Intuitive Mentor Mom: Strategies for Life Empowerment, Self Love and Gratitude for Single Moms

24: Demystifying Hormone Health: with Nurse Practitioner Meagan Wempe

• Tara Mychelle • Episode 24

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What if that persistent brain fog, unexplained weight gain, or crushing fatigue isn't "just aging" but your body crying out for hormone support? Join host Tara Mychelle and functional medicine expert and Nurse Practitioner, Meagan Wempe as they shatter myths about hormone therapy and reveal why hormone health matters decades before menopause.

Hormones play a pivotal role in our overall health starting much earlier than most people realize, affecting everything from brain function to physical strength to emotional wellbeing. Functional medicine practitioner Meagan Wempe shares insights on how conventional healthcare often misses critical hormone imbalances and why starting hormone testing in our 20s and 30s is crucial for optimal health.

  • Conventional healthcare allocates just seven minutes per patient, making it impossible to properly diagnose complex hormone issues
  • Both men and women should establish baseline hormone levels in their teens and twenties
  • Bioidentical hormones are safer and more effective than synthetic versions that caused concerns in older studies
  • Hormone optimization affects muscle maintenance, brain function, heart health, and bone density
  • Progesterone acts as the body's "peace hormone," helping with sleep, anxiety, and emotional balance
  • Testosterone benefits both men and women, improving muscle mass, mood, and cognitive function
  • People who maintain hormone optimization into their 70s and beyond enjoy dramatically better quality of life
  • Comprehensive testing should include thyroid panels, sex hormones, cortisol, and insulin levels
  • Environmental toxins and modern lifestyle factors are disrupting hormone function earlier than in previous generations

Most powerfully, Meagan explains the stark difference she observes between patients who optimize their hormones and those who don't: by their 70s, those with balanced hormones maintain independence, strength, and vitality while others struggle with basic mobility. This isn't just about adding years to life but adding life to your years—being able to throw hay bales at 80 or get on the floor with grandchildren without thinking twice.

If you'd like to learn more about hormone optimization or find functional medicine providers in your area, search for "integrative medicine" or "functional medicine" practitioners who specialize in bioidentical hormone replacement therapy.

You can find Meagan Wempe, NP and the rest of the team at Trinity Balanced Family Healthcare

Looking for confirmation, guidance, or support in an area of life where you feel stuck, stagnant, or simply unclear of what to do next? Let's connect: book a complimentary Discovery Session with me, today!

Book a 30-min Discovery Session Here

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Speaker 1:

In today's episode we are talking about hormones. So, ladies, listen in, and, men, if you're listening, there's a little information about hormones for you too. We're also going to start looking at, or talking about when do you start looking at hormones, the impact that not managing or monitoring your hormones can have, and are hormones dangerous? Also, we'll talk about the challenges providers face in order to give you the proper care that you require. So let's buckle up and get started. Here we go. Welcome back to the Intuitive Mentor Mom Podcast, where we explore strategies for growing confidence, empowerment and gaining clarity for midlife moms, when life is happening for you and not to you. Clarity for midlife moms when life is happening for you and not to you. You can be living the life of freedom, fun and bliss. I'm your host, tara, michelle. Let's get to it. Welcome to today's show.

Speaker 1:

I am very excited to have a very special guest to me. She has been my longtime provider, megan Wimpey. She is my nurse practitioner. I've been working with her for nine years. She's incredible. She's a lifelong Texan. She was born in Round Rock, graduated from Round Rock High School. She and her husband of over 18 years value their time together. They have three amazing sons and a German shepherd named Cash.

Speaker 1:

So Megan holds a bachelor and master's of science in nursing from the University of Mary Harden Baylor and she maintains a certification by the American Association of Nurse Practitioners. As a family practitioner, she has nearly 20 years of experience, includes pediatric, intermediate and intensive care, 10 years of primary health care and over nine years of integrative medicine. Megan has a true servant's heart I will attest to that 100% and she strives to provide the most holistic care for people possible. So today she is with me. We are going to talk hormones. Let's go ahead and get started and here we go. I am really excited because I get to share my amazing nurse practitioner, megan Wempey, with you today, and she is here because today we're going to talk about the infamous thing called hormones and people don't. I really don't think people are educated well enough to understand the depth and the importance of hormones and how. How so important that we need them, not later in life, that you need to be managing them from the very beginning, cause they live in the very beginning yeah, and I, I don't, I.

Speaker 1:

And I'll just say I don't know anything. I'm not a doctor. You are a nurse practitioner. You've been in this industry for 20 plus years, working on all different kinds of things, as I mentioned in the intro, and you know all I know is from my own personal journey and how much pain I was in and how I thought I was going to die and how I was having all these symptoms from endocrinology, endocrine system, heart, cardiology, all these things. So thank you, thank you for being with me today on the show. I'm just really excited, it's exciting to have you. I'm just really exciting, it's exciting to have you, and I also want to. I want to preface this before we get started.

Speaker 1:

I've been working with you for nine years now and prior to working with you, I was living in California. I was having all these episodes and attacks with my body, like on the freeway, going into, probably diabetic attacks or anemic attacks, not knowing. And the doctors there were like, oh, just cut out the white stuff. And I was like, well, I don't know what that means, but okay, I'll cut out the white stuff. Didn't help, move to Texas, find you, tell you all my symptoms and you're all oh girl, okay, I want you to read this book. You're going to go on this diet and it was either the Whole30 diet or paleo and you're like Whole30 is much harder, so you probably just want to go paleo and I'm going to.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to look at your A1C, I'm going to look at all these things, and you were the person who found what was going on with me, which was my A1C was through the roof. I was pre-diabetic, I was having all these episodes and attacks. Nobody else. Just cut out the white stuff. Like what does that mean? Cut out the white stuff?

Speaker 2:

I'm like, okay, and so ever since then and then even you guys, you have to remember, like the average provider and this is true for any provider that is not private practice, so they're part of a big entity. They are allotted seven minutes with their patient, and that goes back to issues with how well we're being reimbursed through the insurance agencies, and so there's all that problem as well, know as well, because individuals walk into a room and they already have to have a plan, so they didn't get to listen to you. They on whatever you were coming in for. They already had to, like if you were coming in saying, hey, I'm having dizziness, they already came up with a plan before they even saw the patient, so they didn't even listen to the patient. What we're taught in school is actually, if you'll listen to the patient, the patient actually tells you what's wrong with them. So if you didn't get to listen, you just guessed, you missed.

Speaker 2:

You missed it, and so that's why, where we practice, you know, we're allotted 30 minutes per individual. I really stress that's why my may runs out there to grab patients, because we really stress that we would love the patient to be ready at that 30 minute mark so that we're getting all the time with the individual, you know, not eating into their appointment time.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you know to get them their vital signs and those kinds of things. So that's a little bit different now of a model. But it's also why you see concierge medicine becoming such a thing, because I do think the heart behind a lot of providers is that they want to do that for patients. They just don't know how to do that for them in that insurance model and still make a living and pay the bills, which is mind blowing right, because you and I know how much we pay for insurance.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh. Ridiculous amounts, ridiculous amounts, and then we still go in and pay our copay. Yeah, right, right.

Speaker 2:

You know on top of that.

Speaker 1:

What makes me crazy, though, that you said earlier is seven minutes. Yes, how like it didn't take seven minutes for the patient to really explain what they're feeling, Right.

Speaker 2:

Exactly, and then you're done. So my neighbor, I literally went to my neighbor's house after work last night because my sweet neighbor she's like frantic Cause. Her husband was just told and they went to a big entity facility. That's where he saw his provider, Um, and she walked in and said you have diabetes, this is what you're going to take.

