Latest / The Menopause Disruptor Podcast / Brain Fog, Cognitive Impairment, and Combating Alzheimer's with Lindsey Byrne

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Brain Fog, Cognitive Impairment, and Combating Alzheimer's with Lindsey Byrne · The Menopause Disruptor Podcast

0:00
Lindsey Byrne: I already had a coaching business, a leadership development business, executive coaching, team coaching, and that fell apart in the pandemic.
0:08
Lindsey Byrne: So that was all very stressful for me as well.
0:11
Lindsey Byrne: In the pandemic, I met somebody who told me that he'd almost completely reversed his symptoms of Alzheimer's.
0:18
Lindsey Byrne: And you can imagine, I was like, what, how, you have to tell me all about this.
0:24
Lindsey Byrne: I know, your reaction, that's exactly how I was.
0:28
Mary Lee: Welcome back, my listeners to all Things Menopausal.
0:31
Mary Lee: My name is Mary, and I'm a menopause doula.
0:34
Mary Lee: As a doula, we augment the healthcare profession as menopause support practitioners.
0:39
Mary Lee: I created this podcast, to build community for women going through menopause and to foster resilience through the stories that connect, educate, and empower.
0:49
Mary Lee: These stories are real, raw, relatable, And very much relevant to the physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual whole person that we are.
0:58
Mary Lee: In our midlife transition, we are not alone.
1:01
Mary Lee: Each week, you will hear from courageous, vulnerable, and knowledgeable guests sharing their passion, their journey, and lived experience.
1:10
Mary Lee: These are little clues to finding solutions to our unique situation.
1:14
Mary Lee: The menopause symptoms are personal, but the experience is universal.
1:19
Mary Lee: Today, we're going to get brainy.
1:22
Mary Lee: we're talking about the brain our cognitive health through menopause is crucial.
1:27
Mary Lee: And I, for one, and I've said this many times before, have suffered from the brain fog the most amongst all the symptoms, the memory loss, the feeling like, I don't know what I'm doing here.
1:42
Mary Lee: fortunately, I'm making some smart choices to combat the cognitive effects because I'm really quite concerned about my brain health beyond my menopausal years, I want those years to be great.
1:53
Mary Lee: I also want to have my faculties intact.
1:57
Mary Lee: And so in this episode, I'm joined by Lindsey Byrne, and she will explore the impact of menopause on our cognitive health.
2:05
Mary Lee: She's going to share with us first her personal story of her mother's battle with Alzheimer's, which inspired her to pursue not only coaching, but to write a book We're also going to discuss some cognitive testing, such as measuring memory, processing speed, executive function.
2:24
Mary Lee: Thank you.
2:25
Mary Lee: and how emphasizing lifestyle changes can help improve those tests and our overall brain health.
2:32
Mary Lee: this episode will highlight what's called the Bredesen Protocol, which is inspired by Dr.
2:39
Mary Lee: Dale Bredesen, who can show how Alzheimer's can be reversed.
2:45
Mary Lee: Amazing.
2:46
Mary Lee: In this episode, you're going to learn so much about lifestyle changes and diet, And lastly, we discuss the importance of sleep and stress management during a menopause But before we begin, let me tell you something about Lindsey.
3:03
Mary Lee: Lindsey Byrne is a cognitive health coach who specializes in assisting individuals experiencing memory issues, associated with menopause.
3:12
Mary Lee: She focuses on improving brain health and memory, and even preventing dementia through natural, non pharmaceutical approaches.
3:21
Mary Lee: Lindsey is a functional medicine certified health coach and a certified recode 2.
3:27
Mary Lee: 0 protocol health coach.
3:29
Mary Lee: Yes, she will explain what that means.
3:32
Mary Lee: And as I said, she has authored a book.
3:35
Mary Lee: It's titled, What did I come in here for again?
3:38
Mary Lee: How I improved my brain health and memory with the Bredesen protocol.
3:43
Mary Lee: It's part memoir and a part coaching how to book all packed in one.
3:49
Mary Lee: And it recently released on July 4th.
3:51
Mary Lee: The link to that book is in the show notes, and you can also find Lindsey at the cognitive health coach.
3:58
Mary Lee: co.
3:58
Mary Lee: uk.
4:00
Mary Lee: She's also on LinkedIn And YouTube at the Cognitive Health Coach.
4:06
Mary Lee: her Facebook group is Hope in Alzheimer's UK.
4:10
Mary Lee: Many places to find Lindsey.
4:12
Mary Lee: let's dive in to hear what Lindsey has to say about our brain health.
4:18
Mary Lee: hello, Lindsay.
4:19
Mary Lee: I am so pleased to have you on all things menopausal.
4:22
Mary Lee: This is such, such an important topic.
4:25
Mary Lee: This is one that has plagued me for several months now, brain fog.
4:32
Mary Lee: And I hate to say that I'm blaming menopause for leaving the workplace, but I believe that I'm that one in 10.
4:42
Mary Lee: And that's the statistics one in 10 women will leave the workforce because their symptoms are to the point where it's just hard to manage.
4:51
Mary Lee: And I just came to that pivotal point where I thought, you know what, I'm 55, my brain health is so important to me and it's so critical that I stay on top of my game and I just went through months of just the fog.
5:05
Mary Lee: I call it the fog of war to coin a military term.
5:09
Mary Lee: It is.
5:11
Mary Lee: Amazing to have you here, a cognitive health coach.
5:15
Mary Lee: You're gonna tell us all about what that is.
5:18
Mary Lee: But first of all, first question I always like to ask all my guests, how did you land in this role,
5:25
Lindsey Byrne: Well, first of all, thank you Mary.
5:27
Lindsey Byrne: Thank you for having me on and absolutely, I hear you.
5:30
Lindsey Byrne: I hear you on the brain fog in menopause thing, Yes.
5:33
Lindsey Byrne: So how did I get here?
5:36
Lindsey Byrne: Well, my mom has Alzheimer's.
5:38
Lindsey Byrne: And, before the pandemic, we had spent a couple of years noticing that she was getting more forgetful.
5:47
Lindsey Byrne: And then in the pandemic, well, just before the pandemic, we were moving mom and dad into a retirement village.
5:55
Lindsey Byrne: And at that point, I think it got harder for her to hide it.
5:58
Lindsey Byrne: I don't know if it got worse with the stress of the move, or whether it just got harder to hide it.
6:04
Lindsey Byrne: But it became much more apparent it was worse than we'd thought.
6:09
Lindsey Byrne: And then the pandemic hit.
6:12
Lindsey Byrne: And the house sale fell through in the pandemic and it was all very stressful.
6:17
Lindsey Byrne: And we had to resell the house in the pandemic, which was no fun.
6:22
Lindsey Byrne: And I already had a coaching business, a leadership development business, executive coaching, team coaching, and that fell apart in the pandemic.
6:31
Lindsey Byrne: So that was all very stressful for me as well.
6:34
Lindsey Byrne: In the pandemic, I met somebody who told me that he'd almost completely reversed his symptoms of Alzheimer's.
6:41
Lindsey Byrne: And you can imagine, I was like, what, how, you have to tell me all about this.
6:47
Lindsey Byrne: I know, your reaction, that's exactly how I was.
6:51
Lindsey Byrne: And he sent me links to videos, to clinical trials, he sent me a link to a book, and I just immersed myself in it, and I was so excited.
7:07
Lindsey Byrne: Because my business had fell apart.
7:09
Lindsey Byrne: I was quite depressed and I was very stressed and I hadn't really had any menopause symptoms up to that point.
7:15
Lindsey Byrne: And then they really hit, and I think it was, the stress triggered it all.
