoria continues her conversation from last week with Carly, a certified holistic health coach. They explore the essentials of maintaining good gut health and achieving hormone balance, the basic routines facilitating liver and lymphatic system health, and methods for effective body detoxification, including Carly's top pick for detoxification.
They dive into the complexities of leaky gut, the liver's integral role in detoxification and hormone production, signs that your body may need a detox, and so much more!
The discussion also includes the effects of birth control on our body and the likely need to detox from it to achieve optimal health. In this episode they emphasize how important it is to be able to make informed decisions regarding your health, the pitfalls of band-aid solutions and the benefits of a holistic approach to wellness.
This comprehensive episode illuminates various aspects of detoxification, hormonal balance, estrogen dominance and effective ways to manage it naturally. Discover the power of fertility awareness method, the importance of stress management and sleep quality, and simple lifestyle changes that can enhance your well-being.
Make sure to tune into the full episode to empower yourself with knowledge to make mindful choices on your journey towards optimal health.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
You can go longer without food than you can without sleep, just to put it into perspective.
It's huge. Most of our detoxification happens during sleep, and I would say
that that is probably the most powerful part of sleep.
Music.
(00:21):
Hello, Grown Girl Gang. Welcome back to the Girl We Grow Now podcast.
I am your host, Victoria, and I am so happy you are here.
If you are looking for tips, advice, and or inspiration, then you are in the right place.
This podcast was created to help you navigate life and live your most fulfilled and authentic life.
(00:43):
This week, we are back with part two of my conversation with Carly.
I really hope that you learned a ton from part one
and that you are ready with your notepad notes
app in hand to take notes for part
two because we really covered so much in
our conversation which is why I broke it down into two episodes because it was
(01:06):
almost a two-hour conversation so I'm super excited to give you guys a part
two of our gut health and hormone health and detox conversation so with that
being said let's go ahead and dive back into the conversation with Carly.
So are there any effective strategies that we can use to support our gut health
and balance our hormones at the same time? Definitely.
(01:28):
So we've talked about most of these, but fiber, for sure.
Protein, because of those amino acids with blood sugar balance,
protein is so, so important.
Exercise or just like any type of movement, somatic movement,
anything that's going going to support the liver and the lymphatic system.
So with the liver, again, it's going to be those amino acids,
(01:52):
B vitamins, minerals, not taking drugs of any kind over the counter,
or at least avoiding them when you can.
Same thing with alcohol, like not overdoing it, environmental toxins,
avoiding them when you can, organic food, all of that.
With the lymphatic system, anything that's going to help change the fluid in
(02:14):
your body, basically, because that's what your lymphatic system is made up.
It's basically just fluid that's moving through your body, pulling toxins,
and then getting them to exit through the bowels. But the lymphatic system
works on, like I said, fluids. So increasing your hydration or sweating.
So you're moving that fluid through your body.
So I love doing sauna a couple times a week.
(02:37):
Or if you live in Florida, like I do, you know, mow the lawn at noon.
I know my neighbors think I'm crazy, but you're going to sweat your butt off.
And that's really, really great for your detox. You sure are.
Sweat is one of the ways that heavy metals move through the body.
So sauna, sweating, And I'll definitely mention this because it's one of my
(02:58):
favorite ways to detox. It's one of my clients' favorite ways.
Everyone that I can convince to do it loves it.
Coffee enemas are so, so fantastic for detoxing hormones, gut health.
The caffeine in the coffee helps to stimulate the liver to produce more glutathione. on.
(03:21):
It helps to thin the bile, which
bile is a really important part of our detoxification system as well.
Bile is produced in the liver, stored and concentrated in the gallbladder.
Bile is essentially, I'll give you an analogy, when you're washing dishes and
you've got like a greasy pan and you use some dish soap to break up that fat.
(03:42):
Bile is that dish soap. Bile is going to take take fats, and it's going to break
it up into smaller molecules that we can actually digest.
So bile is really important for digesting food. But bile also takes those fat
soluble toxins, like mycotoxins are fat soluble toxins, heavy metals are as well.
(04:02):
So it's going to take those and push it into the bowels to be eliminated.
So bile is a really, really huge component of of digestion and detoxification.
So anything that's going to help support that, again, with the liver,
you can use herbs for that as well.
Anything that's bitter is going to really help with bile movement and bile flow.
(04:25):
But yeah, those coffee enemas really, really get the job done.
So where do you get those done at? Because you can't do that yourself, can you?
Yeah. So you're thinking of a colonic. Oh, okay. to a clinic to get a colonic done.
But the coffee enema is totally safe to do at home.
There are some things you want, you're going to want to get a specific type
(04:45):
of mold free medium roast coffee that is meant for coffee enemas that's been,
you know, tested for mycotoxins and things like that.
Like you're not going to want to use Folgers with this.
And then you just get a kit from Amazon.
It's got like, you know, a stainless steel bucket it and a silicone tip and
a little bit of coconut oil and relax on your bathroom floor.
(05:08):
Let this coffee slowly flow and then you can eliminate parasites like this like you wouldn't believe.
You can even add the height of all of my issues.
Parasites were one of my major issues when it came to my gut health and the coffee enemas were like
so key for me with eliminating them. But I like to add a little bit of like
(05:32):
an herbal tincture to the coffee enema.
And then you're really going to get a lot of elimination with those parasites.
So I know you've mentioned the liver a few times. So can you tell us for those
of us who don't know, how does the liver contribute to the detoxification process?
Yeah, so we just talked about the bile. Liver is what produces bile.
(05:52):
Bile is a huge component for or detoxifying anything in the body.
And then again, like I mentioned, it basically breaks up your fat.
So any fat soluble vitamins, so A, D, E, K, all those vitamins,
you won't be able to absorb them without your bile. The liver has over 500 jobs.
It's literally working 24 hours a day. It manufactures and stores vitamins and minerals,
(06:18):
which is one reason why eating liver, like a beef beef liver,
chicken liver, lamb liver is so healthy because it's been storing all of these
minerals and vitamins for later use.
It also manufactures these nutrients.
It filters the blood. I'm sure most people know that.
One thing I think a lot of people don't think about is in connection to hormone
(06:41):
health, the liver actually is where most of the conversion from T4,
which is your inactive thyroid hormone to T3, your active thyroid hormone,
60% of that is happening in the liver.
So majority is right there in the liver. 20% is in the gut.
And then 20% is in the thyroid. So, you know, the gut's taking care of just
(07:06):
as much as the thyroid is when it comes to producing thyroid hormone.
And then the liver is taking care three times as much. So that's a really big one.
So I know you mentioned eating liver. So if you're just not,
if you can't do it, is there like a liver supplement that you recommend? recommend? Yes.
Yes, there is. I'm with you. I wish I liked it.
(07:28):
I can like hide it in my taco meat or like hamburgers or meatballs,
but it's kind of a lot of work to do that.
And I'm probably not going to, I'm still not going to get it as much liver as
I would like to by doing that, just that.
So yes, you can definitely supplement. I supplement with a desiccated liver.
I definitely recommend that people do.
(07:49):
Although it's kind of, again, with anything, it's a little bit nuanced and it's
not going to be right for every single person, but most people would benefit
mostly from the vitamin A.
I think that nobody gets enough vitamin A, but vitamin A, copper,
B vitamins. Yeah. Good to know.
(08:10):
So I know you also mentioned leaky gut a couple of times.
So can you tell us us more about the concept of leaky gut and its potential
implications for our health? Yeah.
So the gut lining is semi-permeable. So this means that it kind of selectively
will open and close when it needs to release things into the bloodstream. And that's fine.
(08:34):
What happens with leaky gut is this selectivity is no longer happening.
It's kind of just like
open all the time, or things are triggering it to open too often.
And so basically, if you imagine your gut cells are, you know,
kind of like this, they have a little bit of space in between.
So small particles can move through and out. But flea gut, your cells are more like this.
(08:59):
So you've got this big space in between. And now larger particles,
things like food, toxins, those
things Things are moving through the gut wall and to the bloodstream.
Then they're encountering the immune system and the immune system is like,
what the heck is this? I've never seen this before.