Speaker 2:

I'll see you in six weeks and he's like wait a second. Last year you said I was a little bit high. How in the world am I this bad in one year? He just I've lost weight and I've done, I've tried things. Yeah, he tried, he actually worked on it and, um, she just said well, it just happened, you're just diabetic. And that was the response. And so I went over there and actually looked the rest of his labs and explained like this leads to this, which leads to this, which in 2016, he already had low testosterone as a young guy in his 20s and they didn't address they didn't address and I said unfortunately, because you've been low for that long, that actually probably caused your diabetes.

Speaker 2:

It's not the fact that you had type two, you know. Because he's like hey, I don't have a family history, we have no history, how is this case for me? So we went backwards and explained you know a lot of the backstory. And that's where you saying hey, it doesn't start when we're 50.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I just like. Yeah, no, it doesn't start when we're 50.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I just like yeah, no, it's into play, because our young men, our young ladies, you know, in their twenties they need excuse me, they need to already know what their optimal looks like because we're all going on and.

Speaker 1:

I just want to point out, as you cause this is all fantastic. I want to point out that you are a functional medicine provider.

Speaker 2:

There's a difference there.

Speaker 1:

Yes, that's different right there and I think people forget and people don't understand maybe the differentiator of what a functional medicine provider does, because it isn't I'll say it from a patient perspective it's like stepping away from the big box, the big box hospital system and those providers and the seven I'm going to say it's less than seven minutes today because most of the clinics I walk into are seeing the providers, are seeing 75 people a day, 35, 45 people a day. There's no way they have seven minutes.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, to make numbers and so you walk into I'm not going to name the big names, but anybody wherever you're listening from. Just think about the big hospital systems. You walk in there you're not getting the care that, say, maybe a functional medicine provider will be able to give you. Like how, when you talk about it, your clinic, trident Wellness, you have the opportunity to spend 30 minutes with somebody and the importance of us getting all of our ducks in a row before we see you to then have that time with you. And then I do. One of the most important questions I had to ask you is when do we start looking at hormones? Because I know, as a young person in my thirties, I should have been being looked at then because I was struggling then, and I have a dear friend now.

Speaker 1:

Her daughter's in her twenties and they're struggling all over the place with her hormones. So yeah, let's, let's get into that.

Speaker 2:

So even my teenagers that come see me will get a baseline sometimes depending on how they're doing and how they're feeling, right. So for females, if your hormones are optimal and you're young, you should be having regular cycles and you should be able to track them and you know, ok, they're coming on this day. Average in a textbook is 28 days. Ok, and so they should everyone. There's apps right that are free. I'm like everybody should be tracking their cycles. That is a sign of health to have normal cycles.

Speaker 2:

Now, you can have very irregular cycles whenever you first start out. I'm sure you and I could both remember whenever we first had our cycles and they just came at random times, and that can be very normal for young girls. And sometimes they get on cycle when they're young and they just came at random times, and that can be very normal for young girls. And sometimes they get on cycle when they're young, when they're a little older, maybe higher teens or early 20s, all on their own, and sometimes they don't get on cycle until after their first baby, and that kind of acts as a reset, you know, for the system.

Speaker 2:

However, we should be checking and I do check all my young girls that come into the office. We do check their hormones. We do check their iron levels, because that's being missed. That does not mean just a CBC. That means looking at your iron count, looking at your iron saturation, your ferritin levels. All of that should be included when you're looking at that big picture. Also, making sure that our vitamin D levels are appropriate, that our folic acid, our B12 levels look good. Those are easy things for us to monitor for someone to be optimal, and so that's important for people to know, because it's like gosh, those little vitamins like that can make the world of difference for someone.

Speaker 1:

And to circle back to this patient of yours who, in his 20s, his testosterone was low. When kids are having low numbers in these arenas, what is the long-term impact, say by the time they hit 30, 40?

Speaker 2:

So for our girls the girls the fear is fertility, so they can already be struggling. I don't want someone to know that they're going to potentially have a struggle with fertility when they start trying. We should have already been addressing that at a younger age. And so there's PCOS polycystic ovarian syndrome.

Speaker 1:

Which my friend and her daughter both struggle with. That. Her daughter's in her 20s.

Speaker 2:

And so what that looks like is they typically have higher insulin values, and so we need to be working with them on how to monitor their diet, how to naturally work on insulin levels. There's great supplements out there that work on that Nositol, berberine are just a couple of those and then we can work with them on that and even on how to eat and what you should be eating and how frequently you should be eating. That all impacts that Also too. Looking at their progesterone levels, so a lot of them have lower progesterone levels, and so we want to get progesterone already on board. When looking for a provider. You do want people to be looking for someone that's doing bioidentical hormone replacement. Traditional medicine will just put these girls on birth control. There's a lot of evidence out there. That's not what we really want to do.

Speaker 1:

That's not the possible thing out there. That's not what we really want to do. That's not the thing. I don't know all the depth of my friend and her daughter, but I know they had an IUD on her already. There's been birth control, there's been a number of different things that they're trying to help her with, and and and. It's interesting because I think about my son. You know he's 13 and I'm already thinking when he goes in for his annual. I'm like I need to have all these things looked at to make sure. Is he getting enough vitamin D? Is he? Yes, you know now that testosterone is clearly producing.

Speaker 1:

Oh I know, I know How's that all looking. You know what I mean. The acne is coming through all this stuff. But I think to your point is like this is so many of us have been conditioned to not worry about your health until you're old.

Speaker 2:

Right, Right. So we do a great job educating kids on puberty and starting your menstrual cycle and what that looks like. Right, there's educational programs out there, whether that's through the school or you know, parents are doing that education. But when do we educate our females on menopause? Right, there's no, there's no like education class, you know, at 25, let's all go to this class and, like you know, we should be doing something like that and we would hope that that would be your provider that you're seeing. But I'll tell you, even my OB I love her. She's been with me this whole time because I grew up and was raised here, so I've had the same providers for a long time. But she even looked at me and said, well, there's no bioidentical hormones. That's not a thing. And I don't understand why these young girls are coming in here and asking me to check their hormones. They don't need their hormones checked. And I was just like, yes, they do. And I sat there and I was polite at my appointment.

Speaker 2:

But I also told myself you will definitely not be the person I come talk to about my hormones, Like I'm my annual with you, but I'm definitely not going the person I come talk to about my hormones Like I might annual with you, but I'm definitely not going to come see you for that piece of my you know right, because I think what people also forget is I grew up in the seventies.

Speaker 1:

We didn't have half of. We had a lot of processed foods, but probably not even chemicals at the rate and the level that we have today, cause that started in the 80s. Yes, we didn't have synthetics at the level and the rate that we do today. We didn't have EMFs at the rate and the levels that we have today, which all of that is impacting the physical wellbeing and these kiddos. You know they live inside a world that is far more toxic from an energetic perspective than we live Hormone disruptors, yes, hormone disruptors, tons of hormone disruptors.

Speaker 2:

Look, I was guilty of this whenever, because I have three sons and they're disgusting and they stink yes, they smell. I was very like guilty of this and I used to put those plug-ins around my house because I was like my house smells like a foot, like yeah, yep, you know. And I was like, nope, we're just gonna have to like do essential oils and that's actually what I do now, like I'll do you know, like you know, essential oils. But I was like this is terrible. I mean, the colognes and all the smell good stuff, right, all of that are hormone disruptors.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you know, so just learning those things? Um, my 17 year old and my 15 year old both done all the blood work. Right now, my 17 year old testosterone is through the roof. It looks beautiful and so literally his goal right now is to work out five days a week because he's at prime time. So if he wants to be real built and he wants to build that muscle, this is when his body is. This is the time to do it.

