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I Choose ... to Find My Way Out of Hormone Havoc with Dr. Amy Shah · I Choose Me with Jennie Garth

0:01
Speaker 1: You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Girl. Hi. Everyone,
0:09
Speaker 1: welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is all about
0:13
Speaker 1: the choices we make even when our bodies and our
0:16
Speaker 1: hormones are in disarray. My guest today, doctor Amy Shaw,
0:22
Speaker 1: is a double bored, certified MD and nutrition specialist with
0:27
Speaker 1: a background in nutrition from Cornell University. Over the last decade,
0:31
Speaker 1: she has built a world renowned wellness education platform and
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Speaker 1: written two best selling books, I'm So Effing Hungry and
0:40
Speaker 1: I Am So Effing Tired. With her third out, now,
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Speaker 1: Hormone Havoc, she has found less invasive ways God bless
0:50
Speaker 1: her to help us transform our health, and she is
0:54
Speaker 1: here to share. Welcome doctor Amyshaw. Hi, this is so fun.
0:59
Speaker 1: I read book Yay like a speed reader and I
1:03
Speaker 1: loved it. Okay, good, I'm so happy. I also just
1:08
Speaker 1: love your titles. That the book titles. It's like it's
1:13
Speaker 1: like you read our minds, like, Okay, so your first book,
1:16
Speaker 1: I Am So effing tired, and then I Am So
1:20
Speaker 1: effing hungry and yes, yes, yes it's true. My hormones
1:24
Speaker 1: are incomplete havoc. It's like you know, was having with me.
1:28
Speaker 1: So I'm so glad that you're here to help.
1:31
Speaker 2: I'm so happy. I know I'm not. I always say, like,
1:34
Speaker 2: I'm not only the doctor, but I'm also the patient.
1:37
Speaker 2: So I get it because I've been going through all
1:39
Speaker 2: of these phases and that's part of the journey. Like
1:43
Speaker 2: I thought to myself, like, if I can't get answers
1:46
Speaker 2: with all of these doctors around me and my own
1:49
Speaker 2: medical training, how are people supposed to even navigate this?
1:53
Speaker 2: There's no handbook.
1:54
Speaker 1: Nope, that's right. We had no preparation for this. So
1:59
Speaker 1: lucky the next generation will have. That's right all they
2:03
Speaker 1: need to know.
2:04
Speaker 2: And also like there's so much we can still do.
2:06
Speaker 2: Like I don't know about you, but like I've changed
2:08
Speaker 2: so much in my life and so much has gotten better.
2:12
Speaker 1: M It's true knowledge is power and that brings us
2:16
Speaker 1: great change. I hope you're comfortable with this because I
2:18
Speaker 1: just want to jump right in. There's just so much
2:21
Speaker 1: I want to talk to you about. Okay, you say
2:24
Speaker 1: in your new book that getting older is inevitable. You're
2:27
Speaker 1: going through hormone changes that lead to perimenopause, menopause, and
2:32
Speaker 1: ultimately postmenopause, and you refer to this as the hormonal continuum.
2:39
Speaker 1: So you've taken time out of your very busy schedule
2:42
Speaker 1: to write a book to give us better understanding about
2:45
Speaker 1: what that means and how we can start to thrive.
2:48
Speaker 1: Why did you write this book?
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Speaker 2: Well, Kenny, I feel like everyone thinks of menopause as
2:54
Speaker 2: this dismal thing that happens and life goes downhill from there,
3:01
Speaker 2: and no one, like we said about handbook, there is
3:05
Speaker 2: no handbook. You just kind of get there. You don't
3:08
Speaker 2: know if you're there or not, and then you complain
3:11
Speaker 2: and you think you're there, but like no one's there
3:13
Speaker 2: to support you in any way, Like no doctors are
3:16
Speaker 2: telling you what to eat or what to do or
3:18
Speaker 2: how to optimize during this time. And you're laugh looking
3:21
Speaker 2: at blogs and AI and you know, social media and
3:24
Speaker 2: your friends and it's just a mess. And so when
3:28
Speaker 2: I started to share nutrition and lifestyle knowledge, like it
3:31
Speaker 2: was the women, the women in their thirties, forties and
3:34
Speaker 2: fifties that were like, yes, tell us. So that's why
3:37
Speaker 2: I wrote this.
3:39
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it seems like even though we're talking
3:41
Speaker 1: so much more and more about these very important female topics,
3:46
Speaker 1: there's there's still a lot of women out there who
3:48
Speaker 1: don't know or who haven't you know, been listening lately,
3:53
Speaker 1: they don't completely understand. So really quick, just give our
3:56
Speaker 1: listeners the cliff notes of very.
3:59
Speaker 3: Yes okay posts.