And then that's when you end up with something like a food allergy, food sensitivity.
(09:22):
That's kind of how autoimmune disease starts. That's one reason why gluten can
be so terrible for a lot of people with an autoimmune condition.
Gluten very closely resembles a lot of the tissues in our body, like our thyroid.
So if we're constantly eating gluten and we've got a leaky gut,
then the immune system is constantly going to be attacking that gluten and most
(09:43):
likely signaling to attack other areas of the body, too.
Well, what's happening is with with autoimmune, your body is essentially just
being overwhelmed with toxins, toxins from food like what I just described or other toxins.
It's kind of just attacking like anything because it's overwhelmed,
trying to get all the toxins out. out. I feel like I just went off on a tangent there.
(10:06):
Well, no, I thought it was really cool because now I'm thinking,
so you mentioned that I think the larger particles like get into the immune
system, that's how you can develop a food allergy or sensitivity.
So does that mean we can reverse an allergy?
So yes and no. I think it gets to a certain point where it's not going to be
reversible, but if you're kind of developing an allergy,
(10:26):
I think if you can identify it and and eliminate that food, and then work on
sealing the gut, there's definitely at least progress to be made with that allergy.
If you've got an EpiPen and that kind of thing, like probably not.
If you were born with the allergy, I don't really know. And I'm definitely not
a rheumatologist. So this is not my wheelhouse.
(10:48):
But I have a really strong feeling that you'd be able to at least make some
progress with allergies.
And I know you can make progress with seasonal allergies.
Ooh, okay. Well, I ask because I feel like a couple of years ago,
I started to, I don't really know if it was an allergy, but I started to be
affected by eating seafood.
(11:09):
One, I used to eat it all the time. so that could also be part
of it so I ask questions like this because I wonder I'm like maybe I
actually haven't eaten in two years and I've been healing my gut so
I'm like oh I wonder if I should try it out because I
actually did take a blood allergy test and I was not
allergic but I just haven't gone to take like the
prick test I guess but yeah yeah you
(11:31):
I mean I would love to hear more about
whether or not you do test this out
you can also do like and I don't know how much
legitimacy there is to this but you can take
some of that food and just like like put it on
the inside of your wrist and like go to bed
and then if you wake up in the morning and it's like irritated you probably
(11:52):
don't want to ingest it but if it looks okay then like you could like try ingesting
a little bit and like see how you do so it could be like a little like pre like
test to like actually like eating it oh i like that idea i'll probably try that thank you you.
So what are some signs that we may need to detoxify our body?
(12:13):
And how can we do this safely?
I love this question, because I feel like we need to, we ought to be aware of
the signs because we live in a toxic world.
So like, most people probably need to at least ramp up their detox a little bit.
Some signs I would say, having like an offensive body odor,
(12:33):
whether that is, you know, your sweat your
body odor or really foul smelling bowel
movements or gas all of those
I would say kind of fall into the same category and
you know this isn't like the one-off time where you like ate out and you're
like I have a stinky fart but like if it's more consistent that's definitely
an issue having any sort of like reaction to chemical smells whether that is
(13:00):
like a skin rash or like a headache,
something like that would indicate a detox issue.
Or maybe like clothing is really irritating to you or like a clothing tag causes
like a rash, really anything to do with the skin.
So if you're dealing with acne, eczema, psoriasis, any of those would definitely
(13:22):
indicate a detox issue because the skin will be recruited to be a detox organ
more so when the gut and the liver and the gallbladder and the lymphatic system are overwhelmed.
So it kind of will then put more of the weight on the skin because it just can't handle it all.
If you've ever been on, since we're talking mostly to women and we're talking
(13:45):
about women's health, if you've ever been on birth control, I would definitely
say your body is probably begging you for a detox.
If you're currently on birth control, you can still detox and really try to
watch your diet to make sure that you're getting all the nutrients that we talked about.
Birth control has been proven in studies to not only impair our detoxification
(14:07):
system, But it also actually inhibits a lot of our mineral and vitamin absorption.
And it kind of just like uses all of our resources. And that's on top of,
you know, the disconnection that it creates between our brain and our ovaries.
So it's just it can be a lot for women to be on birth control.
And this is again something really popping up on the internet right now with
(14:31):
the Washington Post saying that the holistic health community is basically making
up that women are dealing with side effects from the pill and it's just it's propaganda.
It's complete BS if you ask me.
Yeah. Yeah. I've always been very hesitant with
with that because I do feel like if like
(14:52):
I mentioned I did have some painful period not painful where I can't
like leave the house but whenever I would go to the doctor there are certain doctors
who'd be like oh well you just need to take birth control to regulate that and
all these things and it's like okay well like what else is there I
don't want to remember to have to take a pill every day that was kind of
my thing and I didn't want anything in my arm I definitely wasn't sticking with
IUD up there either I was like no no no so I
(15:12):
think I took the pill for like a year when I was 19 then
after that I was just like no I'm gonna have to figure good for you
i was on it for 10 years you know
the thing is your body doesn't have an
oral contraceptive deficiency so why
are doctors prescribing that to balance your
body it just doesn't make sense so yeah
(15:35):
i definitely felt that way even before i even knew the things
that i knew now but like i definitely felt like it doesn't really make sense i'm
just not gonna do it and there's one she was trying to push it
so hard she was literally like you
could have endometriosis and I was like but like did you test
for that and so she started to like backtrack and I think
sometimes when you're young they might try to like push more things because
(15:56):
I think you just don't know but like she didn't know like my mom's a nurse and
like you know I do have like medical people in my family so I'm not completely
clueless but it was the oddest experience I definitely never went back to her
because I didn't like that at all that's so interesting too that you say that
that she basically was saying.
You need to take this because you could have endometriosis, which again.
(16:16):
Not my legal house.
I'm not an expert on endo, but managing endo with birth control is really just for symptoms.
So I mean, taking birth control if you have endo is not going to cure endo. That's for sure.
It only manages your symptoms and it only does that because it covers of,
(16:37):
yeah, it's just the bandaid approach.
It is. And that's the biggest difference I've noticed with actually, I'll say my current
traditional doctor, she is a little bit more thorough. But when I compare my
functional medicine doctor to previous doctors that I've had in the past,
it really is the band-aid method that a lot of them use.
So I'm really seeing the difference of the more holistic, let's figure out the root cause approach.
(17:00):
And I'm loving it because one, I'm learning so much about my body and I'm just
learning what's going on inside.
And so I just think that, again, knowledge is power.
When you know what's going on in your body, you're getting advice on how you
can fix it versus how how you can medicate it, it really is life-changing.
And as you said earlier, you used the word empowering and it does feel really
empowering to know that I can make a different lifestyle choice to go ahead
(17:22):
and start reversing things.
So it doesn't get to the point where I might actually need medication.
100%. Yes. So we talked about detoxifying our body, the sign.
So how can we do it safely?
Yeah. So risks, there are some risks with detoxing. If you have not managed to open your drainage.
(17:43):
So essentially, the drainage system of the body is the outlets.
So valve movements, urine, sweating, breath, those are all how we get things out of the body.
And so we want to number one, like I said, increase your fiber,
make sure you're pooping two to three times a day, that's going to be the best
(18:06):
way to avoid any altercations or calling her symptoms, symptoms, which is like when.
Essentially when like you feel like crap because you're
detoxing but in actuality this shouldn't
be happening if you have your detox open i've been detoxing for good gosh how
long it's like seven years eight years and you know i've had a handful of times
(18:31):
where i've been like all right i'm a little bit tired like i i need to like
lie down for a little bit or you know i haven't had have like a minor headache,
but that should not be the norm, you know?
So I would say that's number one. So the bowel movement piece of that,
obviously like drinking enough water and making sure that you're peeing as well.
And then again, with the sweating, that can be really helpful.
(18:53):
Another thing I feel like, honestly, if you're a human in 2024 or later,
you probably need a detox and you you also probably need to be on a binder.
Again, going back to all these exogenous toxins like the glyphosate and heavy
metals, they're in our environment and avoiding them completely isn't really possible.
