Health
Perimenopause: A conversation with Dr. Nicole Huffman
In this episode of Red Pillar Health Cast, Dr. Charlie Faganholds and Lauren Johnson sit down with Dr. Nicole Huffman to explore the complexities of perimenopause. They discuss the hormonal changes wo...
Perimenopause: A conversation with Dr. Nicole Huffman
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Interactive Transcript
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Hey everybody, welcome to this week's episode of Red Pillar Health Cast.
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My name is Dr. Charlie Faganholds here with Lauren Johnson and we have another guest.
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We've been talking about how we're going to do more guests and we kind of do what we say
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we're going to do.
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So that's what we're doing.
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And we are here with one of our good friends.
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I actually went to school with her and have remained close with her, worked with her in
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California when people see us doing the Lions weekend.
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She's one of the Lions who's there.
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She was a speaker with Lauren and I at the trenches event in Nashville.
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And we have a really good conversation.
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Her name is Dr. Nicole Huffman, my favorite naturopath in the whole wide world.
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And just has a lot of wisdom and really down-earth, beautiful soul who wants to just help people.
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And so that's what we're going to talk about.
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We're actually going to talk about Perry Menopause and stages like that and around that.
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So welcome to Redpillier Healthcast, Dr. Nicole.
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What is up?
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What is up?
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I'm so honored to be on your pod.
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I remember when you guys are starting this and it's just grown and it's huge and I have
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patients all the time.
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And we're like, I love Dr. Charlie and Lauren's podcast.
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And I'm like, I know it's great.
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So no monotone.
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It's awesome.
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Thank you so much for having me.
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Yeah.
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So you and I have to be with each other about a month ago, right?
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And our lines weekend, we were talking about a little bit about what we're talking about
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today.
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And so let's first talk about Perry Menopause, what it is, what it isn't.
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I know that you're going to do a great job of breaking it down so I don't want to do it
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any disjustice by me talking about it.
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So talk us through for people who either are starting to go through it, starting to
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go through it a little too early or have heard the word and really have no idea about
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it.
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Yeah, for sure.
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So Perry Menopause, I think so many women are looking at it nowadays.
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It's this like medical condition where it's really a stage of life, right?
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It's this transition of cycling really normally.
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I'm going to make it super basic to, you know, there's usually a period of like three to
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four years, although I've seen it be way longer and I've also seen it be way shorter
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before you stop menstruating altogether.
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And that's essentially menopause, right?
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So there's a couple of things that sort of start affecting, you know, this transition.
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And, you know, we're we're told that we are born with all the eggs we will ever have.
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And then when we start puberty, we lose a bunch of eggs and then every single month we
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start losing eggs, even though we only ovulate one time a month.
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And by your 30s and your 40s, we start seeing things like your egg quantity.
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So how many eggs you have left in your egg quality, which is how well they function start
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to decline.
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And when this happens, we start seeing less consistent ovulation, which then can lead
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to lower progesterone fluctuations in estrogen.
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We start having more cycles where we might not even have an egg release.
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And all of so we look at that sort of not as like an ovary like termination, but just
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sort of like the slow decline.
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And so the signals that come from our brain to our arms are signals from the ovaries that
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go to the brain start shifting.
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And that's one of the things that they can measure, right?
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In lab tests, they look at FSH and LH.
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And that's really when they can start to tell that your body is starting to sort of transition
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through this paramedicause and ultimately into menopause.
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And I think it's changed so much than it used to be, right?
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Like there were women who would just sort of go into menopause without all this drama
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of like tons of symptoms and feeling terrible.
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And it just, we don't see that anymore.
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In fact, I think we're seeing the opposite.
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We're just seeing all these women.
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And I know you've seen them, both of you have seen them, maybe not so as many have
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worn with all the babes and the kids you worked with, but all these women, and you can see
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it on a new patient paperwork intake.
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It's like they're 40 years old, they're 45 years old, and you almost know exactly what
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they're going to talk about.
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And it's just that they don't feel as good.
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They're tired.
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Their hormones are especially estrogen fluctuating rapidly.
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So they're feeling hot flashes and they're not sleeping well, and they're mood is terrible,
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and they're not showing up to their families the way that they want to be, which I think
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is like the biggest thing I see.
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I'm snappy with my kids.
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I'm not connecting with my husband.
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And so all these other symptoms are awful, too.