7:20
Lindsey Byrne: I had a, hysterectomy years ago, so I've never really known.
7:23
Lindsey Byrne: I didn't know if I was already in perimenopause.
7:27
Lindsey Byrne: But I was 53 at the start of the pandemic.
7:29
Lindsey Byrne: And I feel like.
7:34
Lindsey Byrne: The stress and everything really kicked it off.
7:36
Lindsey Byrne: I may have been in perimenopause beforehand, but I'd had a pretty healthy lifestyle, but I think the stress really kicked it off.
7:43
Lindsey Byrne: So anyway, I found this protocol and I got so excited and I got my mom on the protocol and she improved dramatically.
7:52
Lindsey Byrne: She's not all the way back.
7:53
Lindsey Byrne: She won't do the whole protocol though.
7:57
Lindsey Byrne: I've got to tamper my expectations a little bit.
8:03
Lindsey Byrne: And as soon as we got her on the protocol and we could see she was getting so much better, I decided this was my career, my, my future, my mission in life.
8:15
Lindsey Byrne: To tell people all about this protocol.
8:17
Lindsey Byrne: It's called the Breton Protocol.
8:19
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
8:20
Lindsey Byrne: And I retrained, first of all, it's a functional medicine health coach, and that was such good timing for me personally because, I learned all about how to manage my menopause symptoms, what lifestyle factors I could implement to improve my own symptoms.
8:39
Lindsey Byrne: And I did manage to really minimize them.
8:42
Lindsey Byrne: They didn't go away completely, but I managed to minimize them a lot.
8:46
Lindsey Byrne: And then I needed that qualification to be able to do the Alzheimer's specialism, the recode health coach training.
8:54
Lindsey Byrne: And since February 2002, I've been doing this.
8:58
Lindsey Byrne: I've been helping people with brain health and memory.
9:02
Lindsey Byrne: Both with people who just want to prevent, if like me, you want to prevent any form of dementia, probably because you've seen a parent go through it this is the, this is a great protocol but it's helped me no end with my brain health as well.
9:21
Lindsey Byrne: I was noticing not just hot flushes and night sweat type symptoms.
9:25
Lindsey Byrne: I was noticing some brain symptoms as well.
9:28
Lindsey Byrne: And my cognitive scores.
9:32
Lindsey Byrne: were pretty good.
9:36
Lindsey Byrne: Out of the whole cognitive test that I did, the overall score was good, but my executive function was just average compared to some really good memory and processing speed scores.
9:47
Lindsey Byrne: And I thought the disparity in the scores worried me, and I felt like the executive function was definitely the thing that I was, struggling with.
10:00
Lindsey Byrne: It was, managing the really complex stuff.
10:03
Lindsey Byrne: And I did feel foggy when I was trying to learn this, whole new career, get these qualifications.
10:10
Lindsey Byrne: And I've managed to turn that around completely.
10:12
Lindsey Byrne: And now my cognitive scores are in the high nineties across the board.
10:16
Lindsey Byrne: Fantastic.
10:19
Lindsey Byrne: I know this protocol works obviously for Alzheimer's or, any, form of cognitive impairment but definitely for menopausal brain fog or quite a lot of people I'm seeing now have some brain fog post COVID as well.
10:37
Mary Lee: Huh.
10:37
Mary Lee: Yeah.
10:37
Mary Lee: So I
10:38
Lindsey Byrne: know this protocol works for, whatever might be the root cause this protocol seems to work.
10:46
Mary Lee: Okay, so we're going to really dive into this protocol.
10:48
Mary Lee: This is the second time that I've heard about this protocol a previous podcast guest who specializes in, the brain health function and menopause will among many other things.
10:58
Mary Lee: And that's Dr.
10:59
Mary Lee: Fiona Lovely of the Not Your Mother's.
11:02
Mary Lee: Menopause podcast, and she mentioned this and the protocol in reference to the book.
11:08
Mary Lee: We'll get into that.
11:09
Mary Lee: Hang on listeners.
11:11
Mary Lee: But before we do that, I'm interested when you say the cognitive scores and executive function.
11:16
Mary Lee: So these tests, are you talking about your basic IQ tests or tell us a little bit more.
11:21
Mary Lee: It's a
11:22
Lindsey Byrne: similar kind of thing.
11:22
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah.
11:23
Lindsey Byrne: It's a similar kind of thing.
11:24
Lindsey Byrne: You can do it online.
11:25
Lindsey Byrne: It's absolutely free.
11:26
Lindsey Byrne: So at the end, I will give you the link so you can pop it in.
11:31
Lindsey Byrne: wherever you pop all the info for all your listeners.
11:34
Lindsey Byrne: Absolutely.
11:35
Lindsey Byrne: It's a totally free test.
11:36
Mary Lee: Okay.
11:37
Mary Lee: I
11:37
Lindsey Byrne: would recommend that you do it when you're feeling really good, really sharp, best time of day for you when you're feeling great, so you've got a good baseline to compare to.
11:47
Mary Lee: Good point.
11:47
Lindsey Byrne: I get all my clients to do it right at the beginning of working with me and I get them to do it on the very best day when they're feeling so good so that over time as they, start to feel better themselves.
12:00
Lindsey Byrne: But at the end of the whole process, they can do it again and put a number on it.
12:06
Lindsey Byrne: And yeah, this test, it it gives you four numbers.
12:11
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
12:11
Lindsey Byrne: And it gives you an overall score.
12:15
Lindsey Byrne: A combination of all the three granular scores.
12:19
Lindsey Byrne: But the three scores are memory, processing speed, so just how quickly you can respond, and executive function, which is being able to manage complex information and follow complex instructions, things like that.
12:33
Lindsey Byrne: And it takes about 20 minutes, and when it gives you the results, it scores you out of 100.
12:41
Lindsey Byrne: Where fifty is average compared to people your age and gender.
12:48
Mary Lee: Fifty.
12:50
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah, anywhere between 1 and 50 you can score, and 50 is average for your age and gender.
12:55
Lindsey Byrne: So I really like that it compares you to people like you.
13:01
Lindsey Byrne: It's not comparing you to the whole population.
13:05
Lindsey Byrne: And like I say, I scored in the 90s for two of them.
13:08
Lindsey Byrne: I'm 55 for executive function, which is a tiny bit above average.
13:13
Mary Lee: Okay.
13:14
Lindsey Byrne: But frankly I didn't like being compared to a bunch of women my age who were probably suffering me menopause symptoms, And brain fog and coming out average.
13:26
Lindsey Byrne: So I thought average is not good enough for me.
13:28
Lindsey Byrne: I want to be even better
13:32
Mary Lee: Okay?
13:33
Mary Lee: So competitive people like myself be saying, okay, I'm gonna study real hard so I can score a hundred.
13:40
Mary Lee: Because
13:43
Lindsey Byrne: You can't study because it's a memory test, right?
13:47
Lindsey Byrne: So it does lots of things.
13:49
Lindsey Byrne: It shows you shapes.
13:51
Lindsey Byrne: And then later on shows the same shapes, but with extra shapes thrown in and you have to pick out which ones you've already seen.
13:58
Lindsey Byrne: It does lots of little sort of memory trick.
14:00
Lindsey Byrne: questions like that.
14:03
Lindsey Byrne: And you can take it as often as you want, because you actually can't learn this stuff.
14:09
Lindsey Byrne: So you can't learn to get better at the test.
14:11
Lindsey Byrne: You can what you can do, of course, is you can affect your whole lifestyle.