(19:16):
So the best we can do is to try to avoid them, mitigate them,
detox, and then bind them up.
So finding a good universal binder that works well for you is something that I really recommend.
For me, I personally really like activated charcoal, but there's others,
you know, activated charcoal can cause constipation.
(19:37):
So you know, that's going to be like, obviously, something you're going to want
to avoid if you're detoxing. So if you're experiencing that,
it's not for you try something like Takasumi, there's
you know, modified citrus pectin, chlorella, spirulina. Those are some of the more gentle ones.
There's humic and fulvic acid is a good one as well.
(19:58):
And that's also going to be really helpful for rebuilding the gut.
I feel like for me personally, that one's a good one for beginners and then
for more like maintenance.
So definitely the binders. So for binders, do you just take that for a certain
period of time, like while you're
trying to detox? Or is that like a thing that you take consistently?
(20:19):
Yeah, definitely. While you're trying to detox, I like I said,
I think that it's something that people can be on long term.
It's definitely not something that you're just going to want to take blindly,
though, I would say like, you kind of want to just like stay on top of something like that.
So with binders, there is the potential that it could it can like bind to some
(20:41):
of your your minerals and your nutrients.
So you're not going to want to like take your binder with your meal.
You're going to want to take it away from your food and like let it do its thing
with the toxins rather than let it do its thing with your food.
You know what I'm saying? Same thing goes for like certain medications and things like that.
So, you know, if you're unsure, find someone who understands these things and work with them on it.
(21:05):
You can also just test yourself, like go
get an an htma like make sure that you're
staying on top of whether or not these binders
are indeed like binding to your minerals
because that's going to be something that impairs your detox and defeats the
whole purpose so i like to do binders like getting into the sauna or a little
(21:28):
bit before the sauna and like sweating and binding at the same time to like
get all those out oh i like I like that idea.
I have to try that because I have some coconut activated charcoal.
Yeah. Excellent. I love it.
I love the activated charcoal. Yes. I know we talked a little bit about estrogen earlier.
So what role does estrogen and progesterone play in our health and how are they
(21:52):
affected by detoxification?
Okay. This could literally be a whole podcast episode.
So I'll just be brief about both of them. So estrogen, like I mentioned, is a growth hormone.
So think about like as a woman's going through puberty and she's developing
breasts and and thighs and a butt like those curves are really possible because of estrogen.
(22:17):
When you are in the first phase of your menstrual cycle, your follicular phase
and your like skin is glowing, you have like lots of energy that is estrogen.
Estrogen is again, a growth hormone. So that endometrial lining fertility.
You know, pregnancy can't happen without estrogen building up that lining.
(22:39):
Your bone growth and maintenance is possible because of estrogen.
This is one reason why women are more prone to osteoporosis and menopause,
heart health, muscle health, all those things, anything to do with growth,
estrogen is going to be your key player there.
And then with progesterone, progesterone is calming hormone.
(23:00):
Progesterone is more, more dominant in the second and half of your cycle during your luteal phase.
So let's say you're someone who really struggles with mood during your your second phase,
you might want to get your progesterone levels looked at because your progesterone
is very much linked to GABA in the brain, which is it's an amino acid,
(23:22):
and it's a neurotransmitter that really helps to ease anxiety,
calm us down, helps with sleep sleep cycles, things like that.
Progesterone is produced...
When we ovulate. So the corpus luteum is what would become the fetus and that
produces progesterone during the leading up to ovulation.
(23:45):
And then we end up, you know, not getting pregnant and then having the bleed,
but that corpus luteum is producing progesterone for us.
So if we're not ovulating, or
we are manually preventing ovulation through something like birth control,
then we're We're not going to get that natural calming supply of progesterone,
(24:07):
something that progesterone is not really known for, but plays a huge role with
women, especially any woman with PCOS, high androgens, hair growth on their face, chest or abdomen.
Acne, anything that's kind of like common with androgen growth or androgen levels.
(24:28):
Progesterone is actually what balances out
those androgens and can actually like monitor and
lower androgen levels so it could
be like if you're someone dealing with acne well yeah
you might have higher testosterone and dht
but you might have normal testosterone and dht
(24:48):
but you might not have enough progesterone maybe that's
why these male hormones are able to
have more of an an effect on you so it really
with like all those sex hormones it's so
much of a balancing act so when we
talk about estrogen dominance there's two different types we have frank estrogen
dominance which means that you just have too much estrogen in your body reasons
(25:12):
would be number one of course your body can produce estrogen and it does but
your body's not going to typically produce too much extra estrogen.
That's not really where too much estrogen comes from. It usually comes from our environment.
Things that are estrogenic in our environment would be BPA, BPS that are in
plastics, fragrances, any synthetic fragrance, lotions, perfumes, makeup, all that stuff.
(25:39):
Phthalates, which are, they're basically chemicals that.
Keep things in suspension, I believe. So it like keeps that fragrance lasting a long time.
So like when you smell your laundry detergent for weeks, that is the phthalate is what's doing that.
So those are things that have a really strong estrogenic effect on a human body,
(26:01):
whether that's male or female.
So as a side note for men, especially in our modern world where we have so so
many synthetic fragrances and just chemicals in general, a lot of men are really
noticing this estrogenic effect.
But yeah, so estrogen in the environment is really what generally will cause
(26:21):
estrogen dominance, even just like pesticides and things like that can be estrogenic.
So we really want to watch out for those if we're dealing with some of the estrogen
dominant symptoms, heavy periods and things like that, painful periods.
And then there's relative estrogen dominance. And this means that in relation
(26:41):
to estrogen, you don't have enough progesterone.
So either your estrogen is normal, but your progesterone levels are low.
And that's pretty common as well. So and that would usually be from stress or
from like something like the birth birth control pill,
or something that would cause you to not ovulate, which could be stress or birth
(27:03):
control or something else entirely, even like nutrient deficiencies.
You want like vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin A, copper, like you need all of
these things to be able to ovulate naturally and produce that progesterone.
Yes. So if you do have estrogen dominant, Are there some ways that you can go
(27:24):
about to reverse it? Of course.
So number one would be finding out some of those sources of the xenoestrogens,
those estrogens that your body is not making, the ones that are in your environment.
So, you know, unplug that air freshener, you know, use your perfume sparingly.
And I'm not going to say like you have to be perfect.
(27:46):
I understand that like smells are experiences for people. and from time to time
I will still use my favorite perfumes, but I am definitely not spraying them on a daily basis.
I am getting them nowhere near my neck. You know, they're going on my clothes only.
So simple like changes like that, you know, just using like olive oil for your
(28:08):
lotion or coconut oil or something like that, like you can make these little changes.
And honestly, like when it comes to lotion, I like to like touch on this too,
because this can be for like facial moisturizer as well.
Like if you are hydrated on the inside like
your skin should not like need moisturizer or
lotion you know what i'm saying like it could it
(28:29):
could be like a benefit and like make you a little bit
softer silkier but like you shouldn't have dry
skin if you do there's an internal issue so
a lot of these issues that we try
to like manage with these products can be
mitigated if we work on the the internal environment but then
of course just like opening up the drainage like we
(28:49):
talked about like making sure that you're having those bowel movements
and if you're eating well and you're two to three times
a day and like you know you're sweating and all the good things and you're still
dealing with some heavy periods which i honestly feel like that'll get rid of
it but like there's going to be that one-off person where like they're like
i've been doing all the things go get your gut tested get your stool tested
(29:11):
because if you've got super high beta-glucuronidase like we talked about,
it'll be difficult for you to manage the estrogen actually leaving your body.
So yeah, that's all so interesting. It's so interesting.
So what are some natural methods for supporting hormone balance aside from detoxification?
Drainage, drainage, drainage.
That's it. Fiber, fiber, fiber, protein, protein, protein.
(29:35):
I would say when it comes to the birth control thing,
learning the fertility awareness method, I
think is the most empowering thing that a woman can do
for herself for her future daughters before the
birth control pill this is what women did and the birth control pill has only
been around for a couple decades and yeah it's paved the way for women to advance
(29:56):
our careers and things like that but now our generations are like okay we've
had enough we don't want to feel like crap anymore right you know
The fertility awareness method is basically using certain metrics of your body,
including your body temperature, your cervical mucus, the position of your cervix,
(30:17):
and one other thing I can't remember.
