Latest / The Cyclical Doula Podcast: Fertility Awareness, Charting Cycles, and Reproductive Health Education / The Mouth-Body Connection: How Oral Health Impacts PCOS & Women's Wellness with Christine Horton
Transcript
- emmamma: Welcome back. Today, I'm joined by Christine, a registered dental hygienist, a certified health coach, and the voice behind the PCOS Glow Hygienist. Christine brings a powerful, often overlooked perspective to women's health by connecting oral health, inflammation, and hormone balance, especially for women living with PCOS. And I am so excited to have this conversation today and dive into all of these things that I think Christine: you Emmamma: Thanks so much for being here today on the cyclical doula podcast. If this episode resonated with you, the most powerful thing that you can do is to share it, send it to a friend, text it to your sister, forward it to that group chat. This is how conversations about our bodies start changing, quietly, organically, woman to woman. you are listening and thinking, ⁓ ⁓ want help applying this to my emmamma: most people don't even talk about at all, let alone know how important it is. So welcome. I'm so excited to have you here. Emmamma: I offer free cycle clarity calls. It's a relaxed conversation over Zoom we talk through your goals, your charting practices, and kind of support that would actually make sense for you. can book one at emmamma.com / free. And if you already, make sure you're following or subscribe to the Cyclical Doula - podcast so that you don't miss future episodes. Christine: Thank you so much. I'm so excited to be here and hear all the things you have to say, answer all the questions, do all the things. emmamma: Yeah, amazing. So with us getting started, I'd love to just hear a little bit more about who you are as a human being. So tell us a little bit more just how you are, who you are. Christine: Right, yes, yeah, yeah, yeah. So I am a wife, a mother of four now adult children. I can't even believe I'm saying that out loud, but that is true. I am a dog lover. I have one dog, Oakley, and she adds craziness to our life in the best way. I love anything art, specifically making jewelry, ⁓ dabbling into. Emmamma: And if you feel called to leave a rating or review, it genuinely helps more women find this work. So thank you. You deserve to understand body. You deserve to feel confident in your reproductive choices. And you ⁓ have to figure it out alone. I'll see you next week. Thanks for being here. emmamma: That's crazy. Christine: painting and any other thing that I can kind of get that creative ⁓ juices out in. ⁓ I love pretty much everything in nature, going for walks, hanging out with friends. ⁓ I love tea. So many things. So many things. emmamma: ⁓ Amazing. I love that. ⁓ Okay, so let's dive right into us. Tell us how you got into I'm assuming you like went to dental hygiene school to start off but like maybe not and tell us like how you got into this niche of what you're doing. Christine: Yeah. Yeah, for sure. So yeah, exactly that. I was in the dental field. I started and I got my dental assisting and then I worked for a year and then went back and I got into dental hygiene and I did that. And then I did dental hygiene, traditional in clinic, in operatory, seeing patients for 20 years, a little over 20 years, off and on, had babies in between, did part-time, did lots of things in that whole field and loved it. I still love it. ⁓ My favorite part was always ⁓ talking with patients, clients, ⁓ and answering their questions and talking about health in general and all these sorts of things. ⁓ While that was kind of happening, I also had been diagnosed as a teenager with PCOS. And so I had been dealing with that, you know, my whole life, essentially my whole adult life. And so emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Christine: That's kind of how the two worlds started going parallel and then eventually kind of met up. ⁓ So I, after doing all this in clinic, operatory stuff, I just felt like there was like a bigger picture that I wanted to look at because ⁓ with oral health, a lot of times it just gets stuck in a dentist's office, in a dental operatory, which is fabulous that it's there. emmamma: Mm. Yeah. Christine: but there's just so much more. And so was probably, honestly, probably almost a decade ago was the first time I probably heard about this like oral systemic, which is like mouth body connection. And I was like, what is this? And what are they talking about? And all of that. And that was kind of the start of where I now am starting, know, just like the start of it kind of thing. Yeah. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Okay. Yeah. Amazing. So this is so cool. I have so many questions. I ironically feel like I have a good knowledge of some dental stuff because in high school, my first job I helped out in a dental office, like didn't file paperwork. So I have this teeny tiny knowledge of dental work. ⁓ And then obviously like. Christine: Yeah. Emmamma: Welcome to the Cyclical Doula podcast. I'm Emma, a certified fertility awareness educator, miscarriage doula and the founder of Emmamma Christine: Yeah. Yeah. emmamma: I get my teeth cleaned. But I feel like this is something that's not talked about a lot. And as you mentioned, it seems like it's nothing like it's not something that's talked about. People know about like generally going to the dentist to have some typical cleanings and stuff like that. But this