4:01
Speaker 2: Most people haven't even heard of perimenopause because it wasn't
4:05
Speaker 2: a thing like, it wasn't like nobody talked about it,
4:08
Speaker 2: and so every one thinks there's menopause, like one day
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Speaker 2: you're just in menopause, and that's just not how it works.
4:15
Speaker 2: It's like, for ten years, seven to ten years before menopause,
4:20
Speaker 2: you're going through this decline in your hormones and they
4:24
Speaker 2: don't just decline smoothly. They decline in a jagged like
4:27
Speaker 2: roller coaster pattern. And so what you're left with is
4:32
Speaker 2: seven to ten years of where you're feeling like you're
4:35
Speaker 2: in the space of like having symptoms. Sometimes it's sleep issues,
4:39
Speaker 2: sometimes fatigue. Sometimes it's like frozen shoulders, sometimes it's bloating
4:42
Speaker 2: and waking. All of these things are happening to you.
4:46
Speaker 2: And you're still getting your periods and they could be
4:49
Speaker 2: irregular or not, but this is happening for like a
4:52
Speaker 2: ten year period, and then the day that you have
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Speaker 2: gone through twelve cycles twelve months without your period, that
5:01
Speaker 2: day is considered menopause.
5:03
Speaker 3: So menopause is literally like a.
5:04
Speaker 1: Day and all that work for one day, I know,
5:07
Speaker 1: so it's called it's like okay, and there's no test
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Speaker 1: for it.
5:10
Speaker 2: It's just like, okay, you've had twelve missed periods and
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Speaker 2: now that means your ovaries are done, and so you're
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Speaker 2: in menopause. And then everything after that is post menopause.
5:20
Speaker 2: And so it's really confusing because what we talk about
5:23
Speaker 2: on social media are like with each other, is like
5:25
Speaker 2: this whole like we talk about menopause, is this like
5:29
Speaker 2: very gray area. So it's good to know the terminology
5:32
Speaker 2: so we can understand. So that's why my book is
5:34
Speaker 2: about perimenopause, menopause, and post menopause, because it's about that
5:38
Speaker 2: whole period between your thirties all the way into your
5:42
Speaker 2: sixties and beyond.
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Speaker 1: Crazy that those those years were just kind of left
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Speaker 1: off of the insction packet.
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Speaker 2: So totally, that's exactly they were left off the instruction packet.
5:53
Speaker 2: And that's how I actually say that the world needs
5:58
Speaker 2: this book because we never got a book, like, we
6:03
Speaker 2: never had a health class, you know, one of those
6:05
Speaker 2: embarrassing health classes for puberty. We didn't get one for
6:11
Speaker 2: perimenopause and menopause.
6:12
Speaker 1: No, we didn't. I just heard though that I correct
6:15
Speaker 1: me if I'm wrong, But I heard that there is
6:16
Speaker 1: a blood test coming out soon that can determine whether
6:20
Speaker 1: you're in perimenopause.
6:22
Speaker 2: There's a few things coming out tell that thing. Yet.
6:27
Speaker 2: There is a marker that they've seen in studies that
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Speaker 2: almost all perimenopausal women have as they go through the transition,
6:36
Speaker 2: but it's not validated yet. As you may know, Jenny,
6:40
Speaker 2: and most people don't know this, there's absolutely no research
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Speaker 2: or very little research as compared to the research we
6:47
Speaker 2: have on everything else, on perimenopause. In fact, it's the
6:50
Speaker 2: most under research topic in all of medicine, insane, because.
6:56
Speaker 1: It comes with so many symptoms.
6:58
Speaker 2: So many symptoms, and so many women, every single woman
7:02
Speaker 2: through it. So it's like, why do we have zero
7:04
Speaker 2: data on it?
7:05
Speaker 3: And so all of this.
7:07
Speaker 2: Part of the reason why I think doctors were really
7:10
Speaker 2: uninformed about it is because they just didn't learn.
7:13
Speaker 3: It was like skipped.
7:15
Speaker 2: It was like you learned a little bit about puberty,
7:17
Speaker 2: you learned a little bit about pregnancy, and then you
7:19
Speaker 2: just skipped to like old age. You know what, happens,
7:23
Speaker 2: and then there's no like in between, so that I
7:26
Speaker 2: think is a shame. And so there's no test right
7:29
Speaker 2: now currently today that's validated that you could go to
7:33
Speaker 2: your doctor and get a test. So that's why it's
7:37
Speaker 2: so confusing, because you'll go to the doctor and you'll say,
7:40
Speaker 2: I feel all these things, I'm not myself, feeling tired,
7:43
Speaker 2: I don't know my guts off, and then they checked
7:46
Speaker 2: your blood and they're like, no, maybe vian D is
7:48
Speaker 2: a little low, you know, cholesterols like and then and
7:51
Speaker 2: then they just send you home. And so yeah, that's
7:53
Speaker 2: why I think there's such a gaping hole and the
7:55
Speaker 2: care that we give to patients.