Speaker 1:

Exactly so, and I love that.

Speaker 2:

You said that.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, cause I worry. You know, I worry about my son and all the gaming that he does and the room that he sits in and I've got all these little discs to break down the EMF. But I literally think about his testosterone and I think about the health of his body. And he's 13. He's finally now getting into oh look, I might have muscles. He's just now starting to get into that and recognize it. And he also just lost a ton of weight because he got back into sports and he lost like 40 pounds, 30 pounds. He was heavy. He was heavy and that was really good for him, but we didn't. I don't want to say he was heavy.

Speaker 2:

I think he was your typical pre pubescent child who was bringing on, they get a little bit, they get a little bit fluffy, so that way they can grow.

Speaker 1:

Right, they don't have any reserves?

Speaker 2:

They're not.

Speaker 1:

And then he shot up and now he's thin. And now it's funny because at the beginning of the school year he was in like a size 34 pant. Okay, now he looks like he's drowning in those pants, but I refuse to go buy them new ones because I'm like we're not going to be going to the school next year and he has to wear a uniform. I'm like he's having to deal with it, put a belt on, you know, because now he's like a 28,. You know he's like he's just all narrow.

Speaker 1:

But you know I worry about those things today, knowing that all of the symptoms I had and I'm just going to talk about the symptoms real quick and we can go back. But so when I came to you and I was really sick, I was having those and I talked to you and your dad because your dad's a nutritionist I had those super sharp pains when I'd wake up, shooting through my arms to where it was debilitating and I couldn't move. I would sit up, I was dizzy. If I was sat up, I would, I would like, fall a certain direction. I remember my heart was racing through the roof half the time. What were some of the other symptoms?

Speaker 1:

I had like neuropathies all through my body, my thyroid was having was all whacked out and I remember it coming down to and I know you guys put me on all kinds of different things I went to the cardiologist, I went to the endocrinologist.

Speaker 2:

Because we should still do that. We still should make sure that we're not missing some big and the endocrine system is like a huge organ system. The endocrine system is a lot of things.

Speaker 1:

And it's one of the most important systems.

Speaker 2:

I think it's the most after just all the things I've done. But I'm like I mean, obviously we need our heart to be functioning or we're not going to be alive done. But I'm like I mean, obviously we need our heart to be functioning or we're not going to be alive.

Speaker 1:

If your thyroid is out, then it starts attacking your heart, which I learned through with you guys. Like I started having heart issues and to the point to where I was like, oh my God, am I, am I going to have a heart attack today? I better call a friend, cause I think I'm dying right now. And all of it was mineral. I was mineral deficient, I was, I was supplement deficient and even, you know, since the whole 30 thing way back nine years ago, I wasn't eating bad, but I also had a lot of stress in my life because I'm a full-time single parent. So that was something else we looked at is the oxidation and the stress on the body, but it was also the lack of hormones, the lack of the, my hormones being out of whack, the lack of minerals that I did not have in my body, potassium like who knew the importance of potassium, you know and things we don't think about.

Speaker 2:

Well, and so for so long people were told don't, don't, don't do any salt, don't you know? Don't have any of that, and I'm like I have it every day in my coffee every day. A lot of us need extra salt.

Speaker 1:

Yes, sea salt every day in my coffee Right.

Speaker 2:

So, like sea salt I mean, I have the Celtic salt sitting on the kitchen counter and I like spread it on things you know, and I'm like, no, I actually do need this. You need it. Salt, sodium, potassium work in osmosis so they're trying to fight to be equivalent and so there's different things in our bodies, like that zinc and copper are the same way. So we started seeing, with covid and people doing a lot of supplementation, that they were taking a ton of zinc and for a year or so after I had tons of patients with copper deficiency because they had overloaded their zinc and it had heated their copper and and that has weird side effects. You know that are, and so they're sometimes missed. So it's like we just have to remember that all these things are working synergistically. But that's the same and that's what we forget.

Speaker 2:

And so really, truly, if somebody's going to a provider and they're wanting to get tested, they need to be looking at the full thyroid, so not just a TSH like the whole panel. So at least at bare minimum, your TSH, your free T4, your free T3. And it'd be great if they added in their thyroid antibodies to make sure they don't have any autoimmune thyroid things that are attacking their thyroid. They need to look at all their sex hormones. So depending on your gender, those might look a little bit different on what's tested. But definitely for us girls, estrogen, progesterone, our FSH and LH, our testosterone, our DHEA that's kind of bare minimum to kind of look at that.

Speaker 2:

For boys, they should be checking their estrogen levels. They're supposed to have some estrogen on board. It helps their brain, it's going to protect their bones. It's not crazy high like us girls, but it's there In testosterone. They need to look at their DHEA and we should all be looking at our dreams. We should be looking at what our cortisol levels look like, what our DHEA levels look like.

Speaker 2:

Sometimes, if those are off, we'll do a couple more tests, you know, but those are kind of baseline tests and then also looking at insulin levels in our blood sugars and our hemoglobin A1Cs. We're missing insulin issues because people aren't checking insulin. They'll just throw a hemoglobin A1C on there. That's your average glucose over the last three months, but it's not insulin, and what you want to see is a fasting glucose with your insulin, because if your glucose looks optimal and your insulin's either super low or super high, there's potentially something going on there that's not working correctly together. All of those things have to be optimal for you to truly feel your best. Yes, so when there's one thing off, it really does have a domino effect on the other things.

Speaker 2:

And so thyroid has the most receptor sites throughout the whole body, and so thyroid hormone is crazy important, and when you're looking for a provider wherever you live, you really do want to Google integrative or functional medicine. Those words are going to help you find somebody that's maybe thinking outside the box and not just looking at are you within range? Because you want to be optimal, not just in the range, and so that's a little bit tighter of a range where they've seen that individuals feel start to have those symptoms and not feel as good even though they're in range. And so the way they used to dose thyroid is they would keep giving it to you until you had heart palpitations and felt a little jittery, like you felt a little off, and they would pull you back a little bit. And when they did testing so that was before there was lab tests Then lab tests came out when Synthrate and Synthetics were developed.

Speaker 2:

These lab tests came out and they started saying whoa, whoa, whoa you're putting them on too much Because this lab test says so. But now they don't feel as good because their optimal was not that. Their optimal was actually to be a lot higher and actually in Europe they're was actually to be a lot higher and actually in Europe they're allotted to be a lot higher.

Speaker 2:

If you look at their ranges in Europe. They're T3, for instance, which is our active form of thyroid. So it's our metabolism, it's our energy. They're allotted. Our cutoff is like 4.2 on our labs. Their cutoff is 5.6. Interesting so why are we not allowing our patients to have a little bit? Well, we know why. We know why.

Speaker 1:

I mean like they don't feel good. Yeah, we, we know why, because then they can push their meds, but we won't talk about that today.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yes, and so when you're thinking that way, like right, we want to do supplements as much as we can, because there's lots of nutrients that are great for the thyroid gland. So selenium, zinc, iodine, tyrosine, those are great things. But there are individuals that also desiccated thyroid is a great option out on the market and they really do need a little bit of help to get those T4 and T3 levels up, and so they feel a lot better. If they can get that T3 on the higher end of the spectrum, so 95th percentile or higher, those individuals are going to feel a lot better and have better energy throughout their day, so talking on this topic.

Speaker 1:

so what? What in your daily practice? On average, what are the most common symptoms that women are walking in having?