this connection of looking at it in a whole body way is not something that's often talked about. that correct? Or am I just ⁓ under a rock? Christine: correct. Yeah, no, that's correct. It's getting out there more ⁓ for various reasons. One, ⁓ it's undeniable if you start looking at literature. I would say the first bit, the biggest connection was probably ⁓ heart or cardiac connection was probably one of the big ones or ⁓ diabetics, people who have diabetes and there's a lot of emmamma: Yeah. Right. Hmm. ⁓ Christine: oral health thing. So I think it kind of started in that kind of area. And now ⁓ I did a certification specifically in this oral systemic health and literally now it is the whole body and it's not just the dental world. ⁓ It's the medical world as well taking notice. It's the big ⁓ institutions that are now starting to do ⁓ research on it and try to find more of these connections and emmamma: Yeah. Yeah. Emmamma: This space is for women who want to understand their bodies deeply, not just memorize information, but actually feel confident in interpreting their cycles. Here we talk about ovulation, hormones, cervical mucus, basal body temperature, and all that's messy in between emotional layers that come with being woman. We talk about trying to conceive, avoiding pregnancy ⁓ hormones. emmamma: you Christine: There's a lot that believe that some of big advances in medicine will actually come from dentistry slash oral health. ⁓ Lots of things to do with like saliva testing and what kind of bacteria you have in your mouth and like correlations between bacterial loads and disease. it's its whole own specialty, but ⁓ super exciting. emmamma: There's a lot to believe that some of big advances... Yeah. Yeah. you Mm. Emmamma: postpartum transitions, pregnancy loss, perimenopause, and everything in between. Because body literacy isn't just about charting. It's about the autonomy. It's about informed consent. It's about not outsourcing your reproductive decisions to guesswork or fear. Each week, you'll hear conversations with women's health professionals, ⁓ workers, ⁓ emmamma: its whole own specialty. But yeah, super exciting. That's amazing. And I think like, what a what a cool time to be in of how being able to like, understand that this is all taking place and that there's going to be so much growth in that too. What is one of the things that you see that like, initially, when you people start learning about oral systemic health that you like want everybody to know, which I'm sure like there's so much but what's let's start with one thing. Christine: Yes. Emmamma: and researchers along with solo episodes where I teach practical skills you can apply to your own cycle right away. if you have ever felt like you should have learned this information sooner, if you have ever felt disconnected from your cycle, Christine: Right, so one thing, the most basic thing is that it's connected, right? Our mouth has always been part of our body and from years and years and years ago, we separated it. And it's interesting because no other body part has been separated. And it gives us such a unique perspective because if you have, let's say a heart issue, for example, we can't just pull your chest open and take a look at it easily. emmamma: You Yeah. Mmm. ⁓ yeah. Emmamma: If you want to raise the next generation without shame around their bodies, you are in the right place. So grab your tea, open up your notes app, and let's build a cycle confidence together. emmamma: Hmm Christine: but we can see in the mouth. So we can see a lot of things in the mouth before we see it in the body. So it gives us this unique kind of ⁓ opportunity and it's often referred to as the window into the body. So you can see, kind of have a snapshot of what might be happening in the places that we can't easily see without surgery or that type of stuff. emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah, absolutely. That's so fascinating to me. So I, because you have this like, specific part of working and like having knowledge around people with PCOS and their oral systemic health, what is one of the things that you see that's so specific to women who have PCOS in their oral health? Christine: Mm-hmm. Right. So PCOS is very complex in and of itself. Yeah, because ⁓ every woman has different symptoms depending on what they have going on. It's hormonal endocrine based, but to what level and what hormones and all these things. So there's no like exact one thing with PCOS, which makes it emmamma: For sure. Right. Christine: really tricky, but I think I can safely say across the board there's inflammation in women who have PCOS. They have an increased inflammation in their body, like chronic inflammation. And so often in the mouth you will see inflammation and that could be in ⁓ their gums are kind of puffy or maybe they bleed easily or emmamma: Right. Christine: Maybe they have ⁓ some issues in their mouth, like dry mouth. They're really at high ⁓ levels of sleep apnea. A lot of women with PCOS have sleep apnea. ⁓ So there's just all kinds of things that we can see. But I would say across the board, regardless of what your symptoms are with PCOS, often the dentist will see or hygienist inflammation in the mouth. emmamma: Mmm. Yeah, that makes that totally makes sense that that would be correlating that like if you have inflammation anywhere, obviously it would be present in your mouth as well. ⁓ So you mentioned that it's going to be so specific to the individual about what what PCOS is kind of showing up in someone's body, which we know. Do you use that same approach when with their dental care and oral care of how like being so personalized? Christine: Yeah. Yeah. Mm-hmm. It is, it really is. And so I do a lot of coaching, a lot of it's virtual, so I'm not seeing them in the dental chair in a dental operatory. ⁓ But we can get all of their information from their dentist slash dental hygienist. ⁓ And so we can work with that. And often they have really great results. You know, they'll go back in their four month or six month recall and they'll be like, what have you been doing? Because it looks fabulous in here. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah. Christine: And it's just some of the tweaks and differences that we use and that they're not like big lifestyle gonna take you forever, but it can make big changes in the inflammation in your mouth. Because there's lots of things that you hear in the dental world, but it tends to be the same things. Brush your teeth, floss your, you know, those kinds of things. emmamma: Mm-hmm. ⁓ Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Christine: But there's also other things that we can do and it's just individualized because we want to get that inflammation down. That's super important and it's an amazing opportunity and that's why I get so excited as you can hear as I talk and talk about this. But ⁓ it's a real opportunity because there's other areas where it's much harder to address systemic inflammation. emmamma: Yeah. as you can hear as I talk and talk about this. Yeah, so what are obviously like, this is gonna be so personalized to the individual. So if anybody's listening, this is not medical advice for you. But what are some ideas of like, what are some people doing to kind of reduce that and see some results? Christine: Mm-hmm. Nope, yeah. ⁓ So regardless of anything, the tongue is often forgotten. The tongue can tell us so much. It can be coded in stuff. It can, you know, give a bad taste, all sorts of things. And so just starting to clean your tongue regularly. emmamma: Okay. Mm-hmm. Christine: can make a huge difference. That can reduce bacteria by up to 70%. So that is huge if we're trying to reduce inflammation in the mouth. So that's just one thing that generally you wanna have as part of your oral health is a tongue cleaning routine or however you wanna do it, but yeah, that should definitely be part of it. emmamma: Wow. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, that's awesome. think like, like you said, that's not something that we really are taught very early on. Like I have a six year old and a four year old and I like I don't I don't clean my tongue very often. So like it doesn't even like cross my mind that that's something that I should be teaching them. But now I will. But yeah, those are great. Those are great things. And so are you when you're working with people, are you mostly working just on their like Christine: Yeah. emmamma: oral hygiene and their oral health? Or are you like looking at them as a whole, a whole person and looking at all of that as well? Christine: Right. We, I look at everything. We look at all aspects. I just can add in that oral mouth body connection because of my background. But by no means is that all I do. I, you know, I have all my health coaching certifications and whatever. So we look at emmamma: Yeah. Right, right. Right. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Christine: everything. You know, we want to look at your, from a medical stance, right? Like all the markers for health. What's your blood pressure? What's your A1C? Like what are your blood sugars? You know, what's your daily habits in terms of exercise and diet and what's your sleep habits? And so we really, I comprehensively look at everything. I just add in that oral health part because emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm Yeah. Christine: It is a difference maker and there's not very many people that do it or have the knowledge to do it. So it's like a, I don't want to say added bonus, but yeah, yeah. emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. it's like a, I don't want to say added bonus, but. Yeah, no, but it is, it is. It's another way of looking at it and you have such a good background of knowledge around that, which is really important. Do you feel like there's consistent things that come up when you're working with people with, around PCOS that you're like correcting myths with it, or do you feel like people have a good understanding of what PCOS is? Christine: Yes. Yeah. think there are myths and I think part of it is there was zero information out there and then now there's lots of information but it's not necessarily correct information. Everything that I do is science-based, research-based and backed up. There's hacks and pills and patches and all kinds of things that are supposed to fix things. ⁓ emmamma: Mm-hmm. ⁓ Everything that I do is science-based, research-based. Yeah. ⁓ Christine: It is a chronic disease. There is no one single anything that is going to take care of it forever and ever, but there is lots of ways to manage symptoms so that it is like you don't have to deal with it every single day of your life. And so that is the goal with most people that I work with rather than it being the focal point of their life and they're really struggling. emmamma: that is going to take care of it forever and ever. But there are Christine: You know, we get things into their life and their lifestyle that make it just a part that they manage and then they can go do all the things that they love to do and it's not sucking their energy and their time and their money and they can focus on their kids and family and work and all the things that, you know, can be really affected by some of those symptoms of PCOS. emmamma: and their time and their money and they can focus on their kids and family and work and all the things that you know can be really affected by some of those symptoms of PCOS. Yeah, that's amazing. I think that that's again like everybody just kind of wants that relief to some degree of some of those symptoms and and being able to to have a bunch of tools to be able to help people through that is is so good. Do you Christine: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Yes. emmamma: What are some of the things that you see the people that you work with just like having this like light bulb of a a changing moment as they're working with you? Christine: Right. I think one thing that I see like just so often is there's more than one way to achieve things or to do it. And that we want to go for sustainability over direct results. Like everybody would love to do whatever in 10 days, but emmamma: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm Christine: If we do it that quick, it's probably gonna fall off that quick. Like statistically, that's how it works, unfortunately. ⁓ So we want to like, rather than going in and changing their whole life, like pick out things that need work and where do we wanna put the work in and where's the most bang for your buck? And how can we add this to what you're already doing? Like so many women that I work with, they're... emmamma: Yeah. ⁓ Mm-hmm. pick out things that need. So many women that I work with, they're busy women. They've kids, they've got kids, they don't have like... Christine: busy women, like they've got careers, they've got kids, like they've got, they don't have like all this time, all the time to like be able to do everything that they wish they could, you know? So I totally relate to that. I myself have four children. ⁓ And so I know what that's like. And I think that is helpful when I work with clients, cause they're going through a similar thing, right? emmamma: Yep. So I know what... Yeah. Christine: It's not they're just taking care of themselves because then it's like, well, I'm going to work out from this time to this time and I'm going to eat this perfect way. And, you know, it's tricky if you've got kids and this one bone eat white food and that one's, you know, doing, you know, and you're trying to like mix it all together. And that's how we can get some personalization going in there so that they can achieve their goals. But ⁓ it's still real life, real life, real women, you know. emmamma: You know, it's tricky if you've got kids and this one, white food and black ones. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Because I think that's one of the things like as as so many women, especially moms who have little kids are are kind of in that season of like, okay, like I want to make this overall, overall, like health change, but I don't have the capacity to like, rehaul everything and being able to make those small steps and have support through that really is helpful. ⁓ Christine: For sure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, yeah, no, exactly. And there's lots of things that we can do and lots of movement and lots of different ways. that's the exciting part about coaching and why I love it so much, because everybody is an individual and everybody has different goals. And so we can really work together to see what works for them so they can achieve their goals. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Yes, that's so good. I love that so much. I wonder, do you, as you're working with clients, obviously women who are cycling on a regular basis, there's a lot of things that change with all of that. Out of my own curiosity, do you see changes in people's oral health or like what their mouths are doing during different parts of their cycle? Christine: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, we can, especially ⁓ if they're on their period or just started their period, often they can have an increased sensitivity to like pain or pain, their pain receptors are like super sensitive. So sometimes, you know, someone will come in and it's like, I don't know why. And then we just never book another appointment ⁓ at that time of their cycle. Hormones can do really strange things to the oral tissue as well. emmamma: Okay. Mmm. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Christine: ⁓ There's an actual hormonal pregnancy gingivitis, we call it. So gingivitis is just inflammation of the gums. so women will be maybe in that, excuse me, first trimester and they'll come in and they're like, I don't know what's going on. My gums are like bleeding. emmamma: Right. Christine: all the time, like I just go to brush my teeth and they're just bleeding and I don't know why, like I'm doing the exact same thing that I've done for 20 years before this. And it's just the change in the hormones, the body's reacting different to let's say maybe some bacterial loads and that kind of stuff. And so you'll see this. so then we do all the things so we can get it back under control and as their hormones. emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm Yeah. ⁓ you know, then we do all the things so we can get it back under. their hormones you know kind of regulate and Christine: you know, kind of regulate and maybe aren't going quite as crazy because at first trimester, of course, you know, they can go from zero to like 600. So, yeah, so yeah, no, you can specifically see things. emmamma: That's really, like, it's just mind blowing to me and fascinating. I heard somebody say, and I would love to know your opinion on this, that because for a lot of people, like you were just mentioning that like first trimester with their progesterone being really high that sometimes they have more bleeding, in that luteal phase after ovulation, the second part of people's cycle, progesterone is also like the dominant hormone. Do you see that some people, just like you were saying on their period, they might have more sensitivity to pain? Do you think that? Christine: Yeah. Thanks, man. emmamma: Sometimes people have more like bleeding with brushing or procedures in that high progesterone phase of their cycle. Christine: Yeah, I mean, it's hard to directly correlate because a lot of women when I when I talk to them, they're not like, I'm like, what day are you on of your cycle? And they're like, why are you asking me about my cycle? So it's a great thing. And it'd be something interesting to study for sure, to find out for sure. But it wouldn't surprise me if there was some correlation for sure. And it depends from woman to woman, right? Because what level are they at? Like, there's some women who just have emmamma: Yeah, for sure. They wouldn't know. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Of course, of course. Christine: with crazy levels just normally every cycle. And then there's others who just like blip up and down between normal, know? So it'd be interesting to see if it was, you you had higher levels if you had more of the symptoms. But I will say, if at any time, women, any time of their cycle, if you're noticing some bleeding or some things that you haven't noticed before, great idea to go in and get it checked out because the sooner that you're able to, ⁓ emmamma: Yes. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Christine: usually the less involved the treatment is and you just don't want that inflammation in your body. And in the mouth, that's one of the big things is ⁓ bleeding of the gums ⁓ or another one would be like if you have a cavity that ⁓ maybe you haven't gotten taken care And we would never wanna leave any infection anywhere in the body, including the mouth, because I feel like sometimes emmamma: Yeah. For sure. Christine: If we had an infection in our finger, the doctor wouldn't be like, ⁓ don't worry about that one. We're just gonna leave it. We'll take care of it in six months. They'd be like, no, we need to treat that. But somehow in our mouth, maybe some people don't realize that an ⁓ in there it inflamed. So anyhow, if you notice any bleeding, bleeding's just a sign of inflammation. So ⁓ make an appointment and get it checked out. ⁓ emmamma: Mmm. Yeah. Yeah. make an appointment and get it checked out. That's so good. Yeah, because I think that's really important. think sometimes this with a lot of things, but dental hygiene, specifically, like sometimes we're like, ⁓ like, whatever, like, it's just my typical or my normal or what happens one time. And it's helpful to remember that those are things that should be checked out to make sure that we're living the best life as possible. Christine: Yeah, yeah, for sure. Absolutely. emmamma: So what is your main goal for this sustainable, healthy living with the clients that you work with on a regular basis? So we talked about using small steps, but tell us more. Christine: Yeah, so. We do, right? Yeah. So we want them to hit all of the health parameters that they, that is their goal. I'm very their goal based. Like I'm, I'm not one that's going to say you have to be this way and you have to be, that's no, that's not what we're doing here. Right. But we know already that heart disease, for example, is a lead, the most common ⁓ cause of death for women. So let's look, what is your blood pressure? Is it really high? What do we need to do to get that into a normal range if that's a goal of theirs, for example? So we really work on little steps, but what our end goal is is different for everyone depending where they're starting. And we know women with PCOS have a higher rate of heart disease. So they're already at an in... emmamma: Right. Great. ⁓ Mm. Christine: Never mind higher risk of anxiety and depression and diabetes and the list goes on and on. And so that's why when I work with clients, I'm really working on what's their goal. Some women it's like, I just went to my doctor and I found out I'm pre-diabetic. I had no idea and they don't know what to do. And usually it's like, emmamma: Yeah. Christine: you we're going to check you in three months, but we need you to lose X amount of pounds. We need you to start exercising X amount of time, you know, all these things. And they really want to do it, but they don't understand how it's like all like correlated, like one thing to the other. then like, how do they put it into this busy, busy, full life that they have, you know? And I have so much appreciation for other health care professionals, doctors, dentists. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Christine: nurses, PTs, like you name it, like everybody is doing the best that they can, but ⁓ you only have limited time, know, like you, you know, if you look at doctors, like they get 10, 15 minutes, right? So if someone is now pre-diabetic and they need to make all these changes, like it would be really hard as a patient to like get down everything that they need to do and then be able to go home and incorporate it all. emmamma: nurses, PT's, like you name it, like everybody is doing the best that they can. ⁓ Like they get 10, 15 minutes. Right. get down everything that they need to do and go home and incorporate it all. Christine: You know, so that's where coaching really comes in to like, help you look at your individual and like, what do you want to prioritize? Because ⁓ success statistically doesn't come in when we do like an overhaul of our life at like a hundred percent. We tend to like fall off the wagon, so to speak. You know, we might do good for a day or a week or whatever, but when we can work it in small steps and in areas that they're interested in working on. emmamma: Right. Yes. Christine: ⁓ We can get the outcomes that they want or that they need to get for health purposes, ⁓ but in a sustainable way and in a way that they can carry on. emmamma: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. That's a yeah. I think like you mentioned, like it's so there's so many amazing professionals out there and the way that our system works, unfortunately, doesn't always give them enough time to give all of that other information. And so people like you, who are just like being able to sit with people and walk with people through just life and their health is really helpful and really amazing. Christine: I love what I do. emmamma: Yeah, so good. ⁓ What else about women's cycles and what you're working with, like tracking their health? Do you find fascinating or that you're helping people feel empowered about? Christine: Yeah, there is just lots of correlation and some women that I'm working with, it depends because I work with a lot of women and there are different stages, right? So if they're newly diagnosed with PCOS, they might have not had a cycle for six months, two years, five years, like it can be a really long time, right? So that's different than let's say someone who's trying to get pregnant. And so maybe we've got to the point where they're having a cycle, but they're not ovulating. then that's. emmamma: Right. Yeah, long time, yeah. Yes. Christine: something different again, right? Or maybe we're working with someone who's perimenopausal, so their cycle again is like all crazy. we really have to again, individualize it. What are they seeing? What do they want? I find for some people, they really love apps using, you know, the tracking apps. ⁓ But even if you don't want to do an app, even to just make note yourself. ⁓ emmamma: Mm-hmm. Yes! All over, Mm-hmm. Christine: of how long your cycle is, is it regularly that long? Like is one month it's 21 days and the next month it's 75 and then, you know, and then how do you feel? Like, you know, do you have less energy? Are you tired? ⁓ Do you have crazy appetite? Like there's just all these things that you can track and sometimes that's giving it clues. I like to talk to women about like when we have symptoms. emmamma: Yeah. Christine: whether it's PCOS related or something different in health, they're super frustrating and I get that and we wanna just like fix the symptom. But the symptoms are giving clues to what's going on in your body. So they aren't just like random. So that helps you go to like root cause kind of things, right? emmamma: Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Christine: And that's gonna be a lot more long-term beneficial than just putting a bandaid. So like, for example, if I have a woman that wakes up and they're like, I got nine hours of sleep. Like it's a miracle, I got nine hours of sleep. They're super excited, but they cannot get out of bed. Like they are so exhausted. And... emmamma: Mm-hmm. Christine: they need to use energy drinks or multiple cups of coffee or like that really heavy caffeine to try to get themselves up and going because they've got work to get to and meetings and all the things that they need to do. That's telling us something, right? Because that's not normal, right? If we get a full night's sleep, why are we still so tired? And we want to fix that, but the fix, the long term fix can't just be ⁓ emmamma: get themselves up and going because they've got work to do, meetings, all the things they do. Mm-hmm Yeah. Christine: you know, using a stimulant like caffeine or whatever to make that happen, right? So let's look at why, why you still feel tired after a full night's rest. Yeah. So that's more like my root cause kind of stuff rather than just putting a bandaid over it. emmamma: Right? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Yeah, which is so important because I think like that's like you said, like it's so easy to put a bandaid over all of our symptoms and just keep going with life. But being able to really advocate for finding those root causes and spending the time to find those root causes can obviously make us have a much healthier lifestyle. But man, sometimes is it really tough to get there to figuring that out? Yeah, for sure. Christine: Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. emmamma: What else do you want to share with people in regards to what you do and what you see on a regular basis? Christine: Sure. I think, because I obviously myself and a woman, I want people to know that the work that I do is because I want to help other women. I was diagnosed at 17 and the message that I was given when I was diagnosed is sometimes the same message that other women are getting at this time. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Christine: And it makes me super, super sad because it's not even based in truth. When I was diagnosed, it was like, this is what you have. I had never even heard of it, which a lot of people don't. And basically they said, you probably won't be able to have kids and, you know, come back and we can give it a try if and when you kind of want to. And that was kind of like the whole conversation. And at that time I was like, what? emmamma: Mm. Bye. Wow. Yeah. Christine: Like you're you're not even thinking about necessarily having children or what that might look like or any of that. So it just like breaks my heart that I still hear all these women that have that or a similar story. Because that's not true. You know, a lot of women can easily go on to have children. There are many who struggle and, you know, there's lots of reasons for that. But and there's lots of treatments and, you know, all those kinds of things. But emmamma: Yeah. Yeah. Great. Right. Christine: I don't want anybody to have that pressure from diagnosis to think that that is the way it is. So that's my motivation for everything. And PCOS, unfortunately, is very, very, very common. Statistically, it depends what you read, but one in 10, some as much as one in seven and eight women have it. But... emmamma: Mm-hmm. Christine: 70 % are undiagnosed. emmamma: That's so many. Yeah. Christine: And that is what's crazy to me. So a lot of the work I wanna do is just like, these are the signs and symptoms. If you see any of these, feel any of these, have any of these, like go get checked out because I think knowledge is power. And if you do have it, the earlier that you can start managing it, the better you are, right? Better off you are and you can protect your... emmamma: Yeah. for sure. Christine: your fertility and all those sorts of things. So that is really ⁓ my passion is just letting women know what it is, what to do if you think you have it, and then we can go from there. We can figure things out from there. emmamma: Mm-hmm. Yeah. Absolutely. So what are some of those things that you see that people need to like keep an eye out for to say that maybe they are, this is something that they might need to look into a diagnosis for. Christine: Right, so ⁓ abnormal periods, especially longer periods, 35 days plus, or if like one month they have a 21 day cycle and then it's like a 72 day cycle, that type of stuff for periods. ⁓ They pattern baldness, so losing a lot of hair, but like on the top of the head, not necessarily all over. ⁓ Abnormal hair growth. emmamma: Okay. Christine: So like facial hair or like on the stomach or the chest area, the back, ⁓ any of those types of areas and not like necessarily one hair. Like, I mean, it's significant. ⁓ Acne, especially hormonal acne. that, you know, kind of deeper kind of acne is another sign that, you know, they definitely want to look into. emmamma: out. to unexplained weight gain. Christine: Unexplained weight gain is another one. ⁓ Again, I hate to throw in all the statistics, but I think it's important. Like a lot of women, about 70 % of women with PCOS have insulin resistance. And so ⁓ that can make losing weight really difficult and you can gain weight really quickly. emmamma: Yeah. ⁓ Women with PCOS have insulin resistance. Yeah Mm-hmm ⁓ Christine: So that would be another thing that if women were like, okay, I'm doing the same thing, but in the last six months, I've put on like 15 pounds, that could be another red flag that like, you know, maybe you wanna go in and see your doctor, your gynecologist and have those things looked at, you know, or diagnosis of like ⁓ insulin resistance, that's really common. So if you have that diagnosis already, then. emmamma: like insulin resistant. Right. Right. Christine: you might want to look if you have other symptoms to that. yeah, those are just some of them I could go on and on because it feels like there's so many, you know, there's anxiety and depression and those kinds of things, but they can also just stand alone or they could be part of something else. ⁓ But those are some of the symptoms that are kind of red flags for ⁓ PCOS. emmamma: Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, which yeah, those are good. Because I think sometimes when when people don't know that those all correlate together to be some like that, like all on their own, they're kind of like, ⁓ like, that's kind of weird. That's kind of abnormal. But then when you put them all together, and you realize that they're all connected, that that's really helpful for people to understand that those can be all together, or or just parts of it. But Christine: Yes. emmamma: went especially if people hit most of those things, then that would be a huge thing to reach out to somebody for. Christine: Yeah! Yeah, yeah, and you don't have to have all of them. Because like I said, sometimes what's complex about PCOS is that there's lots of different clinical ways that it shows up. There's not like one specific way. emmamma: Yeah. Right. Yeah, right. Yeah. And other than people working with somebody like you who has this knowledge base in health coach, what should people look for in regards to other care providers for like gynecologists? Because