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Speaker 1: M hm. It's so true because I remember just being pery,
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Speaker 1: not knowing I was in pery for what felt like forever,
8:05
Speaker 1: and just suffering in silence and sucking it up and
8:09
Speaker 1: moving on with the day.
8:10
Speaker 3: You know, Yeah, that's exactly. It was what everybody does.
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Speaker 1: Yeah, it wasn't until I got my first hot flash
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Speaker 1: that I was like, ding, yes, I must this must
8:19
Speaker 1: be happening now, But it was happening long before that.
8:22
Speaker 1: Like the build up to the ramp up to the
8:24
Speaker 1: hot flashes was like long.
8:27
Speaker 2: And the thing is most women are having kids later
8:30
Speaker 2: and starting their families later. So a lot of women
8:32
Speaker 2: come to me and they're like, I don't know what's postpartum,
8:35
Speaker 2: what's the start of perimenopause? And it's so confusing because
8:38
Speaker 2: everything is like your hormones are just off and you
8:41
Speaker 2: don't know why. So that's why I do a lot
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Speaker 2: of education around this time, because even though, yes, it's
8:48
Speaker 2: frustrating that we don't have a test, but I tell
8:52
Speaker 2: women but like, no matter what, whether you're cycling and
8:55
Speaker 2: just having like abnormal cycles because you're stressed, or whether
8:58
Speaker 2: you're in perimenopause, like eating better, learning how to eat
9:02
Speaker 2: for your body, boosting your gut health, doing the right extract,
9:07
Speaker 2: it's all going to help no matter what. And so
9:10
Speaker 2: even though it's frustrating we don't know exactly which phase
9:12
Speaker 2: we're in, it will get better.
9:14
Speaker 3: If you do these things.
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Speaker 1: It's sort of a holistic approach. I love that. I
9:19
Speaker 1: also love when I was reading your book that you
9:21
Speaker 1: clearly love checklists. Yes, I'm obsessed with those two. Yes,
9:26
Speaker 1: so you suggest that we track our symptoms, and bless
9:31
Speaker 1: your heart, you give us a good checklist in the
9:34
Speaker 1: book yes, So I think that that is very very helpful.
9:38
Speaker 1: Tell us why this is important, and what do you
9:41
Speaker 1: do with it once you have monitored it for a while,
9:45
Speaker 1: Like how long should we be monitoring it?
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Speaker 3: This is such a great question.
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Speaker 2: So a lot of people the reason why we want
9:52
Speaker 2: to monitor is that not only do we want this
9:55
Speaker 2: for ourselves, but we could also take it to our
9:57
Speaker 2: doctor and say, hey, it's not just fatigue, it's not
10:01
Speaker 2: just waking, it's not just hot flash, it's all of
10:04
Speaker 2: these things, so that they can know the full picture
10:08
Speaker 2: without talking to you. Sometimes there's like ten minutes to
10:10
Speaker 2: talk and they can easily see this. And it's also
10:13
Speaker 2: for you to kind of understand what's happening to your body,
10:16
Speaker 2: because a lot of women will do that checklist and
10:19
Speaker 2: they'll say, oh, wow, I didn't realize all these things
10:22
Speaker 2: were connected, and that it's connected to my hormones and
10:26
Speaker 2: so a couple of cycles. So I would say one
10:29
Speaker 2: to three months, you should monitor your symptoms and then
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Speaker 2: write them down because sometimes so the way perimenopause works
10:37
Speaker 2: is that it's like the end.
10:39
Speaker 3: Of a toothpaste tube.
10:40
Speaker 2: So some months you get a full squeeze from the
10:44
Speaker 2: ovaries and you feel good, like right like you're like,
10:46
Speaker 2: oh this is I'm back to my normal stuff.
10:48
Speaker 3: And then the next month you.
10:49
Speaker 2: Get a splatter and you feel like crap. And then
10:53
Speaker 2: the third month you might get nothing. You know that
10:56
Speaker 2: pop when you're trying to like so it's really that's
10:59
Speaker 2: exactly what's happening. You're over eas you're really getting to
11:01
Speaker 2: that end, and so it can be tumultuous.
11:04
Speaker 3: You might have to.
11:04
Speaker 2: Monitor for three months to really.
11:07
Speaker 3: Know what's happening.
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Speaker 1: Okay, that's great. That's a great tip for us to
11:11
Speaker 1: really keep track of everything. We cannot stop the clock,
11:22
Speaker 1: but we can most definitely and I'm quoting from your book,
11:26
Speaker 1: we cannot stop the clock, but we can most definitely
11:29
Speaker 1: make choices today that will make aging suck less. I
11:32
Speaker 1: added that part.
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Speaker 3: Yeah, I was like, I remember that.