14:17
Lindsey Byrne: You can eat food that is better for the brain, you can do different types of exercise, you can deal with your stress and your sleep and your oral health and all the things that affect your brain health.
14:28
Lindsey Byrne: And what you can do is you can do some brain training that helps your brain become much faster at solving tricky problems.
14:37
Mary Lee: So now this is a perfect segue to talk about the protocol, the Bredesen protocol named after Dr.
14:45
Mary Lee: Dale Bredesen.
14:47
Mary Lee: That's right.
14:48
Mary Lee: Take it away.
14:49
Mary Lee: Let's hear all about this and how you are changing lives with your clients.
14:54
Lindsey Byrne: Yes.
14:55
Lindsey Byrne: Oh, where to start?
14:57
Lindsey Byrne: The Bredesen protocol is a complete lifestyle change.
15:03
Lindsey Byrne: upgrade to, give your brain all the nutrients and oxygen and hormones and exercise that it needs to function really well.
15:20
Lindsey Byrne: Now, I'm a health coach, so I help people to implement all of the lifestyle changes.
15:27
Lindsey Byrne: Because if you looked at it, like, as a whole, it might look like a lot of work and that can be a bit overwhelming.
15:36
Lindsey Byrne: But if you take it one tiny step at a time, and you have somebody to support you, to help you prioritize and choose, maybe what will have the biggest effect for you, or maybe what will be easiest for you.
15:50
Lindsey Byrne: If people are already feeling foggy.
15:52
Lindsey Byrne: and maybe even a bit fatigued, you might want to do some little tiny steps, some quick wins to just start feeling a tiny bit better, to build your energy and focus, to be able to focus on more and more as you start to feel better.
16:06
Lindsey Byrne: But along with that lifestyle change, and that might be enough for a lot of people, what you can also do, people who are really noticing some symptoms, people who perhaps have, parents who lived with dementia and perhaps feel like things are a little bit worse, you can talk to a doctor.
16:26
Lindsey Byrne: I would work with the doctor as well.
16:29
Lindsey Byrne: And that doctor trained in the same protocol, but from the medical end, will be able to do some tests to find out if there's any underlying issues, which might just be that maybe genetically you do not process certain vitamins well, or maybe your hormones are a bit disrupted and a little bit of hormone balancing would help.
16:52
Lindsey Byrne: And they would just recommend supplements to help with any of that as well.
16:58
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
16:59
Mary Lee: So this protocol It's you're working with them as a coach to encourage them through the steps.
17:06
Mary Lee: And we'll talk about the different key components, but always, obviously you have to advise or get the, seek the advice of your healthcare provider.
17:16
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah.
17:17
Mary Lee: Because as we know, any major lifestyle changes involving diet exercise only your doctor will understand the contraindications with certain medications you're on.
17:28
Mary Lee: Absolutely.
17:29
Mary Lee: Yeah.
17:29
Mary Lee: But so I wanted to put that out there because that's very key.
17:34
Mary Lee: That's very key to know that, but in terms of the steps and we've hear this often in, and such as working with a menopause doula as, I am, is that it's always good to have that coach there to keep you committed, if you will.
17:50
Mary Lee: and encourage you along the way.
17:52
Mary Lee: The accountability part is covered, but then that health care portion is very critical because, we don't diagnose coaches.
18:02
Mary Lee: We don't diagnose.
18:03
Mary Lee: We don't prescribe.
18:04
Mary Lee: However, we are very good at implementing the components of the to reach success.
18:11
Mary Lee: Your clients are reaching success.
18:12
Mary Lee: So let's talk about how it's done.
18:16
Mary Lee: Talk about those components and all part of the Bredesen protocol.
18:20
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
18:22
Lindsey Byrne: As I say, I would always let clients choose their priorities.
18:27
Lindsey Byrne: What order they want to work through all of the different lifestyle factors.
18:32
Lindsey Byrne: But if they I'm not sure, or if, if diet is at all in the mix.
18:40
Lindsey Byrne: I do like to start with diet if we can, because it is such a big cornerstone of the protocol.
18:47
Lindsey Byrne: And it can have such a big impact.
18:50
Lindsey Byrne: But I appreciate diet can be quite hard to change if you're already feeling foggy and fatigued.
18:56
Lindsey Byrne: But if they're having to start with diet, we will.
18:59
Lindsey Byrne: And the diet recommended by Dr.
19:01
Lindsey Byrne: Bredesen is the KetoFlex 12 3 diet.
19:05
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
19:06
Lindsey Byrne: So this is a ketogenic diet where we'll be cutting out sugar and a lot of the processed carbs, the starchiest carbs.
19:16
Lindsey Byrne: But generally with people, I don't like to focus on what we're taking out, I like to focus on what we're adding.
19:21
Lindsey Byrne: Love it.
19:22
Lindsey Byrne: It's a lovely, healthy diet.
19:25
Lindsey Byrne: Some of you listeners might have heard of a keto diet that didn't sound very healthy, like the Atkins style diet that was a lot of protein and a lot of lard and a lot of heavy cream.
19:36
Lindsey Byrne: This is not like that.
19:38
Lindsey Byrne: Very simply, if you think about your plate of food, If you can make at least half of your plate non starchy, colourful vegetables.
19:50
Lindsey Byrne: And then a normal amount of protein.
19:53
Lindsey Byrne: And then just add some really healthy fats like extra virgin olive oil or avocado or nuts or seeds.
20:00
Lindsey Byrne: And if you just picture that, does sounds like a really healthy plateful, doesn't it?
20:06
Lindsey Byrne: So it's about just making small steps towards that.
20:10
Lindsey Byrne: And the way I like to work with clients around diet is to look at what they already eat right now, what are their favorite meals, what are their favorite recipes, and how we can just make some swaps.
20:21
Lindsey Byrne: So that we can replace some things that might not be suitable on the keto diet with some things That are much more keto friendly, but they can still stick to the sort of main meals that they love.
20:36
Mary Lee: Perfect So it sounds like to me Obviously diet is key.
20:43
Mary Lee: Yep, and that is, as you said, the cornerstone, the keto we're familiar with, but tell us what the 12 3 is.
20:52
Mary Lee: Yeah.
20:52
Lindsey Byrne: So the 12 3 is all about fasting.
20:57
Lindsey Byrne: So if you think about how we probably lived when we were cave people, when the sun went down we stopped eating and we didn't eat again until the sun came up.
21:08
Lindsey Byrne: Now right now in the summer here in the UK that's quite a lot of hours, but in the winter that is a much shorter time frame.
21:16
Lindsey Byrne: So the idea is to not eat for 12 hours, at least 12 hours overnight.
21:21
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
21:21
Lindsey Byrne: And you can push that to 14 which is not as bad as it sounds.
21:25
Lindsey Byrne: If you finish eating at 7pm and you don't have breakfast till 9am, that's 14 hours.
21:32
Lindsey Byrne: It's not such a hardship.
21:33
Lindsey Byrne: Very achievable.
21:35
Lindsey Byrne: And then the three is stop eating three hours before bed so that your body's got time to digest and you're not still digesting while you're in bed and impairing your sleep and your body's repair processes.
21:47
Mary Lee: See, that is so key, the the fasting or in some cases, the time restricted eating.
21:54
Lindsey Byrne: Yes.
21:55
Mary Lee: It's quite achievable.
21:57
Mary Lee: And trying to close that window to a period of time, say like an eight hour period of time or a 10 hour, depending on what you choose for that fasting timeframe.
22:07
Mary Lee: But that it's that key area before bed, before actually going to sleep for the night, because that is when you've had a nice, delicious meal and the desire to snack, even if it's one little morsel of chocolate and there's that desire to snack.