I mostly do like the mucus and the temperature.
And like for me, like that's been enough. So taking your temperature every morning
before you get out of bed is basically what it takes.
And that can be hard to like make a habit of. But the fertility awareness method
is going to be the most empowering thing that a woman can do,
(30:37):
especially, you know, obviously, if you're on birth control,
if you're wanting to get pregnant, wanting to avoid pregnancy,
like, yeah, number two, I mean, this would actually probably be number one,
because it affects more people stress management, I can't stress enough,
like, you gotta figure it out, whether it's combining adaptogens with somatic therapy,
cognitive behavioral therapy, like looking at your childhood,
(31:01):
looking at your trauma, like really getting to the root of your nervous system
regulation is going to be a huge component. And I know it was huge for me.
So I know there's other people out there that it's the same way.
Yeah, yeah, I think I think that sums it up. I think like we really covered
it multiple times, but like avoiding some of those toxins when we can buy,
(31:24):
you know, buying organic food and just really just being aware of our environment.
I think like, when it comes to these things, We just need to really take a look at what is around us.
What is in X, Y, and Z?
What am I ingesting? What's in the container?
Where could toxins possibly be coming from?
And I'm not saying that people should be neurotic about it, but just becoming
(31:47):
more curious and observant would be the first step.
And then once you're more aware, then you can start to do something about it.
Yeah, I think that's super huge.
And I know we've definitely touched on the toxins and stress a lot.
And I think you did touch a little bit on sleep, but I do want to ask, so what...
Or can you talk more about the impact of sleep quality when it comes to achieving
(32:10):
our optimal gut health and balancing our hormones?
I feel like for the longest time, it was very like grind culture.
You can sleep when you die.
And I know for me, like I have the hardest time sleeping, which is something
I've been trying to work on.
So I think a lot of us can struggle with that. I didn't know that you struggled with sleep.
I'm also someone who struggles with sleep and I have my entire life.
So sleep is so important.
(32:33):
Oh, my gosh. Gosh, sleep, honestly, like you can go longer without food than
you can without sleep, just to put it into perspective. Like it's huge.
Most of our detoxification happens during sleep. And I would say that that is
probably the most powerful part of sleep.
Obviously, most of us, unless you're working like a night shift.
(32:55):
You're going to be sleeping when the sun is down and when it's dark,
and then you're going to be awake at the opposite of that.
So the circadian rhythm them and the light
has a huge component of like controlling that
circadian rhythm for us so recommendations for
people having trouble with sleep would be really to like i should be wearing
my boot blocking glasses right now because the sun is down so like making sure
(33:20):
that you are blocking any artificial light at night can be really powerful for
people with sleep and getting our bodies into that rhythm.
When it comes to I think there's a strain, it's like long gum 1714 that bifidobacterium
that can be really helpful for sleep.
But during sleep, we're getting the maximum amount of detox that we possibly
(33:45):
can, the body is not digesting any food, you know, it's literally just like
blank, except for dreams, I suppose.
But with the brain, we we actually have have a fluid system in the brain that
only gets drained when we're asleep.
So it's called the glymphatic system.
(34:06):
And it, you know, phonetically, it resembles lymphatic system,
which is really, it's the same thing.
It's just for the brain. So the lymphatic system, again, is that fluid,
like fluid in, fluid out.
And that's what's happening with the brain. So that's how the brain actually removes toxins.
And this is one reason why people with dementia and Alzheimer's,
(34:29):
they generally had a really hard time sleeping throughout their lives.
They weren't able to remove those heavy metals and those toxins that are now
contributing to their chronic inflammatory condition.
So it's really, really wild to think about that. But when it comes to managing your sleep,
managing your nervous system, and I think breaking
(34:50):
down those traumas and a lot
of the sort of just like I think that we have become
hyper vigilant in a way I think most
people like when they're trying to sleep their monkey
brain and they just can't stop thinking of their to-do list or like what happened
at work today or like what's going to happen at work tomorrow and like all the
things that keep us up right like we're usually not like lying there like with
(35:14):
a blank brain like we're usually thinking about something like I can't go to
sleep because I was thinking about this.
But that's all kind of a result of hypervigilance.
And that could have happened, you know, for various reasons,
childhood, adulthood, like various things can make us feel that way.
So kind of like breaking down those walls and, you know, understanding where
(35:35):
it's coming from. And adaptogens can be really helpful for this.
You know, there's various amino acids that can be really helpful for this as well.
Yeah, I think those are all good things. I know for me, when it comes to falling
asleep, the best way for me to do that, I take my magnesium glycinate and then
I listen to either like a sleep podcast or audio book.
I feel like that for some reason makes me go to sleep so quickly.
(35:57):
But my problem is that a lot of times I'll wake up to use the bathroom and then
it's when I wake up, it's so hard for me to go back to sleep because then I
think maybe I'll start thinking about things or I don't know,
but I just can't. That's my boat too. Yeah.
And I think like, Like, you know, if I'm being completely transparent for myself, like...
I think that it's a lot to do with trauma for me. You know, everybody deals with trauma.
(36:22):
Someone who is maybe like a little bit more sensitive than others might have
had this little t trauma, which like technically could be to other people negligible,
like, but for this sensitive person, like it was traumatic.
And so dealing with some of that, that can be a challenge for sure.
But one thing I really like for that situation is a supplement called Serifos.
(36:49):
It's phosphorylated serine, which is an amino acid that's been connected to another mineral.
And that can be really helpful for calming the mind, kind of putting you back
to sleep in a natural way.
Oh, I like that. I'm gonna have to look into that. Also, I need to know where
did you get your blue blocking glasses?
Glasses so these are like my daytime blue
(37:09):
blockers i don't wear them too often unless
i'm like on the computer all day but these are actually just like cheap from
amazon the ones i should have on right now are in my bedroom but those are like
the actual amber ones like they're not cute at all but they get the job done
those are actually from amazon too but they're a brand called spectra I think Spectra 479.
(37:33):
Okay. I don't have to look into those. Well, one, I sit at the computer all
day, so I need, well, I have regular glasses.
So maybe I need to add that to my regular glasses because I don't know if these
have it, but perfect because I need new glasses.
But I also want to buy the nighttime ones because I think having a good nighttime
routine and preparing for sleep
is also going to help for those of us who have issues sleeping. Yeah.
(37:56):
Definitely. I think you'll you'll definitely notice like it might not be immediate,
but you'll notice over time that that helps you to just sleep better throughout the night.
Awesome. Thank you so much for all of this, Carly. It's been so good.
I've learned so much and I know that everyone else has as well.
So can you tell us where we can find you on social media or anywhere related
(38:18):
so that we can follow you and potentially work with you?
Yeah, this was so much fun.
I love our conversations. conversations me too so you
can find me on instagram at holistically
underscore carly same same thing
on tiktok although i am not really very active on there hopefully by the time
(38:39):
anyone hears this i will be but yeah so i'll definitely make sure that i link
your socials in the show notes and that way everyone can easily find you because
you also i know in your stories you post food and stuff, the things that you
make, or when you're sick,
you post your little remedies. And I think it's so helpful.
Often I screenshot them so I can have them for later.
(38:59):
Thank you. Yeah. I mean, there's been a lot going around these last few years.
So I feel like I've been getting more sick than I typically would.
So I do share a lot about what I'm doing because I really don't
take medication definitely don't you
know I'd have to be on my deathbed to take an antibiotic so so you don't even
(39:22):
take pain medicine I will from time to time if you know if I really need it
or if there's something going on in my life where I can't cancel I'm not going
to cancel but most time I'll just like try to take a nap.