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Speaker 1: We can create better Tomorrow's not only can we stop
11:40
Speaker 1: aging poorly, but we can make choices that will help
11:43
Speaker 1: us discover new talents and gifts and make these years
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Speaker 1: our absolute best. I love all of that.
11:52
Speaker 2: And you know the thing is that happened to me
11:54
Speaker 2: as I started to clean up my diet, as I
11:58
Speaker 2: started to spend more time outside, which I was allowing
12:00
Speaker 2: myself to do that because we get this message from
12:02
Speaker 2: hustle culture, like if you're you know, you're a you know,
12:07
Speaker 2: a mom, a woman who wants to make it in
12:08
Speaker 2: this world, you better be working hard, you know, not sleeping,
12:11
Speaker 2: not you know, going to these high intensity classes and
12:14
Speaker 2: all this stuff. And I was really going the other,
12:17
Speaker 2: uh direction. I was feeling like out of my body.
12:21
Speaker 2: So I feel like I was always in my to
12:23
Speaker 2: do list in my head, no matter what I was doing,
12:26
Speaker 2: rushing from thing to thing, and I was stuck. I
12:29
Speaker 2: was stuck in my job, I was stuck in my life.
12:31
Speaker 2: I was stuck in my bo of relationships and all
12:34
Speaker 2: of these places. And so it wasn't until I started
12:38
Speaker 2: to really do this work both mind and body, that
12:42
Speaker 2: I started to notice things like, oh wait, that person
12:46
Speaker 2: in my life is like kind of toxic, and you know, oh,
12:50
Speaker 2: this work that I'm doing is not what I really
12:52
Speaker 2: want to be doing. There's this other thing that I
12:55
Speaker 2: want to pursue. And all of this clarity comes from
12:59
Speaker 2: like taking care of your internal self, Like you start
13:02
Speaker 2: to notice things, and so that's what I want. That's
13:05
Speaker 2: like the whole point of this book, because I see
13:07
Speaker 2: women thriving all the time. They're forty to fifty six
13:10
Speaker 2: seats and beyond. And the way they thrive is they
13:13
Speaker 2: kind of take this time, this tumultuous time, really kind
13:16
Speaker 2: of get a handle on it. And often it's the
13:20
Speaker 2: best years. It's the years you're doing your best work,
13:22
Speaker 2: hanging out with the right people, meeting them, doing the
13:26
Speaker 2: right things, moving to the right place. So I think
13:29
Speaker 2: I see it all the time. So that's why I
13:31
Speaker 2: share that.
13:32
Speaker 1: That's why I mean, just these years for a woman
13:35
Speaker 1: are the most incredible, you know, from experience, Like, yeah,
13:39
Speaker 1: I didn't think it would only get better, honestly, but
13:43
Speaker 1: and they say that, and I'm like, oh, okay, sure, yeah, yeah,
13:46
Speaker 1: I believe it now I'm living it, so yeah, and
13:50
Speaker 1: can be.
13:50
Speaker 2: In the best shape of your life. You can have
13:51
Speaker 2: the best relationships, you can have the best job, Like
13:54
Speaker 2: all in the time where people say that you're supposed
13:59
Speaker 2: to be like, you know, crumbling.
14:02
Speaker 1: Play right, And we don't have to just suffer in
14:05
Speaker 1: silence anymore, because there are treatments and medications that will
14:09
Speaker 1: definitely help us, yes, so that we can do all
14:12
Speaker 1: of this sort of synergistically and move into this amazing
14:16
Speaker 1: new chapter like armed and Ready, Yes, Armed and Ready.
14:20
Speaker 1: My biggest takeaway from your book, well, one of them
14:23
Speaker 1: was that nutrition matters. You believe that better nutrition is
14:27
Speaker 1: the framework not only for a better body, but also
14:30
Speaker 1: for a better brain and a longer life. Yes, yes, yes.
14:35
Speaker 2: I mean the forefathers of medicine said that, like, if
14:38
Speaker 2: you have food is your true medicine. And I think
14:42
Speaker 2: we've forgotten that in the medical world, especially for my world,
14:45
Speaker 2: the physician world, And so I wanted to bring it
14:49
Speaker 2: back because nobody is going to tell you there's no
14:52
Speaker 2: like you know, company lobby for fruits and vegetables and
14:56
Speaker 2: fiber and and so I wanted to kind of bring
14:59
Speaker 2: that back and say this actually can change your life
15:02
Speaker 2: just as much, if not more than the medications that
15:05
Speaker 2: we prescribe people. You know.
15:07
Speaker 1: One of the weird things that I've found that like,
15:09
Speaker 1: as I've gone through these stages in different symptoms and
15:14
Speaker 1: you know, all the feeling not great moments, I realized, like,
15:17
Speaker 1: sometimes my husband will make me dinner and he does
15:20
Speaker 1: never bring me anything green. I don't understand, Like, can
15:24
Speaker 1: you just throw a handful of spinach on that please?