22:23
Mary Lee: And of course, that's sugary.
22:25
Mary Lee: Yeah.
22:25
Mary Lee: Is Are there strategies or first of all, do your clients struggle with that and are there strategies to overcome that so that eventually that three hour period doesn't seem like it's that daunting.
22:43
Lindsey Byrne: To be fair, I don't think that's the thing that people struggle with.
22:47
Lindsey Byrne: really the most.
22:50
Lindsey Byrne: Some, clients just take to it you just tell them what they've got to do and they just take to it and just do it.
22:56
Lindsey Byrne: But we're all different and some clients really struggle and it might take weeks to get into ketosis because they need to just focus on say breakfast first and just replacing that breakfast, especially if they've been eating for a long time.
23:09
Lindsey Byrne: Very sugary, carby, cereal things and they're used to that for breakfast.
23:15
Lindsey Byrne: So it can be quite a change.
23:18
Lindsey Byrne: So that, that tends to be the thing that people struggle with the most, thinking about what's good for breakfast.
23:23
Lindsey Byrne: But if you like eggs, I, love to make a frittata with lots of different vegetables.
23:31
Lindsey Byrne: And then mix the eggs with it.
23:33
Lindsey Byrne: A bit like an omelet, but a big fluffy omelet with the vegetables on the inside.
23:37
Lindsey Byrne: That's a really nice breakfast or a green smoothie could be really good.
23:43
Lindsey Byrne: There's lots of things that you can eat.
23:45
Lindsey Byrne: It's just a case of, reframing your thinking about breakfast a bit.
23:50
Mary Lee: And a lot of those foods that we get though for that we think are healthy smoothies, for example, they have a lot of hidden sugars if particularly if you're adding a supplement or a protein powder, for example, they have a lot of hidden sugars.
24:06
Mary Lee: Now, is that absolutely taboo on this protocol?
24:09
Mary Lee: So we need to be
24:10
Lindsey Byrne: careful about hidden sugars, added sugars, because that's going to take a lot of ketosis.
24:17
Lindsey Byrne: So if you were going to have a green smoothie, I would recommend a bunch of green vegetables.
24:25
Lindsey Byrne: And you can have some fruit with it to make it taste a little bit nicer.
24:28
Lindsey Byrne: Berries tend to be better.
24:31
Lindsey Byrne: So a handful of berries, maybe some kefir or some live yogurt.
24:39
Lindsey Byrne: And you can't, we do need to have a certain amount of protein, so you could put some protein powder in there.
24:44
Lindsey Byrne: You just need to check that it's not got any horrible ultra processed ingredients in it.
24:50
Lindsey Byrne: And it's not too sweet.
24:52
Lindsey Byrne: So I think Dr.
24:53
Lindsey Byrne: Bredesen recommends hemp.
24:56
Lindsey Byrne: powder for a protein powder.
24:58
Mary Lee: Okay.
24:59
Lindsey Byrne: I'd have a look at pea powder as well.
25:01
Lindsey Byrne: Pea protein powder, that might be okay.
25:04
Mary Lee: In fact, that's one of my protein powders is the pea powder.
25:07
Mary Lee: And there's some sugars in there, but it's very low.
25:12
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah, if it's very low and they're natural, they're not added sugars to make it taste nice.
25:16
Lindsey Byrne: So then we're good.
25:18
Mary Lee: What about things like natural sweeteners, such as stevia or honey, maple syrup?
25:26
Lindsey Byrne: Stevia or monk fruit are the lowest.
25:30
Lindsey Byrne: Sugar sweeteners, unfortunately, maple syrup or honey are really very sweet, very sugary.
25:38
Lindsey Byrne: So we need to really minimize that.
25:40
Lindsey Byrne: Now, the thing is about this diet, everyone is different and everyone can handle a different level of carbs, right?
25:46
Lindsey Byrne: So if you are very mobile, if you're very active, you can probably handle more carbs.
25:52
Lindsey Byrne: So what I tend to do with clients is I ask them to be really strict for a couple of weeks and then once they're in ketosis, then we start testing different foods to see if they can take them and stay in ketosis.
26:05
Lindsey Byrne: And just to give you an example, throughout the pandemic, I was having a spoonful of manuka honey every day just for its immune boosting properties.
26:15
Lindsey Byrne: And I was, So able to stay in ketosis even with a spoonful of Manuka honey every day.
26:21
Lindsey Byrne: So it is doable.
26:22
Lindsey Byrne: You might need to be strict to get into ketosis because as human beings we're intended to be able to work in ketosis.
26:31
Lindsey Byrne: We evolved to be able to do it.
26:34
Lindsey Byrne: And as cave people we might spend all summer eating loads of fruit.
26:39
Lindsey Byrne: To raise our insulin levels in order to put on weight to store fat so that all winter we can use our own fat and ketones as a fuel source.
26:52
Lindsey Byrne: So we used to be metabolically flexible.
26:55
Lindsey Byrne: Today, nobody ever gets away from carbs and sugar.
26:59
Lindsey Byrne: So we put weight on all year in year out for the winter that never comes.
27:05
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah.
27:09
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah, people might need to be really quite strict to get into ketosis, but then once you're in, the longer you're in ketosis, flexible you will be.
27:19
Lindsey Byrne: And you can probably manage more carbs and come in and out of ketosis quite well.
27:25
Lindsey Byrne: In fact, That is what the flex in KetoFlex12 3 stands for.
27:31
Lindsey Byrne: It means you don't have to be in chronic ketosis all the time.
27:35
Lindsey Byrne: You just need to make some ketones every day so you can come in and out.
27:39
Mary Lee: Okay, so how do we know that we're in ketosis?
27:44
Lindsey Byrne: There's quite a few ways of testing.
27:48
Lindsey Byrne: For me, because I'm just on prevention, I just use urine strips.
27:52
Lindsey Byrne: You can buy really cheaply for about five or six dollars.
27:55
Lindsey Byrne: That's it.
27:56
Lindsey Byrne: Some keto sticks.
27:58
Lindsey Byrne: That, that are just a urine testing strip.
28:00
Lindsey Byrne: And it will just tell you if you're in ketosis.
28:02
Lindsey Byrne: They're not very accurate.
28:04
Lindsey Byrne: If it changes colour, you're in ketosis.
28:07
Lindsey Byrne: If it doesn't, you're not, but you can't rely on the color chart.
28:11
Lindsey Byrne: It's not that accurate.
28:12
Lindsey Byrne: It's just the case of, yeah, I'm in ketosis.
28:14
Lindsey Byrne: We're good.
28:15
Lindsey Byrne: But if you are worried and you really want to do the RICO protocol very thoroughly.
28:22
Lindsey Byrne: And you want to know that you are in ketosis properly and you're making enough ketones.
28:27
Lindsey Byrne: So if you were definitely noticing some, brain health and memory symptoms.
28:35
Lindsey Byrne: Significant ones.
28:36
Lindsey Byrne: Then you can test with either a breath meter or a blood meter.
28:40
Lindsey Byrne: A blood meter is just like a finger prick test.
28:43
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
28:44
Lindsey Byrne: And the breath meter, obviously, you just blow into.
28:50
Mary Lee: The, ketones that we would produce when we're in ketosis is valuable for brain health.
28:56
Mary Lee: How does that work?
28:59
Lindsey Byrne: Our brains, as I mentioned before, all summer work, should work on glucose.
29:04
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
29:05
Mary Lee: Great.
29:05
Lindsey Byrne: But then once all the fruit has gone, in the winter our brains work on ketones.