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But I mean, you really start to see it affect their daily life, and I just think there's
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so many things now that are affecting our bodies, then historically they used to kind
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of dove into the meat of it.
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But that's essentially the cycle and feel free to add in everything you guys have seen
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too.
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It is happening earlier now.
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I mean, you see for a lot of women where it's happening earlier and they're younger,
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and they should still be able to have more children.
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And it seems to be like, well, they're being told, oh, I'm sorry, you won't be able to.
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Here's IVF.
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And that is like the solution to all of this, because we also see at a time where our culture
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is having children later, women are having children later.
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And so it's like this, and then it presents us like just really frustrating time for women
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where they're really in like this hurry to get their hormones balanced.
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And so why do you think we're seeing more and more women struggle with this, or start
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struggling earlier with some of these symptoms?
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Yeah, I feel like there's so many things.
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I mean, we can say, you know, we love talking about estrogen and progesterone, but I think
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the hormones that are really causing the biggest problems with the sort of like juicy sex
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hormones that everybody's always sort of racing to balance are cortisol and insulin.
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And there's just so many things in our daily life that are raising our cortisol.
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And I always sort of learned that cortisol and insulin are BFF.
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So like if one goes up, the other one goes up.
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So you could be eating a pretty clean diet, but your cortisol is super high from everyday
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stress, your computers, your Wi-Fi, your EMF, your parasite infection that had no one's
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found, you're, you know, all the different things in our environment, right?
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And then your insulin is spiking and all of that stuff.
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I mean, Lauren, you and I are talking, I feel like we talked about blood sugar all the
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time.
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But, you know, those things really affect our main sex hormones.
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I think we have a really messed up relationship these days with nature and all the artificial
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light, which sends so many signals to cortisol.
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I mean, if you're scrolling on your phone after the sun goes down, your body's just pumping
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cortisol out, right?
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So I think there's a lot of things.
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It's probably better like, what isn't affecting our hormones these days?
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It's so true.
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I got a question for you.
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Well, the first thing before I ask you that question is the two things that you hit on when
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explain Perry, Monopause, I think are very crucial.
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And the first one is that it is a stage of life.
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It is not like a death sentence.
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And it is not a disease.
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And so just knowing just that knowledge alone of, because this is a stage of life, now I
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need to understand what is happening in the stage of life is very empowering for people,
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females, not all people, females who menstruate is what, you know, and so.
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Very important distinction.
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Because I know I'm going to get that.
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Like, wait a second.
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Did he, is he blah blah blah blah?
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Okay, so there's that.
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But would you say that the same things, so before I even get to the question, I've got
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the second half where I was going to say so you said, there's a stage of life.
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And then it's a hormone fluctuation stage.
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So hormones are fluctuating rapidly.
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Like that is what's happening.
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That is what is giving you, like you said, the hot flashes and stuff.
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Those two things right there, very critical to understand.
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Those are, they have to be understood.
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Now my question to you is, do you think that the same things that are causing earlier
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Perry, Monopause and that, the same things that are causing early puberty and all of that
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in the kids?
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That's great.
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I mean, yeah.
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Why not?
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Right?
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I mean, I feel like we always were taught anything can cause anything.
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Right?
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And if you're not testing, you're guessing.
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But I would say as a general look at the population, we're all going through the same
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types of stressors, right?
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Like these external stressors, all of these exogenous estrogen sources.
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I mean, we are, we are just laden with estrogen everywhere.
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It seems like.
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And so so many, so many young girls are starting their period so much sooner, which then is going
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to also, you know, it's interesting.
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I actually have been trying to research this a little bit.
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Like, does the earlier onset of your cycle mean that you will go into Perry, Monopause,
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or Monopause sooner?
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And it seems like, yes and no, like it's not necessarily a determination because how the
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quote, there's also like women who go in a Monopause with thousands and thousands of eggs still.
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So it's more than the quality of those eggs, right?
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Which all of the oxidative stress is probably the biggest issue when it comes to quality
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of eggs.
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And that is everywhere.
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I mean, that's, that's just such an issue these days.
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So I would say absolutely.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, I definitely think blood sugar and balances, cortisol, stress in the home, with
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percusious puberty.
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I mean, there are all of those factors that cortisol and insulin, which you wouldn't
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necessarily assume would be an issue for kids.
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Really is more in today's world.
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But then we add in, we also have these, these estrogenic exposures, these fake
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estrogens.
