Latest / Love Your Gut / Ep. 59: Hypothalamic Amenorrhea, Period Issues and Overlapping GI symptoms with Lindsey Lusson

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Ep. 59: Hypothalamic Amenorrhea, Period Issues and Overlapping GI symptoms with Lindsey Lusson · Love Your Gut

• 0:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the Love Your Gut Podcast.
• 0:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm your host, Dr.
• 0:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: Heather Finley, registered dietitian and gut health specialist.
• 0:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: I understand the frustration of dealing with GI issues because I've been there and I spent over two decades searching for answers for my own gut issues of constipation, bloating, and stomach pain.
• 0:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: I've dedicated my life to understanding and solving my own gut issues.
• 0:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: And now I'm here to guide you.
• 0:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: On this podcast, I'll help you identify the true root causes of your discomfort.
• 0:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you can finally ditch your symptoms for good.
• 0:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: My goal is to empower you with the knowledge and tools you need so that you can love your gut and it will love you right back.
• 0:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you're ready to learn a lot, gain a deeper understanding of your gut and find lasting relief.
• 0:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: You are in the right place.
• 0:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to the love your gut podcast..............
• 0:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome back to the next episode of the love your gut podcast.
• 0:57
  Dr. Heather Finley: I am so excited today because I have my good friend, Lindsey Lusson here with me, and we are going to talk all things period loss, GI issues, hypothalamic amenorrhea, primary amenorrhea, and everything in between.
• 1:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: So Lindsey, welcome to the show.
• 1:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: Thanks so much for having me.
• 1:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: There's a lot
• 1:17
  Lindsey Lusson: of Overlap and things that we can unpack here.
• 1:20
  Lindsey Lusson: And I think that this is going to be so valuable for anybody who has ever struggled with period loss and digestive issues or currently struggling.
• 1:28
  Dr. Heather Finley: Totally.
• 1:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I think we've had a lot of kind of shared clients over the years or referrals back and forth.
• 1:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: So I think it'll be helpful to have a discussion around like, when is it appropriate to work on your GI issues first?
• 1:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: When is it appropriate to work on period recovery first?
• 1:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: What are some of the kind of overlaps and gaps in between?
• 1:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: So why don't we start out by just defining some terms and kind of getting everybody on the same page.
• 1:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: So Tell us a little bit about what you do, why you do it and give us a little background on what is hypothalamic amenorrhea?
• 2:02
  Dr. Heather Finley: What is primary amenorrhea?
• 2:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: So we kind of know the difference and then we can go from there.
• 2:07
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, sure.
• 2:08
  Lindsey Lusson: I'm a period recovery and fertility dietitian, been a registered dietitian for 14 years.
• 2:12
  Lindsey Lusson: Went through kind of my own journey with losing my period and experiencing infertility as a result when I lost my period back in gosh, like senior year of high school is very much a swept under the rug.
• 2:24
  Lindsey Lusson: Just take the pill.
• 2:25
  Lindsey Lusson: This is no big deal, but I feel like women just have this really amazing, innate intuition.
• 2:30
  Lindsey Lusson: You just always kind of know something is not right.
• 2:33
  Lindsey Lusson: And so I was always trying to get down to the bottom of why I wasn't getting my period.
• 2:37
  Lindsey Lusson: Fast forward to when I was ready to get pregnant, I was basically told that I needed to start pretty high level intervention for fertility treatment.
• 2:46
  Lindsey Lusson: And that just didn't sit very well with me.
• 2:49
  Lindsey Lusson: Around the same time, interestingly enough, people started talking about this term, hypokalemic amenorrhea.
• 2:54
  Lindsey Lusson: I went through four years of undergrad, three years of grad school.
• 2:57
  Lindsey Lusson: never came across the term kind of identified with this idea of having female athlete triad, which is disordered eating bone loss and loss of period.
• 3:06
  Lindsey Lusson: But I didn't really fit the athlete mold.
• 3:09
  Lindsey Lusson: And so when I came across this term, it was kind of like a light bulb moment that this is what.
• 3:12
  Lindsey Lusson: What's going on with me.
• 3:13
  Lindsey Lusson: Fast forward was able to get my cycle back.
• 3:16
  Lindsey Lusson: Ovulate on my own, get pregnant naturally three times.
• 3:19
  Lindsey Lusson: And so now today I help women all over the world do the same thing.
• 3:22
  Lindsey Lusson: Be able to get down to the bottom of their missing period.
• 3:24
  Lindsey Lusson: Be able to ovulate naturally on their own and take home healthy babies.
• 3:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: So interesting.
• 3:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I also agree.
• 3:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: I think we probably had one lesson on the female athlete triad in all of undergrad.
• 3:37
  Dr. Heather Finley: And it was Oh, and by the way, here's this thing.
• 3:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: Okay.
• 3:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: Moving on.
• 3:40
  Dr. Heather Finley: Kind of same with GI issues a little bit too, where it's like, Okay.
• 3:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: And there's this thing called the low FODMAP diet and moving on, so why do you think it is that we're not taught about this or why do you think it's, it's becoming a lot more common that people are actually talking about this, but I know you and I have had many conversations offline about like how a lot of physicians don't even know what hypothalamic amenorrhea is.
• 4:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: Why do you think that is?
• 4:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: Or what do you think some of the drivers of that are?
• 4:10
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah.
• 4:11
  Lindsey Lusson: I think at the root, at least when you and I were going through school, a decade or two ago, I think lack of information was a big problem back then.
• 4:21
  Lindsey Lusson: Cause like I said if you look back to the earliest research paper on hypothalamic amenorrhea, it was written in like the seventies maybe.
• 4:28
  Lindsey Lusson: So that's like relatively new in the research world.
• 4:30
  Lindsey Lusson: And so we all know that it takes a decade plus for like research to get caught up to be actually be put into like policy and protocols and things like that, like in a health, a traditional healthcare setting.