29:11
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
29:12
Lindsey Byrne: And what I've actually discovered through testing is that, our brains as we age, all of us, Not just people who go on to develop dementia, but as we age, our brains get less able to use glucose as a fuel source.
29:27
Lindsey Byrne: Isn't that interesting.
29:28
Lindsey Byrne: And and you know like older people, like a lot of older people start craving sugary things, don't they?
29:34
Lindsey Byrne: Yes.
29:35
Lindsey Byrne: That's their brain crying out for some fuel.
29:37
Lindsey Byrne: But the brain can't use it very well.
29:40
Lindsey Byrne: So just
29:42
Mary Lee: Send me more.
29:44
Mary Lee: Exactly.
29:45
Mary Lee: Okay.
29:46
Lindsey Byrne: But our brains never get worse at using ketones for fuel.
29:52
Lindsey Byrne: They, and in fact, the trials that they've done, they actually just supplement people on a normal diet with external exogenous ketones from outside the body.
30:06
Lindsey Byrne: And they can see that the brain uses the ketones first, it prioritizes the ketones, and then only turns to sugar when it's out of ketones.
30:15
Lindsey Byrne: Interesting.
30:16
Mary Lee: So is there any contrary, before we move on to any more of the protocols, because there's several more, is there any contraindications for menopausal women to be on a ketogenic, diet?
30:29
Mary Lee: No, I can't even say it.
30:31
Mary Lee: A ketogenic diet because I have, actually seen some information and I've written a blog about that to be cautious because the ketogenic diet was originally structured for men with cardiovascular issues and obesity, and it was never tested on women.
30:47
Mary Lee: Now I understand that it's a flex.
30:51
Mary Lee: ketogenic diet.
30:52
Mary Lee: But is there any concerns for menopausal women to be aware of There
30:57
Lindsey Byrne: are a few things there are a few things that
30:59
Mary Lee: we just need to be aware of.
31:01
Lindsey Byrne: Actually, the original ketogenic diet was designed for epileptics.
31:07
Lindsey Byrne: And this was back in the late 1800s, early 19 to the 1920s.
31:13
Lindsey Byrne: This is correct.
31:14
Lindsey Byrne: Yes, it's a really good brain health diet.
31:18
Lindsey Byrne: But yes, you're right.
31:20
Lindsey Byrne: It was popularized for men with cardiovascular problems.
31:25
Lindsey Byrne: So I would tend to just watch my clients very carefully and make sure that they're not losing weight if they don't need to lose weight, that they're getting enough protein because we need enough protein in the menopause.
31:40
Mary Lee: Absolutely.
31:42
Lindsey Byrne: And that I, just keep my eye on them.
31:46
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
31:47
Lindsey Byrne: In fact, I have, but I've only had an issue with the keto diet with one client ever, and that was a man.
31:56
Lindsey Byrne: Okay.
31:56
Lindsey Byrne: And the, real problem seems to be if you have some issues with mold toxicity.
32:05
Lindsey Byrne: So one of the causes of cognitive decline can be toxins.
32:11
Lindsey Byrne: And this gentleman I was working with did not react well to the keto diet and did not react well to MCT oil, which is an extract of coconut that helps you with the keto diet, helps your body make the ketones.
32:26
Lindsey Byrne: He didn't react well to either of those.
32:28
Lindsey Byrne: But on later testing, we discovered that his root cause was mould he'd been exposed to mould, and that was the cause of his cognitive issues.
32:43
Lindsey Byrne: That's the only person I know of who didn't react well.
32:48
Lindsey Byrne: And that is not the keto diet is not the diet that's necessarily recommended by Shoemaker.
32:56
Lindsey Byrne: Doctors, she make a protocol, doctors, which is for
32:59
Mary Lee: mold toxicity.
33:01
Mary Lee: Interesting.
33:02
Mary Lee: And of course, when you live in a damp client, such as in the UK, many parts of the UK here on Vancouver Island, we have dampness all the time, mold, window sills, yeah, exactly.
33:17
Mary Lee: And it can
33:17
Lindsey Byrne: be so toxic for us.
33:19
Lindsey Byrne: So
33:19
Mary Lee: it can cause problems.
33:21
Mary Lee: Interesting.
33:22
Mary Lee: So testing for that would just be regular food allergy testing, I guess, or the beta testing.
33:28
Lindsey Byrne: There's a, there are a few different tests for maltoxicity.
33:32
Lindsey Byrne: I wouldn't leap to that unless we knew people were living in water damaged homes and they have very specific.
33:42
Lindsey Byrne: Symptoms that kind of made you think, ah, this is not the norm.
33:46
Lindsey Byrne: This is something else.
33:48
Lindsey Byrne: So there are some simple tests you can do first.
33:50
Lindsey Byrne: There's a visual contrast test that can tell you if, If toxicity might be an issue.
33:57
Lindsey Byrne: It won't tell you which toxin but it's a starting point because it only costs 15.
34:04
Lindsey Byrne: So it's a good starting point before we leap into testing the house for mold, spores and all sorts.
34:11
Mary Lee: So we spent a lot of time on the diet portion of the protocol.
34:15
Mary Lee: What are some of the other protocols?
34:17
Lindsey Byrne: So of course exercise is really important.
34:20
Lindsey Byrne: And this is, an area that I slipped into saying exercise there when I normally say movement.
34:27
Lindsey Byrne: And this is, cause this is an area that clients can really struggle with.
34:31
Lindsey Byrne: If you say exercise to some people, me included, we instantly think, Oh, P.
34:38
Lindsey Byrne: E.
34:38
Lindsey Byrne: at school that we hated or we think of the gym, which we find boring.
34:44
Lindsey Byrne: If you love the gym, by the way, any of the listeners who love the gym, that's great.
34:47
Lindsey Byrne: Go for it.
34:47
Lindsey Byrne: Me not, so much.
34:49
Lindsey Byrne: So I like to work with clients to find things that they find enjoyable.
34:53
Lindsey Byrne: Like in their past, they might've enjoyed swimming or dancing or whatever it may be.
35:00
Lindsey Byrne: Let's find something that they used to enjoy and bring that back.
35:04
Lindsey Byrne: Even if it's a.
35:06
Lindsey Byrne: smaller scale.
35:07
Mary Lee: That's lovely.
35:09
Lindsey Byrne: Anything we do movement wise moves blood around the body, which brings oxygen and nutrients to the brain, but it also builds muscle.
35:18
Lindsey Byrne: If we can build some muscle, I, genuinely cannot find the the causal effect here, but there's a lot of correlation in the tests showing that people with more muscle mass have more brain mass.
35:34
Mary Lee: Fantastic.
35:35
Mary Lee: Well I'm going to take my best guess from all the research that I've done courses.
35:41
Mary Lee: We build muscle.
35:42
Mary Lee: The muscle is using that fuel, the readily available fuel glucose in the body to burn it, to sustain muscle mass.
35:51
Mary Lee: And of course, more muscle, we just uses up more.
35:55
Mary Lee: fats in the body stored fats in the body.
35:57
Mary Lee: So I'm thinking, based on what I just learned, as we age, our glucose source is not as efficient for the brain.
36:04
Mary Lee: So I'm thinking as we have more muscle, that glucose is being used maybe efficiently for the muscle so the brain can get on with the business of.
36:15
Mary Lee: optimizing its function.
36:18
Lindsey Byrne: But that's very true.
36:20
Lindsey Byrne: Because sugar, it's not just that our brain is less able to use sugar as a fuel source.
36:27
Lindsey Byrne: It's also that sugar is really quite inflammatory.
36:30
Lindsey Byrne: So if you're taking in more sugar than your muscles use, and it's just cruising around your body and spiking your insulin, then we're also creating inflammation throughout the body, which.