Speaker 2:

If it's thyroid related and this could be perimenopause, because when it's menopause, unfortunately thyroid and hormones look very similar and sometimes it's hard to see which one just by symptoms.

Speaker 2:

It's hard to know which one maybe is the culprit, maybe it's both, but when you're perimenopause, we start to see this. Sleep issues are definitely huge. Ladies are coming in going hey, I'm not sleeping through the night anymore. I'm waking up multiple times um, crashing so having fatigue throughout the day, whether that's always at a certain time of the day or just a low level fatigue throughout the day. Um, we're seeing that obviously, weight gain. Weight gain is huge Weight gain, fatigue, the sleeping and also just energy and the fact that they're like hey, I feel like a little slug when I go through my day Like I just can't make it, you know.

Speaker 2:

And then some of them come in, even with weird anxiety. So the lack of progesterone? Progesterone is our peace hormone and it really does help us to feel more at peace, and so we can experience anxiety over weird things that typically wouldn't do that to us.

Speaker 1:

It was my savior during perimenopause. Like it brought the raging bull within me down to like Ferdinand hanging in the rose garden. Yes, exactly Because I remember feeling it felt like the blood under my skin was all boiling.

Speaker 2:

I would feel like it was rippling through my body, because estrogen is our upper and so we need that balance. And so we need that balance. And 35 and on, we start to see that these progesterone levels start to kind of fall a little bit. It's why we don't see a lot of 40 year olds walking around pregnant there. You know, it's just our natural that our progesterone starts to kind of come down some.

Speaker 1:

I was one of those whacked out, 40 year olds yes, yes, me too, me too, and I actually still.

Speaker 2:

I mean, I have my progesterone, you know, and I have. Depending on where I am in my cycle. I it depends on when I take it, you know, at night there's sometimes even that I'm like, wow, maybe need to bump that up Cause I'm being kind of crazy right now, you know, kind of feeling from that ragey kind of perspective. But that's where we've got to look at that. And Dr Hoetze did a great job.

Speaker 2:

Way back in the day when we first started looking at hormones and looking at that, he was told in medical school these ladies are going to come in their 30s and 40s and you're going to put them on antidepressants. And he just said that. He kind of was like okay, like whatever. And then when he got into practice he was like wait, what is wrong with these girls? Something's wrong. And so he starts digging and he starts realizing if I'll just give them some progesterone and some of them needed armor thyroid, like he was using armor at the time for giving them a little bump to their thyroid he is like, if I just do this, they feel so much better. And they I mean the testimonials. I was just crying reading it, Cause I'm like this is how we feel. I mean, the moms were like I had to go back and apologize to my kids. I wish I would've had this while they were little. So I didn't. Yes, and was it? Yes, I could have been a happier mom.

Speaker 1:

Yes, right, you know, and so I'm like it's sad of really understanding the body and the synchronicity of all of the organs. Like to your point, we do, I think, as a culture in America we're like, oh, get on your zinc, get on your zinc, get on this, get on that, get on that. And it's like I've learned I've messed up my body. I admit that I've messed up my body by overdoing certain supplements and not recognizing that I have to do other supplements also to keep everything in balance. Or maybe don't overdo it, maybe just do a little bit and that's enough. You know, so it's. It's funny because we you don't see a lot of health classes anymore in education for kids, and it's the most important thing and making sure that their, their diets, are balanced. And you know, I could go down the whole conspiracy track of. Well, we know why all that is.

Speaker 1:

You know I walk into my cardiologist and he's like when are you going to get on your statin? And I was like never, Thank you, I'm not getting on the statin and I'm getting ready to make money. Exactly.

Speaker 2:

They make money off of sick people. Yes, they don't make money off of sick people.

Speaker 1:

We don't have health care here. We have sick care. Yes, and I am going to be going and doing, because the cardiologist won't name his name. He's awesome, but he did order a full-blown panel, but I'm taking the Bergmo that you mentioned. So I've been on it for about a month now, cause I was like, okay, let me, let me do that on a regular basis and let's see if I can drop that LDL, cause I would love to come in and be like, yeah, my LDL is at like one, 46 or something, you know, cause he's like.

Speaker 2:

I know, I know, Cause it's like you almost want to say see, I did.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah, it works, because there's so many other things that I've listened to you and done and it worked. I mean, when I did Whole30, when I was really sick, when I saw you nine years ago, I dropped 20 pounds in 14 days. It was all inflammation. Yeah, it was insane, so much so that I then got what is it? Vertigo, because I had water. What is it?

Speaker 1:

Yes, like fluid behind your ear behind my eardrums from all the loss of inflammation. And so, yeah, it just, it just, and my A1C dropped by four points. You know it's, it's fascinating what food and diet will do. Okay, so we can talk about all this for six hours, but I want to get four more questions.

Speaker 1:

So so many women think hormones are dangerous. Okay, and so let's talk about that, because I know, you know, you know, I work in the world of medical too, not, I work on the sales side and, like, we have this pharmacogenomics test, which I really want to turn this one onto you. It's cool, but we test for the factor two and the factor five, which are those blood clotting genes.

Speaker 1:

Look at that. So, and what's funny to me that I just recently learned is in Mexico and in Spain those are just two of the several countries that's an automatic test that they do before they put any female on birth control. We don't do that here. It's not mandatory, so we just throw it dark.

Speaker 2:

Yes, but it's also mandatory, like in Europe, that if they were to put you on a statin, they would put you on CoQ10. They have to. See they're not allowed. We're like.

Speaker 1:

Russian roulette here. We're just going to prescribe this. Oh, if you die oh, you're that one percent, or however many percent, that just dies a blood clot, sorry right, exactly, so exactly.

Speaker 2:

And I have a girlfriend who's a nurse practitioner that this just happened a couple years ago. She's a little older, so she's in her young 50s, um, and she was on birth control and she had been on it for a very long time it wasn't like this was a new thing and she all of a sudden one day was like you know, I can't think about what to text, and she also couldn't like figure out where to drive to. And she's a single person. She lives by herself. Her kiddos are older and so she's like she didn't have somebody home with her. Her kiddos are older, and so she's like she didn't have somebody home with her.

Speaker 2:

She drove herself to the ER because she's like something's wrong, because my brain's not working right, and she had a blood clot in her brain and that was from her birth control, is what they said. Now she had had some other choices that she had made because it was around COVID time. Yes, I have questions about you, know, but but I'm like she ended up having when they did all her blood work. She ended up having clotting disorder.

Speaker 1:

Yeah.

Speaker 2:

That I'm like oh my gosh, why did we not just know this when you were younger?

Speaker 1:

Like we could have saved you from all of this you know?

Speaker 2:

And yes, it is important to be able to do some of that testing. It is, and unfortunately, because of the way that our insurance system is is set up, a lot of that's out of pocket. Individuals can't afford it or they put their money somewhere else, right, because they're like I've already put a ton of money into my healthcare, why would I want to put more into that? And there are there are times that it's worth the money, you know, to do this.

Speaker 1:

Our test is super affordable. But that's not. That's neither here nor there. That's that's another conversation. But but but I do want to talk about because I think there's a lot of, there's a lot of fear. You know, I have a friend of mine who she's like oh, I'm not doing hormone replacement, and I'm thinking, girl, I can't live without this shit. Like I need my three little pills, my two pills and my cream every day and I'm I feel good. Thank God, I came to you and got me on testosterone. Have me on progesterone.