15:28
Speaker 3: That's hilarious. Yeah, I think we didn't learn it right.
15:30
Speaker 2: Like I just put up a post yesterday which I
15:33
Speaker 2: thought was like I was talking to a patient and
15:37
Speaker 2: she told me that before she met me, she thought
15:39
Speaker 2: that a salad, like a garden salad, was like good
15:42
Speaker 2: fiber and she was shocked when I said that that's
15:45
Speaker 2: actually a very low in fiber like iceberg, lettuce, and
15:48
Speaker 2: like you know all that. And it's just because we
15:51
Speaker 2: don't get educated, Like nobody ever taught us what's healthy,
15:54
Speaker 2: what's not, what has fiber, what has protein? So the
15:58
Speaker 2: poor guy probably never just it doesn't even come to
16:02
Speaker 2: him to like.
16:04
Speaker 1: No, they're like burrito done.
16:06
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly more than that.
16:09
Speaker 1: Yes, Okay, So it's a hot topic that I have
16:12
Speaker 1: honestly been failing short on my attempts to get a
16:16
Speaker 1: handle on it. The gut micro biome. Yes, please tell
16:21
Speaker 1: us just what we need to know. What is gut health? Really?
16:26
Speaker 3: Okay?
16:28
Speaker 2: Think about it, like there is an Amazon jungle living
16:31
Speaker 2: inside of you, and there's entire ecosystem. In fact, there's
16:37
Speaker 2: trillions of bacteria. So there's as many bacteria, if not more,
16:43
Speaker 2: than ourselves. So it's literally like you know, when we
16:46
Speaker 2: learned about the Amazon jungle, like these incredible species and
16:50
Speaker 2: they're intertwined and they help each other and the.
16:54
Speaker 1: Problem one living organism.
16:55
Speaker 2: Yes, and they communicate with the brain, So they communicate
16:59
Speaker 2: just as with the brain. It's insane. They communicate just
17:02
Speaker 2: as much with the brain as our own body does.
17:05
Speaker 2: In fact more so, like we can't live without them,
17:09
Speaker 2: we actually would die. So this is a very essential
17:13
Speaker 2: part of our body. But no one, absolutely no one
17:19
Speaker 2: is talking about how to help that Amazon jungle thrive.
17:24
Speaker 2: And so what happened is just by chance, because we're
17:27
Speaker 2: not even paying attention to it, we started to eat
17:29
Speaker 2: foods and do things that are killing that jungle. We're
17:33
Speaker 2: eating ultra processed foods, We're not eating enough fiber. We're
17:36
Speaker 2: drinking alcohol, a lot of alcohol. We're also using a
17:39
Speaker 2: lot of antibiotics, sometimes for.
17:41
Speaker 3: Not great reasons.
17:42
Speaker 2: We're using all these cleansers, like you know, antibacterial cleaners
17:46
Speaker 2: because of COVID and all these things. And what we
17:50
Speaker 2: ended up doing is killing, in fact, fifty percent of
17:56
Speaker 2: the gut bacteria.
17:57
Speaker 1: Oh that most people have. I know, it's really something
18:00
Speaker 1: to think of it as a jungle. I mean, yes,
18:05
Speaker 1: but life in your body, it's all happening the same
18:07
Speaker 1: our jungles are dying inside us and outside of us.
18:10
Speaker 3: This is not good, I know, not good.
18:12
Speaker 2: And the jungle inside of us, unfortunately, is extremely extremely
18:16
Speaker 2: important for our hormone health, for our brain health, and
18:20
Speaker 2: for our immune health. So those three things that we
18:22
Speaker 2: care so much about. You know, most of us care
18:26
Speaker 2: a lot about how our hormones are functioning, thyroid, cortisol, estrogen, progesterone, testosterone.
18:32
Speaker 2: And we care a lot about how our brain is doing,
18:35
Speaker 2: you know, happiness, anxiety, sleep, all that stuff. And that
18:40
Speaker 2: is what the gut bacteria do. They are helping with
18:44
Speaker 2: the things that we are struggling with most. And so
18:48
Speaker 2: that's why I think that I picked I wanted to
18:52
Speaker 2: talk so much more about it because I think it's
18:54
Speaker 2: like once you know, like once you know, you're just like, wow,
18:58
Speaker 2: why was I not ever.
19:00
Speaker 3: Told about this?
19:00
Speaker 2: Because once you know, then you'll do little things, even
19:03
Speaker 2: small steps in your day, not talking about large shifts,
19:06
Speaker 2: and talking about small steps in your day to actually
19:09
Speaker 2: nurture that, to feed the bacteria because they need food,
19:13
Speaker 2: and to not kill them if they don't need to
19:15
Speaker 2: be killed, and to the things that they need to thrive,
19:20
Speaker 2: which are also things that are just great for.