36:41
Lindsey Byrne: It's going to also lead to inflammation in the brain.
36:44
Lindsey Byrne: So yeah, the more muscle we have, the more it's using the sugar then, and that sugar is not rushing around the body, creating inflammation as well.
36:52
Mary Lee: But it's interesting because I know about your clients, but certainly for me, as I've, and I've always been keen on fitness as I build muscle and my maintain muscle, my desire to have something sugary.
37:04
Mary Lee: Dissipates quite quickly because I now see the correlation between the need to up my proteins and I work so hard to get these these guns of steel.
37:16
Mary Lee: I want to nurture them with something that's good.
37:18
Mary Lee: And instead of just that five hours at the gym is just shot with one sugary.
37:24
Mary Lee: Drink at Starbucks.
37:25
Mary Lee: Yeah.
37:26
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah, exactly.
37:29
Mary Lee: But I love that you say it is a movement because the exercise is very daunting.
37:33
Mary Lee: And I try to use that terminology too.
37:35
Mary Lee: When I say my four pillars of good health is, nutrition, movement, sleep management, and stress reduction.
37:44
Mary Lee: And those are two protocols we haven't talked about.
37:47
Mary Lee: That is in your protocol, the Bredson protocol.
37:50
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah.
37:50
Mary Lee: Sleep and stress.
37:52
Mary Lee: Let's talk about that.
37:53
Mary Lee: So critical, particularly in your menopause journey.
37:56
Lindsey Byrne: Oh, and do you know, sleep is such a tough one, isn't it?
38:00
Lindsey Byrne: Because if you're not sleeping well, you already don't feel good.
38:04
Lindsey Byrne: And then someone telling you how important sleep is just piles on the pressure.
38:08
Lindsey Byrne: Yes.
38:09
Lindsey Byrne: And you're lying there at three o'clock in the morning thinking I need my sleep, I need to get to sleep, I've only got three hours left.
38:16
Lindsey Byrne: None of this dress building is good for your sleep either.
38:20
Lindsey Byrne: So yeah sleep is really important.
38:23
Lindsey Byrne: And anybody who is experiencing any form of insomnia, I know how tough that is and you've probably tried everything and I bet, everyone around you has told you tips and tricks and techniques and ideas and you've tried them all and now you're really frustrated because none of them have worked.
38:46
Lindsey Byrne: And I am going to say, try them again but try them all at the same time or try lots of them at the same time because you might have tried one thing, it might not have been enough.
38:56
Lindsey Byrne: to tip you over into sleep.
38:58
Lindsey Byrne: But all the things we know about, don't go on your blue screens before bed.
39:03
Lindsey Byrne: Have the room really dark and quite cool.
39:07
Lindsey Byrne: Get yourself really warm before bed because as we go to sleep, our temperature, our body temperature drops.
39:13
Lindsey Byrne: So if you get really warm before bed, you get in bed.
39:16
Lindsey Byrne: It's nice and cool.
39:17
Lindsey Byrne: Your body temperature drops and it, Hits your brain into thinking it's time for sleep.
39:24
Lindsey Byrne: What else?
39:25
Lindsey Byrne: Magnesium is really good.
39:26
Lindsey Byrne: So if you wanted an Epsom salt bath, that kills two birds with one, well three birds because you're getting relaxed, you're getting some magnesium in you and you're getting really warm.
39:35
Lindsey Byrne: Love it.
39:37
Lindsey Byrne: Oh so many, tips and techniques aren't there for getting sleep.
39:41
Lindsey Byrne: So try a few all together.
39:44
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah.
39:44
Lindsey Byrne: And then what I would say is, If you've genuinely tried everything and nothing works for you, if this has been going on for more than three months, our brains can get into a state where it's almost like reset itself, thinking that is the amount of sleep that you have.
40:05
Lindsey Byrne: If you have ever slept well in your life, your brain does know what to do, your body knows what to do, you can get back to that.
40:12
Lindsey Byrne: So the there's a, an option to try some Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia, CBT I, which has good results.
40:24
Lindsey Byrne: As a last resort, try all the free stuff first, but as a last resort, you might go down that road.
40:30
Mary Lee: That is fantastic.
40:32
Mary Lee: I've been, preaching this in several of my blog posts and mentioned it in a few of my podcasts is the cognitive behavior therapy and then the CBTI.
40:44
Mary Lee: Definitely.
40:45
Mary Lee: See,
40:46
Lindsey Byrne: It's, no accident that our protocols are so similar because you're helping people with menopause, who may well have some brain fog.
40:58
Lindsey Byrne: And what is good for your body anyway is good for the brain.
41:01
Lindsey Byrne: And I'm helping people with brain health, but it's all the same.
41:05
Lindsey Byrne: It's all the same things.
41:06
Lindsey Byrne: There's no accident that these protocols are very similar.
41:09
Lindsey Byrne: And something you just mentioned there about stress.
41:12
Lindsey Byrne: If we are stressed, then we are using up all our capacity to make hormones.
41:18
Lindsey Byrne: on adrenaline and cortisol, the stress hormones, which are inflammatory in and of themselves.
41:25
Lindsey Byrne: But also, as we go through menopause, I've seen perimenopause, the the oestrogen and the progesterone are up and down all over the place and a bit wobbly and they give us lots of symptoms.
41:36
Lindsey Byrne: But even after menopause, our ovaries continue making some small amount of all the hormones that we need, that we normally think of as sex hormones, but actually they're really important for the brain.
41:46
Lindsey Byrne: Your brain has a lot of oestrogen receptors in it.
41:50
Lindsey Byrne: Now, if you're using up all of your hormone making capacity on cortisol for stress, You're not going to have enough left over for all the important things that oestrogen does after menopause for our brain and other organs in our body.
42:09
Lindsey Byrne: It's true.
42:10
Lindsey Byrne: And that's
42:11
Mary Lee: really important as well.
42:13
Mary Lee: It's, I'm really glad you said that about the brain having so many S receptors for estrogen and information is coming out like still regularly, within the last year and probably still each week as we're understanding that menopause is more of the brain health phenomenon.
42:32
Mary Lee: Again, this is something that I learned from Dr.
42:35
Mary Lee: Fiona Lovely on with her podcast.
42:37
Mary Lee: And then I took her workshop on brain health.
42:40
Mary Lee: Again, I was triggered by my own cognitive impairment from menopause.
42:45
Mary Lee: What is happening to me?
42:46
Mary Lee: I don't even feel like myself anymore.
42:48
Mary Lee: And it sent me down this rabbit hole of discovering all this information that's still coming out.
42:55
Mary Lee: It's fascinating.
42:57
Mary Lee: And it's also, it's a good, it's a great indication that we're moving the yardstick towards better understanding women's health, menopause health, but women's health and then the brain health in general for both men and women.
43:11
Mary Lee: So I'm really happy that you had said that, but when I want to just touch on that a little bit more about the, brain having lots of receptors for estrogen, is that true for men as well?
43:23
Mary Lee: Yes.
43:24
Mary Lee: Okay.
43:24
Mary Lee: Yeah.
43:25
Lindsey Byrne: So men have a different experience from us.
43:28
Lindsey Byrne: Because men create oestrogen as well, but it is obviously at a lower level.
43:36
Lindsey Byrne: But when boys go through that growth spurt, That is oestrogen fuelled.
43:42
Lindsey Byrne: When they're growing up, hitting puberty, they go through a growth spurt, they get very spotty.
43:47
Lindsey Byrne: That is oestrogen doing its work.