I feel like sometimes not all gynecologists are going to have the same response to helping with a situation like this. And I know sometimes it's just like time like we talked about earlier. But is there other things that you Christine: Mm-hmm. Yeah. emmamma: suggest people to look for when they're looking for other professionals. Christine: Yeah, for sure. So depending on what your symptoms are and what you're trying to do, there's a whole bunch of professionals that can do different things. But if it's a real hormone-based issue, an endocrinologist would obviously be someone. ⁓ If it's the acne or hair loss or excessive hair, all of that, sometimes a dermatologist would be an appropriate person. ⁓ As far as resources and places to look, ⁓ there, is fabulous information. You just want to make sure it's from an educational science based. ⁓ So I'm associated with the PCOS awareness associations, so PCOS AA, and ⁓ they are fantastic at vetting very great information, not just for who's diagnosed, but we have a lot of programs for like partners of emmamma: Yeah. ⁓ getting very great information, not just for who's died. Mmm. Yes. Christine: women who have PCOS. Our latest one is for teens or newly diagnosed because that's a whole other thing, right? If you're diagnosed at like 16 and you're already going through all the craziness of like adolescents. And then ⁓ I was just working on some ⁓ stuff with like as a parent, like how do you support a daughter who's been diagnosed with this, right? emmamma: Yeah, absolutely. Christine: so there's lots of great resources. I would just say caution against anything that is, ⁓ this one thing will cure everything kind of things. ⁓ I know some of the younger, it's all tick tock and all that, and it makes great content sometimes, but, ⁓ you just want to make sure that it's, it's medically sound and that you're running anything you might be trying to. emmamma: Yes, yeah Yeah. Christine: to use or do by a medical professional, whether it's supplements, whether obviously prescriptions are gonna know about, it's, know, whatever, you'd wanna run that by your personal medical team or professional. emmamma: Yeah, that's absolutely that's really your it's so important to remind people of just like, there's so many really cool things out there. And there's so many things that are helping a lot of people. especially when it comes to supplements and all of those other things, it's really important that you're checking to make sure that it's a good fit for you and and that the specific product is reputable in itself. Christine: Yes. Yeah, yeah. And there's standards of what you would want any supplement you're going to put in your body to be at. You you'd want it to hit all the all the things you don't want someone who's just, you know, starting new in business. And it's a huge market. There's a lot of women out there with PCOS that really just want anything to get their symptoms, some relief from their symptoms. Another big thing, because there's so much mental health overlap with PCOS. emmamma: Yeah, for sure. Yeah? Right. Mm. Christine: is I'm a huge proponent of support groups. So ⁓ I run a support group through my business, ⁓ completely free. I am always happy to have people join ⁓ because I just feel like there is something in community when there's someone else going like, yeah, I have that too, or yeah, I was dealing with that too. know, like it really sucks, but you know. emmamma: Yeah. Awesome. Christine: this is what helped me or whatever. So along with me having a support group, PCOSAA has also started a support group, it's virtual. So ⁓ there's signups on ⁓ their website, my website, the websites if are looking for support ⁓ and ⁓ both of those are free. emmamma: Awesome. That's so good. I'll make sure that all those things get in the show notes. ⁓ That's great. ⁓ I am so glad that we're having this conversation. And I feel like we've talked about so many different things that people can just kind of know in the back of their head and think about what they should be doing. Is there anything else you want to leave people with? Christine: Yeah, for sure. I'd just love to leave women with... If something doesn't feel right, it's not. Trust your gut and find someone who can listen to you. Yeah. emmamma: Yeah, that's so important. Absolutely amazing. Okay, so where can people find you? I'll be sure to link everything that you mentioned, but where can people connect with you specifically? Christine: Yeah, for sure. So I am obviously on my website ⁓ and I'm active on LinkedIn and I've just started Instagram and then ⁓ Facebook as well. ⁓ And yeah, we talk about all the things. We talk about PCOS, we talk about women's health in general. We talk about some oral health, but like I said, it's really an add in. It's not like the sole focus. ⁓ emmamma: Yeah. Christine: ⁓ And then I do a lot with the PCOSAA as well. I'm a co on the board of directors for advocacy and programs. And so ⁓ I do a lot of things there. So they are great. They have an app that you can get on as well. So ⁓ those are all the places that you can find me. emmamma: That's amazing. Thank you so much for being here and sharing all of your wisdom. And ⁓ if you're listening to this, please follow Christine and connect with her to learn more just about what she's doing. Christine: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. I appreciate being able to come on and talk. It's always fantastic to connect. emmamma: Yes, awesome.