• 4:40
  Lindsey Lusson: So I think that lack of information is part of the problem too.
• 4:43
  Lindsey Lusson: I also feel like for both GI and like hormone issues I've got another one too, that I'll get into in a second.
• 4:51
  Lindsey Lusson: I feel like we, at least for me, it was very presented as this is super rare.
• 4:56
  Lindsey Lusson: Like you're never going to come across I don't feel like anyone has this.
• 4:59
  Lindsey Lusson: Unless you like work for the IOC and you're working with.
• 5:02
  Lindsey Lusson: Gymnasts and figure skaters all day.
• 5:04
  Lindsey Lusson: So I feel like it was kind of posed as this is super rare.
• 5:07
  Lindsey Lusson: This doesn't happen very often.
• 5:08
  Lindsey Lusson: And then finally, I know specifically for like period problems.
• 5:13
  Lindsey Lusson: Women's health and hormones.
• 5:15
  Lindsey Lusson: It's just so understudied.
• 5:16
  Lindsey Lusson: Like women's health is so understudied, even today in 2024.
• 5:21
  Lindsey Lusson: We're like very much in the infancy of the research and understanding everything.
• 5:25
  Lindsey Lusson: And I think maybe we can say the same thing too, for gut health.
• 5:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: Totally.
• 5:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah.
• 5:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: And it's you said it's, Oh, this is a rare thing, but it's actually not.
• 5:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: I think I was a swimmer my whole life and I ran cross country in high school and there was a lot of times In high school where I'd have cross country practice and swim practice in the same day.
• 5:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so it's very easy.
• 5:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you take a scenario like that myself and, millions of other high schoolers that probably have a similar routine when sports is like such a huge part of your life, it's And it's very easy to like, even just go to your pediatrician for your yearly checkup and then be like, Oh you're just a late bloomer or like you, you're just super active.
• 6:04
  Dr. Heather Finley: So this is quote, unquote, normal.
• 6:07
  Dr. Heather Finley: And it's easy to kind of brush like under fueling under the rug and not pay attention to a growth chart or anything.
• 6:14
  Dr. Heather Finley: And, perhaps maybe catch some of these things before they start affecting fertility or Affecting, all the other things that can come along with it down the road.
• 6:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: So yeah, same thing with GI issues.
• 6:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's Oh, this is actually not that common, but I think some of the research now shows like 70 percent of people in the U S have GI issues.
• 6:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm like, that's a lot of people that have some level of GI issues.
• 6:38
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah.
• 6:38
  Lindsey Lusson: A hundred percent.
• 6:40
  Lindsey Lusson: And something that you said, because I know we were talking about like a defining what is AJ?
• 6:43
  Lindsey Lusson: What is primary amenorrhea?
• 6:44
  Lindsey Lusson: Something that I think really deserves more attention is early intervention for when women aren't starting their period.
• 6:52
  Lindsey Lusson: So we work with a lot of clients who are like, I was a late bloomer, or, I didn't start my period until I was 16, 17, 18, or until I went to college, et cetera.
• 7:00
  Lindsey Lusson: And that alone is kind of a red flag because anytime somebody isn't starting their period by age 15, that is like the clinical definition of primary amenorrhea, meaning that something is misfiring in their reproductive system.
• 7:14
  Lindsey Lusson: Signaling usually like with the hypothalamus that is not allowing the body to turn on that hormonal system at the appropriate time that it's supposed to.
• 7:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: So break down for us then what the difference between primary amenorrhea and hypothalamic amenorrhea and where the overlap is because.
• 7:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: There can be overlap as well.
• 7:33
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely.
• 7:34
  Lindsey Lusson: I am probably a little bit biased because usually the people that we're working with who have primary amenorrhea, also it is more hypothalamic amenorrhea in nature.
• 7:43
  Lindsey Lusson: But there are incidences where there can be other reasons why somebody wouldn't start their period where it isn't kind of the frankender feeling.
• 7:48
  Lindsey Lusson: So I guess let's first by start by defining a little bit more hypothalamic amenorrhea.
• 7:53
  Lindsey Lusson: In the most like simplistic terms, it is caused by kind of three main things, stress.
• 7:58
  Lindsey Lusson: So that can be like psychological stress.
• 8:00
  Lindsey Lusson: It could be physiological stress from trauma or eating disorder, et cetera.
• 8:05
  Lindsey Lusson: There is also typically a under fueling component of it, whether it's a, Heather, back in high school, multi sport athlete, very limited time.
• 8:14
  Lindsey Lusson: Maybe so also some GI issues going on kind of a frank under feeling like, Oh my gosh, I had no idea.
• 8:19
  Lindsey Lusson: I needed to be eating this much.
• 8:21
  Lindsey Lusson: So it could be an unintentional under feeling.
• 8:22
  Lindsey Lusson: It could also be an intentional under fueling with more of a disordered eating, eating disorder, part of it.
• 8:28
  Lindsey Lusson: And then also typically.
• 8:30
  Lindsey Lusson: High energy expenditure, whether that is intentional as part of an eating disorder or unintentional.
• 8:36
  Lindsey Lusson: Usually what we see more often is like athlete put past division one athlete kind of continued their training into young adulthood, middle adulthood.
• 8:45
  Lindsey Lusson: So yeah, so the three main triggers stress under fueling and over exercise.
• 8:51
  Lindsey Lusson: Usually it's not one of those alone probably could be a trigger, but usually it's some sort of combination of all three of those.
• 8:58
  Lindsey Lusson: And it happens in somebody who started their period at a normal age and then kind of mysteriously loses their period at some point.
• 9:06
  Lindsey Lusson: Whereas primary amenorrhea is they don't actually ever start their period at kind of that normal around age 15, 16 designated age.