43:49
Lindsey Byrne: But they continue, apart from that little spurt, they continue making oestrogen their entire lives.
43:56
Lindsey Byrne: Because we all need, even ladies, postmenopausal ladies, make and need a little oestrogen.
44:03
Lindsey Byrne: That helps our brain health, but lots of other organs in the body as well.
44:09
Mary Lee: Wow.
44:09
Mary Lee: I'm learning so much.
44:10
Mary Lee: Who knows, huh?
44:12
Mary Lee: Well, we always just assume it's testosterone, but then we're also understanding the role that testosterone plays in women.
44:18
Lindsey Byrne: Exactly, we make testosterone, not as much, obviously, as men, but we make testosterone.
44:23
Lindsey Byrne: We need, we all need all of these hormones, it's just they have testosterone.
44:27
Lindsey Byrne: And they have a similar amount of testosterone all their lives.
44:30
Lindsey Byrne: It might come down very slowly as they age.
44:34
Lindsey Byrne: And we have this Massive jump off the
44:38
Mary Lee: cliff.
44:38
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah.
44:39
Lindsey Byrne: Wee! We're gone.
44:42
Lindsey Byrne: So they don't go through quite such a change as us.
44:45
Lindsey Byrne: But that change is not good for brain health.
44:47
Lindsey Byrne: And all your listeners who've experienced any brain fog know that.
44:52
Lindsey Byrne: Yes.
44:52
Lindsey Byrne: And without wanting to frighten anyone, there is a good reason why twice as many women get Alzheimer's as do men.
45:00
Lindsey Byrne: For all your listeners who are here looking after themselves, wanting to help themselves through menopause, if this is any added motivation at all look after your brain health now, and that will stand you in really good stead for the future as well.
45:16
Lindsey Byrne: A double whammy, two good reasons why they need to be listening to all your podcasts and taking all your advice.
45:22
Mary Lee: Well, I immediately thought that When you were mentioning that there's another substance that we tend to take in our whole lives, and it wreaks havoc on us as we get older.
45:36
Mary Lee: And of course, it would definitely not fit into the KetoFlex 12 and 3.
45:41
Mary Lee: And that is alcohol.
45:42
Mary Lee: Oh, yes.
45:44
Mary Lee: Of course, lots of hidden sugars, but alcohol alone if we could just eliminate that, we would probably achieve so much.
45:52
Lindsey Byrne: That's a tough one for a lot of people, isn't it?
45:55
Lindsey Byrne: And especially if you are stressed if you are going to work stressed all day, you come home and what do you want you, want a one wind with a glass of wine.
46:04
Lindsey Byrne: And so I fully understand it.
46:07
Lindsey Byrne: And there are sugars in it, which is not good.
46:11
Lindsey Byrne: And it is not good for your brain health.
46:14
Lindsey Byrne: in its own right it's not good for our neurons, and we know this, but actually what it also does, it is an endocrine disruptor, it will attach itself to your hormone receptors, your oestrogen receptors, and so even if you are making some oestrogen, it might not hit the receptors.
46:36
Lindsey Byrne: And alcohol is not the only endocrine disruptor.
46:40
Lindsey Byrne: The stuff they put in our food, preservatives, and the stuff they spray on our food and pesticides and chemical fertilizers, a lot of those are endocrine disruptors as well.
46:56
Lindsey Byrne: Entirely not through our own fault, we might be taking all manner of toxins in.
47:00
Lindsey Byrne: That are messing with us and messing with our ability to use the oestrogen that we are
47:06
Mary Lee: making.
47:08
Mary Lee: And then we have the xenoestrogens that are hidden in almost every product, from plastics to glues, even in our furniture, our rugs.
47:19
Mary Lee: There are certain things that we just can't get around, but doing the best we can with what we have available, such as the protocols that you talked about, our nutrition, our movement and sleep.
47:31
Mary Lee: Stress management.
47:34
Lindsey Byrne: You're absolutely right.
47:35
Lindsey Byrne: We can't, get away from all the toxins.
47:40
Lindsey Byrne: But if we can minimise what we have in our own home and what processed foods we eat, make sure we're not getting, horrible ultra processed foods with unpronounceable ingredients in.
47:55
Lindsey Byrne: If we can minimize it as much as we can, as much as we can't get away from everything, we're putting ourselves in a much better position.
48:03
Lindsey Byrne: Our bodies and our brains are incredibly resilient and they can work around a lot of minor problems.
48:11
Lindsey Byrne: It only becomes a problem when For us when the toxic load is just too much.
48:18
Lindsey Byrne: So I don't want people to feel like, Oh, this is too much.
48:21
Lindsey Byrne: I can't get away from every possible toxin.
48:24
Lindsey Byrne: I think if you do the best you can with your movement and your nutrition and all the things that we've talked about and try to minimize the toxins that you come across in your own home, and even if you're out and about, if you can, if you're walking down.
48:43
Lindsey Byrne: Heavy traffic streets.
48:44
Lindsey Byrne: Can you, take a backstreet, try and minimize it as much as you can and your body is going to be in a much better position to deal with the much smaller quantities of toxins that is
48:57
Mary Lee: coming across.
48:58
Mary Lee: Beautiful.
49:00
Mary Lee: So this is great advice and we could talk.
49:03
Mary Lee: At great length, I'm sure in any one of those articles.
49:08
Mary Lee: But I think what's even more important as if my listeners, your clients can have this information ready, available to them in the future, because we're actually recording this before July 4th, but by the time this episode airs.
49:25
Mary Lee: There will be something on a bookshelf near you.
49:28
Mary Lee: So Lindsay, take it away.
49:30
Mary Lee: Tell us all about your book that's coming out.
49:34
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah.
49:34
Lindsey Byrne: Thank you.
49:35
Lindsey Byrne: So my book is called, what did I come in here for again?
49:41
Lindsey Byrne: How I improved my brain health and memory with the Bredesen protocol.
49:45
Lindsey Byrne: Excellent.
49:47
Lindsey Byrne: And, it's my story and a little bit of my mum's story as well.
49:52
Lindsey Byrne: And there were a few case studies in there from some clients as well.
49:57
Lindsey Byrne: But it's really, what did I do?
49:59
Lindsey Byrne: How did I actually apply the protocol to myself?
50:03
Lindsey Byrne: And what's, what are some of the difficulties I came up against?
50:06
Lindsey Byrne: And how did I work around some of those?
50:08
Lindsey Byrne: So it's pretty much.
50:10
Lindsey Byrne: my story.
50:11
Lindsey Byrne: But there are lots of places in the book to stop and reflect how you might deal with some of the same issues.
50:22
Lindsey Byrne: And at the back of the book, there's lots of coaching templates to work through to help you apply it
50:30
Mary Lee: all on your own.
50:31
Mary Lee: Fantastic.
50:33
Mary Lee: Fantastic.
50:34
Mary Lee: It's like having coach Lindsay in your back pocket by just opening up the book.
50:39
Mary Lee: So we will have the link to where you can find, purchase this book in the show notes.
50:44
Mary Lee: Again, by the time we air, it'll be after the book is out.
50:49
Mary Lee: That is wonderful.
50:50
Mary Lee: How long did it take you though, Lindsay, to write the book?
50:54
Lindsey Byrne: Well, it took about a year, but it wasn't a consistent year.
50:58
Lindsey Byrne: I probably went at it really quickly.
51:02
Lindsey Byrne: strongly for the first three months and then I had probably about six months of, oh this is never gonna happen.
51:10
Lindsey Byrne: And then I and it was like, it was really about how was I going to get around publishing it was what stalled me.
51:18
Lindsey Byrne: I talked to so many people to try and help me publish it.