Speaker 2:

The women's initiative scared everyone half to death. Okay, it's this huge study that they did in the 80s. They came out and said that it caused cancer and we were doing hormone replacement at that time and we had girls on board there were, there were ladies that were taking it, lots of doctors on board too, and they had decided this was a good thing. And then when that study came out which by the? They used estradiol and permarine, which permarine is horse urine. So they they did not use bioidentical progesterone in that study and so they use synthetics, which we don't. You should never be on synthetic whenever you're doing hormone Anything, anything, anything, but definitely for hormones we have bioidentical options that are extremely similar to our chemical makeup. Obviously it can't be exactly the same, but it's extremely similar. And so when they now actually they're recanting this whole study, basically because they found they should?

Speaker 2:

they found so many holes in the data? They also used older ladies. They used ladies in their 60s, not ladies that were going through menopause menopause going through menopause.

Speaker 2:

They didn't on the other side patient population when they were doing this study, and we've come to find out that there's actually health benefits to these hormones that could actually prevent you from having cancer. They're not causing cancer. Now, yes, if you have a hormone receptive cancer, you have an estrogen or progesterone receptive cancer, meaning that the cancer is in those receptor sites and it feeds off of those hormones. And decide to be on hormone therapy it could, but there's actually evidence that says that it might not actually make it grow. There are some studies out there, but we have to tell the patient that it could potentially make it grow Maybe a possibility that it could, but there's really good studies out there that actually show that it does. So it's kind of like a hit or miss right on that, but it's not going to ever cause cancer. And that's where people got all freaked out because that study said, oh, it causes cancer, and so they stopped doing it.

Speaker 1:

And I have such a hard time when I, when I hear a lot of what I hear today about various studies that happen, I mean it's hard for me not to go down my conspiracy track of like it was all just to feed the pharmaceutical system. It was all just to feed like who was the reality.

Speaker 2:

Who funded that paper and that research Was it like a pharmaceutical agency that wants you to use. Yeah, yeah, just like milk's good for you.

Speaker 1:

Milk's bad for you. Beef yeah, Just like milk's good for you, Milk's bad for you, Beef's good for you, Beef's bad for you. Like. It's like you know what you find. And here's the one thing I've learned working with you is there is no diet Everyone listening to the show. There is no diet. That is going to be your like a golden ticket. You must understand your body. You must listen to your body. You must do your tests, run all your tests, figure out how your body metabolizes, figure out how your body operates, because what's good for the person sitting next to you could be detrimental to your body. Yes, that's the thing. Like I suck as a vegan, my body is like there is no vegan happening here. It does not like it. I got very sick. So you know, Whole30 is what it loved, but now even Whole30, it's like nope, I want something different. So now it's a growth thing you have to listen to your body Personal trainer.

Speaker 2:

They want to make me higher protein, high fat and they want to pull my carbs off.

Speaker 1:

I was sick as a dog. You told me, get your ass on carbs.

Speaker 2:

I'm a terrible person. Off carbs, like my brain doesn't work, I have no energy. My husband every time will be like why are you doing this again? Like you don't function. And as soon as I add in some carb, I'm actually like I'm happy again. It's weird, it's crazy, but that's how my body works. So you have to figure that out about your body and what is going to be best. And so, even in the gut world and where you're, you know, working on your gut health. And so even in the gut world and where you're, you know, working on your gut health.

Speaker 2:

There's a great guy, dr Dr Ruscio. He came out of California, he lives in Austin actually now and he's a functional guy doctor and he does a podcast and all the things. But he has a book called Healthy Gut, healthy you, and he talks about finding your right diet because everyone's so different, like if you're trying to reset your gut, and he has a full protocol in the book about you try this one for a couple of weeks. It didn't work because you should already be seeing some changes. You go to the next one and he, kind of you know, sets you up for that, but that's like his whole premise is like you've got to find what works for you.

Speaker 2:

Yes, because everyone's so different, and so when you're asking about the hormones, that's the same thing. All of us are going to need different modalities. They all come. They come in different forms, and so some individuals I, I absorbed very well through my skin, but that's not everyone, because skin is made to be a barrier and so not everyone absorbs great through skin. So maybe they need oral options, or maybe they need to do more vaginal routes, you know, and so there's these other routes that you have, and so you've got to find your best on how you're going to absorb and how you're going to do and what we learned working with you.

Speaker 1:

And I did that PGX test and found out that I'm a rapid metabolizer of estradiol. We also found out that the patch wasn't as good for me. So now I have the oral progesterone pill, I have the cream estradiol vaginal, and then everybody those of you who live in Texas, Austin, Texas Bears Compound Pharmacy in Georgetown makes the most amazing little testosterone suppository with coconut oil, and I found that through you.

Speaker 1:

And that's really natural, amazing, amazing, like it's awesome. I love it, like I don't get too much, I don't get too little, it's like just enough. And here's another thing that's interesting. So, even though my testosterone levels typically on testing still come in low, I feel good. And we also saw that my muscle mass came back. You know, because, for those of you listening, when I've been working out with trainers for the last several years now trying to figure out my whole body thing, but I would work out and then my muscles would deplete if I didn't work out every day. And that was a testosterone issue.

Speaker 1:

It was like I was like they just go squishy and soft like day after I work out and so so. But even though you know my body says, hey, maybe you could use more testosterone, I still feel good, and I think that's the other importance of working with somebody who you really trust and who really understands hormones, because if you feel good, you may not need anything more. Who knows Exactly?

Speaker 2:

Exactly Because, again, a lot of us did not check ourselves in our 20s when we felt amazing.

Speaker 1:

And so we didn't know what that baseline was. We don't know what our baseline is.

Speaker 2:

That's another reason why my boys, my own kiddos, are getting their blood work done as they go through different stages, so that they have that data. So when they're young men and they're in their 30s, 40s and they're like man, I'm not sleeping as good or I don't have as much energy. We can test those levels and see the difference right.

Speaker 2:

And be able to go hey, this is where you're optimal, and so we've got to. When girls come into the office and they start saying different symptoms in men, um, you know, we got to think about what each hormone does for us. So, like what you were seeing for testosterone, it helps us maintain muscle and build muscle. So if I have a lady or a guy that's been exercising lifting, they're not seeing that shift, they're not being able to lift heavier, because we should be able to progress. If you can't progress, that's the lack of discipline. Yeah, you're not. You're not able to gain like you should. Also, libido, there should be the ones to initiate. If there's not that in someone, we need to look at that.

Speaker 2:

Now, obviously, as girls, we are more than a hormone. For men, the house could be on fire, and if their testosterone is good, they've got a libido. They don't care if the house is on fire. But for us girls, we do have to have all our ducks in a row. We're a little bit different. We're emotional based, you know, and so there's other things that we have to have for libido and we address those in the clinic, like if somebody you know, it's like their testosterone levels look beautiful but they're still struggling.

Speaker 2:

You know we talk through some stuff. You know that may be going on Also having enough to give so that threshold. So like if you just feel like maybe you're irritated real quickly, that's low testosterone, and so both girls and guys. So if your spouse is like you're like man, my husband's irritated, like just just irritable all the time and his testosterone checked, that's actually in the beginning I knew my husband was due for his shot. He was on shots and I'd be like is is it time for your shot? Yet Like you're very over stupid stuff. You'd be like counting his days and he'd be like, yes, I'm like, okay, please go do that. So think about that Progesterone, like I said, our peace hormones.

Speaker 2:

So sleep, anxiety. It really does help with that. It also helps with balance. So if you're feeling in that perimenopause timeframe, if you're feeling like gosh, my PMS is terrible, that is low progesterone and it may be that you need it, like days 10 or 14 through 28, that you just need it to help you through that part of your cycle. And that's very common, especially in perimenopause to see. It's also very common in PCOS girls to see. So even the younger population.