• 9:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: And so you work with clients primarily that have hypothalamic amenorrhea, but you do get a handful that have primary amenorrhea.
• 9:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: But like you said, many times it's actually driven by the same things as the hypothalamic amenorrhea.
• 9:29
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah.
• 9:30
  Lindsey Lusson: It kind of depends upon the trigger, right?
• 9:32
  Lindsey Lusson: So if we're working with a client who Is 30 and has never had a period.
• 9:38
  Lindsey Lusson: It's been covered up by hormonal birth control.
• 9:40
  Lindsey Lusson: And then we start having a conversation.
• 9:41
  Lindsey Lusson: And this is a piece that I feel is just so often missed in a traditional clinical healthcare situation is we start actually having a conversation about bull, what went on in high school?
• 9:53
  Lindsey Lusson: What was the environment with food?
• 9:55
  Lindsey Lusson: What were the pressures that you were put?
• 9:57
  Lindsey Lusson: putting yourself under in terms of training.
• 10:00
  Lindsey Lusson: Was there ever a change in the way that you chose to, approach food or restrict food?
• 10:05
  Lindsey Lusson: And usually at least the clients that we're working with that maybe never have ever had a period kind of roots in restriction, disordered eating disorder from a really young age.
• 10:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: I want to bring light to something that you've said a couple times is that it was covered up by hormonal birth control.
• 10:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: So just to kind of put it out there, if somebody has had a period, but it's induced by hormonal birth control, that's not the type of period that we're talking about.
• 10:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: We're talking about like someone's body menstruating on its own without the use of like birth control or something just to clear the air a little bit so someone's not I'm on birth control and I've had a period.
• 10:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: But we're talking about have you ever had one without anything inducing it?
• 10:53
  Dr. Heather Finley: Natural
• 10:53
  Lindsey Lusson: ovulatory cycle versus.
• 10:56
  Lindsey Lusson: Birth control is really more what we would consider to be a withdrawal bleed from the synthetic hormones that are in your system.
• 11:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah.
• 11:02
  Dr. Heather Finley: Okay.
• 11:02
  Dr. Heather Finley: Just wanted to make sure that like the listeners were on the same page as us and weren't being like, Oh, this doesn't apply to me because I've had a period for 15 years cause I've been on birth control for 15 years.
• 11:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: Okay, so the reason for this conversation is because of the overlap of GI issues with all sorts of period issues.
• 11:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: So we, like I said at the beginning, tend to see quite an overlap in some of our clients.
• 11:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's pretty common when someone is missing a period or even on birth control to have GI issues.
• 11:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: So let's talk about some of the common GI issues that you might experience and why that is.
• 11:41
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then we can have a conversation about do you address the GI issues?
• 11:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: Do they go away?
• 11:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: What kind of some typical scenarios can look like?
• 11:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: So in the clients that you work with, let's say it's somebody who's been missing a period for several years.
• 11:57
  Dr. Heather Finley: You identify that they have hypothalamic amenorrhea.
• 12:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: What would kind of be expected from like a GI standpoint, or what are some of the common things that you see?
• 12:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: I
• 12:06
  Lindsey Lusson: see a lot of slow motility.
• 12:08
  Lindsey Lusson: So people not having bowel movements every single day, or if they are going, they feel like they are having incomplete bowel movements.
• 12:16
  Lindsey Lusson: A lot of bloating a lot of feeling like they.
• 12:22
  Lindsey Lusson: Can't digest food well, which usually puts, sends people kind of down this rabbit hole of elimination diets and food sensitivity testing.
• 12:29
  Lindsey Lusson: And so I would say that those are the biggies are like bloat, constipation, slow motility.
• 12:35
  Lindsey Lusson: And just kind of like their GI issues, just like it feeling very like taking over their lives.
• 12:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: So from an energy standpoint, like why would that actually be?
• 12:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: normal, like why do we expect that would be the case and expect that somebody who comes to your program might have some of those symptoms?
• 12:57
  Lindsey Lusson: So I think that way, I think that kind of the way that we're taught to think about the human body is that There's the separate systems.
• 13:05
  Lindsey Lusson: There's the reproductive system.
• 13:07
  Lindsey Lusson: There's the gastrointestinal system.
• 13:08
  Lindsey Lusson: There's the muscular skeletal system.
• 13:10
  Lindsey Lusson: The fact of the matter is that they're all very closely interrelated and can be impacted by a variety of different things.
• 13:17
  Lindsey Lusson: So if we think about what is causing your body to shut down ovulation and your body to say mayday, this is not a safe place to make a baby.
• 13:26
  Lindsey Lusson: shut down the system, we have to conserve energy.
• 13:30
  Lindsey Lusson: It makes sense that there would be other systems in the body that would be impacted from remaining in a low energy state.
• 13:37
  Lindsey Lusson: So we see this with bone loss.
• 13:40
  Lindsey Lusson: So people lose the ability to maintain regular bone mass whenever they aren't cycling regularly.
• 13:45
  Lindsey Lusson: We see it in heart issues and we also see it in digestive issues.
• 13:48
  Lindsey Lusson: So if the body.
• 13:49
  Lindsey Lusson: Simply doesn't have enough energy to move food and waste to the digestive track.
• 13:54
  Lindsey Lusson: That's going to contribute to food sitting in the stomach longer and some of those bloat constipation and kind of trickle down effective, even kind of even more severe than I'm sure in your practice GI issues.
• 14:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah.
• 14:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: So at the end of the day, it's really all about what does your body have the energy to do?
• 14:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: And a GI.
• 14:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: Or having a bowel movement is kind of a non essential function.
• 14:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's way more important for your heart to beat and your lungs to breathe and your brain to think than it is for you to have a bowel movement each day.
• 14:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: So it's like your body is actually just really doing what it was designed to do, which for better or for worse, that's kind of the reality.