51:22
Lindsey Byrne: And I got in a bit of overwhelm over it.
51:25
Lindsey Byrne: And then the final three months I really knuckled under and I got it, finished.
51:31
Mary Lee: Wonderful.
51:32
Mary Lee: Congratulations for preparing first of all.
51:35
Mary Lee: And again, going back to the whole brain health thing, the brain's function is to keep us safe.
51:40
Mary Lee: And so it'll find any angle to talk us out of doing something.
51:44
Mary Lee: Yes.
51:45
Mary Lee: Don't do that.
51:45
Mary Lee: It's just going to put us into too much stress.
51:47
Mary Lee: Don't know, but down the pen.
51:50
Mary Lee: Yeah, exactly.
51:51
Mary Lee: We literally have to override that chatter, which again, that is a topic into itself.
51:57
Mary Lee: It's a negative self talk, which is just chewing away at a brain health, honestly.
52:02
Mary Lee: And that is some of the things that steps that I've been doing is a lot of meditation and positive affirmation, right?
52:07
Mary Lee: To override that negative talk, because that I've seen the correlation between that negative talk.
52:14
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah.
52:15
Mary Lee: And my brain health, my cognitive function actually improves after a day of gratitude and affirmation.
52:22
Lindsey Byrne: Yeah,
52:22
Mary Lee: but again, we could talk the, all of these protocols at great length.
52:27
Mary Lee: But now our listeners don't have to, they can get your book.
52:32
Mary Lee: I would love to bring you back though, a few months after that book has hit the streets to get some of the feedback on how successful it's been so far.
52:41
Mary Lee: This has been a tremendous conversation.
52:45
Mary Lee: Again, it is one that really resonates with me and it hits home.
52:49
Mary Lee: It has impacted my life so much to the point where I had to just wave the white flag and say, I'm just not in a position to work anymore.
52:58
Mary Lee: And it's such a
53:00
Lindsey Byrne: brave step, but so good for you noticing what you need and making that step.
53:09
Mary Lee: I just, I was looking long term and seeing the future and wanting to see myself capable of doing some other things, so many things physically, I feel capable and able to accomplish many things moving forward.
53:25
Mary Lee: But it was the brain.
53:26
Mary Lee: I wanted to have my cognitive function fully intact, well into my 70s, 80s, 90s, wherever it might land.
53:35
Mary Lee: It'll be a centennial.
53:36
Mary Lee: That would be wonderful.
53:38
Mary Lee: Yeah.
53:38
Mary Lee: So you have just reinforced some of these positive messages about taking care of our brain.
53:43
Mary Lee: And I'm sure a lot of our listeners are going to really soak this up.
53:47
Mary Lee: This is critical information.
53:49
Mary Lee: And Lindsay, all UK.
53:51
Mary Lee: Thank you for your time, your energy.
53:54
Mary Lee: Your expertise, your brain brilliance, and sharing your journey, just knowing that sometimes that, those pain points that we go through are for a reason.
54:07
Mary Lee: And your reason has brought so much help and hope for so many clients and now my listeners.
54:13
Mary Lee: So thank you.
54:14
Lindsey Byrne: Oh, no, thank you.
54:15
Lindsey Byrne: I've really enjoyed it.
54:17
Lindsey Byrne: It's been such a fun conversation.
54:19
Lindsey Byrne: And thank you for letting me talk to your listeners.
54:23
Mary Lee: Absolutely.
54:25
Mary Lee: Pretty fascinating when you dive into the health of the brain and just learning about how complex it can be.
54:32
Mary Lee: You know, the statistics show that we are at high risk of Alzheimer's and dementia and when we lose estrogen receptors in the brain because of the estrogen egress, well, we're not setting ourselves up for success for having a healthy brain, unless of course Transcribed we institute some protocols.
54:51
Mary Lee: And in this episode, we unpacked what the Bredesen protocol is all about.
54:56
Mary Lee: which emphasizes lifestyle changes for brain support.
55:00
Mary Lee: at the cornerstone of that protocol is diet, an anti inflammatory diet that is, low in sugar and low in processed foods.
55:08
Mary Lee: But what I found quite interesting as another key takeaway is the KetoFlex 12 and 3 diet and fasting.
55:15
Mary Lee: Now, I have written a blog post about the keto diet being not very safe for menopausal women for a number of reasons, because it was designed, as Lindsay pointed out, for, men suffering from epileptic seizures, and of course it became the diet for men combating cardiovascular health.
55:36
Mary Lee: But a keto flex, which is taking the principles of the keto diet, adding some flexibility which means adding, important carbohydrates.
55:45
Mary Lee: the keto flex diet, it is not a diet that is overly restrictive of carbs.
55:50
Mary Lee: Carbs are important.
55:53
Mary Lee: Fuel such as glucose, the brain doesn't process as well as we age.
55:57
Mary Lee: it's the ketones that the brain needs.
56:00
Mary Lee: I didn't also know about the 12 3 principle is that 12 hour overnight fast and the three hour gap before bed.
56:08
Mary Lee: I do know about the time restricted eating and not eating before bed.
56:12
Mary Lee: But that three hour principle that's pretty critical.
56:15
Mary Lee: Letting the pancreas, letting the digestive system take a break so it's not working hard during optimal sleep hours which can impact our sleep.
56:26
Mary Lee: I've heard often and it bears repeating a low sugar diet, particularly when it comes to those breakfast options, for menopausal women who have not had a good night's sleep and we just feel so sluggish in the morning.
56:40
Mary Lee: Carbs seems to be something that we reach for.
56:43
Mary Lee: Switch it up.
56:44
Mary Lee: Green smoothie, frittatas, eating proteins first thing in the morning.
56:48
Mary Lee: Great for our health.
56:49
Mary Lee: for our brain health but be very careful of the protein powders.
56:53
Mary Lee: Make sure that it's a good sourced protein and not high in hidden sugars.
56:59
Mary Lee: Also, interesting as a takeaway is The significance about enjoying activities that encourage movement and building muscle, but don't sound like exercise.
57:13
Mary Lee: Going to the gym, if that feels daunting, don't do it.
57:16
Mary Lee: Do something that fuels the body, feels good in the body, and it's also optimal for our health in building muscle and addressing bone loss as we age.
57:29
Mary Lee: Do check it out.
57:30
Mary Lee: Lindsay's website and her links to YouTube and LinkedIn.
57:34
Mary Lee: It's all in the show notes.
57:37
Mary Lee: I like to talk about a book with my guests.
57:41
Mary Lee: This time we didn't ask Lindsay what she was reading.
57:44
Mary Lee: We talked about what's coming up.
57:46
Mary Lee: And that is her book, I can't wait to get my hands on a copy myself.
57:50
Mary Lee: What did I come here for again?
57:52
Mary Lee: How I improved my brain health and memory with a Bredesen protocol.
57:56
Mary Lee: It's an insightful book full of her personal experience, case studies, and coaching templates that you can implement into your lifestyle right away for improving your brain health.
58:09
Mary Lee: Thank you for tuning in to another insightful episode of All Things Menopausal.
58:14
Mary Lee: If you enjoyed today's episode and want to stay connected, be sure to follow me on Instagram for tips and updates.
58:21
Mary Lee: And if you found value in today's episode, please consider leaving a review on Apple podcasts.
58:28
Mary Lee: Your feedback helps reach more women who can benefit from these conversations.
58:33
Mary Lee: until next time stay empowered, stay informed and embrace the beauty of your menopausal journey.
58:39
Mary Lee: Remember midlife should be the best life and it will be.
58:44
Mary Lee: Namaste.