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I remember, you know, when I was seeing patients, there was an intercanologist that was
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talking about this and he removed, he removed some products that were that the child was
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using.
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And that literally was, was it.
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And that, and so it might be as simple as, okay, you need to stop eating a bunch of
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fruit at processed foods, which could be an issue for paramedics to because diet is
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a huge factor during that time too.
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But it's a bunch of processed foods that are probably not helping your estrogen
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clearance and your gut.
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And then we also need to take away some of these products that are like, back
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and body works lotion.
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One girl in particular had started using it every day after she got it for Christmas
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and lo and behold, she started developing breast buds.
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And so that was something that they did and saw a reversal of those symptoms once,
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the, the once that product was, was taken away.
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And so clean products, I do think matter, but I think it's a lot more.
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I think like what we're talking about with paramedic pods, it's like cortisol, insulin,
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all of it.
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That's in body works, man.
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That's like an instant headache when you walk even like 20 feet outside that door.
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Think about what it does on your body.
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That doesn't surprise me.
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But it's so cool to be able to see like a reversal that quickly.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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I remember walking through the malls and when you go through that or any candle
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stores like walking by it, you're just like blasted.
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Walking by Abacrombie.
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The guy, I worked there one summer and the like you had to empty an entire perfume
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bottle and the clothes.
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Yeah.
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Where you opened.
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You had an empty and so toxic.
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I know.
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That is.
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I don't think they do that anymore.
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I'm sure they don't.
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Are we for sure though?
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Are we for sure?
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I'm sure they do.
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I don't know the last time I've ever been in an Abacrombie, probably 20 plus years.
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So yeah.
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Yeah.
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I don't know if they're probably, they're probably still doing the same stuff.
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It's just a new generation.
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It's so true.
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So all right.
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So let's, let's talk a little bit more.
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So we have this paramedic pods going on.
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And yeah, we, there's so much.
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What would you say if people wanted to really understand paramedic pods?
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Like let's talk a little bit more, just whatever comes to your mind organically of some
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important points and what maybe some people don't know about paramedic pods or some things
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that are false about paramedic pods.
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And let's just see kind of where it goes.
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Yeah.
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For sure.
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I would say one of the things and this is something that I dealt with personally, which is
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probably why I'm so like passionate about the subject is because I felt like,
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before I got pregnant with Asher, my son, that I had like lost my period.
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I started feeling like I was starting to get like those hot flashes and I was like,
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my gosh, I'm not even 40 yet.
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Like what is going on here?
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And there was a bunch of things that I felt like were attributing it to it.
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I had just moved to a ranch.
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I was doing like a million steps a day.
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I was not really eating as much because I had so busy.
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I was like forgetting lunch.
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I was, you know, all of that stuff and my stress was higher.
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It was totally new.
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You know, also I had like nine horses and two donkeys.
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I was like, what is happening?
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I don't know how to do any of this, right?
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So anyway, once I sort of got my body back in check, I got pregnant.
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And that was what I wanted was to have a baby.
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And so I just feel like, yes, paramedic pods is a stage.
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It is a transition.
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And it is something that all women will go through.
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But I do feel like it can be a bit of a continuum.
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I don't think if you're, you know, I was 38 at that time,
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that was too young for my body.
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I could, I knew something was just out of whack and not in balance for me.
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And I do also believe that when it is time for you to go in, which is, you know,
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usually like late 40s, but hey, I have patients who are in there
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50s that are still cycling regularly, that it just doesn't have to be,
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it doesn't have to be so hard.
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I think that's like the biggest message about it all.
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And so what can we do to either, you know, help your body kind of get back?
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Like it was for me to cycling and be able to have a baby.
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And if that's not your goal, not everybody has to have a baby at that point.
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If you just want to, you know, live better, feel better and then sort of gracefully
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more transition into that stage that there's just that empowering piece of
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there's so much more you can do.
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And it's probably stuff you're not thinking about, right?
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It's, it's actually fueling your body, right?
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It's not like eating less because all of a sudden, you're not fitting your genes
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as well. I mean, that's a big thing I hear about from women in their 40s is like,
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I've just gained all this weight.
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Like I don't understand what's going on.
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Nothing's changed.
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And we know that like weight is a symptom.
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It's never the root.
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So it's like, well, what's going on there?
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Well, okay, as estrogen declines, you become more and more insulin resistant.