Speaker 2:

And then, you know, in our menopausal females, our ladies going through menopause, and they're just not quite there yet Having these crazy menstrual cycles. Maybe they're real close together. They become crazy heavy. Progesterone can help you with that too, with regulating those hormones, and one of the benefits of progesterone can help you with that too, with regulating those hormones. And one of the benefits of progesterone is it's keeping that uterine lining real thin whenever you're optimal and so you're not going to bleed as much. So when my ladies are struggling with these really heavy cycles, sometimes adding in their progesterone really helps them not to bleed so much, which then obviously leads to iron issues and that kind of thing too. So it's like we don't want them bleeding like that.

Speaker 2:

And then estrogen is going to be your brain. So when you come in and you're like man, my brain is not connecting the dots like it used to, I have all this brain fog it definitely can be estrogen. So your hair too, menopausal hair loss that happens. That's from the lack of estrogen, our skin. So when we're in there and we're like man, I I used to, not, I used to have better elasticity, like what happens. That's the lack of estrogen, vaginal health. So keeping it moist, keeping it plump. That is really important.

Speaker 2:

Also, utis people get more UTIs sometimes after they go through menopause, and that's the lack of estrogen. Bone health people get more UTI sometimes after they go through menopause and that's the lack of estrogen. So our bones and you know, fighting off osteoporosis, fighting off, you know, bone loss of any kind, that's going to be your estrogen. Heart health and that's something we can't see with the naked eye, but it definitely is there. So it helps prevent us from having cardiovascular disease down the road, and so you will automatically see a huge jump in LDL cholesterol when a lady goes through menopause. Okay, it helps us to. So I'll even tell ladies, cause they'll come in and be like, oh my gosh, I've never been like that before and they're like really concerned and I say, look, let's just get your estrogen optimal and then retest it. I don't want you jumping on stuff. You know that's a good point.

Speaker 1:

So do you. So is there a possibility that my LDLs would come down? I mean, they did go up one point in this last year, so we went from 52, 152 to 153. That's. That's where they're at right now. So that I'm just on the.

Speaker 2:

I'm just right, you're just now post menopause, where now we get to really get your estrogen optimal. And so one of the ways to look at that because sometimes it's like, well, what is optimal, where should we be on those labs One way to do that is to look at the ladies FSH and so your follicular stimulation hormone goes up postmenopause because you're not ovulating anymore. But when you get a female on estrogen, typically if they're really optimal, their FSH will be suppressed again. It will be less than 20. And so sometimes they come in and maybe their value for their estrogen looks okay.

Speaker 2:

You're kind of like eh, this is pretty good, like you look good, but their FSH is still like 40. That's your clue is the provider would be like actually, maybe you're not as good as you could be, because if your estrogen is optimal, that should help with your LDL. It also should help, and a big clue for estrogen replacement is you should be able to lose your abdominal fat, because when your estrogen is optimal think about all those young ladies who have flat bellies their estrogen is real optimal and so they're able to burn that tire. That's why, when we go to menopause, we start getting all that belly fat because our estrogen is dropping.

Speaker 2:

So we'll get it back up there. You know and it may look different for each individual what that means, like how high that needs to be. They'll start shedding that belly fat.

Speaker 1:

It's funny, cause since you put me on the cream and I do like I, it took me a minute to really figure it out, but I have noticed that I have shed more of that middle tire doing that because I wasn't getting enough through the patch Right, and so that that's really like, and I actually was going to come in and schedule time so we can come and look at all of it again just to see, like, how are things going, because I still am not sure that everything is optimal. But um, oh, and speaking of that, let me just ask you this, because I did talk to a nutritionist at one point and she was saying that when we get in our older age, we have, we should have our blood drawn more often, because otherwise your iron levels are too high. Is that a thing?

Speaker 2:

It can happen. So there is a genetic disorder called hemochromatosis where we don't process our iron well and we don't catch that in younger ladies because we have menstrual cycles and so typically I don't see it in the younger female population. I'll see it when they're getting older and now they have like iron overload kind of things.

Speaker 2:

Okay, but for the typical female that's not necessarily true, unless they're taking a ton of iron or they're cooking in cast iron constantly. You know, like I do, I cook in cast iron. I mean, so you are, you are fortifying your food by cooking in cast iron. So I have had individuals in the past where I was like, okay, that's a little too much for you, you need to do twice a week, or you know, like we've had to decrease it you know, and so you should do it at least once a year probably with your annual.

Speaker 1:

you know, maybe I feel like I well, lately I feel like I get my blood drawn every like 90 days.

Speaker 2:

I'm like okay, let's check this, let's check this I know I'm like, okay, let's check this, let's check this. I know I'm the same way. So when I was really looking at my hormones being perimenopause, I would check two months in a row because if you're like a textbook, you ovulate every other side and so my hormones would not ovulate because I can feel my left side, so I know when it's my left side's turn.

Speaker 2:

When it's my left side, my hormones look horrible. My progesterone looks horrible. I have more symptoms when it's my right side. I look like I could get pregnant.

Speaker 1:

You know, so they're extremely different.

Speaker 2:

My left side has cysts. It's a little bit more temperamental. I don't think it has as many eggs Like. I had an ultrasound done not that long ago and she told me my left side only had like 10 eggs 10 or 20. Like it doesn't have very many, but my right side is healthier Right so it's like for some reason I'm healthier maybe on that on that right side and so my hormones are more optimal because of that. But I know I've been that way even as a young person. You know that my left side would have cysts and I would have issues. That's actually how I had my oldest son a cyst ruptured and it made me ovulate when I wasn't supposed to surprise.

Speaker 2:

Here he is, here he is. So, yeah, whenever he's, whenever he's uh, in the past, when he was a little moody, going through you know his teen years, he would be like you never wanted me.

Speaker 2:

I'm like buddy, I didn't want you, I would have not had you you know like I mean like you know, like you're good Cause he's because his whole thing is you didn't try and I was like you're right, I did it, but my body decided it was time for you Like here yeah, yeah, right, so, yeah, so that can happen. I mean, like we can have things like that and we can have ladies that don't ovulate in the middle of their cycle. So I mean you may ovulate really close to starting your menstrual cycle and you may be like, wow, okay, I ovulated real late and that may be your norm. So again, we're all very different. What our normal is?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and it really takes me back to that. We are not a one size fits all and I think that culturally, we really try to fit in this one size fits all it's this one diet, it's this one food, it's this one workout, it's this one TV show, it's this one, whatever and it's like, no, we're all very unique and really we need to listen and tune into what feels good for me, right, right and what doesn't feel good.

Speaker 2:

This doesn't feel good, and so I mean I know you've been seeing a trainer and you've been very diligent in your exercise program for the last several years.

Speaker 1:

And you know, and I still struggle, I still am not where I want to be.

Speaker 2:

You're going. You're going in the right direction, right. So any movement forward is success. And we have to give ourselves some grace sometimes because we want to be there in like two weeks. Right, we're like I'm going to be here in two weeks, but this is where I have to talk with my girls about after 35, weight training is extremely important. We've got to lift weights or do resistance bands or do some form of resistance training, whether that's weights or not, and maybe not doing HIIT training as much.

Speaker 1:

This high intensity stuff really puts our dreams, I tore my knees up and I tore up this knee and I'm struggling to get it back to a normal function and, and I think too, you know, strength training, I will say, has been one of the godsends in my life is you know, being almost 55 and being able to pick up a 20 pound bag of dog food without being like, oh my God, where I have some friends that they couldn't do half the things that I do.