19:22
Speaker 3: Us in general. So I think gut health.
19:25
Speaker 2: The great thing about gut health is like it's gut
19:27
Speaker 2: brain health. Those things that are good for our brain
19:30
Speaker 2: are good for a gut.
19:31
Speaker 3: Yes.
19:31
Speaker 1: Yes, you talk about the brain gut connection and how
19:34
Speaker 1: it's so tightly linked that the gut is sometimes called
19:37
Speaker 1: our second brain.
19:38
Speaker 2: Yes, So when we are forming, we are our gut
19:45
Speaker 2: and our brain are connected, Okay, and then they move
19:49
Speaker 2: to opposite ends and you have the brain and the gut,
19:53
Speaker 2: but they're always still connected. And when you understand this
19:58
Speaker 2: concept of the Amazon jungle, they are like in constant
20:01
Speaker 2: communication with each other to the point where you cannot
20:07
Speaker 2: have happiness or health without a good, strong gut microbiome.
20:13
Speaker 3: Right, So it's like you.
20:15
Speaker 2: Can even there's actually studies which is so crazy that
20:19
Speaker 2: if you just take someone's gut bacteria from one person
20:22
Speaker 2: to another, you can actually change their entire brain. So
20:25
Speaker 2: like a patient who's schizophrenic or has schizophrenia can get
20:32
Speaker 2: bacteria from someone who doesn't have schizophrenia.
20:36
Speaker 3: And they won't have it anymore.
20:38
Speaker 2: And the patient who gets the bacteria from someone who
20:42
Speaker 2: has schizophrenia will show signs of schizophrenia.
20:45
Speaker 3: It's crazy.
20:52
Speaker 1: So you're saying we shouldn't be sharing our gut bacteria.
20:55
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, so you actually do share, got back to
21:01
Speaker 2: it all the time, And so you're a product of
21:04
Speaker 2: the people you spend the most time with. So if
21:06
Speaker 2: you have someone toxic in your life, for example, and
21:10
Speaker 2: you are like, what do I do to improve my life?
21:14
Speaker 2: Is spend less time around them? Because when you share food,
21:18
Speaker 2: but not even just sharing food, when you're sharing the
21:21
Speaker 2: same space as someone who is I don't know, whatever
21:25
Speaker 2: you deem is unhealthy or toxic or you are sharing
21:30
Speaker 2: bacteria with them.
21:31
Speaker 1: And that's why they have never thought of that before.
21:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, another reason why they're like edit your friend's circle
21:37
Speaker 2: and your partners and you're you know, all the things
21:41
Speaker 2: because you really do want your partner.
21:43
Speaker 1: I can hear this phone call, the breakup call with somebody. Look,
21:47
Speaker 1: our gut bacteria just isn't aligning, and I feel it's
21:50
Speaker 1: better for my gut bacteria.
21:52
Speaker 3: That's right for me, that's right.
21:54
Speaker 2: I mean, they have just as much say as our
21:56
Speaker 2: own body, so they should be participating in that comfort.
22:00
Speaker 2: And so I think, you know that just tells you
22:04
Speaker 2: how important it is to also eat healthy because the
22:06
Speaker 2: other thing besides hanging out with people who are really
22:08
Speaker 2: great and healthy and athletic and nice, what you can
22:13
Speaker 2: also do is grow your own garden, you know, your
22:15
Speaker 2: own jungle, by feeding it the food that it needs
22:18
Speaker 2: so that it can thrive. So for people who are like,
22:21
Speaker 2: oh my god, I am stuck in this room with
22:24
Speaker 2: this person who sits.
22:26
Speaker 3: Next to me and really toxic, what do I do?
22:28
Speaker 2: You can also grow your own healthy gut bacteria by
22:33
Speaker 2: eating really good food, by getting enough sunlight, by getting
22:37
Speaker 2: enough movement in your body, by avoiding the things that
22:41
Speaker 2: kill the gut back to your So you can like
22:42
Speaker 2: cultivate your own garden also.
22:45
Speaker 1: And try not to share it with Yes, yeah.
22:49
Speaker 3: I mean that's the finally.
22:52
Speaker 2: I don't know about you, but that was the final
22:53
Speaker 2: straw for me as I got older to be like,
22:57
Speaker 2: you know what that toxic person that was in my
22:59
Speaker 2: life since I was indergarten, or like, you know, I
23:02
Speaker 2: don't need to even though we've been together for you know,
23:06
Speaker 2: forty plus years, I don't need to like put that
23:09
Speaker 2: person in my life, Like that person's just toxic.
23:11
Speaker 3: And so it really did teach me that who.