• 14:34
  Lindsey Lusson: And same thing with reproduction.
• 14:35
  Lindsey Lusson: Like we, that's not an essential for life function.
• 14:39
  Lindsey Lusson: It's a nice to have, but not necessary for you to survive.
• 14:43
  Lindsey Lusson: The next 24 hours function.
• 14:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: Totally.
• 14:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: Totally.
• 14:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: So what do you kind of see as like the progression, you have clients that come to your program, probably have constipation, bloating gas, whatever else add to the list of the GI symptoms, they've probably gone down the food sensitivity rabbit hole, probably all that has done is restricted them more, added more stress and potentially made the issues worse.
• 15:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: What do you typically see as far as.
• 15:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: When GI issues get better.
• 15:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: And like what percentage of people just estimate wise, I don't know that we have like specific research on this, but just in your opinion and your experience, people start working through your program.
• 15:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: They start eating more fueling themselves.
• 15:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: Potentially exercising less, et cetera, like addressing all the pieces.
• 15:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: Do the GI issues get better and kind of what's the timeline for that?
• 15:38
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah.
• 15:38
  Lindsey Lusson: So what I usually tell my clients to expect, and this is really just based off of the 300 plus clients we've served and patterns that I've observed with them is there is a little bit of a learning curve, right?
• 15:49
  Lindsey Lusson: So if your body is.
• 15:50
  Lindsey Lusson: It's only used to handling X amount of energy in terms of digestion and metabolism and utilizing all of those nutrients.
• 15:59
  Lindsey Lusson: There is going to be a learning curve because part of the process of being able to get your cycle back and to signal to the body that, Hey, this is a safe place to ovulate and make a baby and therefore have a period is getting your body in an energy surplus.
• 16:12
  Lindsey Lusson: This is one of the most challenging parts for.
• 16:15
  Lindsey Lusson: literally everyone during AHA recovery is that it's uncomfortable.
• 16:19
  Lindsey Lusson: Like it's uncomfortable to eat more food, especially when your digestion has slowed, especially when your metabolism isn't working adequately.
• 16:27
  Lindsey Lusson: And so there is this, I always tell people kind of a two to three week learning period, learning curve when the body is having to relearn how to properly digest all of this food.
• 16:38
  Lindsey Lusson: Get it out.
• 16:39
  Lindsey Lusson: There is also sometimes a clearing out of the digestive tract.
• 16:42
  Lindsey Lusson: So for people who are having infrequent bowel movements or incomplete bowel movements, sometimes they'll actually have a lot more bowel movements during this adjustment period because they're kind of clearing out their bowels for the first time in months, maybe years.
• 16:54
  Lindsey Lusson: But usually after about two to four weeks of correcting the energy deficit, our clients report like a complete 180 on most of their gut issues.
• 17:06
  Lindsey Lusson: This is not the case for every single person, but I will confidently say that at least 90 up to 95 percent of our clients are able to get, I don't want to say instant relief, but within about a month or so, like a huge difference.
• 17:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: Which really in the grand scheme of it all is not that long.
• 17:25
  Dr. Heather Finley: It probably does at the time feel like the longest month of your life while you're doing that.
• 17:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: But if you think about it in the grand scheme of everything, that's actually a pretty quick turnaround.
• 17:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: Like the body really can heal itself pretty quickly, given the proper inputs.
• 17:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: Are there things that you recommend that your clients do in the meantime to help with like comfort and symptom relief, et cetera?
• 17:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: What are some of the things that you found that have been helpful?
• 17:54
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely.
• 17:55
  Lindsey Lusson: So it feels really backwards for a lot of our clients because they feel like the pathway into HA, not for everybody, but for a lot of people is almost like very clean eating, very healthy eating, borderline orthorexia eating.
• 18:07
  Lindsey Lusson: So it can feel very counterproductive.
• 18:09
  Lindsey Lusson: But one of the things that we'll tell our clients to do is actually start cutting down on their fiber intake and to lower the amount of fruits and vegetables that consuming, especially like raw uncooked vegetables.
• 18:18
  Lindsey Lusson: And that Can help to not overtax the GI system as it's kind of adapting and relearning how to move all that food and process it and move it through the digestive tract.
• 18:29
  Lindsey Lusson: The other thing is to kind of think about decreasing volume and focusing on nutrient dense foods.
• 18:35
  Lindsey Lusson: So things like nuts, seeds, avocados, higher fat foods, liquid calories can also be really helpful here too, because we kind of have this short term must correct the energy deficit.
• 18:46
  Lindsey Lusson: But while battling these GI issues.
• 18:48
  Lindsey Lusson: And so the idea is how can we get you the most energy possible without over, without overfilling your stomach with a lot of volume.
• 18:58
  Lindsey Lusson: So that's kind of where we are usually talking to people like, Hey, veggies are great time and a place.
• 19:03
  Lindsey Lusson: Let's talk about decreasing the portion, making sure that they're cooked, kind of thinking them more of more of a sprinkle or an add to the meal, not like the entire base of the meal.
• 19:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: That's something we tell our clients too.
• 19:14
  Dr. Heather Finley: Like one of the biggest, most powerful shifts you can make is stop eating raw salads for every single meal.
• 19:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you're bloated and you're constipated, a raw salad is actually extremely hard to digest.
• 19:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: And can be really triggering from a symptom perspective and prevent you from actually eating enough too.
• 19:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: Switching from raw to cooked like that alone can make a huge difference.
• 19:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: Anything else that you see is either nutritional or something else thing that really helps like a shift that somebody could make.
• 19:45
  Lindsey Lusson: We really try to get our clients off of sugar alcohols or any sort of fake artificial sweeteners.
• 19:51
  Lindsey Lusson: A lot of our clients are very athletic and they're into fitness.