Speaker 1:

And I think to myself, in another five to 10 years you're going to be having replacements and things broken. Well, so you hit on the nail.

Speaker 2:

And what I'm going to tell you is my ladies, because I see enough females and I've done this for enough amount of time that I have a really good sample set from just my patients. And what I will say is my ladies in their fifties and sixties that choose not to be on hormone replacement they can hang with their friends that are on hormones. Like you can see them kind of like. They're still kind of similar, right. They're able to go do similar activities together. They're able to still be active together. Now there's still a body shape difference and a body mass index difference.

Speaker 2:

I can go to the gym and tell you who's on hormones and who isn't. Like I can see it because their shape is going to be different and their body mass is going to look different. So they're going to be tighter when they're on those hormones. You're going to see more muscle mass on that lady, but they still can hang out as friends. But when they get into their 70s there's a marked difference. My females that have been on hormones for that whole time come in and they're sad because their friends that haven't been can't do the things with them anymore.

Speaker 1:

What about the strength training, too? What about that piece of the working out with the hormones, like what happens to our bodies when you're not doing it?

Speaker 2:

I mean you're able to maintain that muscle, gain that muscle. You're going to keep your strength so, like when you are 70, you can still go out and like lift the bag. You know like I was having to refill the salt, you know, in our water softener.

Speaker 1:

And I was like I'm not calling.

Speaker 2:

They're really heavy and you have to lift it up right. It's up here that you got to pour it and I was like I am not calling one of my boys, like I'm doing this myself. You know like you got to be able to do it yourself.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and if you can't lift 20 pounds, yeah.

Speaker 2:

If you can't lift 20 pounds Like you're in, trouble Right, and so I watch my in-laws live on our property with us and my mother-in-law has never taken hormones and she's now in her seventies and she's a sitter in that dang chair and I'm like dang it.

Speaker 2:

Well, you've got to get up and she is asking questions now. She has started to ask me a ton of questions about things, because she has seen that happen now to her husband that they're declining, yeah, and so we're working on some of those things, but unfortunately it's a little late for her and the fact that hormones are not going to be a huge benefit now right like I can get her on some testosterone, it may actually help her a little bit and she'll see benefit.

Speaker 2:

But um, um. But there is some questionable kind of stuff about starting people on estrogen after they've been post-menopause for 10 years or plus been on it, because there are some studies out there in the past that indicated that if they have plat buildup and you start them on estrogen and this is look, they haven't been on it for 10 plus years, right so even if you come on and off, I'd rather that person than somebody that just decides I'm not doing it at 51 and now at 70, they really would like to do it.

Speaker 2:

Now we're in trouble because if you start them, there's a possibility it's not a it may not happen, but there's a possibility that the plaque could break off. May not happen, but there's a possibility that the plaque could break off and cause a stroke. You would hate to be responsible for something like that. Now I have individuals that understand the risk and they've gone and done a full cardiac workup and they've and they've gotten clear from cardiology and they have started and I've never seen that happen in practice. I know those studies.

Speaker 1:

You know exist. Well, I think to, to, to what you just said. Really, emphasis is that, hey, okay, so I don't think that most people listening to this show are in their seventies, but you're in your thirties, your forties, your fifties, you might even be in your sixties, and the thing is preventative, preventative, preventative, preventative.

Speaker 2:

Yes, you don't want. You don't want Alzheimer's disease. No, you don't I, that's in my family and I.

Speaker 1:

I'm praying to God. All these hormones help with prevention of that? Yes, and so you know. My point being is that you know prevention, but also there are risks. You know prevention, but also there are risks. Do your research, look into all the risks, have all the tests done, go to the cardiologist, go to all the places and then make an educated decision for yourself of okay, I might, I might have a stroke. Is it worth the risk? I might not.

Speaker 2:

I have a lady that's BRCA positive and look, she signed all the waivers. We, you know, we did our due diligence and she totally understands the risk. I mean she, she came in already saying, look, I know my risk, I know I know, and she goes, but that's how bad I feel. She wants to feel good. It's like I need hormones and these bless her heart, all these ladies that have had breast cancer. But we have lots of cardi. We have, excuse me, lots of oncologists that are on board for testosterone only therapy for those ladies. And they come in and they get their testosterone up, which does give them a little bit of estrogenic properties. It does help them with that a little bit and they feel so much better and we have the approval of the oncologist to do those things. We, we get letters, you know. We have them in their charts, you know. So you know they. Just they don't feel good.

Speaker 2:

Right, and so there's nothing worse than optimize health right Like we used to die at 65. So it didn't matter that we didn't have hormones for 10 to 15 years. Now we live I mean, my bloodline is like they're all in their nineties and higher I better have some dang hormones because I don't want to be like fooled and not walking around you know, I want to still do stuff.

Speaker 1:

No one of my best friends who she passed. I think she was 98 when she passed. Didn't start really breaking down. Until she was 94. And she had she always had a dog. She lived in the Oakland Hills, she walked to those Oakland Hills every day, she drank her whiskey every night. And that woman I don't know if she was on hormones, but that woman was the sassiest, spriest woman I knew and she stayed in English writing classes and wrote stories and she stayed active.

Speaker 2:

Yes. So I'm so glad you said that, because not only is it physical activity, it's mental activity to mental activity to have a purpose. Yes, not just retire, you go sit and you stop watching the news people. Yes, yes. I know Get off the TV Get off the outside.

Speaker 1:

Yes, get outside we live in a great state for outside activities. Oh, yes, we do, yes, we do, so I'm like get outside, I mean it's beautiful right now, like the sun's out.

Speaker 2:

I know, I know, go do those things. They release great endorphins on top of the fact that you are going to get that blood pump into your brain and that's what you need to stay healthy for your brain health to stay healthy.

Speaker 1:

So I mean, go do things that you wouldn't typically do, like a friend of mine texted me the other day because he went to a circus class and he was like I love that, yeah, he goes. That's what I needed, he goes. I needed that adrenaline rush to push me out of the funk I was in. It's like go go roller skate, go pickleball Cause. That's like the big craze.

Speaker 2:

That's a functional movement. Yes, and if you go learn how to knit, cause knitting is your hands and your brain Lustered with like I hate going, cause I have those individuals that are like I hate going to the gym. I really don't love exercise Like that. That turns them off to hear that I'm like fine, then go do a physical activity, that's fine. Go dance, exactly Dance. Goes you some pickleball. Go do some tips go ride a horse. I mean like take a trapeze class because they have this and it's on my list.

Speaker 2:

Yes, and we got to keep doing that too.

Speaker 1:

We should all have lists of like things that we want to go try yeah, and if people think that horseback riding isn't going to be a lot, just go do it, because the next day you will feel all the muscles you never knew you had before yes, yes, I'm like, go jump on the trampoline with your kids.

Speaker 2:

Yes, yeah, I'm gonna tell you right now I die. I have to tell my boys I gotta sit down for a second, like you know, because it's like, oh my gosh, um, you know.

Speaker 2:

So it's a lot of workout actually it is, it is go in the backyard and throw a ball with your kids, or whatever it looks like. Do something that's fun. The other day I saw I was doing telemed at the house and so I had like a five minute break and one of my boys was here and and so we went out in the garage and played a horse you know, and I was, like for that five minutes.

Speaker 2:

I got my pump in a little bit. We laughed. You know great medicine. Like you know, we're silly with each other and come back and then keep working you know, things like that that just feed you enough.