But yeah and then my website is also holisticallycarly.com
(39:44):
so you can also catch me there and like that would be you know if you wanted
to work with me or see the services that i offer everything is linked on there
and and you can get there from my instagram as well but awesome i will link
that as well again thank you so much for coming on thank you,
(40:05):
thank you all for tuning into this week's episode if you
really loved the episode and you felt like it resonated with
you be sure to share the love and share the episode with a
friend also if you could take a minute and head to the review section wherever
you listen to your podcast and leave me a review letting me know what you're
loving about these episodes and which topics you want to hear next that way
i can make sure that i continue creating episodes that you love also make sure
(40:28):
you hit the subscribe button so that you don't miss an episode until next week bye grown girl.
Music.
You can go longer without food than you can without sleep, just to put it into perspective.
It's huge. Most of our detoxification happens during sleep, and I would say
that that is probably the most powerful part of sleep.
Music.
(00:21):
Hello, Grown Girl Gang. Welcome back to the Girl We Grow Now podcast.
I am your host, Victoria, and I am so happy you are here.
If you are looking for tips, advice, and or inspiration, then you are in the right place.
This podcast was created to help you navigate life and live your most fulfilled and authentic life.
(00:43):
This week, we are back with part two of my conversation with Carly.
I really hope that you learned a ton from part one
and that you are ready with your notepad notes
app in hand to take notes for part
two because we really covered so much in
our conversation which is why I broke it down into two episodes because it was
(01:06):
almost a two-hour conversation so I'm super excited to give you guys a part
two of our gut health and hormone health and detox conversation so with that
being said let's go ahead and dive back into the conversation with Carly.
So are there any effective strategies that we can use to support our gut health
and balance our hormones at the same time? Definitely.
(01:28):
So we've talked about most of these, but fiber, for sure.
Protein, because of those amino acids with blood sugar balance,
protein is so, so important.
Exercise or just like any type of movement, somatic movement,
anything that's going going to support the liver and the lymphatic system.
So with the liver, again, it's going to be those amino acids,
(01:52):
B vitamins, minerals, not taking drugs of any kind over the counter,
or at least avoiding them when you can.
Same thing with alcohol, like not overdoing it, environmental toxins,
avoiding them when you can, organic food, all of that.
With the lymphatic system, anything that's going to help change the fluid in
(02:14):
your body, basically, because that's what your lymphatic system is made up.
It's basically just fluid that's moving through your body, pulling toxins,
and then getting them to exit through the bowels. But the lymphatic system
works on, like I said, fluids. So increasing your hydration or sweating.
So you're moving that fluid through your body.
So I love doing sauna a couple times a week.
(02:37):
Or if you live in Florida, like I do, you know, mow the lawn at noon.
I know my neighbors think I'm crazy, but you're going to sweat your butt off.
And that's really, really great for your detox. You sure are.
Sweat is one of the ways that heavy metals move through the body.
So sauna, sweating, And I'll definitely mention this because it's one of my
(02:58):
favorite ways to detox. It's one of my clients' favorite ways.
Everyone that I can convince to do it loves it.
Coffee enemas are so, so fantastic for detoxing hormones, gut health.
The caffeine in the coffee helps to stimulate the liver to produce more glutathione. on.
(03:21):
It helps to thin the bile, which
bile is a really important part of our detoxification system as well.
Bile is produced in the liver, stored and concentrated in the gallbladder.
Bile is essentially, I'll give you an analogy, when you're washing dishes and
you've got like a greasy pan and you use some dish soap to break up that fat.
(03:42):
Bile is that dish soap. Bile is going to take take fats, and it's going to break
it up into smaller molecules that we can actually digest.
So bile is really important for digesting food. But bile also takes those fat
soluble toxins, like mycotoxins are fat soluble toxins, heavy metals are as well.
(04:02):
So it's going to take those and push it into the bowels to be eliminated.
So bile is a really, really huge component of of digestion and detoxification.
So anything that's going to help support that, again, with the liver,
you can use herbs for that as well.
Anything that's bitter is going to really help with bile movement and bile flow.
(04:25):
But yeah, those coffee enemas really, really get the job done.
So where do you get those done at? Because you can't do that yourself, can you?
Yeah. So you're thinking of a colonic. Oh, okay. to a clinic to get a colonic done.
But the coffee enema is totally safe to do at home.
There are some things you want, you're going to want to get a specific type
(04:45):
of mold free medium roast coffee that is meant for coffee enemas that's been,
you know, tested for mycotoxins and things like that.
Like you're not going to want to use Folgers with this.
And then you just get a kit from Amazon.
It's got like, you know, a stainless steel bucket it and a silicone tip and
a little bit of coconut oil and relax on your bathroom floor.
(05:08):
Let this coffee slowly flow and then you can eliminate parasites like this like you wouldn't believe.
You can even add the height of all of my issues.
Parasites were one of my major issues when it came to my gut health and the coffee enemas were like
so key for me with eliminating them. But I like to add a little bit of like
(05:32):
an herbal tincture to the coffee enema.
And then you're really going to get a lot of elimination with those parasites.
So I know you've mentioned the liver a few times. So can you tell us for those
of us who don't know, how does the liver contribute to the detoxification process?
Yeah, so we just talked about the bile. Liver is what produces bile.
(05:52):
Bile is a huge component for or detoxifying anything in the body.
And then again, like I mentioned, it basically breaks up your fat.
So any fat soluble vitamins, so A, D, E, K, all those vitamins,
you won't be able to absorb them without your bile. The liver has over 500 jobs.
It's literally working 24 hours a day. It manufactures and stores vitamins and minerals,
(06:18):
which is one reason why eating liver, like a beef beef liver,
chicken liver, lamb liver is so healthy because it's been storing all of these
minerals and vitamins for later use.
It also manufactures these nutrients.
It filters the blood. I'm sure most people know that.
One thing I think a lot of people don't think about is in connection to hormone
(06:41):
health, the liver actually is where most of the conversion from T4,
which is your inactive thyroid hormone to T3, your active thyroid hormone,
60% of that is happening in the liver.
So majority is right there in the liver. 20% is in the gut.
And then 20% is in the thyroid. So, you know, the gut's taking care of just
(07:06):
as much as the thyroid is when it comes to producing thyroid hormone.
And then the liver is taking care three times as much. So that's a really big one.
So I know you mentioned eating liver. So if you're just not,
if you can't do it, is there like a liver supplement that you recommend? recommend? Yes.
Yes, there is. I'm with you. I wish I liked it.
(07:28):
I can like hide it in my taco meat or like hamburgers or meatballs,
but it's kind of a lot of work to do that.
And I'm probably not going to, I'm still not going to get it as much liver as
I would like to by doing that, just that.
So yes, you can definitely supplement. I supplement with a desiccated liver.
I definitely recommend that people do.
(07:49):
Although it's kind of, again, with anything, it's a little bit nuanced and it's
not going to be right for every single person, but most people would benefit
mostly from the vitamin A.
I think that nobody gets enough vitamin A, but vitamin A, copper,
B vitamins. Yeah. Good to know.
(08:10):
So I know you also mentioned leaky gut a couple of times.
So can you tell us us more about the concept of leaky gut and its potential
implications for our health? Yeah.
So the gut lining is semi-permeable. So this means that it kind of selectively
will open and close when it needs to release things into the bloodstream. And that's fine.
(08:34):
What happens with leaky gut is this selectivity is no longer happening.
It's kind of just like
open all the time, or things are triggering it to open too often.
And so basically, if you imagine your gut cells are, you know,
kind of like this, they have a little bit of space in between.
So small particles can move through and out. But flea gut, your cells are more like this.
(08:59):
So you've got this big space in between. And now larger particles,
things like food, toxins, those
things Things are moving through the gut wall and to the bloodstream.
Then they're encountering the immune system and the immune system is like,
what the heck is this? I've never seen this before.
And then that's when you end up with something like a food allergy, food sensitivity.
(09:22):
That's kind of how autoimmune disease starts. That's one reason why gluten can
be so terrible for a lot of people with an autoimmune condition.
Gluten very closely resembles a lot of the tissues in our body, like our thyroid.
So if we're constantly eating gluten and we've got a leaky gut,
then the immune system is constantly going to be attacking that gluten and most
(09:43):
likely signaling to attack other areas of the body, too.