• 19:54
  Lindsey Lusson: And so they're typically consuming all the protein bars, all the protein powders, all the, halo top ice cream or high protein, low sugar version of a regular type of food or a dessert food.
• 20:06
  Lindsey Lusson: And unfortunately, most people don't do well with sugar alcohols, whether they're crazy bloated or they're pooping their pants.
• 20:12
  Lindsey Lusson: Like most people just don't tolerate them well.
• 20:15
  Lindsey Lusson: Trying to eliminate those as much as possible.
• 20:18
  Lindsey Lusson: And then also, this isn't a problem for every single person, but cutting down on carbonated beverages, like if somebody's drinking diet sodas, or if somebody's drinking just a lot of sparkling water through all throughout the day, that alone is definitely going to make you a little more bloated.
• 20:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah, totally.
• 20:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's like a trade off, okay, enjoy that, but know that with that can come like some of these other things.
• 20:37
  Dr. Heather Finley: Okay.
• 20:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you said 95 percent of people can resolve their, or you've seen 95 percent about resolve their GI issues once they are eating more.
• 20:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: Exercising less resolving the period.
• 20:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: What about like the 5%?
• 20:49
  Dr. Heather Finley: So we were talking about this offline the one in 200 where it's okay, you've kind of followed the program.
• 20:57
  Dr. Heather Finley: You've been eating more, you've decreased your activity.
• 21:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: You've been at this, you're being really diligent and honest with yourself about resting, et cetera.
• 21:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: And yet your GI issues are.
• 21:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: So horrible.
• 21:11
  Dr. Heather Finley: Or you're just not getting your period back.
• 21:14
  Dr. Heather Finley: So let's look at it like kind of from the reverse, what are some scenarios that you've seen that, would be in that kind of 5 percent that we're talking about?
• 21:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm interrupting this episode really quick to tell you about our sponsor LMNT.
• 21:28
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• 21:31
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• 21:40
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• 21:44
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• 21:48
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• 22:01
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• 22:04
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• 22:06
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• 22:12
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• 22:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: Now back to the episode.
• 22:21
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely.
• 22:22
  Lindsey Lusson: I've definitely come across chronic unresolved constipation and I say and unresolved might sound extreme because I do feel like there's always a solution for it.
• 22:32
  Lindsey Lusson: But Usually I'm seeing this in our more severe eating disorder clients.
• 22:37
  Lindsey Lusson: So kind of coming back to a topic I'm sure you've covered on this podcast several times about the gut being a muscle and the gut being out of shape.
• 22:44
  Lindsey Lusson: And so step one to getting that working again is getting food and waste to regularly move.
• 22:50
  Lindsey Lusson: Through the digestive track.
• 22:52
  Lindsey Lusson: What if you can't do that?
• 22:53
  Lindsey Lusson: What if for reason X, Y, or Z, whether it's stress related, whether it's something more complex medically, what if you can't do that?
• 23:00
  Lindsey Lusson: And that's where I've learned a lot through you and looking a little bit further into mineral balance and thinking about different supplements that we can aid in helping them to be kind of clearing out and emptying their bowels.
• 23:13
  Lindsey Lusson: And.
• 23:15
  Lindsey Lusson: That's a little more person dependent because I think you have to kind of start thinking about their symptoms.
• 23:18
  Lindsey Lusson: But looking at minerals in particular, I know minerals do a world of a lot difference for my regularity.
• 23:24
  Lindsey Lusson: And kind of thinking about the three major ones that are what we'll see most often depleted in somebody that's coming from a disordered eating or just a high energy expenditure, high stress background, or sodium, magnesium, and potassium.
• 23:37
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah, which all are needed.
• 23:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's a common scenario that we see and maybe you do too, is we have clients coming to us taking 1500 milligrams of magnesium citrate and they're like, I'm still constipated.
• 23:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: Like, why is this magnesium is supposed to be loosening my bowels and it's not doing anything.
• 23:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: And the reality is because they are coming kind of from what you were talking about earlier, like this really clean kind of orthorexic eating background.
• 24:01
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're actually pretty sodium depleted.
• 24:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: They're not getting enough salt in their diet.
• 24:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: Cause they're eating pretty minimal processed foods, probably not adding enough salt to their foods.
• 24:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: I think the nineties were really bad from a salt standpoint.
• 24:14
  Dr. Heather Finley: Like we all became fearful and we all still haven't recovered from that.
• 24:19
  Dr. Heather Finley: But salt is so helpful for actual magnesium absorption.
• 24:24
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then from like a muscle contraction standpoint, potassium is so essential.
• 24:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: I think we always think of bananas and we think of potassium, but you can't contract a muscle without adequate potassium.
• 24:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I think the latest research showed like 99 percent of Americans don't meet their daily potassium needs.
• 24:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: So if you're consistently over time, not meeting that, like you can become very depleted, you have a huge like ditch of deficiency that you've got to fill in over time.
• 24:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: So
• 24:52
  Lindsey Lusson: Definitely.
• 24:53
  Lindsey Lusson: And I think in this pattern of combination, like a double whammy of past restrictive eating past excessive expenditure, you're just really that far in the hole.
• 25:04
  Lindsey Lusson: And then another thing that you've brought up when we've had some conversations about clients too, is the idea of man, maybe somebody is a rock star with their intake.
• 25:12
  Lindsey Lusson: But maybe they haven't addressed the stress component and they're just constantly in fight or flight state.
• 25:17
  Lindsey Lusson: And so they're just burning through all of their minerals so fast.
• 25:20
  Lindsey Lusson: Like the intake can never meet because we're already starting in such a far depletion and there's still just a lot of high stress stuff going on.
• 25:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yes.
• 25:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah.
• 25:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: And your stress will rapidly deplete the three minerals that you just talked about.