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So you're not tolerating carbohydrates quite as well and sugar.
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But you're also not tolerating skipping meals.
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You're not tolerating, you know, eating like something carb,
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you just to get through the day, right?
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Like there's so much more that you can do in terms of balancing blood sugar
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and addressing your stress and getting outside.
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It doesn't even have to be crazy stuff.
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But I feel like a lot of women are sort of looking in the wrong direction where,
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you know, for example, like that and protein are literally what build our hormones.
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I mean, cholesterol is so important.
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Yet we are caught so much to fear cholesterol.
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And a lot of the women who are sort of like my age and older,
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they went through the low fat movement of the 90s, which was like terrible.
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And so I feel like sometimes we sort of like mentally revert like,
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I want to lose weight.
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I want to stop eating fat.
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And it's like you're going in the wrong direction.
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So I just think that there can be some really gentle education and empowerment
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around this time of life that just isn't talked about as much.
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No, I love that.
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I love that you talked about the low fat part of it because I think that's such.
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I mean, for me, as someone who grew up in that low fat is good thing.
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It is really hard to get out of that mindset.
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And when I first became a mom, I was trying to lose the baby weight.
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I was very conventional in B.
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And of course, I went towards more low fat.
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Well, what do you know?
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A few years later, my thyroid's low, my blood sugar is a mess.
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There's just, because you replace the fat with high processed carbs, that's not the solution.
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Were you using Camp Leaves?
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It's not butter, be honest.
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No, no, I don't think I ever use that.
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But my mom did.
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Actually, no, I don't think she does anymore.
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We're working on it.
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It still blows my mind at that stuff.
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It's still around.
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And it made its rounds as like, this is the healthy alternative.
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That's crazy.
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Margarine.
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You can even go to the store today and still see you think something's butter, but it actually
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has, it's cut with vegetable oil.
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So you still have to buy, you really do have to buy, like, you have to look at the
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old ingredients of everything.
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But I mean, that is such a huge part.
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Like, when I actually started fueling my body with protein and fat, how many of you
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had so much better eye felt?
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And I was like, he's one of you.
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And it doesn't mean you gain weight when you start doing that.
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You just mean you're doing it to say shit your body and really work on, that's more of
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an anti-inflammatory diet than anything that they're promoting online.
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It's from the government.
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That's so true.
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The government.
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I always say, just listen to whatever they're saying on TV and do the exact opposite and
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you'll live a pretty healthy lifestyle.
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Didn't they try to do like a vegan Monday or something that was like a nationwide?
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It was like led by Beyonce and Jay Z.
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I remember that and I was like, oh my gosh.
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Was that was that was that still everybody?
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Was that in between giving out like the free donuts for vaccines?
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Is that what they were doing that type of stuff?
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That was the best crispy creams if you get yourself vaccinated like wow.
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I remember when last year was a last year of the year before I saw Lizzo was like, I'm
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not going vegan anymore.
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I'm not going to be vegan anymore.
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I'm going to switch to this like basically a lower carb anti-inflammatory way of eating,
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more Mediterranean and she's getting healthier and I don't even know who she is.
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I just saw the news article.
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But I was like really like maybe the tides turning like maybe culture.
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It's finally starting to recognize that we do need to fill up with but we need those
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good nourishing foods too.
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I mean those are really important.
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Well you just can't make hormones very well if you're not eating fat.
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I mean that's just kind of like that's just basic like biochem.
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Yeah, the building blocks.
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It makes me feel bad for our moms because like I think about that and I'm like man these
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were the women that were the generation that were given birth control for the first time.
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All this low fat diet nonsense.
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It really does like and no wonder we've struggled since then because like it's just been
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that's all horrible messaging for women in the hormone balance and I think now we I
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really do think we're going back the other way.
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Hopefully.
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I hope so.
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I hope so.
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Nicole is trying to help us like she's trying to help because like I think it's women are
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searching for answers.
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Yeah.
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What would you say if you have a woman who is like me I'm 30 almost 38.
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Maybe she's lost her period.
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Maybe she's stressed her progesterone is probably in the tank.
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Um you know maybe she's she knows things are kind of off.
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What would you say or some like really good starting steps?
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Yeah for sure.
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I mean I feel like you can start like real basic like I can't believe how many women don't eat
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breakfast like that is a massive problem and that sounds so silly but you know when
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you eat like a high protein fat breakfast within like 30 to 60 minutes of waking up you're
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immediately sending signals to your cortisol like chill out we're good you know like we're
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safe.