23:15
Speaker 2: You surround yourself with should be a choice and not
23:18
Speaker 2: just by default.
23:19
Speaker 1: Right, and let go of the guilt when you have
23:22
Speaker 1: to break up with somebody, Just let that go, you say. Okay,
23:26
Speaker 1: in the book I read that you say that post menopause,
23:31
Speaker 1: which is where I'm at, it's important to understand that
23:37
Speaker 1: now you are at a higher risk for conditions like osteoporosis,
23:44
Speaker 1: heart disease, urinary tract infections. Okay. When I read that
23:47
Speaker 1: in your book, I panicked inside because I've never really
23:51
Speaker 1: thought of it that way. But it really does make sense.
23:55
Speaker 1: As we get older, we're more susceptible to these things.
23:58
Speaker 1: And it's all got to with that amazon for us.
24:02
Speaker 2: Yes, and you know, the estrogen that your body used
24:06
Speaker 2: to produce at the levels is protective for a lot
24:12
Speaker 2: of things, and so as your estrogen goes down, your
24:16
Speaker 2: like risk of heart disease kind of goes up, and
24:19
Speaker 2: osterporosis and some of these things. Some of these things
24:23
Speaker 2: are reversible from using hormone replacement therapy, and some of
24:27
Speaker 2: them are yet not associated with hormone therapy, meaning like
24:33
Speaker 2: we still don't know for sure if hormone therapy helps
24:37
Speaker 2: at all with certain conditions that are associated with low estrogen.
24:42
Speaker 3: So it's so it's not just about.
24:46
Speaker 2: Taking your hormones and you're done, like close the book.
24:49
Speaker 2: It's about actually understanding that it's a multifactorial thing.
24:52
Speaker 3: So you have to still.
24:54
Speaker 2: Change how you eat, move differently, make sure that you're
24:58
Speaker 2: staying really strong and active and building those bones and
25:02
Speaker 2: muscles because you don't have as much estrogen helping you out.
25:07
Speaker 1: I've heard women and I've also experienced this that your
25:10
Speaker 1: body odors change. Yeah, as you go through this time.
25:15
Speaker 1: What is the science behind that and what can we do?
25:18
Speaker 2: Yeah, so our bodies hormone levels change, and your hormone
25:24
Speaker 2: levels affect so many things. How much you sweat, what
25:28
Speaker 2: the sweat smells like, what you know, even people will
25:32
Speaker 2: say their breath is changing or like the way they
25:37
Speaker 2: you know, a lot of things change about your body
25:40
Speaker 2: as you're moving through this time.
25:41
Speaker 3: So it is very important. Number one.
25:46
Speaker 2: So if we're talking about the root causes, Number one,
25:48
Speaker 2: it's really important to keep that gut bacteria happy and
25:52
Speaker 2: active and healthy because that Amazon jungle will absolutely help
25:58
Speaker 2: you in regulating your hormone and also the feedback that
26:03
Speaker 2: you get to your brain about how how much you're
26:05
Speaker 2: sweating how much older. So, for example, we have all
26:09
Speaker 2: these gut bacteria that are dedicated to deciding how much
26:13
Speaker 2: estrogen to take out of your body through stool and
26:17
Speaker 2: how much to put back in the circulation. And so
26:22
Speaker 2: if you're someone who's in pairy, one of the best
26:25
Speaker 2: things you can do as your estrogen levels are like
26:27
Speaker 2: but like this is changing your gut and so the
26:31
Speaker 2: gut can work really hard to get that estrogen back
26:35
Speaker 2: in check.
26:36
Speaker 3: If you're post.
26:37
Speaker 2: Menopause and you're trying to optimize your health the communication
26:43
Speaker 2: between your immune system, your hormones, and your brain so
26:46
Speaker 2: that you don't get all these diseases, you need to
26:48
Speaker 2: care about that gut. So one of the biggest things
26:51
Speaker 2: they found from like fermented foods for example, So foods
26:54
Speaker 2: that have bacteria in them are called fermented foods or
26:57
Speaker 2: probiotic foods like yogurt, sour about kimchi. What they found
27:02
Speaker 2: is not only does it help your gut, you know,
27:05
Speaker 2: feel less gassy and like bloated, whatever, it actually lowers
27:09
Speaker 2: the inflammation in your body.
27:11
Speaker 3: And so inflammation is the one that's related.
27:14
Speaker 2: To cancer, to heart disease, to dementia, to obesity, to
27:18
Speaker 2: all of the things that we consider like diseases of aging,
27:22
Speaker 2: it's all inflammation based. So if you're eating something that's
27:26
Speaker 2: the biggest way to lower.
27:28
Speaker 3: Inflammation, we should be eating it.
27:30
Speaker 2: So that's why for postmenopause, one of the biggest things
27:33
Speaker 2: I would tell you is like, hey, you should start
27:36
Speaker 2: eating things that are really growing that gut bacteria because
27:39
Speaker 2: as Jura best.