Well, what's happening is with with autoimmune, your body is essentially just
being overwhelmed with toxins, toxins from food like what I just described or other toxins.
It's kind of just attacking like anything because it's overwhelmed,
trying to get all the toxins out. out. I feel like I just went off on a tangent there.
(10:06):
Well, no, I thought it was really cool because now I'm thinking,
so you mentioned that I think the larger particles like get into the immune
system, that's how you can develop a food allergy or sensitivity.
So does that mean we can reverse an allergy?
So yes and no. I think it gets to a certain point where it's not going to be
reversible, but if you're kind of developing an allergy,
(10:26):
I think if you can identify it and and eliminate that food, and then work on
sealing the gut, there's definitely at least progress to be made with that allergy.
If you've got an EpiPen and that kind of thing, like probably not.
If you were born with the allergy, I don't really know. And I'm definitely not
a rheumatologist. So this is not my wheelhouse.
(10:48):
But I have a really strong feeling that you'd be able to at least make some
progress with allergies.
And I know you can make progress with seasonal allergies.
Ooh, okay. Well, I ask because I feel like a couple of years ago,
I started to, I don't really know if it was an allergy, but I started to be
affected by eating seafood.
(11:09):
One, I used to eat it all the time. so that could also be part
of it so I ask questions like this because I wonder I'm like maybe I
actually haven't eaten in two years and I've been healing my gut so
I'm like oh I wonder if I should try it out because I
actually did take a blood allergy test and I was not
allergic but I just haven't gone to take like the
prick test I guess but yeah yeah you
(11:31):
I mean I would love to hear more about
whether or not you do test this out
you can also do like and I don't know how much
legitimacy there is to this but you can take
some of that food and just like like put it on
the inside of your wrist and like go to bed
and then if you wake up in the morning and it's like irritated you probably
(11:52):
don't want to ingest it but if it looks okay then like you could like try ingesting
a little bit and like see how you do so it could be like a little like pre like
test to like actually like eating it oh i like that idea i'll probably try that thank you you.
So what are some signs that we may need to detoxify our body?
(12:13):
And how can we do this safely?
I love this question, because I feel like we need to, we ought to be aware of
the signs because we live in a toxic world.
So like, most people probably need to at least ramp up their detox a little bit.
Some signs I would say, having like an offensive body odor,
(12:33):
whether that is, you know, your sweat your
body odor or really foul smelling bowel
movements or gas all of those
I would say kind of fall into the same category and
you know this isn't like the one-off time where you like ate out and you're
like I have a stinky fart but like if it's more consistent that's definitely
an issue having any sort of like reaction to chemical smells whether that is
(13:00):
like a skin rash or like a headache,
something like that would indicate a detox issue.
Or maybe like clothing is really irritating to you or like a clothing tag causes
like a rash, really anything to do with the skin.
So if you're dealing with acne, eczema, psoriasis, any of those would definitely
(13:22):
indicate a detox issue because the skin will be recruited to be a detox organ
more so when the gut and the liver and the gallbladder and the lymphatic system are overwhelmed.
So it kind of will then put more of the weight on the skin because it just can't handle it all.
If you've ever been on, since we're talking mostly to women and we're talking
(13:45):
about women's health, if you've ever been on birth control, I would definitely
say your body is probably begging you for a detox.
If you're currently on birth control, you can still detox and really try to
watch your diet to make sure that you're getting all the nutrients that we talked about.
Birth control has been proven in studies to not only impair our detoxification
(14:07):
system, But it also actually inhibits a lot of our mineral and vitamin absorption.
And it kind of just like uses all of our resources. And that's on top of,
you know, the disconnection that it creates between our brain and our ovaries.
So it's just it can be a lot for women to be on birth control.
And this is again something really popping up on the internet right now with
(14:31):
the Washington Post saying that the holistic health community is basically making
up that women are dealing with side effects from the pill and it's just it's propaganda.
It's complete BS if you ask me.
Yeah. Yeah. I've always been very hesitant with
with that because I do feel like if like
(14:52):
I mentioned I did have some painful period not painful where I can't
like leave the house but whenever I would go to the doctor there are certain doctors
who'd be like oh well you just need to take birth control to regulate that and
all these things and it's like okay well like what else is there I
don't want to remember to have to take a pill every day that was kind of
my thing and I didn't want anything in my arm I definitely wasn't sticking with
IUD up there either I was like no no no so I
(15:12):
think I took the pill for like a year when I was 19 then
after that I was just like no I'm gonna have to figure good for you
i was on it for 10 years you know
the thing is your body doesn't have an
oral contraceptive deficiency so why
are doctors prescribing that to balance your
body it just doesn't make sense so yeah
(15:35):
i definitely felt that way even before i even knew the things
that i knew now but like i definitely felt like it doesn't really make sense i'm
just not gonna do it and there's one she was trying to push it
so hard she was literally like you
could have endometriosis and I was like but like did you test
for that and so she started to like backtrack and I think
sometimes when you're young they might try to like push more things because
(15:56):
I think you just don't know but like she didn't know like my mom's a nurse and
like you know I do have like medical people in my family so I'm not completely
clueless but it was the oddest experience I definitely never went back to her
because I didn't like that at all that's so interesting too that you say that
that she basically was saying.
You need to take this because you could have endometriosis, which again.
(16:16):
Not my legal house.
I'm not an expert on endo, but managing endo with birth control is really just for symptoms.
So I mean, taking birth control if you have endo is not going to cure endo. That's for sure.
It only manages your symptoms and it only does that because it covers of,
(16:37):
yeah, it's just the bandaid approach.
It is. And that's the biggest difference I've noticed with actually, I'll say my current
traditional doctor, she is a little bit more thorough. But when I compare my
functional medicine doctor to previous doctors that I've had in the past,
it really is the band-aid method that a lot of them use.
So I'm really seeing the difference of the more holistic, let's figure out the root cause approach.
(17:00):
And I'm loving it because one, I'm learning so much about my body and I'm just
learning what's going on inside.
And so I just think that, again, knowledge is power.
When you know what's going on in your body, you're getting advice on how you
can fix it versus how how you can medicate it, it really is life-changing.
And as you said earlier, you used the word empowering and it does feel really
empowering to know that I can make a different lifestyle choice to go ahead
(17:22):
and start reversing things.
So it doesn't get to the point where I might actually need medication.
100%. Yes. So we talked about detoxifying our body, the sign.
So how can we do it safely?
Yeah. So risks, there are some risks with detoxing. If you have not managed to open your drainage.
(17:43):
So essentially, the drainage system of the body is the outlets.
So valve movements, urine, sweating, breath, those are all how we get things out of the body.
And so we want to number one, like I said, increase your fiber,
make sure you're pooping two to three times a day, that's going to be the best
(18:06):
way to avoid any altercations or calling her symptoms, symptoms, which is like when.
Essentially when like you feel like crap because you're
detoxing but in actuality this shouldn't
be happening if you have your detox open i've been detoxing for good gosh how
long it's like seven years eight years and you know i've had a handful of times
(18:31):
where i've been like all right i'm a little bit tired like i i need to like
lie down for a little bit or you know i haven't had have like a minor headache,
but that should not be the norm, you know?
So I would say that's number one. So the bowel movement piece of that,
obviously like drinking enough water and making sure that you're peeing as well.
And then again, with the sweating, that can be really helpful.
(18:53):
Another thing I feel like, honestly, if you're a human in 2024 or later,
you probably need a detox and you you also probably need to be on a binder.
Again, going back to all these exogenous toxins like the glyphosate and heavy
metals, they're in our environment and avoiding them completely isn't really possible.
(19:16):
So the best we can do is to try to avoid them, mitigate them,
detox, and then bind them up.
So finding a good universal binder that works well for you is something that I really recommend.
For me, I personally really like activated charcoal, but there's others,
you know, activated charcoal can cause constipation.
(19:37):
So you know, that's going to be like, obviously, something you're going to want
to avoid if you're detoxing. So if you're experiencing that,
it's not for you try something like Takasumi, there's
you know, modified citrus pectin, chlorella, spirulina. Those are some of the more gentle ones.