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Life's life's good right and then if you can have bonus points and go outside and get like
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some of that sunrise in your you know in your eyes you're not eyes covered by sunglasses
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or contacts or anything like that.
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Now you're telling your mitochondria they're safe and now you can make pregnant alone which
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is the precursor to progesterone and to testosterone and estrogen right I mean pregnant alone is our
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mother hormone which is highly influenced by light and that's just like maybe the first
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like 30 to 60 minutes of your morning and I get it like I have a two year old like sometimes
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it's kind of tough to get outside first thing in the morning but I'll tell you the whole
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time he was nursing we would just go sit outside and he would nurse in the morning and we'd
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get all that sunlight on our face and then we'd eat breakfast right or whatever I think delaying
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coffee or even even to Charlie's point maybe not drinking coffee would be beneficial right that's
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a huge I mean gosh I wish I didn't have to admit this but when I wear a CDM and I drink coffee
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even after I have protein my blood sugar spikes or are you adding anything to your coffee? Oh yeah I
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did all the things I had fat I added cream I added whatever it needed did you add sugar? No no no no
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no you must still spikes you must just need that racie mushroom in that coffee or something else
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you know the butter didn't do it maybe the racie thing yeah it's got to be something it can't be
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the coffee more MCT oil more MCT and I have to say I found a sweet spot if it's like a little
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caffeine but mostly D calf and we're good blood sugar's good there's been plenty of times I've gone
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absolutely no caffeine I I feel good that way too but I do think if you are a stressed out person
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who does not have a cycle you know coffee first thing in the morning when our court is all
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already is high and our blood sugar most women struggle with like higher blood sugar in the
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morning it's not doing you any favors and that's just the morning right so I feel like if you can
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make these little tweaks but I mean the other thing and I remember during this too when there
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were periods of time where I wasn't sleeping very well my hormones were also in the tank so like
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if you're not sleeping you're not healing you're not really producing anything I mean it's it's not
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you're producing lots of cortisol probably but it's a that's a really tough stage too I think you
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are the one who I first heard it from that if you're not asleep by 10 p.m. then you miss out on a ton
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of like liver um he like properties of hormones according to your liver and stuff like that I think
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you were the first one to mention that yeah basically if you're not for every hour you're asleep
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before midnight it counts as like two hours as supposed to or like double or something as
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supposed to every hour after midnight that's what Charles Policeman would teach and I really
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find a lot of value in that I mean we know that there's like certain hormone signaling that happen
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at all the different hours we know your adrenals get another sort of like second wind somewhere
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between nine and ten and you can really test it and you can feel it in yourself like if I'm not a
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sleep by like nine thirty it's it's substantially harder for me to fall asleep and it used to be nine
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and now it's inching back so I know my adrenals are getting better but we're also about to move
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cross country so I don't know but the idea is that the sooner you are asleep the more balanced
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your cortisol will be and you're leptin docs to the hypothalamus around midnight and so if you're
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trying to lose weight I mean you've got to be asleep by midnight that's like a that's a no brain
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right there so but I mean you guys have seen it too when you're not sleeping it's any for any
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patient that's not sleeping it's incredibly hard to get them to be in a better place do you have any
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clinical pearls that you said leptin for leptin resistance sure I mean leptin is a circadian hormone
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so for a lot of those people who have leptin resistance which is if you're leptin resistant you're
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almost always insulin resistant and then you almost always have a higher reverse t3 which is
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almost yeah cortisol inflammation all of that but because leptin is the circadian hormone
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you've got to figure out your light hygiene so that's like how much are you staring at a blue
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light screen how much are you staring at your phone are you getting outside are you giving
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other signals when the sun goes down are you either protecting your eyes or going to bed right
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I mean I just feel like more people like there are people who are just more sensitive to that kind
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of stuff than others right like my husband's like light doesn't bother I mean he like makes fun of me
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all the time because our bedroom is like a legit cave and then I started doing that with Asher's
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room and he's like Asher's fine I'm like the pineal gland you know and he's come around
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is so much but there are certain hills that he's like I'm dying on this one it's you do not need a
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black room it doesn't bother me and I'm like I do think on multiple levels it will still affect you
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you know and I would say similar how you just was talking about before where you found your sweet spot
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with coffee and like caffeine I know that I have been the self-claimed caffeine hater and dairy is
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a little bit of ways from there I would say but again like when we're talking about this stuff
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we tend to say the extremes always like nope just cut out caffeine because you're not a
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patient of ours it's a lot easier just to get off of it and you'll do better off of it but there
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are people who can handle caffeine better than other people and if you find your sweet spot