Speaker 1:

Yes, kind of just getting the body moving. It's funny, like my son will want me to go out and play basketball with him and I'll play for like 10 minutes and I'm already winded. I'm like Jesus, you know, and it's just basketball like yes, and to throw that ball. Like I keep telling him I'm like buddy, you got to start working out those arms because there's so much power that goes into shooting that ball. And you don't think it, you know?

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it's amazing, oh my gosh, I, I, I, we could go on for hours and I don't. I I know I've taken your time I, we like, literally we could go on for hours, um, and I thank you so much for your time, but okay, so let's, let's do this to wrap up. So we've talked about a lot of things today. We talked about hormones, we talked about the importance of, we talked about risks, benefits, what, what is the one thing, or the maybe more than one thing, what is the thing you most would say or would want to leave those that are listening about hormones, like, what's the thing that you send your clients off with your patients? What is the thing that you say?

Speaker 2:

So always when somebody sees me, I want them to leave with hope, because I think that they probably haven't been listened to or they think something's really wrong with me. You know, when they come and walk in there because they don't feel good or they wouldn't be there, I mean, people don't come see me because they're feeling amazing, you know. And so I want them to see that there is hope. It may take us a second to get there, because we've got to learn your body, we've got to learn what's working best for that individual, but we can get there if you're willing to work with me and you're willing to try different things and be willing to listen to your body and take notes, like you know, learn yourself, learn your patterns, you know, and so there is hope that all of us can feel really good.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, and I love that you said that, because I think, especially in this world that we live in today, with all of the toxins that we have, from what you're breathing, to your drinking, to your eating, to what you're watching in your hand, because that handheld device is, is it's pumping off toxins in your body that you can't even. You don't even know what's happening. You know, my son now wants these Bluetooth ear earbuds. I was like, oh hell, no, sorry, he's like, but what if I pay for them?

Speaker 1:

I was like, no, you're not, no, we don't like no because the EMF, yeah, yeah, I'm like we, we haven't we have to be 50 years out before we'll even know the side effects that those Bluetooth headsets probably have.

Speaker 1:

Yes, I said we're only 20 years in and we don't have enough data yet. Sorry, but but I think so many of us women don't feel good. We just don't. We feel tired, we feel exhausted, we feel compassion fatigue. We feel we feel like we can't get out of bed, we can't roll over, we don't want to have sex. Well, I, I want to, but some women don't and I, I, I blame that on. I don't even blame it. I attribute that to my great hormones and all the work you and I've done. I'm like, my sex drive is good.

Speaker 2:

Thank you Exactly, but that's where it should be. I mean, that's what it should feel like and guess what? That releases great endorphins too, and when you have sex, and we should use that to our benefit.

Speaker 1:

Yes, and you know what I want to. I want to remove this stigma of, well, I'm in my fifties, therefore it's downhill. No, I feel like. I feel like this is like I'm stepping into some of the greatest. These are the golden years. Like I feel like okay, mentally, emotionally, you know you're finally mature enough to be like, okay, I could give really a shit about what anybody thinks and you're in this whole new level of life and and you want to feel good you don't want all the aches and pains, you don't want to bend over in your back pops and you're like what was that?

Speaker 1:

I mean, that's what was happening to me, because I wasn't strength training, I was having all these things where I just bend over and throw my back out, and it's like God really, you know, and we're still too young.

Speaker 2:

We're young, yeah, we're young, and that's what we should hear is that we're young. I mean, I want to be 80. We chose to buy land because I wanted to live in the country, yep and do those things. And I want to be 80 and throw the hay bales. Yes, I also want to be 80 and be able to get on the ground with my grandkids.

Speaker 1:

With your grandkids.

Speaker 2:

And I had my last not my last orthopedic, because I have knee stuff too, but the one before the guy that I have now because I fired him, because when I said that to him he said, well, you won't be, he's like you will not be able to do that. And he's like and you're going to need a knee at some point, because you already have all this arthritis and stuff. And I just was like and you're going to need a knee at some point, cause you already have all this, you know arthritis and stuff. And I just was like you're not the person for me because you don't believe that that's real. Cause he told me he said do you know any 80 year old that's doing that? And I was like, yes, I do actually.

Speaker 2:

I want to be that I'm like I don't want it. Yes, I want there to be days that I sit in my rocking chair and I get to enjoy the beauty of just life. You want the option Because I wanted to right. Not because I have to, yeah, you want the option yes. And I see, like my 94-year-old grandma right now, should have gotten a knee a long time ago and she was afraid, and now she's so bent over and so crippled she just has to sit in her chair.

Speaker 2:

She was afraid, and now she's so bent over and so crippled she just has to sit in her chair, you know, and I'm like oh, don't ever let there be like that either. Right, that we're so right. Yes. The fear things that we need to do to take care of ourselves.

Speaker 1:

Right, exactly, oh God, I feel honored and I just adore you and all the work that my son and I have gotten to do with you and the team over there at Trinity. I'm super grateful to be working with you and all the things I've learned and I just appreciate you and it's amazing, and I thank you for being on the show with me and I hope that you would like to come back maybe another time and we could talk about other things because there's so much good stuff with health.

Speaker 2:

I know Well, and thank you for inviting me. I appreciate it.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, yeah. So everybody, this is Meg. I always want to say, I always want to call her a doctor. She's my doctor, even though she's a nurse practitioner. She's my doctor. But Megan Wimpy, she is here in Austin, texas. Well, I'm almost afraid. I'm like, no, I'm not going to tell you where she is, cause then, like, I won't be able to get to see her. No, she's in Georgetown, actually, georgetown, texas.

Speaker 2:

And we are.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is fit in that building.

Speaker 2:

I know we're going to need a new building, but it is hard to find practitioners that want to think outside the box and want to do this or to find take time. It takes time for us to find those individuals. So there are three of us girls that have been doing this for a long time. We are getting a new provider in March and we'll be opening up more space. She's a young girl. She's been through functional med training, actually. She just hasn't been given the opportunity yet to practice that kind of medicine.

Speaker 2:

So there's going to be a learning curve, but she's great. She went with us to our last hormone conference that we just went to, so she's going to be great She'll be able to offer some extra space for individuals that want to come in, and then my sweet student that I had. I think she was with me.

Speaker 1:

Yes, when, yep, when I was there.

Speaker 2:

She'll be graduating soon and we're going to offer her position too, cause she's amazing, that's amazing, and we want some young blood in there, right, like I mean, like we want all ages, and that's the beauty of our practice. Actually, there is a provider that's every generation.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, you know, we all bring, we're all similar and we all believe the same way, but it's fun because we all bring something different to the table you know, and we have meetings together and we all house together our offices together on purpose, so that way we can bounce ideas off each other and collaborate, you know, yeah, no, I love it and I'm grateful.

Speaker 1:

So Trinity, it's health and wellness. Trinity, health and wellness, yep. And that's in Georgetown. You guys can find Megan there. I'll put all the information in the show notes below. If you have questions on hormones, I encourage you to drop them down in the comment section and I can always ask questions on your behalf just through. Shoot them through my portal, because often I have the same, probably have the same question. But yeah, like whatever questions you have, please drop those in the comments below. But I look forward to seeing you on the next show.

Speaker 1:

Megan, thank you so much for being with us today and to those of you listening, it's been awesome. We'll be talking about more about heart healing in the next show, so stay tuned in the next couple of weeks. I look forward to seeing you all then. Thanks, bye-bye. Thank you for coming on this healing adventure today. If you're starting to see how everything is falling into place for you, consider rating the show and sharing it with one of your friends. Keep that spirit alive and join me next week. Same place, same time. Have a great week.