• 25:35
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then probably a conversation for another time, but then you kind of take into account perhaps somebody who's been on hormonal birth control for five to 15 years, however long.
• 25:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: And we know that hormonal birth control depletes a lot of the vitamins and minerals that are really essential for.
• 25:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: gut function.
• 25:53
  Dr. Heather Finley: And we know that it can disrupt the balance of bacteria in the gut.
• 25:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: So like that can be, potentially something to look at as well.
• 26:00
  Dr. Heather Finley: If there's a long standing history there of hormonal birth control use.
• 26:05
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely.
• 26:06
  Lindsey Lusson: And, talking more about the 5 percent of people where the gut issues are like impacting their ability to actually fuel, to be able to recover.
• 26:13
  Lindsey Lusson: Just looking further down the line.
• 26:15
  Lindsey Lusson: That's usually the people I'm referring to you, but doing like additional testing is there an infection?
• 26:20
  Lindsey Lusson: Is there SIBO?
• 26:21
  Lindsey Lusson: Is there something that needs to be treated to get this person the relief that they need to then start addressing the energy deficit part of it?
• 26:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: I think the third scenario would be like, what about the client who they've done a lot of functional stuff and we definitely see clients like this.
• 26:38
  Dr. Heather Finley: I think you do too, but the typical client who's gone to the functional medicine doctor, the naturopath, they've done stool testing, perhaps they've done mineral testing.
• 26:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: They've done a lot of fancy expensive testing.
• 26:51
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I'm a fan of testing.
• 26:53
  Dr. Heather Finley: Within the right context, of course, but the scenario that you see is they go, they get these results, they're horrified with their results, and then they're put on like hundreds of dollars worth of supplements, but they never actually address the true root of the problem, which is actually a nutrition problem.
• 27:14
  Dr. Heather Finley: Not necessarily.
• 27:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: And that's contributing obviously to the fact that they, maybe they do have candida, or maybe they do have.
• 27:22
  Dr. Heather Finley: SIBO like you mentioned, but they don't get any better.
• 27:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: So let's talk about that scenario because I think we both see that a lot.
• 27:31
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely.
• 27:31
  Lindsey Lusson: And I think that's so important because I feel like that you could be treating the same SIBO over and over again.
• 27:38
  Lindsey Lusson: But if you're chronically constipated because you're not eating enough.
• 27:42
  Lindsey Lusson: I'm kind of pulling out one specific scenario, then you're going to kind of like round and round we go.
• 27:47
  Lindsey Lusson: Testing is something and I work with clients that kind of walk this fine line between Eating disorder and disordered eating.
• 27:56
  Lindsey Lusson: A lot of our clients were never formally diagnosed, but they're like, Oh yeah, that one time in college, or I got way too obsessed with stuff before my wedding.
• 28:04
  Lindsey Lusson: And even when we kind of correct things from a habit behavior standpoint, so the psychological stuff can really stick with you.
• 28:12
  Lindsey Lusson: And also to just knowing kind of like the personality type of a lot of the people who work with that develop HA.
• 28:17
  Lindsey Lusson: I do think sometimes testing can cause you to focus on the wrong things or to become hyper focused on, oh my gosh, like I need to I need to get my secretary IGA up And they're kind of missing the whole boat on yes.
• 28:30
  Lindsey Lusson: And one of the reasons why it's out of whack is because there's this chronic underfeeling or because you're still running seven miles every single day.
• 28:38
  Lindsey Lusson: Though I do feel like sometimes for a certain type of client, testing can almost give you too much information.
• 28:46
  Lindsey Lusson: And so we really like in our program to kind of start with the basics of Hey, how's your sleep?
• 28:53
  Lindsey Lusson: How's your stress?
• 28:54
  Lindsey Lusson: How's your fueling?
• 28:54
  Lindsey Lusson: How's your nutrient timing?
• 28:55
  Lindsey Lusson: How's your macronutrient balance?
• 28:57
  Lindsey Lusson: Let's get this foundation down first.
• 29:00
  Lindsey Lusson: Cause we got a good chance that we can resolve a lot of these gut issues and then we can always do further testing looking into other things at some point.
• 29:08
  Lindsey Lusson: So yeah, I do find that a lot of our clients are coming to us with Yeah, on a ton of supplements.
• 29:15
  Lindsey Lusson: And not all bad, right?
• 29:16
  Lindsey Lusson: Like these things can work together.
• 29:18
  Lindsey Lusson: And I know we kind of wanted to go here too.
• 29:20
  Lindsey Lusson: These things can work together, but unfortunately, depending upon the practitioner that they were working with before they work with us, kind of miss the whole boat on getting the foundation down first.
• 29:30
  Dr. Heather Finley: No, I'm 100 percent with you.
• 29:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: And like I said, I'm a huge fan of testing, but within the right context, I think it's incredibly wasteful to do testing and just treat with supplements because like you said, you're not addressing the root of the issue.
• 29:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: If your Secretary IGA being low or your SIBO not going away is actually like an underfueling stress issue.
• 29:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: You can take all the immunoglobulins, all the antibiotics, all the whatever anything.
• 30:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's not going to actually resolve the issue.
• 30:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you have to use like nutrition, lifestyle, and then supplements can be supplementary to actually addressing the whole picture.
• 30:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I think honestly, probably another conversation for another time, but that's where functional medicine goes wrong is it's.
• 30:23
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's like people kind of have this idea that functional medicine is you go in, you take a test, you take supplements, but like true functional medicine is not that.
• 30:31
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's you go in, you assess the whole picture.
• 30:35
  Dr. Heather Finley: You identify all of the underlying things.
• 30:39
  Dr. Heather Finley: And address those and then you can use supplementary things as kind of a stop gap, but it's not the whole treatment, but that's unfortunately kind of what it's become.
• 30:49
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I'm like, that's no different than the conventional healthcare model that everybody's frustrated with.