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because you really enjoy your coffee ritual and stuff like that's for you to find out and that's
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totally fine so similar to maybe how much light you need in your room I would be on your side
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where it has to be like complete dungeon or else you know you're not releasing melatonin
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and so yeah there's there is definitely that sweet spot and caffeine is is definitely one of them
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and one thing that was the reason why I brought this up is because I mean how many times you
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guys see this is the culture is caffeine in the morning alcohol in the evening right you got the
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coffee in the morning you got the bottle of wine at night because wine is so healthy and it's got
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resveratrol and you know it's not vodka and it's not beer but it's red wine it's good for my
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blood that's what Google told me so yeah so you got the bottle of wine of course the one beverage that
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doesn't have to include anything on its label of what's really put in it so it's got to be super
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clean and you're doing you're doing your downers at night and then your uppers in the morning with
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with caffeine and if you do that all the time think about how in balancing that is to your
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mitochondria to your endocrine system to everything and like just like Dr. Nicole just said of
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even just eating a protein breakfast in the morning it's similar with that I would say cut out
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any stimulants and downers just kind of see what changes yeah it's such a mommy culture thing I
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think it's changed a little bit on Instagram but it could also be just like what I see because
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everybody's gonna see different stuff based on what they follow right but it's like a you know
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those signs are everywhere like coffee till five then wine at five and it's just like oh it's
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just crushing when it's health yeah totally totally and the leptin resistance thing you mentioned too
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mean one of the best ways to eat I've seen that has changed leptin on multiple labs is like a modified
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keto I have seen that really help and it doesn't mean that you have to be in it forever but it will
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change your insulin leptin and glucose pretty quickly and then you can kind of find like what
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works for you would you say that's because it's it's affecting the insulin first and foremost and
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then it's the down cascade effect of cortisol and leptin 100% and for a lot of I mean as you talk
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about too when your blood triggers off your sleep is usually off so then you're missing that leptin
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docking to the hypothalamus at midnight and so if you're even if you're just improving your
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sleep and going to sleep earlier your leptin's gonna already start self-correcting would you say a
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there's a time and place for a continuous glucose monitor and all of that like for a woman to maybe
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could do like a two-week stint with one I mean I'm obsessed with those things I think it's great
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I mean I have so much information when I when I when I used one for the first time I mean it's just
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you just learn little things about yourself that you're able to tweak and then all of a sudden
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you feel better throughout the day because you're having less at a roller coaster that's not true
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I've had patients say that it was the biggest tool that ever held them accountable to what they
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hands down because who wants to who wants to eat something that's gonna make you your
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graph look all red I mean I don't know by personality is like no no no can't do that don't want to
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see a red spike there and then and then set it so that your your phone gives you like an alarm if
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if you set it at like 120 for high and like 80 for low and then like you know give you an alarm
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signal on your phone if you go outside those ranges like it'll definitely keep you and holds you
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accountable honestly just being able to say I see this number I don't feel good when my blood
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sugars this high that makes me not want to eat these certain things or like that high sugar coffee
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that I mean I don't even know how those places are still in business with like all the high sugar
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the amount of sugar they put in those and other ingredients they put in those coffees like I would
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love for people to see how like what their blood sugar with that could you imagine could you imagine
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if you had this like like a French pastry shop with coffees that everyone wants to sit at and
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and you get give everyone a CGM and then they have to set the alarms the amount of alarms that
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would be going off you think it'd be like like an amber alert everyone got at the same time
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100 percent be crazy and into your point Lauren a lot of people don't know what it feels like
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necessarily to have their blood sugar be out of range it's a tough one to self monitor which is
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why like I was able to notice like when my blood sugar goes too high I actually feel like shortness
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of breath which I was able to tie once I started using a CGM there's this restaurant near our house
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that does has a gluten-free fryer I hadn't had fries in like 20 years right seven gluten-free forever
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and I don't do the cross-contamination thing because I'm just that sensitive to it and they had
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gluten-free sweet potato fries I was like this is incredible I'm going to do all the right things
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I'm going to have like a burger first no boner anything you know I'm going to take my
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burberry I'm going to have my gluten-free sweet potato fries fully cow my blood sugar was through
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the roof and I could connect all of those like I'm a little short of breath like my vision feels
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a little fun like it was really interesting and so one to the point of like just because it's
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gluten-free who cares but the other point is like even if you do all the things like you have
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approaching first you have your fat first take your burberry it's great like sometimes it's just