There's humic and fulvic acid is a good one as well.
(19:58):
And that's also going to be really helpful for rebuilding the gut.
I feel like for me personally, that one's a good one for beginners and then
for more like maintenance.
So definitely the binders. So for binders, do you just take that for a certain
period of time, like while you're
trying to detox? Or is that like a thing that you take consistently?
(20:19):
Yeah, definitely. While you're trying to detox, I like I said,
I think that it's something that people can be on long term.
It's definitely not something that you're just going to want to take blindly,
though, I would say like, you kind of want to just like stay on top of something like that.
So with binders, there is the potential that it could it can like bind to some
(20:41):
of your your minerals and your nutrients.
So you're not going to want to like take your binder with your meal.
You're going to want to take it away from your food and like let it do its thing
with the toxins rather than let it do its thing with your food.
You know what I'm saying? Same thing goes for like certain medications and things like that.
So, you know, if you're unsure, find someone who understands these things and work with them on it.
(21:05):
You can also just test yourself, like go
get an an htma like make sure that you're
staying on top of whether or not these binders
are indeed like binding to your minerals
because that's going to be something that impairs your detox and defeats the
whole purpose so i like to do binders like getting into the sauna or a little
(21:28):
bit before the sauna and like sweating and binding at the same time to like
get all those out oh i like I like that idea.
I have to try that because I have some coconut activated charcoal.
Yeah. Excellent. I love it.
I love the activated charcoal. Yes. I know we talked a little bit about estrogen earlier.
So what role does estrogen and progesterone play in our health and how are they
(21:52):
affected by detoxification?
Okay. This could literally be a whole podcast episode.
So I'll just be brief about both of them. So estrogen, like I mentioned, is a growth hormone.
So think about like as a woman's going through puberty and she's developing
breasts and and thighs and a butt like those curves are really possible because of estrogen.
(22:17):
When you are in the first phase of your menstrual cycle, your follicular phase
and your like skin is glowing, you have like lots of energy that is estrogen.
Estrogen is again, a growth hormone. So that endometrial lining fertility.
You know, pregnancy can't happen without estrogen building up that lining.
(22:39):
Your bone growth and maintenance is possible because of estrogen.
This is one reason why women are more prone to osteoporosis and menopause,
heart health, muscle health, all those things, anything to do with growth,
estrogen is going to be your key player there.
And then with progesterone, progesterone is calming hormone.
(23:00):
Progesterone is more, more dominant in the second and half of your cycle during your luteal phase.
So let's say you're someone who really struggles with mood during your your second phase,
you might want to get your progesterone levels looked at because your progesterone
is very much linked to GABA in the brain, which is it's an amino acid,
(23:22):
and it's a neurotransmitter that really helps to ease anxiety,
calm us down, helps with sleep sleep cycles, things like that.
Progesterone is produced...
When we ovulate. So the corpus luteum is what would become the fetus and that
produces progesterone during the leading up to ovulation.
(23:45):
And then we end up, you know, not getting pregnant and then having the bleed,
but that corpus luteum is producing progesterone for us.
So if we're not ovulating, or
we are manually preventing ovulation through something like birth control,
then we're We're not going to get that natural calming supply of progesterone,
(24:07):
something that progesterone is not really known for, but plays a huge role with
women, especially any woman with PCOS, high androgens, hair growth on their face, chest or abdomen.
Acne, anything that's kind of like common with androgen growth or androgen levels.
(24:28):
Progesterone is actually what balances out
those androgens and can actually like monitor and
lower androgen levels so it could
be like if you're someone dealing with acne well yeah
you might have higher testosterone and dht
but you might have normal testosterone and dht
(24:48):
but you might not have enough progesterone maybe that's
why these male hormones are able to
have more of an an effect on you so it really
with like all those sex hormones it's so
much of a balancing act so when we
talk about estrogen dominance there's two different types we have frank estrogen
dominance which means that you just have too much estrogen in your body reasons
(25:12):
would be number one of course your body can produce estrogen and it does but
your body's not going to typically produce too much extra estrogen.
That's not really where too much estrogen comes from. It usually comes from our environment.
Things that are estrogenic in our environment would be BPA, BPS that are in
plastics, fragrances, any synthetic fragrance, lotions, perfumes, makeup, all that stuff.
(25:39):
Phthalates, which are, they're basically chemicals that.
Keep things in suspension, I believe. So it like keeps that fragrance lasting a long time.
So like when you smell your laundry detergent for weeks, that is the phthalate is what's doing that.
So those are things that have a really strong estrogenic effect on a human body,
(26:01):
whether that's male or female.
So as a side note for men, especially in our modern world where we have so so
many synthetic fragrances and just chemicals in general, a lot of men are really
noticing this estrogenic effect.
But yeah, so estrogen in the environment is really what generally will cause
(26:21):
estrogen dominance, even just like pesticides and things like that can be estrogenic.
So we really want to watch out for those if we're dealing with some of the estrogen
dominant symptoms, heavy periods and things like that, painful periods.
And then there's relative estrogen dominance. And this means that in relation
(26:41):
to estrogen, you don't have enough progesterone.
So either your estrogen is normal, but your progesterone levels are low.
And that's pretty common as well. So and that would usually be from stress or
from like something like the birth birth control pill,
or something that would cause you to not ovulate, which could be stress or birth
(27:03):
control or something else entirely, even like nutrient deficiencies.
You want like vitamin E, vitamin C, vitamin A, copper, like you need all of
these things to be able to ovulate naturally and produce that progesterone.
Yes. So if you do have estrogen dominant, Are there some ways that you can go
(27:24):
about to reverse it? Of course.
So number one would be finding out some of those sources of the xenoestrogens,
those estrogens that your body is not making, the ones that are in your environment.
So, you know, unplug that air freshener, you know, use your perfume sparingly.
And I'm not going to say like you have to be perfect.
(27:46):
I understand that like smells are experiences for people. and from time to time
I will still use my favorite perfumes, but I am definitely not spraying them on a daily basis.
I am getting them nowhere near my neck. You know, they're going on my clothes only.
So simple like changes like that, you know, just using like olive oil for your
(28:08):
lotion or coconut oil or something like that, like you can make these little changes.
And honestly, like when it comes to lotion, I like to like touch on this too,
because this can be for like facial moisturizer as well.
Like if you are hydrated on the inside like
your skin should not like need moisturizer or
lotion you know what i'm saying like it could it
(28:29):
could be like a benefit and like make you a little bit
softer silkier but like you shouldn't have dry
skin if you do there's an internal issue so
a lot of these issues that we try
to like manage with these products can be
mitigated if we work on the the internal environment but then
of course just like opening up the drainage like we
(28:49):
talked about like making sure that you're having those bowel movements
and if you're eating well and you're two to three times
a day and like you know you're sweating and all the good things and you're still
dealing with some heavy periods which i honestly feel like that'll get rid of
it but like there's going to be that one-off person where like they're like
i've been doing all the things go get your gut tested get your stool tested
(29:11):
because if you've got super high beta-glucuronidase like we talked about,
it'll be difficult for you to manage the estrogen actually leaving your body.
So yeah, that's all so interesting. It's so interesting.
So what are some natural methods for supporting hormone balance aside from detoxification?
Drainage, drainage, drainage.
That's it. Fiber, fiber, fiber, protein, protein, protein.
(29:35):
I would say when it comes to the birth control thing,
learning the fertility awareness method, I
think is the most empowering thing that a woman can do
for herself for her future daughters before the
birth control pill this is what women did and the birth control pill has only
been around for a couple decades and yeah it's paved the way for women to advance
(29:56):
our careers and things like that but now our generations are like okay we've
had enough we don't want to feel like crap anymore right you know
The fertility awareness method is basically using certain metrics of your body,
including your body temperature, your cervical mucus, the position of your cervix,
(30:17):
and one other thing I can't remember.
I mostly do like the mucus and the temperature.
And like for me, like that's been enough. So taking your temperature every morning
before you get out of bed is basically what it takes.