• 30:54
  Dr. Heather Finley: Like you go in and you get a medication or you go in and you get supplements.
• 30:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: Both of those things aren't helpful.
• 30:59
  Lindsey Lusson: Right, right.
• 31:01
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah.
• 31:01
  Lindsey Lusson: And it's hard to say to exactly where the gap is because I'm thinking about like some of my clients to like, maybe there were conversations around, Hey, you also need to make sure you're eating enough or Hey, you also need to make sure that you're managing your stress.
• 31:14
  Lindsey Lusson: And those things were like in one ear out the other.
• 31:16
  Lindsey Lusson: And they were like, I'm going to take care of you.
• 31:18
  Lindsey Lusson: this cool little supplement and all my problems are solved and I'm going to go on my merry little way with, doing orange theory seven days a week, like it's hard to identify exactly where the gap is, whether the instruction wasn't given or if the, that in particular person latched onto the wrong parts of the treatment or
• 31:32
  Dr. Heather Finley: just lack of accountability, where it's okay, maybe that provider didn't have the bandwidth to be like, Hey, I'm going to keep you accountable to actually addressing these things.
• 31:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: So yeah, there's, there can definitely be a lot of pieces to the puzzle.
• 31:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: Okay.
• 31:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: So we've covered like three pretty standard scenarios that we see.
• 31:56
  Dr. Heather Finley: So anything else that you feel like we should address when it comes to lack of period, missing periods, period issues, and kind of the overlap of GI issues, anything that we missed?
• 32:08
  Lindsey Lusson: I think the thing that we've, we haven't gotten into yet, and I think it's appropriate that we kind of save this for last because it is more of a, this truly is a rare scenario, but where the issues like ongoing issues with kind of more severe gut issues are actually impacting the absorption of nutrient and calories.
• 32:32
  Lindsey Lusson: To support hormone balance where like the gap is actually that like they are fueling enough.
• 32:37
  Lindsey Lusson: They are weight restored We have slowed way down on exercise.
• 32:40
  Lindsey Lusson: We are addressing the stress component, but we're stuck and That very that scenario.
• 32:46
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah, and we've both had clients Like that where it's okay, what else is going on here?
• 32:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: And, some typical scenarios that we could see is perhaps there's a gallbladder issue and, there's not good fat soluble vitamin absorption because of the gallbladder issue or lack of gallbladder could also be a scenario or.
• 33:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: From like a mineral perspective, there's not good mineral absorption because there's low stomach acid.
• 33:12
  Dr. Heather Finley: And then that's kind of a catch 22 cause you need minerals to make stomach acid.
• 33:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's like kind of, where do you start there?
• 33:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: Or just overall, something that we see, which this is kind of niche as well as with disordered eating and orthorexia.
• 33:26
  Dr. Heather Finley: type eating.
• 33:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: A common scenario that people will go towards is becoming more like vegetarian, vegan.
• 33:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: And something that we see on testing is as someone follows a vegan or vegetarian diet, we'll see a last taste, which is a marker of pancreatic enzyme output decrease.
• 33:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: And over time, The pancreatic function can decrease, which truly then can become kind of a digestion absorption issue.
• 33:53
  Dr. Heather Finley: And that's not to say that every vegetarian or vegan is going to struggle with that.
• 33:57
  Dr. Heather Finley: It can be, you can very much execute that well if you're paying attention, but if you're not, then that could cause some issues.
• 34:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah.
• 34:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah, I think you're right.
• 34:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: There definitely can be a digestion, absorption, et cetera, piece that if kind of all of these things are in place and nothing's shifting, it's worth looking into that.
• 34:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: Okay, what is your body not absorbing or what is it lacking?
• 34:21
  Lindsey Lusson: It's interesting too, that you bring in like the vegetarian or vegan thing.
• 34:25
  Lindsey Lusson: Cause I do get a lot of questions from people of, can you get your period back following a vegetarian diet or a vegan diet?
• 34:30
  Lindsey Lusson: And in my experience, yes.
• 34:34
  Lindsey Lusson: It does typically take a little bit longer and from a hormone fertility perspective if somebody is very strict vegan and they're not consuming enough dietary cholesterol, that can have a major impact on your body's ability or rather inability to make proper sex hormones.
• 34:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah.
• 34:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: And that's going to affect the gallbladder as well too.
• 34:55
  Dr. Heather Finley: So then it's just, yeah, it's affect multiple systems.
• 34:58
  Dr. Heather Finley: So what would your advice be to somebody then that maybe kind of fits in that bucket of okay, perhaps there is an absorption digestion actual issue going on.
• 35:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: That's kind of the big bulk of this piece here.
• 35:12
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah.
• 35:13
  Lindsey Lusson: I think that's where you really do have to get specific with a little bit of testing because I think that a lot of.
• 35:18
  Lindsey Lusson: People, the people that I've worked with in that scenario, they feel really lost because they've, they feel like they've turned over almost every single stone.
• 35:27
  Lindsey Lusson: They're that, I think that is actually the best place to start bringing in functional testing is to see what else is going on under the surface.
• 35:34
  Lindsey Lusson: That's kind of impacting their system.
• 35:36
  Lindsey Lusson: And those aren't tests that they're going to get with their regular doctor.
• 35:39
  Lindsey Lusson: And just somebody kind of a fresh set of eyes to look at things from a different perspective.
• 35:43
  Dr. Heather Finley: Totally.
• 35:44
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I think you're right.
• 35:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: Kind of that lost feeling of am I broken?
• 35:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: Is there something wrong?
• 35:48
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm like following all the boxes and something.
• 35:50
  Dr. Heather Finley: So just to encourage that person, there's always more that can be done and looked at, if you've addressed the basics and you're doing all those things and nothing's shifting, there's always another stone that can be turned over to look at.