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certain things are just going to throw you out of the water and I'll tell you I've never eaten those
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things ever since then and you know there's always your food or you're going to be like I don't
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care I love it it's my birthday whatever but I feel like on your you know sort of day-to-day thing
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they can be really helpful what was your highest food that spiked your blood sugar the highest when
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you wear CGMs you too learn sushi sushi and I do mostly shishimi which is the fish without the rice
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but I had a my favorite that is just ridiculous is a filly roll like clearly as cream cheese and salmon
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oh so good so I had mostly just the fish no rice and then I had it's just like those little
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like six pieces of black filly crazy high wow while you learn um okay I was shocked to see this I had
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two eggs like bacon in the morning for breakfast and then I had this was what I think I was more
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inflamed um and I think my butcher like because I can have a banana now but I had a banana and I'm
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telling you it went it went higher than I would have ever thought um and I had protein burst and
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then all I did was take a walk and it went right I mean it's shot right back down and it was okay
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but I and I can now like now if I have a banana and I'm in like I'm during pregnancy when
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I have struggled with that in the past and it's it's even been fine during pregnancy
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where I'll check I'll have a CGM on and it's fine so I'm like okay let me just double check this
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I'll check it ackey or a finger check and it's it's still fine so I think there's it just depends on
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like what's what else is going on too but it was a banana shot my blood sugar right up
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I mean it took the same thing with apple cobbler I made a homemade gluten free apple cobbler
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with uh for my kids for before the July and I mean it was the same number um and so
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wow I don't I think for me it is like a matter of like how did I sleep the night before like what
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you're saying and how how have I like how is my diet been the rest of the day before that I think
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that was probably the biggest factors and then am I gonna am I active and walking around afterwards
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because if I'm active and like moving around my blood sugar really stays pretty stable even with
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some things that would normally spike it that's a good point with the what else is going on thing
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because I definitely had some patients when they were trying to get into ketosis because they
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had some pretty high insulin numbers or you know leptin etc and they just couldn't knock it in but
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they were super stressed you know I like a really stressful part of their life so that cortisol is
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just up which is preventing the body really from getting into ketosis so then if you're just
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eating like even a banana or something more standard you're just not gonna be you're not
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gonna be able to manage it as you would if you were just like lower cortisol right yeah I mean I
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noticed like the next day if I have like a say you want me to go do whatever and eat whatever
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the next day it impacts those those numbers um and so that really for me was like and that changed
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how I felt the next day too like this first energy levels and focus and brain fog and so um you
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really think it's like one of those key things that could really help a woman to like feel better
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day to day um it's just by getting a handle on what's causing her spike what what is she maybe
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her blood sugar is dipping because one of my things I found out was my blood sugar was going down
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to 60 and then was spiking all by itself without me not eating and if I changed if I did protein
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every two hours that didn't happen at all um and so for me and I mean I'm obviously at a time where
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like this was in the last year where I'm like you know using more um energy I really think that um
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that protein every two hours that for me it has been it and I haven't had that issue since
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it's awesome yeah it's very informative no doubt yeah so would you say that back to like the
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parry men of health would you say that estrogen is like the most problematic hormone well like that
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caused more symptoms so like I I actually did see a lot of parry men of hauza women in a practice
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I used to work at and they a lot of the women would be like come in and be like all of a sudden my
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my periods are awful um they are heavy I am ribbing out of nowhere um I'm bloated um I have no energy
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I am short with my kids all these things so would you say it's it's it's an estrogen issue as well
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or would you say just simply like what is on insulin no I mean I think estrogen is probably the one
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that you feel the most symptoms from but then I also think is it partly because it's been
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unopposed by progesterone right like are they also struggling with super low progesterone which
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isn't keeping the estrogen in check and then whenever I think about estrogen I think about the
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liver and I'm like well is the liver even able to break anything down right now so many women
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are constipated are they not even able to eliminate anything and then it's being like
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reabsorbed into the body I mean I think estrogen is such like a multifactorial hormone and then like
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which are at least sad it's like you know your estrogen is like fluctuating at time right and so
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it's like doing lab tests on these women sometimes is like oh my gosh I caught you in your estrogen
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is 500 and now I catch you in your estrogen is like 60 I mean it's like it's changing so much too
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but I've got I feel like if you're sort of working on like the foundation of everything your
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resilience to those fluctuations goes up for sure but then yeah you know having everything in
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place to like help estrogen clear making sure that you are supporting everything to help your
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progesterone be as you know high and as balanced as it can be is so important too.