27:41
Speaker 1: I have a stoppy for a second, because I'm just
27:42
Speaker 1: thinking this whole time, what if I don't like sour
27:45
Speaker 1: kraud kichi, Like, what's gonna happen to know?
27:48
Speaker 2: No, you can do yogurt, you can do now, there's
27:53
Speaker 2: probiotic cottag cheese. You know, there's a few brands like
27:57
Speaker 2: Nancy's and Good Culture that make the probiotic cut.
28:00
Speaker 3: There's even like.
28:01
Speaker 2: Coconut water a keyfer so like if you're non dairy
28:04
Speaker 2: and you're like, I don't like any of those vegetables
28:07
Speaker 2: that are fermented, there is coconut water that has been
28:10
Speaker 2: probiotics in it, and so there's so many options now.
28:16
Speaker 2: So it turns out, Jenny, that every single culture in
28:19
Speaker 2: the entire world had fermented foods as a part of it.
28:22
Speaker 2: So there's like thousands of fermented foods that we don't
28:25
Speaker 2: really even eat on a regular basis, that are from
28:28
Speaker 2: different cultures, because back before refrigerators and microwaves and modern processing,
28:35
Speaker 2: you had to ferment.
28:36
Speaker 3: Something to keep it. So if you didn't ferment.
28:39
Speaker 1: It, it would go bad, like tickling.
28:41
Speaker 2: Yeah, like pickling, And so fermenting was a process that
28:45
Speaker 2: was out of necessity and it just so happened.
28:48
Speaker 3: That it was really good for us. And now that.
28:50
Speaker 2: We don't need to do that, I'm like, wait a second,
28:53
Speaker 2: we need to bring this back, because the studies show
28:56
Speaker 2: over and over again the cultures that still do fermentation
29:01
Speaker 2: and the people that still eat fermented foods, they have
29:04
Speaker 2: markedly better levels of inflammation, hormones and brain health. And
29:09
Speaker 2: so it's just something that needs to change in our culture.
29:14
Speaker 1: No brainer. Yeah, Okay, we've barely even tapped the depth
29:20
Speaker 1: of all the great information in your book. Everyone, you
29:23
Speaker 1: have to read Hormone Havoc. It's incredible. It's available now
29:28
Speaker 1: wherever you buy your books. So just do yourself a favor,
29:31
Speaker 1: get the book and read it. But before I let
29:34
Speaker 1: you go, doctor Amyshall, what was your last I choose
29:38
Speaker 1: me moment?
29:39
Speaker 2: Oh? Getting my sun light this morning. So one thing
29:43
Speaker 2: I talk a lot about in the book is that
29:45
Speaker 2: we're not living with our circadian rhythms. So we have
29:49
Speaker 2: a rhythm in our body where we need light in
29:54
Speaker 2: the day and we need darkness at night, and it
29:57
Speaker 2: helps our body retune itself. I chose myself and I said,
30:01
Speaker 2: I'm going to take two minutes and I'm going to
30:03
Speaker 2: get my sunlight, and I'm going to not bring my phone,
30:06
Speaker 2: and I'm just going.
30:07
Speaker 1: To be yes. Yeah, for me, sunlight became a kind
30:13
Speaker 1: of a bad thing just because of the skin damage.
30:16
Speaker 1: But I've heard recently several doctors say that it's so
30:20
Speaker 1: important to sit out in the sun for five minutes
30:24
Speaker 1: if you can in the morning.
30:25
Speaker 2: Like the morning, and you could sit like in a
30:28
Speaker 2: shaded area as long as your eyes it's just your eyes.
30:31
Speaker 1: That get in the sun.
30:32
Speaker 3: You could look through a window and open it.
30:35
Speaker 2: It's so you could be shielded skin wise.
30:38
Speaker 1: Okay, get that light people, you heard it here. Okay,
30:43
Speaker 1: this has been a great conversation. Thank you so much
30:45
Speaker 1: for joining us. We are going to do a little
30:47
Speaker 1: bonus episode for everybody where we're going to get into
30:50
Speaker 1: the nitty gritties. So thank you. Doctor Dan, thanks for
30:53
Speaker 1: having me. Oh and you guys, I'm very excited to
30:57
Speaker 1: share that my book I Choose Me Chasing Joy, finding Purpose,
31:02
Speaker 1: and embracing reinvention is coming April fourteenth. Do you know
31:07
Speaker 1: what it would mean the world to me if you
31:08
Speaker 1: would pre order a copy or pre order the audiobook
31:12
Speaker 1: wherever you get your books. And yes, I am going
31:16
Speaker 1: to be narrating the audiobook. So thank you all so
31:19
Speaker 1: much in advance. I hope you love it.