• 36:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Okay.
• 36:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah.
• 36:04
  Dr. Heather Finley: Or the onion layer, however you want to, whatever analogy you want to use let's really kind of get to the core of what's actually going on so that you can feel better.
• 36:13
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, definitely.
• 36:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: Okay.
• 36:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: Any last minute thoughts for our listeners?
• 36:18
  Dr. Heather Finley: And if not, where can people find you, learn about you, your programs, et cetera?
• 36:23
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah, I guess in terms of last minute thoughts, I, if anybody is feeling lost with period issues, I would highly recommend, of course, thinking about a lot of the we talked about here in this episode, because I do think that like when we talk about Oh, I have a gut infection or, this is I'm eating enough, but like things aren't allowing my body to like properly digest and absorb the nutrients.
• 36:45
  Lindsey Lusson: If you're still doing that and you're running seven miles a day and eating 1700 calories like that's probably not your issue.
• 36:49
  Lindsey Lusson: So I would say that, but I would also encourage people who do fall in that more niche scenario that we described Testing is can be so transformational like in the clients that I've referred to you Heather.
• 37:01
  Lindsey Lusson: We've seen people actually be able to get cycles for the first time ever.
• 37:05
  Lindsey Lusson: So never give up on testing or just, don't give up on just like conventional healthcare telling me like, Oh, this is the end.
• 37:11
  Lindsey Lusson: It looks like your own hormone replacement therapy at age 25 for the rest of your life, like there's more that can be done.
• 37:16
  Dr. Heather Finley: And feel free to reach out to, I'm, I will.
• 37:19
  Dr. Heather Finley: And I know Lindsay will do the same.
• 37:21
  Dr. Heather Finley: We'll honestly tell you if we think that we can help you or if you're missing a step, it's pretty common that I've told people like, Hey, I'd love to help you.
• 37:29
  Dr. Heather Finley: However, I think the first step for you is actually getting your period back.
• 37:33
  Dr. Heather Finley: Tell me a little bit more about what's going on.
• 37:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: Yeah.
• 37:36
  Dr. Heather Finley: It's it doesn't make sense right now, maybe for us to go down the testing rabbit hole, but let's do this first.
• 37:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: If you're still experiencing these issues, then come back, and vice versa.
• 37:45
  Dr. Heather Finley: So we can always explore like what would be the next best option for you.
• 37:50
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah.
• 37:51
  Lindsey Lusson: Yeah.
• 37:52
  Lindsey Lusson: If anybody is interested in learning more about me and what I do everything is food, freedom, fertility.
• 37:56
  Lindsey Lusson: So I'm on Instagram food.
• 37:57
  Lindsey Lusson: freedom.
• 37:58
  Lindsey Lusson: fertility.
• 37:58
  Lindsey Lusson: Website is foodfreedomandfertility.
• 38:01
  Lindsey Lusson: com.
• 38:02
  Lindsey Lusson: And I'm usually most active hanging out on Instagram.
• 38:04
  Lindsey Lusson: So just like Heather said, if you ever have a question, you can always reach out over DM and I will let you know pretty quickly if I think that our team can help, or if not, how to get you in front of the right person who can.
• 38:13
  Dr. Heather Finley: Awesome.
• 38:14
  Dr. Heather Finley: Thanks for joining us, Lindsay.
• 38:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: Last question actually is what is your favorite way to love your gut?
• 38:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: Because this is called the love your gut podcast.
• 38:22
  Lindsey Lusson: Oh man.
• 38:23
  Lindsey Lusson: I did HTMA with you over the summer with your team and I kind of went into it a little bit like, Oh, I don't really feel that bad.
• 38:30
  Lindsey Lusson: But.
• 38:31
  Lindsey Lusson: minerals have been really helpful for me.
• 38:33
  Lindsey Lusson: And I know I kind of feel even crazy sometimes that I'll even travel with like my like mineral powder, but I'm like, you know what travel disrupts my digestion.
• 38:41
  Lindsey Lusson: These are such a game changer for me.
• 38:43
  Lindsey Lusson: I'm just going to be that weird person that like travels with her supplements.
• 38:46
  Lindsey Lusson: So yeah, minerals have been a game changer, especially when I think about just my Okay.
• 38:51
  Lindsey Lusson: There are things about my lifestyle that I will manage as best as I can, but I do have three young children and I am a business owner and the stress is just there.
• 38:59
  Lindsey Lusson: So yeah, minerals are, have been a game changer for me.
• 39:03
  Dr. Heather Finley: Welcome to your mid thirties.
• 39:05
  Dr. Heather Finley: This mid thirties guys.
• 39:06
  Dr. Heather Finley: We travel with our mineral powder so we can feel our best.
• 39:09
  Dr. Heather Finley: I love it.
• 39:10
  Dr. Heather Finley: Thanks for joining and everyone go check out Lindsay and she has a podcast as well.
• 39:15
  Dr. Heather Finley: So you can tune in there.
• 39:17
  Dr. Heather Finley: Thanks.
• 39:20
  Dr. Heather Finley: I'm giving your gut a thumbs up because you just finished another episode of the love your gut podcast.
• 39:27
  Dr. Heather Finley: You know that in order to live a life free from uncomfortable bloating, you need to figure out why you're actually bloated, right?
• 39:34
  Dr. Heather Finley: The best way to do that is by taking my free quiz.
• 39:37
  Dr. Heather Finley: Take the next steps towards determining your root causes by visiting drheatherfinley.
• 39:42
  Dr. Heather Finley: co backslash quiz and learn what it is that's causing your bloating.
• 39:47
  Dr. Heather Finley: Soon enough, you'll be transforming your gut issues and I can't wait to help you.
• 39:52
  Dr. Heather Finley: Be sure to tune in next week for the next episode of the Love Your Gut podcast.