And that can be hard to like make a habit of. But the fertility awareness method
is going to be the most empowering thing that a woman can do,
(30:37):
especially, you know, obviously, if you're on birth control,
if you're wanting to get pregnant, wanting to avoid pregnancy,
like, yeah, number two, I mean, this would actually probably be number one,
because it affects more people stress management, I can't stress enough,
like, you gotta figure it out, whether it's combining adaptogens with somatic therapy,
cognitive behavioral therapy, like looking at your childhood,
(31:01):
looking at your trauma, like really getting to the root of your nervous system
regulation is going to be a huge component. And I know it was huge for me.
So I know there's other people out there that it's the same way.
Yeah, yeah, I think I think that sums it up. I think like we really covered
it multiple times, but like avoiding some of those toxins when we can buy,
(31:24):
you know, buying organic food and just really just being aware of our environment.
I think like, when it comes to these things, We just need to really take a look at what is around us.
What is in X, Y, and Z?
What am I ingesting? What's in the container?
Where could toxins possibly be coming from?
And I'm not saying that people should be neurotic about it, but just becoming
(31:47):
more curious and observant would be the first step.
And then once you're more aware, then you can start to do something about it.
Yeah, I think that's super huge.
And I know we've definitely touched on the toxins and stress a lot.
And I think you did touch a little bit on sleep, but I do want to ask, so what...
Or can you talk more about the impact of sleep quality when it comes to achieving
(32:10):
our optimal gut health and balancing our hormones?
I feel like for the longest time, it was very like grind culture.
You can sleep when you die.
And I know for me, like I have the hardest time sleeping, which is something
I've been trying to work on.
So I think a lot of us can struggle with that. I didn't know that you struggled with sleep.
I'm also someone who struggles with sleep and I have my entire life.
So sleep is so important.
(32:33):
Oh, my gosh. Gosh, sleep, honestly, like you can go longer without food than
you can without sleep, just to put it into perspective. Like it's huge.
Most of our detoxification happens during sleep. And I would say that that is
probably the most powerful part of sleep.
Obviously, most of us, unless you're working like a night shift.
(32:55):
You're going to be sleeping when the sun is down and when it's dark,
and then you're going to be awake at the opposite of that.
So the circadian rhythm them and the light
has a huge component of like controlling that
circadian rhythm for us so recommendations for
people having trouble with sleep would be really to like i should be wearing
my boot blocking glasses right now because the sun is down so like making sure
(33:20):
that you are blocking any artificial light at night can be really powerful for
people with sleep and getting our bodies into that rhythm.
When it comes to I think there's a strain, it's like long gum 1714 that bifidobacterium
that can be really helpful for sleep.
But during sleep, we're getting the maximum amount of detox that we possibly
(33:45):
can, the body is not digesting any food, you know, it's literally just like
blank, except for dreams, I suppose.
But with the brain, we we actually have have a fluid system in the brain that
only gets drained when we're asleep.
So it's called the glymphatic system.
(34:06):
And it, you know, phonetically, it resembles lymphatic system,
which is really, it's the same thing.
It's just for the brain. So the lymphatic system, again, is that fluid,
like fluid in, fluid out.
And that's what's happening with the brain. So that's how the brain actually removes toxins.
And this is one reason why people with dementia and Alzheimer's,
(34:29):
they generally had a really hard time sleeping throughout their lives.
They weren't able to remove those heavy metals and those toxins that are now
contributing to their chronic inflammatory condition.
So it's really, really wild to think about that. But when it comes to managing your sleep,
managing your nervous system, and I think breaking
(34:50):
down those traumas and a lot
of the sort of just like I think that we have become
hyper vigilant in a way I think most
people like when they're trying to sleep their monkey
brain and they just can't stop thinking of their to-do list or like what happened
at work today or like what's going to happen at work tomorrow and like all the
things that keep us up right like we're usually not like lying there like with
(35:14):
a blank brain like we're usually thinking about something like I can't go to
sleep because I was thinking about this.
But that's all kind of a result of hypervigilance.
And that could have happened, you know, for various reasons,
childhood, adulthood, like various things can make us feel that way.
So kind of like breaking down those walls and, you know, understanding where
(35:35):
it's coming from. And adaptogens can be really helpful for this.
You know, there's various amino acids that can be really helpful for this as well.
Yeah, I think those are all good things. I know for me, when it comes to falling
asleep, the best way for me to do that, I take my magnesium glycinate and then
I listen to either like a sleep podcast or audio book.
I feel like that for some reason makes me go to sleep so quickly.
(35:57):
But my problem is that a lot of times I'll wake up to use the bathroom and then
it's when I wake up, it's so hard for me to go back to sleep because then I
think maybe I'll start thinking about things or I don't know,
but I just can't. That's my boat too. Yeah.
And I think like, Like, you know, if I'm being completely transparent for myself, like...
I think that it's a lot to do with trauma for me. You know, everybody deals with trauma.
(36:22):
Someone who is maybe like a little bit more sensitive than others might have
had this little t trauma, which like technically could be to other people negligible,
like, but for this sensitive person, like it was traumatic.
And so dealing with some of that, that can be a challenge for sure.
But one thing I really like for that situation is a supplement called Serifos.
(36:49):
It's phosphorylated serine, which is an amino acid that's been connected to another mineral.
And that can be really helpful for calming the mind, kind of putting you back
to sleep in a natural way.
Oh, I like that. I'm gonna have to look into that. Also, I need to know where
did you get your blue blocking glasses?
Glasses so these are like my daytime blue
(37:09):
blockers i don't wear them too often unless
i'm like on the computer all day but these are actually just like cheap from
amazon the ones i should have on right now are in my bedroom but those are like
the actual amber ones like they're not cute at all but they get the job done
those are actually from amazon too but they're a brand called spectra I think Spectra 479.
(37:33):
Okay. I don't have to look into those. Well, one, I sit at the computer all
day, so I need, well, I have regular glasses.
So maybe I need to add that to my regular glasses because I don't know if these
have it, but perfect because I need new glasses.
But I also want to buy the nighttime ones because I think having a good nighttime
routine and preparing for sleep
is also going to help for those of us who have issues sleeping. Yeah.
(37:56):
Definitely. I think you'll you'll definitely notice like it might not be immediate,
but you'll notice over time that that helps you to just sleep better throughout the night.
Awesome. Thank you so much for all of this, Carly. It's been so good.
I've learned so much and I know that everyone else has as well.
So can you tell us where we can find you on social media or anywhere related
(38:18):
so that we can follow you and potentially work with you?
Yeah, this was so much fun.
I love our conversations. conversations me too so you
can find me on instagram at holistically
underscore carly same same thing
on tiktok although i am not really very active on there hopefully by the time
(38:39):
anyone hears this i will be but yeah so i'll definitely make sure that i link
your socials in the show notes and that way everyone can easily find you because
you also i know in your stories you post food and stuff, the things that you
make, or when you're sick,
you post your little remedies. And I think it's so helpful.
Often I screenshot them so I can have them for later.
(38:59):
Thank you. Yeah. I mean, there's been a lot going around these last few years.
So I feel like I've been getting more sick than I typically would.
So I do share a lot about what I'm doing because I really don't
take medication definitely don't you
know I'd have to be on my deathbed to take an antibiotic so so you don't even
(39:22):
take pain medicine I will from time to time if you know if I really need it
or if there's something going on in my life where I can't cancel I'm not going
to cancel but most time I'll just like try to take a nap.
But yeah and then my website is also holisticallycarly.com
(39:44):
so you can also catch me there and like that would be you know if you wanted
to work with me or see the services that i offer everything is linked on there
and and you can get there from my instagram as well but awesome i will link
that as well again thank you so much for coming on thank you,
(40:05):
thank you all for tuning into this week's episode if you
really loved the episode and you felt like it resonated with
you be sure to share the love and share the episode with a
friend also if you could take a minute and head to the review section wherever
you listen to your podcast and leave me a review letting me know what you're
loving about these episodes and which topics you want to hear next that way
i can make sure that i continue creating episodes that you love also make sure
(40:28):
you hit the subscribe button so that you don't miss an episode until next week bye grown girl.
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