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Yeah and in my membership video where I touch on parimenopause they call it or I've heard
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them call it a parimenopause prison because the fluctuation of estrogen can be so rapid that
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it's you feels like you're in a prison and I think you do a really good job of breaking it down
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simply and for people to really understand it because if it's if it gets too like throwing out big
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names and words and stuff then no one's gonna really grasp the info so I think you do a great
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job of making it land for people and so if people wanted to learn more about parimenopause and
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and you know through your teachings where would you direct them to go. Yeah, Dr. Charlie.
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I have a program coming out it's like a seven week program it's gonna be the first time
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to me runs we're gonna do a beta pricing which just it's gonna be the lowest it will ever be
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and it's gonna be a seven week course called radiant mama reset and it really can be for any
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woman who's in parimenopause or even just is approaching that time or just doesn't feel balanced
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but I had to have mama in there because I've become sort of way more passionate about how
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you know back in the day and even in a lot of cultures now in other countries when a mom will
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bring a kid and their kid in to be treated or healed so to speak that they actually will work on
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the mom and we have really gotten away from that because I do believe that the like the health and
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the stress level of the mom impacts the children so much more than we give it credit for and so I
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kind of feel like if we can get these mama's to be really healthy and a lot of the ones you know
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when you're going through this parimenopause all sort of time or maybe it's a little early for you
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or maybe you're not sure it's usually when we're super busy we're like have multiple kids are doing
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things where maybe you know in the height of our careers like all of this stuff and so I just feel
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like by healing the mom you're healing the family and that is so important so it'll be a seven week
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course I'll be teaching each week room for Q&A we'll do you'll get a PDF it's recorded so if you
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can't make it live and it'll really be that hand holding that I think so many women needs right now
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and because I love you guys so much in your audience if they use the code red so just RED
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super simple then you get $50 off awesome yeah and we're going to have a little community too so
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all the mamas can talk to each other which I think in this day and age a lot of moms feel really
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isolated I just think that's like a growing problem which is also why your membership is so
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awesome Charlie for the community aspect and so I want to make sure all the women who are kind of
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maybe learning new information or trying new things they haven't done before have that support too
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yeah I feel like the two things that people need and what I've tried to do in my membership is
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make it land and digestible and to a community because of this you know this holistic medicine
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world that we're in can feel like an island especially when when people around you don't live this
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type of lifestyle and can't even relate frequency wise to like what year like they can't even
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spell gluten let alone like why you're not eating it essentially you know what I mean and so
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the more community that we can make the better and that goes back to how Lauren was saying that she
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feels like there's kind of a tipping point of like Lizzo or whatever that celebrity who we don't
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care about I don't even know what is whatever whatever she's doing with her you know Bill Gates
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burgers or whatever there's a tipping point and it takes our communities to be set to essentially
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you know rising tides raises all ships in our communities or what will bring those tides up
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because if enough people subscribe to it and start living like it then you know we attract people who
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inherently want to be on the same wavelength so I think that's awesome um I'm excited
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yeah well I just love being with you guys and chat with you today is there anything else before
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we go obviously people know they can find you we'll put in the show notes your Instagram tag and
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and um the course you're launching and stuff so there anything else that you want to leave the
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goal with getting into this medicine is just trying to make people understand that their symptoms
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are just their body communicating with them that's it just the language of the body and so if you
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can listen if you can maybe you need help figuring out like a translator I like to think of like
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when we were doing muscle testing stuff with our patients we're just translating what their
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bodies are trying to tell them and if they can get that information the skies the limit in terms of
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how good you can feel I love that love that love that all right well Lauren what's your favorite
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thing that we say at the end of every episode we didn't really talk any supplements but I guess
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I should still say it this is a mathematical advice this is meant to be educational please speak
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with your health care provider before changing anything all right folks thank you all for tuning
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in we'll see you on the next one